How to Build a Revenue Engine With Video (Maria Trysla)

Maria Trysla is a GTM and revenue architecture expert, a fractional CMO, and a two-time former CEO. I asked her how she builds a revenue engine, and how video and AI search fit into it.

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Key Takeaways

• Revenue architecture puts marketing, sales, and customer success on one objective, one language, and one ICP.
• Maria Trysla's advice on MQL versus SQL fights: stop having them and go talk to customer success.
• With AI search, PR plays a bigger role. Customer stories with real outcomes tend to bubble up.
• Video for video's sake is a waste. A great message delivered on video is what works.
• A talking-head conversation on video can be done at a fraction of the cost of motion graphics.
• Answering buyer questions on video helps you get onto the shortlist before the first sales call.

This fits inside a bigger picture. If you want the full view first, here's the bigger picture.

What is a revenue engine, and what is revenue architecture?

A revenue engine is a repeatable, sustainable way to bring in revenue. Maria calls the work of building it revenue architecture. It means combining marketing, sales, and customer success around a common objective and a common language.

Her reason is simple. A repeatable revenue engine is what maximizes company valuation. She came to this view partly through her time as a CEO, not only through marketing.

"Budgets have always been decreasing." (Maria Trysla)

Her take on shrinking budgets is that marketing has always been on the hot seat. That is why she moved her focus from marketing alone to the whole engine.

Why should marketing, sales, and customer success share one definition?

Because fighting over definitions wastes the time you need to serve the customer. Maria has been in the situation where it was marketing versus sales versus both. Her view on arguing about MQLs versus SQLs: stop that nonsense.

Here is what she says to do instead:

• Go talk to customer success, because they talk to customers every single day.
• Look at the same customer and the same ICP across every revenue team.
• Define a differentiated brand.
• Build a smooth customer experience. Watch the moments of truth when a customer moves from marketing to sales to customer success.

How has AI search changed the work of marketing?

It feels different, Maria says, and public relations now takes a bigger stand than it used to. When we talked about AEO and GEO, she pointed to PR as part of how you influence the LLMs behind AI search. Her phrase for it: be nice to the machines.

In practice, she says it comes down to being credible and engaging with customers. That means customer testimonials and customer stories. Clear examples that show your product or service delivering real outcomes are the kind of content she expects to bubble up.

She also describes her approach to marketing as an agile mindset: test and learn, and stay flexible.

Why is video the format for those stories?

Maria says years ago the line was that content is king, and now video is king. People consume more and more media by streaming, and a video conversation carries more engagement than the written word.

She adds a warning that I agree with:

"If you're just doing video for video's sake and you don't have a really great message, then that's probably waste of time." (Maria Trysla)

The message comes first, and video is how you deliver it. Her list of who watches that video is longer than most people expect: prospective customers, existing customers, and the LLMs. So one video feeds several audiences at once. And buyers can watch it between meetings, at lunch, or on a walk.

My own take in the conversation: AI bots crawl the transcript, so a YouTube video is a way to show up in AI search. The results I see working come from taking exact buyer questions out of sales call transcripts and answering each one up front in the video, then going deep with examples, data, and lived experience.

How do you start with video without breaking the bank?

Maria remembers when a one-minute brand video for a company cost $10,000. She says that technology has made video creation far less expensive since then.

Her advice for keeping it simple:

1. Make the video a conversation, like the one we were having. No risk, no drama, no anxiety.
2. Use the talking-head format. Motion graphics always cost more, though there are cost-effective ways to do those too.
3. Save the big-budget video for the moments that call for it, like a board meeting.

"Not everything needs to be a $10,000 video." (Maria Trysla)

How does answering buyer questions put you on the shortlist?

Maria recalled a statistic about enterprise buying and said up front that she did not have the exact number. As she told it, buyers have often already shortlisted who they will talk to, and if you are not in the top three on that list, you are not considered at all. She also said buyers are something like 70 to 80 percent through their journey, doing research online, before they talk to you. Treat those figures as her recollection, not a verified source.

