Definitions for Common ABM Terms

Madison Logic Certification Program Acronym Glossary

AB: Account-based (strategy)

Account based is a strategically aligned effort across an organization to identify, engage and grow a targeted set of accounts. It requires the coordination of valuable, personalized experiences delivered across all functions that impact the customer to drive engagement and conversion at a targeted set of accounts. (Source: TOPO)

ABM: Account-based marketing

Account-based marketing is a coordinated, cross-functional program Designed to engage multiple people from target accounts with special offers. Account based programs are often categorized as one-to-one, one-to-few, or one-to-many, indicating the relative level of customization to accounts. (Source: TOPO)

ROI: Return on investment

Return on Investment (ROI) is a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. ROI tries to directly measure the amount of return on a particular investment, relative to the investment's cost. (Source: Investopedia.com)

ACV: Average contract value

Annual Contract Value is the average annualized revenue per customer contract. It excludes any one-time fees. For example, if you had one customer who signed a 3-year contract for $36,000, your ACV is $12,000. If you have 100 customers on a monthly plan at $1000 per month, your ACV is also $12,000. (Source: baremetrics.com)

TA: Target accounts

Accounts specifically selected for inclusion in account-based programs (Source: TOPO)

GTM: Go-to-market model/approach/strategy

A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is the way in which a company brings a product to market. It generally includes a business plan outlining the target audience, marketing plan, and sales strategy. Each product and market are different, therefore each GTM strategy should be thoroughly thought out, mapping a market problem and solution a product offers. (Source: https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/gtm-strategy) 

The go-to-market (GTM) plan is a subset of the marketing plan and addresses how to execute on a specific growth strategy.  Every company, regardless of size, should have a marketing plan. A go-to-market plan is only needed if you are looking to expand into new markets, sell new products (services), or do both. (Source: https://www.chiefoutsiders.com/blog/go-to-market-plan-template)

LTV/CLTV: Customer Lifetime Value

Customer lifetime value is the total worth to a business of a customer over the whole period of their relationship. It’s an important metric as it costs less to keep existing customers than it does to acquire new ones, so increasing the value of your existing customers is a great way to drive growth. (Source: https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/customer/customer-lifetime-value/) 

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the “discounted value of future profits generated by a customer." The word "profits" here includes costs and revenue estimates, as both metrics are very important in estimating true CLV; however, the focus of many CLV models is on the revenue side. The reason for this is that revenue is more difficult to forecast than cost, so a model is more necessary to predict it (and knowing the revenue a customer will generate can inform your spend on that customer). These types of models are often called "customer equity models."

Customers can generate revenue for a company in many different ways. Obviously, a customer who is making direct purchases certainly increases his or her lifetime value. In addition, referrals from that customer, indirect marketing, and word-of-mouth effects ultimately contribute to the value of a customer. Referrals are very important, and there’s nothing a company likes more than a “Like” on Facebook or a share on LinkedIn, for example. (Source: https://blogs.oracle.com/datascience/an-introduction-to-predictive-customer-lifetime-value-modeling)

 ICP: Ideal customer profile

The Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) identifies the characteristics of accounts expected to become a company’s most valuable customers. It is developed using a multi-layered approach using the following inputs: Qualitative inputs (e.g. interviews with sales reps); Internal data (e.g. customer and prospect data); External data (e.g. third-party firmographic data) (Source: TOPO)

TAP: Target account pipeline

Pipeline created in target accounts. The value of pipeline created with target accounts. Target Account Pipeline (TAP) is the key indicator of value.

TAP captures the ability to create high-value opportunities within target accounts. Since target accounts have higher win rates, retention rates, and growth rates, TAP is the most valuable portion of pipeline to a company.  (Source: https://blog.topohq.com/account-based-marketing-the-definitive-guide/)

MQL: Marketing qualified lead

A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a lead deemed worthy to be handed off to sales. (Source: https://go.forrester.com/blogs/marketing-qualified-leads-reasons-for-rejection/)

MQA: Marketing qualified account

A target account (or discrete buying center) that has reached a sufficient level of engagement to indicate possible sales readiness. (source: TOPO)

SLA: Service-level agreement

A service level agreement specifies expectations for the handoff of a qualified lead from a sales development rep or marketing to sales. Clearly define the next steps and their timing to hold SDRs and sales reps accountable for consistently following the process. Define an SLA associated with each potential outcome to ensure accountability. For instance, mandate that sales must update the CRM system with dispositional feedback within 24 hours of a qualified meeting. (Source: https://blog.topohq.com/a-proven-approach-for-handing-off-sdr-qualified-leads-to-sales/)

SDR: Sales development rep

The definition of a sales development rep (SDR) is a type of inside sales rep that solely focuses on outbound prospecting. They are often given lead lists by marketing and then email and call prospects in order to qualify which leads quota-carrying sales reps should spend their time with. (Source: https://www.ringdna.com/inside-sales-glossary/what-are-sales-development-reps)

