The Revenue Growth Architects

00:00 Introduction

01:01 Is Attribution data divisive? Is it the data's fault or is it a people problem?

21:26 GTM or GTFO: reacting to a video on measurement

31:18 What term should we use: funnel, lifecycle, pipeline or something else?

Hear more from us:

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Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.cs2marketing.com/revenue-growth-architects#subscribe-to-newsletter

Follow Crissy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crveteresaunders/

Follow Charlie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesaunders/

Follow Xander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xanderbroeffle/

00:00 Introduction

01:02 GTM/Marketing/Rev Ops is Escalating in Complexity

18:12 Is Linkedin Beef a good GTM Strategy?

31:50 When in the sales process should you create an Opportunity?

Hear more from us:

Subscribe to us on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN-x5u0G03LWmU0Ds_4zR8w

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.cs2marketing.com/revenue-growth-architects#subscribe-to-newsletter

Follow Crissy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crveteresaunders/

Follow Charlie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesaunders/

Follow Xander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xanderbroeffle/

00:00 Intro

01:16 Funnel Attribution vs. Multi-touch Attribution

11:32 How to avoid the credit game drama between marketing and sales

17:59 The different biases

20:49 The data structure needed for each type

30:34 Which type to start with

34:33 Can you use multi-touch attribution data for funnel metrics reporting?

Hear more from us:

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Follow Crissy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crveteresaunders/

Follow Charlie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesaunders/

Follow Xander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xanderbroeffle/

Check out Charlie's latest chat with the crew from the RevOps Champions podcast. They talk about:

- What is GTM Ops

- The unfulfilled promise of RevOps

- Data, reporting, and attribution

- And lots more!

Hear more from us:

Subscribe to us on Youtube!

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.cs2marketing.com/revenue-growth-architects#subscribe-to-newsletter

Follow Crissy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crveteresaunders/

Follow Charlie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesaunders/

Follow Xander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xanderbroeffle/

Struggling to get a complete view of your different GTM motions and their performance? You can report on marketing MQLs ok, but not on Outbound, Partner, Account-Based, or Customer Expansion?

Crissy breaks down unifying your GTM data and shows a couple examples.

Want to see what she is sharing? Check out the YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/Nlm6qL7dwQY

Hear more from us:

Subscribe to us on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN-x5u0G03LWmU0Ds_4zR8w

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.cs2marketing.com/revenue-growth-architects#subscribe-to-newsletter

Follow Crissy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crveteresaunders/

Follow Charlie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesaunders/

Follow Xander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xanderbroeffle/

00:00 Intro

01:35 The biggest UTM mistakes companies make

13:59 What we have learned deploying 15 Lifecycle/funnel custom objects into complex B2B SaaS Salesforce environments

30:38 How to level up how you communicate and interact with leadership if you're in GTM Ops

Hear more from us:

Subscribe to us on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN-x5u0G03LWmU0Ds_4zR8w

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Follow Crissy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crveteresaunders/

Follow Charlie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesaunders/

Follow Xander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xanderbroeffle/

Crissy sat down with Finn on The Founder-Led Marketing Show and had a wide-ranging conversation on:

- How to Build a GTM Ops Team

- How to Track a Buyer Funnel

- How to Build Unified Reporting

- And lots more!

Hear more from us:

Subscribe to us on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN-x5u0G03LWmU0Ds_4zR8w

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Follow Crissy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crveteresaunders/

Follow Charlie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesaunders/

Follow Xander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xanderbroeffle/

If you're leading any of the GTM teams (marketing, sales, customer success) this is for you. Or if you're working in these teams (or in an ops team) and need to get leadership onboard with focusing on GTM ops send this video to them today.

00:00 Intro

00:06 Top 3 CMO Struggles

00:21 Top 3 CRO Struggles

00:30 The pains and GTM Ops focus

01:20 1st reason

01:59 2nd reason

02:14 3rd reason

02:46 4th reason

03:21 5th reason

Hear more from us:

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Follow Crissy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crveteresaunders/

Follow Charlie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesaunders/

Follow Xander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xanderbroeffle/

Account-Based Marketing has been the rage for several years now. And over and over again we see leadership pushing the teams to operationalize an Account Funnel while underinvesting in the Person Funnel.

This isn't the way. For 3 reasons. And Crissy breaks down why.

00:00 Intro

00:27 First Reason

01:35 Second Reason

02:48 Third Reason

Hear more from us:

Subscribe to us on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN-x5u0G03LWmU0Ds_4zR8w

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Follow Crissy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crveteresaunders/

Follow Charlie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesaunders/

Follow Xander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xanderbroeffle/

We're back with Charlie, Crissy, and Xander discussing some of the biggest questions in B2B SaaS GTM.

00:00 Intro

00:27 Discussion on the newest outbound tools (e.g. Clay)

18:54 What people get wrong with ABM and how we define ABM vs. Account-Based Operations

37:49 Our new Go-To-Market Operations Framework

Hear more from us:

Subscribe to us on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN-x5u0G03LWmU0Ds_4zR8w

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.cs2marketing.com/revenue-growth-architects#subscribe-to-newsletter

Follow Crissy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crveteresaunders/

Follow Charlie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesaunders/

Follow Xander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xanderbroeffle/

Charlie joins the RevOps Lab podcast to talk about tracking funnel metrics across the entire marketing and sales funnel.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

- How a CRM can help you with tracking and if it is the only source of truth

- Which potholes to avoid

- How the reporting is done with a custom object

https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesaunders/

RevOps Letter: https://www.getweflow.com/revopsletter

Janis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippstelzer/

Philipp on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janiszech/

Weflow: https://www.getweflow.com/

Stop the chaos! Why is it that every marketing automation platform we audit, whether it's Marketo, Hubspot, or Pardot, has every automation firing at once? Why is it that the order of operations is never factored in, so there are sync issues, routing issues, and super slow speed to lead?

Well, it's because few people realize that you need to architect Marketo, Hubspot, or Pardot in a particular way.

Xander will explain all in this episode.

If you want to hear more from us:

Subscribe to us on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN-x5u0G03LWmU0Ds_4zR8w

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.cs2marketing.com/revenue-growth-architects#subscribe-to-newsletter

Follow Crissy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crveteresaunders/

Follow Charlie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesaunders/

Follow Xander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xanderbroeffle/

Every B2B company has a funnel tracking process. And quite often, that process is seriously limited or broken.

Leads get lost, data is inaccurate, and businesses struggle to produce insights and accurate reporting.

I've seen this first hand, and so has this week's guest - Charlie Saunders. We've both spent years as consultants fixing broken funnels.

In this episode, we talk about the many reasons funnel tracking goes wrong and dive deep into the architecture of the scalable solution Charlie's team has developed.

Check out more episodes of Justin's podcast here: https://revops.fm/

If you want to hear more from us:

Subscribe to us on Youtube!

