Grata

The Challenge

Grata had strong product conviction and a clear market opportunity — but their demand gen infrastructure hadn't kept up with their ambitions. Their CRM was messy, their email workflows were underperforming, and sales and marketing were operating with different definitions of what a good lead looked like. Before scaling spend, they needed to fix the engine. That's where Cactus came in.

The CRM Audit

Cactus started with a full CRM audit — not to confirm what was working, but to surface what wasn't. Messy CRMs are a silent growth killer: leads fall through the cracks, sales follows up on the wrong signals, and marketing can't close the loop on what's actually converting. We rebuilt the foundation so every dollar of demand gen investment would land on clean infrastructure.

• Audited CRM data quality: duplicates, stale contacts, and incomplete records
• Rebuilt lead scoring criteria aligned to Grata's actual ICP and deal signal data
• Defined lifecycle stages from MQL to SQL with clear handoff criteria
• Set up CRM workflows to automate routing, follow-up triggers, and stage progression
• Created attribution tracking to connect marketing activity to pipeline outcomes

Rebuilding the Demand Gen Engine

With the CRM cleaned up, we redesigned Grata's email marketing workflows and built a demand gen strategy focused on Grata's highest-value buyer segments: PE/VC dealmakers, M&A advisors, and corporate development teams. Every campaign was designed to generate real pipeline, not just opens.

• Redesigned email nurture sequences for each buyer persona and lifecycle stage
• Built outbound sequences targeting PE, VC, and M&A buyer segments
• Created content assets (guides, reports) to support top-of-funnel demand capture
• Launched retargeting campaigns to re-engage high-intent leads who hadn't converted
• Implemented A/B testing cadence on subject lines, CTAs, and content formats

Aligning Sales and Marketing

The hardest part of demand gen isn't generating demand — it's making sure sales can act on it. Cactus worked directly with Grata's sales team to align on ICP definition, lead quality standards, and follow-up timing. When marketing and sales are using the same definitions, pipeline quality improves and conversion rates follow.