Why ABM Outperforms Traditional Sales

A Benchmark for Growth in B2B Sales

At Arlo Marketing, we’ve always believed that the most effective marketing starts with a focus. That is, a focus on the right accounts, the right commercial message, and the right goals and outcomes. And naturally, that is how Account-Based Marketing (ABM) has become a cornerstone of how we help our clients grow.

In our last post, we talked about the value of a tailored, personal approach to cut through the AI noise and make every in-person engagement meaningful. We truly believe, and have seen how, the two go hand in hand. ABM is, at its core, about relevance, personalisation and human connection. And with so much of our work now happening remotely, this kind of targeted and personalised strategy has never been more important to ensure brand messaging truly resonates - time and time again.

ABM: The Smarter, Leaner Route to Real Commercial Outcomes

ABM is an enterprise-wide go-to-market approach that aligns marketing, sales and customer success around a named list of high-value accounts - essentially the accounts to get excited about! When applied, the strategy drives engagement, pipeline, and lifetime revenue across the full customer lifecycle. It also increases retention, deepening existing relationships, and creating new cross-sell opportunities along the way.

Traditional sales and marketing strategies often cast the net wide - lots of activity but with little focus. ABM flips that model on its head. Instead of chasing every lead, we start with a defined list of strategic accounts and design highly targeted campaigns built around each organisation’s specific priorities, challenges and pain points, and the persona buying journey.

ABM focuses on ICP-fit accounts, powered by clean data and shared intelligence, orchestrated across channels and teams to deliver valuable, personalised buyer experiences with sustained, high-touch outreach. 

The market is shifting this way because inbound volume has plateaued while upmarket, vertical strategies deliver better Customer Acquisition Cost / Customer Lifetime Value economics and bigger deals; best-in-class programs report larger contract value, faster velocity and higher retention. Success depends on clear ICPs and personas, a coordinated playbook, disciplined data management, and account-level metrics (coverage, engagement, activity, pipeline and revenue) that prove impact early and often. 

In short: targeted accounts, smarter data, tighter orchestration, richer personalisation and consistent follow-through convert relevance into revenue at scale.

And the results speak for themselves.

Proven in Practice

A recent ABM campaign we delivered for a client generated more qualified pipeline than the previous 18 months of legacy sales activity at just 1.5% of the cost.

The programme combined targeted LinkedIn campaigns, content-led lead generation, and senior stakeholder engagement, including a roundtable, keynote panel, and C-suite dinner following a product demonstration - connecting digital activity with meaningful, face-to-face conversations.

It’s a striking figure, but not a coincidence. It’s what happens when marketing and sales finally operate as one revenue engine, carefully applying budget, using data intelligently to inform strategy, and engaging prospects once and where it matters most.

Across our portfolio, Arlo has delivered measurable, ROI-driven growth through ABM and integrated revenue programmes for clients across healthtech, SaaS, IoT, cybersecurity, and BI software:

• Series B BI vendor: Designed and delivered an EMEA customer conference generating $800k new ARR.
  

• NASDAQ-listed cybersecurity firm: Built a six-week global enablement programme aligning sales, marketing, and product.
  

• IoT client: Drove 8,589% increase in LinkedIn impressions in one week through targeted ABM activation.
  

• Health-tech rebrand (post-PE acquisition): Delivered new messaging, brand identity, and a 60+ person executive launch event.

At Unbabel, our ABM and event-led programmes generated $150k in new ARR in one quarter, 443 qualified leads across 11 events, and strengthened enterprise partnerships through measurable, data-backed ROI reporting.

What Makes It Work

Success in ABM isn’t about multiple tech stack (which comes with a cost) or flashy creative - it’s about rigour, research, testing and alignment.

At Arlo, we embed ourselves within our clients’ revenue teams to:

• Align marketing and sales around shared commercial goals.
  

• Undertake detailed market and account research to understand positioning, value proposition, and how it maps to each target’s real-world challenges and decision drivers.
  

• Build account intelligence that enables meaningful, relevant engagement.
  

• Deliver campaigns that are measurable, scalable and commercially accountable.
  

This integrated approach ensures every marketing action has a direct line to revenue, reducing noise, shortening cycles, and focusing investment where it creates genuine business impact.

The Takeaway

ABM isn’t a buzzword. It's the modern marketing blueprint for sustainable B2B growth, and every company should be doing it.

The companies outperforming their markets are those that connect insight to execution, turning marketing from a cost centre into a revenue-generating asset. That’s exactly what we do at Arlo: we bridge the gap between strategy and sales impact.

If you’re ready to build a smarter, more commercially aligned growth strategy (one that scales what works and fixes what doesn’t) we are here to talk about how ABM can help your business do more, with less.