Revenue Systems & Marketing Operations
Build revenue systems that support how your business works.
Your CRM, data, processes and automation should work together to support the way your teams find, develop and serve customers.
I help B2B organisations design, implement and improve those systems, connecting the technology with the commercial processes it needs to support.
That might mean establishing a new CRM environment, developing a lead management process, integrating platforms, improving data quality or redesigning how information and responsibilities move between teams.
I bring senior marketing and revenue operations experience together with hands-on engineering, from understanding the requirement to implementing and verifying the solution.
Where I can help
From new implementations to more capable operations.
Establish a CRM and operating foundation
Build the data structures, processes, lifecycle definitions and automation that give your team a practical foundation for working with customers and opportunities.
Improve lead management and lifecycle operations
Design qualification, scoring, routing, ownership and follow-up processes that support how marketing and sales actually work.
Connect platforms and data
Improve the flow of information between your CRM, marketing tools and other business systems, with clearer data ownership and fewer manual workarounds.
Develop automation and operational workflows
Replace repetitive tasks and fragmented processes with connected workflows, practical controls and appropriate opportunities for intelligent automation.
Make measurement more dependable
Improve the underlying data, definitions, tracking and processes that marketing and revenue teams use to understand performance.
Investigate and improve existing systems
Understand how your current environment operates, identify what needs attention and implement changes that make the system more useful to the people relying on it.
The revenue operating environment
Different teams. One connected commercial journey.
A customer relationship doesn't live in a single platform, department or workflow.
From initial interest and qualification through sales, onboarding and ongoing customer relationships, information and responsibilities move between teams. I work with the systems that support those interactions.
Each stage depends on the same underlying foundations: customer and account data, lifecycle definitions, ownership, automation, integrations, measurement and intelligent capabilities.
Explore the business view to understand what needs to happen. Switch to the engineering view to see the data structures, rules and technology that support it.
Typical patterns from practice, not measurements of any system. Mapping yours is the first piece of work.
Problems show up in the stages. Most start in the foundation.
The stages are the work your teams do. The handovers are where work waits, is retyped or never arrives. Beneath them is what every stage relies on, whatever tools you use.
Each stage lives in records, rules and automations. The foundation is seven engineering areas; a fault in one of them often surfaces a stage or two away.
Start from what you are seeing
Stage 01 of 06
Acquire
Interest becomes a known person and account, with its source.
Forms, imports, contacts, companies, campaigns
What has to happen
- Every form, import and integration creates records the same way.
- Where each contact came from, and what they agreed to receive, is captured once.
- Campaigns can be compared because they are tracked the same way.
Where it tends to break
- Duplicates from different entry paths, each with a different story.
- Source and consent lost on import, so nobody can say what worked or who may be emailed.
What supports it
- Entry-path rules: what each form, import and integration sets on create.
- Matching and deduplication keys, and who may merge.
- Subscription types and consent captured at entry.
What gets measured
- Source and campaign attribution that marketing and sales report the same way.
Where AI can help
Enrichment and research on new accounts, limited to the fields it is allowed to write.
Common starting points here
Stage 02 of 06
Qualify
Everyone agrees who is worth sales time, and why.
Lifecycle stages, lead status, scores, Leads
What has to happen
- A written definition of sales-ready that marketing and sales both accept.
- Every qualified contact reaches an owner who acts within an agreed time.
- Rejected leads go back to nurture with a reason, not into a void.
Where it tends to break
- Every form submission is treated as sales-ready, so the stage means nothing.
- Contacts with a missing field never reach a queue.
What supports it
- Lifecycle and lead-status rules: who sets each state, and when.
- Assignment rules with a fallback owner, and customers protected from re-routing.
- Scoring inputs, thresholds and decay, with an owner who tunes them.
What gets measured
- Time to first response, acceptance and rejection, by source.
Where AI can help
Free-text enquiries sorted into fixed categories, with a recommended route. Nothing is handed over until the recommendation is approved. Related engineering: AI-assisted enquiry handling in HubSpot
Common starting points here
Stage 03 of 06
Sell
Opportunities move through stages everyone defines the same way.
Deals, pipelines, stage properties, associations
What has to happen
- Deal stages with entry and exit rules, not just names.
- The buying group and its company are attached to the deal.
- Pipeline reports leadership can use without a spreadsheet beside them.
Where it tends to break
- Stages skipped or moved backwards, so conversion and velocity figures drift.
