How to win trust in ABM's biggest deals

Why AI makes human experiences more valuable, not less, with Claire Ellis of JPC

ABM was supposed to be about relationships. As AI makes targeting and personalisation cheap and abundant, the thing ABM was meant to build in the first place, trust with the people who actually decide, has become the real differentiator. Nowhere is that more acute than in ABM's biggest deals, where a single account can be worth millions and keeping it can matter even more than winning it.

➡️ Joel Harrison is joined by Claire Ellis, Managing Director of JPC, to unpack experiential ABM: human moments designed to move specific stakeholders, rather than events that simply fill rooms. Claire explains why buyers are now using AI to form preferences early and out of sight, why so much supplier activity is noise rather than relationship progress, and how to work out who really carries the room. She shares how BT moved from infrastructure provider to strategic partner with Translink, where organisations should deliberately keep human judgement in the loop, and why accountability matters more than accuracy when AI shapes what a senior buyer sees. If you run ABM, or are weighing up where your next experience budget should go, this conversation will sharpen how you plan, measure and own those moments. This episode is sponsored by JPC.

What you’ll learn

Why AI has made trust harder to earn in complex deals, and what buyers rely on instead.How to design experiences around the change you need in specific stakeholders, rather than around the format.How to spot who really carries the room, and when to rethink your account plan.Where to deliberately keep human judgement, and how open to be about AI's role.What credible relationship movement looks like, and who should own what happens next.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: trust and ABM in an AI world

01:55 Claire Ellis and JPC

04:29 Where suppliers go wrong in complex deals

08:26 AI cuts both ways: why trust is harder to earn

11:59 Influencing an account before the opportunity exists

15:30 What experiential ABM is, and what it isn't