here has been a ton of discussion in GTM communities about a recent study from David Spitz, Founder BenchSights, turns out the cost of growth has increased by 72%. Sam Jacobs, also recently highlighted how growth rates for recurring revenue businesses have been cut in half over the last 24 months from an average of 36% to 18%.
Considering the days of zero interest rates are over and fundraising being tied to profitability and strong unit economics, the pressure on GTM leaders to deliver efficient growth has never been greater.
B2B customers are increasingly relying on self-directed research and are reluctant to engage with SaaS vendors – (see Gartner - "A sales rep gets roughly 5% of a customer’s total purchase time…To drive efficient growth, companies must be intentional in their GTM efforts by targeting their highest quality accounts and ensuring their marketing and sales teams are fully aligned on those. Unfortunately, that's not happening at most SaaS companies we've spoken with.
What is the root cause of this issue?
- The problem starts with the product marketers struggling to do data driven customer research. The data they need is unstructured and lives in silos throughout the enterprise.
- This leaves the demand generation leader in a pinch, they have large budgets and massive accountability but lack a deep understanding of which customer segments are driving efficient growth.
- This leads to missed revenue targets and the sales team being fed with “poor quality” leads that don’t convert. Worse yet, many of the “closed wons” that we celebrate result in churn twelve months later.
How do we foundationally change the paradigm? 💡
We have to start by tackling the ICP problem. By providing GTM teams with nuanced insights into the 20% of the customers driving 80% of the growth, we empower our teams to invest more focus and time with your most profitable ICPs. This increased focus is the right strategy to drive improved execution and more efficient growth.
We will be releasing a white paper in the next few weeks that provides more insights into the strategic value of having a data-driven understanding of your ICPs and the specific taxonomies required for ideal customer profile (ICP) analysis. If you are interested in receiving a copy, please subscribe to our newsletter.
