• Marketing and Sales Alignment
    May 16 2025

    Customer Acquisition Cost efficiency continues to be challenged in the B2B SaaS environment, while alignment across the Go-to-Market organization continues to be a topic of conversation. So, Dave "CAC" Kellogg a long time Marketing executive and Ray "Growth" Rike, a long time Sales executive decided to take on the the topic of Marketing and Sales alignment from their respective experiences as department executives. Topics discussed include:

    • What is Marketing and Sales Alignment
    • What isn't Marketing and Sales Alignment
    • Top 3 Ideas to Achieve Marketing and Sales Alignment
    • How Metrics Can Impact Marketing and Sales Alignment
    • The Impact of Alignment


    If you are a CEO depending on the productivity of an aligned Go-to-Market organization, or the head of Marketing or Sales in a B2B SaaS company, this conversation is full of interesting ideas, stories and approaches to increasing revenue growth efficiency.

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    30 mins
  • Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? Aligning Finance and GTM with SaaS Metrics
    May 8 2025

    Dave "CAC" Kellogg and Ray "Growth" Rike recently did a LIVE episode of SaaS Talk with the Metrics Brothers at the Baker Tilly Technology Finance Symposium in San Francisco. The topic of their discussion was aligning Finance and the Go-to-Market functions and included how SaaS metrics can be used as a core "alignment" strategy.

    During this "extended" version of SaaS Talk with the Metrics Brothers, Ray and Dave discussed several different strategies to align Finance and the GTM functions, including:

    • What is alignment
    • What isn't alignment
    • Real-life stories on what misalignment looks like
    • Putting "Strategy" back into Strategic Planning
    • Strategic Planning Frameworks to consider
    • SaaS Performance Metrics Framework to consider


    If you are a CFO or GTM executive leader - this live conversation is full of interesting ideas, experiences and of course a few attempts at humor by the Metrics Brothers!


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    45 mins
  • Stock-based compensation
    Apr 30 2025

    Stock-based Compensation (SBC) has been a hallmark of the SaaS and Cloud industry since the early days. Stock Options, Restricted Stock Units, Strike Price, and vesting periods continue to be a key discussion point for potential hires. Today's episode covers how Stock-based compensation impacts Operating Expenses on the Income Statement...and how SBC can impact SaaS metrics.

    Dave "CAC" Kellogg and Ray "Growth" Rike dive into the details of Stock-Based Compensation in today's episode including:

    • What is Stock-Based Compensation (SBC)
    • How does a company pay/account for SBC
    • What kind of expense is Stock-Based Compensation
    • Where does SBC show up on an Income Statement
    • How can SBC impact SaaS metrics


    Stock-Based Compensation can be a very complex and nuanced topic, but if you are a SaaS executive, a SaaS employee with stock options, or a SaaS company investor, this conversation and episode is full of detailed insights.

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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    31 mins
  • Benchmarks - How to Evaluate and Use
    Apr 9 2025

    B2B SaaS Benchmark reports are popping up like mushrooms - but how do you know if the benchmark report is good, contains valuable insights and how to use the benchmarks to inform your own objectives and SaaS metrics goals?

    Dave "CAC" Kellogg and Ray "Growth" Rike take on a topic that is near and dear to their hearts and discuss several key factors that are a tell for a good benchmark report including:

    • Top things to consider when reading a benchmark report
    • Attributes of a good benchmark report
    • Attributes of a "not so good" benchmark report
    • Benchmark utilization best practices
    • Good Benchmark reports to review


    If you read benchmark reports and use them in helping to establish goals and objectives in your B2B SaaS company - this episode is a must listen!

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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    23 mins
  • The Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Related Metrics
    Apr 4 2025

    Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a term commonly used across the SaaS industry - but what does it really mean, how can a company effectively build a customer acquisition strategy around it and what METRICS can be used to determine a company's ICP and then measure if it really is the best target customer segment?

    During this week's episode, Dave "CAC" Kellogg and Ray "Growth" Rike discuss the following ICP elements to understand, execute and measure the ROI on the "Ideal Customer Profile":

    • What variables are used to determine the ICP
    • How to measure the relevant fit of a prospect to the ICP
    • How to measure if the identified "ICP" is the best target customer segment(s)
    • What metrics can be added to the traditional ICP criteria to enhance the targeting strategy


    As always - CAC and Growth introduce a new pairing and an attempt at humor throughout the episode 😱

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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    23 mins
  • Net Customer Base Expansion
    Mar 12 2025

    Net Customer Base Expansion = (Expansion ARR - Churned ARR) which helps SaaS companies to understand how the existing customer base is impacting ARR growth excluding the impact of new logo customer ARR.

    Why not just use Net Revenue Retention? CAC and Growth dive deep into this SaaS metric including:

    • Calculation formula for Net Customer Base Expansion (NCBE)
    • How is NCBE different from Net Revenue Retention (NRR)
    • What is CAC's definition of lazy NRR
    • Cohort vs Segment Calculations - what is the difference
    • What is a good Net Customer Base Expansion Rate
    • When and where does the Net Customer Base Expansion provide the most value


    If you are responsible for impacting how ARR grows at existing customers in a B2B SaaS company - this episode may provides some new insights and maybe a new metric to add to your SaaS Metrics glossary!

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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    23 mins
  • Pricing and Billing Trends & Benchmarks
    Mar 6 2025

    B2B SaaS Pricing models have evolved over the past few years with 67% of SaaS companies now saying they have introduced at least one element of Usage-Based Pricing. Though this benchmark does not tell the whole story of pricing, as the primary pricing model is still based upon a subscription fee per user or a subscription fee per user + a Usage-Based or Value-Based pricing variable.

    During this episode, CAC and Growth cover a wide range of current pricing trends and benchmarks including:

    • Subscription vs Usage vs Value vs Hybrid pricing model adoption
    • Adoption of AI and the associated pricing strategies
    • Impact on Growth Rates based upon pricing model used
    • Utilization of "Usage CAPS" and how they are charged
    • Treatment of Usage-Based Revenue when calculating ARR


    If you are a student of the SaaS industry, and/or are evaluating if your current pricing model is optimized for your customers and your company's financial performance - this episode is chalked full of unique insights and thought-provoking commentary from Dave "CAC" Kellogg and Ray "Growth" Rike

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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    26 mins
  • Sales/Marketing Expense Ratio
    Feb 28 2025

    Common practice is to measure Sales and Marketing expenses as a percentage of revenue, which in the SaaS industry ranges between 20% - 60% based upon stage, growth and efficiency. CAC and Growth discuss an alternative metric which measures the ratio between Sales expenses and Marketing expenses, known as the Sales/Marketing Expense Ratio.

    During this episode topics discussed include:

    • Sales and Marketing expense as percentage of revenue benchmarks
    • Sales and Marketing expense ratio - value and insights
    • What a 2:1 Sales and Marketing expense ratio means
    • What drives a changing Sales and Marketing expense ratio
    • Customer Acquisition Cost Efficiency metric - CAC Ratio vs S&M Expense Ratio


    If you are interested in measuring the allocation of the GTM budget between Sales and Marketing, this is a great episode and listen.

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    23 mins