{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Connect To Market","title":"How to Build an AI-Powered ABM Strategy: Elyssa Steiner - Episode #62","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2832,"description":"What if the fastest way to master nine marketing verticals isn't a better dashboard, but getting your team out from behind their desks?\nIn this episode of Connect To Market, host Casey Cheshire sits down with Elyssa Steiner, CMO of Kahua, to explore how B2B marketing leaders can build stronger buyer connection through a mix of field research and AI-driven execution. Elyssa makes the case that AI can scale what you already know, but it can't invent what you haven't learned yet, and that field visits, sales call shadowing, and trade show attendance are what turn AI-synthesized data into real buyer insight. She shares how she used her first 60 days as CMO to build ideal customer profile (ICP) frameworks for nine core verticals, why she sends a marketer to every trade show her company exhibits at, and how listening in on sales calls became one of the highest-value habits on her team.\nElyssa walks through how Kahua's AI adoption evolved from basic custom GPTs to purpose-built AI skills and an account-based marketing (ABM) agent that scaled the team's target account list from a capacity-constrained \"Magic 18\" to more than 400 one-to-one and one-to-few accounts. She breaks down why she believes the most critical skill for a modern marketer is being a really good editor, not a really fast prompter, and how her team is shifting from repetitive execution work into real marketing strategy as AI takes over the busy work. She also opens up about her own career path from retail buying to startup sales to CMO, and the philosophy that has shaped her decision-making ever since: hard choices, easy life; easy choices, hard life.\n\nIn this episode, we cover:\nWhy closing the physical distance between marketing and the buyer, not just better AI tools, is what actually builds buyer understanding\nHow to build ICP frameworks for multiple verticals in your first 60 days and turn that work into a springboard for AI tools and content strategy\nHow to scale an ABM strategy from a handful of...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/KGx4-BCjpGbp-E_DEDOku79tqQ_1dY9T5ogWaJ3I3S8/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS84ODRk/OTAxZmYwOTcwOTcy/ZGNhZTYwYzc3M2Iz/NWQ0NC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}