AXI planned for 2 acquisitions. Then 10 happened.

When a contained growth project suddenly changes scale

When I joined AXI (for the 2nd time/ 20 years later), the assignment initially looked relatively contained. The company was considering one or two acquisitions and wanted to strengthen its commercial engine, particularly by building a more structured inbound capability. Salesforce was already in place, HubSpot was being considered, and the intention was to create a more systematic approach to generating, capturing and converting demand.

That scope would already have required closer coordination between Marketing, Sales and CRM. The environment changed almost immediately, however, as AXI moved from considering a small number of acquisitions to executing ten in a relatively short period. Each acquired company brought additional customers, propositions, people, data and commercial habits into the organisation, meaning the system under development had to support a business that was changing while the work was still underway.

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When the original brief is no longer the real problem

The question was no longer simply how to build an effective inbound engine. AXI needed a commercial model capable of absorbing new businesses without adding another layer of fragmentation each time an acquisition was completed.

The existing environment already contained several sources of complexity. Different business units approached the market in different ways, customer and prospect information was dispersed across systems, Salesforce was established while HubSpot was being introduced, and there was no single commercial view connecting target accounts, marketing activity, sales follow-up and the opportunities emerging from the expanding group.

Adding campaigns on top of that structure would have created more activity without necessarily improving commercial coordination. The underlying requirement had become broader: Marketing and Sales needed a shared system for understanding where growth could come from, which accounts deserved attention and how opportunities should move through the organisation.

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Turning acquisitions into commercial opportunity

Rapid acquisition created complexity, but it also created a significant new source of growth. Customers buying from one part of AXI could potentially benefit from capabilities elsewhere in the group, while acquired businesses introduced propositions that could be taken into existing accounts.

Those opportunities were difficult to exploit without a consolidated view of the customer base. The first requirement was therefore visibility: understanding which customers were buying what, identifying gaps in existing relationships and determining where newly acquired capabilities created credible cross-sell opportunities.

Whitespace analysis became an important part of that process because it converted the combined customer base into a more actionable view of potential growth. Rather than treating acquisition value only as the addition of revenue and capability, the commercial system could begin identifying where the enlarged organisation created opportunities that had not existed before.

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Connecting data before adding more activity

The CRM environment had to support that logic. Salesforce and HubSpot were connected into a more operational commercial ecosystem, while target accounts were defined and enriched with the contact information required for Sales to act on them.

This mattered because commercial integration cannot depend entirely on people manually discovering relationships across newly combined businesses. As the organisation grows, the system needs to make those relationships visible enough for Marketing and Sales to work from a common set of priorities.

The objective was therefore not simply better data hygiene. It was to turn fragmented information into practical commercial direction by showing teams where to focus, whom to contact and which parts of the wider AXI proposition might be relevant.

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Building inbound and outbound as one growth system

The original inbound ambition remained part of the programme, but it became one component of a broader commercial engine. Inbound activity was built to generate and capture demand, while outbound motions were developed around defined target accounts and enriched contact data.

The two approaches were designed to reinforce each other rather than operate as separate marketing and sales programmes. Inbound created signals of interest and new opportunities, while outbound gave Sales a structured way to pursue accounts where the combined AXI portfolio suggested untapped potential.

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Creating one commercial view across a changing group

As the programme developed, alignment between Marketing and Sales became increasingly important. Existing AXI teams and newly acquired entities needed a shared understanding of target accounts, commercial priorities and how opportunities should be developed across the group.

The aim was not to eliminate every local difference between businesses. Different propositions and customer segments still required different approaches. The priority was to establish enough common structure that those differences could operate within one commercial system rather than becoming separate silos.

By connecting CRM, account prioritisation, data enrichment and demand generation, the organisation gained a more coherent view of both existing business and future growth opportunities.

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Building for the AXI that was emerging

By the end of the programme, ten acquisitions had been integrated into a unified commercial approach, Salesforce and HubSpot were operating as a connected CRM ecosystem, and both inbound and outbound engines were active. Sales teams had access to defined target accounts, enriched contact data and clearer priorities for pursuing opportunity across the wider organisation.

The significance of those outcomes was not simply that several marketing and sales initiatives had been delivered. The commercial infrastructure had evolved alongside the company itself, allowing the growth model to absorb new businesses without requiring a complete reset each time the organisational structure changed.

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Designing systems for movement rather than stability

The experience highlighted a broader principle about growth environments shaped by acquisition. Commercial systems are often designed around an assumption that the organisation will remain reasonably stable while the system is being implemented. In a fast-moving buy-and-build environment, that assumption quickly becomes unrealistic.

The more useful approach is to design for movement from the beginning. Data structures, account models, CRM processes and go-to-market motions need enough consistency to create coherence, but also enough flexibility to incorporate new customers, capabilities and teams as the organisation evolves.

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At AXI, the original goal was to build a stronger marketing engine for the company that existed when the assignment began. The more important outcome was a commercial system capable of supporting the company that was still taking shape.

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