Marketing Ops Community

Head of Training and Certification

Indeed.com

Director of Marketing Strategy and Operations

MarTech Alliance

I am the lead instructor for a brand new 8 week course on all things Marketing Operations! Visit Martech Alliance online for more details.

Course Instructor

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Global Marketing Operations Leader

Hitwise

Leads the marketing and demand generation teams in the Americas and APAC. 

- Oversee the planning and direction of marketing programs
- Partner and support sales to execute strategy for winning clients and upselling existing clients
- Report on key business metrics, campaign results, and drive optimization
- Development of Marketing ROI reporting and analytics 
- Lead nurturing, drip campaigns, lead scoring, sales and marketing alignment
- Oversees sponsorships, paid advertising, and online media spend
- Development and execution of campaigns across paid search and social, online advertising, webinars, events and content marketing
- Marketing automation and Salesforce implementation

Director, Global Marketing

American Marketing Association

Leads content marketing and communications strategy across all channels. 

Oversees communications and social media teams.

Manages writers and content producers for blogs, eBooks, and advertisements.

Director Of Communications

Leaf Group

Responsible for marketing and demand generation programs including marketing automation, lead nurturing, email marketing, messaging, sales enablement, and alignment across paid, content marketing, and event marketing programs. 

Leads and manages team of demand generation professionals.

Passionately implementing unified Marketo, Salesforce, Facebook Advertising and content marketing B2B programs. Marketo Certified Expert.

- Database Hygiene 
- Database Migration 
- De-duplication 
- Data Standardization and Data Normalization

Senior Marketing Manager

Trumpia

Drove 500% growth of new marketing platform through partner marketing and relentless adoption programs for AT&T Mobility’s 1,500+ business sales force. 

Established webinar lead generation program accounting for over 80% of marketing qualified leads 
Instrumental in product marketing, pricing, packaging, business development and go-to-market strategies. 

Online marketing including Google analytics, website and landing page optimization, marketing automation using Pardot, email marketing, collateral development and copywriting. 

Led event marketing team to successfully execute AT&T new product roadshow and events in 15 major US markets.

Digital Marketing 
Marketing Automation 
Google Analytics and Adwords 
Product Marketing
Customer Marketing 
Channel Marketing

Marketing Manager

Independent

Small business marketing consulting including: 

Digital Marketing 
Email Marketing 
Marketing Automation 
Social Media Marketing 
Online Marketing 
Website Design 
SEO/SEM

Marketing Consultant

Director of Marketing Strategy & Operations | Martech Leader | Speaker

Author and speaker. Co-host of the Humans of Martech Podcast.

Subscribe to the Marketing Operations Leader newsletter for MOPs strategies and insights every week: https://darrellalfonso.substack.com/

Highlights: 
- Ranked as one of the Top Marketers in the US by Propolis 2022
- Named one of the "Top Martech Marketers to Follow" 2020 by Martech Alliance 
- Keynote speaker for Martech Conference and Get Stacked B2B Marketing Conference 2021
- Awarded Fearless Marketer 2018 
- Marketo Champion 2018 and 2019 
- VP of Communications American Marketing Association - 2017-2019
- Marketo User Group Leader 2017-2019
- Leading Program Manager for Connect@Amazon (35,000 member Amazon organization)
- Frequent Martech Speaker and Author 
- Marketo and Salesforce Certified 

Posts are my own and do not reflect the views of my current or former employers.

Darrell Alfonso

Revenue leaders need both broad and deep data & insights to make better decisions.

Here are the 9 crucial reports that Chief Revenue Officers rely on to drive predictable, scalable growth—and how to turn insights into action.

1️⃣ Revenue & Pipeline Forecast
Expected revenue is how much in sales you expect to make in a given time period, while pipeline is the dollar amount of open opportunities in the same time period.

2️⃣ Revenue Contribution Breakdown
This report breaks down the proportion of revenue from new business, renewals, and expansions, as well as the split between marketing-sourced and sales-sourced revenue.

3️⃣ Net Recurring Revenue Over Time
NRR tells you if you are growing steadily, or if customers are cancelling/churning so quickly that it impacts your total business growth.

