Startups go through different stages of evolution. In this presentation we discuss what your marketing and sales engine might look like with a specific deep dive into demand generation, optimizing your unit economics and focusing on a specific buyer persona.

1. HOW TOBUILD YourREVENUE ENGINE as
yourstartup evolves
HANA ABAZA
VP MARKETING,UBERFLIP
@hanaabaza

2. Self Serve > High-Touch
Full funnel visibility > Complex buying process
19 Employees> 73 Employees
Channel problems > Process problems
Big Customer Churn > Negative Revenue Churn
Thelast27months

3. youneedmorethanA great
productto scale
An effective system for improvingprocess and operations
can be a competitive advantage.

4. PEOPLE PROCESS TOOLS
(In that order!)

5. 3 Phases of Evolution

6. The Wizard of Oz Phase
You’re following the yellow brick road, things are happening, but…

7. Don’t look behind the curtain cause it’s a f@!&ing s*#%show.

8. The Scooby Doo Phase
You sort of know what you’re doing. You usually solve the mystery. But mostly, you’re still a
bunch of bumbling idiots.

9. The Oceans 11 Phase
A team of specialized people with defined roles. You’re focused, coordinated and executing
based on a strategic plan.

10. Whereareyou?
Wizard of Oz Scooby Doo Oceans 11
Different parts of your business may be at different stages.

11. Marketing
Sales
Customer
Success

12. Sales&marketingare onthesame
spectrum
Sales Sales Sales Demand Marketing + Sales Brand & Demand + Sales
*It doesn’t mean brand doesn’t matter early on – but your area of focus is different.

13. CustomerSuccessisthe
heartofyourgrowth
Support (reactive) Support & Success Support, Success, Advocacy

14. Control Churn
Boost Revenue
Create Advocates
Feed Marketing
Customer
success

15. You need to understand the
operational mechanisms at play.
howdoyouscaleallthe
“otherstuff”

16. #1
Focuson aspecificpersona

17. WhoisYOURBREADANDBUTTER
Everyone! More focused Other growth layers

18. WhoisYOURBREADANDBUTTER
Everyone! More focused Other growth layers
Nope. It’s not. Figure out P/M fit.
It isn’t always super clear.

19. WhoisYOURBREADANDBUTTER
Everyone! More focused Other growth layers
Who is your bread and butter? Can
you create a scalable and
repeatable process with predictable
revenue growth?
Nope. It’s not. Figure out P/M fit.
It isn’t always super clear.

20. WhoisYOURBREADANDBUTTER
Everyone! More focused
If your bread & butter segment is
scalable and repeatable, it might
make sense to to explore other
opportunities.
Other growth layers
Who is your bread and butter? Can
you create a scalable and
repeatable process with predictable
revenue growth?
Nope. It’s not. Figure out P/M fit.
It isn’t always super clear.

21. Free Trial
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Customer
Lead
Marketing Qualified Lead
Sales Qualified Lead
Opportunity
Customer
Nikki Mary, Jenn
& David
Self-serve/low
touchfunnel
Marketing& sales
engine

22. It’s hardto optimizeforboth
Youneedto FOCUS

23. The problem with most startups
isn’t a lack of ideas.
It’s the lack of clarity and focus.

24. Lead
Marketing Qualified Lead
Sales Qualified Lead
Opportunity
Customer
What happened when we
picked one?
ü More focused
ü Better process
ü Higher Value (ARPC & LTV)
ü Negative Churn

25. Lead
Marketing Qualified Lead
Sales Qualified Lead
Opportunity
Customer
3 things that had to happen:
ü Revamp analytics set up
ü Shift in growth tactics
ü Define process and criteria
for handing leads to sales
(this needs ongoing refinement
and will change as you scale)

26. You might make a different decision but remember…
“It’s hard to build a big business
outof smalldeals.”
Resource: mattermark.com

27. HowDOyouknowwhichPERSONA?
*Product/Market fit
Unit Economics
Opportunity
What do you want?
This gets more complex as you go upmarket.

28. HowDOyouknowwhichPERSONA?
If you’re focused on mid-market and enterprise companies with a
complex buying process, you may have a handful of “personas”that
you need to learn about.

