TL;DR: Account-Based Marketing and Sales Alignment for startups
Account-Based Marketing and Sales Alignment helps you focus sales and marketing on the same target accounts, same message, and same revenue goals so you waste less time and close better-fit deals faster.
• You learn how to build ABM without a big team or expensive software: start with a short named account list, shared account data, clear messaging, and weekly joint reviews.
• The article explains what matters most: target account selection, buying committee coverage, message consistency, and tracking account movement instead of lead volume.
• You also get a practical 12-week setup plan, common founder mistakes to avoid, and the right metrics for each startup stage, from seed to Series B.
• Research from recent ABM statistics 2026 supports the idea that ABM can improve win rates and shorten deal cycles when sales and marketing work from one account plan.
If you are a founder or business owner, this guide shows you how to turn scattered outreach into a focused B2B growth system with clearer pipeline visibility and stronger buyer trust. For more founder advice, see these female founder tips and then start your first ABM pilot this week.
Check out startup news that you might like:
Core Web Vitals News | June, 2026 (STARTUP EDITION)
Account-Based Marketing and Sales Alignment is the discipline of getting marketing and sales to work from the same account list, the same buying signals, the same message, and the same revenue goals. For startups, it means less random activity, fewer vanity campaigns, and more focus on the exact companies most likely to buy.
Why this matters is simple. Most early-stage teams do not have the cash, time, or hiring room to let marketing chase downloads while sales chases whoever replied last. I have built companies in Europe under real constraints, not fantasy budgets, and one lesson keeps repeating: misalignment is expensive long before anyone notices it on a spreadsheet.
When your team is small, every mixed message hits harder. A founder says one thing on a sales call, the website says another, the deck says a third, and the prospect quietly loses trust. That trust gap kills deals before pricing, before procurement, and before the demo even has a chance.
Here is why this guide exists. You do not need a giant enterprise stack to make ABM work. You need shared definitions, account focus, message discipline, and a feedback loop that ties campaigns to pipeline movement.
What is Account-Based Marketing and Sales Alignment?
Account-Based Marketing, or ABM, is a B2B growth approach where a business treats a selected set of target accounts as markets of one. Sales alignment means the sales team and marketing team plan, execute, and review that account motion together instead of operating as separate camps.
For startups, this serves as a way to focus scarce resources on the buyers with the highest strategic fit. Unlike broad lead generation, ABM helps you concentrate message, content, outreach, and follow-up around accounts that matter most.
Key takeaway
- How Account-Based Marketing and Sales Alignment shapes startup growth and sales predictability
- How to set it up without a bloated team or enterprise budget
- The mistakes founders make when they confuse ABM with fancy outbound
- The working frameworks serious B2B startups use in 2026
Why does Account-Based Marketing and Sales Alignment matter now?
The startup problem is rarely “not enough activity.” The problem is scattered activity. Marketing celebrates traffic. Sales complains about lead quality. The founder steps in to patch the story. Then everyone wonders why pipeline feels fragile.
Recent business coverage points in the same direction. The Drum on organizational alignment as a brand asset argues that customers experience internal alignment as clarity. That idea is huge for startups because buyers do not see your internal chaos. They only see whether every conversation sounds consistent.
At the same time, Ad Age on marketing tied to real business outcomes reflects a broader shift away from soft reporting and toward revenue accountability. And Marketing Week on risk metrics beyond return reporting adds a useful angle: teams need to judge not just output, but the risk of wasted spend, false signals, and bad handoffs.
That is exactly where ABM and sales alignment fit. They reduce wasted motion by asking a hard question early: which accounts matter, why do they matter, and what coordinated actions move them forward?
- Limited resources , You cannot market to everyone and sell to everyone.
- Long B2B cycles , You need multiple touches across content, outreach, and proof.
- Trust gaps , Buyers notice when your story changes across channels.
- Weak signal handling , Teams miss intent data if marketing and sales sit in different silos.
- Founder dependency , Without alignment, every serious deal needs founder rescue.
From my point of view as a bootstrapping founder, ABM is less about glamour and more about discipline. I come from deeptech, IP-heavy products, and education systems that need precise messaging. In those categories, vague messaging is deadly. If your account strategy is fuzzy, your whole go-to-market motion gets noisy fast.
What are the fundamentals of Account-Based Marketing and Sales Alignment?
