Make Marketing Your Enterprise Value Engine

Many companies continue to view marketing as a nice-to-have and the consequences are clear. Pipeline falls, short sales cycles extend and valuations weaken. Speaking at SaaS Academy , Shiv Narayanan outlined a playbook urging executives to treat marketing as a measurable discipline, redirecting investment toward proven channels and developing the capabilities that investors prioritize at exit.

Marketing is not just about generating leads or raising brand awareness. When executed with discipline, marketing improves efficiency across the funnel and builds a more predictable revenue engine. Investors weigh marketing performance alongside financial results because it reveals not just growth today, but the durability of that growth over time.

The Marketing Maturity Gap

Most B2B companies depend too heavily on sales to fuel growth. Pipeline is driven by cold calls, events and personal relationships while marketing contributes little to the revenue engine. This imbalance might work in the early days, but it leaves companies fragile as they scale. Sales reps miss quota more often, growth stalls when outbound channels underperform and investors quickly flag the lack of marketing maturity as a weakness.

Sales-led organizations often set revenue goals without the bottom up forecasting to translate bookings goals into required pipeline, conversion rates and budget by channel. The problem with this approach is that it eventually catches up:

• Closed won revenue is a function of how many opportunities are in the pipeline.
• Opportunities are a function of how many qualified and good fit prospects enter the top of the funnel.
• And prospects are a function of how much is invested in marketing.

How can we close more deals if we don’t have more pipeline?

Why Investors Care About Marketing

When investors evaluate a company they look past revenue and profitability. They examine efficiency, predictability and the durability of growth. Marketing is central to that story, yet in many businesses it remains underfunded. A strong marketing engine doesn't just generate leads—it compounds enterprise value.

A way to visualize the impact of spending more on Marketing is to look at the overall increase in Enterprise Value on each additional $1 of Marketing Spend:

Assuming a CAC Payback of 12 months, Net Revenue Retention of 110%, an LTV of 7 years and a 5x revenue multiple, each additional dollar invested into Marketing is worth almost $9 of enterprise value over seven years.

Companies with high retention and long customer lifetimes should lean harder into marketing investment, not pull back. Every incremental dollar accelerates the flywheel by attracting more of the right customers, expanding their accounts and extending their tenure. This compounds into durable predictable revenue that supports higher valuations.

Focus On Your Best-Fit Customers

Your best fit customers generate the majority of revenue and create lasting enterprise value. They convert at higher rates and deliver shorter payback periods. They are more likely to expand their accounts over time through cross sell and upsell. They also churn at much lower rates meaning the revenue you win is revenue you keep.

Bad fit customers on the other hand work against growth. They have significantly lower conversion rates and drag out sales cycles. Their payback periods are sky high, making them expensive to acquire. They resist expansion opportunities and are far less open to cross sell or upsell. Most damaging of all, they churn faster—often within the first year—leaving behind wasted acquisition costs and lost momentum.

A common mistake most companies make is splitting their marketing spend evenly between best fit and bad fit customers. On paper, this looks balanced, but in reality it drains efficiency from the entire funnel:

A better solution is to allocate 80 to 90 percent of your marketing spend toward acquiring your best-fit customers instead of spreading resources across average or poor fits:

By shifting budget toward best fit customers:

1. Win rates climb because sales teams are pursuing accounts that are more likely to close.
2. Customer acquisition costs fall as cycles shorten and less effort is wasted on poor fit prospects.
3. Payback periods shrink since revenue is realized faster and with less discounting or friction.
4. Retention strengthens because these customers are not only a better match for the product but are also more satisfied and engaged over time.

The result is a more predictable and efficient funnel where every dollar of spend produces greater returns.

Align GTM to Deal Size

Your go-to-market motion should always mirror the economics of your business. Too many companies fall into the trap of running the wrong playbook for their deal size and market.

Start by analyzing your average deal size and TAM then build your go to market playbook around those numbers.

If your average contract value is $200,000 or more, the reality is that you're selling into a narrow universe of enterprise accounts with long decision cycles and high stakes. Every touchpoint must be designed to demonstrate deep understanding of their business challenges and to position your solution as the clear answer.

By contrast, if your ACV is below $10,000, your economics depend on volume. The addressable market is larger and the cost to serve needs to be kept low. Here, the focus should be on scalable one-to-many tactics that generate a steady flow of qualified leads at an efficient cost. Inbound content that educates buyers, paid search and paid social campaigns that capture demand, SEO to drive ongoing discovery and webinars or nurture programs that convert interest into opportunities all become essential levers.

Misalignment between GTM motion and economics is one of the most common and costly mistakes. Companies with high ACV products waste millions chasing inbound volume that will never convert at scale. Conversely, low ACV companies burn resources on high touch strategies like ABM and trade shows that can never generate ROI. The result is inflated CAC, sluggish payback and stalled growth.

