Top-of-funnel obsession masks revenue inefficiencies in B2B marketing

Nov 12, 2026 · GTM Live

🎧 PodShort 48 min squeezed to 2 Revenue Operations

Full episode from GTM Live

Quotable Moments

We are not just building pipeline, we are building revenue. We are looking at the actual ROI of the spend.

The biggest thing that this service for companies is identifying waste.

Key Insights

Many marketing efforts, particularly brand awareness initiatives, are not easily attributed to direct revenue, making it difficult to justify their ROI to finance and executive teams.
The historical focus on top-of-funnel metrics like MQLs and pipeline generation can be a distraction from the core goal of efficient revenue growth, especially when sales cycles are long.
GTM efficiency is about understanding the cost of acquiring revenue, not just the volume of leads, and requires a shift from solely measuring marketing's top-of-funnel impact to evaluating its contribution to closed revenue.
Many B2B companies, especially those with long sales cycles, struggle with measuring the true impact of their marketing efforts because the connection to closed revenue is indirect and complex.
The shift from measuring marketing's output (leads) to its outcome (efficient revenue) is crucial for aligning marketing with financial goals and demonstrating its value.
Companies that excel in GTM efficiency often have a strong understanding of their unit economics and can demonstrate how their investments directly contribute to profitable growth.
The integration of marketing and sales data is essential for accurate GTM efficiency measurement, as it provides a holistic view of the revenue journey.
The tendency to over-optimize for top-of-funnel metrics can lead to wasted marketing spend and a disconnect between marketing activities and actual business outcomes.

Metrics Mentioned

$10 million (Series B funded company size where Karli Dilks was VP of Marketing, indicating the scale of companies facing these challenges.)
$20,000 - $30,000/month (Cost of marketing campaigns that were questioned by finance and board members due to lack of clear ROI.)
15% (Size of the customer success team that was laid off, highlighting the volatility and pressure within some tech companies.)
3 years (Length of time Karli Dilks spent operating in a state of 'how do I not get fired?' due to company instability.)
$200,000 (Amount of money reallocated from marketing to sales in one example to improve pipeline generation and conversion.)
30-day (Typical timeframe for a rapid performance assessment and proof of concept with Pacetto.)
$15M - $200M (Annual revenue range of companies that Pacetto typically works best with, indicating their sweet spot for GTM efficiency solutions.)
Less than 1% (Conversion rate for cold outbound leads in one example, highlighting the inefficiency of that specific channel.)
4x-8x (Conversion rate for all-bound leads in one example, showing the comparative efficiency of inbound channels.)

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