GTM Live

JUST LAUNCHED: Go beyond outdated marketing measurement and static dashboards. Get better answers and explore performance yourself through AI with Passetto's MCP. Learn more → https://www.passetto.com/marketing-analytics-mcp Every marketing leader is under pressure to adopt AI. And one of the most obvious places to start is reporting, analysis, and marketing KPIs. Just connect your CRM and marketing data to Claude or ChatGPT and start asking questions. Simple, right? Not quite. In this episode, Carolyn breaks down the unsexy data problem sitting underneath AI-powered marketing analytics, and why AI can give you an incredibly confident answer without knowing that the data behind it is incomplete, disconnected, or inconsistent. You'll learn the three places marketing data most commonly breaks, why those gaps make marketing's impact invisible, and what needs to be true before you can reliably use AI to understand buyer journeys, marketing lift, pipeline velocity, win rates, and revenue impact. What the episode…

Learn how to use AI to answer the marketing questions that actually matter. Join our free live Masterclass → https://www.passetto.com/ai-marketing-kpi-masterclass Showing up in AI search isn't a ranking game. It's a category-level eligibility problem. In this episode, Carolyn and Amber sit down with Gaetano DiNardi, the GOAT of SEO, to break down what actually gets a brand recommended by an LLM: entity association, AKA the model's pre-existing, trained-in belief that you belong in a category. It takes months, sometimes years, to build. No schema markup or "LLMs.txt" trick shortcuts it. Then they go after the citation obsession running the GEO conversation. Gaetano has clients getting cited constantly and still not getting recommended, because a citation and a recommendation aren't the same thing. Topics covered: Why GEO is a category eligibility problem, not an SEO ranking problem What "entity association" is, how long it realistically takes to build, and why some brands shouldn't even try yet The citation…

✨ Join our FREE upcoming Masterclass – Board-Ready Marketing KPIs with AI: https://www.passetto.com/ai-marketing-kpi-masterclass Marketing is increasingly accountable for revenue while being asked to rely on data it doesn't control and often can't validate. In this episode, Amber breaks down the main revenue data blind spots that often undermine marketing's ability to explain performance, defend spend, and make decisions with conviction and real evidence.. It starts with an old mindset: that once a deal moves to sales, marketing's job is done. It's not. Marketing has a role throughout the opportunity cycle, but most teams are missing the data they need to understand what happens after handoff. Sales activity is scattered across systems. Buying committees disappear from marketing's view. Critical fields are manually set or overwritten. And system migrations can wipe out the historical context you need to understand performance over time. The result? Marketing is held accountable to pipeline and revenue…

The problem with marketing is that so many teams think their job ends when a lead becomes an opportunity. The highest-performing GTM teams know that's where the REAL work begins. In this episode, Amber sits down with Aviv Canaani, CRO at Datarails, to unpack how the company transformed from a 90% outbound sales motion into a scalable revenue engine powered primarily by inbound demand. Rather than optimizing marketing and sales separately, Aviv shares why the entire funnel should be treated as one connected revenue system and how RevOps, automation, and marketing architecture make that possible. In this episode: Why marketing and sales should operate as one revenue engine How Datarails shifted from 90% outbound to 90% inbound Why the best marketers take bigger creative risks How RevOps can automate the revenue engine, not just report on it Why attribution has limits, and what leaders should measure instead How AI is changing the future of GTM operations If you're trying to create more pipeline, improve sales…

There's an instinct every marketing leader is trained to have: fight for credit on pipeline. The best CMOs have realized it's exactly what's holding them back. In this episode, Carolyn breaks down the behavioral traits that separate the best CMOs from everyone else — the patterns she sees every day working with marketing leaders across B2B SaaS. Rather than another set of tactics or a borrowed playbook, she unpacks why the highest-performing CMOs let go of credit, obsess over data integrity, stop waiting on RevOps, and build a culture of making decisions from evidence instead of assumptions. In this episode: (01:45) Why the best CMOs let go of marketing credit and what they focus on instead (07:33) Why a relentless commitment to data integrity is the foundation every good decision rests on (09:55) How elite CMOs stop waiting on RevOps to hand them the numbers that matter (14:45) Why the strongest leaders play offense and defense with their board at the same time (19:55) How ruthless experimentation drives…

The biggest problem with most ABM programs isn't execution, it's that they try to personalize at scale before they truly understand their buyers. Everyone wants the results of account-based marketing. Few organizations build the foundation required to make it work. In this episode, Carolyn sits down with Steve Armenti, former ABM leader at Google and founder of Twelfth Agency, to unpack one of the biggest misconceptions in modern B2B marketing. Together they explore why high-volume personalization is becoming less effective, why AI can't replace strategy, and why the highest-performing GTM teams build what Steve calls a "market of one", a deep understanding of every target account before scaling outreach. You'll learn: Why most ABM programs never create real demand The hidden flaw in high-volume personalization Why AI amplifies strategy instead of replacing it How leading GTM teams build a 360° account view The "market of one" framework for modern B2B growth If your ABM strategy isn't producing the pipeline…

