North American Marketing Operations Engine

Beta Systems needed a functioning North American marketing operations foundation. There was no mature regional marketing automation environment supporting the full lead lifecycle, and many of the systems required to manage demand consistently still needed to be established.

That meant solving several connected problems: how leads should move through the funnel, what qualified someone for Sales, how teams should hand off records, how prospects should be segmented and nurtured, and how leadership could see what was happening across the funnel.

I helped build the North American marketing function and co-led the regional HubSpot implementation. We used HubSpot as the foundation for lifecycle management, segmentation, automation, lead management, reporting, and coordination with Sales.

This required both technical configuration and agreement around the business processes the technology was supposed to support.

We established the core structure needed to operate consistently:

• Lifecycle stages and lead-management processes
• Shared MQL and SQL definitions with Sales
• Lead scoring and engagement signals
• Persona and industry segmentation
• Sales handoffs and routing
• Regional consent workflows
• Campaign and marketing automation
• Funnel and pipeline reporting
• Documentation and training

I also built Beta Systems’ first major inbound nurture program: a 10-week nurture spanning four personas and six industries. Engagement scoring, alerts, and routing logic helped identify stronger buying signals and move appropriate leads toward Sales.

The foundation later supported a broader account-based motion as we implemented Demandbase and created a three-tier ABM model across approximately 400 target accounts.

Prospect acquisition, segmentation, lifecycle stages, nurture, engagement scoring, qualification, sales handoffs, and opportunity reporting operated as one connected system.

Segmentation affected messaging. Engagement affected scoring. Scoring informed handoffs. Lifecycle stages affected reporting. Sales feedback informed qualification, making governance just as important as automation.

The result was a functioning North American marketing operations infrastructure where previously there had not been one. Marketing gained a repeatable system for managing prospects across the funnel.

Sales gained clearer qualification and handoff processes. Leadership gained greater visibility into funnel progression, pipeline, and marketing performance through full-funnel reporting and dashboards.

The infrastructure created a foundation for nurture, ABM, AI-assisted routing, and intent-driven prioritization without having to rebuild the underlying operating model each time.

Marketing automation works best when the technology implements an agreed-upon business process. The most important work was creating consistent definitions, ownership, data structure, handoffs, and feedback loops so automation had something reliable to automate.

Define the process first. Then use technology to make the process faster, more consistent, and easier to measure.