4️⃣ Pipeline Analysis & Breakdown
Total pipeline is the sum of all opportunities in a given time period. Weighted pipeline is the dollar amount of the opportunities that have a high probability of closing. Healthy pipeline is the dollar amount of the minimum amount opportunities needed to close to hit revenue targets. 

5️⃣ Average Deal Size by Segment
This shows the mean sale price by customer bucket. 

6️⃣ Win Rate by Segment
Win rate is the percentage of deals you close versus lose in a given time period. This report shows win rate by various customer buckets.

7️⃣ Conversion Funnel Breakdown
 This visualizes lead progression through MQLs, SQLs, opportunities, and closed-won deals. A significant drop-off at any stage signals inefficiencies in lead qualification, sales execution, or marketing and sales alignment.

8️⃣ Renewal Rate Over Time
This tracks renewal percentage trends throughout the year. A declining renewal rate highlights potential issues with customer satisfaction, competitive pressures, or pricing misalignment.

9️⃣ Revenue Efficiency Metrics
A low LTV:CAC ratio indicates inefficient acquisition costs. A declining demo-to-close rate suggests qualification or sales execution gaps. A longer average time to close points to deal cycle inefficiencies that slow revenue growth.

This is the foundation for revenue leadership that delivers results.

Which reports do you agree with? What would you add?

This diagram was created by me and the Revops genius, Jeff Ignacio.

Big thanks to the revenue leaders who gave us direction on this diagram - Connor Fee Multi-CRO, Tess Baldwin CRO at SixFifty, Robert Livada CRO, and Steven Dunston CRO at StackMoxie. 

NOTE: This initially started with more marketing-related reports, however, we only included the top 9 in this exercise.

Make sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletters to keep leveling up your knowledge, search RevOps Impact Newsletter on Google for Jeff’s newsletter, and The Marketing Operations Leader for my newsletter. 

#marketing #martech #marketingoperations #revops #CRO

Over a year ago, I predicted the future of ops would be conversational. 

I knew the large marketing automation players wouldn't be able to do it. 

But I knew someone else would. 

I was invited to beta-test Knak's AI campaign creation capabilities, and my take is: it's ready. 

William Gibson said, "The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed." 

And that's what I think about marketing. The future is already here, but not everyone is taking advantage of it.

Make sure to attend Knak's AI campaign creation launch event this week. Details in the comments via Nick Donaldson

#marketing #martech #marketingoperations #ai

Brand partnership • VP of Marketing Ops and Martech, Speaker

Sorry late notice everyone! 

We have an amazing marketing ops town hall where we'll dive into practical AI use cases for marketing ops. 

We'll have Lindsay Rothlisberger, Jomar Ebalida, Mike Rizzo and myself cover some awesome use cases, and we'll also open it up to the group to share what they've learned. 

See you all there, link in the comments to sign up to join us for free.

#marketing #martech #marketingoperations #ai

NEON Triforce

NEON Triforce exists for B2B scale-ups who have outgrown “heroic selling” and gut-feel dashboards – but don’t yet have a strategic RevOps engine to match their ambitions.

I work as a Fractional VP of RevOps for companies roughly between €15–150M who have grown quickly in headcount and revenue, and now feel the drag of complexity: more tools, more meetings, more initiatives… and less clarity.

Together, we install the Lean Revenue Factory:

– Four-capability scan – We score customer value from insights, revenue generation efficiency, enablement (people, tech, AI, data, ecosystem), and governance & execution from Level 1–4. This shows where the real constraint is and what “good” would look like in your business.

– One-page strategy – We put your 3–5 year goals, this year’s targets, the strategic programs, and accountable owners with KPIs on a single page that everyone can see and use.

– Revenue Insights Room – We design a single visual space where your leadership team lives with the same numbers every week: revenue metrics, funnel, customer signals, experiments and key risks.

– Operating cadence – We streamline your existing meetings into a quarterly, monthly and weekly rhythm that replaces status updates with decisions, experiments and follow-through.

My aim is not to camp inside your organisation. In 90 days we build and run the first version of the engine together, and then I coach your RevOps lead and GTM leadership so they can own and improve the system without me.

Typical results: clearer trade-offs, fewer zombie initiatives & meetings, and a revenue engine that finally feels like it matches the ambition in your board deck.

