Rethinking product marketing's role in the new SaaS era

Moments of major transition often open the door to fresh innovation and growth. When old ways are challenged, it creates space for new ideas and perspectives. Those who adapt quickly can seize the moment, solve new problems, and reshape the playing field.

As a fundamental change is taking place in how SaaS companies measure success and operate their go-to-market, product marketers can position themselves as essential cross-functional partners, aligning teams around customer impact. 

By embracing this role, they become strategic sparring partners – helping shape the future direction of the business.

By reading this article we hope to change the mindset of key decision-makers within the company to see product marketing as a critical driver of sustainable growth and long-term success. 

It's no longer the function that makes your product pages or slides look pretty or focuses only on executing product campaigns. We’ve been struggling with this for years, but change is right around the corner.

Goodbye growth at all costs

The SaaS market crash

By many metrics, 2021 has gone down in SaaS history as the best year ever. But come December, with the crash of DocuSign’s share price, the party was suddenly over. 

Since then, growth rates have halved, the cost of acquiring new customers has surged by 1.5 times, and Net Revenue Retention (NRR) has substantially decreased. Many years later, SaaS companies, big and small, continue to struggle with the compounded effects of these challenges.

So, what caused the SaaS crash? It wasn’t just the post-COVID effect. It was systemic. For too long, revenue multiples had been propelled by the availability of unlimited cheap investment money and a growth-at-all-cost mindset. This clashed with healthy business fundamentals. 

Most SaaS companies focused on growing fast, prioritizing customer acquisition over customer experience and efficiency.

As a result, many CMOs built their budget around aggressive spending to acquire new customers, assuming that venture funding would continue to flow and that high customer acquisition costs (CAC) would be offset at some point by lifetime value (LTV).   

Smaller budgets, higher expectations

As investor sentiment turned and valuations tightened, one of the first reactions was to slash budgets. This resulted in a widespread reaction to cut costs, with many CMOs trimming budgets in easy-to-identify areas like headcount, agencies, and campaign spending. 

Instead of fundamentally rethinking how they operated and allocated their budget, marketing teams were simply asked to do more of the same with fewer resources while now being held to higher expectations.

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result… you know how the rest of that saying goes.

Fast-forward to today. Many SaaS CMOs are still struggling, and it has become painfully clear that we won’t be able to fix marketing without addressing the core structural inefficiencies. Cutting costs didn't create a more sustainable or scalable way of working. 

This new business environment and the growing awareness among business and marketing leaders for the need for a more structural GTM-wide approach have spotlighted Jacco van der Kooij's Revenue Factory concept.

The revenue factory

Jacco van der Kooij introduced the Revenue Architecture concept in 2018. This framework was presented in his book Blueprints for a SaaS Sales Organization, where he laid out the foundation for building scalable and predictable revenue models for SaaS companies.

In his recent book, Revenue Architecture, Jacco van der Kooij introduces the Revenue Factory as a future operating model for SaaS companies to replace the Growth-at-all-Cost (or GAAC) model.

This model emphasizes the need to streamline and align various teams, processes, and systems within a SaaS organization to optimize growth and profitability. It is akin to a well-functioning factory that consistently produces high-quality products most cost-effectively.

Instead of the funnel concept, it is built around the entire customer journey with the bowtie as its new data model. It focuses on customer impact, ensuring that all functions (marketing, sales, and customer success) align with the customer's needs at every stage and consistently provide value.

Rethinking KPIs to unlock (product) marketing

SaaS companies rely on recurring revenue. The Revenue Factory model is built on the premise that a significant improvement in revenue growth and profitability can only come from the compound growth of existing customers. 

Because of the exponential nature of recurring revenue when impact is consistent, the financial benefits are undeniable, explaining why impact-driven SaaS companies are so successful.

The book isn’t a step-by-step manual for marketers. This article is part of figuring that out for ourselves.

