For Coveo, a leader in AI-powered search and generative experiences, aligning marketing and sales teams presented an ongoing challenge and opportunity. The marketing and business development teams have been working closely together under the CMO to maximize communication and collaboration. Through this alignment they discovered that their traditional lead-focused approach across four business lines relied heavily on manual tracking and more.
Inconsistent and disconnected account-level data made it hard to measure marketing campaign ROI and accurately prioritize accounts, resulting in missed opportunities and inefficiencies..
Recognizing the need for change, Coveo set out to bridge the gap between marketing and sales, improve their data, and create a unified strategy to identify and engage high-potential accounts.
They turned to 6sense for the tech, data and support to power their transformation. Since then, Coveo has transformed its revenue creation process, moving to a data-driven, account-based approach that has empowered their marketing and sales teams to work in lockstep, resulting in increased efficiencies, and an increase in influenced opportunities.
The Challenge
Before the shift, Coveo’s marketing and sales teams were operating in AE-focused pods to avoid silos, but without a unified strategy collaboration was harder than it had to be.
As George Samaras, director of marketing operations and technology says, “historically, our process was very inbound-focused. We’d get an MQL. Then we’d pass it off to a business development rep. The lead might convert. They might not.”
Key challenges included:
- Fragmented data sources, leading to inconsistent and unreliable lead tracking.
- Lack of alignment between marketing and sales, resulting in poor collaboration.
- Difficulty in identifying and prioritizing high-intent accounts, causing inefficiencies in the pipeline.
These issues led to missed opportunities at accounts, prompting Coveo to seek a solution that would bring their teams together and streamline the entire revenue creation process.
The Solution
The biggest shift was in philosophy. Coveo made a strategic shift from a traditional lead-focused model to an account-based marketing (ABM) approach running in tandem focused on top accounts. This meant adopting a new approach and new tools to align revenue generation efforts. The integration of 6sense into Coveo’s infrastructure played a crucial role in transforming their revenue process.
Establishing the Vision
Coveo kicked off the implementation of 6sense by holding vision-setting meetings to align teams on the shift to ABM. Coveo made it clear that their focus was moving from lead generation to targeting high-value accounts, laying the groundwork for long-term revenue growth. They also provided comprehensive training and enablement sessions to familiarize marketing and sales teams with 6sense’s capabilities.
“Recognizing the potential of 6sense to revolutionize our marketing and sales alignment, we invested in the tool and began to shift our focus towards account-centric targeting. This initial phase laid the foundation for our comprehensive ABM strategy.”
George Samaras
Director of Marketing Operations and Technology, Coveo
Creating Buy-in and Ownership
Key stakeholders from both marketing and sales were involved early in the process to create a sense of ownership. Weekly meetings helped ensure ongoing alignment. Coveo also hired dedicated ABM managers to drive the strategy. This cross-functional buy-in was vital to the success of the 6sense rollout.
“We created incentives for teams to adopt the new approach. This included recognizing and rewarding employees who effectively utilized 6sense data to achieve their targets and contribute to the overall success,” says George.
Integrating 6sense into GTM Efforts
Coveo seamlessly incorporated 6sense data into their go-to-market (GTM) approach, using it to track Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) based on behavioral triggers such as content engagement, event attendance, and demo requests. 6sense’s buying stage insights were layered into these processes, helping sellers prioritize accounts with high purchase intent that were nearing a decision.
“The integration of 6sense into our GTM strategy has been transformative. It has enabled us to align our marketing and sales efforts more effectively, prioritize high-intent accounts, and drive significant revenue growth,” says Mike Raley, SVP of Marketing.
Using 6sense Intent Data
By monitoring 6sense Intent Scores, Coveo was able to segment leads into different stages of the buyer’s journey — TOFU, MOFU, BOFU — and tailor their nurture flows accordingly. Daily Hot Account alerts were sent to account executives and SDRs, allowing them to act quickly on accounts displaying high intent.
“6sense not only highlights accounts that are ready to engage — but what I like (and probably the most rewarding feature) is the “recent intent activities” that show up when you start outbounding to those accounts so you can see the results of your work.”
Haniya Hussain
Sales Development Representative, Coveo
Account Monitoring and Targeting
Coveo also incorporated 6sense data into their Top Account Obsession play, using 6sense’s Account Profile Fit to identify high-potential accounts. Salesforce and Tableau dashboards further supported their efforts, providing real-time insights into account movement and campaign metrics to optimize resource allocation and engagement.
“6sense allows me to easily sort through my accounts to ensure I’m always prioritizing outreach to the accounts that are most likely to engage back. What’s even better is that with 6sense’s keyword data, I’m able to personalize my outreach to the specific area of interest that I’m seeing within the account.,” says James Ford, sales development representative.
The Results
Since integrating 6sense into their revenue process, Coveo has experienced significant improvements in both marketing and sales performance.
- The ability to identify Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) that are in the Decision and Purchase stage has led to more precise targeting and outreach.
- Daily monitoring and prioritization of high-intent accounts has allowed Coveo to allocate resources more effectively, leading to increased conversion rates.
- In just 9 months in 2024, Coveo created 42 new business opportunities influenced by account-based GTM efforts — an increasingly meaningful contribution to overall pipeline creation.
The impact across departments has been substantial:
- Marketing: Precision targeting and personalized campaigns based on 6sense’s intent data have increased engagement and campaign efficiency, leading to higher conversion rates.
- Sales: Improved prioritization of high-intent accounts has resulted in more focused efforts, shorter sales cycles, and better conversion rates.
- Operations: The unification of data and automated workflows have streamlined pipeline management, reducing manual work and enabling faster, data-driven decision-making.
These changes have fostered a culture of alignment and data-driven decision-making, positioning Coveo for continued success.
“6sense is our foundation for developing a precise and effective ABM ecosystem. It empowers us with unparalleled insights into buyer intent, guiding us to deliver personalized experiences and foster meaningful engagements that drive transformative business outcomes,” says Marilou Simard-Baril, Head of Account-Based Marketing.
