The Metrics Brothers

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!

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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 😱

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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!

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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

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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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The Sales Velocity metric calculation formula is (win rate x average contract value x # opportunities)/ average sales cycle length. The resultant Sales Velocity metrics highlights the amount of new bookings a Sales team can deliver per day....one key question about Sales Velocity is " is this a metric to help understand sales capacity, sales effectiveness or sales efficiency?

Dave "CAC" Kellogg and Ray "Growth" Rike break down Sales Velocity in this episode covering key topics including:

• Sales Velocity Calculation
• Sales Velocity Benefits
• Which input variables to focus on first
• Four Approaches to Increase Sales Velocity

If you have a sales team, lead a sales team or are involved in how sales performance impacts financial goals, this episode provides several key "operator insights" on how to use the Sales Velocity metric and ideas on how to improve Sales Velocity!

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Dave "CAC" Kellogg and Ray "Growth" Rike discuss the latest revenue growth trends and the related metrics driving the growth as highlighted in GONGs 2025 State of Revenue Growth Report. Topics discussed include:

• 2024 Growth Rates
• Sales Velocity Trends including Win Rates, Sales Cycle Length and ACV
• AI Adoption
• Top Growth Initiatives
• SaaS Magic Number trends

If you are responsible for the GTM and Revenue growth teams in your SaaS company, or just interested in the latest Sales benchmarks - this episode in another great listen!

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Implied ARR is the SaaS metric used to convert GAAP revenue for public SaaS companies into an equivalent to Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) used by investors and private SaaS companies. Dave "CAC" Kellogg and Ray "Growth" Rike discuss the what, why and how behind Implied ARR.

During this episode CAC and Growth discuss multiple Implied ARR topics including:

• Implied ARR Calculation Formula
• Why Investors Calculate Implied ARR
• SaaS Metrics that use Implied ARR
• Challenges with Implied ARR
• Implied ARR versus Trailing Twelve Month Revenue

If you are interested in how public SaaS companies analysts use Implied ARR, and what the differences are between private SaaS companies ARR and public SaaS companies Implied ARR this is another great listen!

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Max Schireson and Jason Mendel, from Battery Ventures recently published an article on Managing and Measuring R&D spend including key metrics from the DORA and SPACE frameworks and they also introduced their own 5 step R&D measurement framework including:

• Allocate top down
• Break R&D into granular buckets (not a lump sum)
• Listen to product-adjacent teams that are customer-facing
• Be deliberate about measuring success of R&D projects
• Hold the full team accountable

The article also includes benchmarks from Battery Ventures portfolio company, LinearB.

If you are interesting in best practices on measuring R&D productivity, this episode is a great listen!

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In this episode, Dave "CAC" Kellogg and Ray "Growth" Rike discuss the SaaS Quick Ratio, a SaaS metric first introduced in 2015 with the goal to measure ARR growth efficiency by comparing New ARR growth versus existing customer ARR contraction.

The SaaS Quick Ratio borrows a concept used in general finance known as the "Quick Ratio" - which measures a company's ability to pay it's current liabilities.

The formula used to calculate the SaaS Quick Ratio is:

(New Logo ARR + Expansion ARR)/ (Churned ARR + Down-Sell ARR)

Traditional wisdom says a SaaS Quick Ratio above 4 is good, between 1-4 is ok but beware that ARR growth is not as efficient as it should be and less than 1 is highly inefficient growth - an ARR leaky bucket!

If you are a SaaS operator and looking for an easy metric to calculate that quickly highlights ARR growth efficiency as measured by the ratio of New ARR versus Lost ARR - The SaaS Quick Ratio may be for you.

Listen to the entire episode to hear CAC and Growth discuss the nuances of the SaaS Quick Ratio!

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