In this episode, Carolyn sits down with Liam MacCormack, a fractional head of growth who's spent years in the weeds of B2B paid search, to unpack why the channel keeps burning B2B budgets and what to do about it. They get into the market forces making paid search harder than ever: rising CPCs, zero-click search, and agencies still optimizing like it's 2015. Then they go tactical on a real client scenario — a high-ACV company that's switched agencies multiple times and still can't make it work — and what that reveals about when a channel is worth fixing versus when it's just draining spend. Topics covered: Why "you need to spend more on impression share" is the most seductive upsell in paid search, and the one metric that actually tells you if it's true The profile of a company paid search works for, and the profile where it's a waste of money Why paid search is a demand-capture channel, and what that means for how you budget it How to know when to cut the channel, cut the budget in half, or let it run as a…

The MQL is marketing's worst open secret. Everyone in the room knows the number is gamed. The leads are low-intent, the scoring is guesswork, and the pipeline isn't growing. Yet marketing keeps getting graded on the one metric nobody actually trusts. In this workshop, Carolyn and Amber sit down with Jon Miller to take apart the metric the entire B2B playbook still runs on and walk through anonymized customer data showing exactly what it costs. Hand raisers in this account converted 83X better than MQLs and qualified faster. The MQLs that didn't convert got worked for two months before anyone disqualified them. That's the drain nobody puts on a slide. What this workshop covers: Why the MQL became gospel and the moment a sound idea turned into a volume game sales learned to ignore The gumball machine fallacy: why "more budget in, more pipeline out" assumes a linear process that buying stopped being years ago Nonlinear buying, the dark funnel, and why one overwritten lead record erases the history you actually…

The marketing funnel you've built your whole strategy around? It never described how people actually buy. It was a tidy oversimplification, and in a world of zero-click search and AI-saturated channels, it's never held up worse. In this episode, Amber sits down with Udi Ledergor — Gong's first marketer, now Chief Evangelist, author of Courageous Marketing, and the guy who ran a Super Bowl ad and coined a category on the way to $500M in ARR. Udi's argument cuts against the "hack-everything" reflex of modern GTM: brand isn't a vibe, it's trust, and trust is the only thing that makes a buyer go straight to you instead of crawling through a funnel. What this episode covers: Why brand comes down to one thing, trust, and how raving fans replace the funnel entirely The unconventional bets behind Gong's brand: the Super Bowl spot, the bulldog, the 2021 enterprise rebrand Why Courageous Marketing never mentions AI on purpose, and what makes a marketing principle timeless The two-headed dragon: what actually fixes…

📹 NEW on YouTube: Ultimate Guide to Marketing Measurement in 2026 There's no excuse left for not knowing what's driving revenue. The tools are here. The data is here. Operating without the answer has crossed from forgivable into malpractice. In this episode, Carolyn and Amber get into the marketing measurement problem every marketing leader is living with, and the reason it never gets solved. Your rev ops team is skilled, but they're also buried keeping the lights on. And the build-vs-buy reflex defaults to "build," and nobody's counting what the wait actually costs you. Both hosts have lived this from the inside: the end-of-quarter scramble, stitching opportunities together one by one, chasing reps to find out if a lead was ever even worked. They name why it keeps happening and what to do instead. What this episode covers: Why leaning on rev ops to fix marketing measurement rarely works and the real cost of waiting another 6-9 months The build-vs-buy trap: why "best practice says build it" has become a…

In this episode, recorded out in the New Mexico desert at ChiliPalooza, Jordan Crawford makes a blunt case to B2B SaaS: the methodologies you built your career on are about to age out, and the only way through is to get your hands on Claude Code. Jordan's spent his whole job lately doing one thing: teaching clients to work with AI. And what he's found cuts against almost everything sales and marketing teams currently do. What this episode covers: Why the constraint on building things isn't budget or headcount anymore, it's imagination The SDR question every revenue leader is asking today: we went all-in, we see the volume, and we don't know what's working...so now what? How Jordan rebuilds prospecting strategies from what customers actually did, not what a rep thinks they want Why being wrong fast and cheap beats being right slowly: "you can beat any grandmaster if you get two moves to their one" The truth about a sloppier world, and why polish is no longer the point Why the gap between people who are great…

You can't be a great marketer if your nervous system is stuck in survival mode. If you're a marketing leader, you know the feeling. The 12AM Slack from the CEO. The “where's-the-pipeline?” question that never goes away. The low-grade anxiety running underneath every campaign, every board deck, every quarter. In this episode, Carolyn and Amber connect the inner game to the measurement problem. The anxiety marketers carry isn't a personal failing. It's the tax you pay for being judged by numbers that miss your real contribution: shaping how the market perceives you, long before anyone fills out a form. And here's what nobody in GTM is actually talking about: you cannot build the future you want while your body is locked in defending the present. Your brain chemistry doesn't know the difference between the meeting you're dreading and the one that's already over — it reacts the same way to both. And when you live in that state, you can't create. You can only react. What this episode covers: The breakthroughs…

📹 NEW on YouTube: MQLs are Dead. Here’s What B2B Marketers Should Track Instead You can't be a great marketer if your best work doesn't show up in your data. If you're a marketing leader, you've spent years being measured by "Marketing Sourced" pipeline and revenue. And you've spent just as long watching your other work — your influence, your perception-shaping, your role inside active deals — get written off as fluffy or unmeasurable. A marketing function that can only point to sourced pipeline is telling leadership one thing: we're only good at the last mile: demand capture. But there's a proven way to turn marketing influence into a hard, defensible number — one that proves real business impact and real revenue results to your CFO and board. What this episode covers: The industry shift toward perception marketing and creating the conditions for buyers to choose you, and why traditional KPIs can't see it Why the engagement and awareness stage is far longer than most marketing teams realize How to measure…

