Redesigning commercial operations to improve pipeline performance

Executive Summary

A rapidly growing B2B SaaS company had reached the point where Marketing activity could no longer be connected to commercial outcomes. Pipeline generation lacked consistency, lead quality was continually questioned by Sales, and leadership had no reliable way of understanding which commercial activities created revenue.

The result was a measurable improvement in commercial performance. Pipeline exceeded target in every completed quarter, reaching 164% of target, while the redesigned lead management model supported 165% of quarterly new ARR target and reduced speed-to-lead by 20%.

My Role

I led marketing operations within the revenue operations function, redesigning the operational model and defining the strategy, plan, and team deployment, with direct reports across web marketing, paid media, development, and tech stack analysis, plus a data analyst supporting sales and marketing.

Commercial Outcomes

Business Performance

• Pipeline creation exceeded the target every completed quarter, peaking at 164% (~$10.1M against a ~$6.2M target).

• Company Subscription ARR reached 140% of the quarterly target during the assessed period.

• Speed-to-lead reduced by 20% during the first month after implementation.

Organisational Impact

• Marketing, Sales, and Business Development adopted a single connected lead management process.

• Leadership gained reliable attribution and commercial reporting.

• Marketing became accountable for a measurable pipeline rather than campaign activity.

• Commercial investment decisions could be made using trusted data rather than assumptions.

The Commercial Challenge

Marketing worked hard to generate engagement and produce valuable content that drove activity, but could not demonstrate full commercial value, with many blind spots in lead management and attribution tracking.

Lead qualification and nurturing varied across acquisition channels; handover to the BDR team was inconsistent; attribution rewarded only the beginning and end of the customer journey; and executive reporting failed to explain why opportunities converted or why they didn't.

The organisation lacked a marketing infrastructure aligned with its commercial operating model. Marketing, Sales, and Revenue Operations operated in silos. The underlying systems had been left to accumulate debt rather than be maintained.

The marketing automation platform and CRM were connected, but the MAP had been left unmaintained for a long time, and successive issues had been patched rather than fixed at the root cause. Tooling was scattered across the function, with little communication among the people running it, so tracking and attribution were unreliable. The result was a pipeline that arrived disconnected from the activity it was meant to produce.

Strategic Decisions

Rather than optimising individual systems, I redesigned the commercial operating model into a single connected framework.

The programme focused on:

• Consolidating a fragmented technology stack into one operating platform

• Redesigning lead qualification using enrichment, intent and ICP fit

• Rebuilding website forms and lead routing around commercial rather than channel ownership

• Replacing two-touch attribution with a multi-touch reporting model

• Introducing lifecycle nurturing between Marketing and Business Development

• Implementing AI-assisted lead prioritisation to improve speed and consistency

• Establishing executive reporting aligned to the pipeline and revenue rather than marketing activity

What Changed

Leadership gained confidence in how pipeline was created and where commercial investment generated the greatest return.

Marketing shifted from being measured by activity to being measured by commercial contribution, while Sales inherited consistently qualified opportunities through one operating model rather than disconnected processes.