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One of the fastest ways to kill an ABM strategy?
Build it in a silo without sales.
As part of my role, I’m responsible for rolling out 6sense and operationalizing how sales actually uses the data to produce pipeline and revenue.
Specifically, how they action on 6QAs inside Salesforce.
On paper, this sounds straightforward.
Build the dashboard.
Create the reports.
Map out playbooks.
Set up tasks.
Roll it out to sales.
Done.
Except that approach almost never works.
Where most teams go wrong
They build everything first, present it to sales and then hope for adoption.
And when adoption doesn’t happen, the conclusion is:
“Sales isn’t using the data.”
But the real issue is simpler than that.
Sales was never apart of building it.
What this looks like in practice
Right now, I’m building out:
A Salesforce dashboard for sales
Reports for new 6QAs, past due 6QAs, engaged contacts, etc.
Salesforce tasks tied to those triggers
Playbooks sales can use for outreach
But it’s important to callout that I’m not doing this in isolation.
Before anything gets fully rolled out, I’m meeting with sales leaders one-on-one to walk them through:
Specific use cases for 6QAs
What the dashboard is for
What each report actually means
How their teams are expected to use it
And most importantly: getting their feedback.
Does the structure of the dashboard make sense?
Is the data in each report actually useful?
What data is missing that your team uses?
What would make this easier to act on?
Because if the answer to those questions isn’t clear, adoption will never happen.
Build with, not for
This is the shift more teams need to make.
Stop thinking:
“We need to build something for sales.”
Start thinking:
“We need to build this with sales.”
It sounds simple, but it changes everything.
When sales is involved early:
They understand the “why” behind the motion
They trust the data being surfaced
They see how it helps them hit quota
They’re more likely to actually use it
When they’re not?
It becomes just another dashboard, another report and another task they ignore.
This isn’t just a tooling problem
It’s a foundational problem that shows up everywhere in ABM.
How you select accounts
How you create proper segmentation
How you create messaging for outbound
How you measure success
If sales isn’t part of shaping those decisions, you’re setting yourself up for misalignment.
And misalignment is what kills performance.
The real goal
The goal isn’t to launch a perfect system. It’ll never be perfect.
It’s to create something sales already believes in before it goes live.
Because once that happens, adoption isn’t something you have to force.
It happens naturally.
And if you’re rolling out ABM, 6sense, or any kind of account-based GTM motion right now, ask yourself:
Did we build this with sales… or for them?
That answer will tell you everything you need to know about how it’s going to perform.
ABM Consulting Now Available!
Are you building or refreshing your ABM strategy, but not sure where to start? I’m now offering limited spots for ABM consulting services to help you get your ABM strategy in the right place to be successful.
This is a low-cost, high-reward offer for your team to build a strategy that works and makes an impact, this year.
Simply fill out this form with your details and we’ll schedule time to talk soon!
For more details on ABM Tactics consulting services, click here.
