How to "divorce" your traditional and expensive ABM platform in 2026
You may feel trapped. But now there are other options.
I am not really one to just completely sh*t on a technology or tool.
Because I think most tools are actually very useful. And if a company is getting the benefit of its well-managed features, that’s a win!
But this week I just had to talk about how to divorce your GTM team from an expensive traditional ABM platform (i.e., 6sense, DemandBase). Don’t get me wrong—if you are using these tools, that’s totally fine.
But I know many of our clients, and a lot of folks out there are looking to get rid of that expensive contract and explore other solutions that can help them get the same features they had, but cheaper, more controlled, and even more effective using AI.
And three things spurred me to cover this topic that happened just over the last two weeks:
A client reached out to me directly for some advice because they are finally moving off of 6sense. (And we have other clients who have or are thinking of doing it too.)
Clay released their (beta) Ads in Clay feature!
I saw that the literal creator of 6sense (now CEO of 1mind), Amanda Kahlow, posted that “Intent is Dead.”
My first interaction with 6sense and ABM platforms was over 13 years ago! I still remember Amanda coming into the company I worked for to pitch us on the tool. But I had always been skeptical about “3rd party intent” since it was mainly from content syndication vendors, and it felt like so much of a black box.
I have never changed my mind on that front, but the market over the past few years has come to determine that most 3rd party intent that was sold to us before was snake oil and literally proven to work just as well as picking random accounts.
And now I think most companies are mainly leveraging the platforms for 1st party intent de-anonymization (accounts active on their site) and targeted ads.
But the space is changing. We have cheaper and better ways to get 1st party data—even down to the person level if you really wanted to! And by the time a prospect is on your website, a big chunk of their buying journey could already be done due to their research happening off your site. So the better use of technology is to try to engage them 1:1 with a chatbot to schedule time with a human, with a direct meeting with a human, or with an AI agent who can answer questions just as well as a human!
And now other tools can help you with running targeted ads, which is a channel that is getting harder and more expensive, so why pay extra for a tool to help you do it?!
Ok, so what does this mean? How can you divorce your ABM platform, and what are other tools or strategies you can lean on instead to get great results?
Here are the top features and how you can replace them:
>> Replace 3rd Party Intent with Signals
The buyer journey is so different now. No one goes on content sites and sifts through whitepapers. Buyers are DMing their peers, asking communities, going on Reddit, and asking Claude or ChatGPT. These will likely not show up at all in black box 3rd party intent data. However, “Signals”, especially specific ones that truly signal buying intent, can be more effective and easier to operationalize. You can use tools like Clay, Common Room, Pocus, or even ZoomInfo (which you may already have) to harvest these signals and use them for outbound or even just marketing segmentation or scoring/prioritization.
>> Replace the company-level 1st party intent with website prospect identification and communication
Once a buyer is on your site and looking at things like your pricing page or a demo, it’s likely they already know about you! So instead of taking 1st party intent and alerting the rep that an account is active on the site, engage them there! Leverage a Chatbot like Qualified to pull in a human to chat or schedule a meeting, or even use an AI SDR (like 1mind) that can easily answer the prospect’s questions instead. If you are also purely looking for that 1st party data you can action, de-anonymization tools like Vector can even be used.
>> Replace their ad targeting/creation with cheaper tools or with tools you already have
Clay coming out with their Ads in Clay feature just literally blew my mind this week. Mainly because I think this is the one feature keeping companies from signing the divorce papers with their ABM platform. Also, because Clay is the tool where you can do your list building and signal harvesting, it’s a no-brainer to give the option to run ads. Other options for helping run targeted ads would be ZoomInfo MarketingOS, Factors.ai or Vector (mostly help with targeting only), or even Dreamdata, which has features to help execute within it.
>> Replace AI conversational email. You have a TON of options.
There are so many options for email and leveraging AI to help make it more contextual and personalized. You also might already have another tool in your stack that does this. Qualified has an AI email feature, or other tools like Instantly.ai, Smartlead.ai, Conversion.ai, or Artisan, are giving capabilities to personalize emails at scale that traditional tools do not allow for. You also get a bit more control with these tools than conversational email, which has a big “trust us” component to it.
Final Thoughts
I know this sounds like a lot of work, but from the level of adoption I see in these platforms, ditching them would not be as detrimental for most orgs as you would think.
Honestly, moving to a new sales engagement platform is harder and companies switch those out like they are changing their outfit! lol
Are you in the middle of going through this process? Would love to hear about any features you think I missed out on addressing, or if you have some tools you are looking into.
New Video on YouTube!
New GTM “walk and talk” is here. And I am chatting about all the things GTM folks need to learn before diving straight into learning a new tool or an advanced project. Foundational skills will determine whether your adoption of that tool or development of that advanced workflow is successful!
If you want to join the discussion, you can also check it out here on LinkedIn.
What We are Cookin' Up (for real)
A week ago, Alison on the team asked the foodie channel an important question:
Before she asked, I had seen so many videos and recipes for the viral Japanese cheesecake that it was on my list to try.
Nina actually said she had been making it for years and hoards the Biscoff cookies on flights for it!
Since then, both Alison and I have given the “recipe” (which is more of a technique than a recipe) a try.
Alison made one with Biscoff cookies and another with lemon Simple Mills sweet thins with plain greek yogurt.
I made a version with plain skyr yogurt with vanilla extract and honey cinnamon Simple Mills sweet thins.
Alison thought the Biscoff was tastier, but overall thought both were yummy and liked it soaked for longer (overnight) to get a bit of cookies in eat bite.
I tried mine after a few hours and then again the next morning, and I think I preferred it when the cookies had a bit more texture. But I am a texture girl!
I love Painterland Sisters Skyr and a small format version, so this video piqued my curiosity for maybe the next one to try…
Have you tried this yet? What flavors did you use?
Links We’re Liking 👍🏻 on LinkedIn
Maybe every day is a PTO day for Jason Kelce?
Totally agree with these trends for B2B Marketing.
If you know past Salesforce Super Bowl ads…
Not sure I agree with this statement on homegrown vibe-coded CRMs. See my comment for why.
Even kids are documenting their tech stacks!
🙋♀️ P.S. Been loving this newsletter? Share it with your friends or team. Also, give it a like or comment. It can be lonely when you put things out there and don’t hear back. lol!