29. @Uberflip
These are the ones most likely to be your first point of contact. They will either reach out to you themselves or will be the ones you
will most frequently contact.
Marketing Mary
Demand
Jenn Do-it-all David Strategic Samantha

30. @Uberflip
Champion25-39
Purchase Process
Research: Events, peers, Google
Events:
INBOUND, CM World, other content-specific events
Blogs & Influencers:
HubSpot blog, MarketingProfs, CMI, LinkedInPulse
Social Media:
Preferred Content: Want specific, actionable pieces of content.
Short format (blog or video). Things that will make them better
at their job.
Watering Holes
Marketing Mary Customers
Adriane Holter, Impinj
FloraCheung, Loblaw
Cassandra Jowett, Influitive
VictoriaHoffman
Kelly O’Hara
Uberflip’s Marketing Marys

31. @Uberflip
Job Role
Years Experience: 3-10
Essential Duties:
Creates content. May be in charge of strategy,
sometimes also in charge of social.
Tools:
Google Docs, CMS, Marketing Automation
Common Titles:
Marketing Coordinator, Specialist, Manager,
sometimes Director. May have content or similar
specialization in title. In some cases, Product
Marketing Manager.
Goals & Initiatives:
Want to write more and be creative. Looking to learn
as much as possible, especially around SEO,
analytics, and strategy. Want to move up in company.
Challenges:
Creating engaging B2B content that
attracts views. Proving that long-
term strategy is valuable and not
everything has immediately
measurable ROI. Demand to create
and edit content for entire
marketing team/entire buyer
journey.
Room for Growth:
Wants to learn more about
analytics, SEO, creating a long-term
strategy.

32. @Uberflip
Focus on engagement, shareability, awareness, and
content creation / experience audiences love.
If reaching out by email, tryto stand out. Shecan see
through automated emails-- use personality.
Ideal Messaging
Creative types, usually interested in writingor have a
writing background
Find it difficult to find time to be creative due to execution
of tasks
HATE being reached out to — they need to GSD!
Title worth calling out:Product Marketing
Notable Learnings

33. “By not deciding on one of these personas, we paid a
gigantic, invisible ‘optionality’ tax.”
- Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot
Fromstartup toscaleup
Resource: readthink.com

34. It’s notjustthepeople.
It’s theprocess.
(their internal process)

35. Initial Touch
(Champion)
Influencers &
Decision Makers
Budget Approval
(YAY!)
Verbal Yes
(YAY!)
Procurement
(SHIT)
EVERYONE needs to understand the buying process.

36. #2
YourFunnelIsn’tLinear

37. YourFunnel
Lead
Customer

38. YourFunnel
Lead
Customer
Lead
Qualified Lead
Customer

39. YourFunnel
Lead
Customer
Lead
Qualified Lead
Customer
Lead
Marketing Qualified Lead
Sales Accepted Lead
Sales Qualified Lead
Opportunity
Customer

40. YourFunnel
Lead > MQL > SAL > SQL > OPP > Customer
Opportunity Stages
1. Evaluating
2. Recommended
3. Verbal Yes
4. Procurement
5. Closed (Won/Lost)
Opportunity
Customer
Sales Qualified Leads
Sales Accepted Leads
Marketing Qualified Leads
Leads

41. YourFunnel
A linear funnel is overly simplistic. It’s dynamic and bi-directional.
Opportunity
Customer
Sales Qualified Leads
Sales Accepted Leads
Marketing Qualified Leads
Leads
1. People may move up and
down your funnel
2. Sales & marketing functions
overlap at every stage of the
funnel

42. YourFunnel
A linear funnel is overly simplistic. It’s dynamic and bi-directional.
Opportunity
Customer
Sales Qualified Leads
Sales Accepted Leads
Marketing Qualified Leads
Leads
1. Feedback mechanisms to
enhance quality
2. Coordinated campaigns at
every stage
3. Process for re-engaging lost
leads & accounts

43. YourFunnelvs. theirjourney
Awareness Interest Evaluation
Purchase
Decision Advocacy Repeat
marketing sales
marketing sales
marketing marketing
marketing and sales
sales marketing and sales

