---
title: Quarra Salesforce Contract Renewal — 2026
type: article
created: '2026-01-12'
updated: '2026-01-12'
source_docs:
- raw/2026-01-12-quarra-stone-marketing-call-113612037.md
tags:
- salesforce
- contract
- quarra-stone
- abm
- account-based-marketing
layer: 2
client_source: null
industry_context: null
transferable: true
---

# Quarra Salesforce Contract Renewal — 2026

## Overview

In January 2026, Salesforce proposed adding a 10,000-contact block to Quarra Stone's Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) contract ahead of a scheduled price increase. After reviewing current usage and the planned 2026 marketing strategy, the add-on was rejected as unnecessary.

This decision was made in the context of a broader shift from lead-gen to [[wiki/knowledge/marketing/account-based-marketing|Account-Based Marketing (ABM)]], which requires a smaller, more targeted contact pool rather than broad list growth.

See also: [[wiki/clients/quarra-stone/_index|Quarra Stone]] · [[wiki/meetings/2026-01-12-quarra-stone-marketing-call|2026-01-12 Marketing Call]]

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## Decision

**Rejected** the 10k additional contact block add-on.

Lincoln Durham confirmed the decision directly with Salesforce, requesting the add-on be removed before countersigning the renewal contract.

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## Rationale

| Factor | Detail |
|---|---|
| Current usage | 74% of the 10,000-contact base plan (~7,400 mailable contacts used) |
| Available headroom | ~2,500 contacts remaining before hitting the cap |
| 2026 strategy | Shifting to ABM targeting ~200 high-value accounts — well within existing capacity |
| List hygiene | Active list cleaning underway, which will free additional mailable contact slots |
| Cost | The add-on was a small incremental cost relative to the ~$15k base fee, but not justified by need |

Salesforce's pitch framed the add-on as a way to lock in pricing before an increase. The team assessed this as a standard upsell tactic not aligned with actual usage trajectory.

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## How Salesforce Contact Blocks Work

A contact block defines the maximum number of **mailable contacts** in Account Engagement — contacts that can receive marketing emails. Key points:

- You can store more contacts in the system than your block allows, but only block-covered contacts are emailable.
- Contacts cannot be "rotated" in and out of the mailable pool on a per-campaign basis; the block is a hard ceiling on total mailable contacts at any time.
- The base plan includes 10,000 mailable contacts. An additional block would have raised this to 20,000.

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## Implications for ABM Strategy

The 2026 ABM plan targets:
- **25–50 top-tier accounts** (provided by Quarra's sales team)
- **~200 B-tier accounts** (lookalike list built by AAG from existing Salesforce data)

Even with the broader B-tier list, total new contacts added will be well within the ~2,500 remaining capacity. The existing base plan is sufficient for the full ABM rollout without any contract changes.

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## Related

- [[wiki/knowledge/marketing/abm-strategy-quarra-2026|ABM Strategy — Quarra 2026]]
- [[wiki/clients/quarra-stone/_index|Quarra Stone Client Overview]]
- [[wiki/meetings/2026-01-12-quarra-stone-marketing-call|Meeting Notes — 2026-01-12 Quarra Marketing Call]]