Every B2B marketer knows the funnel concept is broken. Yet that same model your team is being measured on right now was invented in 1898, and it's surviving because nobody at the top has been given permission to use anything else. Carolyn and Amber react to a recent article in Adweek from Professor Mark Ritson, where he calls the funnel the "cockroach of marketing concepts", a 128-year-old model that has outlived every attempt to replace it. They break down why every critique fails to land, and why the real problem isn't the funnel. It's the classrooms teaching it, the boards demanding it, and the marketers who can't challenge it without risking their careers. Topics covered in this episode: Why a model from 1898 still anchors how B2B companies measure marketing in 2026 The gap between what the funnel was designed to do (a market snapshot) and what it's used for (SQL-to-opp conversion, MQL targets) Why every "funnel is dead" critique fails to kill it, and who actually keeps it alive The Amazon "full funnel…

📹 NEW on YouTube: 5 Quick Ways to Fix Your B2B Marketing Tracking In this episode, Carolyn and Amber get into the data paralysis that's stalling most GTM teams right now, and why waiting for perfect data is just a slower way of doing nothing. They walk through a real client case study on fast-closing pipeline, what it revealed about where marketing actually has leverage, and why that answer looked completely different market by market. Topics covered: Why "decision-grade" data beats perfect data every time, and what it actually means to have it Why the instinct to run more campaigns when pipeline is down is often exactly the wrong move How to reverse-engineer your fastest-closing deals to find where marketing actually has leverage The AI analytics problem nobody is talking about: hallucinations in your data, and why you need a serious validation process before you trust any output How a $60M sales-led company should think about finding their marketing levers when they're building the function from scratch If…

🗓️⁠ ⁠REGISTER⁠ for our April 22 webinar “The Rise and Fall of the MQL” with guest Jon Miller (cofounder of Marketo) In this live community episode, Carolyn and Amber break down two of the most common RevOps setups that make it nearly impossible for marketing to understand its own performance, and why most teams don’t realize how bad the problem is until leadership starts asking questions nobody can answer. They get into: Why Stage Zero in your CRM is breaking win rate calculations and stripping out the data marketing actually needs How a one-directional MAP/CRM sync means the people in your active pipeline are invisible to marketing, and why 85% of one customer’s pipeline had minimal trackable marketing touchpoints as a result Why the demand waterfall was never built for how buyers actually move, and what path dependency is costing teams that keep trying to optimize it What the QBR fire drill is really telling you about the state of your measurement infrastructure The gap between what marketing is doing and…

🗓️ REGISTER for our April 22 webinar “The Rise and Fall of the MQL” with guest Jon Miller (cofounder of Marketo) In this episode, Carolyn and Amber break down a real-world case study of a SaaS company that came to Passetto with a mature business, an aligned GTM team, and a brand new VP of RevOps, but a data foundation that couldn't tell them what was actually driving their GTM motion or where it was breaking down. We break down what surfaced during a two-week Sprint: why one-third of 2025 revenue had no traceable source, what the data revealed about paid search ROI and where spend was underperforming, and how foundational data gaps were making it impossible to see marketing's role in active deals. We break down the insights we helped uncover for their team: Why 31% of revenue had no traceable source, and why that number was growing quarter over quarter Paid search was driving far more pipeline than anyone realized, but not all campaigns were pulling their weight, and the gap between the best and worst…

Many marketing leaders struggle with being measured against revenue. That’s because the status quo measurement model doesn't capture everything they do, which means their true impact is almost always under-reported. This workshop is about how to fix that, and how to properly and comprehensively measure marketing's impact on pipeline and revenue, with data that let you walk into a boardroom with answers instead of anecdotes. What we cover: Why last-touch attribution under-reports your true impact every single time, and why a lot of leaders quietly prefer it that way What's happening between lead creation and opportunity creation, and why nobody's tracking it The GTM factory model: three stages, and the specific data that lives in each one that changes how you read performance entirely Why the demand waterfall is more than 20 years old and what it's actually costing you to keep operating inside it Where most companies are flying blind in their GTM motion, and the specific data points that fix it How to start…

Jon Miller co-founded Marketo, the company that helped turn MQLs, lead scoring, and the demand waterfall into the operating system of B2B marketing. Now he's the one telling you to throw most of it out. When Jon did the same playbook at Demandbase that worked brilliantly at Marketo, it flopped. That failure changed how he thinks about almost everything. In this conversation, Carolyn sits down with Jon, co-founder of Marketo and Engagio (which merged with Demandbase), to dig into why the traditional B2B marketing playbook stopped working, what brand actually does for demand gen that most teams never account for, and what a modern measurement framework should look like in 2026. What we cover: Why the same playbook that worked at Marketo failed at Demandbase Why MQLs aren't inherently bad, but how they became a game most marketing teams were rigging without realizing it The case against marketing-sourced vs. sales-sourced attribution (and why it breaks the teamwork you need to win) What a modern CMO dashboard…