However, reprioritizing resource allocation will be important, as customer lifecycle management, retention, cross-sell, upsell strategies, and building deeper customer relationships become more critical elements for marketing in this new operating model.

However, we still have many teams out there where marketing is optimized for short-term MQL and pipeline targets. 

Teams and budgets prioritize tactics like paid ads and lead generation to deliver the expected volume increases, regardless of what happens to the deal or the customer afterward.

That is also why product marketing’s scope is often largely restricted to sales enablement, and its impact is limited to a supporting role in acquiring new customers.

To embrace the Revenue Factory concept, CMOs must be allowed to expand their focus beyond their bubble of tactical awareness, education, and selection – focused KPIs, which are disconnected from strategic business goals and customer impact. 

It limits their chance to generate deeper insights into customers, establish differentiated positioning, improve messaging, and nurture existing customers to drive upsell and retention opportunities – often where the company's highest returns on investment lie for marketing.

With the right KPIs, product marketing can play a more central role in aligning sales, marketing, and customer success activities with the company's broader business goals, enhancing growth and profitability.

Given that it is the only function apart from RevOps to span the entire bowtie, it is already well-positioned to do so. We just have to solve this resource allocation issue. 

Picture this…

A CMO who isn’t just a funnel wrangler or a lead-chasing tactician but a true co-architect of sustainable business growth. 

A marketing leader who walks into the boardroom, not with a slide deck packed with vanity metrics, but with customer insights that make the CEO nod, the CFO sit up, and the CSO rethink their next move.

In this world, marketing isn’t “the team that makes things look pretty” but a strategic lever for scaling the business.

Gone are the days of chasing MQLs and opportunities that ghost before the deal closes or become churning customers. Instead, marketing operates at the heart of the Revenue Factory – a machine finely tuned to turn initial wins into long-term growth. 

Cross-functional respect isn’t a dream; it’s the default. The silos are smashed, and collaboration flows freely between marketing, sales, and customer success.

In this promised land, product marketing is no longer the band-aid slapped on for sales enablement. It’s the secret weapon – a powerhouse that connects the dots across the entire customer lifecycle.

It’s the glue holding together the focus on customer impact. It doesn’t just win customers but keeps them, grows them, and turns them into raving advocates.

CMOs are strategic sparring partners – sitting elbow-to-elbow with the CEO, CFO, and CSO, shaping strategy, influencing investment decisions, and ensuring the entire organization moves in lockstep with the customer. No more “stay in your lane” nonsense; this is about co-driving the business.

When pigs fly, you say? Hold that thought.

Investing in customer insights

To unlock this world, we need to equip CMOs and product marketers with the magic to slay the monster holding them back: the beast of tactical, short-term thinking starving marketing of its true potential. This magic has four key elements, each powerful on its own but unstoppable when combined.

Aligned KPIs for unified goals

The first element of this magic is alignment. Joined KPIs that span the entire go-to-market leadership team – marketing, sales, customer success, and product – creating a shared compass that guides every function. 

It will help them rise above their siloes and align around business goals beyond customer acquisition; such as retention, upsell, and customer lifetime value.

It’s important to note that we’re talking about the leadership team; not all the individuals within their teams who often have very specific roles and responsibilities. 

Consider a typical situation where each leader has their own set of KPIs: the marketing head is measured by the number of leads generated, the sales leader by revenue from new customers, and the customer success leader by customer retention rates.

In this scenario, the marketing team might focus on generating a high volume of leads, regardless of fit, just to meet their quota. The sales team may close deals that boost short-term revenue but aren't aligned with long-term customer success. 

Meanwhile, customer success struggles because the new clients brought in are not an ideal fit and are prone to churn. Without aligned KPIs that span these functions, efforts become siloed and counterproductive, leading to conflict, missed opportunities for synergy, and an overall misalignment that hampers true business growth.

By creating joined KPIs, the leadership team shifts focus from isolated targets to collective outcomes. This unified approach ensures that every strategy and initiative works in harmony to drive sustainable growth and a seamless customer experience.

