One of the often overlooked values of ABX platforms such as 6Sense and Demandbase is its ability, if used right, to accelerate pipeline and shorten deal cycles. Many ask us about the difference between Demandbase and 6Sense when choosing an ABX platform. In this article we will focus on the pipeline acceleration use case and compare the two.
PMG’s RevenueOS framework focuses on aligning business processes and tech stack capabilities, with the goal to scale revenue growth. When it comes to pipeline acceleration, there’s a need to connect business processes, seller skills, and the underlying technology that supports it.
ABX and Pipeline Acceleration
ABX platforms accelerate pipeline in three ways:
Account prioritization based on intent – optimize selling resources by focusing on accounts that are in-market. Beyond high quality intent signals, achieving this goal requires the ability to orchestrate and automate data flow between the chosen ABX platform, CRM, and sales engagement platform.
Intelligence – provide sellers with concrete insights regarding the needs and wants of each target account at their fingertips, in the tool they use daily.
Using account-based advertising to increase awareness, urgency and engagement.
A Word About Intent
The first decision making criteria in any ABX purchase decision should be the quality of intent data. Therefore, regardless of the below mentioned capabilities, if an ABX platform doesn’t have such signals that are relevant to your market and ICP, we do not recommend using it, unless your core need is to run account-based advertising campaigns. In this case, other players such as metadata.io might be a better fit.
Intent Based Account Prioritization
6Sense and Demandbase are fully integrated with Salesforce CRM. Therefore, they are able to push intent signals to the Salesforce account object. By doing so, companies are able to create reports and workflows based on intent score fields in Salesforce. In short, companies can easily create a report for each AE with the top accounts to go after based on these intent signals.
Both systems also offer the required automation hooks to achieve that.
Seller Intelligence
ABX platforms hold deeper, and more granular data than just intent scoring. These data points include the specific terms accounts have engaged with and more. Getting this information at the hands of SDRs and AEs can provide better outreach motions as they are based on the needs and wants of each account.
Both products offer a comprehensive Salesforce experience, with all data points and insights available within Salesforce account and person objects.
When it comes to sales engagement platforms (such as Salesloft and Outreach), there’s a major difference between the two:
6Sense offers the same experience in Salesloft and Outreach – with all insights and data points available to SDRs and BDRs. This in turn improves their ability to personalize outbound motions.
Demandbase does not offer that experience. While there is an ability to push contacts and accounts to Outreach sequences, they do not provide access to their insights from within sales engagement platforms.
Account-Based Advertisement for Pipeline Acceleration
As our joint project with Algosec proves, running targeted ad campaigns to early stage opportunities can impact pipeline velocity.
Doing so requires the ability to segment accounts within the ABX platform based on CRM data, including opportunity and account object, and the ability to orchestrate advertising campaigns based on this segmentation.
While this article does not cover the ads capabilities of each platform, we can say that both platforms have the required features.
Summary
Pipeline acceleration is a major value add when using ABX platforms.
We hope that this article will help you to evaluate the pros and cons of each platform and make the right decision for your organization. As always, feel free to reach out with any questions and insights.
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Pipeline Acceleration – 6sense vs. Demandbase
September 12, 2022
Kfir Pravda
One of the often overlooked values of ABX platforms such as 6Sense and Demandbase is its ability, if used right, to accelerate pipeline and shorten deal cycles. Many ask us about the difference between Demandbase and 6Sense when choosing an ABX platform. In this article we will focus on the pipeline acceleration use case and compare the two.
PMG’s RevenueOS framework focuses on aligning business processes and tech stack capabilities, with the goal to scale revenue growth. When it comes to pipeline acceleration, there’s a need to connect business processes, seller skills, and the underlying technology that supports it.
ABX and Pipeline Acceleration
ABX platforms accelerate pipeline in three ways:
A Word About Intent
The first decision making criteria in any ABX purchase decision should be the quality of intent data. Therefore, regardless of the below mentioned capabilities, if an ABX platform doesn’t have such signals that are relevant to your market and ICP, we do not recommend using it, unless your core need is to run account-based advertising campaigns. In this case, other players such as metadata.io might be a better fit.
Intent Based Account Prioritization
6Sense and Demandbase are fully integrated with Salesforce CRM. Therefore, they are able to push intent signals to the Salesforce account object. By doing so, companies are able to create reports and workflows based on intent score fields in Salesforce. In short, companies can easily create a report for each AE with the top accounts to go after based on these intent signals.
Both systems also offer the required automation hooks to achieve that.
Seller Intelligence
ABX platforms hold deeper, and more granular data than just intent scoring. These data points include the specific terms accounts have engaged with and more. Getting this information at the hands of SDRs and AEs can provide better outreach motions as they are based on the needs and wants of each account.
Both products offer a comprehensive Salesforce experience, with all data points and insights available within Salesforce account and person objects.
When it comes to sales engagement platforms (such as Salesloft and Outreach), there’s a major difference between the two:
6Sense offers the same experience in Salesloft and Outreach – with all insights and data points available to SDRs and BDRs. This in turn improves their ability to personalize outbound motions.
Demandbase does not offer that experience. While there is an ability to push contacts and accounts to Outreach sequences, they do not provide access to their insights from within sales engagement platforms.
Account-Based Advertisement for Pipeline Acceleration
As our joint project with Algosec proves, running targeted ad campaigns to early stage opportunities can impact pipeline velocity.
Doing so requires the ability to segment accounts within the ABX platform based on CRM data, including opportunity and account object, and the ability to orchestrate advertising campaigns based on this segmentation.
While this article does not cover the ads capabilities of each platform, we can say that both platforms have the required features.
Summary
Pipeline acceleration is a major value add when using ABX platforms.
We hope that this article will help you to evaluate the pros and cons of each platform and make the right decision for your organization. As always, feel free to reach out with any questions and insights.