matellez First 90 Days: Demand Gen and RevOps Leader Entry Plan
This skill builds a structured diagnostic and action plan for a demand gen or RevOps leader in a new role. The goal of the first 90 days is not to execute. It is to understand what exists, identify what is broken, build credibility with sales, and make one or two visible improvements before the first quarterly business review.
Leaders who skip the diagnostic phase and execute immediately on their prior playbook almost always solve the wrong problems. The company they just joined is not the last company. The ICP is different. The sales motion is different. The CRM is configured differently. The attribution model, if it exists at all, was built by someone with different assumptions. Execution without diagnosis accelerates the wrong things.
HOW TO SET UP THIS SKILL
This skill works out of the box. For more specific output, provide:
- The role title and whether it is demand gen, growth, RevOps, or hybrid
- Whether the function existed before you or you are building it from zero
- Company size, stage, and industry vertical
- Whether you inherited a team or are an individual contributor
- The first major meeting or deliverable you are working toward
- Any known problems you were hired to solve
The 90-Day Framework
The 90 days divide into three phases with different objectives.
Days 1-30: Listen and diagnose. Do not change anything yet. Days 31-60: Identify the highest-leverage fix and act on it. Days 61-90: Deliver one visible result and build the credibility to execute the full plan.
Days 1-30: The Diagnostic Phase
The goal of this phase is to build a complete picture of what exists, what is actually working, and what the organization believes is broken versus what is actually broken. These are often different things.
The CRM audit
This is the first thing to do. Before any stakeholder meeting, pull the CRM and understand what it is actually tracking versus what people think it is tracking. These are almost always different.
What to look at:
Pipeline composition: How many open deals exist? What is the age distribution? How many deals have been open for longer than two sales cycles? A pipeline full of aging deals is a vanity metric, not a real number. It inflates the coverage ratio and gives false confidence to leadership.
Deal stage definitions: Pull the stage names and look at how deals are distributed across them. If 40% or more of the pipeline is in one stage, that stage is either a catch-all or a holding area. Neither is accurate.
Lead source attribution: What percentage of deals have a lead source recorded? What is the breakdown by source? If more than 30% of deals have no lead source or are marked "unknown," attribution is broken and any conversation about marketing's contribution to pipeline is going to be contested.
Lifecycle stage discipline: How are contacts progressing from lead to MQL to SQL? Are stages being updated manually or automatically? Are there contacts who have been MQLs for months without moving?
Activity recency: When was the last activity logged on open deals? Deals with no activity in 21 or more days are functionally dead regardless of what stage they are in.
What you are building toward:
A one-page CRM health snapshot that you can share with your manager and the sales leader in week three or four. Not a critique of the previous function. A factual summary of what exists, what is visible, and what the gaps in visibility are.
The pipeline and attribution interview
Schedule individual conversations with four people in the first two weeks: the CEO or VP of Sales, two or three sales reps, and whoever was running demand gen or RevOps before you (if they are still at the company in another role).
These are not status meetings. They are listening sessions. You are trying to understand three things.
First: what does each person believe marketing's role in pipeline generation is? Sales and marketing almost always have different answers to this question. The gap between their answers tells you where the SLA and attribution problems live.
Second: what campaigns or programs do people point to as working? What do they point to as a waste of money? Do not take these answers at face value. The campaign people think is working is often the one with the highest activity, not the highest pipeline contribution. The campaign people think is wasteful is often the one with the most attribution problems, not the worst actual performance.
Third: what was tried before that failed? What did the last person in this role change that the team is still frustrated about? What did they promise that was not delivered? You need to know what landmines exist before you step on them.
Questions to ask the sales leader:
"Walk me through how you think about the pipeline. What percentage of pipeline comes from marketing-sourced deals versus outbound versus inbound from other channels?"
"When a marketing lead comes in, what happens to it? What is the expected follow-up time, and how often does that actually happen?"
"Where do you think marketing is adding the most value right now? Where do you wish marketing was doing something different?"
"What would it take for you to trust the MQL number more than you do today?"
Questions to ask sales reps:
"When you get a lead from marketing, what does that look like? What information do you have about the account? Is it enough to have a productive first call?"
"Tell me about the last marketing lead you worked that turned into a real deal. What was different about it?"
"Tell me about the last marketing lead you got that was a waste of your time. What was wrong with it?"
The program and spend audit
Pull every active marketing program and every contract currently being paid. This includes:
Paid media: What is running on Google, LinkedIn, and any other channels? What is the monthly spend? What is the CPL? What is the conversion rate from lead to MQL, and from MQL to opportunity?
Technology stack: What tools is the team currently paying for? What is the contract value and renewal date for each? Which tools are actively used versus licensed and dormant?
Agencies and contractors: What external relationships exist? What is the scope of work? What deliverables are being produced?
Content and campaigns: What content was produced in the last six months? What campaigns ran? What were the results?
What you are building toward:
A spend and program map that shows total monthly marketing investment, output by channel, and conversion rates at each stage. This is the foundation for the budget defense conversation that will happen eventually, and for the decisions you will make about what to cut, what to keep, and what to invest more in.
The technology stack assessment
Document every tool the function uses or is supposed to use. For each tool, note: what it is supposed to do, whether it is actually being used as designed, who the admin is, when the contract renews, and what it costs annually.
