# SaaS Alliance > Whether you’re from a seed-stage startup or start-up or an MNC, we’ve got the content to help you drive growth - through revenue, users, product, investment, or company headcount. Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. This file includes a bounded export of public pages first, then recent public posts. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages ### Membership URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/membership/ Last updated: 2024-04-23T11:29:52.000Z coming soon.... ### signup URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/ Last updated: 2024-04-25T15:35:02.000Z _No content available._ ### teams URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/teams/ Last updated: 2023-12-05T10:07:26.000Z _No content available._ ### About URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/about/ Last updated: 2024-09-04T08:28:56.000Z SaaS Alliance was founded in early 2020, with a vision of providing the most comprehensive resources, content, and learning materials for SaaS leaders at every stage of growth. As the industry continues to expand and new products, tech, job functions, and investment are introduced - it can be difficult to keep up. While it’s not essential for the C-Suite to know the ins and outs of every function, it’s important to have an understanding of the different parts of the engine to ensure the motor runs smoothly. This is why we cover everything from finance and investment to marketing, strategy, customer success, DEI, and much more. Whether you’re unsure how to pitch to investors, wondering how to set up a CS team, struggling to deliver product-led growth, or simply want to keep your ear to the ground on how other SaaS businesses are succeeding, we’ve got something for you. Consider it a comprehensive helicopter view of all things SaaS for those leading the charge. Whether you’re from a seed-stage startup or start-up or an MNC, we’ve got the content to help you drive growth - through revenue, users, product, investment, or company headcount. Our global network of founders, senior execs, product pros, commercial leads, talent managers, and investors is constantly growing. It’s an exciting time to become part of the FoSaaS community! ### [Are you ready to join us?](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/) --- ## Our mission Since our inception, we’ve achieved a great deal. But we don’t rest on our laurels. We’re constantly looking for ways in which we can evolve and further engage, educate, and inspire our community. Our mission is simply to offer the most comprehensive resources, content, and learning materials for SaaS leaders at every stage of growth. Got an idea? Great. We’d love to hear from you. --- ## Here’s what’s on offer already: - A [**content library**](https://www.saasalliance.io/articles/) bursting with articles, interviews, and insights from the FoSaaS team and guest contributors. Interactive [**virtual and in-person events**](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-saas-folks-love-our-events/), featuring presentations, panels, Q&As, networking opportunities, and more. - [**Membership packages** ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/)to provide you with everything you need to excel in your role and propel your organization’s growth. - [**Reports**](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/saas-reports/) that delve into the hottest topics to uncover the trends that will help you keep pace with a rapidly evolving business landscape. - A[**Slack Community**](https://www.saasalliance.io/join-the-fosaas-community/)that’s growing every single day. You can find SaaS leaders from all across the globe discussing the industry’s most important questions. --- ## We’re proudly part of The Alliance umbrella. [The Alliance](https://allianceled.io/) is the world’s most forward-thinking professional development platform for high-growth organizations and individuals worldwide. Through market-leading accredited courses, unrivaled membership plans, industry-shaping reports, thriving communities, and first-class events, it’s redefining the way companies access education and scale. Other brands part of The Alliance ecosystem include: Product Marketing Alliance, Sales Enablement Collective, Product-Led Alliance, Competitive Intelligence Alliance, AI Accelerator Institute, Customer Success Collective, CMO Alliance, Revenue Marketing Alliance, and more. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/pasted-image-0.png)](https://allianceled.io/) ### Meet the SaaS Alliance team URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-alliance-team/ Last updated: 2024-10-10T11:51:57.000Z Lovely to meet you! Each one of us has a pivotal role in making sure you feel like the valued community member that you are. Interested in getting to know us more? Feel free to add us on LinkedIn with the links below. [**Richard King**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardking001/) CEO at the Alliance [**Jordan Dunne**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-dunne-1926a066/?ref=aiacceleratorinstitute.com) Co-founder & partnerships [**Tim Mitchell**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothymitchell694/?ref=aiacceleratorinstitute.com) Community and Events Manager [**Marisa Garanhel**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisa-garanhel-2194845b/?ref=aiacceleratorinstitute.com) Content Lead [**Anthony Witherspoon**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-witherspoon-342835238/) Copywriter/Content Lead [**Harry Ratcliffe**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/harry-ratcliffe-92b485183/) Digital Marketing Executive [**Ryan Yuan**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ieryanyuan/?ref=aiacceleratorinstitute.com) Global Event Director [**Rebecca Boucher** ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccaboucher500/) Director of Community & Events Marketing [**Tytti Hyysalo**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tytti-hyysalo-29b888158/?ref=aiacceleratorinstitute.com) Community Manager Any questions? Contact any of us at any time. See you around! ### Partner with us URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/partner/ Last updated: 2025-11-12T11:08:04.000Z Wanna put your product at the forefront of the SaaS circle? Can't say we blame you. 😏 Check out your options below. ## Why partner with SaaS Alliance? Pretty simple. You can get yourself associated with a community dedicated to driving progress in software as a service. And not just anyone - but the C-Suite. Mingle with a community dedicated to driving progress in SaaS and get: 1. Access to the CEOs, Founders and the C-Suite from start up and high growth SaaS organizations. 2. Thousands of subscribers will see your message. 3. Network face to face at our in person events, or online at our virtual events 4. Expand your network globally - North America, EMEA, LATAM, MENA, APAC - we've got it all covered. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/05/Logos.png) ## How can we help? Whether you’re targeting MNCs or emerging start-ups, we have a range of solutions depending on who you’re looking to meet. ### ☕️ In Person Conference Series Bringing together hundreds of C-Suite from start ups in a business, conference style environment, these are the ultimate opportunity to meet your prospects face to face, and have in depth discussions over a cup of coffee or lunch ### 🖥 Webinars We’ve got you covered: we’ll guarantee that a certain number of business leaders will sign up for your webinar. ### 🎟 Virtual summits Thousands of c-suite tune into each of our virtual events. Why wouldn’t you be there? ### 🔦 Content spotlight Want to showcase your solution, product, or thought-leadership? Our Content spotlight can help increase your exposure. Provide us with your article and we’ll get it published for the eyes of your target audience and more. ### 📝 White paper syndication Similar to our webinars, we don't leave anything to chance: we’ll guarantee that a certain number of leaders will download your content. ## How can I get involved? You can start by downloading the FoSaaS media pack to explore the opportunities available to you. Got any questions? Get in touch: [juta@teamalliance.io](mailto:juta@teamalliance.io) or [book in some time to chat](https://calendly.com/juta-2/30min)! ### Contact us URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/contact/ Last updated: 2024-09-04T08:19:36.000Z ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/09/SaaS-question.gif) If you're after something in particular, here are some quick links: **Sponsor or partner opportunities:** **Content opportunities:** anthony@pmmalliance.com **Marketing inquiries:** [marketing@saasalliance.io](mailto:marketing@saasalliance.io) **Event inquiries:** [tytti](mailto:tytti@pmmalliance.com)[@pmmalliance.com](mailto:tytti@pmmalliance.com) **Community/ambassador inquiries:** [tytti@pmmalliance.com](mailto:tytti@pmmalliance.com) **Anything and everything else:** [hello@saasalliance.io](mailto:hello@saasalliance.io) Or, feel free to ping us in the [Slack community](https://www.saasalliance.io/join-the-fosaas-community/), it's pretty much our second home. 😉 ### Create & Contribute URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/contributor-guide/ Last updated: 2025-11-12T11:03:12.000Z SaaS Alliance is home to a growing network of over 5000 SaaS professionals from across the globe. Each year, our website receives tens of thousands of visits from SaaS gurus across all disciplines -- including sales, product marketing, and customer success -- from some of the giants of the industry, all looking to learn more about the latest strategies and developments in the SaaS game. To feed our ever-expanding community of champions, we're always on the lookout for people just like you to share your expertise and help us shape the next generation of SaaS. If you're interested in sharing your insights and experiences with one of the world's most dynamic SaaS communities, read on to find out how you can contribute to our platform. #### ****Write for us ✍️** Each and every month, 1000s of people make their way onto our site. That’s **a lot* of eyes and exposure for your article. So, whether you want to write about AI, sales enablement strategies, vertical SaaS, or low-code developments, we want to hear more. If you’ve got the insights, we’ve got the platform. Here’s how to contribute 👇🏼 ****Step 1: Submit your subject** Before you put your fingers to the keyboard, drop us a line and let us know what you want to write about. Some popular topics include: - SaaS marketing strategies - Customer advocacy - Sustainable growth strategies - SaaS metrics and data analysis - Customer onboarding strategies - Customer feedback utilization - How to secure investment funding - GTM strategies - SaaS and AI ****Step 2: Follow the rules** We’re a reasonable bunch and we don’t expect too much, but what we do ask for is: - Articles to be no shorter than 800 words - Any pictures included to be royalty-free - A picture to sit with your contributor profile - A short bio (200 characters or less) Also, individual contributions shouldn’t promote your company’s products or services. For that sort of stuff, we have sponsorship opportunities. **See below for these opportunities!* ****Step 3: Submit your work** Either send us ([Anthony ](anthony@futureofsaas.io)or [Sophie](s.raymond@pmmalliance.com)) a message on Slack or reach us by email and remember to include the link/attachment to your article along with your profile pic and bio - if you’re not already set up as a contributor, that is. Already published something awesome elsewhere? Not a problem. With custom canonical links, you can still share it with our audience too. Yawn 💤 time for the boring bits… ****Image policy** We include images with every post. Stock photography will be chosen by our team and will be posted with your entry unless you have a particular image you wish to use. By including any photos, screenshots, or images, you consent to allow SaaS Alliance to post this image with proper credit to you and/or the creator. ****Link policy** Links in your post should be relevant to the story you’re telling and provide context to your audience. When referring to another article or piece of research, please use proper citations or links to the source material. ****Syndication policy** We reserve the right to use any and all contributed content, with credit to any authors, in its entirety or in portions for promotional purposes, including in social media, other blogs, or newsletters. SaaS Alliance may choose to cross-post to Medium, LinkedIn, or other blogging services. #### ****Speak at an event 📆** At our globally-renowned virtual events, you'll have the chance to share your expertise and successes with current and aspiring SaaS professionals. Boost your profile and share your org's successes with the world. If you're interested, please contact us using the form [here.](https://productmarketingall.typeform.com/to/wSYcSS2u?utm%5Fsource=xxxxx&utm%5Fmedium=xxxxx&utm%5Fcampaign=xxxxx&utm%5Fterm=xxxxx&utm%5Fcontent=xxxxx) #### ****Guest or host a podcast 🎤** Our podcast, SaaScast, has fast become essential listening for 1,000s of SaaS leaders. We provide thought leaders with a platform to share not only their experiences but also their unique insights and perspectives on the big trends and developments from within the SaaS space. Want to feature on a podcast? Or maybe you'd like to host your own? Get in touch with us below to let us know! Contact: #### ****Sponsorship opportunities 🤝** More and more ambitious startups are wanting to get in on the SaaS revolution, and as a sponsor, you could be there to support them on their path to growth. If you want to market your products and gain exposure to 1,000s of companies looking for solutions to scale their businesses, our sponsorship solutions are for you! Become a sponsor: - Events - Articles - Reports - Podcasts - Webinars - Virtual summits See how you can collaborate with us [here.](https://www.saasalliance.io/partner/) #### ****Contribute to a report or playbook 📚** Our regular landscape reports and playbooks put the spotlight on the latest developments at the cutting edge of SaaS, as well as laying out actionable strategies for SaaS leaders looking to scale their business. To continue our industry-leading research, we're always keen to hear from practitioners and experts who have something to share. Have a look at the surveys we're currently running to find out how you can help shape the SaaS Alliance. ****What we need from you:** 1. A headshot 2. A short 200-word bio 3. A quote ****Get in touch with us below:** ****Reports we're working on:** - Pitch Perfect: How to secure investment funding for your SaaS startup - SaaS Metrics Report - Future of SaaS Report - Ones to Watch Report #### ****Be a course beta tester 🎓** Our expert-led courses aren't created in isolation, which is why we need your help. We seek support from researchers, engineers, analysts, and scientists to ensure that our training programs deliver everything a participant needs to take the next step in their career. Interested to know what you'll get in return for being a beta tester? First and free access to accredited courses - for life. What we need from you first, though? Candid, thorough, and timely feedback. To enquire about becoming a beta tester for FoSaaS please email: [sophie@pmmalliance.com](mailto:sophie@pmmalliance.com) #### ****Meetup organizer 🏘️** We've got a few regional meetups coming up and we can't wait to see you there! The best part? They're free. And better yet, you can run your own meetups in your city and chat with your local peers. If you're interested in being a meetup organizer, you can pop us an email on [community@saasalliance.io](mailto:community@saasalliance.io) --- ## Why you should get involved - **6,000** members in the community - **7,000+** members on LinkedIn - **20,000** website visitors a years If you decide to contribute to our considerable bank of quality SaaS content, you'll be in good company. Take a look at some of the trailblazing orgianizations who have contributed. 👇 ![Future of SaaS contributors](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/Screen-Shot-2023-05-05-at-4.39.32-PM.jpg) ## ### Membership dashboard URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/account/ Last updated: 2025-03-25T15:50:14.000Z ## Your membership dashboard Here, you've got access to all the templates, frameworks, presentations, videos, events, and more, that come as part of your plan. Catch-up on all the [**latest releases here**](https://www.saasalliance.io/whats-new-in-your-future-of-saas-membership-plan/). ## Members-only content ### Templates & frameworks [Templates & frameworks | Future of SaaSWhether you’re looking for a template on SaaS metrics or a framework for customer onboarding, the Future of SaaS membership template hub has it all. And more.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2020/10/FoSaaS_templates--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/templates-frameworks/) ### Future of SaaS OnDemand [Your OnDemand SaaS hub | Future of SaaSWhether you want catch up on the latest SaaS hacks by topic or event, peruse our OnDemand event catalog, access 100s of hours’ of footage, and learn from the likes of Google, Asana, Wistia, McAfee, and more, on tap.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2021/09/FoSaaS_video_footage-1.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/ondemand-saas-hub/) ### Toolkits [Future of SaaS learning toolkitsWe’ve bundled a bunch of our members-only content into these handy toolkits to help you prep for your next big project.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2023/08/FoSaaS-toolkit.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-learning-toolkits/) ### Exclusive content [Membership contentLearn from Saas leaders from companies like Typeform, Zuora, New Relic, Atlassian, Buffer, and more, with your very own biweekly dose of exclusive, membership-only content.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSMike Lee![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2020/09/FoSaaS_exclusive_articles.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/membership-content/) ### Reports [Member reportsHere’s easy access to all our eBooks and data-backed reports. No form-filling is required.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2022/03/Resources-TINYPNG-Version.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/member-reports/) ### Member perks [Member perksAs a fully-fledged FoSaaS member, you’ve unlocked extra discounts to various other products we offer.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSNatasha Beresford![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2022/03/Member-Perks-TINYPNG-version.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/member-perks/) ### SaasStream URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saasstream/ Last updated: 2020-10-01T14:05:29.000Z _No content available._ ### Meet the ambassadors URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/meet-the-ambassadors/ Last updated: 2025-11-12T11:09:40.000Z Our ambassadors are dotted all over the world and when it comes to helping us achieve our mission, they're instrumental. From who they are and what they do learn all about them below. 👇 ### **Become a Future of SaaS ambassador.** Apply to be an ambassador [here.](https://productmarketingall.typeform.com/to/odl0FscF) The form shouldn’t take any longer than a few minutes to complete and once you’ve registered you’re interest we’ll get back to you with a little bit more info about what is involved. In the meantime, if you’ve got any questions, drop us a line on [hello@futureofsaas.io](mailto:hello@futureofsaas.io) or find me (Rebecca) on [Slack](https://productmarketingalliance.com/join-slack/). ### Ones to Watch in SaaS 2022 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/ones-to-watch-in-saas-2022/ Last updated: 2024-07-19T15:43:48.000Z Do you know someone who’s currently killing it in the SaaS sphere? Maybe they’re on an upward trajectory, or they’ve been crushing it for years. Well, we’re looking to celebrate the most influential and inspirational ‘ones to watch’ in SaaS. Nominate your trailblazers below, and tell us why they deserve a spot in our upcoming report. 👇 If you’d like to nominate yourself, go for it! But make sure you have a compelling enough reason why you should rank alongside our SaaS pros. # What’s in the report? Through your nominations, some astute social listening, and our internal panel, we’ll compile our **Ones to Watch in SaaS 2022 report**. This report will allow you to: - Uncover actionable insights from inspirational SaaS professionals - Chart their career trajectory so far - Find out who’s leading the way in the SaaS sector Thanks for nominating! **We'll be revealing 2022's ones to watch in January - keep your eyes peeled!** 👀 ### Future of SaaS Festival, May 2020 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-ondemand/ Last updated: 2022-04-11T14:38:39.000Z Catch-up on 2020's chock-a-block fest and learn from SaaS leaders from orgs like Typeform, Zuora, New Relic, Atlassian, Buffer, and more. And don't worry, the footage isn't going anywhere. You've got access for life. _This page is for paying subscribers only._ ### SaaS OnDemand | Events URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-ondemand/ Last updated: 2025-04-25T16:25:03.000Z [SaaS Metrics Summit | June 2023Catch up with all the sessions from the SaaS Metrics Summit, June 2023.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSophie Raymond![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/futureofsaas.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics-summit-june-2023/) [Future of SaaS Festival | April 2023Catch up with all the sessions from the Future of SaaS Festival, April 2023\. Learn to drive innovation, evolution and growth. Together.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSophie Raymond![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/futureofsaas.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-april-2023/) [Women in SaaS Summit, July 2022 | Future of SaaSCatch up on every presentation from the Women in SaaS Summit and learn from amazing speakers from Google Cloud, Wayfair, GitLab and Docusign.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAlex Ruggiero![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/FoSaaS_Women_in_SaaS_Summit_Assets_JUN22_6.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-2/) [Future of SaaS Festival, June 2022 | Future of SaaSCatch up on every presentation from the Future of SaaS Festival and learn from amazing speakers at Amazon, Google, Stripe and Smallpdf.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAlex Ruggiero![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/Fosaas-Background.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-3/) [SaaS Metrics Summit, April 2022 | Future of SaaSCatch up on every presentation from the SaaS Metrics Summit and learn from amazing speakers at Zoominfo, Auctane, Stripe and Linksquares.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAlex Ruggiero![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/FoSaaS_Metrics_Summit_Assets_APR22_V2_6.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics-summit-2/) [Future of SaaS Festival, Sept 2021 | Future of SaaSCatch up on every presentation from September’s Future of SaaS Festival and learn from SaaS experts from every department from organizations like Amazon Web Services, Slack, Typeform, and Adobe.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSGemma Davies![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/FoSaaS_Festival_Background.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-sept-2021/) [Women in SaaS Summit, September 2021 | Future of SaaSCatch up on every presentation from the Women in SaaS Summit and learn from amazing speakers at Amazon Web Services, GitHub, Twilio, and Intellum.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSGemma Davies![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/FoSaaS_Women_in_SaaS_background_2--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-september-2021/) [Customer Success Festival, June 2021 | Customer Success CollectiveCatch up on every presentation from June’s Customer Success Festival and learn from CS experts from leading organizations like Slack, monday.com, GitLab, and Amazon Web Services.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSGemma Davies![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/CSFest-2-background.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-festival-june-2021/) [Future of SaaS Festival, May 2021 | Future of SaaSCatch up on every presentation from the Future of SaaS Festival and learn from amazing companies like McAfee, Google Cloud, Workday, and Asana.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSGemma Davies![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/FoSaaS_Festival_Background.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-may-2021/) [SaaS Metrics Summit, April 2021 | Future of SaaSCatch up on every single session from the SaaS Metrics Summit and learn from leaders in organisations like McAfee, Zendesk, Wistia, Visme, and Openview.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSGemma Davies![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/FoSaaS_Metris_Background.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics-summit-april-2021/) [Customer Success Festival, February 2021 | Future of SaaSCatch up on every presentation from February’s Customer Success Festival and learn from amazing CS leaders from organizations like Celonis, ServiceNow, Direct Commerce and Slack.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSGemma Davies![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/CSFest-2-background.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-festival-february-2021/) [Future of SaaS Festival, December 2020 | Future of SaaSLearn from SaaS leaders at GitLab, Google, Typeform, Klarna and more, about everything from pricing and packaging to using PLG to achieve the 3 Es.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/12/fosass.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-h2/) [Future of SaaS Festival APAC, June 2020 | Future of SaaSCatch up on every second of SaaS content from this year’s APAC SaaS fest. Have a browse and take your pick from orgs like Oracle, Unscrambl and ProtoPie, and topics such as transitioning from learning to growth, pivoting to scale, customer success as a revenue driver, and lots, lots more.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/09/FoSaaS_meta_festival_2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-fest-apac/) [Future of SaaS Festival, May 2020 | Future of SaaSCatch-up on 2020′s chock-a-block fest and learn from SaaS leaders from orgs like Typeform, Zuora, New Relic, Atlassian, Buffer, and more. And don’t worry, the footage isn’t going anywhere. You’ve got access for life.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/09/FoSaaS_meta_festival.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-ondemand/) ### Future of SaaS Festival APAC, June 2020 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-fest-apac/ Last updated: 2020-12-09T19:07:32.000Z Catch up on every second of SaaS content from this year's APAC SaaS fest. Have a browse and take your pick from orgs like Oracle, Unscrambl and ProtoPie, and topics such as transitioning from learning to growth, pivoting to scale, customer success as a revenue driver, and lots, lots more. _This page is for paying subscribers only._ ### What is SaaS? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-saas/ Last updated: 2025-11-12T11:01:00.000Z ![Someone holding a smartphone and using a laptop, checking their SaaS software information.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/10/What-is-SaaS--Explaining-what-software-as-a-service-is.jpeg) SaaS is cloud-based software licensing where a customer uses a nifty subscription to get access to a product. Instead of downloading software and installing it to a computer, with SaaS a customer uses an app through the internet browser. Simples. Here are a few examples: - Google Apps - Slack - DocuSign - Netflix - Dropbox - [FoSaaS membership plans](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/) 😉 Oh, and you’ll also hear professionals call the tech “subscribeware” and “rentware”. They’re not wrong. It’s all the same thing—a type of software rental. ## What is a SaaS business? It's an organization that hosts an application online. Customers pay for it usually on a subscription basis. The application stays on the business' server and customers are able to use its features remotely. Since the advent of the internet, thousands of businesses like this have sprung up around the world. And the industry is continuing on the up. There are also three main types of "as a serivice" businesses. We cover what these are in our [SaaS vs PaaS vs IaaS guide](https://www.saasalliance.io/difference-between-saas-paas-iaas/). ## How to pronounce SaaS This is pretty straightforward, but important to get right. It's a catchy abbreviation and takes the edge of the full title—software as a service. But you don't want to be going around saying the wrong thing. Do you? Thankfully, we can confirm you pronounce it like this—"sass". ## A brief history of SaaS Where did all of this come from, then? Some pretty lowkey beginnings way back in the 20th century. Yes, the technology isn’t brand spanking new. It came about in the Swinging Sixties. Not as a hit single from The Beatles (even if All You Need is SaaS was a #1 in waiting), but in mainframe computers connected to terminals. Its name back then was *time-sharing*. But as computers became cheaper, by the Eighties businesses went on to make their own versions. The technology morphed in the Nineties and Noughties, especially with the arrival of the internet. Software as a service was born. It was a massive game-changer… sort of. Microsoft called it "software plus services", but that moniker was lost soon enough, The first generation was a tad inflexible. But it set the foundations of a revolutionary idea. Catapult forward to 2020 and software as a service is exploding with new ideas and popularity. Digital technology makes it all possible on a global scale. Is there any stopping its rise? Probably not! But that’s a good thing, as it’s pretty awesome and few customers can grumble about such a streamlined service. ## Why is SaaS so very, very popular? All because of its accessibility, affordability, connectivity, flexibility, and many other positive things (we cover the key benefits in detail a bit further below). For customers (many of them being businesses like you, of course), it helps make their life a great deal easier. And it gets a lot done. That means it’s in high demand. These days a cloud suite covers and connects everything between: - Financials - Human resources - Procurement - Supply-chain processes - Sales - Marketing - Legal Think about it—instead of buying and installing some complex piece of kit, a customer can subscribe to your software... and there we go. They’re ready to roll in a browser. It’s a huge deal in the world of digital. And from a business model POV, you’re pretty primed to hit a booming market and make a big difference. ## How does a SaaS business work? The basic business model is to host your software solution in the cloud. And customers (B2B and B2C) pay a subscription fee. No end user licenses, just a flat-fee rate and the customer is good to go. To get consumer interest, you need a great idea, the right technology, and a reliable product that gets the job done. There are three stages to business growth: 1. **The startup** **stage**: Everyone has to begin somewhere. Launch your idea, go to the market, and aim for your first customers. 2. **Hypergrowth**: The make or break it phase. If your product hits the mark, then you can grow at massive speeds and you’ll need to expand quickly to keep up. This can be tricky to handle, because some businesses aren’t ready for the mad rush of interest. So, it’s crucial to manage the influx of work to make the most of your success. 3. **Stability and growth**: Everything evens out, the profit rolls in, and you start to make a name for yourself. You may need to start hiring new talent to keep your vision heading forward, but otherwise you’re on the road to SaaS success. It’s all about maintaining databases, servers, and software. These keep an application ticking over online. These days, customers can access the software from pretty much most devices. At any time. And from anywhere around the world. They’ll pay a weekly, monthly, or annual fee for the service. Although the cost can vary a bit depending on: - How much data they’re storing. - The number of users. - How much technical support they need. Righto, so what types of SaaS companies are there? These are pretty varied. They include: - **Customer resource management (CRM):** Customers manage their info and track sales. - **Project management**: Tools like Trello, so the user can keep track of everything going on. - **Human resources**: This software tracks staff hours, manages employee data, deals with payroll, and helps with recruitment. - **Enterprise resource planning (ERP)**: For proper big companies with lots going on. There are plenty of other examples, of course, but it’s stuff like that where software as a service has worked its magic. ## What you provide to customers The technology powers marketing, service, and sales. From smart lead generation, to multi-channel support, to customer relationship management (CRM). Your software has capabilities like: - Connecting departments and providing cross-business fixes. - Faster and flexible patches for new features. - Personalization for a business’ needs. - Data portability. - Analytics tools for reporting data. All good, right? Software as a service is there to *simplify* business life. If you can work out how to do just that, you can gift your customers some major advantages. ## The benefits of SaaS for customers Efficiency is a major selling point for your company. Customers use the software you manage from your headquarters. And this means benefits for them such as: - **Saving money**: There’s no need to spend a huge amount on IT infrastructure, instead simply subscribing to a cloud-based solution. - **Manageability**: There’s minimal effort for customers. They just use the software and don’t worry about installations or patches. You take care of that for them. - **Accessibility**: With a bit of canny UX, you can make your software easy to use. And customers can take advantage from anywhere across the world. - **Tech support**: You take care of all the IT tech complexities so no one else has to, saving everyone else a lot of faff and hassle. - **Scalability**: Your customers can expand their needs by adding users or shifting up to a package that suits their expansion. It’s a quick and easy change. From your business’ side, there’s a lot to shout about. Make sure your customers know why (and how) you help them out. Don’t hold back on the praise, now, your technology is there to help others out. ## What’s the future of SaaS? With so many companies going from strength to strength (and even becoming household names), the market looks strong. Very, very strong. Other than that, one of the main things we can guarantee is innovation will take off into the stratosphere. New ideas and solutions will flood in for stuff such as: - **Artificial Intelligence**: AI will likely play a huge part in many applications. A common example here is with chatbots, who can guide customers towards making a purchase. They’re 24/7, don’t get ill, and are always polite (so long as it’s programmed that way). Should be a huge boom for many a business! - **IT management**: Again, the machines will take over and potentially run offices autonomously. That’ll cut down on errors and make everything more streamlined. - **Internet of Things and Blockchain**: Progressive businesses are leaning towards these innovative technologies more and more. Including with ways to integrate them with SaaS. Think you know what’s in store for the industry? Then become a [SaaS content contributor](https://www.saasalliance.io/contributor-guide/). Nothing (absolutely nowt) is off topic. Whatever you fancy discussing, we’re happy to consider. Pitch your idea and we’ll let you know pronto. ## Where does Future of SaaS come into play? We’re on mission to create a one-stop-shop for SaaS resources. The goal of all this? To push forward innovation and growth in the industry. For businesses just like yours. This means we’re busy creating content to help businesses get essentials such as: - eLearning materials. - Strategies. - Thought-leadership. - Business models. - Market growth tips. - Customer success advice. - Product-led growth hacks. - Revenue optimization. There’s also a [Future of SaaS Festival](https://festival.futureofsaas.io/) every year. That’s where we really get behind the industry to champion innovation, startups, and success stories. And you can join the conversation at any time. We’re always looking for content contributors—whether with AMAs, podcasts, or white papers. Because no two software as a service organizations are the same, we take a broad and flexible approach to our content and our support network includes: - Founders. - Senior execs. - Commercial leads. - Talent managers. - Investors. You can join our [SaaS slack community](https://www.saasalliance.io/join-the-fosaas-community/) for discussion, networking, and ideas on the future of your business. It’s free. Go on. You know it makes sense. ## Need to level up? That’s why our community is here. You can sign up, become an ambassador, check out our awesome free content, join the slack community etc. etc. We’re here to help you out. Get in touch if you have any questions: [hello@futureofsaas.io](mailto:hello@futureofsaas.io). ### IMAGE HOSTING URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/234836498yrgwjehfbhmwef87w/ Last updated: 2022-06-29T14:19:05.000Z ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/FoSaaS_Finance_background--1-.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/FoSaaS_Women_in_SaaS_background_2--1-.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/FoSaaS_Customer_Success_Background--1-.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/10/fosass.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/02/FoSaaS_Metrics_Summit_Background.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/FoSaaS-SaaS-Stream-Ad.png) [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/FoSaaS-SaaS-Stream-Ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/saasstream/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=saas-stream) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/SaaScast-Ad.png) [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/SaaScast-Ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=saascast-podcast) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/matthew-ball-TFE_-9eLmEs-unsplash-3.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/markus-spiske-MbG7kwWptII-unsplash-3.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/Untitled-design--5--1.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/FoSaaS_Podcast_NG_Tymeshift-2.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/FoSaaS_Metris_Assets5--1-.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/FoSaaS_Metrics_Summit_Assets_APR22_V2_6.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/Fosaas-Background.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/Meta-2.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/FoSaaS_Women_in_SaaS_Summit_Assets_JUN22_6.jpg) ### Get your SaaSFix URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/get-your-saasfix/ Last updated: 2021-09-27T17:38:02.000Z ### Stay on top of your SaaS game. Sign-up to our newsletter. Get SaaSFix delivered directly to your inbox every month, for your regular round-up of industry insights, exclusive events, interviews, podcasts, and more. # What’s in it? ✍ **Articles & interviews:** We cherry-pick the very best of the month’s content just for you. 🎟 **Events:** Get the latest news on upcoming events, speakers, and networking opportunities. 🎙 **Podcasts:** Find out what goes on behind the scenes of the biggest SaaS organizations in the industry 📚 **Reports:** Get involved in our research and be a part of the results. ## **When will I get it?** You’ll find SaaSFix in your inbox on the last week of every month. If you don’t see us there, check your junk folder and change your settings. 🕵 What are you waiting for? [Get your SaaSFix and subscribe today.](https://productmarketingall.typeform.com/to/h7Gk2puJ) **Can’t wait? Here’s a few resources to tide you over: 👇** [SaaScast—the only SaaS podcast you need | Future of SaaSSaaScast is here to talk you through the future-proofing tactics you need—one guest at a time. Learn how to grow your product, scale up, and work smarter.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/12/00-Meta-SaaScast.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast/) [SaasStreamFuture of SaaS![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSMatthew Simmonds![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/08/FoSaaS_Stream_Final.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saasstream/) ### Templates & frameworks URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/templates-frameworks/ Last updated: 2025-02-19T15:14:06.000Z Whether you're looking for a template on SaaS metrics or a framework for customer onboarding, the Future of SaaS membership template hub has it all. And more. _This page is for paying subscribers only._ ### SaaS templates & frameworks URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-templates-and-frameworks/ Last updated: 2024-04-02T17:05:44.000Z ***Pssst.*** If you’re already the proud owner of Future of SaaS [membership plan](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/), head here to access your templates and frameworks. 👇 [Membership dashboard | Future of SaaSWant red hot SaaS insights from orgs like HubSpot, Intercom, Shopify, and more? Unlimited access to templates, presentations, frameworks, and more? Come on in.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2020/09/FoSaaS_meta_membership_dashboard.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/) Not a member yet? A ton of customizable tools await you! From churn strategies to pricing guides, onboarding checklists, to feature updates. Everything you need to inform and inspire your SaaS organization is here. We know there’s a bunch of templates available online, but sifting through pages and pages of Google results takes up precious time and there’s no guarantee that what you’re working from is qualified. All our templates go through a rigorous quality check and have been created or reviewed by professionals from organizations like **Facebook, Salesforce, Microsoft, Klue,** and more. Our library is regularly reviewed and updated every single month. Want a peek at what’s on offer? 👀 - Pricing strategies framework - B2B channel partnership framework - Customer churn survey template - Key performance indicators template - OKR canvas - Market sizing framework - Payment failure templates - Feature update templates - Pricing increase templates - Monthly performance overview template - Converting freemium customers to paid users - Internal roadmap template - New user templates - SaaS metrics templates - Win-loss interview questions - Competitor SWOT analysis - Customer success strategy checklist - Product demo checklist - Cross-sell templates - New hire onboarding checklist - Marketing mix framework - Website content audit - Sales to customer success handover template ## [Find out more about how a Future of SaaS membership can accelerate your organization’s growth.](https://www.saasalliance.io/membership-demo/) ## Posts ### How ecosystems can make or break your SaaS business URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-ecosystems-can-make-or-break-your-saas-business/ Last updated: 2025-02-28T16:00:43.000Z *This article is based on* [*Jay Nakagawa*](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-nakagawa-476395/)*’s brilliant talk at the #Demand24 Summit in Denver. Members can enjoy the complete recording* [*here*](https://www.saasalliance.io/demand24-denver-2024/?%5Fgl=1%2Anovnqn%2A%5Fup%2AMQ..%2A%5Fga%2ANzM3NTY4MjA2LjE3NDA3NDEyODQ.%2A%5Fga%5F227NRQHH28%2AMTc0MDc0MTI4NC4xLjEuMTc0MDc0MTI4OC4wLjAuMA..&wchannelid=oia6hzyd4v&wmediaid=eulu8qwky6)*.* --- Ever wondered why some companies dominate their industries while others fade into obscurity? I’m Jay Nakagawa, Director of Competitive Intelligence at Dell Technologies, and I’ve seen how [ecosystems](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-guide-to-creating-an-unstoppable-revenue-enablement-ecosystem/) can make or break a business. So, in this article, we’ll explore how to leverage ecosystems for maximum [growth](https://www.saasalliance.io/driving-growth-and-innovation-a-guide-to-series-a-transformation-for-saas-startups/) and success. Here’s a peek at what we’ll cover: - **The fundamentals of ecosystems**: Why they matter and how they’ve evolved beyond traditional competitive models. - **Key case studies**: Lessons from Zume Pizza, Kodak, Apple, and CVS to uncover what works – and what doesn’t. - **Practical insights**: Tips for building and managing ecosystems that generate value and avoid common pitfalls. Whether you’re building partnerships or reinventing your business, these insights will help you navigate the challenges and opportunities of ecosystem strategy. Let’s jump in! ## The traditional approach to value creation Let’s start with the basics – how do you [create and capture value](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-of-perception-communicating-product-value/)? For anyone who’s been to business school, the diagram below might look familiar. For those of us who zoned out during those classes (myself included – I was too busy playing music all night!), let me break it down. ![Diagram of the Porter's Five Forces model, represented by five circles. The middle circle is labeled "competitive rivalry". Arrows point out from this circle to four other circles, labeled "threat of new entrants", "bargaining power of buyers (customers)", "threat of substitutes", and "bargaining power of suppliers".](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfagjBUIcJ5VADtwaJHU7AeCyx88-H2CrCGqlBKi2JiCgoiWDzTrzUtQkBkUanGSYMGkRaAcAfrFswp4PghzjVrONK-bnUsFqOHfNZacVEURXd_EHGv-41o6SVPNEku0QlBfve1tw?key=-a-QcCxcJI6jFpNyUxJ3zF_j) Traditionally, value creation revolves around managing key forces, as outlined by [Michael Porter’s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqvgrYf83ho) model. The idea is to balance your suppliers, buyers, substitutes, new entrants, and competitive rivalry to determine the intensity of competition in your industry. For instance, in the airline industry, suppliers are limited to Boeing and a few others. Airlines, as buyers, don’t have endless choices either. Similarly, substitution options are limited; you can’t exactly replace a 737 Max with a smaller plane without losing capacity. High barriers to entry, like massive startup costs, also make it tough for new players to join the market. These factors create an environment where only a few players compete fiercely. Let’s take the gaming world as another example. If Xbox improves its functionality, the perceived value of PlayStation goes down, and vice versa. This rivalry fuels competition, but it’s a zero-sum game – one’s gain is the other’s loss. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Why do customers buy from a SaaS that knows them? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/why-do-customers-buy-from-a-saas-that-knows-them/ Last updated: 2025-02-19T16:08:21.000Z You risk being irrelevant if your solutions aren’t personalized to your customer's experiences. In today’s crowded market, standing out means ensuring every interaction feels tailored and unique. Personalizing the customer experience isn’t just a bonus anymore — it’s a necessity. And it all begins with that first interaction. When you personalize your marketing, you turn each touchpoint into something meaningful and relevant. Meaningful interactions build stronger relationships and lead to better engagement. And better engagement? It results in increased revenue and lasting customer loyalty. That’s why it’s crucial we dive into why personalization is the foundation of modern marketing. ## Personalization isn’t just ‘Nice’—it’s the #1 factor that drives customer trust [76%](https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/unlocking-the-next-frontier-of-personalized-marketing) of customers find personalization crucial when evaluating brands. In a market flooded with endless choices, personalized options simplify decision-making by aligning with individual interests—something customers highly value. Beyond convenience, personalization fosters a sense of being valued and understood. Receiving tailored offers or messages feels like receiving a thoughtful gift, creating a personal connection. This sense of care builds trust and loyalty, with [80](https://www.epsilon.com/us/about-us/pressroom/new-epsilon-research-indicates-80-of-consumers-are-more-likely-to-make-a-purchase-when-brands-offer-personalized-experiences)% of consumers more likely to purchase from brands they trust. In the end, personalized experiences make customers feel good and willing to spend more with brands that truly understand them. ### Tailored experiences drive engagement and loyalty Imagine waking up to a digital experience that feels like it was made just for you. Where every click, notification, and feature seems to understand your unique needs and preferences. That is personalization at work. Personalization transforms a generic user experience into one that is both engaging and deeply intuitive. This makes every interaction feel tailor-made. When websites and apps adapt their interfaces and messaging based on individual behaviors, users immediately connect with the product. Setting the stage for a journey that begins at the very first touchpoint. This thoughtful approach covers everything from customized onboarding and contextual tutorials to specific notifications that prevent users from drifting away. As users navigate a platform that intuitively responds to their actions, they quickly see the value in exploring additional features. Leading to upgrades and premium offerings without feeling pressured. In turn, this tailored interaction not only boosts product adoption but also transforms routine transactions into meaningful, long-lasting partnerships. With every step of the customer journey aligned with individual preferences, businesses can create a sense of loyalty. Which results in satisfied users becoming passionate brand advocates. Ultimately, creating digital experiences that are not only memorable but also drive greater engagement and higher conversion rates. ![Benefits of personalization in marketing](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXclSh-RkYLVndqKC7N9bxaip4Rs1hZ6Qj_o3y4pIw_t2xSiBw4_nwhy5owK4_ibV_jrXx7K4kku8fZfIf6awR-tCllyGa8IP0Yk8PNGbI41EGMqhPiDYUjkur7a29xWfMSUb7Qa3w?key=LuCSOpy3Zfjxpa4jrqVbBdLZ) Source: [oppizi](https://www.oppizi.com/pl/direct-mail/personalized-direct-mail-marketing/) ## How Snowflake’s personalized ads bring big clicks, better returns, and more customers Snowflake shows us how personalized ads can really work. They make ads and landing pages that speak directly to different businesses. Because of this, their ads get a lot more attention50% increase in people clicking on them. - 40% better return on investment - 30% more new enterprise customers. In short, when ads are made to fit the specific needs of each business, they work much better. ![The landing page was built just for finance ](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd_euZs1u3Dy76UY6AqCe6525Wlk2v3UuewOtSupHYXcG50LYFmBXF2KK09-xjtXOp0SX4DI2_6HFr_as5XAsQj-nZVWJdD2eQY2euWFePj5Ultoqj4uxWIqh9AcFRJ_a9UHVFB9A?key=LuCSOpy3Zfjxpa4jrqVbBdLZ) The landing page was built just for finance ![Website created just for the aviation industry ](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfn_P9oiZSSO-81r13_JfWM6CbU81SblIbbMJvaQ5NQ4_kjvxVTmOx4mSaAO0VMXdV5_1ri0YluVZCrVYkBqN9531cTT5xcFM0jeSk_XgTQg3dHR7Q4hUM1tMQA3nY6PkAt3CnjgA?key=LuCSOpy3Zfjxpa4jrqVbBdLZ) Website created just for the aviation industry ## Personalization boosts customer retention through a series of strategic and measurable approaches With personalized onboarding experiences, companies can increase initial user engagement by [50%](https://hyperspace.mv/personalized-onboarding-experience-ideas/). This creates stronger early connections and demonstrates immediate value. Data-driven engagement plays a crucial role. Behavioral analytics and customer data analysis predict customer needs, identify potential churn risks, and deliver highly relevant product updates. Personalized messaging has been shown to boost engagement rates by up to [300%](https://www.alore.io/blog/personalization) compared to generic outreach. Implementing personalization strategies significantly improves key customer value metrics: - A [30%](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/personalization-strategies-customer-lifetime-value-clv-hussein-hesham-pcc9f) increase in average order value - A [25%](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/personalization-strategies-customer-lifetime-value-clv-hussein-hesham-pcc9f) improvement in customer retention rates - A 20% rise in cross-selling and upselling opportunities In addition, strategies like account-based marketing, product customization, and proactive customer support ensure every user receives a tailored experience that meets their unique needs. These efforts foster deeper platform integration, strengthen customer relationships, and build lasting trust. ## The secret to keeping customers (or making them leave) is personalization - [80%](https://www.epsilon.com/us/about-us/pressroom/new-epsilon-research-indicates-80-of-consumers-are-more-likely-to-make-a-purchase-when-brands-offer-personalized-experiences) of people are more likely to buy from companies that offer personalized experiences. - [62%](https://wisernotify.com/blog/customer-experience-stats/) of customers will spend more money if their shopping feels customized. - [44%](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/10/25/1300518/0/en/Segment-Survey-Finds-Consumers-Will-Spend-More-When-Their-Shopping-Experience-is-Personalized-but-Most-Retailers-are-Missing-the-Mark.html#:~:text=Personalization%20Leads%20to%20Repeat%20Shopping,to%20tell%20friends%20or%20family.) of people will buy again after a personalized shopping experience. When companies understand what customers like, they can make shopping more meaningful. This means more money! To do this right, companies need to use vast amounts of data. Companies should look at what customers buy and what they browse to understand them better. Using this information, they can create personalized experiences with AI. It’s also important to personalize everywhere—through emails, apps, social media, and websites. Since [71%](https://www.kentico.com/discover/blog/the-real-reason-customers-are-frustrated-with-pred#:~:text=The%20Real%20Reason%20Customers%20Are%20Frustrated%20with%20Predictive%20Personalization,-Yvette%20Hastings&text=There%20simply%20isn't%20enough,you're%20missing%20the%20point.) of people get frustrated with impersonal shopping, personalization is key to keeping customers happy and growing the business! ## Amazon boosts sales by using personalized product recommendations to encourage cross-buying. To build long-term customer loyalty, Amazon creates shopping experiences that feel personalized and convenient. This is through Amazon’s "Frequently Bought Together" recommendations, which suggest related products when a customer adds an item to their cart. These real-time suggestions are based on insights from other shoppers with similar purchasing behaviors, ensuring that the recommendations feel relevant and useful. By tailoring suggestions to what customers are already interested in, Amazon makes shopping easier and more engaging. This level of personalization helps customers feel understood and valued, increasing their trust in the platform. When shoppers consistently find relevant products without extra effort, they are more likely to return for future purchases. ![Screenshot of the Amazon app on the phone](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXep7qhc3DxH4HdX1t1UoZ_bRfaQk9jU8ysXHxdEcoIUi9IW9U4mfhRI-_wn9ljtT3f3zn93PMU5vNT0s9L1CICE5B9RYErx9-LW-rqeDcWzdfVFk6OJdcCh6UQIY1OiryZcHlF78A?key=LuCSOpy3Zfjxpa4jrqVbBdLZ) ## The future of SaaS marketing belongs to those who leverage data [87%](https://www.omnius.so/blog/saas-industry-report-2024#:~:text=AI%20Integration%3A%20AI%20and%20machine,solutions%20tailored%20for%20specific%20industries.) of SaaS companies increased growth through AI-powered personalization. Customers expect personalized experiences similar to those offered by consumer apps like Netflix and Spotify. AI-driven analysis enables marketers to process vast amounts of data in real time, uncover patterns, and predict behaviors to create highly tailored experiences at scale. They can instantly adjust user experiences, provide relevant content, and modify interfaces to match individual preferences. This is applied across marketing campaigns through personalized emails, dynamic product recommendations, and customized workflows. By 2025, personalization will evolve beyond basic segmentation into hyper-personalization, where AI and data-driven insights create truly individualized experiences. This shift will drive higher engagement, improve customer loyalty, reduce acquisition costs, and streamline sales processes. In the future, successful SaaS businesses will rely on intelligent, adaptive experiences that anticipate and respond to user needs. Here are some standout SaaS companies that have leveraged AI and data technology to drive massive growth: ### **Spotify** - Expanded to over 433 million users with AI-driven personalization. - Uses AI to power personalized music recommendations and playlist curation. - Introduced AI Playlist and features in multiple languages. - Partners with Google Cloud to enhance AI capabilities and improve user experience. ![Spotify logo on glass](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfH8lKNYcYhPKY9lVxzWFLZgm25HwekFk3SwipAu-D7Ijx8PKguLNgG8SyfFAoUA7pKbiBnCnUV1vlYOKYotqj-Q3n8f_xreaAcqCOh9LtNd5w49z4qUF3qXJSudp_05H05yw7D?key=LuCSOpy3Zfjxpa4jrqVbBdLZ) ### **Notion** - Achieved 240% growth in 2022 after launching AI-powered features. - Grew organic monthly traffic from 1.5 million to 6.9 million between June 2022 and June 2024. - Reached a $10 billion valuation. - Monetizes AI features successfully, offering premium AI capabilities for $8 per month. ### **Salesforce** - Forecasts a $2.02 trillion business revenue impact from AI between 2022 and 2028. - Plans to generate 11.6 million new jobs through AI-driven innovations. - Evolved into an intelligent CRM after a decade of AI development. ## Personalization in 2025 Advanced AI-driven experiences, hyper-personalization, and a stronger focus on privacy will shape the future of personalization in 2025\. Real-time analysis of user behavior will enable businesses to deliver individualized content, adjust pricing dynamically, and automate content creation for specific audience segments. Enhancing the customer journey will be key, with personalized product recommendations, dynamic creative optimization, and integration with IoT devices for ultra-personalized experiences. AI and machine learning will play a crucial role in predictive analytics, precise audience segmentation, and real-time advertising adjustments based on user context. However, as personalization advances, a privacy-conscious approach will become essential. Emphasizing first-party data collection, ethical automation, and balancing personalization with user privacy protection. The business impact will be significant, with personalized experiences driving up to a 15% increase in sales, reducing churn rates, and enabling high-growth companies to derive 40% more revenue from personalization. Implementation will span across automated email campaigns, dynamic website interfaces, and tailored communication across multiple touchpoints. As AI continues to evolve, businesses that master personalization while maintaining user trust will lead to engagement, retention, and revenue growth. ## **How you can start your personalization journey** ### **Step 1: Build a strong data foundation** Before implementing personalization, you need the right data. - **Collect user data:** Use signup flows to gather information such as industry, job role, company size, and specific use cases (e.g., HubSpot’s friction-based signup process). Track behavior using analytics tools like [**Mixpanel**](https://mixpanel.com/) or [**Google Analytics**](https://developers.google.com/analytics) to understand feature usage, drop-off points, and engagement trends. - **Segment your audience:** Group users based on behavior (e.g., feature adoption frequency), demographics, or goals. Use tools like [**ConvertKit’s**](https://kit.com/) **microsurveys** to refine segmentation. - **Create dynamic personas:** Develop detailed buyer personas that update based on real-time data (e.g., **Miro’s industry-specific onboarding** for tailored user experiences). --- ### **Step 2: Implement personalized onboarding** A smooth and personalized onboarding experience sets the stage for long-term engagement. - **Customize onboarding journeys:** Use [**Userpilot** ](https://userpilot.com/)to create onboarding flows tailored to different user roles (e.g., Miro’s design vs. education team pathways). - **Guide users with contextual tooltips:** Trigger tooltips, checklists, or in-app guides based on user actions (e.g., [**DocuSign’**](https://www.docusign.com/)**s feature recommendations**). - **Leverage AI for proactive assistance:** Deploy AI-driven chatbots to assist users in real-time and address potential friction points. --- ### **Step 3: Launch hyper-personalized campaigns** Deliver personalized content and messages to increase engagement. - **Email & messaging personalization:** Use tools like [**Klaviyo**](https://www.klaviyo.com/) or [**Customer.io**](http://customer.io) for behavior-triggered emails. - **In-app personalization:** Implement dynamic CTAs and UI changes using tools like [**OptiMonk**](https://www.optimonk.com/)**.** - **Website & content personalization:** Platforms like [**Dynamic Yield**](https://www.dynamicyield.com/) adjust landing pages in real-time based on user attributes. --- ### **Step 4: Use AI & predictive analytics to anticipate user needs** AI-driven insights can improve personalization and boost engagement. - **Predict behavior:** Machine learning models can anticipate churn risks, upsell opportunities, and next-best actions. - **Real-time content adaptation:** AI tools like [**Monetate**](https://monetate.com/) optimize content dynamically based on user behavior - **Automate workflows:** Use automation platforms like [**HubSpot**](https://www.hubspot.com/) or [**Salesforce**](https://www.salesforce.com/) **Marketing Cloud** to deliver highly personalized customer journeys at scale. --- ### **Step 5: Continuously optimize & improve** - **A/B test & refine strategies:** Use tools like [**VWO** ](https://vwo.com/)or [**Optimizely** ](https://www.optimizely.com/)to run A/B tests and optimize messaging, UI elements, and calls to action - **Analyze key metrics:** Track metrics such as **click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and churn** to measure personalization effectiveness and improve strategies. - **Collect & act on feedback:** Use in-app surveys (e.g., **Userpilot**) to gather insights that refine personas and user journeys. ### The power of perception: Communicating product value URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-of-perception-communicating-product-value/ Last updated: 2025-02-14T16:30:19.000Z This article comes from **Karapet Gyumjibashyan**’s talk at our **New York Product-Led Summit**. Check out his [full presentation](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-led-summit-new-york-2024/?%5Fgl=1%2Anrqlzl%2A%5Fup%2AMQ..%2A%5Fga%2AMTMzMjU3MjI5My4xNzM5NDY0NDM5%2A%5Fga%5F227NRQHH28%2AMTczOTQ2NDQzOS4xLjEuMTczOTQ2NDQ1Ni4wLjAuMA..&wchannelid=7tiarc1e59&wmediaid=3k8ndgaxil) and the wealth of [OnDemand resources](https://www.saasalliance.io/ondemand-saas-hub/) waiting for you. --- The journey from recognizing challenges in retention to implementing effective solutions is both intricate and rewarding. I'm Karapet Gyumjibashyan, Senior Director of Product at Krisp, and I've embarked on a quest to understand the nuances of communication and perception in delivering [product value](https://www.saasalliance.io/hacking-human-nature-how-applying-behavioral-science-can-make-your-product-appear-better-value/). My experience has illuminated the importance of clear metrics, the efficacy of habit loops, and the delicate balance between innovation and user trust. In this article, I'll unravel our strategies at Krisp to address retention issues, enhance user experience, and foster trust in our AI-based meeting assistant platform. ## The paradox of perceived value I want to share a fascinating journey about overcoming a significant challenge in [product management](https://www.saasalliance.io/leading-product-management-through-turbulent-times-2/), particularly in the context of retention and perceived value. Our journey began during the pandemic when our product, Krisp —a voice [AI](https://www.saasalliance.io/ai-as-a-partner-not-a-replacement-balancing-tech-and-human-connection-effectively/) assistant designed to eliminate background noises during online meetings— experienced a surge in user signups. Despite this growth, we faced a daunting issue: people were signing up but not sticking around. The retention numbers were disappointing, and this problem posed a fundamental question about [user perception and value](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-empathy-drives-product-excellence-for-users-teams-and-business/). Conventional wisdom in product management suggests that to improve [retention](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-winning-customer-retention-strategies-for-your-b2b-saas-org/), you must clearly demonstrate value to users, ensuring they recognize and appreciate your product's benefits. However, our situation at Krisp was uniquely challenging. The value we provided —silencing background noise during calls— was inherently invisible. Users didn't directly experience the benefits because the noise cancellation happened seamlessly; it's hard to notice something that you no longer hear. Moreover, users themselves were often unaware of the ongoing benefits because the disruptions they avoided never reached their ears. This scenario posed a peculiar dilemma: How do you communicate and [demonstrate the value ](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-ultimate-guide-to-creating-a-value-proposition/)of something that users don't see or directly experience? Our task was to tackle this issue head-on, using data and psychological insights to bridge the gap between our product's capabilities and user perception. The lessons we learned from this endeavor not only changed our approach to product communication but also deepened our understanding of user behavior and retention strategies. [Product-led growth insights from unexpected sourcesBoma Tai-Osagbemi, Global Director of Product at HelloFresh, demonstrates how to breeak out of the product silo and draw inspiration from surprising sources.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-137.png)SaaS AllianceBoma Tai-Osagbemi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/product-led--1--2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-led-growth-insights-from-unexpected-sources/) _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Positioning for SaaS companies: Why it matters more than ever URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/positioning-for-saas-companies-why-it-matters-more-than-ever/ Last updated: 2025-02-14T09:08:50.000Z We all have a general idea of [positioning](https://www.saasalliance.io/mastering-technical-competitive-analysis-strategic-positioning/), but are we fully aware of how to do it properly? That's a different story. As a founder or marketer, you're often so close to your product that it's hard to see it like the market does. You know its strengths inside out, but what if the outside world sees something entirely different? With just a few taps on my smartphone, I can access over 2 million apps. Dive into Amazon, and you're looking at nearly 580 million products. We're bombarded with ads, logos, and messages everywhere we turn - far more than we could have imagined during the days of cassette tapes and Walkmans. Clear positioning was a must back then; today, it's critical. Without it, you're setting yourself up to struggle. So, what happens when your positioning isn't working? The signs are usually there if you know where to look. Maybe your current customers love what you offer, but new prospects seem confused. Perhaps you spend too much time explaining what you do instead of closing deals. Or maybe your leads misunderstand your value and move on. When you're not clear about your positioning, your market will make assumptions for you—and those assumptions might misrepresent your strengths, dilute your value, or bury your product in noise. When someone encounters a new product, they start piecing together a story about it. Who's it for? Why does it matter? What does it do? Your messaging, pricing, features, branding, and even your partnerships contribute to that context. And if you're not deliberately setting the stage, the market will do it for you. The sheer number of competing products is staggering. With so much noise, it's easy for your offering to be misunderstood, overlooked, or worse, dismissed as unremarkable. And while we all know that context matters, many assume it’s obvious. Spoiler: it's not. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking, "Our product is what it is. Its value speaks for itself." However, the journey from concept to customer rarely follows a straight line. Without clear, deliberate positioning, your product risks getting lost in the shuffle or framed in ways that don't do it justice. And positioning isn't just about the headline on your website or the pitch you deliver in meetings. It's the foundation of how you show up in the market. It shapes how you talk to customers, price your offering, and even prioritize features. If you're facing challenges like: - New prospects don't understand what you're offering. - Sales cycles feel unnecessarily long, with low, close rates. - Customers leave too soon or request "off-the-wall” features. - People constantly push back on pricing, saying it's too high. Then, it's time to examine your positioning more closely. By revisiting the process, you can turn these obstacles into opportunities and set the stage for success. In this article, I want to share a practical exercise that you can run with your team—a two-hour brainstorming session or workshop. It's designed to help you refine your positioning in a collaborative, creative, and, most importantly, productive way. This isn't about getting everything perfect right away. The goal is to be honest, open, and willing to explore as many ideas as possible. Start with the core questions I'll outline, but don't be surprised if the discussion evolves. These sessions often take on a life of their own, with new and unexpected insights emerging as you dive deeper. It might help to choose a facilitator, someone who can keep things on track, help untangle moments of overwhelm, and recognize when it's time for a pause. A good facilitator ensures that the energy stays focused and that the session moves forward, even when the team hits a tricky point or information overload. From my experience, these sessions can lead to outcomes utterly different from where you started—and that's a good thing! I've even worked with a startup that, after a few such workshops, realized its product name no longer reflected its vision. What began as a positioning exercise turned into a complete rebrand, transforming how it presented itself to the world. ## The Positioning Canvas ### **1\. Problem Space - define the pain points your product addresses.** ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXduIrvcskFUVaqRGudUmma6WjSB4rsvMahwJuHykQ7fyd1iaAfBmaUnSjmHw6xEGnQodSF3dARGPkjRTaDv7bIYDCCQcYquO9cVl4PPCym7CRtjHnF01OfrqTjwBjaoHZHQG4TAbA?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) The Problem Space is where it all begins. This step ensures your messaging feels relevant and relatable to your customers. Without this foundation, it's easy to end up with vague statements that don't stick. But when you define the problem well, everything else becomes sharper and more impactful. Ask yourself: **What problem are we solving?** Be specific because broad descriptions like "inefficiency" or "poor performance" won't resonate. Instead, emphasize on real-world frustrations that your audience can immediately recognize. Try to describe the problem in the same way your customers would. Talk to them, review their feedback, and capture their language. **Example**: Instead of saying, *"We address inefficiencies,"* you might say, *"We eliminate the hours teams spend manually organizing data for reports."* **Who experiences this problem most deeply (target audience)?** To position your product effectively, you need to know exactly who you're solving this problem for. Pinpoint the people or businesses that feel this pain the most. This means narrowing down to a specific group or persona. Think about their roles, industries, and situations. The more specific you are, the better your messaging will connect. **Example**: Rather than aiming at "all SaaS companies," focus on "growth-stage SaaS startups that need better reporting to support scaling their teams." **Why is this problem urgent to solve right now?** Timing matters. If your audience doesn't see this as a pressing issue, they're less likely to take action. Tie the problem to trends, challenges, or risks they face. Highlight the consequences of not addressing the issue. What opportunities might they miss? What risks could they face? **Example**: *“With customers increasingly demanding real-time insights, teams relying on outdated manual processes risk falling behind more agile competitors”.* Take a few minutes to jot down your answers to these questions. Keep it simple. This exercise isn't about getting everything perfect but about uncovering fresh insights. You might even find that this process sparks new ideas or highlights gaps that need attention. ### **2\. Unique Value Proposition (UVP) - define what sets your SaaS solution apart.** ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeOSphgO2WIZimCKQwibm_AqjJDInIvsHMQm-wu02RFkoO8AmNx7z710qv4RNB35HQwS6aI6vJi58ynnW-EJtqGEXEeKvCfFnRwK8OH5RUm98pZzxa6lFBzCrTaR41cIn7GHEcK?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) Your UVP is what makes your product stand out. It's the answer to the question, "Why should someone choose this over everything else?" By defining what sets your solution apart, you'll be able to connect with your audience in a way that feels personal, relevant, and meaningful. Ask yourself: **What makes our solution one-of-a-kind?** What's unique about your product? What do you offer that no one else does? Focus on what makes your solution feel fresh. Instead of listing all your features, hone in on the one or two things that are genuinely different. **Example**: *"Our platform delivers instant insights using AI-powered analytics, designed for everyone—even users with no technical background."* **How do we solve the problem better than competitors?** Think about what makes your approach unique or more effective. Maybe it's faster, easier to use, or offers something your competitors can't match. Be clear and specific. Instead of broad claims like "easiest to use," explain *how* your product makes life easier. **Example**: *"Unlike other tools, our dashboards are ready to use immediately—no manual setup required—so your team can hit the ground running."* **What's the big promise we're making?** This is the ultimate "what's in it for me" moment. What transformation can your customers expect once they start using your product? Focus on the end results that matter most to them. Keep it simple and outcome-driven. Consider benefits your audience cares about, like saving time or improving results. **Example**: *"We’ll help you save hours every week, cut down on errors, and make smarter decisions with real-time data at your fingertips."* When done right, your UVP tells a story that starts with understanding your customers' challenges and ends with showing them a better future that only your product can provide. ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd9PkfysuFl-JFoPGM6o73z6O9V1AjSIboZWUJUP2qVUNWzvyeL1bcnjHPHENntlkuA4QRKQo5n94A8PSBv0PrRNRJPaKgHlkmEkSijOIqrqD1WFr7_gM1WOzk0I9ZNBHtajHGm8g?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) ### **3\. Core Differentiators - list 3-5 key features or benefits that highlight your product’s strengths.** ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdvlAYzo_GnOJ8I6VUHjXCNf8nKvbKGqJds7HcNpA7aDuY5jCMIiQ9pOdLSFx5TIVonRq-meZrHi4u9USNT9N3D1W4s23Yw5lunrv-QvaK6dGvKY9cKO4BMEy5qmtEEIllGXshI?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) Your core differentiators are the highlights you want your customers to remember - what makes your product valuable and essential. ### **How to Define Your Core Differentiators** **Focus on Features That Shine** Start by listing a few of your product's standout features or capabilities. These elements make it unique - things your audience will value and competitors might not offer. Ask yourself, "What's the one thing about our product that would make our customers say, 'Wow, I need this'?" **Example**: - Real-time dashboards - AI-driven insights - No-code setup **Connect Features to Benefits** Don't stop at features - take it one step further. Pair each feature with the specific benefit it provides to your customer. What problem does it solve, or what positive impact does it create? This step translates your product's capabilities into value for the user. **Example**: - Real-time dashboards → Faster decision-making - AI-driven insights → Actionable data without manual work - No-code setup → Easy implementation for teams. Your core differentiators are your product's strongest selling points. They help customers quickly understand why your solution is worth their time and investment. Here's an easy way to identify your differentiators: 1. List your product’s top features—aim for five or fewer. 2. Match each feature with a benefit that shows why it's valuable. 3. Narrow it down to the most compelling pairings. These are your core differentiators. ### **Examples in Practice** Let's see how this works in action: **Feature**: Real-time dashboards **Benefit**: Faster decision-making **Why it matters**: Customers can quickly respond to changes with up-to-date information. **Feature**: AI-driven insights **Benefit**: Actionable data without manual work **Why it matters**: Your product saves time by automating complex analysis, making life easier for busy teams. **Feature**: No-code setup **Benefit**: Easy implementation for teams **Why it matters**: Teams can start using your product immediately—no special skills are required. ### **4\. Competitor Positioning - identify how you stand out in the competitive landscape.** ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe4iyJCtnspB7ozndHEBrGsaZIJy_UkDVI8OKe6CMTPFzE_OadLLtVZPBMF4ffC-YI-Rqznai5fXv4bY08_QHynUGkA8kmwZjhJHdXvwqKTcyemB4jscgtlM4RNjk3TLrZibETTYA?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) This step helps you highlight your strengths and demonstrate how you solve your audience's problems better than the competition. ### **How to Approach Competitor Analysis** **Identify Key Competitors** Think of competitors your audience would mention in the same conversation as your product. Start by listing the main alternatives your target audience might consider. These are the products or services they're already using or exploring as options. **Understand Their Weaknesses** Take a closer look at where these competitors struggle. Maybe their product is hard to use, too expensive, or lacks flexibility. Identifying these weaknesses allows you to show how your solution fills the gaps. - **Examples**: - Competitor A: Complex setup process - Competitor B: High cost for small teams - Competitor C: Limited customizability **Highlight Your Strengths** Connect every weakness you identify to a strength your product offers. This helps you communicate why your solution is a better fit. Focus on what makes your product easier, faster, or more effective for your target customers. ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdk7Sle8gOeQM2Fs5E3ZzvOS4qCCEl25S-PhWgRAp7AUrNCjlpDgeD2GuoBLkA1DazmDm_jTed4B8pSNJuX787T_lCWkLNASXXwAJqb_s3MZ9aoGUm9obYW1L7fBB_0TXElzfH24g?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) When potential customers compare options, they need to understand quickly why your product stands out. You make their decision easier by focusing on the areas where your competitors fall short and pairing that with your product's strengths. This isn't about speaking negatively about others - it's about helping your audience see why your product is the right choice for their needs. ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXel3HpUC6LsmC1jUWNQ66gLdIl8qjEzRx-uEV77Q7Vlrz1S-h-HB7rdpa3IFx4ATVHTVquAoSCoGMxx6c_qb3OcqZXO5wFRRuDcCe8Nvy2uECXOi1DPVLYPTrArmobM5s_GkNXVEw?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) ### **5\. Go-To-Market Messaging - create clear and actionable messaging for your audience.** ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe0BYjhdJMPtxpq4qN305AdLa7jClH9WFMLIkbdQswsbo_sndh2oH0DvXhJ-4FxS4VQ5KliMb54JFApY5atxOYnADhSvvq_EXywNgLCGeksDpSBrkvk5iFeQZAc0d81GR_ZGgwHUQ?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) Your messaging should cut straight to the chase - tell people what you're offering and why it matters to them, no fluff needed. Strong go-to-market messaging should communicate your product’s value and highlight how it addresses your audience's key pain points. ### **Key Components of Effective Go-To-Market Messaging** **Elevator Pitch** An elevator pitch is a concise, clear statement that captures the essence of your product and its solution. It should be easy to understand, engaging, and tailored to your target audience. This pitch should convey how your product improves your customer's life in just a few sentences. **Example**: *We help SaaS startups save time and make smarter decisions with real-time, no-code analytics dashboards.* This pitch communicates the main benefits - **saving time and making better decisions** \- while stating the product's key features (real-time, no-code dashboards). It's short, direct, and speaks to the target audience. **Tagline**Create a tagline that's like a tweet-sized promise to your customers - memorable, meaningful, and impossible to forget. **Example:** *Insights at the speed of your business.* This tagline is simple and easy to remember. It highlights the product's benefit - **quick insights** \- and ties it to a key business goal: fast, informed decision-making. It's a promise that speaks directly to the urgency of business needs. **Value-Based Messaging Pillars** Think of messaging pillars as your product's greatest hits - they're the key benefits that make your customers' lives better. Each pillar tells a different part of your story, showing a specific way your product makes their lives easier or better. **Example:** 1. Get real-time insights effortlessly. 2. Focus on decisions, not data wrangling. 3. Affordable analytics for every team. When you take the time to refine your messaging, you give your audience a reason to believe in your product, making it easier for them to trust your brand and take action. ### **6\. Call-to-Action (CTA) - define next steps for potential customers.** ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe2RQXiI5Gxc4TM37nQZrw3ohg0dNfWl1Lp3l4Xn3Nz_Q-tmUvzk-D90kvyGjKsFw6H0FO1TozaMxmgahVsuOD5YUgo2XVE_HX2lwjq7zq1FcPY6SB_pEdOlbdzkHmIiHPsfMFzjg?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) A CTA is your opportunity to guide potential customers on the next steps. It's the step that helps move them from interest to taking action, whether signing up for a trial, booking a demo, or joining your newsletter. **Website CTA** When someone visits your website, they often look for a simple next step to get started with your product. A good website CTA makes it easy for them to take that step, whether signing up for a trial or learning more. It's all about removing friction and making the action clear and straightforward. **Example**: *Start your free trial today.* This CTA offers no barriers to entry - prospects can try your product at no cost, helping them experience its value firsthand. It's straightforward and focused on the immediate next step. **Demo CTA** Let potential customers take your product for a test drive! Make your demo invitation feel like an exciting opportunity, not a sales pitch. **Example**:*Book a live demo with our experts.*Make it personal - let prospects know they can talk to real experts who understand their world. It feels more like getting advice from a trusted guide than going through a standard sales process. **Newsletter CTA** For people who aren't yet ready to commit to a trial or demo but still want to stay connected, a newsletter CTA offers a way to keep them engaged. It's about providing valuable, helpful content that builds trust and keeps your brand top of mind. **Example**:*Sign up for actionable analytics tips.* Start by sharing practical tips your prospects can put to work today - it's an easy way to show you're here to help. Then, match your call-to-action to where your audience is - whether they're browsing or ready to get serious. It's like being a good host who knows exactly when to offer coffee, give the full house tour, or share the Wi-Fi password. ## The Positioning Canvas in Action: Grain, the AI Notetaker Let's take [Grain, an AI-powered meeting recorder and notetaking tool](https://grain.com/), and break down their positioning using the canvas. ### Problem Space ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc-83nZoHDy7aRbQqlbG8Bd5-3Xf1-TQ54U7v5aq5r3ZQh_WyH16IKxkQIIQMCWjuQz78k-MqnTatBKdCiQIZVaFNctoweg-G-59bfSkG3UzOSNQdNvZw3se68vuzMbvVDNTV9FVg?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) ### Unique Value Proposition ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXebYrZwf6_uiRBy8o4GBFX0JAPU21QnnzrqJPNL4JARHdqiF3K1vp9kxWEp8crJ96GsD-T5WDLeT5U8qhyguJoY2wb-hgeRhpupjHFPWSDeoK9UAgGepDsCd9KIVmFNC1MHpjsCsg?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) ### Core Differentiators ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdGdoMSWz0VsZBNITyrZUhR3nTqDxLjvZ3vhcPB-sVTcOqhNPFO9caGtp1Pdv2FaOl_F_cgqi5rfXnlq3ZUuAU6mzxCiN1FY-UV68XR6mF_ZmL1zMUCF_6JwhTIUyjztiEp1bJSJA?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) ### Competitor Positioning ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfN9QySNKWoGTMDDPozZKiqR__SR3wvBeYzRrYGpUiVxAzGtj61hw2HnU6kWRBZT9foPE48kW3e4GbCgAmiBoF1g2HpQDcVljLsM-NyCgRncFDM-as6kefJhZiGvtcp4HUnXRFHvA?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) ### Go-To-Market Messaging ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdV6BIHKJa8uhsINJXqzdRRtKqUiYKpIwGWggEhPjrOrtsUjGQl5e0kqDZGL0FS6CYgamvUqlnOJcivo_wh5CM7TGE3ceuvTkjb0h6T_NCfMJeh0W-bykl2VqHcA9wx29_yGckrFA?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) ### Call-to-Action (CTA) ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcdobI_lMNenu_hAWCJvWYRAgluuNIr5CZq09kiU31-QOpl63tQJcrkeCVsxrjPPBTgH2tIR8gewITG-PI8CAujtZIvbnD4DRRlqJgom36iUsMUEyk7T1arjlejBr1LAGzuoOMw?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) Consider this positioning work your strategic blueprint - it doesn't need to be perfectly worded yet. Hand these insights to your copywriter, and they'll transform them into messaging that captures your brand's personality. Here's a peek at how Grain's positioning came together after following these steps: ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfn8P5Gmkp8iO-hCKWNwZeN9b6vg0_y4m1dfiBlAzP8QJBaOo_Xjuo-5cPCZpfHZ59Ir9eQ8DjIs_YWbCd-iX0CTOAb765029ArESHlTmyA2oHWkyj1FHgaw2jsGyPVeWE-T8kFfg?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdQzmsBzkw_lXSkJSpeBJzVALP8ddx_rlK1DVgM2GxzBf-AmOY2HHNQJtWEzIFHxtmBvzydxgqK0ijoZWtOls0Ky5Gux6S1KjWNRUInclAcUtoIg4QDZ1Sil6nNhsQtG325xwqNLA?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdFLlaUXYXWi9YrJ_FIjxt6PHSIuVnbYGJKxNbmAoweGsPGqcQWTh97vnvcA1YMQmpmm18tQRaZTbeapyUDjB6sHwOzMT6t-NejNMXDZC3Z8B4q_gg5yKQECHzlm0m2_7G4hkGqZQ?key=cRv_uNiNXD3Qm4NszVwBYgA_) ## On a Final Note This isn't just a one-and-done exercise - your marketing compass points true north for every piece of content you create. From landing pages to sales pitches, it helps your team speak the same language. I've laid out a simple framework here that'll help you polish your message, highlight what makes you special, and show why you're the best choice for your customers. So block off a couple of hours with your team, grab a coffee, and work through these exercises together. It's amazing what fresh perspectives and collaborative thinking can uncover. ### Cultural integration in onboarding: 6 strategies to engage and retain top talent URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-cultural-integration-in-onboarding-6-strategies-to-engage-and-retain-top-talent/ Last updated: 2025-01-31T16:00:17.000Z This article comes from Marco Galvan’s insightful talk at our **Austin 2024 Sales Enablement Summit**. Check out his [**full presentation**](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-enablement-summit-austin-2024/?%5Fgl=1%2A1oqx417%2A%5Fup%2AMQ..%2A%5Fga%2AMTY4ODQ4MTA0Ni4xNzM4MTYwNTk3%2A%5Fga%5F227NRQHH28%2AMTczODE3MjUyNi4yLjEuMTczODE3MjUzNy4wLjAuMA) and our wealth of [**OnDemand resources**](https://www.saasalliance.io/ondemand-saas-hub/). --- Imagine this: you’ve just joined a new company, and you’re excited but also nervous. You’re eager to learn, but the sheer amount of information and new faces feels overwhelming. Now ask yourself—how can your company turn that nervous excitement into lasting [engagement](https://www.saasalliance.io/engagement-and-intelligence-the-key-to-unlocking-predictable-efficient-growth/)? For me, the answer lies in one word: **culture**. Hi, I’m Marco Galvan, and at Atlassian, I’ve had the privilege of shaping sales onboarding programs that do more than train—they welcome, inspire, and connect. [Onboarding](https://www.saasalliance.io/onboarding-101/) isn’t just about ticking boxes; it’s about creating an experience where new hires feel valued and empowered to succeed. So in this article, I’ll share how we embed cultural integration into every step of our onboarding process and how you can, too, build programs that don’t just inform—they transform. Let’s get started. ## **Why culture matters in onboarding** Starting a new job is daunting. It’s not just about learning processes and tools—it’s about stepping into a whole new culture. And [research backs this up](https://www.shrm.org/mena/topics-tools/news/talent-acquisition/dont-underestimate-importance-good-onboarding): **69%** of employees who have a great onboarding experience stay with their organization for **over three** years. That’s why your focus shouldn’t just be on delivering information but instead on creating a welcoming and empowering culture from *day one*. When I interviewed for my role, our Head of Global Sales said something that stuck with me: “The person who gets this job has to be a cultural fit.” That wasn’t about fitting a mold; it was about being someone who could bring people together and make them feel like they belong. This is the heart of my approach to onboarding. Onboarding sets the tone for a new hire’s entire experience at a company. It’s their first real glimpse into what your organization values and prioritizes. If you get it right, you’re not just teaching them their role—you’re creating a bond between them and the company’s mission, their team, and even themselves as they grow into their new role. [Building culture](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-importance-of-building-a-creative-culture-as-a-cmo/) through onboarding isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s the *foundation* of long-term engagement and success. ## **1\. Setting the stage with kickoff meetings** Kickoff meetings are one of the first touchpoints for new hires after HR training, and they set the tone for the entire onboarding experience. At Atlassian, we gather all cohorts together to introduce them to the team, the company, and the journey ahead. These meetings aren’t just about sharing information; they’re about creating a sense of belonging and alignment. Here’s how we structure our kickoff meetings: 😐 **Good:** Have the meeting. Make sure new hires know it’s a priority. 👍 **Better:** Provide an overview of the company’s values and goals without overwhelming them with too much detail. 🏆 **Best:** Create space for new hires to share their own goals and what brought them to your organization. During these meetings, we focus on connection—both to the company and to each other. One of my favorite things to do is tie in what they learned the day before. For example, if the cohort attended a session featuring a senior leader or inspiring story, I’ll reference it during our kickoff and encourage them to share their takeaways. It’s a simple way to create continuity and make them feel seen and heard. When I run these sessions, I often think back to my own early days at Atlassian. I started in a customer-facing role, answering transactional tickets, and eventually moved into the renewals space. What I loved most about those roles was the opportunity to build relationships—both with customers and colleagues. That’s what I bring into our kickoff meetings: the idea that onboarding isn’t just about learning the ropes but about building meaningful connections. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### How to run a successful OKR review URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-run-a-successful-okr-review/ Last updated: 2025-01-27T08:44:58.000Z OKR reviews are not just periodic check-ins; they’re the foundation of a team’s success. If you want your team to thrive, improve, and succeed, OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) are a must-have. They establish the path, monitor progress, and ensure everyone is on the same page. Reviewing OKRs is a great opportunity to consider what's going well, what's not, and what changes are needed. According to research, [80% of employees](https://explodingtopics.com/blog/employee-feedback-stats)[ prefer receiving immediate feedback](https://explodingtopics.com/blog/employee-feedback-stats) rather than waiting for an annual performance review. Hence, regular and well-executed OKR reviews can turn good teams into great ones by creating transparency, fostering accountability, and boosting performance. ## **The difference between OKR progress review and OKR final review** There’s a significant difference between an OKR progress review and a final review, and knowing this can drastically affect your team’s outcomes. - **Progress reviews:** These are your checkpoints. They happen throughout the OKR cycle, typically quarterly or monthly. The goal is to assess whether you’re on track to hit your objectives. These reviews are fluid, focused on course correction, and measure incremental progress. - **Final review:** At the end of the OKR cycle, the final review takes a step back to evaluate whether the set objectives were truly achieved. This is when the “big picture” is examined, and you assess the long-term impact. It's more reflective and about final outcomes. While progress reviews guide teams toward success, the final review is where you draw conclusions and define the next steps. Get both right, and your OKR journey will be on point! [10 best OKR examples for SaaS companies striving for successIn this article, we’ll take you through examples of major OKRs you should be striving for, as well as how to break these broader OKRs down into achievable milestones.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-127.png)SaaS AllianceEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/kelly-sikkema-v9FQR4tbIq8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-best-okr-examples/) ## **Types of OKR reviews** OKR reviews come in different shapes and sizes. Some teams prefer informal check-ins, while others hold structured meetings. 1. **Informal check-ins:** Regular, often one-on-one sessions focused on tracking progress. 2. **Quarterly reviews:** Scheduled reviews to assess key results and adjust strategies. 3. **Annual reviews:** A comprehensive review at the end of the year to evaluate overall success and set new goals. These types ensure that OKR tracking isn’t just a one-time thing. It’s a continuous process of feedback, growth, and improvement. ## **Setting up a structured OKR review process** [60% of projects](https://psico-smart.com/en/blogs/blog-common-pitfalls-in-okr-implementation-and-how-to-avoid-them-161728) fail due to unclear goal setting and poor alignment across departments. This shows how important it is to have a well-organized agenda for your OKR meeting to make sure everyone is on track and the discussion stays on topic. For nonprofits looking to maximize their impact, OKR reviews are important, especially when considering strategies like [raising money for a charity](https://donorbox.org/nonprofit-blog/how-to-raise-money-for-charity). If there isn't a clear plan, even the most thought-out OKR review templates may not work as well. So, let’s see how to craft an agenda that not only supports your review but enhances it – making sure each review session is not just a routine check-in but an opportunity for reflection, improvement, and growth. ### **1\. Establishing clear objectives for the review** Before moving into the review process, it’s crucial to define its purpose. Is it to assess progress? To identify bottlenecks? Or to celebrate milestones? A review with unclear objectives is like setting off on a road trip without a map. The review should focus on actionable insights, helping the team stay aligned and drive performance forward. Clear objectives set the tone, ensuring the meeting stays focused and productive. ### **2\. Preparing an OKR review template** Templates are more than just a time saver – they create consistency and clarity. With an OKR review template, you can: - Keep discussions aligned and focused on key areas. - Ensure each review covers the same core elements, no matter who’s reviewing. - Save time and keep the team on track with actionable takeaways. When you use a template, you’re ensuring that all necessary areas are covered, and your reviews become more streamlined and effective. ### **3\. Aligning the review with OKR best practices** A [great OKR review](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/email-marketing-mastery-unlocking-success-with-okrs-and-metrics/) isn’t just about ticking off boxes – it’s about incorporating OKR best practices that guarantee meaningful discussions. Some key practices include: - Setting measurable key results - Focusing on outcomes, not just outputs - Involving all team members in the review process for diverse insights - Ensuring transparency by sharing progress with everyone When you align your OKR reviews with these best practices, you create a culture of continuous improvement where everyone feels involved and motivated to perform. ## **Creating an effective OKR review meeting agenda** Now that we’ve laid the groundwork for a solid OKR meeting agenda, it’s time to shift our focus to the actual execution – how to effectively conduct the review meeting and ensure that every discussion leads to actionable insights and measurable outcomes. ### **1\. Key components of a review meeting agenda** A well-planned agenda is like a GPS for your [OKR review meeting](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/how-to-run-effective-meetings-as-a-product-marketer-and-why-its-so-important/) – it keeps everything on track. Here’s a structure to help guide your next session: 1. **Review OKRs:** Start by revisiting the objectives and key results. Are they still relevant? Do they need tweaking? 2. **Progress check:** Discuss where you stand in terms of completion. Celebrate small wins. 3. **Roadblocks and solutions:** What’s holding the team back? Brainstorm solutions. 4. **Feedback and next steps:** Provide constructive feedback and establish the next steps for the upcoming period. Each section should be given a dedicated time slot to ensure a balanced discussion. ### **2\. Establishing timeframes and expectations for the meeting** Time is precious, especially in a fast-paced work environment. Setting time limits for each agenda item ensures the review stays focused and efficient. If the meeting runs too long, it risks losing momentum. For instance: - **OKR review:** 15 minutes - **Progress check:** 20 minutes - **Discussion of roadblocks:** 20 minutes - **Next steps:** 15 minutes By setting expectations upfront, you’ll avoid the dreaded “meeting creep” and ensure everything gets covered without dragging. [Top 3 mistakes companies make with OKRs - and how they overcome themOKRs are a crucial cog in the machine that will drive you to the top, so if you’re a newbie to the world of OKRs, it’s high time you started paying more attention to them. Here, we outline some of the mistakes companies make - and how they overcome them.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-128.png)SaaS AllianceMarielle Velander![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/pexels-cup-of-couple-6632868--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-3-mistakes-companies-make-with-okrs-and-how-they-overcome-them/) ## **Conducting the OKR review meeting** Let’s now explore how to capture the momentum from your review and set the stage for ongoing success. ### **1\. Reviewing progress and key learnings** This is the meat of the meeting. Dive into the progress made so far, celebrating small wins and learning from missteps. It’s important to focus on both achievements and challenges. Key learnings should be highlighted so teams can apply them in the future. The review shouldn’t just be about what didn’t work – it’s about what can be improved. Highlighting both the good and the bad creates a culture of transparency and growth. ### **2\. Addressing roadblocks and challenges** Nothing slows down a team like roadblocks, so identifying them early is critical. The OKR review is the perfect opportunity to discuss these obstacles. Whether it’s a lack of resources, unclear communication, or shifting priorities, tackling roadblocks head-on will empower your team to find solutions faster. Develop a collaborative atmosphere where everyone feels encouraged to suggest possible fixes. ### **3\. Highlighting key successes and recognizing contributions** OKRs aren’t just about [metrics](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/why-metrics-are-your-strategic-advantage/) – they’re about the people behind those metrics. Recognizing key successes and celebrating team contributions is vital to maintaining motivation. Acknowledging both individual and collective achievements fosters a culture of appreciation and encourages future performance. ## **Post-review actions and follow-up** Below are some ways you can keep the momentum alive and track progress moving forward to ensure that the hard work continues to pay off. ### **Documenting the review and outcomes** Once the review wraps up, ensure everything is documented clearly. Write a summary of key takeaways and create a detailed action plan. This will serve as a roadmap for the next phase, providing direction and clarity on the next steps. ### **Scheduling regular OKR check-ins for ongoing progress** One review isn’t enough. To truly benefit from OKRs, establish regular check-ins – whether monthly or quarterly – to track progress. These meetings will help adjust tactics, shift focus if needed, and keep everyone aligned. Regular check-ins ensure that OKRs remain a driving force, not just a checkbox. ## **Conclusion** OKR reviews are a powerful tool when done right. They provide clarity, encourage accountability, and promote growth. Remember, it’s not just about tracking results but creating an environment where teams can thrive. With the right structure, clear objectives, and a focus on learning and growth, OKR reviews can unlock the full potential of your team and organization. Get your OKR meeting agenda in place, use that OKR review template, and make every OKR review meeting count. ### The key to digital customer success: Balancing technology with human connection URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-key-to-digital-customer-success-balancing-technology-with-human-connection/ Last updated: 2025-01-17T17:30:51.000Z This article comes from **Alex Turkovic**’ insightful talk at our **Austin 2024 Customer Success Festival**. Check out his [full presentation](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-festival-austin-february-2024/?%5Fgl=1%2A5j83ny%2A%5Fup%2AMQ..%2A%5Fga%2AMjExMjcyNjQ5MS4xNzM2OTQ4ODMx%2A%5Fga%5F227NRQHH28%2AMTczNzAzMDIwNS4yLjEuMTczNzAzMDIxMS4wLjAuMA..&wchannelid=i7eahe9lwe&wmediaid=7a3cfyqb7w) and the wealth of other [OnDemand resources](https://www.saasalliance.io/ondemand-saas-hub/). --- What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about digital customer success? Is it automation? AI? Or maybe a fear that machines will eventually replace human connection? If so, you wouldn’t be the first. These are some of the most common reactions I encounter when talking about this topic, and it’s time we address them head-on. I’m **Alex Turkovic**, and over the past few years, I’ve been immersed in the world of digital customer success (CS). As the host of *The Digital Customer Success Podcast* and **Senior Director of Customer Experience** at **Belfry**, I’ve seen firsthand how digital tools can transform the way we engage customers—not by replacing the human touch, but by *enhancing* it. Today, I want to share my perspective on what it means to balance human and machine efforts in digital CS, dispel some common myths, and provide actionable insights you can take back to your teams. Let’s dive in! ## **Why over-automation hurts more than it helps** Let’s start with a quick story about Elon Musk. Whether you love him or loathe him—probably the latter—one thing you can’t deny is that he’s a relentless optimizer. During Tesla’s push to ramp up Model 3 production, Musk camped out in the Fremont factory to overhaul their manufacturing processes. What’s fascinating is that instead of adding more automation, he *removed* it. Musk realized that too much automation was actually slowing them down. This resonates with me because we often default to automating everything in [customer success](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/customer-success/). Automation is fantastic for repetitive tasks, but over-automation can lead to complexity, inefficiencies, and ultimately, a poorer [customer experience](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-experience-in-times-of-crisis-resilience-resolution-and-reputation-management/). 💡 The key is to ****find the right balance**, allowing automation to handle the “busy work” so humans can focus on building real relationships and driving value. [AI as a partner, not a replacement: Balancing tech and human connection effectivelyDiscover Director of Global Sales Enablement Jennifer Ryan’s key insights for striking the all-important balance between AI and human connection![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-122.png)SaaS AllianceJennifer Ryan![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/social---AI-as-a-partner--not-a-replacement-Balancing-tech-and-human-connection-effectively.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/ai-as-a-partner-not-a-replacement-balancing-tech-and-human-connection-effectively/) _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### The role of customer advocacy in sales and support URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-role-of-customer-advocacy-in-sales-and-support/ Last updated: 2025-01-27T08:41:05.000Z Product marketing and sales teams continue to collaborate closely with one another in a bid to fulfill short and long-term targets. In fact, the [State of Product Marketing 2024](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/state-of-product-marketing-2024/) revealed **16.3%** of PMMs work alongside sales, third only to the usual suspects' product **(19.4%)** and marketing **(18.4%)**. ![Our data shows that PMMs work most closely with the product team (19.4%) and the marketing team (18.4%), reflecting the core responsibilities of product marketing in bridging the gap between product development and go-to-market strategies. PMMs also work extensively with the sales team (16.3%) and the customer success team (10.8%), highlighting their crucial role in enabling and supporting these customer-facing functions.](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2024/12/State-of-Product-Marketing-who-PMMs-work-with-most.png) [State of Product Marketing 2024](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/state-of-product-marketing-2024/) While there’s no doubting the role of teamwork between product marketing and sales in the overall success of a product, the external influence of customer advocacy shouldn’t be underestimated. Ever been unsure about which product to buy, only to be swayed by family/friends when they’ve told you a particular option is the best thing since sliced bread? If so, you’ve experienced customer advocacy first hand, where the customer serves as an extension of the sales team. Research has shown as many as [**92%** of consumers](https://www.socialtoaster.com/advocacy-marketing-statistics/) trust word-of-mouth recommendations, making it one of the most prolific forms of advertising, while [**76%** trust advocate content](https://www.socialtoaster.com/advocacy-marketing-statistics/) as opposed to the content shared by the brand itself. Customer advocacy plays a prevalent role in the PMM process, therefore, we’re going to focus on key discussion points relating to the topic, including: - What is customer advocacy? - How do customer advocates help sales and support teams? - How advocacy and adoption can accelerate your business. - 5 tips to scale your advocacy program. - How can social media listening increase customer advocacy? - Reasons to build a customer advocacy community. - Common customer advocacy challenges. ## What is customer advocacy? Customer advocacy is when companies take proactive steps to build and nurture relationships with loyal, long-term customers. These customers serve as spokespeople and patrons for your brand, products, or services. ## How do customer advocates help sales and support teams? Customer advocates can facilitate success when working alongside sales and support teams, but why are they useful assets to these particular teams? ### Maintain customer relationships Many consumers struggle to acknowledge sales and advertising as the beacon of truth, with a study revealing that a staggering [**96%** of consumers](https://www.inc.com/dakota-shane/96-percent-of-consumers-dont-trust-ads-heres-how-to-sell-your-product-without-coming-off-sleazy.html) are skeptical of brands and their advertising campaigns. Customer advocates play a significant role in bridging the gap between customers and brands and keeping this relationship intact. ### Enhance brand awareness Customer advocates will move heaven and earth to share their experiences about how great your product is, in turn, improving your [brand awareness](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/the-what-why-and-how-of-tracking-brand-awareness/). Your advocates can raise awareness on a small scale by recommending products to colleagues and/or key stakeholders within a company, or by sharing with social media followers or at industry events and conferences, in which case, this offers scope for your product to be promoted to a multitude of potential customers. [Launching a podcast: The key to boosting brand awarenessI’m Shira Atkins, the CRO and founder of Wonder Media Network, an audio-first media company, and I’m here to share my advice on podcasting for brands. I’ll cover topics including How to get started with a branded podcast, how to measure success, and how to cut through the noise. Let’s jump in!![](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/icon/android-chrome-512x512-1-53.png)Product Marketing AllianceShira Atkins![](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/thumbnail/Untitled-design--52---1-.png)](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/launching-a-podcast-the-key-to-boosting-brand-awareness/) ### Provide insights and assistance to other customers Customer advocate programs can provide significant support to your customer support representatives. Advocates share their own understanding and knowledge of your product, enhancing the quality of community self-service via avenues such as community forums. Such platforms are becoming increasingly popular as a means of support, and advocates can offer their in-depth understanding to answer questions and provide feedback, alleviating the workload for your customer support team. ### Improve product launches Customer advocates are sometimes recruited as part of a company’s [product launch process](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/a-visual-guide-to-product-launches/). As part of their role, it’s their responsibility to test new features and provide suggestions on what could potentially be improved ahead of the product or service being released. This feedback is invaluable for companies because an advocate's input is often used to flag potential bugs and issues that could’ve potentially hindered customer experience. ## How can advocacy and adoption accelerate your business? [Customer marketing](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/what-is-customer-marketing/) and advocacy programs are being acknowledged as an effective way for PMMs to maximize their company growth. **Global Head of Customer Advocacy at Adobe, Kevin Lau**, discussed the customer journey and how PMMs can create magic moments to ensure they continue their journey, focusing on key topics such as: ✅ Building scalable customer programs that drive results and internal alignment ✅ How to create a customer marketing success framework ✅ Tried and tested customer marketing blueprint ✅ Measuring program ROI ✅ Gaining a seat at the table = more $$$ and resources ![Customer Marketing Summit](https://fast.wistia.com/embed/medias/lxr72ueoo6/swatch) ![Customer Marketing Summit](https://embed-ssl.wistia.com/deliveries/371c98f057e0667e1fcd03f5884558d7.webp?image_crop_resized=1280x720) [](https://productmarketingalliance.com/)34:05 ## How to scale your customer advocacy program Speaking at the Customer Marketing Summit, **Jon Ashley, former Senior Manager, Global Customer Advocacy at Sage** outlined his five tips on how product marketers can scale their advocacy programs: ### 1) Define your outcomes ![My first tip is to define your outcomes. The definition of your program will focus on what you're delivering to the business. You don't want your program to be seen as non-essential.](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/01/define-your-outcomes.png) My first tip is to define your outcomes. The definition of your program will focus on what you're delivering to the business. You don't want your program to be seen as non-essential. Your program should touch all areas of your business and have specific business benefits that appeal to everyone, and that could be from a revenue perspective; references, referrals, nurture opportunities, as well as cross-sell and upsell are all ways in which you can measure outcomes. Advocates are much more willing to undertake activities that expose them to cross-sell and upsell opportunities. More importantly, If you're ever talking to services support, they're much more willing to not argue over renewals, so bear that in mind. Secondly, consider external influence and how your advocates are using their voice in the public domain. This is where they're promoting you and implementing a peer-to-peer approach. Finally, don't forget about the fun elements. The fun doesn't have to be silly or whimsical; it can be fun in a creative way. Think about your learning, how you socialize with your advocates, and think of methods you can use to educate in a fun way. You'll be amazed at how this approach resonates with your target audience. ### 2) Get buy-in ![Your advocacy program needs to secure buy-in at all levels. Successfully securing buy-in not only raises your profile but also demonstrates to your colleagues the value of the contributions you're making.](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/01/get-buy-in.png) Your advocacy program needs to secure buy-in at all levels. Successfully securing buy-in not only raises *your* profile but also demonstrates to your colleagues the value of the contributions you're making. During this stage, don't just give your target audience the ‘fluffy’ stuff. Whilst some of the fluffy stuff is important, you need to demonstrate what's making a difference to them. Your senior leaders are interested in revenue, what's been generated or what's being influenced, or what's even being protected. From a sales perspective, it's about new business referrals and how you can get them involved in the reference process. Moreover, from a marketing perspective, you need to demonstrate how advocates can get involved in campaigns, how they can help with content, and how they can help with providing testimonials or doing surveys or reviews. Similarly, your customer success team will love you because you're making it easier for them when it comes to renewals. You'll also get good handles on how to position, cross-sell and upsell opportunities, but also help them get the most from the product they bought. Finally, don't forget about service and support. You can reduce technical support calls and start to crowdsource support to answer those technical queries so you're reducing the kind of calls and the queries that go into your support desk. Don't forget to open up your advocacy program to your colleagues. Let them get a sense of what you're doing, experience it first-hand, and invite them to come up with ideas and collaborate. The great thing about your advocacy program is once your colleagues have bought in and they see the value that you're delivering, they’ll come up with ideas and come to you with suggestions on how they want to use advocates. ### 3) Be flexible ![Maintain flexibility and don't be afraid to constantly evaluate where you are with your program; it's fine if you want to change direction, especially if you're reflecting on changing advocate needs. ](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/01/Be-flexible.png) Maintain flexibility and don't be afraid to constantly evaluate where you are with your program; it's fine if you want to change direction, especially if you're reflecting on changing advocate needs. Keep asking your advocates questions, seek feedback on how they're enjoying the program, their roles, and balance what you're doing with new advocates with your activities, whilst keeping existing advocates engaged. I've seen so many programs over my years working so hard to find, recruit, and involve new advocates, only to lose them because there aren't enough activities in the program to keep them engaged regularly, so you must be consistent. ### 4) Make it desirable ![You need to make your advocacy program desirable. The main reason is that by creating this desirability, you’ll have customers who want to join with whom you can engage. ](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/01/Make-it-desirable.png) You need to make your advocacy program desirable. This is a big one for me and could be perceived as being somewhat controversial. I’m a big believer that your advocacy program should be exclusive and have an air of a ‘club’ about it. The main reason is that by creating this desirability, you’ll have customers who want to join with whom you can engage. Sometimes this may allow you to engage those customers who would traditionally not be seen as advocates by saying, ‘Would you like to join the club?’ This is a perfect opportunity for you to open dialogue, find out why they want to join, and engage them directly. You don't want to exclude customers as such, but people's curiosity will get the better of them; they’ll want to know what your club's about, what your advocacy program is about, why they're not involved, and you'll be able to have conversations with them and show them what they can expect when they join. Your customer will want to join if they see your program visibly in action. This is a great opportunity to use events to your advantage. If an advocate attends and sees some form of VIP treatment, this will impress them. Similarly, non-VIPs will think ‘I want some of that.’ Remember to maintain a sense of exclusivity throughout your program and establish a sense of desirability - it’s key and will help you do something special and unexpected. ### 5) Communicate ![Remember to make everything you communicate internally in your business positive and celebratory. Tell your advocates about what others are doing within your program. Have a monthly competition with your advocates to say ‘here's our top advocate of the month and this is what they did to earn it’, so that becomes desirable. Keep shouting about your program and share your successes. ](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/01/Communicate.png) Remember to make everything you communicate internally in your business positive and celebratory. Tell your advocates about what others are doing within your program. Have a monthly competition with your advocates to say ‘here's our top advocate of the month and this is what they did to earn it’, so that becomes desirable. Keep shouting about your program and share your successes. Don't expect to have a seat at the table - you need to earn that seat. One of the biggest successes we've enjoyed within the Sage champions program is producing an internal video that put our customers at the heart and center of a video where we asked them to talk about what they love about being part of our program and it was amazing. One of our advocates said the advocacy program changed their entire perception about Sage, and that they now feel part of the family. It works and there's nothing better than hearing your customers praise your program. If you have a discussion forum, use it to your advantage and use it as part of your program so that advocates talk to each other. You'll be amazed at the interactions that happen and the relationships they build, and that’ll help you in the long run. ## How can social media listening increase customer advocacy? What your customers say about you online matters more than ever. That's where [social media listening](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/turning-conversations-into-insights-with-social-listening/) comes in. It's not just about keeping tabs on mentions of your brand - it's about turning casual customers into passionate advocates who can't wait to tell others about you. ### Quick responses win hearts Think about it: when a customer reaches out on social media, they're not expecting to wait around. Social media listening lets you spot and solve problems fast - sometimes before they even become real issues. When customers see you jumping in to help right away, they're blown away by the service. And happy customers? They love to spread the word. ### Getting in on the conversation Here's where it gets interesting. Social listening isn't just about putting out fires - it's about spotting those golden moments when customers are singing your praises. By jumping into these positive conversations, thanking customers, and building real connections, you're creating brand champions who'll advocate for you simply because they want to. ### Making products people actually want Nothing shows you care quite like actually listening to feedback and making changes. Social listening lets you get pure, unfiltered thoughts about your products or services. Customers feel invested in your success When they see their suggestions turning into real improvements. These are the customers who'll stick with you for the long haul. ### Creating content that actually matters Ever wonder what your customers really care about? Social listening gives you the inside scoop. By tuning into their conversations, questions, and challenges, you can create content that truly resonates. This isn't just about pushing out information - it's about becoming the go-to resource your audience trusts. ### Staying one step ahead of the competition Smart businesses keep an eye on the competition, but great ones learn from them. Social listening helps you spot where others fall short and where you can step in with better solutions. It's not about copying what works - it's about finding your unique angle that makes customers choose you over everyone else. ### Building something special together At the end of the day, social media listening transforms your relationship with customers from a one-way street into a genuine conversation. When you nail this approach, you create something powerful: a community of customers who don't just buy from you, but actively champion your brand to others. That's the kind of organic growth money can't buy. ## Why all customer marketers should build a customer advocacy community During her career, **Katie Smeal, Senior Customer Advocacy Manager at DocuSign**, has been presented with an opportunity to apply her [communication skills](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/effective-communication-with-prospective-customers-jack-preece-linnworks/), support her passion for [storytelling](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/the-what-why-and-how-of-storytelling/), and her desire of connecting people and [developing meaningful relationships](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/reinventing-yourself-an-approach-to-reimagining-your-career-learning-and-relationships/). Katie believes the customer's voice is the most important area of focus for all businesses and is passionate about getting to know customers and identifying opportunities to tell their stories and elevate their voices. She outlined why customer marketers should be aiming to build a logistic customer advocacy community: ### What is community? First and foremost: what is community? It’s defined as: > *“A feeling of fellowship with others as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.”* As human beings, we crave connections with others, sharing our stories and experiences - that's how we create a true sense of community. Gathering and sharing stories is something that I've been passionate about in my personal life. I never knew that there was a way to bring that into the business and tech world until I learned about customer advocacy and what it has to offer. I realized that's exactly what the business and tech world needed to embrace and bring to life. When I was at VMware, I was responsible for creating and launching our global customer advocacy community. It was an exciting and rewarding challenge. I joined the DocuSign customer advocacy team earlier this year to be a part of building and launching the customer advocacy program at DocuSign. At DocuSign, we're working together to identify opportunities to move away from that traditional way of engaging with our customers and creating true customer advocates with a robust and engaging experience. ### How to create an engaging customer experience To create an engaging experience for our customers and those relationships, we have to look beyond the way that we've done things in the past and look for bringing these special moments of being together in person to an online forum. There might be times where we're able to engage with our customers in person, but the majority of our connection will be with our customers online. So how do we bring these magic moments into the online community? Before I discuss customer advocacy in further detail, I wanted to share a customer advocacy quote and a story from a few years ago, when my team and I were on-site at a conference after launching our online customer advocacy community. We were standing at our booth watching our customer advocates engage with each other, exchange numbers, attend sessions together and share stories. It was incredible to witness how creating a community within the tech space could truly come to life and the impact that it has on our customers. I sat down to talk to one of our customer advocates just to catch up, see how things are going for him in the work and the work sphere, and to ask: how can we make this community better? What are we doing right? What are we doing wrong? I was desperate to learn from him. He answered: > *“The IT world is a big place, and it's easy to get lost. The future of technology is only going to move faster and faster. We must build and rely on a community of people and resources we trust to achieve our current and future goals.”* This was the moment that I realized the impact that we can have on our customers, by creating a community in our business. I use and reference this quote all the time as I'm realising what’s possible with customer advocacy and community. It’s the impact that we can have on our customers by bringing them together to let them network and share experiences. This is hugely significant for our business; it brings that magic of being together in person, and to the online format. I share this as a success story to inspire you, wherever you are in your journey of moving from that transactional reference recruitment model to providing and creating a customer advocacy community for your customers. Having a customer share the impact that your community has on them is the dream state, but it takes a lot of thoughtful work and planning to get there. I’m going to share experiences I've had building an online customer advocacy community in a previous role, as well as what our customer advocacy program looks like at Docusign. My hope in sharing these experiences is that you can identify where you are in your journey, and you're empowered to take that next step to move from a transactional way of engaging with customers and building a community around customer advocates. ### Why is emotion important in customer advocacy? When I was introduced to customer advocacy, it was through transactional and traditional reference recruitment. We interact with our customers, provide them with an opportunity through email, whether that's a speaking opportunity, a webinar, etc. Oftentimes, people spot an opportunity for a customer to share their story, work with them to bring this to life, and showcase their story, before thanking them and ending communication. It’s not unusual for companies to not reach out to their customers until another opportunity arises. There’s a gap that materializes, and it's difficult to nurture relationships with customers if you’re only reaching out as opportunities present themselves. This model is very transactional and you need to make your customers feel a connection and a commitment to your business - but how, if we're only reaching out as opportunities become available? When we gather in person we don't just walk up to each other, exchange the bare necessities and leave. We stay, listen, share experiences, and connect. This is why building an online customer advocacy community that mirrors that feeling of being a person is so important. You need to give your customers a dedicated space to share their stories and a place where they can connect with your business. They need to feel a sense of partnership in this relationship where you’re both communicating consistently with each other and learning about each other, beyond the transaction at the sales point. ### Identifying customer touch points It's critical to complete a business assessment to identify all of the customer touch points within your business. From the moment that our customers transact with sales, what happens next? And what does that journey look like? Who's engaging with our customers throughout their journey? And what does that experience look like? Considering these factors will help you when you’re building your community, as well as your customer advocacy program in general; it’ll help you see what that experience currently looks like and decipher your vision for what you want it to look like in the future. ### Launching a customer advocacy community ![Launching a customer advocacy community.](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/01/Launching-a-customer-advocacy-community.png) **1) Identify internal stakeholders and executive sponsors** As you take off on this adventure, it's important to first identify your internal stakeholders and executive sponsors. Think about all of the teams you support as a customer advocacy team, as those will be important stakeholders that you'll want to identify as you're building out what it looks like to launch this community. Your executive sponsors, for lack of a better word, are going to be your advocates through this journey. They’ll help you get to the point of launching your customer advocacy community. From there, you'll want to research and identify a platform for hosting that community, so take the time to look at what makes sense for your business. When we were at VMware, we partnered with Influitive, and it was a great partnership, and we were able to accomplish a lot together. But I would recommend looking at what makes sense for your business and your overall goals. **2) Identify a platform for hosting the community** You then need to find a platform that meets the criteria you're looking for and build out a presentation that talks about the value of that platform, the value of what community would bring to your business. Put the information together in the form of one presentation before scheduling time to share your presentation with executive sponsors and internal stakeholders. **3)** **Present to executive sponsors and internal stakeholders** It’s important that you not only layout and identify what the value is of the platform that you’ve selected - you need to make sure that the value is well defined as you prepare to present to executive sponsors and internal stakeholders. What does it look like for the business? How is this customer advocacy community going to be a value to customer success, sales, marketing, PR, AR, to *all* of these internal groups that we interact with? **4) Network internally and socialize your community plans** I’d encourage you to network internally and socialize your community plans. As you're meeting with different groups, socialize what you're planning to do with your customer advocacy community, get their [feedback](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/customer-feedback-marketing-strategy-video/), make them feel a part of this village to launch this customer advocacy community for your customer base. In doing so, when you prepare to launch, you're not in a place where people are potentially thinking: “why are you watching this?”, or “what is this?” You’ll have a whole village behind you, supporting you, because they see the value and how this is going to make a difference in the customer journey. **5) Schedule training and 1:1 with network managers** One group I’d pay attention to would be your reference managers. I’ve been a reference manager myself for many years, and we're used to that traditional model, where we reach out to customers through email, work with them on the opportunity, and we thank them. We either connect through email or LinkedIn, but that's what we've been used to operating in for so long. You need to recognize that change can be hard. Therefore, I think it's important to schedule one-on-one sessions with reference managers to make sure they see the value in engaging with their customers and they’re able to nurture their relationships with customers in this community. Make sure they have the opportunity to share feedback and feel empowered to engage with their community and customers in that way. And last, but by no means least... ### Create your launch plan ![Create your launch plan.](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/01/Create-your-launch-plan.png) These are just a couple of key points that've helped me create a launch plan based on my experience: **1) Identify key regions** First, you'll want to identify the regions that you launched to and develop a support plan. As you're looking at the different regions that you're rolling out to, you'll want to make sure that you identify the right way of engaging with these different regions. For example, what’s important in North America, in comparison to Europe? What do your customers find engaging in the APAC region? When you welcome these customer advocates into your community, they should feel welcomed, so you need to provide a great, customized experience for them. Dedicate the time to researching and understanding methods for launching effectively across a variety of regions, so your customers feel supported, welcomed. **2) Identify and compile customer invitation list** From there, you'll want to identify a list of customers to invite. Think of this like a party or a gathering; oftentimes there's the stars and those who are excitable. On the other hand, other individuals are listeners. It's important to look at that in-person gathering, and how we bring that to life into this community. You can do that by inviting existing customer advocates that you've already nurtured those relationships with, and then inviting new advocates so that they can interact. The ones who you've known for some time can encourage your other customer advocates to share their stories, network, and connect. **3) Draft email invitations and welcome messages for customers** You'll want to make sure to draft [email](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/16-email-marketing-tools-for-product-marketers/) invitations and welcome messages for customers, so have all the information that can be used to outline community value. When you’re outlining the value to them, give your advocates a guided journey, so that when they join the community, they're not just lost. They should know where to go, and you should guide them through their experience. **4) Create an editorial calendar and supporting content** Creating an editorial calendar and content is hugely helpful. Having content published every single week, and before launch, will make you successful. We created an editorial calendar to help us plan ahead of time and decide the content we want to have. It's important to have a flexible calendar, as new things will materialize. To begin, our advocates shared three to five pieces of content and that was a great place to start. Make sure you have fresh content in the community each week, and different *types* of content for your customer advocates to engage in. Rather than sticking solely to product and company announcements, ask your audience what their holiday plans are and whether they’d be interested in sharing your story. You need to find ways to elevate the customer’s voice and give them a chance to shine, whether it’s enhancing their brand or professional brand. You can do that by engaging in a variety of different content **5) Outline plan of engagement and community manager role** Outline a plan of engagement and the community role and have someone dedicated to the community. In doing so, your advocates will be engaged every time they log in. They’ll have someone from your business they can ask questions to; this person will show up every single day for your customers and that's the way you can nurture and develop relationships. ### How to build a network of advocates You'll probably be asked: what is success? What are the benefits? How do you know you have a great network of advocates? These are some of the ways I've identified a great network of advocates: - **Loyal customers -** Your customers are sharing real experiences and speak positively about your brand. - **Empowered reference managers -** Reference managers are consistently connected to their customers. - **Niche product use cases -** Uncovering niche [product use cases](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/the-role-of-use-cases-in-product-marketing/) to support sales and marketing requests. - **Customer storytelling -** Your advocates are raising their hands to share their stories. - **Community engagement -** Your community mirrors the presence of an in-person gathering. ## Common customer advocacy challenges While there are undoubted benefits affiliated with customer advocacy programs, it's also important to identify some of the challenges that can arise. For example: 1\. Resources are essential to the success of any world-class advocacy and engagement program. However, there are times when PMMs struggle to obtain sufficient financial support from senior management when building their program. 2\. In some cases, not only can it can be difficult to attract dedicated customer advocates, but sometimes, keeping them on board can be a challenge. 3\. Difficulties can materialize when integrating an advocacy program with key stakeholders, as well as internal teams such as sales, marketing, etc. 4\. Companies working with a small budget may encounter problems sustaining and/or scaling its customer advocacy program. 5\. Although you may appreciate the value of customer advocacy, it can be hard to explain the benefits of the process to senior management and stakeholders who may not be receptive to the idea. 6\. Industries develop at a staggering rate, and some teams may find it difficult to keep up to date with developing markets and solutions, particularly if the team overseeing an advocacy program is small. ### How to master change management using enablement URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-master-change-management-using-enablement/ Last updated: 2025-01-03T16:00:40.000Z This article comes from **Ian Lazarus**’ insightful talk, at our **Austin 2024 Sales Enablement Summit.** Check out his [full presentation](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-enablement-summit-austin-2024/?%5Fgl=1%2Aidaoh4%2A%5Fup%2AMQ..%2A%5Fga%2AMTUyMzgzNjQwMy4xNzM1ODQwODQ4%2A%5Fga%5F227NRQHH28%2AMTczNTg0MDg0Ny4xLjAuMTczNTg0MDg0Ny4wLjAuMA..&wchannelid=220c3fodzp&wmediaid=gmn9hzpxgw) and our wealth of [OnDemand resources](https://www.saasalliance.io/ondemand-saas-hub/). --- Have you ever found yourself in the middle of a major organizational change, wondering how to keep your team afloat and aligned? If so, you're not alone. As the VP of Ops at Zippy, I've navigated my fair share of [change management](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-spiders-web-how-to-leverage-change-management/) challenges, from early-stage startups to global enterprises. Through it all, I've come to appreciate the critical role that [enablement](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/enablement/) plays in making change successful. But what exactly is change management, and how can enablement professionals like you and me help our organizations through it? In this article, I'll share my experiences and insights on everything from understanding the key principles of change management, to the practical tools needed. By the end, hopefully you'll have a deeper understanding of how enablement can help organizations navigate change, along with some practical tips and tools to add to your change management toolkit. So, let's dive in! ## **Understanding change management** So, what exactly is change management? In a nutshell, it's any change in an organization that impacts [company culture](https://www.saasalliance.io/beyond-the-buzzwords-how-to-actually-build-a-culture-driven-company/), internal processes, product pivots, reorgs, [go-to-market](https://www.saasalliance.io/go-to-market-strategy-the-roadmap-to-saas-success/) shifts, and more. There are two main types of change: **adaptive change**, which is small, gradual, and iterative, and **transformational change**, which is typically larger in scale, like reorgs, layoffs, or expanding globally. Both types of change can be positive or negative, but they all require careful management. Here are the four key principles of change management that I've learned throughout my career: 1. **Understand the change:** Why do you need it? What are the objectives and benefits? How will it impact people and the way they work? 2. **Plan the change:** Identify sponsors, involve the right people, secure buy-in, and define success metrics. 3. **Implement the change:** Ensure everyone is involved and understands what needs to happen, and use tools like change agents and effective communication. 4. **Support the change through enablement:** Develop skills, provide resources, leverage technology, and create support systems. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### AI as a partner, not a replacement: Balancing tech and human connection effectively URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/ai-as-a-partner-not-a-replacement-balancing-tech-and-human-connection-effectively/ Last updated: 2024-12-20T16:30:18.000Z This article comes from **Jennifer Ryan**’s insightful talk, ‘*Beyond the bots: Balancing technology with human connection*’, at our **2024 Austin Sales Enablement Summit,** check out her full presentation [**here**](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-enablement-summit-austin-2024/?%5Fgl=1%2A1iurcwr%2A%5Fup%2AMQ..%2A%5Fga%2AODYxMDQ2NTQ0LjE3MzQ0NTYwMjY.%2A%5Fga%5F227NRQHH28%2AMTczNDUzMzA0OC4yLjEuMTczNDUzMzA1Ni4wLjAuMA..&wchannelid=220c3fodzp&wmediaid=ialfjgma1e). --- Let's start with the million-dollar question in sales today: How can we fully capitalize on the potential of AI without losing the essential human elements that drive real connections and impact? There's no denying the awesome capabilities [AI](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/artificial-intelligence/) brings to the table - automating tasks and augmenting our productivity in powerful ways, but we can't just hand over the keys to the machines entirely! We have to be intentional about **finding the right balance**, using AI as a complementary partnership that expands what we can do as humans rather than replacing us altogether. As someone obsessed with the world of tech and machine learning, I've witnessed firsthand the fears and resistance [new technologies](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/new-saas-technology/) often breed. That knee-jerk "Rise of the Machines" mentality is natural, but *misguided*. When leveraged correctly, AI can be an incredibly skilled copilot, not the one actually taking the controls, so let me share my journey and key insights for striking this all-important balance... ## **My journey with technology as an enabler** My journey actually began in the IT world, where I got hands-on experience with everything from machine learning and RPA to coding. So I was primed and ready when AI started taking off. While everyone else was nervous, I was like a kid in a candy store - just super eager to explore the possibilities! What I realized early on is that the key for getting people on board is to tap into their emotions with a clear, compelling "*Why?*" - the bigger vision and aspirations that these new capabilities can help achieve. As the famous "Golden Circle" concept teaches us, people don't buy what you do, **they buy why you do it**. [AI: The key to aligning your B2B sales and marketing teamsDiscover how AI can bridge the divide between your B2B sales and marketing teams for next-level revenue growth![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-115.png)SaaS AllianceFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/werclive-uA1f_wpiqFY-unsplash-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/ai-aligning-b2b-sales-and-marketing-teams/) ## **The 5 key components for transformation** Speaking of visions, I want to introduce a [hugely valuable framework](https://www.saasalliance.io/templates-frameworks/) for making transformational changes happen when implementing new technologies and strategies. There are five key components: 1. **A clear vision** that paints the vivid picture of what you're working towards 2. **The skills and knowledge** required to execute on that vision 3. **Proper incentives** to motivate people to make the change 4. **Having the necessary resources** and tools in place 5. **A solid, communicated action plan** with clear steps *No vision?* You'll cause confusion. *Lack of skills?* Anxiety kicks in. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### 5 best budgeting tools for SaaS startups URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/5-best-budgeting-tools-for-saas-startups/ Last updated: 2024-12-17T16:33:54.000Z Budgeting isn’t exactly the *most* exciting task for a [SaaS startup founder](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-a-saas-company-at-speed-podcast-ashutosh-garg-ceo-and-founder-of-eightfold-ai/), but let’s face it—nailing your finances is critical if you want to scale. Luckily, the days of wrestling with spreadsheets that break at the first formula error are over—introducing the wonderful world of [budgeting tools](https://www.saasalliance.io/15-tools-for-a-great-finance-tech-stack/)! These tools are designed to save you time, eliminate mistakes, and give you the insights you need to grow. However, not all tools are created equal. Some are perfect for [early-stage startups](https://www.saasalliance.io/growth-hacking-for-b2b-startups-a-guide-to-leveraging-growth-hacking-methods-for-early-stage-companies/), while others shine for [enterprise-level](https://www.saasalliance.io/effective-industry-marketing-strategies-for-enterprise-saas/) planning, and more and more are being introduced each year. When you're running a SaaS startup, *every* dollar counts. Here’s a detailed look at the five best budgeting tools for SaaS startups, based on their features, ease of use, and suitability for different business stages. Let’s dive straight in. ## **Why SaaS startups need budgeting tools** As you know, SaaS startups operate in a dynamic, data-driven environment. That means managing recurring revenue, predicting churn, and allocating resources effectively requires precision and agility. Traditional spreadsheets just can’t keep up. Modern budgeting tools go beyond number crunching—they automate workflows, provide real-time insights, and offer collaboration features that help teams make smarter decisions. The right tool can be the difference between guessing your way forward and confidently navigating your next growth phase. ### **What to look for in a budgeting tool for SaaS startups** But what actually makes a budgeting tool a good fit for your SaaS startup? Here are a few key factors to consider: - **Integration**: It should work seamlessly with your existing tools, like your CRM, ERP, and billing software. - **Scalability**: Whether you’re a small startup or scaling fast, the tool should grow with you. - **Collaboration**: Teams across departments should have easy access to financial insights without needing to dig through spreadsheets. - **SaaS-specific features**: Look for tools that support your key metrics like monthly recurring revenue (MRR), annual recurring revenue (ARR), and churn forecasting. - **Ease of use**: Your team shouldn’t need a finance degree to use it. Now we’ve covered the basics, let’s explore our top five best budgeting tools for SaaS startups. ****TL;DR** If you’re committed to spreadsheets but want automation, ****Cube** or ****Vena** are solid options. For SaaS-specific tools with advanced forecasting, ****Drivetrain** is purpose-built for your needs. If collaboration and accessibility are priorities, ****Mosaic** makes financial data a team-wide effort. For scaling enterprises needing customization, ****Workday Adaptive Planning** delivers robust capabilities. ## **1\. Cube: Spreadsheet power with modern flexibility** ![5 best budgeting tools for SaaS startups Cube](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/12/cube-software.png) [Source](https://www.cubesoftware.com/) For SaaS startups already deep into Excel or Google Sheets, Cube bridges the gap between manual spreadsheets and modern financial planning. It enhances what you’re familiar with—without forcing you to start over. ### **Key features** - **Spreadsheet-native**: Cube integrates directly with Excel and Google Sheets, so there’s no need for your team to learn to use new software. - **Automated consolidation**: Instead of piecing together data manually, Cube pulls numbers in real time and keeps everything updated. - **Scenario planning**: You can test multiple “what-if” scenarios—like adjusting pricing or customer acquisition costs—and see the financial impact instantly. ### **Who it’s best for** Small to mid-market SaaS startups that need robust [financial planning](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-saas-finance-operations/) without abandoning their existing spreadsheet workflows. ### **💡 Pro tip** Use Cube’s drill-down capabilities to trace every number back to its origin—no more guessing where your data came from when finance needs answers fast. [The SaaS finance pitfalls that you need to avoid in 2025Dive into important aspects of SaaS finance, the key financial metrics that require the most attention, and the pitfalls to avoid in 2025.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-110.png)SaaS AllianceMaria Amir![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/SaaS_Website_Article_Images_Author_Highlight.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-saas-finance-pitfalls-that-you-need-to-avoid-moving-forward-into-2025/) ## **2\. Mosaic: Financial planning as a team effort** ![5 best budgeting tools for SaaS startups Mosaic](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/12/mosaic-1.png) [Source](https://www.mosaic.tech/) Mosaic simplifies budgeting and forecasting by making financial data accessible to everyone—not just the finance team. It's collaborative [tools](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2024-report/) and intuitive dashboards are ideal for startups that value [cross-functional input](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) in their financial planning. ### **Key features** - **Collaborative planning**: Mosaic connects department heads with live financial data, allowing more informed decisions across teams. - **Intuitive dashboards**: Visual reports make it easy to track metrics in a way everyone can understand. - **Flexible budgeting**: Supports both top-down and bottom-up approaches that adapt as your startup grows. ### **Who it’s best for** Small to mid-sized SaaS startups looking to foster transparency and collaboration in financial planning, aligning their goals across teams. ### **💡 Pro tip** Seamlessly manage multi-currency operations. If your SaaS startup is [growing globally](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-achieve-100-saas-growth-globally/), you can keep your financial planning streamlined and consistent across regions. [15 tools for a great finance stackFinance teams need to pull data fast and they need it to be accurate, to achieve both they have to have complete confidence in their tech stack. With this in mind, we searched high and low for the tools you need in your arsenal to build the ultimate finance tech stack![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-111.png)SaaS AllianceEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/clay-banks-E2HgkL3LaFE-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/15-tools-for-a-great-finance-tech-stack/) ## **3\. Drivetrain: Tailored for SaaS-specific financial challenges** ![5 best budgeting tools for SaaS startups Drivetrain](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/12/drivetrain.png) [Source](https://www.drivetrain.ai/) Drivetrain is built specifically for SaaS businesses and subscription-based models, it handles complex forecasting, revenue modeling, and churn analysis with ease. ### **Key features** - **SaaS-centric features**: It’s designed for [metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/metrics-that-matter-the-kpis-every-saas-company-should-track/) like MRR/ARR, churn, and multi-currency reporting that are key for subscription-based businesses. - **Scenario planning**: Ability to build predictive models to understand the financial impact of decisions like hiring, pricing changes, or entering new markets. - **Seamless integrations**: With 200+ data connectors, Drivetrain brings together data from your whole [tech stack](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-what-does-the-future-of-saas-tech-stacks-look-like/). ### **Who it’s best for** Early-stage and mid-market SaaS startups looking for financial tools tailored to subscription models and rapid growth. ### **💡 Pro tip** Drivetrain’s strength is its focus on SaaS-specific forecasting. If you’re managing subscriptions, it’ll save you from building complex models from scratch. [Step-by-step guide to optimizing your SaaS marketing budgetMarketing is crucial for growth, but where you spend your funds can be a real head scratcher. Check out our step by step guide to allocating your marketing funds.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-112.png)SaaS AllianceElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/budget-allocation.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/step-by-step-guide-to-optimizing-your-saas-marketing-budget/) ## **4\. Workday Adaptive Planning: A scalable solution for growing startups** ![5 best budgeting tools for SaaS startups Workday](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/12/workday-adaptive-planning.png) [Source](https://www.workday.com/en-gb/products/adaptive-planning/overview.html) Workday Adaptive Planning is a strong choice for SaaS companies scaling into enterprise territory. It handles complex financial planning, forecasting, and reporting, all while offering more flexibility than traditional enterprise tools. ### **Key features** - **Customizable planning**: From driver-based budgeting to scenario modeling, it adapts to the needs of growing organizations. - **Scalability**: It’s built to handle everything from single-office operations to multi-subsidiary global planning. - **User-friendly reporting**: Compared to legacy enterprise tools, this tool is known for being easier to use and maintain. ### **Who it’s best for** Larger SaaS startups or enterprises that need detailed financial models, custom workflows, and robust reporting. ### **💡 Pro tip** Take advantage of Workday’s self-service dashboards to empower department leaders with financial insights directly, so they no longer need constant input from the finance team. [How to assemble a high-impact SaaS startup leadership teamCEO and Founder Hope Horner outlines how to build a stellar leadership team when your SaaS business is in hypergrowth.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-113.png)SaaS AllianceHope Horner![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/steven-lelham-atSaEOeE8Nk-unsplash-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-saas-startup-how-to-assemble-a-high-impact-leadership-team/) ## **5\. Vena Solutions: Excel familiarity with added automation** ![5 best budgeting tools for SaaS startups Vena Solutions](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/12/vena-solutions.png) [Source](https://www.venasolutions.com/) Vena Solutions takes the familiarity of Excel and layers it with automation, reporting, and collaboration features. For teams already invested in spreadsheets, it’s a natural upgrade. ### **Key features** - **Excel interface**: If your finance team already relies on Excel, Vena lets you keep that workflow while automating time-consuming tasks. - **Advanced reporting**: Generate detailed financial reports and forecasts quickly, without worrying about broken formulas. - **Workflow automation**: Vena reduces manual input with automated workflows and data consolidation, saving hours. ### **Who it’s best for** Medium to large SaaS startups that rely heavily on Excel but need to streamline budgeting and forecasting processes and improve accuracy. ### **💡 Pro tip** Use Vena’s scenario modeling to compare how different pricing strategies impact your MRR. - **Excel integration**: You get all the functionality of Excel with added automation and reporting features. - **Advanced reporting**: Create detailed, professional-grade financial reports in minutes. - **Automation**: Eliminate manual processes with workflows that keep your data accurate and up-to-date. [5 steps to driving your company from early to growth stageInvestors need confidence in your business model, so how can you prove the different aspects to achieve that next round of funding? Our ebook is here to help.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-114.png)SaaS AllianceSage Intacct![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/alessia-cocconi-zLIUdGeKxv0-unsplash-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-steps-to-drive-your-company-from-early-to-growth-stage/) ## **How to choose the right tool** Choosing the right budgeting tool isn’t just about ticking boxes—it’s about finding a solution that aligns with your business’s unique needs. Here’s a quick comparison of some of our picks to give you a headstart: | Tool | Best for | Key features | | ---------------- | ------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------- | | Cube | SMBs and mid-market startups | Spreadsheet-native, real-time insights | | Mosaic | Small to medium-sized startups | Collaborative budgeting, intuitive dashboards | | Drivetrain | SaaS-specific startups | Revenue modeling, churn analysis | | Workday Adaptive | Large SaaS startups | Enterprise-level features, scalability | | Vena Solutions | Excel-heavy workflows | Advanced automation, reporting | As we’ve already mentioned, picking the right budgeting tool completely depends on your startup’s size, goals, and complexity. Here are a few extra tips to help guide your decision: 1. **Consider your stage**: Early-stage startups may prioritize affordability and simplicity while scaling companies need advanced features like scenario modeling and integrations. 2. **Think about integrations**: Make sure the tool works seamlessly with your existing tech stack—CRM, billing, and ERP systems. 3. **Look for SaaS-specific features**: Subscription modeling, MRR/ARR tracking, and churn analysis are essential for SaaS businesses. 4. **Evaluate ease of use**: Your team should be able to hit the ground running with minimal training. ## **Conclusion** Budgeting is a critical part of running a successful SaaS startup, but it doesn’t have to be a headache. Tools like Cube, Mosaic, Drivetrain, Workday Adaptive Planning, and Vena Solutions can transform the way you manage your finances, giving you more time to focus on growth and innovation. The best tool for you depends on your startup’s size, goals, and existing workflows. Explore these options, and pick the one that fits your needs—because the right budgeting tool isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have for scaling your SaaS startup effectively. ## **FAQs** #### ****1\. What are the benefits of using budgeting tools for SaaS startups?** When considering budgeting tools, it’s important to understand how they can address the specific challenges SaaS startups face. Here are some key benefits to keep in mind: ****✅ Saving time**: Automation eliminates repetitive tasks. ****✅ Reducing errors**: Say goodbye to broken formulas and version control issues. ****✅ Improving collaboration**: Intuitive dashboards make it easy for all stakeholders to contribute. ****✅ Gaining insights**: Real-time data and advanced analytics help you make smarter decisions. #### ****2\. How do budgeting tools help SaaS startups manage cash flow?** Cash flow management is one of the biggest challenges for SaaS startups, given the nature of the typical subscription-based revenue model. Budgeting tools tackle this by: - ****Providing real-time insights**: Tools like ****Float** and ****Mosaic** pull live data from your accounting systems, so you always know how much cash is coming in and going out. - ****Forecasting future cash flow**: They allow you to predict upcoming revenue and expenses, helping you spot potential shortfalls before they happen. - ****Scenario modeling**: By running “what-if” scenarios, you can prepare for best- and worst-case situations, like losing a big client or expanding your sales team. - ****Automating reporting**: Instead of wrestling with spreadsheets, you get clear, visual reports that show where your money is going and how to optimize it. With these tools, SaaS startups can stay proactive, avoid cash crunches, and make smarter spending decisions. #### ****3\. What’s the difference between budgeting tools and FP&A tools for SaaS companies?** While budgeting tools and FP&A (financial planning and analysis) tools are closely related, they serve slightly different purposes: ****Budgeting tools**: These focus on creating, managing, and tracking budgets. They help businesses allocate resources effectively and monitor actual performance against planned goals. ****FP&A tools**: These take budgeting to the next level. They include advanced forecasting, financial modeling, and scenario planning to support strategic decision-making. In short, budgeting tools are a core part of FP&A software, but FP&A tools offer a broader suite of features for financial planning. For SaaS startups, tools like ****Drivetrain** and ****Workday Adaptive Planning** offer FP&A capabilities, while tools like ****Cube** or ****Vena** focus more on budgeting with added automation. #### ****4\. How much do budgeting tools for SaaS startups typically cost?** The cost of budgeting tools varies based on features, company size, and the complexity of your needs. Here’s a rough breakdown: - ****Entry-level tools**: Lightweight solutions like ****Float** often start at around ****$50-$100 per month**, ideal for small SaaS startups. - ****Mid-market solutions**: Tools like ****Cube** or ****Mosaic** typically range from ****$500-$2,000 per month**, offering more features, automation, and integrations for growing teams. - ****Enterprise-level tools**: Solutions like ****Workday Adaptive Planning** or ****Vena** are priced on a custom basis but can start at ****$10,000+ annually**, depending on user count and complexity. Most tools offer free demos, so it’s worth exploring pricing models and calculating ROI to find the best fit for your budget and goals. ### The SaaS finance pitfalls that you need to avoid moving forward into 2025 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-saas-finance-pitfalls-that-you-need-to-avoid-moving-forward-into-2025/ Last updated: 2024-12-13T09:17:25.000Z In today’s increasingly competitive SaaS space, creating a successful financial model can be one of the toughest challenges. The industry landscape has evolved far beyond simply creating an impressive business model. Today, it's about securing a winning strategy that sustains long-term growth despite the increasing market situation. To thrive in the ever-changing dynamic environment, [SaaS companies](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-your-saas-company-attractive-for-investment/) must focus on more than just [product development](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-development-team-structure-for-saas-organization/). Although there are multiple avenues for successful growth in SaaS, one of the core foundations - yet often overlooked - happens to be cash flow management. An effective cash flow management plays a critical role for companies to define purpose, direction, and continued success. A carefully planned financial roadmap is not simply a strategic convenience but a necessity for the SaaS models to survive. This article will discuss the most important aspects of SaaS finance, the key financial metrics that require the most attention, and the pitfalls to avoid moving forward in 2025\. ## Understanding SaaS finance and its models SaaS finance refers to the financial strategies and operations that underpin a SaaS-based company. Typically, SaaS businesses use subscription models with billing cycles that may be monthly, quarterly, or annual. These financial models form the backbone of a company’s operations and are vital for sustaining profitability. But how is profitability maintained in SaaS? Two critical elements are involved: ***Financial Modeling*** and ***Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).*** Financial modeling creates detailed financial structures, strategic plans, and forecast analytics that help businesses better understand financial outcomes. It may involve structuring a company’s finances strategically, using historical data, market trends, and growth projections. On the other hand, KPIs provide clarity on operational efficiency, focusing on what matters most. They allow teams to monitor performance and identify areas that need attention. [SaaS financing solutions to fund your startup in 2024In this article, we break them down the various finance options for growing your SaaS startup.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-107.png)SaaS AllianceAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/finance-options--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-financing-options-to-fund-your-startup-in-2024/) For many companies, growth starts with customer acquisition, i.e., reaching the top of the funnel. However, without the right KPIs, they may struggle to maintain a straight growth trajectory. KPIs help teams better visualize where the financial burn is happening, how to identify opportunities, and what future financial operations should look like. A strong financial outlook includes; - The income statement represents a company’s revenue and expenses, followed by a projection of how these may affect the company’s balance and budgets over time. - A dedicated balance sheet and cash flow represent how money has flown in and out of the company, providing insights into liquidity and financial health. - The statement of cash flow, or balance sheet, gives visibility into the company’s assets, liabilities, equity, and other financial commitments, such as subscriptions, patents, digital entitlements, and licenses. Together, these financial documents help the company create a strong foundational framework that helps SaaS companies position themselves for the future, including workforce changes, churn rates, expansion costs, and customer retention costs. ## Key questions for crafting a SaaS financial model While financial models can vary depending on the business, there are some fundamental questions every SaaS company should ask to guide their strategy: - What is the cost-benefit analysis for acquiring a new customer? - What is the cost spent on maintaining a customer (this may also come in handy to see if the customer is an ideal customer or not) - How do licensing and subscription models differ, and what would be the cost? - What are the marginal benefits of obtaining a new subscription? - What is the current value of your organization? - What is the financial cost of maintaining the organization's culture, values, etc? - What are the most apparent changes in your company that can financially benefit your business? These questions may not always highlight financial sensitivity and give a quantifiable answer. Still, they offer businesses a fair understanding and clarity on how they can be affected in the long run. For instance, if your company focuses on product-led growth by doubling subscribers, how will this affect cash flow, employee workload, and customer support costs? A critical metric for assessing long-term financial health is Discounted cash flow (DCF) valuation. This metric accounts for the time value of money, future cash flows, and the predictability of your business model. ## Important SaaS metrics to monitor You must monitor the right financial metrics. To keep your business on track. These metrics should be aligned with your growth goals and provide actionable insights. Here are the most important ones to consider. 1. Monthly Active Users (MAU): Track the number of people subscribing to your SaaS product and watch for growth or declines. 2. Average ROI per user: Understanding the revenue generated by each customer helps identify profitable segments and areas of growth. 3. Churn rates: Almost all SaaS models experience specific churn rates. A high churn rate signals a problem with the product and must be reduced for long-term success. 4. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Getting good customers does not come for free. Track how much you spend to acquire each customer and ensure it is attainable. 5. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV): You should always target a customer who offers you a lifetime value, which is best for finding more growth opportunities. 6. LTV/CAC Ratio: this key ratio shows the relationship between the cost of acquiring a customer and the value they bring over time. Finding the correct ratio between LTV and CAC is a success metric for calculating ROIs. 7. Market size - define your ideal customer profile and understand your target market size. 8. Burn Rate - keeps the company in check of business scaling efficiently during challenging market conditions. 9. Net Profit Margin - your bottom line — the ultimate goal of hitting profitability 10. Monthly recurring Revenue (MRR) - keeps the predictable growth and cash flow of revenue. [Metrics that matter: The KPIs every SaaS company should trackBrittani Dunlap, CEO and co-founder of FlowEQ, showcases the essential metrics you should be tracking for maximum growth.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-108.png)SaaS AllianceBrittani Dunlap![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/metrics-and-data--1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/metrics-that-matter-the-kpis-every-saas-company-should-track/) ## Financial growth strategies to avoid pitfalls in 2025 As we move into 2025, the competition in the SaaS space only becomes intense. There are over [17,000 SaaS companies](https://meritechcapital.com/benchmarking/financial-metrics/s-and-m-of-revenue-ltm) in the U.S. alone and a global customer base of 59 billion, generating $401.6 billion in revenue. In such a crowded market, even small missteps can set your business back significantly. Besides, with changing trends and automation, the demand for ‘excellent SaaS’ will require more than just a great product. Here are some strategies that can help you stay ahead of the curve: ### Simplifying your pricing and workflows Offering a wide range of pricing plans may seem like a good idea, but it can only lead to customer confusion and a complicated sales process. Today’s customers are well aware of what they want and are willing to pay for value without having to wade through a maze of pricing tiers. Solution? Consider creating a flexible, easy-to-use, customer-centric strategy that aligns with your targeted ICP without working through several purposeless steps. Make it simple and easy to understand, reducing friction and ensuring more promising conversions. ### Maintain healthy cashflow Good, steady cash flows are the backbone of SaaS models. While fierce competition is fierce, many companies are tempted by one-tie sales or short-term revenue boosts, which could harm long-term SaaS financial health. Instead, focus on maintaining strategies and creating channels that maintain steady cash flow through recurring revenue. ### Create lasting value Delivering value is the key to customer retention in SaaS. Focus on building features that solve real customer problems. Best practices to maintain; - Focus on necessary customer-centric benefits - Translate your features into clear, understandable benefits - Keep your communication user-friendly and solution-oriented - Share real-world use cases and success stories - Be open to feedback and be flexible in adapting to customer needs ### Invest in marketing If you wish to outrun your competitors in 2025, you MUST invest in good marketing campaigns. Creating content that draws your audiences to your brand value is the key to winning good bottom-of-the-funnel clients. Marketing is an excellent tool for gauging your audience's emotions and instilling your business as memorable and shareworthy. Example: Remember Zoom's famous virtual background challenge? It was a creative and low-cost way to engage users while prompting the product. ## **Take control of your SaaS business in 2025** As new tools and technologies emerge, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of advice and financial metrics available. This means that people will come from left and right to tell you what truly matters in Saas, and that can look like intimidating numbers and more financial restraints. But here is my takeaway: amidst all the noise, it's crucial to return to basics. Focus on the essentials, track the right metrics, structure your financial model, scale your business, and concentrate on what truly matters—continuous practical solutions for your customers. By doing so, you will be well-positioned to scale your business, reduce churn, and increase your monthly recurring revenue (MRR), paving the way for continued success in 2025 and beyond. --- Access a variety of templates and frameworks, including pricing strategies, churn surveys, and onboarding checklists. These resources are thoroughly vetted and updated monthly by professionals from major organizations like Facebook and Salesforce, designed to aid SaaS companies in optimizing their operations and growth strategies. Have a look below. [SaaS templates and frameworks | Future of SaaSLooking for SaaS templates and frameworks to make your life easier? We’ve got you covered. Become a member for advice, tips, and business growth tactics.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-109.png)SaaS AllianceFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/Future-of-SaaS-templates---frameworks.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-templates-and-frameworks/) ### Authentic storytelling: The Ray-Ban Meta launch URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/authentic-storytelling-the-ray-ban-meta-launch/ Last updated: 2024-12-06T16:30:54.000Z This article comes from Chris Smellie’s talk at the Product Marketing Summit in New York. Dive into his full presentation and the wealth of our other OnDemand resources. *Chris is now the Director of Product Marketing at Microsoft* --- Hi, there! My name's Chris, and I'm here to share how we brought Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses to market and built an authentic point of view for our audience. So you understand what I’m talking about, let me tell you a little about this amazing product. ![Ray-ban Meta smart glasses](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcgBUG-uphGu4pKG08mwrm00k3EvCxD731LwJDusFML8NCDZ7mW8I1sTzI5jAx-lKJaSVrNzI07sQMfcn4MTBuI5cEFmq16QepF7b5i8JULPZ6VNU57575djtNCuSBAyUwZq5jvVUhM7z7lyh03g4nkgTpl?key=m8rDdUf2JZNpBcMOBIBnUw) The glasses have a built-in 12-megapixel camera that allows you to take photos and videos. They also have a custom speaker so you can listen to music or take calls, and five microphones so you can record high-quality audio. Plus, they have built-in Meta AI, so you can ask the glasses any question that springs to mind. When we want to capture important moments, many of us are used to taking our phones out of our pockets, and seeing the world through the screen – you don’t have to do that when you have a camera on your face! So, part of the product promise is that you can stay in the moment and still capture it. All these features prompted us to think about the launch a little differently. ## How we built an authentic point of view Throughout my career, I've worked on a ton of hardware products – laptops, other pairs of glasses, you name it – and there's a kind of playbook for [launching](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-of-the-product-lifecycle-guiding-you-from-concept-to-launch/) hardware. You present it at the Consumer Electronics Show, you talk about tech specs, you put it in a Best Buy, and you ship. This was a little different. These smart glasses present a whole new paradigm that people aren't used to, so we had to educate our audience. We also faced the challenge of how to make people see the value of sharing their unique points of view through our product. So, how did we tackle these challenges? In classic [product marketing](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-marketing-at-every-stage-of-growth/) style, let’s break it down into three steps: 1. Dogfooding 2. Identifying intenders 3. Collaborating with influencers and creators _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Embracing neurodiversity for SaaS growth with Sara Storm, Break the Box [Video] URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/embracing-neurodiversity-for-saas-growth-with-sara-storm-break-the-box-video/ Last updated: 2024-12-05T12:10:35.000Z --- --- ### How to integrate AI in SaaS products URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-integrate-ai-in-saas-products/ Last updated: 2024-12-06T11:55:56.000Z To say that the tech industry has changed since the introduction of [artificial intelligence](https://www.aiacceleratorinstitute.com/your-guide-to-artificial-intelligence/?%5Fgl=1%2A195aqlm%2A%5Fup%2AMQ..%2A%5Fga%2AODU4Mjc3NTcyLjE3MzM0ODUzMjU.%2A%5Fga%5FQ2EHHKC3TE%2AMTczMzQ4NTMyNC4xLjAuMTczMzQ4NTMyNC4wLjAuMA..) (AI) would be an understatement, to say the least. In just the past year, AI has dominated industry conversations, driving companies to rapidly develop and integrate AI solutions into their products. As AI becomes increasingly ubiquitous, software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies must evolve, recognizing that customers now anticipate intelligent automation and AI-generated content as standard features. AI’s here to stay, so buckle up as we delve into the steps SaaS companies should take to integrate AI into their products. ## Understanding the basics of AI in SaaS Just a few years ago, AI was often seen as a futuristic concept – something out of sci-fi movies or experimental prototypes showcased at tech expos. Today, it has evolved into a strategic imperative for businesses striving to stay competitive and drive innovation. When products are integrated with intelligent technologies, companies can unlock unprecedented opportunities to enhance efficiency, personalize user experiences, and drive sophisticated decision-making across various operational domains. But if you think AI can only be used for automating tasks… think again. Modern AI technologies cleverly use complex machine learning algorithms, natural language processing, and predictive analytics to create more **responsive, intelligent, and user-centric** tools. These technologies move SaaS platforms beyond static functionality, transforming them into dynamic systems that learn, adapt, and evolve alongside user needs. [Why user experience is so important for your SaaS orgUI/UX is crucial to the success of every online business. The digital space is becoming much busier every day. There are currently about 1.88 billion websites and 5.5 million applications on Google and the App store.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-105.png)SaaS AllianceTaiwo Sotikare![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/this-is-the-place-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-user-experience-is-so-important-for-your-saas-company/) ### The core purpose of SaaS and its unique challenges If we strip SaaS down, its core purpose is to deliver a software solution continuously and reliably to customers. This model is defined by its service-oriented approach, where the subscription element plays a critical role. Unlike traditional software models that rely on one-time purchases, SaaS creates an ongoing relationship with the customer. This relationship hinges on consistent value delivery – if customers don’t feel they’re getting their money’s worth, they can cancel anytime, making customer satisfaction and engagement paramount. In this context, **incorporating AI into SaaS becomes a strategic advantage, if not a necessity**. AI fundamentally enhances the value proposition of SaaS by introducing intelligence, adaptability, and responsiveness into the software. This means that AI-powered SaaS platforms can evolve alongside the customer, offering solutions that are not only more efficient but also personalized to specific needs and use cases. ## Key technologies driving AI in SaaS Machine learning algorithms can analyze massive datasets with unprecedented speed and accuracy, while natural language processing enables more intuitive human-computer interactions. Predictive analytics go beyond traditional reporting, offering forward-looking insights that can fundamentally change how businesses operate. The benefits of AI integration are multifaceted – here are just a few: - **Automating repetitive tasks**, freeing human resources for strategic work. - **Advanced data analytics** that uncover deep, actionable insights. - Enhanced customer engagement through **intelligent personalization.** Market leaders like Salesforce, Zoom, and Slack are already demonstrating how AI can be seamlessly integrated into productivity tools, creating more intelligent and responsive user experiences. ## Identifying opportunities for AI integration Before investing in developers to build your AI tool, it’s essential to take a step back and conduct a thorough audit of your current SaaS platform’s inefficiencies. While this process may not be the most exciting or comfortable of tasks, it’s absolutely critical. To create a solution that truly enhances your platform, you first need to identify the areas where it’s falling short. Only by understanding your weaknesses can you ensure that your AI tool addresses the right challenges and delivers meaningful improvements. The most promising areas for AI transformation typically include customer support, data analytics, workflow automation, and user interface personalization. Let’s consider **customer support** as a prime example. AI-powered chatbots can now handle: - Initial inquiries - Prioritize support tickets - Provide round-the-clock assistance How else can you use AI in your SaaS platform? Take **data analytics**, which’ll likely be a huge part of your platform’s capabilities. Predictive models can: - Identify emerging trends - Forecast business metrics - Generate actionable insights in real-time Moving on to workflow automation, the quintessential part of AI in tech. When you **automate your workflows with AI**, you can streamline complex processes, reducing manual intervention and significantly increasing operational efficiency. For instance, HubSpot's AI-driven CRM provides an excellent case study of these principles in action. Hubspot uses machine learning to predict sales opportunities, recommend communication strategies, and automate lead scoring, demonstrating how AI can fundamentally enhance business processes. ## Building a strong AI foundation Okay, let's talk tech transformation. We hate to break it to you, but if you thought integrating AI was as simple as flipping a switch… buckle up for a reality check. Preparing your SaaS architecture for AI isn't just a technical upgrade, rather, it's a complete **strategic overhaul** that demands precision, vision, and a dash of technological courage. You'll need to ensure high-quality, accessible data that can effectively train AI models, develop infrastructure capable of supporting increasing computational demands, and implement robust security measures to maintain user trust. [AI: The key to aligning your B2B sales and marketing teamsDiscover how AI can bridge the divide between your B2B sales and marketing teams for next-level revenue growth![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-106.png)SaaS AllianceFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/werclive-uA1f_wpiqFY-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/ai-aligning-b2b-sales-and-marketing-teams/) ### Choosing the right AI tools Modern AI technologies aren't just about processing data – they're about understanding, predicting, and evolving. When done well, your infrastructure can become a powerhouse of intelligent automation, turning complex computational challenges into seamless, user-centric experiences. Open-source libraries like TensorFlow and PyTorch offer powerful tools for custom model development, while third-party APIs provide rapid, cost-effective deployment of AI features. The key is to establish clear, measurable objectives that align with your broader business strategy. ## Implementation strategies Successful AI integration isn’t a one-time event but a **continuous process of evaluation**, implementation, and refinement. To start with, we recommend beginning with a comprehensive feasibility study that assesses potential costs, benefits, and return on investment (ROI). You should implement pilot tests to validate your AI feature’s effectiveness to minimize any potential risks that could crop up. You won’t get far in your AI overhaul without **collaboration**. This might involve hiring specialized AI talent, partnering with external consulting firms, or leveraging existing expertise to accelerate implementation. When developing AI models, prioritize ethical data usage by training on anonymized, consented user data and maintaining rigorous privacy protection. System integration demands a delicate balance. AI features must be compatible with existing SaaS architecture, minimize disruption to current user workflows, and create intuitive, seamless experiences. You can continuously improve your platform through A/B testing, user feedback collection, and iterative development is essential. ## Addressing challenges and measuring success Let's be real – AI integration isn't all smooth sailing. Technical hurdles like data silos and computational complexity are real and must be navigated with care. Ethical considerations around data privacy and algorithmic bias? They're not just checkboxes; they're fundamental principles of responsible, proactive innovation. Key performance indicators for AI integration include user retention rates, customer satisfaction scores, operational efficiency metrics, and revenue growth directly attributable to AI features. Regular analysis through analytics dashboards and user feedback surveys provides critical insights into implementation effectiveness. ## Looking to the future Emerging AI technologies are rewriting the rules of what's possible. Imagine platforms that don't just serve users but understand them. Generative content creation, hyper-personalized experiences, and real-time predictive analytics – these aren't futuristic concepts of SaaS. They're the new standard. ## In a nutshell AI integration represents more than a technological upgrade – it's a fundamental reimagining of how SaaS products can deliver value. When companies embrace intelligent technologies, they can create more responsive, efficient, and user-centric tools that adapt and grow with their customers' needs. The journey of AI integration is ongoing, complex, and immensely promising. Start exploring, experimenting, and implementing AI capabilities today. The future of SaaS is intelligent and the opportunity is *now*. ### How Adobe leverages AI to transform their go-to-market strategies URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/adobe-ai-transform-go-to-market-strategies/ Last updated: 2024-11-22T17:00:07.000Z This article comes from Sherry Kaoues’s insightful talk at our Paris 2024 Product Marketing Summit. Check out the rest of our collection of [world-class keynote insights](https://www.saasalliance.io/ondemand-saas-hub/). --- When I started my career in customer relationship management and tech, I never imagined how much [artificial intelligence](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/artificial-intelligence/) (AI) would transform the way we do business. Today, as a Go-to-Market Senior Manager at Adobe, AI has become a critical part of my toolkit. Whether I’m exploring new markets across the Middle East and Africa or refining digital strategies, AI plays a pivotal role in boosting productivity, uncovering insights, and delivering better results. You’ve likely encountered AI already these days—whether you realize it or not. From autocorrect to AI-driven recommendations in your email inbox, AI is embedded in many of our daily workflows. However, when it comes to [go-to-market (GTM) strategies](https://www.saasalliance.io/go-to-market-strategy-the-roadmap-to-saas-success/), the potential of AI goes far beyond convenience. It’s about creating smarter, faster, and more effective ways to introduce products to market and ultimately drive growth. So in this article, I’ll walk you through how AI enhances key elements of GTM strategies, and how we’ve been using it here at Adobe. Let’s dive in. ## **Market research: Turning data overwhelm into actionable insights** Market research is foundational to any successful GTM strategy. You need to understand your audience, [segment your market](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-market-segmentation/), and identify opportunities. But let’s face it: digging through massive datasets can be overwhelming and time-consuming. That’s where AI comes in. ### **AI for data analysis and segmentation** One of AI’s greatest strengths is processing vast amounts of data quickly and accurately. Using AI tools, you can identify customer segments and patterns in minutes rather than days. For instance, natural language processing (NLP) tools analyze [customer feedback](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-of-customer-feedback-leveraging-feedback-for-saas-product-development/), social media conversations, and reviews to uncover sentiment, tone, and emerging trends. Instead of guessing how your customers feel, you actually have [data-backed insights](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/data-insights/). ### **Summarizing complex data sets** Let me share a practical example. I once uploaded a 100-page PDF of *The Picture of Dorian Gray* into Adobe Acrobat’s AI assistant. Within seconds, it summarized the entire document and highlighted five key takeaways. Imagine applying this to your [market research](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-ai-tools-for-gaining-competitive-edge-in-market-research/) reports or customer interviews—analyzing vast amounts of information and surfacing actionable insights without hours of manual work. AI reduces the time you spend on repetitive tasks and minimizes the risk of any human error. It enables you to focus on strategy and decision-making instead of data crunching. For SaaS professionals, this means faster access to the insights needed to build [customer-first strategies](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-anatomy-of-a-customer-first-company/). [100M ARR: Crafting a successful B2B SaaS go-to-market engineWhat does it take to build a $100 million ARR SaaS go-to-market engine? Robert Gimbel shares his insights on scaling, strategy, and execution![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-96.png)SaaS AllianceRobert Gimbel![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/ARR-blueprint-saas.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/arr-crafting-a-successful-b2b-saas-go-to-market-engine/) _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Driving inclusivity in healthcare with Brad Hoeweler [Video] URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/driving-inclusivity-in-healthcare-with-brad-hoeweler-video/ Last updated: 2024-11-22T12:53:06.000Z --- --- ### Cracking the go-to-market code for SaaS in emerging markets URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/cracking-the-go-to-market-code-for-saas-in-emerging-markets/ Last updated: 2024-11-15T08:29:45.000Z Let's talk about emerging markets: the next big thing for SaaS growth. The business potential is huge. However, entering these markets isn’t as simple as putting up a product and waiting for users to line up at the gates. It's a little more complicated than that. Having been in the SaaS game for a couple of years, I can say it takes a very specific go-to-market (GTM) strategy to penetrate these markets. It's important to consider all the relevant local dynamics and pricing sensitivities, and most importantly, speak directly to the businesses you are trying to serve. In this article, I’ll share the playbook I've followed to successfully break into emerging markets. Spoiler alert: it‘s not rocket science, but you do need to get out of the "one-size-fits-all" mindset and embrace the uniqueness of each market. Let's get into it. ## 1\. Localize like you mean it Ever tried explaining a joke that just didn't land because someone didn't get the cultural reference? That's what it feels like when you try to enter an emerging market without localizing your product. [Localization](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/finding-the-right-localization-strategy-for-your-business/) isn’t the same as translation. Though translation plays a role, true localization involves adapting your product to suit the business environment of your local market. This goes beyond language and includes considerations such as payment methods, features tailored to local needs, and other everyday realities of the local market, all of which should be incorporated into your product. [Product marketing at every stage of growthSpencer Grover, a PMM at Salesforce, guides you through the product marketing strategies for every stage of SaaS growth.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-94.png)SaaS AllianceSpencer Grover![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/growth-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-marketing-at-every-stage-of-growth/) Is the marketplace seeing inconsistent internet access? Then offline capabilities are essential. Companies launching in regions with spotty connections – such as parts of rural India and parts of Southeast Asia – should focus initially on building a "lite" version of their app or product. For example, Uber launched a "lite" version of its app in India and Southeast Asia. The app was designed with users who have low-end smartphones and very slow data speeds in mind. Uber realized that the full-fledged app would never work well in these markets, so it adapted to local needs, resulting in a rapid expansion of its user base. But localization isn’t just about high-tech specifications. Cultural differences matter, too. For example, how businesses negotiate contracts, deal with payments, and even communicate varies enormously from region to region. In some markets, for example, face-to-face contact or use of a local partner is a better way to establish trust than relying purely on online interactions. ### Why this matters You want your product to feel built for that market, not hastily shoehorned in. A product that has been adapted is more lovable, more trustworthy, and more likely to be adopted. ### Actionable tip Conduct market research on business challenges specific to your target region. What do they value most – cost savings, security, or speed? Tailor your product offering to address those concerns. ## 2\. Message for real people Ever read a tech firm’s website copy and thought, "What are they even selling?" Yeah, me too. [Messaging is one place where many SaaS companies trip up](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/how-to-avoid-messaging-positioning-mistakes/) – especially those in less tech-savvy emerging markets. In established markets, it's fair to assume that businesses understand the rudiments of cloud computing or software automation; in emerging markets, however, that's a dangerous assumption. In those regions, SaaS is often very new to many companies. Therefore, highly technical messaging is more likely to confuse your target customers than inform them. Here are a couple of tips to prevent you from falling into this trap: 1. **Cut the jargon:** Avoid buzzwords and overly technical language. Instead of saying, "Leverage AI to streamline workflows," say, "Manage calls, emails, and texts all in one place." The latter describes vividly what your product actually does – and if you want to catch a non-techie crowd, simplicity always wins out. 2. **Speak to pain points:** If your product is going to save a business time, talk to that. Rather than relying on the well-worn phrase "increase productivity," communicate in terms like this: "Your customer support team will solve tickets 30 percent faster thanks to routine requests being automated." This is specific, relatable, and tells them exactly what your product is going to do. The beauty of this approach in a place like Brazil, for example, is that you’re likely to encounter outdated systems that impede customer support operations. Your [messaging](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/your-guide-to-messaging/) needs to hone in on how your product solves that problem, rather than trying to paint with broad brushstrokes. ### Why this matters Vague or too-technical messaging leaves consumers scratching their heads. You want your audience to picture themselves using your product. The clearer your messaging is, the more likely they are to act. ### Actionable tip Always ask yourself, "Would my grandmother understand this?" If the answer's no, dumb down the messaging. Make clear, direct, and specific what your product can do and why your audience should care. ## 3\. Build partnerships that open doors Here's one reality I've learned about emerging markets – trust is everything. You’re an outsider and businesses may not be willing to invest in a new product. So what’s the best way to build trust? Step forward, local partnerships. Local resellers are partners who also have a relationship with your ideal customer. So, instead of directly selling your product, you can leverage their existing relationships to build trust. This strategy works especially well in places where foreign products are seen as risky. Local partners can help with navigating regulations, connecting you with key decision-makers, and providing product support. Industry associations are a vital part of this strategy. Government-backed digitization programs are very rapidly catching up in India and Brazil. So, if you can match up your product with these initiatives, you’ll immediately add credibility to your brand *and* open the doors to larger clients. Government and industry endorsements carry a lot of weight in these regions and can make or break your entry. Let’s look at an example. Microsoft Azure succeeded in India partly because of the alliances it established with local companies. The firm built partnerships with local organizations through which it distributed and implemented the cloud services it was offering. Building partnerships at this level made it easier for businesses to embrace Microsoft's technology. ### Why this matters Trust through partnerships helps you break into new markets faster with less friction. It's about building relationships, not just making sales pitches. ### Actionable tip Go looking for local resellers, VARs (value-added resellers), or integrators with operations in your industry. Make it a win-win for them with exclusive distribution rights or revenue-sharing agreements. ## 4\. Pricing: Be flexible, be local Pricing in emerging markets is a completely different ballgame. Companies here don’t have humongous budgets, yet they *do* need robust solutions. In such cases, flexible [pricing models](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/top-5-pricing-strategies-for-success-video/) can be your best friend. [Providing a freemium model](https://www.productledalliance.com/product-led-growth-vs-the-freemium-model/?ref=productmarketingalliance.com&%5F%5Fhstc=178084794.b3c2b92692f8dc138bbd7e7ae7e83130.1719231851373.1728989052743.1731592398800.10&%5F%5Fhssc=178084794.3.1731592398800&%5F%5Fhsfp=1459640511) allows small businesses to explore your product before committing to a full subscription. This approach works well for companies that may be reluctant to invest upfront, as it eliminates risk and builds trust. Once users are engaged with your product and see its value, converting them into paying customers becomes much easier. Another critical factor is supporting local currencies and payment methods. Payment difficulties are often a major barrier to entry, but by offering options tailored to local markets, you can simplify the onboarding process. In countries like India and Brazil, for instance, enabling payment through systems like [UPI](https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/news-insights/insight/upi-revolutionising-real-time-digital-payments-india?ref=productmarketingalliance.com) or [Boleto Bancário](https://support.google.com/paymentscenter/answer/9337328?hl=en&ref=productmarketingalliance.com) is crucial to success. Price is often the biggest challenge for businesses entering emerging markets. If flexible options are provided, you diminish the risk for potential customers, making it easier for them to say yes to your product. ### Actionable takeaway Determine the most popular local payment methods in the market and ensure your platform supports them. The fewer barriers to payment, the better your chances of successful conversion. [Pricing and packaging: how high-growth SaaS startups can crack the codeI’m going to break down the many pricing and packaging pitfalls into 10 common mistakes. I hope after reading, you’ll be able to spot these mistakes early, and this will help you to execute pricing and packaging with realistic goals that are deliverable.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-95.png)SaaS AllianceCindy Berman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/Pricing-and-packaging---how-high-growth-SaaS-startups-can-crack-the-code.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code/) ## Closing thoughts While emerging markets are the new frontier for SaaS, they come with certain challenges. Localizing the product, simplifying your messaging, forming partnerships, and adapting pricing and payment options will all do you a world of good on the path to gaining those exciting new markets. The beauty of emerging markets is that there is still much room to maneuver for those who wish to invest time and effort into trying to understand them. And who knows? Maybe your next great SaaS success story will come out of a developing market. ### The revolutionary power of internal branding URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-revolutionary-power-of-internal-branding/ Last updated: 2024-11-08T16:00:16.000Z *This article is based on a presentation given by John McKiernan at the Product Marketing Summit in Sydney. Catch up on all our* [*product marketing summits*](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-marketing-ondemand/)*, and others, using our* [*OnDemand service*](https://www.saasalliance.io/ondemand-saas-hub/)*.* *John is now the Principal Marketing Manager at Postman* --- What if I told you that the most successful product launches don’t start with a grand plan but with hard-won lessons learned the difficult way? Hey there, I’m John McKiernan, and I lead product marketing for a new product from Atlassian called Jira Product Discovery, a prioritization and roadmapping tool made for [product managers](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-owner-vs-product-manager-q-a-with-hubspot/) (PMs). I’m here to tell you about the mistakes I made while launching this product and share some helpful lessons I learned along the way. ## Launching a hit product We launched Jira Product Discovery last May, and it’s grown tremendously since then. It’s one of Atlassian’s most successful [product launches](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-art-and-science-of-product-launches/) ever. Customers love it, and it’s great for business. For me personally, it’s been a proud career moment to launch an enterprise product from the ground up. I must admit I was quite naive coming into this enterprise [product launch](https://www.saasalliance.io/ready-set-go-the-three-stages-of-a-product-launch/). I’d launched products in past roles at [startups](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-5-reasons-why-startups-fail-and-how-to-avoid-them/), so I figured launching a product within an established company would be easy. You already have an audience and supporting teams in place, so what could go wrong? Plenty of things, it turns out. As anyone who’s done this before knows, launching an enterprise product brings all kinds of unique challenges. To navigate these challenges, I had to dig deep into my experience. One tool in particular proved invaluable: internal[ storytelling](https://www.saasalliance.io/data-storytelling-next-level-saas-growth/) wrapped into an internal brand. I know that sounds odd, but bear with me as I explain. [How to assemble a high-impact SaaS startup leadership teamCEO and Founder Hope Horner outlines how to build a stellar leadership team when your SaaS business is in hypergrowth.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceHope Horner![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2024/06/steven-lelham-atSaEOeE8Nk-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-saas-startup-how-to-assemble-a-high-impact-leadership-team/) ## Falling into the trough of sorrow If you’re familiar with the work of Paul Graham of YCombinator fame, you may recognize the graph below. It represents the trough of sorrow – the painful period when reality hits after you [launch a startup](https://www.saasalliance.io/driving-growth-and-innovation-a-guide-to-series-a-transformation-for-saas-startups/). The initial excitement fades as you get stuck into the daily grind. ![John's journey into the trough of sorrow. ](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf1u5KtcyG9dbsIhVk4mRTmWp4Q-cbssLGovUqthgDQ_NrX7XP3R35I7AfNiJAysmK-rs3B1ywq6ebNWnydIQL9lGa8M5T0pv7ZRBd_4pbbnG72O_bfhejKf6pybEILwGSY9oUyh1XMBj1d1a32m4c7IHO7?key=Q6YohyUHjNCaQ1W3pP8W8dBK) As I soon learned, the trough of sorrow applies equally when launching a product within an established company. It’s kind of like having a baby; the first few months are thrilling – then sleep deprivation kicks in and you enter the trough of sorrow for the next 17 years or so. [How brand messaging changes for B2B and B2C companiesWant to turn your hand to both B2B and B2C marketing, check out the key differences right here.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceCharley Gale![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/04/how-brand-messaging-changes-for-b2b-and-b2c-companies.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-brand-messaging-changes-for-b2b-and-b2c-companies/) _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### A guide to SaaS and AI (8 scary risks every leader must know) URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/ Last updated: 2024-10-31T10:51:18.000Z In [AIAI’s Generative AI 2024 report](https://www.aiacceleratorinstitute.com/generative-ai-report/), 100% of non-AI users said they’d be willing to use AI tools in the future. That’s right. ***100%***. AI is here to stay, and is often touted as a no-brainer investment for businesses and end users alike. From the way many speak, SaaS and AI are a match made in heaven. But how true is this? Let’s find out. We’ll examine: - How you can use AI in SaaS (**6 eyebrow-raising applications**) - **8 breakthrough benefits** of AI integration - **8 scary risks** you absolutely must know before investing in AI in SaaS ## **How to use AI in SaaS (6 eyebrow-raising applications)** - [1) Marketing](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#1-marketing) - [2) Project management](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#2-project-management) - [3) More effective data analysis (via personalization)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#3-more-effective-data-analysis-via-personalization) - [4) Product development](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#4-product-development) - [5) CRM (customer relationship management)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#5-crm-customer-relationship-management) - [6) Employee training](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#6-employee-training) ### **1) Marketing** AI can [help with your marketing efforts](https://www.saasalliance.io/7-top-ai-email-marketing-tools-for-saas-companies/). No doubt about it. How you deploy it is up to you, but there are many possibilities. AI’s predictive analytics capabilities, for example? These can help you determine what content will be most effective for a given customer at each point along their buyer journey. In turn, this tells you where to focus your content marketing efforts. ### **2) Project management** You *must* have seen them. Ads for Motion AI. “I used to struggle with managing my task list and meetings. Now Motion AI does it for me.” 😌 Task lists, calendars, and project management are areas AI seems to be proficient in. At least, if the ad spend behind Motion AI’s marketing campaigns is anything to go by. ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfGG3ZIxo4E23_fMsFRsfBgHNpD_sUVnrWhJyUGOQn7IWqERQcmS0LFeszN_ZtTthk6iOHQvK8ZhgggXzgFY5_MXKwOz2-sqSR-NjdfIrxeQAw_iXs5H8K4wXkxgrfl3s6S4GVeVcMetXB-fNFPi6a6rSw?key=sNOQJo7GAOZ5QGcE4tU6pg) ### **3) More effective data analysis (via personalization)** Different SaaS startups have different strategies. Some go all-in on product, investing heavily in their dev team. Others go all-in on customer success, looking to put the customer first and make their overall experience the best it can be. To gain a competitive advantage, you have to be at least a *little* better than your competitors in at least *one* area. And for startups with limited resources, this often means dragging the spider diagram hard in one direction. 💡 ***For example:** *Overdeveloped customer success team, underdeveloped marketing and sales teams.* So, if you don’t have any data analysts, and can’t afford them, but could benefit from number crunching, what do you do? One answer that wasn’t possible a couple of years ago: Use AI. ### **4) Product development** AI can help with product development, too. Set it to work on large datasets of customer feedback to prioritize feature requests, bug fixes, and big updates. This way, you ensure your product roadmap is cost-efficient, and effective at keeping you ahead of the competition. Or, use AI to examine the very processes you use to develop your products. It’ll be able to point out inefficiencies, propose improvements, and even drive down production costs in the process. ### **5) CRM (customer relationship management)** Got a lot of customers? Struggle to keep track? An AI integration with your CRM could be the answer. Give AI access to your CRM data and you’ll be able to: - Perform sentiment analysis to figure out which customers are most at risk of churning. - Choose content that’s most likely to push a prospect to the next stage of the buyer journey. - Apply predictive analytics to all your customer behavior to more accurately project future behavior. ### **6) Employee training** With a large enough pool of employees, you can use AI to assess what training different cohorts need based on their performance and skills gaps. You might be thinking, “I could do that myself!” Sure you could. But it’d take time. Time and attention to detail that you could be spending thinking strategically about growing the business. **Want to hear the best bit?** AI can even elevate the learning experience itself for your staff. It can personalize which modules it delivers and when, ensuring individuals are only shown the material most relevant to the pain points they’re experiencing *right now*. --- [How to maximize SaaS Revenue with generative AIThis article offers tantalizing glimpses into the future of AI, so you can not only stay ahead of the curve but also one step ahead of the competition.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AlliancePritesh Patel![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/12/genrative-AI.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-maximize-saas-revenue-with-generative-ai/) --- ## **8 Breakthrough benefits of AI integration in SaaS tools** So much for some of the specific applications of AI in SaaS and business, but what about the benefits of using AI over any other method of getting the job done? Here are eight of AI’s biggest benefits. - [1) Personalization](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#1-personalization) - [2) Automation](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#2-automation) - [3) Predictive analytics](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#3-predictive-analytics) - [4) Customer service and engagement](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#4-customer-service-and-engagement) - [5) Innovation](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#5-innovation) - [6) Scalability](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#6-scalability) - [7) Cost efficiency](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#7-cost-efficiency) - [8) Impact on productivity for end users](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#8-impact-on-productivity-for-end-users) ### **1) Personalization** Want to win customers from more than one market segment? You’ll need to personalize your approach. **Personalizing messaging based on:** - The stage of the customer journey a buyer is at. - The market segment they belong to. - The most relevant pain points and emotional benefits for them… …Maximizes the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. And AI can help you. **AI integrated into SaaS tools can:** - Deliver your messaging, and tweak it over time based on results. - Do the market segmentation for you. - Deliver personalized content recommendations to website visitors, based on what they’ve read before. Personalization is effective at *every* stage of the customer journey. That includes post-purchase. So, you can personalize messaging aimed at increasing retention and reducing churn. You can even [personalize your B2B marketing efforts](https://www.saasalliance.io/personalize-your-b2b-marketing-with-ai/) aimed at upselling existing customers to higher-paid plans, or to include other products. And while personalization is possible as a manual task, having AI on your side makes it far more scalable. ### **2) Automation** Manual lawnmower… More or less work than a gas one? ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/10/lawnmower.webp) **AI is to tech tasks what gas lawnmowers are to yardwork. Waaaay less effort.* *Way* more labor-intensive, right? Manual work takes longer. But the end result isn’t necessarily any better. AI tools make automation possible at scale, cutting out labor-intensive manual work. For instance, **consider this workflow** for onboarding new customers: - Rely on yourself to notice when a new customer signs up. - Write a personalized welcome message to them. - Send it to them on your platform. - Experiment over time with various messages based on open rates, response sentiment, and other metrics. How does that sound? *‘Long and hard’* is the right answer. **Consider this instead:** - An AI automation notices when a new customer is added to your database upon sign-up. - It automatically pulls data about them. Then decides what messaging is most appropriate, based on what market segment they belong to, and what product they signed up for. - It then messages them. Automatically. It delivers either a DM, an email, or an SMS based on the best historical open rates for this segment. - The AI then logs data associated with the customer’s response, and whether or not they opened the message. It uses this data to inform future decisions. You didn’t have to raise a finger to get any of this done. That’s the power of AI automation. --- [What are GPTs and how can you use them to scale your SaaS organization?Discover the future of AI-powered SaaS, how to create your customized GPT, and the impact it can have on your SaaS organization.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/12/ways-gpts-can-help-you-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-gpts-and-how-can-you-use-them-to-scale-your-saas-organization/) --- ### **3) Predictive analytics** Predictive analytics use past data to make predictions about the future. Here’s just one instance of how predictive analytics can be useful: **You can learn when customers are most likely to churn.** It’s common marketing knowledge that it’s less expensive to get a customer to renew than it is to acquire a new customer. So churn and retention rates are incredibly important. A CRM-integrated AI tool could analyze the factors that most often precede churn, and warn you of at-risk customers. Even better, a sophisticated enough AI tool could take actions to prevent that churn. For example, by sending automatic, self-improving messaging to those customers to re-engage them. **Other examples of how predictive analytics can be useful:** - Predict which customer segments are most likely to convert. - Predict which salespeople are most likely to fall short of target for the quarter based on current pipelines. - Predict which marketing materials will be most effective for moving a customer down the funnel. --- [ChatGPT vs Claude: Which is better for growing your business?There are two principal AI tools that seem to be getting the most attention: Claude and ChatGPT. So to save you time, we decided to delve into precisely which tool yields the best results for your business growth.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/07/claude-vs-chatgpt.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/chatgpt-vs-claude-which-is-better-for-growing-your-business/) --- ### **4) Customer service and engagement** Generative AI is *still* absolutely everywhere. You’re probably sick of hearing about it. But we can’t talk about chatbots and *not* mention generative AI. If you’re still wondering how generative AI can help in SaaS, just know improved chatbots are a *huge part* of it. First, AI tools in the background can perform sentiment analysis across multiple customer communication channels. That includes chatbot messaging, email, and telephone records. This is one of the [best ways to use AI in customer success](https://www.saasalliance.io/understanding-how-to-best-use-ai-in-customer-success-2/). It’s *huge*. **This sentiment analysis can help inform everything we’ve spoken about so far:** - Which customers are most at-risk of churning. - Which prospects are most likely to convert. - Which marketing materials are most likely to have a big impact. But AI chatbot integrations can help with simpler things, too. They can handle customer queries quickly and accurately. They can engage with prospects to point them towards information they’ll find useful. And, most importantly, they can get better at this over time as their machine learning capabilities get to work on understanding the content on your website and the types of queries your customers ask. ### **5) Innovation** The AI boom has created *many* new tools. And some of them are more creative than others. Listen to what Juliette Denny, Managing Director at Growth Engineering, has to say about Domino’s Pizza’s [use of artificial intelligence to push boundaries](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/): > *“They used artificial intelligence to develop a model which allowed them to predict when your pizza was going to get to you. They went from an accuracy of 75% to an accuracy of 95%. This also worked out well for Domino’s because it meant they weren’t getting as many calls.”* ### **6) Scalability** Scalability. The goal of just about every business. Historically, leaders have scaled their businesses by investing in person-power, training, and automating where possible. But scalability is really just about having the systems in place to grow. That means bringing in more leads, converting more leads, and successfully serving your products and services to your new customers. Fulfillment is often the bottleneck, but hiring and training new staff is expensive and risky. In all the ways we’ve mentioned so far, AI can help here. When customers have questions, AI can step in. When customers need support, AI can step in. When you need to improve conversion rates, you guessed it, AI can step in. And when it comes to improving retention, AI can step in here, too. All these things help your business to scale, and the AI tools integrated into the SaaS products you already use can do these tasks for you. --- [5 Best Practices for Scaling your SaaS Content Marketing Engine with AIIn this article, we explore how you can create content of real substance while utilizing AI to maximize your efficiency and output.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceChinwoke Nnamani![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/04/Reaching-out-to-Ai.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-best-practices-for-scaling-your-saas-content-marketing-engine-with-ai/) --- ### **7) Cost efficiency** The hard truth is, a business can invest in an annual subscription to an integrated AI tool for far less than the cost of a salaried employee. Sure, that tool might not have the versatility or growth potential of a staff member you look to invest in over the course of a few years. But it’ll be far more effective at blazing through one or two specific sets of tasks. In any competitive market, cost efficiency is a must. And AI tools can help. ### **8) Impact on productivity for end users** So far, we’ve talked a lot about AI’s benefits for the business. But what about for the end user? After all, benefiting the end user indirectly benefits the business itself. When your customers are happier with your offerings, get answers to their questions faster, and experience less friction in both the buying process and the use of your products, they’ll feel much better about you, your brand, and your product. AIAI’s Generative AI 2024 Report says practitioners and end users rate AI tools’ impact on their productivity and efficiency at 7.85 and 7.09 out of 10, respectively. But from the chart image below, we can see the modal score for practitioners in 2024 was actually **10 out of 10**, while for end users it was an 8. *How much would you say your generative AI tool of choice has impacted your productivity and efficiency?* ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXf5lslKQOfaykFG6gORn_-HuPq4J2XPQstYPacdVBugKJagcMF1cmCZPY-Vp2RwHbwP_5Lp843DfQ6BUZsX0CYMKM8qrDd93uK1BEkmlt41ZQYXJtPV50OEiYYsPeuORVJXDO7ElO1xf_JbxlPb_oAC3RO0?key=sNOQJo7GAOZ5QGcE4tU6pg) AI is clearly having an impact on businesses and end users alike. Embracing the new technology will allow businesses to better serve their customers, improve their products, and increase conversions. All positively impacting the bottom line. ## **8 Challenges and risks of AI integration in SaaS** So… AI integrations are a simple win/win, right? Both for the SaaS businesses pushing them, and the end users benefiting from them. …Right?! Wrong. As with any new, powerful technology, there are challenges and risks that come with the opportunities. Attempts to integrate AI into systems, databases, platforms, and apps are no exception. - [1) AI and ML-based cyberattacks](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#1-ai-and-ml-based-cyberattacks) - [2) Regulatory volatility](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#2-regulatory-volatility) - [3) Data leaks](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#3-data-leaks) - [4) Lack of domain-specific skills](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#4-lack-of-domain-specific-skills) - [5) Biases, errors, and trust](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#5-biases-errors-and-trust) - [6) Questionable ROI of AI initiatives](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#6-questionable-roi-of-ai-initiatives) - [7) Ineffective systems](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#7-ineffective-systems) - [8) Challenges for end users and practitioners](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#8-challenges-for-end-users-and-practitioners) ### **1) AI and ML-based cyberattacks** Cybersecurity has always been an arms race. And the risk for software and SaaS companies is always largest. After all, their products are entirely online and digital. You can bet bad actors are using every tech tool at their disposal to discover vulnerabilities in your tech stack. If they can exploit them, they will. If they’re using AI and machine learning algorithms to find vulnerabilities faster, it’s on you to make sure you’re using a defense that’s just as smart and strong. ### **2) Regulatory volatility** In the past 12 months, there have been two types of AI-related news stories. The first: “New company launches its new AI capability.” The second: “Governmental and regulatory concerns surrounding AI increase.” For now, AI is more or less fair game. Businesses are allowed to create and launch new features, products, and services based on AI technology. But… What if that changed overnight? A sudden regulatory change could hamstring hundreds of AI products. And if your business relies on it to function? It’s game over. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/10/minion.webp) **All it takes is one of these hammer strikes to derail a lot of business' AI-based growth strategies.* ### **3) Data leaks** When you introduce complexity into a system, you increase the rate of human error. People are fallible. They get tired. They make mistakes. When something is complex, difficult to understand, and requires more than bare-minimum levels of brainpower to sense check, the mistake rate spikes. Even if it’s someone’s job to oversee the AI tech you’ve got plugged into your business systems and databases, all it takes is one rogue decision with privileges one level too high, and… Boom! Company data is exposed to the entire internet. Want to know one of the most commonly reported concerns during the initial, rapid rise of AI in the first half of 2024? That putting proprietary data into a tool like ChatGPT would tacitly give the AI permission to learn from that data, and integrate it into its knowledge base. Which leads us onto our next point… ### **4) Lack of domain-specific skills** Everyone’s talking about AI. But how many truly understand it? Do you? And, more importantly, do the people you get your information from understand it? How do you know? You don’t have to know how a car works to drive it, but we have plenty of data on the worst things that can happen when you drive a car. We also have plenty of trusted mechanics who’ve been in business long enough to have built up a tried-and-tested reputation. In AI? Not so much. Computer scientists and AI experts are *expensive*. And the ones with domain-specific knowledge about AI are currently in such high demand that there’s an actual shortage of them. The chances of a startup business getting lucky enough to get such a person on-staff is very low. And the probability that they’d be able to compete in any subsequent bidding war for that person’s skills? Even lower. ### **5) Biases, errors, and trust** We all know it by now. Generative AI tools and chatbots don’t always get it right. In fact, they sometimes get it *very* wrong. We’ve all seen the funny Reddit threads where ChatGPT “hallucinates” and comes out with unexpected and humorous responses to prompts. But when the stakes are high, we don’t know the answers ourselves, and we put our faith in a powerful technology, consequences can be dire. If you have pets or kids, you know that at some point, you have to relinquish control and let them make their own decisions (and mistakes). Hopefully, they learn and get better at orienting themselves in the world over time. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/10/morty.webp) **If one of your kids is super smart, the best approach is to try and instill good values and morals and let them explore their own autonomy in a controlled fashion. But will this work with AI?* If one of your children is *super* smart, and you know they’ll eventually be much smarter than you, you’re going to have a challenge on your hands. The best you can do? Try to instill good values and morals in them, and carefully give them more autonomy in controlled environments as they grow up. But children also have millions of years of evolution working in their favor. It ensures they don’t stray too far from the path of what’s socially acceptable. It’s programmed into us to have and develop at least some sense of social feedback and, with it, a moral compass. AI doesn’t have that. At least, we can’t be totally sure it does. So this is a challenge and a risk. ### **6) Questionable ROI of AI initiatives** Remember when every company on the face of the planet was rolling out its own AI tool? How many of those turned out to be good investments? Imagine the internal pressure on devs to hit tight turnarounds as CEOs pushed them to “catch the AI wave before it breaks”? Late nights, overtime, staff churn… All for low customer adoption rates? All for products and features with poorly thought-out positioning, that barely solve a customer problem, that were created to check a box? Not smart. And, as the initial wave of AI mania dies down, it’s not clear that many AI tools actually generate great ROI for the businesses that create them. Where they do, oh, they can have a tremendous impact. But for the rest? The outcome’s uncertain. This is a risk any business looking to integrate AI into its apps, tools, and software needs to be aware of. ### **7) Ineffective systems** In the previous section, we talked about AI being very effective at carrying out various tasks. Tasks like engaging customers, performing predictive analytics, segmentation, and so on. This is true… until it’s not. When AI is poorly implemented, you introduce holes in your cybersecurity, or risk an automated, powerful AI system making decisions on your behalf you’d never make yourself. Here’s an example. Meta’s automated systems are *very* sensitive. They lock all sorts of innocent actors out of their accounts with no clear reasoning. Permanently, and with no recourse. This has happened to me and, apparently, many others online. ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfFL0pl-Eqf_4HvkwxGcSvjaSxFR-8hEG4uwFqIknzv06bLrRgENOSZZibq5P5i2eBl0McY07K9XWkX1T4nJIBteyDR_fagNZReztuweMY48J_uHTv7iSRtBZ2U1RV1hRRltjSk1CdmQTeiKvhZC3QB7fk?key=sNOQJo7GAOZ5QGcE4tU6pg) Concerningly, this often happens to Meta’s *business* customers. Those who pay the company money to advertise across Facebook and Instagram are getting their ability to pay Meta money taken away from them. In some instances, this’ll make sense. If you allow spam advertisers to use your platform, you’ll degrade trust. But when buggy automated systems control every facet of your account monitoring systems, you’re bound to cost yourself legitimate paying users. ### **8) Challenges for end users and practitioners** We ended the last section by looking at impacts on productivity and efficiency for end users and practitioners, looking at data from AIAI’s Generative AI 2024 Report. Let’s end this section in the same fashion: By looking at challenges users and practitioners face. ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcXpK8aUk-jDsme2HxGchvQJ0hQl0fRz95vU5n__E0WzVJ-8cOzDWqRZtHuhnYmXGZzJF8g0tqTPSAYJ0ylE3QMJvJr3d1-ZZ_8s5AoCDF2Qxl4XfNn4v3tUSugy5ReKnF43PXk77xuer8NjbYe31kUv8EK?key=sNOQJo7GAOZ5QGcE4tU6pg) For businesses themselves, the risks and challenges are clear. We’ve discussed seven pretty big ones. But from AIAI’s data in their Generative AI 2024 Report, it’s clear that the majority of end users and practitioners encounter challenges integrating AI tools into their workflows, too. But what challenges are they facing, exactly? Here are some of them from AIAI’s report: - There’s a lot to learn - Tools aren’t good enough yet - Algorithms haven’t reached expectations - Advocacy (convincing teams and stakeholders) - Data integration - Data security - Imprecise results - Not everything is covered with generative AI ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdNCSz281lmKzEinp1_KnnbiOAgqsOKVUnR31Am7BFBbrPwIZ93SHmTBK8PCxFI5DQqoc44bb2f5Ul4E68rZ_yv-CKj--L-giKzOAEmTBpk_qtByR8aR9uyH8P2QJMKABoIU8XrlF2RQ6pT25zqAj-iduYK?key=sNOQJo7GAOZ5QGcE4tU6pg) AI, then, is not all sunshine and rainbows. It’s not the Quick Win it’s often touted to be. For every advantage, there is a corresponding challenge or risk to the business or end user daring to harness its power. So, as with everything in business and in life, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. But for the careful, the diligent, and the bold, AI presents new market opportunities they might just be able to profitably exploit. --- ## Download the State of SaaS Leadership report Expect focused questions on: - How you approach leadership in a dynamic SaaS environment - Your main business priorities for 2024 - Key challenges and trends shaping your strategy - Insights on where you see the industry going in the years ahead [State of SaaS Leadership 2024Have your say on the state of SaaS leadership. Help shape a report bursting with insights on how to stay one step ahead![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2024/09/SAAS_Leadership_Survey_Meta_2024.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/state-of-saas-leadership-2024/) --- ### Sales-led to product-driven: A CPO's guide to sustainable SaaS growth transformation URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-led-to-product-driven-sustainable-saas-growth/ Last updated: 2024-10-25T16:00:44.000Z Discover PayFit's journey from sales-led to product-driven SaaS, including key strategies, challenges, and insights for successful transformation. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### 3 key ways to improve information flow and decision-making URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/3-key-ways-to-improve-information-flow-and-decision-making/ Last updated: 2024-10-11T16:00:05.000Z This article comes from **Julie Grondin**'s insightful talk at the **Product Marketing Summit** in Toronto, check out her full presentation [**here**](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-marketing-summit-toronto-december-2023/?%5Fgl=1%2A1hpu9ww%2A%5Fup%2AMQ..%2A%5Fga%2AMTI1NTU0MzcxMC4xNzI4Mzg5MzUw%2A%5Fga%5F227NRQHH28%2AMTcyODQwMTE2Mi4yLjEuMTcyODQwMTE3MC4wLjAuMA..&wchannelid=oirnp6muh1&wmediaid=7i7hlixa1y). --- After 25 years of working in [startups](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-ive-learned-from-mentoring-100-startups/), tech titans, and everything in between, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that every company is at least a little bit dysfunctional. Whether it's mild, moderate, or severe, dysfunction exists in every single organization. From what I've seen, this dysfunction typically stems from how a company gathers and shares information, which has a huge impact on how it makes decisions. So, in this article, I’m going to share how you can fix the information flow in your organization and eliminate the dysfunction that makes everyone’s jobs – especially yours – harder. ## The three types of organizational dysfunction Let's start by exploring the types of dysfunction that most organizations are facing. ### Information dysfunction First up, there’s information dysfunction. This happens when companies don’t prioritize sourcing information (like [competitive intelligence](https://www.saasalliance.io/data-driven-competitive-intelligence-saas/) and [market research](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-ai-tools-for-gaining-competitive-edge-in-market-research/)), documenting that information, and recording all the components that support product strategy. Or, perhaps all that information is being gathered and rigorously documented, but it’s not being shared with the people who need it. This is a massive problem in many organizations. ### Decision-making dysfunction Next, there's decision-making dysfunction. This occurs when leaders in the organization have a hard time making decisions. You end up in situations where no decisions are made, bad decisions are made, or uninformed decisions that change every week are taking place. ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeOeHaaMd-w3V5UO4hihn1wMDh_iEsHlHzDw4z1mRmqzceZRqegDU7HP9xh1KZdxjs5j1pMzgjI-Yg0sgOMZmMqpkJcYGC3POnvK4kGw-6Qn8neIkjrchmSGWMCllG3OKeWWS-DyEmngfSqiw6XOVPjSHZB?key=esU_X_MAmeAf7CBDrZSL5A) These dysfunctions are self-perpetuating because organizations that don’t prioritize gathering the right information don't have the data they need to make informed decisions. ### Punting the dysfunction Now, you can operate with information and decision-making dysfunction for a while – some companies even manage to be quite successful despite not having the data they need to make good decisions. However, while things look good on the surface, teams are often just punting the dysfunction around in the background. Let me explain what I mean. Let’s imagine that no market research has been done in your organization. In the absence of data, engineering and [product management](https://www.saasalliance.io/leading-product-management-through-turbulent-times-2/) teams may go back and forth for a while before coming up with some code and a user interface that they believe is right. They then pass it on to the [sales team](https://www.saasalliance.io/driving-change-in-sales-teams-what-works-and-what-doesnt/) in the form of a release and wash their hands of it. The sales team is left wondering what to do with this release, so they drag marketing in. Together, they struggle to figure out what customers need to know about this new product or feature. After some back and forth, they decide they understand its value, and then they release it to the market. ![Punting the dysfunction between engineering, product management, marketing, and sales teams and the market works for a while.](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeQj63IpHfj1RZU0WM9f0QQ_vbMyfT495wloCStlMpVK7_lO-7RvMj--SxMkPOWjnbVvX0feEAnkIcA5NKa2rIwB_a0rDLgY_yXYvfGL1aGC6cK-tcOZo0ypb1dsUcp1gtDKpbc_wAtzdFOSXlT_lR9YuVs?key=esU_X_MAmeAf7CBDrZSL5A) _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Optimizing SaaS ROI: 20 key SaaS metrics (+ formulas) URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/optimizing-saas-roi-20-key-saas-metrics-formulas/ Last updated: 2024-10-10T09:30:20.000Z [Software as a service](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-saas/) (SaaS) metrics are ways businesses track their progress toward goals and spot areas for improvement. These metrics can track a variety of business areas, such as: - [Revenue,](https://www.saasalliance.io/optimizing-saas-roi-20-key-saas-metrics-formulas/#revenue-metrics) - [Acquisition](https://www.saasalliance.io/optimizing-saas-roi-20-key-saas-metrics-formulas/#acquisition-metrics), - [Retention and satisfaction](https://www.saasalliance.io/optimizing-saas-roi-20-key-saas-metrics-formulas/#retention-and-satisfaction-metrics), - [and marketing efforts](https://www.saasalliance.io/optimizing-saas-roi-20-key-saas-metrics-formulas/#marketing-and-awareness-metrics). Keeping an eye on these performance indicators can help to keep your SaaS business on the right track. ## **Why are SaaS metrics important?** Metrics are important for SaaS companies for a number of reasons. Mainly, they help your leaders to make data-driven decisions towards your organization's goals. Tracking SaaS performance metrics can also benefit: - **Prioritization** – metrics can show your org’s strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to prioritize the most at-risk areas. - **Profitability** – monitoring revenue metrics can help you to optimize your revenue streams and budgets to create more profits. - **Customer satisfaction** – data can also benefit your customers, by spotting trends in satisfaction and churn. - **Marketing campaign success** – without metrics, it’s unclear how your marketing efforts are paying off; tracking progress allows your team to refine their strategy over time. Now we understand why metrics are so important, let’s dive into the key SaaS metrics for success… ## **Revenue metrics** ### **Gross margin** Gross margin measures your brand’s profitability and indicates whether your company can cover its expenses. A high gross margin indicates a high level of profit and a strong financial position. This metric is measured as total revenue minus the cost of goods sold (CoGS), but this is usually expressed as a percentage. Here’s the formula: ***Gross margin = ((Revenue - CoGS) / Revenue) x 100*** The most important part of calculating this metric is defining what costs are included in CoGS. This should be all of the direct costs associated with producing your products/services. As a SaaS organization, you can also measure your company’s recurring revenue gross margin; this will involve adjusting your CoGS to include expenses that support retaining customers and recurring billing, such as customer success. ### **Net revenue retention (NRR)** Net revenue retention measures the percentage of revenue retained over a certain period (typically monthly or yearly NRR). This looks at how much revenue your current customers were bringing in within the last period and compares it to the same customer group now. An NRR measurement above 100% indicates a company’s growth, as you’ve successfully retained (and grown) your existing customers’ accounts compared to the last period. The formula for NRR is: ***NRR = (Retained revenue / Base recurring revenue) x 100*** [SaaS revenue-based financing: the cheat code to preventing ownership dilutionYour SaaS company has a magic word that hypnotizes investors: recurring revenue. It’s much easier (and less expensive) to keep existing customers than acquire new ones.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-34.png)SaaS AllianceAdam Tzagournis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/calculator-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-revenue-based-financing-the-cheat-code-to-preventing-ownership-dilution/) ### **Annual recurring revenue (ARR)** Annual recurring revenue predicts the recurring revenue your SaaS business will generate in the next year. This metric is a prediction, so it assumes no major changes to your customer base (such as an increased churn rate, or a sudden spike in new customers). This metric is especially important for SaaS organizations focused on yearly billing models. SaaS organizations typically use ARR to measure year-on-year (YoY) growth, as a high ARR growth rate indicates the company is generating more revenue (through new accounts and/or expanded existing accounts) than the previous period. To calculate your ARR: ***ARR = No. of paying customers x Average revenue per customer per year*** **It’s important to note:** ARR doesn’t take into account any one-off payments as it only focuses on recurring revenue. ### **Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)** Similar to ARR, monthly recurring revenue predicts the recurring revenue your business will generate on a monthly basis. Again, this is a prediction, so it doesn’t account for major changes. This metric gives you a more granular look into your recurring revenue and allows you to compare data on a monthly basis. This is key if your SaaS pricing model focuses on monthly subscriptions. To calculate your MRR: ***MRR = No. of paying customers x Average revenue per customer per month*** Your MRR growth rate will depend on the size and stage of your business, but on average, a 15% growth rate is seen as healthy. ### **Average revenue per user (ARPU)** We’ve already mentioned average revenue per user as a factor in ARR and MRR, but this metric can also be looked at on its own. ARPU indicates the average revenue generated per customer account. This is useful for tiered SaaS pricing as you can monitor which tier your average customer is on, and adjust pricing or increase upselling campaigns. The ARPU can also influence budgets for customer acquisition (more on this in the acquisition metrics section). If it costs more to gain customers than the average user spends, your business could be in trouble. The formula for average revenue per user is: ***APPU = Total revenue / Total no. of users*** ## **Acquisition metrics** ### **Customer monthly growth rate (CMGR)** Your customer monthly growth rate is the rate your organization adds new customer accounts each month. Essentially, it compares the number of new customers at the end of the month to the number of customers at the start of that month. It’s calculated as a percentage using this formula: ***CMGR = (New customers / Starting period customers) x 100*** A high CMGR indicates your business is successfully acquiring customers month-on-month and may suggest your org has good growth potential. ### **Customer acquisition cost (CAC)** Customer acquisition cost is a measure of the amount spent to acquire a new customer. This takes into account the total cost of your sales and marketing efforts (including headcount ) to determine the cost of gaining new customers. To calculate your CAC: ***CAC = Total cost of marketing and sales / New customers*** The cost-effectiveness of your marketing campaigns is a good indicator you’re on the right track. So you’re aiming to lower your CAC over time, but this doesn’t necessarily mean reducing your marketing budget – it’s about creating *effective* campaigns. The real red flag is if your CAC is higher than your customer lifetime value (we’ll discuss this more later on). Some ways to reduce your CAC include: - Re-engaging with existing customers and gathering feedback - Creating a referral program - Consistently build a community - Optimize your search engine optimization strategy [A beginner’s guide to customer acquisitionObjectives and key results (OKRs) are a pretty common talking point in the SaaS industry and in our Slack community, week in, week out, we see members asking how they should, or could, measure their performance. Hence our article here today.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-35.png)SaaS AllianceEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/sharon-mccutcheon--8a5eJ1-mmQ-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/a-beginners-guide-to-customer-acquisition/) ### **Months to recover CAC** As it sounds, this metric measures how many months it takes your company to earn back the cost of acquiring new customers. This is also referred to as the CAC payback period. In other words, it measures how long it takes to break even and make a return on investment from your customers. The formula to calculate the months to recover CAC is: ***Months to Recover CAC = CAC / (MRR x gross margin)*** As your SaaS business grows, this number should slowly decrease, but it can take some time to reduce the CAC payback period. The faster you can recover CAC, the less risky and more profitable your business model. ### **Customer lifetime value (CLV)** Customer lifetime value tracks the average amount of revenue your customers bring in while they’re engaged with your business. In SaaS terms, this is the average amount of money spent with your company before your customers churn. This metric shows how much your customers are worth on average, the more your customers spend, the more valuable your customers are to your business’ profitability. So, it’s important to keep your customers happy to increase your CLV. Calculate your CLV with this basic formula: ***CLV = Average value of a transaction x Average number of transactions x Customer lifespan*** But for monthly recurring pricing, your SaaS business may want to use this calculation: ***CLV = ARPU x average customer lifespan (in months)*** ### **CAC-to-LTV ratio** As we hinted at earlier, your CAC shouldn’t be higher than your LTV, and that’s why it’s important to measure your CAC-to-LTV ratio. In case that wasn’t clear, this metric simply compares your acquisition costs to your customer’s lifetime value. There’s actually no calculation necessary for this measurement (assuming you’ve already calculated your CAC and LTV), as you’re simply comparing the two. You should be aiming for an LTV around three times your CAC value **(CAC: LTV = 1:3)**. If your CAC is higher than this (e.g., 1:1), you’re spending too much on marketing and sales. On the other hand, if your CAC is lower than this (e.g. 1:6), you may be leaving additional customers on the table by underspending. It’s all about balance. ⚖️ ## **Retention and satisfaction metrics** ### **Customer churn rate and customer retention rate** Customer churn rate measures the rate at which your customers are leaving your brand or “churning,” whereas customer retention rate refers to the rate of customers staying loyal to your brand. These are, in essence, two sides of the same coin. Both churn and retention rates are important in understanding how well your SaaS business retains customers (and, therefore, recurring revenue). You should aim to keep churn low (under 4-5%) and retention high (over 95-96%). ***Customer churn rate = (Churned customers / Total no. customers) x 100*** ***Customer retention rate = (Retained customers / Total no. customers) x100*** Retaining your customers is just as important as generating new ones, especially in SaaS business models. If you can’t retain customers, you’ll struggle to create an effective and feasible recurring business, especially if customers are churning before their CAC payback period. [SaaS churn rate guide | Future of SaaSCustomer retention is essential in the world of SaaS. While it’s inevitable some customers will call it a day and unsubscribe, you still want to keep your churn rate super low.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-36.png)SaaS AllianceAlex Morris![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1555421689-491a97ff2040)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-churn-rate-your-guide/) ### **Customer engagement score** Customer engagement scores provide insights into how engaged your customer base is with your service. This metric combines a variety of engagement indicators such as: log-in frequency, product usage, feature adoption, and more. It should provide an overall indication of how engaged and satisfied your customer base is with your SaaS offerings. This measurement isn’t as straightforward as a simple calculation, as engagement scores should be based on which factors are most important for your business and customers. It’s key to analyze your customers’ activities, engagement indicators, and churn indicators to determine which measures should be included in your customer engagement score calculation. ### **Customer health score** Customer health score is similar to customer engagement score, but instead of tracking engagement, this metric tracks the health of customer accounts and flags at-risk accounts for your customer success team. Usually, this score is calculated with predictive analytics so your team can take action to prevent churn. Once a customer cancels their subscription, it’s often too late, so customer health scores exist to step in before a customer leaves for good. Your customer success team should reach out to customers with low health scores to see how their experience could be improved and prevent them from churning. Again, like customer engagement scores, health scores take into account a variety of factors to assign each account a health score. ### **Net promoter score (NPS)** Another way to score customer satisfaction is with a net promoter score, which measures how likely a customer is to recommend your product to others. NPS is calculated by asking customers: On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this product/service to a friend or colleague? Then, their answers are categorized into promoters, passives, and detractors. The scoring bands for each of these groups may depend on your company, but typically, a score of 9-10 is a promoter. The formula for NPS is: ***NPS = Percentage of detractors - Percentage of promoters*** This metric can be used to show customer loyalty and satisfaction, as a high NPS indicates lots of satisfied customers willing to advocate for your company. In turn, this can lead to increased word-of-mouth marketing. ### **Daily active users (DAU)** Daily active users are an important SaaS metric to keep an eye on how many unique users engage with your offering every day. This could be logging into your service or taking action on your product. ***DAU = No. of unique users active every day.*** If your customers use your product in their everyday routine, it’ll be more difficult for them to churn, making this metric a great indicator of engagement and loyalty. ### **Monthly active users (MAU)** Monthly active users, on the other hand, are the number of unique accounts engaging with your product on a monthly basis. Again, these are accounts who’ve logged on, or taken an action at least once in the last 30 days. ***MAU = No. of unique users active in the last 30 days.*** Most of your customers won’t use your product daily, so MAU is a great indicator of the total size of your active user base, which can provide insights into your organization’s reach and user retention. [How to create a value-based dashboard for your usersDashboards are often a place where impact can be had when it comes to design improvements. A dashboard done well can increase retention, utilization, and boost your NPS score, but how do you create a value-based dashboard and reap these rewards?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-37.png)SaaS AlliancePeter Loving![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1551288049-bebda4e38f71)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-create-a-value-based-dashboard-for-your-users/) ## **Marketing and awareness metrics** ### **Return on investment (ROI) for marketing campaigns** Return on investment is an important SaaS metric to track, but this is especially true for marketing campaigns. If you aren’t seeing a return on your marketing efforts, it might be time to make some changes. Marketing is how many of your customers will discover your product, so it’s important that it resonates with your target audience, and converts them into leads for your business. ROI is measured by comparing your marketing spend to the number of new customers acquired in the same period. However, if your business has a long sales cycle, it may be worth adjusting your comparison timelines, as marketing leads may take a few months to convert to paying customers. ***ROI = ((Profit attributable to marketing – Marketing costs) / Marketing costs) x 100*** ### **Website traffic and source analysis** Website traffic measures how many sessions have occurred on your website, and where those sessions have come from (source analysis). SaaS companies need to have an online presence, and a website is a major aspect of this. To ensure your website is appearing in search results, it’s important to invest in search engine optimization (SEO) strategy and monitor your organic traffic. To improve your search rankings, you can also track specific keywords to see how well your pages are performing on search engines. It’s important to use tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track your website traffic and analyze the sources of traffic (search, email, social, etc.). ### **Social media engagement and brand awareness** Social media is here to stay, (yes, even for B2B brands), so it’s no surprise that social media engagement is a key metric for SaaS organizations. Engagement measures how your audience interacts with your marketing efforts on social media, such as their likes, comments, shares, views, and clicks. These interactions can be compared to how many people viewed your posts (impressions) to determine the overall engagement rate achieved by your efforts. Social media is also a great place to measure brand awareness and sentiment through impressions and word-of-mouth interactions. ### **Email open rates** Email open rates show the number of people who received your email and who also opened it. This can show you how engaged your database is with your content. The more people who open your emails, the more people see your marketing messaging. To calculate your open rate: ***Open rate = (Total email opened / Total recipients - Emails bounced) x 100*** A low open rate may indicate your subject line and preview weren’t relevant or interesting to your audience or that your database is unengaged. The industry standard for open rates is 20-30%. ### **Click-through rates (CTR)** Click-through rates measure the number of people who took action or “clicked” after opening your email. This tracks the effectiveness of your marketing campaign’s call to action (CTA). To calculate CTR, use this formula: ***CTR = (Number of clicks / Number of emails delivered) x 100*** If you’re seeing poor CTRs, try optimizing your content to be more visually appealing or provide more value to your audience. Some customers may switch off if your marketing emails are *too* sales-focused. --- Want to grow, scale up, and work smarter? SaaScast is here for you. Our podcast features guests who will help you take marketing to the next level. Tune in today. 🎧 [SaaScastSaaScast talks you through the steps you need to futureproof your product. From startups to established names, our guests will help you grow, scale up, and work smarter.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/favicon.ico)The AllianceRichard King![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/SaaSCast_Podcast_Socials_Spotify.png)](https://media.thealliance.io/podcast/fosaas-saascast/) ### Data-driven SaaS marketing: Leveraging analytics for success URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/data-driven-saas-marketing-leveraging-analytics-for-success/ Last updated: 2024-10-09T21:51:35.000Z The financial impact of inaccurate data-driven SaaS marketing on any given business is substantial. According to research by [**Gartner**](https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/how-to-create-a-business-case-for-data-quality-improvement), poor-quality data costs organizations an average of $15 million annually. In my opinion, for SaaS companies, good marketing data is mightier for brand awareness, brand engagement, and customer acquisition and retention. Considering below use cases, businesses could face revenue loss of millions of dollars, depending on the scale and nature, on top of jeopardizing their brand image. 1. **Lead generation and conversion:** For SaaS companies, accurate data is crucial for lead generation, nurturing, and conversion. [**Forrester**](https://www.forrester.com/bold) found that 25% of the average B2B database is inaccurate, which can lead to significant losses in potential revenue. If a SaaS company’s marketing data is inaccurate or outdated, it could result in targeting the wrong audience, ineffective marketing campaigns, and lost opportunities to convert leads into customers. 2. **Customer retention and churn:** Bad data can also lead to poor customer experiences, which can increase churn rates. In the SaaS industry, where recurring revenue is critical, losing customers to competitors due to poor marketing or customer service driven by bad data can be particularly damaging. 3. **Competitor impact:** This interesting report from[**McKinsey & Company**](https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Business%20Functions/Marketing%20and%20Sales/Our%20Insights/Five%20facts%20How%20customer%20analytics%20boosts%20corporate%20performance/Datamatics.pdf)estimated that companies with better data and analytics are 23 times more likely to acquire customers and 19 times more likely to be profitable. That being said, SaaS businesses with bad marketing data are at a significant disadvantage compared to competitors who leverage accurate, actionable data. So how can businesses leverage data driven SaaS marketing analytics for success? "Data and analytics leaders need to understand the business priorities and challenges of their organization. Only then will they be in the right position to create compelling business cases that connect data quality improvement with key business priorities," explains Ted Friedman, Vice President at Gartner. Working as a marketing professional for a decade, I cannot agree more. Companies are making significant investments in tools, teams, and infrastructure to gather operational and customer data, but only a small portion can effectively leverage, scale, and prioritize this information. Consequently, they frequently fail to capitalize on the potential to convert underutilized data into strategic wins like key insights that could strengthen current business relationships and better market features / services to win new deals. [Marketing inside out: Put your team firstThink marketing is all about your customers? According to Tim Parkin, marketing advisor to a portfolio of multimillion-dollar brands, you’re thinking about it all wrong.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-31.png)SaaS AllianceWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/marketing-4.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/marketing-inside-out-put-your-team-first-2/) To fully harness the power of data-driven SaaS marketing analytics for success, companies need to take a holistic approach, incorporating both the right technology and a data-driven culture. Here are some key strategies: ## **1\. Implement a robust data management strategy** The foundation of any successful data-driven marketing strategy is accurate and organized data. This includes establishing processes for data cleaning, validation, and enrichment. By ensuring data quality, businesses can reduce waste in marketing spend, optimize targeting, and improve campaign performance. Investing in tools that automate data cleansing, or using platforms that integrate real-time data validation, can significantly reduce the chances of operating on faulty insights. ## **2\. Use predictive analytics for lead scoring** Predictive analytics uses historical data and AI models to forecast future customer behaviors, such as which leads are more likely to convert. For SaaS companies, this is particularly valuable in improving marketing efficiency. By identifying high-value leads early on, marketers can focus their resources on nurturing relationships that are most likely to result in conversions, reducing wasted effort on unqualified leads. [17 awesome analytics, measurement, and reporting tools for SaaS businessesTo help you get the most out of every digit, here are 17 number-crunching tools SaaS businesses are using to scale their offering.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-32.png)SaaS AllianceLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/elena-rouame-9JU2CKqtw0M-unsplash--2-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/17-awesome-analytics-measurement-and-reporting-tools-for-saas-businesses/) ## **3\. Personalization through data segmentation** Leveraging customer data allows SaaS marketers to segment audiences effectively. This segmentation is the key to delivering personalized marketing content and experiences, from tailored email campaigns to customized product recommendations. Personalization, when done well, enhances engagement and retention, contributing to lower churn rates and higher lifetime customer value (LTV). ## **4\. Measure campaign effectiveness in real-time** SaaS companies that invest in real-time analytics can monitor the performance of their marketing campaigns as they unfold. This enables them to quickly adjust strategies and tactics to optimize outcomes. Data-driven insights into customer interactions, conversion rates, and content engagement help marketers adapt on the fly, ensuring that campaigns remain agile and results-focused. ## **5\. Leverage cross-channel analytics** SaaS marketing often spans multiple digital channels – from email and social media to content marketing and paid search. Tracking customer touchpoints across these channels can give marketers a full picture of the buyer's journey. With cross-channel analytics, SaaS companies can understand which channels drive the most conversions, enabling them to allocate resources more effectively and maximize ROI. ## **6\. Data-driven customer retention** Customer retention is crucial in the SaaS model, where revenue is primarily subscription-based. Data analytics can help identify patterns and signals that indicate potential churn, allowing businesses to proactively address customer concerns before they escalate. By understanding the behaviors that lead to churn, SaaS companies can fine-tune their retention strategies, whether through improving customer support, offering personalized incentives, or addressing product usage issues. ## **7\. Adopt a culture of continuous optimization** One of the greatest benefits of data-driven marketing is the ability to continuously optimize strategies. Regularly assessing the performance of campaigns, customer behavior, and market trends allows for iterative improvements. By fostering a culture that prioritizes data insights and ongoing experimentation, SaaS companies can stay agile and competitive in a rapidly changing market. [Accelerating your routes-to-market with optimized GTM alignmentJanani Nagarajan, Senior Director of Product Marketing at CrowdStrike, delivers an exemplary go to market strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-33.png)SaaS AllianceJanani Nagarajan![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/Accelerating-your-routes-to-market-with-optimized-GTM-alignment.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/accelerating-your-routes-to-market-with-optimized-gtm-alignment/) Let’s understand this through a practical use case for a high ticket size SaaS product with below assumptions. #### **Company: ABC Enterprise (ERP Solutions)** #### **Product: Full ERP Suite (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution for large enterprises** #### **Ticket Size: $100,000+ per contract, annual subscription model** #### **Challenge:** The company’s target market consists of large enterprises across various industries. The sales cycle is long and complex, involving multiple stakeholders and decision-makers. The company needs to improve lead generation, accelerate the sales funnel, and reduce churn for its high-ticket product. ## **Solution: Data-driven marketing and analytics** 1. **Lead generation and qualification**: The company uses predictive analytics and machine learning to score leads based on historical data from past deals, customer behavior on the website, engagement with marketing content, and CRM data. By applying predictive models, they can better identify which enterprise prospects are more likely to convert based on similar companies that have purchased their ERP solution in the past. **Example**: - The marketing team notices that companies within the manufacturing industry with over 1,000 employees and a specific set of technological challenges (e.g., fragmented internal systems) are more likely to convert. - Using this insight, they create hyper-targeted marketing campaigns (personalized emails, whitepapers, case studies) focusing specifically on the needs of large manufacturers. - This targeted approach reduces wasted ad spend and increases lead quality, shortening the sales cycle for enterprise deals. 1. **Personalized Account-Based Marketing (ABM)**: Due to the high price point, the ERP SaaS company adopts an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy, using data analytics to identify key decision-makers within target companies. By using firmographic data and behavior tracking, the marketing team can craft highly personalized messages and content for different stakeholders, such as the CFO, CTO, or operations managers. **Example**: - A CFO may receive a financial benefits case study on how the ERP reduces operational costs, while the CTO gets technical documentation showing integration capabilities. - Advanced CRM analytics track engagement with emails, webinar attendance, and website visits, helping the sales team tailor follow-ups based on individual interests. **Predictive churn analytics**: The SaaS company uses data analytics to monitor product usage patterns and customer engagement. For instance, they track login frequency, the number of active users within the enterprise, and key feature adoption. By analyzing these data points, the company can predict which customers are at risk of churn. **Example**: - If a large enterprise customer hasn't logged in or used core features of the ERP solution over the past 60 days, the customer success team is alerted to intervene early. They can reach out with personalized support, offer training, or provide consulting to ensure full utilization of the platform. - This proactive approach helps reduce churn and maintain high customer lifetime value (CLTV). 1. **Real-time analytics to optimize campaigns**: The company leverages real-time data to track the performance of its marketing campaigns, including email open rates, webinar attendance, whitepaper downloads, and sales-qualified leads (SQLs). If certain campaigns are underperforming, they can quickly adjust messaging, change audience segmentation, or allocate more resources to better-performing channels. **Example**: - After noticing lower-than-expected engagement from their initial email campaign targeting CIOs, the marketing team revises the content to focus more on integration capabilities, which research indicates is a key concern for CIOs. This adjustment leads to a 15% improvement in open rates and more meetings booked. ## **Results:** - **Improved lead quality**: Predictive analytics enables the company to focus marketing efforts on high-value leads, reducing the number of unqualified leads entering the pipeline. - **Increased conversion rates**: Personalized ABM campaigns drive higher engagement from enterprise decision-makers, leading to an increase in high-ticket deals. - **Reduced churn**: By using data-driven insights to predict churn and take proactive action, the company improves customer retention and maximizes the lifetime value of each account. - **Enhanced ROI**: Real-time monitoring and adjustment of marketing campaigns improve ROI by ensuring marketing dollars are spent on initiatives that deliver the most value. A data-driven approach can enhance the performance of marketing efforts facilitating company’s long-term growth and profitability. The success of a SaaS business depends heavily on how effectively it can collect, analyze, and act on data. Marketing teams that leverage accurate, actionable insights are not only able to drive growth through better lead generation and customer retention but also position their brand as a market leader. By adopting a comprehensive data-driven marketing approach, SaaS companies can unlock new opportunities for revenue and long-term success. Ultimately, SaaS companies that embrace a strategic approach to data and analytics will outperform their competitors, driving better business outcomes while minimizing risks tied to poor data quality. --- Enjoyed this article? Why not sign up for exclusive insights with the leading minds in SaaS [**right here**](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup)? ### The power of conversational marketing URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-of-conversational-marketing/ Last updated: 2024-10-07T14:22:55.000Z Customers have changed. They expect businesses to be available around the clock and offer personalized experiences, with seamless online interactions being a top priority. In fact, [80% of buyers value their experience with a company as much as the product or service itself](https://www.salesforce.com/content/dam/web/en%5Fus/www/documents/e-books/state-of-the-connected-customer-report-second-edition2018.pdf?ref=productmarketingalliance.com). Gone are the days when customers were willing to hunt for information on websites or wait for a response from customer service. Instead, they prefer engaging with companies through chat, messaging apps, and social media, where they can get the information they need instantly. This is where conversational marketing comes in – a game-changer in how companies connect with their customers and expand their reach in global markets. ## **What is conversational marketing?** Conversational marketing is a way to engage with potential customers through chat and [messaging](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/your-guide-to-messaging/) platforms in a [personalized](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-personalize-your-buyers-journey-using-interactive-demos-6-ways-examples/) and conversational way. The goal is to create a natural, human-like interaction that helps to [build trust](https://www.saasalliance.io/build-trust-boost-sales-through-smart-security-compliance/) and establish a relationship with the customer. It can include [chatbots on a website](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/chatbots-for-sales-enablement/), SMS messaging campaigns, and [social media](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-boost-your-customer-retention-with-social-media/) messaging. The core premise of conversational marketing is to provide a more human and authentic way for businesses to connect with their customers, resulting in increased engagement, sales, and customer loyalty. Also, conversational marketing can [generate leads](https://www.saasalliance.io/master-the-saas-sales-funnel-turn-leads-into-loyal-customers/) by providing an easy way for customers to ask questions and learn more about a product or service. ## **Key characteristics of conversational marketing** ### Engage on the customer’s schedule Modern customers expect businesses to be available whenever they need them, whether it's early in the morning before going to work or late at night while having dinner with their family. Conversational marketing lets your business stay available 24/7 without forcing your team to work nonstop. Chatbots and conversational AI handle the heavy lifting, keeping the conversation going and making sure you never miss a customer's question. ### Real-time conversations drive conversions [Responding quickly to hot leads can boost conversion rates by x100](https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/surprising-statistics-on-sales-prospecting-that-will-change-the-way-you-look-at-cold-calling-infographic?hubs%5Fcontent=blog.hubspot.com%2Fsales%2Flive-chat-go-to-market-flaw&hubs%5Fcontent-cta=blog-nav-media-dropdown-text-link&ref=productmarketingalliance.com&%5F%5Fhstc=178084794.b3c2b92692f8dc138bbd7e7ae7e83130.1719231851373.1727445410359.1728299400393.8&%5F%5Fhssc=178084794.2.1728299400393&%5F%5Fhsfp=3665877722). Customers don't want to wait; if your response time lags, they'll turn to more responsive competitors. Consider the example of a fitness center that took two days to answer a simple inquiry – definitely not a good look. ### Meet customers where they are Whether it’s learning about [things to do in Denver](https://www.denver.org/?ref=productmarketingalliance.com) through the chatbot on the website or buying event tickets via Facebook Messenger, conversational marketing lets you connect with customers on their preferred platforms. This not only saves them time but also builds loyalty, resulting in customer satisfaction and ultimately driving sales. ![](https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcmo1K2Mb_S3mhBFjm98ygyDYxIYhZgutWvjzYp1PK66W3mBNoDQLZ_ipiEbcv-zR-MVfuvXDaSAOvqj-VUil15YX-A1WthkdyNWmixCdmmkgb6VMkSsZfQZvBa_af3-eA2OacJlj5PfLub1HimDEySexE?key=g96EEc0MPsIBIgBLYjnPmA) ### Handle peak times Another benefit is that conversational platforms can handle many customer interactions at once, which can be very helpful during big events, sports games, or if the business has millions of customers in general, requiring enormous human resources in a limited period. Chatbots can handle all routine customer questions immediately, saving staff hours and allowing humans to take care of more creative tasks. ### Leverage contextual conversations Conversational marketing does more than just connect with customers in the moment – it draws from past interactions to create a smoother, more personalized experience. By tapping into the history of previous conversations, you can make each interaction feel more personal and informed. Whether it's greeting customers by name, recalling their past purchases, or continuing a previous chat, this approach makes every exchange feel relevant and meaningful, boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty. ## **Why PMMs need conversational marketing today** ### Delivering an exceptional customer experience The shift in customer expectations means that the experience is as critical as the product. PMMs must ensure that their products not only meet customer needs but also provide an exceptional user experience. Understanding how to leverage [digital channels](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/the-ultimate-24-channels-to-market-your-product-in-2023/) like chatbots and social media can significantly enhance customer satisfaction. ### Making your product more accessible Consumers expect fast and easy access to information. As a PMM, it's important to prioritize tools and strategies that make your product more accessible through the channels your customers prefer, whether it's a chatbot on your website or a presence on popular messaging platforms. ### Building relationships through personalization With the growing emphasis on personalized experiences, PMMs need to focus on creating interactions that resonate with individual customers. Utilizing AI-driven solutions that offer personalized responses can lead to higher engagement and stronger customer loyalty. ### Becoming more agile You can create more agile and responsive marketing strategies using conversational marketing. You can quickly adjust to shifting [customer behaviors](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/what-influences-customer-behavior/), try out new messages, and tweak your campaigns on the fly by adding real-time interactions into your marketing efforts, giving you a real edge over the competition. ### Gaining deeper insights through analysis And finally, conversations can be tracked and analyzed, allowing PMMs to gain valuable insights into customer preferences and pain points. Imagine you have direct access to every interaction of the users with the chat. You get real-time data on what your customers want and need, allowing you to adjust your marketing communication and improve the website content, product, or service much faster. ## **Use cases of conversational marketing** I will provide you with just a few use cases that will help you understand the real practical examples of how using conversational marketing can help you reach specific PMM goals, like driving [product adoption](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/12-essential-product-adoption-metrics/), increasing MQLs, and providing your internal teams with more data-driven insights that can positively influence your business. ### Educate prospects on product features Use conversational marketing to walk potential customers through the product features. By crafting a guided conversational flow, you can simplify complex offerings, leading prospects step-by-step toward a purchase decision. ### Capture leads efficiently Integrate lead capture forms directly into your chat interface to gather contact information with ease. Your potential consumers will be more eager to leave contact details if they get answers to their questions first using conversational tech. This approach ensures that you're always building your pipeline while delivering a personalized experience. ### Drive sales through multiple channels Leverage conversational marketing as an additional sales channel. Incorporate link-out buttons that lead directly to ticketing, and booking pages, or even enable in-chat purchases, creating a smooth and integrated buying experience. ### Uncover customer insights Use conversational marketing to gain insights into customer preferences and emerging trends. This real-time feedback allows you to fine-tune your messaging and stay ahead of market shifts. [Conversations Not Content: How Sales Enablement Lost Its WayFrom observations on the changes in the role over the past ten years, to fantastic insights on how to get your reps hitting quota, Steve’s masterful take on sales enablement is one to really sink your teeth into.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-25.png)SaaS AllianceRichard Bracchi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.57.04.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/conversations-not-content-how-sales-enablement-lost-its-way/) ## **Implementing conversational marketing: A step-by-step guide for PMMs** Here are just a few must-do steps to start using this new tech: 1. Clearly outline what you want to achieve, whether it's increasing conversions, improving customer service, or gathering market insights. 2. Understand how your customers prefer to communicate and what channels they use most frequently. 3. Evaluate available solutions based on your needs, budget, and technical capabilities. [Use these guidelines to evaluate potential conversational AI vendors.](https://satisfilabs.com/20-questions-to-ask-conversational-ai-vendors-youre-evaluating/?ref=productmarketingalliance.com) 4. Launch a pilot project, test it, and evaluate its results. 5. Create engaging, brand-consistent scripts that guide users toward your desired outcomes. 6. Make sure internal teams are familiarized with the new tech, its benefits, and capabilities. Conversational marketing platforms could be useful for the sales and operation teams too. ## **Conclusion** As we tackle the challenges of global markets in 2024, conversational marketing is becoming an essential tool for PMMs who want to boost growth and improve customer experiences. Using this approach isn’t just about staying competitive—it's about leading the way in putting customers first. The secret to great conversational marketing? Keep it real and make sure it truly adds value to your customer's journey. As you roll out these strategies, always prioritize what your customers really need and want. --- With our membership, you can watch over 100+ hours of quality content, access insightful templates and frameworks, and access more member-exclusive content. Try the free taster pack below and see if it's for you! [Try before you buy: SaaS Alliance membership taster packWhet your appetite for exclusive insights from industry leaders. Download the eBook and see what you’re missing today.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-27.png)SaaS AllianceAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/SaaS_Pro_Membership_Taster_Guide_Blog.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/try-before-you-buy-saas-alliance-membership-taster-pack/) ### Charting a path from products to profit URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/charting-a-path-from-products-to-profit/ Last updated: 2024-10-04T14:47:47.000Z In this article, Daniel Jaenicke explores key strategies—some unconventional—that can help you not just manage products, but drive real, measurable growth for your business. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Mastering technical competitive analysis and strategic positioning URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/mastering-technical-competitive-analysis-strategic-positioning/ Last updated: 2024-09-27T16:00:41.000Z *This article is based on* [*Tye Davis*](https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyedavis/)*’s talk at the Developer Marketing Summit in San Francisco, check out his full presentation* [*here*](https://www.saasalliance.io/developer-marketing-summit-san-francisco-2023/?%5Fgl=1%2A1y7jcy8%2A%5Fup%2AMQ..%2A%5Fga%2AMTUyNzY4NzA2NS4xNzI2MjM3OTYw%2A%5Fga%5F227NRQHH28%2AMTcyNzM1NTc2My4yLjEuMTcyNzM1NTc3MS4wLjAuMA..&wchannelid=pd11eyrel7&wmediaid=1tdnl4ysc8)*.* *Tye is now the Director of Product Marketing at Harness.* --- Today, I’m going to dive into technical competitive analysis. My hope is that by the end of this article, you’ll understand how deep technical analysis can help your organization develop a better [competitive strategy](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-best-competitive-strategy-for-each-stage-in-the-business-lifecycle/) and improve its product strategy. We’ll cover three key themes: 1. **Transparency:** I spent the better part of my last five years at GitLab, and transparency was huge for us as a company. When it came to competitive and technical analysis, it was crucial that we were upfront about what we offered and what we didn’t. This clarity helped customers figure out whether GitLab was the right tool for them. 1. **Innovation and differentiation:** This is about identifying gaps in the market and figuring out how we can offer something unique. It’s not just about what we do better than our competitors, but also about acknowledging where we fall short. This helps us decide whether to address those shortcomings or focus on areas that align more closely with our strategic goals. 1. **Market positioning:** This is crucial for developing effective marketing and sales tactics that will help you get buy-in from developers and buyers. ## How GitLab approaches competitive analysis To give you some context, let me tell you a little about GitLab. GitLab is unique in that it offers a single application platform, unlike many companies that offer a suite of separate products. This “one application” model is divided into nine categories, with each of these having its own set of competitors. When I first joined GitLab, the CEO was *adamant* about having full visibility into every single competitor within these nine categories – we’re talking analyzing around 100 different competitors! Our task was to conduct deep technical analyses on all of them. The idea was to have this information transparently available on the website for anyone to see. However, with just two technical marketers at the time, this approach wasn’t sustainable. Technical marketing wasn’t solely responsible for competitive analysis; our primary focus was on [demos](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-personalize-your-buyers-journey-using-interactive-demos-6-ways-examples/) and creating technical content for developers. As a result, over time, our approach evolved. Instead of trying to match every competitor across all possible areas, we focused on the nine specific categories into which our product was divided. We selected the top competitor in each category and conducted a deep analysis of how we compared. The exception was GitHub, our most frequent competitor, where we did a comprehensive analysis across all nine categories. This allowed us to address GitHub's strengths and weaknesses holistically. [Data-driven competitive intelligence: Outmaneuver your SaaS rivalsStaying ahead of the competition is crucial for survival. Learn practical strategies for optimizing your competitive intelligence efforts today.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-1.png)SaaS AllianceGarrett Denney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/data-driven-CI-for-B2B-SaaS-3.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/data-driven-competitive-intelligence-saas/) ## Building a competitive strategy: GitLab's transparent approach GitLab is extremely transparent about almost everything it does. If you wanted to start a startup, you could practically use GitLab’s public resources as a blueprint. They have a massive handbook – last I checked, it was around 6,000 pages, though it’s probably even more now – that’s available to everyone. You can just Google it, and you'll find a wealth of information, including competitive strategies and how different departments within the company operate. This level of openness is a core part of GitLab’s identity and plays a crucial role in its competitive strategy. There are six key areas of GitLab’s competitive strategy: 1. **Tactics** 2. **Assets** 3. **ROI** 4. **Case studies** 5. **Partner leverage** 6. **Products** Of these six key areas, five are public – only the tactics are private. The vast majority of GitLab’s competitive assets are out there for anyone to access. This transparency helps eliminate any hesitation potential users might have because they can see exactly what we’re doing and where we stand. The information is all there, and anyone can read through it. Now, let me tell you a little more about three of those six elements of GitLab’s competitive strategy: **tactics**, **assets**, and **products**. ### Tactics When I talk about tactics, I’m referring to the internal, private resources that technical marketing provides to sales teams. These include workshops for sales engineers, which give them the knowledge to discuss GitLab’s product in detail when facing competition, helping them articulate where it adds value. For sales teams, it’s not about engaging in a feature-for-feature comparison – that’s not the way to win. Instead, it’s about understanding the gaps in competitors' offerings and demonstrating how GitLab can fill those gaps to create additional value. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### SaaScast: How we made customer retention a main priority URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-how-we-made-customer-retention-a-main-priority/ Last updated: 2024-09-26T15:15:26.000Z Making customer success a collective effort involves strategy, culture, and a willingness to work cross-functionally. In the latest episode of SaaScast, we had the pleasure of speaking with Mike Dry, VP of Customer Success at Dealfront, who shared his insights on how his company has turned churn management into a collaborative, company-wide task. Check out the full episode here. 👇 ## About the episode Mike dives into Dealfront’s approach to addressing customer churn as a cross-departmental effort. He discusses the importance of clear communication, the challenges of aligning remote teams around common goals, and the crucial role of company culture in building customer success initiatives. ## Main talking points - **Company-wide churn management:** Mike explains how Dealfront has made churn management a collective responsibility. - **Cross-departmental collaboration:** Instead of siloing tasks by department, Dealfront's customer success initiatives focus on collaborative efforts. - **Remote team alignment:** With a team mix of remote and in-office staff, Mike discusses the unique challenges of keeping everyone aligned on customer success goals. - **Effective use of tools:** Mike talks about the importance of using the right tools for customer retention. ## About the Guest **Mike Dry** is the VP of Customer Success at Dealfront, where he plays a pivotal role in developing strategies to enhance customer experience, satisfaction, and retention. With years of experience in customer success and remote team management, Mike is a strong advocate for cross-departmental collaboration and building a culture that empowers team members at every level. His forward-thinking approach has been instrumental in helping Dealfront create a more customer-centric organization. ## Get involved Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Creator, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: anthony@futureofsaas.io. ### The ultimate guide to SaaS revenue recognition URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-ultimate-guide-to-saas-revenue-recognition/ Last updated: 2025-03-20T12:41:47.000Z Revenue recognition is a key concept in SaaS, and it’s essential that your organization has a solid understanding of what revenue recognition means in a SaaS accounting context in order to avoid complications later down the road. In simple terms, revenue recognition refers to the process of recording revenue in a SaaS business model. As we know, SaaS is subscription-based, meaning that revenue should be recorded only once it’s been earned through the fulfillment of the service, *not* immediately when payment has been received. Not only is this best practice in order to maintain a healthy understanding of your business’s economic standing, but it’s also a legal requirement under the United States’ Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) rules on how to record revenue. ## What is revenue recognition? SaaS revenue recognition is the process of recording revenue for a SaaS organization, in adherence to the specific conditions outlined by GAAP. Your organization should only record revenue once certain criteria have been met, namely that the revenue has been earned through an action (such as providing a service). Think of it like this: if you sell an annual subscription for $120, you can’t record all $120 at once, as you haven’t actually earned that revenue through the delivery of the service over the course of the entire year. Instead, the $120 figure is marked as **deferred revenue**, and it becomes earned, **recognized** revenue in $10 increments each passing month - as long as you provide the service month after month until the annual subscription has been honored. Simply put, you can’t officially recognize revenue (even if it’s been paid into your account), until you’ve actually fulfilled the paid-for product or service. This is pivotal, because there are several circumstances in which that deferred revenue might not become recognized, including: - The customer cancels their plan after let’s say 6 months. Going back to our simple example, that means your truly earned revenue is only $60 as in some cases, the other $60 may need to be refunded. - Your company is unable to perform the contracted service or deliver the contracted product. In this case, the customer paid $120 for a year’s service. If you become unable to provide that service after say 6 months, you’d have an obligation to refund the remaining $60 to the customer. As you can see, revenue recognition is an important component of SaaS accounting, and getting it wrong can not only cause budget and planning problems, but land your business in legal jeopardy as well. [Revenue operations - the new key to unlocking growth?Leore Spira, Head of Revenue Operations at Buildots (and former Head of Revenue Operations at Syte), talks enablement, operations, and the rapidly changing organizational structures of today.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-21.png)SaaS AllianceDaniel O’Dowd![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/jaye-haych-7tkDoo2L_Eg-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/revenue-operations-the-new-key-to-unlocking-growth/) ## Important revenue recognition terms ### SaaS subscription models Revenue recognition is particularly important in SaaS, which is dominated by subscription models. These models involve selling software on a monthly or annual subscription basis, and the service is provided continuously over the course of the contract period. This means that SaaS organizations receive up-front payment for services they haven’t *actually* delivered at the time of payment. As a result, there are accounting standards that must be followed in order to properly account for earned and unearned revenue. ### Deferred revenue Deferred revenue is a liability on the balance sheet. When a customer pays up-front for a service such as an annual plan, the revenue must be recorded as deferred until the point at which the promised service has been delivered. Simply put, revenue must remain deferred until the service is provided for that period. ### Recognized revenue Revenue becomes recognized (rather than deferred) in increments, as the service is delivered on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Back to our simple $120 annual subscription example, the revenue can become recognized $10 at a time, month after month, as long as the customer continues to receive the service they paid for as each month passes by. For a monthly subscription, it works similarly. Revenue will typically be recognized at the end of each month, once the service for that month has been delivered. ### IFRS 15 and ASC 606 [IFRS 15](https://www.pwc.com/vn/en/services/assurance/ifrs/ifrs-15.html#:~:text=International%20Financial%20Reporting%20Standard%20%28IFRS%29%2015%3A%20Revenue%20from%20Contracts,industries%2C%20across%20industries%2C%20and%20across) stands for International Financial Reporting Standard 15, and was introduced by the International Accounting Standards Board to provide a comprehensive revenue recognition model for all contracts with customers to improve comparability within industries, internationally. [ASC 606](https://certinia.com/learn/revenue-recognition/complying-with-asc-606-and-ifrs-15/) stands for Accounting Standards Codification 606, and acts as a set of accounting rules that governs how companies recognize revenue from contracts with customers. ASC 606 provides a standardized framework for revenue recognition across industries. Both frameworks act as standards which outline how revenue should be recognized irrespective of industry, and you’ll see them mentioned frequently whenever revenue recognition comes into play. [Elevate your scaling game: Top 3 frameworks for success metrics & board updatesDavid Appel, Global Head of SaaS Vertical at Sage, demonstrates how to develop expert frameworks for aligning key stakeholders behind the metrics that matter most.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-22.png)SaaS AllianceDavid Appel![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/metrics-and-data.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/elevate-your-scaling-game-top-3-frameworks-for-success-metrics-board-updates/) ## Five-step framework for revenue recognition The [Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and IFRS joined hands](https://www.chargebee.com/resources/guides/saas-revenue-recognition-guide/) to establish the aforementioned A*SC 606 Revenue from Contracts with Customers* revenue recognition standard. ASC 606 defines a flexible, robust framework that encompasses the revenue recognition principles across industries. This cleared up the clouds of confusion that loomed over SaaS accounting due to inconsistent and unclear practices. This model for revenue recognition is as follow: ### Identify the contract with a customer This first step outlines the criteria that need to be met when you establish a verbal or written, mutually agreed upon contract with a customer. ### Identify the performance obligations in the contract The following step outlines what service you’re obligated to provide as a result of the contract. In SaaS, this will usually be the continuous delivery of software over the course of the contract period. ### Determine the transaction price This third step outlines the payment you should expect to receive in exchange for providing the services listed in the previous step, regardless of whether they are subscription payments, usage-based fees, or one-off fees such as installation fees. ### Allocate the transaction price The fourth step outlines how the transaction price above is allocated based on all the performance obligations included in the contract. This is based on the standalone selling prices for each performance obligation, and simply put is what the customer agrees to pay. ### Recognize revenue as the performance obligation is satisfied Revenue can be recognized once the performance obligations outlined above have been met. In SaaS, this will usually be the delivery of the software on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. As long as you continue to provide the service outlined in the contract, you can continue to recognize the revenue. ## Key considerations for revenue recognition Now that you understand SaaS revenue recognition, and have a US and international-standard framework to work from, here are some additional considerations to keep in mind when it comes to revenue recognition. ### How to recognize revenue There’s no one way to recognize revenue, though companies usually employ one of the following: - Percentage of completion - Upon completion of contract - Sales-based Make sure to take into account your organization’s unique needs and circumstances to avoid problems down the line. [SaaS revenue-based financing: the cheat code to preventing ownership dilutionYour SaaS company has a magic word that hypnotizes investors: recurring revenue. It’s much easier (and less expensive) to keep existing customers than acquire new ones.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-23.png)SaaS AllianceAdam Tzagournis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/calculator.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-revenue-based-financing-the-cheat-code-to-preventing-ownership-dilution/) ### Challenges with revenue recognition SaaS is a complex industry, and therefore as a result there are additional complexities that need to be taken into account when considering revenue recognition in SaaS. This includes: - Accounting for cancellations and refunds, and how that affects revenue outlook - Recognizing revenue for free trials, cross-sells, and up-sells, and how that may modify a contract - Considering up-front or additional costs like installation fees, consulting fees, etc. in conjunction with ongoing, performance-related deferred revenue - Ensuring total compliance with FASB and IASB standards like ASC 606 ## In conclusion Revenue recognition is a critical concept in SaaS because it affects every aspect of your organization’s financial health, income, balance sheet, and adherence to standards and regulations. Ultimately, the core concept at the heart of SaaS revenue recognition is that revenue is deferred and therefore a liability, until the service has actually been provided by your company. Keep this in mind to stay ahead of the complex challenges SaaS-based revenue management can bring to the table. --- Fancy access to a bunch of tried and tested templates and frameworks? Our comprehensive library includes customizable tools from churn strategies to pricing guides, onboarding checklists, and feature updates. Sign up for our membership and get access today! [Membership plans | Future of SaaSUnlock our library of members-only, heavyweight SaaS content. Including templates, frameworks, video content, and expert talks. What are you waiting for?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON-24.png)SaaS AllianceRichard King![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/SaaS_Meta_Images_Text-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/) ### Coaching for time-crunched sales leaders: Revitalize your team's performance URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/coaching-for-time-crunched-sales-leaders-revitalize-your-teams-performance/ Last updated: 2024-09-20T18:01:07.000Z In this article, I'm going to share the specific framework and tactics I implemented to make coaching more accessible and impactful for our busy sales leaders. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### SaaScast: The common mistakes that lead to churn URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-the-common-mistakes-that-lead-to-churn/ Last updated: 2024-09-19T14:52:50.000Z For SaaS companies, customer churn isn't just a number—it’s a critical metric that can significantly impact long-term growth and profitability. Addressing customer churn effectively requires a holistic approach, as it's often the result of various touchpoints in the customer journey, from the initial sale to post-onboarding support. That’s why this episode of *SaaScast* with Mike Dry, VP of Customer Success at Dealfront, dives deep into the common pitfalls companies face when trying to tackle churn and how to avoid them. Check out the full episode right here. 👇 ## Episode overview In this episode, Mike draws from his 10+ years in the tech industry to share valuable insights on reducing customer churn. As a leader of a 41-person team responsible for both customer success and support at Dealfront, he has firsthand experience seeing where companies often go wrong. He discusses how churn is often mistakenly treated as a problem for the CS department alone, why companies should focus on incremental improvements rather than searching for a silver bullet, and how leveraging data can reveal the true causes of churn. Mike emphasizes that churn is a business-wide issue, not just a customer success problem. The episode highlights how understanding customer data, zooming out for a big-picture view, and addressing common customer pain points early on are key steps in reducing churn. ### Key talking points - **Churn is not just a CS problem**: It’s often the outcome of a company-wide issue, involving everything from the sales process to product experience. - **No silver bullet**: Churn reduction comes from marginal improvements across various parts of the customer journey rather than one sweeping solution. - **The importance of data**: Companies often overlook the data that can reveal where churn occurs in the customer journey. - **Avoid tunnel vision**: By focusing too narrowly on potential fixes, companies can miss broader solutions that address multiple customer pain points. But this is just part one! Join us next time, when we dive into Dealfront's strategy for making churn a company-wide issue. ## About the guest Mike is the VP of Customer Success at Dealfront, a go-to-market platform that equips companies with the tools to target the right prospects using company information, contact details, and website visit data. With over six years at Dealfront, formerly Leadfeeder, Mike leads a large team dedicated to ensuring a smooth and positive customer experience from onboarding through long-term support. He has extensive experience in the tech and SaaS space, bringing valuable insights to customer success strategies and best practices for reducing churn. ## Get involved Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Creator, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: anthony@futureofsaas.io. ### Data-driven competitive intelligence: Outmaneuver your SaaS rivals URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/data-driven-competitive-intelligence-saas/ Last updated: 2024-09-13T16:00:44.000Z This article comes from **Garrett Denney**’s insightful talk at our **2023 Toronto Product Marketing Summit**. *Garrett is now the VP of Marketing at Onit* --- Ever feel like you're the chief "keep the sales team calm" officer, constantly putting out fires every time a new competitor pops up in a deal? Trust me – I've been in your shoes. Let's face it: in today's SaaS landscape, staying ahead of the competition isn't just important – it's *crucial* for survival. That's why we at Crayon have made it our mission to help you track competitors and [win more deals](https://www.saasalliance.io/win-against-competitors-by-knowing-your-customers/). But enough about us – let's talk about the challenges you're facing and how we can tackle them together! Prioritizing your time and efforts can feel like a constant juggling act, and in the midst of all this, one of the most critical – yet often overlooked – aspects is competitive enablement. In this article, I'm going to share some [eye-opening insights](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2024-report/) from our upcoming State of CI report. We've been running this survey since 2018, and now we're diving deep into data from over 1,000 product marketers worldwide. I'll give you a sneak peek into what we're learning and, more importantly, share some practical strategies to make your competitive intelligence efforts more effective and less time-consuming. So, let’s get started. ## **The competitive landscape** Let's start with a reality check. According to our latest [State of CI report](https://www.crayon.co/blog/state-of-competitive-intelligence), a whopping **65%** of open opportunities involve a named competitor. Yes, you read that right - **two-thirds** of your [sales team](https://www.saasalliance.io/driving-change-in-sales-teams-what-works-and-what-doesnt/)'s daily grind involves going head-to-head with a rival. Now, put yourself in your rep's shoes for a moment. Every time they fire up their laptop, they're not just selling your product; they're fighting for their quota, their commission, and let's face it, their ability to feed their family. It's *primal*, it's *intense*, and it's happening in 65% of their deals. But here's the kicker: despite this high-stakes environment, our sales teams are struggling. When we asked [product marketer](https://www.saasalliance.io/take-control-make-your-product-marketing-team-indispensable-blog/)s to rate their sales team's effectiveness in competitive deals, the average score was a disappointing **6 out of 10**. That's barely a passing grade, folks. As the PMM responsible for competitive enablement, this gap keeps me up at night. [Competitive Intelligence Trends 2023 (Free Industry Report)4 years. 24 examined topics. Commentary from 5 experts. Zero cost. Discover emergent trends in the CI function and stay ahead of the curve.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/CIA-ICON.svg)Competitive Intelligence AllianceAlex Walton![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/CIA_CI_Trends_Report_2023_Meta_--1-.png)](https://www.competitiveintelligencealliance.io/competitive-intelligence-trends-report/) _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Start marketing your SaaS products effectively with these strategies URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/start-marketing-your-saas-products-effectively-with-these-strategies/ Last updated: 2024-09-16T08:07:45.000Z There has been a growing demand for cloud-based solutions as more organizations look for new ways to keep their operations agile and cost-effective. SaaS products have become valuable tools for helping to achieve this, giving organizations opportunities for unprecedented scale and flexibility when growing their businesses. However, as a SaaS provider, the increasingly competitive nature of the industry is making it increasingly more challenging to stand out in a saturated market. To maximize market share and [increase the number of new leads coming in](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-get-started-in-saas-sales-with-no-experience/), here are some effective strategies you can put into practice. ## Get to know your customers In order to effectively connect with potential customers, you first need to understand what drives their decision-making, especially when it comes to finding solutions to their everyday problems. A great place to start here is to create buyer personas that can help you create insights about your target audience that can inform your sales and communication strategies. Regardless of whether you’re marketing a new [next-generation software](https://10-8systems.com/premise-vs-cloud-solutions-choosing-the-right-fit-for-law-enforcement-agencies/) presenting more efficient ways to handle daily tasks, the more you learn about your audience, the better you’ll position these products as a high-value investment. ## Work on your value proposition One of the most important things to have in place when marketing SaaS products is a great sales presentation and value proposition. Although there is no rigid formula for achieving this, any strong value proposition should effectively convey all of the unique advantages of your product with the goal of increasing new conversions. To create a good value proposition, you’ll want to take a step back and put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Really understand the struggles they’re experiencing and the impact it can have on them and their business. Then, develop a way to clearly demonstrate how your SaaS offering addresses those issues while saving the customer time and money. [Value propositions that sellI want to talk about value propositions because I think most out there suck, they really do. I’ll share a case study from my own experience crafting a differentiated value proposition at my organization, taking you through how we approached it step by step.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceAbdul Rastagar![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1583320975624-d099f8c042f6.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) ## Choose the right pricing strategy As you might expect, your SaaS pricing strategy will impact the purchasing decisions of your potential customers. However, being the cheapest solution on the market isn't the ideal strategy for your business. The great thing about many SaaS solutions is that there is flexibility in creating tiered pricing plans. These can allow customers to customize a final solution to their liking and within a budget that works for them. You should also consider the option of providing new leads with free trial periods or live demonstrations in order to give them firsthand experience using the solution and to help build more confidence in your organization’s ability to meet their needs. ## Select an optimal inbound marketing approach Being able to improve your online presence over time is crucial for attracting new leads. A great way to achieve this is investing in inbound content marketing initiatives. When you take the time to create valuable content such as well-researched blog posts or whitepapers, it not only provides more value to your audience but is a great way to increase the organic traffic you bring to your website. High-quality, linkable assets can help you gain referrals from reputable websites that create backlinks to your website. This, in turn, signals to search engines like Google that you’re a relevant source of quality information. All of this can quickly improve your rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs) and can give you a steady stream of free web traffic. ## Spend time qualifying your leads It’s no secret that bringing in more leads can help you to close more business. However, this doesn’t mean that every lead you bring in should be closely followed up with. To optimize your conversion rates, you’ll want to implement certain strategies that help you identify, categorize, and prioritize your leads accordingly. To do this, you’ll want to include specific questions in your signup forms to gather information about your customer's software needs, any budget constraints, and their timeframes for making a purchase. This will let you strategically allocate your resources and place focus on those with the highest conversion potential. [Master the SaaS sales funnel: Turn leads into loyal customersUnlock the power of your SaaS sales funnel with our comprehensive guide. From understanding the unique stages of the funnel to optimizing customer onboarding, discover key strategies for conversion and retention. L![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/saas-sales-funnel.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/master-the-saas-sales-funnel-turn-leads-into-loyal-customers/) ## Get to know selling cycles in your industry The sales process for SaaS organization typically differs from other industries in terms of the duration necessary to [nurture leads effectively](https://www.saasalliance.io/master-the-saas-sales-funnel-turn-leads-into-loyal-customers/). For example, government agencies evaluating solutions like [Next Generation 911](https://10-8systems.com/e911-vs-ng911-the-key-differences-between-these-two-911-systems/) infrastructure improvements will typically require more time to make decisions due to the number of necessary approvals required. It’s important to have a good grasp of these [selling cycles](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-best-competitive-strategy-for-each-stage-in-the-business-lifecycle/) and align your marketing strategies to support them. You’ll also want to avoid prematurely dismissing promising leads with longer timelines while on the search for more timely opportunities for conversion. ## Create a more streamlined onboarding process You’ll want to keep in mind that the SaaS sales process doesn’t end once you’ve made a sale. First impressions of your business are critical, and a smooth onboarding process is critical for ensuring customer satisfaction and improving loyalty to your brand. When you create a seamless onboarding experience, it helps your customers fully utilize your solution from the very beginning. By providing helpful information and resources from the beginning it contributes to more positive outcomes and builds a strong foundation for success. ## Support your products well Providing top-notch customer support is important for helping to differentiate your brand and can also help to improve word-of-mouth referrals. Spend time implementing self-service options on your website, such as knowledge bases or AI-enabled features like customer service chatbots. By creating accessible support channels such as email, chat, and phone support it makes sure your customers continue to feel valued and confident in their subscriptions. ## Start elevating your SaaS sales opportunities The high reliance on SaaS solutions today presents a great opportunity for providers to quickly expand their clientele. By implementing the strategies discussed, you can significantly improve your sales and marketing efforts while positioning your business for long-term success. ### 5 types of revenue models to consider for your start-up URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/5-types-of-revenue-models-to-consider-for-your-start-up/ Last updated: 2024-09-16T08:09:13.000Z A [SaaS (Software as a Service)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-saas/?%5Fgl=1%2A1loxv0o%2A%5Fup%2AMQ..%2A%5Fga%2AMTI4MjA0OTg4Mi4xNzI2NDcyOTI4%2A%5Fga%5F227NRQHH28%2AMTcyNjQ3MjkyOC4xLjAuMTcyNjQ3MjkyOC4wLjAuMA..) revenue model has become the go-to approach for companies seeking sustainable growth. Instead of charging customers a one-time fee, SaaS companies provide their products through subscriptions. These subscriptions are usually monthly or annual. This model lets users access the software online. The provider takes care of important tasks like updates, maintenance, and security. For customers, this means lower upfront costs and greater flexibility, while companies benefit from a predictable, recurring revenue stream. In this article, we will look at why picking the right revenue model is important for your SaaS startup's success. We'll also break down five different types of SaaS revenue model and guide you on how to select the one that best fits your business goals. ## **Benefits of having a SaaS revenue model for your start-up business** ### **Better scalability** As mentioned, the most important benefit of implementing a SaaS revenue model for a startup is that it creates a predictable and recurring income stream, which leads to steady growth for your business. It reduces the need for large upfront investments from customers, making the product more accessible and easier to scale. ### **Improved customer relationships** SaaS revenue models also foster long-term customer relationships, as users are more likely to stay engaged with a service they are continually paying for, allowing startups to build a loyal customer base while focusing on improving the product over time. [Building customer relationships | Future of SaaSBuilding strong relationships with customers is difficult in SaaS. We explain the approach you need to lower churn rates and get higher customer retention.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceAlex Morris![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1559526324-4b87b5e36e44)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-customer-relationships-saas/) ### **Better global reach** Also, because SaaS solutions are cloud-based, they can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, enabling startups to serve a global audience without geographical limitations or the need for local software installation. ### **Lower customer acquisition costs** With a recurring revenue model, you can invest more in customer acquisition upfront, knowing that customer lifetime value (LTV) is likely to be high. This then helps balance initial costs and drive your long-term profitability. ### **Higher value for investors** Investors often favor SaaS startups because of the predictable revenue and long-term customer relationships they offer. This consistent cash flow can lead to higher valuations compared to other business models, making it easier to attract investment or sell the company. ## **5 types of revenue model for your start up** ### **1\. Subscription-based model (recurring revenue)** A steady income is important for a successful SaaS startup. A subscription model is a good way to achieve this. Charging customers a regular fee, like monthly or yearly, gives them ongoing access to your service. This helps build lasting relationships and ensures a steady income for your business. This revenue model works well for SaaS companies. This includes both B2B and B2C businesses. These companies provide ongoing value and services to their clients. The subscription approach allows you to easily scale your operations and optimize your customer lifetime value (LTV), as your loyal user base steadily grows. However, it's important to note that the subscription-based model does carry some potential drawbacks. The upfront cost of customer acquisition (CAC) can be relatively high, requiring time to recover through the accumulation of recurring payments. Nevertheless, the advantages of predictable revenue and the opportunity to build lasting customer bonds often outweigh this initial investment. ### **2\. Freemium model (free + paid tiers)** The freemium revenue model can be a strategic goldmine for SaaS startups looking to amass a sizable user base and gradually convert them into paying customers. The idea is simple. Give away a basic version of your product for free. This will attract users with its main features. Then, show them the premium features they can buy. It's an approach that works particularly well for SaaS companies serving a wide market with multi-tiered products, like Slack or Dropbox. The free offering lowers the barrier to entry, allowing you to quickly build an audience of potential customers. And here is where the model's key strength lies - the opportunity to achieve high conversion rates as users graduate from the free tier to premium subscriptions. Of course, maintaining that free user base without an immediate payoff can be costly. You'll need to carefully balance the investment in supporting non-paying customers against the potential lifetime value of those who *do* convert. It's a delicate balance, but get it right and the freemium model can be a powerful engine for user acquisition and long-term revenue growth. [Your guide to making money with freemium modelsUsing a freemium model allows a new business to scale up and attract customers without spending money on costly ad campaigns or a traditional sales force. New customers educate themselves on the features of a freemium model, eliminating the need for costly demos or marketing tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/fixelgraphy-3NgcTH0CFJg-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-guide-to-making-money-with-freemium-models/) ### **3\. Usage-based model (pay-as-you-go)** For SaaS platforms catering to variable usage patterns, the usage-based revenue model can be a versatile and customer-centric approach. By charging customers based on their actual consumption, be it API calls, storage capacity, or transaction volume, you're able to offer remarkable flexibility that scales seamlessly with their growing and changing needs. This model is particularly well-suited for cloud-based services, where customers may have fluctuating requirements - think along the lines of an AWS or Twilio. The pay-as-you-go structure makes it far easier for clients to onboard and expand their usage as their business grows, without being shackled to rigid, recurring fees. The usage-based model aligns your revenue directly with your customer's success. As their consumption increases, so does your bottom line, fostering a symbiotic relationship built on mutual growth. This can be a highly attractive proposition for cost-conscious clients wary of committing to inflexible subscription plans. However, predicting revenue and forecasting growth becomes markedly more complex when usage patterns dictate the cash flow. The unpredictable nature of the usage-based approach requires careful monitoring and sophisticated pricing strategies to ensure you're not leaving money on the table. ### **4\. Tiered pricing model** The beauty of the tiered pricing model lies in its ability to cater to the diverse needs and budgets of your SaaS customer base - from scrappy small businesses to deep-pocketed enterprises. This allows you to package your product offering in a way that unlocks value for a wide range of users. This approach is particularly well-suited for SaaS companies like HubSpot and Zendesk, which provide a comprehensive suite of tools catering to a broad spectrum of clients. The tiered model allows you to clearly differentiate the value proposition at each level, making it easier for customers to identify the plan that best aligns with their requirements. As those customers' needs evolve, the tiered structure provides a seamless path to upsell them to higher-tier offerings. This not only fosters long-term customer retention but also allows you to maximize the lifetime value of each client by unlocking additional revenue streams. Architecting this tiered structure, you'll need to carefully balance the allocation of features across each pricing level, ensuring that even your most budget-conscious customers feel they're getting their money's worth. Striking that balance between complexity and clarity is a must - after all, you don't want those buying lower tiers to feel disappointed with their package and drive them to seek better alternatives. But get it right, and the tiered pricing model can be a powerful tool in your SaaS growth arsenal. It allows you to scale seamlessly, unlocking new revenue streams as your customers' needs evolve. ### **5\. Per-user pricing model** The per-user pricing model is the SaaS equivalent of a buffet with a twist - you don't pay for the whole spread, but rather, for how many seats you occupy at the table. It's a strategy that works particularly well for B2B offerings, where multiple stakeholders within an organization require access to the same platform. With per-user pricing, you can accommodate this growing appetite without breaking the bank. Each new employee who joins the fray translates to a fresh revenue stream, aligning your interests with your customers' expansion. But while this model provides a clear, intuitive pricing structure and a direct link between user growth and your bottom line, it can also act as a deterrent for larger organizations. The cumulative costs of onboarding an entire workforce might prove prohibitive, driving them to seek out more flexible, all-you-can-eat alternatives. It's a delicate balance. But it allows you to monetize your platform in a way that feels fair and transparent, while also positioning your offering as a must-have for companies looking to empower their teams. [Pricing your SaaS offeringMy name’s David Wadler, and I am Co-Founder and CEO of Vendorful. I’m also an investor in a variety of startups, almost all of which are SaaS businesses. In this article, I’m going to go through some ideas about how you can start to think about pricing SaaS.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceDavid Wadler![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/angele-kamp-_XlhZVsKykw-unsplash--2---1--2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-your-saas-offering/) ## **How to choose which revenue model is right for your business** Choosing the right revenue model for your SaaS startup can be a pivotal decision that shapes the trajectory of your business. Here are a few key factors to consider when determining the best approach: ### **Customer profile and needs** Take a deep dive into understanding your target customers - are they individual consumers, small-to-medium businesses, or large enterprises? What are their pain points, budgets, and willingness to pay? Models like freemium and tiered pricing may appeal to a wider consumer base, while usage-based and per-user structures tend to resonate more with business clients. ### **Product maturity and roadmap** Is your SaaS offering a well-established solution or a nascent product still finding its footing? The subscription model works great for proven, ongoing value propositions, while freemium and usage-based approaches can help you rapidly onboard users and iterate on your feature set. ### **Predictability vs. scalability** Do you value the stability of predictable, recurring revenue streams, or are you prioritizing maximum scalability tied directly to customer growth? Subscription and per-user models offer more predictable cash flow, while freemium and usage-based approaches allow revenue to scale dynamically. ### **Operational complexity** Consider the internal resources required to manage each revenue model. Subscription and tiered pricing may be more operationally intensive, involving tasks like dunning, churn management, and feature gating. Usage-based and per-user structures, while potentially more volatile, may require less day-to-day overhead. ### **Market positioning** How do you want your SaaS startup to be perceived in the competitive landscape? Subscription and tiered models can lend an air of permanence and reliability, while freemium and usage-based approaches may be viewed as more innovative and customer-centric. [Positioning across the SaaS funnel (Q&A with Sellics)Priscilla Tenggara, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sellics, discusses: how to determine if your current positioning is working, tips for running ads on social media, examples of positioning done right, plus more.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/icon/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/thumbnail/jachymmichal-oVWilf8znF8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/positioning-across-the-saas-funnel-q-a-with-sellics/) ## Final thoughts All in all, selecting the right SaaS revenue model isn’t a one-size-fits-all situation. Your best bet? Do your homework. Take a good look at what makes your product unique, understand your market inside and out, listen to what your customers really want, and consider where your business stands right now. Dig into these factors and you'll be in a much better position to pick a revenue model that'll help your SaaS business thrive and grow. ### Build your best marketecture URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/build-your-best-marketec/ Last updated: 2024-09-06T15:00:28.000Z I'm Allie, the Executive Director and Creative Director at GhostRanch Communications. I’m going to share some insights into creating the perfect marketecture slide _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Navigating the waves of developer marketing in B2B SaaS URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/navigating-developer-marketing-in-b2b-saas/ Last updated: 2024-08-30T16:00:22.000Z This article is based on Pieter's insightful presentation at the 2024 Virtual Developer Marketing Summit, check out his full presentation [**here**](https://www.saasalliance.io/developer-marketing-summit-2024/?%5Fgl=1%2Afp8b27%2A%5Fup%2AMQ..%2A%5Fga%2ANzQ2MDAxMjUwLjE3MjQ4NDcyNjU.%2A%5Fga%5F227NRQHH28%2AMTcyNDg0NzI2NC4xLjEuMTcyNDg0NzI3My4wLjAuMA..&wchannelid=n16hrhw55a&wmediaid=erqq9wo2c2). *(Update: Pieter is currently serving as the VP of Customer Marketing and is a Product Executive at Sitecore)* --- Navigating developer marketing in B2B SaaS can be unpredictable. I'm **Pieter Brinkman**, and I’ve been leading **Global Product Marketing and Developer Relations** at **Sitecore** for the past 13 years. My extensive experience has afforded me a unique perspective on the critical role [developer marketing](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-the-best-practices-and-challenges-when-hiring-internally-for-developer-marketing-roles/) plays in the success of B2B enterprises. In this article, I’ll explore the intricacies of developer marketing, from aligning long-term strategies with company goals to addressing the challenges specific to our field. I'll also share insights into the influence of developers in the B2B sales cycle and provide practical steps for leveraging this influence to drive revenue and ROI. Join me as I delve into the strategies essential for continuously improving your revenue and ROI through real marketing measurement. ## The multifaceted world of developer marketing When I think about [developer marketing](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/developermarketing/), my experience has shown me a wide array of titles within my team. We use terms like Developer Marketing, Developer Relations, Technical Marketing, Product Marketing (for more technical products), Technical Product Marketing, Product Evangelism, Developer Advocacy, Community Managers, and many more. Regardless of the title, we all share common goals: - **Creating awareness and excitement**: We aim to generate interest in our products. - **Increasing adoption rates**: We strive to boost the usage of our products. - **Building, growing, and nurturing the developer community**: Fostering a strong developer community is essential. - **Ensuring developer feedback reaches the product team**: It's crucial that developers' insights influence product development. - **Creating frictionless buyer and developer journeys**: Simplifying the process for both buyers and developers. - **Improving developer education**: Enhancing the knowledge and skills of developers. - **Increasing revenue and business growth**: Contributing to the financial success of the company. We achieve these goals through various tools and strategies, including: - **Content marketing**: Focusing on helpful content tailored for developers. - **Developer portals**: Providing a central hub for developer resources. - **Events and conferences**: Engaging with the community through in-person and virtual events. - **Developer advocacy programs**: Promoting our products through dedicated advocates. - **Open source contributions**: Participating in and supporting open source projects. - **Social and community engagement platforms**: Connecting with developers on social media and community forums. - **Developer experience**: Ensuring a smooth and efficient experience for developers using our products. The approach to developer marketing can vary greatly depending on the size of the company, whether it's a startup, scale-up, or enterprise. As companies grow, their strategies and tools evolve, becoming more complex and extensive. Another interesting aspect of developer marketing is its organizational fit. In my opinion, developer marketing can belong to various departments—marketing, product, or sales. We serve all these audiences equally. This versatility means we fit everywhere, but paradoxically, fitting everywhere can also mean fitting nowhere, creating friction within the organization. [AI: The key to aligning your B2B sales and marketing teamsDiscover how AI can bridge the divide between your B2B sales and marketing teams for next-level revenue growth![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2024/05/werclive-uA1f_wpiqFY-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/ai-aligning-b2b-sales-and-marketing-teams/) _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Scaling sales success: Inside Getty's global coaching transformation URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-sales-success-inside-gettys-global-coaching-transformation/ Last updated: 2024-08-23T15:00:13.000Z In this article, I'll take you through our journey of implementing a sales coaching program. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Don't let time steal your profits: How to reduce your time to value metric in SaaS URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/time-to-value-metric/ Last updated: 2024-08-23T12:48:19.000Z If you’re in *any* finance profession, you’ll know that time is money. Every day that passes without your customers realizing the full value of your product is a day of lost revenue. To stop (or at least *reduce*) the chances of that happening, you need to reduce your time to value (TTV) metric. A lengthy time to value can be a silent killer for SaaS businesses. Customers who don't see results quickly lose momentum, leading to increased churn, stunted growth, and ultimately, a negative impact on your bottom line. On the other hand, a shorter TTV means faster profits, happier customers, and a competitive advantage in the market… but how can you reduce time to value? ![](https://media.tenor.com/2WtBkf2YI00AAAAC/bean-mr.gif) Keep reading as we cover actionable steps to help you reduce your TTV and turn hesitant customers into loyal advocates – all while strengthening your financial position. ## **What is the time to value metric?** ⏰ The time to value metric measures how long it takes for a customer to start experiencing the benefits (value) of a product or service. Tracking TTV provides a window into how quickly (or slowly) customers [unlock the value](https://www.financealliance.io/value-creation-plan/) of your product. Knowing your time to value metric helps make it easier to refine and adjust your strategies and processes appropriately. By reducing TTV, you unlock [faster revenue streams](https://www.financealliance.io/the-future-of-fp-a-how-to-predict-revenues-using-machine-learning/), enhance customer satisfaction (leading to higher retention rates), and ultimately, optimize business efficiency – all factors that contribute to a healthier bottom line. ## How to calculate time to value Calculating the time to value metric is pretty simple, especially when you follow these steps: 1. **Mark the start date**: This is when a project, product, or service is first introduced to the customer. It could be the purchase date, the day they sign up, or the day they first log in or start using what you offer. 2. **Identify the 'value moment'**: Think about the point when the customer first realizes significant benefits from the product or service - this is the 'value moment'. For example, achieving a certain outcome or hitting a milestone. 3. **Record the value date**: This is when the customer achieves that significant benefit or value. 4. **Calculate the duration**: To find the TTV, simply calculate the time between the start date and the value realization date. If your customer signed up for your service on April 1st and realized significant value on April 18th, your TTV is 17 days. [ ![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.futureofsaas.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ## **Why TTV matters in finance** The time to value metric is more than an indicator into customer satisfaction and churn. It also serves as an important metric to help make informed decisions that directly influence the company’s financial health. So, here’s a few reasons why TTV matters in finance: ### **Investment decision-making** Time to value acts as a key metric when [evaluating potential investments](https://www.financealliance.io/cfos-role-in-investor-communications/), *especially* in SaaS ventures. A shorter TTV hints to a faster return on investment (ROI) as customers realize value quicker. You can use this info to prioritize investments with a proven ability to generate revenue quickly. 💸 ### **Cash flow management** A long wait means your income comes in slower. By keeping an eye on TTV and shortening it, you can better predict how much money is coming in at different times. This helps you to [allocate resources](https://www.financealliance.io/tips-to-allocate-budget-across-departments/) wisely, like making sure there's enough cash on hand to pay bills and avoid any financial hiccups. ### **Performance evaluation** TTV serves as a valuable benchmark for assessing the overall effectiveness of a product or service. By looking at TTV alongside other [financial metrics](https://www.financealliance.io/tag/finance-metrics/), you can see how much money you're getting back from the money you spend on marketing and sales. This lets you make adjustments to get the most out of your resources and boost your profits. ### **Strategic planning** A clear understanding of your time to value metric helps with [strategic planning](https://www.financealliance.io/how-strategic-scenario-planning-can-help-prepare-your-business-for-anything/). By considering the time it takes for customers to see value, you can create more realistic financial projections and develop long-term strategies that account for the cost of customer acquisition and retention. ### **Risk assessment** A lengthy TTV can pose a significant [financial risk](https://www.financealliance.io/risks-of-mergers-and-acquisitions/). If it takes too long for customers to see value from a product, they might get frustrated and stop using it altogether. This can be risky for the company's finances because it means losing potential income from those customers. By focusing on making the product's value clear and easy to experience quickly, you can help reduce the risk of customers leaving and protect the company's financial health. [ ![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/SaaScast-Ad.png) ](https://www.futureofsaas.io/saascast/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=saascast-podcast) ## **Types of TTV** There's more than just one type of time to value metric, so here’s a simple breakdown of each one and what it means: - **Immediate time to value:** This refers to situations where customers experience the product's benefit instantly, like using a free online tool that delivers a specific result. - **Time to exceed value:** This one measures the time it takes for customers to discover the product's full potential and unlock additional functionalities or benefits they might have overlooked at first. - **Long time to value:** We mentioned this one a few times already and it refers to when there's a lengthy period before customers experience the product's value, which can lead to increased churn. - **Time to basic value:** This focuses on the time it takes for customers to experience the basic functionalities and intended purpose of the product. - **Short time to value:** Customers see the core value proposition of the product quickly, typically within days or weeks, leading to initial satisfaction and continued use. --- ## How to minimize your time to value metric Imagine customers paying you faster and staying happy longer. That's the magic of reducing your time to value metric. As a finance professional, you know time is money, and a long TTV means lost revenue. Here are some tips to shorten that wait time and boost your company's financial health: ### **1\. Make it easy to get started** Think of onboarding like welcoming a new guest. You want to make the experience as seamless as possible by offering: - **Clear instructions:** Provide simple, step-by-step guides and tutorials that walk users through the product's core features. - **Helpful resources:** Offer readily available FAQs, support articles, and even short explainer videos to answer common questions. ### **2\. Focus on quick wins** Highlight the **immediate benefits** customers can experience. You might want to consider things like: - **Free trials:** Offer limited-time free trials that showcase the product's value proposition quickly. - **Pre-configured settings:** Set up the product with some basic features already activated so customers can see the results right away. ### **3\. Track customer progress** Keep an eye on how your customers are doing and monitor their progress closely to see how they interact with the product and identify areas where they might get stuck. Another good way to reduce your time to value metric is by gathering feedback. Ask customers directly through surveys or chats if they're finding value and offer assistance if needed. 💡 Break down the customer's path to value into distinct****milestones**. Identify the key steps, actions, and data points that signal progress. This value mapping enables targeted interventions and resource allocation. ### **4\. Invest in a strong customer success team** Having a team readily available to answer questions and address concerns can significantly shorten the time it takes for customers to feel comfortable and successful. However, don't wait for customers to reach out. The support team can proactively check-in with new users and offer guidance as and when needed. 💡 Tie customer success team incentives directly to time to value reduction goals. This promotes laser-focus on rapid value realization and sustainable revenue streams. ### 5\. Quantify the value Work closely with product and sales teams to quantify the expected value of your SaaS offering in concrete financial terms (cost savings, revenue increase, etc.). This will help you to set clear targets and measure progress towards realizing that value. 💡 Implement systems to****automatically track customer usage**patterns, feature adoption, and other value indicators. This data-driven approach allows proactive interventions and continuous TTV optimization. ### 6\. Prioritize value-based pricing Think about transitioning to a value-based pricing model where customers pay based on the quantified value received rather than a one-size-fits-all subscription fee. By linking pricing to the value customers experience, you incentivize them to maximize their usage and discover the product's full potential faster. This not only reduces TTV but also creates a stronger perception of the product's worth (and hopefully leading to increased customer satisfaction and higher long-term revenue). ### 7\. Foster a value-centric culture Embed the importance of the time to value metric across the company, from product roadmaps to marketing campaigns. A value-first mindset accelerates time-to-revenue and long-term profitability. When each department functions with TTV in mind, the customer journey becomes seamless and efficient. This translates to: - **Faster time-to-revenue:** Customers see the value proposition quicker, leading to increased sales and recurring income. - **Long-term profitability:** Satisfied customers with a shorter TTV are more likely to stick around, contributing to sustainable business growth. --- By implementing these strategies, you're not just helping customers experience the product's value faster, you're also: - **Boosting customer satisfaction:** Satisfied customers are more likely to stick around and become loyal users. - **Increasing revenue:** Faster value realization translates to quicker subscription conversions and recurring income. - **Improving financial forecasting:** With a shorter TTV, you can predict [cash flow](https://www.financealliance.io/cash-flow-drivers-in-a-business/) more accurately and make better financial decisions. Remember, a happy customer is a paying customer, and reducing TTV is a win-win for everyone. --- ### FAQs: Time to value metric #### What is the time to value (TTV) metric in SaaS? In SaaS (Software as a Service), TTV measures how quickly customers can start benefiting from the service after they've signed up or started using it. It's about speed and efficiency in delivering value. #### What is a good time to value? A "good" TTV is one that meets or exceeds industry standards and customer expectations. It's short enough to keep customers engaged and satisfied but realistic for the company to achieve consistently. #### What is an example of a time to value metric? An example of a TTV metric might be the number of days from a customer subscribing to a cloud-based CRM platform to when they successfully run their first marketing campaign using that platform. #### How is TTV measured? TTV is measured by calculating the time duration from the start of a specific initiative (like product signup, implementation, or deployment) to the point where the customer realizes value from it. #### What is the goal of time to value? The goal of TTV is to minimize the time it takes for customers to derive value from a product or service, enhancing customer satisfaction, loyalty, and potentially leading to faster revenue growth. #### How do you minimize time to value? Minimizing TTV involves streamlining processes, enhancing customer onboarding, improving product usability, and ensuring clear communication to quickly guide customers to valuable features or benefits. ### How FinTech is being empowered with AI and analytics URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/fintech-empowered-with-ai-analytics/ Last updated: 2024-08-16T16:00:46.000Z *This article was adapted from one of our previous virtual FP&A Summits, featuring Amit Kurhekar, Head of Data at MoneyLion.* --- Unless you’ve been consistently offline over the last few years, you’ll know that the financial industry is undergoing a significant transformation driven by [AI](https://www.saasalliance.io/ai-aligning-b2b-sales-and-marketing-teams/) and machine learning technologies. This revolution isn’t just about adopting new technologies but about changing how financial services and processes are delivered and experienced by consumers. In this article, we’ll explore some of the most compelling AI and ML strategies in finance with use cases to show how they work in real-life scenarios. Whether you're a financial professional or simply interested in the evolving landscape of [FinTech](https://www.saasalliance.io/unlocking-saas-fintech-essential-steps-to-build-your-platform/), this article offers valuable insights into the intersection of finance, AI, and digital transformation. Read on to discover: - [A case study and day in the life example of a finance tech user](https://www.saasalliance.io/p/c4654141-04e9-4c18-ad60-63a4435eee75/#case-study-day-in-the-life-of-%E2%80%98financially-savvy%E2%80%99-john) - [Pillars of digital transformation](https://www.saasalliance.io/p/c4654141-04e9-4c18-ad60-63a4435eee75/#pillars-of-digital-transformation) - [Applications of AI and analytics in FinTech](https://www.saasalliance.io/p/c4654141-04e9-4c18-ad60-63a4435eee75/#applications-of-ai-and-analytics-in-fintech) ## **Case study: Day in the life of ‘financially savvy’ John** Let me introduce you to John. He considers himself to be very financially savvy, he’s in his 30s, intelligent and he uses a smartphone like so many of us. One day, he receives a notification on his phone that reads: > “*John, your utility bill of $50 is due tomorrow. Do you want to pay now?*” A few seconds later, another notification comes through, > “*John, your net-worth increased by 1% last week with Apple stock making the maximum gains.*” John gets on with his day. He goes to work, enjoys chatting to his co-workers, and then in the afternoon, he notices yet another notification on his phone. This one says, > “*John, you have excess balance in your savings account. Invest 20% of the amount to earn an extra 8% vs keeping in your savings account. Invest now?*” These are smart notifications and nudges and in today’s financial world, it's a reality. If you’re not using technology to help improve your finances, you’re missing out. By embracing AI and ML, you can make a huge impact not just in your role but also in your daily life. [![How FinTech is being empowered with AI and analytics](https://www.financealliance.io/content/images/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-09.53.29.png)](www.financealliance.io/fintech-and-ai/) ## **Pillars of digital transformation** Within digital transformation, there are emerging technologies. Most companies are utilizing these emerging technologies to drive and improve consumer experiences. These include things like internet of things (IoT), robotics, AR/VR and [Cloud](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/cloud/). [![pillars of digital transformation](https://www.financealliance.io/content/images/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-08-at-09.53.45.png)](www.financealliance.io/fintech-and-ai/) Before 2020, not many people were working online or working from home, and then almost the majority of the IT workforce moved into [remote working](https://www.saasalliance.io/embracing-the-future-thriving-in-the-remote-saas-landscape-2/). The transformation from almost everyone working in-office to everyone working remotely because of Covid meant that many people had to embrace technology in new ways. There was a huge mobilization of IT and IT infrastructure. I think that both AI and ML are critical pieces that are enabling today's world. So, a part of that could be coming as simple as receiving smart nudges throughout the day on your smartphone or you could even have nudges to help you forecast numbers for your financial forecast. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### The B2B SaaS business model: 5 pillars for SaaS success URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-b2b-saas-business-model-5-pillars-to-saas-success/ Last updated: 2024-08-23T12:50:45.000Z ## **What is the B2B SaaS business model?** The B2B SaaS business model sells software to customers using subscription-based pricing models, and uses online marketing channels to attract customers. There’s a real emphasis on letting the product sell itself, and on retaining customers once you’ve won them over to increase their lifetime value (LTV). B2B stands for “business-to-business”, meaning this is a business targeting other businesses as customers. SaaS stands for Software as a Service. Businesses lease access to their software application to other businesses, for a fee. These other businesses don’t *own* the software, they just pay for access to it, so it’s called a service. ## **The 5 pillars of B2B SaaS** So, how exactly do B2B SaaS companies work? There are about five important pillars of success in B2B SaaS. They are: 1. Product-led growth 2. Subscription-based pricing 3. Customer support investment 4. Email marketing 5. Social media marketing Let’s examine each in some detail. ### **Product-led growth** The first pillar of SaaS is that it follows a *product-led growth* strategy. This means it’s all about the product. The product does the talking and, wherever possible, sells itself. When the business needs to see more growth, the answer lies in the product. More product investment equals more growth. Nowhere is this more evident than in businesses using what’s called a *low-touch SaaS sales model*, where as few people as possible are involved in the selling process. This is a strategy that thrives on free trials and [freemium models](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-guide-to-making-money-with-freemium-models/). Customers discover the product, land on the website, try it out for free, and are so wowed that they allow their free trial to roll over into a paying subscription. From there, the name of the game is to get these customers to *stick around*. ### **Subscription-based pricing** Consider your phone bill, your power bill, or (if you’re old enough to remember), your cable bill. You get locked into a contract – a contract with an exit fee. If you want to leave before the contract expires, you have to *pay* for the privilege of walking away. The cable bill example is pertinent, because Netflix came along and disrupted the entire industry… with a subscription model. It worked so well, that other companies had to follow suit, and studios that produced excellent shows back in the day scrambled to lease streaming rights for those shows (think Seinfeld, or the Sopranos) to one or more streaming services. With a subscription-based model, SaaS companies can capture market share by enticing customers with lower (initial) price points than software licenses, and by offering them the freedom to leave at any time (more on this later). ### **Customer support investment** [Customer acquisition](https://www.saasalliance.io/a-beginners-guide-to-customer-acquisition/) is not cheap. The obvious benefit (for the company) to locking customers into a contract with an exit fee is it disincentivizes them from leaving. Subscription-based SaaS businesses have no such luxury. Therefore, investing in keeping customers around (and in the team that makes that happen) becomes essential to the success of the business. The term *customer support* evolved into *customer success* in the SaaS industry to push a new paradigm: one that goes beyond passively waiting for customer issues and solving them, to one that takes a proactive approach to ensuring that customers have a great experience, so those customers *do not churn*. [10 winning customer retention strategies for your B2B SaaS orgEach of these steps is designed to establish a solid bedrock of trust between customers and orgs, ensuring air-tight retention for your org. Dive in!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/10/Top-10-customer-retention-strategies.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-winning-customer-retention-strategies-for-your-b2b-saas-org/) ### **Email marketing** If you’re selling SaaS, you’re selling software. Obviously. Also obvious is that, if you want to sell products, you have to go to where your customers are likely to be. When you’re selling [B2B SaaS](https://www.saasalliance.io/b2b-saas-the-right-org-structure-at-the-right-stage/), then, it makes sense to target people who are… well, on their computers at work. And while B2B means “business to business”, it’s still a *person*, with a real life outside of work, that’s seeing your SaaS marketing communications and considering the ways your product could make their (very human) life easier. Bearing that in mind, [email marketing](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-is-email-marketing-important-to-improving-customer-retention/) manages to hit on many of the requirements a B2B SaaS company needs from its primary marketing channel: - Messages can be addressed to individuals, and speak to the pain points an individual feels at work, rather than taking on the impossible task of selling to the entire business from the first touchpoint. - Your target audience are online when they receive your communications, so can follow links to landing pages that further sell them on your products. - You can control the timing of your communications, so customers receive them when they’re *at work*, and close to any decision makers whose ears they need to turn before they can become paying customers. ### **Social media marketing** While email marketing can be very effective, there are other ways to target customers online. Plus, email fatigue is real. With so many emails landing in your inbox every day, differentiation in your marketing is a must, and simply using multiple platforms can be a good way to achieve it. Paid ads in search engine results are one way, but there’s another that lets you connect directly with your audience in a way that’s scalable without needing extra cash: social media marketing. Sure, you can pay to push ads on social media platforms, but you can also strategically curate a brand presence on the platforms your audience hangs out on most. However a SaaS brand chooses to attract its customers, it has to be effective, it has to be scalable, and it has to target members of the target market where they are. Both email and social media marketing achieve these ends, making both of them great options for B2B SaaS businesses. ## **Pros and cons of the SaaS business model** So, we understand what the business model is, and what makes it work… but what are its pros and cons? First, the advantages: ### **SaaS business model advantages** #### **Predictable revenue streams** One of the biggest advantages of the SaaS business model is actually its pricing strategy. With a subscription model, a business gets a steady and predictable revenue stream via MRR (monthly recurring revenue). You know how many customers you have, you know what they’re paying, and you know pretty accurately what you stand to make each month. The practice of collecting payments monthly also gives a business 12 times the number of data points a business collecting payments just once a year gets. This allows these businesses to pivot far more quickly than they otherwise could. Even more importantly, it allows these businesses to paint a positive picture for investors much more quickly. #### **Attractive to investors** Having a steady, predictable revenue stream might sound like small potatoes or common sense, but it’s catnip to investors. Just as this model de-risks the investment for the customer (more on that later), it de-risks the investment for anyone looking to allocate their unused capital to an up-and-coming business. Both risk-averse and risk-taking investors like B2B SaaS businesses. Investors looking to take on risk won’t mind that a company might only be a year or so old if it’s showing great signs of growth and profitability. A risk-averse investor, meanwhile, might only look to make a short-term play based on the sparse amount of historical data. At the same time, businesses are slower to change their minds than individuals, since there’s more complexity in the decision-making process. So won business customers are less likely to churn than fickle consumers, making B2B companies more stable investments. [Pitch Perfect: Captivate investors and fund your SaaS startupSecure that coveted funding with these actionable insights from experts who’ve delivered the perfect pitch.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/FoSaaS_PitchPerfect_Report_2023_Blog_2.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/pitch-perfect-captivate-investors-and-fund-your-saas-startup-2/) #### **High growth potential** Since they’re so attractive to investors, promising SaaS companies can quickly attract the capital necessary to grow. As a result, SaaS companies scale well, and quickly. What’s more, because the software that forms the service the business is selling is under continual development, and teams can implement those developments and changes fast, with little to the user, even mediocre products can, over time, become powerfully persuasive to investors. #### **Ease of setup** Another benefit of SaaS as a business model is that the product is inherently easy to set up. Customers can be onboarded quickly, and provide feedback to improve the product and overall customer experience, since there’s no on-premises hardware for them to set up. Customers just download an app, or run it in the browser, making for a simple, streamlined experience that, again, requires very little human intervention. ### **SaaS business model disadvantages** #### **Higher churn rate potential (no disincentives)** As we’ve mentioned, the subscription focus associated with the B2B SaaS businesses model carries an inherent risk: higher [churn rates](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-churn-rate-your-guide/). There are no disincentives against leaving, so if customers aren’t having a good time, leave is what they’ll do. That said, there’s a silver lining. Customer churn is important feedback about the state of your product, and B2B SaaS companies are well-placed to action that feedback and fix the problem. #### **High costs of going to market** Truly skilled software developers are still in high demand. Such high demand, in fact, that their labor is not at all cheap. As a result, developing a quality SaaS product that’s sufficiently differentiated from the competition will always be expensive. And since having a product to sell is necessary for a business to exist, just getting to market will *always* be expensive for a SaaS business. Not only is the product development important, but since you’re targeting customers online, your website (literally your digital storefront), needs to be ship-shape. Yup, you guessed it, that means hiring *web developers* (also not cheap). As if that weren’t enough, you’ve also got marketing and sales costs to think about. Because once you have a product, and a website to direct people to, you need your target audience to know about it, and you need to persuade them to buy (or try) it. For all these reasons, upfront costs associated with getting a SaaS product to market can be high. #### **Software security and hardware failure** Software-based products come with different security risks than physical ones. The computer servers that deliver your service to customers can come under attack, or can fail completely. If those servers do come under attack, a number of things can happen. First, your service could go down. While customers can be understanding, if they’re relying on your service to be able to do their jobs, they won’t be very happy when this happens. And it *will* happen sooner or later. What’s more, you’ll be storing your customers’ data in databases housed on their own servers. This, too, presents a security risk. But while customers might forgive not being able to access your service for a couple of minutes or even hours, they’re much less likely to forgive the leaking of their data in the event someone manages to crack your security. That’s why it’s imperative that SaaS businesses invest in security audits, and strong protections, despite their costliness. [Top 10 customer retention software choices for effective, sustainable growthLooking for strong, sustainable growth? Look no further than our top 10 tools for customer retention.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/10/software.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-10-customer-retention-software-choices-for-effective-sustainable-growth/) ## **SaaS metrics to nail for sustainable growth** Here are some of the metrics you’ll want to stay on top of if you’re running a SaaS business - Monthly and annually recurring revenue (MRR & ARR) - Churn rate - Customer acquisition cost (CAC) - Customer lifetime value (LTV) - Retention rate Not familiar with the metrics we’ve mentioned? Check out our [full guide to SaaS metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics/) for a full list. ## **B2B SaaS pricing, subscription-based models and the *freedom to leave*** Subscription-based [SaaS business pricing models](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-pricing/) have one very important benefit we’ve not yet discussed: the freedom to leave. The freedom to leave is crucial, for a number of reasons. First, it sidesteps the resentment lock-in contracts cause. No one likes being told what to do, and lock-in contracts foster a kind of resentment for being bossed about. We all know what it feels like to be done with something, to want out, and to be told, “No.” It starts with being told we have to stay at the dinner table ‘til we’ve eaten our vegetables. Now, we find ourselves being told we can’t snap up that steal of a mobile deal because “Contract says No.” Second, subscription models de-risk the investment for the customer. What’s your biggest motivation at work? Especially when it comes to making critical decisions? Let’s be honest, *looking good* is often a secondary concern some ways behind *not looking stupid*. And it’s a lot easier to not look stupid when, if it turns out early on your decision was a bad one, you’re not locked in for another 18 month serving of contractual obligation to the vendor, with a side of hard glares and no pay review from your boss. And that’s not all. The subscription model also incentivizes companies to put effort into continually wowing customers with their products, and customers know this. It’s inherently more trustworthy as well, isn’t it? When a company says, “The door’s right there, you can leave whenever you like,” what they’re really saying is, “We’ve got nothing to hide, and we’re confident in our product.” Contrast that with, “Once you sign up, you’re trapped, and you can’t get out.” --- Looking to take your marketing further? SaaScast hosts guests that'll help you grow, scale up, and work smarter. Tune in today! [SaaScastSaaScast talks you through the steps you need to futureproof your product. From startups to established names, our guests will help you grow, scale up, and work smarter.![](https://alliance.ghost.io/favicon.ico)The AllianceRichard King![](https://alliance.ghost.io/content/images/size/w1200/2024/08/SaaSCast_Podcast_Socials_Spotify.png)](https://alliance.ghost.io/podcast/fosaas-saascast/) ### Ready, set, go: The three stages of a product launch URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/ready-set-go-the-three-stages-of-a-product-launch/ Last updated: 2024-08-09T16:30:27.000Z Michael Roehricht, Director of Product Marketing at GoDaddy, outlines the three major steps to ace your product launch _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### The $100 million ARR blueprint: Crafting a successful B2B SaaS go-to-market engine URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/arr-crafting-a-successful-b2b-saas-go-to-market-engine/ Last updated: 2024-08-02T16:00:28.000Z This article comes from **Robert Gimbel**’s insightful talk, ‘*100M ARR: How to build a B2B SaaS GTM engine that gets you there*’, at our **#GTM24** event. --- Ever wondered what it takes to build a $100 million ARR [go-to-market](https://www.saasalliance.io/go-to-market-strategy-the-roadmap-to-saas-success/) engine? If you're reading this, chances are you're on that very mission. Well, you're in the right place! I'm Robert Gimbel, and I've seen B2B SaaS companies from almost every perspective. My last five years were spent as a Chief Revenue Officer, working on the very mission we're talking about today. Before that, I served as Chief Operating Officer and Head of Product. So, I've got a real 360-degree view of the B2B SaaS world. Here's the thing: I'm not an inventor; I'm not the person who comes up with innovative new ideas; I’m the one scaling those ideas as the operator and structure builder. My passion is complementing a great [strategy](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-best-competitive-strategy-for-each-stage-in-the-business-lifecycle/) with strong execution. So in this article, we'll explore some of the key ingredients you'll need to scale as fast as possible. From understanding what [product-market fit](https://www.saasalliance.io/defining-measuring-product-market-fit/) really means, to designing your go-to-market strategy, all the way through to execution – we'll cover it all. Are you ready to build that $100 million ARR go-to-market engine? Let's dive in! ## **Understanding product-market fit** Before we talk about scaling, let's quickly touch on product-market fit. After all, you need to have something worth scaling before you start revving up that go-to-market engine. There's no one-size-fits-all definition of product-market fit, but here are some indicators I look for: ✅ A strong product with a clear value proposition ✅ 50+ customers ✅ Customers with similar problems that you're solving consistently ✅ Customer reference stories ✅ $1 million+ in ARR ✅ 80%+ customer retention rate That last point is crucial. If you're losing customers as quickly as you're signing them up, you need to take a hard look at how sustainably you're delivering value. A high [retention](https://www.saasalliance.io/a-step-by-step-guide-to-retention-renewals-and-expansion/) rate is a true indicator that you're not just good at selling, but you're actually delivering value over time. [Perfecting your product-market fit \[Q&A with SocialBee\]There’s no doubt, product-market fit is the first rung on the ladder of success for any SaaS company, but how do you get it? How do you know when you have it? And who should be responsible for driving it? Ovi Negrean, Co-Founder and CEO at SocialBee answers all these questions and more.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2022/02/benjamin-zanatta-WbkfJ2TmSug-unsplash--2-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/perfecting-your-product-market-fit-q-a-with-socialbee/) ## **Crafting your monetization strategy** Once you've nailed product-market fit, it's time to think about your monetization strategy. Let's use an example: say you're selling to large enterprises, like global banks. In most cases, they won't adopt your solution across the board from day one. Typically, you'll land somewhere small – maybe a team in one country, bringing in about $20k ARR. Not earth-shattering, but it's a foot in the door. If you do well there, you can leverage that success to expand into other areas. More people sign up in that country, then other countries start adopting, and you can sell additional add-ons as you become more critical to their operations. This land-and-expand approach means your pricing model needs to be flexible: 1. **Land**: You need a simple, easy-to-say-yes-to offering. Don't try to maximize value here; focus on minimizing risk for the customer. 2. **Expand**: Have a clear path to capture more value as you grow within the organization. This is where your real growth will come from. 3. **Add-ons**: Optional extras that become more relevant as your footprint in the organization grows. Don't be afraid to revisit and adapt your [pricing](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code/). Many companies focus too much on landing customers and give away too much of their product. Without a path to expansion, it's going to be incredibly hard to keep up with growth numbers. [10 winning customer retention strategies for your B2B SaaS orgEach of these steps is designed to establish a solid bedrock of trust between customers and orgs, ensuring air-tight retention for your org. Dive in!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/10/Top-10-customer-retention-strategies.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-winning-customer-retention-strategies-for-your-b2b-saas-org/) _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Reactive approaches to sales enablement are destined to fail URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/reactive-approaches-to-sales-enablement-are-destined-to-fail/ Last updated: 2024-08-23T12:54:45.000Z > "Sales enablement can't be reactive. It has to be a full-blown strategy that's woven into the fabric of the company." - **Roderick Jefferson** Very rightly said by Sir Roderick. Sales enablement shouldn't be treated as a reactive response to immediate challenges, but rather as a proactive, strategic approach fully integrated into a company's operations. The days of throwing reactive solutions at sales challenges are long gone. In today's competitive landscape, sales enablement needs to be a fully-fledged strategy that's seamlessly woven into the very fabric of your company. In this article I hope to delve into why a proactive, strategic approach to sales enablement is crucial for maximizing your sales team's potential and driving sustainable revenue growth. ## **Why reactive sales enablement fails** ● **Firefighting mentality**: Reacting to immediate problems leads to tactical solutions that lack long-term vision and are inevitably not sustainable. This patchwork approach fails to address the root causes of your sales challenges. ● **Inconsistent messaging and resources**: Sales reps are left scrambling for information and delivering disjointed customer experiences. This inconsistency only leads to confusion and a diminished brand image. ● **Missed opportunities**: A reactive approach fails to capitalize on market trends or anticipate competitor strategies, this then leaves your sales team lagging behind the curve. [What is sales enablement? Choosing the perfect strategy for your businessHere, we guide you through the essential tenets of sales enablement, how it benefits your SaaS business, and how to build the ultimate sales enablement strategy for success.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2024/04/sales-success.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-sales-enablement-choosing-the-perfect-strategy-for-your-business/) ## **Embracing a proactive strategy** By implementing a comprehensive sales enablement strategy, you can: ### Equip your sales force with the right tools and resources: This includes sales collateral, training programs, coaching, and access to data and analytics. A well-equipped enablement team can effectively communicate your value proposition, address customer pain points, and close deals with confidence. ### Create a personalized customer experience: Proactive sales enablement fosters a customer-centric approach. By understanding customer needs and preferences, sales reps can deliver tailored solutions that resonate with each individual. ### Drive consistent revenue growth: A well-defined strategy aligns sales activities with broader business goals. This streamlines processes, optimizes resources, and ensures your sales team contributes directly to achieving your financial objectives. ## **Weaving sales enablement into the company culture** To make sales enablement truly impactful, consider these steps: 1. **Align with company goals:** Ensure your strategy supports your overall business objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs). 2. **Secure leadership buy-in:** Gain strong support from leadership to secure the necessary resources and budget for successful implementation. 3. **Foster collaboration:** Break down silos and encourage cross-functional collaboration between sales, marketing, and other relevant departments. This ensures everyone is working towards the same goals and delivering a unified message. 4. **Embrace continuous learning:** Cultivate a culture of continuous learning within your sales team. This includes providing ongoing training, encouraging knowledge sharing, and actively seeking feedback to refine your strategy. 5. **Leverage technology:** Utilize sales enablement platforms, automation tools, and data analytics to manage resources, deliver training, track performance, and make data-driven decisions. By adopting this proactive and integrated approach, you can transform your sales enablement efforts from a reactive band-aid into a powerful engine for driving sustainable success. You can also cultivate a high-performing sales team and achieve sustainable revenue growth. ### Imagine you sell a complex software product to large enterprises. Just throwing a bunch of product brochures and generic sales scripts at your team won't be enough to close deals. A strategic sales enablement approach would consider several factors: **🎯 Target audience:** Your sales reps need in-depth knowledge of your ideal customer profiles. This includes their specific pain points, buying journeys, and technical needs. **💡Content personalization:** Sales reps should be equipped with presentations, demos, and case studies tailored to address the unique challenges of each prospect. 🏈 **Sales training:** Generic sales training won't do, reps need training on the specific features and benefits that resonate with your target audience. This might include role-playing exercises to practice handling objections and navigating complex sales conversations. [Sales Enablement Scaled Down: Problems facing small startupsShilpa Prasad gave a great talk on the problems facing a small startup like hers, YouNoodle, in the context of sales enablement, sales leadership and the overall world of sales.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceRichard Bracchi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.55.13.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-enablement-scaled-down-problems-facing-small-startups/) 🤝 **Alignment with marketing**: Marketing creates content to attract leads, sales enablement ensures a smooth handoff from marketing-qualified leads to the sales team. This includes sharing lead nurturing materials and ensuring messaging consistency across departments. By taking this strategic approach, you empower your sales reps to: ● Become trusted advisors: They can delve deeper into customer problems and propose solutions that directly address their needs. ● Shorten sales cycles: Reps can deliver targeted pitches that resonate with prospects, leading to faster conversions. ● Increase win rates: With the right knowledge and resources, reps are better equipped to handle objections and close deals. This strategic approach to sales enablement can lead to a significant competitive advantage, boosting sales performance and driving revenue growth. ## **Authenticity in enablement** Authenticity is a hugely powerful force when it comes to sales enablement, in an industry filled with sales pitches and marketing messages, people crave genuine connections. > From my experience, authenticity matters as it fosters trust, allows for you to build human connections, and more effective communication that's clear, concise, and avoids jargon. To incorporate authenticity into your enablement strategy, here are some of my best practices: ✅ **Storytelling**: Share real-life stories of success (and challenges too) to illustrate concepts and make them relatable. **✅ Encourage individuality**: Recognise that different people learn and respond in different ways, tailor your approach to individual needs. **✅ Embrace transparency**: Be honest about limitations and openly address challenges. By prioritizing authenticity, you can create a more effective & engaging enablement experience that **empowers your team to succeed**. Remember, a well-equipped and empowered sales team is the key to achieving your business goals and standing out in the competitive market. --- Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a SaaS Alliance [membership plan? ](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/) ### Customer success in a global marketplace: Navigating cultural diversity URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-in-a-global-marketplace-navigating-cultural-diversity/ Last updated: 2024-08-23T12:58:05.000Z In this article, I'll share insights and strategies that have helped shape effective global customer success frameworks, ensuring that our approaches resonate with customers. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Marketing with AI: How AI impacts advertising and business growth URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/marketing-with-ai-how-ai-impacts-advertising-and-business-growth/ Last updated: 2024-08-23T12:59:45.000Z What if Google is replaced with ChatGPT? It’s a huge question - and one we’re starting to discover the answer to. Google is the go-to place for all answers about this life - and has been for years. Millennial parents are amazed as kids say 'older than Google' meaning 'ancient'. It’s also the go-to place for startup growth. Running Google Ads, putting Google Analytics on your website, sticking around Keyword planner to figure your SEO keywords — startup founders and marketing managers can relate. But, have you seen these on ChatGPT? Well… [SaaS MarketingAs the demand for cloud-based software continues to grow, SaaS companies are facing intense competition in the market. Here is a guide to help you develop a successful SaaS marketing strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_Marketing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) This article discusses new information flows with the rise of large language models (LLMs), new AI-powered Google Search features, and how you can still use SEO in 2024\. Spoiler: it's AEO now, and it has a lot of potential even for small startups and blogs. - How AI is entering the search market - and can it replace Google? - How Google is responding to this - Why it’s a major business model shift (and why you, as a founder, should care) - The new optimization process for 2024: What’s AEO? - The future of search with AI, and the results it can bring for advertising ## How AI is entering the search market - and can it replace Google? Remember when 'being good at Googling' was a thing? We had to translate our intentions into 'Google language'. (Keep that word "intentions" in mind.) Back then, we'd sift through one or two pages of search results, clicking on short snippets to see if the information was useful. Search engines, like librarians, simply provided what was available, leaving us to navigate and find what we needed. In contrast, LLMs are more like assistants trained to understand plain human language. Instead of offering a list of links, they synthesize answers to our questions directly. Now, ChatGPT is actively used as a replacement for ‘Googling’. It allows for: - **Real-time voice search:** GPT-4o can understand and respond to voice search queries, similar to how a human would respond in a conversation. - **Multimodal search and output:** It can also understand a combination of text, image, and audio search queries and reply in the same combo of formats. Another example of similar instruments is an AI search engine called **Perplexity**. They recently released a new feature that turns searches into shareable pages. Many people are turning to Perplexity as [a replacement for Google](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/technology/perplexity-search-ai-google.html?ref=productmarketingalliance.com). [![An image of Perplexity and their new feature that turns searches into sharable images. The first webpage is a search saying "how do i use an aeropress?" then the second webpage is of an article titled "how to use an aeropress". ](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdpWnrS8ipP3jtaBniXNs_SKS9Gfq1silsvV3KxflfgzB59wtrBJlS-FFnlDk8uEAH0yja7UJwrnFqiBcV0t-yfAccfKYsIzWeqVky2xm5rakXmKM98v9J4YLZcahYDr7cdQzMVjFybeE18937PMFpUJhEd?key=A4AnbyBakq2k621BH40DDg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/marketing-with-ai-how-ai-impacts-advertising-business-growth-and-seo-in-2024) Image source:[ TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/30/perplexity-ais-new-feature-will-turn-your-searches-into-sharable-pages/?ref=productmarketingalliance.com) However, with this, LLMs raise concerns for the future of online media. Since they summarize information directly, users might not visit websites anymore. This could hurt content creators who rely on organic traffic and ad revenue. ### But how many people are already using AI models instead of Google? Users have been using voice search since the rise of Siri and Alexa. And now, ChatGPT offers three in one, including voice. According to Tech Jury, [**49% of users** are now interested in AI-powered online search](https://techjury.net/blog/ai-statistics/%5C?ref=productmarketingalliance.com). But in reality, as of February 2024, only [23% of American adults have ever used ChatGPT](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/03/26/americans-use-of-chatgpt-is-ticking-up-but-few-trust-its-election-information/?ref=productmarketingalliance.com). And in the beginning of the year, [Google’s share of the search market was 90% vs. 2% for ChatGPT](https://promptengineering.org/is-chatgpt-stealing-googles-search-market-share-an-analysis/?ref=productmarketingalliance.com#:~:text=According%20to%20StatCounter%2C%20Google's%20worldwide,into%20Google's%20search%20market%20share.). ## How Google is responding Before ChatGPT became popular, Google created short summaries called “featured snippets” that you see under search results. These snippets give you a quick idea of a webpage, so you can decide if you want to visit it. As a content creator, you could optimize your article to try and get your article featured right at the top of the page within a snippet. [![A screenshot of google with the query "seo tips for beginners" the featured image at the top goes right into the 8 basic SEO tips in bullet point form, which then links to the website. ](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd3VeQBw_cF3EyMYQE7-3cfhO12BgurmuZ6-YDFHJde0OVwgF6pXb7Na97R1qpF9aw7jZQMBNKlaWd9KMhp_pBZIZzmiaR4Iw233Ct8O9sJ3-pL1sevGnXBvb7ucvyPHtmm4g8A2mw-aM1XuLulJps7dFA?key=A4AnbyBakq2k621BH40DDg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/marketing-with-ai-how-ai-impacts-advertising-business-growth-and-seo-in-2024) Image source: Google Search Now, to be on par with the composed answers from LLMs, Google has worked to create their own answers. Google has since introduced short AI summaries (or “AI overviews”) that appear at the top of search results to answer your question quickly and tailored to your request. They come from websites that Google thinks are relevant. You can see an example of this in the image below. [![A screengrab of Google's generative AI snippet that now appears with searches. It is an AI written except culminated from a mix of different articles, then linking to a few articles it took information from. ](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfWlYi-HjypzSxjYf7jOP4rTbAFWWLh-ZucoFVwiY5wmc6Rj0DyPF_aWJtHCU2RkKfd-LhPXHoWa6Zkec2AILxjjPeXavRN7hz4XguEgMzE-aQgKVS9xD4aCXOeVVPqL2JZ6o7Bi4PPUh_bvm7h6ZiDNziZ?key=A4AnbyBakq2k621BH40DDg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/marketing-with-ai-how-ai-impacts-advertising-business-growth-and-seo-in-2024) Image source: Google Search In May 2023, Google also launched [Search Labs](https://labs.google/?ref=productmarketingalliance.com), a program that allows users to experiment with early-stage Google Search experiences (including those powered by AI). ## Why it’s a major business model shift (and why you, as a founder, should care) Google needs to replace their advertising earnings, and they are doing two things: - Competing with GPTs on creating answers, to keep their traffic. - Finding new places for ads (clearly, those AI snippets can contain ads and links to products). We have been Googling things for decades now. And the SEO industry was here to provide us with more relevant URLs, generating $68.1B in 2022. Yet, with AI-summarized answers, it’s harder to get your article to rank higher in SERPs, and harder to justify paying for Google ads. As a business owner and/or founder, paying more attention to Google and its advertising model is now vital. Google could be replaced as the go-to instrument for search and advertising. So, to keep competitive, great steps are: ### Diversifying your platforms: build a following on YouTube, LinkedIn, X, and Facebook The focus now should be on building an organic marketing funnel, which includes SEO but isn't limited to it. Investors want startups to have multiple channels to acquire customers organically (without relying solely on paid ads). This means having a strong SEO presence but also building a social media following, email list, or YouTube channel. [Marketing inside out: Put your team firstThink marketing is all about your customers? According to Tim Parkin, marketing advisor to a portfolio of multimillion-dollar brands, you’re thinking about it all wrong.