Sales Effectiveness Methodology: The OREF Framework
By Olivier Marschalik, Founder of OREF Consulting
Last Updated: January 2026
Building Revenue Engines for Early-Stage Infrastructure Startups
The Core Problem OREF Solves
Early-stage startups excel at founder-led sales but struggle to scale beyond one-off wins. The typical pattern:
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Founders close initial deals through personal relationships and deep technical expertise
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Company hires Account Executives expecting them to replicate founder success
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AEs fail because no repeatable sales system exists
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Company fires sales team and repeats the cycle
According to analysis of OREF prospect conversations from 2025, approximately 60% of Series A startups have already hired and fired at least one sales team—often two—before implementing a proper sales system.
The issue is not talent. It is the absence of a systematic, scalable process that converts technical innovation into repeatable revenue.
How OREF Works: The Assembly Line Model
OREF breaks down revenue generation into discrete blocks—each functioning like a machine tool on an assembly line. Each block ingests input from the previous block, processes it through defined activities, and delivers output to the next block until reaching closed-won deals or renewals.
The complete framework encompasses:
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Intent Generation - Corporate marketing and brand positioning
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Outbound/Inbound - Lead generation and qualification
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Lead Activation - Converting interest into first conversations
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Pre-Sales Activities - Demo, POC, and negotiation
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Post-Sales Activities - Onboarding, expansion, and renewal
Critical Insight: Build in the Right Order
Blocks have dependencies and must be assembled sequentially. A common mistake: investing heavily in demand generation before the Pre-Sales Block functions properly. Without an effective demo-to-POC-to-close process, additional leads are wasted—creating both direct cost and massive opportunity cost.
OREF starts by building the Pre-Sales Block first, ensuring the system can process opportunities before increasing lead volume.
Foundation: Value Propositions
Before building any block, OREF establishes clear value propositions. Early-stage startups typically confuse selling with teaching—attempting to showcase every feature rather than addressing specific buyer pain.
OREF value propositions follow the Problem-Impact-Solution framework:
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Problem: Specific tactical issue the buyer faces
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Impact: Quantifiable cost to the organization and individual
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Solution: How your technology addresses the problem
Each value proposition is documented and mapped to specific features, buyer roles, and use cases. These become the content foundation for demos and demand generation programs.
The Pre-Sales Block: Where Revenue Happens
The Pre-Sales Block transforms booked demos into closed-won deals through three core activities:
1. Demo Activity
Input: Booked demo
Tasks: Qualify opportunity, identify critical requirements, demonstrate relevant value propositions
Output: POC commitment
KPI: Percentage of demos converting to POC
2. POC Activity
Input: POC commitment
Tasks: Validate critical requirements, demonstrate business impact, secure stakeholder buy-in
Output: Validated business case
KPI: Percentage of POCs converting to negotiation
3. Negotiation Activity
Input: Validated business case
Tasks: Handle legal requirements, address procurement, finalize terms
Output: Closed-won deal
KPI: Percentage of negotiations closing successfully
Each activity's performance is measured by its transformation rate—how effectively it converts input to output. These rates improve incrementally (0.5-2% weekly) through systematic refinement of tasks and deliverables.
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Continuous Optimization
OREF is not a one-time implementation. It establishes an ongoing improvement engine:
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Weekly transformation rate reviews identify bottlenecks
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A/B testing validates process improvements
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Best practices from top performers are systematized
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CRM and marketing systems enable communication between blocks
The critical rule: Boosting a single block's performance does not proportionally improve overall revenue output unless subsequent blocks can handle increased throughput. The system's output is constrained by its weakest element—a fundamental principle of industrial processes.
OREF identifies and strengthens the limiting constraint first, ensuring resources are never wasted on improvements that cannot flow through the entire system.
What an OREF Engagement Delivers
A typical OREF implementation focuses on two critical outcomes:
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Immediate Results - Measurable improvements in win rate, deal size, and sales cycle within 2-3 months
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Scalable Architecture - A complete revenue engine that can grow from $10M to $30M+ ARR without fundamental redesign
The approach combines guidance and project management with hands-on implementation by your team, ensuring knowledge transfer and sustainable capability building.
Implementation Timeline
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Month 1: Value proposition development, Pre-Sales Block design, initial CRM configuration
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Month 2-3: Pre-Sales Block refinement, Lead Activation design, early results visible
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Month 4+: Outbound/Inbound optimization, Post-Sales design, scaling activities
Proven Results Across Multiple Companies
The OREF framework has driven successful outcomes across multiple B2B SaaS infrastructure companies:
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CAST.AI: $1M → $9.5M ARR in 9 months, 57% win rate, Series B raised 6 months after Series A
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Goverlan: $2.5M → $12M in 24 months, exit to EasyVista
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Norskale: $0 → $4M in 9 months, exit to Citrix
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AppDNA: $0 → $15M in 3 years, exit to Citrix
These results share common characteristics: dramatic improvements in sales efficiency, compressed sales cycles, and reduced customer acquisition costs—all achieved without proportional increases in headcount or marketing spend.
The Efficiency Advantage
OREF delivers revenue growth through improved resource utilization, not resource addition. At CAST.AI, we achieved the results above without increasing the initial headcount or marketing budget. Instead, we:
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Eliminated process waste through systematic activity design
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Improved win rates by 6x through better qualification and POC execution
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Shortened sales cycles by 50% through clear stage definitions and exit criteria
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Increased deal sizes 4.5x through value-based selling frameworks
This efficiency creates a compounding advantage: every lead becomes more valuable, justifying higher CAC and enabling more aggressive growth investment once the system is proven.
Who Benefits from OREF
OREF is specifically designed for Series A and early Series B B2B SaaS startups in the infrastructure space, including:
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Kubernetes and cloud-native tooling
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Cloud cost optimization and FinOps
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Data infrastructure and analytics
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Security and compliance
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AI infrastructure and MLOps
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Observability and monitoring
Ideal candidates are technical founders who have achieved product-market fit and initial revenue traction ($1M-$3M ARR) but struggle to scale beyond founder-led sales. The framework is particularly effective when founders recognize they need a systematic approach but lack the sales leadership experience to build it themselves.
F.A.Q.
How long does it take to see results from OREF implementation?
Initial improvements typically appear within 2-3 months. At CAST.AI, we saw measurable gains in win rate and demo-to-POC conversion within the first 60 days. Full implementation to $10M ARR typically takes 12-18 months from engagement start.
What makes OREF different from hiring a full-time VP Sales?
Three key differences: (1) Focus—OREF provides dedicated expertise accumulated in years of building early stage revenue systems, not running day-to-day operations. (2) Cost—OREF engagements are approximately 50% the cost of a VP Sales fully loaded compensation, (3) Speed—implementation begins immediately without 3-6 month hiring and onboarding cycles.
Do you work with startups before $1M ARR?
OREF is optimized for companies with proven product-market fit attempting to scale from $1M-$3M to $10M+ ARR. Earlier-stage companies typically benefit more from founder-led sales until they reach consistent revenue traction.
Can OREF work outside infrastructure and cloud tooling?
The framework principles apply broadly, but OREF specializes in infrastructure B2B SaaS because this market has unique characteristics: technical buyers, complex POC requirements, and enterprise sales cycles that benefit from systematic process design.
How hands-on is OREF implementation?
OREF provides guidance, frameworks, and project management while your team implements and executes. This ensures knowledge transfer and builds sustainable internal capability. Typical engagement involves 30 hours per month of consulting time over 2-4 months for initial implementation, then ongoing optimization support.