1. Target accounts
Definition: A target account is a company you intentionally prioritize because it matches your ideal customer profile, buying capacity, problem urgency, and strategic value.
Why it matters for startups: You cannot run ABM without saying no to most of the market. This is where many founders fail. They want focus in theory but panic in practice and widen the list too early.
Real-world example: A startup selling workflow software to regulated engineering firms may choose 40 accounts with complex compliance pain rather than chasing 4,000 random SMBs that will never buy.
Related terms: ideal customer profile, buying committee, account tiering, named accounts, total addressable market.
2. Shared account intelligence
Definition: Shared account intelligence means marketing and sales both see the same account history, engagement signals, contact roles, objections, and deal stage context.
Why it matters for startups: If one team sees webinar attendance and the other sees only a cold company record, your outreach becomes clumsy. This is why a clean CRM setup matters so much. Without it, ABM becomes guesswork with prettier slides.
Real-world example: A rep sees that two people from the same account visited pricing, opened a case study, and attended a product event. That changes the next email from generic outreach to a relevant business conversation.
Related terms: account scoring, buyer intent, engagement data, lead-to-account matching, pipeline visibility.
3. Message consistency
Definition: Message consistency means your ads, landing pages, email copy, sales decks, demos, and calls all reflect the same problem framing, proof points, and promise.
Why it matters for startups: In B2B, buyers often compare what they heard from one person with what they saw elsewhere. If the story shifts, they assume risk. Startups get punished harder because they have less reputation buffer.
Real-world example: If marketing says “reduce compliance exposure” but sales says “save time with automation,” the buyer has to do the mental stitching. Good ABM removes that burden.
Related terms: positioning, narrative, value messaging, proof assets, sales collateral.
4. Buying committee coverage
Definition: Buying committee coverage is the practice of engaging more than one contact inside the same account, often across user, manager, budget owner, technical reviewer, and executive sponsor roles.
Why it matters for startups: Deals stall when you build a relationship with one enthusiastic person who cannot move procurement or budget. ABM forces you to map the whole decision group.
Related terms: champion, blocker, economic buyer, technical evaluator, multithreading.
5. Revenue feedback loop
Definition: A revenue feedback loop is the routine where both teams review account progress, campaign signals, objections, conversion movement, and lost-deal reasons together.
Why it matters for startups: Without that loop, marketing keeps producing assets no one uses and sales keeps repeating objections no one documents. A clean sales dashboard helps turn those reviews into decisions instead of opinions.
How do you set up Account-Based Marketing and Sales Alignment step by step?
Let’s break it down. You do not need a huge stack. You need structure, ownership, and a shared operating rhythm.
Phase 1: Assessment and planning in weeks 1 to 2
Step 1. Audit your current state
- List your top closed-won accounts from the past 12 months.
- Mark where each account came from and how long it took to close.
- Review whether marketing and sales define a qualified account the same way.
- Check if account data lives in one place or in scattered docs, inboxes, and founder memory.
- Review your current sales process so ABM fits the way deals actually move.
If you are a founder-led sales team, the ugly truth may be that the “system” is mostly inside your head. Write it down anyway. ABM punishes hidden process.
Step 2. Define your account strategy
- Build your ideal customer profile by company size, industry, pain level, budget range, and urgency.
- Tier accounts into three groups: dream accounts, strong-fit accounts, and experimental accounts.
- Set account goals such as meetings booked, buying committee contacts engaged, pipeline created, and deal velocity.
- Agree on which accounts marketing will warm and which accounts sales will actively pursue.
A practical startup rule is this: if your named account list is too big for your current team to touch well, it is too big. Focus beats wishful thinking.
Step 3. Build internal commitment
- Assign one owner for the ABM motion.
- Set a weekly sales-marketing review.
- Define shared language for account stage, engagement, and handoff.
- Agree that both teams will be judged partly on pipeline quality, not just activity volume.
Tools for this phase can be simple: a CRM, a shared account sheet, LinkedIn, call notes, and one dashboard. Fancy software will not save bad operating habits.
Phase 2: Foundation building in weeks 3 to 6
Step 4. Choose your ABM model
- One-to-one ABM for a small list of high-value accounts.
- One-to-few ABM for clusters of similar accounts with related pain points.
- One-to-many ABM for a larger list with lighter personalization.