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/marketing-4.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/marketing-inside-out-put-your-team-first-2/) ### Keeping pace with the new approach to SEO. The rest of the article is all about new ways to grow your business with SEO in 2024… ## The new optimization process for 2024: What’s AEO? Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is a new approach to SEO that considers how Google uses ML (machine learning) and NLP (natural language processing) to understand **search intent**. ### How AEO differs from traditional SEO AEO prioritizes creating content that **directly answers users' questions (precisely and concisely)**, while traditional SEO might focus on ranking for specific keywords. We MUST include the answer to each potential question of a user clearly within our articles or posts – better in the top or middle of the content. Google's algorithm is smart enough to identify answers and show these answers to people needing them. Example: ‘product strategy’ is a very broad category keyword. Yet, the number three ranking belongs to a blog post because it answers the questions well. [![A screenshot from Google for the query "product strategy", the first section has a "people always ask" FAQ section followed by search engine results. ](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcfR5wJrlDgrTUXMw_nqrbgmRPs_sumiVNrtS0WW34Fgby9rYxwWt4lkykVTr2RkTKqrMB8_c8VLTSQrXoW28_DULctr85UxQ9XhddpA73BgLfGhE7o6fbZg66BQ0xR6plTXImnbu0x9pQq5EbWsDXxmVF8?key=A4AnbyBakq2k621BH40DDg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/marketing-with-ai-how-ai-impacts-advertising-business-growth-and-seo-in-2024) AEO emphasizes content that showcases your expertise and topical relevance, but traditional SEO might focus on optimizing for specific keyword density. AEO doesn't replace SEO entirely. They work together: - **Traditional SEO tactics are still important:** Link building, technical SEO, and keyword research are all still important aspects of SEO. Though, the choice of keywords now should go through two stages: you choose them, then AI picks the most appropriate ones from the list. - **AEO builds authority and improves SEO:** Creating high-quality content that addresses user intent can improve your website's authority and ranking in traditional SEO. ## What's the future of search with AI, and the results it can bring for advertising The future of search is changing in many ways. First, new Google algorithms are a new chance to be on top for those who master them first. It's like the times when stories were introduced on Instagram, then Reels, then YouTube Shorts. Google Search Lab will pay a lot of attention to those AI snippets, and give the highest ranking to the pages that meet the **search intents** well. And the #1 position brings the highest amount of traffic for your product growth. [![A chart for Google organic CTR breakdown by position going from number 1 to number 10. The percentages are as follows: 1 - 27.6%, 2 - 15.8%, 3 - 11%, 4 - 8.4%, 5 - 6.3%, 6 - 4.9%, 7 - 3.9%, 8 - 3.3%, 9 - 2.7%, and 10 - 2.4%. ](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe69aGnc-SAFcsW2jAmI_2WUI9I7eqx34Xcnu5NttxBlAHerXIUgyMS-7a2YKZOkPuOcCH1FcEc62IGMBgGDKmOFERpf5wVDw-ltfk63M5pXLR3_PEbciT7Af6HdDDBDqsSm91LfNgwsSewrrs607u7KNRq?key=A4AnbyBakq2k621BH40DDg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/marketing-with-ai-how-ai-impacts-advertising-business-growth-and-seo-in-2024) [Source](https://backlinko.com/google-ctr-stats?ref=productmarketingalliance.com) As AI is gaining momentum, look out for ways to promote your startup on the LLM powered products. One solution: built in models in products (like Notion and LinkedIn). This could either be done with proprietary models or integration of ChatGPT solution via API into your app or website interface. The other solution, that's actually easier to start with, is a branded GPT. ChatGPT already provides this opportunity via the GPT Store. It's like a marketplace of custom-made assistants, and anyone with a paid account can create their GPT. Just by telling the GPT in plain words (no coding required!) you can assemble a tool for your or your customers' needs. A creative brainstorming wizard, an event schedule planner, or a SEO tool - many great tools for a marketer's toolbox. As technology evolves, our tools will change – SEO may transform into AEO or something entirely new. But, it's crucial to remember the human element at the core of these changes. Ultimately, the effectiveness of any advertising tool relies on capturing human attention and encouraging meaningful interactions. --- Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from the leading minds in SaaS with a SaaS Alliance [membership plan?](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/) ### 9 expert win-loss analysis secrets for SaaS revenue growth URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/9-win-loss-analysis-secrets-saas-revenue-growth/ Last updated: 2024-07-19T16:00:22.000Z Want to drive efficient revenue growth in your SaaS company? Spencer Dent, Co-founder of Clozd, explores the power of win-loss analysis. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Pitch Perfect: Captivate investors and fund your SaaS startup URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/pitch-perfect-captivate-investors-and-fund-your-saas-startup-2/ Last updated: 2024-07-19T15:28:59.000Z We all know that early-stage startups need a financial boost, whether it's from venture capitalists, angel investors, or bootstrapping. But here's the thing: the market is becoming increasingly saturated. The solution? **You gotta pay attention to the experts.** Luckily this eBook is a rich treasure trove of actionable strategies both from SaaS founders who've found success in securing funding and from investors themselves. ## What you'll find inside These gurus hold the secrets to positioning your startup perfectly and catching the discerning eye of investors. Among the many pearls of wisdom in this eBook, you'll find the following: ✅ How to tell your startup's story ✅ The metrics that investors are looking for ✅ What the perfect pitch looks like All this and so much more. Grab your free copy today and join the league of extraordinary entrepreneurs! 😎 ### How to calculate and improve your SaaS magic number metric URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-calculate-and-improve-your-saas-magic-number-metric/ Last updated: 2024-08-23T12:52:16.000Z A key factor in SaaS growth: sustainability. You have to be able to use your resources efficiently so that you don’t find yourself stumbling on your way to profitability, and end up making a loss rather than growing. An important metric in your growth strategy is the SaaS magic number metric. Here, we’re going to dive into how it can help your business and how you should calculate it. ## What is SaaS magic number? The SaaS Magic Number is a handy metric that helps gauge how effectively a SaaS company is turning its sales and marketing efforts into new revenue. In simple terms, it shows how well the company is growing its revenue compared to what it spends on sales and marketing. ## Why is SaaS magic number important? The SaaS magic number metric measures the efficiency of your marketing and sales efforts. Here are some of the key factors that can be positively impacted by this metric: ### How effective is your sales and marketing strategy? Determining the efficacy of your sales and marketing efforts depends on measuring the cost of your customer acquisition (CAC) versus your overall revenue. If your SaaS magic number metric isn’t up to snuff, it might be time to rethink your marketing strategy. ### Forecasting for the future By gauging your SaaS magic number metric, you can determine how sustainable your org is, which can give you significant insights into whether your org is set up for future profitability. ### It impresses investors Gaining investors is more difficult than ever for SaaS companies. But at a bare minimum, investors want to see that your org is set up to generate revenue in the future. A stellar magic number figure can give investors confidence in your organization. ### Gives you an edge over the competition If your SaaS magic number is high, it indicates that you’re generating more revenue through customer acquisition than it’s costing you in spend. Considering the high level of spend on CAC throughout the industry, this will give you a considerable advantage over your competitors. ## How to calculate SaaS magic number metric You can calculate your SaaS metric with this very simple formula: ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdONn0Y37eFq0zfZUp_c8mtTVmkSH3pJ9DOu-_6DgTrffChGXXRMtPcfeab_xUaJxljlkqAfy3gFHj-L1gZg-vFLCD5QzgSs8UU_qPx9NlWjmr4BLx-FuI5aD23_8_v_alCGdMw_KfbMVut75xTw7eUZBOh?key=MsBeuSXrxwnioafc287CCQ) ## How to interpret SaaS magic number When interpreting the SaaS Magic Number, a value greater than 1 indicates that the company is efficiently growing, as it's generating more revenue than it's spending on sales and marketing—this is a great sign of strong performance. If the Magic Number is exactly 1, it means the company is breaking even, balancing its revenue generation with its sales and marketing expenses. However, if the Magic Number is less than 1, it suggests the company isn't as efficient, spending more on sales and marketing than it's bringing in through new revenue, which might mean it's time to rethink their strategy or boost their efficiency. ## How to improve your SaaS magic number There are various strategies you can employ to improve your SaaS magic number metric, including the following: - **Establish product-market fit**: If you're a startup or launching a new product, nail your product-market fit first. When your product truly meets market needs, it converts better, sells better, and retains customers longer. This sets the stage for everything else. - **Optimize customer retention and upselling**: Don’t miss out on this golden opportunity. Keeping and upselling existing customers is often cheaper than chasing new ones. Know your customers well, keep delivering value, and offer stellar support to boost retention and upselling. - **Level-up marketing strategies**: To get the most from your digital marketing, start by evaluating your current channels. Are you using the right ones effectively? Identifying and optimizing these channels can make a big difference. - **Streamline your sales process**: Beyond marketing, fine-tuning your sales process can boost your Magic Number. Focus on shortening the sales cycle, better lead qualification, and effective sales training. Sometimes, small adjustments lead to big gains. - **Operational efficiency and cost management**: Cutting costs without sacrificing quality can improve your Magic Number. Find areas to streamline operations, use resources smartly, and leverage growth hacking tools to enhance efficiency. ## FAQ ### What is a good SaaS magic number It's a good practice to aim for a high SaaS Magic Number. A value above 0.75 indicates strong performance, while anything below 0.5 suggests inefficiencies in your sales process or business model. If your Magic Number falls between 0.5 and 0.75, consider reallocating resources to different growth areas to improve efficiency. ### What is the difference between magic number and CAC payback The key difference is that the CAC payback period takes the gross margin into account, while the Magic Number doesn't. This makes the CAC payback period a bit more useful for real analysis because it shows how much of your revenue is left as profit after covering expenses. ### How to calculate magic number To figure out your SaaS Magic Number, start by subtracting last quarter's recurring revenue from this quarter's. Multiply that result by four to annualize it, then divide by your sales and marketing costs from the previous quarter. ### Drive adoption and expansion with a B2B post-sale journey URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/drive-adoption-and-expansion-with-a-b2b-post-sale-journey/ Last updated: 2024-07-12T15:00:43.000Z At Gong, we've had a lot of experience navigating customer onboarding and the post-sale space.Today, I’m going to show you how to do just that. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### How to create awesome product tours your customers will love URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-create-awesome-product-tours-your-customers-will-love/ Last updated: 2024-07-17T13:58:12.000Z 1. What is a product tour? 2. The difference between product tours and product demos 3. Product tours + customer onboarding = success 4. Product tours throughout the customer journey 5. Interactivity: The USP of product tours 6. Measure the impact of your product tour 7. Wrapping up Look, we've all been there: you’ve signed up for new software or a new [tool](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-10-saas-collaboration-tools/), and the moment you log in, you're hit with a wall of features, buttons, and options that leave you feeling overwhelmed and confused. No one wants their customers to feel alienated and lost. Luckily, there’s a simple solution that can make your users feel right at home from the get-go, and they’re calledproduct tours. Shall we get on with it? Let's go... ## What is a product tour? Product tours are intuitive, step-by-step walkthroughs that guide users through your product's features and functionalities within the application itself. What do they do exactly? What do they consist of? Product tours offer: - Contextual prompts - Visual cues - Interactive elements They create an immersive and personalized experience that enhances user understanding and accelerates time-to-value. In order to provide a good customer experience, it's helpful to give them an overview of what they can expect to find and where to locate it. You may want to offer the option to "skip this" or "return to this later." If your product is complex, it's a good idea to stretch this tour out over time. But of course, all of this depends on the user, they’ll have different levels of tolerance for information. Play the caution card and keep an eye on how digestible your product tours are – you don't want to overwhelm your new user. Slack does a really good job of providing product tours during their customer onboarding. ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/n0LYOScdE3k2Rc6F1oeBx_ZiseHC50hhfS1XLitoSKOpowuk2gdt9zpsve7-XG_BoLiaCGqL1NkLrjZVqFVYCLX4IENGJ9AFgsIcCwSTFH2LrCv3J32ibAxmIp4VEJTgYx3RktwfE2ZjtpaX0UGxgG8) Source: [SaaS Websites](https://saaswebsites.com/userflow-articles/user-onboarding-user-flows-inspiration-and-examples-from-slack/?ref=customersuccesscollective.com) As soon as you enter your email address into Slack, you get a glimpse into what your experience will look like. Once you enter, Slackbot takes over and introduces you to what can be achieved in your channel or workspace. There are also numerous pop-ups giving tips and directions to reinforce the information given. Any white space is also cleverly used to illustrate what will eventually be there when a user starts to engage with Slack regularly. ### The difference between product tours and product demos If you’re new to SaaS or the wider tech industry, you’d be forgiven for mixing up the terminology surrounding different product experiences. Let’s clear up some of that confusion. Product tours are **interactive**, allowing users to explore the product hands-on while being gently directed toward key features and functionalities. It's a guided, yet self-paced journey designed to help users quickly become acquainted with the product and feel empowered to navigate it confidently. On the other hand, product demos are *non*\-interactive experiences, often taking the form of videos or narrated guides, where the product's capabilities are showcased and explained, but without any hands-on exploration from the viewer. 💡 ****TD;DR:** Product tours are all about learning by doing, while product demos are about learning by watching. Both serve valuable purposes, but they cater to different stages of the customer journey and learning styles. So, consider your users' needs the next time you're wondering whether to offer a product tour or a product demo. Are they better served by an immersive, self-guided experience that builds confidence and familiarity? Or would they prefer to sit back and observe the product in action before diving in themselves? ## Product tours + customer onboarding = success Have a subpar product tour? That means you’ve got yourself a subpar onboarding process and, likely, a subpar customer experience. The onboarding process sets the tone for a customer's entire journey with your product. It's the critical first impression that can either pave the way for long-term success or lead to frustration, confusion, and ultimately, churn. Effective onboarding is about more than just getting users to sign up – it's about guiding them through your product's features and functionalities, helping them understand its value proposition, and ensuring they experience those "aha!" moments that foster lasting engagement and loyalty. However, traditional onboarding methods, such as lengthy product documentation or generic tutorials, often fall short. The reason? This overly formal method of education fails to provide the personalized, contextual guidance that modern customers demand, resulting in a disjointed and underwhelming experience. This is where interactive product tours shine, offering a seamless and engaging approach to customer onboarding. ## Product tours throughout the customer journey When you think of product tours, you probably associate them with the introductory walkthroughs that greet you upon launching a new app or software. They guide you through the interface, pointing out key features and functionalities. But despite being key features of an onboarding process, product tours have the potential to be so much more than just a one-time onboarding experience. Here are some of the ways to unlock the full potential of your product's capabilities. ### New feature updates Introducing groundbreaking product updates? We all know how easy it is for cool new stuff to fly under the radar, but that’s not going to happen on your watch. Let product tours do the work for you and showcase the value proposition of your latest innovations. No more confusion or missed updates here. ### Promoting underused features Providing value is at the heart of customer success efforts, agreed? The thing is, your customers won’t fully realize the awesome features and capabilities of your product if they’re unaware of them. If you notice your customers aren’t making the most of all of your product’s cool features, there’s a good chance it’s because they don’t know about them! By and large, their overall engagement, satisfaction, and experience would be improved if they knew about the awesome other things your product can do to alleviate their pain points. Product tours are a brilliant way to draw attention to underused features and help users realize value – and fast. ### User re-engagement Noticed your once-loyal users have gone a little... crickets lately? Not to worry, these things happen. The trick is to nip any inactivity in the bud immediately. If a user is inactive, it’s likely due to not fully grasping all of the nifty tricks your product is capable of. A tactical product tour is the perfect way to reel them back in and remind them why they fell in love with your product in the first place. Whether you get their attention with an email or an in-app message, highlight everything they've been missing out on – recently launched features, improvements, you name it. They'll think: "Oh I get it! *This* is why I bought X” ### Support and education Even your most experienced users can level up with the right guidance. Product tours are a brilliant way to educate them on advanced ways to optimize their workflow and get maximum value. Share insider tips, power user tricks, or simply reinforce best practices – it's a bit like a free coaching session. They'll be absorbing pro-level skills left, right and center. Consider it an investment in their success (which is a win for you too!). ### Milestones Did somebody just hit a major milestone? Don't let that momentous occasion go unnoticed. A perfectly timed tour can celebrate their accomplishment *and* reveal what fresh opportunities have been unlocked. Get users hyped about earning that new badge or hitting a new level with a tour showcasing the fresh new features and next-level capabilities now at their fingertips. In a way, you’re teasing them a little, showing them, “Look how far you've come... but the best is yet to come!" ## Interactivity: The USP of product tours Product tours have emerged as a powerful tool for enhancing user onboarding and adoption. By combining visual guidance with interactive elements, they provide an immersive and engaging learning experience that helps users quickly grasp the functionality and value of a product. ### The power of contextual learning One of the key advantages of interactive product tours is their ability to deliver contextual learning experiences. Rather than bombarding users with generic information or documentation, these tours offer guidance within the specific context of the feature or workflow being demonstrated. This contextual approach ensures users receive relevant and actionable insights precisely when and where they need them, minimizing cognitive load and increasing comprehension. ### Visual guidance and interactive elements Product tours leverage visuals like annotated screen captures and interactive hotspots to make complex features more accessible and intuitive. Step-by-step walkthroughs and simulated actions further reinforce the learning experience, allowing users to actively engage and solidify their understanding. ### Personalized experiences for diverse user roles Modern software often caters to diverse user roles with varying needs and permissions. Interactive product tours can be tailored to provide personalized guidance based on these roles, ensuring each user receives a relevant and focused onboarding experience. This targeted approach enhances efficiency and fosters a deeper understanding of the product's value proposition for each user segment. ## Measure the impact of your product tour To truly understand the effectiveness of your product tours and their impact on customer success, it's essential to establish clear metrics and measure their performance. Some key metrics to consider include: 1. **Activation and engagement rates:** Track how many users complete and engage with your product tours, as well as their subsequent actions and feature usage patterns. 2. **Time-to-value:** Measure the time it takes for users to experience their first "aha!" moment or achieve a specific goal after completing a product tour. A shorter time-to-value typically indicates more effective onboarding and guidance. 3. **Feature adoption and usage:** Monitor the adoption rates of specific features highlighted in your product tours, overall usage metrics, and user activity levels. 4. **Customer satisfaction and net promoter score (NPS):** Gather feedback and NPS scores from users who have completed your product tours to gauge their satisfaction levels and likelihood of recommending your product. 5. **Support ticket reduction**: Analyze the impact of product tours on support ticket volume and the types of questions or issues being raised, as effective tours should reduce the need for user support. By continuously measuring and analyzing these metrics, you can gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of your product tours and identify areas for optimization and improvement. ## Wrapping up Okay! That concludes our exploration of product tours and all of their intricacies. Here’s a recap of why interactive product tours are a powerful tool for driving customer success and growth: - Provide seamless and engaging onboarding experiences - Foster ongoing feature adoption and product value maximization - Leverage contextual learning, visual guidance, and interactive elements - Create immersive and personalized user journeys - Enhance user understanding and accelerating time-to-value To unlock their full potential, focus on: - Thorough user research and persona development - Adhering to best practices in product tour design - Continuously measuring and optimizing based on metrics like activation rates, feature adoption, and customer satisfaction With well-executed product tours, you can differentiate your offering, build lasting customer relationships, and pave the way for sustainable growth and success. --- Enjoyed this content? Why not sign up for exclusive insights straight from the leading minds in SaaS with a SaaS Alliance [membership plan? ](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/) ### Bridging borders, inspiring customers: Key strategies for impactful global marketing programs URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/key-strategies-for-impactful-global-marketing-programs/ Last updated: 2024-07-05T16:30:52.000Z This article comes from **Emi Wayner**’s insightful talk, ‘*Connecting borders, cultures, and customers: Crafting and nurturing global customer initiatives for unparalleled success*’, at our **2024 Customer Marketing Summit**. --- As a creative growth marketer and go-to-market storyteller working at **Google Cloud Marketing**, I've had the privilege of spearheading winning global customer initiatives across diverse markets and cultures. In today's deeply interconnected world, the ability to craft effective global strategies is more vital than *ever* for businesses to thrive. In this article, I'm excited to share a powerful framework and some practical insights that have helped my teams drive unparalleled success in connecting borders, cultures, and customers. From strategic planning to cross-cultural communication, leveraging [AI-powered tools](https://www.saasalliance.io/harnessing-the-potential-of-ai-tools-for-unparalleled-growth/), and beyond, I'll equip you with all the tools you need to take your global marketing efforts to new heights. Whether you're a seasoned marketing professional or just embarking on your global growth journey, the strategies outlined here will empower you to forge powerful connections, align distributed teams, and deliver remarkable customer results worldwide. So let's dive in and unlock the secrets to crafting global customer initiatives that truly stand out! ## **The importance of strategic planning** ### Effective strategic planning lays the foundation for successful global collaboration. It's crucial to define shared [OKRs and KPIs](https://www.saasalliance.io/metrics-that-matter-the-kpis-every-saas-company-should-track/) across all regions. At Google, during our annual planning process, I draft the strategy, OKRs, and metrics in a document, ensuring alignment and buy-in from everyone involved. However, simply having OKRs isn't enough, you need to align priorities to achieve those OKRs with other teams and regions. Oftentimes, global teams and regional teams may have different priorities, which can hinder the achievement of shared goals. As a leader, it's your responsibility to ensure that these priorities are aligned across *all* teams. Next, clarifying the execution plan, thinking about how and who will implement global campaigns or projects at the regional and local levels. Smaller regions may rely on resources and playbooks from the global headquarters, while local teams bring invaluable expertise in messaging, visuals, and cultural nuances. So clearly define who will execute which tasks at each level, and decide whether to adapt, modify, or create new campaigns for specific regions based on their unique needs. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### ChatGPT vs Claude: Which is better for growing your business? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/chatgpt-vs-claude-which-is-better-for-growing-your-business/ Last updated: 2024-10-31T10:59:02.000Z ChatGPT has taken the world by storm, and many SaaS professionals have seized the opportunity to streamline their workflows through this technology. But as we’ve learned in the past year or so, the most key variable in AI success is authenticity. As we’ve continued on our AI journey’s we’ve all gotten a lot better at spotting obvious AI-generated copy. Supercharge anyone? But there are two things that are happening: 1\. The technology continues to evolve 2\. We continue to learn more about how to get the best out of this technology through careful implementation. But you can only do so much with a tool that isn’t up to snuff. There are two principal AI tools that seem to be getting the most attention: Claude and ChatGPT. So to save you time, we decided to delve into which tool yields the best results for your business growth. Let’s dive in. ## Claude 3 vs ChatGPT: What’s the difference? Since launching in 2022, ChatGPT has become world renowned for its versatility in a variety of different tasks, however many believe that Anthropic AI’s Claude has the advantage when it comes to generating copy with genuine authenticity, as well as being able to process larger documents. But in this case study, we’re going to put that theory to the test. ## Claude vs ChatGPT: Which is better? ### Ethical dilemmas The rise of AI has come with a lot of excitement, but we can’t overlook the anxiety surrounding [AI in SaaS](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#8-challenges-for-end-users-and-practitioners). This is understandable, after all, how can you expect a non-sentient being to employ the human discretion required when handling sensitive customer information/data or handling decision making. However, the developers of these tools are well-aware of this anxiety and are doing their best to build ethical AI tools. We wanted to test out how well both Claude and ChatGPT are able to puzzle out this ethical dilemma: ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXe0QtjyvbmfqDPlNjZa7RVjKactPWjZCWjqg6I5OmdFtvZY0g24PYlW_NEx3uzowrgT0_GDNxIjxPTfY7s0Em6EPGWkJ7_DLSLp_5jcQuu_SkDpvZyzM45l6cRLncgIhtN5iXTSEgPLXaStqYFsjvrNFuk?key=0YkjFPiYOlgJ8DA0V0rPrg) First, we put ChatGPT to the test. This was it’s possible solution to the problem: ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeegOax2mddcV_XmLVyT1uFPe-2aDYNPhg-mHeAGgPn27bWiw9bOdpw97gwy33XxvUzrV4Y8qjsvnKZ95_UMQqoQkkU6fJnpVQPlgMPnxSL10w8YBwDHjtoXsERCuUQEgK5O9wTcGqOCnCj982hyBV5laVg?key=0YkjFPiYOlgJ8DA0V0rPrg) As you can see, Chat gave a very nuanced and thorough approach to this problem, weighing up the different philosophies that might inform your point of view. This is extremely valuable in an AI tool, as you don’t want a tool that’s biased toward a particular ideology or point of view. This is promising, although, one could argue, that if you’re looking for a more concise response, it’s maybe not ideal. Another nice touch, however, is the weighing up of the pros and cons for each solution, as you can see here: ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeOe462Xc-k_7VgcIA8m4u-MRNvYZ3oMZQpKmrugJqdRgnDNSJTvcCGZnPyugK37Yw22yZ8pxe-8RK4dg7mOLGfOG_6s6CDfFB7SivrbT_zkjRrXLR8gYicDnm4E8pqpaWRVYQS8HKNiszmW489rn_0oM0a?key=0YkjFPiYOlgJ8DA0V0rPrg) Now, we put the same problem to Claude. Let’s take a look at this solution that Claude came up with: ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeY6gXynpP1q9lCdogrW-jH5-44_VyqPEg85GYWyGrKao3_LE4-VXwXEiJVNsk7ExUfwojX7JhZiv-T4WssPVAlndnRMVaBagEITQqOZYwyZ3Xmzw15Wdc-sxJwU709uCIbaIZsVLRNVdjqxYehbtdVod05?key=0YkjFPiYOlgJ8DA0V0rPrg) Once again, we get a very nuanced, balanced response, but the difference is in its concision, making the proposed solution more digestible. Although both tools take a reassuringly balanced approach, we like the tidiness of Claude’s output. This first point goes to Claude. **Winner: Claude** ### 2\. Different styles and tones Many companies will be looking to these tools for help with social media messaging and marketing copy, in general. One of the concerns on this has been that, despite the efficiency, it’s going to be difficult to write in a style that’s authentic to your brand’s unique tone of voice. When we think of AI, we think generic, robotic. The good news, however, is that both of these tools can be trained on your specific tone of voice, but we wanted to see which of these tools adopts a more authentic approach, so we put them to the test We took this serviceable, but fairly generic product description for SaaS Alliance. We asked both tools to jazz it up a bit, so that it could be more in line with our more colloquial tone of voice. > “SaaS Alliance is a global collective of SaaS leaders and thought leaders, and content hub written and curated by these experts. Through an extensive library of blog content, over 100 hours of OnDemand video hosted by some of the leading minds in the industry, and dynamic podcast discussions and webinars, you’ll unlock actionable insights and proactive strategies for leading your org to success." Here’s what ChatGPT came up with: : > “Welcome to SaaS Alliance – the ultimate global hub for SaaS leaders and trailblazers! Dive into our treasure trove of expert-curated content, featuring a vibrant library of blogs, over 100 hours of OnDemand videos from industry geniuses, and dynamic podcasts and webinars. Get ready to uncover actionable insights and cutting-edge strategies that will propel your organization to new heights. Join the SaaS Alliance today and lead your team to unstoppable success!” A stark improvement we think you’ll agree! But now let’s see how Claude matched up. > “Ready to supercharge your SaaS game? Welcome to SaaS Alliance – your ticket to the big leagues! We're not just another tech hub. We're a powerhouse collective of SaaS bigwigs and brainiacs who've been there, done that, and are ready to spill the beans. Imagine having the sharpest minds in the industry at your fingertips:Dive into our treasure trove of expert-crafted blogs; binge on 100+ hours of OnDemand video gold from industry rockstars; Tune into our addictive podcasts and webinars that'll make your commute fly by. Whether you're a SaaS newbie or a seasoned pro, we've got the secret sauce to skyrocket your success. No fluff, just real-world strategies that pack a punch. So, are you ready to join the Alliance and leave your competition in the dust?” Which version you prefer, probably comes down to your personal preference. We like how Claude has split the copy up, making the features stand out a little more, however, we do feel like it has fallen back on some pretty generic phrases that are a dead giveaway for AI generated copy. ( ‘Supercharge’ needs to go to room 101 for good). So, Claude wins for concision, but Chat wins for authenticity, It’s a tie. **Tie: Claude and ChatGPT** ### 3\. Product descriptions A product description is a must for any SaaS company. Customers need to know what your product does and how it will solve their problems, but more importantly, they need to know why they should choose your product over another. Both of these tools can write a product description for you. But as with anything AI related, it’s very much a case of **crap in = crap out.** The more details you can give the tool not only on what the product does but on who it’s intended for, will really help Chat generate copy that sells. For the purposes of this, we invented a fictitious company that sells organic luxury candles. Based on research into similar products, we provided these tools with as much information as we could. For the first step, we provided minimal details, but asked ChatGPT to create a simple product template for this. Here are the details we provided: ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdyW2avMFGkwR4vx5h_8FRAe_U2Pgu97OTM_ZG3B75b2BG9TgsjwFBbBqrh_JMXgGT5UmpbsQXOi79T-wIWuAg_XPVq7Cchpsq5-TQwxhLsgVLf6kLIH_GkhThIrLJgleOLDsYqmHatlOVQMhN2kygURcSr?key=0YkjFPiYOlgJ8DA0V0rPrg) Here’s what ChatGPT came up with in response: ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd-u42XjwJee6IKbHfBXOUrli69xmx55qM-h5-sX-e876GEkmPeII5rl_OhPM8Jx0Yg_ydC1e3JtXddDEtN2-sSgK0GlJ1tT7V4QOdj4Rs3c0yhUt3Pj69b883omsJtR9nPGYtAqZGRbBp8bLkwfL9rpN2_?key=0YkjFPiYOlgJ8DA0V0rPrg) As you can see, it’s already quite detailed and at the very least, it’s a good headstart for your basic product description. Where the details get a little hazy is in the follow up. ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdPRqfMQT3BqoQI4WQCq14aegWlXTPrv1Fj8VAIvMocCndmCf5OHB7SNlsDHwn_IeU1sRePdTE65Eay0-3eDak943PTvPayZ3i-TIVRtR7SNbC5xI2QGO7Y4Wk0vkoA1qAes5GXFvFfXyNHJsd96aOjCJ5G?key=0YkjFPiYOlgJ8DA0V0rPrg) So, let’s provide a view with more details, and hopefully, we’ll be a step closer to building out a detailed product description. Here’s the prompt we provided ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdxM5W2-z0-Kg4msUyfoRSydUJdHSVtZHgn5Z6fotArRRRCFJIA6RNVADB3ew_GVHJjBVNPF-wTS4xKH4c_0CgY2LeeA4kwPTDdpfH-rXCKk_40aMQtARS9p0gzIHETPHMtT8sGXVKO-j3MuCUcNRsqdvM?key=0YkjFPiYOlgJ8DA0V0rPrg) Here’s how the product description was adapted: ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfD5TbvCXo26Ev4wZpsyH4DRBmgdcGVYUXwCKWrNcvE9s2b9zd0BCmQILlIos1-cpQQBMWRb8e_QXJ6OXTntiblPSy-8DRJtOFRdaFJ5RcfXfG4vWtkK55IDovslSeH3W14go5eo94eL5hUlB6pcJpRQV4?key=0YkjFPiYOlgJ8DA0V0rPrg) As seen here, Chat has altered the copy to reflect the more targeted audience, although we find that the copy still retains the tone from before, we would hope that the TOV would be adapted to a more exclusive audience. So, we gave Claude the same task. Let’s see how it measured up: ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdx8TUcS6__j1Y65kPNJdskSbKXbiNGQgnaL0ZaKFv16l7mAIsTsTDxaE88qVsy2nNactzqWGkdzS2PBaw1ITGWuwlnzqAAbyI4lKTKEWVBtAQdeoc_M-wOKp3TNNeS2A860-Np4vOtOTYJfUeQS6RJXmh-?key=0YkjFPiYOlgJ8DA0V0rPrg) It’s the same details, but we feel Claude has done a great job at turning this information into the kind of punchy copy that appeals to the consumer who might be tempted to buy luxury household goods, effectively distinguishing this brand from potential competitors **Winner: Claude** ## Wrapping up: Winner Claude Ultimately, what you decide is down to personal preference, but whichever tool you choose to go with, it's important to repeat this mantra: crap in = crap out. As it turns out, getting the best results from a AI tool isn't so different than getting the best results from a human being. You have to be clear on the benefit of your product, what differentiates it, and who your intended audience is. Don't get caught up on showcasing features, instead think about the problem you're solving and make sure you communicate this to the tool. --- Like what you see? Why not keep up with new exclusive insights from the leading minds in SaaS with a [SaaS Alliance Membership plan? ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/) ### Ditch feature selling: 5 ways to craft customer stories that sell URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/ditch-feature-selling-5-ways-to-craft-customer-stories-that-sell/ Last updated: 2024-06-28T15:00:00.000Z As someone who teaches people how to tell compelling stories to get their prospects to take action, I've discovered a simple truth: feature-focused selling often falls flat, while **stories that resonate on a human level** are what *truly* drive sales. Over the past 18 months, I've trained sales teams at companies like NetSuite, Forbes, CrunchBase, and others on mastering customer storytelling. Through this work, I've analyzed feedback, recordings, and results to identify the most impactful ways to craft stories that convert and accelerate sales cycles. So today, I'll share the top five differentiators that have emerged - packaged into what I call the "TRUST checklist." **T** \- Tastefully insert stories **R** \- Relive don't retell **U** \- Use a story arc **S** \- Solidify your customer as the hero **T** \- Talk with influence When you master these five keys to captivating storytelling, you'll earn your prospects' undivided attention and accelerate the trust to drive action and revenue. You'll find your teams better able to capture attention, articulate value, and maneuver sales cycles by harnessing the power of narrative. Let’s get started … ## **T: The power of social proof** Dr. Cialdini's book *Influence* highlights a fascinating study done in Beijing restaurants. Researchers added asterisks next to certain menu items, indicating they were popular dishes. Those items were then purchased **13-20%** more frequently. What's more astounding is that the group most influenced by this social proof were first-time visitors to the restaurants. Just like when I went shopping for a stroller before my daughter's birth in 2022, uncertainty about what to buy had me and my wife desperately seeking external validation. In those uncertain moments, we crave stories of people just like us who have walked the path before. However, not all social proof carries the same weight. Case studies overloaded with features won't land nearly as well as an emotive customer story that lets your prospect envision themselves in that narrative. To capitalize on this, I advise sales teams to use a three-step process before launching into a story: **1) Ask an open-ended question to prompt the prospect to share their own story first.** **2) Follow up with "What else?" to draw out more context.** **3) Finish with "Tell me more" to make them feel fully heard.** Only once you've allowed the prospect to open up are you positioned to share a relevant customer story that accelerates trust. ## **R: Relive, don't retell** Many salespeople mistakenly think storytelling is an innate talent rather than a skill. As a result, they tend to drone through case studies in a drab, grocery list-like fashion devoid of emotion. To counter this, I teach teams to relive stories with their prospects rather than dryly retelling them. Consider this example: "The other week, I was on a call with Jamie, a VP of sales, and he turned to me and said, 'Ravi, we've realized that numbers don't lie, and people do. We need to reevaluate our outbound motion.' Then he said something crazy that I couldn't believe from a sales leader..." By kicking off the story this way, you mentally transport your listener into that specific moment through vivid details. Compare that to an emotionless retelling like, "We worked with Mill Enterprises, who had a customer success problem, and then this happened, and then that happened." Which version captured your attention more? Which built greater trust? **Reliving rather than retelling** is a subtle shift, but it allows your prospect to emotionally invest in the narrative. ## **U: Use a story arc** When I began this work, I studied various story structure frameworks like the hero's journey. While powerful for novels and screenplays, I found these complex arcs too unwieldy for salespeople telling short, impromptu stories. That's why I simplify the story structure down to four core elements that create an intuitive arc: **1) Context** \- Introduce the human protagonist and their world. **2) Conflict** \- Establish the challenge or pain point they face. **3) Turning point** \- Describe their pivotal "aha" moment of clarity. **4) Transformation** \- Reveal the positive outcome they achieved. For example: > *"Jamie, the VP of sales at Mill Enterprises, was struggling with high customer churn (context/conflict). But after realizing their data was untrustworthy, they took a hard look at their outbound processes (turning point).* > > *By following a simple four-step approach, Jamie felt relieved when total sales increased 17.8% in under 13 weeks, finally allowing him to hire a sales manager he desperately needed (transformation)."* Notice how that story arc flows in an engaging, logical sequence. But it doesn't stop there... To make these narratives even more impactful, I recommend using this framework: **Hook** \- Capture attention with a surprising stat, statement, or question. ⬇ **Story** \- Following the context, conflict, turning point, transformation structure. ⬇ **Impact** \- Directly tying the story back to how it benefits the prospect. ⬇ **Call to conversation** \- End with a thought-provoking question, not a pitch. This allows you to package customer stories in a way that feels purposeful and natural, rather than forced or salesy. ## **S: Set your prospect** up **as the hero** We often hear the advice, "*Don't be the hero of the story; make your customer the hero!*" But while this makes sense conceptually, most salespeople don't know how to actually execute it. The key is realizing that the vehicle for transformation is your "secret sauce" solution, not your company's name. For example: ****Poor example:**"**By following our proven four-step methodology, we were able to help Mill Enterprises increase sales by 20%*." ****Better example:** "**By following a simple four-step approach, Jamie felt relieved when he saw a 17.8% increase in total sales in probably less than 13 weeks. But here's the cool thing - it finally allowed him to hire a sales manager he'd been needing*." In the second version, your company is never directly mentioned. Jamie is the clear protagonist achieving his objective. The details like "**17.8%**" and "**less than 13 weeks**" add specificity that elevates authenticity and believability. Too many salespeople want to swoop in as the hero who saves the day, but that's narratively unsatisfying and off putting. It’s far better to equip your customer to be the hero of their own transformation story. ## **T: Talk with influence** The final key to customer storytelling mastery? Using your voice intentionally as an instrument of influence. I once had an audience volunteer read the sentence "I didn't say she robbed a bank" with different emphasis each time: > "I didn't say she robbed a bank." (Implying someone else said it.) > "I didn't say she robbed a bank." (Contrasting with something worse she did.) > "I didn't say she robbed a bank." (Suggesting she robbed a different place.) With just a subtle shift in emphasis, the meaning morphed completely. Your voice inflections can make or break whether your story has its intended impact. Unfortunately, most salespeople aren't speaking with purposeful emphasis. They're unconsciously landing emphasis in the wrong spots, weakening their ability to captivate listeners. So coach your teams to be intentional with their vocal delivery. Add emphasis, pause for dramatic effect, modulate your volume and tone. Their voices are a masterful storytelling tool that can make tales truly resonate. ## **Conclusion** There's a reason stories have enthralled humans since the dawn of civilization. When told in an authentic, emotionally resonant way, they hold incredible power to shape our thoughts, beliefs, and actions. So ditch the dry, feature-heavy product spiels that prospects tune out. Instead, equip your sales team with the TRUST checklist: **T** \- Tastefully insert stories by prompting prospects to share their own first **R** \- Relive stories in vivid detail rather than dully retelling them **U** \- Use a purposeful story structure with context, conflict, turning point, and transformation **S** \- Solidify your prospect as the hero by making them the centerpiece **T** \- Talk with emphatic vocal influence to captivate your audience When your sellers master these five differentiators of effective customer storytelling, they'll captivate prospects' attention, accelerate trust, and ultimately drive more sales than any bullet-pointed pitch deck could. As a sales enablement professional, you have the opportunity to truly transform your organization's customer conversations! ### 5 things I wish I had known before my first year as a manager URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/5-things-i-wish-i-had-known-before-my-first-year-as-a-manager/ Last updated: 2024-06-28T10:00:09.000Z ***I never thought getting into this role would be easy, but I couldn't have imagined it would be this hard!*** Stepping into a management role for the first time can be daunting. But with the right preparation and perspective, you can thrive in your first year as a new leader. As a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Nayax who recently took on managing a team, I learned a lot during my initial foray into leadership. In this article, I'm sharing the five insights I wish I had known before starting my first year of managing others. My goal is to provide you with helpful tips and tools as you embark on your own journey in a new leadership role. With the lessons I gained from my experience, you can move forward with confidence and master this transition. 1. Don’t wait for the stars to align - ask for the role you want 2. You’re not a colleague anymore - managing your teammates 3. Making the hardest call as a manager - changing the team 4. People will always talk - managers are in the spotlight 5. Motivate, celebrate success, and look forward - establishing your team within the organization ## **Don't wait for the stars to align - Ask for the role you want** It might sound basic, but I've learned the hard way that if I don't ask, no one is going to offer. And yes, there may not be an open position at the moment, and you may not see it happening anytime soon, but your manager has to know that this is what you want. They have a different view of the organization and what's ahead, as well as an impression of your abilities. When I told my manager I wanted to advance into a managerial position she responded with the following: 1. Good to know. I can see you as a TL (team leader) in the future. 2. There will be a possible position probably in the next 6-12 months. 3. For you to be a TL in this organization, you need to work on A, B, and C. This gave me a clear understanding of how long it would take and what I needed to do to get there. As we moved forward, some things were easier to achieve, and some more challenging, and a TL position opened about 6 months after this conversation. In my case, there was a reorg within our product marketing team which meant that it wasn’t the smoothest transition. I believe this may be the case for some other first-time managers, so hopefully, this can help. ## **You’re not a colleague anymore - Managing your teammates** It’s official - I’m a manager! Since it was an internal promotion, and we're a small team, that meant that I was going to manage my colleagues. To measure our success, I had set in place 30-60-90 goals for myself and the team. Looking at skills and achievements. And, these were my key takeaways (AKA first lessons as a manager): ### **Your job is to lead** Your team will be affected by your attitude. My #1 lesson was to learn how to motivate my team and part of it was to showcase my motivation, to frame tasks in their bigger picture and present their impact, and to make sure we’re enjoying the journey. ### **Finding everyone’s preferred way of working** Everyone works differently - some people will prefer to work alone, some in teams. Some like to brainstorm, some have their own visions. Here the DISC assessment helped me and provided me with tools to better work with my team. Consult your HRBP and see which tools they can provide you with! We had a managers workshop where I learned about the DISC assessment and got a lot of other practical tools. ### **Measure outcomes, not outputs** Measuring success is a challenging KPI, especially for PMMs. It took us almost two years as a department and a year for my team to find the relevant KPIs to measure impact (i.e. outcomes) beyond the number of items we’ve created (i.e. outputs.). This helps to motivate the team to look at the results their work garnered, as well as show the team’s impact within the organization. While this is nice in theory, the practical challenge was to shift from conversing with my teammates, blowing off steam, and sharing my frustrations to motivating, leading, and forging the way. Since I’m still human, I’ve found other managers in the organization, at my level, for the “I’m only human” parts. Make sure you have your forum, otherwise it could get lonely. Marketing inside out: Put your team first Think marketing is all about your customers? According to Tim Parkin, marketing advisor to a portfolio of multimillion-dollar brands, you’re thinking about it all wrong. Instead, you need to be looking inwards and focusing on marketing internally to get everyone engaged, motivated, and on brand. ## **Making the hardest call as a manager - Changing the team** In my first year as a manager, I’ve rebuilt the team. It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve made. Replacing employees comes at a high cost - you lose knowledge, relationships that have been established, and familiarity, and, of course, it also hurts morale. After a challenging year of trying to position the team while also firing, hiring, training, and working all along I can say that it’s **definitely worth it**. When you have the right people by your side you can accomplish more than you’ve ever imagined, or, at least that’s how I feel. Having a strong team means becoming a stronger leader. The more you can count on each other, the more room there is to grow. When I started interviewing, my manager gave me the best advice “Don’t be afraid to hire strong people. People you can learn from, and people that will challenge you are the kind of people you want on your team.” To be honest, this was the hardest yet most rewarding part of my job thus far. Highest cost and the greatest reward. ## **People will always talk - Managers are in the spotlight** Managing people means that everyone will have an opinion of you. This was yet another serious shift for me, someone who used to shy away from the spotlight. For better or worse, people will talk about who you hired, how your team presented, and even if you look tired, giddy, calm, or happier than usual. Of course, your team will talk about you, and not to you, as well. The takeaway here is what I would tell any human being - be open to feedback, and don’t take it personally. Some comments will just be comments without merit, and some will be substantial and things to look at and pay attention to. It is what it is. Be approachable, and keep an open line of communication. When you get feedback, make sure you’re not automatically defensive, even if you disagree with it. At this point, I’m sure I’ve made mistakes, and I’m sure I’ve hurt others. All I can do is listen, apologize, learn, and go from there. ## **Motivate, celebrate success, and look forward - Establishing your team within the organization** So, you have built a team. What’s next? It’s time for the fun part - positioning the team within the organization. I can’t say I have this part figured out yet, but here’s what I’ve been working on: 1. **Talk about progress -** whether it’s work or professional goals, reflect to them what they’ve achieved. 2. **Be vocal about their successes** \- talk them up to managers and other stakeholders. Make sure relevant stakeholders know their impact. 3. **Relate to their career aspirations** \- check in and see if their day-to-day aligns with their career goals, and if not, align to create a path for them. 4. **Make sure they’re in the room where it happens** \- if their impact is seen and known across the organization, this will happen organically. If not, make sure people in the organization understand the role of a PMM and why they should be there “even before we have a product.” 5. **Keep it fun** \- it may be a simple offsite, holding your 1:1 at a coffee shop, or an actual OOO activity. Don’t let budgets deter you. There’s always an opportunity at a low to no cost to change the atmosphere and do something different. This is just the start for me on my managerial path, and although it sometimes feels like I’m making more mistakes than right decisions, I’ve already learned so much. I hope this helps others who are just starting or considering a managerial role. And I can’t wait to see what year two as a manager has in store. ### Scaling your SaaS startup? How to assemble a high-impact leadership team URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-saas-startup-how-to-assemble-a-high-impact-leadership-team/ Last updated: 2024-06-21T16:00:37.000Z This article comes from **Hope Horner**’s insightful talk, ‘*Building effective leadership teams during times of high growth*’, at our **2022 Women in SaaS Summit**, check out her full presentation [**here**](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-2/?%5Fgl=1%2A1esufem%2A%5Fup%2AMQ..%2A%5Fga%2ANDQwNDQ4NTI3LjE3MTg4ODYyMzQ.%2A%5Fga%5F227NRQHH28%2AMTcxODg4NjIzNC4xLjEuMTcxODg4NjI0NS4wLjAuMA..&wchannelid=r8ukxoexls&wmediaid=jgm36myipg). --- As someone who’s started and grown multiple companies, I know firsthand how crucial - yet challenging - it is to build an [effective leadership team](https://www.saasalliance.io/leadership-talent-and-global-scaling/) when your business is in hypergrowth mode. At my current company Lemonlight, a video production platform for brands, we went through a *major* growth spurt in 2021, suddenly hiring over 100 new employees in just 18 months. This explosive growth forced me to build out a strong leadership team from scratch. To be honest, we made pretty much every mistake in the book initially, but we've learned a ton along the way about [what it takes to hire](https://www.saasalliance.io/a-model-to-fast-track-new-hires-to-productivity/) and enable managers who can guide your company through rapid expansion. Today, I want to share some of those hard-learned lessons with you since having the *right* people in the *right* leadership roles is make-or-break when you're scaling fast. So let's dive into how to get it right. ## **The importance of organizational design** ### One of the first things I had to wrap my head around was [organizational design](https://www.saasalliance.io/b2b-saas-the-right-org-structure-at-the-right-stage/). As an efficiency-loving, process-obsessed leader, the chaos and lack of structure that comes with hypergrowth used to drive me crazy. I constantly wanted to "fix" everything before moving on to the next phase. But as the legendary Ben Horowitz says, > *"All organization designs are bad, since they will inherently optimize communication among some parts of the organization at the expense of others*." In other words, you can't have perfection - some dysfunction is inevitable. The key is to be intentional about how you structure your org. That means first taking a hard look at where your biggest knowledge and capacity gaps exist as a leadership team, those are the areas where you’ll need to hire real strategic leadership. For example, at Lemonlight none of the co-founders had a strong technical background. So one of our first key executive hires was a VP of Technology who could provide that vision and build out the whole engineering team and process from scratch. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### SaaScast: Discovering the future of customer success URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-discovering-the-future-of-customer-success/ Last updated: 2024-06-20T15:31:46.000Z Customer success is the heartbeat of SaaS companies. It's what keeps customers happy, loyal, and coming back for more. In the world of recurring subscriptions, ensuring customers get real value from the product is everything. But where is this essential function headed in the future? That’s what we wanted to find out in this latest edition of SaaScast. Watch now! 👇 ## Key talking points And to drive home the point, we sat down with a respected customer success leader, and not just any leader, but one of SuccessHACKER’s top customer success leaders. Meet Vishal Arya, a distinguished customer success leader, and Principal Customer Success Manager at Docsumo. In this holistic deep-dive into customer success, we covered a variety of topics, including: ✅The role of customer success in SaaS growth ✅The evolution of customer success ✅ The role of Artificial intelligence in customer success And if you take your podcasts on the go, why not listen over on Spotify? ## Get involved Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Creator, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: anthony@pmmalliance.com ### Top AI-driven saas companies to scale and achieve retention URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-ai-can-help-your-saas-company-to-scale/ Last updated: 2024-10-31T10:59:21.000Z We know that AI is all the rage right now, as SaaS leaders across the globe are waking up to its potential for infinite content creation. Content is a pivotal tool in your marketing tool box, allowing you to engage customers too savvy for traditional sales or marketing tactics. But there are many other ways that AI powered software can enable you to scale and retain at pace, and we wanted to hear it from the experts themselves. In this article, we're utilizing both qualitative and quantitative insights from SaaS professionals across the globe to determine exactly how artificial intelligence and machine learning is going to help you smash your revenue goals and achieve airtight retention. Here, we'll be looking at how AI can assist you in: - Data collection and analysis - Customer support - Dynamic content creation - Cybersecurity and data protection But first, let's look at the bigger picture... ## SaaS and AI According to NarrativeScience, **80%** of business and IT leaders agree that AI increases productivity, however, as of 2022, only **37%** of businesses employ AI across their org. You can get ahead of the curve by unlocking the potential of [AI for your SaaS org](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/) today. In the[ Future of SaaS Report](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-report-2/), we asked SaaS leaders and professionals about the extent to which they plan to integrate AI into their org. **53%** of our respondents reported that they plan to use AI as a major part of their business going forward, **27%** reported that they have no plans to implement AI, and **20%** reported that they’re already using it. ![Survey results ](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/ZQtUA8ci81YrXsOudhtIqboJGtLOOrvv1QA640LAya5JCzfi5kYmYCXJH2QEWLdjOWgeXMowzEAyhWdbf2614bqjKSoLcxTJYSvZ7kDFDojLTeFMc_4WOAUAQpme6TDkAImxc_I8UMQcCfDe95PtBvM) Since in both our quantitative and qualitative findings, AI was the most frequently cited development, we thought we’d delve deep into the various aspects of your SaaS product that AI has the potential to touch. We asked our participants about the most crucial benefits. A resounding **48%** believed that the most significant benefit would be in data collection, **20%** said scalability, **16%** said customer service, and another **16%** said cybersecurity. ![Survey results](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/0F03XgEDzyaw-tSvbXjcmDVPSGU7JTOgtFDetyPp6NXOk5GaMS_P5cIBgoQs_F3N_82UpNRzKVtV8Q9Qelu-B3a_ROrkqkqbY8UE59cLJALi_XLGjuuO0z9ZBE2BGY7Il4_vId-i4tdJPsoxtvuk-J8) The beauty of the SaaS model is that it allows orgs to drive prospects through the sales funnel at a brisk pace. Customers are able to sign up, on board, and get started, potentially within minutes of showing interest. Although you’re likely going to be wanting to staff your SaaS org with highly capable experts, AI can take much of the heavy lifting with regards to scaling (dealing with customer queries, automated processes, analyzing data, etc) off the shoulders of your human personnel and allow them to focus on the more complex tasks that only human beings can do. ### How do SaaS companies benefit from AI? All SaaS businesses want to achieve growth, and AI can enable orgs to achieve growth by delegating simpler, more time consuming tasks to this technology. Employing staff to man all processes can be extremely costly. The deployment of AI can be an investment that allows SaaS orgs to cut down significantly on unnecessary expenses and increase profits. Now, let’s look closer at the aspect of SaaS operations that received the highest number of votes, data collection. ### Data collection and analysis A common mistake – especially with early-stage startups – is that they are often more concerned with converting new customers than retention and consolidation. But retention is no easy feat, it requires establishing a bedrock of trust with your customer base. How do you create trust? By anticipating and addressing the needs of your existing customer base. According to research from Salesforce, by 2020, **75%** of B2B customers expect suppliers to predict and pre-empt their needs before they initiate contact. An essential component of this is customer data. SaaS orgs want to segment customer types according to their needs and intentions. SaaS orgs want to be able to react and adapt to customer data quickly. [How you can use AI to push boundaries in SaaS productsJuliette Denny, CEO at Growth Engineering, outlines Artificial Intelligence in detail, including how it can be used to push boundaries in SaaS.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJuliette Denny![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/possessed-photography-zbLW0FG8XU8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/) But this can be extremely difficult when the data collection and segmentation alone can require so much time and so many resources. AI can segment and organize customer data quickly and seamlessly, providing us with essential insight on whether our SaaS solutions are solving the problems they claim to solve. It also provides incredible potential for personalization and customization. AI is capable of real time data analysis, an essential tool for having an accurate profile of your customers when you need it , as well as being able to pull up key bottom line metrics as and when you need them. AI can also provide a tremendous assist to your sales reps, identifying high-potential leads, so that reps don’t waste time trying to push low-potential leads through the sales funnel. To find out how AI can benefit your Saas org in other ways, we asked Chris Martinez, Founder at Idiomatic. **How has AI technology benefited your org’s data?** "Idiomatic is an AI-driven platform that analyzes feedback so businesses can pull actionable insights from a clear customer picture and grow. As AI is at the core of our business model, we are affected by its improvement in our own operations, and externally, in how it enables us to get an accurate picture of customers. Artificial intelligence is allowing us to understand and design experiences for customers in a way we never have before. [How PMs are overcoming challenges and embracing the best AI has to offerWe’ve recently touched on the challenges facing AI product managers in 2021, and for the follow up we wanted to explore just how those challenges are being tackled and how AI is being embraced.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAdam Bennett![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/PMs-embracing-the-best-AI-has-to-offer.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-pms-are-overcoming-challenges-and-embracing-the-best-ai-has-to-offer/) Through AI-driven sentiment analysis, you can understand customer pain points with less bias — you can get to the data-driven conclusion of what issues are most important without having your perspective tinted by what you believe is the most important correction. In doing so, you can change things for your product that are going to have the maximum impact for customers, and therefore your business. I n the future, AI is going to set you apart from your competitors in measuring feedback — both in the quantity of feedback and the quality of your data analysis. This will give you the insight to improve user experience where it counts most.” ### Scalability beyond human capability Although B2B companies historically have expected a longer sales cycle, recent research shows that customers in 2022 are becoming more accustomed, due to advances in technology, to quicker processes. If you want to stay competitive, you can’t neglect the potential of AI for scalability. What if you could have the infrastructure to not only identify bugs but fix them as quickly as they arise? This is the unique gift that AI systems can offer you. ### Customer service Although it’s been commonly thought that AI is more adept at data-driven tasks as opposed to more creative tasks, AI has made great strides in recent years, and through natural language processing technology (NLP), AI is now able to produce language in a more authentically human way. For SaaS orgs that have successfully leveraged AI, this has offered a wealth of benefits. Firsty, for those more fundamental challenges that new adopters of your software might be dealing with, AI is able to address and solve those challenges faster and more efficiently than human talent can. ### Content creation The second huge benefit of course is in content creation. AI solutions such as ChatGPT and Jasper are able to reel off fairly competent commercial copy in seconds. **However, an important caveat**: the information that language processing software puts out is only as good as the information you put in. Be very specific about the purpose, the audience, the role that the software is filling, and the context of the situation. For example, rather than: “ I need an email to persuade existing customers to renew their subscription with our product.” This is adequate, but a better instruction might be something like: “ You’re a senior marketing executive that is trying to get existing customers to renew their subscription with your company. [Personalize your B2B marketing with AIIn this article, we’re going to take a look at the different applications for AI in providing a personalized experience to your customers and why they would be beneficial to your relationship.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/Personalize-your-B2B-marketing-with-AI.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/personalize-your-b2b-marketing-with-ai/) In recent years, the company has seen a rise in churn due to customers not being aware of the benefits offered to existing customers. In the email, please stress that customers who renew after a year-long contract get a discount on new features (include details on added features) as well as a chance to join our customer advisory board (include details on what the board offers in the way of benefits.)" In short, when it comes to customer serving roles, AI can assist you considerably, but like any tool it needs to be supervised and informed by the emotional intelligence that only human talent can master. ### Cybersecurity and data protection All SaaS companies want to identify the pain points of customers; this is an essential component of establishing trust. But it pales in comparison to the level of trust that is formed by your customers feeling that their sensitive data is safe. This, of course, has major ramifications for your brand reputation. The sheer scale and ever-evolving nature of cyber attacks in the digital world have reached the point where it’s beyond human capability to anticipate and intercept them. **Intelligence-enabled automation** can identify and solve potential threats as soon as they arise, with a level of precision that matches its scope. When we think about cybersecurity, your finance department is going to immediately spring to mind. To see how this works in progress, let’s look at how Payment Expert Yuriy Kropelnytsky has utilized AI, and specifically, machine learning, to protect the data of clients. **How is new technology benefiting finance as a whole?** "Technology is making many people’s lives more convenient at an astonishing rate. In banking, this means that financial institutions must process billions of transactions with greater accuracy since more and more customers choose to bank online. However, wherever there’s an abundance of data, the potential for fraudulent behavior grows greater. Luckily, financial institutions can apply machine learning in several areas of the overall payment process to prevent many types of fraud." **Can you delve specifically into the different aspects of finance that are benefitted?** 1. "Credit card and mobile payment fraud often involves stealing card data, so ML solutions mainly focus on identifying transactions that don’t fit into the clients’ regular spending habits." 2. Point-of-Sale (POS) fraud is usually performed by employees to steal money from their employers. The best prevention for POS fraud is regular data checks conducted after every shift, day, week, or at the end of the month. ML can play a significant role in analyzing chunks of data to validate the number of logs per user, transaction deletions, bill records, refunds given per customer, and loyalty program card usage. 3. Email phishing is a type of fraud in which emails pose as legitimate contact, containing links to lure users into entering their sensitive data. ML-based malware scanners are one of the most successful tools able to detect malicious emails and delete them before they even get to the user’s inbox. Microsoft and Google both implement these ML-based solutions. " Now that we’ve looked closely at some of the benefits of AI, let’s look closer at some of the products available on the market right now and how they can assist you in your growth-chasing efforts. ## Top 15 AI-driven SaaS products ### DataRobot ![DataRobot dashboard](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/datarobot.webp) DataRobot offers a robust toolset for all levels of data scientists. For experts, it provides a library of the latest algorithms and prototypes for feature extraction and data preparation, along with automated ensembling for creating accurate predictive models. For newcomers, it automates best practices, eliminating trial-and-error guesswork by selecting optimal features, algorithms, and parameters. Business data analysts can easily transition from reporting to prediction, performing tasks that once required advanced expertise. Overall, DataRobot reduces risk, cost, and time, simplifying machine learning and maximizing valuable data science skills for better, faster business decisions. ### Anthropic ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/claude.jpg) Although it does much the same thing as ChatGPT, Anthropic's Clade has gained quite the reputation for it's more natural-sounding copy creation, ss well as its ability to more accurately understand human communication. The result of this is that Claude is often a better option for avoiding the kind of careless inaccuracies that can occur when you allow AI to do most of the heavy lifting. ### Sisense ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/sisense.jpeg) Sisense uses AI to uncover hidden insights and suggest new visualizations, all within the context of your dashboard's data model. Exploration widgets provide an excellent way to answer spontaneous questions that come up when you're analyzing a KPI. ### Essence ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/essence-AI.jpg) Essence's AI-powered platform turns qualitative customer feedback and competitor reviews into actionable insights. Prioritize your product roadmap based on key customer needs and boost adoption and engagement. ### Wix ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/AI_Release_Wix.jpeg) Wix's AI text creator is the ultimate fix for writer's block. Just tell the AI what kind of text you need, answer a few quick questions, and get custom content for your site. Whether you need catchy titles or detailed text that's perfectly optimized for your brand and user intent, Wix’s AI makes creating content super easy. ### ClickUp Brain ![clickup brain](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/clickup-brain.png) ClickUp Brain boosts every part of your workflow, making things run more smoothly. Need to draft project plans quickly? Done. Want to instantly create subtasks from task details? Easy. Get real-time project summaries and updates without having to open a task? Absolutely. Brain offers a bunch of conversational, contextual, and role-based AI features that you can use anywhere in ClickUp. These features help you connect your team's people, work, and knowledge effortlessly. ### Drift ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/drift-ai.png) Many AI chat solutions need you to ask questions in just the right way and order to get an answer. But Drift’s AI system goes beyond that by combining machine learning and natural language processing. This allows Drift to recognize patterns in conversations and use them to respond to website visitors in real time. So, unlike AI bots that just pull up information and give a canned answer, Drift understands why someone is asking a question and provides the best next action based on that understanding. ### ChatGPT ![ChatGPT landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/chatgpt-page.jpg) Out of all the AI offerings that have emerged over recent years, Open AI is the one that has perhaps generated the most buzz, especially with its ChatGPT model. This state-of-the-art AI platform provides access to a variety of cutting-edge models, enabling you to develop innovative applications and solutions. This platform is designed to be easy to use and integrate with your existing workflows, so you can start exploring the possibilities of AI right away. Plus, with dedicated support and resources, you'll have everything you need to get the most out of the platform. ### Jasper ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/Jasper-AI.png) With the ability to generate copy for everything from ads to blog post outlines, Jasper makes it easy to create high-quality content in just seconds. And with support for over 25 languages, including Spanish, Italian, and German, you can easily convert English content for use in international campaigns. Take your content game to the next level with Jasper's recipes and automated workflows, which can help speed up the content creation process and save you even more time. ### Bonus: Jasper vs ChatGPT Since Jasper and ChatGPT were the two most popular tools in our AI surveying, we decided to quickly weigh up the pros and cons of these two AI solutions. ChatGPT pros: - ChatGPT is trained on a very broad library of text, which makes it highly versatile in terms of the functions and tone of voice it can adopt. - Speaking of versatility, you might only know this tool for its content capabilities, but it can actually utilize a whole host of use cases, including chatbots, translation, and question answering. - It’s free (at least for now) ChatGPT cons: - As a highly specialized solution, this tool is not always easy to use for the less tech- savvy. Jasper pros: - Jasper is designed to be intuitive, with a simple drag and drop interface that makes it easy to use. - Jasper is highly customizable, meaning that users are more empowered in content creation. Jasper cons: - For those that don’t have the funds to splash out on AI software, Jasper might not be the best solution, as pricing starts at $59 per month. Now that we’ve been through the most popular solutions from our survey, let’s look at some other tools available on the market. ### Writesonic ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/writesonic.png) Struggling to rustle up product descriptions, or sales emails? Writesonic can pull it off without a hitch! With over 40 templates designed to cater to various copywriting needs, Writesonic is perfect for writers of any skill level. From using tried-and-true copywriting formulas like AIDA and PAS, to generating custom copy based on your own inputs, this platform makes writing copy easier than ever before. With a simple and user-friendly interface, Writesonic streamlines the writing process so you can focus on creating high-quality content that resonates with your audience. [Understanding how to best use AI in customer successThe thoughtful implementation of AI-enabled customer success platforms can greatly enhance Customer Success Managers’ (CSM) ability to maximize the value of customer data and ultimately help reduce churn and improve the overall health of client relationships.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLaura Lakhwara![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/the-world-lit-up.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/understanding-how-to-best-use-ai-in-customer-success-2/) ### Smartwriter ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/smartwriter.jpeg) Smartwriter lets you generate personalized content quickly and efficiently. With access to over 40+ sources of information, including LinkedIn activity, Google and Facebook Reviews, website content, and recent blog posts, you can easily find the most relevant information to craft the perfect outreach message. ### Sapling ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/sapling.png) With this powerful piece of AI software, you can ensure good grammar and avoid spelling errors and bad sentence structures, ensuring that your team communicates effectively with customers. Plus, with auto-complete suggestions and snippets that can be activated using command lines, you can speed up response times and increase efficiency even further. The time it takes to respond to customer queries can make a big difference. As the minutes tick away, the chances of customer churn increases. With this AI technology you can respond to customer pain points as and when they arise. ### Reclaim ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/reclaim-ai.png) Reclaim helps you remove the hurdles and headaches from packed scheduling. Integration with Google Calendar ensures efficiency by adapting to your calendar changes while blocking out time to avoid double bookings. But that's not all. Reclaim also lets you create tasks and integrate them with your favorite project management tools to boost productivity. ### Gliacloud ![Gliacloud](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/gliastudio.png) With Gliacloud, you can create viral videos with ease, share trending news and hot topics on your social media channels in minutes. This unique tool’s intuitive interface means that there are no video editing skills needed - just drag and drop your content and trim videos to your liking. Whether it's for product releases, social media, UGC, or personalized videos, this software offers a range of use cases, and allows you to maximize the potential of your existing content by including turning articles into videos. ## **Let's look to the future of SaaS** It's a mistake to look at AI and ML as a substitute for human effort. Instead you should look at it as a supplement. We believe the future of SaaS is innovation, but in order to give yourself the breathing space to innovate, it's essential that you take advantage of how technology can pick up the slack with those menial yet essential day-to-day tasks. In order to create products that delight and excite customers, you have to have a firm grasp on human emotions and needs, something that AI can never achieve. But this demands thinking time, so give yourself the thinking time. Allow AI to automate so that you can **innovate**! --- *Like what you see? Why not check out our exclusive content with a* [*SaaS membership plan?*](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/) ### From crickets to conversions: crafting BOTF articles that drive sales URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/from-crickets-to-conversions-crafting-botf-articles-that-drive-sales/ Last updated: 2024-06-18T12:38:40.000Z Bottom-of-the-funnel articles undoubtedly have high revenue potential as they are built around keywords with low competition and high conversion rates. Plus, they target high purchase intent readers actively seeking your product, only requiring more information to justify their purchase. However, several BOTF articles still gather dust on the shelves of search engine result pages (SERPS). They don’t generate revenue. No one reads and remembers them. And they fail to convert high-intent searchers into paying customers. On the other side of the library are BOTF articles without dust and generating conversions because they: 1. Target readers that need the product 2. Cover a topic that’s tied to a reader pain point 3. Highlight only features, capabilities, and benefits relevant to the target audience ![The benefit of BOTF articles](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/The-benefit-of-BOTF-articles.png) Numbers 1 and 2 are easy to achieve because they are easily evident from surface-level audience research. However, many BOTF articles fail to nail number 3, leading to what I call “features-audience mismatch”. ## What is features-audience mismatch? Features-audience mismatch occurs when you write a BOTF article highlighting product features not needed by the target audience. When this happens, the reader is less likely to convert because: 1. They're not convinced your product is what they need to solve their problem. 2. It doesn't appeal to their natural self-interest. And since it fails to do that, the reader will leave in a flash to find a competing product. This is the reason why some BOTF articles boast crazy conversions and others get crickets. Readers won’t reach into their pockets if you don't convince them you're the solution they're looking for. One important thing, however: Some products are more prone to feature-audience mismatch than others. Let’s delve into those now. [Master the SaaS sales funnel: Turn leads into loyal customersUnlock the power of your SaaS sales funnel with our comprehensive guide. From understanding the unique stages of the funnel to optimizing customer onboarding, discover key strategies for conversion and retention. L![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/saas-sales-funnel.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/master-the-saas-sales-funnel-turn-leads-into-loyal-customers/) ### Products servicing several audience segments are more prone to features-audience mismatch Some products serve several audience segments, increasing the chances of showcasing the wrong features for the wrong audience. Take the example of a productivity software with the following features: - Time blocking - Alarms to alert when it's time for a particular activity - A to-do list - A planner - Invoicing for clients - Time tracking for tasks (Pomodoro) As expected, the following people will have use for the product: - A remote worker who's struggling to stay on task. - A student looking for a more efficient way to keep track of assignments, take notes, note down times and dates for classes, and set alarms for early morning classes. - A busy executive leading a Fortune 500 company struggling to juggle several tasks simultaneously. - A freelancer with numerous clients at a time. Each audience segment will have a different need for the software because they have different challenges and, therefore, varying needs for the product. So, if you're doing a BOTF article titled "Productivity software for CEOS," the features you would highlight include the following: - Booking meetings easily - Note taking - Time blocking for tasks - Integration with calendar What if the title changes to "productivity software for freelancers"? You'd still highlight features 1 through 4 but add two more to appeal to the needs of the new target reader: - Time tracking - Invoicing for clients If a BOTF article doesn't highlight these two features, a freelancer will likely search for another tool and never return. They might go on to use a competing product, even if yours is better. Now you grasp the magnitude of the problem, what's the solution? We'll dig into each of them in detail now, but if you're a bit strapped for time, we've compiled them in this handy infographic: ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/solutions-for-audience-feature-mismatch.png) ## Solution 1: Don't assume you know what the reader wants As marketers with years of experience running campaigns, creating multiple audience personas, and working across industries, it's common to think we know the customers very well. Probably even more than they know themselves. We think we know what they want and understand what drives them to look for our product. Therefore, we do some surface-level research, throw in some random features, write and publish the article, and then wait for the sign-ups to flood in. Besides, BOTF articles target high-intent keywords and are likelier to generate conversions than other content types, right? However, approaching BOTF articles with this mindset causes us to highlight the wrong features for the audience segment the article is supposed to target. There's a simple solution: Assume you know nothing about their needs, especially if your target audience is not marketers. Then, implement the following strategies to know more about the customer. ### **Listen to the customer** Hear what customers think by listening to call recordings, conducting surveys, and running interviews. You should do this for the different customer segments that need your product before you start content marketing campaigns or create a content strategy. Then, repeat the process whenever you're writing BOTF articles, with the help of tools, such as Otter, where you can scan transcripts for specific keywords. This is better than the time-consuming process of listening to recordings whenever you're writing an article, which isn't scalable in the long run. ### **Go on social media communities and search using the keyword** Pay close attention to rants, complaints, etc. Let’s go back to the productivity software example. Let’s say you discover a post on Quora of a CEO angered by his inability to find software to set up meetings. This means you should accentuate your application's meeting-tracking feature to reach the CEO. The challenge mentioned by the CEO can also inform the framing method and messaging you'll use when showcasing your product. ## Solution 2: Look at your competitors The customers of your direct competitor are likely to be a mirror of your customers. Therefore, new products without a developed customer base can research competitors’ complaints and acknowledgments and use them to determine the features valuable to each customer segment. Here's how you do it: Go to review sites, social media platforms, and anywhere else your target audience frequents. Next, search for your competitor and scrutinize their reviews. Then, identify the pros, cons and features mentioned. If your product has those features, mention them. But this time, focus on how your product does it better (faster, at Lower costs, etc). ## Solution 3: Always have a representative of the customer when making BOTF content decisions The customer is supposed to be the subject of every BOTF article. But since you can’t access your customers directly, consult those in close contact with them daily — sales, product, growth, and marketing team. Because they have first-hand information about customer complaints, they can tell you exactly what features to include or discard given your target audience segment. However, customer-facing team members may not have the time to sit through a meeting. In that case, create a one-pager, containing the title of the post, the target customer segment, and the features you plan to highlight. Then, ask them if it's accurate. This way, you wouldn't spend content estate talking about features with low potential to convert the reader. ## Solution 4: Add the “features to be highlighted” portion to briefs You may not always have the time to write your articles yourself. Freelancers and contractors may handle a portion of your content load. Briefs commonly contain a target keyword, audience, and tone. These may suffice for a top-of-the-funnel article like "What is productivity software". However, those details alone are insufficient for writing an effective BOTF article. Why? Because the freelancer isn't an authority on your product. It's impossible to achieve deep product knowledge and explore its different capabilities and features within the few weeks they have to write, edit, and submit the article. Solution? Create a section called "features to be added". Then, include it in all BOTF article briefs, alongside the messaging for talking about each feature. You could go further and create short videos showing how these features work or develop a product resource with a description of each feature. However, if you don't have the time, give the freelancer access to the tool and its documentation. ## Solution 5: Start with the problem, not the keyword. *We need to write a BOTF article. Let’s check keyword tools to find the keywords our competitors are ranking for, and target them.* At face value, that sounds like a great idea. But there’s the tendency to lose sight of the problem and focus squarely on the keyword. The result? You’d highlight several use cases not needed by the target reader, in a bid to satisfy the keyword's search intent and information requirement. Additionally, you’re more likely to try modeling other ranking articles. Besides, at the end of the day, keyword tools essentially look at what’s ranking and spit out something similar. And that means you’ll likely repeat the same thing your competitors are talking about; the same sections, the exact use cases, and so on. The best approach is to identify the customer's pain points and consider the features your product has that solve those problems. Still using the example of the productivity software: Say you’re targeting freelancers. List their major challenges, then pair them with your product’s features that solve them. It will look like this: ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/FEATURE-MISMANAGEMENT--.jpg) You can create this document for each of your target audience segments and occasionally update it. Share them with every writer based on the audience segment the article is supposed to reach. ## Wrapping up Bottom-of-the-funnel keywords are money-makers. But if they're not optimized to solve the problem of the target audience/potential customer, all you'll get is crickets. Before you put your fingers on the keyboard, know the audience segment the article is supposed to target and gain a comprehensive understanding of their current challenges. Then, prioritize your product’s features that solve those challenges. That’s how you generate revenue with BOTF articles. --- Like what you see? Why not sign up for exclusive insights from the leading minds in SaaS with a SaaS Alliance [membership plan? ](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/) ### Vision: the key to differentiating your SaaS brand URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/vision-the-key-to-differentiating-your-saas-brand/ Last updated: 2024-06-14T15:00:17.000Z Even in the current business climate, there’s never been a better time to be a B2B SaaS marketer. With the exponential growth of SaaS solutions in virtually every industry, marketing has arrived as a driving force of differentiation and, as a result, growth. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### 7 top examples of product-led growth in SaaS URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/7-top-examples-of-product-led-growth-in-saas/ Last updated: 2024-06-11T13:48:24.000Z The SaaS landscape is noisy, and every day there are new developments and ‘movements’ which claim to be on the verge of ‘changing the game’, but there’s one in particular that has stuck, and that’s product-led growth. Across the SaaS world countless world-beating organizations have reaped the benefits of a product-led strategy. But what does an effective product-led strategy look like in practice? In this article, we’re gonna learn from the real heavy-weights in the arena to find out how your product led strategy can pack a serious punch! But first, a quick refresher course on product-led growth. - What is product-led growth? - Why is product-led growth important for SaaS companies? - The problem with a sales-led approach - The key qualities of product-led growth - The 7 top examples of product-led growth in SaaS ## What is product-led growth? While SaaS companies have historically relied heavily on marketing and sales for customer acquisition and retention, a product-led growth strategy allows SaaS companies to grow efficiently and sustainably by utilizing the strength of the product to attract customers. It’s the SaaS-y equivalent of putting your money where your mouth is. A SaaS product that goes down the PLG route will typically offer users a free trial so they can find the value in the product themselves, hopefully making them more inclined to become paying customers. [Product-led metrics unpacked: Measuring your product-led successThis guide cuts through the complexity and provides a roadmap to help you evaluate your PLG strategy and ensure you’re on the right track.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceChinwoke Nnamani![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/product-led-success.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-led-metrics-unpacked-measuring-your-product-led-success/) ## Why is a product-led growth approach important for SaaS companies? Given the difficulty in securing investment and funding in SaaS, the pressure to grow your business sustainably and self-sufficiently is stronger than ever. This is the gift that a product-led growth strategy can offer you, with the benefits including the following: **Lower Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)**: Since PLG companies don’t rely on sales and marketing for acquisition, the cost of drawing in new customers is significantly lower, meaning that the customers you do draw drive higher profits. **Greater retention and acquisition**: In order for a PLG strategy to work, and for customers to ‘stick’ to your product, you need to have a pretty solid product. The natural consequence of this is higher conversion and retention. **Lower cost of customer support**: A company that goes down the PLG route should offer a product that’s pretty self explanatory/ intuitive. It shouldn’t be a super specialist product that requires a lot of support and guidance. In this case, you don’t have to invest in customer support as heavily, as customers will be able to find the value in products themselves. **Greater alignment within your org**: When the primary focus of your org is the strength of the product, it’s easier to align your company behind a common goal. So many SaaS companies operate in silos, unable to find a common goal, but a PLG strategy gives you a very definite goal. [![Benefits of a PLG strategy ](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcXdzDqKa6_9N7QCrM7WAUPDzo1ixrhUS_RRu0APOb8IAKu0mN_-30XUWApfS5CyroYaRwcNz-v-snO08pGxMviqo1x5v2iExyHSdat3ZIaONXBPpxKO3fXkp_yiI_kup2IUKCf_i67Rk6UqMPc21olSBdP?key=E1WMxOHugH1Jm50tnp4-Fw)](www.saasalliance.io/7-top-examples-of-product-led-growth-in-saas/) ## Why a sales-led strategy is in trouble In today’s difficult economic climate, there are many inherent challenges that come with a traditional sales-led strategy, let’s dive into them here: ### Higher customer acquisition costs The sales cycle is long and, as a result, costly. In order to recoup the costs of CAC, you need to have significant customer lifetime value (CLTV), this is the revenue that your customers provide your org across the whole customer journey, which comes with its own challenges, as keeping already converted customers engaged is also going to come with significant costs. SaaS companies that have high CAC typically have to come with a higher price tag, which can put them at a considerable competitive disadvantage over companies with a more sustainable acquisition strategy. ### Disconnect between marketing and sales Getting a lead qualified and getting a lead to close are two very different things. Just because users have been responsive to your thought leadership strategy doesn’t mean they’re ready to become paying customers. This disconnect causes major headaches and conflict within SaaS companies, and the two departments are constantly struggling to get into alignment. But a product-led approach eliminates this conflict (mostly) by making the product the main driver of conversion. [Building a Bridge Between Marketing and Sales | Future of SaaSBrenda Harris, Senior Sales Enablement Manager at Oracle gave a brief history of sales enablement and what it entails, before detailing how best to approach sales training![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceRichard Bracchi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-19.01.20.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-a-bridge-between-marketing-and-sales/) ### The product is often an afterthought With a sales-led approach, the sales and marketing side is prioritized as the profit center (the department where the company is making money), whereas the product and engineering side is seen as a cost center. This sometimes means that the strength of the product is relegated to an afterthought, whereas sales is put front and center. A potential problem because, ultimately, strong retention is driven by a strong product. ### The difference between product-led approach and a sales lead approach In case you're a little hazy on the finer details, we've summed up the key differences in this neat little infographic. [![The key differences between a product-led approach and a sales-led approach? ](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdAthePTRUttDdtuYrPaPhhXBWV4mOMPgRL6MhQcv5ZaSKBp-yGylRwuPR8LQPB0xkVgCvhK3PjmCxlCWYTIWpURmJpgadp_K2GRMXf__sqAV8dz-t0ogExruBbL-1llnQhRsc0iC5vcyjCSdndkpU4BAbj?key=E1WMxOHugH1Jm50tnp4-Fw)](www.saasalliance.io/7-top-examples-of-product-led-growth-in-saas/) ## The key qualities in a product-led organization Before we dive into the key examples of a product-led org, let’s first run through the key qualities of a product-led org worth its salt. ### Product-centricity is at its core The strength of the product is the main focus. In a time when the typical SaaS user wants to try out a product for themselves before they purchase (when was the last time you subscribed to a service without trying out a free trial first?) this approach can be incredibly beneficial. It works on the premise that users become customers when they see and experience the value in the product for themselves. Recent research also shows that consumers tend to be more skeptical when a sales person tries to sell them on the virtues of a product. ### Self serve is the order of the day Your typical modern user doesn’t want their hand held at every stage of the process, they want to be able to open up their browser and start discovering your product for themselves, meaning your product interface should be intuitive and logical so that the customer can find how your product works for them. [Product-led VS sales VS market VS customer: What’s the difference?What’s the difference between product-led, sales-led, marketing-led, and customer-led growth? We’re here with an overview that displays the best approach for your business.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceAlex Morris![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1432888498266-38ffec3eaf0a?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDIzfHxidXNpbmVzc3xlbnwwfHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-led-vs-sales-led-vs-marketing-led-vs-customer-led-differences/) Products that are a little more complicated should come up with learning resources that are apparent to new sign ups so that users can get easily acclimated to the product. ### Free trial should be available In order for PLG to work users have to be able to find the value in your product before they become paying customers. It’s very difficult to get the customer to that ‘aha’ moment if you’re not allowing them to experience the product before they purchase. This is where the freemium model swoops in for the rescue. The trick is to give users just enough benefit so that they can see the potential in your product, while still withholding just enough that users feel compelled to sign up for a premium version. So now that we’ve delved into the real benefits of PLG, let’s zoom in on those organizations that have really mastered the art of PLG! [![The key qualities of PLG](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/key-qualities-of-plg.png)](www.saasalliance.io/7-top-examples-of-product-led-growth-in-saas/) ## Doing it right: The 7 best examples of product-led growth in SaaS ### 1\. Slack [![Slack user interface](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/slack.webp)](www.saasalliance.io/7-top-examples-of-product-led-growth-in-saas/) For many of us Slack is an integral and indispensable part of our work lives. Its pristine visual interface, and intuitive feel make it a prime example of a PLG product. It’s incredibly intuitive, meaning that users know exactly what to do within seconds and can find the benefit within moments. Best of all, it’s freemium offering allows users to do most of what they need to do in their day to day working lives in terms of collaboration and communication, meaning that customers are immediately won over by it’s value\] ### 2\. Airtable [![Airtable Dashboard](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/what-is-airtable-image4.png)](www.saasalliance.io/7-top-examples-of-product-led-growth-in-saas/) Do spreadsheets give you a real headache? You’re not alone. Luckily, Airtable makes it as frictionless as possible, allowing you to easily integrate data and speak to your other applications. This is a major plus, since a major point of friction between users and software is often that they struggle to make it work with the rest of their tech stack. But one of the niftiest PLG strategies is this: They allow you to enter in your team members on sign up. Why is this so clever? Because the more people you can get within an org to experience your product, the more likely they are to ‘stick’ to your product. ### 3\. Typeform [![Typeform onboarding screen](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/typeform.png)](www.saasalliance.io/7-top-examples-of-product-led-growth-in-saas/) What makes Typeform onboarding superior to other SaaS companies? Money isn’t even mentioned in the signup. The onboarding flow is all about getting you to see the benefit of what they can offer you. Within minutes of opening up the browser you’ll not only have created your first survey with Typeform, but you’ll have seen the countless ways you can customize your survey to your liking. A good PLG approach will lead users to the product’s value as quickly as possible. ### 4\. Calendly [![My Calendly scheduling page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/calendly.jpg)](www.saasalliance.io/7-top-examples-of-product-led-growth-in-saas/) Calendly solved a problem that so many users encounter in their professional lives: The endless back and forth via email trying to coordinate a time for a meeting. On signing up to Calendly, you’ll have a link that you can put in your email sign off so that responders can swiftly schedule some time. Within seconds of engaging with Calendly, you’ll have synced up the platform within your calendar, meaning you don’t have to worry about scheduling conflicts. This is another great example of an incredibly strong solution that allows users to experience the value of the product within moments of opening up the browser. What is withheld is the opportunity to customize the kind of meetings that you want to set up, as well as the amount of time you want to schedule. Calendly offers tons of value in its sign up process, while offering even more in its tantalizing premium offering. ## 5\. Twilio [![Twilio page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/twilio.webp)](www.saasalliance.io/7-top-examples-of-product-led-growth-in-saas/) On reading these examples so far, you might have come to the conclusion that you should remove any potential friction from the onboarding process. Nine times out of ten you’d be right, but sometimes the right level of friction can help users to find the product swiftly. Twilio asks the user a series of quick questions, meaning that the product can immediately be customized to the user's liking. ### 6\. Surveymonkey [![Surveymonkey survey creation page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/surveymonkey.png)](www.saasalliance.io/7-top-examples-of-product-led-growth-in-saas/) The thing that really stands out about Surveymonkey, it’s just plain fun to use, and for many it’s become synonymous with survey creation. The good will fostered here means that users are going to be less hesitant about signing up for a premium offering once they’ve seen that the product really works and is trust-worthy. After all, they know it’s a good product at this point; folks will pay up for what they know works. This is the very simple principle behind all of PLG ### 7\. Zendesk [![Zendesk free trial page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/zendesk.jpg)](www.saasalliance.io/7-top-examples-of-product-led-growth-in-saas/) As we’ve already discussed. With products that need a bit more adjusting to, it can be helpful to provide self-guided discovery. This is exactly what Zendesk offers. The tutorial process is built in to the onboarding flow, meaning that any friction users might experience is eliminated within minutes, and users can come in to the product armed with the knowledge to get the most value out of it. ## FAQ ### What does it mean to be product-led ? Product-led growth is a strategy where the product is the main driver of customer conversion and overall company growth. Product-led companies typically offer a free trial package so that users can experience the value of the product for themselves, therefore making conversion more likely. ### How many companies are product-led? Recent [studies](https://productled.com/blog/saas-growth-benchmarks-and-product-led-trends#:~:text=led%20growth%20investment-,A%20majority%20of%20B2B%20SaaS%20companies%20have%20already%20deployed%20a,increase%20their%20investment%20in%202022.) have estimated that as many as 58% of SaaS companies are driving a product-led approach, and it's no wonder, considering how most SaaS users today are very skeptical on traditional marketing and sales-led tactics. ### What is an example of product-led? A good example of product-led would be Calendly, who allow you to start using their product during the onboarding process, with no mention of payment, and allow you to use the core components of their product in the freemium offering. --- Like what you see? Why not sign up for exclusive insights from some of the mightiest minds in SaaS with a SaaS Alliance [membership plan? ](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/) ### The 4 surprising SaaS buying trends reshaping growth strategies URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/4-surprising-saas-buying-trends-reshaping-growth-strategies/ Last updated: 2024-06-07T16:00:52.000Z This article comes from **Brian Clark** and **Brad van Leeuwen**’s insightful talk, ‘*Saas buying trends in the year of efficient growth*’, at our **New York 2024 Chief Revenue Officer Summit**. --- With board members and investors pushing for profitability and improved unit economics, there's constant pressure to move upmarket and target higher-paying enterprise customers. But what if the conventional wisdom is flawed? What if the [data](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/data-insights/) tells a different story – one that challenges long-held assumptions and unveils new paths to efficient growth? Recently, I had the privilege of engaging in a thought-provoking discussion with **Brad van Leeuwen,** the **co-founder and COO** of **Cledera**, sharing our insights on the SaaS buying trends that will reshape your go-to-market strategies. Backed by a wealth of data, our discussion shed light on some surprising trends that defy traditional thinking. From the resurgence of SMB buyers to the untapped potential of international expansion, we explored a range of topics that could redefine your approach to customer acquisition, retention, and growth. So in this article, I'll share the key revelations, offering a fresh perspective on the SaaS landscape. Get ready to challenge your assumptions and gain a deeper understanding of what truly drives efficient growth in [today's climate](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-weather-the-storm-of-economic-uncertainty-in-sales-enablement/). So, let’s dive in… ## **SMB surges by 51%** ### One of the most exciting insights we uncovered was the recent resurgence of SMB and mid-market buyers. Brad shared data from Cledera's SaaS Buyers Index, a metric that tracks whether buyers are increasing, decreasing, or maintaining their software spend. The data revealed that: While enterprise buyers remained relatively consistent, SMB and mid-market buyers started increasing their software budgets at a faster rate than their larger counterparts. As Brad explained, > "*What you'll see over time is that when markets are tough, it hits the SMB and mid-market buyers first, right? They react more and they cut their spend."* However, the trend reversed soon after, with SMB and mid-market buyers outpacing enterprise buyers in software budget growth, challenging the conventional pivoting away from SMBs during economic downturns. As Brad put it, > *"If you've stuck it out, if you've been pushed by your board to go upmarket based on what they're seeing in other companies that they're on the board of, and you've stuck it out with SMB and mid-market, maybe you're starting to find things getting a little easier."* Moreover, Chargebee's own data corroborated this observation, with our SMB cohort growing **51% faster in 2023** compared to 2022\. This revelation has significant implications for SaaS companies' go-to-market strategies. Instead of abandoning the SMB segment, it might be wise to double down on it, especially considering the potential for a product-led growth approach. As I mentioned to Brad, > *"If you're thinking about pivoting away from the SMB, this is an interesting data point to say maybe that's not the right decision. If you're thinking about moving to SMB and you want to do it in a cost-effective way, I think PLG is probably a good answer."* _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Product-led metrics unpacked: Measuring your product-led success URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/product-led-metrics-unpacked-measuring-your-product-led-success/ Last updated: 2024-06-06T13:00:48.000Z Have you ever felt like you're throwing spaghetti at the wall with your product-led growth strategy? You know it's working (users love your product), but proving its ROI can be a challenge. Product-led growth (PLG) relies on your product to drive user acquisition, activation, and retention. But unlike traditional marketing, measuring success can be complex. This guide cuts through the complexity and provides a roadmap to help you evaluate your PLG strategy and ensure you're on the right track. Here's a breakdown of our agenda: - How to measure product-led growth? - Key metrics to track for product-led growth - Real-Life examples - FAQ ## How to measure product-led growth A product-led strategy can be extremely beneficial to SaaS companies who are looking to grow sustainably, but all of that counts for exactly nothing unless you know how to measure the success of your product-led strategy. The answer? Product-led metrics. Here, we break down the key metrics you need to monitor with vigilance in order to see your product-led strategy soar. ## Key metrics to track for product-led growth Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) reveal not only user interactions but also the effectiveness of your product-led growth strategy. According to a [survey by Appcues](https://www.appcues.com/2023-product-led-experience-report) involving 350 SaaS professionals, the most important KPIs for a good product-led experience are: - user retention rate - time-to-value, - and activation rate [![A graph from Appcues' metrics report](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/bEcPa4okRBdstibS6uLfeD2Jbms-PAN_1LKLViAuPNi9u3yDCPSxBM_GRGRQmi4cRwJfIJM_A_eKaDvjzhot3KVqp5nKuUesFgtIV7cPVLmd1G4A6UbwnqJTK6ogsdTmqY8er7RmEkYuPxesqBq8rtM)](product-led-metrics-unpacked-measuring-your-product-led-success) [Source: Appcues](https://www.appcues.com/2023-product-led-experience-report) ### Retention Rate Retention rate measures the percentage of users who continue to use your product over a specific period. A high retention rate indicates that users find value in your product and are likely to stick with it. To measure your retention rate, calculate the percentage of users who continue to use your product regularly over different timeframes (e.g., weekly, monthly, or annually). If you start with 100 users at the beginning of the month and 90 of them are still using the product at the end of the month, your monthly retention rate is 90%. ### Activation rate Activation rate measures the percentage of users who sign up for your product and take key actions that indicate long-term retention. These actions could include: - completing a tutorial, - upgrading to a paid plan, - or integrating with a third-party tool. Identify the key actions that define activation for your product and track the percentage of users who complete these actions. Let’s say 200 users sign up in a month and 150 complete the tutorial; your activation rate is 75%. [![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/eqmRZjCR0N63rxfJ2mb2UJoo53dulfIGcq1Sq7sY7nFZu-IcfTUOYTGDLuplkG1kFCnPcSWfoJiXf8D-YhB-5xuPoAM214HOECZyWIWWLTUWuR3C10bZiTF3Gw7ylZFgm_eSwdsMzxrs6sFy-iwjOVY)](product-led-metrics-unpacked-measuring-your-product-led-success) ### Expansion revenue Expansion revenue, or expansion MRR, measures the revenue generated from existing customers through upsells, add-ons, and cross-sells. It’s often more cost-effective to generate revenue from existing customers than to acquire new ones. Ideally, 30%+ of your revenue should be attributed to expansion revenue. To measure your expansion rate, track the total revenue from upgrades and additional purchases in a given month. Say your total revenue from upgrades and additional purchases in a month is $50,000\. This is your expansion revenue. [![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/NYRXhQmYaOMXm2tyOv6GovNJvWdTY3-LGKCdihZoJ51snVCCNFV2JyhZEuDH9J5Dkt0jH3_drrXLMj29lTzy9CkTLZ47_LU1Xh5je4t4mvkFwiV3DUKVTuxkBAmiKMt_2peypq6_x9QllUoGgLwOyoM)](product-led-metrics-unpacked-measuring-your-product-led-success) ### Time to Value Time to value (TTV) is the time it takes new users to reach their first 'aha' moment or activation event. Depending on the complexity of the product, TTV can be immediate (short TTV) or long. A shorter TTV means users achieve value faster, which can lead to higher retention. Assess the average time it takes for a new user to achieve their primary goal with the product. [![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/6OCqzFjXC0yJPGJbcRIg1bge2WEN4d_2N1zwlFHuDO-2k2h8l1yxgSXtInDQhdnktT3avLvYM8joZLMF52wN9qtCZyVlCg6sFYL5cWzYNU8nLnFH6hm732pzEvkcPEQhNioHFw348cJc_AGIz3qZ8bQ)](product-led-metrics-unpacked-measuring-your-product-led-success) ### Net Promoter Score (NPS) Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures customer satisfaction by asking users how likely they are to recommend your product on a scale from 1 to 10\. NPS scores are categorized as follows: - **Promoters (9-10):** These are enthusiastic users who are likely to recommend your product and become brand advocates. - **Passives (7-8):** These are satisfied users, but they might not be highly engaged. - **Detractors (0-6):** These are unhappy users who could churn and negatively impact your brand image. To Calculate NPS, subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. High NPS scores indicate a strong product-market fit and positive word-of-mouth growth, which are hallmarks of PLG success. [![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/ukJ22e_sqypYUaBUd640pBoQEpLQ8P1o8NK3JujYMJxH2WVRB0ILIon2-NWsns2HqAEV57S0RCSfHhmGVX1I2Lkq5jaBg5Sy_5KDiFh10Lhk3ToeU4Lq-sSTfVC-62y38UH5uNOw3vcyILKb5P50UMI)](product-led-metrics-unpacked-measuring-your-product-led-success) ### Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) tells you how much it costs to acquire a new customer. An easy way to get this is to divide total sales and marketing expenses by the number of new customers acquired. To measure CAC, track total sales and marketing expenses and divide by the number of paying customers acquired. Say your total sales and marketing expenses are $100,000, and you acquire 50 new customers. Your CAC is $2,000. [![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/h0KmHYR8pW6tdrSKJm3HJotBbcY_gRAsFlsQV2LITpzkswTbqgBfjKQjTsssoxKpdaaktEHaCBWD6c4Sjb68FlJjwGsjMTK4lY_ORYXVNAQr8gmnuiJmPKhfEQiQsFVFaRzWkBPrutUcUjBF-QI47Fg)](product-led-metrics-unpacked-measuring-your-product-led-success) ### Number of support tickets The number of support tickets during onboarding can give you an idea of how many users face difficulties and need assistance. A lower number of support tickets suggests a more intuitive user experience. Monitor ticket volume over time and aim to reduce it through user experience optimizations and better product education. If your team usually receives 100 support tickets in a month, this is your baseline. A successful PLG strategy should reduce this number. ## Real-Life examples of how companies measure product-led growth success ### Bitly [According to Tara Robertson](https://www.tenspeed.io/podcast/cmos-team-building-and-strategy-playbook.), Bitly's Chief Product Officer, the company is focused on growing its brand beyond short links. One of their fastest-growing products is QR codes, but Bitly is not well-known for this offering yet. To measure success, the key metric they track is multi-product adoption, which gives insight into stickiness and net dollar retention. ### Slack Olivia Grace, Senior Director of Product Management at Slack, shared what Slack considers PLG success. She emphasized that Slack focuses on crafting exceptional product experiences to drive adoption rather than chasing specific growth metrics. During the peak of remote work, Slack released 'huddles' in 2021 to enable spontaneous collaboration that people missed from office environments. Huddles quickly became Slack's fastest-adopted feature ever. Each week, millions of Slack users and over half of their paid customers use huddles, amounting to a combined 383 million minutes. On average, people join 4-5 short huddles per week, lasting around 11 minutes each. To drive further adoption, Slack has added functionality like video/screen sharing and delightful elements like customizable 'hold music' for waiting periods. Additionally, Slack hit a milestone of 700+ million daily messages sent on the platform’. ## Setting Realistic Goals for Your PLG Strategy **Benchmark by Industry or Category:** Research industry averages and competitor performance for key metrics like user acquisition costs, conversion rates, and churn rates. This provides a realistic benchmark for your product. Say you’re launching an email marketing software for creatives, research the average CAC for similar SaaS products to set realistic targets. **Align with Business Goals:** Choose metrics that best match your company’s stage, available tools, and current goals. Say your goal is to increase revenue and focus on user acquisition and conversion. If user engagement is the goal, track daily active users (DAU). **Gather and Analyze Data for PLG:** Use analytics tools like Mixpanel or Amplitude to track user actions within your product. Capture events such as signups, feature usage, and time spent on different screens. ## FAQs ### How do you measure product-led growth? You can measure the success of product-led growth through the tracking of product-led metrics. The key metrics among them include: - User retention rate - Activation rate - Time-to-value - Net Promoter Score And many more! ### What are product-led metrics? Product metrics are data points that track how customers or users engage with your digital app or product, revealing the impact of those interactions on your business. ### What are the main indicators of product-led growth? The metrics you measure for PLG are encompassed under three main indicators, which are as follows: **Reach**: Simply put, how many users are signing up to your product? **Activation**: A successful strategy relies on users finding enough value in your product to become paying customers. It’s no good to having many users on your platform unless they’re offsetting your CAC cost **Engagement**: How engaged are your active users. This gives you a good indication of whether users are finding that all-important value or not. --- Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds [in SaaS? ](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/) ### 10 top micro SaaS examples: Building profitable apps for success URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-micro-saas-examples-building-profitable-apps-for-success/ Last updated: 2024-06-03T21:52:53.000Z Remember the old days when you had to buy software with a one-time license fee, only to find yourself stuck in a loop of constantly purchasing new versions? 🔄 Well, SaaS came to the rescue with its fresh approach! You know the story by now: the entire software is hosted on the cloud by a third-party provider. You can access the latest versions anytime, anywhere, using any device, and all you have to do is pay a monthly or yearly fee. No more breaking the bank for upgrades. 💸 And as SaaS continues to evolve, we’re seeing many exciting variations on the traditional model. A particularly noteworthy one is micro SaaS. But what is micro SaaS, why should you think about creating a micro SaaS model, and how should you go about it? Well, that’s what we’re here to find out. We'll show you what sets micro SaaS apart from your typical SaaS tools and throw in some cool examples that demonstrate how they work and what they're all about. As well as introduce you to the typical forms that micro SaaS usually takes. ## What is micro SaaS? So, what exactly is micro SaaS? Well, as the name suggests, it's a small-scale SaaS business that caters to a specific niche or domain. Like traditional SaaS, it’s a subscription-based service, but unlike larger enterprises, micro SaaS is typically managed by an individual or a small team, operating with a tiny user base, and interestingly, without any external funding. The beauty of Micro SaaS lies in its ability to thrive with minimal resources. Micro SaaS companies target smaller groups, allowing them to establish and maintain their operations with the utmost efficiency. The best part? They generate solid profits while enjoying the freedom to work from anywhere and minimizing risks. 🌍 The term "Micro-SaaS" was coined with the core idea of solving problems using the smallest possible amount of resources. In a nutshell: It's all about doing more with less! ## Micro SaaS vs SaaS: The key differences The main difference lies in the scope of their focus. Traditional full-sized SaaS businesses tackle a broad range of issues, catering to a wide audience. On the other hand, micro-SaaS hones in on a specific subset of issues, catering to a particular group of audience. A Saas business targeting problems for a more niche market has the potential to establish a more niche but more dedicated customer base. If your brand becomes synonymous with a particular pain point and solution, that’s gonna do pretty amazing things for your brand identity, which is something that all SaaS startups should be thinking about. Precision is the name of the game.🔍 But to understand the differences in more detail, check out this table below.👇 [![SaaS and micro SaaS: The key differences](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/FoSaaS_Infographics_Square_.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-micro-saas-examples-building-profitable-apps-for-success) ## Why should you build a micro SaaS business? Let's dive into the captivating advantages of running a business on micro SaaS. This model brings benefits to both the service provider and the end user. One of the chief benefits, of course, as with all SaaS products, is its ease of use in terms of how you manage it. All that’s needed for you to run your service and supply your users is internet connectivity. But let’s delve into more detail on what benefits truly distinguish a micro SaaS model from a more conventional SaaS. Again, to make this as digestible as possible, we’ve broken it down for you in table-form. 👇 [![The benefits of micro SaaS](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/FoSaaS_Infographics_Square_2-1.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-micro-saas-examples-building-profitable-apps-for-success) ### Are micro SaaS businesses profitable? So, with all the above benefits in mind, there’s one question that takes precedence above all else. Does it look good for your bottom line? **Yes.** Because the number of resources you need to build and maintain a micro SaaS pales in comparison to traditional SaaS. This is because you’re targeting a more niche audience. The relatively low cost of building and maintaining leads to greater profits. ### How do I build a micro SaaS in 2023? But how do you actually come up with a micro SaaS solution? Well, that depends on the kind of service you’re developing, of course. But even with all the variations, there are some essential pillars that hold good micro SaaS products up. Let’s go through them one by one. ## The essential pillars of building a micro SaaS ### Pillar 1: Generating idea Start by identifying an issue that plagues small businesses and take a close look at the existing solutions out there. It's crucial to understand what's happening in the market so you can come up with a one-of-a-kind solution that stands out from the crowd. Once you've got that killer idea, it's time for some idea validation. This step eliminates those pesky risks that can pop up during product development. Here's how you do it. [Top 5 reasons why startups fail and how to avoid themWhile it’s true that competition in the SaaS market is fierce and competitive, there are steps you can take to give your product the best shot at SaaS super stardom.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2023/02/why-startups-fail.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-5-reasons-why-startups-fail-and-how-to-avoid-them/) First things first, dive into some rigorous research and pinpoint problems that tech-savvy folks are chatting about in forums and communities. Find out if your proposed solution brings better user experience and crucial features at an affordable price, leaving the competition in the dust. Once you’ve done this, you should connect with user groups and join online discussions to get your idea validated by the very people who will benefit from it. This not only helps you gather early adopters but also provides valuable feedback for further improvement. **TL;DR:** Get out there, brainstorm your micro SaaS idea, validate it, and watch your customer base grow. ### Pillar 2: Pricing models Establishing pricing models is an essential part of establishing any SaaS product, but it’s undoubtedly a delicate science. When it comes to pricing strategies, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. It all depends on the kind of product you’re offering. But one thing’s for certain: you must have a pricing strategy. [Pricing and packaging: how high-growth SaaS startups can crack the codeI’m going to break down the many pricing and packaging pitfalls into 10 common mistakes. I hope after reading, you’ll be able to spot these mistakes early, and this will help you to execute pricing and packaging with realistic goals that are deliverable.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSCindy Berman![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2022/01/Pricing-and-packaging---how-high-growth-SaaS-startups-can-crack-the-code.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code/) So, let’s break down the various types of models that have worked for different businesses. **Per-user model**: It's all about charging a monthly or annual subscription fee for each user. Simple and straightforward. **Tiered Model**: These are prices that go up in tiers depending on the number of licenses or users. **Payment proportional to usage**: This approach builds up price value that increases the more your customers use your product. It's like paying for the exact amount of popcorn you munch on during a movie marathon! **Flat Price model**: All the premium features are available at a fixed price, ### Top tips for establishing a pricing model **Offer a free trial**: Here users can test out your product without having to share their account details, a great way to whet their appetites for the main course. **Keep the cost low**: Maintaining a reasonable price for your micro SaaS offering ensures stable growth over time. Don't go too expensive or too cheap though, find that industry average that makes your customers feel like they're getting a steal. [SaaS pricingWhen it comes to launching a SaaS product, most orgs are going to be focused on crucial factors such as strategy, app development, market research, etc. All of this is essential, of course, but it’s missing one equally important factor. That’s right. Pricing.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_pricing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-pricing/) **Consider offering a free tier**: The hardest part for any new SaaS product is simply getting users through the door. A free offering is a superb way to initiate engagement and build a relationship, after that, it becomes much easier to cross-sell and upsell. **Keep it simple**: Don't overwhelm your customers with too many options. Make it easy for them to say, "Yes, I want in!" Your busy prospects are not going to spend all day deciding whether your org is worth their time or not. If you make your product too complex to get properly adjusted with, they’re going to jump ship to one of your competitors pretty quick. ### Pillar 3: Build an MVP Once you've got your micro SaaS business idea validated and figured out the pricing options, the next thing in line is to build your SaaS MVP (minimum viable product). An MVP lets you check if your idea is worth its salt as a real-deal product. Now, when it comes to these micro SaaS products, they're usually cooked up and marketed in a couple of different ways: **Assisting existing apps or platforms:** These micro SaaS solutions are like sidekicks to specific platforms. They're all about making the platform smoother and user-friendly. Think of them as trusty assistants. Take Accerlerlist, for example. It makes managing products on the Amazon platform a breeze by providing one-stop access for listing, repricing, and accounting. And they even threw in integration with eBay for double the platform assistance! But usually, these apps are designed to work with just one platform. [Launch a showstopping SaaS with these 6 examples of a minimum viable productYour product never stops evolving, the MVP is just the first to step in that process. Take the first step to launching an amazing product with a showstopping MVP.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2023/05/MVP.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/launch-a-showstopping-saas-with-these-6-examples-of-a-minimum-viable-product/) **Going solo:** These autonomous micro SaaS goodies are small and independent software solutions that tackle a specific issue in a web or mobile app. They don't depend on any one platform to keep on chugging, so the risks are pretty low. **Note:** Before you start building that MVP, you’ve got to make sure you've got a solid list of potential customers. And to do that, you gotta pick the right channels for sales, both inbound and outbound. ### How do I start a micro SaaS business in 2023: the short version So, for those who want it as plainly as possible, here are the most essential steps for starting a micro SaaS business 1. Compile your ideas. 2. Validate your concepts through feedback, data, and market research. 3. Acquire your initial 25 customers. 4. Develop your MVP (minimum viable product). 5. Introduce your product to the market. 6. Implement a subscription plan to monetize your product. 7. Expand your audience and subscriber base. With all these elements in place, you're off to a pretty good start. ## Best ideas for a micro SaaS The world of SaaS is so vast that there are subcategories within subcategories. If you’re reading through this article and think that the micro SaaS model maybe isn’t for you, it might be because you’re not fully aware of the wide range of forms a micro SaaS can take. Check them out right here. ### The mock interview platform **The problem**: The hiring process has become a battlefield of tough interviews and assessments. With jobs becoming increasingly competitive, securing a good position requires exceptional preparation. In this high-stakes environment, candidates are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to interview preparation. That's why we're witnessing a surge in startups focused on interview prep. From resume services to interview coaching and job-oriented technical courses, these ventures are here to support candidates on their journey. [Top 7 interview questions for your product management roleThis week we’re taking a look at product managers, the visionaries behind your SaaS GTM strategy.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2022/07/interview.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-your-product-management-role/) **The solution**: Now, here's where the idea comes in: imagine a mock interview platform that allows candidates to book sessions with experts, veterans, or experienced professionals. This platform would provide personalized guidance and 1:1 feedback, giving candidates the edge they need to excel in their interviews. With this innovative solution, candidates can tap into the wisdom and expertise of industry insiders, gaining invaluable insights and honing their interview skills. It's like having a personal coach by your side, helping you shine during those crucial moments. ### Voice of customer platform **The problem**: In today's business landscape, customers reign supreme, and companies are eager to keep them satisfied. To provide the ultimate experience, businesses are investing substantial resources. But what if there was a way to directly hear from the customers themselves? **The solution**: Develop a cutting-edge "Voice of the Customer" tool that enables companies to gather feedback from consumers through user-friendly forms. This tool would go beyond mere data collection by analyzing the feedback, empowering businesses to make informed decisions and serve their customers even better. [SaaScast: Turning customers into advocatesSo, you have really loyal customers? That’s great. But are you making those testimonials sing for your SaaS business? In other words, are you turning your customers into fierce champions for your organization?![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Ryan-O-Connell-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-turning-customers-into-advocates/) With the "Voice of the Customer" tool in their arsenal, companies can unlock valuable insights, enabling them to understand the needs, preferences, and pain points of their customers. By actively listening to their feedback, businesses can tailor their offerings, improve their processes, and provide exceptional customer experiences. It's all about putting the customer at the center of decision-making and creating a continuous feedback loop. By leveraging this innovative tool, companies can elevate their customer service to new heights, building stronger relationships and fostering long-term loyalty. ### Testimonial platform **The problem**: Testimonials are a lifeline for any business. They play a crucial role in establishing trust and aiding the audience in their decision-making process. Acting as social proof, testimonials have the power to sway potential customers and instill confidence. That's why it's essential to create impactful testimonials and effectively share the stories of satisfied customers. [The Power of Customer Feedback: Leveraging Feedback for SaaS Product DevelopmentRealizing the power of customer feedback can streamline your SaaS product development process. Feedback can generate fresh product innovation ideas. Find out how right here.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFahad Khan![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2023/05/The-power-of-customer-feedback.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-of-customer-feedback-leveraging-feedback-for-saas-product-development/) **The solution**: Develop a cutting-edge testimonial management tool designed specifically for businesses. This powerful tool will enable companies to seamlessly collect both text and video testimonials from their valued customers. Gone are the days of struggling to gather feedback – this tool streamlines the process, making it easier than ever to capture authentic customer experiences. But it doesn't stop there. This innovative tool also empowers businesses to effortlessly share these testimonials with their target audience. Whether it's through websites, social media platforms, or other marketing channels, the testimonial management tool ensures that these powerful customer stories reach the right people at the right time. By leveraging this tool, businesses can showcase the positive impact they have made on their customers' lives. Genuine testimonials act as a beacon of trust, helping potential customers make informed decisions and choose the right product or service. ### Remote work platform **The problem**: Working remotely brings its own set of hurdles. It's all too easy for a remote employee to feel a bit out of place if they aren't given the proper engagement and recognition they deserve. [Navigating the new normal of remote workMy name’s Christine McHone, and I’m a Senior Customer Success Manager at Slack. In this article, I’ll explain how customer success at Slack has navigated the new normal of remote work in light of the global COVID pandemic.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChristine McHone![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2021/08/charles-deluvio-HHvTueTr3KY-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/navigating-the-new-normal-of-remote-work/) That's why it's super important to make sure your team members feel appreciated and empowered. We want to create a healthy work culture where everyone feels valued and motivated, no matter where they're working from. **The solution**: Picture this: employers and peers can easily provide reviews and recognition, celebrate achievements, reward teams, and, the cherry on top, monitor progress. It's all about keeping everyone connected and motivated in the virtual work world. The remote world of work has made it more difficult to establish trust and rapport between the team. A remote work platform can offer the tools to make this happen. ### Influencer platform **The problem**: Influencers are everywhere these days, you can't escape them. With almost half of consumers relying on influencer recommendations when making purchases, businesses definitely don't want to miss out on this opportunity. But, let's face it, starting an influencer marketing campaign can be a real hassle. That's exactly where the magic of an influencer marketing campaign tool comes in handy. [Finding the right influencers for your brandInfluencer marketing has been picking up momentum in recent years. It’s an effective form of marketing that has the potential to generate a large ROI.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2022/03/pexels-ivan-samkov-7676406.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/finding-the-right-influencers-for-your-brand/) **The solution**: Let's create an amazing tool that helps users with every aspect of their influencer marketing campaign. From finding the perfect influencers, to managing the entire campaign, and even providing in-depth analytics, this kind of tool can cover it all. The first step is to create an extensive directory of influencers that users can easily search through. Give them the ability to filter based on industry, location, social channels, and other relevant criteria. This will make it effortless for users to find the right influencers for their campaigns. You can provide users with access to influencer analytics, including valuable insights like audience demographics and top-performing content. Equipping users with this information will empower them to make more informed decisions when selecting influencers for their campaigns. It's crucial to include metrics that allow users to measure the success of their influencer campaigns. This will enable them to track key performance indicators and evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. ### Product feedback tool **The problem**: Products are the backbone of any business, whether it's something you can hold in your hands or a fantastic service you provide. Now, here's the secret sauce: constantly updating those products based on what your customers have to say is the key to success. But gathering customer feedback is not always an easy task [How to manage the feedback loopSpencer Coon, Co-founder, and COO at Beamer talks us through how to manage a continuous customer feedback loop that provides valuable, actionable information you can use to consistently improve your product, and why there’s no such thing as bad feedback.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2021/10/blueberry-maki-ViLAbC-Id58-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-manage-the-feedback-loop/) **The solution**: Let's create a rock-solid product feedback tool that empowers users to gather and analyze feedback like never before. With this tool, users can easily collect valuable insights from their customers and use them to make smarter and more informed product decisions. It's all about giving our users the tools they need to level up their product game. ## Top 10 examples of micro SaaS Now that we've looked over the different types of micro SaaS you can build, it’s time to look at some of the shining examples of micro SaaS solutions on the market, so that you can learn from the best of ‘em. What does a successful micro SaaS business look like? Let’s find out. ### Carrd Carrd is a renowned platform that makes website creation a breeze. It offers a wide range of simpler, responsive, and one-page website templates that are perfect for any project. Users can start off with the free service by registering and enjoying the benefits of Carrd's freemium packages. And when they're ready to take it to the next level, they can upgrade to the pro version. [![Carrd software landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/carrrd-software-2.webp)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-micro-saas-examples-building-profitable-apps-for-success) [carrd.co](https://carrd.co/) With the pro version, users unlock a whole new world of premium features, including Google Analytics integration, forms, widgets, customized domain names, and much more. It's all about giving users the tools they need to build stunning websites with ease. The core concept behind it is to empower bloggers, developers, and artists by providing them with a platform to effortlessly create responsive landing page websites at absolutely no cost. ### AnyTrack Anytrack is a game-changer when it comes to connecting marketing and sales channels directly to your targeted customers. This real-time platform takes things up a notch by seamlessly integrating with Shopify and Google Analytics, giving you the power of 100% data automation. No more manual tracking! [![AnyTrack software landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/anytrack-software.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-micro-saas-examples-building-profitable-apps-for-success) [anytrack.com](https://anytrack.io/?utm%5Fcampaign=referral%5Fcampaign&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fsource=rewardful&via=8b11fc&gclid=CjwKCAjwtuOlBhBREiwA7agf1oD1aXad3buVLVXllB9c5c6imW-0OsUHY1KOZo129zCKD8zHsybrWxoCkdUQAvD%5FBwE) The main objective of this platform is to empower businesses with data automation capabilities. One of the remarkable benefits it offers is the ability to recover lost data caused by iOS updates, providing valuable support to businesses in such situations. ### Solidgigs Consider this platform as your go-to freelance job site, dedicated to connecting individuals with the crème de la crème of positions sourced from reputable and premium sources. [![Solidgigs software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/SolidGigs-software.webp)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-micro-saas-examples-building-profitable-apps-for-success) [solidgigs.com](https://solidgigs.com/) Here's the deal: you'll get daily leads delivered right to your doorstep, and the best part is, there are no commission deductions from your hard-earned payments. It's all about connecting you with the top 1% and helping you thrive in your freelance career. The core concept behind SolidGigs revolves around delivering meticulously researched job postings to freelancers. ### Plutio Behold, a comprehensive platform that brings together the best of workflow management, automation, creation, and collaboration all under one roof. Plutio is the ultimate all-in-one solution that boasts a range of impressive features. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/plutio-software.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-micro-saas-examples-building-profitable-apps-for-success) [plutio.com](https://www.plutio.com/) Picture this: you can create tasks in real-time, keep track of time spent, and effortlessly share progress updates, all within a centralized environment. With Plutio, your productivity knows no bounds! Empowering developers to establish their customized setup and workflow for seamless management and operation of their business, all through a single platform. ### Plausible Get ready for an open-source analytics tool that not only serves as a worthy alternative to Google Analytics but also prioritizes your business's privacy. Plausible is the name you need to remember. ![Plausible software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/plausible-software.webp) [plausible.io](https://plausible.io/) It offers insightful reports that provide a concise and straightforward summary of your data, eliminating the need for a complex customized dashboard. With Plausible, you can safeguard your privacy while gaining valuable analytics insights. Say goodbye to the hassle of logging into Google Analytics for website tracking and analysis. ### Zendesk Zendesk, the go-to platform for managing customer support tasks, has earned its reputation as the top choice among organizations. [![Zendesk software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/zendesk-software.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-micro-saas-examples-building-profitable-apps-for-success) [zendesk.co.uk](https://www.zendesk.co.uk/lp/brand?utm%5Fsource=google&utm%5Fmedium=Search-Paid&utm%5Fnetwork=g&utm%5Fcampaign=SE%5FAW%5FEM%5FUK%5FENB%5FN%5FSup%5FBrand%5FTM%5FAlpha%5FD%5FH&matchtype=e&utm%5Fterm=zendesk&utm%5Fcontent=494430043674&theme=&gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwtuOlBhBREiwA7agf1rXlhBqpTNW4kmvIAbOQHEPh1ew%5FFBLxPq92PrS5zigYTGqUxFLTIRoCDKoQAvD%5FBwE) This micro SaaS software enables businesses to effortlessly maintain seamless communication with customers across multiple channels, ensuring round-the-clock synchronization. With Zendesk, you can keep your business in harmony with your customers, day in and day out. This platform offers organizations a seamless way to manage customer assistance 24/7 with utmost ease. ### Punkt In these times, when reflection is abundant, Punkt emerges as a distinctive software that simplifies the process of journaling one's thoughts with its innovative one-sentence strategy. [![Punkt app](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/punkt-.webp)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-micro-saas-examples-building-profitable-apps-for-success) [punkt.me](https://punktapp.me/) Punkt software revolves around the core concept of enabling electronic journaling accessible to all. ### PDFShift PDFShift is a well-known platform that provides a quick and easy way to convert HTML to PDF format. This platform offers parallel conversion along with privacy and raw HTML support. They can convert almost any webpage to PDF, thanks to their modern conversion API. [![PDFShift](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/pdfshift.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-micro-saas-examples-building-profitable-apps-for-success) [PDFShift.io](https://pdfshift.io/) The development teams within an organization receive comprehensive support to transform their websites into powerful growth engines. ### SocialBee This powerful tool allows businesses to effortlessly track their social media performance, including metrics like engagement, follower growth, and much more. But wait, there's more! [![SocialBee landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/socialbee-software.webp)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-micro-saas-examples-building-profitable-apps-for-success) [socialbee.com](https://socialbee.com/) SocialBee goes above and beyond by offering additional features like competitor analysis, custom reporting, and audience demographics insights. Best of all, SocialBee offers various pricing tiers tailored to different needs, based on the number of social media profiles and the level of analytics required. It's time to unlock the potential of your social media strategy with the help of SocialBee's invaluable insights. ### HYPEFURY With their vast network of collaborators, HYPEFURY curates the finest content for your tweets, ensuring you always have engaging posts. They also offer a nifty feature that automatically comments on popular tweets, directing traffic to your top-notch courses and newsletters. [![HYPEFURY software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/hypefury.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-micro-saas-examples-building-profitable-apps-for-success) [hypefury.com](https://hypefury.com/?via=pricing78&gclid=CjwKCAjwtuOlBhBREiwA7agf1pySO-ciWArLQBooLTOGOjNxPeWSv9Dp4SPh8viCnktB2zbc4vOYIBoCtfcQAvD%5FBwE) The core concept behind HYPEFURY is to be the ultimate productivity lifesaver for businesses looking to streamline their social media engagement. ## FAQ ### What are micro SaaS products? A micro SaaS product is a software as a service solution designed just for a specific niche. It focuses on a single set of functions and is smaller and simpler compared to traditional SaaS products. The best part? You can create and launch it quickly, making it a perfect, agile solution for specific market needs. ### What is the difference between SaaS and micro SaaS? The key difference lies in their focus. Traditional full-sized SaaS businesses address a broad range of issues for a wide audience, while micro-SaaS targets specific problems for a niche market. This approach can create a dedicated customer base and strengthen brand identity by becoming synonymous with a particular solution. For SaaS startups, precision in addressing specific pain points is crucial for building a strong brand. ### How do you come up with a micro SaaS idea? 1. Step 1: Find your niche – A micro SaaS idea is generally more specific in its use case, so you'll have to conduct thorough research and find a market for your product... 2. Step 2: Validate your idea – Connect with folks in your niche to make sure that the effort of building your idea is going to be worth it. 3. Step 3: Create a landing page and test – Before diving into the development of a full-scale SaaS platform, it's a good idea to make sure your design and architecture are not only efficient but also convenient for your users. 4. Step 4: Develop an MVP – In order to put out the best product, you need to gather feedback as soon as possible. An MVP is a great low-risk of finding out what you need to iterate and improve on. 5. Step 5: Scale up – Only when you have confidence in your idea can you think about scaling up and making your SaaS dream a reality. ### How much money can you make from micro SaaS? The revenue that is earned from micro SaaS is typically lower than a standard SaaS, however it's worth noting that building a micro SaaS comes with considerable less risk and expense. The average micro SaaS makes around $1000-$10,000 per year. ## Wrapping up Micro SaaS presents captivating advantages for businesses, offering recurring earnings, a remote framework, ownership, seamless updates, and efficient use of resources. With lower overhead costs, it brings financial stability and growth. Operating virtually from anywhere, you have flexibility and control. Continuous updates ensure customers have the latest software, and building a company can be done swiftly. It's the perfect package for successful business management, especially for those who enjoy traveling and seek freedom, ownership, and efficient operations. In short, with a micro SaaS, a person or a very small team builds a service at a small cost, with a narrow focus (so naturally more targeted in its approach), leading to a small but hopefully dedicated user base, and often with no outside funding. This is what we love about the SaaS model, it’s inherently inclusive, and the micro SaaS variant only further broadens its scope. Happy building! --- *Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The incremental approach: Small shifts for big results URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-incremental-approach-small-shifts-for-big-results/ Last updated: 2024-05-31T16:47:24.000Z Sales leader Chelsea Minguez demonstrates how to improve your enablement strategy in five simple steps. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### What is cross-selling and upselling for SaaS companies? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-cross-selling-and-upselling-and-how-do-you-master-it/ Last updated: 2024-05-31T17:09:11.000Z Are you a SaaS org with plenty of users, but struggling to improve your revenue? The reality is: Just because you have a fantastic product with tons of users, it doesn’t necessarily mean you're turning a profit. As a result, [SaaS companies](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-saas/) need to do whatever they can to get the most value out of their customers. This is where cross-selling and upselling comes in. It’s estimated that [10% of SaaS revenue is generated](https://www.getcacheflow.com/post/upsell-vs-cross-sell-saas-guide#:~:text=Upselling%20and%20cross%2Dselling%20supplement,through%20upselling%20and%20cross%2Dselling.) from cross-selling and upselling. But what do these terms mean and how exactly do you master them? That’s what we’re here to find out. our agenda: - [What is cross-selling and upselling?](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-cross-selling-and-upselling-and-how-do-you-master-it/#why-are-upselling-and-cross-selling-so-important-for-saas-companies) - [What are examples of cross-selling and upselling? ](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-cross-selling-and-upselling-and-how-do-you-master-it/#what-are-examples-of-cross-selling-and-upselling-in-saas) - [Why is upselling and cross-selling so important?](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-cross-selling-and-upselling-and-how-do-you-master-it/#why-are-upselling-and-cross-selling-so-important-for-saas-companies) - [How to improve your upselling and cross selling](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-cross-selling-and-upselling-and-how-do-you-master-it/#how-to-improve-your-upselling-and-cross-selling) ## What is upselling and cross-selling? There’s a lot of overlap between cross-selling and upselling, and both can yield a considerable amount of revenue for your org, but in order to forge [good relationships with your customers](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-ways-to-build-a-strong-relationship-with-your-customers/), you need to know the key difference between the two. The essential balancing act that SaaS orgs always walk is being able to constantly offer more value to customers while still being mindful of the fact that not all customers are going to respond well to upselling and cross-selling. You don’t want to create friction with your customers by pushing upsells on a customer who isn’t likely to be receptive. So let’s get to grips with the terms… **Cross-selling** is offering additional features or products to what your customers are already getting, while **upselling** is offering an upgraded or premium plan. This can be a boost from a basic plan to a professional plan or from professional to enterprise. The important thing is that you [know your customers](https://www.saasalliance.io/win-against-competitors-by-knowing-your-customers/). Who’s primed for an upgraded plan? What needs do they have that you can cater to? What are their pain points and how could your product or service help? Additionally, ensure the customers you’re [targeting](https://www.revenuemarketingalliance.com/what-is-targeting-in-marketing/) have experienced the value of your product. If a customer is particularly disengaged it’s unlikely they’re going to be receptive to an upselling message. ![What is cross-selling and upselling](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/ly1zHzv97wAz_JWW57-A1F4m2aVDiqpAFV9_HP1wImfQBoqgVuyg_8NQjfX-Bhb8g3SEgrUDWzUANPblZFaj5DGxVOU7ld7EkDCkeWWZaBlUQUHT5hETo2-NltQFDyFogzDkbHrmCTx59nd-I-H43lM) ## What are examples of cross-selling and upselling in SaaS? Let’s say you have a customer who’s curious about your SaaS product, and one of your sales reps hops on a discovery call with them. After hearing about their [pain points](https://www.saasalliance.io/its-helped-me-solve-pain-points-claudia-tanega-sr-product-manager/) and business needs you manage to not only get them on board with your product, but successfully persuade them to sign up for a premium subscription. **Congratulations, you’ve succeeded at upselling!** Now alternatively, let’s imagine you get a customer who’s pretty happy with your standard package, but they have a few bespoke needs that demand a little extra. You might then be able to sell them on some additional products, plugins, or integrations at an extra cost. **Great job, you’ve successfully cross-sold to your prospect!** ## Why are upselling and cross-selling so important for SaaS companies? There are some [important metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-metrics-for-saas-marketers/) you need to familiarize yourself with in order to understand the full weight of this question. [**Customer acquisition cost**](https://www.saasalliance.io/a-beginners-guide-to-customer-acquisition/) **(CAC)**: How much it costs to turn prospects into users and customers **Customer lifetime value (CLTV)**: How much value customers are providing to your org over the whole customer lifespan For SaaS companies looking to make a killing in today’s oversaturated market, it just won’t cut it anymore to have many users enjoying the benefits of your product. Acquiring users is costly, and if you’re not converting those paying customers, you aren’t reaping the rewards of your hard work. And, more importantly, you’re more likely to be seeing a loss on your spending. But the crux of the problem is this: How do you get customers in the door when there are so many [competitors ](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-ai-tools-for-gaining-competitive-edge-in-market-research/)out there with quality freemium offerings? Sure, you can shout about the incredible benefits of premium, but that’s far more challenging for brand new customers. It’s much easier to sell existing users, who have already enjoyed your product. They know the benefits and will be able to see the advantages of becoming premium customers or investing in additional features. But waxing lyrical about the benefits of cross-selling and upselling is easier than actually putting it into practice. So now that we’ve defined our terms let’s dive into how you can improve your upselling and cross-selling efforts. ## How to improve your upselling and cross-selling There are several actionable strategies you can implement to make customers open to an upgrade. Let’s delve into them here. ### Reveal limitations over time If you start pushing premium packages on your customers immediately upon signup, you’re definitely going to encounter friction. One of the best methods is to let customers discover the limitations of your offering themselves. This is a tricky balance to strike because you have to ensure that your more basic packages offer enough value to be tantalizing so that customers will naturally want to unlock more of what your software has to offer. From that point, a bit of gentle prodding can lead to a customer purchasing additional features or signing up for a premium package. ### Master customer segmentation Harnessing vital data on your customer base will enable you to discover [who your prime targets are](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-market-segmentation/) for upselling. You can really get into detail and see how customers are using your product. From here, you can look at the features that you offer and match them to customer behavior. If a particular customer is using a feature that’s quite limited in your basic package, for example, this may be an opportunity for you to sweep in and offer them the gift they’ve been waiting for. ![Key strategies for cross-selling and upselling: showcase value, segmentation, self-guided discovery.](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/pI5t4fxTnux9JA-DaoLVZZcBHjQB6D2EY5sN_ujy44UzUxiyaQFJ0oTH5BZLOCJU35f5eo3Pg3sWF0790OgjuuQOpygX09AsDfICSVPfkmUn42Zr21x4AYdnywod_EomA5lca5nKVFryorUSshvYthk) ### Bake continuous discovery into your design The possibility of upgrading should be baked into the [customer journey](https://www.saasalliance.io/addressing-the-gaps-in-the-customer-journey/). When a customer first signs up, you showcase the most fundamental features on the welcome page. That way you get customers to the value moment straight away. Then you reveal more features and possibilities over time, with helpful hints to how customers can get more out of your product. This is where upselling comes in. But the most important thing is to allow customers to “stick” to your product before you reveal its limitations. If you immediately confront customers with paywalls, you’re going to repel them. ### Allow discovery to be self-guided A nifty trick for getting customers to upgrade is to make it seem like it’s entirely their decision. This follows on from the previous point, by integrating upselling into the customer journey, customers arrive at upgrades on their own. In this way, you don’t deal with the same friction that comes from customers feeling pushed into upselling or cross-selling. ### Engage with customers By keeping an ear open to [customer feedback](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-of-customer-feedback-leveraging-feedback-for-saas-product-development/) you can ensure your upsells and cross-sells don’t feel inauthentic. It might sound obvious, but customers will upgrade when they feel like what you’re offering is actually going to help them. This way you can make your upselling efforts seem more targeted; a direct response to their struggles and needs. ## Q+A ### What is cross-selling and upselling in SaaS? In the world of SaaS, cross-selling and upselling are two great ways to boost revenue by focusing on your current customers. Cross-selling is all about offering additional products or services that complement what the customer is already using. On the other hand, upselling is about encouraging customers to upgrade to a higher-tier plan or add premium features. ### What are examples of cross-selling and upselling? In SaaS, an example of cross-selling could be a company that offers a project management tool suggesting additional services like a time-tracking tool or a CRM system. An example of upselling in SaaS would be encouraging a customer on a basic subscription plan to upgrade to a premium plan. For example, if a user is on a basic plan that includes limited features and support, you might highlight the benefits of the premium plan, such as increased storage, advanced analytics, or priority customer support. ### How do you identify upsell opportunities? - **Usage Patterns:** Monitor how customers use your product and identify those who are reaching the limits of their current plan, such as hitting storage or user limits. - **Feature Requests:** Track customer requests for features that are only available in higher-tier plans. - **Support Interactions:** Use data from customer support interactions to spot users who might benefit from advanced features available in premium plans. - **Customer Feedback:** Analyze feedback and surveys to identify customers expressing a need for more advanced functionalities or better support. - **Behavioral Data:** Look for customers frequently accessing certain features, indicating they might benefit from more comprehensive tools available in higher plans. ## Final thoughts The most important factor to bear in mind is value. When you create the kind of product that customers really can’t do without, upselling and cross-selling opportunities are a foregone conclusion. Secondly, foster great relationships with your customers. That way, you can make your customers receptive to your upselling efforts and you’ll be well on your way to maximizing that sweet revenue. ### Case study: SaaS meetup in Bengaluru 🇮🇳 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/case-study-saas-meetup-in-begaluru/ Last updated: 2024-05-31T10:21:23.000Z Haven't you heard? SaaS Alliance is now hosting in-person meetups! Why should you care? Well, we know how important it is for folks just starting out in SaaS, or those looking to grow their org, to expand their network. In our premier meetup event in Bengaluru, our guests did just that, sharing actionable strategies and forging indispensable connections. If you're interested in this exciting opportunity, register your interest [here](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-meetups/). Want proof? Well, we sat down Raghav Shankar, an experienced SaaS sales professional, who hosted our Bengaluru meetup, to find out how the event went down. Spoiler alert: it was a huge success! But don't take it from us, read what Raghav had to say right here. 👇 ![A photo from SaaS Alliance Bengaluru meetup](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/SA-Bengaluru-2-March-2-1.jpg) ## A little bit about Raghav "I’ve been working in customer-facing roles since 2015, starting at Zoho, then spending six years at Hiver, where I helped scale the company significantly. I also started my own B2B company and later moved back to a 9-to-5 role due to personal commitments. On the personal side, I’m a huge anime fan, love collectibles, and enjoy reading fiction." ## Raghav's positive experience organizing the event "Right from the initial time I started engaging with Emma till the day of the meetup and even post that, it's been a pretty great experience in terms of ease of working. SaaS Alliance has been great to work with. Emma has been a really great community partner for me to get the whole thing rolling. She was really supportive in putting the messages across, getting social media promos out, and staying in constant contact with me. She was open to having regular frequent calls, which helped ensure we had the right things for the agenda. From SaaS Alliance as a community, what I really loved was the eagerness to help and the openness to collaborate on ideas that are a little out of the norm. The general creatives that go out on your website, LinkedIn, and the promos were pretty smooth. In terms of reactions from the audience, many people found SaaS Alliance to be a new and interesting community, particularly in the Indian, Bangalore scene. A lot of people showed interest in being early adopters and contributors to the community." ## How many people showed up to the meetup and what was their occupation? "We had about 12 folks that showed up in total. Among them, there were three B2C founders and people doing B2C businesses. Most of them were early-stage, trying to figure out GTM plans and understand how B2B does it. This led to solid cross-collaboration, with B2B companies sharing what worked for them and B2C companies offering ideas that could also apply to B2B. Most attendees were looking for mentorship and to learn from tried and tested methods." By joining one of our meetups, you'll get to pick the brains of peers who encounter similar problems to what you're dealing with. ## What do you think people were actually able to gain from the experience of the event? "At the end of the conversations, people were exchanging phone numbers and planning smaller meetups. It created a lot of smaller micro connections, leading to more collaboration without needing a mediator to get the conversation going." ## What do you think is the broader benefit of an event such as this? "The major advantage of physical meetups is that you get FaceTime with whoever you want to speak with. In a virtual setting, expressing with text doesn’t facilitate real connections as much as in-person interactions do. Physical meetups allow attendees to talk in more detail, exchange contact information, and build deeper connections." So there you have it! Our first meetup is in the books, and even just after one event, SaaS enthusiasts have established meaningful connections and managed to broaden their network. And the good news is, there's more to come! If you'd like to come along to our next event, you can express your interest [right here](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-meetups/)! ### How to use GPT-4o for SaaS growth URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-gpt-4o-for-saas-growth/ Last updated: 2024-10-31T11:01:01.000Z ChatGPT has struck again! For the past year, SaaS companies have been utilizing this revolutionary tool to streamline their work processes, making their work more efficient, and freeing up more time and space for innovative strategies. But like any fledgling tool, there have been limitations. Over a year in, and you can often spot a piece of ai-generated copy a mile away. As with all tools, ChatGPT has evolved too – into GPT- 4o! And with that evolution comes more ways that it can enable you to grow and sustain your business here. Here's a breakdown of our agenda: - [What is ChatGPT 4o?](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-gpt-4o-for-saas-growth/#what-is-chatgpt-4o-open-ai%E2%80%99s-announcement) - [Capturing your data with GPT-4o](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-gpt-4o-for-saas-growth/#capturing-your-data-with-gpt-4o) - [Analyzing your data with GPT-4o](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-gpt-4o-for-saas-growth/#analyzing-your-data-with-gpt-4o) - [Calculating with GPT-4o](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-gpt-4o-for-saas-growth/#calculating-with-gpt-4o) - [Market research with GPT-4o ](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-gpt-4o-for-saas-growth/#market-research-and-competitor-analysis) ## What is ChatGPT 4o? Open AI’s announcement The good people at OpenAI had this to say in their exciting launch: **OpenAI's official introduction to GPT-4o \[*[**Source: YouTube*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQacCB9tDaw&ref=financealliance.io)**\]* ChatGPT 4o is the latest iteration of ChatGPT. The O stands for Omni, indicating a more holistic experience overall than its predecessor. Although GPT 4 can deliver prompt text based responses in a range of different tones and registers, GPT-4o is capable of responding to audio responses, as well as generating images for more dynamic content. Here’s a more concise breakdown of what it offers in comparison to it’s predecessor: [![GPT4 vs GPT 4o](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/gpt-4-vs-gpt4o-2-1.png)](www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-gpt-4o-for-saas-growth/) So now that we’ve got the introductions out of the way, let’s dive into exactly how GPT-4o is going to boost your growth-chasing efforts. ## Capturing your data with GPT-4o When it comes to tracking and reporting on your important metrics, it won’t do to have your data scattered; you want to be able to put them together in some form of chart or graph so your team and senior stakeholders can get an overall picture of how your company is performing. GPT-4o can do this in a matter of seconds, all you need to do is provide the important numbers. Here we asked GPT-4o to create a chart based on dummy data displaying a fictional SaaS org's churn vs acquisition over a year. Here's what it was able to give us: [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/customer-churn-vs-customer-retention.jpg)](www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-gpt-4o-for-saas-growth/) You can see how even here, GPT- 4 can provide you with an overall picture of how your org is progressing. ## Analyzing your data with GPT-4o Not only is GPT capable of taking the data you feed it and presenting it a nifty table, it’s also capable of sophisticated analysis. Let’s say you input your data and ask it to organize that data for you, we asked GPT-4o to display dummy data reflecting a fictitious SaaS org's churn vs acquisition, customer acquisition cost, and customer lifetime value and put it in table form. Here's what we got in return: [![A table displaying dummy data for a SaaS org](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/CAC-vs-CLTV.jpg)](www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-gpt-4o-for-saas-growth/) \\ Now let's say you've put this data into chart form, now it's time to ask chat to analyse this data comparing each segment from the previous months, and comment on the overall performance. This is what we received. [![Data analysis by GPT- 4](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/data-analysis.jpg)](www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-gpt-4o-for-saas-growth/) We then asked GPT-4o to come up with some possible reasons for the changes that it saw, resulting in this: [![GPT-4o's data analysis](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/possible-implications.jpg)](www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-gpt-4o-for-saas-growth/) How is this valuable? Well, let's say you have a meeting to prepare for, where you haven't had time to formulate an analysis of your data, GPT - 4o can provide pretty thorough data in milliseconds, allowing you time to come up with solutions and iterative strategies for the fluctuations in growth. ## Calculating with GPT-4o You will often need to carry out calculations to help you make sense of the data you have. In the past this has taken up an awful lot of time. SaaS companies will often want to know the ratio between CAC and CLTV. We asked GPT-4o to tell us how to CAC to CLTV ratio and start calculating the ratios for the dummy data. Here's what this exciting tool came up with: [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/CAC-calculations.jpg)](www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-gpt-4o-for-saas-growth/) As you can see, not only can GPT- 40 carry a lot of the workload in terms of doing your important calculations, but it can also act as an educational tool, helping you break down every step of the process. Data analysis is essential for SaaS companies, both in terms of tracking their progress so far and making sensible predictions about where the industry is headed. But let’s be straight here. Data collation and analysis takes time. GPT-4o can save you time and manpower by handling much of this for you. --- [A Guide to SaaS and AI (8 Scary Risks You Must Know)Is AI the Quick Win it’s often touted to be? With every opportunity comes an equal opposite risk or challenge. Here are the 8 you need to know.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceAlex Walton![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/10/SaaS_Sharing_Article_Images_Doodles-Text_.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/) --- ## Natural voice conversations with GPT-4o So far, GPT has done a great job at mimicking different tones of voice when it comes to producing marketing copy, and yet what’s missing? The human touch. When communicating with customers, SaaS leaders need to be able to tap into those human emotions that drive decision making. But take a look at this video demonstrating GPT chatting to a furry friend: Why are we showing you this? Because the AI is able to mimic the emotion we associate with this situation. This capability is going to lead to more natural-feeling interactions, as well as output that's more capable of reaching your customers on a human level. Plus it means that when inputting prompts you don’t have to spend as much time trying to formulate the perfect prompt. If you’re in a hurry, or on the go, chat can easily respond to your speech and generate an appropriate response. ## Desktop app Customer support teams can now offer faster, more effective help with instant AI responses and handy screenshot annotations to make solutions crystal clear. Developers will love the quick problem-solving capabilities and the ease of collaborating on debugging issues, while marketing teams can effortlessly brainstorm content ideas and dive into performance data. When it comes to training and onboarding, the app makes learning interactive and efficient with visual aids and real-time answers. Analysts can quickly gather insights and work together on visual data, ensuring everyone’s on the same page. Customer success teams can proactively tackle potential issues and provide detailed explanations using annotated visuals, leading to happier customers. Overall, the app boosts internal communication, productivity, and decision-making, making it an invaluable tool for streamlining various aspects of SaaS business operations. ## Market research and competitor analysis It goes without saying, the SaaS landscape is competitive, but in order to stay competitive, you need to have the resources to analyse the competition. We’ve already seen how GPT 4o can offer sophisticated analysis. Imagine what it can do for your market research. Additionally, it will be able to spot emerging trends in the market, so that you can get ahead of the curve. ## FAQs ### What is GPT-4o? GPT-4o is OpenAI’s latest premier model, capable of understanding and reasoning with audio, visual, and text inputs simultaneously. OpenAI touts it as a major advancement "towards much more natural human-computer interaction. ### How is ChatGPT 4o different from other versions of ChatGPT? GPT-4o is able to respond to audio prompts, generate images for more dynamic content, as well as conduct more detailed, thorough data analysis, presenting your vital numbers in attractive charts and graphs. ### Is GPT- 4o free? Yes, GPT-4o is available to users of the free version of ChatGPT ### Is GPT-4o better than GPT 4? GPT- 4o is certainly an enhanced version of its prior iteration, with superior speed and efficiency, as well as enhanced capatbilities, including image generation and voice prompting. But the core language capabilities remain more or less the same. ### Is GPT - 4o available? Yes, GPT- 4o is now available to free users. ### What does GPT-4o do? GPT-4o can evaluate, summarize, and engage with users through text, images, and audio. It responds to questions by combining its own knowledge with information from the internet, offering enhanced insights. ### What’s new about GPT-4o? GPT-4o is an optimized upgrade of OpenAI's GPT-4, engineered to improve performance and efficiency while retaining its strong language understanding and generation abilities. It now has the added capability to interact with you through images, audio, and video. --- Like what you see? Why not check a whole host of content on the subject of AI and SaaS [right here?](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/) ### AI: The secret weapon for aligning your B2B sales and marketing teams URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/ai-aligning-b2b-sales-and-marketing-teams/ Last updated: 2024-05-24T16:30:20.000Z Discover how AI can bridge the divide between your B2B sales and marketing teams for next-level revenue growth _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### How empathy drives product excellence for users, teams, and business URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-empathy-drives-product-excellence-for-users-teams-and-business/ Last updated: 2024-05-17T15:44:31.000Z Managing Director at Cooken Digital, Jordan Thistlewood, demonstrates how empathy can be the rocket fuel that drives your product to SaaS superstardom. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### 10 best OKR examples for SaaS companies striving for success URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/10-best-okr-examples/ Last updated: 2024-05-17T11:32:13.000Z Have you got a killer SaaS idea, but can’t think how to grow your idea into a viable business? Many startup founders have really cool ideas, but they simply don’t know how to manifest their idea into a viable business. It’s a multi-pronged process, but one of the essential steps is getting you SaaS OKRs in order. In a nutshell, they’re the guiding stars for where you hope to take your organization and what your major goals are? But where do you start? In this article, we’ll take you through examples of major OKRs you should be striving for, as well as how to break these broader OKRs down into achievable milestones. But before we get into the nitty gritty, let’s do some basic SaaS OKR 101\. ## What are SaaS OKRs? OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results—it's all about setting ambitious goals and nailing them with precision! Designed for companies, teams, and individuals, OKRs break down big strategies into achievable chunks. Whether you're boosting performance or ramping up productivity, OKRs keep you on track with measurable outcomes. In his book Measure What Matters, John Doer, characterizes OKRs as such: > *“The OKR framework cultivates the madness, the chemistry contained inside. It gives us an environment for risk, for trust, where failing is not a fireable offense- you know, a safe place to be yourself.”* Climbing a mountain can can be pretty scary if you’re just thinking about getting to the top, but if you break it down into smaller, but significant milestones, it suddenly seems more scalable and safer. That’s the gift that OKRs can give you. The sooner you think about your larger goal as a collection of smaller significant milestones, the sooner you’ll be taking significant steps to your goal. ### What does success with SaaS OKRs look like? Doer defined success with OKRs under the acronym FACTs ( Focus, Alignment, Commitment, Tracking, Stretching). **Focus** When you have a clear idea of what your goals are, your work becomes more purposeful and time is used more efficiently. If you're able to bring focus to your day to day operations, you can cut out the fluff, and make sure every decision you make is driving you toward achieving growth. **Alignment** Alignment smashes those silos preventing your team from working as a cohesive whole. Unite your team behind your company's vision to ensure that every success for individual team impacts the overall success of your org. **Commitment** OKRs consolidate the commitment your team need to make to achieve long term success. Without those milestones, it's very difficult for your team to know what exactly they're committing to and stay motivated. **Tracking** SaaS orgs have to be able to pivot when things are going wrong and iterate on things that are going right. OKRs allow your team to keep tabs on these successes and shortcomings. That way you can expand on the positves and make adjustments where needed. **Stretching** Get your org into that all-important growth mindset by stretching those goals a little beyond what you may think your capable of. That way, even if you fall a little short of your goals, you'r e still going to be enjoying considerable success. ## Why are SaaS OKRs important for SaaS companies Once your product idea becomes a fledgling business, the drive to become profitable becomes a pressing issue. It’s a considerable mountain to climb, and it can be overwhelming, especially for those with limited experience in actually growing and sustaining their business. OKRs, then, are the small significant milestones that you’ll be aiming for on your journey to profitability, and ultimately, expansion at an enterprise level. > OKRs, like any strategic framework, is no silver bullet for organizational excellence. However, when applied correctly, they can be a valuable tool to empower your team to do their best work. [Marielle Velander](https://www.linkedin.com/in/marielle-velander-bab6a53a/), *Senior Product & Technology Operations Analyst at N26* OKRs empower SaaS companies to prioritize innovation, enhance product offerings through iterative improvements based on customer feedback, and optimize essential metrics for balanced growth and profitability. We’ve condensed these benefits down into this nifty infographic: ![Table distinguishing orgs with good OKRs from those without. Strong OKRs: Strong cross-collaboration. Without OKRs: Departments working in silos](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/wh_DRe3SZo9aAWQSzteowGvd3JK9qeaBG1rNZ1mWkCqzRmJVQYL3-HfDUXETU9_-wMMEF_8AgmVvdhGCnVUA296FAdOQNof_vQcWUBw6o8LowBQck7ADuwGp-JaFapGyxoSEbnx8laYPLKbkcF-nZak) Now that we’ve got the whats and whys out of the way, let’s get in to the actionable strategies that should drive your OKRs. ## How to implement SaaS OKRs in 5 steps ### 1\. Introduce them to your team Before rolling out any kind of new framework, communication is key. Explain the concept of OKRs to your team, and what you hope to achieve by implementing them. Outline the timelines you plan to use to measure their success (monthly, quarterly) and most importantly discuss the procedures around deliverables, progress checks and what to do if any problems arise. ### 2\. Define OKRs Define your specific objectives by asking yourself three simple questions. 1. Where am I now? 2. Where do I want to go? 3. How do I get there? Your answers will form the outline of the OKRs for every team member within your given timeframe. For example, your objective might be to reach out to 30 potential new clients over the next month, taking meetings with at least 15 within two months and sealing the deal with 10 over the next quarter. Once the rest of your team are aware of your objectives, they can break them down into bite-sized tasks or relevant metrics to help the company achieve that goal, whether that's by adding features to entice a certain type of client or resolving customer issues for better feedback. ### 3\. Regular check ins Discussing OKRs at the start and the end of each cycle just isn’t enough. Regular check-ins to see how objectives are progressing and whether individuals are on track to meet their targets are vital to everyone achieving their goals. Schedule weekly or bi-weekly one-on-ones with team leads to see if you can provide guidance or assistance to help them reach their target. Keeping on track ensures you have enough time to achieve what you set out to without having to scramble for time as the quarter comes to an end. ### 4\. Measure your OKRs You can measure OKRs by implementing a scoring system. California's Chief Innovation Officer, Rick Klau recommends scoring key results between 0.0 to 1.0, however, 0% to 100% are perfectly acceptable too. To calculate the score, we divide the target set by the result, so for example if sales had a target of calling 1,000 leads but only managed to call 400, their score would be 0.4, if they called 800, then the score is 0.8\. Once you have the score, you can grade the key result using this grading system as a guide. ![Table demonstrating scoring system for OKRs: 0.6 -10 = Good, 0.4 - 0.6 = pass, below 0.4= needs review](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/Screenshot-2021-06-30-at-16.19.12.jpg) ### 5\. Establish feedback loops It will take time for you and your team to get used to the process of OKRs, and you might not have all of the right metrics in place at the very start, but once you’ve completed a few cycles you’ll get a better feel for realistic timelines and how long certain processes actually take. It’s so common to underestimate the time it takes others to complete certain tasks or overestimate how much users are going to love a certain feature, but that’s the beauty of OKRs, even if they're not quite met, there’s a goldmine of valuable information about your organization to be mined from the results. On the flipside, you might find that a certain set of measures aligns perfectly with your business goals, and you can really hone in those metrics and add them to your grading system accordingly. ## How to report on your OKRs Once you’ve set your OKRs and have your measurable results, you’ll need to record and report them. Here’s a really simple, low maintenance table we pinched from Product Marketing Alliance. It includes all of the top-line information you need to document. ![Table reporting goals for a quarter](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/Screenshot-2021-06-30-at-16.04.23.jpg) ## 10 best OKR examples for SaaS companies ### Building a sustainable growth engine At a time when SaaS startups are struggling to achieve that sweet investor funding, startups need to be focused on growing sustainably. That means they need to be able to make the most of their scant resources to grow, while being mindful of expense. Companies rely on organic search in particular, as it's relatively inexpensive compared to acquiring paid ads. Organic search and SEO page optimization gets eyes on your organization, generates leads, and if all goes well, leads to customer acquisition. The milestones are never going to be exactly the same for any two companies, but here are some of the milestones you should be looking at: ![Key milestones for sustainable growth: Grow organic search traffic by 20-30% quarterly Improve key word rankings by 10 or more positions Grow your indexed pages by 10-20% (Unless pages are indexed, they go unseen) Increase number of leads generated through organic search ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/organic-search-2.png) In order to achieve organic search success, consider a thought leadership strategy. Put out on content on your blog that offers solutions to your target market problems rather than aggressively trying to push your product. With this strategy, you’ll establish your company as an authority in the industry, establishing that foundation of trust that translates to customer acquisition. ### Establish a growth flywheel SaaS companies need to grow fast, and for that to happen you need to get to grips with the growth flywheel. A growth flywheel is essentially when the different aspects of growthyou manage to achieve over time eventually gain their own momentum and feed into each other. In a nutshell, the growth you’ve achieved on one aspect of your business elsewhere positively impacts other important growth efforts, leading to long term sustainable growth. Here are the OKRs you need to be looking at to establish your flywheel: ![Key milestones for growth flywheel: Boost customer referrals by up to 50% Establish solid customer onboarding leading to customer acquisition Extend your customer reach through marketing channel expansion Establish a customer re-activation strategy to improve customer retention by 20%](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/growth-flywheel-milestones.png) ### Establish strong collaboration between teams Cross functional collaboration between teams is absolutely essential for SaaS success. No successful SaaS organization has its teams working in silos, each team has to be mindful of how their own individual OKRs contribute to the larger OKRs of the organization. A SaaS organization is like a well-oiled machine, and with the implementation of this OKR you can ensure that each individual department of your company works in sync. ![Key milestones for cross-functional collaboration:Improve cross functional collaboration by increasing meetings by 50% Reduce product development time by 4 weeks to facilitate collaboration Get marketing involved in product releases by increasing marketing campaings by 20% Increase cross-functional workshops, so that departments can work on solutions together](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/cross-functional-OKRs-.png) ### Make customers into advocates One of the best ways SaaS startups can both improve acquisition and strengthen retention is through customer advocacy. In today’s user-centric climate, users are very savvy to traditional marketing tactics, and the best way to showcase the real benefits of your product or service is by showcasing the successes of those loyal customers. And it goes without saying that startups who are looking to grow sustainably, customer ambassadors are a relatively affordable tool for convincing prospective customers of your product’s value. Equally, ambassadors can act as a support for new users who are in danger of churning. They can help guide customers to the all important value moment that will make them “stick’ to your product. Here are the milestones you should be looking at to achieve this OKR: ![Milestones for customer advocacy: Boost your Net Promoter Score (NPS) by improving customer satisfaction initiatives Relentlessly gather feedback on product features, and optimize to achieve 80% customer satisfaction Cut support ticket processing time down to 12 hours in order to improve customer loyalty and long term customer retention](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/milestones-for-customer-advocacy-2.png) ### Creating an inbound marketing strategy Inbound marketing can give SaaS companies a serious boost, mostly because it’s super cost-effective and really fits well with the digital nature of their products. Using SEO, social media, and content creation draws in customers naturally, which is not just cheaper than traditional ads and cold calls but also perfect for subscription models where you want to keep customers around for the long haul. Plus, as your SaaS company grows, your inbound marketing efforts can scale up too, without needing to spend much more. Now let’s look at some of the smaller milestones you need to think about in order to have a strong inbound marketing strategy: ![milestones for inbound marketing strategy: Whip up targeted marketing campaigns and aim to increase your inbound leads by 100% Aim to increase your organic traffic by 20% per month. More eyes on the product means more chance at conversion Aim to increase your monthly demo requests ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/inbound-marketing-milestones.png) ### Creating a top notch customer experience with an amazing product It’s no secret, with the global dominance of SaaS, the control is truly in the hands of the customer. Customers can pick up a new software solution and cancel at any time, so for that reason it’s important for SaaS orgs to demonstrate that their solution can solve user pain points, and that it’s going to make a significant impact on their day to day challenges. But creating a top notch customer experience is no mean feat, so like with everything else you’ll want to break your ultimate goal into bitesize chunks. Let’s get into them here: ![Milestones fo customer experience: Update your pricing model so that your business can accomodate user needs Expand your product upmarket. Selling your product to enterprise organizations can considerably boost MRR Establish a solid customer onboarding process so customers can find that value moment](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/OKrs-for-customer-experience.png) ### Increase Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) For SaaS companies, growing monthly recurring revenue, or MRR, is vital—it's the financial backbone that keeps everything stable and predictable. This steady stream of income means companies can plan their finances better, make smarter long-term investments, and keep scaling up without sacrificing service quality. Strong MRR isn't just about having enough cash; it shows that customers believe in the product and stick around, which is a huge plus when you're looking to attract investors or secure more funding.It’s a pretty overwhelming goal. Let’s see how you can break it down it into smaller milestones: ![milestones for MRR:Aim to get your resolution score up to 75%. This means that your support team can solve customer problems swiftly Aim to get your customer churn rate down to 4%. 5-7% is the average for SaaS companies Aim to improve your upsell/cross-sell rate by up to 20%. Upsells can make a massive impact on overall MRR](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/Improve-MRR.png) ### Utilize AI to increase your customer base AI has shown enormous potential in enabling some of the giants of the industry to make a killing. From content creation and improved customer support, to detailed analysis, AI can allow SaaS companies to get ahead of the competition, grow rapidly and sustainably. You may think that AI lacks that essential human touch to really resonate with your customers, but if used thoughtfully, AI can deal with necessary, but time-consuming tasks so that your creative maestros can have more time to tackle complex issues. Here are some of the smaller, but significant goals you should bear in mind when introducing AI into your business: ![AI Milestones:Use AI to introduce predictive analysis so you can predict shifts in the market and stay ahead of the competition Introduce AI software to consolidate security, specifically fraud and data breaches Introduce an AI support system, so that you can resolve the majority of customer queries swiftly](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/AI-OKRs.png) ### Build strategic partnerships Building strategic partnerships can be a major boost for SaaS companies. It's not just about reaching new markets—though that’s a big part of it—it's about doing it efficiently by tapping into established brands that already have the trust and attention of the customers you want to reach. These collaborations can also beef up your product by integrating new features or tech, creating a richer solution that really resonates with users. On top of that, partnerships are like a two-way street of benefits. You get to pool resources, share expertise, and even boost your own credibility by association. ### Create a fantastic company culture The culture within your company impacts their interactions with potential customers. Users can tell if you employees really believe in your company and product, and for that reason it’s essential that employees are proud to work for your company and really believe in what they’re selling. Smaller milestones may include the following: - Reduce employee turnover to 10% - Introduce company social events so that you can build strong rapport within your team - Aim for an eNPS score of at least 50+ ( this metric measures employee satisfaction) # 5 Best OKR examples by department Here’s a few example OKRs to get you started, broken down by team. ## Company-wide ### Objective: Increase our recurring revenue. ### Key Results: - Increase monthly recurring revenue (MRR) - Increase sales by X% each week - Increase retention rate to X% - Reduce churn by X% --- ## Customer Success ### Objective: Improve our customer satisfaction score ### Key results: - Exceed net promoter score (NPS) of over 7.0 - Get at least 1,00 responses to customer satisfaction survey - Interview at least 30 of our top customers --- ## Product management ### Objective: Launch new product successfully ### Key results: - Get X amount of sign ups - Convert X amount of freemium users to premium --- ## Development ### Objective: Stabilize product ### Key result: - Increase code unit test cover from X% to X% - Reduce bugs reported after initial release from X to X average. - Increase unit test coverage by X% --- ## Marketing ### Objective: Distribute content effectively ### Key result: - Publish a guest post on X blog - Improve backlinks by X% - Acquire X more followers on socials --- ## Conclusion As we said a little further up the article, there’s no one size fits, but if you follow our advice and tweak it to your team's individual circumstances you can’t go far wrong. Having quarterly updates for product, sales, and marketing leadership helps to establish trust and credibility and leads to a real sense of ownership and belonging as you work together towards shared goals. --- *Like what you see? For exclusive insights from the mightiest minds in SaaS, why not* [*become a member?*](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/) ### Messaging your AI pricing model URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/messaging-your-ai-pricing-model/ Last updated: 2024-05-10T16:03:59.000Z More and more AI capabilities are being added to product roadmaps every single day. Even companies that aren’t using true AI are still incorporating increasingly advanced capabilities into their product. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Go-to-market strategy:The roadmap to SaaS success URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/go-to-market-strategy-the-roadmap-to-saas-success/ Last updated: 2024-05-09T14:58:52.000Z *Editor’s note: This article is based on an interview conducted with Bolaji by PMA (the sister community of SaaS alliance) scholar Emmanuel Nwosu.* My name is [Bolaji Anifowose](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bolajianifowose/), Head of Partner Marketing at Distrobird and former Head of Marketing at Simpu. Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of launching and marketing several SaaS products, learning invaluable lessons along the way. In this article, I will share insights from my experience, offering a roadmap for creating a successful Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy, driving revenue, and utilizing content marketing for growth. ## Measuring the effectiveness of a go-to-market strategy A [GTM](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-lead-a-collaborative-go-to-market-strategy/) strategy encompasses all activities, people, and efforts involved in bringing a product to market. To ensure success, you need to create a robust GTM theme, model, and choose the right channels. A critical aspect is setting metrics to measure success. While these [metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-metrics-for-saas-marketers/) may vary based on your business model, they should ultimately lead to [revenue generation](https://www.saasalliance.io/revenue-operations-the-new-key-to-unlocking-growth/), the driving force behind any successful business. ![3 major strategies for a GTM launch ](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/fH9rRWIv8_ShGVYglm8tBrd76CrtWJaIK91-ulQFRF6E-o0fohfkTGNPnVILRZsCmK8qzzJkxDCogfpGU2qwyZK0QXDlCqwXx6hwmlyqUTH7ar-TZXTiCS5wqjYymegfS3r9aE-cSPRYJpImnlqah7w) 3 major strategies for a GTM launch For product-led SaaS businesses, key metrics include product sign-ups, feature usage, and churn rate, reflecting product adoption and potential revenue. For sales-led companies, success metrics include Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) generated for the sales team and the win-rate of sales enablement materials used. To track these metrics effectively, set up a [comprehensive analytics](https://www.saasalliance.io/17-awesome-analytics-measurement-and-reporting-tools-for-saas-businesses/) dashboard using tools like Amplitude, Mixpanel, or June.so, and monitor revenue metrics through a tool like ProfitWell. ## Content marketing's role in GTM strategy [Content](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-create-a-killer-content-marketing-strategy-for-your-b2b-saas/) is at the heart of any GTM strategy, essential for nailing positioning and messaging. It can take many forms—blogs, whitepapers, videos, case studies, and ebooks—and should be aligned with your company's growth goals. For sales-led companies, case studies play a crucial role in boosting sales velocity, showing how your product has helped others achieve their goals. SEO also remains an essential channel, offering evergreen leads and conversions. I recommend creating content that caters to [different funnel stages. ](https://www.saasalliance.io/interactive-content-ideas-for-each-stage-of-the-buyers-journey/)For example, bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) content like comparisons or how-to guides can help convert problem-aware leads into customers. Events, thought leadership webinars, and other video content types can generate MQLs and SQLs, contributing to a comprehensive content strategy. ![The role of content in a GTM strategy](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/The-role-of-content.png) ## Challenges in GTM launches Budget constraints have been a significant challenge for me in launching SaaS products, limiting my options for channels. I had to make trade-offs, focusing on channels with higher ROI. Unclear target audience, team alignment and pricing strategy are other crucial aspects. Establishing a [pricing strategy](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-your-saas-offering/) early on is vital to avoid post-launch struggles, and constant customer feedback is essential to refine it. ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/miyDe9HqDE-FE-p7b6-2I-cIl31qZ3W03lj9x3JZuPN5x6Nh7iruL6lGYYlFb4qIgw1b4aTxM2pxM35p-4A-4BfJt1XIQ5C4TtQAY3cNGf4aWRvMKJI2GaZ7UEWtjVM8C-X7y6GHRYQDcp7jP9EbWXs) ## Pricing for adoption My experience at Simpu showed the drawbacks of a freemium model, leading to many unqualified leads and skewed data. We adjusted to a 14-day free trial, allowing users to explore and decide if they'd pay. Knowing your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) through research and constant feedback helps set an appropriate pricing strategy, ensuring your target market's needs are met. Unless absolutely necessary or for a well-funded hobby project, I generally avoid offering a freemium model. SaaS companies need to be very strategic if they choose to implement it. By adjusting to a [14-day free trial ](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-guide-to-making-money-with-freemium-models/)period, I believe we give users enough time to explore our product and decide if they find enough value to convert to a paid account. A mistake that many new SaaS companies make is that they undervalue their product. Show conviction. If you know your product is great, price it accordingly. Because if you end up with a high volume of free users later down the line, it can create major problems for you. ## Final thoughts: Nail your ICP It's critical to accurately define your [ideal customer profile](https://www.saasalliance.io/identify-your-icps-to-build-a-successful-pricing-strategy/) (ICP). Initially, we faced a challenge in this area. Our first users were technology enthusiasts and hobbyists excited about trying new [SaaS tools](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2023/), but they didn't necessarily need the solutions we provided. For any SaaS company, this is a precarious position, as it can hinder your growth by preventing you from receiving valuable feedback from your target customers. Instead, focus on individuals who genuinely need your solutions to their problems and are prepared to invest significantly to solve them. This understanding of your ICP should then inform your pricing strategy. Before your GTM launch, you should have conducted customer surveys and interviews—particularly with your ICPs—to establish an appropriate price point for your key audience. Moreover, [maintain ongoing dialogues](https://www.saasalliance.io/using-customer-feedback-and-win-loss-interviews-to-improve-your-product/) with your customers to keep tabs on their changing behaviors, reactions, and opinions about your pricing. Use this information to adjust your strategy, ensuring your pricing aligns with the scale of your customers’ businesses, whether they are small businesses or larger enterprises. --- Like what you see? Why not soak up exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a SaaS Alliance [membership plan? ](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/) ### SaaScast: Mastering revenue operations [Watch now] URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-mastering-revenue-operations/ Last updated: 2024-05-07T11:57:23.000Z RevOps is the secret sauce for SaaS success, merging sales, marketing, and customer success into one powerhouse! It smooths out the customer journey from first click to loyal fan, skyrocketing lifetime value and slashing churn. With its data-driven core, RevOps sharpens decision-making and fuels scalability, speed boosting revenue growth and unlocking more upsell and cross-sell wins. Plus, its customer-first approach not only boosts satisfaction but also ramps up referrals. Curious to learn more? Dive into the world of RevOps with industry guru Nicholas Gollop, and snag some game-changing strategies.👇 ## What we cover in this episode This episode is not only a holistic deep dive into revenue operations, but also how it fits into the dynamic SaaS landscape. Here's what we went into in this episode: 🤔 What is RevOps? 🤝 How does RevOps facilitate alignment? ⏰ What does the day-to-day work of a RevOps leader look like? All this and so much more. Dive right in! ## Get involved Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Creator, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: ### Winning the workplace: How to empower your sales team URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/winning-the-workplace-how-to-empower-your-sales-team/ Last updated: 2024-05-03T15:00:17.000Z In this article, Jeff Birk, Director of Global Sales Enablement at Prophix, shares a roadmap for empowering your sales teams through appreciation and recognition. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### How to get started in SaaS sales with no experience URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-get-started-in-saas-sales-with-no-experience/ Last updated: 2024-09-10T13:35:17.000Z The SaaS world is highly competitive, with many companies seeking top talent. However, don't count yourself out just because you lack extensive tech experience. The SaaS industry thrives on a diverse ecosystem of skills, requiring expertise from various disciplines to keep an organization running smoothly. Think of the numerous roles within an average company, from marketing and sales to customer success. Sales, in particular, stands out. You might assume that selling SaaS products demands tech savviness, but the essential factor is often the human touch. Even without experience selling software, you might have the qualities needed to build trust and convert leads into customers. That said, the industry remains challenging. Let's explore some steps to give you a competitive edge. ## What is SaaS sales? SaaS sales, or Software as a Service sales, is the process of selling cloud-based software subscriptions. Unlike traditional software sales, where you buy a license and install the software yourself, SaaS products are hosted remotely and accessed via the internet. The subscription model offers recurring revenue, and scalability options let customers start small and expand as needed. To retain customers, SaaS companies emphasize customer success, providing support, onboarding help, and feature updates. Free trials and freemium models let potential customers test the waters before committing. The sales cycle can range from quick and simple to extensive demos and negotiations, depending on the product's complexity and customer needs. [Sales: The rules of engagementSales is a complex and competitive business - and never more so than when deciding who gets the credit for what: who gets the commission and, just as importantly, who gets the recognition?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/08/muyuan-ma--xHZBzv4Naw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-the-rules-of-engagement/) ## What kind of experience do you need to get started in SaaS sales? While experience in selling software can be useful, interviewers are primarily interested in whether you have experience selling to specific markets, understanding their pain points, and ensuring your company's message resonates with the right prospects. Industry knowledge is also essential. Know the current challenges and how the company you're applying to is addressing or missing these needs. Fresh insights into strategies can set you apart from more seasoned salespeople. Additionally, experience hitting rigorous targets is valuable, as sales is often a high-pressure field. Demonstrating past success in meeting demands, regardless of industry, will leave a strong impression. [10 top tips for the perfect tech resumeIt’s no secret: The current job climate in tech is rough! If you’re one of the many affected, check out our top tips for getting rehired!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/top-resume-tips.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-tips-for-the-perfect-tech-resume/) ## What training do you need to succeed in SaaS sales? There are fortunately many accredited sales training courses out there, such as those of our sister community sales enablement collective. Although these courses can’t ever be a substitute for real on the ground experience, you’ll get to learn from the cream of the crop, and it’ll get you familiar with the fundamentals of SaaS sales. When you start applying for jobs, evidence of putting the effort in to learn these fundamental skills will go a long way. ## Proactive steps to get into SaaS sales Great, so we’ve defined what SaaS sales is and what you need, broadly, to get there. Now let’s get into what proactive steps you need to take to get your foot in the door. ### Establish your goals It might seem like you’re putting the cart before the horse a little, but it can be difficult to embark on any journey if you don’t know what your ultimate goal is. You can only plan out your path when you know what your first step needs to be. Each step is going to require real determination, so you need to know exactly what moves you need to make. **Bonus: Get in to customer support role** Customer support roles can be great for getting your foot in the door. Customer support specialists need to learn a bit about the product, and tech products in general in order to be abole to assist customers or refer them to the right department. And if you haven’t had much experience handling more challenging customers, this can be a great way to cut your teeth. It’s all about cultivating those skills that are essential for a successful sales rep. ### Get the full low-down on the SaaS industry Becoming an expert on the SaaS industry is like becoming an expert on everything. Yeah, doesn’t really exist. There are a whole plethora of SaaS categories out there, so before you get started on your journey, it’s important to establish what kind of SaaS product you want to be selling. Then you need to conduct thorough market research into the kind of people who are going to be looking to buy the product, what are their pain points, what mode of communication do they prefer? If you come to your first interview armed with this information, you're already going to have some solutions for the challenges they face. ### Find the type of SaaS company that suits you Finding the right SaaS company to work for can be challenging, with so many options available. Here are some key factors to consider when searching for a good fit: 1. Company size: Determine if you prefer working for a smaller start-up or a larger, established company. 2. Growth stage: Consider whether the company is in the early stages of growth or is scaling up. 3. Culture: Look into the company's work culture to see if it aligns with your values and working style. 4. Product: Ensure you're interested in the company's product and its potential. Once you've identified a few companies that match these criteria, reach out to them directly to inquire about opportunities in their sales department. If no openings are available, don't be discouraged. Contact their HR department to see if they can point you to similar opportunities elsewhere. ### Make a list of your skills Even if you don’t have any experience working in software technology, the SaaS landscape is diverse enough that you probably already have skills that could massively benefit any SaaS company. So once you’ve decided what kind of SaaS company you want to apply for you then need to think of what sills are going to be needed, how they mesh with the skills you already have, which skills you can realistically acquire, and which are going to take a little longer. There is no one size fits all, but in general SaaS hiring managers are going to be looking for the following qualities: **A team player**: A good SaaS company fosters cross-functional collaboration, so you’ll need to show you have a willingness to make your work fit into the overall picture of the SaaS company. **A great negotiator**: It’s an indispensable skill in sales, so come to your interview with evidence of how you’ve been able to either win customers over, or alternatively, manage customer expectations. **A tough cookie**: In sales, you’re often going to take the heat of disgruntled customers, so you’ll need to demonstrate that you can handle this criticism without taking it personally. **An eager beaver**: You can prove your enthusiasm by conducting adequate research into the company you want to be a part of. And that goes beyond simply knowing the product. You should be aware of the company’s mission statement and values. [Top 30 jobs to kickstart your SaaS journeyWhat route will you take in the vibrant realm of SaaS? Check out our directory of SaaS careers and take your first step today.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/empower.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-30-jobs-to-kickstart-your-saas-journey/) ### Write a kick ass resume Writing a resume for a tech job can seem daunting, but breaking it down into key steps can make it easier. Here's a more conversational guide to crafting a tech-focused resume: 1. Do your homework: Start by researching the company and the specific role you're applying for. Get a sense of their mission, culture, and what skills and qualifications they value. 2. Customize your resume: Tailor your resume to the job in question. Highlight skills, experiences, and achievements that directly align with the job description and the company's needs. 3. Tech skills: Make sure to list all your relevant technical skills clearly. Include programming languages, software tools, and frameworks you’re proficient in. 4. Work experience: Outline your professional experience, focusing on tech roles and projects. Highlight key achievements, quantify them if possible, and mention any projects you've led or contributed to. 5. Education and certifications: Include your educational background, especially if it's related to tech. Mention relevant degrees, courses, and certifications that apply to the role. 6. Projects and portfolio: If you've worked on tech projects outside your job, include them too. This could be open-source contributions, freelance projects, or personal endeavors. 7. Soft skills: Don't forget to mention soft skills that are valuable in tech, like problem-solving, teamwork, and communication. You can emphasize these in both your skills section and when describing your experience. 8. Keep it clean: Make sure your resume is clear and concise, ideally one or two pages. Use bullet points, consistent formatting, and a clean design to make it easy to read. 9. Proofread: Finally, thoroughly review your resume for typos and grammatical errors. It’s a good idea to get a friend or colleague to look it over as well. ## Wrapping up An important thing to bear in mind is that SaaS companies benefit from a diverse pool of talent. Think the world of SaaS is just for the SIlicon Valley tech wiz. Think again? You need your customer success specialists, your marketing maestros, and your visual artists, just to name a few. So find how your skills fit into the tech ecosystem and get started today. --- Like what you see? Our exclusive content is even better. Dive into top notch insights from the leading minds in SaaS right here. [ ![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.futureofsaas.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Navigating the exit: Mastering IPOs and M&As URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/mastering-ipos-and-m-as/ Last updated: 2024-04-26T16:00:36.000Z Unlock the secrets to a successful startup exit: IPO, M&A, or SPAC? This guide weighs the pros and cons, sharing insider tips for SaaS founders. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Unlocking SaaS fintech: Essential steps to build your platform URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/unlocking-saas-fintech-essential-steps-to-build-your-platform/ Last updated: 2024-04-26T10:41:57.000Z SaaS hasn’t just revolutionized technology, it’s transformed many different job functions across the globe, making it simpler for businesses of all varieties and sizes to carry out their day-to-day tasks. An essential tenet of how businesses operate is how they handle their finances. Without this in place, it’s a non-starter for startup businesses. Now, fintech is nothing new, but SaaS has made processing payments, budgeting, and forecasting revenue simpler than ever before. But how? That’s what we’re here to find out. But first, let’s do some basic fintech 101. ## What is fintech? It’s short for financial technology, and in a broader sense, fintech is digitalization for the finance sector. Even if you haven’t thought about it, it’s highly likely you rely on fintech in your daily habits. When you use your apple wallet for buying that coffee in the morning, or use your banking app to pay your bills. In short, it’s the kind of thing that’s so ubiquitous that even if you don’t know you’re in it, **you are in it** Of course, in the SaaS world this applies to any digital financial service where you have to pay a regular subscription to access it. The necessity of financial services for businesses, and the ease of use that SaaS represents has certainly presented a match made in heaven, and is a powerful factor in the rise and rise of fintech, which is projected to increase by as much as 26.6% by 2030\. However, SaaS fintech products are notoriously difficult to develop, and before you go into strategies for building one, you need to define the kind of fintech product you’re going to build. ## Types of SaaS fintech business Before you embark on your SaaS fintech journey, it’s important to define the kind of SaaS fintech business you want to develop. Let’s go through them all right now: ### Internet banking apps For SaaS, this is less common, but it’s worth going into as one of the most commonly used forms of fintech. Financial transactions aren't exactly fun at the best of times. For most people, it often comes with the associated pressure of bills and obligations. That hasn’t really changed, but the prevalence of banking apps has alleviated much of the anxiety and hassle. Gone are the days where you had to stand in a line just to make your transactions, now you can complete all of your transactions from the comfort of your own home. The ease of use has had such an impact that many banks only allow transactions through online apps or on your desktop. For banks and businesses, this is understandable since it allows businesses to cut down on overheads and costs, since most processes are self-guided. ### Trading and investment apps Imagine you’re interested in diving into the world of trading and investing, but you want something convenient and easy to handle. That’s where a SaaS (trading and investment app comes into play. Picture this as your all-in-one platform that lives online, so you can access it from anywhere—your laptop at a cafe, your phone on the train, you name it. They’re also pretty flexible. As your trading activities grow or you decide to get more serious, the app can scale up to meet your needs without any fuss on your end. And don’t worry about updates or technical maintenance; the provider handles all that, which means you're always equipped with the latest tools and security features. Plus, they're usually more budget-friendly than traditional trading platforms. You typically pay a monthly or yearly fee instead of a hefty upfront cost. This way, it's easier to start without a big investment. ### Consumer finance apps If you’ve ever had to budget to save money for a house, or save for that dream vacation, you might well have had first-hand experience with consumer finance apps. Not all schools teach finance management, and for young adults looking to get by in today’s challenging economy, these apps can really swoop in to help individual’s stay afloat and get ahead. Popular examples include Mint for budgeting and expense tracking, Acorns for easy investing, and Credit Karma for credit score monitoring and advice. These apps are designed to make financial management as easy and accessible as possible, helping you to make informed decisions and achieve your financial goals. ### Insurance apps Insurance apps are tools that cater to everyone in the insurance world, whether it's the companies or the users. They can be as simple as a specialized CRM system that sits on an insurance provider’s website, helping them keep everything organized and running smoothly. For us regular folks, these apps can be super handy. Imagine having an app on your phone where you can peek at all your insurance policies whenever you want. Need to check your coverage details or update your information? No problem, just tap away. And if you decide you need more coverage, like adding a new car or getting travel insurance for that awesome vacation, you can handle that right from the app, too. ### Payment software Payment software is basically any tool that helps a business or individual handle online payments. It usually has three main parts, with the payment processor being a key component. This part of the software takes care of the heavy lifting during transactions—it sends the payment details back and forth between the customer's bank and the merchant's bank. It's like the middleman making sure everyone's on the same page financially. ## Key product features of SaaS fintech software ### **A welcoming user interface** Let’s be straight up here, dealing with finances isn’t exactly the most exciting endeavor and it often comes associated with many anxieties, either for individual consumers or businesses, so you really need your interface to have an alleviating effect, pleasing to the eye, uncluttered and easy to navigate. A general rule of thumb in the world of tech is to remove friction wherever possible. An attractive, frictionless user interface can work wonders. ### **Security** Security is essential in any aspect of a SaaS business, but especially in finance. In fact, you could argue that it’s the most essential aspect of your fintech. If customers don’t feel their funds are safe, they’re not going to do business with you. Simple as that. ### **Payment gateway** This is a crucial step, but it also presents a difficult balance to strike. The payment gateway must be frictionless, but also come with a high level of security. ### **User management** Whether your customer is an individual looking to manage their own personal finances or a business wanting multiple user accounts, your software should be able to accommodate whatever your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) needs. ### **Customized user experience** In the current SaaS landscape, personalization is the name of the game. Users need to feel like their needs are being catered to at all times. At a minimum, users should have the ability to customize the information they receive, like choosing their push notifications. ## Top 10 examples of SaaS fintech software Sometimes, when you’re looking to set up a new SaaS software you need to look to the cream of the crop in the field to see how best to go about it. ### **Riskified** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/riskified.jpeg) We've crafted a super cool eCommerce risk management platform that helps online merchants build trust with their customers. Thanks to machine learning, our platform pulls together data from some of the biggest online retailers out there, creating a network effect that not only boosts sales but also cuts costs for our merchants. Our tech is pretty smart—it accurately figures out who's who in online interactions, allowing merchants to offer seamless, hassle-free shopping experiences. ### **Stripe** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/stripe-software.png) Stripe is fascinating because they really focus on what they call 'the point of need.' This means they're right there when a customer might need a financial boost. Picture this: you're at the checkout, and you realize you're a bit short on funds. That's where Stripe steps in. They offer you the option to snag a 'micro loan' right at that moment, with flexible installments and payment plans to make it easier on your wallet. It's like having a financial helper right when and where you need it most! ### **Mantl** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/mantl_logo_black.jpeg) MANTL is a game-changer for the cost structures of banks and credit unions, making growth up to 10 times more cost-effective than setting up a new physical branch. With MANTL's white-labeled account opening platform, anyone can open deposit accounts from any device in just about 2 minutes and 37 seconds. It's all about empowering quick, efficient banking everywhere! ### **Relevant** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/relevant.jpg) Relevant has been in the game for ten years, crafting top-notch banking and financial software for big enterprise-level companies and cutting-edge startups. Their expertise drives cost efficiency and sustainable growth. With our fintech software development services, you can zero in on strategizing for your business while we take care of everything from A to Z in fintech software development. Let us handle the tech, so you can focus on leading your business to new heights! **Innosoft Group** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/innosoft-group-1.jpeg) Innosoft Group, a standout in Fintech Software Development, has really made its mark, earning a spot among the top players. This accolade is a nod to their groundbreaking work in transforming the financial technology scene. Known for their relentless innovation, Innosoft Group shines in crafting bespoke fintech software solutions that are reshaping the industry. Their portfolio is impressive, featuring advanced banking software, smooth payment processing solutions, and sophisticated wealth management platforms. ### **Guidewire** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/guidewire_logo_new_2color_h_screen-2022.jpeg) Guidewire blends digital, core, analytics, and AI to offer our platform as a cloud service. Boasting the largest R&D team, services team, and partner ecosystem in the industry, they constantly innovate and adapt to meet your demands. ### **Zeta** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/Zeta.jpeg) Zeta specializes in cloud-based banking and payment solutions tailored for businesses and banks. It provides versatile options that help manage employee payments, collect payments from customers, and handle payments to vendors. **Innowise** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/innowise.jpeg) As a premier Financial Software Development Company, Innowise excels in creating exceptional fintech software, including banking software, web applications, and mobile apps. Their dedication to quality means every solution is customized to fit the specific needs of their clients in the finance sector. Whether you represent a bank, a financial institution, or a fintech startup, Innowise has the know-how and experience to deliver advanced software that improves your operations and promotes growth. ### **Matellio** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/matellio_owler_20190620_142825_original.png) Matellio is a provider of custom fintech solutions, specializing in the development of accounting software, billing and payment software, banking CRM, and financial planning software for their clients. They offer affordable fintech software development services to enhance your business with the latest software solutions. ### **IBR Infotech** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/IBR-Infotech.jpg) IBR Infotech stands at the forefront of financial software development, driven by a firm commitment to excellence, innovation, and client satisfaction. As a reliable partner for businesses looking for advanced solutions in the financial sector, they work closely with each client to fully understand their specific needs, challenges, and objectives. By aligning their solutions with the client's vision, and integrating the latest technologies and best industry practices, they ensure that your business stays ahead of the curve. ## Steps you need to take to build your fintech So now we’ve been through the benefits of fintech and the best software in the industry, let’s talk practical, proactive steps. What do you need to do step-by-step to build your fintech? ### **Gather your dedicated SaaS fintech team** Once you start building your SaaS fintech application, you have two options: You can either put together a team or you can outsource the development to a SaaS development company. If you’re building your SaaS company from scratch, here are some of the roles that are absolutely essential for getting your fintech up and running: - UI/UX designers, - backend developers - frontend developers - project managers - and DevOps developers ### **UI/UX design for the best SaaS fintech experience** We’ve already covered this a little, but it’s worth reiterating that in order to get customers through the door, you’ve got to have an eye-catching UX design. Think of it like showing up to a job interview in your best suit, it’s all about making that first impression. But don’t overdo it with too much flash. Keep it simple, smart and coherent. ### **Develop an MVP for your SaaS fintech** This is essentially testing the waters with your product and ensuring that you're on the right track. Determine whether your product is going to resonate with your target audience, and make adjustments accordingly. Believe it or not, the primary reason why startups fail is that they simply aren’t able to develop a solution that resonates. ### **Launch and iterate, so your SaaS fintech becomes an industry giant** After launch your work is nowhere near done. You’ll need to keep your ear to the ground and see how it’s going over with the industry. Optimizations and bug fixes are par the course in SaaS product development, and you need to ensure that you’re open to the feedback from users. Creating that continuous feedback loop with your users is an essential step in building a relationship with your customers. ## Wrapping up The transformative impact of SaaS on the fintech landscape cannot be overstated. It has redefined the ease and accessibility of financial services, making complex tasks like payment processing simpler and more user-friendly for businesses and consumers alike. With the industry projected to grow exponentially, now is an opportune time to harness the power of SaaS to innovate and lead in the fintech revolution. --- Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a SaaS Alliance membership? [ ![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.futureofsaas.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Customer experience in times of crisis: Resilience, resolution, and reputation management URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-experience-in-times-of-crisis-resilience-resolution-and-reputation-management/ Last updated: 2024-04-19T15:00:14.000Z Tisa Sinclair, Director of Social Response at AARP, outlines this expert guide to managing customer experience in times of turmoil. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### What is sales enablement? Choosing the perfect strategy for your business URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-sales-enablement-choosing-the-perfect-strategy-for-your-business/ Last updated: 2024-04-17T11:10:32.000Z Think of your sales team as your front line army, charged with championing your product to prospects, but if they don’t have the right tools or resources, they’re going to fall short of their objectives. A solid sales enablement strategy can increase sales, but there are many vital aspects that need to run smoothly in order for that to be a reality. Here, we guide you through the essential tenets of [sales ](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-the-rules-of-engagement/)enablement, how it benefits your SaaS business, and how to build the ultimate sales enablement strategy for success. Let's break down our agenda here: - What is sales enablement? - Why is sales enablement important? - Who owns sales enablement? - The three guiding principles of sales enablement? - What is a sales enablement tool? - Best practices for sales enablement ## What is sales enablement? Sales enablement is the driving force behind your sales team, ensuring that your team operates under a top-notch sales methodology by providing guidance and training wherever needed. But what does sales enablement look like? It’s the perfect synergy between ideation and execution, ensuring the creative strategies hatched from the mighty brains of your marketing team are carried through in your sales team’s execution. In order for your sales team to be proactive and motivated, it’s essential they’re empowered by true alignment with the other departments within your org, and this is what sales enablement provides. [Sales: The rules of engagementSales is a complex and competitive business - and never more so than when deciding who gets the credit for what: who gets the commission and, just as importantly, who gets the recognition?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/08/muyuan-ma--xHZBzv4Naw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-the-rules-of-engagement/) ## What’s the difference between sales enablement and sales operations? It’s easy to confuse these two functions, especially since they are both concerned with the success of sales teams, but their two roles differ in some pretty fundamental ways. Sales enablement is all about providing sales reps with the [tools](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-sales-enablement-tools-for-saas-leaders/) and resources they need to seal deals, while sales operations focus on overseeing the sales process and monitoring results. When goals aren't aligned, it can lead to conflicts and misunderstandings between these two teams. For this reason, it’s important that the two functions have their respective roles clearly outlined. Here’s a breakdown of the ways sales enablement empowers your sales team: - Helping [sales teams](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-develop-your-sales-enablement-team/) find the content they need, when they need it. - Offering versatile methods for salespeople to share and present their content. - Giving instant insights into how customers are interacting with content in real-time. - Using sophisticated analytics to fine-tune [sales strategies](https://www.saasalliance.io/master-the-saas-sales-funnel-turn-leads-into-loyal-customers/). - Providing sales teams with the training and advice they need to succeed. - Tracking everything to see how it affects overall sales results. ## Why is sales enablement important and what are the benefits of sales enablement? Sales enablement is important because it can considerably boost the performance of your [sales reps](https://www.saasalliance.io/establishing-your-sales-enablement-republic/). It ensures they have the resources and training materials they need to engage with prospects on a human level. With high level training, prospects are able to establish that foundation of trust that leads to fruitful relationships and consolidates the reputation of your brand. Without a [sales enablement strategy](https://www.saasalliance.io/measuring-the-things-that-matter-choosing-the-right-metrics-to-measure-your-sellers/), you can leave your org at a disadvantage.👇 ![With sales enablement vs without sales enablement](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/sales-enablement-curved-images.png) Here, we delve into the benefits in more detail. ### 1\. Better tools at your disposal Sales reps need holistic profiles of their prospects if they’re to close deals and ensure new customers have a positive impression of your org. Sales enablement software such as Guru and Seismic give sales access to essential data on their prospects, including pain points, challenges, and industry. ### 2\. Sales enablement empowers reps to close deals faster Being trained and having access to training resources means that reps can go into pivotal conversations with the skills they need to quickly appeal to user pain points. The length of the sales cycle can be costly, and sales enablement can help to mitigate these costs. ### 3\. Sales enablement leads to better alignment within the org. Sales enablement relies on input from marketing and your senior stakeholders. As a result, sales reps who are thoroughly trained are in touch with the needs of your other departments. In order for sales reps to give the best representation of your org to prospects, reps need to have a firm understanding of what your company’s mission is really about and of your product’s vital benefits. ### 4\. Sales enablement boosts your brand reputation By facilitating great relationships with prospects, sales enablement ensures a positive experience at every sales-owned touchpoint, boosting referrals, and meaning conversions are never far away. Too often, we become fixated on short term success, but by raising the reputation of your reps, and your brand as a whole, you seal the deal for long-term success. And prospects who failed to convert the first time might think of you again in the future. For more on this, check out sales veteran Sara Storm’s thoughts on the long term possibilities of [sales enablement.](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-leading-the-way-in-sales-excellence/) ## Who owns sales enablement? Sales enablement only works when the responsibilities and roles are clearly defined. In the interests of alignment it’s important that everyone knows what their role is and how it’s going to impact the business. We’ve outlined the roles that usually constitute a sales enablement strategy here. | Marketing | Sales enablement | Sales | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Marketing equips sales representatives with a range of tools necessary for effective selling. These tools typically encompass videos, blogs, and guides for conversations and products that assist representatives during interactions with prospective customers. | Sales enablement equips your sales teams with the right tools and content they need to sell more effectively and boost their sales. It also covers the steps that marketers take to back up the sales reps and make their job easier. | Your sales reps themselves dedicate efforts to integrating sales enablement technologies and processes into their daily business operations. | ## The three guiding principles of sales enablement Although sales enablement is never going to look exactly the same from one org to the next, there are some essential foundational aspects of sales enablement that hold true across all organizations. We dive into them below,.but if you’re a bit strapped for time, we’ve compiled this nifty infographic: ![3 principles of sales enablement](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/3-principles-of-sales.png) ### Principle 1: Establish a consistent sales enablement process This is a holistic process, requiring input from multiple teams. Y[our sales methodology](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-led-vs-sales-led-vs-marketing-led-vs-customer-led-differences/) should be in line with the kind of product you're offering and its target demographic. This is why you need to have input from marketing and the senior [stakeholders](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) within your org. Establishing a firm and consistent process ensures a consistent standard across your whole org. You can’t expect to uphold standards unless you have a standard established. ### Principle 2: Get your sales team involved in the sales enablement process Developing and refining sales readiness demands that you give your sales team the skills necessary to make your new sales enablement program a success. After all, your sales team is going to be responsible for executing on this vision. Sales enablement will need to ensure they have the content, training programs and assessment tools they need to reach expectations. ### Principle 3: Encouraging engagement and consistent outreach It can be easy for sales reps to adopt the mindset that once you make a sale it’s a one and done, but increasingly, in the SaaS landscape, it becomes more and more important to engage with the customer or prospect throughout the sales cycle. Sales enablement, through the implementation of resources, encourages this mindset of continuous excellence. [How do we engage key stakeholders in cross-functional collaboration?Here’s how to ensure seamless collaboration between teams, so you can smash through those silos and skyrocket your organization to success!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2022/05/pexels-huy-chien-tran-1756665.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) ## What is a sales enablement tool? Sales enablement technology has come a long way, and incorporating it plays a vital role in boosting the win rate of your sales reps. The ideal modern sales enablement tool is holistic, encompassing the following: - Training resources (content). - Workflows between teams. - Analytics on how the resources are used. - Guidance centered around context. These tools will provide key insights on how content is influencing sales success, which content reps are sending to prospects, and the influence that content is having on prospects converting or not. Sales enablement tools make it easier to facilitate [alignment between sales](https://www.saasalliance.io/aligning-sales-with-post-sales-to-drive-customer-lifetime-value/), marketing, and sales enablement needed for success. Let’s dive into some of the more common characteristics found in sales enablement tools. ### Searching for success Rather than scrambling fruitlessly for relevant resources among peers, sales enablement tools can make it easier by making all relevant content easier to locate. The goal is that whatever problems [sales reps](https://www.saasalliance.io/conversations-not-content-how-sales-enablement-lost-its-way/) are encountering, they can simply input the query into the tool, and they can find content or guidance to match that query. ### Recommendations based on performance Sales enablement tools will analyze [content](https://www.saasalliance.io/content-types-for-customer-education/) based on how successful it is at converting customers, and will make recommendations accordingly. It will even analyze how successful certain resources are at producing conversions at specific points in the sales cycle, or on the particular problem you're dealing with. Taken together, this means that sales enablement tools are constantly analyzing the efficacy of your content, meaning you can optimize and iterate over time. ### Content training and coaching for sales reps Even the most seasoned sales professionals can improve. Sales enablement tools equip reps with playbooks to aid them with any particular problem they might encounter in their day-to-day processes. This means that reps can take a self-guided approach to their own learning, circumventing strategies they’ve already mastered and honing in on those resources that address the issues they’re still struggling with. ### Transform successful practices into daily habits A sales enablement platform ensures that sales training isn’t just a one and done, and reps can return to resources they find useful to refresh their knowledge and consolidate those newly won skills. By having a permanent resource at their disposal, these practices soon become common habits and your reps are able to close deals on a broader scale. ## Best practices for sales enablement Let’s end with a few best practices for sales enablement in SaaS. No matter what kind of organization you’re running, these are the guiding principles that hold true across the whole industry. ![Best practices for sales enablement](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/SaaS-3-benefits.png) - Try out new selling tactics by putting more focus on sales training and onboarding. - Get a clear picture of what the sales team needs to better tackle customer inquiries and issues. - Bring the marketing and sales teams together to work on content creation. - Craft content that blends insights from marketing analytics with the sales reps' direct experiences from conversations. With these strategies front of mind, you’ll be on your way to sales success and sustainable growth for your SaaS organization. --- Like what you see? Why not sign up for exclusive insights from the leading minds in SaaS with a SaaS Alliance membership plan? [ ![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.futureofsaas.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Developing a consistent customer-centric culture in 5 steps URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/developing-a-consistent-customer-centric-culture-to-boost-your-saas-business-2/ Last updated: 2024-04-12T16:51:31.000Z For all SaaS leaders, the ultimate goal is long-term relationships with customers. But, like all long-term relationships, they’re built on a bedrock of **trust**. You can only develop that trust through cultivating a customer-centric approach. That means every aspect of your organization is designed to foster a first-rate customer experience. Retaining customers is [5-20 times cheaper than acquiring a customer, ](https://hbr.org/2014/10/the-value-of-keeping-the-right-customers)and a customer-centric culture is a great way to launch an effective retention strategy. Here, we zoom in on how to cultivate a culture that puts customers at the heart of your business. Here’s a breakdown of our agenda: - [What is a customer-centric culture?](https://www.saasalliance.io/developing-a-consistent-customer-centric-culture-to-boost-your-saas-business-2/#what-is-a-customer-centric-culture) - [Why is customer-centric culture important](https://www.saasalliance.io/developing-a-consistent-customer-centric-culture-to-boost-your-saas-business-2/#why-is-a-customer-culture-important-to-customers) - [How do you build a customer-centric culture? ](https://www.saasalliance.io/developing-a-consistent-customer-centric-culture-to-boost-your-saas-business-2/#how-do-you-build-a-customer-centric-culture) - [What are the three stages of a customer-centric culture?](https://www.saasalliance.io/developing-a-consistent-customer-centric-culture-to-boost-your-saas-business-2/#what-are-the-three-stages-of-creating-a-customer-centric-culture) - [How do you create a customer-centric culture in 5 steps? ](https://www.saasalliance.io/developing-a-consistent-customer-centric-culture-to-boost-your-saas-business-2/#how-do-you-create-a-customer-centric-culture-in-5-steps) --- Before we dive into the nitty gritty, let’s do some basic customer-centricity 101. ## What is a customer-centric culture? It might seem obvious. After all, don’t all SaaS companies have a customer-centric culture? Ideally yes. But in reality so many SaaS companies are so focused on growth that they don’t necessarily prioritize the essential component that should be at the front of mind for all competitive organizations in an ultra-competitive landscape: providing an experience to delight and excite customers. Customer-centric companies will aim to form long-term relationships with their customers, getting to know their pain points and challenges intimately and making it their mission to address them. ## Why is a customer culture important to customers? When it comes to SaaS, the power is really in the hands of the customer more than ever before. And the pressure to please and convince customers to stick around is higher than ever. As a result, the onus is on SaaS companies to make their customers the stars of the show and give them an experience they can’t help but wax lyrical about. In short, customer-centricity leads to greater chance of retention, which is an essential pillar of your customer acquisition strategy. The more loyal customers you have at your side, the better your company looks on the global stage, meaning you have a greater chance of attracting new customers. In current times, prospects rely heavily on existing customer reviews when making that all-important buying decision. Guru Bhat, **VP of customer success at Paypal,** describes the importance of customer-centricity like this: > "Of course, one of the principal goals of any organization is to grow and expand, and they're always plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong. With so many different customers depending on us, all with varying levels of needs, there’s a lot of potential for misunderstanding and miscommunication. > For us, it all starts with being a customer-obsessed company. We have the privilege to serve millions of customers around the world, and we want to be worthy of that trust." ## How do you build a customer-centric culture? When it comes to the SaaS industry, there really is no one-size-fits-all approach. How you choose to woo new customers is really going to depend on your demographics and what you uncover in your customer research. For example, if your audience is more general and less tech-savvy, you may have to adopt a more hands-on approach to customer onboarding. Still, if you're selling products to developers, they tend to prefer a more self-guided onboarding approach. Having said that, there are some general steps that pop up again and again with companies that manage to succeed. Before we delve into those, it’s important to stress that this process often requires a pretty dramatic cultural shift, and for that to happen, you’re going to need an all-hands-on-deck strategy. ## What are the three stages of creating a customer-centric culture? In general, there are three major stages to customer-centricity. But if you're a bit strapped for time, check out this infographic. 👇 ![The three tenets to of a customer-centric culture](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/SaaS_Article_Images_.png) ### Stage 1: Hiring for a customer-centric culture It all starts with populating your org with folks with the right intentions. You want ambitious people, sure, but if you get the impression that you’re interviewing someone who only stresses personal success or monetary gain, they might be a bad fit. Instead, look for someone who emphasizes the importance of customer satisfaction. **Put yourself in the shoes of the customer** When interviewing specifically for customer-focused employees, it can be helpful to imagine yourself as one of your customers, picture their needs and reasons for signing up for your product, and then ask questions with these needs in mind. SaaS leaders should, of course, always consider the customer's interests in every process, but this really needs to come into focus during the interview stage so that this culture can be spread throughout the organization. [Customer onboarding 101For freemium models adopted by a growing number of SaaS companies, onboarding is the frontline in the battle for the upsell.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceRichard Bracchi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/03/erwan-hesry-aMjeTdCVRNE-unsplash--1---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-onboarding-101/) **Hiring your champions** So once you’ve passed the stage of assessing whether the person can put the customer first, you want to look for someone who resonates with your company’s mission and values. The reason for this is that values trickle down from the top. If the people you’re hiring in your senior positions don’t believe in your customer-centric vision, it’s highly unlikely that your more junior employees will be striving toward that mission. Hiring advocates leads to future advocates, whether that’s through future hiring or through referrals. ### Stage 2: Creating a customer culture from within Even as you go about hiring employees for your new customer-centric mission, you’re likely going to have existing employees who aren’t quite on board with it. It’s important to address this because, even if you’re hiring people with the right mindset, those existing employees can potentially have a negative impact on them. This is when it’s essential to invest in company-wide training with customer-centricity at the forefront. Much of this starts with little details, such as the way you choose to communicate with your employees. You might ask the question, for example: "When will that report be ready." What's wrong with this question? It lacks empathy. Try this instead: "Is there anything I can do to help you with that report?" Better yet, try: "Is there anything our organization can do to make the report-writing process work better for you?" With these kinds of questions, you’re asking employees for their considered feedback. These are open questions. According to [Gallup](https://www.gallup.com/workplace/271184/effective-feedback-kind-ask.aspx?ref=saasalliance.io): > "Those words can immediately create a trusting atmosphere in which feedback is exchanged and processed effectively. A feedback-rich environment drives business outcomes."**Making your customer-centric culture synonymous with your brand** Think about the culture you want to spread to the world and consider replicating that from within. In the day-to-day toil of achieving your growth, it’s easy to become cynical and allow the culture within your organization to be at odds with the face you show to the world. Many organizations operate this way, and it might seem fine, except the problem is that prospects are very good at sniffing at bulls\*\*t a mile away. They can tell if you don’t believe in the message that you’re trying to tell. It’s much easier to sell a product that you truly believe is going to help your customers. And this impression is going to radiate out in your pitches. **All hands on deck for a customer-centric culture** It can’t simply be a solo project. It has to be implemented in every aspect of your org. No initiative can ever run successfully unless it touches every area. You’ll need to host meetings with the senior representatives of every department and gain an understanding of how this new initiative: a) is going to impact their department and b) how they’re going to be able to practice this mindset in their role. Employees are resistant to change when it seems as if you, as a leader, don’t have sympathy for how it will change their job or make it more difficult. ### Stage 3: Making customer-centricity your culture This is really the holy grail, where customer-centricity is no longer something you have to think about but something that your organization lives and breathes. It’s ingrained in every observation, plan, or action that your organization takes. But what does it look like in companies that can accomplish this? We dive into that here. **Customer ambassadors** A great way to make customer-centricity an ingrained part of your org, is to appoint your own internal panel of customers. This ensures you’re always in touch with how your customers are feeling and how they’re going to respond to new strategies, or how the needs of your industry are changing and shifting. Many SaaS companies seek to capture the customer's voice. This is important because the industry is always changing, so if you have major influencers and people who are keeping an ear to the ground in the SaaS landscape, you can stay ahead of the curve. There is another major benefit in that ambassadors act as resounding endorsements for your org. Prospects are always going to be more receptive to endorsements from other customers, so when they see that some are so enamored with your brand that they’re willing to become ambassadors, it’s going to entice them to convert. [Customer retention metrics and how to action themHow do successful SaaS organizations measure retention and what on earth do they with the results, I hear you cry? Well, we surveyed 100 SaaS pros to find out how they track, review and utilize retention and churn metrics, and here are the results.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/11/jakob-owens-CiUR8zISX60-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) **Strengthen internal relationships** You might think a culture of cynicism and mistrust isn’t visible to the outside world, but the fact is that happier employees lead to more cordial interactions with customers. When employees feel a sense of belonging, they feel a sense of pride in their org, which is apparent to the customers you’re talking to. So, if you’re looking to foster empathetic relationships between employees and customers, think about creating empathy from within. Social events within your company might seem like a nice-to-have, but they’re an essential way of building rapport within your organization, ultimately leading to a stronger organization. Empathy within leads to empathy without. Now that we’ve gone over the essential tenets of a customer-centric culture, let’s dive into some more practical strategies for making customer-centricity a reality for your org. ## How do you create a customer-centric culture in 5 steps? ![5 strategies for a customer-centric culture](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/SaaS_Article_Images_-1.png) ### 1\. Anticipate customer needs In the current landscape, it simply isn’t enough to answer customer concerns as they come in. You should be able to proactively address concerns before the customers even voice them. Much of this work is done before you even go to market. Ideally, you will have conducted thorough market research on the kind of customers you need to be targeting and what their concerns are going to be. But once your org is up and running, it helps to have accurate customer profiles based on the data you’re collecting so you can accurately assess levels of customer engagement and satisfaction. This way, if a customer seems to be in danger of churning, you can swoop in for the rescue before the customer considers churning. In short, it’s all about having an accurate idea of who your customers are and what they need. ### 2\. Collect customer feedback It sounds obvious, but your product is there to improve the lives of your customers. With this in mind, the only way you can really improve is by continuously collecting customer feedback. Customer needs are never going to stay the same, so you need to make customer feedback collecting a continuous process and an essential part of your business's day-to-day running. There are many different ways you should go about this, including: - Surveys - Email - Chat - SMS - Phone calls - In-person meetups - Message boards **Surveys** Surveys can be a superb way to gather honest feedback from your customers. Let’s dive into how exactly they can help here: **1\. What do your customers really want?** Imagine you could just ask your customers what they're into and what they're not. Surveys do just that! You find out what features they love, what new stuff they’re craving, and how your service fits into their daily grind. 1\. How happy are your customers? It’s like checking the pulse of your customer base with something called NPS (Net Promoter Score) or CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score). These metrics tell you how much your users are loving your service. Seeing these scores trend up or down can reveal what needs improving. 2\. Can we make customer support even better? Feedback on support can show you where the hiccups are and how to make your support team shine even brighter. Plus, it’s a chance to determine where a chatbot does the trick and where a human touch is needed. 4\. User experience: smooth sailing or rough seas? A survey can point out where users are getting stuck or frustrated. It's all about making their journey as smooth as butter. **Utilize user testing** A great way to test whether your in-development products are really made for your customers is to put them in their hands before you release them to the world. This can allow you to pivot and ensure that every aspect of your product is designed to delight your customers. ### 3\. Reach out Customers may not always have time to take the surveys you send out, and their responses may not always be as thorough as you might like. A call or a video chat can be a great way for customers to give you a holistic account of what they like about your product and what’s going wrong. Additionally, customers will appreciate your org taking the time to reach out to them in person, which may help to boost their loyalty and improve your brand reputation as a whole. ### 4\. Be accessible to your customers Addressing customer concerns is time-consuming and costly. Many tech giants, for that reason, will purposely make it very difficult for customers to make contact with support. Preferring customers to seek guidance through pages and bots is understandable, but in the long term, it doesn’t exactly sing: ‘We put the customer at the heart of our organization.’ Making your contact details easily visible does wonders for your brand on the global stage, and you’ll definitely see a long-term payoff. Just being there and being available is a great way to build strong customer relationships. [Customer success metrics that drive 95% retentionIn this article, I’ll be discussing the customer success metrics you should be tracking at each and every stage of the customer lifecycle. With them, you can drive retention and ensure your customer success function is successful in delivering value to the customer.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceSwati Chopra![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/05/yoav-hornung-Qg6lPXJ6IL4-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) ### 5\. In-person events All SaaS companies should seek to cultivate that human touch, that feeling that you're not just a faceless corporation but a company made up of people who actually care. Although this is possible through video conferencing technology, there really is no substitute for in-person meet-ups. That way, you can actually connect with your customers on a human level, get to know what really makes them tick, and form the bonds that lead to customer loyalty. Additionally, it can be a great way for you to spotlight your customers and their achievements. Now we may seem like we’re contradicting ourselves. After all, we just stressed the importance of in-person customer support, but technology can really help you to solve the more fundamental, easy-to-solve customer concerns so that your human personnel can tackle the more tricky problems. For example, basic questions, such as ‘how do I find this?’ can be solved quite efficiently and quickly by chatbots. Your customer support teams can only operate effectively when they aren’t overwhelmed, and technology can be a great way to filter out problems that don’t need human expertise. ## Wrapping up Companies looking to retain and convert customers should look to bridge the gap between their org and customers. That is the primary goal of customer-centricity: to create a clear path where feedback can pass back and forth between customer and organization. Let’s put customer-centricity at the heart of SaaS and enjoy the endless benefits of customer retention and continuous conversion. --- Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS? [ ![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.futureofsaas.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### 5 ways product-led growth can save your SaaS product vision URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/5-ways-product-led-growth-saves-saas/ Last updated: 2024-04-12T16:30:23.000Z This article comes from **Partho Ghosh**’s insightful talk, ‘*Using PLG to stop killing your product vision*’, at our **2023 SaaS Metrics Summit**, check out his full presentation [**here**](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics-summit-june-2023/?wchannelid=4b72hh2lwt&wmediaid=bsjc8i8lsi). --- **Imagine this** \- you quit your job and pour your heart and soul into building an amazing software product. You toil endlessly, burning the midnight oil, working around your kids in a post-pandemic world and then … finally, you get that critical traction and product-market fit! As customers start rolling in, you need to [scale up](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-scale-your-saas-organisation-follow-the-2021-data-2/) with salespeople, developers, designers. You raise your first round of funding to hire more people. You even hire a superhero product manager to solve customer problems. Then one day, a *huge* brand knocks on your door. They love your product but need some enterprise features. If you build what they want, it could completely change your trajectory! But...you realize that doing so might mean compromising your original vision. If this scenario sounds familiar, you've likely felt the tension between staying true to your product vision and rapidly growing revenue. I've been there myself, and I know how easy it is to gradually lose sight of your initial mission as customer demands pile up. But there is a way to have it all - maintaining your product vision while still satisfying customer needs. *The answer?* Adopting a **product-led growth (PLG) strategy**. Inmy previous roles as VP of Product Growth at companies like Hootsuite and currently as **VP/GM of Product-Led Growth** at **SecurityScorecard**, I've seen firsthand how PLG can realign teams around a unified vision. So let me share the five key ways to use PLG to protect your product vision… ## **1\. Understand your product vision** ### This one sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised how many companies and product teams can't succinctly articulate their product vision. Without a clear guiding light, it's easy for your roadmap to get derailed by the squeaky wheel of customer requests. When I was at the B2B SaaS company Bananatag, it took 4-6 months of deep work to distill our vision into just seven words: > "*Become the one-stop shop for all internal communication.*" Simple, but it meant every decision we made laddered up to that north star. We communicated it incessantly until people thought we were overdoing it. We baked it into our investor pitches, product presentations, and roadmap discussions. Having such a crystallized vision helped us stay focused as the company scaled rapidly. Don't have a vision statement yet? Make it a **priority** to work with your founders, executives, and key stakeholders to craft one. Trust me, it’ll be one of the most valuable exercises you do as your SaaS product grows. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### 7 top AI email marketing tools for SaaS companies URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/7-top-ai-email-marketing-tools-for-saas-companies/ Last updated: 2024-10-31T11:02:39.000Z The arrival of artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionized email marketing. Nowadays, email marketing services enhanced with AI are at the forefront, distinguished by their abilities to offer personalized templates, automate processes, and conduct real-time analytics. In this blog, we will examine various AI email marketing tools in depth, exploring their features, limitations, and pricing structures. Have you seen the rapid expansion of the AI industry? The worldwide software industry, focusing on AI, is expected to exceed [126 billion dollars](https://www.statista.com/statistics/607716/worldwide-artificial-intelligence-market-revenues/) by 2025\. This underscores the significance of AI automation, AI marketing, and email advertising for businesses of all sizes, from small firms to large corporations. [Top growth-hacking AI tools for SaaS organizationsAI is the future. Get in on these top tools for utilizing the power of AI, so your org doesn’t get left behind.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/saas-gtm-strategy--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/harnessing-the-potential-of-ai-tools-for-unparalleled-growth/) Currently, email marketing stands as the premier choice for marketers to engage and promote their businesses. The standout features of these tools include AI-driven content generation, predictive analytics, and sophisticated segmentation, all of which enhance return on investment (ROI) and interactive experiences for consumers. Consequently, leveraging AI email marketing tools effectively can offer a competitive edge, positioning your business at the forefront of innovation. Now, let's explore the top 7 AI-powered email marketing tools for your business. Here we go! 7 Top AI email marketing tools for 2024. ### **Mailchimp - Best for B2B Business** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/mailchimp.jpeg) MailChimp stands out as a highly favored and flexible email marketing tool, renowned for its ease of use. It assists businesses in crafting interactive and captivating emails, maximizing efficiency. Its user-friendly interface makes it the go-to choice for marketers looking to automate their tasks. Furthermore, conducting mail campaigns with Mailchimp is a time-saver, boosting productivity and efficiency. **MailChimp features:** - Easy drag-and-drop feature - Data capture and follow-up - Versatile marketing automation **Limitations:** - Limited email templates - Problems with the interface **Pricing:** - Free - $13/month for 500 contacts - $20/month for 500 contracts - $350/month for infinite contacts **Reviews and Ratings:** - Capterra: 4.5/5 (16,500+ reviews) ### **ClickUp - All-in-one-productivity tool** ![ClickUp platform](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/clickup-software-1.png) ClickUp's email marketing tool offers capabilities for crafting, overseeing, and individually monitoring each email campaign. It surpasses the conventional scope of email marketing by boosting user interaction and efficiency. Recognized by marketers for its superior integration functionalities, ClickUp aids in achieving a streamlined workflow management, making it a favored tool in the industry. **Click Up features:** - Task and project management - Collaboration tools - Receive and send emails from within your work - Customizable ClickUp Workspace with 15+ set up views - Integrations with Gmail and Outlook **Limitations:** - Steeper learning curve - Limited customization options for email templates **Pricing:** - $7/month per user - $12/month per user for business **Rеviеws and Ratings:** - Capterra: 4.6/5 (3,900+ reviews) ### **HubSpot Email Markеting - Best for unified email marketing** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/hubspot-crm--4.webp) The HubSpot email marketing tool consolidates contacts, emails, analytics, and insights within a single CRM software. Its free version is particularly well-received and caters to the transactional email needs of numerous small businesses. HubSpot’s platform is adept at dispatching a variety of emails, including onboarding sequences, re-engagement campaigns, and seasonal promotions, thus streamlining the process effectively. **HubSpot features:** - Email campaign creator - Contact segmentation - Personalization of each campaign - Automation workflows - Analytics and tracking [How to unleash AI’s potential in email-driven product growthEmail marketing is still one of the most effective tools in your growth arsenal. Find out how AI can take your email campaigns to the next level right here!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceSarah Marksons![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/10/unleash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-inbox-to-impact-unleashing-ais-potential-in-email-driven-product-growth/) **Limitations:** - Limited report customization - Integration challenges **Pricing:** - $800/month for professional - $3600/month for enterprises **Rеviеws and Ratings:** - Capterra: 4.5/5 (5600+ reviews) ### **Seventh Sense - Best email writer** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/Seventh-Sense-1.png) Seventh Sense is at the forefront of AI email marketing tools, utilizing machine learning to offer highly personalized and engaging email campaigns. It adeptly analyzes customer data, preferences, and behavioral patterns to create compelling subject lines, messages, and offers that are customized for each recipient. **Seventh Sense features:** - Intelligent segmentation - Automated A/B testing - Personalized content creation - Real-time optimization **Limitations:** - Requires regular maintenance, retraining, and updates. - It's costly compared to other email marketing tools. **Pricing:** - $80/per month for 5,000 contacts - $450/per month for 50,000 leads - 20% discounts for annual plans **Rеviеws and Ratings:** - Capterra: 5/5 (3+ reviews) ### **iContact - Best AI email deliverability service** ![iContact platform screenshot](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/icontact-4.jpeg) iContact shines as a powerful marketing automation platform, notable for its outstanding delivery services that enhance lead generation. It enables users to easily personalize, schedule, and analyze email campaigns, thereby saving time and boosting efficiency. **iContact features:** - A/B testing for optimization - Personalization for targeted emails - Mobile optimization to read better - Compliance and deliverability such as GDPR and CAN-SPAM - Reporting and analytics **Limitations:** - Lack of advanced automation - Deliverability challenges [How AI and remote work are shaping the future of SaaSValentina Thörner, Founder @ RemoteThatWorks, delves into two of the most significant developments in the world of SaaS: AI and remote work.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceValentina Thörner![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/09/AI-and-remote-work--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/brace-for-impact-how-ai-and-remote-work-are-shaping-the-future-of-saas/) **Pricing:** - $27/month for 1500 еmails - $41/month for 2500 еmails - $73/month for 5000 еmails **Rеviеws and Ratings:** - Capterra: 4.5/5 (4+ reviews) ### **Instantly - Best cold email tool** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/instantly-software.webp) Instantly serves as a comprehensive email marketing automation platform, adept at streamlining tasks like email marketing, sending follow-up emails, and dispatching welcome messages. It is renowned for its ability to craft outstanding personalized cold email campaigns. **Instantly features:** - Pre-designed email templates - Manage cold email campaigns - Automated follow-up sequences - Performance tracking of cold email **Limitations:** - Cold email campaigns face deliverability challenges. - Offer limited support resources. **Pricing:** - $47/month to $492/month **Rеviеws and Ratings:** - Capterra: 3.5/5 (4+ reviews) ### **ActiveCampaign - Bеst for all-in-onе CX** ![active campaign landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/activecampaign-image.png) ActiveCampaign stands out as a leading email marketing tool that offers profound insights into your contacts. Utilizing sophisticated algorithms, it ensures emails are delivered directly to inboxes, bypassing spam filters. ActiveCampaign aids in the [creation of comprehensive product development strategies](https://www.esparkinfo.com/blog/stages-of-product-development-strategy.html) and offers detailed analytics for enhanced performance visibility. By emphasizing automation and segmentation, ActiveCampaign allows users to convey the appropriate message to the intended audience precisely when it's most effective. **ActivеCampaign Fеaturеs:** - Integrates with a wide range of third-party applications - Split testing functionality - Website tracking capabilities - SMS markеting **Limitations:** - Migrating data from another platform is complex - Imposes rate limits on its API usage - Limited customization options **Pricing:** - $29/month for individuals - 259/month for enterprises **Rеviеws and Ratings:** - 8.9/10 in Trust radius ## **Wrapping up** The intersection of [SaaS and AI](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/) offers boundless opportunity. In the rapidly developing digital world, businesses must follow an email marketing strategy for highly productive conversions and growth. Using AI-based tools for marketing can make your communication more personal and improve the engagement and trust of your audience. These AI email marketing tools can achieve higher open rates, reach more prospects, scale responses, and automate many email marketing tasks that would otherwise take days to complete. So, stop worrying and start implementing email marketing tools for your business. --- Enjoyed this article? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a SaaS Alliance membership plan? [ ![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.futureofsaas.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How to craft a sales pitch that wins URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-craft-a-sales-pitch-that-wins/ Last updated: 2024-04-05T15:00:50.000Z In this informative, witty piece, Sales veteran April Dunford, lifts the lid on the industry-defining sales strategies to launch your org to rapid growth. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Smash the competition:10 top AI tools for market research URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/10-ai-tools-for-gaining-competitive-edge-in-market-research/ Last updated: 2024-04-04T14:34:30.000Z We know you’re tired of hearing this, but the SaaS landscape is competitive. So as a fledgling startup looking to blaze a trail through the SaaS landscape, how do you get competitive – and more importantly – how do you stay competitive? You need a great idea, sure, but whether an idea is great or not is defined by whether or not there is genuine hunger for it in the market. This is why market research needs to be a cornerstone of your growth strategy. It sounds like a chore we know, but thankfully, the latest AI tools make SaaS market research a whole lot easier. In this article, we’ll dive into the nitty gritty of market research, and showcase the top tools you should consider when dipping your toes into market research. ## What is market research? Market research is a holistic term used to describe the whole process that encompasses the following: - Scoping out your competitors to see which problems their addressing, what needs their failing to address, and what the overall feedback on their solution looks like - Zooming closely on consumer needs and expectations to see how you can gear your strategy towards meeting them. - Collating and analyzing market data. These are just the cliff notes. There’s a whole lot more that goes into into but if you bear these essential pillars in mind, you can’t go far wrong. Your job is to deliver a perfect one-two punch: How can you successfully meet consumer needs while also filling the gaps that competitors are failing to fill? Now let’s get down to the nitty gritty. There are many essential tenets of market research which have stayed true since the beginning of time. Yes, even the medieval villagers had to scope out the competition before peddling their cheese wheels and fabrics, but in the digital age there are many more factors to consider. Let’s dive into how market research has evolved and what that means for the current SaaS landscape. ## The evolution of market research Market research has evolved considerably over the last couple of decades. If you're a bit strapped for time, check out our rundown in this infographic. 👇 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/market-research-1.png) ### **The traditional approaches to market research** The traditional method of market research involved getting out there and speaking to the public, whether that’s through one-to-one interviews, focus groups and intercept encounters. These methods can still be a fantastic way to gather information from potential customers, but they do have their limitations. They’re costly, time-consuming, and the reality is, users aren’t always 100% honest when quizzed in person. It’s a natural human instinct to want to give the answer that’s most pleasing to the interviewer, and although this can be lovely to hear, it’s not always helpful when you’re looking for accurate data. ### **The arrival of AI in market research** AI can save you massive amounts of time when collecting and analyzing data. As a SaaS leader, you want to be able to devote most of your time to formulating and spearheading strategy, and AI means you can get to that point a lot faster. With the arrival of Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology, means that AI has a keen understanding of human intent and this is reflected in the analysise AI's predictive powers are indispensable for SaaS companies looking to stay ahead of the competition. By sifting through huge amounts of data non-stop, AI can spot emerging trends and forecast market changes with laser-sharp precision. This foresight allows businesses to stay ahead of the curve, adjusting their marketing strategies proactively and seizing new opportunities as they emerge. [How AI can help your SaaS company to scale and achieve retentionWith qualitative and quantitative insights from the leading minds in SaaS, this article showcases how AI can scale your SaaS org at pace today.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2024/04/SAAS-ICON.png)SaaS AllianceAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/01/AI.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-ai-can-help-your-saas-company-to-scale/) AI's knack for uncovering hidden patterns and connections in data is invaluable. It helps refine product development, pinpoint the right audience segments, and fine-tune marketing campaigns so your product resonates with the right audience. As AI evolves, its predictive capabilities will continue to shape the future of market research, playing an ever more crucial role in guiding businesses towards success. The real catch with SaaS startup growth is that your market research has to be thorough, yes, but it also has to be done efficiently, since the market shifts all the time, and you want to be able to act on insights you’ve gathered in good time. With this in mind, you can easily see why AI is such a gift for SaaS startups who are looking to get started. Now that we’ve dived into the benefit of AI tools for SaaS startups and how SaaS companies can utilize AI to conduct research, let’s dive into the tools available to you. # 10 top AI tools for SaaS market research ### **1.Gong** ![Gong dashboard](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/gong-2-1.webp) Gong is the go-to tool for sales, marketing, and research teams looking to capture valuable insights from customer or survey calls. With Gong, calls are automatically transcribed and summarized using AI, providing: - Contextual insights and discussion points - Frequently mentioned keywords - References to meetings and times - Action items for each participant - Plus, it supports multiple languages! Gong is ideal for marketers and researchers conducting multilingual audience interviews. To maximize its benefits, regular planning, scheduling, and call sessions with Gong are necessary. However, if you're in need of a service that handles research tasks for you, exploring options with top market research firms would be more suitable. ## **2\. ChatGPT** ![ChatGPT software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/chatgpt.png) Utilize ChatGPT to gather insightful data on competitors, including paragraphs or bulleted summaries. SaaS founders have to understand competitor strategies to devising new products or marketing campaigns within the same sphere. The goal is not only to exceed what competitors are doing, but to fill the gaps where competitors are failing to deliver a first-class service. - Market Trends and Insights - Stay ahead of the curve by tapping into ChatGPT's market trend insights. - With ChatGPT's assistance, you can create effortlessly tailored emails Incorporating ChatGPT into your market research toolkit can revolutionize your approach, saving time and resources while enhancing the depth and quality of insights gathered. ## **3\. Speak** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/Speak-software.jpg) Speak is a versatile platform that employs natural language processing (NLP) to extract actionable insights from various data formats, including video, audio, and text files. Similar to Gong, Speak offers the following features: - Automates the recording and transcription of customer interviews - Users can upload files from any source, including public URLs, for AI-driven data extraction. - Transforming data points into visualizations Speak is ideal for those capturing research data across multiple mediums, such as text-based surveys and pre-recorded video responses. It's also suitable for users interested in leveraging AI for data analysis and reporting through interactive prompts, akin to conversing with an AI chatbot. Speak offers a basic AI transcription service on a pay-as-you-go basis. For full access to its features, including AI interaction, subscription to a monthly plan is required, starting at $29 per month or $278.40 per year. ## 4\. **Kompyte** ## ![Kompyte software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/Kompyte-Conceptshots-Filters_Web-Tracking.webp) The SaaS industry is booming, and with that there are more competitors than you can deal with. That’s where Kompyte can swoop into the rescue, collating information on all the major players in the game, and zooming in on the main factors to focus in on. Kompyte, a Semrush tool, simplifies the task of analyzing brand competitors and devising effective strategies to maintain a competitive edge. Key features include: - comprehensive win-loss reports - strategic guidance for sales representatives to tackle objections effectively - access to a rich knowledge base. ## **5\. Brandwatch** ![Brandwatch software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/Brandwatch.svg) For businesses aiming to monitor and assess their social media presence, as well as that of competitors, Brandwatch isa powerful tool for social listening. Social listening is an essential strategy for SaaS companies looking to investigate customer expectations on the social sphere. This platform operates by gathering pertinent social media posts, comments, mentions, and discussions, then organizing this feedback into specific topics or sentiments, before employing AI to analyze the findings. Key Features include: - AI Analyst - Image Analysis - Auto Segmentation - AI-Powered Search\[Insert Brandwatch image here\] ## 6\. **Remesh** ## ![Remesh platform](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/remesh.png) Remesh offers a range of functionalities, with key features including: - Set up a focus group schedule - Develop a discussion guide - Share media with group members - Formulate questions for participantsP - Pose open-ended and multiple-choice questions about content - Facilitate participant voting on agreement with statements made by others in the group Meanwhile, Remesh's AI algorithm operates in the background, actively analyzing feedback, identifying common themes, and highlighting key insights in real-time as the focus group progresses. If you notice particular consumer behaviors in the findings, you have the flexibility to adapt discussion questions on the fly. Even better, Remesh facilitates the creation of shareable slide decks and CSV files containing your data once the focus group concludes. Remesh is particularly advantageous for teams conducting their own focus groups. The embedded AI capabilities provide instant insights into results, eliminating the need to wait until the session concludes for analysis. ## 7\. **Poll the people** ![poll the people software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/poll-the-people.png) For marketers looking for an innovative approach to creating and conducting market surveys, exploring Poll the People can put you on a winning cousrs . Utilizing OpenAI's ChatGPT technology, this platform empowers users to survey a respondent pool exceeding half a million individuals. Marketers can leverage Poll the People to gauge ad effectiveness, collect feedback on brand assets such as logos, preview audience reactions to branded content, and more. - Features include: Easy to use templates - Responses from respondents in minutes - Clear explanations from respondents - Response rejection from spammers or bots - Generated reports with easily digestible data ## 8\. **Lexalytics** ## ![Lexalytics platform](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/lexalytics.webp) This service leverages NLP to analyze text-based documents and extract various information, including: - Sentiment and intent - Names of individuals, locations, dates, products, and companies - Common themes to categorize related text passages - Catering to wide range of market research needs Additionally, Lexalytics offers the flexibility to integrate its technology into custom applications, providing versatility compared to other AI analysis programs. Lexalytics is well-suited for research teams intending to develop customized survey, panel, or focus group platforms. ## 9\. **YouScan** ## ![Youscan platform](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/youscan.webp) YouScan extracst data from images and text shared on social media platforms such as Instagram. Unlike relying solely on post captions and hashtags, YouScan has the capability to recognize both text and subjects depicted in images. With YouScan, you can do the following: - Gauge the frequency of a brand or product's appearance in social media images - Evaluate the sentiment of social media posts from your target audience - Compare brands and products co-appearing in users' photos - Identify the platforms generating discussions or posts related to specific brands Similar to Poll the People and Claude, YouScan features a chatbot for gathering insights into your data. By posing questions about the desired information, YouScan's AI provides responses. Companies with a product line highly integrated into social media can leverage YouScan to gain insights into the portrayal and reach of their brand across various social platforms. ## **10\. Crayon** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/04/crayon.jpg) Crayon serves as a market research tool/software platform with a sharp focus on delivering competitive intelligence to its users. Its AI-powered analysis engine sifts through competitor metrics, generating automatic alerts containing relevant information to streamline the efforts of sales and marketing teams. Key Features include: - Multi-sourced information - Sales battlecards - Integrations: seamless integration with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Slack. ## Wrapping up The sheer amount of preparation and work required to get a SaaS startup off the ground can be pretty overwhelming. But the good news is with the technology available, you can find ways to take the pressure off yourself and start drawing conclusions faster and integrate these insights into your strategy. Analysis and research is important, but SaaS startup founders are creators first and foremost, so let AI pick up the slack when it comes to the analysis so you can start dreaming up new solutions to delight and excite your customers! ### "There's a broad variety of topics at Future of SaaS" - Nicholas Gollop URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/theres-a-broad-variety-of-topics-at-future-of-saas-nicholas-gollop/ Last updated: 2024-03-29T17:45:15.000Z If you’re looking to really crush it in the SaaS sector, we know you’re looking for… - An infinite resource for SaaS content - A place to exchange with fellow SaaS leaders - First dibs on professional opportunities within the SaaS space Look no further than the Future of SaaS Slack community. Our members have already seen the unique benefits, but don’t just take it from us, take it from valued Future of SaaS member, Nicholas Gollop, an experienced RevOps expert. He joined the community looking to share his insights on the topic of RevOps. ## **A little bit of background on Nicholas Gollop** “I work in revenue operations, I'm Vice President of revenue operations, and essentially Rev. Ops. Rob, the idea behind rev Ops is to consolidate the operational teams for the revenue side of the business into one centralized leadership. So centralizing marketing operations, sales, ops, and CSO ops, all under one roof, and streamlining and optimizing internal and internal processes, but also making it more seamless for customers as well.” ## **What do you think is the biggest benefit of the Future of SaaS community?** “In terms of it’s topic areas, it's a very broad community, which is good because you have an eclectic mix of questions coming. The other communities that I'm part of primarily focused on revops, or specific areas of SaaS. But Future of SaaS seems to cater all aspects of a SaaS business’ Here at Future of SaaS, we know that holistic alignment is essential in order to have your organization firing on all cylinders. That’s why we offer channels for every major component of your SaaS org, including customer success, sales, marketing, and so much more! Whatever your SaaS needs are, we’ve got the solution for you! --- Tempted yet? Join our community of SaaS experts [today](https://www.saasalliance.io/join-the-fosaas-community/), showcase your skills and elevate your skills to the next level! ### Using data storytelling to drive next-level SaaS growth URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/data-storytelling-next-level-saas-growth/ Last updated: 2024-05-21T15:18:11.000Z This article comes from **Shikha Pakhide**’s insightful talk, ‘*Let your data tell the story*’, at our **2023 Saas Metrics Summit**, check out her full presentation [**here**](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics-summit-june-2023/?wchannelid=4b72hh2lwt&wmediaid=rchhxlld1t). Want to know the secret to explosive SaaS growth? It's not a fancy new technology or marketing hack, it’s all about the power of **data storytelling**. I’m **Shikha Pakhide**, and as a former **Head of Marketing** at a major platform like **Jio**, I learned firsthand that simply collecting data isn't enough. The real magic happens when you use that data to spin compelling narratives to inspire action. Dry metrics on a dashboard? *Boring*. But a vivid, emotionally-charged data story that motivates people and paints a clear picture of success? That's pure rocket fuel for accelerating growth. In this article, I'll break down the simple framework we used for transforming raw data into explosive revenue gains and you'll get a behind-the-scenes look at how we made data storytelling a core part of Jio's culture. From getting buy-in from skeptical execs to creating customer success stories that sell, I'm revealing all the secrets. So, let’s dive in! ## **The data-driven SaaS growth framework** ### To bring order from the chaos, I developed a simple but powerful framework based around 3 key questions: **1) Why are we analyzing this data? What goals are we tying it to?** For SaaS companies like ours, the obvious ones are customer acquisition, upsells/expansions, churn reduction, and ultimately driving revenue and LTV. But the 'why' could also be more specific, like improving activation for a new feature or nurturing customers through certain maturity phases. **2) What insights can we get by analyzing the dataset through this lens?** This is where you apply different analytics techniques to unlock meaningful patterns and learnings that can optimize the customer journey. It could be identifying the most common dropoff points, revealing untapped cross-sell opportunities, or pinpointing the behaviors of your most loyal advocates. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### How to conduct your own personal SWOT analysis URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-conduct-your-own-personal-swot-analysis/ Last updated: 2024-03-26T19:38:36.000Z In order for SaaS companies to grow effectively they need to be able to assess their own strengths and weaknesses. You can only iterate when you know what’s going right, and you can only improve when you know what’s going wrong. A SWOT analysis can also be a useful tool for an individual. If, for example, you’re between occupations or if you’re struggling to take your place in the SaaS landscape, it can be helpful to do a thorough analysis of your own strengths and weaknesses, then you can be more targeted in your job search. ## How to perform a personal SWOT analysis Devised by Edmund P. Learned, C. Roland Christensen, Kenneth Andrews and William D. Guth in the 1960s, SWOT analysis is a way to assess four criteria: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Taken together, these four criteria can give you a holistic profile of a company or individual’s current state and potential. An important distinction to make: strengths and weaknesses are dictated by you, while opportunities and threats come from the outside. However, by considering your own strengths alongside external forces, it can reveal to which opportunities you’ll be able to take advantage of using your skills. On the flip side, it can reveal which threats your current weaknesses might make you vulnerable too. For a SWOT analysis of your company, threats may include shifts in the market, or economic recession, while a SWOT analysis of your personal strengths may be your experience with SEO, while a weakness may be that you sometimes struggle with time management. [10 top tips for the perfect tech resumeIt’s no secret: The current job climate in tech is rough! If you’re one of the many affected, check out our top tips for getting rehired!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/top-resume-tips.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-tips-for-the-perfect-tech-resume/) With SWOT analysis, it can be beneficial to have an idea of what your goals are for either yourself or the company. We all have a whole host of strengths and weaknesses, but this isn’t a task where you need to list them all, but rather it’s about listing the ones that are going to impact your current goal either positively or negatively. So, first be clear about what your goals are, make them as concrete and actionable as possible, then you can start putting together your SWOT analysis. With a SWOT analysis, it only really works if you're as honest and objective as possible. Sometimes we're totally unaware of what our own strengths and weaknesses are, so it can be helpful to gain the perspective of a colleague or friend. ## **How to start a swot analysis?** The first step is to either find a template online, or you can take inspo from some examples online and make your own. In order to perform an effective swot analysis, there are certain questions you should ask yourself, such as: - Where do my inherent strengths lie? - Which skills have I actively cultivated? - What innate talents do I possess? It’s not as simple as asking yourself what you’re good and bad at, you should separate weaknesses that you might be able to work on as opposed to those that are going to require a lot more effort. Remember, the main purpose of a SWOT analysis is to be able to form a plan for further development, so you should be as precise as possible when categorizing your qualities. [Top 30 jobs to kickstart your SaaS journeyWhat route will you take in the vibrant realm of SaaS? Check out our directory of SaaS careers and take your first step today.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/empower.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-30-jobs-to-kickstart-your-saas-journey/) The next step is to identify weaknesses, try asking yourself these questions: For your company you might want to ask the following: - In what areas are we growing? - Where has growth stalled? - How might we be viewed by or competitors? Or, if you’re conducting a SWOT analysis on yourself, ask the following: - What negative work habits and traits do I exhibit? - Are there any aspects of my education or training that require enhancement? - What weaknesses might others perceive in me? Next, you need to move onto opportunities. Think of new events occurring that you can take advantage of using your unique skills. If you’re making a SWOT as an entrepreneur, this may be gaps in the market, where users aren’t having their needs met These are the kind of questions that need to be asked: - Is my industry experiencing contraction or shifting direction? - Do I face significant competition in the market? - What represents the primary external threat to achieving our goal? [What is SaaS operations and how can it lead you to success?In this article, we guide you to streamlining your SaaS operations management, so your org can soar to new heights!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/SaaS-Ops.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-saas-operations-a-complete-guide/) These questions will also work if you’re simply an individual pursuing a new role, you need to ask yourself similar questions, but you should also consider which skills are high in demand in the industry and whether your skills align with them. The truth is, by really getting honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses you can force yourself to seek out new opportunities that you might not have noticed before. A big part of professional development is self assessment and it’s always better to take stock and consider where you are before going forward. ## **Determining the outcome of your SWOT** The point of Swot is to determine opportunities for development, so when you identify a weakness you can think about how you can utilize your strengths to turn weaknesses into new strengths. Similarly, with your threats, you should think about how potential dangers can be turned into strengths. If threats are going to lead others to struggle, can you use your strengths to swoop in and save the day. Or on the personal side, if one of your weaknesses is that you struggle with the bustle of office life, it might be in your best interest to apply for one of the many remote or hybrid jobs on the market right now. ## **Wrapping up: Post SWOT action** Once you've got your action plan sorted, make sure to keep tabs on your progress. Set some benchmarks and just keep chipping away at them. Stick with it, and bit by bit, you'll find yourself exactly where you want to be. --- Like what you see? Why not check out our exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS Membership plan? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The advantages and disadvantages of venture capital funding for SaaS organizations URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-venture-capital-funding-for-saas-organizations/ Last updated: 2024-06-24T10:56:16.000Z Many SaaS founders have great ideas, but sadly, due to lack of financial backing, those ideas too often wither on the vine. In 2024, as a result of a volatile economic climate, this is more difficult than ever, as venture capitalists are more reluctant than ever to take that chance on a new startup. There are certainly other options, such as bootstrapping and relying on your own savings, but the reality is most people don’t have this luxury, and so investor funding is still the most desirable option. But even if you’re able to secure funding, there can be drawbacks as well as advantages. We break them down here. ## What is venture capital funding? ### In a nutshell, venture capital funding is when VC firms or finance companies are impressed enough by a new startup to have confidence in its chances of becoming lucrative, and so they invest capital into the organization in exchange for shares. But Investors don’t give out funds like candy, they need to be convinced that the startup as high growth potential so they get a return on their investment. But given that 90% of startups fail, sadly the odds are not in your favor for securing investment. As a result startups have to be scrupulous in their investment pitches, wowing competitors with trailblazing ideas and outlining a realistic business plan that accounts for risk and market conditions. Because of these stats, VCs will typically want a hand in the direction your company is headed, so that they can protect their investment. ## **Pros and cons of venture capital investment** ### If you’re a bit strapped for time, we’ve put them together in the form of an infographic. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/SaaS_Article_Images_.png) Now let’s break it down in more detail. ## Advantages of venture capital funding ### **1\. Substantial funding** Let's talk about one of the most exciting perks of venture capitalist funding: the injection of funds it provides. Venture capital firms pool resources from various sources, often LPs, to provide startups with substantial cash injections. You can gain considerably larger funding from VC funding than you run of the mill small business loan, and you don’t have to repay venture capital in periodic installment like you would with loans. Plus, there's potential for multiple rounds of funding. In simple terms, VC funding can give orgs the potential for rapid, broad expansion, reaching an audience that might not have been able to touch otherwise. ### **2\. Venture capitalists are more likely to take risks** Conventional banks are known for their cautious approach, often avoiding lending to startups they deem too risky. On the other hand, venture capitalists thrive on risk, particularly when it comes to supporting early-stage ventures. So, if you're sitting on a potential goldmine but finding traditional funding avenues closed off, teaming up with a VC could be a game-changer. But it's not all smooth sailing. While VCs may be more inclined to take risks, they're not doing it out of the kindness of their hearts (although many VCs are genuinely passionate about seeing startups succeed). They're in it for the big returns, aiming for profits of 25-35% or more to justify their investment and meet their fund's objectives. So, before you take the plunge, ensure your business plan is solid and shows promising commercial viability. [SaaScast: How to attract investors and drive innovationIn these economically volatile times, startups need to go the extra mile to secure that all-important funding. Joe Dormani, an experienced VC, explains it all.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2023/09/SaaScast---Joe-Dormani--1-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-how-to-attract-investors/) Now, picture this scenario: lightning strikes, and a VC decides to back your vision. Suddenly, you've got the green light to push boundaries and explore new opportunities, knowing you have financial support to catch you if things get rocky. So, if you're considering a bold idea with the potential for high rewards, VC investment could be your ticket to turning it into a successful venture that not only fills your pockets but also fulfills your agreement with your VC partner. ### **Hands on support** A plus side (and to some a downside) is that venture capital investors tend to want a hand in the direction your company goes in. That might sound potentially overbearing, but the reality is that you’ll be benefitting from expertise straight from the minds of experienced entrepreneurs. Not only do you get the benefit of expertise, but you also potentially have access to a broad network of experts, increasing your chances of potential growth. ### **No repayments** Well, you are paying them back, but it’s not like other kinds of loans where you’ll be expected to pay back in installments on certain dates. Instead VC firms have shares in your company which increase in value as the company becomes more profitable. This takes some of the pressure off you as a founder; you won’t have to worry about having the requisite cash flow to pay off loans every month. However, shareholders will want to be kept in the loop with regards to the steps your company is taking to achieving growth. ### **Networking opportunities** Investors are always looking for new opportunities, and the way they do this is by constantly expanding their network. So when you have a venture capitalist on the board, you’re not just getting their expertise which will likely be considerable on its own) you’re also potentially benefiting from a global network of entrepreneurial experts. Networking is an essential component of how SaaS startups expand, and the nifty thing about it is: The more you do it the easier it gets. [What does an investor look out for in a SaaS product?With the increase in number of SaaS products, investors today have a large pool of startups to consider from. Here are the top 10 metrics that investors look at!![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSWayne Wee![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2022/02/phone.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-does-an-investor-look-out-for-in-a-saas-product/) ### **Faster growth** What venture capitalists can offer are large amounts of capital in contrast to what traditional banks can offer, which means potentially faster growth for your startup. In a fast paced, highly competitive SaaS landscape, scaling fast is going to put you at a considerable advantage, however, it’s important to note that investors will want to see that you can grow sustainably over this time period. Now, the two often go hand in hand obviously, but there can be instances where companies are experiencing a period of hyper growth, but the organization is rapidly descending into chaos. The obvious result of this: Growth won’t last over a prolonged period of time. There are always startups that come flying out of the gate, but many of them don’t become household names. ## **The disadvantages of venture capitalist funding** ### Now even with the considerable advantages of venture capital funding, there can be downsides. Those who don’t fancy surrendering some of the control to investors, for example, might want to consider other options. But there are other downsides too, let’s dive into it here. ### **Insurmountable standards** It's important to understand just how challenging it can be to get the green light from VCs. It's easily one of the toughest hurdles you'll face when trying to raise funds. The whole process can feel like a never-ending saga, often stretching out for months – sometimes even over 9 months! Why so long? Well, VC firms take their time to meticulously evaluate your business. After all, they're not just throwing money around; they want to ensure they're making a wise investment that will yield significant returns for their investors. [How to effectively fundraise and find investorsIn this article, I’m going to share some stories from my fundraising career that I’ve never shared anywhere else. Each story comes with a lesson I learned along the way. Hopefully, these lessons will help you as you embark on your journey to raise capital.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSKirill Makharinsky![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2022/07/money-man.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-effectively-fundraise-and-find-investors/) So, what exactly are they looking for? They'll dig deep into every aspect of your business, from the size of your target market to the potential profitability of your products or services. They'll assess the strength of your management team and weigh the potential rewards against the risks. You'll need to lay out your business plan and financial projections, clearly demonstrating the value and growth potential of your venture. ### **Hyper growth over sustainable growth** For many SaaS startups, landing that sweet VC investment feels like the ultimate win. But here's the thing: plenty of early-stage companies have thrived simply by delivering a killer product and letting word-of-mouth do the rest. In today's fierce market, SaaS firms need to be smart about how they grow – and that often means getting savvy with organic social channels. Some startups get so caught up in throwing money at growth that they lose sight of what really matters. They end up chasing quick wins instead of focusing on building sustainable, long-term success. Instead, it's all about finding that balance – prioritizing steady, scalable growth over flashy but short-lived spikes. By keeping their eyes on the prize, startups can set themselves up for lasting success in SaaS. ### **Giving up shares** One of the most daunting disadvantages for startup founders is this: once investors have shares of your company many are going to want to have a say in your business. And that’s not all, as your company grows, you may outgrow that initial funding and require subsequent rounds of funding, but that means giving away more equity in your company. This isn’t true for all venture capitalist investors, some of whom will take a more hands off approach, but VCs have been known to want up to 80% of startup businesses. ### **Pressure to grow too fast** Given the stats on startup success aren’t exactly glowing, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that VCs are taking a pretty serious risk in investing, and as a result there’s going to be a lot of pressure for you to scale fast. While healthy pressure can be a good thing, it can sometimes lead to some drastic and even reckless decision-making at odds with the kind of careful planning that needs to go into launching a startup to success. Companies may have very specific ideas about the kind of customers you should be targeting, which could lead to you being overwhelmed with the number of customers you have to service. ## Other options apart from venture capital funding ### Luckily bootstrapping and private savings are not your only option when it comes to funding your business. Here are some others you might want to consider: ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/06/funding-meta.png) ### **Angel investors** These are simply individuals who will invest in companies. In some cases, they will be friends or family, so this often comes with less pressure for early stage companies, but they will still expect a return on investment. They tend to be more open to investing in startups, since they look for companies that have potential and are less thorough in their assessment of a company before investing. It’s a more easy-going, unstructured approach and it’s often a one-off payment, although they will sometimes offer additional funding in later stages of development. ### **Revenue-based financing** Instead of the traditional model where you're pressured with fixed payments, revenue-based financing lets investors take a regular cut of your business earnings until they've made back about three to five times what they initially put in. And the best part? No interest fees to worry about. What makes it even sweeter is that your repayments are tied directly to how well your business is doing. So, as your business grows, so do your payments back to the investor. [SaaS revenue-based financing: the cheat code to preventing ownership dilutionYour SaaS company has a magic word that hypnotizes investors: recurring revenue. It’s much easier (and less expensive) to keep existing customers than acquire new ones.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAdam Tzagournis![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2022/12/calculator.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-revenue-based-financing-the-cheat-code-to-preventing-ownership-dilution/) ### **SBA loans** SBA loans are like having a financial safety net, backed in part by the government to ease the nerves of lending institutions. Here's the deal: while the SBA doesn't directly hand out cash, it teams up with approved financial players like banks to get small businesses the funding they need. Sure, there are monthly repayments involved, but with the SBA's partial guarantees, lenders breathe a bit easier knowing that if things go south the state covers a chunk of the loan. Now, why should you care? Well, SBA loans offer an enticing alternative to chasing venture capital. Think competitive interest rates, repayment terms stretching around a decade, and best of all – you get to hold onto your equity. As long as you've got the cash flow to keep up with repayments, an SBA loan could be whatyour business needs. ## **Wrapping up** ### In the competitive world of SaaS startups, having a great idea isn't always enough. Many promising concepts fade into obscurity due to a lack of financial backing, a challenge exacerbated by the uncertainties of today's economic climate. In 2024, with venture capitalists more cautious than ever, securing investment can feel like an uphill battle. While alternative funding options exist, such as bootstrapping and personal savings, they're not always accessible to everyone. Investor funding remains the most desirable route for many, offering the potential for substantial growth and expansion, but it's a difficult road to travel, so consider other options beforw committing to pursuing VCs. --- Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from the leading minds in SaaS? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The top 10 SaaS financial metrics YOU need in 2024 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/top-10-saas-financial-metrics/ Last updated: 2024-03-20T13:32:35.000Z In today’s SaaS space, **success is driven by data**, so the ability to track and analyze the right financial metrics has never been more important for SaaS businesses in 2024\. These [**metrics**](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/growth-metrics/)are more than *just numbers*; they’re powerful insights that unveil the true performance, health, and potential of your company. With the ever-increasing competition and continually evolving market demands, staying ahead of the curve requires a data-driven approach. By mastering these top 10 SaaS financial metrics, you'll gain a competitive edge, attract investors, and foster long-lasting customer relationships - it’s really a no-brainer. So, in this essential guide, we'll explore the most crucial SaaS financial metrics that every SaaS professional should have on their radar in 2024 and beyond. Get ready to unlock the power of data and drive sustainable growth for your SaaS business! Let’s dive in… ## **1\. Net Revenue Retention Rate (NRR):** ### Net Revenue Retention Rate (NRR) is a true testament to the health of your customer relationships. It illustrates revenue growth from existing customers, encompassing expansions, churn, and contractions. An NRR above 100% signifies not only retaining existing revenue but also organic growth through upsells and cross-sells. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/NRR.png) In 2024, monitoring NRR is crucial for **adapting your strategies**, **ensuring customer satisfaction**, and **driving long-term revenue growth**. A high NRR is a clear indicator of your ability to foster lasting relationships and deliver continuous value to your customers. ## **2\. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC):** ### In 2024, efficient resource allocation is *paramount*. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) measures the average expenditure required to acquire a new customer, factoring in marketing campaigns, sales efforts, and onboarding costs. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/CAC.png) By understanding CAC, businesses can make informed decisions, ensuring a **positive return on investment** from customer acquisition efforts. These days, where customer acquisition costs are on the rise, optimizing CAC is crucial for **sustainable growth** and **long-term profitability**. ## **3\. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV):** ### Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) represents the total revenue a business can expect from a customer over the entire duration of their relationship. It factors in loyalty, repeat purchases, referrals, and overall engagement, providing a holistic view of a customer's worth. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/CLV.png) In the ever-evolving market of 2024, CLV is more than just a number, it's a strategic compass. By comprehensively understanding CLV, businesses can **tailor marketing strategies**, **enhance customer experiences**, and **prioritize initiatives** that nurture long-term relationships with high-value customers. [Metrics that matter: The KPIs every SaaS company should trackBrittani Dunlap, CEO and co-founder of FlowEQ, showcases the essential metrics you should be tracking for maximum growth.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSBrittani Dunlap![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/metrics-and-data-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/metrics-that-matter-the-kpis-every-saas-company-should-track/) ## **4\. Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR):** ### Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) represents the projected annual income that comes from customers who have subscribed to your services or committed to multi-year contracts. ARR offers a longer-term view of revenue stability, instrumental in strategic planning and financial forecasting. Why do we measure it? In 2024, ARR serves as the heartbeat of SaaS businesses. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/ARR.png) A significant portion of recurring revenue makes it easier to **secure funding from investors**, thanks to the stability it represents, which in turn leads to more favorable terms for investments. [SaaS Benchmark Metrics Report 2023In collaboration with Benchmarkit, a foremost authority on the subject of SaaS excellence, we bring you the industry’s most holistic roundup of SaaS metrics for H1-23.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/12/SaaS_Metrics_Report_2023_Blog2.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-benchmark-metrics-report-2023-2/) ## **5\. Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR):** ### Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) signifies the aggregate monthly revenue generated from subscription-based customers. It offers a clear picture of your monthly revenue stability, making it a crucial metric for businesses operating on subscription models. Why do we measure it? Tracking MRR provides real-time insights into your financial stability and customer trends. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/MRR.png) By monitoring MRR, you can make **immediate decisions** on resource allocation, marketing strategies, and respond promptly to customer behaviors, ensuring **sustained profitability** in a dynamic market. ## **6\. Net Promoter Score (NPS):** ### Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a widely recognized metric for gauging customer loyalty and satisfaction. By asking customers to rate their likelihood of recommending your product or service on a scale of 0 to 10, you can categorize them as promoters, passives, or detractors. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/NPS.png) In 2024, a high NPS indicates strong customer advocacy and positive word-of-mouth, while a low score may signal the need for improvements in customer experience and support. NPS is a powerful tool for **driving customer-centric strategies** and **fostering lasting relationships**. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ## **7\. Churn Rate:** ### Churn Rate measures the percentage of existing customers who cancel their subscriptions or discontinue their relationship with your business within a specific time period. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/Churn.png) In the current market where competition is tough, customer retention is paramount. Churn Rate acts as a warning signal, enabling you to **address the root causes of customer attrition**, enhance customer experiences, and foster long-lasting relationships, ensuring a **stable customer base** and sustainable revenue. ## **8\. Burn Multiple:** ### Burn Multiple is a powerful indicator of your company's cash efficiency. It compares the amount of money spent over a period to the net new Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) generated during that time. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/Burn.png) A Burn Multiple under 1 suggests that your existing funds are being utilized efficiently, and growth is sustainable. However, a high Burn Multiple may indicate the need to reevaluate your spending strategies and secure additional funding sources. ## **9\. Lead Velocity Rate (LVR):** ### Lead Velocity Rate (LVR) measures the growth rate of qualified leads entering your sales pipeline month over month, providing a leading indicator of future revenue growth. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/LVR.png) In 2024, a steady increase in LVR signals a healthy sales pipeline and potential for revenue growth. Whereas a declining rate may indicate the need to reevaluate lead generation and qualification processes, though it can help you to ensure a **consistent flow of high-quality leads**. ## **10\. Natural Rate of Growth (NRG):** ### Natural Rate of Growth (NRG) measures your company's organic growth through a product-led approach, without relying heavily on marketing or sales efforts. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/NRG.png) A high NRG, typically above 150% for $1-10M ARR companies, indicates a strong focus on delivering customer value through product features. This then leads to **lower customer acquisition costs**, **higher revenue per employee**, and **improved customer loyalty**. ## **Conclusion** ### In 2024, staying ahead of the curve requires a data-driven approach led by these top 10 SaaS financial metrics. From Net Revenue Retention Rate to Natural Rate of Growth, these powerful indicators provide a comprehensive view of your company's performance, health, and potential. By mastering these metrics, you'll unlock invaluable insights, enabling you to make informed decisions, optimize operations, foster customer loyalty, and drive sustainable growth. Embrace the power of data and position your SaaS business for success in 2024 and beyond! --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/SaaScast-Ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=saascast-podcast) ### The ultimate guide to SaaS customer success URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-ultimate-guide-to-saas-customer-success/ Last updated: 2024-03-19T10:46:11.000Z In the current SaaS landscape customers have high expectations. If they don’t feel the service is meeting their high demands, they can cancel at any time, and in an industry with so many different software solutions out there, churn can happen at the slightest sign of friction. For this reason, SaaS and customer success are a match made in heaven. Reactive customer support just won’t cut it anymore; customers need to feel organizations take an active interest in understanding their pain points and proactively trying to solve their problems. The key differentiator here is reactive vs proactive. Traditional customer support falls into the former while customer success falls squarely in the latter. The SaaS companies that succeed are those that become respected problem solvers. They recognize that customers stick around when a true rapport is established. This is the essence of customer success. It’s a tricky art to master, but in this article we’re going to help you get to grips with it. Let’s dive in! # What is customer success in SaaS? It’s really in the name. Customer success is the processes your company employs to help customers find the value in your product. They help customers find the ‘sticking’ point in your product. Customers renew when they find utility in your product, meaning your product becomes an indispensable tool for solving problems in their day-to- day lives. But what does customer success look like in practical terms? It can take many different forms. Here are some of the most common forms: - Thoughtful onboarding - Relationship building. - Training and education - Customer support For many smaller SaaS companies, customer success is merely part of the conversion process, but increasingly, it’s becoming its own department and revenue center. ## Why does customer success matter in the realm of SaaS? There are many reasons why customers fail to renew and churn, but all of those reasons are encompassed under one crucial banner: They can’t find the value in your product. Customer success is like the guiding hand, leading customers to that all important ‘aha’ moment. The role of customer success professionals is a tricky one. CS pros have to effectively showcase the merits of your product while still remaining receptive to the individual needs of the customer. [Customer success metrics that drive 95% retentionIn this article, I’ll be discussing the customer success metrics you should be tracking at each and every stage of the customer lifecycle. With them, you can drive retention and ensure your customer success function is successful in delivering value to the customer.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSwati Chopra![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/05/yoav-hornung-Qg6lPXJ6IL4-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) In simple terms, CS helps companies tighten up their retention and cut churn down to size. Retention is potentially even more important than customer conversion. It’s cheaper usually, and customers that stick around for a long time become a vital tool for future customer acquisition. In a nutshell; Loyal customers are like living, breathing ads for your product. ## The major components of customer success Customer success will look different depending on the size of your org, your customer profile and the industry you’re operating in. Having said that, there are some essential pillars of customer success you’ll find in most organizations. ### Customer onboarding Think of customer onboarding in SaaS like rolling out the welcome mat for your new users. It's that exciting moment where they're stepping into your software world for the first time, and you want to make sure they feel right at home from the get-go. **Welcome screen** picture this: your new customer signs up, and they're greeted with a friendly "Welcome aboard!" message, complete with their login details and a virtual handshake. Then, it's time to give them the grand tour. You walk them through the coolest features, the must-know shortcuts, and the little tricks that'll make their experience all smooth sailing. **Personalization** Now imagine your product like a luxury hotel. You want your CS department to be like a concierge tailoring the experience just for them. They listen to their needs, their goals, and their quirks, and you sprinkle in suggestions and tips that resonate with their unique situation. It's all about making them feel seen and understood. [Customer onboarding 101For freemium models adopted by a growing number of SaaS companies, onboarding is the frontline in the battle for the upsell.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/03/erwan-hesry-aMjeTdCVRNE-unsplash--1---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-onboarding-101/) **Support team** Whether it's a quick chat, an email exchange, or even a good old-fashioned phone call, they're there to lend a helping hand whenever your new user hits a bump in the road. Although customer success has to be proactive, users still have to feel like there’s someone there to answer their vital concerns as they arise. **Essential resources** Video tutorials, knowledge base articles, FAQs – they can be perfect for those customers who prefer their learning to be more self-directed. Customer Success takes the role of guiding them toward those essential resources. ### Plan for success When onboarding a new customer, it’s absolutely essential that you find out what they’re main goals are, then you can set out creating an action plan for them, complete with key milestones along the way. This way you accomplish two essential tasks, customers see that you’re taking an active interest in their goals. Secondly, you motivate them to achieve their goals and make them more likely to ‘stick’ to your product. ### Quarterly reviews Want to hear a major blunder people make with customer success? They think that once they’ve successfully onboarded a customer it’s job done. But the truth is the work has only just begun. The most pivotal role of CS is to stop customers from leaving once they’ve signed up. CS pros really prove their salt by checking in on customers regularly to ensure they’re on track with their goals. Sometimes when you lose sight of your objectives, you need a cheerleader in your corner to motivate you. Having that presence in their lives can make all the difference when it comes to customers sticking around. ### Playbooks and whitepapers When it comes to guidance, no two customers are the same. Your customers are individuals, meaning some will prefer that guiding hand, while others will prefer to discover the product on their own. But this doesn’t mean you neglect them. You can provide them with the map to reach that all-important value moment in the form of documentation. For some, educational documentation can be all the support they need to reach their goals. ### Self-service content In a similar vein, you can provide customers with support in the form of tutorials, how-to-videos and product tours. Some customers aren’t going to want to spend all their time trawling through lengthy documentation. Educational content can be a great way to aid those more visually inclined independent learners. [Using customer feedback and win-loss interviews to improve your product | Future of SaaSCustomer feedback and win-loss interviews are among the most effective ways to gain a firm understanding of how your product has been received, and how you can make changes, where needed.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1517245386807-bb43f82c33c4?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDE1fHxpbnRlcnZpZXdzfGVufDB8fHw&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000content/images/size/w1200)](https://www.saasalliance.io/using-customer-feedback-and-win-loss-interviews-to-improve-your-product/) ### Creating feedback loops You want to try and create a continuous feedback loop in place so that customers are empowered to make suggestions wherever they encounter problems. Next you need to follow up with fixes. A relationship is consolidated when customers can see you’re listening to their concerns and making adjustments in a timely fashion. You should have a mechanism in place for customers to log concerns built into your product. There are many software widget solutions you can use for this. ## Metrics you should be tracking for customer success Like any department within your organization, the best way to see results is always in the hard data. Success needs to be a measurable, quantifiable thing, not just a feeling you have. Here are the best metrics to measure the efficacy of your CS game. ### Customer retention Simply put, it’s the number of customers who see the value in your product and choose to stick around. In SaaS lingo, it's about keeping your users hooked and coming back for more of what you're serving. ![Calculate retention](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/02/customer-retention-rate.png) ### Customer churn Again, this is very simple. It’s just the number of customers who have said goodbye to your product within the time frame you’re measuring. Churn is something you need to keep a close eye on at all times. By having a firm grasp on who exactly is churning and why, you can tighten up parts of your onboarding process that are allowing customers to fall through the net. Here’s how to calculate: ![calculate churn](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/02/customer-churn-rate.png) ### Customer satisfaction score This is where customers rate tthe experience you’re providing. This way you can spot early warning signs and take steps to strengthen those relationships before it leads to a customer leaving. Often customer feedback can reveal flaws that you wouldn’t have even considered from your own analysis, so make sure you take these insights seriously. Calculate as follows: ![Calculate customer satisfaction](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/02/customer-satisfaction.png) ### Product adoption A great way to detect fires before the whole house burns down. If you have a whole host of customers who are simply not using your product very often at all, you can bet it’s going to lead to a pretty devastating mass churn eventually. Keep track of how often customers are using your product and also which features they’re using the most. It’s possible that some customers are simply overlooking the value of certain aspects. ### Customer lifetime value This is the value that customers are bringing to your product during their whole time with your product. An important rule of thumb: you never want your customer lifetime value to be lower than your customer acquisition costs. If this happens it means that it’s costing you more to bring in customers than you’re actually making out of them long term. To calculate CLTV is as follows: ![Calculate customer lifetime value](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/02/Customer-lifetime-1.png) ### Net revenue retention Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is a metric used by SaaS companies to measure the effectiveness of their customer success efforts in driving revenue growth from existing customers. It quantifies the revenue retained from existing customers over a specific period, accounting for upgrades, expansions, downgrades, and churn. ## Key roles for customer success Like any function within a SaaS company there are a lot of moving parts coming together in order for everything to run smoothly. Customer Success is no different. It’s a team effort to make it work, and that all comes down to your team structure. Let’s break down the ideal team structure for a SaaS org right here ### VP of customer success The VP of Customer Success is the captain customer satisfaction ship at a SaaS company. They set the course for success, build a stellar team, and offer support and guidance to your Customer Success Managers (CSMs) when the waters get choppy on important accounts. ### Chief customer officer From support to success, the CCO takes the reins, ensuring our customers' needs are front and center. They're not just another face at the leadership table—they're the voice advocating for customer success in every conversation with product, engineering, and sales teams. ### Customer Success manager Your dedicated customer success manager (or CSM) is really your superhero when it comes to proactively solving customer problems – there to swoop in and save the day before you have a major churn problem on your hands. Their role is to understand and anticipate customer concerns and take steps to reach out and ensure your users have the best possible experience with your product. At every stage of the customer journey, from that initial onboarding to the coveted advocacy stage, your CSM monitors customer behavior, keeping a hawk eye out for signs of dissatisfaction or disengagement; they then take steps to help customers find that all-important value moment. They also look out for customers who may be primed for upsells and cross sells. Simply put, they’re on the front lines when it comes to averting disaster in the form of customer churn. ### Technical specialist As we’ve stressed in this article, it’s essential for CSMs in SaaS to have a certain level of Technical acumen, and this should enable them to address more fundamental customer concerns, but CSMs aren’t hired solely for their tech savvy, they’re hired for that essential human touch that allows them to connect with users and feel like they’re needs are met and their voices heard. ![Customer Success Team Structure](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/Customer-Success-structure-1.png) But there are always going to be more complex problems that require a greater level of technical expertise. And this is when it’s essential for your CSMs to have a solid working relationship with your technical wizards, ensuring that those more complicated issues are passed on and resolved in a timely manner. Technical specialists uphold the integrity of your software infrastructure, ensuring that customers have a smooth, glitch-free experience getting acquainted with your product. A big part of customer success is quite simply this: Ensuring customers have a delightful experience with your product. And for this to happen, the integrity of your infrastructure needs to be given that TLC regularly. ### SaaS onboarding specialist First impressions matter. This is true of a first date, your first day on a new job, and yep, you guessed it, it matters for the first interactions your customers have with your product. How you handle the onboarding flow is going to have a significant impact on the customer journey further down the line, increasing the chances of customer loyalty. The role of the SaaS onboarding specialist is to ensure users get that tailored, personalized experience. This is another aspect of customer success which takes it beyond conventional customer support. The goal is to ensure you’re understanding each individual customer’s unique pain points from the get go. And this starts at the onboarding stage. One way to achieve this is by helping customers to outline their unique goals and milestones early on. ### Customer Success analyst in SaaS In order to provide customers with a tailored experience, customer success professionals need data and insights. Customer success is always going to need fine-tuning, and with the right data analysis you can identify parts of the customer journey where customers are falling through the cracks. It can also reveal which features are providing the most value to customers. ### **SaaS account managers** SaaS account managers serve as the strategic champions within customer success teams, prioritizing account expansion and retention. Their role involves fostering and strengthening customer relationships, pinpointing fresh business prospects, and consistently demonstrating the ongoing value of the SaaS investment to customers. ### **Customer education specialist** As a customer success specialist the role isn’t just to swoop in and rescue customers from churning, it's also to empower customers in their own discovery and learning. The main job in this role is to provide customers with the tools to get the most out of your product. It’s important to stress that some customers will prefer a more hands-on approach from the company, while others value independence, they only need you to provide them with the tools to succeed with the product. ### **Customer feedback specialist** Custom feedback is essential if you want to iterate on the things you’re doing right and optimize the things you’re not doing right. Retention is often less costly than acquisition, and collecting feedback is the way to ensure customers are happy with the service you’re providing and make your retention rates soar. The goal of any SaaS company should be to seek to establish a continuous feedback loop with your customers, so that you're always iterating an optimizing your product according customer expectations and needs. ## Essential customer success software tools In order to succeed in your customer success strategy you need to take advantage of the latest software solutions. This will enable you to keep a close eye on customer relationships, customer progress and keep customer data organized. ### Customer relationship management software (CRM) This is like your one-stop hub for everything you need to help customers succeed, encompassing sales, customer service and support. The whole history of your customer interactions and support tickets will be provided here, granting you a birds eye view of your customer journey. A SaaS business needs to have a holistic view of the customer journey and the latest CRM provides this. ### Support ticketing software There needs to be a process in place by which customers can log complaints and have them addressed, especially since as your company grows the concerns are going to multiply. Concerns that are resolved or unresolved need to be categorized as such. Without this, concerns are going to fall through the cracks, customers are unsatisfied, and you’re going to end up with a sky high churn rate. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/Software-tools.png) ### Chat software This one really doesn’t need much explanation. Nowadays customers expect a higher level of support, and the SaaS companies that are able to resolve customer problems quickly are the ones that are going to rise to the top. Chat software allows you to keep all customer communications in one place and reply to them in a timely manner. ### Learning management software (LMS) Remember we mentioned how some customers prefer the self-guided approach? Well a solid LMS platform is the way to ensure that those customers are accommodated in their customer journey. By giving customers the tools they need to succeed you’re showing that you have a vested interest in their professional goals, and that really is the essence of customer success. It’s not just about getting those sweet customer conversions, it’s about ensuring your product has a major impact on them, making it an indispensable part of their day-to-day life. ## Wrapping up Customer success is an exciting function and it’s only growing. If you utilize it right it can be a vital tool in both your customer acquisition and retention arsenal. Just remember that it’s all about proactive customer care. The ultimate goal of any SaaS org is to anticipate the needs of customers before they even show up. Do the work when it comes to researching the market and have a firm idea of what your customers are going to need from a SaaS product. From that point on, you’ll have a CS function that delights your users and keeps them around for a long time to come. --- Enjoyed these insights? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS right here? 👇 [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The evolution from SaaS to $aaS: Embracing outcomes as a service URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-evolution-of-saas/ Last updated: 2024-03-15T16:00:02.000Z This article comes from **Imran Anwar**’s insightful talk, ‘*From SaaS (software as a service) to SaaS (service as a software) to $aaS (results & outcomes as a service)*’, at our **2023 Future of SaaS Festival**, check out his full presentation [**here**](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-april-2023/?wchannelid=nqg85ezf7j&wmediaid=8ka55edk04). Ready to stop selling hollow promises and start delivering confirmed outcomes? As someone immensely passionate about innovation, particularly in my role as **Director Customer Success, Innovation, Digital Transformation, Sustainability**, at **Microsoft**, I'm thrilled to share a vision I believe will fundamentally reshape how we do business. This’ll be a shift from simply selling software solutions or services to directly providing guaranteed outcomes that create quantifiable value. Let me explain what I mean. Instead of paying upfront for an offering with no certainty of results, imagine if you could purchase a specific outcome itself - like increasing revenues by $1 million or acquiring 50,000 new customers. That's the core idea behind "Outcomes as a Service" or "$aaS." The technological forces finally converging to make this $aaS model viable are AI, cloud computing, big data analytics and automation. With their united progression, optimized providers can now precisely engineer and deliver confirmed outcomes rather than just offerings. For leaders able to capitalize on this paradigm shift, the $aaS opportunities across industries are tremendously exciting. So let's explore this $aaS frontier together. Whether a fresh startup or established enterprise, it presents a radical new path to sustained value creation - if you commit to real, quantifiable outcomes over empty promises. The choice is clear: remain anchored to fading models, or sail boldly into our outcomes-driven future. The $aaS revolution has begun. What side of this evolution will you be on? [How to create a value-based dashboard for your usersDashboards are often a place where impact can be had when it comes to design improvements. A dashboard done well can increase retention, utilization, and boost your NPS score, but how do you create a value-based dashboard and reap these rewards?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSPeter Loving![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1551288049-bebda4e38f71?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&w=2000&fit=max&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjExNzczfQcontent/images/size/w1200)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-create-a-value-based-dashboard-for-your-users/) ## **The convergence catalyzing change** ### At the core of this metamorphosis is what I've termed the "*convergence of convergences*." Computing power, connectivity, storage, virtualization, and AI have already merged to deliver supercomputer-grade tech into our pockets via smartphones. But the real paradigm shift is new advancements creating shock waves across multiple industries simultaneously. ### **AI-enabled crossover effects** A prime example? Artificial intelligence upgrades allow radiologists to detect cancers from X-rays and MRIs with unprecedented accuracy. Such cross-disciplinary convergences can only intensify as AI develops, and this confluence of technologies has effectively level-set the playing field. Innovators and entrepreneurs from all backgrounds now have access to the same powerful digital canvas to create groundbreaking products, services, and solutions. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Introducing your SaaS ones to watch for 2024 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/introducing-your-saas-ones-to-watch-for-2024-2/ Last updated: 2024-04-24T14:47:28.000Z Get ready to meet the tech maestros set to rock the SaaS landscape in 2024! Through your nominations, some astute social listening, and careful consideration from our internal panel, we identified the SaaS trailblazers you need to keep an eye on this year. These folks are the cream of the crop: From innovative founders to dynamic C-suite execs, our lineup is packed with talent that's bound to inspire and innovate! So, without further ado, let's dive into the world of SaaS excellence and meet our champions poised to make waves in 2024\. ✨ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/idriz.jpeg) ##### #### Idriz Adedoja ###### Finance Director ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/eat-app-logo.png) Idriz Adedoja is a dynamic Portfolio Finance Director driven by a passion for empowering startup and scale-up SaaS enterprises to reach unparalleled heights. With over a decade entrenched in the tech ecosystem and seven years dedicated to navigating the intricacies of SaaS companies, Idriz brings a wealth of experience to the table. His impressive portfolio spans a PE-backed SaaS data visualization scaleup boasting global operations and double-digit ARR, alongside several VC-backed entities. Idriz's expertise shines through in his ability to drive operational enhancements, spearhead international expansions, devise tax strategies, implement cutting-edge financial systems, cultivate high-performance teams, orchestrate successful fundraising endeavors, and craft compelling growth strategies. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/idriza/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/David-Appel.jpeg) ##### #### David Appel ###### Global Head, Subscription and SaaS Vertical, Sage Intacct ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/sage-intacct-2.png) David Appel is the driving force behind Sage's SaaS Vertical, the largest technology company on the London Stock Exchange. With a stellar track record in Sales and GTM leadership, David's organizations have onboarded over 2,000 SaaS and Software companies, achieving remarkable growth rates exceeding 40% per year. From leading Direct Sales at Bill.com to spearheading NetSuite's Software Vertical, David's journey boasts a string of notable accomplishments, including growing top business units at Intacct and NetSuite, where he achieved Sales Leader of the Year status. David's approach to CRO Foundations is rooted in a deep understanding of market dynamics and client needs, coupled with a talent for building cross-channel demand generation strategies and sales processes that drive exponential growth. His principles, ranging from the importance of clear goal-setting to the transformative power of growth, underscore his dedication to driving success at every level. With a knack for identifying and nurturing talent, David has consistently built high-performing sales organizations that deliver exceptional results, earning him accolades such as Sales Rep of the Year at Oracle DMD and a spot in the top 1% of all Sales Leaders at IBM. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidappelsf/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/joseph-Alim.jpeg) ##### #### Joseph Alim ###### VP of Product, Compt ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/compt-2.webp) Joseph Alim is an integral part behind Compt's mission to foster balance and belonging for all. At Compt, Joseph is laser-focused on revolutionizing how companies manage employee perk stipends, ensuring it's a breeze for both employers and employees. With a passion for delivering top-notch customer and product experiences, he's on a mission to make perks not just rewarding but enjoyable. Before Compt, Joseph co-founded ScholarJet, where he championed inclusive entry-level hiring through a skills-based approach. Over the years, ScholarJet disbursed over $80,000 in funding to support individuals from diverse backgrounds in pursuing education while connecting them with top-tier employers. With Joseph at the helm, it's not just about perks or education – it's about creating opportunities and forging connections that empower individuals to thrive. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephalim/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/Daniela-Bojahr.jpeg) ##### #### Daniela Bojahr ###### Chief Revenue Officer ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/ECDB_Logo-2.png) At eCommerceDB, Daniela is the architect of success, laying down the groundwork for companies to thrive. As Chief Revenue Officer, she's at the helm of the Customer & Revenue divisions, guiding stores, companies, and marketplaces with the latest insights at their fingertips. With a career spanning 15 years, Daniela's journey has been fueled by a passion for digital business models and collaborating with powerhouse teams. From Statista to Gruner & Jahr to XING (New Work SE), she's left her mark on industry giants, steering them towards unprecedented growth. But Daniela's impact extends beyond boardrooms and bottom lines. She's a fierce advocate for "women in sales" and "female empowerment," actively mentoring and inspiring others to shatter glass ceilings. As a sought-after speaker, she's not just changing the game – she's rewriting the rules. There’s no playbook for what she’s had to market with and around, but she’s creating one for brands that live in the cultural zeitgeist—whether they mean to or not. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielabojahr-salesexpert/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/Georg-Ell.jpeg) ##### #### Georg Ell ###### CEO, Phrase ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/phrase-2.png) A true SaaS veteran, Georg Ell's journey in the industry began in 2007, with notable stints at Microsoft and Tesla before landing his first CEO role in an education technology company. At Smoothwall, Georg led the charge in child safety technology, culminating in a successful sale to an Australian business in 2021\. Maintaining his involvement as a non-executive director, Georg's passion for technology and customer-centricity has been a driving force throughout his career. Now at the helm of Phrase, Georg finds himself immersed in the language technology industry for the first time. Phrase marks Georg's second CEO position, where he relishes the ever-changing landscape of technology and the customer-centric approach that defines SaaS businesses. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?fetchDeterministicClustersOnly=true&heroEntityKey=urn%3Ali%3Afsd%5Fprofile%3AACoAAABQcGsBzDCy-vu9-DMF90zYmHDfdxxtoTo&keywords=georg%20ell&origin=RICH%5FQUERY%5FSUGGESTION&position=0&searchId=3358a33d-8f68-4a8b-867f-f44e969f0076&sid=fkn&spellCorrectionEnabled=false) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/Richard-Convery.jpeg) ##### #### Richard Convery ###### Founder and CEO ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/Ascendr-logo-2.png) For SaaS companies, customer onboarding is a foundational part of the relationship they build with customers. So, it goes without saying that a customer onboarding expert like Richard Convery is definitely one to watch. Richard's mission? To help software companies bid farewell to early-stage churn and usher in a new era of sustainable growth. Specializing in B2B SaaS, he's the go-to guru for crafting tailor-made strategies to boost user adoption and drive lasting success. With a sharp focus on streamlining onboarding processes, Richard ensures clients experience seamless transitions and unlock maximum value. Armed with cutting-edge techniques and data-driven insights, he empowers businesses to optimize their customer journey, elevate retention rates, and skyrocket ARR. " To say Richard is an expert in his field is an understatement. He has a vast amount of knowledge and experience within SaaS that will outshine anyone." -- Jenna Larrett, Customer Success Manager, Tizo [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardconvery/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/jay-dembani.jpeg) ##### #### Jay Dembani ###### Head of Products ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/hyperverge-logo.webp) In his extensive 17+ years in Product Management, Jay Dembani, Head of Products at Hyperverge, has spearheaded the launch of numerous B2B SaaS solutions spanning various continents. From North America to South Asia, he's been instrumental in the development of world-class platforms like Avalara, Icertis, FulcrumOne, and now, HyperVerge. With a track record of building SaaS platforms boasting thousands of active users and multimillion-dollar valuations, Jay has left an indelible mark in the industry. He's led teams in crafting integrated Identity SaaS solutions that have processed over 800 million transactions in just two years. Notably, Jay has navigated the early days of Salesforce and NetSuite, developing large-scale custom products that laid the groundwork for their success. His products have been adopted by millions worldwide, from MSMEs and SoHos to Legal Counsels and Procurement Officers. Jay's leadership extends beyond borders, as he's championed globally distributed teams to deliver impactful solutions that solve real-world business challenges. Through his journey, Jay Dembani continues to make a profound difference in the realm of Product Management, leaving a legacy of innovation and value creation. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaydembani/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/brittani.jpeg) ##### #### Brittani Dunlap ###### CEO and Co-founder ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/floweq-logo-2.svg) Brittani is one of the mighty minds behind FlowEQ on a mission to revolutionize workflow automation with a human touch. As a seasoned sales pro, she knows what it takes for SaaS orgs to succeed in today’s competitive landscape. And that is evident in her work at FlowEQ. The focus is clear: automation that doesn't sacrifice the personal touch. As the globally trusted provider of workflow automation solutions, FlowEQ empowers teams to streamline their work, especially when it comes to complex processes and high-volume workflows requiring human judgment. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/mark-g-2.jpeg) ##### #### Mark Ghermezian ###### Founder and CEO ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/gynger-2.png) Mark Ghermezian is a trailblazing entrepreneur and savvy investor who's been making waves in the SaaS world for over two decades. With a knack for spotting opportunities and a track record of success, Mark's journey is nothing short of remarkable. As the co-founder of Braze (BRZE), Mark didn't just lead the company – he took Braze from a mere idea to a groundbreaking IPO in November 2021\. But Mark's influence doesn't stop there. As an angel investor, he's been a driving force behind numerous SaaS success stories, including Nutanix, Lattice, Thoughtspot, Rubrik, and Riskified, to name just a few. With over 50 investments under his belt, Mark's portfolio reads like a who's who of SaaS champions. Mark remains grounded in his commitment to mentorship. He's not just an investor – he's a trusted advisor, guiding founders and entrepreneurs with his wealth of experience and experience-driven support. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/markgher/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/alan-gleeson-2-1.jpeg) ##### #### Alan Gleeson ###### CEO and Co-Founder ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/contento-logo-2-1.webp) As the CEO and Co-Founder of Contento, Alan Gleeson spearheads a cutting-edge Content Management System (CMS) tailored for modern websites, streamlining website management for marketing teams. With Contento, navigating website maintenance becomes effortless, ensuring seamless operations for your business. Having previously served in various leadership roles, including CMO, VP of Marketing, and Head of Marketing, Alan boasts a wealth of experience in guiding SaaS companies towards scalable success. Alan's expertise spans diverse domains, from EU market entry strategies to new visual identity launches and executive leadership as an interim Chief Marketing Officer. Based in London but hailing from Cork, Alan brings a unique blend of global perspective and hands-on experience to every project, offering fractional, part-time, and interim CMO services to propel businesses to new heights. Whether it's devising market entry strategies or revamping visual identities, Alan is dedicated to empowering businesses and driving growth in the dynamic landscape of SaaS. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alangleeson/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/navya-rehani-gupta.jpeg) ##### #### Navya Rehani Gupta ###### Cheif Product Officer ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/peek.png) With a stellar 17-year journey, NRG's expertise shines in orchestrating vertical SaaS and two-sided marketplaces, igniting product-led growth while acing P&L responsibilities. From Fortune 500 giants to agile VC-backed startups, she's left an indelible mark across FinTech, Entertainment, Mobile Gaming, Ridesharing, Beauty, Wellness, and Travel sectors, setting new industry standards along the way. Navya's secret sauce? A potent blend of technical prowess, business savvy, and an uncanny knack for spotting emerging trends. She's the mastermind behind scaling product teams, steering them towards outcomes, and navigating the wild ride of hyper-growth with poise and precision. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/navyarehani/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/Irem.jpeg) ##### #### Irem Isik ###### Head of Marketing ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/storyly-logo-2.png) With over 12 years in the marketing game, Irem is a seasoned pro in both B2B and B2C realms. But here's the twist – she's a firm believer that whether it's business or consumer-facing, it's all about connecting with people on a human level. For Irem, it's all about fostering genuine relationships through content marketing, community building, and brand advocacy. She's not just about selling – she's about creating authentic bonds with the people she serves. Throughout the year, Irem Isik, Head of Marketing at Storyly, spearheaded the creation of a dynamic content hub tailored for eCommerce marketers. This innovative platform, known as Storyly-Snacks, features interactive short-form videos covering a wide range of eCommerce topics. With a keen focus on building a personal brand on LinkedIn, Irem doubled her follower count and boosted total impressions by over 3000%, emphasizing the power of personal connection in driving business success. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/isikiremtr/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/Vincent-Jong.jpeg) ##### #### Vincent Jong ###### VP of Product ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/dealfront-logo.png) Vincent Jong is a dynamic founder and product enthusiast renowned for his passion for innovation and cutting-edge technology. With a penchant for building transformative solutions and exploring the latest trends, Vincent is an expert in the realm of Product-Led Growth, continuously seeking novel ways to integrate it into traditional sales-driven organizations. In his current capacity as the Product leader at Dealfront, Vincent has spearheaded the integration of Echobot, a sales-driven company, with Leadfeeder, a product-led company, resulting in the creation of a pioneering Go-To-Market platform. With over 12 years of invaluable experience in the sales and marketing software arena, including an impressive tenure as the founder of FunnelFox and leadership roles at Zoominfo, Vincent has collaborated with numerous sales and go-to-market teams, leaving an indelible mark on the industry landscape. Armed with a wealth of expertise and a drive for innovation, Vincent Jong continues to shape the future of product development and sales strategies with unparalleled vision and determination. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentjong/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/myra-khanna-2.jpeg) ##### #### Myra Khanna ###### Founder and CEO ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/sama-logo-2.jpeg) Prior to Sama, Myra’s journey traversed the realms of private equity and venture capital, where she oversaw investments totaling approximately $4 billion globally, yielding impressive returns of over 270% on mature direct investments. Drawing from personal experiences and witnessing the transformative impact of professional coaching, she is driven by a deep-seated passion to open up access to coaching for all employees. Through Sama, she aims to empower individuals and organizations alike, catalyzing positive change and fostering a culture of growth and inclusivity. At Sama, the mission is simple yet profound: to empower organizations and their employees through professional coaching, fostering a culture of inclusivity and growth. Founded with the vision of making the world a better place, Sama provides a robust digital platform designed to elevate employee engagement and unlock their full potential. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?fetchDeterministicClustersOnly=true&heroEntityKey=urn%3Ali%3Afsd%5Fprofile%3AACoAAAL0ZpEBPSlnTDL7nEX%5FE-sR5AQCRcLB9js&keywords=myra%20khanna&origin=RICH%5FQUERY%5FSUGGESTION&position=0&searchId=594ac1c2-82f7-4e44-b83c-cebfdf809798&sid=MuZ&spellCorrectionEnabled=false) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/Dmytro.jpeg) ##### #### Dmytro Kudrenko ###### Founder ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/stripo-logo.png) Meet Dmytro Kudrenko, the brains behind Stripo! With over a decade in email marketing, two decades in software development, and a lifetime of entrepreneurial spirit, he's your go-to guru for crafting killer marketing strategies and bringing them to life at warp speed. Dmytro's on a mission to inject lean principles into the heart of email marketing and automation, slashing waste, boosting value, and skyrocketing efficiency. It's all about learning fast, delivering even faster, and ensuring every ounce of effort counts. "Stripo was founded by Dmitry in 2017 and it keeps growing. It was his first product that shot globally and now has more than 1 mln users. Still, Dmitry's mission is to shape the evolution of email marketing." -- Oleksandra Khlystova, Stripo Employee [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmitrykudrenko/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/carlos.jpeg) ##### #### Carlos Amoruso ###### Director of Customer Experience ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/oda_studio.jpeg) Carlos Amoruso is a seasoned professional with over two decades of expertise spanning operations, supply chain, customer experience, support, and success. Driven by a passion for delivering unparalleled value and satisfaction to customers across diverse industries and markets, Carlos has made significant strides in the realm of customer-centric innovation. Currently serving as the Director of CX at Oda Studio, an AI proptech startup, Carlos is at the forefront of revolutionizing customer experiences in the real estate sector. Additionally, as the co-founder of Wizards.lat, he is pioneering a groundbreaking initiative to bridge the gap between LatAm freelance experts and US companies seeking assistance with their CRMs. With a relentless commitment to driving positive change and fostering meaningful connections, Carlos exemplifies leadership and innovation in the startup landscape. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlosamoruso/details/experience/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/ryan-o-connell.jpeg) ##### #### Ryan O'Connell ###### VP of Client Services ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/Fuse_Universal_logo-1.png) Ryan O'Connell is the commercially savvy VP of Client Services at Fuse. With a focus on building and scaling Customer Operations teams, Ryan specializes in overseeing Customer Success, Onboarding, Support, and revenue-generating units. Armed with a diverse background in leading roles such as CSMs, consultants, solution architects, BDRs, and ADRs, Ryan boasts a proven track record of achieving key targets like NRR, CAC:LTV, time-to-value, and renewal rates within B2B SaaS environments. From crafting strategic visions to refining processes and rolling up his sleeves to work directly with customers and prospects, Ryan is adept at navigating all facets of Customer and Revenue Operations. With experience spanning start-ups like THRIVE, dynamic scale-ups, large consultancies such as KPMG, and global enterprises like Barclays, Ryan brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table. Whether it's shaping strategic directions or fostering hands-on customer relationships, Ryan's comprehensive approach ensures success across organizations of all sizes and complexities. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanoconnell-uk/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/derek-osgood.png) ##### #### Derek Osgood ###### Founder and CEO ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/ignition-software-logo-2.png) Derek Osgood is a marketing maestro – a classically trained brand marketer with the soul of an entrepreneur and a proven track record of success in the startup arena. With a blend of analytical prowess, strategic vision, and boundless creativity, this marketing expert certainly stands out. Having worn multiple hats as both a marketing executive and consultant, he’s consistently achieved remarkable results, driving double-digit monthly growth across diverse markets and business models. But his expertise doesn't stop there. With a toolkit forged in the fires of giant P&Ls at PlayStation and fine-tuned through relentless execution at startups, he’s a force to be reckoned with in every aspect of marketing. From go-to-market strategies to user acquisition, engagement, and everything in between – this exec's skills span the entire spectrum of marketing disciplines. So, if you're seeking a marketing virtuoso who can deliver results that defy expectations, look no further. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekosgood3/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/mike-pilawski.jpeg) ##### #### Mike Pilawski ###### Chief Product Officer ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/Lokalise_logo_2021.svg) Mike Pilawksi, an esteemed Chief Product Officer at Lokalise, is renowned for his prowess in driving product innovation and scaling high-performing teams. With a rich background in product development spanning advertising technology, marketing technology, customer research, and analytics, Mike has left an indelible mark on the industry landscape. Having held leadership roles at esteemed companies such as NativeX, Vungle, Leanplum, and Typeform, Mike brings a wealth of experience and expertise to his current position. At Lokalise, he leads multidisciplinary teams encompassing growth, product, engineering, data, and design, driving the company towards new heights of success. With a proven track record of developing and scaling successful products, Mike Pilawksi continues to be a driving force in the realm of product-driven leadership, shaping the future of Lokalise and the industry at large. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/pilawski/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/kyle.jpeg) ##### #### Kyle Racki ###### Co-Founder and CEO ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/proposify-logo-2.png) Meet the driving force behind Proposify, where the mission is clear: to double the close rate for a million sales reps. As CEO, his vision is to revolutionize the proposal process for thousands of businesses, delivering unmatched control, visibility, and a seamless buying experience. But his impact doesn't stop there. This dynamic leader's achievements speak volumes – from being named a finalist in E&Y's Entrepreneur of the Year awards in Atlantic Canada to winning in the Technology category in 2019\. Not to mention, Proposify's recognition on the Deloitte Fast 50 list in 2020 as one of Canada's fastest-growing tech companies. Outside the realm of Proposify, he serves on the board of Bright and MARS VR Lab, further cementing their role as a trailblazer in the tech world. With a passion for innovation and a drive for success, he's not just shaping the future of Proposify – but leaving an indelible mark on the industry as a whole. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyleracki/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/sav.jpeg) ##### #### Sav Pushparajah ###### CEO and Co-Founder ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/tango-logo-2.webp) Sav Pushparajah is the dynamic CEO at Tango, whose journey is a testament to relentless ambition and unrivaled expertise. Sav's foundation was laid at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Tata Consulting, where he honed his skills in the trenches of two of the world's largest professional services firms. With his Big 4 experience under his belt, Sav ventured into the realm of independent consultancy, landing six-figure service engagements with heavyweight enterprises like Barclays Capital, ANZ, and NAB. But Sav's entrepreneurial spirit knew no bounds. He founded a Design and Development agency, scaling it to 10 full-time employees and a staggering $1 million in revenue in under a year. Ever the innovator, Sav pivoted his agency to address a pressing need in saturated markets – helping millions of agencies boost their close rates. Enter Tango, the game-changer that's revolutionizing how agencies do business. Thanks to Tango, agencies have seen their deal closure rates skyrocket from 20% to an impressive 60%. With Sav at the helm, Tango isn't just a solution – it's an indispensable tool for agencies worldwide. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sav-pushparajah-a8a69a3/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/darmesh.jpeg) ##### #### Dharmesh Shah ###### Founder and CTO ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/hubspt-.webp) As the co-founder and CTO, Dharmesh Shah is one of the driving forces behind HubSpot. With a rich entrepreneurial background, Dharmesh's journey began with the founding of Pyramid Digital Solutions, culminating in its acquisition by SunGard Data Systems in 2005\. Since co-founding HubSpot in 2006, Dharmesh has been instrumental in shaping its trajectory as a leader in inbound marketing solutions. Beyond his role at HubSpot, Dharmesh is a prolific author and thought leader. He co-authored the book "Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs," and founded OnStartups.com, a thriving startup blog and community boasting over 700,000 members. In 2013, Dharmesh gained widespread acclaim with the publication of HubSpot's Culture Code, which has since garnered over five million views. Recognized as an Inc. Founders 40 honoree in 2016, Dharmesh remains deeply engaged in the Boston-area entrepreneurial scene, serving as an angel investor in over 60 startups and sharing his insights as a frequent speaker on topics ranging from startups and inbound marketing to company culture. With a BS in Computer Science from UAB and an MS in the Management of Technology from MIT, Dharmesh embodies the spirit of innovation and leadership, driving HubSpot and the broader entrepreneurial community forward. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dharmesh/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/david-skok.jpeg) ##### #### David Skok ###### General Partner ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/Matrix-logo-.jpeg) David Skok isa distinguished General Partner at Matrix Partners with a remarkable journey spanning five successful ventures as an entrepreneur before transitioning into the world of venture capital. Renowned for his influential blog, www.forEntrepreneurs.com, David is a leading authority on topics ranging from the SaaS business model and metrics to designing and building sales and marketing growth machines. Recognized as the #1 website for entrepreneurs by Inc. magazine and #2 by Forbes, his insights have shaped the strategies of countless startups and established companies alike. Having founded four companies and executed one turnaround, David's entrepreneurial acumen is unparalleled. Since joining Matrix Partners in 2001, he has been instrumental in the success of numerous ventures, including HubSpot, JBoss, AppIQ, and Netezza, among others. With a keen focus on enterprise software, David's expertise spans SaaS, infrastructure, DevOps, and open-source software, making him a pivotal figure in the technology investment landscape. [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dskok/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/larson_stair-2.jpeg) ##### #### Larson Stair ###### Founder and CEO ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/03/stairstep-logo-2.jpg) "The key to creating a great buying experience is focusing on aligning your entire company around the buying experience" So says Larson Stair, CRO at Quickfi and CEO at StairStep strategies, envisions a world where organizations forge deep connections with their customers, fostering a sense of unity and collaboration. With a relentless drive to empower customer-facing professionals, Larson strives to equip them with the tools and insights needed to ask the right questions, understand customer pain points, and deliver tailored solutions efficiently. His passion for realizing this vision fuels his every waking moment, as he works tirelessly to make scalable customer-centricity a reality for teams everywhere. "Larson is among that group of rare individuals where dedication and motivation is met with competence. He is always on the forefront of understanding new technology and industry changes. Larson has the natural ability to connect with clients and understand the exact needs." -- Zachary Slade, Consultant at USI Insurance Service [ ![](https://pma-assets-external.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Pranoti-Tests/Snippet-sample-images/linkedin.svg) ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/larson-stair/) --- ### Hacking human nature: How applying behavioral science can make your product appear better value URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/hacking-human-nature-how-applying-behavioral-science-can-make-your-product-appear-better-value/ Last updated: 2024-03-08T14:29:47.000Z Find out how psychology can boost your product’s appeal with behavioral science expert Richard Shotton _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### What is SaaS integration and why is it important? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-saas-integration-and-why-is-it-important/ Last updated: 2024-03-06T10:56:58.000Z For SaaS companies that are rapidly growing, it's more difficult than ever to keep track of all the essential data spread across their many different systems. The day-to-day life of your business is going to be crammed enough, and time spent manually inputting data is time that could be spent spearheading new strategies for growth. The answer? SaaS integration. In this article we’ll uncover the whats, whys and hows of SaaS data integration, as well as some proactive steps for getting started. So let's dive in! ## **What is SaaS data integration** In today’s current climate, it’s become increasingly difficult for companies to maintain a lean tech stack. With the whole host of different functions within a tech org, it can often mean you have various software solutions for each department, inevitably leading to siloed data, with a lack of synchronicity between your applications. Tech orgs need to be in sync. But what does look like in practice? Leaders have a firm grasp on how data from one department impacts various others, and your employees have a good sense of how their efforts impact the company as a whole. But as your org expands it can be difficult for some employees stay in sync with the wider vision of your company. An exacerbating factor in this can be scattered, siloed data. Integrated data tells the whole story, siloed data is like an excerpt from a chapter without context. [SaaScast: What does the future of SaaS tech stacks look like?David Howell, Editor-in-Chief at Silicon UK and Owner of Nexus Publishing, speculates on the future of SaaS tech stacks and why it’s necessary for them to evolve.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/David-Howell--SaaScast.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-what-does-the-future-of-saas-tech-stacks-look-like/) Luckily, SaaS modern software solutions make SaaS integration simpler than ever . SaaS integration is all about connecting one SaaS application with another cloud-based app or even some on-premise software using APIs (Application Programming Interface). Once the various software in your tech stack are integrated, your org will be operating at a higher level of efficiency, removing the strain of manual data input and making it so you have more space and time to dream up innovative solutions for your customers! ## The benefits of SaaS integration Now let’s dive deeper into the benefits SaaS integration will provide your organization. ### Greater efficiency SaaS organizations themselves rely on a plethora of third party SaaS applications to manage things such as email automation, customer support, inventory management and so much more. A major issue can arise when you’re relying entirely on manual data input from these apps into your internal systems. These tasks are essential clearly, but so much time is stolen from important strategic efforts in favor of admin tasks. It also removes the factor of human error. Creative tasks are for humans not systems, but the processes that support and drive these creative, strategic efforts can often be performed with greater accuracy by technology. [Keeping data safe: A SaaS provider’s guide to protecting customer dataSmart security compliance is an essential pillar of the trust your build with your customers. fortify your data security for airtight retention right here.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/02/security--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/keeping-data-safe-a-saas-providers-guide-to-protecting-customer-data/) ### Better data quality You don’t want your data to exist in silos, so that you senior leaders have to through various platforms to form an accurate picture of where your org is heading. Data that’s centralized can present the picture fully informed, making it easier for you and your senior leaders to form data-driven insights to power your growth strategy. Having a single source of trusted information within your org can remove confusion and conflict. There's no disputing what the story is when you have a single source for your data reporting. ### **Better flexibility in scaling** As your org expands, it’s unlikely you'll be able to avoid the need to increase the number of applications, but if you already have a system for integration, adding new applications comes with minimal fuss; they simply become a new aspect of your centralized system. ### **Improved reporting** If you have a system that generates reports from the data you're inputting means less time spent trying to create reports for your regular meetings, and more time forming crucial insights from these numbers. [17 awesome analytics, measurement, and reporting tools for SaaS businessesTo help you get the most out of every digit, here are 17 number-crunching tools SaaS businesses are using to scale their offering.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/03/elena-rouame-9JU2CKqtw0M-unsplash--2-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/17-awesome-analytics-measurement-and-reporting-tools-for-saas-businesses/) ## How does SaaS integration work? The best part about connecting apps using APIs? There are no coding skills needed! APIs are like a special language that SaaS apps use to talk to each other. They make sure everything works smoothly by checking data before it's shared. Data travels between apps in standard formats, like XML or JSON. Some apps update info instantly, while others do it in batches, like clockwork. Triggers are notifications when certain events happen. For example, when someone signs up on your platform, a trigger can send their info straight to your CRM. Most SaaS apps come with these triggers and APIs ready to roll. But sometimes, you might need to tweak things a bit to fit your needs perfectly. ## **How to go about SaaS integration** There are various ways that you can ho about connecting your essential apps. Let’s dig into them here. ### **Native configuration** This a custom configuration that you set up yourself. Although it’s worth noting that this may remove some of the benefit of integration because it’s usually pretty time consuming, however, it does come with greater control and better customization for integration. If your business has a very specific functional need, this may be the best option for you. ### **Integration platform as a service** With Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS), you can easily establish connections between your organization and various SaaS platforms using prebuilt pathways. SaaS providers offer integration capabilities that allow you to create reliable connections without needing to write any code. One of the key advantages of iPaaS is its time-saving nature, as it eliminates the need to build integrations from scratch. However, it's important to note that iPaaS abstracts underlying data flows, which may make troubleshooting more challenging. In case of any issues, technical expertise is still required to resolve them. An alternative to traditional iPaaS is embedded iPaaS, where SaaS providers include integration capabilities directly within their products, simplifying the integration process for users. ### **Robotic automation** In a nutshell, this is where you have bots handling the synchronization of data between your applications. It’s important to note however that, though this can save time, if there are any changes to applications you’re using it can cause the bots to break, meaning this kind of system still needs pretty intensive maintenance. [Bypass intent data and go direct - uncover fresh leads with this emerging MartechWhat would it feel like if you could chat with your prospects here and now from this article? No sitting around waiting for intent signals. No banner ads with pesky redirects. Well, it’s here.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSThe Bot Lab![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2022/04/Bypass-intent-data-and-go-direct---uncover-fresh-leads-with-this-emerging-Martech-3.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/bypass-intent-data-and-go-direct-uncover-fresh-leads-with-this-emerging-martech/) ## **Pitfalls to avoid in SaaS integration** ### **It doesn’t automatically lead to synchronization** Although SaaS integration can certainly save you a lot of headaches, it isn’t a sure-fire way to secure alignment across your whole org. A culture of good communication and collaboration is the key to unlocking true organizational alignment. You should view data integrations as a tool to help you get there but it won’t create that team-player spirit you need to make it work. Employees need to feel like they're truly connected to your company’s mission statement in order for them to be able to really reap the benefits of integration. ### **It demands technical know-how** Especially if you’re wanting to go with native configuration, it does take some technical knowledge – and time – to set up. Because of this, you might find that you end up with a backlog of integration requests, and in the meantime your tech stack continues to expand, and pretty soon you end up exactly where you started out: with a whole bunch of data silos. [Aligning KPIs to Create Successful Partnerships | Future of SaaSSpeaking at the Sales Enablement Summit in San Francisco, Nick Salas explained the significant impact bringing each department together through aligning the metrics of the business had on his team at Workfront.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-19.07.19.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/aligning-kpis-to-create-successful-partnerships/) ### Variability in vendor performance The problem with SaaS vendors? They each have their own integration support levels, API capabilities, and sometimes, restrictions on how much data you can access or how many API calls you can make. One thing to watch out for is vendor lock-in. This is when you get too comfy with a certain vendor's tools and services, making it tricky to switch to someone else down the road. Oh, and speaking of timing, vendors also have different release cycles and update schedules, which can affect how stable and smooth your integrated systems run. ## **Wrapping up** The ultimate goal of SaaS integration should be to ensure your org is running as smoothly as possible, with each moving part complementing the whole. Data integration can help you achieve this by storing all the essential data in one centralized system, making it easier for you to make data-informed decisions. Just remember that it’s no substitute for creativity, innovation or communication. Data integration is the seasoning, not the main course. --- Enjoyed this article? Why not check out exclusive insights from rhe leadinng minds in SaaS with a FoSaaS membership? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The anatomy of a customer-first company: Wix's step-by-step playbook URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-anatomy-of-a-customer-first-company/ Last updated: 2024-04-02T17:10:49.000Z This article comes from **Sean Konchan**’s presentation on ‘*Customer Centricity at Wix*’ at our **2022 Future of SaaS Festival**, check out his insightful talk in full [**here**](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-3/?wchannelid=ykvf498iyl&wmediaid=ds8ojijmit). Have you ever wondered what happens behind the curtain after you sign up to use a hot new software platform like Wix? When you convert from a curious visitor to a paying customer, how does the team supporting your account actually make you successful? What is their process for guiding you to accomplish your goals? As a Customer Success Manager at Wix, the leading do-it-yourself website builder, I get to architect personalized journeys for our users *every day*. From initial onboarding through years of ongoing partnership, my team rolls out the red carpet to deliver exceptional experiences no matter the customer's size or industry. In this insider view, I'll give you an exclusive tour of how we eat, sleep, and breathe customer-centricity across every inch of our fast-scaling organization. From our [specialized CSM structure](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-the-perfect-customer-success-team-in-seven-steps/) to custom roadmaps for adoption, let me walk you through our step-by-step playbook for obsessing over customers first. By starting with culture and infusing empathy into teams, I'm confident any ambitious company can replicate our framework to drive sustainable growth through word-of-mouth referrals and usage expansion. So without further ado, let's dive into the secrets we use to wow website owners! ## **Introducing our customer success organization** ### To start, Wix operates a leading online website builder empowering entrepreneurs and organizations to create professional sites easily without needing dev skills. We offer an intuitive drag-and-drop editor with 500+ designer templates along with built-in tools for e-commerce stores, appointment booking, email marketing, and so much more. Our users have *everything* they need for their online presence. Within Wix, the Customer Success Manager role has been thoughtfully developed over the past two years based on user personas and verticals: **Stores:** E-commerce businesses rapidly scaling with Wix Stores (my area as Group Manager) **Bookings & events:** Studios, salons, coaches leveraging booking system **Top users:** Established customers in priority western geographies **Partners:** Web dev agencies & designers building Wix sites Our goals span driving product adoption based on customer needs, resolving blocking issues, and ultimately seeing our users achieve their online business goals by leveraging our tools. Segmenting support this way lets us tailor the experience while having specialists in high-value areas. [Empower your employees with a customer-centric cultureDrive business success by empowering employees to maximize every customer interaction. Foster a culture of customer-centricity now.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSGrace Gupta![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w1200/2023/07/CSC-leadership.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/empower-your-employees-by-building-a-culture-that-values-every-customer-interaction/) _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### "I get to learn from SaaS professionals across the globe" - Aurel Laor URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/i-get-to-learn-from-saas-professionals-across-the-globe/ Last updated: 2024-02-29T18:13:11.000Z *This interview was conducted when Aurel was VP of Customer Success at Appsflyer. He is now Chief of Staff at Lusha.* --- If you’re looking to really crush it in the SaaS sector, we know you’re looking for… - An infinite resource for SaaS content - A place to exchange with fellow SaaS leaders - First dibs on professional opportunities within the SaaS space Look no further than the Future of SaaS Slack community. Our members have already seen the unique benefits, but don’t just take it from us, take it from valued Future of SaaS member, Chief of Staff at Lusha,. He joined the community looking to share and soak up insights from other customer success trailblazers, when he was VP of Customer Success at AppsFlyer. **Could you tell me a little bit about your background and your role within your current company?** "AppsFlyer is a SaaS company, 1500 people working, global solution for marketeers of applications. My role, specifically, is leading the strategy and planning of customer success. My background is actually very diverse, I was in marketing for a couple of years, then before in an agency, but in the past three years, I have been very heavily involved in customer success strategy." When you join our community, you'll get the chance to chat and network with many customer success experts like Aurel Laor. **What made you want to join our community?** "I wanted to learn from other people with the same challenges that have tried something that I'm attempting to do. Why not learn from peers who have succeeded with similar goals. That was the main main driver. I can also help others, which is very satisfying and makes me feel that I'm contributing to other people as well. The main driver is wanting to learn from others and share my knowledge." Many people come to us because they're looking to scale their SaaS business. Our community can be an essential resource for that. **What would you say that's the biggest advantage of being a part of the community or is there another advantage that we haven't covered?** "Many people are very open about their careers and the problems that they. Being a part of the Future of SaaS community, I get to learn from SaaS professionals across the globe." In our community you'll find a friendly bunch of like-minded, highly capable professionals who delight in showcasing their knowledge and helping others to scale their business. **What is the long-term value of Future of SaaS** "Helping them develop better strategies and enabling them to learn from other SaaS leaders. It creates an environment where people can learn from the experiences of others and try different approaches." --- Tempted yet? Join our community of SaaS experts [today](https://www.saasalliance.io/join-the-fosaas-community/), showcase your skills and elevate your skills to the next level! ### Keeping data safe: A SaaS provider’s guide to protecting customer data URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/keeping-data-safe-a-saas-providers-guide-to-protecting-customer-data/ Last updated: 2024-03-05T12:05:46.000Z Did you know that in 2023, the average cost of a data breach rose to **$4.45 million**? With numbers like that, can you really afford to ignore SaaS data security? In the fast-changing world of SaaS, few qualities are as important as trust. SaaS companies access sensitive customer information daily - from financials to personal details to business plans. With data breaches in the headlines, users rightly want to know their data is responsibly managed. By visibly putting robust data protection first, SaaS providers can give customers much-needed confidence that their data is buttoned down. So, in this article, we’ll cover constructive ways SaaS teams can secure data and show users their protection matters. Let’s dive right in! ## **How SaaS data security works** SaaS solutions offer tremendous advantages but also present unique data protection needs. With SaaS, responsibility for security is split between the provider and the customer. SaaS companies lock down the applications and infrastructure while customers configure access controls and manage their data. This divided view of security ownership can reasonably make some customers anxious about potential gaps in defense. SaaS providers can’t shrug off responsibility and expect users to go it alone if something goes wrong. To build lasting trust, **transparency is key**. [Automating compliance with Meiran GalisIn this episode, we’re joined by Meiran Galis, CEO and Co-founder at Scytale AI, and a tactical leader in the realm of security compliance. Meiran has helped hundreds of high-profile SaaS companies build compliance programs for rapidly growing organizations.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/FoSaaS_Podcast_MG-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/automating-compliance-with-meiran-galis/) Be upfront about what you handle security-wise versus steps customers must take to safeguard data and share specifics around defenses built into your SaaS offerings. You must guide users on vital measures like access rules, encryption, and backup procedures to reinforce joint vigilance. ## **Key steps SaaS companies should take to lock down data** Let’s review key steps SaaS teams should prioritize to secure sensitive customer information. ### **1\. Make data encryption ever-present** Encryption deserves immediate focus for any SaaS provider. When done right, encryption jumbles data so *only* authorized parties can unscramble it. Implement strong encryption for stored data and data in transit. Rely on trusted encryption methods like 256-bit AES plus strict key management ensuring the creation, storage, rotation, and access control keep your keys buttoned down. ### **2\. Add backup assurances** Despite best efforts, unexpected data loss can still happen due to tech failures, human errors, or other snags. As “information caretakers”, SaaS teams must maintain reliable backup and rapid restoration abilities. Formalize policies and procedures aligned to defined recovery time and data loss expectations. Additionally, regularly test backup/restore to confirm meeting targets, even during large-scale disruptions. ### **3\. Detect and thwart break-in attempts** Use an intrusion detection system to uncover unauthorized access tries and spot potential data theft. Set rules to trigger alerts for high-risk events needing urgent response, faster incident response directly reduces damage. [Build trust & boost sales through smart security complianceAt some point, every startup understands that it needs to get security compliant, whether that’s with SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, CCPA, or CMMC – the frameworks are countless.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMeiran Galis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2022/09/locks.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/build-trust-boost-sales-through-smart-security-compliance/) ### **4\. Vigilantly control access** To frustrate data thieves, tightly control internal access to customer information on an absolute need-to-know basis only. You should restrict employee permissions only to the absolute minimal data and system resources essential for a specific role. Further monitor access with role-based rules, multi factor authentication, and timeouts for periods of user inactivity. Together these make stolen login credentials far less dangerous. ### **5\. Coach employees as trusted insiders** Despite extensive technical controls, some threats can actually come from employees directly. They may fall for remarkably clever phishing lures, mishandle data accidentally, or struggle to follow complex security rules. You should fortify employees through comprehensive security awareness training and order data privacy education for all staff. Coach them to spot cunning emails, safely handle sensitive information, and uphold encryption/access standards. Ongoing education maintains high levels of preparedness. ### **6\. Assess areas for improvement** Beyond training staff, you should monitor data access to detect any unusual internal activity that would indicate potential misuse or unauthorized access. Activity logs tracking when users interact with customer data can highlight suspicious patterns needing investigation. Periodic audits also assess how well defenses are working. ### **7\. Maintain compliance with evolving regulations** Various data privacy laws and industry rules like GDPR and PCI shape SaaS data protections and breach disclosure requirements Tracking legal and policy changes reduces any surprises that could erode customer trust. [The SOC 2 Bible: Everything you need to know about complianceSaaS companies are scrambling to get SOC 2 compliant, and fast. But why?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSScytale![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2022/04/mika-baumeister-Wpnoqo2plFA-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-soc-2-bible-everything-you-need-to-know-about-compliance/) ### **8\. Get ahead of gaps criminals could exploit** Even robust security postures eventually have holes that creative data thieves can exploit. Actively probe systems using constantly updated tools that copy real hacking behaviors. Fix these high-priority weaknesses before criminals potentially leverage them to harm customers. Additionally, subscribe to vendor notifications about newly discovered soft spots, always try to make sure you’re one step ahead. ### **9\. Prepare for future incidents** Despite strict defenses, some threats will evade layers of protection and become security incidents. Because incidents will happen, it’s only natural in this digital age, so extensively rehearse scenarios for detecting, isolating, and recovering from breach events that target customer data. You could also try creating hypothetical breach situations to sharpen team response. Detail specific actions, communications protocols, and integrations with technology providers. Every preparation step further toughens resilience. ## **Final thoughts** While no security system can eliminate all data risks, SaaS teams that prioritize building customer confidence operate with care and transparency. They implement technically sound measures to secure sensitive information and communicate with users openly about protection policies. Rather than just make claims, trustworthy providers expose their practices to scrutiny, show substantive protections in action, and demonstrate an inflexible commitment to safeguarding precious data. Even for companies with the best intentions, growing threats underscore that continued vigilance is essential. Staying abreast of emerging attack methods, being the first to address newfound system vulnerabilities, and planning for inevitable incidents – these hallmarks set secure SaaS providers apart. In an era of widespread data vulnerability, SaaS companies have an opportunity to stand out by genuinely safeguarding user data. Implementing the outlined safeguards shows commitment to winning customer trust. By locking down data responsibly and communicating progress with customers, you can confidently assure them: “**Your information is safe with us**.” ## **FAQ** ### **What is the biggest data security risk for SaaS companies?** The biggest risk is a data breach that exposes sensitive customer information like financial data, personal details, or business plans. SaaS providers are entrusted with this valuable data daily, making them prime targets for cybercriminals. A major breach can deal a devastating blow to a company's reputation and the trust customers place in them. **How can SaaS providers ensure customer data is secure?** To give customers peace of mind, SaaS teams need to pull out all the stops on security. This means implementing powerful encryption, strict access controls, intrusion monitoring, comprehensive employee training, probing for vulnerabilities, and having an incident response plan ready. Being fully transparent about protection efforts is also key to building lasting trust. **What are the consequences of a data breach for a SaaS company?** The consequences go way beyond just exposing customer data, SaaS providers would face staggering damage costs. But the fallout is more than financial, as a breach can shatter customer confidence and potentially lead to hefty regulatory penalties. The brand damage is hard to recover from. **How can encryption protect customer data in SaaS solutions?** Encryption is a must-have for scrambling sensitive data so only authorized parties can decode it. SaaS teams should utilize strong encryption like 256-bit AES for data at rest and data traveling over networks. Coupled with stringent encryption key management practices, this makes it extremely difficult for attackers to access plaintext customer information. --- Enjoyed this article? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS right here? 👇 [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### What is SaaS data analytics and why do you need it? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-saas-data-analytics-and-why-do-you-need-it/ Last updated: 2024-02-27T18:23:19.000Z You’ve heard the news: The market is more crowded than ever. And with that, the competition is fiercer. The result? SaaS companies have to be more methodical in order to hit their [growth](https://www.saasalliance.io/growth-hacking-with-real-time-competitive-intelligence/) targets. Analytics are important for any company, but especially for SaaS organizations. You’re giving customers the gift of convenience with a pay as you go model, meaning they can essentially churn at any time and put a serious dent in your revenue. Of equal importance is the fact that not all users will necessarily provide real value, especially if, like many SaaS companies, you’re providing a basic [freemium ](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-guide-to-making-money-with-freemium-models/)package, you might find the cost of acquiring users is resulting in a loss. In this article, we’ll dig more into the material benefits, how you can implement an analytics strategy, and explore some of the common pitfalls that SaaS startups make. Let’s start with some basic SaaS analytics 101\. ## What is SaaS Data analytics? Simply put: SaaS data analytics refers to the process by which you collect, measure and utilize key data on your business performance. This encompasses quantitative and qualitative information: revenue increasing or decreasing yearly and monthly, businesses expenses, projected vs actual growth, [customer metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/), customer satisfaction and how customers are using your product or service. As you can see, SaaS data analytics are holistic, there isn’t an aspect of your business it doesn’t touch, and there’s no department you shouldn’t be monitoring. [17 awesome analytics, measurement, and reporting tools for SaaS businessesTo help you get the most out of every digit, here are 17 number-crunching tools SaaS businesses are using to scale their offering.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/03/elena-rouame-9JU2CKqtw0M-unsplash--2-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/17-awesome-analytics-measurement-and-reporting-tools-for-saas-businesses/) ## Why you should use SaaS data analytics SaaS data analytics provides SaaS companies with a whole host of benefits, whether it’s measuring current performance, forecasting future revenue, and measuring the overall value of your product for customers. Additionally, it can reveal the efficacy of your [pricing](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-your-saas-offering/) strategy. Are you charging too much, or are you undervaluing your product? It can also give you key insights into your overall business spend. Are you distributing your [funds](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-marketing-development-funds-and-how-can-we-use-them-to-maximize-growth/) effectively, or are you overspending on areas that aren’t bringing in much value? Now let’s get into the nitty gritty. What are the specific areas that an effective analytics strategy has the potential to impact? ### Enhance the implementation of data-informed choices within your company If there’s one thing you don’t want as an effective SaaS company, it’s to be frantically putting out fires at every turn. Yes, you want to be able to react to changing [market trends](https://www.saasalliance.io/navigating-market-volatility-the-power-of-localization-and-translation/), but you want to see these changes happening in advance so you can put plans in place to pivot. By implementing effective data-driven decision making, you can see new developments as they emerge and ensure that you’re planning for the future. You don’t want to be making key decisions at crisis point. Look at the bigger picture of how things are shifting, so that you can stay ahead of the curve. ### Optimizing product performance You’ll often hear SaaS leaders talk about the ‘stickiness’ of their product. This is another way of saying: The main goal of any SaaS company is to provide users with long term value. SaaS data analytics can enable you to pinpoint the exact value moment in the onboarding process, similarly it can reveal the point where users typically fall through the cracks. Use them to pinpoint which features are being underused either because customers aren’t finding them useful or because you aren’t showcasing them. Then you can trim the fat of your product, maximizing those features that customers find most useful and optimizing those that require improvement. ### Customer acquisition and retention The SaaS revolution has put a lot of power in the hands of the customer. If a customer doesn’t feel seen or understood, there’s nothing to stop them from finding a solution to fit their needs elsewhere. You can utilize SaaS data analytics to form an accurate profile of your customer [segments](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-market-segmentation/), then you can optimize and adapt your product accordingly and restructure your marketing campaigns so that they resonate with your core audience. [Customer retention metrics and how to action themHow do successful SaaS organizations measure retention and what on earth do they with the results, I hear you cry? Well, we surveyed 100 SaaS pros to find out how they track, review and utilize retention and churn metrics, and here are the results.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/11/jakob-owens-CiUR8zISX60-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) Some SaaS companies are so focused on growth they neglect to look closely at customer retention. The customers you’re retaining are those bringing you long term value, as they become ringing endorsements for the long term value of your product. Once you have your audience nailed down, prepare to redistribute your budget to go after them along the right channels. These metrics are the key to understanding the appeal of your product and establishing your brand identity on the global stage. This data should be used to inform the whole customer journey. ## Key metrics to track as part of your data analytics strategy ### Monthly recurring revenue Monthly recurring revenue (MRR) is like the dependable beat in your business's rhythm, representing the steady flow of revenue from your services month after month. It's the predictable income that keeps your business growing, coming from those loyal customers who keep coming back for more of what you've got to offer. MRR gives you the lowdown on the stability and growth of your revenue streams, painting an accurate picture of your business's financial health over time. ### Annual recurring revenue (ARR) Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is the sum of predictable revenue that your business expects to rake in from subscription-based products or services over the course of a year. It's like the grand total of all those subscription fees, contracts, or service agreements that keep rolling in, giving your business a solid foundation to build upon. ARR provides a clear snapshot of your business's yearly revenue potential, offering insight into its long-term financial stability and growth trajectory. ### Customer acquisition cost (CAC) [Customer acquisition cost](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-turning-customers-into-advocates/) (CAC) is the amount of money a business spends on acquiring a new customer. It encompasses all the expenses related to marketing, advertising, sales, and other efforts aimed at attracting and converting potential customers into paying ones. Calculating CAC involves dividing the total cost of acquiring customers by the number of customers acquired during a specific period. This metric is crucial for businesses to understand how efficiently they are investing their resources in acquiring new customers and to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing and sales strategies. [A beginner’s guide to customer acquisitionObjectives and key results (OKRs) are a pretty common talking point in the SaaS industry and in our Slack community, week in, week out, we see members asking how they should, or could, measure their performance. Hence our article here today.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/03/sharon-mccutcheon--8a5eJ1-mmQ-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/a-beginners-guide-to-customer-acquisition/) CAC is an absolutely pivotal metric for SaaS companies, as users don’t necessarily equate to revenue, especially if most of your users are on a freemium offering. A pivotal goal of any SaaS company should be to try to get as much as much value as they possibly can out of their existing customers, rather than focusing entirely on acquisition. ### Customer lifetime value This will show you how much value you’re getting out of customers over the course of their time with you. If your customer lifetime value is lower than your CAC, you have a pretty significant problem, and you should look into how you can direct users to become more engaged with your platform. The more indispensable your product becomes to their day-to-day lives, the more likely they are to be receptive to upselling, exploring additional features and bringing in additional value by endorsing your product to prospective customers. ### Customer churn rate Simply put, the number of customers saying goodbye to your product. SaaS companies need to keep a close eye on this at all times. Is there a pattern in the customers who are churning? Are they coming from a particular industry, demographic, and what stage of the customer lifecycle are they at? If most of your churn is coming from newer customers, for example, it may indicate that you need to sharpen up your onboarding flow. If they're coming from a specific region, it may be a sign of an economic downturn there. Whatever the reason, it’s important to determine which customers are churning and why. Then you can take steps that are laser-focused towards reducing churn. [SaaS churn rate guide | Future of SaaSCustomer retention is essential in the world of SaaS. While it’s inevitable some customers will call it a day and unsubscribe, you still want to keep your churn rate super low.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1555421689-491a97ff2040?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&w=2000&fit=max&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjExNzczfQcontent/images/size/w1200)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-churn-rate-your-guide/) ## Customer conversion rates It seems like a no-brainer, but SaaS companies need to grow, and they can only grow by increasing the number of customers signing up to their product. A poor conversion rate may indicate you need to step up your marketing efforts. Maybe you’ve got a really great product but the word simply isn’t getting out there. Or maybe you need to take a more vertical approach to customer acquisition. It can be tempting for SaaS companies to spread the conversion net as wide as possible, but this can be a mistake if your product targets a highly technical or niche market. It’s possible that you may overspend on ads where your customers simply don’t go, when you could be putting more energy into less costly organic channels. [20 metrics for SaaS marketersIn this article, we’ll be sharing 20 important metrics for SaaS marketing, ranging from acquisition metrics to monetization metrics. We’ll explain what each metric is, how they can be tracked, and most importantly, why they should be tracked.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDean Millar![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/05/matthew-ball-TFE_-9eLmEs-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-metrics-for-saas-marketers/) Some companies take a thought leadership strategy, for example, publishing whitepapers and reports, sharing them in forums where they’re likely to find their ideal customer profile. A crucial step in the conversion funnel is trust and rapport building. By establishing your brand as an authority in the industry, you can successfully move prospects to the awareness stage of the funnel, bringing them one step closer to the all-important conversion stage. ### Customer satisfaction score CSAT, short for Customer Satisfaction Score, serves as a prevalent metric in evaluating customer experience, gauging the level of satisfaction customers derive from your company's offerings. It's typically determined through customer feedback surveys and expressed as a percentage, spanning from 0% to 100%. This is the more qualitative side of your metric strategy. It can give you a more in-depth understanding of what value customers aren’t finding in your product or service. [How employee engagement affects customer satisfaction with Mary Poppen at Glint LinkedinOn this week’s episode, Gemma Davies, Community Manager at Future of SaaS is joined by Mary Poppen, Chief Customer Officer, Glint Linkedin. Mary discusses how employee engagement affects customer satisfaction.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/FoSaaS_Podcast_MP_Glint.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-employee-engagement-affects-customer-satisfaction-with-mary-poppen-at-glint-linkedin/) While quantitative metrics will give you an indication of what’s going wrong they can’t always tell you what might be missing in your product. You may find that customers can suggest feature updates or optimizations you hadn’t even thought about. ## 5 steps to master SaaS data analytics So, you've heard all about the benefits, but here at Future of SaaS, we're all about actionable solutions. Let's dive into the practical steps you can take to leverage your analytics for maximum growth. ### Establish concise objectives and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) So we all want to grow, that’s a given. But no two SaaS companies are the same, so it’s important that, from the very start of your journey, you have clear goals to aspire to. The more specific you are with your goal setting, the more specific you can get in the solutions you formulate to take key steps and overcome challenges along the way. It’s important to have alignment across all departments within your org, but this is very difficult to do if you don’t have very firmly established objectives that everyone understands. ### Integrate and centralize data You need to ensure you identify the key data sources, extracting and monitoring that source consistently. There are various software solutions that, once implemented, allow you to extract that data as and when it arrives. You need to make monitoring data points a day to day task, but it only works if you have mechanisms in place to do the heavy lifting in data collection. Essential data needs to be centralized so that you can see the overall picture of how you're progressing and draw conclusions on how separate metrics are impacting each other. Your senior management needs to make sure their decisions are data-driven, but they can only do this if they have access to pivotal data. ### Choose the right SaaS analytics tools Picking the perfect data analytics tools is like choosing the right gear for a road trip—it's crucial for navigating your data landscape smoothly and reaching your destination with style. Think about things like user-friendliness, scalability (so you can grow without hitting any speed bumps), how well it plays with your other tools, and what specific benefits it brings to the table. [SaaS Tools of Choice 2023Download the report and get access to the ultimate guide to tools and tech, each one endorsed by the game-changers shaping the world of SaaS.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/FoSaaS_Tools_of_Choice_Report_2023_Blog2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2023/) And if you're in the SaaS game, data is your vital fuel—every part of your operation thrives on it. So, when you're selecting your tools, make sure they're tailor-made for your business, easy for everyone to use, and pack a punch in terms of insights. ### Formulate actionable insights The data alone helps, conclusions formed from the data is even better. The final and most important step is the action plans you form from these insights. The purpose of reporting on your metrics is that you and your team can put your heads together and establish a realistic plan to overcome problems and reach your larger goals. ### Iterate and improve It’s not just about tracking to see what’s going wrong, it’s also about seeing what you’re doing right. Take advantage of these successes and identify the practices that are leading to the positive outcome. More importantly, make these processes an essential part of your daily operations and take steps to share the knowledge with your team. KPI meetings aren’t just about crunching numbers, highlighting failures and celebrating successes, they’re also an opportunity to educate the team on what you’ve learned. ## Common pitfalls for SaaS companies Analytics is a tricky science and there's no one-size-fits-all approach that works, but sometimes it could be helpful to learn not just from your own mistakes, but from the mistakes of others. Here are some of the most common misteps. ### Faulty data Robust, reliable systems must be in place to ensure your data is accurate. Equally important is sharing your data with the rest of the team, and more importantly, senior stakeholders. They may notice inconsistencies and errors that haven't occurred to you. Take care to monitor the right sources of data. You might have all the data in the world, but if you’re looking in the wrong places, then it’s a lot of fruitless effort. ### Bad communication Data should be the concern of the whole organization, not just senior stakeholders and you need to make data reporting a permanent fixture in your company meetings. Additionally, your team needs to understand exactly what the numbers mean and what strategies will need to be improved either to iterate or improve operations. Don’t allow your org to be split up into silos. Communication is key in order for everyone to be aligned behind data-driven decisions. ### Data overload An overabundance of data can lead to everyone losing sight of the bigger picture. Data becomes so numerous, it becomes just that – numbers on a screen. Suddenly no one’s thinking about how these numbers impact business goals and the larger story they tell. ### Failure to integrate data Often, a SaaS business will have plenty of data but it’s spread across various platforms and inaccessible to some. By having mechanisms in place to draw all of this data together, you can understand what the wider impact of each metric is, and get a more holistic view of your company performance. This requires a lot of effort initially, but successful implementation will create a culture where everyone understands how their work plays a part in the overall business. ## Best practices for SaaS data analytics And now for a roundup of all our key learnings: - Set clear objectives and KPIs: - Define where you want to go and how you'll get there. - Integrate and centralize data: - Gather all your essential information in one place, or it’s no use to anyone - Choose the right analytics tools: - Think of it like picking the perfect tool for a job—make sure it fits your needs and helps you make smart decisions. - Turn Insights into action: - Your numbers are indications, but only you and your team can utilize them to form an actionable plan. - Avoid common pitfalls: - Watch out for those pesky traps! Stay vigilant about data accuracy, keep communication flowing, and focus on what really matters to your business. And above all else, a data-driven strategy is all about iteration and improvement. Use it to consolidate those practices that are driving you toward your growth goals and fine tune those strategies leading you on a road to nowhere. --- Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS right here. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### SaaScast: Demystifying product-led growth URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-demystifying-product-led-growth/ Last updated: 2024-02-27T17:31:05.000Z In today's competitive SaaS landscape, product-led growth is a more valuable strategy than ever before. But just because you're product-led, doesn't mean you don't need to take a holistic approach to growth, encompassing product, sales and marketing. In this episode, Vincent Jong, VP of Product at Dealfront, discusses some of the common myths around the PLG, and sheds new light on some of the common pitfalls to avoid. ## Main talking points Dive into this wide-ranging, lively discussion, where we uncover the floowing talking points: 🌎 The ever-expanding role of PLG 🤝 Taking a holistic approach to PLG 📈 Achieving growth with PLG And if you prefer your podcasts on the go, listen here. 👇 [‎SaaScast: Demystifying product-led growth on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep Demystifying product-led growth - 27 Feb 2024![](https://t0.gstatic.com/faviconV2?client=SOCIAL&type=FAVICON&fallback_opts=TYPE,SIZE,URL&url=https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/demystifying-product-led-growth/id1544750249?i=1000647247901&size=128)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts126/v4/a4/4d/5f/a44d5fae-5046-a15e-a689-2605bf2c3483/mza_10035764847765952101.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/demystifying-product-led-growth/id1544750249?i=1000647247901) ## Get involved Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Creator, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: [anthony@futureofsaas.io.](mailto:anthony@futureofsaas.io) ### The AI-powered future of revenue growth is here URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-ai-powered-future-of-revenue-growth-is-here/ Last updated: 2024-02-24T14:59:36.000Z Ali Akhtar, CEO of letter AI, showcases the endless potential of AI for launching your conversions to stratosphere. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Is toxic work culture driving the great resignation in SaaS? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/is-toxic-work-culture-driving-the-great-resignation-in-saas/ Last updated: 2024-02-21T12:41:49.000Z Let’s be honest, it’s a difficult time for staff retention in the tech industry. In a recent report, Gartner found that only [29% of tech employees](https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/employees-seek-personal-value-and-purpose-at-work-be-prepared-to-deliver) show ‘high intent’ to stick around. The reasons for this are numerous, but the same report found that 82% of employees want their organization to respect them as people, and only a paltry 45% feel this is the case in their work life. When it comes to SaaS, it’s really a team effort. You can think of a SaaS org as a well-oiled machine, but that doesn’t mean that your employees are cogs to be put in and replaced. [What is burnout and how you can prevent itIt’s important for any worker to understand what burnout is and recognize the signs, no job is worth sacrificing your mental health for.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJade Warne![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/07/CLA-Burnout.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-burnout-and-how-you-can-prevent-it/) SaaS companies that succeed are those that are able to respect the individual needs of each employee and so create the kind of positive work culture that leads to professional alignment. Alignment = growth. But a culture of fear stops people from communicating. As SaaS companies grow it becomes increasingly difficult to keep employees in line with the company vision. Or, other words, to keep them motivated by your company’s mission statement. Coupled with economic downturn, an increasingly competitive industry, and the proliferation of remote/ hybrid work, it's no wonder it’s become so difficult to maintain a healthy work culture. A positive work culture isn’t just a nice to have, it’s a must have if you want a company that’s driven, inspired, and a product that’s propelled by a genuine desire to strive for innovation and excellence. So, without further ado, let’s dive into our top tips for a positive SaaS workplace culture. ## **What is a toxic work culture?** You know it when you see it, and we’re sure many of our readers will know what it feels like. Simply put, a toxic work culture is a company with policies designed for the best interests of the organization with little regard for the human needs of its employees. It often breeds resentment, animosity between employees, and detachment from your company’s core goals and aims. A toxic workplace will often lack firm company values. There’s no clear aspiration for how team members should treat each other, and this isn’t consolidated in any kind of documentation or framework. Toxic work culture generates fear, which leads to a breakdown in communication, which in turn, culminates in minor issues turning major, deadlines being missed, and whole projects falling through due to high employee turnover. ## Signs of a toxic work culture Do you feel like your organization may be festering under a toxic work culture? The key is to look out for the small signs before they become insurmountable. Or worse, it becomes the norm. You may have heard of the boiling frog analogy, where the heat is turned up in such small increments that the frog doesn’t realize it’s boiling until it’s too late. A toxic work culture can be very like that. Here are the telltale signs to watch out for: 1\. **Cliquey behavior and gossiping** – Employees often have to let off steam and frustration, but if your culture is defined by gossip, it’s likely that there’s a lack of respect between your staff, which is ultimately going to impact work performance. 2\. **Burnt out staff, high absence rate** – if you’ve got a lot of people going off sick, it can mean that stress is making your workforce sick. Ensure that you don’t take a confrontational approach to this. Approach staff in a humane manner. “Is everything alright, are you coping?” is preferable to “what’s going on?” 3\. **Breakdown in communication** – Are projects falling apart because your team simply aren’t talking to each other? That can be a sign that your team has no rapport or connection, are working in silos, and have no concept of the company’s wider vision. 4\. **High staff turnover** – Do you have employees leaving left right and center? In a toxic work culture, where teams don’t feel comfortable communicating with senior management, they will often leave before you have a chance to fix the problem. 5. **Lack of support from the team** – You want to have the kind of environment where your staff feel like other members of the team are going to jump to their rescue when they’re struggling. If you don’t, your employees are going to be struggling away in their separate silos, and showing up to work becomes an unpleasant experience. ## How to fix a toxic work culture The bad news is that there are many ways that a toxic culture can take hold, but the good news is: there are many ways that you can overcome a toxic work culture. Let’s dive into them here: ### Make yourself accountable It all starts with the founders/C-suite and trickles on down. Nobody’s perfect, no organization is perfect and when you’re juggling so many things at once, there are bound to be mistakes made. The important thing is that when problems arise, you’re able to reflect on your own performance and judge how you went wrong. It’s only then that you can start taking steps to rectify mistakes and start introducing better practices going forward. Leaders who fail to conduct self-reflection are the ones who make themselves unapproachable to the team, and a distrust runs rampant throughout the org. [How you’re demotivating your team and how to turn things aroundFew things are as costly and disruptive as managers who kill motivation.It’s said that “people don’t leave jobs; they leave managers” and the stats back this up: 70% of an employee’s motivation is influenced by their manager, according to Gallup.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2022/02/elisa-ventur-yjHh4JpZQT8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-youre-demotivating-your-team-and-how-to-turn-things-around/) ### Foster a culture of communication and feedback All organizations need to have hierarchies, but this doesn’t mean that you should become the kind of leader who is completely resistant to change and feedback. You can start establishing who you are from the get go. Make it known that this is the kind of org where employees are welcome to share ideas freely and make it a collaborative environment. You’re never going to know everything there is to know and if you aren’t able to create that environment of free communication and collaboration, you’re going to find that employees hide things from you, and you fail to develop your own expertise. This will undoubtedly have a knock on effect on product launches and all major projects. ### Send out regular questionnaires Your employees want to feel like you care about their well-being, but you can’t ask everybody every day, so a good way to address their needs, and find out what their concerns are, send out company-wide questionnaires. You’re always going to get those individuals who feel very confident sharing their grievances, but equally you’re going to get people who are shy about revealing the problems they’re having. Anonymous questionnaires are a great way to establish a common consensus on what the most pressing issues are in terms of employee well-being. Once you’ve done this you can highlight the problems that are most likely to lead to employee churn and setup priorities. ### Monitor your progress over time There’s no point in having these kinds of goals unless you’re monitoring the impact you’re having over time. Send out regular surveys and determine what’s happening, and make adjustments where needed. ### Ensure that employees have attainable professional goals One of the major reasons why employees choose to jump ship: they don’t feel there is any upward trajectory in their career. Make sure that employees have goals – agreed on between them and their line manager– which they feel they’re actively working toward. When employees fail to make that promotion, clearly communicate the reasons and establish alternative pathways for progression. ### Celebrate employee progression Make sure employee achievements are recognized and celebrated in your org. Another major reason for churn is that staff simply don’t feel respected. A positive side effect of this is that employees hoping to progress can clearly see a reason to stick around with you. If they can’t, they’re going to feel demotivated. ### Ensure there are opportunities for upskilling SaaS companies need to make their staff feel supported in their upward mobility. A great way to strengthen the bond and show support for their success is to invest in educational resources, such as courses, training days and seminars. Employees who don’t invest in the success of their team are in for a rude awakening, as your staff undoubtedly invest a lot of their time and effort into you. ### Gamify success Reaching goals is important, but it need not be all gloom and doom. Foster an environment of friendly competition in your team to keep the atmosphere light and ensure your team has fun reaching their goals. [Gamification techniques for SaaS products | Future of SaaSAndrea Saez of ProdPad talks you through the gamification techniques that can engage your customers. Listen into the latest SaasCast podcast.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/02/Future-of-SaaS-podcast-with-Andrea-Saez-of-ProdPad.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/gamification-tecniques-for-saas-products-podcast/) ### Offer mentorships As a founder, you can’t be a buddy to everyone all the time. By having a matchmaking system within your org, where senior employees are paired up with juniors to help them progress, you strengthen bonds and ensure that important knowledge is shared. ### Encourage time off We all need our down time in order to operate at 100%. Ensure the following: 1\. Employees are taking their time off and not burning themselves out 2\. You encourage time off for mental well being Some organizations make the mistake of rewarding staff for overworking. While this might seem positive on the surface, it can lead to a toxic culture when employees are reluctant to take time out. ## Wrapping up There are external factors that are undeniably impacting these challenging times, and all we can do is what’s within our control. It’s within our power to make sure that, whatever the challenges, we’re spreading a culture of positivity and respect at a company wide level. The reality is times have changed and employees simply don’t stay in jobs for as long as they used to, but by establishing a united front in the face of these challenges, you can make a significant difference in the longevity of your employees. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The power of bootstrapping: Attaining SaaS success without investors URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-of-bootstrapping-attaining-saas-success-without-investors/ Last updated: 2024-02-20T16:19:47.000Z This article comes from **Ton Dobbe**’s insightful **SaaScast** episode, ‘*Cut over-reliance on investors and become remarkable*’, check out his full discussion [**here**](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-cut-overreliance-on-investors/) After nearly 30 years of developing enterprise platforms, I realized I cared more about helping startups avoid our mistakes than rebooting another legacy company from the inside. Now, nearly seven years into running my own consultancy, I’ve seen too many founders obsess over fundraising as the only path to scalability. But in reality, this narrative ignores the root causes actually behind sustainable growth, over-reliance on capital doesn’t guarantee 'remarkability' or retention. More often than not it distracts from the customer traction and recurring revenue that ultimately decide fates in the hyper-competitive SaaS space. In this article, I’ll share why the dominant VC scaling mindset is ultimately flawed, and how customer-centric bootstrapping accelerated my success. My aim here is to help SaaS leaders build durable businesses by putting logical problem-solution fit above fundraising mania. Let’s dive in! ## **Start with creating lasting value** When starting a company, the temptation is strong to focus on quick exits and fast cashouts. But real, sustainable success comes not from flashy headlines, but from solving *real* problems for *real* people. I've learned over my career that the best place to start is by deeply understanding which critical customer pain points I can relieve better than anyone else. That’s how you reveal the big opportunities that are worth pursuing over the long term. [5 Tips for building an early-stage fundraising deckDespite obvious differences, great decks all have the same general characteristics: they are clear, concise, professional-looking, and tell a compelling story. Here’s a few tips to keep in mind when building a fundraising deck.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAmy Cheetham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/04/slidebean-J3AV8F-B42M-unsplash--1--3.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-tips-for-building-an-early-stage-fundraising-deck/) Vet these ideas substantially before deciding if spinning up a standalone business makes sense right away. Stay scrappy and laser-focused until you can nail those user needs 10x better than alternatives through very focused positioning and smart trade-offs. Deliver so much observable value that your solution essentially sells itself. Outside funding can accelerate impact substantially at the right junctures, but it should complement rather than fully compensate for real substance. ## **Why premature fundraising often backfires** With relatively easy access to venture capital in recent years, many founders raise substantial sums before truly proving out their ideas with customers. They sell big, ambitious visions trying to excite investors without much concrete evidence that their solution is truly a must-have for a specific set of users. Some do gain enough temporary buzz in the market to raise inflated seed rounds or unicorn valuations out of the gate. However, once-agile startups loaded down with overstuffed budgets often turn sluggish later on across too many distracted experiments. [How to effectively fundraise and find investorsIn this article, I’m going to share some stories from my fundraising career that I’ve never shared anywhere else. Each story comes with a lesson I learned along the way. Hopefully, these lessons will help you as you embark on your journey to raise capital.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSKirill Makharinsky![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/money-man.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-effectively-fundraise-and-find-investors/) In this state, founders often lose sight of the core customer traction and signals that drive sustainable long-term growth. Trust me, I’ve seen *way* too many once-promising startups flame out this way. They reactively scramble to appease impatient investors by chasing vanity metrics that don’t map to delivering actual user value. Real progress comes not from breadth, but **depth** \- earning revenue by sharply solving focused needs with simple products that users inherently want right away. ## **Watch out for vanity metrics that don’t convert** Many founders fundamentally mistake vanity metrics for reliable signals that a sustainable business is emerging. Flashy metrics like registered users, event attendance, social media fans, press mentions, and application downloads alone won’t build viable long-term businesses no matter how broad their reach might scale early on. The signals that matter most come from those who ultimately convert to paying customers, anchoring your solution as an indispensable part of their workflow. [SaaS metricsIt goes without saying that Saas orgs want to grow and scale, right? Whether you’re a hot new startup, mid-growth, or a late-growth established brand, all SaaS orgs want their revenue to skyrocket.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_metrics.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics/) Without that focused product-market fit and differentiation, you’ll likely leak cash trying unsuccessfully to manufacture enough transaction volume and scale. Lasting SaaS success rewards not breadth, but depth - delivering quantifiable and observable value tightly aligned with a well-defined set of customer jobs-to-be-done. ## **Don’t take growth for granted** After achieving fantastic early traction, many potentially successful SaaS companies sadly lose the intense hunger and innovative edge that made them remarkable market leaders initially. As founders and executives bask too much in recent accolades and strong metrics, the internal bar often stops rising quarter-to-quarter. Leadership starts believing they’ve sufficiently “arrived” at solving customer problems while losing sight of what’s still ahead to improve users’ lives exponentially better through new innovations. In this state of complacency mixed with a bit of arrogance, internal teams also turn reactive and incremental, merely checking boxes on product roadmaps. [Driving growth and innovation: A guide to series A transformation for SaaS startupsFor many startup founders, making that transition from pre-seed to series A is crucial for scaling. Manash Bhattacharjee, SVP of Product Management at HeathEquity, lays it all out.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSManash Bhattacharjee![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/05/a-guide-to-series-a.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/driving-growth-and-innovation-a-guide-to-series-a-transformation-for-saas-startups/) With limited serious competition, they stop re-inventing their customer experience substantially ahead of the curve. They optimize to protect what already exists rather than invent what could be. However, to sustain market leadership in technology over time, you have to stay obsessively focused on relentless, exponential innovation quarter-to-quarter. By the time stagnating customer usage metrics eventually start to expose cracks in the solution, one or more new challengers have typically emerged with an extreme focus on evolving user needs and jobs-to-be-done. Those new entrants have already outpaced incumbents with substantial product differentiation built for the next era ahead. The best way to avoid this fate is doubling down relentlessly on existing product-market momentum rather than protecting it. Keep growing by continually re-quantifying and improving the core value delivered to users based on their subtle shifts over time, and most importantly, never take growth for granted! ## **Sell outcomes, not features** The hardest product trap SaaS companies fall into is losing touch with what specific user outcomes their features enable. Founders forget their special sauce making lives remarkably easier. In the enterprises I‘ve helped transform, the tendency was always to incrementally fill gaps based on client requests, and whilst important, this reactive approach rarely created sustainable differentiation. We found the way to break out was flipping problem identification. Instead of asking “What features are missing?”, we asked, “What single monumental outcome do our users want but lack?” [Is it time to switch from feature to outcome-driven product roadmaps?The product roadmap acts as a guide and strategic plan of action, which clearly communicates how your short-term product efforts match up with your long-term organizational goals.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAdam Bennett![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/road.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/is-it-time-to-switch-from-feature-to-outcome-driven-product-roadmaps/) Once we found a frustrating goal that was universally shared but unsolved, we filtered existing roadmaps through that lens. We realized much work delivered minimal value toward that north star metric. By saying no to distractions, we realigned on what created true remarkability. The result was we revamped messaging and positioning fully around enabling that transformative end result for a well-defined audience. We built integrated experiences that compounded value on solving related barriers standing in their way. This is what I coach SaaS companies on - niche down user segments, uncovering their ultimate unsolved jobs-to-be-done, then align all energy on delivering that monumental outcome better than anyone else. Building for outcomes maximizes remarkability. ## **Key takeaways** By bootstrapping early and staying laser focused on underserved customer needs, you give your company the best chance at building remarkability that grows over time no matter what surprises arise. Outside funding at the right junctures can turbocharge impact, but it will never replace focus on value creation - the one factor that ultimately decides SaaS winners. That’s how you build a durable business destined to defeat inflated imposters. Root your foundations on quantifying how much better you’re making customers' lives through obsessive problem-solution fit. The rest takes care of itself! --- Why not check out the full podcast chat right here? 👇 [SaaScast: Cut over-reliance on investors and become remarkableIn this rigorous discussion,Ton Dobbe digs deep into how fledgling SaaS companies can generate growth from the value of the product.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/Cut-over-reliance-on-investors-and-become-remarkable.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-cut-overreliance-on-investors/) ### Crack the code: How metrics can set your SaaS up for success URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/crack-the-code-how-metrics-can-set-your-saas-up-for-success/ Last updated: 2024-02-16T16:00:22.000Z This article comes from **Idriz Adedoja**’s talk, ‘*Metrics for financial success: Starting strong with a solid P&L structure*’, at our **2023 SaaS Metrics Summit**, check out his full presentation [**here**](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics-summit-june-2023/?wchannelid=4b72hh2lwt&wmediaid=99l2o0adyj). Charting your course for the SaaS big leagues? How well are your finances built to get you there? Over my decade-plus career in the SaaS industry, spanning companies and markets across the US, UK, EU, Africa, and the Middle East, I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly in SaaS metrics and finance. With the industry ballooning to over **$260 billion globally** and on its way to well **over $300 billion by 2030**, there’s certainly no shortage of growth and opportunity. However, I’ve learned firsthand that pursuing growth sustainably requires laying the foundations of financial rigor and operational efficiency early on. Often scaling companies miss the mark on metrics that matter, and the fundamentals get overlooked, only to surface as issues later. In my current role as Portfolio Finance Director at two leading SaaS firms, I’ve made it my mission to rectify these issues. Whether you’re a founder aiming for [product-market fit](https://www.saasalliance.io/defining-measuring-product-market-fit/) or an established operator seeking to [optimize](https://www.saasalliance.io/step-by-step-guide-to-optimizing-your-saas-marketing-budget/), my insights on key SaaS metrics and P&L best practices will help arm you for resilient growth. I know I’ve certainly learned through hard-won experience— so let me shorten your own journey! ## **Must-track SaaS metrics** ### When assessing SaaS health and performance, I cluster metrics into three high-level groups: 1. **Growth metrics** like customer acquisition costs (CAC), payback period, and logo & revenue retention rates. 2. **Sales efficiency metrics** centered around customer lifetime value (LTV) and CAC. 3. **Business efficiency metrics** that track capital efficiency, like burn multiples. Getting these universal metrics right is absolutely crucial for any SaaS company, whether early-stage or at scale. Let’s walk through why each matters. **1\. Growth: CAC, payback period & retention for health** CAC shows what you’re spending to land each customer and is a useful metric for benchmarking your sales engine against averages for your niche. The payback period reveals how long it takes you to earn back your CAC—the quicker the better! But equally as important - logo and gross revenue retention rates. It doesn’t mean much if you’re adding customers or short-term sales while seeing high churn or contraction. Customer success teams play a key role here in earning you renewals and expansions. Maintaining retention above 80-90% should be any SaaS’s key recurring revenue goal. **2\. Sales efficiency: Aligning LTV & CAC for profitability** While growth KPIs show customer acquisition ability, sales efficiency metrics like LTV: CAC show your profit engine’s effectiveness. Basically, the lifetime value of a customer must sufficiently exceed the cost to acquire them to finance activities and realize profit. I like to see ratios of 3:1+ because that indicates healthy unit economics. If CAC far outweighs LTV, you’ll need to dig into sales performance and product market fit. **3\. Business efficiency: Burn multiples for capital management** Especially for startups and growth-stage SaaS companies, burn multiples help you watch how fast you’re going through capital. You can calculate this by dividing the cash burn rate by net new ARR generation each month. Ideally, this metric should trend under 1.5x. Anything above 2x indicates that care should be taken to prune unnecessary costs or unproductive growth investments to avoid prematurely running out of runway. Trust me - sound financial management requires keeping an eye on all three metric families! [Metrics that matter: The KPIs every SaaS company should trackBrittani Dunlap, CEO and co-founder of FlowEQ, showcases the essential metrics you should be tracking for maximum growth.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSBrittani Dunlap![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/metrics-and-data-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/metrics-that-matter-the-kpis-every-saas-company-should-track/) ## **Flaws of the “ordinary P&L”** ### Just as having the [right metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics/) in place is non-negotiable, so too is structuring your finances and profit & loss statements (P&Ls) for maximum transparency and actionability. Yet time and again in providing portfolio finance direction, I encounter what I call the “ordinary P&L”, and it’s plagued by: - All lump-sum top-line product income rather than segmentation - An all-encompassing cost of goods sold (COGS) line item - Operating expenses are loosely grouped into big buckets like “G&A” and “R&D” Don’t get me wrong— it has its time and place for high-level profitability analysis. However, ordinary P&Ls give little visibility into what’s driving performance underneath. You end up flying blind on questions like: > *Which products are most or least profitable?* > *What activities or inputs are inflating COGS?* > *Are bloated operating expenses centered in any one function?* This greatly limits finance’s ability to pinpoint problems or opportunities, leaving department leads guessing rather than empowered with insights on their budget impact. [Scaling your SaaS finance operationsYour finance team is the backbone to successfully scaling your business. But how do finance teams successfully scale and evolve in a fast-growing organization?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/07/sean-pollock-PhYq704ffdA-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-saas-finance-operations/) ## **Constructing a structured P&L for enhanced visibility** ### The best P&Ls I’ve overseen with SaaS companies reflect the [underlying structure](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-and-structure-your-b2b-saas-marketing-team/) and operations of the business. This translates to: 💼 Top-line segmented by product lines and revenue types 🏗️ COGS broken down by major cost drivers like infrastructure, support, partners 🧮 OPEX split by function—sales, marketing, product/R&D, etc. Further segmented by teams/activities within those groups Yes, this level of detail demands upfront work by finance to analyze needs and coordinate with department leaders. *However*, the long-term gains in visibility and actionability are truly immense! With a structured P&L, questions like which products drive overall or new customer revenue get answered at a glance. Drilling into these questions moves finance conversations from reporting into true strategic advising, shifting you from scorekeeper to playmaker! ## **Final thoughts** ### There you have it! I hope sharing my firsthand lessons has helped you distill actionable clarity on the finance foundations of driving a sustainable SaaS, regardless of size or stage. Whether you're an early-stage operator still searching for that perfect product-market fit, a scale-up navigating hockey stick growth, or an established firm looking to optimize...taking the time to nail down metrics, construct insightful P&Ls, and translate data into cross-functional leverage is time well invested. Do this before rigid structures set in, and you can establish roots for efficient expansion. Think of it as a compass to guide confident steering through whatever storms or surprises the journey ahead holds. Of course, no formula can account for all the exhilarating uncertainty that makes SaaS such a dynamic industry. Expect new lessons to keep emerging! But for now, start strengthening those metrics and financial pillars underpinning success. Here’s to taking the first steps toward that outcome today! --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/SaaScast-Ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=saascast-podcast) ### Top 20 interview questions for customer success managers URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/top-20-interview-questions-for-customer-success-managers/ Last updated: 2024-02-15T19:37:59.000Z You can't have a strong SaaS org without a strong team. And in order to build a strong team, you've gotta set those expectations high. At Future of SaaS, we know that starts with the interview questions you prepare for your customer success manager. Customer success is an exciting, burgeoning field. Across the industry, SaaS leaders are experiencing the benefits of a solid customer success strategy firsthand. Though it’s still a relatively new field, the top customer success specialists have refined it through the years, and we now have a clearer picture than ever of the kind of candidates you should be looking for. ## How SaaS and customer success fit hand-in hand? According to Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack, in a company-wide memo in 2013: “Even the best slogans, ads, landing pages, PR campaigns, etc, will fall down if they are not supported by the experience people have when they hit our site, when they sign up for an account, when they first begin using the product and when they start using it day in, day out.” With a subscription-based model, the power is well and truly in the hands of the customer, and if you want to stop customers from churning, you need to arm your org with an army of empathy experts. And more than anything else, it’s about building those long term relationships that foster customer retention and cut customer churn down to size. Of course, the kind of folks who can deliver on this are often a rare breed. Before we dive into the questions, let’s outline the key qualities you should be looking for when hiring a customer success manager. ## Key qualities in a customer success manager candidate ### Empathy We put this one front and center because it really is the most pivotal and the one that’s probably the most difficult to teach. It’s also really difficult to define it; it’s the kind of thing you just know when you see it. When you interview the candidate, ask yourself these questions: 1. Did this person make me feel good about myself, did they brighten my day, did I feel a natural warmth from them? 2. Did they seem generally interested in me and the company I represent? 3. Were their main goals centered around helping others as well as themselves? 4. Did they display insight and perspective on consumer behaviors? If the answer to all of these questions is yes, chances are you’re dealing with a naturally empathetic person. With a customer success hire you’re looking for someone who’s going to make it their mission to proactively reach out to customers. [Customer success metrics that drive 95% retentionIn this article, I’ll be discussing the customer success metrics you should be tracking at each and every stage of the customer lifecycle. With them, you can drive retention and ensure your customer success function is successful in delivering value to the customer.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSwati Chopra![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/05/yoav-hornung-Qg6lPXJ6IL4-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) A person who’s lacking in empathy simply isn’t going to be capable of this, and you might find that the customer churn rate starts to grow. Emotional intelligence is the cornerstone of customer success and it should be an important factor in your decision making. ### Resourcefulness This is a term we really don’t need to define, but when assessing it for an interview, you want to see in-depth examples of the various ways the candidate has solved customer problems, how they’ve overcome obstacles and how they’ve improvised at pivotal moments. The fact is, a CM is going to be dealing with a whole plethora of personality types and there’s an unpredictable element that goes hand in hand with that. With this in mind, you need someone who’s going to be have a lot of tricks up their sleeve and isn’t simply reliant on a company playbook or script to solve customer problems. [Customer success tips to make your SaaS product stand outMaking your SaaS company stand out in an increasingly competitive world isn’t easy. As technology continues to evolve, customers are searching not just for the best selection of features, but an amazing experience too.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMichelle Laurey![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/10/clay-banks-NiYS_ExTdg8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-tips-to-make-your-saas-product-stand-out/) ### Communication skills And when we say communication we’re not just talking about someone who appears to be very chatty (although it can be a good indication) we’re talking about someone who understands the nuances of customer communication. This also doesn’t mean giving customers exactly what they want, but communicating what you think would best suit their needs, giving them what they really need as opposed to what they say want. This is a tricky tightrope to walk that requires a lot of nuance. But this is exactly the kind of sophisticated communication abilities you should be gunning for in your candidate. ### Rapport builder Ever been on the consumer end of a sales call or entered a store, and felt a pang of guilt that you didn’t make a purchase? The reason for this is likely because the salesperson was successful in building a rapport with you, and as a result you feel like you’re rejecting a real person as opposed to an organization. This really highlights how a good communicator can be absolutely indispensable to your growth efforts. Trust is the foundation of a good relationship, and a good relationship is the foundation of conversion, retention – and the gold standard– customer advocacy. [Boosting your business with customer advocacy: Insights from a customer operations leaderRyan O’Connell, Chief Operating Officer at Thrive, outlines the benefits of customer advocacy and the steps you need to make it a reality in your org.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSRyan O’Connell![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/04/customer-advocacy.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/boosting-your-business-with-customer-advocacy-insights-from-a-customer-operations-leader/) ### Technical acumen So they don’t exactly have to be a technical wiz (although again, it’s certainly a bonus) But it’s going to be impossible for the customer to really feel like the CM is actually addressing their concerns unless it's apparent they understand how the software can help customers with their problems. On top of this, customers have to feel like the CM is really hearing them and understanding their pain points. So now that you’ve assessed the qualities of your candidates, it’s time to see how they perform during interview, but this is tricky. You want to ensure that you'r4 asking the question that are really going to reveal qualities about the candidate. Luckily, we’re here to guide you a long the way with our **top interview questions for your customer success manager.** Let’s dive in! ## How do deliver bad news to your customers? In a customer-facing role like CS, it's essential that you hire a person with the finesse to be able to deliver bad news in a way that sounds like good news. The answer should rarely be an outright "no," the CM should assess the needs of the customer and find an alternative solution. The most important quality to stress here is honesty. Lying to customers or promising things that aren't deliverable can lead to massive problems down the line and even damage to your brand. [Customer advisory boards and feedback loops \[Q&A with Dropbox\]Customer Advisory Boards allow customers to give candid feedback on their experience with your company, and we spoke with Bree Bunzel, Head of Global Customer Marketing at Dropbox, who answered questions around building Customer Advisory Boards and customer feedback loops.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/12/adam-jang-8pOTAtyd_Mc-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-advisory-boards-and-feedback-loops-q-a-with-dropbox/) ## How do you communicate with customers if you can’t solve a problem right away? An essential part of good CS practice is managing expectations.It’s all about laying the foundation for a relationship of long-term trust over time. If you’re continuously promising customers solutions and then failing to deliver on them, you might please customers in the short term, but you’re going to shatter that foundation of trust that leads to a long-term relationship between the customer and your org. At the SaaS Metrics Summit 2021, Rebecca Nerad, Vice President of Customer Success at E2open, stressed the importance of honesty in customer success. “There are times where we have to push back on the customer. We have to push back internally. It's one of the challenging and amazing things about this role. I like to say sometimes, it's good cop, bad cop. But that role changes toward one direction or the other. It all starts with understanding customers' expectations in the first place. Also, it’s about being able to fairly represent what we think would be the right final result for them” ## What’s the toughest case you’ve ever handled? With customer success, there’s always a significant element of unpredictability to the role. Each customer is different, after all, and there are always going to be surprise challenges, keeping you on your toes. The thing you want to be looking for: is an adaptable, agile individual who can think on their feet. Customer success is a field in which the practice has to be continuously re-fashioned around the needs of the client. Customer success is all about problem solving, and there's no one solution for all problems. According to Paula Mendes at Hubspot: > "We quickly realized it was not possible to help customers achieve their goals if we had a one size fits all onboarding. Our onboarding and professional services needed to be tailored to our customer's most important priorities. You want to hear stories, not where the onboarding has gone smoothly and you’ve really wowed the client, but where the CSM has had to constantly negotiate a barrage of curveballs hurtling their way." This is the ultimate evidence that the candidate is constantly adapting their practices to the customer's needs. Anybody working in a customer-facing role knows how unpredictable it is, how all the careful planning in the world can be shattered by one tricky request. Those that thrive best are those that can not only dodge the blows but effectively roll with the punches as well. ## How do you collaborate with sales and product teams? Customer Success only works when it’s successfully aligned with the org as a whole. After all, as a CSM, what is the essential service that you’re providing to your org? One is that you’re both utilizing essential customer data from your sales teams and translating them into really great customer service, the second is that you’re then feeding invaluable data back into the org from your experiences with customers. In their 2016 book, Customer Success: How Innovative Companies Are Reducing Churn and Growing Recurring Revenue, Nick Mehta, Dan Steinman, and Lincoln Murphy emphasized this: > "CS is a philosophy, and it must pervade the entire company. No organization or job role can function in a vacuum, it requires a top-down company-wide commitment." [How customer success & product management make a SaaS dream teamBelieve it or not, there’s quite a lot in common between customer success and product management. Both have the ability to work wonders for your SaaS product. This guide walks you through how to use them to get a dream team.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1504270997636-07ddfbd48945?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDV8fGRpZ2l0YWx8ZW58MHx8fA&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000content/images/size/w1200)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-and-product-management-saas-dream-team/) In order for any SaaS org to effectively compete, it’s crucial that they’re always adapting to the changing demands of the market. You can achieve this through collecting, monitoring and analyzing customer data. With the CSM being up close and personal with the customer, CS is an invaluable tool for this function. Patrick Kelly, Senior Director of Customer Care Enablement & Operations at Brainshark, describes how data can be the foundation for improving practice in customer success. > “We review for trends first and then for details on an individual basis. We make training and enablement decisions based on gaps that we might identify, and we use the data to influence product development.” ## Explain to me how \[product feature\] works Now, it’s pretty much a no-brainer that this is the kind of question you would be expecting in the interview for any SaaS org. You want the candidate to demonstrate diligence and conscientiousness, and this is shown in how much the candidate knows about the product prior to taking on the position. But for a CSM, this is even more essential. The CSM is the guiding hand for the customer along the way. And that goes way beyond a generic, broad knowledge of the product, it encompasses the minutiae of issues that a customer might encounter when interacting with your product. No two clients are going to interact with your product in exactly the same way. To effectively catch and run with those curveballs along the way, CSMs must have an intimate knowledge of your product’s features and how they may be handled or mishandled. ## How would you explain our product or service in a single sentence? A crucial aspect of a CSM’s job is not only what information they deliver to the customer, but how they deliver it. As a CSM, you might have all the knowledge in the world, but it’s important not to overwhelm the customer with a dense wall of technical know-how. Here, the candidate demonstrates that they can master concision: often a cornerstone of effective communication. Equally, the candidate will demonstrate an ability to adapt to the expertise and knowledge-field of the customer. Not all customers are going to be able to grasp long, intricate scrolls of technical information. You might be dealing with a client from a non-tech background, for example, or someone from a less tech-savvy generation. Being able to cut down your spiel to its most fundamental aspects ( i.e what does the product/feature do and how can it help me in my day-to-day?) shows an aptitude for inclusivity on the part of the candidate. In short, it’s not about what you, the CSM, knows, it’s about how it can improve the life of the client. [The customer health score: How to master this metricChurn is a major problem for SaaS companies that are looking to scale fast, and that’s why it’s essential to master your customer health score. Find out how here!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSGrace Gupta![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/community-health-scores.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-customer-health-score-how-to-master-this-metric/) ## How would you change our product or service? The benefit of this question is two-pronged. Candidates show the potential not merely to unquestioningly go along with a business-as-usual approach, but to be continuously thinking about innovating and improving your product as they continue with their careers. What’s the point in hiring fresh talent if they’re not going to provide fresh solutions for your org going forward? The second benefit is the nerve and courage to question your org’s mission and/or strategy. CSM’s have to be able to keep a close ear to the ground, listening to customer needs and demands. Sometimes those needs might be at odds with your company’s strategy. A courageous CSM can help an org headed in the wrong direction to effectively pivot in the right direction. If you’re hiring a ‘yes -man’ in a field like customer success it’s a pretty poor indication of how they’re going to fare when having to deal with ‘difficult’ customers. According to Rebecca Fenlon, Head of Customer Success at Cognassist. > "Attempting to be a ‘yes-man’ will ultimately leave you with poor product-market fit and you'll end up trying to service customers who shouldn't really be your customers in the first place. You waste time, you waste money; that’s not what good CS is about, and it’s not what good customer centricity is at all." ## What was the most recent investment you made in your professional development? You really want someone who in committed to upskilling all the time. Your SaaS product is going to be evolving in order to keep pace with the evolving needs of your customers. Simply put: you don’t want someone who’s going to be content to just rest on their laurels. A good attitude is demonstrated by someone who doesn’t feel like they know everything, but feels like they always got more to learn. This is will also reveal whether the candidate is going to be easy to work with. Are they going take change in their stride and the necessary retraining that comes along with that, or are they going to feel like they already have enough to know? The former demonstrates good qualities in any kind of candidate, while the former, well, it goes without saying… [Offering customer success at scaleIn this article, I’ll explain our journey, how we came to the decision to start scaling our approach and why, and how we transitioned our CS org from ‘support on steroids’ to a strategic partner in the business using living resources, scalable content, and a targeted and proactive approach.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMatt O’Boyle![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/10/christina-wocintechchat-com-faEfWCdOKIg-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/offering-customer-success-at-scale/) ## Describe your approach to prioritizing tasks when managing multiple customer projects. It might seem from this question that you want someone who can handle a heavy workload, and though that might be partly true, you also want to avoid someone who’s likely to let themselves get overloaded. Are they able to keep cool under pressure and calmly prioritize tasks? This also encompasses the various customer issues that they’re going to be dealing with. You want your CM to be a people pleaser, but some customers are going to be more high priority than others, and some issues are going to need more attention than others. The CM who isn’t able to sort through these is someone who’s going to burn out quickly. ## What cost-effective strategies would you consider implementing in this role to ensure customer success? When a SaaS company is looking to become profitable, some people are tempted to simply throw money at it, however, if your goal is sustainable growth – and it should be – you want to be hiring those who can make the most with a modest budget. Although a certain amount of spend is obviously necessary, it can never be a substitute for real innovation. Hire talent for their ingenuity and though you might not be able to spin gold out of straw, you’d be surprised at how far ingenuity and creativity can get you. [How Customer Success is Innovating to Drive Agility and Serve Customers at ScaleAlongside serving our customers, a key part of our roles is innovation. We want to challenge ourselves to be more strategic, impactful, and intentional with our customers in a way that adds value to their world and drives growth in our business.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSCorinne Goldberg![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2022/06/customer-success.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-customer-success-is-innovating-to-drive-agility-and-serve-customers-at-scale/) ## How would you upsell products to our customers? Upselling is a big part of the SaaS game. Acquiring customers can be seriously expensive, and one of the major problems for SaaS companies is that the value their users bring doesn’t make up or exceed CAC. So it’s imperative that you try to get the most value out of your customers. This starts with building a foundation of trust, of course, but once customers have gotten comfortable and trust that your org isn’t simply out to rinse them for all their worth, you can start directing them towards additional features. Patience is essential here because the CM needs to have time to know a little more about the customer and what their individual needs are. So there are three skills that your candidate must demonstrate: - The ability to identify the appropriate upsell for the customer's needs. - The ability to communicate upsells without sounding overly mercenary. - The ability to accurately assess a customer profile. ## How frequently do you believe it's necessary to visit and follow up with your customers? Customer success is a tricky art to master for many reasons. Customers today like a certain amount of freedom to get their hand on your product and experiment. An overly attentive CM can be suffocating, but a neglectful CM can also lead to churn. Let’s say, for example, you have a customer who simply hasn’t reached the value moment yet. There’s an aspect to your product that would make a meaningful difference to their lives but they simply haven’t discovered it. The job of your CM is to unlock the real value of your product for customers, and that means having the instincts to know when a customer needs a little more guidance vs when they're best left to their own devices. ## What do you believe sets your customer relationship skills apart? This is the kind of question you should be asking precisely because it tends to make candidates squirm. Although you don’t want to create the impression that you’re a toxic environment, you want to see how the candidate is going to respond to stressful situations. After all, being on the front line of handling customer concerns demands a certain level of resilience. But another major thing that you’re assessing here is that the candidate is aware of the common pitfalls in the profession. It’s only by showing that they’re aware of these mistakes that they’re going to be able to convince you they can avoid them. [Customer engagement and the metrics that matter \[Q&A with Intercom\]According to Gallup, fully engaged customers offer 23% more revenue on average, but getting the balance right between newer, lower-tier customers and more established big spenders can often feel like you’re borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/12/priscilla-du-preez-nF8xhLMmg0c-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-engagement-and-the-metrics-that-matter-q-a-with-intercom/) ## Illustrate a challenging relationship you've encountered with a colleague previously and detail your approach to resolving it A good customer success manager is able to take a holistic view, meaning that they are aware of how their work impacts other parts of the business. Communication is key here and a willingness to learn. And for that you need a team player. Here, you’re looking for the kind of response that demonstrates the ability to compromise and see things from other perspectives. How can you expect your CM to adapt to customer needs if they don’t demonstrate this quality in their working life? Having said that, you’re also looking for someone who has confidence in their convictions and is able to persuasively communicate their own point of view. ## I know nothing about \[X software.\] Explain it to me in the simplest terms possible In any customer service role, it’s essential that you don’t make a customer feel overwhelmed, patronized, or out of their depth. Your idea customer will be able to explain something relatively complex in the simplest terms previously. The main objective is to get the user to see the value in the product and you have to hire someone who can not only describe what it is, but how exactly it’s going to help the user. Pay attention to whether they’re using ‘ they’ or ’you’ in the answer. The latter will indicate that they are putting the user at the center of their explanation. This question is different from the one where you ask them to describe your software. You're testing their versatility and quick thinking skills by putting them on the spot and also testing their industry knowledge. ## Illustrate a highly positive and a notably negative experience you've encountered while collaborating as part of a team. You want to see that the candidate is aware of what good and bad working paractises look like. You want to hire a team player, but you also want to hire someone who isn’t going to come in and muddy up the good work culture that you have going. Another more direct way of asking this would be: ‘What does a good work culture look like?’ Will this candidate fit into the work culture you’ve established, will they enhance it? You can hire the most talented person in the world but if they can’t play well with others, it’s unlikely they’re going to succeed in any company. ## Describe a time when you were a team leader. How did you handle it and how did you go about it? Ultimately, you want someone who is going to have the ability to take charge when needed. Look for evidence of initiative and the ability to lead in their previous experience, all of this conveyed in a respectful manner of course. Although a SaaS company is made up of many moving parts in sync, without the ingenuity of individuals, you end up in a creatively stagnant place. ## Which skills do you aim to enhance or acquire through this position? A mature candidate will be aware that your company will be looking to expand and grow and with that comes the opportunity for personal growth. Somebody who does not demonstrate maturity, drive and ambition is not going to be able to take you very far. The skills they say they want to acquire will also give you an insight into their previous experience with customers. [Customer success tips to make your SaaS product stand outMaking your SaaS company stand out in an increasingly competitive world isn’t easy. As technology continues to evolve, customers are searching not just for the best selection of features, but an amazing experience too.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMichelle Laurey![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/10/clay-banks-NiYS_ExTdg8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-tips-to-make-your-saas-product-stand-out/) ## What feedback would you give me on how this interview has gone? If your candidate is attentive to those they are talking to – and a good CM is – they should have an answer for this question. The only potential hurdle is the fear of upsetting a potential employer, but the best candidates will know how to give constructive feedback that doesn’t demean or patronize. It’s another hot seat question that really tests the mettle of your candidate. ## Final thoughts Customer success might sound like a frilly position, but the individuals you’ll be looking for to spearhead a solid CS initiative, will be anything but that. CS managers can ask tough questions, and more importantly, answer them. A good CSM can be the ambassador for your company’s principles and play a pivotal role and delivering a first class customer experience.During this SaaS revolution, we have a unique opportunity to continuously customize the product to the customer’s needs. That’s why SaaS and CS, when it’s done right, is a match made in heaven. The CSM can be the linchpin of any good SaaS strategy. --- *Psst... like what you see? Why not become a member and gain access to exclusive insights from SaaS leaders.* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Unlocking synergies: A mile in the user’s shoes URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/unlocking-synergies-a-mile-in-the-users-shoes/ Last updated: 2024-02-09T16:00:09.000Z Marketing expert Chris Nachman pinpoints the key causes of poor user experience and outlines a pivotal strategy for putting yourself in the mind of the customer. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### SaaScast: Embracing the future of SaaS tech [watch now] URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-embracing-the-future-of-saas-tech-watch-now/ Last updated: 2024-02-08T11:06:51.000Z SaaScast is back with a whole new look, and in our first week, we're asking this essential question: **How do you take your product global?** You make your product accessible to a global audience. There’s another word for this: localization. In this episode, Georg Ell, CEO at Phrase, uncovers how localization helps SaaS companies to reach a wider market and become a globally recognized brand. But that’s not all in this far-reaching discussion, we also aim to explore new SaaS technological developments, demystify artificial intelligence, and ultimately, we look to the future of SaaS technology. Watch it here 👇 ## Key talking points This discussion went deep! But here are the most tantalizing points of discussion: ✅ Georg's background: What does he love about the world of SaaS? ✅ Localization: What is it and how's it going to help you to grow ✅ What are some of the newer trends set to catch fire in the SaaS world? ✅.What is the real impact of AI on SaaS All this and so much more. If you prefer to get your podcasts on the go, listen here. 📣 [‎SaaScast: Embracing the future of SaaS tech on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep Embracing the future of SaaS tech - 8 Feb 2024![](https://t0.gstatic.com/faviconV2?client=SOCIAL&type=FAVICON&fallback_opts=TYPE,SIZE,URL&url=https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/embracing-the-future-of-saas-tech/id1544750249?i=1000644613991&size=128)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts126/v4/a4/4d/5f/a44d5fae-5046-a15e-a689-2605bf2c3483/mza_10035764847765952101.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/embracing-the-future-of-saas-tech/id1544750249?i=1000644613991) ## Get involved Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Creator, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: [anthony@futureofsaas.io.](mailto:anthony@futureofsaas.io) ### Future of SaaS Leadership 2024 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-and-state-of-saas-leadership-2024-2/ Last updated: 2024-03-08T11:24:34.000Z Want to stay on the cutting edge of SaaS? 🚀 As a SaaS leader, we’re sure you’ve got plenty of insights on where the future of this exciting industry is headed in 2024 and beyond. Now’s your chance to be a vital voice in two research surveys: **The Future of SaaS** and **State of SaaS Leadership 2024.** All you have to do to get your hands on this juicy resource is take part in our survey. 🤝 Understanding which direction SaaS is taking is on the minds of everyone, which is why we want to tap into your insights. You have the chance to sign your name to research representing a global network of SaaS professionals who live and breathe impactful, growth-fueling strategies. But we understand it, you’re busy people. Filling out surveys left right and center can be exhausting. So, we took action and condensed our research questions into one survey. That’s right, just one. ## What can you expect in the survey? We’re going to ask all the important questions to form our study, not limited to: - How many years have you worked in SaaS? - What are your main business priorities? - What’s your approach to leadership? - Where do you predict the industry is headed in the coming years? - What are the game- changing trends that will lead the industry into the future? The more results we get, the more robust the report will be, so if you know anyone in the SaaS space, please do share this link with your network! ## What’s in it for you? In return, we’ll give you not one, but two forward thinking reports that accurately forecast where the industry is headed and how some of the leading minds in the industry are planning to stay ahead of the game. Don’t just coast on what’s trendy, help us shape the future of SaaS and establish yourself as a leading voice in the industry today! ### How to start a SaaS company in 8 steps URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-start-a-saas-company-in-8-steps/ Last updated: 2024-02-06T23:26:33.000Z Nowadays, everyone wants a piece of the SaaS industry spending expected to reach[ $232.3 billion](https://artios.io/saas-statistics/#:~:text=Projected%20worldwide%20end%2Duser%20spending,tenfold%20between%202015%20and%202023.) in 2024\. Who can honestly blame them? But the cold hard truth is that the SaaS industry is mind bogglingly competitive and the cost of setting up your own company can be astronomical. Additionally, the number of moving parts that need to be in place can be daunting. Where do you start? Obviously, there’s no one size fits all approach, but there are some general rules of thumb that you want to nail down in order to have a shot at competing on the global stage. We’ve broken them down here. Let’s jump in! ## 1\. Create a use case that addresses genuine needs The first step is deceptively simple: you need to come up with an idea. But there’s a catch. You can’t just come up with an idea that sounds cool in your head, you have to find a genuine need in the market and then figure out how your product can address that. This foundational step will go hand in hand with the second step (understanding your target market). By uncovering the needs of your potential customers you’ll start to better understand your target market better and you can then create a product that is dictated by customer needs from the get go. [Top 5 reasons why startups fail and how to avoid themWhile it’s true that competition in the SaaS market is fierce and competitive, there are steps you can take to give your product the best shot at SaaS super stardom.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/02/why-startups-fail.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-5-reasons-why-startups-fail-and-how-to-avoid-them/) If you’re able to accomplish this essential task, it’ll instantly put you ahead of a substantial portion of the competition, as one of the major problems SaaS companies face is still this: [they don’t create products for customers.](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-5-reasons-why-startups-fail-and-how-to-avoid-them/) In a nutshell: Aim high. Don’t create a nice-to-have, create a product that’s going to become an indispensable part of your users’ lives. ## 2\. Get to know your target market There’s a psychological aspect that boils down to this: you need to put yourself in the shoes of your potential customers and visualize their day-to-day lives. What are the common hurdles that they encounter throughout their day? And what do they really care about? Here are some practical steps you can take to achieve this : ### Speak to potential customers There are many ways you can achieve this. You can send out surveys and feedback forms within your target market and circulate them on socials. Or you can view discussions between SaaS leaders online (or attend focus groups if you have the time). Often you get a better idea of how people are actually feeling when you see people within your potential customer demographic interact with each other. Rather than scattered responses, you can find the common consensus. Then you can determine the most pressing problems plaguing the industry. ### Ask the right questions Above all else, ask the right questions. Rather than asking questions like: “What would you think of a product that does this?” Or “What kind of product would you like to see?” Try making your questions centered around the people you're interviewing. Try this instead: - Can you describe your day-to-day tasks? - What’s the biggest challenge in your day currently? With these kinds of questions you leave all your preconceived notions at the door and instead allow your research to be led entirely by potential customers, setting a great precedent for how you should be running your whole business going forward. [Win against competitors by knowing your customersTen steps you can use to stay ahead of your competition and bolster your competitive intelligence and product marketing strategy by listening to your customers.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAicha Zaa![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/09/Win-against-competitors-by-knowing-your-customers.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/win-against-competitors-by-knowing-your-customers/) ### Examine the competition When crafting a top-notch product you not only want to look at the problems you’ll be solving, you want to know what the potential gaps are in the market. Your goal is to get competitive, so look at who the biggest heavyweights are in the industry and zoom in on what they’re failing to address. Equally important: What are they succeeding at? It’s not always a question of reinventing the wheel. There will be some pretty foundational stuff that you’ll want to replicate, and then you can think about differentiating. ### Look at research papers There are many reports every year taking the pulse of the industry. For example, see our SaaS metrics report [here](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-benchmark-metrics-report-2023/). Find the most reliable sources that chart the progress of your key demographic in the form of hard data. Where are the key players in the industry struggling and failing? Having concrete stats can provide a solid backbone for your decisions going forward. ### Search forums and join online communities There are many spaces online where people within your target market will discuss their main issues. Make a note of the common recurring issues, join slack communities and ask questions that pertain to the day-to-day struggles of your potential customers. By coming in as a curious observer you may find that you get more revealing responses than you would if you were trying to push a product on them. [Community-led growth is the Future of SaaSCommunity-led growth is a go-to-market strategy that relies on an engaged community of customers as a tool for acquiring new customers, retaining existing customers, and expanding your business reach.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/05/toa-heftiba-6bKpHAun4d8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/community-led-growth-is-the-future-of-saas/) ### Ask the experts Who are the key advisors within the industry, the people who are speaking to your target prospects everyday? They can give you a birds-eye view of what the most common issues are. Also, by arming you with insights on where the industry might be headed in the future, they can give you a considerable competitive edge. If you can anticipate the ever-changing needs of SaaS end users, you can provide answer to their new challenges before your competitors can. Look for people who’ve seen trends come and go and have a reliable grasp on what the lasting developments are going to be. Some other key factors to consider are as follows: - Determine whether you’re going after startups, smaller businesses, mid-size or corporate giants. Their needs will be considerably different, so this is something you’ll need to figure out early in your strategy - Is there going to be a difference between who’s buying your product and who actually ends up using it? If so, ensure you’re targeting the people who are actually going to be making the final purchasing decision. In many cases, users and buyers might overlap but not always. - What are the significant challenges likely to rattle the market in the year ahead, economic downturn, job layoffs? These kinds of factors should dictate the central idea behind your product. - Don’t just focus on your users’ professional lives. Take a holistic view of their lives. With this in mind you’ll have a better idea of how you need to address them when reaching out. These are all key factors that will help you to differentiate your product. The fact is, all SaaS companies are looking to make lives easier, but how are *you* going to do this? You need to be able to form an accurate portrait of your potential customers. Additionally, you need to know exactly how large your market is. This will help you determine how targeted you need to be in your approach. Some SaaS companies prefer the horizontal approach, appealing to as broad an audience as possible, while others decide they need to target a more niche audience. But make no mistake, horizontal doesn’t mean generic. You’re still going to need to get super granular about what problems your product solves. ## 3\. Look at the big picture You don’t want to create the kind of SaaS company that’s reactive, constantly setting short term goals. You need to aim to have an organization that has a firm mission statement. Only then can you hope to have different functions that are in alignment. Companies that are short-sighted often struggle to form a hierarchy of priorities and often find themselves constantly putting out fires rather than building a firm foundation for future growth. A good rule of thumb is the SMART model (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time bound) You want to aim high while keeping your goals realistic. On top of this, have firm benchmarks for achievement, otherwise goals can get lost or forgotten about. What figure will you have to hit so that you can check that goal on the list? It’s hard work but long-term vision and quantifiable results are your guiding stars. ## 4\. Choose a pricing plan Let’s start with the no-brainer stuff. Companies need to know how much they’re going to charge their customers for their products. But there are a few pesky nuances you need to be mindful of. You need to know what customers within your target market are willing to pay, and that comes from the thorough research you will have conducted into the lives of your customers, their average income bracket, what they typically spend on, what they enjoy, and what issues are plaguing them professionally. This will also help you to determine exactly what kind of subscription plan you’re going to set up. Here are the pricing options that SaaS companies typically offer: [Pricing your SaaS offeringMy name’s David Wadler, and I am Co-Founder and CEO of Vendorful. I’m also an investor in a variety of startups, almost all of which are SaaS businesses. In this article, I’m going to go through some ideas about how you can start to think about pricing SaaS.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDavid Wadler![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/11/angele-kamp-_XlhZVsKykw-unsplash--2---1--2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-your-saas-offering/) ### **Flat rate pricing** In the realm of SaaS pricing models, this is about as straightforward as it gets. You present a single annual or monthly fee for a specific set of features. While this model is increasingly uncommon in the expansive SaaS landscape, it brings notable advantages. **Pros** Streamlined simplicity: It's incredibly straightforward. Friction, often a hurdle in customer conversion, is minimized. Customers crave a quick understanding of what you offer and its cost, and simplicity accelerates this process. Sales-friendly: Complex offerings can be tough to sell. By maintaining a minimal offering, you can concentrate your sales expertise on sealing the deal without the distractions of intricate packages. **Cons** Limited negotiation leverage: Without alternative offers, negotiating with hesitant customers becomes challenging. There's no fallback option to sweeten the deal. Niche appeal: A confined offering with a fixed price may not resonate with various demographics. The beauty of SaaS models lies in their flexibility, allowing customers to choose a package tailored to their needs. A flat rate, unfortunately, eliminates this advantage. ### **Usage-based pricing** In straightforward terms, this model charges users based on their frequency of use of your service. Depending on your specific use case, this pricing approach may bill users according to the features requested, the number of scheduled posts (for a social media management platform), or the amount of data consumed. ### Pros Friction-free sign-Up: No upfront costs mean users can sign up without any financial risk. If they don't find value, they can simply opt out without incurring any expenses. Resource efficiency: Users pay for what they use, eliminating the risk of unpaid users burdening your resource costs. It's a straightforward and fair system. **Cons** Revenue uncertainty: Predicting revenue becomes a tricky business when pricing hinges solely on usage. This makes it challenging to allocate resources and plan budgets effectively. Customer cost ambiguity: SaaS organizations rely on forecasting costs, especially those tied to customer usage. In a usage-based model, the profitability of a customer can shift rapidly, turning a once-profitable customer into an unprofitable one in a short timeframe. The mystery of customer costs complicates financial planning. ### **Tiered pricing model** This has become the go-to model for SaaS organizations, providing a spectrum of user pricing options. Ranging from a wallet-friendly package with essential features to a premium offering loaded with advanced functionalities. **Pros** Conversion opportunities: The majority of users often gravitate towards basic packages, increasing conversion chances. Although initial costs may rise in customer-related aspects, the subsequent growth can compensate and lead to more users opting for higher-priced options over time. Diverse demographic appeal: Tailored packages for different needs and budgets broaden the appeal across various demographics. A tiered approach ensures more customers can find a pricing plan aligning with their lifestyle. **Cons** Overly broad appeal: Offering a multitude of features may dilute your product's vision or unique value proposition. A more focused approach can establish a clearer brand identity. Potential confusion: If users need a magnifying glass to decipher your offerings, they might abandon ship. Streamlining the sign-up process is crucial; users won't spend extensive time unraveling complex pricing structures, risking them forgetting about your product altogether. For full coverage of different pricing models, check out our full article on the subject right [here](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-pricing/). ## 5\. Draft a business plan Something you’re going to be thinking about as a SaaS founder is investment, but in today’s volatile market, securing investment is going to be a trial. You’ll need a robust business plan that forecasts the vision for your company, breaking it down into key milestones. Investors want to see that you have a vision for growth (they want to see how you plan to bring in a profit) and the business plan is your way to showcase how you’re going to get there. It’s also a great way to demonstrate who you are and the story of your product. What are you and your brand about? These are things you’ll need to bear in mind when rolling out a marketing plan. ## 6\. Create an MVP(Minimum viable product) This is the bare bones version of your product that simply demonstrates its key use case. While it may be tempting to try and tack on all the bells and whistles early on, it can really benefit you as a problem solver within the SaaS space to boil your product down to its core value. Once you’ve had this consolidated and you have a strong foundation, then you can start to build. [Launch a showstopping SaaS with these 6 examples of a minimum viable productYour product never stops evolving, the MVP is just the first to step in that process. Take the first step to launching an amazing product with a showstopping MVP.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/MVP.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/launch-a-showstopping-saas-with-these-6-examples-of-a-minimum-viable-product/) Some vital factors to consider when creating an MVP: **Simplicity is your friend**: The main thing here is just to get your product into the hands of users quickly so you can determine whether it has value and whether there’s an appetite for it within the market. Develop a strong use case, create an MVP, collect feedback and grow from there. **Zoom in on your value**: Out of all the problems you plan to solve which is the one that’s going to bring the wow factor and make the most significant difference to the lives of your users. This is what needs to be showcased in your MVP. **Be open to feedback**: We get it, your product is your baby, but it’s time to swallow your pride and get enthusiastic about how users respond to your product. You’re going to gain valuable insight on how you can improve and how your solution differs from others in the market. **Be ready to make a change**: Sometimes you just have to start again, or make pretty drastic changes to what you’re doing. Don’t look at this as a failure, but rather as an essential step along the path to building a SaaS that’s really going to wow your users. To find out more about MVPs, take a look at our deep dive[ here](https://www.saasalliance.io/launch-a-showstopping-saas-with-these-6-examples-of-a-minimum-viable-product/). ## 7\. Develop a marketing plan Two terms you need to be familiar with: Inbound and outbound. That’s the leads that are coming directly to you vs those that you’re actively reaching out to. Let’s cover inbound first. Start by having a nice web presence: a clean professional looking site that makes users want to stick around and explore further. You should look into improving your SEO game to ensure that your site has good visibility. Also consider dipping your toes in thought leadership. Create blog posts and whitepapers that establish you as an established authority in your field. You can also start to generate a social media community around your product, generating buzz and excitement [SaaS MarketingAs the demand for cloud-based software continues to grow, SaaS companies are facing intense competition in the market. Here is a guide to help you develop a successful SaaS marketing strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_Marketing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) Now outbound is where it can get really intensive. Email marketing is a prime example, and you can start forming a mailing list of potential users you’d ideally reach out to (you can use leads generated through your inbound methods, such as white papers). Finally, into investing into paid social ads, but as a budding organization you don’t want to be relying on this too much. In order to facilitate sustainable growth, you want to make the most of your organic channels. The more buzz you can generate through simply being a strong presence within the industry, the more cost-effective it’s going to be. ## 8\. Iterate and pivot Once you’ve launched your product you need to keep a firm handle on how it’s been received and make changes where necessary. Look at the data you have at your disposal, did they match your projections, and if not what went wrong? Look at qualitative feedback as well. You may have a really great product, but users have noticed a few wrinkles. Take note of these and take steps on how you can iron them out. Use these insights to improve and iterate. To sum up: - How's the market responding to your SaaS product? - Any recurring feedback from users catching your attention? - Which marketing channels aced it, and which ones fell short? - What messages are striking a chord with users? - Which feature requests are cropping up the most? Once you have some sensible answers to your questions, you can take steps to adjust your business goals and your business plan going forward. ## Wrapping up The most important lesson: these things take time. Pivots in your strategy might delay your goals, but it’s all part and parcel of your growth-chasing efforts. Be prepared to make mistakes, pivot when needed and integrate new insights into your plan. And secondly, **listen to the market**. There’s no point in making a product that no one has any need for. To blaze a trail through the SaaS world you need to find an opening, and that should be dictated by the current issues that users are experiencing. Keep your ear to the ground and create a product that resonates! --- Like what you see? Why not gain exclusive insights to some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership plan? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How to achieve 100%+ SaaS growth globally URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-achieve-100-saas-growth-globally/ Last updated: 2024-02-02T16:00:09.000Z This article comes from **Zak Virdi**’s talk, ‘*Going global: Product strategy and pricing for hypergrowth in new markets*’, at our **2023 SaaS Metrics Summit**, check out his full presentation [**here**](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics-summit-june-2023/?wchannelid=4b72hh2lwt&wmediaid=stg7vgwnxj). Ever wonder how some SaaS startups manage to rapidly dominate global markets while others struggle to gaintraction? Well, let me let you in on a little secret. Growth hacking through viral loops and referral programs isn’t enough anymore in today’s crowded space. To scale abroad, you need to become pricing chameleons. In this article, I'd like to share my insights on the product, pricing, and partnership strategies that have fueled our hypergrowth, and provide actionable tips to fellow SaaS entrepreneurs looking to scale globally. Ready to unlock the secrets to success? ## **Our SaaS offering** ### We founded Xensam back in 2017 as one of the first pure SaaS vendors using the cloud to totally transform how organizations manage their software licenses. Our tech normalizes license data no matter where apps are deployed - on-prem, cloud, you name it! As a bootstrapped business relying only on our early customers, we knew getting pricing right was critical from day one. We emphasized simple, transparent pricing so customers clearly saw the value at each tier. We also built win-win margin models to incentivize channel partners to co-sell our solution. Their localized expertise helps us navigate complex regulatory and technical landscapes abroad faster. Read on as I share how we crafted flexible [**pricing frameworks**](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code/) and strategic partnerships to accelerate worldwide. ## **Designing flexible pricing models** ### When initially structuring our pricing models, we considered a range of options like: **1\. Usage-based:** Pay per actual use. **2\. Tiered feature bundles:** Group capabilities by user types. **3\. Flat rate:** Single pricing option. After extensive testing, we found the tiered bundle model aligned well with providing clear value-based tiers while letting us upsell. The most advanced approach is value-based pricing - essentially pricing your software based directly on the value customers receive from using it. This is highly complex to model but so worth it in the end! No matter what pricing models you start with or evolve to over time, some key considerations should always guide your strategy: > How does the customer perceive value inyour product? > What are competitor products priced at? > What are your customer acquisition costs? > What is your target profit margin? Now let’s explore how to tailor pricing across borders … _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Step-by-step guide to optimizing your SaaS marketing budget URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/step-by-step-guide-to-optimizing-your-saas-marketing-budget/ Last updated: 2024-02-02T15:53:19.000Z Ever chat with a thriving SaaS founder and think: What [marketing](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) magic fuels their enviable growth year on year? More often than not, their secret weapon is **strategic budget management**. As fellow marketers, we know dividing limited dollars across the ever-changing digital landscape feels next to impossible. With so many options and channels out there, budgeting can quickly become complex and overwhelming. However, taking the time to optimize your SaaS marketing budget is essential for the growth and sustainability of your business. By taking an intentional, [metrics-driven ](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-metrics-for-saas-marketers/)approach, we can make budgets go further. Here, we walk through actionable tips on how to effectively manage your marketing dollars for maximum ROI. ## **Set clear goals and metrics** The first step is perhaps the most critical one - you must identify clear goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) that align to your overall business objectives. Without properly setting goals and metrics, you won’t be able to accurately track performance and make data-driven decisions about your marketing budget. [SaaS metricsIt goes without saying that Saas orgs want to grow and scale, right? Whether you’re a hot new startup, mid-growth, or a late-growth established brand, all SaaS orgs want their revenue to skyrocket.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_metrics.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics/) Some examples of SaaS marketing goals could include: 1. Acquire **100** new free trial signups per month 2. Achieve a trial-to-paid conversion rate of **25%** 3. Generate **50** SQLs (sales qualified leads) monthly Meanwhile, metrics to measure may include: **\- Cost per lead (CPL)** **\- Customer acquisition cost (CAC)** **\- Customer lifetime value (CLTV)** **\- Return on ad spend (ROAS)** Take the time upfront to carefully outline [goals and KPIs](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-our-metrics-and-what-are-our-kpis/) that matter most to your growth - this will dictate where you need to focus your budget. ## **Prioritize your most effective marketing channels** One of the biggest budgeting mistakes SaaS companies make is spreading their dollars too thin across too many channels without properly prioritizing based on performance. Make sure that you understand which initiatives are generating the highest return by tracking metrics like CPL and ROAS. [Top SaaS marketing and content toolsA high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) This way you can double down on what’s working whilst cutting back the budget from poorer performing areas. Some of today’s most effective marketing channels for SaaS include: **💰 Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising** PPC allows you to get your SaaS offering in front of interested audiences actively searching relevant terms across platforms like Google and Bing. Though a [paid channel](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-can-you-boost-customer-advocacy-through-social-media-listening/), the potential ROI is immense given the high-intent traffic. **🖥️ Search engine optimization (SEO)** Organic search holds tremendous opportunities for qualified traffic and brand visibility. Put budget into technical SEO audits, content creation, and link building to improve domain authority and keyword rankings. **📚 Content marketing** From blogs to ebooks, guides and more - valuable educational content helps attract and nurture high-quality leads over time. Invest in skilled copywriters to produce lead magnets, site content, and articles that resonate with your audience. [5 Best Practices for Scaling your SaaS Content Marketing Engine with AIIn this article, we explore how you can create content of real substance while utilizing AI to maximize your efficiency and output.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChinwoke Nnamani![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/04/Reaching-out-to-Ai.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-best-practices-for-scaling-your-saas-content-marketing-engine-with-ai/) **📱 Social media marketing** While organic social media is free, putting some budget into paid ads on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter can allow you to target and retarget your audiences for increased brand awareness and lead gen. ## **Striking the right budget allocation across channels** When it comes to allotting a budget, finding the perfect distribution will take some trial and error. Start by leaning more heavily on the initiatives that are already performing well, while allocating around 20-30% of the budget to testing new channels and tactics. Then monitor spending monthly and reassess what warrants increased funds vs what should be dialed back. Remember, be agile - consistently evaluate performance, and don’t be afraid to shift budgets to better optimize your SaaS marketing ROI. ## **Leverage automation to stretch budget** One of the best ways to maximize marketing budget for SaaS businesses is through automation tools. Technology has made it easier than *ever* to streamline and automate previously manual processes. Invest in solutions that can help you cut costs while enabling scalability. Some examples include: - **Marketing automation software** to nurture leads - **AI copywriting tools** to create content - **Email marketing platforms** like MailChimp - **Landing page builders** to quickly launch campaigns - **Ad management platforms** that optimize paid ad spending. As today’s technology landscape continues to advance rapidly - leverage it to your advantage as a SaaS marketer by doubling down on automation. Trust us - the time and money savings add up quickly! [SaaScast: Building a sustainable growth engineWe all want our SaaS orgs to run like a well-oiled machine. But what does that look like in practice? In economically turbulent times, it’s important that SaaS leaders are investing in marketing efforts that are going to lead to long-term, sustainable growth.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/01/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Jon_Chang-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-building-a-sustainable-growth-engine/) ## **Foster long-term, sustainable growth** While many factors impact budget decisions each month, don’t lose sight of the bigger picture by only chasing short-term wins. Your allocation strategy should foster consistent, sustainable growth over longer periods of time as well. Brand building, community development, partnerships - these types of channel investments may not drive immediate ROI but are *crucial* for establishing trust and awareness for the years to come. You should maintain a healthy mix of longer-term plays balanced with shorter-term lead-gen initiatives. SaaS marketing is a marathon, not a sprint, so construct your budget plans accordingly. ## **Common budget pitfalls** Even with the best-laid plans, there are a few common mistakes you can make when managing budgets: **Underbudgeting essential campaigns** All too often, corners are cut on foundational campaigns in favor of new tactics. Make sure essential initiatives like SEO, email nurturing, and existing high-performing ads receive sufficient funding. **Overspending on untracked efforts** It’s easy to throw money into campaigns without proper monitoring and attribution models in place. Overspending can add up quickly on blind spend driving underperforming results. Implement thorough tracking to dictate the budget. [SaaS FinanceThe resources in this guide will provide you with actionable strategies to maximize profits and minimize losses in the world of SaaS finance.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/03/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_finance.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-finance/) **Not balancing growth sources** If you concentrate your budget only on bottom-of-the-funnel signup campaigns, you may acquire users quickly but will lack the brand visibility for sustained growth. **Foster both top and mid-funnel efforts** By understanding common mishaps SaaS marketers encounter, you can dodge avoidable setbacks while optimizing use of your marketing dollars. ## **Conclusion** Managing your marketing budget is a process that takes careful goal-setting, performance tracking, flexibility, and optimization over time. Prioritize channels generating the highest ROI while leaving room to experiment with new initiatives. Automate where possible to cut costs and enable scaling. Monitor on an ongoing basis, adapt budgets based on learning, and be willing to shift directions as the market evolves. Commit to consistent brand building alongside lead generation. While determining budget allocation is challenging, the effort pays dividends through maximized marketing performance and ultimately - faster SaaS growth. With the right strategic approach, your budget can propel your business to new heights! --- Enjoyed these top insights? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership plan? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### "The content is really nicely packaged"- Vuk Lau URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-content-is-really-nicely-packaged/ Last updated: 2024-01-31T18:05:20.000Z For many of our members , the Future of SaaS community is an essential resource for their troubleshooting efforts, as well as a platform to showcase their own expertise among peers. There are many software related communities out there but few that are as far-reaching as ours. Whatever aspect of SaaS you’re working in, you’re sure to find just the ticket to launch you career to the next level! But don’t just take our word for it. Take it from Vuk Lau, a bona fide guru within the SaaS field and a valued member of our community. ## **Vuk’s background and expertise** “I've been in the B2B SaaS space for 10 plus years, and I built multiple global teams, post sales teams and I've worked in these roles directly with some of the largest companies. I've worked with Nike, Unilever, P&G, Lego, Adidas, Blackstone, Best Western hotels, and so on. So I've had quite a lot of experience in post sales, solutions, consulting, customer success roles, and I really enjoy being in the early stage of startups, I joined both companies when they had just 30 people.” As you can see, the Future of SaaS community hosts the absolute cream of the crop. If you join our expert community you’ll be in the company of just that – experts. So join us today and learn from the best! ## **What do you as the real value of the future of SaaS?** “I see the Future of SaaS as having a really positive role in the ecosystem, not just the community. There's **5000 people**. People join because they’re looking for professional help, and there are plenty of people there who are more than willing to help. That’s certainly why I joined and I was able to find solutions to many of my queries.” Even as a seasoned expert, Vuk was able to find a useful tool in the FoSaaS community. Imagine what you can learn in this community of experts and the vital connections you can form along the way. ## **Are there any resources that you found particularly useful?** "I found quite a few articles that were very useful to my particular field (customer success) and I enjoyed reading articles about other aspects of SaaS. There’s quite a diverse bank of content, which I really enjoyed reading, and there are a lot of very useful templates in the membership area. The content is really nicely packaged” As you can see, some of our members have been so intrigued by our huge bank of content that they’ve ventured into our members area. Here, you’ll find expertly curated templates to help you cut down on the valuable hours spent on vital, but time-consuming tasks. --- Tempted yet? Join our community of SaaS experts [today](https://www.saasalliance.io/join-the-fosaas-community/), showcase your skills and elevate your skills to the next level! ### Master the SaaS sales funnel: Turn leads into loyal customers URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/master-the-saas-sales-funnel-turn-leads-into-loyal-customers/ Last updated: 2024-01-31T13:10:32.000Z Sales is one of the oldest professions on record, and there’s one common principle that has stayed true the whole time: address the issues your product can solve for the [customer](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/). As the SaaS industry has become increasingly oversaturated, this principle has become more important than ever. There are so many SaaS solutions out there that you have to push harder than ever to ensure your product speaks to the customer, and demonstrates how you can solve their problems. But in order to make this process smoother, you need to have a firm structure in place. This is exactly what your [Sales funnel](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-convert-your-prospects-before-they-reach-your-site/) will provide you. But what does the Sales funnel look like? And, more importantly, how do you get customers to the conversion stage? That’s what we’re here to find out. Let’s dive in. ## What is the SaaS sales funnel and why is it important? The SaaS sales funnel is a holistic process that begins the first time your prospect becomes interested in your product, and ends when money first changes hands. So, let's start at the bottom of the funnel. Here, your job is to be keenly aware of both the [value](https://www.saasalliance.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) your product offers, and the common problems within the market you're operating in. You have to aim to speak directly to the pain points of the prospect. Accomplish this using the following methods: - Attain engagement - Showcase proficiency - Convey value Being super mindful of prospect[ psychology](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-art-of-influence-using-3-powerful-psychology-triggers-for-saas-conversions/) at each stage of the funnel means smooth sailing to the next stage. And, by keeping a hawk eye on how your users behave at each stage (and how they respond to your sales reps’ strategies), you can repair crucial gaps in your funnel and identify parts of the process that aren’t working. [Shortening salespeople’s time-to-confidenceConfidence is one of the most important qualities a sales rep can have. But how do measure it? Russell Zack, Head of Revenue at Second Nature, lays it all out.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSRussell Zack![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/Giving-sales-confidence-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/shortening-salespeoples-time-to-confidence/) This is the ultimate value a [sales ](https://www.saasalliance.io/aligning-sales-with-post-sales-to-drive-customer-lifetime-value/)funnel provides: it gives you essential structure so errors in the process can be patched up. There are various factors that will determine the general shape of your sales funnel. Let’s break them down: ### Spotting potential customers Your team needs to grasp what interests potential [buyers](https://www.saasalliance.io/4-signs-your-sales-demo-is-boring-buyers/) in your target market. The goal is for your reps to use this knowledge to connect with buyers, building trust in your product. ### Crafting sales plans Your product should be the solution to a specific customer problem. Effective communication and messaging are crucial here. Customers respond best when they see ideas and language that directly address their challenges, while also instilling confidence that your product offers real solutions. Finding fresh leads: [Leads](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-leverage-blog-content-to-generate-leads/) can pop up from various sources, and each interaction is a chance for a referral. Always keep an eye out for these opportunities. Once you've identified your market and fine-tuned your messaging, launch a new campaign for lead generation. Leads can come in two flavors: inbound, where customers reach out to you independently, and outbound, where you initiate contact through email, phone, online events, or an existing account. ## The stages of a SaaS sales funnel The SaaS sales funnel has a lot in common with the traditional sales funnel. As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, there are many principles of sales that hold true in SaaS, however the SaaS sales funnel is slightly unique in that it also prioritizes [**retention**](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) as part of the process. Retention is incredibly important for SaaS companies as it’s less costly than acquisition, and has a positive impact on future conversions. Loyal customers essentially act as ambassadors for your brand and product. Let’s break down each stage of the funnel here. ### 1\. Awareness This is when customers first become aware of your product, whether that’s through inbound or outbound tactics. The question you need to ask here is why? What pain points have led this prospect to our product? Being able to answer this question will ensure that you’re able to guide the prospect to the end of the funnel. [Sales: The rules of engagementSales is a complex and competitive business - and never more so than when deciding who gets the credit for what: who gets the commission and, just as importantly, who gets the recognition?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/08/muyuan-ma--xHZBzv4Naw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-the-rules-of-engagement/) ### 2\. Engagement What's really important at this stage is to establish rapport with your prospects, answering questions they might have and, most importantly, displaying soft skills such as empathy and approachability. Customers want to be able to look at your landing page, see what you do, see that you’re an authority in your field, and that you’re professional and trustworthy. Your job here is to put a friendly face to your brand and establish a firm foundation for future relationships. A heavy-handed approach, offering trials or packages right out the gate can make your company seem overly mercenary. ### 3\. Exploration At this stage, trust has been won and your jobs now are to: - Really show off the value of your product, - Become keenly aware of what the individual challenges of each prospect are, - And start demonstrating how your product can solve these problems. This is also known as ‘warming your leads’, priming them for conversion. Now is the time to showcase the key features of your product. Prospects are going to want to get their hands on it, so it’s time to prove its worth, perhaps through how-to videos and demos. One of the key aims of the SaaS sales funnel is to provide a smooth sailing and speedy journey to the value moment. In other words, the moment when prospects realize your product is an indispensable part of their day-to-day working life. [How sales teams can work with other departments to drive growth \[Q&A with Tymeshift\]Nicholas Ghitti, Head of Growth at Tymeshift took the time to answer our community’s burning questions after his presentation ’How sales teams can work with other departments to drive growth at this year’s Future of SaaS festival.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/05/jan-kronies-mpSeLIXMnpc-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-sales-teams-can-collaborate-to-drive-growth-q-a-with-tymeshift/) ### 4\. Conversion At this stage, you’ve successfully led your prospect to the value moment, and they are primed to sign up for your service. But the work doesn’t stop here. You still have to ensure that the sign-up process is as smooth and frictionless as possible. Ensure that you don’t overwhelm your prospect with intrusive sign up docs. Remember that a successful funnel fosters retention as well as conversion, so you’ll want to ensure that customers don’t feel neglected as soon as they convert. ## How to set up your SaaS sales funnel Picture your sales funnel as a roadmap leading customers to the ultimate destination: becoming a paying customer. The key to a robust revenue stream? Growing conversion rates steadily. Speed matters here—notice any slowdowns in the funnel? That's a red flag. If bottlenecks become a regular thing, it's time for a structural check. Keep a close eye on page metrics—they reveal essential funnel performance. Identify those sticking points—those spots where customers hesitate. Dive deep into these areas if you sense any resistance. A swift journey through the sales cycle? That's the gold standard. Here are the key aspects of the sales funnel: ### Lead magnets These refer to ads and campaigns designed to attract potential customers to your landing page. This is critical to success in the awareness stage. You have to be able to get prospects into your funnel in the first place. And without the right marketing and SEO know-how, this simply isn’t possible. [How To Make Salespeople Care | Future of SaaSI’m going to give you some areas that you can focus on to either help your team roll out a plan, that you should be focused on when implementing a training or going into some sort of presentation.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.59.31.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/salespeople-dont-give-a-sh-t/) ### Landing page It's crucial for this page to swiftly address customer pain points. If they can't find a solution to their main question, they'll bounce right off. Keep a keen eye on those bounce rates—they're a serious signal. Once they drop, you've got a landing page that's hitting the mark. This is critical in the **engagement stage.** Customers want to see that you’re a trusted authority in your industry. Be mindful that your page has the following attributes: - Describes what you do and what problem you solve. - Looks professional and uncluttered. - Showcases key achievements and prestige front and center. ### Upsell page After enticing customers with free trials and sealing the deal on orders, your funnel should naturally flow into the **upsell page**. Here, customers get the chance to throw in related items or level up their existing service or product and customize their order to suit their own needs. This is critical in the exploration stage. Prospects at this stage are open to various features and attributes that your product offers. It’s important you offer a decent number of options without it being overwhelming. Too many packages can create friction in your funnel. Remember: the funnel needs to be as smooth as possible. [Customer onboarding 101For freemium models adopted by a growing number of SaaS companies, onboarding is the frontline in the battle for the upsell.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/03/erwan-hesry-aMjeTdCVRNE-unsplash--1---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-onboarding-101/) ### Checkout page For customers in the **conversion stage**, this is the spot where real transactions go down, so make sure your payment methods are in line with what most prospects like. ### Thank you page Here you can make customers feel valued for having come aboard. It might seem unimportant, but this is the first step to making customers feel like they are respected and helps to foster long-term trust. These stages are where you want to monitor your key metrics. You can pinpoint exactly where customers are exiting the funnel and ensure that you optimize any faulty areas. ## Content and the funnel No-brainer time: Content is key to showcasing your product, but it’s important to bear in mind that different stages of the funnel call for different forms of content. If you cram in too much detailed content at the top of the funnel, customers can get overwhelmed and confused, which can lead to early bouncing. Let’s dig into what exactly you want to showcase at different points in the funnel: [Content types for customer educationMany organizations are turning to customer education as a solution to improve retention, increase spend, and drive customer satisfaction and loyalty. But what exactly is included under “customer education”?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSVicky Kennedy![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1471107340929-a87cd0f5b5f3?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDEzfHxibG9nfGVufDB8fHx8MTYyMjczNzYyNQ&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000content/images/size/w1200)](https://www.saasalliance.io/content-types-for-customer-education/) ### Top of the funnel The goal here is simple: show customers you’re trustworthy. Animations and clear, easy-on-the-eyes text make your brand look approachable and professional. Think of it like that first impression. Once you fumble it, you don’t get a second chance, so make sure your pages are dressed to impress. Thought leadership can also do wonders here. By producing blog content and white papers around the problems you solve, you position yourself as a problem solver rather than a cynical cash grabber. This is how trust is created. ### Middle of the funnel This is where details really count. Trust is established and it’s time to present content that showcases what you do. How-to videos and product demos show off your product’s unique benefits and features. Remember that, at this stage, customers will likely be looking at other solutions on the market, so it’s crucial that you think about differentiation, and bring the unique ways that your product shines to the forefront. ### Bottom of the funnel This really ties into the conversion stage, so it’s essential that the sign-up page is transparent, easy to understand and doesn’t set up any unexpected hurdles. At this stage, you might want to include comparisons between the different packages you offer, and ensure that there is a clear CTA for exactly how customers can get started. ## Important factors to bear in mind when setting up your sales funnel When crafting your SaaS sales funnel, it’s important to be aware of the key factors that influence successfully getting prospects from one end of the funnel to the other: ### Know your audience A common mistake that SaaS leaders make is this: they make products for themselves, not for the customer. The potential solution looks so cool to them, they assume it must be just as exciting for everyone else. Meticulously research the common problems people within your market are facing, and gear your product towards those. This includes being aware of what your competitors are doing, what they’re doing right, and what they’re failing to address. Your job then is to fill the gap that they’re not filling. [Setting expectations for customers throughout the journeyPart of providing a great experience lies in managing realistic customer expectations. Overpromise and under deliver, and you may find yourself without repeat custom and a very damaged reputation.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2022/01/ricardo-rocha-nj1bqRzClq8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/setting-expectations-for-customers-throughout-the-journey/) ### Chart the customer journey A term you have to become aware of is ‘touchpoints’. Touchpoints are the key interactions that customers have with your product or band. This can be in the form of website traffic, ad clicks, or sign-ups. By being aware of this you can optimize your funnel and strengthen weak links within it. For example, are customers typically bouncing when they first hit your homepage (a weakness in the awareness stage)? This might indicate a cluttered interface or poor messaging. ### Optimize the customer onboarding process As we’ve mentioned when charting out the custom journey, it’s essential to remove as much friction as possible. Prospects have to know exactly what they need to go to get from point A to B, and they don’t want to spend an hour filling out a lengthy form. In short, make the trajectory clear and obvious, and don’t make customers sign their lives away just to interact with your product. ## Major metrics to track Metrics are the guiding stars for the successes and failures in your growth-chasing efforts. We’re sure you’re familiar with all of them, but let’s zoom in on how exactly they help you optimize your funnel. ### Customer churn It seems obvious, but you have to keep a keen eye on how many customers are leaving and, more importantly, what’s triggering it. Once you’re able to zoom in on these causes, that’s where you can make critical changes to the funnel. [SaaScast: Leading the way in sales excellenceJoin Sara Storm, Chief Revenue Officer and seasoned sales leader, as she shares invaluable insights on cascading solid sales practices from the top down.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/12/Sara-Storm---SaaScast.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-leading-the-way-in-sales-excellence/) ### Customer acquisition cost (CAC) We said previously that retention and advocacy are a critical part of the process, and if you keep a firm handle on your customer acquisition cost, you’ll see why. The effort it takes to draw leads and keep prospects in the funnel is costly. But additionally, keeping an eye on how much you’re spending on each stage of the funnel can reveal where you’re overspending and where funds may need to be redistributed elsewhere. ### Customer lifetime value (CLTV) This reveals how much money customers are bringing into your business over a prolonged period of time. If this value is too low across the board, it can expose many things. Maybe you’ve got too many customers on a basic freemium package and your CAC is outweighing your CLTV. In which case, you may need to think about rolling out a new upselling strategy or changing up your pricing. [How to measure and increase activation rate for SaaSIf you want your business to succeed, you need to convert more trial users into customers. This is where user activation comes in. It’s not only an important step in the user journey but also one of the most important SaaS metrics that can determine your business’ long-term success.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAlex Bickov![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2022/12/activation.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-measure-and-increase-activation-rate-for-saas/) ## Wrapping up If there’s one thing to take away above all else, it’s this; ensure you’re always addressing the prospect. And we’re not talking about the prospect in your mind, or the prospect that looks like you, but the personas you’ve pinpointed through thorough research. This is still the most fatal mistake most SaaS founders make.If you get this right, while there’s still a lot of work to be done, it will make every subsequent stage of the funnel significantly easier. You cannot optimize a funnel for a customer that doesn’t exist. Look closely at the market and respond accordingly, and that will instantly put you ahead of much of the competition. --- Want to hear more leading insights from the leading minds in SaaS? Why not sign up to a Future of SaaS membership for exclusive, growth-chasing tips. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Your five-step playbook for successfully raising prices URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/your-five-step-playbook-for-successfully-raising-prices/ Last updated: 2024-08-06T06:49:43.000Z Raising prices is a delicate operation for SaaS orgs, but product marketing maestro Josh Bean is here to show you all the hacks to stay profitable. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### How to build an awesome SaaS marketing funnel to convert prospects into die hard advocates URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-an-awesome-saas-marketing-funnel-to-convert-prospects-into-die-hard-advocates/ Last updated: 2024-01-26T12:14:36.000Z **Struggling to convert leads into paying customers in your SaaS business? Wondering why your high-quality SaaS product isn't selling itself?** Let's reveal how a well-structured marketing funnel can transform your customer acquisition process. This foundational structure, propels customer acquisition, fuels retention, and drives sustainable growth, all while helping you to navigate the dynamic SaaS landscape successfully 💸. Steering potential clients through the sales funnel can be a complex task. With the ever-evolving state of the current market, buyers are spoilt for choice and have become harder to win over. But here’s the tricky part - you can’t force a purchase decision without risking losing potential customers. The objective instead is to guide prospects through the sales process until they’re ready to become paying customers. And how do you do that? **An effective marketing funnel 🔻.** Join us as we explore just how to build the ultimate winning SaaS marketing funnel. Let's get started! - **What is a SaaS marketing funnel?** - **Why is it important?** - **The 4 key stages** - **Maximum optimization** ## Final thoughts ## **What is a SaaS marketing funnel?** Before we embark on this funnel-building journey, let's shed some light on what a SaaS marketing funnel actually is. Imagine a large funnel, gradually narrowing towards the bottom. Potential customers enter at the top, and as they move downwards, they turn from mere prospects to qualified leads, then into active customers, and ultimately, into loyal patrons. This transformative journey from 'who's this?' to 'can't live without this' is orchestrated by the SaaS marketing funnel. A winning funnel is tailored at every stage to cater to the evolving needs and behaviors of your customers, taking them one step closer to hitting the 'Subscribe' button. **The more that reach that final stage, the quicker you can scale your SaaS business growth.** **Why is it important?** So, why does your SaaS business need a marketing funnel? In the hyper-competitive SaaS landscape you need to prove to potential customers that *your* product will solve the problem they face. With a well-structured SaaS marketing funnel, you're not just shooting in the dark; you're **crafting personalized customer experiences** that guide your prospects through a carefully choreographed journey. A robust funnel brings clarity to your marketing efforts, helping you understand which strategies work (and which don’t) at every stage of the customer journey. This then enables you to optimize your resources, enhance customer engagement, and ultimately, boost your bottom line. What’s not to love? **The 4 key stages** A successful SaaS marketing funnel comprises four stages, each critical to transforming a prospect into a loyal, paying customer. Let's delve into the details: 1. **👀 Awareness** This phase marks the start of the customer's interaction with your SaaS product. The focus here isn’t just to create visibility but to **engage the audience in a meaningful way** that encourages interaction and exploration. In this stage, potential customers may come across your product or SaaS company while looking to fix a problem. They’ll usually stumble across your product through a search engine query or a social media post, so make sure to **harness those channels through SEO** for even more exposure! 1. **📲 Engagement** Now that potential customers have discovered you and have started to think about your product, your role transitions from a software provider to a **credible problem-solver**. 1. **🧭 Exploration** The exploration stage is pivotal. It's the moment your lead decides whether to go with your product or look elsewhere. This is the perfect chance to offer **free trials**, **demos**, or even **tailored consultations**, showing them firsthand the value your SaaS solution provides. By highlighting your unique selling points, ability to solve their issues, and what makes you stand out against your competition, you can guide your leads towards their **‘aha!’** moment. 1. **🤝 Conversion** The culmination of the customer's journey is conversion. Making the sale is vital, but maintaining that customer relationship is key. A winning SaaS marketing funnel doesn't end at the purchase - it focuses on retaining customers and nurturing a relationship. You can do this through top-notch customer service, thorough updates, and providing a community for your customers. 1. 👥 **The advocacy stage** The advocacy stage is when your awesome customers turn into passionate advocates for your product. They can't help but gush about how incredible it is to their friends, colleagues, and basically anyone who will listen. And if they think your product will rock their friends' worlds too, they'll totally invite them to give it a shot. It's like a ripple effect of awesomeness spreading through communities! ## Maximum optimization Your SaaS marketing funnel isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. Tailoring it to fit different audience segments is the key. Understanding your customer's needs, behaviors, and pain points is crucial to creating a **personalized experience** that resonates with them. Are they a small business owner looking for a cost-effective solution? Or an enterprise-level organization seeking robust features? By segmenting your audience and crafting personalized messaging, you'll ensure your funnel speaks directly to their needs and aspirations. After tailoring your SaaS marketing funnel to your audience's needs, it's time to measure its pulse. That's where **KPIs** come into the picture. KPIs can help you evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing efforts at each stage of the funnel. Is your content capturing attention? Are your free trials leading to conversions? By **monitoring specific KPIs**, namely, website traffic, bounce rate, conversion rate, customer acquisition cost, and customer lifetime value, you'll be able to optimize your funnel performance and **fuel sustainable growth**. ## Final thoughts As we wrap up this guide, let's take a peek into the future. From AI-powered automation to hyper-personalization, the SaaS marketing funnel landscape is set to evolve dramatically. Staying abreast of these trends will help you stay one step ahead and continue to optimize your funnel. Building a SaaS marketing funnel might seem like a daunting task, but with the right strategies, tools, and a dash of creativity, it's an exciting journey. Now that you're armed with this comprehensive guide, you're all set to craft a winning SaaS marketing funnel that propels your business to new heights. **Happy funnel-building!** ### 10 top tips for the perfect tech resume URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-tips-for-the-perfect-tech-resume/ Last updated: 2024-01-25T16:20:14.000Z Landing a job at a leading tech company has *never* been more competitive. With positions attracting hundreds or even thousands of highly skilled applicants, ensuring your tech resume gets through screening rounds and impresses hiring managers is imperative. With so much talent out there, nailing key elements is vital to avoid having your application tossed into the “no” pile. But crafting a stellar tech resume doesn’t have to be rocket science. We’re breaking down the top ten best practices for tech resumes. From quantifying achievements to customizing for specific roles, these tailored tips will ensure your resume checks *every* box. Let’s dive in! ## **1\. Spotlight accomplishments over duties** Running through a list of generalized responsibilities rather than actual achievements you’ve made is a common resume mistake. But for hiring managers inundated with applications, tangible accomplishments showcase your value and abilities much more effectively. Rather than starting and finishing sentences with passive or abstract verbs like “responsible for”, “involved in” or “participated in”, put the focus firmly on what you actively achieved. Illustrating accomplishments also helps hiring managers visualize you excelling in future roles within their organization. So spotlight achievements that could translate, prove you move things in the right direction. ## **2\. Back up achievements by quantifying results** Mentioning accomplishments ticks the first box, but recruiters also need to know just how well you delivered operationally. Any candidate can say they “drove sales” or “increased productivity” – but *by how much*? Providing actual data points backing up results gives the essential context to what you’ve achieved. Rather than keeping statements vague, “**Increased customer retention**”, get specific with quantifiable facts like, “**Increased** [**customer retention rate**](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) **by 8% over 2 years**”. Adding precise percentages, scores, or times helps hiring managers better grasp success levels and easily visualize the scale of your impact. For customer-facing tech roles, useful metrics might are as follows. 👇 ![Useful metrics for customer-facing roles](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/useful-metrics-custome-facing--1-.png) On technical, product or [UX/UI projects](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-user-experience-is-so-important-for-your-saas-company/), relevant metrics should be... ![useful metrics for UX](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/UX-roles-.png) Just remember metrics should directly relate to your position and contributions – no stretching truths or grabbing unrelated company-wide stats! ## **3\. Customize your resume to each job’s key requirements** With access to detailed job descriptions and information online, candidates are expected to customize content accordingly. *Why?* Because tailored resumes signal applicants have carefully reviewed opportunity specifics and believe wholeheartedly they’re well-matched candidates. You don’t necessarily need to completely rework entire resumes from scratch if requirements remain broadly similar across opportunities. But closely examine areas like: **⚙️ Key technical skills:** What specific programming languages, software platforms, tools or CRMs are listed? **🧠 Industry/domain knowledge:** For customer-facing tech [sales or marketing ](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-a-bridge-between-marketing-and-sales/)roles especially, expertise interacting with target clients in their sector really appeals. **🏅 Certifications & training:** If particular qualifications like HubSpot or Google certificates are called up, list these clearly amongst credentials. **🏆 Level of experience:** For more senior applicants, depth of exposure becomes more important i.e. number of market launches executed, size of budgets or teams overseen. Making just small but deliberate resume adjustments to align with each advertised job really packs a punch. So don’t fall into the trap of uploading thoughtless spray-and-pray style applications if you’re aiming for top tech jobs. ## **4\. Use industry terminology, avoid jargon** Working in technical roles inevitably comes with the niche software platforms, coding languages and specialty tools that become second nature over time. But remembering that wider [stakeholders](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) often won’t share this deep domain expertise is important. For tech resumes especially, as they’ll often first be seen by relatively non-technical HR screeners before heading to technical managers, sticking to industry-standard terminology keeps things clearer. Avoid overly technical nuance by spelling out acronyms, explaining [software tool](https://www.saasalliance.io/15-tools-for-a-great-finance-tech-stack/)s, or summarizing methodologies really helps. The ability to relay technical subject matter clearly and concisely to any audience is a hugely valuable tool too. ## **5\. Be concise** With the average recruiter skimming well over 50 resumes daily and often many more, sticking to concise hard facts rather than descriptive padding ensures key messages shine through. The shorter, sharper and more scannable your [content ](https://www.saasalliance.io/content-types-for-customer-education/)– the more digestible, so streamline statements to max out impact. Only retain what genuinely showcases capabilities matching the intended recruiter’s brief. Less is often more on resumes for time-restricted [hiring](https://www.saasalliance.io/improve-employee-retention-and-supercharge-growth-by-hiring-for-the-future/) managers. ## **6\. Structure all information logically & readably** With just seconds to convey credibility and [suitability](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-building-a-sustainable-growth-engine/), making your resume content easily digestible is key. Well-structured, logically laid out information enables quick-scanning, while haphazard messy content hides accomplishments. Formatting best practices help ensure readability: - **Use consistent, legible fonts and sizing.** - **Emphasize readablilty with space.** - **Work in columns.** - **Call out sections with simple headings.** - **Bullet point achievements.** The more well-structured, accessible, and readable [hiring ](https://www.saasalliance.io/hiring-practices-cracked-what-are-the-top-interview-questions-for-cfo-applicants/)managers or their algorithms find your resume, the deeper dive they can instantly take. ## **7 . Minimize the use of an objective statement** Objective statements only really become necessary on tech resumes if candidates are clearly switching career trajectories from radically different industries. It’s also relevant if you’re looking to take an evident step back or down in your role for specific reasons. For most mid-career tech professionals looking to progress [across similar functions](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/), outlining upwards mobility objectives is usually redundant. Any summary section real estate is usually better dedicated to matching person specifications through more compelling means. ## **8 . Write a standout resume summary** As we’ve mentioned already, tech recruiters generally take a top-down approach, zooming in rapidly on opening resume statements to shortcut decision making. That’s why crafting an impactful summary section ticking key boxes is critical. Think of powerful summary intro sections almost as “elevator pitches”. They concisely showcase impressive capability highlights in a short space allowing quick pre-evaluation before driving into detail later. Effective tech resume summaries should: **💻 Demonstrate domain expertise** – Spotlight both technical and business competencies from past comparable [roles](https://www.saasalliance.io/8-top-interview-questions-for-cmo/). **📊 Emphasize performance metrics** – Incorporate facts and figures conveying quantifiable success levels powerfully upfront. **🤝 Establish** [**culture**](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-youre-demotivating-your-team-and-how-to-turn-things-around/) **fit** – Give a snapshot view into work styles and values alignment beyond skills alone. **🌟 Showcase unique value** – Indicate what outstanding qualities or achievements set you distinctly apart from other [applicants.](https://www.saasalliance.io/subscribe-your-way-to-a-successful-saas-application/) So rather than taking summaries lightly, approach thoughtfully. Hook attention fast with a compelling stats-driven overview of value you offer, then fill in specifics later. ## **9\. Transferable skills from different backgrounds still count** Transitioning tech professionals from non-technical backgrounds face the common “experience Catch-22” where they can’t get that first break without already having experience! But highlighting transferable skills rather than solely technical ones provides a work-around. Recruiters often hire for capability over specifically matching industry expertise anyway if individuals demonstrate the right core traits like: - **Rapid self-starter learning ability** - **Analytical problem-solving drive** - **Resilient & flexible approach** - **Process & system optimization mindset** - **Data-driven & metrics-focused** - **Customer value & outcome obsession** These “soft skills” can outweigh directly applicable sector or [tools ](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-tools-to-enhance-the-performance-of-your-salespeople/)knowledge that can be learned on-the-job regardless. So don’t be afraid to play up credible examples of these transferable strengths even from past non-technical roles, highlight interests, hobbies or academic strengths that reinforce capabilities too. ## **10\. Mirror language & keywords from each job listing** Lastly, a quick-win tactic to help you get through resume screening gatekeepers: mirror language used in role vacancy listings. With tech firms increasingly applying intelligent algorithms for initial application parsing, reflecting priority nouns, verbs, qualifications and skills called out in ads can make or break progression prospects. These Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) filter candidates precisely according to provided criteria to automatically pass higher potential resumes directly onwards and weed out the rest. So closely incorporate the exact required certifications listed, word for word required technical proficiencies, and buzzwords signaling company [values](https://www.saasalliance.io/empower-your-employees-by-building-a-culture-that-values-every-customer-interaction/) and priorities. It might feel disingenuous matching application materials so precisely, but failure to adhere tightly to advertised criteria risks early stage rejection. ## **Wrapping up** Standing out from the highly impressive tech talent crowd is far from easy. But optimizing resumes specifically for the industry’s expectations around conveying key abilities, achievements and skills can make a huge impact. Ensuring content hits essential markers like quantified metrics and tailored technical terminology, while formatted for easily scannable key facts and mirroring role requirements shows recruiters you get what tech hiring is about. So do yourself justice! With the sector’s accelerating innovation showing no signs of slowing, more brilliant tech minds will be more in demand than ever. So get your resume fighting fit using these tips today to grab vacancies matching your skill set right now and propel your career upwards and onwards! --- *Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The best SaaS template options to delight and excite customers URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-best-saas-template-options-to-delight-and-excite-customers/ Last updated: 2024-01-24T18:20:22.000Z So, why do you need SaaS templates? Well, let's break it down. Of course you’re going to use all your top digital marketing efforts and catchy call to actions, but If your website looks clumsy, or is difficult to navigate, it’s not going to reflect well on your product. It‘s going to be difficult to keep customers on the site for longer than five seconds, and they're highly unlikely to become paying customers. Simply put, for anyone looking to impress potential customers, high quality web design is a must. And for busy SaaS founders the answer might just be this: Top-notch SaaS templates. But building a website is no mean feat, especially for SaaS startups. It can be costly, time-consuming and it can take away valuable time away from developing new features, crafting sharp marketing campaigns, or conducting market research. Luckily, there are numerous solutions out there to make the website building process smoother. So you can get started building your top-notch website, we’ve compiled the best SaaS templates available right here. Let’s dive in! We’ll be delving into all the template features, describing how they can help you entice new customers! With SaaS website templates to suit every kind of business, we’re sure you’ll find what you’re looking for! ## **Bulkit** ![Bulkit landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/bulikit.png) Source: [ThemeForest](https://themeforest.net/item/bulkit-agency-startup-and-saas-template/21278677) Built with Gulp, HTML5, and the powerful Bulma framework, [Bulkit ](https://themeforest.net/item/bulkit-agency-startup-and-saas-template/21278677?ref=futureofsaas.io)is your go-to choice for startups and companies in the software and SaaS world.With a whopping collection of over 160 demo pages, this template brings serious versatility to the table. You get a treasure trove of customizable and reusable components, ready to tackle any task you throw their way. Its key appeal is all about flexibility. It seamlessly fits different needs, making customization a breeze. You can mix and match, create, without wasting valuable hours trying to get to grips with design. ### Pricing Regular license: $24 Extended License: $399 [ Get it now ](https://themeforest.net/item/bulkit-agency-startup-and-saas-template/21278677?ref=futureofsaas.io target=) ## **Anaton** ![a selection of SaaS templates](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/anaton-2.png) [Anaton’s ](https://themeforest.net/item/anaton-saas-landing-page-template/44273730)intuitive interface renders it exceptionally user-centric, serving the needs of novices and seasoned web developers alike. But the real shining star for customers seems to be Anaton’s unparalleled customer support, consistently responsive and accommodating. But what exactly about Anaton makes it feel so user- centric? It’s all down to intuitiveness. This seamless experience is made possible through the incorporation of interface elements such as the Navigator, Copy/Paste functionality, Copy Style options, and a multitude of other user-friendly features. Additionally, Anaton is a piece of cake to optimize and includes an unlimited range of color, so you can build a website that accurately reflects the unique character of your brand. ### **Pricing** Regular License: $12 Extended License: $800 [ Get it now ](https://themeforest.net/item/anaton-saas-landing-page-template/44273730 target=) ## **Apptek** ![Apptek landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/apptek-2.png) Source: [radiantthemes](https://apptek.radiantthemes.com/docs/) Imagine having a top-notch designer at your fingertips, offering a premium look and versatile demos that'll make your website stand out. That's what you get from [Apptek's](https://ecosystem.hubspot.com/marketplace/website/apptek-theme-by-radiant-themes) gorgeous gallery. It's your ticket to an awesome webpage! Apptek offers an intuitive drag and drop builder system, so that building your SaaS website can feel like a creatively satisfying experience, rather than a code overload. ### **Pricing** Regular license: $39 Extended License: $1800 Get it now ## **Wedu (From Wix)** ![Wix landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/wix-software.jpeg) Source: [Wix](https://www.wix.com/website/templates?criteria=saas) So we’ve covered professional, sleek looking templates but, what if you’re style is something more lively and characterful? That’s exactly what [Wedu ](https://www.wix.com/website/templates?utm%5Fsource=affiliate&utm%5Fmedium=paid%5Freferral&utm%5Fcampaign=af%5F41@olearno.com&experiment%5Fid=cake%5F155876710^1030)(from Wix) can offer you. You can use eye-catching animations to make your website pop off the page, and you can utilize Wix’s top-notch pricing model to ensure that customer don’t encounter friction when trying to figure out exactly how much your product costs. Want to really shine the spotlight on your visual content? Wedu offers seamless image integration. In a nutshell, WeDu is the best solution for those looking for a playful feature. If your org specializes in design or provides creative solutions, then this just might be the ticket for you. ### **Pricing** Subscribe to Wix to use this template Get it now ## **Crocus (From Webflow)** ![Crocus landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/crocus.jpeg) Source: [Webflow](https://webflow.com/templates/tag/saas-websites) Let’s say your SaaS solution targets developers, for example. In that case, you might be looking for something that carries an air of sophistication, something simple yet elegant– no fuss, no muss! In that case, [Crocus](https://themeforest.net/item/crocus-ecommerce-fashion-html5-template/18400128) might be more your kind of thing. With its calming dark– themes, Crocus will make your website soothing to the eyes and allow customers seamless navigation. Perfect for those customers who are inundated with information on a day-to- basis. ### **Pricing** Regular License: $19 Extended license: $850 ## **NextGreen (From Webflow)** ![Nextgreen template](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/nextgreen-1.jpeg) Source: [Webflow](https://webflow.com/templates/html/nextgreen-saas-website-template) When it comes to branding, it’s really the little details that matter, and this webflow template certainly delivers on that score. As well as being intuitive and eye-catching, [Nextgreen’s](https://webflow.com/templates/html/nextgreen-saas-website-template) organic color palette gives off an aura of trustworthiness, ideal for those companies that want to give that initial positive impression to customers ### **Pricing** Regular License: $49 ## TheSaaS ![TheSaaS template](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/The-SaaS.png) Source: [Themeforest](https://themeforest.net/item/thesaas-responsive-bootstrap-saas-software-webapp-template/19778599) Another one for developers, namely in that it provides a comprehensive plugin selection without appearing in any way cluttered. And of course, these days, SaaS founders have to be particularly concerned about whether their website will function across mobile devices, but [TheSaaS](https://themeforest.net/item/thesaas-responsive-bootstrap-saas-software-webapp-template/19778599) makes this a breeze, ensuring your product will shine no matter the screen-size. Still don’t believe this will please developers? How about this: TheSaaS utilizes SASS pre-processor CSS magic, complete with 80+ neatly commented SCSS files. Each file matches up with a specific component, layout, page, or extension – talk about simplifying code editing. That's coding simplified. ### **Pricing** Regular license: $39 Extended License: $800 ## **Action (from colourlib)** ![Action landing page ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/action-template.jpeg) Source: [colorlib](https://colorlib.com/wp/template/action/) [Action](https://colorlib.com/wp/template/action/) is designed to make every user a webpage pro. Its flexible layouts let you mold the theme to match your unique project visions. And if you're ever stuck, high-quality images and step-by-step tutorials have got your back. They offer top-notch customer support too, ready to tackle any issues that come your way. ### **Pricing** Regular license: $19 Extended License: $129 (With [Colorlib](https://colorlib.com/wp/template/action/) membership) ## **Bizland** ![Bizland landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/bizland.webp) Source: [Bootstrap](https://bootstrapmade.com/bizland-bootstrap-business-template/) Boasting a broad array of customizable templates and drag and drop design features and a whole range of color schemes, [Bizland](https://bootstrapmade.com/bizland-bootstrap-business-template/) is your go-to if you’re looking for smooth building and vibrant presentation. And for SaaS companies that are looking to ensure a frictionless sales funnel – and let’s be honest, who isn’t – Bizland dazzles with lightning fast loading times. A laggy site can be the difference between a user who bounces and a user who ends up becoming a loyal advocate for your product. It’s all about providing that first-class user experience from the first minute your users interact with you. ### **Pricing** Regular License: $19 (one domain) Extended license: $49 ( multiple domains) ## **Innovio** ![Innovio landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/innovio-3.png) Source: [Qode interactive](https://qodeinteractive.com/wordpress-theme/innovio-multipurpose-landing-page-theme/) Achieving the right brand identity for your company can be trickier than it might first appear. [Innovio](https://qodeinteractive.com/wordpress-theme/innovio-multipurpose-landing-page-theme/) might just be what you need. Sure, you want it to look professional, but you also want to have a distinct image and character. The SaaS market is fast-paced and dynamic – and yes – it’s pretty noisy too. It might not seem like a major thing compared to, say, the strength of your product, but the appearance of your homepage can really be an important factor in establishing your unique character. For Orgs that are mindful of this, Innovio might just be the right option for you. We like the seamless blend of quirky visuals and super clean, minimalist polish. And with a massive range of customization options within its considerable UI kit, you’ll never lack inspiration when you’ve got Innovio in your corner. ### **Pricing** Regular license: $85 ## **Metronic** ![Metronic landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/metronic.png) Source: [Keenthemes](https://keenthemes.com/metronic) So maybe you’re looking for something stylish but you lack the design know-how? Then maybe you need something like [Metronic](https://keenthemes.com/metronic)? Or maybe you just want to cut down on design time. Metronic comes equipped with more than 60 gorgeous layouts and landing page templates – ready to go! And at only $49 (at the time of writing) Metronic will not only save you time, but also money! ### **Pricing** Regular license: $49 Extended license: $969 ## Fuse ![Fuse landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/fuse-template.png) Source: [Themeforest](https://themeforest.net/item/fuse-angularjs-material-design-admin-template/12931855) Maybe your SaaS organization specializes in finance solutions. In that case, we think [Fuse](https://themeforest.net/item/fuse-angularjs-material-design-admin-template/12931855) might be the right solution for you. It has the clean modern design that users look for in a finance SaaS. And on top of this, it comes with free updates and access to new features once you pay for the license, and with a cornucopia of content and designs ready to use, you can showcase your product online in no time at all! ### **Pricing** Regular license: $49 Extended license: $969 ## **SaaSland** ![SaaSland landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/saasland-3.jpeg) Source: [zozothemes](https://zozothemes.com/saas-website-templates/) [SaaSland](https://themeforest.net/item/saasland-creative-wordpress-theme-for-saas-business/23362980?gad%5Fsource=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAh8OtBhCQARIsAIkWb69pIEKC%5FmB5IsGDbnovKU0ZA33Its0gwQ90YQSdCwbfliD1mVypXFYaAqyhEALw%5FwcB) is both fully responsive and comes equipped with versatile ready-to-use layouts – you’ll be a full-fledged website builder in no time! Its retina-ready design is sure to catch the eyes of your prospects, which is really what you want your website to do as an advertisement for your brand. With SaaSland’s clean, simple layout, users are sure to go smooth sailing to adopting your product. ### **Pricing** Regular license: $89 Extended license: $1000 ## **Xamin** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/xamin-2.jpg) Source: [Xamin](https://iqonic.design/product/wordpress-themes/xamin-data-science-analytics-saas-wordpress-themes/) [Xamin](https://iqonic.design/product/wordpress-themes/xamin-data-science-analytics-saas-wordpress-themes/) is your ticket to success! This premium WordPress theme is tailor-made for App and SaaS companies, startups, and lead generation-focused businesses. Why Xamin? Well, it’s your go-to if your looking for sleek & modern design, a fully responsive experience, eye-catching retina-ready appearance, a diverse selection of theme options, and an unbeatable user experience regardless on all devices. And at only $32 who can honestly complain? ### **Pricing** Regular license: $59 Extended license: $1900 ## Wrapping up Whether you’re launching a nifty startup app or simply looking to give your web presence a makeover, these SaaS templates can give you a major leg up when it come to getting your shiny website in front of potential customers. Try them out, experiment and find the look that suits you best! --- Enjoyed these insights? Why not soak up exclusive advice from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a FoSaaS membership [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### A fresh perspective: The power of beginning at the end URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/a-fresh-perspective-the-power-of-beginning-at-the-end/ Last updated: 2024-01-19T14:52:39.000Z *This article comes from Sr. Director of Sales & Field Enablement at Zixi, Eric Mingorance’s talk, ‘Begin with the end in mind’, at our 2023 New York Sales Enablement Summit.* *Check out the full event replay in the membership dashboard.* We often think of a journey as one step at a time, or progress as linear, but I want to rework this with a radical but effective concept: **beginning with the end in mind.** As a sales enablement leader with a passion for improvement and a penchant for problem-solving, I'm always looking for ways to shake things up and create more impactful strategies. The question is: > ***How do we go beyond simply 'delivering' training to actually ensuring it aligns with our business outcomes?*** I’d like to share my thoughts on this very topic, distilling some of my key insights to help you flip your approach to sales enablement on its head. We'll base our discussion in the Kirkpatrick model and explore how we can effectively reorient our strategies to focus on results. [Sales: The rules of engagementSales is a complex and competitive business - and never more so than when deciding who gets the credit for what: who gets the commission and, just as importantly, who gets the recognition?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/08/muyuan-ma--xHZBzv4Naw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-the-rules-of-engagement/) From setting clear, tangible goals to ensuring alignment across all teams, and implementing a robust, continuous feedback loop, we'll explore all the crucial steps that you can implement in your organization to drive real results. So, without further ado, let's kickstart our journey of 'beginning at the end.' 🛣️ - **Reinforcement: Our halftime pep talk** - **Flipping the Kirkpatrick model** - **Changing behaviors** - **Final thoughts** ## **Reinforcement: Our halftime pep talk** We've all been there: the halfway mark, where you pause, reassess, and brace yourself for the sprint to the finish line, I like to think of it like the Super Bowl halftime. When teams huddle in the locker room, you don’t suddenly announce a brand-new change in strategy, you focus on **reinforcement** \- reminding the team of the groundwork already laid and boosting their motivation. That's how I want you to think of this enablement training approach. We're not reinventing the wheel. Instead, we’re **revisiting and reinforcing things you already know**, breathing new life into them, and gearing up for the next big push. 💪 ## **Flipping the Kirkpatrick model** To begin with the end in mind, we need to revisit an old favorite in training methodology: the **Kirkpatrick model**. But we're going to flip it, rearranging the four levels to align better with our KPIs to help us focus on changing behavior and establishing clear outcome objectives or performance goals. 🔄 _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### What is SaaS finance and what are the key metrics you should be monitoring? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-saas-finance-and-what-are-the-all-important-metrics-you-should-be-keeping-track-of/ Last updated: 2024-01-18T15:48:34.000Z Want to know one of the key reasons most SaaS startups fail? That’s right. Lack of financial savvy. You might have the best product in the world. You might even have a growing customer base. But if you’re not keeping a hawk eye on your finances, you're going to meet some serious stumbling blocks on your way to profitability. The current SaaS industry is dynamic, diverse – and a little noisy. In a bustling world of top-notch products, good business sense and a skill for finance might just allow you to master the SaaS business model and surpass the competition. A firm grasp on your SaaS finances can allow you to keep tabs on your current financial performance, so you can make crucial decisions on which expenses further down the pipeline are going to cost you more than they’re worth. [SaaS financing solutions to fund your startup in 2024In this article, we break them down the various finance options for growing your SaaS startup.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/11/finance-options--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-financing-options-to-fund-your-startup-in-2024/) But how do you keep on top of your finances? Well, good finance teams with a knack for number-crunching are going to help, for starters. But all the knowledge in the world won’t help you unless you're aware of the financial metrics you should be monitoring and how you can utilize them. Here, we delve deep into every one of them and what they can tell you about your business performance. ## What is SaaS finance? In a nutshell, SaaS finance is a broad term used to describe the financial operations of your SaaS company. Ultimately it’s all about tracking the money that you're spending and the money coming in from acquisitions, investments, and finding, so you can have an idea of how you can either maintain or achieve profitability. Profitability is really the key part of the SaaS puzzle that SaaS finance can guide you towards. So many SaaS companies overspend on resources that ultimately drain their funds so that you can no longer justify its place in your growth-chasing efforts. To get to grips with your SaaS finances there are two pivotal terms you need to familiarize yourself with: **financial modeling** and **key performance indicators.** Let’s define them here. **Financial modeling**: When it comes to SaaS, there is no crystal ball. Instead, you can get yourself a top-notch CFO. Your CFO plays the key role of forecasting financial changes along the pipeline, so you can reorganize your spending accordingly, and make the changes necessary to boost your bottom line. See our key resource on hiring the perfect CFO right [here](https://www.saasalliance.io/hiring-practices-cracked-what-are-the-top-interview-questions-for-cfo-applicants/). **Key performance indicators**: These are the major rubrics that allow you to keep your finger on the pulse of your financial performance. They allow you to get super granular about where exactly your money is coming from, where you're overspending, where you’re thriving, and the most valuable aspects of your business. ## The benefits of good SaaS finances We’ve been over some of the broad benefits of good financial practice, but now let’s get into the nitty-gritty. There are a whole host of questions that plague the day to day operations of a SaaS company. SaaS finance operations can’t answer all of them, but they can help you clear up the following: - Can you outline the expenses and advantages of transitioning from a licensing payment model to a subscription-based one? - What's the expense associated with gaining a new customer? What's the expenditure involved in retaining a customer you already have? - What can you hope to gain from acquiring a new subscription? - How responsive is your company to financial fluctuations at present? - What’s the present valuation of your organization? - What are the most apparent alterations your organization can implement to enhance its financial standing? These questions are fundamental to your growth efforts – the spending vs. cuts you should be considering to optimize your performance. SaaS companies don’t want to put out fires all the time, reacting to one crisis after another. You want to be able to plan for the future and implement long term strategies. This is the gift a solid SaaS finances operations strategy can offer you. # What are the key financial models used in SaaS? In the world of SaaS, there are some key financial models that the top companies use in tandem to stay on top of their ingoings and outgoings. Let’s break them down here: ### **Balance sheet** Your balance sheet paints a vivid picture of your company's assets, including things like subscriptions, licenses, patents, and other digital goodies. It also covers the company's debts and its overall equity. If your company is hemorrhaging capital, this may give you a head start on where you should start making cuts and which valuable assets you need to invest in more. ### **Income statement** Very simple: it shows you how much money the company made and what it spent over a period of time. If you haven’t quite reached your targets for the year, this can give you key insights into why, and how you can course correct for the future. [SaaS FinanceThe resources in this guide will provide you with actionable strategies to maximize profits and minimize losses in the world of SaaS finance.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/03/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_finance.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-finance/) ### **Statement of cash flows** Here, you can see how much cash moved in and out of the company and sort all these cash movements into categories. You need to have a firm handle on where you're winning and losing. ### **Accrual accounting** This is all about recording revenue earned and expenses incurred in the company's books, no matter when the cash actually flows in or out. Think of it as a real time financial tracker. This stands in contrast to cash basis accounting, which only logs revenue when you've got the cold, hard cash in hand for goods and services. This method is also often referred to as revenue recognition. With accrual accounting, you're not just seeing the dollars roll in – you're getting a real-time, live-action view of your cash flow. Imagine being able to accurately forecast your financial future, helping you project those all-important reports down the line. ## Financial modeling for the future Now, after getting a handle on where things stand, the company has to look ahead and predict its future. This involves guessing things like how many new users or subscribers you'll get, how many will churn, and how much cash you can expect to rake in from each user. Of course, these predictions aren't always spot on, but a good financial model can help you try out different scenarios. Ask yourself these questions: - What if you doubled your subscribers? - How would that affect your bottom line? - What if you spent more on customer retention, would that give you a greater chance of becoming profitable? Are there certain resources that aren’t bringing value and need to be trimmed? Financial modeling can give you a snapshot of all these factors. ### **Sensitivity analysis** This is the "what-if" game of finance. It helps you figure out how changes in one thing will affect something else. Your SaaS company is a well oiled machine and a misplaced screw can bring the whole thing down. ### **Discounted Cash Flow Valuation (DCF**) This method considers the value of all the cash the company expects to get in the future, but it adjusts for the fact that a dollar today might be worth more than a dollar tomorrow. The subscription model in SaaS often makes these cash flow predictions pretty straightforward. But why bother with all this financial modeling? SaaS finance is all about difficult decision making. Making difficult decisions involves weighing up all the various risks and possible impacts of possible decisions. No one can predict the future, but we can make educated speculations, and SaaS finance operations are a pivotal factor in this. ## SaaS finance: the major metrics you should be monitoring First, let’s start with your most standard – but possibly most crucial – metrics. ### 1\. Annual recurring revenue(ARR) Companies that sell yearly subscriptions rely on this metric because it tells them exactly how much money they can bank on year after year. In the world of SaaS, ARR isn't just about subscription fees; it also covers extra goodies your company provides. Think of things like product installation, training sessions, and maintenance contracts – they're all part of the ARR package. It's the full financial picture that keeps your SaaS business on the growth track. ### 2\. Monthly recurring revenue (MRR) And if you’re offering monthly subscriptions, you’ll want to be aware of your monthly recurring revenue. While ARR can give you a picture of your overall company health, MRR will give you valuable insights into the momentum you’ve been growing with, allowing you to make adjustments and pivot in order to hit your broader goals. ### 3\. Monthly users In order to get the most value from your customers, it goes without saying that you have to know exactly how many people are using your product month to month. **Important note**: For many SaaS businesses, especially those who offer a free package, your number of monthly users can be quite different from the number of paying customers. A major hurdle that many SaaS companies face is that their free user numbers tower over their number of paying customers. They’ll try to show these users the value of their premium packages to have a better chance of a successful upsell. But before you do that, you need to know exactly how many users you have and, more specifically, how they’re engaging with your product and what their pain points are. [15 tools for a great finance stackFinance teams need to pull data fast and they need it to be accurate, to achieve both they have to have complete confidence in their tech stack. With this in mind, we searched high and low for the tools you need in your arsenal to build the ultimate finance tech stack![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/07/clay-banks-E2HgkL3LaFE-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/15-tools-for-a-great-finance-tech-stack/) ### 4\. Churn rates Simply put, this is how many customers/users are leaving your product or service. Churn rate can indicate that there’s a crucial component missing in your product, or can simply indicate that something is going awry with your marketing efforts. You might have a really great product, but maybe the message isn’t getting out there. Are your customers overlooking valuable features in your product? So many questions are raised by a declining churn rate, but you need to know there’s a problem before you can try to address it. ### 5\. Revenue per user Gaining insight into the revenue generated by each user can simplify the decision-making process when it comes to expanding, entering new markets, and reaching out to consumers. It can also help you segment your customers into groups. Which customers are bringing you the most value, and which ones should you be putting more time and effort into? Sometimes, a SaaS company might decide that a certain kind of customer doesn’t really fit into their ICP at all, i.e, they’re not likely to need the features that your product offers. ### 6\. Customer acquisition cost (CAC) The cost of acquiring new customers can be significant, and you need to know exactly how much it’s costing you so you can weigh up whether it’s actually paying off. You’ll always need to dedicate a certain amount of money to customer acquisition, but the most costly method is not always the most effective. [SaaS metricsIt goes without saying that Saas orgs want to grow and scale, right? Whether you’re a hot new startup, mid-growth, or a late-growth established brand, all SaaS orgs want their revenue to skyrocket.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_metrics.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics/) ### 7\. Customer lifetime value (CLTV) Customer lifetime value gauges the expected earnings a business can anticipate from an average customer throughout their time with your company. Once you have accurate profiles of your customer types, CLTV can help you determine which profiles bring in the most revenue long term. ### 8\. CLTV:CAC Fortunately, there’s a very clear metric to determine just how much value your customers are providing, and that’s CLTV:CAC (their lifetime value vs. their acquisition cost). This gives you a clear indication of exactly how much value customers are providing versus how much it’s taking to acquire them. If you have a whole load of free users who are bringing in very little revenue to your org, for example, it may be time to shake things up a little. ### 9\. Customer payback period Shows how long a customer must stay for you to break even. Companies are on a mission to reduce this as much as possible. The shorter the payback period, the healthier your company is. ### 10\. Market size Some SaaS companies take the horizontal approach, meaning they target as broad an audience as possible, while others take the vertical approach, meaning they target a more niche market. Marketing is costly, and the size and nature of the market will determine the cost. It stands to reason, then, that you need to have an accurate picture of your market size to inform strategic planning. ### 11\. Discount rate The discount rate, in simple terms, is the key to unlocking the current value of future cash flows. Companies use it to figure out how profitable a project will be over time, which they call the net present value. To set the discount rate, they consider some important factors like inflation rates, the level of risk involved, and what they might be giving up by choosing this project instead of something else, also known as the opportunity cost. It's all part of their strategy for making informed financial decisions. ### 12\. Net profit margin In the grand scheme of things, your enterprise came into being with the ultimate aim of turning a profit someday. Even if it takes a few more years to break even, the net profit margin should always be on your radar as a goal to strive for. ### 13\. Unit cost SaaS unit costs can encompass a variety of aspects, like feature expenses, customer-related costs, product-related expenditures, message costs, or even team-related expenses. It's crucial to identify the unit metrics that matter most to your business and understand how they connect to your cloud expenses. This knowledge empowers your team to make engineering decisions that not only enhance your product but also ensure profitability. ### 14\. Cost of goods sold (COGS) This gives you an idea of how much it actually costs to produce your product or service. Although it can be tempting to have a ‘no expense spared’ approach to your SaaS product, it’s possible that you may need to isolate the features that bring the most value vs. those that seem like nice-to-haves, but are costly and don’t lead to any revenue. ## Bonus: Top software solutions for SaaS finance Forecasting and drawing analysis from data is not easy, and even with the best talent in the world, we can all still make mistakes. Luckily, the modern world offers many nifty software solutions to make the number crunching simpler. Let’s take a look at some of the tools available to you. ### 1\. FloQast FloQast provides a cloud-based accounting workflow automation that's tailor-made for accountants. It seamlessly integrates with your ERP, general ledger, Excel spreadsheets, and various other tools to boost your book-closing process. Whether you're a giant corporation or a smaller, rapidly expanding business, you can tap into its renowned user-friendliness. ### 2\. CloudZero Cloudzero's cloud cost intelligence platform empowers SaaS companies to gain precise insights into how their AWS expenses directly impact their unique features and products. Think of it like a roadmap that connects cloud costs to specific products, features, development teams, and more. This, in turn, allows both engineering and finance teams to unravel unit costs, such as the cost per customer. ### 3\. Numeric Numeric is revolutionizing one of the vital aspects of accounting - the month-end close process. Their platform seamlessly syncs up with your general ledger in real time, simplifying repetitive tasks like recurring workflows, reconciliations, and variance analysis. Numeric is on a mission to empower finance and accounting teams, regardless of their size, to attain a seamless and ongoing closing process. It's all about making your financial operations run smoother and more efficiently. ### 4\. Airbase Airbase is your go-to solution for managing expenses, fine-tuning your spending request and approval processes, all while cutting down on costs and beefing up your defense against fraud. This handy tool doesn't stop there; it comes packed with real-time monitoring, robust reporting, and analytics capabilities to keep your financial operations on point. Plus, it plays well with popular accounting platforms like Sage Intacct, QuickBooks Online Advanced, NetSuite, and Xero, making it a versatile ally for your financial management needs. [Making your SaaS company attractive for investmentMy name’s Edward Keelan and in this article, I’m going to be talking about making your SaaS company attractive for investment. I’m an Investment Director within the Octopus Ventures team at Octopus.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEdward Keelan![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/08/erik-mclean-I9qcFjyuJGw-unsplash--1--1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-your-saas-company-attractive-for-investment/) ### 5\. Chargebee This software is your financial team's trusted companion, granting them complete command over the entire journey of recurring revenue. It covers all the bases, from sending out invoices that align with customer contracts to handling cash collections, recording transactions, and staying on top of accruals. It's the ultimate tool for wrangling your subscription-based revenue, from start to finish. ## Wrapping up Having strong financial operations is an indispensable part of your SaaS strategy. If you want a shot at keeping track of your current performance, planning for the future, allocating resources appropriately and having a realistic, viable plan for growth, it’s a no-brainer: you have to get to grips with SaaS finance. So, get your metrics in order, formulate financial models, and start your long-term financial plan today. --- *Can't get enough of these SaaS insights? Why not sign up for exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### SaaSnow - exclusive SaaS live streams URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saasnow/ Last updated: 2024-09-18T08:09:24.000Z SaaSnow is your chance to stream exclusive talks and presentations from our previous events, hosted by SaaS experts and industry leaders. It's a unique opportunity to watch the most sought-after SaaS content – ordinarily reserved for SaaS Alliance Pro members. Each stream delves deep into a key SaaS topic, industry trend, or case study. Simply sign up to watch any of our upcoming live sessions. 🎥 Access exclusive talks and presentations ✅ Develop your understanding of key topics and trends 🗣 Hear from experienced SaaS leaders 👨‍💻 Enjoy regular in-depth sessions Take a look at what we've got coming up 👇 - Search inside yourself and own success - [Bridging the gap: Unleashing the power of diversity in SaaS](https://www.saasalliance.io/saasnow/#bridging-the-gap-unleashing-the-power-of-diversity-in-saas) - [Hire slow, fire fast: How to build your team for success](https://www.saasalliance.io/saasnow/#hire-slow-fire-fast-how-to-build-your-team-for-success) - [Unleashing the power of analytics](https://www.saasalliance.io/saasnow/#unleashing-the-power-of-analytics) - [Individual contributor to leader](https://www.saasalliance.io/saasnow/#individual-contributor-to-leader) - [Customer churn in SaaS: Identifying causes, mitigating risks, and maximizing retention](https://www.saasalliance.io/saasnow/#customer-churn-in-saas-identifying-causes-mitigating-risks-and-maximizing-retention) --- ### Search inside yourself and own success [Register here](https://www.linkedin.com/events/7242081328916025344/comments/) 📅 September 27, 2024 ⏰ 9:00am PST | 5:00pm BST Join us for the final session of the Women in SaaS Summit featuring Emi Wayner, the global head of customer programs and strategy ops at Google Cloud. In this session, she will be discussing mentorship in the SaaS space, specifically for women. Get ready to dive into the topic of 'Search Inside Yourself and Success' and learn valuable insights. This session is a must-attend for anyone interested in women's empowerment in the tech industry. Don't miss out on the opportunity to hear from a leading expert in the field and gain inspiration for your own journey. Join the SaaS community and be part of the conversation on our Slack channel. Register now and be prepared for an engaging and enlightening session! #### Emi Wayner Dynamic global business leader and accomplished senior executive with Fortune and S&P 500 companies and a demonstrated track record of delivering measurable business outcomes and 10x achievements. Significant experience in product management, sales, business development, investment banking, IT consulting, and marketing. Consistently leverages expertise to grow partnership businesses and build talented, diverse teams. Valuable advisor who challenges assumptions and shares unique perspectives to guide organizations experiencing rapid growth, reformation, or global expansion. Other highlights: \- Proven success at developing and launching complex global initiatives throughout channel programs, defining go-to-market strategy, and leading plans including project scoping, goal-setting, measurement, resourcing, and growth levers. \- Considerable international and multicultural expertise, leading team members from various backgrounds and nationalities; managed workgroups in all regions (APAC, EMEA, and AMRS); lived in 3 countries \- Former startup CEO; embraces entrepreneurial thinking and innovation to drive outstanding results Adept at proactively partnering with product and other areas, using a streamlined feedback loop to propose new features and solutions focused on users. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/09/DO-NOT-OVERRIDE-PMA_Webinar_Meta_Template_--4-.png) --- ### Bridging the gap: Unleashing the power of diversity in SaaS [Watch OnDemand](https://productmarketing.wistia.com/medias/rx8v6c1ltj) 📅 July 31, 2024 ⏰ 10:00am PST | 6:00pm BST Join us for an insightful session where, Mamta, the Director of Engineering at Torquay Sar, shares valuable insights on why diversity is not just a nice-to-have, but a business imperative. - Discover how we can all work together to create a more equitable industry. - Learn from Mamta's experience at Berkeley and her expertise in building diverse teams and inclusive products. This session is a must-watch for anyone interested in driving positive change and fostering a more inclusive SaaS community. #### Meet the speaker 🎤 Mamta Suri , Ex Director of Engineering at DocuSign Mamta Suri is an accomplished executive leader in Enterprise, SaaS, and Platforms with over 20 years of experience. She has effectively steered organizations to achieve operational excellence, profitable growth, and strategic goal attainment. With a strong track record of driving success through innovative solutions, team empowerment, and client-centric approaches, Mamta has delivered substantial business value. She has spearheaded global expansion, scaling products to reach an impressive 100 million users and driving multi-million-dollar revenue growth. Adept at navigating complex challenges, Mamta excels in driving cross-functional collaboration and inspiring high-performance teams to achieve and exceed objectives. She is dedicated to advancing organizational success while fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/07/Saas-LI-live-July-31-2--1-.png) --- ### Hire slow, fire fast: How to build your team for success [Watch OnDemand](https://www.linkedin.com/events/saasnow-hireslow-firefast-howto7201975448774316032/theater/) Learn the key strategies for building a successful team in the SaaS industry with this insightful session. Join Mark Girmazian as he shares his experiences and expertise in hiring slow and firing fast. Discover the importance of taking your time to find the right team members and the benefits of making quick decisions when necessary. Whether you're a SaaS entrepreneur or a team leader, this session provides valuable insights on team building and achieving success in the competitive SaaS market. #### Meet the speaker 🎤 [****Mark Ghermezian**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/markgher/)****,** Founder & General Partner at m\]x\[v Capital Mark Ghermezian is a serial entrepreneur and successful investor with 20+ years of experience in founding, building, and investing in early-stage SaaS startups. Mark co-founded Braze (BRZE) and led the company as it’s founding CEO, pioneering a new category from ideation to IPO (Braze IPO’d in November 2021). As an angel investor, Mark was an early investor in companies such as Nutanix, Lattice, Thoughtspot, Rubrik, and Riskified, along with 50 other investments, largely focused on SaaS. Experiencing several IPOs, unicorns, and successful exits. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/Saas-LI-live-June-27.png) --- ### Unleashing the power of analytics [Watch OnDemand](https://www.linkedin.com/events/7198596441106219008/comments/) Join us for an engaging panel discussion on how to harness the full potential of analytics to drive business success. Our panel of experts will explore effective strategies for innovation and implementation, adapting metrics to different business stages, and the importance of understanding and retaining customer engagement. #### Meet the panelists 🎤 [****Kathy Doucette**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-doucette-93a58722/) \- COO/CFO at Proposify 🎤 [****Imran Anwar**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/imran/) \- Director CS & Digital Transformation at Microsoft 🎤 [****Brett Martin**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettlucasmartin/) \- Co-founder/Investor at Kumospace 🎤 [****David Sepulveda**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsepulvedag/) \- Head of Data Analytics at Kumospace ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/Saas-LI-live-June-4.png) --- ### Individual contributor to leader [Watch OnDemand](https://www.linkedin.com/events/saasnow-individualcontributorto7193877428199452673/theater/) Are you ready to take your career to the next level? Whether you're an individual contributor eyeing leadership roles or a new manager navigating the challenges of leadership, this webinar is perfect for you! Here's what you will learn: 👉 Discover the path from an individual contributor to a successful leader. 👉 Uncover the myths and misconceptions about leadership roles. 👉 Gain valuable insights into positioning yourself for advancement. 👉 Learn about the common mistakes to avoid when transitioning to a new managerial role. #### Meet the speaker 🎤[ **Adam Rudick**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/arudick-tt/) \- Director of Sales - SMB, Trackforce Valiant + TrackTik ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/05/SaaS_Meetups_Linkedin_Banners_-3.png) --- ### Customer churn in SaaS: Identifying causes, mitigating risks, and maximizing retention [Watch OnDemand](https://www.linkedin.com/events/customerchurninsaas-causes-risk7168875625234030592/theater/) Discover the secrets to reducing customer churn in the SaaS industry with our panel of experts. **Here's what you will learn:** 👉 The causes of churn 👉 Learn how to mitigate risks 👉 Uncover strategies for maximizing customer retention #### Meet the panelists 🎤 **Ayman Husain** \- Director, CS, Data, AI & Advanced Analytics, Azure Intelligent Cloud at Microsoft 🎤 ****Rupal Nishar** \- Head of Customer Success at MoveHQ 🎤 ****Richard Convery** \- Founder and CEO at Ascend Limited 🎤 ****Minna Vaisanen** \- Head of Customer Success & Accounts at Thrive Partners ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/02/FoSaaS-LI-Live-28-March_Meta_Template.png) --- ### How to assemble a startup dream team: 6 battle-tested strategies URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-assemble-a-startup-dream-team-6-battle-tested-strategies/ Last updated: 2024-01-12T17:00:49.000Z Here I'll share my top lessons on hiring slow, firing fast, taking risks, cultivating innovation, and assembling an A-team… _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### How to personalize your buyer’s journey using interactive demos? [6 ways + examples] URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-personalize-your-buyers-journey-using-interactive-demos-6-ways-examples/ Last updated: 2024-02-05T17:41:01.000Z What do B2B buyers want the most? 1. Liberty to explore options without the pressure of talking to sales 2. Personalized touchpoints throughout their buyer journey In other words, they're tired of spray-and-pray marketing and desperate sales tactics. While they [prefer self-serve](https://www.gartner.com/en/sales/insights/b2b-buying-journey), they expect salespeople to serve them at any stage of the buyer journey when needed. But how can you be there for [buyers ](https://www.saasalliance.io/interactive-content-ideas-for-each-stage-of-the-buyers-journey/)without being there at all? How can you deliver a personalized buyer journey with minimal intervention? Answer: With interactive demos. ## 6 ways to use interactive demos to deliver a personalized buyer journey A typical [buyer journey](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-an-awesome-saas-marketing-funnel-to-convert-prospects-into-die-hard-advocates-2/) can be divided into 3 stages: 1. **Awareness stage:** In this stage, buyers are problem-aware but not sure how to solve it. 2. **Decision stage:** This is where they start evaluating the options available in the market to solve their problem. 3. **Retention stage:** In this stage, they’re no longer buyers but customers of your solution. Here, we give 6 ways to use interactive demos to guide your buyers from the awareness stage to the decision and, finally the retention stage. ![Awareness to retention stage](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2024/01/awareness-to-retention-stage.jpg) ### 1\. Embed interactive demos on websites Best for: Presenting your value proposition to buyers in the awareness stage, visiting your website for the first time. Buyers visiting your landing page want to experience the value of your product without a rep breathing down their neck. Gartner reports that 75% of buyers don’t want to interact with a salesperson to make a purchase. This also means they’ll book a demo only if they’re convinced of your product’s worth. Landing page interactive demos help you maneuver through this tricky buying behavior. With interactive demos on websites, you can: - **Show your product in action**: With an interactive demo, buyers can experience your product in action without the need for a free or paid trial. - **Reduce friction associated with sign-ups**: Your buyers will be more willing to sign up for a demo (or trial) after they get to experience their aha moments through an interactive demo. - **Generate more MQLs**: It provides an easy way to qualify your high-intent buyers and push them further down the marketing funnel by tracking how they interact with your demos. Example: Clari’s interactive demo showcases its main features so users can experience their aha moments quickly. ### 2\. Add interactive demos to prospecting emails **Best for:** Educating **buyers in the awareness stage** about their pains and possible solutions in a non-sales-y and impactful way. Personalizing emails is no longer a choice; it’s a necessity. [According to McKinsey, 71% of buyers](https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-value-of-getting-personalization-right-or-wrong-is-multiplying) expect personalized interactions from brands. But with more brands adopting personalized outreach strategies, basic email personalization alone won’t cut through the clutter. And that’s why you should use[ interactive demos in your outbound email campaigns](https://www.storylane.io/blog/personalize-email-campaigns-with-interactive-product-demos). By embedding these demos, you can: - **Improve conversions:** By adding demos to [outbound](https://www.saasalliance.io/yurii-veremchuk-saas-interview/) emails, you can show buyers how your product solves their pains and fits in their current workflow. This urges prospects to check out your product, improving conversions. - **Hyper-personalize at scale:** Send emails with demos tailored to prospects’ names, company names, and use cases to deliver a personalized experience at scale. - **Gauge their buying intent:** By tracking recipients’ [engagement](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-engagement-and-the-metrics-that-matter-q-a-with-intercom/) with interactive demos, you can gauge their buying intent and send appropriate follow-ups. **Example:** Here’s an interactive demo [Nagarjun Reddy](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nagarjun-reddy/), Storylane’s AE, added in a cold email he sent to[ Kyle Coleman](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyletcoleman/) when he moved from [Clari](https://www.clari.com/) to [Copy.ai](https://www.copy.ai/). The demo focuses on the mutual connection between Kyle, Clari, interactive demos, and Copy.ai and ends with a subtle CTA to try out Storylane. ### 3\. Enhance product-led content with interactive demos **Best for:** Showing **buyers in the awareness stage** how to use your product to solve their specific pain points. With most brands producing copycat content, adopting a product-led approach to content is the way to break away from the pack. It’s about showing readers how to use your product to solve their specific problems. But walking the tightrope of product-led content is never easy. One misstep and your content sounds like a sales-y rant about your product’s bells and whistles. And for times like this, when you are unsure about how to weave your product into the narrative, use interactive demos. Incorporate these guided demos in blogs, webinars, and whitepapers to: - **Give buyers a taste of your product:** Instead of talking at length about your product capabilities, use interactive demos to show buyers how to use specific features. - **Increase dwell time:** Dwell time refers to the time readers spend on a page. By embedding demos, you can hook their interest and make them spend more time on your blog pages. - **Reduce customer activation time:** When buyers are familiar with your tool, they require minimal hand-holding and get value faster. **Example:** [Cognism](https://www.cognism.com/) uses interactive demos in their product blogs to walk users through their custom workflows. 0:00 /0:14 1× ### 4\. Use interactive demos as sales leave-behinds **Best for:** **Buyers in the decision stage** to get stakeholder buy-in easily and quickly. A great demo is like a well-made teaser, it leaves the prospect craving the full experience. But traditional leave-behinds like a demo recording can’t satiate this craving. Neither can a single demo be used to convince every decision-maker with their own unique use cases. You can solve this by using interactive demos as demo leave-behinds. They help you: - **Retain interest in your offer:** Include everything your buyer needs to choose you - from the aha moments of your product to answers to their objections in your sales leave-behind demos. - **Get internal buy-in easily:** Getting stakeholder buy-in is difficult when multiple decision-makers are involved. You can tailor demos to the needs of multiple decision-makers to help champions defend your case. - **Accelerate deal velocity:** [Buyer enablement](https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3956017) is the key to boosting deal velocity. Interactive demo leave-behinds cater to the use cases of multiple decision-makers, thereby making it easy to get buy-in and encouraging them to put pen to paper fast. **Example:**[Upland Software](https://uplandsoftware.com/) witnessed a 3x improvement in sales velocity using interactive demos as sales leave-behinds**.** To know more about it, [read here](https://www.storylane.io/customer-stories/how-upland-software-captured-300-leads-in-90-days-with-storylane). ### 5\. Employ interactive demos for customer onboarding **Best for:** **Buyers in the retention stage** to ensure successful product adoption. Nobody likes sifting through support docs or sitting through complex product tours in the name of onboarding. A complex onboarding process is a dealbreaker for [74% of buyers](https://userpilot.com/blog/customer-onboarding-statistics-saas/), according to a study by Userpilot. In fact, the higher the time-to-value of your product, the lower your product adoption rate. In other words, users want value fast, and they churn if it isn’t guaranteed. But what’s the best way to ensure they learn the ropes of your product quickly? Show, don’t tell. And that’s precisely what interactive demos do. They help you: - **Show your product’s value fast:** Create custom demos for customers based on their use case to ensure they get value fast. - **Identify drop-off points:** You can identify and fix the gaps where users are dropping off by tracking demo engagement. This helps them reach their aha moment sooner and boosts the success rates of your onboarding process. - **Build customer loyalty**: For [86% of users](https://userpilot.com/blog/customer-onboarding-statistics-saas/), proper onboarding and continuous education keep them loyal to a brand. By using interactive demos to onboard and announce feature rollouts, you can consistently educate your customers and build loyalty. **Example:** [Lifeomic](https://lifeomic.com/) uses interactive demos as product tutorials to help new users get the hang of the app fast. 0:00 /0:21 1× ### 6\. Use interactive demos in product emails **Best for:** Encouraging **buyers in the** [**retention**](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) **stage** to use new or least-used features and boost product adoption. Customer retention requires constant effort. A successful onboarding process alone will not keep users loyal to your brand. You need to stay on top of their minds and consistently provide value in one way or another. Sending product emails is an effective way to do it. They’re sent to customers to ensure they get the most value from your product. By adding interactive demos to these emails, you can: - **Add more pizzazz to your** [**emails**](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-is-email-marketing-important-to-improving-customer-retention/)**:** [55% of marketers](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1365812/interactive-content-types-marketing-effectiveness/) rank interactive emails as the most efficient marketing content, according to a study by Statista. By embedding interactive demos, you can make your emails less text-heavy and help recipients get value faster. - **Boost feature and product adoption:** You can [educate](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-education-needs-more-introducing-the-intellum-framework/) and encourage users to use new or under-utilized features by embedding interactive feature walkthroughs in emails. - **Increase chances of upselling:** It’s easier to upsell to customers who are already satisfied with your product. When you consistently educate them on ways to make the most of your product, they’ll be more willing to purchase. **Example:**[Storylane](https://www.storylane.io/) uses interactive demos in emails to walk users through their latest features. 0:00 /0:07 1× ## 3 Best interactive demo platforms While there’s no dearth of interactive demo platforms in today’s B2B market, here are our top 3 picks based on ease of use and use cases covered: ### 1\. Storylane ![A screenshot of Storylane's landing page](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/y73P1qjWpkW1sS5TmSf9CxYDRKQ-9e7oXELDbLRXqZ6c-uZ0PuPDbO3nmXR-NeZO6iRMTRXuJJE0ZOnNBYcuJOGpVtS9j98rLqmIIuYRawiJXWepbUp4etCOuQQahb1R4EspvurX5sunHAnf) [Storylane](https://www.storylane.io/) is a no-code demo automation platform that allows you to build interactive demos in less than 5 minutes. It supports both screenshot and HTML demos, making it a great choice for those looking for a platform that can be used across marketing, sales, and pre-sales teams. Storylane offers a free version that lets you publish one demo per user. **Key features of Storylane** **AI assist**: Storylane offers AI-powered features to create, edit, and translate guides and add voiceovers to them. **Demo reveal:** Its [‘Demo Reveal’](https://www.storylane.io/blog/the-invisible-audience-why-not-knowing-your-video-and-demo-viewers-is-costing-you) feature gives information on your demo visitors, like their email IDs, company names, tech stack details, etc. **Custom lead forms:** Storylane lets you add custom lead forms built through Hubspot, Marketo, and Pardot to your interactive demos. ### 2\. Tourial ![A screenshot of Tourial's landing page](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/6o-wclN4Rws-jtvTQwhdujCalG-BgMCpZE7hQUrvkfUpVKeH1aqxIZetN1q5NNHUxqRiLgMsfRgUZolPcbkg6qkkW-RqoU9s82J3aAo4H1_SrZX28X9JlB2FPb8Z7ziInMrMjjWv5SOzSbX4) [Tourial](https://www.tourial.com/), the demo automation platform, offers two main products, ‘Demo Centres’ and ‘Interactive Demos,’ that marketing and sales teams use to educate and convert prospects. Unlike Storylane, they don’t offer a free trial. **Key features of Tourial** **Demo Centres:** Tourial’s ‘Demo Centre’ helps prospects jump to specific demo flows that interest them instead of sitting through the whole demo. **Timed Tools:** It offers multiple tools like ‘tooltips’ and ‘typed cursor’ that automatically move on the demo screen. **Video Trimmer:** The tool offers a video trimmer that can be used to edit videos in your demos. ### 3\. Reprise ![A screenshot of Reprise's landing page](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/4TA63jDAMhBL2oN-DwzosVtMmf8JLe5TdM-ulCWSB68DSvidvMPD-K5vDNL_IHtQxCkHnM4U2HYV_AD0o8VNsrS15k8b_NXYEiWLrkX1AwRYfdAMl6_2xakXeXyzGWX0gC-Zvab59xG4igXU) [Reprise](https://www.reprise.com/) is an interactive demo platform that allows you to build personalized demos at scale. It offers features to clone your product, overlay your existing app, and templatize demos. It also caters to sales, marketing, and pre-sales use cases. **Key features of Reprise** **Reprise Replicate:** It helps you build sandbox environments in a hassle-free manner through product cloning. **Demo Library:** Reprise allows users to create a demo library accessible to sales, marketing, and pre-sales teams. **Reprise Reveal:** ‘Reprise Reveal’ allows you to customize your live app through layering. ## In a nutshell Interactive demos help you serve your buyers better. By incorporating them throughout the buyer journey, you better understand their pains, challenges, and expectations on how to be served. Use these insights to ensure a smooth buyer journey and a stellar buying experience for your buyers. --- Like what you see? Why not check out some exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with FoSaaS membership plan? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### 10 Best strategies to know if your remote employees are working URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/10-best-strategies-to-know-if-your-remote-employees-are-working/ Last updated: 2024-01-29T15:48:59.000Z Mastering the art of productivity is no mean feat, especially for SaaS organizations. Push yourself and your employees too hard and you end up with a burnt out work force. Fatigue breeds confusion and productivity plummets. On the other hand, if you don’t provide your team with enough motivation, or provide clear objectives, you end up with a company that fails to reach its long term goals. Forbes predicts that by 2025,[ 22% of the](https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/remote-work-statistics/) US workforce will be fully remote. So, in order to stay ahead of the curve, it’s essential that we learn to adapt our working practices to this model of work. The major question is: how do you know when your remote employees are working? And how do you do this without micromanaging them into unproductivity? ### Why do we need to check in on remote employees? Pre-pandemic, modern employers could create a ‘home away from home’ office environment to ensure that morale was kept up, and they were able to clearly monitor the activity of their staff throughout the day. Those who weren’t pulling their weight were identified, and team members who were unhappy could be offered support by team managers promptly. You might have heard that working from home is the future. And it’s true that the dawn of remote and hybrid work has presented SaaS companies with many exciting opportunities when it comes to ensuring productivity. [Making enablement work in remote settingsUnlock the potential of remote enablement for your GTM teams. Explore key strategies to overcome challenges and drive successful outcomes.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSKatie Van Hoomissen![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/07/SEC-remote.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-enablement-work-in-remote-settings/) That delicate tightrope walk between life and work is now easier than ever to traverse, since the commute time is cut down and flexible working hours are becoming more normalized. Well, at least that’s how it works in theory. But the hard reality is that the remote work experiment is still just that: an experiment. It’s not an easy subject to bring up. After all, we all like to believe our team is dedicated to their work and the vision of the company. But the reality is we can’t be expected to monitor productivity in the same way that we used to, nor can we easily facilitate that positive work environment that leads to productivity and innovation. The most obvious solution is to implement a rigorous monitoring system, not just to oversee employee performance, but also to offer support and guidance when needed. The obvious danger that comes from being an overbearing leader is Big Brother-style surveillance that leads to a bad taste in everyone's mouths. Employee and employer alike. We want to create a work culture that breeds respect and compassion. But don’t worry, we’ll show you how to do that while still being vigilant. ## How to check if remote employees are working? Remote employee monitoring tools and project management software are a great investment for bosses who want to make sure their remote team is both happy and putting in the work. These nifty software solutions allow employers to keep tabs on their team's activities, from computer usage and emails to internet browsing. But that's not all. Employers can also set up alerts to get notified if someone's been inactive for a while. And they can even use remote teams to check in on employees in a friendly manner. Avoid questions like ‘what have you done today?’ Instead try, ‘Is there anything I can do to help you?’ This way, employees will be more likely to open up to you about what they’ve been up to and your relationship with your workers is strengthened. [Managing teams remotely \[Q&A with Slack\]Kim Beinborn, Head of Customer Success at AMER HT Central, Slack, offers advice on avoiding micromanaging remote employees, best practices for introducing new hires, and what to do if you’re self-managing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/10/austin-distel-gUIJ0YszPig-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/managing-teams-remotely-q-a-with-slack/) With these smart strategies, employers can keep a watchful eye on their remote workforce and keep productivity levels high, while still maintaining morale. Now that we’ve defined the importance of remote monitoring, let’s dig deeper into the strategies involved. ### Phone alerts and notifications Your SaaS company is only as good as your team. Simply put: employees are the heartbeat of your organization, propelling your day-to-day work towards its broader goals. Rather than thinking of productivity monitoring checking as a cold, overbearing task, think of yourself in your founder role as a doctor putting the stethoscope to the people you're caring for. Happy, productive employees lead to a healthy company, it’s really as simple as that. So it goes without saying that you should treat checking employee productivity with the same level of importance as you would treat monitoring those all important performance metrics. [Are remote CMOs the future?Liam Martin, CMO and Co-Founder of Time Doctor, discusses the future of remote working, what it means to CMOs, and what they need to build a successful remote marketing team.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/12/simon-abrams-k_T9Zj3SE8k-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/are-remote-cmos-the-future/) Employers can utilize software that pings across helpful updates on employee activity to ensure everyone is on track and working as planned. When any issues pop up, management can swiftly address them for quick solutions. This saves time, rather than having to open up your computer and manually check how people are doing. Effective communication also empowers employees to voice concerns and share their ideas about their work. Bringing up concerns to higher ups can cause considerable anxiety for people in your team, and too often remote work makes it easier for your staff to avoid bringing up fears and concerns until they become very serious problems. This open dialogue fosters a better workplace environment and speeds up the problem-solving process. ### Utilize remote desktop tools ‘Out of the room’ syndrome is a common problem for hybrid work companies. In an office environment work hiccups can be resolved quickly because help is always available Remote desktop tools give your employees access to on site computers from home. This is just the ticket for allowing your workers to have access to onn demand tech support when needed. Don’t leave your staff toiling in isolation. ### Check calendar events Keeping tabs on your remote team can be quite a puzzle, especially when they're spread across different time zones. For example, what’s to stop someone in your team from not showing up to an essential meeting, with the excuse that they have an important call? The simple answer: use the latest software available to keep all of your company email accounts synced up. [How AI and remote work are shaping the future of SaaSValentina Thörner, Founder @ RemoteThatWorks, delves into two of the most significant developments in the world of SaaS: AI and remote work.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSValentina Thörner![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/09/AI-and-remote-work--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/brace-for-impact-how-ai-and-remote-work-are-shaping-the-future-of-saas/) With many of your team taking advantage of the flexible work hours that a remote/hybrid model affords them (And let’s be honest, why wouldn’t they?) valuable hours can be wasted trying to reach a consensus on the optimal time for a meeting. With all your work email accounts in-sync, you can check in on employee schedules before organizing a meeting. No time wasted, efficient, productive. ### Monitor their hours A lack of productivity isn’t necessarily a sign of negligence, but taking advantage of features in the latest time tracking software can allow you to differentiate those employees from those who are simply prioritizing tasks wrongly from those who aren’t pulling their weight. Project management tools such as Replicon and Insightful have time tracking features built in. Support and guidance can be provided to those who aren’t working smart, while you can have an idea of which members are in danger of burning out. Ensuring that employees log the hours spent on a particular task can enable you to help them work smarter. Disciplinaries can be doled out for those who aren’t working hard, while support and guidance can be provided to those who aren’t working smart. ### Monitor attendance Unwarranted absence can be a major productivity blocker. Major, costly projects fall through, communication is lost, and accountability goes out the window. As a result, keeping a close eye on your employees' attendance and performance is a must. This includes tracking their work hours, tweaking office schedules, maintaining work logs or diaries, and checking attendance records online. Now, here's the golden rule: It’s a good rule of thumb to catch these problems early. A negligent attitude towards absence can quickly bleed down into the company culture, so it’s important to nip unwarranted absence in the bud before it becomes a major problem for your org. ### Checkin in on employees (with kindness) As a SaaS leader, it’s important you account for different working styles. When monitoring employee productivity, you shouldn’t take a person’s silence on Slack as a sign of negligence. One handy trick is to shoot them a quick direct message or email to check if anything's changed since their last update. [SaaScast: How will AI and remote work shape the future of SaaS?Meet Valentina Thörner: Your SaaS growth catalyst and remote work maven! Her speciality? Redefining distributed policies for post-pandemic success.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/Valentina-tho-rner--1-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-how-will-ai-and-remote-work-shape-the-future-of-saas/) If you don't spot any activity from them, then you’ll have more of an idea of whether your employee is actually engaged at work. Different forms of communication and varying levels of introversion and extroversion are acceptable, but a total lack of communication can lead to a negative impact on the productivity of others. Additionally, sending direct messages is important simply to ensure that you have rapport with your staff. The further your team are from you (figuratively speaking), the further they are from your vision for your organization and their ability to deliver it effectively. ### Establish communication guidelines It’s difficult to blame your team for poor communication if you haven’t established clear guidelines for how often they should be checking in with each other. No two SaaS companies are the same. You can have the kind of environment where most of the team spend the day knuckling down on their own individual projects, only touching base with each other for vital updates or information. Or, you can have the kind of product where your team needs to be hopping on calls all day. [Ensuring better alignment with customer successIn this article, I’m going to share with you some of the unique and new initiatives I developed to ensure better alignment with customer success.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMichelle Wideman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/alignment-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/ensuring-better-alignment-with-customer-success/) Either way, it’s vital that all employees are aware of the communication cadence that’s expected. That way you can hold them accountable when expectations aren't being met. Productivity isn’t possible without reasonable expectations. ### Schedule meetings If anything, regular company check-ins may be more important for remote workers than office folks. The first step is to establish a video conferencing tool the whole company is going to use. This saves time wasted quibbling over how the meeting is going to be held. You have office-based companies who are constantly sharing information back and forth all day long. But in a remote environment, this isn’t always possible, and those that are quieter may miss out on vital changes in strategy. Weekly meetings enhance employee performance for many reasons: **1\. Establishing stronger team relationships**: It might seem like fluff, but team relationship building is absolutely crucial to ensure your team members remain open to communicating with each other. Communication is the foundation for productivity. **2\. Staying aligned on tasks**: It’s not enough to simply communicate messages via text. With the best will in the world, some messages are going to fall through the cracks. So use meetings to ensure that everyone is aware of updated expectations. **3\. Communicating urgency:** There are some kinds of information that simply aren’t appropriate for Slack messages. As mentioned above, some people will miss the message, while others might have follow-up questions that you didn’t think to address in the message. For our money, a good old-fashioned face-to-face meeting is still the optimal way to hash out a complex problem, or to deliver sensitive information. **4\. Performance reviews:** You simply can’t have a meaningful discussion about performance expectations over Slack. In order to reach an agreement on what your employee should be aiming for and what reasonable expectations are, you have to host a meeting. ### Be aware of the limitations Now, you might have the kind of company where you can accomplish everything online, it might simply be a case of making everyone aware – especially if they come from an office background– of how exactly they can accomplish their day-to-day tasks while working remotely. However, if your company uses a hybrid model, it’s important that you're aware of which tasks are going to be more challenging to accomplish now your team is scattered. More importantly, you then need to find workarounds for those tasks that are going to require a different method to accomplish. This may involve additional training or investing in new software. [What is burnout and how you can prevent itIt’s important for any worker to understand what burnout is and recognize the signs, no job is worth sacrificing your mental health for.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJade Warne![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/07/CLA-Burnout.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-burnout-and-how-you-can-prevent-it/) ### Encourage time off So let’s say you’ve invested in your tracking tool and you notice one starry employee who’s clocking in ungodly hours on activity monitoring software. All good, right? Not necessarily. An over-productive employee might be vulnerable to stress and even, sickness. Either their work performance will plummet, or they’ll leave, and your major projects will get cast into limbo. Encourage productive staff to take time off, so they can put their best energies into work time. Having software like Personio in place for time off requests can make it easier for employees to book vacation time, and can align all absence requests, helping you ensure you don’t have too many absences at once. ## Closing thoughts One thing that we cannot stress enough is that you shouldn’t use remote monitoring to tyrannize your staff. Whether you're conducting frequent check-ins or utilizing employee monitoring software, respectful monitoring will lead to respect in return. This will ultimately lead to a happy environment in which hard work can flourish. Employees work harder when they have pride in their job role.In essence, monitoring employee activity is all about communication. Set clear expectations, provide guidance, and ensure your team is well aware of how to utilize the software options in your arsenal to effectively do their jobs. The main goal of active monitoring should be stronger alignment, not growing alienation. --- Like what you see? Why not gain exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Product adoption - How we aligned all departments around a single KPI URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/product-adoption-how-we-aligned-all-departments-around-a-single-kpi/ Last updated: 2024-01-05T17:39:06.000Z Product Operations Director, Rachel Frenkel BenHanoch, outlines how her orgnaization were able to align their operations behind the product adoption metric. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### What is SaaS operations and how can it lead you to success? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-saas-operations-a-complete-guide/ Last updated: 2024-01-04T15:48:47.000Z Got an exciting SaaS product idea? Awesome! But there's a big gap between idea and reality, and it comes with its own set of challenges. To succeed on this journey, you've gotta master the art of SaaS platform maintenance, handling things like keeping the product up-to-date, managing data, supporting customers, and keeping an eye on bugs. Building and running a SaaS platform means juggling lots of responsibilities. The SaaS industry has exploded, growing by about [500%](https://explodingtopics.com/blog/saas-statistics) in recent years. It's more lively and diverse than ever. But, it's also more competitive than ever, and there's immense pressure to create a product that runs smoothly and gives customers a top-notch experience. That's why we're here to break down SaaS operations for you. Let's jump right in! ## What is SaaS operations? In a nutshell, it's all about efficiently handling tasks to keep your SaaS product in top shape. But it's not a solo act; you need a reliable SaaS operations management platform to help with: System monitoring: System downtime can be costly, especially for B2B products. When your product is vital for your customers' work, it must be reliable with minimal room for errors. This software keeps a watchful eye, ensuring your platform runs smoothly, providing real-time updates and reports to keep you informed. [Automating compliance with Meiran GalisIn this episode, we’re joined by Meiran Galis, CEO and Co-founder at Scytale AI, and a tactical leader in the realm of security compliance. Meiran has helped hundreds of high-profile SaaS companies build compliance programs for rapidly growing organizations.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/FoSaaS_Podcast_MG-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/automating-compliance-with-meiran-galis/) Data security: Building trust with your customers hinges on keeping their sensitive data safe. It's a no-brainer: safeguarding customer data is a top priority. A SaaS operations management tool ensures data protection and compliance. Customer support: With a growing customer base, addressing their concerns quickly is crucial to reduce churn. But expecting your staff to handle high-level customer support at a fast pace is a tall order. The good news is that the right customer support software can simplify problem organization and resolution, leaving more complex issues to your human personnel. Effective customer service is vital, and the right platform streamlines ticket management, communication, and issue resolution. ## What are the different components of SaaS operations? SaaS operations encompass all the tasks needed for a smooth-running SaaS product or service. To streamline these operations, you absolutely require the right SaaS tools. These tools handle everything, from setting up and maintaining infrastructure to monitoring the application itself. Let's break down SaaS operations into three main categories: 1. Infrastructure management: This involves setting up and managing the underlying infrastructure for your SaaS product or service. Specialized SaaS tools designed for infrastructure management make setup quicker and ensure continuous updates. 2. Application management: Here, it's all about monitoring and managing the actual application. The right tools come into play for identifying and fixing bugs and ensuring smooth rollout of new features. They enhance performance and maintain app quality, preventing customer encounter with bugs and problems that could lead to churn. [How to create a value-based dashboard for your usersDashboards are often a place where impact can be had when it comes to design improvements. A dashboard done well can increase retention, utilization, and boost your NPS score, but how do you create a value-based dashboard and reap these rewards?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSPeter Loving![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1551288049-bebda4e38f71?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&w=2000&fit=max&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjExNzczfQcontent/images/size/w1200)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-create-a-value-based-dashboard-for-your-users/) 1. User management: Managing your SaaS product or service's users is crucial. The right software helps you track customer profiles, behaviors, and product usage, enabling you to consistently deliver the best experience. These tools handle tasks such as creating and managing user accounts and providing support when needed, making user management efficient and streamlined. ## Why do you need SaaS operations? Typically, a team of IT professionals, experienced in software development, manages SaaS ops. However, some companies choose to outsource these operations to third-party experts using a central SaaS management platform. Why all the fuss? SaaS operations require regular maintenance, updates, and swift issue resolution. A robust management platform streamlines these tasks and provides a complete operational overview. Customer satisfaction is key in SaaS operations. With a powerful management platform, offering prompt and effective customer support becomes easier, including options like live chat, phone support, and regularly updated knowledge bases or FAQ sections on your website. [SaaS Tools of Choice 2023Download the report and get access to the ultimate guide to tools and tech, each one endorsed by the game-changers shaping the world of SaaS.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/FoSaaS_Tools_of_Choice_Report_2023_Blog2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2023/) But recommending software to monitor your platform doesn't mean you can neglect system monitoring. Close system monitoring is essential to detect and resolve potential problems promptly. SaaS operations management platforms typically integrate various tools and techniques like log analysis and performance monitoring to quickly identify and address issues. Thus, a capable management platform lies at the heart of successful SaaS operations management. ## What are the core benefits of a SaaS operations model? If you're still not fully committed to adopting a SaaS operations model, here are some incredible benefits to consider: Cost savings: Converting new customers is more expensive than retaining them for SaaS companies. A top-notch SaaS operations strategy helps you proactively address issues, reducing customer churn. This means you won't have to spend as much on acquiring new customers to compensate for losses. Flexibility and speed: Responding to customer complaints and concerns as they arise can be time-consuming. A solid SaaS operations strategy allows you to identify and address potential problems before they lead to customer churn. [What your VP of marketing should be doing in the first 90 daysIn this article, we’ll walk you through a step-by-step plan for your first 90 days as a VP of Marketing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/12/VP-of-marketing-success.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-your-vp-of-marketing-should-be-doing-in-the-first-90-days/) Improved security: SaaS operations handle tasks like patching, updates, and security, freeing up your team to focus on broader initiatives while ensuring your data and apps remain secure. Incorporating a SaaS operations model isn't just convenient; it's a smart move that saves you money, enhances flexibility, and strengthens security. It's a win-win-win! ## Some great examples of SaaS operations software Your typical SaaS organization is complex, with various departments and many moving parts. Here's a breakdown of the software you'll need to excel in SaaS operations: CRM (Customer Relationship Management): This tool helps businesses manage customer relationships by storing essential customer information, creating accurate profiles of their wants and needs. [Top 10 SaaS collaboration tools | Future of SaaSWhat are the best SaaS collaboration tools for your business? We had a dig around—here are 10 that’ll keep you productive with top quality work.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1587614313085-5da51cebd8ac?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&w=2000&fit=max&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjExNzczfQcontent/images/size/w1200)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-10-saas-collaboration-tools/) ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning): ERP software acts as the master conductor of business operations, ensuring synchronization across finances, inventory, and overall business functioning. HCM (Human Capital Management): HCM software handles employee-related tasks like payroll and HR, as unhappy customers can negatively impact work culture and, subsequently, your product's health. Marketing Automation Software: This tool streamlines marketing efforts, automating tasks such as email campaigns and lead generation. These applications are vital for business operations and must be available 24/7\. SaaS operations teams have the crucial responsibility of monitoring the system, ensuring optimal performance, collaborating with the engineering team to introduce new features and improvements, and safeguarding data storage and backups. ## What is the ideal structure for a SaaS operations team? We've discussed software and management systems, but does that mean your human teams take a backseat? Not at all. Your team and how you structure it are crucial for smooth SaaS operations. Why? Operations management requires a collaborative effort; a team of professionals working together to keep everything running smoothly. Let's meet the key players: [Product development team structure for SaaS organizationsProduct development teams are the most crucial point in any SaaS pipeline, despite that, many SaaS startups have little if anything in the way of team organization.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLuis Gomes de Abreu![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/07/javier-allegue-barros-i5Kx0P8A0d4-unsplash--2---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-development-team-structure-for-saas-organization/) Systems administrator: The backbone of the operation, handling infrastructure essentials like servers, operating systems, networking, and storage. Platform engineer: Responsible for the software driving the SaaS platform, managing application code, database setup, and third-party software integrations, ensuring smooth operation. Site reliability engineer: Monitors uptime and performance, ensuring the SaaS platform is always available and responsive. Quick to act in case of hiccups or outages. DevOps engineer: The automation experts, automating processes for building, deploying, and running the SaaS platform, from infrastructure setup to smooth operation. [Building successful customer success teamsBuilding strong customer success teams is so important. Every good team has to have a strong strong foundation supporting it!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSZuzanna Ostojska![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2022/04/steven-lelham-atSaEOeE8Nk-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-successful-customer-success-teams/) It's like a well-coordinated orchestra, with each team member playing a vital role in ensuring seamless SaaS platform operation. ## Wrapping up The primary objective of any SaaS founder is simple: Unlock your creative potential and impress your customers with innovative solutions. To achieve this, you need a solid foundation – that's where SaaS operations come in. Just like a skyscraper needs a strong base, invest in your foundation today and watch your SaaS organization soar to new heights. --- Want more top insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS? Why not sign up for exclusive insights with a Future of SaaS membership plan? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### SME collaboration: The key to impactful enablement programs URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/sme-collaboration-the-key-to-impactful-enablement-programs/ Last updated: 2023-12-29T17:47:41.000Z Sonia Pupaza, Field Enablement Manger at Camunda, delivers a masterclass on launching a successful sales enablement program. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### SaaScast: Leading the way in sales excellence URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-leading-the-way-in-sales-excellence/ Last updated: 2023-12-28T15:31:52.000Z In the early stages of your startup, the founder often handles sales, effortlessly conveying the vision of your product to potential customers. However, as your company grows, maintaining that mission in your sales pitches becomes challenging. So, how can you ensure that strong sales practices permeate your entire team, equipping new recruits with the skills needed to win over customers? That's the focus of our latest SaaScast episode. Join us for an engaging conversation with seasoned sales expert Sara Storm, who unveils the secrets to sustainable sales success. [Leading the way in sales excellenceListen to this episode from SaaScast on Spotify. Join Sara Storm, Chief Revenue Officer at Break the Box and a seasoned sales expert, as she shares invaluable insights on cascading solid sales practices from the top down.![](https://open.spotifycdn.com/cdn/images/favicon32.b64ecc03.png)Spotify![](https://i.scdn.co/image/ab6765630000ba8a583b8e83e57be5be34f62e55)](https://open.spotify.com/episode/6RFPUteI7ubrRgrOsYXLD7) [‎SaaScast: Leading the way in sales excellence on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep Leading the way in sales excellence - 28 Dec 2023![](https://t2.gstatic.com/faviconV2?client=SOCIAL&type=FAVICON&fallback_opts=TYPE,SIZE,URL&url=https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/leading-the-way-in-sales-excellence/id1544750249?i=1000639920287&size=128)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts126/v4/a4/4d/5f/a44d5fae-5046-a15e-a689-2605bf2c3483/mza_10035764847765952101.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/leading-the-way-in-sales-excellence/id1544750249?i=1000639920287) ## About this episode In this insightful discussion, Sara breaks down this complex topic into the following easily-digestible talking points: 💪 Strategies for instilling effective sales practices from the top down 🚫 Tips to avoid common pitfalls 🤝 Techniques for building genuine connections with prospective customers. All this and so much more. Listen to the full conversation right here. 👇 [Leading the way in sales excellenceJoin Sara Storm, Chief Revenue Officer at Break the Box and a seasoned sales expert, as she shares invaluable insights on cascading solid sales practices from the top down.![](https://files.casted.us/828f30d5-e688-4a3b-8d2f-23d74d0f27c2.jpg)Casted![](https://files.casted.us/c67d0694-46b6-46a1-b2dc-81609e7681a8.jpg)](https://listen.casted.us/public/158/SaaScast-d5577738/d0c1e86d) ## Get involved Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Creator, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: [anthony@futureofsaas.io.](mailto:anthony@futureofsaas.io) ### The Rule of 78: Getting to grips with the high cost of delayed launches URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-rule-of-78-getting-to-grips-with-the-high-cost-of-delayed-launches/ Last updated: 2023-12-22T14:34:45.000Z Hi there! My name is Liza Collin, and I’m a Product Director at Visma. Today, I’ll be talking about the Rule of 78\. More specifically, I’ll be talking about how to quantify the cost of delayed launches, as well as some other calculations that are incredibly valuable for product marketing managers. So, let's get started! ## The high cost of delayed launches SaaS companies often launch dozens of new products, modules, and price models each year. Each of these launches is a major cross-functional effort. With so many moving parts and so many different departments to take into consideration, it's not uncommon for launches to end up being delayed Besides potentially making or breaking the product launch, these delays also have a clear effect on the bottom line. Historically, it’s been difficult to quantify the costs and the impact of those delays, but since postponing launches is such a common occurrence, we need to know how serious the impact is. With that in mind, my team and I decided to do some digging to find out what exactly the cost is and how we can speed up the go-to-market process. That’s how we landed on the Rule of 78\. ## What is the Rule of 78? The Rule of 78 originates in the world of banking. They use it to calculate interest rates, but we’ve repurposed it to look at SaaS business results. The key premise is that a customer acquired earlier in the year has more billing opportunities and is therefore worth more than one added later on. [![Graph illustrating the rule of 78](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/BN35CDwTsDFv7N5E5rAsybRArXNuLTJpIXFKudEWcAcICDiAmGXSNVyjAj-HjQWm1GNlN5gOCGCAgj0EmRU5t4jqPoZkP1Jka3FKbQgdVdWrABKeGfwXLoc5yEpkrDhqjQWDrU_HcVHwTl4YGc4fNBw)](https://www.saasalliance.io/%20%20the-rule-of-78-getting-to-grips-with-the-high-cost-of-delayed-launches) To understand how it works, imagine onboarding one new customer every month, with each paying $200 per month. A customer added in January who stays the whole year provides $2,400 in revenue based on 12 monthly payments. February's customer only provides $2,200 over 11 payments, and so on down to December's who only gets one month's billing. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### SaaS Benchmark Metrics Report 2023 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-benchmark-metrics-report-2023-2/ Last updated: 2024-07-19T15:21:31.000Z In economically trying times, how can you ensure your SaaS company is set up to really crush it in the year ahead? Firstly: keep your finger on the pulse of how your competitors are performing. 📈 Secondly: know how to utilize those insights toward crafting trailblazing strategies for the future ahead. In collaboration with Benchmarkit, a foremost authority on the subject of SaaS excellence, this is what we’re offering you with the SaaS Benchmark Metrics Report for H1-2023! ## What's in the report? Partnering with Benchmarkit, we've curated actionable insights that illuminate the path for executive discussions, operational strategies, fundraising efforts, and board presentations. This report provides a multidimensional view of the SaaS terrain like no other. Unlock valuable insights on key metrics such as: 🤝 CAC payback periods 🪄 The SaaS magic number 📈 Gross revenue retention 📊 Net revenue retention 🪴 Gross margin revenue But it's not just a snapshot of where the industry stands; it's a roadmap to where it's headed. Our mission is to track industry performance and deepen your understanding of how these metrics can fuel better, data-driven decisions, shaping the future of SaaS. Keep your finger on the pulse and embrace data-driven decision making today! ### What your VP of marketing should be doing in the first 90 days URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/what-your-vp-of-marketing-should-be-doing-in-the-first-90-days/ Last updated: 2023-12-19T15:29:34.000Z Ever wondered what separates a good VP of Marketing from a *great* one? It's not just about the strategies they bring to the table; it's about how quickly and effectively they can launch those strategies into motion. Picture this: within the first 90 days, you have the power to lay down a roadmap to redefine your company's marketing landscape. Exciting, right? Stepping into the role of VP of Marketing at a SaaS company is like being handed the keys to a powerful engine. **The potential for impact is huge, but so is the responsibility**. In these first crucial days, you're not just making decisions; you're setting the tone for your tenure and, more importantly, for the future of your company's marketing success. In this article, we'll walk you through a step-by-step plan for your first 90 days. From understanding the unique dynamics of your new company to laying down a strategy that resonates with your team and aligns with your CEO's vision, we've got you covered. So, are you ready to make these first 90 days count and steer your team towards uncharted territories of success? Let's dive in! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/12/FoSaaS-90-day-plan-2.png) ## **Days 1-30: Laying the groundwork** ### **Understanding company goals and the current state of marketing** Your first order of business is to get a comprehensive understanding of the company's overall goals and how the marketing department fits into this bigger picture. This means diving deep into revenue objectives, customer base, product popularity, and growth patterns. It's *essential* to review all current marketing assets and tools at your disposal. Are they aligned with your company's vision? How effective have they been in the past? This initial assessment will give you a clear picture of where you stand and where you need to go. ### **Establishing relationships with key stakeholders** Building strong relationships with key stakeholders, especially the CEO and CFO, is critical. These early interactions are more than just meet-and-greets; they're fact-finding missions. Understand their vision for the company and the marketing department. What are their top concerns? What do they expect in the coming year? Aligning your strategies with their goals is paramount for mutual success. ### **Reviewing marketing assets, tools, and performance metrics** Take a thorough look at the existing marketing assets and tools. How effective are the current content marketing, advertising, and email marketing plans? Meeting with outside agency executives, if any, will also help you gauge the effectiveness of these strategies and the relationships in place. Familiarize yourself with the technology platforms and tools your company uses, and ensure you have access to management KPI dashboards. This will help you understand the metrics that matter most to your team and company. [B2B marketing events strategies: before, during, and afterB2B events are paramount for networking, generating high-quality leads, increasing brand awareness, and reaching a large target audience. The majority of event marketers believe events are the most effective marketing channel over emails, content, and digital marketing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/12/terren-hurst-blgOFmPIlr0-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/b2b-marketing-events-strategies-before-during-and-after/) ### **Conducting competitor analysis and understanding market positioning** A comprehensive competitor analysis is vital. What are your competitors doing right? Where are they lacking? Understanding their go-to-market strategies, positioning, and marketing mix will give you insights into market trends and potential opportunities for differentiation. This is also the time to review customer success surveys for current and churned customers, giving you a clearer picture of your company's position in the market. ### **Actionable steps** 📆 **Schedule meetings** with the CEO, CFO, and other key executives to align on goals and expectations. 🗂️ **Conduct a thorough review** of all marketing assets and tools. 🤝 **Meet with team members** and external agency executives to understand current strategies and relationships. 🧠 **Dive into competitor research** and market analysis. 💻 **Start using the product(s) your company sells** to understand customer experience. In these first 30 days, your mission is to absorb as much information as possible, setting the stage for the strategic planning and execution that will follow. It's about understanding the landscape, aligning with key players, and identifying the opportunities and challenges that will shape your strategy in the days to come. [What are marketing development funds and how can they maximize growth?As a rapidly scaling SaaS business, you’re likely working across multiple channels. Marketing development funds can help you stay strong across all channels. Here’s how!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2023/06/funding.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-marketing-development-funds-and-how-can-we-use-them-to-maximize-growth/) ## **Days 31-60: Crafting a cohesive marketing strategy** ### **Reviewing and selecting automation tools** Now that you have a solid understanding of the company's goals and the current state of marketing, it's time to evaluate the tools at your disposal. Are the existing marketing and sales automation tools adequate, or is there a need for new solutions? This period involves researching potential tools, understanding their fit for your specific needs, and making informed decisions. Remember, the right tools can significantly enhance efficiency and effectiveness. ### **Developing buyer personas and key messaging** Understanding your audience is key to any successful marketing strategy. Use the insights gathered in the first 30 days to develop detailed buyer personas. These should include the top economic buyers and influencers in each segment. Alongside this, craft your key messaging. What are the unique pain points your product addresses? How does it stand out in the market? This messaging will guide all future marketing efforts. ### **Budget analysis and reallocation** With a clearer picture of the marketing landscape, it's time to scrutinize the budget. Where can funds be reallocated for maximum impact? Are there areas of overspending that can be trimmed? This step is crucial for ensuring that your marketing efforts are not only effective but also efficient and aligned with the company's financial goals. ### **Building team relationships and identifying key personnel** A successful marketing strategy is only as good as the team executing it. Evaluate your team's strengths and weaknesses. Are there gaps that need filling? Are there team members whose skills could be better utilized? Building strong relationships and ensuring each team member is in the right role is essential for a cohesive and productive marketing department. [Making brand marketing more data-driven \[Q&A with Hotjar\]Customer data is about as real as it gets, but unfortunately, many marketers still struggle with where to find it, how to access it, and how to analyze it. Luckily for us Hotjar’s VP of Marketing, Sharon Biggar was on hand to answer all our questions on the data-driven future of brand marketing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1200/2021/03/franki-chamaki-1K6IQsQbizI-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-brand-marketing-more-data-driven-q-a-with-hotjar/) ## **Days 61-90: Implementing and executing the plan** ### **Finalizing and presenting the marketing plan** With your strategy developed, it's time to formalize and present your plan. This should be a comprehensive document that outlines your goals, strategies, expected outcomes, and metrics for success. Ensure that it aligns with the overall company objectives and is flexible enough to adapt to changing market conditions. [Top SaaS marketing and content toolsA high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) ### **Collaborating with sales and customer success teams** Marketing doesn't operate in a vacuum. Collaborate closely with sales and customer success teams to ensure that your strategies align with their needs and insights. This collaboration will not only enhance the effectiveness of your marketing efforts but also foster a sense of unity and shared purpose within the company. ### **Implementing strategies and monitoring results** With your plan in place, it's time to put it into action. Begin implementing your strategies, keeping a close eye on performance metrics. Be prepared to make adjustments as needed based on these early results. This phase is all about learning, adapting, and refining your approach. [Using customer feedback and win-loss interviews to improve your product | Future of SaaSCustomer feedback and win-loss interviews are among the most effective ways to gain a firm understanding of how your product has been received, and how you can make changes, where needed.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1517245386807-bb43f82c33c4?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDE1fHxpbnRlcnZpZXdzfGVufDB8fHw&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000content/images/size/w1200)](https://www.saasalliance.io/using-customer-feedback-and-win-loss-interviews-to-improve-your-product/) ### **Adjusting strategies based on feedback** As you gather data on the performance of your strategies, be ready to make changes. Marketing is an ever-evolving field, and flexibility is *key*. Use the feedback from your team, sales, customer success, and the data you collect to fine-tune your approach for maximum effectiveness. ## **Conclusion** The first 90 days as a VP of Marketing in a SaaS company are both challenging and exhilarating. It's a time to learn, plan, and begin to execute a vision that will drive your company's marketing efforts forward. Remember, these initial days are just the beginning. The real journey lies in the continuous adaptation and growth of your strategies. As you move beyond these first 90 days, keep your focus on the goals you've set, the relationships you've built, and the strategies you've implemented. Stay agile, stay informed, and most importantly, stay connected with your team and the broader company goals. With a solid foundation laid in these first three months, you're well on your way to leading a marketing team that's not just successful, but exemplary in the SaaS industry. --- Enjoyed this article? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a future of SaaS membership plan? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The power of the product lifecycle - guiding you from concept to launch URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-of-the-product-lifecycle-guiding-you-from-concept-to-launch/ Last updated: 2023-12-15T20:36:40.000Z Smriti Motwani, VP of Operations, Product & Engineering at Palo Alto Networks, presents this expert guide to mastering the product lifecycle. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### The importance of building a creative culture as a CMO URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-importance-of-building-a-creative-culture-as-a-cmo/ Last updated: 2023-12-13T12:12:03.000Z Despite all the new tech presenting AI and data-driven insights and ideas, there remains one important trait that needs to be in every marketer's toolkit: creativity. And one of the chief responsibilities of marketing leaders, particularly the ones in the C-suite, is being able to build and maintain a culture that allows your team to get the creative juices flowing. You have to be able to build a culture of creativity. I’m Will, content lead for the CMO Alliance, and host of our podcast, CMO Convo. In my role, I’ve interviewed well over a hundred business and marketing leaders, and many of them have shared their insights with me on fostering creativity in their teams. Plus, I actually wrote my master’s dissertation on how best to drive creativity in advertising and marketing circles, so it’s a topic that’s near and dear to my heart. Some of the most effective and beloved advertising and marketing is when it’s at its most creative. And with more and more noise on just about every channel, it’s an imperative now to be able to differentiate yourself with creative ideas. Even when you're speaking to your existing customers, the expectations are for experiences that are innovative and driven by exciting, creative ideas. But it also can help with other elements. A creative culture isn’t just important for getting the best work out of your team. It can be essential for attracting and retaining talent. Creative thinkers will always be drawn to places where their ideas are valued and rewarded, and they’re given the space to develop them. In this article, I’m going over the best insights from my interviews with CMOs and marketing leaders on creative cultures, along with some of my findings from my own research. ## Creative culture vs creative environments A lot of the language around marketing these days doesn’t seem to lend itself to creativity. “We need to make data-driven decisions”, “AI can produce ideas for us”, all that stuff. But saying that “data” or “AI” is going to make all of the creative decisions is like saying that the paint made all the decisions when Michaelangelo was creating the Sistine Chapel. Data and AI simply provide the tools for your marketing team to use. Creativity is what allows marketers to turn those tools into effective campaigns and strategies. In the past, when talking about business practices, we’d probably use phrases like “creative environment”, and there are heaps of examples of offices that have been set up to produce a “creative environment”. You know the ones: pinball machine, pool- and/or foosball table, mini fridge of over-priced craft beers. The classic bro-tastic start-up vibe that’s supposed to say “have fun, let the creative juices flow”, but more likely than not it's just clutter in the office as teams chase deadlines. The concept of a creative environment isn’t a bad one, and the types of things done in this “bro-tastic” model do make sense, as they’re rooted in the idea that being able to have fun fuels creativity. If you think about the time in our lives when we’re probably at our most creative in raw terms, it’s when we’re young children, when we have the most opportunities to play and have fun. But these kinds of environments are only as good as their accessibility. If your team isn’t able to find the time for “fun” with all these activities you’re presenting to them, it’s just clutter in the office while they try and hit deadlines. The various Google campuses around the world are often held up as an example of these kinds of “creative environments”. However, Google goes further than bean bag chairs and slides. They have a “20% rule” where every Google employee is expected to spend at least 20% of their time on side projects, many of which are fun ones that utilize the environment available to them. For example, a team of Google engineers developed “the perfect pizza box” for their cafeteria in their 20%. This is the distinction between a “creative environment” and a “creative culture”. A creative environment is just set dressing. A creative culture is the actions you’re taking to foster and develop creativity in your organization. This difference is even more important in a world of hybrid and remote work. What are you gonna do, give every employee a pinball machine and ship them a case of beer each month (actually, that’s not a bad idea. If my boss is reading this: yes, yes you should do that…)? It’s clearly not practical, and more than a little intrusive to try and control your remote employees’ environments like that. Furthermore, these kinds of environments only really speak to certain kinds of creativity. Not all creatives desire that kind of stimulation, and having it enforced on them is likely to do more harm than good. That’s why a culture of creativity is important, one that gives people the space to develop creative ideas and develop them in a way that suits them best, not just throw lots of distractions at them. --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/C-Suite_Ghost_Banner_Assets_--1--5.png)](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=banner&utm%5Fcampaign=content-) --- ## **Being able to explore creative ideas** In my marketing dissertation, I interviewed several UK marketing leaders on how they encourage creativity. There were two pieces of advice in particular that have shaped my approach to creativity and how I judge the level of support an organization offers the creative process from the late, great Peter Holden, founder of the Holden & Sons’ agency: 1. “You can’t squeeze blood from a stone. If there’s a creative block, people need the room to step away and come back to it.” (Actually, Peter’s first advice was to go to the pub, but he admitted that wasn’t necessarily appropriate in modern business). 2. “Marketers need to be like culture sponges, you never know what kind of reference will be useful.” Providing space for both is key to an effective creative culture. You need to both give people the space on project timelines to allow for overcoming creative blocks and encourage a diverse array of interests and backgrounds across your team, to allow them to bring as many experiences and ideas as possible to the table. Gastón Tourn, CMO of Curio, follows a similar philosophy when it comes to how he leads his team and teaches them to develop creative ideas. For Gastón, the heart of marketing is storytelling, and the way he approaches it is rooted in the lessons he’s learned from his background in literary studies and creative writing, lessons that he shares with his team. When it comes to marketing storytelling, Gastón encourages his team to think about them not just in marketing terms, but how to tell the stories using classic literary and storytelling techniques. In our CMO Convo: Story Masters podcast mini-series, Gastón explains how he advises his team to explore new, fresh ideas when it comes to storytelling, with the goal of engaging the audience by presenting ideas to them in fresh, exciting ways. > **Gastón Tourn** Gastón encourages his team to explore new forms of storytelling across different genres of literature, film, television, and just about every genre and medium. He even goes so far as to advise his team *not* to read marketing advice books, but rather advice on literary criticism and storytelling techniques from authors in order to develop their skills. In this way, Gastón encourages his team to take more time over building creative and engaging stories. > “It goes back a lot to the quote I always mention from John le Carré: “‘The cat sat on the mat’ is not a story, but ‘the cat sat on the dog's mat’ is a story.” I love it because I think it's very simple, but it kind of tells you why the antagonist in particular is so important. It's crucial, particularly in brand storytelling, to ask yourself who the dog is. > **Gastón Tourn** ## **Creative cultures allow for risks and experimentation** A creative culture doesn’t just encourage your team to be more creative with what’s in front of them. In the ever-rapidly-changing world of marketing and business, with new technologies and channels appearing all the time and macroeconomic impacts changing the landscape, your team needs to be able to try new ideas and experiment with new approaches. For Austin Beveridge, Head of Growth at Arc Technologies, a strong culture of experimentation was what allowed him in a previous role at Bolt to grow the company to a $12 billion valuation. > **Austin Beveridge** Austin raises a good point on “psychological safety”. One of the most important aspects of a creative culture is giving your team the freedom and confidence to try things that might not work. That’s not to say they should be able to dive in and break things without worrying about consequences. Experienced CMO, Christy Raedeke, makes it clear that although she is a big fan of taking creative risks with marketing, they need to be calculated and considered risks. > “I think the most important thing is to start at the top and to get buy-in and to really explain what you're doing, I never want to do something just for a stunt. We don't want to do things that feel like they aren't authentic to the brand, all of the risks I've taken have been in service to the brand. > **Christy Raedeke** It’s clear that a creative culture doesn’t equal an unstructured culture. The whole concept of “experimentation” requires documenting what’s been tried, and keeping track of the results. Marketing Consultant Tim Parkin recommends having formal documentation of all experiments and creative ideas so that each time something new is tried, it can benefit the organization whether it pays off or not. > "This is what I call the book of knowledge. It's basically an internal wiki, a document, that houses everything about your marketing team. > “You want to include your reports, updates, changes, and campaign performance. You want to be able to see what's worked, what hasn't worked, what we can do differently going forward, and how we can improve our operations and optimization – the two areas that really matter – to get better results from the marketing we're doing. > “That book of knowledge grows and grows over time to become a truly valuable resource that people can reference and see what’s already been tried and what hasn’t been tried yet. And have an idea log to show what we need to do in the future. It becomes an invaluable resource, as your team keeps adding to it and maintaining it. > “As a marketing team, there are so many demands on us that we forget the great ideas that we have. We’ll figure out a change we need to make and then get distracted by something else. Having that documented is so important and so valuable. > **Tim Parkin** With this approach, you can ensure creative thinking is shown to be valuable to your team, while also making sure that new ideas and approaches are built on prior experiences. ## **The way forward** In an era of rapid business evolution, the willingness to take risks is more vital than ever for CMOs. However, risk-taking should never be an act of recklessness. Instead, it should be strategic and calculated, backed by research, and aligned with the company's goals. When embraced, even failure becomes a stepping stone to learning and improvement. By fostering a culture that values storytelling, creativity, open communication, learning from failures, and calculated risk-taking, CMOs can position their organizations to stay ahead of the competition and achieve their goals. This approach ultimately helps to build deeper connections with customers, which is the ultimate goal of any successful marketing endeavor. Finally, I should make it clear that although I’ve written this article from the perspective of CMOs and C-suite marketers, the lessons are applicable across other departments. Creativity is a benefit to almost every aspect of a business, and it's the duty of all C-suite leaders to help foster it. ### **Golden rules for building a creative culture** - Give people the time to be creative. Constant, back-to-back deadlines won’t allow people the time to overcome blocks and will lead them to just pumping out work that’s the bare minimum. - Build diverse teams. Diverse interests and backgrounds will bring more ideas to the table, and when they mix together, that’s the perfect chemistry for creativity. - Support your team in trying new ideas. Experimentation always comes with a risk, but you won’t know what works and what doesn’t unless you try. - Keep records of your creativity, whether it was successful or not, so you can build on it. While it might sound counterintuitive, this kind of structure allows you to keep building on the work that’s been done. --- **The most successful businesses are the ones with the most creative cultures. And the leaders who succeed in them are the ones who can best build and maintain that culture effectively.** **The Alliance’s C-suite Masterclass Course is the perfect resource to build those skills so you can really make your mark in the C-Suite.** [Discover how the course can make you a C-suite master](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?utm%5Fsource=cmoa&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=content) [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/C-Suite_Ghost_Banner_Assets_--1--6.png)](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=banner&utm%5Fcampaign=content-) ### What are GPTs and how can you use them to scale your SaaS organization? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-gpts-and-how-can-you-use-them-to-scale-your-saas-organization/ Last updated: 2024-10-31T11:03:52.000Z ChatGPT is back, shaking up the AI scene once more! If you're a SaaS leader, brace yourself for an exciting new chapter in AI innovation. OpenAI made a splash at its first-ever DevDay conference in San Francisco, introducing GPTs. But what does that mean for you? It means creating your own specialized, customizable version of ChatGPT. And in an age where customers want that personal touch more than ever – and the demand is bigger than ever – we don’t have to tell you what a huge deal this is. In a nutshell; we’re talking about customizable messaging at scale. But it doesn’t stop at messaging and positioning. GPTs have the potential to enhance every aspect of your SaaS org. Let’s break down: - What are GPTs - How to make your own GPTs? - Product management - GPTs and customer success - GPTs and SaaS sales - GPTs and product marketing - GPTs and SaaS operations To put it simply, GPTs are like personalized versions of ChatGPT. And the best part is: You don't need to be a coding wizard to create them! You can tailor ChatGPT to your specific needs, giving it special instructions, more knowledge, and predefined actions – all without breaking the rules, of course. [Seven ways that ChatGPT is going to transform your SaaS businessChatGPT might be all the rage right now, but, in practical terms, how exactly is it going to allow your SaaS company to scale? We lay it out right here.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w1200/2023/04/Seven-ways-that-ChatGPT-is-going-to-transform-your-SaaS-business.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/seven-ways-that-chatgpt-is-going-to-transform-your-saas-business/) On top of this, you can share your customized ChatGPT with others once it's ready. Soon, there will be a ChatGPT store where you can publish your version and earn a share of the sales when people use it, with the most popular ones getting extra attention. But here's the deal – this feature will be available exclusively to ChatGPT Plus subscribers, priced at $20 per month. You'll access it through the GPT store. These customized GPTs will have web access and a place to upload data, so you can connect them with services like email, Canva, or Zapier. Security is a top priority, so don't worry. Creators won't see how people are using their customized chats, and GPT will keep an eye on all conversations to make sure they're safe. Customers have been asking for this kind of customization for a while now. No more keeping ready-made prompts to copy and paste. It's time for your very own programmed GPT that fits your needs like a glove, giving you more control.**How to make your own GPT** Looking for a guide to create your own GPT? We've got you covered. Simply follow these steps: - Sign in to chat.openai.com. - Navigate to the Explore section in the sidebar. - Select "Create GPT." - On the Create page, input your instructions into the message box, ensuring they’re specific enough for the results you want. - Click "Configure" for further customization options. - After customization, click "Save" and choose how you want to share your creation. - Finally, click "Confirm." If you've crafted something you're not satisfied with, don't worry. You can start fresh by following these steps: - Go to the Explore section in the sidebar. - Locate the GPT you want to delete and click on the More (...) icon next to it. - Choose "Delete GPT." - Confirm the deletion by clicking "Delete GPT" again in the confirmation window. Now let’s dive into the ways that ChatGPT can help you, whether you're in marketing, sales or product, find out how GPTs can give your role the boost it needs. ## How can GPTs help you with product management? Product managers are responsible for identifying market needs, developing and [launching products](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-led-growth-insights-from-unexpected-sources/), and continually improving them. To excel in this demanding role, PMs are increasingly turning to AI solutions to streamline their decision-making processes, enhance productivity, and ultimately drive success. So, how would customized AI benefit them even more? What gift has ChatGPT just given everyone? Customized AI refers to the development and implementation of AI solutions that are specifically tailored to the unique needs and goals of a product management team. [How you can use AI to push boundaries in SaaS productsJuliette Denny, CEO at Growth Engineering, outlines Artificial Intelligence in detail, including how it can be used to push boundaries in SaaS.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJuliette Denny![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w1200/2022/03/possessed-photography-zbLW0FG8XU8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/) These solutions can range from [AI-powered tools](https://www.saasalliance.io/harnessing-the-potential-of-ai-tools-for-unparalleled-growth/) that aid in market research and product development to AI-driven analytics platforms that provide real-time insights. ### **Boosted data analysis** Product managers are [data](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-data-team-at-saas-hypergrowth/) wizards, and their secret weapon is customized AI. Imagine this: AI tools that do the heavy lifting of collecting, processing, and analyzing data. With the magic of machine learning, [product managers](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-profitable-products-with-customers-2/) can conjure up insights into what customers love, where the market is heading, and what competitors are up to. It's not just a time-saver; it's a precision tool for making spot-on data-driven decisions. ### **Predictive analysis** With customized AI in their corner, product managers can become expert forecasters. Picture this scenario: GPTs crunching historical data, spotting hidden patterns that even eagle-eyed humans might miss. This predictive superpower lets product managers fine-tune [product development](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-development-team-structure-for-saas-organization/) and marketing plans, making every resource count and paving the way for a super-efficient product roadmap. ### **Tailored customer delights** The power of GPTs allows product managers to create personalized customer experiences. Customized AI takes the reins, analyzing [user behavior ](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-improve-user-activation/)and preferences to serve up recommendations and content that hit the bullseye. It's the recipe for boosted user [engagement and satisfaction](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-employee-engagement-affects-customer-satisfaction-with-mary-poppen-at-glint-linkedin/). With a deeper understanding of their audience, product managers can make savvy choices about product enhancements to keep customers coming back for more. **Efficient resource allocation** Customized AI can help product managers optimize resource allocation by providing insights into which projects, features, or markets are likely to yield the best returns. This ensures that the team's efforts are focused on high-impact areas, improving efficiency and reducing the risk of misallocated resources. ### **Agile Development** AI-powered project management tools can keep tabs on progress, spotting bottlenecks, and offering real-time adjustments. The result? Lightning-fast iterations, sharper decision-making, and the ability to sprint with market changes like never before. Keeping an eye on your competition is a must for product managers. With tailored AI solutions, you can automate the task of keeping tabs on what your rivals are up to, their pricing tactics, and where they stand in the market. These nifty tools send you updates and alerts, giving product managers the edge they need to stay ahead and tweak their strategies right on time. [How AI and remote work are shaping the future of SaaSValentina Thörner, Founder @ RemoteThatWorks, delves into two of the most significant developments in the world of SaaS: AI and remote work.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSValentina Thörner![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w1200/2023/09/AI-and-remote-work--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/brace-for-impact-how-ai-and-remote-work-are-shaping-the-future-of-saas/) ## **How can GPTs help you with customer success?** It’s not enough anymore to simply address customer concerns as and when they arise. Customers today expect SaaS professionals to take an active interest in their problems. That’s where [customer success](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) comes in: it’s a proactive method of anticipating customer needs and building that essential pillar of trust between customer and org. \-But how do you tackle those complex tasks while still being able to resolve more basic, fundamental problems that customers face in those early days of onboarding? Enter GPTs. Here’s how they're going to help you master the [customer success](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-tips-to-make-your-saas-product-stand-out/) game. ### **Automated responses** Think of it this way: GPTs can help you set up [chatbots](https://www.saasalliance.io/bypass-intent-data-and-go-direct-uncover-fresh-leads-with-this-emerging-martech/) or email templates that give lightning-fast answers to those everyday questions your [customers](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-is-customer-success-a-cost-or-revenue-center/) keep asking. It's like having your own AI assistant handling the routine stuff, so you can dive into the trickier cases and really make an impact. ### **Enhanced customer insights** GPTs can sort through all that unstructured text to uncover the juicy insights. This way, you can spot trends, find out what's bugging your customers, and pinpoint areas where your product or service could use a little extra love and attention. ### **Building a customer knowledge base** GPTs are pretty handy when it comes to creating articles and documentation for your knowledge base. They can reel out helpful guides and answers to common customer questions. The cool thing is, this makes it super easy for customers to find the info they need on their own. Plus, it's like having a 24/7 support team, so you end up getting fewer support inquiries to deal with. It's a win-win! [How to unleash AI’s potential in email-driven product growthEmail marketing is still one of the most effective tools in your growth arsenal. Find out how AI can take your email campaigns to the next level right here!![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSarah Marksons![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w1200/2023/10/unleash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-inbox-to-impact-unleashing-ais-potential-in-email-driven-product-growth/) ### **Gathering customer feedback** We all know the indispensable value of [customer feedback,](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-turning-customers-into-advocates/) and often, just making sense of feedback and implementing it into your strategy can be an uphill climb. Good news: GPTs can do much of the heavy lifting here. They can whip up surveys in no time and then [analyze the feedback](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-advisory-boards-and-feedback-loops-q-a-with-dropbox/) you get. This way, you can spot areas where you need to make improvements faster than ever. It's all about making things easier and more efficient, so you can put more time into the work that really matters: using that feedback to make real changes to your strategy. ### **Natural language processing (NLP)** Think AI lacks that essential human touch? Think again. With NLP, your GPTs will dive into [customer feedback](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) and pick up on all those subtleties in how people express themselves. So, when you're dealing with customer concerns you can respond with the perfect words, showing you really get what they're saying. It's all about talking and making them feel understood! ## **How can GPTs help you with SaaS sales?** Here's another massive opportunity for [AI in SaaS](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/): GPT-assisted sales. When you think of successful salespeople, what qualities immediately spring to mind? Resilience? Tenacity? How about compassion and empathy? The truth is, more successful sales reps will be able to show empathy to really connect with prospects and understand them. Now, AI can’t give you that same level of human touch, but it can give you that essential insight into your prospect needs and behaviors. The customizable potential of GPTs has only increased that potential. Here’s how! ### [**Automated lead generation**](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-boost-b2b-lead-generation-through-email-marketing/) Finding ideal leads can be a real chore for sales reps, but GPTs can help identify potential leads by analyzing data from various sources. They can scour social media, forums, and other online platforms to find individuals or businesses that match your ideal customer profile, saving you time in the lead generation process. ### **Personalized outreach** The average SaaS sales rep manages to close [22% of deals](https://www.mosaic.tech/financial-metrics/closing-rate), meaning that you’ve gotta be able to generate as many leads as possible to hit your KPIs. What does this mean? A whole lot of outreach! But with the huge number of messages you’re going to be sending out, how do you maintain the human element? GPTs can assist in crafting personalized outreach emails and messages for your leads. By tailoring your communication to each prospect's specific needs and pain points, you can increase the chances of a positive response and engagement. ### **Sales collateral creation** Prospects today want to see evidence of your product’s use case. Or to put it plainly, they want to know exactly how your product can help them. GPTs can generate sales collateral, such as product descriptions, sales presentations, and case studies, that can be customized for different prospects. This ensures consistency in your messaging and saves time in content creation. ### **Sales forecasting** If you’re a[ sales leader](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-sales-enablement-tools-for-saas-leaders/), you’ve got to give your army of reps clear targets, or your team starts to get seriously disincentivized. GPTs can assist in sales forecasting by analyzing historical data and market trends. This helps you make more accurate predictions about future sales, allowing for better [planning and resource allocation](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-the-rules-of-engagement/). ## [**How can GPTs help you with product marketing?**](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) With the sheer oversaturation of information pulling consumers in all possible directions now, it’s more important than ever that [product marketers](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing/) are hyper-focused in their outreach and positioning. But human research capability is limited, so why not leverage the capabilities of AI to ensure your message is reaching those most likely to convert? This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how GPTs can make the day-to-day work of product marketers easier. Let’s dive in deeper here. ### **Market research** [Market research](https://www.saasalliance.io/qualitative-vs-quantitative-research/) is an essential cornerstone in any successful marketing campaign. But with the intense demands of your job, it can be a strain to carry out detailed research with efficiency. Efficiency is really the key word here. GPTs can analyze large volumes of market data, customer reviews, and competitor information and draw insights at pace. They can help you identify market trends, customer sentiments, and [competitive insights](https://www.saasalliance.io/competitive-differentiation-strategy-how-to-win-in-a-hyper-competitive-saas-market/). And it goes without saying that these insights are crucial for shaping your product marketing strategies. You need to know who your product is designed for, what their pain points are, and how you're going to distinguish your product in an oversaturated SaaS market. ### [**Persona development**](https://www.saasalliance.io/take-your-personas-to-the-next-level-get-persona-certified/) GPTs can assist in creating detailed buyer personas by analyzing customer data. This helps you understand your target audience better and tailor your messaging and campaigns accordingly. Here’s the thing: The needs of your customers are not static. They’re going to change depending on the point they’re at in their customer journey, the time of year, their seniority in their career, along with many other factors. As a result, persona research needs to be carried out consistently and intensively. This is where GPTs step in to shoulder some of the burden. ### **Email marketing** How many times a week do you ignore generic emails from folks trying to sell you stuff? Research from Mckinsey shows that [at least 35%](https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/the-social-economy) of emails go unopened. But given the sheer number of email campaigns you're going to be spearheading as a product marketer, how can you ensure that level of personalization that yields results. GPTs can help craft personalized [email marketing campaigns](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-is-email-marketing-important-to-improving-customer-retention/). They can generate subject lines, email copy, and even segment your email lists to ensure that your messages are highly relevant to each recipient. ### **Competitive analysis** You know the competition out there is fierce, and in order to compete with and surpass your competitors, you’re going to need to know how your competitors are falling short. GPTs can analyze and summarize competitor strategies, product features, and customer feedback. This information can help you position your SaaS product effectively in the market and highlight your unique value proposition. ## **How can GPTs can help you with SaaS operations?** When it comes to SaaS operations, GPTs can free up time by taking care of those arduous, repetitive tasks, help you make smarter decisions by [crunching data](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-data-team-at-saas-hypergrowth/), beef up your security, and make sure your resources are utilized in the right way. But remember, it's crucial to handle these AI tools with care, ensuring they align nicely with your goals and keep your data safe and sound. Let’s get in to more depth now. ### **Automated data entry and reporting** GPTs can automate data entry tasks by extracting information from emails, documents, or other sources and populating databases or spreadsheets. They can also generate reports and summaries based on predefined templates, saving time and reducing errors. ### **Predictive maintenance** How much valuable time is wasted putting out fires when you could be conjuring new, innovative solutions? GPTs can analyze historical data and sensor readings to predict when equipment or infrastructure may require maintenance. This proactive approach can help you schedule maintenance tasks more efficiently and minimize downtime. Less time fixing bugs, more time improving your [product](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-development-team-structure-for-saas-organization/). [SaaScast: How will AI and remote work shape the future of SaaS?Meet Valentina Thörner: Your SaaS growth catalyst and remote work maven! Her speciality? Redefining distributed policies for post-pandemic success.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2023/07/Valentina-tho-rner--1-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-how-will-ai-and-remote-work-shape-the-future-of-saas/) ### **Resource allocation and capacity planning** As your org expands and grows, you have to be able to accommodate higher demand. GPTs can analyze usage patterns and resource consumption to assist in capacity planning. This helps ensure that your infrastructure can handle increased demand and that resources are allocated efficiently. ### [**Security threat detection**](https://www.saasalliance.io/automating-compliance-with-meiran-galis/) When ensuring good customer retention, trust is key. At the very least, customers need to feel like sensitive data is safe. It’s a pretty fundamental demand, but it can be more challenging than you’d expect. GPTs can assist in identifying security threats and anomalies in system logs and network traffic. They can help you detect potential breaches or vulnerabilities more quickly, enhancing your cybersecurity efforts. ## **Wrapping up** The latest AI innovations have demonstrated that AI can complement rather than hinder the essential human touch that SaaS companies require to elevate their products. The key to rapid and efficient scaling lies in leveraging AI to handle routine yet crucial tasks, freeing up space for human creativity. With GPT's customizable capabilities, there's no better time to discover the ideal synergy between AI's automation and our capacity for innovation. Don't lag behind the curve; gain a competitive edge in this exciting new era of AI. --- *Want to dive into more exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS? Why not sign up to a Future of SaaS membership.* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Collaborate, create and disrupt to elevate the customer experience URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/collaborate-create-and-disrupt-to-elevate-the-customer-experience-2/ Last updated: 2023-12-08T13:44:51.000Z Karim Hambach, Sr. Customer Success Manager at Adobe, shares the pivotal strategies that make Adobe a partner in their clients' success stories. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### How to maximize SaaS Revenue with generative AI URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-maximize-saas-revenue-with-generative-ai/ Last updated: 2024-10-31T11:04:21.000Z In 2024, generative AI will result in a sharp increase in new users of SaaS apps. According to McKinsey's 2023 State of AI report, 13% of respondents use generative AI for product or service development, and one-third of all respondents use it routinely for at least one function. Only 21% of firms have policies controlling how their workers utilize GenAI technologies at the office, indicating a lack of awareness of the associated business dangers. With the emergence of enterprise-focused products like OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise, we’re expectations in usage. Every AI age brings new potential for iconic firms to rise to the top, and we think the present wave of AI is no different. It is not without subtlety, though. In addition to the risks and value propositions of what they produce, founders need to consider market dynamics when evaluating the prospects of this technological wave.The businesses that successfully combine these two will win out. ## **Let’s recall what happened in 2022-23** Although the Generative AI era has been developing for a while, the release of DALL-E 2 and Midjourney in the summer of 2023 significantly increased its popularity. The introduction of live internet plug-ins further fueled this trend by laying the groundwork for new concepts that improve human-computer interactions. Since ChatGPT's recent release, these factors have maintained generative AI at the top of industry and public discussions. The exciting thing about this era is that harnessing AI/ML no longer requires technical competence. Simple usage, convenient distribution channels, and excellent outcomes have made this widely known. [How you can use AI to push boundaries in SaaS productsJuliette Denny, CEO at Growth Engineering, outlines Artificial Intelligence in detail, including how it can be used to push boundaries in SaaS.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJuliette Denny![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w1200/2022/03/possessed-photography-zbLW0FG8XU8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/) ## **What’s in the future for generative AI?** The transition to generative AI has characteristics that make it equally as fascinating as previous major tech platforms. But may be less damaging to incumbents and less advantageous to aspiring startups. In contrast to previous transitions, incumbents can absorb this new platform shift without retaining to re-architect their entire product line. Additionally, integrating Generative AI features into current architectures and products requires very little work, allowing market chiefs to develop and release innovations based on this technology faster. [How AI can help your SaaS company to scale and achieve retentionWith qualitative and quantitative insights from the leading minds in SaaS, this article showcases how AI can scale your SaaS org at pace today.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w1200/2023/01/AI.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-ai-can-help-your-saas-company-to-scale/) This change benefits businesses that possess larger, private data sets, which might provide them an advantage over more seasoned enterprises. Current market leaders with established distribution networks can speed up the acceptance and distribution of new features and goods. They can take advantage of their established client bases, channels, and market reach. Recent announcements demonstrate the impressive pace with which older corporations have embraced this transformation. ## **What are the potentials for AI-based SaaS organizations?** With this current platform shift, large enterprises may initially have an advantage, but some innovators may face a challenge. Legacy firms may have to make tactical adjustments that could temporarily endanger their main line of operation. As they balance the necessity to preserve supremacy and the possible income disruption posed by chatbot-based search engines like Perplexity AI, even Google's core business, search, is at risk. Recently, ChatGPT's capacity to execute orders without the use of conventional mobile apps has made its integration with apps a potential concern for app-store operators. Here are some of the potential [AI-based benefits SaaS companies can grab](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/): ### **1\. Meeting genuine customer needs** Businesses should have a distinct and persuasive use case for their AI-powered product that takes care of a practical issue or requirement. Instead of being the answer in and of itself, technology should make a workflow or feature set available that wasn't achievable with earlier technologies. The existence of generative AI can adequately address the question "Why now?" but not "Why this?" Businesses will want a long-term edge that goes beyond utilizing AI software development. [How to unleash AI’s potential in email-driven product growthEmail marketing is still one of the most effective tools in your growth arsenal. Find out how AI can take your email campaigns to the next level right here!![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSarah Marksons![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w1200/2023/10/unleash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-inbox-to-impact-unleashing-ais-potential-in-email-driven-product-growth/) ### **2\. Testing vibrant business models** Although anticipating that the cost of this technology will decrease over time is still a significant expense. To create a lasting business, companies should keep refining their operating structures and figuring out how to best balance performance, accuracy, cost, and usability. As the competition catches on, businesses will also need to be able to communicate their sustaining advantage in simple terms. Integrations are essential to stickiness since they make workflows more comfortable and provide businesses with access to data that increases the usefulness of GenAI. ### **3\. Acknowledging a new definition of quality** Until recently, quality has been described as uptime, availability, and bugs. Situations in which an application error or other problem is evident to the end user. Errors are challenging to interpret when GenAI functionality is present. Even if they are more frequent, hallucinations are challenging to identify. While this capability appears to produce accurate results, a mistake could have serious repercussions for the user or business. When assessing companies that develop with this feature set at the center, having a well-thought-out quality/validation component in your application is crucial. [Build trust in AI technologies with this vital frameworkLucy Huang, Product Manager at FullStory, talks about advances in machine learning, and what AI governance frameworks you can apply to manage your risk, user privacy, and ethics.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLucy Huang![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2023/07/artificial-intelligence-tech-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/build-trust-in-ai-technologies-with-this-vital-framework/) ### **4\. Leveraging strong datasets** Businesses can aim to set themselves apart by creating specialized models that meet particular business needs and produce higher-quality results as model performance starts to converge. Businesses should have robust governance procedures in their enterprise data management and acquisition processes to guarantee that the data used to train and assess their models is of the highest caliber, most accurate, and most impartial. Additionally, technology must be able to describe how they are managing concerns like data security and privacy. [Top growth-hacking AI tools for SaaS organizationsAI is the future. Get in on these top tools for utilizing the power of AI, so your org doesn’t get left behind.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2023/06/saas-gtm-strategy--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/harnessing-the-potential-of-ai-tools-for-unparalleled-growth/) ### **5\. Using thoughtful product design** Today's SaaS organizations are required to use elevated UX design. GenAI is not an exception to this rule, but if user training is authorized, much thought must go into how the features are delivered, verified, and enhanced. GenAI capabilities are put into the user interface as a floating text box or chat window. It will require change for this functionality to be essential to the user experience. ### **Final Thoughts** The SaaS sector's next frontier is generative AI, and companies that could capitalize on it will prosper. Businesses may develop ground-breaking SaaS applications that will bring in millions of dollars by understanding a new concept of quality, utilizing robust datasets, testing innovative business models, satisfying consumer wants, and employing careful product design. Software product development services can assist businesses in achieving this objective by offering the know-how and assets needed to create and execute generative AI solutions that will completely transform their sector. --- Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a future of SaaS membership plan? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### We have liftoff: Turning your launch process from chaos to competitive advantage URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/we-have-liftoff-turning-your-launch-process-from-chaos-to-competitive-advantage/ Last updated: 2023-12-01T15:37:42.000Z Derek Osgood, CEO at Ignition, demonstrates how to streamline your product launch process, so your product can really soar! _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### "This well-maintained community fosters support" - Saleh Ahmed URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/this-well-maintained-community-fosters-support-saleh-ahmed/ Last updated: 2023-11-30T15:56:12.000Z With over 5,000 enthusiastic SaaS champions from various backgrounds, our Slack community serves as an invaluable resource for actionable strategies to scale your SaaS organization and for networking with like-minded peers. Moreover, it offers an excellent platform to showcase your expertise to the SaaS world. Our ultimate goal is to shape the future of SaaS by bringing together some of the industry's leading minds. But don't just take it from us. Take it from Future of SaaS community member Saleh Ahmed, Founder of Rank Wizards, as he dives into his positve experiences with our vibrant community. ## Can you give some insight into why you joined the community? A community like Future of SaaS can effectively address the challenges SaaS leaders face. Many members have already encountered and solved these problems, making the community extremely valuable in this regard. I wanted to be able to solve problems myself and be a part of this community. ## What would you say is the main value of Future of SaaS community? It's great to connect with like-minded professionals in the community, saving us hundreds of hours and reducing stress by sharing and solving common problems. This private and well-maintained community, unlike forums and social media groups, fosters a supportive environment where members like you actively contribute to its improvement. This ensures the community remains engaging and valuable over time. Beyond networking, these relationships can also lead to valuable business opportunities. ## Can you share some feedback on your experience with the FoSaaS team? Emma (our community manager) is incredibly active and dedicated to keeping the community vibrant and growing. She's doing a fantastic job. The team also excels in regularly updating the weekly blog with valuable content. Any other feedback you’d like to share with us? Communities like Future of SaaS foster openness and transparency. Members not only share their successes but also openly discuss their challenges, leading to mutual support and assistance among participants. ## Any other feedback you’d like to share with us? Communities like Future of SaaS foster openness and transparency. Members not only share their successes but also openly discuss their challenges, leading to mutual support and assistance among participants. ## Get started today Just picture the incredible opportunities awaiting you as a budding SaaS professional! Launch your career and skyrocket your product to SaaS superstardom. But hey, no need to take our word for it alone. Jump right in and join our [Slack community](https://www.saasalliance.io/join-the-fosaas-community/) today to experience all the amazing perks for yourself. You won't regret it! ### SaaScast: Driving success with diversity, equity and inclusion URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-creating-a-sales-culture-of-excellence/ Last updated: 2023-12-01T10:36:00.000Z Consumers care more than ever about the value of the companies they partner with. Gone are the days when companies could simply pay lip service to worthy causes. Showing the integrity of your org through affirmative action has become an essential pillar in the foundation of trust you establish with your customers. According to Gartner, inclusive companies enjoy [2.3 times higher cash flow](https://www.achievers.com/blog/diversity-and-inclusion/#:~:text=When%20employees%20feel%20included%2C%20they,less%20leave%20for%20health%20issues.) per employee. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the tangible benefit of implementing DEI for SaaS organizations. In this episode of SaaScast, we wanted to delve into exactly what the positive outcomes of this philosophy are, and how SaaS companies can reap the bottom-line benefits. 👇🎧 [‎SaaScast: Driving success with diversity, equity and inclusion on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep Driving success with diversity, equity and inclusion - 28 Nov 2023![](https://t3.gstatic.com/faviconV2?client=SOCIAL&type=FAVICON&fallback_opts=TYPE,SIZE,URL&url=https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/driving-success-with-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/id1544750249?i=1000636789380&size=128)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts126/v4/a4/4d/5f/a44d5fae-5046-a15e-a689-2605bf2c3483/mza_10035764847765952101.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/driving-success-with-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/id1544750249?i=1000636789380) ## **About this episode** Here at Future of SaaS, we wanted to unpack DEI’s tangible benefits, and discuss actionable strategies for how diversity and inclusion can be the reality, not just the dream. So we sat down with Myra Khanna, CEO of Sama, to tackle the issue head-on. Myra dived deep into the benefits that some of the biggest players in the game have seen, as well as the following key talking points: 🤝 The role of mentorship in DEI 📈 How to measure DEI 💪 How to ensure good DEI practice Listen to the full episode right here: [Driving success with diversity, equity and inclusionUnlock the benefits of diversity and inclusion in SaaS with Myra Khanna, CEO of Sama. Boost your bottom line with actionable strategies.![](https://files.casted.us/828f30d5-e688-4a3b-8d2f-23d74d0f27c2.jpg)Casted![](https://files.casted.us/5a0da719-e950-4388-aee3-af4ff4e44d1b.jpg)](https://listen.casted.us/public/158/SaaScast-d5577738/4280446c) ## **Get involved** Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Creator, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: [anthony@futureofsaas.io.](mailto:anthony@futureofsaas.io) ### Uniting product-led and sales-led growth models in the SaaS sphere URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/uniting-product-led-and-sales-led-growth-models-in-the-saas-sphere/ Last updated: 2023-11-24T15:23:09.000Z Saurav Sharma, Amazon's Senior Product Manager, offers valuable insights to help companies navigate PLG and SLG complexities in the competitive SaaS market. _This post is for paying subscribers only._ ### Top 10 SaaS eCommerce platforms to boost your eCommerce sales in 2024 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/top-10-saas-ecommerce-platforms-to-boost-your-ecommerce-sales-in-2024/ Last updated: 2023-12-06T12:34:57.000Z Want to earn some extra cash online but don't know where to start? Or maybe you already have an eCommerce store but need help managing the technical side of things? Say hello to **SaaS eCommerce platforms** \- your new best friend for running a smooth online business! This new wave of SaaS eCommerce solutions allow you to create, operate and optimize an online store without needing to build costly in-house infrastructure and expertise. Everything you need, from web hosting to payment processing to marketing tools, is handled seamlessly through the cloud-based platform. What are you waiting for? There’s no better time than now, as global online sales are exploding, expected to hit **$7.4 trillion** by 2025\. Stake your claim! An effective SaaS platform gives you the backbone needed to set up shop and start selling without breaking a sweat, so let’s explore the top SaaS eCommerce platforms to consider in 2024 for taking your online business to the next level! So whether you're a burgeoning entrepreneur looking to launch your very own online platform, and want to learn from the best of ‘em, or you're looking for the best platforms to showcase your very own shopping experience, this page is for you. Let’s get started! - **What is SaaS eCommerce and how does it work?** - **SaaS ecommerce vs. open-source ecommerce** - **Top 10 SaaS eCommerce Platforms** - **Final thoughts** ## **What is SaaS eCommerce and how does it work?** Alright, before we dive into the platforms, let's make sure we're all on the same page about what *exactly* SaaS eCommerce is. As I’m sure you already know, SaaS stands for "software as a service" and essentially it's a software licensing model where you pay a subscription fee, usually monthly or yearly, to access the software. The software vendor handles hosting it in the cloud, managing security, fixing bugs - all that behind-the-scenes technical stuff. This means you get awesome software without needing your own servers or IT department! [Top 10 customer retention software choices for effective, sustainable growthLooking for strong, sustainable growth? Look no further than our top 10 tools for customer retention.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/10/software.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-10-customer-retention-software-choices-for-effective-sustainable-growth/) The platforms provide everything you need to create an online store all in one place - I'm talking the shopping cart, payment processing, marketing tools, inventory management, and more. You just log in and focus on your products and customers. The benefits are huge compared to old-school eCommerce software you'd install manually. With SaaS eCommerce there's: 💰 **Lower upfront costs** \- no expensive licenses or hardware. ⚡ **Quick setup** \- get your store up and running fast. 📈 **Easy scaling** \- upgrade or downgrade your plan based on sales. 🌎 **Access anywhere** \- manage your store on the go. 🔄 **Automatic updates** \- new features added seamlessly. ## **SaaS ecommerce vs. open-source ecommerce** But before we talk about the new-and-trending SaaS eCommerce platforms, let’s focus a little further on some of the key differences between SaaS eCommerce and open-source eCommerce. ![SaaS eCommerce vs open-source eCommerce](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/11/FoSaaS-eCommerce_infographic.png) ## **Top 10 SaaS eCommerce platforms of 2024** After careful research, we’ve compiled the top 10 SaaS eCommerce solutions to consider for taking your online business to the next level: ### **1 . Shopify – Best overall SaaS eCommerce platform** ![Shopify landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/11/shopify-software.png) Shopify is arguably the most well-known and widely-used SaaS platform, with over **1 million** businesses powered by its solutions, including companies like Red Bull, Kylie Cosmetics, and Budweiser. It offers an extremely robust set of eCommerce features for creating and managing your online store across sales channels, including: - Hundreds of professional templates - Drag-and-drop store builder - Payment processing and shipping integrations - Abandoned cart recovery - Marketing tools like email and SMS - Inventory management - Detailed analytics and reporting Shopify also provides 24/7 support and a thriving app marketplace with over 6,000 apps for enhancing your store’s functionality. It’s an ideal one-stop solution. **Pricing:** Basic Shopify - $29/month Shopify - $79/month Advanced Shopify - $299/month ### **2 . BigCommerce – Top SaaS for large enterprises** ![BigCommerce landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/11/bigcommerce.png) As one of the top eCommerce platforms, BigCommerce powers over 60,000 online stores. It offers an enterprise-level solution with robust B2B features, making it a great choice for established mid-market to large businesses. Key strengths include: - Scalable to support huge catalogs and sales volumes. - Built-in B2B functionality like customer groups and price lists. - Integrates with major online marketplaces. - Abandoned cart and email marketing tools. - Apps for accounting, shipping, POS, and more. [Top tools to enhance the performance of your salespeopleMy name is Terry Mitchell, and I’m the Principal and Owner of 180 Enablement, a sales and marketing enablement consulting firm.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSTerry Mitchell![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/03/sales.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-tools-to-enhance-the-performance-of-your-salespeople/) BigCommerce provides excellent support and design services in addition to its SaaS platform. There are four pricing plan tiers suitable for any stage of growth. **Pricing:** Standard plan - $29.95/month Plus plan - $79.95/month Pro plan - $249.95/month Enterprise quote-based pricing ### **3 . Wix – Best SaaS for website builders** ![Wix landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/11/wix-software.jpeg) Wix is a hugely popular website builder utilized by over 200 million users. It offers an intuitive drag-and-drop editor and a wealth of stylish templates to easily build an eye-catching online store integrated with your Wix site. Standout eCommerce features include: - Free secure hosting. - Mobile optimized templates. - Shipping rate management. - Multiple payment gateway options. - Marketing tools like email newsletters. - SEO optimization. - Hundreds of apps add advanced functions. For those less tech-savvy, Wix is the simplest way to make a beautiful, functional online shop. Developers can also customize stores further via code. **Pricing**: Wix Free plan – Free Combo plan – $14/month Unlimited plan – $22/month ### **4 . Square Online Store – Best for omnichannel selling** ![Square Online landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/11/square-software.png) Square’s eCommerce platform seamlessly integrates with its popular POS hardware and software, making it ideal for brick-and-mortar retailers wanting to add an online store. Key benefits include: - Easy syncing of online and in-person inventory. - Centralized reports for online/offline sales. - Integrated payments processing. - Automatic categorization of sales data. - Email invoicing. - Flexible order fulfillment options. While not as feature-rich as some platforms, Square Online Store removes friction for omnichannel businesses selling both online and in-person. **Pricing**: Basic plan – Free Standard plan – $26/month Advanced plan – $60/month ### **5 . Volusion – Best for small business** ![Volusion page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/11/volusion-software.png) Volusion touts itself as an “all-in-one”eCommerce solution built with small to medium businesses in mind. The user-friendly interface requires no coding to set up an SEO-optimized online store. Notable Volusion features: - Customizable design and templates. - Integrated payment processing. - Automated tax and shipping calculations. - Accounting integration. - Inventory and order management. - Abandoned cart emails. - POS capabilities. Volusion also provides stellar customer support, helpful resources, and transparent pricing. It’s a great choice for growing SMBs. [15 tools for a great finance stackFinance teams need to pull data fast and they need it to be accurate, to achieve both they have to have complete confidence in their tech stack. With this in mind, we searched high and low for the tools you need in your arsenal to build the ultimate finance tech stack![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/07/clay-banks-E2HgkL3LaFE-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/15-tools-for-a-great-finance-tech-stack/) **Pricing**: Mini Plan – $29/month Plus Plan – $79/month Pro Plan – $299/month ### **6 . 3dcart – Top budget SaaS pick** ![3dcart free trial page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/11/3dcart.webp) 3dcart offers tremendous value and capabilities, especially for the budget-conscious. The platform touts a robust feature set suitable for small, mid-size, and large operations. Benefits of 3dcart include: - No limits on products, bandwidth or storage. - Free branded storefront. - Integrated payment processing. - Automated shipping rate calculator. - SEO and marketing tools built-in. - Inventory management and accounting integration. - Hundreds of apps and integrations available. - No transaction fees. With completely free support and excellent community forums, 3dcart punches above its weight. It’s a top bargain choice. **Pricing**: 3dcart Startup plan – $19/month 3dcart Standard plan – $29/month 3dcart Plus plan – $79/month ### **7\. Odoo – Open-source SaaS eCommerce** ![Odoo admin page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/11/Odoo_software.webp) As an open-source platform, Odoo offers free community editions along with more robust enterprise eCommerce features available through partner integrations. Some highlights of Odoo include: - Free open-source modules with option to expand. - Built-in CRM, billing, accounting, and project management. - Warehouse and inventory management. - Strong third-party integrations. - Scalable modular architecture. - 700+ apps to extend functionality. For developers wanting flexibility and customization, Odoo provides an affordable foundation on which to build. **Pricing**: Community edition – Free Online plan – Starts at $25/month Enterprise plan – Custom pricing ### **8 . Brightpearl – Best for automated operations** ![Brightpearl analytics page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/11/brightpearl-software-2.png) Brightpearl stands out for automating back-office operations like inventory and accounting, allowing retailers to focus on growth and sales. Notable features include: - Real-time visibility into inventory across channels. - Automated purchasing workflows. - Built-in accounting and POS. - Custom reporting and business intelligence. - Supplier and customer management. - Fulfillment integration. - Peak trading support. By eliminating manual processes, Brightpearl lets you efficiently manage higher order volumes as you scale. [Top 20 no-code tools for scaling your SaaS startupScaling your SaaS startup just got easier! Discover the top 20 no-code tools that will revolutionize your business![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/no-code-tools.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-20-no-code-tools-for-scaling-your-saas-startup/) **Pricing**: Starter – $199/month Growth – $299/month Pro – Custom quote ### **9 . Selz – Top pick for selling digital products** ![Selz landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/11/selz-5.jpeg) Selz focuses specifically on empowering small businesses to sell digital downloads and services online. Its streamlined features help you quickly start selling. Key capabilities: - Easy product setup. - Varied payment options. - Coupons and bundles. - Detailed transaction history. - Email and social media marketing tools. - Abandoned cart recovery. - Customizable storefront. Selz simplifies digital commerce for lean startups and entrepreneurs. **Pricing**: Free plan – Free for 25 Products Starter plan – $16/month Business plan – $29/month ### **10 . Shopware – Extendable open-source platform** ![shopware settings page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/11/shopware-2.png) As an open-source solution, Shopware provides free core software that developers can fully customize to create bespoke online stores. Shopware offers: - Free core software with an open code base. - Modular system for flexibility. - Extensive API for developers. - Over 4,000 plugins for added functions. - Themes and templates available. - Handles enterprise-level volumes. For full control and scalability, Shopware open source software allows you to build exactly the platform you need. **Pricing**: Free community edition Extended license – Starting at $349/month ### **Final thoughts** There you have it - the top ten SaaS eCommerce platforms to catapult your online sales! From simplified solutions for startups to advanced tools for enterprises, these SaaS providers truly offer something for *every* business. Now you can focus on what you do best, while the platform handles the technical side of running your online store. My advice? Take some time to review your specific needs and priorities. Do you want gorgeous templates for a stunning storefront? Built-in marketing tools? Flexible pricing plans? Jot down your must-haves. With consumers flocking online, the possibilities are truly endless. Now get out there, have fun, and watch your online business thrive! --- ***Want exclusive insights from the leading minds in SaaS? Why not become a member here?*** [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Driving change in sales teams: What works and what doesn't URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/driving-change-in-sales-teams-what-works-and-what-doesnt/ Last updated: 2024-11-13T12:55:35.000Z Old habits die hard, especially when money is on the line. So how do you transform decades-old sales approaches across an organization? In my **15+ years in sales enablement** at companies like Microsoft and MessageBird, I've banged my head against the wall many times trying to get teams to embrace new skills. While I don't have all the answers, I've picked up some hard-won lessons on the good, the bad, and the downright frustrating parts of transforming behavior. In this article, I want to share my key takeaways to help fellow enablement leaders and frontline managers drive real change. I'll take you through my failures and successes, organizing it into **"the good, the bad, and the ugly.**" My goal is to provide practical tips you can start applying now to motivate your teams. So, let’s dive right in! ## **The ugly: Why changing behavior is so hard** We all know driving real change is hard. As Mark Twain famously said, "I'm all in favor of progress; it's change I don't like." Customers initially get excited about new ideas and progress. But when it comes time to actually change entrenched habits and behaviors, resistance invariably crops up. On the sales enablement side, we often see that simply providing training isn't enough to produce real changes in seller behavior with customers. > *The metrics may look good on paper, but out in the field, reps quickly revert back to old habits.* On the business side, appeals for more training or feedback from customers frequently fall flat. Mandating actions doesn't work well either, as sellers resist top-down edicts. So why is driving change so difficult? I've learned it comes down to **three core challenges**: ### **1\. Under pressure, people revert to old behaviors** When the stakes are high, people rely on entrenched habits - even if they've just received state-of-the-art training on new best practices. Fear of failure outweighs the motivation to change. ### **2\. Big goals feel overwhelming** Launching a major new initiative for the sales team can seem like an impossibly large mountain to climb. Even if sellers make significant progress, falling short of the ultimate goal still feels like failure. ### **3\. Rational motivations aren't enough** Appeals to logic rarely provide sufficient motivation on their own. Telling sellers they'll earn more commission from a new product doesn't necessarily get them to change decades-old habits. ## **The bad: My early failed attempts** Armed with these challenges, I set out to transform my sales team's skills at various companies. Unfortunately, my first few attempts failed to drive real behavioral change, despite seeming successful on the surface. ### **Attempt #1: Inspiring training without coaching** At Microsoft, we needed to train 15,000 sellers on how to shift from selling on-premises solutions to cloud-based ones. It represented a major change in everything from conversational approach to deal negotiation. I created what seemed like inspiring e-learning modules, videos, and other tools. Participation rates were sky-high, and survey feedback was extremely positive. But out in the field, rep behaviors stayed stagnant. The training simply didn't lead to change. 💡 ****Key takeaway:** Observation and passive learning don't drive real behavior change. ### **Attempt #2: Layering coaching on top** Realizing we needed more than just training, we added intensive in-person coaching. Sellers role-played new scenarios and got detailed feedback from managers. This time, we saw real improvement in reps embracing cloud-based sales. But coaching introduced new problems. Sellers resisted being critiqued and avoided scheduling coaching sessions. Managers struggled transitioning from directing to coaching. 💡 ****Key takeaway**: Coaching is powerful but requires changing ingrained habits on both sides. ### **Attempt #3: Still falling back on old behaviors** Even with coaching, sellers struggled to apply new skills in high-stakes customer conversations. At the first objection, they reverted back to old comfort zone product pitches. 💡 ****Key takeaway**: Changing behavior requires more than new information - it demands practicing new habits until they become automatic. ## **The good: A cadence that works** After multiple failures, I finally developed a practical approach to driving adoption of new seller skills, which I recently implemented with a 15-person SDR team at my new company. Rather than one-off training, we created a four week onboarding cadence blending different modalities. Here are the key elements: ### **💤 Start with low-stress practice opportunities** On day one, we presented a sample outreach email and had the group critique it on Slack. This instantly got them thinking critically and learning without any formal training. Short microlearning bites and informal polls provided low-key opportunities to introduce concepts. ### **📢 Use coaching to ingrain new habits** We paired new SDRs with seasoned reps for coaching sessions to practice real outreach and get detailed feedback. Both partners gained insights from these exchanges. ### **🏅 Make learning social and fun with competition** A culminating team competition replaced stressful exams. SDRs learned from watching peers' presentations and provided constructive feedback. The contest format motivated engagement. ### **🔄 Reinforce concepts through repetition** We repeated core ideas across multiple formats over the 4 weeks. Consistent repetition helps new approaches sink in. ### **🔍 Provide optional opportunities to dive deeper** Optional learning sessions, content libraries, and Q&A office hours let people self-direct deeper dives on areas of interest. ### **🫶 Use positive framing and motivation** Rather than scolding sellers, we focused on positives like becoming better at their craft and working as a team. Aspirational emotions are more powerful change motivators than fear. ### **📝 Expect iteration** Driving change doesn't happen overnight. We anticipate running updated versions of the cadence to meet evolving needs. ## **Key takeaways for changing behavior** Through plenty of trials and errors, I've learned a few key lessons that I hope resonate with you: - **Change takes time**. Quick hits don't work. Create extended journeys that give people space to practice and reinforce new skills. - **Blend modalities**. Layer different learning tools like microlearning, coaching, and competitions to drive engagement. - **Appeal to emotions**. Rational arguments aren't enough. Connect with people's intrinsic desires for mastery and teamwork. - **Meet people where they are**. Provide optional and social learning opportunities instead of mandated activities. - **Practice makes perfect**. Repeatedly applying new approaches cements them into habits that stick under pressure. - **Engage managers in coaching skills**. Sales leaders need as much training on providing coaching as frontline sellers do on new selling skills. - **Stay positive**. Motivate with support and competition instead of criticism. - **Keep iterating**. Behavior change is a moving target requiring constant refinement and evolution. The path to true transformation is bumpy, but by keeping these principles in mind, I believe enablement leaders can get closer to our shared goal of driving change. ## **Final thoughts** And that's a wrap! I hope sharing my lessons learned helps shed some light on the good, the bad, and the ugly of transforming sales behavior. Driving real change is tough work. Believe me, I have the bruises to prove it! But with the right mindset and tools, it **IS** possible to build new habits across teams. Changing behavior is a journey, not a moment. Take it step by step, learn as you go, and don't beat yourself up. ### SaaS financing solutions to fund your startup in 2024 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-financing-options-to-fund-your-startup-in-2024/ Last updated: 2023-11-16T00:21:50.000Z We all know it by now: SaaS spells OPPORTUNITY. The SaaS market is on fire, with a jaw-dropping worth of approximately $197 billion in 2023, and it's revving up to hit a whopping $232 billion next year! But with that comes significant challenges. We live in economically volatile times, prospects are more hesitant than ever about crucial buying decisions and investors are far less likely to take risks with companies in their early stages than they once were. And who can honestly blame them, especially when, according to recent studies, [90% of startups fail?](https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilpatel/2015/01/16/90-of-startups-will-fail-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-10/) But why does this happen? If you refer to our[ article on the subject](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-5-reasons-why-startups-fail-and-how-to-avoid-them/), one of the key reasons is insufficient funding or careless spending. Investors want evidence you’re primed for long-term growth. So, having a firm grasp on your financing is a huge priority. That’s where we come in. In terms of seeking investment, SaaS companies still hold a considerable advantage over others. Here’s why. When it comes to SaaS, it's all about security. SaaS startups have a trick up their sleeve – they bring in that sweet, consistent revenue early on, unlike their tech counterparts. 💸 But there comes a time when you've gotta grow. So, how do you extend your runway to reach the next level? [SaaS FinanceThe resources in this guide will provide you with actionable strategies to maximize profits and minimize losses in the world of SaaS finance.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/03/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_finance.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-finance/) Traditional banks? Not fans of lending to SaaS companies.They're all about tangible assets, not our SaaS champions. No collateral, no loan. Equity funding? It's an option, but who wants to give up their precious ownership and control for a few million dollars? Plus, these days, snagging venture capital is like hunting unicorns – rare and tricky. Early-stage SaaS startups, don't despair! Want to see that annual recurring revenue soar and your outward cash flow cut down to size? There are some nifty debt funding options in the game. In this article, we'll break them down, but first, a refresher course. ## What is SaaS financing? SaaS financing is all about getting the cash flow rolling for SaaS companies. These companies provide software through subscriptions or usage, but they need funds to grow, market, and make things happen. Here,we’ll go into the nitty gritty on the various SaaS financing options available to you, but in case you’re a bit strapped for time, here’s the short version. ### How do I finance my SaaS company? **Venture capital**: SaaS startups often seek investment from venture capital firms to fund their growth and development. Venture capitalists provide funding in exchange for equity in the company, and they typically look for companies with high growth potential. **Angel investors**: Angel investors are individuals who invest their own money in startups, including SaaS companies. They often provide early-stage funding to help these companies get off the ground. **Bootstrapping**: Some SaaS companies choose to bootstrap, which means they fund their growth using their own revenue and resources without seeking external funding. Bootstrapping allows companies to maintain control but may limit their growth rate. **Debt financing**: SaaS companies can also take on debt financing, such as loans or lines of credit, to fund their operations and expansion. This approach involves repaying the borrowed funds over time, often with interest. [SaaS revenue-based financing: the cheat code to preventing ownership dilutionYour SaaS company has a magic word that hypnotizes investors: recurring revenue. It’s much easier (and less expensive) to keep existing customers than acquire new ones.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAdam Tzagournis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/calculator.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-revenue-based-financing-the-cheat-code-to-preventing-ownership-dilution/) **Crowdfunding**: Crowdfunding platforms allow SaaS companies to raise money from a large number of individuals or investors who contribute smaller amounts of capital. This approach is typically used for specific projects or product launches. **Revenue-based financing**: Some SaaS companies opt for revenue-based financing, where they receive capital in exchange for a percentage of their future revenue. This arrangement allows them to access funds without giving up equity. **Private equity:** In later stages of growth, SaaS companies may attract private equity investors who provide capital in exchange for a significant ownership stake in the company. Now that we’ve gone through the cliff notes, let’s dive into some more in-depth solutions. # 5 Financing solutions for SaaS startups ### **1\. Internal funding sources/convertible debt** Before hitting the big leagues, many tech entrepreneurs turn to their inner circles for financial support: co-founders, board members, or friends and family. They often make it official with convertible debt. Convertible debt is the MVP here, with low-interest rates and the power to transform into equity when the stars align (usually after an equity financing round). It's a win-win for investors and founders, but here's the plot twist – watch out for these sneaky traps: Subordination terms : Be cautious if they're too aggressive, as they might cramp your style when seeking additional debt from other big lenders later on. Maturity date: Some convertible loans have a 24-month countdown, while others are speed demons with 18 or even 12 months. If you can't pull off that equity financing round before the clock runs out, your convertible notes won't magically turn into equity, and you'll be facing a hefty debt. However, if you’re not able to turn to your inner circle for funding, it’s time to look into venture debt financing. This is the catch-all term for a wide range of loan options designed specifically to meet the unique requirements and challenges faced by organizations ### 2\. **Revenue term loans** This is a classic setup that gives you a cash injection upfront, paid back in neat, fixed monthly installments over a set period. These loans are the Steady Eddie of the debt game, offering predictability compared to their wilder debt counterparts. Unlike those stubborn traditional bank loans that demand collateral, debt covenants, and a fair bit of hoop-jumping, the process is quick and easy! And the best part? You don't have to wager your home to fuel your startup journey! Secured against your recurring revenue streams, it might not score you that rock-bottom interest rate from a bank, but it's a lot more affordable than handing over a piece of your business for capital. [Scaling your SaaS finance operationsYour finance team is the backbone to successfully scaling your business. But how do finance teams successfully scale and evolve in a fast-growing organization?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/07/sean-pollock-PhYq704ffdA-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-saas-finance-operations/) ### 3\. **Revenue based financing** Traditionally, you had two choices in SaaS financing: debt or equity. But behold, there's a game-changer in town – Revenue-based financing (RBF). RBF is where you trade a piece of your future revenue for an upfront investor boost. It's like debt, but with a twist – the "interest" is a percentage of your monthly recurring revenue (MRR). And you get to keep full ownership! No dilutive financing Yep you read that right. **No dilutive financing.** ### **4\. A/R factoring** In the SaaS game, your payment schedule can be pretty diverse. Some clients are fine with monthly payments, while others roll with net 60 or even 90\. But things things get a little more interesting with A/R factoring! A/R factoring lets you borrow cash based on your accounts receivable. The catch? Your loan's approval hinges on the quality of your contracts. In a nutshell: having a Fortune 500 client in your corner can make lending a breeze. But if your contracts are still in the "just starting out" phase, you might face a few more hoops to jump through. ### **5\. An MRR line of credit** SaaS businesses thrive on MRR, and some lenders are ready to take you to the moon by offering 3–5X your MRR to boost your growth Imagine you've got $5 million in annualized revenue – tech banks might have MRR-like products tailored just for you. But most lenders will want a personal guarantee. So, do your homework and dive into that fine print before you ink the deal. Lines of credit are your go-to for short-term working capital expenses, not for those grand, long-term investments. If you don't pay back that capital pronto, it can start to bite! [15 tools for a great finance stackFinance teams need to pull data fast and they need it to be accurate, to achieve both they have to have complete confidence in their tech stack. With this in mind, we searched high and low for the tools you need in your arsenal to build the ultimate finance tech stack![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/07/clay-banks-E2HgkL3LaFE-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/15-tools-for-a-great-finance-tech-stack/) ## Wrapping up The SaaS landscape is an ever-evolving terrain of opportunity and challenge. While the market's worth continues to skyrocket, navigating the financial hurdles can be a daunting task, especially for early-stage startups. In a world where traditional financing options often fall short, it's essential to explore alternative routes to fuel your growth. From convertible debt and revenue term loans to revenue-based financing, A/R factoring, and MRR line of credit, there's a myriad of innovative solutions available to SaaS companies. ### Product marketing at every stage of growth URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/product-marketing-at-every-stage-of-growth/ Last updated: 2024-11-13T13:03:12.000Z Hey there, I'm Spencer Grover, a PMM at Salesforce, and I’m here to let you in on a little secret: Product marketing looks totally different depending on your startup's size and stage. What works for three employees in a garage won't fly in an 80,000-employee enterprise. I should know – I've worked in both! Today I'll decode how high-growth PMMs evolve by sharing: - Who to collaborate with at each stage, - What deliverables to focus on, - Tactics to set your startup up for the next level, and - Key metrics to track. Whether you're in a scrappy startup or a global enterprise, my goal is to provide actionable advice that will help you thrive. Sound good? Let's do this! ## Early-stage startups Let's kick off with early-stage startups – those with just a handful of customers, a very small team, and maybe a recently hired VP of sales. Your customer acquisition is likely sporadic at this point, to say the least. The product marketer's key goal here is to find and document product-market fit. Forget about the total addressable market (TAM) for now – it's irrelevant. Instead, figure out who truly cares about your product and why. Who will be an evangelist for you? Why did early adopters purchase from you versus competitors? Identify and analyze your first cluster of ideal customers to pinpoint your product-market fit. [SaaS MarketingAs the demand for cloud-based software continues to grow, SaaS companies are facing intense competition in the market. Here is a guide to help you develop a successful SaaS marketing strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_Marketing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) ### Deliverables As a PMM at this stage, you should aim to deliver: - **A serviceable obtainable market (SOM):** Who should you realistically pursue as customers? - **An ideal customer profile (ICP):** What types of businesses with what problems should you focus on? - **A primary persona:** Who is the one key decision-maker you need to win over? What pains do they have? Why are you uniquely positioned to address them? Work closely with your founder, sales, product, and customer success teams to gather insights that will shape these deliverables. ### Tactics Let's look at some key tactics PMMs should leverage at early-stage startups. These tactics are going to help you nail those key deliverables we just talked about. - **Talk to customers:** You have incredible access to customers when you're in a small company. Plus, they know you'll need their help and are often excited to provide feedback to fuel your personas, customer pain points, and product differentiators. Ask about their challenges, why they bought from you, and what they tried before. These conversations will uncover foundational insights. - **Tap subject matter experts:** Founders or other team members likely have deep market expertise. Extract those insights to inform your ICP and SOM. - **Validate hypotheses rapidly:** Form hypotheses then test and iterate quickly via trials. For example, if you believe your SOM is X type of customer in Y location, call those prospects and gauge their interest. Try different messaging and positioning, and pivot based on feedback – you can move fast at this stage of growth. This validation will build confidence in your product-market fit. The combination of customer conversations, internal expertise, and rapid validation help you crystallize who cares most about your product and why. With these lean tactics, you can fuel foundational deliverables in a really cost-effective way. [20 metrics for SaaS marketersIn this article, we’ll be sharing 20 important metrics for SaaS marketing, ranging from acquisition metrics to monetization metrics. We’ll explain what each metric is, how they can be tracked, and most importantly, why they should be tracked.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDean Millar![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/matthew-ball-TFE_-9eLmEs-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-metrics-for-saas-marketers/) ### Metrics Rather than focusing on a single metric, here are helpful ways to analyze data to optimize product-market fit: - **Win rate by \[variable\]:** Depending on your market, you could analyze your win rate by industry, company size, use case, and so on. The aim is to uncover where you're winning more deals. Double down on those areas. - **Churn rate by \[variable\]:** Do the same analysis on churn rate. Even if you’re winning a lot of deals in a certain segment, if those customers are then churning, they’re probably not the right customers for you. - **Percentage of deals with key personas:** Which deals with your target persona attached are progressing furthest? Are they able to get deals done? Is this persona actually the one you should be targeting? - **Aha moments:** Find the point in your product, sales cycle, and messaging customers where your vision suddenly clicks for customers. When do they start to get excited? Once you’ve identified that moment, you can help customers get there faster. At an early-stage startup, these metrics indicate where you're gaining traction with the right customers, allowing you to rapidly refine your ICP and personas and sharpen your product-market fit. ## Growing businesses Let's move on to companies that have achieved product-market fit and are starting to scale. At this stage, the sales team is expanding with additions like SDRs (sales development reps) and BDRs (business development reps). Marketing resources are also growing – you may have a demand gen specialist, a content writer, and a social media manager, for instance. As a PMM, your goal here is to evangelize the messaging and positioning you've worked so hard to develop. You likely have a solid understanding of your SOM, ICP, personas, and differentiators – whether it's formally documented or in your and the founder's heads. Now’s the time to distribute that knowledge across the org so everyone is aligned. Without this, messaging will start to wander. ### Deliverables My top recommendation for evangelizing positioning is through content. This includes internal enablement content like battlecards, messaging documents, positioning presentations, first-call decks, product guides, objection handling, and more. To educate the market, you’ll need to make sure that all your messaging, whether it’s on your website or coming straight from your reps’ mouths, is consistent. That means ensuring that your case studies, call scripts, email templates, ads, blogs, white papers, and all that good stuff have the same thread of messaging running through them. [Effective industry marketing strategies for enterprise SaaSAndrew Keating, Vice President of Product Marketing at Beamery, delivers awesome strategies for SaaS marketing success.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAndrew Keating![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/08/strategy.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/effective-industry-marketing-strategies-for-enterprise-saas/) ### Stakeholders At this stage, sales and go-to-market teams are your core stakeholders. Work closely with them to provide the enablement resources they need while adhering to your tried-and-tested [messaging and positioning](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/how-to-avoid-messaging-positioning-mistakes/). ### Tactics Here are two key tactics that are going to help you evangelize and reinforce your positioning across the organization: - **Keep talking to customers:** Validate that your positioning and messaging documents accurately reflect their needs, pains, and reasons for buying. You might even want to get feedback from the customers you’re closest to – you could show them an early draft and ask, "Do you see yourself in this?" and "Does this resonate?" - **Document everything:** With growth comes less time for one-on-one support. Your aim should be to design yourself out of the enablement process by arming your sellers and marketers with the assets they need to understand your messaging so deeply they can pitch it in their sleep. Make sure they can self-serve instead of relying on you. [How do we engage key stakeholders in cross-functional collaboration?Here’s how to ensure seamless collaboration between teams, so you can smash through those silos and skyrocket your organization to success!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/pexels-huy-chien-tran-1756665.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) ### Metrics When it comes to metrics, there are a few key things you'll want to track at this stage. These will give you insight into whether your product-market fit and messaging are scaling as expected with growth. - **Deal velocity:** Track the number of deals multiplied by win rate, multiplied by average deal size, divided by sales cycle length. This aggregates key sales metrics into one number that is a great indicator of your product-market fit. If your deal velocity remains stable over time, product-market fit is likely strong. - **Deal fit:** Analyze if closed deals align with your ideal customer profile. If not, it’s time to revisit your ICP. Perhaps there’s a major opportunity out there that you haven’t explored yet. - **Message delivery:** Record sales conversations and audit narratives. Do reps deliver your ideal messaging? Is their language converting? If so, incorporate it into your enablement materials. Remember to keep monitoring what resonates for continuous optimization. Tracking these metrics provides a pulse on whether your positioning and messaging are continuing to resonate as you scale. Make adjustments based on the data to keep momentum. ## Scaling businesses There’s a good chance you’ve joined a company at the scaling stage – this is typically when they bring in a lot of PMMs to help with processes, messaging, and more. These organizations have strong product-market fit – they know their customers and can crank out sales all day long. However, this stage can be tricky for PMMs. Rather than just reinforcing messaging and ensuring sales alignment, you have to figure out what's next for the company. After all, your current serviceable obtainable market won't last forever. ### Deliverables Your role is to see over the horizon to the next big opportunity. Analyze total addressable market (TAM), serviceable obtainable market (SOM), and serviceable available market (SAM) to figure out where to go when your current market is saturated. To prepare the organization for a new market, create a future markets playbook compiling everything teams will need to market and sell effectively: - Core messaging and positioning - Email templates - Call scripts - Battlecards - And more ### SaaScast: How I built my startup from scratch URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-how-i-built-my-startup-from-scratch/ Last updated: 2023-11-10T11:11:45.000Z In the fast-paced world of SaaS startups, securing investor funding often seems like a prerequisite for success. However, Julia Nesterets, the CEO of JetOctopus, defied this conventional wisdom by building her startup from scratch without the safety net of minimal investor backing. In this episode, Julia shared her remarkable journey of turning her vision into a thriving SaaS company through the power of influencers and thought leaders, as well as sheer product ingenuity. If you struggling to get your startup off the launching pad, this discussion might be the rocket fuel you need to catapult your solution to success. [‎SaaScast: How I built my startup from scratch on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep How I built my startup from scratch - 9 Nov 2023![](https://t0.gstatic.com/faviconV2?client=SOCIAL&type=FAVICON&fallback_opts=TYPE,SIZE,URL&url=https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-i-built-my-startup-from-scratch/id1544750249?i=1000634273198&size=128)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts126/v4/a4/4d/5f/a44d5fae-5046-a15e-a689-2605bf2c3483/mza_10035764847765952101.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-i-built-my-startup-from-scratch/id1544750249?i=1000634273198) ## Why this episode matters Rather than succumbing to the common belief that funding is the only path to success, Julia took a bold and unconventional approach. She realized that in a crowded SaaS landscape, her startup needed to stand out, so she started by looking to her pain points and the problems that her peers were encountering, specifically around the issue of SEO optimization. In these economically volatile times, adopting a product-led approach can be a sustainable, cost-effective route to scaling your org. Find out how Julia did that right here. [How I built my startup from scratchIn this episode, Julia Nesterets, CEO of JetOctopus, shared her remarkable journey of turning her vision into a thriving SaaS company through the power of influencers and thought leaders, as well as sheer product ingenuity.![](https://files.casted.us/828f30d5-e688-4a3b-8d2f-23d74d0f27c2.jpg)Casted![](https://files.casted.us/26cafa96-754c-4665-960b-ce1a9d31cd42.jpg)](https://listen.casted.us/public/158/SaaScast-d5577738/1120d2e9) ## Get involved Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Creator, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: [anthony@futureofsaas.io](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-how-does-empathy-drive-innovation-in-saas-design/anthony@futureofsaas.io). ### How to adopt high-touch customer success at scale URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-adopt-high-touch-customer-success-at-scale/ Last updated: 2024-11-13T13:02:52.000Z When it comes to discussing customer success (CS), especially in the realm of SaaS, the concepts of "high touch" and "scale" rarely coincide in the same sentence. Until now. A conversation around these two seemingly distinct topics is desperately needed. When we talk about high-touch customer success, we traditionally infer a meticulous “white-glove” level of service. Ordinarily, this is diametrically opposed to concepts of scaling, which tends to lean heavily into digitization and broad, automated outreach. But as we charter the unpredictable waters of SaaS, the interplay of these two elements has been immensely valuable. Let’s explore the journey through various facets of customer success, understanding its complexities, challenges, and the innovative strategies employed to harness optimal customer engagement and satisfaction. Let's get started. **Balancing new and existing clients** Something I’ve noticed about certain SaaS companies that are flourishing is a notable decline in new-logo acquisitions. Their financial solvency has often been maintained through a trusted, continual revenue stream from their existing clients, rather than through the acquisition of new ones. This recurring theme prevalent amongst large SaaS companies propels them to significant results. Moreover, it’s a universal motion: whether your path is product-led growth (PLG) or customer-led, a pattern emerges as a company scales. Typically, about 75% to 80% of revenue is generated from a mere 20% of the customer base, particularly from large enterprise clients. Despite a long tail of customer acquisition and potential for expansion, it’s vital to acknowledge the inordinate impact of that core 20%, especially in the contemporary market that leans heavily into customer-led growth. ## **Optimizing financials while growing your customer base** A third pivotal point revolves around customer acquisition, scrutinizing the ratio between customer success metrics like customer lifetime value (LTV) and customer acquisition cost (CAC), as well as a sharp focus on maintaining margins. As companies tighten budgets and can't expand customer success teams as fast as they add major logos, the burden falls on existing CS teams to find a workable compromise. The challenge lies in maintaining a similar level of high-touch, white-glove service and high-level engagement without proportionally escalating the CS team size or altering the ratio between accounts and Customer Success Managers (CSMs). This is not a hypothetical scenario; it mirrors Mulesoft’s own journey as we approach a valuation of $2 billion. The initial model that we, and perhaps many scaled organizations, employed entailed a high-touch model with tiered structures: Directors of Customer Success managing a select few accounts and CSMs handling between 30 to 50 accounts. However, a poignant realization dawned upon us: we were veering away from the true north of our mission. Our mission was to genuinely engage customers and deliver impactful outcomes daily, without necessarily expanding CSMs in direct correlation with closed logos. [Customer success metrics that drive 95% retentionIn this article, I’ll be discussing the customer success metrics you should be tracking at each and every stage of the customer lifecycle. With them, you can drive retention and ensure your customer success function is successful in delivering value to the customer.