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.cs2marketing.com/revenue-growth-architects#subscribe-to-newsletter

Follow Crissy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crveteresaunders/

Follow Charlie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesaunders/

Follow Xanderon LinkedIn: lhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/xanderbroeffle/

Crissy joined the Collective Wisdom podcast by Demand Collective to discuss how marketers should architect their revenue process and marketing campaigns.

Crissy joins the Attribution Time podcast to share her perspective on all things attribution.

Crissy joined the Humans of Martech Podcast in a wide-ranging discussion.

The discussion explored the evolution from tactical management to strategic leadership, and the adaptation to changing marketing strategies.

Also, the significance of specialized platforms in marketing automation, the critical role of the sales funnel in revenue growth, the shift in email marketing towards ‘inbox influence’, and revitalizing outbound marketing strategies.

This episode is a concise yet profound guide, offering actionable insights for martech professionals to navigate their careers and strategies effectively.

Charlie and Crissy joined Chris Walker on the Revenue Vitals podcast to talk through the intricaies of funnel/pipeline architecture vs. MT attribution.

The conversation spotlights the foundational importance of understanding how funnel tracking sets the stage for a company's go-to-market success, transcending mere marketing analytics.

The discussion provides a nuanced exploration into the stark differences between funnel tracking and multitouch attribution. While both concepts play vital roles within a company's data-driven decision-making processes, they each serve distinct purposes.

Chris, Charlie, and Crissy dissect common missteps companies face, emphasizing the need for a strong, actionable understanding of buyer progression and sales optimization.

Crissy joined the Operations With Sean Lane podcast to share her thoughts on consulting vs. in-house for ops professionals.

They discuss how consultants have many more data points and companies they’re exposed to so their ability to find patterns and create frameworks is accelerated at an unfairly high rate. And she shares the frameworks she has used consulting over 100 high growth B2B tech companies.

What do you do after recording more than 200 episodes of a podcast?

Take a break!

In all seriousness, we have decided to take a quick hiatus from delivering new episodes weekly for a bit while we focus on a fresh new strategy for our content and what we add to this podcast channel.

It’s been a pleasure to deliver valuable insights and actions on go-to-market operations and strategy to you every week (since 2019!). But right now we just feel like it might be time to shake it up a bit.

In the meantime, we will be sharing past recordings we have done for other podcasts that we thought you would love.

Stay tuned for what is next from us and we’d love for you to stay subscribed here to make sure you don’t miss future updates. And we also ask that you follow us on YouTube for any new video content we put out in the meantime.

And if you are a fan and want to send us a special note and inquire on what is next - email us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

You’ve identified a large amount of accounts that are a good fit for your business and fit your ICP. Now what? That’s where account tiering comes in.

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re taking a look at how to use account tiers and how it can be an effective tool for prioritizing accounts, as well as defining what the strategy will be from marketing and sales for those accounts.

We’ll dive into defining your Ideal Customer Profile, then venture into thinking about layering your accounts into three types: key accounts, valuable accounts, and programmatic accounts. And then we will cover how to maintain and use these account tiers long-term.

Tune in to learn how to get the most out of your account-based Go to Market strategy with tiered accounts.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

Documentation is the silent hero of operations, particularly when it’s done well. Yet many operators skip this step altogether.

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re sharing our top 3 tips for creating documentation so that you don’t skip it and people will actually use it!

We’ll discuss why documentation and project management are different, why your documentation practice should start with a good old-fashioned document, and how best to organize your various documentation so that someone looking for it can find it and make sense of it.

Whether you’re a full-on documentation pro or just beginning to appreciate the satisfaction that one can derive from proper documentation, we’ve got tips to help you up-level your Rev Ops documentation processes in this episode.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

Despite the naysayers predicting its untimely demise, lead scoring as a buyer prioritization tool still has a lot of life left. But if you’re going to score your leads, you better do it the right way.

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we identify three of the most common lead scoring mistakes folks tend to make and (crucially) what you can do to avoid them.

For starters, we’ll look at why lead scoring should actually be viewed more as buyer prioritization and has less to do with just their activity and should be more aligned to the fit and buyer intent. We’ll also answer why having the proper data is key for lead scoring and why you should be iterating and improving your lead scoring efforts over time. Tune into this episode for a primer on lead scoring best practices guaranteed to make this prioritization tool one of the sharpest in your marketing ops arsenal.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

How’s your handle on the differences between funnel metrics and multi-touch attribution? We see a lot of confused marketers confidently referring to one when they actually mean the other, and we think it’s high time to set the record straight.

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re quickly (in around 10 minutes) demystifying the confusion around funnel metrics and multi-touch attribution by discussing five key differences. These include how funnel metrics and MT attribution are measured, what they’re best at, the biases each introduces into your data, and how difficult each is to track and analyze. Tune into this episode to finally (and completely) understand the differences between funnel metrics and multi-touch attribution.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

If you feel like an order taker, simply responding reactively to incoming requests rather than taking the time to think strategically, or you struggle to get anything “valuable” completed at your org, a RevOps roadmap might be what you’re missing.

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re working through how to build out a RevOps roadmap that is going to be valuable to the business but also can be executed efficiently by you, your team, or your shared resources effectively. We will talk you through the same process we use when we engage our own CS2 clients and how you can copy it yourself. Tune into this episode to learn how to build a rev ops road map that supports your goals and makes you feel accomplished when you look back later.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

If you look at open roles in marketing operations today you will see a slew of senior manager or director titles. All of which have a mile long list of responsibilities but that is another story. If you try to look for anything VP level or above it seems like it is non-existent. So this begs the question: Is a senior-level role realistically in the cards if you stick to marketing ops, or do you need to pivot to a different kind of position to fulfill your professional goals?

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we debate whether marketing ops does indeed have a career ceiling. We’ll take a look at why it might, why roles at different size companies matter, and what other career paths might make more sense for those in Ops looking to go up the ladder. Tune into this episode to ensure you’re cultivating the right approach to your marketing ops career path.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

With two hundred episodes officially under our belts, you’d think we’d take a victory lap. Not so! Instead, we’re taking episode 200 as a time for reflection on our marketing ops blunders, gut-wrenching mistakes, and embarrassing moments.

From botched mass email sends to public speaking freeze-ups to Marketo interesting moments gone wrong, are you even doing marketing ops if you haven’t experienced a pulse-quickening mishap from time to time? Tune into this episode to learn from our mistakes and find some commiseration for yours.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

Working in RevOps can be an extremely rewarding career path, but it can also be fraught with difficulties and frustrations that can get in the way of those operators succeeding in their role or simply just enjoying it too!

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re facing down three harsh truths about working in RevOps and discussing the best ways to navigate them. Whether you’re a veteran or just taking your first steps into a rev ops career, tune into this episode to learn how to tackle these common problems.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

Over the past 9 years of running CS2, we have worked on A LOT of funnel projects. So much so that funnel architecture is a key foundational area where we feel like we drive the most impact for clients. Why? Because most of the time organizations are not doing it the right way and we have truly taken the time to figure out the best way to operationalize the funnel and what small things should be avoided for better adoption.

