At a company where we already had a handle on cash, I realized we had failed to adjust marketing direction after six consecutive quarters of missed targets. We analyzed CAC from every angle, debated endless what-ifs: What if we improved close rates? What if marketing finally kicked in? What if organic growth just took off? Maybe we should raise prices? But the board had enough of our wishful thinking. They asked for a simple breakdown: campaign spend versus results.

And somehow… we didn’t have it.

What followed was an all-hands-on-deck scramble in RevOps, Finance, Sales, Marketing all working around the clock for days to piece it together. Data flew back and forth as we debated lead timelines, CAC by channel, and attribution models. But when we finally got the full picture, it was obvious: we had completely messed up. Some of our channels were so painfully unproductive that we might as well have set the cash on fire and posted it on TikTok. It probably would have brought in more enterprise customers.

I’ll walk through the fix in this article, but the real question was: why did it take us so long to diagnose?

Because we were chasing individual metrics: Quarterly CAC, ARR, close rates without looking at the full GTM function. Part of it was structural (too many disconnected GTM owners), part of it was a lack of focus, part of it was not having it in our operational model, and part of it was lack of role clarity.

What should we have done differently? We should have stepped back and looked at the entire funnel holistically. I see this mistake all the time. One quarter, the focus is CAC; the next, it’s ARR; then, close rates. The result? A disjointed mess, completely lacking a cohesive narrative. Worse, it felt like playing whack-a-mole.

You need to look at the full GTM funnel and analyze the results. This is the hands-on rigorous work that the Strategic CFO seat is made for.

Let's get to work:

1. Know your strategy (Sales-led, PLG, Hybrid)

Your strategy dictates your metrics. Don’t let vanity mislead you. Product-Led Growth (PLG) is the hot trend, but over 72% of B2B SaaS companies still rely heavily on sales-assisted models. So, be clear about who you are before obsessing over benchmarks.

• Sales-Led: Do you rely heavily on AEs, BDRs, and high-touch sales cycles? This typically means higher sales costs but deeper relationships.

• Product-Led: Do you convert users via free trials or freemium models, layering in sales later?

• Partnership-Led: Do partners resell your product, driving a different kind of efficiency?

• Hybrid: (The most common). Do you have a mix of PLG and sales-assisted motions?

If you don’t know, here is a *rough* guidepost:

This sounds basic, but it determines everything from your efficiency metrics to your product KPIs to how you evaluate channel performance. If you have a mix of motions, segment your data accordingly.

Tip: Your sales motion often depends on your price point. Don’t let it be the other way around! Be hyper-aware of this when setting prices. Too many teams chase “If customers just paid us 2x more…” without realizing the sales model needs major changes to adapt to increasing (or decreasing) prices.

2. Pipeline Health by channel

Once you’ve locked in your go-to-market identity, it’s time to dive into the pipeline and truly understand the numbers. Here’s how:

• Establish your sales cycle time. Track each stage of the funnel, from SQLs to closed deals.

• Assess your total pipeline. The general rule is a 3x pipeline coverage (i.e., 3x your target ARR in active deals). If you don’t have this, your sales team will go hungry.

• Break down pipeline quality. Don’t just apply blanket discounts like 80% or 70%. Instead, look at the actual deals that are solid. Lay out how much of the pipeline is *real.*

• Measure pipeline generation. Track how much pipeline you generate each month per channel and see if it aligns with your general strategy.

• Establish sales velocity. How fast do leads move through the funnel? Which stages cause the biggest delays?

• Break it down by channel & geography. Averages hide everything. You need to split pipeline performance across different channels, geographies, segments, and ideally campaigns to see what’s really happening.

Do the Work. It’s Not That Much. And yes, this might require talking to sales reps or reviewing deals click by click. But it’s worth it, as it’s the only way to get a real understanding of the most critical part of your scaling efforts.

Tip: Add toggles into your analysis to account for time lags. Sales cycles aren’t instant, so instead of forcing a complex cohort analysis, shift time ranges for example, compare last quarter’s SQLs to this quarter’s Opportunities. Simple toggles can give you a real sense of movement without getting lost in heavy data modeling.

3. The revenue and costs of the pipeline

Now that you’ve assessed pipeline health by channel, the next step is allocating the costs of any activity related to closing deals. Here’s how to do it:

• Get marketing spend by campaign. Pull these numbers from the platforms. If exact data isn’t available, estimate. Make sure campaigns roll up into broader categories (if you can track by individual campaign, great, but by channel is usually sufficient).

• Allocate sales team costs to each channel. If that’s not possible, allocate by geography. Don’t hesitate to make reasonable assumptions. Imperfect data is better than no data.

• Get the revenue for each channel by customer. This is basic: number of customers and average ACV per channel.

• Calculate the LTV. Use churn data for each customer segment to estimate lifetime value (LTV). If one channel has high churn, it will significantly impact profitability.

• Calculate the LTV/CAC for each channel. This is the ultimate output. How profitable is each channel in the long run? Once calculated, rank-order the results to prioritize your efforts.

This data won’t always be perfect, but if you can adjust reports by timeframes, you’ll have a real-time view of pipeline performance, allowing you to offer data-driven guidance to marketing and sales strategies. See table at the start of the article for exact details.

Tip: Advanced metrics can reveal surprising insights. A channel or region might be bringing in a high volume of customers, but if they churn quickly, they’re destroying profitability and burning cash faster than you realize.

