Luigi MallardoWhen you think of a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) driving a fast-paced SaaS GTM Playbook, a tech startup likely comes to mind. You don’t usually picture a 120-year-old FTSE 100 corporate. This article represents my full personal reflection and account of the GTM transformation work done at BAT Italy, where I served in a CRO capacity over nearly three years.
My mission? Apply a SaaS mindset and my SaaSup GTM framework to reshape the commercial engine and retention strategy for GLO™, BAT’s flagship Tobacco Heating Product, in its most strategic European market.
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This wasn’t just about applying a few new buzzwords. As the Marketing Director for South Europe Area, and later CEO and President of BAT Italy, put it:
“I’ve worked with Luigi for almost three years in BAT where he covered a clear CRO role for Italy. I took advantage of his deep knowledge and his SaaS framework to help shaping few aspects of our business in new categories requiring a new highly consumer centric approach. SaaS mindset does not apply to start ups only but also to big corporates willing to:
- Reshape the way they operate.
- Identify the right KPI’s
- Re-engineer processes to ensure consumers are always at the heart of everything we do.
Luigi deeply worked with the team being present on the ground when needed and willing to transfer knowledge to them ensuring independency and knowledge.”
Indeed, this story is about that GTM transformation journey, the challenges of bringing startup-like agility to a large corporate machine, the practical application of SaaS GTM principles in a non-tech environment, and the tangible results we achieved. The lessons learned are, I believe, profoundly relevant for any business, especially today’s AI SaaS leaders, striving to build resilient, customer-obsessed revenue engines.
Diagnosing GTM Gaps: A SaaS Lens on BAT Italy (Late 2021 – Early 2022)
The GTM Landscape Pre-Transformation
In late 2021, BAT was aggressively scaling GLO™, a key pillar of its “A Better Tomorrow™” strategy focused on reduced-risk products. Italy represented a massive opportunity, but the GTM approach, while functional, was rooted in traditional FMCG thinking. The challenge wasn’t a lack of ambition, but rather the need for a new operational paradigm to truly connect with and retain modern consumers in a new category.
Key Challenges & The Need for SaaSification
My initial conversations with BAT’s leadership in the Region and the Country quickly surfaced familiar pain points. These are common for any rapidly scaling business but were amplified by corporate scale:
- A Basic Funnel: Tracking was largely limited to top-of-funnel leads and device sales. I found out little granular insight into the post-purchase adoption journey or the “why” behind consumer behaviour.
- High Churn: The post-sale journey saw a significant and unsustainable drop-off in customer retention. This level of churn represented a critical leakage in a model striving for loyalty and was the primary challenge to address.
- Traditional Metrics: KPIs were more reflective of transactional sales than the recurring-revenue dynamics and lifetime value focus inherent in SaaS.
- A Product-Centric Dialogue: Communication was often focused on the “WHAT” (the GLO™ device and its features) rather than the “WHY” (the consumer’s needs and “success criteria”).
It was clear that a fundamental shift towards a more customer-centric, data-driven, and agile GTM model was needed. Consequently, this led to my initial 90-day engagement with BAT marketing leadership team.
The Kick-Off: Seeding the SaaS Mindset
The first 90 days were about education, audit, and planting the seeds for change. I ran an intensive two-day on-site workshop in Rome for the leadership. The core objective? To introduce the SaaSup GTM framework and its foundational principles:
- Competing on End-to-End Customer Experience: Shifting the focus beyond just product and marketing.
- Building Resilience Through Recurring Revenue Models: Even for physical products, thinking in terms of lifetime value and retention.
- Adopting New KPIs: Moving towards metrics like MRR, churn, LTV, and CAC to truly measure performance.
- Placing the Customer at the Center: Ensuring all GTM efforts revolved around consumer needs and outcomes.
- The Real Work Starts After the Sale: A core SaaS mantra that needed to become BAT’s reality for GLO™.
This initial phase was about establishing a common language and a shared vision for what a “SaaSified” GTM could look like for GLO™.
Year 1: Forging the SaaS GTM Foundations (2022)
From Coaching to Hands-On CRO Leadership
The initial coaching rapidly evolved. The need for hands-on GTM leadership became apparent, and my role solidified into a “clear CRO role.” Year 1 (2022) was dedicated to laying the foundational pillars of this new GTM engine. My job moved from 90% strategy and design in the initial months to 100% operational setup and execution.
