Building a Revenue Generating Engine: Post-Acquisition
- A. Beth Kensington, MBA
- Aug 3, 2025
- 10 min read
Updated: Aug 4, 2025
Mission: Create a revenue generating engine.
Due diligence should reveal all the proverbial "hair" on the deal, right? Unfortunately, not so much.
Well, it's Post-Acquisition Day 1, now what? Better get started with revenue increases and cost reductions for that 100-day post-acquisition plan, but where to start?
Blitz marketing? Nope, you'll likely confuse the market. Probably want to avoid spinning up a bunch of marketing campaigns, then showing up at the tradeshow with a Rainbow Bright collage of logo colors, competing brand personalities, and disjointed value propositions. You have a nanosecond to make a first impression; maybe don't squander it.
Push sales too soon? Not the best idea, you'll likely create turf wars. We don't want dry powder, then bump into each other on the sales field, viewing each other as competitors. I've seen that dozens of times, and it's entertaining, but not in a profitable way.
Shake up customer service? Not today, you'll likely erode trust. Probably, it's a good idea to save customers from mass confusion that could inadvertently erode existing brand loyalty. Nothing like each company's customer service representative reaching out with varying branding and scripts to erase all doubt that things are not running at their peak. There's probably no compelling reason to cause destabilization in the customer base right out of the gate.
Should we launch New Product Introductions (NPIs)? Not now since there are likely separate sales funnels, separate quote-to-cash processes and tech, and inconsistent revenue recognition trigger points.
Take a beat, a breath, a pause. If you're really stressed out, try some square breathing.
How about considering the walk-jog-sprint method instead? Unless you're familiar with basic home improvement projects, consider measuring twice and cutting once.
Priority One: Address the People Aspect because Chaos Breeds Fear in People, which Inhibits Speed-to-Revenue
Let's start with the chaos. Chaos breeds fear. Fear can breed resentment. Anger can breed actions both large and small. If not addressed early, fear becomes a force multiplier, but not in a good way. Top fears I've had and also witnessed tend to include:
Fear of being found redundant (A/K/A irrelevant and unimportant)
Fear of being moved out of the current position
Fear of having to join a new team with a new boss
Fear of new leadership
Fear of change to compensation or benefits
Fear of new company culture
Fear of relocation
Fear of the unknown
Fear of loss of power and control over life
Fear of not being "In The Know" / Slow trickle of vague communication
Keep in mind that bad news of a Reduction-In-Force (RIF) or lay-off travels a lot faster than good news, like fires caused by jet fuel in the desert vs. a lightning strike in a damp, wet forest with rain in the forecast. So, get to it before the company lights up, social media sparks fly, and GlassDoor reviews proliferate. Address the fears of workers and get the chaos down to a dull roar ASAP. Consider demonstrating actual empathy (or find someone who can do it if you're a hard-charging type), solicit input, and showcase the "people plans" as soon as available. Learn about how empathy works WAY BETTER than sympathy.
Thinking 'outside the box' before a lay-off pays dividends to you and your current and former employees.
For those that didn't make the cut, offering transition or outplacement services and severance packages tend to be standard, but there's a definite opportunity to go above and beyond.
Some examples of "thinking outside the box" may include:
Prepare with the end in mind. Set the stage as a matter of regular business planning with employees to prepare with the end in mind. Boards and C-Levels do it, as it's taught in Business Administration 101 at most colleges and universities these days, or for anyone writing an actual business plan. We have all completed countless fire drills to prepare for some type of event since elementary school. Why not prepare workers for business events beyond their control? Elicit feedback and assist in writing exit plans during annual performance reviews about what to do in the event of a merger, acquisition, hostile takeover, bankruptcy, or other type of business strategy change.
Offer a way for lay-off tolerant people to self-identify, so you can quickly surface those who can tolerate being laid off. It's much worse if waves of people leave after the lay-off concludes because they were already lay-off tolerant. Now, preparing to backfill a role becomes trickier to get approved, sourced, and filled.
Offer some limited professional networking and warm introductions. This simple act shows laid-off workers that they still have value by being served with dignity by their co-workers and leaders. This may also give the survivors an altruistic purpose and lessen survivors' guilt in some cases, and job satisfaction, even though now overloaded.
Find loyalists. For those in the lay-off plan, ask if they'd like to come back if a position opens up. Create a list of interested loyalists.
Reduce delegation. Get the ivory tower people down to the shop floor to provide some semblance of explanation and empathy. Don't let the HR people deliver leadership's messages. It just doesn't sit well. In fact, it's awful, annoying, and it tends to make decision-makers appear cowardly. The laid-off folk carry your brand forward - let that sink in.
