A marketer's career path can accelerate into strategic "change agent" roles by mastering data and analytics. This expertise is sought by companies to solve foundational problems like poor data culture, lack of attribution, or the need for digital transformation, proving that data fluency is a key to strategic influence.
Despite cultural differences, Hexagon found that the core motivation of a results-driven salesperson is universal. This allowed them to create a standardized ABM framework that could be deployed globally. Success then depended on empowering local field marketers to adapt the execution for their regions, rather than reinventing the entire program from scratch.
Hexagon broke down sales and marketing silos by using objective account-intent data as a "silver platter" offering. Presenting irrefutable facts, like which accounts were visiting the website, changed the conversation from reactive requests to proactive strategy, elevating marketing from a support function to an indispensable partner in driving revenue.
Relying solely on Salesforce reports to build account lists is a critical mistake, as CRM data is often outdated or incomplete. True account prioritization requires direct, ongoing conversation with sales to understand current priorities, as reps may delay entering opportunities until just before they close, making CRM data an unreliable single source of truth.
Hexagon ensured its North American ABM pilot would succeed by not just choosing a region, but by verifying it had key prerequisites: strong executive champions, a marketing leader who had already cleaned the database, and existing high-performing sales and marketing teams. This pre-selection was critical to their 80% increase in closed-won deals.
To get sales to adopt Demandbase, Hexagon abandoned generic group training. Instead, they conducted one-on-one sessions where each rep *only* saw their own accounts and data. This "what's in it for me" approach, combined with automated weekly reports, led to over 90% open rates and widespread adoption by over 100 salespeople.