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- Is VP of Revenue the new VP of Demand Gen for SaaS? - #79
Is VP of Revenue the new VP of Demand Gen for SaaS? - #79
SaaS Leadership is changing
Tye DeGrange
March 04, 2026
In partnership with
Executive Summary
Matt Heinz recently wrote a thought-provoking article arguing that Revenue is taking over Demand Gen on the Marketing leadership org chart.
In this framing, “revenue marketing” explicitly increases the value and expectations placed on both sales and growth because marketing is now measured by actual revenue (and retention/expansion), not just by leads or MQLs.
Sales and growth become tighter partners with marketing: sales relies on marketing to orchestrate pipeline and deal acceleration, while growth/product teams collaborate with marketing on PLG, lifecycle, and expansion motions across the whole funnel.
What “revenue” usually means
In B2B SaaS, revenue typically means recognized revenue: the income you’re entitled to record for products and services actually delivered in a given period, regardless of when cash was collected.
For subscription models, that usually means recognizing a contract’s value ratably over the term (for example, a 12‑month subscription is recognized monthly as service is delivered).
VP of Revenue Marketing vs VP of Demand Gen
A VP of Demand Generation is usually chartered to generate and nurture leads, build pipeline, and manage the lead‑to‑opportunity funnel, with heavy focus on acquisition channels and MQL/SQL throughput.
How Jennifer Anniston’s LolaVie brand grew sales 40% with CTV ads
For its first CTV campaign, Jennifer Aniston’s DTC haircare brand LolaVie had a few non-negotiables. The campaign had to be simple. It had to demonstrate measurable impact. And it had to be full-funnel.
LolaVie used Roku Ads Manager to test and optimize creatives — reaching millions of potential customers at all stages of their purchase journeys. Roku Ads Manager helped the brand convey LolaVie’s playful voice while helping drive omnichannel sales across both ecommerce and retail touchpoints.
The campaign included an Action Ad overlay that let viewers shop directly from their TVs by clicking OK on their Roku remote. This guided them to the website to buy LolaVie products.
Discover how Roku Ads Manager helped LolaVie drive big sales and customer growth with self-serve TV ads.
The DTC beauty category is crowded. To break through, Jennifer Anniston’s brand LolaVie, worked with Roku Ads Manager to easily set up, test, and optimize CTV ad creatives. The campaign helped drive a big lift in sales and customer growth, helping LolaVie break through in the crowded beauty category.
A VP of Revenue Marketing owns a broader mandate: integrating demand gen, lifecycle, customer marketing, field, and often Product Lead Growth (PLG) to hit pipeline and revenue targets, align with sales quotas, and influence deal size, win rates, and expansion.
How sales and growth fit in
Revenue Marketing “owns more of the stack” in the sense that it is accountable across the full buyer and customer journey and partners deeply with sales and growth, rather than just feeding the top of the funnel.
Sales still owns closing and quota, but revenue marketing co-owns pipeline, deal acceleration programs, and segment/geo strategies, while growth teams (e.g., PLG) operate under or alongside revenue marketing on product-led acquisition, activation, and expansion levers that directly tie to revenue KPIs.
Why Does This Matter?
It changes what marketing optimizes for: pipeline, win rate, retention, and expansion, rather than opens, MQLs, and vanity conversion rates.
It changes how teams are structured: one leader over demand gen, lifecycle, customer marketing, field, and often PLG/growth, operating as connective tissue across product, sales, RevOps, and CS.
It changes who is accountable: marketing is now on the hook for revenue outcomes and the P&L, which tightens alignment with sales targets and board‑level metrics
It is a needed shift, especially when looking at the concerns in the last 3 weeks of the SaaSpocolypse that AI will eat into value and revenue. Let’s put those concerns to rest!
Elena is perhaps the GOAT of SaaS Growth (Guillaume friend of the pod, is up there too) and shared a banger LinkedIn post on this topic
My favorite visual on SaaS Marketing teams
SaaS Experts Weigh In
“Titles aside, the point is to design a revenue system where marketing controls high‑leverage levers (data, experimentation, PLG, automation) that drive actual revenue, not just leads. The issue with ‘old’ demand gen is it got handcuffed to lead volume.”
- Guillaume Cabane
This is marketing finally getting the credit and responsibility it should have had. But if you just re-label demand gen and keep chasing form fills, nothing changes. The creative, brand, and POV still matter to make revenue happen.”
- Dave Gerhardt
Summary
This aligns with our predictions and investments into the importance of growth and revenue being a team sport, and removing the silos where possible to achieve better outcomes.
Holler if you have any questions or want to discuss further!