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re taking you through rebuilding the funnel from scratch—and how to do it the right way. We’re getting rid of endless lists of acronyms that require a collection of footnotes to understand. We’re defining conversion points with clearly demonstrated value. And best of all, we’re doing all of it in a way that anyone in your business can easily comprehend.

Tune into this episode to learn how to build a funnel that your revenue team will adopt and your whole organization clearly understands.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

Recency Bias. Bad data. Form Friction. There are plenty of reasons to question the usefulness of self-reported attribution. In fact, Charlie once believed self-reported attribution to be pointless. So what made him change his tune?

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re reconsidering self-reported attribution to find out what turned Charlie from cynic to supporter. We’ll debunk our previous criticism and discuss why if you're doing great marketing that engages your buyers, they should want to tell you.

Tune into this episode to find out why self-reported attribution may help you fill an important insight gap.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

Building out an SDR team is costly, and frequently results in an organizational focus on keeping that team busy—not driving revenue. Partner that with the advance of AI tools and a shift in the way businesses are handling their outbound sales efforts and the traditional role of the SDR feels less clear than ever.

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects we’re critically analyzing the role of the SDR on modern sales teams. We discuss why trusting junior folks to nurture your best leads doesn’t make sense, why SDRs could be more effective in a hybrid marketing role, and why the right move might be investing those resources in other programs altogether.

Tune into this episode to find out why it may be time to critically rethink the role of the SDR in your business.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

How often have you followed up with your SDRs and discovered that the prospects they were reaching out to based on content syndication efforts didn’t actually remember that white paper or perhaps never downloaded it in the first place? Everyone seems to agree that content syndication doesn’t really work. So why are we all still doing it?

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re going to get to the bottom of why so many marketing teams are still using this strategy despite lackluster conversion rates. And what you might be doing operationally to also further perpetuate the problem and what you can suggest your team does to ensure it can be successful if they still want to invest.

Tune into this episode to rethink content syndication and discover what alternatives will actually yield the results you’re looking for.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

Ready or not, 2024 is here! What is on your 2024 roadmap? Does it include partner program operations? Or are you tackling your email strategy and deliverability? Or are you prioritizing a new AI project?

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re looking at all these topics and more as we count down the nine marketing ops topics and projects that are top of mind for our clients heading into 2024. Find out how we’re thinking about customer retention, ops team convergence, custom object funnel tracking, and much more for 2024.

Tune into this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects for insight into where companies are and should be investing their resources in operations this year.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

What’s the best marketing automation platform? It wasn’t that long ago that when clients were looking for an enterprise grade solution they did not consider Hubspot. At CS2, for example, migrating clients from Hubspot to Marketo was commonplace.

It seems the times are changing and Hubspot has stepped up to the plate to become a more robust platform that fit’s a company’s needs even as businesses grow beyond those early start-up stages. Particularly in the last year, there’s less and less of a reason to move off of Hubspot.

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we ask if Hubspot is now positioned to unseat Marketo as the top marketing automation platform. To add fuel to the fire, we’ll discuss how Hubspot CRM is giving Salesforce a run for its money as well.

Tune in for a thorough discussion on Hubspot that might make you rethink your preferred marketing automation platform.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

Third-party intent data is a buzz-worthy topic in B2B marketing and sales, but is it useful intelligence or so much snake oil? In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re sifting through an industry report and our own anecdotes to think critically about third-party intent data.

Gain insight into the challenges of using third-party intent data effectively, learn the results of a revealing MIT research report that may shed some light on the subject, and find out what transformed our initial excitement into skepticism.

Tune in for this investigation on third-party intent data to understand if it’s a useful tool in your operations tool kit or a data source with a lot of drawbacks.

Read the MIT report referenced in this episode: "Is first- or third-party audience data more effective for reaching the ‘right’ customers? The case of IT decision-makers".

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

This episode is an interesting one folks! Listen in and hear Xander, Crissy, and Charlie debate on the best way to operationalize account stages for ABM.

Defining the stages for a person funnel is easy. We have that nailed down. But nailing down the BEST way to handle account stages is still a new area where we are evolving our thinking on how to advise on the best way to set it up for most organizations. To date its been more bespoke based on the client and their goals.

During our debate, we tackle everything from what the account stages SHOULD be, how your person funnel can play a role in setting them up, why ABM tool stages are not the same as account stages, and what metrics your leadership actually wants to see and how the account stages and potential account status or tier can help support that as well.

So tune in for an episode and see us battle-test our thoughts and see if it might change the way you think on account stages as well!

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

Over the last year, there has been an over-reliance on using email as a channel from budget-starved marketers because it’s “free” and is the quickest way to get in front of potential buyers.

But what are the hidden costs of bad email practices? Are buyers numb to email since it’s so oversaturated? And are you hurting your brand and deliverability more than the small returns you get from your “spray-and-pray” tactics?

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re rethinking B2B email strategy as the world heads into 2024 and how to adjust your tactics and engagement tracking knowing email is much harder to master and also with new guidelines from Yahoo and Gmail coming in February 2024 for bulk email senders so they can ensure their messages are getting delivered.

Tune in for an episode filled with tips on how to get the whole revenue team to improve how they approach email sending and ensure you start to see more success with it in the next year.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

Marketing teams are working furiously to fulfill MQL quotas as the end of the year swiftly approaches. But are MQLs the best metric to determine your marketing team’s performance? What other metrics might provide a better indicator of the health of your business and the success of your campaigns?

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re breaking the MQL myth that more MQLs = hitting your revenue goals. We’ve packed this episode with discussions from how demand capture is not brand-building to why some sources like content syndication have such low conversion rates and what you’re better off doing instead. And we’re going deep on why focusing too much on MQLs over other metrics will lead you astray.

Tune in to this episode and find out how to use other funnel metrics that tie directly to opportunities!

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

How well are you tracking your SLAs? And perhaps more importantly, how many of them are you tracking? Measuring your speed to lead is all well and good, but focusing on it exclusively doesn’t solve all your funnel velocity issues.

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’ll examine the other SLAs you should be measuring to have a holistic view of how prospects are moving through your funnel. How long has it been since the last touch? How long are you letting meetings sit before they turn into an opportunity? How long are opportunities in flight before they close? We’ll touch on all of these and more.

Tune in to find out how we’re thinking about SLA management and how aligning on SLAs with your SDR, Sales, and Demand teams will help you improve funnel velocity.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

Over the last year an interesting debate has heated up around Marketing Automation Platforms (MAPs like Marketo, Hubspot, Pardot) and if they are necessary in this modern era of martech.

The argument against MAPs is there are new more focused best in breed tools (like iPaaS, data warehouses, data automation, more advanced B2C emailing tools) that when architected together are more powerful than a jack of all trades, master of none MAP.