- Contacts and deals not associated, so the account picture is incomplete.
What supports it
- Pipeline design: stage definitions, required fields, probability rules.
- Association design between deals, contacts and companies.
- Automation for tasks and stage changes, with clear writers for each field.
What gets measured
- Stage conversion and time in stage, from date properties that are not overwritten.
Where AI can help
Account research briefs before a call, which the rep reads and corrects.
Common starting points here
Stage 04 of 06
Onboard
What was sold reaches the people who deliver it.
Closed-won deals, tickets or projects, tasks, owners
What has to happen
- A closed deal triggers onboarding with what was promised attached.
- Ownership moves from sales to the delivery team, visibly.
- Billing and delivery systems start from the same customer record.
Where it tends to break
- The customer repeats everything they told sales.
- Onboarding status lives in someone’s head or a separate tool.
What supports it
- Required fields at close and a handover record.
- Ownership change rules and onboarding tasks with owners.
- Integration with billing or delivery tools, with a source of truth per field.
What gets measured
- Time from close to onboarding start, and handovers missing required data.
Common starting points here
Stage 05 of 06
Retain
Customers are served, and their health is visible.
Customer states, health properties, tickets, usage data
What has to happen
- One place to see an account’s usage, service and relationship.
- Customer states that stop them being prospected or re-routed as leads.
- Early signals reach the account lead, not a report nobody opens.
Where it tends to break
- A customer is routed as a new lead because routing ignores their stage.
- Usage and support data never reach the CRM.
What supports it
- Post-sale lifecycle states and who may set them.
- Integrations for product usage and support data, with failure handling.
- Suppression rules that keep customers out of prospecting.
What gets measured
- Health inputs with a definition and an owner.
Where AI can help
Usage and service signals summarised for the account lead.
Common starting points here
Stage 06 of 06
Renew & expand
Renewals are never a surprise, and growth has an owner.
Renewal dates, expansion deals, owners, alerts
What has to happen
- Renewal dates and risk visible months ahead.
- Expansion opportunities owned by one team, not competed for.
- Happy customers become references and advocates, on purpose.
Where it tends to break
- Expansion signals land with whoever sees them first.
- Renewal risk is discovered at the renewal date.
What supports it
- Renewal and expansion ownership rules, and handback between teams.
- Alerts and tasks timed from contract dates.
- Expansion pipelines kept apart from new business where reporting needs it.
What gets measured
- Renewal and expansion reported on the same definitions as new business.
Where AI can help
Account signals turned into a suggested next step; the account lead decides.
Common starting points here
Handover · Acquire to Qualify
New interest to qualification
What good looks like
Every new contact arrives with its source, its consent and a status someone owns.
What makes it work
Entry-path rules, default status on create, routing that runs on every path.
Where it tends to break
A record created by an import or integration skips the rules forms follow.
Handover · Qualify to Sell
Marketing to sales
What good looks like
An agreed definition of sales-ready, an owner who accepts in time, and a way back for rejected leads.
What makes it work
Lifecycle and lead-status rules, assignment with a fallback, acceptance and rejection reasons, recycling.
Where it tends to break
A hot account waits because nobody owns it, or nobody can see that it was rejected.
Common starting point here
Handover · Sell to Onboard
Sales to delivery
What good looks like
What was promised travels with the customer.
What makes it work
Required fields at close, a handover record, ownership change and onboarding tasks.
Where it tends to break
The delivery team learns the scope from the customer.
Common starting point here
Handover · Onboard to Retain
Delivery to account management
What good looks like
Onboarding is finished when someone confirms it, and an account lead takes over.
What makes it work
Post-sale states, owner assignment and the first health inputs.
Where it tends to break
Nobody marks onboarding complete, so health tracking never starts.
Handover · Retain to Renew & expand
Health to renewal and growth
What good looks like
Renewal risk is visible early, and expansion has one owner.
What makes it work
Contract-date alerts, expansion ownership rules, suppression from prospecting.
Where it tends to break
Sales and account management both chase the same expansion.
The foundationOne version of each customer
One version of each customerIdentity and data architecture
Objects, properties and associations; how records enter, match, merge and are enriched.
First questions
- How does each record enter, and what does each path set?
- What decides that two records are the same person or account?
- Which fields does enrichment overwrite, and from which source?
Often behind
The foundationClear stages and definitions
Clear stages and definitionsLifecycle, qualification and state
Lifecycle stages, lead status, scoring, nurture and post-sale states, and who may set each.
