If you run marketing or sales for a mid-size B2B company, you’ve probably heard the pitch: account-based marketing (ABM) promises to zero in on your best-fit customers and cut the noise. But pulling it off? That’s a lot harder than the slide decks make it sound—especially without an enterprise-sized team or budget.
Enter 6sense. It bills itself as an “account engagement platform” that uses AI and data to tell you who’s in-market and what they care about. But does it really move the needle for mid-size businesses, or is it just another fancy dashboard collecting digital dust?
Here’s a straight-shooting guide to how 6sense can actually help mid-size B2B teams make ABM work—and where you might want to skip the hype.
Why ABM Is So Tough for Mid-Size Teams
Let’s call it like it is: ABM sounds simple in theory. Make a list of dream accounts, find the right contacts, send them relevant stuff, and wait for the deals to roll in.
But in reality, you run into:
- Data headaches: Your CRM is a mess, and tracking who’s ready to buy is a guessing game.
- Random acts of marketing: Sales and marketing aren’t always aligned. Leads get lost. Messaging is all over the place.
- Limited resources: You don’t have a team of data scientists, and you’re not swimming in budget.
So, you need tools that actually save you time—and don’t just add more busywork.
What 6sense Actually Does (And Doesn’t)
6sense promises to solve a lot of these headaches by:
- Uncovering hidden buyers: It uses intent data to spot companies researching your category (even if they haven’t filled out a form).
- Prioritizing accounts: Their AI scores accounts based on how likely they are to buy soon.
- Orchestrating outreach: It helps you send ads, emails, and content to the right people at the right time.
- Tracking the full journey: You get reporting on what works, what doesn’t, and what to adjust.
But let’s be real: It’s not magic. You still need a solid strategy, decent data, and buy-in from both sales and marketing. And if your team isn’t ready to act on the insights, no software will fix that.
Step 1: Get Your Data (And People) in Order
Before you even think about rolling out 6sense, get your house in order:
- Clean your CRM: Garbage in, garbage out. Make sure account and contact info is accurate.
- Agree on your target accounts: Sales and marketing should define what a “good fit” account actually looks like. No more “everyone with a pulse.”
- Map your sales process: Know what a typical deal looks like so you can spot early signals—and act fast.
Pro tip: If you skip this, your fancy ABM tools will just automate your existing chaos.
Step 2: Plug 6sense Into Your Stack
6sense integrates with most major CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics) and marketing tools. The setup isn’t rocket science, but it’s not a “click and done” job either.
- Connect your CRM: So 6sense can see your accounts, contacts, and deal history.
- Set up website tracking: Add their tracking pixel so you can see which companies are visiting.
- Sync your ad and email platforms: This lets you automate campaigns based on buying signals.
What to watch out for: If your CRM data is a mess, or your website visitors are mostly randoms, you won’t get much value. Make sure your integrations are clean and tested.
Step 3: Use Intent Data to Spot Buying Signals
Here’s where 6sense starts to earn its keep. It gathers intent data from across the web—think research activity, keyword searches, and content consumption—to tell you which companies are “in-market.”
- See which accounts are heating up: 6sense surfaces companies showing increased interest in your category.
- Get keyword-level insights: You can see what topics your target accounts are researching.
- Spot anonymous buyers: Even if someone’s never filled out your form, 6sense can often tell which company they’re from.
But don’t get carried away: Not every “surge” means a deal is pending. Treat this as a nudge to investigate, not a green light to spam.
Step 4: Prioritize and Personalize Your Outreach
Now that you know who’s showing intent, you can focus your resources.
- Score and segment accounts: Use 6sense’s AI models to rank accounts by buying stage—“awareness,” “consideration,” “decision,” etc.
- Personalize messaging: Tailor your outreach based on what accounts are researching. If they’re all over a specific feature, talk about that.
- Orchestrate campaigns: Trigger ads, emails, or sales outreach when an account crosses a certain threshold.
Reality check: Personalization is only as good as your content and follow-up. If you just swap in a company name and blast generic messages, don’t expect miracles.
Step 5: Align Sales and Marketing (For Real)
This is where most ABM projects go to die. 6sense is built to share insights across teams—but you have to use them.
- Share account insights: Give sales the full picture—who’s engaged, what they’re researching, who’s clicking.
- Coordinate outreach: Don’t let marketing and sales trip over each other. Plan who reaches out, when, and how.
- Regular check-ins: Use 6sense dashboards to see what’s working and where you’re missing the mark.
Honest take: If your teams don’t talk to each other, no dashboard will fix it. Build the habit of sharing intel and acting on it.
Step 6: Measure What Matters (And Ignore Vanity Metrics)
6sense will give you a blizzard of reports—account engagement scores, pipeline influence, deal velocity, and more. It’s easy to get lost in the weeds.
- Focus on pipeline and revenue: Are more of your target accounts moving through stages? Are deals closing faster?
- Track account progression: Are “cold” accounts becoming “warm”? Are more contacts engaging?
- Adjust fast: If a campaign’s a dud, drop it. If a signal works, double down.
Don’t waste time on: Clicks, impressions, or “engagement” with no connection to deals. You want revenue, not pretty charts.
What Works Well—and What Doesn’t
Where 6sense shines:
- Finding hidden demand: You’ll spot accounts you’d never think to target.
- Prioritizing outreach: No more endless cold calls or spray-and-pray emails.
- Keeping sales and marketing in sync: When both see the same data, teamwork gets easier.
Where it falls short:
- Complexity for smaller teams: If you don’t have someone to own the tool, it can gather dust.
- Over-promising AI: It’s not a crystal ball. You still need people to interpret and act on the data.
- Needs discipline: Random usage = random results. You have to make it part of your regular workflow.
Ignore the hype: - 6sense isn’t a replacement for a clear value proposition or good salespeople. - You won’t “automate” your way into a flood of deals. It’s a multiplier, not a miracle.
Should You Use 6sense as a Mid-Size Business?
If you’ve got:
- A clear list of target accounts
- A sales and marketing team willing to collaborate
- Reasonably clean CRM data
…then 6sense can help you focus your efforts and stop wasting time on the wrong accounts.
But if you’re hoping for a silver bullet, or you don’t have the basics down, it’ll just be another expensive tool collecting dust.
Keep It Simple, Iterate, Repeat
ABM isn’t about fancy tech—it’s about focusing your energy on the accounts that actually matter, and using tools like 6sense to do it smarter, not harder.
Start with the basics, get your data and team in shape, and use 6sense to double down on what works. Ignore the dashboards for their own sake. Measure real progress. Adjust. Repeat.
Try not to overthink it. The simpler you keep your process, the better your results will be.