Do you run a professional services firm and feel like your marketing is working hard but not always working smart enough to attract the clients you really want? It’s worth asking whether you are trying to reach everyone, or deliberately going after the prospects who are the best fit for your business.
Referrals and relationships are the foundation that professional services firms build on, and rightly so. They signal trust, and trust is currency in this sector. The problem is that referrals alone rarely give you control over which clients you win, when they arrive, or whether they represent the work you most want to do.
Account-Based Marketing, or ABM, gives you that control.
Marketing strategist Bev Burgess first developed the ABM framework in 2003, and her thinking has shaped how professional services firms approach client acquisition ever since. Her most recent book, Account-Based Marketing: The Definitive Handbook for B2B Marketers (Kogan Page, 2025), is the go-to reference for anyone serious about doing ABM well.
The core idea of ABM is rather than broadcasting to a wide audience and hoping the right people respond, you identify the specific firms you most want to work with and build everything around earning their attention and their trust.
ABM in practice
Established professional services firms are most likely already running a mix of digital marketing, content, inbound and outbound activity. These approaches build visibility and generate leads, and they have real value. What sets ABM apart is sharp focus. Where broader marketing casts a wide net across a defined audience, ABM is more like spearfishing. You know exactly which firms you are going after and when you make a move the approach is precise and purposeful.
For a management consultancy, accountancy practice, law firm or HR business, this precision feels instinctive. You already know which sectors you serve best. You already know what a great client looks like. ABM gives that knowledge a structure and a plan to act on it.
Research shows that 87% of B2B marketers say ABM delivers higher ROI than any other marketing strategy. Firms that run ABM well report sales cycles around 28% faster and average deal sizes that are meaningfully larger. At maturity, high-performing ABM programmes return between five and nine times the original investment.
The five types of ABM
Five distinct ABM approaches exist, each suited to different situations and growth ambitions.
Strategic ABM (one-to-one) is the most intensive form. You dedicate significant time and resource to a handful of priority accounts, typically between five and twenty. Content, outreach, events and conversations are all personalised. This works especially well for high-value mandates where a long-term relationship is the goal.
ABM Lite (one-to-few) applies the same logic across a small cluster of accounts, usually between ten and thirty, that share common characteristics. You might group law firms operating in financial services, for example, and build a campaign that feels tailored to that group without requiring fully bespoke content for each firm.
Programmatic ABM (one-to-many) uses technology and data to scale personalised outreach across hundreds of accounts. This approach requires good data and the right tools, but makes ABM workable at scale without a large team.
Pursuit ABM focuses everything on a single, high-priority opportunity, typically a major tender or new client win. For firms bidding on significant contracts, this approach can make a real difference to win rates.
Expansion ABM targets existing clients with the aim of deepening the relationship and extending your work into other parts of their organisation. In a sector where client retention and cross-selling sit at the heart of profitability, this is often where ABM produces its fastest commercial returns.
Why professional services relate to ABM
ABM and professional services are a natural fit, because relationships are already at the centre of how you work and trust is already a priority. Your partners and senior practitioners are often your strongest business development asset. ABM gives all of that a coherent framework.
UK professional services is known for long and complex sales cycles. Buying decisions rarely rest with one person. A typical buying committee might include a managing director, a finance director, a head of operations and a legal or compliance lead. ABM encourages you to map those individuals, understand their priorities, and build content and conversations that speak to each of them.
Winning a strategic account takes time, and firms that stay consistent, maintaining relevant contact over months rather than weeks, see stronger results. Professional services firms are well placed for this. The sector runs on long-term thinking, and so does ABM.
Partnership and project based working
Two changes are reshaping how professional services firms win clients, and both sit well alongside ABM.
The first is the move towards genuine partnership. Clients are choosing firms that feel like an extension of their own team. When you take the time to understand a target client’s business, their strategic challenges and their competitive pressures, the conversations that follow feel different. You are contributing, not pitching.
The second is the growth of project-based working. Many clients prefer to commission a defined piece of work before committing to a longer relationship. ABM supports this well. By building credibility with the right accounts before the brief even exists, you become the natural choice when the client is ready to move. You are already familiar, and the trust is already in place.
Getting started framework
Start focused and build from what you already know.
Define your Ideal Customer Profile first. Look at your current best clients: the ones who value your work, pay well, refer you on and represent the relationships you want more of. What do they have in common? Sector, size, growth stage, strategic challenge? That profile becomes your targeting filter.
From there, build a focused target list. For firms beginning with ABM, between twenty and fifty accounts is a sensible starting point. Quality of targeting matters far more than volume.
Map the key individuals within each account. Who makes the decisions? Who influences them? Who might slow the process? Understanding the buying committee shapes everything that follows.
Then build campaigns that are genuinely relevant. A bespoke piece of thought leadership addressing a regulatory change relevant to their sector. An invitation to a small roundtable shaped around their specific challenges. The measure of good ABM content is simple: does it feel like you wrote it for them?
Embrace AI in your ABM toolkit
AI tools have made personalisation and targeting far more accessible, including for firms without large marketing teams.
AI identifies intent signals, showing which accounts are actively researching topics relevant to your services. It supports content personalisation at scale, suggests the right timing for outreach, and analyses engagement data to show which accounts are moving forward. Research from 2025 found that 84% of marketers now use AI and intent data to improve personalisation within ABM programmes, with predictive models lifting conversion rates by around 22%.
You do not need a large software budget to get started. Tools such as LinkedIn’s ABM features, Cognism for data and HubSpot for CRM and automation can all support a well-run programme at a scale that suits a growing professional services firm.
A flexible approach to ABM
Effective ABM draws on a specific combination of skills: strategic marketing, account management, business development and a deep understanding of how professional services firms win clients.
Whether you are exploring ABM for the first time, sharpening an approach that needs more focus, or looking for senior-level marketing support on a flexible basis, the right experience makes a real difference.
Create Sales works with founders, owners, managing directors and partners across professional services, drawing on a background in marketing strategy, account management, sales management and business development to build ABM strategies that are practical and tied to your commercial goals.
Ready to pursue the clients you actually want?
ABM is one of the most commercially sound growth strategies available to professional services firms. Rather than broadcasting broadly and waiting for the right response, you start well-informed conversations with the exact clients you most want to work with.
ABM is marketing and business development with a clear strategy behind it. If you would like to explore what ABM could look like for your firm, get in touch.
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Sources and further reading
- Bev Burgess, Account-Based Marketing: The Definitive Handbook for B2B Marketers, Kogan Page, 2025: koganpage.com
- ITSMA ABM research and benchmarking: itsma.com
- CIM London: A Step-by-Step Guide to ABM Best Practices
- CIM Webinar: ABM with Impact, Moving from Activity to Strategic Growth, January 2026: youtube.com/watch?v=Q4skMm2LxBI
- Inflexion Group: Seven Top Tips for ABM in Professional Services