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In early 2023, a leading FinTech company explored the viability of selling payment processing services directly to merchants. Building on their prior success with 6sense in scaling account-based marketing (ABM) in the enterprise segment, the company used 6sense’s ABM and sales intelligence tools to reach this new group of buyers.
As a result of business alignment and collaboration, by September 2023, the company closed more business in the subsequent 10 months than in the previous seven years combined.
The Challenges
The transition to direct-to-merchant sales came with challenges: this leading FinTech firm needed to adapt sales processes, enhance their tech stack, and redefine their ideal customer profile (ICP).
Selling to enterprise businesses is different from selling to direct-to-merchant companies. Enterprise sales take up to six months because they involve building relationships and trust. Direct-to-merchant (D2M) buyers move more quickly, so the team needed support in finding ways to show value to buyers immediately.
Meeting the demands of this new D2M strategy also required a tech stack upgrade. The D2M strategy would dramatically increase sales volume, so they needed a streamlined tech stack to support the surge in activity, respond to leads faster, and maintain efficiency.
Finally, the company had to define and understand a new ideal customer profile (ICP). They wanted to be as precise as possible in identifying their target audience. Since the features of potential customers constantly evolve, they needed a tool that’d automatically update ICPs as the target audience changed.
“Getting crystal clear on our ICP was a work-in-progress. This proved to be both challenging from a marketing and lead generation standpoint, as well as a sales standpoint,” says the company’s head of revenue operations.
These challenges underscore the need for a robust, adaptable approach to fully capture opportunities through strategic adjustments and improved use of 6sense
The Solution
The company’s senior revenue operations manager says 6sense’s early success with the strategy shift inspired confidence.
“There was a lot of uncertainty. But by using 6sense, we’ve been able to get really specific on who we’re trying to target. We focused on the most successful customers, brought them into our funnel, and showed some instant gains early on, which put leadership at ease.”
Now, 6sense has emerged as a cornerstone of their strategy across multiple departments.
“We have our ABM platform that we use on the marketing side of the house. The sales side uses 6sense sales intelligence capabilities. Both teams use 6sense keywords, making sure we are getting the customers we want to go after, but also the intent data.”
Senior Revenue Operations Manager
Business Development
6sense Sales Intelligence tools have become invaluable for the company’s sales development representatives (SDRs) and account executives (AEs). With features like real-time alerts, sales can easily prioritize and pursue the most promising accounts, which has allowed their team to adapt their sales processes.
6sense also offers deep insights into prospects, enabling sales to quickly and accurately identify and reach the right contacts within target organizations.
Digital Advertising
The marketing team uses 6sense to gain a competitive edge in digital advertising. By analyzing insights on competitors’ strategies provided by 6sense, the team has been able to craft top-notch marketing campaigns that increase inbound traffic and improve brand awareness for both their enterprise platform and direct merchant ICPs.
This strategic use of competitor insights ensures that the company remains a step ahead in the highly competitive FinTech market.
Additionally, the company has found success using 6sense intent data to uncover new opportunities. 6sense data unexpectedly helped them define a new ICP within larger-scale D2M companies.
Sales and Marketing Alignment
Finally, enhancements to the company’s tech stack like making HubSpot their CRM has contributed to marketing and sales alignment.
HubSpot’s seamless integration with 6sense enabled them to streamline lead management, automate workflows, and provide real-time data insights. These improvements let their teams handle the increase in activity well. This made it easier to respond to leads and keep working efficiently even though the business grew quickly.
“The fact that sales and marketing are talking in a common language is so important. Not only are we attracting people on the demand gen side of the house and getting them into the funnel, but they are actually people our sales team want,” the company’s senior revenue operations manager says.
The head of revenue operations also reflects on this alignment:
“I have been impressed with our sales teams’ ability to remain agile as our company undergoes a period of major transformation. Additionally, 6sense integrates well with other tools in our tech stack, so sales not only has the info they need but can easily harvest and use that data to close more sales.”
The Results
The company’s efforts have yielded remarkable results:
- Enhanced lead flow velocity: Using 6sense enables teams to get and respond to leads more quickly.
- Increased connect and close rates: Enhanced insights into prospects helped them identify the right contacts within target organizations and have stronger conversations.
- Marketing improvements: There was a noticeable improvement in brand awareness campaigns, increased inbound traffic, and a better understanding of competitors’ strategies.
Ultimately, the strategic insights and tools provided by 6sense have enabled them to understand and capture a huge new group of customers.
The company’s senior revenue operations manager says 6sense has made their life easier:
“It’s important for me to be able to have enough in our funnel so our team feels confident. By having our teams use 6sense, they feel comfortable and trust the platform to produce results,”
