OpsReady: from scattered
to structurally ready to scale

The Challenge

OpsReady — then operating as Lightship Works — was at a crossroads with its marketing. There was an in-house resource with some knowledge of the tools and tactics, but the activity was disorganized, lacked leadership, and didn't ladder up to business goals.

"We'd done a few of the things that, classically, you'd consider marketing, like a little bit of Google Ads, we had a CRM to track our progress, and had done some social media activity," says Dan Erikson. "But we didn't fully understand how we should execute, what we should be doing first to create the biggest impact, or how to bring everything together to actually make real progress as a business."

The most damaging gap was measurement. With no framework in place, there was no proof of what was working — which made every decision about where to spend a guess, and left the sales team carrying the consequences.

"Rather than using technology and automation to assist in moving leads through the funnel, we were relying on the strength of our sales executives' personalities alone to close deals," says Dan. "This wasn't efficient or scalable — and was no way to maximize revenue in our ambitious business."

Why Fractional, Not a Full-Time Hire

The company had already interviewed several candidates for a marketing leadership role, but couldn't shake the feeling that a full-time hire at that stage was too high a risk. What it actually needed was help laying the right foundations first, and then to hire someone to run them.

Dan heard about Eighty Twenty CMO through his network of COOs and CEOs who had worked with Michael previously. The fractional model saved the hiring time and the usual employment costs, and came with a track record in SaaS performance marketing.

"The fractional option was ideal for where we were at as an organization," says Dan. "While it will make sense for us to hire a full-time position in the future, Mike's solution enabled us to go from fits and starts and a disorganized approach to marketing, to properly structuring it and having a go-forward plan we could really run with."

What Was Done

Deep discovery

Michael held conversations with key members of the team — the sales director, executives and marketing teammates — to gather the collective wisdom of the business, evaluate its performance marketing needs, and prioritize what would move the needle first.

"The discovery process was valuable, because Mike uncovered exactly where we were as a business," says Dan. "He took a detailed look at all our collateral, including the website, and the systems underneath that. He explored our CRM, whether or not we had analytics, what our sales process was, and left no stone unturned."

A measurement framework, from zero

Benchmark metrics and KPIs were established to measure the effectiveness of the entire sales and marketing pipeline — a measurement framework the company had never had. Michael then designed the systems to capture those metrics on an ongoing basis and introduced software to make reporting fast and clear.

"Mike determined the right KPIs for us, selecting and setting up the technology to track and measure them, and upskilled team members to manage reporting," says Dan. "This enables us to draw ongoing insights and keeps our main numerical KPI of revenue growth in sharp focus."

A pipeline that could scale

Michael redesigned lead and deal stages — entry and exit criteria, triggers for moving leads forward, and ownership of each part of the lifecycle. "Mike helped us hone the journey our leads and clients go through, and adjusted the processes our people follow so they qualify leads better and don't flood account executives with a bunch of low-quality leads," says Dan.

Website conversion work

• Friction points found and fixed through research and testing on the site.
• Goal tracking added for demo requests, giving clarity on what actually drove conversions.
• A floating navigation bar so the call-to-action stayed visible.
• Client logos brought forward to increase credibility and lift demo-request conversion.

"Mike was great at identifying technical changes we could make that would have an impact on our business now," says Dan. "From reworking parts of our website to leveraging customer success stories in our outbound campaigns, Mike's work has already helped us drive growth within several verticals."

The Result

Marketing moved from disorganized guesswork to strategy-driven action. Website optimization — including linking analytics to the CRM so the team is notified when leads return — produced a significant lift in conversion rates. Clearer entry and exit criteria brought consistency to sales stages and let the team work more efficiently.

"With our new dashboards, we can see everything from conversion deals that aren't moving properly to how team members are performing and what they're contributing," says Dan. "So the dashboarding has been a significant step forward for us."

"With clear KPIs and a measurement framework now in place, all our activities directly ladder up to clear business goals," he adds. "It enables us to constantly refine our activities and ensure we're prioritizing our investment in the right areas to drive more revenue through the pipeline."

At the end of the first 12-week engagement, Dan signed up for a second.

In Their Own Words

"What's great about Mike is he's not about fluff, fancy talking or fancy presentations. He's practical, results driven, and execution-oriented. When he looks at your business, he quickly gets to what the recommendations are and the reasons why, always prioritizing the impact actions will have in accelerating your business."

"We have structured systems in place, which new hires can seamlessly and efficiently drop into, which is incredibly valuable as we continue to grow."

"It was a cash-efficient way for us to take our sales and marketing to the next level. We avoided the time and cost involved in hiring a full-time CMO, and were able to get results sooner."