Most startups should begin with one-to-few. It gives enough focus without demanding a custom campaign for every company.
Step 5. Set up your infrastructure
- Create account records and parent-child company relationships in your CRM.
- Map contacts by role inside each target company.
- Track account engagement, not just single-lead actions.
- Set rules for when marketing activity triggers sales follow-up.
- Document every field your team actually needs, then remove fluff.
This is also where content discipline matters. If your sales team keeps digging through old decks and random files, build a tighter sales enablement library before you scale ABM outreach.
Step 6. Build the account playbook
- Define your problem framing by account type.
- Write 3 to 5 industry-specific message angles.
- Prepare proof assets such as case studies, technical explainers, ROI models, or security answers.
- Create outreach sequences for each role in the buying committee.
- Set a handoff rule between marketing interest and sales engagement.
If you also run inbound, make sure your account motion does not fight it. A clean lead qualification flow helps you decide when inbound contacts should be folded into a target account strategy.
Phase 3: Testing and scale in weeks 7 to 12
Step 7. Run a controlled pilot
- Start with 10 to 25 accounts.
- Pick one segment with a clear pain point.
- Launch coordinated ads, outbound, email, social touches, and content offers.
- Track account engagement and meeting conversion.
- Review what changed in pipeline, not just clicks.
Startups love to overcomplicate pilots. Do the opposite. Small sample, clear story, weekly review, fast corrections.
Step 8. Build the review loop
- Hold a weekly 30-minute account review.
- Review account movement, blocked deals, and new signals.
- Ask which messages work by role and by industry.
- Feed sales objections back into marketing content.
- Update targeting rules based on closed-won and closed-lost patterns.
This is the point where ABM becomes a real system rather than a campaign label.
Which best practices actually work in 2026?
1. Start with account selection, not channel selection
What it is: Choose the right accounts before discussing paid media, cold email, events, or content formats.
Why it works: Channel choice cannot fix weak account fit. If the company has no urgent pain, no budget path, or no reason to change now, your campaign will underperform no matter how polished it looks.
- Define your ideal customer profile with hard filters.
- Score accounts on urgency, fit, and deal size.
- Remove weak-fit names before launch.
Common pitfall: Teams stuff the target list with aspirational logos for ego reasons.
How to avoid it: Keep a separate “dream list” and do not mix it with active pipeline targets.
Metrics to track: meeting rate by account tier, pipeline per target account, win rate by segment.
2. Build one story and repeat it across every buyer interaction
What it is: Use the same problem statement, business case, and proof language across campaigns, sales calls, decks, and follow-up emails.
Why it works: Buyers interpret consistency as trust. The Drum’s reporting on alignment captured this well: when every conversation says the same thing, the customer experiences clarity.
- Write a message house with 3 main claims and 3 proof points.
- Test that language in paid campaigns, outbound, and demos.
- Review every customer-facing asset for contradictions.
Common pitfall: Marketing writes aspirational messaging while sales improvises practical messaging.
How to avoid it: Build the story together using call notes, lost-deal reasons, and buyer language.
Metrics to track: reply rate, conversion from first meeting to second meeting, proposal acceptance rate.
3. Treat buying signals as account signals, not lead trivia
What it is: Interpret multiple interactions across one company as a pattern. One contact attending a webinar may mean little. Three contacts consuming technical content and revisiting pricing is a stronger signal.
Why it works: Business Insider recently highlighted how AI-assisted selling tools are shifting teams away from the old “lead” concept toward real-time signals and alerts tied to customer engagement. The bigger idea matters even without fancy tooling: account context beats isolated lead activity.
- Group all contact actions by account.
- Set thresholds for when sales should step in.
- Review signal quality every week.
Common pitfall: Reps chase every content download as if it means buying intent.
How to avoid it: Require role fit plus repeated engagement before escalating.
Metrics to track: engaged accounts, accounts with multiple active contacts, meeting rate from high-signal accounts.
4. Build ABM around revenue reviews, not campaign vanity
What it is: Judge ABM by account progression, meeting quality, pipeline movement, and closed revenue, not by impressions alone.
Why it works: Ad Age’s focus on business outcomes and Marketing Week’s argument for adding risk thinking both point to the same operational truth. Teams need better judgment, not more decorative reporting.
- Set account-stage definitions.
