“At the end of the day, leadership only cares about one thing: does this create funnel that turns into revenue.”
Dan Chapman, VP of Sales & Marketing at DocNow
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In this episode of Executive Conversations, Maeva Cifuentes speaks with Dan Chapman, VP of sales and marketing at DocNow. Dan tells the story of walking into a startup that was generating one or two MQLs a month, then building a 90-day lead-gen engine that lit up the entire pipeline. He explains how owning both sales and marketing forces a single-funnel mindset, why every project must prove its revenue impact fast, and how he justifies brand spend by showing that one closed deal covers the cost. Dan shares his “north star” spreadsheet of thirty ranked experiments, describes hiring creatives who can tie design to bookings, and details how constant calls with reps eliminate silos. He also digs into measuring success with CAC efficiency, balancing short-term pipeline with long-term credibility, and adapting to buyers who either want total handholding or zero contact. The conversation is a blueprint for making marketing accountable without killing creativity.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Revenue-aligned marketing
- Sales-marketing integration
- Lead generation engine
- Brand justification
- Experiment prioritization
Takeaways
- Single funnel ownership: Dan demonstrates how running sales and marketing under one roof removes silos and pins everyone to the same revenue number
- Rapid lead-gen turnaround: he took MQLs from one per month to a healthy pipeline in 90 days by killing projects that didn’t ship leads
- North star experiment sheet: keeps 20-30 growth ideas ranked in a spreadsheet and re-prioritises weekly against MQL impact and CAC efficiency
- Brand spend tied to deals: rebranding only got budget after surveys showed credibility gaps and one closed deal would pay for the entire project
- Revenue-first hiring: won’t bring in creatives who can’t explain how their work converts to bookings and renewals
- Transparent sales alignment: constant calls with reps mean marketers hear complaints in real time and can fix or explain decisions on the spot
Time chapters
[00:06] meeting the vp who runs sales and marketing
[01:30] starting with lead generation before brand work
[02:43] tackling silos by wearing both hats
[04:33] handling stakeholder expectations across teams
[06:40] building a 90-day lead gen engine
[08:50] ranking 30 growth experiments in a north star sheet
[10:55] measuring success: from mqls to cac efficiency
[12:46] funding brand work with deal math
[15:25] balancing creative work with revenue demands
[17:04] adapting to shifting buyer behaviors and roles
[19:35] partnering with sales to hit shared metrics
Dan Chapman is VP of sales and marketing at DocNow EHR, where he owns the entire revenue engine. A 15-year SaaS veteran, he’s known for translating complex value propositions into pipeline, forging enterprise partnerships and scaling early-stage teams. His résumé spans Fortune 500 names like Sanofi, Pfizer, McKesson and Google as well as fast-growing startups, giving him a track record of driving growth at every stage
