When Steve Jones joined Planful as VP of Demand Generation, the company was stuck in a traditional demand generation trap: MQL-driven, single-threaded outreach that worked for transactional lower mid-market deals but failed to crack upper mid-market accounts with complex buying committees.
With Gem-E as their AI command center, Planful completely transformed their go-to-market approach, generating over $1 million in direct-source pipeline from 24 opportunities in just two months, hitting 104% of their pipeline target, and setting up a projected 20-40% increase in SDR productivity for 2026.
The challenge: A fragmented GTM motion that couldn't scale
When Steve arrived at Planful, the company had already been using UserGems since 2021, they were focusing on a couple of signals and not using Gem-E to orchestrate. Their overall GTM strategy was fundamentally broken, and they were facing three key challenges:
Teams operating in isolation
Planful's go-to-market motion lacked coordination. Marketing would generate MQLs and hand them off to SDRs, SDRs would qualify meetings and pass them to sales. Then each team would move on to the next lead, with little to no collaboration or support down-funnel. Everyone operated independently with different priorities and metrics of success meaning there was no consistent narrative or multi-threaded engagement strategy.
Too many sources of information with no clear priority
Every morning, SDRs received signals from multiple systems: Salesforce, 6sense, UserGems, TrustRadius, G2, and ZoomInfo. Each system had its own way of scoring accounts and contacts, so there was no clear picture. The team struggled to prioritize.
"When an SDR went in every morning, they didn't know where to start, what to do, what to trust.. Too many signals in front of them. Nothing really aggregated together into one score, and it frankly was bogging them down."
The wrong accounts, the wrong approach
Planful’s ICP was loosely defined, so they were pursuing thousands of accounts that were unlikely to convert. Their outreach worked reasonably well for transactional, lower mid-market deals, but it wasn’t effective for upper mid-market accounts with complex buying committees. Without coordinated, multi-threaded engagement, their upper mid-market pipeline had become critically weak.
The solution: Gem-E as the AI command center
Steve realized Planful needed a completely new way to identify and engage accounts. So they turned to Gem-E to form the foundation of their ABX motion.
Today, Gem-E sits at the center of Planful's GTM tech stack, coordinating every tool and workflow.
"It starts with the command center… The engine. It powers everything we do."
How it works for Planful:
Gem-E aggregates multiple signal types into one unified priority score that gives marketing and sales the same picture of which accounts and contacts to prioritize:
- People signals: Past champions, new hires, promotions
- Account engagement: Web visitors, high-value page hits, content downloads
- Third-party intent: G2 reviews, TrustRadius activity
- First-party data: CRM history, Gong insights, previous interactions
- Custom signals: FP&A project indicators, buying committee engagement
This automated prioritization removes guesswork and ensures SDRs spend time on the highest-value conversations every single day.
Strategic three-tier account prioritization
Armed with Gem-E's scoring, Planful created a focused, resource-optimized strategy:
Tier 1: Top 150 accounts
- Highest-scoring accounts most likely to convert
- 1:1, high-touch account-based marketing
- Maximum sales and marketing resources allocated
Tier 2: 400-500 accounts
- Strong signals but slightly cooler
- Personalized attention with coordinated campaigns
- Balanced resource allocation
Tier 3: Remaining accounts
- Awareness-stage campaigns
- Efficient, scalable approach
- Monitoring for signal changes that warrant tier promotion
Coordinated engagement: AI-powered messaging at scale
When Gem-E identifies a high-value signal (like a former customer joining a target account), it generates personalized outreach that weaves together all relevant context: past champion history, new role information, company initiatives, and buying committee dynamics.
Marketing immediately launches personalized ad campaigns while SDRs begin tailored sequences. Both channels deliver consistent messaging, creating a seamless buyer experience. This new, coordinated approach ensures prospects encounter Planful through multiple touchpoints with the same convincing narrative, dramatically improving response and engagement rates.
"We are now using Gem-E as our message generator to really tell that personalized story...We're bringing all these contact signals into one story. When we find new hires, promotions, past champions, we are getting ads in front of them and getting them into sequences right away. Nothing is done in a vacuum."
This coordinated approach ensures prospects encounter Planful through multiple touchpoints with the same narrative, dramatically improving response and engagement rates.
Real results: Pipeline and productivity gains
The proof is in the numbers:
- $1,000,000+ in direct-source pipeline generated
- 24 opportunities identified, prioritized, and engaged through Gem-E
- 104% of overall pipeline target achieved
- Upper mid-market pipeline transformed from critically low to significantly improved
- 20-40% projected increase in SDR productivity for 2026
"In really just the past two months, we've generated over a million plus in pipeline, 24 direct source opportunities… As of today, I think we're at about 104% of our overall pipeline target, which is just fantastic."
A complete GTM transformation
Planful’s results show that real success comes from seeing the full picture, prioritizing the right accounts, and making every step of the buyer journey work together. Gem-E turned fragmented workflows into a seamless system, driving more pipeline, boosting efficiency, improving team alignment, and creating a go-to-market approach that can grow with Planful’s future plans.