4. Stop/continue analysis by each stage

Now you’re seeing the full picture, and you might even have a hypothesis. Maybe leads aren’t being followed up on, maybe a channel is attracting the wrong type of customer, or maybe something deeper is happening. Now, it’s time to dig into the “why” for each stage by understanding:

• Leads to SQL. Are SDRs following up quickly? Are leads qualified properly? Is there a specific channel underperforming?

• SQL to Opportunities. Are AEs engaging fast enough? Are the leads well-prepared by marketing, or is there a misalignment? Are competitors winning at this stage?

• Closed/Lost analysis. What’s the top reason for losses? Are certain price points, personas, or competitors consistently causing problems? Are deals stalling at procurement?

• One-year churn. Are specific channels driving high-churn customers? Did sales overpromise, leading to cancellations? Do certain cohorts retain better than others?

You won’t find this data neatly packaged in a report. Most of the time, you’ll need to talk to people and manually dig through the weeds to get the real answers.

Tip: Require the sales team to regularly input closed/lost reasons at each stage and review them weekly. This will clean up the data and prevent the dreaded “other reason” from dominating your reports. Do the same for any stage you want more details on.

5. Quota and ramp analysis

The final step is evaluating sales team performance. This helps you calibrate hiring, identify outliers, and ensure your sales strategy is aligned with reality.

• Quota/pipeline. Does each rep have at least 3x their quota in the active pipeline? If not, the issue may not be with the rep. It is a pipeline problem.

• BDR/SDR performance. How is each BDR/SDR generating or converting leads? Are there consistent performance gaps across the team? What are the best pre-sales leads doing?

• OTE/ARR. On-target earnings (OTE) should generally be 3-4x ARR, though this varies by business model.

• % attainment. The industry benchmark is around 80% quota attainment, with a healthy range of 70-90% depending on structure.

• Bonus/OTE. Typically, bonuses make up 50% of OTE. If this ratio is off, incentives may not be properly aligned.

• ARR/sales team cost. What’s the total cost of the sales team relative to ARR? Is it sustainable given your stage and growth expectations?

This will help you get a great sense of how the sales team is performing. Of course, you will need to take into account your overall strategy and the metrics in your sector, but generally these questions will lead you to the right answers.

Tip: In the early stages, don’t be afraid to overpay for top sales talent. Paying slightly above market can help you attract strong performers and gain early momentum.

6. Establish the baseline. Know your metrics to improve

Now that you have the details, it’s time to complete the full picture. Establishing a baseline is critical so you can set realistic goals and drive continuous improvement. To do this, measure and track:

• ARR per sales team cost. Best-in-class organizations may target generating $4–$5 in ARR for every $1 spent on their sales team, with top performers sometimes reaching $6–$8.

• CAC payback. Strong performers often recover acquisition costs within 9–12 months. If your payback is beyond 18 months, check to make sure the LTV/CAC makes sense.

• LTV to CAC. A ratio of at least 3:1 is commonly cited as healthy, with top-tier SaaS companies hitting 4:1 or higher.

• Magic number. Take the change in ARR over a quarter, annualize it, and divide by your sales and marketing spend. A Magic Number above 1.0 suggests relatively efficient growth; below 0.75 often indicates you’re overspending.

• Sales velocity (or pipeline velocity). Measured Qualified Opportunities*Win Rate*Average Deal Size / Sales Cycle Length. This is a good metric to see initially to see if any of the strategic moves you take over the coming quarter work.

• Pipeline coverage. As mentioned, aim for 3x to 4x coverage of your targets of quality pipeline.

• MQL to SQL (or opportunity) conversion rate. Best-in-class B2B at 20–30%, though targets vary by industry and deal size. Track both the trend over time and how it varies by channel.

There are many metrics that shift over time, but these should be broken down by both channel and overall performance.

Tip: There is an art to interpreting these numbers. In some cases, a channel’s performance could be driven by luck or randomness rather than fundamental process differences. When working with small data sets, use judgment before making major decisions.

7. Ways to improve

There are countless ways to optimize your go-to-market motion, but ultimately, it’s not the CFO’s job to dictate the strategy. Instead, the role is to highlight what’s working, what’s not, and where the company should focus.

• Refine your ICP definition. A clear Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) ensures that marketing and sales efforts aren’t wasted on bad-fit leads. Look at retention data—if certain customer segments churn faster, they might not be worth targeting.

• Adjust marketing campaigns strategically. If a channel is underperforming, don’t immediately cut spending. First, test new messaging, audiences, and formats. Small adjustments often make a bigger impact than major overhauls.

• Improve sales training and enablement. Even the best reps will struggle if they lack the right tools, scripts, or objection-handling techniques. Invest in ongoing coaching and real-time feedback loops to drive incremental gains.

• Consider a pivot when the data supports it. If a particular motion consistently underperforms despite multiple optimizations, it might be time for a larger strategic shift. Whether that means moving upmarket, switching sales motions, or adjusting pricing, base the decision on clear patterns in the data.

• Monitor the results. It goes without saying, but you should review this reporting alongside all your other financial metrics each month. This report should be highly automated.

This should be hashed out with the team. Overall, you should be aware of the strategy so you can be supportive of questions. But, as with most things, the execution and strategy should be in the hands of the team leads.

Tip: Don’t try to tackle everything at once. Don’t reset the strategy every quarter. Focus on solving the biggest bottlenecks first instead of constantly playing whack-a-mole.

In conclusion

A scaling company succeeds or fails on its revenue growth. To thrive, you need an accurate view of the entire go-to-market process, from pipeline health to cost allocation to sales performance, and you must share that transparency across the organization. Rigorous analysis, combined with consistent metrics tracking, is how you, as a finance leader, align numbers with strategy.