5 essential learnings from the 2024 SaaS AE Report (Bridge Group)
Last week The Bridge Group published the latest iteration of their SaaS AE report - focusing on the GTM models, metrics and compensation of 172 B2B SaaS companies.
87% of the companies are HQ’d in North America, with a median of $24m annual revenues and $47K median annual contract value (ACV).
The previous survey was run in 2022 and provides for some insightful trend analysis as CROs struggle with the current state of SaaS.
Marketing’s share of sourced pipeline increases
Overall the median marketing pipeline contribution is 40%, up from 33% in 2022. This includes inbound SDRs but not outbound.
Does this mean marketing is more effective? Or that SDRs and AEs are finding it increasingly difficult to generate pipeline?
The research showed that the increase in marketing sourced was reflected in a similar drop on outbound SDR’s contribution.
Where does pipeline come from, categorised by AOS?
It is helpful to note that as the average order size increases, the SDR and AE prospecting model picks up over 50% of the pipeline generation.
If you sell into enterprise or strategic what tools are you giving to your sellers to drive this pipeline?
Renewals switch from CSMs to Account Managers
I’ve written on this blog before about the pressure on CSMs to become a ‘sales role’, and the research backs it up.
In 2022 CSMs had the largest responsibility for renewals in customers, but that has now been overtaken by Account Managers.
This is corroborated by similar charts for upsell (AM’s 42% v CSMs 8%) and cross-sell (AM’s 36% v CSMs 8%)
Will we see a further decline in the responsibilities of CSMs as they fold into the onboarding and support teams?
Who owns renewal responsibility?
AE ramp times continue to grow
The average ramp time for an Account Executive is now 5.7 months. This is up from 5.3 months in the 2022 report, and from 4.3 months in 2020.
AE’s know this and you should consider this in your ramp plans when trying to attract new talent.
This chart shows the percentage of companies that have an average ramp of five months or higher - an unmistakable trend.
Percentage of companies with ramp time of five or more months
AE productivity increases to 24 months
AE productivity is calculated as the average tenure minus the ramp time.
While ramp has increased, so too has the average tenure of an AE - potentially as a result of AEs realising that the grass is not always greener on the other side and trying to avoid the last in first out for layoffs.
We also see that the number of AEs hitting their quotas has declined from 66% in 2022 to just 51% in 2024.
So whilst AEs are staying around longer this is more through necessity that because of commission.
The drawing below shows a very different AE lifecycle to that of two years ago.
Lifecycle of an AE
Commission rates continue to track upwards
As the war for great sales talent continues to play out, OTEs have generally increased faster than quotas.
This is reflected in the median commission rates tracking up to 11.5% for an AE at 100% of quota.
The best AEs are planning their path to outsized commissions before they decide to join your team, and you should expect to be competitive here to hire the best players.
Median commission rates over time
B2B sales is changing fast
These are just five of the charts that hold significance for me as I advice revenue leaders on the future of B2B selling.
I encourage you to download the full report which has many more insights focused on hiring, enabling and compensating your sellers.
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