Role
Director of Growth
Expertise
Marketing operations, perfomance tracking, leadership
Duration
3 months
Challenge
At a hypergrowth stage, Contentsquare faced the complex challenge of continuously evolving its sales organization (SDR, AE, Leadership) and the lead-to-opportunity management systems to match rapid business expansion. This evolution needed to address several critical factors:
Market Expansion
Opening new regions and countries required adapting lead routing and qualification processes to incorporate new coverage
Sales coverage models needed frequent adjustments to support territorial growth
Different market maturity required varying approaches to lead management. In some geographies, our sales territory was split by industry, in others by Zip code or account-based or Round-robin
As our brand presence grew across our geographies, it also brought volumes of out-of-target leads
Revenue Strategy Shifts
The initial focus on new business acquisition evolved to include existing customer growth.
Lead qualification criteria needed to adapt to the demographics of each region (i.e. traffic volume in Spain is much lower than US for the same business)
Addressing inconsistent pipeline velocity (MQL to Sales Accepted Opportunity) across regions
Process Optimization Requirements
Lead assignment rules needed continuous refinement for optimal territory coverage
Qualification frameworks required updating to match evolving business needs
Handoff processes between teams needed streamlining to maintain momentum
Follow-up protocols needed standardization across growing teams
Responsibilities
The Growth team was responsible for protecting top-of-funnel business value (created by Paid, Organic, Social, Direct), our challenge was to create a scalable, efficient process that could:
Optimize lead flow across expanding territories
Increase conversion rates despite growing complexity
Improve lead-to-pipeline velocity while maintaining quality
Adapt quickly to organizational changes and market demands
As Growth Director I was responsible for defining the project scope and methodology, reviewing the architecture, defining the metric of success and the resources needed across teams and departments.
Established a unified lead management process that aligns marketing and sales
Redefined lead scoring models and SLAs (service-level agreements) for timely follow-ups
Implemented tools and reporting systems to improve transparency and accountability
Worked hand-by-hand with Marketing operations, Sales operations, regional marketing & sales teams
Provided regular updates to the leadership
Approach/Actions
Phase 1: Diagnostic and Stakeholder Alignment
Conducted workshops with sales and marketing to identify pain points and misalignments
Analyzed historical data to uncover bottlenecks in the lead-to-revenue process
Mapped sales coverage mechanisms by each geography, country. Who was responsible for what?
Created flow diagrams across systems to identify the issues and tech efficiency
Phase 2: Redefining Lead Scoring and Qualification
Redesigned the lead scoring model using CRM (Salesforce) and marketing automation data (Hubspot), incorporating firmographics, behavioral signals and engagement levels.
Geography-specific rules
Key account prioritization with cross-regional validation
In regions where we had a strong customer base, such as France, we needed to include a differentiated track not to requalify existing customers but to send them through a dedicated flow for Xsell, Upsell or customer nurture
Three-tier engagement classification:
P1: High intent (Demo/Sales requests)
P2: Medium intent (Product tours/Event attendance)
P3: Warm leads (Content downloads/Registrations)
Introduced a lead grading system to prioritize high-quality prospects for sales
Phase 3: Establishing SLAs and Communication Cadence
Defined SLAs for lead follow-up, ensuring all leads were contacted within:
P1: 30-minute response (Next day 10am for after-hours)
P2: 2-hour response (Next day 10am for after-hours)
P3: 4-hour response (Next day 1pm for after-hours)
Created a shared dashboard for real-time visibility into lead status, follow-ups and pipeline contributions
Phase 4: Implementation of Tools and Reporting
Adjusted Salesforce lead assignment setup with Hubspot for seamless lead tracking and reporting > no qualified lead left behind
Incorporated Clearbit enrichment data for more accurate demographic and technographic data
Developed custom reports for conversion metrics:
MQL-to-opportunity
MQL-to-disqualified
MQL-to-meeting booked (S0)
MQL-to-sales accepted (S2)
Organized SLA office hours to answer questions and continue enabling revenue teams
Results/Impact
The alignment initiative produced transformative outcomes:
Conversion Rates: Improved MQL-to-S0 conversion rates from 5% to 7%, MQL-DQ cvr decreased from 28% to 21%, S0 to S2 from 65% to 80,2%
Efficiency: Reduced lead response time by 50% and set internal benchmarks for regions behind catching up to the global benchmark
Pipeline Growth: 30% uplift in website generated pipeline. Making the high intent responses (demo, contact sales) the best performing campaign across all initiatives and markets
Lessons Learned
Key takeaways from this project include:
Cross-Team Collaboration: Ongoing communication and alignment are critical to shared success
Lead Quality over Quantity: A well-defined scoring model ensures sales teams focus on high-value opportunities
Transparency and Accountability: Shared tools and metrics drive team alignment and foster trust
