Why Are Our B2B SaaS Leads Not Converting? With Bethany Prettyman
Former Huntress marketing operations lead Bethany Prettyman on why the funnel you are measuring is not the one your buyers are using, and what to track instead of marketing qualified leads.
Usually because the funnel model is wrong, not because the leads are bad. Buyers loop: they research, disappear, return, and bring other people. A linear funnel scores them at a stage they have already left, so marketing hands over contacts that meet a definition nobody in sales recognizes. Track intent and velocity rather than stage, and the conversion problem usually turns out to be a measurement problem.
What You Will Take Away
1. The funnel is a loop, and that is not a metaphor.
Bethany’s framing: “Funnels aren’t linear. You need to look at loop models. Those are more accurate.” Buyers research, go quiet, come back with a colleague, and restart. A model that assumes forward motion reports progress that is not happening.
2. Track intent and velocity, not stage.
A contact that meets an MQL definition tells you a form was filled. Intent tells you whether they are in market, and velocity tells you whether they are moving. The first is a fact about your form. The other two are facts about the buyer.
3. Build the reporting per stakeholder, not per dashboard.
Her approach: “I take an engineering approach. I take an agile approach. What are the user stories?” Each person reading the report has a different question, and “each constituent is going to need to answer a certain set of questions.” One dashboard for everyone answers nobody’s.
4. Audit the stack against what the business needs, not what it cost.
Martech accumulates. Tools bought for a strategy nobody runs anymore keep renewing, and the data they fragment is the data your attribution depends on. Her test is simple: what problem is this solving, and can I see leads next to opportunities next to revenue?
5. Know your buyer’s world, not just your buyer.
Her line about her own market: “Cybersecurity is a lifestyle choice.” The people she markets to identify with the category, which changes what lands. She learned the same lesson in reverse at Toast, where a webinar strategy was useless because the buyer was on their feet running a restaurant. A lead that does not convert is often a lead that never felt understood.
Listen to the Full Conversation
About the Guest
Bethany Prettyman, Senior Director of Marketing Operations, Huntress. Huntress builds managed detection and response security for small and mid-sized businesses that are too small for an in-house security team. Bethany runs the operations side of marketing there: the systems, the reporting, and the measurement that sit underneath campaigns. She has been through two IPOs, at Rapid7 and at Toast, and moved Toast off HubSpot onto Marketo. That is the vantage point this conversation comes from, which is why it is about models rather than tactics.
About the Host
Alex Gluz, CEO, T.A. Monroe. Alex hosts the Revenue Engine Podcast and builds performance-driven growth frameworks for B2B SaaS companies, with a focus on customer acquisition, demand generation, pipeline, and measurable revenue outcomes.
In This Episode…
Marketing is producing leads. Sales is rejecting them. The numbers look fine right up until the pipeline stage where they do not. That is the most common version of this problem, and it is rarely solved by generating more leads.
Bethany Prettyman runs marketing operations, which means she sees the funnel as a system that either describes reality or does not. Her argument is that it does not. Buyers do not progress through stages; they loop. They research for months, go quiet, come back with a colleague, and start again. A model that assumes forward motion will keep scoring people at a stage they have already left, and the contacts it hands to sales will keep meeting a definition sales does not use. Her alternative is to stop counting MQLs and start measuring intent and velocity, which are facts about the buyer rather than facts about your form.
In this episode of the Revenue Engine Podcast, Alex Gluz talks with Bethany Prettyman about why B2B SaaS leads stop converting: the loop model, why she wants every attribution model rather than one, how to build reporting around the question each stakeholder is actually asking, how to audit a martech stack against business goals, and what two very different buyer journeys at Rapid7 and Toast taught her about knowing the buyer’s world.
What Is Covered
What to Measure Instead of Marketing Qualified Leads
The pattern underneath all five. Every left-hand column measures something your marketing team controls. Every right-hand column measures something the buyer does. When leads stop converting, it is almost always because the first kind of measurement drifted away from the second.
No figures in this table, deliberately. The credible public benchmarks for intent and velocity do not exist, and the ones that circulate are vendor marketing. The argument is structural and does not need them.
How to Apply This
- Reevaluate your B2B funnel model. Moving beyond linear thinking helps align marketing strategy with modern, nonlinear buyer behavior.
- Focus on intent and velocity over MQLs. Prioritizing lead quality and readiness ensures sales receives the most conversion-ready opportunities.
- Tailor reporting to each stakeholder. Custom dashboards that answer specific questions improve clarity, buy-in, and decision-making across departments.