Unlocking Hidden Pipeline

Improving marketing efficiency is less about chasing the next big idea and more about instilling discipline. Most companies are sitting on significant inefficiencies but lack the structure to surface them. This four step framework works across industries and company sizes:

1. Cut inefficient spend

Many organizations continue funding channels or campaigns year after year simply because they've always been part of the budget. Events are one of the most common examples. They consume large amounts of money and require extensive travel and staff time, yet too often, the return on that investment is weak or nonexistent.

2. Reallocate to what’s working

Redirect dollars freed up from underperforming programs to the tactics already proving their worth. Paid media and content marketing, for instance, often deliver stronger ROI but remain underfunded relative to legacy channels like events or trade shows. Shifting budget here creates immediate impact without increasing overall spend.

3. Maximize efficient channels.

Once you've identified high-performing channels, you can test the ceiling of what those channels can deliver. Many organizations stop investing just as a channel is proving its strength, leaving significant growth untapped. In reality, the question should be how much more volume or pipeline can this channel sustain before efficiency starts to decline.

For example, if paid media is generating pipeline at a nine month payback, what happens when you double or triple the budget? If webinars are consistently converting attendees into opportunities, what is the impact of running them monthly instead of quarterly? The goal is not reckless expansion but disciplined experimentation backed by data.

4. Scale proven or net-new channels

Expanding into new programs is effective only after your core channels are delivering at their peak. Too many companies jump to the next shiny tactic, such as launching podcasts, starting ABM pilots or experimenting with new ad platforms, before they've fully maximized the channels that are already working. This creates distraction, spreads teams thin and dilutes ROI.

When you do reach the point where core channels are optimized, adding new programs becomes far less risky. You have a stable foundation of predictable pipeline to build on and the resources to test new ideas with discipline. Expansion at this stage is not a gamble—it's a calculated move that accelerates growth while protecting efficiency.

Start Where Buyers Already Are

One of the biggest mistakes companies make is to start writing random blog posts before the core pillars of the marketing engine have been put into place. Always start with buyers who are already in market today and then work backward to problem-aware and unaware audiences.

These buyers are the ones actively researching solutions, comparing vendors and preparing to make a purchase. For them, the most effective content is late stage and conversion oriented:

• Customer case studies that prove ROI and highlight outcomes
• Video testimonials or customer interviews that build trust
• ROI calculators and total cost of ownership tools
• Product comparison sheets that show how you stack up against competitors
• Pricing pages with clear packaging and options
• Industry specific use cases that speak to vertical needs
• FAQ documents addressing common objections
• Executive decks designed for decision maker buy in

Once those buyers are fully covered, the next focus is on problem-aware audiences. These prospects know they have an issue, but are not yet evaluating vendors. For them, the most effective content will help them frame the problem and introduce your category as the answer:

• Industry benchmark reports that show how peers are performing and highlight the cost of falling behind
• Whitepapers or guides that outline the scope of the problem and common approaches to solving it
• Webinars or workshops that walk through emerging challenges and best practices
• Frameworks and checklists that help prospects diagnose their own gaps or risks
• Thought leadership articles that define why the problem exists and why it matters now
• Interactive assessments or maturity scorecards that let prospects self identify where they stand
• Infographics or explainer videos that simplify complex problems and show why status quo is costly

Finally, you need to address the unaware audience. These prospects do not yet recognize the problem or the need for change. Content for them is educational, broad and designed to spark curiosity:

• Trend reports highlighting big shifts in the industry that will impact their business
• Educational blog posts introducing emerging challenges or new opportunities
• Original research studies that uncover surprising data and spark conversation
• Thought leadership articles that reframe how leaders should think about the future
• Short explainer videos that introduce new concepts or categories
• Podcast episodes or interviews with industry experts exploring where the market is heading
• Social campaigns that spotlight customer stories or surprising insights to grab attention

By sequencing content and demand generation in this order, companies can ensure they capture the low hanging fruit first while steadily building a pipeline for the future. It prevents wasted budget on broad awareness when the biggest wins are still sitting among buyers ready to purchase today.

Hire For Strategy

At a minimum, you need a marketing leader supported by dedicated owners for demand generation, content marketing, corporate marketing, product marketing and operations. These functions form the backbone of any scalable marketing organization. Without these roles in place, companies struggle to generate predictable results.

Yet, many companies under $10M make the mistake of asking a single marketer to cover every function from demand gen to content to product marketing. That kind of jack of all trades setup can keep the lights on in the early days, but it quickly collapses as the company scales.

Build teams for where you're going, not where you are. If your ACV is high and your TAM is narrow, you need specialists who can run account based programs, host field events and build enterprise sales enablement. If your ACV is lower and your TAM is broad, you need talent focused on inbound engines: paid media, SEO and scalable content. Too many companies hire for yesterday’s challenges instead of tomorrow’s opportunities and end up with teams mismatched to their growth strategy.

When the team structure is aligned with the economics of the business, marketing shifts from being a perceived cost center to becoming a predictable engine of enterprise value.

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