Tiana Clemons · Feb 23, 2026 · Case Studies
About this engagement
Our client is a cybersecurity startup whose CRO couldn't see key marketing metrics, which made it hard to understand or justify the marketing team's impact.
They brought us in to close that data gap and give them full-funnel visibility through automated lifecycle tracking, attribution and reporting.
Our partnership enabled the following results:
The Challenge
The CRO couldn't answer key questions with confidence: which channels were generating qualified pipeline, what content was influencing conversion, and where budget should go up or down.
The cause was CRM infrastructure that wasn't set up properly. In HubSpot, most leads were grouped broadly under "Marketing" as a source, so there was no meaningful separation between direct channels, partners or regions, and the lifecycle stages were HubSpot's defaults, which didn't reflect how the business actually qualified and progressed deals. Marketing performance couldn't be measured accurately, and to get close to answering basic questions the team was exporting data and working it in spreadsheets for more than 40 hours each month, and still didn't fully trust the output.
The Solution
This is common at startups, where HubSpot is set up quickly to support early growth and speed matters more than structure. What worked at first created inefficiencies, tech debt and manual workarounds later, so we rebuilt the foundation to scale before building any reporting on it.
At a high level, here is what changed:
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot's default lifecycle stages | → | Custom stages that match how the business qualifies deals, with automated progression |
| Nearly every lead sourced to "Marketing" | → | Attribution by channel, with partner deals separated from direct marketing |
| 40+ hours a month in spreadsheets | → | Automated reporting the CRO trusts |
And now, here is how we got there.
An audit of the infrastructure
A full audit of why marketing performance wasn't visible surfaced three core problems: the lifecycle stages were misconfigured, the reporting hadn't been built to answer the CRO's key questions, and attribution wasn't properly set up.
Lifecycle stages that match the business
We replaced HubSpot's default lifecycle stages with custom stages aligned to how the company defines qualification and progression, set clear definitions for MQL, SQL and opportunity, and automated lead progression between stages based on real sales activity.
Channels and attribution
We built the fields needed to capture source data properly, implemented attribution tracking across channels, separated direct marketing leads from partner-sourced deals, and introduced clear visibility at channel level.
Reporting on data that's right
Once the data was reliable, we built the reporting:
- Conversion tracking across lifecycle stages
- Contact-to-MQL conversion rates
- Content and campaign performance
- Regional breakdowns across Australia, the US and the rest of the world
- Clear views of conversion paths
The Results
The client now sees the full funnel, from lead generation to closed revenue, and can identify which channels, personas and regions convert best. The 40 or so hours a month that went into manual reporting are saved.
With accurate data, they can decide where to invest across marketing channels, improve conversion rates, reduce customer acquisition costs and make revenue growth more predictable.
Request a free consultation to see how we can help you gain full-visibility into your pipeline!