Marketing Brain, Revenue Seat - with Nick Geurds | Beyond Revenue S.3 Ep. 14

Most CROs came up through sales. Nick Geurds came up through marketing and built revenue engines most sales leaders can't replicate. Nick Geurds, CRO at Datamaran and former CCO at Lepaya (7→40M ARR), joins Michael Jäger to unpack what happens when a marketer carries the number. The edge it creates. The blind spots it hides. And the costly ICP mistake that took over a year to recover from. In this episode: ✌️ Win #1 — The signal-driven ABM engine: how Nick built one of the first scalable, personalised ABM programmes across 3,000+ named accounts — before AI made it easy — and watched close rates climb from 15% to 30%+. ✌️ Win #2 — Unbundling a $250K suite: how Nick cut sales cycles from 9 months to sub-3 months by going land and expand — and had the tense board conversation to prove it was worth it. 🌱 Fail — The ICP expansion that looked like growth: why moving from enterprise to mid-market at Lepaya generated four months of record bookings — then triggered a retention crisis that redirected the entire team away from new business. If you're scaling a revenue motion and wondering whether your ICP is built to last or just built to close fast, this episode is for you. Connect with Nick: 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickgeurds/ 🔗 Datamaran: https://www.datamaran.com 🎙️ Beyond Revenue is hosted by Michael Jäger, Managing Partner at Cremanski & Company. New episodes every Friday. ⏱️ Episode Timestamps 00:00 — Intro & Nick's background 01:07 — What's keeping Nick up at night at Datamaran 02:32 — What pulled a CMO into the CRO seat 03:45 — Selling ESG software in one sentence 05:18 — What nobody warned Nick about 08:27 — Win #1: The signal-driven ABM engine (15% → 30%+ close rates) 11:10 — The real lesson: make a plan, stick to the plan 12:45 — Win #2: Unbundling a $250K suite (9 months → sub-3 month cycles) 14:11 — Why land and expand builds lifetime value, not just revenue 15:18 — The Fail: ICP expansion that looked like growth 19:09 — Understanding business behaviour before you scale 21:30 — Key takeaways