Account-Based Marketing & ABX

Fifty named accounts.
Three tiers of investment. One operating cadence.

Most B2B agencies sell you "Performance ABM" as a rebranded playbook. Innovative Group runs The ABM Food Pyramid, a proprietary methodology built for buying committees of 100+ and taught live to a room of B2B CMOs at B2BMX West 2025 by Chris Salazar.

→ Delivered at B2BMX West 2025 · The industry's biggest B2B marketing summit.

Operators from
Chris Salazar has held marketing and growth leadership seats at or on behalf of these organizations across an 18-year operator career.
The Methodology

The ABM Food Pyramid.
A balanced marketing diet for enterprise B2B.

The pyramid balances three tiers of account investment with three buying-committee lenses. It works because 1:1 depth on your premium accounts, 1:Few scale on your clusters, and 1:Many reach on the base all run concurrently — through the same operating cadence, on the same platform, held by the same fractional CMO chair.

Proteins · high-value, high-impact
1:1 Strategic ABM
Top of pyramid
Extreme personalization on a small set of premium accounts. Deep-dive strategy, VIP experiences, custom microsites, executive concierge programs, custom research. Drives the biggest ROI per account.
CFO lens: Efficiency + ROI. High-impact spend on conversion-ready accounts. Predictable long-term growth.
Healthy Carbs · scalable personalization
1:Few ABM Lite
Middle of pyramid
Account clusters that share vertical, stage, or pain-point characteristics. Industry-specific thought leadership. Verticalized campaigns. Automation, programmatic, and AI convert mid-tier accounts into SQLs. Carbs give you energy — ABM Lite gives your pipeline energy at scale.
VP Marketing lens: Precision + Scale. Personalized engagement without unqualified-lead waste. Thought leadership as brand positioning.
Fruits & Vegetables · broad reach with value
1:Many Programmatic ABM
Base of pyramid
Content syndication, LinkedIn ads, display, programmatic retargeting. Keeps your brand top-of-mind, nurtures future buyers, and builds the surface area that feeds the 1:Few and 1:1 tiers as accounts warm up.
CTO lens: Data-Driven + AI-Powered. AI and automation for enhanced outreach. Marketing data connected to sales, at scale without overloading the team.
Fats & Dairy — strategic content and media execution — are the connective tissue. Without an AI-powered creative and media foundation, even the best demand gen efforts fall flat.
Three lenses, one committee

How you sell into a buying committee of 100+.

Enterprise B2B doesn't have a single buyer. It has a committee. Fifty stakeholders can shape a Walmart, Target, or Fortune 500 procurement decision. The pyramid ships persona-differentiated selling into every tier — because each seat at the table judges the marketing on a different axis.

The CFO Lens

Efficiency & ROI.
Financial health.

Maximize high-impact spend on conversion-ready accounts. Reduce waste. Clear marketing attribution. Predictable long-term growth. The CFO chair reviews the 1:1 tier first.

The VP Marketing Lens

Precision & Scale.
Marketing performance.

Personalized engagement at scale. Reduced spend on unqualified leads. Brand positioning strengthened through thought leadership. The VP Marketing chair lives in the 1:Few tier day to day.

The CTO Lens

Data-Driven & AI-Powered.
Tech-stack optimization.

AI and automation enhance outreach. Marketing data connects to sales without overloading internal teams. Programmatic scale on the 1:Many base builds the signal layer the whole pyramid runs on.

Proof, not promises

The pyramid works.
Here's what it produces.

Numbers below are from live client engagements applying the pyramid across dental hardware, cybersecurity, SaaS infrastructure, and enterprise voice AI.

1,300 MQLs
Personalized brand-to-demand campaign for a hardware and software dental client. Priority accounts identified, campaign built on need, impact, and value.
22+ touchpoints
Tracked per conversion across top-of-funnel paid brand recall, 1:Few ABM touchpoints, and programmatic retargeting. The pyramid is measurable end-to-end.
320% above
CTR versus industry benchmark on IT-decision-maker campaigns. Premium publisher placements on Newsweek, Yahoo, and category-leading trade titles.
Vs. the traditional ABM agency

Agencies write ABM playbooks.
IG runs the software.

The category has crowded with "Performance ABM" agencies selling methodology decks. IG operates the platform underneath. Same conversation, different structure.

