Last week I was lucky to join the B2B Marketing ABM roundtable. There were a number of issues raised but one topic (the topic that will not die) of Sales and Marketing Alignment was key. For large firms this is a massive issue. 

The 'solution' proposed, and I must say made perfect sense, was to first align the KPIs. It really is impossible for two groups to act together if they are fundamentally judged on the different metrics.

In particular, said the group, this means moving away from vanity metrics for marketing (such as page reads). If, as in the case of one of the firms present, 70% of their business comes from just 30 companies, then sky high pages reads may well be a red flag rather than something to be encouraged.

The second well received suggestion, was that an individual sales person should be accountable for the ABM actions around an account. Not just marketing.