New skills, new mindset: Leading marketing in an AI future
MARKET VIEW
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Produced by:
Rebecca Angus
VP of Global Events and Account-Based Marketing at GBG
about
Rebecca Angus
Rebecca Angus is VP of Global Events and Account-Based Marketing at GBG, a position she was recently promoted to after four years with the company. She leads a focused team responsible for strategic ABM campaigns targeting both cross-sell opportunities with existing customers and new business development. Under her leadership, GBG's EMEA ABM programme has nearly quadrupled pipeline influence, growing from £1.3 million to £8.5 million. Rebecca is recognised for building effective partnerships between marketing and sales teams to drive measurable revenue outcomes.
How has your ABM programme evolved, and what results have you seen from leveraging intent data?
We've experienced significant growth in our ABM programme over the past year. Before implementing 6sense, we were generating approximately £1.3 million of pipeline influenced by account-based marketing. That figure has now grown to approximately £8.5 million in EMEA alone—nearly quadrupling our results.
This transformation stemmed from building strong partnerships between marketing and our SDR team. Previously, we were utilising intent data primarily through LinkedIn advertising. Now, our SDRs have direct access to sales intelligence tools, and they've embraced ABM because they can see how it helps them identify accounts that are actively in market. The combination of comprehensive training, strategic outreach, and use case-based advertising that addresses specific pain points has been transformative.
We've also expanded ABM beyond new business acquisition into cross-sell initiatives. Our BDRs and CSMs naturally focus their time on existing relationships. By deploying SDRs to engage different stakeholders within existing accounts with new product offerings, we've unlocked substantial opportunities. In one recent example, a cross-sell campaign running for just two and a half weeks generated 10 qualified meetings with existing customers—demonstrating the potential of this approach.
How did you secure organisational buy-in for deploying SDRs on existing accounts?
The reality was that despite providing intent insights to CSMs, they had limited capacity to act on them given their existing workload. I proposed a pilot approach to the go-to-market leader for existing business, confident that the model would deliver results.
We secured two SDRs for a two-month trial period. The pilot demonstrated clear value by generating qualified opportunities—enough to validate the concept. Following this success, we secured permanent allocation of two SDRs to existing business development.
The SDRs themselves have developed considerably through this process. Rather than conducting volume-based outreach, they now take a more consultative approach—reviewing account history in the CRM, consulting with individual CSMs, and understanding which contacts require careful handling. This thoughtful methodology has elevated the quality of their engagement significantly.
How have you established accountability and effective collaboration between marketing and SDRs?
My team has established a structured rhythm of weekly 15-minute sessions where SDRs present their activities and outcomes from intent data. We've developed a clear framework showing meeting connections made and highest-intent accounts identified—creating transparency and accountability across the team.
Our Go-to-market leaders are fully behind this process and occasionally join these sessions, which ensures SDRs maintain consistent preparation and readiness to demonstrate their work. Importantly, SDRs are empowered to identify priority accounts based on the intelligence available to them, which builds their analytical capabilities and ownership of results.
We've also invested considerable effort in shifting how sales teams perceive intent signals. We've reframed the conversation: whilst form submissions and content downloads provide some indication of interest, they don't necessarily signal buying intent. When prospects are researching high-commercial keywords or evaluating competitors within key accounts, that intelligence is substantially more valuable. Marketing provides this insight; sales applies their expertise to convert it into conversations.
Where do you see the greatest opportunities for AI and automation within your ABM approach?
AI adoption at GBG is a core part of our strategy. Our AI strategy is human‑led by design - combining AI advanced intelligence with human oversight so decisions that matter most remain transparent, accountable and rooted in real‑world identity.
Rather than attempting to implement everything simultaneously, we're concentrating on specific priorities this quarter before scaling. My initial focus is reducing the time required to build segmented lists. Currently, compiling customer or total addressable market data can take days, which isn't sustainable when operating at pace. Our target is to reduce this to a matter of hours - and we’re making fast progress.
The subsequent priority is automating reporting through AI. We have Power BI connecting our various data sources, which provides an opportunity to overlay AI capabilities—enabling us to interrogate data about customer investment priorities, emerging trends, and potential risks.
I also see considerable potential in AI-assisted SDR capabilities for specific use cases. Our human SDRs deliver excellent results, but AI could effectively manage long-tail campaigns where volume is high but conversion rates are lower. For instance, following a webinar with substantial registrations, an AI SDR could manage the initial warming process to identify the highest-intent prospects before transitioning to human follow-up.
What's your perspective on the future of ABM and its growing importance?
ABM is becoming increasingly essential as buyer behaviour evolves. Traditional discovery methods are shifting—search engines are no longer the default starting point, with AI-powered tools changing how prospects research solutions. As a result, buyers are more fragmented in how they reach vendor websites, making tools that identify in-market accounts substantially more valuable.
The shift from reactive to proactive marketing is fundamental. The traditional model of waiting for inbound enquiries through PPC and SEO is evolving. Organisations need the capability to identify and engage prospects who are actively researching solutions, regardless of whether they've visited your website.
Buying committees are also expanding considerably. Whilst we maintain focus on core decision-maker personas—compliance, product, operations, and onboarding leaders—we're increasingly engaging stakeholders such as procurement who influence purchasing decisions in ways we hadn't previously anticipated.
The marketing leaders who will navigate this transformation successfully are those who view AI and automation as enablers rather than threats. The opportunity is to automate routine tasks whilst elevating team members to more strategic, creative work. When framed this way, the technology becomes a genuine accelerator for both individual development and business outcomes.
about
GBG
GBG is a publicly listed company specialising in identity verification, fraud prevention and location intelligence solutions for the global marketplace. Operating across multiple countries with a diverse product portfolio, GBG serves customers across a range of sectors including retail, financial services and gaming sectors, providing solutions ranging from compliance and onboarding to supplier verification (KYB).
About 6sense
6sense is on a mission to revolutionise the way B2B organisations create revenue by predicting customers most likely to buy and recommending the best course of action to engage anonymous buying teams. 6sense Revenue AI is the only sales and marketing platform to unlock the ability to create, manage and convert high-quality pipeline to revenue. Customers report 2X increases in average contract value, 4X increases in win rate and 20-40% reduction in time to close deals. Know everything, do anything, with 6sense.