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Your sales team sent 5,000 cold emails last month and booked 12 meetings. Of those 12, only 3 were qualified prospects, and zero closed. Meanwhile, your marketing team keeps pumping out "qualified leads" that turn out to be interns downloading whitepapers.

Most B2B teams are stuck in this cycle, and some have gotten so burned by "ABM" that they've written it off entirely. One Reddit user recently said ABM is a complete waste of time and that it should only focus on industry dinners and small events.

To be fair, they’re not wrong about traditional ABM being broken. Most companies slap "ABM" on their regular marketing campaigns and wonder why nothing changes. They're still sending generic content, just to a smaller list.

Real outbound ABM treats each high-value account like its own market. You dig into their specific problems and reach out with something that makes sense for their situation.

Below, we'll show you how to build an outbound ABM strategy the right way, not the watered-down version that gives ABM a bad name.

What is outbound ABM?

You’re probably wondering how outbound ABM differs from regular ABM. 

Yes, most ABM programs already use outbound tactics. Cold outreach, personalized direct mail, and targeted campaigns are all standard parts of ABM. The difference isn't that one uses outbound strategies and the other doesn't.

When we talk about outbound ABM, we focus on the direct, one-to-one outreach component. This includes personalized email campaigns, LinkedIn messages, cold calls, and direct mail sent to specific contacts within target accounts.

So, here’s how we define it at UserGems:

Outbound ABM is account-based marketing with a heavy focus on direct, personalized outreach to specific contacts within your target accounts.

What it's NOT is mass email blasts with {{first_name}} tokens or cold calling everyone at a company, hoping something sticks.

Here's what outbound ABM looks like in practice:

• Researching 20-50 target accounts instead of 1,000+ random leads
• Creating account-specific messaging and content for each target company
• Using intent data to spot when accounts are actively researching your solution category
• Personalized emails that reference specific company issues or recent news
• Coordinating sequences so contacts don't get hit from multiple channels on the same day
• Building relationships with multiple stakeholders within each target account
• Sales and marketing teams work from the same target account list
• Timing your outreach based on buying signals or company events (new funding, leadership changes, etc.)

Example: Let's say you target a fast-growing SaaS company that just raised Series B funding. Instead of a generic "interested in our sales software?" email, you research their recent funding news, notice they hire aggressively in sales, and send a personalized email about helping them scale their sales processes during expansion.

Then, you might follow up on LinkedIn and reference their CEO's recent post about growth issues and have your marketing team send a webinar or targeted content about sales scaling best practices.

ABM and traditional outbound: relationship, evolution, and synergy

Most sales teams think they have to choose between sending 1,000 generic cold emails or doing deep research on 10 specific accounts. But that's a false choice.

Traditional outbound and ABM exist on the same spectrum — ABM just takes the best parts of outbound and makes it more targeted.

Traditional outbound taught us that proactive outreach works. ABM takes that same principle and asks, "what if we got smarter about who we contact and what we say to them?" 

You're still reaching out directly to prospects, and you're still being proactive. You're just doing it with more focus and better research.

Here’s where these two strategies overlap:

• Both involve direct outreach to prospects
• Both require lead research (just at different levels)
• Both use similar channels - email, phone calls, LinkedIn, and direct mail
• Both aim to start conversations with potential buyers

The foundation stays the same. You reach out to people, do your homework, and try to get meetings. The difference is how deep you go and how focused you get.

Here’s how ABM advances traditional outbound: 

• High volume → Targeted precision Traditional outbound focuses on reaching as many people as possible. You send 500 emails a day to hit your numbers. For ABM, you might only reach out to 50 people, but each contact gets way more attention.
• Spray-and-pray → Research-driven outreach With traditional outbound, you send the same generic messages and hope something sticks. ABM requires you to research each account first - their recent news, challenges, and who works there.
• Individual leads → Account-focused campaigns Traditional outbound treats each person as a separate lead. ABM treats the entire company as your target. You coordinate outreach across multiple contacts at the same account.
• Generic messaging → Account-specific personalization Traditional outbound uses templates with minor tweaks. ABM creates messaging specific to each account's industry, size, and recent developments.
• Activity metrics → Account engagement metrics Traditional outbound measures emails sent, calls made, and meetings booked. ABM measures account-level engagement, like how many people at the target company visited your website or downloaded content.

You lean traditional when you have high-volume, simple sales and short sales cycles. This usually refers to transactional products where buyers decide quickly without a committee.

