Today, I am happy to share a new case study for Hirondo, one that got crafted in collaboration with Kronik, one of our main video marketing partners. Together, we are testing a classical short – but also a more podcast-style, longer, discussion-based case study format. Check out the three videos below or here on YouTube.

Take an internal role change, combined with a Salesforce setup that was slightly too constrained by the organization, and a Hirondo marketing freelancer who suggested changing the scope rather than delivering a report that would not be immediately actionable. This is how a RevOps audit became an account-based marketing (ABM) roadmap for one of the world’s leading credit insurance companies.

If you want to start with the video, you’ll find it here. To read more about the before, during, and after – and to watch the long-form discussions that Gilles and the Allianz Trade marketing team had about the project and the overall topics, scroll further.

The context : the right moment for a fresh perspective

The trigger was neither a crisis nor an obvious performance issue. It was an internal role change (the person in charge of CRM at Allianz Trade was moving into another position) combined with the marketing leadership team’s ongoing ambition to improve performance. It was the right moment to reassess the setup.

Allianz Trade was looking for an external perspective on its RevOps organization and Salesforce usage, and brought in Gilles, a Hirondo expert, to run the audit.

How it started : Gilles got introduced by Elodie

The first contact was straightforward, with no lengthy RFP process. Gilles Estivalet, a Hirondo expert, had already led this type of acquisition audit and CRM audit for several large accounts. In less than a week, from the first conversation to the validation of the brief, both parties aligned on the scope and the audit began.

The early work was facilitated by our Business Partner Elodie, Who knows the client’s needs inside and out and who also knows the freelancers within the community well? She could connect the company with the right person who was available at the time and who did have the right skills for such a project.

The turning point: “The Proactive Pivot”

Gilles originally joined the project to conduct a RevOps and Salesforce audit. On paper, nothing unusual: map the customer journey, identify friction points (whether in the tool, the organization, or the way teams work) and recommend fixes with a quantified 12-to-18-month action plan.

But the audit revealed an unexpected obstacle: Salesforce was harder to “make talk” and reconfigure than expected because it was managed at group level. After a day and a half of interviews, Gilles identified more structural issues.

Faced with this reality, he made an unusual decision: rather than deliver a report with limited practical value, he gave Allianz Trade a choice. Either stop the audit with no invoice (!) or redefine the scope together. Allianz Trade chose to continue under a new framework.

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This methodological pivot opened the door to an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) approach: targeting a handful of strategic accounts with precision, instead of optimizing a volume-based engine that had already reached a ceiling.

Hirondo came in and put its finger exactly where it hurt, without beating around the bush.

Sophie Marot-Rémy, CMO at Allianz Trade

Gilles delivered strategic, tooling, and operational recommendations to structure an ABM approach: identify priority strategic accounts, map decision-makers and decision timelines, and detect buying signals or trigger events indicating a window of opportunity.

The challenge: reorient the existing acquisition engine toward a more account-centric approach focused on target enterprise accounts – a.k.a. Account-Based Marketing, or ABM – while allowing it to coexist with the already high-performing volume acquisition engine, without weakening it.

The audit also helped define the exact profile of the role that needed to be filled: the team member who had moved internally needed to be replaced, with a job description aligned with the new project. This was a structuring decision made possible by the clarity of the diagnosis.

Testimonial: Sophie Marot-Rémy (CMO at Allianz Trade)

A traditional consulting firm rarely challenges the original brief. Hirondo held up a mirror to us, and that changed the way we worked with them. It is not comfortable in the moment, but that is what makes the difference, tackling the deeper work, says Sophie.

Sophie often comes back to this “mirror” posture: no off-the-shelf recommendations, but a process designed to identify internal blind spots. For her, Hirondo’s real value is not only in the deliverables, but in the ability to say what no one internally dares to formulate.

Also: Julien Couderc (Head of Acquisition at Allianz Trade)

Today, the real challenge is to industrialize content across more than fifty account typologies without losing the precision required for enterprise account targeting.

Julien sees this diagnosis as a starting point, not an end point. The next step involves AI to scale content production without falling back into a mass-marketing logic, precisely the balance Allianz Trade was trying to avoid from the outset.

What this diagnosis established for Allianz Trade

The value of this diagnosis is first measured in clarity. The quantified results, which remain confidential, are moving in the right direction. Allianz Trade now has a precise diagnosis, a structured method to approach strategic accounts, and a shared framework between marketing and acquisition teams to move forward.

The ABM roadmap is now in place. Implementation is progressing, with the care and control expected from large organizations.

What did this audit produced in concrete terms?

• A clear diagnosis of the limits of a volume-based acquisition approach for enterprise accounts
• An ABM roadmap: strategy, tools, and a 12-to-18-month action plan
• A precise job description to recruit the right marketing profile
• Alignment between marketing and acquisition around an account-centric logic
• A redefined way of working: fewer leads, more precision

What now for Allianz Trade?

The roadmap is set. Implementation is moving forward at the pace of large organizations: methodically and with control. We can’t tell you much about the results and about the changes that happened internally because this is confidential information.

What now for you?

Does the above situation sound familiar to you, or to one of your colleagues, portfolio companies, clients or vendors ? A volume acquisition engine that works well, but enterprise accounts that resist your current approach ?

Let’s talk.

Contact Hirondo for a CRM audit, ABM audit, or acquisition audit, and see how quickly a senior marketing freelancer can help you uncover the hidden value in your customer data.