If you’re running Account Based Marketing (ABM) in a B2B company, you know the reality: a handful of high-value accounts, a messy mix of tools, and a lot of manual work. Maybe you’re using spreadsheets, email threads, and side-channel chats just to keep things moving. It’s exhausting, and half the time, you’re not even sure if the right people are seeing the right info.
This guide is for marketers and sales teams who want to spend less time on busywork and more time actually moving accounts forward—using Aptiv to get there. No fluff, no “transform your business” nonsense, just real steps that work.
Step 1: Get Real About Your Current ABM Process
Before you touch Aptiv or any tool, map out how things actually work now. Not the ideal, not the slide deck version—what’s really happening?
- List your core ABM tasks: Think outreach, content delivery, meeting scheduling, follow-ups, intent tracking.
- Note the tools in play: Are you using Salesforce, spreadsheets, Slack, email chains? Write them down.
- Spot the pain points: Where do things break? Usually, it’s handoffs (marketing → sales), tracking who’s engaged, or remembering what’s already been sent.
Pro Tip: Don’t skip this. If your process is a mess, Aptiv won’t magically fix it. Clean process + good tool = results.
Step 2: Set Up Account Lists the Right Way in Aptiv
Aptiv is built for ABM, but it’s only as smart as your account lists. Garbage in, garbage out.
- Define what makes a “target account”: Firmographics, past engagement, fit score—whatever matters for your business.
- Import your lists cleanly: Don’t just dump every company you’ve ever emailed. Be selective. Use CSVs if you have to, but double-check for duplicates and missing fields.
- Segment logically: Group accounts by industry, size, or buying stage. This makes it way easier to automate later.
What to skip: Don’t overcomplicate segmentation. Three to five meaningful segments is plenty to start. If you need 20, you probably don’t have a good definition yet.
Step 3: Automate (But Don’t Over-Automate) Your Key Workflows
Automation is great—until it creates more work than it saves. Aptiv’s workflow automation can really help, but don’t try to automate everything at once.
- Start with high-friction tasks:
- Notifying sales when an account shows intent
- Assigning follow-up tasks after an event
- Triggering content sends based on engagement
- Use Aptiv’s workflow builder: Set up basic “if X, then Y” rules. For example: If someone downloads a whitepaper, create a task for their account owner to call them within 3 days.
- Test before scaling: Run workflows on a small segment. Make sure notifications go to the right people and don’t flood inboxes.
What to watch out for: Too many bots, not enough humans. If your team tunes out because of alert fatigue, your “streamlined” process just made things worse.
Step 4: Make Collaboration Obvious (and Not Annoying)
ABM dies when marketing and sales aren’t on the same page. Aptiv’s shared workspaces can help, but only if you use them right.
- Centralize comms: Comment on accounts in Aptiv, not in email or Slack. Keep all notes, feedback, and action items where everyone can see them.
- Assign clear owners: Every account should have a single point person. No “team ownership” fudge—if everyone’s responsible, nobody’s responsible.
- Use checklists: Aptiv lets you attach checklists to accounts. Use these for standard steps—like “Send intro email,” “Schedule demo,” “Log feedback.”
Ignore: Endless tagging and status updates. If your team is spending more time updating statuses than talking to accounts, you’ve gone off track.
Step 5: Build Reports That Actually Help
Reporting in ABM is famous for being both overwhelming and kind of useless. Aptiv’s reporting can be powerful, but keep it simple.
- Track leading indicators: Meetings booked, key contacts engaged, content downloads. Don’t just wait for “closed won.”
- Set up dashboards: One for marketing, one for sales. Each should answer: “What do I need to do next?”
- Automate updates: Schedule weekly reports to go out automatically. But keep them short—nobody reads a 30-page PDF.
Don’t bother: Tracking vanity metrics (page views, social likes) unless you know they tie to account progress.
Step 6: Clean Up and Standardize Data—Regularly
Even the best workflows fall apart with bad data. Garbage in, garbage out (again).
- Schedule a monthly data hygiene check: Aptiv can help flag duplicates or missing info, but someone needs to own the cleanup.
- Standardize fields: Company names, contact roles, stages—pick a format and stick with it. Otherwise, you’ll have “IBM,” “I.B.M.,” and “International Business Machines” all as different accounts.
- Sync with your CRM: Make sure updates in Aptiv flow back to Salesforce, HubSpot, or whatever you use. Nothing breaks trust faster than two versions of the truth.
Pro Tip: Don’t delegate this to an intern or forget about it for months. Clean data is everyone’s job.
Step 7: Review, Tweak, and Repeat
No ABM process is perfect out of the gate. Aptiv gives you a lot of flexibility, so use it to learn and improve.
- Hold a monthly workflow review: What’s working? What’s breaking? What’s just not getting used?
- Kill dead weight: If a workflow or report isn’t helping, turn it off. Don’t keep things “just because.”
- Ask the people doing the work: They’ll know where the friction is—even if nobody wants to admit it in a big meeting.
What to ignore: Trendy new features or “AI-powered” suggestions unless they solve an actual problem you have.
Keeping It Simple (and Sane)
Streamlining ABM in Aptiv isn’t about chasing every new feature or over-engineering your process. Start with what’s actually slowing you down, automate a few key pain points, and focus on keeping the team in sync. Review your process often, cut what doesn’t work, and don’t be afraid to keep things simple. The goal isn’t to be fancy—it’s to actually move accounts forward, with less hassle.