In most subscription software companies, there’s a direct correlation between revenue growth and sales and marketing spending. Any company that gets more growth off the same amount of sales spending has a shot at eventually generating profits—in an industry where that feat is rare.
Workday appears to be on track to do so. As the accompanying chart shows, Workday spends less of its revenue on sales and marketing than other high profile subscription software companies, according to an analysis done by The Information. That metric, reflecting the cost of signing new customers, is easily the biggest expense category for the sector.