This one's a little different. No guest, no agenda. Just Carolyn and Passetto co-founder Amber, recording live from Pompano Beach after four days at the Above the Fold conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They unpacked everything they took away from the event: the conversations that stuck, the moments that shifted how they think about Passetto, and the stuff that made them want to flip a table. What we cover: Why showing up in person hits completely different and how four days in Florida generated more strategic clarity than months of Zoom calls The AI use cases that actually impressed them (and why most AI content is a race to the bottom) What Gaetano DiNardi and Jess Cook taught them about content, programmatic SEO, and why volume without expertise is killing small companies The Mojo PMM demo that made them rethink product marketing enablement entirely Why attribution is still the default answer to "how do you measure marketing" and why that's a problem The ex-Amazon CMO who said marketing doesn't need…

In this episode of GTM Live, Carolyn sits down with Matthew Sciannella, VP of Innovation at Refine Labs, for a candid conversation about the flaws of B2B marketing measurement and why so many teams keep fighting the same losing battles. They dig into why attribution has made a generation of marketing leaders worse at their jobs, what great demand generation actually requires (hint: it starts way upstream with product marketing), and why slapping AI onto a broken system just makes the noise louder. Episode highlights: Why attribution doesn't tell you what's actually driving pipeline and how to move toward incrementality testing instead The real reason win rates are so low at most companies (and why more pipeline isn't the answer) Why great product marketing is the single biggest common denominator across every high-performing demand program Matt has seen How AI is disrupting outbound and why scaling a broken motion with AI just makes it worse faster Why companies with messy data are the ones struggling most…

🎟️ Join our Live Workshop on Feb 11: The KPIs every marketing team needs to measure to understand their real influence on pipeline. Save your seat here. Replay included. In this episode of GTM Live, Amber sits down with Matt Green, Co-Founder and CRO of Sales Assembly, to talk about what’s actually working in GTM right now, and why so many teams are stuck debating the wrong things. They start with the real root cause of credit wars: marketing and sales are fighting because they’re measured on competing scorecards. Matt makes the case for a simpler model around shared revenue accountability, and why the attribution debate gets a lot quieter when the business is closing deals. Episode highlights: Why credit wars between sales and marketing are a scorecard problem, not a people problem How competing KPIs quietly reinforce “sales-sourced vs marketing-sourced” debates Why attribution can’t explain why pipeline actually happened What’s working to build pipeline in 2026 (micro events, in-person, fewer but…

You asked, we're answering. In this listener Q&A episode, Amber and Carolyn tackle the hard questions GTM leaders are wrestling with behind closed doors…from broken attribution models to navigating organizational resistance when you're trying to drive real change. In this episode: Real talk on entrepreneurship: the wins, the loneliness, and knowing when to walk away Navigating organizational resistance when you're championing change Why being in the top 5% of GTM leaders means accepting you're always pushing uphill Why first-touch and last-touch attribution keep haunting you (and how to finally escape) How to get executive buy-in when everyone's comfortable with the status quo Why deals from different sources have wildly different ACVs and win rates The systematic reality of revenue generation, and why singular attribution models completely miss it This isn't surface-level advice. Amber and Carolyn are in the trenches daily with CROs, CMOs and RevOps leaders, rearchitecting go-to-market strategies and…

Most marketing and revenue leaders know their data model is flawed. The elite ones actually architect something new. This is how. This episode is part of a 5-part series exploring the journey B2B revenue leaders take from reactive chaos to finally understanding, measuring, and transforming their entire Revenue Factory. Each stage represents a critical inflection point and the exact moments that separate leaders who consistently hit targets and drive real, provable results. This episode explores Stage 4: Architecting Transformation—where you shift from recognizing what's broken to designing what comes next. This is where transformation moves from concept to practice. What We Cover in This Episode: The two realizations that trigger readiness for transformation: understanding the career-ending cost of staying in a broken system AND seeing lived proof of what's possible when you rebuild The 4 core elements your new data model MUST have: removing department silos, multi-dimensional tracking, the new GTM stages,…

In this episode, Carolyn and Amber break down a real-world case study of a $25M ARR enterprise SaaS company in a highly regulated industry that came to Passetto with strong teams, active demand, and declining win rates...but no reliable way to explain the genetic makeup of their deals or prove how marketing influenced revenue. We break down what surfaced during a 14-day analysis: why most opportunities had no clear lineage, how underperforming channels like paid search were absorbing spend without driving meaningful conversion, and how marketing influence effectively disappeared once deals entered the sales cycle. Most importantly, we share how rebuilding visibility across the funnel can turn win rate into a controllable lever, and why we estimate this shift alone could unlock ~$1M in incremental revenue, without increasing pipeline volume, budget, or headcount. We break down the insights their team uncovered: Why 80% of opportunities ($3.5M) had no explainable lineage, making pipeline creation effectively…

