Our research shows<\/a> that the most common path for SaaS startups to grow from $1M to $10M ARR is by increasing the number of customers they serve. Growth hinges on two key factors: subscriber (customer) growth and Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA) growth. Most successful startups grow by focusing on increasing their subscriber base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To grow your subscriber base, you need strong marketing and sales. A great product alone isn\u2019t enough. Consistent outreach, targeted messaging, and a clear value proposition will drive customer acquisition and fuel your growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Traditionally, sales and marketing have been viewed as separate functions, each overseen by its own strategist. Marketing focuses on creating awareness of the company and its products, while sales is responsible for converting that awareness into customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, in the modern SaaS industry, seeing these functions \u201cas separate activities\u201d isn\u2019t the best approach. Sales and marketing need to work as an integrated team, even if they report to different leaders.<\/em> Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a startup follows the product-led growth (PLG) methodology, the product itself drives customer acquisition, conversion, expansion, and retention. PLG is really popular amongst SaaS companies in part because it\u2019s efficient and can bring rapid growth very quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In product-led SaaS companies, marketing initiates the customer journey by driving awareness of the product via promoting free trials, demos, or freemium versions, acquiring leads by having them directly interact with the product. Even in PLG, sales gets involved. They focus on the highest-value leads which are already using the product and showing signs of upgrade readiness. This approach is commonly called Product-led Sales (PLS)<\/a> and works alongside PLG strategies to ensure your most valuable leads have the highest chance of conversion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PLG “try-before-you-buy” approach means that both sales and marketing share responsibility for guiding the user through a seamless journey within the product, which requires close coordination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In SaaS companies, every user interaction offers valuable insight that can inform marketing, sales, and product decisions. This insight is useful for all GTM models, including both PLG, sales-led growth (SLG).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marketing can analyze which features attract the most users or generate the highest engagement. Then, they can collaborate with sales to prioritize those features in conversations with prospects. Sales, in turn, provides feedback on customer pain points and objections, which marketing can address in campaigns or content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The real-time flow of feedback, insights and data between marketing and sales ensures that they work as a unified force focused on the same goal: driving product adoption, customer acquisition, and long-term customer value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SaaS revenue growth depends on customers continuing to subscribe and use the product more and more over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Acquiring new customers is important, but it\u2019s not the only consideration. Subscribers who will stick around, renew their subscriptions, and expand their usage over time are the most valuable customers in SaaS. Retention is the highest long-term priority which means sales and marketing must align on a shared and clear understanding of the company’s ideal customer profile (ICP)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Growth happens when your marketing and sales efforts focus on the same ideal customer profile (ICP), using strategies from both teams to attract and convert the best customers for the business.”<\/em> Together, marketing and sales should collaborate to attract users who match the company\u2019s ICP\u2014those who see value in the product from the start and are likely to stay long-term. By aligning on customer fit early on, marketing can target campaigns that resonate with high-retention prospects, while sales focuses on nurturing relationships that show promise for long-term value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Getting teams to work well together is easier said than done. It\u2019s important that you consider marketing and sales as collaborative from day one. That means having each involved in key GTM hiring processes, aligned on the shared GTM tech stack and developing their strategies together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are the core shared activities sales and marketing should complete together: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bring sales and marketing together for a collaborative session where you define your ideal customer profile (ICP) based on your existing customer data and firsthand experience. You\u2019re looking for patterns (size, industry, geography etc.) in what makes a high-value customer using inputs like::<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you don\u2019t have many customers yet, rely more on your existing experience or interview leaders and partners in your space for their insights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An ICP is a clear, written profile with details of your target customer, such as industry, company size, key user job titles, pain points, and buying triggers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Having a clear understanding of your ICP will make it easier for marketing to target the highest quality leads for sales to convert, maximizing your potential success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Learn more about the why, how and what of ICPs from experts in the field.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n As a company grows, sales and marketing often begin to operate in silos, drifting further apart. This largely happens because of a growing and fragmented tech stack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can bridge this gap (or proactively address it) <\/em>by implementing a centralized CRM that works for both teams, where they can access, share, and act on the same data.