First questions
- What does each stage mean, in writing?
- Which actors can set it, and do they agree?
- What happens to dates and reports when a stage moves backwards?
Often behind
The foundationThe right owner, quickly
The right owner, quicklyOwnership, routing and eligibility
Assignment and fallback, response expectations, consent and suppression, and handovers between teams.
First questions
- Who owns this record, and what happens when the rule cannot decide?
- Who may be contacted, on which channel, checked when?
- How is a handover accepted, rejected or returned?
Often behind
The foundationWork that runs reliably
Work that runs reliablyAutomation and communications
Workflows, sequences and sends: which automation writes which field, and how each one stops.
First questions
- Which automations write this field, and in what order?
- Are eligibility and suppression checked at the moment of sending?
- What is still queued when an automation is switched off?
Often behind
The foundationSystems that agree
Systems that agreeIntegrations and dependencies
Sync rules, the source of truth for each field, and what happens when a connected system fails.
First questions
- Which system is the master for each critical field?
- What does each integration do when the other side is unavailable?
- Who is alerted, and how is the gap filled afterwards?
Often behind
The foundationNumbers both teams trust
Numbers both teams trustMeasurement and lineage
Metric definitions, reports, attribution, and the baseline taken before anything changes.
First questions
- Which fields and dates does this report depend on?
- Would a change alter its inputs?
- What is measured before the change, so the after can be compared fairly?
Often behind
The foundationAI with clear limits
AI with clear limitsAI and agent controls
Where AI reads, drafts, recommends or acts, and how much it may do on its own. A draft someone reads needs lighter controls than an action that changes records or contacts a customer.
First questions
- What may it do on its own, and what needs approval?
- Which inputs are untrusted, and how are instructions inside them handled?
- How is it evaluated, monitored and switched off?
Often behind
Starting point
Leads wait too long for a response
Where it shows up
Where I would look first
Nobody is clearly responsible when the rules cannot decide who should take a lead.
Assignment rules with no fallback owner, so records the rules cannot match sit unassigned.
Marketing and sales disagree on what “ready for sales” means, so leads are left untouched.
No written entry criteria for the sales-ready stage, and no acceptance or rejection status.
The first check
Take ten slow leads and trace each one: when it qualified, when and to whom it was assigned, and when someone first acted.
Starting point
Existing customers get treated as new leads
Where it shows up
Where I would look first
The rules that hand out new leads do not check whether the person is already a customer.
Routing that enrols on country or source, with no lifecycle-stage condition.
Being a customer does not stop a record being handled as a prospect.
Customer states that do not suppress lead status, routing or prospecting sends.
The first check
Read an affected customer’s history: which automation wrote the owner and lead status, and when, relative to the customer stage.
Related engineeringThe details behind a seemingly simple CRM changeStarting point
The CRM is full of duplicates
Where it shows up
Where I would look first
Each way in creates people and companies by its own rules.
Entry paths that create records without matching on the same keys.
A connected tool adds new records instead of updating the ones you have.
A sync that creates on a mismatch, with no agreed master for the fields it matches on.
The first check
Group the duplicates by the path that created the second record.
Starting point
Marketing and sales report different numbers
Where it shows up
Where I would look first
The same word means two things, or a report counts a field that keeps changing.
Two definitions of one metric, or reports built on properties that are overwritten.
Stages can be changed by several people and tools, or moved backwards, which rewrites the dates reports use.
Several writers on lifecycle stage, backward moves, and the date properties they rewrite.
The first check
Take one disputed figure back to the fields it counts, and to everything that writes them.
Starting point
Delivery starts without what was sold
Where it shows up
Where I would look first
Nothing marks the handover as accepted, or sends it back when something is missing.
No handover record, no required fields at close, and no acceptance step.
What was agreed stays in the CRM and never reaches the delivery or billing tools.
No sync, or no agreed master, for the fields delivery and billing depend on.
The first check
Compare what a recent closed deal held with what the delivery team actually received.
Starting point
Renewal risk is found at the renewal date
Where it shows up
Where I would look first
Contract dates and usage live in other systems, out of the account team’s view.
Contract and usage data not synced to the CRM, or synced without failure alerts.
Nothing prompts anyone months ahead.
No tasks or alerts timed from contract dates, each with an owner.
The first check
List next quarter’s renewals and check that each has a date, an owner and a health signal in the CRM.