Founder

Winning by Design

The Winning by Design Ambassador Program is a tight knit community of like-minded GTM leaders, who embrace scientific, sustainable revenue growth at SaaS & Technology businesses.

We have mastered and apply the 6 models of Revenue Architecture to create profitable and fast scaling organizations.

Ambassador

Pavilion

Executive Member

I speak at events and guest on podcasts about applied innovation, digital strategy, marketing technology/operations, and more.

- MarTech World Forum London 2024
- Humans of MarTech 2024
- Ops Cast 2024 (5th most listened-to episode of the year!)
- IoT Tech Expo 2021
- Emerce 2019
- Live Webinar on Lean Startup 2015
- HR Top 100 2015
- Career Expo 2015

Public Speaker/Podcast guest

RevGenius

RevGenius is a group of revenue generating sales and marketing professionals brought together to learn, share, support, and grow with each other. You can consider us your alt work family!

Member

The Martech Weekly

Responsible for the agenda, speakers, and content for the Martech World Forum London 2024.

After a great event, we loved working together, so I stayed on to advise the Martech Weekly on new business and services development.

Content Lead Europe & Strategic Advisor

Feenstra

At Feenstra, I am working on a pivotal transition towards customer-centric sales and service delivery through the strategic selection, implementation, and utilization of novel Sales Tooling and Digital Experience Platform (DXP).

GTM Architect (via Conclusion)

Conclusion Consulting

As a GTM Operations Consultant at Conclusion Consulting, my mission is to devise and implement powerful strategies tailored to our clients' specific needs in their transformations.

Operating within a robust ecosystem of over 27 specialized companies, I foster interconnectedness and push the boundaries of innovation, utilizing technology to sculpt memorable customer journeys. 

At Conclusion Consulting, we redefine business futures through technology, and my goal is to ensure these futures are customer-centric, digitally optimized, and truly impactful.

GTM Operations Consultant

PostNL

In my role as Senior Program Manager Digital Transformation I worked directly with the CDO on the realization of PostNL's Digital strategy. As part of my activities I
• Directly managed the Digital portfolio (~25M) as portfolio manager for all Digital initiatives within PostNL (SAFE). This included new business models, consumer channels (app, website), consumer services, consumer data initiatives and customer journeys. 
• Challenged and coached product owners on solution direction, IT estimations, costs, benefits, expected NPS impact and more. This resulted in increased benefits and overall value of digital initiatives.
• Managed the Digital BU yearly strategic plan.
• Managed and collaborated in company wide strategic programs like Digital platform competitor scan, Digital vision, companywide IT roadmap prioritization, Digital Customer transformation and Customer Data Platform (CDP) in both B2B and B2C sphere.
• Built and managed relations with the Digital MT and other directors to facilitate the Digital strategy implementation.

Senior Program Manager Digital Transformation

Sia Partners

Within Sia Partners I was P&L responsible for the Marketing Technology unit and directly managed a team of Marketing Technology consultants (manager - junior). As manager Marketing Technology I sold and managed engagements including: 
• Digital marketing capability map and maturity assessment.
• Redesign of a marketing technology stack.
• Selection and global rollouts of new digital marketing platforms (CDP & DAM).
• Established a strategic personalization program.
Clients included: global shipbuilding, sportswear brand, FMCG and pharmaceutical companies.

Manager and practice lead Marketing Technology

Acquire and expand customers quicker, cheaper, and for longer | Coaches B2B scale-ups scale more efficiently and effectively through proven frameworks | Organizing the MarTech World Forum London 2024

If your board or investors ask simple revenue questions and three people disappear into Excel, you’re who I work with.

I help €15–150M B2B scale-ups build a strategic RevOps engine, the Lean Revenue Factory, so they can execute ambitious growth plans in 90 days without a reorg or hiring a full-time VP RevOps.

We always start the same way:
we run a 4-capability maturity scan, so we know where the real constraint is before we touch anything else:

1️⃣ Customer value from insights – how well you turn real customer insights into an improved experience.
2️⃣ Revenue generation efficiency – which motions actually make money, and where the funnel is leaking.
3️⃣ Enablement – people, tech, AI, data, and ecosystem as levers instead of friction.
4️⃣ Governance & execution – how fast you can refocus work when markets change.