So in this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’ll examine the aspects you should consider when deciding if this is the right strategy for you.

We will discuss pricing, capabilities, scalability, and complexity. We’ll compare marketing automation platforms to point solutions. And how you can perform an audit to see if what you’re paying for is the best tool for the job.

Tune in to find out if a marketing automation platform makes sense in 2023, and which of the available options make the most sense for your marketing ops team.

Do you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered? Reach out to us at rga@cs2marketing.com.

Whether you’re expanding from a mighty Marketing Ops team of one or adding headcount to an already established crew, what are the best practices for growing your Marketing Operations team?

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re sharing a framework we’ve used internally at CS2 and with our clients to determine how and when to build out your marketing ops team. Simplify your hiring practices by considering our four framework pillars: splitting the workload between Marketing Ops and Campaign Ops, closing your teams’ skill gaps, considering future business needs, and preparing for increased marketing analytics demands.

Tune in to find out how our framework can help you build the ultimate marketing operations team from the ground up or expand your current team strategically to positively impact business goals.

And if you have a marketing ops question you’d like answered, reach out to let us know at rga@cs2marketing.com.

Your website’s chatbot just might be one of your largest MarTech expenses. And this begs the question: Is it worth it?

Maybe you’d be better off with a simple (and cheaper) form. How likely is it that you’ll be able to get your sales team fully enabled in chat anyway? Would those meetings with prospects come through even without a chatbot pinging them from their browser?

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, we’re taking a critical look at website chat tools, including how they’ve evolved and how we think about using them in marketing operations today.

So tune in to find out if website chat tools are right for your business or a drain on your MarTech budget.

Key Takeaways:

Jump into the conversation:

[00:03:41] Chatbots are time-consuming compared to live chat.

[00:14:51] Are chatbot getting you more meetings or are they redundant?

[00:23:04] How to evaluate different chat tools based on their effectiveness.

[00:24:51] When determining the best char solution, consider simplicity.

With teams getting smaller and scrappier, is tech debt more rampant as we near the end of 2023? Are the days of unlimited marketing budgets truly gone and what impact does that have on revenue analytics? Has a dependence on partner marketing grown this year?

Back in January, we made a lot of predictions about how the Marketing and Revenue Ops landscape would change in 2023. In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, it’s time to see which of their predictions came true, and which predictions took an unexpected turn.

So tune in to get a sense of the current state of marketing/revenue ops and perhaps also where things might be headed in the future.

Listen to our 2023 Predictions episode.

With marketers moving toward ungating their content so that they can enable the modern buyer’s journey, many operators are being pressured to still inform the team on how they will report on the effectiveness of the content, even if there is no direct web conversion.

In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, our hosts prepare you to tackle this challenge. From categorizing your content types and deciding what actually should be gated (spoiler not all of it), to figuring out the reporting methods for your content’s effectiveness, this episode is no doubt going to clear up some of the confusion for you.

So tune in to get the details on how to make the case you need to get everyone comfortable implementing their more forward-thinking content plan while still getting the insights they need.

It’s time to rethink the sales funnel. In this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, our hosts are once again joined by CS2’s Chief Architect & Analyst, Alison Rouse, to delve into the history of tracking pre-sales ready stages (anything before MQL) and why marketers still insist on reporting on them, and why you should rethink including them in your funnel tracking but still report on them in a way that is actually useful. Tune in to get our perspective that you may have never thought about until now!

Are you struggling to understand the difference between funnel metrics and MT attribution? Have we got an episode for you! Special guest Alison Rouse joins the Revenue Growth Architects to set the record straight and help you learn about the challenges of analyzing data, the importance of strategic thinking, and the tools that can provide better ROI and data analysis.

Your revenue team is focused on Account-Based Marketing (ABM). So why should you track a person-level funnel? We’re going deep on the answer in this episode of The Revenue Growth Architects. Listen to develop an understanding of the two different funnels - the person funnel and the account funnel - and grasp the critical importance of tracking a person-level funnel even when the whole team is screaming ABM.

So you may have listened or read up on our content around why Custom Object Funnel tracking is the best tracking method. But now you need to get your executives on board to make the change and do the work and you are wondering how to ACTUALLY do that.

Well on this episode, Charlie, Crissy, and Xander discuss how you can "sell" the project to non-technical stakeholders. We break down the many benefits that you will see across the business.

Some of the details we discuss include:

So tune in and start building your case for the stakeholders with our help!

Brian, Gany, and Xander wrap up the New Marketing Automation Platform mini-series with tips and tricks on how to ensure that you have a successful launch!

Learn how to:

These tips are very transferrable to launching any project and are sure to be helpful for your next initiative. And if you want to watch the whole series - check out the latest episodes for Parts 1-3.

Building a new Marketing Automation Instance from scratch is the perfect time to get things right and set yourself up for success. In this week's episode of the podcast, and 3rd installment of the "New MAP" series, Gany and Brian share best practices around setting up your essential operational programs for efficient processing. They also share how you can set up your instance with best practice templates that align with your Center of Excellence.

One of the biggest keys to having success in your role and your projects in operations is getting buy-in from your team, your stakeholders, and executive leadership (aka CRO, CMO etc). But sometimes, as many of us likely know, this can be tough.

So this week we asked CS2's Director of Marketing Operations, Christie Fusco, to hit the pod and break down three key steps to getting the buy-in you're looking for.

Learn from Christie how to:

Tie the projects you need buy-in for to key business objectivesMarket your wins internally through data and reportsDevelop relationships by understanding the people you work with and what their individual goals are

Listen in to learn more about how you can put these tips into action!

Gany and Brian join the podcast this week to continue the New Marketing Automation Platform Series. Here we talk through key admin settings needed for a brand new instance.

Join us as we chat through:

- Domain Registration and Setup

- Dedicated IP Warming

- CRM Sync

- and More!

Whether you're implementing for the first time or auditing an existing platform, this practical episode has a lot of valuable insights for you.

Cassie Vitelli, VP of Marketing at Litify, joins this week to share her experience building their Revenue Growth Architecture with CS2.

When Cassie took over the marketing team, they did not have a strong operational foundation built out, which was a first-time dilemma for her. After selecting and working with CS2, her experience drastically turned around after building a dependable funnel that not only improved their sales process and buyer journey but also one that could be leveraged to make better decisions as a leader.

Tune in to this week's episode to learn from a fantastic marketing leader who has seen what works and what doesn't.

Xander Broeffle is joined again by Brian Morris and Gany Rodriguez for part 1 of 3 in their discussions on how to implement a new Marketing Automation Platform. This episode they explore the importance of proper preparation, and how it can make the difference between having a successful transition and a chaotic one.

A few of the topics they go into include:

Get ready to plan and prep successfully for your new MAP from the experts!