Starting point
We want AI in qualification, safely
Where it shows up
Where I would look first
What it may do on its own, what a person signs off, and how it is checked and switched off.
Its permissions, how untrusted input is handled, its evaluation set, its approval points and its stop path.
Clear categories and definitions for it to sort into.
Fixed labels and stage criteria, so its output maps to defined states.
The first check
Write down the decision it would make, the mistakes that are unacceptable, and what it may do without a person.
Related engineeringAI-assisted enquiry handling in HubSpotThe purpose isn't to introduce complexity. It's to understand how the different parts of the operation should work together, then design or improve what matters for your business.
What effective engineering makes possible
Systems that support the work, rather than getting in its way.
A clearer picture of customers and accounts
Bring together the records and relationships your teams need, supported by appropriate data structures and integration rules.
More consistent operational processes
Translate agreed lifecycle, qualification and ownership decisions into workflows that teams can follow and maintain.
Better-connected activity
Help the right information reach the right systems and people, from marketing enquiries to sales opportunities and customer handovers.
Greater capacity for improvement
Create a foundation that can support new campaigns, processes, reporting requirements and more intelligent operational capabilities as needs evolve.
The specific solution depends on your systems, teams and priorities. There is no need to introduce complexity where a simpler approach will work.
How I approach the work
Understand the operation. Design the change. Make it work.
Understand the requirement
Start with what the organisation needs to accomplish, how the current operation works and the systems and people involved.
Design the right approach
Work through the architecture, data, process changes, integration choices and dependencies necessary for a workable solution.
Implement and test
Build or configure the agreed changes, check how they behave and resolve the practical details that affect the operation.
Enable ongoing use
Document what matters, support handover and help the team operate or improve the capability under an agreed arrangement.
Not every engagement needs all four stages. Sometimes the requirement is a focused investigation, a defined implementation or specialist support within an existing project.
Engineering in practice
The details behind a seemingly simple CRM change.
Consider a CRM where every submission through a contact-sales form is automatically classified as sales-qualified.
The visible issue is straightforward, but fixing it involves more than changing one setting. Where does the classification come from? Which other workflows rely on it? And what might happen elsewhere when a record's stage changes?
This is the kind of situation where understanding the underlying rules, data and dependencies helps inform a better solution before making changes.
See how I investigate a HubSpot revenue flowA closer look at tracing lifecycle rules, identifying unintended routing behaviour and checking the consequences of CRM changes.Professional experience and engineering
Practical experience, supported by technical work.
My background spans B2B marketing operations, CRM implementation, lifecycle processes, automation and connected revenue technologies.
Alongside professional delivery, I develop and evaluate engineering approaches that bring together system inspection, operational workflows, software and AI.
Explore relevant professional experience in Work, or take a closer look at selected technical projects in Lab.
Strategic Computing
Strategic Computing is a Dublin-based specialist in enterprise negotiation and IT procurement. Its commercial journey needed to make better use of the expertise and customer evidence already in the business.
Read about the workUnderstanding what happens behind a CRM workflow
A change to lead handling can affect customer records, ownership, automation and reporting in unexpected ways. This example shows how I trace what is happening, identify conflicting rules and check the effects of a change before recommending the next step.
Investigate the workflow
Trace how forms, imports and automation update CRM records. Identify where customers are treated as new leads, ownership becomes unclear or qualification rules need better definitions.
Check the impact of a change
Review what a lifecycle change affects, including record history and reporting fields. Checking only that the visible stage has changed can miss important downstream consequences.
What the investigation revealed
Situation. A customer appeared in the new-lead workflow because the automation did not distinguish existing customers from incoming prospects.
Why it matters. Misrouting can create unnecessary sales follow-up, unclear ownership and misleading reporting.
Engineering approach. Trace which systems write to the record, confirm the intended rule and evaluate the changes and checks needed before implementation.
Important lesson. Reversing a lifecycle-stage change may restore the visible stage without restoring all associated historical reporting values. Recovery needs to be considered before changing live records.
Working together
You might need to establish an operating foundation, improve an existing environment, deliver a defined systems change or bring experienced capacity into a wider initiative.
I can contribute from requirements and solution design through implementation and practical handover, working directly with your team or alongside a specialist consultancy or agency.
Discuss a requirementBuilding, improving or connecting your revenue systems?
You don't need to have the entire solution worked out.
Whether you're starting a new implementation, working through an operational challenge or exploring a more capable way of working, we can begin with what you want to achieve.
Discuss a requirement