Once we can see where you’re strong and where you’re stuck, we turn that insight into action through three simple structures:

One-page Strategy – your 3–5 year goals, this year’s targets, the key programs, and clear owners with KPIs for each.

One Revenue Insights Room – a single visual space where you see core revenue metrics, funnel, customer insights, experiments, and key risks.

One Operating Cadence – a lean rhythm of quarterly, monthly, and weekly meetings that replaces status calls with data-driven decisions and follow-through.

The capabilities tell us what to fix first.
The one-page strategy, Revenue Room, and cadence are how we actually fix it and keep it running.

I’m Rutger Katz, Fractional VP of RevOps. For 15+ years I’ve helped B2B and technology companies turn growth strategies and scattered data into shipped changes that show up in pipeline, win rates, and NRR – not just in slide decks.

The companies I work with are in the “messy middle”: past product–market fit, growing fast, and feeling the drag of complexity. 
They usually have a working sales & marketing engine (often after a funding round), lots of parallel initiatives, and low confidence that strategy, metrics, and weekly execution are truly in sync.

When the Lean Revenue Factory is in place, the result is simple:
- Clean, defensible numbers in front of your board and investors
- Clarity on where the pipeline is really leaking in minutes, not weeks
- A team that feels like a high-performance unit, not a group stuck in status meetings

If you recognize this and you want a strategic RevOps engine rather than yet another dashboard, let’s talk.

👉 Send me a message with the word REVOPS and I’ll share how a 90-day Lean Revenue Factory rollout could look for your company.

Rutger Katz

𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗷𝗼𝗯 𝗶𝗻 𝗕𝟮𝗕 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱.
Funny. I was doing the same work in 2012. We just called it something else, remember growth hacking?
 
CROs, if your board is asking why you haven't hired a GTM Engineer yet, here's what I'd tell them:
 
Twelve years ago I was implementing CDPs into B2C organisations.
 
Collecting signals from cookies. 
Storing customer truth in one place. 
Running personalisation based on everything we knew.
 
That's GTM Engineering. We just didn't call it that.
 
Clay is basically a CDP for B2B. It collects external signals and enriches what you already have. Only difference is you're storing customer truth in your CRM instead of the platform itself.
 
Intent data enrichment? We called that behavioural scoring. 
Personalised sequences at scale? That was Martech automation.
 
B2B copies B2C. Always has. Just with a 10-year lag and fancier job titles.
 
GTM Engineering isn't a new discipline.
 
It's the experimentation layer of Revenue Operations. Always has been.
 
The reason most RevOps teams never got to it? They were drowning in dashboard requests and firefighting.
 
So before you hire a GTM Engineer, ask yourself:
 
Does my RevOps team have room to breathe?
 
If the answer is no, that's your first fix. 
One dashboard for leadership. 
Hard stop on out-of-scope builds. 
80% building value, 20% max on firefighting.
 
Do that, and you don't need a separate hire.
 
You need the team you already have. With space to actually experiment.
 
 
𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺'𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄?

Rutger Katz 🏎️

I architect trusted pipeline, forecasts & NRR to scale €20–100M B2B SaaS | From GTM fire drills to a revenue engine you can steer in 90 days 🏎️ | Fractional VP of RevOps

The worst feeling in SaaS:
 
Huge pipeline. Missed target. Again.
 
Here's the pattern I see with every founder past €5M ARR:
 
They're targeting €5M this quarter. 
They've got €20M in pipeline. 
They're converting 20%.
 
That's €4M. They miss.
 
So what's the reflex?
 
"We need more pipeline."
 
I've watched founders double down on this for 6 months straight. 
More outbound. More content. More events. 
The CRM looks like a crime scene. 
The sales team is drowning in demos they'll never close.
 
And conversion stays flat at 20%.
 
Because if your conversion is broken, more pipeline just means you're burning CAC faster on deals you'll never win.
 
It's like hiring more waiters when the kitchen's on fire. Everyone's very busy. Nothing's getting served.
 
𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀:
 
𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁, 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲.
 
That €20M is contaminated. Zombie deals. Wrong-fit ICPs. Opportunities your reps keep "nurturing" because killing feels like losing.
 
