How Do Organizations Prepare for Next-Gen Advocacy Leaders?
Build an advocacy function that attracts, equips, and measures tomorrow’s champions. Align RM6™ principles, skills & career paths, and metrics so advocacy leaders can influence pipeline, upsell, and community at scale.
Prepare for next-gen advocacy leaders by codifying the operating model (goals, ICP, plays), hiring for hybrid skills (community, product, revenue), instrumenting data & KPIs in your RMOS, and embedding advocacy in sales, CS, and product rituals. Back it with career pathways, governance & consent, and budget tied to revenue outcomes.
What Matters When Upleveling Advocacy Leadership?
The Next-Gen Advocacy Leadership Playbook
A practical sequence to stand up (or modernize) advocacy leadership that drives measurable revenue impact.
Define → Staff → Enable → Instrument → Activate → Measure → Govern
- Define the mandate: Map advocacy motions to the revenue engine (referrals, references, reviews, community, UGC).
- Staff for range: Hire a leader with community + RevOps fluency; add ops, content, and field alignment.
- Enable the field: Playbooks for AEs/CSMs: when to request references, peer intros, and proof deployment.
- Instrument the stack: Connect RMOS tiles to metrics like Advocate Density, Reference Readiness, and Win-Rate Lift.
- Activate programs: Tiered advocate program, customer councils, and beta/feature co-creation loops.
- Measure outcomes: Attribution rules with time windows; pipeline, cycle time, NRR, and community health.
- Govern & scale: Consent management, brand safety, and quarterly operating reviews with Sales/Product.
Advocacy Leadership Maturity Matrix
| Capability | From (Ad Hoc) | To (Operationalized) | Owner | Primary KPI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mandate & Model | Tactical references | Full-funnel advocacy tied to RM6™ objectives | CMO/RevOps | Advocacy Influence % |
| Talent & Enablement | Single coordinator | Leader + ops + content + field champions | People Ops/Marketing | Reference Utilization Rate |
| Data & Attribution | Manual lists | Unified events, time-window attribution, dashboards | Analytics/RevOps | Win-Rate Lift (Advocated) |
| Programs & Community | One-off campaigns | Tiered advocate program + councils + UGC engine | Advocacy Lead | Proof-Point Velocity |
| Field Activation | Unstructured asks | SLA-backed plays in CRM; alerts & coaching | Sales | Time-to-Reference |
| Outcomes & NRR | Storytelling | Pipeline/NRR with advocate cohort slices | Finance | NRR Lift (Advocate vs. Non) |
Client Snapshot: Standing Up Advocacy Leadership
A growth-stage SaaS firm created an advocacy leadership role with shared goals across Marketing, Sales, and Product. In two quarters: +16% win-rate on advocated deals and 2× case-study throughput. See adjacent excellence in operating rigor: Comcast Business Case Study · Revenue Marketing Dashboard Metrics
Treat advocacy leadership as a revenue product: prioritize ICP-aligned proof, automate activation, and report outcomes with the same precision as demand and product.
Frequently Asked Questions about Next-Gen Advocacy Leaders
Ready Your Organization for Advocacy Leadership
Assess gaps, align principles, and operationalize KPIs that leaders can own from day one.
Take the Revenue Marketing Assessment (RM6) Review the Key Principles of Revenue Marketing