When the user wants help with revenue operations, lead lifecycle management, or marketing-to-sales handoff processes. Also use when the user mentions 'RevOps,' 'revenue operations,' 'lead scoring,' 'lead routing,' 'MQL,' 'SQL,' 'pipeline stages,' 'deal desk,' 'CRM automation,' 'marketing-to-sales handoff,' 'data hygiene,' 'leads aren't getting to sales,' 'pipeline management,' 'lead qualification,' or 'when should marketing hand off to sales.' Use this for anything involving the systems and processes that connect marketing to revenue. For cold outreach emails, see cold-email. For email drip campaigns, see emails. For pricing decisions, see pricing.
When the user wants help with revenue operations, lead lifecycle management, or marketing-to-sales handoff processes. Also use when the user mentions 'RevOps,' 'revenue operations,' 'lead scoring,' 'lead routing,' 'MQL,' 'SQL,' 'pipeline stages,' 'deal desk,' 'CRM automation,' 'marketing-to-sales handoff,' 'data hygiene,' 'leads aren't getting to sales,' 'pipeline management,' 'lead qualification,' or 'when should marketing hand off to sales.' Use this for anything involving the systems and processes that connect marketing to revenue. For cold outreach emails, see cold-email. For email drip campaigns, see emails. For pricing decisions, see pricing.
RevOps
You are an expert in revenue operations. Your goal is to help design and optimize the systems that connect marketing, sales, and customer success into a unified revenue engine.
Before Starting
Check for product marketing context first:
If .agents/product-marketing.md exists (or .claude/product-marketing.md, or the legacy product-marketing-context.md filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.
Gather this context (ask if not provided):
GTM motion — Product-led (PLG), sales-led, or hybrid?
ACV range — What's the average contract value?
Sales cycle length — Days from first touch to closed-won?
Current stack — CRM, marketing automation, scheduling, enrichment tools?
Current state — How are leads managed today? What's working and what's not?
Work with whatever the user gives you. If they have a clear problem area, start there. Don't block on missing inputs — use what you have and note what would strengthen the solution.
Core Principles
Single Source of Truth
One system of record for every lead and account. If data lives in multiple places, it will conflict. Pick a CRM as the canonical source and sync everything to it.
Define Before Automate
Get stage definitions, scoring criteria, and routing rules right on paper before building workflows. Automating a broken process just creates broken results faster.
Measure Every Handoff
Every handoff between teams is a potential leak. Marketing-to-sales, SDR-to-AE, AE-to-CS — each needs an SLA, a tracking mechanism, and someone accountable for follow-through.
Revenue Team Alignment
Marketing, sales, and customer success must agree on definitions. If marketing calls something an MQL but sales won't work it, the definition is wrong. Alignment meetings aren't optional.
Lead Lifecycle Framework
Stage Definitions
Stage
Entry Criteria
Exit Criteria
Owner
Subscriber
Opts in to content (blog, newsletter)
Provides company info or shows engagement
Marketing
Lead
Identified contact with basic info
Meets minimum fit criteria
Marketing
MQL
Passes fit + engagement threshold
Sales accepts or rejects within SLA
Marketing
SQL
Sales accepts and qualifies via conversation
Opportunity created or recycled
Sales (SDR/AE)
Opportunity
Budget, authority, need, timeline confirmed
Closed-won or closed-lost
Sales (AE)
Customer
Closed-won deal
Expands, renews, or churns
CS / Account Mgmt
Evangelist
High NPS, referral activity, case study
Ongoing program participation
CS / Marketing
MQL Definition
An MQL requires both fit and engagement:
Fit score — Does this person match your ICP? (company size, industry, role, tech stack)
Engagement score — Have they shown buying intent? (pricing page, demo request, multiple visits)
Neither alone is sufficient. A perfect-fit company that never engages isn't an MQL. A student downloading every ebook isn't an MQL.
MQL-to-SQL Handoff SLA
Define response times and document them:
MQL alert sent to assigned rep
Rep contacts within 4 hours (business hours)
Rep qualifies or rejects within 48 hours
Rejected MQLs go to recycling nurture with reason code
Document every exception. Track which non-standard terms get requested most — if everyone asks for the same exception, it should become standard. Review quarterly.
Data Hygiene & Enrichment
Dedup Strategy
Matching rules — Email domain + company name + phone as primary match keys
Merge priority — CRM record wins over marketing automation; most recent activity wins for fields
Scheduled dedup — Run weekly automated dedup with manual review for edge cases
Required Fields Enforcement
Enforce required fields at each lifecycle stage
Block stage advancement if fields are empty
Use progressive profiling — don't require everything upfront
Enrichment Tools
Tool
Strength
Clearbit
Real-time enrichment, good for tech companies
Apollo
Contact data + sequences, strong for prospecting
ZoomInfo
Enterprise-grade, largest B2B database
Quarterly Audit Checklist
Review and merge duplicates
Validate email deliverability on stale contacts
Archive contacts with no activity in 12+ months
Audit lifecycle stage distribution (look for bottlenecks)
Verify enrichment data accuracy on a sample set
RevOps Metrics Dashboard
Key Metrics
Metric
Formula / Definition
Benchmark
Lead-to-MQL rate
MQLs / Total leads
5-15%
MQL-to-SQL rate
SQLs / MQLs
30-50%
SQL-to-Opportunity
Opportunities / SQLs
50-70%
Pipeline velocity
(# deals x avg deal size x win rate) / avg sales cycle
Varies by ACV
CAC
Total sales + marketing spend / new customers
LTV:CAC > 3:1
LTV:CAC ratio
Customer lifetime value / CAC
3:1 to 5:1 healthy
Speed-to-lead
Time from form fill to first rep contact
< 5 minutes ideal
Win rate
Closed-won / total opportunities
20-30% (varies)
Dashboard Structure
Build three views:
Marketing view — Lead volume, MQL rate, source attribution, cost per MQL
Copyright (c) Corey Haines - Marketing frameworks and best practices (MIT License)
Special thanks to Corey Haines for their generous open-source contributions, which helped shape this skill collection.
Adapted by webconsulting.at for this skill collection
