There has never been a good fit between the lead generation “discipline” and the enterprise sale. 

Lead gen is fine for small-ticket SaaS and that’s moved SaaS teams to PLG motions in some cases, and credit-card-based signups or free trial signups that make it possible for marketing to do a lot of the lifting for a software sale in others. 

But true enterprise sales are never made on the back of a single form fill to SDR lead qualification outreach motion.

This misalignment of things the C-suite wants to measure versus the reality of the sale has, I believe, led to some of the dissatisfaction with marketing and the short tenure of CMOs at these organizations.

Thankfully, the end is near for lead generation KPIs being used to manage enterprise SaaS marketing. 

The Growing Rebellion Against Lead Gen KPIs

The voices shoving us in this direction are becoming more prominent and legion.

Elite sales coach Brian G. Burns started talking about this two years ago on his hugely popular “walk and talk” videos posted daily on LinkedIn.

Rand Fishkin, the “godfather of SEO,” is advocating a complete rethink of how marketing is valued by its peer functions, CEOs, and boards of directors.

Kyle Poyar of Tremont (and formerly OpenView Venture Partners) also writes often on his Growth Unhinged substack about ABX or “account-based-everything” as an alternative (and I’d say most reasonable and actionable) approach for enterprise GTM.

For the next tier up of widely applicable SaaS (ARR of about $500 to $4k per month), there’s some sales assist needed, but it’s not truly an enterprise motion.

This “great middle ground” of SaaS doesn’t really have a name associated with it, but I think there’s room to build on the predictive revenue and inbound marketing playbooks, where lead generation and wider-scale marketing can still have meaning.

In order to profitably serve this tier, you’ll need to adopt many of the recommendations that emerge from research by TrustRadius over the last eight years (buyer-led journey). Your mileage may vary, of course, depending on how niche the solution, funds available to support marketing-led sales, maturity of the market, number of competitors, etc.

Where a software purchase will be deeply considered by more than one person, no amount of force-fitting of bad-fit KPIs will provide management with real data so that they can run the business. It’s time to take a fresh look at what marketing does, where it influences interest in solutions, and the contributions that marketing makes to every interaction a company has with the outside world.

KPIs that Matter for Enterprise SaaS

So, I’d like to propose some new KPIs that really do mean something in the enterprise SaaS motion (and I’m happy to hear from readers if they have others that should be in the monthly and quarterly business reviews.)

I am using a serviceable addressable market here as a way to communicate, “everyone we could and want to do business with.” You can use TAM if you feel more comfortable or that number is easier to get to.

Importantly these numbers all can be tracked over time, giving you a point-in-time read of the health of the organization and its trajectory toward better or worse outcomes.

• Opportunity Share of Market (Number of SAM opportunities in pipeline divided by total SAM in-year opportunity)
  • If you can’t estimate the total number of deals happening, then use percent of SAM organizations with real deals in pipeline
• Percent of SAM in meaningful conversations with SMEs and sales
• Electronic footprint health
  • Percent of SAM organizations that visit our website monthly
  • Number of email recipients continuing to receive (not unsubscribing)
  • Social media contacts made and maintained at SAM organizations
• Percent of SAM where we have more than (pick a number between 5-15) contacts who engage with our content, emails, social or website monthly
  • Map to buyer roles to let you know where you need to increase effort
• Percent of SAM where we have buying team mapped out (ICP and non-ICP roles)
• Sales utilization of marketing content

This might seem reminiscent of strategic account marketing as was practiced in the 1990s, and 2000s.

What’s a little different is that we have better tools with which to measure our impact and more history to base decisions upon. But it’s consistent with contemporary thinking, too: sales and marketing at the enterprise level are more about human-to-human interactions and authentic organizational communication than ever before.

There are likely to be readers seeking a deeper dive into how they might implement a contemporary ABM strategy. I recently read an eBook from Josh Hill, promoted by Tech Target that I think is worth a download (and the price paid in giving up your credentials). Check it out at this link.

Want to dig into your situation? Let’s talk!