ABM for B2B: A 90-Day Account-Based Marketing Plan

For a Swiss industrial manufacturer, a single new account can be worth more than a year of inbound leads combined. That economics is exactly why account-based marketing exists — and why doing it as a vague let's-target-enterprise initiative wastes so much budget. Real ABM is a focused operation with a start date, an account list you could name from memory, and a clear definition of what winning looks like. Ninety days is enough to run one full cycle: long enough to research accounts and orchestrate real touchpoints, short enough to force discipline and produce a result leadership can judge. This plan lays out those ninety days phase by phase, tuned for high-value industrial and B2B manufacturing deals that often cross Swiss borders into Germany, France and beyond.

Days 1–30: select and research the account list

• Define the ideal account profile with sales: sector, size, machinery footprint, buying trigger — not just firmographics.
• Shortlist 20–50 tier-one accounts and rank them by revenue potential and winnability.
• Map each buying committee: economic buyer, technical evaluators, procurement and the internal champion.
• Research one specific, credible entry angle per account — a plant expansion, a compliance deadline, a supply-chain shift.

Days 31–60 are where most programs fail, because a single channel is never enough to move a ten-person committee. Orchestration means the same account-specific message reaches different roles through the channels each of them actually uses: a tailored landing page and email sequence for the champion, LinkedIn thought leadership for the technical evaluators, targeted ads to keep the whole account warm, and a direct, human outreach from sales timed to the moment engagement spikes. The message stays consistent; the format adapts to the role. For Swiss cross-border accounts, this is also where language matters — a German-speaking plant manager and a French-speaking procurement lead inside the same group should each receive material in their own language, reflecting local buying norms rather than a translated afterthought.

Days 61–90: convert engagement into pipeline

• Trigger sales outreach the moment an account crosses your agreed engagement threshold — speed to the buying signal wins deals.
• Offer a high-value, low-friction next step: a plant-specific assessment, an ROI model, an executive briefing — not a generic demo.
• Run a weekly account review with sales and cut or replace accounts showing zero movement by day 75.
• Report on pipeline influenced and meetings booked per account, then decide which accounts graduate to a second cycle.