You’ve added new ARR—but are you spending too much to get it? In episode #302, Ben Murray walks through two practical ways to align your ARR growth with your sales and marketing spend. If you're unsure whether you're underinvesting, overspending, or just inefficient, this episode will help you benchmark your GTM motion using real data and operator-friendly metrics.

What You’ll Learn

Two ways to triangulate S&M spend relative to ARR
OpEx profile: Sales & Marketing spend as a % of revenue
Cost of ARR: Spend required to acquire $1 of net new ARR
Why relying on benchmarks without context (like ACV or price point) can mislead your analysis
The difference between investment level and go-to-market efficiency
Where to find benchmarks by ACV stage using Benchmarkit.ai (Ray Rike’s dataset)

Why It Matters

Your sales & marketing efficiency plays a critical role in sustainable SaaS growth
Proper benchmarks help you avoid overspending—or underinvesting—in growth
Helps investors and operators answer: “Is our GTM engine working?”

Resources Mentioned

Cost of ARR Blog Post + Template: https://www.thesaascfo.com/saas-cac-ratio/

Benchmark data: Benchmarkit.ai

Quote from Ben

“I love the Cost of ARR—because whether your ACV is $500 or $50,000, it normalizes efficiency across go-to-market models.”

How to Align ARR Growth with Sales & Marketing Spend

SaaS Metrics School