Her conclusion holds up either way. If your buyers do their research on their own, then responding to their questions is how you get into the consideration set before they are even thinking about you.

She says video also sets expectations for what it is like to work with your company, and customer stories about revenue outcomes let buyers see the results they might expect.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is revenue architecture?

Revenue architecture combines marketing, sales, and customer success around a common objective and a common language. The goal, according to Maria Trysla, is a repeatable, sustainable revenue engine that maximizes valuation.

Should marketing and sales argue about MQL and SQL definitions?

No. Maria Trysla's view is that those fights are not worth having. Talk to customer success instead, because they speak to customers every day.

How does AI search change marketing, according to Maria Trysla?

PR takes a bigger role. She says to be credible, engage with customers, and share testimonials and stories that show real outcomes, since those tend to bubble up.

Is video worth it for B2B marketing?

Yes, if the message is great. Maria says video for video's sake is a waste of time, but a strong message delivered on video reaches prospects, customers, and LLMs at once.

How can you do video without spending a lot?

Keep it a simple talking-head conversation. Maria Trysla remembers a one-minute brand video costing $10,000, and says it can now be done far less expensively.

Most teams don't get this right on the first try. Here's how we approached it for a real team. Curious what it'd look like for you? Let's talk it through.

Full Interview Transcript

Dane: And today I'm joined by Maria Trysla, who is a GTM and revenue architecture expert, currently a fractional CMO, among other things I'm sure. So what did I miss? What else do you wanna add to that long list?

Maria: You know, I really talk about our revenue architecture, you know, just for my resume. I'm a two-time former CEO and multi-year, two-time CEO, multi-year CMO, for usually SaaS and technology companies, manufacturing pro services, that kind of thing. So that's worth my time.

Dane: All right, good. Well, we need your expertise. What's going on out there in the world of marketing? It's all chaos. Budgets are shrinking. AI is taking over. Like, what's top of mind for you in this current, I guess it's week by week at this point?

Maria: It is. I mean, you know, it's like everybody, you know, there's the vibe of, oh, budgets have been, you know, are decreasing. Budgets have always been decreasing. I think they're, marketing's always been on the hot seat. You know, it's, it's, so, I don't know, kind of seems like been there, done that. And, you know, you just gotta, you know, put on your big girl panties and get going and get working on it. And where I've kind of pivoted, say, from just marketing per se, is what I was referencing as revenue architecture. And that might be because of my role as a CEO and at times the CEO. And that is combining marketing sales and customer success with common objective, common language. And really the goal is to build a repeatable, sustainable revenue engine. Because that's gonna maximize valuation. So it's basically no longer fighting with the sales guys, no longer fighting about the definition of MQLs versus SQLs. Stop that nonsense. I've actually been in that situation where it's marketing versus sales versus marketing and sales. And I think it's the dumbest thing ever. So stop doing that. Go talk to customer success because they talk to customers every single day. Or your AI pod is, that kind of thing, right? Speaking of AI. And hopefully your customer success are working on more challenging customer situations. So you need that all revenue engines, all revenue operations, looking together at the same customer, the same ICP with a differentiated brand defined and a smooth customer experience. Don't forget customer experience. Because there are moments of truth that you can have in transitioning from marketing sales and customer success. So I talked a lot. So this is the landscape.

Dane: You set the stage for my next question, which is for me, the most interesting part is like, now that we have AI search, that really has thrown a monkey wrench in the classic SEO game. Like we're not really looking for links anymore so much. We're looking to show up in AI searches, get cited, get recommended. How has that changed things from your perspective? Like, do you go to work the same way and talk about the same things? Or is it like flipped inside out? Does it seems to me?

