How an SDR Team Executes Inside an ABM Strategy

ABM

How an SDR team executes
inside an ABM strategy.

My method, applied at several companies.

Elric Legloire · Outbound Kitchen

ABM, to me:

How the GTM team (Marketing, Sales, SDR, AM, CS) aligns by tier to maximize our chances of winning new logos and expanding existing customers.

This is about your highest-LTV (Life Time Value) accounts. The acceptable CAC is higher: that is what funds the depth.

5 to 11 decision makers

per enterprise B2B purchase, spread across 5 different functions

Gartner B2B Buying Report, 2024

By tier

Who is involved, which channels: it depends on the tier.

Tier = fit x LTV. Channels are expensive: you stack them where the LTV justifies it.

TierAccount typeTeam involvedChannels

Tier 1 Strategic / must-win
high fit · high LTV AE + SDR + ABM + Field Marketing + Execs + Partners Email, cold calls, LinkedIn, exec-to-exec, direct mail, partner intros, dedicated landing page, per-account ads, invite-only events

Tier 2 High-priority ICP AE + SDR + ABM + Field Marketing + PMM Email, cold calls, LinkedIn, competitor displacement campaigns, webinars, field events, targeted ads, pain-based content

Tier 3 Scaled intent / retargeting SDR + ABM + AE Email sequences, cold calls, LinkedIn touches, retargeting ads, content nurture, webinar invites, intent-triggered campaigns

The SDR's scope

The SDR does not stop at new business.
New logos AND customer expansion.

SDR

AwarenessEducationSelection Commit OnboardingAdoptionExpansion

the classic funnel: one-shot sale the full bow tie: recurring revenue

The problem

Most companies think they run an enterprise motion.
They run mid-market on enterprise accounts.

	SMB approach	Enterprise
Accounts	500 / quarter	50 / year
Contacts	1 decision maker	5 to 11 decision makers
Cycle	30 days	6 to 18 months

+130% win rate

with multi-threading on deals over $50K. Won enterprise deals: 17 contacts on average.

Gong, 1.8M deals analyzed, 2024

1 contact, 1 channel, zero Marketing / Sales / Post-Sales alignment: that is what kills deals, not the sales cycle.

Framework 1

The SDR does not come in first.
They enter an account the team has already prepared.

By the 1st contact, the buyer is already 61 to 69% through their journey6sense Buyer Experience, 2025 · ~4,000 B2B buyers

Account
selection

leadership, not the SDR

Account
warm-up

marketing + brand

Signals

The SDR starts HERE

Account plan
+ messaging

POV, mapping, data 1st + 3rd party

1st meeting
+ handoff

SDR → AE

The Snowflake model: monthly sales + marketing selection, ~3 weeks of ABM air cover, then the SDR goes in: 36 meetings per 100 accounts under ABM, versus 10 without. And deals close 2x faster (SQO → Won). Snowflake ABM team (Carpio / Henry), cohort A/B test, 2024

Framework 2 · Selection

Account selection: led by leadership, driven by data. Not by the SDR.

36,000 accounts

the raw TAM: everything that "could" buy

filter: modern data stack (public Castordoc case)

3,000 accounts

actually relevant

value per account: seats x ACV, not a Tier 1/2/3 label

Top accounts

where the team invests

5x higher conversion

Tier 1 accounts convert 5x better than lower-tier accounts. Selection IS the lever.

Outbound Kitchen

Lived at Chili Piper:
"Enterprise" by headcount (2,000 employees)... but 20 salespeople.
The fix: target accounts with 300+ people in GTM. The right criterion, not the easiest one.

Framework 3 · Persona mapping + top-down vs bottom-up

You do not map a person. You map a committee.

Why: a single thread dies with every departure or reorg. And each level does not hear the same message.

Top-down

StrategyGoal + messageLevelOwnerShare

Executive engagement
+ sponsorship Influence. Message: strategic impact, ROI, vision. C-level · EVP/SVP
the budget AE + exec sponsor 100 %

Book meetings Share insight + impact. Message: operational efficiency. VP
the influence AE 25 % · SDR 75 % 25 / 75

above the linethe power linebelow

Groundswell
+ book meetings Collect context. Identify problems to earn the right to go up. Director · Manager · IC
the field, the real pain SDR 100 %

Bottom-up

Top-down first. Bottom-up when it stalls.

1 account = 100+ entry points

The field says it

Why bottom-up works: execs say it themselves.

Not one OR the other. Both.

a CRO, on LinkedIn: "I do not open anything unless a Director or VP in my org recommends it"

a Snowflake VP: "the best way to get my attention is my team bringing me the topic"

The working doc

The account plan: where everything we just saw lands.

1 · Account research
10-K, earnings calls, news, org chart, history with you.

2 · Contact research
Key stakeholders, their roles, what matters to each.

3 · Your POV
Hypotheses: where you can help, why them, why now.

4 · Actions
Outreach, demo, content, events: who does what, when.

Free: I share my account plan template. Ask me and I will send it.

SDR execution

Never a single channel.
The channel follows the buyer, not the rep's preference.

The channels: EmailLinkedInPhoneOffice visitPersonalized siteGiftingEvents

Lived, May 2026:
dinner invitations during a trade show, top 10 accounts in Europe.
Result: 4 meetings booked across 10 accounts.

+150% qualified pipeline

with 1:1 web pages per account (account name, features pulled from calls, CTA to the assigned AE)

Mutiny x Snowflake case study

Real case · public

The full process on one account: from research to meeting.

1 · Research: "Gong data" on Spotify → an interview with a Gong data leader → the transcript.

2 · AI: not "summarize this interview", but "extract what is relevant to my product".

3 · Message: the interview → the challenge → how we help → CTA. 12 seconds to read.

4 · Account, not contact: the same research serves 6 different prospects at Gong.

5 · Result: meeting booked 2 hours after sending.

the actual message sent

$75K

my biggest opportunity of the year, booked in 2 hours on a target account

Lived at Castor (2023), published in my newsletter

Real case · public

A replica Quake rocket launcher, sent to Vanta's CRO: a former professional Quake player. She posted about it on LinkedIn. She took the meeting.

Gift: $300

on an account worth $200K to $1M in ARR: cheaper than the cold email sequence it replaced. A budget shift, not an extra cost.

Outbound Kitchen · ABM gifting, Apr 2026

Hand-tested on 10 to 20 accounts. Then scaled to the top 200 with Clay + Claude Code.
~70% of accounts: no gift. The filter is what works.

the actual handwritten note

the CRO's post

A system.

The same method, in the US or in Europe.
If you remember one thing: pick the account before the person. The rest is execution.

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