Pay particular attention to:
HubSpot or Salesforce configuration: Is the CRM set up to support the actual sales motion? Are workflows running or broken? Is data flowing from the CRM to any reporting dashboards, and is that data accurate?
Attribution tools: Is there any multi-touch attribution in place? If not, how is marketing contribution to pipeline being measured? If it is not being measured at all, that is a problem you will need to solve before the first budget conversation.
SEO and web analytics: Is Google Analytics or GA4 configured correctly? Are conversion events firing? Is organic traffic being tracked to pipeline?
Days 31-60: The First Fix
By the end of day 30, you should have a clear picture of what is broken. Most new leaders find three to five significant problems. The discipline of days 31-60 is to pick one and fix it visibly, rather than starting everything at once and finishing nothing.
How to pick the right first fix:
The right first fix meets three criteria. It is visible to leadership, meaning someone above you cares about it. It is achievable in 30 days with the resources you currently have. And it directly addresses a pain point that sales has expressed, because fixing a problem that sales does not care about does not build the credibility you need.
Common first fixes in demand gen roles:
Lead routing is broken and hot leads are falling through the cracks. Fix the workflow, add a notification, and show the sales team the before and after in the next sales-marketing sync.
Attribution is missing for a significant percentage of pipeline. Add the required CRM fields, run a retroactive cleanup for the last 90 days, and produce the first accurate pipeline attribution report the company has had.
A high-spend channel has no conversion tracking. Add the tracking, wait two to three weeks for data, and present the first channel-level CPL and pipeline contribution numbers.
Common first fixes in RevOps roles:
Deal stages are inflated with dead deals. Run a pipeline scrub with clear criteria, remove or close out deals that do not meet the minimum activity and stage criteria, and produce a cleaned pipeline number. This is uncomfortable but builds enormous credibility with sales leadership who know the number is inflated and want someone to do something about it.
HubSpot workflows are conflicting or broken. Audit the workflow list, deactivate anything not actively contributing, document what each active workflow does and who owns it.
MQL definition is disputed. Facilitate the conversation with sales and marketing to agree on a definition, document it, and configure the CRM to enforce it automatically.
Days 61-90: The Credibility Delivery
The end of day 90 is typically when new leaders give their first formal presentation to leadership about the state of the function and their plan. Everything in days 61-90 is preparation for that moment.
What the presentation needs to accomplish:
Demonstrate that you understand what exists and what is broken. Not criticism of your predecessor. A clear-eyed assessment of the current state with data to support it.
Show one thing you already fixed and the measurable result. This proves you can execute, not just diagnose.
Present the plan for the next 90 days. What you will build, what you will cut, and what you expect to deliver by the end of Q2 or the next quarter.
The one metric to have by day 90:
Whatever else you do in the first 90 days, have an answer to this question with data behind it: "What is marketing's contribution to pipeline this quarter?" Not a rough estimate. Not a verbal summary. A number, a methodology, and the ability to explain how you got there. This is the single most important number for a demand gen or RevOps leader and the most common gap that new leaders in this role do not have.
Deliver the 90-Day Entry Plan
Output in this format:
FIRST 90 DAYS ENTRY PLAN
Role: [title and company if provided]
Function type: [demand gen, RevOps, growth, or hybrid]
Built: [today's date]
SITUATION ASSESSMENT
[What is known about the current state based on what the user described.
What is unknown. What the most likely problems are based on the role
type and company stage.]
DAYS 1-30: DIAGNOSTIC PRIORITIES
Week 1-2 actions (do these before any stakeholder meetings):
1. [Specific audit with output]
2. [Specific audit with output]
3. [Specific audit with output]
Week 3-4 stakeholder interviews:
- [Who to meet with and the three questions to ask each person]
End of day 30 deliverable: [what to have completed and what to share]
DAYS 31-60: FIRST FIX CANDIDATE
Recommended first fix: [specific, based on what the user described]
Why this one: [why it meets the three criteria]
How to execute it: [specific steps]
How to make it visible: [how to share the result with the right people]
DAYS 61-90: FIRST PRESENTATION PREP
The one metric to have: [marketing contribution to pipeline with
methodology]
Presentation structure: [what the 90-day readout should cover]
Credibility risks: [what could undermine the presentation if not
addressed]
LANDMINES TO WATCH
[The two or three political or organizational problems most likely to
slow things down based on what the user described. Based only on what
has been shared, not assumptions.]
Output Rules
- Do not assume the function was previously run well or poorly. Base the assessment only on what the user has described.
- The diagnostic phase is not about building a plan. It is about understanding what exists before making any commitments.
- If the user says they were hired to fix something specific, address that directly. Do not bury it in a generic framework.
- Be direct about what new leaders typically get wrong in the first 90 days: executing too fast, promising too much, and failing to get a single pipeline attribution number before the first QBR.
- If the user inherited a team, add a people assessment section to days 1-30. Understanding who on the team is high-performing, who is coasting, and who is a flight risk is as important as the technical audit. A leader who does not assess their team in the first 30 days often discovers the problem at the worst possible moment: when a deliverable is missed.
- No em dashes. Use commas or periods.