When you’re working harder than ever and still getting questioned, most leaders assume they’re the problem. But what if the real reason you're exhausted isn’t lack of effort...it's that you’re trying to win inside a model that was never designed to show your impact? This episode is part of a 5-part series exploring the journey B2B revenue leaders take from reactive chaos to finally understanding, measuring, and transforming their entire Revenue Factory. Each stage represents a critical inflection point and the exact moments that separate leaders who consistently hit targets and drive real, provable results… from those who spend every quarter scrambling, duct-taping reports, and wondering why nothing is working. This episode explores Stage 3: The Breaking Point, AKA the most emotionally charged and career-defining moment in the entire transformation journey. What We Cover in This Episode: Why Stage 3 is the moment leaders either break down, or break through Why constant scrutiny, unclear reporting, and…

You launched the experiments. You spent the budget. And now leadership wants answers. And suddenly every QBR feels like a fire drill. This is Stage 2 of the revenue leader’s transformation—the moment when activity is high, effort is real, but impact is frustratingly hard to prove. You’re working harder than ever, yet you can’t confidently tie what your team is doing to pipeline, revenue, or real ROI. This episode is part two of a five-part series exploring the journey B2B revenue leaders go through as they move from reactive execution to full revenue visibility and executive-level confidence. Each stage represents a breaking point, where leaders either confront the real problem or stay stuck explaining away the same issues quarter after quarter. In this episode, we unpack Stage 2: The QBR Fire Drill—the phase where credibility, confidence, and career momentum are quietly put at risk. You’re likely in Stage 2 if you’ve ever said, “Board decks take days to build and still don’t tell a clean story.” What We…

In this episode, Carolyn and Amber pull back the curtain on a $500M cybersecurity company that came to Passetto stuck in last-touch reporting, declining win rates, an overreliance on product trials, and zero visibility into what SDRs were actually working. In just 14 days, their Growth Sprint surfaced what months of internal analysis couldn’t: the true drivers of revenue, why trials convert at only 5%, why hand-raisers deliver 2X the deal size and win rate, and how 40% of opportunities are created with no traceable sales trigger at all. We walk through the exact before-and-after: their revenue architecture score, the missing SDR prospecting layer, the downstream impact of “low-signal” opportunities, and the data that finally gives the team conviction to modernize their demand engine. Even with strong tools and a mature sales motion, they’re operating with only 55% revenue visibility, record-low win rates, and a demand strategy built almost entirely on trials—until the Sprint changes the trajectory. We break…

🔓 LEAKED: 45 minutes from our invite-only workshop for B2B GTM leaders. We recently held a live workshop for 100+ marketing leaders, CROs, and RevOps pros from companies spanning Spain to Sweden to North America. The session was intense. The chat was on fire. And now we're doing something we don't usually do: we're releasing a 45-minute cut of the core framework training. This is the educational backbone of the workshop where we exposed what's broken in traditional GTM measurement and walked through the exact framework high-performing teams are using instead. Real Problems From Workshop Attendees: "New ARR growth has been flat for multiple quarters" "We need to stop the obsession with MQL metrics" "Our company doesn't even know what actually generates ARR" What's We Cover: Why MQLs, 4-funnel attribution, and traditional QBR dashboards are "just fluff" that hide what's really working The "Pipeline Black Box"—the critical Prospecting stage between marketing touch and opportunity creation that 100% of companies…

In this HANDS-ON episode of GTM Live, we're ditching theory and building a real go-to-market strategy live—using AI, public data, and a completely different approach to finding and messaging prospects. Join host Amber Williams and special guest Jordan Crawford, the "OG GTM Engineer" and early advisor to Clay, for a masterclass in pain-qualified segmentation. Watch as Jordan demonstrates how to use ChatGPT to identify prospects who actually need your solution and craft messages that deliver independent value before you ever ask for a meeting. What You'll Learn: Why traditional ICP scoring is "mental masturbation for executives" and what to do instead How to work backwards from customer pain using public data and AI The game-changing concept of "the list is the message" How to identify demonstrable value props that competitors can't replicate Why vertical SaaS has a hidden advantage (and what horizontal SaaS can learn) PLUS: Real-time walkthrough: Finding pain-qualified prospects for a clean energy platform…

When pipeline starts slipping and targets go up, most revenue leaders do the same thing: they panic. They launch new experiments, adopt the latest AI tools, and try to do more, faster, harder. But what if that's exactly what's keeping you stuck? This episode is part of a 5-part series exploring the journey B2B revenue leaders take from reactive chaos to understanding and measuring their full revenue factory, and transforming their careers in the process. Each stage represents a critical transformation moment that separates leaders who consistently hit their targets and drive real results from those who scramble every quarter wondering why nothing's working. This episode explores Stage 1: The Panic Response, and it represents the first stage in revenue transformation. You’re likely in Stage 1 if you’re asking questions like, "What experiments should I try next?", "What are other companies doing that I should copy?", or "What AI tool is going to save my pipeline?". What We Cover in This Episode: Why the…

On this episode of GTM Live, Carolyn and Amber sit down with Steve Armenti, CEO & Founder of Twelfth Agency and former demand gen leader at Google. Steve shares his journey from corporate marketing to building a thriving agency, and dive into why most revenue teams miss the real story in their data, how to flip the script on pipeline analysis by studying rejection instead of just conversion, and the critical role of sales + marketing alignment in fixing the “pipeline black box.” You’ll hear practical examples from Steve’s experiences as an in-house demand gen leader and now running his ABX agency, insights into what’s working for growth-stage SaaS companies right now, and a fresh perspective on building GTM systems that actually deliver results. If you’re a CMO, CRO, or RevOps leader looking for new ways to diagnose what’s holding back your pipeline, this episode is a must-listen. Key Topics Covered: Lessons from demand gen on identifying what works vs. what doesn’t ABM → ABX: creating account-based…