Step into your buyer's shoes on this week's episode as Xander Broeffle and Crissy Saunders explore the power of "secret shopping" your company's buyer journey. In Crissy's first guest episode since her maternity leave, she dives into why you need to regularly test out your buyer journey yourself to give you and the revenue team guidance on how to optimize and improve it.

In this episode, you will learn:

Tune in and let's get shopping! 😁

On this week's episode, we welcome one of our favorite guests - Alison Rouse, Chief Architect and Analyst at CS2, to talk about why using a custom object to track your funnel is our preferred method.

Historically marketers have been stuck with some less-than-ideal solutions to track their funnel properly. Whether it's only on the lead/contact object and losing out on multi-journeys and causing inaccurate data, or having to invest money into solutions that are separate from your CRM, trying to track the funnel has always felt "hard."

Well - Alison has a solution that she has developed for our clients that uses an SFDC custom object and it has made us all true believers.

So sit down and hear why you need to think about adopting this approach and the benefits you will see from using it! And if you are interested after the show to learn more, reach out to us on our website www.cs2marketing.com.

These days we are hearing from so many marketing teams that they just need to get some "quick wins." Well, in marketing having a quick win can be tough, but Crissy thinks there is one great source of data to inform some actions to get quick wins. And most of them don't require any spending.

So what is it?

It's your funnel data!

In this episode of Revenue Growth Architects, join Crissy and Xander as they dive into the importance of tracking your funnel properly, and how you can look to your conversion data for insights that you can put into action to improve your pipeline and revenue.

Get ready to hear how you can move away from random acts of marketing to show a win and move toward prioritizing strategic decisions that can really provide fast improvements and results.

In this episode of Revenue Growth Architects, Matt Cronk, Director of Marketing Operations at CS2, joins Xander to discuss why it's necessary to "tier" your MQLs and how it can drastically improve both your lead follow-up and improve the buyer experience.

In this episode, we cover:

If you're aiming to bring more precision to your marketing efforts, improve lead handling, and ultimately drive more revenue, this episode is your essential guide.

This week, we're diving into the crucial yet often overlooked area of Opt-In Management and Compliance.

We're breaking down:

Whether you're navigating the ever-evolving world of data privacy laws or seeking ways to make your opt-in management process more efficient and less of a headache, this episode is a must-listen.

In this episode, Xander and Joy dive into the different lifecycles in sales and marketing: Lead, Account, and Product Lifecycles/Funnels. They review each one's unique Go-to-Market motions, involved teams, and key stages.

Let's unpack:

If you are looking to understand the distinctive features of these lifecycles and how to optimize them for success, this episode is for you.

In the world of MOps & RevOps, it's not just about who you work with; it's about how you work together. So, we're breaking it down to help you become a master in working with Marketing and Revenue Ops agencies.

We're diving into:

An agency should be your secret weapon, not a secret worry. So optimize your operations to hit the high notes and gain better results from your agency relationships.

Looking for the next promotion in your career? Are you hungry for growth, but not sure if you're interested in managing people? We've got you covered.

On this week's episode, Claire Pockell-Wilson, CS2's Senior Manager of People Operations, joins Xander to discuss how to shift career development talk into a new perspective. We're challenging conventional wisdom, discussing not just career growth, but how you can lead, inspire, and instigate change, regardless of your current job title.

We break down some alternative routes for professional growth that don't have to necessarily involve conventional ladder-climbing, such as:

We'll also delve into the skills and challenges that come along with assessing readiness for growth, figuring out what you want out of your career, and the role of skill assessments in shaping career trajectories.

If you've ever wondered "what's next" in your career, this episode is tailored to you.

In this week's episode, Charlie and Xander dive into the latest AI Rev/Marketing Ops news and showcase seven use cases and tools they're experimenting with.

Learn more about:

As we've seen already, AI has the potential to change the day to day of marketing and revenue operations completely, but only for those who take full advantage of its capabilities.

CS2 is taking you on an epic journey in a galaxy not too far away. This is a new mini-series, where we walk you through the many phases of a brand-new Marketing Automation platform. In this episode, we're joined by industry veterans Gany and Brian as we tackle the intimidating yet exhilarating task of establishing a fresh start in your Marketing Automation platform.

In this episode, we'll be navigating:

Join us as we embark on this thrilling journey, blasting off into the world of Marketing Automation platforms. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to explore new territories in their Marketing Automation journey or those seeking to optimize their current platform. May the force of good data and efficient processes be with you!

Welcome to another insightful episode of the Revenue Growth Architects podcast, where we untangle the complex world of marketing operations. Today, we're joined by Grant Booth, a seasoned Salesforce admin with a passion for clean data. Buckle up for an intriguing ride into the depths of Data Normalization, and learn how you can save yourself hours and headaches down the road.

In this episode, we're demystifying:

We're not about blocking data - we're here to transform it. We want to flip the script on the old adage, "Garbage In, Garbage Out" and make your marketing ops work smarter, not harder. And at the end of the day, it all comes down to your ABC's - Always Be CSV-ing.

Are you ready to take your HubSpot game to the next level? This week on the Revenue Growth Architects Podcast, Gany Rodriguez joins to dive into how to maximise your use of HubSpot.

Get ready for a whirlwind tour of HubSpot best practices as we break down:

Whether you're a HubSpot novice or a seasoned pro, this episode is packed with tips and tricks to help you optimize your enterprise experience with this powerful marketing tool.

Are you struggling to measure the impact of your marketing channels and track the origin of your leads? You're not alone! This week on The Revenue Growth Architects Podcast, Nina Valtcheva, Director of Solutions Architecture at CS2, comes back to chat about how to unravel the mystery of SFDC Campaign/Channel Tracking and help you master the art of attribution.

In this information-packed episode, we'll cover:

This episode is sure to help you take your campaign tracking skills to the next level!

AI has gone from 0-60 in the past three months. The speed of development is both exciting and unnerving. In this week's episode, we're diving deep into AI and exploring its potential impact on how we interface with our marketing/revenue ops tech stack.

From SFDC's AI flow builder, Zapier's AI automation builder, Chatspot.ai by Hubspot, AutoGPT, and dozens more examples of marketing and sales tech embedding advanced AI into their products, we'll examine the wild developments in AI-driven chat interfaces and their potential to revolutionize the way we interact with technology.

Join us as we explore:

• The current state of AI in Rev Ops tools and the move towards a more prompt-driven interface

• The possibilities and potential stages of AI evolution, from building complex automation to fully autonomous AI doing our jobs

• The pros and cons of AI-driven tool development, including the good (increased efficiency) and the bad (tech debt)

• The future of AI in sales and marketing, and the potential for a centralized AI that could change the fabric of our economy

Will AI eventually replace the need for marketers and salespeople or even reshape the entire tech industry? We are not sure, but we're going to discuss it nonetheless.