44. YourFunnelvs. theirjourney
Awareness Interest Evaluation
Purchase
Decision Advocacy Repeat
blog
email
social
PPC
SEO
webinars eBooks
whitepapers
retargeting demo
nurture
sales customer board
customer webinar
expansion referral campaign

45. #3
Buildingtheengine

46. Marketing
Sales
Customer
Success

47. ü Product
ü Process
ü Reporting

48. Opportunity
Customer
Lead Management
Nurture, Scoring, Data Enrichment, Lead
Recycling
Sales Enablement
Messaging, Positioning, Collateral
Sales Qualified
Leads
Bi-­‐directional Funnel
Mechanisms in place to
facilitate feedback loop
between marketing and
sales to enhance lead
quality and re-­‐engage
lost opportunities.
Sales Accepted Leads
Marketing Qualified Leads
Leads
Campaigns & Programs
Grade My Stack, The Uberflip Experience, Content
Events & Partner Marketing, Content Syndication,
Publishers, PPC, ABM, Outbound Lead Engine
Customer Marketing
Marketingengine

49. Opportunity
Customer
Lead Management
Nurture, Scoring, Data Enrichment, Lead
Recycling
Sales Enablement
Messaging, Positioning, Collateral
Sales Qualified
Leads
Demand
Generation
Sales Accepted Leads
Marketing Qualified Leads
Leads
Campaigns & Programs
Grade My Stack, The Uberflip Experience, Content
Events & Partner Marketing, Content Syndication,
Publishers, PPC, ABM, Outbound Lead Engine
Customer Marketing
Marketingengine

50. WTFisdemandgen?
Demand generation is the engine that generates
leads, identifies and nurtures qualified prospects, and
optimizes conversion throughout the sales cycle.
(psst… demand gen is marketing)

51. Opportunity
Customer
Nurture campaigns, data
enrichment, lead management
processes
Sales collateral, sales training,
messaging & persona, reporting
Sales Qualified
Leads
Core Operations
Sales Accepted Leads
Marketing Qualified Leads
Leads
Messaging, design , asset creation
content marketing, optimization,
campaign management.
Lead capture, source tracking, lead scoring.
Usage data, account health, advocacy & referral

52. Strategies&Tactics
• Content (syndication), webinars, partner marketing.Lead Generation
• PPC (Social & Search), RetargetingOnline Advertising
• Large niche publishers with a substantial reader basePublishers
• Highly targeted, niche topic and audienceConferences
• Partner marketing (webinars, ebooks, events etc.)Partners
• Content, SEO , social etc.Organic Leads

53. Whatfuelsdemandgen?
Content Marketing (people need to be nurtured)
Direct Channels (are people ready to buy)
Event marketing (volume vs. deal size)
Account based marketing (ABM)

54. Structure yourmarketingteam
One or two generalists More focused roles Highly specialized

55. COREMARKETINGFUNCTIONS
Content
Marketing
Audience
Growth
Lead
Generation
Awareness
Demand
Generation
Lead
Generation
Lead
Nurture
Operations
& Insights
Events
Marketing
Lead Gen /
Nurture
Customer
Nurture
Awareness
Product
Marketing
Sales
Enablement
Product
Feedback
Product
Positioning

56. Communic-­
ations
Sales
Enablement
Field
Marketing
Advocate
Marketing
Brand
Marketing
Otherpossiblefunctions
Ops &
Analytics

57. Teamstructure &growth
How you build and structure your team depends on where
you need to focus your marketing and growth efforts.

58. Identifying key signals for lead quality, outreach
indicators and intent to purchase is one of the
most important demand gen functions.
Quality,indicators &intent

59. How doweknow?
fit engagement intent
?

60. Lead Scoring
Predictive Analytics
*But we also need to understand the pre-purchase
indicators where you can prompt action
How doweknow intent?