You lean more ABM when you go after complex B2B deals with multiple stakeholders, longer sales cycles, and higher contract values, where one deal can make your quarter.

Most companies combine both. They use traditional outbound for volume segments and ABM for their most important prospects.

For example, a SaaS company might use traditional outbound to reach SMB prospects – more volume, shorter emails, and quick qualification.

But for enterprise accounts, they switch to ABM with deep account research, coordinated campaigns across multiple contacts, and personalized content for each stakeholder. Same sales team, same tools, different approach based on deal size and complexity.

When to choose outbound ABM: key decision factors

Outbound ABM isn't right for every situation. It demands more time, resources, and coordination than traditional outbound. Here's when that investment actually pays off:

• High deal values ($50k+ annually): If your average deal size is $50K+, the extra research and personalization time make financial sense. You can't afford to waste these opportunities on generic outreach.
• Multiple stakeholders influence the buying decision: When IT, finance, and marketing all need to sign off, you need coordinated outreach across different contacts rather than hoping one person can champion your solution internally.
• Long sales cycles give you time to build relationships: ABM works best when you have 3-6+ months to nurture accounts. Quick transactional sales don't benefit from deep account research.
• Limited, well-defined target market: You're selling to a specific industry, company size, or use case where you can clearly outline your ideal customer profile and create targeted messaging.
• Sales team bandwidth allows for deep research: Your reps need time to research accounts and create custom messaging. If they're already maxed out with activity quotas, ABM won't work.   
• Your sales and marketing teams can actually coordinate: You need ongoing collaboration on account marketing strategy, messaging, and campaign execution with ABM. If your teams work in silos, traditional outbound might be more realistic.

⚠️ AVOID THIS TRAP: Don't force ABM on deals under $20-$25K annual value. The time investment in research and personalization will kill your unit economics. Stick to traditional outbound marketing for smaller deals.

Executing a modern outbound ABM playbook (the UserGems way)

Most GTM teams understand outbound ABM in theory but struggle when it comes to actually doing it. Here's a step-by-step approach that breaks down the execution into manageable pieces:

Stage 1: Automate your list building 

Start with your ICP data. You can use specialized tools to filter companies by revenue, employee count, industry, and technology stack.

Then, set up saved searches that automatically refresh weekly so the tool automatically inserts new companies that match your criteria without any manual work.

Key automation steps:

• Set filters for company size, growth stage, and recent funding events
• Use technographic data to find companies that use specific tools or platforms
• Create alerts for buying trigger events like new hires, leadership changes, or expansions
• Track buying signals like job postings for relevant roles or platform evaluations
• Export contact data for decision-makers at target accounts

You want 70-80% of your list to be solid prospects, then manually review and refine the rest. This approach gives you a consistent pipeline of new accounts without spending hours on research.

Once you have your target accounts, you should outline 2-3 key contacts at each company. Focus on champions (people who would use your solution daily) and economic buyers (people who control the budget). This gives you multiple entry points into each account.

Stage 2: Score accounts dynamically

Not all accounts in your list deserve the same attention. Dynamic scoring helps you focus your limited time on accounts most likely to convert right now.

Build a scoring model that weighs multiple factors. Company size and budget matter, but timing signals matter more. A mid-market company actively hiring sales managers beats a Fortune 500 company with no buying intent.

The core scoring factors you should pay attention to are:

• Firmographic fit (industry, size, location)
• Technographic signals (current tools, integration needs)
• Intent data (content consumption, competitor research)
• Behavioral triggers (job changes, funding, expansion)

Set up automated scoring in your CRM or ABM platform. Accounts get points when they visit your website, download content, or interact with your social media posts. They lose points for inactivity or negative signals like layoffs.

You can also create score thresholds. Accounts that hit 80+ points get immediate outreach, mid-tier scores (50-79) enter nurture campaigns, and low scores stay on your radar but don't waste sales time.

Stage 3: Draft messaging with AI

Feed your AI tool with account research data like recent news, company challenges, technology stack, and key stakeholder roles. Include your value proposition and successful email examples from similar accounts. The more context you provide, the better the output.

The best AI messages combine company research with role-specific insights. A CFO cares about cost savings and ROI, while A VP of Sales is interested in revenue growth.

Just make sure to always review AI-generated messages before sending. Look for factual errors, awkward phrasing, or generic content that screams "this was written by a robot."