Is your campaign operations process a little chaotic? Do you want to scale up your campaigns without adding stress? In this week's episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, Jerel Allen and Ruben Rangel, two of CS2's top Campaign Ops experts, sit down to discuss the do's and don'ts of campaign operations that will help you scale your campaigns like never before.

In this episode, we dive into the key components of a best-in-class Campaign Ops process, covering aspects like:

• The importance of having a project management tool and a well-defined request process, and the necessity of training, enablement, documentation, and optimized MAP assets

• The necessity to have clear roles and responsibilities, reporting, and regular meetings or check-ins

• The essential technical and soft skills you need to own and manage your COps processes, and

• Some of the most common challenges faced in developing and maintaining a robust Campaign Ops process.

Don't miss this opportunity to learn from the pros and discover how you can avoid common pitfalls to revolutionize your campaign operations.

Are you looking to build a top-notch nurture strategy that effectively engages your audience and drives results? Dive into this insightful episode of The Revenue Growth Architects, where CS2's Joy Martinez joins Xander to explore the ins and outs of creating a successful nurture campaign.

We broke down some essential aspects to consider when building a nurture strategy:

• Establishing clear goals and reporting needs

• Understanding entry and exit points for a seamless sales funnel experience

• Crafting content that speaks to your audience at every stage of the buyer's journey (ToFu, MoFu, and BoFu) and,

• Finding the perfect cadence and frequency to keep your prospects engaged

We've got some great tips for setting up a nurture campaign that drives real results, so stick around while we break it down.

"AI isn't going to steal your job, but someone using AI might."

Welcome to the newly branded Revenue Growth Architects Podcast (formerly fwd:thinking podcast). In this episode, Charlie joins us to discuss his take on the quickly-evolving developments of ChatGPT, AI, and how that's going to change the way we work in marketing and revenue operations.

Specifically, we'll dive into these topics:

• Why you need to care about AI now, and what you can do to keep up with this technology

• How to make AI work for you,

• And practical ways you can integrate AI and ChatGPT into your workflow, including use cases surrounding using AI to optimize lead scoring, how to write an effective ChatGPT prompt, and using AI to improve your company's documentation processes.

This topic has the business world buzzing, so you won't want to miss out. Charlie and Xander break it all down for you. PLUS - we've got some exciting news to share with you!

Get ready to get technical with us, because in today's episode of fwd:thinking, we dive into the art of building a successful nurture program within Marketo.

Colton Slauson, Senior Manager of Marketing Operations at CS2, joins us to share some valuable insights on how to approach this project.

Specifically, we'll be talking about how to:

We’re getting detailed today, so grab a pen and some paper and be prepared to take some notes.

For more information on Nurture Handling, check out Colton's step-by-step Nurture Handler Guide.

In this episode, Xander is joined by CS2's Director of Solutions Architecture, Nina Valtcheva to talk about an essential need for your business, data enrichment.

If you can optimize your enrichment process, you'll improve your database's health, completeness, and accuracy - a win for both marketing AND sales teams!

Join us as we break down:

At CS2, we're all about working smarter, not harder. Enrichment is one way you can improve the quality of your data and make it easier on your sales and marketing teams to connect with your target market.

How To Level Up Your Operations Using the CS2 PRODUCT Method

Too often, we see clients approaching their roles with a project mindset. A project mindset is a temporary endeavor, with timelines, budgets, endpoints, and deliverables. Project mindsets can make MOps teams feel like they are seen just as order takers who only process incoming tickets.

Today, we're going to introduce you to CS2's PRODUCT method. This method focuses on ongoing concerns, and is positioned for strategic conversations that influence business decisions. A product team is never done as long as the product remains on the market, which means there are continual opportunities for learning, feedback, improvements, enhancements, and expansions. The focus here is on outcomes.

The PRODUCT method is actually an acronym. It stands for:

P - Prioritization

R - Roadmap

O - Outcomes Measured

D - Documentation

U - User Experience

C - Continuous Improvement

T - Team Structure and Alignment

Join us as we break this all down for you with Joy Martinez, CS2's Senior Director of Marketing Operations. Joy is an expert in shifting clients from the project mindset to the PRODUCT mindset.

This method will be a game changer for you and your teams - trust us.

It's 2023, so why on this forward thinking episode are we still talking about lead scoring? Is using “lead scoring” still relevant?

In this episode, CS2's Director of Marketing Operations, Matt Cronk, talks us through how to do lead scoring right. And, disclaimer, we use the term “lead scoring” here, but really it’s setting a priority to prospects so you can optimize where and how sales spends their time - even if you are just sending hand-raisers over to them.

So join Matt and Xander as they take a deep dive into why lead scoring is still useful especially when done right, how we at CS2 suggest approaching your model, and lastly, how to set it up to be successful and have sales singing your praises!

If you missed last week's episode - Technical Debt to Technical Equity Part 1 - you're going to want to give that a listen first.

This week we're bringing you part two, featuring CS2's Senior Salesforce Consultant, Grant Booth, for the second week in a row. We're covering topics including:

Disclosure: we recommend checking this episode out on our YouTube channel or our website, cs2marketing.com, because Grant shares his screen as he walks through some great examples of salesforce automation, workflow rules, process builders, and running tests and analyses.

If you're deep in technical debt, and are desperate to reach technical equity, this episode will help.

We all talk about technical debt, but talking about it doesn't make it go away. One of our predictions at the start of 2023 was that technical debt was going to skyrocket this year, and companies would struggle to dig themselves out of that hole come 2024. That's one prediction we hope doesn't come true, but it's going to take more than wishful thinking to make that happen.

On this week's episode of fwd:thinking, CS2's Sr. SFDC Consultant, Grant Booth, joins us to discuss technical debt: why you need to prioritize fixing it and how to get executive buy-in for this critical project.We didn't stop there though.

This episode is a two-parter, and Grant will be back with us next week to dive more into the weeds of what CPU limits are, the types of Salesforce automations and flows and their impact on processing, and what a successful SDFC tech debt project looks like.

After hearing this episode, you'll definitely want to mark your calendar for part two next week.

Most marketers have used Account Based Marketing (ABM) strategies before. It's not a new concept by any means. In a sea of multi-colored rubber duckies, you pinpoint the blue ones and focus your marketing there. (Don't know what we mean? Give the episode a listen)What many teams get wrong is that ABM is not just a for large enterprise accounts requiring white glove marketing tactics. You should be using an ABM strategy for all of your accounts.You have to ask yourself:

Once you've got those three questions roughly answered, you can start operationalizing your ABM strategy.On this week's episode, Xander and Crissy break down all the ins and outs of an ABM strategy and how you can use it to get the maximum return on your marketing investments. If this seems right up your alley, you'll definitely want to give this episode a listen.

Inheriting a new instance can be tricky. You need to understand the context around how things were built, align with the marketing strategy, and identify the business goals related to your marketing automation platform.

