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TECHNICAL CEO ADVISORY
Monthly Analysis Memo

TO: Jane Smith, CEO
FROM: Florian Nègre, Fractional Executive | Revenue Strategy & Marketing Operations
DATE: December 31, 2025
RE: Monthly GTM & MarTech Strategy Update
Executive Summary

This month's focus: MarTech stack consolidation, CMO hiring progress, and AI agent deployment for lead qualification. Key recommendation: Migrate from HubSpot to Attio for better CRM flexibility and integrate Granola for AI-powered meeting intelligence.

Strategic Decisions This Month

1. MarTech Stack Consolidation (Attio vs HubSpot vs Salesforce)

CONTEXT: Current HubSpot setup at $45K/year, limited customization, team frustrated with rigid workflows

ANALYSIS:

  • Attio: Modern CRM, flexible data model, $18K/year, strong API, better for product-led growth
  • HubSpot (current): Good for marketing automation, expensive at scale, rigid for complex B2B
  • Salesforce: Enterprise-grade but $80K+ total cost, overkill for current team size (22 people)

RECOMMENDATION: Migrate to Attio + keep HubSpot for marketing automation only

RATIONALE: 60% cost reduction, better product-market fit, team velocity improvement

NEXT STEPS: 90-day migration plan, data migration strategy, Q1 2026 go-live

2. CMO Hiring — Candidate Evaluation

CONTEXT: Interviewed 3 finalists for CMO role

CANDIDATE A: Strong demand gen, weak brand/content strategy
CANDIDATE B: Excellent storytelling, limited data-driven growth experience
CANDIDATE C: Balanced profile, proven scale-up B2B SaaS experience

RECOMMENDATION: Candidate C + offer equity range 1.2-1.8%

RATIONALE: Data-driven + creative balance critical for next 18 months, proven B2B experience

NEXT STEPS: Extend offer, negotiate terms, target January start

3. AI Agent Implementation — Lead Qualification

CONTEXT: Sales team spending 40% of time on unqualified leads, 15% conversion rate

ASSESSMENT:

  • Manual lead qualification taking 2-3 days
  • Sales reps frustrated with low-quality leads from marketing
  • Opportunity: AI agent to pre-qualify + enrich leads before handoff

RECOMMENDATION: Deploy AI agent for lead scoring & qualification (Claude via MCP + Anthropic)

  • Phase 1: Automated lead enrichment (company data, intent signals)
  • Phase 2: AI-powered qualification questions via email/chat
  • Phase 3: Predictive scoring model (propensity to buy)

EXPECTED IMPACT:

  • 60% reduction in sales time on unqualified leads
  • 25%+ improvement in lead-to-opportunity conversion
  • 3-5 days faster response time

NEXT STEPS: Pilot with 20% of inbound leads, measure conversion lift, scale if positive

4. SEO/AIO Strategy & Tooling

CONTEXT: Organic traffic flat for 6 months, competitors gaining visibility on AI-powered search

ASSESSMENT:

  • Current SEO strategy traditional (keywords, backlinks)
  • No optimization for AI search engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude)
  • Content strategy not adapted to LLM retrieval patterns

RECOMMENDATION: Dual-track SEO + AIO strategy

  • SEO: Continue traditional optimization (Ahrefs, SEMrush)
  • AIO: Optimize for AI search engines (structured data, entity-based content, citation-worthy)
  • Content format: Add Q&A sections, fact sheets, data points for LLM extraction

TOOLING:

  • Ahrefs (keep) — $399/month
  • Add: LLM citation tracking tool — $200/month
  • Add: Structured data generator — integrated into CMS

EXPECTED IMPACT:

  • 30-40% increase in organic traffic (12 months)
  • 10-15% traffic from AI search engines (new channel)

NEXT STEPS: Content audit, AIO optimization playbook, Q1 2026 rollout

5. Acquisition Channel Optimization

CONTEXT: Current CAC $1,850, target $1,200 to hit unit economics targets

CHANNEL PERFORMANCE Q4 2025:

  • Paid Search: $2,100 CAC (⚠️ inefficient)
  • LinkedIn Ads: $1,650 CAC (acceptable)
  • Content/SEO: $800 CAC (✅ best performer)
  • Partnerships: $1,200 CAC (✅ scalable)
  • Cold Outreach: $950 CAC (✅ high potential)

RECOMMENDATION: Rebalance channel mix

  • Reduce paid search budget by 40% ($15K/month → $9K/month)
  • Increase content investment by 50% ($8K/month → $12K/month)
  • Launch partnership program (affiliate + co-marketing) — $6K/month
  • Scale cold outreach with AI SDR tools (Instantly, Lemlist + Granola for meeting notes)

EXPECTED IMPACT: Blended CAC: $1,850 → $1,280 (-30%)
Marketing efficiency: 40% improvement

NEXT STEPS: Budget reallocation Q1 2026, hire content marketer, launch partnership program

Board Prep — January Meeting

Key talking points for upcoming board:

Next Month Priorities
Confidential — DataCore Internal Use Only
Report generated: December 31, 2025