Before Saima Rashid went to 6sense and Mariana Prado Cogan went to People.ai, they were at software and services company PTC. And before Kerry Cunningham came to 6sense, he was at SiriusDecisions, now Forrester.
In their former positions, the three teamed up to create what they called the “Next-Gen Revenue Engine” for PTC. They reunited at the 6sense Austin Recap to share that award-winning effort with all of us.
What did that supercharged engine bring?
- 75,000 net new contacts engaged
- Increased average number of contacts on opportunities from 0.6 to over 10
- Thousands of hours saved via automation
- $20 million in net new pipeline generated
- Thousands of net new accounts identified
The Challenge
Rashid, now 6sense’s SVP of Revenue Analytics, described three problems PTC had faced.
First, the revenue team was casting its net too wide, not leveraging predictive analytics to target high-intent accounts — let alone trying to identify accounts they weren’t aware of.
Second, it wasn’t practicing a buyer-first mentality. Prospects had to fill out lengthy forms and wait to be contacted … and when they were, PTC had no information on where they were in the buyer’s journey, and therefore no way to know what message would be helpful.
And third, it had zero account intelligence. The process was still lead-focused and hadn’t shifted to an understanding of buying groups.
The engine they’d build had to address those concerns.
Next-Level ICP
Cunningham (in his role as a SiriusDecisions analyst and advisor), Cogan, and Rashid laid the groundwork by identifying PTC’s ideal customer profile (ICP). “But I’d argue that even more important than the ICP is knowing what portion of that ICP is actually in-market,” said Rashid.
That was where 6sense came in. “6sense takes first-party intent and third-party intent — meaning activities that customers or accounts are having with your assets as well as engaging with over three and a half million other websites,” she said. “And then it overlays that intelligence onto your own CRM and marketing automation to uncover all the buying signals that are being exhibited by an account.”
Starting to See the Magic
Coupling that information with details from People.ai — an AI platform for enterprise revenue that helps sales, marketing, and customer success teams uncover every revenue opportunity — the team gained further perspective on the accounts’ buying teams, empowering them to target the right personas with the right message at the same time.
“You start combining intent and success, and then account planning, account intelligence from People.ai,” said Cogan, who is now People.ai’s CMO. “Because when those two things come together, you start to see the magic.”
Using AI to do this legwork — knowing which accounts are in-market and which personas need to be targeted — offers marketing the ability to triangulate and deliver solid prospects to sales, uniting the revenue team’s efforts and saving time.
Everyone on Board
Cunningham, who is now 6sense’s Head of Research & Thought Leadership, explained that buying groups may generate as many as 500 interactions with a seller or their solution.
“We know that as much as we would love to live in a world where one persona will say yes to the purchase, the larger the B2B sale it is the more complex that it gets,” Cogan said.
By using all the knowledge PTC gleaned from 6sense and People.ai in concert, the company shifted its strategy to an ABM approach with a comprehensive understanding of which accounts were in-market, and which personas were likely to comprise the buying committee in those accounts.
The Results
In addition to winning Program of the Year for their work at PTC, this team was able to deliver:
- 75,000 net new contacts engaged
- Increased average number of contacts on opportunities from 0.6 to over 10
- Thousands of hours saved on automation
- $20 million in net new pipeline generated
- Thousands of net new accounts identified
The presentation 6sense’s Cunningham and Rashid gave with People.ai’s Cogan has lots more detail on building that next-gen revenue engine and how you can do the same.