Once you've uncovered the why, you need to focus on uncovering the "who". Who are your key stakeholders? Who's in charge of using the system, and what are team expectations? And then finally, focus on the "how". How do you get the information you need out of a new instance? What's the first thing you tackle?

On this week's episode of the fwd:thinking podcast, CS2's Senior Manager of Marketing Operations, Chelsea Byron, breaks down the do's and don'ts of inheriting a new instance, and provides several key takeaways.

If you or your company is in the middle of this process, you'll definitely want to tune in.

CS2's Guide to Customer and Prospect Communication Orchestration

On this week's episode, Xander sits down with Crissy to talk through CS2's Guide to Customer and Prospect Communication Orchestration.

In the last several years, companies have brought on more and more technology and adopted more channels to communicate with their prospects and customers. From marketing automation, sales engagement platforms, to social messaging and their product itself, companies are creating disjointed customer experiences with duplicative messages and lack of cohesive efforts across the whole revenue team who work in silos.

How we communicate to prospects and buyers is a HUGE part of that customer experience alone so we need to care!

During the episode we will share our tips for creating great communications orchestration within your org, how to get buy-in and alignment toward this effort, and also what outcomes you will see as a result of it.

Get your notepads ready. Trust us.

We've seen a huge growth gap within organizations over the last several years: the executive team wants to grow faster than the operations team has capacity to keep up with. MOps teams want to make impact aligned with the executive priorities, but often times get bogged down in day-to-day tasks and responsibilities. This makes it difficult for their teams to prove their value to the C-Suite.If you relate to this, have no fear. During this week's episode, host Xander Broeffle, and CS2's CEO and CRO, Crissy and Charlie Saunders, introduce a framework that's been in the works for the last several years at CS2. Enter: Revenue Growth Architecture and the GROW Framework.First, let us break it down for you:

Use this GROW Framework to align your teams on the most impactful projects and objectives. Align with core marketing strategy, execute the processes efficiently, and leave every initiative with meaningful analytics. Get the results that will make your executive team cheer.Intrigued? Then this is the episode for you. Grab a pen and some paper and be ready to take some notes.

Change - some of us love it, some of us hate it. But no matter which side of the fence you fall on, change is inevitable, especially in business.

What's the best way to get buy-in from your team and make the change stick?

CS2's Senior Director of Marketing Operations, Joy Martinez, joins us on the fwd:thinking podcast again this week. She breaks down the do's and don'ts of introducing change in your organization, through these three key steps:

Whether you're a C-level exec, or just starting out in your marketing career, Joy's advice applies to you to get the most out of your next process improvement.

CS2's founder and CEO, Crissy Saunders, knows a thing or two about building a career in operations, starting an agency, and consulting in general! And over the past few months, she has received dozens of questions on LinkedIn from others looking to do the same. So this week, Xander sat down with Crissy to get her answers to a few of the top ones.

Whether you are looking to make a career change to an operator supporting the revenue team, looking to get into independent consulting or building a small agency, or thinking about how a create a path to ops leadership and beyond - this podcast is filled with great career advice you can take yourself or share with your team.

"All Models Are Wrong, But Some Are Useful" - British statistician George E. P. Box

We have quoted our good man George so many times on this podcast, and today's episode title is even inspired by it as we talk all about Pipeline Source.

Right now when jobs are on the line or teams are looking to show their impact, it can be very tempting to want to try to use pipeline source to give "credit" as to which team or channel (marketing, sales, partner) drove the opportunity.

Or, even if the intention is to not use pipeline source for credit, some teams are just identifying it in the wrong way.

So on today's podcast we will give you or take in under 30 minutes on:

All the reasons why pipeline source can be wrongHow to do it right if you still plan to use itAnd how, even though it can be "wrong", it still can be useful

Take a listen and let us know -- are we wrong or was our advice useful? 😄

2022 was another unexpected year that we couldn't predict in the B2B SaaS and tech space. During the summer, companies were all in the thick of a talent war and now heading in 2023, many companies have had to do layoffs and are on hiring freezes.

But even though this space feels unpredictable, we wanted to come to the podcast like we have done over the years with our team's predictions for 2023 in marketing, sales and operations and B2B SaaS in general.

Join Xander Broeffle as he sits down with Crissy and Charlie to talk through predictions provided by the team and give our commentary on whether they agree or not.

This episode is always a fun one so listen in and see if any of our predictions match up to yours!

CS2'S Guide to Revenue Planning

It's the end of year and many revenue teams are looking to do their revenue planning and tapping operators to help work with finance to do so.

However, from our experience, companies are often missing the proper data or practices in order to revenue plan with success.

So want to be the hero and lead this important project successfully? We got you!

On the podcast this week, new host Xander Broeffle interviews Alison Rouse, CS2's VP of Solution Architecture and Analytics as she walks through CS2's guide to revenue planning.

They both dive into:

Get ready to take some serious notes!

Product-Led Growth is all the rage right now and has infiltrated it's way into B2B SaaS and many sales-led first companies are dipping their toes on the PLG waters and deciding to launch this new strategy.

The only problem?

Companies are underestimating all the changes and things you need to do strategically and operationally in order to make it work. And you can't just apply your same sales-led processes, team, or data structure to it and assume it will work.

So what are the most common mistakes we see sales-led first companies do?

Listen in to hear from Xander, Crissy, and Charlie all the things to avoid so we can't tell you we told you so ; )

It's that time of the year. Time to prep for end of quarter business reviews and annual reviews.

Whether you're attending sales QBR's or prepping your own, there are key insights that you should be preparing to show what marketing is doing well and also highlight areas that can improve.

This week, Crissy, Charlie, and Xander discuss key metrics to highlight, and how to tell stories from your data. They also share insights into which teams you should align with prior to the QBR to make sure that your review is aligned with other revenue teams.

This is a must listen for anyone looking to be a strategic partner with their marketing and sales leadership teams!

Making the case for budget and resources for RevOps or MOps is..... tough. Especially when you are trying to get the buy-in from execs like your CMO or CEO.

But why is it so difficult?

What are the negatives impacts that they care most about that are tied to being under-resourced?

What can you do to make it so you can get enough resources?

What types of resources or support should you be looking for?

Well, we cover all over that and more in today's episode.

Join Xander, Director of MOps from CS2 as he takes over as host for the first time and see what him and Crissy and Charlie have to say on the topic.

Building a strong team culture is hard.

Especially while remote. And especially as your team grows.

But how do you maintain the same level of connection for the team while also ensuring they feel supported and are growing as you add on more people?

Well, on this week's podcast our very own Sr. Manager of People Operations, Claire Pockell-Wilson, takes us through why culture is so important and dives deep into some of the many programs and tactics she has rolled out or refined here at CS2 to maintain our strong culture based on our values even while doubling our team size.

This is a great listen for any leader - even if it is just of a small team, to gives you ideas on how to make sure your team is happy and healthy and ready to take on their job!