Cut it to €15M. Same target. Less noise.
 
Now you're converting 27% instead of 20%. Same €4M. Way less waste.
 
𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗽𝘂𝘀𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝟲 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀.
 
Fix the handoffs. Sharpen the enablement. Give people clear next actions instead of dashboards they never open.
 
33% of €15M = €5M.
 
Target hit. Zero extra pipeline required.
 
𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀. 
Not dashboards. Not Salesforce janitor work.
 
It turns pipeline chaos into a system that compounds.
 
Most founders skip it. They hire ABM consultants or Clay gurus instead. Then wonder why two quarters later they're still missing the target with twice the CAC.
 
Same pattern every time:
 
They think it's a pipeline problem. It's a conversion problem. 
They think it's a people problem. It's a system problem.
 
If you're past €5M ARR and this feels familiar, there's a 10-minute diagnostic in my featured section Rutger Katz 🏎️ .
 
It shows you where your revenue is actually leaking and what not to touch yet.
 
If it's worth going deeper, we book 45 minutes and make it practical.

Move pipeline is not the answer, RevOps is

𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘇𝗲𝗿𝗼 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆.
 
Fifteen years in (mostly) enterprise consulting. Big logos. Comfortable relationships.
 
Then I pivoted to scale-ups.
 
Nobody knew me. I knew nobody.
 
So I did some very uncomfortable things (for me):
 
• Joined Pavilion 
• Took courses where my ICP hangs out
• Went to events where my ICP hangs out and network
• Posting more on LinkedIn 
• Started designing my content 
• Openly sharing frameworks in progress
 
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱:

→ Multiple people want to work with me
→ Get asked to pitch to a €500M company
→ Deep conversations about launching an agency 
→ Built an event concept before I had a single client (#2 in April)
→ Just agreed to co-create a podcast, educational series, and newsletter on human systems within organizational systems with a fellow Neuroscientist. Recording in Jan.
 
None of this was in the plan (except working with people).
 
All of it came from showing up consistently and being incredibly open about who I am and what I want to do.
 
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻:
 
Network before you need it. 
Build before you sell it. 
The opportunities find you when you stop hiding and start being yourself.
 
2026 is going to be fun.

I've known I have ADD since university. Ritalin to finish papers. Five years to find a degree that actually held my attention, then finished in record speed.
 
At some point I thought: if my brain won't work the way it's supposed to, I'm going to figure out why.
 
So I studied neuroscience. Did my thesis on why high intelligence and ADD, ADHD, autism, dyslexia travel together so often. Spoiler: it's by design. 

Built VR illusions. Programmed agentic AI in social robots. This was 15 years ago.
 
Turns out my brain wasn't broken. It just needed harder problems.
 
Didn't stop me spending years trying to find the right fit though. I always wanted to work with the big brands for the prestige.
 
So I did. Unilever. Adidas. Lego. Nike.
 
Not as glamorous as you'd think.
 
The bigger the organisation, the less impact you can have. More layers. More approvals. More "let's align on this next quarter."
 
Wrong structures. Wrong assignments. Wrong problems to solve.
 
Eventually I asked the obvious question: why do I keep doing this?
 
Honestly? I was scared. Kept hoping I'd find a consultancy that got it. A safe haven where I could do the work I wanted without going it alone.
 
Spoiler: that place doesn't exist.
 
The only times I was actually happy were building something new. Models, frameworks, a huge innovation lab.
 
Solving complex puzzles. Like designing a three-year roadmap in two months that aligned marketing, sales, customer success, finance, and tech. The solution even won an award.
 
Complex systems with multiple moving parts. Seeing how it all fits together. Twisting the knobs and dials until the whole thing runs like an efficient machine. That moment when the puzzle clicks.
 
That's what keeps me buzzing.
 
That's why I 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 RevOps. Why I build whole systems, not point solutions. Why scale-ups make sense and enterprises don't.
 
This year I stopped looking for permission.
 
Now I choose the work. Scale-ups. Founders. RevOps teams with 50 browser tabs open who thrive on solving a different problem every day.
 
People whose brains work like mine.
 
Building systems that fit how they actually think instead of forcing them into structures that don't.
 