- Review weekly movement by account tier.
- Compare spend against pipeline created and won.
Common pitfall: Marketing reports reach while sales reports closed deals, and no one bridges the gap.
How to avoid it: Build one shared review sheet with account names, status, engagement, blockers, and next actions.
Metrics to track: account progression rate, sales cycle length, pipeline influenced, closed-won revenue from target accounts.
What mistakes do founders make with Account-Based Marketing and Sales Alignment?
Mistake 1: Calling any outbound campaign “ABM”
Why founders make it: ABM sounds premium, so teams relabel generic prospecting.
The impact: No shared account plan, no signal loop, and no difference in outcomes.
- Choose named accounts in advance.
- Map roles inside each company.
- Create joint sales-marketing action plans.
If you already did this: shrink your list, document the account logic, and restart with one segment.
Mistake 2: Letting marketing own ABM alone
Why founders make it: They see ABM as a campaign type instead of a revenue operating model.
The impact: Marketing warms accounts that sales ignores. Sales complains too late. The founder becomes interpreter-in-chief.
- Put sales in account selection.
- Review messaging together.
- Make weekly account reviews mandatory.
Mistake 3: Chasing personalization theater
Why founders make it: They think ABM means custom everything.
The impact: The team burns time making beautiful one-off assets with no repeatable system.
- Personalize where it matters most: problem framing, industry proof, and stakeholder relevance.
- Standardize the rest.
- Use templates for speed.
As a founder who prefers no-code first and system design over chaos, I strongly believe most startups need less bespoke work and more smart modularity. Hand-building every account asset feels productive. It usually is not.
Mistake 4: Ignoring the buying committee
Why founders make it: One enthusiastic contact feels like progress.
The impact: Deals stall in internal politics, security review, or budget approval.
- Map every likely role early.
- Create content for technical, business, and executive concerns.
- Ask your champion who else needs to say yes.
Mistake 5: Measuring volume instead of movement
Why founders make it: Volume is easier to count than deal progress.
The impact: Teams stay busy while pipeline quality drops.
- Track account stage movement.
- Compare target-account conversion against non-target accounts.
- Review lost deals by reason, not by gut feeling.
How should you measure success?
Foundational metrics to track first
- Number of engaged target accounts
- Meetings booked per target account tier
- Number of active buying committee contacts per account
- Conversion from first meeting to qualified opportunity
- Sales cycle length for target accounts
- Pipeline created from target accounts
- Closed-won rate for target accounts
Advanced metrics to add after 3 months
- Account penetration by role
- Content influence by deal stage
- Time from signal spike to sales action
- Win rate by message angle
- Average contract value by account tier
- Target-account expansion revenue
What should your dashboard include?
- Real-time view of named accounts and current stage
- Weekly movement by account tier
- Trend view by month and quarter
- Blocked accounts with reason codes
- Campaign-to-pipeline connection
- Exports for leadership review and investor updates
A blunt rule: if your dashboard cannot show which accounts moved and why, it is decorative.
How does the approach change by startup stage?
Pre-seed and seed stage
Your reality: tiny team, uncertain messaging, founder-led sales, low room for waste.
- Use one-to-few ABM with a small named list.
- Focus on one segment with painful urgency.
- Keep tools simple and reviews frequent.
Prioritize: account selection, message testing, contact mapping.
Defer: heavy automation and expensive ABM software.
Success looks like: repeatable meetings and early pipeline from accounts that actually fit.
Series A stage
Your reality: product-market fit is emerging, sales hires are growing, process gaps start showing.
- Build clearer account tiers and role-based messaging.
- Formalize weekly sales-marketing reviews.
- Track account engagement inside the CRM with stricter field discipline.
Prioritize: team handoffs, playbooks, and consistent reporting.
Defer: over-personalized campaigns that cannot be repeated.
Success looks like: better conversion from target account to opportunity and fewer random deals outside your ideal profile.
Series B and beyond
Your reality: more segments, more sellers, more internal complexity, and bigger buying committees.
- Use account scoring and signal thresholds across regions or product lines.
- Segment content by industry, role, and deal stage.
- Build stronger forecasting around target accounts.
Prioritize: governance, reporting discipline, and account expansion.
Defer: nothing major, but cut any activity that does not tie back to account movement.