Build community. Offer to pay for timeslots at WeWork, or similar places that offer temporary office space, even a local library's conference rooms, for laid-off workers to network and help one another find new employment in a less formal setting.
Provide certified financial planning for a short time as a higher priority.
Provide grief counseling for a short period of time to better support those who need extra support.
Solicit feedback proactively on a personal level, not a survey. Ask what could have been done better. Make phone calls or set up off-campus meetings about 30 days after the initial sting of the lay-off wears off a bit.
These may not be appealing or easy to navigate and implement, but the effort, actions, and empathy tend to go a lot further than anyone ever actually measured. Maybe measuring these types of out-of-the-box options, both quantifiably and qualitatively, would be something to consider in the future. Hey, a dividend is a dividend!
Priority Two: Process Standardization Speeds Integration and Promotes Scaling
After an acquisition, process standardization in sales, marketing, and customer service is critical for maximizing value, ensuring a consistent customer experience, and most importantly, accelerating integration.
Why not pull every lever possible to ensure integration success?
Hopefully, the due diligence operators were able to establish fairly accurate current-state process maps for the revenue generation engines in each company, so the post-acquisition integration team could trust-but-verify, create a unified future-state process map with a comprehensive gap analysis. This typically enables gap prioritization for robust integration planning and execution. If you don't have a current-state process mapping, it's advisable to start getting that completed. It's generally important to know which 'sport, field, and position' you're in before making material business decisions.
Here’s why process evaluation and standardization matter and how they impact each function:
Marketing Processes
Standardized Approach to Marketing – Wrangling disparate branding processes and messaging frameworks is typically a challenge, as many companies use various internal people, contractors, consultants, and agencies with little documentation. Understanding who's who in the zoo, what they're up to, and how they do their work is an important aspect to fully understand early in process standardization work.
Optimized Campaign Execution – Rationalizing campaigns based upon unified branding becomes a force multiplier if the underlying tools, templates, and processes for campaigns are standardized.
Centralized Content and Collateral – Standardizing how assets are created, stored, and updated prevents duplication and improves campaign speed.
Measurable ROI – Uniform marketing metrics and attribution models make it easier to see which channels and tactics are most effective across the combined entity. Measurable ROI may include but are not limited to the following: conversion rates, cost-per-lead (CPL), customer acquisition cost (CAC), social media engagement, customer lifetime value (CLV), return-on-investment (ROI), return-on-effort (ROE), search engine rankings, web/mobile/app/AI traffic click-thru rates (CTR) metrics, marketing qualified leads (MQL), sales qualified leads (SQL), net promoter score (NPS), referral metrics, subscriber metrics, etc.
Sales Processes
Unified Approach to Selling – Standardizing sales processes (e.g., customer touchpoints, pipeline stages, qualification criteria, forecasting methods) ensures all business development executives, inside sales, or other sales force employees work toward the same metrics and expectations.
Data Consistency – When all teams use the same CRM processes and data definitions, management can trust the numbers and make faster, better-informed decisions. Additionally, this is the most important precursor to system integration, because the core sales data is used in enterprise resource planning (ERP) KPI, OKRs, and other metrics at the executive leadership and board levels.
Cross-Selling Opportunities – Standardized playbooks make it easier to introduce legacy customers to new products from the combined portfolio.
Faster Onboarding – New or merged sales teams can be trained quickly, reducing ramp-up time and minimizing disruption to revenue flow.
Customer Service Processes
Consistent Customer Experience – Regardless of which legacy company a customer came from, they should receive the same quality of service, issue resolution, and up-sell/cross-sell processes.
Unified Knowledge Base – Standardizing documentation protocols and troubleshooting steps ensures customer service representatives deliver consistent, accurate answers.
Efficiency in Support – Unified escalation paths and response protocols reduce resolution times and prevent customer frustration and churn.
Customer Loyalty and Retention – A seamless post-acquisition service experience helps maintain trust and protect the existing customer base to retain Customer-Acquisition-Cost (CAC) and customer lifetime value (CLV) metrics.
When this phase of standardization is completed, the newly formed company is jogging, in our walk-jog-sprint model.
Priority Three: Technology Rationalization, The Final Step to Realizing Integration to Scale-Up
After an acquisition, technology standardization in sales, marketing, and customer service is one of the most critical final steps in achieving operational efficiency, delivering a consistent customer experience, and realizing the intended synergies of the deal for scaling.