 
If this hit something, I'd love to hear your story.

I architect trusted pipeline, forecasts & NRR to grow €20–100M B2B SaaS | From GTM fire drills to a revenue engine you can steer in 90 days 🏎️ | Fractional VP of RevOps

The RevOps job description: "Drive alignment across revenue teams."

The actual job: Professional translator between three teams who speak different languages while being a part-time firefighter.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗖𝗥𝗢𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀:

• Drive alignment across Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success
• Create data-driven decision making culture
• Build scalable processes and attribution models
• Provide accurate forecasting and pipeline insights
• Be the strategic backbone of revenue growth

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀:

• Asked to "drive alignment" with zero authority or agency
• Sales won't log activities. Marketing won't tag campaigns. CS won't record churn reasons.
• CRO wants "one source of truth" while Sales calls prospects "opportunities" and Marketing calls downloads "MQLs"
• "Can you pull that data real quick?" means 6 systems, 4 hours of data cleanup, and 1 breakdown
• Expected to forecast pipeline accuracy when reps log "sent follow-up email" for every activity
• Blamed when deals are missing from forecast. Nobody mentions the 47 unlogged conversations.
• Your tech stack is 23 tools held together with Zapier and sheer determination
• Everyone wants their own dashboard. 
• Budget for tools: unlimited. Budget for people: $0.
• Leadership decides to "completely rebuild Salesforce" during peak selling season
• Explaining why MQL ≠ SQL for the 73rd time while Marketing argues their leads are "sales ready"
• Sales and Marketing blame each other in Slack. You're the permanent referee.
• "Why is our attribution model broken?" Because nobody follows the campaign tracking process you built.
• Asked to analyze deal velocity while half the pipeline sits in "Discovery" for 8 months
• Invisible when revenue hits target. First person blamed when it doesn't.
• Family thinks you "work in sales." LinkedIn thinks you're "in IT."
• Expected to be the "strategic backbone" while fielding requests like "can you make this field required?"

You're basically preventing revenue chaos with pivot tables and the occasional stress cry in your car.

The person keeping your entire revenue engine from falling apart probably needs more than a Zapier subscription and good vibes.

🫠

Most senior RevOps managers think the path to VP is doing what they're already doing, but better.
It's not.

Stop building more dashboards. Faster turnarounds. Cleaner data.
 
I've watched really good operators get stuck at senior manager for years because they kept optimising the wrong thing. They were brilliant at running the system. But nobody promotes you to VP for running a system. They promote you for owning outcomes.
 
The jump from senior to VP isn't a skills gap. It's an identity shift.
 
Here's what actually changes:
 
1. Learn to Speak CFO
2. Own a Number, Not Just a System
3. Have a Point of View on Strategy
4. Build Your Replacement
5. Make the CRO Look Good (Visibly)
6. Own the Board Narrative
7. Stop Being Helpful, Start Being Essential
8. Think Portfolio, Not Projects
9. Get Comfortable With Ambiguity
 
I've broken each of these down in the visual below.
 
Some of these have nothing to do with how good you are at RevOps. 
They're about visibility, positioning, and learning to operate in rooms where not everyone is rooting for you.
 
Nobody tells you that part.
 
But if you want the title, you need to play the game. Not in a slimy way. Just with your eyes open.
 
You don't get promoted for clearing the inbox faster.
 
♻️ Repost if this resonates with someone on your team 
Which of these is the hardest shift for you?

If I were a CRO planning for efficient growth in 2026, I'd fix these 5 leaks first.

Not pipeline problems.
Not underperforming reps.
Not your lack of AI.

The actual leaks draining millions. With fixes that don't require a re-org.

The five leaks:

𝟭. 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝘁𝘆 𝗙𝘂𝗲𝗹 - ICP, motions, and pricing misalignment
𝟮. 𝗕𝗿𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 - Same metric, five different numbers
𝟯. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗳𝗳𝘀 - Leads stall, customers lose interest
𝟰. 𝗜𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗥𝗵𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗺 - Meetings multiply, decisions don't
𝟱. 𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀 - Churn leadership, ignore the system

Swipe through the images for the full breakdown of each.

See the pattern?

Most scale-ups blame the wrong things. The CRM. The reps. Marketing. Sales. Each other.