Success looks like: higher win rates, larger deal sizes, and more predictable revenue from named accounts.
What does a simple startup ABM workflow look like?
- Choose 20 target accounts in one segment.
- Map 3 to 5 contacts per account.
- Write one sharp pain-based message for that segment.
- Create one case study, one short deck, one email sequence, and one landing page.
- Run paid and organic awareness to those accounts.
- Have sales follow up when account-level signals pass your threshold.
- Review account movement every week.
- Adjust message, proof, and targeting after 30 days.
That is enough to start. Not perfect, but real. In my work, whether in deeptech or startup education, I keep returning to the same principle: systems beat inspiration. Founders do not need more slogans. They need infrastructure that makes the right action easier than the wrong one.
What should you do next?
Week 1
- Review your last 10 to 20 deals.
- Identify your best-fit accounts.
- Define your ideal customer profile.
- Set one weekly sales-marketing review.
Week 2
- Create your named account list.
- Tier accounts by fit and urgency.
- Map buyer roles.
- Write one shared message document.
Week 3
- Build your first account dashboard.
- Prepare proof assets and outreach sequences.
- Launch a pilot with one segment.
- Record every objection and reply pattern.
Week 4 and beyond
- Review movement by account, not just lead count.
- Cut channels that do not support target-account progress.
- Refine your message based on real calls.
- Expand only after the pilot shows repeatable movement.
Glossary of key terms
Account-Based Marketing: A B2B method where a company treats selected accounts as priority markets and coordinates outreach around them.
Sales alignment: Shared planning and execution between sales and marketing around target accounts, message, and revenue goals.
Ideal customer profile: The type of company most likely to buy and succeed with your product.
Buying committee: The group of people inside an account who influence or approve the purchase.
Account engagement: Combined activity from multiple contacts inside one target company.
Lead-to-account matching: The process of attaching individual contacts and actions to the right company record.
Pipeline: The set of active sales opportunities at different deal stages.
Key takeaways
- Account-Based Marketing and Sales Alignment matters in 2026 because startups cannot afford mixed messages and scattered pipeline creation.
- The path is clear: assess your current state, choose named accounts, build shared messaging, track account signals, and review movement every week.
- Seed-stage teams should stay narrow with simple tools and one focused segment.
- Success depends on account selection quality, buying committee coverage, message consistency, and regular joint reviews.
- Teams that do this well usually see better meeting quality, shorter cycles, and stronger win rates because the buyer experiences clarity instead of internal chaos.
If you want one final founder take, here it is. ABM is not a marketing decoration. It is a discipline of choosing who matters, saying one clear thing, and proving it repeatedly until trust becomes pipeline.
People Also Ask:
What is Account-Based Marketing and Sales Alignment?
Account-Based Marketing and Sales Alignment is a shared approach where marketing and sales work together to target the same high-value accounts. Both teams agree on which companies to pursue, what messages to use, and how to move those accounts toward a sale. The goal is to create a more coordinated buying journey and better close rates.
Why is sales and marketing alignment important in ABM?
Sales and marketing alignment matters in ABM because both teams are focused on the same set of target accounts. When they work in sync, outreach is more relevant, follow-up is faster, and account activity is easier to track. This helps reduce wasted effort and gives prospects a more consistent experience.
How does Account-Based Marketing work with sales teams?
Account-Based Marketing works with sales teams by building campaigns around a selected list of accounts that sales wants to win. Marketing supports sales with personalized content, account research, campaign touches, and engagement signals. Sales then uses that information to start better conversations and move deals forward.
What are the benefits of Account-Based Marketing and Sales Alignment?
The benefits include better focus on high-value accounts, stronger communication between teams, more personalized outreach, and a higher chance of turning target accounts into customers. It can also help shorten sales cycles and improve the quality of leads handed to sales.
What is the difference between ABM and traditional lead generation?
ABM targets specific companies and buying groups, while traditional lead generation often casts a wider net to collect as many leads as possible. In ABM, marketing and sales concentrate on a defined account list. In traditional lead generation, the process often starts with individual leads before sales decides which ones are worth pursuing.
How do you choose accounts for an ABM strategy?
Companies usually choose accounts by looking at fit and potential value. This can include company size, industry, revenue, buying intent, past engagement, and how closely the account matches the ideal customer profile. Sales and marketing should agree on the list so both teams are working toward the same targets.