Hopefully, tech due diligence operators were chartered with deep due diligence to really uncover most of the company-endorsed or paid tools, as well as everyone's favorite apps, paid or freeware. Sales, marketing, and customer experience tools often present a whack-a-mole scenario for those in IT, Cybersecurity, and Data Privacy tasked with keeping the company, its prospects, and customers safe.
Here’s why it matters for each function and the business as a whole:
Marketing Technology Rationalization
Unified Data & Analytics – Merging marketing automation platforms and integrating external promotion services and their respective analytics creates a single view of lead performance, campaign ROI, and channel effectiveness.
Consistent Branding – Standard creative tools, asset libraries, and automated approval workflows ensure consistent messaging and design across all touchpoints.
Optimized Campaign Execution – Shared platforms enable coordinated campaign launches, reducing redundancy and avoiding conflicting messages to the market.
Improved Lead Management – Standard lead-scoring models and integration with the sales CRM ensure leads are prioritized and routed consistently.
Monitored Data Privacy – Enforce GDPR/CCPA compliance within marketing automation systems, use consent tracking, and monitor list uploads for unauthorized or non-compliant contacts.
Reduced Cybersecurity Risks – Standardizing on vetted platforms with regular security updates minimizes vulnerabilities in email marketing and web tracking tools.
Sales Technology Rationalization
Single Source of Truth – Consolidating CRM systems, spreadsheets, and a myriad of prospecting tools (e.g. Sales Navigator, CrunchBase, ZoomInfo, DealSignal, Lusha, UpLead, Pitchbook, DealRoom) ensures all sales data is in one place, reducing errors, duplicates, and lost opportunities.
Consistent Pipeline Management – Standardized tools mean every sales executive is tracking deals using the same stages, definitions, and metrics, making forecasting accurate and actionable. This also enables the introduction of AI to offer suggestions and alerts to keep the sales force engaged and performing.
Faster Onboarding & Enablement – A unified sales tech stack (CRM, CPQ, prospecting tools, quoting, etc.) shortens the learning curve for merged teams.
Cross-Selling at Scale – With integrated customer data, the sales team can easily identify cross-sell and upsell opportunities across both legacy customer bases. This foundation allows for the introduction of agentic AI to play a critical role across both sales and marketing teams.
Monitored Data Privacy - Implement role-based access controls, activity logs, and regular audits to ensure that only authorized users can view or export customer and prospect information.
Reduced Cybersecurity Risks – Decommissioning redundant systems closes potential security gaps, reduces attack surfaces, and ensures consistent authentication protocols.
Customer Service Tech Stack Unification
Centralized Support Systems – Standardizing on one help desk or ticketing platform (e.g., Hubspot, Zendesk, ServiceNow, Salesforce Service Cloud) provides a single view of customer issues and history.
Consistent SLAs & Resolution Processes – Technology alignment supports uniform workflows, response templates, and escalation paths.
Shared Knowledge Base – A unified knowledge repository ensures that all customer service personnel have access to the same troubleshooting resources and product information.
Omnichannel Support – Integrating chat, email, phone, and social channels into one system ensures customers receive the same experience regardless of how they reach out.
Monitored Data Privacy – Mask sensitive customer information in ticketing systems, track all data access, and run automated compliance checks to prevent unauthorized sharing of personal or financial details.
Reduced Cybersecurity Risks – Centralized, secured platforms with multi-factor authentication protect against phishing, account takeovers, and data breaches.
Why Technology Standardization is Strategic
Speeds Integration – The faster teams operate from the same systems, the quicker you can achieve the efficiencies and revenue goals from the acquisition.
Reduces Costs – Eliminating duplicate licenses and redundant platforms lowers operational expenses.
Reduces Cybersecurity Threat Exposure – Fewer systems, better patch management, and consistent security protocols lower breach risks.
Improves Decision-Making – Unified reporting gives leadership a complete, real-time view of business performance.
Strengthens the Customer Experience – Customers interact with a seamless, unified organization instead of two disconnected entities.
Enables Scalability – A standardized tech stack becomes the foundation for future acquisitions or market expansion.
Improves Data Privacy Posture – Data privacy monitoring ensures sensitive customer data is handled according to legal and ethical standards, as well as adherence to company policies.
When people, processes, and technologies are standardized, we're now ready to sprint.
If we're sprinting, we've created well-oiled machine capable of growth worth talking about.
What is your reaction to this blog post?
Interesting. I gained a different perspective.
Eye-opening to learn about impacts in different areas.
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