“It’s not just about getting a deal closed. It’s about aligning on shared goals, making sure we’re solving the right problem, and ensuring we can actually scale together. That upfront rigor means faster onboarding, better results, and long-term partnerships that last.” That’s a quote from Lee Aho and a sneak peek at today’s episode. Welcome to Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast—
the show where growth-minded business leaders learn how to turn marketing into a measurable revenue engine.

I'm your host, Kerry Curran revenue-growth-obsessed, go-to-market expert, and industry analyst. Each week, I sit down with the brightest minds in marketing, sales, and customer success to unpack the real-world strategies that drive sustainable revenue growth. If you like what you hear, please be sure to follow, rate, and review the podcast on your favorite platform. It helps us reach more leaders like you.

Today’s episode is for any agency or B2B services leader trying to scale new business smarter. I work with a lot of agencies who need to move from referrals or founder-led growth to a robust go-to-market engine. B2B SaaS and tech companies have mastered the GTM framework—but agencies are still lagging behind. Except for one.

In Smarter Targeting, Stronger Growth: How ICP and GTM Rigor Unlock Scale, Lee Aho, CRO of PerformCB, joins us to share how his team applied modern B2B go-to-market best practices to hyper-target the ideal customer profile and drive exponential results with a performance-first model.

Stay tuned until the end of today’s episode, where Lee shares how they use a can’t-miss offer strategy to win top-tier clients faster. Let’s go.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01.655)
Welcome, Lee. Please introduce yourself and share your background and expertise.

Lee Aho (00:07.052)
Thanks, Kerry.

I’m Lee Aho, Chief Revenue Officer at PerformCB. I’m approaching my 17th year with the company, and while I wear many hats, I largely focus on new-business development and strategy execution for key accounts.

For listeners who may be less familiar with PerformCB, we specialize in new-user acquisition on an outcome-based model. What that looks like depends on the brand we’re partnering with. For example, brands such as Fetch Rewards, FanDuel, Cash App, and SoFi come to us to acquire new users for their mobile apps. In other cases, brands like LendingTree, Mutual of Omaha, and McAfee rely on us to drive consumers to their websites or landing pages to complete lead forms or make purchases.

We also do a great deal in the pay-per-call space: brands such as Allstate, Nationwide, and UnitedHealthcare use PerformCB to increase the volume of high-intent, qualified inbound calls. The common thread is that regardless of the outcome—installs, leads, purchases, or calls—we only get paid for the results we deliver.

Even when we’re paid on an install, for instance, we optimize against deeper-funnel metrics that truly matter to the marketer, such as account registrations or first-time deposits. We want to stay lockstep with each client’s most meaningful KPIs when we build and scale their acquisition strategies.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (02:02.455)
That’s an awesome model and incredibly valuable to your clients. I’m excited to talk about how PerformCB has built its own customer base. Let’s discuss the changes you’ve made in the last year—what you shifted toward and how it’s working.

Lee Aho (02:34.626)
Absolutely. We’ve really elevated new-business development across the organization, and it wasn’t a single change but a series of steps that have compounded over time. A few highlights:

1. Refined ICP. We spent time defining our ideal client profile—who makes the best prospective partner for PerformCB.
   
2. Storytelling and pitch revamp. We overhauled our pitch to ensure we’re presenting opportunities in the most impactful way for each brand.
   
3. Team restructuring. We created a marketer-development team dedicated to onboarding and accelerating new-client results.
   
4. Cross-team collaboration. Sales, marketing, and account teams now deliver a unified message and experience.
   
5. Irresistible offer. We developed a can’t-miss pilot proposal in select cases to remove barriers to getting started.
   

Collectively, these changes have significantly accelerated new-business growth for what is already a 20-year-old company.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (03:57.527)
You mentioned seeing huge results. Can you share some of the numbers?