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSwati Chopra![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/yoav-hornung-Qg6lPXJ6IL4-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) ## **Redefining engagement and ensuring value** In reflection, we paused, reassessing our trajectory and redefining our objectives. The conclusion was succinct yet profound: our aim is to deliver high-value engagements to the right customers, at the opportune time, while meticulously managing the profit and loss statement (P&L). This last point, the integration of managing a P&L, has increasingly permeated CS leadership dialogues and boardroom discussions. A shift from merely focusing on renewals to exploring expansion, whilst managing a P&L, is not merely a trend, but rather an emerging staple in the boardroom narrative. Blending high-touch customer success with scalable strategies is not only possible but pivotal, especially in the current market landscape. While challenges persist, embracing this duality, and exploring innovative solutions that ensure customer engagement and operational efficiency, is imperative for sustaining and accelerating growth in the contemporary SaaS space. ## **Designing engagements that drive real business value** A poignant realization emerged as we scrutinized the typical interactions in the high-touch model, especially considering the cadence calls within CSM. I’m sure you’ll relate to this: When CSMs schedule their weekly client calls, only about half actually end up speaking with the intended customer contact. The other calls either get canceled or attended by different stakeholders who may not be the most relevant contact to the task at hand. A question thus forms: How many of these engagements, often long and undulating, actually drive outcomes or present genuine, high value? Our initial strategy encompassed about 24 such engagements that a CSM would execute. A paradigm shift occurred when **we scaled this down to a succinct six to eight engagements**, meticulously designed to be **productized and purposeful rather than mere conversations**. This approach ensured that every engagement was defined, teams were aligned, engagements were delivered effectively, and subsequent engagements were systematically planned. Not only did this streamline our CSM team, making them more focused and expertise-driven, but it also garnered a clear commitment from the customers, choosing to actively engage and ascend towards betterment. ## **Aligning with sales and selecting the right customers** Importantly, aligning well with sales became a pivotal aspect, particularly regarding focusing on specific customers and engagements. We carefully put our resources where the sales team wanted to focus, instead of spreading Customer Success Managers (CSMs) evenly across all accounts. To be clear, we aren’t talking about all customer accounts, but specifically adjusting our approach within the named CSM model size, while maintaining a digital scale model for a set of accounts. When considering the "right" customer, we prioritized those who exhibited a willingness to engage and progress. Establishing engagements that reciprocally partnered with customers, aiding in mutual progress, proved invaluable. [Customer success: Past, present, and futureI’m David Collard and I work at LinkedIn, where I lead the customer success team for our global clients’ program out of EMEA. I’ve been working in and around customer success for about six years now, and in that time, I’ve seen considerable growth and change in our industry.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDavid Collard![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/looking-to-the-future.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-past-present-and-future/) ## **Specializing skills to boost customer success outcomes** Skill refinement emerged as another cornerstone, allowing CSMs to specialize, for instance, in areas like value realization where their strengths naturally lay. Unlike in the past, where individuals might be tethered to specific account sets, this new flexibility allowed us to deploy experts within CS teams for specific, high-value engagements. This enabled not just an elevation of customer interaction but also a means through which team members could harness and apply their specific skills optimally. ## **Scaling with standardization and automation** Scaling became not just viable but more robust and streamlined through standardizing a list of engagements in this high-touch model. We incorporated Slack to automate numerous workflows, particularly in reactive engagements and pivoted towards prioritization using insightful data. By weaving together high-value engagements, precise alignment with sales, skill refinement, and scalability through automation, we've begun to intricately blend the high-touch model with scalable strategies. ## **Blending personalized service with digital self-service** As we dive further into our journey of CS, the role of our digital offerings comes into sharper focus. These offerings significantly enhanced our customer’s access to our sprawling digital ecosystem. **A pivotal note here**: The human engagements, specifically those tailored by our CSM team, were designed to supplement, not supplant, our digital offerings. It's a subtle, yet vital dance: delivering precise, CSM-focused engagements atop the stable platform of our digital services. The integration and balance of digitized and humanized approaches informed our interactions and strategies for fostering customer success. But how did we choose the “right” customers, and moreover, ensure our engagements were deployed judiciously? Initially, around 50-55% of our customers were all named. We refined this to focus on a smaller, high-value cohort (approximately 10%) while maintaining the named CSM model. The remaining 40% shifted to our engagement model, which has now been in action for almost two quarters. Preliminary data surrounding this new approach is starting to emerge, painting an intriguing picture of its efficacy and impact. Alongside this, our long-tail customers continued to be serviced efficiently through our digital scale model, which has been robustly established for about a year. [Customer success tips to make your SaaS product stand outMaking your SaaS company stand out in an increasingly competitive world isn’t easy. As technology continues to evolve, customers are searching not just for the best selection of features, but an amazing experience too.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMichelle Laurey![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/clay-banks-NiYS_ExTdg8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-tips-to-make-your-saas-product-stand-out/) This approach afforded us an admirable flexibility in motion and strategy. For instance, smaller customers, demonstrating vast potential, could have a dedicated engagement carved out for them. Simultaneously, if strategic customers showed altered growth potential or began to trade differently, tier adjustments were possible, ensuring resources and efforts were proportionately and effectively distributed. This nuanced strategy allowed us to optimize our customer interactions and value delivery, even amidst common challenges like frozen headcounts, by maximizing the efficacy and impact of each engagement under this model. ## **Merging reactive and proactive approaches** Let’s venture into the concept of the “right time,” an amalgamation of reactive and proactive engagements. The reactive engagement is relatively straightforward: a customer requests a specific engagement, like an architectural review, or perhaps the sales team identifies a need for a particular interaction – these are directly responsive. Conversely, the proactive approach is rooted in strategic foresight and data utilization. Leaders like us, armed with a wealth of customer adoption data and health data, are empowered to orchestrate engagements even before a customer signals a need. [Customer onboarding 101For freemium models adopted by a growing number of SaaS companies, onboarding is the frontline in the battle for the upsell.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/erwan-hesry-aMjeTdCVRNE-unsplash--1---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-onboarding-101/) If I, for example, observe that 15 customers exhibit low adoption and pose a risk of churn, I can create an engagement for the CSM to proactively connect and address potential issues before they burgeon into tangible problems. Contrary to some perceptions that this model is predominantly reactive – a “when the customer calls, we answer” approach – our experience demonstrates a 70:30 split in favor of proactive engagements. And remarkably, this is achieved by utilizing the same team. The engagements aren’t simply conversations; they are outcome-driven, producing tangible outputs and results, contrasting with the sole use of a CSM under a named model. ## **Reimagining customer success through P&L management** As we wrap up this discussion, I want to highlight the importance of managing customer success through a profit and loss lens. Rather than just executing, we should think about productizing the customer success motion - specifically looking for opportunities where customers are willing to pay. Through our research, we discovered a willingness from some of our largest customers to compensate us when we properly productize the service. For example, roles like Technical Account Managers, who interface with support and provide architectural guidance, or Premier Support plans with greatly reduced SLAs for mission-critical products, are services they are ready to invest in. Additionally, if we offer advanced monitoring features or implementation architects, we'll likely find budget allocated for those as well. [How customer success & product management make a SaaS dream teamBelieve it or not, there’s quite a lot in common between customer success and product management. Both have the ability to work wonders for your SaaS product. This guide walks you through how to use them to get a dream team.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1504270997636-07ddfbd48945?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDV8fGRpZ2l0YWx8ZW58MHx8fA&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-and-product-management-saas-dream-team/) The key is reimagining how we can make customer success a value-driving function through paid offerings that deliver ROI. ## **Turning customer success into a revenue generator** Customer success, traditionally seen as a cost center, is starting to transform into a profit driver. By managing their own P&L, customer success teams have the potential to ultimately become self-funding over time. Though still a relatively new idea, many large organizations are shifting towards having their customer success teams operate their own P&L statements. This elevates customer success to have equal standing with sales, essentially turning it into a revenue-generating function. This aligns well with my core belief: "High-value engagements, ideal customers, optimal timing, and P&L management." While our high-touch model scaled well up to $1.75BN in revenue, it's no longer sustainable due to the need to proportionally add more staff as our customer base expands. This is especially true as customers require increasing levels of support from customer success when dealing with complex platforms Why it’s time for you to start using customer success plans Are you underestimating the power of customer success plans in your client interactions? Well, get ready to see their true potential in enhancing customer relationships and driving results. ## **Building intentional, high-value customer success programs** We've realized that future CS programs need to be intentional, harboring intrinsic high value and engagement, rather than being a compilation of cadence calls. Over the next five years, the industry trajectory suggests CS leaders will increasingly be tasked with generating revenue plays from their teams. Thus, our experiments in this realm begin. Engagements should be more than relationship-builders – they need to be outcome-driven. Every engagement should intentionally progress the customer to the next step in their journey. If an engagement doesn't strategically move the customer forward, it runs the risk of being non-valuable, amounting to mere relationship-building, which, while significant, is already being covered by an account team. It's not solely the purview of the CSM to maintain relationships. Instead, CSMs need to focus on driving outcomes. [Customer advisory boards and feedback loops \[Q&A with Dropbox\]Customer Advisory Boards allow customers to give candid feedback on their experience with your company, and we spoke with Bree Bunzel, Head of Global Customer Marketing at Dropbox, who answered questions around building Customer Advisory Boards and customer feedback loops.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/adam-jang-8pOTAtyd_Mc-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-advisory-boards-and-feedback-loops-q-a-with-dropbox/) ## **Why securing leadership buy-in is critical** When we made this transformative change, the biggest challenge was not pushback from customers, but rather managing the change internally. It was critical to give every internal stakeholder a clear new role and piece of the puzzle. Surprisingly, customers, who just need a point of contact and value-driven engagements, were quite open to the shifts. For those considering a similar model, the key advice is to secure full buy-in from top leadership. With pressures on margins and management objectives, having your leadership fully aligned with this approach is essential to not just make it viable, but ensure smooth execution. Customer success has an enormous impact across an entire organization, but it's a relatively new strategy. It's for this reason that it's crucial to overcome internal skepticism. With the leadership team actively championing the changes, it becomes possible to implement them in harmony with business goals and overcome any internal resistance. Their full support makes the difference between success and struggle. ### 12 SaaS trends to watch in 2024 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/12-saas-trends-to-watch-in-2024/ Last updated: 2023-11-01T16:15:29.000Z The SaaS landscape is constantly shifting, and staying on top of the key trends is crucial for any business operating in this space. From AI and security to vertical solutions and embedded finance, this article covers **all** the need-to-know SaaS topics. With so much information available about the SaaS market in 2023, here's a curated snapshot of the current landscape. > The SaaS market is, without a doubt, growing at an explosive rate, going from [$237.48 billion in 2022 to $273.55 in 2023](https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/software-as-a-service-saas-market-102222) and projected to reach a whopping $908.21 billion by 2030\. This means the SaaS industry has an 18.7% CAGR, which is pretty impressive in a post-covid space. > With [71% of companies](https://assets.website-files.com/5da4969031ca1beeb3e008e0/605c56307ee2be18862e9456%5FHarveyNashGroupTT2021.pdf) relying on SaaS model applications, these continue to hold the first position as a real digital transformation driver. > It is estimated that by 2025, [almost half of the world’s data will be stored in the cloud. ](https://goto.arcserve.com/Global-Ongoing-eBookdataattacksurfacereport%5FeBookLP.html) > Two years from now, around [85% of all business products will be SaaS](https://pages.bettercloud.com/rs/719-KZY-706/images/2020%5FStateofSaaSOpsReport.pdf?mkt%5Ftok=NzE5LUtaWS03MDYAAAF8LQdmoC7u54xbqxNwp0au4Zk7SiYaaqq2vupXFxCvaP5vY8gSQtlGFsUsRI8oj5Fl2m5PwIZUUAlzVZL%5F-hUEQ2RdNqgEzDAmZA5bZtowS%5Fv-zMs) apps. > By 2025, [65.7% of spending on software applications](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2022-02-09-gartner-says-more-than-half-of-enterprise-it-spending) will be directed to cloud services. SaaS (software as a service) is a booming industry. There's no debate there, and with the rise of Artificial intelligence, **SaaS applications are bound to become even more sophisticated and powerful.** As we are rapidly approaching 2024, embracing new technologies and staying up to date with the latest trends and advancements is no longer optional but essential for the growth of your business. The only question that remains is where this ever-changing industry is going. - **What factors shape SaaS trends?** - **12 SaaS industry trends for 2024** - **Final thoughts** ## **What factors shape SaaS trends?** We can all agree that **SaaS trends don’t appear out of thin air and are a real and legitimate thing**. They are the direct result of factors that transform the way in which individuals and organizations perceive this industry sector. 1. Customer preferences 2. Market competitiveness 3. Technology advancements 4. Ever-changing regulatory and economic conditions ### **Customer preferences** As the software as a service market continues to grow, customer expectations are becoming well-established, and users are putting experience as a first priority. **In today’s landscape, among the preferences SaaS users value, the most popular are:** \-- Dynamic pricing \-- Personalized services \-- On-demand solutions \-- Ease of use \-- Dedicated customer assistance To fit the bill, emerging SaaS players need to use their knowledge and technology to enhance products. This would require them to first collect customer feedback, and then collaborate with market-recognized partners to benefit from their experience and transform the entire user experience. Key takeaway: **Understand what value means to your customers and capitalize on it through strong partnerships and constant iteration of new and performing features.** ### **Market competitiveness** With growth unicorns like Adobe, Salesforce, and Shopify, the total value of the SaaS market is booming. While this is essentially good news, demonstrating that SaaS won’t be obsolete anytime soon, it can also be challenging for new businesses to make an appearance and gain a place at the leader’s table. However, the growth of the market itself pushes potential SaaS developers to look for emerging industry segments like niche products. The thirst for revenue growth motivates them to roll out better products than what the competition has to offer. Key takeaway: **Market competitiveness leads to continuous innovation and product improvement.** ### **Technology advancements** With so much talk about trends like Artificial Intelligence, edge computing, or Vertical SaaS, global customers are more and more eager to put new technologies to the test. To effectively respond to these expectations and offer customizable options, SaaS businesses need to adapt their product design and development to quickly integrate new technologies. It is important to realize that the shift towards the DevSecOps practice, has almost 60% of businesses taking this step. This approach offers developers the option to continuously integrate new technologies, swiftly release different SaaS platforms, and maintain a competitive edge. Key takeaway: **Keeping up with technology advancements has made SaaS developers reconsider their software development, facilitating future integrations.** ### **Ever-changing regulatory and economic conditions** The path that led to the success the SaaS industry is now experiencing is due to nothing other than global trade. However, even though SaaS products can easily reach global customers, they must also endure a large amount of compliance regulations and are subject to real economic turmoil. Navigating the compliance landscape presents a significant challenge for SaaS providers, especially now with the emergence of AI rules and regulations. Security and data handling audits have become legal requirements for SaaS businesses, complicating the global sale of software-as-a-service products more than ever. Additionally, the economic environment is both an opportunity and challenge driver for SaaS businesses. Developers must prioritize pricing to stabilize customer acquisition and retention, regardless of economic changes. Key takeaway: **SaaS providers need to prioritize customer security expectations and spending limits when defining the value of their solution.** ## **12 SaaS industry trends for 2024** ### **1\. Cybersecurity** SaaS security has always been a serious concern for all those involved in the industry. Significant measures are taken to ensure that cyber threats are lowered in frequency and impact as much as possible. Now, with the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, we’ve noticed a rise in the number of fraud attempts once again. The irony of this situation is that the use of AI has proven to be instrumental in increasing the level of security within the SaaS market. **Leveraging SaaS analytics with AI and ML technologies in complex solutions has shown that users can benefit from increased cybersecurity.** Moreover, a growing number of regulations are being implemented to lower cyber threats. SaaS companies need to abide by these standards, but it can be challenging to keep track of all changes that are now required. Thus, we are witnessing more and more solutions to improve internal operational processing and lower product misconfigurations. ### **2\. Focus on customer segments** If your goal is to be the ultimate SaaS champion, you might want to pin this SaaS trend, because it will never go out of fashion. As the SaaS market matures, market demands are becoming more and more specific, which thankfully makes them easier to follow. **Software solutions need to create and release new product categories that are developed entirely around the user.** Think of Google or Netflix, which are fully customer-driven. SaaS vendors tend to go user-data crazy, and with good reason. We recommend developing new revenue streams, based on a thorough understanding of your primary audience base while working on achieving an integrated system framework. This will allow your in-house engineers and data experts to give you a more detailed image of your audience segments. ### **3\. PaaS (Platform As A Service)** Estimated to reach [over $300 billion in market value by 2030](https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/platform-as-a-service-market-A06955), PaaS is emerging as one of the strongest SaaS trends out there. **It provides enterprises with several noteworthy benefits:** Reduces costs on hardware maintenance. Enhances efficiency and streamlines software development. Ensure increased flexibility and mobility. By choosing PaaS as an alternative, **companies are able to focus more on enhancing their core product and avoiding the burden of having to tackle complex system maintenance.** ### **4\. Generative AI** When discussing SaaS innovations, generative AI, together with its spin-offs, and the large language models, have been the talk of the town. ChatGPT is still fresh in the minds of users, and its success has opened the door to numerous AI uses. With an expected CAGR of 35.6% between 2023-2030, generative AI takes the first position among the latest SaaS trends. **This new technology helps SaaS businesses gain new and advanced software capabilities such as:** \-- Content creation \-- Market research \-- Personalized support \-- Sentiment analysis **Generative AI has completely transformed the SaaS landscape, opening the doors for additional features for greater product enhancement or independent software development.** Whichever route you might be thinking of taking, this is one trend you don’t want to ignore. ### **5\. SaaS market consolidation** With SaaS being a highly competitive market as it is, businesses are constantly looking for ways to gain the upper hand. Usually, in the land of technology, this means enhancing their products to better fit customer expectations and demands. However, these ambitions come at a cost, and an increasing number of leading SaaS players have come to the conclusion that in-house feature development is time and resource-consuming. Instead, **more and more SaaS businesses are acquiring smaller companies in an effort to stay ahead of their rivals.** On the other hand, for startups, the prospect of joining forces with major players is a strategic approach to reducing competition and increasing their market share, influence, and profitability. With no indication of the SaaS level of competition changing in any way and more and more examples of startup acquisitions, it’s reasonable to expect more consolidations in the near future. ### **6\. Vertical SaaS** In the books for SaaS trends in 2023, Vertical SaaS will continue to maintain a high level of popularity in 2024\. Estimated to reach $157 billion by 2025, there is still room for more players in this young market. Unlike horizontal SaaS, the very essence of vertical SaaS tools is that of resolving specific industry challenges, following the future agenda of the entire SaaS industry. Think of these user-friendly, pre-built, tailored solutions as market experts with a deep understanding of a specific topic. Given the customer-centric era we are living in, **vertical SaaS is bound to maintain its leading position and high popularity**, especially in industries like insurance, healthcare, or finance. ### **7\. Micro SaaS products** Very much like Vertical SaaS solutions, [micro SaaS ](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-micro-saas-examples-building-profitable-apps-for-success/)companies come to service a specific industry, audience segment, or even use case. Dominated by recognized players like Salesforce with a market value of $183.07 billion or Adobe, $152.37 billion, SaaS startups face formidable odds when competing head-on with established solutions such as these. That is why most smaller businesses choose a more strategic gameplan, based on an advanced customer segmentation. By offering a solitary product, finely tailored to a specific market segment with distinct needs, SaaS businesses are actually competing in smaller markets, with a lower competition level. Not only that but micro SaaS solutions can be developed and launched fast, with minimal resources. This gives developers a great advantage to quickly respond to customer demand, technological advancement, or market changes. [10 top micro SaaS examples: Building profitable apps for successMicro SaaS boasts a whole host of benefits. But is it the right solution for your product, and what are the shining examples of SaaS within the industry? We explore further.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/micro-saas-apps.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-micro-saas-examples-building-profitable-apps-for-success/) ### **8\. RevOps** In the midst of the profound transformations in market dynamics, SaaS businesses struggle to grow while maintaining profitability. Unless they strategically manage their sales and marketing operations, the huge upfront investments, competition, and challenging customer retention can take a toll on their success. RevOps, short for revenue-operations tools, are perceived as the next thing in forecasting and predictive analytics for the sales and marketing sectors. Rolled into one end-to-end SaaS app, RevOps tools offer the bird’s eye view that all business developers seek. **Aligned with machine learning and AI capabilities, these cutting-edge solutions allow users to:** Focus on operational automation. Enjoy complete visibility across the entire sales funnel, including the marketing and customer service phases. Gather sufficient insights to enhance conversion rate boosts. Move from isolated frameworks to an integrated solution hub. Effectively implement a data-driven customer success program to identify additional revenue opportunities. When it comes to successful RevOps solutions that are greatly popular, we can definitely mention the advanced lead-scoring system, based on customer behavior. Based on ML algorithms, lead-scoring platforms can provide sales experts with a targeted list that is more likely to convert. **This SaaS trend looks at cloud platforms that can streamline and increase team productivity through strong analytics capabilities.** ### **9\. Flexible API-based infrastructure** Remember how we said that one of the factors that set the SaaS trends is technological advancement? We weren’t exaggerating. One of the ingrained features (and benefits) of a SaaS solution is faster and easier product scaling. But you can only take advantage of this if you carefully plan for future scalability within the early stage of the product development. [How to launch an API into a market, and keep it thereHi, I’m Nick Knuppe, Product Marketing Lead at Mollie, and I’m going to talk you through a topic I’m extremely fanatical about: Go-to-market – more specifically, how to launch an API into a market (or several markets) and keep it there.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSNick Knuppe![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/API-Launch.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-launch-an-api-into-a-market-and-keep-it-there/) **Today’s SaaS world is shifting from a solution-first view, extensively used in SaaS product creation, to a problem-solving approach that involves a flexible architecture with a scaling trajectory based on user feedback.** What does this mean? Creating a five-year product roadmap is no longer a viable option. A micro-service-based and API-connected infrastructure, on the other hand, is. And it’s currently one of the most popular market trends. Why? Because it gives cloud based software solutions greater scalability and a faster time to market. ### **10\. BI powered SaaS tools** By 2030, the [SaaS BI solution market is expected to reach $35.71 billion](https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/product/saas-based-business-analytics-market/), clearly indicating that this is an untapped and huge opportunity for developers. Only by looking at market leaders and analyzing their customer retention and acquisition efforts, you would notice a pattern: **organizations are relying on data to identify strong audience pain points and develop features around them.** Unlike on-premise solutions, SaaS apps have the unique advantage of extracting data straight from the source. This is actually why this market trend fits the software as a service industry like a charm. [SaaS Tools of Choice 2023Download the report and get access to the ultimate guide to tools and tech, each one endorsed by the game-changers shaping the world of SaaS.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/FoSaaS_Tools_of_Choice_Report_2023_Blog2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2023/) Combined with artificial intelligence technologies and machine learning algorithms, BI-powered SaaS tools can provide users with comprehensive information that can lead to better operational automation. Furthermore, while building stand-alone BI solutions is a great way to take advantage of this market opportunity, it’s not the only road to take. You can deliver greater value and increase business profitability by adding BI capabilities to existing SaaS systems. ### **11\. Embedded finance** One of the latest payment trends for 2024 is embedded payments. The integration of embedded payments streamlines the overall payment experience for customers, making transactions more convenient and efficient. The increasing popularity of digital payments, together with the impressive rise of the gig economy and the increasing demand for alternative payment methods in emerging markets, explain the apparition of this trend. **Through strong partnerships with key players, SaaS companies can offer customers a wider range of payment options without having to build and maintain their own financial infrastructure.** [SaaS FinanceThe resources in this guide will provide you with actionable strategies to maximize profits and minimize losses in the world of SaaS finance.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/03/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_finance.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-finance/) ### **12\. No code/low code platforms** Even though code still rules, no code and low code platforms are gaining more and more popularity. Low code and no code platforms offer business owners two major advantages - flexibility and efficiency. These solutions allow business owners to focus less on complicated and time-consuming programming tasks and more on customer experience and growth strategies. Ideal for developing both desktop and mobile applications and using Open API for faster software development, **these solutions make it simple for businesses to automate complex operations and significantly boost profitability.** Thanks to the no-code/low-code trend, the SaaS market is no longer a programmer’s world! [Top 20 no-code tools for scaling your SaaS startupScaling your SaaS startup just got easier! Discover the top 20 no-code tools that will revolutionize your business![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/no-code-tools.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-20-no-code-tools-for-scaling-your-saas-startup/) ## **Final thoughts** There is no question that the SaaS industry is enjoying unprecedented growth and, above all else, transformation. Embracing new technologies, considering vertical SaaS trends, keeping systems open for fast scaling, and remaining flexible in product development are just some of the directions well worth pursuing in 2024\. Part of becoming a SaaS champion is keeping your options open and closely watching how the industry shifts. Another equally important part is successfully facing up to the many challenges this market holds in store for SaaS vendors. From constantly evaluating and responding to customer needs to choosing the right partners that can help streamline operations, businesses have a lot on their plate. --- *Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive strategies from the leading minds with a Future of SaaS membership? 👇* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The secrets to raising Series A capital in a challenging SaaS environment URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-secrets-to-raising-series-a-capital-in-a-challenging-saas-environment/ Last updated: 2024-11-13T13:02:14.000Z This article comes from **Edward Keelan**’s talk, ‘Funding Series-A SaaS in 2023 and beyond’, at our **Future of SaaS Festival 2023**, check out the full version [**here**](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-april-2023/). For SaaS companies targeting Series A funding, it's been a turbulent ride navigating the startup financing landscape lately. Between soaring valuations, massive pullbacks, and shifting goalposts, the rules of the road have changed dramatically. Today we'll explore the data-driven trends across public and private SaaS investing, crystallize recommendations for smart founders playing the new terrain, and delve into what the future may hold across this ever-evolving space. With perspective honed from years working alongside innovative SaaS entrepreneurs, I’ve gathered tactical insights on how to build, fund, and scale companies the smart way in today's complex environment. Here’s an in-depth data-led journey across today's SaaS funding landscape … - **SaaS becomes red hot** - **Private valuations follow suit** - **How should Series A companies respond?** - **Looking ahead** - **Final thoughts** ## **SaaS becomes red hot** Rewinding to 2017, SaaS was gaining clear momentum with investors as an attractive sector. More VCs focused on the space as SaaS became a priority investment area. When the pandemic hit in early 2020, many assumed investment would halt amidst the global crisis. Yet that gloomy narrative quickly reversed as software emerged as a potential beneficiary. SaaS surged from popular to red hot almost overnight! Valuations skyrocketed to staggering levels as investors stampeded into high-growth companies. Public SaaS comps reached multiples like: - GitLab at **50x ARR** - UiPath over **50x ARR** - SentinelOne above **60x ARR** [What does an investor look out for in a SaaS product?With the increase in number of SaaS products, investors today have a large pool of startups to consider from. Here are the top 10 metrics that investors look at!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSWayne Wee![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/phone.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-does-an-investor-look-out-for-in-a-saas-product/) Unsurprisingly, what goes up also comes down. In late 2021 and into 2022, the market corrected aggressively. High-flying SaaS stocks shed value, with some dropping 80% or more from post-IPO highs: - UiPath fell nearly **80%** - GitLab shed **30%** - SentinelOne dropped **60%** This public reset rippled into private rounds, as we’ll now explore. ## **Private valuations follow suit** That public market correction had massive ripple effects into private company valuations across all stages. According to the SaaS Capital Index, which tracks both public and private SaaS companies, valuations contracted by a **whopping 59%** on average from their recent highs. As a concrete example from my work at Octopus Ventures, I was tracking a SaaS company pre-correction that had about **£1.5M ARR** and was growing revenue at a **100%+** clip annually. By all measures, an extremely solid business. We were prepared to offer an entry price around **12x ARR**, which felt rather steep at the time. Shockingly, when the actual sales process unfolded, this company received bids north of **17x ARR** and ended up going for around **£20M**! Let's contrast that to the environment today - that same company would now likely fetch an entry valuation around **8-10x ARR**. Stepping back, the data clearly shows that overall capital raised in Europe has declined by over **75%** in 2022 compared to the exuberant days of 2021\. And that drop gets even larger when you exclude deep tech and infrastructure companies from the figures. ## **How should Series A companies respond?** So given this new market reality, what does it all mean for Series A companies currently out raising funds or looking to hit the road soon? Based on everything I'm seeing, here are my top recommendations for early stage founders playing in this new environment: ### **Become a black belt in efficiency** During the capital abundance of the past few years, efficiency often took a back seat to pursuing growth at essentially any cost. That playbook simply doesn’t work anymore - the rules have changed. Layoffs are always extremely tough for all involved, but unfortunately many companies have no choice but to rightsize and cut costs substantially to extend runway. To survive and thrive in the current climate, laser focus on efficient operations is an absolute must. There are no more free passes for poor unit economics. [“Strategic” investors don’t matterStrategic investors, defined as corporations that make venture investments, can be a valuable source of capital but are they critical? No.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSammy Abdullah![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/chris-liverani-9cd8qOgeNIY-unsplash--3---1--3.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/strategic-investors-dont-matter/) A few quick thoughts on restructuring or rightsizing teams to gain efficiency: - Start by **designing the ideal org chart you want first**, then carefully fit people into it - don't shape structure around current employees. - **Make decisive cuts** if needed to materially move the needle on costs - slow, incremental layoffs almost never work. Dragging it out hurts morale and delays realizing major savings. - **Layoffs should be surgical and driven by data** \- use tools to model target headcount based on metrics like revenue, growth, and margins. ### **Obsess over your key metrics** In today's environment, growth at all costs is out. Metrics like profitability, burn multiples, gross margins, and rule of 40 now matter immensely to investors focused on capital efficiency. Pay very close attention to these operating metrics. Know exactly how efficient your business is currently running and where the biggest opportunities are to drive further efficiency. Be ready to speak in detail to your key metrics - both good and bad, have a solid plan to optimize spend and unit economics. For example, if you're still burning **2-3x+** your revenue growth, it will be extremely tough to raise a Series A round in this market. Get that multiple down under **1.5x** or even closer to **1x**. Every basis point counts when capital is scarce. [SaaScast: Cut over-reliance on investors and become remarkableIn this rigorous discussion,Ton Dobbe digs deep into how fledgling SaaS companies can generate growth from the value of the product.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/Cut-over-reliance-on-investors-and-become-remarkable.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-cut-overreliance-on-investors/) ### **Optimize go-to-market** When capital was freely flowing, many SaaS companies made big bets by overstaffing sales teams and hiring expensive sales leadership to chase hypergrowth. That playbook **isn’t sustainable** in the new era. I'd start by protecting retention at absolutely all costs - get obsessive about account management, reductions, renewals. Churn is toxic, so throw everything you can at keeping existing customers happy. Next, focus on maximizing productivity of each existing sales rep before blindly adding more. More bodies often backfires. Prove out your sales machine and flywheel before scaling the team. And think critically about sales leadership. In today's environment laser focused on efficiency, having a VP of Sales with no real track record scaling efficient teams can be a drawback versus a credential. ### **Plan for a much longer runway** During the boom years, many fast-growing SaaS companies could raise a chunky Series A, then plan for a mega-Series B or C just 12-18 months later. That’s absolutely not the case anymore. The late stage private funding environment has been deeply impacted. Those big beefy Series C and D style rounds can't be relied on like before. There is no cavalry coming over the hill soon. So model your finances conservatively, with say 24 months of minimum runway or longer. Get to cash flow breakeven as fast as humanly possible - that's always ideal, but especially critical given the climate. [SaaScast: How to attract investors and drive innovationIn these economically volatile times, startups need to go the extra mile to secure that all-important funding. Joe Dormani, an experienced VC, explains it all.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/SaaScast---Joe-Dormani--1-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-how-to-attract-investors/) Having two or more years of runway gives you tremendous flexibility to grow efficiently, make careful investments, and weather any storms ahead. ### **Educate and align existing investors** Before raising any material new capital in this environment, have candid conversations with your existing investors to align on valuation expectations. With compressed multiples, your previous valuation likely needs major adjustments. Your existing investor base needs to deeply understand that reality and get on board before approaching new capital sources. Nobody likes taking down rounds or washing out previous investment stacks. But existing investors must be realistic - sometimes biting the bullet is better than seeing the company run into a wall by chasing an unrealistic number. ### **Consider alternative sources of capital** If you need to extend runway but want to avoid a dilutive priced equity round given depressed valuations, consider alternative capital sources like venture debt. Many companies today have successfully turned to firms like Triplepoint Capital when they need runway but can't stomach the valuation hit of new equity. The debt is expensive, but avoids near term dilution pain. At Octopus Ventures, we actively help our portfolio companies think through options like venture debt, secondaries, recapitalizations, and more. The goal is maintaining maximum flexibility and runway in this turbulent environment. [Swipe right on your “soulmate investor”Fundraising raises a lot of questions. What kind should I go after? Who will invest in my company? What should I do? (And what shouldn’t I do?) Time to talk fundraising, let’s get into it!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLJ Barnum![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/investment.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/swipe-right-on-your-soulmate-investor/) ## **Looking ahead** Predicting the future is difficult, but some trends seem likely: ⛈️ SaaS has historically **weathered downturns** before eventually rebounding. Efficiency will be key again if macro uncertainty deepens. ⚖️ Less mature players are **well positioned for Series A/B** with valuations rebalanced and ability to pitch prudence. 💥 Companies that **resize too slowly risk collapse**; quick action is still prudent. 📈 Profitability and **sustainable growth matter more than growth alone**. Disciplined businesses can thrive in any climate. 💸 Secondaries and **recapitalizations should increase** as investors seek liquidity after compressed IPO access. ⏳ **Macro volatility** around inflation, rates, recession odds, etc. will continue. Keep costs flexible to adapt. ## **Final thoughts** Despite all the market chaos and uncertainty, I remain incredibly excited about the Series A space as an investor. Why? Because valuations have come back down to rational levels, letting us have real conversations about economics and building sustainable businesses again. For many smart early stage teams, now is a time of opportunity amid the surrounding storms. The key is maniacal focus on efficiency, transparency on metrics, and constant communication with investors. Do those things, build methodically, and success can absolutely still be achieved even in this climate! Wishing you the best of luck. ### "The community and networking benefit of Future of SaaS is huge" - Navya Rehani Gupta URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-community-and-networking-benefit-of-future-of-saas-is-huge/ Last updated: 2023-10-31T16:11:03.000Z In the ever-evolving world of SaaS, fresh innovations are always in the pipeline. But how do these game-changers gain traction? We firmly believe it's through spirited discussions and respectful debates. While social media can ignite valuable conversations, there's something even more potent about uniting a community of SaaS trailblazers to exchange ideas. That's precisely the remarkable opportunity we offer at Future of SaaS events. As a seasoned SaaS pro, you can join forces with like-minded peers, collectively forging groundbreaking solutions. Dive into Navya Rehani Gupta's account of her enriching experience at our Future of SaaS Festival. ### **Can you take us through how you prepared for this presentation?** The hardest part was picking a topic, especially with so much going on in SaaS. Once the topic was decided, it was all about coming up with concrete examples and tangible tips for the audience. I’ve found it’s the stories of struggle and success that really resonate most with people. All in all, it was a fun journey to prepare for the presentation. It's so nice to be able to take up time, reflect and think about how you can bring back value to the community. This exercise helps you to really deepen your own understanding. And as a leader, stepping back and considering what you have to share with the industries is a great learning experience. ### **Can you describe your experience of working with our events team?** Future of SaaS representatives were very helpful in brainstorming topics and were able to help me bring something unique and helpful to the table. ### **Did your experience of the event match with your expectations?** It was such a pleasure to be exposed to a global SaaS network, especially having the opportunity to get to know other speakers at the event. We bonded on LinkedIn, and we were happy to promote and learn from each other’s content. ### **What were you hoping to achieve by participating in this event?** Firstly, I wanted to make something where I felt I was having a significant impact on the community, with tangible stories of success and learning experiences. Secondly, I wanted to expand my own network and get to know other SaaS experts. I was successful in both of these pursuits. I definitely heard back from people who’d attended the event and from those who’d read the content on the blog. \[*Future of SaaS event speakers are given the opportunity to have their talks written up as blog content on the site, giving your content even more exposure!\]* Participation definitely helped me expand my network. ### **Any other benefits?** I would say the biggest benefit for me was community building, connecting with more vertical SasS experts. At my level, that's a really powerful benefit. I want to have a community of people that I could pick up a phone and call when I’m running into problems. The community and the networking benefit of Future of SaaS is huge. --- Want access to Navya's full talk. You can get just that with a Future of SaaS membership right here. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### 3 powerful psychology triggers for SaaS conversions URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-art-of-influence-using-3-powerful-psychology-triggers-for-saas-conversions/ Last updated: 2023-10-27T10:27:21.000Z Have you ever wondered why we make the decisions we do? On the surface, it often seems like we carefully weigh the pros and cons before arriving at a rational choice. But in reality, **our decisions are shaped by a complex interplay of emotions, automatic processes, and behavioral triggers.** We are emotional decision-makers, and many of our actions are guided by processes we're not even aware of. It is impossible not to mention the work of [Robert Cialdini’s book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion"](https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Robert-Cialdini/dp/006124189X) when we're exploring the psychology of decision-making and behavioral triggers. The book uncovers the surprising ways our minds work when we make choices. He shared 6 principles for understanding the underlying drivers of human behavior: 1. Reciprocity 2. Scarcity 3. Liking 4. Authority 5. Social proof 6. Commitment and consistency These principles have become a cornerstone for marketers.Although it has been discussed widely how scarcity, social proof, and authority help with conversion. In this blog, we'll uncover how the other 3 unlikely principles: Commitment and consistency, Reciprocity, and liking can come into play for SaaS Growth. We will reveal how to wield these powerful tools of persuasion for your SaaS business and harness them for both understanding and positively influencing the choices your customers make. Let’s dive in. ## **Commitment and consistency: A mental shortcut to decision-making** A famous study often known as the ["foot-in-the-door" technique](https://psychology.iresearchnet.com/social-psychology/social-influence/foot-in-the-door-technique/)” was conducted by Cialdini, Vincent, Lewis, Catalan, Wheeler, and Darby in 1975, to test if **people who said yes to a small request would also say yes to a bigger one later.** They split people into two groups: one group didn't get any initial request (the control group), while the other group was asked to sign a petition supporting safe driving (the experimental group). This petition **was a small commitment.** After a few days, both groups were asked to put an unattractive "Drive Safely" sign in their yards, which was a bigger and less appealing request. The people who had signed the safe driving petition were much more likely to agree to the unattractive sign compared to the control group. [The role of FOMO on consumer psychologyOMO, or fear of missing out, is an acronym for a psychological worry that’s been ingrained in the human psyche for as long as we can remember. Coined in 1996, FOMO is a term used to describe the stress people experience when they realize others are potentially having more fun than them.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSCharley Gale![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/giving-a-gift.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-role-of-fomo-on-consumer-psychology/) This study supported the idea that **once we commit to something small, we want to stay consistent.** So, people who signed the small petition felt they should follow through with the bigger request, even if it wasn't very appealing. This research shows that **starting with small requests can lead to accepting bigger requests because people like to be consistent.** According to Neilsen's[ Study](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/commitment-consistency-ux/), this is because behavioral consistency is like a **mental shortcut.** It's easier to stick to one choice than to make a new decision every time a problem comes up. In social settings, people who are unpredictable are less likely to be well-liked and find it harder to fit in with others. ## **The power of incremental onboarding** In SaaS, you can apply commitment and consistency by guiding users through an incremental onboarding process. Incremental onboarding is an effective strategy for SaaS conversion, as it allows users to gradually familiarize themselves with the product, reducing the likelihood of overwhelming them and increasing the chance of becoming a customer. **The goal is to create a gradual path for users to become more deeply engaged with the product. By encouraging users to take small, manageable actions**. ### **What is Incremental Onboarding?** Instead of providing prospects with a lengthy profile setup, the form gradually prompts users to complete their profiles by adding additional details like profile pictures, preferences, or additional contact information at different times. **For example:** When a first-time visitor comes to your website and wants to download a free seminar they'll be asked to provide their contact details in a form.If you have progressive profiling in place, the next time they request a downloadable resource, they won't need to re-enter their name and email address. Instead, **they'll be prompted for more specific information**. Finally, when they register for a product demo, they'll be asked to specify their role within the company and provide a budget range. This gradual approach **eases users into the commitment of completing their profiles.** ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/aaD9f-TqNTtZUBY8nu5hMqbpUxG5ZoLeucQP5Gczfl9CACTD8heWkuPbSJXgYLgG6vqIUYyEg095aZgMD9pI5Tlh6DCQv-0dwzHSvj5Vverv4EV8dywAe_oxfJL9foYzSav0e8Ytd2DVrjfZ3Zb0Kw) Source: [mariontourrette.com](https://www.mariontourrette.com/progressive-profiling-use/) ### **Benefits of incremental onboarding** 1. **Improved user experience:** It minimizes the upfront information required from users during the onboarding process. Users are more likely to complete the onboarding process if they don't feel overwhelmed by a long form or a cascade of questions. 2. **Reduced friction:** Users are more likely to engage and proceed when they perceive the process as quick and easy.By asking for only essential information initially, you reduce the friction that can lead to user abandonment. 3. **Higher conversion rates:** You can capture basic user details initially and then gather more in-depth information as the user continues to use the SaaS product. This can lead to higher conversion rates during the onboarding process as users become more invested. 4. **Personalization:** As you collect more data about users over time, you can personalize their experience and provide targeted content, recommendations, and features most relevant to their needs and preferences. 5. **User trust:** When users see that you're not asking for unnecessary or intrusive information upfront, they are more likely to trust your SaaS product and believe their data is being handled responsibly. ### **Tools you use** To offer excellent incremental onboarding customer onboarding, it's essential to have the right tools. It will enable you to send relevant information to the right group at the right moment and provide in-app guidance. Here are some of the suggestions: 1. **Userpilot:** This tool helps you create microsurveys and perform advanced segmentation. 2. **Appcues**: Ideal for crafting personalized onboarding experiences specifically tailored to mobile users. 3. **Userguiding:** If you're on a tight budget, Userguiding allows you to track in-app interactions and gather valuable customer data. 4. **Pendo:** Pendo provides detailed product and user analytics, enabling you to gain deep insights. 5. **Chameleon:** Use Chameleon to design contextual in-product surveys and gather valuable feedback from your users. ## **The law of reciprocity: Making others to say 'yes' and getting what you want** Reciprocity is a psychological principle suggesting humans **have a natural inclination to return favors, gifts, or kind gestures when they receive something of value.** You can make people comply with your request or do something for you, using the law of reciprocity. The ["Coca-Cola" experiment](https://www.decisionskills.com/social-reciprocity.html) is the most famous study on the principle of reciprocity conducted by **Dennis Regan in 1971**. In the study, Joe’s likeability - a fellow participant, (who was actually Dennis Regan’s assistant - plot twist) was manipulated by having customers overhear him being either polite or rude during a phone call. Afterward, Joe would leave the room and return in one of two ways: Joe would return with two options, either giving one to the participant as a gift or returning empty-handed. Later, Joe would hand the participants a note asking them to buy raffle tickets. Results showed that when Joe gave a soda, participants bought twice as many tickets, regardless of how much they liked Joe. This study highlights the power of giving, demonstrating that **when you give, you're more likely to receive in return.** [Frontier man: Navigating the ever-changing landscape of the SaaS industryIn this inspiring story of success, Bendikt Ilg, CEO at Flip, shares his most valuable strategies.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSBenedikt Ilg![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/10/leader.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/frontier-man-navigating-the-ever-changing-landscape-of-the-saas-industry/) Quoting from [Nielsen Norman Group studies](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/reciprocity-principle/) a straightforward explanation for reciprocity is that **it was advantageous to exhibit cooperative and considerate behavior**. Those who adhered to this principle were likely to encounter fewer adversaries, increasing their chances of survival and the transmission of their genetic traits. ### **Reciprocity in SaaS: Turning value into conversions** In the context of SaaS conversions, reciprocity plays a significant role in influencing user behavior. It works on the premise that **when a user receives something valuable from a SaaS company, the prospect feels compelled to do the same by taking a desired action, such as signing up for a paid plan, referring others, or becoming a loyal customer.** There is a classic application of reciprocity we have been using for a while: **Free Trials/Freemium Models.** ## **What are free trials and freemium models?** Offering a limited-time free trial or freemium of the SaaS product allows users to experience its value first-hand. During the trial, users receive the benefit of using the software, which can create a sense of reciprocity, motivating them to subscribe to a paid plan once the trial period ends. [Your guide to making money with freemium modelsUsing a freemium model allows a new business to scale up and attract customers without spending money on costly ad campaigns or a traditional sales force. New customers educate themselves on the features of a freemium model, eliminating the need for costly demos or marketing tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/fixelgraphy-3NgcTH0CFJg-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-guide-to-making-money-with-freemium-models/) However free trials can be tricky. Firstly, **there's the task of attracting qualified leads while preventing trial abuse and then there's a financial aspect to consider.** Offering free trials can affect cash flow and revenue, especially if a substantial number of trial users don't convert into paying customers. Which is why the free trial needs to be a **delicate dance of selecting the appropriate type of free trial, product adoption, and retention**. Otherwise, no matter how many trial users you have you’ll face a high churn rate. To win this strategy first understand the types of free trials out there. ## **Crafting effective free trial strategies** There are several approaches to offering free trials for your business, each with its advantages . ### **1\. Free trial with credit card upfront (opt-out trials)** This is a strategy that requires customers to provide their credit card details to access a free trial. If customers don't cancel before the trial ends, their card is charged, and they're enrolled in a paid subscription. **When you should use this strategy:** Requesting credit card details before the trial begins can reduce sign-up rates but there are other advantages too: - **Streamlining conversion:** It is easier when payment information is on file, allowing the subscription to begin automatically if the trial is not canceled. - **Reduces freeloader:** Requiring upfront credit card information discourages freeloaders who sign up for free trials without genuine interest, filtering out non-paying users. - **Predictable revenue:** Opt-out trials offer businesses predictability in revenue by enabling better conversion forecasts, and aiding financial planning and growth. - **Customer convenience:** It's convenient not to manually subscribe after the trial; if they like the service, it continues seamlessly. ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/6mF3sKfNj3enOrpiSPQyYAHPFfBkmUrrQg9vuTxR-QGlUNtsNVQ6EsstNGmkVZQUhUuOiDVqNUX16IIMWgZRwojKC96vgik0E4A3UuOR861Yii3rq15leze3Y5ICdVskCvnFnWZWKMaUnHJPJ2ekUQ) ****Source:** [Medium.com](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1%2AMAY7kqKA1kLyVnUJi44Dkg.png) ### **2\. Free trial without credit card requirement (opt-In trials)** This is where businesses offer a trial period for their product or service without asking customers to provide their credit card information upfront. Users can access and evaluate the service without financial commitment. **When you should use this strategy:** By not asking for credit card information, you'll likely see more sign-ups but fewer quality prospects. However, there are other benefits. - **Building trust:** If you're a new or relatively unknown business, offering a free trial can help build trust with potential customers. It shows you're confident in your offering and not trying to trick people into subscribing. - **Reducing friction:** Opt-in trials remove this friction, making it more likely for people to give your service a chance. - **Lead generation**: If you're focused on lead generation, opt-in trials can help you collect potential customer contact information for follow-up marketing efforts, even if they don't immediately subscribe ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/5T2_V-TrFRw-1a0xxnFpN7OhZ_1quwiLLkQRnt7O8hej8ITN32CxVTMs2NsBV4LCYP6WKN86T_vGb0jvFOgmjD8p16AVgA1q9bTnSfVOPAK4fqXK5lsn6iAsv3AQrLrOAeD0KI7yLWqvdtbrs75vUQ) Source: [revechat.com](https://www.revechat.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/REVE-Chat-Free-Trial-1.png) **3\. Freemium model:** The freemium model can[ increase conversion rates by around 8%-10%](https://blog.useproof.com/saas-conversion-rate). Offering a freemium version allows users to experience your product with little risk. They can achieve small wins and recognize the value, making them more likely to subscribe to a paid plan. By offering a free product with certain feature limitations, users are encouraged to upgrade to the paid version when they reach those limits. **When you should use this strategy:** - **Product validation and market entry:** It allows potential customers to try your software without a financial commitment, making it easier to attract early adopters. If you're a startup or a new entrant in a competitive market, offering a free version of your SaaS product can help you validate your product's value proposition and gain initial traction. - **Scalable software**: When your SaaS product is scalable, meaning that you can offer different tiers of service with varying features, the freemium model is well-suited. Users can start with a free version and upgrade as their needs grow or as they see the value in additional features. [SaaS Tools of Choice 2023Download the report and get access to the ultimate guide to tools and tech, each one endorsed by the game-changers shaping the world of SaaS.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/FoSaaS_Tools_of_Choice_Report_2023_Blog2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2023/) - **Viral growth:** If your SaaS product has features that encourage sharing or collaboration, such as project management or communication tools, the freemium model can lead to viral growth. Free users may invite others to join, expanding your user base organically. - **Education and onboarding:** The freemium model can be used for educational purposes. Free users can experience the basics of your software, which may **lead to more informed buying decisions** when they consider upgrading to premium features. - **Upsell opportunities:** Freemium allows you to upsell free users to premium plans. When users recognize the value of your software and need additional features or support, they may be more inclined to upgrade. - **Customer feedback:** By having a large pool of free users, you can gather valuable feedback and insights to inform product development and improvements. **4\. Free trial after a demo:** This approach is suitable for SaaS products with a learning curve. It involves **two sequential stages for potential customers**. First, provide a demo of the product following a limited-time opportunity to use the product for free (free trial) without an immediate financial commitment. This approach aims to provide a deeper understanding of the offering's value and functionality, allowing potential users to make informed decisions based on real-world experience. It's frequently **used for complex or high-value products** to bridge the gap between interest and engagement while promoting user confidence and conversion. User Testing.com uses this approach ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/K_2rra8k6d2VyAHtpEDhb3J_IQbpVRjp8cTWm8VAvbQTGSMAMLdf6fvThqYdewiM4qtd7f5lSkAN26YEm6FGRzJ1STj50NcEt8-yIXUkZa1g-gNgUyT_QmjcA7Heh5rntqy9iAHOF4BCiibtJi3fzw) Source: [Userpilot.com](https://userpilot.com/userpilot-demo/?campaignid=12127996701&adgroupid=115643791094&creativeid=492912507501&device=c&utm%5Fterm=user%20pilot&utm%5Fcampaign=eu-branded-search-feb-2023&utm%5Fsource=google&utm%5Fmedium=paid-search&utm%5Fcontent=eu-branded&hsa%5Facc=7667747786&hsa%5Fcam=12127996701&hsa%5Fgrp=115643791094&hsa%5Fad=492912507501&hsa%5Fsrc=g&hsa%5Ftgt=kwd-920601460004&hsa%5Fkw=user%20pilot&hsa%5Fmt=p&hsa%5Fnet=adwords&hsa%5Fver=3&gclid=CjwKCAjwnOipBhBQEiwACyGLuua2sVzdI-9ziRED-50I67ik7T5eKMPnavHbD8ElVNkbceHUGWLyCxoCekIQAvD%5FBwE) **When you should use this strategy:** - **Complex software or services**: When your product is complex and requires hands-on guidance to fully understand its capabilities, offering a demo followed by a free trial allows potential customers to experience it firsthand. This is common in industries like enterprise software or specialized B2B services. - **Customizable solutions:** For products or services that can be tailored to individual customer needs or require configuration, a demo can showcase the customization possibilities. Subsequent free trials enable users to experiment with the customization tools. - **High-value or high-cost products:** When the product is relatively expensive or represents a significant investment for customers, providing a demo followed by a free trial can help build trust and reduce the perceived risk. It allows potential customers to assess the product's value before committing financially [SaaS pricingWhen it comes to launching a SaaS product, most orgs are going to be focused on crucial factors such as strategy, app development, market research, etc. All of this is essential, of course, but it’s missing one equally important factor. That’s right. Pricing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_pricing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-pricing/) ## **The connection between likeability and conversion** **We're more likely to listen to and agree with people who we like.** Cialdini's likability principle explores how being liked can strongly affect how we make decisions and how easily we can be persuaded. The exploration reveals that **the power of persuasion is not merely about the message itself, but our personal connection with the messenger.** There are several factors that determine how much we like and trust someone which include: **Physical attractiveness** – [Research](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract%5Fid=1518099) conducted at Carnegie Mellon University has found that attractive individuals often enjoy various aspects of life. This study reveals that physically attractive people tend to encounter more favorable job prospects, secure higher salaries, experience smoother career advancement, and are frequently attributed with greater intelligence. The impact of attractiveness goes beyond the professional realm. It is observed that **our judgments of others' trustworthiness and integrity are influenced by physical attractiveness** as well. **Similarity and association** – Human beings are naturally inclined to connect with individuals who share similar interests, beliefs, and values. This inclination drives us to establish trust and rapport with those who think like us, ultimately fostering the growth of friendships, partnerships, and communities. It extends beyond forming connections; it also [plays a significant role in decision-making](https://online.ucpress.edu/collabra/article/7/1/23441/117025/The-Influence-of-Similarity-and-Mimicry-on). When we interact with similar people their opinions and recommendations carry more weight in our minds. This can impact the choices we make, from the products we buy to the political candidates we support. [5 steps to building a customer-centric cultureWhen signing up for your SaaS product, your customers are making a long-term investment. You’re hoping they’re gonna stick with your product for months, and preferably even years.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/feedback.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-steps-to-building-a-customer-centric-culture/) In essence, the pull of similarity and association is a powerful force that shapes our social interactions, the relationships we build, and the decisions we make. **Corporation-** Collaboration with others holds the power to profoundly influence our behavior. [Studies show](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982219300958) working together with others can significantly impact how we behave. It makes us follow the rules and norms of our group, as we want to fit in and be accepted. Also, when we help others, we expect them to help us back, creating trust and cooperation. The emotional support and encouragement we get when working with others can boost our confidence and make us more committed, affecting how we behave in different parts of our lives. [How do we engage key stakeholders in cross-functional collaboration?Here’s how to ensure seamless collaboration between teams, so you can smash through those silos and skyrocket your organization to success!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/pexels-huy-chien-tran-1756665.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) ### **How liking shapes user behavior in SaaS** In the world of SaaS conversions, the power of "liking" cannot be overstated. Liking, in this context, represents the **genuine positive sentiment and affinity that users develop for a SaaS brand.** It influences user behavior, impacting conversion rates and fostering long-term loyalty. Let's look at each aspect of how the traits come into play with. ### **From aesthetics to acquisition: The link between attractive UX and conversions** Studies reveal that [75% of people](https://www.crowdspring.com/blog/marketing-psychology-liking/) judge a website's credibility based on how it looks. Your website should be beautiful. You should: - Choose every web design element intentionally. - Convey the brand information with graphics, layout, and font. - Avoid arbitrary design choices. - Make sure lines, angles, shapes, and colors align with your brand message. Like Mixpanel– Great first-time experience with demo content. ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/0cc6CgIrgpc7n3atZM379uz1aAXIBVR3NjSkVerUqxEYkLWp4a1it0f_Sm85HmSyKlbAqwImIrjALopCSwE6pyIswFHg5cOKM6uMX3seN1PkMc27dqjhnB1QZItHtq6Ho_bGslRRfh_t3Xk7EnOYHw) Source: [Mixpanel.com](https://mixpanel.com/contact-us/ps-sem-demo-request-emea?utm%5Fsource=google&utm%5Fmedium=cpc&utm%5Fcampaign=EMEA-UK-Brand-Search-EN-Exact-Desktop&utm%5Fcontent=Mixpanel-Exact&utm%5Fad=655263090672&utm%5Fterm=mixpanel&matchtype=e&campaign%5Fid=19984353783&ad%5Fid=655263090672&gclid=CjwKCAjwnOipBhBQEiwACyGLusclVF7aJKQ-maAeIZTDmJuSu3iF1e7JaNQef7BTUYS8MBWtUjBZYBoCirEQAvD%5FBwE&gad%5Fsource=1) A key factor in fostering liking is the user-friendliness of the SaaS product. **When software is intuitive, easy to navigate, and provides a smooth user experience, it generates positive feelings.** Users appreciate platforms that respect their time and effort. A well-designed user interface not only simplifies tasks but also contributes to a positive perception of the product and the brand resulting long long-term engagement, better NPS score, and conversion. [Why user experience is so important for your SaaS orgUI/UX is crucial to the success of every online business. The digital space is becoming much busier every day. There are currently about 1.88 billion websites and 5.5 million applications on Google and the App store.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSTaiwo Sotikare![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/this-is-the-place.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-user-experience-is-so-important-for-your-saas-company/) ## **Similarity and association: Conversion through community** In the fast-paced world of SaaS, fostering a thriving online community has become essential for success. The Hubspot and Spotify community is a great example that has built a huge space where customers can ask questions, discover answers, and connect with fellow users to learn how to use the products effectively for business growth and to foster strong relationships with the brand. ![](https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/XAyfJbNBXeyyD3rNcDAV5-317QSQxu1f1elscBS8McVJkFf7dpGkZTbuiCg5VQPnjchLfCLrQ_iXOpVbJ3BBW-Y3XqkmlYHkXm6yDLYnJlLVdcsgHYiYSDn6NZdOr3sZHwSCu-bYdz39B6i67EmugA) Source: [Hubspot.com](https://www.hubspot.com/products/get-started-f049?utm%5Fid=607212716859&utm%5Fmedium=paid&utm%5Fsource=google&utm%5Fterm=marketing%5Fhubspot%5FEN&utm%5Fcampaign=Marketing%5FMQLs%5FEN%5FEMEA%5FUKI%5FBrand-HubSpot%5Fe%5Fc%5Fcampaignid856706782%5Fagid45114446858%5Fgoogle&utm%5Fcontent=%5F&hsa%5Fver=3&hsa%5Fnet=adwords&hsa%5Facc=2734776884&hsa%5Fkw=hubspot&hsa%5Fgrp=45114446858&hsa%5Fmt=e&hsa%5Fcam=856706782&hsa%5Fad=607212716859&hsa%5Ftgt=kwd-298569398281&hsa%5Fsrc=g&gad%5Fsource=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwnOipBhBQEiwACyGLura377r4cqPFsz4ZaquWMPVBWdBZsg5SEouxsjGkp3gNHlP9YweZQxoCWBAQAvD%5FBwE) SaaS companies with dedicated community teams have seen a[ 22% increase in growth](https://www.custify.com/blog/community-supports-saas-growth/#:~:text=Companies%20with%20dedicated%20community%20teams,requires%20significant%20resources%20and%20expertise.) since 2020\. This community-centric approach offers a multitude of advantages that can significantly enhance your brand's performance. Below, we'll explore the compelling reasons why building communities for SaaS brands is not just a trend, but a strategic imperative. ### **1\. Integration across departments** An online community seamlessly integrates with various organizational departments like customer support, product development, and marketing. It empowers you to reduce support ticket volumes by facilitating peer-to-peer assistance, self-service options, and efficient knowledge delivery. ### **2\. Optimized customer acquisition costs (CAC)** A positive sentiment within your community reflects favorably on your brand and encourages potential customers to trust and invest in your products or services. ### **3\. Stand out from the crowd** A flourishing online community sets your SaaS business apart from competitors. It signals to prospective clients that your brand is not just about software but also about fostering a valuable user community. ### **4\. New acquisition channels** Online communities can serve as organic acquisition channels, drawing in new users through word-of-mouth recommendations and engaging content. [Community-led growth is the Future of SaaSCommunity-led growth is a go-to-market strategy that relies on an engaged community of customers as a tool for acquiring new customers, retaining existing customers, and expanding your business reach.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/toa-heftiba-6bKpHAun4d8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/community-led-growth-is-the-future-of-saas/) ### **5\. Improved [retention ](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/)and revenue** Communities engage your customers, forging stronger relationships with your brand. Networking within these communities keeps your brand top-of-mind, increasing customer retention rates and, consequently, revenue. ### **6\. Enhanced customer loyalty** By nurturing a community, you cultivate a sense of belonging and loyalty among your customers. Users feel valued and connected, fostering a lasting relationship with your brand. ### **9\. Tap into social listening** Online communities provide valuable insights through social listening. You can monitor discussions, identify trends, and gather feedback, enabling data-driven decision-making. [How can you boost customer advocacy through social media listening?Dreaming of a loyal customer fanbase that provides free marketing? Welcome to the endless possibilities of social media listening!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/how-can-you-boost-customer-advocacy-through-social-media-listening.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-can-you-boost-customer-advocacy-through-social-media-listening/) ### **10\. Drive product innovation** Community members are frequent users of your products or services and can offer immediate feedback. Their insights help shape product development, ensuring continuous improvement. ## **From numbers to relationships: The power of exceptional SaaS support** Exceptional **customer support** is another pillar of liking in SaaS conversions. When users encounter issues or have questions, responsive and helpful customer support teams can turn problems into positive experiences. Effective support not only resolves issues but also shows that the company cares about its users' success and satisfaction. The following [statistics ](https://aircall.io/blog/support/saas-customer-support/#The%5FImportance%5Fof%5FCustomer%5FSupport)clearly highlight that excelling in customer support is the key differentiator between thriving companies and those that merely survive. - 84% of customers prefer personal treatment over feeling like just a number. - 59% of customers want customer service agents to consider their past interactions. - 70% of customers desire smooth transitions and expect agents to be aware of their call's context and past interactions. ### **Point 1: Customer retention is cost-effective** Customer retention, the art of keeping existing customers satisfied, is a smart business strategy because it's less expensive than acquiring new customers. Acquiring new customers demands significant spending on marketing and advertising, while retaining existing ones involves building on established relationships, requiring comparatively fewer resources. [Top 10 customer retention software choices for effective, sustainable growthLooking for strong, sustainable growth? Look no further than our top 10 tools for customer retention.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/10/software.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-10-customer-retention-software-choices-for-effective-sustainable-growth/) ### **Point 2: Better customer service justifies higher prices** More than[ 80%](https://www.gartner.com/en/customer-service-support/insights/customer-loyalty) of customers say they're likely to repurchase when they get value from a service, even if they can switch to a competitor. When customers feel valued, listened to, and supported, they're more likely to stick around and pay extra for the assurance of continued quality service. Exceptional customer service is an investment that can yield higher profits. ### **Point 3: Customer service boosts lifetime value** Customer lifetime value (CLV) measures the total revenue a customer generates over their relationship with a business. Investing in top-notch customer service leads to greater customer loyalty, increased engagement, and repeat purchases. As customers stay engaged longer, their CLV grows, making it a valuable long-term strategy for business success. What are the ways you can build 1. **Create frictionless support across channels**: Offer seamless, consistent support through various channels, prioritize fast responses, and gather feedback for improvement. 2. **Implement AI solutions**: Leverage AI for chatbots, data analysis, and predictive insights to automate tasks, provide personalized responses, and enhance efficiency. 3. **Predict customers' needs:** Use customer data and AI to anticipate issues, segment customers for tailored support, proactively communicate solutions and continuously gather feedback for improvement 4. **Self-service resources**: Create a comprehensive knowledge base, FAQs, and video tutorials that customers can access at any time. Many users prefer solving issues on their own if they have the resources. 5. **Proactive outreach**: Reach out to customers with tips, updates, and best practices. This proactive approach can prevent issues before they arise. 6. **Training and onboarding:** Provide comprehensive onboarding processes and training resources to help new customers get started with your product smoothly. 7. **Measure and analyze:** Track [customer support metrics ](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/)like response times, resolution times, and customer satisfaction scores. Use these insights to continuously improve your support process. Understanding the psychology of user behavior triggers is essential for maximizing SaaS conversions. By applying these psychology principles to your SaaS businesses, you can gain a deeper understanding of our customers and effectively influence their decision-making process. So, take advantage of these powerful tools of persuasion and use them to drive conversions for our SaaS products. --- Fancy diving into some exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS? Check it out. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How to unleash AI's potential in email-driven product growth URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/from-inbox-to-impact-unleashing-ais-potential-in-email-driven-product-growth/ Last updated: 2024-10-31T11:04:49.000Z Are your email marketing campaigns not delivering the impact and growth you desire? You're spending your time and resources crafting email messages, but they're not generating the desired results. You're missing out on potential sales and revenue because your emails aren't impactful enough. Email marketing has become an essential tool for businesses to drive growth and engage with their audience. However, standing out in a crowded inbox and achieving impactful results can be a challenge. With its revolutionary capabilities, AI has transformed the email marketing landscape, enabling businesses to unleash the full potential of their campaigns. Here, we'll explore how AI can elevate your email-driven product growth, from optimizing content to delivering personalized experiences and ultimately driving remarkable results with the help of email automation & cold email software. Get ready to discover the game-changing power of AI in email marketing. ## **Understanding the role of email in product growth** Once considered old-fashioned, email marketing has experienced a resurgence in recent years. It remains one of the most cost-effective and efficient ways to reach and engage with customers. With the right [email marketing ](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-boost-b2b-lead-generation-through-email-marketing/)strategy, businesses can nurture leads, build customer loyalty, and ultimately drive product growth. Email plays a crucial role in the growth of a product or business. It serves as a direct and effective means of communication between companies and their customers, allowing for timely updates, promotions, and personalized interactions. Email can be used for various purposes, such as sending out newsletters, announcing new product launches, and providing customer support. For example, a company can send personalized emails to customers who have abandoned their shopping carts, offering discounts or incentives to complete their purchases. [How AI can help your SaaS company to scale and achieve retentionWith qualitative and quantitative insights from the leading minds in SaaS, this article showcases how AI can scale your SaaS org at pace today.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2023/01/AI.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-ai-can-help-your-saas-company-to-scale/) By utilizing email in a strategic and targeted manner, businesses can build stronger relationships with their customers, drive engagement, and ultimately drive product growth. By using artificial intelligence in email marketing strategies, businesses can take their campaigns to the next level. AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data to segment audiences, personalize content, and optimize email send times. This allows businesses to deliver more targeted and relevant messages, increasing engagement and conversion rates. ## **Benefits of using AI in email marketing** The benefits of using AI in email marketing are numerous and can significantly improve the overall success and efficiency of your campaigns. Here are some key benefits of using AI in email marketing: - **Personalization:** AI can analyze customer data such as browsing and purchase history, demographics, and behaviors to create highly personalized and targeted email content. This helps to generate better engagement and conversions. - **Automated segmentation:** With AI, you can automate the process of segmenting your email list based on various parameters, such as customer preferences, behavior patterns, and demographics. This allows you to send tailored content to specific groups, increasing relevance and engagement. - **Optimization:** AI-powered algorithms can analyze past campaign performance and customer interactions to identify patterns and trends. With this information, AI can optimize future email campaigns by suggesting improvements in subject lines, content, timing, and frequency. - **Predictive analytics:** AI can use predictive analytics to forecast customer behavior, identify potential leads, and predict optimal send times. This allows businesses to make data-driven decisions and strategies for their email marketing campaigns. - **Improved email deliverability:** AI can analyze factors that affect email deliverability, such as spam filters and content quality, to ensure that your emails reach the intended recipients' inboxes. - **A/B testing:** AI can automate A/B testing by experimenting with different email layouts, subject lines, and CTAs to identify the most effective combinations. - **Enhanced customer service:** AI-powered chatbots can be integrated into emails to provide instant responses to customer queries, improving customer satisfaction and engagement. ## **Enhancing email campaigns with AI** ### **Personalization and segmentation** In today's digital landscape, personalization is key to engaging with customers effectively. AI can analyze large amounts of data and provide valuable insights to help businesses tailor their email campaigns. By segmenting the audience based on demographics, preferences, and behavior, marketers can create personalized content that resonates with each individual. [Top growth-hacking AI tools for SaaS organizationsAI is the future. Get in on these top tools for utilizing the power of AI, so your org doesn’t get left behind.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2023/06/saas-gtm-strategy--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/harnessing-the-potential-of-ai-tools-for-unparalleled-growth/) ### **Automated email recommendations** AI algorithms can analyze customer behavior and past interactions to generate automated email recommendations. By suggesting products or services based on the customer's preferences and purchase history, businesses can increase cross-selling and upselling opportunities. These recommendations create a personalized experience for each customer and enhance the overall customer journey. #### **Using email automation and cold email software** With the advancement of technology, email automation and cold email software that incorporates AI can take your email marketing campaigns to the next level. This powerful combination allows you to streamline your efforts, save time, and increase your chances of success. - Increased efficiency: Email automation allows you to set up automatic triggers, such as welcome emails or abandoned cart reminders, saving you time and effort by eliminating manual work. - Dynamic content: With AI, you can dynamically insert personalized content into your emails based on the recipient's preferences, ensuring that your messages are relevant and engaging. - Segmentation and targeting: Cold email software with AI capabilities can analyze your contact list and segment it based on various factors such as demographics, interests, or past interactions. This allows you to send targeted emails to specific groups, increasing the effectiveness of your campaigns. [Seven ways that ChatGPT is going to transform your SaaS businessChatGPT might be all the rage right now, but, in practical terms, how exactly is it going to allow your SaaS company to scale? We lay it out right here.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2023/04/Seven-ways-that-ChatGPT-is-going-to-transform-your-SaaS-business.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/seven-ways-that-chatgpt-is-going-to-transform-your-saas-business/) - A/B testing: AI-powered email marketing software often provides A/B testing features that allow you to test different subject lines, email designs, or call-to-action buttons. You can analyze the results, you can optimize your campaigns for better performance. - Improved reporting: AI-powered analytics can provide valuable insights into your email marketing campaigns, including open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. These insights allow you to make data-driven decisions and refine your strategy for better results. ### **Predictive analytics for optimal timing** AI-powered predictive analytics can analyze historical data and customer behavior patterns to determine the optimal time to send emails. By sending emails when customers are most likely to engage, businesses can increase open rates, click-through rates, and ultimately, conversions. ## **Leveraging AI for email deliverability** ### **Improving inbox placement rates** With AI, you can enhance your email deliverability by analyzing various factors that affect inbox placement rates. AI algorithms can evaluate recipient engagement patterns, email content, and sender reputation to determine the likelihood of your emails being flagged as spam or delivered directly to the inbox. ### **Spam detection and filtering** AI technology is also instrumental in the fight against spam. By leveraging advanced machine learning algorithms, AI can analyze millions of data points and identify patterns associated with spam emails. This enables spam filters to effectively detect and block unwanted messages while minimizing the chances of legitimate emails being mistakenly classified as spam. ### **Email reputation management** Maintaining a good email sender reputation is vital for email deliverability success. AI can monitor and analyze various factors that impact sender reputation, such as bounce rates, spam complaints, and engagement metrics. By leveraging AI algorithms, you can proactively identify and address issues that could harm your sender's reputation, ultimately improving your email deliverability and ensuring your messages reach the intended recipients. [How to build the perfect email cadence for maximum conversionStruggling with email conversion rates? Check out Isioma Ogwuda’s step-by-step guide to the perfect email marketing cadence.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSIsioma Ogwuda![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2023/09/email-marketing.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-the-perfect-email-cadence-for-maximum-conversion/) ## **AI-powered email content optimization** ### **A/B testing with AI** One of the key benefits of utilizing AI in email marketing is the ability to conduct A/B testing at scale. AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data and identify patterns, helping marketers understand which elements of their email campaigns are performing well and which ones need improvement. By testing different subject lines, call-to-action buttons, visuals, and other elements, businesses can optimize their email content to achieve higher open and click-through rates. ### **Subject line optimization** The subject line determines whether recipients open or ignore the message. AI-powered tools can analyze historical data, customer preferences, and industry trends to generate subject line recommendations that are most likely to grab attention. These tools can also help marketers understand the emotional tone and sentiment of their subject lines to ensure they align with the intended audience. ### **Content recommendations and generation** Crafting persuasive and personalized email content can be time-consuming and challenging. AI-powered tools can offer content recommendations based on customer preferences, past interactions, and demographic data. These tools can also generate email content dynamically, tailoring messages to individual recipients in real time. By leveraging AI, businesses can deliver relevant and engaging content that resonates with their target audience. ## **Increasing engagement and conversion rates with AI** ### **Behavioral scoring and targeting** With AI, businesses can now analyze and understand customer behavior in real time. By implementing behavioral scoring and targeting, companies can personalize email campaigns based on user preferences and actions. AI algorithms can analyze data such as open rates, click-through rates, and previous purchases to determine the most relevant content for each individual. This targeted approach leads to higher engagement and conversion rates, as customers receive emails that align with their interests and needs. [How is email marketing important to improving customer retention?Despite the rising competition from social media, email marketing continues to be one of the most effective tools for B2B marketing. It’s great for product awareness and generating new leads, but also for boosting customer retention.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2021/10/brett-jordan-LPZy4da9aRo-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-is-email-marketing-important-to-improving-customer-retention/) ### **Dynamic email content** Another powerful way AI can drive email-driven product growth is through dynamic email content. AI algorithms can analyze customer data, preferences, and real-time behavior to generate personalized and dynamic email content that adapts to each recipient. This means that every email can be tailored to the individual's preferences and interests, resulting in higher engagement and conversion rates. For example, AI can automatically display product recommendations based on previous purchases or browsing history, increasing the chances of conversion. ## **Challenges and considerations in AI-driven email marketing** ### **Data privacy and security** When it comes to leveraging AI for email marketing, data privacy and security should be top concerns. AI relies heavily on accessing and analyzing vast amounts of user data. This data may include personal information, email content, browsing behavior, and more. As a business, it is crucial to have strict security measures in place to protect this sensitive information and ensure compliance with data protection regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. Taking these steps will instill customer trust and loyalty. [How you can use AI to push boundaries in SaaS productsJuliette Denny, CEO at Growth Engineering, outlines Artificial Intelligence in detail, including how it can be used to push boundaries in SaaS.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJuliette Denny![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2022/03/possessed-photography-zbLW0FG8XU8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/) ### **Ethical use of AI for email marketing** Ethical considerations are also important when using AI in email marketing. Businesses should use [AI in SaaS](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/) to enhance the customer experience and provide value rather than manipulate or deceive customers. Transparency is key to gaining customer trust. Communicate openly about the use of AI and how it benefits recipients. Additionally, be mindful of biases that AI algorithms may introduce and ensure fairness in content delivery. ### **Integrating AI with existing email systems** Integrating AI into existing email systems may pose challenges for businesses. It is essential to choose AI tools and platforms that seamlessly integrate with your current systems. Consider factors such as implementation, compatibility, and scalability. This integration should not disrupt the flow of your email marketing campaigns but rather enhance them by automating processes, personalizing content, and improving targeting and segmentation. ## **The future of AI in email-driven product growth** AI technology has revolutionized the way businesses approach email marketing, offering innovative solutions that enhance engagement and drive conversions. By leveraging AI algorithms and machine learning, marketers can gain valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and patterns, allowing for highly targeted and effective email campaigns. Some significant advancements in AI technology for email marketing include: - Predictive analytics: AI-powered tools can predict the best time to send emails based on individual customer behavior and preferences. This ensures that emails reach recipients when they are most likely to open and take action. - Subject line optimization: AI algorithms analyze historical data to determine the most effective subject lines, increasing open rates. These algorithms can also suggest alternative subject lines to optimize performance. - Automated campaigns: AI technology enables the automation of email campaigns, allowing marketers to set up dynamic triggers and workflows. This ensures that relevant messages are sent at the right time, based on customer actions and behavior. - Email list segmentation: AI algorithms can segment email lists based on various criteria such as customer demographics, preferences, purchase history, and engagement levels. This allows marketers to target specific segments with personalized offers and content. - A/B Testing: AI-powered tools can automate A/B testing, comparing different email variants to determine the most effective design, layout, and content. This helps optimize email performance and increase conversion rates. - Customer journey mapping: AI technology helps marketers understand the customer journey by identifying touchpoints and interactions across multiple channels. This allows for the creation of targeted email campaigns that align with each stage of the customer's journey. [5 Best Practices for Scaling your SaaS Content Marketing Engine with AIIn this article, we explore how you can create content of real substance while utilizing AI to maximize your efficiency and output.![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChinwoke Nnamani![](https://www.futureofsaas.io/content/images/2023/04/Reaching-out-to-Ai.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-best-practices-for-scaling-your-saas-content-marketing-engine-with-ai/) ## **Wrapping up** In conclusion, the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in driving email-driven product growth is truly remarkable. By leveraging the power of AI, businesses can transform their email marketing strategies into impactful and personalized experiences for customers. From predicting customer preferences to automating tasks, AI can revolutionize the way we utilize emails to drive growth. However, it requires careful implementation and constant refinement to fully unleash its potential. With the right approach and a friendly focus on delivering value to customers, businesses can harness the power of AI and take their email marketing to new heights of success. So, let's embrace AI and embark on a journey of email-driven product growth together! --- *Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from the leading minds in* *SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How to build a sales enablement program from the ground up URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-a-sales-enablement-program-from-the-ground-up/ Last updated: 2024-11-13T13:01:35.000Z I’m **Stephanie Cwynar**, and today I want to share my story of building a global enablement team when we barely had the basics in place. It was thrilling, exhausting, and pushed me far outside my comfort zone. If you’re an enablement leader looking to take your skills to the next level, I hope my lessons learned will give you fresh inspiration. I’ll take you through how I built an empowered team, gained skeptical stakeholder buy-in, drove alignment across regions, and ultimately achieved the results that made it all worthwhile. **This is the real story – no sugarcoating**! I’ll share the tactical steps as well as the leadership principles that guided me. My promise is to be vulnerable so you can learn from my wins (and stumbles) over three years of rapid growth. So grab your favorite pen and brace yourself for my tale of creating a sales enablement program where there was literally none before. If I can do it, you can do it too. Let’s get started... - **My background** - **The challenge: Building a global team from scratch** - **My approach: It's all about people** - **The proof: Measuring results** - **Final thoughts** ## **My background** I spent the first decade or so working in sales and marketing roles - everything from selling lipstick to developing hair color trends for L'Oreal. But I realized my true passion was for education. I went back to grad school, earned my masters in higher ed, and started working for the New York City Department of Education. > *Talk about a switch from corporate sales!* My focus was helping scale career and technical education programs that created pathways from high school to community college. I partnered with companies like IBM and Microsoft to develop curriculum to prepare students for careers in tech. It was rewarding work but I eventually burned out. On a whim, I Googled "How to combine marketing, sales and education" and stumbled upon the world of sales enablement. **A new door opened.** I landed a role at Facebook focused on product training and was able to combine my knowledge across sales, marketing *and* learning. After a few years, an exciting opportunity fell in my lap... ## **The challenge: Building a global team from scratch** In 2019, I was asked to build a brand new enablement team to support Facebook's rapidly scaling customer service organization. We operated call centers around the world and were adding thousands of agents a year. It was an awesome challenge but also daunting. I'd be managing a distributed team across multiple regions, time zones and companies. And I'd be tasked with enabling a global operation when we didn't even have the basics in place. [Sales: The rules of engagementSales is a complex and competitive business - and never more so than when deciding who gets the credit for what: who gets the commission and, just as importantly, who gets the recognition?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/muyuan-ma--xHZBzv4Naw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-the-rules-of-engagement/) I had to wrap my head around the opportunity and current challenges: - **13** call centers globally but no centralized view of what training existed - **6** core customer service programs but continuity across them - **50** vendor trainers but minimal coordination - **1500** agents to enable with plans to scale dramatically **It was essentially starting from scratch. My mind raced with questions:** - How do I build a high-performing team across different cultures and time zones? - How do I get stakeholder buy-in when enablement is brand new to them? - How do I drive consistency globally while still localizing content? - What infrastructure and systems do we need to be successful? - How do I even begin to prioritize where to start? I was energized by the challenge but knew I couldn't go at it alone. ## **My approach: It's all about people** I realized that while I was building a program, it was really about enabling people. My first two hires were **critical**. I found strong partners who brought complementary skills to mine. Together, we spent time researching before taking action, doing everything from observing agents to pilot testing training delivery. Armed with insights, I was ready to build my team using a framework we called the 4 Directions of Teaming: [How to improve sales team training sessionsSales training is one of the most nerve-wracking but rewarding things you can do. It’s your chance to set the product and product manager up for success, push positioning to drive future development in the direction you think it should go, and of course, directly impact revenue potential.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLaura Foster![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/randy-tarampi-fckhR4mysac-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-improve-sales-team-training-sessions/) ### **Team within - creating our culture** I started with just two team members and slowly grew to 16 over three years. With each new hire, I looked for opportunities to demonstrate our value so we could continue making the case to expand. Once we hit about eight team members, I knew it was time to add a management layer for global coverage. I hired leaders in Europe and APAC so we always had someone online as we operated 24/7\. Some of the cultural norms I instilled were: ⏰ **Flexible schedules** - Encouraged early/late meetings to accommodate time zones 🖥️ **Asynchronous communication** - Relied on tools like Slack for pre-reads before meetings **🌎 Cultural sharing** - Had team members provide tips on norms in their regions 🤝 **Social connections** - Used fun channels for water cooler chat on life outside work This foundation of trust, empathy and communication enabled us to collaborate effectively across regions. ### **Team across - Gaining stakeholder buy-in** I had 10 internal departments and 23 external call centers to partner with. It was chaotic with no centralized processes. In every single meeting for the first year, I brought a simple slide: “Partnering Together in 2020.” It outlined: - **Submitting intake forms for new requests so we could prioritize holistically** - **Joining their weekly business reviews so I could advise strategically** - **Providing learning design expertise while they shared subject matter expertise** This slide set clear expectations on working with us. It was a bit of tough love at first! But it enabled us to have honest conversations about needs on both sides. Over time, I focused on sharing the value we uniquely provided: - **Explaining how we set global standards while vendors handled local delivery** - **Introducing evaluation models like Kirkpatrick so they understood it takes time to demonstrate business impact** Being proactive in educating stakeholders was the key to building trust and credibility long-term. [How do we engage key stakeholders in cross-functional collaboration?Here’s how to ensure seamless collaboration between teams, so you can smash through those silos and skyrocket your organization to success!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/pexels-huy-chien-tran-1756665.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) ## **Team through - Defining ways of working** One of our first steps was hiring very senior professionals who could operate independently in their local regions. I looked for 8-10 years experience minimum. While they owned local relationships, we created consistency through: - **Localization:** Ensuring 80% of content was reusable globally while 20% was customized to the region. - **Personalization:** Leveraging learner profiles and testing data to create personalized learning paths. - **Governance:** Using RACI matrices to clarify who was responsible for what across the team. This balance of structure and flexibility enabled us to scale effectively. [Sales Enablement Scaled Down: Problems facing small startupsShilpa Prasad gave a great talk on the problems facing a small startup like hers, YouNoodle, in the context of sales enablement, sales leadership and the overall world of sales.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.55.13.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-enablement-scaled-down-problems-facing-small-startups/) ### **Team forward - Owning the vision** I involved stakeholders from the start in co-creating a three year roadmap: - **Year 1:** Stabilize - Centralize content ownership from vendors to Facebook - **Year 2:** Modernize - Improve content quality and relevance - **Year 3:** Energize - Incorporate active learning and role plays But I always kept our team growth front and center as a priority. My team couldn't enable others without first enabling themselves! Being armed with the roadmap and priorities enabled me to guide stakeholders on how enablement could drive their goals and where I needed their support. ## **The proof: Measuring results** Our holistic approach resulted in: ✅ **A world-class team** \- grew from 2 to 16 team members capable of advising globally and executing locally ✅ **20,000 agents onboarded** \- created learning paths for all 13 customer service programs ✅ **Improved metrics** \- increased resume rate by 0.36% within 2 months of starting, enabling support for thousands more customers. [Shortening salespeople’s time-to-confidenceConfidence is one of the most important qualities a sales rep can have. But how do measure it? Russell Zack, Head of Revenue at Second Nature, lays it all out.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSRussell Zack![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/Giving-sales-confidence-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/shortening-salespeoples-time-to-confidence/) ## **Final thoughts** Phew, we covered a lot of ground together! If you made it this far, high five my friend. 🙌 Let me leave you with my key lessons learned: **Focus on people.** At the end of the day, enablement is about empowering people - your team, your stakeholders, and especially your learners. If you invest in their growth and create a human-centered program, the results will come. **Earn trust along the way.** This won't happen overnight. Be patient, prove your value, and educate stakeholders on realistic outcomes. Transparency is key. **Localize thoughtfully.** Don't rely on a one-size-fits-all approach. Adapt to each culture and region, but maintain alignment on the end goals. **Prioritize ruthlessly.** You can't do it all at once. Make trade-offs, set boundaries, and don't be afraid to say no. Less is more. And above all, **believe in yourself.** You were chosen for this role for a reason. Even in uncertainty, have confidence in the vision you want to create. You now have in your hands the blueprint to build an enablement program from the ground up. **Take it and make it your own - I can't wait to see what you build!** ### Empower your employees by building a culture that values every customer interaction URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/empower-your-employees-by-building-a-culture-that-values-every-customer-interaction/ Last updated: 2023-10-19T10:27:13.000Z The overarching goal of any customer success function is to provide your customers with the best possible experience that’ll help them realize your product or service’s value, and reach their desired outcomes with said product or service. Sure, it sounds simple enough, but the only way for this ethos to be reflected in every customer interaction is if it’s a part of your company’s culture. This is where first-rate leadership comes into play. As a customer success leader, there’s a responsibility to set the standard through your actions. A junior member of staff can try to impact or change their company’s culture, but fundamentally, any big change needs to come from the top. To ensure each customer interaction counts and your *whole* company recognizes and values each customer interaction, this needs to come from the C-suite. In this article, we’re going to cover: - What work culture is, and why it’s important, - The importance of every customer interaction, - Ways to build a customer-centric culture, - How to empower your employees and set them up for success, and - How to measure success and continued improvement. Now, let’s get down to business. ## **What is a “work culture” and what is customer-centricity?** To kick things off, it’d serve this article best if we first explained the importance of a positive, encouraging work culture. But what do we mean when we refer to a “culture”? Work culture is the type of environment that exists *within* an organization, usually reflective of shared values, and beliefs that shape the normal run of things in a company. Here are some examples of work cultures: - Positive, friendly, and dynamic work cultures. These promote innovation, well-being, collaboration and retention. - “Fast-paced” work cultures tend to cultivate agility and adaptability, resilience, collaboration and continuous learning. - Work cultures fostered around diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) signal to employees that a company values equal opportunities and creates a workforce that reflects the broader society of different backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and identities. - In toxic work cultures, where employees feel the pressure to over-perform, there are cases of micromanagement, lack of recognition, and bullying. It’s up to the senior leadership team or the C-suite to set a healthy, supportive, and positive work culture in order to get the best work out of staff. But why are we talking about work culture in an article related to customer-centric strategies? As a customer success leader, you not only have influence over the day-to-day work culture that affects your employees – that's a given. You’re in a unique position to be able to impact the lives of your customers too – whether that figure's in the thousands, millions, or billions. ### **Why is a customer-centric work culture important?** As a customer success professional, your natural propensity is to focus on the customers themselves. But not every function within your business will necessarily be constantly thinking of the customer. In some companies, the big drive is the product itself, or perhaps the number of sales made. A company could be community-led (much like a little-known customer success community 👀). When you put your customer at the forefront of every business decision, in every department – regardless of KPIs and responsibilities – then the customer's own eventual success becomes an increasingly realistic prospect. If you can make customer-centricity and empathy an integral part of your company’s culture, it can really give your organization an edge in terms of customer conversion and retention. ## **The importance of every customer interaction** Customer interactions play a pivotal role in delivering exceptional service and building strong relationships with your customers. Each interaction provides an opportunity to create a positive impression, address customer needs, and exceed their expectations. When your employees understand the significance of these interactions and are empowered to provide outstanding service, it can have a profound impact on overall customer satisfaction and loyalty. Senior customer success leaders have a crucial role to play in building a customer-centric culture that emphasizes the importance of each customer interaction. How? By setting the right example and establishing clear expectations, they can inspire their teams to prioritize customer satisfaction and go above and beyond to meet customer needs. ### **Understanding the value of each customer interaction** It might sound trite, but it's worth noting for clarity: Most companies will agree with this, but whether its culture reflects the gravitas of this realization is another matter entirely. Whether it's a simple inquiry, a support request, or a strategic conversation, there’s no escaping from the fact that every single touchpoint contributes to the overall customer experience. Recognizing the impact of these interactions is essential for cultivating a culture that values customer-centricity. By understanding the value of each interaction, you can emphasize the importance of delivering exceptional service at every opportunity. This mindset should permeate throughout the entire organization, from the leadership team to frontline employees. ### **Identifying touchpoints throughout the customer journey and their significance** To truly build a customer-centric culture, it's important to identify the key touchpoints throughout the customer journey and understand their magnitude. From the first point of contact to post-purchase support, each one of these touchpoints presents a unique opportunity to engage with the customer and deliver the value that was promised pre-conversion. When you pinpoint these critical touchpoints, your employees will be made aware of the moments that matter most to customers. This knowledge enables you to tailor your interactions, provide personalized experiences, and demonstrate a deeper understanding of your customers’ needs. ### **Utilizing data and analytics to measure and evaluate the quality of customer interactions** Your customers won’t realize value and your department won’t be a revenue driver without marrying the two pillars of customer success. Just like PB and J are a match made in sandwich heaven, so are empathy and data to customer success. No matter how you cut it, data and analytics play a *huge* role in building a customer-centric culture. By leveraging your customers’ data, you can gain insights into the quality of interactions, identify areas for improvement and feed this information back to your product development team. There are some key metrics you can start adopting, such as customer satisfaction scores, response times, and resolution rates, which can provide invaluable feedback on the effectiveness of customer interactions. It’s worth pausing here to note that while having this data is just one part of the game – acting on it via analysis is the most important part. When you analyze this data, it allows you to measure the success of your customer-centric initiatives and make data-driven decisions to enhance the customer experience. Regular evaluation of customer interactions enables you to identify patterns, trends, and areas of excellence, which can be used to shape training programs, refine processes, and continuously improve service delivery. ## **Four ways you can build a customer-centric culture** ### **1\. Define a clear vision and mission centered around customer satisfaction** To build a customer-centric culture, it’s essential to define a clear vision and mission that revolves around customer satisfaction. This vision should be communicated throughout the organization, emphasizing the importance of putting the customer at the forefront of every decision and action. A customer-centric vision provides a shared purpose and direction, aligning employees around a common goal. It sets the tone for the organization's culture and serves as a guiding principle for decision-making at all levels. ### **2\. Communicate the importance of customer-centricity to the entire organization** This one will never get old: effective communication is key to fostering a customer-centric culture. It’s *essential* to clearly articulate the importance of customer-centricity to every member of the organization. This communication should emphasize how each employee contributes to the customer experience and how their efforts directly impact customer satisfaction and loyalty. Leaders should regularly communicate the organization's commitment to customer-centricity, share success stories, and highlight the positive outcomes that result from prioritizing the customer. This constant reinforcement helps create a shared understanding and reinforces the significance of customer interactions. ### **3\. Encouraging cross-functional collaboration and knowledge sharing** Michael Jordan once famously noted that "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships." And he’s not wrong. 🏀 Collaboration and teamwork are an organization’s magic formula for success. When departments work together, share knowledge and break away from the silos that can unfortunately start to form, they can provide a seamless and consistent experience for customers. Your best jumping-off point to get your employees to fully grasp the significance of customer-centricity is by showing the value of what each other department does. This way, they’ll have a well-formed understanding of each customer interaction your company has. When pooling together insights, statistics and notes, employees can leverage their collective expertise and insights to better understand customer needs and address challenges effectively. ### **4\. Aligning internal processes to support a customer-focused approach** This one might be best addressed to your operations team, but building a customer-centric culture requires aligning internal processes and policies to support a customer-focused approach. This can seem mundane, but it’s integral to long-lasting, systemic change. It can involve reviewing existing practices and identifying areas where changes can be made to enhance the customer experience. By streamlining your internal processes and removing unnecessary archaic barriers, you improve service delivery and set your employees up to make decisions that’ll benefit the customer tenfold. ## **Empowering employees to embody customer-centric values** The term “empower” gets thrown around a lot these days, but what does it really mean? We’re of the belief that empowerment means providing someone with the confidence and authority to carry out a task. If you’re in the business to make your company customer-centric, you won’t stand a chance if your employees aren’t onboard and, perhaps more pressingly, have the right infrastructure to enact this ethos. Empowering employees starts with hiring and training individuals who align with the organization's customer-centric values. During the hiring process, look for candidates who demonstrate empathy, excellent communication skills, and a genuine passion for delivering exceptional service. Once hired, provide comprehensive training programs that focus not only on product knowledge but also on vital skills, such as active listening, problem-solving, and empathy. This investment in employee development sets the foundation for a customer-centric culture. ### **Providing ongoing training and professional development opportunities** Empowerment is an ongoing process that requires continuous learning and development. Provide employees with **regular training sessions** and **professional development opportunities** to enhance their skills and keep them updated on industry trends and best practices. Encourage employees to seek feedback, participate in workshops and conferences, and pursue relevant certifications. By investing in their growth, you empower them to provide exceptional service and develop as customer success professionals. 🎪 Leadership is the cornerstone of success in the C-suite. Are **you*ready to take your executive skills to the next level? Enter ****the** [****C-Suite Masterclass certification**](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?ref=customersuccesscollective.com). From developing your leadership abilities to understanding the unique challenges faced by C-level executives, you'll gain the knowledge you need to drive results, inspire teams, and achieve your career aspirations. [Learn today. Lead tomorrow](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?ref=customersuccesscollective.com) ### **Encouraging autonomy and decision-making authority at all levels** Empowering employees means granting them the autonomy and decision-making authority to serve customers effectively. Trust your employees to make decisions aligned with the organization's values and provide them with the necessary support and resources to do so. By empowering employees to take ownership of customer interactions and make decisions that benefit the customer, you foster a sense of ownership and accountability. This autonomy leads to increased employee satisfaction and enables them to deliver personalized and impactful experiences. ### **Recognizing and rewarding exceptional customer service efforts** Recognition and rewards are powerful tools for reinforcing a customer-centric culture. When you acknowledge and celebrate employees who consistently go above and beyond to deliver exceptional service and are responsible for outstanding customer interactions, you foster a culture of excellence that inspires others to follow suit. Whether this is through peer nominations, customer feedback, or performance metrics, a great way to empower your employees is by publicly recognizing these employees and rewarding their efforts. ### **Creating the right systems** Implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) system to track interactions To effectively manage and track customer interactions, implement a robust CRM system and you’ll be laughing your way down Retention Road (population: your CS team 😉). You’ll know that a CRM provides a centralized platform to record and analyze customer interactions, ensuring that no valuable information slips through the cracks. But a powerful CRM system that works with your business model and size will allow your employees to access customer data, history, and preferences, and provide them with the ability to personalize all customer interactions and provide proactive support. It also facilitates collaboration among teams, allowing for a seamless handoff of information and ensuring continuity in the customer experience ### **Utilizing technology for customer feedback and sentiment analysis** Technology can play a significant role in gathering customer feedback and sentiment analysis. Implement tools and platforms that enable customers to provide feedback easily, such as surveys, online reviews, and social media listening. Leverage sentiment analysis tools to monitor customer sentiment and identify areas where improvements can be made. These insights help you understand customer perceptions and make data-driven decisions to enhance the customer experience. ### **Providing employees with access to relevant customer information and insights** Empower your employees with access to relevant customer information and insights. This can include data on customer preferences, previous interactions, and any specific needs or challenges they may have encountered. By equipping employees with this information, you enable them to provide personalized and proactive support, anticipating customer needs and exceeding expectations. Access to customer insights empowers employees to deliver tailored solutions that drive customer success. ## **Measuring success and continuous improvement** ### **Establish KPIs to measure customer satisfaction and service quality** Measuring success in a customer-centric culture requires establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) that focus on customer satisfaction and service quality. These KPIs can include metrics such as customer satisfaction scores, net promoter score (NPS), customer retention rate, and customer lifetime value. Regularly monitor and evaluate these metrics to assess the impact of customer interactions and the effectiveness of your customer-centric initiatives. Use the data to identify areas for improvement and set goals to drive continuous enhancement of the customer experience. ### **Gathering customer feedback** Direct customer feedback is invaluable for understanding their needs, preferences, and satisfaction levels. Implement surveys, conduct interviews, and leverage social listening tools to gather feedback from your customers. Encourage customers to share their thoughts and suggestions, and actively listen to their feedback. Analyze the feedback to identify trends, pain points, and areas of improvement. This customer-centric approach ensures that you are continuously aligned with their needs and expectations. Analyzing customer data, feedback and customer interactions via metrics will identify areas for improvement, allow you to implement necessary changes and gain insights into the customer experience. What’s more, you’ll ensure your organization is consistently evolving to meet customer needs. ## **Overcoming challenges and roadblocks** When you’re beginning to implement a customer-centric culture, you may face resistance from employees who’ve become accustomed to existing practices or are perhaps reluctant to change. This is natural, and a very common theme in change management. You can overcome this resistance by fostering a customer-centric mindset through communication, training, and leading by example. When you’ve got employees who are taking more persuading to come round to these new systems, try to emphasize the benefits of a customer-centric approach, such as improved customer satisfaction, increased loyalty, and business growth. You can support these employees by offering resources to help them adapt to new ways of working and create a supportive environment that encourages experimentation and learning. ### **Resource constraints and budget limitations** Unfortunately, like many other aspects of life, lack of money can be a real blocker for realizing your goals. And in businesses, resource constraints and budget limitations can present challenges in building the customer-centric culture of your dreams. But it’s not all doom and gloom! You can harness creativity and prioritization to overcome these pesky financial obstacles. One way to get around a less-than-ideal budget is to proactively identify cost-effective initiatives that’ll have a significant impact on the customer experience. After all, *you*, the CS leader, are most in-tune with the customer’s thoughts and desires. *You* know what they’re after. Let the rest of the C-suite know that. You can focus on training and development programs that empower employees to provide exceptional service without requiring substantial financial investments. Seek opportunities to leverage technology and automation to streamline processes and maximize efficiency. ## **Okay, let’s wrap things up** Delivering exceptional service through every single customer interaction is a central tenet of any successful business. But building a customer-centric culture can only be achieved if your whole company is behind this ethos. By recognizing the value of each customer interaction, identifying key touchpoints, and leveraging data and analytics, organizations can continuously improve the quality of customer interactions. As a CS leader, you have your ear to the ground of every post-sales interaction. You live and breathe helping your customers, by understanding their feedback and walking them through your product’s uses. It’s therefore integral that customer success leaders can define a clear vision and mission centered around customer satisfaction, aligning internal processes and policies, and empowering employees through hiring, training, autonomy, and recognition. By utilizing the right systems and measuring success, organizations can overcome challenges, continuously improve, and provide exceptional service that drives customer success. We’ve said it once, but we’ll say it again. We’ll say it until the cows come home: > **Through customer-centricity, organizations can foster strong relationships, inspire customer loyalty, and differentiate themselves in today's competitive landscape. Empower your employees and they’ll take care of your customers.** [![](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/size/w1000/2023/06/q-ybL2TK.png)](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=banner&utm%5Fcampaign=content-) ## **Secure your seat at the big table.** So much of your time is spent grafting to make your customers realize value, why not invest the same in yourself? Whether you’re a Director or VP of Customer Success, the **C-suite Masterclass** is your answer to professional progression. If you’re serious about taking your career to lofty heights, this certification will certainly help expedite your career by offering you strategies, insights, and skills necessary to take a seat at the big table. [Join the C-suite at your company!](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=banner&utm%5Fcampaign=content-) ### Frontier man: Navigating the ever-changing landscape of the SaaS industry URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/frontier-man-navigating-the-ever-changing-landscape-of-the-saas-industry/ Last updated: 2023-10-16T10:39:39.000Z The title of entrepreneur is a relatively vague one, encompassing a broad range of professions, interests, skills and journeys. As entrepreneurs, we embody many roles – thinker, investor, creator, advisor, mentor, and so on. As a result, it's fitting that the industries we find ourselves in rapidly evolve alongside us. Take for example, the SaaS sector, which has experienced unprecedented levels of growth over the past seven years and is projected to be valued at over $195.2 billion by the end of 2023\. [5 reasons why the future is SaaSIt’s no secret that we’re in the middle of a SaaS revolution. Okay, so you might think we’re a little biased, but according to Gartner, the industry is set to be worth $171.19B by the end of 2022.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSRebecca Stewart![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/the-future-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-is-saas-5-reasons-why/) ## Beginning: A problem solver Let’s take a moment to consider how we can maintain the course in an industry that changes like the weather, all the while embracing and inventing the next big thing. I've always held the philosophy that you should strive to be the solution to your problems, and not just wait for someone else to fix them for you. This is how I found myself pioneering innovations in the SaaS sector. When I first started, I was working at car manufacturing company Porsche, as part of the data analytics team. It struck me that, despite the advancements I saw all around me, and the cutting-edge technology available at that time, I was having serious trouble communicating with my co-workers. Frontline and deskless workers largely operate in an analogue fashion and therefore regular updates and the sharing of relevant information became a tedious and often inefficient process. The mid-to-late noughties was a decade of digital revolution, yet somehow, deskless employees were pushed to the wayside, to the extent that the 80% of non-computer-based employees had only 1% of the world’s software designed with them in mind. [SaaS Tools of Choice 2023Download the report and get access to the ultimate guide to tools and tech, each one endorsed by the game-changers shaping the world of SaaS.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/FoSaaS_Tools_of_Choice_Report_2023_Blog2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2023/) Having considered the situation, I recognized I had an opportunity to solve an issue plaguing both the industry and myself since the digital revolution first began. Before long, I was spending my evenings and weekends designing, developing, coding and testing a platform for disenfranchised frontline workers. Beginning by working on the first prototype, I ended up rewriting it four times before I was content with the quality of the application. After six months, I brought the finalized version to Porsche and in December 2018, Flip was born as a company, with Porsche onboarding as our very first client. [Customer onboarding 101For freemium models adopted by a growing number of SaaS companies, onboarding is the frontline in the battle for the upsell.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/erwan-hesry-aMjeTdCVRNE-unsplash--1---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-onboarding-101/) ## Utilizing mentorship Throughout this time, I and my co-founder Giacomo were aided by a steady stream of mentors, who were instrumental in guiding us through what can often be a very difficult period. When you decide to embark upon any new venture, it can be wrought with anxieties and challenges that seem insurmountable, but with the right people supporting you, what you find is: The business model was founded on the wisdom of others. For this reason, I often take part in mentorship programmes, particularly in my native Germany, to give others the stability Giacomo and I received in the early days of our startup. The point I am highlighting here is that you can have an idea like ours, unique in the SaaS sphere, with the potential to advance the industry, but you'll always need the guidance of the entrepreneurs who came before you. [What I’ve Learned From Mentoring 100 StartupsWhile the journey of each startup is truly unique and can not be compared to one, I couldn’t help myself from seeing very interesting patterns.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFarokh Shahabi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-ive-learned-from-mentoring-100-startups/) Similarly, if you have the opportunity to help others benefit from your newfound confidence and expertise, then you should do so. None of us would get to where we are without the backing of the people who believe in our ideas and vision for the future. As entrepreneurs, we must never forget this. Of course, it’s never all plain sailing, and you have to prepare yourself for the trials and tribulations that will undoubtedly arise. One of our first obstacles stemmed from one of our initial successes. Early in our journey, we lost Porsche as a client, but instead of giving up, we went back to the drawing board, slightly rejigged our offering, and won them back as a client within six short months. The SaaS industry can be a difficult sector to innovate within as the technology is always advancing, and the goalposts are constantly moving. As we did with Porsche, it's important sometimes to take a step back, identify what is no longer working, and modify where necessary. [Launch a showstopping SaaS with these 6 examples of a minimum viable productYour product never stops evolving, the MVP is just the first to step in that process. Take the first step to launching an amazing product with a showstopping MVP.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/MVP.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/launch-a-showstopping-saas-with-these-6-examples-of-a-minimum-viable-product/) If I could give one piece of advice to entrepreneurs beginning their journey, it would be this…be brave, smartly innovate and don’t blinker yourself by refusing to adapt. It's important to note that Porsche remains our client to this day, so even failure can present an opportunity to exceed your own expectations, and ultimately outdo yourself. When I look to the future of the SaaS industry, I think the core focus should be on the inclusion of everyone, not just desk-based employees. COVID-19 made clear the need for organised, skilled and efficient frontline workers, as huge percentages of companies closed down, and the floor staff essentially kept the world running. [The Future of SaaS ReportWith the Future of SaaS Report 2022, we forecast the game-changing trends set to take the SaaS sector by storm in 2023 and beyond, as well as arming you with crucial insights on how to successfully implement them into your growth strategy, straight from some of the leading minds in SaaS.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/FoSaaS_Future_of_SaaS_Report_2022_Blog_2.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-report-2/) Despite this, however, innovations for deskless workers have still not been prioritised. Even to this day, a significant portion of the world's in-office employees work from home and still, the vast majority of software is centred around their professional needs. ## Looking to the Future of SaaS The world of entrepreneurship and SaaS are deeply intertwined and the journey, traversing both, has been a whirlwind, with glorious successes and opportunistic challenges. My advice to others operating within this sphere, is to make the most of it. Believe in your ideas, accept support, be brave, be smart, be adaptable and above all, be adventurous. I sometimes worry that the day will come when I have achieved all of my professional goals, because where do you go from there? High expectations and personal ambitions are very important to me and that is how I feel about Flip and its potential to change how deskless workers engage with corporations, both personally and professionally. --- Like what you see? Learn from the successes of some of the greatest minds in SaaS in our extensive library of exclusive content. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How to get buy-in from key stakeholders by bringing personas to life URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-get-buy-in-from-key-stakeholders-by-bringing-personas-to-life/ Last updated: 2024-11-13T13:00:58.000Z Hello, everyone! I'm Igor Kranjčec, the Head of Marketing at Determ, and today I'm excited to talk about the importance of bringing [personas](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-personas-to-enhance-user-experience/) to life to gain internal buy-in from key stakeholders. As one of the foundational pillars of product marketing, [personas ](https://www.saasalliance.io/take-your-personas-to-the-next-level-get-persona-certified/)hold a special place in my heart. They're essential for any company looking to understand its customers better and drive growth, especially in the B2B SaaS sector. ## **The problem with personas** Here’s a mind-blowing statistic for you: 90% of [product marketers](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing/) say they can’t make other departments use the personas they’ve worked so hard to build. Full disclosure: that 90% is based on the PMMs I’ve met – it's not an official statistic, but it's telling nonetheless. As for the other 10%, I’m pretty sure they’re lying! This challenge was a hot topic at the Product Marketing Summit last year in Amsterdam. Between sessions, the conversation often circled back to the critical question: How do we get stakeholders to own and use these personas, especially when they're designed to make their jobs easier? Here are some sentiments I've heard from other PMMs: “I poured so much effort into these personas, and it’s the sales team’s fault they don’t use them.” [The Power and Impact of product marketingTamara Grominsky, Chief Strategy Officer at Unbounce, outlines a dynamic strategy for building an awesome product marketing team.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSTamara Grominsky![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/teams.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing/) “I worked tirelessly on these personas, and sales doesn't even know they exist.” Cry me a river. That may sound harsh, but my point is that as PMMs, given the cross-functional nature of our role, we must ensure our work has the desired impact on other departments. It's not just about crafting the personas; it's about making them stick. We need to be proactive, ensuring every department recognizes the value of the tools we create. ## **Why personas fail** So, what does the creation of buyer personas usually look like? I liken it to a play with four acts: - **Act one:** We conduct a bunch of interviews, collect data, and feel both elated and overwhelmed by the amount of data we've gathered. - **Act two:** We use this data to craft our personas. - **Act three:** We release these personas into the wild, filled with hope. - **Act four:** We watch our personas fail as nobody uses them. It's perplexing. We've invested time, resources, and a whole lot of pride into these personas. So why, after their initial introduction, do they end up gathering dust? In many cases, the rollout of these personas might be the reason for their failure. We often send out an email that goes something like, "Hey product, sales, and [customer success](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) teams – we've got new personas. Check them out on our shared drive. You can use them for X, Y, and Z. We're really proud of them!" In the best-case scenario, there might be a brief presentation to the [sales](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-the-rules-of-engagement/) team where we introduce these personas and then send them off with a, “Now, go ahead and sell to them!” But is that really the best we can do? In my last three companies, I fell into a common trap. We'd send out an email announcing our newly created personas, pat ourselves on the back, and consider it a job well done. [Take your personas to the next level. Get persona certifiedWhether you’re a persona first-timer or veteran, B2B or B2C, this course is packed with the practical tips, real-life case studies, and expert advice you need to create, use, and roll out game-changing personas.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/persona-master-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/take-your-personas-to-the-next-level-get-persona-certified/) Our superiors would be pleased, management would be impressed, and everyone would think, "Look at all this material – surely nothing can go wrong now!" However, when it came time to survey the sales team on their confidence in using the assets we’d provided, personas wouldn’t even get a mention. This wasn't unique to personas; it was the case in many projects where the rollout was simply a “Here you go, we’ve done it; now use it.” ## **How do you know when your personas are done?** When I joined Determ, I consulted with my PMMs about how we should define a completed persona project. At first, the definition was, “The persona project is done when the persona profiles are finished.” But is that really the full picture? I reached out to my network in LinkedIn, and got a range of responses. Some considered the project done once the profiles were finished. Others considered it done once the profiles were finished and everyone had been informed – this is similar to the scenario I mentioned earlier, where ideally there's a presentation to the sales team rather than just an email or Slack notification. However, there's a third, more comprehensive definition of “done,” one that I apply to many large-scale projects: In my view, a persona project is only truly complete when the profiles are not just finished but also *implemented*. By “implemented,” I mean you've demonstrated the value of these personas to your company. It's not enough to just tell them about the personas; you need to instruct them on how to use them, explain why they matter, and show how these personas can aid their roles. ## **The keys to successful persona implementation** Drawing from my experience at Determ, I've identified two fundamental principles for successful persona implementation: 1. Show value every step of the way. 2. Repeat, repeat, repeat! Just as with product adoption, you can't introduce something once and expect it to stick. Repetition, combined with clear value demonstration, is key. One effective strategy? Make personas a pivotal part of the new employee onboarding process. At Determ, every new recruit, whether they're in [finance](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-finance/), product, sales, or marketing, undergoes a persona presentation. It’s essential for everyone to understand who we’re selling to, building for, and servicing. A mistake I've made in the past is giving persona presentations to each team separately – one presentation for engineering, another for product, a separate one for sales, and so forth. [How do we engage key stakeholders in cross-functional collaboration?Here’s how to ensure seamless collaboration between teams, so you can smash through those silos and skyrocket your organization to success!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/pexels-huy-chien-tran-1756665.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) If our goal is cross-functional collaboration, our approach should mirror that. Instead of separating these teams, we should let them play with and learn from the personas together. Lastly, and crucially, it's vital to keep the personas current. Outdated content quickly becomes irrelevant. If your persona documentation isn't refreshed regularly, even the most enthusiastic adopters will drift away once they start noticing outdated or inaccurate information. After all, relevance is the key to utility. ## **How to bring personas to life with workshops** Now I’m going to delve into how you can effectively present personas to help other teams make them an integral part of their everyday jobs. You might think that this involves a standard PowerPoint presentation, going slide by slide, explaining each persona. However, in my experience, that's not the most effective route. Instead, we’ve seen huge success by showcasing our personas’ value through interactive workshops. These aren't your average workshops. Originally, I planned three-hour sessions, but it turned out we needed a good four hours to do justice to the topic. Depending on the size of your company, it's best to limit each workshop to no more than 30 participants. If you've got a larger crowd, don't sweat it. Simply hold multiple sessions. The goal of these workshops is to help everyone to understand why personas are so important. [How to use personas to enhance user experienceA well-defined user persona can unlock all kinds of valuable information when it comes to user experience and product performance, and in this article, we’ll explain how.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/joshua-earle-AZzfPBQA1Bk-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-personas-to-enhance-user-experience/) It's essential for everyone to grasp why investing two months into a project and conducting so many interviews with industry folks is crucial. Personas, after all, are foundational to any business, whether you’re in sales or product development. A small heads-up: Don't be disheartened if most attendees don’t initially want to participate in your workshops. Many will view this as just more marketing mumbo-jumbo, and your challenge is to change that perception. The workshop should be crisp, direct, and underscore value at every turn. Ensure participants know that they don't need to come prepared, but attendance is non-negotiable. While I've tried hosting these workshops online, in-person sessions are undeniably more impactful. For remote teams, you’ll need to make some major tweaks to maintain engagement levels. ### **The workshop agenda** So, what’s on the workshop agenda? Keep it simple: - **The energizer:** This helps shift participants’ focus from their daily tasks to the task at hand. - **The task:** I’ll dive into this in a second - **The presentation:** This is where teams present how they executed the task - **The summary:** Wrap up with a collective discussion, reviewing and drawing conclusions from the workshop's activities. Although this format might sound overly simplistic, trust me, it’s surprisingly effective. Now, let’s take a closer look at what’s involved in each stage of the workshop ### **The energizer** Your energizer activity should take no more than 30 minutes. There’s a wealth of engaging games and activities available online, so find one that aligns with your company's culture. The aim is to put people in a good mood and set them up for the teamwork that’s about to follow We used the “Build a Bridge” game. Here’s how it works: Participants get a variety of materials with which to build a bridge that a small car can pass beneath. The twist? Teams must pre-plan their approach and construct their bridge in total silence, relying solely on non-verbal cues. This game isn't just entertaining; it also reveals team dynamics at play. Observing the participants, it's easy to spot the achievers and those with a competitive spirit. Most importantly, it helps harmonize the energy levels in the room. ### **The task** Once the energy levels are up, it’s time to dive into the main task. Here’s how you do it: - **Team formation:** Participants are divided into teams of four; each team member should be from a different department. - **Persona introduction:** Each team receives a unique persona printout. (We used the PMA template to create ours.) Our PMM then introduces the persona deck, ensuring everyone understands their assigned character. - **Sales pitch creation:** Armed with their personas, teams get an hour and a half to craft a five-slide sales pitch. It should incorporate a new feature announcement and an outbound outreach email. They can work on this anywhere they choose, even the bar down the street. All they have to do is designate a team leader, get the job done, and return for the presentation. ### **The presentation** It takes roughly an hour (though sometimes longer) for all the teams to share their new feature announcements, [sales pitches](https://www.saasalliance.io/shortening-salespeoples-time-to-confidence/), and emails. Here's where it gets interesting: a member of another team assumes the role of the targeted persona, acting out a sales call with the presenting team. This dynamic interaction brings the personas to life. Seeing repeated presentations allows for comparisons between the diverse approaches teams take. An unexpected bonus? Our salespeople often jot down fresh ideas to later incorporate into their pitches. ### **The summary** The session concludes with a crucial debriefing. The facilitator prompts teams to reflect on their learnings, surprises, and the workshop's overall value. Both positive feedback and concerns are welcomed. This can last about 30 minutes, although participants might be starting to feel the workshop's length by this point. Let's be clear about one thing: our approach isn't revolutionary or groundbreaking. We're not trying to reinvent the wheel, but our workshops have been transformative in driving the adoption of personas. People really got into our workshop model – so much so that we expanded its use to other pivotal projects, like new pricing rollouts. Why? Because this hands-on approach consistently fosters better adoption. It's not just about introducing new concepts and then moving on. It's about demonstrating value at every stage. ## **Repeat, repeat, repeat!** After a workshop, your work isn't done. It's essential to routinely revisit personas. For every new product or feature, ask, “Who is this for?” and “How does it address the persona's needs?” Our PMM actively participates in product planning sessions, ensuring these questions get addressed every single time. On the sales side, we hold quarterly enablement sessions rooted in these personas. We might replay the game I described earlier, craft new use cases, or do a bit of role-playing. If our persona deck gets an update, we might even do an ad hoc enablement session. Our mantra? Keep it current. An outdated persona is as good as irrelevant. ## **The story of personas, rewritten** Remember that four-act play about personas? It’s time to rewrite it. - **Act one:** We conduct a bunch of interviews, collect [data](https://www.saasalliance.io/leveraging-data-to-build-a-great-product/), and feel both elated and overwhelmed by the amount of data we've gathered. - **Act two:** We use this data to craft our personas. - **Act three:** We release these personas into the wild, train people to use them, demonstrate their value, and show people why they should care. - **Act four:** We watch our personas flourish as everybody uses them. Granted, it's an idealistic view. Not everyone will jump on board, and yes, there will be moments of disappointment, but these workshops have really helped us to get everyone on the same page and adopting our personas. ### How to build a culture that values customer interaction in product-led growth URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-values-in-your-product-led-growth-business/ Last updated: 2023-10-11T15:32:33.000Z In product-led growth (PLG), giving your customers value is the number one driver of growth and success. It all comes down to your business’s perception, and by building a solid relationship with users, you’re creating brand trust. Customers who trust a business are more likely to stick around and become long-term subscribers. So how do you prioritize [customer satisfaction](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-advisory-boards-and-feedback-loops-q-a-with-dropbox/), and how does that relate to product experience? ## **What is customer success in PLG?** A large part of customer success comes down to your organization's culture. When you empower your employees, you give them a sense of authority and autonomy to make the customer experience the best it can be. Think of it as giving your employees the right [tools](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2023/) to handle customer interactions quickly and smoothly. Now you have the building blocks of positive customer service. But, what are the specific ingredients to create a work culture that embraces positive customer interactions? Read on ahead, you customer guru. ## **Have clear expectations with goals and metrics** You want to make sure everyone in your company understands the value of good customer service. If people aren’t on the same page, goals can’t be aligned, and direction is immediately lost. You want to ensure you’ve effectively stated the company vision with measurable goals and [KPIs](https://www.saasalliance.io/okrs-for-saas-startups/) focusing on customer satisfaction. It’s important to lay out what you expect from your employees from the beginning. Changing desired outcomes often can give employees whiplash and make them feel directionless. Consistency creates boundaries people know to stay within, so be clear and stick to them. ## **Hire the right people** If you want employees who’ll treat your customers right, you need to find ones who align with your values. When [interviewing](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-your-product-management-role/), you want to scout for passionate, empathetic, and emotionally intelligent people. These are the people who will foster and embrace a [customer-centric](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-steps-to-building-a-customer-centric-culture/) culture. Ideally, you need the right temperament and communication style to handle customer interactions. These people should be able to take constructive criticism well and adapt to situations quickly, as you never know how customers will react. But don’t forget to nurture these people. Handling different personalities all day can be exhausting, and if you want your employees to thrive, you need to take care of them. That means providing them with the right environment to succeed, where their emotional needs are being addressed. ## **Train and empower employees** The [best employees](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/hiring-talent/) are the ones who are given the proper tools to handle any situation. You want to empower your people with the proper training and resources to deal with adversity should it come their way. Think proactivity. By empowering, you’re giving employees the ownership to make decisions based on their training that benefits the customer. Autonomy to act means employees don’t always have to escalate issues to higher management. They have the knowledge to deal with and satisfy customers or have the tools available if needed. Highly trained employees are also less likely to feel overwhelmed and will feel backed by their company. You’re investing in them and their continued development, which will, in turn, make them feel more supported, motivated, and valued. And that will increase happiness, which will then be passed on to the customer. [Improve employee retention and supercharge growth by hiring for the futureMalin Skoglkund, VP of Sales and Customer Success at Meltwater, has developed and promoted somewhere close to 100 customer success managers and directors throughout her career, and she’s here to tell you how.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMalin Skoglund![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/jacqueline-munguia-1pAwJiCD60c-unsplash-4-1.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/improve-employee-retention-and-supercharge-growth-by-hiring-for-the-future/) When employees are empowered with knowledge, they can pass that along to the customers. It’s a trickle-down effect and gives customers a sense of ease, knowing they’ll get the information they need. This fosters a positive relationship with the company, as the customer feels confident that, when they have a problem, they know who they can turn to for help. ## **Foster a customer-centric culture** If you want the best customer service experience, you must make sure your business has the fundamental shift to approach it. This goes beyond metrics and policies and taps into the company's ethos as a whole. Everyone needs to understand customers are priority number one. Without them, there is no audience to sell the product to, after all. Customer satisfaction drives business growth. So, how do you create that culture? A few ways. You can reward those who prioritize customer satisfaction either through bonuses or acknowledgment. It gives people a solid goal to strive towards. You can also celebrate customer success throughout the company, which creates a positive work environment. [5 steps to building a customer-centric cultureWhen signing up for your SaaS product, your customers are making a long-term investment. You’re hoping they’re gonna stick with your product for months, and preferably even years.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/feedback.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-steps-to-building-a-customer-centric-culture/) And you can focus on customer satisfaction metrics over others to drive your company’s compass in that direction. The name of the game is all about reinforcing customer value. So, find what works best for you and go for it! ## **Continuously improve** Customers need change, and you need to be on top of that. Employees are your first point of contact with the customer, so listen when employees share their feedback on improving things. The best way to do this is by personalization. Your goal is to adapt the customer experience based on customer preferences. Know how and when to engage with them and what they want. What are some ways to personalize? - Use customer surveys to get their opinion - Use past purchases to see their wants and needs - Make recommendations based on user profiles - Use customer journey mapping to understand issues and opportunities As your business grows, you might be able to identify new methods of offering customer service, as well as optimize wait times and responses to queries. You want to make your customers feel like they’re getting VIP treatment, which means constantly trying new things when the opportunity presents itself. Just keep a close look at the data to make sure something new is working for you and not against you. ## **Lead by example** Your employees look up to you, so set the right tone as the leader. Your actions towards customers should inspire as you lead by example. A great way to do this is for leaders to be accessible to customers. They want to know everyone in the business is working for their satisfaction. When leaders take accountability for customer issues, it's vital for employees to watch how they handle it. You’re responsible for making positive customer interactions a priority. Don’t let it slip. ## **Use data to drive decisions** Metrics are a great way to keep your company focused on the customer journey. Not only does it allow you to understand customer behavior, how to fix their pain points, and what they like, it shows you how to improve your customer experience if something is lacking. We’re all about continued improvement here. So, what are some great KPIs to measure customer success? Here are a few you should always be checking on. **Customer retention rate (CRR)** CRR is a crucial metric for gauging loyalty and the effectiveness of your business strategy. CRR is the number of customers who continue to do business with you over time. Retaining existing customers is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones, and a 5% increase in CRR can lead to an ROI increase of 25% or more. And, since happy customers are more likely to refer your services to others, you’re essentially getting free marketing for your business. [SaaS metricsIt goes without saying that Saas orgs want to grow and scale, right? Whether you’re a hot new startup, mid-growth, or a late-growth established brand, all SaaS orgs want their revenue to skyrocket.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_metrics.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics/) **Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)** CSAT measures overall customer satisfaction through surveys or feedback, often using a scale of 1-10 or emojis. CSAT provides quantitative data for qualitative feedback and can help identify areas for improvement. Surveys can be delivered through websites, email campaigns, or in-store kiosks, but timing is crucial to avoid oversaturating customers and to ensure their voices are heard. **Net Promoter Score (NPS)** NPS measures customer loyalty and satisfaction through surveys asking how likely a customer is to recommend a product, usually on a scale of 1-10\. Specific follow-up questions about demographics and product quality can provide tailored data to improve your NPS. A high NPS can predict company growth through positive word-of-mouth advertising, and calculating NPS only requires survey software, well-crafted questions, and an irresistible product. ### **Conclusion** Customer interactions should be a positive experience that employees are well equipped to handle. It’s a top-down approach, where leadership offers the goals, mindsets, and training for employees to thrive in customer service. So, once you’ve made sure you’ve hired the right people and you’ve given them the space to flourish, keep nourishing that culture. It’ll only continue to pay off. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/C-Suite_Ghost_Banner_Assets_--1-.png)](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=banner&utm%5Fcampaign=content-) While you're here, get the **C-Suite Masterclass** now. Get the help of leading experts and access to our Alliance frameworks and case studies. With this comprehensive masterclass, you'll get the strategies, insights, and skills you need to thrive in the upper echelons of business. [Find out more here!](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=banner&utm%5Fcampaign=content-) ### Top 10 customer retention software choices for effective, sustainable growth URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/top-10-customer-retention-software-choices-for-effective-sustainable-growth/ Last updated: 2023-10-11T14:42:32.000Z Customer retention is arguably one of the most important factors in achieving consistent, [sustainable growth](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-building-a-sustainable-growth-engine/) for your products or services. But that doesn’t stop new startups who understandably want to scale quickly making customer acquisition their main priority. But hot tip: According to Forbes, chasing new customer conversions is four to five times more expensive than customer retention. So, if you’re looking to scale sustainably as well as effectively – and you should be if you don’t want your org to be a flash in the pan – you need to get your [customer retention](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-winning-customer-retention-strategies-for-your-b2b-saas-org/) game to the next level. [SaaS Tools of Choice 2023Download the report and get access to the ultimate guide to tools and tech, each one endorsed by the game-changers shaping the world of SaaS.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/FoSaaS_Tools_of_Choice_Report_2023_Blog2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2023/) Simply put: your [retention rates](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) need to rival or surpass your customer acquisition rates. But how can you do that without the right tools? There’s a whole host to choose from, but before you make an investment, you need to know what type of customer retention software suits your org. That’s right, there are actually many different types. But we’ve got you covered. We’re breaking them down right here. But first let’s take a quick refresher on what customer retention software is and the real benefits. ## What is customer retention software? Unlock vital customer insights with retention software to swiftly address pain points. By tracking customer data and satisfaction metrics, you can pinpoint successful strategies and replicate them for future interactions. In a nutshell: customer retention software allows you not only to address customer pain points in a timely fashion, but also inform the solutions with sound data. [Customer retention metrics and how to action themHow do successful SaaS organizations measure retention and what on earth do they with the results, I hear you cry? Well, we surveyed 100 SaaS pros to find out how they track, review and utilize retention and churn metrics, and here are the results.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/jakob-owens-CiUR8zISX60-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) ### What technology does customer retention software use? You can boost customer loyalty and satisfaction through the cutting-edge technology that customer retention software offers, harnessing AI, live chat, and data analytics to deliver personalized, engaging experiences that keep 'em coming back for more. ### What technology is used for customer retention software We'll dig into this in more detail later in the article, but if you're pressed for time, here's a TLDR version: [How is email marketing important to improving customer retention?Despite the rising competition from social media, email marketing continues to be one of the most effective tools for B2B marketing. It’s great for product awareness and generating new leads, but also for boosting customer retention.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/brett-jordan-LPZy4da9aRo-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-is-email-marketing-important-to-improving-customer-retention/) **Email campaigns** Get personal with your emails using CRM magic. Segment customers based on their data, and you'll serve up promos that hit the bullseye, driving engagement and repeat sales." **Customer satisfaction surveys** Turn those surveys into customer satisfaction gold. Get the feedback you need to boost the customer experience and keep them coming back for more." **Social Media Responses** Swiftly respond to customer queries, squash concerns, and ride high on positive feedback to build lasting relationships and fanatical brand loyalty. [How can you boost customer advocacy through social media listening?Dreaming of a loyal customer fanbase that provides free marketing? Welcome to the endless possibilities of social media listening!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/how-can-you-boost-customer-advocacy-through-social-media-listening.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-can-you-boost-customer-advocacy-through-social-media-listening/) **Customer segmentation** Say goodbye to one-size-fits-all. CRM lets you tailor your messages to specific customer groups, guaranteeing personalized communication that seals the deal on customer loyalty and repeat business. **Personalized offers and promotions** Unleash the power of customer data with CRM. Create irresistible, tailor-made deals that keep your customers hooked and coming back for more. **Regular order updates and product launches** Stay on the customer's radar. Automate order status updates and product launch notifications, and watch satisfaction and loyalty levels soar. **Manage customer support follow-ups** Get customer support on lockdown. Track inquiries, follow up in a flash, and resolve issues like a pro, all in the name of happier customers who stick around. ## **Why do you need customer retention software?** ### **1\. It makes loyal champions** Customer retention tools are like your business's secret sauce for keeping customers happy. They make it a breeze for your customers to find answers to their questions, and they simplify everyday tasks like reporting issues, upgrading accounts, and getting in touch with support. They make customer interactions effortless and allow SaaS professionals to come armed with crucial information to help the customer. With these tools on your side, your customers are not only more likely to stick around, but they'll also be singing your praises to all their friends and coworkers. [SaaScast: Turning customers into advocatesSo, you have really loyal customers? That’s great. But are you making those testimonials sing for your SaaS business? In other words, are you turning your customers into fierce champions for your organization?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Ryan-O-Connell-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-turning-customers-into-advocates/) And it goes without saying that honest testimonials are a superb way to strengthen retention and boost acquisition. In a time when modern consumers are savvy to traditional marketing tactics, your existing customers are a great tool for showcasing your product’s virtues authentically. ### **2\. Tackle customer queries without a hitch** With customer retention tools in your toolkit, you can: - Swiftly respond to customer questions with valuable resources, pricing details, links, and white papers—no sweat! - Set up follow-ups with product experts with ease. - Seamlessly transfer customer tickets between different support teams. - Tempt potential customers with discounts and free trials to supercharge their conversion rates. Gone are the days of tedious manual tasks throughout the sales process and post-conversion. Customer retention platforms allow you to automate a significant chunk of your customer relationship workflow, freeing you up to focus on delivering unique resources and guiding those important conversations. [The best types of customer retention programs and how they could help your B2B BrandGaining new clients is only the first step to having a successful customer base. It is just as important, if not more, that you are focusing on your current customers and have strategies put in place to make them want to stay with you and continue to purchase your product/service.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/priscilla-du-preez-OEdkPaxYMXU-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-best-types-of-customer-retention-programs-and-how-they-could-help-your-b2b-brand/) When you’re able to tackle a wider array of customer complaints this easily, you’re also able to drastically reduce churn, as you can automate handling of more fundamental problems, meaning your staff can put their brain power into solving the really tricky issues. ### **3\. A godsend for marketing and sales** Customer retention tools are your secret weapon for laser-focused marketing and sales campaigns. They work their magic by sorting your users into groups based on shared traits like company size, pricing tier, location, role, and more. This smart segmentation lets you serve up exactly what they need—whether it's valuable resources, personalized content recommendations, or instant solutions to their pain points. It's like having a tailor-made approach for each group in your audience. [Bridging the gap between sales & marketingSaleswhale’s Catherine Farley, Director of Marketing, and Brandon Gargan, Director of Sales, discuss bridging the gap between the two, common reasons for misalignment, and the nature of the relationship between the teams at Saleswhale.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/sonja-guina-fbjSCmE5iDI-unsplash-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/bridging-the-gap-between-sales-marketing/) ### **4\. Solve customer pain points** Customer retention tools pack a punch when it comes to anticipating your customers' needs. They come equipped with pre-built tools, resources, and help centers to tackle customer questions head-on. These tools can also work their magic by delivering helpful product docs right to your users' dashboards and shining a spotlight on those nifty resources your customers might have missed. The goal here is to set up triggers that steer users in the right direction, empowering them to solve issues using self-help resources and lightening the load on your support team, leading to overall improved customer service. The goal is to be able to utilize technology to solve the more run-of-the-mill customer complaints so that your human staff can put more time and brainpower into solving more complex concerns. In a nutshell: let your software **automate** so you can **innovate.** ### **5\. Makes product analytics a breeze** Customer retention software isn't just about keeping customers happy; it can also be your ace in the hole for top-notch product analytics. It pulls double duty by monitoring your users' behaviors, noting their resource preferences, tracking their navigation through your app and website, and flagging any hiccups that might impact their user experience. [17 awesome analytics, measurement, and reporting tools for SaaS businessesTo help you get the most out of every digit, here are 17 number-crunching tools SaaS businesses are using to scale their offering.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/elena-rouame-9JU2CKqtw0M-unsplash--2-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/17-awesome-analytics-measurement-and-reporting-tools-for-saas-businesses/) The goal here is to have the most comprehensive overview of customer engagement patterns. There’s no use trying to up your analytics game when you can’t highlight the point in the onboarding process when customers are falling through the cracks. Software tools allow you to get super granular in your customer analytics, so that your troubleshooting is laser-focused. ## The 5 types of customer retention software ### **1\. Customer relationship management (CRM)** CRMs are indispensable tools for effectively engaging and retaining both customers and potential leads, particularly for larger enterprises that have outgrown the limitations of spreadsheet management. CRMs empower you by enabling automated actions like follow-ups, status updates, re-engagement through automated email threads, canned responses, and even the dishing out of discounts when specific preset criteria are fulfilled. They also excel in tracking customer tickets and more. ### **2\. Marketing automation** By harnessing the power of top-notch marketing automation tools, you can seamlessly sync with your martech stack. You can also: - Craft tailor-made experiences. - Group users for effortless personalization. - Scoop up feedback. - Whip up slick reports. - And seamlessly share insights between tools. …All without the hassle of coding or manual data transfers! ### **3\. Customer support software** Customer support software is essentially the engine room of your customer support operations. Pull a lever (figuratively) and manage your chatbot automation, view customer metrics, or pull through vital product information. ### **4\. Social media software** These days, social media is one of the principal methods for (continuously) connecting with peers. This demands consistent scheduling, and you have to be particular about when and where you post your content. With the sheer amount of content you need to gain traction, this can be a bit of a headache without tools. Enter social media software! Keep a hawk eye on your brand's mentions across your primary social channels, and swoop into action when your brand gets tagged or pops up in a conversation, or when you have something valuable to contribute. Keep tabs on your engagement rates, interact with users and followers, and, of course, sprinkle in some meme magic. ### **5\. Customer feedback software** No more guesswork! With modern tools at your disposal, you can bust out surveys and polls in a snap. With the likes of Pollfish, for example, you can get real-time feedback in the middle of your Slack and Zoom chats. And for a deep dive into your customers' vibes, check out Whatfix and Hotjar: They've got NPS surveys and a bunch of other nifty tricks up their sleeves. [Using customer feedback and win-loss interviews to improve your product | Future of SaaSCustomer feedback and win-loss interviews are among the most effective ways to gain a firm understanding of how your product has been received, and how you can make changes, where needed.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1517245386807-bb43f82c33c4?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDE1fHxpbnRlcnZpZXdzfGVufDB8fHw&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/using-customer-feedback-and-win-loss-interviews-to-improve-your-product/) ## **What key aspects do customer retention software have?** Now it’s time to dive deep into the nitty-gritty of what this software can do to take your customer retention strategy to the next level. ### **Lead tracking and management, simplified** Picture this: You've got a snazzy CRM or helpdesk SaaS in your corner. These snazzy customer retention tools make capturing, sorting, and sending leads to your marketing toolkit a piece of cake. So, imagine a potential lead chatting you up about your product. Bam! They're in your CRM. And when they give you the nod, you can send them some engaging emails. And if they take the plunge and sign up, you can: - Beef up their profile with all the details, - Track their chats with your team, - Smoothly pass the baton between SDRs and customer reps, - Set up reminders for follow-ups, - and even attach crucial files to their CRM profile. It's all about making lead handling a walk in the park. ### **Rocking your email and marketing campaigns** These tools are your go-to for snagging email addresses through landing pages, pop-ups, and more. Not to mention, they let you customize email content for users based on pricing, company size, niche, and favorite product features. Plus, you can spice up your emails with memes, dynamic content and other kinds of interactive content. It's all about keeping things fresh, engaging and showing your customers that you care about solving their problems, not just taking their money. ### **Customer support made easy** In current times, it’s not enough to simply react to customer concerns as and when they come in. Think all the customers having trouble finding the value moment in your product are going to be super vocal about it? Think again. Your users are busy. And they’re not always going to consult your customer support people before churning. So you need to ensure you're using the latest software to track customer behavior; that way, you can proactively offer solutions once you’ve anticipated their pain points. But what does that look like in practice? A Little like this: - Link up your customers with your support squad, anticipate their needs by suggesting relevant content - Seamlessly integrate valuable product documentation and resources right into your product's dashboard. - Consider using guided onboarding tools that provide step-by-step product tours. ### **Providing maximum integration** Imagine you're running a lead generation campaign for your SaaS. Typically, you'd ask prospects to reach out or share their emails for personalized follow-up. Customer retention tools take this to the next level. They smoothly integrate with your marketing and growth toolkit. You can gather email addresses from a landing page, send them over to Mailchimp for drip campaigns, update their status in Salesforce CRM when they opt-in, and even schedule meetings with your product experts. All without touching a single line of code. It's that easy! [How to build a more personalized digital consumer experienceIn this article, I’m going to show you how to create a more personalized experience for your customers. There are many different factors that go into this, but don’t worry, I’m going to break it down into a few easy-to-digest talking points![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJason Oates![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/lights.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-a-more-personalized-digital-consumer-experience/) ### **Ultimate customization** The perfect customer retention platform should be inherently no-code. This means both product engineers and marketers can effortlessly tweak it, rearrange layouts, link up third-party tools, and more—all without the need for coding. ## **Top customer retention software choices for SaaS growth** So, now that we’ve established some of the key benefits of customer retention software, it’s time to reveal the show-stopping software solutions that have proven invaluable for ensuring customers stick around. When it comes to software, there’s no one-size-fits-all. That’s why we’re giving you a comprehensive catalog of picks to choose from. So, without further delay, let’s get started. ### **Salesforce** ![Salesforce dashboard](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/10/Salesforce-CRM-1.png) Source: [Cargas](https://cargas.com/software/salesforce-crm/salesforce-crm-features/) Salesforce reigns supreme as the ultimate enterprise CRM powerhouse. It's your one-stop shop where sales teams conquer the world—capturing and nurturing prospects, automating tasks, and syncing seamlessly with your marketing and growth arsenal. You can seal the deal right within SF using Adobe Sign or DocuSign, get cash flowing in real-time with PayPal, Stripe, or Braintree, and dazzle with custom reports and dashboards spotlighting your star metrics. **Pricing: Starts at $300 per user per year** ### **HubSpot** ![Hubspot dashboard](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/10/hubspot.webp) Source: [hubspot.com](https://www.hubspot.com/products/crm) HubSpot is the ultimate all-in-one for businesses, whether you're a small startup or an industry giant. Their free CRM is a lead-capturing, segmentation, and engagement wizard. The marketing suite? It flaunts a CMS to craft slick landing pages, host videos, and store your marketing gems. And as for the Service Hub, it's your ticket to live chat, a shared inbox for customer queries, nifty surveys, and support playbooks for ironing out those wrinkles. **Pricing:** The free tier is quite limited, but if you're ready to dive into the paid plans, they kick off at $540 per user per year. You can opt for CRM, Marketing, Sales, or Customer Service Hubs individually, as they're sold separately. ### **Keap** ![Keap dashboard](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/10/keap-software.webp) Source: [Keap.com](https://keap.com/) Keap, previously known as Infusionsoft, is your sales automation superhero. It swoops in to capture leads, dazzles with automated email and text campaigns, and serves up a 360-degree view of your marketing and sales journey. **Pricing**: Starts at $1,548 per year for two users ### **Hotjar** ![Hotjar dashboard](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/10/hotjar.png) Source: [hotjar.com](https://www.hotjar.com/) Hotjar is great at snagging those juicy product analytics insights. It's armed with heatmaps that reveal the hottest and coldest spots on your website and app, live feedback widgets for NPS and CSAT surveys, and action-packed session replays showcasing your visitors' on-screen journey. **Pricing**: The free tier is quite restricted, and the pricing model can be a bit intricate. To unlock the paid features, you're looking at a starting price of $13,248 annually, catering to a user base of up to 100,000 active users. ### Optimove ![Optimove dashboard](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/10/optimove.png) Source: [btw.so](https://www.btw.so/marketing-tools/customer-data-platform/optimove) can take your marketing and sales teams to the next level!! It's all about personalizing the user journey through the magic of customer data and AI-led orchestration. Picture this: campaigns with personalized recommendations, a galaxy of user segments, and laser-focused targeted campaigns that make your audience swoon. Plus, you'll know exactly where those conversions came from, so you can channel your growth budget where it packs the most punch. Pricing: Contact [sales.](https://www.optimove.com/) ### **Baremetrics** ![Baremetrics dashboard](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/10/baremetrics-2.webp) Source: [Baremetric.com](https://baremetrics.com/) Baremetrics is your ticket to getting the real deal on your customer retention rate. It's the key to tracking how many customers come back, spotting potential hiccups and golden opportunities, and ensuring that your efforts to retain customers are really paying off. **Pricing**: Subscription starts at $208/mo, start your free trial [here](https://baremetrics.com/pricing). ### **ActiveCampaign** ![ActiveCampaign dashboard](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/10/activecampaign-dashboard.webp) Source: [ActiveCampaign](https://www.eventige.com/blog/advantages-yotpo-marketing-strategy) ActiveCampaign is a top-tier solution for customer experience automation, packing email and SMS messaging, a slick landing page builder, engagement tracking, and a CRM into one handy package. Why is it a must-have? Because reaching out to your customers through email, SMS, or push notifications is not only effective but also budget-friendly. Boost your customer retention game by luring them back with enticing coupons, irresistible offers, or tailored product recommendations. And that’s just a taste of what’s in store for you. **Pricing**: Starts at $29.00/mo annually, with customizable options. ### **Yotpo** ![Yotpo landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/10/yotpo.webp) Source: [Eventige](https://www.eventige.com/blog/advantages-yotpo-marketing-strategy) Yotpo, the ecommerce marketing powerhouse, is superb for gathering customer reviews, firing off SMS messages, and crafting jaw-dropping rewards and loyalty programs. It's got a smooth compatibility groove with Shopify and BigCommerce. So, why should you be buddies with Yotpo? You can whip up and launch a knockout customer loyalty program with drag-and-drop design tools, take aim and shoot targeted SMS, MMS, and email messages, keep tabs on your loyalty program's success with your performance dashboard, and so much more. **Pricing**: Starts at $15/mo annually. ### **Zapier** ![Zapier landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/10/zapier-software-2.png) Source: [softlist.io](https://appsumo.com/products/whatfix/) Zapier, the wizard of workflow automation and app connections, might just be the solution you need for linking tools effortlessly, all without the need for code. Why's it a must-have? Well, when it comes to amping up customer retention, you're juggling various tools. Zapier swoops in to save the day by seamlessly connecting them, automating data transfers, and ensuring you stay organized without breaking a sweat. **Pricing:** Basic automation is free, starter pack pricing begins at $19.99/mo annually. **10\. Whatfix** Whatfix, the genius in guided onboarding, is your go-to for helping users effortlessly navigate your product, access resources when they need them, and dish out feedback via NPS surveys. But here's the twist: Whatfix is the no-code superstar in town. Say goodbye to complicated setups and hello to designing onboarding flows, launching popup modules, and embedding help docs on your product dashboard—all with a simple drag-and-drop editor. Pricing: Contact [sales](https://whatfix.com/pricing/). ### **10\. Whatfix** ![Whatfix landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/10/whatfix.webp) Source: [AppSumo](https://appsumo.com/products/whatfix/) Whatfix, the genius in guided onboarding, is your go-to for helping users effortlessly navigate your product, access resources when they need them, and dish out feedback via NPS surveys. But here's the twist: Whatfix is the no-code superstar in town. Say goodbye to complicated setups and hello to designing onboarding flows, launching popup modules, and embedding help docs on your product dashboard—all with a simple drag-and-drop editor. Pricing: Contact [sales](https://whatfix.com/pricing/). ### **Wrapping up** So there you have it. Achieving the ultimate customer satisfaction needs to be a multi-pronged strategy. You need to offer exceptional customer experiences, sure, but you also need to be proactive in tackling customer concerns and pain points. Above all else, your service needs to make the day-to-day working lives of your customers smoother. It’s no easy feat, and you’ll need more than a little ingenuity to make that customer journey plain sailing, but with plenty of tools in your arsenal, hopefully you can make a good start. --- And if you haven’t got your fill of SaaS tools, why not check out our Tools of Choice Report, gain access to the most comprehensive directory of software solutions out there right [now.](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2023-report/) ### Driving profitable SaaS growth in a crowded market URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/driving-profitable-saas-growth-in-a-crowded-market/ Last updated: 2024-11-13T13:00:44.000Z This article comes from **Kyle Racki**’s talk, ‘*Aligning your positioning, go-to-market motion, and growth channels*’, at our **2023 Future of SaaS Festival**, check out his full presentation [**here**](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-april-2023/?wchannelid=nqg85ezf7j&wmediaid=16r9x3vyu3). Have you ever felt like you're playing a massive game of whack-a-mole trying to grow your SaaS business? You spend all your energy and budgets acquiring new customers, only to see others slip away. If this sounds familiar, **you're not alone**. All SaaS founders have been there at one point or another. Growth has never been easy in this industry, but today it feels harder than *ever*. Over the past decade building my SaaS company **Proposify**, I've learned the hard way that sustainable growth requires more than just throwing money into ads or hiring more sales reps. It takes real strategy and alignment across your positioning, go-to-market, and acquisition channels. So in this article, I want to share the key lessons I've learned about how to drive profitable, scalable growth even in today's challenging market. No fluffy theories here - just practical strategic advice based on my own experience taking Proposify from **$0** to over **$10 million** in revenue. Whether you're just starting out or already have traction, I think you'll find some valuable gems here to apply in your own business. So let's dive in and see if we can shift your approach from whack-a-mole to a strategic game of chess when it comes to SaaS growth! ## **The SaaS landscape is more crowded than ever** This is the broad market that my company Proposify sits within, we're tucked under productivity and enablement, in quote and proposal software, a space that’s extremely fragmented with many specialized tools. We’ve all heard the expression “SaaS is eating the world.” Well, that is more true today than ever before. Not only is the landscape crowded, but acquisition costs are on the rise. It’s very expensive to actually acquire customers now. Historically, when Facebook ads were at their peak, we could run ads and cheaply acquire customers. That's not the case anymore - it's more expensive than ever to acquire customers through digital channels. [Growth hacks for a $0-50 million journeyI’m Ashwin Krishna, I’m Head of Growth Marketing at Tact.ai, and in this article, I’m going to talk about some interesting growth hacks, and what it takes for a SaaS company or a B2B tech product company in the whole journey from zero to $50 million revenue.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAshwin Krishna![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/chronis-yan-1M4wYTqVD4o-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/growth-hacks-for-a-0-50-million-journey/) ## **Customer expectations are constantly evolving** We used to be happy with simple, even clunky tools, as long as they got the job done. But nowadays, customers expect more. They want tools that are intuitive, beautiful, and easy to use right out of the box. Just look at the rise of ChatGPT. Since that AI product launched in November 2022, there’s now an expectation that every SaaS product should already have AI capabilities built in. It’s very challenging to keep up with these shifting customer demands! ## **Turbulence in the SaaS economy** Starting last year, the macro environment has been difficult for SaaS companies. Valuations are down, even for the SaaS top-dogs. The public companies felt the pinch first, and now private company valuations are declining, which has led to layoffs across the industry. Customer sales cycles have increased by **36%** on average for SMBs and mid-market companies. It's harder than ever to build pipelines and move deals through the sales process. During the SaaS boom over the past five years, growth came easy. Once you found product-market fit, you could raise capital relatively easy if you had a sticky product. You could dump cash into ads and SDRs to scale pipeline fast. But **those days are over**. [SaaScast: Building a sustainable growth engineWe all want our SaaS orgs to run like a well-oiled machine. But what does that look like in practice? In economically turbulent times, it’s important that SaaS leaders are investing in marketing efforts that are going to lead to long-term, sustainable growth.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Jon_Chang-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-building-a-sustainable-growth-engine/) ## **The need for sustainable, profitable growth** In this new reality, we need to get more intentional about sustainable revenue growth and profitability. We can’t just throw money at problems anymore or pour cash into unprofitable growth. To do this, we need to focus all of our efforts on the right customers. We must ensure our positioning is tight, our go-to-market motions and channels are aligned, and we’re laser-focused on delivering value. So I’ll start by sharing the key lessons I’ve learned over the past decade building Proposify into a multi-million dollar recurring revenue business, namely: - ****How to nail your SaaS positioning** - ****Picking the right go-to-market motion** - ****Optimizing your customer acquisition channels** Let’s dive in. ## **Step 1: Clarify your positioning** What is positioning? It’s simply describing how you are different from competing alternatives in the market, and who cares about that difference. Positioning provides the foundation for all your marketing and sales messaging, materials and strategy. It sits at the core of your go-to-market efforts. I don’t claim to be a positioning expert, but I learned an immense amount from **April Dunford** and her book *Obviously Awesome*. I actually hired April to run a positioning workshop with my team a few years ago when we were struggling with our messaging. Here is the positioning framework she uses: [A practical guide to creating a winning positioning and messaging strategyIn this article, Head of Core Product Marketing at Atlassian, showcases best practices and processes for crafting the positioning and messaging of your products.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDaniel Kuperman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/product-messaging-and-positioning.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/a-practical-guide-to-creating-a-winning-positioning-and-messaging-strategy/) ### 1\. Identify your main competing alternatives You need to know who you are actually positioning against. If you’re up against an established player like Salesforce or Zendesk, then position against them. But many SaaS tools are replacing generic/homegrown solutions, not other software. At Proposify, we found most customers used Word, Excel or PowerPoint before us - not dedicated proposal software. So we positioned ourselves against the status quo. ### 2\. List your differentiating features What features do you have that are different from the competing alternatives? List them all out. ### 3\. Identify the value of those features If someone chooses you over their current solution, what value do your differentiating features unlock for them? For Proposify, our features enable control, consistency, and visibility into the sales process. Customers get error-free, brand-aligned proposals and can see what reps send and how prospects interact. ### 4\. Determine who cares about that value Which customers care most about those benefits? When we analyzed our diverse customer base, we found mid-sized companies with growing, competitive sales teams cared most about control and visibility. [SaaS MarketingAs the demand for cloud-based software continues to grow, SaaS companies are facing intense competition in the market. Here is a guide to help you develop a successful SaaS marketing strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_Marketing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) ### 5\. Define your market category Finally, clarify your market category and ideal customer profile. We play in the established "Proposal Software" space and target services businesses like cleaning, lawn care, etc. Once you work through this positioning framework, you can create a positioning statement and test it with your market. See if your messaging resonates with your ideal customers. That's how you know if you've nailed your positioning. ## **Step 2: Pick the right go-to-market motion** What is "go-to-market" motion? It’s how you acquire, convert and retain customers. It includes your positioning, sales channels, and overall sales strategy. In my opinion, picking the right go-to-market motion for your business is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. Get this **right**, and growth can scale fast. Choose **poorly**, and you’ll waste time and money. ### **Match your sales strategy to customer lifetime value** When scaling a SaaS business, there are only three ways to grow: 1. ****Acquire more customers** 2. ****Charge customers more** 3. ****Keep customers around longer** Acquisition, monetization, and retention - the three levers every SaaS business has. But too often, we put excessive focus on acquisition and not enough on monetization and retention. Remember, acquisition is the most expensive and difficult lever to pull. You need a viable path to profitability based on your customer LTV. Acquisition costs must be far lower than the revenue that customers will generate over their lifetime. So before investing in more acquisition, make sure you have products and processes that drive high retention rates and lifetime customer value. Start from the bottom up. ### **Define your sales motion based on deal size** Once your retention and monetization engines are strong, turn to acquisition. And the key here is aligning your sales motion to the right customer profile. I love the simple analogy - are you acquiring bunnies, deer, or elephants? 🐰 **Bunnies:** High volume of small customers with low-touch sales 🦌 **Deer:** Mid-market customers with moderate sales touch 🐘 **Elephants:** Large enterprise accounts with high-touch sales Most SaaS companies try to use the wrong touch for the wrong customer profile. I've seen companies with a low-priced product attempt high-touch sales with demos, outbound, etc. That might work initially, but **it won’t scale profitably**. [Sales: The rules of engagementSales is a complex and competitive business - and never more so than when deciding who gets the credit for what: who gets the commission and, just as importantly, who gets the recognition?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/muyuan-ma--xHZBzv4Naw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-the-rules-of-engagement/) ## **Step 3: Optimize your acquisition channels** With positioning and sales strategy addressed, now you can focus on customer acquisition channels. Again, work from bottom up here: **Retention** → **Monetization** → **Acquisition** ### **Double down on retention** If your product has high churn, don't even think about paid acquisition. You'll just be pouring water into a leaky bucket. First, fix the holes! Evaluate where and why customers are churning and plug those holes. Ensure you have in-product onboarding, training, and support to drive retention. ### **Expand revenue per customer** Next, maximize existing customer value. Do you have an effective pricing strategy? Have you mapped out an upgrade path to expand deal size? Identify your best metrics for expansion (seats, usage, features etc.) and double down. ### **Acquire ideal customers** Only once you have strong retention and monetization engines in place should you focus on acquisition channels. Too often we think of marketing as pure brand awareness - how do we get our name out there? But there is an important distinction between demand generation and demand capture. Demand capture meets customers already looking for solutions like yours. This includes SEO, SEM, reviews, and presence on comparison sites. Capturing qualified demand is far cheaper than trying to generate it. Demand generation targets cold audiences and aims to take them through the buyer journey - from awareness to consideration and finally conversion. This is where events, content, and ads come into play. I recommend optimizing demand capture first, then layering in demand generation. Work on converting and retaining inbound leads before spending on outbound tactics. And align your messaging to each stage of the buyer journey. 🔥 Start at the end of the funnel with **hot leads** already engaging with your brand. Make sure trial, onboarding, content, and sales process is robust. 🌿 Then work backwards through **warm inbound leads**. ❄️ Then finally to **cold outbound**. ## **Aligning it all for sustainable growth** That was a lot of information, but let me tie it all together. If you want to scale your SaaS business today, growth requires focus and alignment. You can no longer just throw money into paid acquisition and hope it all works out. With that strong base, optimize your acquisition channels working from existing customers and inbound leads up to new outbound initiatives. And never stop testing and optimizing as you go! There is no silver bullet, only continuous improvement through measurements and small tweaks. ### What are the best practices and challenges when hiring internally for developer marketing roles? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-the-best-practices-and-challenges-when-hiring-internally-for-developer-marketing-roles/ Last updated: 2024-05-16T16:43:30.000Z Innovation is key in the rapidly evolving tech landscape, as it helps you capture market share and drive product adoption. Developer marketing has emerged as a crucial discipline that bridges the gap between technical products and their technical audience – developers. [Hiring](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/hiring-talent/) internally is a great strategy to helporgs succeed, since they’re making the most of their most valuable resources. Tapping into your existing talent means that, not only are you providing a platform for employees to learn and develop, but you also get benefits that external hiring may not provide. So, whether you’re hiring a developer marketer or advertising for developer relations [jobs](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-30-jobs-to-kickstart-your-saas-journey/), let’s take a look at the best practices you should follow, as well as the challenges you can expect to face. 👇 - The benefits of hiring internally - Best practices when hiring internally for developer marketing roles - Challenges of recruiting developer marketers ## **The benefits of hiring internally** > *“Acquiring the right talent is the most important key to growth. Hiring was – and still is – the most important thing we do.” – *Marc Bennioff, CEO at Salesforce** Developer marketers are versatile, as they possess a unique blend of technical expertise and marketing know-how, which allows them to more easily communicate with developers. When trying to hire for these roles, you may be faced with a crucial decision: should you hire externally or look within your own [talent](https://www.saasalliance.io/leadership-talent-and-global-scaling/) pool? While there’s no denying that external hiring has a lot of merits, there’s a lot to be said about promoting internally – so, here are the **reasons why recruiting internally can be a game-changer**: ### **Familiarity with your company** Internal candidates already have a deep understanding of your org’s [culture](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-steps-to-building-a-customer-centric-culture/), values, products, and audience, as well as your mission and vision. They can hit the ground running a lot faster than an external hire. ### **Product and technical knowledge** Developer marketers need to have a strong understanding of the products they’re marketing, as well as the technical elements behind them. Your existing employees often have a solid grasp of this and can leverage their existing knowledge to create more accurate and compelling marketing messages. [SaaS MarketingAs the demand for cloud-based software continues to grow, SaaS companies are facing intense competition in the market. Here is a guide to help you develop a successful SaaS marketing strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_Marketing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) ### **Existing relationships** Internal candidates will have established relationships within your company, and may already have connections with your target audience too – this makes for smoother collaboration and communication and can lead to better integration between the teams. ### **Faster onboarding** Existing employees will require less time to get up to speed with the org’s processes, tools, and systems. They’re already familiar with the internal structure, which reduces the learning curve associated with an external hire. This allows them to start contributing to marketing efforts quickly. ### **Increased staff morale** Promoting internally can boost your employee’s morale and motivation, since it shows you value internal talent, encourage career growth, and provide opportunities for advancement. This can lead to higher job satisfaction and increased loyalty among existing employees. [Customer onboarding 101For freemium models adopted by a growing number of SaaS companies, onboarding is the frontline in the battle for the upsell.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/erwan-hesry-aMjeTdCVRNE-unsplash--1---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-onboarding-101/) ### **Most cost-effective** Recruiting externally tends to involve significant costs, such as advertising, recruiting agencies, and onboarding. You save on these expenses when you look internally. ## **Best practices when hiring internally for developer marketing roles** When identifying best practices for hiring developer marketers or DevRel pros, consider the following: ### **Clearly define the role** I.e., consider what makes a good developer marketer. It’s crucial you start by defining the responsibilities, skills, and qualifications required for the developer marketing role. This includes understanding the specific needs of the position, such as technical knowledge, marketing expertise, and familiarity with developer communities. There are many skills you can consider when hiring for a developer [marketing](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) role, such as: - Technical skills - Communication skills - Independence and initiative - Customer acquisition skills - Resilience - Adept at analyzing and using data - Storytelling abilities - Business acumen - Content creation skills - Project management skills - Creativity - Marketing skills - Understanding of API design and development - Leadership skills - Sales - Community-building skills - Problem-solving - Analytical skills - Strategic thinking **There are many different** [**types of roles** ](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-an-awesome-saas-marketing-funnel-to-convert-prospects-into-die-hard-advocates-2/)**involved in marketing to developers**, so you should have a clear idea of what’s really needed at your company. For example, you can hire someone who will focus on marketing strategy, on implementing a developer relations program, on community management, on product evangelism, on subject matter expertise, and so much more. **A well-defined job description allows you to effectively communicate the expectations to internal candidates and hiring managers alike**. ### **Promote internal applications** Communicate the availability of the developer marketing role to existing employees through internal channels like email, company newsletters, or intranet. Make sure you’re providing a detailed job description and specifying any necessary qualifications or experience. [Navigating market volatility: The power of localization and translationGeorg Ell, CEO at Phrase, outlines the benefits of localization technology in order to scale in an increasingly volatile market.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSGeorg Ell![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/08/globe--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/navigating-market-volatility-the-power-of-localization-and-translation/) ### **Establish a fair selection process** It’s paramount to treat internal candidates with the same level of fairness and impartiality as external candidates. Create a selection process that ensures consistency and objectivity. Develop a set of criteria against which all applicants will be evaluated, and utilize skills assessments, interviews, and relevant exercises to assess their suitability for the developer marketing role. It’s crucial to avoid any bias or favoritism when making the hiring decision, and ensure equal opportunities for all internal candidates. ### **Leverage existing performance data** One of the advantages of internal hiring is the ability to access past performance data of your current employees. Review their performance evaluations, feedback from managers or colleagues, and any relevant metrics that can shed light on their capabilities, work ethic, and alignment with company values. [Scaling your data team at SaaS hypergrowthScaling your data team is a fairly complex topic, Greg Waldman, Senior Director of Business Intelligence at Toast, is here to break it down.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSGreg Waldman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/sushobhan-badhai-LrPKL7jOldI-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-data-team-at-saas-hypergrowth/) You should also consider the candidates' track records, their ability to work in cross-functional teams, their communication skills, and their overall performance within the organization. This information provides valuable insights into their potential fit for the developer marketing role. ### **Development opportunities** You can also provide training and development opportunities for internal candidates who may have the necessary technical skills but lack marketing expertise, for example. This can include workshops, courses, or mentoring programs to help them acquire the required knowledge for the developer marketing role. ### **Consider people’s career aspirations** Understand the career goals and aspirations of internal candidates. Determine how the developer marketing role aligns with their long-term objectives and consider the potential for growth within the position. [8 top interview questions for your new CMO roleIn this article, we’ll explore the essential questions to ask when hiring a CMO to steer your SaaS company towards long-term success.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/top-interview-questions-for-cmo.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/8-top-interview-questions-for-cmo/) ### **Conduct structured interviews** During the interview process, use a structured format that includes standardized questions. Ask candidates about their experiences in working with developers, their understanding of developer pain points and needs, and their strategies for creating effective technical content. Assess their ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences and gauge their creativity in developing developer-focused marketing campaigns. A structured interview format helps ensure consistency in evaluation and enables a fair comparison among candidates. [Top 7 interview questions for your product management roleThis week we’re taking a look at product managers, the visionaries behind your SaaS GTM strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/interview.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-your-product-management-role/) **Examples of interview questions** you can ask when recruiting internally are: - How has your current role at the company prepared you for this position? - In your opinion, what makes our products or services unique? How would you communicate these unique features to our technical audience? - How would you apply your current understanding of our company culture and objectives to this new role? - Can you share an instance where you worked with our development and marketing teams? What was the project, and what was your role? - Given your understanding of our current developer community, what improvements or changes would you suggest in our marketing strategies? - If you were to pitch our products/services to a developer right now, how would you do it? - How would you handle a situation where there is a disagreement between the marketing team and the developer team regarding the product? - Can you describe an instance where you had to explain a technical concept to non-technical colleagues? How did you approach this situation? - Given your existing relationships within the company, how would you leverage those to make this role successful? - Based on your understanding of our product roadmap, how would you align the marketing plan to it? - Can you describe a situation in your current role where you were able to successfully incorporate feedback from the developer community? - Considering your existing workload, how would you prioritize and manage your responsibilities in this new role? - How would you improve communication between the marketing and development teams? - From your perspective, what challenges might you face in this role, and how do you plan to overcome them? - Why are you interested in transitioning into this developer marketer role, and how do you see it aligning with your career progression? ### **Feedback and communication** Throughout the hiring process, maintain open and transparent communication with internal candidates. Keep them informed about the stages of the process, the expected timelines, and any updates or changes. This transparency helps create a positive candidate experience and reinforces trust within the organization. Also, whether an internal candidate is selected or not, provide constructive feedback on their performance and areas for improvement. Encourage them to apply for future opportunities and offer resources or development programs that can support their growth. ### **Support the transition process** Once an internal candidate is selected for the developer marketing role, it’s important to provide them with the necessary support for a smooth transition. Offer training programs that focus on developer marketing strategies, developer persona development, content creation, and campaign management. Assign a mentor or coach to guide the internal hire through the early stages of their new role, helping them understand the nuances of developer-focused marketing and integrating them into relevant teams and projects. This support ensures a successful transition and sets the internal hire up for long-term success. ## **Challenges of recruiting developer marketers** When recruiting for a developer marketing role, whether internally or externally, you may face several challenges, including: - **Technical expertise**: it can be tough to find the right candidate who has a strong understanding of software development, programming languages, and technical concepts, along with marketing skills. - **Niche marketing understanding**: developer marketing requires a deep understanding of the developer community, their needs, preferences, and challenges. This can make it hard to find the right person for the job, as it’s a specialized niche within the broader marketing field. - **Limited talent pool**: there may be fewer experienced developer marketers when compared to other marketing roles. The demand for skilled developer marketers may exceed the available supply, which leads to increased competition among employers for qualified candidates. - **Evolving landscape**: because the developer marketing landscape is constantly evolving, with new technologies, tools, and platforms emerging regularly, candidates must be adaptable and quick learners to keep up with these changes. Finding individuals who are up-to-date with the latest trends and can leverage emerging technologies can be a challenge. - **Cultural fit**: another thing to consider is that developer marketing often involves working closely with engineering teams and developers. It’s important you find candidates who can seamlessly integrate into a technical environment, understand the developer mindset, and effectively collaborate with technical teams, though this can be tough sometimes. ## **To conclude** Hiring internally for a developer marketing role can be a strategic move that offers many benefits to your company. It can help to enhance collaboration and communication between the marketing and development teams, as employees shifting roles internally are already well-acquainted with the company's values, culture, and products. Given their unique understanding of the org, internal candidates can often identify opportunities for innovation and improvement that an external candidate may overlook. Their familiarity with the product and the development process also makes them more effective at communicating the value proposition of your offering to both technical and non-technical audiences. However, successful internal hiring requires a careful approach. It's important to be transparent about the expectations of the new role, and to provide support to the candidate during their transition. Ask pointed and relevant questions during the interview to gauge the individual's readiness for the role and to understand how they plan to apply their existing knowledge to their new responsibilities. Lastly, remember that even though the candidate is already part of the team, they will still need some time to adjust to their new position. A thoughtful onboarding process can be incredibly beneficial in this regard, even for internal hires. In the end, the decision to hire internally should be driven by the candidate's potential to grow within the role and contribute to the success of your company. --- *Looking to climb the ladder all the way to the top? Learn from the best in the business with our* [*C-Suite Masterclass*](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?ref=developermarketing.io) *cohort and boost your leadership skills!* [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/C-Suite_Ghost_Banner_Assets_--1--3.png)](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=banner&utm%5Fcampaign=content-) [Find out more here!](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=banner&utm%5Fcampaign=content-) ### 10 winning customer retention strategies for your B2B SaaS org URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/10-winning-customer-retention-strategies-for-your-b2b-saas-org/ Last updated: 2023-10-06T13:34:33.000Z Let’s be real – losing customers *stinks*. As a SaaS company, high customer churn is the ultimate revenue killer, destroying growth no matter how many new customers you acquire. In a nutshell, if you’re looking to be profitable fast, reducing churn should be a top priority. Hence the need for top-tier retention strategies… But with the **right retention strategies**, you can craft long-term relationships and reap the benefits of recurring revenue. SaaS retention, especially B2B SaaS customer retention, hinges upon solid partnerships with customers. The 10 strategies in this article will lead to solid partnerships that’ll be sure to generate consistent, sustainable growth. They'll lead to engaged customers who provide stability and profitability month after month. Each of these steps is designed to establish a solid bedrock of trust between customers and orgs. Ready to turn customer retention into your competitive advantage, and give your users the first-class customer experience they deserve? Let’s get started! But before we get into some strategies, let’s have a quick refresher on what exactly makes up a good customer retention strategy. ## What is B2B SaaS customer retention? Customer retention is all about how many folks stick around and keep doing business with you for a certain period. When it comes to figuring out customer retention rates, there's a simple formula you can use. [Customer retention metrics and how to action themHow do successful SaaS organizations measure retention and what on earth do they with the results, I hear you cry? Well, we surveyed 100 SaaS pros to find out how they track, review and utilize retention and churn metrics, and here are the results.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/jakob-owens-CiUR8zISX60-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) ### How to calculate your SaaS customer retention rate Calculating your customer retention rate (CRR) is a breeze! You just need to plug some numbers into this simple formula, which involves the customers you had at the beginning, the ones you have at the end, and those you gained during the time you're checking. It goes like this: ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/10/FoSaaS-customer-retention.png) Easy peasy! But there’s a major debate that still rages on in the world of SaaS: should you be focusing more on customer conversion or customer retention? But before we answer that question, let’s dig into the key distinctions between the two. ## Acquisition vs retention Besides keeping your current customers happy, snagging new ones is also a big deal for business success. More customers mean more cash flowing in, which sets the stage for some serious growth in your target market. But here's the thing: Some companies get so caught up in the thrill of chasing new customers that they forget about the ones they already have. At first glance, it seems like a no-brainer, especially for those SaaS folks. You think, 'If our current customers are paying their usual bills, and we add 10, 20, or 50 shiny new clients, our overall revenue will skyrocket!' But getting those new customers on board is a pricey affair— 6 to 7 times more expensive than keeping the old gang happy. [A beginner’s guide to customer acquisitionObjectives and key results (OKRs) are a pretty common talking point in the SaaS industry and in our Slack community, week in, week out, we see members asking how they should, or could, measure their performance. Hence our article here today.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/sharon-mccutcheon--8a5eJ1-mmQ-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/a-beginners-guide-to-customer-acquisition/) You've got to put in a ton of effort to woo and win over those newbies, and the customers you hang onto often dig deeper into their wallets because they know your service is top-notch and they trust what you offer. Plus, here's the kicker: A tiny 5% boost in your retention rates can pump up your company's revenue by a jaw-dropping 25% to 95%. The straight-up truth for businesses looking to grow: While grabbing new customers can give your revenue a bit of a boost, it comes with a hefty price tag in terms of sales and marketing expenses. On the flip side, keeping your existing customers happy offers more value and costs you less in the long run. ### What is a good customer retention rate for your SaaS business? Over 41% of SaaS hotshots raking in more than 500 bucks per month per customer are rocking a net retention rate that soars past the 100% mark. The sweet spot for net revenue retention isn't one-size-fits-all. It's all about your Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA). If you're in the B2B SaaS game, playing in the midmarket and enterprise space, you're aiming for a sizzling 115% to 125% range. In this article we’re going in-depth on the kind of strategies needed to really ace your customer retention. But in case you’re short on time... [The best types of customer retention programs and how they could help your B2B BrandGaining new clients is only the first step to having a successful customer base. It is just as important, if not more, that you are focusing on your current customers and have strategies put in place to make them want to stay with you and continue to purchase your product/service.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/priscilla-du-preez-OEdkPaxYMXU-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-best-types-of-customer-retention-programs-and-how-they-could-help-your-b2b-brand/) ### TLDR; How to improve your B2B SaaS customer retention rate Many SaaS companies struggle with a leaky bucket org, meaning they’re so concerned with growing fast, and converting as many new customers as possible they neglect their existing customers. As a result, as customers are coming in, they’re leaving simultaneously. But bad retention isn’t just something you can patch up when it all starts to go wrong, it needs to be part of your strategy at your org and product’s inception. It’s a tricky beast to tame, but as a general rule of thumb, here are the steps you should consider: **Get in sync around retention**: There needs to be a company-wide commitment to retention strategies. **Tighten up your onboarding**: First impressions count, and your onboarding flow is your first impression. Let’s get it right. **Master customer success**: A reactive approach to onboarding just won’t cut it these days– be proactive, don’t wait for customers to come to you. [6 Types of In-Product Engagement to Drive Adoption, Retention & GrowthHere are six types of in-product engagement that’ll help to drive forward your SaaS business’ adoption, retention, and growth. Go and find that a-ha moment!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMaja Blazek![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1516321497487-e288fb19713f?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&w=2000&fit=max&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjExNzczfQ)](https://www.saasalliance.io/6-product-engagements-to-drive-adoption-retention-growth/) **Deliver exceptional support**: Additionally, customers need to feel like you’re there to guide them when they run into a hurdle. If you neglect a concern raised, you’re going to see churn. **Offer enhancements** : You can’t expect your customer needs to remain static; they’re going to change over time, so make sure your product can keep up with their demands. **Remove friction:** With so many software solutions on the market these days you can't afford to create any problems for your customers. The journey to the ‘aha’ moment should be all plain sailing. **Leverage metrics** : it’s a no-brainer, but you can’t fix retention if you’re not tracking it adequately. Similarly, you need to be able to track the exact behavioral causes behind the shortcomings. So, if you're still with us, let's get super granular with these strategies. It's time for our deep dive into **top 10 customer retention strategies for your B2B SaaS org**! ## 1\. Set the foundation with first-class onboarding A customer's first impression of your product often dictates whether they'll stick around. That's why thoughtful onboarding is mission critical! Appoint a customer success manager to personally guide them through onboarding and answer every little question. Create a logical onboarding flow that gets users active fast. You should also send how-to emails and quickstart guides. Give them free access to a live onboarding webinar where they can get a tour of your product’s best features. Character limit? Twitter limit? Something to help them get up and running pronto! The more frictionless and supportive the onboarding, the quicker customers experience that magical “a-ha!” moment where the value clicks. Smooth onboarding sets the trajectory for ongoing retention, so don’t drop the ball early! [Customer onboarding 101For freemium models adopted by a growing number of SaaS companies, onboarding is the frontline in the battle for the upsell.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/erwan-hesry-aMjeTdCVRNE-unsplash--1---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-onboarding-101/) ## 2\. Incentivize the whole company to focus on retention Here’s a secret - different departments often have mismatched goals that seriously cut into your customer retention rate. Sales wants to book revenue. Marketing chases leads. Product pushes new features. When goals don’t align across teams, customers get lost in the cracks. That’s why you need to incentivize customer retention company-wide. Empower sales to build trusted relationships, not just land deals! Have marketing nurture leads for optimal LTV and ensure product teams have direct customer contact. With the entire company rallied around retention, your customers will feel the love. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/10/FoSaaS_Infographics_Square_SaaS.png) ## 3\. Make your customers feel special Everyone loves to feel special sometimes! ⭐ Surprise random users with a little gift or perk, like extending their trial or adding a premium feature. Send some branded swag their way just because. Apply a discount to their next invoice to say thanks for being a loyal customer. Small gestures of appreciation make people smile and remind them why they dig doing business with you. Just make sure you don’t go overboard and make it seem disingenuous or like a tacky sales gimmick. ## 4\. Build an online community around your product Humans are social creatures who love to mingle. Give your customers their own little hangout by creating a private online community like a forum or Facebook group. They can chat about your product, swap tips, ask questions, and get to know fellow users. Feeling like they’re part of an inner circle builds loyalty and gives them even more value from your company. [Community-led growth is the Future of SaaSCommunity-led growth is a go-to-market strategy that relies on an engaged community of customers as a tool for acquiring new customers, retaining existing customers, and expanding your business reach.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/toa-heftiba-6bKpHAun4d8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/community-led-growth-is-the-future-of-saas/) Just make sure to moderate it so things stay friendly and on-topic. In this way, your existing customers can be handy problem solvers for new customers who might be at risk of churning if they can’t get over the problem they’re having. As we’re sure you’ve heard by now, SaaS companies spend a massive amount of their funds on customer acquisition. Retention is much less costly. And there are various relatively cheap strategies you can use to ensure your customers stick around. Online community building is a prime example of this. ## 5\. Send ongoing educational content Your customers want to get the very most out of your product. Help them do it by regularly sending useful tips and tricks via email or in-app messaging. Create video tutorials, handy quickstart guides, and other helpful educational resources that teach advanced techniques. Position yourself as their go-to expert coach on maximizing your product’s potential. They’ll appreciate you taking the time to help them skill up! ## 6\. Monitor user engagement metrics closely You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Track key engagement metrics like login frequency, feature adoption, and activity levels. Segment users by behavior patterns, by doing this you can identify at-risk accounts showing signs of reduced stickiness and intervene with targeted retention offers. Advanced analytics tools like Mixpanel, Amplitude, and Indicative all make it easy to dissect user behavior and gain actionable insights to optimize retention. [SaaS metricsIt goes without saying that Saas orgs want to grow and scale, right? Whether you’re a hot new startup, mid-growth, or a late-growth established brand, all SaaS orgs want their revenue to skyrocket.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_metrics.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics/) ## 7\. Make customer support readily accessible No one enjoys hassling with customer support when they need answers or get stuck. Make sure users can get timely help through multiple channels like email, chat, help desk, phone, and social media. Also give them quality self-help resources like FAQs, knowledge bases, and documentation. The easier you make it for customers to find answers, the less likely they are to become frustrated and defect. Customer support is *truly* on the frontlines of retention. Simply put, by providing excellent customer service, you essentially reinforce that solid foundation of trust that leads to customer loyalty. Today, where customers are truly spoilt for choice when it comes to SaaS software, it just won’t cut it to bust out a really great software solution. What will truly make customers stick around are the relationships that you’re able to establish. Loyal customers are long-term customers. Having a customer base that’s essentially a fan club for your org is only going to make the onboarding process for new customers smoother. [How Communication Systems Enhance Customer ExperienceAna Andres del Valle, Principal Solutions Architect at Twilio, preaches the power of communication. She maintains that products are becoming less and less about what they are, but more about the experience that they enable. Communication stands at the heart of this enablement.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSTanya Lang![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-24-at-18.05.43.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/communications-your-product-and-improving-your-customer-experience/) ## 8\. Survey users about their experience You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Send out quarterly customer satisfaction surveys to get an honest pulse on how happy users are, what they like, and what areas need work. Monitor reviews and social media closely for customer feedback. Then act on feedback quickly to fix problems and delight customers by implementing requested improvements. Most importantly, close the loop by following up to confirm how you’re addressing concerns. Making users feel heard will improve satisfaction and retention. Your goal is always to create a continuous feedback loop between you and your customers, so the customers you retain become a vital tool not only in retaining customers but in also converting new customers. Pain points that go unresolved leads to churn! [Product launches for enterprise customers \[podcast\]: Suresh Krishna Madhuvarsu, Product10xOn this week’s episode, Gemma Davies, Community Manager at Future of SaaS is joined by Suresh Krishna Madhuvarsu, Managing Partner at Product10x.Suresh discusses product launches for enterprise customers, the importance of setting goals and what makes a successful product launch.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/FoSaaS_Podcast_SM_Product10x.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-launches-for-enterprise-customers-podcast-suresh-krishna-madhuvarsu-product10x/) ## 9\. Roll out frequent product enhancements Nothing reinvigorates customers like regular product updates that add tangible value! Releasing new features, upgrades, and improvements frequently will make customers eager to stick around. Just ensure you spread substantive releases out instead of dumping everything out at once! The products and service that you’re providing might have been top notch on launch but that doesn’t mean they’ll still be any good when the competition starts to heat up and you’re falling behind the curve. ## 10\. Make cancellation a bit of a headache Now, this might seem counterintuitive, but hear us out! Studies show SaaS businesses that make it tougher to cancel actually decrease churn, but of course don’t make it impossible, just **slightly inconvenient**. For example, require talking to a live person to cancel or filling out an exit survey. Use this last chance to ask why they’re leaving and convey the value of staying. A little extra effort can sway some customers to stay put. Equally, this will give you an opportunity to find out what caused the customer to leave, fix it, and use this to ensure that this isn’t an issue that other customers are having. ![Asana's "we're sorry to see you go" page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/10/Why-you-re-leaving.png) ## Final thoughts There you have it - 10 proven strategies to strengthen relationships and boost long term loyalty with your existing customers! Don't leave retention to chance. Be proactive in listening to your users, understanding their needs, and providing ongoing value. Deliver phenomenal support, roll out frequent product enhancements, and convey to customers that they are appreciated. Focus on continually delighting your customers, and they'll reward you with their loyalty, repeat business, referrals, and increased lifetime value. Your existing user base is your most valuable asset - treat them as such by making customer retention a top priority within your organization. The strategies discussed will take dedication, but the long-term benefits to your bottom line will be *well* worth it. Start applying a few of these tactics this quarter to strengthen bonds with customers. **Your efforts will quickly move the needle on satisfaction and retention. Get ready to watch your retention rates skyrocket and cut your churn rate down to size today!** --- *Like what you see? why not check out more exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### "A professionally run event -- no stress, no drama" URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/a-professionally-run-event-no-stress-no-drama/ Last updated: 2023-10-31T16:04:30.000Z The dynamic realm of SaaS constantly brims with fresh innovations. So, how do these innovations find their footing? We firmly believe it happens through engaging discussions and respectful debates. While posting new content on social media can spark valuable discussions, there's something even more powerful about bringing a gathering of SaaS experts together to exchange ideas. This is the exceptional opportunity we provide through our events at Future of SaaS. As a seasoned SaaS professional, you can engage with like-minded individuals, collectively devising innovative solutions. Check out this account from Imran Anwar, Director of Customer Success at Microsoft about his positive experience at our Future of SaaS Festival. ### 1\. How did you prepare for your speaking engagement? 'In general I have always done my public speaking and conference speeches unscripted and even without a deck. Depending on the topic and event I will create a PPT more to tell a story flow.' The future of SaaS promises a versatile and collaborative environment for our speakers. Whether you come prepared with a well-crafted presentation or prefer a more spontaneous approach, we embrace diversity and encourage our speakers to infuse their talks with their unique style and personality. ### 2\. Can you describe your experience of the event? 'It has been a professionally run org and event and I have not felt any stress or drama.' Collaborating with us for one of our events is a true partnership, where our speakers hold substantial influence over the topics they explore, as long as it aligns with the event's theme. Consider us as the enablers who highlight your expertise, with our experts taking the spotlight. Our SaaS experts are the stars of the show. ### 3\. What kind of impact do you hope your talk will have on the audience of SaaS professionals? 'A CNN TV host interviewing me said “Imran educates, enlightens, and entertains audiences” and that is always my goal.' Imran Anwar is held in high regard, much like many other speakers from our events. Opting to take part in one of our events will offer you an excellent chance to connect with some of the most influential SaaS experts in the field. ### 4\. Reflecting on your speaking engagement, what key insights or takeaways do you believe were the most resonant? 'The future is for **you** to write. No one has a monopoly on it.' Our speakers are not only here to impart practical SaaS strategies but also to share the wisdom they've accumulated through extensive experience. Regardless of your level of expertise in your field, you're sure to leave with fresh perspectives. ### 5\. What do you think is the true value for you in partnering with us on events like this? 'Future of SaaS has audiences hungry for vision and thought leadership, I have both to offer on multiple topics.' At future of SaaS you'll find an eager community of SaaS enthusiasts. They're a friendly bunch who thrive off soaking in new insights from SaaS gurus. ### 6\. How do you think this experience has benefitted you, either personally or professionally? 'As above…. And also, I am not a know it all but a learn it all…. Which means that people asking smart questions and listening to other speakers helps me educate myself more.' ### 8\. What advice would you offer to other industry leaders who might consider becoming speakers? 'Be original, be interesting.' Our speakers don't view our events merely as a platform for showcasing their impressive strategies. Instead, through intensive discussions with fellow experts who share their mindset, our speakers have unearthed novel perspectives that contribute to their continuous professional growth. --- *Want to collaborate with Future of SaaS? We’re seeking out SaaS experts for contributions to blog posts, podcasts and events. Contact us here:* Content: Podcasts and events: [s.raymond@pmmalliance.com](mailto:s.raymond@pmmalliance.com) ### Collaborate, create and disrupt to elevate the customer experience URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/collaborate-create-and-disrupt-to-elevate-the-customer-experience/ Last updated: 2024-11-13T12:59:40.000Z Customer success isn't just a metric; it's an ethos that guides transformative interactions and leaves lasting imprints on our clients. In the dynamic landscape of software solutions, where options abound, it's the genuine, creative, and strategic engagement with clients that distinguishes a brand and sets it apart. I'm **Karim Hambach, Sr. Customer Success Manager at Adobe**, and through my tenure, I've charted a course that weaves data, technology, and innovation to drive authentic customer experiences. In this article, I'm going to share the pivotal strategies and personal touches that make Adobe not just a solution provider, but a partner in our clients' success stories. ## **Elevating customer experiences: My journey with Adobe** My personal experience from my time at Adobe is a story of transformation, of turning challenging customer accounts into thriving multi-million dollar partnerships. Picture this scenario: You’re diligently working on a healthcare customer base spanning between London and Amsterdam. Simultaneously, you find yourself collaborating with a prominent telecommunications firm based right here in the Netherlands. Both these entities, despite being strategic on paper, exhibit familiar challenges – siloed structures, looming budget cuts, evolving priorities, and an overarching shift in resources. Their stories echo similarities, with parallel goals and strategies. Yet, despite being seemingly strategic partners, supporting them in their digital transformation journey can be an uphill task. The global onset of COVID-19 only accelerated the transformational challenges. [Customer success metrics that drive 95% retentionIn this article, I’ll be discussing the customer success metrics you should be tracking at each and every stage of the customer lifecycle. With them, you can drive retention and ensure your customer success function is successful in delivering value to the customer.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSwati Chopra![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/yoav-hornung-Qg6lPXJ6IL4-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) With many customers hastily adapting to the new normal, these organizations even went to the extent of threatening to cancel their contracts, citing reasons such as low pricing and adoption. It begs the question: Why invest more time and resources in these accounts? Why not simply decide that the effort doesn't align with the payoff? However, here's the remarkable part: we turned the narrative around. These accounts, once characterized by minimal engagement and value, metamorphosed into fruitful, multi-million dollar partnerships. These transformations weren't merely transactional but were built on mutual respect, collaboration, and a shared vision for the future. ## **Navigating the challenges of customer success** Does low engagement and hesitance from customers indicate a failure in customer success? We often find ourselves grappling with this very question. Envision this: You're faced with customers who seem increasingly disengaged, reluctant to actively collaborate, their focus diverted by shifting budgets, internal politics, and external competition. Often, we find ourselves yearning for key stakeholders, the essential sponsors, to champion the cause. Yet, as customer success managers, the path to securing such commitment can seem like an insurmountable challenge. To compound the situation, we're often caught in the whirlwind of escalating issues. A barrage of tickets comes our way, each demanding immediate attention, and resolutions that were due "yesterday." [Customer success tips to make your SaaS product stand outMaking your SaaS company stand out in an increasingly competitive world isn’t easy. As technology continues to evolve, customers are searching not just for the best selection of features, but an amazing experience too.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMichelle Laurey![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/clay-banks-NiYS_ExTdg8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-tips-to-make-your-saas-product-stand-out/) This urgency often diverges our conversations from value-based engagements to purely transactional pricing discussions. While the broader industry might be inclined to haggle over the price, our vision at Adobe is to underscore the intrinsic value behind our solutions. We pride ourselves on offering premium solutions, ensuring our customers recognize and appreciate the unparalleled value they bring. However, these circumstances create a perfect storm, especially when contract renewals loom on the horizon. Picture this: You're six months away from renewing a significant customer contract. Instead of engaging in a dialogue about the unparalleled value you offer, the conversation veers towards comparisons with competitors and relentless price negotiations. For a Customer Success Manager (CSM), this is the proverbial nightmare scenario. So, the pertinent question arises: How do we innovate from this juncture? To answer this, we first need to delve deeper into the reasons that have led us here. [![A powerpoint slide showing text: "Why? How did we come to this point?"](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/jksQZAINjgR_VWt3QVkghSj3s6GCtiBLEhKdt-oUW5CcKJnYm2cBrkDbdFAX71I-HGzTitUpkgQTwS-8XXDlkCz-RX4h2XiH5D5MeYRA9tfyLADWx6OybLxPJ8T1UYCDY6v95L8PtA79q_gaqEME3nI)](https://www.saasalliance.io/collaborate-create-and-disrupt-to-elevate-the-customer-experience) Understanding the underlying factors causing customer disengagement is pivotal. Only when we comprehend why customers are reluctant to discuss expanding their strategic footprint with our solutions can we truly innovate and rebuild those invaluable relationships. ## **The true cost of customer acquisition vs. retention** It costs five times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. The effort, resources, and financial outlay required to bring in new customers is quintuple the amount needed to nurture and maintain our existing relationships. This underscores why there's immense pressure on businesses to retain customers. The numbers further elucidate this: by merely reducing customer defection by **5%**, businesses can potentially increase customer profitability by a whopping **25%**. These aren't just incremental percentage points; these are game-changing figures. To put it in another perspective, a modest **2%** increase in customer retention yields the same benefit as cutting costs by **10%**. [The customer health score: How to master this metricChurn is a major problem for SaaS companies that are looking to scale fast, and that’s why it’s essential to master your customer health score. Find out how here!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSGrace Gupta![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/community-health-scores.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-customer-health-score-how-to-master-this-metric/) By retaining customers, we're not just preserving a business relationship for the short term. We're investing in the increased profitability that accrues over the entire lifetime of that customer's association with our brand. Given these statistics, it's hardly surprising that most organizations pull out all stops to ensure they hold on to their clientele. Many of us feel this pressure, akin to being pinned with our backs against the wall. But before the weight of these challenges becomes too daunting, I have a message for you: Don't fret. There's a way forward. ## **Harnessing the power of data and tools** At Adobe, as is the case with many who engage with SaaS solutions, we are in a privileged position. We have access to a veritable treasure trove of data. Millions of contact points lie at our fingertips, offering powerful real-time insights. These insights grant us the ability to make predictive analyses, from forecasting trends to pinpointing surges in traffic or conversion rates. Think of events like Black Friday; we can anticipate them and formulate strategies accordingly to optimize revenue, boost conversion rates, and launch timely campaigns. But it doesn't stop there. Our toolkit is further enhanced by cutting-edge AI-driven tools and models. The capabilities of AI in this realm are vast, and from a customer success standpoint, the tools at our disposal are plenty. [Leveraging data to build a great productChristine Itwaru, Principal Strategist at Pendo.io, takes you through the steps you need to take to pinpoint metrics for effective product management.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChristine Itwaru![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/03/data.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/leveraging-data-to-build-a-great-product/) We're equipped with value-based conversation playbooks and strategic account planning tools. These resources empower us to **collaborate seamlessly** with our account teams, pondering and strategizing on ways to amplify our engagement with customers. But do we truly need all these tools? It's essential to ask this, especially as we consider other utilities at our disposal, such as maturity assessments. When a new customer joins our fold, it's crucial to gauge their level of maturity in their digital transformation journey. This understanding lays the groundwork for formulating subsequent strategies. To aid this, we have collaborative platforms and a plethora of other tools. Yet, with such an extensive list, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. A German adage comes to mind: "You can't see the forest for the trees." Essentially, with the multitude of tools and resources at hand, the bigger picture can sometimes be obscured. But imagine these tools as pieces of a puzzle. The challenge and opportunity lie in understanding how to fit them together optimally. ## **Rediscovering creativity and purpose in customer relations** Cast your mind back to those formative years in school. We were instilled with the promise that, as adults, we would lead lives filled with success, creativity, and enjoyment. Yet, it's ironic how many of us find ourselves ensnared in the monotony of our daily routines. Our days often unfold in predictable patterns: waking up, heading to work, attending meetings, monitoring customer data, maintaining strategic success plans, assessing customer health, escalating tickets, and so on. But is this the life we envisioned? Do any of us truly aspire to be perpetually anchored to our desks, bound by the chains of routine? Where has that promised creativity and fun factor evaporated? A few years ago, I decided that this would not be my life. I refused to be confined to this mold, and it all boiled down to one paramount question: What is the issue at the heart of the customer's concerns? Why would a customer prioritize a discussion about pricing over understanding the unique value we bring to the table? A poignant reminder of this came from one of my major clients who candidly remarked: *"You can boast the finest products and processes in the world. But if you're not truly listening to us, we might just have to consider your competitors."* That feedback, especially coming from such a significant client, was a tough pill to swallow. It led me to reflect deeply on our approach: where were we faltering, and more importantly, what could we do to set things right? ## **Cultivating success: Balancing data with humanity** How do we address these challenges? It's time we reevaluate our definition of cultivating success. While data, processes, and frameworks undeniably play a pivotal role in customer success, they shouldn't overshadow the importance of personal interaction and understanding. The essence of our role isn't just about navigating through countless meetings; it's about genuinely discerning the needs and challenges our customers face. Once we identify these issues, we can then effectively employ our array of tools and data to address them. To be clear, I'm not downplaying the significance of the data we possess or the tools we utilize. They are immensely valuable. However, our primary focus should be to truly grasp the heart of our customer's issues. Once we've done that, it's then a collaborative journey. We can either take a step back and reassess our strategy or in tandem with our customers, chart out the next phases. Looking ahead, consider this: Where do you envision your digital transformation journey in five years? It's essential we lay the groundwork now, always keeping the human touch at the forefront of our customer relations. ## **Reinventing with creativity: Marrying data with the arts** What's the missing ingredient in our arsenal of tools, processes, and data? It's creativity. I've always held the belief that creativity is the secret sauce, enabling us to harness our vast reservoir of data and tools in the most imaginative ways. When I joined Adobe in 2015, I was imbued with this vision. I discussed with my management the need to shake things up, to do things differently. I saw Adobe as the perfect platform where data and science could harmoniously intersect with the arts. The headlines these days are abuzz with tales of AI artists revolutionizing industries. From AI-composed songs making waves in the music industry to the seismic shifts AI is causing in photography, the landscape is undeniably evolving. We're on the brink of a renaissance, and the repercussions will unfold over the coming weeks, months, and years. [Offering customer success at scaleIn this article, I’ll explain our journey, how we came to the decision to start scaling our approach and why, and how we transitioned our CS org from ‘support on steroids’ to a strategic partner in the business using living resources, scalable content, and a targeted and proactive approach.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMatt O’Boyle![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/christina-wocintechchat-com-faEfWCdOKIg-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/offering-customer-success-at-scale/) To thrive, we must innovate in sync with these paradigm shifts. The key is not merely to innovate but to do so creatively. We should be aiming to surprise and delight our customers at every turn. In every interaction, be it team meetings or customer engagements, I always aim to inject a hint of creativity, a little something to elicit a smile. Sure, we're all familiar with icebreakers and their role in forging connections. But it's about more than just breaking the ice. It's about cultivating trust. Without trust, we become stagnant, confined to our monotonous routines, unable to truly innovate and evolve. We need to ensure that we never find ourselves trapped in that cycle. ## **Five tips to amplify customer success with creativity** Here are five quick tips on how I work on making a positive difference with my customers, and how you can induce the ingredients to make customers successful with creativity. ### **1\. Personal branding through interaction** Before you can make a meaningful impact, you must establish your presence. Ensure that your name becomes synonymous with value and expertise in your interactions. It's not just about making an impression on your customers, but also on colleagues, partners, and any other stakeholders. With creative branding, you not only get remembered but also become integral to their operations. ### **2\. Embrace the power of listening** It might sound simple, but the act of asking questions and then genuinely listening can work wonders. Allow your colleagues, partners, sales teams, and especially your customers to share their thoughts. As you let them speak, take diligent notes. Their insights can often lead to actionable strategies. ### **3\. Translate knowledge into action** Once you've gathered all that valuable information from your interactions, it's time to act. Kick your team into ideation mode, brainstorming creative solutions tailored to the specific needs and pain points you've identified. Remember, knowledge without action remains dormant potential. ### **4\. Engage authentically** Communication shouldn't be limited to mere email exchanges or sending out links. True engagement means remaining visible and accessible to your customers. It's about being there, checking in, and genuinely being interested in their progress and concerns. ### **5\. Reaffirm and confirm** Post-discussions, always take a moment to summarize and confirm the discussed points. It reinforces your attention to detail and ensures that both you and your customer are aligned in terms of expectations and next steps. This little step can save a lot of confusion down the line and solidify trust. Incorporating these tips into your interactions can redefine your relationship with stakeholders and infuse creativity into customer success. ## **Maximizing engagement through creative presentations and collaboration** ### **Personalized introduction slide** While most professionals have introduction slides, it's essential to go a step beyond the conventional. Instead of just naming your company, why not incorporate its logo? Pair that with a professional (or casual, depending on your audience) photo of yourself. Utilizing AI technology for a personalized touch, such as welcoming them based on their location, can make your presentation stand out. Adding quirky or fun information about yourself or your organization can also make it more memorable. ### **Relevant imagery** When introducing processes or discussing new concepts, it's always helpful to add relatable imagery. Instead of just using generic stock images, consider using pictures that resonate with your client's environment. A picture of their building or a familiar setting can capture their attention and make your presentation more relevant. For instance, if working with a painting manufacturer, infusing the presentation with color can make your content resonate with them. ### **Ideation and collaboration** Collaborating with colleagues and customers isn't just about exchanging ideas; it's about forging connections. Platforms like MyArrow offer a conducive environment for such collaborations. Employ these platforms creatively, ensuring that your collaborations stand out. It's all about making your work so distinct that colleagues and customers instantly recognize it as yours. ### **Use diverse tools for structure** There are plenty of tools available, both online and offline, that can help structure your presentations and team tactics. These tools can help in effectively conveying your story. The key is not just to use these tools but to use them creatively, capturing the attention of colleagues and customers. ### **Unleash your creativity** The main takeaway here is not to hold back. Whether it's using colorful designs, introducing interactive elements, or just presenting things differently, any creative endeavor that makes your presentation or collaboration memorable is a win. The goal is to engage deeply, ensuring that your content sticks in the minds of your audience, and fostering deeper connections. By integrating these strategies, you not only make your presentations more effective but also foster stronger and more meaningful relationships with both colleagues and customers. ## **Leveraging tools and creative approaches for customer engagement** ### **Present digestible information** Rather than bombarding customers with lengthy links or large screenshots, consider breaking them down. By segmenting the information and presenting it in digestible chunks, you can ensure better absorption and appreciation by your customers. Highlight the importance, the potential beneficiaries, and the outcomes. Explaining the context can significantly improve engagement and conversion rates. [![A powerpoint slide showing text reading: "Adobe Acrobat Sign - Upcoming Skill Builders Series 2023"](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/pqfXtJ4l_IcS-ixcsAqahIDkiiH21IbhBBeclb2gVzVkyswpXdLNiqWCbRmEU25gnX10yvA1WzHmEQiPjJcYsiTK65ZRIDEJlOpkzu91DbAKDgNBMaS5lfrDqi8zCutKxejTggRkCLMCCSe--2Ky3wQ)](https://www.saasalliance.io/collaborate-create-and-disrupt-to-elevate-the-customer-experience) ### **The power of video** Videos are engaging and often more effective than text. If you have the means, utilize them as often as possible. Whether it's content you've created or from a marketing team, video provides a dynamic way to explain products, services, or concepts. Highlighting the reasons for purchase through a quick video can help users better understand their decisions. [![Powerpoint slide text: "The basics of Adobe Acrobat Sign"](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/99BmJmLuSPHK639w5JF5q5H4IaFXAzN8vQvumGVedVDJhKtsJ3lOfPGn_f-4hHSJUbcj2qHGpD_gaK5K5L7arK1fpQDwFIB854IIlcXCf7fAUfO4sQABigV2EVviNfVObl9D2bsLI9AyacYQ8zMNouo)](https://www.saasalliance.io/collaborate-create-and-disrupt-to-elevate-the-customer-experience) ### **Documenting meetings** Always remember the power of meeting minutes. Not only does this approach keep things organized, but it also shows clients and colleagues that you're attentive and proactive. By detailing what was discussed, noting tasks, and assigning ownership, you establish control and reliability. Even if you didn't host the meeting, sending out concise minutes can be a game-changer in how you're perceived. [![Powerpoint slide: Stop wasting time](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/CoeYUC94WmW-GMC4zym08MABiZWScPl7s9eQHXrpTsfXIX_mZbveCAFzpn1iSCT4JqBS32O2Ic17ZauOjTzUu9F2gUY2eSmj8LgRBNGlptMtKQEe50sVdzxCcHbdyldzXBjS8soKcv1pal7jyhzeSL4)](https://www.saasalliance.io/collaborate-create-and-disrupt-to-elevate-the-customer-experience) ### **Exploring AI** AI can be a powerful ally in the modern world. Use it to your advantage. Whether it's for creating media or streamlining tasks, AI can remove a significant amount of manual work. Such tools help in visually representing transitions, like moving from traditional to digital modes of operation, as seen in the example with the municipality of Amsterdam. These visuals, combined with creative captions or explanations, can tell a compelling story. [![Powerpoint slide text: "What's all the talk about AI"](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/FHYfnzadvb_WVhrDC44XnLPVx13kxeoI05JUbXCXxSFT1HSTqDsBVHR--t0qEGHDXCX-djn4a8N0m1aQz5_C23R8ARjEwlFpy0B7_G8Zuq3OsGAKBfe43jucjjI1uw5H9o--UNvpLieJbMoBPnfvigU)](https://www.saasalliance.io/collaborate-create-and-disrupt-to-elevate-the-customer-experience) ### Becoming your own success artist: Unleash your creativity One of the most potent tools in your arsenal is the element of surprise. When you bring something unexpected to the table, whether it's a unique approach, a novel idea, or a different perspective, you make an indelible mark. Surprising your colleagues and customers ensures they remember you, setting you apart from the crowd. Every tool, every piece of data, and every process provided by your organization is an asset waiting to be tapped into. These resources aren't just idle instruments; they're the foundation on which you can build your success story. But it's crucial to remember that these tools are just the beginning; they provide the structure, but you bring them to life with your creativity. Embrace unconventional thinking. Sometimes, the best ideas and solutions come from venturing outside the boundaries of conventional thought. Identify when you're at your most creative and capitalize on those moments. [How customer success & product management make a SaaS dream teamBelieve it or not, there’s quite a lot in common between customer success and product management. Both have the ability to work wonders for your SaaS product. This guide walks you through how to use them to get a dream team.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1504270997636-07ddfbd48945?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDV8fGRpZ2l0YWx8ZW58MHx8fA&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-and-product-management-saas-dream-team/) For some, it's the stillness of the morning; for others, it might be the hustle of the afternoon or the serenity of the night. With the myriad of tools and data at your disposal, there's no longer an excuse to avoid innovation. From using drone footage to showcase an office to employing other inventive methods with clients, the world is your canvas. You are not just a professional; you are an artist, sculpting success stories with a blend of data, tools, and imagination. Ultimately, our work's objective, beyond the tasks and projects, is to foster happiness, joy, and satisfaction. It's about making an impact, leaving a mark, and, most importantly, eliciting smiles. There's no greater reward than witnessing your colleagues or customers light up with a genuine smile, reflecting their appreciation and joy. In the end, it's these moments that truly count. Every professional journey is punctuated with challenges and routine tasks. But by interweaving your unique creativity and leveraging the resources available, you can transform any ordinary venture into an extraordinary experience. So, always remember: seek out those smiles, for they are the true testament to your success. ### SaaScast: How to attract investors and drive innovation URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-how-to-attract-investors/ Last updated: 2023-09-28T14:04:17.000Z In these economically volatile times, startups need to go the extra mile to secure that all-important funding. But how do you get there? In this episode of SaaScast, we dive into a VC's perspective. Meet Joe Dormani, Partner at Thomson Reuters Ventures. In this dynamic discussion we go deep into what exactly it takes to make your product shine in today's oversaturated market. Listen here. **🎧** [‎SaaScast: How to attract investors and drive innovation on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep How to attract investors and drive innovation - 28 Sept 2023![](https://t0.gstatic.com/faviconV2?client=SOCIAL&type=FAVICON&fallback_opts=TYPE,SIZE,URL&url=https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-to-attract-investors-and-drive-innovation/id1544750249?i=1000629507874&size=128)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts126/v4/a4/4d/5f/a44d5fae-5046-a15e-a689-2605bf2c3483/mza_10035764847765952101.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-to-attract-investors-and-drive-innovation/id1544750249?i=1000629507874) ## Enter Joseph Dormani As an experienced investment strategist with a wealth of experience in SaaS, Joseph comes armed with first-hand insights into what it takes to get your startup funded and how successful organizations approach growth. Here are some of the key factors he outlined in the episode: 📈What are the key milestones investors look for? 🤝How do you tackle a pitch? ⛔What are some of the common pitfalls for startups? But most importantly, how do we make this a partnership in driving innovation, not just growth? All that and so much more in this exclusive insight from a VC's perspective. Dive in! ## Get involved Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Creator, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: [anthony@futureofsaas.io](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-how-does-empathy-drive-innovation-in-saas-design/anthony@futureofsaas.io). ### Top 30 jobs to kickstart your SaaS journey URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/top-30-jobs-to-kickstart-your-saas-journey/ Last updated: 2023-09-26T17:17:17.000Z These days, the whole world has gone SaaS, and we love it! But we know it can be pretty daunting for newbies looking to join the ranks of this vibrant industry. The good news? The world of SaaS is diverse, and one of the major causes of its continual rise is the broad pool of talent that make up the SaaS ecosystem. So, whether you’re a data wiz, a product maestro, or even someone who’s just really good at talking to customers, there’s a place for you. The number of roles are endless. But to make it this as digestible as possible for you, we’ve broken the job titles listed here down into six major functions: - Sales - Marketing - Consultancy - Product management - Engineering - Operations Ready to get started on your SaaS journey? Let’s dig into what’s waiting for you today! ## Sales In the world of SaaS, sales is the glue that connects your products with eager customers. It's not just about sealing the deal; it's about understanding folks' needs, proving your product's worth, and keeping the love alive with your users. A great sales person will figure out what makes customers tick and how your solution can help. Simply put, they'll be able to showcase the virtues of your product so it resonates with user pain points. [Sales: The rules of engagementSales is a complex and competitive business - and never more so than when deciding who gets the credit for what: who gets the commission and, just as importantly, who gets the recognition?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/muyuan-ma--xHZBzv4Naw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-the-rules-of-engagement/) ### SaaS sales consultant SaaS sales consultants are the secret sauce in the SaaS sales journey. They're the bridge between sales smarts and tech wizardry, making sure sales opportunities soar and users get a smooth ride onboard. What they do: - Tech guru: They're the go-to for all things technical. - Showtime: They dazzle with epic product demos. - Team players: They team up with the brains behind the product. - Feedback fiends: They gather intel to make your product even better. ### Business development representatives Meet the Business development rep (BDR) – the unsung hero of the sales world. They're the ones digging up new leads through phone calls, emails, and social media, then making sure the hot ones get passed to your account gurus. What they do: - Lead hunters: They chase leads relentlessly. - Lead matchers: They pair the right leads with your account executives. - The first step: It's where many sales champs begin their journey. [Scaling Sales Enablement: A Product Marketing PerspectiveSapphire Reels took us through a case study and provided practical tips for scaling sales enablement to win the hearts of your sellers while driving the right value-selling behaviors.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.45.13.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-sales-enablement-a-product-marketing-perspective/) ### SaaS sales account executives Join the ranks of SaaS account executives – the deal-closers of the tech world. Your mission: take charge of the entire sales journey for your leads and accounts, from finding them to sealing the deal. What you'll do: - Full-spectrum sales: You own the entire sales cycle. - Inbound action: You're the one they call when leads come knocking. - Ultimate flexibility: Your job's a mix of different sales adventures. ### Enterprise sales executive Step into the shoes of an Enterprise sales executive. In this role, you’ll be concerned with large enterprise accounts with intricate needs and marathon sales journeys. What you'll tackle: - Big game hunting: You're after the large, complex accounts. - Top-level engagement: You bring senior-level skills to the table. - Tailored solutions: You're the product guru for your org. - Revenue rockstar: You're the cash cow for SaaS organizations. [Top 7 Sales enablement tools for SaaS leadersWhen it comes to effective sales enablement, which tools should you be using? We’ve compiled a list of 7 top sales enablement tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/tools-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-sales-enablement-tools-for-saas-leaders/) ### SaaS sales engineer The SaaS sales engineer is the tech guru behind successful sales journeys. They're the ones who light up demos, prove concepts, and have all the answers for users. Here's what they do: - Tech support heroes: They're your go-to tech backup during sales. - The one with the answers: they should be able to solve user technical complaints. - Team tech advisors: They should keep the sales team informed on the technical aspects of the product. - Upsell opportunists: They have a hawk eye for upsell opportunities. ### SaaS customer success manager SaaS customer success managers are the champions of user satisfaction. Their mission: onboard, support, and be a helping hand for customers on their SaaS journeys. Even if you have no experience in SaaS, if you have a good track record of giving customers what they’re looking for, then customer success might be for you. Here's their game plan: - Smooth sailing: You ensure customers sail smoothly through onboarding. - SaaS tour guide: You guide, train, and support users every step of the way. - Upsell opportunists: Spotting opportunities for growth is one of the crucial ways you’ll be able to help your org grow. [Customer success metrics that drive 95% retentionIn this article, I’ll be discussing the customer success metrics you should be tracking at each and every stage of the customer lifecycle. With them, you can drive retention and ensure your customer success function is successful in delivering value to the customer.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSwati Chopra![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/yoav-hornung-Qg6lPXJ6IL4-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) ### SaaS sales manager As the SaaS sales manager you’re the captain of the sales ship. Your mission: lead a team of sales reps to victory. Here's your playbook: - Quota setter: You're the one who sets the bar high. - Rep coach: You mold sales stars with your expertise. - Performance analyst: You dissect the numbers for success. - Marketing maven: You collaborate on growth strategies. - Revenue commander: Your team's success is your mission. ### VP of sales As the VP of sales you’re the driving force behind the entire sales machine. Your goal is to lead the charge, set the vision, and make revenue soar. Here's what your roles would be: - Visionary leader: You set the sales course for growth. - Cross-functional maestro: You orchestrate harmony with other departments. - Report captain: You keep everyone updated with sales insights. - Revenue driver: You're the one who makes the numbers soar and hits target. [Revenue operations - the new key to unlocking growth?Leore Spira, Head of Revenue Operations at Buildots (and former Head of Revenue Operations at Syte), talks enablement, operations, and the rapidly changing organizational structures of today.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDaniel O’Dowd![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/jaye-haych-7tkDoo2L_Eg-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/revenue-operations-the-new-key-to-unlocking-growth/) ### Chief revenue officer The Chief revenue officer is in charge of all things revenue, from sales and marketing to customer success and strategy. Here's their domain: - Revenue visionary: They chart the course for revenue growth. - All-in-one leader: Sales, marketing, and more fall under their command. - strategy architect: They design the blueprint for revenue success. ## Marketing Join the world of SaaS marketing, where creativity meets strategy. Marketers wear many hats, from content creation and email campaigns to social media magic and SEO tricks. They're the lead generators and funnel nurturers. Let's dive deep into the whole plethora of roles you can take on in the marketing realm. ### Marketing manager As a marketing manager, your mission will be to craft, execute, and analyze marketing strategies that conquer trends, meet needs, and seize opportunities. Here's what you'll do: - Trend tracker: You're always on top of market research, with a hawk eye for new trends that your company should be capitalizing on. - Channel maestro: You wield the power of social media, email, and ads to extend your company’s message. - Team collaborator: You’ll be reaching out to other teams to ensure your org ticks along like a well-oiled machine. - Metric maven: You’ll be tracking the numbers to ensure your team is well on the way to reaching and exceeding their goals, as well as always being aware of what the broader company objectives are. - Team leader: You inspire and lead the marketing team, supervising their work and ensuring that they’re carrying out company objectives. Your role is pivotal, driving brand recognition, customer growth, and loyalty through market-savvy strategies and campaigns. [SaaS MarketingAs the demand for cloud-based software continues to grow, SaaS companies are facing intense competition in the market. Here is a guide to help you develop a successful SaaS marketing strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_Marketing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) ### Content marketer Content Marketers are the storytellers and strategists behind customer engagement. Their role: craft captivating content, perform keyword wizardry, and optimize for SEO. Here's what you’ll be doing: - Content creators: You’ll whip up blogs, ebooks, videos, and more and find fresh, dynamic ways to present your company’s message. - Strategy architects: You’ll plot content calendars and distribution plans so that your content plan is strategically scheduled to really give your content the spotlight it deserves. - SEO wizards: Your job is to make sure that your company’s content stays visible in search results. - Audience captivators: Your role is to tap into those user pain points, creating content that resonates deeply to maximize conversions. - Multichannel maestros: You’ll be spreading content far and wide, giving your content the wings it needs to reach a wide audience. As a content marketer, your focus is on using content to entice, engage, and convert target audiences across the entire customer journey. Content marketing is unique in the marketing sphere in that it’s value-led. [Top SaaS marketing and content toolsA high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) Customers today are savvy to traditional ‘CTA driven’ marketing. Content builds your brand reputation by solving real solutions that customers have, positioning your org as a problem solver and thought leader rather than cynical cash grabber. From that foundation of trust rock solid retention is built, and conversion becomes inevitable. ### Product marketing manager You’ll be the mastermind behind strategic and tactical marketing for SaaS products, perfectly aligned with buyer needs. Your job includes: - Messaging champion: You’ll craft compelling positioning and messaging that leads to conversions. - Go-to-market guru: You’ll outline winning strategies to ensure your product really shines on a global scale. - Trend tracker: You’ll analyze market and customer trends to make sure your brand stays ahead of the curve. - Pricing strategist: You’ll design effective pricing and packaging strategies so that users become paying customers. - Metrics expert: You’ll report on product performance and highlight ways that your strategy needs to change. - Dev team liaison: You’ll provide essential feedback to development, so that demands for features and improvements can be met. - Competitive analyst: You’ll keep an eye on rival offerings to ensure that your product stands toe to toe and exceeds the competition, becoming a real industry heavyweight. In this role, you'll ensure SaaS products thrive through expert marketing strategies and insights. [Personalize your B2B marketing with AIIn this article, we’re going to take a look at the different applications for AI in providing a personalized experience to your customers and why they would be beneficial to your relationship.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/Personalize-your-B2B-marketing-with-AI.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/personalize-your-b2b-marketing-with-ai/) ### Chief marketing officer A Chief marketing officer (CMO) is the top marketing strategist who aligns marketing tactics with business goals, championing a customer-focused, data-driven approach. In the position of CMO, you'll take on the role of: - Brand ambassador: You become the public face and voice of the brand. - Strategy leader: You harmonize marketing strategy with business strategy to ensure that marketing goals are always aligned with wider business goals. - Financial steward: You'll manage budgets and optimize resources to ensure that careless spending doesn’t cut into profits and that resources are distributed in the right direction. - Partner collaborator: You cultivate valuable relationships with agencies and vendor so your company’s message can be heard far and wide. - Innovation trailblazer: You explore new horizons for growth and improvement, keeping an eye open for new channels and marketing tactics. - Progress reporter: You keep executive leadership and stakeholders informed about outcomes and advancements. ### VP of marketing Here, you’ll be the strategic marketing leader at the helm of the entire marketing operation, driving it toward business success. In this capacity, your key responsibilities encompass: - Team leadership: You manage marketing teams to peak performance. - Financial monitor: You wield budgets to maximize impact. - Strategic architect: You design and execute company-wide marketing strategies. - Sales collaboration: You partner with the sales department so that the team knows exactly what the unique selling points are to push. - Executive advisor: You provide insights on marketing opportunities so that the team has direction. - Creative director: You steer creative teams in line with the company’s wider vision. - Brand ambassador: You represent the company's image at industry events, putting a friendly, trustworthy face to your brand. As the VP of marketing your role is pivotal in steering marketing efforts towards achieving organizational goals and fueling growth. Your team may be bursting with creativity and ideas, but are they in line with your company’s broader mission statement? This is what you’ll cement as VP of marketing. [What are marketing development funds and how can they maximize growth?As a rapidly scaling SaaS business, you’re likely working across multiple channels. Marketing development funds can help you stay strong across all channels. Here’s how!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/funding.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-marketing-development-funds-and-how-can-we-use-them-to-maximize-growth/) ## SaaS consultancy In the realm of SaaS consultancy expert advisors offer strategic guidance and hands-on support to help organizations shape, launch, and thrive with their SaaS products and platforms. For most SaaS professionals this is the kind of role they consider later in their journey, however, it's still helpful to be mindful of the kind of roles waiting for you later down the road. SaaS is here to stay and with that comes career longevity. ## SaaS business consultant This role is a fusion of technical mastery and strategic guidance, guiding clients towards successful SaaS integration. In this role, your mission encompasses the following roles: - Financial analyst: You model costs, benefits, and ROI for SaaS solutions. - Special advisor: You recommend optimal SaaS architecture and integrations. - Vendor navigator: You assist clients in selecting the perfect SaaS provider to resolve their problems. - Metric leader: You establish KPIs and metrics for SaaS performance, so leaders throughout your company know exactly what their north star is. Your ultimate goal is to equip clients with the insights and strategies they need to thrive in the SaaS landscape. SaaS consultants will often be individuals who have already garnered quite a reputation in the industry. Think of them like the old sages – they’ve been there, done that – and they’re here to pass on their wisdom to younger talent. ## SaaS product manager SaaS product managers are the architects of product strategy, roadmap, and the customer-centric masterminds behind feature prioritization. As a SaaS product manager, your tasks include: Strategic visionary: You craft the product's strategy and roadmap: your roadmap should outline goals and priorities, so that your whole team is in sync on what needs to be delivered. Voice of the customer: You capture the voice of the customer by always being mindful of customer feedback, ensuring your product is always informed by customer demand and pain points. Requirement guru: You ensure precise definition of customer needs. As a result the team are keenly aware of the product’s purpose and vision. [SaaScast: Leading product management through turbulent timesHow do you prepare your org and your product for times of crisis? One of our goals with SaaScast is to help you future proof your product.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Jodie_--1---1-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/leading-product-management-through-turbulent-times/) Engineering collaborator: You work hand-in-hand with engineers on the technical demands of the product. It’s all good and well to have great ideas but you have to ensure it’s technically feasible. Ultimately your job is as follows: Understand, create, and deliver SaaS products that not only meet customer pain points, but exceed expectations, surprising and delighting customers. Now, let's take a look at the various roles you can take on within product management. ### Technical product managers Technical product managers are the bridge builders between engineering and product development. Your job is a pretty herculean task: You decode technical complexities, define specs, and empower teams to create cutting-edge products. As a technical product manager in the SaaS domain, your responsibilities include: - Engineering liaison: You facilitate seamless collaboration between teams, ensuring a close working relationship between your creative and technical talent. - Technical detective: You investigate feasibility and dependencies. Your product might be a great idea, but what are you going to need to make it a reality? - Spec creator: You craft detailed specs and documentation, so the whole org knows exactly what the product’s purpose and capabilities will be. - Prototyping pro: You bring new tech capabilities to life through prototypes which give everyone an idea of what the end product will look like. - Internal educator: You share technical insights with internal stakeholders; Everyone needs to be aware of how the product functions. Your role is to ensure the technical prowess behind SaaS products can deliver on the product’s mission statement. [SaaScast: Building profitable products with customersWith several years of experience leading product teams, Jacqueline knows how to drive a SaaS org to reach that product roadmap vision.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_3.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-profitable-products-with-customers/) ### SaaS solutions architect SaaS solutions architects collaborate with customers, sales, and various teams to craft tailor-made SaaS solutions. In this role, your tasks encompass: - Integration orchestrator: You design integration and configuration strategies. - Requirement gatherer: You collect vital intel on customer needs and the current tech landscapes.What new solutions are available on the market, and how can you use them? - Solutions sage: You create holistic SaaS solutions covering processes, data models, integrations, and configurations. - Implementation planner: You assist with planning, including data mapping, imports, and testing. In this role you’ll engineer SaaS solutions that fit like a glove, empowering businesses to thrive in the digital realm. [SaaScast: Building a sustainable growth engineWe all want our SaaS orgs to run like a well-oiled machine. But what does that look like in practice? In economically turbulent times, it’s important that SaaS leaders are investing in marketing efforts that are going to lead to long-term, sustainable growth.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Jon_Chang-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-building-a-sustainable-growth-engine/) ### Growth product managers growth product managers oversee user acquisition, activation, retention, and upsell strategies. Their mission: boost product growth through data-driven insights and feature enhancements. In this role, your core duties include: - Testing trailblazer: You conduct A/B tests to refine product performance. - Data detective: You analyze user behavior data to uncover growth opportunities and locate spots in the customer journey where your product might be falling short of customer expectations and needs. - Strategy specialist: You devise and execute growth strategies by being mindful of how your product can improve and innovate. - Feature innovator: You implement features that are in line with customer expectations and make your product stand out on the global stage. Your goal: Propel the product to new heights by enhancing user experiences and driving key growth metrics. ## Engineering Engineers are the backbone of SaaS companies, a metaphor that’s especially apt when you consider that, without the technical nuts and bolts, your product is all empty promises and abstractions. You’ll be dedicated to crafting, maintaining, and expanding cloud-based products so that there are no fires to put out on your path to growth and innovation. Engineering teams blend technical prowess with a customer-centric mindset, meaning that your product can always walk the walk as well as talk the talk. [Product development team structure for SaaS organizationsProduct development teams are the most crucial point in any SaaS pipeline, despite that, many SaaS startups have little if anything in the way of team organization.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLuis Gomes de Abreu![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/07/javier-allegue-barros-i5Kx0P8A0d4-unsplash--2---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-development-team-structure-for-saas-organization/) ### Devops engineer A devOps engineer fine-tunes development and deployment processes for peak efficiency. You'll be tasked with designing, deploying, and maintaining automated tools that monitor applications, facilitate seamless code changes, and streamline development and release pipelines. In this role, your core responsibilities include: - Automation expert: You design and implement automated deployment and monitoring tools. - Code tester: You ensure code changes are automatically built and tested. - Process streamliner: You craft strategies to optimize development and release workflows. Your role is to ensure a perfect synergy of automation and efficiency, driving smooth and agile development and deployment in SaaS environments. ### Data engineers Data engineers are the architects of data infrastructure in SaaS companies. You’ll be designing, constructing, and upholding large-scale processing systems, crafting the backbone for data-driven decisions. In this role, your key responsibilities encompass: - Infrastructure builder: You create and maintain data processing systems so everything ticks along like clockwork. - Data specialist : You design data architectures and integrate diverse sources, and the whole org can track their process and align their KPIs to the company vision, facilitating company synergy. - Reliability : You ensure data redundancy and backup procedures. - Pipeline mastermind: You develop and manage scalable data pipelines. Your ultimate goal is to make sure insights and decision-making are informed by robust and scalable data infrastructure. ### Quality assurance engineer Quality assurance engineers are the guardians of SaaS software quality. Quality assurance engineers design and execute tests, ensuring that SaaS software meets stringent quality standards. This includes both manual and automated testing. You’ll be safeguarding your brand from the damaging effects that software failure can bring to your brand. In this role, your core responsibilities include: Tester: You design and implement comprehensive test suites. Quality gatekeeper: You ensure SaaS software meets the highest quality standards. In this role think of yourself as the final safeguard of the integrity and reliability of SaaS software. It might not be the most flashy role, but you are absolutely integral to the survival of your org, and the sustained excellence of all functions within the org. [The Dark Arts of Data: Evolving from Sales Training to Sales ProductivityWe’re going to step through why we should prioritize data and analytics, what we should be looking at and give you guys some actionable metrics that we can start to track.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.31.30.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-dark-arts-of-data/) ## SaaS operations SaaS operations are the unsung heroes who ensure seamless and reliable service delivery to customers. Operations teams are are like the solid beams that hold the ship together, working closely with various departments for smooth sailing. Some people like to be leaders, others like to be facilitators, but both are necessary within the SaaS sphere. ### SaaS operations manager A SaaS operations manager is the orchestrator of operational efficiency, performance monitoring, and issue resolution. Operations managers are the driving force behind seamless service delivery. In this role, your key responsibilities encompass: Cross-team coordinator: You harmonize efforts across teams for operational excellence. Metrics mastermind: You monitor performance metrics and KPIs. Problem solver : You implement strategies to tackle challenges. SLA enforcer: You ensure compliance with service level agreements so your company doesn’t fall into legal hardship Internal operations overseer: You manage HR, finance, and legal aspects of internal operations. Your ultimate goal is to optimize operations, uphold performance standards, and ensure operational compliance, both internally and externally. ### Database administrator A database administrator safeguards data integrity, performance, and security in the SaaS realm. You’ll be entrusted with maintaining the databases that power SaaS products. The core aspects of your role include: Data keeper: You safeguard data integrity, performance, and security. Maintenance hero: You conduct routine tasks like backups, updates, and scaling. Ultimately, if you decide to take on this role you’ll be making sure SaaS product's data infrastructure remain rock-solid, reliable, and secure. ### Security operations engineer You’ll be the vigilant protectors of the SaaS fortress. Security operations engineers are responsible for monitoring, fortifying, and staying one step ahead of potential threats to ensure the security of the SaaS product. In this role, your core responsibilities include: - Sentinel on watch: You vigilantly monitor the SaaS platform for security breaches or vulnerabilities. - Fortification fighter: You design and maintain security tools and infrastructure. - Threat tracker: You stay updated with the latest threats and countermeasures to keep the SaaS product secure. Your mission is to safeguard the SaaS fortress against all potential threats, ensuring it stands strong and secure. [The Dark Arts of Data: Evolving from Sales Training to Sales ProductivityWe’re going to step through why we should prioritize data and analytics, what we should be looking at and give you guys some actionable metrics that we can start to track.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.31.30.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-dark-arts-of-data/) ## Wrapping up Whichever path you decide to take, you’ll find a home in the vibrant world of SaaS. This industry is home to a diverse ecosystem of talent – what will you bring to the table? Let’s find out. Start your SaaS journey today – you’ll be in good company! --- *Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Elevate your scaling game: Top 3 frameworks for success metrics and board updates URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/elevate-your-scaling-game-top-3-frameworks-for-success-metrics-board-updates/ Last updated: 2024-11-13T12:59:04.000Z What if you could instantly align your executive team, board, and investors on the [metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics/) that matter most? As head of the SaaS Vertical at Sage Intacct, I’ve helped over 2000 peers do just that. After partnering with SaaS leaders at all stages, from early traction to IPO, I’ve identified proven frameworks to help track success & inform your board as you scale. In today’s uncertain market, alignment and visibility into core [metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-our-metrics-and-what-are-our-kpis/) can make or *break* your valuation. This article will walk you through the exact frameworks I’ve honed from working with thousands of SaaS companies. You’ll learn everything from how to identify your “cathedral metrics” to how to install systems that create alignment at all levels. I’ll also share tactical examples of SaaS leaders that leveraged these techniques to improve growth, [retention](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/), and valuation. If you want to get your executive team, board, and investors rallied around the metrics that matter, I hope you’ll find this article invaluable. So, let’s dive in! - ****Framework 1: Identify Your Key Metrics** - ****Framework 2: Set targets that drive growth** - ****Framework 3: Track progress to align your team** - ****Key takeaways** ## Framework 1: Identify your key metrics I like to start with a story that illustrates the importance of metrics that capture your higher purpose, not just operational details. Think of a medieval cathedral builder hustling down a dirt road to the worksite. He passes three people laying bricks and asks each one, “What are you doing?” The first replies, “I’m stacking bricks.” The second says, “I’m stacking bricks to build a wall.” The third answers, “I’m stacking bricks to build a wall to construct a cathedral that will stand for generations.” The first person is focused on tasks, the second on immediate goals. But the third connects their daily labor to a higher purpose. As you tell your company’s story through metrics, go beyond “stacking bricks” of operational data. Link metrics to the cathedral you’re building – your mission and reason for being. Now let’s get practical. Every SaaS company has a unique [value proposition](https://www.saasalliance.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) and business model. There’s no one-size-fits-all metric. Factors like your customers, contracts, market dynamics, growth projections, [go-to-market](https://www.saasalliance.io/go-to-market-aligning-with-growth-product-and-sales-to-drive-growth/) model, and more determine which metrics best capture your “meaningful underlying business dynamic.” [20 metrics for SaaS marketersIn this article, we’ll be sharing 20 important metrics for SaaS marketing, ranging from acquisition metrics to monetization metrics. We’ll explain what each metric is, how they can be tracked, and most importantly, why they should be tracked.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDean Millar![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/matthew-ball-TFE_-9eLmEs-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-metrics-for-saas-marketers/) As examples, common SaaS metrics include: 🌱 **Growth:** ARR, logo/dollar retention 💵 **Profitability:** Gross margin, net revenue retention, CAC payback 🏃 **Efficiency:** Avg revenue per employee, payback period ⚖️ **Financial health:** Cash burn rate, months of runway To pick your “cathedral” metrics, first get[ alignment across leadership](https://www.saasalliance.io/aligning-sales-with-post-sales-to-drive-customer-lifetime-value/) on your definition of value. **Where do you agree? Where do you disagree?** Ruthlessly focus on productive outcomes. Then consider factors like: **\- Customer types and segments** **\- Contract lengths and revenue recognition** **\- Growth stage and market maturity** **\- Billing and sales models** For example, SaaS companies that recently IPO’d calculate churn very differently: **\- Box:** Contracts >$5K in Annual Contract Value **\- SmartSheet:** Customers with 4+ users **\- Dropbox:** Customers billed >$100 per month Work with your board and auditors to [tailor metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) to your unique business. Just be clear in definitions and calculus. 💡 **Now take a moment to reflect:** What 1-3 metrics best capture your “meaningful underlying business dynamic”? Is your team aligned? If not, how can you get there? [SaaS metricsIt goes without saying that Saas orgs want to grow and scale, right? Whether you’re a hot new startup, mid-growth, or a late-growth established brand, all SaaS orgs want their revenue to skyrocket.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_metrics.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics/) ## Framework 2: Set targets that drive growth Once you’ve identified key metrics, you need macro-level targets to gauge success. Investors' expectations shift as you progress from seed stage to IPO. Here’s an overview: **Early Stage:** \- Show 10+ happy customers to prove product-market fit \- Define ideal customer profile (ICP) and repeatable sales cycle **Growth Stage:** \- Prove value delivery through consistent pricing \- Create 3-year targets showing product-market fit **Late Stage:** \- Show scalability through benchmarks like net revenue retention \- Demonstrate path to profitability and cash flow **Early stage** companies should focus on customer traction and repeatable growth. Measure product adoption across cohorts, sales velocity through the funnel, and direct customer feedback. Use these insights to refine ICPs and product roadmaps. In the **growth stage**, concentrate on proving value delivery, repeatable sales cycles, and compelling unit economics. Key metrics are Months to Recovery on CAC and LTV:CAC ratios above 3-4x. **Late stage** companies need to assert market leadership through predictable, profitable, and efficient growth. Track revenue growth vs. market benchmarks, operational metrics like net revenue retention and sales rep productivity, and traditional P&L metrics. At each stage, link metrics to milestones that reinforce your specific value proposition and business model. 💡**Take a moment to reflect on your company’s stage.** Where are your metrics strong? Where do you have concerns? How can you improve alignment on targets? [OKRs for SaaS startupsImplementing a framework used by a global technology conglomerate at a small-scale start-up may seem daunting, after all at this stage of growth your goals will be wildly different, however, as you’ll come to find out the beauty of OKRs is that anyone can set measurable goals!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/kelly-sikkema-v9FQR4tbIq8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/okrs-for-saas-startups/) ## Framework 3: Track progress to align your team You need operational rigor to track performance against targets. Implement systems to capture the right data and cascade insights across teams. Most SaaS companies start by automating core processes like billing and revenue management. But collecting accurate data requires minimizing manual reconciliation. The most effective way is an integrated platform that unites systems on a single data model. This eliminates duplication and ensures everyone uses the “single source of truth.” With robust data capture, you can create powerful analytics like cohort reports, renewal forecasts, and driver-based models. These provide visibility into health metrics like MRR, churn, LTV:CAC - segmented however you want. Shared dashboards can also align executives, managers, and reps on priorities. Setting variable forecasts helps teams understand how their day-to-day execution rolls up into targets. This fosters a “line of sight” on how each person impacts success. For example, Springbuk, Intacct’s “Customer of the Year”, scaled efficiently by tracking metrics like: \- **7%** churn improvement through better customer analytics \- **26%** faster financial reporting through automation \- **19%** gross margin improvement from forecast-driven decisions They credit visibility into ICPs and billing models with millions in extra value creation. That’s the **power of measurement!** ## Key takeaways So there you have it! The three proven frameworks I've seen move the needle for thousands of SaaS companies. These techniques have helped SaaS leaders like Springbuk improve churn, reporting speed, forecasting, and more. The impact is **millions in increased value creation**. Now it's your turn to apply these frameworks. And remember: work ON the business, not just IN it. Step back regularly to align your metrics, targets, and systems with strategic growth. **Onward and upward!** ### How AI and remote work are shaping the future of SaaS URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/brace-for-impact-how-ai-and-remote-work-are-shaping-the-future-of-saas/ Last updated: 2024-10-31T11:05:20.000Z This article comes from our **SaaScast** episode, '*How will AI and remote work shape the future of SaaS*', with **Valentina Thörner**, check out the full episode [**here**](https://listen.casted.us/public/158/SaaScast-d5577738/23793e7c/share/de6ae601)! The future of work is here … *are you ready for it?* Between surging remote work arrangements and lightning-fast advances in AI, our workplaces are evolving at warp speed. These dual forces have the potential to either propel our productivity and work-life balance to new heights - or overload our brains and drive us towards burnout. So how do we capitalize on the massive opportunities while sidestepping the risks? As someone who's worked remotely for over 10 years and helped countless startups implement effective virtual work strategies, I've seen two huge developments poised to transform the SaaS industry - the **growth of remote work** and the **rise of AI**. There's been non-stop talk about how these trends will impact the future of work, so in this article, I'll share some of my insider perspectives on AI and remote work. I'll also outline some of the most crucial implications leaders need to consider so we can maximize the benefits while avoiding the pitfalls. Let's dive right in! - **AI’s key strengths and limitations** - **Automation** - **Human touch** - **Smart integrations** - **Question assumptions** - **Final thoughts** ## AI’s key strengths and limitations There's a ton of hype around AI right now. On one extreme you have people hailing it as a kind of god that will solve all our problems. Then there's doomsday folks warning the robots will take all our jobs and we'll be left destitute. The reality is that **AI is simply a tool.** A very powerful one, yes, but still *just a tool*. Here are some of AI's key strengths and limitations: ✅ Huge potential to help us work more efficiently ✅ Excels at consuming volumes of data and generating summaries, recommendations, and predictions ❌ Lacks real understanding, opinion and the ability to recognize when it's wrong This means we still *very much* need human oversight and involvement. AI lacks the ethics, relatability and basic common sense that people provide. I always say AI is like a little kid - great at soaking up information, terrible at critical thinking. As SaaS companies continue experimenting, it's absolutely crucial we use AI thoughtfully and avoid handing over too much responsibility to black box systems we don't fully understand. Ethics in AI is becoming its own field and will only grow in importance. We have to remember that just because we technologically *can* do something, doesn't automatically mean we *should*. ## Automation One of the clearest [upsides of AI in SaaS](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#8-challenges-for-end-users-and-practitioners) is time savings. By automating repetitive, mundane tasks it allows us to focus energy on higher-value work. However, the big question is how exactly will companies use this freed up time? Will they simply squeeze more output from workers? Or will the benefits be shared more equitably? There's a real risk of unintended consequences here. We can't expect people to sustain sharp focus for extended periods just because the boring stuff has been removed. The brain actually needs a mix of mundane and challenging tasks to function at its best. If we don't think carefully about how to utilize time savings from AI, we may inadvertently drive burnout. My view is that companies need to make **deliberate choices** about how to integrate AI in a way that improves work-life balance and avoids burnout. For example, they could implement: 🗓️ **A 4-day work week** **⏰ A 6-hour workday while maintaining pay** **🚗 More flexibility about when/where work happens** **🖥️ Require scheduled breaks from screen time** The exact approach will differ. But the key is **using AI to empower more meaningful work and personal time**, not squeeze every last drop of productivity from employees. Defining what "productivity" really means in terms of outcomes rather than hours logged will be vital. [How you can use AI to push boundaries in SaaS productsJuliette Denny, CEO at Growth Engineering, outlines Artificial Intelligence in detail, including how it can be used to push boundaries in SaaS.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJuliette Denny![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/possessed-photography-zbLW0FG8XU8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/) ## Human touch There's a saying that no man is an island. The same goes for AI - as advanced as it becomes, it will never replicate core human experiences like grief, love, friendship and connection. As SaaS companies embrace flexible remote work, leaders should be very wary of letting convenience lead to isolation. Just because we can offload certain tasks to AI doesn't mean we should eliminate human interaction. It’ll remain crucial for managers to intentionally build rapport, trust and understanding with individual team members. One size fits all communication doesn't work - people's preferences vary enormously. For example, some may love **public recognition in a Slack channel** when they do great work. Others may **find that mortifying**. Some want critical feedback during a live call so they can **react in real-time**. Others strongly prefer getting written notes 2 days prior so they can **process privately** first. The key is getting to know your people and tailoring your management approach accordingly. This kind of individualized support is impossible for AI to replicate and remains essential. [How AI can help your SaaS company to scale and achieve retentionWith qualitative and quantitative insights from the leading minds in SaaS, this article showcases how AI can scale your SaaS org at pace today.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/AI.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-ai-can-help-your-saas-company-to-scale/) ## Smart integrations While wholesale handover to AI isn't wise, here are some smart integrations I've observed firsthand: - **Using AI to minimize logistical headaches** when planning global team meetups. It handles optimal airports, cheap flights, dates that work across timezones, food restrictions etc. - **Writing more inclusive, unbiased job descriptions.** AI can flag problematic language. But the final review should come from a human recruiter. - **Automating collection of check-in notes from 1-on-1s**. Then using AI to generate quarterly summaries of management strengths/growth areas to streamline performance reviews. - **Offloading tedious data collection** and reporting to free up strategic planning. AI perfectly handles rote tasks like traffic stats - but strategy should stay human. In each of these cases, AI eliminates grunt work while empowering people to focus on higher judgment tasks only humans can handle well. **The key is striking the right balance.** [Personalize your B2B marketing with AIIn this article, we’re going to take a look at the different applications for AI in providing a personalized experience to your customers and why they would be beneficial to your relationship.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/Personalize-your-B2B-marketing-with-AI.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/personalize-your-b2b-marketing-with-ai/) ## Question assumptions The pandemic forced a massive remote work experiment almost overnight. It led to many assumptions about the nature of work to be reconsidered. In that spirit, technology like AI and virtual collaboration offers new potential - but companies should carefully examine if old ways of operating still make sense. A few key questions they should ask: \- *Do we need an office for "tribal knowledge" or is that just a documentation problem?* *\- Does physical proximity actually increase connection and innovation for distributed teams?* *\- Does everyone benefit from a generalized approach, or should we customize based on individuals?* Rather than binary thinking - fully remote or fully in-office - we should strive for a "third way". **Blend the benefits while minimizing the pitfalls.** For example, giving employees stipends to choose their own workspaces outside the home for 2-3 days per week. The takeaway is that we now have more options than ever before - we should explore them with open minds rather than defaulting to old assumptions. ## Final thoughts If used deliberately, AI and remote work can **transform SaaS for the better**. They allow customization around individuals, broaden access to talent, improve work-life balance and increase efficiency. But we have to balance technology with human needs for connection, ethics and healthy work limits. Equipped with that mindset and a willingness to experiment, we can enter an **exciting new era of work that makes the most of both human and technological capabilities.** The future remains undefined - and that's incredibly empowering if we approach it thoughtfully. --- *Enjoyed this article? Why not check out more exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS Membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How to build the perfect email cadence for maximum conversion URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-the-perfect-email-cadence-for-maximum-conversion/ Last updated: 2023-09-15T16:48:16.000Z B2B marketers love emails. It is their top revenue generator. [64%](https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/email-marketing-stats#b2b) of marketers say email marketing was responsible for meeting business goals. But there's a catch. The [emails](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-is-email-marketing-important-to-improving-customer-retention/) have to be relevant and at the right pace. In other words, have the right cadence. Here's an example. [![Zach Francisco's successful email campaign](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/aaron-einkelman.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-inbox-to-impact-unleashing-ais-potential-in-email-driven-product-growth) Zach Francisco, sales lead at Letterdrop, sent Aaron Winkelmann, VP of Content at Corporate Visions, a series of cold emails. The campaign was a success. What stood out? The [messaging](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-brand-messaging-changes-for-b2b-and-b2c-companies/), personalization, and cadence. ## What exactly is an email cadence? Email cadence is more than how often you send an email. It is the frequency, timing, content, and audience of an email campaign. Let's go through some common email cadences below. 👇 ## Nurturing users during a free trial Often, free trials last a week or two, so there's no time to waste. Begin with an introductory tutorial. Follow up with emails showcasing your product's popular [features](https://www.saasalliance.io/is-it-time-to-switch-from-feature-to-outcome-driven-product-roadmaps/). As the trial period ends, guide them on how to upgrade. CopyAI’s free trial onboarding emails are a good example. Their welcome [email](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-boost-b2b-lead-generation-through-email-marketing/) shared valuable tips on getting the most out of the product. [!["Welcome to CopyAI" email](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/copy.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-inbox-to-impact-unleashing-ais-potential-in-email-driven-product-growth) Next, an email with instructions on how to use the app's most popular features. [![Copy AI Instruction email](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/dbH2dGEDaX_m0cJoeRwtxyx0rR-LyM6FmY4_CWvuS4vbcVwDelDTmnVhUb_sZ4JBJ4nJuV0Do0LEK39RSPDEKD6DP1afchZnfy-GV7eF_VqWK9v4Lq0Wgx97mFk2YqFe3jffwlACJtJwCfUED9nrT6o)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-inbox-to-impact-unleashing-ais-potential-in-email-driven-product-growth) After two weeks, an email requesting [feedback](https://www.saasalliance.io/using-customer-feedback-and-win-loss-interviews-to-improve-your-product/). [![Copy AI's feedback email](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_qxSO8hpNtSm93Nb6u26ne1fZwqWUfB-5fHtXpOlNB2P4_5LEkBUOzoP7xN4VEJu37aDAsE50HMSrIVkx5B86NgpmnazNhWmXDGzhk--i4hebYmfS8WrTG0ri_fohvPAGv5D75MT1hgAiGt_Udnra2s)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-inbox-to-impact-unleashing-ais-potential-in-email-driven-product-growth) ## Keeping users engaged after a sale Keeping your customers engaged is key to [renewals](https://www.saasalliance.io/b2b-customer-renewals-q-a-with-freshworks/) and upsells. But don’t overwhelm them. Instead, space out valuable resources, guides, tutorials, and case studies. Segment customers based on usage patterns. Then target those who might need additional licenses or specific add-on features. Send specific emails to those groups highlighting the benefits of an upsell. Before the end of the subscription, offer incentives to encourage renewals or upgrades. ### Curating a cadence to appeal to different segments Let’s say you provide cloud computing services to businesses. And you’re trying to reach two segments: IT managers and C-level executives. IT Managers are cool with weekly updates and product offers. They want to stay up-to-date with new tech trends and solutions. C-level executives are busy and prefer high-level content. So it makes sense to adopt a monthly newsletter with industry insights, case studies, and executive summaries. ## How to Find the Right Email Cadence for Your Campaign ### 1\. Set clear email marketing goals First, define your goals for the email campaign. Increase sales? Promote a new product? Nurture leads? Or thought leadership? Be clear about it. Match email campaign goals with overall business and marketing goals. Set [KPIs](https://www.saasalliance.io/okrs-for-saas-startups/) to measure CTRs and track conversions. If your goal is to establish thought leadership, this means high-level weekly or monthly emails with original research or expert POVs. Of course, it won't be like a daily welcome email drip campaign. ### 2\. Set Up a preference center Let customers choose the type of emails they want to receive and how often. If you offer a variety of emails, such as monthly roundups, promotional emails, weekly industry news, and so on. Let customers choose which emails they want to receive and how frequently. You can include all of these options in your preference center. Also, keep an email preferences link in the footer of each email. So subscribers can make changes whenever they wish. Rather than unsubscribing completely, they will be able to manage their preferences. ### 3\. Segment Users The most successful email campaigns segment subscribers and personalize messages. In fact, marketers say that personalized and segmented email campaigns have led to a [760%](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-new-rules/) rise in email sales. Customer Segments to Consider: - Engaged Fans Loyal subscribers. They open, click, and interact with your emails regularly. Some might have seen your content elsewhere or bought from you before. Send them personalized thank-you emails for their support. You can also give rewards or early access to new products or features. - Potential Customers Leads who've shown interest in your offerings but haven't converted. They might have signed up for newsletters, downloaded resources, or attended webinars. Focus on nurturing this segment. You can send targeted discounts, product information, and case studies depending on interests. - Inactive Subscribers Try a re-engagement email campaign. Personalize based on previous interactions or purchases. Tailor the email content to match their specific interests and pain points. Test different subject lines and timing to optimize engagement. Send a farewell email if there's still no response. ### 4\. Collect Customer Feedback The best way to get customer data is to ask short, insightful questions instead of making it look like a chore. You can even use thumbs up and thumbs down emojis in some cases. Make the process easy and enjoyable for your customers by following these tips: - Keep it short and sweet. Long surveys can be intimidating. Stick with concise and engaging questions that are easy to answer. Example: "How satisfied are you with our recent product update? - Ask questions that match your goals. Example: "How likely are you to recommend our services to a friend or colleague? - Encourage customers to share their thoughts and provide valuable feedback with open-ended questions. Example: "Please share any additional comments or suggestions to help us improve our services." - Address customers by their names and make the experience feel personalized. Example: "Hi \[Customer's Name\], How’s it going?" ## Wrapping up Your campaign's success depends on paying attention to your subscribers and adapting the right cadence. Get it right, and you'll see a spike in click-through, and conversion rates. Keep testing and updating as your business grows and your customers' needs change. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Product-led growth insights from unexpected sources URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/product-led-growth-insights-from-unexpected-sources/ Last updated: 2024-11-13T12:58:22.000Z Good morning, everyone. It's great being the first up here. So we'll be talking about [product-led growth](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-led-vs-sales-led-vs-marketing-led-vs-customer-led-differences/) insights from unexpected sources. And it's half a keynote and half a rant about things that have kind of annoyed me about products that I have looked at. And this is based on my experience because I have been a founder. I have worked in health tech and [fintech](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-and-fintech/) and have been the solutions engineer. And you'll see that a lot of that involves doing lots of product research and trying to find solutions for different problems that you might have internally. I currently work at HelloFresh, where I lead the global order [management teams](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-development-team-structure-for-saas-organization/). Let's get going. I look for inspiration outside technology, and it's really simple if you think about the notion of product-led growth and product management. It's fairly new in technology, right? The first mention of product management was probably in the 1930s. [SaaScast: Building profitable products with customersWith several years of experience leading product teams, Jacqueline knows how to drive a SaaS org to reach that product roadmap vision.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_3.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-profitable-products-with-customers/) By P&G, we owe a lot of our theory or knowledge to the folks in marketing. And like business strategy, in technology, product management is fairly new compared to engineering and all the other disciplines that exist in the tech space. So it gives you an opportunity to take a step back and kind of look around to see if there are other things that we can learn from people who are not in the core technology space. It also gives the opportunity to break out of that groupthink mentality where we're all trying to build the Uber of X but for Y, and stuff like that. - Pillars of PLG - Where to seek inspiration - Getting over the hump - Loss aversion - The flow of friction - We all scream for ice cream - Perfume for days - Data me this - AI to the rescue - 10 years younger - Crossing the Chasm - DIY - Bake that cake ## **Pillars of PLG** So what's product-led growth anyway? Depending on who you ask, who you talk to, and how much coffee or wine they've had, you get different answers to it. It's built around four pillars: - Product - Distribution - Feedback - Monetization. I have made it a continuous cycle because it starts and ends nowhere. You have to go round and round to deliver value and to be able to build a product that's defensible in the market. But what's the biggest and most [important idea](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-ways-product-leaders-can-create-a-culture-of-innovation/) in product-led growth? It's really simple. If I came up here with a cupcake, and I said to you, this is the world's tastiest cupcake, what would be the first question you ask? How would I know? You'd like to taste it, and you'd like to know what's in it. But for some reason, in technology, we tend to forget that idea every now and then. We try to do other things to get customers without actually getting them to taste the cupcake or products. Your goal as a [product manager](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-your-product-management-role/), as someone who runs a business, would be to reduce the distance between when a customer is aware of your products and when they try out your product. This is a very old idea. It's a scene that goes back to the 1700s or so. So product idea and product-led growth is a fairly old idea. And there's a lot to learn still learn from it. ## **Where to seek inspiration** Now I suggest other areas to look for productive-led growth and inspirations for things that we can do in our commoditized and semi-commoditized markets. It asks the simple question of how do I differentiate something that looks like everything else? And markets that face this dilemma tend to put their products at the front of the experience because they have no other avenue or no other opportunity. I'd suggest we look at food and beverage, look at retail, look at the automobile, and cosmetics industries, and see how they drive growth. Right now, this is the generic [marketing funnel](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-an-awesome-saas-marketing-funnel-to-convert-prospects-into-die-hard-advocates-2/), conversion funnel; call it whatever you want. The question is, what parts does a great product manager play in this funnel? [SaaScast: Leading product management through turbulent timesHow do you prepare your org and your product for times of crisis? One of our goals with SaaScast is to help you future proof your product.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Jodie_--1---1-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/leading-product-management-through-turbulent-times/) So you start from awareness all the way to adoption and reference. And as a product manager, your primary goal, I'd argue, should be to get people to adoption. Right now, all the way along this funnel, there are lots of fun metrics that we can measure. But I'll argue that most of them are useless. If they don't drive adoption, there's no point. ## **Getting over the hump** I have divided this into three parts. So broadly, ****awareness**, ****interest evaluation**, but let's call it ****discovery**. And then, ****trial**. I have made it a black box and have called it the chasm at this point in time. And then you have ****conversion** and ****retention**. And the hardest thing to do is to get a prospect or a customer over that hump. And everything you do should be to drive people over that hump. Now, which part does a great product manager play in this? People might argue that discovery is the remit of the product marketers and the folks next door. But I argue that as a product manager, you want to be part of every part of this conversion funnel and realize how the features that you create affect the whole cycle. So you think about awareness from how you conduct market research. It helps you define the metrics you should be measuring and the kinds of features that you should deploy to defend your product in the market, all the way to trial adoption, how you set up your pricing, your distribution, and all of that. ## **Loss aversion** Now, I'd like to share a couple of large and overarching ideas around product-led growth. One is the notion of loss aversion. This wasn't created by me. A much smarter guy who won the Nobel Prize for Economics came up with this. It basically argues that people are more motivated by, or they're more afraid of, the risk involved in losing the thing than the incremental gain in risk. Understand that every product that you create and every customer you're trying to drive through your conversion funnel is going through this, and they have something to lose. [Leading product management through turbulent timesJodie Chan, SVP of Product and Partnerships at Chinafy, delivers top tips on how you can future-proof your product against whatever comes your way.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJodie Chan![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/03/storm-cloud.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/leading-product-management-through-turbulent-times-2/) And depending on where you are, for example, the B2B customers, you might think, what does an IT manager have to lose? You're proposing a solution to a market. You have your proposal solution internally, and you essentially have your reputation, so you're risking your job. If an IT manager goes to propose a solution that kind of tanks, well, his appraisal might not look too great in the next quarter. If you look at the SaaS scenario, where it's a single-person founder, he's risking his money. It might be his livelihood - he's putting his credit card in there, right? And he's taking a risk every time he's researching your product and signing up. As a product person, you have to always think about it from that point of view. What's my customer risking? Or what's the product of the prospect risking? And how can I help them overcome that? ## **The flow of friction** This is going to show that I’m a bit of a physics nerd, but follow me for a second here. There’s this idea of laminar flow and gravity. Water flows smoothly. That's laminar flow, right? When the water is disturbed, then you have turbulent flow, and it flows slower. I'd argue that as a product person, as a business person, your primary goal is to ensure that laminar flow happens through your product. Think about all the experiences and all the touch points and create those frictionless customer experiences, even if it might cause some churn. Now, gravity is something that we tend to lean towards as productive people, as business people, because we try to suck customers in and keep them. And if you look at what's the most aggressive example of gravity, it's a black hole. You'd find out, you see it in checkout funnels, or when you're trying to cancel a product you own or cancel a trial, it's hard because the product manager has this vanity metric where he's trying to trap as many people as he can. [Designing products for today’s knowledge workersSince Peter Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker” in his 1959 book, The Landmarks of Tomorrow, product designers, developers and marketers have sought to tap into this high-value market space with new products and technology.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSErica Kitaev![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/gabriella-clare-marino-GSLA0FVY9qI-unsplash--1--2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/designing-products-for-todays-knowledge-workers/) People have bought your product for various reasons, right? So if you consider a SaaS type product, you might have a product where there's a co-founder. If they're running out of money, they have to pivot, and they have to re-strategize. And for a certain time, they have to step out as a customer. But you have to also ensure that the experience is pleasurable for customers. Because when they start the new business, they'll come back. But if you somehow smartly conned them out of an extra month of subscription, well, you've lost a customer now and in the future. So I'd argue that when you're developing your product experiences, think about it in those two buckets. Is this laminar flow? Or am I trying to suck people in and keep them from escaping this trap that I have created? ## **We all scream for ice cream** Let's talk about a couple of examples. And I'll spend most of the time talking about examples in the discovery phase. So one is Ben and Jerry's. Ben and Jerry's is a large ice cream company that everybody knows. They did about a billion dollars last year in revenue, and they're owned by P&G. But this was Ben and Jerry's in 1979. They were around for about a year then. And they came up with a very interesting idea at that point in time. What they did was every once a year, they sample their products to the customers. And it's something that people in the consumer packaged goods industry know very well. The taste of the pudding is in the eating. When you're setting up your pricing, it's better to give a trial than a money-back guarantee. Because if you go back, you need to think about what this person stands to lose, what are they risking? Do you necessarily have to take the person's credit card for them to log in and experience your platform? If yes, your goal is to get them all the way through trial and adoption. So think about that as you implement experiences in your products. ## **Perfume for days** Here's another example. There is a very expensive bottle of perfume. I have no idea why anybody would buy a $1,500 bottle of perfume, but hey, it exists, right? How do I describe the taste of rose to you? It's the most awesome rose perfume in the world. However, this is a $1,500 bottle, so what the company has done is they have created a 10 mL bottle instead of a 50 mL budget. That's 100 bucks, which is still arguably a steep price, but hey, it's an avenue for a customer to sample that product. Here's how the customer experience for this product would work. You go into the store, pick one off the shelf, and try it out on the card. Maybe you like it. Maybe they give you a small tiny 1 mL sample. You take it home; you wear it for a day or two. You come back, and you buy a 10 mL bottle. You try that out and see how many compliments you get. And then you take the dive to buy the $1,500 bottle. [Product Owner vs. Product Manager \[Q&A with Hubspot\]Eric Peters, Product Owner, Hubspot Academy, Hubspot talks personas, what a product owner looks like at Hubspot and how to effectively support and prioritize users.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/markus-spiske-MbG7kwWptII-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-owner-vs-product-manager-q-a-with-hubspot/) For those of us who work in B2B, think about the experiences that we create for our customers. You go to a couple of B2B sites, and you look at the pricing table, and you just see enterprise and nothing else. What does that mean? There's no price to it. Think about how you can front-load value, get your customer to try out your product, and bottle an end-to-end experience for the customer. What that means is to think about how you can scale back your offering to the smallest possible size and think of it as what will drive the customer over the hump of trial to adoption. Create those little bits of experiences that your customers can explore and try out. ## **Data me this** For example, you're a B2B product, and you've created the world's most awesome visualization software. Here's how I propose you bottle that experience. Create a small sample data set that your customers can try out so they don't have to worry about loading stuff, and you’ve created a curated experience. Here's the data set of people who attended the product-led conference, and here's their height distributions or whatever. Now, here are a couple of visualizations that you can create from this and almost guide the customer through that experience. And then they can actually try out your product as opposed to slapping them with a 30-day trial or whatever and somehow hope they go clean their own data. If you think about it as a data product, one of the risks that the person is taking is data safety. You need to think about how you can create a laminar flow through your experiences and create really small end-to-end experiences that a customer can try out. ## **AI to the rescue** Here's another simple example. And this really involves removing friction, right? For those of us who wear glasses, you would know that there are a couple of decisions you have to make. One, you have to choose the right frames. Choosing that is a very annoying process because you'd have to go into the store and spend an hour trying it on and all of that. And if you have a significant order, then you're also doing things on the phone to ensure that you also look good and you get the approval of your partner. What's happening right now is a couple of companies have been clever enough to try to create a virtual trial-out guide. You take a picture with your webcam, and it does 3D. What's it called, augmented reality? And it gets you to try out a couple of frames and passes you through a quiz. It reduces the time required to actually make that choice. Think about how do I implement stuff like this within my own products. One way to also think about it is it might be something as simple as a B2B solution, or even a B2C solution, or SaaS solution. A way to guide a customer to a solution that you need or you want them to find is to implement a quiz. [Product launches for enterprise customers \[podcast\]: Suresh Krishna Madhuvarsu, Product10xOn this week’s episode, Gemma Davies, Community Manager at Future of SaaS is joined by Suresh Krishna Madhuvarsu, Managing Partner at Product10x.Suresh discusses product launches for enterprise customers, the importance of setting goals and what makes a successful product launch.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/FoSaaS_Podcast_SM_Product10x.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-launches-for-enterprise-customers-podcast-suresh-krishna-madhuvarsu-product10x/) Get them to fill out some information. And then suggest to them here are the top five features that I think that you might need. And that's a way to help a customer through that experience. Now, this sounds really simple, and everybody does this, and we all know about it. But here's an example I stumbled upon last week or two weeks ago. So I'm on LinkedIn minding my own business. And then I see a thing pop up, and it says, “Get an AI-generated headshot off your regular selfies”. Everybody has a bunch of selfies, but not everybody has nice headshots. So I was like, oh, cool. Let's try this out. [How AI can help your SaaS company to scale and achieve retentionWith qualitative and quantitative insights from the leading minds in SaaS, this article showcases how AI can scale your SaaS org at pace today.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/AI.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-ai-can-help-your-saas-company-to-scale/) So I go to the website. And here's what I see. It gives me the marketing spin and shows me examples. And here's the parts that I found really interesting, no matter the number of examples that you show me, I don't care. Would it work for me? That's really the answer that I want. So I go to the signup and pricing, and then I'm hit with the fact it’s $99\. But it's discounted to $49\. And for $49, you get 300 headshots. I'd argue that nobody on planet Earth needs 300 Professional headshots, nobody. And here, they have offered me 300 Headshots for $49\. But what do I really need? I need one headshot to test out their solution. So I'd argue that they could have offered me one free headshot and even prevented me from downloading it. But I'd see it, and be like, oh, yeah, this dashing guy looks like me, right? And I'll sign up. Think about how can we bottle up this experience, shrink it, and offer 30 headshots at $4 or two headshots at $5\. I'd argue that they'd have way better conversion in terms of driving people through that experience. So this is a really simple idea, but somehow, we're not all implementing it. ## **10 years younger** Now, here's an example of a situation where it was implemented very beautifully. And I'll give you some backstory. If you look at these pictures of me - and yes, I'm still very handsome - I have an 11-month-old, and she's about she's going to be about 12 months in a couple of weeks. I'm at that point where I'm thinking about, oh, what did I look like at that age? So I call my parents, and they send me pictures of myself from that time, and of course, it's pixelated. It's really bad. And I said to myself, there must be some solution that uses all of the AI wizardry that we have right now that could make this picture much better. So I go Googling, and I find Remedy.ai. And I didn't know them before that. But what I saw was awesome. They didn't even require me to log in. There's a page that you go to, and it says choose the file, and you upload the file. And it does its magic on it. And only then does it even require an email or require you to log in. [SaaScast: How will AI and remote work shape the future of SaaS?Meet Valentina Thörner: Your SaaS growth catalyst and remote work maven! Her speciality? Redefining distributed policies for post-pandemic success.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/Valentina-tho-rner--1-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-how-will-ai-and-remote-work-shape-the-future-of-saas/) So at this point, I have not exchanged any information. I want to know if this works at all. And that's that's the goal I had at this time. then it shows me the picture, which I think is much better. Less pixelated, however, with two watermarks. But guess what, I also didn't care at that point in time because they had taken me over that hump where I was afraid. So it's watermarked, but I pay, and they take out the watermark. What they have done essentially is they have shown me value. And they have helped me experience their products in a very real way. They didn't waste their time writing long marketing jargon and showing me examples of people that they've done this for. And that's something really powerful that we should think about when we're creating our experiences. ## **Crossing the Chasm** I have two more ideas here. One is in the idea of crossing the [Crossing the Chasm.](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-ultimate-saas-reading-list/) Think of leverage as a lead side quest. If you play games, you'd be very familiar with the idea of a side quest. Games have main plots you're driving towards, but then there's little branches of the road where you can go create your own experience - try out new and different things that don't necessarily affect the overall gameplay. Think about it this way. I was in Staples the other day. And I saw a Sharpie product, and I thought, wow, this is actually quite brilliant. So what Sharpie has done is they try to get you to buy pens. However, they want me to try out the pen because, like most other things, writing is all about how it feels, how the ink flows, and all of that. [Product development team structure for SaaS organizationsProduct development teams are the most crucial point in any SaaS pipeline, despite that, many SaaS startups have little if anything in the way of team organization.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLuis Gomes de Abreu![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/07/javier-allegue-barros-i5Kx0P8A0d4-unsplash--2---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-development-team-structure-for-saas-organization/) So they have created a crossword puzzle on top of that display and put the pens right below it. And no instruction is required. You walk up to it; you look at it, think, oh, crossword puzzle. Here's a word, you find a pen that maybe you want to buy, you circle a word, and you feel good. And then you maybe buy a pen. So here's a really good example of how you can leverage side quests to drive production trial. Think about it in the example I gave about pre-packaging some data for a customer to try out your [visualization](https://www.saasalliance.io/visualizing-success-how-effective-data-visualizations-can-drive-action/) products. Final two final ideas I'd like to share with you is the notion that efforts plus your products create love. And the implications of this are far and run very deep. And there are two large case studies. ## **DIY** The first is IKEA. There's a lot of talk about the IKEA effect. It's essentially a psychological predisposition to love something that you put together or that you built more than something that you didn't. There's research that shows that people who put together Ikea furniture - you know, that wobbly table or wobbly chair you have at home that you put together - somehow are willing to pay more than the already assembled form of it. If you go online, you'd see lots and lots of DIY blogs that show you how to take Ikea furniture and turn it into something else. And people love it because they have built it. So a part of their self-worth and self-esteem is invested in that process. I'd say, in developing your [product experience](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-personas-to-enhance-user-experience/), think about it that way. How can you allow users to customize the features that they want in your product? [Product-led growth metricsProduct-led growth has emerged as more than just a viable go-to-market strategy, it has exploded across industries and is gaining even more traction in 2021.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/isaac-smith-AT77Q0Njnt0-unsplash--1---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-led-growth-metrics/) Typically, you would have pricing that's basic, expert, and enterprise, and it goes from worst to best. However, I’d argue that if you were solving a SaaS type solution, maybe look at pricing differently. Price is based on the number of features. Let customers actually choose the features. So 3 modules, 5 modules, 10 modules to actually let a customer put their stuff together. That's why they have created their own solution. And they'll fall in love with it because they had the choice. Think about it even in a B2B scenario. An IT manager is able to customize perfectly the solution in the way that he wants. Part of his self-esteem has now evolved in what has been created. And he will be your champion in his organization. So you just created a new[ brand ambassador](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-unlock-customer-advocacy-through-user-generated-content/) for yourself. ## **Bake that cake** The second and final example I'd like to give is that of General Mills. In the 1950s, I think 1952 specifically, Betty Crocker created a cake mix. It had one simple solution and one simple instruction, just add water. And that was it. And you think about it, that's awesome. However, it failed miserably. Why did it fail? Because it didn't involve effort. Mothers didn't feel like they were bakers anymore. They didn't need to do anything. They felt guilt. So General Mills interviewed customers, and customers told them that, and what the company did was release a new iteration of their product. [Designing products for today’s knowledge workersSince Peter Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker” in his 1959 book, The Landmarks of Tomorrow, product designers, developers and marketers have sought to tap into this high-value market space with new products and technology.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSErica Kitaev![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/gabriella-clare-marino-GSLA0FVY9qI-unsplash--1--2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/designing-products-for-todays-knowledge-workers/) The new instruction was to add eggs and water, and it seems like a really basic idea. But somehow, because now they've added eggs, people are cooks. They're caring for their families. They're putting love into what they're baking, and the product took off. That's another example of how you can allow people to customize their experiences and help them get over that chasm and to adoption in your product funnel. I hope that gives you some external perspective on some product-led growth ideas that you can implement in your tech solutions today. Thank you. --- *Enjoyed this article? Check out more exclusive insights [OnDemand](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-ondemand/) right here.* ### Your ultimate SaaS reading list URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/your-ultimate-saas-reading-list/ Last updated: 2023-09-15T14:25:00.000Z With a whole plethora of knowledge literally at our fingertips nowadays, you might ask: What’s the real value of purchasing books for business knowledge? 🤔 Well, we think it provides a crucial opportunity to disengage from the screen, unwind a little, and upskill in a relaxed environment. So pour yourself your favorite beverage, find a comfy spot on the sofa…. Recline and recalibrate with these top SaaS books. ☕ ## [1\. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal ](https://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Products/dp/0615978622) ![Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/hooked-border-2.jpeg) The author’s core mission behind writing this book: make a handbook for start-up founders—a guide to show them how it's done when you're just starting out. It's the kind of book every newbie craves. Every startup founder wants – above all else – to create a product that really hooks its claws into the psyche of potential customers. Whether your expertise is in product, marketing, design, or software development, every aspiring SaaS professional is just itching to know how to create a product that becomes a permanent fixture in a customer’s life. This book might just scratch that itch. You might think that a lot of SaaS books are too fixated on useless theory, but this book is dedicated to providing you with actionable advice and strategies that aim to transform your key business practices in a way that drives positive outcomes. Soak up these insights in the comfort of your home, and witness the tangible results in your place of work. [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Products/dp/0615978622) ## [2\. SaaS Sales For Startup Founders by Steli Efti](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/315483/downloads/SaaS%20Sales%20book/saas-sales-for-startup-founders.pdf) ![SaaS Sales For Startup Founders by Steli Efti](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/saas-sales-border2.jpeg) A massive pain point for SaaS startup founders: How do you turn free-trial customers into paying customers? It’s not enough just to have a great idea; you gotta have a great sales pitch. Luckily, Steli Efti’s book comes with a whole plethora of pitch examples and case studies so that you can get first-hand insight on how to effectively turn your users into buyers. Although the advice in this book aims to get you to a pro-level of expertise, it's designed to be accessible to novices in the sales game that means minimal jargon, with concrete examples and templates for sales techniques. [Read it here](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/315483/downloads/SaaS%20Sales%20book/saas-sales-for-startup-founders.pdf) ## [4\. Behind the Cloud by Marc Benioff](https://www.amazon.com/Behind-Cloud-Salesforce-com-Billion-Dollar-Revolutionized/dp/B08BCS5WLC/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=2GQEBRG1URIEL&keywords=behind+the+cloud%27+by+marc+benioff&qid=1694613360&sprefix=behind+the+cloud%2Caps%2C182&sr=8-1) ![Behind the Cloud by Marc Benioff](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/behind-the-cloud-border2.jpeg) If you want to learn how to blaze a trail through the SaaS landscape, it’s important that you follow the example of the world-beating brands that came before. Sure, the SaaS world is rapidly evolving – and that’s what we love about it. But there are still some pretty tried and true principles that we can all live by. And what better place to look for that than in Marc Benioff’s definitive account of growing an idea into a $50 bn cloud business. But this is no ego trip. This book zooms in closely on the exact strategies that allowed Benioff's business to hit SaaS superstardom in a relatively short space of time so that you can integrate them into your own strategy. [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.com/Behind-Cloud-Salesforce-com-Billion-Dollar-Revolutionized/dp/B08BCS5WLC/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=2GQEBRG1URIEL&keywords=behind+the+cloud%27+by+marc+benioff&qid=1694613360&sprefix=behind+the+cloud%2Caps%2C182&sr=8-1) ## [5\. Kicking SaaS: 101 Founders on What it Takes to Launch a Software as a Service By Kelsey Yarnell](https://www.amazon.com/Kicking-SaaS-Founders-Software-Service/dp/B09WQDWSLZ?ref=futureofsaas.io) ![Kicking SaaS: 101 Founders on What it Takes to Launch a Software as a Service By Kelsey Yarnell](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/kicking-saas-2.jpeg) When it comes to launching a SaaS product, no two paths are ever going to be the same. We all come from different backgrounds and disciplines, and that’s part of what makes the SaaS industry so fun! So when you’re looking to find the approach that suits you, it helps to draw insight from many different sources. Well, this essential resource does just that, providing insights from SaaS founders across multiple different areas of expertise. And this is not just self-aggrandizement, we’re honing in on the mistakes and pitfalls that SaaS experts have faced along the way. As an aspiring SaaS leader, you’re sure to face hurdles, but with this compilation, you’ll come armed in advance with a solution for clearing them. [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.com/Kicking-SaaS-Founders-Software-Service/dp/B09WQDWSLZ) ## [6\. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore](https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-3rd-Disruptive-Mainstream/dp/0062292986/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=1LC2BEUBI978P&keywords=crossing+the+chasm&qid=1692268537&s=books&sprefix=cros%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C193&sr=1-1&ref=futureofsaas.io) ![Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/Crossing-the-chasm-2.jpeg) Now in its third edition, this book aims to swiftly close the gap between early adopters and late majority customers. It’s no secret: in order to become profitable, SaaS companies need to be looking to scale quickly. You don’t want your product to be a hidden gem or a best-kept secret. But scaling quickly is no easy feat and there are many who overlook essential steps to growing a viable business in a relentless effort to scale. But this book puts those failures under the microscope so that you can determine exactly what you need to do to ensure that your product is the brand on everyone’s lips in no time at all. Geoffrey A. Moore’s seminal work was included in Inc Magazine’s top ten marketing books of all time, as well as being a Business Week bestseller. [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-3rd-Disruptive-Mainstream/dp/0062292986/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=1LC2BEUBI978P&keywords=crossing+the+chasm&qid=1692268537&s=books&sprefix=cros%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C193&sr=1-1) ## [7\. Mastering the Product Experience: How to Deliver a Personalized Experience with a Product-led Strategy by Alon, Pono and Bonofiglio](https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Product-Experience-SaaS-Personalized-ebook/dp/B078YY4Y93/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=3Y1MKO0U3E4L&keywords=Mastering+the+Product+Experience%3A+How+to+Deliver+a+Personalized+Experience+with+a+Product-led+Strategy&qid=1692268698&s=books&sprefix=mastering+the+product+experience+how+to+deliver+a+personalized+experience+with+a+product-led+strategy%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C147&sr=1-1" target="%5Fblank" style=) ![Mastering the Product Experience: How to Deliver a Personalized Experience with a Product-led Strategy by Alon, Pono and Bonofiglio](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/mastering-product-led-growth-1-2.jpeg) In this age of SaaS revolution, the power is well and truly in the hands of the customers to be extremely selective in terms of the products for their tech stack. As such, the pressure to make customers feel valued is greater than ever. Many customers will prefer to experience the value of your product first-hand rather than take your word for it. With a product-led experience, the value of your product alone should be self-evident, and customers will be able to see for themselves how your solution is going to positively impact their lives. With over 12 years experience building and growing SaaS organizations, Mickey Alon is certainly over-qualified to demonstrate how this is possible. Check it out for yourself. [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Product-Experience-SaaS-Personalized-ebook/dp/B078YY4Y93/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=3Y1MKO0U3E4L&keywords=Mastering+the+Product+Experience%3A+How+to+Deliver+a+Personalized+Experience+with+a+Product-led+Strategy&qid=1692268698&s=books&sprefix=mastering+the+product+experience+how+to+deliver+a+personalized+experience+with+a+product-led+strategy%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C147&sr=1-1%22%20target=%22%5Fblank%22%20style=) ## [8\. Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters by Richard Rumelt](https://www.amazon.com/Good-Strategy-Bad-difference-matters/dp/1781256179/ref=tmm%5Fpap%5Fswatch%5F0?%5Fencoding=UTF8&qid=1692268802&sr=1-1" target="%5Fblank) ![Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters by Richard Rumelt](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/good-strategy--bad-strategy-border2.jpeg) As well as being an Emeritus professor at UCLA and a graduate of Harvard business school, Richard Rumelt, is a distinguished authority when it comes to business strategy. Many SaaS companies have great products, but unless your go-to-market strategy is up to standard, your product can very easily get lost in the noise of a busy market. Position your product for success. Give your product the go-to-market strategy it deserves today. [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.com/Good-Strategy-Bad-difference-matters/dp/1781256179/ref=tmm%5Fpap%5Fswatch%5F0?%5Fencoding=UTF8&qid=1692268802&sr=1-1%22%20target=%22%5Fblank) ## [9\. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout](https://www.amazon.com/Positioning-Battle-Your-Al-Ries/dp/0071373586/ref=sr%5F1%5F2?crid=2CGTT7FCSXAM0&keywords=Positioning%3A+The+Battle+for+Your+Mind&qid=1692269104&s=books&sprefix=positioning+the+battle+for+your+mind%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C401&sr=1-2) ![9. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/Positioning_-the-battle-for-your-mind-2.jpeg) Do you find that traditional advice on marketing doesn't take into account the modern cultural landscape? In an age of idle screen-scrolling, many consumers have become desensitized to sales pitches and marketing speak, and organizations that are seeking to grab their attention will often find themselves in an uphill battle, especially due to the sheer volume of competition, given the platform that social media provides to innumerable companies. The good news is there are still ways to break down those barriers. And this book, written by Al Ries, the coiner of the term ‘positioning,’ aims to help you achieve that thing that all modern marketers should aspire to: remaining competitive in the modern business landscape. [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.com/Positioning-Battle-Your-Al-Ries/dp/0071373586/ref=sr%5F1%5F2?crid=2CGTT7FCSXAM0&keywords=Positioning%3A+The+Battle+for+Your+Mind&qid=1692269104&s=books&sprefix=positioning+the+battle+for+your+mind%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C401&sr=1-2) ## [10\. Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets by Ramadan, Paterson, Lochhead and Maney](https://www.amazon.com/Play-Bigger-Dreamers-Innovators-Dominate-ebook/dp/B015MOJ80G/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=9JR0XY9FXUXE&keywords=Play+Bigger%3A+How+Pirates%2C+Dreamers%2C+and+Innovators+Create+and+Dominate+Markets&qid=1692269236&s=books&sprefix=play+bigger+how+pirates%2C+dreamers%2C+and+innovators+create+and+dominate+markets%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C189&sr=1-1) ![Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/play-bigger-2.jpg) What do Uber, Amazon, Ikea, and Salesforce all have in common? Two things. Firstly, they’ve all absolutely crushed it in their respective industries, and secondly, their success stories are all featured in this essential resource. Want to be able to hang with the biggest heavyweights in the game? Well, first, you need a blow-by-blow account of how they dominated the market, so you can beat your competitors to the punch. [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.com/Play-Bigger-Dreamers-Innovators-Dominate-ebook/dp/B015MOJ80G/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=9JR0XY9FXUXE&keywords=Play+Bigger%3A+How+Pirates%2C+Dreamers%2C+and+Innovators+Create+and+Dominate+Markets&qid=1692269236&s=books&sprefix=play+bigger+how+pirates%2C+dreamers%2C+and+innovators+create+and+dominate+markets%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C189&sr=1-1) ## [11\. The Culture Map: Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures by Erin Meyer](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Culture-Map-Decoding-People-Cultures/dp/1610392760/ref=pd%5Fsbs%5F1?pd%5Frd%5Fw=vXT6A&pf%5Frd%5Fp=2cc879b3-0437-401a-870d-ced07a584039&pf%5Frd%5Fr=RQ9X0K40MFANGFRG7XFX&pd%5Frd%5Fr=2da69c87-650d-4080-bffc-690fba41b6eb&pd%5Frd%5Fwg=zipJy&pd%5Frd%5Fi=1610392760&psc=1) ![Image of The Culture Map paperback ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/The-Culture-Map-.jpeg) Whether you're currently working from your bedroom at home or a boardroom abroad, business success in our increasingly globalized world requires the skills to navigate thoughtfully through cultural differences. In *The Culture Map*, Erin Meyer provides a field-tested model for decoding how cultural differences impact international business. This book combines smart, analytical frameworks with practical, actionable advice which can be utilized by CEOs, marketers, and sales representatives alike. [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Culture-Map-Decoding-People-Cultures/dp/1610392760/ref=pd%5Fsbs%5F1?pd%5Frd%5Fw=vXT6A&pf%5Frd%5Fp=2cc879b3-0437-401a-870d-ced07a584039&pf%5Frd%5Fr=RQ9X0K40MFANGFRG7XFX&pd%5Frd%5Fr=2da69c87-650d-4080-bffc-690fba41b6eb&pd%5Frd%5Fwg=zipJy&pd%5Frd%5Fi=1610392760&psc=1) ## 12\. [The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail by Clayton M. Christensen](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Innovators-Dilemma-Technologies-Management-Innovation/dp/1633691780/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?dchild=1&keywords=The+innovators+dilemma&qid=1616077810&sr=8-1) ![Image of The Innovators Dilemma front cover ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/tcl-The-Innovators-Dilemma-When-New-Technologies-Cause-Great-Firms-to-Fail-Management-of-Innovation-and-Change-Clayton-Christensen.jpeg) What kind of business book listicle would this be if it didn’t include this seminal classic.? Cited by the world’s most renowned thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell, innovation expert Clayton M. Christensen has written the definitive guide on disruption innovation. Featuring the success and failures of leading companies as a guide, Christensen proves that no matter the industry or how successful your business is, established products will be pushed aside if leaders can’t and won’t abandon traditional business practices. Forbes named him “...one of the most influential business theorists of the last fifty years.” and who are we to argue with that? [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Innovators-Dilemma-Technologies-Management-Innovation/dp/1633691780/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?dchild=1&keywords=The+innovators+dilemma&qid=1616077810&sr=8-1) ## [13\. How to Castrate a Bull: Unexpected Lessons on Risk, Growth, and Success in Business by Dave Hitz](https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Castrate-Bull-Unexpected-Business/dp/0470345233/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?dchild=1&keywords=How+to+castrate+a+bull&qid=1616078647&sr=8-1) ![Image of How to Castrate A Bull's front cover ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/How-to-castrate-a-bull--2.png) One of the more off-the-wall titles in the list, *How to Castrate a Bull* is full of colorful anecdotes about how powerful business lessons often come from strange and unexpected places. Before he was the Founder of NetApp, a data storage firm currently raking in $4 billion a year, Dave Hitz was a cowboy, and it’s this transition from high school dropout, to cowboy, to Silicon Valley icon that makes this book so wildly entertaining. Dave looks to the future by deconstructing the past, with humor and incredible business insight. [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Castrate-Bull-Unexpected-Business/dp/0470345233/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?dchild=1&keywords=How+to+castrate+a+bull&qid=1616078647&sr=8-1) ## [14\. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horrowitz](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0062273205/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=31GXJKKTH7CE1&dchild=1&keywords=the+har) ![Image of the hardcover of The Hard Thing About Hard Things ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/The-hard-thing-about-hard-things-key-takeaways.jpeg) Based on his popular blog, *ben’s blog’*, Horrowitz, offers essential (and astonishingly honest) advice on building and running a startup, using his personal experience as the co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz. A lifelong rap fanatic, Horowitz weaves business lessons with lyrics from his favorite songs, addressing diverse topics from firing friends to poaching the competition. *The Hard Thing About Hard Things* is a funny and insightful guide to dealing with the tougher aspects of starting and scaling a business. [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0062273205/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=31GXJKKTH7CE1&dchild=1&keywords=the+har) ## [15\. Customer Success: How Innovative Companies Are Reducing Churn and Growing Recurring Revenue by Mehta, Steinman, and Murphy](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Customer-Success-Innovative-Companies-Recurring/dp/1119167965/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?dchild=1&keywords=Customer+Success%3A+How+Innovative+Companies+Are+Reducing+Churn+and+Growing+Recurring+Revenue&qid=1616082424&sr=8-1) ![Image of the Customer Success front cover](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/Customer-success-.png) Whether this is your first step into a recurring revenue business model or you need to revamp your SaaS company into the big leagues, this game-changing book gives you the understanding and tools you're looking for, including: - The Ten Laws of Customer Success, including real-world examples, and customized information for different business needs - How cloud technology has redefined customer success and what a customer-centric company needs to do to maintain a competitive edge - An in-depth look at the critical technology required for outstanding customer success - Easy-to-understand approaches to capturing the sophisticated metrics that drive prosperous customer-centric programs Practical, insightful, and comes highly recommended by Jim Steele, President and Chief Customer Officer of Salesforce. [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.com/Customer-Success-Innovative-Companies-Recurring/dp/1119167965/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=MPVOZUR3GTH6&keywords=customer+success+how+innovative+companies+are+reducing+churn&qid=1692267449&s=books&sprefix=customer+success+how+inno%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C191&sr=1-1&ref=futureofsaas.io) ## [16\. Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Growth-Hacker-Marketing-Primer-Advertising/dp/1781254362/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?dchild=1&keywords=Growth+Hacker+Marketing+-+Ryan+Holiday&qid=1616083229&sr=8-1) ![Image of a hand holding a copy of Growth Hacker Marketing](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/Ryan-Holiday-Growth-Hacker-Marketing.jpeg) *Growth Hacker Marketing* is a digestible explanation of this new, disruptive marketing phenomenon while offering real strategies and actionable tactics for engineers, marketers, ad execs,entrepreneurs and everyone in between. A fantastic primer for anyone looking to get to grips with growth hacking. [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Growth-Hacker-Marketing-Primer-Advertising/dp/1781254362/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?dchild=1&keywords=Growth+Hacker+Marketing+-+Ryan+Holiday&qid=1616083229&sr=8-1&ref=futureofsaas.io) ## [17\. From Impossible to Inevitable: How Hyper-Growth Companies Create Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross & Jason Lemkin](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Impossible-Inevitable-Hyper-Growth-Companies-Predictable/dp/1119531691/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?dchild=1&keywords=From+Impossible+to+Inevitable%3A+How+Hyper-Growth+Companies+Create+Predictable+Revenue&qid=1616084540&sr=8-1) ![Image of From Impossible to Inevitable lying on a bench ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/Impossibe-to-inevitiable--2.jpeg) *From Impossible to Inevitable* distills the seven ingredients of hypergrowth into actionable goals, with a matter-of-fact, no-nonsense approach to growing revenue. The template outlined in the book has been used successfully by the likes of salesforce.com, Twilio, Hubspot, Marketo, and Zuora. Whether you run a multi-million-dollar company or a small start-up, there’s lessons for fast growth to benefit everyone. [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Impossible-Inevitable-Hyper-Growth-Companies-Predictable/dp/1119531691/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?dchild=1&keywords=From+Impossible+to+Inevitable%3A+How+Hyper-Growth+Companies+Create+Predictable+Revenue&qid=1616084540&sr=8-1) ## [18\. The SaaS Sales Method: Sales as a Science - Jacco Van Der Kooij, Fernando Pizarro, Winning by Design, Dominique Levin](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Impossible-Inevitable-Hyper-Growth-Companies-Predictable/dp/1119531691/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?dchild=1&keywords=From+Impossible+to+Inevitable%3A+How+Hyper-Growth+Companies+Create+Predictable+Revenue&qid=1616084540&sr=8-1) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/The-SaaS-Sales-Method.png) A must-read for sales leaders in SaaS. Practical, to the point, and actionable. Unpack the sales process, learn how to implement a sales system mapped to the buyer's journey, and build a predictable and scalable sales engine. Thanks to its visual aids and straightforward advice, the *SaaS Sales Method* makes the science behind sales simple. [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Impossible-Inevitable-Hyper-Growth-Companies-Predictable/dp/1119531691/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?dchild=1&keywords=From+Impossible+to+Inevitable%3A+How+Hyper-Growth+Companies+Create+Predictable+Revenue&qid=1616084540&sr=8-1) ## [19\. Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content by Ann Handley](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Everybody-Writes-Go-Creating-Ridiculously/dp/1118905555/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?dchild=1&keywords=Everybody+Writes%3A+Your+Go-To+Guide+to+Creating+Ridiculously+Good+Content+-+Ann+Handley&qid=1616164686&sr=8-1) ![Image of the hardback copy of Everybody Writes ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/everybody_writes-1.jpeg) *Everybody Writes* explains how to attract and retain customers using great content. Marketing veteran, Anne Handley’s theory is that inside all of us is a great writer because let’s face it: in a world driven by content, we’re all writers - in one way or another, and *Everybody Writes* offers expert guidance and insight into the process and strategy of content creation, production, and publishing, with actionable how-to advice designed to get results across web pages, home pages, landing pages, blogs, email, marketing offers, and all forms of social media. This is the go-to guide for anyone creating or publishing any kind of online content — whether you're a big brand, small startup, or flying solo. [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Everybody-Writes-Go-Creating-Ridiculously/dp/1118905555/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?dchild=1&keywords=Everybody+Writes%3A+Your+Go-To+Guide+to+Creating+Ridiculously+Good+Content+-+Ann+Handley&qid=1616164686&sr=8-1) ## [20\. The Mom Test: How to Talk to Customers & Learn if Your Business is a Good Idea When Everyone is Lying to You by Rob Fitzpatrick](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mom-Test-customers-business-everyone/dp/1492180742/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?dchild=1&keywords=The+Mom+Test%3A&qid=1616165455&sr=8-1) ![Image of the hardback copy of The Mom Test ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/The-Mom-Test-.png) Rob Fitzpatrick writes from experience. Originally a programmer who was far more comfortable behind a screen than in a meeting, he was forced into figuring out enterprise sales at his first startup, where he learned that it's not as straightforward as the business books tend to claim. Expect actionable, unpretentious advice, practical methods, and tons of examples. [Grab your copy](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mom-Test-customers-business-everyone/dp/1492180742/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?dchild=1&keywords=The+Mom+Test%3A&qid=1616165455&sr=8-1) Enjoyed this article? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Top 20 no-code tools for scaling your SaaS startup URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/top-20-no-code-tools-for-scaling-your-saas-startup/ Last updated: 2023-09-12T15:46:40.000Z Haven’t you heard? The current SaaS landscape isn’t exclusive to the tech gurus anymore. Instead, entrepreneurs and visionaries from a diverse range of disciplines and expertise are racing to build a SaaS product and take their place in this thriving ecosystem. But surely they need to have some level of tech experience, right? Not necessarily. No-code software allows you to develop code at lightning-fast speeds, cutting down on all those traditional programming headaches. These tools let you set up and deploy your applications with ease through intuitive visual programming, such as a ‘drag and drop’ interface. So you can spend less time fussing over technical stuff and more time bringing your brilliant ideas to life! But what tools should you be using? That depends on the type of application you want to create. Explore our directory of choices below; we’re sure you’ll find just the ticket for you. ## What are the benefits of no-code? **Superhero-like agility**: No-code gifts SaaS orgs with the ability to rapidly respond to market demands and stay ahead of the competition. No more traditional coding headaches – these tools let you build and launch applications in a flash, getting you to market faster than a speeding bullet. **A more inclusive way to build**: With user-friendly interfaces and drag-and-drop functionality, anyone can potentially build an app without ever having written a single line of code, which means you have a broad pool of expertise to draw from. The app development process becomes a far more holistic process, allowing for the kind of cross-functional collaboration that helps SaaS companies thrive. **Saves serious cash:** No-code cuts down considerably on expensive developer resources. Equally, providing coding training can be costly, but this intuitive approach allows your team to get building with very little experience or expertise, reducing the drain on cash, time, resources and, of course, widening your profit margins. [How no code development can drive your SaaS org to scaleAny SaaS company that is looking to become profitable quickly should be interested in no code. Here’s our expert insights on how it will help your SaaS org to scale.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/how-no-code-development-can-transform-your-saas-org.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-no-code-development-can-transform-your-saas-org/) **Time to market reduced:** The average development time for an app is about four months, but no code reduces that time by about half. In the fiercely competitive world of SaaS, you’re always looking for problems that others aren’t solving or that they could be solving more effectively. The catch is: any competitor worth their salt is going to be doing exactly the same thing. That’s why it’s essential to act quickly and capitalize on any opportunities in the market before someone else does. Similarly, it’s a great way to quickly turn out an[ MVP (minimum viable product)](https://www.saasalliance.io/launch-a-showstopping-saas-with-these-6-examples-of-a-minimum-viable-product/) to potential clients. You can build social media hype and excitement around your product before it even reaches the market by demonstrating that the app you're developing really solves a tangible problem. And, of course, it can be a great way to demonstrate that your product is going to be worth investing capital in. **In a nutshell,** no code allows you to take your idea from your brain to the app store in a matter of days. ## Quixy With Quixy, you can cut out tedious manual processes and dive into a world of innovation, productivity, and transparency. Transform your brilliant ideas into fully-functional applications at lightning speed. It's like turning dreams into reality, minus the code-crunching nightmares! And with these unique features, Quixy can make your app-building journey a breeze. ![Quixy software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/quixy-.jpeg) ### Features **Infinitely customizable**: Customize your app interface exactly the way you want it. Drag and drop over 40 form fields like a pro, from e-signatures to QR code scanners. **Simple workflows**: Model any process and create workflows that are simple, complex, and everything in between. Sequential, parallel, conditional—the works! The visual builder makes it a piece of cake. **Smooth integration**: Quixy seamlessly connects with third-party apps through ready-to-use connectors, webhooks, and API integrations. Teamwork makes the dream work! **Easy use**: Deploy your apps with a single click and make changes on the fly. No downtime, no fuss. **Data OnDemand**: Quixy offers live actionable reports and dashboards, an essential resource for SaaS founders looking to track progress and forecast revenue. Export data in multiple formats and schedule automated report delivery so that you can become a real data wizz. ### Pricing Platform: $20/per month/ per user Enterpise: contact sales ### Final verdict With Quixy, you can empower your teams, automate processes, and build custom enterprise applications faster and more affordably than ever before. No code, no problem. [ Get started ](https://quixy.com/get-demo) ## Bubble Bubble provides a robust visual programming interface that’s able to create complex, scalable web apps without needing to code, using drag-and-drop to build workflows, animations, and integrations. With Bubble, you can quickly build features like user registration, databases, payments, APIs, and more. There’s also a plugins marketplace to add extra advanced functionality like chatbots! Bubble is great for launching production-ready SaaS products like web-based CRMs, project tools, and marketplaces. The apps you build can then handle enterprise-level scale when configured properly. ![Bubble software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/bubble-1.jpeg) ### Features **Customizable UX**: Develop a logical framework to map out user interactions within your application, step by step. **Manage your accounts**: Create, configure, and export data structures within our robust and secure data storage system. **Infinite integration**: Unlock the full potential of your Bubble app by seamlessly integrating JavaScript plugins or interfacing with any API using our no-code API connector. Discover answers to various business challenges in Bubble's plugin marketplace or contribute your own plugin to the thriving no-code community. **Dynamic content**: Present content generated by users or data retrieved from platforms such as Stripe, Google, and Facebook. Customize the font, color, or visibility of any element on the page dynamically, depending on the information within your application, using our dynamic elements. ### Pricing Free: $0 Starter: $29/mo Growth: $119/mo Team: $349/mo Enterprise: Contact sales ### Final verdict Bubble offers a powerful visual programming platform that empowers users to create complex and scalable web applications without the need for traditional coding. Through a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, Bubble facilitates the seamless construction of workflows, animations, and integrations. [ Get started ](https://bubble.io/login) ## Creatio With its out-of-the-box solutions and templates, you'll be up and running in no time. The Creatio Marketplace is your one-stop shop for ready-to-use apps and solutions that will take your platform to the next level. Let's dive into some of the awesome features that make Studio Creatio shine. ![Creatio software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/creatio-.png) ### Features **Expert process management**: Manage your processes like a boss with the flexible BPM engine. Structured or unstructured, it's got you covered. **Powered by AI:** Harness the power of AI and machine learning tools to streamline your business processes. Make data-backed decisions, simplify analytics, and watch your efficiency skyrocket. **Stunning UI**: Get ready to create stunning visual models with a superior UI. They say never judge a book by its cover, but in the world of SaaS user interfaces, a clunky-looking user interface or landing page tells prospects that your software is unprofessional and a chore to use. **Airtight security**: Security and administration? Covered! Studio Creatio has features that keep your data safe and your platform running smoothly. Enjoy peace of mind while you focus on what really matters. [Why user experience is so important for your SaaS orgUI/UX is crucial to the success of every online business. The digital space is becoming much busier every day. There are currently about 1.88 billion websites and 5.5 million applications on Google and the App store.