Here’s an example of a warm email template from Noah Bastien, Senior ADR at UserGems:

Stage 4: Activate templated plays

Create templated sequences for common scenarios – new funding announcements, leadership changes, or competitor mentions. These plays outline the timing and messaging for each touchpoint, but also leave room for account-specific customization.

Here’s a sample play structure:

• Day 1: Personalized LinkedIn connection to primary contact
• Day 3: Email to the economic buyer that references recent company news
• Day 7: LinkedIn message to champion with a relevant case study
• Day 14: Direct mail or video message to multiple stakeholders

The templates provide structure, but each execution should feel custom. For example, a "new funding" play might reference the specific round size, investors, or growth plans mentioned in the announcement.

Stage 5: Focus on sales engagement

Train your reps to pick up where automation leaves off. When a prospect responds to your sequence or shows buying intent, that's when personal selling skills matter most.

Some engagement best practices to keep in mind:

• Respond to positive signals within 2 hours when possible
• Have discovery questions ready that build on your initial research
• Reference specific details from your outreach to keep continuity
• Book meetings for specific time slots, not "sometime next week"

Use your CRM to track the full engagement history. When a prospect responds to your LinkedIn message about their recent funding, your rep should know about the email you sent last week and the case study marketing shared.

How 💎 UserGems simplifies this process

The five-stage playbook we just walked through requires coordination across multiple tools and constant manual optimization. Most teams struggle to execute it consistently because it's so time-consuming and complex to manage.

UserGems is an AI outbound platform that automates this entire process. The platform’s AI agent (Gem-E) finds high-intent prospects and writes personalized messages based on real-time signals. The platform tracks job changes, company events, and buying behavior to outline accounts that are ready to buy now.

You get a library of proven plays that you can launch immediately instead of spending months building playbooks from scratch. 

And your sales team gets qualified prospects with context-rich messaging already written, so they focus on conversations instead of research and list building.

Outbound ABM compliance: rules you cannot ignore

Before you start sending hundreds of outbound emails, you need to understand the compliance basics.

Here are the non-negotiable rules that keep your emails out of spam folders and your company out of legal trouble:

Use specialized outbound tools 

Traditional email platforms like Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign aren't built for ABM outreach. They lack the compliance features, personalization, and deliverability infrastructure you need for targeted campaigns at scale.

Go with specialized outbound tools that handle compliance automatically. They manage unsubscribe lists, respect sending limits, and maintain proper authentication protocols. 

Do not send unsolicited newsletters

Adding prospects to your B2B marketing newsletter without permission is a major compliance violation. Just because someone gave you their business card or you found their email online doesn't mean they opted in to your marketing communications.

Keep your outbound sales emails separate from your newsletter campaigns. Sales emails should be one-to-one communications with clear purposes, not mass marketing messages.

If prospects want to subscribe to your newsletter, they'll ask or sign up through your website. Don't assume consent that doesn't exist. Trust us, you don’t want to end up like this Redditor:

Update your domain settings 

Without correct SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, your personalized emails will land in spam folders instead of the primary inbox.

Set up these authentication protocols through your email platform or work with your IT team to configure them properly. Most outbound tools provide step-by-step instructions, but don't skip this step thinking you can fix it later. Poor domain reputation is much harder to repair than it is to prevent.

💡 PRO TIP: The best compliance strategy is sending emails people actually want to read. UserGems can help because it connects your outreach to real-time buying signals like job changes or company expansions. When your message has a legitimate reason to be in their inbox, you meet compliance standards and get more positive responses.

Strategic approaches for effective outbound ABM

The difference between ABM programs that work and those that don't usually comes down to a few strategic choices. These approaches will help you get the fundamentals right from the start:

• Start with your best customers: Analyze your highest-value accounts to spot patterns in company size, industry, tech stack, and growth stage that you can replicate. Use this data to build your ideal customer profile and target similar accounts.
• Multi-thread from day one: Contact multiple stakeholders within each target account to avoid single points of failure and build broader organizational support.
• Time your outreach: Reach out within days of trigger events when prospects are most likely to be receptive. Fresh funding, new hires, or competitor mentions create natural conversation starters.
• Create account-specific content: Develop case studies, landing pages, or demo scenarios that speak directly to each target account's industry, use case, or specific challenges.
• Focus on relationship building over quick wins: ABM is a long-term strategy that prioritizes account penetration and potential customer lifetime value over immediate conversions.   
• Be patient but persistent: ABM sales cycles are longer than traditional outbound. Plan for 6-12 month nurture cycles and maintain consistent touchpoints without being pushy.

