Ep 52: ABM Is Not a Strategy. It Is a Fight. w/ Guest Jessica Fewless

You have been doing account-based marketing for years. You might not have been doing ABM at all.In this episode of Revenue Rewired, Sarah Shepard sits down with Jessica Fewless, co-author of Account-Based Marketing and one of the architects who helped build the ABM category from the ground up, to cut through a decade of confusion about what ABM actually is and why most companies are still getting it wrong. Jessica has trained more than 10,000 marketers on ABM principles, watched hundreds of programs succeed and fail, and has the kind of earned credibility that comes from living inside this problem for 25 years.The conversation goes deep on what separates intentional marketing from the spray-and-pray demand gen that sales teams have been complaining about forever. Jessica breaks down the real reason ABM programs collapse before they produce results, what the shift from demand generation to buyer enablement means for how marketing and sales need to operate, and why the MQL was never going to save anyone.What You Will LearnWhy ABM is intentional marketing and how that is fundamentally different from running targeted ads to a broad listWhat a real target account list looks like versus the one sales hands you and immediately forgets aboutWhy buying groups are not a replacement for ABM but a deeper level of sophistication inside itHow 80 percent of the buying journey now happens before anyone talks to your sales team, and what that means for your budgetWhy companies that cut marketing teams in 2025 to hire more salespeople made exactly the wrong callThe one piece of advice Jessica gives every client before they sign their next software contractHow to make the internal case for walking away from MQL volume when leadership is addicted to the numberChapters0:00 — Why Your ABM Program Might Just Be Expensive Targeting2:33 — What ABM Actually Means and Why It Took a Whole Category to Explain It9:24 — Who Should Own ABM: Sales, Marketing, or Both?12:00 — The ICP vs. Target Account List Distinction Nobody Talks About15:14 — How ABM Has Evolved From 2013 to 2026: Intent Data, Signals, and Buyer Control18:40 — Buying Groups: The Missing Layer Inside Every ABM Motion22:48 — Why Personalized Ads Are Not ABM: Relevance vs. Recognition26:23 — Did We Name This Wrong? The Identity Crisis of Account-Based MarketingEpisode SummaryYou have been doing account-based marketing for years. You might not have been doing ABM at all. Sarah Shepard sits down with Jessica Fewless, co-author of Account-Based Marketing and one of the architects who helped build the ABM category from the ground up, to cut through a decade of confusion about what ABM actually is and why most companies are still getting it wrong. Jessica has trained more than 10,000 marketers, watched hundreds of programs succeed and fail, and brings 25 years of earned credibility to one uncomfortable truth: until sales and marketing are working from the same account list with the same definition of a qualified opportunity, every tool and campaign you run is just organized noise.Keywords: account-based marketing, ABM strategy, B2B marketing, sales and marketing alignment, target account list, buying groups, demand generation, buyer enablement, revenue operations, MQL, pipeline development, B2B sales, intent data, mid market growth, revenue strategyContact Us:Email: [email protected]: www.stringcaninteractive.comReach out to the hosts on LinkedIn:Jay Feitlinger: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayfeitlinger/Sarah Shepard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahshepardcoo/Find Jessica on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jfewlessBuy Jessica’s book: https://www.amazon.com/Account-Based-Marketing-Target-Companies-Revenue/dp/1119572002 Buy the Revenue Rewired book: https://www.amazon.com/Revenue-Rewired-Identify-Leaks-Costing-ebook/dp/B0FST7JCXQ