Maria: You know, I think, I mean, I was kind of going to marketing as an agile mindset. So it's, you know, test and learn and be flexible and agile and all of those positive things. So it does feel a little bit different. I mean, it definitely feels different. I mean, let's face it, it's different. You know, what I look at AEO and GEO is like, I'd be more focused on public relations. PR has taken, you know, takes a bigger stand where it might have been in the backseat previously. So if you're not, you know, that's part of how to affect the LLMs, you know, infect AI search. And as we were talking about, be nice to the machines, right? But really it gets to, you know, getting, you know, getting those, you know, be credible, you know, engage with customers, customer, testimonials, customer stories, which we were always telling, maybe those kind of bubble up to the top, right? If you can cite, you know, clear examples of where you're doing your product or service or whatever you're, you know, marketing or promoting is, you know, delivering real outcomes. So if that's how I'd say it's changed.

Dane: Yeah, this is, this issue is something I've been chipping away at here for a number of months or years at this point. The idea of using video to show up in AI search, because, you know, Google and YouTube keep kind of getting more and more embedded into that ecosystem and they always have been Google basically on search and YouTube is a great way to educate people, show and tell. And I think we're at a moment where like B2B has to really get serious about a YouTube strategy. And I'm just kind of curious, does that sound right to you? Or are these the kind of conversations that are coming up for you?

Maria: Absolutely. You know, I think years and years ago, it was content, it's King, now it's video is King, right? Well, curated video is going to get likes. I mean, it's how we're trained to do not, right? We don't even, you know, we're kind of, all of us consume media via streaming more and more as compared to, you know, long bites of media entertainment or something like that. So absolutely video becomes crucial. And I think there's a level of engagement, even just you and I, you know, we're on video. We're speaking now, there's a level of engagement that's higher than just the written word, right? So I think video is incredibly important and video on its own, it's video as a content mechanism, right? So if you're just doing video for video's sake and you don't have a really great message, then that's probably waste of time, right? Whereas you and your team advocates is have a great message and deliver it via video because that's how most people consume media entertainment.

Dane: And I want to get your take on, you know, it's not just for people to consume. And now it's like the AI bots search it too. And so like it's the transcript, which is really what it's crawling through. And I see video, YouTube video in particular as like the hack to get shown up in AI searches. And I think it's starting to sink in. Like people are starting to connect the dots like in the early days of SEO, people didn't quite, they weren't quite sure if we needed to do that. And I think we're kind of at that point with video and GEO and the results that I'm seeing that are working is when you can take those transcripts from sales and get those exact buyer questions and then answer them specifically upfront in the video as given the exact answer that they asked the question about. And then deeply answer that with the things you talked about, examples, data, you know, your lived experience, like all those things that AI can't do or like, you know, if you've got something special to add to the conversation that answers that question better, it just makes sense that's gonna rise to the top because it's a better answer. And so I think we're kind of in this, I don't know, arms race or like a land grab of like, who's gonna go own these search terms with the video answers that are gonna rank. And I guess I'm just talking to CMOs trying to figure out is that on your radar? Is that hitting right?

Maria: Absolutely, I think of that as like, it could be your prospective customer or your existing customer viewing that video, right? In addition to LLMs, right? So it just becomes, you know, you know, it is like this kind of, you know, I guess, mad hatter kind of thing, everybody kind of, you know, it's a way that the consumption of video is off the charts, so why wouldn't you be in that channel? And then, you know, making sure your content is, you know, delivered in an engaging way in answers, you know, customers problems. And so it's feeding so many avenues around, you know, your customer and your prospective customer, your existing customer and the LLMs and you know, prospective buyers of your company, who knows, right? You know, it goes on and on and on. And you're just delivering your message via video in a way that's just easily consumable. You can do what I do and, you know, watch video in between a meeting, right? Or, you know, while you're being lunch or whatever, right? Or, you know, even while walking the dog, while the dog, you know, runs after the frisbee, like my life is all about now. So it's just, you know, video is an easier format to why wouldn't you make it easier for your customers, your buyers, you know, the LLMs to consume what you're trying to say?

