Marketing is hitting their MQL target, but deals aren’t closing. Marketing blames sales for not following up; sales says the leads aren’t worth it. This is so common it’s a cliche.

So we dig in. We ask three people what an MQL and an SQO is and get three different answers, so our conversion rate tells us nothing. We can’t see where these leads came from, who followed up, whether meetings were booked or held, etc. There’s no consistent process or accurate data.

What can we do?

We’ve seen this thousands of times, literally, so we built the Revenue Efficiency Pyramid to help. In this framework we’re going to break it down to help you operationalize your inbound marketing engine. We’ll provide a step by step path to build a solid, process, drive adoption across the team, align marketing and sales, and leverage AI and automation to amplify results.

With this framework, you’ll shift from chaos to cohesion—sales and marketing aligned on quality leads, conversion steps, and shared expectations. Imagine forecasting revenue with precision, understanding pipeline and revenue by marketing channel with far more accuracy and confidence.

ICP, Personas, Products

Problem: Without a clear ICP/Personas by product, lead conversion suffers, and sales teams waste time on poorly matched prospects. Companies often define this too broadly, listing generic industries, revenue ranges, titles, etc. without enough detail to pinpoint ideal targets.

Solution: Define ICP/Personas with detailed, data-backed insights. Narrow down beyond surface-level demographics by analyzing existing customer data to identify characteristics that truly predict high-value customers for each product. Align marketing and sales around this clear, precise ICP to improve lead qualification and conversion to pipeline and revenue.

Customer Journey Map

Problem: Many revenue teams skip the Customer Journey Map, seeing it as an overwhelming nice to have. The lead management process is then designed without considering how the customer wants to buy, resulting in poor conversion rates and customer experience.

Solution: Outline the customer journey from awareness to purchase, identifying what customers need and what steps they want to take to move forward. Most customers want a similar journey so at USC, we have a template to get 80% of the way in a couple of meetings, setting the foundation for our lead management process. We can then refine and optimize it down the road, after we have the foundation in place.

Lead Management Process

Problem: Poor process means lower conversion rates and a complete lack of visibility. Leads are lost due to slow response times and poor follow up. We can’t see how many leads we’ve generated, converted or won/lost, where they came from, or why, because we have no defined process.

Solution: Define a clear lead management process that includes qualification criteria, definitions for MQL, SAL, SQL, SQO, etc, routing rules, and response time goals. Assign ownership at each step, and set up structured follow-ups to keep leads engaged. A documented process ensures each lead is prioritized and that handoffs between marketing and sales are smooth. It also provides the accurate data needed to see what’s working and what’s not.

Read more on Inbound lead management here.

Lead Process in Systems (MA, CRM)

Problem: The lead management process can’t be managed or measured effectively if sales and marketing tools aren’t implemented and integrated properly. With isolated systems, sales and marketing are misaligned, they can’t see the same reporting, and things slip through the cracks.

Solution: Implement the step by step Lead Management Process into the MA and CRM systems and integrate them together. Track key data along the way, from MQLs to SQOs, follow up activities, meetings scheduled and held, lead sources, closed won deals and revenue, etc. to help the team execute efficiently and effectively.

Building Out Cadences

Problem: If sales doesn’t follow up fast enough, or enough times, leads don’t convert. Without structured cadences, leads go cold from too slow or too few follow ups or get overwhelmed by too many. Inconsistent follow up hurts conversion rates and CAC and inhibits reporting and visibility.

Solution: Build structured cadences that adapt to lead types, ICP fit, and engagement levels. Each touchpoint should deliver value, nurturing leads through the journey at a pace that suits their intent. Implement cadences to ensure consistent outreach and relevant messaging for each target audience.

Lead Management Reporting

Problem: Most revenue teams don’t have enough visibility into the most common ways leads are lost. They don’t track lead sources, conversion rates, or follow up accurately due to the above not being in place and/or because they haven’t worked hard enough on the reporting. By sheer definition this means revenue is lost.

