Sales efficiency measures how much new annual recurring revenue your go to market engine generates for every dollar you spend winning it. This calculator divides the new ARR added in a period by the sales and marketing spend in that period, giving you a ratio that is a close cousin of the well known SaaS magic number. It is one of the fastest ways to judge whether your growth is being bought cheaply or expensively, and founders, finance leads and revenue teams lean on it heavily when deciding how aggressively to invest in growth. A ratio above one means you added more than a dollar of new ARR for every dollar spent, which is generally healthy, while a ratio well below one signals that acquisition is getting expensive and may need attention before you pour in more budget. To use it, enter the new ARR you won in the period and your total sales and marketing spend for the same window. The tool returns the efficiency ratio along with the new ARR earned per dollar of spend, expressed in cents, so the result is easy to explain. A few habits keep the number meaningful. Match the periods so spend and the ARR it helped create line up sensibly, and remember there is often a lag between spending and the revenue it produces. Include the full cost of sales and marketing, salaries, commissions, tools and programs, not just media spend, or you will flatter the figure. Track the ratio over several quarters rather than reading too much into one period, since a single quarter can swing on timing. Compare it with your payback period and customer acquisition cost for a fuller view of go to market health.
Sales efficiency = new ARR / sales and marketing spend. Estimate only, not financial or tax advice.
Sales efficiency divides the new annual recurring revenue won in a period by the sales and marketing spend in that period. A ratio above one means you added more than a dollar of new ARR for each dollar spent. The per dollar figure expresses the same ratio as revenue earned per dollar.
With $1,200,000 of new ARR and $800,000 of sales and marketing spend, sales efficiency is 1200000 divided by 800000, which is 1.50. That is the same as earning $1.50 of new ARR for every $1 spent.
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