Persona-led ABM was a compromise. With modern signal data, you can go straight to a ranked list of named accounts — and the pipeline math changes.
The first generation of ABM was, in practice, persona-led with an account veneer. Marketers picked an ICP, added a firmographic filter, and called the resulting list 'accounts.' The result was better-than-inbound conversion and worse-than-outbound cost.
Trigger signals — funding events, exec moves, tech adoption, regulatory filings — are now cheap enough to ingest at the account level. That means the shortlist stops being a persona filter and becomes a ranked list of named accounts, each with a specific reason-to-buy and a specific point of entry.
More insights
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Enterprise-first playbooks assume a homogenous market. In Europe's fragmented, regulated verticals, the mid-market is a faster, cheaper, more defensible landing zone.
The Five Forces framework is 45 years old. It still works as a lens — but a modern competitive read needs signals Porter never had access to.
