How Account-Based Marketing Helped Align Sales and Marketing in Libya’s B2B Sector
When I started my MBA thesis on Account-Based Marketing (ABM), I didn’t expect my research to serve as a reality check on how alignment really works inside B2B companies—particularly in emerging markets like Libya. What began as an exploration of frameworks and performance indicators quickly developed into something much more practical: how real people, using limited tools, get big things done when they believe in what they’re doing.
This piece contains the most important findings from my case study on Nolte Küchen Libya, a multinational kitchen maker operating exclusively in B2B space. While the brand trains employees to operate under European standards, it is working in an environment where customers still engage relationally and rely on informal means of communications. The outcome? An interesting marriage of structure, improvisation, and cultural context which gives their ABM approach ideal attention.
” ABM Without the Buzzwords ”
At some level, ABM is the alignment of marketing and sales to turn high-value customers into a shared mission. In theory, this means advanced tools, automated workflows, and analytics-driven data. In Libya, this looks differently. At Nolte Küchen, employees were not relying on a full-size martech stack, or hyper-personalized dashboards. Employees were simply using ABM, via WhatsApp chats, showroom walkthroughs, and other nominal gestures to indicate to clients they were important.
What surprised me most was the cultural readiness for ABM, in the absence of any formal system. Employees across marketing and sales spoke the same language when it came to major accounts. They understood which customer accounts mattered most to the company, how to approach them, and why a “one-size fits all” message wouldn’t suffice.
” It’s Not Just About Tools—It’s About Trust ”
One of my major findings was evidence that alignment was not about the systems, it was about relationships. Teams sat down together on an ad-hoc basis to plan campaigns. Sales people consulted marketing to discuss proposals, and everyone technically used the CRM, but were more likely to rely on voice notes, client calls, and in-person syncs. This hybrid approach created an environment where it was easy for employees to decide in an agile fashion, and also, not let personalized follow-ups fall through the cracks.
What I believe enabled this to work, was trust, not technology. And that an implicit belief that collaboration is additive to value, even if nobody told you to. That framework, in my opinion, is the real blueprint for effective ABM in an emerging market.
A Few Practical Lessons
Here are three takeaways that may help any B2B company attempting to align marketing and sales—especially if you are not swimming in an expensive pool of automation tools:
- Shared KPIs Matter, but Conversations Matter More
In the study, I found few performance measures shared across functions, but teams were still aligned because they were having conversations—continuously. Don’t underestimate how much informal syncs can help. - Personalization Does Not Need Platforms
From using a customer’s first name to customizing showroom visits, personalization at Nolte Küchen was low-tech but low impact. - If People Have Faith in the Strategy, Structure Will Follow
Everyone I spoke with believed ABM made sense. The next step is to just add better systems to support that belief—rather than convince them it is worth their time.
Why This Matters
B2B brands in developing economies are typically not included in the dialogues on strategic marketing innovation. But, what I saw at Nolte Küchen reflects that ABM can be flexible. It does not have to begin with technology—it can start inside the people.
If you are a manager, consultant, or student in an emerging market questioning whether ABM can work outside of Silicon Valley, the answer is yes. But only if you respect the local culture, gravitate toward the tools people typically embrace, and see alignment as something of humans, not just a KPI.
Source :
This article summarises the theory from the author’s MBA thesis at Turku University of Applied Sciences, which investigated Account-Based Marketing and sales-marketing alignment at Nolte Küchen Libya. The full MBA thesis included research based on interviews and useful functional frameworks for B2B companies in emerging markets.