ABM Retrospective: The Good, the Bad, and the Pipeline | Ep. 196

ABM is a trust engine, but building it right takes patience, sponsorship, and more groundwork than most expect. In this live episode of Scrappy ABM, host Mason Cosby sits down with Ryan Gunn and Amanda “Chuck” Palmarchuk for a full retrospective on an ambitious ABM program launched in late 2020.

Together, they revisit a program that started with $0 pipeline after six months and ultimately influenced $7M within 18 months. They unpack what worked — executive sponsorship, a sharply defined target account list, and tightly documented operations — and where they’d hit rewind: overinvesting in tech, misaligned expectations, and the pain of forcing MQLs into a sales pipeline.

Whether you’re building ABM from scratch, stuck in the middle, or scaling with momentum, this conversation reveals both the early signals that matter and the long-game reality required to see real impact.

👤 Guest Bios

Ryan Gunn is the founder of Attribution Academy, an education platform helping HubSpot users learn how to tie marketing activity to revenue. He’s known for demystifying marketing attribution and helping teams prove their impact.

Amanda “Chuck” Palmarchuk is Head of Strategy at Scrappy ABM, with nearly two decades in marketing and seven years specializing exclusively in account-based marketing. She’s helped organizations at all stages — from building ABM programs from scratch to refining them for revenue impact.

📌 What We Cover

• The core truth of ABM: awareness first, trust always
• Breaking into a new market segment without existing relationships
• Why executive sponsorship and consultant authority shaped success
• Building a tight, tiered target account list (~200 accounts total)
• How mind mapping and workflow planning prevented ops breakdowns
• The cost of overinvesting in tech before strategy is proven
• Resetting unrealistic expectations when early pipeline is slow
• Measuring influence and account penetration alongside revenue
• Recognizing seasonality and its role in pipeline timing
• Lessons for aligning sales and marketing without creating friction

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• Scrappy ABM — Visit for more ABM tips and strategies
• Connect with Mason on LinkedIn for a conversation about ABM

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