61. Site re-design
Fiscal yearend
Ramp up in content strategy
Investment in technology
Change in role
Industry growth
Outreachindicators

62. It’s allaboutrelationships
#smarketing

63. MQLs
Leads
SALs
SQLs
OPPs
A respondent to a marketing campaign who doesn’t
yet meet our minimum qualification and behaviour
criteria
A lead who makes the minimum fit criteria and has
displayed enough interest to be handed off to sales.
MQLS are scored and categorized as cold, warm,
or hot leads
An MQL that has been accepted by the BDR for
further qualification to determine pipeline-­readiness
An SAL that has been identified as pipeline-­ready
but needs further qualification to determine the
probability of converting to an opportunity
An SQL that has progressed to an opportunity and
is now committed to pipeline
DEFINITION ACTIVITY
Lead gets entered into the appropriate segmented
nurture program
Lead has achieved a score of 35 or higher and is
entered into a new MQL nurture program
BDR is identifying prospects requirements and
probing to understand the context for buyers’
decision
AE is actively engaged in meaningful dialogue to
validate the use case, identify the champion, and
schedule a demo
Uberflip has been introduced to a wide audience
and there is general team consensus around
solution need, value and fit
LEAD RECYCLING: the handoff to sales took place but the prospect doesn’t respond, doesn’t have budget or some other roadblock. Sales believes there is
potential for the future. The lead gets placed back into the funnel for further nurturing with the goal of re-­engagement at a later time.
LEAD LIFECYCLE
EXAMPLE

64. MQLs
Leads
SALs
SQLs
OPPs
A respondent to a marketing campaign who doesn’t
yet meet our minimum qualification and behaviour
criteria
A lead who makes the minimum fit criteria and has
displayed enough interest to be handed off to sales.
MQLS are scored and categorized as cold, warm,
or hot leads
An MQL that has been accepted by the BDR for
further qualification to determine pipeline-­readiness
An SAL that has been identified as pipeline-­ready
but needs further qualification to determine the
probability of converting to an opportunity
An SQL that has progressed to an opportunity and
is now committed to pipeline
DEFINITION ACTIVITY
Lead gets entered into the appropriate segmented
nurture program
Lead has achieved a score of 35 or higher and is
entered into a new MQL nurture program
BDR is identifying prospects requirements and
probing to understand the context for buyers’
decision
AE is actively engaged in meaningful dialogue to
validate the use case, identify the champion, and
schedule a demo
Uberflip has been introduced to a wide audience
and there is general team consensus around
solution need, value and fit
LEAD RECYCLING: the handoff to sales took place but the prospect doesn’t respond, doesn’t have budget or some other roadblock. Sales believes there is
potential for the future. The lead gets placed back into the funnel for further nurturing with the goal of re-­engagement at a later time.
LEAD LIFECYCLE

65. MQLs
Leads
SALs
SQLs
OPPs
A respondent to a marketing campaign who doesn’t
yet meet our minimum qualification and behaviour
criteria
A lead who makes the minimum fit criteria and has
displayed enough interest to be handed off to sales.
MQLS are scored and categorized as cold, warm,
or hot leads
An MQL that has been accepted by the BDR for
further qualification to determine pipeline-­readiness
An SAL that has been identified as pipeline-­ready
but needs further qualification to determine the
probability of converting to an opportunity
An SQL that has progressed to an opportunity and
is now committed to pipeline
DEFINITION ACTIVITY
Lead gets entered into the appropriate segmented
nurture program
Lead has achieved a score of 35 or higher and is
entered into a new MQL nurture program
BDR is identifying prospects requirements and
probing to understand the context for buyers’
decision
AE is actively engaged in meaningful dialogue to
validate the use case, identify the champion, and
schedule a demo
Uberflip has been introduced to a wide audience
and there is general team consensus around
solution need, value and fit
LEAD RECYCLING: the handoff to sales took place but the prospect doesn’t respond, doesn’t have budget or some other roadblock. Sales believes there is
potential for the future. The lead gets placed back into the funnel for further nurturing with the goal of re-­engagement at a later time.
LEAD LIFECYCLE
Sales and Marketing Need to Agree On EVERYTHING

