Achieving Revenue Exit Readiness with the ARR Waterfall Framework With Will Sullivan

Most companies treat GTM like a dashboard, but the real opportunity is to run it like an operating system. AJ Gandhi and I discuss:The GTM efficiency drop: Leaders are relying on lagging metrics (CAC/LTV, payback) instead of diagnosing root causes.The Shift: Leaders need to align incentives around retention and focus on full-funnel, leading metrics to run GTM as an operating system.Where to Go Next: Companies that make this shift drive higher retention, better efficiency, and stronger collaboration across Sales, Marketing, CS, and Finance.

Sam Jacobs, CEO of Pavilion, joins me to unpack why “growth at any cost” no longer works in today’s capital-constrained market. We'll discuss Sam's Profitable Efficient Growth (PEG) framework—aligning incentives, investments, and metrics around long-term customer value instead of short-term pipeline wins.Key Takeaways We'll Cover:Unit Economics First: Build P&L fluency across GTM leaders; metrics like LTV:CAC and payback must guide decisions.Retention > Acquisition: Comp plans and KPIs should reward renewals and expansions, not just new logos.Disciplined Investment: Size bets in tranches (60% proven, 30% probable, 10% experimental) and avoid irreversible commitments.Aligned Incentives Drive Behavior: Shared, cross-functional metrics and retention-linked comp keep Sales, Marketing, and CS rowing in the same direction.

Join me and Todd Gardner for a webinar on sales compensation for UBP SaaS. We'll dig into actionable insights on optimizing sales compensation for usage-based pricing SaaS models. Learn how to align sales and customer success teams to drive sustainable growth.Key Takeaways:Aligning Sales & CS roles with compensation.Accurately measuring and incentivizing expansion.Adapting the 50/50 base + commission model for UBP.Tracking the right metrics for sales performance.

Join Scott Stouffer, CEO of scaleMatters, to discover how leading PE-backed companies use a new approach to GTM meetings. I'll show you how to cut through data noise, align commercial and finance leaders, and identify actionable priorities that drive measurable results.Key takeaways:Quickly spot what’s working—and what isn’t—across the entire go-to-market motion, not just in silos.Learn to move beyond passive metrics review and consistently align your team on the few initiatives that matter most for valuation, growth, and profitability.Bring your revenue, customer, and financial metrics into a single, actionable narrative.Use proven value levers—like ICP lead flow, funnel conversion, ASP, churn/expansion—to establish and track priorities that increase enterprise value and predictability.

In this webinar, Dave Boyce shares his framework for designing go-to-market systems that are AI-ready, insight-driven, and built for sustainable growth. We’ll explore how CEOs must now operate as system architects, why GTM starts at the data layer, and what it takes to rewire your business for precision, performance, and adaptability in the age of AI.We’ll cover:Why most GTM systems lack the instrumentation to scaleHow product-led and AI-native models are changing the gameWhat kind of GTM design actually supports profitable growthWhy leaders must become system architects, not tool shoppers

In this webinar, I'm joined by Sangram Vajre—co-founder of GTM Partners and author of MOVE—to walk through the core components of a real GTM operating system. We’ll cover:-What your market fit looks like when translated into real operating models-How to use Sangram’s 8 key questions to build a shared, cross-functional view of your business-Why the right GTM operating system helps you establish the data ecosystem needed to prioritize the right things, faster

In this session, we'll explore how finance and GTM teams can finally align around the metrics that matter. From ARR breakdowns to usage-based revenue models, we'll unpack how to marry financial discipline with go-to-market execution—and why clean, joined-up data is the missing link.If you’re a SaaS CFO, RevOps leader, or GTM exec navigating forecasting, comp plans, or variable revenue—this is the conversation you need.

In this session, revenue expert Will Sullivan breaks down the ARR Waterfall Framework—a proven approach for analyzing growth, churn, and retention at the customer-product level to uncover the true performance of your revenue engine.You’ll learn how to:-Break ARR into actionable components like upsell, churn, and lapse-Diagnose expansion risk and revenue leakage before the board does-Align GTM and Finance teams around one shared, strategic view of revenue-Use ARR Waterfall insights to improve planning, valuation, and exit outcomes

On this episode of The Data Room, scaleMatters CEO, Scott Stouffer, is joined by Ray Rike, Founder and CEO (Chief Evangelism Officer) of Benchmarkit, to break down which SaaS metrics matter most—and which ones are leading leaders astray.They dive into why CAC ratio is still king, how misuse of the SaaS magic number clouds GTM decisions, and the one benchmark shift that helped a $30M SaaS company deliver its highest-ever exit. Ray also shares why investors and operators interpret benchmarks differently—and what every founder should know before leaning on them to drive valuation.

On this episode of "The Data Room," scaleMatters CEO, Scott Stouffer, is joined by Dirk Sahlmer, head of origination at saas.group to break down what it takes for founder-led, early-stage companies to exit in today's challenging environment. They uncover the most common issue that kills deals, discuss how founders/CEOs unknowingly cripple deals, and what leaders can do to stand out in an increasingly overpopulated exit landscape.