Key GTM Transformation Initiatives Under SaaSup:
Acting as CRO, I directly led several critical workstreams, applying the SaaSup framework:
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Funnel & KPI Redesign
This was paramount. We customized my SaaSup funnel model specifically for GLO™, creating a granular view that tracked consumers from initial awareness through to onboarding, nurturing, and advocacy. Critically, this funnel had a strong post-sales and Customer Success focus. Alongside this, we designed and implemented new SaaS-like KPI reports. These enabled the leadership team to track conversion rates at each stage and understand bottlenecks. Ultimately, this helped build better predictability into the business. In fact, the mantra became: “What gets measured, gets managed.”
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Re-engineering the Post-Sale Customer Journey (A “Quick Win” Tackling Churn)
Reducing churn was an immediate priority. We kicked off a strategic and operational Onboarding Workstream. This involved meticulously mapping the first few weeks and months post-device registration. We designed a new SaaS-like consumer journey with specific touchpoints and interventions aimed at building engagement and ensuring successful adoption. This wasn’t just a PowerPoint exercise. I worked directly with content agencies and contact center suppliers to operationalize this new journey.
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Redefining Conversational Choreographies for Customer-Centricity
We shifted the narrative. Instead of leading with device features (the “WHAT”), we focused on the “WHY”: the reasons consumers choose GLO™ and the outcomes they seek (Customer Success criteria). This involved developing new “conversational choreographies”, essentially sales and engagement playbooks, for all consumer-facing channels:
- the website (discoverglo.it)
- the contact center
- pop-up retail experiences
- consumer electronics stores
- tobacconists.
The goal was a consistent, empathetic, and value-driven conversation at every touchpoint.
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Evolving the GTM Tech Stack
A modern GTM engine needs enabling technology. We scouted and supported the integration of conversational sales and marketing technologies to bring the new prospect and customer journeys to life. We brought on board a product I knew well, Whisbi (who had been acquired by Giosg in the meanwhile). This allowed for more personalised and dynamic interactions online, mirroring a real store experience.
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Prioritising Activation & Team Enablement – “Working on the Court”
Strategy is nothing without execution. A significant part of my role involved being “on the court”. Coaching BAT’s internal teams (marketing, CRM, digital, brand activation, sales) and their agencies. This included “SaaS choreography training,” agency briefings for new user journeys, KPI report fine-tuning, and market visits to ensure the strategies were landing effectively in the real world.
This first year was intense, focused on building the infrastructure and processes for a fundamentally new way of going to market. Consequently, Year 2 was about deepening the execution…
Year 2: Building the GTM Execution Engine (2023)
Embedding SaaSup into Daily Operations
With the foundational GTM elements in place, Year 2 (2023) was about deepening the execution, embedding the SaaSup framework into BAT’s Business As Usual (BAU) routines, and building internal capability. My CRO job continued to be hands-on, ensuring the new systems delivered results and the mindset shift took root.
Key Focus Areas for Sustained GTM Excellence:
- The Strategic Control Tower: I led a bi-monthly “Strategic Control Tower” meeting with the Marketing Leadership Team (MLT). This became our forum for reviewing overall GTM performance against the new KPIs, discussing what was working (and what wasn’t), and identifying strategic initiatives for “funnel evolution,” media approaches, and even brainstormings on organisational adjustments inspired by SaaS best practices
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Driving a Data-Driven KPI Cadence: The new SaaS-like dashboards weren’t just for show. We instituted a monthly KPI review rhythm, diving deep into channel-specific performance and defining clear action points. This ensured data, not just gut feel, was driving GTM decisions.
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Continuous Iteration on Customer Journeys & Choreographies: The consumer journey is never “done.” We continuously reviewed and optimized the omnichannel choreographies based on performance data and consumer feedback, ensuring the GLO™ experience remained relevant and engaging.
- Exploring Structural Alignment with SaaS Principles: As the SaaS GTM framework took root, we began exploring how to better align internal routines and roles with the evolving post-sale motion. Inspired by SaaS best practices, these conversations led to early steps toward strengthening the Customer Success capability, a critical lever for retention and lifetime value.
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Coaching for Independence: A key aspect of my CRO role was to coach and mentor the internal BAT leaders who were now heading up the various operative workstreams. The goal, as the CEO noted, was to “transfer knowledge to them ensuring independency and knowledge.”
This wasn’t theory. It was hands-on. Year 2 was about making the new GTM model stick, ensuring it wasn’t just a “project” but the new way GLO™ operated in Italy, and possibly in the rest of Europe following Italy.
Year 3: Sustaining Momentum & Focused Internalization (2024)
By Year 3 (2024), the GTM transformation had taken firm hold. Many of the SaaSup-driven processes and routines were internalized and being run effectively by the empowered BAT teams. My engagement shifted towards more “punctual support,” providing strategic coaching and training as BAT looked to expand its multi-category offerings, leveraging the now well-established customer-centric GTM foundation we had built for GLO™.