Ashley Lewin has audited 30+ companies in her career and seen the same pattern: marketing teams stuck chasing MQLs while revenue stalls. In this episode, Carolyn and Trevor dig into Ashley’s perspective on why MQLs keep organizations trapped in short-term thinking, and how she’s applying those lessons now as Head of Marketing at Aligned. We talk through what it takes to stand up a marketing function from scratch at a hybrid PLG + sales-assisted company, why implementing HubSpot’s Lead object was a foundational bet, and how “fail fast” disqualification changed the way BDRs and sales managers manage their pipeline. Ashley also shares her playbook for winning executive buy-in: showing CEOs a predictable growth equation that replaces lead volume with qualified pipeline and product activation. What You’ll Learn: Why 30+ audits taught Ashley that MQLs create waste, not growth. How to split the funnel: PLG activations vs. sales-assisted pipeline. The power of clean infrastructure: standing up a true lead object in…

If your board asks “Why is pipeline down?” and your opportunity dashboards only say marketing-sourced vs. SDR-sourced (AKA the four-funnel model), you’re stuck with surface-level data and left guessing at fixes instead of diagnosing the problem. The real story lives between engagement and opportunity, the unmeasured factory floor where prospecting happens (or dies). In this episode, Carolyn and Amber show how to rip the lid off that black box, swap vanity volume for "causal" metrics, and find the repeatable patterns that actually manufacture pipeline. Expect blunt takes, practical questions to bring to RevOps tomorrow, and real outcomes from teams who’ve made the shift (e.g., win rates jumping from ~13% to ~24% and easier budget approvals once the black box is illuminated). What You’ll Learn: [02:20] Why “source” reporting hides the truth (and fuels misalignment) [08:00] The Pipeline Black Box: measuring the in-between (triggers → first meeting → opp) [15:00] Pattern-spotting: sequences that create pipeline…

In this episode of GTM Live, Carolyn joins the Growth Activated Podcast as a guest to unpack one of the biggest blind spots in GTM today: what actually happens before an opportunity is created. 99% of GTM teams still can’t see this stage clearly. It’s the “grey area” where SDRs and BDRs are grinding—sending emails, making calls, chasing signals, running sequences—all in the hope of booking a meeting that turns into pipeline. The problem? None of this activity is tracked in a clear, causal way. Leaders only see pipeline “sources” (marketing, sales, SDR), which hides the bigger story. Pipeline isn’t a source—it’s a chain reaction. A trigger sparks sales work, a series of events unfolds, and only some of those reliably convert to opportunities. Most of it? Invisible. That’s why pipeline creation still feels like guesswork. Carolyn explains why source-based reporting and last-touch attribution keep teams stuck, and how to instrument the pre-opportunity “factory floor” with simple metrics that expose what’s…

Most GTM teamstoday are missing targets because they're simply measuring the wrong things. In this episode, Carolyn and Amber unpack why attribution is a mirage (it only shows the lucky 2% that become opportunities) and why the MQL hamster wheel keeps smart teams stuck optimizing a tiny slice of reality. We dig into the pre-pipeline “factory floor,” show how to expose the messy middle, and explain why “more volume” isn’t a strategy—it’s a cash leak. You’ll hear concrete ways to replace vanity conversion stats with a causal view of attempts → connects → meetings → opps → DQs (with reasons), what to do about pipeline shock when you tighten scoring, and why pipeline needs a single owner (hint: not “marketing-sourced”). We also talk about modular change vs. big-bang transformations, and where attribution actually belongs (as seasoning, not the main ingredient), dig into where attribution actually belongs in GTM measurement (spoiler: it’s seasoning, not the protein), and explain why modular change beats waiting…

Most companies are flying blind at the most important stage in revenue creation. Decisions get made on gut feel, data lives in silos, and leaders can’t answer the simplest question: what’s really working, and what’s not? On this episode of GTM Live, Carolyn and Trevor are joined by their new co-host Amber Williams, Head of Revenue Operations at Passetto, to unpack why GTM leaders need to treat revenue like a science – bringing structure, data, and predictability to the go-to-market engine. The hosts dive into why leaders often make decisions based on instinct instead of data, how poor data architecture creates hidden risks for growth, and why building visibility into every stage of the funnel is critical for confident decision-making. The team also tackles the cross-functional blame game—why marketing and sales point fingers over handoffs and lead quality when the real problem is a lack of shared visibility. Without a unified view of the pipeline, every GTM function is forced to defend itself in silos…

This week on GTM Live, Carolyn and Trevor sit down with Mark Turner, VP of Revenue Operations at Demandbase, to break down how RevOps leaders can build aligned systems, drive better GTM execution, and measure what actually matters. Mark shares how his early background in FP&A shaped his leadership approach, bringing a data-first, analytical mindset to RevOps that balances strategic planning with operational precision. He also unpacks what it really takes to build a unified data layer across the GTM org, and why consistent definitions and connected systems are key to moving fast and measuring effectively. Key topics in this episode: How FP&A experience gives RevOps leaders a strategic edge How to build a unified data layer across GTM Why sourced attribution models fall short What sales velocity tells you that pipeline doesn’t Where AI and automation are most impactful in RevOps today How to enable expansion and cross-sell without clunky handoffs This episode is powered by Passetto, a GTM advisory and software…

