How YouGov strengthened forecast accuracy and boosted pipeline conversion with Gong

YouGov is a global authority in market research and brand health tracking, providing critical insights to the world’s most influential consumer-facing brands, many of which are in the Fortune 500. As the company scaled its US enterprise sales team, it faced complex challenges inherent to its high-stakes business model.

First, its sales cycles are long, often stretching from six to 12 months. This requires extraordinary attention to deal health and consistent engagement to keep high-level decision-makers, such as global CMOs, fully informed. Second, it is paramount that the team delivers precise and trusted forecasts to senior leadership. They needed a unified solution that could balance outreach efficiency with data-driven decision-making.

Before adopting the Gong Revenue AI Operating System (OS), YouGov’s sales processes were fragmented, relying on a mix of disparate tools and manual data collection for managing deals and generating forecasts. This inefficiency meant leaders lacked the unwavering confidence they needed in their pipeline. By adopting Gong, YouGov integrated a powerful, centralized solution that streamlined its sales operations.

“We implemented Gong a couple of years ago and it's been incredibly powerful for the team.” —Kenton Barello, VP of Enterprise Sales at YouGov

The Gong Revenue AI OS provides real-time visibility into deal health, automates follow-up reminders, and enables targeted and successful outreach campaigns. This not only streamlines operations but also equips sales leaders with the actionable insights necessary to confidently forecast outcomes and sustain growth in a competitive market.

For YouGov, forecasting accuracy was non-negotiable, especially given its 6- to 12-month sales cycles and high-value Fortune 500 clients on the line. They implemented Gong to consolidate this critical function.

"Before Gong, we relied on a few other tools. Now Gong is really our single source of truth." —Kenton Barello, VP of Enterprise Sales at YouGov

The Gong Revenue AI OS provides AI-driven insights that instantly clarify deal health and progress toward monthly and quarterly goals. This newfound clarity has eliminated the guesswork associated with manually reviewing notes and disparate data points. Critically, it saves YouGov’s sales leaders hours each week that they previously spent on repetitive administrative tasks. With the Gong Revenue AI OS automating next-step reminders and providing deal analysis, leaders and reps have shifted their focus entirely to strategy, coaching, and meaningful client engagement.

The impact has been transformative, giving the organization firm footing during periods of rapid scaling. Barello confirmed that "Having everything in one place gives us confidence in our ability to produce as an organization. Gong helps YouGov close more deals and win with confidence."

Beyond forecasting, YouGov leverages Gong Engage to dramatically enhance its outreach and pipeline creation efforts. The SDR team, responsible for securing meetings with influential prospects, now focuses intensely on high-value targets like global CMOs and C-suite executives at major consumer brands.

Customer insights allow the team to craft campaigns rooted in proven success. They can track email open rates, analyze responses, and instantly identify the exact messaging that resonates most effectively with top-tier decision-makers. This approach has led to a surge in high-quality meetings.

“What I love most about Gong Engage is it allows our team to get to the right people faster and create meetings that are stickier, leading to a higher close rate and overall greater success.” —Kenton Barello, VP of Enterprise Sales

This data-driven personalization also enables leadership to replicate success with precision across the entire team. By analyzing the most successful email templates and cadences of their top performers, leadership can quickly amplify the performance of top SDRs while addressing areas for improvement.

“It's become critical to all our individual SDRs’ success, and as a sales executive it allows me to fully understand what's working and what we need to do more of.” —Kenton Barello, VP of Enterprise Sales

This has been instrumental in boosting team productivity and accelerating the initial phases of their long sales cycle.

The Gong Revenue AI OS has fundamentally reshaped YouGov’s enterprise sales strategy, providing a centralized place that unifies forecasting, pipeline management, and targeted outreach. With Gong’s AI-driven insights and automation, YouGov’s sales leaders and SDRs have gained the clarity and efficiency necessary to focus on meaningful client interactions and strategic decision-making.

The operating system’s ability to unify processes has saved hours weekly, transformed deal health assessments, and helped the team secure high-quality meetings with global decision-makers at Fortune 500 companies.

As YouGov continues its expansion in the competitive market research industry, Gong remains a cornerstone of its success, empowering the organization to make data-driven decisions with confidence and achieve its ambitious growth objectives.