Traditional ABM agency Innovative Group ABX
Methodology Named framework in a gated PDF. Delivered as consulting hours. The ABM Food Pyramid — taught live at B2BMX West 2025 and productized into a running platform.
Platform Uses off-the-shelf ABM software (6sense, Demandbase, Terminus). The tools belong to someone else. Runs Next-Best Action, IG's proprietary agentic marketing product. The platform belongs to the operator.
Operator depth Agency-side project managers who ran campaigns for other agencies. Chris Salazar and IG partners have held marketing seats at Google AI, VMware, Hitachi, NETGEAR, Arlo, Fortive, Fluke, Socure, Delphix, and GoTo.
Speed to value 90-day discovery + strategy + build before first campaign runs. Six weeks to first activation. Weeks 5-6 run 1:1 plays on priority accounts.
Fractional C-suite Sells you the plan. Hands off to your team. Fractional CMO chair holds the operating cadence week over week. See Fractional 360.
The operating model

From cold list to first 1:1 activation in six weeks.

Every engagement runs the same activation sequence. No 90-day discovery. No PowerPoint strategy. Weeks 1-2 build the target account map. Weeks 3-4 activate the base. Weeks 5-6 launch the peaks. From week seven forward, the pyramid runs on a weekly cadence inside Next-Best Action.

Weeks 1-2

Map

Target account list scored against the pyramid. Buying committee coverage mapped. Operating cadence set. First 30 accounts named.

Weeks 3-4

Activate base

1:Many programmatic ABM live. 1:Few cluster campaigns launched. Content syndication + LinkedIn + display running for warmth.

Weeks 5-6

Launch peaks

1:1 Strategic ABM plays launched on the priority accounts. Custom microsites live. Executive concierge motions live.

Week 7+

Run cadence

Weekly rhythm inside Next-Best Action. Fractional CMO chair holds accountability. Monthly buying-committee coverage review.

Common questions

What buyers ask on the first call.

How is The ABM Food Pyramid different from Performance ABM or 6sense-style frameworks?
Performance ABM (as sold by category agencies) is a rebranded activation playbook — same 1:1, 1:Few, 1:Many buckets everyone else uses, dressed up as trademark. The Pyramid frames each tier by nutritional role (proteins, carbs, fruits and vegetables) AND cross-references each tier against a specific buying-committee lens (CFO, VP Marketing, CTO). The result: persona-differentiated selling and tier-differentiated investment on the same target list. Delivered live at B2BMX West 2025 to a room of B2B CMOs — this is not a whitepaper.
Who is IG's ABX for?
Enterprise and upper-SMB B2B companies selling into named accounts with buying committees of 25 to 100+. Typical scope is 30 to 100 target accounts across multiple industries or product lines. If you have a top-50 target list and a buying committee of 100+ per account, the Pyramid is built for you.
What does a Zip Co-shaped engagement look like?
50 named retailer accounts. Weeks 1-2: pyramid mapping — which 10 accounts get 1:1, which 30 join a 1:Few cluster, which 50 sit in the 1:Many base as they warm. Weeks 3-4: programmatic base live across the 50; 3-4 cluster campaigns tied to procurement priorities. Weeks 5-6: 1:1 plays on the priority 10 (custom microsites, executive concierge, buying-committee stakeholder mapping). Week 7+: weekly cadence inside Next-Best Action, monthly committee-coverage review.
Is this platform-agnostic or tied to Next-Best Action?
The methodology is platform-agnostic. IG's execution runs inside Next-Best Action (our proprietary agentic marketing product) because that's where we get the fastest activation and the tightest attribution. If a client is already invested in 6sense, Demandbase, or HubSpot, we integrate — the Pyramid framework overlays their stack.
What does it cost?
Engagements start at $12,500 per month for the ABM Lite tier (1:Few + 1:Many), scale to $25,000+ per month for full-pyramid programs (1:1 + 1:Few + 1:Many + BrandGen). Every engagement includes the Fractional CMO chair as part of Innovative Group's Fractional 360 model. See pricing for detail.
How does this connect to Fractional 360?
The Fractional CMO chair inside Fractional 360 is the operator who holds the ABX cadence week over week. Fractional 360 also brings the CIO, CISO, and CHRO chairs when the buying committee at your target account includes IT, security, and people leaders. Full C-suite coverage on the sell-in side, full C-suite coverage on the buy-in side. Read the Fractional 360 play →

Map your top 50. See the pyramid.

Send us a target account list and we'll come back with a Pyramid-shaped activation plan: which accounts get 1:1, which cluster, and which sit in the 1:Many base. Free. No deck.

Map my top 50 See Fractional 360