RepTrak is the world’s leading reputation data and insights company, offering the only global platform for data-driven insights on reputation, brand, and ESG (environmental, social, and governance).
To shake up their marketing team’s processes and deliver qualified prospects to sales, RepTrak brought in 6sense and reaped:
- 96% decrease in ad costs
- 46% increase in ad engagement
- 106% of pipeline quota goal
- 22 day reduction in sales cycle
- 64% increase in contract value
The Challenge
RepTrak had traditionally relied on old-fashioned tactics, a subpar tech stack, and unreliable data for its marketing efforts. The marketing qualified lead (MQL) reigned supreme — and an MQL was anyone who showed any kind of engagement.
Unsurprisingly, the sales team didn’t have much luck converting those leads, and trust in marketing was in the gutter.
“CEOs and board members told me, ‘We think marketing is dark magic. We give you money, and we don’t know where it goes,’” Ali Jawin, RepTrak’s VP of Global Marketing recalled.
Something had to change — not only so marketing could regain respect and trust, but so RepTrak could increase pipeline, deal value, and revenue.
Finding A Better Way
Jawin recognized a critical flaw in the approach the marketing team was taking: instead of meeting the market where it was and talking about the things their customers cared about, they were talking about the things RepTrak cared about and trying to bring the market to them.
To change that, Jawin knew they’d need insights into what customers actually did care about, as well as where they were in the buying journey. One of the first things she did was to bring on 6sense to get those insights and more.
The 6sense Solution
In rebooting their department’s processes, Jawin and her team found the roadmap they needed in No Forms. No Spam. No Cold Calls. 6sense’s CMO Latané Conant. “It explains what every role on the marketing team needs to do, and that changed everything for us,” Jawin said.
As a first step, Jawin and her team applied this approach to their paid media strategy, and the results were quick and super impressive, with a 96% decrease in ad costs and a 46% increase in engagement.
They started netting 3x the pipeline they’d historically gotten on LinkedIn by layering in 6sense to home in on the segments in which they could provide the most benefit.
A Tale of Two Quarters
In their first six months of using 6sense, RepTrak was on fire. Pipeline quota was 106% of goal, the sales cycle was reduced by 22 days, and total contract value increased 64%. Everyone was ecstatic.
Jawin decided it was time to ask sales to start using 6sense too. When the CRO saw 6sense data showing that 93% of opportunities were coming from strong profile fit accounts, he was sold.
So Q1 of the next year kicked off with a 6sense-fueled revenue strategy, and the results were through the roof. Within that first quarter, the team had generated more pipeline than they had in the entire year before.
But then Q2 came, and with it a legacy campaign that required the marketing team to drop everything and focus on it. Jawin calls it a tale of two quarters: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” she says.
What Went Wrong
The 6sense approach that allowed RepTrak to meet customers where they were with the information they cared about was put on hold. In its place was a massive piece of content that netted some great search rankings, good PR coverage, and tons of initial leads.
But that’s where the payoff ended. First meetings weren’t turning into second meetings. All those leads weren’t engaging. So even though leads were up 245% as a result of this campaign, pipeline ended up down 30%.
Why the abysmal outcome? Because 80% of the new leads were in awareness stage, so they were nowhere near ready to buy. And the content they had created was what Jawin calls “Buzzfeed for B2B.” It was shiny and it garnered clicks, but it didn’t provide the value customers needed at the right stage in their buying journey.
“We tried to move the market to us instead of meeting the market where it is, and that never works,” says Jawin.
The Results
The team quickly pivoted back to the 6sense approach and was able to salvage what had the potential to be a very poor quarter. They ended the first half of the year with 107% of their revenue goal, 100.3% of their pipeline goal, and their contract value up 16% over the prior year.
By using 6sense to understand intent and buying stage, the RepTrak team was able to:
- Decrease average sales cycle from 112 days to 90 days
- Increase average contract value by 64%
- Feel like rockstars — and be rewarded with promotions, raises, and additional headcount
But more importantly, with the help of 6sense, Jawin was able to restore trust in the marketing team and their ability to think strategically and meaningfully drive revenue.
