ABM Myths Holding You Back: What Modern B2B Marketers Must Unlearn

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a focused B2B strategy that targets key accounts and tailors all communication—from content to outreach—around the specific people involved in buying decisions. When done right, it helps marketing and sales teams work better together and close bigger deals faster. This methodology has proven so effective that 90% of organizations now report having an ABM strategy in place, making it one of the most widely adopted strategies in B2B marketing today.

But even with its growing use, there are still common myths about ABM that lead to poor results. A recent article from TechTimes—featuring Think ABM, a company that uses psychology and data to improve B2B marketing—highlighted three major misconceptions that are still holding marketers back.

We'll dive deeper into these misconceptions and cover:

Three common ABM myths still shaping B2B strategies today
What makes these ideas misleading in real-world execution
How to build stronger, people-first ABM strategies that actually work

At the end of this article, you’ll have a clearer way to build ABM strategies that actually work.

ABM Myth 1: “ABM is about targeting companies, not people.”

Some marketers think ABM means targeting "Company X" or "Business Y" as if they're single entities. They create campaigns aimed at "the company": maybe targeting "decision-makers at mid-size e-commerce businesses" with generic messaging about "growing your business" or "improving efficiency."

But here's the problem: companies don't actually buy anything. People do. Behind every business decision is a group of real humans—a buying committee with different roles, concerns, and motivations. When you target "the business," you're essentially targeting no one.

Effective ABM recognizes that you're not selling to "ABC Company;" you're selling to Sarah the CFO, Mike the IT director, or Lisa the marketing manager. Each of these people has different priorities, different pain points, and different ways of measuring success.

Therefore, stop thinking about companies as your target. Instead, identify the real people behind each deal. Start by mapping out the buying committee:

Who controls the budget?
Who signs off on tech?
Who will actually use the product?

Knowing who’s involved is the first step to building trust—and moving beyond generic, company-level outreach.

ABM Myth 2: “ABM treats every account as a market of one.”

Let’s say you’ve already identified the right people inside a target company. Great, right? But here’s where many ABM efforts still go wrong: marketers send the same message to everyone, hoping it sticks. That might seem efficient, but it doesn’t reflect how decisions actually get made.

In reality, every buying committee is made up of people from different departments, and they all care about different things. A single, one-size-fits-all message often misses the mark for most of them.

To make this concrete, imagine you're selling marketing automation software to a mid-size e-commerce brand. You’ll likely face:

The CFO, who’s worried about the $60K price tag during a tight budget year
The IT director, who needs assurance that your tool integrates with Shopify and Salesforce without downtime
The marketing head, who wants proof it can boost email open rates and conversion rates

Now, picture sending all of them the same message: “Transform your marketing today.” It doesn’t speak directly to anyone, and it’s unlikely to move the deal forward.

This is where many ABM programs fall short: they treat the account like a single voice instead of a group of individuals with different concerns. The fix? Don’t just reach the buying committee; speak to each person in it.

Send the CFO a cost-savings breakdown or ROI calculator
Send the IT lead a technical FAQ or integration guide
Send the marketing lead case studies with actual performance numbers

This extra layer of personalization makes your outreach more relevant and more effective.

ABM Myth 3: “B2B buyers are purely rational; emotion doesn’t matter.”

Even when you're personalizing messages for different roles, there's another layer many marketers miss entirely. Many still operate under the assumption that B2B buyers make decisions based only on logic—comparing features, analyzing data, and selecting the best option based on facts. But in reality, emotions, biases, and personal motivations still influence how those decisions are made.

For example, someone may avoid a new tool because of past implementation headaches, or support a vendor because they trust the rep more than a competitor. Traits like risk aversion, curiosity, or the need for control can influence how someone reads your message—or whether they act on it at all.

Pay attention to how each person engages with your content—topics they revisit, formats they prefer, or tone they respond to. Use that insight to adjust your messaging so it matches not just their needs, but their thinking style. Messaging that speaks to both logic and psychology drives better engagement and faster decisions.

The realities of modern ABM

When you move past outdated assumptions, a clearer picture of ABM starts to take shape: modern ABM isn’t about sending one message to a company or even one message to a team. It’s about understanding who is involved in the decision, what each person needs, and how they process information. Personalization goes beyond job titles; it includes motivations, biases, and behaviour.

That’s why leading marketers now blend three layers:

Who they are (roles, titles, responsibilities)
What they care about (pain points, goals, buying stage)
How they think (personality traits, risk tolerance, content preferences)

Bringing all three together makes ABM more relevant and more effective.

Tools like Think ABM’s Insights IQ help teams do this at scale by combining behavioural data with psychographic insights. It’s not just targeting; it’s about tailoring every message to how they think, decide, and take action.

Conclusion

While ABM is a proven strategy for B2B growth, it fails when it's built on outdated assumptions about how B2B buying actually works. The three myths we've covered are, sadly, still shaping strategies across the industry. And they're costing marketers real results.

Take this article as a sign to take a hard look at your current ABM approach. Are you still thinking in terms of company targets rather than individual stakeholders? Are you sending the same message to everyone on the buying committee? Are you assuming that logic alone drives B2B decisions? If any of these sound familiar, it's time for a reset.

The opportunity is clear: embrace a multi-dimensional, people-first ABM strategy that recognizes the complexity of modern B2B buying. Companies like Think ABM are already proving this works by combining psychographic profiling with traditional firmographics to create deeper stakeholder connections. When you combine the right people, the right messages, and the right psychological insights, you unlock real B2B growth.