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSTaiwo Sotikare![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/this-is-the-place.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-user-experience-is-so-important-for-your-saas-company/) ### Pricing Starter: $20/mo Enterprise: $45/mo Unlimited: $75/mo ### Final verdict Studio Creatio provides handy graphics and dashboards that will give your routine operations a serious boost. With this powerful tool, you'll be able to manage various types of cases and regulate timelines without a hitch. Efficiency meet creativity. [ Get started ](https://www.creatio.com/trial/creatio) ## Mendix Mendix is famed for its versatility. This platform is your ticket to creating amazing applications that work like a charm on any device you can think of. With Mendix, you've got options galore. Whether you prefer the private cloud, public cloud, or on-premises deployment, it's all at your fingertips. Check out these fantastic features that make Mendix a true game-changer. ![Mendix software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/mendix.jpeg) ### Features **Agile project management**: project management can often leave you up a creek without a paddle, but with Mendix’s agile approach, it’s all plain sailing **Visual modeling tools**: Mendix's visual modeling tools actually makes app development fun. Don’t let ugly code dull your enthusiasm; watch your app vision spring to life in real-time with just a few clicks and drags. **Reusable components**: Save time and effort by leveraging Mendix's reusable components—no need to reinvent the wheel with every app. Instead, Mendix gifts you a trusty toolbox to use at your disposal. ### Pricing Basic: $50/mo Standrad: $800/mo Premium: Contact sales ### Final verdict Mendix is your go-to rapid application development platform. With offline working capabilities and an easy-to-adopt nature, it's perfect for anyone looking to create stunning apps in a flash. [ Get started for free ](https://signup.mendix.com/link/signup/) ## Webflow Webflow accelerates building gorgeous, responsive websites and landing pages through intuitive drag-and-drop and visual editing. It’s perfect for quickly creating marketing sites, pages, and portfolios. Webflow sites also load incredibly fast and give you full design flexibility. Add animations, interactions, and dynamic content to make sites feel more polished and app-like. You also get a library full of useful templates and components! ![Webflow software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/webflow.jpeg) ### Features **Infinite creativity**: The Webflow Designer empowers you to create virtually any website you envision by harnessing the complete capabilities of HTML, CSS, and Javascript within a visual canvas. **Seamless integration**: Establish connections between your Webflow website and third-party tools by utilizing the integrated connections, adaptable custom code, or by seamlessly integrating with Zapier. **SEO configuration**: You don't need a plugin to handle your website's SEO configurations. From page titles to meta descriptions, optimizing each page for search is a straightforward process. **Smash silos**: Empower your marketing and design teams with increased autonomy to insert and revise content, allowing your engineering team to concentrate on more significant tasks and challenges. ### Pricing Basic: $14/mo CMS: $23/mo Business: $59/mo ### Final verdict Webflow stands out as a versatile platform that accelerates the creation of visually stunning and responsive websites and landing pages. Its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface simplifies the process, making it an excellent choice for rapidly crafting marketing sites, pages, and portfolios. [ Get started for free ](https://webflow.com/?r=0) ## Adalo Adalo allows anyone to build functional iOS and Android apps without coding through an easy visual editor. You have tons of design flexibility to quickly build the UI and UX you want. You can connect data sources, leverage location APIs, enable push notifications and more. Adalo makes it way more simple to build apps like food delivery, fitness trackers, social networking, and ecommerce. ![Adalo software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/adalo-.png) ### Features **Payment integrations**: With Stripe integration, you can seamlessly incorporate payment processing directly within your application. **Metric- tracking**: Generate dynamic dashboards that automatically refresh with user-generated data **Plain-sailing navigation**: Adalo simplifies navigation with customizable icons within its navigation bars, ensuring effortless maneuverability. **Ultimate felxibility**: Rectangles, icons, images, buttons, and text elements provide you with unparalleled versatility. ### Pricing Starter: $36/mo Professional: $ 52/mo Team: $160/mo Business: $200/mo ### Final verdict Adalo empowers individuals to craft fully functional iOS and Android applications without the need for coding, thanks to its intuitive visual editor. The platform offers an abundance of design flexibility, allowing you to swiftly create the desired UI and UX. Furthermore, Adalo facilitates the integration of data sources, location APIs, and push notifications, simplifying the development process for various app types, from food delivery and fitness tracking to social networking and e-commerce. [ Get started for free ](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass) ## Shopify Quickly launch a customized online store with Shopify’s templates and drag-and-drop builder. Built-in tools are designed to handle product listings, inventory, shipping, payments, and more. You’re also able to install apps from Shopify’s marketplace to extend functionality. For SaaS companies with a physical product, Shopify provides a turnkey commerce solution. ![Shopify software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/shopify.jpeg) ### Features **Flexible pricing**: You have the flexibility to establish product prices and apply percentage price modifications tailored to particular countries or regions. You have the flexibility to establish product prices and app. **Detailed analytics**: Every plan tier includes access to the Analytics page, where crucial metrics like sales, order statistics, and online store visitor data are prominently featured. **Financial reports**: You can access essential financial insights regarding your business through your finance reports. Fraud Analysis: When Shopify Payments is employed, you receive an integrated fraud analysis function automatically. ### Pricing Basic: £25/mo Small business: £65/mo Advanced: £ 344/mo ### Final verdict Shopify offers a comprehensive and user-friendly platform to swiftly launch a tailored online store. With its wide range of templates and a drag-and-drop builder, you can create a unique storefront effortlessly. [ Get started for free ](https://accounts.shopify.com/store-create?language=en&locale=en-GB&signup%5Fpage=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.shopify.com%2Fuk%2Fpricing&signup%5Ftypes%5B%5D=paid%5Ftrial%5Fexperience&signup%5Ftypes%5B%5D=acq%5Ffree%5Fdomain&%5Fy=58117178-f1b8-4a36-bcd8-2d026e467a0b&%5Fs=ebd96bcd-da37-4941-9530-f65c1451dcdf&%5Fp=eea5fc02-62fa-4c2f-95f0-e64dbce22b1f) ## Thunkable Thunkable provides a LEGO-like visual editor to build mobile apps. As you drag and drop, you can instantly preview your app live on your phone. There’s also a marketplace full of app templates and components. It’s great for mobilizing business processes and data without engineering resources. Bonus points - Thunkable has enterprise plans and custom development services as well! ![Thunkable software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/thunkable.png) ### Features **Offline functionality**: Develop a mobile experience that functions offline and adjusts dynamically based on the user's preferences, location, and various other factors. **Pre-built components**: From input fields and buttons to maps and video players, we offer a comprehensive selection of tools to help you rapidly construct an intuitive user experience. **Effortless GTM**: Swiftly bring your product to market by effortlessly releasing it on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, or the mobile web. ### Pricing Starter: $15 Pro: $ 45 [ Get started for free here ](https://x.thunkable.com/signup) ### Final verdict Thunkable presents an innovative visual editor akin to building with LEGO blocks, making mobile app creation accessible to all. With a seamless drag-and-drop interface, you can instantly preview your app live on your device and take advantage of a marketplace brimming with app templates and components. Thunkable truly shines in streamlining the mobilization of business processes and data, all without the need for extensive engineering resources. ## Appsheet AppSheet connects to your existing Google Sheets or Excel data and auto-generates a mobile app matching your spreadsheet structure. This allows you to accelerate the mobilizing of your business processes and leverage mobile apps for field teams, sales, and more without any coding. AppSheet also has deep integrations with tools like Salesforce, Slack, and Google Cloud, for ease of access. ![AppSheet software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/Appsheet.png) ### Features **AI capabilities**: Utilize Google's AI and ML capabilities to automatically generate actions and views in response to user intent. **Integrate data**: Establish connections with a range of data sources, spanning from Google Sheets to Salesforce. **Automate processes**: Implement automation for business processes, including tasks such as order approvals and user notifications. **Save valuable time**: Develop efficient applications that seamlessly integrate with the Google Workspace tools you're already accustomed to using, saving you valuable time. ### Final verdict AppSheet is a powerful platform that seamlessly connects to your existing Google Sheets or Excel data, effortlessly generating mobile apps that mirror your spreadsheet's structure. This feature streamlines the mobilization of business processes, making it easy to harness mobile apps for various purposes, from field teams to sales, all without the need for coding expertise. Starter: $5 Enterprise: Contact sales [ Get started ](https://www.appsheet.com/Account/Login) ## HubSpot CRM HubSpot CRM provides a 100% free robust CRM packed with tools like contact management, deal tracking, email automation, meetings, and forms. This makes it far easier for early-stage SaaS startups to get started with pipeline and customer management without significant costs. Paid upgrades unlock more advanced features. ![Hubspot CRM software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/hubspot-crm-.webp) ### Features **Intuitive dashboards**: Gain a real-time perspective of your complete sales funnel through a clean and visually intuitive dashboard. **Superior tracking**: HubSpot's no-cost CRM tools automatically monitor customer interactions, whether they occur within emails, across social media platforms, or during phone calls. **Top-notch organization**: Go well beyond merely capturing names and job titles. Each interaction with a lead is meticulously recorded in a well-organized timeline, encompassing calls, emails, meetings, and notes. **Streamlined CRM**: Bid farewell to costly, cumbersome, and unwieldy CRM systems that often go unused. Take action today to begin using the most streamlined and potent CRM you've ever encountered, completely free of charge. ### Pricing Starter: £17/mo Professional: £702/mo ### Final verdict HubSpot CRM offers an exceptional, 100% free solution that equips users with a comprehensive set of tools, including contact management, deal tracking, email automation, meetings, and forms. This is particularly advantageous for early-stage SaaS startups seeking to efficiently manage their pipelines and customer interactions without incurring substantial costs. [ Get started for free ](https://app.hubspot.com/signup-hubspot/marketing?hubs%5Fsignup-url=www.hubspot.com%2Fpricing%2Fmarketing%2Fstarter&hubs%5Fsignup-cta=marketing-pricing-hero&hsSeats=false&uuid=3c072755-1591-4133-a6c7-efcde54c018b&step=landing%5Fpage) ## Retool With Retool, the possibilities are endless. You can visually design apps that seamlessly connect with any database or API. But here's where it gets really exciting: Retool lets you switch to code whenever you need that extra touch of customization. Tweak, adjust, and fine-tune your apps to look and work exactly the way you want them to. ![Retool software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/retool.png) ### Features **Flexibility for the win:** Cloud-based or self-hosted? You've got options! Retool gives you the freedom to choose what works best for your team. Flexibility at its finest! **Easy building**: Building frontends has never been easier with Retool's arsenal of 50+ drag-and-drop components. Drag, drop, and voila! **Integration heaven**: Retool seamlessly connects with dozens of popular data sources, ensuring that your apps have access to the information they need. **Endless data connections**: Need to connect to a REST or GraphQL API? No problemo! Retool's got you covered, with unlimited possibilities and endless data connections. [Why user experience is so important for your SaaS orgUI/UX is crucial to the success of every online business. The digital space is becoming much busier every day. There are currently about 1.88 billion websites and 5.5 million applications on Google and the App store.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSTaiwo Sotikare![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/this-is-the-place.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-user-experience-is-so-important-for-your-saas-company/) **Coding made easy**: Ready to unleash your coding prowess? With Retool, you can write JavaScript anywhere you want, giving you full control and customization over your apps. **Security matters:** And Retool takes it seriously. From fine-grained access controls and audit logs to SAML SSO and 2FA, your applications are in safe hands. **Pricing** Team: £8/mo Professional: £40 Enterprise: Custom ### Final verdict By adopting Retool \]you'll join the ranks of amazing teams at companies like Amazon, DoorDash, Peloton, and Brex who are collaborating around custom-built Retool apps. [ Get started for free ](https://login.retool.com/auth/signup?plan=free) ## Mailchimp Mailchimp makes it easy to create email campaigns, landing pages, forms, and automations to generate leads and drive growth. Drag-and-drop builders and templates also streamline your workflow. This means you can segment your audience, set up automations based on behavior, run ads, *and* track performance. ![Mailchimp software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/mailchimp.jpeg) **Beginner-friendly**: This email marketing tool simplifies the process of creating and sending high-quality marketing emails for professionals across various industries. **Emails get seen**: Achieving a high email deliverability rate ensures that a greater proportion of your emails will steer clear of spam folders, increasing the likelihood of capturing your customers' attention. **Data centralized**: Establish Mailchimp as your centralized hub for all marketing endeavors, enabling you to comprehensively manage your marketing efforts through our versatile omni-channel campaign manager. ### Pricing Standard: $13/per month Standard: $20/per month [ Get started for free ](https://login.mailchimp.com/signup/?plan=standard%5Fmonthly%5Fplan%5Fv0&discount%5Fid=63f8dabc9a692&subscribers=500) ## Google Analytics A tool that may already be well-known to you, and a staple tool of mine- Google Analytics. Google Analytics provides robust free website analytics to track traffic sources, page engagements, conversions, custom events, and more to optimize your SaaS. For most basic analytics needs, Google Analytics gets the job done with no configuration required. ![Google analytics software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/Google-Analytics-Dashboard-Template-Example.png) **Deep data dive** : Google Analytics reporting features provide deeper insights into your marketing data. **Audience intel**: It grants you insights into user characteristics based on diverse metrics. Audience reports primarily consist of aggregated data collected from all platforms, conveying information about customer engagement with your marketing campaigns. **Detailed reports**: These reports enable you to assess the performance of advertisements, referrals, and other traffic origins. You can track the number of users who finalize purchases, the average order value, and the conversion rate. ChatGPT. ### Pricing Contact for pricing ### Final verdict Google Analytics is a well-known and robust tool that offers free website analytics to enhance your SaaS optimization efforts. It effortlessly tracks various aspects, including traffic sources, page engagements, conversions, and custom events, with minimal configuration required for basic analytics needs. [ Get started ](https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/?authuser=0#/provision/SignUp) ## Pipedrive Pipedrive is a product that visualizes every item throughout the sales process without coding skills so that teams can align their goals to close more deals. It smooths out workflows while removing repetitive tasks to help teams increase the percentage of customer satisfaction without spending more and more time on their manual workload. ![Pipedrive software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/pipedrive-2.jpeg) ### Features **AI-powered sales mentor:** It's easy to use for an advanced feature, even for non-technical users. This mentor helps provides teams with tips and possible action items to get rid of repetitive tasks and eliminates the need for any third-party services. **simplifies visualization:** Visualization of every aspect of the sales process, making it accessible to teams without the need for coding skills. This enables teams to align their objectives with the aim of closing more deals efficiently. **Streamlines workflows:** By automating repetitive tasks, Pipedrive increases customer satisfaction rates without necessitating additional manual labor. ### Pricing Essential: £14.90 Advanced: £27.90 Professional: £49.90 Power: £64.90 Enterprise: £79.90 ### Final verdict Pipedrive stands out as a valuable tool for optimizing the sales process. It simplifies the visualization of every sales aspect, eliminating the need for coding skills and allowing teams to align their goals for more effective deal closures. [ Get started for free ](https://www.pipedrive.com/en/pricing) ## Airtable Teams using Airtable have the freedom to build websites and powerful apps that fit their unique needs instead of trying to fit into rigid pre-built solutions. Whether it's collecting user feedback or managing a marketing calendar, Airtable lets you create customized apps that help your team move forward smoothly. ![airtable software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/airtable-2.webp) ### Features **Automated processes**: With trigger-action workflows and automation, you can automate processes based on various triggers. Whether it's adding new records to a database or spotting specific keywords in a Slack channel, you can connect Airtable with different platforms to make your team's workflow plain sailing. **Tailored interfaces**: Using the Interface Designer, you can create interactive interfaces that deliver a personalized user experience. Whether it's a leadership dashboard with essential metrics or a standardized client list for your sales team, you can easily design pages that meet your requirements. **Real-time updates**: You can make real-time updates within the app itself, adjusting each page as your processes evolve. You can even embed additional views like Gantt charts and Kanban boards to visualize and manage critical work efficiently. [Responsible sourcing: Ensuring sustainability throughout the supply chainDavid Patterson, Vice President of Business Development at Wastebits, demonstrates how to make your SaaS startup’s supply chain eco-friendly and socially conscious.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDavid Patterson![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/sustainablity-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/responsible-sourcing-ensuring-sustainability-throughout-the-supply-chain/) ### Pricing Team: $25/per month Business: $45/per month ### Final verdict Airtable offers several merits: It provides teams with the flexibility to build websites and powerful custom apps that align with their unique needs, rather than conforming to rigid pre-built solutions. By leveraging Airtable, teams can create customized apps tailored to specific purposes, enabling smooth progress and enhanced productivity. ## Outsystems OutSystems is the ultimate omnichannel no-code platform that will take your application-building game to new heights. With OutSystems, enterprises can effortlessly create applications that work seamlessly across a variety of mediums. ![outsystems software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/outsystems.jpeg) ### Features **Real-time performance dashboards**: Stay in the loop and keep your finger on the pulse of your applications. With OutSystems, you'll have access to real-time performance insights that will help you optimize and fine-tune your apps. **Strong security measures**: Your data and applications are precious, and OutSystems knows it. That's why they've built a robust security framework to keep your information safe and sound. Rest easy knowing that your apps are protected by top-notch security measures. **Rapid development capacity**: Time is of the essence, and OutSystems understands that. With their platform, you'll experience the thrill of rapid development, allowing you to bring your ideas to life. ### Pricing Contact sales for pricing ### Final verdict OutSystems allows you to build across various channels, enjoy real-time performance insights, and fortify your security measures. [ Get started for free ](https://www.outsystems.com/pricing-and-editions/?utm%5Fsource=google&utm%5Fmedium=cpc&utm%5Fcampaign=Account-Sitelinks&utm%5Fterm=outsystems%20pricing&utm%5Fcontent=content&utm%5Fsource=google&utm%5Fmedium=cpc&utm%5Fcampaign=BRAND%5FG%5FENG%5FSearch&utm%5Fterm=outsystems%20pricing&utm%5Fcontent=schedule-demo&gclid=Cj0KCQjw9fqnBhDSARIsAHlcQYTD4Mtjyf-eVOtqSVbh6Wm-VdacXxnGATsxJyvoH0BsznbYL0DWYQsaAn6BEALw%5FwcB) ## Quickbase Whether you're facing bottlenecks or looking to streamline operations, Quickbase is here to save the day and help your team find solutions like never before. Quickbase also offers the magic of no-code capabilities, making it accessible to all users, regardless of coding expertise. And let's not forget about the amazing assets that make Quickbase shine. ![quickbase software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/quickbase.jpg) ### Features **Pre-built marketplace**: Quickbase's prebuilt marketplace is a cornucopia of ready-made solutions to maximize your productivity. **Useful third-party integrations**: Quickbase knows the power of collaboration. That's why it integrates with a wide range of third-party tools, allowing you to leverage their capabilities and take your workflows to new heights. **Zero downtime**: No more downtime worries with the Sandbox capabilities. You can freely push application changes without any interruptions. Whether you want to update your app, transform data, or make schema modifications, you can do it all without taking your application offline. Keep your app up and running while making those necessary updates seamlessly. [Thriving in vertical SaaS: Five success strategiesVertical SaaS has never been as essential or valuable as it is right now, here are five critical expert tips for vertical SaaS success.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSNavya Rehani Gupta![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/vertical_SaaS_FoSaaS.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/thriving-in-vertical-saas-five-essential-success-strategies-with-navya-rehani-gupta/) ### Pricing Team: $35/per mo Business: $55/per mo ### Final verdict If you’re looking for no-code accessibility, a prebuilt marketplace, and third-party integrations, Quickbase might just be the secret ingredient for your team's success. [ Get started for free ](https://www.quickbase.com/plans-and-pricing?cat=Pricing&utm%5Fsource=google&utm%5Fcampaign=MI%5FBrand%5FUKI&utm%5Fmedium=Paid-Search&utm%5Fcontent=Quickbase-Cost&utm%5Fterm=quickbase%20pricing&gclid=Cj0KCQjw9fqnBhDSARIsAHlcQYSCLoKYPR2TM34pcC9an%5FjYSIBc4KCHtHme4KKAkQ7kGZTzOql9BnYaAnDSEALw%5FwcB) ## Kissflow Kissflow is a 'unified digital workplace.' With its primary focus on workflow and process management, Kissflow is here to revolutionize the way you work and simplify your operations like never before. ![kissflow software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/kissflow.webp) ### Features **Say goodbye to custom coding**: What sets Kissflow apart is its rule-based model that eliminates the need for custom coding. With Kissflow, you can easily add conditions to customize your workflow, making it uniquely tailored to your specific needs. **Ad hoc reassignment**: Effortlessly reassign items to the appropriate team members, even while a process is already underway—no need to interrupt the flow. Simply make adjustments on the fly and ensure tasks are always in the hands of the right team members. **Process auditing**: With process audit capabilities, you can instantly generate a digital or printable paper trail that documents all the steps within your process. This ensures you have a comprehensive record of every action taken, allowing for easy reference, analysis, and accountability. ### Pricing Contact for custom pricing ### Final verdict Experience the true power of a unified digital workplace. With its workflow and process management prowess, rule-based model for customization, and low-code development capabilities, Kissflow is here to transform the way you work and make your life easier. [ Get started for free ](https://kissflow.com/pricing/) ## Salesforce The Salesforce Platform empowers companies to swiftly build applications for their customers, partners, and employees. Unlock the potential of every team by providing them with the ability to create captivating and personalized digital experiences. It's a breeze to use a combination of clicks and code, thanks to the responsive, customizable components and services available. ![Salesforce software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/Salesforce-Lightning-Flow-Builder-screengrab-1480px.png) ### Features **Salesforce lightning**: This powerful tool empowers you to effortlessly create custom applications, whether you need simple forms or intricate workflows. No coding required. Simply drag and drop elements to design applications tailored to your specific needs. **Salesforce flow**: With Flow, you have the power to optimize your business processes with ease. Whether you need to set up straightforward approval processes or tackle intricate multi-step workflows, this tool can get the job done. Let the visual interface guide you as you create and customize workflows that perfectly align with your unique business needs. ### Pricing Contact for pricing ### Final verdict The Salesforce Platform offers numerous merits for companies seeking to enhance their digital experiences. It enables swift application development for customers, partners, and employees, empowering teams to create captivating and personalized experiences. [ Get started for free ](https://www.salesforce.com/uk/form/signup/freetrial-sales-pe/?d=70130000000EqoP) ## Zoho Creator Zoho Creator's app builder helps you whip up native mobile apps in no time. Whether you're on your computer or smartphone, you can create apps on the web and seamlessly use them on both iOS and Android devices. Zoho Creator was featured in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms (LCAP) in 2020\. ![Zoho software](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/zoho-creator.png) ### Features **Harness data**: Capture any type of data and create your own customized data model. Visualize the relationships between different data elements and gain a clear understanding of your data structure. With everything organized in one central location, you can map out each step and keep track of all the important details of your applications effortlessly. **Automate and innovate**: Zoho’s powerful Creator apps have the ability to collect data, process payments, update your CRM, send emails and reports, and much more. With these automated capabilities, you and your team can focus on what truly matters and accomplish more in less time. [How do we engage key stakeholders in cross-functional collaboration?Here’s how to ensure seamless collaboration between teams, so you can smash through those silos and skyrocket your organization to success!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/pexels-huy-chien-tran-1756665.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) ### Pricing Standard: £6.40/per month Professional: £16/per month Enterprise: £20/ per month ### Final verdict Zoho Creator stands out with its ability to swiftly build native mobile apps using the app builder. And being recognized in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms (LCAP) in 2020 certainly adds credibility to its offerings. [ Get started for free ](https://www.zoho.com/creator/signup.html?plan=88&zmc=pricing) ## To wrap up With no-code tools, anyone can build SaaS applications without coding skills, so the whole team can contribute. It's all about rapid prototyping, customizing apps to fit your needs perfectly, and empowering business users to take the wheel. However, you need to find the right tools to suit your organization. And that’s what we’re here for. Don’t fall behind the curve; embrace no-code today. --- *Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Metrics that matter: The KPIs every SaaS company should track URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/metrics-that-matter-the-kpis-every-saas-company-should-track/ Last updated: 2024-11-13T12:57:19.000Z What if I told you that the key to your SaaS success has been staring you in the face all along? I'm **Brittani Dunlap, CEO and co-founder of FlowEQ**, and I'm here to let you in on a little secret: Your business metrics matter. I mean *really, truly* matter in determining whether your startup thrives or dives. But I get it. As an entrepreneur, you're busy building product, pleasing customers, and trying to stay sane. Tracking a bunch of confusing [KPI](https://www.saasalliance.io/aligning-kpis-to-create-successful-partnerships/) acronyms probably falls somewhere near the bottom of your priority list. Well, my goal today is to convince you to bump metrics way UP on that list. Because identifying and monitoring the right KPIs will provide the pulse of your business and profoundly impact your trajectory. [SaaS metricsIt goes without saying that Saas orgs want to grow and scale, right? Whether you’re a hot new startup, mid-growth, or a late-growth established brand, all SaaS orgs want their revenue to skyrocket.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_metrics.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics/) Think of metrics as your GPS navigation system, keeping your SaaS company on track amidst the twists and turns of startup life. Except your success depends less on Siri's voice directions, and more on heeding what the data and trends reveal. The right [KPIs](https://www.saasalliance.io/okrs-for-saas-startups/) will help steer your business to growth and prosperity. But first, you have to tune out the metric noise and get crystal clear on the vital few metrics that matter most. So let's dive in! Here's what I'll cover: - ****Why KPIs matter** - ****How to identify the right KPIs for your business** - ****Examples of essential SaaS KPIs** - ****Tips for tracking and presenting your metrics** - ****My journey to determining the right KPIs** ## Why KPIs matter KPIs are more than just numbers on a spreadsheet. When approached correctly, metrics will: \- Bring your company strategy to life \- Reveal patterns and opportunities over time \- Identify gaps you need to address \- Help you understand your customers better \- Influence your decision making and go-to-market strategy \- Provide compelling data for fundraising In short, **the right KPIs will provide the pulse of your business**. They serve as decision-making guideposts that can profoundly impact the trajectory of your company. [OKRs for SaaS startupsImplementing a framework used by a global technology conglomerate at a small-scale start-up may seem daunting, after all at this stage of growth your goals will be wildly different, however, as you’ll come to find out the beauty of OKRs is that anyone can set measurable goals!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/kelly-sikkema-v9FQR4tbIq8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/okrs-for-saas-startups/) As someone who isn't in the day-to-day trenches like you are, KPIs help bring context to what's going on inside your business. The importance of measuring performance will begin to reveal patterns over time. These patterns identify the gaps you’ve been running into. As you start closing these gaps, you find you naturally understand your customers more. Since we all need to build something people want, once we understand our customers, this starts to influence our decision making and how we take our product or company to market. So knowing this information is incredibly critical, especially when it comes to fundraising. Because like I said, **KPIs are what brings your business to life** for external [stakeholders.](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) ## How to identify the right KPIs With so many potential SaaS metrics to choose from, how do you determine the vital few to focus on? Here are my recommendations: **🎧 Tune out the noise.** Don't get distracted by the endless lists and opinions on metrics. Stay laser focused on identifying the KPIs that matter most to your business. I know it's tempting to Google "top KPIs for SaaS" and get overwhelmed by pages of information. But you need to be able to drown out that noise and unsolicited opinions from people who have never actually run a SaaS company. [Top 3 mistakes companies make with OKRs - and how they overcome themOKRs are a crucial cog in the machine that will drive you to the top, so if you’re a newbie to the world of OKRs, it’s high time you started paying more attention to them. Here, we outline some of the mistakes companies make - and how they overcome them.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMarielle Velander![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/pexels-cup-of-couple-6632868--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-3-mistakes-companies-make-with-okrs-and-how-they-overcome-them/) **📈 Determine your primary metric.** For most for-profit SaaS companies, the primary metric will relate to revenue in some form (MRR, ARR, etc). This metric reflects whether people are willing to pay for your product. Ask yourself - what metric will investors and competitors use to determine if you are successful? For most of us in the for-profit world, it comes down to revenue. **📊 Identify 3-5 secondary metrics.** These are the metrics that will directly impact your ability to drive growth in your primary metric. Choose ones aligned to your business model and goals. Revenue does not appear out of thin air. You need to identify supporting metrics that affect your ability to drive revenue growth. I recommend choosing [3-5 secondary metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-metrics-for-saas-marketers/) that will assist in driving your primary revenue metric. The ones I list later may not all make sense for your business - and that's okay. Focus on the ones that directly apply. **🪞Avoid vanity metrics.** Don't get seduced by metrics that look nice but don't actually demonstrate the health of your business. Vanity metrics may attract some initial attention, but over time they do not accurately reflect the performance of your business. **🪡 Customize for your industry.** SaaS companies in different verticals may require a slightly different set of KPIs. Choose ones that fit your specific market. For example, a social media platform will need to track different metrics than a B2B SaaS company. Make sure you choose metrics that align with your goals and business model. ## Essential SaaS KPIs to consider While your ideal metrics depend on your specific business, here are some I recommend SaaS companies consider tracking: [Customer success metrics that drive 95% retentionIn this article, I’ll be discussing the customer success metrics you should be tracking at each and every stage of the customer lifecycle. With them, you can drive retention and ensure your customer success function is successful in delivering value to the customer.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSwati Chopra![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/yoav-hornung-Qg6lPXJ6IL4-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) **🤝 For B2B SaaS:** \- MRR (monthly recurring revenue) \- ARR (annual recurring revenue) \- Number of product demos \- Demo-to-customer conversion rate \- Number of new customers per quarter \- Product engagement \- Net revenue retention \- Sales cycle funnel velocity MRR and ARR help me monitor recurring revenue on a monthly and annual basis. Conversion rates from demos to customers show how effectively our sales team converts prospects. I also look at product engagement across our customer base, since higher engagement results in improved retention and expansion revenue. Monitoring net revenue retention provides insights into customer lifetime value and tracking sales funnel velocity identifies opportunities to improve our sales process. **🛍️ For consumer products/ecommerce:** \- Revenue \- Active users \- Returning users \- Customer lifetime value \- Customer acquisition cost Ecommerce merchants will want to track revenue, user engagement metrics, and customer acquisition costs. Subscription consumer companies would focus heavily on retained subscribers. [How can you boost customer advocacy through social media listening?Dreaming of a loyal customer fanbase that provides free marketing? Welcome to the endless possibilities of social media listening!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/how-can-you-boost-customer-advocacy-through-social-media-listening.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-can-you-boost-customer-advocacy-through-social-media-listening/) **📱For social products:** \- Monthly active users \- Daily active users \- User retention \- User engagement \- App store ratings For ad-driven social platforms, monthly and daily active users, engagement, and retention are critical. Poor app store ratings can quickly tank growth. Focus on the metrics that will best reflect the health and growth of your particular business model. Avoid getting distracted by vanity metrics that don't move the needle. ## My journey to choosing the right KPIs As the CEO of a B2B SaaS company called FlowEQ, determining our vital few [KPIs](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-our-metrics-and-what-are-our-kpis/) to track was crucial but also challenging. I'll admit it took some trial and error before I landed on the right metrics to monitor. Here are the few metrics I pay closest attention to now: **MRR** \- I monitor this daily as it shows our recurring revenue growth **ARR** \- Annual recurring revenue is important to track as well **Number of demos** \- I look at weekly and monthly demos and conversion rates **New customers** \- Tracked quarterly based on our sales cycle **Engagement** \- We have better retention when customers use 2+ integrations **Net revenue retention** \- Shows me customer lifetime value and expansion potential **Sales funnel velocity** \- Helps me improve our sales process I share this to demonstrate how you need to choose metrics tailored to your business model and goals. Look for the connections between metrics - how do they impact each other? This will help you build a holistic view of the health of your business. ## Tips for tracking and presenting your metrics Once you've identified your vital KPIs, make sure you track and present them effectively: **Be clear, not clever** \- When sharing metrics, be straightforward. Clever metrics can confuse stakeholders. **Understand key metric terms** \- Know the difference between bookings vs. revenue, MRR vs. ARR, etc. Investors will expect you to know the terminology, but don't be afraid to ask for clarification if needed. **Highlight recurring revenue** \- This demonstrates sustainability and scalability. Focus on metrics tied to recurring revenue versus one-time services or sales. **Track cash burn rate** \- Critical for early stage companies to monitor how quickly they are depleting cash. Keep a close eye on your burn rate. **Show growth trends** \- Analyze how key metrics are trending over time. Are they increasing or decreasing? YOY change? Investors want to see growth. **Don't manipulate data** \- Present metrics transparently, even if they don't fully align to goals. Manipulation will backfire. I strongly suggest full transparency - no one wins when data is tweaked. Properly tracking and communicating your KPIs will educate stakeholders on what matters most in your business. Be clear, be consistent, and be transparent. [Customer retention metrics and how to action themHow do successful SaaS organizations measure retention and what on earth do they with the results, I hear you cry? Well, we surveyed 100 SaaS pros to find out how they track, review and utilize retention and churn metrics, and here are the results.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/jakob-owens-CiUR8zISX60-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) ## Final thoughts I hope these insights help provide some clarity on which KPIs really matter for SaaS businesses like yours! Identifying and tracking the right metrics is crucial, but I know it can also feel overwhelming. My advice? Start small. Choose 2-3 metrics that will give you an accurate pulse on the health of your startup. Stay focused on the metrics that directly impact your ability to delight customers and drive sustainable growth. Let the vanity metrics fall to the wayside. Most importantly, don't let the pursuit of metrics distract you from your core mission. As entrepreneurs we get caught up in the day-to-day data, when in reality, success comes down to solving real problems for real people. Don't lose sight of the big picture. Remember - progress over perfection. Direction over speed. And metrics that matter over vanity. You’ve got this. Now get out there, track those KPIs, and steer your startup to success! --- *If you like what you see, why not check out more exclusive content from some of the leading minds in SaaS [OnDemand](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-ondemand/)?* ### Examine the difference between strategic and tactical marketing URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/examine-the-difference-between-strategic-and-tactical-marketing/ Last updated: 2023-09-08T10:07:47.000Z In the dynamic landscape of marketing, two essential components play a critical role in achieving business objectives: strategic marketing and tactical marketing. While both approaches are distinct in their focus and scope, they are intricately connected and work together to drive success. This article aims to examine and highlight the key differences between strategic and tactical marketing, covering: - The definition of strategic and tactical marketing, - The key differences between these strategies, - How these strategies can work together. ## **Understanding strategic marketing** ### **Definition and purpose of strategic marketing** Strategic marketing is the kind of plan that prioritizes its focus on achieving ****long-term business objectives**. This type of marketing, due to its focus on the long term, creates sustainable work practices in a way that builds a strong foundation for your company within the market. [SaaS MarketingAs the demand for cloud-based software continues to grow, SaaS companies are facing intense competition in the market. Here is a guide to help you develop a successful SaaS marketing strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_Marketing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) This type of marketing will prioritize things like market and customer research, rather than one-off events. The aim is to be calculated and specific rather than reactionary. Strategic marketing is continuous in its monitoring and analysis of marketing performance, allowing for adjustments and refinements to the marketing strategy as needed. ### **How customer marketers might use strategic marketing** Now we’ll go through an example of how customer marketers might use strategic marketing. Let’s say this particular marketer works at an e-commerce company that specializes in selling fashion accessories online. With a growing customer base, they recognize the need to deepen customer relationships and increase repeat purchases. ****Strategy:** The customer marketer might employ a strategic marketing approach centered around personalized recommendations with the goal to provide a tailored shopping experience for each customer based on their preferences and purchase history. ****Implementation:** 1. ****Data collection and analysis:** The customer marketer will begin with the company's customer database to collect data on individual customer preferences, purchase history, and browsing behavior. This data will be used to identify patterns and trends. 2. ****Segmentation:** Based on the data analysis, they’ll then segment the customer base into distinct groups with similar preferences and purchasing patterns. This’ll allow for more targeted and relevant marketing strategies. 3. ****Recommendation engine integration:** Next they’ll integrate a recommendation engine into the company's website and marketing platforms. This engine will use customer segmentation data to generate personalized product recommendations for each individual customer. 4. ****Personalized email campaigns:** Leveraging customer data, the customer marketer will also design personalized email campaigns. These campaigns will feature recommended products based on each customer's unique preferences and past purchases. The emails can also include exclusive offers and discounts to incentivize repeat purchases. [Top SaaS marketing and content toolsA high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) ****Results:** The personalized email campaign would result in a significant increase in customer engagement which would lead to higher conversion rates. Customers responding positively to the tailored product suggestions would result in increased purchases and higher average order values. As an added bonus, customers would see the personalized shopping experience as the company’s investment in their interests. This, in turn, would lead to improved customer loyalty, with a higher rate of repeat purchases and a lower rate of customer churn. ## **Exploring tactical marketing** ### **Definition and purpose of tactical marketing** Tactical marketing approaches its marketing activities and campaigns with ****short-term goals and objectives** in mind. As such the marketing goal is to have your objectives focus on the immediate actions and tactics of your marketing plan. Tactical marketing focuses on the day-to-day activities that help in promoting products or services with components such as advertising, public relations, direct marketing, social media marketing, content creation, event planning, and more. These initiatives aim at reaching your target audience and influencing their purchasing decisions. Tactical marketing requires careful coordination of resources, budget allocation, and effective utilization of various marketing channels and tools. ### **An example of tactical marketing tactics** For this example, let's say that this customer marketer works for a company that is an online electronics retailer, that wants to boost sales during a typically slower sales period. Using a tactical marketing approach would be suitable in this case as this strategy can create urgency and entice customers to make immediate purchases. ****Strategy:** The customer marketer can devise a limited-time offer campaign centered around a significant discount on a popular electronic gadget. The goal is to produce a sense of urgency and exclusivity to drive sales within a short timeframe. [Top SaaS marketing and content toolsA high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) ****Implementation:** 1. ****Promotional messaging:** The customer marketer crafted compelling promotional messaging that emphasized the limited-time nature of the offer. Clear and concise messaging was used across various marketing channels to communicate the urgency and value of the discount. 2. ****Email marketing:** The customer marketer sent targeted emails to the company's subscriber base, announcing the limited-time offer. The emails featured captivating subject lines and persuasive content highlighting the benefits of the product and the time-sensitive nature of the discount. 3. ****Social media promotion:** The customer marketer utilized the company's social media channels to amplify the limited-time offer. Engaging posts, eye-catching visuals, and countdown timers were used to create excitement and encourage sharing among followers. 4. ****Website banner and pop-ups:** The customer marketer strategically placed banners and pop-up messages on the company's website to ensure maximum visibility of the limited-time offer. These eye-catching elements directed visitors to the product page, providing easy access to the discounted item. ****Results:** Such a strategy will increase website traffic due to the limited-time offer, as customers are motivated to take advantage of the discount before the promotion ends. This can result in an overall increase in brand exposure and product visibility. This campaign can successfully drive immediate sales for the discounted product which’ll have a notable increase in sales volume to help meet the goal of exceeding sales projections. This type of category can also attract new customers enticed by the discounted price. As such this strategy can also expand a customer base and provide an opportunity for future engagement and repeat purchases. ## **Key differences between strategic and tactical marketing** You may have already picked up on a few points on where tactical and strategic marketing differ, but let's delve a little bit deeper. ### **Timeframe: Short-term vs. long-term perspective** ****Tactical marketing** works within a relatively short timeframe, focusing on immediate results. It’s usually initiated to achieve a specific goal within a few weeks or months. [Structuring an agile marketing team for successTrying to move your team into agile marketing but worried that you need to retrain everyone? Or completely flatten your department’s structure? Or lay off half of your team? Don’t panic! There’s no need for layoffs or completely changing your department’s structure.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSRebecca Stewart![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/pascal-swier-7de474KZIbs-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/structuring-an-agile-marketing-team-for-success/) ****Strategic marketing** is long-term in its aims and focuses on the big picture. It involves planning and implementing strategies that may take months or even years to achieve its intended results these campaigns are about the sustainability of your marketing strategies, rather than just short-term results. ### **Scope: Holistic approach vs. focused implementation** ****Tactical marketing** is much more narrow in scope, concentrating on specific marketing moments, most often in reaction to new information from market research or competitive intelligence. It also tends to be executed within a specific area or channel. ****Strategic marketing** takes a more holistic approach, considering the broader context of the organization's marketing efforts. It encompasses multiple elements, including market research, competitive analysis, target audience identification, branding, and distribution channels. All of these are made to support your marketing plan over ### **Planning: Big-picture strategy vs. immediate action plans** ****Tactical marketing** is immediate in creating action plans. The planning process involves detailed planning for the execution of tactics, that are both efficient and effective. ****Strategic marketing** emphasizes big-picture strategy. This plan will prioritize setting itself against the overall marketing direction in a strategic manner that guides tactical implementation. ### **Flexibility: Adaptable strategies vs. fixed tactics** ****Tactical marketing** often relies on fixed tactics and predefined plans. While adjustments may be made to optimize performance, the overall approach remains relatively fixed to achieve short-term objectives efficiently. [How to build an awesome SaaS marketing funnel: Convert prospects into die hard advocatesDiscover how a strong marketing funnel can boost your SaaS business by converting leads into customers and unleashing the potential of your high-quality product.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/funnel-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-an-awesome-saas-marketing-funnel-to-convert-prospects-into-die-hard-advocates-2/) ****Strategic marketing** strategies can be adjusted and refined based on changing market conditions, customer feedback, or performance metrics. Strategic marketing recognizes the need for agility and the ability to pivot when necessary to align with evolving business goals or external factors. ### **Measurement: Long-term impact vs. short-term results** As we’ve established, ****tactical marketing** primarily focuses on measuring short-term results and immediate impact. Metrics may include things such as sales volume, conversion rates, click-through rates, or engagement levels during specific campaigns or initiatives. ****Strategic marketing** is more focused on long-term impact. Metrics may be more broad like customer lifetime value, market share, brand perception, or overall business growth. ## **The synergy between strategic and tactical marketing** Strategic and tactical marketing work best once you recognize that they perform best when they’re produced to interact and collaborate with each other. Strategic marketing provides the overarching direction and long-term vision, while tactical marketing implements specific actions to achieve more strategic goals. It’s essential to understand that these two facets of marketing work hand in hand, complementing and reinforcing each other for optimal results. Tactical marketing plays a vital role in supporting and aligning with strategic marketing goals. It ensures that the day-to-day activities and campaigns are aligned with the broader marketing strategy and that the tactics employed are consistent with the brand positioning, target audience, and overall marketing objectives. By monitoring and analyzing the performance of tactical initiatives, marketers can gather data and feedback that inform strategic decision-making. This process allows for continuous improvement and refinement of the overall marketing strategy. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/C-Suite_Ghost_Banner_Assets_--1--2.png)](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=banner&utm%5Fcampaign=content-) [Find out more here!](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=banner&utm%5Fcampaign=content-) ### SaaScast: How does empathy drive innovation in SaaS design? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-how-does-empathy-drive-innovation-in-saas-design/ Last updated: 2023-09-07T15:07:27.000Z We all know the story. You hear about a great software solution and you’re pumped to find out more about it. So you check out their landing page and… the layout is cluttered, it’s unclear what the product actually does, let alone how it’s actually going to positively impact your life – and above all else – the page is *ugly*.🚫 First Impressions **count**. How your product is designed and presented can be the difference between a customer wanting to get to know you better and swiping left (think of it like the difference between a blurry Tinder profile vs one with hi-res ski photos). But more importantly, presentation is an essential component in getting customers to that essential value moment (or the ‘aha’ moment). This is the essence of ‘empathetic design.’ But how do you implement successful empathetic design? Why not learn from someone who has successfully taken organizations from startup to acquisition? 🎧 👇 [‎SaaScast: How does empathy drive innovation in SaaS design? on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep How does empathy drive innovation in SaaS design? - Sept 7, 2023![](https://t1.gstatic.com/faviconV2?client=SOCIAL&type=FAVICON&fallback_opts=TYPE,SIZE,URL&url=https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/how-does-empathy-drive-innovation-in-saas-design/id1544750249?i=1000627079202&size=128)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts126/v4/a4/4d/5f/a44d5fae-5046-a15e-a689-2605bf2c3483/mza_10035764847765952101.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/how-does-empathy-drive-innovation-in-saas-design/id1544750249?i=1000627079202) ## Evan Shoemaker Enter Evan Shoemaker, CEO and Founder at Webuild. His organization boasts several note-worthy successes, such as boosting Clickup’s conversion rate by 10%. And as we learned from this conversation, there’s a whole lot that goes into successful empathetic design, including: 📣 Leveraging customer feedback for empathetic design 🤝 Creating a culture of trust for continuous retention 👏 Guiding customers to the value moment We dived into all of this and more. Find out how you can boost customer acquisition and steel-clad your retention with this latest episode of SaaScast. ## Join the conversation Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Creator, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: . ### 5 key ingredients that make great product operations URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/5-key-ingredients-that-make-great-product-operations/ Last updated: 2024-11-13T12:56:41.000Z *Yifan Wang, Global Head of Operations at Firework, gave this presentation at the Product Operations Festival in May 2023.* Hi everyone, today I'm going to cover the topic of good product operations and great product operations. This is inspired by a very famous article called ‘Good Product Manager - Bad Product Manager,’ by A16Z. This presentation is based on a lot of my personal experiences of building a team, developing different things, [launching ](https://www.saasalliance.io/launch-a-showstopping-saas-with-these-6-examples-of-a-minimum-viable-product/)different products, and collaborating with many different functions. - Product operations at Firework - Adopting a startup founder’s mindset - Driving efficiency and effectiveness beyond day-to-day operations - Product users aren’t your only customers - The importance of overcommunicating - Develop within and beyond - Conclusion ## **Product operations at Firework** To give a quick introduction about myself, my name is Yifan Wang, and I’m currently the Global Head of Operations at Firework. I'm also one of the founding members of Firework. Firework is a technology platform that provides shoppable short videos and shoppable live stream solutions to lots of different [customers.](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-tips-to-make-your-saas-product-stand-out/) We allow them to use shoppable short videos and live streams on their websites and their mobile apps. Our customers include Walmart, Samsung, Levi’s, Gap, and different services like American Express and even Westfield. So you can have a lot of fun just by watching, engaging, and continuing to shop directly from their websites through quality entertainment experiences. [Launch a showstopping SaaS with these 6 examples of a minimum viable productYour product never stops evolving, the MVP is just the first to step in that process. Take the first step to launching an amazing product with a showstopping MVP.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/MVP.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/launch-a-showstopping-saas-with-these-6-examples-of-a-minimum-viable-product/) Firework has had a very interesting journey. It’s been running for six years now, so it’s still a very young startup. We actually started with everything focused on B2C. We created an app and had a lot of users coming in. They started watching and browsing different kinds of content and continued to engage with that. After a while, our business pivoted to a B2B focus and we changed our business model. I've been focusing on global operations and managing and [building a team](https://www.saasalliance.io/best-practices-for-building-out-your-product-operations-team/) around the globe. I’m very passionate about digital innovation, as well as creative strategy. I grew up in China and spent almost a decade in Hong Kong, so my areas of expertise also touch on a lot of FinTech and branding as well. Today, I'm actually going to touch on a few things that I experience a lot day-to-day. I also see a lot of questions popping up in our community chat and Slack channels. The areas I'm going to focus on are: - Mindset - Goal setting - Communication - And team growth Let’s get started. ## **Adopting a startup founder’s mindset** When you introduce [product operations](https://www.saasalliance.io/best-practices-for-building-out-your-product-operations-team/), you always start with, “This is a new function.” Every company and industry has different purposes or setups in regard to product operations. This is extremely common. All of us as good leaders start to look into how to bring this new function in. You might even be the [first hire](https://www.saasalliance.io/7-early-stage-recruiting-mistakes-ill-never-make-again/) in it. You might be someone who doesn't know too much about the role, but you’ve been brought in and developed into this. You might be looking at how to connect things and help your function work together with other functions. You might also do a lot of [interviews](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-your-product-management-role/) to get started and understand many different kinds of issues and pain points from other teams. This is all really amazing, but let's think about how and what can take us to the next level. [Best practices for building out your product operations teamGabby Peralta, Product Operations Manager at Tealium, shows you how to strengthen the connecting tissue between your departments: the product operations team.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSGabby Peralta![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/connections--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/best-practices-for-building-out-your-product-operations-team/) To go to the next level, I’d like to challenge you to think about being a startup founder. Seeing things as a new function versus [building your own startup](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-5-reasons-why-startups-fail-and-how-to-avoid-them/), the mentality and the mindset may be very different. So when you’re building things from zero to one, this will help you to think about things differently. I’ll give you a few examples. In a startup environment, we always talk about the concept of [MVP](https://www.saasalliance.io/launch-a-showstopping-saas-with-these-6-examples-of-a-minimum-viable-product/). There are things you don't plan and work for and then look to develop into something excellent. You try them out first with something very, very rough and not exactly pretty. But then you start to figure things out and see if they work, and then continue to iterate to the next level and the next stage. And that's basically a very important startup founder mentality. Also, having a startup founder mentality is to really take ownership and responsibility, spending money as if it’s your own, and working on things as if it’s your business. This is what we mean about the startup founder's mindset and mentality. From my experience, when we started the new function of product operations, one of the goals we wanted to achieve was to build a [training platform](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-improve-sales-team-training-sessions/) that was good for both internal members and all of our customers. As function leaders, what we decided was, “Okay, let's start to shop for learning platforms. Let's do research and find the right platform and start looking into this.” [OKRs for SaaS startupsImplementing a framework used by a global technology conglomerate at a small-scale start-up may seem daunting, after all at this stage of growth your goals will be wildly different, however, as you’ll come to find out the beauty of OKRs is that anyone can set measurable goals!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/kelly-sikkema-v9FQR4tbIq8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/okrs-for-saas-startups/) But guess what? The budget was overwhelming. And also, because we were still conceptualizing this and initiating around it, it was too far away from what we wanted to look into. This is where we went back to the drawing board and started to wear the founder’s hat. If we’re a startup founder, we’re trying to build something from scratch, and we want to start an MVP of the training program, so what would this look like? So what we did is actually just use a Google Doc and create a framework to put everything together. I also started to create some of the materials like [training](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-dark-arts-of-data/) videos, and then put it all into a place where it was easy to work. And after this experience, we actually tried to do this with a tech partner, and we were able to launch our first certification program in a very short period of time. This is actually a really great example of success, and we're confident that we can develop our own learning platform or launch any new platform with minimum risk based on all of the experiments and other things we’ve done. So I suggest that all of us pay attention to this part of the mindset and continue to drive excellence to the next level. ## **Driving efficiency and effectiveness beyond day-to-day operations** In product operations, we come into a lot of different situations. Your day-to-day will probably be about putting out fires and trying to save and juggle many different things. A lot of you might jump into the [KPIs](https://www.saasalliance.io/okrs-for-saas-startups/) because you want to see success immediately. This is great, but if you want to achieve on the next level, make sure you save some time to look into the bigger picture. This is where I think operations should be able to measure everything and set a long-term vision and goal for your team and your company. This is also where I'm sure a lot of you will come to question the OKRs. In fact, we do have a lot of discussions in the Slack channel around OKRs, how to set up the right measurements, and how to do this in the best ways. I suggest that all of us look into efficiency and effectiveness. In product operations, you might hear all of these words like ‘assist’, ‘help’, ‘support’, ‘consult’, or ‘participate.’ These are all really good effort activities, but they aren’t effective measurements of your end result. You might want to adopt different ways to think about how to do this. For example, if you assist with something, how do you measure that assistance? In my team, there are several ways we actually measure all of our efforts. For a lot of the regular tasks around launch training and ongoing [support](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-a-solid-network-to-support-others/), we basically measure by the efforts we're putting in, like the time that we spend, the growth that we're achieving, the number of webinars, and the number of hours of training we do. [How to leverage NPS data to make decisionsNet Promoter Score (NPS) is a powerful tool for product and marketing teams. Leveraging NPS helps you (A) get closer to customers, (B) benchmark your business against the competition, and (C) understand how your products are perceived - including deficiencies in the current setup.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSandeep Singh Bhara![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/customer-feedback.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-leverage-nps-data-to-make-decisions/) You could even do a wider measurement around your [NPS ](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-leverage-nps-data-to-make-decisions/)score, or your review and feedback from other teams who are involved in the process to help with this. This could be really interesting. Another very important measure is while we’re working on or optimizing any of the new processes, we're expanding the existing workflow. We need to measure by adoption. Either it’s 100% adoption rate, or let’s say we're able to launch this within a certain time with a certain number of customers. Or we’re able to launch this in this region, and then consider other regions for the second launch phase. So all of these will be good ways to [consider your measurement around anything around processes](https://www.productledalliance.com/your-guide-to-product-led-metrics-and-measurements/). Last but not least, I also want to mention the MVP efforts. There will be a lot of innovation approaches, and even trying to do some new initiatives. So if you want to focus on zero to one, you might want to use an MVP way to measure that as well. So make something very simple and small and continue to develop from this. And this is also where you want to adjust your goals. Sometimes a quarter may be too long for you for this MVP process, so you can continue to develop by looking to six weeks or four weeks, and that's completely fine. For our team, and specifically for product operations, there are times when we actually look into a month-by-month perspective on the OKR. It's actually really helpful because there are a lot of nuances and a lot of things we’re still trying to adjust. So hopefully this will inspire all of you to think about how to drive efficiency and effectiveness beyond the day-to-day, and look at the bigger picture. ## **Product users aren’t your only customers** As part of operations, we always focus on product. It’s literally in the function name. A lot of the operations are around the product, developing the processes, and trying to drive excellence around the product. So a lot of the time we’re really really focused on the product. But here, I want to ask everyone to take a step back. What is important for product? What should the product focus be? Product will actually focus on the customer. Knowing what the [customers need](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-your-customers-your-growth-priority/) and knowing their pain points is really, really important for the product. But most important is knowing the ‘why’ from the customers. This is where you can actually develop the best solution for them. Sometimes customers say, “Hey, I want my horse to run faster.” They aren’t saying they want a car, but knowing that the customer really wants to arrive at their destination in a shorter period of time can help you identify what the best solution is from there. It's the same for us in product operations. We should also focus on the customers because customers will point back to our solutions. But for product operations, it’s not just about the product users. For the product you develop, you might have different types of users. This is great to understand what they want and the things they're focused on. Your process users might be the PMs, the QA team, the engineering team, the marketing team, and the customer success team. They’re all your customers as well. We need to know the customers and know what they're thinking, what their pain points are, and what other things can help them do better and better. So this is where we can identify how to improve things. [Let’s hear it: Magnify your voice of the customer programVoice of the customer programs are methods created by companies to best understand the experience and needs of their customer base through feedback.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSGrace Gupta![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/customer-success.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/lets-hear-it-magnify-your-voice-of-the-customer-program/) In a certain period of time, for any of the product launches, there are certain challenges we're facing. Certain teams have certain feedback and opinions on the launch. After talking to our customers, as in all of these process users, we realized what they actually wanted was to have an opportunity to try our product out before it launched, and so they could develop something relevant to the product excellence. Based on this, we actually launched a program that allowed any of the internal team members to have a voice and try things out before the official launch, and also provide [early-stage feedback](https://www.saasalliance.io/lets-hear-it-magnify-your-voice-of-the-customer-program/), which is extremely beneficial to all of our teams. So this program is actually based on the customer's feedback. This is something you can also try. Beyond the PMs, there are many different customers you could look into. ## **The importance of overcommunicating** Communication is very important for our operations. We connect with so many [different functions](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) and work with so many different stakeholders. I'm sure everybody has so many different meetings and gets a lot of updates, no matter if you're using Slack messages, emails, newsletters, videos, or live streams. There are so many different formats to help everyone understand what's going on. It's all really awesome, but I'm sure we all face the challenge of making sure that communication is really effective, and how we can make sure the communication between different teams and different stakeholders, specifically on certain topics, is better and faster. This is where I want to talk about how we can make sure we focus on alignment and overcommunication. I see a lot of questions asking, “What are the best tools I can use to help each of the teams sync up on certain things? What are some of the tools that you use to talk to executives or management teams? What are the tools for doing this or doing that?” Our tools are amazing, but the tools are designed for a reason. If we don't understand the reasons behind different teams to make certain decisions, we can’t move forward. My mentor mentioned this book and approach to me from Simon Sinek that’s really, really good. The approach is called ‘Start With Why.’ I highly recommend looking into this, as it helps with a lot of communication and makes it easy to align with different teams. [How do we engage key stakeholders in cross-functional collaboration?Here’s how to ensure seamless collaboration between teams, so you can smash through those silos and skyrocket your organization to success!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/pexels-huy-chien-tran-1756665.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) When you’re talking to different teams and trying to align on different schedules and different approaches, you might receive a lot of rejection, like “No, this isn’t working for me.” But if you try to start with ‘why’ and explain the reason, this could be really, really helpful. Statistics show that you need to communicate seven times for people to remember your message. Seven times. It's not easy to reach that specifically. We also do a lot of hybrid and remote working together now, where it’s very easy to drown in the information ocean. So in order to make sure your message is delivered clearly, overcommunicate. So after running product operations for a couple of months, we realized that a lot of people still didn't understand the vision or what exactly the team was doing. We don't blame them because there are so many meetings and so many different communication channels. So we started a new approach in the last quarter. At every product training meeting and every time we host something together with a larger group, we’ll always start with the team introduction. What is the product operations team? What do we do? Who are some of the key members? We even communicate our roadmap to everyone during all of these meetings and explain how things are going, and what things we're focused on. So this is actually really helpful for everyone to understand clearly. So I highly recommend this if you’re still struggling to plug in or still launching your product operations function. Speaking of communication, communication with your peers and your other function teams is very important. I receive a lot of questions about how to talk to the management team and how to make sure your senior leadership team is really aware of the work that you do. I’m part of the senior leadership team, and a lot of times when my team's coming to me, they’re underprepared. So here are some of my tips that can help you to prepare better. There are two types of senior leaders that might exist in the organization. One type is a little bit reactive. Especially in big organizations, they have so many different things they need to look into and so many different functions to handle. When working with slightly more reactive leaders, the first thing that pops up into their minds when talking to you might be, “Okay, what's next?” People always ask what's next. And then, “What do I need to do? Do you need some support? Or is everything going well?” Understanding this will help you to shape your communication better with the management. You might want to start with the summary, how are things going, and tell them either a few reasons we're doing well, or a few reasons we’re not doing well, and then provide a conclusion of the support, resources, feedback, or advice you need from them. [How to unlock customer advocacy through user-generated contentSeasoned marketer, Gaurav Goyal, demonstrates how you can unlock customer advocacy that drives solid conversion and retention through user-generated content.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSGaurav Goyal![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/08/user-generated-content.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-unlock-customer-advocacy-through-user-generated-content/) While a lot of the leaders might be very proactive, they might need certain check-ins, and they might want to go a little bit deeper into the things you're working on. You can also prepare your development roadmaps on a higher level, or even create certain dashboards with instant updates for them to look at. But again, everything will all come back to the measurement and the metrics as well. Provide very high-level, easy-to-recognize metrics for your senior leadership to look into. That’s why with OKRs, sometimes we just use three colors to represent what everything looks like, and this will be very simple and easy, even for a management team, to know how things are going right now. Your leader hired you because they trust you. They trust your expertise and your learning capabilities, so don't worry too much about having to present everything to them. They won't expect that. So focus on the high level, present your thoughts, and also provide some follow-ups for your management team as well. ## **Develop within and beyond** Last but not least, I wanted to talk a little bit about education and training. I've been asking around, “What's the best job description? What are some of the most important capabilities we need to look into?” Even in some of the early stages with a lot of team planning, I saw so many members plan it very well with things like, “I need an analyst, I need an agile coach or a trainer, I need this and that.” This is really, really awesome, but I also want to encourage everyone to develop within and beyond. Sometimes, looking into a talent, the capability of learning, and the mindset are actually more important than skills. A lot of you are probably not native product operations members. You might come in from a program management background or a product background. You come in from so many different backgrounds. What brought you where you are today is your capability of learning and developing. So when you're looking into building and growing your team, that's something that’s very important. Most of my team hasn't done any specific product operations work, but they have done something similar or relevant. But most importantly, they’re open to learning and developing. I think forums, communities, and webinars are very helpful because there’s no textbook. There’s nothing set in place for all of us to say what the concrete and specific way for product operations to continue to develop is. But we’re here to refine and develop this together. It’s not only important to train your team, but it’s also important to develop and train everyone in your company so they understand more about product operations and everything that you do. The more they know, the better they can align with you as well. Not everybody has the operations mindset. If we want to develop excellence around the product, we actually need to plan ahead. There are so many details about how to launch things, what some of the action items are, what the best practices are, some of the things users might encounter, etc. These all tie into the operations. [How Communication Systems Enhance Customer ExperienceAna Andres del Valle, Principal Solutions Architect at Twilio, preaches the power of communication. She maintains that products are becoming less and less about what they are, but more about the experience that they enable. Communication stands at the heart of this enablement.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSTanya Lang![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-24-at-18.05.43.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/communications-your-product-and-improving-your-customer-experience/) Certain PMs, engineers, and teams might not be very familiar with this. It’s completely fine because we all speak different languages based on our position, but this is where by sharing your language and your expertise, more and more members will understand what things look like. You also need to train your management team as well. I’m not kidding. There are leaders who are foreign to the concept of product operations because it hasn’t existed for long. There are still knowledge gaps, inspiration, and innovations we can bring into the organization, and that you can talk to your leadership about as well. So make sure you also spend time to let them know what product operations is, what some of the problems are that we're trying to solve, and what things we're trying to work together on. ## **Conclusion** Adopt an entrepreneur mindset, set really ambitious and long-term goals, put customers in the center, and figure out the ways to measure. Always align and foster a culture of open [communication](https://www.saasalliance.io/communications-your-product-and-improving-your-customer-experience/) and collaboration. Also, invest in the development of your team and your company, and think beyond. This will help take product operations to the next level and achieve great things. Remember, good product operations is focused on getting the job done, getting through the day-to-day, and finishing all the tasks. But great product operations is about achieving exceptional results and making a real impact. These are just five areas in my day-to-day and my experience that I think are really important to continue to drive growth and innovation within the organization. --- *Like what you've seen? Why not check out out all of the facinating talks from our world-class [events](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-ondemand/)?* ### The best competitive strategy for each stage in the business lifecycle URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-best-competitive-strategy-for-each-stage-in-the-business-lifecycle/ Last updated: 2023-09-01T14:31:13.000Z The first three stages of the business lifecycle go something like this: - Startup - Growth - Maturity From that point on, things get a little shaky. The business can begin to ****decline** as other, more agile competitors step up to the plate. Or, it can keep innovating. This ****rebirth** stage sees the business transition to keep up with the changing market. There’s one other possible ending, though: ****acquisition**. The business owner can cash out of the business, rather than stick around to see it through its next phase. If you’re looking for the right competitive strategy for where your business is at, you’re probably in one of those first phases. Those are the ones almost every emerging business finds itself in. Let’s take a look at which types of competitive strategies you should adopt at each stage of the cycle. - How businesses win - But what about..? - Porter's generic strategies - The company lifecycle (revisited) - TL;DR ## **How businesses win** But first (!), let’s take a look at the different ways a business can become successful. First, it wins more ****market share**, and sells a larger number of units to a greater number of people across the total available market. Second, rather than sell more units, it increases its profit margins per unit sold, while selling the same number of units. There are typically two ways it can do this: 1. ****Cut costs** and sell at the same price. 2. ****Improve the product** and charge a higher price. Costs remain constant. All of these generate more profit for the company, which can then reinvest that capital. All other things being equal, a business that’s more profitable will win over the competition. Let’s examine each option in a bit more detail. #### **Win more market share** Businesses that want to win more market share need products or services with broad market appeal. This doesn’t have to mean “appealing to the masses”, although it might. A single product that appeals to everybody is great. But different products for different market segments might work even better. Of course, it’s hard to create a single successful product. Creating multiple successful products demands more staff and more money. Businesses in the startup stage are usually wiser to stick with a single product. #### **Cut costs** A business that cuts its costs without negatively affecting the product makes more money from each unit it sells. It costs less to produce each unit (or to fulfill a service once). Less money out, same money in, more profit! A business can cut its costs by switching, or negotiating better deals with, its suppliers or manufacturers. It can also cut its costs by becoming more efficient, or by employing economies of scale. #### **Improve the product** A business might not reduce its costs by working to offer a better product or service, but it will almost certainly be able to charge more. When you offer a great deal more value, customers will be willing to pay a great deal more. Same money out, more money in, more profit! Even existing customers will be happy to pay more if you make it clear to them how much more value they’re getting from their product now than when they first came on board. ### **What to notice about all of these methods** All of the above methods flow into each other. Make more profit with any of the above methods, and you’ll be able to reinvest that profit into any of the others. If you’re able to cut costs, you can reinvest your profits in improving your product, researching your market, and identifying competitor weaknesses. In turn, you’ll win more deals, start stealing market share from your competitors, and make even more money. In turn, by winning more customers, you’ll learn more about what held them back from choosing you before. You’ll also learn what the final straw was that made them look to leave your competitor. All this helps inform your product development, and tells you where to direct your newfound capital. In other words, there’s a positive feedback loop at play here. Just make *some* progress early, and you’ll find your business accelerating into the growth stage in no time. --- [![The C-Suite Masterclass](https://www.competitiveintelligencealliance.io/content/images/2023/06/C-Suite_Masterclass_Email_Banner_--1-.png)](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?ref=competitiveintelligencealliance.io) --- ## **But what about..?** By now, you should have questions. Because all that sounds neat and tidy, and you know nothing’s ever that easy. When it comes to ways a business can generate more profit, we’re leaving out other things that matter too. Things like the quality of the business’ leadership, the quality of its strategic decision-making, and its ability to close deals. But with the right people, such things should take care of themselves. And a business with more money can afford to hire better, more qualified people. So it should, in theory, win there too. Ok. But what about winning market share? When do you ever get a bunch of “unclaimed” market share just sitting around, waiting for you to come along and win them? You’ll have to win market share from the competition if you’re to win them at all. So, how do you get ahead enough to start generating more profit? For that, you’ll need a competitive advantage. That’s where Porter’s generic strategies come in. ## **Porter’s generic strategies** First, a primer on Porter’s generic strategies. Michael Porter proposed three distinct competitive strategies: - Cost leadership. - Differentiation leadership. - Focus leadership. Let’s examine those more closely. ### **Porter’s generic strategies explained** #### **Cost leadership** A business that cuts costs while keeping prices the same can make more profit. It can then reinvest that profit into its products, people, and processes. This creates a positive feedback loop that accelerates the business’ growth, widening the gap between it and its closest competitors. Or, a business can look to pass its cost savings on to its customers, lowering its prices. Competing on price is rarely the best strategy for a business, as prices can only drop so close to zero before you’re out of business. While you might attract more people with your lower prices, there are some things to consider: 1. Does your product or service have ****broad enough appeal** to actually attract more customers even if the price is lower?s 2. Is your price a ****real reason** you’re losing deals? 3. Will the uplift in customer numbers ****offset the drop** in prices? 4. Are the customers you’d attract with lower prices ****the kind you’d want?** Remember, there’s no limit to how much you can increase your prices. You can offer ever-increasing value to your customers and continue charging more for it. In this direction, you’re limited only by your creativity and willingness to provide value. Try to win by being the cheapest, and you cheapen your product too. For some businesses this is the right strategy. For most, it’s not. ### **Differentiation leadership** Differentiation leadership is where your product or service does a few select things *very* well. Much better than your competitors. You’ve looked at similar products, uncovered where your product is strongest, and doubled down on those strengths. You’ve figured out how to make your product *different*, so it can stand on its own amongst other high value products. By doing a few things very well, your product becomes very good at solving very particular customer needs. The customers who want these needs met more than any others *will* favor your product over your competitors. Some of those competitors might even have you beat in other areas. But for your select cohort, your product solves their unique problems the best. So long as that doesn’t change, you’ll always be their first choice. ### **Focus leadership** Focus leadership comes down to focusing on one, small niche of customers to create what's called a [niche competitive advantage](https://www.competitiveintelligencealliance.io/niche-competitive-advantage/). A lot of research will likely have gone into finding and defining this customer segment. From the ground up, you’re able to build a product or service that caters to every need of this small niche. You understand them, and your product caters to them, better than any of your competitors. By virtue of being a small niche, broad market appeal is not what you’re aiming for. Everything from your pricing, to your feature set, and your brand messaging, all of these are geared towards selling your target market on your product. You might think this sounds quite a lot like differentiation. The difference between this and differentiation is that it can apply to both cost *and*differentiation. If price is a core need for your customers, you’ll have to incorporate that into your product or service. ☝️ Note: In Porter’s original framework, these three actually formed a quadrant, with Cost and Differentiation leadership as the two core options, both existing on a scale of focused-to-broad in how niche or broad your target market is. --- [![The C-Suite Masterclass](https://www.competitiveintelligencealliance.io/content/images/2023/06/C-Suite_Masterclass_Email_Banner_--1--1.png)](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?ref=competitiveintelligencealliance.io) --- ## **The company lifecycle (revisited)** So (big drum roll) what does any of this have to do with the company lifecycle? At different stages of the lifecycle, a business has different challenges and circumstances. It has more or less cash readily available to reinvest. It has a greater or lesser number of talented staff on hand to push smart new ideas. And, most importantly, businesses at different stages of the company lifecycle can have more or less success with each of the competitive strategies we outlined above. That’s thanks to the unique things about those strategies. ![](https://www.competitiveintelligencealliance.io/content/images/2023/06/cycle.jpg) ### **The best competitive strategy for a startup** Here are some of the hallmarks of a ****startup** 🌳. - Hasn’t been in business long (months to years). - Low sales. - Negative profit (operating at a loss). - Low efficiency (relatively unable to generate sales with its available capital). The business is at its most *fragile*during the startup stage. Most businesses don’t survive! Product market fit does not yet exist, and there’s not much cash since you’re not yet profitable. Running at a loss, startups are at risk of losing the key people they’ve invested so much of their scarce capital in. Your employees will learn lots quickly, and you’ll have to underpay them. Your best employees are the ones you’ll rely on most for growth, but they’re also the ones most likely to leave in search of higher paying opportunities once they’ve learned enough to move on. However, a business is also at its most *agile* during this stage. Risk is inherent, so startups have little to lose, and benefit from a “move fast and break things” mentality. Risk is high anyway, so there’s little downside to trying bold new things and learning from the outcomes. So what should your priority be as a startup? And what strategy is best to pursue at this stage? 🌳 **• Suggested focus:** product-market fit. • **Suggested strategy:** Niche competitive advantage (focus OR differentiation). Finding your product-market fit should be your priority. That includes establishing a customer base. When you do, you’ll start generating enough cash to reward your staff and attract strong new talent. This sows the seeds of true growth, as you’ll have more money and more staff around. You can use both to further develop your products and grow your business. As for strategies, a focused approach works best in the beginning for most. This can’t be a blanket recommendation, as there are always exceptions in the messy world of business. But as a rule, it holds. Most startups barely have enough cash to keep going. So it makes sense to nail a single product or service first. Make it the best it can possibly be for a small group of people (making it the best it can possibly be for everyone is beyond your scope at this point). By making it so good for a select group, it’s likely very valuable to them. This is good, as it means they’ll pay top dollar to use it. *That’s* good, because it means you’ll start generating serious cash once your product starts to sell. ### **The best competitive strategy for a growth-stage company** Here are some of the hallmarks of a ****growth-stage** company 📈: - Usually been in business for at least a year. - Higher sales. - Higher profits, positive turnover. - Greater efficiency (better able to convert available capital into more sales). By the time you’ve reached the growth phase, you’ve found your product-market fit. There is demand for what you do. At this point, you’re operating at a profit. This is the time to strategically reinvest every bit of profit you make back into the business, so it can scale. So what should your priority and strategy be as a growth-stage company? 📈 • **Suggested focus**: competitive positioning. • **Suggested competitive strategy**: Niche competitive advantage (focus AND differentiation). You have more money at your disposal at this stage, so investing in new, skilled people is key. Sure, continue investing in product development and better tools and software. But a full marketing team is a must at this stage. A skilled marketing team can handle your key focus for the growth-stage: [competitive positioning](https://www.competitiveintelligencealliance.io/what-is-competitive-positioning/). As you near the end of the growth stage, growth will slow as you step up to the plate against key competitors. Knowing these competitors and how you’ll position yourself to beat them is key. As for your competitive strategy, it’s important to keep focusing on the niche target market you’re already winning over. Continued investment in your product helps keep existing customers around, while improved positioning and marketing puts you in the best position to win new customers. ### **The best competitive strategy for a business at maturity** Here are some key markers of a business that has reached ****maturity** 👨‍🦳****:** - Usually been in business for at least five years. - Growth has begun to slow. - Costs have begun to fall. - Has been profitable, year after year, for a while. - Even greater efficiency versus the growth stage (even better able to convert available capital into more sales). A business that has reached maturity has a key, new advantage. It’s large enough that it is able to begin employing economies of scale. Fulfilling services on a larger scale, putting in orders for manufactured materials at bulk sizes, being able to commit to longer term deals with suppliers … all of these things help a business cut costs. And with lower costs, you can begin pursuing the elusive cost leadership strategy. 👵 • **Suggested focus**: long-term competitive advantage. • **Suggested competitive advantage**: cost advantage. Broader focus possible. For most businesses that reach maturity, the next stage is decline. To guard against that, you’ll need to stay on top of market trends and be very aware of changing customer needs. For that reason, your suggested focus at this stage is on establishing yourself for the long term. How can you make sure you’re still *the* in-demand product in five or ten years? How is the market shifting, and how might this affect the ways you offer and deliver your products and services to make sure you remain competitive? These are the kinds of questions you’ll need answers to if you want a sustained competitive advantage. Thankfully, your strategic horizons have broadened. You’re now large enough to lower your costs, so you can begin using these cost savings strategically. You can pass them on to your customers by charging lower prices. Or, you can charge the same prices and reinvest the additional profit. One smart way of investing this additional profit would be in advisors and experts who can help you navigate the business environment. They’ll be expensive, but if they keep you in business, they’re worth every cent. Now is also a good time to start diversifying. If you’ve been nailing a particular niche market segment for a while, you can start to develop a broader focus, aiming to serve a greater total number of customers. ## **TL;DR** - Businesses win by either appealing to a greater number of customers with the same products, or by increasing profit margins while selling to the same number of customers (or both). 📈 - Porter’s Generic Strategies (cost leadership, differentiation leadership, and focus leadership), roughly describe ways businesses can succeed. ♟️ - Businesses at each of the first stages of the company lifecycle (startup, growth, maturity), have different circumstances and opportunities. 👪 - Startups should focus on achieving product market fit quickly, while focusing on a niche market. 🤏 - Businesses in the growth phase should focus on beginning to position themselves competitively in the marketplace, learning how to differentiate their product effectively. 🌳 - Businesses that reach maturity should start securing themselves for the long-term, and can begin employing economies of scale to achieve cost leadership in their industry. They can then reinvest in diversifying their product portfolio and hedging risk. 👨‍🦳 --- ## **New or budding C-suite member who needs strategy training?** [![](https://www.competitiveintelligencealliance.io/content/images/2023/06/Alliance_C-Suite_Meta_Assets_.jpg)](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?ref=competitiveintelligencealliance.io) Most newcomers to the C-suite don't feel prepared. That's because they don't know how to: - ****Steer their psychology** to take care of their mental health, eliminate imposter syndrome, and finally achieve work-life balance. - Quickly ****establish a company-wide vision** and framework for developing and implementing a winning strategy. - Deftly ****handle cultural differences** to maximize team togetherness. The C-Suite Masterclass will teach you to do all this, plus a *load* more. Click the banner below for more info. See you inside. 🫡 [Find out what it takes to enter the C-suite today!](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?utm%5Fsource=cmoa&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=content) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/09/image-1.png) ### Navigating market volatility: The power of localization and translation URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/navigating-market-volatility-the-power-of-localization-and-translation/ Last updated: 2023-08-31T08:14:04.000Z The current economic landscape is marked by uncertainty, high inflation, and customers that are tightening their belts or centralizing functions. As a CFO or CEO, you will be looking for ways to accelerate revenue or reduce costs with in-year payback on investment. One often-overlooked yet powerful strategy is investing in robust localization and translation approaches. According to research conducted by [CSA](https://csa-research.com/Blogs-Events/CSA-in-the-Media/Press-Releases/Fortune-500-Companies-that-Invest-in-Translation-Report-Higher-Revenue), Fortune 500 companies that invest in translation were twice as likely to experience an increase in profits as well as generate an augmented increase in earnings per share (EPS). By embracing the opportunity that a seamless localization programme presents, you can fortify your business against market turbulence and secure a strong position for future growth. Localization goes beyond mere translation; it encompasses the cultural, linguistic, and functional adaptation of your content, products, or services to resonate with diverse target audiences. A strong localization strategy, supported by the right technology, allows you to reach global markets faster and more efficiently. But how does this translate to risk mitigation? Let’s explore. [How can enterprises be more agile with technology?As businesses prepare for a possibly turbulent 2022, they will rely on agile project management techniques to help them remain competitive and adaptive.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMadhu Kesavan![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/agile.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-can-enterprises-be-more-agile-with-technology-2/) ## Diversified revenue streams As a C-suite leader, you’ll understand the benefits of diversification as an investment strategy, and the wisdom of this extends well beyond stock portfolios. Diversification across global markets - as indeed multilingual or diaspora audiences in your home markets - is, in fact, a critical way for CFOs and CEOs to mitigate long-term organizational risks. A strong localized presence in multiple markets shields your business from the impact of economic fluctuations in any single region. Additionally, you can learn about new use cases and value propositions for your services in new markets. Lastly, we’ve seen that companies that diversify their language delivery find new audiences that they weren’t expecting, as customers feel that the product or service is more targeted to them. [Further together - building a diverse marketing teamMaya Grossman, VP of Marketing at Canvas shared her views on the value of diverse teams, her hiring best practices to get it right, how to go about getting stakeholder buy-in, and more.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/helena-lopes-PGnqT0rXWLs-unsplash--2---1--2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/further-together-building-a-diverse-marketing-team/) ## Enhanced brand integrity and loyalty Companies shouldn’t underestimate the critical role of localization and translation when it comes to building a strong presence in a market—the kind of presence that can bolster your brand and reduce risk over the long run. Through localization, we not only translate content but also ensure that our brand's messaging aligns with local sentiments and values. This alignment fosters trust and reinforces brand integrity and a strong audience connection to that brand, which proves to be a strong pillar, especially during times of market uncertainty. In its research, [CSA](https://csa-research.com/Featured-Content/For-Global-Enterprises/Global-Growth/CRWB-Series/CRWB-B2C) also found 3 out of 4 consumers want to see product reviews in their language, and nearly two-thirds will only make a purchase in their own language. When customers feel valued and understood, they’re more likely to become repeat buyers and recommend your brand to others. By offering tailored content that speaks to your audience’s specific needs and preferences, you can foster trust, loyalty, and long-term relationships that bolster your business through economic fluctuations. [Positioning across the SaaS funnel (Q&A with Sellics)Priscilla Tenggara, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sellics, discusses: how to determine if your current positioning is working, tips for running ads on social media, examples of positioning done right, plus more.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/jachymmichal-oVWilf8znF8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/positioning-across-the-saas-funnel-q-a-with-sellics/) ## Improved competitive positioning Companies that invest in localization and translation tools and technology can swiftly adapt to market changes and capitalize on emerging opportunities. This agility enables you to stay ahead of competitors who may be slow to react, ultimately enhancing your market share and financial stability. A strong localization approach also helps companies adapt pricing structures to suit the local economic conditions, consumer behavior, and competition in different regions while accounting for currency fluctuations and adjusting prices accordingly to maintain profitability and competitiveness. Lower margins in some markets might be offset by higher margins in others. Large and sticky niche markets can be discovered that haven’t been envisaged before. ## Legal and compliance Implementing a well-thought-out localization and translation strategy is essential for legal and compliance purposes, especially for organizations operating in an increasingly globalized world. It helps in understanding and adhering to local laws, communicating effectively and protecting the organization’s reputation. In turn, this reduces legal risks and fosters a smoother market entry. [Automating compliance with Meiran GalisIn this episode, we’re joined by Meiran Galis, CEO and Co-founder at Scytale AI, and a tactical leader in the realm of security compliance. Meiran has helped hundreds of high-profile SaaS companies build compliance programs for rapidly growing organizations.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/FoSaaS_Podcast_MG-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/automating-compliance-with-meiran-galis/) ## Talent management and development In today’s business landscape, attracting, retaining, and nurturing top talent is a pressing concern for CFOs and CEOs alike. With [73 percent of employers](https://cvviz.com/recruitment-statistics/) facing hurdles in finding skilled candidates, it’s evident that a new approach is needed. Opting for a localized strategy in global hiring can be a game changer. By creating an inclusive workspace and providing localized training materials and communications that resonate with diverse backgrounds, businesses can forge a robust, highly productive workforce. In the dynamic global market, fostering an approach that combines localization and translation with an eye on talent management and development is not just an option; it’s a strategic imperative. [Leadership, talent, and global scalingA lack of clear values can lead to culture debt, lacking accountability, and issues with hiring, to name a few, all of which can have a detrimental impact on a business.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJonathan Jeffries![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1541844053589-346841d0b34c?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&w=2000&fit=max&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjExNzczfQ)](https://www.saasalliance.io/leadership-talent-and-global-scaling/) Imagine operating a global field engineering team of tens of thousands of engineers, without localizing the field manuals. Incorporating localization allows for a wider hiring pool, faster onboarding, and reduced failure rates. In the face of a volatile economic environment, a forward-thinking approach in risk mitigation is indispensable. Harnessing the power of localization and translation emerges as an imperative, not just to thrive but to protect the very foundation of a business. As we’ve discussed, localization goes beyond just translation; it’s a combination of cultural, linguistic, and functional adaptations. For savvy CFOs and CEOs, this is not a tick-box exercise but a strategic move in diversifying revenue streams, bolstering brand integrity, sharpening competitive positioning, ensuring legal compliance, and invigorating talent management. A judicious investment in a localization strategy can protect your business from the uncertainties of the market creating a springboard for future growth and success. In an increasingly interconnected world, localization is not just an auxiliary tool; it's an essential cog in the wheel of business strategy, driving resilience and success in the face of market turbulence. --- Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a future of SaaS membership plan? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### ‘The conversation was free-flowing’ - Minna Vaisanen URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-conversation-was-free-flowing-minna-vaisanen/ Last updated: 2023-08-30T12:10:56.000Z Podcasts are a superb way to showcase your expertise and establish your org as a global thought leader in the SaaS space. At SaaScast, we like to dive into the big questions facing the industry. Just take this one from bona-fide CS veteran Minna Vaisanen, where she tackled one of the most hotly debated topics in the whole industry: Is customer success a revenue or a cost center? Minna described the discussion as "free-flowing and far-reaching." Check out the full account of her experience here and contact us if you'd like to take part in SaaScast at . ## 1\. What motivated you to participate in the discussion? Being able to talk about a topic that I think should be elevated in awareness and raised as topic of discussion. ## 2\. Can you share your experience of working with the team? Yes it did! I found working with Future of SaaS really easy and we were able to define the topic for the podcast in record time. ## 4\. How was your experience during the podcast recording? As this was a very broad topic and also one that could have contrasting views, it was great to debate it from different viewpoints. The conversation was free-flowing but we covered a lot of the information. ## 5\. How did this podcast compare with other podcasts? It was a great conversation and both of us got to share our views into it - rather than usually only the participant \[in other podcasts\]. ## 6\. What value do you think SaaS leaders can get from podcasts like this? It's important to voice out new viewpoints and discuss various topics. People also like to consume information through different channels so a podcast is one that can be more of an ‘on-the-go’ listening experience. ## To sum up Well, we couldn’t have summed up the value of podcasts better. With SaaScast, we offer you a rigorous, spontaneous environment to not only spotlight your expertise, but disrupt your assumptions. Something that can benefit all SaaS leaders. To be a part of SaaScast yourself, drop our content lead, Anthony Witherspoon, a line at . ### Join the buyer-first revolution: Steps to transform your sales process URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/join-the-buyer-first-revolution-steps-to-transform-your-sales-process/ Last updated: 2024-11-13T12:55:43.000Z This article comes from **Jahnavee Ramalingam**’s talk, ‘*Crafting the B2B buying experience for the modern seller*’, at our **2023 Future of SaaS Festival**, check out her full presentation [**here**](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-april-2023/?wchannelid=nqg85ezf7j&wmediaid=uoo8n01f1h). The future of sales is bright … if you're ready to embrace it. Today's buyers have evolved: Personalization and seamless experiences are now the norm. This new landscape led to the birth of Kale, built to help sales teams adapt. As the founder of Kale, a buyer engagement copilot designed to help companies drive predictable revenue growth, I'm on a mission to **revolutionize B2B buying and selling for the modern era**. So today, I want to share my perspectives on how the B2B buying landscape has radically shifted in recent years, the challenges facing both modern buyers and sellers, and how we can craft personalized buying experiences that lead to faster sales cycles and expanded lifetime value. I've spent my career working in go-to-market and sales for some amazing companies, and I've learnt over the past decade just how dramatically B2B sales strategies have had to evolve to keep up with changes in buyer behavior and market conditions. So join me to look at how sales is being reimagined in the age of the empowered purchaser and how you can tailor your strategies. Exciting changes lie ahead! - ****Why B2B sales strategies are no longer effective** - ****Understanding the modern B2B buyer** - ****The struggles of the modern B2B sales rep** - ****Crafting frictionless buying experiences** - ****The future is buyer-centric** ## Why B2B sales strategies are no longer effective In the early 2000s, B2B selling was fairly straightforward. Prospects would reach out to vendors, have a discussion with a sales rep, and make a purchase. At that time, buyers had limited information and relied on salespeople to educate them, so the path to purchase was relatively linear. Today's journey looks *completely* different due to the always-on nature of digital access. Each buyer's path is now unique and complex. Here are some of the key trends that have emerged: - **Digital selling is here to stay**. The use of digital sales touch points has grown by **41%**, and hybrid selling models are expected to dominate by 2024. - **Data-driven strategies are replacing intuition-based selling.** With more data from multiple channels, sales organizations are shifting from following gut instincts to relying on analytics. - **COVID-19 has increased predictable buying patterns.** Buyers conduct more research independently and prefer self-guided exploration. - **Buyer-centric selling is now revenue critical.** It's a major competitive differentiator for winning business and growing lifetime value. Looking at how the typical B2B buying chain has evolved shows how urgently sales strategies need to adapt: [![pre-COVID buying journey vs today's buying journey](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/mj32w0rTCmAqam_68RvHDJgfDW4MEarunwiPGBff2cpjKhyEtUFFDKif4ZRhS-nd53nxuJDoPvm6GXY2HNMkiEwuwDO8DOIAYqld_BeQ55H7_sdRMG5mT_zscvl7WWQ3SICDFiQcyoqnIo310XpZCtw)](https://www.saasalliance.io/join-the-buyer-first-revolution-steps-to-transform-your-sales-process) It's clear that old sales tactics just aren't cutting it anymore and reducing friction is **key** to survival today. ## Understanding the modern B2B buyer Crafting desired buying experiences means understanding today's purchaser. They're younger, more tech-savvy, and bring informed perspectives based on their prior buying. Here’s proof: - **60%** of B2B tech buyers are Millennials, **32%** are Gen Xers. They expect personalized digital touchpoints. - **44%** want a "salesperson-less" experience with substantial independent research before engaging. - **80%** of B2B collateral is gated, frustrating buyers who want easy access. - **8 in 10** millennial buyers read online reviews before deciding. - **82%** will pay more for an outstanding purchasing experience, which emphasizes the revenue potential in perfecting buyer journeys. Today's buyers want relevant, personalized content tailored to their needs, not generic pitches, there's a gap between what buyers want and sellers provide. At Kale, we close this gap with targeted buying experiences. ## The struggles of the modern B2B sales rep While modernizing the buyer's journey is clearly essential, it's equally important not to overlook the challenges faced by today's sales reps. Even as purchasing power shifts to buyers, sellers remain under **intense** pressure to deliver results. Here are the three struggles I often see reps facing: **🧮 Deal complexity** The average number of stakeholders has ballooned to **11+** people, compared to 5 buyers a decade ago. Trying to coordinate multiple decision makers leads to confusion. **💤 Tool fatigue** Salespeople spend just **12%** of their time actually selling, overwhelmed by manually updating their tech stack and tracking data in silos. **👀 Visibility gaps** Once an email is sent, reps have no visibility into stakeholder engagement. They're also unable to determine what assets resonate with buyers. These problems, along with buyers' frustration over complicated purchasing journeys, lead to lost deals and revenue left on the table. It's clear that buyer-seller alignment is widening at the worst possible time. ## Crafting frictionless buying experiences But all is not lost! Buying experiences *can* be win-win for customers **AND** sales teams, it just requires buyer-centric processes. Here’s how to craft these low-friction purchases: 1. **Champion alignment** equips internal advocates with tools and relevant materials to get stakeholder buy-in and address concerns. 2. **Personalized content** replaces one-size-fits-all materials with contextual resources tailored to each buyer's unique situation. 3. **Digital workspace collaboration** provides a single source of truth for materials, action plans, and communication. 4. **Mutual action plans** with clear goals and accountability measures keep buyers engaged and deals progressing. Embracing new buyer-first approaches removes friction, accelerates sales cycles, and increases lifetime value. ## The future is buyer-centric I believe B2B sales' future is fundamentally buyer-centric. To thrive in our data-rich world, teams need to embrace AI-powered tools, scalable personalization, and insight-driven strategies. Selling has changed *radically* since the pre-internet days. We can't rely on old instincts - there's just too much data now! The key is using it to align with how modern buyers decide. This future gives buyers the power, not sellers. As a founder, I'm so excited to see sales leaders embracing this change in the coming years, and I hope I’ve been able to inspire you to do the same. The future is bright when you put buyers, not products, first! Sales is being reimagined - the best is yet to come! ### "We got to explore a variety of topics!"- Valentina Thörner URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/we-got-to-explore-a-variety-of-topics-valentina-thorner/ Last updated: 2023-08-25T14:17:14.000Z If podcasts are a part of your daily routine, you’re not alone. In fact, as of 2023, the podcast industry in the United States is valued at $2B. And it’s only on the rise, with projections for 2024 showing that value is expected to double to $4B. For busy SaaS leaders, the value is a no-brainer. Your [personal brand](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-saas-leaders-should-think-about-developing-their-personal-brand/) reflects positively on your organization’s growth. And podcasts are a superb way to showcase your expertise and establish your org as a global [thought leader](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-a-thought-leadership-strategy/) in the SaaS space. At SaaScast, we like to dive into the big questions facing the industry, and by coming on the podcast, you position yourself as a seasoned SaaS warrior on a quest to tackle the big questions head-on. Just take our [recent episode](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-how-will-ai-and-remote-work-shape-the-future-of-saas/) with Valentina Thorner, Founder at RemoteThatWorks, where she tackled two of the most crucial developments dividing opinion in the SaaS industry: AI and remote work. If you want to be the next SaaS hero to take the industry to task, be sure to contact us at: [anthony@futureofsaas.io](mailto:anthony@futureofsaas.io). In the meantime, check out Valentina’s own account of her experience with SaaScast right here. ## What made you want to be a part of SaaScast? While I am a writer at heart, I know that everyone approaches information differently. That’s why I love podcast conversations - they allow me to serve those people who’d rather be listening. Since I’ve been part of Future of SaaS events in the past, I knew the conversation would be interesting and cover more than just your standard origin story questions. ## What's the value of podcasts like SaaScast? As an industry, SaaS has a lot of opportunities in reinventing the way we work, with or without offices. And yet, most leaders, even in SaaS, have very little experience with great remote leadership. Everyone is reinventing the wheel individually, leaving so much potential untapped. I hope that podcasts like SaaScast can help bridge this knowledge gap - helping leaders and founders to discover existing frameworks on how to become better leaders without relying on an office. ## Can you share your experience of working with the team on preparing for the podcast? I’ve worked with Anthony before, so no surprise here. He was well-prepared, the questions were engaging, and we had the opportunity to cover a lot of ground. ## How was your experience during the podcast recording? It was fun, and we covered lots of ground. I am looking forward to seeing the summary (or list of topics) on the blog in the near future (watch this space!). ## How did this podcast compare with other podcasts you’ve participated in? It was a bit less directed than a lot of other shows I’ve been on, so we got to explore a variety of different topics, which was great! ## What value do you think SaaS leaders can derive from participating in podcasts like this? Podcasts in general are a great way to showcase and challenge the way you think, the opinions you have, the assumptions you operate under. And this can be super valuable for those who are considering working with you. ## To sum up Well, we couldn’t have summed up the value of podcasts better. With SaaScast, we offer you a rigorous, spontaneous environment to not only spotlight your expertise, but disrupt your assumptions. Something that can benefit all SaaS leaders. To be a part of SaaScast yourself, drop our content lead, Anthony Witherspoon, a line at [anthony@futureofsaas.io](mailto:anthony@futureofsaas.io). ### SaaScast: Is customer success a cost or revenue center? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-is-customer-success-a-cost-or-revenue-center/ Last updated: 2023-08-24T17:36:31.000Z Spoiler alert: **it’s a revenue center**. But in this episode of SaaScast, we wanted to smash the prevailing myth that CS is a cost center, or simply a nice-to-have. There’s a reason that customer success is one of the fastest growing functions in SaaS, it can generate exponential growth for your SaaS business. A study from Salesforce revealed that [89% of customers](https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-service-stats) are more likely to purchase a product due to positive customer service, and customer success’ proactive philosophy can help you offer truly amazing service for your customers. Find out how here. **🎧** [‎SaaScast: Is customer success a cost or revenue center? on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep Is customer success a cost or revenue center? - 24 Aug 2023![](https://t2.gstatic.com/faviconV2?client=SOCIAL&type=FAVICON&fallback_opts=TYPE,SIZE,URL&url=https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/is-customer-success-a-cost-or-revenue-center/id1544750249?i=1000625550653&size=128)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts126/v4/a4/4d/5f/a44d5fae-5046-a15e-a689-2605bf2c3483/mza_10035764847765952101.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/is-customer-success-a-cost-or-revenue-center/id1544750249?i=1000625550653) ## Main talking points And who better to champion this argument than bona-fide CS veteran, Minna Vaisanen? In this enlightening discussion, Minna spotlights the benefits of CS, smashes the prevailing myths, and forecasts the future of this revolutionary function. **💰 Customer Success as a revenue center** Master the fine art of customer success, through purposeful, proactive customer service, ensuring a rock solid foundation of trust between you and your customer. Trust is the foundation of retention, and retention is the key to unlocking sustainable growth for your org. 🏆 **Be a customer success superhero** Minna lists the potent cocktail of qualities it takes to be a customer success professional; should you be shaking your customers into action with powerful messaging, or stirring them with inspiring case studies? Find out more here. 🔮 **The future of customer success** How can AI automate the foundational aspects of CS so you can innovate? Take a peek into the Minna’s customer success crystal ball, and stay ahead of the curve. Learn from the best of ‘em and unleash the true power of customer success in your org with this essential conversation. 🎧 --- Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Creator, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: . ### How to unlock customer advocacy through user-generated content URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-unlock-customer-advocacy-through-user-generated-content/ Last updated: 2023-08-24T17:38:01.000Z In today's fast-paced business world, where traditional advertising is met with skepticism and consumers wield more power than ever, [customer advocacy](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-turning-customers-into-advocates/) has emerged as a game-changing strategy. It's not just about transactions; it's about turning customers into fervent advocates who passionately spread the word about your brand. And at the heart of this [advocacy](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-can-you-boost-customer-advocacy-through-social-media-listening/) revolution lies a powerful connection: the dynamic interplay between customer advocacy and user-generated content (UGC). This connection is vital to unleashing unparalleled brand loyalty, authenticity, and engagement. ## The advocacy evolution Customer [advocacy](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-brand-demand-and-advocacy/) isn't just a buzzword; complex data backs it. A recent survey by the Spiegel Research Center revealed a jaw-dropping [54% increase in customer retention for businesses with high levels of customer advocacy](https://www.scholars.northwestern.edu/en/publications/the-value-of-online-customer-reviews). This statistic alone underscores the transformative potential of advocacy. Imagine a spectrum of customer engagement. At one end are satisfied customers who quietly appreciate your products. At the other end are brand advocates who wholeheartedly endorse your offerings. These advocates embody the essence of consumer support, client endorsement, patron loyalty, and user testimonials – they are living proof of a remarkable customer experience. [How to build an awesome SaaS marketing funnel: Convert prospects into die hard advocatesDiscover how a strong marketing funnel can boost your SaaS business by converting leads into customers and unleashing the potential of your high-quality product.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/funnel-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-an-awesome-saas-marketing-funnel-to-convert-prospects-into-die-hard-advocates-2/) ## Empowerment through user-generated content Enter user-generated content (UGC), the driving force behind modern advocacy. UGC encompasses a spectrum of content, from customer-created videos and reviews to social media posts and blog articles. It empowers customers to be more than passive purchasers; it invites them to shape your brand narrative actively. Consider the "Share a Coke" campaign by Coca-Cola. By printing popular bottle names, Coca-Cola invited customers to create their stories and share them on social media. The result? A tidal wave of UGC flooded the internet, with customers proudly showcasing their personalized Coke bottles. This campaign created a sense of community and turned customers into enthusiastic brand promoters. ## The UGC connection: bridging advocacy and content creation Picture the UGC Connection as a bridge that transforms satisfied customers into passionate advocates. It consists of five pillars that synergize to create a profound impact: ## User-generated content Link: Fostering direct engagement UGC acts as a direct conduit between your brand and your customers, fostering a genuine, unfiltered connection. Through UGC, customers don't just interact with your brand; they actively participate in its growth. ## UGC relationship: Personalizing brand interaction UGC [builds relationships](https://www.saasalliance.io/boosting-your-business-with-customer-advocacy-insights-from-a-customer-operations-leader/) by enabling brands to engage with customers personally, understanding their needs and aspirations. Customers feel valued and empowered when they see their content acknowledged, leading to a deeper connection. ## Connecting with UGC: Amplifying authentic dialogues Engaging with UGC allows brands to resonate with customers' voices, priorities, and sentiments, forming an authentic dialogue. This dialogue transcends one-way marketing, giving customers a voice and influencing your brand's direction. ## Linking advocacy and UGC: Transforming customers into storytellers Advocates use UGC to share their positive experiences, becoming powerful storytellers for your brand. Their genuine, first-hand narratives have a compelling impact, resonating far more effectively than traditional marketing messages. [5 awesome tips for building a customer advocacy programBuilding a customer advocacy program can really accelerate your business and drive revenue! The ultimate goal for any department within an organization is to have a representative at the table during those crucial C-suite meetings. We want to convince senior stakeholders that you can drive results.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/benjamin-davies-FiZTaNTj2Ak-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/) ## UGC networking: Building a vibrant community UGC creates a network of shared experiences, uniting customers in a vibrant community. Customers become part of a more significant movement through hashtags, mentions, and shared content, fostering a sense of belonging and camaraderie. ## Ensuring authenticity in UGC and advocacy efforts Maintaining authenticity is paramount in UGC-driven advocacy: - **Transparent guidelines**: Brands should establish clear guidelines for UGC to ensure that content aligns with their values and messaging. Transparency builds trust and ensures advocacy efforts align with the brand's identity. - **User-centric approach**: Prioritizing customers' perspectives and stories over brand-centric messaging ensures that UGC remains authentic and resonates with the intended audience. - **Balanced representation**: Showcasing [diverse ](https://www.saasalliance.io/actionable-strategies-for-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/)customer experiences and voices prevent UGC from feeling curated or manipulated. Authenticity thrives when a true cross-section of customers is represented. ## Specific strategies for cultivating customer advocacy Cultivating customer advocacy requires strategic approaches that go beyond surface-level engagement. Brands can harness the power of UGC in various ways: **Advocate recognition programs:** Brands can establish programs that recognize and reward loyal customers who actively promote their products. These programs foster a sense of exclusivity and appreciation, further motivating advocates to spread the word. **Interactive contests and challenges:** Hosting UGC-driven contests or challenges encourages customers to create content around your brand. This approach not only generates excitement but also provides an opportunity for advocates to showcase their creativity. **Collaborative product development**: Engaging customers in product development through UGC-based surveys or design contests fosters a sense of ownership. This [collaborative](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) approach deepens customer loyalty and advocacy. ## Building community and empowering customers Community-building is the heartbeat of advocacy, fostering social bonds, group formation, community development, and network establishment. Brands like LEGO have mastered this art, creating a worldwide community where fans of all ages share their creations, stories, and passions. Empowering customers to advocate is a testament to mutual trust. It involves consumer empowerment, patron empowerment, client strategies, enhancing customer self-efficacy, and giving customers the tools to become vocal advocates. [How to re-onboard customers lost to churnIt can feel like an up-hill struggle, trying to re-engage customers who’ve been lost to churn and are therefore no longer part of your clientele. It’s a situation all businesses will find themselves in at some point. The solution? Have a strong customer success strategy in place.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSGrace Gupta![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/marc-olivier-jodoin-TStNU7H4UEE-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-re-onboard-customers-lost-to-churn/) ## Brand loyalty Brand loyalty is the bedrock on which advocacy thrives. It goes beyond mere transactions, encompassing customer devotion, patronage loyalty, brand fidelity, consumer allegiance, and customer retention. Advocates are the living embodiment of brand loyalty, demonstrating unwavering support and enthusiasm. Consider Apple's fervent fan base. Apple enthusiasts not only buy products; they form a devoted community that eagerly anticipates new releases and passionately promotes their preferred brand. This level of loyalty is a testament to the power of advocacy rooted in brand loyalty. ## Customer engagement Customer engagement is the heartbeat of advocacy. It's the art of fostering meaningful interactions that go beyond mere transactions. It involves client interaction, consumer involvement, patron participation, customer interaction, and carefully crafted engagement strategies. One remarkable example is Starbucks' "My Starbucks Idea" platform. This interactive forum allows customers to submit ideas for new products, services, and improvements. Starbucks actively engages with these ideas, turning customers into collaborators and advocates contributing to the brand's innovation. ## Customer empowerment Empowering customers is the catalyst for advocacy. It enables consumers to participate in the brand's narrative and decisions actively. It's about fostering consumer empowerment, patron empowerment, client empowerment strategies, enhancing customer self-efficacy, and providing the tools for customers to become vocal advocates. One striking illustration of customer empowerment is Nike's "Nike By You" (formerly NikeID) program. This platform empowers customers to design shoes reflecting their unique style and preferences. By giving customers creative control, Nike transforms them into brand advocates who proudly showcase their personalized creations. **Fueled by UGC, the social proof driving advocacy** The power of social proof is undeniable: - **Real-world impact stories**: Brands can use UGC to share real-life impact stories of how their products or services have improved customers' lives. This genuine validation serves as compelling social proof. - **UGC Reviews and ratings**: Genuine user reviews and ratings on platforms like Yelp, Google, or Amazon provide prospective customers with real insights into the quality and benefits of products. #### **In Closing** The UGC connection is more than a concept; it's a blueprint for transformative customer engagement. It empowers customers to become brand advocates, transforming them from passive purchasers to active participants in your brand story. By embracing user-generated content, you create authenticity, foster community, and ignite brand loyalty. The UGC Connection is your bridge to turning customers into champions, propelling your brand into the forefront of the market. Embrace the power of customer advocacy through the UGC connection and witness the remarkable metamorphosis it brings to your brand's narrative. --- *Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS Membership?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The anatomy of the customer health score URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-anatomy-of-the-customer-health-score/ Last updated: 2024-08-20T16:20:54.000Z *This article is based on a presentation given by Patti at the Customer Success Festival in Las Vegas, in May 2023.* My name is **Patti Zack**, and I was recently the Chief Customer Officer at **FiscalNote**. My entire professional journey has been in the realms of information and financial services, primarily at large-scale companies. This article will cover several areas: - An introduction to customer health - An outline of prevalent industry issues - The methods we used to develop customer health scores, and - How FiscalNote integrated these into its teams' workflows. ## **Customer health: Enhancing organizational value and navigating challenges** So why do we regard [customer health](https://www.saasalliance.io/tactics-that-improve-customer-retention/) as a critical factor in enhancing organizational value? I’d like to share two quotes from a McKinsey article. The first quote states: > *"Compensating for the value of one lost customer can require the acquisition of three new customers."* This statement resonates with key decision-makers like [CFOs](https://www.saasalliance.io/hiring-practices-cracked-what-are-the-top-interview-questions-for-cfo-applicants/). They understand the economic implications and the fact that it takes acquiring multiple new customers just to offset the loss of one. The second quote is: > *"80% of the value creation achieved by the world's most successful growth companies comes from their core business."* This significant value creation is mainly due to the unlocking of new revenue streams from existing [customers](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/). This realization should serve as an aligned North Star for your product, engineering, sales, and customer success leaders. If there's one common goal to rally around, it should be driving 80% of your organization's value from your core business. [Customer retention metrics and how to action themHow do successful SaaS organizations measure retention and what on earth do they with the results, I hear you cry? Well, we surveyed 100 SaaS pros to find out how they track, review and utilize retention and churn metrics, and here are the results.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/jakob-owens-CiUR8zISX60-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) ### **The problem when it comes to customer health** So, what’s the problem? The challenge arises in an environment with constrained resources, overwhelming data, and escalating pressure to meet objectives. Customer success leaders face the task of unifying efforts and prioritizing the most impactful areas. We often hear phrases like "work smarter, not harder" or "optimize your resources." The first problem is identifying the customers in the most trouble – the ones emitting the “smoke signals.” Since [it costs significantly more to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones](https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/12/12/customer-retention-versus-customer-acquisition/?ref=customersuccesscollective.com), spotting these signals is crucial. Secondly, if 80% of your organizational value stems from your existing [customer base](https://www.saasalliance.io/getting-to-grips-with-customer-advisory-boards-and-their-benefits/), the question becomes, “How do you cultivate and capitalize on this? How do you navigate the path to unlocking that value?” ## **Experience-led decline: Misaligned understanding of customer health** In my first few weeks as the Chief Customer Officer of FiscalNote, I decided to pose an essential question to my fellow leaders, each skilled in their respective areas: > *"How do we identify healthy and unhealthy customers?"* I received a range of responses: - Chief Marketing Officer: "It's all about engagement with our content. If they attend a webinar or interact with our content, we consider them healthy." - Sales and Account Managers: "It's based on the strength of our relationship with the customer." - Product team: “It’s based on product usage and the adoption of key features.” - Success and support team: “It’s the customers' ability to articulate the value they received by the end of the contract or their CSAT score.” - Finance: “It’s the contract value and prompt payment.” [Customer success metrics that drive 95% retentionIn this article, I’ll be discussing the customer success metrics you should be tracking at each and every stage of the customer lifecycle. With them, you can drive retention and ensure your customer success function is successful in delivering value to the customer.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSwati Chopra![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/yoav-hornung-Qg6lPXJ6IL4-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) After considering all these responses, I realized they were all correct (in their ways). However, this led to a significant issue. Each of these functional teams had different perceptions of what constitutes a healthy customer and accordingly directed their resources towards initiatives they believed would create organizational value. Unfortunately, this mismatch in understanding resulted in confusing [customer journeys](https://www.saasalliance.io/addressing-the-gaps-in-the-customer-journey/), misaligned efforts, inaccurate forecasts, wasted resources, and, worst of all, employee burnout due to unclear focus areas. Leaders were constantly shifting focus, causing what I call an "experience-led decline." In this scenario, various customer-facing teams impact the customer in different ways, resulting in a suboptimal [customer experience](https://www.saasalliance.io/communications-your-product-and-improving-your-customer-experience/). It's not a product-led decline, or a customer-led decline, but an experience-led decline. ## **Establishing a customer health score** So, why should customer health be the conduit for experience-led growth? I dedicated my focus to establishing a customer health score. But I want to add a caveat here. Before launching into this, FiscalNote already had a robust customer segmentation model. Our customers were segmented by product, our customer journey map was ready and optimized for each segment, and we had reached a point of scale where providing one-on-one white-glove service was no longer [sustainable](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-building-a-sustainable-growth-engine/). We realized that not all customers could be treated the same. We needed a "radar" to focus our resources where it mattered most. Now, if your company doesn't yet have a customer segmentation model, doesn't understand its customer journey, and hasn't reached scale, developing a health score might not be the right move. But for us, in our particular journey, the customer health score became the vessel to deliver experience-led growth. [Customer advisory boards and feedback loops \[Q&A with Dropbox\]Customer Advisory Boards allow customers to give candid feedback on their experience with your company, and we spoke with Bree Bunzel, Head of Global Customer Marketing at Dropbox, who answered questions around building Customer Advisory Boards and customer feedback loops.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/adam-jang-8pOTAtyd_Mc-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-advisory-boards-and-feedback-loops-q-a-with-dropbox/) The outcome? We ended up creating distinct and cohesive customer journeys. We aligned efforts and incentives, our forecasts became more accurate, we optimized resources, and our employees felt more empowered because they understood their connection to the bottom line. ## **4 steps of developing a proprietary customer health score** Let's establish what we mean by customer health. A customer health score is a company's own metric providing a quantifiable measure of a customer's complete experience. It's proprietary, meaning it's unique to your organization - Salesforce's customer health score wouldn't work for HubSpot. It's quantifiable, enabling trend analysis and reporting which executives and board members appreciate. It's comprehensive, incorporating data points from various functions like finance, marketing, sales, and product to capture the entirety of the customer's experience. I'll walk you through the four steps that go into designing a customer health score: collecting customer data, refining and segmenting the data, analyzing the data, and creating the score. ### **1\. Gather both quantitative and qualitative customer data.** Ask your leaders important questions, like "What data aligns with the product value proposition?" For example, at a company I used to work at called Refinitiv, our product, World Check, was designed to help customers conduct due diligence checks. A crucial question for that product was, "How many customers have World Check matches?" because it directly related to the product's value proposition. However, when I asked our teams this, we found we weren't tracking this vital data. In this phase, you'll likely discover your blind spots. ### **2\. Refine and segment your data** Ask, "What does the data tell us about a customer's health?" Sometimes more data is just more data; what we really want is meaningful insights about customer health. [Customer onboarding 101For freemium models adopted by a growing number of SaaS companies, onboarding is the frontline in the battle for the upsell.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/erwan-hesry-aMjeTdCVRNE-unsplash--1---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-onboarding-101/) For instance, at FiscalNote, we spent a lot of time tagging and naming product events. It turned out, this didn't provide any meaningful insights about customer health and was a waste of resources. ### **3\. Analyze the data** We were able to select the most crucial data points from our cross-functional teams, which we termed "value factors", and assign a time and weight to each. We backtested this by applying it to both customers who churned and our healthiest customers. We took this data and developed a straightforward, understandable score that all customer-facing teams could interpret. ### **4\. Create the score** At Refinitiv, we used Gainsight, and at FiscalNote, we used ChurnZero. But it's also possible to create macros in Excel for smaller companies. Whichever way you choose to go, the crucial thing is to take what you've gathered, refined, segmented, and analyzed to create your proprietary score. ## **Aligning team incentives with the customer health score** The execution phase starts with aligning incentives with your teams. The idea is that the signals we're getting from the customer health score should inform and direct the desired behaviors across teams. As an example from my own team, we divided the variable component of our CSMs' compensation into three categories: customer health, education, and gross revenue retention. This gave managers the flexibility to direct their teams toward specific areas of focus on a quarterly basis. For our [Customer Success Managers](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-customer-success-managers/) (CSM), their variable compensation was split evenly between the customer health score and gross revenue retention. This ensured that they also had a stake in improving customer health. [How Customer Success is Innovating to Drive Agility and Serve Customers at ScaleAlongside serving our customers, a key part of our roles is innovation. We want to challenge ourselves to be more strategic, impactful, and intentional with our customers in a way that adds value to their world and drives growth in our business.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSCorinne Goldberg![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/customer-success.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-customer-success-is-innovating-to-drive-agility-and-serve-customers-at-scale/) If you're at a scale where your organizational structure includes directors, they should also be involved. When designing your customer health score, it's crucial to align it with the work done by different teams and reflect this in their compensation. This links their efforts directly to the company's goals, driving behaviors that promote experience-led growth. For teams consisting of Account Managers, Account Executives, and CSMs, it's essential to align the customer health score to their efforts as they're the ones identifying opportunities within the existing customer base, which can often account for 80% of your value creation. To illustrate, we structured our Account Managers' variable compensation with 25% based on customer health and 75% on net revenue retention, because we wanted to encourage expansion. This same method of aligning compensation with customer health and other [key metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/okrs-for-saas-startups/) was applied at all levels, from individual contributors to directors. ## **Executing and optimizing customer health score** The second step in the execution phase is reporting and refining. This is akin to "blocking and tackling" in football; it's all about being adaptable to changes in the game. For instance, at FiscalNote, our products were seasonal, and customer usage varied throughout the year. This meant we had to adjust our customer health scores and quarterly goals to match these patterns, giving our managers and directors the flexibility to adapt to the way our business operates. During this part of execution, we created "plays" and launched journeys, which are sequences of events that customer success managers use to guide their interactions with customers. We found opportunities to automate certain parts of this, ensuring that as our business and customers changed, we could amend the framework to fit our needs. [The customer health score: How to master this metricChurn is a major problem for SaaS companies that are looking to scale fast, and that’s why it’s essential to master your customer health score. Find out how here!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSGrace Gupta![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/community-health-scores.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-customer-health-score-how-to-master-this-metric/) This involved continuous collaboration with [cross-functional ](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/)teams in marketing, product, and sales, and adjusting the levers we're pulling for experience-led growth to stay relevant to the business. [![An image of a spreadsheet highlighting customer health score optimization.](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2023/07/image1--7---1---1-.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/the-anatomy-of-the-customer-health-score) The last phase of designing a customer health score is optimization, which is all about iteration. For example, when our product changed at FiscalNote, we introduced a feature called the "Compose Page". We realized this new feature created a stronger value proposition for our customers, so we amended our health score to include it. Additionally, we noticed that our most successful customers were those integrating at least three other products with our advocacy product. Such insights show how crucial it is for you as a leader to realize that a customer health score is a living, breathing thing. It needs to continually evolve and adapt to serve your business effectively. ## **The lifecycle of customer health score** So there are three main phases in designing your customer health score: - The design phase, - The execution phase, and - The optimization phase. [![Image showing the stages of a customer health score: design, execution, optimization, and experience-led growth.](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2023/07/image2--9-.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/the-anatomy-of-the-customer-health-score) ### **Design phase** Start by gathering qualitative and quantitative customer data from all your teams. Once you have the data, refine it and segment it to focus on the most relevant parts. The next step is to analyze this [data](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-brand-marketing-more-data-driven-q-a-with-hotjar/), working out what is most important and how it might impact your customer's health score. Finally, take this analysis and use it to create your proprietary customer health score. ### **Execution phase** Once you've established your radar, you need to make it operational. Start by aligning team incentives with the customer health score, ensuring everyone's efforts contribute to improving customer health. Then, continually report on and refine the score, adjusting to changing circumstances, customer behavior, or business goals. ### **Optimization phase** The key is to iterate and adapt your customer health score over time. As your product evolves or as you discover more about what makes your customers successful, update your score to reflect these new insights. Implementing a comprehensive customer health score ultimately supports three crucial business metrics that your executives and board members care about: - Run-rate revenue, - Profitability, and - Net revenue retention. By tying your work directly to these critical outcomes, you're able to speak the same language as your company's leaders, showing them how customer success operations contribute directly to the company's bottom line. ## **Applying customer health scores: A case study** In this section, we’ll look at how we can apply customer health scores to the workflow of our team members, and see a real-life example of its application to an advocacy solution product, Voter Voice. Voter Voice's primary [value proposition](https://www.saasalliance.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) is enabling customers who advocate on behalf of their own clients to contact their constituents. There was an instance with a US advocacy organization focused on real estate advocates. Before we had a health score, the account team would typically review their book of business 90 days prior to renewal and try to make corrections. However, often, it was too late to make a significant impact. Using the health score, the account team saw that this client was in the red zone. This client had not uploaded contacts, had not integrated a desired product, had given a negative CSAT score, and had a strained relationship. By putting this score in front of the team members, they were able to take action. [How customer success can feed into product development \[Q&A with Visme\]Kalyn Lewis, Head of Customer Success at Visme took the time to answer our community’s customer success questions after her presentation ‘How customer success can feed into product development’ at this year’s Future of SaaS festival.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/windows-w79mIrYKcK4-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-customer-success-can-feed-into-product-development-q-a-with-visme/) The different cross-functional teams started examining what was going on. The customer success manager discovered that a new admin had been added but was never [onboarded](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-onboarding-101/), hence, didn't know how to upload contacts or other operational aspects. We also found that a third-party partner's product integration had failed. The Account Manager realized that the client's point of contact had left without any notice, and the client had been using lobbyists to stay ahead of changing regulations – an issue that one of our products could resolve. On the marketing side, we found out that the U.S.-based client was receiving non-U.S. content and daily emails, which led to a poor customer experience. The [product team](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-development-team-structure-for-saas-organization/) found a number of unresolved bugs. All of these issues resulted in a steep decline in customer experience. Armed with this insight, we developed a three-step plan to correct these issues. This involved redeploying education and implementation, correcting the issue of irrelevant content, and improving communication transparency. Each functional team member-owned a part of this plan. [SaaScast: Turning customers into advocatesSo, you have really loyal customers? That’s great. But are you making those testimonials sing for your SaaS business? In other words, are you turning your customers into fierce champions for your organization?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Ryan-O-Connell-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-turning-customers-into-advocates/) One noteworthy instance was when the Customer Success Manager utilized a support ticket as a reason to reach out to the dissatisfied customer. This conversation wouldn't have been possible without the runway and signal provided by our customer health score. It facilitated timely and effective interventions to improve customer experience and satisfaction, highlighting the vital role of a well-implemented health score system. ## **Persuading the C-suite to adopt a customer health score approach** **Sometimes the proposed plan can feel overwhelming, but there are minimal actions you can implement to begin the process.** The primary challenge in convincing the leadership that customer success should be a resource allocation priority involves linking it directly to revenue. Executive leaders care deeply about organizational value, and their two main questions typically revolve around how we can increase customer spend and improve employee experiences. Enhancing these two aspects directly feeds into the organization's value. Hence, the importance of aligning customer success with these outcomes. If the comprehensive plan to implement a customer health score feels overwhelming, I would suggest starting by ensuring data accuracy. Even if it's just two or three [key metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics/) you want to include in your customer health score, bring them to the forefront. [Customer education needs more - introducing the Intellum frameworkOver many years of working with some of the largest companies to deliver their educational programs at scale, we recognized a pattern in the structure of the most successful programs.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSIntellum![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/61829c94a8f7a617c2ca343d_annoucing-framework-p-2600.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-education-needs-more-introducing-the-intellum-framework/) Let's take an example of a company using our Voter Voice tool to launch campaigns. If your primary [health metric](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) is whether the customer has launched a campaign, make it the focus. Make sure all team members understand that this particular activity is crucial for our customer health score, as it is directly linked to the promise we made when they purchased our software. Remember, your customers are outsourcing certain tasks to your software. Being able to articulate what those tasks are and why they're important can paint a clear picture of customer expectations. Therefore, identify that pivotal task and find the data that supports its importance. This simple step will help start the process of creating and implementing a customer health score. ## **Key takeaways for designing a customer health score** ### **Experience-led growth** It's essential to let your customer health score guide your organization toward experience-led growth. As McKinsey pointed out, increasing customer satisfaction by just 20% can lead to a 15 to 25% increase in cross-selling rates. This is something that CEOs and organizational leaders care about deeply. ### **Designing a customer health score** I’ve walked you through the process of how to design a customer health score, from the design stage to execution and optimization. By measuring what truly matters, you can start advocating for the creation of a customer health score within your own organization today. Providing quantifiable success markers to your customers can drastically improve their longevity with your company. ### **Drive alignment** Lastly, driving alignment is crucial for your organization. An old saying goes, "If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself." It's not just about developing a customer health score, it's about using it to align all parts of your organization, driving forward in the same direction for success. --- *For more help on your customer metrics, why not check out the latest insights from the SaaS Metrics*[ *Summit?*](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics-summit-june-2023/) ### Why SaaS leaders should develop their personal brand URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/why-saas-leaders-should-think-about-developing-their-personal-brand/ Last updated: 2023-08-18T11:12:39.000Z In today's highly competitive SaaS landscape, developing a strong personal brand as a leader can give you a significant edge. When you establish a respected personal brand, it showcases your industry authority and expertise. And that opens up opportunities galore! It helps attract top talent who want to work with someone like you, and it builds major trust and credibility with investors who want to back your vision. Not to mention the customer loyalty you’ll earn from those who connect with your purpose. This article will break it down as follows: - Establish yourself as an industry thought leader - Attract top talent - Build credibility with investors - Earn trust and loyalty - Key steps to developing your personal brand - Final thoughts We’ll explore why making personal branding moves should be a top priority for you as a SaaS leader, and why investing in boosting your individual brand pays massive dividends. From establishing yourself as an industry icon … to attracting teammate all-stars … to building credibility with backers … all the way to earning customer trust for life. This is how taking the time to develop a strong personal brand helps set you up for success, so let’s dive right in! ## Establish yourself as an industry thought leader Developing a respected personal brand positions you as an authority in your field. By regularly publishing insights, trends and advice, you showcase your expertise, helping you establish credibility and trust. According to LinkedIn research, thought leadership content receives [**5X more profile views**](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-content-strategy-thought-leadership-win-clearvoice/) and [**12X more connections**](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-content-strategy-thought-leadership-win-clearvoice/). [How thought leadership can boost your SaaS org to scaleBuilding a successful SaaS org isn’t just about growing your customer base, it’s also about creating a firm foundation of trust with your existing customers to ensure solid retention![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/thought-leadership.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-thought-leadership-can-boost-your-saas-growth/) Thought leadership also generates significant interest for your SaaS product or company. Decision makers are more likely to engage with an individual perceived as a subject matter expert. In fact, [**61% of B2B buyers**](https://longitude.ft.com/wp-content/themes/longitude/journey/pdf/FT-Longitude%5FAYCJ.pdf) are more likely to consider a brand if senior executives share their knowledge! Sharing valuable insights, data, and stories allows you to guide industry conversations and trends, which raises both your personal profile and your SaaS company. ### So, how do you do it? To develop credible thought leadership, focus on **sharing original perspectives** and **strategic advice** and avoid overt self-promotion. It’s key to position yourself as an **evangelist for industry advancement**, not your own SaaS company or product. [How to build a thought leadership strategyThought leadership refers to, “the practice of developing important new ways of thinking that influence others”. But how does that translate to business? What does it mean today, and how can it help your SaaS business grow?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/jason-leung-mZNRsYE9Qi4-unsplash-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-a-thought-leadership-strategy/) Aim to **publish at least one thought leadership piece per month** by contributing guest articles to industry publications and post on sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Medium. Participating in relevant online discussions by providing constructive comments, will further boost your credibility. **Speaking at conferences** also allows you to reach wider audiences. Identify relevant events for your SaaS buyer personas and craft engaging presentations that offer strategic guidance. ## Attract top talent Your personal brand tells a story about your leadership style, values and vision. By highlighting your people-first culture and community initiatives, you’ll attract talent. Developing a reputation as an inspiring leader will in turn make candidates interested in opportunities at your SaaS company. As a result, personal branding allows you to connect directly with this talent and share your vision, securing their interest in your company. [How thought leadership can boost your SaaS org to scaleBuilding a successful SaaS org isn’t just about growing your customer base, it’s also about creating a firm foundation of trust with your existing customers to ensure solid retention![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/thought-leadership.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-thought-leadership-can-boost-your-saas-growth/) ### So, how do you do it? The **active use of platforms like LinkedIn** is one of the first steps to engaging with and supporting targeted recruitment. Share **insights** into your leadership learnings, career development opportunities, company culture and community programs. Make sure to be **responsive** when prospective candidates engage with your content. **Monitor comments** and messages across your social channels to identify this promising talent and **proactively nurture relationships** with individuals you feel are aligned to your values. ## Build credibility with investors Wanna build credibility with potential investors and impress VCs? Develop a strong personal brand! It shows you're committed to leading important industry conversations and establishing your SaaS product or company as a top player in its category. Investors do their homework on founding teams. So your thought leadership and reputation signal you've got the expertise and leadership chops to thrive, increasing the chances of securing funding on favorable terms. [SaaScast: Cut over-reliance on investors and become remarkableIn this rigorous discussion,Ton Dobbe digs deep into how fledgling SaaS companies can generate growth from the value of the product.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/Cut-over-reliance-on-investors-and-become-remarkable.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-cut-overreliance-on-investors/) ### So, how do you do it? Develop content that provides an **authentic view** into your leadership style, vision and values, **share the purpose** and potential you see for your SaaS. **Emphasize your contributions to the industry** and community too. Today's investors look beyond profit to consider the social impact of your work, so give them the real you and show how you can make the world a little better too! ## Earn trust and loyalty Want customers to trust you and stay loyal for life? Your personal brand is key! It lets customers get to know the real you - a leader dedicated to their success. Actively engaging your audience humanizes your SaaS and builds rapport. Customers get a window into your vision, values, and purpose. This connection earns major loyalty points. Leading with purpose also attracts brand advocates. Vocal advocates can work wonders for referrals, reviews, and word-of-mouth promo. [How can you boost customer advocacy through social media listening?Dreaming of a loyal customer fanbase that provides free marketing? Welcome to the endless possibilities of social media listening!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/how-can-you-boost-customer-advocacy-through-social-media-listening.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-can-you-boost-customer-advocacy-through-social-media-listening/) ### So, how do you do it? Share insights into **personal leadership decisions** you’ve made that reflect your values and commitment to customers. Also, be **responsive to customer feedback** and interests, your brand benefits big time from vocal advocates! By **being open** and engaging customers like real people, you earn their trust for life. That advocacy and loyalty is marketing gold. ## **Key steps to developing your personal brand** Here are some proven steps to developing your leadership profile across channels: **📖 Craft a compelling story** - Share your origin story! Outline those early leadership experiences that shaped you. Discuss the mentors who influenced your values. Open up about career lessons and obstacles you've overcome. - And don't be afraid to reveal passions beyond work to make yourself more relatable. This personal narrative helps audiences connect with the human side of your leadership. [Strategy for social change: diversity and storytellingDiversity is a strong contender for the word of the decade. Companies around the world are waking up and asking themselves how they can better represent the societies that surround them.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnna Griffin![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/Strategy-for-social-change.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/strategy-for-social-change-diversity-and-storytelling/) **👀 Show off your stuff** - Make sure your LinkedIn and Twitter profiles look sharp! Profile pics should be pro but with some personality peeking through. SEO optimize those headlines, bios and content with keywords your audience would search for - this gets you on their radar. - Overall, project professionalism and industry expertise to establish your authority. **🧠 Share your genius** - Get your insights out there regularly! Contribute articles to publications, post on your blogs and social channels. - Strategic perspectives, data analyses, case studies - whatever high-value content shows your expertise. - Repurpose across formats and promote via social media. Speaking gigs also expand your influencer reach. **🤝 Connect with your people** - Jump into discussions on social media to engage with your community! Share others' great content when you come across it. - Respond when people mention you and proactively nurture relationships with potential brand advocates by highlighting shared interests and personalized outreach. **📱 Go live!** - Video and live interactions add a personal touch and help you scale your brand. Use LinkedIn Live or host virtual events for Q&As. Short videos give followers a peek behind the curtain into your leadership. - Consider launching a vlog with your commentary on relevant industry trends. YouTube builds serious connections through those candid insights. **📈 Track and evolve** - Use analytics to see what content formats and topics perform best. Monitor brand mentions and discussion sentiment to refine your messaging. Surveys and interviews provide qualitative data to improve your positioning. - Ask partners for constructive feedback on how you're perceived. Keep optimizing to maximize your impact! [OKRs for SaaS startupsImplementing a framework used by a global technology conglomerate at a small-scale start-up may seem daunting, after all at this stage of growth your goals will be wildly different, however, as you’ll come to find out the beauty of OKRs is that anyone can set measurable goals!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/kelly-sikkema-v9FQR4tbIq8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/okrs-for-saas-startups/) So here you are - a roadmap to establish yourself as an industry icon through personal branding. But don't just go through the motions - **make it authentic to you!** ### Final thoughts So there you have it! Now you know why building your personal brand as a SaaS leader is so valuable. And you've got a handy roadmap to get started. But don't stress - personal branding isn't about being perfect. It's about being *real*. Share your unique story, warts and all. Give people a window into what drives your leadership and passion for building SaaS products that change lives. People engage with people, not polished brands. So focus on building genuine connections, nurturing your community and guiding conversations. *The rest will follow*. Remember, the journey matters more than the destination. Enjoy evolving your brand over time, stay curious, keep learning. Build a personal brand rooted in your values and vision, not titles. Soon you'll be attracting dream talent who share your purpose, investors who believe in your potential, and customers who become family. **So take that first step today. You got this!** --- *Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Effective industry marketing strategies for enterprise SaaS URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/effective-industry-marketing-strategies-for-enterprise-saas/ Last updated: 2024-08-20T16:20:24.000Z *This article is based on Andrew’s talk at Product Marketing Misunderstood in February 2022.* Hey there! I'm Andrew Keating, and I’m here to share my thoughts and ideas about industry marketing strategies. We'll explore how you can construct an industry-vertical go-to-market motion within your enterprise Software as a Service (SaaS) product [marketing](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) organization. I'll share with you: - My background in enterprise SaaS product marketing - How to build an industry-specific go-to-market motion - Pitfalls to avoid ## **My background in enterprise SaaS product marketing** To begin with, let's touch on my background. I've taken on a variety of roles related to industry verticals over my career. I view the industry [go-to-market](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-conquer-the-market-with-an-awesome-saas-go-to-market-strategy/) approach as critical to success – it's certainly been a major contributor to my own achievements in product marketing – so that’s what we’re going to focus on today. I kicked off my career in the higher education vertical at an organization called Internet2\. Then, at Box, I managed go-to-market strategies for the healthcare and education industries. From there, I moved to Splunk, where I led the industry marketing organization. More recently, I've been working with startups like Qumulo and now Beamery, leading their product marketing and industry marketing initiatives. ## **How to build an industry-specific go-to-market motion** When we talk about enterprise software, particularly cloud-based SaaS, we tend to think about use cases and user stories. We focus on how we can make our products appeal to the widest possible variety of [customers](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/), with the organizing principle being the use case – how the customer will be using our software. In contrast, customers usually think about revenue, lines of business, and types of business activity. They're oriented around what they need to secure revenue, which is often linked to an industry classification. So, the big question is, how can we align these two perspectives to build a go-to-market motion? That's what we'll delve into today. [Go-to-Market Blueprint: your one-stop shop for refining GTMGet the hands-on tactical knowledge you need to build and hone your custom Go-to-Market strategy with one subscription.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/GTM_Blueprint_Meta_Image-1.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/go-to-market-blueprint-your-one-stop-shop-for-refining-gtm/) ### **Step one: Define industries and sub-industries** The first step is to define your industries and sub-industries. You need to identify which ones are most important for you, your business, and the products that you're bringing to market. It's easy to list some industries off the top of our heads – retail, manufacturing, healthcare, education – but each of these has many "flavors" or sub-industries. For example, consider the public sector, which encompasses a wide range of government organizations. In the US, this includes the federal government with its myriad agencies, as well as state and local governments. Within state and local governments, there are K-12 education, city governments, and state agencies, to name a few. In short, as you start to unpack each industry, you'll find countless sub-industries. There are many ways to classify these industries; one of the most notable is the North American Industry Classification System. This taxonomy and other similar ones can provide a useful formal classification of industries. [Making brand marketing more data-driven \[Q&A with Hotjar\]Customer data is about as real as it gets, but unfortunately, many marketers still struggle with where to find it, how to access it, and how to analyze it. Luckily for us Hotjar’s VP of Marketing, Sharon Biggar was on hand to answer all our questions on the data-driven future of brand marketing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/franki-chamaki-1K6IQsQbizI-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-brand-marketing-more-data-driven-q-a-with-hotjar/) However, as with any organizational system, there are always trade-offs and limitations. For instance, some taxonomies might come across as stale or bureaucratic and may not reflect newer organizations, startups, or evolving business activities. Take Apple or Amazon as examples. These are large multinationals grounded in technology but also function as retailers. In Amazon's case, it's also a cloud provider. These companies straddle multiple lines of business, and it can be a challenge to categorize them neatly using a single classification system. To navigate these limitations, you’ll need to delve into your record systems, especially your customer relationship management tool (CRM), where (unless you're in the earliest stage of a startup) there's likely existing industry [data](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-dark-arts-of-data/). A tactic I've found valuable in my past roles is studying this data as part of my onboarding. You should also coordinate with your operations teams, whether it's marketing ops or sales ops. They're the ones maintaining these data elements and fields, and it's important to understand which industry classification system they're using and the rationale behind their choice. [Finding the right influencers for your brandInfluencer marketing has been picking up momentum in recent years. It’s an effective form of marketing that has the potential to generate a large ROI.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/pexels-ivan-samkov-7676406.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/finding-the-right-influencers-for-your-brand/) What trade-offs have they noticed? What's working, and what hasn't been as useful? Ensuring consistency across all your systems of record about the industry of your customers is critical. In addition, you might want to consider creating or augmenting your own taxonomy. Whether you inherit an existing system or, in partnership with operations, create your own. Having a field associated with the customer record labeled "our company name-industry" can be particularly useful. It's your way of classifying customers by industry. ### **Step two: Understand your product-market fit by industry** Once you've nailed down your industry classifications, the next step is to assess product-market fit by industry. To do this, analyze your existing customer base, looking at where you currently have customers and what industry groupings already exist. As I mentioned before, choosing a classification label that suits your business is crucial. For instance, if you're dealing with a company with multiple lines of business and your product is mainly used in their retail segment, you might want to classify them as a retailer, regardless of their other business activities. It's all about making sure that your classification aligns with how customers use your product, rather than sticking rigidly to other groupings. Once you've determined the appropriate industry classifications, you can start breaking down metrics like the total addressable market and growth rates by industry. [Top SaaS marketing and content toolsA high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) You could examine whether one industry is growing faster or slower than your company overall. Essentially, you want to slice the data according to industry labels and classifications. Next, delve into the top accounts for each industry and inventory their use cases. You might not be able to do this for a massive number of customers, but examining the top five, ten, or twenty per industry can give you valuable insights. As you analyze these use cases, you'll likely start noticing certain trends. Also, don't forget to look at deals that didn't work out. You might well be doing win-loss analysis already; if unsuccessful deals tend to fall within a specific industry, it could signal a gap in feature functionality or compliance. Keep an eye out for feature requests too. If they're integrated with a customer record in your CRM, you can filter and sort by industry and get some valuable insights. A tool I've found especially helpful at this stage is a heat map spreadsheet. You can create one using Google Sheets or Excel, where the x-axis represents use cases, the y-axis indicates industries, and the heat map element is color-coded based on whether the use case is fully supported, partially supported, or on your roadmap. This visual representation allows you to quickly identify where you have a good product-market fit. In other words, the "hotter" areas on your heat map show the industries where your product's use case is a particularly good fit. [What is market segmentation?Knowing your audience is marketing 101, but knowing how your product can benefit your audience in a market oversaturated with competitors takes a little more finesse. Segmentation arms you with the data needed to fulfill your target customers’ needs![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/papaioannou-kostas-tysecUm5HJA-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-market-segmentation/) ### **Step three: Market research** Next, it's time to take all this internally collected data and start validating your hypotheses and assumptions externally. This is where a bit of market research comes into play. At this juncture, it's worth noting that the order of inside activities (like analyzing your customer data, CRM, and systems of record) and outside activities (like customer interactions or research) isn't set in stone. While I tend to prefer examining internal [data](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-data-team-at-saas-hypergrowth/) first, formulating hypotheses, and then testing them externally, you could easily flip this around by starting with external research and interviews, then combining that data with what’s in your CRM. Choose the order that works best for your organization; it might depend on your company's growth stage and what research has been done already. So, how do you conduct this research? As a product marketer, research is likely second nature to you. In fact, you're probably already conducting customer interviews, so consider adding a few broad, open-ended questions to your agenda. For example, if you're speaking to a customer at a hospital, ask them about emerging trends in healthcare and the technology landscape within their industry. A few carefully chosen questions during each interview can build a wealth of knowledge about what’s important to customers in specific industries. [What are marketing development funds and how can they maximize growth?As a rapidly scaling SaaS business, you’re likely working across multiple channels. Marketing development funds can help you stay strong across all channels. Here’s how!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/funding.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-marketing-development-funds-and-how-can-we-use-them-to-maximize-growth/) Similarly, you're likely already interacting with industry analysts or your internal analyst relations team. While it's helpful to consult with major firms, don't overlook the value of niche analyst firms that offer industry-specific perspectives. Some of their insights might even be freely available through blogs. You also shouldn’t underestimate the value of competitor research. Visit your competitors’ websites, scrutinize their messaging, and see if they highlight specific industries or use cases. This kind of research can be so informative. If they're not mentioning specific industries, that can be telling as well. By adding these additional dimensions to your research, you'll be well-equipped to build a robust, industry-specific go-to-market strategy. Conferences are another valuable source of information. You're likely already attending some events; however, it’s essential to focus on those specific to the industries you're interested in. For instance, if you're targeting healthcare, attending a healthcare-focused conference like HIMSS is a smart move. [Establishing a customer marketing strategy and developing advocatesI’m Bozena, Director of Marketing at Maze, and I’m the host for today’s chat with Valeria, Senior Marketing Manager for Customer Marketing at Zendesk - and, as of September 2022, is now working on customer marketing programs at Airtable.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSValeria Gomez![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/shore--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/establishing-a-customer-marketing-strategy-and-developing-advocates/) This is where having preliminary hypotheses about which industries are crucial for your organization comes in handy. These hypotheses should ideally be formed by analyzing your own company data and product data – that inside activity I mentioned before. It's also important to note that this isn't a one-and-done task. Whether you're starting a new motion as an early-stage startup, or it's time to refresh your strategies in a larger, later-stage company, you should revisit this process at least once or twice a year to make sure you keep up to date with the industries that are most crucial for your company. ### **Step four: Develop your strategy and messaging** Next, we get to a stage familiar to product marketers – developing your strategy and messaging. You’ll need to orient around the use cases and solutions you’ve identified. What is it that customers in specific industries use your product for? What value are you driving for them? But here's a critical question: Do you really need industry-specific messaging? Surprisingly, the answer could be no. If your product messaging is robust enough, it might be effective across various industries. You need to understand the 'why' behind creating industry-specific messaging. If there's a unique use case or specialization involved, industry-specific messaging might be worthwhile. However, the key focus should be on customer value and the outcomes they can achieve using your product. These factors form the foundation for your messaging and narratives. [How is email marketing important to improving customer retention?Despite the rising competition from social media, email marketing continues to be one of the most effective tools for B2B marketing. It’s great for product awareness and generating new leads, but also for boosting customer retention.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/brett-jordan-LPZy4da9aRo-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-is-email-marketing-important-to-improving-customer-retention/) It’s also crucial to have a strong understanding of the right terminology to use when you’re crafting your messaging. For example, if you overuse industry-specific terms, this can come across as insincere or excessive. Also, you may want to avoid certain words due to their connotations within a particular industry. An excellent example is the word 'employees.' While all companies have employees, a university might refer to them as 'faculty,' or 'staff.' Similarly, if you’re talking about a hospital, you might want to use words like 'nurses' and 'doctors.' The idea is to consider the specific roles of people using your product and map them to your use cases and personas. ### **Step five: Build and implement GTM plans** Once you've created your messaging, the next step is to build and implement your go-to-market plans. As a product marketer, you’re already familiar with this step, but how does it look through an industry marketing lens? First, you’ll need to bring together a cross-functional team of stakeholders. That’s something PMMs do all the time, so no surprise there, but the specific roles you need to involve may vary depending on the industry. For instance, if you’re looking at heavily regulated industries like financial services or government entities, legal and compliance stakeholders will likely be a crucial part of your team. Creating go-to-market strategies for certain industries might require a broader range of stakeholders than a typical product launch would. However, the process is pretty similar to a standard product launch. [The playbook to inclusive marketing in SaaSHow do we “effectively” market in the SaaS industry whilst also remaining committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. And how can we keep pushing it forward? 72% of people feel most advertising and communication doesn’t reflect the world around them.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDivya Durai![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/inclusion.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-playbook-to-inclusive-marketing-in-saas/) As with any launch, you'll need to prepare a bill of materials outlining what you'll need to put your message in front of your customers and prospects in this industry. This could include a customer deck, collateral, and sales enablement training to enable your sellers to effectively communicate your product's value to this particular customer group. It's important to align your messaging with your audience. Think back to the 'employees' example I gave earlier. If your sales team is presenting to a university, they need to discuss how students, faculty, and staff would use your product. Training and enabling your sales team with this industry-specific information is vital. You’ll also need to build feedback loops with your product team. This is going to help you identify common requests coming from customers in a particular industry. [How to create a killer content marketing strategy for your B2B SaaSWith a solid SaaS content marketing strategy, you can attract high-quality leads. Find out how right here.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChuks Wesley![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/03/writing.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-create-a-killer-content-marketing-strategy-for-your-b2b-saas/) For instance, maybe all your healthcare customers are asking for a certain feature or that feature because there’s a specific use case that’s important to them. That is valuable intel that’s going to help you with both your messaging and your product roadmap. Next, you need to think about the industry-specific channels and tactics you’re going to use to engage potential customers. By collaborating with field marketing, events, and campaigns teams, you’ll be able to identify the most effective channels for a given industry. Many organizations also have the role of 'industry expert' as a sales overlay. Depending on your organization's structure, this could be you – you could be the specialist who supports sales presentations or gathers customer feedback for a particular industry. If you’re lucky enough to have an industry expert sales overlay already, make sure you engage with them – they’ll have some incredible insights to share. [Structuring an agile marketing team for successTrying to move your team into agile marketing but worried that you need to retrain everyone? Or completely flatten your department’s structure? Or lay off half of your team? Don’t panic! There’s no need for layoffs or completely changing your department’s structure.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSRebecca Stewart![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/pascal-swier-7de474KZIbs-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/structuring-an-agile-marketing-team-for-success/) Finally, tracking key metrics is crucial. Of course, as a product marketer, you’re regularly tracking various metrics already, but when it comes to industry marketing, it's about looking at these metrics through a different lens – an industry-specific one. You’ll need to analyze the data in your marketing and sales systems of record and your CRM but with a focus on a specific industry. This analysis may end up turning into industry-specific quarterly business reviews (QBRs) or even monthly scorecards. Either way, it involves taking a unique slice from the company-wide data to illustrate growth rates, bookings, and churn rates for customers in a particular industry. ## **Pitfalls to avoid** Before we wrap up, I want to highlight a few pitfalls you should avoid. ### **Pitfall #1: Doing too much** Firstly, don’t try to go too big or do too much. Acting like you can support use cases that you can't fulfill is going to make you lose credibility with customers. If you don't have the necessary functionality or compliance certifications, don’t fake it. Instead, concentrate on what you know you can do and do well. Another way to do too much (which, again, you want to avoid) is creating personas and messaging for every single industry. Remember: there are a lot of them! It's best to focus on those with the biggest potential addressable market for your business, and those where you've already achieved some success and want to expand. ### **Pitfall #2: Doing too little** On the opposite end of the spectrum, doing too little can also be a problem. Hopefully, I’ve convinced you that industry go-to-market strategy can enhance your effectiveness as a product marketer, so using standard product-oriented messaging for every single customer is one way of doing too little. It would be beneficial to introduce some industry-specific nuances to your messaging. Treating industry marketing as a one-and-one exercise is another example of doing too little. It's crucial to continually reassess where you're seeing success and where you may want to invest in the future. ### **Pitfall #3: Overcommitting** Implementing these kinds of motions requires time, so you need to establish realistic success metrics and manage leadership expectations about the growth they can expect. Just because you've invested resources, time, and effort into industry-specific marketing doesn't necessarily guarantee instant customer acquisition – it takes time to build up the market. For instance, I heard of a scenario where a company invested a lot of time and resources into entering the federal government market in the late summer. However, as the federal fiscal year ends on September 30, large purchases weren't reflected for another six to nine months. So, manage expectations about when you can start to see the results. ## **Summary** Alright, it’s time to sum things up. Here are a few key pointers for you to take away: 1. Define your industries and get to grips with market research, 2. Use that research to feed your strategy and messaging, 3. Implement industry-specific go-to-market motions, particularly around key industries, where you've already found success, 4. Avoid doing too much or too little, 5. Plan for continuous motion, and consistently track the impact of your actions. ### Visualizing success: How effective data visualizations can drive action URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/visualizing-success-how-effective-data-visualizations-can-drive-action/ Last updated: 2023-08-10T09:29:13.000Z Attention all revenue operations professionals! Is your data not engaging your team or shareholders? Is it swamping your ability to deliver valuable insights? Look no further than ****the power of effective data visualizations**. In today's fast-paced business world, where ****data is king** and **RevOps is the future**, raw numbers alone won't cut it, this is where data visualization comes in. Not only can it transform your complex data sets into clear and concise visuals, but it can also tell a compelling story that drives action. In this article, we'll cover everything you need to know about data visualization, from why it's important to how to build effective visuals, and how to persuade your team and management to take action. Don't miss out on this opportunity for innovation and ****to elevate your revenue operations game**. Read on and visualize your success today! Here’s how we’ll break it down: - What is data visualization and why is it important? - How to build effective data visualizations - Telling compelling stories with visualizations - Final thoughts‌‌ ## ****What is data visualization and why is it important?** ‌‌Simply, data visualization refers to the graphical representation of data and information. In revenue operations, data visualization is used to present complex data in a more intuitive and understandable format. This enables RevOps professionals to easily identify trends, patterns, and outliers that may be difficult to spot in raw data. Businesses that implement revenue operations see [19% faster growth and 15% more profits](https://www.forrester.com/blogs/how-to-align-revenue-engine/?ref=revenueoperationsalliance.com#:~:text=Our%20research%20on%20the%20economics,operational%20mindset%20called%20revenue%20operations.) than those that don’t, and ****data is the fuel** for this, so harnessing it effectively is crucial. Compelling data visualization is key to helping RevOps professionals make better, objective, data-driven decisions. But if it isn’t presented clearly and visually, it ****can be impossible to understand**, especially in the world of RevOps which deals with multiple teams and datasets at the same time. Along the same lines, when dealing with a vast range of data sets and metrics across departments, data visualization can aid revenue operations by identifying patterns and trends, helping to guide the direction of growth tactics. > ***Seeing what is working well and what isn’t can also benefit future forecasting.*** When the data is clearly laid out and you have identified patterns, you can use this framework for analyzing previous years, building a bigger picture, and helping to focus on goals. Another hugely important use of data visualization in RevOps is its ability to make data accessible. Communication is an essential part of the RevOps function and so data should be able to clearly share insights and key information to all departments, shareholders, and directors. ****With better communication, understanding, and alignment comes better results and growth.** ## ****How to build effective data visualizations** So how can you actually build effective revenue operations data visualizations? Consider the following steps: 1. ****Determine the purpose and audience**: Before creating any data visualization, it’s important to determine the purpose of the visualization and the intended audience. This will help guide decisions about which data to include, the type of visualization to use, and how to present the information. 2. ****Choose the right type of visualization**: There are many types of data visualizations, including charts, graphs, infographics, and dashboards. Choose the type that works best with your industry and the type of data you’re presenting, making it easier for your audience to understand the information. 3. ****Simplify the data**: Complex data can be difficult to interpret, so it’s important to simplify the data before creating a visualization. Remove any unnecessary data points, and use labels and annotations to highlight any key parts. 4. ****Use appropriate colors and fonts**: Choose colors and fonts that are easy to read and that make the data clear. Avoid using too many different colors or fonts, as this can make the visualization confusing, and always aim to keep color themes professional. 5. ****Test the visualization**: Before presenting the visualization to your team or your board of directors, test it to ensure that it accurately represents the data and that it effectively communicates the message or information you want to show.‌‌ If you can nail all of these steps, communicating complex key information in a way that is easy to understand, your data visualizations are on track to boost your revenue operations function and drive overall growth.‌‌ ## ****Telling compelling stories with visualizations** Data visualization bridges data analysis with compelling storytelling. We’ve looked at how it can help with analysis, and now let’s look at how it can boost your narrative message. Presenting your data in a way that tells a clear and engaging story is ****crucial for persuading your audience to take action** and further highlight key points. Here are some tips: You should ****start with a clear message**, before even creating a data visualization, you need to determine the key message behind the data you want to convey. > *By doing this you can guide your decisions for selecting the right data and the right way to present it to make it most effective.* Try to ****use a narrative structure**, to make your data visualization more engaging, build a story, set the scene, present the data, and conclude by summarizing your key message. Make an attempt to include ****visual cues**, like color or size for example that will draw your audience's attention to the parts you want them to see, or even ****annotations**. --- [![](https://www.revenueoperationsalliance.com/content/images/2023/05/C-Suite_Masterclass_Email_Banner_2.png)](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?ref=revenueoperationsalliance.com) --- Highlight your most important data points strategically in this way, to engage and help your audience understand whilst trying not to overwhelm. ****Providing context** is also important to help your audience understand the full picture of the data, you can do this by including benchmarks or historical data. This can then highlight the DNA of the data for your audience and show patterns of improvement or decline. Boost your storytelling with your data visualizations, and ****use real-world examples** or case studies to illustrate the impact of the data on the business. Cementing all these steps with a final ****call to action** will really encourage your audience, whether that’s your team, shareholders, or board of directors, to take action. This could range from anything to implementing a new strategy, increasing resources, or changing a process. Regardless, by using data visualizations in revenue operations to show data in a way that is easy to understand and by illustrating the potential impact of taking action, you can persuade your audience to make informed decisions that drive business success. ## ****Final thoughts** Data lies at the heart of revenue operations and any business growth, so harnessing it effectively is hugely important to secure success. Therefore effective data visualization is a crucial tool for any revenue operations professional and by transforming datasets into actionable, clear, and concise visuals, trends, patterns, and outliers can be quickly identified. For a function so focused on alignment and streamlining, compelling data visualizations only act to boost RevOps, helping you to make better, objective, data-driven decisions. By following the steps outlined in this article, and even using the help of data visualization software like Tableau, you can build effective data visualizations that tell a clear and engaging story and persuade your audience to take action based on the valuable data insights. This stands only to secure better outcomes, drive business and optimize revenue growth. ****RevOps success is yours for the taking!**‌‌ --- ****So don't miss out on the opportunity for innovation and gain further insight today on our courses!** 👇 [Click here to become a C-Suite powerhouse](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=banner&utm%5Fcampaign=content-) [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/C-Suite_Ghost_Banner_Assets_--1--4.png)](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=banner&utm%5Fcampaign=content-) ### How to create the perfect SaaS documentation URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-create-the-perfect-saas-documentation/ Last updated: 2023-08-10T09:31:17.000Z When it comes to launching a really awesome SaaS product, you’re going to be thinking about the exciting stuff: What unique problems will your solution be able to solve, what personas are you going to be looking at to effectively position your product, what can you do that your competitors are failing to do, etc. This is all crucial, of course, but the fact is: you have to think about the mundane stuff too. And one of the crucial aspects of growing a successful SaaS business is documentation. The upside with mundane aspects of your business, it’s fairly simple to get it right. Before we dive in, let's break down our main talking points: - [What is documentation for SaaS products?](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-create-the-perfect-saas-documentation/#what-is-documentation-for-saas-products) - [Types of SaaS documentation](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-create-the-perfect-saas-documentation/#types-of-saas-documentation) - [The top benefits of SaaS documentation](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-create-the-perfect-saas-documentation/#the-top-benefits-of-saas-documentation) - [Best practices for product documentation](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-create-the-perfect-saas-documentation/#best-practices-for-product-documentation) Want an even bigger upside? It can be a major driver of revenue growth for your organization, providing an essential resource for several of your major functions, including Sales, customer success, and marketing. Additionally, it can serve as a vital internal source of expertise for your team, so that you can continue to ensure the kind of good practice that facilitates continuous growth. But how? Well, that's what we’re here to find out. More importantly, we’re delivering a digestible step-by-step guide to ensuring you can really ace your product documentation game. [Skyrocket your website conversions with optimization strategies for your SaaS productIn this blog, we will dive deep into the world of simple yet highly effective optimization strategies tailored explicitly to SaaS products.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSKhondoker Asim Arman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/skyrocket.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/skyrocket-your-website-conversions-with-optimization-strategies-for-your-saas-product/) ## What is documentation for SaaS products? Your product documentation is your ultimate manual for all the essential bits of information on your product, including usage manuals, tutorials, use cases. Basically, you can think of it as the ultimate bible for your product. Anything that anyone needs to know about how to use your product and what it can be used for should be included there. Your SaaS product documentation should be both internal and external, encompassing both user tutorials and information that your team needs to know, making it a vital tool for both internal and external onboarding. Ensuring solid retention of both users and employees is crucial for any SaaS org looking to achieve continuous growth, and retention stems from both your customers and your team knowing exactly what your product does and how to use it. ## Types of SaaS documentation Before you start creating, you should be aware of the type of documentation you need. Most SaaS companies will need at least an internal document aimed at employees and product usage documents for customers. But depending on the type of software that you’re selling, there are various types of documentation you should consider creating. We break them down here. [SaaScast: How will AI and remote work shape the future of SaaS?Meet Valentina Thörner: Your SaaS growth catalyst and remote work maven! Her speciality? Redefining distributed policies for post-pandemic success.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/Valentina-tho-rner--1-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-how-will-ai-and-remote-work-shape-the-future-of-saas/) ### User manuals This documentation is aimed at getting customers or users properly adjusted to using your product. When getting customers through the onboarding process it’s important to reduce friction as much as possible. And the information you provide in your SaaS documentation can be essential for enabling customers to understand your product quickly and become paying customers in no time. Let’s say, for example, you offer a free trial, as many SaaS products do, making your product as easy to use as possible is going to be a massive differentiation factor in converting non-paying customers to paying customers. Documentation is not just a major tool for ensuring rapid conversion but also for ensuring solid retention. ### Internal documentation This is everything your team, whether it’s marketing, sales, customer success, or product, can find key information. This is essential to ensure your organization is in alignment with your product. And apart from anything else it just ensures that your company can carry out their job roles effectively. It’s difficult for sales, for example, to sell when they don’t know exactly what they’re selling. It’s impossible for customer success to advise customers when they’re not keenly aware of the product’s use cases. Here are some of the key information that you should consider including: - Standard operating procedures - Product specifications - Market needs - Product infrastructure [10 top micro SaaS examples: Building profitable apps for successMicro SaaS boasts a whole host of benefits. But is it the right solution for your product, and what are the shining examples of SaaS within the industry? We explore further.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/micro-saas-apps.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-micro-saas-examples-building-profitable-apps-for-success/) ### Tutorials Tutorials and instructional guides lead users through particular tasks or procedures within the SaaS product. These resources are typically focused on tasks and guarantee users receive pragmatic, interactive assistance, catering to their preferences. **Example**: Notion presents an array of video tutorials, furnishing users with a plethora of easily accessible resources within the Notion environment. These videos convey information visually, accommodating those who learn best through visual aids. Additionally, written tutorials are also available. ### Release notes These documents explain the contractual arrangements between the service provider and the user, making the organization's approach to data management and privacy clear. They additionally outline the guidelines users must stick to while using the service. **Example**: Eptura’ privacy policy documentation explains essential aspects of the organization, its products, data collection, utilization, and more. ### API documentation In case your SaaS product features an API, it’s essential to provide comprehensive documentation detailing its usage. This is crucial, as developers might intend to incorporate your product with various systems and software, and having well-structured API documentation significantly streamlines their tasks. **Example**: Stripe boasts excellent API reference documentation, characterized by its organized layout and clarity and helpful code snippets. Despite their apparent simplicity, these documentation resources are purposefully designed to enable users to quickly access all important information. ### Troubleshooting guide This form of SaaS documentation offers guidance for resolving typical challenges users might encounter while using your product. You can also include various tips and tricks on how to get the best out of its usage. **Example**: Palo Alto's technical documentation incorporates a troubleshooting manual aimed at assisting users in identifying the underlying causes of cloud application-specific issues, allowing them to address problems. ## The top benefits of SaaS documentation Now let’s really break down the way your documentation can help boost growth for your organization. ### Boosts marketing efforts Clear product documentation is really a valuable asset in terms of marketing, as clear documentation means that you’re more likely to be seen online. ### Makes the product easier to sell Getting that sale is all about removing friction as much as possible. Users nowadays like to use their product for themselves and get first-hand experience with the unique benefits of the product. You can make it easier for them to reach the value moment if you provide clear, concise documentation. ### It showcases overlooked features Very often customers will churn simply due to a lack of education. You might have a feature that differentiates your product from all your competitors, but potential customers might simply be unaware of it. [SaaScast: What does the future of SaaS tech stacks look like?David Howell, Editor-in-Chief at Silicon UK and Owner of Nexus Publishing, speculates on the future of SaaS tech stacks and why it’s necessary for them to evolve.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/David-Howell--SaaScast.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-what-does-the-future-of-saas-tech-stacks-look-like/) ### It frees up customer support for more specialist tasks Your customer support teams are a talented squad that are trained to anticipate and meet the needs of your customers, but what does your org look like if all their time is taken up with ‘frequently asked question’ type queries? By allowing good customer documentation to tackle the most common customer queries, your customer support and success teams are free to get creative with and solve more complex and future problems. In short: the right documentation can massively improve your customer service. ### Improves customer relationships You might have the best customer support team in the world, but the fact remains that today many customers prefer to be able to solve their own problems. It’s quicker and more efficient, and will ultimately increase your chances of retention. This is always a big plus, especially if your customers are busy SaaS professionals. ### Showcases the value of your product Many customers might be aware of what your product does, but are they aware of how it will actually positively impact their lives? This is the kind of essential information you can include, even providing case studies of the value other customers have found. [How to build an awesome SaaS marketing funnel: Convert prospects into die hard advocatesDiscover how a strong marketing funnel can boost your SaaS business by converting leads into customers and unleashing the potential of your high-quality product.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/funnel-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-an-awesome-saas-marketing-funnel-to-convert-prospects-into-die-hard-advocates-2/) ### Helps retain employees We all know how overwhelming it can be for new team members, especially when there’s a whole plethora of info for them to get to grips with. Other team members might not have the bandwidth to properly acclimate them to the product, and an overwhelmed newbie is more likely to churn. Ensure that your new hires have a comprehensive, easily digestible resource to learn everything there is to know about your product. ### Hold on to your knowledge If you’re experiencing rapid and frequent staff turnover (we hope you’re not, but it happens), it can be difficult to determine how much your current employees know and to ensure that information is shared. You can get around this problem by having a mandatory document for all new employees. ### Improves team knowledge of your product To facilitate perfect alignment between your vital functions, all of your staff should have product knowledge. How can the product team communicate with sales and marketing if the latter two are not clear on the product’s use cases? Equally, many different teams within your org may be customer-facing, so they need to know how to best advise customers on how to succeed with your product. ## Best practices for product documentation ### 1\. Determine what kind of product documentation you need. Before you do anything, you need to determine what types of documentation you need and gear it toward the appropriate audience. Customers need very different information than your employees. Customers won’t need to know about market requirements, for example, or have any information on your competitors, but your employees surely will. Determine the purpose of your documents and tailor them accordingly. ### 2\. Ensure consistency Your contributors are going to be coming from a whole host of fields and expertise, however, you need to establish a consensus on how the documentation is written and develop a system where those standard practices are adhered to at all times. Otherwise, your documentation becomes a mess and the information becomes worthless. **In a nutshell**: Agree on a style guide, agree on purpose. [Top 10 no-code tools for scaling your SaaS startupScaling your SaaS startup just got easier! Discover the top 10 no-code tools that will revolutionize your business![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/no-code-tools.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-10-no-code-tools-for-scaling-your-saas-startup/) ### 3\. Take advantage of software solutions Cut down on the hassle of creating documentation by adopting a SaaS knowledge base software that’s geared towards creating it. **Scribe** – This product turns an overwhelming wall of text into an easy-to-digest step-by-step guide. **Tettra** – Storing your information is almost as important as writing it down. Software like Tettra means that you can always retrieve the necessary information when you need it. **Document360** – Similar to Tettra, but this product makes self-service for customer education a breeze. ### 4\. Mix it up a little When you hear the word ‘ documentation’ you immediately think of an unwieldy tome of paper, but the truth is, documentation can come in many forms. You can incorporate video content into your documentation, interactive tutorials, or separate your text into digestible bitesize forms and have it appear in the form of widgets. In the modern world, information can be absorbed in a variety of different forms to suit different learning styles. Take advantage of modern tech and mix it up wherever you can! ### 5\. Make it user friendly Your customers are not going to need to read every bit of your documentation and you’d be naive to assume that they would try. Make it clear where to access the information that’s pertinent to them. Here’s your step-by-step: - Adhere to a straightforward arrangement. - Opt for a uniform layout on each page. - Incorporate a table of contents at the start of every document. - Implement content categorization. - Facilitate searching within document content. - Showcase commonly asked questions in their own designated area. - Include internal cross-references within the product documentation. - Manage document revisions effectively. ### 6\. Keep track of how the documentation is viewed Once it’s up and running your work is far from done. You need to improve your documentation over time by monitoring how users interact with it, which parts are frequently missed, and have a way of gathering feedback on how helpful the documentation feels. Examine the heatmaps, evaluate user pathways, review prominent search terms, and more. These valuable observations will direct your ongoing task to enhance documentation. Take advantage of your software to collect this vital data. Improve and alter it consistently so that you don’t create a bigger job for yourself down the road. Additionally, you should keep track of search queries around your product or similar products. What are the top search queries related to your product? These are the questions you should seek to answer in your documentation. [Responsible sourcing: Ensuring sustainability throughout the supply chainDavid Patterson, Vice President of Business Development at Wastebits, demonstrates how to make your SaaS startup’s supply chain eco-friendly and socially conscious.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDavid Patterson![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/sustainablity-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/responsible-sourcing-ensuring-sustainability-throughout-the-supply-chain/) ### 7\. Hold someone accountable for it If you don’t make it someone's job to keep track of your documentation it’s a job that can easily be forgotten. Make updating this document a job that’s as regular as updating OKRs, and use your project management tools to make sure it happens. Your documentation should evolve and grow with your organization, make sure it isn’t getting neglected. ## Conclusion: it’s time to build If you start early, creating the ideal product documentation shouldn’t be a chore and you’ll be able to build on it bit by bit as your org grows. But it should never be an afterthought. Like every aspect of a SaaS company, creating your documentation requires a rigorous process. By following these steps you can give your product the voice it deserves. Get writing today! --- *Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS Membership?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Take control: Make your product marketing team indispensable URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/take-control-make-your-product-marketing-team-indispensable-blog/ Last updated: 2024-08-20T16:19:55.000Z *This article is based on Larry’s talk at the Product Marketing Summit in Denver, 2023\. To watch this talk in its full glory from our sister community, product marketing alliance, click* [*here*](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/product-marketing-summit-denver-2023-ondemand-1-2/?wchannelid=7s56ba67ni&wmediaid=bt8ynqkx3y)*.* Let’s start with a quick introduction. I'm Larry Goldman, and I'm the Director of Product Marketing for one of the business units at Progress Software, a company better known for its brands like Sitefinity, Chef, and Telerik. I’m also a proud husband and father, which, I warn you, makes me prone to cracking dad jokes. Have you heard about the restaurant on the moon? Great food, but no atmosphere! I thought I'd add a few more jokes into the mix, specifically product marketing jokes, so I went to the PMA site and found more [templates](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/templates-free-preview/) than I'll need in my lifetime, but no dedicated product marketing jokes section. So, I had to make up my own and you’re just going to have to deal with it. Here's one: Knock, knock. *Who’s there?* Product marketing. *Product marketing who?* Exactly. [SaaS MarketingAs the demand for cloud-based software continues to grow, SaaS companies are facing intense competition in the market. Here is a guide to help you develop a successful SaaS marketing strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_Marketing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) That's what this article is all about. If your company's response to 'product marketing' is 'who?', then you're in hot water and far from being indispensable. We’re going to look at how you can change that. Here’s what we’ll cover: - Why your PMM team is being overlooked - Six strategies to amplify your PMM strengths and become indispensable - How to maintain prominence once you’ve achieved it ## **Why your PMM team is being overlooked** Have you ever felt uneasy about your standing within the company? It's okay, you can admit it. It happens to most of us from time to time, particularly during periods of change. [![Why your product marketing team is being overlooked](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pdPrUdH75YykiBmmW79GQkyIgYd4Wsef8JlWvQkXEQ24KVWY2WPNB4g0996ZcQ8WDpoCuyY4ZB_WnotUeTGpeUFgFtbR772LBVki0Z_xTRiokoDTm7zzUlyVPNLx9TMNmD4Y7eCWt3dzYZe5f54tgrI)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/take-control-make-your-product-marketing-team-indispensable-blog) So, why might you be feeling overlooked? There are a bunch of possible reasons: - You might be chasing the wrong priorities. - Maybe you don’t know your customers as well as you should. Has a salesperson ever asked you for a customer contact, and you were at a loss for a quick answer? That might make you feel a bit out of touch. - Are you consistently late in delivering tasks, making people question your reliability? Or maybe you're too engrossed in day-to-day tactics, losing sight of the bigger, more strategic picture. - Do you have a champion in your corner, someone within the organization who advocates for product marketing? You're lucky if you do. - Could it be that your team is chronically understaffed or lacks the necessary skills? - Or perhaps you're involved in long-term projects that make it difficult to demonstrate immediate tangible results, so others fail to see the value of your work. [B2B marketing events strategies: before, during, and afterB2B events are paramount for networking, generating high-quality leads, increasing brand awareness, and reaching a large target audience. The majority of event marketers believe events are the most effective marketing channel over emails, content, and digital marketing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/terren-hurst-blgOFmPIlr0-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/b2b-marketing-events-strategies-before-during-and-after/) These are all potential factors that could make you feel slightly uneasy, and that uneasiness tends to be amplified in times of change. Change is a constant in the business world, and I tend to categorize it into two types. First, there's sudden change – the kind that hits you out of nowhere. Maybe your boss leaves unexpectedly, or you wake up to an email announcing that your company has either been acquired or has just acquired another business. Or maybe a competitor releases an unexpected product and surges ahead. These abrupt shifts can be disruptive but they need to be navigated effectively. And then there’s creeping change. This is the gradual, almost imperceptible shift, like the proverbial boiling frog, that slowly transforms the status quo until one day everything’s different. [B2B marketing events strategies: before, during, and afterB2B events are paramount for networking, generating high-quality leads, increasing brand awareness, and reaching a large target audience. The majority of event marketers believe events are the most effective marketing channel over emails, content, and digital marketing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/terren-hurst-blgOFmPIlr0-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/b2b-marketing-events-strategies-before-during-and-after/) An example of this could be that you notice that you're not being invited to meetings anymore. Or maybe you're seeing people take over activities that are traditionally handled by product marketing. These are the slow, creeping signs of change you need to keep an eye out for. Remember, change doesn't have to be bad, but *is* inevitable, so you have to be prepared and ensure you're protected from this constant ebb and flow. So, how can you overcome these challenges and make yourself and your team indispensable? By following the six steps below and amplifying your strengths as a product marketer. Let’s dive in. ## **Step one: Define your role and responsibilities** First, you need to clearly define the responsibilities that fall under product marketing, let others know what these are, and own them. Here's a list of tasks that we usually undertake as product marketers. Some of them might not apply to your role, but most are non-negotiable: - Go-to-market strategy (GTM) - Customer segmentation - Positioning and messaging - Competitive intelligence and differentiation - Product launch - Pricing and packaging - Analyst relations Now, tasks like pricing could be negotiable. Depending on the company you work for, pricing could be the responsibility of product marketing, product, or even sales. I’ve seen all those permutations. If someone else is claiming pricing, you need to decide whether it's a non-negotiable for you. Is it worth fighting for? If you decide sales should handle it because it affects them more directly, don’t remove yourself entirely. Always stay engaged, always have a hand in it. Make sure they know you're interested and that you have valuable insights to contribute. [![Step one: Define the PMM team's role](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/YNVO5JgCkMn6gcf0cmAASvwF_2JOWhq1OhjU0kQ3Ap0GayYvDV5QFNsXZW3xnFeYJEzOAm5hARpboTkQeq-vQnSQ0b4UqNip8j1m_VjfMj5Q2qIQPDlE4pxh7yfv2P0W0OLUBs2Am7cAYea5GwEYLOU)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/take-control-make-your-product-marketing-team-indispensable-blog) However, you should be careful not to overcommit. Tempting as it can be to say yes to everything, it's far more important to perform the tasks you do take on exceptionally well. Balance is key. ## **Step two: Build exposure for your team** The magic of product marketing is that we're at the heart of everything, like the mortar between bricks or the sand amongst the rocks. We interact with all departments – sales, customers, product, executives – we're an integral part of the mix. But here's the deal: if people aren't seeing you as the customer expert, the voice of the customer, it's high time you change that. Familiarize yourself with customer personas, speak their language, and share their stories. [Top SaaS marketing and content toolsA high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) Ever thought about creating a playbook? If not, get on it. It's an incredible way to consolidate all your knowledge in one place. Being pestered with queries? Point them to the playbook. Want to wow leadership? Showcase your playbook. It's a single source of truth that amalgamates your messaging, positioning, competitor analysis, customer personas, and all the nitty-gritty of your work. [![Step two: Build exposure for your PMM team](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/r3MK6leETCN6KxE8EUFGs9EsrC2geL39GdTwHwXRgpvfdW1_rX_oW22_49hIsn37z2dXQuFXcB-_jK_2vZjirCsZCJbQKnDjTGomT6Ii4hmMjNHNkdBna5BEqQbl-bxmA6YdarHh1xYPZDx9yuDULPM)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/take-control-make-your-product-marketing-team-indispensable-blog) And don't limit yourself to demand generation; involve yourself in the entire lifecycle. Yes, leads and revenue are crucial, and everyone's chasing those, but don't forget about your existing customers. Sure, there might be a dedicated customer marketing group, but be proactive in collaborating with them. Lastly, don't wait for an invitation to crucial meetings or sessions. If there's a [customer advisory board](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/the-benefits-of-customer-advisory-boards/), be there. If sales is conducting a demo and you want to learn from it, get involved. Is a branding team meeting happening? Join in, because you know the customer, and that knowledge is power. Let me share a story. A few companies back, I was deeply involved in the development and promotion of buyer personas. HR approached me to be part of the onboarding process, where they conducted a comprehensive week-long program for new hires. They wanted me to present the personas and competitive landscape to newcomers. I was more than happy to step in, so I jumped on the opportunity. [How is email marketing important to improving customer retention?Despite the rising competition from social media, email marketing continues to be one of the most effective tools for B2B marketing. It’s great for product awareness and generating new leads, but also for boosting customer retention.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/brett-jordan-LPZy4da9aRo-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-is-email-marketing-important-to-improving-customer-retention/) For about a year, I found myself in front of every new employee – be it executives, support staff, product or sales teams – explaining our key personas, who we're selling to, why, and how our products meet their needs. Not only did this provide a valuable introduction for new employees, but it also positioned me as a go-to for information on these subjects. Finally, always make sure to share your wins. Celebrate your achievements, and don't forget to acknowledge those who contributed. When you finish a set of data sheets, share it with everyone, thank your team, and use it as a chance to highlight your accomplishments. ## **Step three: Build your network of allies** Knowing who your partners are within the company is key. These could be internal teams like product or marketing. If these teams are saying “Product marketing who?” you're not integrated enough. You’re going to need to put in a little extra work to build those relationships. [![Step three: Build a network of allies](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/28WXKJojIP5TSOZ2_wmg4al5Q1Z5XjBDUeCB81OAzkXO-J5-3m2k2t2_YIsxRaNc1gxIYvQ6B3cpb9ssNQeBSszsvFLLw28bYSMI8bVTTfijfqhPy09cvzA0FPCBkBX_ETiY9E7oWb43MsSnzPHKpbI)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/take-control-make-your-product-marketing-team-indispensable-blog) Sales leadership is also invaluable. Winning them over can massively boost your initiatives, as they can help push your agenda to the sales team. In my opinion, they’re your best partners. Building connections with executive assistants, community leaders, or the person in charge of tech support can also be very powerful. I call this the "influential periphery." These are individuals who might not be the most obvious allies but wield significant influence within the organization. By connecting with them, you can extend the reach and perception of product marketing. There are also groups like customer marketing, lifecycle marketing, branding, and legal that you might interact with on occasion. Maintaining good relationships with these teams is crucial. I’d also recommend finding out who the big idea generators are in your company and aligning with them. [Structuring an agile marketing team for successTrying to move your team into agile marketing but worried that you need to retrain everyone? Or completely flatten your department’s structure? Or lay off half of your team? Don’t panic! There’s no need for layoffs or completely changing your department’s structure.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSRebecca Stewart![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/pascal-swier-7de474KZIbs-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/structuring-an-agile-marketing-team-for-success/) Leverage your external network for objective feedback too. And don't forget about the unknowns – that guy in the corner may just turn out to be an invaluable ally. Always keep an open mind about who can influence and assist your role in product marketing. In my previous role, I developed a close relationship with the CTO, which might seem unlikely for someone in product marketing. However, thanks to that relationship, I got to know all about the company's direction at the executive level. My point is, anyone can be a valuable connection. For those of us working remotely, it's vital to maintain these connections too. I recommend reaching out to three or four people a day, even if it's just a quick chat or message. These small touchpoints help build and maintain relationships, which can be a challenge when you’re working from home. ## **Step four: Build respect, promise by promise** Paul McCartney famously said, "The love you take is equal to the love you make." However, I believe it's about giving *more* than you get. There are people – I’m sure you know a few – that just ask and never give. Don’t be one of them. In my experience, a 60:40 or even a 70:30 ratio of giving to asking works well. And be selective about what you ask for. If it's something you can easily find out yourself, don’t bother others with it. This respect is crucial to fostering strong relationships. [![Step four: Build respect for product marketing](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/dktuHvYHJN8xE9xlbhYlyof6PtCZyCj24D9hJlMhgAuRcMfEXTROvTt4JKVtmMSKk-LX2SXQaUUuyePTjDdt9wmahqtVwOOt5dQifXRzemDKAWmMdNUQskVSpbRVX5ul38Cfi1Hhi9BiaLVvz2QXAKc)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/take-control-make-your-product-marketing-team-indispensable-blog) Also, remember that your word is your bond. If you promise to do something, you need to follow through. And be careful not to overpromise, a lesson I've learned the hard way. Disappointing someone by saying no right off the bat is much better than failing to deliver on a promise later on. Collaboration is also key. This may sound like a buzzword, but in practice, it's vital for building relationships with teams and individuals. Show initiative and volunteer for tasks or projects. Building respect is not just about accomplishing product marketing tasks; it's about driving the company forward. For instance, I recently volunteered to mentor someone at Progress next year, and I'm excited about that. I've also taken the lead in public speaking and coordinating events, like running one of our Sales Kickoff days in December. These things not only build your reputation but also help you build relationships within the company. Another important tip is not to take yourself too seriously. If every meeting you run is intense and focused, people won't enjoy being there. Relax, have a sense of humor, and exude confidence. When you do, people will want to work with you because they feel good around you and know you're capable. Now, let's talk about a tactic I love: quarterly success reviews. Gather your team, invite leaders and others, and in the first 10 to 15 minutes, have everyone put up on a board every single thing accomplished in the last quarter. It may start slow, but as people recall their achievements, the board quickly fills up. The result? A sense of awe and pride in what the team has accomplished. Others may also be surprised by the breadth and depth of your team's work. It's a powerful way to boost respect for your efforts. Next, be open to feedback. Respecting others means being receptive to their input, even if it's wrong or poorly presented. Embrace the opportunity for growth and improvement. Remember, no one is perfect. ## **Step five: Measure as much as you can** It’s essential to align your metrics with the executives' goals. While we all have our favorite things to do – me, I love getting stuck into storytelling – we have to pay attention to the metrics and ensure they are aligned with the overall objectives. I won't delve into specific metrics here since there are [ample resources ](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/tag/metrics-okrs/)available on the PMA website. However, it's crucial to select a finite number of metrics that you can control. For instance, if one of your goals is, say, conquering the Peruvian market, your activities and metrics should reflect that. [![Step five: Metrics, metrics, metrics!](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/9cAQAk_8iqUZSaryQiyZPR1TBkRqMC3x6JVraTDEYV3tXDaO9oDdSA-Dcmz1CfblVm-6tQUJxfeCy-bDZr7p5qlGbSM7Pt88fDJffcR8_SdDixbFz7qzuSw15ZyN2HKPBs4GvfiS3l8H2-xjRInd1WM)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/take-control-make-your-product-marketing-team-indispensable-blog) Sometimes the most relevant metrics may not be obvious at first, but it's essential to identify and track them to measure success accurately – take metrics for product launches for instance. When I joined Progress about a year ago, I made it a point to define metrics for every product launch and present them two months later. People loved this approach because the metrics we used focused on meaningful indicators. We tracked web page views, video engagement, and the number of attendees at kickoff webinars. We also conducted surveys with channel partners and the sales team. By asking open-ended questions such as “What were the top three new features?” we got a sense of how well our messaging resonated with sales, channel partners, and customers. That valuable feedback helped drive further improvements. It’s also key to continuously track your metrics and be proactive in addressing any downward trends. Rather than waiting for someone to question any downturns, take the lead by highlighting potential concerns and initiating discussions. If you want to be indispensable, you have to stay ahead of the curve, whether you're analyzing lagging or leading indicators. And don't hesitate to share both good and bad news. By taking control and sharing the information, you position yourself as a reliable source of insights and solutions. ## **Step six: Build for speed of service** I have a Lego philosophy when it comes to product marketing content. I view our content and materials as Lego blocks. That means when someone from the sales team approaches me needing a deck for a specific product and market, I can quickly assemble the necessary components because I have a vast collection of content pieces saved. I also recommend having a marketing repository for your team to store and share draft content. While external content management systems are useful for collaboration with outside groups, an internal repository boosts the speed and efficiency of your team. [![Step six: Build for speed of service](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/MMnpkTDRlu6VkQbREP3ZeM0hjvqWawEw1UYiHEgRjx4UsHi9_lXdxtd79ezrLrW0wqBhnQaDDxQF0C_JG09Mr-dBZgcPwn_a81BlJUQUBiNqwqq46OoDxvNWRvWvHwGOtIAVX7rXDwWz5FasNwrcRRw)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/take-control-make-your-product-marketing-team-indispensable-blog) Prioritization is another essential part of building for speed of service. Keep refining your prioritization strategies to ensure your team focuses on the most important tasks and initiatives. If you use Asana or a similar platform, let other people see your boards and tasks. That way, when someone, especially a leader, comes to you with a new idea or request, you can have an open conversation about prioritization. You can show them all the great things you're already working on and ask which tasks should take precedence. Now, let's discuss skilling up, but not just in product marketing. I'm talking about professional skills that are essential regardless of your role. Strong writing skills are paramount. If you're not a good writer, it's worth considering a different career path. The same goes for editing – those skills will make you so much more efficient. Being able to present and advocate for your ideas is crucial too. Mastering the art of creating persuasive business cases and reporting metrics is invaluable. You'd be surprised how often even basic graphic and web skills can come in handy too. These not only but also enable you to navigate processes more efficiently. By continuously developing and honing these skills, you position yourself as a capable and versatile professional. Others will recognize your ability to get things done, and you'll have more autonomy to streamline and expedite various workflows. These are the fundamental business skills that you should be good at. They’re going to help you demonstrate your competence and free you from some of the slower processes that you have to deal with. ## **Maintain your prominence once you’ve achieved it** Congratulations! You've reached the pinnacle of prominence in your product marketing journey. Yaaaaaay! It’s easy to rest on your laurels; however, it's important to remember that this is a continuous journey, one involving a series of phases. [![Making your PMM team indispensable is a journey.](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/y_g5HbhgRiiUnP0vslx3pTN8WSqPNDM5vKyiiw9Y90MgVb6I7yhvSCWb2Yp-d70nwpjGunaqQVdNoF3RqoGY-b91imZ36pEEoM2sF6uDxZJfuLBH2qDawQc-do9jcfFEyE1nGR8spU-CIn8SR5yXB3Y)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/take-control-make-your-product-marketing-team-indispensable-blog) In the first phase, when you're starting or joining a product marketing group, focus on securing quick wins. Show people that you can deliver results. At the same time, establish the boundaries of your role and make it clear what you bring to the table. Let others know about your expertise and responsibilities. This phase is about building a solid foundation, just like assembling Lego blocks, by immersing yourself in the products, getting to know key individuals, and conducting informational interviews to gather insights. As you move into the next phase, it's time to start delivering consistently and quickly. Strengthen your alliances with the groups and individuals we discussed earlier and let them know just how reliable you are. By phase three, if you're committed to staying at a company for an extended period, you should have solidified your position as an essential player. You’ll be a recognized leader who imparts wisdom, possesses historical knowledge, and teaches others. This level of expertise is powerful and rewarding – and it makes you indispensable in the eyes of your colleagues. At the summit of your journey, there are a few key indicators that you’ve truly become indispensable. You’re invited to meetings without hesitation, entrusted with increasing responsibilities and budgets, and have successfully built and expanded your team. Leadership recognizes your contributions and values your expertise. Most importantly, you find joy and fulfillment in your work. Now, confession time: I lied a little bit. You’re never truly indispensable. Indispensability is like infinity – you can never fully achieve it. However, by insulating yourself against the changes that will inevitably come and adapting to new circumstances, you can continue moving closer to that elusive state. ## **Key takeaways** Let’s summarize our key takeaways. These are the seven points to keep in mind: 1. **Recognize and embrace change:** When you’re faced with significant shifts like acquisitions, proactively make plans and navigate through them. 2. **Become an evangelist:** Dive deep into the details of your product, become the expert on your customers, and passionately advocate for your product's value. 3. **Deliver on your promises:** That’s how you build trust. 4. **Forge networks and alliances:** Stretch yourself to be more outgoing and build valuable connections that support your work. 5. **Align with business OKRs:** Understand the priorities of the company and ensure your efforts are driving measurable impact on the bottom line. 6. **Hone your professional skills:** Continuously improve your abilities in writing, editing, presenting, and other essential business competencies. They’re going to make you so much more efficient and productive. 7. **Leave a lasting impact:** Strive to make your product marketing function better than when you joined it. When you reflect on your career, you want to look back and see the positive change you brought about. ### What is burnout and how you can prevent it URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-burnout-and-how-you-can-prevent-it/ Last updated: 2023-08-03T11:00:37.000Z In any role, at any company, it’s normal to feel a certain level of stress or anxiety about the work you’re doing from time to time. What’s not normal, though, is feeling intensely overwhelmed with this type of stress for an extended period of time. After a while, this level of overwhelm can develop into ****burnout**, a state of physical and emotional exhaustion that not only affects work but our personal lives and general mental health. Burnout can be a *significant issue* that comes about as a result of chronic workplace stress. It’s important for *any worker* to understand what burnout is, recognize the signs, and avoid getting to a place where it becomes unbearable. Without this, it can lead to a major decrease in our ability to do any work at all and can have a negative impact that lasts for months, if not years. It’s particularly necessary, though, for those operating at the C-suite level or in senior management roles to be able to spot the signs and know how to tackle burnout, for their own sake as well as that of the workforce that they lead. If those at the top of the business are unable to mitigate the risk of burnout or act accordingly when it seems to be having an impact, not only can it negatively affect the business objectives but it can be detrimental to the mental health of a number of their employees. In order to do our best work possible and support the productivity of others, we need to prioritize good mental health and take workplace stress seriously. No job is worth sacrificing your mental health for. In this article, we’re going to explore: - What is burnout? - The symptoms of burnout - What causes burnout? - Burnout risk factors - How to stop feeling so burned out It’s time to kick burnout to the curb, so let’s dive in. ⏬ ## **What is burnout?** Burnout is a state of chronic physical and emotional exhaustion that occurs as a result of long-term stress in a job, or from working in an emotionally or physically demanding role for an extended period of time. What is key is that this comes about as a result of unsuccessful management of this stress or failure to intervene at the first signs of burning out. The [World Health Organization](https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases?ref=communityledgrowth.com) (WHO) characterizes the main three features of burnout as follows: - "Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; - Increased mental distance from one’s job, feelings of negativism and/or cynicism related to one's job; and - Reduced professional efficacy." Burnout itself is not a medical diagnosis, however, it *can* negatively impact one’s health, relationships, work performance, and overall quality of life. It stretches beyond just affecting our work, which is why it’s important to be able to recognize the signs and intervene early when work-related stress becomes more significant. [Leadership, talent, and global scalingA lack of clear values can lead to culture debt, lacking accountability, and issues with hiring, to name a few, all of which can have a detrimental impact on a business.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJonathan Jeffries![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1541844053589-346841d0b34c?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&w=2000&fit=max&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjExNzczfQ)](https://www.saasalliance.io/leadership-talent-and-global-scaling/) ## **So, what are the symptoms of burnout?** The most common symptoms of burnout can appear much like clinical depression in that it presents an overarching feeling of defeatedness, hopelessness, and lethargy. Common symptoms can be broken down into physical, emotional, and behavioral - as follows: ### **Physical symptoms** - Feeling tired and drained most of the time. - Lowered immunity, frequent illnesses. - Frequent headaches, muscle pain, or aches. - Changes in appetite or sleep habits. ### **Emotional symptoms** - Sense of failure and self-doubt. - Feeling helpless, trapped, and defeated. - Detachment, feeling alone in the world. - Loss of motivation. - Increasingly cynical and negative outlook. - Decreased satisfaction and sense of accomplishment. ### **Behavioral Symptoms** - Withdrawing from responsibilities. - Isolating from others. - Procrastinating, taking longer to get things done. - Using food, drugs, or alcohol to cope. - Taking out your frustrations on others. If any of these sound or feel familiar to you or any colleagues or employees, you or they may be experiencing burnout and it’s vital that steps are taken to mitigate the stress. [Beyond the buzzwords: how to actually build a culture-driven companyWhen we talk about culture at work, there are a lot of buzzwords thrown around these days, but how do you actually achieve a truly culture-driven organization?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnna Gullstrand![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/damien-tupinier-OFEvgVfr6iU-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/beyond-the-buzzwords-how-to-actually-build-a-culture-driven-company/) ## **What causes burnout?** Burnout can come around as a result of numerous factors, including but not limited to the following: ### **Lack of control** At work, if we feel unable to take some ownership or shape certain aspects of our job, such as a schedule, projects, or workload, it can lead to burnout. For example, if you find yourself in a position where you are being told to produce a lot of work or need to be involved in a number of projects, while not actually having the time or capacity to complete them, this can be the start of a dangerous workload. This can then be impacted by an expectation that you have to get all of it done, and an inability to deprioritize anything. ### **Unclear job expectations** In order to work successfully, we need to have a clear understanding of what is expected of us. This can be illustrated through Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that define deliverables on a regular basis, or any goal-setting exercises with your team or management. Not having access to this understanding can make working life uncomfortable, uncertain, and difficult, because it’s impossible to tell if we’re doing our job correctly or heading in the wrong direction without this knowledge. ### **Dysfunctional workplace dynamics** In every aspect of life, we are bound to clash with certain personalities or find ourselves in chaotic situations. This becomes a problem when it’s someone you have to be around significantly more, or when they have the power to influence your working life. This could look like an office bully, colleagues who undermine what you do, or a boss who micromanages your work. All of these examples can compound your feeling of not being good enough at work or increase your stress levels about the work you’re doing. [How you’re demotivating your team and how to turn things aroundFew things are as costly and disruptive as managers who kill motivation.It’s said that “people don’t leave jobs; they leave managers” and the stats back this up: 70% of an employee’s motivation is influenced by their manager, according to Gallup.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/elisa-ventur-yjHh4JpZQT8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-youre-demotivating-your-team-and-how-to-turn-things-around/) ### **Extremes of activity** When a job feels monotonous or chaotic, you’ll need to keep up a constant level of energy in order to keep up and remain focused. This can lead to a feeling of fatigue or anxiety. For example, if you find yourself constantly worrying that something unexpected is going to happen, or you don’t know what may come up for you next, work can become a source of constant stress. ### **Lack of social support** Loneliness, in any part of our lives, [is bad for our health](https://time.com/6183058/loneliness-health-effects-what-to-do/?ref=communityledgrowth.com). Having friends at work can help to boost our job satisfaction and performance because it gives us a sense of belonging and provides an outlet for us to speak about anything work-related with someone else who *gets it*. This isn’t limited to complaining to a work friend over drinks either. It can look like a friend taking over on a task for you if they know you’re busy or overwhelmed, a manager giving you a shoutout in your team meeting when you’ve been performing well, or a colleague offering some guidance on how to approach a project. A lack of these support sources at work, and outside of it, can make you feel isolated and alone - all of which can increase the chance of burning out. ### **Lack of work/life balance** It’s not uncommon to have a couple of days, here and there, where you spend a little longer than usual working. Or you may need to step in to take over from a colleague and have a somewhat larger workload than normal for a few days. However, when it becomes the norm, and you are consistently working longer hours than you are meant to be, then this will quickly become a problem. So if you find yourself spending the majority of your time working, and sacrificing your personal life or time with family and friends to continue your work - burning out becomes a lot more probable. ## **Risk factors for burnout** In order to ****beat burnout to the punch**, you should look out for the following risk factors in your role: - Heavy workload - Regularly working very long hours - A struggle with work/life balance - A lack of control over your work If you are in a situation where you recognize any of these risks in your role, you should be mindful and keep track of those feelings or situations, so you can know if things need to change from early on - rather than after you find yourself burning out. ## **How to stop feeling burned out** ### **Self-care** The first step when it comes to stopping feeling burned out, is to prioritize self-care. Self-care can manifest itself in a variety of ways but ultimately it boils down to making sure you’re looking after yourself as best you can. This could include making sure you eat a balanced diet, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and doing things you enjoy or that help you relax and stay grounded. ### **Boundary-setting** Setting boundaries at work and establishing a clear split between your personal and work life is a key way to stop burnout. It could look like setting yourself specific work hours and making sure to stick with them, not having your emails or work communications on your personal phone (and not checking these outside of your work hours), or making sure you take regular breaks from work throughout the day. Boundary-setting can also mean having conversations with colleagues or management to say, “Hey, I can’t prioritize this project right now - let’s work together to find a time when I can.” or “Going forward, I need 5 working days’ notice in order to complete these tasks”. It’s not just about creating a work-life balance, but also letting others know that your time is valuable and you can only do so much in a day. [Women in SaaS: mentorship and career progressionWith experience in major organizations such as Dell and Github, Priscilla Aubrey has a wealth of experience and insight at her disposal.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSPriscilla Aubrey![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/pexels-olga-1146242.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-mentorship/) ### **Seek support** Don’t be afraid to reach out for support when you need it. This can be to friends and family, but it can also be to colleagues and management and in some cases, a mental health professional. While our managers are there to oversee our work and guide us professionally, they also have a duty to help us manage our workload and stress levels - so it can be incredibly useful to reach out and alert them that you are beginning to see signs of burnout. As for friends, family, and colleagues - they can offer a listening ear, advice, and guidance on how to manage your stress. ### **Mindfulness** In a broad sense, mindfulness is a process in which you focus on being acutely aware of experiences occurring in the present moment, and the feelings those experiences create - without interpretation or judgment. Benefits of mindfulness include improved focus and concentration, reduced stress, enhanced self-awareness, increased patience, and better emotional control. A way to use mindfulness at work could be to pay attention to the first feelings of heightened anxiety and step away from what you’re doing to conduct a breathing exercise. What you want to avoid doing is ignoring the feeling of anxiety, but instead try to acknowledge it without interrogating yourself about the feeling. Imagine that feeling of anxiety as a cloud of smoke in your mind, and use the breathing exercise to gently waft it away and clear the air before you step back into working. ### **Take time off** If you’re able to, taking time off from work can be very beneficial. This doesn’t have to mean you’re taking a vacation - it could be as simple as taking a day or two and just allowing yourself to spend that time doing the things you love. If your burnout is at a point where it’s becoming impossible to deal with work and it’s causing physical or mental health conditions, it may be a good idea to talk to a medical professional and enquire about stress leave. Mental health is just as important as your physical health, so taking time off for sickness or stress is absolutely okay and can help you to take that much-needed time to recover. ### **Re-evaluate your priorities** If you’re feeling burned out, it can feel incredibly overwhelming to think proactively about what needs to change in order to feel better - after all, it comes with a real sense of defeatedness. Despite this, taking a step back to really consider what’s important to you can be a great way to start understanding what steps you need to take in order to get rid of burnout. ****Identify what matters to you** most, whether it’s advancing in your career, spending time with your family, developing a certain skill or focusing on your health. Then, ****look at your current situation** and assess what you’re spending most of your time on. Next, compare your ideal situation to your current one. Are you spending your time on the things that matter most to you? Does your current situation look like the ideal situation? If you answer no to both of these questions, then you can start to identify what may be contributing to those feelings of burnout. With this re-evaluation, you can start to make changes that will bring your current situation closer to the ideal situation. This could involve delegating tasks, saying no more often, or reorganizing your schedule to better reflect your personal and professional priorities. ### **Seek professional help** If feelings of burnout persist, consider seeking the help of a mental health professional. They can provide strategies and techniques to help you cope with burnout and manage stress. They can also help to unpack deeper-rooted issues that you may not have been entirely aware of, which can be contributing factors to your burnout. ## **Let’s sum up** Burnout is a serious issue that can result from chronic workplace stress. It's not just a state of physical exhaustion but also a state of emotional exhaustion that can significantly impact our personal lives, work performance, mental health, and overall quality of life. To ensure we’re at our best, we must understand and recognize burnout, and take proactive steps to prevent it. Fortunately, burnout can be prevented and mitigated through various strategies. Prioritizing self-care, setting boundaries, seeking support, practicing mindfulness, taking time off when needed, and re-evaluating priorities can significantly help in managing and reducing burnout. In severe cases, professional help might be necessary to effectively address the problem. Remember, no job is worth sacrificing your mental health for. Prioritize your well-being, and do not hesitate to seek help when you need it. By understanding and acknowledging burnout, we can all contribute to a healthier and more balanced work environment. --- Understanding and knowing how to tackle burnout is just one of the many abilities any C-Suite executive or senior leader should possess. That’s why we explore it in our [C-suite Masterclass](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?ref=communityledgrowth.com). If you’re a Director or VP-level professional who wishes to or is expecting to transition into a C-suite leadership role, this course is for you. But, if you’re a newly appointed C-suiter who’s keen to explore how other like-minded professionals have led teams or sustained organizational performance levels, then you’ll thrive in this program, too. From developing your leadership abilities to understanding the unique challenges faced by C-level executives, gain the comprehensive understanding you need to drive results, inspire teams, and achieve your career aspirations - all in this industry-leading course. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/C-Suite_Ghost_Banner_Assets_--1--1.png) [Find out more here](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=banner&utm%5Fcampaign=content-) ### SaaScast: How will AI and remote work shape the future of SaaS? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-how-will-ai-and-remote-work-shape-the-future-of-saas/ Last updated: 2023-08-30T11:18:12.000Z In this rigorous, far-reaching discussion, Valentina Thörner dived into two game-changing developments that are reshaping the SaaS landscape: Remote Work and AI, a dynamic duo that are reconfiguring not just SaaS, but the entire working world as we know it. [‎SaaScast: How will AI and remote work shape the future of SaaS on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep How will AI and remote work shape the future of SaaS - 25 Jul 2023![](https://t2.gstatic.com/faviconV2?client=SOCIAL&type=FAVICON&fallback_opts=TYPE,SIZE,URL&url=https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-will-ai-and-remote-work-shape-the-future-of-saas/id1544750249?i=1000622304116&size=128)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts126/v4/a4/4d/5f/a44d5fae-5046-a15e-a689-2605bf2c3483/mza_10035764847765952101.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-will-ai-and-remote-work-shape-the-future-of-saas/id1544750249?i=1000622304116) ## Main talking points include This was certainly a far-reaching discussion. Here are the key highlights: **💡 Embracing individual needs for maximum impact** Gone are the days of the traditional 9-to-5 grind. Valentina stressed how remote work has revolutionized the way we think about productivity, allowing us to tailor work around individual needs.🌈 Whether it's early risers, night owls, or globe-trotting adventurers, the flexibility of remote work empowers your team to unleash their full potential. **🤖 Automate to innovate: The AI advantage** AI is not just a buzzword; it's the engine driving innovation in the SaaS world! 🚀 Valentina shared some eye-opening insights into how AI can take care of mundane tasks, freeing up valuable time for your team to focus on innovation. From automating customer support to data analysis, AI can work wonders, boosting efficiency and accuracy like never before! **🚀 Rethinking productivity: The future awaits** In this ever-evolving landscape, how do we define productivity for the future?💭 Valentina urged us to move beyond the outdated "hours worked" mentality. Instead, she encouraged us to measure productivity by impact and outcomes.📊 Whether your team spends 4 or 40 hours, what truly matters is the value they bring to the table! ## More about Valentina With a wealth of experience in various leadership and executive roles in Product, Customer Support, and remote Operations, Valentina brings a unique perspective to the table. She understands the intricate complexities of creating seamless and effective processes, regardless of location. In her position as Founder of RemoteThatWorks,Valentina empowers SaaS leaders to adapt to the new normal, crafting compelling narratives to communicate remote setups to your valuable employees. ## Get involved Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Creator, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: [anthony@futureofsaas.io](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-scaling-new-heights-with-vertical-saas/anthony@futureofsaas.io). ### "This was highlighted as one of the best communities" - Cailee Rye URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/this-was-highlighted-as-one-of-the-best-communites-out-there-cailee/ Last updated: 2023-08-01T09:17:57.000Z With over 5,000 enthusiastic SaaS champions from various backgrounds, our Slack community serves as an invaluable resource for actionable strategies to scale your SaaS organization and for networking with like-minded peers. Moreover, it offers an excellent platform to showcase your expertise to the SaaS world. Our ultimate goal is to shape the future of SaaS by bringing together some of the industry's leading minds. What truly excites us about the SaaS space is its remarkable diversity, and we are confident that we have gathered the best of the best. Take Cailee Rye from the Customer Education Academy, for example; she is a seasoned SaaS veteran with an impressive 13 years of experience in Customer Success. If you think this community is just for aspiring SaaS entrepreneurs, think again! You'll have the opportunity to connect with individuals boasting extensive knowledge in the field. Now, let's delve a bit deeper into Cailee's background, shall we? [‘It’s helped me solve pain points’ - Claudia Tanega, Sr Product ManagerCheck out the full account of Claudia Tanega’s positive experiences in our Slack community right here, and see what you’re really missing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/03/FoSaaS_Case_Study_.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/its-helped-me-solve-pain-points-claudia-tanega-sr-product-manager/) ## Can you give us a little bit of background on yourself and your role in your current org? ‘I’ve been serving the SaaS space for about 13 years within Customer Success as a team and org leader, and am now venturing out to create my own business (The Customer Education Academy). With this venture, I aim to provide education and coaching at a large scale across all avenues of Customer Success, with a main focus on properly educating customers and providing them with the best experience possible.’ Apart from being favored by SaaS veterans like Cailee, we have earned global recognition as a valuable hub for SaaS leadership. Cailee's own experience in discovering our site stands as a testament to this fact. [One of the most active SaaS communities I’ve found” - David Vogelpohl, FastSpringIt’s one of the most active SaaS Slack community I’ve found and the members are great at sharing what they’re working on, ideas they have, questions, and of course helping others.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/case-study.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/one-of-the-most-active-saas-communities-ive-found-david-vogelpohl-fastspring/) ## How did you hear about us? ‘I found this community on a blog post that highlighted **the best** communities out there for people in the tech space to join.’ As you've probably noticed, our community has gained widespread recognition as a leading voice in the realm of SaaS thought leadership. I mean, with over 5,000 members, who wouldn't be impressed, right? But our community is way more than just a place to gush about your SaaS enthusiasm (even though we absolutely adore that!). It's a powerhouse of life-changing connections that have the potential to completely transform your career. And Cailee's experience echoes this sentiment loud and clear. [Case study: FoSaaS communityIf you’re looking to really crush it in the SaaS sector, look no further than the FoSaaS Slack community.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS-case-study.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/case-study-fosaas-community/) ## How has the Future of SaaS Slack community benefited you professionally? ‘I’ve already made some really great connections in the Future of SaaS community, and I can already see that there are great opportunities to be found here’ Boom! Our Slack community has earned recognition from some of the top guns in the industry, making it one of the most authoritative voices in the SaaS space. futIf seasoned SaaS pros can see the undeniable benefits here, just picture the incredible opportunities awaiting you as a budding SaaS professional! Launch your career and skyrocket your product to SaaS superstardom. But hey, no need to take our word for it alone. Jump right in and join our [Slack community](https://www.saasalliance.io/join-the-fosaas-community/) today to experience all the amazing perks for yourself. You won't regret it! ### A step-by-step guide to retention, renewals, and expansion URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/a-step-by-step-guide-to-retention-renewals-and-expansion/ Last updated: 2024-08-20T16:18:47.000Z *This article is based on a presentation given by Nick at the *virtual Customer Success Festival*, in *March 2023*.* *Catch up on* [*this presentation*](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/customer-success-festival-2023-ondemand/?wchannelid=cdp8ody9e2&wmediaid=ycldakp7zj)*, and others, using our* [*OnDemand service*](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/customer-success-festival-austin-2023-ondemand/)*. For more exclusive content, visit your* [*membership dashboard*](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/signup/)*.* --- Unlock the secrets to boosting customer lifetime value (CLV) and discover proven strategies for skyrocketing retention, renewals, and expansion rates. Are you ready to gain valuable insights on optimizing the customer journey? Then read on... I’m **Nick Chang**, VP of Global Customer Success at **Aryaka**, a $110M annual recurring revenue cybersecurity and unified SASE (secure access service edge) company. We pride ourselves in providing services like SD-WAN, SASE security, and last-mile services to our enterprise customers. In this article, I’m going to equip you with practical tips on how to enhance customer lifetime value through effective retention, renewals, and expansion strategies. While the best practices I'll share may not apply universally across all industries, I'm confident that they will offer valuable insights for your business. We’ll explore three main areas: 1. **The customer journey**: A snapshot of what a typical customer journey entails. 2. **Roles and responsibilities**: Here I’ll clarify who exactly participates during this journey process, ensuring a common understanding of the terminology before we delve into the nitty-gritty. 3. **Step-by-step guide**: This part is a detailed explanation of how to ensure the retention and renewals transpire seamlessly at the end of the contract. To wrap up, I'll share some final thoughts based on my wealth of experience in this sector. I hope you find this guide extremely useful. So, without further ado – let’s dive in. ## **Objectives of a customer success organization and tailoring strategies for success** Every company with a customer success organization primarily revolves around one or more of these three objectives: value assurance, churn reduction, and demand expansion. We aim to fine-tune the retention, renewals, and expansion strategies based on the specific objectives of the customer success organization within each company. [![Image shows slide titled "customer objectives" and the subheadings of "value assurance," "churn reduction" and "demand expansion."](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2023/06/image5--4---1-.jpg)](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/a-step-by-step-guide-to-retention-renewals-and-expansion) ### **Value assurance** Customers need to see and realize the value of their purchase, be it in a SaaS business, an enterprise, a hybrid hardware-software model, a commodity business, or a B2C context. The goal of the customer success organization here is to ensure that the value is realized and that adoption and expected return on investment (ROI) are achieved. Our focus areas include ensuring product adoption and providing sufficient education for our customers. For instance, if we have customers with low consumption, we implement a plan to boost consumption and improve customer health scores. This is especially crucial for high-complexity products or companies in markets with low maturity. ### **Churn reduction** The second objective is retaining customers, which means reducing churn. Even if it means downgrading the service, the primary objective is to ensure a gross retention rate (GRR) of over 90%. The approach here shifts slightly; we strategize how to reduce the churn level, and how to alter customer touchpoints and interactions, all primarily aimed at customer retention. ### **Demand expansion** The third objective is centered around demand expansion. These organizations focus on strategies to increase the installed base and upsell or cross-sell products or services. Upselling could mean selling the same services to other groups or expanding those services, while cross-selling involves introducing new technologies or selling the same services to a different division within the same company. We'll delve deeper into these objectives and their distinct components throughout the article and discuss how to tailor these strategies to your unique objectives. ## **The LACE model: A holistic approach to customer success** [![Image shows a slide titled "customer journey"](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2023/06/image9--5---1-.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-step-by-step-guide-to-retention-renewals-and-expansion) To set a baseline understanding, let's take a look at the LACE model, which stands for **L**and, **A**dopt, **C**onsume, **E**xpand, and **R**enew. Many companies use a combination of these elements to guide their customer journey. ### **Land** Let's start with “Land." This is where the contract begins and the service is activated. We monitor license usage during the onboarding phase after some of the deployment has been completed. At this stage, we calculate the customer lifetime value for the first time. ### **Adopt** The next step, “Adopt” is centered around amplifying license usage through user onboarding, health checks, monitoring, adoption, success planning, and other supportive activities. The aim here is to boost user license usage between six to 24%, considered standard in the industry. ### **Consume** The “Consume” phase follows, where we aim to ensure 75% adoption or time to value (TTV). We check that customers are using the product by performing health checks and business reviews. At this point, all components should be active, and customers should start realizing value, marked as first time to value (FTV), followed by TTV. ### **Expand and renew** The final stages, “Expand” and “Renew,” are the longest. During these phases, there are various calls to action (CTAs) depending on the timeline: 180 days, 120 days, 90 days, 60 days, and 30 days before the renewal. The reason for outlining this journey is to emphasize one key point for ensuring retention, renewals, and expansion: these processes don't solely occur at the journey's end. Instead, they must be initiated and nurtured from the very beginning. By understanding and implementing this journey, we can ensure that customer success initiatives are in place from the start and are carried through each phase. This holistic approach maximizes the chances of retaining customers, securing renewals, and driving expansion. Okay, now let's dive into our step-by-step guide. I've broken this down into three key stages: - Step one: Value realization and customer health - Step two: Renewals/expansion roles and responsibilities by account tier - Step three: Retention/expansion negotiations to close deals Now, let's take a deeper dive into each of these steps. 👇 ## **Step one: Value realization and customer health** The first step focuses on ensuring value realization and maintaining good customer health. Often companies focus heavily on the renewal side, making retention conversations much more difficult, especially when customer health is poor or the customer hasn't realized the value of their purchase. This could manifest as low usage of licenses or bandwidth, poor education, subpar adoption, or ineffective execution of success planning. Before initiating any retention, renewal, or expansion conversations, it's crucial that we achieve this first step. This first step is pivotal in ensuring these three areas are achieved before any retention, renewals, or expansion discussions with the customer. While it seems quite straightforward, let me highlight some examples where failing to meet these requirements led to substantial difficulties down the line. ### **Success plans completed and goals achieved** Even if they're not fully realized, if **at least 80% of the goals are accomplished**, the customer begins to perceive the value of their investment. Whether the goals revolve around cost reduction, enhancing the customer experience, expanding their business, or appeasing their end-users, they are defined by the customer. We must capture these as part of a use case analysis, linking it to our success plan. Another crucial aspect of successful planning is ensuring that the criteria and roadmap are determined by the customer, not dictated by us. Regular communication is essential. [![Image showing a slide titled "Customer success plan" ](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2023/06/image2--7---1-.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-step-by-step-guide-to-retention-renewals-and-expansion) ### **Customer health and product adoption = green** These can be assessed in many ways, based on product telemetry, the availability of reports, the customer's financial stability, and the impact of potential mergers and acquisitions, among other factors. The adoption of the platform, product, or solution you're offering and whether it's being successfully utilized (“green state”) are dictated by these elements. ### **Effective business reviews** I've observed cases where customers, despite signing a contract (for instance, a 24-month contract), disengage over time. [![Image shows slide titled "Business reviews" with four different graphs and charts to illustrate.](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2023/06/image3--7---1-.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-step-by-step-guide-to-retention-renewals-and-expansion) Even though they use the service, they're not involved in business reviews. It's critical to at least conduct a business review every quarter, six months, or once a year, depending on customer engagement levels. The business review is an excellent platform for helping the customer understand whether they've achieved the service, solution, or product value they've purchased. It's also an opportunity to present the product roadmap, highlight upcoming enhancements over the next three, six, nine, or 12 months, and share your company's strategy. The business review session also aids in identifying additional use cases. To illustrate, consider a customer who purchased a Ferrari intending to leisurely drive it around Miami Beach. During the business review, they mention they now want to win a race. This is an additional use case identified during the review, offering an opportunity for upsell conversations. An effective business review should also tackle any outstanding support cases or roadblocks hampering the customer's adoption or value realization of the product. This helps to clear the way for discussions about expansion and renewal. ## **Step two: Renewals/expansion roles and responsibilities by account tier** In this second step, I want to emphasize three key areas: - Retention and expansion strategy based on account tier, - Roles and responsibilities, and - Business forecast models. The second step is all about clarifying roles and responsibilities. In my experience, driving renewal and expansion conversations often depends on the structure of your organization. Your customer success team needs to collaborate closely with your sales team, whether they're focused on new sales or renewals. Additionally, constant interaction with your customer success operations teams is essential to ensure you have the correct contracts and quotes ready to submit to the customer at the right time. ### **Retention and expansion strategy based on account tier** As we all know, not all accounts are treated equally. The classification of your accounts can vary vastly depending on your company or organization. You could have a tiered system with one, two, four, 10, or even more tiers. It's crucial to have a clear definition of these tiers. [![Image shows slide with a triangel graphic of five tiers, titled: Retention and expansion strategy based on account tier](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2023/06/image6--6-.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-step-by-step-guide-to-retention-renewals-and-expansion) When discussing the retention and expansion strategy based on tiers, consider this example where we have five tiers: **Tier one** This is what I would call the "defense strategy" tier. In this tier, there are no expansion opportunities, only retention strategies. The focus is on how to protect the base, keep customers from going to a competitor, and minimize any downgrade impacts. **Tiers two and three** I refer to these as the “trilogy” of accounts. They start small but have the potential for adding more licenses, bandwidth, CPU power, etc. Here, the key is leveraging your internal champions – those already enthusiastic about your solution. These champions can help drive upsell and cross-sell opportunities. This not only represents an opportunity for upselling but also reinforces retention for the services in that area. **Tiers four and five** These are the "acquire-strategy" tiers. These accounts could be brand-new that start small and grow, or new accounts that are just coming in. Here, the strategy could depend heavily on partners or the partner ecosystem to acquire these accounts. At the same time, there could also be direct deals that start small and then renegotiate for larger contracts as time goes on. The key to the acquisition strategy is to identify new use cases, especially if you have multiple solutions to offer. If a customer in these tiers only bought one out of five possible solutions, the goal is to drive interest in the other four solutions by tying them to use cases. Moreover, since this tier relies heavily on partners in my example, it's important to empower these partners to assist with expansion and retention conversations. This tier-based strategy helps ensure a targeted approach for customer retention and expansion. By tailoring strategies according to the customer's stage and needs, you can optimize your results. ### **Roles and responsibilities** If you have a sales organization collaborating closely with your customer success team, you need to consider how these teams are motivated and compensated. If there's a separate renewals sales team working alongside your CS and sales teams, it's crucial to define who's responsible for what throughout the journey. [![Image shows a slide titled "Renewal journey: roles and responsibilties.](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2023/06/image4--6---1-.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-step-by-step-guide-to-retention-renewals-and-expansion) In this section, the emphasis is placed on the importance of clear roles and responsibilities in the account management process, particularly during the renewal journey. This structure typically includes an [Account Manager](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/what-is-the-difference-between-customer-success-managers-and-account-managers/), a system engineer, and a [Customer Success Manager](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/what-makes-a-good-customer-success-manager-great/) (CSM). Having clear roles avoids confusion for the customer and prevents instances where different representatives send conflicting information, such as different renewal calls or prices. Consistency in customer interaction is crucial, and a single person should be identified as the opportunity owner in your CRM system. Renewal activities are usually planned according to the timeline left until the renewal date (180 days, 120 days, etc.). Two approaches to renewals and upsells are discussed: one at the renewal time, which could either extend the current contract or add new solutions, and mid-term upgrades, which occur when the client decides to purchase additional services partway through their contract term. Each approach requires a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities throughout the process, to ensure a smooth customer journey and maximize the potential for successful renewals and upsells. ### **Business forecast models** Make sure your business forecast models are up-to-date and follow a consistent format and process. This allows you to capture all different deals at their various stages effectively and measure the renewals and expansion revenue you aim to close by the end of the quarter. These three aspects are fundamental for a successful strategy involving renewals, expansion roles, and responsibilities. It's about creating the right structure, alignment, and visibility to drive results. [![Image shows slide titled "Business forecast models with timeline from 180 days to renewal to renewal date.](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2023/06/image10--2---2-.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-step-by-step-guide-to-retention-renewals-and-expansion) The final area of emphasis in this process is the importance of maintaining a well-structured forecast model. This is necessary for providing accurate information to management about the state of renewals, upsells, downgrades, and mid-term upsells. Deals should be properly categorized to reflect their current stage accurately. In the described model, all accounts at the initial and middle stages of the process (stages one and three) are categorized as "pipeline," signifying active negotiations but no price agreement. When pricing negotiations commence, deals are moved to the “best case” category. This is an important stage where the precise customer requirements in terms of solutions and use cases are known, and the deal's cost and terms and conditions are negotiated. When the deal reaches a **95% likelihood of completion**, it is moved to “commit,” indicating that a renewal or expansion is highly likely. Upon closing the deal, it is moved to 'close' and recorded in the system for processing and entitlement. Maintaining this structure is crucial for transparency and smooth operations, preventing stagnation and confusion in deal flow. ## **Step three: Retention/expansion negotiations to close deals** The final step in our process is handling expansion negotiations to close deals. This comprises several critical areas to ensure success. Firstly, before embarking on any negotiations, it's essential to thoroughly review a few key metrics. Look at the promoter score (NPS), and the adoption percentages of your product. It's also vital to evaluate the customer's budget and purchasing patterns. For example, I've had highly satisfied customers, with impressive product adoption rates, that were suddenly acquired by another company, forcing them to cut costs. So, understanding your customer's context is crucial before you commence negotiations. Secondly, when initiating negotiations, I favor the process of upselling mid-term rather than at the end during renewals. This strategy has two primary advantages. Firstly, it fosters “stickiness” with the account. We know if they upsell mid-term, retention is virtually guaranteed. Secondly, we can help pilot the solution by offering proof of concepts (POCs). This could be managed by your sales team or any relevant department. For instance, if a customer already has a basic product, you can offer them a chance to try out new, advanced features. Successfully implementing POCs can significantly aid the expansion process. The third area of focus is the negotiations themselves. We always aim to secure long-term contracts by providing higher levels of discounts or amending the terms and conditions for customers willing to commit for longer periods. My preferred strategy is to promote longer contracts by offering greater discounts rather than discounts on shorter contracts. Additionally, a common tactic is to offer a free month as a token of appreciation to extend the partnership. For instance, if there's a minor dispute about the price, offering 13 months of service for the price of 12 can be an effective way to resolve the issue. This tactic is highly effective in both B2C and B2B scenarios in the SaaS world. Lastly, it's important to acknowledge that not all negotiations will be smooth. There will be instances when (to prevent churn) we might need to extend the contract to assist the customer as they transition to a new solution, either by another vendor or provided internally. I've found that even extending a contract by a few months can provide additional time for negotiations and potentially facilitate retention or upselling. From the customer's perspective, this extension signals a strong partnership. Meanwhile, for us, even a short-term contract extension helps retain the account for a few more months. ## **Final thoughts** A successful expansion and renewal strategy requires active engagement, starting from the inception of the customer journey. Waiting until 100 days before renewal is a missed opportunity; start at the beginning to nurture and foster growth. Another crucial element is alignment with your sales team. Regardless of how the sales organization is compensated for renewal and expansion, it's imperative to establish an effective partnership with your sales counterparts. Their role is invaluable throughout this journey. [![Final thoughts: Drive retention, define and execute, be proactive. ](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/iuI_fvSbb8vOx-AIgXgigTGDSLPJldjeMaT76HHyBGNMwJplgHSZ1YLpK1fKTIYVdMhcJpgya04yyPy8Z_rr5cL59A7mBfUMcGqBdj7qVc-9VTmmjykxR9I8HU9v9isywcKHE5g78A_Jn1MY_nnuY0g)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-step-by-step-guide-to-retention-renewals-and-expansion) Finally, the importance of being proactive cannot be overstated. In previous roles, I've experienced situations where we attempted to retain customers, but our efforts were in vain due to a lack of attention at the onset of their journey. Even if you offer higher discounts, customers may refuse because it's not just about the financial aspects, but the partnership. They're looking for a reliable, trusted partner who is consistently attentive and proactive. > Hence, to build lasting relationships with customers, we must prioritize fostering partnerships over reactive discounts. ## **Audience Q&A 📣** **Q: Given the growing customer tech stack, which often comprises five to 15+ tools, customers may not have time for quarterly business reviews (QBRs) with every provider. How do you persuade them of the value of your review and keep it as a priority?** **A:** In my experience, I find it more effective to think of these as business reviews rather than strictly QBRs because the frequency can vary based on customer preference. Some customers may prefer monthly reviews, others might want them annually. What's crucial is maintaining regular communication with the customer. In instances where customers aren't keen on quarterly reviews, we opt for alternative methods of communication. For example, we send newsletters that include usage reports or summaries of support cases – information that would typically be covered in a business review. These regular updates allow customers to stay informed on their terms and at their convenience. And rest assured, if a customer encounters a problem, they will reach out to you, often through support tickets. It's crucial to stay engaged with customers, not just through business reviews, but also through newsletters, feedback, surveys, and sales interactions. If your customers come through a partner, it's also helpful to maintain regular contact with that partner to monitor the customer's interactions. In essence, the goal is to ensure consistent, tailored engagement with the customer. **What is your preferred communication style for renewal updates? Does an optimal method vary for different types of customers?** **A:** Indeed, the preferred communication style often depends on the account tier, as the level of service and engagement varies across tiers. For example, with our tier four and five accounts, we primarily engage via email. Our customer success specialists notify customers of impending renewals, or we might send automated emails 180 days ahead of renewal. Because we offer an enterprise solution, the process isn't as simple as clicking for auto-renewal. Instead, we provide a clause letting customers know their renewal date and what actions are required. If we don't hear back after several attempts, we might incentivize early renewal with financial benefits, such as a 5% discount for early renewal, or maintaining the current price if they renew within a specified period. For tier-one accounts, our communication strategy is a mix of email, business reviews, and phone calls. These accounts represent a substantial portion of our business, and as such, they command more of our attention. Ensuring engagement with these customers during the renewal process is a top priority. **Q: What is a quick win to retain customers who're at a high risk of churn?** **A:** The number one strategy I would suggest is the “Hail Mary” pass. For example, we sometimes offer month-to-month contracts. While it's not our preferred model, it does provide us with some time to continue negotiations. There have been instances where customers only wanted one or two months — not because they were dissatisfied with the service, but because they needed to navigate certain mergers and acquisitions activities to gain a better handle on their budget. Another approach is to offer shorter contract extensions. Instead of proposing 12, 24, or 36-month extensions, consider a six-month extension. This gives you more time to work with the customer. There will be cases where your customer is transitioning to another solution, and the best way to extend the relationship could be via shorter contracts. Lastly, add some incentives. Expect and accommodate potential downgrades as well. A downgraded renewal is always better than no renewal at all. ### Making enablement work in remote settings URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/making-enablement-work-in-remote-settings/ Last updated: 2023-07-26T09:32:22.000Z Whether your teams are working in an office, taking a hybrid approach, or fully remote, the ability to drive outcomes for Go-to-Market (GTM) teams across all of these environments is a key skill set for enablement professionals in today’s world. Each setting poses ****unique challenges** and requires ****distinct approaches** to be successful. Regardless of the approach your team has taken, the ability to enable teams remotely is an ever present need with the distributed nature of today’s global workforce. Below are areas to consider when setting up your remote teams for success: - Get the right digital tools and solutions - Create a culture of sharing - Use a variety of mediums - Make live virtual sessions engaging - Establish a check-in cadence 👇 ## **Ensure you have the right digital tools and solutions in place** Ease of enablement in a remote environment ****depends** ****heavily** ****on the strength of your tech stack and ability to leverage it** in your enablement programs. When building out your tech stack, you'll want: - A centralized location for your customer data. - A shared place to meet, communicate, and collaborate remotely. - A consolidated hub to create and distribute Enablement content. - A way to record and store customer-facing and internal calls. - A space to build and facilitate live virtual learning and e-learning programs. - A system of action to streamline your sales processes and ensure remote teams are able to work efficiently. - A tool to track and analyze performance, as well as monitor and report on key metrics. Once you have your tech stack in place, it’s important that you document and share with your GTM teams *how* they should be interacting with these tools to minimize confusion. --- [![](https://www.salesenablementcollective.com/content/images/2023/04/C-Suite_Masterclass_Email_Banner_.png)](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?ref=salesenablementcollective.com) --- ## **Foster a culture of sharing** An emphasis on learning *together and from one another* is key to any GTM team’s culture, and enablement professionals are often asked to be culture creators within their organizations. > *To do this remotely, enablement teams must find ways to encourage knowledge sharing across teams, to celebrate wins, and to document best practices.* While there are many sales readiness platforms that can aid in this area, there are also ways to do this in an instant messaging platform. [How To Make Salespeople Care | Future of SaaSI’m going to give you some areas that you can focus on to either help your team roll out a plan, that you should be focused on when implementing a training or going into some sort of presentation.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.59.31.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/salespeople-dont-give-a-sh-t/) For example, create a dedicated channel in your instant messaging platform and encourage teams to share their wins, best practices, *and*their failures and learnings with the broader team. Consider boosting interaction by offering incentives for those who share often, offer great insights, or engage in productive exchanges with their peers. Ensure leadership and frontline managers are ****also engaged** in the channel, while monitoring the space for any negative contributions that put the culture building objective at risk. ## **Provide a mix of live virtual training, e-learning, video, and practice sessions** Mixing up learning modalities to provide an engaging Enablement experience is as important in a remote world as it is in an office setting. Consider building programs that offer a mix of the modalities. For example: - Start with a live virtual training to introduce a new topic - Create an e-learning to reinforce what the teams heard during the live virtual training - Share short videos of best practices from the field week over week to keep the information top of mind - Provide managers with resources to conduct practice sessions within their teams to help reps apply what they have learned and receive coaching on an ongoing basis. ## **Conduct engaging live virtual learning** Teams do not have to be in person to experience fun and competitive engagement with enablement programs. Breakout rooms during live virtual training can provide an avenue for role plays, experimentation, and collaboration. Bringing in examples from the field is also a great way to make live virtual learning more engaging. Even though enablement professionals are often great facilitators, GTM teams also like to hear from those who have ****hands-on experience** with the different topics. > *Additionally, creating challenges and awarding prizes during live virtual sessions can boost the willingness of reps to engage.* [Sales Enablement Scaled Down: Problems facing small startupsShilpa Prasad gave a great talk on the problems facing a small startup like hers, YouNoodle, in the context of sales enablement, sales leadership and the overall world of sales.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.55.13.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-enablement-scaled-down-problems-facing-small-startups/) For example, say you are training your teams on how to engage with a particular buyer persona: - Provide your teams with a template and have them complete an individual deal strategy activity before dividing into breakout groups to discuss their plans and receive feedback from their peers and managers. - Then consider having a few reps prepped to “stand and deliver” their plans back with the broader group and receive feedback from leaders to align the group around the attributes of a strong plan. Be sure to highlight both the wins and areas of opportunity. - Prepare a few reps who have had success in the past engaging with this persona to share their experience with the group. Ask them to share context for their deal, what they did, what the outcome was, and what they learned about how to engage with the persona based on their experience. - Share a recorded call in a live virtual training of a great conversation a rep had with the focus persona. Be sure to highlight what it was specifically that the rep did in the call to engage the persona effectively. ## **Set up operating rhythms to support feedback and ongoing practice** Feedback and insight into what is happening out in the field may be captured in different ways in a remote world than it is in an office setting. Consider establishing a check-in cadence with a group of GTM reps or front line managers to get a sense of how your different initiatives are landing in the field. Then, leverage this input to inform your reinforcement plans or ****adapt your approach** in the future. > *Additionally, consistent practice and coaching likely needs to be set into an operating rhythm to remain top of mind for teams.* Therefore, determine a frequency that makes sense for your organization and add either manager- or enablement-led practice opportunities, where reps can try out new skills and receive coaching. Having a ****standardized cadence will increase traction** for your programs and offer insight into how reps are retaining the information they have received. [How sales teams can work with other departments to drive growth \[Q&A with Tymeshift\]Nicholas Ghitti, Head of Growth at Tymeshift took the time to answer our community’s burning questions after his presentation ’How sales teams can work with other departments to drive growth at this year’s Future of SaaS festival.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/jan-kronies-mpSeLIXMnpc-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-sales-teams-can-collaborate-to-drive-growth-q-a-with-tymeshift/) ## **The path forward** By implementing the above tactics, you will be on the path to helping GTM teams thrive in a remote environment. To get started on this path, ensure you have the ****right tools** in place as a strong foundation. Then, build on your foundation by offering ****avenues for sharing**, creating ****engaging training** in a variety of forms, setting up ****practice opportunities**, and supporting strong ****feedback loops** to iterate over time. --- *[Katie](https://www.linkedin.com/in/katievanhoomissen/?ref=salesenablementcollective.com) is Senior Revenue Enablement Manager at Outreach, and an [SEC Ambassador](https://www.salesenablementcollective.com/meet-the-ambassadors/).* --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/C-Suite_Ghost_Banner_Assets_--1--7.png)](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=banner&utm%5Fcampaign=content-) ****Carve your path to the C-Suite with our expert-led masterclass. Over 6 weeks, learn from experts who've been there and done it and expedite your path to the top.** [Secure your spot today!](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=banner&utm%5Fcampaign=content-) ### Web optimization strategies to boost SaaS conversions URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/skyrocket-your-website-conversions-with-optimization-strategies-for-your-saas-product/ Last updated: 2024-02-15T15:40:30.000Z Your website is leaking revenue for your SaaS business, and you don't even know it. In today's fiercely competitive digital landscape, a poorly optimized website can severely hinder your business's growth potential and result in missed opportunities. Having a low [conversion rate increases your customer acquisition cost](https://www.saasalliance.io/a-beginners-guide-to-customer-acquisition/), making it challenging to sustain profitability. While your competitors, who have invested in optimization strategies, are capitalizing on their higher conversion rates, gaining more market share, and leaving you struggling to keep up. Lack of awareness, limited resources, not having a data-driven approach, and the right skill sets stop founders from creating a more optimized website. But your business deserves to thrive, attracting and retaining customers who recognize the value you bring to the table. [Top SaaS marketing and content toolsA high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) In this blog, we will dive deep into the world of simple yet highly effective optimization strategies tailored explicitly to SaaS products. Equip yourself with actionable insights and proven techniques to skyrocket your website conversions, leading to increased revenue, [accelerated growth, and a more substantial market presence](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-utilize-growth-and-increase-your-market-share/). ## Boost your conversion with magnetic headlines The headline is the first thing that your visitor sees. It’s like the virtual storefront of your website, captivating visitors and enticing them to explore further. It’s not just a string of words; it's the gateway to your brand's story. After reading your headline, people will instantly decide if they want to keep reading or not. **Optimizing your headline to grab the reader's attention is one of the best and simplest ways to improve your conversion rates.** As legendary copywriter David Ogilvy said, "*On average, five times as many people read the headline as they read the body copy. It follows that if you don’t sell the product in your headline, you have wasted 80% of your money.“* Your headline should be **memorable and leave a lasting impact.** A well-crafted headline can be the driving force behind conversions, as it sets the tone for the rest of your website and influences the overall user experience. For a handful of words, a headline has a lot of jobs. A good headline will: 1. Match what people expect to find on the page, so it should use similar words to the button or the ad they clicked on. People want to find the information they want so they won't leave quickly. 2. Make people curious so that they keep reading the rest of the page. It can do this by showing the value or rewards they'll get or by promising something exciting and believable. A good strategy is to use your value prop on your headline. 3. Make them understand the page's goal and ensure they're the right kind of visitor. 4. Get straight to the point and write what people need to see shortly and clearly, ideally using 12 words or less. This helps improve the chances of getting people to take action and convert. 5. It should highlight the main positive result people will experience after using your solution. Let’s not forget about the trusted sidekick of headlines which are subheads. **Subhead plays a big part in not only holding attention but also expanding on the headline and compelling readers to stay engaged.** It builds on the headline by providing additional details, benefits, or key features. It reinforces the main message and strengthens the value proposition, making it more appealing to the target audience. It creates a seamless flow, driving readers forward and encouraging them to explore more. ### How to craft a powerful headline Crafting an exceptional headline is no accident; it's a deliberate art form. But how does one create an attention-grabbing masterpiece that stops visitors in their tracks? Fortunately, there are tried-and-tested methods that top copywriters employ to achieve extraordinary results. These powerful techniques, which you are about to discover below, are from the conversion copywriting master herself, Joana Wiebe, from her e-book[ Headlines, Subheads & Value Propositions: Nail the most important messaging and marketing copy you’ll ever write](https://www.amazon.com/Headlines-Subheads-Value-Propositions-Copyhackers-ebook/dp/B0BGVP1CSG). 1. **Swipe headline copy from your prospect and custome**r - The best messages come from your prospects, not your thoughts. To create impactful headlines, borrow the phrasing used by your prospects. By aligning with your existing customer’s language, you avoid alienating skeptical visitors. Let your prospects shape your headlines and establish a genuine connection that captivates your target audience. Look at this example of a Crazy Egg (2013), where the “tells a stunning story” part was swiped entirely from the customer. ![Crazy Egg slogan, reads: "A Crazy Egg Tells a Stunning Story"](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/rrx-Q370yCBnjc3zWknpNoe7pk61pHtujakBth25tybEZ5WQDkhfHZpBtKGILZT1dm520682VrbCh17hjZVuHulOv7Tl2TRGoROgQYczBnGrfaCyYDPrwrwSfo1HZf5-3_ohllgyq-j-KmZhZDgkems) **2\. Give a time limit** \-To create an enticing appeal, add a time limit to your claims. If your product can achieve X, specify a short timeframe, like hours, days, or weeks—not months or years. **This taps into the desire for instant success**, like lotteries and quick-rich schemes. By delivering fast results, you capture attention and ignite interest in your audience. **Example** \- Transform Your Body in Just 21 Days: Shed Pounds Rapidly with Our Proven Program **3\. Make a believable promise -**Promises and guarantees have immense potential. However, presenting them in a way that doesn't raise skepticism is vital. Striking the right balance is critical—elegantly delivering promises without seeming fake. **4\. Craft promises that align with audience values, addressing needs transparently**. Promises become powerful tools that inspire trust and drive conversions by striking this balance. Here is an example from App Design Vault (2014) - !["Clean & Modern iphone App Design Templates That Will Set you Apart in the App Store"](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/GkcfnvIe5kOiwdD6mQueCt4X3gVnbH3-PZD8D2XQaDDeb2len_fQ14edOhuF--fUhsK1W67-z3CH4iOEnDekgF0NfZwJgO50iHuaWDa0FI5hdpNy7LQo570MSwJezU8KWrMuVdiBYVXzMfkri8a-DH8) **5\. Crush your visitor's most compelling objections with your headlines -**Your website visitors arrive with objections in mind. Focusing on just one objection in your headline can be incredibly effective. By demolishing the biggest objection in your headline alone, people naturally assume you'll address the remaining objections. They may even forget their smaller concerns, as you've already tackled the significant hurdle. A powerful headline and persuasive supporting copy instill belief in consumers who seek simplicity and crave a "miracle solution." They genuinely want to trust you. **Objection**: Exercising is too difficult - it's only for highly fit athletes **Headline**: Is This the World's Simplest Exercise Routine? ### Here are some headline formulas before you go > **FORMULA1: THE TIMED “OR ELSE” PROMISE** > > Highly desirable thing + time limit + consequence if highly desirable thing not delivered > **Example - “Your Dream House Blueprints in 7 Days or They’re Free** > **FORMULA 2: THE “EVEN-IF” OBJECTION-STOMPER** > > “Now” + highly desirable thing you can do + “even if” objection > > **Example - “Now You Can Build an iPhone App Even If You’re Not a Programmer”** > **FORMULA 3: THE HOW-TO** > > “How to” + \[verb + noun\] + benefit > **Example - “How to Support Customers 7x Faster with GizmoJo”** > **FORMULA 4: THE QUANTITY** > FORMULA A: \[Numeral + noun(s)\] + verb + object > **Example - “64,456 People Have Already Told Their Friends about Blastobot”** > FORMULA B: Verb + \[numeral + noun\] > **Example - “Made with a Special Blend of 11 Herbs & Spices”** > **FORMULA 5: THE LIST** > > FORMULA A: \[Numeral + noun\] + pronoun + big, scary problem > **Example - “7 Signs You’re Trapped in a Contract”** > **Example - “The Top 16 Reasons Business Owners Choose to Bleed Time Using Spreadsheets”** > **FORMULA 6: THE WHY, WHEN, OR HOW** > > FORMULA: “Why,” “When,” or “How” + statement of great intrigue > **Example -** “Why SEO Is No Longer a Mystery” ## Tap into emotions: Make your copy engaging with "You" centric copies Making your website copy "you" centric creates a powerful connection with your readers or users. By addressing them directly and focusing on their needs and desires, you personalize the experience and make them feel understood. It is natural to talk about your company but using "me, we, us" language can alienate readers and make them feel you only seek to satisfy your sales target. When you tap into your customer's emotions using a "you" centric messaging approach, the product becomes about them. What can you do for them? Which is what customers care about The user-centric approach builds trust, relatability, and a stronger connection, dramatically increasing the conversion and highlighting the value the product can bring to their lives. **Example of you-centric messaging: (2016) -** ![tailwinds landing page](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/D7vWLM-pRL15xDLagWfJLqw6sjfIG0BOtY2txmVfCnjOgJ7DHWupB_kGFcRg5WbudzXOEtRI2zVUtHVm-3QgedAcJDtAtd2awGEP4FNWGk0Hf0zjp_oe14gWqAgxq_SnDV2OAW20qLHGDwO3RXu8r_s) ## Double your success by mastering the art of effective pricing strategies No matter how useful a SaaS product is, it isn’t worth much if you can’t get people to subscribe. Most of us understand that we [need a strategy for our pricing](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-pricing/) but can’t do it correctly. Before we get into that, let’s explain what a price anchoring strategy is. According to [Parkersoftware](https://www.parkersoftware.com/blog/price-anchoring-in-saas-what-it-is-and-why-it-works/), price anchoring is where you supply an ‘anchor’ price to a potential customer before you suggest or show them the option you want them to choose. It’s where companies establish a price point that customers can then refer to help them measure their options and decide. So, you use a price to create a frame of reference for the customer when valuing your product. In other words, anchoring is the occurrence that sees consumers use the first piece of information offered as a comparison point. ### Here's why price anchoring works Our brain loves it when it can narrow down options easily. Narrowing down options helps your prospects make decisions faster, leading to increased confidence in their choices. And the best way to do that is to keep three tier pricing options for two specific reasons. - **Goldilock Principal** \-This principle suggests giving prospects three or five options to choose from because our brain thinks the option in the middle is the best choice. By following this principle, we make the other options less appealing to guide people toward choosing the middle one we want them to pick. ![Hubspot pricing](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/hubspot.png) Source: In this scenario, the premium plan doesn't offer significantly different or more practical benefits than the standard plan but is priced much higher. On the other hand, the basic plan has lower video resolution than the standard plan. This setup triggers the Goldilocks Effect, where most consumers will prefer the standard option. They perceive the premium option as too expensive and the basic option as not offering enough value for the discount. One option is too costly, one is too cheap, and the standard option is just right. - **The Ugly Jerry effect -** The Ugly Jerry effect involves presenting three options: one distinct and two similar. The different options are ignored while the matching options are compared. **For example,** if you prefer people buy the Standard Option, you would make the “Premium” option ugly, the "Standard" option the desired one, and another slightly inferior option placed alongside it to enhance attractiveness. This technique guides decision-making by drawing attention to the desired choice. ![Wynter pricing plan](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/wynter.png) In this example from [Wynter](https://wynter.com/pricing), they are trying to make the Pay-as-you-go option as unappealing as possible, first of all, deoptimizing from the rest and charging 50% more for the audience. While creating two similar offers with the more appealing offer in the middle. Anchor your price according to your goal; **anchor low to increase conversion.** Place your higher price tier on the left, lower in the middle, and least desirable on the right. See an example below. ![Paddle's pricing plan](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/9qI5QOvq3T8cFhD7bbmh7zN--QNpxFGNJCo1x5WGIPwdqX4mI8kYcF33d0Z73_iWDbWeE_Nwn0pVxHmjbFyOXV9bj9W5qkxgRkqZcIQ1YerFQDO4AUVOg22iAnj9gkeuk8VXJpbEYxxKZuyOlM4kIoY) Source: To **increase average order value but with fewer sales overall, anchor high, place the lower price on the left, higher in the middle, and the least desirable one on the righ**t. Example : ![bonzam](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/bonzamarketing.png) Source: ### Some more pro pricing tips - Always deoptimize the freemium package. - Make your price(the number) as physically small as possible - People respond better to long-term outcomes (They prefer big payoffs if it isn’t obvious) - Break your cost into the smallest part. See the example below: ![invescpcro's pricing plan](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/yS_rzkP7eeGUFMDlc6kjclDmRDss6XcX5-cQWQygHJZJQZwyrl32c6fZEPDAxvUsu3mIXfHmwktAPK2QTV0Fb3TThp2BNqaE3TtNce8lSNNpPIl2BiA7KCXtomrS-ORPEjRcE_T-LYLJa4-cshTgMyw) Source: ## Write succinct sentences. Say no to long paragraphs A study[ from Nielsen Norman Group](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-users-read-on-the-web/) found out that 79% of people rarely read web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences. **Your online readers are either scanner scrollers or skimmers.** This is why writing short sentences on a website helps to convert better by enhancing readability and engagement. Short sentences are easier to comprehend and digest, allowing users to grasp the information quickly. They are particularly effective for websites, where attention spans are often limited. By breaking down information into concise sentences, you make it more accessible and scannable for visitors. Short sentences help maintain a steady flow of information, preventing readers from feeling overwhelmed or losing interest. **Succinct sentences create a sense of clarity, enabling users to absorb key points and make informed decisions.** Additionally, short sentences promote better visual formatting. Enhancing the overall readability of your website by preventing large blocks of text, which can be daunting and unappealing**. Well-structured,** **concise sentences improve the user experience,** making your content more inviting and encouraging users to stay longer on your website. ![pricemanager](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/pricemanager.png) I have a rule that I follow when I write to help my readers understand my ideas. It also helps me think clearly when I write and edit; that is the rule of one**.** #### One thought per sentence. One idea per paragraph Having one thought per sentence and one idea per paragraph is crucial for clear and effective writing. When you express a single thought in each sentence, your writing becomes concise and easier to understand. This allows readers to follow your ideas without confusion or overwhelm. Similarly, dedicating each paragraph to a single idea helps readers grasp the main message of your content and improves readability. It creates a logical flow and smooth transitions between ideas. By organizing your writing this way, you enhance clarity, and coherence, making your content more accessible and engaging to your audience. ## Boost your home page performance using value proposition **A** [**value proposition**](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-ultimate-guide-to-creating-a-value-proposition/) **is a concise statement that communicates the unique value and benefits a product, service, or brand offers to its target audience.** And you can increase micro-conversion from your home page by using value proposition as your headline (and subhead) on your home page. This theory was tested out by Copyhackers and resulted in an increased lift of an average of 34% from their 19 winning website. They have written an entire e-book on this experiment: The Great Value Proposition Test. It answers the fundamental question of "Why should customers choose you?" by highlighting the specific advantages, solutions, or outcomes that differentiate your offering from competitors and address customer needs. A strong value proposition should be 1. Unique 2. Desirable 3. Succinct 4. Memorable 5. Specific You should put more importance on specific characteristics than others. For example, it's alright to favor uniqueness over memorability as it's more important to communicate what your visitors want. **Remember: Differentiation is the foundation of the value proposition.** You can use a value proposition on your website to increase conversion rates because it effectively communicates why your product is one of a kind, addresses what customers want, and differentiates you from competitors. It provides a clear and compelling reason for visitors to choose your offering, leading to higher conversion rates and improved business outcomes. Now it comes to how you write your value prop. The goal of your value prop headline is to grab visitors’ attention. Here are some headline formulas that you could use right away. Do make modifications, as formulas are just the perfect starting point to which you can add anything and would like to make your own. 1. **BENEFITS-FOCUSED STARTING POINT: The only way for \_\_\_\_\_ to \_\_\_\_\_.\[plus benefit/outcome\].** **Example: The only way for businesses to streamline their operations and boost productivity effortlessly.** **Using "only" is not always necessary when describing a unique approach. You have plenty of alternatives to convey your distinctiveness. Consider using phrases such as:** - the best way - the most innovative way - the beautifully designed way - the shockingly simple way - the budget-friendly way There are numerous possibilities to explore. Begin by incorporating "only" into your sentence and then modify the wording to highlight your unique qualities. 1. **FEATURES-FOCUSED STARTING POINT: We’re the ones that \_\_\_\_\_.** **Example: We're the ones that optimize your supply chain management.** 2. **BENEFITS- OR FEATURES-FOCUSED STARTING POINT: The only way to \_\_\_\_\_.** **Example: The only way to streamline your project management and meet tight deadlines with ease.** 3. **GENERIC STARTING POINT: We do X, but the difference is \_\_\_\_\_** **Example: We do task management, but the difference is seamless collaboration and automated workflows** ## Ignite action with irresistible CTA buttons Your visitors cannot convert online without clicking a button. The CTA button can either make or break your page, conversion rate, and your business. Therefore, it's crucial to treat it seriously. When your visitors are in the place of the CTA button, it is the moment when you've done everything to address your visitor’s concerns and needs, highlighting the benefits of your solution in one action your visitor should take. It's the moment when the conversion happens. Some common CTA buttons that you have seen before are: - "Sign up now." - "Buy now" - "Get started" - "Learn more" - "Subscribe" - "Request a demo." - "Join us” These buttons are commonly used as a starting point but must be optimized or ideal. In many cases, they are either the default button copy with a theme or created without much thought. Which comes with problems such as: 1. The buttons don't convey the benefits of taking action. 2. They don't align with the visitor's motivation or goal. 3. They make it seem like an effort without explaining why it's worthwhile. 4. Having buttons with similar appearances close together on a page confuses the visitor on which one to choose. **Calls to action are terrifying for your visitors**. It is the place on the website with the highest anxiety. There is so much unknown content behind that button it creates suspense for your visitors. They think about If clicking the button means more work for them - Opening up to a page that the button copy didn't promise - A paywall or barrier to getting what you thought you were about to get - Another series of buttons to choose from [Interactive content ideas for each stage of the buyer’s journeyMy name is Diego Gomes, I am the CEO and founder of Rock Content, and in this article, I’m going to discuss interactive content ideas for each stage of the buyer journey.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDiego Gomes![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/kal-visuals-RCUncjOfNfc-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/interactive-content-ideas-for-each-stage-of-the-buyers-journey/) I hope you understand that writing CTA isn’t a piece of cake, and optimization is essential. There are two concepts that I found that work best to improve your CTA 1. Using click triggers 2. Lizard brain Test **Click triggers:** Click triggers are persuasive messages placed next to your CTA button to reduce anxiety and encourage visitors to click. They eliminate barriers, alleviate concerns, and draw focused attention to your button. Importantly, they appear at the perfect moment when a visitor's cursor is hovering over the button but has yet to be clicked. **Example of a click trigger** \- ![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/PrNxLYdOARa3Wb4b6gHmOVb4MfJTOOl7ngEZJiVX5SG9afM0QSPtLt_nieIs9fiiplT8zA_1kMoxP3aPhT4BF3ZGkiFdUfhFsfxsS6RTOKbyf8gE_WhuorDrFc35G6swv32NFtgY06Bs99xCFaRv9B8) The copies “no credit card needed to get started” and “Customize your invites, offers + more” are your click triggers. A click trigger should either a) **address a significant concern that hinders your prospect from taking action** you can find these concerns by simply doing customers research and interviews **or** b) **enhance the value of proceeding by reminding them of their initial motivation** for seeking you out, the benefits you offer, and the value they will gain. If you provide an incentive, your click trigger can highlight that incentive. There are two types of click triggers. **Simple ones** \- Simply place a few of these specific click triggers near the buttons on various website pages, such as the homepage, pricing page, comparison chart, sign-up page, upgrade page, and even the thank-you page. - Fast Sign Up - No Account Required - No Downloads - Buttons & Click-Boosting - Calls to Action - Free Shipping - Next Day Shipping - Free Returns - 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee - We Ship to the US, Canada & the UK - Pay by VISA, MasterCard, or PayPal - (star ratings) - Save 20% **Aggressive ones -** Effective click triggers that drive significant revenue are boldly assertive. They don't rely on ordinary copy but instead use captivating and attention-grabbing language. These are particularly useful near buttons or crucial interaction points on pages just before the cart and on high-traffic pages, especially for PPC campaigns. Some examples are - "Absolutely Zero Risk! Enjoy a full refund with no questions asked. You have a generous 90-day window to request it." - "We Take All the Risk! Trust our 90-day no-questions-asked return policy." - "1-on-1 Help from Judy O'Leary! Benefit from a dedicated team of specialists available to assist you any day of the week. - "Talk with Judy! Receive FREE phone or email support from our committed team." **Lizard Brain Test** \- The lizard brain is a fundamental and instinctual part of our brain. It controls our survival instincts and automatic behaviors. Just like anxiety hinders visitors from clicking, not optimizing the button from design aspects stops our lizard brain from quickly noticing and trusting buttons. Simplifying the design will make it easier for the lizard brain to navigate and take action. For example: Which of these three buttons, from AcuityScheduling.com (2014), would attract a lizard’s eye? ![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/e1Ak8jQHX7RWkPl8PH1CmH_VxjPOGzvw_6rdUq4Bn-9BfkCa7CCibFXDeK4v4U5aywjilL60GpX1rmwnTL8p-0L_Y7gpF-hs3lbVYXoCmvWVMFsyn6kQZHGB39xS4m7UAdh9_uEmS2C2JEmcss7pzBI) Here are some of the Dos for the lizard brain 1. Keep the number of options small. Hopefully to 3 2. Make your button big and front-and-center, with eye-catching images and arrows, 3. Don’t let your brand color get in the way and go outside your brand color palette. ## Avoid costly mistakes by testing In a sales call, pitching to someone who has their camera off and is on mute would be unthinkable. You rely on feedback and interaction to gauge how your pitch is going. Unfortunately, many SaaS websites operate similarly. The real value of a SaaS product shines through when people subscribe to it, no matter how useful it may be. That's why it's crucial to test different parts of your website, like buttons, headlines, visible pages, and offers. You can optimize your website's performance and conversion rates by testing these elements. Testing allows you to gather data, analyze user behavior, and make informed decisions based on actual results. It helps you understand what motivates visitors to take action and identify potential areas for improvement. [How brand messaging changes for B2B and B2C companiesWant to turn your hand to both B2B and B2C marketing, check out the key differences right here.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSCharley Gale![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/how-brand-messaging-changes-for-b2b-and-b2c-companies.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-brand-messaging-changes-for-b2b-and-b2c-companies/) Continuously testing and refining your website can create an optimized user experience that maximizes conversions and drives sign-ups. In the absence of real-time feedback, testing becomes even more crucial. Testing empowers you to iterate and improve based on data-driven insights, ensuring that your SaaS product delivers value and successfully convinces visitors to subscribe and become loyal customers. Here are some testing methods I use **A/B testing:** Compare two webpage versions (A and B) to see which performs better in conversions. Test elements like headlines, button colors, layouts, or calls to action to find the version that gets more engagement or conversions. Tool you can use: [VWO](https://vwo.com/) **Multivariate testing:** Test multiple variations of elements at once to find the best combination. Understand how various factors interact with each other to optimize your website. Tool you can use: [VWO](https://vwo.com/) **Usability testing:** Observe users interacting with your website to find usability issues and gather feedback. Identify navigation problems and areas where users may need clarification or support. Tool you can use: [Usability Hub](https://usabilityhub.com/) Copy validation - Copy validation, also known as copy testing or message testing, is a process of evaluating and validating the effectiveness of written content or copy. It involves assessing the messaging's clarity, persuasiveness, and impact to ensure it resonates with the intended audience and achieves its intended goals. Tool you can use: [Wynter ](https://wynter.com/) --- *Like what you see? Why not gain exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS Membership?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Your guide to creating an unstoppable revenue enablement ecosystem URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/your-guide-to-creating-an-unstoppable-revenue-enablement-ecosystem/ Last updated: 2024-08-20T16:18:10.000Z *This article comes from *Debbi Varela*’s talk, ‘The revenue enablement ecosystem - it takes a village’, at the *Austin 2023 Sales Enablement Summit*, from our sister community, Sales Enablement Collective, check out the full talk* [***here***](https://www.salesenablementcollective.com/sales-enablement-summit-austin-ondemand/?wchannelid=i5f82bur4x&wmediaid=lryjdjwrnv)*.* Having spent nearly two decades in sales, I can say for a fact that the enablement landscape has changed significantly since I began my journey in 2006. Luckily, this has meant that over the years I have been able to be constantly experimenting, learning, and evolving, and through trial and error, I've discovered strategies that have led to success. **Today, I want to share some of the insights and lessons I've learned throughout my journey.** Whether you're just starting out or have years of experience under your belt, this article is packed with valuable tips and strategies to help you create a culture of enablement and build an unstoppable enablement ecosystem within your organization 💪. But before we dive in, let me ask you a question: > *Have you ever heard of the kitchen sink effect in sales enablement?* You know, that overwhelming feeling when you're bombarded with countless requests and it seems like everything but the kitchen sink has been thrown your way. **Trust me, I've been there too, and it can be quite a challenge to navigate through the chaos.** That's why it's crucial to define what sales enablement truly means to you and your team. We need to carve out our own little corner in the enablement world and build a thriving ecosystem around it, here we'll explore how to do just that. Are you ready? Great! Let's dive in and discover the transformative power of building an enablement ecosystem that will propel your organization to new heights ✈️. We’ll talk about: - **Defining sales enablement** - **Step 1: Knowing what you’re building** - **Step 2: Organizing and activating your ecosystem** - **Aligning for success** - **Final thoughts** ## **Defining sales enablement** When it comes to sales enablement, we often throw around the term without fully understanding its meaning. So, let's start by defining it. Sales enablement is more than just a buzzword. It's a strategic approach that encompasses a wide range of activities aimed at equipping our sales teams with the necessary resources to excel in their roles. At its core, sales enablement is about providing our salespeople with the right information, content, and tools they need to sell more effectively and efficiently. Now, you might be thinking, "That sounds broad and all-encompassing." And you're absolutely right. Sales enablement covers a vast spectrum of responsibilities and initiatives. Hence the "kitchen sink effect". It's that feeling when you look at your never-ending case queue or receive seemingly endless requests from the business. You can't help but wonder, "Should we really be doing all of this?" Sound familiar? The truth is, we need to find a way to prevent the kitchen sink effect and determine what truly matters. > *To do that, we must start by clearly defining what sales enablement means to us and our team's role within the enablement landscape.* We need to carve out our own little area of enablement and build our ecosystem around it, bringing us to **step 1**. [10 top micro SaaS examples: Building profitable apps for successMicro SaaS boasts a whole hosts of benefits. But is it the right solution for your product, and what are the shining examples of SaaS within the industry? We explore further.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/micro-saas-apps.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/10-top-micro-saas-examples-building-profitable-apps-for-success/) ## **Step 1: Knowing what you're building** To create a strong enablement foundation, we need to know what we're building from the very beginning. It starts with having a clear end goal in mind. In my experience, productivity metrics have often been the focus, but remember, productivity can mean different things to different organizations. > *Take the time to define what productivity means for your team and align it with the overall objectives of your organization.* Once you have a defined goal, it's time to design the enablement experience and learning path for the different roles you support. Each role within your sales organization requires specific knowledge and skills to excel. This is where the concept of what I like to think of as **“three big rocks”** comes into play—product knowledge, messaging and alignment, and revenue skills/tech stack. ### **🧠Product knowledge** is vital for sales success. Equipping your sales team with comprehensive and up-to-date training on your offerings, value propositions, and customer pain points enables them to confidently communicate the value of your products to potential customers ### **💬Messaging and alignment** are crucial components of successful sales conversations. Equipping your sales team with a well-defined messaging framework, aligned with your brand, values, and target audience, empowers them to deliver consistent and persuasive messages that resonate with customers. [Sales: The rules of engagementSales is a complex and competitive business - and never more so than when deciding who gets the credit for what: who gets the commission and, just as importantly, who gets the recognition?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/muyuan-ma--xHZBzv4Naw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-the-rules-of-engagement/) ### **💸Successful selling through skills and tech** involves equipping your team with essential skills, such as negotiation and objection handling, while also ensuring proficiency in using technology tools. By investing in revenue skills and tech stack training, you empower your team to work efficiently and close deals with greater effectiveness. > *As you design the enablement experience and learning path, keep in mind the unique needs and challenges of each role and tailor your training and resources.* ## **Step 2: Organizing and activating your ecosystem** Now that we know what we're building, it's time to organize and activate our enablement ecosystem. Throughout my years of experience, I've discovered that leveraging repeatable templates and frameworks can truly work wonders. These tools bring speed, clarity, and consistency to the enablement process, enabling us to measure and track our efforts more effectively. One framework that has proven successful for me is a seven-step process, specifically designed for product feature releases. **This framework provides a roadmap for enablement success, let's explore each step:** ### **Step 1: Create the enablement plan** This plan serves as a **roadmap**, outlining the objectives, strategies, and key activities required to empower your sales team with the necessary knowledge and tools. ### **Step 2: Assess existing core content** Take inventory of the resources and materials available, **evaluating their relevance and effectiveness** for the upcoming product feature release. This helps identify any gaps and allows you to leverage existing assets. ### **Step 3: Customize the core content** Tailor the core content to **align with the unique aspects of the new feature**, ensuring that your sales team has the most up-to-date and relevant information at their fingertips. Customization ensures that your enablement efforts are laser-focused and directly support the sales process. ### **Step 4: Deliver the content to the field** Develop a strategy to **deliver the customized content**, whether through training sessions, virtual workshops, or interactive learning modules. The goal is to equip your sales team with the knowledge and skills they need to effectively communicate the value of the new product feature to potential customers. ### **Step 5: Provide ongoing access** Create a centralized platform where your sales team can **access** the materials, **review** key information, and **refresh** their understanding of the product feature. This accessibility ensures that your enablement efforts have a lasting impact on their performance. ### **Step 6: Coaching for success** Enablement should go beyond knowledge transfer—it should empower your team to **apply their learnings in real-world scenarios**. Invest in coaching programs that allow for practice, feedback, and continuous improvement. ### **Step 7: Measure impact** Set **clear metrics** to gauge the effectiveness of the enablement program. By tracking and analyzing data, you can identify areas of success and areas for improvement. This also enables you to refine your strategies, optimize your enablement initiatives, and drive greater results. --- By following this **seven-step** framework, you can transform your enablement initiatives into a well-organized and results-driven ecosystem. Remember, **organization** and **activation** are key to driving the success of your enablement efforts. --- ## **Aligning for success** While frameworks are fantastic, the success of your enablement efforts relies on the collaboration and alignment of various teams. Remember, enablement is not a one-person show. > ***It takes a village.*** Define the roles and responsibilities of each team involved in the enablement process and establish clear handoffs between them. To prevent friction and promote effective collaboration, consider establishing core enablement working groups, bringing together reps from across teams. By meeting regularly, you can align efforts, address challenges, and keep everyone moving in the same direction. [From Sales Enablement to Sales PerformanceSales performance is focused on transforming an entire organization to sell more, better.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.33.35.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-sales-enablement-to-sales-performance/) ### **The golden metric** Now, let's talk about the **golden metric**—the measurable number that represents the data point you're aiming to impact. It's crucial for the entire enablement ecosystem to align on this metric and the overall goal. For example, if you're focusing on product training, your golden metric might be the percentage of reps hitting their sales targets. When everyone is aligned, working independently yet harmoniously toward the same goal, you create a powerful force. Remember, it's not just about productivity; **it's about making a tangible impact on the numbers that matter most.** ## **Final thoughts** Well, my fellow sales enablement professionals, we've reached the end of this journey together. We've explored the keys to building a culture of enablement and creating a robust enablement ecosystem within your organization. > *From defining sales enablement to knowing what you're building, we've laid the foundation for success.* But remember, it doesn't stop here. **Enablement is an ongoing journey of growth, learning, and adaptation**. It's about continuously refining and improving our strategies, staying ahead of the curve, and embracing new technologies and methodologies. Thank you for joining me on this journey. I hope you've gained valuable insights, practical strategies, and inspiration to take your enablement efforts to new heights! ### We need to adopt an inclusive approach to sustainability URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/we-need-to-adopt-an-inclusive-approach-to-sustainability/ Last updated: 2023-07-19T10:26:37.000Z We are experiencing an undeniable environmental crisis, and it is easy to get overwhelmed by the magnitude of the situation. But there are glimmers of hope as individuals and businesses alike are embarking on intentional paths of change. In the media and advertising space, some of the biggest brands have announced ambitious sustainability goals that stretch out for the next decade or more. In September, Samsung made public its intention to achieve net zero emissions by 2050\. Many other brands have made similar announcements. These companies are also expanding the definition of environmental impact to include not only their core operational emissions but also those of their full supply chain, or *scope 3 emissions*. In ad tech, those supply chain mandates might include a requirement to deliver carbon-neutral advertising or for all tech partners to be on a path toward net zero status. [How to increase your sustainable growth rateIf you’re aiming to build a sustainable growth engine in your startup, the first thing you need to do is define what you mean by growth. Let me put on my teacher hat and tell you what I mean.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJon Chang![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/sustainable-growth--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-increase-your-sustainable-growth-rate/) Larger, well-resourced companies will be able to dedicate the resources necessary to conduct in-depth analyses or invest in major infrastructure changes, audits, and certifications. And some advertisers will be willing to spend higher CPMs to cover the cost of emission measurement and offsets, if it aligns with their brand values. However, not every company–notably many smaller independent publishers–has the ability to move at that pace. For those who cannot meet the growing demands of the sustainability movement, it may be easy to become discouraged or seek solutions that merely check the box. But we should not need to settle for the path of least resistance. Luckily, it’s not an either/or scenario. There are actions that companies can take today to make progress toward positive change. A focus on education, open technology, shared standards, and flexible requirements can go a long way to helping the entire ecosystem move faster toward more lasting sustainability. [Responsible sourcing: Ensuring sustainability throughout the supply chainDavid Patterson, Vice President of Business Development at Wastebits, demonstrates how to make your SaaS startup’s supply chain eco-friendly and socially conscious.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDavid Patterson![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/sustainablity-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/responsible-sourcing-ensuring-sustainability-throughout-the-supply-chain/) ## **Educate yourself and your team** For those working in digital advertising and technology, navigating complexity is table stakes. Yet many of us have not taken the necessary steps to educate ourselves about sustainability. This does not need to entail extensive coursework and certifications. It can be as simple as doing internet research to understand the difference between net zero and carbon neutral. Or, as my company did, a consultant can be brought in to run an educational workshop to upskill teams and develop a shared foundational knowledge set. By educating ourselves, we create an opportunity to have informed conversations with colleagues, clients, and partners about what more we can do. ## **Share supply path data** Brands want to measure emissions cleanly across all of their media buys so that they can make informed sustainable investment choices. Today, that’s not possible at scale. While the progress and innovation in this area is amazing, as with any new or nascent process, there remains a misalignment in methodologies across solutions providers. Right now we have the opportunity to put best practices in place and that means not repeating our past mistakes. We have to avoid unneeded complexity with proprietary measurements that come at a high cost, which usually fall to publishers to cover. [SaaScast: Building a sustainable growth engineWe all want our SaaS orgs to run like a well-oiled machine. But what does that look like in practice? In economically turbulent times, it’s important that SaaS leaders are investing in marketing efforts that are going to lead to long-term, sustainable growth.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Jon_Chang-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-building-a-sustainable-growth-engine/) While we collectively work towards a unified solution, there are tools that we can use right now. Let’s agree on standard measurements that leverage open, transparent data already in use. One example is Ads.txt. One of the critical indicators of energy use in a campaign is the number of partners or impression duplication in the chain; more duplication means more energy usage, which is less efficient. While evaluating efficiency based on Ads.txt files is not comprehensive, it is a start, and it’s transparent, auditable, and available to everyone free of charge. ## **Streamlined agency RFPs** Agency-holding companies have been leaders in sustainability efforts across our industry – supporting clients with responsible investing strategies, and in turn, pushing the rest of the ecosystem to catch up. Each agency has created their own framework or approach to their responsible media investment strategies, creating highly varied RFPs for vendors to comb through. Instead, as an industry, we should create a common framework–akin to the “common application,” which has democratized admissions for college students. We should lean into work by Ad Net Zero to align on industry standards. While each brand or agency can have their own thresholds for carbon efficiency, we should all be using a shared methodology. [Growth hacks for a $0-50 million journeyI’m Ashwin Krishna, I’m Head of Growth Marketing at Tact.ai, and in this article, I’m going to talk about some interesting growth hacks, and what it takes for a SaaS company or a B2B tech product company in the whole journey from zero to $50 million revenue.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAshwin Krishna![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/chronis-yan-1M4wYTqVD4o-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/growth-hacks-for-a-0-50-million-journey/) While competition can push us all to create better emissions solutions, it can’t get in the way of overall progress for our industry. Sustainability is unlike any issue digital advertising has faced. Past problems like fraud or measurement issues were completely contained within our industry. Sustainability is a global threat. It is something we all must rally around, so let’s work together to drive substantive change. --- *Like what you see? Why not sign up to some exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### SaaScast: What does the future of SaaS tech stacks look like? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-what-does-the-future-of-saas-tech-stacks-look-like/ Last updated: 2023-07-14T14:22:15.000Z It goes without saying that the SaaS markets are dynamic, and customer demands and preferences evolve over time. **A no-brainer**: SaaS companies must adapt to these changes to stay relevant and competitive. A pivotal aspect of this is evolving tech stacks. Simply put, businesses can introduce new features, functionalities, and user experiences that align with the evolving market needs. But introducing changes to your tech stack can come with complications. Luckily, here to help you navigate these choppy waters, we have a real veteran in the field of tech thought leadership in the form of David Howell, Owner of Nexus publishing and Editor-in-Chief at Silicon UK. [‎SaaScast: What does the future of SaaS tech stacks look like? on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep What does the future of SaaS tech stacks look like? - 14 Jul 2023![](https://t1.gstatic.com/faviconV2?client=SOCIAL&type=FAVICON&fallback_opts=TYPE,SIZE,URL&url=https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/what-does-the-future-of-saas-tech-stacks-look-like/id1544750249?i=1000621139320&size=128)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts126/v4/a4/4d/5f/a44d5fae-5046-a15e-a689-2605bf2c3483/mza_10035764847765952101.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/what-does-the-future-of-saas-tech-stacks-look-like/id1544750249?i=1000621139320) ## About this episode In this episode, we delve into the fascinating topic of the future of SaaS stacks and explore key insights shared by David Howell. Join us for an informal yet insightful conversation that sheds light on the evolving landscape of SaaS and its impact on businesses globally. Key talking points include: - How tech stacks are evolving - Why they need to evolve - The trouble with legacy system integration - The role of AI software in tech stacks All this and so much more, don't miss it. ## About David David Howell has been a writer and journalist specializing in technology and business for the past 35 years. As someone who has been writing since the very early days of personal computing, he brings with him unique insights on how technology evolves to meet market demands and how businesses can pivot to remain competitive. ## Get involved Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Creator, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: [anthony@futureofsaas.io](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-scaling-new-heights-with-vertical-saas/anthony@futureofsaas.io). ### Build trust in AI technologies with this vital framework URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/build-trust-in-ai-technologies-with-this-vital-framework/ Last updated: 2024-10-31T11:05:44.000Z *Lucy Huang, Product Manager at FullStory, gave* [*this presentation at the Product-Led Festival*](https://fast.wistia.com/embed/channel/6del95w6ph?ref=productledalliance.com&wchannelid=6del95w6ph&wmediaid=avyxc0wl7s) *for our sister community Product-Led Alliance.* I’m Lucy Huang, and I'm a Product Manager at FullStory, your go-to spot for understanding your digital experience. On a personal note, my career has been focused a lot on health and safety, privacy, integrity, risk, you name it. Basically, I spend a lot of my time thinking about all the things that could go wrong, prioritizing what to work on first, and shaping the policies and procedures within organizations to manage that risk. Here's a primer on what we're going to cover today: managing risks and AI technologies. All opinions are my own, except when I pull in some headlines to highlight what's going on in the industry. It's a very fast, changing place. It's probably been hard not to notice all the tremendous advances in AI recently, especially machine learning and generative models. Today, we'll talk about those advances in machine learning, and what AI governance frameworks you can apply to manage your risk, user privacy, and ethics. So to kick it off, here are two anti-goals that I don't want you to come away with from this. Number one, I'm not here to fearmonger, but that doesn't mean there isn’t a very real risk that we’re responsible for as shapers of product and messaging this to the market and our customers. Secondly, I'm not a machine learning engineer or lawyer, but I’m here to talk about the [risks of AI in SaaS](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#8-challenges-for-end-users-and-practitioners), and that should show that even you can start to contribute to your organization's policy and procedures governing AI. - The emergence of generative models - Why generative AI is like riding in a car - The risks and challenges associated with generative AI - The AI risk management framework - So how will these actions translate? - Prioritize trust in product management for AI ## **The emergence of generative models** We'll start with a little bit of history. In 2022, we actually saw a really tremendous advance or spurt in generative models, and along with that, there was surprisingly open distribution and access. As a high-level primer on generative models, these are different from discriminative models that were more widely used in previous aspects of data science. Discriminative models are a class of supervised machine learning models that make predictions by estimating conditional probability. We won't get into the math of it too much, but TL;DR: they can't generate new samples, it's more of a ‘if this, then that’ logic, used for classification tasks where we might use x features to classify to a particular class y. One example is email spam. That might be a simple yes or no label for this Email Inspector that you're building. Now we've moved on to the era of more generative models, which are a class of algorithms that make predictions by modeling out joint distributions. There are a lot more steps involved here to take the probability of the class and the estimated distributions. But again, the TL;DR: they take input training samples and learn a model that represents that distribution. So again, taking that email spam example, generative models can actually be used over time to generate emails that could even fool the Email Inspector. So the twist is that over time, the generative model can gradually fool a discriminator or that email yes or no spam inspector we've talked about. And that's what we're seeing today in more recent advancements. If you take that specific flavor of generative models, we have large language models (LLM) that use deep learning in neural networks, such as ChatGPT. We also have text-to-image models such as DALL.E that incorporate computer vision and natural processing. We've even seen text-to-video projects come out from Meta, which takes it a little bit further than text-to-image. There's a lot of really interesting technology out there that I’d urge you to try out. ## **Why generative AI is like riding in a car** Now we'll go into one of the initial risks. One of the risks I'm going to talk about is copyright. Earlier, I mentioned that the distribution of these technologies was surprisingly open. We'll take the analogy of cars first of all because I'm assuming that everyone has driven or ridden in a car at some point in their life. Everyone has to get a driver's license to make sure that they're qualified to drive. You have to understand the policies and procedures of the road. There are also different types of licenses to show that you have knowledge of a specific vehicle. In addition, we have seatbelts and speed limits to protect ourselves and others from harm. There's also signage on the road, so that provides notice and transparency. And with the democratization of generative AI, we're actually giving these cars to a wider audience than ever before. But here, the driver's test is optional. For example, ChatGPT. How many folks have tested out open beta there? If you're familiar with Midjourney, another text-to-image service, they're actually available via a Discord server bot that has millions of users. Personally, I'm all for the wider spread use of AI and access by different audiences, but we need to recognize that there are guidelines required. Where are the seat belts and speed limits? And who's volunteering to use them for generative AI? There aren't a clear set of guidelines for the purposes of generative AI today, how it should be used, and how it can be measured. And honestly, this isn't much of a surprise given that the US is already one of the largest countries without significant federal data privacy laws. To take it back a little bit, most organizations found that the onset of GDPR actually helped them build a clearer, more distinct organization, organized around managing consumer transparency and privacy. As frustrating as it probably is for us to see all those cookie banners today, we've still raised the tide for all ships and humans on them with that set of standards. A Deloitte survey found that 44% of consumers felt that organizations cared more about their privacy after GDPR came to fruition. And even now, Europe is leading the way with the first proposed AI Act, which is the first set of regulatory frameworks for AI governance. So I think today we're seeing that folks are being given cars without a seatbelt and being told to drive and explore generative AI. With this great power comes great responsibility, and you and your organization should include that within your AI and product strategy. ## **The risks and challenges associated with generative AI** Now we'll go into the copyright piece that I touched on a little bit earlier. Here is a headline from the New York Times: *‘An AI-Generated Picture Won an Art Prize. Artists aren't happy.’* So here, a digital artist actually entered into an art contest in Colorado, in the Digital Arts category, came first place, and won $300\. They actually used Midjourney, which I talked about before. It's a service that's available on Discord that provides text-to-image renderings. So here, the digital artist actually took these renderings from Midjourney and made significant adjustments to these images in Photoshop until he was satisfied. He enhanced the resolution of the images using a tool called Gigapixel and ended up submitting these pieces on canvas. They're now listed for sale at $750 a piece, based on their assessment of fair market value. With all these advances in technology, the question comes up: what makes AI different from a camera that captures the presence of someone else's creation? And here, the answer is copyright. *‘AI-created images lose US copyrights in test for new technology.’* The above headline is significant for Reuters because it documents one of the first decisions by a US court or agency on the scope of copyright protections for AI-created works. This example is relating to the images in a graphic novel that were again used by that same AI system, Midjourney The US Copyright Office actually ruled that the images in this graphic novel should not have been granted copyright protection. Granted, the text was made by the author, but not the images. And though the author did mastermind the prompts for this text-to-image generation of the images, the author ultimately didn’t create these images. So how does it relate to you and your customers? Takeaway number one is that your customers will be under scrutiny for using AI tools and services that you provide. So how can you protect your customers from that risk? Takeaway number two is that you need to avoid the use of these protected datasets or find ways to partner on the royalties on them. Otherwise, your monetization strategies will be impacted. I suggest partnering directly with creators or the sources of this training data to ensure that your value chains are protected. As a note, the space is constantly changing. Just last week, we had some notable names sign an open letter that called for a six-month ban on creating AI that's more powerful than GPT-4. This open letter was for certain founders of OpenAI to solidify their lead in the market. I'm not really here to comment on that. My intentions are more to highlight the risks of AI on society as a whole, how this has been recognized by leaders, and the gap of action to address that. So this open letter says that AI systems such as GPT-4 are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks. There are risks for such systems that could be used to generate misinformation on a massive scale, as well as the socio-economic impact of potential mass automation of jobs. Again, it's not my intention to fearmonger, but it’s important to at least be aware of the risks such as the prevalence of deepfakes and additional tools of generative AI. There are more tools available for bad actors to use. So your trust, safety, and integrity will also need to uplevel themselves to understand and combat the malicious use of these tools. If you're in the space already, you're pretty familiar with how quickly bad actors and fraud rings can level up. They're really agile. So here are some examples of what to consider. In the risk and fraud space, take identity verification. For example, submitting driver's licenses. These could also be generated by AI or certain PII pieces as well. We also have social media. The prevalence of bots is already a huge issue. Imagine bots having access to these large language models that are able to replicate human speech, language, and communication at a higher level than before. Extremist groups or other unsavory characters might take advantage of these tools to further their agenda on your community platforms. And then the last example is financial services. Here, we’re thinking about account takeovers or these scammers that are tricking unsuspecting folks to reveal information with really sophisticated pre-generated chat scripts. ## **The AI risk management framework** So now that we've covered how the unexpected uses of AI by bad actors might induce risk, we'll move on to risk management frameworks. How can we address these? Today we'll walk through the initial traditional risk management frameworks. And then next, we'll talk about how this evolves in AI governance. This is following guidance from the US Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology. [![Risk Management Framework Badge](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/oDhXDShMT4dFY0Q48cgLpr7_FUBW7hkaRyx1JeR5cXvfYRLV21NRNSOOJrUZoUYYBmwLd_FCsWiH15Opqd4OjiQflLPZdSLwT7H_1S3rePtzOCsrncfB6S4C7Y9Ist0KOcoW58XK5Zn2VmRpFLpQKOk)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/build-trust-in-ai-technologies-with-this-vital-framework/) You’re probably already familiar with the essential activities to prepare your organization on how to manage security and privacy risks. One, categorizing the system and information that's processed. Where’s it stored? How’s it transmitted? Running an impact analysis on that, selecting controls to actually protect your system based on that initial impact analysis, and implementing and documenting those controls. Over time, you’ll also need to assess and audit if those controls are actually in place, if they're operating as intended, and producing the desired results. You’ll also need senior officials to authorize the system to operate. And then lastly, continuously monitor that control implementation and any additional risks that might come up for your system. For all of this, you really need a higher-level set of policies and procedures to guide your organizations where software can’t. Ideally, you have all three of those, though, I think really common themes that you can pull out here are that data classification piece, and also establishing the provenance of that data. One thing I want to bring up is that there aren’t really any significant regulatory frameworks regarding AI governance today. And it's more likely that the EU will get to this first, just like they did with GDPR. In fact, I think the EU has already proposed the first set of regulatory frameworks called the AI Act. I really recommend reading it. Some recommendations around governmental action in that space are to establish new authorities or agencies that are capable of tracking and overseeing the development of advanced AI, and also the large data centers that are used to train it. There are also potential recommendations to watermark or establish the provenance of AI-generated content. And then lastly, liability. What happens when AI harm is caused? And additionally, support to increase public funding for AI safety research. On a separate note from those recommendations and the AI Act, we’ll actually get into the AI risk management framework. This is version one that's been shared by the same National Institute of Standards and Technology. Again, I’d recommend keeping abreast of this space because it changes incredibly fast. GPT-3 was being talked about just a few months ago, and now GPT-4 is available to users as well. Again, this is just version one. The goal of this risk management framework, published by NIST, is really to cultivate trust in AI technologies, which is necessary if society as a whole is to widely accept AI. [![Risk Management framework cycle](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/sQe0FMMqTMjZ0AuOFEmJV06plvXfWgiiD_ToK7pZDOrLkoSpEKIi3SKu3FBDVIYd-gPPYPiuhJapUxkKbxWTZLib9QVFwWlLAfoy0UUXElTHYJgYgOwx7NSx7RhqxYB-8CMXcXcb0fuqRsww5w_u-t4)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/build-trust-in-ai-technologies-with-this-vital-framework/) The core of this framework describes four specific functions. In the center, you have ‘govern,’ with ‘map,’ ‘measure,’ and ‘manage’ around it. This is to help organizations address the risks of AI systems and practice. We'll talk through each of these functions and how they're applied in context-specific use cases and throughout the stages of the AI lifecycle. ### **Govern** At the center of this is really building those initial policies, procedures, and processes. You want to make sure that a culture of risk management is cultivated and present within your organization. So ensure that they're able to manage, understand, and document the regulatory requirements involving AI, and be able to tie that to specific tactical policies, procedures, and steps within your organization. And taking that a step further, tie that to the actual product experience and product design. You also want to ensure that there are mechanisms in place to actually govern and inventory your AI systems. And as you're building your AI governance team, make sure it's a diverse team with diverse skill sets and background skills, etc. I’d recommend maybe something you could start as soon as next week is to host tabletop exercises. Encourage your teammates to try out ChatGPT and DALL.E, and build a muscle for this type of thinking of how these types of tools might be used and governed. ### **Map** Next, we have the ‘map’ piece of this, which really ties things to context. How do we recognize the context of what risks matter the most? For example, take gambling. In the entertainment industry, it's probably super okay to talk about gambling and propose products and features around it. But in other certain cases, gambling could be a more sensitive, not suitable for work type of topic. So that context really, really matters, and by understanding that context, you can develop that intended purpose, benefits, and norms in which AI can be deployed and documented. Again, in this map function, you also want to define the specific methods used to implement the tasks that the AI system would actually support. And here, for example, you’d want to at least outline and say, “Hey, this is using a classifier versus a generative model versus more of a recommender.” Being able to define those specific methods is really important. As a part of the map function, you'll also want to develop internal risk controls for components of the AI system and keep abreast of any third-party AI technologies that might be used as well. Lastly, for this map function, you also want to address the privacy and the provenance of the data used in this creation. ### **Manage** For the ‘manage’ portion of this framework, this is where you can provide your PM mindset, assess what risk exists, what to prioritize, and how to act based on that projected impact. ### **Measure** Lastly, we have the measure portion of this, which is really talking about the ways that we can enumerate those approaches or metrics of the risks of adopting AI. You'll want to regularly assess the appropriateness and impacts on affected user groups or communities. I’d recommend pulling in domain experts and users to be consulted for their feedback. So hopefully, this all resonates with you. It's not something that's too dissimilar. But here, it's really important to outline those functions. ## **So how will these actions translate?** One, we want to provide respect for the original creators and artists, given the lack of copyright protections for AI-generated works today. You want to make sure to partner with those original creators to actually protect your value chain and your monetization strategies. Secondly, protection of privacy and ethics. As I mentioned previously, you want to carefully select the initial data used to train these models to avoid including toxic or biased content. Make sure it's originating from a source that’s given their consent towards data being used in this way, and being provided proper notice and the ability to pull out if needed. You also want to be careful about how AI tools might be used by bad actors, for example, threats against democracy on community platforms and use in financial services by scammers. So again, invest appropriately in your trust and safety teams. And you can start today by even just encouraging these teams to try prompt engineering themselves. It's really important to develop a familiarity with this technology. It all comes down to reducing risks for our customers and society as a whole. Some strategies here are rather than employing an off-the-shelf generative AI model, you could consider building out smaller, more specialized models that are tuned to the needs of your organization. I’d also recommend keeping a human in the loop to make sure that they're checking the output of generative AI before it's actually published or used. And then lastly, really make sure that you're able to responsibly use AI and also build familiarity with it. I'd recommend avoiding using generative AI models for critical decisions such as those involving significant resources or human welfare. While there's a need for us to be competitive and familiar with innovation in this space, we also have a responsibility to think about what impact this might have on certain communities and society. ## **Prioritize trust in product management for AI** So here are the takeaways. You can start all of these today. Timing is important, as we all know. You want to prioritize trust because product management for AI is ultimately probabilistic and not deterministic. Trust is easy to lose and hard to gain, so it's important to prioritize consumer trust, transparency, and ethical principles when building these out. The reason this is important is because machine learning adds even more uncertainty. And the trade-off is that because of the scale that we're able to attain on machine learning, there's also going to be a small percentage of predictions that are going to be incorrect, and it's going to be really hard to understand why they're incorrect. It lacks explainability. This is because the ML code that has seemingly similar data sets of input-output can give you wildly different results as an output sometimes. This has really serious implications overall for the product development lifecycle, and also for software development as well, such as versioning and testing, because the data’s never really as stable as we think. So as your product inevitably involves models that you've built, they’ll also start to drift and need to be monitored and managed. Again, tying it back to that risk management framework. Lastly, there also needs to be that foundational governance framework for your organization's teams to be able to take into practice. At a high level, there needs to be a partnership between community, legal, and policy teams to build this governance framework and review at least quarterly, then map that to the risk management framework that we discussed earlier in terms of map, manage, and measure. Assign your stakeholders. Who's responsible for inputting these controls, monitoring that they're actually being implemented, and producing the desired results? So I'm here basically today to chat about how we can all make an impact regardless of if you're a domain expert in ML or not. I think with the advent of ChatGPT-4, we've really seen how it can become accessible to more folks. And because of that, everyone has a responsibility to weigh in and carry out this AI governance framework. ### How to build an awesome SaaS marketing funnel: Convert prospects into die hard advocates URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-an-awesome-saas-marketing-funnel-to-convert-prospects-into-die-hard-advocates-2/ Last updated: 2023-07-13T15:49:05.000Z **Struggling to convert leads into paying customers in your SaaS business? Wondering why your high-quality SaaS product isn't selling itself?** Let's reveal how a well-structured marketing funnel can transform your customer acquisition process. This foundational structure, propels customer acquisition, fuels retention, and drives sustainable growth, all while helping you to navigate the dynamic SaaS landscape successfully 💸. Effective Lead generation is a gold standard for any SaaS company, but steering potential clients through the sales funnel can be a complex task. With the ever-evolving state of the current market, buyers are spoilt for choice and have become harder to win over. But here’s the tricky part - you can’t force a purchase decision without risking losing potential customers. The objective instead is to guide prospects through the sales process until they’re ready to become paying customers. And how do you do that? **An effective marketing funnel 🔻.** Join us as we explore just how to build the ultimate winning SaaS marketing funnel. Let's get started! - ****What is a SaaS marketing funnel?** - ****Why is it important?** - ****The 4 key stages** - ****Maximum optimization** - ****Final thoughts** ## What is a SaaS marketing funnel? Before we embark on this funnel-building journey, let's shed some light on what a SaaS marketing funnel actually is. Imagine a large funnel, gradually narrowing towards the bottom. Potential customers enter at the top, and as they move downwards, they turn from mere prospects to qualified leads, then into active customers, and ultimately, into loyal patrons. This transformative journey from 'who's this?' to 'can't live without this' is orchestrated by the SaaS marketing funnel. A winning funnel is tailored at every stage to cater to the evolving needs and behaviors of your customers, taking them one step closer to hitting the 'Subscribe' button. **The more that reach that final stage, the quicker you can scale your SaaS business growth.** [SaaS MarketingAs the demand for cloud-based software continues to grow, SaaS companies are facing intense competition in the market. Here is a guide to help you develop a successful SaaS marketing strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_Marketing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) ### Why is a SaaS marketing funnel important? So, why does your SaaS business need a marketing funnel? In the hyper-competitive SaaS landscape you need to prove to potential customers that *your* SaaS product will solve the problem they face. With a well-structured SaaS marketing funnel, you're not just shooting in the dark; you're **crafting personalized customer experiences** that guide your prospects through a carefully choreographed journey. A robust funnel brings clarity to your marketing efforts, helping your marketing team understand which strategies work (and which don’t) at every stage of the customer journey. This then enables you to optimize your resources, enhance customer engagement, and ultimately, boost your bottom line. What’s not to love? ## The difference between the marketing and sales funnel While these two funnels aren't completely separate (since the marketing funnel feeds into the sales funnel), they have different focuses at different stages of the customer journey. Take SaaS, for example. The sales funnel is all about turning leads into paying customers and involves various steps like lead qualification, product demos, and proposals. On the other hand, the marketing funnel for SaaS covers a wider range of activities. To put it simply, here's a table that shows how a SaaS marketing funnel and a SaaS sales funnel differ from each other: ![SaaS marketing vs sales](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/07/saas-marketing-vs-sales.jpg) ## The 5 key stages of a SaaS marketing funnel A successful SaaS marketing funnel comprises four stages, each critical to transforming a prospect into a loyal, paying customer. Let's delve into the details: ### 👀 Awareness This phase marks the start of the customer's interaction with your SaaS product. The focus here isn’t just to create visibility but to **engage the audience in a meaningful way** that encourages interaction and exploration. In this stage, potential customers may come across products or SaaS companies while looking to fix a problem. They’ll usually stumble across your product through a search engine query or a social media post, so make sure to **harness those channels through SEO** for even more exposure! [B2B marketing events strategies: before, during, and afterB2B events are paramount for networking, generating high-quality leads, increasing brand awareness, and reaching a large target audience. The majority of event marketers believe events are the most effective marketing channel over emails, content, and digital marketing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/terren-hurst-blgOFmPIlr0-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/b2b-marketing-events-strategies-before-during-and-after/) ### 📲 Engagement Now that potential customers have discovered you and have started to think about your product, your role transitions from a software provider to a **credible problem-solver**. ### 🧭 Exploration The exploration stage is pivotal. It's the moment your lead decides whether to go with your product or look elsewhere. This is the perfect chance to offer **free trials**, **demos**, or even **tailored consultations**, showing them firsthand the value your SaaS solution provides. **Note:** It’s essential that you include a clear call to action in your messaging at this point. Where do customers need to go in order to get in on your awesome offer? You want to be aware here of who your marketing qualified leads are at this stage. These are your prospects that show the most potential to convert to paying customers. By highlighting your unique selling points, ability to solve their issues, and what makes you stand out against your competition, you can guide your leads towards their **‘aha!’** moment. ### 🤝 Conversion The culmination of the customer's journey is conversion. Making the sale is vital, but maintaining that customer relationship is key. A winning SaaS marketing funnel doesn't end at the purchase - it focuses on retaining customers and nurturing a relationship. You can do this through top-notch customer service, thorough updates, and providing a community for your customers. The metrics you want to be tracking here are as follows: \-- Monthly recurring revenue (MRR) \-- Annual recurring revenue (ARR) \-- Average contract value (ACV) \-- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) [SaaScast: Building a sustainable growth engineWe all want our SaaS orgs to run like a well-oiled machine. But what does that look like in practice? In economically turbulent times, it’s important that SaaS leaders are investing in marketing efforts that are going to lead to long-term, sustainable growth.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Jon_Chang-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-building-a-sustainable-growth-engine/) ### 👥 Advocacy The advocacy stage is when your awesome customers turn into passionate advocates for your product. They can't help but gush about how incredible it is to their friends, colleagues, and basically anyone who will listen. And if they think your product will rock their friends' worlds too, they'll totally invite them to give it a shot. As an organization, you can amplify the voices of your loyalists through testimonials and case studies. And if there’s one thing customer advocacy can help you with, it’s **customer retention.