BDR: Business development rep (same as SDR)

SDR-QL: SDR-qualified lead

A lead that has been qualified by a sales development rep and deemed to have reached a sufficient level of engagement to indicate possible sales readiness. (source: TOPO)

CFO: Chief Financial Officer

The primary job responsibility of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is to optimize the financial performance of a company, including its reporting, liquidity, and return on investment. (Source: coporatefinanceinstitute.com)

CIO: Chief Information Officer

A Chief Information Officer (CIO) is the most senior technology executive inside an organization. The job title is used widely around the world in business, government and in charitable and non-profit organizations. The role of the CIO is to help to set and lead the technology strategy for an organization, in concert with the other C-level executives. As such one of the many roles of the CIO is to provide an executive-level interface between the technology department and the rest of the business.

(Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-a-cio-the-chief-information-officer-role-explained/)

CTO: Chief Technology Officer

Generally, the CTO will report to the CIO, although not always. The roles of the CIO and CTO, and the relationship between the two, will vary by organization. In some, the CIO is responsible for setting the broad strategy and managing the relationship with the wider business, explaining how technology can help to streamline the supply chain or optimize business processes, while the CTO looks for innovative or emerging technologies that could potentially help the organization to reach its objectives. In some tech businesses the CIOs lead internal business implementations of technology, while CTOs lead the development of technologies that are being developed to be sold externally. (Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-a-cio-the-chief-information-officer-role-explained/)

HR: Human Resources

Human resources is used to describe both the people who work for a company or organization and the department responsible for managing resources related to employees. Also called employee experience, personnel or talent management (although these terms are a bit antiquated), human resource management involves overseeing all things related to managing an organization’s human capital. (Source: humanresourcesedu.org/what-is-human-resources/)

IT: Information Technology

A term that encompasses all forms of technology used to create, store, exchange and utilize information in its various forms including business data, conversations, still images, motion pictures and multimedia presentations. (Source: entrepreneur.com)

SaaS: Software-as-a-Service

A software distribution model in which a service provider hosts applications for customers and makes them available to these customers via the internet. SaaS is one of the three major categories of cloud services, along with infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS). (Source: https://www.infoworld.com/article/3226386/what-is-saas-software-as-a-service-defined.html)

TCO: Total cost of ownership

Gartner defines total cost of ownership (TCO) as a comprehensive assessment of information technology (IT) or other costs across enterprise boundaries over time. For IT, TCO includes hardware and software acquisition, management and support, communications, end-user expenses and the opportunity cost of downtime, training and other productivity losses. (Source: Gartner)

SME: Subject matter expert

Subject matter experts, also called SMEs, are professionals who have specialized knowledge in a pertinent field that to the extent it makes them uniquely qualified to provide guidance and strategy regarding the specialization. SMEs are in high demand in workplaces that take a technical approach to operations and culture. (Source: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/subject-matter-expert)

QBR: Quarterly business review

Also known as a Business Review or an Executive Business Review, a QBR is, at its most basic, just a once-per-quarter meeting with your customer. SolarWinds MSP describes it as “a meeting with your client on a quarterly basis where you discuss their business and how you can support them.” QBRs should be strategic—rather than tactical—in nature. This is a chance for you to gain a deeper understanding of the customer’s business and future plans and to strategize as to how you can deliver more value based on those factors. In doing so, you step out of a “vendor” role and into more of a “business advisor” one. This helps build trust, which in turn solidifies your relationship with the customer. (Source: https://www.gainsight.com/guide/the-essential-guide-to-quarterly-business-reviews/)

Intent Score  

Based on a scale of 1 - 100, it is a measurement of research activity that we track in conjunction with over 1600 publishers.  When a company increases researching activities around a certain topic, its intent score would increase for that topic and once they have a score above 60, we would consider that company to be trending relative to its normal intent score on that topic.  The lookback window for this activity is 18 months and includes intent trends and historical topics.  This intent data is updated weekly.

ML Insights Program

Madison Logic’s proprietary comprehensive signal for purchase intent, ML Insights (MLI) is used to prioritize target account lists so that you only target the accounts that are actively interested in your products. An ML Insights Program is a program that has a TAL that has been prioritized using MLI’s technology.

Journey Acceleration Program

Madison Logic’s integrations across CRM/MAP platforms with periodic refreshes are referred to as Journey Acceleration (JA). A Journey Acceleration program is a program that is leveraging a CRM/MAP as its source and that we periodically refresh to ensure the targeted accounts fit the selection criteria.

Control Program

Madison Logic creates control programs that are similar to your program to illustrate how your ABM strategy is performing against similar companies within the B2B marketplace. In order to contextualize and normalize the data that goes into creating comparable programs, we factor in things like your industry, the industry you’re targeting, the company sizes targeted, the channels you’re running on, budget, and duration to craft a custom control group specific to each program you’re running.