Understanding customer impact

Key to driving efficiency is understanding not just what customers are doing but why they’re doing it and how your solutions are helping them succeed.

Most organizations however are drowning in disconnected data, spreadsheets, and dashboards that lack context. Without more profound insights into customer impact, it’s like trying to complete a puzzle with half the pieces missing.

Imagine a company that promises a powerful, user-friendly project management solution aimed at streamlining collaboration and increasing productivity. The marketing and sales teams are aligned on delivering this value proposition and confidently attract numerous leads. 

However, without a unified understanding across teams of why customers are truly buying and what aspects of the solution are most impactful, they may unintentionally attract customers for the wrong reasons – such as leveraging a discount or due to features that don’t align with their core needs. 

As these mismatches become apparent, the gap between the promised value and the delivered value widens. Customers might start using the product superficially or not at all, leading to frustration and unmet expectations. 

This disconnect results in higher churn rates, as customers leave for solutions that better fit their requirements, ultimately undermining the company’s growth and reputation.

When you truly understand customer impact, you empower sales, marketing, customer success and product teams to align their efforts with what truly matters to customers. Messaging becomes sharper and experiences more seamless. 

Promises are kept, and every touchpoint feels like a step forward in the customer’s journey.

The power of qualitative research

If joined KPIs and customer impact are the foundation, qualitative research is the missing link that turns insights into magic. Where data tells you the "what", qualitative research shows you the "why".

It’s the only way to get out of the spreadsheet and into your customers' hearts and minds, uncovering what they truly care about, what frustrates them, and what drives them to stay. Or go.

Through interviews, focus groups, social listening, and working on case studies, qualitative research adds richness and depth to the story behind the numbers. It helps you answer critical “why” questions.

At least as powerful, qualitative research builds empathy across teams. When marketing, sales, and customer success leaders hear the customer’s voice directly, silos start to crumble, and alignment becomes easier. Decisions aren’t made in a vacuum but with the customer at the center.

Product marketing as strategic glue

Product marketing, when unleashed, is an essential protector and enabler of the entire customer journey. It’s not just a supporting role; together with Rev Ops, it’s the catalyst that ensures alignment across sales, marketing, customer success and product. 

By doing qualitative research and managing important aspects like ICP documentation, messaging, and positioning, product marketing guards against leaks in the bowtie and helps teams drive incremental gains that, over time, drive exponential impact on business growth and efficiency. 

Wait a minute – did you see that pig fly by?

The new era of product marketing

The end of "Growth at All Costs" marks the beginning of a more mature and sustainable SaaS industry.

By aligning teams around customer impact and strengthening product marketing’s role within the GTM team, we can build businesses that both grow and are profitable at the same time. 

This journey isn’t easy, and we’ve been fighting the good fight for years now… When successful the rewards are unparalleled.

In our guide below, Product Marketing in 2025, we've created a comparison between how product marketing operated before 2025 and where it's headed, offering CMOs and GTM leaders a clear guideline to diagnose their current state and the direction they need to take.

You can download the full-sized guide here.

As we reach the end of this article, we hope the future is clear: SaaS companies that prioritize customer impact, cross-functional alignment around the customer, and a more strategic role for product marketing will redefine success in the years to come. 

Let’s seize this moment to lead the charge and transform challenges into opportunities for exponential impact. The future of the CMO and product marketing is here – are you ready to build it?

Authors' note: Many thanks to Karien Pype, CMO at Ontoforce; Twan Stoppelenburg, Marketing Manager at Anchr; Rolf Tjalsma, Fractional CMO; Wolter Rebergen, CEO at SaaS Masters; Jess Thompons, Product Marketing Manager at Metabase; Shreyans Jain, Product Marketer at Funda; Annebel Wijnen, Product Marketer at EyeOn; and Kilian Drewel, Product Marketer at Team Blue, for reviewing and providing feedback.