Surrounding the buying committee on nine-figure cyber transformation deals

Go-to-market

• Three-party programs (PANW, GSI, account): alignment on account selection, messaging and who sends what had to be negotiated for every campaign
• Account types: “goal line” (RFP in flight, weeks to decision) and “expand” (small footprint in a large enterprise), each needing a different cadence
• Influencer-led decisions in some accounts requiring bottom-up and top-down tracks simultaneously
• Cost-sensitive buyers and incumbent vendors already known to the account
• Executives neither PANW nor the GSI had been able to reach
• EU accounts with opt-in-only email rules, where direct mail and events carried more weight
• Partner turnover and program cancellations: of the first ten strategies, four completed, two went in-market, and four were canceled after intake or discovery

MarTech

• No shared system across three companies. PANW’s CRM, the GSI’s CRM and the account’s engagement data lived in separate instances; ABMA built the account intelligence layer — executive maps, buying-committee coverage, profiles for messaging tone — and the reporting model that combined account-based and person-based signals into a single view.
• Landing pages were hosted on a PANW-controlled partner domain so pages could be co-branded per partner and per account without waiting on either company’s corporate web team.
• Partner data processing: a supplier data-processing agreement was executed with PANW so contact data could be handled across the program; EU programs were designed around opt-in, with direct mail, events and sales email carrying touches that marketing email could not.
• Measurement had to be defined for 1:1 where classic funnel metrics do not apply: account coverage, response rate, time to engagement and engagement quality were set as KPIs, with a Custom Influence Score to quantify decision-maker relationships.
• Media (display, LinkedIn, native, video) ran as “digital surround” timed to sales outreach and events, with reporting on account-level exposure.
• Coexistence: ABMA produced strategy, copy and wireframes; PANW’s design and ad-operations teams executed; nothing was inserted into PANW or partner CRMs by ABMA.

Asset creation

Each 1:1 strategy generated its own asset set, in the account’s context and the partner’s brand, through multiple rounds of PANW and partner review:

• Co-branded 1:1 landing pages per account, with a partnership hero, three monthly-refreshed assets carrying account-specific thumbnails and copy, and an account-priority section
• Account-specific two-page use cases showing what the partnership delivers for that account; personalized bumpers and call-out boxes added to existing PANW white papers and analyst reports, ungated
• Executive letters and direct mail: a seed-paper ESG letter, an Earth Day seedling mailer, a team video card with partner-branded treats, handwritten notes, an adventure-themed gift
• Plain-text sales email sequences from the PANW account executive with the GSI account executive copied — 12 touchpoints for influencers, 11 for executives in the automotive program
• Executive event invitations tied to the account’s own moments; “Ultimate Test Drive” hands-on cloud security assessment invitations for practitioners
• Digital surround creative: long-form landing-page video, 30-second video ads, display banner sets, native ads per resource, LinkedIn image and document ads for two inbound campaigns plus an ESG track

The opportunity

Additional Prisma Cloud and XSOAR licenses at BMW, with a large Infosys-led cloud infrastructure RFP approaching. BMW’s CIO organization had set a target of moving 80–90% of workloads and applications to the cloud, but the journey was slow, costly and resource-constrained. Neither partner had established contact with two of the account’s most senior technology executives.

What discovery told us

BMW is highly cost-sensitive. Influencers — directors, heads of function, engineers and architects across cybersecurity, cloud, network and infrastructure — carry unusual weight in decisions, so the program needed a bottom-up track as well as a top-down one. Palo Alto Networks was already well known inside BMW; Infosys was an incumbent partner with deep knowledge of BMW’s processes and IT landscape. Executive mapping sessions with both partners identified the influencer set and the executive set, and events on BMW’s own calendar were chosen as the moments to meet in person. EU rules meant the program could contact opt-in individuals only.

Messaging architecture

One imperative — BMW’s cloud-first strategy and cyber transformation journey — expressed through a core proposition (accelerate cloud adoption and reduce spend while securing an evolving hybrid and multi-cloud environment) and a partnership story (a single-vendor solution combining Palo Alto Networks technology with Infosys’s account knowledge and managed services).

Solution proof points: Cobalt powered by Prisma Cloud for visibility and compliance across hybrid and multi-cloud, Prisma SASE and ZTNA 2.0 for secure access, next-generation firewall for inline zero-day protection, and managed security that lets BMW reallocate scarce resources to innovation. Every asset was framed as what this partnership means for BMW, never as a product pitch.

Landing page and content

A partnership page carrying Prisma Cloud, partnership and cyber-transformation messaging with a “reach out today” call to action; existing assets (the Infosys partnership video and press release, the Gartner Magic Quadrant report, a cloud security video, a Forrester study of Prisma Cloud) plus net-new pieces (the BMW use case and a partnership placemat), with dynamic account and rep personalization as in the other GSI programs.

Working model

ABMA led the discovery workshop, executive mapping, messaging pillars, both journeys, the asset list and the landing-page wireframe; PANW and Infosys owned design, send and event execution.

Outcome

The bottom-up focus on technical stakeholders and influencers earned effective engagement inside BMW, uncovered new inroads, accelerated deal momentum, and positioned Palo Alto Networks and Infosys as trusted advisors in BMW’s transformation.

The partnership was the product. Every asset led with what PANW and the GSI do together for this account, which gave the GSI a reason to lead with PANW and gave the account a single-vendor story.

Two tracks, one plan. Influencers who shape technical evaluations were surrounded from the bottom up while executives neither partner had reached were approached from the top down through events and sponsors.

Account imperatives, not product features. Tying the message to what the account had publicly committed to — net-zero targets, cloud-first strategy, a new vehicle platform — earned attention that security messaging alone would not.

Built to be repeated. Account selection criteria, discovery templates, persona architecture and journey templates meant a new GSI and account pairing could start in weeks, and cancellations did not sink the program.

Measured like 1:1. Coverage, response, time-to-engagement and relationship scores gave partner sales something to act on between RFP milestones.

Services

Channels worked in

How does ABM work when a systems integrator owns the customer relationship?

You market the partnership, not the product. For Palo Alto Networks and its GSIs we mapped the buying committee across both companies’ relationships, built co-branded 1:1 pages and journeys that led with what PANW and the GSI deliver together, and sent every touch from the PANW account executive with the GSI account executive copied.

Can 1:1 ABM influence an RFP that is already in flight?

That is where it earns its keep. “Goal line” accounts got a compressed sequence — digital surround, personalized use cases, executive outreach and events timed to the RFP calendar — to keep the partnership top of mind through the decision. One such program is credited with a nine-figure SASE and SD-WAN win.

How do you run ABM in the EU where marketing email requires opt-in?

Shift the weight to channels that do not. At BMW the program reached 50 opt-in contacts only; sales email from the account executives, a team video card with partner-branded treats, a BMW-specific use case, a handwritten Ultimate Test Drive invitation, an executive dinner in Munich around BMW’s motor-show exhibition and hands-on workshops carried the sequence, with display and LinkedIn as surround.

What happens when partner programs get canceled midway?

Plan for it. Four of the first ten strategies were canceled after intake or discovery as partner priorities changed. Because account selection, discovery and journey design were templated, the remaining programs and new pairings kept moving.

Dassault Systèmes

Enterprise software, locked stack

PTC Windchill+

1:Few objection-led journeys

SentiLink

Financial services 1:1