** 🙌 ## Optimize your SaaS sales marketing funnel Your SaaS marketing funnel isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. Tailoring it to fit different audience segments is the key. Understanding your customer's needs, behaviors, and pain points is crucial to creating a **personalized experience** that resonates with them. Are they a small business owner looking for a cost-effective solution? Or an enterprise-level organization seeking robust features? By segmenting your audience and crafting personalized messaging, you'll ensure your funnel speaks directly to their needs and aspirations. After tailoring your SaaS marketing funnel to your audience's needs, it's time to measure its pulse. That's where **KPIs** come into the picture. KPIs can help you evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing efforts at each stage of the funnel. Is your content capturing attention? Are your free trials leading to conversions? By **monitoring specific KPIs**, namely, website traffic, bounce rate, conversion rate, customer acquisition cost, and customer lifetime value, you'll be able to optimize your funnel performance and **fuel sustainable growth**. [Top SaaS marketing and content toolsA high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) ## Final thoughts As we wrap up this guide, let's take a peek into the future. From AI-powered automation to hyper-personalization, the SaaS marketing funnel landscape is set to evolve dramatically. Staying abreast of these trends will help you stay one step ahead and continue to optimize your funnel. Building a SaaS marketing funnel might seem like a daunting task, but with the right strategies, tools, and a dash of creativity, it's an exciting journey. Now that you're armed with this comprehensive guide, you're all set to craft a winning SaaS marketing funnel that propels your business to new heights. **Happy funnel-building!** --- *Like what you see? Why not get all these exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS Membership?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### 5 tips to level up your messaging efforts URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/5-tips-to-level-up-your-messaging-efforts/ Last updated: 2024-08-20T16:17:12.000Z Hi, everyone! I'm Dana, part of the product marketing team at Workiva. Today, we'll be discussing five tips to take your messaging to the next level. But before we dive in, let me quickly share a little bit about my background. I began my career in accounting and finance before transitioning into product marketing. Ever since then, I've been working exclusively with B2B SaaS companies, and I'm currently a member of the portfolio marketing team here at Workiva. In my role, I focus primarily on marketing strategy, in alignment with other marketing functions like demand generation and messaging. I’ll explain how product marketing is organized at Workiva. We have the traditional product marketing team, which focuses on sales enablement and competitive intelligence for individual products. The portfolio marketing team brings together different products based on specific personas. This approach allows us to create a more scalable go-to-market strategy. Alright, let's take a peek at the five messaging tips we'll be exploring today: 1. Clearly define your target audience. 2. Don’t underestimate the importance of research. 3. Standardize with a messaging framework. 4. Involve stakeholders early and often. 5. Don’t just set it and forget it. Let’s dive in with our first tip. ## **Tip number one: Clearly define your target audience** This may seem obvious, but it's the most crucial aspect of messaging. I didn't prioritize this enough when I started doing messaging. As product marketers, we tend to get caught up in the product itself – the features, capabilities, and all the benefits they offer. However, effective messaging requires a deep understanding of who we're trying to reach and persuade. Always start with the ‘who.’ Make it clear which segment you’re targeting, whether that's based on industry, vertical, company size, or specific solution group personas. At Workiva, we're currently focused on our core personas, while also considering layers like company size and the industries where we have the most success. I would recommend leveraging your demand generation and pipeline data, as well as win-loss analysis, to refine your target audience. Without knowing your audience, it's impossible to understand their needs and pain points and demonstrate empathy, which is key to capturing their attention. The second reason why identifying your target audience is crucial is for differentiation. In today's market, there are so many similar products, and feature comparisons often reveal only minor differences that don’t matter much to customers. Unless you have a massive marketing budget or true innovation that sets you apart, segmentation is the most powerful tool for differentiation and capturing a specific market segment. Let me give you an example. About a month ago, while driving, I noticed a billboard that read, "Get SOC 2 compliance in weeks, not months." I like that messaging because it appeals to a specific need of the target audience by emphasizing the value of time. A couple of days later, a thought leader in my field of audit risk and compliance posted on LinkedIn, "If I were hiring a vendor for third-party SOC 2 services and wanted to ensure controls were up to snuff, I don’t think I’d put speed as a high evaluative criterion for me. But hey, maybe that's just me." This was in direct response to the ad I’d seen. I had praised the messaging, not realizing it wouldn't resonate with everyone. Now, I'm not criticizing the messaging because that LinkedIn thought leader likely isn't the target buyer. However, it was a fantastic example of why messaging is not about what sounds good to you; it’s about what connects and resonates with your specific target audience. This quote is about 100 years old I think, but as Robert Collier said, "Always enter the conversation that's already happening in your prospect's mind." I love this quote because it reinforces the idea that we need to truly understand our audience and connect with them by aligning our words with their existing motivations, rather than trying to guess what might motivate them. ## **Tip number two: Don't underestimate the importance of research** Once you’ve defined your target audience, investing the right amount of time in research becomes paramount. This is how you create messaging that truly resonates. Research should form the foundation of your messaging efforts, amplifying the voice of the customer. Early on in my product marketing journey, one thing I didn't always connect the dots on is that persona development and messaging go hand in hand. They shouldn’t be thought of as separate activities. When you invest in persona development and thorough research, you can develop messaging that truly speaks to and resonates with your specific audience. Let me share some of the research sources I find most valuable, broken down into three categories: - Buyers - Internal sources - External sources [![Don't underestimate the importance of research](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-15-at-16.52.10.png)](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/5-tips-to-level-up-your-messaging-efforts/www.productmarketingalliance.com/5-tips-to-level-up-your-messaging-efforts/) The buyers category, in my opinion, is the most important. I dedicate most of my time to talking to customers because their insights are invaluable. However, it's also crucial to engage with prospects because customers are often so familiar with our messaging that they just repeat it rather than share insights about what’s important to them. Talking to prospects, who have no prior knowledge of our company or what we offer, helps identify gaps and refine our messaging. There are also a lot of great tools for customer research. For instance, we use Clozd for win-loss analysis, and for recording sales calls, we have platforms like SalesLoft and Gong. Events are another fruitful research opportunity. A few weeks ago, I went to a conference that all of my primary personas were attending. Instead of solely working the booth, as I had done in the past, I attended sessions and fully immersed myself in the personas. We had lunch together, and I absorbed the words they were using and the ideas they were discussing. I got so many valuable insights from this conference. I also made a lot of connections and built relationships with some attendees, which makes it easier to reach out to them on LinkedIn for feedback or to learn more about their current challenges. Another research approach we've utilized is the "jobs to be done" framework, which is big in the world of product marketing. We've worked with third-party companies like Thrv to conduct this research, and our internal UX team on the product side also contributes. This information is always valuable. SEO insights and other internal sources also play a vital role when it comes to web design and publishing our messaging. These are just a few examples of the sources of intel that have been most helpful in my experience. ### **Synthesize your findings** Once you've conducted thorough research, it's essential to synthesize the findings. Keep a document that includes quotes and statistics that reflect the voice of your customers. This document is incredibly important. Just a few months ago, my CMO was really hung up on a word I was using in our messaging, but I had been hearing that word constantly from customers – I’d even come across it in research reports. In the end, I was able to back up my choice by sharing direct quotes with the actual words and phrases used by our target audience. After all, I'm not designing messaging for my CMO but for our audience. ### **Share your insights** Persona kits play a major role in how we share the insights used for messaging. In previous roles, persona kits were often built and then left to go stale. That’s not how I use persona kits anymore. Now, I treat them as living, breathing documents that get constant updates to ensure that the various customer-facing teams are well-informed about our personas. It's also important to regularly share nuggets of insight that emerge from interviews. As an example, I find Slack's video functionality to be fantastic. I create five-minute summary videos in Slack, where I share interview insights and key takeaways. This way, I'm not keeping the information to myself, but getting it out to teams that can truly benefit from it. ## **Tip number three: Standardize with a messaging framework** Now, there’s a good chance you’re using a messaging framework already, and that's great. However, I still want to discuss this topic because I've learned a few lessons about these frameworks throughout my career in product marketing. First and foremost, a framework is essential for maintaining consistency. I've come across so many different templates, and there's no one framework that’s right or wrong; it’s about what works best for your company. Remember, messaging frameworks aren’t rigid; they should be customized to meet the unique needs of your organization. At Workiva, we’ve developed a framework that combines elements from various existing frameworks and is tailored to align with our business structure. It's crucial to establish a hierarchy and levels of messaging within the framework. That’s going to ensure a seamless connection from the brand level down to verticals, personas, solutions, and features. ### **Our messaging framework** Now, let's take a look at our messaging framework. I won't go into too much detail, but I want to share it with you as a resource since I always enjoy seeing other people's frameworks. Our template begins with the story arc, emphasizing the narrative and storytelling aspect to set the stage. [![Graphic of messaging framework.](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-15-at-16.53.55.png)](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/5-tips-to-level-up-your-messaging-efforts/www.productmarketingalliance.com/5-tips-to-level-up-your-messaging-efforts/) We then move into what we call the "big idea." This section has recently evolved, so instead of just a headline, we include a small paragraph. This allows teams like content marketing and demand generation to have creative freedom within the framework, without feeling constrained to use a specific headline. We want them to make it their own – within the guidelines we set out. Backing up word choices with quotes or stats, as I mentioned earlier, is also crucial. Next, we delve into the more traditional pillars of our framework. Our value pillars line up with the core capabilities of the solution, as well as positive business outcomes for the persona group we're addressing. We also have a one-pager with our positioning statement and elevator pitch, reiterating the pain points and value pillars. All this forms the starting lineup of our framework. [![Template of pillar capabilities.](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-15-at-16.54.45.png)](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/5-tips-to-level-up-your-messaging-efforts/www.productmarketingalliance.com/5-tips-to-level-up-your-messaging-efforts/) On top of all this, we list out the top three topics in our messaging, along with details on how we can address those topics at the top of the funnel, mid-funnel, and throughout the customer journey. These additional layers provide more depth to our messaging framework. ## **Tip number four: Involve stakeholders early and often** It's crucial to bring internal stakeholders into the conversation right from the beginning. I like to kick off the messaging process with a messaging jam. During this session, we gather together, use a jam board, and discuss various topics like pain points and values, which we group into relevant themes. Stakeholders have valuable insights that can be used during the message-creation process. Plus, by bringing them in from the jump, you’re going to be able to build trust and get their buy-in so they’ll actually use the messaging you’re creating. This collaborative approach is vital for messaging success. Creating messaging is a major team effort. I love picking the brains of sellers, solution engineers, content creators, and others to gather different perspectives and insights that can enhance our messaging. It's so valuable to run ideas by people and get their thoughts. One critical role in the messaging process at Workiva is our subject matter expert (SME). They are part of product marketing and have firsthand experience in the shoes of our core personas. For example, we have a former controller who now serves as the SME for our accounting and finance group. They play an important role in reviewing and refining our messaging, and they represent our brand in thought leadership activities. I also want to mention the importance of content. Within my portfolio pod, I have a dedicated content marketer. While I’m good at coming up with concepts and bullet-pointing ideas, I may not be the best writer. However, working closely with my content marketer and copywriters, allows us to craft impactful words and develop the final messaging. It's important to remember that being a great writer is not a prerequisite for building amazing messaging. Using the resources and expertise available in your team can help bring your ideas to life. Customer success (CS) teams are often overlooked when it comes to enablement with messaging, but they need to be included. Your messaging likely includes outcomes and measurable metrics, and it's essential that CS delivers the product in line with those metrics and outcomes. Misalignment in this area is going to cause issues down the line and make renewal a nightmare. Now, let's talk about sales. Sales can be a tricky beast. My first suggestion for navigating sales is not to give your sellers the messaging framework directly. We intentionally provide access to our messaging framework for our content marketing team and evangelists, but we don't share it with sales. The reason behind this is that sales may take the pillar slides and incorporate them into their pitch decks or presentations in ways that may not align with the intended messaging. Instead, it's crucial to provide sellers with materials that have already been created based on the messaging framework, such as pitch decks, data sheets, and sales guides for campaigns. My second suggestion is to identify seller champions who can effectively present your messaging to the sales team. This approach ensures that the messaging is delivered in a way that aligns with the overall strategy. At our commercial kickoff event, instead of delivering the messaging myself, I had sales leadership help deliver it. It builds trust and generates a greater reception when the sales team hears the messaging from their leaders or peers – someone they already have a strong relationship with. ## **Tip number five: Don't just set it and forget it** You can’t just set and forget your messaging. Instead, you’ll need to continuously refine it based on testing and new research. I recommend reviewing it every six months or as needed, depending on your industry. However, don't assume that your messaging always needs to change. There's a tendency to get excited about new year or second-half planning and feel the need to change things. But sometimes, messaging needs time to sink in. By the time you become bored with your messaging, people are just starting to grasp and understand it, so avoid changing it unnecessarily. Everything presents an opportunity to test, and it doesn't have to be a formal process using a platform like Usertesting.com (although that can be exciting!) There are many ways to gather feedback without a formal report, such as setting up calls with friendly contacts or A/B testing messaging in ads, email subject lines, or surveys. Lately, I've noticed ChatGPT being used to test messaging. While ChatGPT isn’t perfect and you need to look at the results critically, it's interesting to ask it specific questions about competitors or gather information about your product. It can even provide insights into what's being said about your product in the online sphere. Now, let's discuss measuring success, which can be quite tricky. Seller feedback is a good place to start. Are sales teams using your pitch deck as intended, or are they making a lot of customizations outside the realm of your messaging? You’ll want to analyze the sales data too. Did your sales teams close more deals or generate more revenue in the quarter after the introduction of the new messaging? Did they book more meetings? Turning to demand generation and content, did conversion metrics increase? How many opportunities can be tied to a specific piece of content? While metrics may vary across different organizations, content engagement metrics can provide straightforward insights into how your content is being used. It's also a good idea to track the usage of materials in your sales asset management tool. ## **Key takeaways** So, there you have it! Five tips to level up your messaging efforts. Let's recap. 🎯 Clearly define your target audience to ensure your messaging resonates with the right people. 🔍 Thorough research is a must to understand your audience's needs and pain points. 📋 Standardizing with a messaging framework brings consistency and alignment to your messaging strategy. 🤝 Involving stakeholders early and often fosters collaboration and generates valuable insights. 🔄 And don't forget to continuously refine and test your messaging based on feedback, data, and new research. By keeping putting these tips into action, you'll create impactful messaging that connects with your audience on a whole new level. ### Responsible sourcing: Ensuring sustainability throughout the supply chain URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/responsible-sourcing-ensuring-sustainability-throughout-the-supply-chain/ Last updated: 2023-07-05T10:45:42.000Z In the world of commerce, it's easy to get lost in the dazzling allure of bottom lines, sales figures, and profit margins. We often overlook a critical aspect that's rapidly gaining momentum in the backdrop: responsible sourcing. As we progress further into the 21st century, we need to ask ourselves, "**Are we doing enough to ensure sustainability throughout our supply chain?**" Responsible sourcing refers to the practice of managing and optimizing the sourcing processes, ensuring ethical standards, environmental sustainability, and social well-being. It's about scrutinizing not just the end product, but the complete journey - right from procurement to delivery. It encompasses a broad view that goes beyond the traditional measures of cost, quality, and delivery, exploring the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impacts at every step. [Thriving in vertical SaaS: Five success strategiesVertical SaaS has never been as essential or valuable as it is right now, here are five critical expert tips for vertical SaaS success.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSNavya Rehani Gupta![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/vertical_SaaS_FoSaaS.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/thriving-in-vertical-saas-five-essential-success-strategies-with-navya-rehani-gupta/) ## Why is responsible sourcing essential? Gone are the days when businesses could solely focus on profit-making without considering their impacts on society and the environment. Today's consumers are informed and ethical; they want to ensure that the products they buy are not just top-quality but also sourced responsibly. A Nielsen survey suggests that 73% of millennials are willing to pay extra for sustainable offerings. This rising trend clearly illustrates that responsible sourcing is no longer just an ethical decision but a business imperative. Moreover, responsible sourcing mitigates risks such as environmental degradation, exploitation of workers, and reputational damage. By advocating transparency and responsibility, businesses can foster trust, loyalty, and long-term relationships with their stakeholders. [How do we engage key stakeholders in cross-functional collaboration?Here’s how to ensure seamless collaboration between teams, so you can smash through those silos and skyrocket your organization to success!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/pexels-huy-chien-tran-1756665.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) ## How to ensure sustainability in the supply chain? ### 1\. Understand your supply chain The first step towards ensuring sustainability is understanding your supply chain in its entirety. This includes knowing who your suppliers are, where they are located, how waste is disposed of, and the processes they use. Familiarity with your supply chain will enable you to identify potential risks and areas for improvement. ### 2\. Establish clear standards After understanding your supply chain, it's crucial to establish clear, measurable standards. These should cover all aspects, including labor practices, environmental impacts, and business ethics. Communicating these standards to your suppliers ensures everyone is on the same page about expectations. Labor practices are a crucial element of sustainable sourcing. Ensure that your standards address fair wages, safe working conditions, and respect for workers' rights. [How community-led growth can boost your SaaS growth in 5 stepsIn the evolving SaaS landscape, building an online community can really be the key to unlocking sustainable growth. Find out how you can unlock that growth in five simple steps.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSRebecca Boucher![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/online-community--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-community-led-growth-can-boost-your-saas-growth-in-5-steps/) Encourage suppliers to comply with international labor standards, such as those set by the International Labour Organization (ILO), and promote initiatives that support worker well-being and development. By incorporating labor practices into your standards, you contribute to the creation of a responsible and equitable supply chain. ### 3\. Engage suppliers True sustainability can only be achieved when your suppliers share your commitment to responsible sourcing. Engage them through regular meetings, trainings, and dialogue. Foster an environment where they feel comfortable discussing challenges and seeking assistance. Regular meetings provide a platform for open communication and enable you to discuss sustainability objectives, share best practices, and address any concerns or issues that may arise. These gatherings offer an opportunity to reinforce your organization's sustainability goals, emphasizing the importance of responsible sourcing and its alignment with your overall business strategy. ### 4\. Monitor and evaluate Set up a robust monitoring system to track supplier performance against the set standards. Regular audits, either internal or third-party, can help ensure that your suppliers are meeting the required criteria. Internal audits provide an opportunity for your organization to assess supplier performance and adherence to sustainability standards directly. By conducting these audits, you can thoroughly evaluate your suppliers' processes, practices, and documentation to ensure they align with your sustainability objectives. [The dangers of outsourcing SaaS development vs keeping it in-houseWhen it comes to scaling your SaaS org, which is the better option: outsourcing or in-house? We weigh up the pros and cons right here![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/outsourcing--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-dangers-of-outsourcing-saas-development-vs-keeping-it-in-house/) ### 5\. Foster transparency Transparency is key to building trust with your stakeholders. Be open about your processes, successes, and areas where you need improvement. Utilize digital tools and technologies to create a transparent and traceable supply chain. In addition to labor practices and environmental impacts, your sustainability standards should encompass business ethics. Emphasize the importance of integrity, transparency, and ethical behavior in supplier relationships. Communicate your expectations regarding anti-corruption measures, responsible sourcing of materials, and compliance with relevant regulations and industry standards. ### 6\. Collaborate and innovate Sustainability is a shared responsibility. Collaborate with other businesses, governments, and NGOs to address common challenges. Innovate to find solutions that can make your supply chain more sustainable, without compromising on quality or cost-effectiveness. ## The Way Forward Responsible sourcing is not a one-time project but a continuous journey towards a sustainable future. It's an intricate balance between economic viability, social equity, and environmental protection – the triple bottom line of sustainability. While it may seem overwhelming at first, the rewards of responsible sourcing far outweigh the challenges. Besides reducing risks, it drives innovation, increases competitiveness, and opens up new opportunities. Most importantly, it assures you that your success is not at the expense of our planet or its inhabitants. It's time we acknowledge that our decisions echo in a much broader context than the confines of our businesses. --- *Want to read more exclusive insights from the leading minds in SaaS? Why not sign up for a Future of SaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Why we need to amplify diverse voices in marketing URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/why-we-need-to-amplify-diverse-voices-in-marketing/ Last updated: 2023-06-30T15:31:47.000Z I’m Patrick Reynolds, and I’m the CMO of a company called BlueConic, which is a technology company in the customer data platform space. BlueConic is a portfolio company of Vista, which is the largest technology investor in the world. I’ve always been an observer of people in life, which is an expression that I learned quite early on. I try to be a cultural anthropologist of humans in the wild, as it were. So on the subway, in the park, when they don't know that you're observing, you're observing (in a non-creepy-weird way). I always keep an ear open and my eyes open to how people look, behave, and interact. And I think that's always been really core to me. I take a journalistic perspective on how to do marketing, I guess. It's important to talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) from a marketing perspective and make sure that we’re building the kinds of organizations that represent us as people and our businesses well. I’d also like to speak secondarily as a human who recognizes the dramatic and desperate need for a more inclusive, multicultural, multi-palleted world. And then I’d also like to speak to you as a cisgender, middle-aged white guy, because I think that persona is critical to making everything else work better, faster. ## **Defining diversity, equity, and inclusion** To me, DEI is about creating a space where everyone is welcome. And a different way to say that is that I want to create an environment that broadly looks like the world we live in. Up until quite recently, the business world was a little cocoon nested within this increasingly diverse world, but immune to it. It was a little white bastion in the middle of a very multicolored ocean or constellation. But that dog won't hunt anymore. So we need to figure out a way to make what happens inside the four walls of the business more closely mirror what happens outside of them. [Actionable strategies for diversity, equity and inclusionIn Future of SaaS’s recent SaaS Landscape Report, we wanted to find out how Saas professionals think their C-suite is doing in relation to the gender divide, ethnicity, and socio-economic background.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/diversity--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/actionable-strategies-for-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/) ## **Business is integral to a better society** *“Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance. And belonging is dancing like no one’s watching.”* It's important to be fluent in all of the idioms of the audience that you’re candidly marketing to or selling to. So, even though we're selling enterprise-level software, we're seeing the buyers of that kind of product change. Ten years ago, they looked a lot like me. And that's still the case in certain places. Now, though, we're finding people who are younger, more diverse, and have a different background. And if I come at them with a series of Seinfeld references, dad jokes, and baseball terms, it's probably not going to land. So it's enlightened self-interest for me to have people who can make us fluent in the language of our customers. If you want to be purely financially motivated, that's one way to look at it. The other way is that we need to create a better society, and business is integral to creating a better society for better or worse. We can't fix the fact that business has a large outsized presence because it does. So let's capitalize on it and try to advance the ball as much as we can. So there's both a financial and business motive. I also believe that a more diverse set of marketers is preferable and better over time than a less diverse set of marketers for business results. [Actionable strategies for diversity, equity and inclusionIn Future of SaaS’s recent SaaS Landscape Report, we wanted to find out how Saas professionals think their C-suite is doing in relation to the gender divide, ethnicity, and socio-economic background.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/diversity--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/actionable-strategies-for-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/) I’d also like to create a world that I'd like to work and live in, and that's one that welcomes and celebrates the diversity of everyone. Another thing that's really interesting is that younger people are currently making very interesting employment decisions. You read a lot of things that’ll say a lot of people are opting to work less or more remotely, or they'll take less money for more latitude of schedule. I believe that a lot of that has to do with the fact that the business doesn’t map to their values, and they almost want to limit their exposure to something that's contrary to their values. If your work life is just too different from your life-life, you're going to want to shrink it so that you can have your life-life. So if we can make work life a little more like the outside world, then maybe we can have a more harmonious relationship between work and personal life. ## **Establishing authentic DEI in marketing** When it comes to DEI, companies have been talking the talk for a long time, but it’s only recently that they're beginning to walk the walk. Optics have always been essential. You needed to look suitable for a company. So people would make great efforts in their advertising campaigns to show a vast array of people. But behind the scenes, the people making those things were typically much more like me than what the company was portraying. Now, I think that’s starting to change. I think it’s changed dramatically in the case of women, but I don't think it's changed as much as it frankly needs to in the case of people of color. I think that it’s happening, but it's just not happening at the rate and pace that I think anyone would be comfortable with. It's very ironic because marketing is typically the canary in the coal mine. It'll put it out there that this is where we need to be. But then if you actually pull back the covers on the people making the marketing, they're talking the talk but not walking the walk. It's a lot of white people making commercials about how important diversity is. [Strategy for social change: diversity and storytellingDiversity is a strong contender for the word of the decade. Companies around the world are waking up and asking themselves how they can better represent the societies that surround them.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnna Griffin![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/Strategy-for-social-change.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/strategy-for-social-change-diversity-and-storytelling/) Now that’s changing, and I think that's critically important. But that's another irony that sticks in my craw a little bit. A lot of the startups I've been a part of are very clubby. You have a small number of people in the venture capital community giving money to a small number of people that they can rely on. And it perpetuates this handing off the baton within a circle so it really just goes around. Most of these people are really good people, in my experience. But again, it's a very small circle. When I worked for MasterCard, which is obviously a large, publicly traded global company, diversity was real there. I’d literally be the token straight white guy in the room, and I’d be amongst all of God's creatures. It was fantastic; the ability to harmonize that energy and get that thinking together and all those broad perspectives. We also have a terrible fault in the US of thinking in red, white, and blue terms and thinking of a very US-centric world, which is becoming less the case all the time as well. So for all those reasons, just hearing people, hearing how they talked, hearing their stories, hearing about their families, seeing their pictures and all that, it was an awakening, and it made us better at what we did. ## **DEI initiatives and their impact on customers** If we look at some examples of DEI initiatives from other brands and how those initiatives have affected customers, I guess we'd be remiss to not talk about the Bud Light fiasco. Just because you say it, doesn't mean it’s so. I’d just file that under that heading. I think that there was absolutely nothing wrong with what Bud Light did. In fact, I could find a lot of things that are admirable about it, providing it was coming from a genuine place and it wasn’t something they did so that they could get a good DEI grade in their board meeting. I don't know if the average consumer, much less Kid Rock, has privy into what they're talking about when they're creating that kind of campaign. So I think it's a little self-serving for the haters as well. [3 benefits to female leadership in SaaS (and 5 steps to making it happen)28.8% That’s the total percentage of women working in the technology industry back in 2020, according to this report. This report suggests that the percentage is projected to reach 33% in 2022.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSuryansh Sodhani![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/women-in-SaaS.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/3-benefits-to-diverse-leadership-and-5-steps-to-making-it-happen/) But it just goes back to the idea that you’ll make things that work for your audience, provided you know those inputs. I can market to a diverse array of customers better if I have a diverse array of people helping me market. You can also think about cosmetic companies like Fenty Beauty, who came in with a wide collection of makeup that suits all skin tones. And now this is the norm in the cosmetic industry. I don't think the initial people who created these kinds of cosmetic products and marketing campaigns were doing it from a place of exclusion. I think they just didn't know. They're more like sins of omission than commission. I don't think anyone ever intended to make makeup that wouldn’t work for people of color. I think it just never occurred to them that it wouldn't work for those people because they look like me. [The playbook to inclusive marketing in SaaSHow do we “effectively” market in the SaaS industry whilst also remaining committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. And how can we keep pushing it forward? 72% of people feel most advertising and communication doesn’t reflect the world around them.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDivya Durai![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/inclusion.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-playbook-to-inclusive-marketing-in-saas/) If it's all super single-threaded, elitist, white, or American. We're not doing it from a bad place. It's just the language that we speak and the culture that we grew up in. But it doesn't work anymore. So you need to bring other people into the room and they can sanity check your stuff. How is it plausible that you can ask a very small group of people who aren’t what you want them to be, to be more like what you want them to be? Imagine I'm going to tell a room of 10 people who are all white, six went to Stanford, and four went to Harvard, “I want you to now be of the people and go out and cast a big net for the people in Hoboken, New Jersey, and Brixton, London.” How is that going to ever work? It won’t. So the question is, do you actually want that? Or do you want to look like you want that? If you actually want that, you need to bring in people who have some understanding of those places. ## **Twitter’s role in DEI discourse** Twitter has recently been going through a bit of a chaotic time under Elon Musk's management. Personally, I view the platform as a vast wasteland that I’ll occasionally glimpse into on my own time just to see how crazy the world is. And then I quickly slam it shut and run away. I think that Elon Musk is trying to make the argument that it's plumbing. He’s saying, “Put whatever you want on there. We're not here to sanction it. We're not a publisher.” And yet on the 2nd of June, the second day of Pride, he was actively promoting anti-trans rhetoric. Twitter wants us to think that it's not a publisher, like the New York Times, promoting hate and filth and exclusivity and all these other things. It's a forum, it's a message board, and people put what they want on it. [How to Know if Your Company is InclusiveWorried that your organization isn’t doing enough to promote inclusivity and diversity? Thankfully, the world of SaaS is waking up to the long-term benefits of diversity and inclusivity.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/pexels-katie-rainbow----_---8614479.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-know-if-your-company-is-inclusive/) I don't think that’s going to hold true anymore, especially if you're going to charge people to put things on there and you're profiting from that, and you have the owner of the company actively amplifying toxic and harmful rhetoric. It's pretty transparent. It's also not a place where I think serious business should be done. I'm not sure anything should be done on it. If wishes were fishes, I’d rather it didn't exist. But it’s drawn into a stark conversation about how powerful a weapon Twitter can be. A weapon is a word that I use intentionally. Words can be weaponized to turn people from pretty sane, normal people into pretty fringy people, just through a constant stream of misinformation and bad information. And it's great that Twitter throws its hands up and says, "We're not posting anything, we're just passing it along," but they're making money from it. That's what's so bothersome about it. People should just use Twitter very seldom, and never for serious business. In other words, I don't think running B2B software marketing campaigns on Twitter is time well spent. "Do I need software, let me see what Twitter thinks?" It’d just never occur to me as a buyer. There are LinkedIn, forums, B2B review sites, Gartner, and Forrester. I’d go to those places to do my research. There are other kinds of forums that are specific to the topic. I wouldn’t go to Twitter to do serious business myself. [Celebrating women and their trailblazing contributions in the tech spaceInternational Women’s Day gives us time to pause, mindfully reflect, and imagine a better workplace where genders are equal and treated without bias or discrimination — and evaluate the path forward to advance gender diversity in tech.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSCourtney Grigsby![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/christina-wocintechchat-com-MkxWUzCuYkE-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/celebrating-women-and-their-trailblazing-contributions-in-the-tech-space/) It's going to be an incredibly wild political season here in the US. With Trump now being reapproved to be back on Twitter, it's just going to be a mudslinging mess for several months. And all of this will initially harm DEI as a concept because anybody who's for those ideals, these loudmouths, will be against them and they'll denigrate them. Then they'll bring in all their sheep behind them to put more wood on that fire. I think long term, it's good because I’m an optimist. I believe that with all of this hate, for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. I think in time, there’ll be a cry to put down these people. But I think that fire’s going to have to burn out first. I actually think it’ll advance the case for a more tolerant, diverse, inclusive world. It's just going to take a minute. What's really frightening though is when you think about what’ll happen with the proliferation of AI. You now have big machines that can smell the soft spots, can see where the demographics are, and can see in real-time or near real-time where an election is trending. For example, "We're losing in the state of Louisiana, let's now gin up some message that we know will resonate with voters because we're damn near omniscient. And then let's just put it into everyone's feed down there unsolicited, and try to turn these outcomes." It's literally Mary Shelley's monster come to life, but the monster is now running the experiment. And it's crazy and vaguely terrifying and horrible all at the same time. ## **Upholding DEI values beyond financial gain** At BlueConic, we have really, really tight alignment amongst the leadership team and amongst Vista around our values. I think our values and values alignment was one of the big reasons that Vista was attracted to BlueConic and BlueConic to Vista. We’ve celebrated Mental Health Month, Women's Month, and Native Indigenous Peoples Month. We’re really into that, not because it helps us sell any software (it doesn't do a single thing for software), but because it sends out a beacon to the world that these are our values. And if your values map to our values, if you want to talk, cool, and if you don't, that's cool, too. [Measuring inclusivity in the workplace \[Q&A with Growth Engineering\]Minna Vaisanen, Head of Customer Success at Growth Engineering joined us for a Q&A ahead of The Women in SaaS Summit. Here she discusses the main indicators of inclusivity, how to tell if a company’s culture is right for you, and how to measure inclusivity in the workplace.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/dylan-gillis-KdeqA3aTnBY-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/measuring-inclusivity-in-the-workplace-q-a-with-growth-engineering/) Doing the right thing when there's no financial gain is something that’s really, really important to us. It's not lost on me that BlueConic is interesting in many different ways, but we have a young female CEO, a female CRO, and a female Chief People Officer. We also have high-ranking women in product, in engineering, in everything. First of all, I don't think it’s by design. But secondarily, it prevents us from going into some of these dark corners that maybe some of our competitors go into. We stick to the sunny side of the street at BlueConic. ## **Overcoming DEI obstacles: Strategic approaches for marketing teams** When looking to overcome some of the obstacles of implementing DEI, you just have to work backward from, "What do you want?" Let’s say you’d like to have an inclusive team that’s representative of the audience that you’re marketing to. Okay, so how do you do that? Let's just say in this case, "I need to find more people of color than we have presently in the company". How do you do that? The first thing is you’ll recruit in places where people of color actually go to school. And it might not just be Stanford and Harvard. It might be state schools or tech schools. It might be all kinds of different places that are non-traditionally recruited from. [How the C-suite can drive diversity, equity, and inclusionFostering a diverse hiring practice isn’t just morally the right thing to do, it actively makes your business more successful. Global data time and again shows how ethnic, racial, and gender diversities correlate with higher than industry-average earnings.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/dylan-gillis-KdeqA3aTnBY-unsplash--2---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-the-c-suite-can-drive-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/) How do we make sure that diverse candidates get into those schools? You have to have community outreach programs, you have to do days of charitable work, and you have to talk about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). When you're doing your community days, make sure that it's not just for the suburban kids, that it's also for the kids right smack-dab in the middle of the city. It's root and branch, all the links of the chain have to connect in order to get the outcome you want. So that's something that we're hard at work on, there's tonnes of work to be done. The other thing is that you have to KPI it. It's an objective of mine. It's not like, "Hey, if you find somebody that's diverse, that'd be cool". It's, "You're being evaluated on your ability to cast a broad slate and bring in the kinds of people that we want to bolster up." Just like I am for pipeline creation, bookings, revenue, cash, all of those things. DEI is also part of that letter set. ## **The power of diversity in self-enlightenment** In my view, there’s a very small fringe component of the world that wantonly and knowingly does the wrong thing. If you talk to 80% of the world and ask, "Should workplaces be diverse? Should they be inclusive? Should they be equitable?" They go, “Of course!" Most people aren’t actively unfair. And most people think that they manifest DEI in their private life and their work life. It's only when you’re exposed to someone not like you, who gives you the eyeball when you say something or you overhear a conversation. You don't know what you don't know until you know. And you'll never know if you don't bring people into your circle who force expose you to it. My children are an amazing foil for me. I think I’m a liberal, enlightened, progressive, wonderful human being. But not a day will go by that I won’t get called to account for something I’ve said. At the time, it hasn’t even occurred to me that what I’ve said might be offensive to anybody. It could be something around pronouns or expressions that I learned from TV as a kid that now makes my kids’ heads explode. [How diverse voices contribute to SaaSKalina Bryant, Global Head of Customer Advocacy at Asana and Founder of UnapologeTECH Platform and Podcast hosted a panel discussion at this year’s Future of SaaS Festival, outlining the importance of a diverse workforce and why it’s worked out so well for our panelists.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/07/marvin-meyer-SYTO3xs06fU-unsplash--1---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-diverse-voices-contribute-to-saas/) Until somebody is different than you and you hear how they do it, or they call you out on how you do it, you just don't know. And when you do know, you go, "That makes so much sense." And you actually do move closer to enlightenment. You’ve still got a long way to go, but you’ll move closer to it. But you'll never ever read about that. You can't search websites or attend conferences about it. Your circle must be inclusive of people who are very different from you, or you're just never going to get it, in my view. And that's why it's so important to hire people who are broadly representative of the world so that you go, "I’m learning so much every day, and I was supposed to be the teacher". I learn 10x what I teach because I'm surrounded by people that I’ve not been around before, and I'm so much better for it. --- *Enjoyed this article? Why not check out some exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Shortening salespeople's time-to-confidence URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/shortening-salespeoples-time-to-confidence/ Last updated: 2023-06-30T10:55:21.000Z In this article, I'm going to be talking about something very specific in the realm of sales enablement personnel: how do you track the confidence around your sellers? Second Nature is a sales simulation application that enables salespeople to role play in two way conversations with a virtual persona that you define, and that’s fit to your company's buyer personas and different sales cycles. What we allow these sellers to do is practice in a safe space. - The importance of measuring seller confidence - Seller confidence and buyer trust go hand-in-hand - Key ways to improve seller confidence - Key takeaways ## **The importance of measuring seller confidence** ### **Sales enablement’s responsibilities are everpresent** We all know that we're dealing with uncertain times, and that uncertainty is going to continue. But all of us in sales enablement know that uncertainty doesn't matter. You have your sales goals and you're all faced with a whole variety of different programs that you need to implement, support and showcase to the heads of sales. Then you need to talk to the sales managers about new ways in which you're going to help build the sales pipeline and grow the business. You may have a new product, a new message, new pricing to compete against the latest competitor market and increase your revenue at the company level, or maybe a new methodology. And of course, we see people leave the organization, and have people join the organization - we inevitably hear a lot about the need to hire and onboard people as fast and efficiently as possible. There’s also a need, based on your expectations and your responsibility in sales enablement, to showcase that the sales team members who are ingesting their courses and taking your training are improving: *“Hey, look at what we've done with all our initiatives to make these people more productive, more efficient, and more effective in their selling*.” ### **Where does sales confidence come in?** But that's only part of what you need to do as a sales enabler. > *What do you do about confidence? How do you measure confidence within your sellers?* We know that having confident conversations with buyers will drive them to have a relationship with your sellers that drives proficiency and productivity. I'm saying: “*Oh, confident conversations? Great, easy!*”. But one thing that we’ve seen is that it's not simple. If you're going to measure proficiency and competence, you also have to be able to measure confidence, in addition to tracking the quantitative side of the effects of sales enablement initiatives. ## **Seller confidence and buyer trust go hand in hand** So let's take a step back and talk about what confidence is. Very simply, the definition of confidence is ****the measure of certainty that you can accomplish a task and be able to complete it**. But one thing that we hear a lot is that competency and confidence are very different from self-esteem. You can have an individual with very high self-esteem who isn't confident in what they're doing on a certain task - and we're not just talking about new sellers or individuals who are in the early stages of their careers, we're also talking about established sellers. Tony Robbins has this statement around confidence, which is: > *“If you don't know how to sell with confidence, customers won't trust you.”* And that's the foundation of the relationship. We know that confidence and trust come hand in hand. [Aligning sales with post-sales to drive customer lifetime valueCustomer Success leaders Minna Vaisanen and Nieves Canada outline how to bridge the gap between sales and customer success.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMinna Vaisanen![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/Aligning-sales-with-post-sales-to-drive-customer-lifetime-value.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/aligning-sales-with-post-sales-to-drive-customer-lifetime-value/) ### **The difference between confidence and experience** Going back to why this is applicable to any level of seller or experienced seller, let's talk about Jim. Jim is a real-life person who’s been brought into an organization at a senior level. He was showcased to the board as an experienced seller with 20 years in software sales. He’d done large deals, was very technical, and had a very high level of proficiency. The board said: “*Let's put this individual in. He’s going to handle some large deals and run a sales team. It's going to be in a new market, but he's done two other markets before.*” But what happened was that after nine months, there were no large deals, and very little progress in the pipeline - and the very experienced, multi-million dollar seller had lost his confidence. He felt that he didn't have the trust of the buyer, and he didn’t have experience in the industry. But the senior executives at the organization didn't know. There was no program in place for Jim. They thought: “*Hey, he's been around for 20 years. He should be able to handle this”.* ****But he didn't have the confidence.** And that's one thing that we look at very closely in what we do at Second Nature. How do you help the confidence level of these sellers? ## **Key ways to improve seller confidence** There are some major areas that enablement team leaders can look at to help sellers increase their level of confidence - and then with that confidence will come the successful deals. ### **Specialized coaching** The first area is specialized coaching. You need to have a program in place to look for, interview, and ask about specific areas where team members may lack confidence. They may be proficient, they may pass the tests, but there may still be areas in which they lack confidence. At Second Nature, we talk about practicing in a safe space. Individuals love the virtual AI assistant because it doesn't judge. *“Hey Russ, you did okay. Here's your score. Maybe you want to improve next time. Want to go again?”* The thought is: “*This is like interacting with a real person”,* and a suspension of disbelief. It’s like in a movie. Why does Vin Diesel fly his car through a building? Your brain is saying: “*Wow, that's pretty cool. He flew his car through a building.”* It's not dissimilar to what we do at Second Nature in terms of creating a safe space environment. [Sales: The rules of engagementSales is a complex and competitive business - and never more so than when deciding who gets the credit for what: who gets the commission and, just as importantly, who gets the recognition?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/muyuan-ma--xHZBzv4Naw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-the-rules-of-engagement/) ### **Understand levels of enthusiasm** Once you look at that first area of coaching, you then need to look at enthusiasm for the job. Say I give a seller, Will, a new task: “*Will, I'm going to give you a new assignment. I want you to take on this new market*.” What’s Will's reaction? “*Oh, I don't know. I'm quite happy with what I'm doing*.” Well, that's showcasing that he's challenged with his confidence. He's not looking at the job as continuous new opportunities. There may be an issue there. What kind of questions is he asking? If Will asks me: “*Am I going to get quota relief for the first eight months before I take on this role? Am I going to be able to work with the right people?”,* is he looking for reassurance? Maybe he's not so confident in what he's doing in this specific market or new opportunity. ### **Willingness to take risks** And finally, you have to look at their willingness to take risks. Is Will saying: “*I think we should give this discount. I can’t get the deal done*,” or “*I want to lay back and I'm not ready to take any risks in the role*”? Those are automatic examples of sellers who need help with their confidence and you need to look at ways in which to approach this.. [How To Make Salespeople Care | Future of SaaSI’m going to give you some areas that you can focus on to either help your team roll out a plan, that you should be focused on when implementing a training or going into some sort of presentation.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.59.31.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/salespeople-dont-give-a-sh-t/) ### **Safe spaces to practice** The second one is around practicing in a safe space, and this is where Second Nature comes in. We look at it as an end to end process. The first thing is that when a seller comes in to practice with the virtual persona, they always get positive reinforcement - it provides that boost of adrenaline. What happens with the positive reinforcement is that their face changes and the serotonin goes up, ****they get excited**. And then finally, we always close the five to eight minute simulation with a question about confidence. - ‘Do you feel more confident? - Is this making you comfortable? - Is it making you uncomfortable?’ ### **Measurement and tracking** The survey at the end of the simulation, that’s very important and an example of the type of data we track with our programs. We look to measure proficiency. So for example, between session one all the way to session three, how much have they improved their score in terms of their knowledge? > *But the key part is the confidence score.* What the simulation is driving is an increase in confidence and a way to measure it from the sales enablement team. Enablement can say: “*Look, we've rolled this out, we can showcase proficiency and information that the seller is now able to present to prospects*. *Once they've done the simulation they feel more confident in the information that they have*.” That’s critical in terms of making sure that your confidence and your proficiency will turn into more deals from your sellers. While you may do interviews, you also want to pay special attention to the written feedback. You might have a seller, and you can tell she's pretty excited. But what comes through is the confidence that she's ready to go. And this is all because of the experience that she's had with the simulation itself. [Sales Enablement Scaled Down: Problems facing small startupsShilpa Prasad gave a great talk on the problems facing a small startup like hers, YouNoodle, in the context of sales enablement, sales leadership and the overall world of sales.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.55.13.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-enablement-scaled-down-problems-facing-small-startups/) ## **Key takeaways** Confidence and proficiency measurement need to go hand in hand. You have to look at that because it's a harder thing to measure, but it's very important as a KPI for your sellers. Anybody can lack confidence in a test. It doesn't matter how high their self-esteem is. And the three areas of being able to cut the time-to-confidence. How do you get your sellers to be more confident? - It’s about providing specialized coaching - Providing an environment for safe practice - Measurement with surveys and feedback immediately after they do the simulation. So let’s go back to Jim, who I talked about earlier. Great seller, wasn't good at a job, and had to leave the company. For 12 months, he didn't go back into the work environment. Then, Jim received a call to interview as a new CRO at a company, and the recruiter said to him: “*Why don't you try Second Nature? You're going to review the deck and go through the information*.” So Jim took notes, looked at the presentation, and thought: “*Okay, this simulation sounds interesting.*” He tried the simulation for the first time, did it for seven minutes, and said: “*Oh, this is interesting. It's telling me about areas for improvement. I can watch how the pitch works*.” He did it a second time and a third time, and within 35 minutes he got a good score. But it wasn't the score that sat with Jim. It was the fact that after an hour and a half of prep with the document he was sent as materials, and the simulations, he felt that he was ready to go into a first conversation with a prospect with confidence. ****And I know that because I'm Jim.** So that’s the kind of thing you could look at for your own sellers and the effect that it has on the individuals. Confidence is a huge, huge influencer. ### Thriving in vertical SaaS: Five essential success strategies with Navya Rehani Gupta URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/thriving-in-vertical-saas-five-essential-success-strategies-with-navya-rehani-gupta/ Last updated: 2023-07-20T16:56:43.000Z *This article comes from *Navya Rehani Gupta*’s talk at the *Future of SaaS Festival 2023*, check out the full unedited version* [*here.*](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-april-2023/) The world of SaaS is one of the most exciting, competitive, and dynamic industries to work in today, and **Navya Rehani Gupta** joins us today to share her insights on how to thrive in this ever-changing field. In particular, she focuses on the **enormous potential of vertical SaaS**. A fascinating space to work in, Navya adds that ‘vertical SaaS allows us to dive deeper into a specific industry’s problems and challenges, and create bespoke solutions to address them.' But firstly a little background on our industry expert, **Navya Rehani Gupta, Chief Product Officer at Peek**. She tells us that at Peek, > *‘Our mission is to connect the world through experience. Our industry-leading vertical SaaS solution Peek Pro enables tours & activity operators to supercharge their revenue and streamline operations, powering over $2B+ in bookings.* With almost two decades of experience building large-scale products under her belt, she has navigated her way through various industries, from finance on Wall Street to entertainment at Disney, beauty, and now, travel. But one thing she’s come to understand is the power of vertical SaaS, especially today, since every industry runs on software, **vertical SaaS has never been as essential or valuable as it is right now**. Over the years, Navya has cultivated numerous key strategies that can truly make a difference in achieving success in this space, distilling these learnings here into **five critical tips for vertical SaaS success**. These are **listening actively** to your customers, using this feedback to **know where to play** and where to stay away, **scaling smartly**, **defining your unique equation** with reach and depth, and **using data to create a better tomorrow**. So read on to find out more and discover how to optimize your vertical SaaS function today! 1. ****Active listening** 2. ****Knowing where to play and where to stay away** 3. ****Smart scaling** 4. ****Define your unique equation** 5. ****Embracing data for a better tomorrow** - ****Final takeaways and mistakes to avoid** ## **Active listening** Navya highlights that when talking about building successful SaaS products, one of the foundational elements that often gets overlooked is the **power of actively listening** and **prioritizing real customer problems**. It's something that she’s learned makes a substantial difference in product outcomes, and especially in today's highly competitive SaaS environment, **customer centricity is a necessity**. Here she adds, ‘it’s not just about hearing what our customers say; it’s about really understanding their needs, their true pain points, and their aspirations.' Recounting an example of this, Navya explains that she never misses an opportunity to interact with her customers, ‘when I was at Uber, I would regularly speak to drivers about the driver app and ask for feedback.' ![Navya during her time at Uber](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/Navya_FoSaaS-2.png) Featured here is a picture of her driver, showing Navya how she was carrying a magnifying lens to look at the new map that had been recently introduced and she even had a notebook to track her earnings and check them against what Uber was paying her. By actively listening to the feedback from her customers, Navya was able to gain **unique insights** and understand their personal needs, allowing her company to change the app for the better by stepping back and really listening. She adds, ‘Active listening isn't just about being reactive to customer feedback, but it's about being **proactive** in seeking it out. It's about being inquisitive, asking the right questions, and constantly looking for ways to better understand your customers' needs.' Further, ‘it's about creating an **open dialogue** with your customers, encouraging them to share their thoughts and feedback, and demonstrating that their input is valued and has an impact. And most importantly, it’s about **taking action** on what you’ve learned to lead to solutions that exceed customer expectations. In the world of vertical SaaS, which caters to specific industries, active listening becomes even more crucial. Navya highlights that it allows for a deeper understanding of the industry we're serving, comprehending its unique nuances and challenges, and building solutions that truly address them. So, her first piece of advice to anyone looking to thrive in the vertical SaaS space is: Listen and **listen actively**. Be **open to feedback**, be **proactive**, and be **ready to act** on it. ## Knowing where to play and where to stay away Moving on to the next aspect, let's talk about **strategic positioning**. This is about understanding where a product fits into the market and being clear on where to play and, equally importantly, where not to. When Navya joined Peek, one of the first projects she worked on was **defining the company’s market position.** Peek is a powerful tool for tour and activity operators, and they knew that their product had the potential to cater to a diverse range of businesses. However, they also realized that Peek couldn't be everything to everyone. They needed to be strategic about where they focused their efforts and consider **how far they would go to solve problems** and **where they should draw the line**. ![How businesses operated before Peek: Bookings,Inventory, Point of Sale, Check-in, Marketing & Distribution, Waivers](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/data-src-image-7ac9920d-2946-4318-9131-69db35a3e0c9.png) This positioning exercise continues to be one of Navya’s top priorities in her role, especially since Peek’s customer base, total addressable market and geographical footprint continue to evolve every year. Having an intentional platform strategy that aligns with your company's vision is crucial. Navya explains this means **understanding your strengths** and **focusing on where you can excel** whilst also being able to open up your platform to others in your ecosystem. So this can include **partnerships, integrations**, and **acquisitions**, it is also important to be strategic about which companies to work with, and how to collaborate with them to create new opportunities for growth. The data gathered from this also **helps create a robust API framework** that enables a company to offer unique solutions. Once you've defined your market position, the next step is to develop a strong, differentiated value proposition. This is about being **competitively aware**, understanding what sets your product apart, and why customers should choose you over the competition, without being solely focused on your competitor. So, be clear about where you want to play and where you don’t. Navya concludes that you need to ‘understand what sets your product apart and ensure that your customers understand it too, this is the **key to carving out a successful niche in your chosen vertical.'** ## **Smart scaling** When it comes to vertical SaaS, **finding a balance between offering [customization and scalability](https://www.saasalliance.io/everything-you-need-to-know-when-scaling-your-saas-startup/) is key**. Customization is crucial because vertical SaaS solutions need to speak the language of the customer. However, it’s equally important to ensure that solutions are **scalable, adaptable**, and **flexible**. For example, when Navya was at StyleSeat, they initially thought of sending reminders to customers to book their next beauty appointment. However, they soon realized that the needs of barbers, nail salons, and hair stylists differed considerably. What was required was not a one-size-fits-all solution, but a platform that allowed for **scalable configurations to cater to the unique needs** of each type of business within the beauty vertical. As a product person, Navya is always guided by the **goal of creating value for all stakeholders** and considering how her company’s platform will evolve over time. The objective is to holistically **solve the problems for customers** Finally, Navya explains that it’s crucial to remember that **experimentation** is an integral part of platform development. She dives in further, adding that ‘before investing significant resources into building a new feature or functionality, it’s essential to **validate the idea** and ensure that there's a real need for it.’ This can be done through customer research, surveys, and even through maintaining a space for non-scalable ideas to keep experimenting and innovating. At Peek, they have a unit called Peek Labs, which allows them to fund non-scalable ideas and understand if these ideas are meeting the milestones for growth. The goal is always to create a platform that meets the unique needs of customers and drives value for all stakeholders. **In essence, smart scaling in vertical SaaS is about balancing customization with scalability and fostering a culture of experimentation.** Navya summarizes this beautifully, ‘be smart about how you scale. Understand the unique needs of your customers and create comprehensive solutions that streamline workflows and add value.’ [Scaling and deciding which metrics to measure: The metrics that matter mostAt the SaaS Metrics Summit, we were lucky enough to be able to sit down with three leaders from the world of SaaS, who shared with us their insights on the metrics that matter most as you scale your organization.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/eberhard-grossgasteiger-tFQj4NtuPME-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-and-deciding-which-metrics-to-measure-the-metrics-that-matter-most/) ## **Defining your unique equation** In today’s exploration of the vertical SaaS world, the fourth tip Navya discusses with us revolves around **defining a unique equation with reach and depth**. This aspect is crucial as it helps to strike the right balance between serving the needs of current customers and expanding the market base. If you're doing your job well, your customers' businesses will grow because of you, and their **needs will continually evolve.** So, how do you decide whether to focus on retention or market expansion? At the heart of the equation is the ability to please customers. It’s often **cheaper to retain existing customers** than to go after new ones. [SaaScast: Scaling new heights with vertical SaaSAlan Gleeson, CEO of Contento, shares his own first-hand successes with vertical SaaS and how to plan out and action a vertical marketing strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/-Scaling-new-heights-with-vertical-SaaS.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-scaling-new-heights-with-vertical-saas/) But another way to win in vertical SaaS is by **offering multiple products that streamline workflows**. Navya emphasizes the key lies in the introduction of multiple products before core business growth starts to slow down or saturate. For instance, at Peek, Navya points out that they found that their customers appreciate having a suite of products that work seamlessly together. Their financial planning software integrates with their analytics platform, which allows their customers to easily track financial performance and make informed decisions about their business. Embracing the ecosystem and being honest about the total addressable market, serviceable available market, and how much of that is actually obtainable is vital. You need to **understand the market landscape** and where your business fits in. At Peek, when they considered expanding their product offerings, they used customer profit and loss statements to **rank potential expansion paths**. This method helped them focus on areas where they could materially drive revenue or reduce costs for their customers. Defining your unique equation is all about **understanding the balance between going deep to serve the needs of your current customers** and **reaching wide to expand your market base**. Navya explains that ‘by working to delight your customers, offering holistic product solutions, and understanding your market, you can make informed decisions about where to focus your efforts.’ ## **Embracing data for a better tomorrow** The final tip Navya gives us for vertical SaaS success is the [leveraging of data](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-scale-your-saas-organisation-follow-the-2021-data-2/) to create a better tomorrow. As the world evolves at a rapid pace, staying ahead of the curve necessitates **harnessing the power of data**. However, data remains one of the most underutilized opportunities in vertical SaaS. **Data maturity is a journey** that starts with recognizing the importance of data in your business. As you become more proficient in your analysis, you'll start to see how metrics can lead to insights and change behaviors. Each company's journey is unique, so honesty about data maturity is key to creating a journey of continuous improvement. Navya neatly concludes, ‘data analysis isn’t about crunching numbers; it's about **changing behaviors and making better decisions**.’ [SaaS MarketingAs the demand for cloud-based software continues to grow, SaaS companies are facing intense competition in the market. Here is a guide to help you develop a successful SaaS marketing strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_Marketing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) The unique application of FinTech in vertical SaaS is something truly fascinating. At Peek, they recognize that their partners have their own financial services needs, which is why they embed financial solutions. **But with great data power comes great responsibility.**It's crucial to have **clear communication** around data usage policies. Your customers need to trust that their data is being used safely and securely. By continually improving your data maturity, offering differentiated solutions, and prioritizing privacy and security, you can stay at the forefront of this data-driven revolution. ## **Final takeaways and mistakes to avoid** It's an exciting time to be in the vertical SaaS space. By focusing on these five areas Navya highlights, you'll be well on your way to creating a platform that not only meets the unique needs of your customers but also drives value for all your stakeholders. Her five key takeaways from her journey in vertical SaaS will help shape your own path. From active listening and strategic decision-making to savvy scaling, defining a unique balance between depth and reach, and leveraging data for a better tomorrow, these tips reflect some of the critical lessons she’s learned on her journey. This journey is complex, with many variables at play. Navya is quick to point out that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but hopefully, her insights can provide some guidance and **spark new ideas as you navigate your path in the vertical SaaS space**. --- Enjoyed this article? Why not check exclusive insights from some of the leaeding minds in SaaS with a future of SaaS membership plan? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How do we engage key stakeholders in cross-functional collaboration? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/ Last updated: 2023-06-30T13:02:28.000Z For many SaaS companies, cross-functional collaboration seems like a no-brainer. Who wouldn’t want absolute synchronicity between their sales, marketing, and product teams? A thriving SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine, with every moving part informing the movement of others. The catch is: in order for your SaaS company to achieve this kind of synchronicity, **you can’t treat your colleagues like cogs**. But in an evolving SaaS landscape, where much of our work collaboration is being conducted remotely, how do you create that foundation of empathy and communication skills to ensure that your org is operating efficiently? That’s what we’re here to find out. Here's a breakdown of our agenda: - What is a cross-functional team? - Why do cross-functional teams exist? - The incredible benefits of cross-functional teams - How do we implement cross-functional collaboration? The CMO Summit brought together industry experts who shared valuable insights on navigating the challenges of remote work, enhancing cross-functional collaboration, and aligning with C-suite goals. Here, we round up their main takeaways with exclusive quotes from the experts themselves. But before we get into the meat of their discussion, let’s break down cross-functional collaboration and how exactly it can benefit your organization. ## What is a cross-functional team? A SaaS organization is made up of many vital functions, but all too often they operate in separate silos, sometimes even at odds with each other. If you work in a SaaS organization, you know it’s an old story: Marketing blames sales, sales blames marketing, they both blame product. Not ideal, but let’s establish what the ideal situation should look like ### What is the best example of a cross-functional team? A cross-functional team is what you get when talented individuals from different departments like marketing, product, sales, and customer success come together to tackle challenges and save the day. These teams can either be special task forces, with members juggling their roles in their own departments and the cross-functional team, or they can be the heart and soul of the entire organization, driving collaboration and innovation across the board. It's like having a dream team of experts with unique powers working together to achieve incredible results! In short, it’s about bringing together a diverse group of people with varying skill sets who strive toward a common objective or multiple common objectives. [Ensuring better alignment with customer successIn this article, I’m going to share with you some of the unique and new initiatives I developed to ensure better alignment with customer success.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMichelle Wideman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/alignment-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/ensuring-better-alignment-with-customer-success/) ## Why do cross-functional teams exist? Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few decades, you’ll know the frustration of contacting a call center (sigh). Picture the scene: (It’s painful, we know). You’ve spoken to one customer advisor, explaining the problem inside out and back to front, only for them to hand you over to a different advisor, where you have to explain the same problem all over again. At this point, you’re frustrated, you’re wasting precious time out of your day, and you just know that when you make that follow-up call in a few days’ time, you’re going to have to have this same conversation as if the whole conversation were erased. This is a pretty major and common problem right across the entire business world, so cross-functional collaboration is all about problem-solving. **The moral of this story**: In order to provide your customers with the most delightful experience, where they truly feel like their needs are being heard, it’s important to foster cross-functional collaboration between your teams. When organizations function in silos, it's not only a headache for customers but also a missed opportunity for the company to build strong, long-lasting relationships. Each department exists to serve the customer, so shouldn't they all work together seamlessly to create an amazing customer experience? That's where the magic of bringing people from different backgrounds and perspectives comes in. When you have cross-functional teams in action, problem-solving becomes a breeze, and decision-making becomes smarter and more sustainable. Instead of fighting over limited resources, these teams collaborate to make the best use of time, money, and effort, all while improving customer satisfaction and helping the organization reach its goals. So, let's break down those barriers and let the power of teamwork and collaboration shine. It's time to deliver exceptional experiences, leave customers smiling, and make your organization truly customer-centric! [Aligning sales with post-sales to drive customer lifetime valueCustomer Success leaders Minna Vaisanen and Nieves Canada outline how to bridge the gap between sales and customer success.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMinna Vaisanen![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/Aligning-sales-with-post-sales-to-drive-customer-lifetime-value.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/aligning-sales-with-post-sales-to-drive-customer-lifetime-value/) ## The incredible benefits of cross-functional teams Cross-functional teams are all the rage these days, and it's no wonder why! Customers are craving personalized, top-notch experiences, and organizations are stepping up to the challenge. Teamwork makes the dream work, as they say, and these teams bring together experts from different areas, and the results are nothing short of amazing. Here's a sneak peek at some of the benefits you can expect. **Coordination on point:** With cross-functional teams in action, coordination across various functional areas becomes a breeze. No more silos or disjointed efforts. Everyone is on the same page, working together seamlessly. **Unleashing innovation**: When you have diverse minds collaborating, innovation flows like a river. These teams bring fresh perspectives, creative ideas, and out-of-the-box thinking. It's a recipe for groundbreaking products and processes that leave the competition in the dust. [Customer journeys: from onboarding to alignment \[Q&A with Simpo\]Max Smith-Gee, Head of Customer Success at Simpo took the time to answer some burning questions on everything from onboarding to aligning the sales process to customer journeys.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/daniel-cartin-LgHNehAIcOs-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-customer-journey-from-onboarding-to-alignment-q-a-with-simpo/) **Lightning-fast customer touchpoints**: Time is precious, especially when it comes to customer interactions. Cross-functional teams streamline processes and eliminate unnecessary steps, resulting in reduced cycle times for those critical moments when your customers connect with your brand. Faster response times mean happier customers! So, if you want to stay ahead of the game and deliver exceptional experiences, it's time to hop on the cross-functional team bandwagon. Get ready for improved coordination, mind-blowing innovation, and lightning-fast customer touchpoints. Now that we‘ve established the benefits of cross-collaboration, it’s time to look at some of the solutions that our wise CMOs at the CMO summit proposed for implementing and improving these processes, in the modern world. ## How do we implement cross-functional collaboration? ### How do we embrace remote work and build empathy Remote work has become the name of the game in international business, and video conferencing has been a crucial tool! Although it’s never a substitute for in-person contact, you’re now able to observe those subtle cues that come with body language and facial expressions, which allows you to really connect with your team members. But here's the thing, just showing up for a video meeting isn't enough. Now that tech teams are so scattered, it’s more important than ever to encourage empathy. If you feel like a colleague is really struggling, it might be more convenient for you to share ping over a quick Slack DM, but is that really going to create the kind of empathy that really encourages collaboration? > “In the modern age, we can really utilize technology to ensure that we’re staying engaged and empathetic. Using a platform like Slack, there are many ways you can create a rapport between teams to overcome the fact that you’re not just bumping into each other in the office.” Jeff Boehm, **Chief Marketing Officer at Wicket** And not just that, the rise of remote work has created more international teams, meaning we're dealing with diverse cultural values. [Aligning KPIs to Create Successful Partnerships | Future of SaaSSpeaking at the Sales Enablement Summit in San Francisco, Nick Salas explained the significant impact bringing each department together through aligning the metrics of the business had on his team at Workfront.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-19.07.19.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/aligning-kpis-to-create-successful-partnerships/) A failure to embrace and respect these values can also create a block to cross-functional collaboration. That’s why it’s more important than ever to utilize the tools you have in order to create a strong foundation of empathy within your team. This also includes project management tools such as Asana and Trell. Once you’ve created a solid rapport with your team, it’s now time to facilitate seamless collaboration. While in an office, it’s difficult to lose track of current projects because you can hear your colleagues speaking about it, and you can see them working on it. For remote work, it’s important to utilize all functionalities to communicate with colleagues and employees on the status of projects. **TL;DR**: Remote tools make remote work feel, well, less remote. **Use them.** ### How do we manage key stakeholders in cross-functional collaboration? Maintaining high employee morale is essential, especially when teams are dispersed in a remote work environment. The physical distance can make it challenging to foster a sense of camaraderie and motivation, but it's a challenge that can be overcome. It’s the responsibility of SaaS leaders to understand the importance of keeping employees engaged and excited, even when they can't gather in person. They take the lead in creating a positive work culture that transcends physical boundaries. But how can leaders encourage this? Well, let’s break it down: ### How do we generate enthusiasm around significant company developments It’s essential for SaaS leaders to recognize that unveiling a new website represents a milestone for the organization and an opportunity to showcase its brand and offerings. They may organize virtual launch events with interactive elements like live demos, Q&A sessions, or virtual tours of the website. Additionally, they encourage employees to share their thoughts and ideas, fostering a sense of ownership and collaboration. By involving employees in the process, leaders ensure that they feel invested in the success of the website and the organization as a whole. > “I think, more than platforms and tools, it’s all about the different rhythms you employ to enable cross-functional collaboration. In our case, we have a very specific meeting that really sets the essential goals for the week. That then cascades into a kickoff with my marketing team, where we make sure that we’re aligned.” Gaston Tourn, **Chief Marketing Officer at Curio** At the CMO summit, our experts discussed the broader responsibility of shaping the company's value proposition. Here’s how they summed it up. A CMO understands that a strong value proposition is essential for attracting and retaining customers. [Aligning customer success \[Q&A with ServiceNow\]Tanya Strauss, Director of Customer Success Advocacy at ServiceNow, discusses tips on fostering creativity in your team, aligning CS with account management, and unexpected allies.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/hybrid-uGP_6CAD-14-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/aligning-customer-success-q-a-with-servicenow/) However, it's not just about the external perception of the company—it's also about aligning the expectations of various stakeholders, both internal and external. CMOs collaborate with cross-functional teams to define the company's unique value proposition, ensuring that it resonates with the target market and meets customer needs. They work closely with product managers, sales teams, and customer support to gather insights and refine the value proposition based on real-world feedback. By aligning stakeholders' expectations, the CMO ensures a consistent and compelling message is communicated to customers, partners, and employees. > “The role of the CMO should be to shape and identify the markets that we're going after, but also to make sure that everyone’s in alignment with that goal.” **Jeff Boem** Equally, a VP of Product will have to ensure clear lines of communication between their product managers and other teams about the product’s capabilities and benefits so that the rest of the organization is aware of how the product should be positioned and what the brand identity should be. ### How do we set boundaries and prioritize in cross-functional teams In today's fast-paced and constantly connected world, increased accessibility and availability can often lead to burnout and a blurred work-life balance. As leaders, it becomes crucial to recognize this potential pitfall and take proactive steps to set boundaries and model healthy work-life integration on a day-to-day basis. By establishing clear expectations and encouraging a culture that values well-being, with all personnel feeling that their voice is represented on the team, leaders can help prevent burnout and promote the overall mental and physical health of team members. [How sales teams can work with other departments to drive growth \[Q&A with Tymeshift\]Nicholas Ghitti, Head of Growth at Tymeshift took the time to answer our community’s burning questions after his presentation ’How sales teams can work with other departments to drive growth at this year’s Future of SaaS festival.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/jan-kronies-mpSeLIXMnpc-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-sales-teams-can-collaborate-to-drive-growth-q-a-with-tymeshift/) Effective leadership requires prioritization skills and the ability to discern when to say no and focus on immediate attention needs. In a world filled with competing demands and endless tasks, leaders must have the discernment to identify the most critical priorities and allocate resources accordingly. By effectively prioritizing, leaders ensure that their teams can focus on what truly matters, reducing overwhelm and increasing productivity. ### How do we streamline communication in cross-functional collaboration? While it is important to find efficient modes of communication, leaders must also be empathetic and considerate of individuals' preferred methods. Some team members may thrive with video conferences, while others may prefer written communication. By acknowledging and respecting these preferences, leaders foster effective communication and create an inclusive work environment. > “It's really easy to be overwhelmed by communications platforms. All the different inputs can create a threatening cloud of dichotomies. Some people like to communicate via Zoom using video conferencing, for example. Then again, another person may want to communicate via text or email. The question is, how do you streamline communications while also being empathetic and mindful of people’s preferred modes of communication?” **Amy Barzdukas, Chief Marketing Officer at WiTricity** --- Like what you see? Why not check out some exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS Membership? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Embracing the future: Thriving in the remote SaaS landscape URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/embracing-the-future-thriving-in-the-remote-saas-landscape-2/ Last updated: 2024-08-20T16:16:27.000Z *This article comes from *Valentina Thörner*’s talk, Stepping out of your bubble: How to retain and engage a remote workforce, at our *Future of SaaS Festival*, check out the full version* [***here***](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-april-2023/)*.* Are you ready to embark on an exciting journey that will revolutionize the way you lead your remote teams? In the dynamic landscape of SaaS, adaptability and innovation are key to staying ahead, and remote work has emerged as a game-changer, providing flexibility and new possibilities for collaboration. As the Empress of Remote, I've witnessed firsthand the incredible opportunities it presents for growth and success in the SaaS industry. But in order to fully harness its potential, we must first challenge our preconceptions and embrace a fresh perspective, **stepping out of our bubble**. Here we’ll explore practical strategies and I’ll share some of my key insights on exactly how to step out of that bubble. By understanding different appreciation languages, finding balance, and differentiating remote work from working from home, we can create an engaging and productive remote work environment that drives success in our SaaS organizations. Are you ready to dive in and discover the transformative power of stepping out of your bubble? Let's get started. - **Bubble 1 - Different appreciation languages** - **Bubble 2 - Balancing meetings and deep work** - **Bubble 3 - Remote work vs. working from home** - **Stepping out of your bubble** - **Final thoughts** ## Bubble 1 - Different appreciation languages In the dynamic space of SaaS, where collaboration is essential, it is crucial to recognize that each team member has their own unique way of giving and receiving appreciation, in psychology these are called **love languages**. Now, you may be wondering, what do love languages have to do with remote work? Well, it turns out that the concept of love languages applies not only to personal relationships but also to the professional realm. Understanding and embracing these appreciation languages can be a game-changer when it comes to stepping out of our bubble and creating a harmonious remote work environment. For example, while some team members may light up when **receiving words of affirmation**, others may value **private recognition** or gestures that go beyond words. By taking the time to understand and respect these diverse appreciation languages, we can bridge the gap between our own perspective and that of our team members. It's not just about how we perceive and receive appreciation; it's about realizing that others may have different preferences and needs. Stepping out of our bubble means embracing this diversity and tailoring our approach to make everyone feel seen, valued, and appreciated. ## Bubble 2 - Balancing meetings and deep work Raise your hand if you have ever felt overwhelmed by back-to-back meetings that seem to consume your entire workday ✋. As SaaS professionals, we understand the value of deep work and strategic thinking. However, finding the time for focused work amidst a sea of meetings can be a challenge in remote settings. Here's the secret: **listen to your team**. Engage in open conversations and surprisingly, you may discover that while you feel swamped by an endless stream of meetings, some remote employees crave more social and productive interactions. Striking the right balance between meeting requirements and providing dedicated time for deep work is crucial. Understanding the **communication needs** within the team hierarchy is vital for creating an engaged and productive remote workforce. ## Bubble 3 - Remote work vs. working from home Let's take a moment to debunk a common misconception about remote work: remote work is not synonymous with working from home. Remote work extends far beyond the confines of our homes. It opens up a world of possibilities, allowing individuals to design personalized work environments that cater to their unique needs, attention requirements, and preferences. It's about empowering our team members to create a workspace that enhances their productivity, creativity, and overall well-being. Consider the diverse circumstances of your team members. Some may face challenges when working from home due to limited space, family distractions, or unreliable internet connections. On the other hand, there may be team members who work from an office but still yearn for a quiet space or privacy during sensitive phone calls or meetings. Remote work enables us to break free from the one-size-fits-all approach and tailor the work environment to suit individual needs. It's about acknowledging that attention requirements vary from person to person. While some thrive in a bustling environment with background noise, others need a calm and focused atmosphere. Remote work allows us to embrace these differences and create a flexible working environment where everyone can thrive. ## Stepping out of your bubble So those are three different examples of bubbles. Now, let's dive into the core of the matter—stepping out of our bubble. As leaders, it is essential to acknowledge our self-centeredness and take proactive steps to break free from it. Recognizing that our perspective is not universal is the first step toward effective leadership in remote work settings. So, how can we accomplish this? Here are a few strategies that will help you step out of your bubble and forge connections with your remote team: ### Conduct meaningful one-on-ones Regular one-on-one meetings provide a treasure trove of qualitative data and insights from your direct reports. These show you what is working and what isn’t. Use this dedicated time to not just discuss work but talk about their personal lives, and understand their challenges, aspirations, and personal growth. ### Embrace quantitative data Look at data from surveys, such as an ENPS, to gain quantitative insights. Analyze data based on gender, location type, tenure, and hierarchy within your organization. This allows you to identify specific challenges and tailor your approach accordingly. ### Foster a culture of learning Encourage continuous learning within your team. Ask your team members what they have learned recently and provide resources or support to help them grow. Engage in book discussions or challenge individuals to develop new skills, such as public speaking or leadership. ### Create opportunities for connection Deliberately design an environment that promotes connection and camaraderie. Implement a buddy system for new hires, establish interest-based Slack channels, and organize in-person meetups. These initiatives foster meaningful relationships and a sense of belonging within your remote team. ### Set clear work environment expectations Define a "how we work" handbook that outlines communication norms, meeting guidelines, and expectations around asynchronous collaboration. Ensure that your onboarding process aligns with the desired work environment and communication style. ### Nudge behaviors with friction In SaaS, we talk about removing friction, but sometimes it can be quite healthy. Introduce subtle friction in the work environment to steer individuals towards desired behaviors. Similarly, create structures that promote efficient and productive work practices. ## Final thoughts And there you have it, my fellow SaaS professionals—a journey of stepping out of our bubble in the remote workspace. I hope you've gained valuable insights and practical strategies to retain and grow your remote workforce. Stepping out of our bubble as leaders is crucial for remote work success in the SaaS industry. By understanding and respecting diverse appreciation languages, finding the right balance between meetings and deep work, and embracing the true essence of remote work, we can create an environment where our remote teams thrive. Let's foster genuine connections, empower individual growth, and cultivate a work environment that brings out the best in each team member. Together, we can revolutionize the way we work and lead the way toward a more engaged and successful remote work future in the SaaS industry. ### How community-led growth can boost your SaaS growth in 5 steps URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-community-led-growth-can-boost-your-saas-growth-in-5-steps/ Last updated: 2023-06-21T14:02:43.000Z In today's fast-paced digital world, SaaS companies are discovering the magic of community-led growth. It's all about building a buzzing community around your product or service that not only delights customers but also opens doors to exciting partnerships and opportunities. So, relax – maybe grab your favorite beverage – and join us on this journey to explore the key steps of a community-led approach that can skyrocket your SaaS business! ## Why SaaS companies are embracing community-led growth We used to think of [marketing ](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/)as a funnel, where customers were pushed through each step from awareness to conversion. But guess what? Things have gotten way more interesting! The way people interact with brands has evolved, and the old funnel metaphor just doesn't cut it anymore. There's no longer a clear endpoint to the relationship between brands and customers. Now, brands understand the importance of nurturing leads even after they've made a purchase, because that's how you build loyalty and keep customers coming back for more. So, enter the community-led growth flywheel! It's made up of four stages Step one: **Awareness**, where customers start noticing the brand. Step two: **Consideration and sales**, where the brand goes the extra mile to stand out from the competition. Step three: **Post-sales care**, where the brand keeps nurturing the customer by creating networking opportunities and showing off its value. [Five savvy tips for community-led SaaS growthIn 2021, 70% of companies with communities increased their budget for community building. That means, community-led SaaS growth is a successful growth model to invest in.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChinwoke Nnamani![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/hands-together.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/6-savvy-tips-for-community-led-saas-growth/) Step four: **[Advocacy](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-brand-demand-and-advocacy/)**. This is really the icing on the cake, when customers become advocates and start recommending the brand to their friends and peers, it kickstarts the whole cycle again. See, the beauty of a community is that it doesn't force people into a one-way path. Instead, it creates an irresistible environment that naturally attracts people towards it. They convert into customers, and then they become advocates who sing the brand's praises to others. It's all about creating a continuous loop of [communicatio](https://www.saasalliance.io/communications-your-product-and-improving-your-customer-experience/)n that consolidates a good relationship between existing customers and establishes a glowing first impression with new customers. This flywheel approach lowers acquisition costs and puts the community right at the heart of everything. It’s a win-win. [Go-to-Market: Aligning with growth, product, and sales to drive growthKimberlee West, Director of Product Marketing at Uniphore, demonstrates how to align your vital organizational functions behind a GTM strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSKimberlee West![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/go-to-market-sales-marketing.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/go-to-market-aligning-with-growth-product-and-sales-to-drive-growth/) ## Step 1: Find your go-to-market mojo! Picture this: you're not just selling products but providing value that blows minds. Your community becomes an advocacy powerhouse, spreading the word about your awesomeness, leading to upsells and collaborations galore! Building your reputation? That's just a very valuable bonus. **Remember**: it's all about showing people the return on their investment is sky-high and then watching the magic happen. The main purpose of this is to build a solid foundational relationship with your customers that’s based on trust. Modern SaaS consumers are very savvy to traditional sales and marketing tactics, so it’s essential that you’re able to make a valuable first impression with customers, which distinguishes you from the competition. Your org isn’t just a cynical cash-grabber, you’re a problem solver that invests time and energy in solving customer pain points. ## Step 2: Spotting the gap and seizing the opportunity Now, let's dive into finding that sweet spot in the market. You want to identify the pain points and needs of your audience. Think about how your SaaS solution can solve their problems like a superhero. By focusing on a specific niche, you'll attract passionate individuals who share your enthusiasm. The key here is that you want to find an area that can generate enough discussion to build a community. An industry like SaaS, for example, encompasses multiple functions, roles, and departments, and each of those areas is going to come with a whole plethora of potential problems. This is why it lends itself well to community-led growth. You can create multiple slack channels so that potential customers can find the specific discussions that solve their unique challenges. [Bridging the gap between sales & marketing—podcast | Future of SaaSA podcast featuring two stars of Saleswhale—Catherine Farley and Brandon Gargan. Listen to their talk to find out how to bridge the gap between sales and marketing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/01/saleswhale-podcast-with-catherine-farley-snd-brandon-gargan.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/bridging-the-gap-between-sales-marketing-podcast/) ## Step 3: Prepping for blast-off! Before launching your community to the world, let's get the internal party started! Your team needs to be in the groove, introducing themselves and actively engaging in conversations. That way, when you invite external members, they'll step into a buzzing hub rather than a ghost town. Enthusiasm is contagious, and if your external team is able to set a passionate precedent for discussion, those that join the community will follow suit, and pretty soon, you’ll have a community that seems appealing to those who have only just joined. The next important step is onboarding! Show newbies the ropes, share guidelines, and create a warm and welcoming environment. It's all about setting the stage for an epic community experience. Consistency is really key here. Your internal team really can’t afford to take their foot off the gas in these early stages of community building. They should be putting questions to the team and answering questions on a daily basis. Think of it like lighting a log fire for the first time. The most challenging part is getting it started, it needs to be poked and stoked regularly, but once it’s started, it spreads organically. [B2B marketing events strategies: before, during, and afterB2B events are paramount for networking, generating high-quality leads, increasing brand awareness, and reaching a large target audience. The majority of event marketers believe events are the most effective marketing channel over emails, content, and digital marketing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/terren-hurst-blgOFmPIlr0-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/b2b-marketing-events-strategies-before-during-and-after/) ## Step 4: Growth - watch the fire spread! As your community blossoms, keep your finger on the pulse! The community managers (aka CMs) become your superstars. They'll keep an eye on what the community craves, what's trending, and how to make the community even more amazing. Remember, while following standardized processes, each community has its own unique needs. So, partner up with other teams like events and content to create excitement and expand your community beyond the digital realm. Let's take this party offline, too! With these processes in place, your community – and, by association, your organization – stays relevant and is able to continually attract new customers with the evolving landscape, as well as retain loyal customers. ## Step 5: Maturing like fine wine As your community grows and matures, it becomes a self-sustaining powerhouse. Members turn to it as their go-to resource, seeking advice and sharing their experiences. You've built a reputation. But here's the secret sauce: keep contributing value regularly. Be community-led, even in the mature stage. Your internal team needs to keep the fire alive, offering insights and keeping the community thriving. Remember, value is the key ingredient to maintaining that stellar reputation. Your community might not need tending to quite as much as it does in the early stages, but the industry is rapidly evolving, so you need to ensure that the changing needs of customers are being met at all times. If there’s a new pain point that isn’t being addressed in your community, make it a priority to make it a discussion. ## The final result Congratulations, you community-building maestro! By adopting a community-led approach, you've unlocked the potential to skyrocket your SaaS business. The power of a vibrant, engaged community is undeniable. So, put on your cape and embrace the magic of community-led growth. Delight your customers, build lifelong partnerships, and watch your SaaS business soar to new heights. Cheers to a community that slays. 😎 --- *Enjoyed this content. Why not gain exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Go-to-Market: Aligning with growth, product, and sales to drive growth URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/go-to-market-aligning-with-growth-product-and-sales-to-drive-growth/ Last updated: 2024-08-20T16:15:40.000Z Hello, everyone! I’m Kimberlee West, and I’m the Director of Product Marketing at Uniphore. Today, I'm going to talk about how to go about aligning [Go-to-Market (GTM)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-lead-a-collaborative-go-to-market-strategy/) teams. I'll tell you the story of how I went from being a team of one to leading a team of five and I’ll reveal what I learned along the way about the seven key factors that are essential for aligning GTM teams and driving growth. ## **Where it all began** So, let me tell you a story. I started at Uniphore in March 2021\. At the time, the company had around 300 employees. However, when it came to our [Go-to-Market team](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-conquer-the-market-with-an-awesome-saas-go-to-market-strategy/), it was just me. The product team was fairly small, as were the customer success and sales teams. As the sole member of the product marketing team, I reported to a VP of Product Marketing, Growth, and Field (weird title, I know!) My role was to handle product marketing, which the company didn't fully understand since they had never had a dedicated [product marketing](https://www.saasalliance.io/defining-measuring-product-market-fit/) team before. The company had been operating since 2008, and product marketing was a haphazard mix of sales engineering and product team efforts. The company's focus was on having a strong brand story and digital campaign, with sales handling the rest. Fortunately, someone convinced the company that product marketing was important, and that's where my journey began. ## **Fast forward to growth and change** By October, things had changed significantly. In just six months, the company underwent a major acquisition, and I also got to hire a team. Going from a team of one to a team of four was a challenge. On top of that, change was happening all around us. The product, sales, and [customer success](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) teams all exploded across different geographies. I now had a product marketing team across various time zones, supporting sales teams around the world. Meanwhile, I had to figure out how to align our GTM strategies. The ratio of [product managers](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-launches-for-enterprise-customers-podcast-suresh-krishna-madhuvarsu-product10x/) to product marketers wasn't ideal; there were ten people on the product team and only four product marketers. On top of all that, the company had no clear structure for bringing products to market. Despite these challenges, I thought I was doing everything right: I had hired a team, I was working with multiple stakeholders across the company, and I was trying my best to stay on top of everything that was happening. ## **Facing reality** In November 2021, I had a reality check. I visited our California office, where I met with the CEO. While he acknowledged that he saw some activity on the website and so on, he told me he felt that product marketing was "M.I.A." You know the expression “sink or swim”? I was sinking. The problem with the sink-or-swim analogy is that it’s based on your own perception. You're constantly evaluating yourself based on your internal litmus test. However, especially in corporate life, there are times when you may be sinking without even realizing it. You might be working hard around the clock, responding to emails, and getting work done, but still not truly making progress. Instead of sink or swim, I prefer to think of it as life or death, but not in a morbid sense – more like in a video game (in case you couldn’t tell, I have kids!). In a video game, you get multiple lives, and more importantly, there's an external indicator showing whether you're performing well or not. This forces you to look outside yourself and look at the indicators that show whether you're truly doing what you need to do, working with the right teams, and driving growth. Now, without further ado, let’s get into the seven things I put in place to build alignment for a successful [Go-to-Market strategy](https://www.saasalliance.io/go-to-market-blueprint-your-one-stop-shop-for-refining-gtm/) so that product marketing could respawn. ## **The seven things you need to build alignment for a successful Go-to-Market strategy** What the Go-to-Market process looks like can vary a lot depending on your company’s needs and the people there. However, it generally involves messaging, [content creation](https://www.saasalliance.io/interactive-content-ideas-for-each-stage-of-the-buyers-journey/), [sales enablement](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-enablement-scaled-down-problems-facing-small-startups/), and campaigns. The problem with looking at it this way is that it gives a false impression of simplicity. In reality, executing a successful Go-to-Market strategy requires dealing with people who may not want to follow the plan. The challenge lies in getting buy-in from sales, product, customer success, and leadership teams for your vision, positioning, and strategy. That means the biggest part of Go-to-Market is the relationships you build. We’ll dig deeper into those relationships later, but for now, let’s take a look at some other key elements of successful GTM. ### 1) A hunger to learn If you want to build a GTM strategy, there are three things you need to know: your market, your customers, and your competitors. However, you personally might not know all those things. Your individual team members aren’t necessarily going to know all of those things either, and that’s okay. Product marketing’s biggest strengths are its curiosity and its ability to carry out research. When you’re hiring people for your team, your focus should be on hiring someone who is hungry to learn and understands that they need to look outwards to find the knowledge they need – they’re going to have to go and talk to people. When I’m hiring, I like to ask candidates how they would position an e-commerce store, even if they don't have experience in that industry. I look for a thought process on how they approach getting hold of the knowledge they need. If they use the word "I" repeatedly, that's a red flag because going to market involves working with other people. ### 2) Over communication and trust The market is big, and sales may want to go after everybody. You need to make sure you focus on the segments that it makes sense to go after and make sure you clearly communicate that. You will almost certainly have to repeat yourself because people will forget what you tell them. Over communication is key to getting everybody on the same page. ### 3) The ability to say ‘no’ You have to get comfortable with saying no, and that's going to be hard. When I joined Uniphore, not only was I the Director of Product Marketing, but I was also responsible for partner marketing, industry marketing, sales enablement, [competitive intelligence](https://www.saasalliance.io/growth-hacking-with-real-time-competitive-intelligence/), and more. I had to set up processes and structures, figure out what was being done before, and understand what products were being delivered and where we were successful in positioning them. Beyond the regular product marketing tasks, I had people from the field marketing team asking me to write abstracts for webinars and events. Sales teams would ask me to make their slides look pretty, and customer success wanted me to put on events for customers. All of this started within 30 days of joining the company. If you don't know how to say no, you might find yourself being expected to do everything, so it's essential to step back and evaluate your priorities. After the CEO told me they thought product marketing was missing in action, I realized I had to reassess. I needed to determine the company's goals, my role in achieving those goals, my team’s capacity, and what we could and couldn’t accomplish. Saying no isn't rude; it's a way to communicate that you don't have the capacity to take on a task because you're focusing on other important things. If something is truly important, then additional resources need to be allocated, and new people may need to be hired. In the initial stages, it might not be comfortable. I remember when my CMO asked me to put together a customer marketing program. Old Kimberlee would have hopped to it, but new Kimberlee had to explain that she could build this program, but doing so would mean sacrificing a product release meant to help grow sales. From there, we were able to have a serious discussion about strategy and hiring new resources. ### 4) Focus Focus is not just about managing time effectively, but also understanding your purpose within the organization, what you're trying to achieve, and how you’re going to achieve that. Saying ‘no’ to lower-priority tasks frees you up to focus on the things that matter; in my case, that was growth. To make sure we were all aligned on how product marketing was going to deliver this, I put together a short deck for my CMO to educate her on what product marketing does. I outlined our key deliverables and emphasized that product marketing is about more than pretty graphics, whitepapers, and ebooks. Yes, we do those things, but we do them to support sales and close deals. After aligning with my CMO, I was able to present my focused approach to other teams. I ran a virtual roadshow to get everyone on board with our product marketing strategy. I'm a big advocate of having a plan on a single page. Whenever I present to other teams, I always start with a slide outlining product marketing’s deliverables to remind everyone of our focus and what we're trying to achieve. Having this reference point helps everyone understand our value. ### 5) Processes and subject-matter expertise I never realized I liked process until I entered an environment where it didn't exist at all. To give you some context, on my first day in this role, I had 300 emails in my inbox. My boss had forwarded them to me to ensure I was up to speed. I asked if there wasn't a folder where this information was saved, but it turned out everything was saved on personal drives. That was the first thing we needed to change. A big part of stepping back and focusing is considering what structures need to be built to support that focus. If there isn't a structure in place, it's your responsibility to create one. We already had a SharePoint site, so I created a product marketing folder where everything would be saved. I was also thinking ahead; I knew I would be building a team soon and there was no way I was going to onboard new team members the way I’d been onboarded. I needed a central place where they could go to find clear information about our products, positioning, and resources. I also looked beyond product marketing and considered where marketing, sales, and product teams could access this information. I cleaned up the SharePoint site and made it the central location for updates, communicating this to the broader team. My goal was to build a single source for messaging, emphasizing that no one else should be consulted for this information. This was important because sales had previously relied on sales engineering for messaging, as product marketing didn't yet exist. By positioning myself as the GTM subject-matter expert and advisor, I could more effectively foster collaboration and support other teams within the organization. If you want to be a subject matter expert (SME) and advisor, you can't just quote Gartner or point out what competitors are doing all the time; you have to curate information and add insight as to why it's valuable for the particular situation. For example, when we’re going through our annual market assessment, we analyze the market for each of our four key products, drawing from relevant data points to inform the product team and shape the roadmap for the next year. I made that process up, guys! If you don't have a process in place and that’s something you need, create one. This is the power of product marketing. You are responsible for building strategy and guiding the team. If you want to build a strong GTM but you’re noticing gaps or misalignment, take the initiative to address them. ### 6) Data and insights Coming back to the importance of [data and insights](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-data-team-at-saas-hypergrowth/), as a product marketer, you need to have access to relevant data as well. It's very easy as a PMM to get comfortable with feeling like only the growth team needs to look at data on website traffic, and only the sales ops team needs data on what deals are closing, but that’s just not true. I have my own dashboard. Did I create that dashboard? No! I'm not an expert in Salesforce. I went to sales ops because the sales dashboard was only looking at deals closed, with some regional insights in terms of regions. I needed that data parsed out by pipeline, product, and persona. We also use a tool called 6sense. This, together with my dashboard has helped me to see which personas are fully engaged and we now use these insights to inform our strategy. As a side note, don't be afraid to explore [the tools](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2023-report/) available to you. I once worked at a company that didn't realize they had 6sense, and once we started using it, it transformed how we went to market. My final piece of advice on insights is to always consider your audience. The insights that are going to support the [marketing team](https://www.saasalliance.io/structuring-an-agile-marketing-team-for-success/) are different from the insights that are going to support the sales team. They’re also different from the insights that are going to help the product team and customer success. ### 7) Relationship management A big part of building trust with other teams is [relationship management](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-customer-relationships-saas/). My team and I brainstormed different ways to be active, intentional, and purposeful in building relationships with key groups throughout the year, not just during product releases. You don’t just go to people at Christmas and demand presents – you have a relationship with them throughout the whole year. We identified key people to connect with, activities we could do with them, indicators we could track together, types of information we could exchange, and gaps we could close. As an example, competitive intelligence was something we needed to be able to collaborate with other teams on, so we set up a process for using Klue, which we laid out during our meetings with other teams. In summary, Go-to-Market is a people-first activity. If you focus only on flashy marketing tactics without considering the people you're working with, you'll struggle to succeed. ## That’s a wrap! I'll leave you with a quote that I love: "The grass is greener where you water it." If you're unhappy with your company's current state, take a step back and consider how you can make the necessary changes and guide your organization toward success. ### The dangers of outsourcing SaaS development vs keeping it in-house URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-dangers-of-outsourcing-saas-development-vs-keeping-it-in-house/ Last updated: 2023-06-19T13:42:05.000Z Okay, so you’ve got a really great idea for a SaaS product; now it’s decision time, do you focus on building your solution in-house, spending money and resources on building out teams for each function, or do you instead outsource your product development to agencies? The answer depends largely on the type of product you’re offering. We can’t give you a definitive answer either way, but we can guide you to the solution that might be right for you. So, without further ado, let’s give you the low-down on outsourcing vs in-house development. ## What is outsourcing vs in-agency development? When it comes to deciding between hiring an agency or keeping things in-house for your development needs, there are some key differences to consider—like cost, timelines, flexibility, and dedication. Now, if you decide to go with a software development agency, you can save some cash, get your product launched faster, and have more time to focus on other important aspects of your business. [What are marketing development funds and how can they maximize growth?As a rapidly scaling SaaS business, you’re likely working across multiple channels. Marketing development funds can help you stay strong across all channels. Here’s how!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/funding.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-marketing-development-funds-and-how-can-we-use-them-to-maximize-growth/) But here's the catch: if you want to make changes or pivot down the line, it might be a bit trickier with a fixed scope, and the agency might not be as invested in your project as an in-house team would be. So, you need to make sure that your vision is clearly articulated to agencies. On the flip side, going with an in-house development department gives you more freedom to tweak things on the go, more control over the process, and a team that's fully dedicated to your product and the problem you're tackling. But keep in mind that it might take a bit more money and time to get your product off the ground using this approach. ## The benefits of outsourcing ### Focus on core offerings When it comes to your SaaS product, outsourcing it to a software development agency can be a game-changer, especially if you don't have the right team in-house. But here's the thing—even if you do have a super slick [UI/UX ](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-user-experience-is-so-important-for-your-saas-company/)and development department, outsourcing smaller projects can still be a smart move. It helps your team stay focused on core offerings and more pressing matters. ### More cost-effective solution Outsourcing is often a more cost-effective option. You don't have to worry about hiring expensive freelancers or setting up a whole in-house team. That means more savings for your business. On average, this approach can slash your costs by up to 50% while still delivering top-notch SaaS products faster than the [competition.](https://www.saasalliance.io/competitive-differentiation-strategy-how-to-win-in-a-hyper-competitive-saas-market/) ### Free up your time But that's not all. By outsourcing the development of your SaaS product, you can free up your time to tackle other critical tasks before the big launch—no need to go through the hassle of hiring, [onboarding,](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-onboarding-101/) and managing the project yourself. Instead, you can rely on a trusted partner to handle all the development work. This way, you can invest your valuable time in marketing, business development, and legal matters to ensure a successful and smooth [launch.](https://www.saasalliance.io/launch-a-showstopping-saas-with-these-6-examples-of-a-minimum-viable-product/) [Top growth-hacking AI tools for SaaS organizationsAI is the future. Get in on these top tools for utilizing the power of AI, so your org doesn’t get left behind.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/saas-gtm-strategy--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/harnessing-the-potential-of-ai-tools-for-unparalleled-growth/) ## Benefits of in-house ### Greater commitment to your product Having a team of employees who live and breathe your product can work wonders. They're going to have that special spark of passion for your company and what it's all about. Plus, they're bound to be more in tune with your customers' [pain points](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-profitable-products-with-customers/), which means they can tackle those challenges head-on. They’re willing to go above and beyond for your project because they're totally committed to your company. ### You have more control over your product When you keep the development of your SaaS product in-house, you're the captain of the ship, calling the shots and steering the course. Having a dedicated team on board means you have the freedom to smoothly sail through changes, introduce fresh designs, and expand the development as your product evolves. Having an in-house team proves to be a real game-changer when you need to make a quick pivot with your product. They're right by your side, ready to adapt and make those necessary moves like a pro. So, by keeping it in-house, you're not only taking control of your SaaS destiny but also setting yourself up for success in the ever-changing tech world. [SaaScast: Scaling new heights with vertical SaaSAlan Gleeson, CEO of Contento, shares his own first-hand successes with vertical SaaS and how to plan out and action a vertical marketing strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/-Scaling-new-heights-with-vertical-SaaS.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-scaling-new-heights-with-vertical-saas/) ## The dangers of outsourcing Let's talk about the downsides of outsourcing the development of your SaaS product. Before you make a decision between hiring an agency or building an in-house team, it's crucial to understand the risks involved. ### Harder to implement changes First off, outsourcing can make it trickier to implement significant changes when the need arises. One of the risks is that agencies usually provide proposals with fixed deliverables, timelines, and budgets. So, if your product needs to pivot, you might find yourself in a situation where you have to renegotiate the terms of the contract with the agency to redefine the project scope. This shift can impact the timeline and budget, causing potential complications. ### Possible lack of commitment from an agency Another thing to keep in mind is that an agency team operates differently from an in-house team. While a development firm's team can certainly be passionate about your project, it's unlikely to match the same level of commitment and interest as an in-house department. Agency teams often juggle multiple projects simultaneously, which brings diversity in experience. However, having an in-house team has the advantage of undivided focus solely on your project, ensuring a dedicated approach. So, before you dive into outsourcing, make sure you weigh these factors and consider the pros and cons carefully. It's all about finding the right fit for your unique needs and goals. ## The dangers of in-house development ### It’s far more costly First things first, let's talk about the costs. Developing your SaaS product in-house can quickly rack up overhead expenses that surpass the fees charged by an agency. Payroll costs for UI/UX designers and software engineers can really add up, and let's not forget that these costs come with a long-term commitment of several months. For a startup launching a new SaaS product, this can be a major financial burden and a risky move. Even hiring contractors can prove to be quite costly in the long run. [Growth Hacking for B2B Startups: A guide to leveraging growth hacking methods for early-stage companiesThe most successful SaaS startup founders are able to disrupt the game and find innovative ways to grow and scale your business effectively. We delve into them here.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAkachukwu Obialor![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/growth-marketing-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/growth-hacking-for-b2b-startups-a-guide-to-leveraging-growth-hacking-methods-for-early-stage-companies/) ### It takes a lot longer But wait, there's more. Developing in-house also tends to take longer. If your company finds itself in the position of needing to recruit talent internally, you'll have to invest time in the hiring and onboarding process. And let's face it, that's time you could have otherwise spent on actually developing the product itself. On top of that, managing the product internally means you'll be more involved in decision-making, task management, and other aspects of project management. This opportunity cost can have some adverse effects, as it may result in neglecting other crucial areas of your business, such as marketing and business development. And believe me, that can have a negative impact on your product launch. Developing in-house can come with some hefty costs and time considerations that shouldn't be taken lightly. Be sure to assess the risks and potential trade-offs before making your decision. ## Tl;DR ### Pros of outsourcing - It’s more cost-effective - It allows you to focus more on your core offerings - It frees up your time and resources, especially when it comes to training and onboarding staff ### Pros of in-house development - A more passionate team that really cares about your product and the growth of your organization - More control over your product - Far greater control of your product so that you can supervise development every step of the way. - More freedom to implement changes to the product along the way In short, there is no right answer, but be sure to weigh up the pros and cons and find the path that suits your product. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Top growth-hacking AI tools for SaaS organizations URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/harnessing-the-potential-of-ai-tools-for-unparalleled-growth/ Last updated: 2024-10-31T11:06:16.000Z Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you’ll know that AI has really taken the SaaS world by storm. Whether it’s through producing reams of content at the click of a button, responding to customer queries as soon as they arise through chatbot technology, or leveraging machine learning to forecast revenue, AI might just be the rocket fuel you need to propel your org towards maximum and efficient growth. What’s becoming more apparent is that AI is unlikely to replace human innovation, but rather by picking up the slack on more menial tasks, it will create more bandwidth for humans to think up creative solutions for more complex problems. Don’t fall behind the curve. Get in on these tools: allow AI to automate so that you can innovate! ## Open AI Out of all the AI offerings that have emerged over recent years, Open AI is the one that has perhaps generated the most buzz, especially with its ChatGPT model. This state-of-the-art AI platform provides access to a variety of cutting-edge models, enabling you to develop innovative applications and solutions. This platform is designed to be easy to use and integrate with your existing workflows, so you can start exploring [the possibilities of AI in SaaS](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#8-challenges-for-end-users-and-practitioners) right away. Plus, with dedicated support and resources, you'll have everything you need to get the most out of the platform. Join the growing community of developers, researchers, and businesses using OpenAI to power their work. ### Pricing ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/chatGPT-pricing-.jpg) ## Writesonic Struggling to rustle up product descriptions, or sales emails? Writesonic can pull it off without a hitch! With over 40 templates designed to cater to various copywriting needs, Writesonic is perfect for writers of any skill level. From using tried-and-true copywriting formulas like AIDA and PAS, to generating custom copy based on your own inputs, this platform makes writing copy easier than ever before. With a simple and user-friendly interface, Writesonic streamlines the writing process so you can focus on creating high-quality content that resonates with your audience. ### Pricing After free trial, plans begin at $15 per month for 75 credits. For unlimited credits, plans begin at $45 per month. ## Smartwriter Smartwriter lets you generate personalized content quickly and efficiently. With access to over 40+ sources of information, including LinkedIn activity, Google and Facebook Reviews, website content, and recent blog posts, you can easily find the most relevant information to craft the perfect outreach message. ### Pricing ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/Smartwriter.jpg) ## Jasper With the ability to generate copy for everything from ads to blog post outlines, Jasper makes it easy to create high-quality content in just seconds. And with support for over 25 languages, including Spanish, Italian, and German, you can easily convert English content for use in international campaigns. Take your content game to the next level with Jasper's recipes and automated workflows, which can help speed up the content creation process and save you even more time. ### Pricing ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/jasper.jpg) ## Reclaim Reclaim helps you remove the hurdles and headaches from packed scheduling. Integration with Google Calendar ensures efficiency by adapting to your calendar changes while blocking out time to avoid double bookings. But that's not all. Reclaim also lets you create tasks and integrate them with your favorite project management tools to boost productivity. ### Pricing ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/06/reclaim.jpg) ## Gliacloud With Gliacloud, you can create viral videos with ease, share trending news and hot topics on your social media channels in minutes. This unique tool’s intuitive interface means that there are no video editing skills needed - just drag and drop your content and trim videos to your liking. Whether it's for product releases, social media, UGC, or personalized videos, this software offers a range of use cases, and allows you to maximize the potential of your existing content by including turning articles into videos. ### Pricing Contact sales for pricing. [How AI can help your SaaS company to scale and achieve retentionWith qualitative and quantitative insights from the leading minds in SaaS, this article showcases how AI can scale your SaaS org at pace today.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/AI.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-ai-can-help-your-saas-company-to-scale/) ## Bard Bard utilizes Google's Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) and aims to merge the extensive knowledge of the world with the remarkable abilities of their advanced language model. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, stated on the company's website that Bard leverages information from the internet to provide fresh and high-quality responses, similar to ChatGPT, which is renowned for its astonishing ability to generate well-researched content within seconds. According to Google, Bard serves as a platform for creativity and a source of curiosity, enabling users to effortlessly explain the latest findings from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old or gain insights about the top strikers in football and receive training exercises to enhance their skills. ## Anyword Anyword is an option in the market that big-name brands love using for AI-generated copy. It's got you covered for all sorts of stuff like ad copy, landing pages, blog posts, emails, and more. You can train Anyword to produce copy that sounds just like you or matches your brand's style. One of the cool features of this platform is the predictive copy score. It tells you how effective your copy is based on your target audience and the quality of your content. And here's the best part: you can either type in your own copy to get more suggestions, or you can toss in a URL and let Anyword handle the heavy lifting. ### Pricing There is a starter plan priced at $15 per month, offering a monthly limit of 15,000 words. Beyond that, there is a subsequent plan costing $239 per month, providing advanced features and unlimited word usage. [How you can use AI to push boundaries in SaaS productsJuliette Denny, CEO at Growth Engineering, outlines Artificial Intelligence in detail, including how it can be used to push boundaries in SaaS.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJuliette Denny![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/possessed-photography-zbLW0FG8XU8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/) ## Wordtune Wordtune can allow you to rewrite your copy, make it longer or shorter, and even give it a more formal or casual vibe. It's like having your own personal writing wizard! The tool and Chrome extension are super slick and easy to use. They really come in handy when you want to spice up your general communication or find better ways to express yourself. Wordtune also hooks you up with an editor that's perfect for all your copy needs. Give it a whirl and see the magic happen! ### Pricing You have the choice of a free plan that allows for 20 rewrites per day. Alternatively, premium plans begin at $9.99 per month, granting unlimited rewrites, the ability to shorten/expand copy, and additional features. ## Sidekick AI Sidekick AI offers you various options for scheduling meetings, making it super convenient for you. You can set up pages where people can choose from your available time slots, forward emails to book meetings, and even have meetings automatically scheduled without you having to lift a finger. How cool is that? Not only that, but you can also automate important meeting and productivity workflows by leveraging the power of integrations. [Understanding how to best use AI in customer successThe thoughtful implementation of AI-enabled customer success platforms can greatly enhance Customer Success Managers’ (CSM) ability to maximize the value of customer data and ultimately help reduce churn and improve the overall health of client relationships.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLaura Lakhwara![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/the-world-lit-up.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/understanding-how-to-best-use-ai-in-customer-success-2/) And here's the icing on the cake: Sidekick AI allows you to set up team scheduling, which is perfect for department meetings and client meetings that involve multiple team members. It's a real game-changer! If you're eager to boost your meeting efficiency, Sidekick AI has got your back. You can dig into the stats and get insights on how long meetings typically last, identify who's having those marathon meetings, and uncover other valuable insights. It's a treasure trove of meeting-related information that you don't want to miss out on. ### Pricing Enroll in the free plan, which includes connectivity to one source. Enhance your experience by upgrading to a plan priced at $15 per month, offering additional functionality and features. ## Synthesia You don't have to deal with complicated camera setups or spend money on renting studios anymore. Believe it or not, you can create professional-looking videos using just text! The platform's user experience and editing tool are truly remarkable. When it comes to video creation, you're spoilt for choice with over 30 templates to pick from. [Five best practices for scaling your B2B content marketing engine with AIDaunted by the prospect of AI? Don’t be. We show you how to utilize AI to augment your content marketing vision.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChinwoke Nnamani![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/ai.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/five-best-practices-for-scaling-your-b2b-content-marketing-engine-with-ai/) Whether you want to make presentations, share a case study, use videos for HR onboarding, or even announce new features to website visitors, there's a template for every occasion and more. The avatars themselves are incredibly lifelike, and you have a selection of over 40 avatars to choose from. Plus, the platform supports multiple languages, allows you to add background music, and even create multi-slide videos. It's a comprehensive video creation tool that has everything you need to make your videos shine! ### Pricing Experience Synthesia by subscribing for $30 per month, allowing you to utilize up to 10 video credits each month. This grants you access to a diverse range of avatars and templates for your videos, along with a selection of over 50 languages. If you require additional features, such as those found in the corporate plan, you can schedule a demo to explore the options available. --- If you enjoyed this article, take a look at the most comprehensive directory of software tools in the industry with the [SaaS Tools of Choice Report 2023](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2023-report/). ### The power of diversity: Unlocking SaaS innovation and profitability URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-of-diversity-unlocking-saas-innovation-and-profitability/ Last updated: 2024-08-20T16:15:00.000Z This article comes from **Mamta Suri**’s talk ‘*Bridging the gap: Unleashing the power of diversity in SaaS*’ at the **Future of SaaS Festival 2023**, check out the full version [**here**](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-april-2023/). In the dynamic, multicultural world we live in, diversity and inclusion are more than just buzzwords—they're the key to fostering innovation, improving profitability, and developing better products. Especially in my role as **director of engineering at DocuSign** and working within the constantly evolving **global SaaS space**, our approach to diversity and inclusion should be echoing the dynamism around us. As someone who embodies intersectionality, being a woman, a mother, and an immigrant, I understand firsthand how **diversity can shape our personal and professional lives**, and the challenges diverse groups face. Therefore **diversity and inclusion in the workplace** is a discussion that is very close to my heart and something I want to talk about here. So join me as we explore the benefits of diverse teams, the challenges they face, and the strategies to empower diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Let’s jump right in! - **The benefits of diverse teams** - **Challenges of diversity and inclusion** - **Strategies for empowerment** - **Final thoughts** ## The benefits of diverse teams Let's start with the data! 📊 Studies have shown that companies with [diverse teams are more **profitable**](https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters), more **innovative**, have **higher cash flow**, and they're better at **problem solving**. They're also more productive, and have a better ability to make decisions than their homogeneous counterparts, clearly showing diversity is good for the bottom line and profitability. As we delve into this topic, I really want to emphasize that diversity in tech is not just a 'nice to have', but in fact a **crucial factor in preventing biases** in our algorithms and products. The world of tech is fueled by innovation and diverse teams bring a range of perspectives that **spark creativity** and fresh new approaches. Picture this: a group of individuals from varied backgrounds, each bringing their unique ideas to the table. It's a fertile ground for innovation, right? Not only that, but these teams often yield better product development. With diverse experiences come diverse insights into the needs and preferences of different user groups. This can lead to the creation of more user-friendly, inclusive products. ## Challenges of diversity and inclusion While the benefits of diversity are clear, there are significant challenges to overcome. Unconscious bias, lack of representation, and intersectionality can all contribute to a less inclusive environment. However, like any worthwhile endeavor, these challenges must be faced. **Unconscious bias** is one such stumbling block. I have, at times, been on the receiving end of unconscious bias, and I can tell you, it's a difficult experience. Our biases are often born from our upbringing, societal norms, and the media, and they can affect how we perceive and treat others without us even realizing it. This inherent tendency and these biases, ranging from gender and racial preconceptions to age bias, can influence our decisions in hiring or promotion, often subtly and subjectively. **Lack of representation** is another key challenge. In industries such as tech, there's a significant underrepresentation of women and people of color. A lack of representation can lead to groupthink and echo chambers, limiting innovative ideas and diverse perspectives. This lack of diversity fails to cater to the needs and expectations of the diverse workforce or customer segments, which may result in reduced satisfaction and profitability. Then there's **intersectionality** which describes people belonging to multiple underrepresented groups who may face amplified discrimination based on various aspects of their identity. As someone who embodies intersectionality, it has greatly influenced my experiences and perspectives. Unfortunately, not everyone understands or acknowledges the complexity of intersectional identities, which can lead to people feeling overlooked or undervalued. This can lead to low productivity, lower morale, and underrepresentation. Recognizing these different facets of identity – race, gender, sexual orientation, beliefs, and more – is crucial in fostering a more inclusive environment. **Algorithmic bias**, a crucial issue in today's digital era, and another obstacle, is the biased output generated by algorithms due to the data they're trained on. I like to think of it like a juicer: if you put in healthy fruits, you get a healthy juice; whereas junk food results in an unhealthy drink. Amazon's recruiting algorithm exhibited gender bias, penalizing resumes mentioning women or women's colleges. This bias stemmed from a lack of diversity in the algorithm's training data, which primarily consisted of resumes from white males. Such examples underline the potential harm algorithmic bias can cause. Therefore, while creating AI models, it's important to be cognizant of such issues, even if they might not be immediately visible. ## Strategies for empowerment So, how do we address these issues? Sadly, there's no quick fix to address these challenges. Instead, it requires a **consistent and dedicated effort** to cultivate an environment where everyone feels valued, included, and empowered to contribute their unique viewpoints. Let me share with you some practical strategies I've adopted, including diversity and inclusion training programs, mentorship programs, employee resource groups, inclusive decision-making processes, and employee feedback channels. - **Diversity and inclusion training programs** are a good starting point, and I've been fortunate enough to lead such initiatives. These programs help raise awareness about unconscious biases and provide tools for individuals to challenge and change their perspectives. - **Mentorship programs** can also be powerful. I've both mentored and been mentored, and it's an incredible way to share insights, develop skills, and foster connections. Inclusion isn't just about having diverse individuals on a team. It's about ensuring they have the same opportunities to learn, grow, and succeed. - **Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)** have also been instrumental in fostering an inclusive culture. These groups provide a safe space for underrepresented employees to express their concerns, share their experiences, and support each other. - **Inclusive decision-making processes** are another critical piece of the puzzle. I've made it a priority to ensure diverse voices are heard and valued in meetings and decision-making processes. It's not just about giving people a seat at the table - it's about making sure they feel comfortable and empowered to speak up. - **Feedback channels** are also important. By establishing open lines of communication, organizations can learn from their employees about what is working well and where improvements can be made in promoting diversity and inclusion. To prevent algorithmic bias, we first need to **understand its origins**, be it from biased datasets, model selection, or interpretations. Secondly, thoroughly **evaluate the data** for representation, biases, and fairness. Invite external review and evaluation for wider perspectives and bias detection. Next, cultivate diversity in algorithm development through **diverse hiring** and incorporating varied viewpoints from across the organization. **Test algorithms** with diverse datasets and **routinely monitor for bias** over time, refining based on feedback. Promoting diversity and equity in the tech industry and within the organization can help to **curb algorithmic bias**. This encourages innovative solutions, identification of blind spots, and improved customer satisfaction. **🌟We all have the power to contribute to this change.** Embrace **diversity as a driver for innovation**, seeking and valuing diverse perspectives. Foster a **culture of belonging** in your organization, promoting **inclusive hiring** practices, providing **development opportunities** for diverse groups, and ensuring everyone feels valued and included. ## Final thoughts Promoting diversity and inclusion is an ongoing journey that requires constant effort. I hope my personal insights and strategies inspire you to take action in your organization. Remember, the diversity of our teams is our strength. Let's embrace it together to create a truly inclusive, innovative, and productive workplace. As I've navigated my career, one thing has become crystal clear: we all have a role to play in promoting diversity and inclusion. It's not just about policies and programs - it's about our attitudes and actions. We need to actively seek out diverse perspectives, challenge our biases, and strive to create an environment where everyone feels valued and included. In the end, the diversity of our teams is our strength. Let's embrace it, let's celebrate it, and let's work together to create a truly inclusive, innovative, and productive workplace. ### What are marketing development funds and how can they maximize growth? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-marketing-development-funds-and-how-can-we-use-them-to-maximize-growth/ Last updated: 2023-06-09T17:08:49.000Z As a rapidly scaling SaaS business, you’re likely working across multiple channels. And, while in the digital age this is certainly a plus, it can also be a massive headache. You've got agents, dealerships, and distribution partners to handle, and those folks need the right resources to succeed. That's where marketing development funds (MDFs) come in. It might sound dull but it can really be a secret weapon for companies, giving them the cash they need to empower teams to smash their tasks and targets. [How to build and structure your B2B SaaS marketing teamHere, we’re gonna show you how to structure your marketing teams to achieve maximum synchronicity.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/structure.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-and-structure-your-b2b-saas-marketing-team/) No matter how big your business is, MDF marketing might just be the key you need to stay strong across all your marketing channels. With MDFs, you can support all your projects without suffering a blow on quality. Unlike other marketing initiatives, MDFs offer flexibility so your teams have the resources they need, no matter what's going on. But how can you use MDFs to maximize your returns? That’s what we’re here to find out. Let’s dive in. ## What are marketing development funds (MDFs)? In a nutshell, they're like a pot of money set aside by vendors or distributors for their partners. It's all about fueling those mutually beneficial joint marketing activities that help everyone grow in the future. Now, when it comes to the B2B SaaS market, MDFs are a big deal. They're like the secret sauce for channel partners. It's the money they can tap into to boost their brand presence and drive sales through cool marketing campaigns or snazzy development programs. ## How are MDFs used? Partners can tap into MDFs to snag radio spots to reach a wide audience, host webinars that bring in potential customers, grab booth space at trade shows, or even throw their own marketing events. You know those lunch-and-learn sessions? Partners can make those happen and use MDFs to foot the bill. It's all about educating and impressing their clients. [How is email marketing important to improving customer retention?Despite the rising competition from social media, email marketing continues to be one of the most effective tools for B2B marketing. It’s great for product awareness and generating new leads, but also for boosting customer retention.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/brett-jordan-LPZy4da9aRo-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-is-email-marketing-important-to-improving-customer-retention/) MDFs also come in handy for channel partners to cover expenses like renting sales lead lists or running telemarketing campaigns. It's like having a financial safety net to support their sales efforts. To break it down, MDFs can be used for: - Content creation, especially for social media campaigns, or launching a podcast series. - Lead generation, funding email marketing and SEO optimization. - Events, where channel partners can shout about their amazing benefits through webinars or conferences. ## First steps to kickstarting your marketing development fund strategy ### Is a marketing development program really right for your organization? Before diving into an MDF program, ask yourself: is it really right for your organization? One size doesn't fit all, and what works for others might not work for you. Consider your channel partners and their growth expectations before taking the plunge. When it's time to launch your MDF marketing program, play to your organization's strengths. Allocate resources strategically to reinforce those strengths. It's not a walk in the park, though. You'll be dealing with co-branded items, event photos and videos, sign-offs, and a whole bunch of paperwork. Providers need to understand their partners' needs and design an impactful MDF program. ### Technology is your ally MDF programs can get complicated, and not every business is equipped to handle them with ease. Invest in automated channel marketing tools and software. You want to ultimately accommodate real-time distribution of brand assets in a flexible ecosystem. ### Track your performance like a pro Knowing how your brand strategy is performing is crucial. It lets you make timely adjustments and avoid wasting resources. Keep a sharp eye on performance metrics to maximize returns and cut out wasteful practices. [How to effectively fundraise and find investorsIn this article, I’m going to share some stories from my fundraising career that I’ve never shared anywhere else. Each story comes with a lesson I learned along the way. Hopefully, these lessons will help you as you embark on your journey to raise capital.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSKirill Makharinsky![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/money-man.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-effectively-fundraise-and-find-investors/) ### Don't be a lone wolf Engage with your partners. Don't assume you have all the answers. Establish a solid feedback system that keeps the communication flowing. By listening to your partners' input, you'll have better control over the success of your brands. Remember, collaboration is key! ## Marketing development funds best practices MDF programs should be all about putting the partner experience first. They should be treated like a natural extension of the business, fitting right into the overall marketing and business goals. It's all about making it a win-win for both the vendor and the channel partner. When it comes to creating a marketing development fund program, the vendor or distributor needs to keep a few things in mind: Step one: **Figure out how the funds are gonna be dished out.** There are various options, like reimbursements, rebates, co-op funds, or even splurging on marketing placements. Step two: **Make sure everyone's on the same page with the marketing goals.** The vendor and the partner need to agree on what they wanna achieve to move their businesses forward. Step three : **Set a budget and decide which activities are gonna get priority.** Step four: **Come up with a process for approving partners.** Get everyone aligned on the marketing strategy, the metrics, and the goals. That way, you have a solid logical foundation for how you divvy out funds. Step five: **Keep tabs on the results and track that sweet ROI**. Keep an eye on how engaged your partners are and have regular check-ins to see if the program is really doing its job. By nailing these steps, MDF programs can make partners happy while driving success for the vendor. [SaaS MarketingAs the demand for cloud-based software continues to grow, SaaS companies are facing intense competition in the market. Here is a guide to help you develop a successful SaaS marketing strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_Marketing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) ## What is the structure of marketing development fund allocation? MDFs are usually doled out based on partner performance and revenue. In simple terms, the more a partner sells, the better their chance of accessing those sweet marketing development funds. But, here's the catch: this structure doesn't do much to motivate new partners. That's why many channel managers, who handle relationships with partners for vendors or distributors, are shifting towards proposal-based MDF programs. In these programs, all partners, regardless of revenue or tenure, can pitch for funds. It opens up more dialogue between the channel manager and partners, giving smaller and newer partners a chance to participate and allocate funds based on their strategic goals. Now, let's talk budget. The amount of money allocated depends on various factors, like channel maturity, market presence, and other perks and incentives offered within the partner ecosystem. [SaaS MarketingAs the demand for cloud-based software continues to grow, SaaS companies are facing intense competition in the market. Here is a guide to help you develop a successful SaaS marketing strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_Marketing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) But here's the thing: vendors often struggle to figure out how much to budget for MDFs. It's not an easy task. Each partner is unique, and budgets will fluctuate based on factors like their products, location, and their co-marketing value to the vendor or distributor. Proving ROI for MDFs can also be a challenge. That's why it's crucial for the vendor or distributor to set clear, measurable goals when establishing a program, and for the channel partner to track progress along the way. It's all about staying on top of things and making sure everyone is on the same page. ## The amazing benefits of a marketing development fund strategy For the channel partner, MDFs bring a host of benefits that make it a no-brainer. Here's what they can look forward to: 1. Boosting brand awareness: MDFs provide the means to increase brand visibility and reach a wider audience, helping partners enhance their brand presence in the market. 2. Generating more leads: With access to additional funds, partners can invest in targeted marketing campaigns, driving lead generation and attracting potential customers. 3. Investing in employee growth: MDFs allow partners to invest in training and education programs for their employees, fostering professional development and improving expertise within the organization. 4. Enhanced marketing support: Partners can tap into MDFs to receive additional marketing support, such as co-branded materials, advertising initiatives, or participation in industry events, giving them a competitive edge. 5. Adopting new tools and technology: MDFs enable partners to invest in the latest tools and technologies that can streamline operations, improve efficiency, and deliver better customer experiences. [How to conquer the market with an awesome SaaS go-to-market strategySo you have an awesome SaaS product. That’s great, but to get the message out there, you gotta have a solid GTM strategy. We lay out the essential steps here.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/saas-gtm-strategy--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-conquer-the-market-with-an-awesome-saas-go-to-market-strategy/) On the other side of the equation, vendors and distributors also reap significant benefits from MDFs: 1. Strengthening partner relationships: MDFs help build stronger partnerships and foster loyalty among channel partners, creating a mutually beneficial ecosystem. 2. Control over funding allocation: Vendors and distributors have the ability to allocate funds strategically, ensuring that the resources are utilized in alignment with their overall marketing and business objectives. 3. Leveraging partner knowledge: MDFs allow vendors and distributors to tap into the expertise and insights of their partners, leveraging their market knowledge and experience for more effective marketing campaigns. 4. Supporting smaller partners and new programs: MDFs provide an opportunity to nurture and grow smaller partners, empowering them to expand their reach and contribute to overall business growth. It also enables the introduction of new programs and initiatives that drive innovation within the partnership ecosystem. 5. Increasing the value of partnership programs: MDFs enhance the overall value of partnership programs, attracting and retaining top-tier channel partners. This, in turn, contributes to the success of channel managers who oversee and manage these partnerships. ## The difference between marketing development funds and co-op funds Market development funds (MDFs) and co-op marketing funds may seem similar, but they're not cut from the same cloth. Here's the lowdown: Co-op funds? They're like the VIP treatment, reserved for the big guns - high-volume sellers, the distributors who bring in the big bucks. Vendors dish out these funds based on a percentage of the partner's product sales. And guess what? They're all about the long game. Co-op funds are budgeted for annual campaigns and other marathon-like marketing activities. But MDFs? They're all about quick hits. Think webinars and trade show appearances. They're perfect for partners looking to make a splash in the short term. Both co-op and MDF funds can go to waste if partners find them as tricky as a maze or have no clue they even exist. So, remember, while co-op funds and MDFs may share a few similarities, they have their own flavors. Get savvy about these differences to squeeze the most juice out of these funding sources. ## Let’s wrap it up With these benefits in play, MDFs create a win-win scenario where both the channel partner and the vendor or distributor thrive and achieve their respective goals. In the modern era, SaaS organizations need to be able to utilize multiple channels. Because of this, it’s essential to forge solid relationships and create an ecosystem of quality partners in order to scale effectively. So, don’t miss out on the opportunities that marketing development funds can give you! --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The customer health score: How to master this metric URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-customer-health-score-how-to-master-this-metric/ Last updated: 2023-06-07T11:37:46.000Z For those of us who thrive in pragmatism and proactivity, having the means to judge whether an aspect of your life was going good, bad, or just plain average, would be a blessing sent from above. Whether this was for work or in your personal life, with an indicator like this you’d be able to jump into action before things turned sour and prevent a situation that could cause further damage. While you might have to be a little less control over your personal life, there are ways to implement this foresight into your work. Enter the almighty ****customer health score**. 💪 In this article, we’re going to take a deep dive into: - What a customer health score is - Why it’s important - How to calculate a health score - How to best utilize and improve health scores Shall we crack on? 👇 ## ****What is a customer health score?** If you’re here for a customer health score definition, you came to the right place. So, what is the function of a health score? A customer health score is a predictive metric used by SaaS businesses to indicate the likelihood of your customer leaving (churn), staying (retention), or growing (renewals) in your organization. Customer Success Managers (CSMs) will be well-versed in the art of the health score, as this metric offers an absolute goldmine for customer intelligence. When analyzing your accounts (your customers) the customer health score offers you the ability to predict the longevity of this business relationship. Those with a low score are prioritized as high-risk with the likelihood of succumbing to churn. These customers instantly flag as a high priority for the dedicated CSM to start planning their strategies to pre-empt customer churn. [Customer success metrics that drive 95% retentionIn this article, I’ll be discussing the customer success metrics you should be tracking at each and every stage of the customer lifecycle. With them, you can drive retention and ensure your customer success function is successful in delivering value to the customer.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSwati Chopra![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/yoav-hornung-Qg6lPXJ6IL4-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) ### ****A customer health score is a comparative metric** By combining factors like frequency of product use, the number of support tickets open, and whether the customer is using a wide breadth of product features, you can ascertain a score to reflect the customer’s current health status. Typically, the health score can range from 1-10 or 1-100, with lower scores addressing at-risk customers and higher scores indicating greater revenue opportunities like upselling and cross-selling. It’s up to the customer success team to categorize the scores and determine the actions you’ll take. For example, if an account scores 25/100, the CSM is required to take immediate action and reach out to them. Accounts that are given a thumbs up usually will bag a score of 70-100 and will be color-coded in green; customers who score between 40-70 are at risk of churning and are usually color-coded in yellow; those who score less than 40 are in the red zone, and are likely to churn. ## ****Why calculating customer health scores is important** While the customer health score forecasts what’s to come, it’s no Mystic Meg metric. 🔮 It's based on reality, allowing customer success teams to act fast to nip poor customer satisfaction in the bud, reduce churn, increase customer retention rates, and ward off negative feedback. We wouldn’t throw caution to the wind, mind you. It’s worth remembering that calculating a customer health score isn’t a problem-eradicator. A health score is a valuable metric to have in your remit, but it doesn’t solve everything there and then. It needs to be monitored continuously as the post-conversion journey for the customer can be volatile and susceptible to the elements. Anything can change for the customer from the point of sale, which is why a watertight, carefully considered customer onboarding process is integral to actualizing time-to-value (TTV) and sustaining product appreciation. [Customer retention metrics and how to action themHow do successful SaaS organizations measure retention and what on earth do they with the results, I hear you cry? Well, we surveyed 100 SaaS pros to find out how they track, review and utilize retention and churn metrics, and here are the results.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/jakob-owens-CiUR8zISX60-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) But let it be said, the customer health score isn’t all doom-and-gloom; it’s not solely a last-minute scramble used to catch at-risk customers from churning. A high customer health score can alert you to a treasure trove of possibilities. For example, an engaged customer – who uses your product frequently and demonstrates an interest in your company – will likely want to increase their subscription and buy additional products or services. A high customer health score is a godsend to a CSM, offering the possibility for expansion and repeat purchases. From a commercial perspective, keeping an ear to the ground by consistently monitoring customer health scores is a shoo-in for increasing revenue by identifying upsell and cross-sell opportunities. ****NB: This is particularly important for high-value customers.** An account plan may be necessary to ensure your high-value accounts continue to renew and expand. Not only will this life-saving piece of admin help you to keep all your account information and actions in one place, but, hopefully, it’ll keep your high-value accounts happy. If you’d like to learn how to upsell, or perhaps want to brush up on your current strategy, we have a template for that. 👇 ## ****How do you calculate a customer health score?** Several critical indicators form the basis of the customer health score, the majority of which reflect the customer’s overall engagement with your product and your organization as a whole. Here are some factors that contribute to calculating a customer health score: - How frequently your customer is using your product or service - The depth in which your product is being used - How many people are using your product or service - How many customer support tickets are open for this account - Whether the customer engages with your in-app surveys - The total number of add-ons purchased by the customer - If the customer has upgraded their subscription - If the customer uses the in-app chat feature ## How do companies calculate customer health scores? But depending on your organization’s customer success strategy and product or service offered how you define ‘health’ is entirely subjective to your company’s needs. We spoke to ****Smith Puerto**, Director of Customer Success at ****Verb**, about their thoughts on this coveted metric: > *“My team owns customer success for a SaaS platform, and we’re building out a super basic health score that weighs a customer’s monthly active use of our platform, the number of support tickets per account (we use ZenDesk and JIRA), and then a one to three gut check by the CSM on the admin relationship.* > *“After this, we have those three data points weighted differently for different customer segments; in some segments, the admin relationship is considerably more significant than product adoption, and vice versa for different segments.”* [Customer engagement and the metrics that matter \[Q&A with Intercom\]According to Gallup, fully engaged customers offer 23% more revenue on average, but getting the balance right between newer, lower-tier customers and more established big spenders can often feel like you’re borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/priscilla-du-preez-nF8xhLMmg0c-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-engagement-and-the-metrics-that-matter-q-a-with-intercom/) Similarly, at ****Stripe**, their customer success team uses customer engagement in their overall scores and looks if they’re participating in key activities like QBRs. This was noted by ****Melissa Hatter**, Enterprise Customer Success Lead at ****Stripe**, during a panel discussion at ****Future of SaaS**’ 2022 SaaS Metrics Summit. > *“We look at product utilization and optimization – that's probably similar across a lot of organizations. And then there's payment utilization and optimization, which is very specific to But I also think there’s a portion of health that’s hard to track with data – there's absolutely no substitute for CSM sentiment.”* Melissa touches on a glaring tension in customer success: the delicate balance between data and human traits like empathy and intuition. For Melissa, CSMs have incredible and intimate knowledge of their accounts, and this gut instinct is usually the strongest signal of health, despite all the data available. If your customer segment is high-touch and has a dedicated CSM, nothing can replace talking to the client themselves, and forming a relationship. For lower-touch customers, with a greater emphasis on a tech-first approach to onboarding and customer relationship management (CRM), relying on data will probably be your best friend here. ## ****How to best utilize and improve customer health scores** Once you have decided upon the factors informing your customer health score, you’re able to extrapolate this intel to provide direction for your anti-churn and revenue-driving strategies. For ****Smith** ****Puerto**, health scores “provide insights that allow teams to make strategic decisions around prioritization, resource allocation, and forecasting”. They also note that CS teams can then present these performance indicators to key internal stakeholders, noting that CS leaders can “communicate account status and health to the leadership team and board on a bi-weekly basis”. How to improve? Well, that’s a constant work in progress. If you want to share a hot tip for improving the rating of your customer health score, reach out to your peers in our community on Slack – we know that all CSMs will be keen to find ways to improve on this unpredictable metric. But for now, here are three ways to improve your health scores. 👇 ### ****1\. Speak to customers** Telling a CSM to talk to their customers to better understand their feelings, is like telling an Olympic swimmer to remember to put on their goggles before diving into the pool. It’s a no-brainer – of course, it’ll enhance their performance! The same can be said for regularly communicating with your customers. In our latest report, State of Customer Success 2022, regularly communicating with customers was considered to be thenumber one tactic for counteracting customer churn. Health scores are indicators of a customer’s current status, but it’s up to CSMs themselves to intervene, to make things right. [Customer success: Past, present, and futureI’m David Collard and I work at LinkedIn, where I lead the customer success team for our global clients’ program out of EMEA. I’ve been working in and around customer success for about six years now, and in that time, I’ve seen considerable growth and change in our industry.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDavid Collard![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/looking-to-the-future.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-past-present-and-future/) ### ****2\. Use in-app guides** With the rise of automation in customer success, there are quick wins that CSMs can adopt to better serve their customers. If a customer is found to have a mid-low health score, they would be deemed unhealthy. Then the customer success team can act by using automation to specifically target these low-scoring accounts. In-app guides can replicate previously successful cases by walking the customer through how to use the product. These guides can be slightly different from the product’s current onboarding process, highlighting different challenges for the seasoned customer who hasn’t been engaging with the product. ### ****3\. Multiple scoring systems** Implementing a range of health scores can help to prioritize CSMs' efforts and be more specific about success or failure patterns. CSMs can use patterns to replicate the success with in-app guidance or reduce frictions that lead to failure. At the other end of the spectrum, high scores can find the right moment to ask freemium users to upgrade. Multiple scoring systems can help to prioritize CSMs' efforts and be more specific about success or failure patterns. To get a clearer picture of your customer base, you can run different scoring systems for different user segments e.g. new vs. old customers, and individual vs. enterprise accounts. ## ****TL;DR** ****✅ There’s not a one-size-fits-all formula for customer health scores.** Pick factors to make up the health score – whether that’s product usage, support tickets, etc. – that are right for your business and reflect your product. There’s no point copying what another company does if they have a completely different product. ****✅ Lean into automation.** Incorporating artificial intelligence into your health score strategy can be a lifesaver. Health scores need to be continually monitored and to be kept abreast of new changes. The best way to do this is with an integrated tech stack. ****✅ Talk to your customers.** Above all, health scores try to predict patterns of future behavior. But the only way to benefit from this metric is to communicate with your customers and listen first-hand to what can be done to improve their experience. --- *Enjoyed this article? Why not check out our exclusive content from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership plan.* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Best practices for building out your product operations team URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/best-practices-for-building-out-your-product-operations-team/ Last updated: 2024-08-20T16:14:24.000Z Hi everybody, I’m Gabby Peralta. I'm so excited to be here with you all today, talking about how to start and build a product operations team. I'm going to give a short introduction about myself and why I feel qualified to be talking about starting and building product operations teams. Then I'll spend most of the time talking about how to take your team from zero to one, and then from one to many. So let's go ahead and get started. ## **About me** My pronouns are she, her, and hers. I'm currently a Product Operations Manager at Tealium, and I'm calling in from Fort Worth, Texas, where it’s 97 degrees today. It's my first summer here in Texas and it’ll also be my last one because of how hot it gets. I'm also a product operations pioneer. If you're in product operations at all, you’re very much a trailblazer. We're all figuring it out and defining what product operations will look like at our organizations. So you’re very much a pioneer, and I hope that you take that term with you. The reason why I feel qualified to be giving today's talk is because I've contributed to the growth of two product operations teams. I've been the first product operations hire at two startups and I'm very familiar with working as a team of one, and I'm now part of a team where I have three other people that I'm able to lean on, which has been incredible. [Product development team structure for SaaS organizationsProduct development teams are the most crucial point in any SaaS pipeline, despite that, many SaaS startups have little if anything in the way of team organization.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLuis Gomes de Abreu![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/07/javier-allegue-barros-i5Kx0P8A0d4-unsplash--2---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-development-team-structure-for-saas-organization/) My hope today is that you learn from my successes, but you also learn from my mistakes and that you're able to get your team to success quicker than I ever could. I do want to say that I borrowed the titles in this talk from Josh McLaughlin. He has great articles titled, ‘From Zero to One’ and ‘From One to Many. I’ll reference them several times throughout this talk, to the point that you’re going to get so sick of me mentioning them. But really, those articles were so incredible for me as I joined those two teams as a team of one and was building out the function. He really spent a lot of time and put a lot of great effort into those articles, and there are a lot of great takeaways. So shout out to Josh. ## **Going from zero to one in three phases** As you take your team from zero to one and you're starting your team, the first phase I want to focus on is discover. So you have your new team, maybe you're at a new company or maybe you've transitioned roles internally. But I think that the most important phase is discovery. It also might be one of the longer phases, and there'll be three phases that we'll talk about today. Because product operations requires diligence, patience, and investment from leadership, we really want to spend some time on discovery and put emphasis on patience. It'll take time to build out your team and to decide where you need to focus on. After we're done with discover, we'll go into our defining stage. During this stage, we're going to talk about where we want to focus. You'll set your product operations vision and then you'll start getting into the nitty gritty of what projects you want to work on. The defining stage will be a little shorter than the discovery phase, and will also be shorter than the delivery phase. The delivery phase is the last phase and ideally is the phase that you’ll never leave because you'll constantly be delivering great value from your product operations team. You can't have deliver without define, and you can't have define or deliver without discover, so you really want to be spending time on discover. I'll talk a little bit more about how much time I think you should take. It’s going to be different from company to company and person to person, but let's go ahead and get into it. [![Discover, define, deliver key steps ](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2023/01/Discover--define--deliver-steps.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/best-practices-for-building-out-your-product-operations-team) ### **Discover** During the discover phase, the most important thing is to learn and understand. You're going to want to set clear expectations. And the reason why I say this is because whether you're new to a company or you've moved over internally, it's really important to say, “This is what I've been brought in to do and this is how much time I think it's going to take.” And I mean that specifically for the discovery phase. I've made the mistake of rushing discover, and what happens is you end up focusing on the wrong areas. So you really want to say, “Hey, now that I'm here, I'm excited, but it's going to take some time. So here's what to expect from me as I get used to my role.” And then build out what product operations looks like. With that, I like to have an elevator pitch. You might be meeting with people who have never heard of product operations. That’s not unusual. I’d say that 99% of the people I work with have never heard of it. So have that elevator pitch and say, “This is what I think product operations is, this is the value that I think it brings, and this is why I'm excited to be on this team.” A 30-second elevator pitch of why product operations is the best and what you’re here to do is really important as you're in the discover, learn, and understand phase. [Product launches for enterprise customers \[podcast\]: Suresh Krishna Madhuvarsu, Product10xOn this week’s episode, Gemma Davies, Community Manager at Future of SaaS is joined by Suresh Krishna Madhuvarsu, Managing Partner at Product10x. Suresh discusses product launches for enterprise customers, the importance of setting goals and what makes a successful product launch.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/FoSaaS_Podcast_SM_Product10x.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-launches-for-enterprise-customers-podcast-suresh-krishna-madhuvarsu-product10x/) I also think that it's really important to ask questions. So when you're new at a company or new in the role, meet one-on-one with everybody. That can be everybody in the product department, the engineering department, people in sales, customer success, support, you name it, any team that you might be interacting with. I think it's really important to take the time to sit down and talk with them. If you can't talk with all the individual contributors, at least talk with the leadership. And if you can't meet with everybody, (it happens, some of us are in really large organizations), I’d also recommend sending out a survey. That'll be Josh's survey which he details in his article. That survey helped me tremendously when I joined a new company. It helped me to understand from a more quantitative perspective of, “Hey, I surveyed the entire team, and 90% said that I need to focus here and that this is the largest problem.” So really dig in when you're meeting one-on-one with people and get that qualitative feedback, but also get the quantitative feedback with the survey. I think having those two hand in hand is a really great way to start your discovery phase, and as you get further into the defining stage, being able to come back and say, “no,” when you're asked to take on other projects because you spent your time in discovery and this is what you found out is the most important. [Product-led growth metricsProduct-led growth has emerged as more than just a viable go-to-market strategy, it has exploded across industries and is gaining even more traction in 2021.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/isaac-smith-AT77Q0Njnt0-unsplash--1---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-led-growth-metrics/) So I think that asking those questions is the best way to do it, along with relationship building and setting those clear expectations. And last but not least, listening as you're doing all of these things. The most important part of discovery is listening and being an active listener as people are telling you about their problems and what's working well for them. In addition to that, as you start to hear common themes among people, start a dialogue between those leaders. If two leaders are having the same problem, for example, customer success and sales are saying, “Hey, we don't know when product is launching features,” get them in a room with you and start that dialogue. This way, we can really uncover what the problem is and how sales are facing it differently than customer success. The more people you can get in a room and start an open dialogue with, the more problems you're going to be able to discover so that you can come in and fix them. So there are three easy steps to discover. A lot more can go into this phase, but these are what I think are the top three most important things to focus on: setting clear expectations, asking questions, and listening as you ask those questions. [![three easy steps to discover](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2023/01/three-easy-steps-to-discover.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/best-practices-for-building-out-your-product-operations-team) ### **Define** During this stage, you're going to decide where you want to focus and prioritize. I think this can be the toughest stage because there are lots of areas you might want to focus on. I've been brought into companies and thought, *Oh my gosh, there are so many fires to put out.* But it can be really hard to say, “no, I can't do everything all at once. I’m not Superwoman, I'm just one person.” So I really have to hone in and decide, based on my discovery phase, what areas I want to focus on. I've seen this called ‘product operations pillars.’ So you could say, “Here are the pillars I want to focus on and here's the vision that I want to create.” So start with the working backward approach of, “This is what success looks like for my team. This is the vision of what I think we should focus on and what I think the value that this team brings is.” And then from there, narrow that scope down and determine what's most important project-wise. [Product Owner vs. Product Manager \[Q&A with Hubspot\]Eric Peters, Product Owner, Hubspot Academy, Hubspot talks personas, what a product owner looks like at Hubspot and how to effectively support and prioritize users.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/markus-spiske-MbG7kwWptII-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-owner-vs-product-manager-q-a-with-hubspot/) In a moment, I'll share some different examples of what the pillars could be for product operations. These will look different at every company. This is my third product operations role, and product operations has been a bit different in each role I've had. And I think that's also the beauty of it because you get to define and decide how product operations will work for your company and your team. So as you're narrowing the scope, I come back to that word ‘no.’ ‘No’ is going to be a large part of your vocabulary as a product operations person because there are so many things that we can focus on. So when you do say yes to something, you need to identify what the opportunity cost of saying yes is. Then as you're defining your vision and narrowing that scope, you can come back to it and say, “Actually, no, I can't take on that other project because here's what I found out during discovery, and this is where the team needs my focus.” Spending time on discovery allows you to say no in the future. It's something that I've had to learn to say and it doesn't really get easier, but having a defined vision and defined project really helps to enable success for the future. [![Easy steps to define](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2023/01/Easy-steps-to-define.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/best-practices-for-building-out-your-product-operations-team) ### **The different pillars of product operations** Here are some examples of what product operations can look like. Blake Bassett's pillars are ‘quality’, ‘strategy and operations’, and ‘organizational communication.’ During the discover and define stage, you don't want to come in with solutions. You're only looking to identify the problems. We’ll focus on solutions during the delivery phase. This is just one example. You can always come back to it and decide whether or not this looks right for your team. You can also see at the bottom of the pillars that his vision is to ‘enable product teams to achieve better outcomes.’ So when you're thinking about your vision, it doesn't have to be a four-page document, it can be one sentence saying, ‘This is my vision for product operations, and here's how I'm defining what it's going to look like.’ The beauty of it too is if in two or three years you don’t think it’s working anymore, you can come back and revise it. Here's another great example from Becky Flynn. You can see that her pillars are ‘enable teams,’ ‘align vertically,’ and ‘collaborate cross-functionally.’ And then you have all this good stuff in the middle. [![Pillars of product ops - ‘enable teams,’ ‘align vertically,’ and ‘collaborate cross-functionally](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2023/01/Screenshot-2023-01-27-at-11.55.08.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/best-practices-for-building-out-your-product-operations-team) You can see there are some common themes across both of these examples. Organizational communication and being able to communicate cross-functionally have been common themes that I've seen at all the companies I've worked at. There are lots of great resources on how you can define product operations. My word of advice would be to take the time to figure out what's going to work for you. And then last but not least is Marty Cagan's product operations overview. He thinks product operations should focus on ‘quantitative insights,’ ‘qualitative insights,’ and ‘tools and best practices evangelism.’ [![Marty Cagan Product Ops Overview](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2023/01/Marty-Cagan-Product-Ops-Overview-1.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/best-practices-for-building-out-your-product-operations-team) Going back to the discover phase, when you're trying to discover what product operations should be, I do think it's really important to have both quantitative feedback and qualitative feedback. There are lots of ways that you can set up product operations for your company, and these are just some of the ways that people have made it work. ### **Deliver** After you've discovered and defined what product operations should be, it’s time for the longest and probably the most fun phase, the deliver phase, or the phase in which you execute on what your vision and your mission are, and what you've defined product operations to be. During deliver, you're likely going to be under a lot of scrutiny, especially if you're new to the company. This is a new function so people likely don't know who you are, so you want to be able to come in and hit the ground running. If you're someone who's transferred internally, which is something I've done, the pressure’s off a little bit, but it’s still a new function and you have to show value fast. What I recommend doing is starting small. So during your discovery phase, you’ve likely heard a lot of the same problems come up. What's something that you can fix or what process could you remove that takes minimal impact or effort on your end, but has high impact? So define those quick wins. [Leading product management through turbulent timesJodie Chan, SVP of Product and Partnerships at Chinafy, delivers top tips on how you can future-proof your product against whatever comes your way.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJodie Chan![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/03/storm-cloud.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/leading-product-management-through-turbulent-times-2/) Then within that starting small step, create 30-60-90-day goals and sprinkle those wins throughout. The quicker that you can show value, the better off your team is going to be in the long run. Additionally, as you start delivering on those larger projects that you have at 90 days and onwards, I'd highly recommend practicing change management. As you're delivering on projects, make sure that you truly understand the change before you roll it out, and then plan for that change. Provide timelines, be really clear about what change is coming and when the team can expect it to come in, and then as you implement the change, make sure that you reinforce the change. And again, start small. But once you've put that change into place, maybe it's a process that you've improved, close that loop and say, “This is the value that this process has brought to the board.” For example, I was brought onto a project and found that our bug board SLAs were just not up to where our customers needed them to be. It was really frustrating for the product team, but it was also frustrating for customer success, support, and everybody else in the organization because bugs were coming up but nobody was looking at them. It was taking way too long. What I found was that it took 10 days to look at a bug that came in, but then we rolled out this new process and it only took five hours to look at one. So it’s being able to take that information back to the team and say, “Hey, this is the value that this process brought. Thank you all so much for being involved in collaborating and contributing towards this change and participating in it.” I think that's really, really important. So close the loop on all the changes that you make and the projects that you're executing on. Also in the deliver phase is iterating as you deliver on projects. Ask the teams for feedback as you go. For example, when I was rolling out the bug board process, I went to the team and said, “Hey, this is what I'm thinking of as my process. What do you think? What am I missing that's important to you?” That's definitely a mistake that I’ve made. I‘ve rolled out this whole process without thinking about the fact that we had people in different time zones. I said, “We need people monitoring this bug board at 5 am CT.” But that means 3 am for people in California. So ask for feedback as you go, and then iterate and improve for the next time. Ask your teams, “Has this change been impactful? Was it helpful? If not, where can we improve?” I’ve also added ‘make mistakes’ in this phase, and I'll touch on that a little bit later too. But making mistakes and having a culture where you're able to experiment, fail, and fail forward is really important. This is a new function and you're human, so it's going to take some time. Going back to those small wins, that's also where it's important to have those really solid wins at the beginning because it's very likely that you're going to make mistakes as you go through this role. And as you bring on new people, and especially if you're a team of one, it's a lot for one person to be taking on as a product operations person and supporting an entire organization. So don’t be afraid to make mistakes and own those mistakes as you make them. [![Deliver and execute, key steps](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2023/01/Screenshot-2023-01-27-at-12.05.42.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/best-practices-for-building-out-your-product-operations-team) So that sums up the three stages for taking your team from zero to one. And just to recap, that’s discover, where you're digging, in asking questions, meeting with people one-on-one, and really understanding the organization and the problems that they're facing. Then it's define, where you're spending time and saying, “Hey, this is all the feedback I got, and this is where I think we should focus and why.” And then it’s the deliver phase, where you're able to deliver on those projects that you think are the most important, and you're able to iterate, get feedback, and make those mistakes as you go. As you grow, you're constantly going to come back to these and always be discovering and redefining product operations, what the projects are that you're working on, and then delivering on those projects. ## **Taking your team from one to many** As you take your team from one to many, I'm going to talk about four things I've personally faced that I think are important. And I think without these things, you can potentially run into some problems. Number one is to start planning for your team very early. So as you go from one to many, think about that as soon as you're a team of one because it's a lot for one person to take on. It doesn't matter about the size of your company or the size of the product team. Because of our role, there are so many things that operational people can focus on. It’s really important to plan ahead and say, “Based on our vision, these pillars, and these projects that we've identified, I'm going to need three more people by the end of 2023\. Or I'm at least going to need one person who can help me in this capacity.” I think that's really important to talk about as soon as you're brought onto a team. [Myths of product operationsWhile the product operations discipline does have the word ‘product’ in it we need to remember that product management is not the only player in the development of products.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChris Compston![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/joshua-rodriguez-KiFPlKh4MPM-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/myths-of-product-operations/) And then from there, define career paths. This is very, very important. There was a recent study that said ‘the majority of workers (63%) who quit a job in 2021 cited no opportunities for advancement.’ So as you're growing your team, think about what levels they can be on. Maybe they can come in as an associate product operations person and then move up to level two or level three. Maybe your Senior Product Operations Manager could move up to being Head of Product Operations. Have clear career paths defined as well as what the duties are in each of those paths and how to get from one level to the next. But as you're thinking about growing your team and defining what they’re going to look like as you start hiring, something that I think is really important is to think about those pillars you have. If you have qualitative, quantitative, and tools and best practices, and you have someone who's really good at the qualitative work, hire someone who's going to fill out your team. So if you have a person who's great at qualitative, hire someone who has experience with the quantitative side of the house. If your product team is shipping features but they have no idea if they're successful or not, hire someone who has experience in saying, “The feature’s launched, here's how many people have looked at it, and here's the value that it's brought,” and just painting that picture. I think that's the best way to go so you can have a fully functional and well-built team. Then if you can't find experts, or even if you can, I think one of the three most important skills for a product operations person to have is being collaborative. They like to work as a team and they like to help other people. Great communication is another one. Being able to communicate cross-functionally is something I’ve seen across all my roles. You have to be a good communicator to be a good product operations person. And then last but not least, leadership. Product operations people often have to lead without authority. And these are all skills that are harder to teach. The soft skills are typically harder, but the hard skills are a little bit easier. [Product-led VS sales VS market VS customer: What’s the difference?What’s the difference between product-led, sales-led, marketing-led, and customer-led growth? We’re here with an overview that displays the best approach for your business.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1432888498266-38ffec3eaf0a?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDIzfHxidXNpbmVzc3xlbnwwfHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-led-vs-sales-led-vs-marketing-led-vs-customer-led-differences/) So if you can't find someone who’s a data expert, maybe find someone who has the potential to get there and hire based on that, and you'll see a lot of success. Because product operations is so new, it can be hard to find someone with five-plus years of experience. We haven't really even been around that long, or we have but in other titles or capacities. So be flexible about that too. To recap, hiring based on those pillars and soft skills is crucial to getting your team from one to many and being successful in doing so. And then last but most important is creating psychological safety. If you want to grow your team and get to that next level, you want to make sure your team feels safe enough to take the risk to get you there. Create an environment where it's okay to fail and it's okay to make mistakes. As long as we're learning and failing forward and iterating the next time, creating that sort of environment is going to take your product operations team to levels that you wouldn't be able to reach if you didn't have that safety there. So to cap it off, those are the four most important things to think about as you take your team from one to many. ### SaaScast: Scaling new heights with vertical SaaS URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-scaling-new-heights-with-vertical-saas/ Last updated: 2023-06-01T13:57:44.000Z In an increasingly oversaturated SaaS market, it’s crucial that your brand has a clear identity. Although many SaaS companies want to cast the net wide when it comes to attracting new customers, the question often becomes: where’s the baited hook? Or, in other words, have you thought carefully about the tangible benefits of your product that will help draw customers in? That’s where vertical SaaS comes to the rescue. By specializing your product messaging towards a more niche market, the purpose and identity of your product is more clearly defined. And someone who knows that better than anyone is Alan Gleeson, an experienced former CMO and current CEO at Contento. [‎SaaScast: Scaling new heights with vertical SaaS on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep Scaling new heights with vertical SaaS - 1 Jun 2023![](https://t2.gstatic.com/faviconV2?client=SOCIAL&type=FAVICON&fallback_opts=TYPE,SIZE,URL&url=https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/scaling-new-heights-with-vertical-saas/id1544750249?i=1000615285365&size=128)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts114/v4/b5/9a/da/b59ada82-7e01-599f-d06e-a6be4ee9c157/mza_8981349833046552751.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/scaling-new-heights-with-vertical-saas/id1544750249?i=1000615285365) In this probing discussion, he shares his own first-hand successes with a vertical marketing strategy, as well as the following: 🌍 Why we should be talking about vertical SaaS in 2023 💪 How do we lay out a vertical strategy in practical terms? ❓ Which SaaS products should adopt a vertical strategy? Don’t miss it. ## Join the conversation Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Creator, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: . ### Go-to-Market Blueprint: your one-stop shop for refining GTM URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/go-to-market-blueprint-your-one-stop-shop-for-refining-gtm/ Last updated: 2023-05-31T16:11:49.000Z Looking to refine your approach to GTM strategies? Then we have just the thing for you from our sister community, [Go-to-Market Alliance](https://www.gotomarketalliance.com/?utm%5Fsource=cmoa&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=content). Get the hands-on tactical knowledge you need to build and hone your custom Go-to-Market strategy with one subscription. ## **What is Go-to-Market Blueprint?** Getting your go to market strategy is so important for SaaS founders, as it clarifies your unique value proposition, target audience and competitive differentiators. Your product positioning is critical for attracting customers and standing out in an ever more crowded market. Go-to-Market Blueprint targets the core topics of GTM strategy, from ideation to delivery, to growth, and everything in between.This subscription allows you to learn, practice, and perfect your skills so you can build and implement every Go-to-Market strategy with confidence. Plus, you’ll have access to support from seasoned Go-to-Market leaders and exports, who’re on hand to help you out with real-world experience and tailored advice. ✔ 30+ certifications ✔ Live tutorial workshops with leading experts ✔ All GTM summits & festivals On Demand ✔ Exclusive members-only articles (coming soon!) ✔ Members-only networking (coming soon!) ✔ Templates & frameworks **You’ll be able to…** 🧐 Carry out in-depth customer and market research. 💪 Build a strong foundation for your Go-to-Market motion. 🧠 Understand how to build a cross-functional Go-to-Market team. 📈 Make your strategy repeatable and scalable. 💰 Measure the success of your strategy. ⏰ Onboard customers and increase time to value. ### Subscription format With a yearly subscription, you have access to a wealth of learning at a time that suits you. Access content on-demand, join our live workshops and tutorials, or do both! We'll cover five major pillars of the Go-to-Market motion that help you when you need it most. Choose from: video lectures, bonus footage, blog posts, podcasts, frameworks, and templates.Or network with and bounce ideas off your peers in a members-only group. However you learn, we’ve got what you need. Here are the five major GTM pillars we'll cover. #### 🔸 Go-to-Market motion foundation The GTM motion foundation sprint will set you up for building a successful GTM strategy. This sprint includes information on market research, types of GTM motions, timelines, and building your team. Join us for live sessions on market research and ICP, competitive intelligence, GTM stages, and roles and responsibilities. #### 🔸 Go-to-Market alignment This sprint will help you consider how to align your entire organization to the goals you set for Go-to-Market. Learn how to: - Set metrics that will be useful across your organization. - Optimize your collaborative work. - Test your Go-to-Market processes. Live sessions in this sprint will cover cross-functional alignment, personas that can be used by the whole organization, product road mapping, and the key KPIs to measure success. #### **🔸** Go-to-Market strategy This sprint is all about setting up your product marketing functions. We’ll cover positioning, messaging, pricing, pre-launch plans, and more. In the live sessions, you’ll deep dive into positioning, narrative design, pricing and packaging, and revenue marketing. #### ****🔸 Go-to-Market delivery** Launching your product is only half the battle. Nailing your delivery through revenue enablement, sales skills, management and metrics will set you up for success. Live sessions for this sprint will enable you to successfully: #### 🔸 Go-to-Market growth Go-to-Market motions are a continuous cycle, so our last sprint will focus on how to maintain momentum and continue growth. This includes reviewing your product roadmap for next steps, customer expansion and growth, and retrospectives, as well as how to conquer new markets. The live sessions for this sprint will center on: - Retention and churn. - PMM responsibilities pre- vs post-launch. - Marketing responsibilities pre- vs post-launch. - Customer success responsibilities pre- vs post-launch. ## What’s included when I sign up? 👩🏼‍🏫 Access expert tuition across 5 insightful Go-to-market stages. 📙 Learn how to tackle key concepts strategically and tactically, with continually updated courses and content, jam-packed with professional knowledge, and exclusive resources. 📝 Live tutorial workshops that give you actionable insights to use in your own practice. 👨🏼‍💻 A year-long subscription that lets you learn at your own pace. 🛠 Consolidate your tuition and refine team processes with vetted and tested templates and frameworks. [ Sign up ](https://www.gotomarketalliance.com/go-to-market-blueprint/) ## FAQs #### Who’s this subscription for? This course is for individuals or teams who organize Go-to-Market strategies or are otherwise involved in product launches at their business. You’ll be taught how to carry out the five core pillars of Go-to-Market strategy, with special attention on refining alignment, stakeholder management, and revenue enablement. If you want to propel your industry knowledge and enhance your career prospects by adopting a more strategic and tactical mindset to essential Go-to-Market topics, then this is the subscription for you. #### How does the subscription work? The subscription is 100% online and you can join any workshop or access any content throughout the time of your subscription. After enrolling, you’ll have access to courses and content to work through at your own pace. Sign up to any workshop using our calendar. #### How long will I have access to the content? Throughout your subscription period! #### ****I’d love to get my whole team certified, do you offer have any discounts?** Yep! All our team packages are bespoke to make sure they’re tailored towards what you’re after. Contact Matt Booth at [m.booth@gtmacademy.com](mailto:m.booth@gtmacademy.com) and let him know what you want, and he’ll put a personalized package together for you. ### A guide to leveraging growth hacking for early-stage companies URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/growth-hacking-for-b2b-startups-a-guide-to-leveraging-growth-hacking-methods-for-early-stage-companies/ Last updated: 2023-09-21T19:50:32.000Z Considering the current economic climate, the traditional blueprint for growth — spending significantly on massive marketing campaigns and hiring many salespeople for prospecting — isn’t tenable. I mean, look around: Several startups are grappling with cash flow limitations. [VC funding](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-vc-and-saas-investing/) has dipped by 35% in the last year, per [Crunchbase](https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/global-vc-funding-slide-q4-2022/). Inflation is at a [40-year high,](https://www.cnbc.com/select/why-is-inflation-so-high/) forcing central banks to increase their lending rates. And the [World Economic Forum](https://www.weforum.org/reports/chief-economists-outlook-sep-2022/) (WEF) predicts a global recession is on the cards in 2023. In fact, [185136](https://layoffs.fyi/) employees were laid off from 629 companies in the first quarter of 2023\. That’s already 13% above the total number of employees laid off in 2022\. And we’re not done with 2023 yet! But you still need to grow. Besides, it's been proven that brands only grow [by selling to new customers](https://www.marketingscience.info/). Not cross-selling. Not [loyalty programs](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-advisory-boards-and-feedback-loops-q-a-with-dropbox/). Only by selling to new customers. So, what’s a low-cost, low-risk, high-reward method for gaining customers within a short period of time? [CAC](https://www.saasalliance.io/a-beginners-guide-to-customer-acquisition/). Growth hacking. Below, I'll reveal what growth hacking is, the pillars it's hinged on, and end with some hacks you can implement immediately. [Growth hacks for a $0-50 million journeyI’m Ashwin Krishna, I’m Head of Growth Marketing at Tact.ai, and in this article, I’m going to talk about some interesting growth hacks, and what it takes for a SaaS company or a B2B tech product company in the whole journey from zero to $50 million revenue.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAshwin Krishna![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/chronis-yan-1M4wYTqVD4o-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/growth-hacks-for-a-0-50-million-journey/) ## **A little bit about growth hacking** Growth hacking is simply using innovative, creative, low-cost techniques to attract many potential customers and strengthen[ brand ](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-brand-demand-and-advocacy/)name recognition within the shortest time possible. In most cases, these techniques are experimental. And the main goal is to be disruptive enough to [capture attention](https://www.saasalliance.io/help-us-capture-the-culture-of-saas/), attract customers, and give them enough reasons to tell others about the product or service. Growth hacking was coined by Sean Ellis, founder of growth hackers, in 2010\. He also wrote a book on the subject. It has since gained popularity, particularly among early-stage startups without large companies' marketing and advertising budgets. ## Is growth hacking the same as growth marketing? This is an ongoing debate. While researching for this blog post, I still found some publications using both interchangeably. It’s like a hit song, where everyone has a different variation of the lyrics. However, they are miles apart. The only similarity is that they are [data-driven](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-brand-marketing-more-data-driven-q-a-with-hotjar/), goal-oriented, and iterative. Also, their success depends on the potential of the product. If it’s meh, then no growth hack or marketing will work. If it’s splendid, the [hack](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-we-should-stop-trying-to-hack-growth/) or growth marketing strategy has a 50% chance of succeeding. [Growth hacking with real-time competitive intelligencePere Codina believes battle cards, when utilized correctly, can help close deals. Talking us through what makes good enablement content, Pere highlights that information has to be current and easily accessible to your reps.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.47.27.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/growth-hacking-with-real-time-competitive-intelligence/) So, what are the differences? The definition of growth marketing should give some hints. Growth marketing is using data-driven, iterative strategies to attract “ideal” customers and engage and nurture them into loyal ambassadors. It incorporates both brand and performance marketing. Drawing from the definition, the differences are: ### **The goals are different** Whereas growth hacking focuses majorly on [customer acquisition](https://www.saasalliance.io/tactics-that-improve-customer-retention/) (revenue generation), growth marketing combines performance and [brand](https://www.saasalliance.io/ama-sharon-biggar/) growth. Performance growth in terms of lead, sales, and revenue generation. And brand growth, in terms of brand awareness, differentiation, and positioning. ### **The timeline for achieving results differs** For growth hackers, their focus is to achieve rapid growth. In contrast, growth marketers think long-term. They focus more on sustainable, repeatable growth than engineering short-term growth spikes. They attract the prospects, engage them until they become customers, and continue engaging them until they become loyal brand ambassadors. Growth hacking is a sprint. While growth marketing is a marathon. [Redefining “growth-centric Design”: Aligning business, end-users, and product ownersWant to know how ‘growth centric design’ can help you unlock a holistic approach to scaling your business? Divami lays it all out.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDivami Design Labs![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/Redefining-growth-centric-design.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/redefining-growth-centric-design-aligning-business-end-users-and-product-owners/) ### **The target companies are different** Growth hackers majorly serve early-stage startups yet to have a solid customer base. Sometimes, they’re yet to achieve product-market fit. Instead, they generate a buzz to attract users to the minimum viable product (MVP). In contrast, growth marketers work with medium-late stage startups, with an existing customer base and a history of meeting their needs. These companies have already achieved a product-market fit. ### **One is a strategy, the other is a tactic** Growth marketing is a strategy. But growth hacks are simply techniques. Think of it this way. You can adopt a growth marketing strategy to grow your startup. Then your tactics – growth hacking — will include AB testing and content marketing. And more. ### **[Target audience](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-market-segmentation/) differs** Growth marketing and growth hacking target large and narrow ranges of audiences, respectively. Here’s what I mean: Growth hacking is like fishing with a net — you have no target profile. And that’s because, in most cases, a B2B company will employ growth hacking but won’t have an ideal client profile or a buyer persona yet. So, they’re willing to use low-cost techniques to target just about anyone and announce their presence. On the other hand, growth marketing is like fishing with a hook — you create strategies focused on attracting and retaining customers that fit your [persona](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-personas-to-enhance-user-experience/) or ideal customer profile. That’s why it’s great for medium-large scale startups. ### **Their source of inspiration differs** Growth hackers rely primarily on creative thinking, intuition, and knowledge of the internet and [various tools.](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2023/) On the other hand, growth marketers dive knee-deep into customer research, understanding the product, and [product research](https://www.saasalliance.io/qualitative-vs-quantitative-research/). After that, they craft a long-term strategy to convince the ideal customer that their product or service solves their problem better than a competitor's. Or they might scale up a growth hack that worked in another channel. Even though they differ, growth marketing and growth hacking can work in tandem. [A growth mindsetIn this article, I’ll talk about the most pressing thing to have right now, a growth mindset. Every man and his dog thinks they do growth, and while some of it might be true, I consistently see the same mistakes made time and time again.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSCasper Rouchmann![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/07/dan-gold-cUaXzFXVKkA-unsplash.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/a-growth-mindset/) ## Why should you use growth hacks? ### It’s Cheap Traditional marketing strategies cost a lot to execute. Yet, they may flop or take time to yield results. And as an early-stage startup, you can’t afford to wait. Enter growth hacking. Growth hacks cost next to nothing to create and execute. All that’s required is the creativity to come up with the idea, a willingness to execute it, and a system to monitor the results. ### Takes advantage of the tendency of customer behavior to change Customer behavior, like human behavior, changes continuously. Hence, the strategy that was a hit yesterday may be a miss today. As a marketer, you’re always tasked with creating new campaigns capable of arousing a positive response from the present-day customer. And trust me, it’s no mean feat. The spontaneity associated with growth hacking allows you to quickly assess current customer behavior and develop out-of-the-box strategies. This can give you a leg up over competitors, who may still be reusing the same old tricks. [The role of growth in a SaaS business \[podcast\]: Amir Jirbandey, Head of Growth at PapercupOn this week’s episode Gemma Davies, Community Manager at Future of SaaS is joined by Amir Jirbandey, Head of Growth at Papercup. Amir discusses his approach to growth at Papercup, the data that informs his decisions, and the department most crucial to driving growth.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/FoSaaS_Podcast_AJ_Papercup.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-role-of-growth-in-a-saas-business-podcast-amir-jirbandey-head-of-growth-at-papercup/) ### Can become ground-breaking, scalable strategies Some growth hacking strategies become a hit. And when that happens, you can scale it and use it to form the foundation of the broader marketing strategy of your company. Even when the growth hack doesn’t pick up, you could get valuable insights into customer behavior to create a new marketing strategy. ## Core foundations of growth hacking ### Creativity Growth hacking mainly involves techniques and strategies that have not been used before. Because growth hacks have short life spans. A hack that worked yesterday may not be effective today. Maybe it's been overused. Or customers have caught onto it. You can, however, re-engineer a past hack and use it to develop a new strategy. For instance, say you come across a new startup strategy. Trying to reuse it isn’t the best idea. Rather, break it down and discover: - Why is it working? - What does it take advantage of? - How should it have been done better? Your answers can form the building blocks for a new hack. Paying attention to trends is another way to stimulate creativity. Trends that relate to your industry and those that don’t. Because, like an artist, you can never predict what may inspire your next campaign. Working backward from the audience’s standpoint works too. What are they watching? Who are they listening to? Where do they hang out? What’s their nagging challenge as it relates to your product or service? After you’ve come up with a hack, be bold to try it out, even if it’s novel. [How to use to utilize growth and increase your market shareAt Klarna, we’ve certainly built up our credibility in terms of utilizing growth. Don’t believe me? Well, we managed to go from 500,000 to 5 million users in one year.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJon Chang![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/growth.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-utilize-growth-and-increase-your-market-share/) ### Set goals You can’t execute a hack in a vacuum. There should be a goal, which serves as a touchstone to measure your success. Once you set goals, you can focus your efforts better and reference points to judge the success of your campaign. It's like setting a destination before you start a journey — you need to plan out your route, ensure you have the right resources, and be prepared to make adjustments to reach your predetermined destination. *Tip 1!* To ease goal-setting, follow the SMART framework. Let’s use these two goals to explain the framework. “I want to increase traffic” is goal A. While… “I want to increase traffic by 20% within 3 months by creating content and optimizing it for search engines, sharing in communities, and collaborating with influencers” is goal B. - ****Specific: Goals should be concrete and clearly defined, so that you can clearly understand what you wish to achieve.** For a goal to be specific, it should have the particular metric it covers, the tactic to be used, and the resources or tool it will consume. This means goal B is specific. It captures the metric (traffic), the amount (20%), time (3 months), and the tactic to be used. - ****Measurable: There should be numerical targets so progress can be tracked. This serves as a benchmark for success and ensures that you strategy is data driven.** Unlike goal A, goal B has a numerical (20%) target to measure the key performance indicator (traffic). So you can know when you’ve achieved the goal. - Achievable: Goals should be realistic and achievable with the resources available. [Defense vs offense: Driving growth through proactive customer successIn this article, I’m going to be discussing my favorite topic: customer success. We’re going to talk about growth in customer success and how customer success can accelerate value realization and growth for you and your customers.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSHarini Gokul![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/stefan-steinbauer-va-B5dBbpr4-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/defense-vs-offense-driving-growth-through-proactive-customer-success/) You don't want it to seem too easy that you won't put in the effort. Or too difficult so that your morale takes a hit when it doesn’t pan out. How do you know if a goal is achievable? As growth hacks usually involve novel strategies, there is no benchmark for determining whether a goal is achievable. So, you have to rely on your intuition and current trends. - ****Relevant: Goals should be relevant to business objectives. Say the business wants to get 500 thousand users by the end of the quarter. Then your goal should tie into that objective.** - ****Timely: A timeline with a defined end date should be set to keep goals on track. For instance, goal B has an end date of 3 months. This gives focus.** ### Know the product or service offering I once stepped into a clothing store to buy pants. Unsure of which to choose, I asked the retail clerk to suggest the best pants, per my physique and budget. He drew blanks. As you would expect, I didn’t buy it. Deep knowledge of the product helps you identify its unique strengths and aids in creating targeted marketing messages and materials that will resonate with the target audience, which will give you a greater chance of boosting your conversion rates and growing your business. It also gives you a strong understanding of the customer journey, which is going to help you to retain your customer base. There are three ways to grow your knowledge of the product: - Take a product demo - Get close to the product team and seek input from them - Explore the tool on your own Once you know the product, hitting business objectives with your growth hack becomes easier. ### Measure After you deploy a growth hack, monitor its progress. It tells you which strategies are driving growth and identify those strategies you’re supposed to optimize to achieve even better results. Additionally, it eliminates the guesswork. This way, you’d make decisions with a high potential for positive results and discover areas of opportunity and potential campaign weaknesses. First and foremost, identify the metrics most important to you. It all depends on the goals you’ve set for the campaign. Once that’s done, the next step is to select the tools to track and measure the metrics. The tool you choose depends on the metric in question. For example, Google Analytics can be used to track website traffic and user behavior, while A/B testing tools can be used to test different versions of landing pages or ad copy. ### Master tools and APIs *A little walk through history...* Growth hacking started with tech startups, with no background or knowledge whatsoever of traditional marketing. Hence the reliance on tools and API. This includes Link scraping tools, lead generation software, no-code platforms, API integrations platforms like Zapier, etc. The tool you use depends on your objective and marketing channel. For instance, web analytics tools are for content marketing campaigns. At the same time, social listening tools work for social media campaigns. [Making your customers your growth priorityThere are many ways to measure the growth of a business. But while you might want to focus on something like revenue, profit margins, brand awareness, or lead conversions as a CMO, at the end of the day there’s one thing a company needs to grow more than anything: customers.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/growth.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-your-customers-your-growth-priority/) ## Examples of growth hacking strategies you can implement ### Popl’s leveraging of an underutilized social platform Social media is the most popular growth channel for startups, and the most effective channel for attracting customers, per [Campaign monitor](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/the-state-of-small-business-marketing/). That’s because in most cases, strategies executed using social media platforms yield massive results. And the template is similar: become viral on social, grow a dedicated audience, and watch the revenue pile in. But the problem is almost every startup uses the same channels. According to [Hubspot](https://www.hubspot.com/state-of-marketing), most businesses use Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to win on these platforms. But you’d have to put in the extra effort. What if you could find an underutilized platform, and earn a first-user advantage? Well, that’s what [Popl](https://popl.co/) did. And it bore astounding results! Popl, a provider of NFC-based digital business cards, got in on the Tiktok trend in its early days. They created a single video to promote their product and posted it on the platform. And in under 24 hours, it raked in over 10 million views, and their inventory was exhausted in 3 days. Their videos on Tiktok are raking in an average of over a million views. Sounds outrageous, right? But why did it work? Firstly, Tiktok was underutilized by many businesses. But they saw the opportunity, tried it out, and gained results. Secondly, their ideal audience (young business people) used the platform. So, instead of moving with the herd, keep a look for a platform that’s underutilized. Investigate if your customers are there. If yes, incorporate it into your strategy. ![Popl's Tiktok campaign ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/popl-tiktok-.png) ### Slack’s utilization of word of mouth to generate virality Word of mouth is a very potent marketing strategy. Data proves it: - Word of mouth is responsible for $6 million worth of sales globally. That’s 13% of all global sales. ([Semrush](https://www.semrush.com/blog/word-of-mouth-stats/)) - 92% of customers have more trust in product recommendations from a friend. ([Nielsen](http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/press-room/2012/nielsen-global-consumers-trust-in-earned-advertising-grows.html)) - 88% trust a brand better, when the recommendation comes from a friend. ([Semrush](https://www.semrush.com/blog/word-of-mouth-stats/)) It’s no wonder Slack leveraged this form of marketing to huge success. Before 2014, few people knew about Slack. But once they launched using word-of-mouth marketing, they grew by 1500% within a year! And a year later, they recorded 285,000 active users! But that’s the least of it…. Slack recorded over 1 million daily active users two years after its launch. ![Slack daily active users](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/slack-daily-users-.png) So how did they pull this off? Firstly, they gave people access to try out the “preview release” version of the product. Within 24 hours, 8,000 people signed up. First-time sign-ups raved about how amazing the product was, and how it helped cut down their email communication. They told their friends and colleagues who signed up too. And the number continued to trend upward from there. In fact, the current daily active users (DAU) on Slack, far exceed those on Microsoft Teams. Utilizing free trial versions of your product in order to get the word out about your product can be a very useful tool and start to establish brand awareness. ![Slack vs Teams usage statistics](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/slack-vs-teams-.png) Lesson here? Build your product to fulfill a pressing challenge of your target customers. Give free access. And sign ups will recommend your product to their friends, family members, and colleagues. Some companies have even found success by incentivizing this behavior through referral programs. In this instance, customers will be rewarded for recommending the product to people they know. Word of mouth through social sharing can also be very potent. If professionals are singing the praises of your solution through linkedIn, for example, it can potentially reach a broad range of potential users in a relatively short amount of time. ### Lex leveraging the fear of missing out (FOMO) to drive sign-ups FOMO is a psychological response that makes us fear that we're missing something good. It's a potent B2B marketing strategy used by many businesses. For example, businesses promote exclusive events and limited-time offers to spark fear in their customers that they may miss out on something great if they don't act quickly. And that’s why many startups, like LEX, use it to generate buzz for their product or service. When LEX launched, they gave early access to people who signed up to join the waitlist. And these new signups were allowed to invite five (currently ten) other friends to use the product. This “invite-only” system stirred up urgency. In fact, people were advertising free invites on Twitter! Wild, right? ![Daniel K Cheung' tweet on How to Use Lex](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/daniel-cheung.png) By tapping into the power of FOMO, they created a sense of excitement and urgency around their product, which ultimately helped drive sign-ups and grow their user base. ## Apply growth hacking to your startup You can go ahead and apply growth marketing to your company. First, have an idea of the audience you wish to target. Get a solid understanding of your product and its unique selling proposition. Then ideate a growth hacking strategy. You could use strategies used by other companies. Or you could take time out to craft one. --- *Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive content from the leading minds in SaaS with a FoSaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Driving growth and innovation: A guide to series A transformation for SaaS startups URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/driving-growth-and-innovation-a-guide-to-series-a-transformation-for-saas-startups/ Last updated: 2024-08-20T16:13:36.000Z *This article comes from *Manash Bhattacharjee’s* talk, ‘Becoming a product-based Series-A startup from a solution-based pre-series startup’, check out the full version*[***here***](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-april-2023/?wchannelid=nqg85ezf7j&wmediaid=t8wu119iwn)***.*** This article comes from **Manash Bhattacharjee’s** talk, ‘Becoming a product-based Series-A startup from a solution-based pre-series startup’, check out the full version **here.** In the ever-changing and increasingly competitive SaaS landscape, nailing the **transition from pre-seed to series A is crucial**. Imagine this: you find yourself at the helm of a pre-seed startup, fueled by equal parts agility and resourcefulness. Armed with a groundbreaking solution, you're **poised to disrupt the market**. However, as your startup gains traction and expectations soar, you begin to realize that a momentous shift awaits you—one that will challenge your thinking and redefine your path. This transition is no small feat, but don’t panic, today I want to share some valuable insights and strategies that will **reshape your approach to product-based startups**. But before we dive in, let’s break down our main talking points: - **The shift from pre-seed to series A** - **Crafting a solid product strategy** - **Building an agile roadmap** - **Avoiding waste and maximizing productivity** - **Key tips for success** - **Final thoughts** First, a little about me, with nearly 2 decades of experience, working globally across a wide range of industries, from digital commerce to healthcare FinTech, I’ve helped many startups through this specific journey, using the transition plan I’ll share today. Throughout this article, we will unravel the secrets of crafting a robust product strategy, constructing an agile roadmap, and navigating waste reduction. We will explore the power of data-driven decision-making, the significance of fostering a culture of innovation, and the importance of maintaining alignment with your company's vision and objectives. ## The shift from pre-seed to series A Over the years, I've witnessed firsthand the incredible journey startups go through as they transition from pre-seed to Series A, it's truly a pivotal moment that brings about a significant shift in mindset and approach. When startups are in their early stages, the funding environment is challenging, and with limited resources, they have to find a way to create a concept and drive it with a small customer base. Unlike later-stage startups, they don't have the luxury of extensive pre-seed funding or a large runway for product development and research. This often leads them to adopt a solution-centric approach, where they focus on building a product that addresses the needs of only a specific customer or a couple of prospects. However, as startups progress from pre-seed to Series A or Series B, this all changes, and expectations from investors, customers, and advisors begin to shift. They want to see the startup build products at scale and strive for a Minimum Lovable Product (MLP) rather than a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), which then requires startups to move from a solution-centric mindset to a product-centric one. ## Crafting a solid product strategy So how do start-ups go from that solution-centric approach to a product-centric approach? To successfully navigate this transition, startups need to establish a strong product strategy that aligns with their overall company strategy. This starts with defining the company's vision, setting clear OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), and translating them into a product vision. From what I’ve found, many early-stage startups lack an experienced product person who can guide them through this process. As a result, CEOs or CTOs often take on this responsibility, leading to a misalignment between what the company, investors, and customers want. It's crucial for startups to invest in hiring a VP or Director of Product, or seek consulting expertise to help develop a robust product strategy. Without a clear strategy, development efforts can veer off track and fail to deliver what the company, investors, or customers truly need. So if we look at it like a journey, you start with the company vision, you start with OKRs, then you lead up with product vision, and only then do you start looking at all those processes. ## Building an agile roadmap Additionally, startups should focus on creating an agile roadmap that effectively communicates their plans to their different stakeholders, including the board, investors, customers, and internal teams. A framework that I’ve found to be particularly effective is the **"now, next, later" roadmap**. By dividing the roadmap into stages and creating thematic focuses, you can ensure a coherent and understandable narrative around product development efforts. So using this roadmap to look at the next 6, 12, and 18 months, you can start identifying where and how you’re investing resources, showing people in a form that is easily understood to show, for example, the capabilities that will help your company improve the usability of your products. This roadmap again is so important, because by emphasizing the importance of coherence and clarity, it allows you to continue telling your story in a way that is meaningful to your customers, showing you can deliver on their expectations. ## Avoiding waste and maximizing productivity As startups begin to suddenly receive a surge of investment and resources in this scaling-up process, there is a risk of creating a lot of waste in the software development process. One form of this waste is in the building of extra features or capabilities that customers may not find valuable. Startups should avoid this by prioritizing building features within their roadmap that align with high customer priorities and that validate their impact through revenue, customer experience, or scalability metrics. **It's essential to focus on building what customers want and need, rather than what seems exciting in the moment.** Another form of waste that can be common, is inefficiency caused by excessive context switching and overambitious goal-setting. Teams can correct this by using tools like JIRA to manage their development processes effectively. By **monitoring metrics** such as the number of tickets being addressed by team members and flagging items that are stuck for an extended period, startups can **reduce context switching** and increase overall productivity. ## Key tips for success - **Focus on product-market fit before diving deeper into development** Companies often engage in advisory discussions with customers, especially in the enterprise space, gathering feedback on existing solutions and exploring potential features. However, achieving product-market fit is easier said than done, as you can’t always predict customer responses. To gain a broader perspective, it's beneficial to engage with multiple customers, assess competitor offerings, and evaluate value propositions. - **Apply Lean methodology to all projects** Cloud infrastructure enables rapid scaling without extensive upfront investment, making it lean. However, it's important to strike a balance between scalability and infrastructure costs. Efficient decision-making is crucial, considering the future scale and customer pipelines. You should include regular touchpoints between teams to ensure preparedness without unnecessary investment. - **Prioritize listening** While VCs can provide valuable guidance, the recent trend of investing in shiny new technologies suggests that they may not always have the answers. Therefore, listening to customers and prospects becomes paramount for assessing product-market fit. In the enterprise space, where multiple customers and buying centers are involved, expanding touchpoints beyond the immediate buyer is crucial to gather comprehensive feedback and inform decisions. ## Final thoughts The transition from a pre-seed startup to a Series A product-based company is an exciting and transformative journey that requires a significant mindset shift. Startups must navigate the challenges of shifting from a solution-centric approach to a product-centric mindset. Creating an agile roadmap and using lean software development principles helps startups communicate their plans effectively and reduce waste. By focusing on building what truly matters to customers, startups can avoid unnecessary features and maximize their productivity. As a SaaS professional, understanding these key aspects of the transition process can help you navigate the challenges and seize the opportunities that arise along the way, mastering the startup journey and boosting sustainable future growth. ### Launch a showstopping SaaS with these 6 examples of a minimum viable product URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/launch-a-showstopping-saas-with-these-6-examples-of-a-minimum-viable-product/ Last updated: 2023-05-25T13:44:12.000Z Picture this: You've got this fantastic idea for a product, but you're not quite sure if it'll be a hit with customers. That's where a minimum viable product (MVP) comes into play. It's like a rough draft version of your product, stripped down to its core features and functionality. With an MVP, you can test the waters and see how customers react to your idea. You release your business idea to the world and gather their feedback. If the response is positive and there's potential, you take that feedback and use it to make the next version even better. The beauty of using an MVP is that you're not going all-in right from the start. You're keeping things lean and investing minimal effort and resources. [8 top interview questions for your new CMO roleIn this article, we’ll explore the essential questions to ask when hiring a CMO to steer your SaaS company towards long-term success.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/top-interview-questions-for-cmo.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/8-top-interview-questions-for-cmo/) This way, you avoid wasting time and money on building a full-fledged product that might not appeal to customers. Plus, you steer clear of adding unnecessary features that you might have to change or get rid of later on. So, think of an MVP as your way of dipping your toes in the water before taking the plunge. It's a smart and efficient approach to product development that lets you test the market and make informed decisions based on real user feedback. Some of the biggest software brands in the world have started as a minimum viable product, and in this article we’ll dig deeper into the benefits of developing an MVP and then we’ll look closer at the different forms that an MVP can take. Here’s a breakdown of our main talking points: - What is a minimum viable product? - Different types of minimum viable product - Top examples of MVPs ## What is a Minimum Viable Product? The MVP concept is all about following the lean startup methodology, and it applies not only to individual products but to whole businesses too. The main deal with a lean startup is to get things moving quickly, while figuring out if your business model is actually viable from the get-go. [Top 10 must-read books for SaaS foundersPour yourself your favorite beverage, find a comfy spot on the sofa…. recline and recalibrate with these top SaaS books.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/top-books.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-10-must-read-books-for-saas-founders/) Forget about spending ages perfecting every little detail. With the lean startup approach, you're encouraged to get your product out into the world ASAP. It's like throwing a prototype out there and seeing how it flies. So, let's get lean and make things happen! ### Minimum viable product vs minimum marketable product Don't confuse a minimum viable product (MVP) with a minimum marketable product (MMP). They may sound similar, but they're not quite the same. An MVP is like a learning tool for entrepreneurs. It's all about testing the waters and gathering data. You release an MVP to measure how users respond and get valuable insights. It's not a fully polished product, but it's got the core functionality you need to gather feedback and learn. On the flip side, a minimum marketable product (MMP) is the real deal. It's a complete product that's ready to hit the shelves. Sure, it has the bare minimum features users need, but it's still good enough to make some sales. Think of it as a stripped-down version that can still attract customers and generate decent revenue. So, to sum it up: an MVP is like a learning vehicle, while an MMP is a product that's ready to be marketed and sold. Both have their place in the product development journey, but they serve different purposes. It's important to know which one you're working with and what stage you're at in bringing your idea to the market. ### Minimum viable product vs proof of concept When it comes to a proof of concept, it's like your personal experiment time. You want to see if your idea is even doable. No customers involved just yet! You create a little project or prototype to test the technical aspects and overall feasibility of your business concept. It's like a sneak peek to make sure your idea has some potential before going all-in. So, think of it as a small-scale test drive to confirm that your concept can actually work. [The Power of Customer Feedback: Leveraging Feedback for SaaS Product DevelopmentRealizing the power of customer feedback can streamline your SaaS product development process. Feedback can generate fresh product innovation ideas. Find out how right here.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFahad Khan![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/The-power-of-customer-feedback.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-of-customer-feedback-leveraging-feedback-for-saas-product-development/) But wait, there's more! Once you've got that proof of concept locked in, it's time to move on to the MVP stage. Now, we're talking about involving real customers! An MVP is like the bare bones version of your product, stripped down to its essential features. It's your chance to get it out there and see how users react. You gather feedback, learn from their experiences, and use that knowledge to make improvements and upgrades. ## Different types of minimum viable products Depending on the kind of product that you're developing, there are many different ways of approaching an MVP. Let’s look at some of the most common varieties here: ### 1\. Software prototypes One of the most common types is a software prototype. Building a software prototype is both complex and widespread. Picture this: You're creating a prototype of a software piece. It's like the early version that showcases the essence of your idea. You strip away all the frills and focus solely on the core components. It's like building the skeleton of your software without getting caught up in the fancy details just yet. Now, why is it complex? Well, software development can be quite intricate. Your development team needs to make sure all the crucial elements are there and functioning. It takes skill, time, and effort to bring it to life. But fear not, because building software prototypes as MVPs is a common practice. Many entrepreneurs and developers take this path to validate their ideas and gather user feedback. ### 2\. Product designs When it comes to using product design as a minimum viable product (MVP), there are several approaches that work like a charm, particularly for software, mobile apps, and other tech tools. So, buckle up and get ready for the options! 1\. **The sketch**: It's the simplest way to create an MVP. You can do it by hand with a trusty pen and paper or use a digital tool. Think of it as a rough outline, giving you a visual representation of your product idea. 2\. **The wireframe**: This one's a bit more intricate, but still totally doable. A wireframe showcases key elements like user experience, hierarchy, and navigation. It's like a blueprint that helps you map out the structure and functionality of your product, without getting caught up in fancy visuals just yet. 3 **The mockup**: Now we're talking about a more detailed representation. A mockup brings your product to life visually, demonstrating exactly how it will work. It's like a realistic prototype that showcases the design, features, and user interactions. It's the closest thing to experiencing the final product without actually building it. [How to conquer the market with an awesome SaaS go-to-market strategySo you have an awesome SaaS product. That’s great, but to get the message out there, you gotta have a solid GTM strategy. We lay out the essential steps here.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/saas-gtm-strategy--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-conquer-the-market-with-an-awesome-saas-go-to-market-strategy/) ### 3\. Demo video MVP Imagine you've got this awesome product, and you want to showcase its potential to the world. How do you do it? Well, one effective way is through a demo video. Firstly, you create a video that explains what your product is all about, demonstrating how it works and the solutions it offers. It's like a virtual tour that gives potential users a taste of what they can expect. You pour your creativity into this video to make it engaging, informative, and persuasive. Now, the magic happens when you show this demo video to potential users. It's like opening the curtains and letting them have a sneak peek at your product. By doing so, you get a chance to gauge their reactions and see if your solution hits the mark. Are they excited? Do they find it useful? It's like a litmus test to see if your product aligns with what the market is actually looking for. ### 4\. Piecemeal MVP When entrepreneurs want to create a piecemeal minimum viable product, they take an interesting approach. Instead of starting from scratch, they bring together components from existing tools to demonstrate how the product will work. Here's the scoop: Imagine you've got this brilliant product idea, but you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You look around and find existing tools or resources that already have some of the functionalities you need. It's like putting together a puzzle, taking bits and pieces from different tools and combining them in a clever way. ### 5\. Concierge MVP You start by finding enthusiastic individuals who are interested in trying out your subscription service. But here's the twist—instead of building a fancy app right away, you manually handpick the products for each person. It's like having a personal shopper who curates a tailored selection just for them. Now, this hands-on approach serves a purpose. It allows you to test things out to see if the idea hits the bullseye. By interacting directly with users and gathering their feedback, you can fine-tune your offering and make it even better. [SaaScast: Cut over-reliance on investors and become remarkableIn this rigorous discussion,Ton Dobbe digs deep into how fledgling SaaS companies can generate growth from the value of the product.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/Cut-over-reliance-on-investors-and-become-remarkable.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-cut-overreliance-on-investors/) If the idea proves to be a smashing success (which we hope it does!), it's time to level up. You take all the valuable insights and user responses you've collected and use them to build an app. This app becomes your magical tool that analyzes user preferences and chooses the perfect products to send to each person. It's like having an intelligent algorithm that does all the heavy lifting. ### 6\. The wizard of oz MVP Imagine you're developing a product, but it's still in the works. Well, with the Wizard of Oz model, you put on a show and act as if your product already exists. It's like you're wearing the wizard's hat, creating the illusion that everything is up and running. Now, this approach works wonders, especially for service-based startups. Instead of waiting for the product to be fully developed, you offer your services manually. You provide the experience as if your product is already in action, even if behind the scenes, it's more basic Why is it ideal? Well, it allows you to validate your concept and gather valuable feedback from real customers. By engaging with them directly and observing their reactions, you can fine-tune your offering and ensure it aligns with their needs. ### 7\. Single feature MVP When we’re talking about this model of MVP, it’s important not to take the name at face value. Sure, you want to be looking to showcase that one particular feature that you think is really the unique selling point of your product, but it should still come grouped with other basic functionalities. The other single feature MVP is often known as ‘the painkiller’, meaning that at the click of a button, it will immediately solve a pressing pain point that customers are experiencing. As such, the solution needs to be powerful, but also simple, its value immediately crystal clear. ## Top examples of MVPs ### Dropbox The masterminds behind Dropbox had this brilliant idea to revolutionize online file storage. But before diving headfirst into the development process, they wanted to give people a taste of what was coming. Instead of jumping straight into building the hardware and infrastructure, they took a different approach. They started with a demo video MVP. This simple video showcased the first iteration of their product, giving viewers a glimpse of how it would look and function. And guess what? It struck gold! Overnight, the number of signups skyrocketed—without even having a tangible product ready to go. The power of that video experience was enough to captivate potential users and sell them on the idea of Dropbox. It became clear that they were onto something big. Not only did the video generate tremendous interest, but it also served as a valuable feedback-gathering tool. People were eager to share their thoughts, validating Dropbox's product concept and paving the way for further development. ### Amazon Jeff Bezos began by taking a unique approach. He would purchase books from distributors and personally ship them to customers whenever an order rolled in on his online store. As book sales soared, it became clear that Amazon was onto something big. This success paved the way for expanding the product range beyond books. Soon enough, Amazon began adding more and more items to its virtual shelves. As the business grew, they made strategic moves like acquiring warehouses to enhance their logistics operations. But it didn't stop there. Amazon's relentless pursuit of customer satisfaction led them to create a personalized experience on their website. Each user was treated to a tailored journey, with recommendations and personalized content that catered to their unique interests and preferences. Whether you're placing orders on your desktop computer or scrolling through the mobile app, chances are that at some point you’ve one of the 1.6 million consumers using Amazon every day. ### Buffer Founder Joel Gascoigne took a smart approach. Instead of diving headfirst into building a full-fledged app, he started with a series of landing pages. These landing pages provided just enough information to give people an idea of what Buffer was all about. The goal was to gauge interest and determine if it had the potential to become a profitable venture. Joel promoted the first landing page on social media and asked viewers to sign up through a simple form. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with a significant number of signups pouring in. This early validation fueled Joel's determination to take the idea further. [Five best practices for scaling your B2B content marketing engine with AIDaunted by the prospect of AI? Don’t be. We show you how to utilize AI to augment your content marketing vision.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChinwoke Nnamani![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/ai.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/five-best-practices-for-scaling-your-b2b-content-marketing-engine-with-ai/) Building on this momentum, Joel created another landing page, this time with pricing information. This step was crucial in understanding how much early adopters were willing to pay for the app. The response was remarkable, with many users signing up for the paid plans. It was a clear indication that Buffer had struck a chord with its target audience. With this validation in hand, Buffer's potential was crystal clear. Joel and the team took the next steps, transforming the landing pages into a robust app for scheduling social media posts. And the rest, as they say, is history. ### Facebook Facebook's humble beginnings proved to be a hit. The idea of connecting with friends online struck a chord with users, paving the way for its expansion. As more and more people flocked to the platform, Facebook recognized the need to enhance the user experience and offer additional features. Gradually, the platform evolved and added more complex functionalities. It transformed from a basic social networking tool into a dynamic platform that offered a wide range of capabilities. Profiles became more detailed, allowing users to express themselves and share their interests. New features like photo sharing, events, and groups were introduced, enriching the overall experience. Facebook's success can be attributed to its ability to adapt and respond to user demands. By gradually expanding its features and functionalities, the platform remained relevant and appealing to its growing user base. ### Food on the table Here's the story: When Food on the Table was in its MVP phase, founder Manuel Rosso took a hands-on approach to ensure a delightful user experience. He personally selected recipes, curated shopping lists, and hunted for money-saving coupons, all with the goal of helping users make the most of their grocery shopping. By gathering valuable feedback from users, Manuel discovered that the concierge model was indeed viable. People loved the concept and found immense value in the service. With this validation in hand, it was time to level up. ### Airbnb When product designers Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were struggling to pay rent for their loft apartment in San Francisco, they put their heads together to find a solution. Their ingenious idea? Open up their apartment for short-term rentals during a nearby conference to earn some extra income. To bring their idea to life, they created a simple MVP—a basic website showcasing photos of their apartment for people who wanted to rent. Little did they know that their humble endeavor would yield immediate results. [Seven ways that ChatGPT is going to transform your SaaS businessChatGPT might be all the rage right now, but, in practical terms, how exactly is it going to allow your SaaS company to scale? We lay it out right here.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/Seven-ways-that-ChatGPT-is-going-to-transform-your-SaaS-business.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/seven-ways-that-chatgpt-is-going-to-transform-your-saas-business/) Paying guests flocked to their listing, validating the demand for unique accommodation experiences. Flash forward to today and millions of users check in at different locations across the globe every single day! What started as a quest to make some additional cash soon revealed a larger opportunity. Brian and Joe realized that there was a market for people who desired to rent out their own homes and for travelers seeking authentic and personalized accommodations. ### AngelList When AngelList was in its early stages, the team recognized the importance of starting with what they already had— their own contacts. They leveraged their personal network to kickstart the platform, facilitating connections and interactions through good old-fashioned email. This initial approach served as a litmus test, proving the viability of the model. The positive outcomes and feedback from these early connections provided the confidence and validation needed to fuel AngelList's expansion. ## To sum up Although all SaaS companies want to create a product that’s as polished as possible, it’s important to note that customer feedback is an integral part of the product development process. Building an MVP is a superb way to get your product out into the world, create some hype about your brand, as well as get a sense of what alterations need to be made to your product in order to truly delight and excite your customers. The truth is: your product is never finished evolving, it’s a constant process of iteration and reiteration. The MVP is just the first step in that evolution process. Create a minimal viable product today and take that first step to launching a show stopping product. --- *Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### 8 top interview questions for your new CMO role URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/8-top-interview-questions-for-cmo/ Last updated: 2023-05-23T16:01:41.000Z In the fast-paced and highly competitive landscape of SaaS companies, a strong Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) can be the driving force behind sustainable growth and market dominance. As the digital realm becomes increasingly crowded and customer expectations continue to evolve, the role of a CMO extends far beyond traditional marketing functions. A proficient CMO possesses a strategic vision, a deep understanding of the industry, and a relentless commitment to customer-centricity. Their ability to harness data, employ innovative tactics, and inspire cross-functional collaboration can propel a SaaS company to new heights, capturing market share, fostering brand loyalty, and driving revenue. In this article, we’ll explore the essential questions to ask when hiring a CMO, ensuring you find the right leader to steer your SaaS company towards long-term success. So, without further ado, let’s dive straight in. ## 1\. Explain your approach to market research Good positioning of a product is contingent on the gap that it’s able to fill in the market. Why should a business adopt your solution when the SaaS sphere is so oversaturated and there are potentially so many other solutions out there that look very similar? The answer can be two things: either your product is able to solve a problem that your competitors aren’t even thinking about… **or** ...your product is able to solve the same problems more effectively or more efficiently. [Top 7 interview questions for your product management roleThis week we’re taking a look at product managers, the visionaries behind your SaaS GTM strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/interview.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-your-product-management-role/) If your candidate isn’t capable of market research or doesn’t realize the value of it, then that gap is going to be very difficult to fill. ## 2\. How do you build a foundation of trust with the customer base? An essential component of identifying customer pain points lies in being able to form a solid foundation of trust. It’s not just about conversion, after all, it’s about retention. And solid retention stems from your customers feeling like their concerns and values are being seen or heard. According to data collected by Sproutsocial, 70% of consumers now care about their values being reflected in the brands that they ally with. So, if a CMO wants consumers to keep coming back for more, it’s essential that they take the time to understand who their customers are, work to ensure their values are respected, and establish an enduring relationship through trust. Your candidate's answer should demonstrate not only a willingness to gauge customer pain points, but also to understand them on a deeper level and show how that benefits the growth of an organization. ## 3\. How do you select and prioritize marketing campaigns? What this question really demonstrates is whether a marketer is able to balance creativity with the broader business aims. This is the determining factor in prioritization. Your candidate might be a creative maverick, and there’s definitely room for someone who can think outside the box when it comes to crafting powerful, unique campaigns, but you still need someone who’s a team player. In other words, the candidate won’t be prone to prioritizing based on personal whims or interests, but prioritizing based on those that are likely to generate the most revenue. ## 4\. What is your strategy for branding a company, its products, and services? Your brand is the face that your company shows to the world. You want to hire someone who recognizes the value of a company’s identity and reputation and is able to embody that in their branding strategy. Equally, this is a great way to test that the candidate has taken the time to understand your company’s identity and how you want the world to think about you. If you find someone who gets what you're about, that’s great; if you find someone who already has a strategy in mind for how to make it a reality, then the real work has already begun. ## 5\. Could you please provide insights into your notable learnings from the past year? You might have a really super candidate, but you don’t really want someone who thinks they’re the finished article. What you’re really looking for is someone who has the capacity – and most importantly, the willingness – to learn. We don’t need to tell you how fast moving the SaaS industry is. We love that, but the challenge it presents us with is: there’s always more to learn than you think there is. A good CMO should be making every effort to ensure they’re doing their best to keep they’re finger on the pulse of what’s happening and constantly making efforts to upskill. [SaaS MarketingAs the demand for cloud-based software continues to grow, SaaS companies are facing intense competition in the market. Here is a guide to help you develop a successful SaaS marketing strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_Marketing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) ## 6\. Can you reflect on a past role you had and tell us what you’d do differently if you could do it over again? You want to hire someone who’s confident in their abilities, yes, but what’s really crucial is that they’re able to strike that important balance between confidence and self-awareness. A CMO is going to be under intense scrutiny from multiple different departments and it’s imperative that they’re going to be able to take feedback and criticism on board and leverage it to improve their work practices. This also builds on from the previous question. The candidate might say that they have self-awareness but can they demonstrate this in concrete, tangible terms? ## 7\. What are the biggest challenges that CMOs face right now and heading into the future? A good CMO is prepared. None of us can see the future, but it always helps to keep an eye on how industries are developing and how markets are changing. A vital skill for a strong marketer is the ability to pivot even when the most thorough strategy has been laid out. Having said that, we don’t want to be in a situation where we have to put out fires every five minutes. It’s difficult to spearhead new initiatives when you’re constantly in panic mode, so ensure you’re hiring someone who’s willing to speculate on what changes might need to be put in place in order to align with change. [Top SaaS marketing and content toolsA high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) ## 8\. What marketing KPIs do you prioritize? Success looks a little different for everyone. But it’s important that your CMOs definition of success aligns with your organization’s definition of success. KPIs are a good measure of this as they are the most tangible benchmark for success. They’re a great indicator of what the CMO’s expectations of themselves are, and how adept they are when it comes to keeping track of data and using it to inform their marketing strategies going forward. --- *Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from the mightiest minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How to weather the storm of economic uncertainty in sales enablement URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-weather-the-storm-of-economic-uncertainty-in-sales-enablement/ Last updated: 2024-08-20T16:13:03.000Z Worried about the economy, a looming recession, and how that will affect your sales enablement strategy? This article has you covered, featuring **Julie Newhouse** (Director of Revenue Enablement at Bill.com), **Mo Miller** (Director of Revenue Operations at Rivet), and **Or Paran** (VP of Sales & Business Development at Finaro). The panel discussion this article is based on originally took place at the Future of Sales Festival in December 2022. In this discussion, Julie, Mo, and Or examined: - Adjusting your sales strategy to adapt to economic uncertainty - How to keep your existing sales team motivated during a hiring freeze - Best practices to boost sales team morale - How to prepare for the end of the recession - Key takeaways for tackling economic uncertainty Learn from their expertise right after some introductory words from Or. 👇 > In many cases, sales is treated as more of an art than a science. But as we in the trade all know, there’s a lot of science behind it, including data analytics, psychology, and certain methodologies that can be used. > Macroeconomic conditions fueled by geo-political events are posing new challenges for organizations across the world. > With economic forecasts showing growth and decline and sales organizations that are helping to drive the growth, we’d like to use this article as an opportunity to discuss this. ## **Adjusting your sales strategy to adapt to economic uncertainty** ### **Or** **How has the current economic uncertainty shifted your sales strategy?** ### **Julie** It’s definitely played a big role in regards to what our sales strategy will look like going forward. From an enablement point of view, it means that we’re trying to guide our sales team and shift who we potentially sell and market to. It might mean doing some experiments for new ways of engaging, or trying things that we've already done in the past, but trying them now that it’s a different time. What that looks like, going down another level for the enablement team, is that we're really working to modify the sales plays. For each of our sales segments, we have a lot of sales playbooks built out. > *But now we're really trying to shift to fit what's going on in the market.* For example, a lot of what the Bill sales team goes to market with is helping companies grow their business, helping them simplify, and saving time and money. We're now switching that talk track a bit now to focus more on stability, predictability, and how Bill provides a way for companies to paint an accurate picture of their business - it’s about shifting the talk track from growth to predictability and stability. We're working on how we build out those talk tracks with the sales team and do training and enablement *around that*. The other piece is thinking about how we're adjusting *who we go after*. Even in times of economic downturn, there are still going to be verticals and sales segments that are flourishing, so let’s really take a look at our current market segments and areas that might be weathering this a little bit differently. I'm in the SMB space which is interesting because their challenges are both the same and different going into an economic downturn. We’re trying to figure out where we can direct the sales team in these specific sub-market segments. Then the last piece is that we're looking at how we’re enabling the sales team to refine their outbound sales skills. Going into the new year, we could potentially be facing a slowdown in the inbound lead funnel - or reduced marketing costs, it's hard to tell. But the thing that we *can* control is how we build the muscle of an effective outbound seller. - How are they really going to market? - How are they doing strong discovery? - How are they taking a bad or lukewarm lead, and are they able to flex their outbound sales muscle? There are lots of things that we can't control, but at least enabling our team in that way is something that we have ownership on. [Sales: The rules of engagementSales is a complex and competitive business - and never more so than when deciding who gets the credit for what: who gets the commission and, just as importantly, who gets the recognition?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/muyuan-ma--xHZBzv4Naw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-the-rules-of-engagement/) ## **How to keep your existing sales team motivated during hiring freezes** ### **Or** **During hiring freezes, how are you maximizing the return on investment of your current team members - whilst ensuring that they don’t experience burnout?** ### **Mo** I think it's about maximizing that sales output and how we’re actually doing that. We’ve heard a lot about different rifts, and LinkedIn is just a minefield and a bad place to be in a lot of ways right now. You have to work on your own mental health, keep strong, and also help your salespeople do the same. You need to keep them afloat, upright, and moving forward through these times, not focusing on the negative energy, and just keeping that growth mindset. But how do we actually keep that growth mindset? I think it's difficult. Having a growth mindset for us personally is not having promotion freezes. I've spoken to a few account executives (and specifically one at Salesforce), where they were blocked from a promotion as there was a bit of a promotion freeze going on. That messaging of freezing promotions doesn't make sense to me. If you're going to promote people, as long as you're keeping the same quota multiplier and you give them a larger quota when they’re promoted, your team becomes more effective at the same efficiency and is able to sell more as a team. Each individual that was promoted now should have a larger quota at the same or a greater efficiency than before. Those promotions are a great time to even increase or ratchet up that efficiency. Say their quota multiplier was 4, make it 4.5 or 5x on target earnings, and that increases the output and efficiency in doing so. > *It seems like a win-win to me, and just gives a blanket, larger quota across the whole team that often happens at the end of a year.* We’ve promoted some salespeople, even in this downturn, and I think it's done amazingly well. We had our best month ever last month with that positive energy and growth mindset. ### **Or** That's amazing. You guys focus on making sure that you retain your existing talent and the existing knowledge base of the salespeople, in order to increase the motivation of the existing team? ### **Mo** Yes. We keep everybody here happy, excited, pushing forward, moving towards their goals, and on their promotion paths. ### **Julie** I'll take an alternate approach to this one and talk about what I'm doing specifically for the sales enablement team. As a people manager, it's an interesting place to be because we've been told that our team is what it is for the foreseeable future. We have 10 in total in the function, with seven in sales enablement, and three in post-sales enablement. [Sales Enablement Scaled Down: Problems facing small startupsShilpa Prasad gave a great talk on the problems facing a small startup like hers, YouNoodle, in the context of sales enablement, sales leadership and the overall world of sales.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.55.13.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-enablement-scaled-down-problems-facing-small-startups/) For us, going into this next year knowing that our charter is going to be that infamous ‘*do more with less*,’ we're taking a harder look at how we do our quarterly prioritization and ongoing impact assessment. > *So we’re putting our energy towards those highest revenue-generating activities, cutting out the noise and some of the other asks that we might be doing.* We might be doing less lunch and learns, or one-off trainings, and really focusing on impact programs. For each ask and each program we’re running, we’re taking a step back and saying: - “What’s the reach?” - “What’s the impact?” - “Do we have the confidence and the data to back up the impact of what we're doing?” And then we’re marrying that with, “What's the effort?”. Are there some things that we can do that are a low lift and a quick win? On a more people manager, personal level, I'm trying to spend time with my team on ongoing wellness checks and our one on ones each week. Culture Amp, for example, has a great template with a really good sliding scale that has team members rate where they are with work overall, well-being, growth, work relationships, and impact. So for me, it’s spending time making sure that folks are feeling supported, just being on a human level and connecting with my team. ## **Best practices to boost sales team morale** ### **Or** **How do you leverage the sales enablement and sales operations functions to help boost the morale of your sales team?** ### **Mo** We're really trying to focus on the wins and not on the losses. The way we do that is with Avoma, a conversation intelligence platform, similar to Gong. We look at specific examples, use cases, and case studies of wins we're experiencing - especially wins on deals that were created and closed quickly within November, or created in the last three to four months and closed in October/November. Those are deals that we created and closed *as the recession was increasing*. They weren't deals that we had back in January or February and we just got them to move and sign as a customer, but deals that under the current economic situation, involved them looking at a software, evaluating it, purchasing it, and implementing it. > *Those are the people we want to go after.* And then from an enablement standpoint, we looked at leveraging demo certification, having the sales enablement team manage that, and making sure that our messaging is crisp. Are we having the right information getting to the right people about the right products? We have three different products here at Rivet, so getting each one of those delivered to the right people in the right way is super important. We thought we had good demos, but we've worked to make that better, so that every touch we *do* get, we have a much higher likelihood of closing it with the messaging that's being reinforced. [Aligning sales with post-sales to drive customer lifetime valueCustomer Success leaders Minna Vaisanen and Nieves Canada outline how to bridge the gap between sales and customer success.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMinna Vaisanen![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/Aligning-sales-with-post-sales-to-drive-customer-lifetime-value.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/aligning-sales-with-post-sales-to-drive-customer-lifetime-value/) Lastly, managers and sales engineers are doubling down. We're trying to get them on even more demos than we've ever had to try and shrink the number of meetings it takes to close. If deals close for us in three, four, or five meetings, we're looking to bring those people on earlier, answer harder questions sooner, and limiting how much the salespeople need to say: “Great question. Let me get back to you on that,” by having a solutions engineer or manager on that call that can answer that question. ### **Julie** I feel like I could spend a whole day talking about how to boost morale, and what we can do both as sales leaders and people leaders to really help our teams get through this. For a lot of us as sales leaders, enablement leaders, and tech leaders, we've been managing in a different space. We've been in this boom from around 2010 until now. And now, we're in a new place of managing our sellers and our teams through uncertainty. > *For many of our younger generation of sellers, it's the first time they're experiencing this in their careers.* That lends itself to a couple of different themes. To boil it down, I’d say: - Communication - Culture - Training & Development Starting with communication, as a sales leader, you really can't communicate enough when times are hard. It's not just talking about the high-level thing of what's happening in the market, but really sharing your thoughts as a leader and being open - taking some risks of vulnerability and being empathetic. Not ignoring what's happening in the space has a lot of power. For many leaders, I think they just want to put a quick spin: “Times are tough, but we got this.” But we’re breaking that down a little bit more and humanizing it, just being there for teams. The second is the sales culture. Starting from the top with sales leadership, that growth mindset really has to be there, and continuing to encourage our teams to work hard on the things that we can control - daily activity: - Who are we calling? - Are we looking at the right sub-verticals? - How are we engaging our customers? - What tone are we taking with our sales calls? - How have we moved our sales plays? It's times like these when you're really going to see who the stars of your teams are, who can roll with it and adjust and make a change in real-time. I think it's important that when you see these behaviors floating to the top of your team, you take a minute and really showcase those wins (that could be through Gong snippets). > *One thing that we’ve found to be really impactful is doing ‘competitive win of the week.’* So if somebody closes a competitive deal in this climate, we’re posting it and giving kudos and showing what they did in terms of either discovery or the closed-loop methodology. Were they in our winning zone? How were they able to use those outbound skills to close that deal? We try to keep putting in these learning moments and showcase the wins top of mind. And then the last part is the ongoing training and coaching. This is the time when you want to take a minute to invest in your people. Start working on those soft skills that they can use now *and* in their careers going forward, and spend that extra time on people development to give them the confidence to weather this and know that even though times are tough, they're still able to grow. ## **How to prepare for the end of the recession** ### **Or** **Recessions historically last around 18 months - we then normally see a boom after that.** **In sales leadership, we know that it's about weathering the storm and then planning for the day after, and how we continue to manage our current growth - I’d like to hear your thoughts on that.** ### **Mo** I talked about how LinkedIn can be a dangerous minefield right now of layoffs, freezes, and different things like that. But at the same time, you've probably also seen all the posts of companies that were created in a recession, or companies that hit the gas during a recession. I don't think those companies thought of it as, “*We're going to be the company that comes out of the recession”.* I think they just buckled down and worked on themselves and focused on growing. [How To Make Salespeople Care | Future of SaaSI’m going to give you some areas that you can focus on to either help your team roll out a plan, that you should be focused on when implementing a training or going into some sort of presentation.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.59.31.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/salespeople-dont-give-a-sh-t/) The recession will end at some point, so 2023 and 2024 planning is absolutely crucial. > *Optimizing everything about your path forward as a company is vital to you, your cash, and your ability to continue to pay your employees.* Obviously, it could be longer. Who knows? But it likely won’t be. So what does 2023/2024 look like for you? First off, I’ve done the planning side of things and we've worked through that and what that looks like. But more importantly, you have to do great in January and Q1 2023. If you lay an egg in the next few months, you're going to have a really hard time being there at the end of 2023 anyway. Looking too far out is also another pitfall for the sales team as a whole. Let's talk about what's happening right here and now and what we can focus on for this month's quota: - What does a win look like today? - What does a win look like this week? - What does getting to your quota this month look like? And just focusing there. The other side of the coin is on the backend and optimizing. We've taken our sales stack and revenue tech, and looked at every single software and said: - “What are you paying for?” - “Which software do we actually need?” - “Do we have extra licenses that we don't need?” - “Does everyone who has the tool with a paid license actually need it?” Just making sure that that all makes sense. Sometimes we overlook having seven extra licenses in a system or having three people in those licenses that you just added from another department because you had extra licenses. Shrinking those things down and tightening that up is one minor piece, and you can do that across your whole org. ### **Julie** I definitely agree with what Mo said. I think a lot of what we're learning at this time is in terms of “what are our best verticals”?, “Who are our best customers?”, and “what retention strategy is really working?”. That’s something that we’d be able to take moving forward into that next tech boom. We’re learning some core fundamental best practices about our sellers, our sales team, and the market fit in this time that’ll start to provide insight into the path forward. The other piece is the relationships right now between enablement, sales operations, and sales leadership. > *This is the time that we become a true partnership.* We have to be aligned on every single thing that we're doing, so that everybody is working towards the right things at the right time to maximize the efficiency of our current sellers and team members. I hope that we can carry that relationship piece forward. I think it's forced us to be in lockstep with one another as team members, for better or for worse. ## **Key takeaways for tackling economic uncertainty** ### **Or** **Can you both share a few key takeaways so that people can go and have an internal discussion about what they can do to improve the way they’re doing things and how to take on the challenge of these uncertain times?** ### **Julie** The high-level takeaway from my point of view is the idea of adjusting. Looking at your sales plays, adjusting the talking point to fit the times, finding that sweet spot of customer persona and profile for the reps to communicate, and being a good people leader through ongoing communication with your teams. There’s that culture piece as well, in regards to what you’re doing as a sales organization to keep the team motivated, keep morale up, showcase wins, and focus the team on the things that they can control. [How sales teams can work with other departments to drive growth \[Q&A with Tymeshift\]Nicholas Ghitti, Head of Growth at Tymeshift took the time to answer our community’s burning questions after his presentation ’How sales teams can work with other departments to drive growth at this year’s Future of SaaS festival.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/jan-kronies-mpSeLIXMnpc-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-sales-teams-can-collaborate-to-drive-growth-q-a-with-tymeshift/) ### **Mo** It’s keeping that growth mindset that we talked about. Maximize, look at your ROI and those buzzwords that you've heard time and time again. I think it's more important than ever to have that extreme focus and just keep maximizing everything you possibly can within your organization. > *And once you think you're done, go take another look.* Dive in and just keep looking over and over again at how you can better go to market. When it's a difficult market, it's even more important to go to market in the best way possible. ### **Or** I’d also like to add my two cents on additional takeaways that people can take with them. Invest where needed, and try to take that step back that we were talking about before and see where it adds the best value overall. It’s important for salespeople to understand the key company cash flow levers. Where's the biggest return on the buck? You should also think about diversifying the customer base if possible as you tend to be more protected in times of economic uncertainty. ### What is the difference between cancelation and churn? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-the-difference-between-cancelation-and-churn/ Last updated: 2023-05-16T09:14:58.000Z When it comes to customer success, one of the most important metrics to track is [customer retention](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/). After all, figuring out how to keep your customers aboard ship and reduce [churn rate](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-churn-rate-your-guide/) is the linchpin of software-as-a-service (SaaS); you want to keep your customer base intact to prevent revenue loss. In the basic sense of the word, churn refers to the loss of a customer, but often this is conflated with subscription cancelation. However, it's essential to understand there’s a big difference between when a customer cancels their subscription and the all-too-familiar term,[ customer churn](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-predict-churn-q-a-with-netomi/). By understanding the difference between the two, you can take proactive measures to prevent customer churn and improve customer retention rates. In this article, we’re going to dissect these all-important benchmarks of customer activity and provide greater clarity into how you can tailor your customer success strategy around them. Namely, we’ll examine: - What cancelation means - What churn means - The difference between the two terms, - How you can avoid cancelations, and - The strategies you can adopt to win back canceled customers before they churn. ## **What is customer cancelation?** When an individual customer cancels their subscription it means they have ****actively** chosen to stop paying for the product (or service) in question. They've literally clicked the 'cancel subscription' button. ![Cancel subscription ](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2023/01/cancel-subscription-billing-zoom.png) Source: *[Zoom support](https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/203634215-Canceling-your-subscription?ref=customersuccesscollective.com)* They no longer desire to use your product and have taken this step to sever future ties with your organization. This decision almost always can usually be traced back to previous symptoms or tell-tale signs that exhibit the customer’s dissatisfaction with your product. This could be for a variety of reasons, such as finding a better solution with one of your competitors, finding the prices of your product too high, possible product bugs affecting user [experience (UX)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-personas-to-enhance-user-experience/), or poor customer service. On the flip side, they could have canceled for a more positive reason – they might simply no longer need your product or service anymore because they’ve fulfilled their original goals with your product. It's important to note that customer cancelation is a leading indicator of customers who will eventually churn. To avoid a future lack of revenue from this customer, [Customer Success Managers](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-customer-success-managers/) (CSMs) need to work *fast*. When a customer cancels, it means they’re actively terminating their subscription agreement with an organization. The payment won’t renew upon the next scheduled billing, but it doesn’t automatically mean a loss in revenue. That’ll occur when the next payment is usually due. [Customer advisory boards and feedback loops \[Q&A with Dropbox\]Customer Advisory Boards allow customers to give candid feedback on their experience with your company, and we spoke with Bree Bunzel, Head of Global Customer Marketing at Dropbox, who answered questions around building Customer Advisory Boards and customer feedback loops.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/adam-jang-8pOTAtyd_Mc-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-advisory-boards-and-feedback-loops-q-a-with-dropbox/) ## **What is customer churn?** Customer churn refers to customers who've stopped paying for their subscriptions and there isn’t any revenue flowing into the organization. Churn is essentially a revenue impact. ****In a nutshell, customer churn is the point where the customer’s canceled subscription has a negative revenue impact on your business.** Of course, the responsibility of preventing customer churn shouldn’t solely fall on the customer success team’s shoulders. If a customer has churned because of a persistent glitch or bug with the product, that technically falls within the remit of the product development team. If the customer has found the price to be too high, whoever’s in charge of your product’s pricing ought to re-evaluate their strategy. ## **How to pre-empt cancelations** Of course, one of the key ways to prevent a customer from canceling (and then eventually churning) is by focusing on customer success. This means proactively working with customers to ensure they are getting the most value out of your product or service. This can be achieved through a variety of methods, such as customer onboarding, training, and regular check-ins. [Customer onboarding 101For freemium models adopted by a growing number of SaaS companies, onboarding is the frontline in the battle for the upsell.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/erwan-hesry-aMjeTdCVRNE-unsplash--1---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-onboarding-101/) ### **A water-tight customer onboarding process** Onboarding is the process of introducing new customers to your product or service. This is an essential step in the customer journey and can have a significant impact on[ customer retention.](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) By providing new customers with the information and resources they need to get started, you can help ensure they have a positive experience with your product or service from the start. ### **Solid training** By providing customers with the skills and knowledge they need to use your product or service effectively, you can help them get the most value out of it. This can be achieved through a variety of methods, such as webinars, tutorials, and in-person training. ### **Regular check-ins** By checking in with customers on a regular basis, you can ensure that they are getting the most value out of your product or service. This can also help you identify any issues or challenges that customers may be facing, allowing you to take proactive measures to address them. In addition to these customer success strategies, it's also important to keep in mind that customer feedback is key. By regularly soliciting feedback from customers, you can get a better understanding of their needs and wants, and make adjustments. [Customer retention metrics and how to action themHow do successful SaaS organizations measure retention and what on earth do they with the results, I hear you cry? Well, we surveyed 100 SaaS pros to find out how they track, review and utilize retention and churn metrics, and here are the results.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/jakob-owens-CiUR8zISX60-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) ## **Win-back canceled customers before they fully churn** Thankfully, there are several strategies that CSMs can use to win back customers who have canceled their subscriptions before they fully churn. Here are a few: ### **1\. Understand the reason for the cancelation** The first step in winning back a canceled customer is to understand why they canceled their subscription. This can be done by reaching out to the customer and asking for their feedback. By understanding the reason for cancelation, CSMs can tailor their approach to address the specific issues that led to the cancelation. ### **2\. Offer a special promotion or discount** If a customer has canceled their subscription due to cost, a CSM may be able to win them back by offering a special promotion or discount. This can be a great way to show the customer that the company values their business and is willing to make concessions to keep them as a customer. ### **3\. Address any pain points** If a customer has canceled their subscription due to poor customer experience, a CSM should work to address the pain points that led to the cancelation. This can be done by providing additional support, resources, or training to help the customer get more value out of the product or service. Follow-up regularly: Even if a customer has canceled their subscription, it's crucial that CSMs continue following up with them on a regular basis. This can help to keep the company top-of-mind and show the customer that the company is still interested in their business. ### **4\. Personalize the approach** A personalized approach to winning back a customer is more likely to be successful. CSMs should try to understand the unique needs, pain points, and preferences of the customer and tailor their approach accordingly. ### **5\. Offer a free trial** If a customer has canceled their subscription due to lack of engagement or not being able to see the value of the product or service fully, CSMs can offer a free trial or demo to show the customer the full capabilities of the product or service and how it can benefit them. [How customer success & product management make a SaaS dream teamBelieve it or not, there’s quite a lot in common between customer success and product management. Both have the ability to work wonders for your SaaS product. This guide walks you through how to use them to get a dream team.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1504270997636-07ddfbd48945?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDV8fGRpZ2l0YWx8ZW58MHx8fA&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-and-product-management-saas-dream-team/) ### **6\. Show empathy** Showing empathy and understanding the customer's situation can go a long way in winning back a canceled customer. By acknowledging their concerns and frustrations, the CSM can create a sense of trust and goodwill with the customer, which may make them more likely to re-subscribe. Ultimately, winning back a canceled customer requires a combination of understanding the reason for cancelation and being proactive in addressing the customer's specific needs and concerns. By following these strategies, CSMs can increase the chances of winning back canceled customers and improving customer retention. ## **To wrap things up…** Understanding the difference between a customer canceling their subscription and customer churn is vital in order to take proactive measures to prevent customer churn and improve customer retention. The strategies used to prevent cancelation from snowballing into churn will depend on the type of customer, whether it’s an individual customer or a more significant business client, but largely there’s a window between the time of cancelation and the point of churn that CSMs can use to win back the customer. In conclusion, customer churn is an essential metric for any company to track, and depending on the time frame you’re working with (what point of the month, or year, the customer cancels), full churn can be prevented. --- *Enjoyed this article? Why not check out exclusive insights from the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### A practical guide to creating a winning positioning and messaging strategy URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/a-practical-guide-to-creating-a-winning-positioning-and-messaging-strategy/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T17:01:59.000Z Throughout this article, I'd like to provide you with some best practices and a process that you can adopt, adapt, and use in your own company the next time you're faced with the challenge of crafting [positioning and messaging](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-secrets-of-compelling-messaging-and-effective-product-positioning/) for the products that you sell. In this article, I’ll be exploring: - Product positioning - Positioning templates - Context - Data collection - The positioning process - What messaging is, and why it’s important - The messaging test - Messaging deployment ## **What is product positioning?** Let’s start with [positioning](https://www.saasalliance.io/positioning-across-the-saas-funnel-q-a-with-sellics/), which is all about where you want to play and where you choose not to play. There’s no perfect positioning strategy, and once you’ve established one it shouldn’t be set in stone; you have to update and refresh it over time. It’s also worth noting that good positioning is also not a clear determining factor for success. However, poor positioning will certainly spell doom for your product. Several key factors go into your positioning, including… - **The market** - **Which market are you playing in?** - **Is your solution entering an existing category or creating a new one?** - **The competition** - **Who are the key players?** - **How similar are their capabilities?** - **Do any of them have greater capabilities?** - **How dynamic is the market?** These questions can be answered via the completion of thorough [competitive intelligence](https://www.saasalliance.io/growth-hacking-with-real-time-competitive-intelligence/). ### **The buyer** - Who buys your product and why? - What challenges and needs do they have? - What is their buying process? - Will your future customers look like your existing ones? ### **Your differentiators** - What key product characteristics make you unique? - Why do you win and why do you lose? - What value does your company bring to the customer? ## **The positioning template** Now, we have all this information, what do we do with it? You want to start by using it to fill out a positioning template. \[**Note: You can download your own positioning template from your members dashboard**.\] ### **Why is a positioning template useful?** The first reason you should use a positioning template is to explore all the different possible directions you could take and then document and explain why you believe certain directions are better for your company than others. The second reason is to ensure clarity on the direction that you're suggesting. You can clearly articulate the reasons for your choices, such as why you should go into healthcare and not financial services, or which buyers you should go for and which ones you should avoid. The document also helps create alignment across different[ stakeholders](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) like sales, support, and many others, so that they are able to participate in the positioning exercise and align on expected outcomes. Finally, laying out all of this will help you see how to best set the context for your buyer and create a narrative that will help you position your product in the minds of your customer. ## **Exploring context** Let's take a quick detour here to talk a little bit more about that critical component I just mentioned: context. In *Predictably Irrational,* Dan Ariely states that most people don't know what they want unless they see it in context. Below, you can see a good example from the book. The question is whether the dark blue circle on the left or the right is larger. [![Exploring context](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2023/03/Screenshot-2023-03-24-at-12.32.38.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-practical-guide-to-creating-a-winning-positioning-and-messaging-strategy) Source: **Predictably Irrational* by Dan Ariely In fact, when we remove the light blue circles and show just the dark blue ones side by side, we can see that they’re the same size. When we see circles surrounded by smaller or bigger ones, our brains trick us by changing how we interpret things. In other words, the context in which the circle is placed affects how we perceive it – the same applies to your product. [![Exploring context](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2023/03/Screenshot-2023-03-24-at-12.34.03.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-practical-guide-to-creating-a-winning-positioning-and-messaging-strategy) Source: **Predictably Irrational* by Dan Ariely This is why it's wise to choose your market and your competitors carefully. When someone asks you who you compete with, the answer you give them will give them a frame of reference and immediately place you in either group A or group B. Also, because we love comparing things that are easily comparable, if you're selling software to developers, for example, you should use examples that developers understand to set the context. Similarly, if you're selling software for human resources, you want to set a familiar and easy-to-understand context. This is a core part of positioning. I’ll give you a couple of examples. Many years ago, I worked at a startup in the [sales enablement ](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-enablement-scaled-down-problems-facing-small-startups/)space. We were selling primarily to sales teams. When we tried to expand our footprint and engage outside the [sales team](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-sales-teams-can-collaborate-to-drive-growth-q-a-with-tymeshift/), for example with human resources leaders, we had to use a different context so that the HR people could understand. We also had to be careful about how we set the context so we wouldn't be lumped in alongside all of the other HR software that they were used to buying. We talked more about how our solution was a solution for employee enablement, not just sales enablement. This differentiated us from solutions like learning management systems and learning portals and enabled us to expand our footprint within the company. I also like to use the example of a well-known company in the tech space called Gong. They positioned themselves not as a product for call recording and transcription, but as a new way of getting intelligence out of sales calls – they called it conversational intelligence. This was an inspired way of harnessing context to create a whole new category. ### **What can help you set the right context?** The context isn’t just something you write in a document and forget. For the positioning you create to be effective, it needs to be reflected across multiple elements such as sales, marketing, product, pricing, and your overall go-to-market activity. [![What helps set the right context?](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2023/03/Screenshot-2023-03-24-at-12.37.36.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-practical-guide-to-creating-a-winning-positioning-and-messaging-strategy) Much like when you go to an expensive restaurant, and you're expecting a certain quality of service, a certain ambience, a certain number of tables, lighting, etc, the same is true with the product you're selling and everything that goes around it. ## **Data collection** Let’s get back to the positioning document. To complete it with the right data, you’re going to use a series of inputs: - Win/loss analysis - Competitive research - Analyst reports and inquiries - Customer interviews - Sales interviews - Workshops with your sales, sales engineering, and marketing teams I’m going to share a couple of [data-collection](https://www.saasalliance.io/starting-at-the-last-mile-creating-a-governed-data-driven-strategy-while-still-democratized/) exercises with you. The first exercise is the creation of a spreadsheet where you list out your core product features along with a quick description to ensure everyone understands which features you’re talking about. Then, you ask the team, either individually or as a group, to answer “yes” or “no” alongside each feature to show which ones they believe are unique to your product in the market. Next, hide that column and ask the team to identify which features they believe are most important to customers in terms of solving their major challenges or pain points. This'll lead to a rich discussion and list of important and unique features, which can then be sorted and grouped. [![Data collection document](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2023/03/Screenshot-2023-03-24-at-12.41.34.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-practical-guide-to-creating-a-winning-positioning-and-messaging-strategy) Another way to run this exercise is by creating post-it notes, either physically or virtually, listing your key capabilities and features. You can even include some different colored notes with capabilities that might be missing from your product today. Then, ask people to rate each one as high, medium, or low in terms of importance to the customer. After that, ask them to rate which ones they believe to be key differentiators for your product capabilities in the market. The outcome of these exercises is that you come up with a shortlist of unique product attributes that match your customer's most pressing needs. It’s also a great way to get alignment across teams by discussing what they believe to be important or not important to customers and unique to your product. ## The positioning process Now that you’ve collected all that data, it’s time to fill out the positioning document and share it with stakeholders across the organization. They could include sales leaders, others in your team, and business leaders in other areas. This'll ensure that everyone gets a peek at what you’ve learned about your key positioning areas so that later on you won’t hear any questions about why you decided to spend marketing dollars on one segment, persona, or feature versus another. This is also a great opportunity to get feedback from others and have them point out any possible gaps, which shows you are not creating this in isolation – you’re involving your cross-functional teams and customers. After aligning your stakeholders, you can then proceed to the main outcome of this data collection and positioning exercise: the positioning statement. There are several ways to craft positioning statements. One classic structure includes the following elements: - For \[target\] - Who are \[segment\] - The \[product/brand\] - Provides the \[category\] - With \[difference\] - Because of \[proof\] Whichever format you choose, the aim is to end up with a concise statement that clearly articulates where you play, for whom, and why you win. ## **Wait! Don’t do this…** Now, let me stop you right here. Before we go any further, I want to warn you about a mistake that I've seen over and over again: You create a great positioning statement, and you think you're done. Guess what? Your work is not yet done. Don’t go emailing people the statement or putting it on a website just yet. The full process has one more element: the messaging. The positioning statement is just an internal document that you’ll use to guide the creation of your external messaging and everything else that goes along with it. It also helps align teams internally. Can you use it externally? Sure you can, but this is not the only messaging that you're going to create. Having said that, let's jump into what messaging is. ## **What is messaging and why is it important?** In short, messaging is how you communicate your value proposition to your customers. Let’s dig into how you can do that and why it’s important. Your messaging is going to help you expand on your positioning statement to articulate to your buyers why you're better than the alternatives. It also helps you to set the context we talked about earlier, putting you in the right category in the mind of the customer and supporting your key differentiators. On top of all that, it helps your broader teams to articulate your story and key value proposition. This helps activate your positioning and gives guidance to the rest of the organization about where you play and how you win. There are several messaging templates out there, but they typically contain a few key elements: - **Your positioning statement** – The starting point of your narrative - **Short and long product descriptions** – The narrative - **Key messaging/outcome pillars** – Supporting narratives 1) Customer challenges or pain points 2) How your product solves those pain points 3) The value your product provides - **Proof points** – Customer case studies, quotes, ROI reports, etc. ## **The messaging test** Now, as you craft your [messaging,](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-brand-messaging-changes-for-b2b-and-b2c-companies/) how do you know if it's any good? It's easy to get lost in industry terms, try to cover too much ground, or – on the opposite end – take an overly high-level view of your product. To help you avoid these traps, here are some things to ask yourself and others as they help you with this exercise: 1. Does our new messaging document convey who we are as a company and how we see the market? 2. Is it speaking to a clearly defined audience? (Remember: if your product is for everyone, it’s for no one.) 3. Are we demonstrating our understanding of our audience’s concerns? 4. Is a tangible business problem or opportunity clearly laid out? 5. Have we shown the cost of doing nothing? 6. Is the path to a solution clear? 7. Are our capabilities truly differentiated from the alternatives in the market? ## **Messaging deployment** Now that you’ve crafted a core message that the whole organization can rally around, let’s look at how you deploy it. There are two important tasks as you deploy your messaging. First, there's messaging enablement, which is a series of activities that you're going to do internally to get all your teams aligned and trained on the “why” of your messaging and how to use it. Second, there's messaging activation, which is all about customer-facing activities. In other words, it’s how you translate your messaging into marketing campaigns, website pages, product demos, and more. ## **Let’s wrap up** As you can see, there is a lot that goes into crafting an effective positioning and messaging strategy. I could go on and on, but I hope this article has given you food for thought and ideas for what to do next time you're tasked with updating your company’s messaging or creating it from scratch. ### The power of customer feedback: leveraging feedback for SaaS product development URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-of-customer-feedback-leveraging-feedback-for-saas-product-development/ Last updated: 2023-05-11T15:25:24.000Z Thinking of a robust **SaaS product development** strategy that can give you an edge in the industry? It’s time to prioritize customer feedback! Product improvements stem from innovations, and this is possible when you value the evolving preferences of your customers. In this blog, we will guide you on how to leverage the **power of customer feedback** for developing SaaS products. Your product strategy and development are largely an outcome of your efforts to customize products whether it is a large electronic item or a[ collection of funko pops](https://blog.ubuy.com/en/best-funko-pop-figures-for-collectors/). A customer-centric stance on your end can go a long way in incorporating strategic features into your products. No wonder, why gathering customer feedback is imperative for **SaaS product development**. Remember, [93% of customers](https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-acquisition-study?hubs%5Fcontent=www.hubspot.com%2Fcustomer-feedback&hubs%5Fcontent-cta=93%25%20of%20customers) tend to make repeat purchases if they are satisfied with customer service. Feedback happens to be a core component of your customer satisfaction journey. When you manage to deliver a 5-star customer experience to your buyers, they are [2.6 times more likely](https://www.qualtrics.com/m/www.xminstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/XMI%5FDS%5FGlobalStudyROIofCustomerExperience.pdf) to purchase your products. ## **What makes customer feedback crucial for SaaS product development?** Customer feedback proves to be a valuable resource when it comes to conceptualizing and integrating fresh features into SaaS products. Realizing the **power of customer feedback**, developers can transform ideas into reality. Whether you use continuous, agile, or any other kind of methodology for delivering products, it pays to prioritize hot-button features and integrate the same in a few weeks. Naturally, when customers find their desired features in [SaaS products](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-profitable-products-with-customers/), they stick to your brand. Every customer wants SaaS product developers to address their pain points. Focussing on customer feedback, you can ease up friction, improve retention rates, and develop customer loyalty. [Using customer feedback and win-loss interviews to improve your product | Future of SaaSCustomer feedback and win-loss interviews are among the most effective ways to gain a firm understanding of how your product has been received, and how you can make changes, where needed.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1517245386807-bb43f82c33c4?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDE1fHxpbnRlcnZpZXdzfGVufDB8fHw&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/using-customer-feedback-and-win-loss-interviews-to-improve-your-product/) Therefore, the **power of customer feedback** can help your team quickly fix bugs and integrate better features that eventually drive your sales. Do you know that 60% of **SaaS product development** ideas come from customer feedback? This implies that the **power of customer feedback** can contribute to **SaaS product development** even more than the innovation of your team. Let’s take a look at this infographic to explore different sources of product development ideas. ![A chart displaying the best product and feature ideas. ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/05/data-src-image-63b52134-9767-4c90-a121-6bb59074fef0.png) **Source:** **This infographic shows that direct customer feedback contributes as much as 60% of new product development ideas, followed by team brainstorming, market research, competitor products, sales team, and executive orders** As a SaaS product developer, it pays to understand what your customers want. Feedback in the real world helps in identifying potential shortcomings. Real **SaaS product development** cannot be backed by guesswork, right? Evaluating customer feedback helps your team understand the frustrations, concerns, and needs of your customers. This way, you can make your software market fit even faster. ## **Scope of SaaS product development on evaluating customer feedback** The core logic behind realizing the **power of customer feedback** is to understand what drives their purchase decision. Evaluating their feedback also enables developers to understand their thought processes and needs. So if you own an international eCommerce platform, it makes sense to interact with your clientele directly through live chat widgets, interviews, customer agents, or social media platforms. Proper feedback from your customers can help you unlock the hidden potential to improve your product or introduce new features. Besides, by addressing bugs and issues that users are currently encountering, you can strengthen customer engagement and reduce friction. [Customer advisory boards and feedback loops \[Q&A with Dropbox\]Customer Advisory Boards allow customers to give candid feedback on their experience with your company, and we spoke with Bree Bunzel, Head of Global Customer Marketing at Dropbox, who answered questions around building Customer Advisory Boards and customer feedback loops.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/adam-jang-8pOTAtyd_Mc-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-advisory-boards-and-feedback-loops-q-a-with-dropbox/) Here’s how customer feedback can contribute to better **SaaS product development**. - Assessing the feedback from your customers gives you an idea of their experience. - Developers can build a buyer’s persona based on feedback to streamline their marketing campaigns. - Get your product messaging and USP aligned with the requirements of your customers. - Come up with customized campaigns for marketing by strategizing a focused SaaS content tactic. - Attract target buyer personas by getting your landing pages optimized. - Carry out detailed qualitative and quantitative research. ## **How to capitalize on the power of customer feedback for SaaS product development?** Now that you know why customer feedback matters, let’s explore some realistic strategies to bank on the potential that interactions with customers hold. ### **Collect in-app feedbacks** Forward-thinking app-development companies integrate feedback widgets to collect responses from their customers. These responses get recorded on a feedback board for your scrutiny. Besides, you can collect in-app feedback through: - Dedicated feedback buttons - In-app surveys - Reviews - Ratings Besides, keep the door for feedback open through voice calls and texts. Incorporate all sorts of feedback-collecting mechanisms, ensuring that you don’t annoy your customers as they use the software. ### **Say ‘yes’ to a feature request** When it comes to prioritizing feedback for **SaaS product development**, developers often fear too many feature requests. Once you open up your doors for feedback, it might open up the floodgates for new feature integrations. Rather than fearing too many changes in the existing product, it’s logical to visualize what your customers expect. Of course, you won’t be incorporating a feature simply because someone asks for it. Let your team brainstorm over the product feature suggestions. Banking on the **power of customer feedback**, you can tweak the existing capabilities or introduce some new features in the next version. [Customer success metrics that drive 95% retentionIn this article, I’ll be discussing the customer success metrics you should be tracking at each and every stage of the customer lifecycle. With them, you can drive retention and ensure your customer success function is successful in delivering value to the customer.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSwati Chopra![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/yoav-hornung-Qg6lPXJ6IL4-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) ### **Carry out usability tests** Usability tests can give you a comprehensive idea of how comfortable your customers are with the existing version. As a part of usability tests, you need to give a set of tasks to selected customers. As they proceed, they would continue talking, which would serve as a running commentary on what they decide and observe. Therefore, a usability test session unlocks several opportunities for developers to fix glitches quickly and address the long-term requirements of the users. ## **Wrapping up** Now that you know how the **power of customer feedback** influences **SaaS product development**, it’s time to deploy effective means of collecting this feedback. Consider exploiting social media channels to feel the pulse of your customers. You can also set up [customer advisory boards](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-advisory-boards-and-feedback-loops-q-a-with-dropbox/) and evaluate their expectations. Your **SaaS product development** would remain incomplete without adequate input from the users. --- *Enjoyed this article? Why not check out our exclusive content with a Future of SaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How to conquer the market with an awesome SaaS go-to-market strategy URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-conquer-the-market-with-an-awesome-saas-go-to-market-strategy/ Last updated: 2023-05-24T11:04:34.000Z Are you ready to dominate the SaaS game and take your business to new heights? In today's hyper-competitive business landscape, **having a killer SaaS [go-to-market strategy ](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-lead-a-collaborative-go-to-market-strategy/) is critical for success**. But with so many moving parts to consider, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. But don't worry, because in this article we're going to show you how to conquer your SaaS go-to-market strategy like a boss. 💪 From identifying your target audience to optimizing your pricing model, we'll provide you with **practical tips and actionable insights to help you drive growth** and [scale your business](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-expectations-yellow-messenger-q-and-a/). 🚀 So what are you waiting for? Buckle up and start conquering your SaaS go-to-market strategy today! Here’s how we’ll break it down: - ****What exactly is a GTM strategy and why does it matter?** - ****5 steps for implementing and boosting your strategy** - ****Final thoughts** ## What exactly is a GTM strategy and why does it matter? Back when the SaaS industry was in its early stages, product innovation was enough. Not many products existed, and so a company with a unique or revolutionary product could easily attract new consumers. Everything is different now. Users are more informed than ever, and product innovation alone isn't sufficient to engage customers and drive conversions. While product innovation can get you a seat at the table, you'll need a well-devised GTM strategy to introduce your product to the market, reach potential customers, and secure sales. A GTM strategy can work wonders for SaaS businesses as it lays out a complete blueprint for launching a product, delivering it to the customer, and generating revenue and a competitive advantage. [Scaling beyond expectations—Yellow Messenger Q&A | Future of SaaSLooking to scale beyond your expectations in a remote business world? Yellow Messenger’s Neil Barman has actionable tactics to help you succeed in this insightful Q&A.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/45/QDSMoAMTYaZoXpcwBjsL__DSC0104-1.jpg?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDExfHxyZW1vdGUlMjB3b3JrfGVufDB8fHw&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-expectations-yellow-messenger-q-and-a/) A study by the Harvard Business School found that [95% of new products launched each year fail](https://www.inc.com/marc-emmer/95-percent-of-new-products-fail-here-are-6-steps-to-make-sure-yours-dont.html). Therefore, it’s crucial for product marketers and SaaS professionals to outline a strong yet realistic GTM strategy to avoid any mistakes, unsustainable practices, and to capture the right audience and product-market fit. Especially within B2B SaaS companies, with so many moving parts, a streamlined and direct roadmap in the form of a GTM strategy is essential to clearly setting out your goals and keeping you on track. Your go-to-market strategy will differ for each SaaS company depending on your offered product or service and customer needs, but most GTM strategies should focus on target audience and buyer personas, value proposition, product-market fit, and a [pricing strategy.](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code/) ## 5 steps for implementing and boosting your strategy Again, a structured plan is absolutely foundational to the successful launch of your product or service, and building an optimized GTM strategy is key to this. Here are some of the most important steps to follow: ### Identify your target market and describe buyer personas The first step in conquering your SaaS go-to-market strategy is understanding your target market and pain points. **Who are your potential customers? What are their pain points? What motivates them to buy your product or service?** As a B2B SaaS company, your target market is businesses that are looking for software solutions to their problems. Your customers may be small businesses or large enterprises, but they all have pain points that your product or service can solve. The same applies for B2C SaaS companies, to understand your target market, you need to conduct market research. This involves gathering information about your target market, such as their demographic data, psychographic data, and behavioral data. You can use this information to **create buyer [personas](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-personas-to-enhance-user-experience/)** that represent your target audience. A buyer persona is a fictional character that represents your ideal customer. It helps you build a foundation to understand your customers' goals, motivations, and pain points. Once you have created your buyer personas, you can identify your customers' pain points and understand what problems they face that your SaaS product can solve. Understanding this will help you create a service that addresses their needs and helps them to achieve their goals. With this in place, you can use this information to create effective marketing campaigns, distribution and pricing strategies. [Take your personas to the next level. Get persona certifiedWhether you’re a persona first-timer or veteran, B2B or B2C, this course is packed with the practical tips, real-life case studies, and expert advice you need to create, use, and roll out game-changing personas.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/persona-master-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/take-your-personas-to-the-next-level-get-persona-certified/) ### Create value proposition and messaging that resonates Now that you know your target market and pain points, it's time to create a product or service that resonates with them. Your product or service should solve a problem or fulfill a need that your target audience has. Use your buyer personas to guide your product development process, you need to create a product or service that is easy to use, affordable, and delivers value. By defining your value proposition, a clear description of your messaging, and product market fit, you can position your brand for success. [Value propositions that sellI want to talk about value propositions because I think most out there suck, they really do. I’ll share a case study from my own experience crafting a differentiated value proposition at my organization, taking you through how we approached it step by step.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAbdul Rastagar![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/photo-1583320975624-d099f8c042f6.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) ### **Product market fit** [Product market fit](https://www.saasalliance.io/defining-measuring-product-market-fit/) is the alignment between your product or service and your target audience, and essential for the success of your SaaS product. If your product does not meet your customers' needs, you will have a hard time generating leads and converting them into paying customers. Product market fit works to **emphasize your SaaS product’s ability to solve your specific customers pain points and deliver value** worthy of the price your customers pay. To achieve product market fit, you need to gather feedback from your customers. Use customer feedback to improve your product or service and make it more aligned with your customers' needs and preferences. You will know it’s working when they begin to recommend your SaaS product to colleagues and other businesses. [Your ultimate guide to creating a value propositionA value proposition communicates how your product or service will benefit your customer. You need to outline why your product is essential for your target segment, how it will solve their pain points, and why your product is more desirable than others on the market.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/alexander-popov-iQqqo2zpmTI-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-ultimate-guide-to-creating-a-value-proposition/) ### **Value proposition** Understanding the [true value ](https://www.saasalliance.io/value-propositions-that-sell/)of your product is key to building a successful GTM strategy. Once you understand your target audience and buyer personas, you can identify the exact features and functions your SaaS product needs to deliver this value. This makes your product increasingly attractive as you are clearly laying out the benefits of your product over competitors, catering directly to your customers’ needs and wants and increasing your chances of ending up with long term paying customers. ### **Messaging** Alongside demonstrating this value that your product can bring to SaaS businesses, you need to frame your messaging and design to match the benefits you are selling to your target audience. Using buyer personas, you need to find the exact messaging style that fits with these personas and will draw your audience in. It’s all about the **[right messaging](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-brand-messaging-changes-for-b2b-and-b2c-companies/) for the right audience**. Similarly to the value proposition, you need to think of the value your product delivers and what makes you stand out from the competition, and why ultimately, your product is better. Here you can use messaging to emphasize this, leading with the benefits of your product and the desires and needs it will meet over an in-depth list of software features. No matter how attractive or revolutionary these features are, it is the personality of your message that appeals first to your customer. ## **Develop your market plan** A market plan outlines your [marketing strategies ](https://www.saasalliance.io/establishing-a-customer-marketing-strategy-and-developing-advocates/)and tactics, including your target audience, marketing campaigns, pricing strategy, and sales strategy. It’s essential for the success of your SaaS business because it helps you stay focused and organized. Your market plan should include a detailed description of your target audience and their pain points that you were able to identify in your buyer personas. Marketing campaigns should be designed to educate your potential customers about your product or service and how it can help them solve their problems. But to build this effectively, first you need to consider your pricing and sales strategies. ### **Pricing strategy** Your [pricing strategy](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-pricing/) should be aligned with your target audience and your product or service. You should also consider your competitors' pricing and your company's financial goals. Your pricing strategy should be clear and transparent, and easy for your potential customers to understand. [Pricing your SaaS offeringMy name’s David Wadler, and I am Co-Founder and CEO of Vendorful. I’m also an investor in a variety of startups, almost all of which are SaaS businesses. In this article, I’m going to go through some ideas about how you can start to think about pricing SaaS.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDavid Wadler![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/angele-kamp-_XlhZVsKykw-unsplash--2---1--2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-your-saas-offering/) For most SaaS companies these come in several forms, **flat pricing** which is one set price for all users, **tiered pricing** which features multiple different plans with increased pricing, offering a ‘pro’ or ‘plus’ function for example. Another which is used slightly less is **user-based pricing** which is where pricing is based off of the number of users. ### **Sales strategy** Now you’ve chosen your pricing strategy, you need to determine a sales strategy to actually acquire customers. Within the world of SaaS, there are two main types of sales strategies that are used to do this, **product-led growth** and **sales-led growth.** Product-led growth (PLG) is a go-to-market strategy where the product is the main focus and drives all aspects of the business, including acquisition, retention, and referral. SaaS companies often use PLG to boost growth by providing a free trial version of the product that converts users into paying customers. [Choosing the right metrics to measure your sellersA well-designed and executed sales enablement strategy should have a measurable impact on sales results and revenue. Often the challenge is identifying and implementing the right elements, metrics, and priorities. Key actions are to:![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/william-warby-WahfNoqbYnM-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/measuring-the-things-that-matter-choosing-the-right-metrics-to-measure-your-sellers/) This includes what is sometimes called the ‘aha’ moment, as it’s the point where customers see the value of the service for themselves, turning them into paying regulars and increasing customer lifetime value. Another sales strategy is sales-led growth (SLG), which relies on the sales team to be the key driver for revenue and their ability to convert potential customers into existing ones. However this strategy brings more challenges with it than PLG, as it requires greater alignment between the marketing and sales teams and may not work well with smaller organizations or companies with short sales cycles. ## **Choose a marketing distribution and lead generation strategy** The act of actually acquiring new customers can be tough for SaaS companies and so you need to identify the best channels for your marketing strategies and attracting them. Lead generation is the process for this, attracting potential customers and converting them into leads. There are several lead generation strategies you can use, like content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and advertising. Whichever works best for your company, your lead generation strategies should be aligned with your target audience and marketing campaigns. Content marketing involves creating valuable and informative content that educates your potential customers about your product. Social media marketing involves promoting your product on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. [How to boost B2B lead generation through email marketingWe’re taking you through the steps you need to not only reach your customers through email marketing, but convert them into paying customers.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/03/email-marketing.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-boost-b2b-lead-generation-through-email-marketing/) Email marketing involves sending targeted emails to your potential customers to promote your product or service. Advertising involves using paid advertising channels like Google AdWords and Facebook Ads to promote your product or service. Once you have generated these leads, it's time to convert them into paying customers. Customer experience is essential for this and should be designed to meet your customers' needs and preferences, making it easy for your potential customers to understand your product and how it can help them. It should also include excellent customer support where your customers can contact you easily and get their questions answered quickly. Providing excellent customer support will help you build trust with your customers and increase the chances of converting them into paying customers. ## **Decide on the right metrics to track** Measuring your success is essential for the long-term success of your SaaS business and you should be tracking your key performance indicators (KPIs) to understand how your marketing campaigns are performing. For SaaS companies some of the most important KPIs to consider include **customer acquisition cost** (CAC), **customer lifetime value** (CLV), and **churn rate**. [20 metrics for SaaS marketersIn this article, we’ll be sharing 20 important metrics for SaaS marketing, ranging from acquisition metrics to monetization metrics. We’ll explain what each metric is, how they can be tracked, and most importantly, why they should be tracked.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDean Millar![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/matthew-ball-TFE_-9eLmEs-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-metrics-for-saas-marketers/) CAC is the cost of acquiring a new customer and CLV is the total amount of money a customer is expected to spend on your product over their journey. Finally, churn rate is the percentage of customers who cancel their subscription or stop using your service. Focusing on quantifiable metrics and KPIs highlight any areas for improvement and an in-depth picture of the performance of your strategies and how successful you are in achieving your goals. ## Final thoughts Building a successful go-to-market strategy is crucial for any SaaS business in the every-changing, hyper-competitive software sales landscape of today. By following the five steps outlined in this article, you can identify your target audience, create a value proposition that resonates with them, achieve product-market fit, develop your market plan, and track the right metrics to measure your success. Remember, the key to success is staying focused, organized, and staying true to your brand values. So what are you waiting for? Start conquering your SaaS go-to-market strategy today! --- *Want more insights from the leading minds in SaaS? Why not check out our exclusive content with a future of SaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Breaking down barriers: Strategies for successful SaaS global expansion URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/breaking-down-barriers-strategies-for-successful-saas-global-expansion/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T17:00:45.000Z *This article is based on *CMO at Fastspring*, David Vogelpohl’s panel discussion at the *Future of SaaS Festival 2023.* Watch the whole thing* [*here*](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-april-2023/)*.* It's an exciting time to be in the software industry, but expanding your product and services across borders is no small feat. As someone who has helped countless SaaS companies navigate the global landscape, I've seen first-hand the challenges and opportunities that come with taking your product global. 🌎 But fear not! In this article, I'll share insights to help you successfully expand your SaaS business internationally. From S curves and market research to localization and customer support, I'll cover everything you need to know about SaaS pricing and packaging strategies to **make your global expansion a success**. So buckle up and get ready to take your SaaS company global! Here’s how I’ll break it down: - **Why is global growth so important?** - **How to optimize pricing and packaging strategies** - **Final thoughts** ## Why is global growth so important? Global growth is maybe the biggest lever for your SaaS business, and when you dive into the numbers you can see just why. So when looking, for example, at the annual growth rate of SaaS companies between 100 and $500 million annually, and the percentage of their revenue reflected from international revenue, you can see that companies with over a 50% annual growth rate, had, on average, 31% of that coming from non-native countries. This shows one thing clearly: **companies that sell globally have faster growth rates and higher revenue overall.** ### S curves of business growth But of course, it’s not quite as easy as that to secure that revenue growth. We need to start by looking at the **innovation S curve**. What the innovation S curve represents is that there's a challenge or problem that needs solving, you then invent a solution that addresses it. That solution gets slow adoption at first, mass adoption very quickly perhaps, and then levels out. That’s where we get our S from. Relying on this product innovation S curve to drive value in your business is good, but the added geography going global presents a huge opportunity. If you’re in more geographies, and launch a new product, you can get more adoptions. These increased adoption and growth rates will in turn amplify other parts of your business. ## How to optimize pricing and packaging strategies It’s in the numbers! The companies that grow fastest have the highest percentage of international revenue. So how can we optimize global pricing and packaging strategies to secure this growth? One way to begin thinking about this is by thinking about operational leverage, considering the amount of work invested and its possible return. You need to look for any opportunities for these material payouts and prioritize these projects within your strategies and roadmap. In terms of what we’re talking about here today, these opportunities arise in the strategies discussed below. 👇 ### Localization as key **Localizing currency** 💲 - One of the first things to consider when expanding globally is how exchange rates and inflation rates can impact your business. When you're selling in different countries, the exchange rates can fluctuate, making it challenging to set a consistent pricing strategy. - One way to mitigate this risk is to price your product in the local currency and adjust the prices periodically based on the exchange rates. This way, your customers will always pay the same amount in their local currency. - Another thing to consider is inflation rates. When inflation rates are high in a particular country, the local currency's value can decrease, making your product more expensive for customers. In this case, you may need to adjust your pricing strategy to ensure that you're not pricing yourself out of the market. **Localizing payment methods 💳** - The other part of this is localizing payment methods based on the preferred methods of each country you’re selling in. - For example in North America, everybody seems to make payments using credit cards, whereas, in Europe, most people prefer using debit cards. - So paying attention to what your audience prefers can unlock real value. **Tax and compliance 🧾** - This is a crucial part of the process when getting into a new region, you need to file with local taxing authorities, estimate this tax filing, pay it, and deal with the taxing authorities. - But luckily, there are lots of solutions to help with this process, such as automated tax compliance software systems, but there is also the option of using a merchant of record. - A merchant of record sits between your customer and you from a billing and tax compliance perspective. The customer buys from the merchant of record and you get all the proceeds, but the merchant of record does all of the tax work, compiling everything in one place and saving you the stress! **Willingness to pay 👍** - An essential factor to consider when expanding globally, willingness to pay is a measure of how people value your product, and it is crucial to research this before expanding into a new market. - Use the data and the value you’re providing and set your prices around this willingness to pay, never make assumptions about what you think a country or region is willing to pay for your platform or service. - If you’re trying to break into a market with less willingness to pay, you can create lower-tier plans to help address that, for example adjusting your pricing strategy to include geo-specific discounts. **Iterative approach 🔄** - Focusing on progress over perfection, finding points of leverage, refining your process as you go, and localizing language and customer experience, will help you to build more assets in your business. - If you’re a smaller organization or SaaS startup, you may not have the time or resources to translate every page and resource to each of the countries or regions where you want to be working. So, if you’re a B2B company you can translate the specific key buying materials. - Another interesting option comes in the form of partnering strategies, working with affiliates, partners, or resellers, who will help you get into the localized market, highlight value, work with communities related to your SaaS product, or even simply help you sell your products. - This can help you get a foothold in new markets, and understand each country’s target audience better, benefiting them through the more personalized value you can deliver, and helping your growth in these new markets. ## Final thoughts Taking your SaaS product to a global market can be a daunting task, but with the right strategy and approach, it can also be incredibly rewarding. By understanding the factors that impact global expansion, including language, support, and pricing, you can develop a strategy that positions your business for success in new markets. Finding the right opportunities to add multiple S curves of growth in your business, looking for operational leverage to maximize payouts, and localizing currencies, payment methods, languages, and support, will all help you to drive progress and secure global assets. By following these guidelines and investing the time and resources to do it right, you can effectively take your SaaS product to a global market and drive growth and success for your business. ### SaaS Tools of Choice 2023 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2023/ Last updated: 2024-07-19T14:45:40.000Z We asked, and over 100 SaaS leaders answered: here are the tools you need to succeed in this sector. Whether it’s sales enablement tools, content management systems, and more that you’re looking for, we’ve got you covered. We’ve taken the recommendations from SaaS leaders and broken each one down by its applications, usability, and price, so you have all the information you need to construct the ultimate toolset for SaaS success. Download the report today to get access to the ultimate guide to tools and tech, each one endorsed by the game-changers shaping the world of SaaS. ## Why you should download this report If you’re looking to take your SaaS biz to the next level, you need to be equipped with the right tools. But you’re a busy person, we know, you don’t have time to be poring over every single tool on the market, constantly googling “what’s the best tool for \_”. In this report, you’ll find everything you need to know about the most popular and effective tools on the market for the primary functions a winning SaaS business needs to succeed. Inside you’ll find: - An overview of each tried and tested tool - A link to where you can buy them - A breakdown of costs, and - A glowing endorsement from SaaS leaders who use the tools daily. Download the report today, and stop wasting time searching around for the tools you need. 👇 Get the report ### Redefining “growth-centric design”: Aligning business, end-users, and product owners URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/redefining-growth-centric-design-aligning-business-end-users-and-product-owners/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:35:12.000Z The primary objective of a B2B SaaS platform is to create a compelling value proposition for its users and drive widespread adoption. However, many product owners of these platforms mistakenly believe that user adoption alone is the ultimate goal, equating it with business success. What often goes overlooked, especially in B2B platforms, is that success hinges on finding the right balance between various factors. These include the platform's product vision, business goals such as user acquisition and financial investment in the digital platform, scalability targets, end-user needs, decision makers within the buying companies, and middle management professionals. **A product launch without stakeholders' alignment is one of the most prevalent causes of failure. Approximately** [**34%** ](https://userpilot.com/blog/saas-user-onboarding-2021/)**of failures are attributable to this factor.** So, B2B platforms must understand and address the needs of all stakeholders involved and strike a delicate balance between them. This involves adding value to the users through the platform while strategically scaling the business and aligning with the overall product and business objectives. That's when a platform gains momentum when it shows empathy throughout its product development process. ## What exactly is growth-centric design? Growth-centric design is a holistic approach that ensures the digital product aligns with the business requirements, end-user needs, product owner's vision, and product roadmap. Only when all these parameters are in sync can the product be successfully launched and meet the needs of all stakeholders. **For example:** If you're designing an HRMS platform to make HR tasks more accessible and for employees to access their information, like schedules, time off requests, pay stubs, and tax info, then it's essential to keep everyone's needs in mind. Even though the top management decides to use the platform, the HR professionals and employees will use it. If you only focus on making the decision-makers happy, the employees will likely be unhappy and voice their concerns to the top management. To avoid this, it's crucial to have a design strategy that considers the needs of all stakeholders involved and where they feel the platform is made for them. For this to happen, B2B SaaS providers should build a product that delivers recognizable value to end users and achieves sustainable growth. This requires a collaborative design process and user research to ensure that the product design meets the needs of all stakeholders. [Why user experience is so important for your SaaS orgUI/UX is crucial to the success of every online business. The digital space is becoming much busier every day. There are currently about 1.88 billion websites and 5.5 million applications on Google and the App store.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSTaiwo Sotikare![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/this-is-the-place.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-user-experience-is-so-important-for-your-saas-company/) ## Aligning business, end-users, and product owners needs As the industry continues to evolve, B2B SaaS providers must embrace a Growth-centric design approach that aligns with the goals of the business, end-users, and product owners. Here are some key strategies for achieving this alignment: ### Step one: Understanding the goals of each party To achieve [Growth-centric design](https://www.divami.com/blog/designing-for-a-product-led-growth), it is essential to understand the goals of each stakeholder group. The business needs to generate revenue and growth, the end-user needs to solve a problem or meet a need, and the product owner needs to drive product vision and strategy. By understanding these goals, SaaS providers can ensure that the product design meets the needs of all stakeholders, leading to increased user adoption and long-term growth. ### Step two: collaborative design process After understanding each stakeholder's goals, a collaborative design process is critical to ensuring that all stakeholders are aligned throughout the product development lifecycle. This process involves regular communication and feedback loops between the business, end-users, and product owners, enabling each party to provide input and insights into the product design. This collaborative approach helps to ensure that the product design is informed by the needs and goals of all stakeholders, resulting in a successful product launch. ### Step three: Role of user research in aligning stakeholders User research is crucial in aligning stakeholders in a Growth-centric design approach. By conducting user research, SaaS providers can understand their end-user's needs and preferences, ensuring that the product design meets these needs. User research also helps to identify areas of misalignment between the business, end-users, and product owners, enabling SaaS providers to make informed decisions and adjust the product design accordingly. ## Designing for sustainable growth The B2B SaaS world is constantly evolving, and the key to staying ahead is designing for sustainable growth. It's not enough to focus solely on short-term goals. Instead, companies must prioritize long-term goals like sustainable growth and balance business goals with user needs. ### The importance of sustainable growth Sustainable growth is critical for the success of any B2B SaaS company. It's not enough to focus solely on acquiring new customers. Instead, companies must prioritize retaining existing customers and ensuring they receive long-term value from their products or service. This approach leads to a more stable and predictable revenue stream, which is crucial for the long-term success of any SaaS business. ### Designing for long-term value Designing for long-term value means creating a product that is both useful and easy to use for the end user. It also means continuously improving the product based on user feedback and data analysis. By doing so, companies can ensure that their product remains relevant and valuable to their customers. In addition to user needs, companies must also consider their own business goals when designing for long-term value. This includes factors such as pricing, sales, and marketing strategies. By aligning these goals with the needs of their users, companies can create a product that not only provides value to their customers but also generates sustainable growth for their business. [Designing products for today’s knowledge workersSince Peter Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker” in his 1959 book, The Landmarks of Tomorrow, product designers, developers and marketers have sought to tap into this high-value market space with new products and technology.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSErica Kitaev![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/gabriella-clare-marino-GSLA0FVY9qI-unsplash--1--2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/designing-products-for-todays-knowledge-workers/) ### Balancing business goals with user needs While it's important to consider business goals when designing a B2B SaaS product, it's equally important to balance these goals with the end user's needs. This requires a profound understanding of the user's needs, pain points, and behavior. Companies must continually collect and analyze user feedback and make data-driven decisions to achieve this balance. This approach ensures that the product evolves in a way that meets both the user's needs and the business's goals. ## Putting it Into Practice ### Case studies on successful implementation Many successful companies have already implemented Growth-centric design in their products and services, leading to increased user adoption and long-term growth. This section will explore some of these [case studies](https://www.divami.com/uxportfolio/). Slack has embraced Growth-centric design. The communication platform prioritizes user feedback and leverages integrations with other tools to improve productivity. For instance, Slack integrates with third-party applications such as Google Drive, Trello, and Asana, allowing users to complete tasks without leaving the Slack platform. This approach increases user engagement and satisfaction and helps the company attract new users and retain existing ones. HubSpot is another example of a marketing and sales software company that successfully implemented Growth-centric design. The company uses a user-centric approach to create products that meet the needs and preferences of its customers. For instance, HubSpot provides users with a wide range of resources, such as blog posts, webinars, and e-books, to help them learn about inbound marketing and sales. This approach positions HubSpot as a thought leader in the industry and helps the company attract and retain new customers. ### Tools and techniques for aligning stakeholders Aligning stakeholders, including business leaders, product owners, and end-users, is critical for effective Growth-centric design. Companies can use tools and techniques such as user research, data analytics, user journey mapping, and agile development methodologies to achieve this alignment. By bringing stakeholders together and leveraging these tools and techniques, businesses can ensure that their growth-centric design approach is aligned with the needs and preferences of all parties involved. [Read This Before You Spend A Year Building A Product Nobody WantsI’m a developer, not a marketer. I enjoy building apps. I love the process of going from an idea to design.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAmine Khaoui![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/0_VSEpP8X8mwkxgmBp.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/read-this-before-you-spend-a-year-building-a-product-nobody-wants/) ### Measuring success Measuring the success of growth-centric design is crucial to ensuring long-term growth and sustainability. Businesses can measure success through key performance indicators (KPIs) such as user retention rates, customer lifetime value, and revenue growth. Additionally, businesses can conduct user satisfaction surveys and collect feedback to understand how well their product or service meets user needs. By continually measuring success and adjusting based on user feedback, businesses can ensure that their Growth-centric design approach is successful and sustainable in the long run. ## Benefits of redesigning for growth-centric design 1. **Enhanced user experience:** Collaborative design involves bringing together business leaders, end-users, and product owners in designing SaaS products. This approach ensures that the end-users' needs and expectations are considered, resulting in a user-friendly interface and enhanced user experience. 2. **Increased product adoption:** With the collaborative design, end-users become active participants in the product design process. This involvement ensures that the product addresses its needs and challenges, leading to increased product adoption. 3. **Improved business outcomes:** Collaborative design ensures that SaaS products align with business objectives. Business leaders are involved in the design process, producing products that drive business growth and success. 4. **Faster product iterations:** Collaborative design enables faster iterations of SaaS products. End-users' feedback is incorporated into the design process, resulting in a product that meets their needs faster and with fewer revisions. 5. **Reduced development costs:** Collaborative design reduces development costs by identifying flaws and potential issues earlier in the process. This early identification ensures problems are resolved before they become expensive, resulting in a more cost-effective development process. 6. **Competitive edge:** Collaborative design gives SaaS companies a competitive edge. By involving end-users and aligning products with business objectives, companies can deliver products that stand out from the competition, leading to increased market share and revenue growth. The way companies approach growth is changing fast in the world of SaaS, and it's a big deal for the future. With the right [UX UI design](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1cjkoLKm8OHyzmnqlhW9KKKBRkFZSrQUuFTyu3MaEudI/edit) experts, you can innovate quicker, stay ahead of competitors, and offer more value to your users and also scale your business. The growth-centric approach isn't going away anytime soon, and its influence will last long. So. Why not start today? --- *Like what you see so far? Why not check out exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS?* 👇 [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Accelerating your routes-to-market with optimized GTM alignment URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/accelerating-your-routes-to-market-with-optimized-gtm-alignment/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T17:00:03.000Z Why do you need a GTM strategy? Well, not to freak you out, but **95% of new products fail in the first year**. Those launches could fail because of poor timing – for example, I worked in an automotive company that was trying to improve energy efficiency, and then electric cars started entering the market. Maybe it comes down to product issues – let's just blame it on the product team. It’s always the product and never the marketing, right? Well, no. The truth is you could build the best product in the market that solves all your customers’ pain points, but if they don't know where to find it, they're not going to buy it. That’s why you need a rock-solid GTM plan that puts the product or services in your customer's hands. In this article, I'll look at: - The key questions your Go-to-Market strategy should answer - The target customer - Value propositions - Routes to market - Our multifaceted approach to Go-to-Market - A communication plan - Pricing strategy - Operational readiness - Metrics - Key takeaways ## **The key questions your Go-to-Market strategy should answer** So we know we need a Go-to-Market strategy, but what are the key questions it should answer? Let's see. ### ***Who* is your buyer persona?** This is critical. When I was consulting for a data analytics company, they told me their buyer persona was everybody. I said there was no way it could be everybody. They said anyone who uses data is their persona. We all use data – we use email and we have shared folders, but we're not all their customers, right? After much probing, that buyer persona went from everyone to one particular target market. We found out that their buyer persona is IT vendors who build data warehousing products. ### ***What* are you trying to sell?** Not the features, not the capabilities, but what is the pain point you're trying to solve for your customers? Why should they care about your product? What is the unique selling proposition of that product? ### ***How* do you reach your customers?** This is where routes to the market play a critical role. You want to make sure customers can find your product. You also want to look at how they’re going to buy it. Is there a promotion or a discount? Are you in a very competitive market, where you need a solid pricing strategy to be attractive to customers? ### ***Why* would your target customers want to buy this product?** Is it unique and disruptive? Is it paradigm-shifting? Is it a price play? For example, imagine that you have an anti-virus product, and, I come from CrowdStrike and I say, “Hey, I have a product that'll do it better and cost you less.” That might be a pretty tempting offer. ### ***When* are you launching?** Timing is everything. Ideally, you want to have the first-mover advantage, but if you don't have it, you at least want to make sure that you hit the market before your competition gets there. ### ***Where* are you going to focus your marketing and sales strategy?** How are you going to enable your sellers to reach the target audience? What is your marketing mix going to look like? These are the six key questions, and I’ll repeatedly touch upon these themes as we move through the article. Now I’m going to lay out a seven-element activation plan that will enable you to answer all these questions, nail your GTM strategy, and measure your success after your product has launched. Whether your company is big or small, you’ll want to keep all of these elements in mind as you prepare to go to market. ## **Target customer** Who are you selling to? The first thing you want to do is identify your buyer personas. Once you’ve researched them, you want to make sure you validate them – people often forget this step. Validating your personas means talking to analysts, talking to your customers, talking to your sales reps, and making sure that your personas hit the mark. Because I'm in the cybersecurity space and I don't want to get into trouble, I'm going to use a fake company for all of my examples. It’s an amalgamation of all the companies I’ve consulted and worked for – we'll call it AcmeCloud. [![Sample AcmeCloud Personas - Champion CIO, Influencer CISO, Decision Maker Head of IT, Users IT Operations, Users IT Support and Ratifier CFO. There's a large red circle to the side of these personas split into 5 different circles inside. They're broken up into Persona, Buying Group, Buying Center, Account, and Market. Underneath the circle it says "North America then Global 2000 then Enterprise IT, then IT Operations." ](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/2IKR65rYjSjreh0v28IBP7xdArbGmIMbUNavCiudJymS7DUmiepcnfKRTZ0diSK1avl1y4YUFkj80IqpvkGpvGeXvq1y1pu4lncaa5698QZakwJ6tkqn2JzwI_RYeZg4_Ur6V0Un-NEaL1uSmZHkZq4)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/accelerating-your-routes-to-market-with-optimized-gtm-alignment) **Image courtesy of Janani Nagarajan at CrowdStrike* These were some of the sample personas we came up with at AcmeCloud. You might think six personas are a lot, but they each fulfill different functions. There’s not just a buyer; there could also be an influencer or a ratified. For example, we found out that procurement and the CFO office were questioning why the company was buying products and what problem these products would solve. From this list of personas, we built persona cards that talked about their problems, possible solutions, and where they’re shopping to boost our sales playbooks. ## **Value proposition** What should you address in your messaging? Now you have your buyer persona, it’s time for the fun part. I see a lot of product marketers get excited about writing the messaging document, but in order to write that document, you need to understand the market and what it is about your product that uniquely solves the customer's pain points. You also need to also understand how the product works so you can translate it into something the customer understands. [![A slide that says "What is the value proposition and messaging" then underneath, five bullet points that read Customer problem solved by your product or service, benefits for the customers, competitive differentiators and advantages, proof of value creation, and finally value statements and key messages. Then, next to it is a yellow revision card which says "For - target customer" "Who - statement of the need or opportunity" the "product or sevice name" is a "product or service category" "that - statement of benefit" unlike "primary competitive alternative" we "statement of primary differentiation." ](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/MWixCBpHY9P5eSWAjYcaKoGZxSgoMO1aaOTnw2dpx_AvAQogMgRnvNPYGdFHzvrtgX1xb_HapFhtqMcUzTxXcYPzYLVCA0c774AzywA15TACVeT3WwzlIBcUnGBC6Xn-QsZeOXUB-Qli4ew9w6ZkVyk)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/accelerating-your-routes-to-market-with-optimized-gtm-alignment) **Image courtesy of Janani Nagarajan at CrowdStrike* For this, it's critical that you get the messaging and the value proposition right and make sure your competitive differentiation really stands out. Rather than simply saying that your feature sets are better, communicate to the customers why the old way doesn’t work and how you’re going to fix that, always keeping in mind the brand experience you want to drive for the customer. [![Sample AcmeCloud Positioning Outline. The first table is split into two columns - Sections and Messaging copy. Underneath sections there are five rows which read "brand promise, positioning statement, target audience, vision and mission, elevator pitch." underneath messaging copy there are five rows again which read "tag line, how AcmeCloud is different, who are the key personas, company internal and external statements, and 30 second outcome pitch." then the 2nd table is split into four columns "messaging pillar one, messaging pillar two, messaging pillar three and messaging pillar four." Underneath messaging pillar one and two, it reads, supporting points one and two, benefits one and two, key use cases, and features. Underneath messaging pillar three and four, it reads supporting point three and supporting points four, benefits three and four, top use cases for customers, and main features with competitive advantages. ](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/j4THFya5xjWFU-YC9AvwCCPewEWcyRDjCBUMo66kVUuMCmIVKk9XrKUmGYfr0Hvmg1HW1ZLmmvPYku2u98XEM8YvLcZOk9tiAk5bTu5jYxDTKfQm0m0Asdt7kovsXMgbqT6K2aY3QwfLD4K1A8i95WA)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/accelerating-your-routes-to-market-with-optimized-gtm-alignment) **Image courtesy of Janani Nagarajan at CrowdStrike* The final thing you want to do is create messaging pillars. Your marketing team needs to be able to tease apart each of these pillars and use them to run campaigns that will hit different target audiences, so you want to give them options. For example, at AcmeCloud, our first pillar was, ‘Everyone is adopting digital transformation, so you need to think about moving to the cloud.’ Great, but maybe they're already in the cloud. For those customers, we zoom in on the fact that we’re faster or cheaper than their current cloud solutions. That’s just one example of why it’s important to have different messaging pillars to hit a broader audience. ## **Routes to market** How are you going to reach your target audience? Now you’ve figured out our messaging, let’s dig into where you’re going to share it. You’ll need to make a lot of important decisions here: 1. **Direct vs indirect:** Do you want to go after direct sales, or will you be selling indirectly, through a reseller or distributor? 2. **Push vs pull:** Are you pushing the products through advertising, or are you waiting for people to search for content before you serve up your products? 3. **Horizontal vs vertical:** As I said earlier, your persona cannot cover everyone. Maybe you want to target finance because they’re early adopters. Maybe you want to go after retail because you have data warehousing for retail customers. Maybe you want to go after defense because you're a cybersecurity product. Your channel mix will depend on the horizontals or verticals you’re focusing on. 4. **B2B vs B2C:** Are you selling directly to your users through, for example, Facebook or Instagram, or are you selling to enterprises that service other users? ## **Our multifaceted GTM** At AcmeCloud, we took a multifaceted approach to our GTM plan. We started with a direct sales team, which consisted of field sales and inside sales, as well as some more specialized folks. Next, we looked at strategic services. This meant identifying specialized GTM partners for the verticals we were targeting, plus sales and services partners. For example, as a cybersecurity firm, we went after legal firms because they get a lot of questions from their customers about how to make sure they were secure. Those legal partners would then recommend AcmeCloud. We also mapped out our global channels, giving us the reach we needed to scale and go after different geographies. These included cloud marketplace, global system integrators, and regional value-added resellers. We had to make sure that when these resellers are selling our products, they're bundling them as solutions – that increases customer stickiness. [![Slide that reads AcmeCloud Multifaceticed GTM. Underneath this title is five sections that gradually get taller. It reads, from shortest to tallest, as: 1. direct sales team - field sales, inside sales, and specialist. 2. Strategic services - specialised partners, vertical GTM partners, sales and services partners. 3. Global channel - cloud marketplaces, solution provides, global SIs, and regional VARs. 4. Strategic partnerships - technology partners, integration partners, MSSP partners and OEM partners. 5. Self-service - digital lead-gen, free trial/freemium, in-app trials (PLG) and market place\store. ](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/g86fv8mdU7HRJWWWZXpC7crwdUANG2CAry-50lgBxW2mocuGoYxCOAbu5YTYUY4mWYdq0KVSxfjyH_JoaIe_l2cSdHFczePuVNHA7EAleZdSxlOHQ0GNstDmTlJxiA1lpEno4aHVeszTKJtPKBa2v_w)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/accelerating-your-routes-to-market-with-optimized-gtm-alignment) **Image courtesy of Janani Nagarajan at CrowdStrike* Next, we built strategic partnerships. We secured technology partners, integration partners, MSSP partners, and OEM partners. These partners bundle up solutions and sell them as a whole. Last but not least, we leveraged product-led growth through self-service options and free trials. Your sellers can’t be on the go 24/7, but you always want customers to be able to discover your products. Free trials are a great way to make this happen. You also want to make sure you have freemium offers to get people hooked. ## **Communication plan** How will your customers hear about this? As you plan your channel mix, you want to think about where you are in terms of your product adoption lifecycle. Are you marketing to the innovators or the laggards? You want to create your marketing mix based on that lifecycle and all the homework you’ve already done on your personas. You also want to think about which part of the funnel you’re targeting. Are you building market awareness and brand reputation at the top of the funnel, are you aiming to secure more leads further down the funnel, or are you trying to get more conversions through demos and hands-on technical collateral for your customers at the bottom of the funnel? [![Slide that says "AcmeCloud Marketing Strategy" - Campaigns with clear, differentiated positioning and messages. Underneath this - there are four rows which read - reputation - build awareness and shape peception, interest, and urgency around becoming the leader in the space. Use advertising, PR, AR, IR, Awards, Websites, Social Media, Events, Blogs, Exec Comms, and SEO/SEM. The next row reads - Demand - execute distinctive marketing programs that drive demand for product and services and fuel market share gains using webinars, website, events, content syndication, executive briefing, and paid/organic search. Exgagement - design and deploy programs that measure, advance, and promote customer satisfaction to accelerate new logo wins and improve renewal rates using custome revents, executive briefings, renewals, online communities, and case studies/testimonials. Enablement - Develop and deliver timely educational content that clearly communicates competitive differentiation to improve sales effectiveness using competitive marketing, product/solutions marketing, channel marketing, and video and demos. ](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/bZjx6Dz7rRy51_wRdmI_YHyR1dyQFspJOMmQTw-zPLkzOAdqCVufNqwpKvyoml2j2t8IySEDCTLaiMC9uhbM_6fsEnUEwTv2sYWK3aByFxFbj4DF-fQglGlJMLjERBuGoh8F5FWjKQzkPTR-vsb2jU0)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/accelerating-your-routes-to-market-with-optimized-gtm-alignment) **Image courtesy of Janani Nagarajan at CrowdStrike* At AcmeCloud, we used a simple framework from SiriusDecisions which spans the entire funnel. At the top of the funnel, we looked at AR, PR, and executive comms, ensuring that leaders would socialize our message. We also looked at demand gen activities like webinars, content syndication, and events, and then we made sure we solicited customers for testimonials, case studies, and all that good stuff. ## **Pricing strategy** What’s the best pricing model for your product? Now let's move on to our pricing strategy – my favorite topic. It’s really hard to get good pricing. Sometimes you’re just putting your finger to the wind and seeing what happens. With SaaS products, there are multiple pricing options. You can go freemium and give customers the product for free for 15 days before the billing kicks in. You could offer a flat rate and bill your customers the same amount each month no matter how much they consume. Or, you could go for a consumption-based model, so customers only pay for what they consume. Alternatively, maybe a tiered pricing model would work best. You’ll also want to think about the product introduction phase. You could give out promo codes and discounts while you’re getting your product off the ground. Credits are an option too. For example, the more instances you run with Amazon, the more credits they give you back. At AcmeCloud, we started with direct sales pricing – a very simple subscription-based yearly pricing model. If the customer buys 1000 units, we charge for 1000 units. Defining the unit is critical when you're building your pricing strategy. You want to make sure that you have the right quantities in the right tiers for your customers. Next, we created a discount strategy. We had to look into how we could give discounts without giving up our margins. After that, we created channel-based pricing. **Remember:** every region has different channels, and they have different pricing structures, so you need to make sure you give discounts that are applicable to your channel. We also built tiers within the channels. Better partners get better discounts, and that’s an incentive for them to climb the ladder. Finally, we also have our self-serve model. Customers can download our product through Google Play or the App Store, which offers pricing mechanisms with free trials and self-serve pricing. ## **Operational readiness** How will you communicate with your stakeholders? The final thing that I've always seen as very difficult is operational readiness. How do you make sure that all your stakeholders are educated on what's coming? If you have new people coming in and being onboarded, how do you make sure they're aligned and enabled? All too often, you can find yourself running a launch event, only for a seller to turn around and ask what the product is because they’ve never heard of it. You need to make sure everyone is kept in the loop when you're bringing in new products. Let’s look at a process for that. ### **Step one: Identify stakeholders and resources** First, you want to make sure that you identify all the resources you need to launch the product. Whether you call it a tiger team, a scrum, or a war room, you want to get everybody in the same room or on the same Zoom and tell them what is happening. While you’re there, identify who the owners are. You want representation from sales, support legal, and finance. You want to make sure your product management and marketing functions are along for the ride as well. ### **Step two: Develop your GTM plan** Then you come up with a GTM development plan, making sure that you cover all your bases from the personas and market research, all the way down to launch plans and pre-briefing your media and analyst relations. ### **Step three: Align your business processes** The next thing you want to do is process alignment. A problem I’ve seen come up a lot is products being launched without being added to the CRM, which means the sales folks can’t give quotes on it. Whether product marketing or someone else owns that process, make sure you can cross it off your list. I always make sure that I tell my sellers when a new product is coming and I tell my sales ops folks so they can add it to Salesforce. Likewise, you also want to make sure that any marketplaces that list your products are updated. At one point we had launched so many products and we then found out they weren’t in our cloud marketplace listings on Amazon and Azure. Guess what? I own that now. I have to make sure that those marketplaces are up to date, the pricing is matched, the taxes are confirmed, and the terms and conditions are also taken care of. Be careful what you wish for, I guess. ### **Step four: Update your internal communication channels** The next thing to think about is which internal communication channels to use. Whether you use Slack, email, Zoom recordings, or Confluence, make sure it's up to date and everything is in one place. Your sales team is probably using an LMS, and you want to make sure that you update that as well. ### **Step five: Ongoing reporting** Once you're done with the launch, then come the metrics. How will you measure success? Are you hoping to see more people signing up for your webinars? Do you want to see a bump in revenue? This is where ongoing reporting comes into play. ## **Metrics** What does success look like? What success looks like is going to vary from company to company and department to department. For the sales team, let’s say you decide to focus on revenue – you're not going to hit your revenue targets on day one, especially if it's a new product, so you might also want to look at the number of people asking for proof of concepts (POCs) and the rate at which they convert into sales. You need visibility on where people start falling off. For that, you need metrics at every single stage. Your marketing metrics might focus on the pipeline. We do a very aggressive pipeline roll-up by region, and I’d recommend you do the same. You also want to tread carefully with your MQLs. We did an event in New York during the heatwave; they opened the doors, and we got around 8000 leads. Excellent, right? Not really. Most of them were just people coming in off the streets to escape the heat. Make sure your leads are qualified and check how they convert into sales. [![A slide that reads AcmeCloud Success Metrics. Then underneath is four sections which read: 1. Marketing metrics - qualified new pipeline, net new leads, qualified opportunities, share of voice, SEO ranking and campaign performance. 