To connect with Claire and keep the conversation going, find her on LinkedIn!

Do you know that your marketing automation system can easily be attacked or threatened?

And these attacks, when not handled properly or prepared for, can really impact not only your reputation, but your customer experience and trust with your whole revenue team, especially sales?

It's better to be prepared than surprised, so this episode is a must listen if you manage the marketing automation platform for your org.

This week, we introduce our new cohost Xander Broeffle, Director of MOps at CS2, and he joins Crissy and Charlie to dive into two very common security threats to any marketing automation platform that happen a lot.

During the episode we will cover:

So join us for this quick chat and then go inform your revenue team and the IT/ security team and build a preparation plan. You will be SO happy you did!

You or your team is discussing switching marketing automation platforms. 

But wait! Are you about to make the right decision? 

After listening to this podcast episode you will find out! 

Join me and CS2’s very own Xander Broeffle, Director of MOps, as we dive deep into all the things to consider and plan for before you switch MAPs. 

We cover: 

The right reasons to switchThe wrong reasons to switchThe requirements you need to gather and assess before selecting a new MAPHow to plan appropriately for the switchAnd, how to really ensure your process of switching is successful

This podcast will be your savior - trust us. 

If you have any more questions for Xander or just want to network, connect with him here on LinkedIn! 

So many times we position and measure people on our ops teams based on their technical skills. But how do we actually understand what someone’s true strengths are?

These aren’t skills they learn or train themselves, but really the traits they just naturally have that can help them be successful and energized. 

So this week, we have our very own Sr. Director of MOps, Joy Martinez, on the podcast to talk all about one her favorite topics, strengths, and how mangers and individuals can identify their own and their team’s strengths and use that knowledge to make them and their team more effective. 

Joy will also cover how she led our CS2 team through a workshop on strengths at our team offsite this summer and how it can maybe inspire you and your team to do the same!

To learn more from Joy, connect with her on LinkedIn and check out some of the strengths resources we talked about on the podcast below.

Find out more about CliftonStrengths

Find about more about 16 Personalities

Measuring ROI on marketing is probably one of the trickiest things to do for operators and analysts.

There are so many things to consider from your campaign structure, how you track cost, and even what tools to use.

But this week, our very own VP of Solutions Architecture and Analytics Alison Rouse will dive into another meaty topic for analytics - and that is yup, marketing ROI!

On the podcast we will dive into:

If you loved our attribution episodes on the pod - you will love this one! Whether you are a CMO trying to understand marketing ROI, or an analyst tackling it yourself, it will be super helpful.

To connect with Alison and ask any follow-up questions for her, connect with her on LinkedIn.

Lead scoring is getting a lot of hate recently. You know, the same hate MQLs get. But like MQLs, is it warranted or are people just doing it wrong or using it for the wrong purpose?

On this week's episode, Charlie sits back down with Crissy again to dive deep into a lead scoring project they have done for a client and repeatedly iterated on over the 10 months. In the episode, Crissy will give her tips on:

So sit back and learn how you can take CS2s same approach to your own organization to see success with a lead scoring model.

Your budget just got cut and you are on a hiring freeze, but your marketing team's goals stayed the same. How do you deal? Where should you make the sacrifices and what should you stay invested in? And how can you articulate to finance why you actually need more to deliver on those goals?

On this week's episode, we have a MarTech veteran and now VP of Marketing at Metadata.io, Jason Widup on to discuss all about what to do when your budget is cut and all the ways he handled it himself in his current role during this "slow down" and in past roles.

We answer all of those burning questions above and more so this is a great one not only for MOps but anyone in marketing.

To learn more about Metadata.io go to their website here or follow them on LinkedIn. And to continue the conversation with him, connect with Jason on LinkedIn here.

When your company is focused on revenue growth, one of the most impactful things the whole team can do is approach working together like a unified team.

Not just separate teams aligned to each other, but one team that is unified on goals, strategy, and thinking about the experience for the prospect and customer through their whole journey.

On this week's episode, we have Chief Growth Officer at Klearly, Mary Blanks on to talk about why revenue growth is team sport, how approaching it that way can have some amazing beneficial impacts on customer journey and pipeline creation, and what it takes to move the revenue team to this way of working by managing organizational change effectively.

To connect with Mary, check her out on LinkedIn and make sure to follow Klearly, as they are about to also launch their very first podcast all around revenue growth best practices.

If you have a small marketing operations team supporting a marketing team creating a lot of campaigns, you might be interested or even have a decentralized campaign operations model where marketers can create campaigns and send emails themselves.

This can be great for giving your team more time to be strategic on other projects. But how do you do it well? What processes and documentation need to be put in place? And what happens when your marketing scales so fast, the decentralized model starts to show some signs that it is not working anymore?

On this week's podcast we will dive into all of that with two incredible women marketing operators, Amy Goldfine, Head of Marketing Ops and Geraldine Gudino Garcia, Marketing Operations Manager at Iterable.

Both Amy and Geraldine have had experience with adding processes and enabling the decentralized model at their organization and share their experience and tips with us all. And, (SPOILER ALERT) they also go into why they are planning a to change to a new model this year.

This episode is so informative and jam packed with great advice and things to consider if you have or you are thinking of putting in a decentralized campaign ops model.

To learn more from Amy Goldfine, check her out on LinkedIn or go to her website MarketingOpsAdvice.com and to learn more from Geraldine, you can also connect with her on LinkedIn.

Alignment across sales operations and marketing operations is crucial to company growth and efficiency. They are the life line to supporting the revenue function. And whether you are under one team in RevOps or not, you really can have strong alignment and have a "power partnership."

Case in point: Veronica Lazarovici, Marketing Ops Lead and Doris Hu, Director of Sales Ops at Alma who were our guest speakers this week. Once you take a listen you will be so inspired by the incredible alignment and relationship they have between their teams - and even with a 6-hour time different between them!

Both Veronica and Doris dive into the benefits of their partnership, what impacts on the business there can be without the strong partnership in place, how they both manage their requests processes and stay aligned on their roadmap, their approach to aligning teams to "tech" and not "processes" and then how they support the whole revenue team with reporting and training and enablement.

Get your paper out because you will be wanting to take notes! And also, if you loved this - share it with your Mops or Sops counterparts!

Feel free to connect with Veronica here and Doris here on LinkedIn to hear more from them!

In May 2022, Demandbase and Highway Education teamed up to survey MOps pros and uncover what the MOPs industry is up against through its State of Marketing Operations Talent Study.

I was happy and lucky to also be interviewed for the report, so it was my pleasure to have Toby Murdock, CEO and Cofounder of Highway Education back to the pod for a second time to discuss the findings and both of our takes on the State of Mops and how it has changed but mostly stayed the same since the report was published.

If you are interested in learning about how we got to the state we are in and how companies can help combat the issues, then give it a listen!

Also if you want to check out the report you can find it here and also learn more about Highway Education here.