Accelerating Meeting Creation Combining ABM Strategy with the 95-5 Rule
Congratulations! You have identified your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) and prioritized a few major segments with business use cases that you solve along with their applicable buying groups to begin your Account-Based GTM Strategy. Perfect!
(If you haven’t check out more articles and templates in The Revenue Muse Substack!)
Your GTM team is ready to prioritize your account-based motion as “one revenue team” and everything is heading in the right direction. Your revenue team has begun to create awareness and value in their outreach…but then the urgency to drive more immediate revenue kicks in to make quota and…..
Sales says “I NEED MORE MEETINGS NOW!!”
ACTION: Capture 5% of Active Buyers. Stay Top-of-Mind for the 95%
The 95-5 rule states that, at any given time, only about 5% of potential buyers are actively in-market looking to purchase, while the remaining 95% are not currently ready to buy. Effective marketing should therefore balance immediate, targeted outreach to the active 5% with long-term brand-building and awareness efforts aimed at the larger 95% to influence future purchasing decisions.
The best way to accelerate meeting creation involves combining targeted personalization, intent-based outreach, and strategic content sequencing toward your ICP to where your buyers are in their journey.
***It is important to prioritize the 5% of in-market buyers. For the 95% you don’t push in-market, instead you create awareness, value, credibility and educate them to solve business problems until they realize their problem is painful enough to solve….and their mindshare makes you a top contender!
Here are some steps to point you in the right direction:
Segment Based on Intent Signals: Identify the 5% in-market accounts early that are showing intent using platforms like N.Rich (If you don’t know this company you need to), UserGems, CommonRoom, Air Traffic Control, or Bombora. Prioritize those with increased engagement website visits, intentional content consumption, or social interactions.
Collaborative Prospecting: Coordinate marketing, SDR, and sales efforts to personalize outreach at scale, using intent data and precise messaging. Implement an account-based prospecting model, aligning marketing campaigns with sales outreach cadences.
Personalized Outreach and Social Selling Methodology: Learn social selling methodology which consists of identifying a few members of a buying group of a high-intent ICP account and commenting on posts followed by inmail/email/call. Research accounts and write highly tailored emails and social outreach. Clearly reference their specific engagement or social post ( "I noticed you downloaded our recent report…"). Use personalized video and audio in inmails and email. Use technologies like VEED, Loom, or your smart phone by itself works too. Make a small investment in a phone remote to avoid editing and easily turning your camera on and off.
Use Multi-channel Touchpoints: Combine email, social (LinkedIn), phone calls, direct mail, and targeted digital advertising to the 5% in-market. Ensure consistency and progressive depth across channels.
High-Value Content Offers: Offer relevant content specifically addressing their pain points and tied directly to your solution (e.g., personalized ROI calculators, templates, research benchmark studies, or case studies). Introduce low-friction CTA, such as quick assessments or consultations.
Bridge Content to Meeting via Consultative CTA: Leverage clear and compelling reasons for meetings. Discuss a case study, custom diagnostics, personalized demos, benchmarking sessions. Communicate direct benefits of attending (e.g., clarity, time-savings, or strategic insight).
Key Takeaway:
By driving a collaborative account-based GTM strategy, prioritizing ICP following the 95-5 rule, applying targeted personalization, intent-driven outreach, multi-channel communication, and consultative CTAs, marketers significantly improve conversion rates from product awareness to accelerating high-quality meetings.