Measuring success in outbound ABM

Given how much B2B companies invest in ABM, it’s surprising that only 52% actually measure the ROI from their programs. That means nearly half of organizations can't tell you if their ABM campaigns are working or just burning budget. 

To avoid this trap, here are some of the specific metrics you should track:

• Account engagement scores: Track total touches, website visits, and content downloads across all contacts within each target account.
• Multi-contact penetration: Measure how many stakeholders you've reached within each account and their engagement levels.
• Pipeline velocity: Monitor how quickly accounts move through your sales funnel compared to traditional leads.
• Deal size and close rates: ABM should generate larger deals with higher win rates than volume-based approaches.
• Response rates and meeting booking rates: Track these at both individual and account levels to understand which approaches generate genuine interest.  
• Cost per account vs. cost per lead: Calculate your investment per target account rather than per individual contact to understand true ABM economics
• What to stop measuring: Stop obsessing over email open rates and individual response percentages. These vanity metrics don't predict revenue. A 2% response rate might sound terrible, but if those responses turn into six-figure deals, your program is working.

Timeline considerations:

• Short-term indicators (30-60 days): Response rates, account engagement, and meeting booking rates give you early feedback on messaging and targeting.
• Medium-term results (3-6 months): Track pipeline creation and progression to see if your ABM accounts are moving faster than traditional leads.
• Long-term ROI measurement (6-12 months): Measure closed revenue, deal sizes, and customer lifetime value to calculate true ROI on your ABM investment.

⚠️ AVOID THIS TRAP: Don't expect immediate results and panic after 30 days of low response rates. ABM is a 6-12 month strategy. Pulling the plug too early means you'll never see the real ROI.

Leverage UserGems to automate your outbound ABM

The outbound ABM approach we've outlined in this article works, but only if you can execute it consistently without burning out your team on endless research and manual tasks. Or, you can rely on tools that do the work for you.

UserGems is the AI-powered outbound platform that automates your entire ABM strategy. Our platform finds accounts that show buying intent, uses AI to write personalized messages, and gives you a library of proven campaign templates that drive pipeline in weeks.

The results speak for themselves. Sendoso's lean marketing team implemented UserGems' AI agent Gem-E and saw 20% reply rates with 47 opportunities created in just 30 days. Now, their 7-person team no longer spends time manually tracking signals across target accounts because Gem-E handles that automatically.

We're confident we can do the same for you. In fact, we guarantee it. If you don't generate revenue that at least matches your investment in UserGems, you get your money back.

Book a demo and start building your outbound ABM engine this week.  

Outbound ABM FAQs

What is the single biggest difference between traditional outbound and outbound ABM?

Traditional outbound focuses on individual leads and high-volume activity, while outbound ABM targets entire accounts with coordinated, research-driven campaigns across multiple stakeholders.

Our team is small. Can we still implement an outbound ABM strategy?

Yes, small teams can implement outbound ABM. In fact, it often works better because you're forced to be selective about which accounts to target.

You can start with 20-30 high-value accounts instead of trying to scale to hundreds, and use tools like UserGems to automate the research and message drafting so you're not spending hours on manual work.

How long does it really take to see results from outbound ABM?

You'll start seeing engagement and meeting bookings within the first 30-60 days if your targeting and messaging are on point. 

Real pipeline generation typically takes 3-6 months, and closed revenue usually shows up after 6-12 months, depending on your sales cycle length.

What is the most important first step to getting started with outbound ABM?

Define your target audience based on your best existing customers – analyze their company size, industry, tech stack, and common pain points.

Once you have that foundation, build a list of 20-50 target accounts that match those criteria and start there. Without a clear ICP, you'll waste effort on accounts that don't fit your solution or have the budget to buy.

How does a platform like UserGems fit into an existing tech stack with a CRM like Salesforce and HubSpot?

UserGems integrates directly with your existing CRM and other essential tools, so it’s not another separate platform your reps need to learn.

It monitors your accounts for buying signals and automatically creates new leads or updates existing contacts in Salesforce / HubSpot with relevant data. The platform then pushes tasks and pre-written, AI-powered emails directly into your reps' outreach sequences to enrich your current tech stack.