This transition was a testament to the successful embedding of the SaaS mindset and the GTM framework, a controlled internalization with safeguards, not a sudden handoff. The team was equipped to carry the torch forward.
Impact: Tangible Results, Transformed Mindsets
The three-year GTM transformation journey at BAT for GLO™ Italy, underpinned by the SaaSup framework and executed through a hands-on CRO approach, delivered significant and measurable results:
- Quantifiable Wins:
- 30%+ Reduction in Customer Churn: A direct result of re-engineering the post-sale journey and focusing on customer success.
- Significant Lift in 9-Digit Gross Margin: Achieved through more efficient GTM motions and improved customer retention.
- Qualitative & Operational Transformation:
- New Customer-Centric Routines: Changed internal business cadences and customer activation programs.
- SaaS-like KPIs Embedded: The entire team began looking at the business through the lens of more granular, revenue-driven SaaS metrics, both pre-sale and post-sale.
- Reshaped Value Proposition & Conversational Approach: A unified, customer-centric “verb” across all channels.
- Enhanced Team Capability & Independence: Internal teams were upskilled and empowered to own the new GTM model.
- A Fundamental Mindset Shift: Perhaps the most crucial outcome. BAT Italy truly began to operate with consumers “at the heart of everything we do.”
Key Learnings for (AI) SaaS Leaders from a Corporate GTM Transformation
The experience of driving a SaaS-like GTM transformation within a corporate giant like BAT offers profound lessons, many of which are acutely relevant for leaders in the fast-evolving AI SaaS landscape:
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Customer-Centricity is Non-Negotiable, Regardless of Industry: The core SaaS tenets – obsession with the customer journey, prioritizing retention, and maximizing lifetime value – are universal principles for building sustainable businesses. AI SaaS companies, despite their tech focus, must ingrain this.
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Frameworks Provide the Compass for Transformation: In complex environments, a robust GTM framework (like SaaSup) offers a vital roadmap, aligning teams and ensuring a structured approach to change. This is crucial when navigating the uncertainties of scaling an AI product.
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Real Transformation is a Marathon, Not a Quick Fix: Meaningful change, especially in established organizations or new AI categories, requires sustained effort, unwavering leadership commitment, and a phased, iterative approach. Don’t expect overnight miracles.
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Data and SaaS-like KPIs Illuminate the Path: Shifting to metrics that reflect true customer value and business health (beyond just top-line bookings) fundamentally alters decision-making and uncovers hidden growth levers. For AI SaaS, understanding usage, adoption, and outcome-based KPIs is critical.
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Execution and Enablement are Where Strategy Meets Reality (“Activation”): Brilliant strategies are worthless without rigorous operational deployment and continuous team enablement. The “on the court” work – training, coaching, process refinement – is where transformation truly happens.
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The Mindset Shift is the Ultimate Prize: Moving an organization, or even a startup team, from a product-first or tech-first mentality to a genuinely customer-first culture is the most challenging, yet most valuable, aspect of GTM transformation. This is especially true for AI companies that can get lost in the technology rather than the customer problem.
Hard Truths and Unexpected Challenges
Despite the progress, this wasn’t an easy ride. Shifting from a product&media-first culture to a customer-obsessed mindset met initial resistance. Old habits, entrenched KPIs, and fragmented ownership slowed us down. At times, I wasn’t sure we’d manage to flip the switch. But with consistent alignment, on-the-ground coaching, and trust from leadership, we made it happen.
What I’ll do differently next time
This experience reminded me that transformation doesn’t only need a framework. It needs local ownership from day one. In future deployments of the SaaSup framework, I’ll invest even more upfront in aligning org design and accountability structures before diving into execution. The technical playbook is never enough without the political buy-in.
Conclusion: The Enduring Blueprint of SaaS Principles
The GLO™ GTM transformation at BAT Italy stands as a powerful testament to the fact that the principles of SaaS – customer-obsession, data-driven execution, agile iteration, and a focus on long-term value – are not confined to software startups. They represent a durable blueprint for building resilient, high-growth businesses in any sector.
Applying the SaaSup framework in such a dynamic and demanding corporate environment was a hands-on, high-stakes test — and it delivered. The transformation not only shifted internal mindsets and routines, but also unlocked more efficient and sustainable revenue growth across the customer lifecycle.
As the business world continues to evolve, especially with the rise of AI, the ability to build customer-centric, metric-driven GTM engines will define the next wave of category leaders.
The future belongs to those who marry deep technology with rigorous, customer-first execution. In this, SaaS thinking provides the blueprint, effective at any scale.
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