Happy Sunday! It was another week of travel for me to Toronto for another onsite and to celebrate the end of the year with the leadership team at Docebo. On the way home, I felt a strong desire to write an email to my kids. It’s something I’ve done randomly over the years, sending a quick note to their inbox in hopes that someday they would read it. 

This newsletter is about marketing, but it’s also about life. Being a parent, a friend, a partner, a CMO… just trying to figure it all out.

Kyle Lacy <[email protected]> Thu, Dec 11, 2:37 PM (3 days ago) to Caden, Andersen

I’m sitting here in the Toronto airport waiting to board a flight to Detroit, which will eventually get me to Indianapolis and back home. 

I’ve been away a lot this year, and I believe it’s important for you both to understand why. Sidenote: I’m not sure why it’s so much easier for me to type my thoughts than to use my voice, but it’s how I operate… good or bad. 

I love my work. It’s been foundational to my identity for a long, long time. And I’m good at it. I pride myself on how hard I work and the success I’ve had. 

But it pales in comparison to how happy I am to have both of you as sons. It’s important for me to write it, say it, and express it. 

The travel, the early mornings, the long days filled with meetings in different cities are not entirely about my ego and ambition (ofc part of it is). They are about providing. They are about responsibility. 

It’s because I love each of you and want to provide for you. My biggest fear is failing and not being able to provide for the family. For you, for mom, and especially for Asher and Bootsy. :) 

So I get on the planes. I miss dinners. And I write random emails, waiting to board more planes. Not because I deeply enjoy it, but because I know that the work is a means to an end… supporting family. 

I’ll probably send more of these emails as I’m traveling. You can keep them to read later on in life if you want. I hope that my hard work. The way I drive myself in life is a good example and something you will mimic in the future. 

Love you both. 

♥️ kyle

More Advice for Annual Planning Hell: The Problem Isn’t The Numbers (Usually)

I spent an hour this past week in a working session with another marketing leader. We were reviewing next year’s plan, the marketing objectives, and something wasn’t adding up… 

The numbers and the mix between segments looked strange, which is entirely understandable. The company had just reworked its model to prioritize top accounts. The plan showed fewer opportunities from the prioritized accounts than the year before, which didn’t seem right. 

Especially when the goal of the new model was to drive more volume in top accounts, yep, definitely feels wrong. 

This led to a discussion around different ways to communicate issues in the model, the strategy, and the plan in ways that drive change and healthy conflict, not complete ignorance. 

So, as we all do, I pulled from my trusty Granola transcript, and have a couple of tips for all the leaders out there currently buried in annual planning hell. 

Ultimately, it’s not the numbers that are the issue; it’s how we communicate. It’s about naming risks instead of defending the model.

Find the real problem statement before you adjust the plan. 

“Something feels off” is not a problem statement. It’s a signal that you haven’t gone deep enough yet. What’s the actual fear? What is the end goal? What failure are we trying to avoid? It’s not about defending the numbers, it’s about naming the real risks. 

Why? It’s more about how the model shapes behavior than the actual numbers. On paper, the incentives were aligned. Top accounts paid more. Reps earned more for them. But the planning guidance reps received told a different story. The example portfolio they were shown still nudged them toward a larger volume of less important accounts. 

Sales will always jump on volume. It’s easier and more abundant. 

Anchor the problem to a real scenario, not a spreadsheet

We kept coming back to one account. A deal that should have mattered. The team knew about it, the account was interesting and had flagged interest, but they still missed it. Completely missed the opportunity.

That single example made the model (and potential problem) real. It showed what the new system was supposed to prevent. If the model works, that miss doesn’t happen again. One real scenario did more work than ten charts ever could.

Flag the risk, but keep moving. 

You should never stop moving. If you see something, say something. Name your concern clearly, agree on what would prove it true, watch it closely, and adjust along the way. 

This is where operating rhythm becomes more important than precision. A monthly review is too slow for a new model. By the time you see drift, half the quarter is gone. Weekly or bi-weekly visibility changes behavior early, when adjustments are still cheap.

Who are the reps actually targeting? Where are SQLs coming from? Is lower tiered accounts creeping back into outreach easier? You don’t need the perfect answer, you just need the early signals of failure (or success).

Shorten the feedback loop. 

If the model is new, your reporting cadence needs to be tight. Weekly or bi-weekly. Agree on the same report or spreadsheet. Agree in advance on what green, yellow, and red actually mean, so no one is debating feelings when the numbers shift.

A monthly review is too slow for a new model. By the time you see drift, half the quarter is gone. What mattered here wasn’t a perfect answer. It was a shared cadence of inspection. Weekly or bi-weekly. Same report. Same owners. Same questions:

• Who are reps actually targeting?

• Where are SQLs being created?

• Is Tier 2 creeping back because it’s easier?

You don’t need perfect answers. You need early signals, surfaced regularly, so you can adjust quickly.

NO MORE VAGUE GOALS

Numbers like “3,000 engaged accounts” sound fine until you ask two basic questions: why does that matter, and what actually creates it?

Once we broke it down, the work became clearer. If engagement matters because warm accounts convert better, say that. If newsletters, webinars, and events all contribute, ladder them explicitly. Make the work ownable. Make it explainable. Metrics that don’t answer “so what?” or “who does what?” aren’t ready to be goals.

If the goal is “engaged accounts,” the next question is most certainly: engaged how? What sources? Webinars? Outbound? Search? Ads? And what portion of the goal is each one responsible for? 

This also applies to the perennial favorites in board decks: win rate and close rate. They matter but DAMN they are messy as hell. There are usually too many inputs for them to sit cleanly inside marketing as an objective. Marketing matters, but so do the humans (the reps), discovery quality, deal structures, account selection, etc. etc. etc. 

And that’s about it… well, maybe one more thing.

Annual planning has a funny way of turning all of us into spreadsheet lawyers (god forbid). We argue about assumptions, defend models, and debate numbers instead of asking a harder question: will this actually change behavior?

Most of the time, the model isn’t broken. The conversation is.

If you’re buried in planning right now, keep it simple. Get clear on the real problem. Design for how people will actually behave. Inspect it early and often. Kill vague goals. And if something feels off, say it, then do the work to explain why.

The numbers will move. They always do. What matters is whether the system you ship drives the outcome you intended.