Coalfire Transforms ABM with Demandbase, Achieving 40% Pipeline Growth

Executive Summary

Coalfire, a leader in cybersecurity advisory services, faced significant challenges with inefficient account targeting, poor lead quality, and fragmented campaign attribution. By implementing Demandbase, they overcame these hurdles with AI-driven account insights, predictive analytics, and unified platform integration. The result? A 40% increase in marketing-generated pipeline, 25% higher lead-to-opportunity conversion rates, and stronger sales-marketing alignment.

Introduction

Coalfire provides cutting-edge cybersecurity consulting services to businesses navigating today’s digital risks. Operating in a competitive B2B market, they’ve built a reputation for expertise and a commitment to helping organizations stay secure and compliant. However, like many companies focused on optimizing account-based marketing (ABM) strategies, Coalfire faced hurdles that were limiting their ability to generate and capitalize on high-quality leads.

The Problem

While Coalfire had invested in ABM strategies, their processes were falling short in three critical areas:

• Targeting Efficiency 

Their ABM campaigns lacked precision, leading to inefficient ad spend and weak engagement from their Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs). Wasted efforts on accounts outside their focus added unnecessary costs.

• Lead Quality

Although campaigns generated leads, conversion rates were not meeting expectations. Sales teams regularly reported that many leads were either unqualified or not ready for engagement, creating friction between sales and marketing.

• Attribution Complexity 

Fragmented data from siloed platforms made it difficult to measure campaign effectiveness. Without clear attribution, Coalfire struggled to identify which marketing initiatives were driving revenue growth.

These inefficiencies diluted Coalfire’s marketing impact, misaligned teams, and fueled uncertainty around ROI, making it difficult to justify future investments.

The Solution

To address these challenges, Coalfire partnered with Demandbase, selected for its AI-driven account insights, predictive analytics, and ability to unify marketing operations through CRM and marketing automation integrations.

Implementation Highlights

• Data Integration 

Demandbase seamlessly synced with Coalfire’s Salesforce and Marketo systems, consolidating their account data to deliver a unified view of account interests and behaviors.

• Audience Segmentation 

With real-time intent signals, Coalfire redefined high-value accounts, improving their ability to focus exclusively on priority opportunities.

• Pilot Campaigns 

After running test campaigns to validate targeting improvements, Coalfire expanded its campaigns, confident in the precision and impact of the platform.

Adapting to Change

Demandbase’s customer success team supported Coalfire through the onboarding process, addressing challenges like aligning disparate data sources and training teams on new workflows.

Through collaborative training sessions, industry best practices, and ABM-focused certification programs, Coalfire evolved from broad-based marketing tactics to precision-focused, account-first strategies. Sales and marketing alignment was strengthened, enabling the teams to work cohesively toward shared goals.

The Results

Coalfire’s adoption of Demandbase delivered measurable improvements across every key marketing metric, transforming their ABM efforts and delivering a clear ROI.

• 30% Increase in Engagement 

Coalfire’s campaigns drove higher engagement with high-priority accounts, delivering impactful connection rates.

• 25% Higher Lead-to-Opportunity Conversion 

With more qualified leads, sales teams experienced a significant boost in conversion rates, accelerating the sales pipeline.

• 12% Reduction in Sales Cycle Length 

Educated, sales-ready leads entered the funnel, reducing time spent nurturing unqualified prospects and shortening deal cycles.

• 40% Growth in Marketing-Generated Pipeline 

Stronger targeting and attribution delivered tangible revenue impact, with a dramatic increase in pipeline contributions within six months.

• 45% Conversion Lift for Specific Campaigns 

Targeted campaigns for cloud compliance advisory services saw a 45% lift in conversion rates compared to previous campaigns.

One Coalfire executive remarked, “Demandbase gave us the clarity and precision we needed to step up our ABM strategy, ensuring every dollar spent truly counts.”

Lessons Learned and Future Outlook

Key Takeaways

1. Data Quality is Essential 

The effectiveness of AI-powered ABM strategies hinges on maintaining clean, well-structured data.

2. Collaboration Drives Success 

Sales and marketing alignment proved essential for leveraging Demandbase to its full potential.

3. Continuous Optimization Matters 

Coalfire continuously refines its strategies, using Demandbase insights to optimize future campaigns.

Looking Ahead

Coalfire plans to expand its efforts in account targeting to explore opportunities in emerging compliance markets, such as CMMC and ISO 420001. They are also exploring AI-driven website personalization to pair visitors dynamically with content relevant to their needs, further enhancing engagement. Multi-channel attribution improvements will enable even greater marketing spend efficiency, ensuring future campaigns maintain their ROI-focused approach.

Conclusion

Demandbase enabled Coalfire to reimagine its ABM efforts, solving targeting inefficiencies, boosting lead quality, and demystifying campaign attribution for real business impact. The collaboration has set the foundation for Coalfire to scale its success and continue pushing boundaries in B2B marketing innovation.