This week on GTM Live, Carolyn sits down with Sam Dunning, SEO leader and B2B growth expert, to unpack how SEO has dramatically evolved and what top-performing companies must do to adapt. They dive into why traditional SEO—focused on keywords, rankings, and traffic—is now too siloed, and how modern SEO needs to align with revenue, messaging, and the full customer journey. They also explore outdated SEO metrics, the pitfalls of last-touch attribution, and why shifting to a revenue-influence mindset is essential. You’ll hear what modern SEO looks like in a revenue-led org, how category narrative (not keyword stuffing) is the new growth lever, and how AI is reshaping both content production and search behavior. Together, Carolyn and Sam challenge the idea that SEO can be a standalone marketing channel, it’s a powerful GTM distribution engine when done right. Key topics in this episode: Why SEO can’t be a silo anymore How to reframe SEO as a distribution strategy, not just a traffic engine Why aligning SEO with…

This week on GTM Live, Carolyn sits down with Dave Boyce, Executive Chair at Winning by Design and longtime SaaS builder, to explore why GTM systems are breaking, and what modern companies must do differently to build for predictable, customer-centered growth. They dive into what Dave calls “the layers of sediment” that have built up over time, e.g. commissions, org design, reporting structures, and outdated dashboards, and why those legacy systems are misaligned with today’s buying behavior. They also talk about the real challenges CROs are facing right now: Deals are harder to win, old tactics aren’t working, and most GTM teams are stuck optimizing for the wrong outcomes. You’ll hear practical examples of what high-performing companies like Atlassian are doing differently, the importance of empathy in system design, and why the CEO—not just Sales or Marketing—needs to own this transformation. Together, they unpack why most GTM strategies break down. And it’s not because of effort, but because they lack…

This week on GTM Live, Carolyn and Trevor walk through a practical, step-by-step breakdown of how companies should be measuring GTM performance—beyond the outdated funnel reports and measurement models that most teams are still relying on. This episode is structured like a mini masterclass: You’ll learn the real stages of the GTM revenue factory, what metrics to track at each one, and how to spot the signals that lead to qualified pipeline before opportunities even exist. They also cover how most common GTM measurement systems fail, and what leading companies are doing instead, and why this shift helps teams make better, faster decisions across Marketing, Sales, and RevOps. Whether you’re struggling to prove impact, spot performance issues early, or get your execs aligned on what’s actually driving growth—this one’s for you. Key topics in this episode: Why funnel reports and common Marketing metrics often give a false sense of progress The disconnect between GTM activity and what leaders actually want to…

This week on GTM Live, Carolyn unpacks one of the most deeply ingrained—but damaging—habits in B2B go-to-market: measuring success based on which department sourced the deal. While many marketing leaders know this approach doesn’t reflect reality, changing it is hard, especially in legacy orgs with outdated attribution models, internal inertia, and leadership that still demands simple answers to complex questions. In this solo episode, Carolyn breaks down the real problem: measuring performance by team creates siloed decision-making, warped incentives, and misses what actually moves buyers through the funnel. You’ll hear why the future of GTM performance measurement is about mapping buyer behavior across an interconnected journey, not slicing credit by department. And she shares the exact 5-part framework Passetto uses to help teams ditch "department-sourced" for something far more accurate and impactful. If you’ve ever struggled to prove Marketing’s full impact, or if your exec team is still obsessed with…

This week on GTM Live, Carolyn sits down with Megan Bowen, CEO of Refine Labs, to unpack why so many B2B companies are pouring budget into paid media, and still missing revenue targets. They break down what’s really going wrong: not too much paid media, but too much spend on a strategy that doesn’t convert. Pipeline is down. Revenue is down. And yet, the response is often to spend more, not better. You’ll hear why performance marketing often fails to deliver real outcomes, how misaligned KPIs drive bad decisions, and what separates newer, agile companies from legacy players still running outdated GTM playbooks. Megan shares insights from working with dozens of growth-stage companies and how leadership mindset, speed of iteration, and willingness to challenge old assumptions can make or break your demand strategy. If you’ve been trying to defend paid spend, or wondering why results are flat despite doing “all the right things”, this episode is for you. Key topics in this episode: Why paid media often fails to…

This week on GTM Live, Carolyn and Trevor unpack the 9 go-to-market dysfunctions quietly derailing growth at even the most ambitious B2B companies. They dig into why so many teams, despite big budgets, headcount, and tools, are still struggling to drive efficient growth. Spoiler: it’s not the people. It’s the system. You’ll hear why fragmented data, financial secrecy, and siloed ownership are causing misalignment across marketing, sales, finance, and CS. And what it takes to rebuild GTM as a unified, accountable system. Trevor breaks down the real role of RevOps (and why it’s failing in most orgs), while Carolyn makes the case for ditching vanity metrics and rethinking how you measure and invest in growth. If you’re questioning whether your CAC is sustainable or your GTM truly aligned, this one’s for you. Key topics in this episode: The 9 biggest GTM dysfunctions hurting growth Why RevOps struggles to drive real impact How to align GTM and finance on a shared data model The danger of over-investing in…