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n ChartMogul CRM<\/a> is a straightforward system that lets you collect leads, manage your sales pipeline, and have full control of your relationships with each user. A subscription analytics platform in the first place, ChartMogul combines SaaS revenue and retention data with customer relationship management in one system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alongside isolated metrics\u2014like leads generated for marketing and win rate for sales\u2014both teams should be accountable for revenue-related targets. Annual, quarterly or monthly targets should be set together, with each team clear on how their KPIs fold up to the GTM team\u2019s goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can set shared targets around:: <\/p>\n\n\n\n *While you can\u2019t attribute 100% of these outcomes to sales and marketing alone, it\u2019s important to recognize the contribution these teams make to overall success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you connect marketing and sales efforts to big-picture metrics like customer retention and LTV? With ChartMogul, it\u2019s easy. Just tag your campaigns, send the conversion data, and let ChartMogul generate clear, insightful reports. You’ll see exactly which channels and campaigns are bringing in the longest-retained customers and most revenue\u2014no guesswork required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here, you\u2019ll find a step-by-step guide to<\/em> <\/em>tying your marketing channel data to revenue metrics with ChartMogul<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s no surprise that 47% percent<\/a> of sales and marketing teams agree that having separate funnels is the most common reason for their misalignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When all is set, keep an open feedback loop between sales and marketing. When marketing provides leads to sales, sales should provide feedback about the quality of those leads and whether they fit the criteria. Similarly, marketing should regularly check in with sales to refine lead nurturing strategies and identify trends in lead qualification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Put simply, the sales team\u2019s job is to convert high-quality leads into paying customers. Leads arrive in two main ways: inbound, and outbound. Sales teams run different motions to convert these leads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outbound leads are created by sales themselves. Typically, a sales rep proactively researches prospects who could be great customers one day. Using the company\u2019s agreed upon ICP as a blueprint, they create lists of prospective customers and nurture them into sales opportunities. To do this, sales may use cold outreach, prospecting, and personalized follow-ups to create interest and guide prospects through the sales funnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany SDR teams strive to book meetings, and while that was a top priority for us, we also encouraged prospects to trial our product. This is because many of our buyers prefer to evaluate the capabilities of our product without sales assistance \u2014 and \u2018being aligned\u2019 with prospects is a core value of our sales culture.\u201d Ultimately, we decided to pull the plug on our outbound sales strategy<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Inbound leads are people who arrive in your funnel organically. Typically, inbound is built and scaled once a marketing team is on board. Here, prospects first engage with the company\u2019s marketing content\u2014like articles, webinars, or eBooks\u2014and leave their contact information. The marketing team qualifies these leads and then hands them to inbound sales development representatives (SDRs) once they\u2019re identified as sales-ready. Inbound SDRs focus on nurturing these interested leads and moving them closer to a purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many SaaS sales teams follow the consultative selling philosophy. In these teams, each sales rep acts as a consultant, focussed on understanding and addressing the customer\u2019s pain points, and helping educate the buyer about a better solution, using their product. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"new](\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/15_SaaS_Growing_10x-3-3-1024x599.png\")
Sales and marketing are stronger together<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Product-led growth (PLG) changed the traditional sales and marketing departments <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
2. Both marketing and sales adapt based on feedback from customers<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
3. Sales and marketing teams must align on customer fit early on to impact retention<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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\u2014 Rachel Whitehead, VP of Marketing, ChartMogul<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nCreating a sales and marketing powerhouse<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Develop a shared ICP vision<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Implement a shared CRM and GTM tech stack<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Set common goals and targets <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Integrate your channel data with Subscription Analytics<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Build the funnel together <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Sales and marketing 101<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The role of a sales team in a SaaS startup<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Outbound<\/strong> sales<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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\u2014 Sara Archer, VP of Sales, ChartMogul<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nInbound sales<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
SaaS sales typically follow consultative selling<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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![\"ARPA](\"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/ARPA-by-marketing-channel-3-1024x479.png\")
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