Then they schedule another meeting to talk about it.

What they don't do is get in a room together and go after the actual leak.

Each of these has a fix. None require a re-org.

Most companies will read this, nod, and go back to blaming their newly appointed CMO.

The ones that don't will fix the actual problem.

If you want to identify which leak is hitting you hardest, I put together a 10-minute diagnostic. 

Link in my featured section -> Rutger Katz 🏎️ .

5 revenue leaks

𝗜'𝗺 𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀.
 
Can't do cold calls. Won't send "just checking in" emails. Pitching makes me physically uncomfortable.
 
January 2024: I knew almost nobody in my target market. 
No warm intros. No pipeline. No network worth mentioning.
 
December 2024: Actually making progress.
 
What changed wasn't that I became a salesperson. I decided to build things instead of sell things.
 
I built a diagnostic tool that shows CROs exactly where they're leaking revenue. 
Frameworks that prove I actually know what I'm talking about. 
Posts that demonstrate "here's how I'd fix this" instead of begging "hire me please."
 
I even organized a joint HubSpot event before I had a single client booked. 
Not because I had something to sell. 
Because I had something to say.
And we're doing it again in 4 months. 
 
My revolutionary sales strategy? 
Meeting people at events like Pavilion and SaaSiest 
Manually connecting with people on LinkedIn. 
Commenting on their posts. 
Having actual conversations about their problems.
 
No pitches. No follow-up sequences. No "circling back."
 
It's painfully slow. But it's working.
 
A few weeks ago, I shared my new framework with a Pavilion member during an introduction. 
Something I'd finished a week earlier.
 
They instantly wanted to pitch me to their CRO of a $500M SaaS company.
 
Not because I asked her to. Because she saw something useful and wanted to connect it to someone who needed it.
 
That's the thing I missed for years. The people who've seen your work and understand the value want to help. Want to make connections. Want to follow up.
 
You just need enough of them to make the math work.
 
Turns out you don't need to be good at traditional sales if you're good at building things people actually want to talk about.
It just takes a little longer 😅
 
 
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻? 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲?

Most “pipeline problems” in €10–50M B2B SaaS are not pipeline problems.
They are fuel problems.
 
If everyone can buy, no one is ICP.  
And when ICP, motions, and pricing don’t match, every deal feels uphill and CAC quietly explodes.
 
𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗲
(If these feel familiar, the leak is already open wide)

• Everyone who buys is “ICP”. No tiers, no clear no-go list.
• Low fit deals clog the funnel while obvious high fit wins get ignored.
• Discounts and one-off exceptions show up in almost every deal.
 
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻
 
• Nobody has made hard choices on who you serve, how you sell, and on what terms.
• Motions do not match deal size or complexity, they all blend together.
• Pricing and qualification rules are vague, so every team improvises.
 
𝗙𝗶𝘅 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗲𝗹 𝗺𝗶𝘅 𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻
 
• Bring in Marketing, Sales, CS, and Finance into one 60 minute segment review
• Identify 1–3 "clean fuel" segments that feel light to sell, onboard, and expand.
• Turn them into A, B, C tiers plus a simple no-go list, each with one primary motion and SLA.
• Set pricing rules per tier: list price, discount floors, who can approve exceptions.
• Review win rate, cycle time, and NRR by tier every quarter and adjust the map.
 
This is the foundation every other motion sits on.

ICP should not mean "I Can Pay". It should mean "𝗜 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆"
 
In most GTM reviews I run with €10–30M SaaS, this single leak hides 𝟮𝟬-𝟰𝟬% 𝗖𝗔𝗖 𝘄𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲.  Fix the fuel and a lot of “pipeline problems” disappear.

I turned this into a 𝗼𝗻𝗲-𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝗲𝗹 𝗠𝗮𝗽 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗲𝘁 plus a 𝟲𝟬 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝗲𝗹 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽 I run with GTM leadership teams. 
If these signals look familiar and you want the worksheet (and a peek at how I run the session), comment 𝗙𝗨𝗘𝗟 and I’ll send it over.

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿  
This is 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝟭 𝗼𝗳 𝟱 in my Revenue Engine Leak series.  
Next up: 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘶𝘦 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘬 2 – 𝘎𝘢𝘳𝘣𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘋𝘢𝘵𝘢 𝘷𝘴 𝘊𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘚𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘴.  
Follow me to see the whole set🔔.