Lee Aho (04:10.572)
We’re just coming off our Q1 board meeting, and the results are exciting:

• Launch value: The value of new-business launches in Q1 2025 is up 1,000% versus Q1 2024.
  
• Conversion rate: Our discovery-call-to-closed-won conversion rate has more than tripled.
  

Because we’re paid on performance, that growth also means our clients are gaining many more high-quality customers.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (04:40.974)
Let’s dig into the cross-functional alignment between sales, marketing, and customer success that enabled this growth.

Lee Aho (06:21.558)
Several teams play critical roles:

1. Revenue operations & market research. These teams analyzed past launches to identify patterns—why some clients scaled quickly and why others struggled. This informed our refined ICP.
   
2. Sales. With a crystal-clear ICP, sales targets accounts that fit our success patterns.
   
3. Marketer-development team. Previously, new accounts were handed directly to our account-growth team, whose portfolios were already full. The marketer-development team now focuses solely on helping new clients ramp quickly, ensuring they see results from day one.
   
4. Marketing. We’ve added people-based and account-based tactics to reach strategic stakeholders with PerformCB messaging. We can measurably tie many opportunities to these ABM efforts.
   

Together, these teams have transformed our onboarding process and customer experience.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (07:52.885)
I love how you applied B2B SaaS best practices to a services organization. Talk more about how you use that customer insight in outbound and pitch messaging.

Lee Aho (08:40.814)
Once we nailed down the ICP, we revamped outbound messaging to be vertical-, competitor-, and channel-specific. We heavily leverage social proof—showing prospective clients exactly how we drive net-new customers for similar brands.

We also adopted technology to automate personalized cadences, allowing more consistent, multi-channel outreach (email, LinkedIn, even in-person visits). And we standardized our pitch deck so every seller tells the strongest, most consistent story.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (10:49.24)
Many services firms say, “We’ll sell to anyone.” Your focus is very different. How do you ensure your research team targets only the best-fit prospects?

Lee Aho (16:22.754)
We created clear, data-backed criteria. For example, a free mobile app in our ICP must have:

• An MMP or tracking solution so we can tie installs to deeper-funnel events.
  
• A minimum volume (e.g., 15 K+ installs per month).
  
• Presence in geos where we excel at traffic acquisition.
  

We’ve done the same for web and pay-per-call. Everyone in the company knows what “ideal” looks like.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (18:09.449)
If a listener wants to adopt your approach, where should they start?

Lee Aho (18:43.948)
First, conduct honest self-reflection: which partnerships succeeded, and why? Which struggled? That helps define your ICP.

Then refine outbound messaging with vertical-specific proof points, supported by tech that keeps outreach personal and persistent.

Next, focus on onboarding—whether that’s a marketer-development team or another white-glove process—to ensure early wins.

Finally, consider a “can’t-lose” pilot offer. We sometimes provide a funded test with the agreement that, once we exceed KPIs, it rolls into a paid program. It removes friction and proves our value fast.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (20:56.383)
Great advice. Any last tips?

Lee Aho (21:20.558)
Be intentional at every step—outreach, pitch, onboarding, and delivery. Ensure every team member conveys the same value proposition and differentiators. Consistency and clarity drive trust and, ultimately, growth.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (22:09.447)
How can people connect with you or learn more about PerformCB?

Lee Aho (22:13.198)
If you’re a sales leader looking to share ideas—or a marketer seeking smarter, safer, large-scale user acquisition—reach out. Email me at [email protected] or message me on LinkedIn (mention the podcast for a quick reply).

Kerry Curran, RBMA (22:49.715)
Fantastic. Thanks so much, Lee—this was packed with actionable insights.

Lee Aho (22:57.011)
Thank you, Kerry. I appreciate the opportunity.

Thanks for listening to Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast.
If this episode helped you rethink how your agency or services team approaches growth, share it with a colleague who’s ready to get more strategic. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen, and leave us a review if you’re finding value in the show.

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