Solution: Establish a lead management reporting framework that tracks critical metrics across the funnel, from MQLs, SALs, SQLs, SQOs, generated, lead response time, follow up activities, meetings booked and held, and deals closed. This will make or break our ability to optimize the marketing engine and sales follow up. Tracking lead source and declared intent (demo requests) accurately also enables us to see what’s working and what’s not across different channels and different levels of intent.

*This sets our foundation for Fundamentals and Adoption. We now have a basic process and the systems to execute and measure it. This can all be done extremely quickly, in a few weeks or months. From here things can take far more time to get in place.  

Attribution Model

Problem: While attribution is no perfect science, we’re flying blind without it. We don’t know what channels are working and not working so we waste a lot of money and resources and don’t know where to invest more, cut back, or where to optimize.

Solution: Most companies choose a first touch or last touch model to start. The key here is defining how you collect the data to record this. Attribution software works well to identify leads from ad spend but falls apart in the dark funnel, when people see us on social media, listen to a podcast, or hear about us through word of mouth and google us. To solve for this, we ask people on every web form and every first sales call how they heard about us. It’s simple and incredibly effective.

Read more about the dark funnel here.

Lead Scoring & Nurturing

Problem: Poor lead scoring results in low-quality leads reaching sales and missed opportunities with higher-quality ones. Many teams score leads based on a single criterion (e.g., activity), rather than a holistic view of engagement, fit, and timing. Studies also show that +80% of leads aren’t ready to buy today and need nurturing.

*It’s EXTREMELY important to identify our Declared Intent Leads (demo requests) here as those are almost always qualified, at least if they’re from the right ICP/Personas.  

Solution: We have to score leads to identify when they’re worth handing over to sales. We have to determine when they should stay with marketing and how we nurture them. To do this, we start with a simple scoring system, test and iterate it. It’s never right the first time. It takes time to get it right. The same goes for nurturing. We start with a simple nurturing sequence and optimize it over time.

Read more about lead and account scoring here.

Pipeline Council Established

Problem: Without regular alignment, marketing and sales teams often operate in silos, resulting in miscommunication and pipeline inefficiencies. Many companies lack a structured space for cross-functional discussions and issue resolution.

Solution: Establish a Pipeline Council with leaders from marketing, sales, customer success, maybe finance and product as well. This is a regular meeting where leaders don’t hold back. Reporting is reviewed prior to the meeting and real issues and opportunities are brought to discuss and solve. This is the only way to truly optimize the marketing engine, by getting everyone together to tackle it head on, regularly.

Read more on how to build a Pipeline Council here.

Optimize Conversion, Revenue, ROI

Problem: Generating more leads and pipeline isn’t enough to optimize the marketing engine. Each channel, product, customer type, etc will have different conversion and close rates, costs to acquire a customer, revenue and ROI. Without dedicating the right time and resources the marketing engine will simply cost more and produce less revenue.

Solution: Dedicate resources, such as a VP of RevOps and/or an analyst, to regularly slice and dice the marketing data and bring actionable insights to leaders and to the Pipeline Council. This takes significant time and expertise but it can change costs and revenues by millions of dollars.

Read more about increasing data visibility using the Revenue Factory model here.

Automation and AI

Problem: Revenue teams often rush to adopt automation and AI before establishing the foundational process outlined above. This amplifies inefficiencies rather than eliminating them. AI and shiny tools aren’t magic bullets. They rely on solid processes and data.

The Solution: With a strong foundation in place, leverage automation to amplify what’s working such as follow-ups, lead scoring, and email outreach. Use AI for advanced tasks like predictive analytics and lead prioritization, which help your team focus on the highest-potential leads. Automation and AI, applied to an already optimized process, maximize impact and free your team to focus on value-driven activities.

Read more about our predictions for AI in marketing here.