Building the Foundation for Revenue Excellence Webinar
speakers
Heather Holst-Knudsen is a distinguished figure and expert in the events, media, marketing and technology sectors. Using her extensive experience, she guides clients in adapting to structural economic and market changes, seizing the chance to innovate and evolve. She specializes in digital and data disruption and opportunity, exploring how these overarching factors can impact revenue growth,customer-centricity, operational efficiency, profit margins, and the overall valuation of companies in both public and private markets. Her journey began at her family business, Thomas Publishing Company, where she honed her skills. She further expanded her expertise by holding positions at early industry giants Miller Freeman, Reed Elsevier, and IDG. Returning to Thomas Publishing, Heather founded and spearheaded Manufacturing Enterprise Communications, an integrated media portfolio connecting buyers and sellers in the manufacturing and technology sectors. Starting in 2015 and spanning the next seven years, she leveraged her expertise as a revenue and business leader in various SaaS businesses, including Feathr, Gleanin, Brella and Edflex. Heather is deeply passionate about digital innovation, data monetization, and AI and how these strategies fuel revenue growth, profitability, and company valuation. To serve and create value for clients in these areas, she launched H2K Labs, dedicated to generating and leveraging value through data for media, business information, events, and adjacent technology and service markets.
James Hayes is a dynamic builder and operator with deep expertise in revenue operations, data architecture, and go-to-market strategy. He leads SEG’s integrated RevOps offering, aligning data, technology, process, and people to deliver scalable, repeatable growth systems for high-performing organizations.
He brings over 15 years of experience driving operational excellence across SaaS, private equity-backed, and enterprise environments. His background spans enterprise CRM implementations, AI readiness frameworks, pipeline velocity design, and full-funnel optimization. He is known for creating structure in chaos and delivering measurable results that fuel revenue acceleration across sales, marketing, and customer service.
SUMMARY
Join Heather Holst-Knudsen of H2K Labs and James Hayes of Sales Empowerment Group for a high-impact session that sets the stage for revenue transformation. In just 60 minutes, you’ll learn why RevOps is the cornerstone of scalable growth, explore the AI-enabled RAISE framework, and discover how to unify people, processes, and data into one powerful revenue engine—your foundation for success at RevLab NYC.
TRANSCRIPT
Building the Foundation for Revenue Excellence – Summarized Transcript
[00:00–01:30] Introduction – Heather Holst-Knudsen (H2K Labs) Heather welcomes attendees to the RevLab foundational webinar ahead of the Nov 6 event. She introduces RevLab as a rapid learning program designed to help organizations develop their Center of Revenue Excellence. Outlines agenda: why RevOps matters, essential building blocks, the RAISE framework, and the AI–RevOps connection.
[01:30–03:00] RevLab Context & Partnership Heather explains that RevLab is an H2K Labs initiative, evolving into interactive working groups for action-based learning. She introduces the collaboration with Sales Empowerment Group (SEG) and James Hayes, noting SEG’s expertise in data-driven revenue operations and AI integration.
[03:00–07:00] Why RevOps Matters Heather presents the business case: companies with aligned RevOps functions grow faster and are 15% more profitable. Forecast accuracy improves 3.2x, and 48% of companies now have a RevOps function (up 15% YoY). Aligning people, process, and tech across marketing, sales, and customer success yields 36% more revenue and 28% more profit.
[07:00–08:00] Market Reality & Data Dependency Organizations face pressure to “do more with less” while boards demand predictable, sustainable growth. RevOps and data are key to achieving this efficiency.
[08:00–10:00] The AI–RevOps Connection AI adoption is widespread, but only 25% use it effectively for sales forecasting. RevOps provides the operating structure that transforms AI from an “expensive experiment” into a true revenue multiplier.
[10:00–12:00] The Talent & Value Creation Case RevOps hiring is up 15%; 174,000 open roles with average OTE $100–160K. Companies with RevOps reduce GTM costs by 30% and increase sales productivity by 10–20%. For PE-backed firms, RevOps accelerates valuation and time to exit.
[12:00–15:00] From Siloed Chaos to Unified Growth Heather contrasts fragmented orgs (data conflicts, revenue leak, missed goals) with unified ones powered by RevOps (clean data, shared metrics, single source of truth). Quote: “Before: everyone owns something and no one owns everything. After: one team, one system, one growth engine.”
[15:00–17:00] Introducing James Hayes (SEG) James explains that AI effectiveness depends on RevOps maturity: “Without clean data and aligned systems, you’re not AI-ready—you’re AI-fragile.” He introduces the RAISE framework for AI readiness.
[17:00–31:00]
The RAISE Framework
Readiness: Define how the company creates and retains revenue; establish ICPs and realistic GTM models.
Alignment: Unify sales, marketing, and customer success under shared goals, metrics, and comp plans.
Intelligence: Turn data into actionable insight using forecasting, lifetime value, and cohort analysis.
Systems: Integrate tech stacks, CRMs, and automation to eliminate friction and maintain data integrity.
Enablement: Bridge strategy and execution through playbooks, onboarding, compensation clarity, and continuous improvement.
James notes that these five pillars determine an organization’s true AI and RevOps maturity.
[31:00–40:00] Discussion: Territory Design & Forecasting Heather and James discuss common mistakes in territory management—lack of structure, oversized territories, and poor lead assignment. James recommends segmenting by “A/B/C” tiers and ensuring reps can cover full territories in 30–60 days. Forecasting accuracy, sales attrition, and ramp time are discussed as core RevOps metrics.
[40:00–45:00] Customer Success & Renewal Strategy They explore whether sales should own both new business and renewals. James explains smaller firms often combine roles, but mature orgs split them for focus and scalability. He stresses aligning comp plans and retention goals.
[45:00–50:00] Private Equity & Systems Integration For PE-acquired companies with multiple CRMs, James explains the process of unifying tech stacks and establishing integrity dashboards to identify data gaps and ensure consistency across merged entities.
[50:00–55:00] Q&A and Closing Remarks Audience asks about sales enablement tools and data intelligence platforms. Heather recommends HighSpot, Gecko Board, and GTM Buddy for sales enablement dashboards. She closes by inviting attendees to RevLab NYC on November 6, where these frameworks will be applied in hands-on working sessions.