66. MQLs
Leads
SALs
SQLs
OPPs
A respondent to a marketing campaign who doesn’t
yet meet our minimum qualification and behaviour
criteria
A lead who makes the minimum fit criteria and has
displayed enough interest to be handed off to sales.
MQLS are scored and categorized as cold, warm,
or hot leads
An MQL that has been accepted by the BDR for
further qualification to determine pipeline-­readiness
An SAL that has been identified as pipeline-­ready
but needs further qualification to determine the
probability of converting to an opportunity
An SQL that has progressed to an opportunity and
is now committed to pipeline
DEFINITION ACTIVITY
Lead gets entered into the appropriate segmented
nurture program
Lead has achieved a score of 35 or higher and is
entered into a new MQL nurture program
BDR is identifying prospects requirements and
probing to understand the context for buyers’
decision
AE is actively engaged in meaningful dialogue to
validate the use case, identify the champion, and
schedule a demo
Uberflip has been introduced to a wide audience
and there is general team consensus around
solution need, value and fit
LEAD RECYCLING: the handoff to sales took place but the prospect doesn’t respond, doesn’t have budget or some other roadblock. Sales believes there is
potential for the future. The lead gets placed back into the funnel for further nurturing with the goal of re-­engagement at a later time.
LEAD LIFECYCLE
Set Expectations -- SLA

67. Smarketingchallenges
Selling Implementing Process Scaling Process

68. #4
Uniteconomics

69. Uniteconomics
Do we have PM Fit? Does the math work? Does the math scale?

70. Canyoumakemoremoneythanit
coststo getacustomer?

71. CAC
Uniteconomics
LTV
Cost of Sales & Marketing
/ #of new customers
Avg. MRR x Customer
Lifetime
Customer
Lifetime
1 / Churn Rate
(months or years)
Resource: forentrepreneurs.com

72. CAC
problems
LTV
Are you calculating “fully
loaded” CAC?
Do you really know LTV?
Customer
Lifetime
Is churn even accurate?
Resource: forentrepreneurs.com

73. CAC RATIO
Uniteconomics
PAYBACK
LTV to CAC Ratio
Guideline = 3+
Efficiency/Scalability
Months to recover CAC
Guideline = <12 months
Cashflow/Profitability
Source: forentrepreneurs.com

74. Optimizing forgrowthandoptimizing
forefficiencyisn’t necessarilythe
samething.

75. Wehaveacacproblem.
Nowwhat?

76. DecreasingCACvs. CACEfficiency

77. Company A Company B
CAC $1000 $1000
MRR $100 $100
ACV (MRR*12) $1200 $1200
Payback 10 months 10 months
Churn 2.5% 2.5%
LTV (MRR / Churn) $4000 $4000
CAC Ratio 4 4
Adapted from: sixteenventures.com

78. Company A
Focus on decreasing CAC
Pay less per customer
Find cheaper channels
Increasing Tofu cconversion
Focus on TOFU metrics
Company B
Focuses on CAC efficiency
Better marketing/sales process
Evaluate pricing
Shorten payback period
Increase customer value
DecreasingCACvs.CACEfficiency
Adapted from: sixteenventures.com

79. *Increasing ACV and moving to annual payments will allow for increasing spend to drive faster / more growth and outspend competitors.
Company A Company B
CAC $800 (-­20%) $1000
MRR $100 $167
ACV (MRR*12) $1200 $2000
Payback 8 months 6 months
Churn 2.5% 2.5%
LTV (MRR / Churn) $4000 (no change) $6680 (+67%)
CAC Ratio 5 (+25%) 6.68 (+67%)
Adapted from: sixteenventures.com

80. Yes, these are totally made up.
But they do illustrate the potential of focusing on efficiency. While in some
cases, focusing only on decreasing costs might be warranted, it may also
decrease lead quality, lowering your customer conversion rate (and
subsequently effecting CAC negatively).

82. #3
What’syourstack?

83. PEOPLE PROCESS TOOLS
(In that order!)

84. What’syourstack?
Email marketing
CRM
Analytics
Optimization
Marketing Automation
Campaign Management
Data enrichment
Sales automation
Predictive Analytics
Multi-touch attribution
Programmatic
Personalization

85. Automating bad marketing is still
bad marketing.

86. Automating bad marketing is still
bad marketing.
Don’t jump to the tech too soon. You need the foundational elements
in place first – good people, good process and good marketing.

87. Uberflip’s
marketing
stack(you cansee it here)