Overview
Brandwatch, part of the Cision family of brands, transformed their go-to-market execution by replacing manual, error-prone routing with LeanData’s intelligent GTM orchestration platform. By eliminating hours of manual work and implementing automated lead-to-account matching, they reduced time to first touch from hours to minutes and doubled their MQL to meeting conversion rates.
- Industry
- Software
- Location
- London, United Kingdom
- Interview With
- Emily Ketchum, VP of Marketing Operations
Solutions
Orchestration
Results
2x
5
0
The Challenge: Manual Processes Creating Revenue Bottlenecks
As VP of Marketing Operations at Brandwatch, Emily Ketchum faced a problem familiar to many GTM leaders: leads were getting stuck in slow, manual processes. The company had been “force-fitting” Marketo for lead routing, a tool that “is not a routing tool”, while supplementing it with another solution that “just wasn’t very robust.”
The complexity of Brandwatch’s go-to-market structure amplified these challenges. They needed to distinguish between leads from existing customers versus new opportunities, while managing a sophisticated follow-up process involving both inbound teams handling website inquiries and outbound teams covering specific regions.
The Manual Work Challenge
The impact on sales productivity was severe. Sales representatives followed a literal checklist before working any lead:
– Verify it wasn’t an existing customer
– Check for open opportunities
– Confirm no SDR was already working the account
– Research the contact via LinkedIn and other sources
– Determine account size and headquarters location
“Realistically, it could be 30 minutes to get to a lead on a good day, and that was not the norm. It was more commonly a couple of hours before the team was able to make that first touch,” Ketchum explained.
When routing errors occurred—which was frequent—sales reps had to manually redistribute leads through Teams channels and spreadsheets. “They would post it to a channel and a manager would reference a spreadsheet to say who was next up. Which is extremely inefficient,” she noted.
The Speed-to-Lead Problem
Without automated lead-to-account matching and signal-driven routing, the sales team spent excessive time on research instead of selling. Time to first touch stretched to hours in best-case scenarios, dramatically impacting conversion rates and revenue potential.
The Solution: Intelligent GTM Orchestration
LeanData stood out during Brandwatch’s evaluation for several key reasons:
- Native Salesforce Integration: Seamless operation within their existing CRM
- Lead-to-Account Matching: Automatic identification of customer relationships
- Multi-Object Routing: Support for leads, contacts, and accounts
- Third-Party Integrations: Connectivity with their entire tech stack, including Salesloft and 6sense
Implementation and Evolution
Brandwatch’s implementation followed a strategic progression:
Phase 1: Foundation Building
The marketing operations team initially focused on replicating their existing routing logic with improved accuracy. They implemented geographic routing, enterprise versus commercial segmentation, and automated notifications via Teams.
Phase 2: Sales Team Enhancement
After going live, SDR and sales leaders requested additional capabilities. This led to Salesloft integration for automated cadence enrollment and SLA tracking capabilities.
Phase 3: Advanced Orchestration
The latest evolution integrated 6sense data for sophisticated account-based routing. When accounts become “qualified accounts” (6QAs), LeanData automatically:
- Triggers account routing workflows
- Sends Teams alerts to account owners
- Distributes unowned accounts via round-robin logic
Smart Segmentation in Action
LeanData’s flexibility enabled Brandwatch to leverage 6sense profile fit ratings for intelligent lead treatment. “Strong fit contacts convert significantly higher than a weak fit contact will,” Ketchum explained. LeanData can reference any Salesforce field, allowing for specific actions to be segmented. Strong-fit contacts are automatically enrolled to aggressive phone-heavy cadences in Salesloft, while weak-fit contacts are enrolled in email-focused sequences.
The Results: Dramatic Performance Improvements
Speed Transformation
The impact on response times was immediate and dramatic:
- Before: Hours to first touch (best case scenario)
- After: Minutes to first touch through automated email cadences
“It’s a matter of minutes now because we’re dropping directly into a cadence. The first touch is an email and because it’s automated, it’s almost instant.”
Conversion Rate Success
The combination of speed improvements and process enhancements delivered remarkable results:
- 2x improvement in MQL to meeting conversion rates
- Significant pipeline acceleration from MQL to meeting
Operational Efficiency Gains
Beyond lead routing, LeanData enabled broader operational improvements:
- Eliminated manual lead redistribution
- Reduced sales rep research time
- Improved routing accuracy and fairness
- Enhanced team productivity through automation
Strategic Value Creation
“The speed to lead and conversion rate are the biggest areas of improvement we have experienced,” Ketchum noted, emphasizing how LeanData supports broader revenue objectives through intelligent orchestration of their entire tech stack
“It is about accuracy and efficiency and making our top of funnel as effective as possible. We all know, if it takes you an hour versus 5 minutes to follow up, the one who follows up within 5 minutes is more likely to connect. So it’s efficiency and speed that matter most, and we have that now.”
Emily Ketchum
Looking Forward: Expanding Revenue Impact
Brandwatch continues expanding their use of LeanData’s capabilities. Recent 6sense integration implementation promises additional conversion rate improvements as they ensure instant follow-up on high-intent accounts.
The company expects measurable improvements in opportunity generation from qualified accounts as their new automated workflows eliminate delays in rep response to buying signals.
Key Takeaways for GTM Leaders
Brandwatch’s success demonstrates how intelligent revenue orchestration transforms go-to-market efficiency:
- Speed Matters: Reducing time to first touch from hours to minutes directly impacts conversion rates
- Integration Amplifies Impact: Connecting multiple tools through LeanData creates compounding benefits
- Automation Enables Scale: Eliminating manual work frees sales teams for revenue-generating activities
- Data-Driven Routing: Leveraging third-party intelligence for smart segmentation improves outcomes
For revenue operations leaders facing similar challenges, Brandwatch’s journey illustrates how the right GTM orchestration platform transforms operational efficiency into measurable revenue growth.
ABOUT BRANDWATCH
Brandwatch is the leading social media management and consumer intelligence suite, empowering brands to see and be seen, understand and be understood, by the audiences that matter most.
Trusted by half of the Forbes 100, Brandwatch equips the world’s most innovative companies with AI-powered insights and tools to seize opportunities, strengthen engagement, and accelerate growth.
Our comprehensive suite spans consumer intelligence, influencer marketing, and social media management, enabling brands and agencies to execute data-driven strategies at scale.
Brandwatch is part of the Cision family of brands, alongside CisionOne and PR Newswire.