What role does content play in Account-Based Marketing and Sales Alignment?
Content helps both teams speak to target accounts in a more personal way. Marketing can create account-focused emails, case studies, ads, landing pages, and sales materials that match the needs of each account or buying stage. This gives sales better tools for outreach and follow-up.
How do you measure success in Account-Based Marketing and Sales Alignment?
Success is often measured by account engagement, meeting rates, pipeline created from target accounts, deal velocity, win rates, and revenue from named accounts. Many teams also track how well sales and marketing are working together, such as response times and account coverage.
What challenges can happen with ABM and sales alignment?
Common challenges include poor communication, disagreement on target accounts, unclear ownership, weak follow-up, and inconsistent messaging. Problems can also happen when sales and marketing use different data or goals. Clear planning, shared metrics, and regular check-ins can help avoid these issues.
Is Account-Based Marketing only for large B2B companies?
No, ABM is most common in B2B, but it is not limited to large companies. Small and mid-sized businesses can also use it, especially when they sell higher-value products or services to a defined group of accounts. The approach can be scaled based on budget, team size, and sales cycle length.
FAQ
How do you know whether your startup is actually ready for account-based marketing and sales alignment?
You are ready when you can name a narrow ideal customer profile, list target accounts with real buying potential, and commit to weekly joint reviews. If your team still treats every inbound lead equally, tighten positioning first and use SEO for startups to sharpen demand capture.
What is the minimum team size needed to run ABM without creating operational chaos?
A founder, one sales owner, and one marketing owner is enough if responsibilities are clear. The key is not headcount but discipline: shared account lists, fast handoffs, and one agreed message. Small teams often execute startup account-based marketing better because fewer people means fewer internal contradictions.
How should startups split target accounts between sales-led and marketing-led motions?
Use sales-led outreach for high-fit, high-value accounts that need custom conversations. Use marketing-led warming for broader but still relevant accounts through content, retargeting, and education. Split by deal value, urgency, and complexity so account-based sales and marketing alignment reflects effort where conversion upside is highest.
Can ABM work if your startup has low brand awareness in the market?
Yes, because ABM does not depend on being famous. It depends on relevance, timing, and trust. Unknown startups often win by showing a sharper understanding of account pain than bigger competitors. Strong proof, precise messaging, and role-specific outreach matter more than reach in early-stage B2B account-based marketing.
What content formats usually perform best in an ABM strategy for B2B startups?
Short case studies, role-specific one-pagers, objection handling docs, ROI snapshots, and problem-focused landing pages usually work best. Buyers want clarity, not content volume. If your team also needs stronger organic visibility around target pain points, build supporting assets through ABM statistics benchmarks and your own win-loss insights.
How long should an ABM pilot run before you decide whether to scale it?
Give the pilot 8 to 12 weeks with a fixed account list, one segment, and clear stage definitions. Do not judge too early on clicks or opens. Evaluate whether target accounts moved forward, whether buying committee coverage improved, and whether meetings became more qualified and easier to convert.
What should founders do when sales and marketing disagree on account quality?
Force the disagreement into a shared scoring model. Use fit, urgency, deal size, and stakeholder access as scoring inputs. Then review actual conversion results monthly. This turns opinion into evidence and helps startups improve sales and marketing alignment without endless debate over lead quality or campaign performance.
How do you prevent account-based marketing from becoming expensive personalization theater?
Standardize 80% of the motion and personalize the 20% that changes outcomes: problem framing, industry proof, and stakeholder relevance. Avoid custom assets for every logo unless deal value justifies it. Good ABM for startups is modular, repeatable, and tied to pipeline movement rather than creative novelty.
Which signals matter most when prioritizing follow-up inside target accounts?
Look for clustered activity: multiple contacts engaging, pricing visits, repeat visits to solution pages, technical content consumption, and direct responses from senior roles. One isolated action rarely means much. In account-based demand generation, account-level patterns are more reliable than single lead events or vanity engagement spikes.
How does ABM change once a startup starts moving from founder-led sales to a real GTM team?
The strategy becomes less intuitive and more system-driven. You need cleaner CRM rules, stricter stage definitions, documented messaging, and repeatable review loops. Founder memory must become team infrastructure. That shift is what turns account-based marketing and sales alignment from a founder habit into a scalable revenue process.
