Turning Marketing From a Cost Center Into a Growth Engine With Jeff Baker

About Guest

Jeff Baker is the Senior Director of Global Marketing at smartShift, a company that helps enterprises accelerate and automate SAP custom-code transformation. With more than 20 years of experience in enterprise software, he leads global efforts in strategy and branding. Jeff plays a key role in driving awareness and demand for smartShift’s AI-powered solutions.

In this episode…

Marketing is often seen as a creative function or a cost center, but what if it could be reframed as the engine that drives growth? In a world where buyers control their own journeys and retention is the new acquisition, how can companies shift their perspective and prove marketing’s real impact?

According to Jeff Baker, a marketing leader with nearly three decades of experience, the key lies in connecting every activity directly to revenue outcomes. He highlights that today’s customer journey is no longer linear — it’s dynamic, unpredictable, and shaped by peer reviews, research, and digital touchpoints. Retention, he stresses, is now just as important as acquisition, with loyalty and advocacy fueling long-term growth. By focusing on ROI, aligning with sales, and proving financial impact to boards, marketing can evolve from being dismissed as a cost to being recognized as a true growth engine.

In this episode of the Revenue Engine Podcast, host Alex Gluz speaks with Jeff Baker, Senior Director of Global Marketing at smartShift, to discuss turning marketing from a cost center into a growth engine. They explore why the old funnel is dead, how post-sale experiences build advocacy, and what boards really want to see from marketing. Jeff also shares the biggest challenges facing B2B SaaS leaders in 2025 and how to overcome them with a value-first approach.

A glimpse of what you will learn

• [01:13] What Jeff Baker learned moving from design to marketing and why ROI kept him in the room
• [03:03] Why the old marketing funnel is dead and how today’s customer journey really works
• [04:14] How post-sale experiences build loyalty and turn customers into advocates
• [11:09] The importance of proving marketing’s ROI and showing the board revenue, not vanity metrics
• [21:03] The biggest challenges for B2B SaaS marketers in 2025 and how to overcome the noise with value

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• T.A. Monroe Digital Agency
• Alex Gluz on LinkedIn
• Jeff Baker on LinkedIn
• smartShift

Quotable Moments

• “Design, you know, it got me in the door, but ROI kept me in the room.”
• “I think I can safely say that the old funnel is dead.”
• “If you can’t tie CX to revenue, you’re simply just running a customer hospitality program.”
• “Marketing at the end of the day isn’t a cost center. It is a growth engine.”
• “Marketers don’t have the answers all the time. It’s very much marketing is an art and a science.”

Action Steps

1. Align marketing with revenue outcomes: Connecting campaigns directly to sales and financial impact shifts marketing from a cost center to a growth engine.
2. Prioritize the post-sale customer experience: Delivering value after the contract builds loyalty, reduces churn, and turns customers into long-term advocates.
3. Focus on intent over noise: Addressing real buyer needs rather than feature lists ensures marketing resonates in crowded, competitive markets.
4. Build attribution models that capture influence: Recognizing how different channels lift one another reveals the true value of marketing activities beyond last-click metrics.
5. Measure leading and lagging indicators: Tracking engagement, pipeline velocity, and lifetime value ensures a holistic view of marketing’s contribution to business growth

Sponsor for this episode

This episode is brought to you by T.A.Monroe Digital.At T.A.Monroe, we build world class revenue engines for B2B SaaS companies. What that means is we do everything behind the scenes to generate you tons of qualified leads, opportunities and customers.

1. We build highly effective marketing systems and scale their profitably through our demand generation strategies.
2. We think scientifically on how to scale your demand and revenue.
3. We bring decades of experience.

Email us at alex@tamonroe.com or visit www.tamonroe.com today to schedule a strategy session or learn more about our mission.