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝟭𝟱 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘇𝗲𝗿𝗼.

Every CXO I know has the same full calendar. 
Back-to-back meetings from 9 to 6. Barely time to think. And somehow, at the end of the week, almost nothing got decided.

Monday: pipeline review. Tuesday: forecast call. Wednesday: strategy sync. Thursday: initiative kickoff. Friday: retro on why nothing moved.

Rinse. Repeat. Nothing changes.

Here's the thing. Once your org hits 70+ people, this gets exponentially harder. More people need to align. More opinions in every room. Less focus on what actually matters. When everyone grabs the wheel, the car veers off course.

Leadership announces a new priority. Teams scramble. Another priority lands before the first one finishes. Old initiatives never die. New ones keep stacking. Nobody believes anything will stick.

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝘂𝗽:

• Meetings end without decisions, owners, or dates.
• Priority list has 10+ items. Everything is urgent. Nothing moves.
• New tools and re-orgs arrive monthly. Old ones never stop.
• Calendar is packed. Output is flat.
• Teams stop trusting the next program.

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗿𝗵𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗺 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻

• No operating cadence. Weekly, monthly, quarterly blur together.
• No core meetings for performance, planning, and customer insight.
• No work-in-progress caps. Anyone can start projects. Nobody stops them.
• Priorities get defined in meetings, not in a system.
• Decisions aren't logged. Same debates restart monthly.

𝗙𝗶𝘅 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗵𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗺 𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿

60-minute session with your leadership team:

1. Define three core revenue meetings: Weekly Performance, Monthly Steering, Quarterly Strategy.
2. Give each meeting one job. Performance review. Decision-making. Planning. Not all three.
3. Then structure each around: Purpose, Product (of the meeting), Participants, Probable issues, Process.
4. Set work-in-progress caps per team and company-wide.
5. Create a visible Decision Log. Choices get tracked, not lost.

One hour to design it. One quarter to lock it in.

According to Salesforce, Fellow and Harvard Business Review, proper meeting structures save account executives 5 hours per week on average. That's not just OpEx savings. That's 5 hours per rep chasing actual revenue.

No new tools. No consultants. Just a simple rhythm everyone can follow.

—

If your calendar is full and your pipeline is stuck, this is for you.

Comment RHYTHM, and I'll send you the cadence design playbook. The three meeting structures, the WIP cap framework, and the Decision Log template that stops debates from restarting every month.

Leak 4 of 5 in my Revenue Engine series. Leak 3 and 4 go hand in hand. Check that and the rest of the series via my profile https://lnkd.in/ew9FxTkZ

I don't care about:
 
• How fast you're growing
• How many logos you closed
• How sophisticated your stack is
 
I care about:
 
• Do you know w͟h͟y you're winning?
• Can your team run w͟i͟t͟h͟o͟u͟t you in the room?
• Are you building to s͟c͟a͟l͟e, or just adding more FTE?

Everyone's talking about neuroscience OR organizational design. Almost nobody's combining them. 
That's costing you revenue and people.

Your GTM org attracts pattern-spotters and system obsessives. 

Then you drop them into environments designed to destroy that capacity.

Unclear decision rights. Context switching every 15 minutes. Three dashboards telling three different stories. Six priorities, which means zero.

You're burning cognitive fuel on navigation instead of execution.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲:

→ Ambiguous decision rights. Every decision gets escalated because nobody knows who owns it.
→ Context switching. Every switch burns 20+ minutes to refocus. Back-to-back meetings guarantee shallow thinking.
→ Conflicting data. Three dashboards, three truths, endless reconciliation.
→ WIP overload. Running six transformations. Finishing none well.

Result? Your best people burn out. Your systems stay broken.

𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝘅𝗲𝘀:

𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸.
One owner per decision type. Clear criteria. No more rehashing last week's "decisions."

𝗪𝗜𝗣 𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘁.
Three priorities. Finish them. Then three more. Sounds obvious. Nobody does it.

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺, 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵.
Single source of data. Same definitions everywhere.

If your operating environment sucks, so will your people.

Fix the system. Performance follows.

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The Battle

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