- Audit your martech stack regularly. Aligning tools with business goals prevents tech bloat and ensures every platform delivers ROI.
- Apply agile methodology to marketing ops. Using user stories and acceptance criteria streamlines reporting, tech solutions, and cross-functional collaboration.
- Ask sales to define a good lead, in writing, this week. Most conversion problems are definition problems wearing a measurement costume. If marketing’s qualifying criteria and sales’ acceptance criteria have never been written next to each other, that is the first place to look, and it costs nothing to check.
Getting Leads That Sales Will Actually Take?
Quotable Moments
- “Funnels aren’t linear. You need to look at loop models. Those are more accurate.”
- “I take an engineering approach. I take an agile approach. What are the user stories?”
- “Cybersecurity is a lifestyle choice.”
- “Each constituent is going to need to answer a certain set of questions.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are our B2B SaaS leads not converting?
Most often because the qualifying model does not match how buyers behave. B2B buying loops rather than progresses: people research, disappear, return with colleagues, and restart. A linear funnel scores a contact at a stage they have already left, so marketing passes over leads that meet a definition sales does not recognize.
Is it a lead quality problem or a sales problem?
Usually neither on its own. It is a definition problem. If marketing’s qualifying criteria and sales’ acceptance criteria have never been written down next to each other, both teams are working correctly toward different targets.
What should we track instead of MQLs?
Intent, meaning whether the account is actively in market, and velocity, meaning how fast they move between real events. Both are facts about the buyer. An MQL count is a fact about your form.
Which attribution model should we use?
Bethany’s answer is all of them. First in tells you how new names enter the funnel, multi-touch tells you what each piece contributed, and different teams need different views of the same journey. Picking one model and defending it produces a tidy number about a journey nobody took.
Why does our pipeline look healthy while conversion falls?
Because volume and velocity move independently. A pipeline can hold more records and move more slowly at the same time, and a stage-based report will show the first and hide the second until the quarter closes.
Does the martech stack have anything to do with it?
More than most teams expect. Tools accumulate around strategies that have since changed, and each one fragments the data your attribution depends on. Bethany’s test is whether she can see leads and qualified leads next to opportunities next to recurring revenue. If she cannot, the connection cannot be drawn. A stack audit is usually a measurement fix before it is a cost saving.
How do you get marketing, sales and finance to agree?
Communication and one shared set of data. Her point is that the three functions silo quickly because they speak different languages, so you have to speak each one and then let the same data tell the story to all of them. She adds a harder part: be honest when something is not working, even when that causes conflict.
Metrics Mentioned
Marketing qualified leads · Qualified leads · Opportunities · Annual recurring revenue · Intent · Velocity · Lead-to-opportunity conversion · Opportunity cycle length · Customer acquisition cost · First-in and multi-touch attribution
Tools & Channels Discussed
Tools. Salesforce · HubSpot · Marketo · NetSuite · CPQ and billing systems · Intent tools · Enrichment tools · Attribution and reporting dashboards
Channels and motions. Webinars · Demand generation · Nurture programs · Demo requests · MSP partner community · Vendor evaluation and scoring with IT
Resources Mentioned
Related Episodes
T.A. Monroe’s Take: Almost Every Lead Quality Problem We Audit Is a Definition Problem
When an account comes to us because the leads are not converting, the first thing we ask for is not the campaign data. It is the two definitions: what marketing counts as qualified, and what sales will accept. They are almost never the same document, and often neither exists in writing.
That is not a process complaint. It is where the money is going. If marketing is optimizing toward a definition sales does not use, every improvement in campaign performance produces more of something nobody wanted. The campaigns get better, and the conversion rate does not move.
Bethany’s loop point is the structural version of the same thing. A linear model gives you a tidy definition of a stage that buyers do not actually pass through in order. Then the definition drifts further from reality every quarter, because the model cannot see that it is wrong.
Where we are specific, and most are vague. We run campaigns across cybersecurity, martech, fintech, and B2B SaaS at once, with eight years and over 3,500 campaigns behind us. When we see a conversion rate, we can tell you whether it is bad or normal for your segment, which is the difference between a diagnosis and a worry.
The leads are usually fine. The definition they were measured against is the problem.
When the Leads Were Fine, and the Audience Was Wrong
Mesmer’s campaigns were reaching people who were never going to buy. T.A. Monroe redefined the target ICP, segmented it properly, and rebuilt the messaging and the funnel around what the data actually showed. The case study sets out what changed.
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