Work back from the number you owe.
Take the Market does pipeline arithmetic in the open: calculators that show their formulas, funnel benchmarks that name their sources, and playbooks that end in a number. This is the sum most demand plans start from.
Revised this week
When a source revises a figure, the page changes and the old number stays visible, struck through, with the date.
No figure has been revised yet. Each revision will be listed here with the old and the new number.
Calculators, formulas showing
Each one prints its formula and a worked example before you type, so the answer can be checked by hand.
LTV to CAC ratio calculator
LTV to CAC divides lifetime value by acquisition cost. 3:1 is the cited benchmark. Use gross margin, cap the lifetime and report CAC payback beside it.
B2B marketing budget allocation calculator
Rank B2B channels by pipeline per dollar, fund leaders to their cap, and reserve demand creation money first. Formula, worked examples and template.
Event ROI calculator
Event return on investment (ROI) math: full cost, cost per meeting, pipeline per dollar and expected bookings from your own historical win rate.
Pipeline coverage calculator
Required pipeline coverage = 1 / (win rate x (1 minus slip rate)). A 25% win rate needs 4x, or 5.0x with 20% slippage. Worked examples and a template.
Pipeline velocity calculator and the sales velocity formula, with worked numbers
Pipeline velocity = qualified opportunities x win rate x average deal size, divided by cycle days. Worked numbers, segment math and the levers that move it.
Demand generation calculator
Work a revenue target backward: divide by deal size, then by each stage's conversion rate to get opportunities, qualified leads, leads and visitors.
The funnel, stage by stage
Published conversion figures for each stage of a B2B SaaS funnel, each with its source. Definitions differ between sources; the full table, with samples and caveats, is in MQL to SQL conversion rate benchmarks and B2B funnel conversion rates by stage.
| Conversion | Published figure | Range on a common scale | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visitor to lead83 companies | 1.1% | First Page Sage, B2B landing page conversion rates | |
| Lead to MQL | 39% | First Page Sage, 2026 funnel benchmarks | |
| MQL to SQL | 38% | First Page Sage, 2026 funnel benchmarks | |
| SQL to opportunity | 42% | First Page Sage, 2026 funnel benchmarks | |
| Opportunity to closed won | 37% | First Page Sage, 2026 funnel benchmarks |
Playbooks and methods
Programs to run and ways to measure them, newest revision first.
| Page | Stage | Updated |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing attribution models: first touch, last touch, linear, W-shaped and data-driven, compared on one B2B dealFirst touch, last touch, linear, U-shaped, W-shaped and data-driven attribution models compared, with the credit math worked on one $100,000 deal. | Whole funnel | |
| ABM playbook for one-to-few programs: the account list, the plays, the metrics and a 90-day planA one-to-few account-based marketing (ABM) playbook runs plays against clusters of 5 to 15 accounts, with holdout metrics and a 90-day plan. | Whole funnel | |
| Google Ads for B2B SaaS: campaign structure, match types, negatives and offline conversion importGoogle Ads for B2B SaaS: split campaigns by intent, capture GCLID and email, import CRM stages and set conversion windows up to 90 days. | Lead | |
| B2B retargeting strategy: audiences, frequency caps and the holdout testB2B retargeting strategy: segment by intent, exclude customers and open deals, cap frequency, and measure lift with a holdout, not platform conversions. | Visitor | |
| G2 marketing strategy for B2B: a review site playbook from profile to pipelineA G2 marketing strategy builds preference before buyers shortlist and captures accounts comparing vendors: profile, reviews, comparisons, intent and pipeline. | Visitor | |
| Self-reported attribution: how to design the field, code the answers and reconcile them with software attributionSelf-reported attribution asks buyers how they heard about you. Design the field, code answers and reconcile them with first-touch and last-touch data. | Whole funnel |
Voices
Recent things practitioners published that a demand team can learn from, with our label and our take on each entry's page. All Voices entries.
- Jyll Saskin GalesGoogle Ads coach, consultant and teacher, Jyll Saskin Gales (independent)Newsletter or blog post, Inside Google Ads podcast with Jyll Saskin Gales - jyll.ca,
On search queries concealed from advertisers in Google Ads reporting
Read the original (Inside Google Ads podcast: Episode 144 - Other search terms)
- Matt HeinzPresident, Heinz MarketingNewsletter or blog post, Matt Heinz,
On delegating company operations to a newly hired senior executive
Read the original (Giving Up Control Is the Hardest (and Best) Thing I've Done as a Founder)
- Jeff IgnacioHead of GTM Growth and Operations, Keystone AINewsletter or blog post, RevOps Impact Newsletter,
On building dashboards with AI-generated artifacts and what changes for data teams
Read the original (Modern Dashboards in the AI era)
The week, by email
The pages that changed, the numbers that moved, and one worked calculation, every week.