The short answer: Specialist B2B agencies deliver account based marketing strategies built around lead generation and sales alignment. The best ones treat the two as one problem. Hat Media is one of them: we've spent more than 15 years running account-based marketing for SaaS and tech companies across Asia Pacific. If you're evaluating partners, the rest of this post covers what to look for and what to ask.

First, what are you actually shopping for?

If you're searching for this, you've probably already tried a version of ABM that didn't quite land. Maybe the target list was too long. Maybe marketing built a program and sales never picked it up. Or maybe the leads arrived, but not from the accounts that mattered.

None of that is unusual, and it rarely comes down to effort. In ABM, lead generation and sales alignment are the same problem seen from two sides.

• Lead generation in ABM means creating pipeline from accounts you've deliberately chosen, rather than collecting contacts from anyone who downloads something.
• Sales alignment means sales and marketing agree on which accounts matter, what's said to them and who owns each next step.

Without alignment, you get leads sales doesn't trust. Without targeted lead generation, you get alignment around a list that never moves. A good ABM partner builds both together.

What to look for in an ABM partner

Here are five things that separate partners who deliver from those who mostly deliver decks.

1. They start with sales, not campaigns. A strong partner will want to speak to your sales team in the first week. They'll ask how accounts are chosen today, where deals stall and what reps wish marketing understood. If the first conversation is about creative, be cautious.
2. They can explain how they choose accounts. Ask how they'd build and tier your list. You're listening for fit, winnability and signs an account is actually moving, not just company size. Only around 5% of any market is ready to buy at a given moment, so a partner who can't help you spot that 5% is guessing.
3. They plan for the whole buying committee. The average B2B decision involves around 6.8 stakeholders. An ABM program that reaches one champion leaves the rest of the room unconvinced. Ask how they'd map and reach the committee.
4. They measure pipeline, not activity. Open rates and impressions have their place, but they won't satisfy your CFO. Look for a partner who talks about pipeline velocity, influenced revenue and deal progression from day one, and who can show how they'd report it.
5. They teach, not just deliver. The best partnerships leave your team more capable than they found it. If a partner is reluctant to explain their methods, you may be buying dependence rather than a programme.

Questions worth asking any agency

You don't need to take our word for any of this. Put these to every partner you speak to, including us:

• How do you decide which accounts deserve a bespoke program and which don't?
• How will sales be involved in building the programme?
• What does your reporting look like at month three, and who in my business will use it?
• Can I speak to a client who was sceptical at the start?
• What would you advise me not to spend money on?

The answer to that last one tells you a lot. An agency that recommends a smaller, sharper program over a larger one is usually thinking about your results.

How Hat Media approaches ABM

We're a small, specialist team, and that's deliberate. We work only with B2B SaaS and tech companies, because the problems are familiar to us: long sales cycles, buying committees, pipeline pressure and the constant question of what marketing contributed to revenue.

Our approach to ABM rests on three things.

Alignment before activity. We bring sales, marketing and customer success together early, agree what a good account looks like and define who does what. It's the least glamorous part of the work and the one that determines whether everything else holds.

Right-sized programmes. For most mid-market teams we suggest starting with 1:few ABM, which focuses on small clusters of similar accounts. It gives you real personalisation without needing a team of ten to sustain it.

Signals, not guesswork. We use signal tracking to see which target accounts are showing buying behaviour, such as leadership changes, funding rounds and tech stack shifts. That lets your team show up when an account is receptive, rather than spreading effort evenly and hoping.

We're also a HubSpot partner (since 2014), so the reporting, handoffs and automation that keep sales and marketing aligned are built into the CRM your team already uses.

What this looks like in practice

For Lenovo, we built a content-led ABM and social selling program across Asia Pacific. It influenced $66 million in revenue, earned recognition from LinkedIn's global content evangelist as a top 1% content marketing site, and traced a single $3.5 million deal back to content a CIO had read before the sales call. You can read the full Lenovo ABM case study.

For Teletrac Navman, we paired demand generation with ABM and an employee advocacy program to break into enterprise accounts in Australia and build trust in New Zealand. Their ANZ Marketing Manager told us one of the biggest outcomes was "a closer relationship with sales." That's what alignment looks like when it works.

Where to start

If you're still weighing options, you don't have to commit to a full program to learn something useful. A good first step is an honest look at your current target list, how it's tiered and whether sales and marketing agree on it. Our ABM page explains how we run each stage, and we're always happy to talk through it with no pitch attached.

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Frequently asked questions

What does an ABM agency actually do?

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A good ABM agency helps you choose and tier target accounts, build messaging for each, run multi-channel campaigns and align sales and marketing around them. It also measures results in pipeline and revenue terms.

How is ABM different from traditional lead generation?

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Traditional lead generation casts a wide net and qualifies afterwards. ABM starts by choosing the accounts you want, then builds tailored programmes around them. The result is fewer, higher-quality opportunities.

How long does ABM take to show results?

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Engagement signals usually appear within weeks. Pipeline impact typically takes three to six months, depending on your sales cycle and the type of ABM you’re running.

Do we need a large team to run ABM?

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No. 1:few ABM is designed for teams without the resources for fully bespoke 1:1 programmes, and many of our clients start there.

How do we know if sales and marketing are aligned?

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A useful test: ask both teams to name your top ten target accounts and what you’re saying to them. If the lists or messages differ, there’s an alignment gap, and closing it will usually do more for results than adding activity.