LINK: from product team
to scalable revenue machine

The Challenge

LINK had built a strong workplace savings, retirement and record-keeping platform. What it now faced was the hardest transition in B2B SaaS: becoming a company that could sell it.

"We'd built a platform and had done some customer discovery and validation along the way," says President and CEO Brian McClennon. "But to start scaling revenue, we needed to make a radical shift to becoming a marketing and a sales team."

Previous attempts to land a CRM had failed. There were no buyer personas and no measurement framework. Key hires hadn't been made. And the leadership team didn't have the time or the marketing depth to do it themselves.

"We soon understood the concepts and knew we needed to get the fundamentals in place," Brian explains. "But as I got buried in other responsibilities, like raising finance and closing deals, I didn't have the bandwidth to execute. I couldn't afford to focus there."

Why Fractional, Not Full-Time

LINK's partners considered a full-time CMO but felt it was a heavy commitment at that stage. A fractional engagement could be tried — though that carried its own risk, because delegating leadership requires trust, and others in the business were hesitant. The open questions were blunt: would a part-time engagement be enough, would the outcome justify the cost, and would it genuinely save executive time?

"Getting into the market and proving traction was critical," says Brian. "If you wait too long, you're burning through cash and potentially going deep into what could be a big mistake: building something wonderful you can't monetize." His read on the alternative was equally direct: "With a full-time CMO, it's an unknown entity. You're putting all your eggs in that basket, and it's difficult to get out of."

After a partner met Michael Gaudet and was struck by his enterprise and performance marketing background, LINK decided a three-month engagement to get the fundamentals in place was worth testing. That engagement was extended twice, to nine months in total.

"Others told me: 'You can't outsource this. How will they be able to speak our language and understand the space like we do?'" says Brian. "In retrospect, we got so much more than I expected."

What Was Done

Discovery, priorities, and earning trust

Michael ran discovery with leadership to identify priorities, set accountabilities and put deadlines against milestones, distilled into a granular performance marketing roadmap aimed at scalable revenue generation.

"He methodically identified the performance marketing goals that would best ladder up to our business goals, clearly explained what we needed to focus on, and set goals against those things," says Brian. "Every business has its nuances. Mike picked up the ins and the outs of our business and industry very quickly, which I found impressive."

A CRM that finally stuck

The urgent priority was a CRM that fit the team. After analysis, Michael identified HubSpot as the right fit and worked with LINK's team to define lead and deal stages, implement tracking across channels, and drive adoption.

"Getting HubSpot up and organized, setting up targets and tracking across channels, and creating dashboards was a huge milestone," says Brian. "Now we just open our deals dashboard and we can see our goals and how we're tracking. We were so far away from having that visibility before."

Hiring — end to end

Michael identified the roles and skill sets needed and when they should be hired, then acted as headhunter: writing job descriptions, sourcing and vetting candidates, and interviewing. Once hired, he worked with new team members to tie their work to ARR.

"He took responsibility for sourcing, vetting, and interviewing hires to help us recruit the right people who could keep our vision going and continue to execute against the roadmap even after he'd left," says Brian. "That saved me at least 20 hours of work per hire, nevermind the cost of a recruiter."

The commercial foundation

• Buyer personas and journeys developed from real customer understanding.
• A modern, well-positioned website built for a SaaS buyer rather than a product brochure.
• A content foundation and sales enablement collateral planned and created.
• Forecasting and sales strategy — contribution to company-level revenue planning.
• A forward roadmap covering marketing automation, paid media to drive low-cost MQLs, and the next key hires.

The Result

In nine months LINK gained a CRM driving marketing and sales, defensible lead and deal stages, personas and buyer journeys, a modern website, two hires taken end to end, and a roadmap with full continuity.

Accountability changed with it. "Having clear visibility of metrics has made everyone more accountable," Brian adds. "When all the touch points are in a dashboard in HubSpot, no one can hide from being accountable, which improves performance and results."

An unexpected benefit was the executive coaching that came with the engagement. "Mike has this ability to dig into your psyche, understand your challenges, and provide guidance and insights that only someone who is a step back from your business can provide," says Brian. "He challenged me to say 'no' to poor-fit deals, made me aware when others reacted to my leadership in unexpected ways, and pushed me in areas I needed to grow."

In Their Own Words

"I have more time back in my diary to focus on closing financing deals and generating more value for our investors."

"Probably one of the biggest endorsements is that I wish he wasn't going. He's left us in a great place, with a framework for the future growth of the company."

"You need someone who's senior with experience to come in and set the table for you. With Mike, you get an expert who will help you make a massive gear change and become the company you need to be to continue to grow."