How Firstup Scaled ABM and Aligned Sales and Marketing with HockeyStack Account Intelligence

The Who

Firstup is a leading employee communication platform that helps large enterprises reach and engage their frontline workforce more effectively. With a long sales cycle and complex enterprise deals, Firstup relies on thoughtful, high-impact marketing to support both inbound and outbound motions across the organization.

Hollie Lemos is the Vice President of Revenue Marketing at Firstup. She oversees all aspects of pipeline generation, campaign strategy, and marketing operations. Her focus is on maximizing the impact of a lean team by improving alignment with sales, modernizing GTM reporting, and driving measurable results across every stage of the funnel.‍

“When I joined, our marketing team was trying to shift the organization away from a lead-based mindset. That meant focusing on accounts, aligning better with sales, and ultimately measuring success in a way that’s actually tied to revenue.”

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The Problem

Firstup had invested heavily in account-based strategies, but lacked a way to operationalize, measure success, and ensure alignment.

Marketing and sales were working in silos, each with a different understanding of which accounts mattered and why. Sales didn’t have confidence in the data marketing was surfacing. Engagement scores often lacked context, and without reliable signals, outbound efforts felt disconnected from campaign strategy.

“It would say something like this account is in decision phase when actually they just visited the website twice... we lost credibility with the sales team.”

At the same time, sales leadership was increasingly asking for deeper insights into key accounts. Marketing found itself fielding manual research requests which were time-consuming and reactive, often relying on expensive external research vendors with little visibility into the full customer journey.

Without centralized account intelligence, Firstup couldn’t scale the programs it knew were important. Marketing couldn’t report on what was working, and sales couldn’t act on what they didn’t trust. The team needed a single source of truth for account engagement and a way to connect buying signals directly to revenue outcomes.

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The Requirements

With a lean team and ambitious goals, Hollie needed a platform that could unify attribution, account intelligence, and campaign engagement in one place without adding extra manual lift.

It had to support a move from lead-based reporting to account-level visibility, reflecting how enterprise deals actually happen. Marketing needed clarity on which programs were driving progression. Sales needed trustworthy signals to guide outbound, understand buying committees, and act with confidence.

The tool had to be fast to implement, easy to manage, and fully integrated with Salesforce. It needed to deliver clear reporting, reliable scoring, and shared visibility, enabling both teams to work from the same data to make faster, more informed decisions.

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The Alternatives

Firstup was spending over $140,000 a year on disconnected tools. Attribution lived in Salesforce, account insights came from 6sense, and executive research was outsourced. None of it worked together, and none gave a clear view of what was driving pipeline.

Prior to HockeyStack, marketing relied on last-touch reporting, which made it difficult to measure campaign impact or report on ABM performance. Sales didn’t trust the data, and alignment suffered.

Meanwhile, 6sense cost nearly $100,000 annually but surfaced weak signals based on limited engagement. Sales adoption was low, and the tool became reactive instead of strategic. To fill the gaps, marketing spent another $40,000 with research vendors to track executive changes. Despite the spend, the team was still operating without confidence.

“We were spending nearly $100K a year on 6sense, and the ROI just wasn’t there. It would flag accounts as ‘in decision phase’ after two website visits. Sales didn’t trust the data, and it quickly became a tool they used in pockets—if at all. It wasn’t driving action, and it definitely wasn’t helping us run ABM at scale.”

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The Insights

With HockeyStack, Firstup moved from last-touch reporting to full-funnel attribution and real-time account intelligence. A custom dashboard tracks which accounts hit the scoring threshold, enter sales motion, and convert—giving both teams a shared, reliable view.

The team quickly saw that events and webinars were top drivers of conversion. These insights now shape campaign planning and outbound prioritization.

What previously required $40K in outsourced research, like tracking strategic initiatives and identifying buying triggers, is now automated. All key signals are centralized, eliminating disconnected workflows and manual tasks.

Sales and marketing are aligned on which accounts matter, what’s working, and where to focus next.

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The Results

• $140K in annual savings, replacing 6sense ($100K) and research vendors ($40K) with a single, unified platform
• Full-funnel visibility across sales and marketing, with shared dashboards and account scoring synced to Salesforce
• Improved alignment with sales, as both teams now trust the same signals and focus on the same high-priority accounts
• Clear attribution showing which campaigns drive pipeline, with webinars and events identified as key conversion drivers
• Eliminated manual research, with executive changes, intent signals, and account activity tracked automatically
• Faster, more confident decision-making, backed by real-time insights instead of gut feel

HockeyStack has helped Firstup consolidate tools, align teams, and operate with clarity. What used to take weeks of manual effort is now available instantly. With better visibility, cleaner attribution, and trusted signals, both marketing and sales are moving faster—and together.

“The team just never had this level of insight before. Now we walk into exec meetings with real answers, we know what’s working, and we already have a plan. That’s massive.” — Hollie Lemos, VP Revenue Marketing @ Firstup