Avalara × FTA Global

Background

Avalara is an enterprise tax-compliance software platform trusted by businesses managing cross-border transactions, supply chains, and SaaS billing across global markets. With strong U.S. brand recognition and a proven enterprise product, Avalara entered APAC with every reason to expect traction.

The regional market dynamics proved to be far more complex than anticipated.

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The Challenge

Global credibility does not automatically travel across regions. In APAC, Avalara faced a demand environment that looked nothing like its home market. U.S. brand searches exceeded 27,000 per month. Australia sat at 480. Singapore is at 140. New Zealand at 90.

The gap was not just about volume. It was about buyer readiness. High-value exporters and SaaS accounts were mapped and identifiable, but most had zero engagement history and no usable intent signals. These were not unconverted buyers. They were buyers who had not yet connected cross-border growth with compliance exposure.

Traditional direct-response campaigns assumed buyers were already in-market. In APAC, they were not. Running conversion-led tactics in a pre-cycle market was not a channel problem. It was a sequencing problem.

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The Strategy

FTA Global reframed the challenge entirely. APAC was not a lead-generation problem. It was an account-maturity problem. The solution was to stop pushing for conversion and start building the conditions that make conversion possible.

The framework was built across three connected layers:

1: Many ABMs created broad awareness across the cold target account list using problem-led education around compliance risk rather than product messaging designed to convert.

1: Few ABM narrowed their focus to the exporter and SaaS segments as intent began to emerge, deploying industry-specific playbooks, country checklists, and compliance guides to deepen engagement and prepare accounts for sales conversations.

1:1 ABM was reserved exclusively for warm accounts already showing strong research behaviour, where SDR outreach could be timed to real purchase signals rather than arbitrary outbound cadences.

The order of operations was the strategy. Educate first. Build familiarity. Detect intent. Then activate sales.

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The Execution

Implementation spanned three phases aligned with real-time account behaviour.

Phase One - TAL Warm-Up. The team built awareness across the cold APAC target list using non-aggressive programmatic display, LinkedIn brand campaigns, and YouTube content focused on compliance problems rather than product features. The goal was familiarity, not conversion.

Phase Two - Consideration. As accounts began researching, intent-driven retargeting served compliance guides, country-specific checklists, and SaaS-focused playbooks. This deepened engagement and created the evaluative context that makes sales conversations productive.

Phase Three - Pipeline Activation. High-intent signals triggered the final layer: demo-led assets, localised competitor-conquest campaigns, and 6sense-powered SDR outbound timed to decision and purchase-stage behaviour.

Regional nuance was built into every phase. Australia and New Zealand received fuller funnel activation centred on exporter compliance. India was weighted toward top-of-funnel education, given lower category maturity. Singapore used operational control and governance messaging aligned to its buyer profile. The programme felt locally intelligent rather than globally templated.

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The Outcome

A cold APAC market became a functioning pipeline system.

• APAC SMB+ inquiries grew from 5 to 171 year on year a 3,320% increase
• MQLs grew from 38 to 158 year on year a 316% increase
• Australia became the strongest-performing market, driven by stronger exporter compliance maturity
• SDR outbound quality improved meaningfully as 6sense intent triggers allowed reps to time outreach to real decision signals

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What Do we Learn?

The lesson from Avalara APAC is not about finding the right channel. It is about respecting where buyers actually are.

When a market is pre-cycle, aggressive conversion tactics do not accelerate the pipeline. They waste budget on accounts that are not ready and create friction with buyers who have not yet formed the problem. What works is a system that meets buyers at their current stage, builds them toward readiness, and activates sales only when the signal is real.

That sequencing educate, familiarise, detect, activate is what turned Avalara's cold APAC account list into qualified, measurable demand.

‍Services: ABM Strategy, Demand Generation, Intent-Led Pipeline Activation Industry: Enterprise SaaS / Tax Compliance Region: APAC - Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, India‍