Dane: I think I know the answer to that is because they're too busy, they're, they don't know what to do, they don't know where to start. They think video sounds expensive and hard. They don't want to go on camera. They're hoping that this will just go away. I think those are the kind of things I hear. And so I'm always trying to figure out ways to like make it easier to like get started. And I'm just kind of curious from a CMO's perspective, what would be like the, like an attractive way to start, to do more with video without like breaking the bank or getting overwhelmed or something like that?

Maria: Well, I mean, you know, I think when video first came out, you know, it was expensive, right? I mean, you know, I remember, you know, doing like a one minute brand video, for example, for a company and it was $10,000. Well, now you can do that pretty inexpensively now. And that's where technology of marketing services like video creation has gotten better. I think the way you're talking with me and it's like we're having a conversation via video, right? Making, if you're the one who's the, you know, the mediator, I guess, is that just make sure that you're creating this environment where it's just a conversation. There's no risk, there's no drama, there's no, you know, there's no trepidation, there's no, you know, there's no anxiety associated with it. So try to make it as smooth as possible. You're doing what I call the talking head videos, right? Which is us. You know, if you're doing something with motion graphics, et cetera, that always gets more expensive, but there are ways to do it cost effectively. And why not search those out? And I guess what I would say is not everything needs to be a $10,000 video, right? Or $1,000 or whatever, insert, you know, I'm out here. It doesn't need to be that. Maybe there's a room for that. Maybe there is, you know, that, you know, your board meeting or something or something like that, right? But there are ways to build, you know, to introduce effective video communications in a cost-effective way.

Dane: Yeah, I always say there's like a place for all of it, right? Especially now that we have webcams and iPhones and all that. I wanted to kind of see if we could put our two, you know, chocolate and peanut butter together with like this idea of building a revenue engine like you talked about. And what I've been doing with video is, you know, answering those buyer questions and turning that content into a content engine that drives revenue. So I think we're kind of talking about the same thing. And I guess I'm just kind of curious how those might be different or how do they go together? Because one of the things I'm trying to get around is like, I can't go build this for someone entirely. Like I need to have someone on camera. Otherwise, it's not building trust with a customer in B2B. Like that's what we're trying to do is like build that relationship, answer their questions, get them closer to the sale. How do you look at like what I'm doing with video to educate people as maybe different from what you're doing or is there no difference at all, either?

Maria: No, you know, there's the statistic and I don't have the right number, but like, if you're selling to an enterprise, you know, level organization, like they've already shortlisted who they're going to talk to. And that's like 80% of the time. If you're not in that top three consideration list, whatever your brand is, you're not being considered at all. You don't even get, you know, a chance to go to the dance, right? So they're doing that, you know, it's like 70, 80% through the buyer's journey that they're doing, that your prospective customer is doing that research online. So you're asking, you know, responding to buyer questions. That's what they're doing. So you're enabling that conversation to get you in that consideration set. And video, like you were saying, is just a very effective way in that, you know, trying to digest a large, you know, consumption of media entertainment, et cetera, right? So it really gets to you need to be in consideration, you being your company, you'd be in consideration before they're even thinking about you, right? So what you're doing in regards to video, you know, building those, you're setting expectations with that prospective customer of what your brand, your company, will experience them working with them. And that is they're going to have questions. So you're responding to those questions. They want to understand what that experience like is working, you know, working with your organization. So they tend to get that in, you know, through video. They want to understand what, you know, what, you know, the outcomes that they might expect, you know, and those are those customer stories about revenue outcomes and that kind of thing. So I think it's terribly relevant. And the stats kind of contribute to that.

Dane: Yeah. Well, Maria, this has been a great conversation. Thanks for sharing your insights and good luck out there.

Maria: All right. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity.

Dane: Yeah. OK, I'm stopping.