SaaSletter - 2024 KeyBanc / Sapphire Benchmarks
Plus RepVue's Cloud Sales Index
2024 SaaS Benchmarks from KeyBanc Capital Markets + Sapphire Ventures
KeyBanc Capital Markets and Sapphire Ventures released the *15th* edition of their SaaS benchmarks (email required).
As someone who has been reading their reports for the past 15 years - back to Pacific Crest Securities days - I created an aggregation of old reports to provide longitudinal context available here:
My quick excerpts for the 2024 KeyBanc / Sapphire benchmarks:
For *their* sample, I consider this a favorable, positive report. Specifically, the a) improving Rule of 40s, b) 70%+ quota attainment (i.e., much higher than RepVue benchmarks below), and c) sub-20 month CAC paybacks.
While a favorable report, some notes of caution.
Even with healthy quota assignments (per Account Executive: $750k median, $1,085k top quartile) and well above RepVue quota attainment (RepVue: 42.9% for Q3 2024, 75%-85% here):
… the median new ARR per Account Executive levels of $328k are concerning.
Slower AE ramps - well covered by The Bridge Group (h/t Sally Duby) here - might explain some of the quota assignment to ARR $ achievement gap.
These AE productivity *medians* also reminded me of the top seller outperformance data from Ebsta (h/t past podcast guest Guy Rubin) / Pavilion 1H 2024 B2B Sales Benchmarks: 16% of reps generated 83% of revenue in 1H 2024
These $328k AE productivity *medians* should also be viewed relative to overall GTM staffing levels. Factoring in AE support (like SDRs, Sales Engineers, RevOps, and Marketing), $328k new ARR per AE might yield unacceptable fully loaded CACs. More on this in “Sapphire On Non-AE GTM Bloat”
RepVue Q3 2024 Cloud Sales Index
RepVue (h/t Adam Little and past podcast guest Ryan Walsh) released their latest Cloud Sales Index.
The core theme = stability (i.e., in quota attainment, sales cycles, deal sizes).
Excerpts below… but read the whole report (no email required):
Submit To Emergence Capital GTM Benchmarks
Building on its inaugural 2024 report, Emergence Capital is going deeper into the SaaS GTM benchmarking arena.
Their survey is differentiated → it would be a welcome source of new community knowledge → please consider participating here:
Curated Content
The above chart stood out from G2’s “2025 Tech Trends” report (h/t Tim Sanders + team): *user R&D* likely drives improved ROIs - a uniquely prominent dynamic for early cycle AI adoption.
The Deal Director’s case study of Lacework was particularly *juicy*.
Granular KeyBanc + Sapphire Excerpts
An interesting chart on changes to GTM priorities by channel:
Since this regularly comes up, data on accounting allocations for Customer Success and Customer Service:
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