This week on GTM Live, Carolyn sits down with Nick Flamini, host of the Sales Architecture Podcast, to explore the real reasons most go-to-market teams are still struggling—despite all the headcount, tools, and budget. They dig into the myth of “more BDRs = more pipeline,” and why most organizations are missing the data, architecture, and cross-functional alignment required to scale efficiently. Carolyn explains why “go-to-market bloat” is a symptom of deeper system issues, not bad people. She shares how Passetto is helping companies rethink how they connect marketing, sales, finance, and RevOps through a unified GTM data layer. Nick challenges the hype around AI in outbound, and the two unpack why trust, process, and measurement (not volume) are the levers that matter most. If you’ve ever questioned whether your CAC is actually sustainable, or felt stuck trying to prove marketing’s impact, this episode is your blueprint. Key topics in this episode: Why most CRM data is unusable, and what to do about it The…

Most SaaS teams claim they’re “doing PLG,” but very few are doing it well. This week on GTM Live, Carolyn and Trevor sit down with Wes Bush, CEO of ProductLed, to unpack why product-led growth often fails—and what to do about it. They explore why PLG isn’t just a pricing model or trial strategy, but a deep, systems-level shift that most teams underestimate. Wes shares the “PLG iceberg” framework: how surface-level features (like a free trial) are only a fraction of the equation, and what’s really beneath the waterline. Carolyn draws parallels to GTM systems and explains why execution gaps usually stem from unseen issues like misaligned metrics, siloed teams, or weak infrastructure. Trevor reveals why so many companies stall out after initial traction and how to diagnose whether PLG is truly viable for your product and team. If your version of PLG starts and ends with a self-serve signup, this conversation will change your thinking. Key topics in this episode: Why most PLG initiatives stall or fail to scale…

Everyone’s analyzing win rates, but too few teams are asking the harder question: how did that opportunity even begin? This week on GTM Live, Trevor and Carolyn break down the most overlooked stage in go-to-market: what happens before a lead becomes a lead. They unpack why early-funnel signals (the ones that come before forms, meetings, or MQL scores) are where your growth strategy is made or broken. They explain why it’s not enough to measure performance after the fact, and how traditional attribution misses the hidden work happening in the earliest phases of pipeline creation. Carolyn explains how early signal data is shaping a new standard for pipeline visibility, and Trevor shows how to connect that data to real decisions: budget, headcount, channels, and more. If your GTM reporting starts at the opportunity stage, you’re already behind. Key topics in this episode: Why traditional approaches to attribution often tells a false story Why marketing and sales leaders need to rethink “first touch” and “last…

Everyone’s trying to grow pipeline, but only few companies are measuring the part of GTM that actually creates it. This week on GTM Live, Trevor and Carolyn expose why the early-stage “signals” that actually drive pipeline are the ones most teams ignore. They dig into the real problem: teams aren’t tracking signals across the entire pipeline creation journey. Instead, they're relying on last-touch or deal source attribution that tells you nothing about what’s actually working. Trevor explains why so many GTM decisions are disconnected from cost and impact, while Carolyn shares why she believes most attribution reporting is a smokescreen. This episode makes the case for a new standard: tracking what prospects are engaging with before they hit a lead score or sales touches them, and tying that behavior to outcomes. If your prospecting motion isn’t part of your GTM analysis, you’re missing the whole story. Key topics in this episode: Why signal tracking before sales engagement is essential The cost of ignoring…

This week on GTM Live, Carolyn and Trevor dive into the messiness of go-to-market strategy: overspending on pipeline, bad attribution models, and why marketers are often stuck doing RevOps jobs. Carolyn breaks down the trap of chasing new logos without clear ROI, while Trevor shares how his IT-to-marketing journey led to launching Passetto to fix these exact issues. They get into why data architecture matters before building strategy, and how single-touch attribution is holding teams back. Stick around for listener Q&A, lessons learned from the trenches, and real talk on what actually drives growth. Key topics in this episode: Why most GTM strategies fall apart without strong data foundations The hidden cost of single-touch attribution What marketing leaders shouldn’t be doing (hint: RevOps) How to think about ROI before chasing pipeline Lessons learned from building Passetto to solve these problems Come hang with us live during our weekly podcast recording—tune in, ask questions, and be part of the convo.…

After a month-long sabbatical that took him across Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji, Chris Walker returns to Revenue Vitals with a life-changing announcement. In this deeply personal episode, Chris reveals a profound shift in his perspective and purpose that has led him to hand over hosting duties to Carolyn Dilks (Co-Founder and Managing Partner @ Passetto) who will be rebranding the show to “GTM Live”, while he embarks on a new mission. Sharing intimate details about his personal transformation through self-reflection and experiencing "operating system upgrades," Chris outlines his new mission for helping others unlock their innate human potential. This is the start of a new chapter for Revenue Vitals, which will now become “GTM Live” hosted by Carolyn Dilks. And it is a new chapter for Chris, who will be announcing his new podcast and mission in even more details soon. Stay tuned for more.