The Challenge

Demandbase had a mature new business acquisition strategy — but leadership saw an untapped growth opportunity within their existing customer base.

The VP of Marketing had a hypothesis:

If ABM works for acquiring new accounts, can we apply the same principles to drive expansion within current customers?

While Demandbase had strong customer relationships and a large installed base, there was no structured Enterprise Customer ABM program to systematically identify, prioritize, and convert expansion opportunities.

To test this theory, Demandbase brought in Demand Shop’s Ada Tsang as a Fractional Senior Advisor for Strategic ABM Programs to define, build, and operationalize a Enterprise Customer ABM strategy from the ground up.

To prioritize investments and resources, our strategy focused on renewal and expansion within Demandbase’s largest enterprise customers, including Fortune 50 to Fortune 500 accounts.

Enterprise accounts come with complexities:

• Hundreds of marketers, sales, and data stakeholders distributed globally
• Different systems, budgets, and regional priorities
• Deals requiring extensive coordination across solution engineers, marketing, sales, procurement, and privacy teams
• Large buying groups with many decision-makers and influencers

On top of this, deal dynamics add another challenging layer:

• 6-12+ month sales cycles
• Multi-year contracts with 7-figure ARR
• Limited visibility into how deals started, progressed, or stalled

To drive expansion effectively, it was critical to understand where deals broke down, who was involved in the buying group, and which tactics were most effective in moving opportunities forward.

The Solution

We led a strategic, cross-functional approach to transform Demandbase’s Enterprise ABM into a scalable growth engine.

This included:

• Strategic research and executive alignment
• Designing a company-wide strategy
• Building the operational infrastructure
• Creating a scalable framework aligned to revenue outcomes

Identifying Expansion Opportunities Across the Customer Base

The work began with a comprehensive discovery phase across the organization. The focus was on Demandbase’s largest customers: enterprise and key accounts. 

We conducted conversations with Sales, Product, RevOps, Marketing Operations, Content, and Product Marketing, to uncover key insights around:

• Product adoption patterns
• Expansion opportunities
• Gaps in the customer journey

This was paired with an analysis of historical data — including churn trends, win/loss insights, and engagement signals — to identify where the greatest areas for growth existed.

Together, this created a clear view of priority accounts, segments, and high-impact use cases across the customer base.

Creating the Infrastructure to Scale Enterprise ABM

With no formal program in place, we established the operational infrastructure to execute and measure the program.

In close partnership with RevOps, this included a framework to support segmentation, targeting, and measurement:

• Redefining or creating new Salesforce processes and fields 
• Aligning data across primary GTM systems
• Creating workflows to coordinate execution across teams
• Identifying enterprise and strategic accounts across all GTM systems to ensure global team alignment

We also created a formal account selection governance and nomination process alongside sales leadership. This model prioritized accounts based on ARR, strategic value, churn score, and historical performance, ensuring focus on the highest-impact opportunities.

This foundation ensured that Sales and Marketing were aligned on account priorities and enabled performance tracking tied directly to pipeline and revenue. It also meant these were the agreed upon accounts for at least 6 months, avoiding one of the most common mistakes of ABM: constantly shifting targets.

Designing the Enterprise ABM Strategy

With insights and infrastructure in place, Ada identified two key areas for pipeline and revenue, and developed a tiered ABM strategy to focus efforts where they would have the greatest impact.

For enterprise marketing competing for attention from global executives, creative storytelling is the strongest lever. 

We created quarterly programs based on key expansion areas, backed by a creative campaign to generate buzz and interest. This resulted in engaged prospects, qualified responses, and valuable sales conversations.

We segmented strategies into three tiers, also advising on Target ICP and Brand to support ABM efforts:

• 1:1 ABM for key accounts
• 1:Few ABM for clusters of accounts with shared expansion opportunities
• 1:Many ABM to build broader awareness across the ABM list
• Target ICP for all segments to unify global campaigns
• Brand alignment for all segments, ensuring enterprise consistency

This model ensured that resources were allocated effectively while aligning closely with sales priorities and account coverage.

Driving Engagement Across High-Value Accounts

We activated this strategy through coordinated, multi-channel programs designed to source and engage key stakeholders and highlight high-value product use cases.

These programs combined digital campaigns, personalized sales outreach, and high-touch experiences such as field events and peer-to-peer programs to drive fruitful conversations.

These efforts supported expansion across more than 8 figures in ARR accounts, and have led to layering on cross-sell initiatives to expand into new subsidiaries.

The Importance of Strategic Partnership with Sales Leadership

The best ABM strategies are an extension of sales. Our work included close partnership with sales leadership, including the VP of Enterprise Sales. This enabled the development and execution of highly personalized 1:1 programs, supported by coordinated enablement across all GTM channels.

These 1:1 programs also strengthened messaging alignment across Product, Partner Marketing, and Sales, enabling more coordinated engagement with high-value accounts:

• Product: Established a feedback loop from Closed Lost deals to inform roadmap and enterprise features
• Partner Marketing: Built relationships with executive stakeholders at key accounts
• Sales: Maintained continuous feedback loop during long deal cycles

The Results

Within the first year, the program validated Demandbase’s original hypothesis: 

Enterprise ABM can drive meaningful expansion revenue.

Key outcomes included significant revenue impact, alongside:

• 7-figure expansion revenue and pipeline created
• Double-digit closed-won expansion deals
• 74% SQL → Pipeline conversion
• 272% to target for highest-performing customer segment

Beyond that, the program also led to broader organizational change.

‍Demandbase has since built out a permanent Customer Marketing team to support this ongoing motion, and the Enterprise ABM model is now influencing both expansion and new business strategies.

The 1:1 campaigns have led to:

• New strategic product and co-marketing partnerships with Snowflake and Adobe
• Continuous feedback loop with product teams
• Advising on new business ABM strategies in North America and EMEA global segments
• Scaling the original campaign beyond ABM and into new business and global campaigns 

What began as a hypothesis is now a core growth motion — fueling cross-sell, subsidiary expansion, and competitive displacement strategies.

We transformed Enterprise ABM from an idea into a scalable, revenue-driving engine, giving Demandbase a new lever for sustainable growth.

Looking Ahead

Ada from Demand Shop will be working closely with Demandbase’s marketing leadership to create and train new team members.

Together, they will also explore how AI can enhance account selection and campaign execution, while continuing to prioritize the human relationships that drive enterprise growth.

Want to turn your customer base or prospect into your next growth engine? Let’s talk!