2. Sales metrics - saas subscription ARR, net new ACV, number of customers, customer retention, and customer expansion. 3. Alliances metrics - channel growth, cost of channel acquisition, partner sourced, partner influenced, and program revenue. 4. Product metrics - product attributed revenue, customer engagement, trials taken/converted. ](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/6tCw6ZNRu6jltMhw1kox4VZ2nIyMgS-nURUU6yBEnZNxb7YDkhdEVGZ86CnlHYCx0eqtczdPxxZegnG2VWjiUJT7auxD9hiGoy4lISkaTht8z3kEhuH9SKRB3jHhKEbI9v70lbOkRzZjN8sTjLEOuA8)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/accelerating-your-routes-to-market-with-optimized-gtm-alignment) **Image courtesy of Janani Nagarajan at CrowdStrike* At AcmeCloud, we had multiple metrics. For marketing, we focused on share of voice, doing press releases, and paid media to make sure we got it. We’re in a crowded market, so we tracked search rankings too. And then we looked at campaign performance – in other words, how many people registered and showed up for events, and how many clicked through the emails we sent. For sales, we focused on annual recurring revenue, annual contract value, total contract value, net new customers, and things like that. We also tracked channel metrics. They have access to all of our content and products, so we want to make sure that they follow up with metrics as well. What is the growth of the channel? How many channel partners were onboarded? How many partners were sourced? Finally, we can’t forget the product metrics. We track the lifetime value of new customers, as well as how many people take trials, how many people convert to the paid plan, and the feature retention rate. We always track how many people in 1000 are using each feature and where we see the propensity to convert into a cross-sell too. ## **Key takeaways** 🚀 GTM alignment is critical for your product launch. Keep reminding yourself of the six questions: who, what, how, why, when, and where. 🖼️ Make sure you adopt some kind of framework to make your GTM consistent and scalable. This will really help you as you scale your company and bring new people on board across your cross-functional teams. 📈 Finally, you want to make sure you have the right metrics and keep calculating at each stage how these metrics are performing. When you do all this, you’ll be able to get the right product to the right audience at the right time through the right channel. ### SaaScast: Cut over-reliance on investors and become remarkable URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-cut-overreliance-on-investors/ Last updated: 2023-04-27T16:34:34.000Z As a SaaS veteran, Ton Dobbe has seen what happens when SaaS companies spend too much time chasing after investor funding and not enough time solving a legitimate customer problem. In this rigorous discussion, we dig deep into how fledgling SaaS companies can be self-sufficient and generate growth from the value of the product.👇 [‎SaaScast: Cut over-reliance on investors and become remarkable on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep Cut over-reliance on investors and become remarkable - 27 Apr 2023![](https://t1.gstatic.com/faviconV2?client=SOCIAL&type=FAVICON&fallback_opts=TYPE,SIZE,URL&url=https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/cut-over-reliance-on-investors-and-become-remarkable/id1544750249?i=1000610900590&size=128)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts114/v4/b5/9a/da/b59ada82-7e01-599f-d06e-a6be4ee9c157/mza_8981349833046552751.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/cut-over-reliance-on-investors-and-become-remarkable/id1544750249?i=1000610900590) In this episode, Ton not only delves into how to become self-sufficient as a SaaS startup but also describes the value in creating a truly remarkable product, with key talking points including: - How to distinguish yourself in the market - How to create repeatable traction - How to create a strong value proposition ## A bit about Ton With over 30 years experience as both a strategist and marketer in the tech industry, Ton Dobbe is a valued authority and advisor in the SaaS space. His latest book, The Remarkable Effect, explores the qualities that SaaS companies should strive for when trying to launch a successful SaaS product to market. ## Join the conversation Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Writer, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here:[ anthony@futureofsaas.io](anthony@futureofsaas.io). ### SaaS Metrics Summit | Virtual | June 7, 2023 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics-summit-virtual-june-7-2023/ Last updated: 2024-01-18T08:29:17.000Z 🗓 **Date:** June 7, 2023 📍**Venue:** Virtual ### **What is SaaS Metrics Summit? 🤔** We’re putting the brightest minds in the SaaS world into one virtual room to share their success stories, best practices, and greatest challenges. Harness the power of virtual events from the comfort of your own home, form genuine connections, and gain valuable insights to elevate both your professional development and your organization’s growth. With curated discussion panels and actionable keynotes, return with a fresh perspective and new ideas. [👉 GRAB YOUR TICKET👈](https://saasmetrics2023.futureofsaas.io/checkout/select-tickets/) --- ### Speakers Highlights. 🧠 Brett is an entrepreneur, angel investor, pragmatist, and optimist with extensive experience in the startup world. He is currently the Managing Partner of Charge Ventures, a small seed-stage venture fund based in New York City. Shikha is an experienced marketing leader who is passionate about creating effective strategies for market growth and brand awareness. Her expertise includes account-based marketing, account-based experience, and demand generation, and she believes in a collaborative, one-team approach to driving revenue. Minna is a passionate customer advocate and lifelong learner with over 12 years of leadership experience in various companies. She has worked as an expat for over 8 years and has travelled to more than 65 countries. [👉 FULL SPEAKER LIST👈](https://saasmetrics2023.futureofsaas.io/speakers/) --- ### Agenda Highlights. 🔥 🧠 Optimize your pricing model in a way that maximizes revenue and profitability. 🧠 Improve your customer acquisition strategy to drive more leads and sales. 🧠 Increase customer retention to fuel long-term success. 🧠 Measure and analyze key metrics, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your business. 🧠 Develop a competitive edge by learning about the latest trends and technologies to skyrocket your success. And much more... [👉 FULL AGENDA 👈](https://saasmetrics2023.futureofsaas.io/schedule/) --- Get in on the action and harness the convenience of virtual events, join the community. [👉 GRAB YOUR TICKET👈](https://saasmetrics2023.futureofsaas.io/checkout/select-tickets/) ### Five best practices for scaling your B2B content marketing engine with AI URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/five-best-practices-for-scaling-your-b2b-content-marketing-engine-with-ai/ Last updated: 2024-10-31T11:07:00.000Z Gartner research indicates the number of enterprises implementing [AI solutions grew 270% from 2015 to 2019,](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-01-21-gartner-survey-shows-37-percent-of-organizations-have) and that number has only continued to skyrocket. (What motivates this growth? —and what should that teach us?) Gartner also predicts that by 2028, AI-driven machines will account for 20% of the global workforce and 40% of all economic productivity. (How can you set up now for the future of your content marketing efforts?) The truth is: AI can help create personalized content, optimize campaigns, and measure results. However, it is important to use AI wisely and follow best practices to ensure success. In this blog post, we will look at five powerful ways to scale your [SaaS and AI](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#8-challenges-for-end-users-and-practitioners) content marketing best practices. [Top SaaS marketing and content toolsA high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) ## **Design an AI content marketing strategy** The first step to maximizing the power of AI is to design an AI content marketing strategy. If you don’t have a strategy, it will be challenging to use this technology to drive results and serve your objectives. Although B2B companies historically have expected a longer sales cycle, recent research shows that customers in 2023 are becoming more accustomed, due to advances in technology, to quicker processes. If you want to stay competitive, you can’t neglect the potential of AI for scalability. The first step is to map out why you are using AI for content marketing—some B2B marketing teams use AI to support their content efforts for faster execution, and others use it as a last resort. So write down the “why" behind your decision to use AI for content marketing and design a system to help you achieve your goal. Whether you're building a [community for your SaaS](https://www.saasalliance.io/6-savvy-tips-for-community-led-saas-growth/) or attracting buyers for your products, you have to define a goal and stick to it. The next step is to create a use case—AI tool fit system. [Interactive content ideas for each stage of the buyer’s journeyMy name is Diego Gomes, I am the CEO and founder of Rock Content, and in this article, I’m going to discuss interactive content ideas for each stage of the buyer journey.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDiego Gomes![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/kal-visuals-RCUncjOfNfc-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/interactive-content-ideas-for-each-stage-of-the-buyers-journey/) Here’s what I mean; If you publish text-based content often, do you have a system to utilize AI’s potency for blog posts and social media text-only posts? For example, if you want to use ChatGPT to foster your content execution, you can use ChatGPT to create tons of headlines that fit your post—this is a process. Remember, some AI tools help you generate content fully while others serve as support, tools like Lex AJ help you ideate faster and fill in your blank docs. So, you should have a specific task for each tool to avoid complexity. For example, the key difference between ChatGPT and Wordtune is the purpose. ChatGPT is designed to generate natural language responses, whereas Wordtune Spices assists writers by providing analogies, facts, and data to support existing ideas. Do you get it? So, it would help if you choose each tool for a specific task at a specific stage of your content process. If you want to publish visual content and carousels, you should create a process and AI tool that fits your approach. For example, the content team at Wordtune use their tool to augment their content writing process and they have a specific compatible task. ![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ivpW--Xo4Pfm6OmWX2RBnZjpQ3euSA3D1muv_lQ9oN8YoHUGd-EXdEdTZGSrt6kzpWoQDkbaEHxkNCTnDw9TJtU1WlSdRrW6v1Y5v-ZvT6ncC1xd4mXdURvP_JHoSVyIU-xeQa0zz_nCytxFyGZA-FY) At the end of their articles, they add the post script above. What does this imply: They've found a way to create a use case—AI tool fit process. ## **Put the human in control** When we hear a technology leverages 175 billion parameters, it’s easy to assume it must have the perfect answer. The opposite is usually the case. AI is best used to assist, not replace, the modern marketer. [Ryan Law](https://www.linkedin.com/in/thinkingslow), the VP of Content at Animalz, laid so much emphasis on this in an article titled [Content Cyborg](https://www.animalz.co/blog/the-content-cyborg/) co-written with Angela Rollins. They said; > “The goal isn't to write everything with AI — the goal is to get great results from our content.“It's a human writer’s job to seed the generated content with information gain, to add real-life examples; customer stories; accurate, trusted, and relevant data; product mentions; CTAs.” They are not the only professionals with this principle. [Karthik Manoharan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/karthik-manoharan-7903b4155), Co-founder, WeCodee explained that: > “His biggest lesson from using AI in marketing is that you can't blindly rely on recommendations from AI tools.” He also said: > “We spent around $10,000 on ad-spend over a period of three months, with $300 for the tool. The result – crickets. Why? Because the channel was inappropriate. Our target customers were C-level executives who won't trust an ad.” So, never be tempted to take everything AI-generated, hook, line, and sinker. Here are some strategies marketers use to stay in control: - Follow a strict content guideline: Unless you use to find a way to use a magic prompt, it's difficult for AI to satisfy your content guideline intent - Check for tone: When AI writes your headline, you don’t want it to sound like a Buzzfeed type of headline. - Get buy-ins from executive members: This is not permission to descend into content by committee approach. Rather, an encouragement to agree to a specific outcome with executive members and stick to the process that helps you achieve such a result. ## **Train writers to use the tool** > “AI in the hands of skilled practitioners—whether writers, photographers, or social media managers—is far more powerful than AI alone," said May Habib, the Founder, and CEO of [Writer](https://writer.com/). While some writers feel the upsurge of AI tools is a downfall for their career, other intentional writers see these tools as an ally that will boost their performance at their workplaces. Here's what Dan Shipper, the CEO of Every, had to say about using AI creatively: ![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/q-eRS_Ny0dXqh7rTH0aQ4P2BcnPByHgu1SHJEnfp2kf5TXU3xiB5wBridwjfEelhHCdGGJCmDAR6I1oOsS0s1zp1mjckw3VrWTCNXfZ50dIrq58uxNj1lAGuvBfg5jO4vzR5_YRo149n09Jao5X_OUg) One lesson from Dan: Go creative with AI or go bland. The key is to encourage your content team to go the extra mile to learn how to use these tools effectively and efficiently. But this is what you must know: The machine is only as good as your input. If you want the best results from AI, train your writers to use it. This way, the AI is trained to generate better results from prompts > “To stay ahead, CIOs need to be creative. [If there is no AI talent available, another possibility is to invest in training programs for employees](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-01-21-gartner-survey-shows-37-percent-of-organizations-have) with backgrounds in statistics and data management. Some organizations also create job shares with ecosystem and business partners,” ## **Use AI to automate the process** Picture these two scenarios: You use an AI content brief builder to churn out briefs for your writers, then you fact check the brief and prune out excesses **vs**. taking many hours to create a solid content brief—more time is taken, content execution slower. However, many content professionals might opt for the latter; while that’s great — I'm not surprised — it’s time-tasking because you have a lot of work to do in other steps of the content publishing process. So, It's better to automate specific minute content processes to scale execution. But this does not mean over-relying on AI to automate all processes; you must fact-check and edit every automated process to ensure that it is void of error and specific. So, I spoke to Teemu Raitaluoto, the founder of [AIContentfy](https://aicontentfy.com/); he told me how he scaled his site to 15k in traffic using AIcontentfy — an AI content generator tool. ![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/yP94yNbQVaXpQ7E-l3Rg0wbvBBEXdQgYN6MWQoODifRB-lQPBLFLS4mKfg2uMhsYawg0FjIGWJA7Z-3cALMV1sZN0DDkE0EckyjY5zASEk2xyTXEkt8jB8Xtfbp3DL96TMZuI5wLq1WJwuHNUbtWaCY) However, he used this tool to create Top of Funnel content — this further buttresses the fact that this technology will not wholly exhaust information on more opinionated and thought leadership content. So what should you do? Use AI to automate minute content processes and publish Top of Funnel content. I'm not the only one that thinks so… Daniel Burstein, Senior Director, Content & Marketing, MarketingSherpa, and MECLABS Institute, also said: “[For more complex, emotional topics, it is much harder for AI to create quality content](https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/chart/artificial-intelligence) that will attract backlinks from truly authoritative websites." I couldn't agree more with his point. You should seek an adept, advanced writer who either knows your industry well or has a track record of learning about an industry quickly and creating value. ## **Draw out a compliance routine and be ethical** [The recent U.S. blueprint aims to protect society from harmful AI, ](https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/what-it-takes-to-make-ai-safe-and-effective)reminding all developers and users of AI models that they need to build safeguards into their AI models and strategies. Organizations that don’t manage AI risk are much more likely to experience negative AI outcomes. Models won’t perform as intended, and there will be security and privacy failures, financial and reputational loss, and individual harm. AI that is carried out wrongly can also cause organizations to make poor business decisions. But that's not all. You must be ethical about the use of AI. Imagine this; you are the head of content or content manager. How would you feel when you find out that some of your team’s content has been scrapped and plagiarized on other websites? [How to leverage blog content to generate leadsBlogging is more than just sharing company news, events, or updates with your users. When it’s done properly, it can elevate you to thought-leader status and establish your service as the authority in your industry.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/daniel-thomas-6_NXEMZbUq0-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-leverage-blog-content-to-generate-leads/) [Daniel Burstein](http://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/about/#daniel-burstein-bio), Senior Director, Content & Marketing, MarketingSherpa, explained that; While ripping off others is certainly nothing new, technology can magnify the problem. As a writer myself, I’ve often seen my articles stolen. While content scraping is frustrating enough, black-hat AI-written content is even more infuriating because they mangle your writing. I’ve stumbled across my writing butchered on LinkedIn by AI mixing it with other articles. I’ve even had poorly AI-spun descriptions of the How I Made It In Marketing podcast emailed back to me in pitches. ## **“AI is a robot perched on your shoulder….”** “AI is a robot perched on your shoulder. AI is not the creator at the keyboard", said Ann Handley, author of Everybody Writes. “Will AI improve my content marketing practices?" Yes, it will, but you must intentionally execute the points in this post. You can stand out in your industry and create content that accomplishes a goal without cutting corners—copying and pasting or scrapping other content. It's possible. Remember, you are the boss! Control AI and maximize to the fullest. --- Like what you see? Why not sign up to a FoSaaS membership plan and get access to exclusive insights from the leading minds in SaaS. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Seven ways that ChatGPT is going to transform your SaaS business URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/seven-ways-that-chatgpt-is-going-to-transform-your-saas-business/ Last updated: 2024-10-31T11:07:51.000Z Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, you’ll know that the intersection of [SaaS and AI](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#8-challenges-for-end-users-and-practitioners) is all the rage right now. It has been changing how SaaS businesses scale, address customer concerns, analyze data, and build products for several years now. But recently, one piece of software has been getting more attention than any other: ChatGPT. The success of ChatGPT is a testament to how far natural language processing (NLP) has come in recent years. Long gone are the days when AI technology could be denounced as inauthentic and robotic. Its ability to not only mimic human communication patterns but also demonstrate a human level of creativity with language (even going as far as to be able to write songs and sonnets!) has opened up a world of possibilities for SaaS companies looking to scale efficiently and sustainably. Getting ChatGPT to write a sonnet about your favorite pizza topping is fun, sure, but Chat is a vital tool in your arsenal that helps to shape numerous aspects of your business. Let’s dig deeper into each aspect of that in this article. A breakdown of our agenda: - Customer service inquiries - Metrics and data analysis - Content creation - Sales enablement - Language translation - Coding language - Writing emails for prospects and existing customers ## Customer service inquiries We all know the importance of creating loyal champions from your existing customers. A crucial reason for early customer churn is not being able to find the immediate value in your product. A top reason why SaaS companies fail: your product doesn’t solve a tangible problem. But responding to fundamental early customer concerns is costly and time-consuming. Luckily, this software can quite handily assist customers by formulating informative, helpful responses to simple customer concerns. [How to convert your prospects before they reach your siteThe goal of every demand gen marketer has always been to increase demos, accelerate sales funnels, and connect with potential customers faster and easier. So what if you could access an entirely new and untapped channel rich in high intent leads ready to convert?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSThe Bot Lab![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/sales-leads.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-convert-your-prospects-before-they-reach-your-site/) When it comes to more subjective information, it’s going to struggle a bit, but when it comes to queries with a concrete answer – which will make up the bulk of your customer questions, ChatGPT can enable you to respond quickly and efficiently. For example: Where do I go to find X? How do I use this feature? How do I use X? There are two major benefits here: Customers who could be so easily lost over a very easily addressable concern are saved from churning, and the mental bandwidth of your customer success team is freed up to deal with the more complex problems that your long-standing customers are facing. In our view, this is the future of AI and human relations: AI automates so that humans can innovate. ## Metric and data analysis Businesses usually have teams of analysts who go through loads of data, put it all together, and make useful KPI metrics and reports for the boss. ChatGPT makes this process much easier by going through tons of data (from different systems!) and turning it into reports or summaries that the boss wants to read. The best part is that ChatGPT can do this faster than most human workers and potentially with far greater accuracy. Although AI may still be far behind human beings in terms of creativity, this software far outstrips us in its ability to pinpoint, collate and analyze data efficiently. Think of the time and resources that could be devoted to actually reaching your targets when you no longer have to spend time just establishing what your targets are. And imagine your peace of mind knowing this task is invulnerable to human error. Let’s stop spending so much time tracking and measuring, and let’s actually hit those targets! ## Content creation Any SaaS company looking to achieve global visibility should engage customers and prospects through various channels, including social media and email. Through its ability to craft human-sounding copy, ChatGPT can assist your messaging in numerous ways, whether that’s through rustling up a catchy topic hook, shooting out a direct and purposeful CTA, or by perfectly emulating your company's tone of voice to help consolidate your brand consistency. Struggling with writer's block? ChatGPT can quickly scour the web to generate useful topic ideas to get those creative juices flowing. [Top SaaS marketing and content toolsA high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) It should be noted, however, that because ChatGPT scans the internet for much of its information, simply copying and pasting whatever this tool provides you with can leave you very vulnerable to plagiarism. Instead, content creators should use what ChatGPT produces as a kind of template from which they can craft highly personalized, creative content. This is not nothing. All content creators will know the frustration of languishing in the planning and ideation phase, unable to actually get off the starting block and start creating content. Well, ChatGPT can allow you to start creating more content faster, dramatically increasing your chances at lead generation. The more you create, the more you put out there, and the better your chances at gaining new customers and retaining old ones. ## Sales enablement How much time do SaaS companies spend trying to train their sales team to sell effectively? Training is costly and uses up a lot of your resources. ChatGPT can set up realistic training scenarios in which reps are presented with scenarios they’re likely to encounter in their job. This can allow reps to make mistakes and refine their craft in a safe environment so that by the time they’re in a customer-facing position, reps have upskilled considerably. [How To Make Salespeople Care | Future of SaaSI’m going to give you some areas that you can focus on to either help your team roll out a plan, that you should be focused on when implementing a training or going into some sort of presentation.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.59.31.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/salespeople-dont-give-a-sh-t/) Reps have access to cheap, quick training and orgs to save money and time on training. But let’s dig deeper into this benefit from an expert. Our sister community, Sales Enablement Collective, hosted their [New York Summit ](https://www.salesenablementcollective.com/cooking-with-chatgpt/)recently, where Thomas Cheriyan, Director of Revenue Enablement at Rattle, went in-depth on the benefit of ChatGPT for sales coaching. Here’s the input prompt that Thomas used. > “I am an enterprise sales rep at Salesforce trying to sell their core CRM platform. You are the CFO of Delta Airlines. You're currently using a CRM solution from Oracle. I will cold call you and try to convince you why you should take a discovery or demo meeting with me. You should be as hot as possible and essentially be uninterested in learning more about Salesforce and try to give as many objections as possible. Are you ready to go?” It should be noted that this is not a substitute for traditional training, but it can allow your reps to supplement their training and train continuously over time. [How AI can help your SaaS company to scale and achieve retentionWith qualitative and quantitative insights from the leading minds in SaaS, this article showcases how AI can scale your SaaS org at pace today.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/AI.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-ai-can-help-your-saas-company-to-scale/) ## Language translation Want to expand your customer base? Something as simple as language barriers can be a real stumbling block. Thanks to globalization and the internet, companies can now reach people worldwide. If you're trying to expand into new areas, it can take ages to translate all your websites, labels, manuals, and other marketing content into the local lingo. That's where ChatGPT comes in - it can translate everything for you in no time flat! And the best part? It's super accurate and can translate naturally so that SaaS professionals can engage customers on a personal level. ## Coding language A massive headache for SaaS professionals is being constantly shackled to the time it takes for developers to write the code for their software, but ChatGPT can enable developers to write code faster and also translate from one coding language to another. It can also allow devs to highlight bugs in coding and recommend potential fixes for coding. Additionally, you can input incomplete code into ChatGPT, and it can finish it for you. ## Writing emails for prospects and existing customers ChatGPT can craft a catchy, personalized email for prospects. By simply inputting your product use case, its value proposition, and your ideal customer profile, ChatGPT can reel off a persuasive email designed to engage customers and call them to action. [How is email marketing important to improving customer retention?Despite the rising competition from social media, email marketing continues to be one of the most effective tools for B2B marketing. It’s great for product awareness and generating new leads, but also for boosting customer retention.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/brett-jordan-LPZy4da9aRo-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-is-email-marketing-important-to-improving-customer-retention/) It can also analyze information you provide on a customer to tailor your messaging to the needs of your target customer. As with content, the key advantage is the potential to turn out a higher volume of emails, maximizing your chances of achieving conversions and keeping your customers engaged. ## The future of ChatGPT and SaaS Like any software in your tech stack, ChatGPT is a tool to augment human innovation. The difference between this tool and others is the sheer scope of our benefits. From Sales, marketing, data analysis, customer success, and content creation, there isn’t really an aspect of your SaaS business that ChatGPT can’t touch. The hype is real, and one thing’s for sure, SaaS companies that fail to take advantage of this tool are in danger of falling behind. SaaS companies that succeed can spread resources and funds efficiently and sustainably. This is the unique gift that ChatGPT can offer you. Don’t fall behind the curve. --- *Like what you see? Why not gain exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership plan?* 👇 [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Aligning sales with post-sales to drive customer lifetime value URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/aligning-sales-with-post-sales-to-drive-customer-lifetime-value/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:58:59.000Z *At the time when this discussion took place, Nieves Canada was Global VP of Customer Success at iText PDF. She is now VP of Customer Success at SettleMint.* It’s an all-too-common complaint among customer success leaders that while they’re trying desperately to drive retention, their sales counterparts have a single-minded focus on short-term wins. If that sounds familiar, fear not! **Minna Vaisanen** and **Nieves Canada** are here to unpack how you can build alignment between sales and post-sales customer success teams to drive customer lifetime value (LTV). Nieves has been working in tech companies for over 16 years, and she’s currently the **Global VP of Customer Success** at **iText PDF**, a global leader in PDF software, where she’s building and scaling the customer success team. Minna is **Head of Customer Success** at **Growth Engineering Ltd**, a learning tech company that delivers value through learning outcomes for its customers. Like Nieves, she’s a tech company veteran, having spent 10-plus years in customer success and change management. Between them, they’ve got a wealth of hard-won insights to share. Let’s dive in, shall we? ## **The three keys to alignment between sales and post-sales teams** **Nieves Canada:** Today, we’re going to be talking about driving customer lifetime value – in other words, the entire value generated from the moment a customer signs up for your solution to the moment they leave. That includes their first purchase, renewals, upsells, cross-sells, and, of course, the value of their referrals. But before we jump in, let's start with a general overview of how customer success teams can drive lifetime value through alignment with their sales counterparts. Minna, what’s your view on this? **Minna Vaisanen:** This is a topic that comes up a lot because it’s very common to have differences of opinion on what drives lifetime value. So how do you achieve alignment on this between sales and customer success? I’d concentrate on these three areas: 1. **Goals and OKRs**: Both teams need to have the same aim in their sights. 2. **Customer strategy**: Who is your customer? You want both teams to have the same profile in mind. 3. **Tools and processes**: These are essential for building a seamless customer experience. What about you Nieves? How would you start thinking about this topic? **Nieves Canada:** I think *we’re* pretty aligned on these three main areas. I think we also need to keep in mind that driving LTV through alignment is not only the teams’ responsibility; it starts with the leadership. When it comes to goals and OKRs, if sales is only measured on bringing in short-term revenue, we're not facilitating an interest in a long-term vision for the customer. When it comes to the customer strategy you were referring to, customer segments can be gathered in the field, but it's also up to leadership to set the direction and guide the customer-facing teams. And of course, to your third point on tools and processes, **we need to have integrated tools that allow both teams to communicate**. That will not only facilitate collaboration but also make the teams more agile. Streamlining the processes between the buyer journey and the customer journey has a direct and positive impact on the customer experience, setting up the customer for success and moving them faster towards expansion. ## **How to drive customer lifetime value in your CS organization** **Minna Vaisanen:** How do you go about driving lifetime value in your CS organization? **Nieves Canada:** Something we’ve done that has had a very direct impact is having sales and customer success reporting to the same leader. This person owns the total revenue – not only new sales and upsells, but also churn. Plus, they see customer success as a growth center, not a cost center. In our case, reporting to the CRO has helped to facilitate a strong relationship between the sales leader and the customer success leader. It’s also important to note that when we think about LTV, we tend to focus on post-sales journeys – everything that happens after the sale. However, in reality, the success of the customer starts with the first sale. It starts with how the customer feels and the expectations that are set during that sales process. With that in mind, we're driving LTV by incentivizing customer-centric behaviors in the sales team through their compensation. That can be achieved in several ways. In the past, I've worked in a model where sales were responsible for the first-year renewal, and if this didn't happen, their commission was taken back. You might also want to incentivize your sales team not only on the total revenue they bring (which generally results in them focusing only on the biggest opportunities) but on developing long-term deals and having quotas for upsell and cross-sell revenue. Another important point is your data. When you can track churn, you can address its causes early on. Perhaps customers in a certain segment, using a certain product, or in a certain region are churning, so you need to figure out what you should do differently to impact LTV. For instance, thanks to our data, we saw that for one product, customers were churning because they needed more hand-holding during onboarding; in fact, that hand-holding needed to start during the closing conversations. Another change we’ve brought in to drive LTV is sitting down with the customer early in our partnership and mapping out exactly where they’re heading with our solution. We’re also closing three-year deals and defining how the customer goals will change down the road. We can use the customer milestones we set out in our plan as sales interactions, saying to the customer, “Hey, you're not ready for this yet, but once you reach this milestone, we can set you up with sales to check through how this functionality will support your next milestone.” This sets expectations for customers and internal teams around long-term growth. Another super-important thing that we've seen helping LTV is customer feedback – in our case through NPS. That has not only helped us to identify areas where we can do better, but it has also helped us to identify customer advocates and gather referrals that we can bring back to our sales team. What are your thoughts? **Minna Vaisanen:** We're really aligned again! I was going to highlight a lot of the same things you mentioned, particularly the alignment between the goals, and sales not just being targeted on short-term goals but on retention. If we really think about where long-term value comes from, it’s net revenue retention (NRR). It’s the ability to satisfy the customer so that they find the value, they want to renew, and they want to grow with us. That can’t happen if you only have short-term sales in mind. Like you, we’ve got three-year deals because our product is quite complex and implementation takes a lot of effort. That means our sales discussions need to be based on value rather than features. We can't just look at all the things the product does; we need to talk about the value it’s going to deliver for the customer because it’s going to take some effort to get it going. This comes back to one of the three pillars I mentioned earlier: aligning on goals and OKRs. Whether CS and sales are under the same leadership or not, they need to align their goals and there should be a retention goal across the organization. The most successful companies are the ones with the highest net retention rates. Companies that do 120% or more in net retention are the ones that are growing the most. That means the whole organization needs to be aligned around retention – starting with sales and post-sales. Turning to our customer strategy pillar, both departments need to align on the right customers to look at. They can do that by understanding who's a successful customer in your organization and, therefore, who you should continue to sell to. You should almost qualify out, then qualify in. Thirdly, both teams need to find alignment around the delivery of value, making it frictionless to deliver what you sold. That comes back to what you mentioned, Nieves, about using your internal tools and data to see who the customer is and making sure you communicate that across the organization. ## **Best practices for building and defining processes** **Nieves Canada:** Earlier on, you mentioned aligning processes to drive LTV. Can you share some best practices around that? **Minna Vaisanen:** Funnily enough, my sales leader and I have just finished building a new process for handovers between sales and post-sales. Our sales processes generally take between six and 12 months, and we’d spend all that time talking to the customer only for the conversation to go dead as soon as the account was handed over to the next team. That's how we knew we needed to create a solid process that would build more continuity for customers. We’ve started this new process with a document that aligns both teams by asking the following questions: - **What kind of problems is the customer trying to solve?** To understand where value is generated for the customer, we need to understand their use case, how they’re going to implement it in their organization, and which teams will be involved. - **Why our company and why now?** We want to know what it is that makes us unique in their eyes because that will impact how they measure success. Also, we want to know if and why this is a critical time for them; that’s going to help us agree on a project plan, outcomes, and milestones, and again, that crucial value aspect. - **How will the customers measure success?** This is my favorite question. Not how will we measure success for them, but how will they determine the value they’ve received? And then obviously you can't leave out the nitty gritty: - **Who's involved?** - **What are they paying for?** - **What has been agreed to?** All of this goes into a living document in the account plan so that you can always refer back to it with the customer. That was a lot of detail, but this topic is quite close to my heart! Nieves, do you have any examples of process-building from your organization? **Nieves Canada:** That process sounds great and it's a must-have for every organization. To add to that, we’ve also put in place knowledge-sharing sessions. Sharing information between sales and CS is helping both teams a lot. We’ve created these sessions based on the size of the customer, industry, and even region. Because we work in the US, EMEA, and APAC, we see a lot of local specifics. During the sales cycle, the customer shares information that is useful not only to ensure that the customer is successful but also to map out the account for expansion opportunities later on. The sales team shares the customer intel they gather during the sales cycle, and that’s used by the CS team to grow the customer over time. On the side of the coin, the customer knowledge that's gathered through customer success interactions can help our sales teams to target customers that are a better fit. We also have both teams working on upsell, so to boost collaboration between the teams, we've created an upsell methodology to give guidance on how that internal process happens. That aligns the teams and also provides a very smooth customer experience, which is, in the end, what we’re all looking for. ## **How to identify and align around your best-fit customers** **Minna Vaisanen:** How do you determine who's the best-fit customer for your organization, and how do you align that between your sales and leadership teams? **Nieves Canada:** The first step is to look at your data to identify some trends. Which personas, industries, and segments have the most successful customers? We then need to complement this with a strong partnership between sales and customer success. The customer success team will track the customers that are achieving high success and provide that information to the sales team so that they can better target new prospects that fit that ideal customer profile (ICP). It's also very valuable for both teams in the long run when customer success identifies the bad-fit indicators of existing customers. They might include companies that are too small or too large for the business we're doing today, or customers whose interests lie in one specific functionality and feel underserved. With this information, sales can better direct their outreach and bring on new customers that have a higher potential for success and loyalty. As you can see, this is not a fixed exercise. As the company grows and our products evolve, certain customers and industries will become better fits than they were initially. What do you think? **Minna Vaisanen:** I agree that it’s about understanding who's a successful customer at this current time. As you said, as your product, team, or company evolves, your ICP might change completely. Are you selling to enterprises more than medium-sized businesses? Who’s the buyer that you typically need to target? Understanding all that is crucial. It’s also important to understand your positioning against your competitors and why you would be a better fit for certain customers than others. That goes back to the question of why they bought your product and for what use case. You need data too on who's signing the deals and why. That feeds into your ideal customer profile because if you can tease that out early in the sales process, you're not spending time talking to people who ultimately aren't going to convert. It’s also going to help you with more successful implementation because you won’t be struggling to make your product work for a customer who’s not a good fit for your product. Coming back to what you said about upsells earlier, I think it's good to establish alignment between the sales and the CS leadership teams on which model you're going for, and again, this can change over time. If you're a new product, you might want to go for the land-and-expand model to get your foot in the door with different companies, then get more market share once you've proven your success. Or maybe your product is something like procurement software, which doesn't work so well with land-and-expand, and you need to implement it fully from the get-go. Whatever your sales model is, you need to agree on that within the company. That also means aligning on how you’re going to do upsells and cross-sells if that is your model. You need to review this regularly along with your ICP and look at how it’s going to change as your product roadmap develops. It all comes back to organizational alignment on who you're going after and how you can best serve those customers. ## **Top takeaways** **Nieves Canada:** We've touched on a lot of hot topics today, topics that we could develop for hours, but unfortunately, we have to draw this article to a close. Before we do though, it would be great to have your top takeaways from everything we've touched on today. **Minna Vaisanen:** It's hard to boil everything down, but I think I’ll refer back to my first answer about the three pillars. If you can **align the sales and post-sales teams around goals, customer profiles, and processes**, and consciously work to continuously improve those, it will be easier to deliver the right outcomes for your customers, drive the right value, and subsequently drive their lifetime value. What about you, Nieves? What would you leave our readers with? **Nieves Canada:** A couple of days back, I read a study from McKinsey that found that optimizing the customer experience typically results in revenue growth of five to ten percent in just two to three years. In other words, there is a direct correlation between a better customer experience and an increase in customer lifetime value. As we discussed, aligning teams along the customer journey is critical to provide that customer experience. In line with that, my takeaway – especially for people in leadership roles – is to make sure that you enable your teams and align everyone's interests along the journey. When you’re aligning both teams around the customer, you’re supporting long-term growth. ### Boosting your business with customer advocacy: Insights from a customer operations leader URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/boosting-your-business-with-customer-advocacy-insights-from-a-customer-operations-leader/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:35:45.000Z *This article is based on Ryan’s appearance on SaaScast. Check out the full unedited conversation [here.](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-turning-customers-into-advocates/)* In a world where customer success is constantly evolving, one thing will never change: the power of customer advocacy. But what exactly does that mean? Don't worry, I've got you covered. In this article, I'll explain everything you need to know about harnessing the power of your customers' voices. Here’s how I’ll break it down: - ****Why customer advocacy is so important** - ****How to generate advocacy** - ****How to create an authentic culture of customer-centricity** - ****Qualities to look for in a customer success professional** - ****Final thoughts** Firstly, a little bit about me, I’m the Chief Operation Officer at THRIVE, one of the fastest-growing learning technologies companies, offering learning solutions to boost businesses' growth. At THRIVE, I specialize in building and running customer operations teams, including customer success, implementation, and support. I’ve been working in customer success for over 10 years across numerous industries, from conglomerates to startups and I’m truly passionate about creating an exceptional customer experience that drives advocacy and loyalty. In this article, I’ll be sharing my insights on how customer advocacy can aid SaaS companies in their current growth efforts. Using my experience in my current role, I'll explain how customer advocacy became core to our business and how we’ve been able to foster a culture of customer-centricity throughout the entire organization. ## Why customer advocacy is so important What really is customer advocacy? In plain terms, it means having customers who are loyal to your brand and are willing to speak positively about it to others, **unprompted and unpaid.** These customers are not just satisfied with your product or service, but they actively promote it to others. They can help you acquire new customers, retain existing ones, and drive revenue growth. In fact, research shows that high levels of customer advocacy lead to higher growth in ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) and other key metrics. So, how do you create a landscape for customer advocacy? The two biggest things you need to get right are **technology and investment**. [SaaScast: Turning customers into advocatesSo, you have really loyal customers? That’s great. But are you making those testimonials sing for your SaaS business? In other words, are you turning your customers into fierce champions for your organization?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Ryan-O-Connell-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-turning-customers-into-advocates/) Your technology should work seamlessly and enable everything you're trying to do. If your technology is an impediment, it's almost impossible to generate customer advocacy, no matter how much you invest in customer success. The investment piece is equally important. You need to make sure you have a team that has the time to find value and work with customers. This isn’t necessarily cheap, but it's essential, as it showcases the value to customers to create the advocacy in the first place. All SaaS companies should be looking at this, as once you start to build an advocacy network, it really pays for itself. **Why is customer advocacy so important then?** Well, for a number of reasons, first and foremost, it helps to build trust and credibility. [How can you boost customer advocacy through social media listening?Dreaming of a loyal customer fanbase that provides free marketing? Welcome to the endless possibilities of social media listening!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/how-can-you-boost-customer-advocacy-through-social-media-listening.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-can-you-boost-customer-advocacy-through-social-media-listening/) When your customers are advocates for your brand, they’re more likely to recommend your product or service to others, this word-of-mouth marketing is incredibly powerful. Customer advocacy also helps to improve customer retention. When your customers are advocates, they’re more likely to continue to use your service over time. This not only helps to drive revenue but builds a strong customer base that can help your business grow over time. ## How to generate advocacy As a customer operations leader, I believe that customer success is critical to generating advocacy. At THRIVE, our teams are responsible for ensuring that our customers are successful with our service. One of the key ways that we generate advocacy is by making our customers look good. We want to help our customers achieve their goals and demonstrate the value of our product to their stakeholders. When our customers are successful, they’re more likely to become advocates for our brand. Another key component of generating advocacy is by building strong relationships with our customers. We strive to be a trusted advisor to our customers and to provide them with the support and resources they need to be successful. ### Identifying advocates Once you have created a landscape for customer advocacy, you need to identify who your advocates are. At THRIVE, we don't measure NPS (Net Promoter Score) but actual referrals instead. We analyze how customers enter our sales pipeline, who's doing case studies with us, who's posted about us on LinkedIn, who's posting reviews, who's joining us on webinars, and who's going up on stage with us to talk about something relevant in our industry. All of these data points help us paint a picture of who our advocates are and create a cohort of advocates. ## How to create an authentic culture of customer-centricity Authenticity is something that is at the core of success and customer advocacy. At my company, we don't use influencers and instead let our customers do the talking, the power, and impact of that is phenomenal. [Customer advisory boards and feedback loops \[Q&A with Dropbox\]Customer Advisory Boards allow customers to give candid feedback on their experience with your company, and we spoke with Bree Bunzel, Head of Global Customer Marketing at Dropbox, who answered questions around building Customer Advisory Boards and customer feedback loops.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/adam-jang-8pOTAtyd_Mc-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-advisory-boards-and-feedback-loops-q-a-with-dropbox/) ### Authenticity Externally If you are an advocate, we'll invite you to come up on stage or join us on webinars, or we'll do case studies to talk about the great work that you have done. This is mutually beneficial because it boosts our profile and also helps our stakeholders' personal brand, helping their careers in a way that's quite authentic. While these advocates are important, we also want to build an ecosystem of customers who can help suggest roadmap additions, join us on case studies or awards, and more. We want to hear from both advocates and potentially unhappy customers because that helps us grow and improve ourselves. ### Authenticity Internally Creating a culture of customer-centricity requires a company-wide commitment to putting the customer first. At THRIVE, we’ve built this culture authentically by making it a core value and by integrating it into everything we do. One of the key ways we’ve done this is by ensuring that everyone in the company understands the importance of customer success and the customer experience as a responsibility for all teams. We also ensure that our employees have opportunities to work with our customers and to see firsthand the impact of our service. To get people invested in customer advocacy, you need to give them opportunities to work with customers. [Customer retention metrics and how to action themHow do successful SaaS organizations measure retention and what on earth do they with the results, I hear you cry? Well, we surveyed 100 SaaS pros to find out how they track, review and utilize retention and churn metrics, and here are the results.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/jakob-owens-CiUR8zISX60-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) This means that you need to break down silos within your organization and give people from all departments the chance to work with customers. By doing this, you'll find that people naturally become more invested in customer advocacy and are more likely to promote it within the organization. We use a Customer Success Platform (CSP) for this, which allows us to bring the whole organization onto the platform to see loads of information about customers. This generates interest in what our customers are doing and gets everyone on board with the importance of customer success, building up an ecosystem internally. ## Qualities to look for in a customer success professional The first one, and this may seem obvious, but you need to look for **passion, enthusiasm**, and someone who seems to have a drive for this kind of work. Secondly, **commercial acumen**. This means that you need to be able to understand the commercial aspects of your business and be able to talk to customers about how your service can help them achieve their goals. Thirdly, but similarly, is i**ndustry experience**, you need to be able to understand your customers' businesses and speak to shareholders. You need to be able to talk to them in their own language, demonstrating to them how you can bring value. [5 awesome tips for building a customer advocacy programBuilding a customer advocacy program can really accelerate your business and drive revenue! The ultimate goal for any department within an organization is to have a representative at the table during those crucial C-suite meetings. We want to convince senior stakeholders that you can drive results.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/benjamin-davies-FiZTaNTj2Ak-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/) ## Final thoughts Customer advocacy is a powerful tool for any SaaS company to drive growth, increase revenue, and build strong customer relationships. To generate advocacy, it's essential to prioritize customer success, build strong relationships with customers, and identify and nurture advocates. Creating an authentic culture of customer-centricity requires a company-wide commitment to putting the customer first, breaking down silos, and giving employees opportunities to work with customers. When hiring customer success professionals, look for passion, commercial acumen, and industry experience. By harnessing the power of customer advocacy, SaaS companies can drive their success and stand out in a crowded market. --- *Like what you see? Why not sign up to one of our membership plans for exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in SaaS?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How no code development can drive your SaaS org to scale URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-no-code-development-can-transform-your-saas-org/ Last updated: 2023-04-21T15:14:33.000Z No code SaaS presents orgs with the amazing opportunity to develop software applications with minimal or no coding. Any SaaS company that is looking to scale and innovate quickly is going to be interested in this opportunity, surely? Let’s see how many respondents from our Future of SaaS Report are taking up the no code solution. Although only **19%** of our respondents confirmed that they have fully embraced no code, with **48%** claiming that they have yet to adopt a low-code model, a sizable proportion of our participants claimed that they have plans to evolve to no code (**33%**). ![Graph representing the above stats. ](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Bijhr9NVkQAWwr13PsfTrLKWlGPyTQNuBUDVi--cJkMtSP1PyixCjJtSQxpsJS9Z078p6oIc82MYI9cTf_h8d-EDOFOJ2eZEV2GK78Tsspg8DxRVKnXG75dj2nj7NJFqeMxwuHy16vZoSfemaqhPSeY) *"Low or no-code will in my opinion grow a lot in the coming years. We see that more and more tech becomes accessible for people who can’t code themselves. This makes it possible to create a SaaS business fast and cheap. This is perfect for start-ups because they can create a high-functioning MVP and test it on real-life customers without coding anything."* Anders Bryde Thornlid, **Digital Marketing Manager at CyberPilot** ## The benefit of no code SaaS Now, let’s look more closely at the benefits of no code solutions for SaaS companies. **Saves time** — SaaS orgs are multi-faceted, and by cutting down on coding time, no code can enable you to distribute your time more broadly. **Greater productivity** —no code allows your IT department to accelerate your tech solutions, allowing greater scope for adaptability and the ability to get new features and innovations over the line. [How can you boost customer advocacy through social media listening?Dreaming of a loyal customer fanbase that provides free marketing? Welcome to the endless possibilities of social media listening!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSElla Harrison![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/how-can-you-boost-customer-advocacy-through-social-media-listening.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-can-you-boost-customer-advocacy-through-social-media-listening/) **Cut costs** —no code allows orgs to significantly reduce costs by eliminating the need to hire full time, expert developers. But to find out more about the benefits of no code we sat down with a leading SaaS professional to find out how no code can have a tangible impact on SaaS Scalability. ## Rajesh Namase on the pros and cons of no code Rajesh Namase has significant experience in scaling a startup from the ground up. We wanted to quiz him further on how no-code developments have allowed him to scale. ## Can no code benefit SaaS orgs? No code development is still not ideal for creating complex software programs for now. However, low-code development works extremely well for creating apps for simple tasks like generating a random number or calculating a price or even creating a web page with a drag-and-drop feature. This type of development is perfect for creating apps for small businesses and SaaS companies. Many companies hire low-code development staff to create apps for their business. These apps help companies grow by providing easy ways to do things in the business world. Creating low-code apps saves companies time and money by avoiding the need to pay full-time coders. Plus, it makes it easy for users to access the features they want without asking IT support for help with setting up new features. For these reasons, no code development is a great way for SaaS companies to grow their business. [5 Best Practices for Scaling your SaaS Content Marketing Engine with AIIn this article, we explore how you can create content of real substance while utilizing AI to maximize your efficiency and output.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChinwoke Nnamani![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/Reaching-out-to-Ai.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-best-practices-for-scaling-your-saas-content-marketing-engine-with-ai/) ## How can no code help SaaS companies cut costs? SaaS companies save money when they hire no code development staff instead of full-time coders. The apps created this way are also much more reliable since no high-quality coders are used. This frees up time in business operations to focus on other tasks instead of managing the creative no code process of SaaS apps. NO code development works well in business operations since it easily creates effective apps without costly human resources. [How to build the perfect customer success team in seven stepsCustomer success is the guiding hand that leads customers towards value. We outline the essential steps for building out this department right here.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChuks Wesley![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/03/lego--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-the-perfect-customer-success-team-in-seven-steps/) ## How can no code benefit the user? Low-code is a great way for users to access certain features on an app without needing help from IT support staff. Everyone can benefit from easy access to no-code development! Now let’s look closer at how the tools you can utilize in order to implement a no code strategy in your organization. ## Top tools for implementing no code SaaS ## Webflow ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-18-at-2.05.00-PM.jpg) If you want to create a website without coding, Webflow provides a visual builder that enables you to design, build, and launch dynamic, responsive websites. It's SEO-optimized and supports a wide range of website types, including blogs, business websites, and eCommerce stores. Webflow is a great choice if you're planning to build a website for your SaaS MVP. ## Carrd ![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/RtU1VHsO5slSgq0L7p0TLtMbV4sLKCAZWlPjEu18hPiQoAwnYcAsiYw5wSoKk69Ll5cLnmhqQ4asM1MnKDfQZwmaLY7EjwQ06kkjqBcMJKClz6HgGoNIJYQKUzfhirSIePEa85Lzauje_J5tdt_7HdA) Carrd is a user-friendly landing page builder that is free and straightforward, enabling you to design and create a one-page website with ease. It's an excellent option for those seeking a fast and hassle-free way to launch their website without investing a significant amount of time and money. Carrd is particularly well-suited for developing a landing page or one-page website to verify the validity of your SaaS product. ## Gumroad ![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/eoLDw0m3XiJbQfTZzPkABaO1_ANiRP9lCRamIROH1vA9m6pLcrLDeFtzaFu9_rJRu6a2gSncsfv52VsVauiqRNNwqYezlch6o0iu4iyQ_X35-CFO7vaxy8dp6RQL8eRSe91k3DQZGGcM3Pe-e42vC70) Gumroad caters to creative entrepreneurs and provides a no-code platform that enables them to create eCommerce solutions for their music, podcasts, and art. The platform includes detailed guides to assist digital entrepreneurs in establishing their businesses. ## Teachable ![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/bMA-zQDZopoLnwWvkZyNWS2S3UR2l1CD4_W31qUGueT_JQkaV7yC0D2_-RIdD8fBgfAnVD8eF43wP9AftRMIpEnQwLRfAZuBi7CT42bPA2hOKH45bjIBZmVuFGWKcKPW-b6bHkm7givf1wwj0zuVmOI) Teachable is focused on providing solutions for online learning and digital education. The platform enables educators and businesses to develop and host new courses and cohorts effortlessly. With Teachable, it's simple to create modules that include quizzes, discussion forums, and feedback forms. Additionally, the platform simplifies business administration and management. ## Bravo Studio ![Bravo studio landing page ](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/hclRALQTBhL7HCIGnlwXCLgRnuv6pRHXVhnYOkhzyfKjQJ_Nq6oQc5DfPWyHw-3WMon75R-Ek-BpLs8Q6VOkiSdHxv5Ei-4A0yJIdEphpPQE9KeCGsaIxzUgzocsztPbNhB4Zj3sWrL6toYdlH6U8IQ) Bravo Studio is designed for individuals, content creators, and businesses looking to develop intricate iOS and Android applications. The platform enables seamless integration with numerous third-party applications. With Bravo Studio, you can design your application on Figma or Adobe XD and effortlessly convert those files into a fully-functional application. ## ManyChat ![ManyChat landing page](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/ManyChat.jpg) ManyChat is a chatbot builder that simplifies the process of creating chatbots, eliminating the need to write code. Its drag-and-drop editor makes it effortless for anyone to develop a bot. The platform integrates with Facebook Messenger, Instagram, email, and SMS and offers over 25 templates, as well as various customization options, to assist you in building your chatbot. ## Wrapping up In order to reach profitability as speedily as possible, SaaS companies are going to be clamoring to find the cheapest and most efficient method possible to scale their org. Many startups simply don’t have the luxury of hiring a dev team to deliver on their product, and as a result, no code is going to empower SaaS founders to take product development into their own hands and execute on their product vision. --- *Like what you see? Why not get all the exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in the industry with a FoSaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Why it’s time to implement good design into your business processes URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/why-its-time-to-implement-good-design-into-your-business-processes/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:58:27.000Z Pietro Consavari, VP for Product Design and Product-Led Growth at Birdeye, gave this talk at the Product-Led Festival. In his presentation, he covered topics such as: - How actions drive business outcomes when building digital products for users - How design-driven experimentation can improve year-over-year growth - Dieter Rams’ 10 principles of good design - The benefits of implementing good design into your processes - And more! Hi, My name is Pietro Consavari, and today I’m going to talk about how good design can affect your bottom line. Firstly, a couple of things about me. I was born in Venice, Italy, and have always been a curious person. I’ve always loved observing human beings and understanding what makes them happy and why people perceive something as beautiful or simple. That curiosity eventually led me into design. I started my career at various Milan agencies, working for some large brands. I relocated at one point to the United States in the Bay Area, where I worked in the tech space for several software companies including Amazon. Eventually, I joined BirdEye on day zero as a Founding Designer. What really drove me to join BirdEye was to be a builder in a fast-moving startup business environment. Today, BirdEye is a very successful company. it has 90,000 customers all these years later. Now, I'd like to share some of my learnings with you today. I always believe that the most relevant work happens at the confluence of user needs and business objectives, so I've always been aware and curious about the business impact of my design work. So today, I want to share some of my learnings on how design can affect business outcomes. ## **Seeking action in every digital product** I’d like to start at the very core of what drives business outcomes when we build digital products for users. And that’s actions. Actions in our products, actions in our workflows, actions in a website, and actions in our mobile apps. The more actions, the more successful those products will be. We have processes in place. We measure those actions, we analyze them, we learn from them, and we iterate on them. So how can we make all of these better with good design? Good design can help us by answering the main question behind it all: what leads us to action? It's a question that I asked myself for a very long time in everything I designed. And I found a very interesting answer a long time ago, and from an unexpected source. It's a statement from Donald Calne, a Canadian neurologist, and this statement is found in his research on Parkinson's disease of all things. It says: *“Reason leads to conclusion. Emotion leads to action.”* I always find Donald Calne’s statement very interesting, and I’ve applied it often in my career as a designer. And I’d like to tell you a short story about one time this worked really well for me. ## **Improving YoY growth through design-driven experimentation** This is a story of a SaaS company, and a successful SaaS company at that, with 65% year-over-year (YoY) growth. This company had a so-so looking website, and everyone in the company agreed. Good design in the product and brand wasn’t exactly what they were famous for. But again, they were an incredibly successful company. I remember asking myself very quickly when I was there, *Why is it like this and not like that?* I was fairly new to this data-driven tech space, and I was coming from Italy. All of my work was centered around beautiful and emotional design, so to speak. So when I immediately asked myself that question, the explanation came fairly quickly, and I went down this rabbit hole of iterative experiments where every action in every funnel is measured and analyzed. I remember loving it. It felt very scientific. We were working through the wonderful experimentation of incremental improvements and we were constantly iterating on these designs. Through I remember asking myself, *How can all of these be improved? How can I make all these even better?* And sitting down with my PM at the time, I remember having this conversation with him. And in a somewhat irrational, maybe unplanned way, I remember convincing him to introduce design to the mix. We then introduced a variable completely driven by what in my perspective was good design. So we didn't change any of the content, we just introduced those elements, such as freshness and modernity, and so on and so forth, that were somewhat forgotten or put on the back burner in favor of these small incremental improvements that were being iterated on for many years by this company. So we did what you could call a design-driven, boulder test versus Babel test, and we ended up with a very interesting result. We ended up measuring something incredibly unexpected, which was a 120% increase in our overall performance. That's what we ended up with, compared to the 1,2,3,4% incremental improvements we were measuring before. So as you can imagine, that sparked a lot of internal conversation that eventually led to the rebranding of the company. The company moved from 65% YoY growth to 110%. I'm not saying that it was all driven by this, but that's what eventually happened, and they had a great website. So, consciously or maybe partially unconsciously, we were able to frame that Donald Calne concept, in which good design was able to infuse that emotional field that drove these users to action. ## **The 10 principles of good design** So, apparently, good design can drive action. But how do you identify with design? It’s an interesting question for me. To narrow down the possibilities of what can be an incredibly complicated and complex answer to what good design is, my recommendation is to reference Dieter Rams, who many years ago codified what good design is in 10 principles. Good design: - is innovative - Makes a product useful - Is aesthetic, - Makes a product understandable - Is unobtrusive - Is honest - Is long-lasting - Is thorough down to the last detail - Is environmentally friendly - Involves as little design as possible And according to Dieter Rams (and I agree with him), for good design, you put a checkmark on all of these principles. ## **The benefits of bringing good design into your processes** So how can that help us every day? How can good design be put to work for us in building our products? There are several ways, in my opinion. Think scale. Scale is a topic that we talk about very often in SaaS and when building our products. Good design is inherently at scale. Think of an example of good design, such as the Thonet chair, which revolutionized how chairs were made in the 1800s. Six pieces of wood, 10 screws, two nuts. And it caused the furniture manufacturing revolution to scale, just through its design. You can do the same by bringing design into your processes and into the processes of your organization, using all the things that I just talked about. You can easily bring it into your processes by giving design a seat at the table. And that design thinking can contribute to effectively scaling your processes and your way of ideating and creating. Think about emotions. Those emotions that we just talked about lead to action. And how about making those systemic in everything we do and build? We all identify the iPhone as one of the greatest examples of good and successful design. And if we look under the hood, one of the main drivers of the incredible success of this product is that beautiful and cohesive design-driven ecosystem that’s used every day, and that’s driven the success of the iPhone from day one. You can do the same. Good design can do that for you. Good design can help you build that incredibly cohesive and beautiful design system and leverage systemically all this goodness, and drive efficiency and collaboration around pretty much everything you do. One of the last things that I’d like to talk about is people and humanity. Good designers see people behind clicks. Designers love data, and are fierce advocates for the people that use our products. So design can help you bring that human perspective to both data collection and data interpretation. So, embedding design in your processes can truly help you leverage that design thinking around everything you do, and help you iterate, ship, and scale processes that you use every day. ## **Redesigning the design department** My final recommendation, if you want to deep dive into some of these topics, is a wonderful study from McKinsey that just came out called, ‘Redesigning the design department.’ There's a lot of great learning around this topic that can be incredibly complex. So my final recommendation is McKinsey’s study, which is about transforming your design departments from fortified castles into vibrant town squares, and how to reap the incredible benefits that can come with it. ### How brand messaging changes for B2B and B2C companies URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-brand-messaging-changes-for-b2b-and-b2c-companies/ Last updated: 2023-04-12T10:50:43.000Z Ah, [messaging](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-nail-your-product-messaging/) \- the beating heart of product marketing efforts. And what does a heart need to successfully function? Oxygen, nutrients, and a whole load of other things (stick with us here, we aren’t scientists!). What does *messaging* need? A strategy curated to the company and target audience. How you communicate to your audience is what keeps the heart pumping. Depending on whether you're in the B2C or B2B space, your messaging strategy will differ, from the tone of voice to platform choice ****because the target audience changes, too.** In this article, we’ll be looking at how messaging changes in both B2B and B2C companies, looking specifically at how changes with: - Tone of voice - Messaging platform - Marketing strategy - Personalization - Lead nurturing So, let’s dive right in. ## **Tone of voice** Companies speak to directly their audience in a way that *they* like to be spoken to. In B2C messaging, companies tend to use a more conversational tone and informal language to connect with their audience. On the other hand, in B2B messaging, companies tend to use a more professional tone and use industry-specific terms. [B2B marketing events strategies: before, during, and afterB2B events are paramount for networking, generating high-quality leads, increasing brand awareness, and reaching a large target audience. The majority of event marketers believe events are the most effective marketing channel over emails, content, and digital marketing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/terren-hurst-blgOFmPIlr0-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/b2b-marketing-events-strategies-before-during-and-after/) ### **B2C example: Innocent Drinks** Innocent Drinks is a UK-based smoothie and juice company that uses a conversational tone of voice across their social media platforms. They use humor and wit in their messaging to create a friendly and approachable brand persona. You can see this specifically in their Twitter profile, where they often communicate with their audience like friends. ![A tweet from Innocent Drinks' Twitter profile.](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/fn6bGKDr5HiTl-Skw_eQu1KKbcSwqbmVDDUYQ-JtcEXjZbOQEyhZiQVR-PRQCvWUw-eTSD-xg8V06ztC0j5NPzl0YWpEFG9E9-xMeMdRUNmyeeUPhOf4ZzT4iA9qqKJTBHi92DI6OdtntR1LNBAeAwg) ### **B2B example: IBM** IBM is a multinational technology company that provides various B2B services, such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and enterprise software. The company's messaging typically uses a professional tone of voice to appeal to their enterprise-level audience. [Making brand marketing more data-driven \[Q&A with Hotjar\]Customer data is about as real as it gets, but unfortunately, many marketers still struggle with where to find it, how to access it, and how to analyze it. Luckily for us Hotjar’s VP of Marketing, Sharon Biggar was on hand to answer all our questions on the data-driven future of brand marketing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/franki-chamaki-1K6IQsQbizI-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-brand-marketing-more-data-driven-q-a-with-hotjar/) They often use industry-specific jargon and focus on the benefits of their products and services in terms of improving business operations and increasing productivity. IBM's messaging also often emphasizes the company's long-standing history and expertise in the tech industry to establish credibility and trust with its B2B audience. To try and highlight the differences between them, Innocent Drinks tweets are rarely about their product and are often silly and fun messages to their followers, whereas IBM will incorporate their brand into each tweet to maintain that professionalism. ![A tweet from IBM's twitter on an early computer.](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/SV6mkZrfYOqD2345SEndmp1DTmZPUQ4ilhgnSK5M_Y43Z0_Ut4-N7UN_rdByZVoupCnyiskM3m8m2l2zev58XCDXkNUA_eK7TqFAbWhfmywTo2knU0LupigJOR2igKzSlJrNd8eitV_ny45lKtKk5Q8) ## **Messaging platform** The platform changes with the company, as well as the tone of voice. B2C companies often use social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok to connect with their audience. Meanwhile, B2B companies tend to use more ‘professional’ networking sites such as LinkedIn. They follow where their customer goes, meeting them where they’re at, rather than forcing them to interact on a platform they aren’t comfortable, or familiar, with. ### **B2C example: Fenty Beauty** Fenty Beauty is a cosmetics brand owned by Rihanna that uses social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok to connect with their audience. They use these platforms to showcase their products, shares tutorials, and engage with their customers. They’re aware of who their audience is, so choose to meet them where they’re at. ![A screengrab of a video from Fenty Beauty's TikTok account.](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6lqbK0AVd_DBAOCh-mRfT7GWpcjTPSP0DuIHXzr980KOq-PT-TRxBSlYhu-1xaCZ7xKbBMTk6n4bcDDW7hfrHmGOYObXZZ9_QL35BZT4jPhNgCarm5GacAgKsYaiMt085Vf4tnr1lVG9EUSXXwi3KIM) ### **B2B example: Microsoft** Microsoft is an example of a B2B company that uses LinkedIn to connect with its audience. They have a large following on LinkedIn and use this platform to share news and updates about their products and services, as well as to connect with other professionals in their industry. [Top SaaS marketing and content toolsA high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) ## **Marketing strategy** When it comes to developing messaging within their marketing strategy, B2C companies focus more on emotional triggers and use product features and benefits while B2B companies are more focused on rational triggers and use solutions and outcomes to attract their audience. ### **B2C example: Apple** Apple's messaging often focuses on the emotional benefits of its products, such as the feeling of luxury, exclusivity, and creativity that comes with owning an Apple product. Their advertising campaigns also emphasize the innovative features and superior performance of their products, such as the high-quality camera on the iPhone or the powerful chip in their MacBook laptops. By appealing to both the emotional and functional aspects of its products, Apple creates a strong connection with its audience and differentiates its brand in the competitive market. ![A screengrab from Apple's homepage. ](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/v3-uD6H7uhmvpeP_mRdB7ih8PW0n1NqbrCkHi4HUCr4KHBYYXYRuxdoE9DQz03wvSTTXcs1i1yiAmxU8P8FDDrxCwVleZuTOdYNkYf_4nDIDOGws4tb3cPtdtbkOt2A4Xwc7LzFP8LPzd1X7M1qQBHU) ### **B2B example: Salesforce** Salesforce uses messaging that highlights the benefits of using their CRM software, such as increased efficiency, streamlined workflows, and improved customer engagement. Salesforce's messaging also includes case studies and testimonials from satisfied customers to provide social proof and demonstrate the value of their solutions. By focusing on the practical benefits and outcomes of its products, Salesforce appeals to the rational needs of its B2B audience and positions itself as a solution to its business challenges. ![A screengrab from Salesforce's home page. ](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/PZU8wd7253XKYoVP_bnLtYPUb1D_hmyXiOrtr_0D0M3WiWZfuwtYhR_rbrMV4fX2lVqjClR1WTYvPT8JgY-Dx_YyAjftxOyMS1xiNrj38B3lu3fcUPL6zA9UnI2nPZ6UN6yHU46CwhS4WYTR_MSXJ6o) ## **Personalization** B2C messaging is often personalized based on consumer demographics, psychographics, and behavior. In contrast, B2B messaging is often personalized based on the organization's goals, objectives, and industry-specific challenges. ### **B2C example: Netflix** Netflix's messaging is personalized to each individual user, with the platform recommending movies and TV shows that align with their viewing history, preferences, and watchlist. Netflix also uses demographic and psychographic data to tailor its marketing campaigns to specific audiences, such as creating ads that target fans of a particular genre or promoting a show to users who have watched similar content in the past. By leveraging consumer data to personalize its messaging and recommendations, Netflix creates a more engaging and relevant user experience and increases customer satisfaction and loyalty. ![A screengrab from an email from Netflix promoting things 'coming soon' on their platform. ](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/15jZmhEMRBoGJbqIymE0JtSLd-u1jC0nkdnKrbnrNWz6zCfuO1xX590OCyBVi0Ub9vpvrf_Jq20DX5lolOrzBuzeWW-JQuvdlQxbdYi4vScGc-NlxbfXjlHQ3dErQo8b8jHmsgTR4yS-sTkm3ASvCzc) ### **B2B example: HubSpot** HubSpot offers tailored solutions and services for different industries, such as healthcare, finance, and manufacturing, and provides resources and content that address the unique challenges and pain points of each industry. HubSpot also uses data and analytics to personalize its messaging to specific companies, such as sending targeted emails and content to prospects who have shown interest in a particular product or service. By personalizing its messaging to the organization's specific goals and challenges, HubSpot positions itself as a strategic partner that can help businesses achieve their objectives and grow their bottom line. ## **Lead nurturing** B2C lead nurturing is typically short and transactional, whereas B2B lead nurturing is a longer-term process that requires building relationships and addressing the needs of multiple stakeholders within an organization. ### **B2C example: Amazon** After a user has browsed products on Amazon's website or added items to their cart, the company sends targeted emails with personalized product recommendations and limited-time offers. These messages are often short and to the point, with a clear call to action to encourage the user to make a purchase. For example, Amazon might send an email with the subject line "Don't miss out on this deal!" that highlights a specific product and offers a discount code to incentivize the user to buy. By using short, transactional messages that focus on driving conversions, Amazon effectively nurtures leads and generates sales. [How is email marketing important to improving customer retention?Despite the rising competition from social media, email marketing continues to be one of the most effective tools for B2B marketing. It’s great for product awareness and generating new leads, but also for boosting customer retention.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/brett-jordan-LPZy4da9aRo-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-is-email-marketing-important-to-improving-customer-retention/) ### **B2B example: Adobe** To nurture leads, Adobe uses a variety of tactics, including content marketing, webinars, events, and personalized outreach. Adobe creates high-quality content that addresses the specific needs of its target audience, such as whitepapers, case studies, and reports. This content is designed to educate and inform potential customers, and help them understand how Adobe's solutions can help solve their business challenges. Overall, Adobe's approach to lead nurturing involves building long-term relationships with potential customers and addressing the needs of multiple stakeholders within an organization. This requires a combination of educational content, personalized marketing, and targeted outreach that helps build trust and credibility with their target audience over time. ## **The key takeaway** Overall, the key takeaway is that messaging varies significantly depending on whether a company is B2C or B2B. B2C messaging is often more emotional and visual, while B2B messaging is more rational and data-driven. B2C messaging focuses on building brand awareness and loyalty, while B2B messaging is focused on generating leads and driving conversions. It's important for you to understand these differences and tailor your messaging accordingly to effectively reach and engage your target audience. --- *Like what you see? Why not check out our exclusive content from some of the leading minds in SaaS with a FoSaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How do we make sales a more diverse sector? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-do-we-make-sales-a-more-diverse-sector/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:57:21.000Z *This article is based on a presentation from Women in SaaS Summit 2022\. Listen to the full unedited talk OnDemand* [*right here*](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-2/)*.* I'd like to start with a personal story, one that has made a long-lasting dent in my perception of what it means to be a woman in sales. A few years ago, I was a sales manager at a SaaS platform located in New York City. As a matter of fact, it was just down the street from the picture that you see below. [![Manhattan streets](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/XJCkXY5DEoH8QUtPawTRPIzgRE8Zsb_GLHtYixNtIl8GviUyPZM_vbM1-DWy50GTqzwarbW1IhL0809IsrlVQlvqvwe3uVStefdcUnc_kPp0k5jdBGuSUaNfD00-PD3dCU2tDqLnFjXXjm4Qrz3qWAQ)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/how-do-we-make-sales-a-more-diverse-sector) As I was sitting in my Midtown Manhattan office, I was going through a bunch of online applications for a job that we were hiring for, an entry-level sales associate position, and I soon realized something: there was not one single female applicant. I don't mean there were no qualified female applicants – I mean there were absolutely zero female applicants. As somebody who's been in sales my entire life, I will admit I had been blind to what was going around me in the industry as a whole. But that afternoon, bit by bit, I started realizing a couple of things. The first thing I realized was that I rarely met other women in sales, and when I did, I was always filled with awe and excitement. Wow! Another woman in sales! High five! The second key thing that I realized was when I did meet women working in sales at a SaaS company, I rarely saw them long-term. I would see them in the same position for perhaps a year or two before they moved on to a marketing or customer success role. That afternoon, I became absolutely obsessed with learning the *why* and understanding how, in such a field as exciting as SaaS sales, I don't see more people like me. [![Ginni Rometty giving a talk](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/girl-boss.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/how-do-we-make-sales-a-more-diverse-sector) Before I share what I’ve learned, I want to bring up one of the most influential female business leaders, someone I've always looked up to: Ginni Rometty. She was one of the first women to head IBM as CEO between 2012 and 2020\. While she was CEO of IBM, the company acquired 65 companies, including one of the largest acquisitions in the company's history. Under Ginni’s leadership, IBM also contributed to the growth of AI, quantum computing, and blockchain technologies. Now, Ginni Rometty famously said, “Growth and comfort do not co-exist.” I'll repeat that – *growth and comfort do not co-exist*. I would say, my friends, that this statement perfectly sums up the position of women in sales. ## The state of women in sales So how are things looking for women in sales today? Well, according to the [Harvard Business Review](https://hbr.org/2020/05/why-women-are-the-future-of-b2b-sales), women make up over half of the college-educated workforce. However, they hold less than a third of all B2B sales jobs. On top of that, according to the [US Bureau of Labor](https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm), only 34.2% of sales managers are women. You might be thinking, “Well, a third isn’t *that* bad.” However, the number becomes a lot worse when you start looking specifically at women in sales for technology companies, including SaaS platforms, where that number dips down to about [16%](https://www.xactlycorp.com/resources/guides/2019-state-of-gender-equality-in-sales) – a much less significant chunk. Across all industries, women earn [77%](https://www.xactlycorp.com/resources/guides/2019-state-of-gender-equality-in-sales) of the total compensation of their male counterparts, and the sales industry as a whole has the [second-largest gender equity gap](https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/why-sales-must-hire-more-women) in America. Now, I'm not going to sit here and say there hasn’t been any progress over the last few years. Women have made great progress and now have greater representation in higher-level sales positions than ever. However, there is clearly more work to be done. ## Why women succeed in sales Now, as we all know, women tend to make excellent salespeople. I'm not speaking anecdotally – I'm speaking from stats. Statistics have shown that women tend to have [higher win rates](https://salesandmarketing.com/perception-vs-reality-men-and-women-sales/#:~:text=So%2C%20who%20wins%20more%20deals,for%20just%20about%20every%20business.) than men on average; plus, women-led teams have [higher win and quota attainment rates](https://www.xactlycorp.com/resources/guides/2019-state-of-gender-equality-in-sales). A survey by Xactly also reported that [86%](https://hbr.org/2020/05/why-women-are-the-future-of-b2b-sales) of the women achieved quota, compared to 78% of men. That's about 8% better. *Why is this*, we might ask ourselves. Well, women tend to bring certain strengths and capabilities that impact the company and its bottom line. Women bring different perspectives and different ways of looking at complex issues and problems – and as we all know, SaaS sales is all about understanding and solving problems. Let's talk a little bit more about the strengths and capabilities that women bring as sales leaders and sales employees in SaaS platforms. ### Key strength #1: Emotional intelligence One of the most important strengths women bring to the table is emotional intelligence. You might be surprised to learn that emotional intelligence as a whole is responsible for [more than 50%](https://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2014/01/09/emotional-intelligence/?sh=19aaf5321ac0) of professional successes. Why is that? Well, it helps you do three main things: 1. **Emotional intelligence helps you solve customer problems**, and the foundation of SaaS sales success is not having an assertive nature; it's grasping and solving a specific problem that a customer has. 2. **Emotional intelligence helps decrease staff turnover rates**. In fact, hiring salespeople on the basis of their emotional competence results in [63% less turnover](https://www.eiconsortium.org/reports/business%5Fcase%5Ffor%5Fei.html) during the first year. 3. **Emotional intelligence drives revenue.** Studies have shown that sales reps with high EQ scores tend to produce [double](https://www.hr.com/en/communities/training%5Fand%5Fdevelopment/the-importance-of-emotional-intelligence-in-the-wo%5Feak314gc.html) the revenue of those with average or below-average EQ scores. ### Key strength #2: Collaboration Now, friends, we’re in the 2020s, not the 1990s. We don't have Alec Baldwin yelling “Always be closing!” and asking if we're “man enough to take it.” SaaS sales is not a lone wolf environment anymore. As a matter of fact, the most effective salespeople are those that can collaborate rather than compete. Collaboration simply drives success, and many studies have shown that women have a stronger bias towards collaboration. Today's sales departments demand that sales reps work together to provide a better customer experience, and as you know, collaboration with marketing teams is also invaluable. According to [HubSpot](https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-marketing-alignment-increases-revenue-infographic?%5F%5Fhstc=168541886.a2ec219699907da17de4c3bde12ca242.1680782113281.1680782113281.1680782113281.1&%5F%5Fhssc=168541886.1.1680782113281&%5F%5Fhsfp=607498418), organizations that align their sales and marketing teams will close 38% more deals and achieve double the revenue and more wins. Collaboration also allows you to organize internal resources and create relationships that lead to win-wins, even in a three-person office. ### Key strength #3: Listening The last but certainly not least important skill I’m going to talk about is listening. Jack Zenger famously conducted a [study](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackzenger/2015/06/11/age-gender-and-ability-to-listen-who-listens-best/?sh=670c04029bf6) showing that women tend to be significantly better listeners and have a stronger preference for listening than men. The study also compared leaders and found out those with a stronger preference for listening were rated as much more effective in 13 out of the six main competencies that make a stronger leader. Another [study](https://www.gong.io/resources/labs/women-are-way-better-than-men-at-this-high-value-sales-skill/) by Gong Labs analyzed over 100,000 B2B sales calls and conversations using AI. One of the things they found is that women listen on average 16% more. Interestingly, they looked into other factors impacting sales performance and found that men and women rank pretty similarly. They tend to have the same number of talk topics and questions and the same level of patience; listening sticks out as the main thing that men and women do differently. Why does this matter when it comes to SaaS sales? Well, Gong Labs’ previous research shows that the highest-converting salespeople have a talk-to-listen ratio of 43:57\. Why is that? Well, when your customer’s core objectives and your business objectives are perfectly aligned, you will succeed in sales. You can best reach that alignment through listening. ## Impactful insights for driving change Now, I’m not here to talk about things we can't change. I’m here to talk about the things that we could and should and can change. I’m here to share information that you can take home and act on. With that said, I'm going to take you through three impactful insights to help you drive change, and we’re going to look at each of these insights through two different lenses; the first is what SaaS companies can do to create more diversity in the workplace, and the second is what you can do to get a job in sales or move up the ladder as a woman in sales. ### Impactful insight #1: Hiring **What SaaS companies can do** Let’s get into the nitty-gritty and talk about job listings. My advice to companies is to take a critical look at the terminologies and tone in your job descriptions and how you describe the responsibilities of the positions you're hiring for. Are you using terms like *aggressive*, *assertive*, or *competitive*? Out of curiosity, I recently searched for SaaS sales jobs in the USA. These weren't listings from five or ten years ago; they were posted within the last 30 to 65 days. I want to share a few of the job descriptions I found. Pay close attention to the terminologies here. **Ad for a SaaS Sales Development Rep:** “You want to win all the time, and your drive is contagious.” **Ad for a Director of Sales:** “Maximize sales revenue for the company and ensure an aggressive approach by all sales staff.” **Ad for a Sales Executive:** “Demonstrated success in achievement of aggressive sales goals.” **Ad for an Inside Sales Assistant:** “Can-do attitude, enthusiasm, outgoing and aggressive personality.” And last but not least, one of my favorites: **Ad for an entry-level sales job:** “Influences customers' purchase decisions by balancing patience and assertiveness.” So what’s wrong with language like this? Well, [LinkedIn’s Language Matters](https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-acquisition/how-word-choice-affects-hiring-gender-diverse-talent) report found out that 44% of women would be discouraged from applying to a job if the description included the word “aggressive”. Also, keep in mind that your job description is more than just how you describe the roles and responsibilities of the job; it's also the benefits that you offer. Different types of benefits will appeal to different types of people. For example, women tend to seek positions that describe a more adaptable work environment with flexible working hours and medical and dental coverage. **Advice for women looking to get into sales** My advice for women is not to be deterred from applying for these jobs. Understand that language biases exist, of course, but then during the job interview, highlight your specific strengths and how they tie into sales. Lean into the capabilities that make you unique and show how those capabilities boost your sales performance and the revenue of the company. ### Impactful insight #2: Mentorship I’ll start this one with a plea to companies: provide mentorship opportunities, please! I was recently reading about GitLab’s Women in Sales program, which provides mentorship opportunities. They started this program because they had found that in four out of their five main divisions, the company had a significantly higher number of men than women in management roles, and they identified communication and mentorship as key ways to remove barriers and ensure transparency. This mentorship program led to increased visibility within leadership and increased professional development for women in sales and across other divisions. It allowed employees to form better relationships with leaders across other teams as well. **Advice for women in sales** If you’re currently working for a SaaS platform or looking to join one, look for mentorship opportunities. If your company doesn’t yet have a mentorship program, encourage it to create one, however small it may be. I also urge you to look at yourself and ask, am I *being a good ally?* *Am I being a good mentor to women in this space?* And most importantly, *am I doing enough to further women’s advancement in my own organization?* Identify other women that you think may be good at sales and tell them about it. Sales is not a dirty word. Provide advice and offer feedback in a very helpful manner, and then, most importantly, find allies. Perhaps you’ve heard of queen bee syndrome. The term was coined in the 1970s by a researcher named Rosalind Barnett, who used it to describe a phenomenon in which female employees, typically in a position of power, would behave in a hostile or condescending manner towards other female employees. That can mean a variety of different things – making negative comments, refusing to mentor women, or even actively undermining their success. Now, queen bee syndrome isn't something that only entry-level employees experience. As a matter of fact, I’ve been on the receiving end of queen bee syndrome, which allowed me to see its causes first-hand. To put it simply, queen bee syndrome is a way for women to cope with the gender discrimination they’ve faced in their own careers. It's a result of discrimination and exposure to gender stereotyping from a very young age. That's coupled with too few policies that protect women from discrimination and harassment, plus a lack of support from management teams. **What SaaS companies can do** The good news is that queen bee syndrome is avoidable. I strongly urge anybody that's working for a SaaS platform to mentor women and girls and incorporate discussions about the presence of gender discrimination in society. At the end of the day, everybody can play a critical role in the growth and careers of women. According to Boston Consulting Group's 2017 [study](https://www.bcg.com/publications/2017/people-organization-behavior-culture-five-ways-men-improve-gender-diversity-work) on gender diversity – and this is probably one of the most exciting stats I've heard – 96% of organizations where men were engaged in gender diversity initiatives reported progress. When men weren't involved, that dropped to only 30%, so make involving men in your programs a priority. ## Impactful insight #3: Transparency Sales leadership has a gender gap problem, and organizations need to do a better job of attracting, retaining, and promoting talent. However, this is a foundational core issue for many organizations, and hiring alone isn't going to help, nor is simply providing mentorship programs. This is where transparency becomes absolutely key. Studies have shown that salary transparency, including laws prohibiting companies from asking applicants about their current or previous pay, tends to help narrow the gender pay gap. As of right now, only 17 states have pay transparency laws – they’re brand new. The US’s first pay transparency law was enacted in 2018, so we don’t yet know what impact these laws are having. However, I found one study on the effect of similar laws that have been implemented within Canadian universities; they’ve reduced the gender pay gap by about [20 to 40%](https://www.nber.org/papers/w25834). A study by Boston Consulting Group also found that women in sales are more likely than men to appreciate transparency about gender pay gaps and how an organization is addressing them. Not only that, but a [survey](https://womeninrevenue.org/resources/the-great-renegotiation-the-definitive-state-of-women-in-revenue-report-2022/) by Women in Revenue cited more than half of its respondents as saying that transparent compensation is the most important consideration when evaluating a job offer. On top of that, Bloomberg recently announced the opening of its 2022 Gender Equality Index, otherwise known as the GEI Reporting Framework. This framework allows public companies to be more transparent about gender-related practices and policies. This data is then made available to investors. Not only that, but it allows companies to compare themselves to other companies and set targets for improvement. **Advice to SaaS companies** As a SaaS leader in your space, you can start being transparent about pay today. Companies need to publicize the actions they're taking to improve equity and equality. If you are in a company that is successfully attracting, retaining, and promoting women in sales, I want to know about that. We all want to know about that. Showcase your work and how it was done, and inspire other organizations to do the same. ## A reminder: “Growth and comfort do not co-exist” I’d like to end with a reminder of Ginni Rometty’s wise words: “Growth and comfort do not co-exist.” Women are not going to get better representation in sales leadership positions, nor are they going to be able to close the gender pay gap by being comfortable. With that, I'm going to leave you with three things you can start doing ASAP to build a more equitable environment: 1. Be aware of your own biases and the biases of others, but do not let them stop you from applying for jobs. 2. Find creative ways to build allyships with women in the workplace and be an active voice in promoting the role of women in sales. 3. Be transparent and vocal at all times. This isn't going to be comfortable, but it’s more than possible. ### 5 best practices for scaling your SaaS content marketing engine with AI URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/5-best-practices-for-scaling-your-saas-content-marketing-engine-with-ai/ Last updated: 2024-10-31T11:09:52.000Z Gartner research indicates the number of enterprises implementing [AI solutions grew 270% from 2015 to 2019,](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-01-21-gartner-survey-shows-37-percent-of-organizations-have) and that number has only continued to skyrocket. (What motivates this growth? —and what should that teach us?) Gartner also predicts that by 2028, AI-driven machines will account for 20% of the global workforce and 40% of all economic productivity. (How can you set up now for the future of your content marketing efforts?) The truth is: AI can help create personalized content, optimize campaigns, and measure results. However, it is important to use AI wisely and follow best practices to ensure success. In this blog post, we'll look at five powerful ways to scale your AI content marketing best practices. ## **Design an AI content marketing strategy** The first step to maximizing the power of AI is to design an AI content marketing strategy. If you don’t have a strategy, it will be challenging to use this technology to drive results and serve your objectives. In our recent an article on [how AI can help your SaaS business scale](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-ai-can-help-your-saas-company-to-scale/), we highlighted the following: > ‘Although B2B companies historically have expected a longer sales cycle, recent research shows that customers in 2023 are becoming more accustomed, due to advances in technology, to quicker processes.’ If you want to stay competitive, you can’t neglect the potential of AI for scalability. The first step is to map out why you are using [AI for content marketing in SaaS](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#8-challenges-for-end-users-and-practitioners) —some B2B marketing teams use AI to support their content efforts for faster execution, and others use it as a last resort. So write down the “why" behind your decision to use AI for content marketing and design a system to help you achieve your goal. Whether you're building a [community for your SaaS](https://www.saasalliance.io/6-savvy-tips-for-community-led-saas-growth/) or attracting buyers for your products, you have to define a goal and stick to it. The next step is to create a use case—AI tool fit system. [How to create a killer content marketing strategy for your B2B SaaSWith a solid SaaS content marketing strategy, you can attract high-quality leads. Find out how right here.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChuks Wesley![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/03/writing.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-create-a-killer-content-marketing-strategy-for-your-b2b-saas/) Here’s what I mean; If you publish text-based content often, do you have a system to utilize AI’s potency for blog posts and social media text-only posts? For example, if you want to use ChatGPT to foster your content execution, you can use ChatGPT to create tons of headlines that fit your post—this is a process. Remember, some AI tools help you generate content fully while others serve as support, tools like Lex AJ help you ideate faster and fill in your blank docs. So, you should have a specific task for each tool to avoid complexity. For example, the key difference between ChatGPT and Wordtune is the purpose. ChatGPT is designed to generate natural language responses, whereas Wordtune Spices assists writers by providing analogies, facts, and data to support existing ideas. So, it would help if you choose each tool for a specific task at a specific stage of your content process. If you want to publish visual content and carousels, you should create a process and AI tool that fits your approach. For example, the content team at Wordtune use their tool to augment their content writing process and they have a specific compatible task. ![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/Mi68Jf4KxzRpU79usOQe4bTkAR9ub6jr1elHKeWpzZEAYmHnmfvSr77ee50vvcMFis_4LUdc3LuDGAAn7Hx4Ipn54Qpk_VNjBeoywLdy-ae8Yb87-ToWcdeGt3K7FnheYuJZBcJWy_IJqIda1Da7AKQ) At the end of their articles, they add the post script above. What does this imply: They've found a way to create a use case—AI tool fit process. ## **Put the human in control** When we hear a technology leverages 175 billion parameters, it’s easy to assume it must have the perfect answer. The opposite is usually the case. AI is best used to assist, not replace, the modern marketer. [Ryan Law](https://www.linkedin.com/in/thinkingslow), the VP of Content at Animalz, laid so much emphasis on this in an article titled [Content Cyborg](https://www.animalz.co/blog/the-content-cyborg/) co-written with Angela Rollins. They said; > “The goal isn't to write everything with AI — the goal is to get great results from our content." > “It's a human writer’s job to seed the generated content with information gain, to add real-life examples; customer stories; accurate, trusted, and relevant data; product mentions; CTAs.” They are not the only professionals with this principle. [Karthik Manoharan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/karthik-manoharan-7903b4155), Co-founder of WeCodee explained that: “His biggest lesson from using AI in marketing is that you can't blindly rely on recommendations from AI tools.” [How AI can help your SaaS company to scale and achieve retentionWith qualitative and quantitative insights from the leading minds in SaaS, this article showcases how AI can scale your SaaS org at pace today.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/AI.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-ai-can-help-your-saas-company-to-scale/) He also said: > “We spent around $10,000 on ad-spend over a period of three months, with $300 for the tool. The result – crickets. Why? Because the channel was inappropriate. Our target customers were C-level executives who won't trust an ad.” So, never be tempted to take everything AI-generated, hook, line, and sinker. Here are some strategies marketers use to stay in control - Follow a strict content guideline: Unless you use to find a way to use a magic prompt, it's difficult for AI to satisfy your content guideline intent - Check for tone: When AI writes your headline, you don’t want it to sound like a Buzzfeed type of headline. - Get buy-ins from executive members: This is not permission to descend into a content-by-committee approach. Rather, an encouragement to agree to a specific outcome with executive members and stick to the process that helps you achieve such a result. ## **Train writers to use the tool** “AI in the hands of skilled practitioners—whether writers, photographers, or social media managers—is far more powerful than AI alone," said May Habib, the Founder, and CEO of [Writer](https://writer.com/). While some writers feel the upsurge of AI tools is a downfall for their career, other intentional writers see these tools as an ally that will boost their performance at their workplaces. Here's what Dan Shipper, the CEO of Every, had to say about using AI creatively: ![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/JSoEQe0nBIXzPE66zv_NY1BI9Jk53CtMLcxhANOQhYH7Zt_8b9PvudyHaQEAyCkLnHWzLjDVEdwLT-40uuwq01S9bQ9ZcgFm3pTBpKeBHYFr_PBbFiRHNPkiFNHv2tN97ZElYB5Tz93iULzZgYjlwZw) One lesson from Dan: Go creative with AI or go bland. The key is to encourage your content team to go the extra mile to learn how to use these tools effectively and efficiently. But this is what you must know: The machine is only as good as your input. If you want the best results from AI, train your writers to use it. This way, the AI is trained to generate better results from prompts. To stay ahead, CIOs need to be creative. [If there is no AI talent available, another possibility is to invest in training programs for employees](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-01-21-gartner-survey-shows-37-percent-of-organizations-have) with backgrounds in statistics and data management. Some organizations also create job shares with ecosystem and business partners. ## **Use AI to automate the process** Picture these two scenarios: You use an AI content brief builder to churn out briefs for your writers, then you fact check the brief and prune out excesses **vs**. taking many hours to create a solid content brief—more time is taken, content execution is slower. However, many content professionals might opt for the latter; while that’s great — I'm not surprised — it’s time-consuming because you have a lot of work to do in other steps of the content publishing process. So, It's better to automate specific minute content processes to scale execution. But this doesn't mean over-relying on AI to automate all processes; you must fact-check and edit every automated process to ensure that it is void of error and specific. I spoke to Teemu Raitaluoto, the founder of [AIContentfy](https://aicontentfy.com/); he told me how he scaled his site to 15k in traffic using AIcontentfy — an AI content generator tool. ![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/zM-oyzva7P5Pqnd-ObAPLcyx_CVKqwq7vrklQrtiqu3A5p-3PygU2zJBViEDoI2KmiszRkUWb1mvL0CTeHseumM85cjarXa2HgwPxrM-R71gXTD-9UTbBYM5ULkgsdN6bztrv5S_jrUXHjGwTx9Vac8) However, he used this tool to create top of funnel content — this further buttresses the fact that this technology will not wholly replace thought leadership content. So what should you do? Use AI to automate minute content processes and publish top of funnel content. I'm not the only one that thinks so… Daniel Burstein, Senior Director, Content & Marketing, MarketingSherpa, and MECLABS Institute, said: “[For more complex, emotional topics, it is much harder for AI to create quality content](https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/chart/artificial-intelligence) that will attract backlinks from truly authoritative websites." You should seek an adept, advanced writer who either knows your industry well or has a track record of learning about an industry quickly and creating value. ## **Draw out a compliance routine and be ethical** [The recent U.S. blueprint aims to protect society from harmful AI, ](https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/what-it-takes-to-make-ai-safe-and-effective)reminding all developers and users of AI models that they need to build safeguards into their AI models and strategies. Organizations that don’t manage AI risk are much more likely to experience negative AI outcomes. Models won’t perform as intended, and there will be security and privacy failures, financial and reputational loss, and individual harm. AI that is carried out wrongly can also cause organizations to make poor business decisions. But that's not all. You must be ethical about the use of AI. Imagine this; you are the head of content or content manager. How would you feel when you find out that some of your team’s content has been scrapped and plagiarized on other websites? [Daniel Burstein](http://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/about/#daniel-burstein-bio), Senior Director, Content & Marketing, MarketingSherpa, explained that: > “While ripping off others is certainly nothing new, technology can magnify the problem. As a writer myself, I’ve often seen my articles stolen. While content scraping is frustrating enough, black-hat AI-written content is even more infuriating because they mangle your writing. I’ve stumbled across my writing butchered on LinkedIn by AI mixing it with other articles. I’ve even had poorly AI-spun descriptions of the How I Made It In Marketing podcast emailed back to me in pitches.” ## **“AI is a robot perched on your shoulder….”** “AI is a robot perched on your shoulder. AI is not the creator at the keyboard", said Ann Handley, author of Everybody Writes. “Will AI improve my content marketing practices?" Yes, it will, but you must intentionally execute the points in this post. You can stand out in your industry and create content that accomplishes a goal without cutting corners—copying and pasting or scrapping other content. It's possible. Remember, you are the boss! Control AI and maximize to the fullest. --- *Enjoyed this article? Why not check out exclusive insights from the leading minds in SaaS with a Future of SaaS membership plan? 👇* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How can you boost customer advocacy through social media listening? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-can-you-boost-customer-advocacy-through-social-media-listening/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:35:54.000Z Dreaming of autonomous business growth and a loyal customer fanbase that provides unprompted free marketing? … Welcome to the endless possibilities of social media listening and customer advocacy! In highlighting the importance of both customer advocacy and social media listening, this article will provide key strategies for business growth. These tools will also increase customer retention and expand your network of potential customers. This post will be divided into the following topics, so let’s jump in. - [What exactly is customer advocacy?](https://www.saasalliance.io/p/3df7dd9d-905a-44a5-8523-160c884818b0/#what-exactly-is-customer-advocacy) - [Why is customer advocacy so crucial?](https://www.saasalliance.io/p/3df7dd9d-905a-44a5-8523-160c884818b0/#why-is-customer-advocacy-so-crucial) - [What is social media listening?](https://www.saasalliance.io/p/3df7dd9d-905a-44a5-8523-160c884818b0/#what-is-social-media-listening) - [How can it be adopted as a tool for growth?](https://www.saasalliance.io/p/3df7dd9d-905a-44a5-8523-160c884818b0/#how-can-it-be-adopted-as-a-tool-for-growth) - [Final thoughts‌‌](https://www.saasalliance.io/p/3df7dd9d-905a-44a5-8523-160c884818b0/#final-thoughts) ## What exactly is customer advocacy? One of the hotter topics in business strategy in recent years, customer advocacy is the act of fostering and maintaining relationships with loyal, reliable customers. A strategy earned through consistent quality and exceptional customer service, customer advocacy sees loyal customers market your company for you, recommending your products or services to others and providing positive feedback. [5 awesome tips for building a customer advocacy programBuilding a customer advocacy program can really accelerate your business and drive revenue! The ultimate goal for any department within an organization is to have a representative at the table during those crucial C-suite meetings. We want to convince senior stakeholders that you can drive results.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/benjamin-davies-FiZTaNTj2Ak-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/) ## Why is customer advocacy so crucial? Nothing says more about your company or brand than good reviews from regular customers! Potential customers will always respond positively to existing customer feedback as it proves firsthand that you are proactive in listening and responding to customer needs. [Customer advocacy is key to business growth](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-turning-customers-into-advocates/) as it helps you connect to potential customers and interact further with existing ones, finding new ways to improve their experience and make them feel valued. It also cements your reputation as a trusted source, increasing customer retention and loyalty as they know they can rely on both the quality of your product and your willingness to engage with feedback. Adopting a customer advocacy strategy = boosting your business’ overall revenue, it’s as simple as that!‌‌ ## What is social media listening? With [4.59 billion social media users worldwide in 2022](https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/?ref=futureofsaas.io), everything happens via social media platforms today, and harnessing the power of social media has become key to the building of any business. Social media listening is one of the most important ways this harnessing can be integrated into your business strategies. A true insight into your customer’s mind, social media listening monitors mentions of your brand, product, or service through posts, comments, or reviews on social media platforms. The social listening tool gathers information about the social media conversations that are currently happening surrounding the keywords or topics associated with your brand or product. ‌‌But how will social media listening increase your conversions and boost your retention? That's what we're here to find out. ## How can it be adopted as a tool for growth? Social media listening is able to provide invaluable insights into your current customer base and wider target audience. You no longer have to assume what customers want, you can actually see it in their comments, whether positive or negative. As a monitoring process, social media listening can track when customers mention your brand and enable you to respond to social posts thoughtfully, which in turn will prompt customer loyalty and boost retention. [SaaScast: Turning customers into advocatesSo, you have really loyal customers? That’s great. But are you making those testimonials sing for your SaaS business? In other words, are you turning your customers into fierce champions for your organization?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Ryan-O-Connell-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-turning-customers-into-advocates/) This shows you are connecting with and actively listening to your customers and value their feedback. Adopting social media listening will help you towards building customer advocacy, which is often why it’s referred to as the first step in the customer advocacy process. Here are some of the key reasons why it is such a crucial tool: ### Improved customer service Social media listening allows you to improve your customer service, by better understanding the needs of your customers and responding to any comments or feedback, you are showing your customers they are being heard. Tracking negative comments as well as positive ones, means you can offer solutions to any problems and listen to what dissatisfied customers have to say, taking their feedback on board. This will prove your company’s dedication to customer service, but also, as this interaction is occurring via social media, it signals to potential customers your willingness to help and improve, ultimately bringing in further business. By using social media listening to promptly and thoughtfully respond to customers, you are able to establish trust and further cement a relationship, boosting future customer advocacy.‌‌ [![black and white bold letters on poster saying we hear you](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/wehearyou-3.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-can-you-boost-customer-advocacy-through-social-media-listening) ### Greater understanding of your target audience This point speaks for itself, by using social media listening to monitor what is being said, you can track and identify the types of customers engaging with your product or service and better understand your target audience. With both B2B and B2C companies, you can monitor the keywords, language, search trends, and questions that are being asked, and adjust your content or marketing in a way that appeals to this target audience even more than before. By building content that is more relatable or relevant, you are increasing engagement and establishing yourself as a company that customers will return to, slowly building a loyal fanbase of customer advocates. ‌‌ ### Highlighting potential gaps in your business Social media often gives users the platform to express themselves in ways that they might hold back on in customer surveys or other direct company-based requests for feedback. Though this may feel counteractive, social media listening can help you identify these weaknesses or shortcomings that your customers are flagging up in posts or reviews. [How to boost your customer retention with social mediaSocial media is one of the best channels to use to improve your retention. With over 3.6 billion people using social media globally, it’s not only great for reaching out to wider audiences, but also for getting to know and engaging with current clients.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/adem-ay-Tk9m_HP4rgQ-unsplash--2-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-boost-your-customer-retention-with-social-media/) Listening to these customers and tracking themes in questions or comments can provide the opportunity to retain customers and improve on your product or service in general. Using social media listening to monitor the topics, keywords, and questions of your customer base and target audience also allows you to better understand your competition and how you compare, recognizing places for improvement or growth and using it to your advantage. This is also a great way of highlighting gaps within your industry and adjusting accordingly. ### ‌‌Engaging with trends in your industry Following on from this, these social media listening tools can help to monitor and stay on top of what is trending, matching, or surpassing competitors. By proving your company’s relevance and ability to stay on trend, you are better able to establish yourself as an innovator and figure of authority within your industry, improving loyalty, customer advocacy, and revenue growth. In the age of social media, being informed on the ever-evolving trends and changes in your industry has never been more important in understanding what customers, existing and potential, want. ‌‌ [![A person scrolling through their phone](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/04/checking-phone-3.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-can-you-boost-customer-advocacy-through-social-media-listening) ### Connecting with other influencers and ambassadors Social media listening can also help you to identify the influencers and brands in your industry that align most closely with your own company’s values, target audience, and content. Working in a similar way to identifying and staying on top of trends, connecting with these influencers or brands can provide insight and knowledge of different potential marketing strategies, leveraging their respect to further build your own. If these influencers are also well known to your customers, collaborating with them also increases the chance of retaining and engaging these customers further, keeping them coming back for more! ‌‌ ## Final thoughts The thought of trawling through and monitoring the entirety of social media for these comments feels like a very daunting task, but luckily there’s a wealth of software that is able to help condense this data for you!‌‌ Social media listening tools that can help with this process, are becoming more and more popular, with software such as HubSpot Social Media Management Software, Sprout Social, Falcon.io, or Hootsuite, being some of the more recent software additions. ‌‌ Social media listening is a crucial business development strategy and when used and adopted correctly will successfully boost customer advocacy. Building trust and relationships through listening and responding to customer needs and feedback, is essential to making the customer feel valued and listened to. ‌‌ This will make them far more likely to stay and keep supporting your business, eventually becoming [customer advocates who will aid your marketing ](https://www.saasalliance.io/establishing-a-customer-marketing-strategy-and-developing-advocates/)efforts tenfold, increasing customer retention and overall revenue growth. What could be better than a loyal fanbase that helps your business and brand grow autonomously behind the scenes, unprompted and unpaid? Well, look no further than the flourishing movement of social media listening tools. --- *Like what you see? Why not get all the exclusive insights from some of the leading minds in the industry with a FoSaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Take your seat at the table: master the C-suite URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/take-your-seat-at-the-table-master-the-c-suite/ Last updated: 2023-04-06T09:58:57.000Z **Succeeding in the SaaS space is tough enough as it is, but to succeed in the C-suite we need to kick it up a notch.** As a member of the C-suite, you’re going to be managing a multitude of high-level demand, so take the reins with our [C-suite masterclass](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass?ref=developermarketing.io), a program that offers: 💻 6 live & online masterclasses ⏰ 8 hours of ondemand content 💬 7 discussion sessions 🤝 2 hours of social activities 📖 A guided, reflective journal 🏅Official certification **Next cohort: August 28th to December 16th** [ Enroll Here ](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass) ## What is the C-suite masterclass? Whether it’s spearheading several high-priority projects, masterminding growth initiatives, or forecasting revenue goals, you’re gonna need to be armed with actionable strategies from some of the leading minds in SaaS in order to really crush it. Yeah you heard us right, we said **actionable.** In this course you won’t be inundated with abstract theory, it’s time to take proactive steps to prepare you for stepping into that C-suite role. Across four months in the C-suite Masterclass, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the intricacies of the C-suite, the key stakeholders you need to work with, and the skills and knowledge you need to excel in the C-suite. You’ll take part in extensive online tutorial sessions and in-person workshops led by C-suite masters. This course boasts an enviable cohort of CMOs, CFOs, and even CEOs, to give you the most complete perspective on all the components of an effective C-suite, and what your place needs to be in them. Expert insights + the Alliance group’s tried-and-tested approach to accelerating senior business development and education. The result can only mean one thing: your top resource for taking you to the next level as a marketing leader. Enroll today to start your journey to being a C-suite master. [ Enroll Here ](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass) As a C-suite master, you’ll enhance… ## Your leadership skills While you might have held leadership roles in the past, once you’re in the C-suite there are new responsibilities and methods that you need to be prepared for. ## Your understanding of the C-suite As businesses become more complex, the C-suite must rise to the challenge. It’s essential that you understand the essential stakeholders, their functions and responsibilities, and how you fit into everything. ## Your ability to progress your career Not only will you be prepared to move into the C-suite role, you’ll be equipped with the skills to adapt and evolve within the C-suite, move laterally to other roles within the C-suite, or even advance comfortably into a CEO position. ## Your networking This course is an excellent opportunity to develop a network of C-suite and aspiring C-suite peers, whether it’s your fellow students, or the experts taking the courses. ## Your ability to impact your business By equipping yourself with the knowledge to navigate the C-suite, you’ll be able to make sure your function within the business is properly driving results that are aligned with your business goals. Whether you’re looking to make that big step into the C-suite, fresh into a new role, or looking to refresh your knowledge, this course will prepare you for pretty much anything the C-suite could throw at you. You might be a marketing strategy maestro. You might have the leadership skills to inspire your team or department. But once you’re in the C-suite, it’s essential that you’re ready for the new responsibilities that come with the position, and how best to navigate your interactions with other stakeholders. [ Enroll Here ](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass) ## What's included when I enroll? Here's a glimpse of what you'll gain: 👩‍🏫 Develop an understanding of various theoretical viewpoints with 6 masterclass sessions from leading experts. 🗣️Discuss and debate topics relevant to each module with 7 facilitated discussion sessions. 📘 Reflect on your learning with a guided reflective journal. ⏰ Learn from different perspectives with 8 hours’ worth of OnDemand content. 🎉 Grow your network with a social activity at the start and end of the program. 🤝 Continue to connect with peers with a private Slack community for C-suite masterclass alumni. 📚Continue to streamline your approaches with lifelong access to program content and presentations. ✅ Test your understanding, and help secure your coveted certification with 60 exam questions. 🔖 Prove your knowledge and skills with an official certification. [ Enroll Here ](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass) ## By the end of this masterclass, you’ll be able to confidently: **Develop** exemplary soft skills required for C-Suite execs, including but not limited to, resilience, prioritization, time-keeping, business strategies, investment, decision-making, budgets, and emotional intelligence. **Acknowledge** cultural differences and develop cultural management when leading large teams by assessing the organizational culture to foresee how it may assist or hinder change. **Recognize** the typical structure of a corporate finance team and the key roles within that team. **Identify** the success factors and key components of ‘disruptive leadership’ and a change management approach. **Quickly** establish a company-wide vision and framework for developing and implementing a winning strategy. **Identify** how organizations achieve hard-to-imagine results in uncertain and volatile times. **Build** effective data visualizations and tell compelling stories about those visualizations that will convince and persuade your employees or board of directors to act. **Navigate** important leadership issues that are often overlooked, like maintaining your mental health, hurdling imposter syndrome, and managing your work/life balance. Where can I sign up? [ Enroll Here ](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass) # FAQs **Q: Who is this course for?** A: This is for Director and VP-level professionals who wish to, or are expecting to, transition into a C-Suite leadership role. But, if you’re a newly appointed C-suiter who’s keen to explore how other like-minded professionals have led teams or sustained organizational performance levels, then you’ll thrive in this program, too. **Q: How does the course work?** A: This masterclass spans a four-month period. So, alongside the modules, there’ll be interactive sessions where you can listen to different viewpoints from C-suite executives, and discuss questions with them afterward. Once the modules are complete, you’ll have some exams and assignments to pass. **Q: How long will the course take to complete?** A: This course is designed to be equal parts comprehensive and comprehensible. Between the modules, discussions, and exams, it will take approximately 25 hours to complete. **Q: How do I pass this program?** A: In order to pass this program, you’ll be asked to complete a short exam, two practical tasks, and one written assignment from a list of topics. Then, you’ll present your findings from this assignment to a panel of experts after the program has ended. **Q: How long will I have access to the course content?** A: Always and forever! One payment gives you permanent access to our C-suite masterclass’s course content… and future updates and templates. 😎 [ Sign up for the C-suite masterclass today ](https://certified.thealliance.io/course/c-suite-masterclass) --- ***Other courses you may be interested in include:*** - [Persona Certified: Masters](https://future-of-saas.teachable.com/p/persona-certified-masters?%5Fgl=1%2Ar90xks%2A%5Fga%2ANTYyODc2NjAyLjE2NTM0NzEzMTc.%2A%5Fga%5F227NRQHH28%2AMTY4MDcwMjkzNy45MDguMS4xNjgwNzAzMTA2LjAuMC4w) - [Segmentation Certified: Masters](https://future-of-saas.teachable.com/p/segmentation-certified-masters?%5Fgl=1%2Av32gss%2A%5Fga%2ANTYyODc2NjAyLjE2NTM0NzEzMTc.%2A%5Fga%5F227NRQHH28%2AMTY4MDcwMjkzNy45MDguMS4xNjgwNzAyOTQ5LjAuMC4w) ### 'It's helped me solve pain points' - Claudia Tanega, Sr Product Manager URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/its-helped-me-solve-pain-points-claudia-tanega-sr-product-manager/ Last updated: 2023-03-31T13:23:20.000Z If you’re looking to really crush it in the SaaS sector, we know you’re looking for… 📚 An infinite resource for SaaS content. 🤝 A place to exchange with fellow SaaS leaders. 👔 First dibs on professional opportunities within the SaaS space. Look no further than the FoSaaS Slack community. Our members have already seen the unique benefits, but don’t just take it from us. Take it from Senior Product Manager, Claudia Tanega. Check out the full account of her positive experiences right here, and see what you’re really missing. 👀 ## A little background on Claudia A SaaS org is an unwieldy ship that needs many steady hands on deck to steer it. And not just that, given the broad range of functions in a SaaS org, it demands a pretty diverse set of talent to keep it on course for success. Responsible for getting your SaaS dream from ideation to realization, product managers are an integral part of the SaaS puzzle. Luckily our blog boasts a treasure trove of rich content for product managers to dive into. Just take it from Claudia. 👇 **Claudia**: 'I’m a Senior Global Product Manager developing a practitioner platform for a global science-based supplement company. I’ve been with the company for 5 months. I have been a product manager for 10 years now. I originally started my career in ad agencies, moved to marketing in house for a brand then transitioned to Product Management using a waterfall process of managing development through vendors. I finally took a hybrid product role in a company and completed CSPO training so I could work in an agile process.' ## How has this community benefited you professionally? The SaaS sector is a rapidly evolving space, and there are always new trends, with their own catchy buzzwords, to get to grips with. We’re all about enabling you to integrate new developments into your growth strategy, but how can you use what you can’t define? You can’t. That’s why our content hub will help you break down new issues and initiatives, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses, and clearly outlining how they can be used in **concrete, practical** terms. This is what separates Future of SaaS from other thought leadership that’s out there. We type a lot of words, sure, but always with a view to translate them into actionable strategies. Claudia highlights this quality here. 👇 **Claudia**: 'I've been reading and reviewing new innovative software tools that the community is announcing or sharing. It’s helped me look at other tools to solve some of my paint points. The recent post about “The importance of reducing customer cognitive load” was helpful. My head of product was using this buzzy statement without defining it. I guessed what he meant but it was helpful to get a written perspective of it so I can formulate a story when I present my work to executive leadership.' And there you have it! The Future of SaaS community is an excellent resource for SaaS thought leadership, an education hub for aspiring SaaS enthusiasts, and a friendly platform for networking with your SaaS peers. Join the community [here](https://www.saasalliance.io/join-the-fosaas-community/), and see what you're missing. ### Engagement and intelligence: The key to unlocking predictable, efficient growth URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/engagement-and-intelligence-the-key-to-unlocking-predictable-efficient-growth/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:57:01.000Z *This article was adapted from a presentation given by Alex at* *at the Revenue Acceleration Festival in May 2022 when he was Director of Commercial Sales at Outreach. At the time of this publication, he's currently Director of Sales at Catalyst Software.* --- My name is Alex Kremer, I’m the **Director of Commercial Sales at Outreach**. In this article, I’ll talk about the key to unlocking predictable and efficient growth and how we go about doing that by solving ‘the sales execution gap’. **Here’s our main talking points:** - The sales execution gap - B2B sales is complex and dynamic - What does the sales execution gap look like when the system is failing you? - Close the sales execution gap with engagement & intelligence Let’s go ahead and dive in. 👇 ## **The sales execution gap is widening** [![A graph showing the level of actual performance dropping over time while potential performance goes up.](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/V5DaN0WMlIbrvMj_f1p1FBxWo14NMPGI9J5772zn8kKrjEMwOSzC2jB1ZgDUpBcLK-Tmq0wGZW8W8S8Zvw14Jr_biWJwsbWZch1qNEkJ1yuLHhZHMsXVWkHvLGwZ8zaZWXnhIpJdhHPOvCE27lQNt2CNJ-or_RKwk13vpBJKutOVkw1-YXOCnPSACw)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/engagement-and-intelligence-the-key-to-unlocking-predictable-efficient-growth) You (whether it be a rep, a team, or organization) have the potential and the ability to hit massive numbers and to provide value to the world and your customers - but the actual performance, the numbers you end up producing fall way short of that. This is the sales execution gap. The traditional way that many organizations have gone about trying to solve this problem by hiring more sellers or introducing new products. > More volume, more activity, more leads, and it's still not working and it’s now an outdated type of model. The question becomes: what is going on in the marketplace today that's causing this gap? Especially when the typical way we used to solve it is no longer working? This is a very important question and if you're not asking yourself this, you're gonna be left behind in the dust. ## **B2B sales is complex and dynamic…** [![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/z23DJWGCmUi8tAzaq7pLCvAcxn9v7fhgjEQfQ7DZcVhk_QIiiAaWSjBCtzfaJswqrMHWy3mQuVHFEoaxRz3BPr-uMfB117V_kAPzs2TOHm-ql2SgKgIqEhgqpdo9C7CH9x_SbJfVtsyjsdq1as0CssALl5Ov3ocmNYFr-RsN2MJIXiIxQNno3KL6cw)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/engagement-and-intelligence-the-key-to-unlocking-predictable-efficient-growth) The B2B sales world is more complex and dynamic than it has ever been. You're getting pinged on Slack or on your email, you have Zoom meetings back-to-back, and you're also getting Instagram and Facebook hits. **There’s noise everywhere.** People are also busier than they have ever been before. Whether it’s in meetings and traveling, or taking care of their kids while they’re working from home, it’s tough. While there’s more noise that you need to break through, once *you do* break through how do you get people to engage with you? ### **With dozens of stakeholders…** [![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/5Jm42vboYW2UKIkd9ABW3t4Xlbev2uj-GLElkrxGKpZXsMiiNP4NO9HfSbUAgj5mathmhZRIZgsaT7RKAqg9cnHIQv6uN0qP3f3iez8g4V8bgRIuKo_dF7PSUAaf1CAfjHaQ3si2jzz3qA_1qOS1nrAERD1TSQ2jH-R2I6oZx1npDnPIviE5JbAqYQ)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/engagement-and-intelligence-the-key-to-unlocking-predictable-efficient-growth) Now, between seven to nine people are engaged in every single decision process. The most recent statistic is saying between 15 to 21. It's no longer one single person making a decision on behalf of a department, **but instead dozens of stakeholders** in units from each department. If I'm talking to a sales operations team, there's five to six people from that department evaluating this. That's in conjunction with the sales organization, who has five to six people making this decision as well as the marketing organization and so on. ### **… and hundreds of seller-buyer interactions** [![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ZnpRhYW0MJv5ykvcqcFmKub5LNRGVWeAkyqIdZrqdvwHKzetJbOBIA20E3G6g0FsFbE3UwoFK5QT2Mntzl0qO6bqsStAHMuOsO7_RRVnETDbueaLksNeiTC_sFmely4B0J2BrHbWjoHXnhlTuhSBHUoQi8oZ3DIPbfi63EXRWRd-5KFK0107mH7H8Q)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/engagement-and-intelligence-the-key-to-unlocking-predictable-efficient-growth) People have already made the decision on which product or vendor they're going to go with even before they've had the conversation with anybody from the sales team because buyers are being flooded with more information than ever before. You can get information through whitepapers, live webinars or even research you receive from a colleague. Whatever it might be, people are smarter and in a new age of leadership, technology, and B2B sellers. ## **What does the sales execution gap look like when the system is failing you?** [![Inefficient prospecting, inconsistent deal management, and inaccurate revenue forecasting across activities, interactions, meetings, opportunities and sales.](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/VDiHDFlS2zrZPNjjSGQqZYVt1vRD0RB83itrQu28_a43u6WPbTFIuS3UcHmXqbW4YMpYQFe7tiSbd86oX5kqIiT_Qbt6RbFqEBihQt8VJd-vEAHZfs2gUzaxaAVOyrfUrnU4Rx4FMAF-kYLFQuhJocONUNKz1aouavLvu6jRrRpMtgtAFqb4INpnbw)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/engagement-and-intelligence-the-key-to-unlocking-predictable-efficient-growth) When you look across an entire funnel of how a prospect goes through the customer journey, there’s three different parts: - Prospecting, - Deal management, - Revenue forecasting. If I have 100 different types of sellers, there's most likely 100 different ways people go about prospecting. How do you create a process where everybody is doing the right thing so there's no longer inefficient prospecting? Then, once you get these people engaged, how do you make sure that when people are showing up to the meetings, they’re being effective? Inaccurate revenue forecasting will impact both board confidence, and your confidence in making your decisions which will impact shareholder confidence in you. ## **Close the sales execution gap with engagement & intelligence** [![Continous improvement feedback loop: efficient proven prospecting playbooks, consistent deal management and visibility, predictable revenue forecasting across activity, interactions, meetings, opportunities, sales. ](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/JJ_bkkTJAfq6j39qqyhJwg2qnU9OxI8eSWnJ9Jtb2LXge5r6AVXrlxtAR8FKtw_4GPuvHPD9l3gyWGgvk-svT3Hu32UpH9jn0dgPCwZlbSzNEEuxdevNJq6QJzuNlTpylDecS-5cBfO1ipqtUGviBZNUhXSAUxdG-08-juu5n2c-SnrQyGyTsIhHQQ)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/engagement-and-intelligence-the-key-to-unlocking-predictable-efficient-growth) The engagement and intelligence platform starts with the activity, then moves towards understanding how people are responding and interacting with that activity. Once that has occurred, you’re getting the data that tells you whether or not it’s working - and you can form an understanding of how to continually optimize your process. ### **Activity** Just because it worked the first time doesn’t mean it's going to be working the second, third or fourth time. You need to gain visibility in order to understand what is resonating with people vs. what is not. For example, at Outreach we sent urgency-oriented messaging to our prospects pre-Covid. Once Covid hit, we realized we were getting very little responsiveness and people weren’t engaging with us the right way. We actually ended up doing some A/B testing to change to more empathetic and softer messaging with how we engage with the market. > This change in messaging strategy paid off and we were booking more meetings. You need the entire funnel open and visible to you to know how to make those changes, and **the messaging has to be different for different audiences**. A C-level person is most likely getting hit up a lot more than a frontline manager, so you need to have a lot more personalization to stick out through the noise and get them to engage with you. A frontline manager might not be getting hit up as much, so you can have a bit more of a one-size-fits-all approach to your messaging. Communication channels in your messaging are also important. Someone in sales leadership might engage more with calls, whereas someone in IT or security might engage more with email. > You need to gain an understanding of how the activity should happen. ### **Interactions** From there, we also need to understand what the sentiment of the responses was. If all the responses you’re getting are “I'm not the right person” or “unsubscribe”, and you’re doubling down on that message then it’ll produce more negative outcomes. You need to open up the black box and start to understand whether the responses you’re getting are **good or bad responses**. ### **Meetings** Once you’re getting meetings, you need to make sure people are actually showing up to them by doing a repeated process around confirmation of the meetings and sending them relevant information to **make sure they're showing up**. If they don't show up, there needs to be a process that makes sure you're following up with them in a consistent manner. ### **Opportunities** Landing the opportunity relies on how well that rep goes about answering questions with confidence so that they can be seen as a trusted adviser. There needs to be a process, platform, and technology that shows the difference between you and your competitor - and a content card that can pop up to support what your rep is saying in real time. It needs to be up to the manager to have an effective conversation and know how to support the rep to become a better sales professional. > Always having a continuous feedback loop across the entire process. This is the **new age of go-to-market** and what needs to change is both how organizations sell and coach the reps to be better sales professionals and leaders to accurately forecast up chain. This is how the C-level, RevOps, the board, and the shareholders start to feel confident that this is a finely-tuned machine that’s operating well. All we have to do is execute and run the process. ### **Optimize** As long as we’re running it, we will start to see when it's going well and when it's not. When it’s not, this is a way we can better optimize. > If you're not at least aware that there's an opportunity to improve, you will be behind. If you do not get on the bandwagon of leveraging technology to support yourself, your organization and your customers, you will become irrelevant very soon. ### **Concrete results** [![A graph displaying improvements across activity, interactions, meetings, opportunities, sales. ](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/IVgcS7MVEdTXdCvOsxlj5iF5tlYoSiQt757Gpvo8QK8u6pt9rMlsk6_kt5bblT0hfJ8RqvmTi1VVzJFl_mB3juEeAfkZpP_Cy9eupAhb58S6WmZKUDXuwkDiqJrn8_9DYHq_tSG-bUjusEt-Xyx-D_gi0EZmgFpmv-QQoihaEWCymtn8u6lRENqgJw)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/engagement-and-intelligence-the-key-to-unlocking-predictable-efficient-growth) The activity month over month increased by 400%. We have a 26% positive response rate and a 39% objection rate on all the 400% increase in activity we did. We're booking 50% more meetings, people are showing up more to those meetings (and I can see the no-show rate on those meetings). I can then even see how many of these first meetings are turning into a follow-up meeting. In the end, you can predict how much revenue you’re going to be producing. This is how organizations will need to sell and if you are not, you'll be left behind. ## **Takeaways to ponder about** [![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/GotAV0Onz_NhZzB0bF21QwX1rhRhbCa2WEMvF-FXx4uZeYLlrK7m6vQajybs1TJBMGgtU_0G1h4TjTQRKDKNKq0-4KQaouzaOwFS173JwEFNj0Pas_rHTBftvAQI1aq_zzncBlVPCzbumpHGN6V4xq33tO1_UCSHTdTzhzBexKHlMRXjRa0hOBK6pw)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/engagement-and-intelligence-the-key-to-unlocking-predictable-efficient-growth) **Technology** - How are you arming your organization, preparing people and giving them the tools to be effective? **Coaching & leadership** - This will lead into your ability to be leveraging the technology to support you to do so and developing your people or being a strong leader and inspiring your people. **Culture** - Organizations are changing in terms of how they’re supporting people to feel more fulfilled at work and to feel like they're part of something greater than themselves by tapping into more mental health and awareness around this. There's a new wave that is coming about and you have to get on board and learn how to surf and swim because the times are changing, and you need to be part of it. Thank you. ### How to build the perfect customer success team in seven steps URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-the-perfect-customer-success-team-in-seven-steps/ Last updated: 2023-04-06T09:59:38.000Z High churn rates and low retention kills SaaS businesses fast. Why? Customers will go to competitors if they’re not happy with your product, service, or customer experience. And it’s easy for them to change their software choice without even sending any complaints. Before you know it, revenue drops and the company dissolves. How do you prevent this? Focus on customer retention by building a customer success team. [SaaScast: Turning customers into advocatesSo, you have really loyal customers? That’s great. But are you making those testimonials sing for your SaaS business? In other words, are you turning your customers into fierce champions for your organization?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Ryan-O-Connell-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-turning-customers-into-advocates/) Customer success influences the level of experience your SaaS provides to users. It helps users see the uncommon value in your product. In this post, we will show you how to build a customer success team that can increase customer retention, and convert people from passive users to brand enthusiasts. The post covers: - The roles customer success teams play in a business. - The core goals and benefits of a customer success team. - Key features of a customer success team. - 7 steps to build a customer success team from the ground up. - Common customer success roles you should know. Let’s jump in. ## What does a customer success team do? A customer success (CS) team helps users achieve desired results from your product. The CS team provides guides, technical support, and consultations for easy product adoption. They know your product in and out and can display your unique selling points to customers. Think of a content manager, John, in need of a SaaS landing page for getting email signups. But beyond that, his core interest is to convert leads to paying clients for his business. Assuming you run a SaaS landing page builder, and John is your target audience, our marketing team will attract John as a lead, while your sales team converts him to become a user. [Understanding how to best use AI in customer successThe thoughtful implementation of AI-enabled customer success platforms can greatly enhance Customer Success Managers’ (CSM) ability to maximize the value of customer data and ultimately help reduce churn and improve the overall health of client relationships.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLaura Lakhwara![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/the-world-lit-up.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/understanding-how-to-best-use-ai-in-customer-success-2/) But the journey doesn't end there. Your marketing and sales team can’t retain John, they’re out to attract and convert more customers. Instead, It’s the customer success team that is tasked with the responsibility to retain John. They do this by looking past John’s need for an email-capturing page, to discover his core desire–convert leads to paying clients. A customer success team sees beyond closing an account. They look for core problems your customers wish to solve with your product. And point out the unique product features that can help solve these problems. **The difference between customer support and customer success?** Customer support and customer success teams often work together, but they’re not the same. Customer support resolves technical faults that a customer may experience with your product. Meanwhile, the customer success team helps customers along their buyer’s journey. Customer success managers proactively offer guides to help customers get value from your product. ## What benefits does a customer success team bring to your business? Here’s how a customer success team can benefit you: - Reduce user churn rate. - Onboard new customers. - Upsell customers on subscription plans. - Share reports on customer objections and buying motivators with other departments. - Name the problem. ### **Reduce user churn rate** A customer success team keeps customers happy. They maintain interaction with users and commit to their every need. This is vital for customers because they want to feel seen by the brands they love and believe in. Customers often connect emotions to their buying choices, so they won’t hesitate to renew their plans when they’re happy with your brand. ### **Onboard new customers** Oftentimes, new customers are left alone to go through your product learning curve. An initial feeling of confusion clouds their minds. Buyer’s remorse kicks in, and some may cast your product aside and count their losses. A customer success team saves your customers the hassle of learning your product features all by themselves. [Customer success metrics that drive 95% retentionIn this article, I’ll be discussing the customer success metrics you should be tracking at each and every stage of the customer lifecycle. With them, you can drive retention and ensure your customer success function is successful in delivering value to the customer.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSwati Chopra![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/yoav-hornung-Qg6lPXJ6IL4-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) ### **Upsell customers on subscription plans** Most SaaS plans have different product levels. Each level is customized to suit different business sizes. But customers often need a subtle nudge to upgrade their SaaS plans. Have your CS team point out the benefits of an upgraded plan in an empathetic manner, and watch your business revenue spike. ### **Share reports on customer's objections and buying motivators with other departments** Your CS team is the bridge between your business and the users. They report complaints, requests, and objections most customers whine to them. They also report common features and benefits customers love the most. These reports are useful for customer acquisition and retention. The reports give insights on features your product design team should focus on. And help you plan to meet their expectations. ### **Name the problem** CS interacts the most with your customers, hence, they know the common terms customers use to describe their problems. This info helps you resonate on a deeper level with your audience. It makes your audience feel connected to your brand. **Have you ever noticed a person singing the same song playing in your head? Doesn’t it feel like the person can hear what you're thinking?** Although we fail to note when a person sings a different song from the one stuck in our heads. The moment a person sings the same song, we pay attention and feel connected somewhat. The same goes for your customers. They feel connected to your business when you personalize your content by using the same terms stuck in their head. Stackla's[ report](https://www.nosto.com/blog/consumer-behavior-stats/) reveals that 70% of consumers say it’s important for brands to offer a personalized experience. Naming the problem in your content is an authentic way to offer personalized content to your customers. ![graphic image with a text "building the customer success team" on it.](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/3uag9qUBVhLWd16EkWOoJz3YJcuIONCk-5yeZGLkrJrNsfyJ7VAkSPPuUculHRioPt7jT6rdYpSDZPHApgE9ckeuSHqzhP83p3ved2g_rqSKdKdip5LNeAuHGz9nNFkVb1Ve9ROsMiLJbXRTjDTAWU0 "7 steps to build a customer success team from the ground up") ## 7 steps to build a customer success team from the ground up Here are the common steps you need to build a customer success team: ### **1– Know your Ideal customers** Audience research remains the core strategy in the marketing world. This is because it helps you cut off guesswork in your marketing decisions. Doing any form of marketing with audience research is useful. One key metric customers use to weigh value is specificity. Nobody trusts a business without a target audience. So the first step to building your customer success team is to know what your audience's interests are and the channels they prefer. Your ideal customers are people who use your product, refer new customers to your SaaS, and are repeat buyers. For example, John is the Ideal Customer for our imaginary SaaS landing page builder. You spot ideal customers by: - Examining case studies and success stories from competitors. - Reading product reviews from review and user-generated channels. - Analyzing past interactions with customers. - Defining your customer's characteristics ### **2– Plan your customer success process** The next step is to set a process for customers to access your customer success team during their buyer's journey. What are the easiest touchpoints to reach your CS team? Identify areas where all your interactions with customers can be improved. Ask all front-line employees to share the common channels customers use to contact the team. ### **3– Build your customer success team: Hire or transfer the right people** Time to build your CS team. Building a customer success team isn't easy. It's not the same as hiring a marketing or sales team member. You should look for people who are passionate about your product and have empathy for customers. For top CS positions, you should transfer front-line employees from either marketing, sales, or HR department. It will take less time to train your new team when a bunch of them are from other departments. They know all about your product and work culture. But if you must hire talents to join your team, then you should focus on people with soft skills like: - Empathy - Patience - Problem-solving - Good communication skills - Product knowledge - Persuasion - Customer data analysis - Good salesperson - Collaborative skills It is also important to note the number of customers each team member can handle at a time. Let's say each CS specialist handles every need of 15 customers monthly. With this, you can discern how large you need your CS team to be. [“How much did you say?” Dissecting global customer success salariesA high salary can turn heads, and a low one can drive away employees. Most importantly, salaries set the precedent for industries and can influence the value of your own career.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSGrace Gupta![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/dollar.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-much-did-you-say-dissecting-global-customer-success-salaries/) ### **4– Set clear success metrics and goals for your CS team** Set up clear metrics and goals for your CS team to work with. With this, you can achieve a much more calculated result and track ROI. What success metrics should I focus on? Here are key metrics you can use to measure the ROI of your customer success team: Net Promoter Score (NPS): Net promoter score measures the average happy customers in your customer base. How many customers are likely to refer you to their peers? How many customers will sign up for a success story or case study review? And how many customers feel excited to share their success stories from using your product? These are the common questions you ask to measure NPS. You can get answers to your questions by sending surveys and emails to customers. Creating LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram polls might be helpful too. [Customer retention metrics and how to action themHow do successful SaaS organizations measure retention and what on earth do they with the results, I hear you cry? Well, we surveyed 100 SaaS pros to find out how they track, review and utilize retention and churn metrics, and here are the results.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/jakob-owens-CiUR8zISX60-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Customer lifetime value measures the amount of revenue your company can earn from a customer during the relationship. CLV helps you spot your best customers–the customers that buy the best plans and contribute the most revenue to your business. This metric helps you focus on retaining your best customers. You measure your CLV by evaluating your customer's average revenue value compared to the lifespan of customers on average. Customer churn rate: Customer churn rate is the percentage of customers you lose over time. Churn happens when customers fail to renew their subscription to your product. Most businesses aim to keep their churn rate at a minimum because the cost of customer acquisition–marketing campaigns, PPC, email marketing–is greater than the cost of customer retention. It is easier to save a leaving customer than win them back. Also, retained customers generate more revenue in a business. How do you calculate your customer churn rate? You can calculate your SaaS monthly churn by dividing the lost customers over a monthly period by the total customers at the start of the period, all multiplied by 100\. [Top 7 interview questions for customer success managersWith a subscription-based model, the power is well and truly in the hands of the customer, and if you want to stop customers from churning, you need to arm your org with an army of empathy experts.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/meeting.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-customer-success-managers/) For example, if a CRM company records 2361 customers at the start of a month. And then 1708 at the end of the same month, their churn rate will be 27.6%. Here's how: Repeat subscribers at the beginning of the month — Repeat subscribers at the end of the month Repeat subscribers at the beginning of the month 2361 – 1708 \------------------- X100 =27.6% 2361 ### **5– Acquire the Right Customer Engagement Tools** Complement your customer success effort with the right customer engagement tools. Let’s take a look at some valuable customer engagement tools your team may need. **Chatbots:** chatbots are getting better and more reliable by the day. The chatbot is one of the easiest points of interaction between your CS team and customers. Chatbots appear on the homepage of a business website. You can use platforms like giosg, proprof chats, chatfuel, or aivo, to build a chatbot. **Survey tools:** CS uses surveys to conduct customer research. It's a reliable method to note under-serving objections and complaints from customers. Surveys also make customers believe their opinions matter in your company. Use tools like SurveyMonkey, CSAT survey, Jotform, and Typeform. Twitter polls are also a low-barrier participation survey. ![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/8fZE4tj7P3MKoTvgU9CvgKUYBB6TBH5OvQ-u0oShqcIFScLdPGn28vTcfa4SnBJ8fuSbTh10cQqS8vo-a7NEjvMTINSuQA5LdLS-c9mtswTXUMyup9O7XHirtq-kPX49531U7kCuxZ96ZnbsvPs9Dwg) **Co-browsing tools:** Co-browsing tools allow you to share your screen with customers. This makes customer onboarding easier for your CS team and new customers. Examples of co-browsing tools include Fullview, Loom, Cobrowse, and Crisp. **Customer success software:** Customer success tool helps your CS team to spot trends, make reports, and keep tabs on customers' behavior. Common CS tools include Hubspot service hub, Gainsight, Chameleon, Tootango, and Custify. **Email marketing service provider:** Email marketing is a reliable two-way communication channel for customer success teams. between them and their customers. Common email marketing service providers include convertkit, GetResponse, Claviyo, or Campaign monitor. ### **6– Collaborate with Other Departments** You need to encourage cross-departmental collaboration between your CS team and other departments. Otherwise, you won't be able to improve your customer retention and reduce churn. This working relationship encourages a customer-centric culture in the company. The data reported by the customer success team influences the decision of employees. One example of a good collaborative relationship is the synergy between customer success and the product design team. The CS team observes the product features users enjoy the most, and communicates these findings to the product design team. With this knowledge, the product design team can make product upgrades that suit customers' needs. ### **7– Build a knowledge base for customers** As your customer success team grows, you’ll gain clarity on common questions your customers are asking. The best thing is to build a knowledge base in the form of video guides, FAQs, or whitepapers. These resources make it easy for customers to solve common problems by themselves. ## What are the common customer success positions you should know? Here are common customer success roles you should take into account: - Chief customer officer: Chief customer officer is not needed in small and medium-sized businesses(SMBs) but they contribute great value to large enterprises. The chief customer officer oversees training programs, sets customer success strategies, and presents customer success budgets to the c-suite board. - Customer success director: A customer success director oversees every interaction between CS specialists and customers. They also keep tabs on the customer data analyst team to discover trends and customer behavior changes. - Customer success team lead: The customer success team monitors the CS team's performance and tracks success metrics to weigh the performance of the team. The team lead ensures every CS member hits their target and aids career development by providing upskilling opportunities. - Customer success analyst: The role of the CS analyst is to analyze and interpret customer data for colleagues and other department heads. They work with the customer success director to draw customer success processes with the help of customer data. ![Customer success team](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/03/cco.png "common customer success team positions.") ## Your Customer Success team can inspire a customer-centric culture in your company Employees want to crush milestones, follow work routines, and take their paycheck home. For some, customers' needs might be an afterthought. But you can’t keep your best customers with this work mindset, it will reflect in every interaction and touchpoint employees have with customers. Customer centricity can’t be faked, either your employees have it or not. But with the help of your customer success team, you can build a customer-first work culture and then see customers as the top priority. For example, when your CS team speaks about the unseen interest of your customers to the entire staff, they will start taking mental notes of these interests. This takes away second guesses and makes employees make more informed decisions with their customers in mind. --- *Enjoyed this article? Why not check out exclusive insights from the leading minds in SaaS with a FoSaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### SaaScast: Negotiating SaaS Contracts URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-negotiating-saas-contracts-2/ Last updated: 2023-03-28T15:27:23.000Z Whether you’re a SaaS startup looking to build that all important tech stack, or you’re closing a deal with a really crucial customer, if you don’t have a solid process for contract negotiation, it can create real friction when closing deals. And believe us, that’s a real headache. How many costly hours and resources are wasted because startups don’t have a rigorous process in place for closing contracts? According to Mark Sherwood Edwards of Clearview legal, a heck of a lot. Listen to this riveting new discussion to find out how you can: 🛠 Establish a process for contract negotiation ✅ Create a frictionless process 🤝 Prepare your org for contract negotiation Say goodbye to messy contracts, listen here. 👇 [‎SaaScast: SaaScast | Negotiating SaaS Contracts on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep SaaScast | Negotiating SaaS Contracts - 28 Mar 2023![](https://t3.gstatic.com/faviconV2?client=SOCIAL&type=FAVICON&fallback_opts=TYPE,SIZE,URL&url=https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/saascast-negotiating-saas-contracts/id1544750249?i=1000606314973&size=128)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts114/v4/b5/9a/da/b59ada82-7e01-599f-d06e-a6be4ee9c157/mza_8981349833046552751.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/saascast-negotiating-saas-contracts/id1544750249?i=1000606314973) ## A bit of background on Mark Mark has run his own legal business, Clearview Legal, helping companies negotiate smarter, more profitable, contracts. He is valued for his blend of commercial and legal analysis, and for his ability to keep things simple and get things done quickly. He publishes a weekly email called Oh Lawdy! It looks at the intersection of SaaS businesses and law, provides insight and commentary about contracts, IP, data and other legal/commercial issues. If you want to subscribe to Oh Lawdy! send an email to mark@clearviewlegal.co.uk with Subscribe Me! in the subject header. ## Get involved Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Writer, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: [anthony@futureofsaas.io](https://mail.google.com/mail/u/2/#inbox?compose=GTvVlcSMScfpjGhpWsFcflrPFZwCxbnKGNxpbwVBqLPhVdWPqKtkRPMVtLdstPwvtNDdXxpRGrMpj). ### Everything you need to know when scaling your SaaS startup URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/everything-you-need-to-know-when-scaling-your-saas-startup/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:56:30.000Z *This article is adapted from a panel discussion that took place at Future of SaaS Festival 2022\. Listen to the full unedited talk OnDemand* [*right here*](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-3/)*.* Scaling your SaaS org can seem like a monumental task. Like a well-oiled machine, there are so many moving parts that need to be in sync in order to make it work. What if you could break each of the parts down and examine them one by one? Well, if there’s a group of people that have a discerning eye for what makes or breaks a SaaS org, it’s investors. Before taking that chance on your business, they’re gonna need to know that all the crucial components are in place to see a maximum return on investment. In this panel discussion from Future of SaaS Festival 2022, a seasoned investor, Michael Bereslavsky, and a SaaS Financing advisor, John Gallagher, chart the essential steps you need to grow (and keep growing) a viable SaaS business. **Key talking points include:** - Challenges of finding the right talent - Focusing on the right channels - How marketing spend is evolving - Equity vs debt financing - What investors and lenders look for - How to prepare to sell your business ## About our panelists **John Gallagher:** Let’s give a little color on our different backgrounds and what we do, just to frame the discussion. I run a finance company that helps various SaaS companies with growth, M&A, and investors. Michael, maybe you could give a little bit of background on what you do. **Michael Bereslavsky:** Sure. I run a small private equity firm, Domain Magnate. We acquire content and SaaS businesses, and we've been involved in that for close to two decades now. I'm excited to get into this discussion about SaaS businesses. **John Gallagher:** I'm sure you've seen a lot over the last 20 years. Obviously, SaaS and eCommerce are going through somewhat of a challenging time at the moment with valuations and investors, but that doesn't take away from the fact that most of these companies are very successful growing companies and will continue to be so. ## The challenges of finding the right talent to grow your SaaS business **John Gallagher:** With that, we’ll get into some growth chat. Whenever a company's looking to grow, there are certain fundamentals that they need to get right. From your experience, how can people best leverage talent to grow? **Michael Bereslavsky:** I'd say this is one of the primary indicators of a healthy growing SaaS business. However, it’s becoming increasingly difficult now as talent is more and more expensive. Still, it's essential to have great people, including a strong developer team, to bring a good product to market. **John Gallagher:** Absolutely. Without that healthy product, you're not going to win the customers and the growth that you're looking to achieve. And then once you have that product, getting it to market is key, and having experienced sales, marketing, and executive teams around that is fundamental in growing the business. ## Focusing on the right channels to grow your SaaS **John Gallagher:** What channels and marketing should people be focusing on when they're looking to grow? **Michael Bereslavsky:** That's a good question. These days, the easiest thing is to focus on paid traffic, and we see a lot of startups and up-and-coming SaaS businesses do that. It's scalable and it's easy. The downside, of course, is you have to have quite a bit of capital, and you have to make the numbers work because if you end up spending way more on acquiring visitors and customers than monetizing them, it will be challenging to present a compelling long-term vision to potential investors or acquirers. My recommendation is to focus more on SEO and other long-term channels. Building up some social assets and a good brand will help you get visitors much more cheaply. **John Gallagher:** Absolutely. Five or six years ago, people were just pouring money into digital spend. Nowadays, there's certainly a law of diminishing returns when it comes to digital marketing channels, so people are having to take a multi-pronged approach to their marketing. You've mentioned SEO. In a similar vein, we're big on content and trying to be out there in the market. We look at what our companies are doing in the arenas where their customers are, whether that's attending conferences, giving talks, or sharing content that will help their customers. ## How marketing spend is evolving **John Gallagher:** Do you see people using their marketing budgets in different ways now than they were a couple of years ago? **Michael Bereslavsky:** Yeah, I think people are more aware of the benefits of content now. We have a few SaaS companies in our portfolio, and we generally prefer to spend the marketing budget on content because it’s a long-term investment, as long as you have high-quality content that's going to keep bringing visitors who will convert to customers to your website. SEO is a good resource, but I would say it’s wise to first test your different channels, and then, once you have metrics to show which channels work better, you can allocate the budget based on what gives you the best results. **John Gallagher:** Absolutely. Testing those budgets on what gets the better results leads to you seeing what works right for your business and what you get traction on. Then, once you get repeatable traction, you can spend more money and focus your budget much better to get new leads to your website. ## Equity vs debt financing to fuel your startup’s growth **John Gallagher:** Let’s move on to financing that spend – my area of expertise. We're a debt provider, but people raise equity at different stages as well to fuel their growth. Do you think it makes sense to determine what type of capital to use for your business depending on its stage of growth? You run a private equity firm, so you've raised your own funds, but should companies be looking at equity and debt in different scenarios? **Michael Bereslavsky:** So far, we've only raised equity – we haven't really worked with debt. That said, I think that nowadays you can find cheaper debt options, so the optimal approach would probably be to have a mix of equity and debt. I'm curious to hear your opinion on that. **John Gallagher:** People often use equity to get to a certain stage. They have a lot of customers, market traction with their product, and a good marketing strategy, and they’re looking at the next 18 to 24 months. They might not need a huge amount of capital – they’re not looking to raise a series A or a series B from a venture capital fund. They’re looking to spend and they’re looking to finance that spend and grow their company to the next level before they raise further equity. They might even just be looking to break even – there are a lot of great companies out there that don’t make money. This is where debt can come in, to finance growth in a measured and cost-effective way. It's flexible and allows the funders to keep their shares in the company, which are obviously very valuable. Debt financing can bridge the gap between a company reaching a certain revenue stage. For instance, if a company is doing $5 million in revenue, and its goal is to reach $15 million over the next few years, but it’s got a limited burn profile, debt can very much come in and fill that need. ## What investors and lenders look for in a business **John Gallagher:** So, Michael, your firm acquires SaaS and eCommerce businesses – maybe you could give us some more information on that and what you look for when you're acquiring a company? **Michael Bereslavsky:** Yes, sure. We currently focus primarily on acquiring businesses with Google organic traffic. We look for opportunities to grow the business with more content and improved SEO. And frankly, we look for limited technical complications, so we avoid businesses that are too complex technically, as it's not our primary focus. Our due diligence focuses on three areas – opportunities for growth, numbers, and risks. We have some existing connections with advertisers and partners in certain niches that we've been operating in, so we have a preference for those niches. Other than that, we’re fairly opportunistic when it comes to the types of businesses we work with. We look at deals and try to find the good ones. I think in the current market that’s the best approach because there’s such a high variance in the prices and quality of assets for sale right now. You see quite a few deals with the financial side of the equation. What kind of spread do you see in terms of the prices people pay these days? **John Gallagher:** In the market for people acquiring businesses, people have been working on a range of valuations. They’ll automatically go to the stock market and compare themselves against Airbnb, Zoom, and companies that are valued at 40 times their revenue and then start haircutting from there. In the private market, there has been a range of between four and 12x revenue paid for companies over the last 18 to 24 months, which is much higher than what it historically has been (normally between two and eight x). I think we'll see those valuations come down into old parameters again, depending on the company's growth, the industry it's in, the product, its customer base, how well it’s run, and other parameters that affect a company's valuation. A lot of what we're seeing now was caused by the economic policies led by governments with cheap money chasing too few assets. That’s caused valuations to increase, and we've certainly seen that in the SaaS market. As a lender, it doesn't affect my company too much. We're not taking any equity participation in these companies, so we're looking at the company's fundamentals in a very sustainable manner. We're looking at management teams, who are key in making sure that the company grows or survives. The financials, the product, and the marketing also play in, but we have to take a sustainable view. That's the way a lender looks at it rather than an equity investor. ## The key factors for investors **Michael Bereslavsky:** That's very interesting. There are some differences in the approach but also some similarities. We look at a company from the perspective of how we can grow it, and find what needs to be fixed, but for you, it might be quite different. What are the main aspects of a company that you look at when you have to make a decision regarding lending? Does the interest rate come into it, or is it dependent upon the company's risk profile? **John Gallagher:** We have a very narrow risk profile, so our interest rate might go up and down a little bit, but we lend to very similar companies run in a very similar manner. When we're looking at them, the financials obviously tell us a lot about a business, but we also dive into the revenue and the customer base, looking at retention, churn, how sticky the product is with customers, and how often they use it, as well as the growth side of the business and how they're doing that. Getting into those fundamental metrics of how customers use the product and the company is key to any business, not just a SaaS business. We also look at how much they have to pay to acquire a customer, how long it takes them to acquire a customer, how long that customer stays, and the value of that customer over their lifetime. Those are very salient SaaS metrics that I think every investor, whether an equity investor or lender, will look at. VCs are much more accepting of high burn rates, where a lender has to see quite a managed financial burn rate, so we work a lot on the cash flows of the business and making sure that we can lend them enough money to get them to a point where they can stand on their own two feet – they’re breaking even or profitable – and go from there. ## How to prepare to sell your business **John Gallagher:** Have you any tips for people selling their companies as to what they should do and how they should prepare themselves for the process? Afterwards, I’ll share what they should do if they're looking for a loan. **Michael Bereslavsky:** The first thing is to get your finances and documentation together, and maybe make the business a little bit more attractive to investors by reducing some unnecessary costs or increasing revenue and profits where possible. Finances are the most important thing that any buyer will look at. They’ll be especially interested in your records from the last 12 months, so you need to get your P&L in order. It’s also wise to set up the business so that it can operate without you as the owner, unless you plan to stay on. For that, it’s a good idea to prepare a roadmap to show where the business can go. It’s important to fix any existing problems as well. I quite often see people trying to sell a business that is frankly broken without even trying to fix it first, even when fixing it might not be a very difficult thing. If there are issues that you can solve before selling, that's always advisable. How long it takes to prepare for sale depends on the size of the business. For bigger businesses, it might take a year to get all your things in order before you go and present it for sale. For smaller businesses, just a few months could be enough. There are different options for how to sell, of course. You can find a broker, you can list your company in a marketplace, and you can also try to sell directly. I would say the cheapest, easiest, and potentially best way is to approach your direct competitors or someone who you know might be interested in buying. Often, people already know who their biggest competitors are, and those are the companies that might benefit the most from acquiring them. Finding a connection to the decision-makers in that company just to pose a quick question could be one of the best ways to get the ball rolling, but people rarely do that, for some reason. **John Gallagher:** From a lending point of view, it’s similar in terms of having your ducks in a row and all your financials, your legal setup, your structure, and your shareholders boxed away so that you’re ready to answer any questions. From a value point of view, you hit on something there. Getting your costs in line and making any bits of growth that you can six or 12 months before you sell is going to add to the value of the business. ### Top Future of SaaS events to attend in 2023 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/top-future-of-saas-events-to-attend-in-2023/ Last updated: 2023-04-18T14:14:52.000Z Last year, we had the pleasure of hosting not one, not two, but three incredible virtual events for our community. And let us tell you, they were a blast! These were dynamic, informative events, full of rigorous discussion, networking opportunities, actionable insights and inspiring intitiatives. We heard from top industry leaders from some of the biggest brands in SaaS, including Calendly, Airmeet and Tripadvisor. Who's up for doing it all over again next year? We know we're certainly game. But, plot twist, this year we're gonna be debuting our first in-person event. That's right, this year you'll have the chance to network with some of the most inspiring SaaS heroes across the globe in-person! Check out what we have in store for you.👇 --- ## Future of SaaS Festival **When:** ****April 19, 2023** **Where: From the comfort of your couch or desk 💻** At last year's Future of SaaS we learned from the best and brightest minds in the industry from the likes of Smallpdf, Ordway and LinkedIn. And if you think we're holding back this year, think again! We're not only forecasting the game-changing events in the world of SaaS, we're shaping it through trailblazing initiatives and insights. Want to help us shape the future of SaaS? How? By soaking up actionable strategies from SaaS gurus across the globe. As you'll see from our testimonials, we're not all about theory, SaaS professionals have integrated tactics gained from our events into their own growth plans. This year we'll be hearing from world-beating brands in the the world of SaaS. See for yourself! 👇 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/03/Screen-Shot-2023-03-13-at-10.36.17-AM.jpg) Don't miss out. 👇 [ Register here for free ](https://festival23.futureofsaas.io/) ## SaaS23 **When: July 5-6 2023** **Where: London 🇬🇧** If you're looking to be on the cutting edge of SaaS, what better place than in Europe's big tech capital, London? We're just counting down the minutes until we hear Big Ben chime and we know we're in the place to be! Well the countdown begins now. Don't miss out. 👇 Register now for discount access [ Register early for discount access ](https://events.futureofsaas.io/location/london) ## What people are saying about our events Not convinced yet? Check out what the experts are saying about our events. > *“The conference was full of great strategic and tactical advice. Looking forward to learning & participating in future events!”* ****\-David Apple, Head of Customer Success & Sales, Notion** > *“I had an interesting and insightful panel discussion with exciting leaders from the CS and SaaS space. I was able to benefit from the experiences of others and was able to expand my network.”* ****\-Christoph Deckert, Head of Customer Growth, Personio** > *"This event gave me incredible insights and not only was I able to be a speaker but also expanded my network and met amazing like-minded individuals."* ****\-Isabel Ruiz, Senior Customer Success Manager, Commercial, Pluralsight** > *"One of the most comprehensive learning events I've ever participated in, there's something for anyone building or working in a contemporary software company."* ****\-Rav Dhaliwal, Investor & Venture Partner, Crane Venture Partners** ### Leading product management through turbulent times URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/leading-product-management-through-turbulent-times-2/ Last updated: 2023-03-21T11:18:52.000Z *This article was adapted from Jodie Chan’s interview on SaaScast, the podcast that talks you through the steps you need to futureproof your product. Listen to the full conversation and more* [*here*](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast/)*.* I’m Jodie Chan, SVP of Product and Partnerships at Chinafy, and I’m here to share how you can help your organization weather turbulent times. Before I do that, I'll just give a quick background into my company, Chinafy, for context. Chinafy is a platform-based solution that helps websites and web applications load fast, fully, and securely in China. The premise behind that is that there are very large differences between the Chinese internet and the Western internet, so our product aims to solve users’ problems by bridging the gap between these two different environments. By the very nature of our company – headquartered in Hong Kong and interfacing between China and the rest of the world – we're used to seeing a lot of changes firsthand; we're used to having to adapt and communicate difficult ideas across borders – skills that are all the more valuable during turbulent times. ## How we got through the pandemic… During the pandemic, our need to adapt and communicate clearly was amplified tenfold by the turbulence we were seeing all around the world. The overarching theme of all our conversations during that time was instability and fear, so our immediate priority was to instill a sense of stability, calm, and momentum where we could. As a leader, in order to balance the fear, I tried even more than usual to be extremely calm in the face of the challenges we were facing. The practical action we took to increase stability was to do things that we would normally do in the office virtually instead. For instance, our daily face-to-face morning stand-ups moved online, and across the entire organization, we had at least bi-weekly stand-ups where leaders within each group would present what they were working on and the challenges they were facing. This helped align everyone and make them feel like we were still on the same page. We also implemented a lot more win-sharing over Slack. Historically, developers might not always have known when we landed an exciting client or project. [3 reasons you should spend time onsite with customers as a product managerAs product managers, we spend a lot of our time diving into data, researching our respective areas, and talking to our customers. We learn about the problems they face, the opportunities to potentially resolve those solutions, and how they use and engage with capabilities and features.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSeán O’Sullivan![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/meeting.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/3-reasons-you-should-spend-time-onsite-with-customers-as-a-product-manager/) Instead of continuing with business as usual, we made sure to share those wins across the organization, so whoever was interested in seeing good news could hop into a Slack channel and see it. It wasn’t all work though. One fun thing we have in our team is a big snacking culture – there's almost always a massive pile of snacks in the office. While we were unable to eat together, someone very thoughtfully sent fruits to everyone, so we could at least virtually enjoy some food together. A little encouragement can go a long way in motivating and inspiring others. The pandemic was an unprecedented and challenging time for a lot of people. While I’m fortunate to have not lost anyone to the virus, others were not so lucky and some also struggled with loneliness. During such times, it was even more important than usual for leaders to empathize with their team members and support them in any way they could. ## … And came out of 2020 stronger than ever The pandemic showed us that, from an external perspective, the product that we were building was a necessity, not a luxury. That was very informative for us because prior to the pandemic, as with most companies, we had a lot more resources, which we could spread out across different initiatives. We could improve things like the website's look and feel. We could equally invest in marketing initiatives and in-person conferences and things like that. In response to being seen as a necessity and not a luxury, we really doubled down on the functionality of the product. We improved things that we might have put further down the roadmap because we wanted to make sure that our product was delivering. We also gave a lot more discretion to our support teams to go the extra mile for our customers and take good care of them. The official aim was retention, but for us, that was a pivot in terms of our internal mindset, how we viewed our product, and, because of that, the actions we would take as a team. [Building profitable products with customersJacqueline Porter, Director of Product Management, addresses how to target customer pain points, while still remaining profitable.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/tools.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-profitable-products-with-customers-2/) Some interesting questions came up around pricing during the pandemic too. I saw a lot of discounts flying around, but we very intentionally decided not to do that. It was a risk because a lot of companies got hit hard, so price sensitivity was a concern, but we believed in our value and our pricing was always fair. Instead of lowering prices and cheapening our sales motions, we deepened the product to increase the value of what we offer. I think our customers respected us for that Honestly, the way I thought about it was you can't really negotiate with a company whose budget is zero, so you might as well stick to your guns, offer a really good product, and be fair about the price in the first place. If someone is overpricing from the beginning, it really comes through in a time of crisis. For customers that were struggling – for instance, those in the travel and hospitality industry – we tried to see what we could do in terms of restructuring the deal short term. [SaaScast: Leading product management through turbulent timesHow do you prepare your org and your product for times of crisis? One of our goals with SaaScast is to help you future proof your product.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Jodie_--1---1-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/leading-product-management-through-turbulent-times/) In the long term, these are customers that plan on sticking with us for life, so we tried to do what we could on our end to help them find a way to make our partnership work within their current constraints. Unfortunately, some people learned the hard way that once they lowered the price of their product, they couldn’t easily bring it back up. We’ve seen that in a lot of different industries, not just SaaS, but the restaurant industry and others too. ## The pros and cons of remote work There have been two phases in our exploration of remote work and how we function as a company. The first phase was when the whole world was in lockdown, and we were forced to become a remote organization overnight. During this phase, the biggest thing we did was implement daily meetings and end-of-day updates to maintain some sort of routine and a way for teams to sync up across the board. This helped maintain the visibility, accountability, and sense of community that we had when everyone was still going into the office. In phase two, as restrictions were being lifted, we explored a combined model of work from home and work in the office. [Is it time to switch from feature to outcome-driven product roadmaps?The product roadmap acts as a guide and strategic plan of action, which clearly communicates how your short-term product efforts match up with your long-term organizational goals.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAdam Bennett![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/road.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/is-it-time-to-switch-from-feature-to-outcome-driven-product-roadmaps/) I know opinions are split on this, but I believe that certain roles and certain individuals work better in an office environment, while others can function on a remote basis. Personally, I love in-person time. It's nice to be able to gather as a team, do stand-up meetings in person, and gather around the water cooler (in our case, mostly drinking coffee). My opinion is that the question of remote vs office work needs to be approached on a case-by-case basis. It should be at the teams’ discretion to test how each system works and determine what works best for them. ## How to handle customer feedback and requests In any industry, it’s essential to be mindful of customer feedback at all times. However, it can be a challenge to sort the requests that need to be prioritized from those that are less urgent. The first thing that's important to keep in mind as you’re sifting through feedback is that although some demands and requests might come across as incredibly harsh (honestly, it shocks me sometimes how people can come across in general correspondence), it's not personal. From there, most things are pretty manageable. As an organization, something we do quite well and are continuing to improve on is being incredibly transparent with our users. During the course of the pandemic, we provided more documentation about what we can and can't support. [Using customer feedback and win-loss interviews to improve your product | Future of SaaSCustomer feedback and win-loss interviews are among the most effective ways to gain a firm understanding of how your product has been received, and how you can make changes, where needed.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1517245386807-bb43f82c33c4?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDE1fHxpbnRlcnZpZXdzfGVufDB8fHw&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/using-customer-feedback-and-win-loss-interviews-to-improve-your-product/) We also clarified the different support levels available to different plans. So far, that's been a great success. When it comes to support tickets, generally, when customers realize that something is urgent, we've already realized that it's urgent too. We want to make sure that we're delivering our product well, so if something impacts them on the product level, we make an extra effort to address it, regardless of the turnaround time and level of support guaranteed in their plan. We try to bundle and flag requests so that we can prioritize them more effectively. Requests are processed and flagged internally and similar ones are grouped together, increasing their priority. That makes our impact more scalable. [SaaScast: Turning customers into advocatesSo, you have really loyal customers? That’s great. But are you making those testimonials sing for your SaaS business? In other words, are you turning your customers into fierce champions for your organization?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Ryan-O-Connell-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-turning-customers-into-advocates/) If multiple people are asking for a feature and it's something that we can work into our roadmap, we will. If it's a single person with a very niche case, we might have to let the customer know we can’t support that request right now. As someone working in product, I also find it really helpful to hop into client calls. That allows me to gather direct feedback from the client and keep my finger on the pulse. Otherwise, when you're just seeing tickets or items on a roadmap, you don't realize the impact it has or see the patterns that might be occurring. That’s something I would suggest to anyone working in product management – hop into sales calls and interface with the client directly. ## How to make sure your teams can handle anything If you want to create a culture where people are adaptable enough to deal with crises when they happen, you need to cultivate skills that will be useful whether you're in a crisis or not. It's like having an emergency exit – you know it's there, but hopefully you don't have to use it every single day. One thing I really appreciate about this company is that people often present problems with a solution. You can’t just throw a problem at someone and expect them to solve it. If you're new to the company and you raise an issue, someone will probably ask you, "What's your proposed solution?" Getting asked this question enough times makes you think about the possibilities. [Top 7 interview questions for your product management roleThis week we’re taking a look at product managers, the visionaries behind your SaaS GTM strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/interview.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-your-product-management-role/) If you've thought through the possibilities and are still stuck with no solution, it's essential to say that you've thought through the options, but they don't seem to work. Then you can ask for others' opinions on how to make the situation better. As a leader, you want to cultivate those problem-solving skills in everybody in the organization. The other thing you need to cultivate is a certain level of flexibility. While it’s helpful to have systems, routines, and structure, they may not be the best thing in times of crisis. You have to strike a balance between reacting quickly and following the rules you’ve implemented. The important thing is to keep an open mind, accept that crises are (hopefully!) short-term in nature, adapt, and maintain a sense of clarity as best as you can. [SaaScast: Building profitable products with customersWith several years of experience leading product teams, Jacqueline knows how to drive a SaaS org to reach that product roadmap vision.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_3.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-profitable-products-with-customers/) That starts in the hiring process. In our job descriptions, you’ll often see the phrase “self-starter”. I love to see that someone knows how to show initiative – even if it’s just starting an after-school club when they were in high school. A while ago, we had a colleague who started an ice cream business on the side; that showed the ability to be entrepreneurial and think outside the box, which is a great proxy for how you'll perform no matter what task you’re given. ## How to hire a resilient product team Speaking of hiring, one of the biggest qualities that I appreciate in candidates is emotional intelligence; unfortunately, it can be very difficult to gauge in the hiring process. Still, it’s an incredibly important and somewhat abstract skill that highly impacts how well someone plays in a team. We generally work best with very very secure individuals who can balance their emotions with their intellect when making decisions. That intellectual ability is almost a baseline when hiring – you look at their résumé and see their credentials and achievements. Emotional intelligence goes beyond that, and as a leader you need it to be able to manage people. Another essential trait is a willingness to learn. Even in a span of one or two years, there might be many changes in tools, products, and things within your sphere of influence, so a willingness to learn and stay humble is crucial as a product leader. Lastly, being able to digest information so that you can give direction is an essential skill for a leader, and this goes hand in hand with the ability to present solutions alongside the issues you raise. --- *Enjoyed this article? Why not check out exclusive insights from SaaS gurus across the globe with a FoSaaS membership plan? 👇* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Leveraging data to build a great product URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/leveraging-data-to-build-a-great-product/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:55:43.000Z How do you leverage data to build a great product? Well, that's what we’re going to get to the bottom of in this article. Product managers often use the wrong metrics to measure the value of their product. How do you find the right metrics? More importantly, how do you put your finger on the real value of your product? **Let’s break down our agenda here:** - How do you value a product? - Product management: getting started - Two goals to aim for - A strong product point of view - Tracking your progress - Product at the center of the tech space ## **How do you value a product?** Firstly, I’d like to introduce the subject with an anecdote. We like to talk about product in quite a binary way: products that have successfully leaned into data and those that haven’t leaned into data. Let me give you an example of this. Some products generate a lot of buzz, but ultimately end up failing because very few people have used or bought them. What’s happened here is that product people have miscalculated the value of their product. In the case of this product I’m talking about, it was super expensive, and it was a massive investment for the organization, but they didn't realize that it wasn’t bringing value to customers. These are the wrong measures of a successful product, and you need to be able to locate the value so that you know how to position your product. [![A glass full of coins and a green plant](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/04/How-do-you-value-a-product_.jpeg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/leveraging-data-to-build-a-great-product) ### **Real value comes from problem-solving** The question you need to ask yourself is: what is the real problem that you're solving for the customer? It’s not about what you think is cool or fancy, it’s about what your customers are going to respond to. In the case of the product I mentioned, it wasn’t just a privacy or security risk, it ended up posing an actual physical danger to customers. In the end, our mission is to create a delightful experience for customers. This is quite the opposite of what we saw with the product I described to you. In this case, those in charge were putting their own needs and interests front and center rather than that of the customer. ## **Product management: getting started** With product management front and center in the technology space, we see this product-led movement becoming essential. The act of around the product itself has become an essential tenet for success. It’s all about bearing in mind the fact that what’s important above all else is the relationship the customer has with the product. Here’s a hot tip: the relationship they have with your brand is forged through the relationship they have with your product. The product experience is important above all else. ### **It starts with data** To really pull something like this off, you have to align **all functions** within a company, that includes all stakeholders aligned with the product itself. So, at the foundation of any successful product-led company is data. That data shouldn’t just be a bunch of figures on a screen, it should be indicative of a real need that people have. This will indicate whether there’s a demand for your product. ### **It starts with a ‘why?’** Why questions are always the key to establishing whether a product is going to satisfy some need that people have. The next question that comes from that is, why should we be investing our time and money in it? Let's look at the example of Peloton, for example. They came up with the idea of enabling people to engage in full workouts from the comfort of their own homes. They built a Kickstarter campaign to test their idea. In this way, they were able to roll out a kind of prototype of their idea before full launch. And from this data, they modified the bike a little. They were able to build the optimal product from the data they gathered through testing. [![The word why on a brown background](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/04/Why.jpeg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/leveraging-data-to-build-a-great-product) ## **Two goals to aim for** Your goals should be split into **two categories**: operational and customer. Within each of these sections, there are some key questions you need to be asking yourself. ### **Customer goals** Like I said, your product can only succeed if you’re able to establish that it will create a delightful experience for the customer. How do you know if you’re customer-centric? Here are some key questions to ask yourself: - Who is your target audience? - Is there a pain point that we’re addressing? - Is the product a ‘must-have’ or simply a ‘nice to have?’ - And what's the desired outcome for the product? ### **Operational goals** These are the broader business concerns that you have to bear in mind. You should be thinking exactly about what the product is going to do for your brand. Some other concerns you should have are: - Are you looking to save costs for your business? - Are you looking to increase revenue? - Are you trying to mitigate any type of risk altogether? - What will it cost to delay the launch? Cost of delay is something that product teams use a tonne. Delaying a product launch is always going to be costly, but you have to determine whether it’s going to be worth it. Is it going to truly optimize and improve your product as a whole? ## **A strong product point of view** What’s ultimately important is that the risks that you take are guided by a strong product point of view as you build your case. In the early days of Pendo, we made an unpopular decision that was a really big risk. The decision was to build a really broad product that provided both analytics and the ability to take action on the data. Lots of folks challenged us on that, and that's okay. We truly believe that product teams need both capabilities, and we’ve stood by that mission statement all the way through. ### **What does your market need?** Of course, this strong point of view is often driven by what your market needs. You’re not just running off into the dark with no light whatsoever. You’re guided by the light of what your market needs. [![Lights arranged in a line on grass](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/04/What-does-your-market-need_.jpeg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/leveraging-data-to-build-a-great-product) And this really goes back to pain points, but it’s often not just a single pain point, but some collective pain that helps us get to a result. How do we get closer to what the customer needs? ### **Get up close with customer needs** Understanding your customer needs is no easy task, but there are a few practical strategies you can put in place to get started with it: - Shameless plug time: **Pendo** provides qualitative feedback on customer experience. This is equally important as quantitative feedback gives you insight into the unique specific problems that individual customers are having. - Very often teams are all hearing feedback and receiving data from customers, but we can’t necessarily do anything with it unless we can put it all together in one place. The whiteboard platform **Miro** can help with cross-team collaboration. You can go through key customer pain points and prioritize the most crucial ones. - Empathy maps are another method and it puts you a bit closer to the customer and gets you inside their mind a little bit. It gets you into their environment in a way that helps you understand how they're operating and thinking to get to their end goal. ## **Tracking your progress** What’s the point in moving forward if you don’t even know if what you’re doing is going to benefit you, right? Tracking success is so crucial for us to remain agile and adaptable. What value are you bringing to your market and your customer base? For this, you need to be looking at your KPIs. ### **KPIs to measure your success** Some fairly obvious KPIs to measure are things like: - Product adoption - Usage rate - Retention rate - Overall revenue rate - Impact on NPS These are all pretty standard metrics that are always going to be of relevance for pretty much any organization. You can think of these as your **foundation.** If you don’t have these in place you’re going to be in a very unstable place. ### Quality of product shipped Now, we’re gonna dig a little deeper and look at if you want to get super nuanced with how your product is performing: Looking at the quality of products shipped rather than the number of features shipped can get you deeper into what we call qualitative data. Qualitative data allows you to look at whether the product is performing the function that’s required. ## **Product at the center of the tech space** Product management has shifted to the center of the tech space, and it’s one of the most booming career paths for someone to take. We’re seeing product people who are having a palpable impact on broader c-suite aims, and they’re driving bottom-line metrics and setting company goals. It takes a tonne of courage for product teams to hold themselves accountable for these true business metrics that people are putting in front of them. This is what is expected of us today in more modern product organizations. We earn influence and authority in shaping the direction of a company when we're able to tie our business metrics like revenue or customer acquisition costs into **the big picture**. Speaking of the bigger picture, you can’t just look at those metrics that are going to have an immediate impact. You have to look at…. ### **Lagging metrics** These are metrics that may take a long time to present themselves. Things like: - **How sticky is your product** \- You might be getting a lot of adoption, but are you able to maintain trust in your product over time. - **Product engagement score** \- The thing is, it isn’t always apparent when a product first launches how successfully customers can engage with your product over time. And this can be a key indicator of its quality. This encompasses both positives and negatives: how much retention you're getting and whether your churn rate is on the rise. - **NPS score** \- This is a great measurement of success. It tells you what your customers are feeling after a certain amount of time after they've used the product. How are they feeling about the product X amount of months down the line? ## **Final word: the benefit of these metrics over time** Firstly, they allow you to take action as soon as you see things start to take an upturn or a downturn. They allow us to be agile and adaptable. We’re able to address issues as they begin to arise. Conversely, they allow us to plan **long-term**. We measure metrics as they develop against our KPIs. They give us a goal to aim for and allow us to see how well we’re measuring up to this over time. They allow us to get **aligned.** It’s very difficult to get the whole team united behind a common goal without targets. We have to get there together! ### How to boost B2B lead generation through email marketing URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-boost-b2b-lead-generation-through-email-marketing/ Last updated: 2023-04-06T10:00:28.000Z Email marketing is a tough nut to crack, especially if you’re a new startup trying to gain traction in an oversaturated market. But with Insider reporting a [massive hike](https://www.businessinsider.com/digital-ad-prices-are-skyrocketing-in-2022-2?r=US&IR=T) in [social media](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-boost-your-customer-retention-with-social-media/) ad [pricing](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code/), it’s time for scaling SaaS startups to get to grips with owned marketing channels. We’ve all been there. You’re a busy SaaS professional, and your email inbox is already overburdened with urgent emails that need your attention now. What are the chances of opening an email from a startup you’ve barely heard of? Well, in this article we’re taking you through the steps you need to take not only to reach your customers, but actually convert them into paying customers. The truth is, email marketing is a powerful [tool ](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/)for generating B2B leads. It allows businesses to reach out to potential customers directly and build relationships with them over time. However, many B2B marketers struggle with creating effective [email campaigns](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-is-email-marketing-important-to-improving-customer-retention/) that actually generate leads. In this article, we will explore some tips and strategies for B2B lead scoring through email marketing. ## Build a high-quality email list The first step to generating B2B leads through email marketing is to build a high-quality email list. This means collecting email addresses from people who are likely to be interested in your product or service. You can do this by offering gated [content](https://www.saasalliance.io/interactive-content-ideas-for-each-stage-of-the-buyers-journey/), such as whitepapers, ebooks, or webinars, in exchange for email addresses. [B2B marketing events strategies: before, during, and afterB2B events are paramount for networking, generating high-quality leads, increasing brand awareness, and reaching a large target audience. The majority of event marketers believe events are the most effective marketing channel over emails, content, and digital marketing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/terren-hurst-blgOFmPIlr0-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/b2b-marketing-events-strategies-before-during-and-after/) A solid content strategy can help you set this plan in motion. This is also known as thought leadership, a marketing strategy in which your org positions itself, not just as a cynical cash-grabber looking for rapid conversions, but as a problem solver within the SaaS space. Find out what the most crucial pain points are for ICP (ideal customer profile) and produce content around solving these problems. The benefit here is twofold: You’re establishing a positive first impression between your organization and the prospective customer, making it more likely for them to open your emails, and you’re pinpointing your first potential customers. ## Segment your email list Once you have built your email list, it's important to segment it based on factors such as job title, company size, or industry. This allows you to create more targeted email campaigns that are relevant to each segment. For example, you might create a campaign that is tailored to small business owners or one that is focused on a specific industry. In a study carried out by HubSpot, it was found that 78% of marketers considered [segmentation](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-market-segmentation/) to be the most effective way to boost email lead generation. Segmentation is an integral part of making sure that your email campaign targeting is razor-sharp. Your messaging might be great, but if people aren’t reading it, it’s a waste of time. ## Make sure you’re reaching the right people One common error businesses commit is assuming that all marketing emails should be addressed to CEOs. However, decision-makers vary from one company to another. To avoid this mistake, it’s essential to research and identify the individuals responsible for purchasing products or services similar to yours. Once you have identified them, target them directly to ensure that your emails reach the right people. This approach will likely result in more effective lead generation and sales outcomes. It’s also helpful to be aware of the distinction that can exist between buyers and users. Very often there’s going to be an overlap between the two, but let’s say for example you’re selling tools to software developers. [Take your personas to the next level. Get persona certifiedWhether you’re a persona first-timer or veteran, B2B or B2C, this course is packed with the practical tips, real-life case studies, and expert advice you need to create, use, and roll out game-changing personas.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/persona-master-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/take-your-personas-to-the-next-level-get-persona-certified/) This is a tricky one because the style of messaging that developers respond to is often highly technical and specific to the processes of their day–to-day jobs. But that doesn’t mean that they’re going to be the ones making the decisions. Conduct thorough research into your buyer personas and tailor your messaging around that. > "A small list that wants exactly what you’re offering is better than a bigger list that isn’t committed." Ramsay Leimenstoll, Investment Advisor ## Solve real problems A major reason why emails go unopened is simply because they're unnoticed, especially for B2B SaaS companies. The companies that you’re attempting to convert are going to receive a high volume of emails every single day. In order to compete with the high volume of urgent emails that a business is going to receive each day, it’s crucial that you ensure your emails are specifically targeted to solving a very real problem that prospective customers are having. Remember that your email may well also seem like an annoyance cluttering up their inbox, so it's important that the value of your email’s [content](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-thought-leadership-can-boost-your-saas-growth/) outweighs the burden you're creating in their day. ## Minor mistakes are major Making mistakes in messages can be awkward. It becomes even more critical when those mistakes are sent to a large group of people, as it can cause your emails to end up in spam folders. Repeated mistakes can even result in your email address being blacklisted, which can be a headache to fix. First impressions are really important, and if your emails don’t have the surface appearance of professionalism, it’s going to get discarded pretty quickly. ## Crafting a compelling subject line The subject line is the first thing that your email recipients will see, so it's important to make it compelling. Your subject line should be short, attention-grabbing, and relevant to the content of your email. Avoid using spammy language or making false promises, as this will only hurt your credibility. Ensure that customers are going to be aware of who is sending their email ( your company name is better than an individual's name). If your lead has already had a really positive experience with your company through an awesome whitepaper you produced, that’s not going to matter unless they know that the email is coming from your org. Appeal to the customer as an individual with needs. Firstly, address the lead directly and refer to a specific problem that they might have, don't talk about some theoretical problem that other people might be having. [Personalize your B2B marketing with AIIn this article, we’re going to take a look at the different applications for AI in providing a personalized experience to your customers and why they would be beneficial to your relationship.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/Personalize-your-B2B-marketing-with-AI.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/personalize-your-b2b-marketing-with-ai/) For example: ‘Hot tip: 90% of startups fail.’ What’s wrong with this? Although the subject line may be in the right area, it’s not drawing the reader's attention to a specific problem that your product can help them solve. Instead, try this: ‘Are you struggling to cut your churn rate down to size?’ Now the problem is more specific and it addresses the reader directly. Your email might be a problem for your lead at first, but the problem that your highlighting is far more significant. The email message is transformed from problem to problem-solver. This falls under the banner of personalization. Let’s dig deeper into that now. ## Personalize your emails In the aforementioned HubSpot study, [personalization](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-a-more-personalized-digital-consumer-experience/) was highlighted as a determining factor in email marketing success. Include the recipient's name in the email and tailor the content of the email to their specific needs or interests. You can also use dynamic content to show different content to different segments of your email list. This is where the segmentation work that you’ve done is really going to come into play. Let’s say your product is [customer onboarding](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-onboarding-101/) software, for example. A segment of your audience might be customer success managers, whilst another section might be high-level C-Suite types. Although a CSM’s daily practices are going to tie pretty significantly to the broader concerns of your organization, they might not be at the very forefront of your CSM’s mind. Instead, they’re going to be more concerned with actions that they take on a day-to-day basis in order to keep customers engaged. [Establishing a customer marketing strategy and developing advocatesI’m Bozena, Director of Marketing at Maze, and I’m the host for today’s chat with Valeria, Senior Marketing Manager for Customer Marketing at Zendesk - and, as of September 2022, is now working on customer marketing programs at Airtable.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSValeria Gomez![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/shore--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/establishing-a-customer-marketing-strategy-and-developing-advocates/) For C-Suite level types, on the other hand, you’re probably going to want your messaging to be more tied into how exactly your software is going to help the business boost those bottom-line metrics. One way to personalize emails is by using merge fields, transferring essential customer data into your email, although this should be done sparingly to avoid errors and potential discomfort for the recipient. It’s also essential to be cautious when including too much personal information about the prospect. Remember one of your primary goals is to initiate the conversation with your prospects. Imagine this in an in-person situation. If the person you’ve just met seems to know too much about you, Is this the kind of person that you’re going to want to continue a relationship with? Almost certainly not. ## Provide valuable content Your email campaigns should provide valuable content that is relevant to your audience. This might include industry insights, case studies, or product demos. Your initial goal should be to educate your audience and provide them with the information they need to make informed decisions, but your ultimate goal is to demonstrate your brand’s expertise so that prospects might consider converting. You can wax lyrical about the value of your solution, but the problem is, everybody’s going to be doing that. Where’s the proof? Well now’s your chance to provide it. But ensure to show it in a digestible, and not overly sales-y format. [Structuring an agile marketing team for successTrying to move your team into agile marketing but worried that you need to retrain everyone? Or completely flatten your department’s structure? Or lay off half of your team? Don’t panic! There’s no need for layoffs or completely changing your department’s structure.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSRebecca Stewart![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/pascal-swier-7de474KZIbs-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/structuring-an-agile-marketing-team-for-success/) Product demos can work great because they can allow users to find tangible proof of your product’s value, and that ultimately is going to be the deciding factor in whether a prospect becomes a paying customer or not. Consumers have so many solutions to choose from now, and although links to slick, professional-looking landing pages aren’t going to hurt, it’s the speed at which the user can tangibly experience how your product is going to benefit their lives that’s going to set your product apart from the rest. ## Include clear calls-to-action Your email campaigns should include clear calls-to-action (CTAs) that encourage recipients to take action. This might include signing up for a free trial, scheduling a demo, or downloading a whitepaper. Your CTA should be prominent and easy to understand. Again, it’s important to understand the psychology of your potential customers. Just because the lead didn’t respond to your email doesn’t mean that they’re not interested or impressed by your pitch. They’re simply being inundated with competing information every day with only a limited amount of time. In a recent study by [Litmus](https://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2023/48537/how-much-time-do-people-typically-spend-looking-at-an-email#:~:text=In%20the%20most%20recent%20%282022,for%20more%20than%20eight%20seconds.), it was found that the average person spends just nine seconds looking at an email. [How to get the ultimate marketing team \[podcast\] | Future of SaaSWhat’s the ultimate SaaS marketing team? Jordi Capdevila, formerly of ForceManager, talks you through the steps you need to take to perfect your department.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/12/Jordi-Capdevila-podcast-with-SaaScast---The-Future-of-SaaS.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-ultimate-saas-marketing-team-podcast/) If your message doesn’t contain a clear CTA, they’re not going to spend more than a minute looking for it. Make it clear and obvious where your user needs to go to interact with your product and minimize friction in every step of the process. Crafting persuasive messaging is the hard part, so don’t undo all your hard work by falling down on the easy part. ## Automate emails In order to keep lines of communication open, you’re going to have to commit to sending follow-up emails. Bear in mind also that prospects who respond positively to your email might simply forget to follow through on trying and adopting your product, and follow-ups act as useful reminders in these instances. This is where automation comes in. Sending countless follow-up emails as well as the initial emails that you're sending out is time-consuming. As a result, introducing an email automation tool into your tech stack can really prove to be an effective way to both make that first touch with unengaged leads and encourage hot leads to take those next steps. ## Test and refine your campaigns Finally, it's important to test and refine your email campaigns over time. Use A/B testing to test different subject lines, email content, and CTAs. Analyze your results and use this data to improve your campaigns going forward. The process of refining and iterating is a continuous process, and you need to be aware that the needs of your target audience are not necessarily going to remain the same. If you find something that works, repeat it, but be prepared to pivot and experiment when it doesn’t work anymore. ## Message at the right time This falls under the umbrella of conducting thorough persona research. Think about your industry, is it more prominent in a specific region? There might be gaps in specific regions that you're trying to fill. But whatever the case, ensure that you're mindful of time zones and whether your target is even going to be present to receive your message. But you should go even deeper than this. Through your research, you can pinpoint the times of day when your prospects are likely to be checking and replying to emails. Again this might differ depending on your region and industry. By being familiar with the part of the world that you’re targeting you can make your campaigns super-targeted and tie them into culture-specific holidays and events. ## Track, track and track again Marketing in the future will rely heavily on data. When conducting an email marketing campaign, it’s crucial to measure various metrics such as emails sent, open rate, clicked links, replies, bounce, opt-out, click-through rate and conversion rate. Additionally, utilizing UTM tracking links can help identify where traction is coming from and segment new leads. It is also important to measure any other relevant metrics to improve the campaign's performance. Luckily, most software platforms offer report generation, making it easier to access data points. Accurate tracking and reporting can turn lead generation into predictable lead generation, but it may take time to perfect. ## Get the handover right Don't make the mistake of assuming that handing over new leads to the sales team is a simple process. Doing so can undo all the hard work you've put in so far. Instead, it's important to ensure that the data you've collected throughout the campaign is assigned to the appropriate lead and salesperson. To achieve this, we suggest utilizing a CRM system. First, assign all relevant information to the new lead. Next, assign the lead to the appropriate salesperson, even if it means specializing within the sales team. Finally, include any additional information that may not be captured in the data in a handover note to ensure the sales team has all the knowledge they need to succeed. --- *Enjoyed this article? Why not check out our exclusive content from leading SaaS professionals with a Future of SaaS membership?* 👇 [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### SaaS Finance URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-finance/ Last updated: 2023-03-16T12:26:59.000Z The SaaS model offers immense benefits in terms of scalability, convenience and cost-effectiveness. However, managing a SaaS business comes with unique financial challenges, which many organizations overlook. If you're a startup founder who doesn't have a firm grasp on how to manage their finances, it can seriously hinder your chances of achieving profitability within the first few years. One of the principal reasons why SaaS [startups fail ](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-5-reasons-why-startups-fail-and-how-to-avoid-them/)is due to mismanaged finances. Many SaaS founders have big dreams and will throw money at bringing those dreams to fruition without first laying out a meticulous strategy for how to invest and distribute funds. The resources in this guide will provide you with actionable strategies to maximize profits and minimize losses in the world of SaaS finance, as well as arming you with top tips for attracting and securing investment. ## 1.Understand Your Business Model and Ancillary Costs The key to any successful SaaS business is understanding your own business model and the costs associated with it. This should include any and all ancillary costs associated with developing, hosting, and maintaining your product. Once you understand these costs, you will be in a better position to evaluate any potential costs and make decisions based on their impact on profitability. [SaaS revenue-based financing: the cheat code to preventing ownership dilutionYour SaaS company has a magic word that hypnotizes investors: recurring revenue. It’s much easier (and less expensive) to keep existing customers than acquire new ones.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAdam Tzagournis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/calculator.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-revenue-based-financing-the-cheat-code-to-preventing-ownership-dilution/) ## 2\. Know Your Cash Flow Understanding your company’s cash flow is essential to staying in control of your finances. To do this, you need to track your customers’ payments and issue invoices in a timely manner. This ensures that your cash flow stays consistent and allows you to forecast future costs and revenue. [Embedding payments into your platform: How, when, and why?If you’re starting out in SaaS, you’ve probably wondered how you can bring your payments in-house. How can you cut out those pesky financial middlemen that are eating away at your bottom line?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSYael Barak![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/blake-wisz-Xn5FbEM9564-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/embedding-payments-into-your-platform-how-when-and-why/) ## 3\. Invest in Automation Automation is one of the key components of a successful SaaS business. By investing in automation, you can reduce manual labor costs and streamline processes such as billing, customer support and data analysis. This can help you save time and money and improve user satisfaction. [The future of SaaS and FintechToday, we’ve moved into subscription models that are sold both to businesses and individuals.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSHerber De Ruijter![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/online-payment.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-and-fintech/) ## 4\. Monitor Your Overhead Costs Overhead costs are a major factor in any business, and SaaS businesses are no different. As such, you need to keep an eye on these costs and ensure that they do not exceed what you can afford. Factors such as marketing, advertising and cloud hosting costs should all be monitored carefully to ensure that they remain within the allocated budget. [SaaS finance in a post-pandemic world: lessons from Covid-19The pandemic was a frightening time for SaaS finance. But for those looking for a silver lining, The Future of SaaS Festival has solutions!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/towfiqu-barbhuiya-HNPrWOH2Z8U-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/panel-discussion-saas-finance-in-a-post-pandemic-world-lessons-from-covid-19/) ## 5\. Invest in the Right Resources It’s important to invest in the right tools and resources to ensure that your SaaS business is successful. This could include investing in the latest software and hardware, hiring additional staff or contracting consultants. By investing in the right resources, you can maximize efficiency and ensure that your business can scale up in the future. Speaking of software, why not check out our directory of top tools for SaaS finance right here. 👇 [15 tools for a great finance stackFinance teams need to pull data fast and they need it to be accurate, to achieve both they have to have complete confidence in their tech stack. With this in mind, we searched high and low for the tools you need in your arsenal to build the ultimate finance tech stack![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/07/clay-banks-E2HgkL3LaFE-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/15-tools-for-a-great-finance-tech-stack/) By following these tips, you can ensure that your SaaS business is well-managed. ## How to attract investors to your SaaS product So, we've discussed how to manage SaaS funds, but talking about how to manage funds isn't much use if you don't know how to attract and secure funding in the first place. It's a tricky road to navigate, but with the right strategies and tactics, you can easily draw the attention of potential investors. Here’s a guide to help you get started. ## 1\. Prepare Your Pitch Your pitch is one of the most important things you should prepare when trying to attract investors. You should take the time to craft a persuasive and compelling story about why your startup is the best option for potential investors. You should also include research, such as market and financial data, customer surveys, and success stories. Your pitch should also be concise, so investors can quickly understand your business plan. [How to effectively fundraise and find investorsIn this article, I’m going to share some stories from my fundraising career that I’ve never shared anywhere else. Each story comes with a lesson I learned along the way. Hopefully, these lessons will help you as you embark on your journey to raise capital.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSKirill Makharinsky![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/money-man.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-effectively-fundraise-and-find-investors/) ## 2\. Understand Your Market It is crucial for any investor to understand the market that your SaaS startup operates in. Have a clear view of the potential customers and their needs. Showing potential investors how your business model is sustainable and scalable is key to gaining their trust and interest. Be sure to demonstrate your understanding of the industry, the competition, and the trends that are happening in the market. ## 3\. Build a Network Gaining access to investors is not always easy, so it is important to network and build relationships with venture capitalists and other key players in the industry. This is a great way to get your name out there, as well as to meet potential investors and get their feedback. Make sure to attend relevant events and get involved with local SaaS startups and related organizations. [What does an investor look out for in a SaaS product?With the increase in number of SaaS products, investors today have a large pool of startups to consider from. Here are the top 10 metrics that investors look at!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSWayne Wee![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/phone.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-does-an-investor-look-out-for-in-a-saas-product/) ## 4\. Plan Your Financing When trying to attract investors, you should have a plan for how you will use the funds. Investors want to know that their money is being put to good use and that their investments will be profitable. Create a business plan that outlines how you will use the funds to grow your business, acquire customers, and generate revenue. [Making your SaaS company attractive for investmentMy name’s Edward Keelan and in this article, I’m going to be talking about making your SaaS company attractive for investment. I’m an Investment Director within the Octopus Ventures team at Octopus.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEdward Keelan![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/erik-mclean-I9qcFjyuJGw-unsplash--1--1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-your-saas-company-attractive-for-investment/) ## 5\. Utilize Online Platforms There are many online platforms that allow you to connect with investors and present your business. Sites such as AngelList, Gust, and SeedInvest are great for finding potential investors. These sites also allow you to make your pitch and showcase your business, so potential investors can get to know your startup. Following these steps can help you attract investors for your SaaS startup. Keep in mind that gaining the trust of investors requires patience and hard work. However, having a positive mindset, resilience, determination and drive can certainly give you a solid foundation for success ultimately. --- *Did you find this guide useful? Why not check out some of our othe expert guides right here? 👇* [SaaS MarketingAs the demand for cloud-based software continues to grow, SaaS companies are facing intense competition in the market. Here is a guide to help you develop a successful SaaS marketing strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_Marketing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) [SaaS pricingWhen it comes to launching a SaaS product, most orgs are going to be focused on crucial factors such as strategy, app development, market research, etc. All of this is essential, of course, but it’s missing one equally important factor. That’s right. Pricing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_pricing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-pricing/) [SaaS metricsIt goes without saying that Saas orgs want to grow and scale, right? Whether you’re a hot new startup, mid-growth, or a late-growth established brand, all SaaS orgs want their revenue to skyrocket.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_metrics.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics/) ### Adapting your CS strategy through times of change URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/adapting-your-cs-strategy-through-times-of-change/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:55:21.000Z *This article is based on an a presentation given by Sherrod at Customer Success Festival in June 2021 when she was Head of Global Technical Account Managers at GitLab. Listen to the full talk OnDemand* [*right here*](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-festival-june-2021/)*.* My name is Sherrod Patching, and I’m here to share how you can adapt your customer success strategy through times of change. A bit about me before we get started: I’m the Head of Global Technical Account Managers at a company called GitLab. I’m a wife and the mom of two little girls aged two and five. I was born in Canada and moved to England when I was 18\. I lived there for some time, married a Brit, and then we moved together to the US and are now in California. I've been leading customer success teams for around 12 years, since before it was called customer success. Let me tell you a bit about GitLab. We are an open DevOps platform that facilitates end-to-end collaboration from product design, all the way through to the creation, testing, and release of the code. We enable all the teams involved in that process to collaborate in one place. We're an open-source platform. That means that customers and members of our community contribute back to our platform – we’ve seen over 2200 code contributions to date. One of the key pillars of our success is our values, which include iteration, transparency, and collaboration – all vital elements of managing teams through change. In this article, I’ll share more about how we apply these values plus these three key themes for managing teams and building strategy through change: 1. **Your ultimate strategy always has to be customer value** 2. **Applying change management techniques** 3. **Always leading with transparency** ## Your ultimate strategy: Customer value Customer value has got to be pivotal to everything that we do. We all know that, but when things become more challenging, we can lose sight of it. It’s easy to hunker down and start thinking about the looming competition, becoming hyper-focused on simply staying afloat, rather than prioritizing customer value. The number one rule, no matter how hard things get, is don't fall back into a feature-function mindset. Don't let yourself be trapped in trying to compete with bells and whistles and shiny objects. Maybe there are features that you need to consider building, and maybe there are areas in the platform that need to be built upon, but your approach always has to be guided by how to drive more value for your customers. If the competition gets stronger, you need to double down on thinking about customers’ desired business outcomes, aligning with your customers on those, and reporting back on the progress you’re making towards those goals. It's truly that, not the bells and whistles, that’s going to keep your customers loyal to your business. ## Don’t lose sight of metrics Metrics are the second piece – don't lose sight of them. Think about the “why” behind the metrics you have. If your metrics are changing as a result of the change in strategy that you're going through, there needs to be a direct line back to how that will impact the customer. Think about onboarding and time to value. We measure time to value because we don’t want customers going through a long onboarding period where they feel like they're not seeing a return on investment – that’s going to make them frustrated and maybe even think about churning. There’s a direct link between this metric and customer value. Maybe you look at NPS. I know there's a lot of debate around the efficacy of NPS, but it points back to the customer's satisfaction. It's not a vanity metric. NPS allows you to have a conversation with a customer about how you can make high scores repeatable or solve problems so you don’t keep seeing low scores. To my mind, these conversations are the most beneficial part of tracking NPS. You’ll also want to align some metrics with how you drive value for your team. In times of change, it’s easy to become hyper-focused on what the business needs to succeed, but you also need to look at how you can ensure that the team continues to be supported. Why not establish lightweight metrics to ensure that your teams are bought into the new strategies you're rolling out? ## Documenting your strategy As you think about change, document your strategy. I know this seems obvious, but write it down, and write it down in a central place where people can see it and where you can iterate on it. Don't just put it in a deck and then leave it somewhere it will never be found again. Your strategy should encompass all of the following elements: - **What: Goal clarification** What are you trying to do? It's so easy to talk about what is changing without explaining the ultimate goal. For example, perhaps your goal is to drive customer adoption in another area of your business and you're going to do that through X process over Y period of time. - **Why: The reasons for the change** Maybe this change will help customers be successful. Maybe that will help your business to continue to be successful. Maybe it’s simply to help the team to feel fulfilled in the engagements they're having with their customers. Whatever the reason behind your plan, make sure you share it. - **How: Articulate the plan** While your plans may change, it’s better to articulate anything than to articulate nothing. Explain how you’re going to go about making this change, ensuring that people understand that you’re going to iterate on the plan so it may change. - **Who/When: Assign owners and timelines** Timelines change, but it doesn't mean that you shouldn't have one to begin with. At least lead with the timeframes that you’re proposing to move these strategic changes forward. - **WIIFM: How this change helps the individual, not just the company** Most importantly, spell out how this change is going to impact not just your customer and your business, but also how it's going to help your team. What does it mean to them, to the fulfillment of their role, and to their job satisfaction? This is an incredibly important part of getting buy-in for any strategic change that you roll out. ## Make room for feedback and iteration Once you've documented your strategy, your next step is not to roll it out but to open up a forum to receive feedback. At GitLab, when we're beginning to build out a new strategy or make key changes, we'll articulate that within an issue and then open it up to our teams for feedback – just the TAM team or even to GitLab as a whole, depending on who the new strategy is impacting. We're not moving to a vote in opening this up, but we want to be sure to consider feedback early and often so that we don't roll something out and then discover that it's not the right direction, that there are problems we hadn't thought about, or that we don't have buy-in from the teams we're rolling this out to because we didn't introduce the idea to them early enough. Be as transparent as you can in the decision-making process. Document your strategy and open it up for feedback. Whether you use GitLab or a Google Doc, whether you present it in a QBR or team meeting, give people an avenue to feedback on that idea, ideally in writing. That way, you can read through your teams’ responses and consider whether you need to iterate on your strategy. You also want to make sure you give yourself time for iteration. The last thing you need is to have only a day or two to get feedback when you're trying to ship change within a couple of days. Assume you're going to need to iterate on your strategy based on the feedback that you get from the teams and give yourself time to do so. Finally, make sure it’s clear who is making the decision, what the timeline is, and that all feedback will be considered. ## Communicate clearly and document Once you've documented your strategy, you've taken feedback on it, you've gotten to your final strategy, and you're ready to roll it out, make sure you clearly communicate what the strategy is and document it in a place where people can find it. I cannot stress enough how important it is to not just have it in a deck that you present once and then assume that it's out there. We at GitLab have a handbook where we document all of our processes and our strategies. That way, it’s accessible not only to our teams but also to the general public. Our metrics and plans for the coming year are documented in the handbook. That way when a new TAM comes on board, they don't need to learn everything through the grapevine. Instead, all that information is available to them in an easily searchable place. Maybe you’ll use an internal wiki or just a Google Doc. In any case, make sure it's easily available to the team, that they know how to reference it, and that they can find and remind themselves of the goals there. As you start rolling forward with your strategy, ensure that you're focusing on the results and not the tactics. One thing I’ve learned over this last year of working with teams who are used to iterating on ideas is that there are probably going to be better ideas than yours on how to go about achieving your goals, so you need to be open to feedback throughout the process. Focus on the ultimate goals you're trying to reach and the key milestones you're looking to get to, and then let go of the tactics. Let the team give feedback on how things are going and give yourself the flexibility and the freedom to iterate on the steps that will get you to those milestones and goals as you begin to work with your team on the rollout itself. ## Enable enable enable Once your plan is out there, it's documented, and you’ve begun to communicate it, enable, enable, and enable some more. Don't assume that just because you've outlined your strategy once people are going to remember it. I have made the mistake many times of building out a plan, which becomes totally ingrained in me because I've spent so long thinking about it, then launching it to the team and getting confused as to why they can't quite remember the details – even though only I spelled it out once or twice at best. Make room for yourself to go through this plan over and over again, build out enablement sessions, and drill down deep. You should expect to repeat yourself. In fact, you should plan to repeat yourself. Whether in QBRs or team meetings, remind your teams of the key milestones and goals often. What are you trying to solve? What are you working towards? What progress have you made to date? Keep going over those pieces. Build ongoing iteration on enablement for your team into your strategy. That way, you’ll ensure that they not only feel comfortable in what they're trying to achieve but that they feel supported in their progress. This isn't just a strategy that's happening to them, but they are truly equipped to partner with you in achieving the strategy. ## Lead with transparency One thing I’m grateful to have been learning to a whole new level through GitLab is the importance of leading with transparency. Be transparent as you can. Transparency doesn't mean just telling everyone everything after it's done but bringing them into the process as much as possible. If you find that you do need to change tack or a milestone needs to move, have that conversation with the team as soon as you can. Getting buy-in is about ensuring that people are brought into the processes early on so they can help determine what needs to change and roll that out with you. This can be slower than just deciding what you want to do and implementing it, but you’ll get more support and ultimately be far more successful this way. You'll also bring your team on the journey with you. That means that they’ll be more fulfilled in their roles and the team’s health will be much greater. You also need to be open to feedback. It can be challenging to roll out a strategy and have people tell you that the trajectory is not the right one. As you're rolling out changes, make sure your teams know that they can challenge your ideas. Give them the autonomy to find better ways to get results. We hire smart people for a reason – allow them to come up with ways to augment your strategy and make it even better over time. It’s important to revisit and reiterate your goals often. Even though your internal teams may be working towards the same thing, it can be easy to lose sight of the ultimate goal, so make sure you carve out time to reiterate what you’re trying to achieve, what it means for your teams, and the benefits of getting there. ## Celebrate! Most importantly of all, celebrate! Don't wait until you’ve achieved your ultimate goal – make sure that you find ways to celebrate little wins along the way. When someone finds a better way to get towards a milestone, celebrate that. At GitLab, peers can nominate each other for discretionary bonuses, which is an awesome way just to say, “Hey, what you did was great!” We celebrate those bonuses in a Slack channel where you can see all the people who are being nominated. We also have a thank you channel where people can thank their colleagues for, say, a great coffee chat or for going above and beyond in something they did. I think sometimes we underestimate the value of just stopping and saying thank you to people, and the impact that has on their well-being and how invested they are in the company and the vision of the team. That’s why at GitLab we make an effort to both celebrate excellence and thank people for going above and beyond in their roles. ## Parting thoughts I hope this has helped you to think about how to set and adapt your CS strategy as your organization moves through times of change. Now I’d like to leave you with a few key takeaways. - Start with a goal and come up with a couple of metrics that are going to get you towards that goal. - Make sure your goals align with customer value and with company value. - Consider how your new strategy will impact the teams involved. - Document everything and make sure it is available to the team. - Be open and humble and available for feedback. - Hope that others come up with better ways to get to the milestones and objectives you came up with. - Celebrate often. ### How to create a killer content marketing strategy for your B2B SaaS URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-create-a-killer-content-marketing-strategy-for-your-b2b-saas/ Last updated: 2023-04-06T10:00:53.000Z Paid advertisements are getting more expensive. The cost of customer acquisition via paid ads is spiraling high. Yet people are willing to throw their SaaS marketing budgets into buying ad placements. Why blow away your digital marketing budget when you can attract and retain paying clients for free? With a solid SaaS content marketing strategy, you can use your website, social media platforms, and email marketing to attract high-quality leads, get free trials of your SaaS product, and retain customers for free. Research from demand metric shows that [SaaS content marketing cost 62% less than running paid ads](https://www.demandmetric.com/content/content-marketing-infographic), but is still 3x effective for acquiring leads and demo trials. So content marketing isn't just cheaper. It is 3x more effective than paid ads. Another report from [Copygoals](https://copygoals.com/saas-content-marketing-statistics/) shows that SaaS companies doing content marketing see a 30% higher growth rate and 5-10% higher retention rates than SaaS companies who ignore it. So if you haven't considered content marketing as a valid strategy for promoting your SaaS product, now is the best time to make that decision. If yes, then this post is for you. **Disclaimer!** The common mistake most people make is to assume content marketing is easy**.** But it's not. Content marketing is a **long-term** compounding strategy that will exponentially reward you if you stay **consistent** and commit to sharing **high-valuable** content for free. [Content types for customer educationMany organizations are turning to customer education as a solution to improve retention, increase spend, and drive customer satisfaction and loyalty. But what exactly is included under “customer education”?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSVicky Kennedy![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1471107340929-a87cd0f5b5f3?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDEzfHxibG9nfGVufDB8fHx8MTYyMjczNzYyNQ&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/content-types-for-customer-education/) Note the keywords here—long-term, consistent, and high-valuable content. So if you’re going into SaaS content marketing, then play the long-term game. Go all in. In this article, we'll discuss all the steps — including the ones most marketers skip — you need to help you promote your SaaS product and attract and retain users with content marketing. Get your notes and pen ready because we're about to dive in. ## What is SaaS content marketing? Edan-Ben Atar says: “SaaS content marketing means using educational and informative content, such as blog posts, videos, ebooks, webinars, and podcasts, to effectively communicate a SaaS product’s benefits and unique value proposition to a targeted audience.” Edan Ben-Atar, founder of [one-page website builder](https://limey.io/), Limey. Edan's term highlights the core message content marketing communicates to your customers: - The SaaS product - Features & Benefits - Unique value proposition **Another disclaimer!** No marketing campaign can save a bad product. Above your marketing effort, you need a product that delivers real-time value and a responsive customer support team to attract and retain users. ## How does content marketing attract and retain more leads to Your SaaS business? 47% of [buyers still view](https://www.profitwell.com/recur/all/does-content-marketing-pay-off) 3 to 5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales representative. Nobody wants to throw money on a SaaS product they know nothing about, and almost everybody hates to experience buyer’s remorse. I love to consume the content of any web-based brand before I buy their product or service—I just purchased my basic Semrush plan yesterday after reading their SEO guides and newsletters for five months. [Interactive content ideas for each stage of the buyer’s journeyMy name is Diego Gomes, I am the CEO and founder of Rock Content, and in this article, I’m going to discuss interactive content ideas for each stage of the buyer journey.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDiego Gomes![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/kal-visuals-RCUncjOfNfc-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/interactive-content-ideas-for-each-stage-of-the-buyers-journey/) The same goes for your future customers. They look for valuable content to satisfy their search intent before buying from a brand. So content marketing indirectly makes prospects trust you and your product by targeting real pain points that consumers have. Let's see other ways content marketing attracts and retains leads for your business: ### **Increase visibility for more sign-ups** With quality content, good SEO practices, and a content distribution plan–more on this later–your SaaS has a high chance of gaining visibility in the public eye. Good content influences people to trust your product to deliver the benefits and features it promises. ### **Motivates users to upgrade their subscriptions** The best sales for any SaaS founder is a subscription plan upgrade. It gives a satisfactory feeling, the feeling that your SaaS product is valuable enough for users to want an upgraded plan. But customers often need content such as a case study, email newsletter, webinar, or a guide to motivate them to get an upgraded plan. ## Choosing the type of content for your SaaS There are different content types. From blog posts to podcasts, and webinars to white papers. Which should you focus on? Which of them is most effective for your SaaS? Here's how to choose the right content format for your SaaS content marketing. The content type you choose should depend on these core factors: **Your Team's Strength**: Naturally, you should create content according to the strength of your marketing team, and focus on the content type you have the highest level of expertise in. This will help you create high-valuable content at a consistent pace. If your team consists of content writers and graphic designers, you should consider written content like case studies, how-to guides, and infographics. **Your Ideal Customer**: You should consider the preferred content type of your ideal customer. Assuming you already have customer profile data to help you discover personal facts about them—more on this in the next section. [How thought leadership can boost your SaaS org to scaleBuilding a successful SaaS org isn’t just about growing your customer base, it’s also about creating a firm foundation of trust with your existing customers to ensure solid retention![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/thought-leadership.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-thought-leadership-can-boost-your-saas-growth/) **Your Budget**: Your content marketing budget influences the content you create most of the time. It's difficult to focus on video-based content if you have a low budget, as the cost of shooting quality videos is high. You can create written content even with a limited budget. In general, the different types of content you can create for your SaaS business are: - Blog posts - Tutorials and how-to guides - Product demonstration videos - Customer case studies - Testimonials - Advertorials - Podcasts - Email newsletters - Ebooks and white papers - Infographics Blog posts are a great way to give an overview of interesting topics and summarize important ideas, without giving away too much information. It can serve as lead bait. For instance, if you create a white paper on a study in exchange for lead data, then you can use it to talk about the basics of your white paper. And then use that as a jumping-off point for directing your audience to your landing page. ## 7 Steps to build a winning SaaS content marketing strategy With the excess amount of content getting published by the day, gaining success through content marketing has become a battle for quality, quantity, and uniqueness. Follow these steps to increase your chance of maximizing your SaaS success with content marketing. ### **Identify your ideal customers** Researching your ideal customer is the foundation for any successful content marketing campaign. Your ideal customer is the user ultimately in need of your product. Before now, they kept sleepless nights wishing there was a solution to their stinging problem, an answer to their doubting questions, and a product to satisfy their business desires. It takes less time and effort to convert them as they're already sold right from the interest stage of your marketing funnel. For SaaS companies, the potential customers might not be the person using the software, especially for B2B SaaS. Let's take an automation SaaS company as an example. Your ideal customer isn't the IT folk in the tech department, or the accountant frustrated about the repetitive logging of data on the company's repository—yes they need your product, but they don't make the calls for SaaS purchase in their company. [How to leverage blog content to generate leadsBlogging is more than just sharing company news, events, or updates with your users. When it’s done properly, it can elevate you to thought-leader status and establish your service as the authority in your industry.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/daniel-thomas-6_NXEMZbUq0-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-leverage-blog-content-to-generate-leads/) Your ideal customer here is the HR looking for ways to make their team members more productive, or the marketing director pressured to attract quality leads to their sales funnel. These people have a closer touch with the company budget. You need a customer profile or persona to show you who your ideal customers are. A customer profile is data containing valuable information about your best prospects. This data will give you a deep understanding of your customer, the target audience for your content, and influence your content marketing campaigns—I won't go into this much as it's not part of my scope here. ### **Understand customer search intent** Search intent is the reason behind your audience query. What problem or solution are they hoping to consume on the SERP? If you can discern the type of content your prospects are looking for, then you can create content that goes above and beyond their expectations. This way, your brand will come top of mind whenever they are ready to buy your product. The main buyer's journey stage for every searcher includes: **Awareness stage**: Here, searchers are beginning to notice the problems your product solves and consciously seek expert solutions from any source. This stage is mainly an informational-based search. **Interest stage**: Searchers learn of their problems and are now considering valid options for resolving them. This stage is also an informational type of search. **Decision stage:** Searchers now have a fixed mind on the product or service they need to get their desired results. After making several evaluations about a SaaS product, they sign up for a free trial. **Loyalty stage**: Here, users become indirect product influencers. They advocate for the SaaS, share success stories using the product, and aren't hesitant to renew their subscription plan. So let's say, an automation company is going for a content topic like "How to use automation software to link your spreadsheet to Quickbooks?" [Top SaaS marketing and content toolsA high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) This query suggests the searchers here are in the interest stage of your buyer's journey because they know about their problem, and they're searching for the best way to solve it. Here, content like product demonstration videos and how-to blogs are suited for this query. Generally, the content ranking on Google's first page is a reliable source to determine the search intent behind any keyword. Google ranks content that has the highest chance of concluding a researcher's journey, so if they're up on the SERP, then it means they hit the target intent. Although, this isn't true for all keywords. Hop on review sites, and user-generated channels like Reddit and Quora to discover the searcher's intent. ### **Perform SaaS keyword research** There is no content marketing without SEO. Your ideal customers are using certain keywords at every stage of their search intent, so you need to research and optimize these keywords on your content for SERP visibility. But how do you perform keyword research? Most marketers hop on SEO tools—like Semrush, Ahref, or Moz—looking for high-volume keywords with low difficulty. Then they search these keywords on Google and recreate the content sitting on the SERP. The problem with this approach is you have a low chance of ranking at the top page for your keywords, especially when you have a new website with a low DA score. Here's a better way to perform keyword research and build topical authority in your niche: **Step One**— Analyze your niche: Before using any SEO tool, slice your SaaS niche into three to four categories. For example, we can split an automation SaaS topic into subcategories like: - Automation for task management - Automation for business intelligence - Automation for lead generation - Automation for data analysis - Automation for customer relationship management [Hiring practices cracked: What are the top interview questions for CFO applicants?Chief finance officers are really an integral part of your SaaS puzzle. Mishandling or misspending of funds is one of the chief reasons why startups fail.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/03/hiring-practices.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/hiring-practices-cracked-what-are-the-top-interview-questions-for-cfo-applicants/) **Step Two**—Pick two or three categories with the highest search volume and create a topic cluster with these topics. To do this, go to Google trends and compare these sub-topics. Set your target country, and move the time to five years. Compare the first category with the others on Google Trends Drag your mouse to the "interest over time" graph. Observe the recent trends. By doing this we can select the top trending categories from the rest: - Automation for lead generation - Automation for customer relationship - Automation for business intelligence **Step Three** —Research content topics under each selected subcategory. You can use tools— like Buzzsumo, Answer the Public, People Also Ask section on the SERP, and Related Searches section on the SERP—to get topic ideas from each subcategory. Another option is to write a prompt on AI software like ChatGPT. From our previous example, we'll choose the subcategory "Automation for business intelligence" as our pick. The content topics from this category include: 1\. Benefits of Automating Your Lead Generation Process 2\. Strategies for Effective Lead Generation 3\. Tips for Choosing the Right Automation Software 4\. How Automation Software Can Help You Generate More Leads 5\. Automating Your Lead Nurturing Process 6\. Best Practices for Optimizing Lead Generation 7\. How Automation Software Enhances Your Lead Generation Efforts If you do this for the other selected categories, you'll have a comprehensive list of content ideas for your content marketing. From the Two or three categories, we'll have at least thirty content ideas(ten for each group). Take one section at a time and watch Google recognize your SaaS site as an authority in your niche. [SaaScast: Turning customers into advocatesSo, you have really loyal customers? That’s great. But are you making those testimonials sing for your SaaS business? In other words, are you turning your customers into fierce champions for your organization?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Ryan-O-Connell-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-turning-customers-into-advocates/) **Step Four**— Type your content ideas on the SERP and note the auto-suggestions Google is making, the People Also Ask section and the Related Search section. They reveal valuable keywords that can allow you to rank well on Google. You can also use paid tools like Semrush to discover related secondary keywords for your content. As a rule of third, your keywords should be relevant to your content topic. Avoid stuffing keywords that don't add value to your content, It will make you lose credibility with Google, and your audience might notice too. ### **Create quality SaaS content that adds value** The time, effort, and resources spent on content marketing will go to waste if your content doesn't add value to your ideal customer. *Recall the three keywords for SaaS content marketing are long-term, consistent, and high-value.* Having your customer profile should serve as a guide to discovering what value means for your audience. From there, you'd know what they expect from you. Valuable content is concise and clear and goes several layers down. Ensure your content avoids generalities in your content, and make sure you use specific and relatable terms your audience understands. Copy the slang or terms your audience uses by studying reviews about your SaaS product and your competitors. Customers' voices often shine through reviews. That's a good mine there. [SaaS MarketingAs the demand for cloud-based software continues to grow, SaaS companies are facing intense competition in the market. Here is a guide to help you develop a successful SaaS marketing strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_Marketing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/) Go beyond the benefits of your SaaS product, share the special features and benefits it brings to your ideal customer's problem, or get them the results they want. Lastly, always add a Call-To-Action even if it's informational content. Make the call to action informational. As simple as downloading this webinar, or downloading this checklist, read this guide to learn more. Don't leave your audience stranded after consuming your content, they deserve to know the next step moving forward. ### **Promote your content unashamedly** A common mistake you'll see many businesses make is to believe their content will automatically get read and shared by their target audience without promotion. But this is wrong. You can't rely on Google alone for content promotion. The failure to intentionally promote your content shows you don't believe in the value your content offers. So always leverage all marketing channels, including social media, where you're likely to find your ideal customer, and promote your content there–at least if you believe it’s helpful to searchers. See it like an evangelical purpose to share the good news–your content–to those in need of it. Hitting the share button is just one part of the content marketing phase, you don’t stop there. Does researching content complete the content creation stage? That’s the same way drafting and publishing content does not complete content creation too. Ross Simmonds, the CEO of Foundationinc.co and a big advocator for content promotion tweets it better: ![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/2DThefS8WC2v1viaFpZx50mdwSnHvgq8oC0gpxSpf4yhNn8s82c-65H-ioxKFM1Z2LTVqDoaIN8HSvGGGhzsGy2jrHH1cIQ9W8WIOqI55KnZ42BcCdqOijYmgQ303ehO1VSC-0_WZLZydBI8XvhYSHA) ### **Set metrics for measuring content success** Ignore the popular web traffic metric most content marketers use to measure their content marketing success. Over 60% of [traffic on the internet are bots](https://techstartups.com/2022/06/03/humans-now-make-38-5-internet-traffic-61-5-non-human-bots-hacking-tools-others/), not real humans. You have bots from search engines and other SaaS crawling your site for data analysis, so ignore site traffics. The only people who need web traffic are niche site builders and affiliate marketers. What good does obsessing over a web traffic report do for your SaaS? Nothing at all. The primary metrics you should care about are your impressions and click-through rate (CTR), organic content shares and backlinks, and lead generation. [Top 5 reasons why startups fail and how to avoid themWhile it’s true that competition in the SaaS market is fierce and competitive, there are steps you can take to give your product the best shot at SaaS super stardom.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/why-startups-fail.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-5-reasons-why-startups-fail-and-how-to-avoid-them/) You can see your website impressions and CTR on the Google search console. Use it to determine if the keywords you are ranking for are attracting leads to your website. This metric helps you know if your content is doing well—high impressions and CTR—or not. Use tools like Kissmetrics or customer lifetime value (CLV) to calculate your content share rate on all content marketing channels. CLV also reveals the cost per lead in your content marketing campaign. Lastly, set up your Google analytics tool. By using the analytics segment, you will know the number of conversions that originated from your content channels. Integrating with a CRM is also helpful as it helps you evaluate the quality of your leads. Having a large number of sales or marketing-qualified leads is a more significant metric for measuring your content marketing success. ### **Repurpose and Update your content** The lifecycle of a content piece doesn't end in its creation or immediate promotion. A well-researched and value-packed content can be repurposed and updated time and time again. A good piece never wears out. Tommy Walker describes a piece of content as digital currencies every business needs in the online world. To repurpose any content, first, have a list of content channels and format your ideal customers love to consume. Ask questions like what channel does your audience spend time the most on? How many people are hanging out there? What is the best content format on that channel? The answers to these questions will give you a clear idea of how to distribute your content. For example, our favorite automation software brand discovers their ideal customer loves to read case studies, blog posts, and LinkedIn posts, and they listen to podcasts. Now they know the content format cycle, they can convert a blog post to a LinkedIn post, discuss a blog post idea in their podcast, or create blog articles from relevant case studies. Updating old content on your blog attracts more web traffic and leads to your website, especially the high-performing posts. Having content refresh should always be part of your content marketing plan. ### **Don’t ignore technical SEO practices** I get it, you hate the technical SEO jargon. It's hard, it's complex, and it takes a lot of time to implement. But you need it, every business doing content marketing does. Technical SEO is like that strict aunt who loves to come around, you don’t want her home, but you love the gifts she brings. You don't often see a content marketing guide mention technical SEO practices like link building, link architecture, URL structure, meta tags, description, and all other backend SEO practices. The downside is they make you believe you can rank without considering technical SEO, but that’s not true. See content marketing like a black sports car. Your destination is to get more demo trails and retain users here. [How to hire an effective VP of sales for your SaaS orgWho you hire to lead your sales team is a major decision that can have a huge impact on your company’s success.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/boats.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-hire-an-effective-vp-of-sales-for-your-saas-org/) The content creation process, SEO keyword research and optimization, and content promotion are similar to the interior features of the car. Meanwhile, technical SEO is like the unseen car engine, making the car run fast. Let's go over some technical SEO practices you shouldn't ignore: **Link Building:** You need backlinks to make Google see your website as an authoritative site. Backlinks are like votes of trust from other websites linking to yours, it is one of the many metrics Google uses to rank content on the SERP. There is a constant battle for the position you rank on the SERP, what keeps you atop the completion is backlinks. Try to ensure that a vast majority of your backlinks are not from spam sites or sites irrelevant to your niche. Also, avoid PBNs, you'd end up adding dirty links to your profile. The best way to get backlinks is to include: - HARO - Help a B2B writer - Guest posting - Like insertion These backlink methods are tiresome to do, but they will reward you in the long run. Link building is easier when you build relationships with the people in your industry. **Link architecture:** The internal link structure of your website matters too. The way Google and other search engines discover your published web pages is by crawling and indexing them with search bugs. These bugs have a lot of crawling to do, so there are high tendencies it might skip some pages of your site. Build a web structure that will help these search bugs discover your most important pages faster by linking your top pages to the home page, or linking to a page linking to the home page. **URL structure**: The URL of all your pages should be in simple words–use the title of your blog if it’s your blog page. People should be able to tell what your page is about from the URL alone. This post from [Google search central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/url-structure) gives a full list of do’s and don’t for your URL structure. ## The most important part of SaaS content marketing is consistency Content marketing is a cheap and effective strategy for promoting your SaaS product, but you have to think long-term here. Businesses like m.io, Hubspot, sprout social, and Semrush are winning testimonies of content marketing. But none achieved success in the short term. It takes months or years to see the tangible effects of content marketing. So if you decide to go into it, go all in. And stay consistent. --- *Like what you see? Why not check out exclusive insights from SaaS experts with a FoSaaS membership?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Future of SaaS Festival | 19 April, 2023 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-5/ Last updated: 2023-04-20T07:56:48.000Z 🗓Date: 19 April 📍Venue: Online! **What is the Future of SaaS festival** Shift your SaaS into high gear and accelerate the capabilities of your SaaS product to drive rapid growth! 🚀 Experience a day of non-stop, game-changing presentations that will leave you feeling flush with fresh strategies, tactics, and ways of working! [👉 GRAB YOUR TICKET👈](https://festival23.futureofsaas.io/checkout/select-tickets/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=post&utm%5Fcampaign=event-futureofsaas2023) --- ### Agenda highlights. 🔥 Built around the hottest topics in SaaS, Future of SaaS Festival takes place once a year, every year, and gathers like-minded SaaS enthusiasts from every corner of the globe. 🔥🌎 Just some of the cutting-edge talking points on the agenda include: 💬 → From 0 to 11M: driving product-led growth from the outside in 📈 → A model to fast-track new hires to productivity 🚀 → The GTM process you need: From $20M ARR to $250M ARR 💰 → The power and evolution of vertical SaaS ⚡️ → Becoming a product based series-A startup from a solution-based pre-series startup 🌟 [🗓 FULL AGENDA🗓](https://festival23.futureofsaas.io/schedule/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=post&utm%5Fcampaign=event-futureofsaas2023) --- ### **Don’t just take our word for it…** 💬 > "The Future of SaaS is a great resource! Their events have been top-notch and super helpful! As an aspiring CSM I've been learning a lot and networking! Definitely check out more of this platform, its community, events and additional resources! Thank you!" > **Vincent Conti, Customer Success Specialist at RevenueWell** --- Join 1,000+ of your peers online and unlock endless opportunities to establish meaningful relationships that extend well beyond the event. 🤝 [👉 GRAB YOUR TICKET👈](https://festival23.futureofsaas.io/checkout/select-tickets/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=post&utm%5Fcampaign=event-futureofsaas2023) ### Top tools to enhance the performance of your salespeople URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/top-tools-to-enhance-the-performance-of-your-salespeople/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:55:07.000Z My name is Terry Mitchell, and I'm the Principal and Owner of 180 Enablement, a sales and marketing enablement consulting firm. Having spent the last five years working for Fujifilm developing and launching a broad [sales enablement](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-enablement-scaled-down-problems-facing-small-startups/) program, I've decided to go off on my own and help others as they go down the path of improving [sales performance](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-sales-enablement-to-sales-performance/). My goal is to introduce you to some assessment and coaching [tools](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-sales-enablement-tools-for-saas-leaders/) to help you enable your sellers to improve their sales skills and sales performance. The topics covered in this article include: - The five groups of sales effectiveness attributes - A system for rating the sales effectiveness attributes of your team - How to create a personal development plan for your sellers - A coaching framework for personal development plans ## **The 5 groups of sales effectiveness attributes** In a survey conducted by AAA, 73% of people think they are better than the average driver. Perhaps this is not a surprising statistic when you ask someone to rate their own skill. If you were to ask your sales team to rate their selling skill, you might get a similar response. With the following list of [sales](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-the-rules-of-engagement/) effectiveness attributes, we’re looking at a system that enables you to help your sales team, regardless of their years of experience, in a period of self-reflection. There are 25 sales effectiveness attributes which I’ve broken down into groups to make them easier to digest. [![Sales effectiveness attributes: Engagement](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/FaakhPrB-CfHXUtj7JDYp-HoEs205yUTPOs0pijf6pPBue_6Mv8ykfMZv-TXiqQQWU6r2ArWCSKOtmKQ7CgH-GqXuiQv2wHaWMTy1JDVKRy0p1uF-JuKzH7pybcdVsJBENWycoGtSyw-c0p_J9L-zjPVgrZL3KHU8TY9UDM9Q1JG7Y8LZyaNXTgKNQA3hg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/top-tools-to-enhance-the-performance-of-your-salespeople) ### **Engagement (commitment for time)** In order to get in front of a prospect and be viewed as a value creator and not a time waster, your [team members](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-out-customer-success-and-sales-teams-from-the-ground-up/) need to effectively open the sales call, execute the agenda, and demonstrate business knowledge and acumen. They also have to be prepared for and overcome customer indifference. These are customers who express that they’re not interested and don’t see a need for the product or service you’re offering. This is why sales calls should be opened with some compelling [content](https://www.saasalliance.io/content-types-for-customer-education/) and reasons why the customer or prospect should spend time with you. [![Sales effectiveness attributes: Discovery](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/JpszW_r4zZiOVb17yEjESrBcJl_fJNAGr3XetUPzZP43QQQ4s611hQNGQ6GiMuaensC67Mp-MA4reJO4IH6FQS2-Xy4OkRrprkN28tb6sG-UziZhCHDdY05-e-H7Qk0tcuYb81--glmi8h-RUYDl1uMAZsZpcMKvmxP5j3bgRIah7jizFhuWSpQr13KVtQ)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/top-tools-to-enhance-the-performance-of-your-salespeople) ### **Discover (commitment to explore)** We need effective selling skills to use effective discovery questions, layering in open-ended as well as closed questions to really uncover the need, and then create that compelling case for change. Get the prospect to understand why they would want to make a change and take them from the current state into a future state. Much of this relies on effectively conveying the consequence: “*If I do this, what's going to happen? If I don't do this, what's going to happen? What's the impact or consequence of the implication?”.* [![Sales effectiveness attributes: Breaking the status quo](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pxpvdY5D1MFjRueYCEXmTTR4P88QJmOnstKbQlQo1LskkRRPT6Nyv09lvFFaLaITPVgNjwaImMDterWVT4rKYX1z0J51OMpsgvSkT-RexRJBiqwjPef68cxAARTzSrn8DvNRl9JLj_ye-U_hlCkZUVq1C-KMrCzkWywV74ipT9tqJSCWC9fXANT_zvbR_A)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/top-tools-to-enhance-the-performance-of-your-salespeople) ### **Breaking the status quo (commitment to change)** Here, you're starting to collaborate with the customer to develop a tailored solution, confirm the business solution and value of what you have to offer, and differentiate it from the alternatives. You also have to include the economic and strategic justification, the emotion as well as the logic behind it, and what the justification is to move forward. It's likely that the customer is going to come up with objections and express some concerns at this point, so being able to overcome those objections is another key skill. [![Sales effectiveness attributes: Enlisting collaboration](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/V4eGreaSuiXU_7ZPUSJDwU_qM-KURby0JmIbSPKIENKrsQ62m0e4C-uFcFyfhqMqLnpPJKuYoVBG_9agaDzkZminh24zS_z_S13N0HH9xikyKSdkRnrEdcT19nzmA-fu3xxcJG53KpaWo0AA_aXspCniNZuEdZA3eiI6THh5RFtJ6RcIDB1T5OokoI4bpA)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/top-tools-to-enhance-the-performance-of-your-salespeople) ### **Enlisting collaboration (commitment to build consensus)** This is the stage where you have multiple stakeholders involved and you're pretty far along in the sales cycle, but you haven't closed the sale yet. You need to create a plan of action and exchange value along the way. You also need to demonstrate your skill in storytelling and get the customer to truly understand the proposal that you're making, build rapport with them, enlist their support and trust in you, create engaging dialogue, and maintain professional poise when dealing with objections or resolving concerns. [![Sales effectiveness attributes: Building consensus](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/vd3PU_f-evXSylOGjiBD9REV8ke8G0Wu-6NwV7dl-9s-VPlSlk_b9Rm7eIw1GxvJXuVVQRIOgTw9HgdfytOmX3ArzN1l5zs5pY6zSoCfVhYG5Gh5iEuvlTrKKtyV3chNNP0GQ-Ku-2Giih3IALdRedutlQhcQYCo-z59xr4xXV3I9nZzzp92b9OL_-QHPw)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/top-tools-to-enhance-the-performance-of-your-salespeople) ### **Building consensus (commitment to invest)** It’s important that you understand the different roles in the [buying journey](https://www.saasalliance.io/interactive-content-ideas-for-each-stage-of-the-buyers-journey/), that you can confirm the purchase timeline, and it meets the expectations of the customer. You must also understand the buying process once the customer says yes, what happens in terms of final decisions, and who is going to be on the implementation team. Resolving customer concerns in this phase is another key skill, and closing the deal by asking for the business. Those are all the [**sales effectiveness attributes**](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-hire-sales-leaders/). At this point, we're not talking about behaviors, attitudes, or even aptitude. We're talking about really honing in on sales skills. And why is that important? Because ultimately, for a sales team member to engage in any kind of [training](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-improve-sales-team-training-sessions/) or coaching, they're going to have to see it for themselves - understand where they're strong, where they're weak, and where they could potentially improve and get better results. [![Sales effectiveness attributes: Observable attribute](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ApYedtL5w0L_eqHLbItm9b3gluk57gzhvU0yI8tlMYrIu3h9DQI8HV15hEKn1V14jwXas0a9pbgFNWqm23AxgeZoYu9CKyKt44UenRGtb1ADsgXeVw9tuJbsuP2aIn60wlIkKybvpPyYeJSf63ZmcGLkX-dkN81TwgBUmuvFATxROIzFcPtUuuZBYSHLQg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/top-tools-to-enhance-the-performance-of-your-salespeople) ## **Rating the sales effectiveness attributes** The next step is to take the list of attributes and rate each one from one to five. **One** is low skill, where the salesperson isn’t following the steps or being effective. **Three** is average skill, following some of the steps but not being fully effective. **Five** is really high skill, high proficiency, and being fully effective. We now hand the list of attributes and rating system *to* the salesperson to self-reflect on and determine which areas they're strong in and where they potentially need to improve. For example, with the first grouping, [‘engagement,’](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-engagement-and-the-metrics-that-matter-q-a-with-intercom/) the salesperson would rate themselves from one to five on: - Opens the sales call - Executes the agenda - Demonstrates business knowledge - Overcomes indifference [![Sales effectiveness attributes: Observable attribute](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_o31LZpAu5eGicZlKom5KxSOpkcEHXW1tek59qhlZ62IDTP9b2Zmc9uewHGp3DW_o14de4BhqBDl6HZHquZoANUyUeXQsF40Ddhl604gYBc1iUOVUaERp-rF0AsxP38ImlWpWU07uy2jIfclQtFI0Yv313-heVbp7kfARWOxKpEQf8AQiCbzabFnXLiKFQ)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/top-tools-to-enhance-the-performance-of-your-salespeople) Each attribute comes with a question. For ‘opens the sales call’, we're asking: how well does the seller open a sales call by setting a meeting objective, stating the value to the customer, and checking for acceptance? For the ‘discover’ group of attributes, we're talking about using effective discovery questions such as: ‘how well does that seller use open, closed, and layered questions to explore and discover possible business pain points, realized, or unrealized needs?’ Again, the salesperson would rate each one of the attributes in this grouping individually: - Uses effective discover questions - Uncovering needs - Creates compelling case for change - Effectively conveys the consequence [![Sales effectiveness attributes: Observable attribute](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/czL6LpR8gl0hXVd9iBE9f9sY36QUZPcGDCC9uE0doDLSwAmfGcpBRUPWW5KReBCxo2TjuJY3rhMcTUAjyvObW2-VLlm59Lvpj7tKVfhJCQP2O7RrFhIjAj16NtOGuGauG3HU5jj-cvWA7BOOW8-HSJ8RFm0-WC8uSazsAYqRugwuo6OZG62dDXofEML-sA)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/top-tools-to-enhance-the-performance-of-your-salespeople) Creating a compelling case for change often comes from somebody who’s introducing new technology and really feels comfortable with that technology. But sellers could rate themselves low when they fail to ask those layered open and closed questions to really understand what the [customer's needs](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-your-customers-your-growth-priority/) might be, despite the benefits that are self-evident to them about this new technology. Effectively conveying the consequences is being able to explain what happens if the customer does nothing. For example, they might get left behind or not be as competitive. The salesperson will go through the five groupings and rate all 25 individual sales effectiveness attributes. We would then calculate the total ratings out of 125 and divide this total by 25 to come up with an average score. [![Personal development plan](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-s2nqo5q8kKZMCEjxGbmZLHf1MiEmpXOJjDHzwPtZ-9PXpbDJM7sQN9QpB2nzY1-Sk_uqxJfgFFzSoDMEnCLC1RmMz04Oxmfes23BtAPOA4HMfVFTUpNry9MBI1lAzK5rtrCmxAbkTcMsmj8G7CxU1N9jjsyG_GObC1HnhI3r4_LEr17I-j1uYIZPfg0xA)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/top-tools-to-enhance-the-performance-of-your-salespeople) ## **How to create a personal development plan for your sellers** You’re now going to use the ratings to create a personal development plan (PDP). Don't wait for the performance to become really poor - **be proactive** and develop a PDP for the individual seller to follow. In the PDP we look at skills that were identified as focus areas for improvement on the rating sheet. I would pick one to three areas that the seller wants to work on, but no more than three. You then want to open up a dialogue with the seller on what they will do to improve these identified skills and set a realistic timeline for when those actions will be completed. You’ll also determine how improvements will be measured to confirm mastery of the skills. Here’s an example of how the PDP might look: **What skills were identified as the focus areas for improvement?** - Uses effective discover questions **What will the manager do to improve identified skills?** - [Sales](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-sales-teams-can-collaborate-to-drive-growth-q-a-with-tymeshift/) skills videos, provide training materials, develop a list of discovery questions for a current prospecting opportunity in Salesforce, conduct a role play based on those scenarios to help the salesperson practice, develop, and get better at that particular skill. **When will the actions be completed?** - \[Insert specific date\] **How will the improvement in each skill be measured to confirm mastery?** - The ability to identify and uncover the need and the need behind the need in set roleplay exercises. This is an example of how one particular skill that the salesperson wants to improve can be pulled out and made very relevant and specific as part of a PDP. The benefits of developing a PDP are that it establishes focus and direction, provides training to help sellers improve their skills, and creates a baseline rating for future comparison. Now when we look at the rating sheet again after going through the training and mastery of the skill, we come back and rate those areas again in a few months’ time to see if there has been any progress. ## **A coaching framework for personal development plans** With coaching, the first thing that comes to my mind is the sports world. Even the best in the business have coaches. They hone their skills, focus in on the areas of their game where they aren't performing at the highest level, and then work on improving those areas to improve their overall game, skill set and performance. Here's a framework for a coaching session related to a PDP: ### **Step 1 - Frame the discussion** This is where we go back to the original rating sheet. It's really humbling for somebody to say they’re a two or a three in a certain area. It's also okay when they rate themselves as a four or five. It's harder for them to identify the areas of weakness, but we're not trying to beat them up by only talking about these. We want to **focus on both their strengths and weaknesses**. A way to frame the discussion would be to say: ‘*I'd like to discuss your ratings for the sales effectiveness attributes. I see the attribute list as a way to identify your strengths, and also help you focus on specific skills where you can improve your sales effectiveness and ultimately, your overall performance. Are you open to having this discussion?*’ Obviously, you're looking for that buy-in and atmosphere of safety where the seller is going to understand that their manager is trying to help them. This is not a performance review or critique of their performance, you’re simply reaching out to them and trying to help them, so you want to make sure they're open to having the discussion by framing it up as the first step. ### **Step 2 - Uncover employee perspectives** Here we're talking about the areas the employee rated as a four or five on the list of attributes and giving them an opportunity to acknowledge and talk about their strengths. If you're in agreement with their ratings as a result of some observable moments, then you can simply concur that it’s a key strength and that you agree with their ratings. If you've seen enough observable moments to disagree with their ratings, you should ask for more information about their perspective on their ratings, as well as some examples of how they’ve demonstrated their high skill. This opens the [salesperson ](https://www.saasalliance.io/salespeople-dont-give-a-sh-t/)up to being more self-reflective and introspective on whether or not they really are a four or five in that particular skill. Another aspect of uncovering the employee perspective is to talk about which areas they rated as a one or a two. If their ratings are consistent with your ratings, you should acknowledge them as being areas for improvement and ask what they think they can do to improve their skill in these areas. As a manager, we’re deploying our own skill in terms of discovery by asking questions to uncover the employee's perspective. Whether we agree or not, it's an opportunity to have that conversation or discussion. ### **Step 3 - Consider the impact** We next ask the [salesperson](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-sales-enablement-a-product-marketing-perspective/) to consider the impact of being weak in some areas of their sales skills. Ask them what they think could happen if they don't master a high level of skill at \[insert specific attribute\]. Their response might be ‘I won't establish trust’ or ‘I won't be able to advance the sales process’ or ‘I may end up with a dead no decision outcome.’ In other words, they're going to open up, self-realize and now understand the consequence or the impact. ### **Step 4 - Clarify the structure (depending on the response)** For this step, we can confirm for example that becoming skilled at effective discovery questions is key to avoiding ending up in a dead no decision outcome and achieving improved overall sales performance. Ask your [salesperson](https://www.saasalliance.io/establishing-your-sales-enablement-republic/) what benefits they see in improving their skill in a specific attribute and get them to verbalize what else they see as beneficial. Their response could be ‘hitting my sales goal’ or ‘reducing the length of the sales cycle’ or ‘winning more deals.’ ### **Step 5 - explore solutions and next steps** Ask the salesperson what they see as the next steps needed to improve their skill at \[insert specific attribute\]. The response might be to ‘practice more’ or ‘spend more time preparing for each sales call’ or ‘set more specific call objectives.’ You would then agree on a plan to accomplish this improvement and when, and then how you'll confirm mastery of the skill. You’ll then take the ratings exercise again in three or six months' time to determine the progress that the individual seller is making. ## **Key takeaways** I would highly encourage you to consider implementing the [sales effectiveness](https://www.saasalliance.io/drive-more-efficient-sales-through-smarter-sales-enablement/) attribute ratings list with your sales managers and their sales teams. As an enabler, I wouldn’t take this on directly, I would instead work with the sales manager who's going to be doing the coaching, and you'll then be able to assist with the training portion as well as skill development. Create individual personal development plans rather than a flavor-of-the-month type of training exercise; some people might be dismissive of these if they feel they’re really skilled in a certain area and don’t need any help. The PDP is key to unlocking the enlistment of the seller and their manager in a conversation and going forward to improve their skill set. Thank you. ### Hiring practices cracked: What are the top interview questions for CFO applicants? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/hiring-practices-cracked-what-are-the-top-interview-questions-for-cfo-applicants/ Last updated: 2023-04-06T10:01:16.000Z Here at Future of SaaS, we’re all about ensuring SaaS founders and CEOs have the tools they need to hire for maximum success. A key component to this is found in your [hiring process](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-hire-sales-leaders/). Chief finance officers are really an integral part of your SaaS puzzle. Mishandling or misspending of funds is one of the chief reasons [why startups fail](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-5-reasons-why-startups-fail-and-how-to-avoid-them/), so finding someone who not only knows their way around a balance sheet, but can also steer your financial strategy towards maximum [growth](https://www.saasalliance.io/growth-hacks-for-a-0-50-million-journey/) is crucial. But this is quite a potent cocktail of qualities. How can you ensure that the person you're hiring has them? By asking the right questions. Luckily we’ve laid them out for you right here!👇 ## Interview questions for CFO: Soft skills ### 1\. Tell me what our company does in your own words A key quality in a good CFO: diligence. It’s all good and well asking somebody if they have this quality point blank, but this more indirect question is a great way of testing whether this quality is present in their behavior. If they know your company by the back of their hand it’s a good sign. ### 2\. Describe your main goals The benefit of this question is twofold. Firstly, is the candidate a long-term thinker? A person who has goals usually has a long term plan for the future. When you a hire a CFO you have to be sure that the candidate won’t just be someone who is treading water. Instead, they will have a long term plan for how funding from investors should be spent to achieve maximum, [sustainable growth](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-increase-your-sustainable-growth-rate/) over time. ### 4\. Pretend you’re in a sales meeting, pitch our company to me A crafty question, as the candidate is revealing two things at once. One: they’re revealing the extent of their knowledge of your company, something which reveals diligence and preparation. And secondly, They’re revealing that they’re a persuasive communicator. Your CFO might sometimes have to justify decisions in your company’s financial plan when challenged. [SaaS revenue-based financing: the cheat code to preventing ownership dilutionYour SaaS company has a magic word that hypnotizes investors: recurring revenue. It’s much easier (and less expensive) to keep existing customers than acquire new ones.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAdam Tzagournis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/calculator.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-revenue-based-financing-the-cheat-code-to-preventing-ownership-dilution/) ### 5\. Pose queries that ascertain if your Chief Financial Officer is compatible with your company's culture. Your CFO is taking on a major leadership role in your org. It's essential that they establish a good rapport with your team. Leadership is earned, not commanded. If your CFO is not a good cultural fit, it will disrupt communication between your CFO and your team. Everyone has a slightly different management style, but good rapport is essential because it facilitates communication with your team members, ensuring that all teams are aligned with financial targets. This is an essential pillar of good [leadership skills](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-youre-demotivating-your-team-and-how-to-turn-things-around/). ### 6\. Recount an instance when you detected an issue, contemplated your possibilities, and opted for a successful resolution. This may seem like a cliche interview question, but the fact is, it's more fitting than ever when it comes to hiring a CFO. Your CFO will likely be tasked constantly with overcoming obstacles, as with any professional. The difference is that your CFO is dealing with big money and making decisions that could make or break your business. The ability to calmly weigh up problems and solutions is a must-have. ### 7\. If you could alter something about the company what would it be? Once again twofold benefits: the candidate reveals that they have the temerity and strength of character to offer up constructive criticism, an important quality to have in a high pressure job. Secondly, they’re showing that they’re coming into the role already with ideas for how to improve things. ### 8\. Tell me something I know nothing about This is a great way to determine whether the candidate is a well-rounded individual or not. But why do you need them to be well-rounded? Because it takes a combination of qualities to be a successful leader. Someone who is simply good at crunching the numbers might not have the ability to point other individuals in the right direction. You're assessing to see if your candidate has a broad range of knowledge and expertise. [How to effectively fundraise and find investorsIn this article, I’m going to share some stories from my fundraising career that I’ve never shared anywhere else. Each story comes with a lesson I learned along the way. Hopefully, these lessons will help you as you embark on your journey to raise capital.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSKirill Makharinsky![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/money-man.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-effectively-fundraise-and-find-investors/) ### 9\. What did you do to reach your long-term targets in your last job? Here you want to see evidence of past success, not just in getting through the tasks of the day, but also in carrying out long term projects. The candidate should be a long term planner to have the foresight to know how certain [investments](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-vc-and-saas-investing/) will pay off long-term. ### 10\. What are your most significant accomplishments? This will really give you insight into where your candidate places their priorities. Do they value monetary gain or do they value solid work practices and good morale? Do they value individual achievement or do they think a person is only as good as their team? Whether you favor one over the other is up to you, but you should be very intentional about exactly the kind of person that you’re going after. ## Finance-oriented questions Now that you have an idea of the kind of person you’re dealing with, it’s time to assess professional competence. ### 1\. What have you done in the past to ensure your company adheres to regulatory compliance? This is an area that SaaS companies often overlook when hiring for a CFO role. Hiring the wrong person won't just mean potential financial ruin, it could also mean potential legal trouble if the candidate is not familiar with the latest regulatory compliance guidelines. Ensure that they are not only familiar with this but that they also have a proven track record of carrying out the role whilst adhering to regulatory laws. ### 2\. Describe how you would achieve accuracy and transparency when carrying out an organization’s financial reporting? Following on from the above, the CFO candidate might know regulatory compliance inside out, but knowing something and practicing it can be two entirely different things. It’s important to get the candidate to demonstrate, in practical terms, how exactly they’re going to carry out the role. [15 tools for a great finance stackFinance teams need to pull data fast and they need it to be accurate, to achieve both they have to have complete confidence in their tech stack. With this in mind, we searched high and low for the tools you need in your arsenal to build the ultimate finance tech stack![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/07/clay-banks-E2HgkL3LaFE-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/15-tools-for-a-great-finance-tech-stack/) ### 3\. How will the economic climate for SaaS businesses change over the next 24 months? This question not only assesses industry knowledge but also an ability to adapt. As recent global crises have shown, SaaS companies can end up having to overhaul their business practices overnight. Having some foresight into how the industry is likely to change will reveal a candidate who isn't likely to leave the company open to any nasty surprises along the way. We cannot future-proof our products completely of course, but having some knowledge as to which way the wind’s blowing is going can go a long way towards future protection. Equally, a good marker of a sound financial mind is the ability to look closely at the market and speculate. This helps to determine how company funds should be spent and invested and, and can potentially inform a key mergers and acquisitions. ### 3\. Explain how to establish a successful budget This is a great question as it allows the applicant to clearly express their understanding of the field. With their response, we can assess how they would put their conception of accomplishment into action in our organization. ### 4\. How in the past have you reported financial outcomes to your C-Suite, board of directors, investors and external stakeholders? Your candidate might have all the knowledge in the world, but if they don't have experience in communicating financial progress and forecasts to CEOs, a board of directors, and senior stakeholders, it can be very difficult to establish company goals and milestones. They should demonstrate evidence of having had processes in place for communicating. What practices have they facilitated to ensure all those that need to know are aware of your financial situation? [The fusion of SaaS and Fintech through embedded financeMy name’s Herber De Ruijter and in this article, I’ll be covering topics around the fusion of traditional brands, SaaS business models with Fintech technologies from a concept or an emerging trend which is called embedded finance.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSHerber De Ruijter![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/07/rob-lambert-9Q_pLLP_jmA-unsplash--1--3.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-fusion-of-saas-and-fintech-through-embedded-finance/) ### 5\. How have you communicated bad news in prior roles, and how did this impact your organization? When conducting a CFO interview, it’s crucial that you the interviewee report problems in a way that leads to practical solutions. This will require excellent problem solving skills. So often the way that a problem is solved is dictated by how the problem is reported. Are they able to approach a problem with actionable solutions in mind? They should demonstrate evidence of having done so in the past. ### 6\. In your previous roles, how have financial outcomes matched up to your forecasts? Here you are assessing both the accuracy of the candidate's forecasting abilities, their industry knowledge, and their ability to follow through on meeting goals. It’s important to note that you’re not necessarily looking for someone who has gotten it right every time, but rather someone who is able to steer the ship toward goals through realistic, [data-driven](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-data-team-at-saas-hypergrowth/) forecasting. ### 7\. How would you tackle financial forecasting for our organization? How would you align your team behind the figures? Is the candidate capable of owning responsibilities and how do they see their role in the overall company? They must understand the overall impact that their role is going to have and they demonstrate that they understand the importance of aligning the whole org behind projections and goals. [Scaling your SaaS finance operationsYour finance team is the backbone to successfully scaling your business. But how do finance teams successfully scale and evolve in a fast-growing organization?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/07/sean-pollock-PhYq704ffdA-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-saas-finance-operations/) ### 8\. How has data analysis informed your decision making in the past? Being an astute [data analyst](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-tech-companies-are-using-data-to-massively-reduce-their-saas-costs/) is really integral to being an effective CFO. This is an essential component of performance assessment, monitoring cash flow, forecasting, and in putting together financial reports. The key skill is being able to establish initiatives for the future based on what the present situation tells us. ### 9\. What does a successful finance operation look like and how have you rolled one out in the past? You are assessing that the interviewee isn't just someone who's going to blindly follow directives, they actually have their own original ideas about how best to carry out the role. Without this, they are not going to be able to offer solutions when problems arise. --- Enjoyed this article? Why not sign up for a future of SaaS membership and have access to all our exclusive content? 👇 [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### SaaScast: Turning customers into advocates URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-turning-customers-into-advocates/ Last updated: 2023-02-28T15:59:06.000Z So, you have really loyal customers? That’s great. But are you making those testimonials sing for your SaaS business? In other words, are you turning your customers into fierce champions for your organization? Recent studies conducted by Nielsen, show that **88%** of customers trust reviews from existing customers online as much as they would a recommendation from a friend. What if you could leverage those vocal supporters to boost your retention of existing customers and accelerate your customer acquisition? Sounds pretty good, right? Well to find out more, we turned to a customer operations veteran, Ryan O’Connell, Customer Operations Officer at THRIVE. [‎SaaScast: SaaScast | Ryan O’Connell, THRIVE on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep SaaScast | Ryan O’Connell, THRIVE - Feb 28, 2023![](https://t1.gstatic.com/faviconV2?client=SOCIAL&type=FAVICON&fallback_opts=TYPE,SIZE,URL&url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/saascast-ryan-oconnell-thrive/id1544750249?i=1000602063246&size=128)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts114/v4/b5/9a/da/b59ada82-7e01-599f-d06e-a6be4ee9c157/mza_8981349833046552751.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/saascast-ryan-oconnell-thrive/id1544750249?i=1000602063246) In this informative discussion, Ryan detailed how to roll out a successful program: the essential steps you need to take to make it a reality: 🔎 How to select customers as advocates 🤝 How to keep them engaged 📈 How to leverage them for growth ## About Ryan Ryan is the Customer Operations Officer at THRIVE, a learning and skills development platform for businesses. Ryan specializes in running customer operations teams, focusing on growing levels of customer advocacy. He has ample experience with both startup and scale-up SaaS, as well as having worked with large enterprises like BP and Barclays. Over time, Ryan has cultivated a skill for implementing SaaS learning and skill development platforms, seeing incredible results, with a massive increase in revenue, and 127% NRR over the past year. ## Get involved Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Writer, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: anthony@futureofsaas.io. --- *Enjoyed this podcast? Why not listen to more of our podcast series right here?* [SaaScast—the only SaaS podcast you need | Future of SaaSSaaScast is here to talk you through the future-proofing tactics you need—one guest at a time. Learn how to grow your product, scale up, and work smarter.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/12/00-Meta-SaaScast.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast/) ### Search inside yourself and own success URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/search-inside-yourself-and-own-success/ Last updated: 2023-03-08T16:02:35.000Z *this article is based on a presentation from Women in SaaS Summit 2022\. listen to the full unedited talk [right here](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-2/).* Women in tech, and especially women in SaaS, is my passion topic. That’s because I strongly believe that there's a very positive future for people in SaaS and tech companies. My name is Emi Wayner. I work on Google Cloud’s marketing team, and I’m an advocate for women from under-recognized groups in tech. My job at Google is to lead strategy and operations for global customer programs. Outside of my core role, I'm a mother of three and a Co-Chair of Google Women@ in LA. I’m also an advisory board member for an early-stage startup. I'm really happy for this opportunity to share my stories and learnings with you. ## My origin story I was born and grew up in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Tokyo – near the fish market, if you’ve been to Tokyo. It's a fun place to go. My mother was a single parent for a few years. She was also a designer – far from tech and computer science. My father was a sales executive. Since I was young, I’ve always known that I wanted to be an entrepreneur and start my own business. That came from my great-grandfather; he had a business focusing on media and printing from the 1940s to the 80s, so it was always my passion to help small businesses and startups. Looking back, I was always an advocate for others. When I was in junior high, I became an ambassador for students in Tokyo and I represented the Tokyo students’ program. I went to Canada for the first time when I was in high school (you can see a photo from that trip below) and I went to Australia alone without asking my parents to pay. [![emi wayner origins](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/22YfolgjYsZHX_MHhAbunP6zjv5EWh-Jq7JAKRKq6CUPRZhKF_p1aHWOf2BqVU7HFnWKlQTNvdAYv66crGGPitrYUTSWlM-t93Iu1KhTHG0fUdG_RlGc4PXV-60y516vLNmuON84Y8Nh_g-8myNbN98)](https://www.saasalliance.io/search-inside-yourself-and-own-success) The third and most embarrassing picture was taken at my first startup in San Francisco. I joined that 10-person team while all my friends were going to work in investment banking. Soon after I joined, in a very typical dot com story, the startup went bankrupt. When you look at my journey it seems very clean and linear, but the truth is it wasn't. It was a messy nonlinear tangle of failures and successes. I’ve become more and more comfortable with my nonlinear career path and personal path. I haven’t gone in a straight line and done the same thing for 30 years like most of my friends, and that’s okay. [![success vs failure ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/failure.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/search-inside-yourself-and-own-success) When you experience failure, you learn how to recover. You learn how to learn new things. You learn how to map your skills to new opportunities. That's something I want to talk about. As I said, more than 50% of my friends and colleagues took the linear path. Japanese women of my generation usually get married before 25 and leave the workforce to have children before 30\. I took a different path. When I joined Google, I met so many people who had taken the scenic route too. I met former Olympic athletes, pilots, and doctors. That got me thinking about what I could do to build the right skills and get to the next level. How do people find what they want to do? How do they gain the right skills to do it? The answer, it turns out, is curiosity. ## The power of curiosity Now, curiosity has become almost a buzzword. Everyone says you need curiosity to be successful. But when you really think about what curiosity means, it’s about building the awareness that you need to be able to see potential, help others, and do well in your everyday work. Curiosity also fuels lifelong learning. If you're curious, you naturally want to learn new things every day. Not only does that help you build new skills, but it also leads to greater courage and confidence. All of those are essential qualities to have when it comes to looking at similarities and differences between all the work that you do and the potential jobs out there. This is key to applying your current learnings to the next domain you enter. It’s common to be afraid of trying something new. When you let go of that fear and embrace a nonlinear path, you can learn new skills and contribute in new ways to any domain you find yourself in. These days, knowledge is very easy to access. We’re in a knowledge economy where you can look online and learn new things very quickly. As an employee, that makes it easy to gain the knowledge you need to join a new team or organization. For those who don't take advantage of these opportunities to learn, new people can seem like a threat. You feel like you're not contributing enough or keeping up to date with the skills you need to succeed. That knowledge is always available, and the happiest and most successful people I know are those who harness it. ## The cycle of renewal Another important thing to keep in mind is our lives go in cycles. As I mentioned, I have three children. I had a baby when I was young, another when I was 27, and then in 2013\. That was part of my lifecycle. At each stage, I was able to find a job in a company that would give me the right amount of scope. According to research, a lot of women make their career decisions based on life stages like this. Let’s talk a little bit more about cycles. The Hudson Institute has developed something called The Cycle of Renewal. When you think about it, renewal is the reverse of burnout. In this cycle, you build your resilience, start something new, and you become happy. How often you go through this cycle is different for everyone. For me, these cycles come to me every two or three years. There are four different phases to this cycle. I’m sure they’ll look familiar to you. Let’s take a closer look. [![the cycle of renewal ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/the-cycle-of-renewal.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/search-inside-yourself-and-own-success) **Phase one: Go for it** –In this phase, you feel stable, excited, and full of ambitions and goals. **Phase two: The doldrums** – This is when you start feeling trapped. Sometimes people in this phase feel angry or disappointed and their egos run deep. This is a trap that we should get out of as quickly as possible. When you learn about this cycle, you can identify when you’re in this phase and get out of it more easily. It all comes back to curiosity, which leads to awareness, which leads to confidence. **Phase three: Cocooning** – This is when you come to terms with yourself and start searching inside for your true goals and dreams. This is an incredibly important stage. It might take some time, but my advice is to take as much time as you need and be patient. **Phase four: Getting ready** – In this phase, you experiment with new things, nurture your ideas, and take some risks. This is going to help you grow personally and professionally before you go back to phase one, recover, and find success again. The last time I went through this stage, I did so many different things that helped me to identify new strengths and weaknesses and led me to success. ## Resources to help you through The Cycle of Renewal At Google, we’re fortunate to have access to a ton of resources. I want to share some of the tactics and resources that I have used along The Cycle of Renewal. Hopefully, they’ll give you new ideas for the future. ### Digital resources One of the resources I use is Google’s #IamRemarkable initiative, which focuses on empowering women and other underrepresented groups and celebrating their achievements. The path to those achievements involves thinking about your strengths, your dreams, your personal grounding, and what you want to accomplish in the next six months. All of that together helps you become more confident and resilient throughout your journey. Taking this course completely changed my mindset every day, and that was invaluable. I encourage you to check it out and search for other resources that will help you through stages three and four of The Cycle of Renewal so you can go back to stage one quickly. ### Coaches, sponsors, and mentors Because I’ve changed my job and location so much over the last two decades, it has been hard to find and hold on to coaches. However, coaches, mentors, and sponsors are such a critical part of our success – both personally and professionally. If you don’t have a coach, a mentor, and a sponsor, start looking for them today. [![a model for mentorship ](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/58urUPJBVRv7ULf9ublSfZubQigwxEZhPznKdzKfYGBfQEq-OmHacJbwVRpEiEKKmUTeGPpzy_bYuyzuSzf868o_QFxHJVAQg_F2I-CvZacM5elDz9m_563sYOuBnnDpBDmNIyuSetJdLGiiIVvAQ4A)](https://www.saasalliance.io/search-inside-yourself-and-own-success) It’s important to know the difference between these three types of people who are going to help you on your journey. The simplest way to explain it is that a coach talks with you, a mentor talks to you, and a sponsor talks about you. Think about those differences and how you can contribute to those relationships, then start connecting with the right people to make sure that you're set for success. The last time I went through phases two, three, and four of The Cycle of Renewal, I hired many executive coaches outside of Google. They really helped me back into the “Go for it” phase. ## Search inside yourself There are so many books, audiobooks, and podcasts available to us today. These are amazing, but as you take on board the knowledge they have to offer, you need to make sure you search inside yourself. A long time ago, when I was in phase two of The Cycle of Renewal, I read *The Motivation Manifesto* by Brendon Burchard. It helped me realize that to be a high performer in my personal life, I had to think about what was important to me. There was one quote in particular in this book that really resonated with me: *Imagine at the end of your life you are standing before your Creator, and He asks: Did you use the time I gifted to you each day to be a purposeful being? Did you follow your own path and make your time count? How faithfully did you tend to the dream I sowed in your soul?* I read this quote and it made me think about how when I’m on my deathbed, I don't want to regret not doing all the things I wanted to do. I started thinking more about the future, my values, and my ambitions. They’ve changed quite a few times over the last 20 years, and that's okay. [![inspirational quote](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/inspirational-quote.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/search-inside-yourself-and-own-success) If you're a woman in tech, whatever role you play, I would highly encourage you to search inside yourself to discover what’s important to you. If you build new skills and stay curious, you'll find resources all around you that will help you achieve your goals. There are lots and lots of resources available online – you just need to find the right resources for you. ## Empower your teams I want to ask you a question: if you’re a business leader or a SaaS business owner, do you offer all the resources your employees need? I went from a 10-person company to a 100-person company all the way to a 100,000-person company, so I know that whatever the size of your organization, learning resources are vital; however, they’re often lacking. Think about the support systems that you can offer, especially for women and under-recognized groups. Start offering mentorships and coaching. You need a natural and systematic way of building community. That's essential if you want to build the next wave of talent for your organization. ## Top tips for women in tech I'd like to close this article by sharing some top tips from powerful women in tech. All of these tips are from a video that Google put together – you can check it out [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kylWSZvmjqw). *My top career tip for women in tech is to surround yourself with incredible role models.* *I think one of the best things that I've found for myself in my career at Google and my career broadly has been learning from and surrounding myself with incredibly smart, talented, motivated people.* *These are people who lift me up, who champion me, and who give me the opportunity to champion and lift up others.* – Tulsee Doshi, Product Manager at Google *Know how to overcome impostor syndrome. I face it every day, but I have learned to really focus on the value that I bring. Maybe you're scared that you're not technical enough or you don't fit this idea of what someone in tech “should be”, but that changes every single day, and we're redefining it as women.* – Stephanie Wong, Developer Advocate at Google *Bring your whole self. Don't worry about what “in tech” is supposed to mean. I used to be a photographer. I used to shoot a lot of concerts in a pit with a lot of men, and I feel like what I learned by navigating that scenario is very applicable to my day-to-day life now.* – Rachel Been, Design Lead at Nest *When you work in tech, you are so lucky for many reasons. So many fields and verticals can benefit from tech, so advantage number one is that you can work in so many different fields and on so many different problems. And of course, advantage number two is that if you work in tech, because you have this unique perspective that's so valuable, you’re very hireable.* – Dale Markowitz, Applied AI Engineer at Google *I have a tip on how to overcome the “I'm not enough” fear when applying to your dream job. The solution is building a skills-based resume rather than a timeline.* *Empathy has taught me that people need to really quickly understand if they should call a candidate up or not within the first 30 seconds of reviewing a resume, so save your detailed experiences for interviews and only share a few relevant items that make employers curious to learn more about you.* – Alexandrina Garcia-Verdin, Developer Advocate at Google *One tip for women in tech: just don't be afraid of trying different technologies and rules. You might surprise yourself with what you find and what you like.* – Priyanka Vergadia, Developer Advocate at Google *Get comfortable talking about your work. So many of us have this mental hurdle of “Am I bragging? Is it too much? Should I be talking about myself? Shouldn't my work be talking about myself?”* *But the reality is we are great cheerleaders of others. We talk at length about their accomplishments, and we need to be equally good at talking about our own work.* – Shilpa Vir, Product Manager at Google *Embrace changes as they come and be prepared for any opportunities that may come by so that you're always ready to take on new opportunities.* – Swetha Srinivasan, Software Engineer at Google *Do not fear. Be brave. Women belong in tech – do not let anyone make you think otherwise.* – Esra Küçükoğuz, Software Engineer at Google ### SaaS Marketing URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-marketing/ Last updated: 2023-02-22T11:10:18.000Z As the demand for cloud-based software continues to grow, SaaS companies are facing intense competition in the market. Here's a guide to help you develop a successful SaaS marketing strategy. ## Define your target audience It’s essential to understand the needs and preferences of your target audience. This information can be gathered through market research, customer surveys, and analyzing demographic data. This process is also known as segmentation. In order to make your marketing targeted, you need to separate your potential customers by their characteristics and preferences. [What is market segmentation?Knowing your audience is marketing 101, but knowing how your product can benefit your audience in a market oversaturated with competitors takes a little more finesse. Segmentation arms you with the data needed to fulfill your target customers’ needs![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/papaioannou-kostas-tysecUm5HJA-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-market-segmentation/) Luckily Future of SaaS is jam-packed full of articles and resources especially tailored to helping you gain insights on user essential customer data. We're here to ensure that you’re creating a product that doesn’t just sound cool in your head, but actually has a tangible use-case that will positively benefit your customers' lives. [Establishing a customer marketing strategy and developing advocatesI’m Bozena, Director of Marketing at Maze, and I’m the host for today’s chat with Valeria, Senior Marketing Manager for Customer Marketing at Zendesk - and, as of September 2022, is now working on customer marketing programs at Airtable.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSValeria Gomez![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/shore--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/establishing-a-customer-marketing-strategy-and-developing-advocates/) ## Position your brand Develop a unique value proposition that differentiates your product from the competition. Highlight the benefits of your software and how it solves the problems of your target audience. Your brand is the face of your company that you greet the market with. A strong brand can significantly elevate a competent product to a must-have. Find out more right here. [Positioning across the SaaS funnel (Q&A with Sellics)Priscilla Tenggara, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sellics, discusses: how to determine if your current positioning is working, tips for running ads on social media, examples of positioning done right, plus more.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/jachymmichal-oVWilf8znF8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/positioning-across-the-saas-funnel-q-a-with-sellics/) ## Develop a content marketing strategy Create valuable content that educates and informs your target audience. Blog posts, infographics, ebooks, webinars, and case studies are excellent ways to build brand awareness and drive traffic to your website. For modern audiences, who are more savvy to traditional marketing methods, a strong content marketing strategy can position your brand as a trusted voice in the industry. Find out how here. [How to leverage blog content to generate leadsBlogging is more than just sharing company news, events, or updates with your users. When it’s done properly, it can elevate you to thought-leader status and establish your service as the authority in your industry.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/daniel-thomas-6_NXEMZbUq0-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-leverage-blog-content-to-generate-leads/) ## Optimize your website for search engines Having great content doesn’t count for much if your website isn’t search engine optimized (SEO) for ranking well on search engine results pages (SERPs). This will increase the visibility of your website and attract more organic traffic. It helps if your keyword research is informed by the needs and pain points of your customers. Search engine queries are a window into the lives of your customers’ problems, and having a firm handle on them can help you to tailor a solution towards that problem. Conduct thorough research into your customer personas and find out what they’re likely to search for. [How thought leadership can boost your SaaS org to scaleBuilding a successful SaaS org isn’t just about growing your customer base, it’s also about creating a firm foundation of trust with your existing customers to ensure solid retention![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/thought-leadership.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-thought-leadership-can-boost-your-saas-growth/) ## Utilize social media Social media is a powerful tool for SaaS companies to connect with their target audience, share content, and build relationships. Choose the platforms that are most relevant to your target audience and engage with them regularly. [How to boost your customer retention with social mediaSocial media is one of the best channels to use to improve your retention. With over 3.6 billion people using social media globally, it’s not only great for reaching out to wider audiences, but also for getting to know and engaging with current clients.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/adem-ay-Tk9m_HP4rgQ-unsplash--2-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-boost-your-customer-retention-with-social-media/) Apart from that there are various other unique channels that you can utlize to generate to attract potential leads, such as events and conferences. [B2B marketing events strategies: before, during, and afterB2B events are paramount for networking, generating high-quality leads, increasing brand awareness, and reaching a large target audience. The majority of event marketers believe events are the most effective marketing channel over emails, content, and digital marketing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/terren-hurst-blgOFmPIlr0-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/b2b-marketing-events-strategies-before-during-and-after/) ## Invest in pay-per-click advertising Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising allows you to place your ads in front of your target audience when they search for keywords related to your product. Google AdWords and Bing Ads are popular PPC platforms. Apart from that there are various other unique channels that you can utlize to generate to attract potential leads, such as events and conferences. ## Partner with influencers and affiliates Partnering with influencers and affiliates can help you reach a wider audience and generate more leads. Influencers can promote your product to their followers, and affiliates can earn a commission for every sale they generate. Influencers are part and parcel of your brand image. [Finding the right influencers for your brandInfluencer marketing has been picking up momentum in recent years. It’s an effective form of marketing that has the potential to generate a large ROI.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/pexels-ivan-samkov-7676406.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/finding-the-right-influencers-for-your-brand/) How do your users picture their life improving once they adopt your product, and is there an influencer out there who matches that ideal in their current lifestyle or demeanor? If so, they may be the ideal partner for you. This could be the difference between a generic approach to marketing and personalized approach. [Personalize your B2B marketing with AIIn this article, we’re going to take a look at the different applications for AI in providing a personalized experience to your customers and why they would be beneficial to your relationship.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/Personalize-your-B2B-marketing-with-AI.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/personalize-your-b2b-marketing-with-ai/) ## Offer a free trial Offering a free trial is an excellent way to get potential customers to try your product and see the value it offers. This can lead to increased conversions and customer loyalty. However, a free trial has to be a spoke on the wheel of your drive towards profitability. Relying on a freemium model alone is unlikely to get you there. Find out how you can utilize free trials for guiding your users to finding the value in your product. From there, you can turn them into paying customers. [How is email marketing important to improving customer retention?Despite the rising competition from social media, email marketing continues to be one of the most effective tools for B2B marketing. It’s great for product awareness and generating new leads, but also for boosting customer retention.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/brett-jordan-LPZy4da9aRo-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-is-email-marketing-important-to-improving-customer-retention/) ## Measure and track your results Regularly monitor and analyze your marketing metrics to see what is working and what isn't. This information can be used to make data-driven decisions and improve your marketing strategy. [Making brand marketing more data-driven \[Q&A with Hotjar\]Customer data is about as real as it gets, but unfortunately, many marketers still struggle with where to find it, how to access it, and how to analyze it. Luckily for us Hotjar’s VP of Marketing, Sharon Biggar was on hand to answer all our questions on the data-driven future of brand marketing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/franki-chamaki-1K6IQsQbizI-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-brand-marketing-more-data-driven-q-a-with-hotjar/) ## Build and organize your marketing team From demand gen, to content marketing, to product marketing, there are many cogs that have to be in motion in order for your marketing machine to turn out profitable results. Like any well- oiled machine, it has to be composed of quality materials, and each of those parts must be in sync. But in order to make this a reality, you must know how to organize and structure your marketing team. That’s where we come in. [Structuring an agile marketing team for successTrying to move your team into agile marketing but worried that you need to retrain everyone? Or completely flatten your department’s structure? Or lay off half of your team? Don’t panic! There’s no need for layoffs or completely changing your department’s structure.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSRebecca Stewart![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/pascal-swier-7de474KZIbs-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/structuring-an-agile-marketing-team-for-success/) ## Build your marketing tech stack In order to scale your marketing, it's crucial you leverage technology to ensure that you can cover and multiple channels and establish a consistent cadence over time. There are also various tools that you can utilize to create attractive, eye-catching content, which will be integral in establshing your brand identity, an essential tenet of marketing. [Top SaaS marketing and content toolsA high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) ## To sum up A successful SaaS marketing strategy requires a combination of inbound and outbound tactics. By understanding your target audience, creating valuable content, and utilizing paid advertising, you can drive traffic to your website, generate leads, and increase conversions. [How to get the ultimate marketing team \[podcast\] | Future of SaaSWhat’s the ultimate SaaS marketing team? Jordi Capdevila, formerly of ForceManager, talks you through the steps you need to take to perfect your department.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/12/Jordi-Capdevila-podcast-with-SaaScast---The-Future-of-SaaS.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-ultimate-saas-marketing-team-podcast/) No one said it was easy, and especially if you’re new to marketing you’re going to need to immerse yourself in insights from marketing gurus who’ve achieved success in the SaaS sphere. Luckily, Future of Saas is a rich treasure trove of content from marketing leaders across the globe. No SaaS org is the same, but among the wealth of material on our blog, we’re sure we have just the ticket for you. --- *Like what you see? Why not check out more of our comprehensive guides right here.* 👇 [SaaS pricingWhen it comes to launching a SaaS product, most orgs are going to be focused on crucial factors such as strategy, app development, market research, etc. All of this is essential, of course, but it’s missing one equally important factor. That’s right. Pricing.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_pricing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-pricing/) [SaaS metricsIt goes without saying that Saas orgs want to grow and scale, right? Whether you’re a hot new startup, mid-growth, or a late-growth established brand, all SaaS orgs want their revenue to skyrocket.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_metrics.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics/) ### Top 5 reasons why startups fail and how to avoid them URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/top-5-reasons-why-startups-fail-and-how-to-avoid-them/ Last updated: 2023-04-06T10:01:50.000Z Bad news first: [**90%** of startups fail](https://www.embroker.com/blog/startup-statistics/#:~:text=03-,Startup,About%2090%25%20of%20startups%20fail.&text=10%25%20of%20startups%20fail%20within%20the%20first%20year.&text=Across%20all%20industries%2C%20startup%20failure,be%20close%20to%20the%20same.&text=Failure%20is%20most%20common%20for,70%25%20falling%20into%20this%20category.), with **70%** of them failing in the first two to five years. The good news: the vast majority of these failings are due to short-sighted errors from the C-Suite. We know what you’re thinking, how is this good news? Because it’s within our control to **anticipate and rectify** mistakes. While it’s true that competition in the SaaS market is fierce, there are steps you can take to give your product the best shot at SaaS super stardom. 🎵 “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” 🎵 So, see how you can toughen up your growth strategies, and get your SaaS journey going. ## Mistake one: Failure to gauge the market According to CB insights, the number one reason why startups fail is due to misreading market demand. When you’ve totally fallen in love with a new idea, you know what they say: love is blind. Meaning, once you’ve gotten completely carried away with it, you can become pretty blind to its shortcomings. You might love your idea, but ask yourself this: is the *market* going to love it? Have you conducted meticulous research to ensure that your product is fixing a real problem that real people are having, not a fantasy problem? [How to increase your sustainable growth rateIf you’re aiming to build a sustainable growth engine in your startup, the first thing you need to do is define what you mean by growth. Let me put on my teacher hat and tell you what I mean.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJon Chang![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/sustainable-growth--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-increase-your-sustainable-growth-rate/) This is the difference between a product that’s going to make prospects stop and stare momentarily and a product that’s going to make people take the time to adopt it, and better yet, actually become a paying customer. **Remember**: your product pitch creates friction in the day of a potential user. Adopting and onboarding with your solution is going to take time out of their day. In order to make it worth their while, the problem that you’re solving better be bigger than the problem you're creating at the moment. In a nutshell, think of the product ideation process like this: 1\. Highlight problem 2\. Identify solution 3\. Create product 4\. Monetize product **And don’t think of it like this:** 1\. Create a product 2\. Make up a problem relating to the product 3\. Identify solution 4\. Monetize ### Case study: Google Glass ![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/PBjNxkH4YzLyCT4NIyouhYyCsistVNqyKIGbu9mhawZ131QG0nMxi8VUVQzOFpBl1F1q6xjTZWwaR4_5C1umqjWcVLAGU13TxjSNfd4lDpgo4xakWOhW7Bv7MGwr7-tQW6vYJaAxnzsb22mVuX3HDZo) Remember Google Glass? Nope? We wouldn’t blame you. Although the truth is, Google Glass was the most talked about product around at the time of its launch. A pair of wearable smart glasses that allow users to pull up search results with the use of their voice alone, what could possibly go wrong? Well, as it turns out… nothing. The issue wasn’t that there was anything wrong with Google Glass, but rather that the device didn’t solve any problem that a smartphone or a laptop isn’t able to solve at a similar pace. Google Glass is the textbook example of a slick-looking product that fails because it doesn’t solve a tangible problem that isn’t already being solved efficiently. While owning a device that makes you look like a Star Trek character might seem really cool in your fantasies, it’s the problems you can solve **in reality** that are going to find a place in the market. ## Mistake two: Insufficient funds or careless spending Running a SaaS company is an expensive endeavor. Eventually you’re going to have to put your money where your mouth is. This might be through investment, bootstrapping, crowdsourcing, or however else you plan to fund your passion project. The first step to ensure that you have an accurate – or as close you can get to – idea of what it’s going to cost to launch. What software and tools are you going to need to build and maintain it, how many departments will you need, and how big will they need to be? [How to hire sales leadersWho you hire to lead your sales team is a major decision that can have a huge impact on your company’s success.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/boats.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-hire-sales-leaders/) The second pitfall to come is the potential misspending of funds. For example, many startups will spend too much on paid marketing channels rather than leveraging their organic channels to maximum effect. Or, they might spend too much on customer acquisition and not enough on customer retention. Loyal customers can be an extremely cost-effective tool for attracting new prospects. You should be spending on strategies that are going to allow your org to grow efficiently and sustainably over time. **So, in short:** 1. Have a firm plan for how you’re going to fund the project 2. Know exactly what you’re spending on and why 3. Have a back up plan for how to raise capital if investment falls through. ### Case study: ScaleFactor ![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/m1EFe1s4p5tRYEPmXEzIqlIFuQsbyqUSXhl1H644EYXam3Fn9-5hoV-tfsN--rkPKDtcdV2fjaWbroHwTxki0WwoTohedeRXSWdK22lLMdNTq0nzQZvGfzR4FekMcxTqAPqY5kYlgIMaK33YDnhXtlQ) Scalefactor was a finance software platform that was able to raise $100m in investment. So, how did it all go wrong? ScaleFactor was spending too much on costly marketing strategies and not enough on actually ensuring their product was able to serve customer needs. Effective marketing is essential, obviously, but your product must be able to deliver on the promise of your marketing efforts. Sensible distribution of funds is essential for success. ## Mistake three: Not keeping an eye on the competition Personally, we love that the world of SaaS is thriving with eager players, but for a new startup it can be pretty daunting. Let’s say your product is solving a very tangible problem, great! But now let’s say that there are already hundreds of reputable brands out there offering exactly the same solution. Having an awareness of the competition needs to occur in the ideation phase, when you’re conducting your preliminary research. [SaaScast: Leading product management through turbulent timesHow do you prepare your org and your product for times of crisis? One of our goals with SaaScast is to help you future proof your product.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Jodie_--1---1-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/leading-product-management-through-turbulent-times/) Knowing that there are products out there that claim to solve the problem you’re solving can be encouraging, as it proves that your product is going to have a very real use case. But in order to avoid your product getting drowned out in the noise of the busy SaaS market, you need to map out your potential competitors diligently and make a note of the gaps in their product’s value. Are there benefits that all of your competitors are missing (perhaps there are several) and how can your product address the gaps in the market? ### Case study: Tutorspree ![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Dng3-iw0bs8Srh9jlfkffToVj4ZYcC381tCajjtSOcBgpxL9LbgDXk3BgprfjH-_Sy0EnwpkTmbFCKV1jqJJialOrizac1hFtAaQPOuyXqajMkoyTYig0QCE02dvJjjGDKmzQX-AmUG818o014U3rYQ) Tutorspree offered to connect users with tutors across the globe in a wide variety of different disciplines. It’s a viable idea, but the problems occurred because the founders had little knowledge of the tutoring market, which is highly competitive, and they didn’t conduct the research in order to identify their own weaknesses in relation to their competitors. An essential part of competitor research is not only identifying your competitors’ weaknesses, but also identifying your own. How can you upskill in order to outskill? ### Mistake four: Pricing issues Pricing is a tough nut to crack: price too high and you risk repelling many potential prospects, but price too low and you risk devaluing your product and failing due to the cost inherent in building and launching a product. Getting this right all comes down to research. You must carry out thorough research and determine not just whether your ideal customer is going to be able to afford your product, but whether the benefit you’ll provide to their lives is going to justify the cost. What is your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) going to use your product for? How much do they usually spend on software? What socio-economic class do they belong to? All of these factors are going to be critical to the key decisions you make. ### Case study: Anki ![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6JRxWGQxXYuNUB83qqEmM5IVFuoKAt6INqble9hpfNNENhjV15cqpiCQ_NFFAmHbQbK_DGn099qLhN5RR_-fc6pyUinl0k4k0sCu1ADfJqhByi3qSkLebSTFTgnIH-0GZqx16SjwsPrx4tu4HIUfYcU) Anki, a robotics and artificial intelligence startup, is an example of a great company that didn’t seem to have enough faith in their product’s value. The product made considerable contributions to the field of AI and robotics and was able to raise $182M in venture capital. But Anki sold their product for a mere $300, which, given the groundbreaking nature of the technology, couldn’t hope to cover the costs of production, let alone achieve profitability. ## Mistake five: Problems with investors Particularly for the SaaS industry, where we’ve seen a vast democratization of software development, those without considerable business acumen can find themselves at the mercy of investors. It’s easy to see how a startup founder can be wowed by a big figure from an investor, but are you reading the small print in the contract? Some investors interfere too much in the running of an org, while others include terms and conditions that make it extremely difficult to raise additional funding if you find that initial funding is insufficient. They can also make it incredibly difficult for founders to sell the product. When trying to negotiate with investors, it’s critical to be 100% clear on the terms and conditions and determine whether they could potentially be a problem for your organization before closing the deal. ### Case study: Layer ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/layer.jpg) Layer, a cloud communication service, showed great potential on its initial inception. Despite growing fast, investors pressured them to grow faster than the company was prepared for, which ultimately led to an unreliable product that couldn’t compete in a market that consisted of many more established brands. Not being on the same page with your investors can lead to disastrous consequences. Choose your investors wisely. ## Wrapping up As a global hub for SaaS, it goes without saying that we like to celebrate SaaS success wherever we can, but we can also learn a lot from failure. As SaaS leaders, the exchanging of cautionary tales is an important way that we can arrive at new solutions together. A great place to share stories is in a Slack Community. Why not join our [community](https://www.saasalliance.io/join-the-fosaas-community/) of 4000+ and share insights you’ve gained from other SaaS startup stories? We can’t wait to learn from your experiences! ### Subscribe your way to a successful SaaS application URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/subscribe-your-way-to-a-successful-saas-application/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:54:50.000Z My name is Natan Cohen, I'm the Head of Solution Architecture at Qrvey, a platform for SaaS organizations looking to tightly integrate self-service analytics capabilities into their own solutions. In this article, I’ll talk about the **best ways of delivering your SaaS application solution** as quickly as possible and various **strategies for maximizing your ROI**. Since we now live in a subscription-only world, we'll be focusing almost exclusively on that type of model. Topic areas include: - The SaaS solution/product landscape - Go-to-market strategy - And voila! Let's get into it. 👇 ## **The SaaS solution/product landscape** ### **What is a SaaS solution/product?** [![What is a Saas solution/product?](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/08/What-is-a-Saas-solution_product_.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/subscribe-your-way-to-a-successful-saas-application) First and foremost, if you identify as a SaaS organization you offer software as a service and you'll typically ensure that your product and solution supports multi-tenancy. When we use the term multi-tenant we don't mean multiple customers, but rather, we're implying that multiple customers can safely and securely use the same application that may be deployed to the same environment. Sometimes, the application of service is the core offering for a SaaS organization, and other times it's created to augment an existing solution or offering. Pricing is typically based on a tiered subscription model. If you're building a SaaS solution this decade, then you'll almost certainly have a cloud-first deployment. Not necessarily cloud only, it could be cloud hybrid, but typically, you're going to find some component of that solution to be cloud first. ### **SaaS companies are all the rage** [![SaaS companies are all the rage](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/08/SaaS-companies-are-all-the-rage.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/subscribe-your-way-to-a-successful-saas-application) The number of SaaS companies that exist today far exceeds the number that existed a decade ago, or maybe even just a few years ago. SaaS companies now exist to support almost every type of industry, and they're highly specialized. There's a lot of competition and they typically need to move very fast to bring their solutions to market. ### **The primary motivating drivers for offering a solution** [![The primary motivating drivers for offering a solution](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/08/The-primary-motivating-drivers-for-offering-a-solution-1.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/subscribe-your-way-to-a-successful-saas-application) There are at least three primary motivating drivers for offering a solution for SaaS organizations, each one significantly different in terms of why you're creating the solution. The most common is to **create a market differentiator**, which is to specialize and to either solve a new problem that hasn't been solved before or solve a common problem in a new way. Alternatively, you could be looking to **expand your roadmap** by offering an entirely new set of capabilities for your existing solution. The third driver is that you might be trying to **break into an entirely new industry**. ## **Go-to-market strategy** The three strategies I’ll cover in this article are: 1. **Phased delivery** → what you should be including in your MVP and what can be saved for a future phase. 2. **Tiered subscription model** → how many tiers to have and various strategies to always deliver value, even at the lowest tier, while not giving too much away. 3. **Pricing models** → how pricing can fit into your tiered subscription model. ### **Phased delivery** [![Phased delivery](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/08/Phased-delivery.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/subscribe-your-way-to-a-successful-saas-application) The features you choose to develop for the **MVP phase** (minimally viable product), which is the critical first phase, should stem from the problem or the challenge you're trying to solve. Another way of stating this is to say that if you can't directly tie a feature to the core challenge you've identified, then perhaps that feature should be saved for a later phase, or should be shelved entirely. What you consider minimally viable, and what your potential customers consider to be minimally viable, do not always match. Don't assume! One of the most common mistakes made during the MVP phase, and even subsequent phases, tends to be an assumption that a specific component of a feature could be saved for a later phase when in fact, most of your potential customers would see that specific component as critical for the feature to be viable at all. For that reason, communication with existing customers, prospects, or future customers should never be a one-off. There should be ongoing discussions, demo sessions, perhaps a pilot program, and maybe even a closed beta with a few select prospects or customers. [![Phased Delivery, future phases](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/08/Phased-Delivery--future-phases.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/subscribe-your-way-to-a-successful-saas-application) Your MVP phase will typically be a substantial upfront effort. After a successful MVP launch, you now have the distinct challenge of keeping your customers excited, engaged, and thinking about how they might expand their usage of your solution. Ideally, a **phase two or phase three release** should take less time than the MVP. When you release the next phase, make sure you're able to market at least one defining feature. A defining feature is not an incremental improvement of an existing feature. Incremental improvements are important, but a defining feature gives your existing customers something to stick around for; it gets them excited and gives your marketing team something to talk about and frame what this release is about. [![Phased Delivery, future phases](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/08/Self-service-reporting.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/subscribe-your-way-to-a-successful-saas-application) For example, if I were a customer building out a self-service reporting capability within my application, I might structure three phases of releases, where the MVP gives customers the ability to consume baseline standard reports and dashboards (the core value proposition). In phase two, I might give them more standard reports and dashboards but my defining feature would probably be self-service itself (the ability to create custom reports and dashboards). Then once those two things are completed, it leads into a third phase, which can be all about automation and forecasting. ### **Tiered subscription model** [![Tiered subscription model](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/08/Tiered-subscription-model.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/subscribe-your-way-to-a-successful-saas-application) The most common model to define your subscription tiers is a **three-tier model**. Having too many tiers can make your offering confusing and most companies try to avoid the ‘pay for each feature’ model, which makes it hard to budget and forecast their expenses for the year. The **first tier should always offer the core value proposition**. Your customers don't want to feel like the first tier doesn't even meet their basic needs or the reason why they signed up and became customers in the first place. The **second tier often adds at least two additional defining features**. This makes tier two all about more features and capabilities. The **third tier is usually focused on volume and scalability**. Scalability can either be vertically (more content, more data, more users), or it can be horizontally (more lines of businesses within a single organization, or more application integrations within a single organization). [![Self-Service Reporting](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/08/Self-Service-Reporting.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/subscribe-your-way-to-a-successful-saas-application) For example in a three tiers model, the first tier could be access to a set of baseline reports. In other words, users can view and they can export. At tier two, they can do everything in tier one, but they can also have access to self-service dashboards, builders and chart builders so they can view, export, modify, create and share. At tier three, you introduce everything in tiers one and two, but at higher limits or even no limits on the amount of content, users can create and also allow usage across multiple lines of businesses. ### **Pricing models** Once we have a phased delivery approach with a three-tiered subscription model, we want to know how to determine pricing and what factors we should consider. [![Pricing models](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/08/Pricing-models.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/subscribe-your-way-to-a-successful-saas-application) The most common type of **value-based model** is to approach it from a features and capability standpoint. In other words, the value is proportional to what you can do within the product. Another way of determining value is to tie it directly to the customer's forecasted revenues or cost savings. In other words, if you're saving X dollars, then we'll take 10% of the X dollars. A third way would be to tie it directly to the type or the size of the customer's business you're selling into (SMB, SME, or LE). what's the value-based model? [![Pricing models, volume model](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/08/Pricing-models--volume-model.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/subscribe-your-way-to-a-successful-saas-application) The most common way to define the **volume-based model**, which is focused on how much, is to base the pricing on the number of users or the data footprint. You could even get more granular and specific with users. For example, it might not be feasible for your customers to pay a per-user fee because they could have thousands of users so you could gate it on the number of creator users. You could also base it on the volume of data your customers plan to use with your solution. Another way to define volume is if your customer is a large enterprise and you want to base it on the number of lines of businesses that would be leveraging your solution. A third way would be to gate pricing off of the number of application integrations within the same organization and then scale up the pricing for each additional point of integration within a different application. ## **And voila! 🎉** [![Example of self-service reporting](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/08/Example-of-self-service-reporting.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/subscribe-your-way-to-a-successful-saas-application) Here’s an example bringing it all together into the same self-service reporting example. I still have my three-tiered model and I've given them names the marketing department can refer to them as: - Tier one is the Starter Package, this gives you access to the baseline set of reports, which is my core value proposition. I might offer a starter an unlimited user model if they identify as an SMB. - Tier two is the Professional Package, where I give you access to self-service. Your users can not just view but create, modify and share content. I might offer unlimited users for the midsize business (SMEs). - Tier three is the Enterprise Package, this would give you higher limits, or no limits on the amount of content you can create. I might allow usage across multiple lines of businesses or an unlimited user model for the large enterprise. ### How to hire an effective VP of sales for your SaaS org URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-hire-an-effective-vp-of-sales-for-your-saas-org/ Last updated: 2023-03-06T12:10:42.000Z Who you hire as your Vice President of Sales is a crucial decision that can have a huge impact on your company's success. As an integral part of your leadership team, you definitely don't want to take this lightly. As with any hiring process, the usual rule of thumb applies: Starting with the interview process, you should begin by defining the role (which should be clearly outlined in the job description), looking for a candidate with a proven track record of success in SaaS sales teams, ensuring cultural fit, and providing a comprehensive onboarding and training program. With these robust processes in place you'll be ready to hire the perfect fit for your company. But we wanted to get deeper into this and ask SaaS leaders what they look for when looking to hire a VP of sales. Check out what seven prominent SaaS gurus had to say. You'll be on your way to hiring a great VP of sales in no time! And if they're able to follow these expert tips for effective sales organization, you'll be one step closer to scaling your SaaS org. --- "In today's fast-paced SaaS industry, finding the right sales leader is critical for driving success and growth. The role of a sales leader in a SaaS organization is not just about hitting targets but also about inspiring, mentoring, but also to work closely with the sales team, guiding them to close deals and achieve overall success. When hiring a sales leader, I look for qualities such as customer focus, adaptability, strategic thinking, and the ability to lead by example. Also, I look for a few key qualities that demonstrate that the individual is capable of driving sales success within the organization. These qualities are: - **Strong Leadership Skills:** A sales leader must have the ability to inspire, motivate and lead a team of sales professionals. They should have excellent communication skills, be able to make data-driven decisions, and be able to manage and delegate tasks effectively. - **Industry Knowledge:** A good VP of sales should have a deep understanding of the SaaS industry, including the latest trends, technologies, and competitive landscape. This knowledge is critical for developing and executing a successful sales strategy. - **Sales Experience:** A successful sales leader should have a proven track record of achieving sales targets. They should have experience in creating and implementing sales processes, building and managing a sales pipeline, and closing deals. - **Customer Focus:** A sales leader should have a deep understanding of their target customers, their pain points, and their decision-making processes. They should be capable of building strong relationships with customers and be able to understand their needs and tailor their sales approach accordingly. - **Adaptability:** The SaaS industry is constantly evolving, and a successful sales leader should be able to adapt to changing market conditions, customer requirements, and organizational goals. They should be able to pivot their sales strategy when necessary and be able to stay ahead of the curve." **Ameet Mehta, Founder, SyndicationPro** [An Essential Aspect of Growing a SaaS BusinessA Sales Development Representative (SDR) has one primary focus: sales prospecting. SDRs are responsible for a number of key tasks that are important for any SaaS company that wants to grow its marketing efforts.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaleem Maroof![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/growth-sales.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sdrs-an-essential-aspect-of-growing-a-saas-business/) "In a rapidly advancing industry, staying ahead of the game takes a unique combination of passion, drive, and expert communication skills, so these are the most important traits we’re looking for in a sales leader paired with a deep understanding of the current changes in customer behavior and the evolution of sales processes. Top sales leaders are big-picture thinkers, data-driven, tech-savvy and show a good balance between their strategic and tactical abilities. They must excel in articulating their vision and a clear plan for how they want to run the business, but not shy away from hands-on work. Last, but not least, a big part of a sales leader’s job is building and maintaining relationships with both internal and external stakeholders, so he or she must be skilled at building trust and credibility, expanding their network and identifying new business opportunities." **Ralf Ebbinghaus, Chief Commercial Officer, Enreach** [How to provide direct support for salesWell, it isn’t as straightforward as it would sound until I put it this way, ‘Sales support is any other entity of an organization that can filter or analyze data and resources to make the task of salespeople a breeze.’![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDhruv Mehta![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/08/support.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-provide-direct-support-for-sales/) "The foremost important quality you should look for while interviewing or hiring a sales leader is his/her communication skills, i.e. how he connects with the prospect. Customers never buy the product, they buy the solution to the problem they are facing, which will be provided by the candidate. Therefore, the sales manager needs to have a firm grasp of verbal communication so that they can take the most complicated tech knowledge, explain it in layman's terms and persuade the prospect. Rejections are an essential part of sales. The candidate’s ability to handle rejection is a significant determinant. Having a ‘pick yourself up, dust yourself off’ attitude is an important trait. One important question you should always ask the candidate is ‘how often do you take follow-ups?’ The answer to this question will give insights into whether the candidate can crack his way with the customer. Follow-ups are essential to keep yourself fresh in the memory of your prospects and make them realize the importance of your product." **Vighnesh Shankar, Sales Account Manager at SafetyConnect** [Top 7 Sales enablement tools for SaaS leadersWhen it comes to effective sales enablement, which tools should you be using? We’ve compiled a list of 7 top sales enablement tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/tools-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-sales-enablement-tools-for-saas-leaders/) "When I'm hiring for a sales leader, I look for someone who is a great communicator with both their team and their customers. It's essential that they have the ability to explain how our product works and put it into context for each of these groups. The best salespeople also have strong listening skills; they're able to hear what customers are saying (and not saying) and adjust their pitch accordingly. They need to understand what their clients are trying to accomplish and how we can help them do it better. Finally, someone who wants to be a sales leader should have a passion for helping other people succeed; they should want to see their clients succeed as much as they want to see themselves succeed." **Gauri Manglik, CEO & Co-founder of Instrumentl** [How to improve sales team training sessionsSales training is one of the most nerve-wracking but rewarding things you can do. It’s your chance to set the product and product manager up for success, push positioning to drive future development in the direction you think it should go, and of course, directly impact revenue potential.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLaura Foster![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/randy-tarampi-fckhR4mysac-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-improve-sales-team-training-sessions/) "Traditionally, sales professionals are promoted based on performance, and while this is a good benchmark, using performance as the sole indicator of leadership material is fundamentally flawed. When promoting based on performance, it’s easy, and even logical, to assume that your sales team will produce results similar to that of their leader. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Sales is not static; wins and losses ebb and flow, but if there is one thing that stays the same in sales, it’s that resilience is key to success. I have found that my most resilient sales leaders are those that adapt quickly to changes, exhibit authentic empathy for customers and colleagues, and think creatively to overcome challenges. You’ll never be able to make 3D replications of your top performers simply by promoting them, and that should never be your goal. Each one of your team members has unique strengths that can be used to supercharge your sales cycle. By hiring an adaptive, empathetic, and creative sales leader, your sales reps should be able to meet and hopefully exceed their sales goals month-over-month." **Vito Vishnepolsk , Founder and Director at Martal Group** [How to develop your sales enablement teamIn this article, I’ll discuss org design and specifically restructuring sales enablement to mimic a traditional product dev team in order to build the sales enablement organization in a way that makes accessing investment dollars based on proven outcomes achievable and maximizes your impact.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChris Grebowiec![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/ricardo-arce-cY_TCKr5bek-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-develop-your-sales-enablement-team/) "There are three key qualities of an impactful B2B SaaS sales leader: **Empathetic**: Leaders get the best of their teams when they’re able to put people first. They need to have empathy for the challenges in the role of the individual SDR or AE. They must be able to sense what a prospect is feeling and read between the lines to deliver the answer they’re looking for. **Bias for Action Mindset**: SaaS customers are actively searching for a quick solution to an active problem. The best sales leaders recognize this sense of urgency. They’re willing to design a sales process that matches the needs of the customer or build that urgency within customers – and encourage the entire team to step up. They’re not afraid to meet a fast deadline and they’re always focused on taking action to find a solution versus talking about the problem. **Data-Centered**: High-performing B2B SaaS sales leaders recognize that effective sales team management must be anchored in clean, complete sales activity data.They prioritize tools and processes that track the whole picture of what their reps are doing. They use this to build out a formula for reps to follow, and continually guide them towards success with accountability and real-time coaching." **Haggai Levi, Co-Founder & CEO of SetSail** [Sales: The rules of engagementSales is a complex and competitive business - and never more so than when deciding who gets the credit for what: who gets the commission and, just as importantly, who gets the recognition?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/muyuan-ma--xHZBzv4Naw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-the-rules-of-engagement/) "Early on after hiring, they’ve got to be willing to roll the sleeves up and sell with the team, but able to look 6-12 months out and make sure the foundations for growth are there. They also have to be comfortable rolling with the ups and downs, left turns, right turns and U-turns of being at a startup (it's like being on a dirt road vs on a freeway ... it's going to be bumpy and you might even roll the truck at times but you’ve got to have the mental roll cage to get back on your wheels and keep moving forward). The sales leader must establish board presence and they’ve got to be able to hold their own with board/CEO/CFO on realistic expectations. Once they become more established, they’ve got to think more strategically about multiple channels to market and growth levers, and implement the foundational tools and processes on which growth can be built. But whatever stage they’re at, they should be commercially excellent, of high integrity, and able to attract and retain great talent." **Andrew Monaghan, Founder & CEO Unstoppable.do** ## To wrap up Hiring a VP of Sales for a SaaS company is a crucial decision that can significantly impact the success of the organization. When looking for a sales leader, it's essential to define the role, ensure cultural fit, and provide comprehensive onboarding and training programs. According to six leading SaaS gurus, some of the most important qualities to look for in a sales leader include strong leadership skills, industry knowledge, sales experience, customer focus, adaptability, passion, drive, expert communication skills, a bias for action mindset, and empathy. Additionally, the ability to handle rejection, build and maintain relationships, articulate a clear vision, balance strategic and tactical abilities, and help others succeed are also essential traits of a successful sales leader. By prioritizing these qualities during the hiring process, SaaS companies can find the perfect fit to drive success and growth. --- *Enjoyed this article? Why not check out our exclusive content with a FoSaaS membership?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How to increase your sustainable growth rate URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-increase-your-sustainable-growth-rate/ Last updated: 2023-04-06T10:02:18.000Z *This article is based on Jon's appearance on SaaScast. Check out the full unedited conversation right [here.](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-building-a-sustainable-growth-engine/)* --- If you’re aiming to build a sustainable growth engine in your startup, the first thing you need to do is define what you mean by [growth](https://www.saasalliance.io/growth-hacks-for-a-0-50-million-journey/). Let me put on my teacher hat and tell you what I mean. Most organizations in the SaaS industry define growth as an increase in the total number of users or customers. However, because the concept of growth is so cross-disciplinary and today it's best used in relation to the [product](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-led-vs-sales-led-vs-marketing-led-vs-customer-led-differences/), companies might instead talk about the growth of monthly active users, growth of total gross merchandise value (GMV), or growth of [revenue](https://www.saasalliance.io/driving-revenue-beyond-sales-with-gabriella-deflorio-at-prelay/). Whichever [metric](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics/) you choose to focus on, the first thing to do is define that as your objective. ## Defining sustainable growth Moving on to the other keyword: [sustainable](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-building-a-sustainable-growth-engine/), this is about how you can continue increasing the total volume of those [KPIs](https://www.saasalliance.io/aligning-kpis-to-create-successful-partnerships/) at a highly efficient rate. Here's a concrete use case. Let's say you run a mobile shopping app where growth is defined as an increase in the number of net new customers. To make that growth sustainable, you’ll want to reduce the amount of money you spend per customer. In other words, you need to lower your [customer acquisition cost (CAC).](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) To do that, you’ll need to look at your paid media mix and determine which ones provide you the lowest cost per install, the lowest cost per user, or if you're in B2B the lowest cost per lead. In today's day and age, we’re seeing diminishing returns from paid media, so you’ll also need to hone in on the organic channels that provide you with non-paid new users. That’s going to take your growth from scalable to sustainable because you'll have a lower CAC. [Five savvy tips for community-led SaaS growthIn 2021, 70% of companies with communities increased their budget for community building. That means, community-led SaaS growth is a successful growth model to invest in.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChinwoke Nnamani![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/hands-together.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/6-savvy-tips-for-community-led-saas-growth/) ### The full-funnel approach Now, growth isn't just acquisition in most cases, so let’s take a more full-funnel approach. This is where you want to use[ lifecycle ](https://www.saasalliance.io/managing-saas-metrics-throughout-the-company-growth-lifecycle/)or [product marketing ](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing/)to increase the conversion rate of net new users or leads into actual customers. I’m aware that I’m explaining very basic math to very smart people here, but if you increase your conversion rate by 4% with a kick-ass automation plan, then you’ll greatly reduce your reliance on paid and organic acquisition. Plus, you can have a higher cost per install, while still lowering your CAC because your lifecycle plan is doing a greater job. To put it as a formula, *sustainable growth* \= *an increase in X KPI* x *Y efficiency unit economics metric*. ## Why sustainable growth is more important today than ever before The current economic climate has made sustainable growth a bigger priority than ever. We’re seeing a reduction in the overall capital available to startups and even to larger businesses. 2022 was a tough year – according to [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/another-tech-bubble-bursts-2022-brutal-silicon-valley-workers-rcna56435), over 90,000 tech workers were laid off, and since then, we've seen thousands more. There are a bunch of macroeconomic issues at play. One is that due to tightened income levels, consumer spending is lower overall. That means that businesses that are dependent on consumer spending are not able to reinvest, or their runway is much smaller than they had originally planned for. ### The problem for startups The second thing is that if you’re a startup, you're likely still dependent on venture capital or outside capital of some sort. Again, if that capital isn’t available anymore, you have a much shorter runway. In either of these situations, one of the easiest things to do – I might be showing my bias here – is to blame marketing and cut the marketing budget. That's pretty tough. It’s tough because as a marketer, you're then expected to pull a rabbit out of a hat instead of building a growth engine. Perhaps that rabbit takes the form of a strong social media strategy. Or perhaps you do the unit economics and find out that a 30% increase in influencer marketing only has a 20% increase in CAC, whereas a 30% increase in your Meta budget results in a 50% increase in CAC. This is what marketers have to do right now. We have to figure out the most important places to spend, which may be a little unconventional, and we have to find a way to get new users without spending more money. [SaaScast: Leading product management through turbulent timesHow do you prepare your org and your product for times of crisis? One of our goals with SaaScast is to help you future proof your product.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Jodie_--1---1-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/leading-product-management-through-turbulent-times/) ## Balancing customer acquisition and retention for sustainable growth Of course, getting new customers is just one side of the coin. You also need to think about how to hold onto the customers you’ve already got. Ideally, these two goals should be working together in your sustainable growth engine. If you're running a SaaS startup, more [renewals](https://www.saasalliance.io/b2b-customer-renewals-q-a-with-freshworks/) and an increased customer lifetime value (LTV) will typically have a larger impact on your annual recurring revenue than acquiring new customers. At IBM, we used to say that paying for an expensive steak dinner with a client to renew their contract often has a larger revenue impact than spending all that money to acquire net new customers. Plus, you’ll continue to gather more total users through word of mouth, and that's wonderful. I tend to equate all digital marketing, but this use case especially, to online dating. First of all, you’re trying to match – a potential customer is searching for something online and they find your content, or they’re scrolling through TikTok and they come across your video. Hopefully, the way that you've made your content matches what they're currently looking for. That's step one. The second step on your dating journey is to start messaging them. You're sending them little value propositions, you’re showing them why they should like you, and then that person determines whether or not your belief in who you are aligns with what they believe as well. If it does, great! You’ve secured your first date. That’s the acquisition side. Now let’s move onto retention. You’ve gone on a date with someone and now you're asking them to go on another one. If they liked you (or your product) enough, hopefully they’ll say yes. [How to build and structure your B2B SaaS marketing teamHere, we’re gonna show you how to structure your marketing teams to achieve maximum synchronicity.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/structure.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-and-structure-your-b2b-saas-marketing-team/) ## Fuelling your startup’s growth with quality content and a community Taking this back to our sustainable growth engine, a great way to bridge your acquisition and retention strategies is with valuable [content](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-leverage-blog-content-to-generate-leads/). It's like what Future of SaaS is doing. You need to find ways to provide value while amplifying the product. Growth marketing is ultimately here to amplify the message of the product and get as many excited people as possible to try it. Then it's the product's job to deliver on the value prop and create an enjoyable experience. Webinars, podcasts, articles, and [Slack groups ](https://www.saasalliance.io/community-led-growth-is-the-future-of-saas/)are great ways to get more leads over a much longer timeframe, but whatever you do, don't sell in these places. You can build very organic growth in a Slack channel. Then, when a member of your community needs your product, they know you, they have an avenue to directly communicate with you, and they trust you because you've been providing highly valuable content without giving them the hard sell. We're seeing this more and more in companies that are growing at a massive scale. Another great example of a company that provides value for free is Paper. They partner with school districts who then bring on students for free online 24/7 tutoring. Do you have an existing network that you can tap into? Can you give them value for free? A Slack group isn’t a magic bullet, but it’s fairly easy to set up and it can create an entire growth engine for an organization. ## The best-in-class of sustainable growth We've covered a fair bit of sustainable growth theory. Now let’s see what a successful sustainable growth strategy looks like in practice. ### Klarna’s approach to sustainable growth [Klarna](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-utilize-growth-and-increase-your-market-share/) has an amazing growth program. That's because there's a good growth mentality, and they work in agile iterative cycles. The growth team there works also very closely with product; in fact, when I left it, nearly half of the employees in the growth department were engineers as well. Plus, they are very data-driven. In short, they have exactly the kind of culture that inspires growth, but let’s get into how we put it to work during my time there. The first part was figuring out where our diminishing return on advertising spend was. Let’s say, you can spend exactly $245,000 per month on paid ads and that gives you a $3 cost per install, but if you spend one more dollar, the cost per install increases dramatically. Great! That gives you an immediate safety net while your organic strategies take root. That was one of the first things that we set up at Klarna. Simultaneously, we were figuring out ways to drive organic acquisitions and build trust in the industry. The brand team did this through activations that we described as “temporary monopolies on highly passionate communities.” For instance, we launched with some of the stars of RuPaul’s Drag Race and we ran a campaign for dog lovers in partnership with The Dogist. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The automation program The next thing we did was focus on an automation program. We started with the onboarding flow, trying to determine which product features and value props made the most sense. Then we did a lot more product-led growth to drive engagement. The product team created delivery tracking, so then we started conquesting delivery tracking organizations. We even made it so you don't have to purchase using Klarna to track your deliveries. On top of that, we introduced price drop notifications. This product-led growth strategy means that once people get into the funnel – from whatever source – you can start to educate them through automation marketing. Then they get to experience unique product features that help them stay within the ecosystem without purchasing. That's wonderful for everyone involved. Now let's say they purchase. Klarna made a loyalty program called Vibe, so based on when you buy and from what merchants, you get extra Vibes (points) to spend elsewhere. There’s also a referral program running alongside that, where customers can make X amount of dollars for new people acquired. [SaaScast: Building profitable products with customersWith several years of experience leading product teams, Jacqueline knows how to drive a SaaS org to reach that product roadmap vision.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_3.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-profitable-products-with-customers/) ### The co-marketing strategy And then the final component is a co-marketing strategy. A ton of merchants like H&M, Home Depot, and Sephora use Klarna, and they often run co-marketing programs. For example, we would run an event and Sephora would participate. We might do a giveaway and Sephora might share a beauty tutorial and give away a beauty package. All of these pieces together make up that sustainable growth engine. Like any engine, it’s made up of multiple components that all work in sync, and if any of these components breaks down, the whole engine works a lot less efficiently. The engine I’ve described is a fairly complex one, but it's a great example of some of the core components that you could put into place for sustainable growth in your organization. --- *Want to hear the full unedited conversation? Check it out here!* 👇 [SaaScast: Building a sustainable growth engineWe all want our SaaS orgs to run like a well-oiled machine. But what does that look like in practice? In economically turbulent times, it’s important that SaaS leaders are investing in marketing efforts that are going to lead to long-term, sustainable growth.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_Jon_Chang-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-building-a-sustainable-growth-engine/) ### From 0 to 12M: Driving product-led growth from the outside in URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/from-0-to-12m-driving-product-led-growth-from-the-outside-in/ Last updated: 2023-11-27T10:42:28.000Z *This article is based on a presentation from Future of SaaS Festival 2022\. Jessica is now Senior Director of Growth at Linktree. Get the full talk OnDemand* [*right here*](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-3/)*.* --- Hi there! I'm Jessica Box, Head of Growth at Linktree, and I’m really excited to share how Linktree has grown from zero to 12 million users in less than four years and the incredible learnings I've had along the way. Let’s start with the basics. What is Linktree? Linktree is the only link you'll ever need. And no, it's not an actual tree. It’s a market-leading linking platform that was the first of its kind, creating an entirely new category in tech. With over half a billion visitors per month and 30,000 signups per day, we're allowing users to curate a singular destination with what's most important to them in real time. The world's biggest influencers and creators, from Selena Gomez to Arnie (I encourage you to check out his Linktree – it's pretty epic), as well as big brands like HBO and TikTok, are using Linktree to connect their followers to their entire online ecosystem. So how did we get here? I'll be covering lessons and failures to avoid at each stage of the growth journey, including… - Zero to 2 million users – the seed years - 2 to 5 million users – the seedling years - 5 to 12 million users – the sapling years - 12-plus million users – the mature years [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/how-did-we-get-there--1-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-0-to-12m-driving-product-led-growth-from-the-outside-in) ## Zero to 2 million users: Build the right thing Build the right thing. Sounds simple, doesn't it? So why isn't everyone doing it? As I'm sure you’re aware, this is the foundational building block of design thinking that feeds into creating your product strategy. I cannot stress enough that if you don't focus your product strategy on solving customer problems early on, you won't have a later on. Google Glass is a great example of this. Wearable technology was cool when they were launched in 2013\. Their principle of “We think technology should work for you – to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t” should have been red flag enough for Google Glass’ eventual discontinuation in 2015 – it did not live up to the hype. When starting your journey from zero, there are three critical principles you need to follow to make sure you’re building the right product. We've seen all of them work beautifully at Linktree. Let’s take a closer look. ### Get the product in the right hands This is directly linked to the problem you solve. If you haven't found the right hands, you may not be solving a problem yet. Linktree was born from a digital agency managing large-scale music clients that were finding it incredibly frustrating to update their links online for every new launch, festival, or merch sale. Turns out that the fragmentation of online content was a problem for every industry, not just the music industry. In other words, the “right hands” for Linktree was a global audience in every country and industry around the world. ### Listen and iterate This principle should stay with you as you grow, but it's absolutely critical at the zero to 2 million stage. Linktree was originally built in six hours, shipped to market quickly, then iterated on once real data came through from customers. The original code has only recently been replaced by infrastructure for scale. This is why it's so important to build the right thing in the early days – so you can iterate on it once you have product-market fit. To help with this, the Linktree team spent hours every day in customer support to ensure they remained in touch and really connected to how people were using Linktree in those early days. Active listening and providing customers with support at that stage lead to new opportunities, like expanding from just being for Instagram to being for every channel that our users’ audiences live in. ### Find your flywheel early In case you’re unfamiliar with what a flywheel is, it’s your customer engine for growth. Rather than a funnel, which puts your customer at the bottom, the flywheel has your customer in the center. It is a fundamental part of growing from the outside in, and it needs to be right there from the very beginning. Like a modern-day word of mouth, it allows your customer to act as your referral channel. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/flywheel--1-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-0-to-12m-driving-product-led-growth-from-the-outside-in) Here's an example of a flywheel framework so you can see it in action. Each company will have different actions and behaviors that drive the flywheel and its speed, so I'd suggest asking yourself the following questions: 1. What are the core assets of your business? 2. What are the core actions your users take? 3. What are the core needs of your users? 4. What are the natural outputs of your business? 5. What are the biggest optimizations you need to make to your business model? To give you an example of how this plays out in the wild, Amazon's flywheel is driven by lowering cost structures, which means prices can be lower, providing a better customer experience that then increases both traffic and sellers. The secret sauce here is in each action increasing the speed of the flywheel and building momentum. ### What fails at this point? The most common failure at this stage of the growth journey is thinking marketing will solve the product’s problems. I experienced this not too long ago; throwing our marketing budget at the problem didn't fix the fact the product wasn't working. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/homer-marketing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-0-to-12m-driving-product-led-growth-from-the-outside-in) If you feel tempted by this path, stop and look long and hard at the problem you're solving. It's easy to lean into your ego and struggle to let go of the epic work (which I'm sure you’ve put in at this point). Trust me, the quicker you iterate, the faster you’ll find your flywheel and scale. ## 2 million to 5 million users: The next hard part Let’s move on to the seedling years. I like to think of this stage as the end of the first hard part – and the beginning of the next hard part. At this stage, you’ll have around 20 to 30 people in your company, and it will be pretty easy to get new customers through the door, thanks to solid brand awareness in your market. So what's next? Activation is going to be your best friend here. So how do you get customers to activate faster? Let me share my top four tips. ### Work cross-functionally as a team. It's easy to see activation as only one function and not realize that the best way to get diverse ideas for this stage of your growth is to work with diverse minds. At this stage in our growth, we created a growth squad, which encompassed engineering, product, design, brand, customer success, data, and more, depending on the initiatives we were feeding through into the team. ### Find your activation metric It's equally important to measure activation. We use Appcues, which we're big fans of, and I was shocked when I saw a report from them mentioning that 44% of SaaS businesses don't measure activation at all. At Linktree we know that if someone adds a Linktree to their social profile, they’re activated and the likelihood of them leaving is significantly lower. Find your activation metric and go hard after it. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/activation-metric.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-0-to-12m-driving-product-led-growth-from-the-outside-in) ### Launch a paid version The next key thing to focus on at this stage is launching a paid version. It's an obvious move – you need to monetize at some point – but it can so easily be done wrong or too early. Given that Linktree is a freemium product, launching a paid version with pro features was the logical next step to activate those users that wanted a little bit more from a product. Our users range in digital literacy, from those who are brand-new to marketing and using Linktree to start their journey to those who have a fully-fledged marketing team. We needed to support both of those types of users by adding new features to the product. If you find the right way to monetize – and we're big fans of doing it ethically and in the right way – you'll go all the way to 5 million quickly. ### Spend money in the right areas “Spend money in the right areas” should be your mantra at any size, but it's particularly important here to lay the groundwork for success. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/spend-money.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-0-to-12m-driving-product-led-growth-from-the-outside-in) Designing tests per market has proved very successful in helping us understand where user growth can emerge from, outside of organic growth from the product. If you have the right attribution tool in place to see if the users you’re attracting are quality users, then go big. Without proper attribution, you're throwing money at the wall and hoping it'll stick – not a good strategy, though I'm sure it’s lots of fun. ### What fails at this point? Perfection kills progress. Don't add too much process too early – you want your team to be free to experiment. Bringing in too much structure too early hinders their progress and creativity and decreases your speed to market. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/perfection-kills-progress.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-0-to-12m-driving-product-led-growth-from-the-outside-in) A very public example of a failure here is Magic Leap. The AR startup raised $2.6 billion but only had 6000 sales recorded. The product was beautiful, of course, but by the time it got to market, too much time had been spent in the product-building phase, rather than shipping and testing early to find the right market fit. ## 5 million to 12 million users: Onwards and upwards Onto the sapling years. You've got your monetization model working, you've found a flywheel through experimentation, and you’ve built a squad of people around the growth function, and now it’s onwards and upwards! This is the fun part. You're refreshing your metrics every day, wondering how much you've grown overnight, and seeing which country has leaped to the top of your user distribution leaderboard. Your team size is likely now sitting between 20 to 60 people, and processes are forming to help you scale faster. Let’s look at what you need to focus on to maintain this momentum. [![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/x6WsqVDlzUDsPXA0EVH35t0KBJGkGHrbXJG4NzLlhC1OtlR5o03eA4-DxDaLZkvDx3ffBpi1xGu7yiWDAXTNYwaFCzdmZ2bWqdfZxFxv4nK1V8tDN8h4HmFKVjkuljQPf0xa-eA_Jm1S0r9CJOTysbA)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-0-to-12m-driving-product-led-growth-from-the-outside-in) ### Build target metrics Though it's super important to use data to make decisions throughout your journey, when you hit 5 million users, you'll be leaning in more than ever to your datasets and dashboards. Intuition and gut might have helped you get to this stage (particularly if you’re in a product-led company) but for the next stage and beyond, data will be how you find your focus. I'd recommend investing in a business intelligence tool that will empower the team and the broader business to use data to explore insights. We currently use Heap as it allows you to retrospectively track events; this was particularly important as we entered our sapling stage because we were running so fast. When it comes to the target metrics themselves, Google's OKR (objectives and key results) framework has been incredibly successful for us. It helps our growth squad and the broader business to break down things like MRR, subscriber targets, and total Linktrees. Crucially, it also provides the team with a clear direction each quarter for where our focus should be. It's easy to get distracted at this stage because you have so many opportunities. OKRs and key metrics keep you aligned, accountable, and focused. More importantly, they allow you to say no to things, rather than having to say yes all the time. ### Hire the right people I can't stress how easy it is to get hiring wrong. When you're up to your ears in release deadlines and go-lives, it's easy to say yes because you need someone. However, that doesn't mean they're the right fit, and making a decision like that could mean bringing on a serious culture detractor. Trust your gut and don't compromise. My new motto here is “If it's not a *hell yes*, it's a *no.”* [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/hire-the-right-people.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-0-to-12m-driving-product-led-growth-from-the-outside-in) At Linktree, we have a methodical approach to our hires. For each interview process, we design tests that allow us to see the candidate’s skills in action. From our most junior to our most senior hires, the process is the same. We're looking for value alignment between the business and their personal values, plus a lack of ego. All of that shows us if they're the right cultural addition to the team. ### Find your North Star While I'm not a huge fan of having one metric to work towards, I find the exercise of distilling metrics down into leading indicators versus lagging indicators of success critical at this stage. For me, the key value in the North Star framework is discussing what metrics are important and getting alignment among your teams on where your focus should be. Spotify’s experience with the North Star is very public. They focus on time spent by subscribers listening to music as a proxy for activation, which then increases revenue and produces business value. ## 12 million users and above I'll be honest: nothing is ever perfect and we're always learning. Every day, we add more and more users to the platform and get more data to learn more about their behaviors in the product. You need to be okay with making mistakes and being aware of what you don't know. As leaders, you also need to make your team feel comfortable in that environment. As long as you remain true to your company values, you'll have a clear path forward that you can take together. At Linktree, we have a clear purpose that we rally around. Having just hired our head of people and culture (much earlier than companies typically do), we know how important it is to keep this purpose embedded in our culture as we scale across time zones and countries around the world. ## Key takeaways We’ve covered a lot in this article, but if you take away just a handful of key learnings, make it these: 1. Build the right thing 2. Find your flywheel 3. Work cross-functionally as a team 4. Stay connected to your purpose Thanks so much for reading. I really appreciate it. ### SaaScast: Leading product management through turbulent times URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/leading-product-management-through-turbulent-times/ Last updated: 2023-02-09T12:03:40.000Z At Future of SaaS, we like to think we fill our community with top insights from SaaS wizards across the globe. Unfortunately, though highly prescient, our wizards can’t predict the future. 🔮 So, the question is: how do you prepare your org and your product for times of crisis? One of our goals with SaaScast is to help you **future proof** your product. In other words: how do you steel clad your internal processes, so that your product doesn’t crumble when a crisis shakes the foundation of your org? That’s what we wanted to find out in this episode. 👇 --- [‎SaaScast: SaaScast | Jodie Chan, Chinafy on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep SaaScast | Jodie Chan, Chinafy - Feb 9, 2023![](https://podcasts.apple.com/favicon.ico)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts114/v4/b5/9a/da/b59ada82-7e01-599f-d06e-a6be4ee9c157/mza_8981349833046552751.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/saascast-jodie-chan-chinafy/id1544750249?i=1000598836946) --- Chinafy, a product that specializes in optimizing websites for use in China, experienced considerable growth during the pandemic. We wanted to find out **how and why**. So, we asked the person responsible for leading product management, **Jodie Chan, SVP of Product and Partnerships**. In this episode, she not only drew on her first-hand experience of expertly steering product management through a global overhaul, but also laid out some actionable strategies for how to prepare your org and product for a crisis. Don’t miss her timely and time*less* insights. ## A bit of background on Jodie Jodie’s education was originally in political science and global health. Having initially worked at another social media tech company, she returned home to Hong Kong and began working with Notey, the parent company of Chinafy, and since then has been involved in building multiple products from the ground up, experiencing an expansion of roles within the company. Jodie has recently been made an ambassador for Google’s Women Techmakers program, which seeks to provide resources and community for women seeking to enter the tech sphere. ## Get involved Want to learn more about scaling your SaaS org, or share your knowledge?‌‌ Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Writer, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: anthony@futureofsaas.io. ### Case study: FoSaaS community URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/case-study-fosaas-community/ Last updated: 2023-10-31T16:03:42.000Z If you’re looking to really crush it in the SaaS sector, we know you’re looking for… - An infinite resource for SaaS content - A place to exchange with fellow SaaS leaders - First dibs on professional opportunities within the SaaS space Look no further than the FoSaaS Slack community. Our members have already seen the unique benefits, but don’t just take it from us. Take it from B2B marketer Shikha Pakhide and Content Writer Akachukwu Obialor. Check out the full account of their positive experiences right here, and see what you’re really missing. 👀 ## A bit of background on our members **Akachukwu**: I'm a freelance writer with over three years' experience of writing for SaaS, e-commerce, and Web3 companies. **Shikha**:I'm a B2B Marketer with close to two decades of Marketing experience. My niche lies with Demand Generation with focus on capture, ABX, Growth Marketing and Revenue Marketing. Until early this year, I was working as a Global Marketing Director with a Series A startup focusing on brand building and creating awareness of the product. ## How we heard about Future of SaaS **Akachukwa**: I heard about it from a friend. He had just written a guest post and published on your blog. After reading his article, I decided to explore the website, and found the link to join. And I decided to take a look at the website. That's when I saw the link to join. **Shikha**: I am a strong believer of learning and hence a part of key communities to enhance my knowledge and interact with fellow marketers. I got to know about Future of SaaS through LinkedIn. ## What key resources from the community have you found helpful? **Shikha**: The articles on cognitive overload and user experience are of particular interest to me and I am delving deeper into PLG too. The reason they caught my attention was because in my next assignment I will be taking care on how to make the user experience completely fab and how to cut the clutter so that the product experience leaves them with a wow effect. **Akachukwu:** There are a lot of insights in the community. I've benefitted largely from the articles in the blog, and the content shared on the “content” channel too. --- And there you have it! The Future of SaaS community is an excellent resource for SaaS thought leadership, an eduction hub for aspiring SaaS enthusiasts, and a friendly platform for networking with your SaaS peers. Join the community [here](https://www.saasalliance.io/join-the-fosaas-community/), and see what you're missing. ### How to manage sales enablement for a developer audience URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-manage-sales-enablement-for-a-developer-audience/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:54:28.000Z Like many of my peers, I fell into product marketing. More specifically, I ran into [product marketing](https://www.saasalliance.io/analysis-the-bedrock-of-product-marketing/). Right before the COVID-19 pandemic, I was in the kitchen at work when I received an email on my phone from a [CMO](https://www.saasalliance.io/are-remote-cmos-the-future/) that I had been chasing for a meeting for ages. I immediately ran to my desk and bumped straight into one of the VPs at the company. I profusely apologized and took him out to coffee. It turned out that this VP was actually a VP of product marketing, and the conversation that we had over coffee really helped me to understand that a lot of what I defined and originally thought was the future of [sales](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-the-rules-of-engagement/), was actually a totally separate function called product marketing. From there, my enthusiasm grew and I inevitably transitioned from a career in sales into product marketing. ## Say yes to custom requests Let's set the scene. You're hard at work when you suddenly get a Slack message from one of your sales reps detailing a huge opportunity. It's a competitive takeout with one of your main [competitors](https://www.saasalliance.io/win-against-competitors-by-knowing-your-customers/). Nothing you have built already will make sense for this deal, but they're trying to drive some urgency and need you to build out a stack that’s totally custom for them, their buyer, and for the use case. It doesn’t help that you’re also right in the middle of a [product launch](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-launches-for-enterprise-customers-podcast-suresh-krishna-madhuvarsu-product10x/). You’ve got a tier-one launch coming up and you're prepping and building a timeline that still isn’t perfect after seven edits. So you reach the existential question: *do I stop what I'm doing and help this person?* The answer is always yes. But before you say yes, there are a couple of things you should always do. Firstly, determine the level of urgency. Is a meeting already arranged with the developer audience you’re going to present all your great material to, or is this still in flux? Secondly, you need to find out if there is an awareness problem. Is there something that you or one of your counterparts has already done that can be repurposed? Or has another [rep](https://www.saasalliance.io/salespeople-dont-give-a-sh-t/) done something similar that you can crowdsource the information from instead of starting from scratch? Even if all those things are not true or don't apply, you should still do the custom work. But before you start, you should sit down with the rep and agree on the forum and timeline to present this information to the rest of the team. This way, the vital knowledge is shared and is never a one-off request again. The best reps are always taking calculated risks to sell outside the [ICP](https://www.saasalliance.io/identify-your-icps-to-build-a-successful-pricing-strategy/). They're always trying to find that next buyer, next industry, and next use case where your product doesn't quite fit. They know it doesn’t fit, but they also know that one day they're going to strike gold and blow their quota out of the water. Product marketers have to stay close to these reps, and doing custom work is how you can ensure you're in the room and get information in real-time. ## Align incentives with your sellers If you're just getting started, you're trying to figure out what types of collateral are out there and what you should prioritize. Or you might be trying to find out what’s best for your motion. Whether you’re [sales-led or product-led](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-led-vs-sales-led-vs-marketing-led-vs-customer-led-differences/), you need to determine how that influences the type of collateral you make. Perhaps you're wondering on an organizational level if it even makes sense for you to own all of this. Should you be relying on some cross-functional partners? Maybe products should take a role? Who else should really be thinking about this? How do you balance net new creation versus refining what’s already in the field today? There’s also the ever-elusive question of [adoption](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-accelerate-product-adoption-and-drive-user-confidence-during-onboarding/). How do you know if it’s even worth all this time and effort? How do you know if this is driving [revenue](https://www.saasalliance.io/driving-revenue-beyond-sales-with-gabriella-deflorio-at-prelay/) for the business and that it's actually getting used? Fundamentally, it all comes down to incentives. Your incentives as a product marketer should be directly aligned with your sellers. This is because a salesperson will never do what you expect, they will always do what you *inspect*. This is where your relationship with front-line managers becomes critical. Front-line managers are consistently inspecting deals, and if your incentives are aligned, the adoption of all of your work doesn't just become a product marketing goal and OKR. In fact, it becomes the entire sales leadership asking questions and ensuring that the feedback loop is tight. ## Common mistakes in sales enablement When marketing to developers, you need to target a specific message, buyer, and pain point, or your message won’t land at all. Enablement is no different. We often schedule one big meeting with all the SDRs, AEs, and SEs in one room thinking this will be the easiest way. Then we do training or focus too much on the enablement and don’t think about the execution aspect. We rely on our DevRel, dev advocates, or demand gen counterparts to really hone in on the tactics and channels to get the message to the developer audience, but sales also needs this same tactical advice. Here’s another mistake commonly made in developer marketing. If you've ever been listening to a conversation in Gong and you’ve heard one of your salespeople absolutely butcher the new pitch you just rolled out three weeks ago, you may immediately just decide that salesperson sucks. I challenge you to think about the alternative. Where have you created a forum with this new messaging for the rep to practice? They're not going to get it right the first time, so they need an opportunity to practice outside of live conversations. That moment you just heard on Gong is most likely them trying out your pitch for the very first time. ## How to work effectively with the three types of sellers You're going to meet three types of sellers in your career: ### The know-it-all You know they're the know-it-all because they've told you one of two things. One, no one can ever replicate what they're doing, so [product marketing](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-sales-enablement-a-product-marketing-perspective/) shouldn't even bother trying. Or two, product marketers should just focus on gathering everyone and laying them at the feet of the salesperson. The best way to work with the know-it-all is early and one-on-one. During the early stages of an enablement session where you only have the rough outline and basic outcomes figured out, ask for their opinion and strategic guidance on the best way to drive outcomes. ### The 21 questions When you're leading a training session, this is the type of person that asks a bunch of questions. Half of the questions might be related to the topic you're presenting, but the other half are just irrelevant. The best way to work with this type of seller is to conduct a meeting with both your front-line managers and 21 questions to preview the content. Then after the meeting, liaise with your front-line managers and [sales managers ](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-improve-sales-team-training-sessions/)to better understand how many of the questions asked were representative of the broader team and should be influenced in the direction of the enablement, and how many should be dismissed. ### The beginners The beginners are those who have recently been promoted from the SDR world, or came into the role without having any prior sales experience. These are people who are going to need extra reps for the content to really land, and where going that extra mile makes the most impact. Send your content to the beginners beforehand so they can go through and read the material, and send key takeaways, recaps, and recordings afterwards. Being able to have that forum to practice is really important. Your sales managers are going to be the ones doing a lot of the heavy lifting, so your partnership with them is critical. It’s also really important to document the plan in place before your [enablement](https://www.saasalliance.io/sales-enablement-scaled-down-problems-facing-small-startups/) even happens. This ensures they get those extra reps and are not left behind. ### Enablement vs. execution Enablement is focused on the *what*, but the piece that’s often missing is the *how*. Take a one pager for example. When you go through the process of making a one pager, you talk to customers, and go through a couple of iterations. You then post it in a Slack channel filled with hundreds of people and move on to your next project. The chances are that no one is going to use the one pager, and here's why. If I'm an [SDR](https://www.saasalliance.io/sdrs-an-essential-aspect-of-growing-a-saas-business/), I'm looking at that one pager and thinking: *this is awesome, but how do I use it?* *Should I be putting this in my first touch to help me increase open rates? Is this something I should send once I book a meeting to help me increase my hold rate or ensure people actually show up?* As a sales rep, I'm wondering: *is this something that I should use instead of the slide deck? Which type of buyer is going to resonate most with this one pager?* Fundamentally, SDRs and sales reps are coin operated individuals. This means that they deem every change as a risk. So if you don't do the work of de-risking or helping individuals understand how to use your materials in day-to-day workflows, you’ll see a lack of adoption. ## The difference between okay and great enablement Enablement is not just about honing in your message, but also about the mouthpiece. Today’s product launches include an early adoption program, finding a customer, and plastering their face, quotes, and company logos everywhere. We know it's more impactful to hear from real-life customers than a biased company that clearly just wants to make money, and the same is true for enablement. Before you go into any team-wide presentation, you should be dogfooding your new pitch or collateral. Have your reps use it on live deals, get reactions in real-time, obtain feedback early on, and make some small iterations. By the time you get to that team-wide presentation, you should be able to have your sales reps present on your behalf. Let the sales reps ask questions for the more nuanced specifics of their own deals; it's much more impactful to hear from them than hear from Mr or Mrs Marketer who has never had the pressure of filling the quota. ## A framework for sales enablement success Any good [product marketer](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing/) worth their salt has a framework for success. The following framework is one I've been using to run enablement at organizations and scales for all types of buyers. The first part is [retention](https://www.saasalliance.io/improve-employee-retention-and-supercharge-growth-by-hiring-for-the-future/). You might be conducting a check for understanding when you finish an enablement session and ask if it made sense or if anyone had any questions. The retention part is one to two weeks later: how much of that pit certification you just rolled out is sticking today? How many people are actually adopting it, and what's the feedback? This ties directly into repetition. Whenever deals finish or are in progress, sales managers are already inspecting the health of the deals and asking questions such as: *‘do we have contact with the executive buyer? Have we met with the relevant persons? Do we have a plan about pricing?’* If you're partnering with sales managers early on, they can include some questions specific to you such as: what types of content or collateral have been presented that product marketing has released recently? If you’re not retaining it and no one is able to repeat it, you have to be able to research it, but in context. Picture this, you've made a three-page dossier on one of your competitors which has their history, founders, and revenue included. But if I'm a salesperson meeting a decision maker for the first time and there are only two minutes left of the meeting when they mention something about a competitor, my goal is not to be a fountain of knowledge. In fact, my goal is to figure out how to say one or two things that make me sound really smart and educated so that I get 30 more minutes on this person's calendar, and so I can prep more intensely for this conversation. A three-page dossier doesn't help me achieve this goal. I'm just looking for the most relevant bullet points to get to the next meeting, not to necessarily find out everything about a [competitor](https://www.saasalliance.io/competitive-differentiation-strategy-how-to-win-in-a-hyper-competitive-saas-market/). You have to account for both of the use cases: live in call versus prep beforehand. The way to stop product marketing from being a content generating machine and start being a trusted strategic partner to sales is by using a framework like this. You'll never have to wonder what the adoption is in ROI, because you'll consistently see a direct line between your work and the revenue numbers that the business really cares about, such as pipeline goals, ACV and win rate. ### How to build and structure your B2B SaaS marketing team URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-and-structure-your-b2b-saas-marketing-team/ Last updated: 2023-04-06T10:03:33.000Z Being a SaaS startup founder can feel like a one-man band in the early days. And once you start building out the different functions within your org, there’s no way to ensure your teams flow together like a fine orchestra. One thing’s for certain, though: as a CEO/Founder you can only conduct an empty room for so long. Before you start tuning up, you have to fill those crucial functions. And you need to fill them with qualified professionals. This is especially true for marketing, who are responsible for promoting your business and positioning your brand. As a SaaS startup, without a streamlined marketing function, your product visibility is non-existent. ## First steps You might get away with filling the marketing leadership and product marketing role yourself for a while, and many CEOs will outsource their content and creative needs to freelancers and agencies. But what’s wrong with this picture? Agencies and freelancers don’t communicate. To create a seamless flow within your marketing function, everyone must be aligned with the value of your product. And to achieve that, you need to bring marketing in-house ASAP. Here, we’re gonna show you how to structure your marketing teams to achieve maximum synchronicity. There are four essential departments for your marketing function. Okay, so we can’t promise you an orchestra, but maybe you should think about having a **fab four** instead. ## The fab four of a successful marketing function Here are the four essential pillars of your marketing function: - Marketing leadership - Content marketing - Product marketing - Growth marketing/demand gen Before we break down each team in detail, let’s zoom in on the most senior roles at the top. ### Marketing leadership Since your leaders will be responsible for organizing the workflow within each team, candidates will need an exceptionally high level of experience both in the strategizing and execution of a marketing vision. Senior management are the mind in the body of your marketing function. Here are the roles you’re going to be hiring for. **Chief marketing officer** The chief marketing officer is your visionary-in-chief. They map out your org’s marketing strategy long-term, ensuring that each team under them is working towards that end goal. They’re also responsible for performance assessment, guaranteeing that your current strategy is headed in the right direction and is being adhered to. **VP of marketing** The VP of marketing differs significantly from the CMO in that they’re not responsible for the ideation of the plan. They are responsible for actioning the plan set out by the CMO and delegating roles to marketing managers. [How to nail your product messagingThere’s a fine line between mediocrity and greatness, with product messaging continuing to play a pivotal role in customers’ perception of whether a product is awesome, or just ‘OK’.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSProduct Marketing Alliance![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-17.05.38.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-nail-your-product-messaging/) **Communications director** Whoever sits in this role is responsible for promoting your brand in communications with media partners. The communications manager will make sure your messaging is consistent and casts your brand in a positive light at all times. **Brand director** The brand director is responsible for making sure all marketing campaigns consistently reflect well on your brand reputation. **Growth director** Without having a keen understanding of data, tracking what’s going right/wrong in your customer conversion efforts is going to be an uphill climb. Your growth director takes charge of data analysis and ensures that it’s informing your growth strategy. The most senior roles in your marketing function will delegate to the managers at the heads of the teams outlined below. These managers, in turn, will ensure clearly-defined roles and responsibilities within your marketing teams. Now let’s get to the nitty-gritty, defining the key roles within each marketing team. The roles defined here are by no means all you’ll need once you begin to grow and scale. Think of them as the bones of your marketing function. Without them, your marketing efforts are dead on arrival and can't progress towards a growth strategy. ### Content marketing The principal role of content marketing is to drive traffic and potential leads to your site. The overall goal here, of course, is to put eyes on your product, but it does so in less obtrusive, friendlier ways than typical advertising or sales tactics. According to the [content marketing institute](https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/stats-invest-content-marketing/#:~:text=Content%20marketing%2C%20among%20all%20the,leads%20and%20leads%20into%20customers.&text=Content%20marketing%20may%20require%20more,the%20rewards%20are%20far%20greater.), content marketing typically generates six times higher conversion than other marketing methods. We can’t tell you which department to fill out first, but many marketing professionals believe content marketing should take priority over any other marketing department within your org. [How to leverage blog content to generate leadsBlogging is more than just sharing company news, events, or updates with your users. When it’s done properly, it can elevate you to thought-leader status and establish your service as the authority in your industry.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/daniel-thomas-6_NXEMZbUq0-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-leverage-blog-content-to-generate-leads/) The reason? The modern consumer is very savvy to traditional marketing and advertising techniques. It’s much more difficult for marketers to convince a potential customer their product will actually benefit their lives and not just the bottom line of your organization. Creating content that offers a solution to customer pain points sets a solid foundation for a potential long term relationship. You position your org as a trusted, knowledgeable advisor, not a cynical cash-grabber. **Head of content** – Ensures that everyone in the content team is aligned behind the org’s marketing vision. **Content strategist** – They conduct industry research, including competitor and SEO analysis, so that your content marketing strategy is as targeted as it can be. **Content writer/creator** – Responsible for executing the company’s content strategy in-line with your company’s vision. To sum up the pivotal value of content marketing, take it from Dharmesh Shah, CTO & Co-Founder, HubSpot. 👇 > "Many companies have forgotten they sell to actual people. Humans care about the entire experience” Content marketing is the heart of your department. It humanizes your marketing efforts. ### Product marketing The product marketing team is responsible for making sure your product’s value (including the benefits and features) are communicated to your customers, partners and sales team. The team will conduct research into competitor products so your product’s messaging stands out from the rest. [The Power and Impact of product marketingTamara Grominsky, Chief Strategy Officer at Unbounce, outlines a dynamic strategy for building an awesome product marketing team.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSTamara Grominsky![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/teams.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing/) This role is critical because your product’s positioning and use case needs to be clearly defined on launch, ensuring a greater chance of conversion and interest from the market. A typical product marketing team looks like this: **Product marketing manager** – Responsible for defining the marketing strategy in- line with current customer personas **UX writer** – A pivotal role, as this position is responsible for writing the copy that showcases the product’s features. **Partnerships Manager –** A partnerships manager will work to reinforce your brand reputation by aligning your product with other reputable orgs and influencers, often through sponsorship. **Marketing Strategist –** Outlines GTM strategies for the team. **Researcher/Data Analysts** – Conducts pivotal persona research in the hope of providing data to support your GTM strategy. **Sales enablement manager** – This is your liaise between the product marketing team and sales. To make sales, the sales team has to make persuasive pitches - impossible if they aren’t aware of your product’s values. The sales enablement manager establishes a clear channel of communication between these two teams. ### Demand generation/growth marketing This team is responsible for attracting potential users to your product, farming highly qualified leads, and pushing them through the pipeline. To carry out their role effectively, you’ll need to fill this team with top analytics wizards. They’ll need to analyze various marketing channels (including PPC ads) to determine which ones generate the most interest from potential users, and then implement this into their strategy. When it comes to effective marketing, it’s essential to keep an ear to the ground. As experienced CMO Bozoma Saint sums it up: > "“For me, pop culture is very fluid: it's music, it's movies, it's books, it's art, it's tech, it's so many things — and as marketing and brand advocates, we should be able to take products and services and match them to what's happening in pop culture.” Demand generation is your ear to the current climate. Without it, you risk rendering your product obsolete on arrival. Astute social listening is essential to stay ahead of the curve. Consider the following positions. **Head of demand generation –** Oversees the work and collaboration of all the positions outlined below. **Marketing operations manager** – Responsible for the management of data and analytic software to ensure leads are identified. **Paid acquisition manage**r – Responsible for whipping your paid ads into tip-top shape to attract potential leads. **SEO specialist** – Conducts keyword research to give your landing pages and web pages the highest possible chance of showing up on search engines. **Email specialist** – Oversees your email marketing campaign, managing segmentation and automation. [How to convert your prospects before they reach your siteThe goal of every demand gen marketer has always been to increase demos, accelerate sales funnels, and connect with potential customers faster and easier. So what if you could access an entirely new and untapped channel rich in high intent leads ready to convert?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSThe Bot Lab![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/sales-leads.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-convert-your-prospects-before-they-reach-your-site/) ## Bonus: Cross- functional roles Within your team it’s going to be necessary to have folks whose roles don't necessarily fit into any specific category in your marketing function. They’ll be critical for achieving tight links between the various branches of your marketing department. Your marketing team are the cheerleaders of your product, championing its value to the market. If that value is lost across the channels of your company, though, your marketing department’s hard work might be going to waste. So, let’s break down the key players: **Marketing coordinator –** Facilitates collaboration and consistent communication across the various teams in your marketing function. **Digital marketer –** It’s a no-brainer, clearly for a SaaS org the vast majority of your marketing is going to be digital, but that’s why you might need someone who oversees your digital efforts across all departments. **Marketing assistant –** All of your teams are going to be busy, and it helps to have someone who can lend a hand with the workload across all teams. **Graphic designer** – Your marketing teams might have a firm handle on your messaging, but in an age where casual, detached scrolling abounds, eye-catching presentation is everything. Ensure your ads are dressed for success with a highly skilled graphic designer. **Content strategist –** The truth is, all your departments will be dealing in content to some extent, whether that’s an attractive infographic in your paid ads, or a social media poll designed to engage potential users. It’s essential that content has a hand in every department. [Cross-functional collaboration and engaging key stakeholdersWhat do you get when departments are toiling away in their silos, never reaching out to each other? Your key metrics for success are gonna nose-dive!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/pexels-huy-chien-tran-1756665.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) ## To wrap up Starting a marketing department from scratch is a daunting task even for those who’ve had experience running a SaaS org. And, in an increasingly oversaturated SaaS market, there’s no way to guarantee that your product’s message is going to rise above the noise of the market. But one thing’s for certain, you need to give your product a voice for it to stand a chance at all. The marketing team is that voice, so don’t take it lightly! Get building! --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### 3 reasons you should spend time onsite with customers as a product manager URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/3-reasons-you-should-spend-time-onsite-with-customers-as-a-product-manager/ Last updated: 2023-01-31T13:35:35.000Z As product managers, we spend a lot of our time diving into [data](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-data-team-at-saas-hypergrowth/), researching our respective areas, and talking to our customers. We learn about the problems they face, the opportunities to potentially resolve those solutions, and how they use and engage with capabilities and features. But are we missing something? I believe we are missing the understanding of the customers’ wider business. We rarely, if ever, explore beyond the bounds of our product teams or spend time physically in our customers’ businesses. In my experience, spending time physically with your customer, shadowing them, and performing day-to-day tasks as they do creates some powerful benefits that you do not get in your normal product work. In this post, I’ll highlight why you should spend more onsite time with your customers and how to build best practices, relationships, and empathy that will drive value for your business and ultimately your customers. ## Relationship building We all build relationships with our customers over time. I have been emailing, calling, and Zooming clients for many years. However, meeting them and their team in person brings that relationship to a whole new level. The in-person interaction coupled with you working alongside them builds a level of trust that makes them comfortable giving fair and honest feedback. People from the wider team often feel comfortable contacting you with [feedback ](https://www.saasalliance.io/creating-an-effective-feedback-loop-podcast-spencer-coon-coo-co-founder-of-beamer/)as well, expanding your reach beyond the business owner or manager. There is also a sense of social credit built up after the visit from having you work in the business. I find this creates an increased willingness to test new features as payback for the work you did with them. [Customer success tips to make your SaaS product stand outMaking your SaaS company stand out in an increasingly competitive world isn’t easy. As technology continues to evolve, customers are searching not just for the best selection of features, but an amazing experience too.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMichelle Laurey![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/clay-banks-NiYS_ExTdg8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-tips-to-make-your-saas-product-stand-out/) ## Developing understanding As [product managers](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-owner-vs-product-manager-q-a-with-hubspot/), we can sometimes be deep among the weeds of our product area and it is difficult to step back and see the wider picture. By working in a customer’s business, I quickly saw that even software like Phorest that manages a large amount of a salon’s business is just a tiny part of the day-to-day life of our salons. The experience helped to put into perspective some things we commonly struggle with as product managers: 1. **Driving usage:** None of the users were wandering around the product. They were completing one task and then moving on to the next. They have built up muscle memory and defined processes that are unlikely to change. 2. **Building awareness:** Many of our customers will ask for features that we already have. We communicate often about new features; yet only by working with them in the business do you see how many emails and calls are coming in and how prompts that appear in the product are routinely dismissed (often with a flash of irritation) as they rush to complete the task they are working on. 3. **Engagement with product calls:** Working behind a desk, it’s hard to understand why customers who have booked a call with you don’t turn up. In the middle of the madness that is a working business, it’s crystal clear that anything and everything can happen that throws off their entire day. Seeing customers in their natural environment also surfaces seemingly minor bugs and [UI/UX ](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-user-experience-is-so-important-for-your-saas-company/)issues in a whole new light. For example, on a recent salon visit, we noticed that the salon manager kept opening the appointment detail view. She was expecting to be able to process the transaction from there, and we had given her no way to do it. It took us just a couple of hours to solve this problem and greatly improve the flow. This sort of information is almost impossible to glean from client calls and application trackers like Hotjar. [5 awesome tips for building a customer advocacy programBuilding a customer advocacy program can really accelerate your business and drive revenue! The ultimate goal for any department within an organization is to have a representative at the table during those crucial C-suite meetings. We want to convince senior stakeholders that you can drive results.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/benjamin-davies-FiZTaNTj2Ak-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/) ## 3\. Customer advocacy Customer advocacy is a key part of developing products that customers love. Working in their business gives you a much greater understanding of the ebb and flow, as well as building your knowledge of industry terminology and expectations. We often hear about leading teams of missionaries not mercenaries, so actively encourage your engineers and designers to get involved as well. Spreading customer advocacy across your team will mean surfacing feedback earlier and ultimately building better products for your customers. Start by taking just one day of your year and spend it working in your client's business. If you’re nervous, team up with an experienced colleague. If that is not possible, then be honest with the customer and let them know how you’re feeling. In my experience, people appreciate honesty and will take care to ensure you’re okay when you visit. Go in with no expectation other than to be a part of their team for the day. Experience life as a customer and see what benefits your team and you receive. --- Like waht you see? Why not sign up to our exclusive insights with Saas experts across all functions with a FoSaaS membership? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Why DEI sounds boring... and what to do about it so everyone gets on board URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/why-dei-sounds-boring-and-what-to-do-about-it-so-everyone-gets-on-board/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:54:09.000Z *This article is based on a presentation from the Women in SaaS Summit 2022\. Get the full, unedited talk OnDemand* [*right here.*](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-2/) --- You may have heard about DEI. It's kind of a buzzword at the moment. It stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Honestly, even though I’m in this space, I sometimes get bored by it. I look at the posts on my LinkedIn feed, with all their jargon, and I don't always know what people are saying. That’s why, in this article, we’re going to break it down into digestible talking points, including: - What’s in it for me? - The business case for DEI - Let’s make it REAL - Be intentional about language and lexicon - Unlearn and relearn - Be a role model for your teams - Manage change - Put your money where your mouth is [![Speech bubbles representing DEI terms](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/blah-blah-blah.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/why-dei-sounds-boring-and-what-to-do-about-it-so-everyone-gets-on-board) At your company, you may have tried a number of different initiatives to improve inclusion and diversity. You may have tried to address the gender imbalance. You may be looking at how to tackle discrimination and racism. But maybe these efforts aren’t working quite as well as you’d like. To help you on your way to true equality in your workplace and your community, I’m going to lay out my REAL World Equality Framework. I’ll also equip you with five practical steps you can take to make a positive change today. But first, a quick introduction. I'm Lea Jovy-Ford, and I’m the founder and CEO of a brand-new company called Mission Equality, whose origin story is very interesting and relevant to today’s topic. Until recently, I was the co-founder and COO of an ed-tech startup. In 2021, we decided to go for a pre-seed round and raised half a million in six weeks. Last year, we took the company to the World Economic Forum in Davos to talk about progressive education and everything we were doing. All in all, things were going pretty well. So why on earth did I resign? In a nutshell, racism. Without going into too many details, even at the C-suite and co-founder level, I felt unsafe and subject to the systemic power dynamics at play. If that can happen at the top, it can happen everywhere. And it does. It happens everywhere. Let’s fix that. ## What’s in it for me? At the moment, as companies tighten their belts, there's quite a lot of talk about scrapping DEI altogether. People are asking themselves if this is something we really need to focus on. My question to everybody is, *why shouldn't we be focusing on this?* I think the biggest thing that stops people from really getting diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging is the answer to the question “But, what's in it for me?” As most people in marketing know, if you want people to buy something, or you want them to buy into something, you've got to answer these pressing questions in a customer's mind: what's in it for me? How am I going to benefit from it? What am I going to get? [![Text: But what's in it for me?](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/but-what-s-in-it-for-me-.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/why-dei-sounds-boring-and-what-to-do-about-it-so-everyone-gets-on-board) Quite frankly, in most instances, people in power don't want to share that power. They don't see what's in it for them. They don't understand how they’re going to benefit. However, let’s look at the recent overturning of Roe versus Wade. It’s been a massive topic for people – particularly women – everywhere. First, there was unity. Women everywhere were united in their horror at what was unfolding before their eyes. Then the division started. Black, brown, and indigenous women began to point out that they'd been trying to warn people for years this was coming, that this kind of domination and control over women's bodies was happening, but people didn't listen. Many white people didn't listen until it significantly impacted them. It didn't seem to matter until it suddenly did. Let’s not wait until more people’s rights are stripped from them before we start caring about DEI. [![Speech bubbles representing progressive terms](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/Freedom.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/why-dei-sounds-boring-and-what-to-do-about-it-so-everyone-gets-on-board) As I said, we've got to look at the question, “What's in it for me?” How does everybody benefit from equality? The answer to that is freedom. It's freedom from the roles we didn't choose. It's freedom from either being told that you’re an oppressor or that you are being oppressed. It's freedom from being called a racist (which in many people's eyes is one of the worst things that they can ever be called). It's freedom from being racially harmed. If we no longer need to focus on equity, if we no longer need to focus on making sure everybody's at the same starting line, we can focus on ourselves. We can focus on being the best that we can be. That greater awareness and understanding of ourselves and others leads to better connections, better communication, and better collaboration – all the skills that companies everywhere say they want. ## The business case for DEI From a company perspective, we're all focused on the business case for DEI. How does it help the bottom line? How does it help us achieve the company vision? [![Stats on the business case for DEI](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/the-business-case-for-DEI.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/why-dei-sounds-boring-and-what-to-do-about-it-so-everyone-gets-on-board) Happily, there are plenty of stats out there to show how having a diverse and inclusive workforce can help companies to gain and retain the best talent, become more profitable, and create an environment that's more conducive to learning. But why do we even need a business case? Why do we need a commercial motive for providing an equal and equitable workspace for everybody? It's not a business case. It's a human case. [![Here's why we shouldn't need a business case](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/Text--Here-s-why-we-shouldn-t-even-need-a-business-case.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/why-dei-sounds-boring-and-what-to-do-about-it-so-everyone-gets-on-board) ## Let’s make it REAL At Mission Equality, we use a framework called the REAL World Equality Framework. Our goal is to make it real for everybody. You might be wondering what that means. Let me explain. REAL stands for **R**epresentation, an **E**quitable environment, and **A**ccountability, **L**eading to equality. Let’s take a closer look. ### Representation This word pops up a lot in conversations about DEI. You might hear people say, “We need to look at better representation,” but what does that actually mean? **Representation** means that everybody can see themselves reflected, supported, and treated equally in society and the communities to which they belong. Why does it matter to companies? Well, unless you have a very niche audience, it's likely that your customer base has its own level of diversity. Does your workforce reflect and represent that too? If not, why not? There's a lot of focus on recruitment at the moment. If you can hire more women, people of color, and neurodivergent people, then you'll be ticking that box and doing a good job of representation. But there's increasing evidence that representation doesn't necessarily make any difference at all to the bottom line. It doesn't really make any difference to how the people who work for you feel. In fact, the evidence is looking like just having more diverse people in your team has no meaningful benefits. For representation to matter, you have to go further. Imagine that you are one of a community that is consistently and persistently marginalized, and whose voices aren't heard. Now imagine that you’re at a company where, no matter what level you're at, you know that your voice matters. You know that when you speak, you’ll be listened to and what you say will be taken seriously. Imagine not having to fight just to be heard, just to have a safe seat at the table. How would that feel? How would that make a difference to you? How would that make a difference to your team? How would that make a difference to your kids and the younger generations coming up? That's what true representation feels like to people. It's an equal sense of power. It's an equal sense of belonging, it's an equal sense of control. Who wouldn't want that? ### Equal and equitable environment The E in the REAL framework stands for an **equal** and **equitable** environment. How safe do you currently feel at your workplace? Do you know how safe your colleagues and direct reports feel? Does everybody feel comfortable bringing concerns to the table? What about questioning performance? Or the CEO's performance? Or your colleagues' performance? Is it safe to do that without fear of retaliation? How well supported are all your people to perform at their best? How well supported are you to perform at your best? How about if you fail? What if you try something and it doesn't work? What happens then? What about the people who need extra support? Do they receive it? Is access to support fair and equal? Are all people mentored equally? Are all opportunities for learning and growth fair and equally available? Do some people have the ear of leadership more than others? And what if a white man performs poorly at your company? What if a white woman performs poorly at your company? What happens? What if a gay white woman performs poorly at your company? What if a black gay woman performs poorly? How do you design and create an equal and equitable environment, and how are you doing that? I'm asking a lot of questions and I'm not providing any answers, but this is the work that a lot of companies are figuring out at the moment. We've got our own version of how we do that, but I think that the key, to begin with, is asking the difficult questions. ### Accountability The A in the REAL framework is **accountability**. Accountability and responsibility go hand in hand. Responsibility is typically task-oriented; it’s about who is responsible for getting X done. Accountability is what happens after X has been done. That nuance is really important. Somebody has to step up and take responsibility in the first place – that's where we're coming unstuck with DEI. In many cases, we didn't choose this responsibility. We didn't raise our hands and ask to step in. Nor did we choose the paths that our ancestors took, the paths of colonialism, subjugation, domination, power, control, and marginalizing and excluding certain people, because of social constructs that mean nothing. None of us chose for things to be done that way, yet we're now being asked to hold ourselves accountable for doing something different. It feels unfair, and that's why many people struggle with DEI – because it is unfair. We didn't choose any of this and yet we're now being told that we have to do something about it. I believe that this is our chance to choose that responsibility. It's our chance to step up. It's our chance to raise our hands, accept the job, and be accountable for what we're doing currently and what we want to achieve in the future. It’s our chance to put in place systems, approaches, and mindsets that will give future generations a better chance of being held accountable for something that they might just get to choose. ### Leading to equality The final letter in the REAL framework stands for **leading to equality**. That's what it's all about. DEI is a process in that sense. The goal is for everybody to be equal and treated equally. This needs courageous leadership. It needs people of all kinds, at all levels, and of all ages – particularly younger generations – to get on board with it. Rather than being bored by DEI, we need them to understand its benefits and be able to sell those benefits to everyone. That's the biggest challenge. It has to start at the top, but every single person needs to lead the way to equality in all their communities. I imagine there are lots of women reading this. We live in a world where the balance of power doesn't lie with us. We've been working at feminism for decades, in the same way that black and brown and indigenous people have been working towards anti-racism for decades, and yet here we are. So how do we move forward? So what does leading to equality look like? What are some of the practical things that you can start doing as an individual and as a leader? You don’t have to be the leader of a company to follow this advice; you can be the leader of a team or the leader in your own life. Wherever you are in life, let’s see how you can lead to equality. ## Be intentional about language and lexicon There's a lot of debate in the DEI world about the right words to use, and people often get bored with the quibbling and the back and forth about which is the right term. I get that. The reason why language matters is that the words we choose and the words we use have power. That’s because the words we use – whether out loud or in our heads – drive our thoughts, and our thoughts drive action. Most of us talk to ourselves all the time. If we use powerful positive languaging and words, versus negative, destructive, harmful words, it makes a difference. We all know that. The same applies when it comes to thinking about equality. If you're uncertain of what to do to lead to equality, this is where I would start. People ask what they can do on a practical level, but it's the words and thoughts in your own mind that you use to motivate yourself, so this is where it all begins. Pronouns are important, but this goes deeper than pronouns. ## Unlearn and relearn The words that you choose have power. They can help or they can harm, so as a leader, getting the languaging right is fundamental. This often requires some unlearning and relearning. There are probably a lot of offensive phrases in the lexicon that you grew up with. Some very common ones are “that's crazy” and “that's insane.” These expressions are sanist and they can be offensive to people with mental health issues, but we hear them all the time. As a leader and in my personal life, I’m now so much more mindful of the words that I choose to use, in order to do as little harm as possible. ## Be a role model for your teams Languaging is key. Unlearning and relearning are also key. Being able to model that to your teams is crucial. At Mission Equality and at my previous company, it’s become common practice to challenge people and say, “That's not quite the right language – could you choose a better phrase?” It’s not a big deal; it has just become a thing that people do, and we all understood why. That culture of it being okay to make mistakes is fundamental, and it will carry over from the DEI into the rest of the business. That’s great! Whatever their roles, we want people to know it's okay to make mistakes, it's okay to seek support, and it's okay to adapt your approach and do better. ## Manage change The fourth part of leading to equality is exceptional change management. I’m a former management consultant, and change management was always key. Achieving equality after centuries of inequality requires real lasting change. It requires people who can manage that change across the board with people who perceive that they're losing power and people who are gaining power. When you’re enacting change, you decide upon the policy, you build the processes and structures that will allow you to implement that policy, and then you have to manage the change across people. That's often the most difficult part. It requires skillful change management, a leadership quality that is often underappreciated when it comes to DEI initiatives. ## Put your money where your mouth is Finally, leading to equality – particularly in a company – involves putting your money where your mouth is. It involves operationalizing policies that tackle discrimination and promote equity and equality. It involves showing your commitment to pushing DEI across your company because it benefits everybody, not just the people who currently don't have the same levels of power. This requires funding. It requires more than just appointing a DEI officer and leaving them to it. It requires an effort across the entire company at every level to succeed. Every person on your team can and needs to lead the way to equality. So, are you bored, or are you on board? What can you do today to lead to equality? [![Text: What will you do today? ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/what-will-you-do-today--.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/why-dei-sounds-boring-and-what-to-do-about-it-so-everyone-gets-on-board) ### Bridging relationship gaps with customers by leveraging customer success principles URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/bridging-relationship-gaps-with-customers-by-leveraging-customer-success-principles/ Last updated: 2023-01-24T13:09:16.000Z *This article is a transcription of an episode of [CS Connect](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/bridging-relationship-gaps-with-customers-by-leveraging-customer-success-principles/customersuccesscollective.com/cs-connect). At the time of recording, Daniel was Global VP of Customer Success at Perimeter 81\. Now he currently serves as VP of Customer Success at Mine* --- I'm **Daniel Goldfeld**. I'm based out of Tel Aviv, where ****Perimeter 81** is headquartered. I've been the Global Vice President of Customer Success at ****Perimeter 81** for the last two years or so. Before that, I was the Director of Customer Success at another Israeli startup called **Logz.io**, basically managing pre-sale and post-sale activities across the entire Indian region. I have a lot of experience in product management and integration, so I'm from more of a technical background than a sales one. In this article, I'm going to focus on: - How to optimize the pre-sale and post-sales processess - The co-pilot approach - How to apply this optimization approach - How to lead change among key stakeholders Let's get stuck in. 👇 ## **How to optimize the pre-sale and post-sales processes** ****Perimeter 81** is a young startup with very aggressive [KPIs,](https://www.saasalliance.io/aligning-kpis-to-create-successful-partnerships/) especially on the sales front and in terms of annual recurring revenue (ARR). Because we had to meet those different KPIs, we got to a point where there was a bit of a gap between what was promised to customers and what they actually got after they purchased the solution. This gap was generated both because of the aggressive KPIs but also because we had two different teams managing the pre-sale and the [post-sale cycles.](https://www.saasalliance.io/salespeople-dont-give-a-sh-t/) We had sales engineers and sales executives running the sale and finalizing the deal; then, once the opportunity was won, the entire relationship was moved to the post-sale team, which was made up of account managers and the technical resources that assisted them. As well as the gap between what customers expected and what they got, there was also a gap in the relationship itself. While those customers were engaged in the pre-sale cycle, there was an ongoing conversation. However, once they signed the deal, the honeymoon period was over and we’d have to rebuild that relationship from scratch. We found ourselves having to chase those customers to be able to onboard them, which basically resulted in lower adoption and higher [churn.](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-churn-rate-your-guide/) So, we started asking ourselves how we could address this. How could we align expectations, reduce churn, deliver more value, and open up more expansion opportunities? [Customer success tips to make your SaaS product stand outMaking your SaaS company stand out in an increasingly competitive world isn’t easy. As technology continues to evolve, customers are searching not just for the best selection of features, but an amazing experience too.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMichelle Laurey![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/clay-banks-NiYS_ExTdg8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-tips-to-make-your-saas-product-stand-out/) We realized that we needed to have at least one person present throughout the entire cycle, pre-sale and post-sale. This person would know the customer’s expectations, their business goals, and their pain points, and they would own the relationship because they’d have been with that customer since the beginning. This is what brought us to combine the pre-sale and post-sale roles. Now, the customer success engineers at ****Perimeter 81** are doing both pre-sale and post-sale. They’re doing pre-sale engineering for the proof of concept (POC), and once the customer decides to purchase the solution, they're also now in charge of onboarding, implementation, and training. This way, the [customer relationship](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-ways-to-build-a-strong-relationship-with-your-customers/) is preserved throughout the phasing out of the sales exec and the phasing in of the account manager. It’s sort of a co-pilot approach. There’s much better expectation setting between the company and its customers, as well as better engagement. That’s because the customers have a familiar face that they trust, who knows exactly what was promised even before the contract is signed. ## **The co-pilot approach** Usually, sales are lone wolves, as you know. They make the sale and they move on. Because we were building a team with a CS engineer and a salesperson involved, we needed to build a new process, so we came up with the pilot and co-pilot analogy. The salesperson is still leading the sale – they’re the pilot – and we’re bringing in a customer success engineer as a co-pilot; they’re in charge of assisting the salesperson in achieving their goals. By having the pilot and co-pilot working together, we've managed to change the lone wolf approach and build a team that is aligned on the same objectives. ## **How to apply this optimization approach** Here's some practical advice for CS leaders who are either thinking about applying this optimization approach or are struggling to do so. One of the main things is focusing on the ‘what's in it for me?’ for everybody involved in the process. What's in it for the customer? What's in for the salesperson? What's in it for the customer success engineer? What's in it for the company? The way to focus on this is to identify, understand, and align with the motivation of each of those roles. Understand the business goals of your customers and prospects, understand the objectives and compensation of the salespeople, and, of course, understand what the company wants to achieve in the long run. In order to achieve that, I think the most important thing is to define and measure KPIs and metrics. Each company has its own KPIs, but we focus on adoption, ARR, and churn. [Customer success metrics that drive 95% retentionIn this article, I’ll be discussing the customer success metrics you should be tracking at each and every stage of the customer lifecycle. With them, you can drive retention and ensure your customer success function is successful in delivering value to the customer.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSwati Chopra![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/yoav-hornung-Qg6lPXJ6IL4-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) It’s also important to track the opportunities, understand how well you’re doing with each of them, and who requires additional resources. You need to think about what you can do to remove roadblocks as well, and where there are expansion opportunities. It’s also very important to be proactive in measuring and understanding what your customers think. You want to be implementing NPS surveys, sending them out, measuring the responses, and acting on them. And, of course, last but not least, pay attention to the customer satisfaction score (CSAT). If customers are reaching out to us, we need to make sure that they're happy with the responses that they’re getting. ## **How to lead change among key stakeholders** One of the main challenges we faced when introducing this change was related to the fact that it's a non-traditional approach. We took a very traditional sales approach, where you have your people who are selling and the people who are expanding, and we broke it down. We needed to understand how to propose this change of approach, and one of the main things we did was, again, focus on what was in it for them. We managed to identify a couple of salespeople that were willing to try something new. We brought this approach to them along with their opportunities, and we had quite a lot of success with it. Much bigger deals were getting closed, we had a much lower churn rate, and [stakeholders ](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/)were building much stronger relationships with customers, so we got higher [adoption](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-accelerate-product-adoption-and-drive-user-confidence-during-onboarding/) and faster expansion. Crucially, salespeople were also meeting their goals. Once other people in the sales organization realized that those sales executives were seeing success, which was reflected in their compensation, they started asking us to assign as many customer success engineers as possible to different accounts. There was actually a fight going on about who should get those customer success engineers and how soon they could be allocated to the different accounts. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Track your success: The customer onboarding maturity model URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/track-your-success-the-customer-onboarding-maturity-model/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:53:49.000Z *This article was transcribed from Srikrishnan Ganesan’s presentation at the* [*Customer Success Festival*](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/customer-success-festival-9th-10th-march-2022/) *in March 2022.* --- Hey, I'm **Sri**, one of the founders of a company called **Rocketlane**. Today we're going to look at how to measure how well you're doing at customer onboarding. But first, **here's a breakdown of our main talking points:** - How's your customer onboarding program? - Introducing the onboarding maturity model - Dimension 1: Value orientation - Dimension #2: Customer experience and delivery - Dimension #3: Adaptability and orgs - Dimension #4: Manageability and productivity Firstly, why is onboarding an important topic for all of us? It’s simple. If you have a new customer, the first partnership they experience with your team is this onboarding and implementation journey. If you do a sloppy job here, you're on the back foot from the get-go, and you're going to have to win the customer's trust back before you can have any sort of conversation around expansion and renewals. If, on the other hand, you do a great job and you impress the customer during your onboarding, you can probably have your expansion conversation while that first implementation is ongoing. That's the difference. For better or worse, onboarding is going to impact your customer churn and your net retention rate (NRR). ## **How's your customer onboarding program?** Customer onboarding can be hit or miss. If you ask your last 10 customers how they felt the process went, I'm sure some of them will say it was a great experience and things happened really smoothly, while others will probably say it was a nightmare to work with your company. To me, it sometimes feels like a game of Jenga. There are a lot of people involved in the different phases of the onboarding journey, and if someone makes the wrong move, the whole thing can collapse and you’ll have to completely reset. Everyone needs to move their pieces carefully, and it's a collaborative effort to make this happen. ### **Things have been worse...** When you think back to the early days of your team's onboarding, I'm sure things were pretty bad, right? Entrepreneurs who onboard their first customers often tell them things like, “We can get this done in a few hours,” whether that’s feasible or not. Likewise, when you're starting on a customer success journey with a company, you don't have a playbook yet. You don't know what surprises you'll encounter, so you learn as you go. Slowly, as you get to grips with your customer onboarding processes, things start to get better, and you’re able to deliver a slightly better experience for the customer. But guess what? There’s always room for improvement. All of us know only so much about what we’re improving on. If you're not measuring which aspects of the customer journey are getting better, you may be pouring your efforts into something that’s already reached its peak, and you may not have realized that there are still things in your control that you can improve. Maybe today you're focusing on improving your tooling and visibility with the customer and you’ve already passed the point of diminishing returns. It might be that if you now focus your energies on better expectation setting and kickoffs with your customers, you’ll find a new peak in customer satisfaction with your onboarding process. ### **How to know how well you're doing** Let’s look at how you can assess your customer onboarding. Is there a way to understand a little more about how well you're doing as a team that's onboarding? Well, first you need to do some sort of measurement. You can't just look at the things you’re working to improve without measuring the results – eventually, as you keep trying to enhance your initiatives, the returns on all the resources you’re pouring into them will start reducing. ## **Introducing the onboarding maturity model** That's where our maturity model comes in. This is about exposing you to more dimensions along which you can measure how you're doing and give yourself a maturity score. Here are the dimensions: 1. Value orientation 2. Customer experience and delivery 3. Adaptability and organization 4. Manageability and productivity ### **Context matters** A little bit of context before we get into the details of this model. It applies best to onboarding processes that last two and a half weeks or more, particularly mid-market and enterprise implementations. This model itself is an early version, which we're going to continue to evolve based on feedback. Also, your score on some dimensions may be low, and that may be okay. If your company stage demands that you do things a certain way and you're not yet ready to improve on a certain dimension, that's fine. Lastly, for very mature professional services teams, we're not trying to score you on your professional services (PS) utilization, project profitability, etc. This framework is for customer success teams that are actively involved in the onboarding process. ### **Dimension 1: Value orientation** As I mentioned, there are four dimensions in our maturity model, and the first one is value orientation. Let’s look at why this is important. Let's say you got **Nike** as a customer, you’ve finished onboarding them, and now your marketing team wants to do a case study. You need something tangible from them, not just, “They're a great team to work with,” or, “We love their product.” You want to hear about the ROI they got from your offering and the value that your product delivered. Too often, the customer has no clue how to articulate that value because value orientation was missing from their journey. So how do you know if your team is doing value orientation right? There are five signs to look out for. **1\. Teams able to articulate value** Think about what the sales team sold the customer. During onboarding, is the CS team talking about the same value? Are you enabling that same value for the customer, and are you helping the customer realize that they're getting that value? **2\. Measuring ROI/value** You need to be able to measure the value you’re delivering to your customer. It’s not enough to say, “Here's how we're adding value.” You need to have measured how things were done before so you have a benchmark for the value your solution enables. Perhaps you’re saving time for each person on the customer's team; you can measure the dollar impact of that. Maybe you increase their number of leads or conversions – what does that mean for them in dollar terms? Depending on your product, the value is going to vary; just make sure you're measuring it. **3\. Measuring and benchmarking time to value** You’ve agreed on what the value is – are you also looking at how quickly you got the customer to that value? They might not be getting the full value right away, but you can still measure how quickly you delivered part of the value. **4\. 30, 60, and 90-day ROI** If you’re running a land-and-expand model, there might be a certain value that you expect customers to get in the first 30 days of using your product. As you expand with them, introduce more use cases, or go live with more modules, the value will increase. If you measure this value on a regular cadence, it’s going to make your expansion and renewal conversations so much easier. As soon as the first 60 days’ value has been delivered, you can go to your customer and say, “We’ve already done this; now we want to do more with you.” **5\. Value-based goal sign-off** Your engagement with the customer needs to start with an agreement on what the customer is buying your product for and the value they’re going to see. Otherwise, you’ll come up against scope, and conversations with the customer are going to be harder. If your customer comes to you saying, “We also need this to work this way,” or, “This integration is missing,” you can make that go away by reminding them of the value you agreed on. ### **Dimension #2: Customer experience and delivery** Now that you’ve seen how value orientation can help you and your customer, let’s take a look at how the second dimension, customer experience, and delivery, can help you upgrade your onboarding. **1\. Onboarding plan and live status** Where you might initially have had a pretty chaotic way of working – spreadsheets, emails back and forth, and a list of to-dos – you can move towards putting together a beautiful plan for your customer, broken down into clear phases. For example, in week one you can focus on kickoff and goal sign-off. In week two, you can do the basic setup and configurations, and have an initial team “get started with us” for one use case. Weeks three and four are where the full implementation, integrations, and data migration start, and then week five is where you do a full-fledged training and maybe even a reverse demo from the customer. You should make sure there’s a live status around this plan, so everyone has visibility on how you're progressing through those themes week on week. **2\. Expectation setting and sign-offs** When expectations aren’t set well, it can be hugely frustrating for the customer. They shouldn't feel that they’ve been left in the dark with only six weeks before their current vendor's contract runs off. The last thing either of you needs is for them to be stressed about that. Ensure that the customer is in the know all the time. If you give them that live status, there will be no unwelcome surprises. **3\. Communication protocols and escalation rules** Set protocols early on for things like how you're going to communicate, the cadence at which you’ll be publishing status updates, and under what circumstances you’ll escalate issues. This will help you avoid problems further down the line. **4\. Measure CSAT score, timelines, and delays** It’s a good idea to gather feedback throughout the onboarding journey. If you did a customer training session, how did they feel it went? You don't want them to have any negative sentiments or to think that training was useless for them and their use case. Get feedback at all the key junctures and build off that. You also want to measure how you're doing in the relation to your onboarding plan. Are you on track with the timelines you committed to? Are there any delays? **5\. Customer effort score** If the customer feels they're having to do too much, they're gonna talk about it to others. If someone asks them how it was to work with your company, they’ll say, “It was really hard work. I had to do so much to go live, and it was stressful.” This is not the kind of marketing you need. Instead, you want to figure out how to make onboarding easier for your customer. Perhaps you need to create better playbooks or build automation to make migration smoother. Often, we need input from the customer, and they may not have easy access to the information you need, so you might want to create some services to bridge that gap and help them feel less helpless during the process. ### **Dimension #3: Adaptability and orgs** This part of the maturity model is about ensuring you can meet each customer’s needs and that your teams can handle customer onboarding for every size and type of logo. **1\. Adaptive methodologies** The third dimension of our onboarding maturity framework is about ensuring that your plan is not rigid, but instead changes based on the maturity of the customer, their industry, use cases, and goals. **2\. Implementation plans and templates** Mature planning is a key part of a mature onboarding process, so make sure you create clear plans supported by the right templates for the documents you use with customers throughout this journey. **3\. Dedicated onboarding team and implementation partners** In an early-stage company, the customer success team typically has to do onboarding and implementation, and that's perfectly fine. However, this is a maturity model, so if you’re a mid-sized company or enterprise, it might be time to think about bringing in a specialist team for onboarding and working with partners to implement your solution. ### **Dimension #4: Manageability and productivity** Our fourth and final dimension is about measuring, and hence, managing things better and getting more productive. **1\. Metrics by milestones, team, and region** As your organization grows more mature, you should ensure that you're looking at metrics on how your different teams and team members are doing. **2\. Audit compliance with playbooks** Do you have a way to monitor if you’re complying with the onboarding playbooks you’ve established? This is crucial for ensuring a positive experience across the board for all your customer onboarding journeys. **3\. Continuous improvement and iteration of methodology** In an ideal world, you should be improving with every onboarding. Do you have a way to look back and iterate on your methodology so you know that you're making progress? **4\. Automation strategy** As you scale, it becomes more and more important to automate certain processes. This will allow you to deliver a great onboarding experience to growing numbers of customers, without it being entirely dependent on humans. ## ### "One of the most active SaaS communities I've found" - David Vogelpohl, FastSpring URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/one-of-the-most-active-saas-communities-ive-found-david-vogelpohl-fastspring/ Last updated: 2023-01-20T16:20:04.000Z If you’re looking to really crush it in the SaaS sector, we know you’re looking for… - An infinite resource for SaaS content - A place to exchange with fellow SaaS leaders - First dibs on professional opportunities within the SaaS space Look no further than the FoSaaS Slack community. Our members have already seen the unique benefits, but don’t just take it from us. Take it from FoSaaS Slack member David Vogelpohl, CMO at FastSpring. He describes our community as “the most active slack community I’ve found.” 🤯 Check out the full account of David’s positive experiences right here, and see what you’re really missing. 👀 --- ## A bit of background on David "I've been focused on digital and technology product growth for over 20 years. I'm currently the CMO at FastSpring, a payment platform for SaaS companies and former VP of Growth at WP Engine. I've worked on full funnel optimization including upgrades and churn prevention in a wide variety of contexts all focused around subscription technology products like SaaS, infrastructure, and more. I'm deeply involved in the open source and WordPress communities (Slack, public speaking, etc.) and I wanted to dive into the SaaS community now that I’m CMO at FastSpring. I found FoSaaS on Google looking for popular SaaS communities to join." ## How has the Future of SaaS Slack community benefited you professionally? "It’s one of the most active SaaS Slack community I’ve found and the members are great at sharing what they’re working on, ideas they have, questions, and of course helping others. While I’ve been a part of the SaaS community in very real ways all throughout my career, I have yet until recently tried to be an active part. This community has been a **critical** part of my journey in this area. Would recommend!" ## Can you identify a specific insight, resource or opportunity that has been brought to your attention here? "One of the biggest ones that stands out is running across Ben Murray the SaaS CFO. The company I work for is a SaaS payments and tax platform so learning that Ben and his newsletter exists was awesome to experience in the community. Giving a platform for others to share and learn is a big part of the value I think this community delivers." And there you have it! The Future of SaaS community is an excellent resource for SaaS thought leadership, an eduction hub for aspiring SaaS enthusiasts, and a friendly platform for networking with your SaaS peers. Join the community [here](https://www.saasalliance.io/join-the-fosaas-community/), and see what you're missing. ### Introducing the Ones to Watch in SaaS 2023 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/introducing-the-ones-to-watch-in-saas-2023-2/ Last updated: 2024-07-19T14:55:57.000Z Through your nominations, some astute social listening, and our internal panel, we’ve compiled a list of THE ones to watch in 2023\. 🙌 We want to introduce you to the trailblazers, the rising stars, and the champions of SaaS, who have all gone above and beyond for their respective callings. Additionally, we’ve crammed these pages with killer content on: - Our SaaS pros career trajectories so far - Actionable insights into their functions - Acknowledgments from their peers Discover a stellar list brimming with SaaS expertise and exciting potential, from the likes of **GitLab**, **Scytale**, **Klaus**, and more. ### Why user experience is so important for your SaaS company URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/why-user-experience-is-so-important-for-your-saas-company/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:36:20.000Z UI/UX is crucial to the success of every online business. The digital space is becoming much busier every day. There are currently about [1.88 billion websites](https://www.statista.com/chart/19058/number-of-websites-online/) and [5.5 million applications ](https://www.businessofapps.com/guide/app-stores-list/)on Google and the App store. One of the key factors differentiating your digital product from others is the UI (user interface) and UX (user experience). Some businesses experience slow growth due to a lack of proper UI/UX design. Customers need help navigating their websites because of poor visual design or difficulty understanding the website. Have you ever wondered why someone would prefer the CTA button of one website over the other? Or why do users click a suitable site on Google's front page and leave within 10 seconds? The truth is that Google can move your site down the ranks if users bounce back to the search page within a few seconds. Your content may be acceptable; you may have excellent content that can make users visit your website, but if your web design is not user-friendly and easy to navigate, users may leave your website like the speed of light. Hence, the success of your business depends on how much the visual design of your website's user interface and experience can intrigue users and make them want to stick with you forever. It’s all about improving the overall user experience. ## What is UI/UX? UI/UX is birthed out of user research. User Interface (UI) is the visual graphical interface of a web application that users interact with. The combination of colors, shapes, icons, and emojis makes the website interface appealing to users. Interface design should be responsive, aesthetic, and organized. Users should be able to browse through different aspects of the website without any complications or confusion. Paying particular attention to these fundamentals of web design can really create a positive first impression with your users. User experience (UX) deals with users' end-to-end experience while navigating your digital product. It centers on optimizing all the aspects of your digital product to achieve maximum [user satisfaction](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-psychology-behind-customer-success/). It focuses on giving swift responses, directing users to the right page, giving actual results, and solving users' problems. A good user interface should be appealing, innovative, and functional, which reflects positively on the product or service you’re offering. ## 7 Reasons Why UI/ UX is essential for business growth ### **Better product differentiation** In an era where there are about 20 alternatives to a product, what differentiates your business product from others is UI/UX. Product differentiation is an essential aspect of UI/UX development that gives you an edge over competitors. Product differentiation refers to the process of making a distinction between several products and services. Customers prefer [products that stand out](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-tips-to-make-your-saas-product-stand-out/). If a site has a similar template to other sites, it may give the perspective of impersonation, which will be a turnoff. UI/UX design brings out the distinct nature of your site, and this differentiating factor helps you enjoy the customer's influx. Without UI/UX design, the chances that you are marketing the same product or service under a different name are high. A good example is Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music. These three popular and distinct music streaming applications have little or no difference. However, something makes the difference, which is their user interface and user experience. Users can't, by any means, confuse their interfaces. [How to use personas to enhance user experienceA well-defined user persona can unlock all kinds of valuable information when it comes to user experience and product performance, and in this article, we’ll explain how.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/joshua-earle-AZzfPBQA1Bk-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-personas-to-enhance-user-experience/) ### **Communicates brand message** What is the actual difference between Discord and Slack? You may be tempted to say Slack is collaborative business communication, and Discord is for gamers. Yes, you are correct. Nonetheless, there is no actual difference. Both applications are for team collaboration and communication. The channel arrangement is more or less the same, and the use of trend, channel, @mention, and other distinct features is close enough. Despite that, the likelihood that Discord will come to mind if someone asks you for an alternative to Slack is slim. What makes this differentiation is the user interface. A great UI/UX design can summarize your brand story and what it stands for at first glance. Are you using a green color interface, red or orange? What are the icons made of? The GIF, JPEGs, and animation. Discord uses gaming icons, while Slack uses the user's name, avatar, or profile picture. ### Increases customers' satisfaction There is a pleasure that comes with seamlessly navigating through different pages in your web application pages without any glitches. Users will want to stay longer and, in no time, develop a natural feel for it. Websites that are able to evoke this feeling excel in creating a **user centered design.** A good User interface gives users welcoming visuals, points them in different directions to achieve what they want, and saves them time and headaches. Through this, customers feel fulfilled within a short period and will love to interact more with your business. ### **Increases the possibility of business success** With a well-designed UI/UX, businesses have a higher possibility of thriving. One crucial thing to keep in mind when seeking the service of a UI/UX designer is your users’ wants and your users’ feelings. Ensure your designer understands your users' wants and feelings, not just business preferences. Once you have it planned right from the start, you will develop an ideal, interactive UI/UX for your business. Customers can easily associate quality with a web application that provides a great user interface and seamless user experience. ### Enhances SEO Google and other search engine algorithms are now tailored toward users' engagement. This cuts across bounce rate, website speed, user revisiting, etc. Users will stay longer on a website with a beautiful interface and satisfying experience. They will be happy to navigate through other pages of your website and consider prioritizing it the next time it comes across on the search engine results page. Hence, this signals Google and other search engines to consider it an excellent resource for the subject and boost its ranking. ### Establishes brand reputation What comes to mind if you see a logo with the swoosh mark? Definitely "Nike." This black swoosh is boldly seen on Nike's site and embedded in its products. Although Nike is a household name, this doesn't excuse proper UI/UX design. Incorporating a well-designed app into your business will increase customer satisfaction and promote the brand's name. Also, infusing branded color, typography or patterns helps leave a footprint in the customers' hearts. For instance, [three out of four people will purchase based on color](https://www.inc.com/rhett-power/research-shows-color-is-critical-in-consumer-purchasing-decisions.html). Proper UI/UX development will establish a good brand reputation through an adequate graphical structure that enhances your customers' experience. [How to create a value-based dashboard for your usersDashboards are often a place where impact can be had when it comes to design improvements. A dashboard done well can increase retention, utilization, and boost your NPS score, but how do you create a value-based dashboard and reap these rewards?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSPeter Loving![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1551288049-bebda4e38f71?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&w=2000&fit=max&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjExNzczfQ)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-create-a-value-based-dashboard-for-your-users/) ### Increases customer loyalty With the many alternatives to different digital products on the internet, users will only stick with a product that gives them a great experience. Having a great user interface helps you retain your website visitors, application users, and software explorers who want to stay longer. Customers are usually happy when they come across a website that is easy to navigate and hitch-free. If you want your existing customers to be loyal, and win more potential customers, consider incorporating an excellent UI/UX design into your branding. ## Conclusion The UI/UX development of your business will play an important role in determining the success and growth of your business in the future. Furthermore, impressive UI/UX development helps to increase customer satisfaction and make your brand more SEO-friendly. The importance of UI/UX in business growth cannot be overemphasized. Recognizing the importance of each of the points we have shared in this article will have a significant impact on your business growth. --- *Like what you see? Why not check out our exclusive content with a future of SaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The GTM process you need: From $20M ARR to $250M ARR URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-gtm-process-you-need-from-20m-arr-to-250m-arr/ Last updated: 2023-06-26T08:17:39.000Z *This article is taken from a presentation given at the Future of SaaS Festival 2022 when Jeffrey Vocell was Director of Marketing at Iterable. Listen to the full, unedited talk OnDemand right [here](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-3/).* I'm Jeffrey Vocell, Director of Product Marketing at Iterable. Prior to this, I led and grew the product marketing team for six years at HubSpot, as the company went from pre-IPO to where it is today. I’ve been in Product Marketing overall for a little over 10 years now, so I've seen a lot of different go-to-market plans succeed and some, frankly, go not so well. I’m excited to talk through how you can build your go-to-market process in a smaller company and have it evolve with you as your company starts to scale. Let’s take a look at our agenda. First, I’ll go through the foundations of your go-to-market (GTM) strategy. Then, I'll go through the four initial steps for your first GTM strategy. Next, I'll go through some foundational GTM plans for companies at around $20 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). Finally, we’ll wrap up with the go-to-market processes that you need as you scale to $250 million in ARR and beyond. Let’s break it down here: - Defining GTM - Foundations of your GTM strategy - Four steps for your first GTM strategy - GTM plans at $20m ARR - Your GTM process as you scale to $250m and beyond ## Defining GTM Before we begin, let's make sure we’re on the same page. According to Gartner, “A go-to-market strategy is a plan that details how an organization can engage with customers. A GTM strategy includes tactics related to pricing, sales and channels, the buying journey, and new product or service launches.” I think this is a pretty good definition – it includes a lot of what product marketers do day in and day out. One day you're working on a really big product launch. Another day, you shift your focus to enablement. The next day, you're doing persona research, market analysis, or even some competitor analysis. My point being that go-to-market activities vary enormously in size and scope. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/Let-s-all-get-on-the-same-page.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-gtm-process-you-need-from-20m-arr-to-250m-arr) ## Foundations of your GTM strategy When you get to $250 million ARR, your go-to-market plans are going to look pretty different than they did when you were at $20 million – just think about the change in the number of people on your team. But whatever size your company is, you can’t skip these three essential steps to building a solid GTM strategy: 1. **Start with the market definition of your target company and buyer.** In other words, you need to target ideal customer profiles (ICPs) and buyer personas. 2. **Craft a strategy that includes pricing, distribution, positioning, and a compelling narrative.** Product marketers love telling great stories, but they need to include these broader elements that are strategic to your business and set you apart from the market. 3. **Build alignment as you scale through your GTM process.** While this point seems obvious, it’s often overlooked. This boils down to five key questions that you need to answer early and often: 1. ****Who is your target customer?** 2. **Which segment of the market are you targeting?** If you're serving multiple segments, which are the primary and secondary segments, and what personas and buyers are there within those segments? 3. **What makes your product unique in the market?** This is not just about individual feature differences, but what truly sets your product apart from the competition. 4. **What's your positioning to connect with target buyers?** It's more important than ever to engage with your buyers at their level to truly offer them a great experience. 5. **How are you strategically pricing and launching your product to serve your audience?** Now that we’ve covered the basics of an effective go-to-market motion, let's dive a little deeper. ## Four steps for your first GTM strategy As Robert Burns so wisely said, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” You’ve likely experienced that first-hand during a launch. Maybe a competitor made a move just before you, or perhaps there was an internal change that had a drastic effect on your launch plans or positioning. [![The best plans go awry](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/the-best-laid-plans-1.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-gtm-process-you-need-from-20m-arr-to-250m-arr) I've experienced a ton of such changes throughout my product marketing career, and it requires great adaptability. In fact, if I had to pick one thing that product marketers are great at, it's being adaptable. It's a skill that defines us and needs to be built into our go-to-market launch plans. Let's talk about how you can do that in the four steps for your first go-to-market strategy. ### Step one: Understand your customers Frankly, if you don't do this well, the rest of your strategy will hardly matter at all. If you can't understand what your customers’ true pain points are, what moves the needle for them, or how they're measured, you won’t be able to build messaging or pricing that appeals to them. I spend a fair amount of my time every week listening to Gong calls, reading analyst reports, and talking with existing and prospective customers. Spending this time ‘in the market’ helps me ensure that I don't rest on perceived notions of what our audience may want. Think of your deliverables here as ideal customer profiles. If your business serves multiple segments and audiences, you can have different ICPs for each. For example, if you sell to Fortune 500 companies and SMBs, you’ll need different ICPs for each of those segments. You need buyer personas too. If the ICP is your treasure map, so to speak, to the organization you're selling to, then your buyer persona is the map to the individual within that organization. How do you talk to that individual? What questions do you ask them? Which of that individual’s attributes should you be sure to bring up on the call? A lot of people talk about the buyer persona as a fictional representation of a person, and to some extent, it has to be. You can't talk to just one prospect and expect that whatever anecdote they provide applies to every single customer in the broader market. You can, however, identify broad trends among your buyers. These are going to serve your entire marketing team, sales team, customer success team, and the broader organization. ### Step two: Positioning and messaging If you're in a smaller company that's bringing in around $20 million in ARR or less, hopefully, you have positioning and messaging for your core product line. But to effectively bring a product to market, you need to enable the company with *how* to talk about your product. You need to develop positioning and messaging that lives at the center of your company and ensure that everyone understands why you made the decision to talk about your product in this way. The two documents that we as product marketers live and breathe virtually every day are positioning and messaging. They're crucial to our success as PMMs. They are skill sets that we hone and refine. We take classes, we watch talks, we learn from others, and we evaluate how competitors are doing it. We look at the market and try to figure out how we're unique. It's a worthwhile endeavor. The part that can get overlooked is enabling your internal team on how to talk about your solution. Without that step, you're just a single voice shouting to the marketplace and hoping that they’ll listen. Instead, you can amplify your message by getting everyone in your company to shout along with you. [![positioning and messaging](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/positioning-and-messaging.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-gtm-process-you-need-from-20m-arr-to-250m-arr) This is the messaging template that we use here at Iterable. We connect everything to the broader market and our personas, then lay out the positioning and messaging in a unique way. That way, we're enabling all of our stakeholders to use this information in the best way possible and everyone is truly aligned. ### Step three: Define the customer journey and the path to purchase To be clear, you don't have to go on a six-month expedition or dive deep into every iota of data that you have in order to figure out every step that a customer takes. However, you do need to broadly understand how your prospects become your customers. This allows you to align with your content team, your sales team, and your enablement team if you have one. Product marketers sit in a really interesting spot within the organization, where we can look at all of the marketing content that’s going out. Whether we're missing content at the top, middle, or bottom of the funnel, defining the customer journey so we can identify and fill those gaps is crucial. ### Step four: Internal training and enablement I might be showing my age here, but if you've seen the movie *Field of Dreams*, then you’ve likely heard the phrase, “If you build it, they will come.” Well, any tenured product marketers out there will know that that's not always true. If you build internal training, they won't necessarily come. You need a plan, and you need to make it fun. Your deliverables here are exciting training courses and maybe some events around them. At Iterable, we recently worked on building a new narrative, and we made it fun for the sales team. We had a Pitch Olympics, where the sales team recorded their own pitches, voted on the best, and the winners made it up to the next round. Activities like that can make it fun for not only your sales team but other teams as well, getting everyone bought into the content you're rolling out. Beyond narratives, positioning, and messaging, you need internal resources, like the competitive landscape and how we compare to competitors. You need one-pagers and videos. All of these different assets will enable your broader team in the ways that they work best. ## GTM plans at $20m ARR Let's shift gears a little bit and talk about go-to-market plans at $20 million in ARR. In my experience, startups at this stage have very small product marketing teams, if they have one at all. That means that go-to-market strategies get messy. [![let's be real](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/let-s-be-real.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-gtm-process-you-need-from-20m-arr-to-250m-arr) At $20 million in ARR, most overall marketing teams are somewhere between three and five people. I've been a part of the size marketing team, and it's fun – you move fast, you try new things, and you iterate. But you probably don’t have a totally solidified go-to-market process. To build one and bring a little order to this chaos, I’d suggest focusing on these four pillars: - Alignment - Story - Pricing - Enablement Let’s take a closer look. [![4 pillars of GTM ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/4-pillars.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-gtm-process-you-need-from-20m-arr-to-250m-arr) ### Alignment You need to ensure that marketing, sales, product, and executives are all aligned on your go-to-market strategy. At $20 million ARR, you're moving so fast that you just can't spend a ton of time training people and quizzing them to ensure they understand everything. You need to roll this launch out quickly and move on to the next thing. You’ll need to come up with some low-friction and low-overhead resources to make this happen. Maybe start a unified launch channel with a name like *#\[product name\]-launch*. This is an easy way to align not only executives but the broader company up and down the spectrum of seniority. ### Story Story development and narrative design are incredibly fun – they’re probably my favorite aspects of product marketing – but they’re hard to do by committee. It’s best to assign one person from marketing to take the lead on the story. This doesn’t mean that the story should be developed in isolation – it’s important to share the story with the team and gather feedback. Ideally, your story should be at the intersection of product differentiation, market trends, and the pain points that your product addresses. On that last point, the traditional framework for positioning identifies a pain point that our prospects or our customers are experiencing. We've all heard that before – it's the standard positioning framework that we've all learned. The risk there is that you might make a customer or a prospect defensive by telling them that they have some sort of problem. To avoid that, you can shine a light on the shift that's happening in the broader world and show who the winners of that shift are, rather than focusing on those who are falling behind. Any forward-thinking company will want to take that leap into the winners’ circle, and will hopefully want to use your product to do so. ### Pricing Pricing is an incredibly important aspect of product marketing, especially for smaller companies. I believe that product marketers are going to have more and more influence over pricing in the next few years, even if they won't necessarily own it. That’s not to say we'll become financial modelers, but we will look at broader pricing analysis and work with others in the organization to define pricing for our solutions. When thinking about pricing, it's important to consider how you can differentiate your product from your competitors. A lot of companies see that their competitors are charging for some sort of add-on or feature and naturally go in that same direction. Instead of blindly following the crowd, think about different pricing models or even free trials that could work for your product. It is important to remember that pricing is not just about generating revenue but also about driving adoption and making your company stand out. When I was at HubSpot, we thought long and hard about the CRM market, which was crowded with paid solutions, before ultimately deciding to roll out a free CRM. This approach helped to drive adoption *and* uniquely differentiate the product and company. ### Enablement Because you're moving so fast at this stage of your company’s growth, you won't always have the time to create a super detailed enablement plan. But don't worry, there's still a way to share assets with your team. I recommend putting all the assets you create in one central place where everyone can easily access them – maybe a Google Doc or a company wiki like Jira. That way, anyone can consume them in the way they prefer. Then on launch day, it’s a good idea to email your team, directing them to these resources. ## Your GTM process as you scale to $250m and beyond Let's talk about your go-to-market process as you start to scale. At $250 million, things look pretty different than they did at $20 million. The company is likely to have an established product marketing team, with up to five product marketers. The four functional areas that I suggest you focus on here are similar to what we saw earlier, only instead of focusing on pricing, we’ll be focusing on impact: - Alignment - Story - Impact - Enablement The way you look at each of these areas is going to be a little different, though. Let’s get into how. ### Alignment The first area of focus is alignment. This is not just alignment within the product marketing team, but alignment at scale. It’s important to over-communicate clearly and consistently to ensure that everyone on the go-to-market team is on the same page. This is the best antidote for a launch gone awry. The more you communicate, the smoother the launch will be. Your main deliverable here is to establish a cross-functional go-to-market team. That team should be representative of the different aspects of marketing: demand gen, customer marketing, and product marketing, of course. There should be a product team member too – ideally the PM who’s leading this launch for their department – plus somebody from your sales team or sales enablement (if that function exists at your company). At this scale, you need launch tiering. Not every launch needs to have 100 hours of your time and effort dedicated to it. If it won't move the needle for your prospects or customers, if it won't make them choose your solution over a competitor, don't dedicate a ton of time to it. For a large-scale launch – something that does truly move the needle – my suggestion is to start meetings as soon as you find out about it. Then, as you get closer to the launch, meet more often. At Iterable, we typically start to meet bi-weekly about six months before a launch. At that point, not all of the functions are involved quite yet. It's generally just the product team, the PMM, and possibly some UX folks in this part of the GTM discussion. About four months from launch, we start to pull in some of these other folks. Content development will take a fair amount of time. Are you doing a video? Or are you doing a podcast? What different aspects and content are you building into this launch? You need to consider the lead times on that. If you're doing a large-scale series, then you want to back out of this timeframe that I'm giving you right now, and make it more like nine months or a year. Finally, I can't emphasize this enough: establish a unified plan that is available to everyone. I use a Google Sheet. It has formulas set up so that as you check off assets, the stoplight chart automatically updates. That gives everybody a clear indication of whether the launch is on track. [![Alignment at scale](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/01/alignment-at-scale.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-gtm-process-you-need-from-20m-arr-to-250m-arr) ### Story Storytelling is your best way to break through the noise in the market. If you haven't read *Blue Ocean Strategy*, close this browser tab and go read it now. Just kidding. In all seriousness though, it's a compelling book about the concept of wanting to kind of play in a blue ocean that's open and free, rather than a red ocean that’s crowded with competitors. The story is the best way to do that. It needs to reflect your unique differentiation and it needs social proof. Customers often won't fully believe your story, so you need to have other customers speak up on your behalf, whether that’s on review sites or by building them into your story. If you’re lucky enough to have a customer marketing function, work with them on this; if not, work with your customers directly. We recently did this at Iterable with the launch of our Brand Affinity product. The story that we wrote in the positioning and messaging template that I showed you earlier filters through every aspect of the campaign, from social to the features page to the video that's embedded in the feature page, and through all of the emails that are being sent out. Through every aspect of the campaign, this narrative exists in a unified way. This is key to alignment. Every sales rep is now enabled in the best way to talk about this product, and they have the customer references and content they need. That increases our velocity and momentum. ### Impact As you get more dedicated product marketers and your company is doing more marketing over more channels, there will be a tendency to try to do more. I would urge you to fight that tendency to some extent. Less is more here. That’s not to say that you should only do one thing, but you should ensure that you're nailing the execution of the things that you are doing for maximum impact. Go back to your data on past launches. Did the webinars that you ran drive people through your funnel and into closed-won business? How about the emails that you sent? What about the social campaign? If one of those activities wasn't as successful as you thought it might be, consider how you might change it this time around. At HubSpot and Iterable, we have one primary goal for any given launch – to drive revenue, for example – and up to three secondary goals. Those secondary goals, which might include driving awareness or gathering feedback, extend for 90 days beyond the launch. The product marketers' role doesn't stop on launch day. Whatever the goal is for your launch, ensure that you're defining this and getting buy-in across your teams. That will naturally provide alignment through your go-to-market team, ensuring that your go-to-market process is streamlined. ### Enablement Lastly, we have enablement. As you go about enabling everyone within your company, think about not only how you’re going to train them, but how you can enable them to spread the word as well. At HubSpot, we ran internal contests where folks could win a vacation or gift cards. We brought in cupcakes, cooked for people, and did all of these interesting things to make it fun. Soon enough, pictures started showing up on Instagram, self-recorded videos started showing up on LinkedIn, and folks who may not have heard about our product launch were suddenly hearing about it. That really helped to extend the launch to the broader world. At this size and scale, you’ll have a dedicated PMM team, so you should be providing centralized templates and training. As long as these are engaging for your team, you’ll get their buy-in and naturally have more success. I mentioned the Pitch Olympics earlier – that's just one example of how you can make it fun. Here at Iterable, we use training software called WorkRamp, which includes all the information that teams need on new features and launches. On the platform, we provide sample pitches, where we as a PMM team will record ourselves pitching the solution or product. This is used as the gold standard for that product launch. You can't just hand over a slide deck to a sales rep and expect them to nail the story, so this resource is incredibly helpful. ### A quick recap The four key pillars of a go-to-market for a company making $250 million in ARR are… 1. Driving **alignment** 2. Ensuring you have a unique **story** 3. Ensuring that the activities you're doing are high **impact** 4. Ensuring that you are **enabling** your team to be successful Thank you very much for reading. I hope this will help you make the most of your go-to-market motions moving forward. ### SaaScast: Building a sustainable growth engine URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast-building-a-sustainable-growth-engine/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:36:31.000Z We all want our SaaS orgs to run like a well-oiled machine. But what does that look like in practice? In economically turbulent times, it’s important that SaaS leaders are investing in marketing efforts that are going to lead to long-term, sustainable growth. How can you make sure your organic marketing efforts are converting users to customers, so that you can take the weight off your paid marketing efforts? 💪 Jon Chang, a digital marketing expert with over 11 years experience leading marketing teams, is here to help you implement sustainable growth within your own org in this dynamic, riveting discussion. --- [‎SaaScast: SaaScast | Jon Chang on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep SaaScast | Jon Chang - Jan 12, 2023![](https://podcasts.apple.com/favicon.ico)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts114/v4/b5/9a/da/b59ada82-7e01-599f-d06e-a6be4ee9c157/mza_8981349833046552751.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/saascast-jon-chang/id1544750249?i=1000593989099) --- ## A bit of background on Jon Already featured on the Forbes Under 30 Marketing & Advertising list, Jon Chang has made a considerable splash in the world of digital marketing, leading organizations as reputable as IBM, Klarner, and Kickstarter to growth success. He has 11 years of experience as a growth and digital marketer, and global keynote speaker, specializing in creating growth marketing engines for high-growth companies, encompassing search engine optimization, social media (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat, Youtube and Reddit), marketing analytics, and product marketing. His past positions as a professor in digital marketing are a testament to his ability as a SaaS influencer, passing on his strategies and insights and molding the next generation of dynamic digital marketers. ## **Get involved** Want to learn more about scaling, or share your knowledge? ‌‌Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Creator, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: anthony@futureofsaas.io ### The importance of reducing customer cognitive load URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-importance-of-reducing-customer-cognitive-load/ Last updated: 2023-01-10T11:30:38.000Z Every product marketer should always have customer needs at the forefront of their mind, whilst also focusing on how they can optimize the [customer experience.](https://www.saasalliance.io/communications-your-product-and-improving-your-customer-experience/) The most efficient way to improve this experience is by making the product as easy to use as possible and reducing their cognitive load, and in this article, we’ll cover important topics surrounding this concept, including: - What is customer cognitive load? - Why is it important to reduce their cognitive load? And, - How to reduce it. ## **What is customer cognitive load?** Customer cognitive load is the amount of thought that’s required to carry out a task. If you’re asked to focus on too many things at once, this makes it difficult for your brain to process the individual pieces of information and this will increase the time needed to fulfil the objective. For example, a high cognitive load can be caused if you’re trying to read a complex piece of text while having someone talking to you with loud music playing in the background. Everyone handles levels of cognitive load differently, so it's important to reduce the complexity of your product to cater to a wider variety of consumers. ## **Why is it important to reduce their cognitive load?** So, we’ve already established the basic premise of why reducing cognitive load is important, let’s take a look at additional benefits of reducing cognitive load: ### **Reduces customer churn** Humans have a limited amount of processing abilities. In fact, a psychologist named [John Sweller](https://www.psychologistworld.com/memory/cognitive-load-theory#references) found that with a higher cognitive load, people were unable to pay the proper amount of attention to a stimulus, and couldn’t rehearse or remember the information given. This then ultimately made learning less effective, which had a negative effect. If your product is impractical and difficult to use, it’s more likely that they won’t be able to use it properly, and the likelihood is your [churn rate](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-customer-relationships-saas/) will increase. And it’s a fair argument - why’d you wanna use something if it’s too hard to understand? [SaaS churn rate guide | Future of SaaSCustomer retention is essential in the world of SaaS. While it’s inevitable some customers will call it a day and unsubscribe, you still want to keep your churn rate super low.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1555421689-491a97ff2040?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&w=2000&fit=max&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjExNzczfQ)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-churn-rate-your-guide/) ### **Improves customer experience** If your user's experiencing a high cognitive load, they’re less likely to retain all of the information surrounding your product and could end up forgetting a lot of important factors in how to use it. This would then impact how they see your brand, customer loyalty, and reduce the likelihood of them recommending your product to their network - in fact, there’s a fair chance they’d tell them *not* to use your [product.](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-launches-q-a-with-everfi/) ### **Increases sales** Customer experience is critical in product marketing. If your user has a good experience with your organization and product, then the chances are [you’ll retain the customer](https://www.saasalliance.io/a-practical-playbook-to-b2b-customer-renewal/) and they'll buy from you again. On top of that, they’ll be singing your praises to anyone who needs to hear it. Nobody likes a product that’s hard to use - and remember, simplicity aids usability. Take this into consideration during the development of your offering and you’ll reap the benefits in the long run. ## **How can we reduce customer cognitive load?** Let’s address the steps we can put into place to reduce customer cognitive load to increase the success of your product: ### **Simplify instructions** In the Product Marketing Manifesto, one of the principles highlights the importance of making the complex comprehensible for your customers, saying: > “A hugely valued aspect of product marketing is making the customer comfortable and happy. So, you must ensure you’re improving their experience with your product and service by making it easily accessible. Take out the technical jargon and create a more comprehensible product to ensure you aren’t alienating your customers.” Organizations often use chatbots on their websites to guide the customer through the product if they haven’t used it before. Similarly, chatbots are also used to offer the user the avenue whereby they can ask a question and receive tailored support in a short time period. A great example of this is Slack. Their “Slackbot” is an automated system that onboards their customers, but also remains present throughout the entire product use. It’s a handy way of reducing the cognitive load of its customers; if a situation arises when they’re stuck and need help in using the platform, they know exactly where to go in search of support. ### **Simplify visual design** Strong [visual design ](https://www.saasalliance.io/designing-products-for-todays-knowledge-workers/)is beneficial for many reasons, but you must take into account how a complicated, loud design can negatively affect product usability. For example, a website that is focused on aesthetics, with no practical layout or navigation may be deemed frustrating to use. The visual design has to be simple enough that your target audience can understand how to use it and where to find things. One of the most common errors companies make is when they don’t have an obvious “contact us” page. If a customer is having an issue with your product, your support team must try and remedy it as soon as possible. As mentioned earlier, facilitating seamless customer experience is paramount in product marketing. A well-designed website will improve usability and enhance your chances of enticing your customers back at a later date. ### **Research your target customers** Cognitive load will also hinge on the demographics of your customers. For example, if you’re targeting a user with a low IQ in their teens, they’ll have a comparatively lower attention span than a middle-aged adult with a high IQ. You need to take this into account and tailor your content to your audience, what they’d benefit from, and which features to include to make their lives easier. For example, simpler interfaces, fonts, font size, use of video, etc. It’s also important to ask yourself: Are they experts in the field? Have they used your products before? These factors will depend heavily on how easy they're going to find using your product, and how simple you need to make the onboarding experience. Overall, you just need to ensure you’re designing for the customer, rather than your company- so do your [customer research.](https://www.saasalliance.io/qualitative-vs-quantitative-research/) [Using customer feedback and win-loss interviews to improve your product | Future of SaaSCustomer feedback and win-loss interviews are among the most effective ways to gain a firm understanding of how your product has been received, and how you can make changes, where needed.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1517245386807-bb43f82c33c4?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDE1fHxpbnRlcnZpZXdzfGVufDB8fHw&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/using-customer-feedback-and-win-loss-interviews-to-improve-your-product/) ### **Gather customer feedback** Focus on user testing to ensure you’re on the right track, gather [customer feedback](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-advisory-boards-and-feedback-loops-q-a-with-dropbox/) to see how you can refine your design, and continue to improve the issue surrounding customer cognitive load. The best way to establish whether you’re meeting the customer’s needs is to gather feedback from them firsthand. [Customer Advisory Boards ](https://www.saasalliance.io/getting-to-grips-with-customer-advisory-boards-and-their-benefits/)(CABs) are a handpicked collection of customers whose role is to lend insights surrounding the product. This is a super helpful method for product marketers to gather intel that’ll positively impact their product. Here at Product Marketing Alliance, we've created a certification that gives deeper knowledge and skills on how to create your own, successful CABs. Course instructor ****Bree Bunzel, Head of Global Customer Marketing at Dropbox**, is an expert with Customer Advisory Boards and shares her experience to help you solidify your understanding of core principles. Our CABs certification will help you: - Understand the strategic benefits of Customer Advisory Boards - Get business buy-in from key stakeholders - Build successful Customer Advisory Boards - Outline objectives and key themes - Turn negative feedback into positive outcomes - Consolidate feedback and introduce action points - Source ideal CAB members - Prepare an awesome agenda - Understand key CABs metrics --- *Like what you see? Why not sign up to our exclusive content with a Future of SaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Managing YOU as a Product URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/managing-you-as-a-product/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:53:11.000Z My name is Sushma Zoellner, I’m the **Co-Founder at Kultivation**, a growth acceleration practice that helps companies and people grow their businesses and careers. In this article, I’ll talk about the framework around career management my co-founder and I captured through our combined experience. **Here are the steps of that framework:** - Career capital: who we are and how we build product - Fun: passionate craftsmen find work and good humans enjoyable - Lifestyle: short-term cash to support the family life - Savings: how do we save for tomorrow Let’s get started 👇 ## **How to leverage this framework** [![Career management framework](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/09/Career-management-framework.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/managing-you-as-a-product) This pyramid encompasses all the concepts I'll be covering in this article. It's grounded in Maslow's hierarchy of needs because the elements at the foundation of the pyramid are necessary for the rest of the areas of the pyramid to fall into place. You should use this pyramid as a guide. Think about where you are right now and where you might want to go. This also connects your personal and professional life, which is sometimes hard to figure out what the intersection looks like. You should take control, manage your career like a product and think about what requirements you have or what gaps you might have. ## **Career capital** [![Career capital](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/09/career-capital.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/managing-you-as-a-product) The foundation of the pyramid is focused on career capital. This foundation is what's gonna be supporting the rest of your career. Carer capital, simply put, is focusing on your craft. Think about your product management craft, how you could be doing it better than anyone else and pick a company that allows you the maximum opportunity to build career capital. In a more simplified way, think about it as learning how you can be in an environment that allows you to learn as much as possible and continue to build upon that capital. ### **Learning is a key part of career capital** Learning is twofold: educating yourself and putting it into practice. Educating yourself could be in the form of reading books, blogs, listening to talks, going to conferences, but the true learning is going to happen when you practice. Practice is what is going to make you better. Practicing within the work environment gives you a great feedback mechanism where you can refine what you've learned and make it better. Practicing also generates a lot of great stories and examples you can share, either as part of an interview process, put it on your resume, or share it with other people also struggling through their careers. It's important to find companies that can empower their people to try and obtain better outcomes, not only for the company but for yourself as well. If you're not in an environment where you can try and learn, then that may not be the right place for you to invest in career capital. As a product manager, you might be new, have been doing product management for a while, or be at that next step in your career where you're trying to get to leadership, but these are areas to focus on for career capital: - Prioritization mechanisms - How to build roadmaps - Making data-driven decisions - Setting goals - Creating a culture of collaboration. - People management (if you're in the leadership realm) ### **Book recommendations** [![Book recommendations](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/09/Book-recommendations.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/managing-you-as-a-product) These books are well known in the product management community. ‘Jobs to be done’ gives a good foundation around a framework and how to align teams across the organization around a common goal and deliver on what the customer need is. Marty Cagan has been in the product management community for more than 20 years and has a lot of great books. I would recommend ‘Inspired’ for somebody who's trying to understand what the role of product is and ‘Empowered’ is more for people who are looking at the leadership level as it focuses on the tried and true experience of many different product leaders. ‘Measure what matters’ is great if you're looking for a framework in which to organize around key results. It's important to also focus on unlearning to evolve yourself and embrace new methodologies. You have to unlearn either bad habits or things that may not work in the current environment in which you're in. It starts with unlearning, then relearning and then hopefully you get to your end goal. ### **💡 Key takeaways** If you focus on your career capital and on becoming a better than average product manager, you become part of a smaller pool of top talent which offers more stability not only within your current company but also within an up and down market. In order to attract talent, some companies are offering really high salaries or high titles and it sounds maybe too good to be true. The reality is you need to be careful about evaluating companies as they may not be the right stuff for you. Be gentle with yourself! ## **Fun** [![Fun](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/09/Fun.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/managing-you-as-a-product) When you're really good at your craft, you get to do fun jobs and work with smart people who have a shared passion for what you're working on in the end game. ### **Fun helps you build your career capital** People often think the company needs to manufacture fun like planning events for bonding but the fun should be coming from work, working with smart people and being in a respectful environment of good humans. Inherently, that's going to help build your career capital. When you're working with smart people on something you’re all passionate about, you're building your career capital almost without knowing it. ### **💡 Key takeaway** Surround yourself with smart humans and then you'll have fun building your career capital and also building lasting connections for the future. You’ll meet people along the way in your career that may help you out later on when you're looking for your next opportunity. They'll remember who you are if you're really smart and passionate about what you're doing. ## **Lifestyle** [![Lifestyle](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/09/Lifestyle.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/managing-you-as-a-product) In lifestyle management where we're going to focus more on how the personal intersects with your professional world. Lifestyle management is your short-term income and how it supports your family (the broadest sense of the term which is all people who rely on your income to survive) lifestyle. A couple of years, I had been given an opportunity to join a company at a very early stage in an emerging market. It might have been right for me if I had been at a different point in my life but it wasn't as they were offering me short-term income that wasn't going to support my family very well at all. We would have to make a lot of compromises in order for me to take this job opportunity. I wasn't going to compromise the livelihood of my family in order to take that opportunity. The negative impact of my worry for my family and how they're being cared for would have come into play a lot more if I had taken this role and it felt like I was worried about that all the time. You may have to turn down opportunities at certain points in your career, but know that if you're really good, good opportunities will always be coming your way. [![](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/09/Short-and-long-goals.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/managing-you-as-a-product) I have taken many pay cuts to take on opportunities I thought were right for me, but I never compromised the lifestyle of my family when I made those decisions. There’s two parts of short-term income: short and long. Short is your base salary and your bonus. I recommend that you sit down either with your family or without and figure out what that contract looks like with your family and what minimum income you need to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. When you're evaluating offers, that's the minimum of what you expect in short-term cash. When you are thinking about short-term cash don't fall into the trap of going to companies offering you a lot of short-term cash and nothing else because it may put you in the trap of not building on your career capital. Look at the company and make sure it's something right for you at the right time in your career. The real savings will manifest from being an owner and that's where the long-term compensation comes in. Depending on where you're in your career, you might have joined companies where they give you a ton or some equity and you don't understand what the valuation of it was but you feel like it's worthless because you've never made any money from any of the equity you were given. The reality of the situation is you need to get better at choosing the right company. ## **Savings** [![Savings](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/09/Savings-management.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/managing-you-as-a-product) The main question to ask yourself here is: how do you leverage your income strategy? For example, one company is a services company and the other is a software company. Services companies typically bill hourly and if the company is making $100 million a year, it's gonna get valued close to that, maybe a little bit more. However for the software company, the software is working for you not just the hours you're working so even if they're making $100 million of revenue a year, they might be valued at 10 to 40x that. Your challenge is going to be picking the right company so you can see the same type of financial benefit as the example. We've been talking about working with fun teams, smart people, great leadership, which are all important when evaluating the right opportunity for you, but you also need to think like an investor. Look at what the top 10 investors are investing in. They're not always going to pick a winner but the chances are much higher than somebody who’s not an expert. When you're evaluating your offer, look at the equity but also understand the valuation of that equity. If you're given 10 shares vs a million shares, don't just take it on faith that a million shares mean more money. By doing this, you’ll have the opportunity to make 40 extra salary in four years. ## **How are you going to be impacting the greater world?** I want to make the world a better place sounds really cliche. It doesn't have to be fulfilled in the traditional ways you're thinking about. You could help somebody save time and give this time back to them to do something else or spend time with their family and loved ones. You could be working on something to help improve the environment. Once you get to a certain level in your career, you can also affect the income for somebody and have it be a steep change in their life. You can either look at the company and see how they are changing the world and making it a better place and how you can have an impact there or you could also look at yourself and your personal impact. It's important to think about this as part of your career. ## **To sum up** [![Summing up career management ](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2022/09/Summing-up-career-management.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/managing-you-as-a-product) Pick the right companies that offer the ability to build your career capital, work with smart people and work on interesting problems. Think about how they're going to compensate you for your short-term needs to maintain the lifestyle your family expects and then also compensate you for the long-term haul (for the savings for tomorrow). Lastly, contribute to making the world a better place. Reflect on where you're at and determine if anything needs to change. You need to take control of job stability, actively manage your career and if you're unsure what you should be focusing on at this point in your career, that's where peer groups come into play, mentors, and product management communities. ### Top ten content picks to supercharge your year URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/top-ten-picks-to-supercharge-your-year/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:36:45.000Z It’s the dawn of a new year, and as you prepare to face the challenges of 2023, we’ve got your back. How? By arming with all of the top actionable strategies from last year. In the dynamic content listed here, we’ve covered a broad range of subject matter, from SaaS pricing to financing, to the metrics that matter most, it’s all here in this treasure trove of content listed below. True growth comes through alignment, and you can’t achieve alignment without a diverse knowledge of organizational functions. This is especially true of founders and CEOs, who need to keep a hawk-eye view of their company as a whole. Let’s grow together toward the future of SaaS. Dive in! --- ## Building profitable products with customers Creating a product that aligns with your org’s revenue-chasing growth goals is hard enough, but how do you align that with meeting your customer pain points head on, addressing bug fixes and update requests? It’s a tricky tightrope to walk, keeping your priorities balanced without plunging into financial ruin. That’s why in this episode of SaaScast, we sat down with Jacqueline Porter, Director of Product Management at Gitlab, to discuss this issue. Jacqueline has several years of experience in building and delivering products, and in this insightful, probing discussion, she shows you how you can surprise and delight both your senior stakeholders and your customers. [SaaScast: Building profitable products with customersWith several years of experience leading product teams, Jacqueline knows how to drive a SaaS org to reach that product roadmap vision.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_3.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-profitable-products-with-customers/) ## SaaS revenue-based financing: the cheat code to preventing ownership dilution For SaaS startups that are just beginning to grow, debt can create considerable strain, especially during lean times. Investors expect a return on their investment (with interest), and if your company is not yet profitable, this can move the finish line to profitability back by a considerable margin. But what if we told you that revenue-based financing could provide you with a more flexible repayment plan, while also preventing ownership dilution of your org? A win/win situation, right? 🤑 Adam Tzagournis, Founder and CEO of FlowCog, takes you through the benefits, as well as how to implement it within your org. [SaaS revenue-based financing: the cheat code to preventing ownership dilutionYour SaaS company has a magic word that hypnotizes investors: recurring revenue. It’s much easier (and less expensive) to keep existing customers than acquire new ones.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAdam Tzagournis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/calculator.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-revenue-based-financing-the-cheat-code-to-preventing-ownership-dilution/) ## How thought leadership can boost your SaaS growth When it comes to B2B SEO, some say that content is king. A razor-sharp content strategy can allow you to cut through the noise in an increasingly overcrowded market and reach your ideal customer base. But great content has other uses too. Thought leadership content can be your ticket to boosting your brand reputation. Find out how in this enlightening article. [How thought leadership can boost your SaaS org to scaleBuilding a successful SaaS org isn’t just about growing your customer base, it’s also about creating a firm foundation of trust with your existing customers to ensure solid retention![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/thought-leadership.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-thought-leadership-can-boost-your-saas-growth/) ## Your guide to SaaS pricing When it comes to launching a new SaaS product, you can’t underestimate the importance of a solid pricing strategy. If you want to remain competitive, you can’t undervalue your product, but you also can’t price out potential customers either. The trick is to find a pricing strategy in line with the solution you’re offering that also suits the needs and professional requirements of your customers. But what are the various pricing models available to you, and which one is right for you? We break down each of them here, with crucial information on how they might fit into your growth plan. [Your guide to SaaS pricingIn our second hub page, we’re diving into Saas pricing. When it comes to knowing your value and boosting your revenue we got you covered.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/Your-guide-to-SaaS-pricing.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-guide-to-saas-pricing/) ## How I launched a SaaS in 60 days with an empty pocket No-code development is set to take the SaaS sphere by storm in the future. Consider the costs inherent in hiring a developer in order to build your solution. What if you could take advantage of no-code tech in order to make your SaaS dream a reality in a matter of weeks? Well, developer Alex Streza did just that, and in this article, he breaks the process down into easily-digestible steps, with detailed insights on what each step entails. Don’t miss out! [How I launched a SaaS in 60 days with an empty pocketI’ve been gathering the drive and motivation to build a digital product for a few years, and last December I started building my first SaaS.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAlex Streza![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/08/Rocket-launch.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-i-launched-a-saas-in-60-days-with-an-empty-pocket/) ## Automating compliance with Meiran Galis In the coming years, retention is going to be increasingly important for SaaS companies. But in order to achieve retention you have to establish a foundation of **trust** with your customers. You can’t do that unless customers feel that their sensitive data is safe with you. For that, you’ve gotta have airtight compliance. Luckily, Meiran Galis, Founder and CEO at Scytale, has extensive experience in automation compliance for SaaS companies. Catch this riveting SaaScast discussion to find out how you can get security compliant today. [Automating compliance with Meiran GalisIn this episode, we’re joined by Meiran Galis, CEO and Co-founder at Scytale AI, and a tactical leader in the realm of security compliance. Meiran has helped hundreds of high-profile SaaS companies build compliance programs for rapidly growing organizations.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/FoSaaS_Podcast_MG-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/automating-compliance-with-meiran-galis/) ## Five savvy tips for community-led SaaS growth Want to know a great hack for achieving rapid growth and retention? Community-led growth. In order to draw new customers to your product, you’ve gotta have advocates for your product, people who are shouting from the rooftops about how your product is changing their lives for the better. What if you could have a whole community of raving champions? Sounds good, right? In this article, we break down the benefits, as well as the steps you need to take to create a community of advocates. [Five savvy tips for community-led SaaS growthIn 2021, 70% of companies with communities increased their budget for community building. That means, community-led SaaS growth is a successful growth model to invest in.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChinwoke Nnamani![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/hands-together.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/6-savvy-tips-for-community-led-saas-growth/) ## Addressing the gaps in the customer journey So, you’ve managed to convert customers to your solution, great! Job done? Not even close. In order to prevent customers from churning, you’ve got to have a map of the customer journey, clearly outlining the potential pitfalls where customers might fall through the net. The key to preventing churn is being able to anticipate danger zones for customer churn so that you can address customer concerns before they arise. This exciting discussion shows you how to do just that. Check out all the actionable insights! [Addressing the gaps in the customer journeyWhen you think about the customer journey, most people focus on onboarding. It’s a crucial stage. But focusing only on this part of the journey means that other parts can be overlooked.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/journey-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/addressing-the-gaps-in-the-customer-journey/) ## Scaling and deciding which metrics to measure: the metrics that matter most Needless to say, metrics matter. Without them how do you set clear targets for growth success, and how do you keep a firm track of how you're progressing so far? But the real challenge can come in knowing which metrics to prioritize. This is especially important for startups, who can often stunt their growth by focusing on lesser details. In this robust discussion, we delve into the metrics that matter the most and how to effectively utilize them. [Scaling and deciding which metrics to measure: The metrics that matter mostAt the SaaS Metrics Summit, we were lucky enough to be able to sit down with three leaders from the world of SaaS, who shared with us their insights on the metrics that matter most as you scale your organization.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/eberhard-grossgasteiger-tFQj4NtuPME-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-and-deciding-which-metrics-to-measure-the-metrics-that-matter-most/) ## The Future of SaaS Report Finally, we’ll leave you with our definitive forecast on the major developments headed your way in the SaaS sphere in 2023 and beyond. Want insights on AI in customer support, how to implement no-code technology, or key strategies for boosting your brand reputation? Look no further. The Future of SaaS Report doesn’t just predict the changes to come, it shows you how to take advantage of and effectively integrate these changes into your growth strategy. Happy reading! [The Future of SaaS ReportWith the Future of SaaS Report 2022, we forecast the game-changing trends set to take the SaaS sector by storm in 2023 and beyond, as well as arming you with crucial insights on how to successfully implement them into your growth strategy, straight from some of the leading minds in SaaS.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/FoSaaS_Future_of_SaaS_Report_2022_Blog_2.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-report-2/) --- Like what you see? Why not dive into our exclusive content with a Future of SaaS membership plan? 👇 [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Swapping last-minute churn mitigation for proactive risk identification URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/swapping-last-minute-churn-mitigation-for-proactive-risk-identification/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:52:30.000Z My name is David, and I work at **LinkedIn**, where I lead a team of customer success managers out of EMEA. We work with the largest global clients in the LinkedIn Sales Solutions business. We're very high-touch; each of my team only has a small number of accounts, so they get deep into those businesses and get to know them well. When I first joined the customer success team in the Singapore office quite a few years ago, I'm not going to lie, I honestly didn't know what customer success was. I spent a while trying to figure this out. In fairness, many people are still trying to figure out exactly what CS means to them and their companies. We're a pretty young function after all. Conversely, if you spoke to an accountant 50 years ago about what accountancy was, you'd get a pretty similar answer to if you asked an accountant now. While CS hasn't existed that long, I believe that one thing we all CS teams have in common is a desire to deliver value to our clients, and in doing so, mitigate the risk of churn. ## **Why customer churn?** So what exactly is churn and why, in CS, are we so obsessed with it? Well, for those of you who haven't heard the story, I'll give a quick précis. Back in the early 2000s, when the concept of SaaS was just getting going, some very smart people at **Salesforce** realized that, despite their very impressive client acquisition rate, if they continued to have existing clients reducing or canceling their spend at the rate they were, they'd soon have to start trying to resell contracts. I don't know if you've ever tried to convince somebody that they should be spending their time, effort, and money on something they've already decided they don't want, but saying it's not easy is an understatement. It's certainly not as easy as keeping them happy in the first place. Thus, churn as a concept was born. Since then, we as a function have become quite obsessed with it. Why? Well, in a function that is not fully commercially focused, it’s useful to own a number. In different companies, customer success managers might own the renewal number or the growth number for example, but in many companies, **LinkedIn** included, we don’t. The churn number is something we can hang our hat on as a commercial justification for our existence. It's also a common language with our sales partners, and it's one that boards, investors, and shareholders all understand. You don't need to explain complex usage metrics and their benefits; when you talk dollars and cents, people understand. I appreciate that there can be good churn. Low churn over a portfolio indicates that you're not underselling accounts, and that can be good. There's also unavoidable churn when a company goes bankrupt, for example. There's false churn too when a contract needs to be canceled to be built into a bigger contract. I know all of those things, but for the purposes of this article, I'll treat all churn as real, bad, and avoidable. ## **Churn calculations** At this point, you might be thinking, “Look, Dave, we all know what churn is. Crack on, will you?” I will, but first I’d like to take a moment to challenge the notion that there’s only one way to measure churn. It's vital that we measure churn and deeply understand what it is we're measuring. You can’t stop something from happening if you’re not crystal clear about what it is you're trying to stop; it also makes it almost impossible to know if you've been successful. How you define churn in your business can vary massively depending on your sector, your product, your renewal cycle, and whether your CSMs are responsible for engagement, renewal, or growth. [![Churn calculations](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2022/10/image1--1-.png)](https://customersuccesscollective.com/swapping-last-minute-churn-mitigation-for-proactive-risk-identification) If you're planning on setting up a churn mitigation project or you're looking to refine your processes, re-examining your churn metrics is a good starting point. You need to know what data points could trigger a churn risk review. For example, are you happy to turn a blind eye to some reduction in products sold if the book value is maintained? If so, to what extent? In a different example, if you've observed that when licenses are passed between different individuals on an account, you end up losing business overall, that might be something that you want to target. You get my point – there are different combinations of factors that you can look at. It's also critical that you're clear about the level at which you're measuring these triggers. Are you looking at the client level? If so, are we talking about the ultimate, overarching umbrella company level? Are you looking at the subsidiary level? Or are you looking at the individual user level? Finally, you could be looking at churn as a book-level metric. If you’re measuring churn per CSM, different factors come into play. One client could be offsetting another client's churn, for instance. ## **The importance of a strong defense** Now that we're clear about what we're measuring and why we're measuring it that way, let's stop talking about churn for a moment. Instead, I'd like to talk briefly about football – that’s soccer for any American readers. I promise this isn't going to get too complex. I'm not going to be talking about offside law or the complexities of the new video refereeing system. This is going to be more on the level of Ted Lasso learning that there are 11 players on a team; that's the level I'm comfortable at. Sir Alex Ferguson, one of the greatest football managers of all time, said “Attack wins you games; defense wins you championships.” I mention this because we in CS are often seen by the wider business as the defense. “Defend the base!” is a rallying cry I hear quite often. The logic is that if we maintain our clients’ current spending, others can go about growing it. That’s fair enough. You won’t hear any arguments from me on this logic. [![Attack wins you games, defence wins you championships](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2022/10/image3--1-.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/swapping-last-minute-churn-mitigation-for-proactive-risk-identification) But what's the best way to defend? Imagine you’re on the pitch with risks coming at you, so you line up all 10 of your players in a defensive life, with the goalkeeper behind them. Logically, that should block the attacks, right? But there's a good reason why you tend not to see football teams lining up 10 defenders in a row, inviting the opposition to attack them. The reason for that is that it only takes one tiny slip, one moment of distraction as a player looks at the crowd, and suddenly that attack is so close to the goal that there's a strong likelihood of something going very wrong. Let's be honest; this is what churn mitigation can look like. It's easy for your formation to fall into this pattern. A client contacts you pre-renewal and says “Sorry, we're not going to renew this year.” Queue complete panic in the organization. The sales teams are freaking out. The customer success team is getting blamed for what happened and for not identifying the risk early enough. The best defenses in football don't rely on waiting for the opposition to come to them. They take their defense to the opposition. Their attackers close down the other team, far away from their own goal, to stop that attack at the source. Let’s bring this back to CS (I've stopped talking about football now, I promise). It shouldn't just be up to CSMs to spot this risk and then do something about it. It's up to everyone involved in the account to look at potential risks and then push forward as far and as fast as possible to mitigate that risk so it never develops into a threat to revenue. ## **Churn mitigation at LinkedIn** At LinkedIn, we try very hard to mitigate churn at its source as early as possible. We do this by focusing on four key data points. These data points might vary for you, but they’re a useful starting point for most subscription products. [![Deployment, engagement, value and relationships](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2022/10/image2--1-.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/swapping-last-minute-churn-mitigation-for-proactive-risk-identification) First of all, we have a threshold for license deployment. This has been calculated by our fantastic CS ops team. We know from historical data that if a client falls below this threshold, they're statistically less likely to renew or renew in full. We give the client time to deploy licenses and get them active, but if they fall below this threshold for a sustained period, then we move to a review. The same is true of engagement. If we're seeing a below-threshold pattern of usage of certain key features that we know should be used in order to bring success, then we get a little red flag. Value is central to everything that we do in CS. The problem is It can be really devilishly hard to pin down what value means. Each client is going to define it slightly differently, the fact is that if they say that they're not getting value, then that's their reality. That's a real difficulty because we may need to redefine value with our client. This can be especially difficult if we're towards the end of a contract, and they’ve been oversold, mis-sold, or just got the wrong end of the stick at the induction. Maybe they thought this tool was going to cook them breakfast, and then they learn it can't. Finally, we keep a close eye on our relationships with our clients. CSMs are not on-site, and they're not employed by the client's business, so we’re wholly reliant on program managers, executive sponsors, and advocates within accounts to make things happen the way we want them to. If one of those people leaves, a key supporter is replaced by a potential detractor. That’s when the process I’m about to describe swings into action. Deployment, engagement, value, and relationships are tracked through a variety of systems, and they’re all fed through to CSMs and flagged when there’s an issue. The process we follow when an issue comes up isn't rocket science, but it is really important that we follow it closely. The reason it's so important to stick to this process is that we're not only then able to make a consistent impact on potential churn, but also to track the effectiveness of our efforts. [![Churn mitigation at LinkedIn](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2022/10/image4--1-.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/swapping-last-minute-churn-mitigation-for-proactive-risk-identification) ### **The process** First, upon a churn risk review being triggered, the CSM logs a churn mitigation case in our CRM. This alerts a team of senior CSMs who own risk mitigation within our org. They then set up a review, normally a couple of weeks after the case has been raised. To this review, they invite the CSM, the sales partner, and at least two managers who are not directly managing the CSM. Where appropriate, they may also invite a sales leader, as well as anyone else who may have relevant input, such as integration specialists and insight analysts. The CSM and the sales partner prepare a pre-read for the review, which is a pre-built deck that they just need to populate with certain information. This includes some of the obvious, like the amount of risk along with a potted history of the account, why we're in the situation we're in, and what's been tried so far. This enables us, once we're in the review, to probe for more information, uncover potential strategies, and formulate a plan. It’s really helpful that we have other voices in the mix because they bring in knowledge gleaned from other clients and sectors, which can be invaluable and may have been missed the first time around. The CSM in charge of churn mitigation attends this call, takes notes, and circulates a list of key actions to everyone on the call, including the manager of the CSM, whose responsibility it is to then follow up and make sure all of these actions are taken. Once this has all been done, the renewal date rolls around, and hopefully, there's no churn. Even if there is churn, we close the churn mitigation case in the CRM along with a standardized rationale for why it's been closed. We also record whether they churned, partially churned, renewed, or grew. When there is churn, we look to capture the percentage. This means we're not only looking to identify risk early and crowdsource knowledge to mitigate it, but we're also recording how effective our efforts are, so we can continue to refine our process. ## **Churn mitigation case study** A great example of this process in action came from one of my team when she was in her previous role, based in the US. She had a client who had been badly hit by COVID – lots of our hospitality clients were. This client churned completely and rebought once things started picking up again. We had a strong relationship with the client’s key stakeholders thanks, at least in part, to the fact that we had supported them when they were in dire straits and needed to churn. Then, in a regular check-in, the CSM learned that this client was looking at reducing their spend with us in favor of a competitor. We followed the process – the churn mitigation plan was raised, and the risk review was scheduled. This was about three months out from the renewal date, so we had enough time to work on this case. From the initial review, it became clear that we didn't know exactly what was missing in terms of value from the client's perspective or how they were assessing our product versus our competitor, However, because we had a good relationship, we were able to go back and find out what we were missing. The team swung into full-on discovery mode and learned the client loved our product, but they didn't think it would have the same immediate impact that our competitor would have on their bottom line. Once we knew what we were up against, the team reconvened, put together what they called a war room, and brought in internal experts who have studied the competitor and know how they deliver value. In doing this, the team landed on a strategy of highlighting our ability to deliver long-term growth, relationship development, and sustainable sales, as opposed to quick wins. Three months was enough time for us to demonstrate this value to them by drawing their attention to data from their previous and existing usage and sale. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. The narrative they used really resonated with the client’s senior execs and how they wanted to do business, so we were able to renew at the same rate. ## **The future of churn mitigation** We're always looking to iterate and improve. Let’s take a peek into where we at LinkedIn want to go from here. I’m looking to use my team's very privileged position of being an ultra-high-touch CS org to expand our scope of operations. I want them to look at risk not only when it pertains to churn or dollars being at direct risk, but also when we see a risk of anything that's suboptimal. This could be that the account is growing, but we don't think it's growing as fast as it could be. It could be that a region is lagging behind another. Perhaps, for example, we're not servicing a region like EMEA with its multiple language requirements, as well as another region like North America where it's more homogenous. An important shift in perception is needed as well; no matter how much we celebrate what are internally referred to as “churn-arounds,” I understand that for a CSM to raise their hand and say, “Look, my client’s not happy; I think they're going to churn,” is really tough. I've been a CSM recently enough to know that there's a nagging fear at the back of your head that says, “What if I get blamed for this? Isn't it better to just stay quiet and see how things go?” Well, no, it's not. We want to get on with mitigating risk as quickly as possible, so we're moving towards a process where the team gets used to flagging risks of all sorts on a weekly basis, so that we're always as far ahead of the curve as we can be. We're moving towards a mentality where risk identification is openly celebrated and rewarded. In time – fingers crossed – we'll move towards a future where risk rarely, if ever, manifests itself as churn. ## **Key takeaways** So what would I recommend that you as CS leaders take away from today? There are four main points. 1. **Keep it simple** \- If you're looking to create or modify a churn mitigation process, try to avoid those complex workflows with arrows pointing in every direction. 2. **Make it repeatable** \- If you can run regular reviews, you’ll build this muscle with your team, making it easier for them to do and allowing them to get more out of the process. 3. **Make it measurable** \-The more reviews you run, and the better you set them up, the more data you will have and the better you’ll be able to iterate this process to build something sustainable. 4. **Make it a cause for celebration** \-It's absolutely vital that CS teams look at flagging risk not as a chore, not as a risk to themselves, but as something to be celebrated. Build it into your KPIs and personal development frameworks. Create categories for awards and shout-outs for risk identification. If you can do all of this, you will – to paraphrase Sir Alex – win many games *and* many championships. ### "How much did you say?" Dissecting global customer success salaries URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-much-did-you-say-dissecting-global-customer-success-salaries/ Last updated: 2022-12-29T15:40:37.000Z The concept of pay transparency is not an unusual one; far from it. However, along with the almighty trifecta of sex, politics, and religion, the subject of money, particularly *how much* you make for a living, has always been a particularly taboo topic in ‘polite society’. According to recent sociological studies, the average office worker labors from “9 to 5, for service and devotion” and based on their commitment, “you would think that \[they\] would deserve a fair promotion”. No, this wasn’t composed by the philosophical minds of Karl Marx or Frederich Engels, but by the nation’s songstress and proletariat champion, Dolly Parton. White-hot pop culture references aside, salaries are of enormous interest to most people. A high salary can turn heads, and a low one can drive away employees. Most importantly, salaries set the precedent for industries and can influence the value of your own career. ****But, hold on – where does customer success come into this?** The first thing anyone ought to know about customer success is that it’s a business function that’s built on positive outcomes. Its practitioners strive to help their customers fully appreciate their product and help them adopt it in the most useful way through effective communication and mutual engagement plans. As a strategy, customer success empowers customers while driving value for the company itself. After all, successful customers make successful companies. While we’re outlining what customer success is, it’s worth mentioning this: unlike traditional avenues of business like marketing, advertising, or sales, which have been around since business-corporations immemorial, CS only came onto the scene relatively recently. It’s also a pretty tricky business function to define, with a myriad of different interpretations and job roles. [Customer success tips to make your SaaS product stand outMaking your SaaS company stand out in an increasingly competitive world isn’t easy. As technology continues to evolve, customers are searching not just for the best selection of features, but an amazing experience too.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMichelle Laurey![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/clay-banks-NiYS_ExTdg8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-tips-to-make-your-saas-product-stand-out/) But despite its relative infancy, you’ll be pushed to find a forward-thinking tech company that doesn’t have (or isn’t planning on implementing) a CS team. Customer success has taken the B2B SaaS world, specifically, by storm over the last decade. It’s for this reason that we’re taking a magnifying glass to examine a valid question: ****Just *how much* are CS leaders being paid for their work?** We asked over 250 customer success professionals a thorough list of questions to better understand the landscape of customer success wages. Whether you’re starting out your career in customer success, or looking to bag that next promotion, this article will illuminate how much you should be taking home. First thing’s first, let’s clarify the basis of this article: Company size can have a significant impact on where you work, irrespective of where you’re based. - US dollars (****USD / $**) was the currency of choice in the survey completed by respondents Our research was based on three key statistics: 1\. Baseline salary before taxes 2\. Annual bonus and stock 3\. Total compensation (including bonuses and stock) Shall we start? ## **What’s the average global customer success salary?** When we looked at the average baseline global salary (before tax) in CS jobs, without taking into account criteria such as bonuses, location, gender, industry job title, etc., the average salary worked out at ****$88,984**. Conversely, the median salary clocked in at a slightly lower figure, at ****$80,000**. The base salaries in our survey ranged from a paltry ****$16,000** to a whopping **$230,000** (both before tax). The range between these two figures is cavernous, to say the least. Thanks to our 250 survey respondents, we had a wealthof salaries to base our research on. However, we were curious to further understand the breadth of these varying salaries, and displaying our data in salary bands proved to be effective. [![The average customer success salary](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2022/08/Screen-Shot-2022-08-05-at-10.14.36.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-much-did-you-say-dissecting-global-customer-success-salaries) We found that over ****50%** of CS practitioners earn between ****$50k** and ****$100k**, while ****32%** are comfortably on six figures. And they don’t call it the 1% club for no reason; quite aptly, only a meager ****1%** of our survey participants earn over ****$200,000**! ## **Salary by location** As much as we’re advocates of a level playing field in CS, it’s an unavoidable fact that location plays a monumental part in the amount of money you make. Some areas are just more lucrative than others. This can be important if you’re thinking about your next career move. We found that salaries in North America were significantly higher than in the rest of the world, with the average base salary pulling in at a lucrative ****$97,870** (before tax). Comparably, we discovered based on our research that the lowest-paid region is South & Central America, with an average base salary of ****$39,600** (before tax). [![Customer success salary by location](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2022/08/Screen-Shot-2022-08-05-at-10.15.02.png)](how-much-did-you-say-dissecting-global-customer-success-salaries) Due to the maturity of the customer success function in North America, it wasn’t a surprise that salaries are reflected higher in this area. Over ****60%** of our total survey participants hail from North America, which is a testament to the popularity of the CS function there. We discovered that Australasia and Europe were the regions with the next-highest salaries. When working out the average salaries there wasn’t much in them, both were revealed to be extremely close in value, with the average CS salary in Australasia being ****$75,941**, and ****$75,913** in Europe. [Customer success toolbox Q&A | Future of SaaSIsabel Ruiz of Pluralsight joins us for a pre-festival Q&A about your customer success toolbox and what you need to keep your users happy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1517292987719-0369a794ec0f?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDEyfHxhcHB8ZW58MHx8fA&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-toolbox-q-and-a-pluralsight/) When looking at the rest of the world, salaries in Africa and Asia were also incredibly similar, with the average African salary at ****$61,500**, and the average Asian salary coming in at ****$59,912**. North American region had the highest average salary, but if we look at the United States of America exclusively, that average goes even higher! The base salaries in the U.S. were significantly higher than in the rest of the world, with the average salary pulling in at an impressive ****$106,965** (before tax). ### **Bonuses and stock** A baseline salary will make up the bulk of your annual earnings, however, it’s important to recognize that there are other financial avenues that add to your take-home package. Receiving supplementary compensation in the form of a bonus and/or stock is an additional perk that can sweeten the deal. For those actively looking for a new job, one that offers discretionary bonuses and/or stock can appear more attractive and sway their decision. Within the business world, bonuses are commonplace and function as a reward for good work. We asked our respondents how much they pick up in bonuses, and the results were intriguing, to say the least. Overall, the worldwide average annual bonus came out at ****$14,265**, with the median working out at ****$10,000**. The annual bonuses in Asia, Africa, and South America fall well below the global average, with North America, Europe, and Australia displaying the most fruitful annual bonuses. [![Bonuses in customer success around the world](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2022/08/Screen-Shot-2022-08-05-at-10.15.13.png)](how-much-did-you-say-dissecting-global-customer-success-salaries) In addition to salaries and bonuses, stock-based compensation is a prevalent practice, offering employees equity in the business. The purpose of owning stock is to have its value accumulate over time with the end goal of selling it back to your company. We discovered the number of survey respondents who receive stock-based compensation to be very low, averaging around a mere ****25%**, with a massive ****75%** claiming to not receive such options.The average global stock return for CS practitioners is **$6,319**. [![](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2022/08/Screen-Shot-2022-08-05-at-10.15.22.png)](how-much-did-you-say-dissecting-global-customer-success-salaries) ### **Salary by U.S. state** North America was the highest-earning region by a mile, and the highest proportion of our survey respondents hailed from the United States at ****45.9%**. Due to the popularity of American customer success professionals in our survey, and the high nature of their earnings, we were curious to see how salaries varied on a state-by-state basis: [![Customer success salary by U.S. state](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2022/08/Screen-Shot-2022-08-05-at-10.15.40.png)](how-much-did-you-say-dissecting-global-customer-success-salaries) Unsurprisingly, California proved to be the most lucrative state in America for CS professionals, demonstrating how customer success salaries are leagues above the national U.S. average salary of ****$51,480**. This is in part due to the state's association as the home of technological innovation, specifically, Silicon Valley. Pennsylvania and New York weren't far behind in their average salaries of ****$121,400** and ****$102,396**. ## **Pay progression** Unless you’re particularly lucky and land an impressive salary from the off, the majority of people have to put in years of grafting and experience to take home a higher paycheck. The more experienced you become in your field, the more you’ve honed your professional craft. And with experience comes opportunity, something which tends to correlate with a higher salary. Here’s how many years of CS work experience on average our respondent had in each job role: [![](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2022/08/Screen-Shot-2022-08-05-at-16.10.01.png)](how-much-did-you-say-dissecting-global-customer-success-salaries) By and large, our results revealed a trajectory we anticipated – the more senior position, the more experience in the CS field, with the exception of (People) Manager of Customer Success and Director of Customer Success, who, on average, appeared to have less experience than their immediate junior positions. This might be due to the different skill sets required for people managing, and these respondents may have had more prior career experience in managerial positions outside of CS. Having established how long customer success professionals were in each respective role, it’s time to talk money and check out the average baseline salaries for each position. The following chart highlights how the incremental salary increases as you climb the career ladder: [![](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2022/08/Screen-Shot-2022-08-05-at-16.10.30-1.png)](how-much-did-you-say-dissecting-global-customer-success-salaries) In securing a promotion from Director of Customer Success to VP of Customer Success, CS professionals can expect their highest salary increase, with an average hike of ****$54,114**. Continuing our examination of pay progression, we looked at the average base salary for CS professionals based on how many years they were in the industry. [![](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2022/08/Screen-Shot-2022-08-05-at-16.10.39.png)](how-much-did-you-say-dissecting-global-customer-success-salaries) The results solidified our understanding that the longer you’ve been in an industry, the more money you’ll be paid. ### **How many times have salaries increased over the past three years?** We asked our respondents whether their salary has increased at all over the past three years. The results were mixed. Over **54.4%** of people said that they’ve received 1-2 pay rises over the past three years, while ****10.8%** haven’t even received one. Naturally, the past three years have been anything but normal, with the Covid-19 pandemic having caused an economic downturn, and millions of redundancies, which have, in turn, tightened the purse strings of many companies. [![](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2022/08/Screen-Shot-2022-08-05-at-16.10.53.png)](how-much-did-you-say-dissecting-global-customer-success-salaries) ### **Are pay increases based on set criteria?** The results were mixed. Just over half of our survey respondents said that salary raises are not based on set criteria at their company, with just under half claiming they are. It’s certainly a very mixed bag. [![](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/content/images/2022/08/Screen-Shot-2022-08-05-at-16.11.51.png)](how-much-did-you-say-dissecting-global-customer-success-salaries) ## **To wrap up** All in all, our first salary survey proved to be immensely enlightening. We fully expected North America to take the top spot for the highest global salaries, and for the gender pay gap to be very much prevalent. Make sure to come back next year and have your two cents about customer success salaries! --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Onboarding 101 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/onboarding-101/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:52:13.000Z *Ashli Bontrager gave this presentation at the Future of Sales Festival in June 2022 when she was Senior Sales Enablement Manager at dormakaba Americas* --- I'm Ashli Bontrager, and I'm Senior Sales Enablement Manager at dormakaba, a global access and security solutions firm. If you've never built onboarding, then this presentation is for you. Let’s dive in. 👇 ## **The goal? Get reps ready to sell - FAST** You don't have to search very much on Google in order to find stats on why onboarding is important. DePaul University says that it takes about $115,000 to replace a sales rep, and there's also a moral obligation to give that new hire everything that they need to be successful and to get them ready to go - fast. So how can we make them feel great about the decision to join your company? [![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/cdEckCt0D_CAJSW_tIb0SxFXFaFVWLB1rjrjRBxe_DbR4vH0p2Jde6siE5tyrNnRS46plaEiBzVrgptNlzwqznMxMn6OEOtAsC421V6--HeTGucPmp-FtDNRH9g4carXJDz5ZrrVM0ysqjsV-xI56fdipHcfgmg5H7sGeoypVAwWLS_zbWzbuNxl6F00Gw)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/onboarding-101) First step could be sending them some merchandise, giving them their materials (laptops or whatever you're going to set them up with) on time and right away. It could involve, if they're up for it, a virtual coffee or going to a restaurant to help them connect with coworkers before they even start, something like that to meet the team. Those are options companies are using in order to get people ready to go right away. And what about once they've actually started? These are the questions that we're going to be going through today. **The sales rep is asking:** - Who is my company? - What do I sell? - Who are my customers? - What's on my to-do list? - What am I working toward? - Where do I go from here? Below I’ll show you an overview of the process that we took in our company to build sales readiness onboarding. Then, I'll walk you through how to answer those questions and what that might look like for you. ## **Process overview** [![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_kVZvczY4tF5EMRUEVc-9w7U8FzJVCwwKeZTfY5047BDieAazQOg9ejLye6sWnHTUDAG64Haa0A5oiCnxBz0qrq1kQ1QwdxXjD5j-k_vBRJAjpo_0pJG3ZYUMnKUCAmz_TO3YqHHCo_8DTgceCnhz6e69XchKPgpWwfu0sZCSuh6GBy8WajLpZ7P3REnrQ)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/onboarding-101) ### **Align with sales leaders** First of all, you want to start your onboarding build process by aligning with sales leaders on their vision. What does “done” look like to them? I love the quote that Brene Brown had in her book *Dare to Lead*. She says that as a team, they use the phrase “paint done”. It's a question - “please help me paint done” is a question that you’d ask to the person assigning a project to get a better feel for their vision, scope and what they're expecting to see at the end of the project. You want to know what their ideal sales rep looks like. What can they do? What are their skills? What does that persona look like? If you have more than one sales role in your organization, then you might need to build more than one persona. And then of course, there's those KPIs for onboarding - what KPIs are the sales leaders hoping that great onboarding is going to support? You want to know those in advance. The common ones that I hear a lot would be reduced ramp time, for example - we don't want it to take forever to get that person selling, we want to get them selling right away. So that's one. Where are the reps in regards to quota? How are they performing? What kind of revenue are they generating? How are they retaining customers? ### **Measure the before and continue discovery with the sales reps** They’re general sales KPIs, so figure out from your leadership what those are, and then measure them **now**. Before you get started. We need to measure the current state. My husband and I are famous for doing projects around the house and forgetting to take “before” photos and then it's done and we think: “Oh, we didn't do a before photo!”. You need a “before” photo of what the situation is *right now*, then you're going to continue that discovery with the sales reps. Think of it this way if you've ever had a baby or a puppy, and you're waking up a million times at night, you’re dealing with a lot of pain. Then the puppy gets bigger, or the baby grows older, and then all of a sudden, they’re sleeping through the night and you forget about it. Then not too long after you say: “Hey, let's have another baby!”, or “let's get another puppy!” because you *forgot* about that pain. That’s why I like to talk to sales reps, because my impression is that sales leaders sometimes have new problems, a new focus - they've got something else to think about and they’ve forgotten the pain of that tactical day-to-day of the sales rep. So you need the sales reps’ perspective as well as they're the ones doing it every day. You need to hear from them about what that new hire **needs** to know. ### **Understand what content exists and where** We now have a list of what new sales reps need to know, and we need to find out what content exists and where it exists. It might be, if you have a larger organization, that it could be anywhere. It could be in HR, it could be in marketing. A lot of times it might be on Bob's computer! Who built what? Who has a sales presentation that they built lying around? I’ve talked to sales reps (across different companies) and they've built their own sales presentations or their own slides for this or that. We want to get those slide decks in our hands. We want to get those resources, those cheat sheets that they're building, and compile them. If you have a learning and development department, they might have some content too. So we want to grab those things, then we're ready to match up what goes with what. What skills have we taught on our list of needs versus what we have content-wise. With that, we're ready to face those holes and build content. ### **Subject matter experts** You then want to gather your subject matter experts (SMEs) to you - whether that be on product knowledge, technical knowledge, you might need some sales coaching expertise - you want to get your team of experts and start building content. What I like to do is: - Build something - Go back to them and say: “Is this what you said? I have this idea, does it work? Does this not work?” - Go back and keep building - Circle back with the subject matter experts again. We keep working like that until that content is completed, and once I have all the content pieces that I need, it's about organizing them into a prototype of where it’s all going to live. ### **Build a prototype and gain approval** In our organization, we use the sales enablement platform Showpad, and that’s where our sales readiness onboarding lives. A prototype might look like a flowchart, it might look like a spreadsheet. Have a sample layout with all the types of resources that you have ready to go, and circle back to your sales leaders and those sales reps and gain their approval before you actually take the time to build the whole thing out. ### **Final buildout and optimization** After I’ve gained approval, I'm ready to do a final build out. I want to say - at this point it can be discouraging when you're a perfectionist or really detail oriented and have a great vision of what you want onboarding to be, and your reality is not measuring up with your high-level vision of something glorious that jumps off the screen. I want you to take heart that this is an iterative process. You're gonna keep optimizing it, you're gonna keep improving it, you're gonna cycle back. We at dormakaba are probably on our third cycle back on some of the roles that we've created onboarding for - and that's just in the last year! So be encouraged, you’re getting a structure and a foundation built, and then you're going to circle back and keep improving. **It's not a one time process**. So that’s a look at the overall process from start to finish - let's start to answer our sales reps’ questions from earlier. ## **Answering sales reps’ questions** ### **Who is my company?** [![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/pxBFIRthoEPvzuKkOUDl8vazSqlrdcd0GrPspJTvqeqVNqY66pWpZrg4gvKeGJnGeFjP8UULvM7eQIWEduafxrdDykgaWAQuH1JzKJbNwIChB-xeL31mmfOLI87u3LKEXiCIkPCQtSfmFctvebgNFWuvBqoQCwgwpLRwRsGJHs3ITiSre7XR3qNYrSG_KA)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/onboarding-101) Starting with “**Who is this company that I work for?**” which fits into the bucket of organizational training. Some organizational training might have happened under the bucket of HR, and obviously they're going to have that employee handbook, those paperwork pieces, the benefits and things like that. At our company, when we do a company overview, that's a combination of HR’s responsibility and sales enablement’s, because HR is doing a company overview for all employees but we certainly want our sales reps to be part of that. In the past, my boss, the lead of our sales enablement and sales excellence department has co-held a meeting with HR and gone through: - Company history - Company values - The solutions that we offer So that might look like a combined effort, or it might be completely on you as sales enablement. I wanted to throw in here that it's a great idea to plug in a tour. We have a virtual tour option, ready to go that we’ve plugged into our sales readiness onboarding that lives in Showpad. If you don't have that option, there's maybe another way that you could do it - take a video, even a FaceTime, and do a tour of your office because what you want to do if you have an actual brick and mortar office, and are not a fully remote company, is bring in those remote employees and make them feel really at home. As a remote employee myself, I feel really appreciative when I feel at home at my home office. So give them a tour, bring them in, and make that part of your company overview. Then, we have industry training and that’s something that really falls in the bucket of sales enablement. You're going to start to train them on: - What is this market? - What is the big picture? - Where does our company fit? - What is our go-to-market? - What is our strategy? - What special initiatives do we have going on right now? We're talking about the big picture, who we are, where we fit. ### **What do I sell and who is my customer?** [![Product Training](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/eb41iaRSWn3yFGY8LGeCfXC651ZAscqNSLPJVWY-5xCSm8XT3Zbv4wzO3LxaZjCD1rKJkHIckwp2qhCWLf_ibD2-2JyOj2lCtZIyt5kdPrOeZbHWHVZlGqvjXwpag0Md4z0GJixuEkOHhkL6NMBZZTUHvl1PwNtck0kY1C3Kz7oeD6GWBveTKwtNtyhbDA)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/onboarding-101) After you've covered your organization, the “who is my company?”, we're ready to face“**what is my product?**”and “**who is my customer?**”. For product training, what is my product? - What is it? - What problem does it solve? - What pain point does it really address for the customer? - What value does the product bring? - What additional value plays do I have as a sales rep that I'm going to add *in addition to* the value that the product innately brings? If you're dealing with technical products, and whether that's software or an actual physical product that is more technical, you're not going to be able to expect that your sales rep is going to understand all the ins and outs of that product in the first three weeks. You want to give them the resources to help - make sure that they’re connected with the right SMEs who are going to be able to answer any and every question that they have, or that might pop up from a customer. **Prepare them with that**. If you have any cheat sheets, any material, any videos, make sure that those are accessible. I like to build a sheet that shows who their contacts are and the phone numbers to call, or the different product information, the factories where our products are made, putting all that information in one place so they know exactly where to go. Those pieces of information need to be able to be downloaded, so they can use it as a desk reference right for that just-in-time learning. As soon as they need it, they can grab it. And then what about customer personas? - Who is your ideal customer profile? - What channels does your company sell through, or what verticals? - What is the overall landscape of your buyer? - Who are the different decision makers that your sales rep is going to need to connect with? - What does that process normally look like? - What type of value do you bring to each of those players? - What are the motivations of each of the personas in that buyer’s landscape? One thing that I love to include is *voice of customer* data, whether that is success stories with your customers, slides of successful past purchases, or so on. A few years ago our company hired a third party that did some recorded interviews with our customers in various channels, and that’s my favorite thing we have, I love to use those. We're allowed to use those internally as a training piece for our sales reps and I love for them to listen to those audio recordings and just peek behind the curtain and understand what's going on in the mind of the buyer. If you can facilitate actual conversation with some of your top customers that you have great relationships with, and walk through a discovery meeting as part of that training, or if your customer would agree to recording a discovery call that you would use later in training, that would be fantastic as a way to help sales reps really get an understanding of what's going on in that customers world. ### **What is my job?** [![Role and Skill training](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/MNLR_B3nl4eo4APe44RpII7JEhNKhLTtPDhs9o6HeqkRuveoyAviVogs7XyEymSFH1_7czRGBIZHpbkZytFo5Q5eoqqHglWn5aWlUafuiAfX5YQrf6toWmJkiezXrNwlVV_YXPeJmA9cNJOz1r2-i-vOv-J4NS2CKGm9pP_prOMUU7oXU8Bws8KPbMxOOg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/onboarding-101) And so now you're ready for “**what is my job?**” and similar questions like: “What role do I have?”, “what am I supposed to do?”, “what skills do I need to have?”. Those items really fit into three buckets that I like to use: - E-learning - Virtual (or live, in-person) shadowing - Demonstration of skills. **E-learning** When we're talking about e-learning, these are some things (not necessarily in order of importance) that fit really nicely into our e-learning bucket. One is a recorded walkthrough of the sales presentation or slide deck, and what I mean there is not simply a recording of a sales presentation (although that's also great), but a walkthrough of what you’re expecting the sales rep to say and what type of interaction they’re needing to have with a customer on a given slide as you're walking through the entire process. Others include any materials that you'd like them to have, any downloadable PDF cheat sheets, those are great for an e-learning platform. Also great is something explaining what the elevator pitch or “story” that your sales reps needs to tell your customers, to get them ready to share that pitch - overcoming objections too, talk about what types of objections are commonly going to come up in that sales presentation so that your sales rep can lay the foundation of overcoming those in advance. What I mean when I say a sales conversation map is the sales methodology that your sales reps will need to walk through. For example, the Sandler sales method is a great conversation map (a way of interacting with your customer no matter what product you're selling). The Sandler method has the upfront contract, for example, and they have all these different ways of interacting with the customer so that conversation map would be something that you'd want to include. What about the buyer's journey? Who interacts with the buyer and where in the sales process? Provide that information so that your sales rep can have an end-to-end understanding of where that person is going. Customer discovery questions are important too, so the sales rep can learn how we can open up the conversation and what we need to find out from that customer. **Shadowing** Virtual shadowing involves having your new hire shadow top sales reps on live sales phone calls and sales presentations, or in-person going to the place where your customer is (whether that's a distributor’s office or to the actual end user). I wonder what you all think about this **one minute rule** in my mind. In college, I had a director and instructor who would say that for every minute that you are on stage in a performance, you need to have an hour of rehearsal. So if a full play is 90 minutes, there needs to be 90 hours of rehearsal. I was thinking about that and thinking for let's say for a 30 minute sales presentation, you want your new hire to experience at least 30 sales presentations in advance of actually giving that first 30 minute presentation themselves. I’m wondering what your thoughts would be on that but I think that that rule could apply! You want them to experience a lot of sales presentations, a lot of customer interaction, so that they're feeling really confident. In a virtual setting, if you are a software company or selling software, you could really facilitate that quite easily. Maybe even with any product that you're doing a virtual presentation on. **The more practiced your sales rep is, the more ready and armed they are, and the more relaxed they're going to be in that customer conversation**. And they’ll be able to actually get the sale because they’ll feel at home in their own skin coming from a good place, if they're prepared. If they're not prepared? Lack of preparation breeds fear. With cross-functional shadowing, we love to do cross-role shadowing and cross-segment shadowing. In our company, we have multiple business units so that might be shadowing people in other business units, or if you're working with enterprise accounts, mid-level accounts, then letting them shadow along that chain so that they can get an experience of what different customers are like at the different levels. **Demonstration** We also have demonstrations. So at some point, we need to start riding along with the sales manager, taking portions of that sales presentation until we're getting the whole presentation, etc. We want to demo for our peers, demo for our leaders. And then also don't forget customer feedback. And this demonstration piece, in terms of riding along with the sales manager, peer ride alongs and getting customer feedback, those are ongoing and could go on forever, because there's **always room for improvement**. You want to create that optimization of that particular sales rep’s skills and that's a great way to set up for that. ### **Tech stack** [![Tech Stack](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d-CkyP-lZY08-6qf_f7lEVxfQQk_F3KbCzONwMic4WcB1yDj3xr9OexsoLKl2RFAG9-oqnk3lR302NYvdtkHqKW0SpD-yZHY0-_R8lLYk2qA3CWB7FqcYAwO8vSqDbwmZ46tsonJI2segDBGa7jmaPBXmz9hzIId0jUnndQQw4_5moU7qsEo87VqrPy1sg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/onboarding-101) So then, let's look at the tech stack, and this is about knowing your audience. Our audience is more hands on and needs a little bit more of a boost when it comes to learning our sales enablement platform, which is Showpad, our CRM, which is Salesforce, and other tech tools that we might use. We have found that we need to **say it, say it, say it** and by the time we're tired of saying it somebody's just starting to learn it. So don't hesitate to repeat, repeat, repeat. We’re currently doing automated training with live follow-ups, as we found that that's the best way. We recorded our training and we sent them out as a course to the employees in Showpad, and then after the sales reps have taken the course we meet with them live and in a way that they can share their screen. They can have their camera on and we can really dive into the questions that they may have. My personal preference is virtual training for a virtual tool, I’ve experienced being squished next to somebody trying to train them on Salesforce, and we're both hovering over the same laptop, it's not comfortable! So I am a proponent of doing virtual training for virtual tools. ### **Ideal sales rep** [![Ideal sales rep](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/XMYzBugvEptMKdp50k5AqzeOy939Oan6u7c23WTlfTihTGSTq961Npr3CD1GMBgxioLO4OPJgqUDBOUUwO43XYFgTWMhpVKGzMciBfLOXdHAwTNglgjbR5IfAupCpvemkWi6DF_XNl0oi0-u2u3meSWas7k7lkCbHr31c_dnylVDBoEbnwRvJzWNu4_kCg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/onboarding-101) Last thing, ideal sales reps. Now they're trained up, they're three weeks in, they're four weeks in, and you need to set the path for them. Have the vision of who you want them to be, inspire them with what the best sales reps look like, and paint a really good picture of “done”, like Brene Brown says, I heard it for the first time from Showpad, and I know other companies do it as well, you can add the next career step to onboarding. After they're done learning their role, **immediately** start training them on the next role, that gives them a vision for where they're growing and what their career growth looks like. But it also creates a backlog of qualified managers *now*, so continue training them and start prepping them for the next role. How do you close the training feedback loop? We want to get feedback from the employee on how the first 30 days went, and then we also want to circle back with the manager to tell them what we've trained on, we want to make sure that they know that you're there to help them with the next step. So that is a look at onboarding! Thank you. ### Building profitable products with customers URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/building-profitable-products-with-customers-2/ Last updated: 2022-12-22T14:13:09.000Z Hot take: All SaaS orgs want to deliver a solution that delights and excites their customers. (🤯..obvs.) But it can be a mistake to think that addressing all customer demands naturally leads to conversion, retention and revenue growth. 🪴 How do you walk that tightrope between launching a dynamic product, while still meeting those all important revenue goals, without plummeting into financial ruin? Well, in the episode of SaaScast, Jacqueline Porter, Director of Product Management, addresses this crucial question, with vital first-hand insights, including: 🛠 Building products for developers 📣 Prioritizing customer demands 👔 Communicating with senior stakeholders 🎖 The importance of customer advocacy We’ve compiled the highlights here, but you can catch the full unedited talk [right here.](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-profitable-products-with-customers/) --- ## The irresistible allure of product management **What first drew you to product management, and why has it been such an enduring passion for you?** This is always such a fun question for me to reflect on. For the last 10 years, I've been in the tech space. I've been working with companies on building successful products and delivering successful products to market. A key part of that is working with developers and engineers day in day out and helping optimize the performance of those teams. I did have an untraditional start though. My first career, which I spent about five years in, was in construction management. Most people may not be aware of how technical that discipline is. A lot of software is used to plan, organize supply chains, and manage scheduling, for example, so I spent a lot of time working with software products to drive efficiency. I decided to pursue my Master's in business after two or three years in the construction industry because I realized it wasn’t the right fit for me. And then it was in Austin, Texas – that's where I was getting my MBA – that I connected with some people in the startup space and then made my way into my first tech job, which was a merger and acquisitions project management role. I was quickly promoted at that company to manage a project management office with the idea of streamlining operations. For some reason, the leadership in the organization really had an affinity for someone who brought an outside perspective. I feel like a lot of the people in that organization grew up in tech and didn't have diverse ideas on how to make things more efficient. After delivering some incredible results, I made a strategic exit from that company. Then I started to get the itch to build something new. A big passion of mine is to improve things to continuously drive effectiveness across organizations, so I connected with another startup in the area with a little bit of a different focus: product implementation. I was more on the customer success side, helping to deliver and implement products effectively. [SaaScast: Building profitable products with customersWith several years of experience leading product teams, Jacqueline knows how to drive a SaaS org to reach that product roadmap vision.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_3.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-profitable-products-with-customers/) I was again promoted really quickly, and then we were bought. I stayed with the company and I was promoted to a Director of Product role and was acting Chief of Staff for both the Chief Product Officer and the Chief Technology Officer. In that role, my whole focus was getting our product to market as fast as possible with the best results for our company. What was interesting about this is that I spent a lot of time thinking about all the bottlenecks and pain points of our developers, engineers, product managers, and product designers so I could improve our throughput and deliver the most value for our customers. That was a very exciting role. Now I've been at GitLab for almost three years, and I've been promoted into a Director of Product position again. I’m spending my time now building product teams and delivering the GitLab value to our customers for a particular segment of our platform. ## Why it’s essential to capture the voice of the customer **You mentioned how you've become mindful of customer pain points and that's been part of your journey to excelling in this career.** **How important is it to capture the voice of the customer and set up that continuous feedback loop between the customer and the org?** This question takes me back to when I read books like *Inspired* and *The Build Trap* because when you’re starting to think about building a new product, you feel like you should be delivering exactly what the customer says, but that's not always what's going to lead to success. In the end, customer feedback should definitely be one input into the product development lifecycle, but it can't be the only one. Customers will often ask for what they need now, and they often already have a solution in mind. If you’re building what they're asking for, you might not deeply understand the pain points in their workflows; then you can't build the next step because you're waiting for them to tell you how things should work. It's important that you deeply understand the user, their dreams, their pain points, their desires, their joy, and what's delightful for them. Then you're going to be able to create an expanded product rather than just solving the problem that they have right now. ## The challenges of targeting developers **At GitLab, you're targeting developers, which is a very particular kind of persona.** **We're always hearing about how developers are quite a discerning kind of audience and are quite difficult to engage with, especially for feedback because they’re often just so busy. Is dealing with developer customers a unique challenge, or do the usual rules apply?** I don't think you have to use any different skills to deal with developers, but you do have to think about what a developer's task is and what's specific to that user – just like any other end user. At my previous company, I was in martech, dealing with technical marketing professionals who create social media campaigns, are very much disciplined for their tools, and understand the firehose ingest of Twitter and Instagram. They're very technical in that discipline, and if you don't listen to what they need, their problem is going to be better solved by a competitor’s product. In business-to-business SaaS companies, customers’ organizational pain points are distinctly different from those of individual developers. Some B2B companies now have roles that are exclusively for things like developer experience, so we're starting to see this emergence of developer evangelism because companies are very much focused on how to improve that throughput and optimize workflows for their developer audience. That’s because – let's face it – every company is becoming a technology company. Almost every company has an app. Dry cleaning has an app. Grocery stores have apps. Every company using technology has developers on staff, and the best way for them to be successful is to drive efficiency through their products. Something I’ve noticed that’s specific to developer personas is the BS factor. Typical marketing speak and typical pitches aren’t going to work as well on them as they might on a different user. Developers generally need to accomplish a particular type of task, and they need to do that as fast as possible, so when you’re marketing to a developer it needs to be about efficiency, optimizing, and saving them time. ## Bridging the gap between you, the developer, and the buyer **There’s often a gap between the people who are actually going to be using the product – the developers in the company – and the buyers, who may be more senior stakeholders in the organization.** **They’re both crucial players, and you want the buyers to buy something that the end users will be able to use. How do you balance your approach to the two?** What we're noticing in the technology space, especially when it comes to DevOps tools, is that the buyer has less authority than they do when it comes to marketing solutions or even education or municipality software, where buyers are typically super important. For technology purchases, there's this process of CTOs asking their teams to evaluate solutions technically. GitLab has the advantage of being a developer-first product because developers can be our buyers or can sway the traditional buyer persona. It’s important to prioritize investment cases based on the value they're driving. Let's say you have a free offering and a paid offering, and you have an investment case that says you need to improve some features on the free side because that will increase your conversion to paid by 2%. However, the other option is to invest a bunch in your premium offering – a move geared towards your buyer persona – and that's going to increase your revenue by 5%. [Your ultimate guide to creating a value propositionA value proposition communicates how your product or service will benefit your customer. You need to outline why your product is essential for your target segment, how it will solve their pain points, and why your product is more desirable than others on the market.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/alexander-popov-iQqqo2zpmTI-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-ultimate-guide-to-creating-a-value-proposition/) Well, if you look at the conversion from free to paid, that could be a million users – that 5% revenue increase might be worth way less than the conversion. The product manager may decide to place their bets on the free features so that they can optimize conversion and get more value for the organization, which in the end results in revenue, rather than investing for the buyer to make them either retain or buy more. That's the balance. If you keep your eye on the prize, which is what you’re trying to drive for the company, and then weigh those two options, that's how you know whether to drive for the buyer or drive for the user. ## Getting C-suite buy-in for product ideas **We've talked a little about the importance of customer feedback and knowing customers’ pain points when you’re building a product. Now let's move on to the next part, which probably makes some people feel a little bit uncomfortable – balancing all of that with profitability.** **When you bring an idea into a pitch with your most senior stakeholders, you probably have to be mindful of those all-important metrics. Does every product manager know how to speak that language when they go into those meetings?** The biggest mistake I've made and I've seen other product managers make is overselling what their product is going to do. That doesn't mean that the product isn't eventually going to get there; it's just that there's a lack of awareness of how long it's going to take to start seeing meaningful results once we build and deliver something, and how long it's going to take to make back our money. Product managers generally don't think in payback periods when they look at the opportunity. What they hear is, “I have a problem and I'm going to pay for the solution.” However, if you're a seat-based product – like GitLab where you have a price per seat and the organization has to pay for a tier – it could be a long time before an organization wants to move up to the next level, which could be significantly more costly for an incremental feature improvement. This is where a product manager goes into a C-suite and says, “This is gonna drive millions of dollars of revenue… in 10 years.” But C-suite people are there because they've managed risk really well. They've placed their bets where it counted, they know what kind of risks to take, and they know what risks to avoid. It's critical that product managers bring a full picture, with all the risks, of what their product improvement is going to do for the business. [Product Owner vs. Product Manager \[Q&A with Hubspot\]Eric Peters, Product Owner, Hubspot Academy, Hubspot talks personas, what a product owner looks like at Hubspot and how to effectively support and prioritize users.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/markus-spiske-MbG7kwWptII-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-owner-vs-product-manager-q-a-with-hubspot/) Sure, a short-term investment that increases immediate revenue or usage is really attractive, but long-term bets have to be made in order to be competitive in the market, and there has to be a long-term investment strategy for innovation. A tool that I've used to convey this to a C-suite member is the lean canvas. I create a five-slide page, a five-slide deck, or a five-page readout of that lean canvas, which highlights the opportunity, the problem statement, the target market, and what kind of influence we're going to have on the market by delivering this. Then there’s a 50-page appendix, which outlines the business case, projected ROI, payback period, projected usage models. That allows me to very quickly show executives what this product or feature is going to do, who it's for, and what we think it's going to do over time. Then, if there are questions about the model or the forecast, we can scroll on down to the appendix and take a closer look. That has been the most successful way that I've had new teams added to products. It’s also helped me get executives to think about changing strategy if we were headed in the wrong direction. The gist of it is that what you present has to be short and sweet, but then all the details have to be provided at the end. You also have to make sure that risks are holistically considered and product improvements aren’t oversold. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Establishing a customer marketing strategy and developing advocates URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/establishing-a-customer-marketing-strategy-and-developing-advocates/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:51:57.000Z *This article was transcribed from a panel at one of our sister community's (PMA) events.* This article will go over: - Customer marketing at Zendesk, - Measuring success of customer marketing efforts, - How to convert loyal customers into advocates, and - Some customer marketing resources. ## **Introducing our wonderful panelists** **Bozena Pieniazek:** I'm Bozena, Director of Marketing at Maze, and I'm the host for today's chat with Valeria, Senior Marketing Manager for Customer Marketing at Zendesk - and is now working on customer marketing programs at Airtable. **Valeria Gomez:** I'm Senior Customer Marketing Manager at Zendesk. I'm responsible for building out our advocacy community and managing our customer reference program to bring our customer stories to life and educate a wide variety of audiences, both internal and external. ## **Customer marketing at Zendesk** **Bozena Pieniazek:** Like product marketing, customer marketing can vary a lot from company to company. Maybe we can take a step back and look at what exactly customer marketing is at Zendesk. **Valeria Gomez:** We take a slightly different approach from more conventional customer marketing. In a nutshell, customer marketing at Zendesk is a group of programs that focuses on showcasing the stories of our customers. Our approach to customer marketing is centered around maintaining great relationships with them. We give them the platform to feature their successes, so they can inspire others in the customer experience industry. **Bozena Pieniazek:** How and when did customer marketing at Zendesk get started, and what team do you report into? **Valeria Gomez:** Our team has gone through several periods of transformation in the past three years. We started purely as a customer reference team, but we’ve evolved so much because we’re now a critical resource for our company, for customer references, storytelling, and ultimately, customer inspiration. Currently, we report to our VP of Enterprise Marketing, which allows us to connect with many different kinds of customers all over the world. Right now, we’re three people, not counting our VP, so it's a small but very powerful group. ## **Cross-functional collaboration** **Bozena Pieniazek:** What does cross-functional collaboration look like for customer marketing at Zendesk? What are some of the other teams that you work very closely with? **Valeria Gomez:** We’re a highly cross-functional team at Zendesk. We work with the rest of the marketing organization, for example, on communications campaigns, and social media. We also work closely with sales and customer success. We work closely with our PMMs too, which puts us in a unique position to be close to our customers. We have a great understanding of our products and offerings, so we can translate that into the stories that we showcase with our customers. We're able to build our own partnerships with customers and empower them to inspire others. In that way, we can bring better relationships to the business world. We also enable and empower other regional teams to execute customer marketing initiatives in their regions, by providing a program foundation so they can tell relevant local stories. That’s the key – we are a small team of three, so we need to empower and enable all of these other teams, so they can replicate what we do, always keeping the customer at the heart of what they do. One of the things that product marketing does is enable other teams, so working with them puts us in a great position to do a lot of things at scale, despite only having a very limited group of people executing on that. It also puts us in a position to build trust with our customers. Because we are part of this wider group, we can make sure that we make the most of each conversation with each of our customers. **Bozena Pieniazek:** So when you say empowering, it's about using customer stories to empower the sales team or local marketing teams to get Zendesk in front of the target audiences? **Valeria Gomez:** It’s about a couple of things. One, we want everybody to be great storytellers. We want everybody to know the best and most relevant customer stories. For example, if you're a sales rep, you should know a handful of stories that are relevant to the industries and segments you’re selling to. Our customer marketing team empowers you with those resources and teaches you those stories. For regional marketing teams, we make sure that when they tell those stories in their markets, the voice is consistent with the rest of the company. Sometimes they use different agencies or their own resources to create their programs, so we want to make sure that everything has the same feel, the same quality, and the same way of engaging with customers. ## **Measuring the success of customer marketing** **Bozena Pieniazek:** What are some of the metrics that you look at to measure whether your customer marketing is successful? **Valeria Gomez:** One of the things is just how we engage with our customers. We look at how often our customers participate in all the activities we plan for them. Obviously, we also pay attention to how much our activities influence the pipeline, but our main goal is to give this platform to our customers to showcase their success. Every time they participate, speaking at our events, talking to our team, talking to our leadership, participating in a written customer story, and things like that, that's how we measure success. Every time they participate on our platform, it’s just the best thing. ## **Developing loyal customers into advocates** **Bozena Pieniazek:** How do you successfully develop loyal customers into advocates? What does that look like for you? **Valeria Gomez:** I truly believe that cultivating and nurturing relationships with customers is the best way to drive customer advocacy. We put maintaining great relationships with our customers at the heart of everything we do. We do this not only because it's beneficial for us as a company, but mostly because we care about the individuals in the companies that use our products. We emphasize the human component in our customer marketing programs because they are the people who are changing the business world. For me, in the end, it’s always about being helpful, staying human, and truly caring for our customers. ## **Customer marketing wins** **Bozena Pieniazek:** Can you give me an example of a customer marketing program or initiative that has been particularly successful at Zendesk? **Valeria Gomez:** Something that is very close to my heart is Luminaries, our community for engaged leaders in customer experience. We provide a platform where they can share stories that showcase their expertise. They can also network with other customers from all over the globe. Our Luminaries program enables us to nurture those customer relationships and provide a cohesive customer program foundation for all Zendesk customers to engage with us as part of a unified experience. It also allows them to share stories, best practices, and lessons learned with the community as a whole. **Bozena Pieniazek:** That's really interesting. I had a chance to look at the Luminaries landing page before this chat, and I was very impressed. It looks like a great initiative. I'm curious to know, do you have to proactively reach out to those customers, or do customers come to you to participate? **Valeria Gomez:** They often reach out to us to participate. At Zendesk we emphasize relationships, and that's how it starts. Through this program, our Luminaries can participate in a lot of opportunities, including exclusive networking opportunities. It’s a great way for them to get recognition for all the amazing things that they do in their company. They can also interact with us, give us feedback, and share their ideas, and we can showcase their exceptional customer experiences and stories on different platforms. So yeah, they generally come to us, although sometimes we reach out to them because some people are not aware of the program. I have to say that we have a really good customer base in our Luminaries program. **Bozena Pieniazek:** That's great. How long has this program been running? **Valeria Gomez:** We launched during the pandemic. We had big plans to launch during our user conference in March 2020\. Unfortunately, we couldn't do that, so we had to pivot quickly and launch it online. We have over 3000 customers participating in our program right now, and we’re really looking forward to meeting them in person soon. We love to engage with our customers, so we'd like to hang out with them and get to know them. The digital world is great for reaching people across borders, but we also believe that you need to build relationships in person. We want to provide that so customers can engage with us and they can engage with other people. ## **Getting creative with customer stories** **Bozena Pieniazek:** I'm curious to know, what is something else that you're excited about? Do you have any initiatives or programs on the roadmap that you’re looking forward to? **Valeria Gomez:** Absolutely. First, we’re planning to take our Luminaries to our customers in person. That's on our radar, and we want to do it as soon as we can. Another thing that I'm very excited about is exploring other ways that we can showcase the voice of our customers, especially around multimedia assets in this new digital time. For example, we need to reinvent what customer videos are going to look like. We can’t always be with our customers in person, so we need to find a way to still tell the stories that our customers deserve and make sure that we keep these videos human. We have a few ideas, and hopefully, we'll be able to share a few examples in the next few months. **Bozena Pieniazek:** That's great. I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with. I guess it's a challenge these days. Of course, the pandemic made filming difficult, but also as companies are growing and you have more and more international customers, it's a challenge to connect with them – you can't always send a video team everywhere. **Valeria Gomez**: Absolutely. And we want to tell local stories that are relevant to different markets. When you have to travel with your video crew or find a local agency, it's a little bit challenging. We did a small project with our social media team creating new digital assets with the new slogan “champions of customer service.” We created some short digital videos, but because our customers couldn’t be there, we had to be creative with images, headshots, voiceovers, and things like that. We always want to have our customers in front of us though, so we’re looking forward to doing more of that soon. ## **Customer marketing resources** **Bozena Pieniazek:** To wrap up, if anyone is interested in learning more about customer marketing, are there any resources that you would recommend? **Valeria Gomez:** There are also a lot of things online. PMA has put together a lot of great resources on customer marketing, so you can access those. You can also look into industry resources like Gartner and Forrester. They have a lot of resources. They’re not all free, but if you have an analyst in your company, you can check if they have a license and access those reports that are curated for high-level industries. Then there’s LinkedIn. The customer marketing community there is small but growing, and I think everybody is really willing to really share their ideas. Sometimes when I want to bounce ideas off other people, I just reach out to them through LinkedIn and say, “Hey, I know you're in customer marketing. Would you mind taking 30 minutes for a virtual meet and greet?” Most people in customer marketing, believe me, are more than willing to share what’s on their minds. **Bozena Pieniazek:** I think sometimes it's the best way to learn – reach out to your peers, get their feedback, and see what they're doing. That worked well for me in product marketing. I would just reach out to people either on PMA or on LinkedIn and have a chat with them, see what they were doing, and learn from them. Thank you so much for this chat, Valeria. It was super interesting. **Valeria Gomez:** Thank you so much for having me. ### SaaS revenue-based financing: the cheat code to preventing ownership dilution URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-revenue-based-financing-the-cheat-code-to-preventing-ownership-dilution/ Last updated: 2022-12-15T13:00:20.000Z Your SaaS company has a magic word that hypnotizes [investors](https://www.saasalliance.io/strategic-investors-dont-matter/): recurring revenue. It's much easier (and less expensive) to keep existing [customers](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-ways-to-build-a-strong-relationship-with-your-customers/) than acquire new ones. If your product is sticky enough, existing customers bring you [revenue](https://www.saasalliance.io/revenue-operations-the-new-key-to-unlocking-growth/) on a silver platter. So how can you harness this power to your advantage? Enter revenue-based financing (RBF). ## The pros of SaaS revenue-based financing Traditionally, you had 2 SaaS financing options: debt and equity. Nowadays, RBF is a third option. It's a type of deal in which you sell a percentage of your future revenue to an investor in exchange for an up-front ["investment"](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-your-saas-company-attractive-for-investment/) from them. Like debt, it's a loan that needs to be repaid, with "interest" (more on this below). But unlike debt, the interest payments are based on a percentage of monthly recurring revenue (MRR). And unlike equity, the loan doesn't give the lender any ownership stake in the company. Re-read that last sentence aloud. Because it should sound like money to your ears. You get to avoid any dilution to your ownership stake! If that were the only benefit, it still might be worth it to go the RBF route. But it gets better. [SaaS finance in a post-pandemic world: lessons from Covid-19The pandemic was a frightening time for SaaS finance. But for those looking for a silver lining, The Future of SaaS Festival has solutions!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/towfiqu-barbhuiya-HNPrWOH2Z8U-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/panel-discussion-saas-finance-in-a-post-pandemic-world-lessons-from-covid-19/) Revenue-based financing is more flexible (and thus forgiving) than equity or debt. The monthly payments can go up or down depending on [MRR](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-scale-mrr-by-10x-with-inbound-traffic-with-no-cold-emails/), so it's not as big of a burden during lean times. In addition, it's often easier to qualify for than either debt or equity financing. Also consider that with an equity raise (or even SAFEs/convertible notes), [investors](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-steps-to-drive-your-company-from-early-to-growth-stage/) typically have certain rights (e.g. voting) and[ liquidation preferences](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/adam-tzagournis-cpa%5Fstartups-venturecapital-finance-activity-6996134554201718785-18th) that can limit your control over the company. RBF sidesteps these entirely. ## How to qualify and loan size To qualify for most revenue-based financing, your MRR should be above $50k. Some lenders may require positive cash flow and net income. Further, many require a gross margin of at least 50%, which shouldn't be an issue for most SaaS companies. Side note: if your gross margin is lower than this threshold, you're probably[ calculating the cost of revenue line item incorrectly](https://flowcog.com/saas-cost-of-revenue-cogs/?utm%5Fsource=future%5Fof%5Fsaas&utm%5Fmedium=post%5Fbody&utm%5Fcampaign=rbf). Fix it so investors don't lower your valuation for it. If you meet these criteria, loans range anywhere from $100k up to around $10mm with a length of 1-5 years. RBF lenders will typically let you borrow around a third of your annual [revenue](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-revenue-customer-success-can-work-together-more-effectively/). And the percentage of MRR you must pay back is 6-12% (a single flat percentage in that range) depending on the lender's risk assessment and your use of funds. ## Too good to be true? However, RBF is not without its drawbacks. But before we explain the risks involved, let's talk definitions first. There are some other contract arrangements and factors to take into account, but we'll keep it simple. ### Payback multiple The payback multiple, or repayment multiple, is multiplied by your loan amount to get the "interest" payment. For instance, if you borrow $1mm and have a payback multiple of 1.2, you'll end up paying $200k total as your cost of capital. The payback multiple is set in the contract and doesn't change. ### Target term The length of time for which the loan is outstanding. Think of the term as the max length (like with regular term loans). Your loan may be outstanding for less time than this depending on the speed at which your company grows. For instance, if you grow faster than originally expected (when the RBF contract was drawn up), you may end up paying back the loan much sooner. Remember, repayments are based on your MRR. In this case, your high repayments mean your loan is outstanding for less than the max term length. On the contrary, if you grow slower than expected, you may reach the max term length without having paid back the full loan amount. In this case, there's a balloon payment for the difference between the total repayment amount and the amount already paid back. The lender caps the target term to set a lower bound on their rate of return. (Otherwise, lending you $1mm now and waiting 20 years to get back $1.2mm is not a winning strategy!) ### Risks The risk in the slower growth scenario is similar to a regular term loan. That is, you have debt you need to repay, and you may risk defaulting on it if you miss revenue targets. The risk in the faster growth scenario is you'll end up paying a higher effective interest rate, potentially much higher than a fixed rate on a traditional term loan. Also, this type of SaaS financing doesn’t offer the ability to pay off the loan amount early (i.e. refinance it) without also paying the agreed-upon cost of capital. [What does an investor look out for in a SaaS product?With the increase in number of SaaS products, investors today have a large pool of startups to consider from. Here are the top 10 metrics that investors look at!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSWayne Wee![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/phone.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-does-an-investor-look-out-for-in-a-saas-product/) ### Revenue-based financing vs term loans It's *complicated* to compare term loans vs RBFs. That's because even though the cost of capital amount (in dollars) is fixed for RBF, the term length is not. This means RBFs don't have a stated interest rate. Instead, you need to estimate the effective interest rate. "Estimate" is the key word here, because you don't know in advance how long it'll take you to pay back the loan (it may take less time than the max term length if revenue grows quickly). This timing difference has a massive impact on the effective interest rate. A summary of the math is important to see since humans do not have good intuition around the compounding effects of the time value of money. We'll make this quick, we promise! In our example: - $1mm loan - You pay 5% of MRR each month - 1.2 payback multiple - 1 year max to pay back the $1.2mm For the RBF, let's say scenario A is that your MRR stays flat for 12 months at $333k. Each month you'd pay $333k \* .05 = $16,666\. Then, at month 12, since you hadn't paid back the entire $1.2mm owed, you'd have the $16,666 payment + the remaining $1mm. That's your balloon payment, and all of this equates to an effective interest rate of \~22%. ![Internal rate of return ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/Calculator-1.png) Ok, same RBF but scenario B. Now let's say a day after you sign the RBF you have a massive MRR spike (maybe that marketing campaign goes viral). MRR is now $2mm (it went *extremely* viral) and stays at that level for all 12 months. Because $2mm \* 5% is $100k, it takes you 12 months exactly to repay the entire $1.2mm. And repayments are spread evenly over those 12 months, so there's no balloon payment. Look at what happens though: ![Internal rate of return ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/calculator-2.png) You paid a 41% effective annual interest rate. Crazy! Lesson learned, don't do time value of money or IRR in your head. To summarize: - RBF scenario A had an effective interest rate of 22% - RBF scenario A had an effective interest rate of 41% So, this type of SaaS financing is only a good deal under certain circumstances and depends on how long you take to make your repayments. In all cases, you paid $200k in "interest". The difference, however, was the timing of the repayments. Keep in mind, even though the trade-off is risking a higher effective interest rate, RBF payments are much easier to make in the beginning when you're strapped for cash and have lower MRR. Instead of guessing, it's best to come up with various revenue forecast scenarios to see if RBF is a good deal for you. Then, this IRR [calculator](https://financial-calculators.com/irr-calculator) can help you calculate the rest. One last math caveat: if you're comparing RBFs using IRR, make sure you do the same with the term loan you're considering too. A $1mm term loan with even payments each month (e.g. a mortgage) and a 20% APR has an IRR of almost 22%. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/Calculator-3-.png) Use the same calculator and measurement for all options so you have an apples-to-apples comparison. ### RBF sounds good, what's next? If RBF is the right type of SaaS financing for you, the diligence is relatively straightforward. First, the investor will request data on your past performance to assess your risk. Then, you'll need to agree on the terms mentioned above. This includes the percentage of future revenue that will be sold, the repayment multiple, and term length. A final word of caution: some lenders try to stuff the contract with unfavorable covenants and restrictions. They may load it with warrants (i.e. stock options), liquidation preference, and voting rights. Avoid these quasi-equity partners and instead, look for an RBF lender that doesn't dilute your ownership. And of course, make sure to get a lawyer you trust to review everything. ### The bottom line Revenue-based financing for your SaaS company can be a great (and cheaper) alternative to equity. It fuels your company's growth without diluting you and is a unique option with some great benefits. Before committing to RBF though, create a clear financial model with different revenue forecasts based on key business drivers. That way, you can be confident that RBF is a good deal for you. And while there are a few things to watch out for, as long as you find a reputable SaaS financing partner (and a lawyer), you'll be in good shape. Note: **None of the above is legal, tax, or investment advice.** --- *Enjoyed this article? Check out our exclusive content from the leading minds in SaaS.* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How to measure and increase activation rate for SaaS URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-measure-and-increase-activation-rate-for-saas/ Last updated: 2022-12-13T14:00:53.000Z Getting users from trial to paid is a common challenge for SaaS companies. If you want your business to succeed, you need to convert more trial users into customers. This is where user activation comes in. It’s not only an important step in the user journey but also one of the most important SaaS metrics that can determine your business’ long-term success. Many companies tend to overlook this metric and the difference it can make to their SasS business. In fact, in early [2019](https://openviewpartners.com/blog/insights-from-350-saas-leaders-on-product-led-growth-maturity/), only a quarter of organizations were tracking activation. But it’s important to remember that activation is much more than someone clicking a confirmation button in your email. It’s about users achieving the promised value of your product. Growing your active product user base directly impacts product adoption and retention rate. So let’s dive into what user activation is and how you can measure and improve it to help your SaaS business grow. ## What is user activation, and why is it important for SaaS? User activation is a metric that defines a person’s engagement with your product. In SaaS, user activation happens when your free trial users experience the value of your product and continue to use it actively. It involves a series of steps and predefined milestones users must complete to be considered activated. ## Activation and SaaS pirate metrics Pirate metrics or the AARRR framework is a commonly used model for SaaS companies to measure growth and success. Introduced by David McClure, the founder of 500 Startups, the model divides the customer life cycle into 5 steps – starting from the first touch point with your business to becoming a paying customer. Monitoring each phase of the AARRR model can give SaaS businesses crucial insights into which parts of the customer life cycle are not performing well and how you can improve your conversion funnel. The 5 stages of the AARRR framework are: - **Acquisition:** During this stage, customers find and come to your product. It is the moment when the user decides to sign up for a free trial or a demo. - **Activation:** This is when customers experience the core value of your product. This stage is all about engaging with your product’s key features. - **Retention:** In this phase, customers come back to use your product again. It’s all about making sure they keep using your product after the purchase. - **Revenue:** Simply put, it means monetizing your customers. In this phase, the focus should be not only on generating repeated purchases, but also on increasing the average revenue per account via cross-selling, upselling, and add-ons. - **Referral:** At this stage, customers share your product with others and the users become product advocates. The AARRR funnel begins with a user starting their free trial or having a demo. When they decide to buy and actively use your software, that’s activation. Activation is an essential stage of the funnel as it’s the breaking point when new users realize that your product can help them achieve their goals. This is also often called the AHA moment – the point in the user experience where your product’s value becomes clear. You should aim to achieve the AHA moment as early as possible in the customer journey as it’s the moment that determines whether your customers engage further or churn. [How to improve user activationUser activation is one of the most important metrics in SaaS. Why? It has the highest impact on your MRR from all the ‘pirate metrics’. In this article, we’ll be looking at how to improve user activation and what’s a good rate when it comes to SaaS benchmarks.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmilia Korczynska![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/austin-distel-tLZhFRLj6nY-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-improve-user-activation/) ## Why is user activation important for SaaS companies? There are multiple reasons why activation is particularly important in the SaaS industry. Here are some of the most crucial ones: 1. **Building your customer base:** Activation is the gateway through which potential customers or trial users become paying customers. If you don’t do it successfully, you will wind up with a small customer base. 2. **Becoming profitable:** One of the main reasons why activation is important to SaaS lies behind the nature of the industry. In this business, you get paid monthly from every activated user. So, in order to become profitable, a low churn rate and high user activation rate are crucial. 3. **Setting the stage for a good user experience:** When it comes to user experience, you never want to start off on the wrong foot. A poor activation period, caused by a late AHA moment, lack of onboarding, or complicated purchase experience affects the customer lifecycle and lowers customer success rates in the long term. 4. **Detecting problems early:** Low activation rates are never a good sign. It can mean that somewhere along the way, the user has experienced friction, resulting in them becoming less inclined to keep using your software. Often these barriers are caused by a poor onboarding process or design flaws in the UX. However, the good news is that noticing low activation rates gives you a reason to re-evaluate your product and resolve these problems before they become bigger ones. ### 5\. How to calculate and track the SaaS activation rate? User activation rate is the key indicator of how successful your activation flow is and the most important metric to track during your onboarding process. In its essence, the activation rate measures the percentage of users who successfully complete a predefined milestone in your activation process. Typically, in SaaS, the milestone is something that occurs in the onboarding process, or at an early stage of a user’s experience with the application. The activation moment varies depending on your product, for example, for a food delivery app it can be the moment a user completes their first order, or for a music-streaming app, it can be the moment a user creates their first playlist. ## How to calculate the activation rate Calculating the activation rate is easier than defining the activation milestone – you simply divide the number of activated users by the total number of registered users and then multiply it by 100. ![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Zzcng0JGFh-Us7CrXBJiCnriJgRc1XWUqnyNxslzkwiuzm3HGOUlw6fqF1CsR5yaa3nJsOXj3EU-pZ5dEmI5FPlmiNyjAbBrZ6SzF-sD3Vf6cy4rChCYrsEMVM_TQu7H5OwxwmsEN73gs5LQhYHh5gqW96kUvHHp-qTlROHETLaHcQbF0ObcjXbUGbDDEQ) If you want to gain insights at a more granular level, don’t only calculate the rate of your entire user base but also for specific customer segments or target personas. It will help you discover how specific segments engage with your product and the onboarding process and uncover potential problems of converting certain groups of people into paying customers. Analytics tools like Google Analytics offer an easy way to monitor how many people are completing your set milestone. To get a better grip on your analytics, you can explore how similar companies track the same onboarding milestone or compare your activation rate to industry benchmarks. The top product-led growth SaaS companies achieve an activation rate of [40%](https://openviewpartners.com/blog/insights-from-350-saas-leaders-on-product-led-growth-maturity/) for free trial users, meaning that six in ten users churn. However, make sure to look at benchmarks for companies that have similar products to yours. If you have a unique activation milestone, external comparisons won’t be as helpful. ## Defining activation for your SaaS product The truth about the activation stage is that every SaaS business has to define it for itself. The key activation actions will be determined by the complexity of your product, the characteristics of your user personas, and the problems your potential customers are trying to solve. Some examples of activation milestones include signing up, setting up a profile, starting a free trial, completing the onboarding tour, or inviting a friend. However, user activation doesn’t apply to new users only. For existing customers, activation can mean adapting a new feature or transitioning from a basic to a premium plan. While there is no one-size-fits-all single metric, there are certain guidelines that can help you identify the activation moment for your SaaS. Firstly, it’s useful to look at a typical user activation flow and define how these three steps happen for your business: 1. **Value perception.** Before users can personally feel the value of your product, they first need to know what the value is. At this stage, users first realize what the product might do for them. This could happen even before they’ve tried out your product. 2. **Value experience.** The first thing a new user does is learn how to use your product. At this stage, users experience basic functionality and discover what the product does and how it works. Valuable experience in this phase will determine whether users will continue engaging with your product. 3. **Value adoption.** This stage happens when users have used the app enough to see the product’s value at full scale. A product has been “adopted” when the user has moved from trialing the product to adopting it into their workflow, routine, and habits. ![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/OwH5WKAR88C_vJBRUhTSUP_jbQ0UTLVAVVKeqFmT6CkS3zGYusvspGpOlrzx5HLplUISN8yzVR8l-nLk5-hGTH-OIyRLYbChNKzQnco1mSRMu6zKcr56hcAW_4k1BGMyun1fESyUFk2-rGPx-h56zVa3Kn1QXEJTlXyOfrCY3eZgTNHZc_px7HIa_an0hw) To realize when activation happens for your SaaS product, you need to determine how these three steps happen for your users. Especially pay attention to the moment when users have experienced the product enough to see its entire value. Usually, it happens when people have engaged with the product beyond its basic usage. To find out where customers find value in your service, combine customer feedback with analytics data. For example, reach out to your most valued customers and ask them what they value most in your product or review customer feedback. Ask yourself: - What goal does the user want to achieve using my product? - What do customers value most in my product? - What steps should an ideal customer take to adopt my product? - What does activation mean for my service? - What is the moment when a user feels the value is received? [SaaScast: Building profitable products with customersWith several years of experience leading product teams, Jacqueline knows how to drive a SaaS org to reach that product roadmap vision.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/FoSaaS_SaaScast_Podcast_2022_Assets_3.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-profitable-products-with-customers/) ## 5 tips to improve your SaaS activation rate You could say that successful activation is all about positive first impressions. Removing any friction and making it extremely easy for new users to start using your product and derive value from it should be at the heart of any activation strategy. So if you’re looking to enhance your activation rate, here are some proven tips that will help you turn trial users into paid customers. ### 1\. Enhance the user onboarding process Customer onboarding is the process that guides new users through the key features of your product. The lack of proper onboarding can keep them from getting to that AHA moment and reaching your activation milestone. For SaaS companies, the onboarding process is all about setting the stage for your relationship with your customers and following through on what you’ve offered in the sales pitch. When it comes to improving activation, there are several elements of the onboarding process that you can tweak: - Reduce the time it takes to set up a new account. - When it comes to sign-up forms, limit them to a maximum of 3–5 fields and use drop-downs or checkboxes to make it easier and faster for users. - Focus on the minimum path to receiving value. - Skip irrelevant messages and use customer behavior data to send targeted campaigns. - Minimize distractions and friction. - Use progress indicators to inform users of their completion status. - Use in-app messages to point users to anything that can reveal the value of your product sooner. For example, Notion uses a fully functional checklist to teach new users the actions they’ll need to access their product’s core value. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/getting-started.png) ### 2\. Use email automation Email automation is the backbone of a strong onboarding strategy and a great way to help users find value in your product. You can start by sending a personalized welcome email, then move on to introducing new users with your most popular features. Rewarding engagement, explaining advanced features, and encouraging users to try new features can all be part of your email sequence. Here are some tips to create email automation that improves activation rates: - Your user’s inbox is a busy place, so prioritize quality over quantity. - Personalize your messages. - Focus on the values and benefits of your product. - Trigger emails based on user behavior. - Add a clear call to action to guide the user to the next steps in their activation journey. - Make sure people receive your emails in their Primary folder. Writing engaging emails is not enough if they land in the user’s spam folder. To tackle this, Outreachboard instructs people on how to receive their emails in the Primary folder instead of Social, Promotions, or Spam. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/outreachboard.jpeg) ### 3\. Offer proactive customer support To help customers get to the activation moment, offer them help and provide good customer service. Here are some ideas on how to encourage users to proceed with activation by using customer support: - **Calls:** Offer a free strategy call to identify the user’s problem and suggest the most appropriate way to use your product to solve it. - **Guided onboarding:** Work with the user to help them reach the AHA moment by introducing the product and showcasing its value to them. - **Provide a stable channel of support:** Make sure users who run into problems and require immediate support can easily receive it. - **Live chat:** Offer help from a customer service agent who can assist the users along the way. Have a look at this example from [Loom](https://www.loom.com/). Multiple guidance videos are offered to the users to proactively eliminate the need for support. By adding short, two to four-minute videos for different use cases of their service, they make sure that confused customers quickly find the answers to the struggles they face with the tool. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/12/recording-a-vid.png) ### 4\. Don’t underestimate the value of copywriting Both design elements and copy are essential if you want to increase your activation rate. The language and words you use can make a significant difference to the actions your users take. Some of the SaaS copywriting tips that can improve activation include: - Emphasize benefits, not features. - Address your customer’s pain points. - Keep it simple and use easy-to-read, informative language. - Use social proof like testimonials, ratings, and comments. - You’re writing for humans, not bots, so make your copy relatable. - Use the terms that resonate with your audience, but don’t slip into using jargon. Language matters, especially when it comes to turning free trial users into paying customers. For example, Capsulink uses short and straightforward phrasing on its pricing page. Instead of explaining that users will save 16% by choosing the yearly plan, they write “2 months free” which enhances the perceived value of the paid plan. ![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/emtKK6zkckuTZCLnYOreuej1dCv2aNmUchZGTlJ0TQT-mE4ZML2wt-M5kVDYi8Ksf6rJoXQbNj10V17Oweb6JLVGlCERXez7HYdkj8EmcVH8umntc86ZHCh2ubcsfrzlZOyIsQbHOfhmeJg4JbnBDlXsfq3MSmJT21CXSq0TZ2Deiern9K5bni7Na19e5w) ### 5\. Create interactive product tours Product tours are short guides that show new users the product features they need to learn in order to reach their activation milestone. Bad product tours can leave users feeling confused and unsure of what to do next. This is why it’s important to nail your product tour to get your users to their AHA moments faster. The most effective product tours that drive activation adhere to a few key guidelines: - Forget about linear and top-down product tours. Instead, create an interactive and personalized experience for your users. - Explaining every little feature will only lead to frustration. Show users only those key features they need to reach their activation milestone and let them learn those features by interacting with them in real time. - Keep in mind that the features needed for activation vary among audience segments, so each potential customer should receive a somewhat different product tour. - Don’t dump information on your users. Instead, create a product tour where each new step is triggered by the user concluding the previous step. - Respect your customer’s time by making sure your tour isn’t too long. Three to five steps are usually enough for an onboarding flow. For example, Typeform uses a demo-like environment and adds hotspots and beacons to direct users and easily explain the rather complicated features. ## Wrapping up User activation is the most essential step in the customer journey. Without successful activation, your users will churn before even engaging with your service. Ensuring users find the AHA moment and reach their activation milestone as soon as possible is a common challenge to tackle for SaaS companies. However, by regularly tracking your activation rates and using smart strategies to streamline the user activation process, you can grow the base of active users in no time. *This article was originally written for* [*Custify’s blog.*](https://www.custify.com/blog/measure-increase-activation-rate-saas/#) --- Like what you see? Why not sign up to a FoSaaS membership plan for all the exclusive insights. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### A model to fast-track new hires to productivity URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/a-model-to-fast-track-new-hires-to-productivity/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:51:31.000Z *This article is based on a presentation given at Future of SaaS Festival 2022\. Get the full talk OnDemand* [*right here.* ](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-3/) My name is Gerry Hurley and I lead sales enablement globally for Tripadvisor’s B2B business. I'm honored to have the opportunity to share our approach to fast-tracking new hires to productivity. In this article, I’m going to give you an insight into our onboarding process for our SMB business unit in the hope you might find some relevant learnings that could enhance your own onboarding process. Before I start, I’d like to acknowledge that what I’m about to share is the product of true collaboration among our amazing team at TripAdvisor, spanning my own mighty sales enablement team, revenue operations, go-to-market teams, and sales teams, all with the support of our inspirational leadership. Let's break down the sections of this article: - Context - A word of warning: Don’t jump the gun - Analysis - Design - Implementation - Impact ## Context Before presenting our onboarding model, I want to provide a bit of context. We’re all acutely aware of the impact COVID has had and continues to have on our lives. In particular, the hospitality industry has had a very challenging 18 months, which in turn has had a dramatic impact on TripAdvisor. At our lowest point in the pandemic, we were down as much as 86% in revenue. As you can imagine, this required us to go into triage mode and look at ways to weather the storm. This resulted in a significant reduction in force, with close to 900 people leaving TripAdvisor, furlough schemes for sales, a significant cost reduction program, a consolidation of our restaurant and hotel business units, and a shift in our sales motion from acquisition to support. Thankfully, the hospitality industry is resilient, and by the start of 2021 we were starting to see green shoots of recovery, a massive pent-up desire to travel, and a global vaccination program that accelerated the path to recovery. It was at this point that we felt it was the right time to start recruiting again, so we set about the task of recruiting and onboarding over 128 new sellers to our global SMB business. To put that in context, that is an additional 30% headcount on where we were. This is where our sales enablement team enters the story. We had a request from sales leadership for ramp, revenue, productivity, and all of this as soon as possible with the minimum impact on their business. I'm sure this type of request is not new to you. In my experience, this is the type of problem statement sales enablement professionals often get, and while it is a great starting point, it's ultimately not very useful for us. You see, in my experience, sales leaders are very quick to say what they want as an outcome, but aren't quick to say what they want as an activity that produces the outcome because the process of identifying the right kind of activity is actually very scientific. When you think about it, it kind of makes sense. I believe most sales leaders, to a certain extent, understand enablement, but they are stronger at understanding “deliver results” and “drive people.” They don't have time to sit and develop strategies because they're accountable, right? That’s why sales leaders – particularly the successful ones – have a much stronger tendency to just execute. They're not interested in ideation. That's where we sales professionals have an opportunity. Actually, no, I'll go a little bit further and say we have a *responsibility* to come in and play our role. ## A word of warning: Don’t jump the gun Before I share how we responded to this ask, a word of caution. The desire to just execute for sales enablement is high. We want to jump in and help, but sometimes we leap into action too soon. I call this jumping the gun. What I've learned over the years is to try not to do this. Rather, it's best to do two things first: 1. **Baseline your data** – What does the ask mean in terms of activity? 2. **Get stakeholder buy-in** – Get a commitment from sales leaders and sales managers to hold their sales teams accountable for those activities. It's a symbiotic relationship. You need sales managers holding the reps accountable for the activities that drive revenue, and you hold enablement accountable for developing the skills that boost those activities. ## Analysis As I just mentioned, we started by baselining our data. In conjunction with sales leaders, rev ops, and enablement, we established a set of activity metrics, with the end goal of ultimately being able to generate and retain revenue faster than our prior ramp time of six months. We looked at historical data and reviewed the levels of activities and revenue successful reps had previously done during their training periods. In addition, we aimed to have reps complete training in a way that they would be profitable at month four and drive more monthly recurring revenue by the end of the six-month period than the 2019 average. The next step was to define metrics for the two main roles we were recruiting for: business development executives and customer success executives. These metrics included the following: - Talk time - Daily activities in Salesforce - Opportunities created over a week - Monthly recurring revenue - Service level adherence - Call quality as determined by call reviews in adherence to our call flow - Behavioral feedback on how reps were engaging and their attitude ## Design Having baselined our data and established a set of activities that would drive revenue and productivity, we mobilized a project team to help design and execute. This group comprised a dedicated project manager from a go-to-market team, people ops and recruitment specialists, sales enablement professionals, revenue operations, and of course sales leadership. With a high-velocity hiring plan, we needed new ways to onboard reps that were scalable, could fast-track reps to productivity, and would allow us to quickly identify people at risk and take action. We rebuilt our onboarding plan to span 12 weeks, with the first three weeks focusing on a sales academy, equipping reps with the product, the system, and the process and sales skills required to be successful. The remaining nine weeks focused on sharpening those skills on the job in an incubator environment, which we called a training floor, where a dedicated team leader provided high levels of coaching and support to build activity and deliver revenue. To successfully graduate from onboarding and enter a productive team, reps must pass a number of formal control gates, hitting or exceeding set KPIs. ## Implementation Next, we set about mapping a ramp path across each role and function. We put control gates in place at weeks three, four, eight, and twelve, where there was a formal review of rep performance against the agreed metrics. There were three possible ranked statuses in these progress reviews. Green indicated that the rep was hitting or exceeding their KPIs and was ready to proceed. Orange meant they were close and could proceed with coaching and a plan to address their gaps. Red indicated a need to move to a short-term improvement plan or exit. We set expectations up front in interviews, contracts, and throughout the sales academy that we were a performance-driven organization and to be successful, reps needed to meet or exceed set KPIs, otherwise, they wouldn't be able to proceed. We also aligned our control gates to coincide with probationary periods. Using Tableau in a self-service capacity, our rev ops team built reporting to showcase performance against benchmarks, trended weekly by role, team, and region. While having robust reporting that both reps and team leaders can use is fantastic, we also needed to build a cadence of utilizing the reporting to drive performance conversations and corrective actions. With that in mind, we created some tools to support our team leaders in managing performance. These included a behavioral scorecard to assess engagement, participation, attitude, openness to feedback, etc., so we could assess the ‘how’ as well as the ‘what’. We also created a tool to track rep performance across all KPIs week on week, as well as a weekly feedback loop to share best practices, identify blockages, and validate performance conversations. A key success factor of the ramp program was the nine-week training floor run by team leaders. Most of these were new team leaders promoted from within the business so to support them, we developed a skill-based training program to give them the essential skills and practical tools to build, coach, and lead new hire cohorts successfully through our onboarding program. We utilized the flipped classroom model, with the team leaders completing bite-sized e-learning training independently during working hours and a schedule that suited them. We then brought them together in facilitated classrooms to do live problem-solving and application of that learning. Finally, as a project team, we met to review how each cohort of hires was performing on average, pinpointing areas of progress and concern. In fact, we are currently undergoing a Six Sigma lean project to understand why we're seeing variance in performance across recent cohorts. ## Impact So, how did we do? Remember, our goal was to ramp the SMB sales team back up, adding an additional 128 headcount and ensuring quality training across the product portfolio and focused coaching, all with the aim of getting reps driving revenue as soon as possible. To date, we have put 111 new hires through the program, with 10 recruits that didn't make it. We're exceeding benchmarks for average daily activities, opportunity creation, and save rates, and we're now able to understand days to sale, with the first sale coming in on average around 28 days from the start of the program. In terms of net monthly recurring revenue signed, new hires are generating as much by month four as tenured reps, and we're now starting to see that new hires are generally more productive than tenured reps in terms of levels of activity. In conclusion, up until we implemented this process, we did not have a good handle on the performance of new hires, nor did we systematically track progress throughout a sales rep's training period. We've now operationalized the ability to manage and measure key sales productivity metrics that drive revenue and convert opportunities into signed deals. We’ve also created a platform for sales to have conversations with their teams around why they are or are not able to generate revenue. ### SaaScast: Building profitable products with customers URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/building-profitable-products-with-customers/ Last updated: 2022-12-08T14:18:52.000Z In this episode of SaaScast, Jacqueline Porter, Director of Product Management at GitLab, discusses the process of building products that address customer pain points, whilst still meeting those all-important revenue goals. With several years of experience leading product teams, Jacqueline knows how to drive a SaaS org to reach that product roadmap vision. Listen here. 👇 --- [‎SaaScast: SaaScast | Jacqueline Porter, GitLab on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep SaaScast | Jacqueline Porter, GitLab - Dec 8, 2022![](https://podcasts.apple.com/favicon.ico)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts114/v4/b5/9a/da/b59ada82-7e01-599f-d06e-a6be4ee9c157/mza_8981349833046552751.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/saascast-jacqueline-porter-gitlab/id1544750249?i=1000589388448) --- Key talking points include: - Building products for developers - Prioritizing customer demands - Communicating with senior stakeholders - The importance of customer advocacy ## A bit of background on Jacqueline Jacqueline’s start start in tech and product management was, by her own admission, untraditional to say the least. But as a result, she is a testament to how transferable skills from other industries can be an absolute asset in SaaS. She began her career in construction management, where she worked with technology and software products to improve the efficiency of the day to day work. After completing her MBA, she progressed to being a project manager at a startup and began streamlining product operations, seeing incredible results! After multiple years experience and multiple promotions, Jacqueline is now Director of Product at GitLab. She’s committed to enabling developers to work smarter and not harder so businesses can attain goals. But that's just a snapshot of what we have in store. Get the full story right here. ## Get involved Want to learn more about scaling, or share your knowledge? ‌‌Why not be a guest on SaaScast? Simply drop our Content Creator, Anthony Witherspoon, a line here: anthony@futureofsaas.io ### The Future of SaaS Report URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-report-2/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:36:59.000Z ### How do you stay competitive in an overcrowded market? How can you keep your brand relevant and stay up-to-date with all the current trends? With the Future of SaaS Report 2022, we forecast the game-changing trends set to take the SaaS sector by storm in 2023 and beyond, as well as arming you with crucial insights on how to successfully implement them into your growth strategy, straight from some of the leading minds in SaaS. Our aim is to help you get ahead of the curve, to **get competitive and stay competitive**. Check out what we have in store. 👇 In this report, we’ve partnered with **Scytale** and **TD Synnex** to tackle the most relevant topics Here are just some of the trends we’ll be uncovering: 🚀 AI and Machine learning 📱 Mobile optimization 🚫 Low-code/no-code 📈 Vertical vs horizontal SaaS 💻 Hybrid/remote work All that and so much more. ## Uncover data, interviews, and actionable insights to impact change As well as highlighting exciting developments in SaaS, we’ve compiled in-depth interviews from SaaS professionals across a range of different functions, to give you a broad view of how the SaaS landscape is set to evolve. Get a taste of that here: > “Artificial intelligence is allowing us to understand and design experiences for customers in a way we never have before. Through AI-driven sentiment analysis, you can understand customer pain points with less bias — you can get to the data-driven conclusion of what issues are most important without having your perspective tinted by what you believe is the most important correction. In doing so, you can change things for your product that are going to have the maximum impact for customers, and therefore your business.” Chris Martinez, **Idiomatic** > “Many companies hire low-code development staff to create apps for their business. These apps help companies grow by providing easy ways to do things in the business world. Creating low-code apps saves companies time and money by avoiding the need to pay full-time coders. Plus, it makes it easy for users to access the features they want without asking IT support for help with setting up new features. For these reasons, low-code development is a great way for SaaS companies to grow their business.” Rajesh Namase, **Prudour Pvt. Ltd.** What are you waiting for? See the results. Download now ### The role of FOMO on consumer psychology URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-role-of-fomo-on-consumer-psychology/ Last updated: 2022-12-06T15:33:29.000Z OMO, or fear of missing out, is an acronym for a psychological worry that’s been ingrained in the human psyche for as long as we can remember. Coined in 1996, FOMO is a term used to describe the stress people experience when they realize others are potentially having more fun than them. You’ve likely heard it used in a more social sense, for example, when your friends are out having fun while you’re at work. However, it has a place within marketing, too, and it can be a very interesting method of selling a product to your target market. In this article, we’ll delve deeper into this topic, and the role FOMO has on consumer psychology, focusing specifically on: - What is FOMO marketing? - Real-life examples of FOMO marketing - Other ways you can use FOMO in marketing - The challenges of capitalizing on FOMO in marketing ## **What is FOMO marketing?** FOMO marketing is a term that refers to the messaging that entices consumers to purchase something before it’s no longer available. In the essay, Conformity, Conformity Behavior, and FOMO, authors Inwon Kang, Haixin Cui, and Jeyoung Son say: “FOMO can be distinguished from two kinds of psychological traits, one is the desire for belonging and the other is anxiety of isolation.” The fear of missing out isn’t necessarily about missing out on getting a good deal; it’s about finding a product before they become unavailable. Some studies have shown that consumers who experience FOMO spend more on average than those who don’t. This may be because their fear of missing out pushes them to spend money they don’t have. This can be in the form of: - Impulse buying, - Bulk buying, or even just - Paying more than the average price to have the same experience. It’s a clever technique that usually relies on the nature of the messaging. To get an idea of what we mean, let’s take a look at some real-life examples of FOMO marketing. [The psychology behind customer successCustomer centricity is a culture in the workplace that hinges on creating the best experience for the customer, which in turn, generates brand loyalty.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSGrace Gupta![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/brain.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-psychology-behind-customer-success/) ## **Examples of FOMO marketing** ### **ASOS - ‘Selling fast!’** Many B2C businesses have a tag or piece of messaging within their site or store that indicates a sense of limited stock, or that time is running out for you to purchase a product, particularly when selling a physical product This adds a sense of urgency and panic, pushing prospective customers to buy the product if they feel like it’s not going to be there for much longer. For example, the online clothing store ASOS does a brilliant job of this. Within their sale section on the navigation bar, they have a tab labeled “Selling fast”, which is bright red, whilst the other tabs are black. The color makes the words stand out more; red, giving the connotation that there’s an emergency, and the phrase showing, again, a limited stock. The phrase “selling fast” also gives the idea that a lot of people are purchasing it, reinforcing this sense of FOMO within the target customer, because it’s clearly a popular item that others are enjoying. [![Image of the ASOS website navigation bar, under "Sale" where there is a tab that says "SALE selling fast".](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/V94QITWSvTF3I5672ir3M3M9amogkI2q-sfJoJlAVy-4m4RGLFbkcyvBMziuxTdUj2QzmQBe9Wvrm6c_UPjgJXzNFoFroSXVsoKq9nKGJUnb4K0X38htgdQBSW3oHl5cbm49CArOOp2E3unmtrFErbg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-role-of-fomo-on-consumer-psychology) They also put the same phrase on the actual product images - so, when you’re scrolling through a page and notice a product is “selling fast”, you immediately assume it’s something valuable, something you’ll likely want, and also something that’ll stop you from missing out if you purchase it. [![A photo of a person wearing shoes and a label on it that says "selling fast"](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/OoTUtXTY9XNM08GYxkSoeTbt46DAvkyoR9x-PRPbsltABLdf0WhTwoFKnBZI8uouZZHgEtHnl1cCN4aE2nyL8UQcbKgyY4tJGJ5EUhI8pnTSGqf8seLY0HMgUkZFwlUEg_s7mhPt-5LoZ1mypgo3JyQ)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-role-of-fomo-on-consumer-psychology) ### **Klue - ‘100,000+ users…’** Another way companies will instill this sense of FOMO within their target market is by using numbers to show their product’s popularity. The Klue messaging in the image below is a great example of how to do this; they’re highlighting a large number of people (“100,000+ users rely on Klue”) who’ve already signed up for the platform. It indicates that there’s something popular that you, as the prospective customer, are missing out on, that others are already enjoying. [![A screenshot from Klue's website which says "100,000+ users rely on Klue to come out on top. But don't just take our word for it, see what our customers have to say."](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/SJimMJ6xJTuOuLjbWBqutkmtdDS3WM1fRAnqvh83Z5mi7KVwtr5mKg3sulytHq5kExz6YYMfzHJdQ3ra9WyqW6K8E8Atoq70pc9-538wRtmVl0SlVEDf79-HY0K_mbEK7xA9tEeoYzRy2WQuNrjBKms)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-role-of-fomo-on-consumer-psychology) ### **Glastonbury festival - ticket registration** A common method of FOMO marketing is events that require registration to purchase tickets. One of the most popular examples is Glastonbury Festival. Unlike other festivals, Glastonbury requires you to register for tickets before they launch. There are many steps to the registration process, and by the end of it, you’re still not guaranteed a ticket. [![A screenshot from the Glastonbury Festival Registration page - which says "To obtain tickets for glastonbury festival events you must register. Failure to follow the registration instructions correctly will lead to rejection, you will be notified if this occurs; however we would advise that you check your registration prior to tickets going on sale to ensure your registration has been accepted. Anyone twelve or under when gates open does not need a ticket and therefore need not register. Registration does not guarantee you a ticket. You will need your registration number to purachase tickets when they go on sale."](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/LC4peAw3BvrxQfokbSIZEJ_5-GRl82m47I7bZE-jNmdeJsAQN2P0ddOreA_WBGxE63p96xKw4c4jqNMCv67ESIYKQSHQL1zsFQH1jEes9qe0LAXP-1d72luLo2jdntWSUuh_ODgmxPdYBdE-4T14Vw)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-role-of-fomo-on-consumer-psychology) This technique only works when an event or company is already fairly popular because it creates a sense of exclusivity toward the event, and panic if they won’t get a place. However, if it was from a less popular event, people wouldn’t care as much, and the registration process would cause more of a deterrent than being a “must have”. [Bridging the gap between sales & marketingSaleswhale’s Catherine Farley, Director of Marketing, and Brandon Gargan, Director of Sales, discuss bridging the gap between the two, common reasons for misalignment, and the nature of the relationship between the teams at Saleswhale.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/sonja-guina-fbjSCmE5iDI-unsplash-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/bridging-the-gap-between-sales-marketing/) #### ****What can we learn from these examples?** These techniques work because they allow customers to feel as though they’re getting a deal that they’d otherwise not have access to. Also, these techniques provide a sense of urgency that makes the consumer act immediately. It’s all a way of applying consumer behavior to your marketing technique. *Gain further insights into what influences consumer behavior with the article below.* ## **Other ways you can use FOMO in marketing** ### **Set a time limit** > 60% of people As we already know, time limits on sales cause FOMO because the prospective customer is worried it’ll no longer be available once the time is up. This’ll cause an increase in purchases due to the amount of impulse buys the time limit will create. ****Top tip:** Using a countdown clock on your website is effective as it’s a visual reminder to the customer that their time is running out. ### **Offer a giveaway** A giveaway can be effective for a few reasons. First, the audience will feel as though they’re a part of something special, helping to alleviate the fear of missing out. Second, there’s a time limit added to this, meaning they also have that sense of urgency that they need to apply immediately so they don’t miss the deal. And finally, there’s nothing particularly exhaustive for the customer to do, other than sign up. It’s an easy win for them, and an easy win for you. ### **Use social proof or case studies** Proving that others use your product or service is a great way to show that there’s something the prospective customer is missing out on if they don’t purchase it. This is especially true for case studies, as they’re designed specifically to show how useful and enjoyable your product is to use. A way to take this a step further - or ‘raise’ the level of FOMO - is by using an influencer or celebrity to promote your product. After all, there is a high correlation between popularity and FOMO. This is useful because it gives you a bigger chance that your target audience will see your product, it can then cause more conversations and popularity around your product, which then will potentially increase the number of purchases. [Your ultimate guide to creating a value propositionA value proposition communicates how your product or service will benefit your customer. You need to outline why your product is essential for your target segment, how it will solve their pain points, and why your product is more desirable than others on the market.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/alexander-popov-iQqqo2zpmTI-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-ultimate-guide-to-creating-a-value-proposition/) ### **Improve your messaging techniques** As we mentioned previously, messaging is a huge part of FOMO marketing. After all, a lot of it comes down to the phrasing of your message. Your messaging can make or break the decision-making process. So, ensure to optimize your content and copywriting techniques, and carry out enough consumer research to know how your target demographic likes to be spoken to. ## **The challenges of capitalizing on FOMO** ### **Ethical concerns** The fear of missing out has become more popular since the rise of social media. In fact, a study showed that ****56%** of social media users experience FOMO. After all, it is a place where people constantly seek validation from others, especially among adolescents, college students, and young adults. > ****48%** While this enables marketing professionals to sell their products easier, there’s a growing fear that certain customer segments are being exploited and taken advantage of for financial gain. ### **Skewed data** Another issue is that by focusing on instilling this sense of FOMO in your target market, you’re going to attract an audience that doesn’t have particularly positive purchase intentions. For example, there is a phenomenon called “scalping” where people use bots or an automated platform to buy tickets to events (especially concerts) to later sell them for increased prices. This then makes data analysis and market research more difficult, as some of the data you have collected on your “target audience” isn’t necessarily correct. This could then have a knock-on effect on your marketing approach. ### **Coming off as disingenuous** By capitalizing on your target audience’s fear of missing out, your company runs the risk of seeming disingenuous, untrustworthy, or forceful. Some of the FOMO marketing methods are widely known and disliked. For example, when influencers or celebrities market products that they clearly don’t use purely for compensation. This then reduces credibility for both your brand and the influencer, if done incorrectly. One way to combat this is by finding someone who genuinely loves and uses your product. This way, they’ll have a lot more to say about it, and be able to market it for a more positive effect. Plus, when people then purchase your product, they’ll understand the marketing efforts were genuine, making them trust your brand in the future. --- *Enjoyed this article? Check out our exclusive content from the leading minds in SaaS.* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How to launch an API into a market, and keep it there URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-launch-an-api-into-a-market-and-keep-it-there/ Last updated: 2022-12-02T14:18:00.000Z Hi, I'm Nick Knuppe, Product Marketing Lead at Mollie, and I’m going to talk you through a topic I'm extremely fanatical about: Go-to-market – more specifically, how to launch an API into a market (or several markets) and keep it there. _This post is for subscribers only._ ### How thought leadership can boost your SaaS growth URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-thought-leadership-can-boost-your-saas-growth/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:37:10.000Z Building a successful SaaS org isn’t just about growing your customer base, it's also about creating a firm foundation of trust with your existing customers to ensure solid [retention.](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-it-means-to-have-a-high-customer-retention-rate/) 💪 No one wants a leaky bucket org, and you can seal up the cracks by creating and curating content around SaaS [thought leadership.](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-a-thought-leadership-strategy/) Thought leadership is not a new term, it was coined by Joel Kurtzman, Editor-in-Chief of Strategy+Business Magazine, in 1994\. He defined it as follows: > “A thought leader is recognized by peers, customers and industry experts as someone who deeply understands the business they are in, the needs of their customers and the broader marketplace in which they operate.” But what kind of content format should you be producing, and can it really boost your [growth?](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-your-customers-your-growth-priority/) 🤔 That’s what we’re here to find out, but first let's deal with the hows and whys. Starting with…👇 ## Why should I care about thought leadership? Great customer retention might be the holy grail for SaaS orgs looking to reach sustained growth, but the truth is, there’s nothing magic about the path you take to get there. It takes rigorous, methodical work, and there are many strategies you can take to get there, including [customer analytics](https://www.saasalliance.io/measuring-the-impact-of-customer-success-and-related-efforts-on-customer-retention/), great customer service and [customer advocacy](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/). Building out great content is just another channel through which you can engage your customers. But there’s something more important than that… By positioning yourself as an authority in your field, you’re gonna give your brand that air of credibility. This is where the thought leadership element comes in. In other words, you’re framing your brands not as cynical cash-grabbers, but as an org that’s got its finger on the pulse of new developments within the industry, and actively trying to shape solutions within the field. Marketer Liz Willits, defines the process as follows: > “A content marketer's job is NOT to create content. Their job is to turn your company into an industry thought leader. And to flip the buying relationship. So that your company doesn't need to chase down leads. Instead, leads come to YOU.” Now let’s get to the how… 👇 [Content types for customer educationMany organizations are turning to customer education as a solution to improve retention, increase spend, and drive customer satisfaction and loyalty. But what exactly is included under “customer education”?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSVicky Kennedy![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1471107340929-a87cd0f5b5f3?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDEzfHxibG9nfGVufDB8fHx8MTYyMjczNzYyNQ&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/content-types-for-customer-education/) ## How content increases engagement It does this by encouraging discussion within the sector. [Customers](https://www.saasalliance.io/bring-your-own-metrics-driving-growth-through-customer-success/) like to feel like they’re being seen, heard and that their opinions are valued. By putting out content that they can actively engage with, and by facilitating discussion between other professionals, you can position your brand as one that actively seeks out the opinion of potential and existing customers. Social media platforms like LinkedIn can get eyes on your product, that goes without saying, but if you’ve spent much time on LinkedIn you’ll know that articles focused on hot topics often encourage sustained discussion and debate. Sustained engagement with your content means more visibility and a higher chance that potential customers are going to be curious about your brand. Another holy grail, your brand visibility increases as well. ## How content creates community The chances are you’ve heard of [community-led growth](https://www.saasalliance.io/6-savvy-tips-for-community-led-saas-growth/), the process through which a brand’s users can become advocates in online communities. But an online community is difficult to hold together without its talking points. Content is the glue that holds communities together. By creating great thought leadership content, you’re able to keep the conversation going within your online community, a thriving community is more likely to grow, and pretty soon (hopefully) you have a chance of increasing customer conversions. Similarly, your most engaged customers become ambassadors for your community, creating the impression that your brand is worth shouting from the rooftops about. Engaged ambassadors can also potentially answer and resolve customer queries. So, have we convinced you that thought leadership content can be an asset to your org? Great. Now let’s dig deeper into the kind of content you should be looking to create. ## Leveraging blog articles for growth Having your founders and senior personnel publish articles can boost their credibility, and by association, the reputation of your org. But this must be handled with delicacy. Yes, your ultimate aim is going to be increasing sales on your product, but that credibility can be undermined if your post is transparently a tiresome sales pitch. In order to fashion your content as genuine thought leadership, it’s important that it’s geared towards enabling potential customers to arrive at solutions, taking into account research and developments occurring elsewhere in your industry. You’re not just a revenue-chaser, you’re a problem solver, but in order for your piece to be taken seriously it should be well-researched, organized, concise, and informed by the experience of and expertise of your author. Potential customers are going to feel like they’re in good hands if your org is headed by a genuine SaaS whiz. You should be mindful of the publications that you put your content out there on, aside from your own blog, of course. A reputable publication can be a subtle endorsement, and if you’re able to secure a backlink from their site, it’s going to do wonders for your search engine ranking. Again, increasing your likelihood of [engagement.](https://www.saasalliance.io/client-engagement-human-in-the-digital-age-customer-success-direct-commerce-q-a/) [Interactive content ideas for each stage of the buyer’s journeyMy name is Diego Gomes, I am the CEO and founder of Rock Content, and in this article, I’m going to discuss interactive content ideas for each stage of the buyer journey.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDiego Gomes![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/kal-visuals-RCUncjOfNfc-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/interactive-content-ideas-for-each-stage-of-the-buyers-journey/) ## Research reports and whitepapers Reports and whitepapers can be a time-consuming endeavor, but research shows that marketers consider them to be a valuable channel for engagement. According to a study conducted by [Content Marketing Research](https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2018-b2b-research-final.pdf), 50 percent of businesses rank white papers among the top three most effective content marketing tactics. In terms of credibility, a whitepaper will serve a very similar purpose to an article, but it allows further scope for research, which is going to further reinforce your role as an authority in your field. The greater scope for length allows for more in-depth solutions. The impression this creates? That your org is truly committed not just to selling, but to resolving the problems of potential customers. It can also be a more collaborative piece of content, allowing you to incorporate the expertise of other thought leaders in the industry. This will give your content, and by association, a rub of authority. It’s an endorsement that can boost your reputation. Although a whitepaper is a broader piece of content, again, concision and accessibility are key. Don’t spend too much time trawling through research and stats, instead use them to complement the solutions you’re offering. ## Newsletters Just because you have a loyal fanbase of customers doesn’t mean they’re necessarily engaging with your content. As a form of content on its own, an exclusive regular newsletter to your customers can be a great way of giving them the signal that they’re not being neglected, and that your org is committed to providing them with advice on a regular basis. It can also provide your customers new information on new updates and features for your product. You might have produced a great piece of content that, for whatever reason, has gone unnoticed or hasn’t had the engagement it has the potential to reach online. A newsletter can be a great way to spotlight this content, and target it more intentionally to your audience. ## Webinars and podcasts A 2021 study by[ Podcast Insights ](https://www.podcastinsights.com/podcast-statistics/) reports that 50% of Americans listen to podcasts. This has risen by 6% since 2018, where the same study reported a figure of 44%. This may be due to the emergence of remote work, with more and more professionals now working in relative isolation throughout the week. Podcast discussion may have become a substitute for the background chatter of an office. But either way you look at it, podcasts continue to increase in popularity. In terms of its potential appeal, podcasts and webinars are a more flexible form of content. Consumers can do other things whilst still dipping in and out of your content, which makes them more accommodating towards your customers’ busy schedules. They’re often conducted in the form of discussion, which allows more than one expert to bring their thoughts together and arrive at new strategies together. Hot tip: you can give your podcast considerable credibility by having a host who carries some influence and reputation within the SaaS sphere. [Five-steps to successful GTM launchIt’s no secret that Product Marketers wear many hats. That said, one of (if not THE) most important things your company will rely on you to do -- is to bring their new product and service offerings to the market.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSYoni Solomon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/launch.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/five-steps-to-successful-gtm-launch/) ## Video content There’s so much scope for utility in video content. A blog article demands more concentrated, prolonged engagement, while video content presents you with an opportunity to condense that information into snappier, bite-sized chunks. Compare an article that takes 5+ minutes to read with a video that takes 2+ minutes to consume. Which is more likely to entice clicks? Having said that, there are production costs to factor in when producing video content. Especially if you’re rolling out a youtube strategy, you’re going to need to invest in higher production values in order to be competitive. It’s a gamble, but the effort can pay off. ## SaaS founders who’ve found success in content We’ll leave you with some shining examples of SaaS leaders who’ve found success in thought leadership content. Brian Halligan, Founder and CEO of Hubspot, and Neil Patel, Co-founder of several multi-million dollar companies, were able to boost the reputation of their orgs by becoming established thought leaders, committing to staying up-to-date on new trends and regularly authoring long-form article content. Similarly, Slack Founder and Flickr Co-founder Stewart Butterfield has boosted his own standing in the SaaS space through publishing blog articles in reputable publications such as Inc. Magazine. If you decide to commit to a thought leadership strategy through content you’ll be in good company. The potential for content is limitless, so get creating! ✍ --- *Enjoyed this article? Check out our exclusive content from the leading minds in SaaS.* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Understanding how to best use AI in customer success URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/understanding-how-to-best-use-ai-in-customer-success-2/ Last updated: 2022-11-29T15:03:38.000Z The thoughtful implementation of AI-enabled customer success platforms can greatly enhance Customer Success Managers’ (CSM) ability to maximize the value of customer data and ultimately help reduce churn and improve the overall health of client relationships. When applied correctly, AI-enabled customer success will open up additional prospects in the future to completely transform the CS landscape. In this article, I discuss: - The definitions of AI and machine learning - My experiences with AI in customer success - How AI can provide a better understanding of your customer's goals - Manual vs. AI-generated health scores - AI and customer support - If AI can predict churn and resolve engagement issues - Whether AI and machine learning are always beneficial - How AI can be applied in a CS career - How to pick the right AI system ## **What are artificial intelligence and machine learning?** In its simplest definition, artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of a computer system to emulate human thinking and behavior. Machine learning is a branch of AI that imitates the way human beings learn. The algorithms that power these computer systems are fed a vast sum of data to gradually improve their accuracy. [The cycle of customer success: a blueprint for customer success teamsAfter spending over 15 years in customer success, I’ve recognized some distinct patterns in how the best customer success teams are run. I’ve created a comprehensive yet simple approach that you can use to avoid many of the mistakes that I made.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChad Horenfeldt![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/daniel-mccullough--FPFq_trr2Y-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-cycle-of-customer-success-a-blueprint-for-customer-success-teams/) ## **My experiences with AI in customer success** For the past eight years, I’ve been at the intersection of artificial intelligence and customer success. From my time at ****IBM** selling Watson AI solutions to enterprise customers, to my current role as a Senior Manager of Customer Success for robotic process automation leader, ****UiPath**. At each organization, I learned that data (more specifically, understanding product usage, customer behavior, trends, and predictions) is a key driver of successful customer outcomes and relationships. Yet, CSMs struggle to keep up with the dizzying number of data sources across an ever-increasing portfolio of clients. While still in their relatively early stages of adoption in the realm of customer success, AI-powered tools and platforms have already made a positive impact – providing efficiencies and maximizing value in the data collection and analysis processes. AI is the key accelerator for a CSM to manage customers at scale and to identify growth and risk across a portfolio of customers. As companies increase their reporting on Net Revenue Retention (NRR) and the market expects NRR growth, the CSM with AI is positioned to accelerate the up-sell, cross-sell, and renewal of subscriptions. ## **How AI provides a better understanding of customers’ goals** In the past, it would take hours for CSMs to collect information via their own sentiment analysis, interactions, and data mining across social networks, communication channels, and various other platforms. But collecting customer data was entirely different before the advent of AI technology. CSMs would face another set of hurdles when it came to organizing and sharing that data. Now, not only can CSMs use AI to digest and pull insights from disparate sources, but they can also leverage AI to build dashboards that make collaborating easy, turning insights into actionable next steps. We see AI in other areas of customer success too. CS teams supplement communication with chatbots to answer customer questions in real-time and to proactively move customers to the next milestone in their product journey. The insights from these customer interactions can enhance the accuracy of the health score and lead to a better understanding of an individual customer. They also provide executive leadership with a window into trends across industries and companies of similar sizes and functionality. [How you can use AI to push boundaries in SaaS productsJuliette Denny, CEO at Growth Engineering, outlines Artificial Intelligence in detail, including how it can be used to push boundaries in SaaS.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJuliette Denny![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/possessed-photography-zbLW0FG8XU8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/) ## **Manual vs. AI-generated health scores** When it comes to customer health scores, there’s much debate surrounding the ideal formula and weight of individual components - executive sponsorship, product adoption, support tickets, NPS, etc. Additionally, the CS industry can often be found arguing about how much weight should be given to the scores in predicting customer behavior and evaluating CSM performance. However, when it comes to debating the merit of manual versus AI-generated health scores, it boils down to time and scale. Health scores inputted manually are often limited in scope, demanding continuous maintenance by the CSM, which becomes unrealistic as the ratio of customer to CSM increases. Given the growth rate of 24/7 interactions and conversations, it’s nearly impossible to document and include all the details necessary for an accurate score. On the other hand, AI-assisted software makes it easier to tap into a broader dataset and integrate with fragmented systems of record. Technology can pull insights from recorded customer calls, email exchanges, support tickets, and messaging platforms and integrate products, surveys, value engineering, and more into the collective view. AI-generated health scores tend to be more accurate because they scale to capture a larger volume of interactions, can update in near real-time, and predict risk.These scores free up the CSM’s time, allowing them to take proactive steps in their engagements and conversations with customers. ## **AI and customer support** Can AI transform reactionary support functions into proactive CS teams? Yes, 100%. The sheer number of accounts CSMs can have on their plate at any given time makes a timely ‘reactionary support function’ a best-case scenario. However, as mentioned above, enabling real-time updates to customer health scores across all their accounts allows CSMs to be proactive. To take it a step further, AI-powered software can learn to mimic how CSMs respond based on their previous responses to calls, general correspondence, and customer milestones. AI can automatically recommend CSMs to the next steps based on similar events. [Building successful customer success teamsBuilding strong customer success teams is so important. Every good team has to have a strong strong foundation supporting it!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSZuzanna Ostojska![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/steven-lelham-atSaEOeE8Nk-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-successful-customer-success-teams/) ## **Can AI predict churn and resolve engagement issues?** Without sounding like a broken record, yes, and AI’s impact is again all about scale and timing. Anytime you can increase the data and analysis around customer interactions, you arm your CSM with critical information that enables proactive engagement to prevent potential churn and other flagged issues. As a CS leader, predicting risk, getting ahead of renewals, and offering proactive connections are paramount to helping your organization reach its growth target. However, it won’t resolve all engagement issues, and this is where the expertise of the CSM and/or leadership determine the next best action. ## **Are AI and machine learning always beneficial?** Machine learning and AI in general are in the CSM and customer’s best interest. However, there are three important caveats to that statement. 1. AI-powered systems and automation can break down and need to be proactively monitored for accuracy. They need to be updated and respond to changes such as process, product, software upgrades, etc. 2. You should always leverage the expertise and relationship management skills of your CSMs to give a final recommendation on a customer. At the end of the day, AI enables a great CSM to be even more effective, but always includes their analysis and review of the data. 3. Machine learning is only as good as the datasets fed to it. CS leadership must continue to think strategically about what data sources make up the algorithm and whether those data sources are accurate and continuously maintained. [Why should customer success be at the heart of SaaS strategy?SaaS companies are missing a trick by not implementing a customer success strategy at the core of their operations. Check out this article to find out why.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSGrace Gupta![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1571172964276-91faaa704e1f?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDR8fGhlYXJ0fGVufDB8fHx8MTY0MzMyMDY2OA&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-should-customer-success-be-at-the-heart-of-saas-strategy/) ## **How AI can be applied in a CS career** I’ve always started with the basics, asking myself: “Am I doing anything manually today that can be automated or solved by AI?” That’s phase one. Then, I look for the tools to support those efforts. Fortunately, I’ve been at companies whose products centered around that core question so there has been progressive thinking about how we could automate our own processes. More importantly, SaaS tools have added AI features to their platforms that you can take advantage of today. ## **How to pick the right AI system** Start with the software that is already available at your company. Most software applications have automation, workflow management, and machine learning capabilities in their features. Then, I’d suggest you speak to your organization’s IT and operations teams. Oftentimes, customer relationship management systems (CRMs), marketing, and analytics tools can lead to a post-sales experience that you can leverage. Finally, make sure to bring your ideas and revenue opportunities to the product team as they’ll be thinking about how these technologies can integrate into the customer experience. --- *Enjoyed this article? Check out our exclusive content from the leading minds in SaaS.* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The spider's web: How to leverage change management URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-spiders-web-how-to-leverage-change-management/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:50:20.000Z A little bit about me first. I'm currently the Head of Remote and Support Quality at Klaus, a support quality management platform. Before I moved into this position, I led Klaus’ product organization as we grew from 10 people to 60 people. There was a lot of change going on during that time, and today I’ll be sharing what I learned about change management through all these sometimes accidental changes. **But first, here are our main talking points:** - The product team is a central node in every organization - Change management strategies - Storytime - A summary for you to ponder Let's start with the spider's web. Have you ever tried to move a spider's web? I suppose the answer is no. I haven't tried it either, but I have kids – six-year-old twins – and they love nature, so they know that if you slash a spider's web, the spider loses its house, which is not something that you'd want if you're a six-year-old (and probably not if you're a grown-up personeither!) To avoid making spiders homeless, my daughter has developed an interest in moving spiderwebs, and we have carried out a lot of experiments on how to do that. You can try to move the web by yourself, but that usually breaks it, and then the spider needs to invest a lot of time and resources in rebuilding. Or, you can take two kids' hands (four hands in total), and they can push up the spider's web together and move it somewhere less in the way. Now, to be very honest, I don't think the spider likes this mandatory movement. It's somebody who loves remote work being forced to return to the office, but, well, my kids think it works, so we're going to leave it at that. Of course, this method is a lot slower. You have to move the web node by node; the structure might get a little compromised, but it doesn't break. ## The product team is a central node in every organization The same is true of change in your company. Your product team, in this case, is the central node in your spider's web. It's the central node in every organization because it sits in the middle of things and works with sales, support, marketing, engineering – everyone! This means that any change you make to the product team will impact everybody else in the organization, whether you want it or not. [![Caption: Change affects everyone](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/B6T6iWiO6EpGU4Bm8nLCwnm5KxfwID3qH4idmSC-KmBsQIix7Z42yl61AMfU8gyopMasyjp5F6TrBklRrjq22CZs_sHnGt_9l3ed5CBSk-dI89ow7BBh7qG3rX1FD49Nx4sNk6sJaP1nvYwPAslFS0xlePzrrqbzFb50j1oECe63nm4PgB2YfRDK7xa_rQ)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/the-spiders-web-how-to-leverage-change-management) One thing that you could and should do as a product leader, before you make any changes, is to not only strengthen the relationship between your node and other nodes, but also strengthen the relationships between marketing, sales, support, and engineering. This will ensure that while the product team remains the central node in the organization, it isn't the only node keeping everything together. In the end, when you change your product node, you want the other nodes to go with it (whether voluntarily or because you’re big enough to drag them onward) without damaging the overall structure of the organization. Many people are not aware that when they change something within their product team, they accidentally change a lot of things in other teams as well, and that can be disastrous. You need to actively take your central role into account when making changes. ## Change management strategies Now, I'm speaking from the point of view of a remote-first organization. Klaus has been remote since day one, way before the pandemic. If you’re remote-first, you need to invest in documentation and communication and basically over-communicate at all times, otherwise, information gets lost. However, even if you are in the office or you have a hybrid setup, I think we can all learn a lot about how to make communication work. Communication plays a vital role in change management. As change moves from mode from node to node within the spider’s web, it has various effects on different nodes that you cannot always foresee. People are bound to talk about those effects, and you can use that to your advantage. Let’s see how in our two approaches to implementing change. ### Option one: from narrative to practice **Step one: Create a strategy and a story** The first approach begins with creating a strategy and a story. You look into what you want to change and why it’s important, you create a strategy, and importantly, you look at what will happen if you *don’t* make this change. This is vital because every single person in your product organization wants to know what change means for them, and if you don’t give them a clear answer to that question, they’ll conjure up the worst possible outcomes. You need to share your strategy and your story with your team. Explain that you are making this change because X happened and you want Y to happen, and if you don’t, Z will happen. [![Caption:From narrative to practice](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/GNDKwA1DocS3joXifDAMJfEwrJpw2Day73kPSYzsO1ATUCsvRSwc3NMU2BQ5rMDNp1Bua072vmtDL7R8piKBQZpuIIyYRJIArHnAzvsRO5Hvdx4R__V4vBuMeuZxvnwzNDzyy8PKUW7kcAv1VJPDYFkKrP6useuSdiPUdIOUiXzZpOQhgbWKiEpyCTyvSw)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/the-spiders-web-how-to-leverage-change-management) **Step two: Explain, promote, and prepare** Once you and your team are clear on this story, you need to promote it among the other teams that the product team works with. Let's say you are changing from one Agile methodology to another – Scrum to Shape Up, for instance. This means there will be changes in how you triage bugs and put teams together. All of this will impact not only the product team but also the support team. It will also impact the sales team too because you will have a different cadence for new features and a new way to gather feature requests. All of these things need to be explained, promoted, and prepared for. **Step three: Change the thing** Now it’s time to change the thing. That's usually pretty quick. **Step four: Monitor and course correct** You need to continue to monitor the impact of this change so that you can course correct. I have yet to see any change go exactly as expected. It doesn’t happen. It’s like you finally have the spider web on the kids' hands, and they walk towards the next tree. But they don't walk exactly parallel (because they're six) so the web stretches, and you have to say, “Hey, move closer together!” so they can get the spiderweb where it needs to go. Maybe you find a different tree on the way and you can shorten the journey by setting up shop there. Now the thing is, there will always be disruptions. There will always be compromised structures within your spider’s web. That means that you want to invest in making people connect with each other while you're doing the change management. ### Pro tip: Use office chat to your advantage What I’m about to tell you is hearsay because I haven't worked in an office for over 10 years, but what I hear about working in an office is that people build connections not because they work side-by-side, but because they see each other at the coffee machine. That’s true, as long as you're both at the coffee machine at the same time. If I have my coffee break at 10, and you have your coffee break at 10:30, I guess we'll never meet. In a remote environment, you have to create “serendipity” for people to run into each other. You can do this by having interest-based channels on Slack, for example. There are a million other ways to do this, but let's say you create a parenting channel, which you and I both join because we both have kids. Then, even though we have our coffee breaks at different times and in different parts of the world, we end up talking about our problems. We empathize with each other, and boom! I have a friend in marketing! Now, I can tell my marketing friend about the changes that are happening in product, and they can share that news with their part of the organization. That's how interpersonal connections play a vital part in your change strategy. ### Option two: From practice to narrative Narrative to practice is one option for how to manage change. The other option is to turn that on its head and go from practice to narrative. **Step one: Change the thing** In this approach, you start by changing the thing. This happened, for example, with the pandemic. Suddenly, everybody was working from home, and not because you did a very in-depth study about what's more productive and how to make people feel connected to their peers in a remote environment. The pandemic happened and you had to go home. That was it. [![From practice to narrative](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/dI27m3AI2Kbm3dddLiT_FFpwj3ctcu0jam84MHddnlBE_3a6Ni11v-XPNqNeLNU9DW82hU1yH-HuEYWR6_Bm-Y8PXbGBwlO-3if96o0Nl0mjCT3CHiShKC63e_mb9Pf7TULlz2QYw3PAqthJMe0QI9Gxo0R4lOKM7W9zgwMAvm4AxKc2TPlRnCtRVFidMQ)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/the-spiders-web-how-to-leverage-change-management) **Step two: Monitor and course correct** Once you’ve made whatever change it is you need to make, it's paramount that you monitor this change so that you can course-correct when things go wrong. Course correction doesn't mean reverting to the way things were. Course correction means taking the new situation and seeing how you can adapt it so that it works with the reality that you're now living in. **Step three: Create the story** The monitoring you’ve done is going to help you create a story. As humans, we are storytellers. We live through stories (that's why I'm telling you the story of the spiderweb). We learn a lot more from stories than from pure data. You need to create a story about why this change – let’s say, working from home – is an opportunity or the solution to a problem and talk about how you’re going to carry this change forward into the future. **Step four: Explain, promote, and justify** Next, you explain, promote, and justify your decision to keep the change in place, revert back to the office, or move to a hybrid model. Of course, the practice-to-narrative approach is like taking one node from the spiderweb and moving it out. It’s like the product team just deciding to launch product 2.0 without talking to anyone else and saying, “Hey, it's out now! Isn't that great?” Meanwhile, the support team’s like, “Um... Excuse us? Does anyone have any documentation about these changes?” Nevertheless, it works, especially for small organizations. That’s because while you're still five to 10 people, you do a lot of practice to narrative by default. It comes very naturally to us as humans to come up with a great idea and run with it. In fact, we think this idea is not only great, it's the logical thing to do – everybody else would surely agree. And so we make the change, and then we create a narrative around it. However, as they grow, future-looking organizations tend to first create the narrative within their team, and then bring in the change once the narrative is securely in place, and outreach to the other teams has been established. ## Storytime We're going to look at both of our change management strategies in a little bit more detail with an example – an example that is not spider web-related. ### Moving to flexible work: From narrative to practice Let's say you want to move to flexible work – not necessarily remote work, but rather you want to have more flexibility and you've decided that the product team is going to work more asynchronously. If you go from narrative to practice, you need to first think about what it will mean for the product team’s work with the support team if your work is asynchronous. Perhaps not everyone will be there during the usual work hours to answer customer questions that the support team might have, and you need to figure out how to mitigate that. Similarly, sales teams sometimes ask product people to jump on a call with leads. That means you need an on-call calendar for your product managers so that you know that there will always be someone available during core hours. By really thinking about what it means in practice if the product division moves to flexible work, you can mitigate the pain that this may create for the other parts of the company. They will have to adapt somehow, and the easier we can make it for them to adapt, the easier it will be to get everybody else in the company to accept the change. The reason for this move to asynchronous work might be very practical. Perhaps there's an amazing product manager in New Zealand that you want to hire, but because it's a different time zone without much overlap, you need to be more flexible about when work gets done, so you’re going to plan for it. That's from narrative to practice. We have an idea that we want to change, we think about what impact this will have, and then implement it after we have talked to other people, promoted the change, and explained what this means for everybody who works with us. We monitor how this is working out because we may need to help people use new documentation tools or explain how to write very succinct notes. [![Moving to flexible work](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/epgCocuPI2-nVQQkn6fJEBralCNsgpHse8k-IcivX6rpNZkAkV4jHoEmswyzHT6roflmzbtYFOU6uWQgCmfpO40RILxCBpOpfaPy1_9N3xnLYU9Wr6sf6QF9fECaX5MlOxnMYuYcRTYXXtXRQLPgupDdxBeoY2fq_z8N_47-K7GS5x77mwRBnGWHONlEAg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/the-spiders-web-how-to-leverage-change-management) Moving to flexible work: From practice to narrative Now, let’s look at it the other way around – from practice to narrative. Let's say your co-founder is from Brazil, and their parents get sick, so now, from one day to the next, they have to move to Brazil to take care of them. Suddenly, you have a six-hour time difference. You have to be more flexible with your work because as Head of Product, you don't have eight hours of overlap every day with your co-founder anymore; you only have a couple of hours. Now, whenever you want feedback from your co-founder, you need to think about the timing. Do you really need to go on a call? Maybe it would be better in a written format. Can you send them a Google Doc and ask them to respond in that? Much like with the pandemic, you need to build some flexibility into your work. As more time passes with your co-founder in Brazil, you’ll get a clearer picture of how well this new arrangement is working. If it’s not going great, you’ll have to adjust how you’re working around and with the new situation. This is probably going to be disruptive. It could work well in a small company with one product manager, one founder, maybe an engineer, and a support person. However, if this happens when there are a few dozen, a few hundred, or even a few thousand people in the company, it might not go as smoothly as you'd like it to. As I said before, the bigger you are, the better it is to create a narrative before you put it into practice, where possible. ## A summary for you to ponder - **Where** things change influences **how** things change, so look at where and how you want to bring in new ideas. - **Awareness** is the first step towards a strategy, so don't ignore things that are staring you in the face. It's much easier to run with a change if you recognize that this is happening, be it on the individual level or on an industry level; then you can put a strategy in place - **Stories** keep humans aligned. Use them! If you are a horrible storyteller, work on your storytelling skills, and if that doesn't work, find somebody who can be a storyteller for you. - **Coordinate** with the other storytellers in your organization because I bet you're not the only one. [![Summary](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/Uiu8M7Mti6Oo3atdkGnKbyQ-oObYRSMBSS3lj4PQ5UY1yNxxqXG0BOnHNmYz1ZNslnGBCTx8tpNOjs4DPgfVlHsYyHqjl2ZBBpO9mhOxnhhXdh9_6Z2tDWrgEqE_Ti3sZ4Qvyup2VcQ7KZSjJYyPUaO4mjQbqrGP1bJoj57OpNt_4JoKgEgZ8d1jdcaJSQ)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/the-spiders-web-how-to-leverage-change-management) ### Five steps to successful GTM launch URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/five-steps-to-successful-gtm-launch/ Last updated: 2022-11-24T11:02:36.000Z It’s no secret that Product Marketers wear many hats. That said, one of (if not THE) most important things your company will rely on you to do -- is to bring their new product and service offerings to the market. To do this successfully, you’ll have to live at what we like to call “the intersection” of your organization’s product, marketing and revenue orgs. You’re not quite product management, you’re not quite sales or customer Success, and you’re not even quite marketing (at least not in the traditional “demand gen-y” kind of way). But at the same time, you’re kind of all of them. And you’ll certainly need to be able to think like all of them if you’re to successfully launch your org’s next big idea or capability. When leading a GTM Launch, you’ll be responsible for -- pretty much everything. That includes: - Understanding how a product technically works - Articulating its value - Defining its market-fit and ideal personas - Deciding how to price and package it And once all that’s set -- you’ll also be in charge of tactically managing the way your business introduces (ie: launches) that new product to the world. That’s a lot of ground to cover, right? The good news is, as a product marketer -- you’re absolutely the right person for the job. By sitting at the intersection and aligning the key teams around you, you’re going to help product management understand the real-world problems their solutions solve for the people we’re building them for. [Top 7 interview questions for your product management roleThis week we’re taking a look at product managers, the visionaries behind your SaaS GTM strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/interview.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-your-product-management-role/) You’re going to help your revenue teams (ie: sales and customer success) be successful by providing the tools, training, and context they need to actually sell-in a new product (and strategic narrative) to another human being. And finally, you’re going to hook up your own marketing team with the messaging, content, direction they need to launch campaigns -- along with the knowledge and segments around whom to actually target. A great launch process should quite intentionally take three distinct components of your company’s overall strategy -- specifically: your product roadmap, sales pipeline, and marketing programs. And essentially weave them all together into a comprehensive with clearly defined goals, stakeholders, milestones and outputs. That right there, is organizational alignment. And that’s exactly what we’re going to be doing here. Starting with step 1 of our GTM Launch process: **Ideation.** ## Step 1: Ideation Every successful GTM Launch first starts with a problem that you (or your teams, or customers) have identified that can be solved with technology and innovation. Now -- full stop here: If you find yourself in an Ideation conversation where it’s not actually clear that we’re solving a problem for anyone -- and rather we’re building something we think is cool or unique: We should NOT be launching it. No matter how great a Product Marketer you may be, it’s quite literally not possible to message or launch your way out of a problem that doesn’t exist. That no one’s experiencing. Time-and-time again, launching a product for a problem no one’s experiencing will result in a ton of wasted effort, lack of adoption and lack of revenue. That’s why most (if not all) of this first stage -- **Ideation** \-- will be spent uncovering, researching, and validating the problem you and your teams are trying to solve. If this exercise sounds like a collaborative one -- it should. Ideation is typically tackled between Product Management and Product Marketing. This stage should be full of open discourse on the problem or need you’ve identified. [The Power and Impact of product marketingTamara Grominsky, Chief Strategy Officer at Unbounce, outlines a dynamic strategy for building an awesome product marketing team.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSTamara Grominsky![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/teams.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing/) There should be a “lean canvas” -- which is a single-page business plan to review and complete together that clearly articulates problems, potential solutions, unique value, unfair advantages, ideal customer profiles and addressable markets. Although nothing’s been technically built yet, it’s here when Product Marketing should start brainstorming and playing with initial messaging. We should also be nailing down technical FAQs to ensure we totally understand what’s being built here and how it would work. Along with pricing/packaging ideas and initial KPIs for what success would look like. If you have a good hunch this initiative will be approved, it’s also in this stage where you can start thinking through product naming (which is always harder than it seems) and where this “thing” should sit within your company’s existing product hierarchy. Is this a standalone product? Is it a feature? Is it a unique enhancement to an existing solution? Etc. ## Step 2: Build Now. Let’s say this problem-solution that you and your team have fully flushed out in Ideation is something your company wants to move forward on. Okay, that means we’re going to start building this thing. Which leads us to the second stage of our GTM Launch Process -- called **Build**. It’s here where this new capability will appear on the Product Roadmap, and engineering/dev resources will be assigned to it -- so we can actively start building this thing. In parallel to that, we as Product Marketers start “a build” of our own. Starting with messaging development, also known as Narrative Design. Lucky for you, there’s a whole other Masterclass dedicated to helping you do just that. The actual output of that messaging exercise (ironically) goes by many names. I personally have always called it a “Message House.” Which is exactly what it sounds like: a home where your messaging and strategic narrative live. It’s typically a one-page foundational messaging document that, once approved, will inform all related marketing, sales, and training materials that are to be built in later stages (we’ll get to that soon enough). Locking down your message house will ensure every resource you build, every campaign you run, and every person you train are on-message and aligned at all times. That said -- developing your core messaging isn’t the only major milestone you’ll hit in this phase. Use the Build stage to nail down your GTM checklist of tools and resources you’ll need for the launch, along with who you need to train/enable, and when your actual launch date is. ## Step 3: Soft launch If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! By now you should be armed with a vetted customer/market problem that needs solving. Along with a strong Message House and GTM Launch checklist of tools and resources to develop. You should also have a pretty solid idea of what this new capability will be called, where it’ll be packaged and how it could be priced. Long story short: you’re full of ideas. And now here in stage three -- called **Soft Launch** \-- we’re going to validate those ideas and assumptions. This is important to note: Of the five GTM stages we’re gonna cover here. This is the stage that’s most often ignored or skipped. Why? Because getting customer/market validation of products before launching inevitably slows things down. We’re all also only human, and take tremendous pride in our work. Which often makes it tough for us to swallow when hard feedback and objections come in from users that we’re testing or soft launching new capabilities with. That said, establishing a feedback loop with customers/users prior to launch will often make-or-break that launch. Especially for software/tech products with an implementation component, or perhaps data-or-campaign based products that may be harder to navigate or understand. Regardless of what you’re launching. This is the stage where you’re going to collect that critical feedback from actual users on whether your new capability: - Has the correct -- and required -- functionality - Has a good user experience (and is in fact usable) - Is messaged, positioned, named, priced, and packaged the right way You heard me right. The Soft Launch stage is every bit as much an exercise in Product Marketing validation as it is in Product validation. Use this stage as your final gut-check to ensure you’ve done your job right. Otherwise, you risk launching a new product that might be beautifully built and designed -- that simply isn’t marketed the right way. Resulting in a serious miss and wasted opportunity for you and your company. ### Alpha and beta In my experience, the Soft Launch stage is often split into two sub-stages: - Alpha: Where internal new product development testing and QA is performed by the Product, Engineering, and Design teams. Alpha stage is often led by Product Management, and can include user testing -- but not always. If technical requirements are met in Alpha, we can then move to Beta. - Beta: This is our external testing phase where a new capability is made available to an invited (typically closed- group of external users. All so final testing/feedback gathering can be carried out by real users in a real environment. It’s HERE where Product Marketing can ideally vet messaging, positioning, naming, pricing, packaging, and everything else that you’re cooking up on the Product Marketing side of the house. If technical requirements are met in Alpha, and both technical and marketing requirements are met in Beta -- the next step is to move to GA (also known as General Availability). It’s here, in GA, where it’s time for us to formally introduce this new capability both internally to our teams for enablement/alignment, and externally to the market in the form of a GTM Launch. ## Module 4: GTM launch Ah! And now we’ve arrived to the stage in particular that if you blind-surveyed everyone at your company and asked them what they believed a product launch to be -- they’d likely point to this fourth stage: **GTM Launch**. It’s not hard to see why most would commonly associate a launch with this specific stage. It’s here when the “keys go in the ignition” and communications begin going out. GTM Launch is when press releases go out, websites get updated, landing pages are launched, customer/prospect campaigns and comms get kicked off and blog posts go live. It’s at this stage where all of the GTM checklist items you’ve been working on since Stage 2 Build go live to generate as much awareness and buzz as possible. That said, just because all of the external stuff is what gets people the most excited -- it should by no means overshadow or deprioritize all of the internal enablement and training work that must be done here too, in parallel. Remember, GTM is just another phrase for organizational alignment. And that’s what you’re doing here. That’s your #1 priority -- even more so than generating buzz and awareness. Because if your internal teams aren’t enrolled, educated, and aligned to the goals and mission of your launch -- all of this buzz and demand you’re about to generate will go to waste. [The art and science of product launches | Future of SaaSDiscover key learnings from Devang Sachdev’s product launching career. Including tips on the right size launches, internal marketing requirements, and post-launch activities.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1556761175-5973dc0f32e7?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDF8fHNhYXN8ZW58MHx8fA&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-art-and-science-of-product-launches/) That’s why at a minimum, you should train, enable, certify and prepare your people-facing teams in Sales, Customer Success and Support two weeks before your GTM Launch. This can be done with live meetings, recorded trainings, exams, and pre-work your teams must complete if they’re to successfully position and sell-in whatever it is you just launched. If you take anything away from this fourth stage, it’s that the external and internal work are two sides of the same coin. And you can’t have one without the other. The external-side of your GTM Launch generates market buzz and demand for your new solution. That’s how we drive leads and source new opportunities to be worked. While the internal-side of your GTM Launch ensures your teams are put in the best position possible to close on that demand, acquire new customers, upsell existing new customers and drive game-changing ROI and momentum for your company. ## Module 5: GTM continued Finally. We’ve reached our last (but certainly not least) stage in our five-step GTM Launch process: called **GTM Continued**. What’s interesting about the stage in particular is that it’s not only our last of the five GTM stages, but it’s also the biggest and most open-ended. Because despite all of the work it just took to get your new product to market, which included: - Validating your problem in Ideation - Architecting your messaging and launch plan in Build - Vetting your product and marketing in Soft Launch, - … to finally getting to roll everything out internally and externally in GTM Launch It’s here, in stage five, where much of the true work is just getting started. To announce and rollout a new capability is one thing. It’s a whole other thing to build an entire ecosystem around that new capability that can include continued storytelling, campaigns, tools/resources, best practices, how-tos, and success stories and more! At this point in your GTM Launch process, you should have anywhere from a 3-6 month roadmap of activities and outputs to fuel demand, revenue, and adoption of this new thing -- whatever it is. Common outputs here can include webinars, live events, case studies, nurture streams, media opportunities and more. It’s really up to you, and it depends on the size/scope of your launch, how strategic a given capability is, and quite frankly how much bandwidth you have to prioritize these continued efforts versus new things coming down the pipe for you to launch. But make no mistake -- no matter how successful your initial Stage 4 GTM Launch is. It’s here, in GTM Continued where your efforts will likely result in your hitting those pipeline, revenue, and adoption KPIs you nailed down early on in your GTM Launch planning. ## Conclusion: GTM launch stages Now that we’ve defined and reviewed the five stages that make up a comprehensive GTM Launch, I’ll leave you with this: there’s no such thing as a perfect product launch. By nature they’re going to be fluid -- and at times a bit bumpy and stressful. No two launches (or products) are identical. There’s no doubt you’ll have to tweak and tailor your launch plans to do what’s right and best for your teams, products, businesses, and customers. What this will hopefully give you is a general end-to-end launch blueprint you can follow to ensure rhythmic, repeatable consistency of your GTM activities. Like all things in life, familiarity breeds success -- and it’s no different in go-to-market. Use this launch process to establish expectations, hold collaborators (and yourselves) accountable, and ensure your launches are as consistent, contextual, and complete as possible. If you’d be so kind as to join me for our next lecture -- we’re going to introduce another simple (yet powerful) framework! One that’ll help you assess the size, scope, checklist and overall level of effort for your GTM Launches. See you there! --- *Get all of Yoni's expert advice by signing up to the full course today*.**👇** [Propel your product. Get Segmentation CertifiedAs a SaaS professional, you’re likely bursting with new marketing ideas and strategies to help achieve rapid growth within your org. But segmentation will help you to refine your marketing efforts, allowing you to be super-targeted in your mission to achieve customer conversion. 🧐 Course overvie…![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/segmentation.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/propel-your-product-get-segmentation-certified/) ### Making your customers your growth priority URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/making-your-customers-your-growth-priority/ Last updated: 2022-11-22T09:51:27.000Z There are many ways to measure the growth of a business. But while you might want to focus on something like revenue, profit margins, brand awareness, or lead conversions as a CMO, at the end of the day there's one thing a company needs to grow more than anything: customers. And it's not just about getting new customers, it's about retaining your current ones and keeping them along for the ride. That's why many organizations are starting to build around "customer-led growth". To explain what this means for you as a CMO, there's no better person than Amanda Malko CMO of G2, and tireless advocate for the power of the customer voice. She joined us on an episode of the CMO Convo podcast, which is now available in written form with just a little scrolling down this page. We discussed: - ****Amanda's background and role at G2** - ****What is customer-led growth?** - ****What is the customer-led growth approach?** - ****Challenging preconceptions with customer feedback** - ****Capitalizing on your successes** - ****How to measure customer-led growth** - ****Stakeholder alignment on customer-led growth** - ****When is your business ready for a customer-led approach?** - ****The future of customer-led growth** ## **Amanda's background and role at G2** ****Who better to talk about the customer and customer growth than the CMO of G2, which is probably the premier peer review service on the web? We can't think of any of the names that are bigger than G2\. So it's really, really exciting that you're here, Amanda.** ****And aswe said, you’re one of the most prominent companies that does this kind of thing, but for the people who don't know who G2 are, maybe you could introduce G2, who you are, and what your role is as a CMO there.** Yeah, absolutely. So I'm the CMO of G2 and we're, as you said, a software marketplace and review site. We have 60 million software buyers who come to G2 every year, and they’ve left over one and a half million reviews for software products across 2000 categories. So anyone in the world in a business profession is buying software, and so G2 is really the place where people can discover what their peers are using, review the software they're using, but also – if you're evaluating software – find really trusted, authentic reviews and feedback and advice from peers on what you should be thinking about and software that you might be about evaluating whether it's right for you. [Five savvy tips for community-led SaaS growthIn 2021, 70% of companies with communities increased their budget for community building. That means, community-led SaaS growth is a successful growth model to invest in.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSChinwoke Nnamani![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/hands-together.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/6-savvy-tips-for-community-led-saas-growth/) ## **What is customer-led growth?** ****And that's so important these days when it comes to pretty much any kind of marketing, B2C, B2B. Everything's based on peer recommendations now. It's one of the core elements, whether it's just looking at how many stars they have ranked on like stuff like Trustpilot, oor something that takes more time like reading in-depth case studies.** ****But then how are we getting to this idea of customer-led growth as a way of pushing companies forward? That's what we're talking about today. What is customer-led growth? Because people might be familiar with "product-led growth" and stuff like that, but customer-led growth might be a new concept to a lot of our audience.** I think so too. I mean, I think it's probably one that we're all inherently familiar with. It's interesting because you talk about the prevalence of reviews, and it's a great place to start thinking about customer-led growth. In B2C, when we're consumers in our day-to-day lives, I go on Amazon, and I have a review strategy. I have a way of looking at things and deciding, like, “Hey, if I look at these reviews, does this feel like something I want to buy?” and it's just sort of this inherent part of how we shop today, and it's not far-fetched to think that in our business lives, we're still the same people. We're going to be thinking about what are my peers saying, and looking for that trusted customer voice to make those decisions. And so when it comes to customer-led growth, I really look at customer-led growth as something that can apply to any business, whether it's B2B or B2C. It really comes down to leading with the voice of your customer, to shape everything from how you build your product to how you go to market. And it means really starting from the perspective of your customer, not necessarily your own organizational perspective or the perspective of your product. I think we all know to do that as marketers. I think putting that into practice and really enabling it across the entire organization is the more difficult challenge. ****There are lots of advantages of this approach as well. If you're thinking about the customer first, then that's going to trickle down throughout the rest of the organization, surely?** ****So if the marketing department’s thinking customer-first, then that's going to apply to how the sales team operates, to how the product team works, to how your customer success – of course, customer success are gonna be thinking about the voice of the customer.** ****Are there any other big advantages to this kind of approach that apply to different types of organizations?** Yeah, I mean, I think that you hit the nail on the head with if you can help everybody understand the voice of the customer and really define what customer-led growth means across your organization, it's going to result in better products, better marketing experiences, better sales experiences. [Actionable strategies for diversity, equity and inclusionIn this article, we’re giving you actionable insights and strategies of how to effectively integrate diversity into your organization’s strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/diversity--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/actionable-strategies-for-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/) And hopefully, that means you're able to capture more revenue and more interest from your customers, and you're gonna meet their needs over the long term. So I think the other benefit is that if you continue to do this, not only will you see more success in growing your revenue, but hopefully you've got customers who are going to stay with you longer because you're continuing to meet their needs and listen to what they want, even as the market and your product evolves. And so I think that that's the other advantage – not just that sort of upper funnel everybody's seeing growth up into the right, but that ability to really retain the revenue over time. ****Definitely. Increasing customer retention, that's got to be one of the key goals of customer-led growth. It's not just about demand gen, it's not just about generating leads, it's about ensuring that you’re building the sort of lifetime connection with customers over a long period of time.** ## **What is the customer-led growth approach?** ****So, are there certain processes you can take to engender those kinds of results, to get those kinds of customer-led long-term results that people can put into practice?** Yeah, I absolutely think there are. I mean, I think the first one starts with really defining a way that you as an organization tap into the voice of your customer. So I would say G2, if you're in B2B software, is a no-brainer, right? Because I talk to CEOs at very, very large enterprise software companies that regularly – I'm saying on a weekly basis – are looking at the reviews. You can set up a Slack channel, and every time you get a review on G2, you can take time every week, and just review what people are saying about your product. If you're in product, that is a goldmine of real-time feedback. You can also aggregate it over time and learn what people are saying about your brand. So at the very least, it's defining processes that help you understand your customer on a more regular basis – not the once-a-year focus group or once-every-two-or-three-year focus groups – but how do you really tap into that and then share out those insights in a way that's scalable and helpful for every part of the organization? And so, easier said than done. I think starting with reviews is a real-time feedback loop. There are certainly many other ways. People use things like Pendo, and Medallia to do real-time NPS. Qualtrics is a great example of a company that sort of leaned into that, and I know I always love doing my Qualtrics surveys to get feedback on things. So I think the first is really defining what we need to understand, how are we going to do that, and then what's the plan to make sure that's shared in a way that's actionable for every part of the organization, and that'll look different from the CEO to product to sales. [Swipe right on your “soulmate investor”Fundraising raises a lot of questions. What kind should I go after? Who will invest in my company? What should I do? (And what shouldn’t I do?) Time to talk fundraising, let’s get into it!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLJ Barnum![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/investment.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/swipe-right-on-your-soulmate-investor/) ## **Challenging preconceptions with customer feedback** ****It's interesting you talk about the voice of the customer as well, particularly since a lot of organizations, as you say, they'll do customer feedback, maybe once a quarter, once every half a year.** ****Bringing that voice of the customer into real-time, that's got to be challenging, surely? It's going to challenge a lot of your preconceptions about what you think about your business, about your product.** ****In order to really understand who you are, you have to think about what other people think about you, and having that customer voice and those challenged preconceptions, it could be quite worrying at first.** ****It's going to ruin a lot of people's preconceptions about what they're about, what their business is about.** ****How do you think CMOs can respond to that, if they’ve got certain ideas in their head about how to market and then suddenly, "oh, no, the customers have changed completely"?** That is such a great question, and it's so true. I've seen that sort of look of fear. In a former life, I did a lot of consulting, and I would often start with, “Okay, how much do we know about our customers? Do we know enough to make these decisions and make them well?” And you see that moment of fear of like, “Oh, we had it wrong!” It's usually quickly followed by delight because then you can find what they want, or where there's friction in the product or friction in the go-to-market motion. The CMO of 6sense – I love this – she has a phrase that says she's finding the red. And so when you can find the red, if you can celebrate that and say, “Okay, we had it wrong, but now we're listening, and we can get it right,” I think it's such a great opportunity. So I think it's really flipping it from something that could be scary to “What's the opportunity here?” I also think if you do it regularly, you're never going to be surprised because your customer doesn't change. With the exception of maybe COVID, which obviously changed things for everybody and across the board and overnight, I can't think of another time when things change radically overnight. So if you're always listening, you're never surprised, which is the delightful thing about finding ways to more regularly tap into what's happening with your customers. You can iterate with them over time and not find yourself in that “oh no” moment. ## **Capitalizing on your successes** ****And even when you're not getting “oh no” moments, even when it looks like everything's going great, it's not a time to rest on your laurels, is it?** ****You're getting all these five-star reviews through, you're getting all this great feedback – you need to capitalize on that. You can't just say, “Oh, this is great!” How can you capitalize on that effectively? What are the best ways to utilize good reviews and good customer feedback?** I'll start by just saying that oftentimes we think about the funnel as a thing that starts with awareness, you're moving them down, you convert them, and maybe you think about upsell as part of your funnel. [An Essential Aspect of Growing a SaaS BusinessA Sales Development Representative (SDR) has one primary focus: sales prospecting. SDRs are responsible for a number of key tasks that are important for any SaaS company that wants to grow its marketing efforts.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaleem Maroof![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/growth-sales.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sdrs-an-essential-aspect-of-growing-a-saas-business/) But really, advocacy to drive word of mouth, that's actually going to hopefully make your customers become one of your best marketing channels, and they're referring new customers, or they're part of your marketing in a way that actually brings more people to the top of your funnel. And one of the best ways to use reviews is to actually use reviews in marketing. I've seen people use the actual review. Say one of your advantages is maybe your implementation time is half of any other software company, so you can realize time to value faster than anybody else. Great. You probably have some great feedback on G2 about that. How do you actually use that when you're going out to your customers, whether it's in sales or marketing? Say, “Don't take it from me – here's some actual feedback from our customers.” Another way is to actually take insights from reviews and think about how can we actually use that to inform our overall messaging. We think we know why we're great, but let's tap into our customers and see why we're great. And then also, if you're on review sites, not only are you getting reviews, you're getting feedback and ratings on how certain features and attributes of your product stack up against those of your competitors. So you're probably doing competitive landing pages, why not bring in, again, the sort of trusted, verified feedback from G2 to create some of those competitive landers, one-sheets, sales decks that help people understand, okay, you're looking at these two companies – how do you actually compare? That's something we do I think, inherently. Amazon does that really well just on their site. The same is true in B2B. Help your customer do that comparison shopping by leveraging the insights and feedback that you can get on G2. ****Things like case studies are extremely important for B2B companies. They're considered one of the most valuable piece of content to B2B buyers.** ****Having that continuous feedback loop gives you options about who to approach about case studies. If you're getting great feedback from a particular customer, you can capitalize on them.** ****Is there more that we can do than just case studies with this kind of customer-led growth? Case studies can be great, they can be jazzy, but there's only so much you can do with them at the end of the day. Is there more that you can do to build on those customer stories?** Yeah, I mean, I think one of the things you can do is really elevate your customer's voice and make them like co-marketing partners or thought leaders with you. So, you know, one of the stats that came out of a recent research study that we did a G2 is that 67% of B2B buyers do their own homework and make a decision – in their mind they made a decision – before they ever talked to sales. And so how are you going to get in front of them and really educate them about your offering? Because they're probably going to be making a decision before they actually raise their hand and say they're ready to talk to you, do a demo request. [Why CS should be the hub of a SaaS business strategyIn this discussion, we’re going to be looking into customer success within your organization’s SaaS model, the importance of CS within your business strategy, and the key metrics that our panelists like to focus on.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/hub.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-cs-should-be-the-hub-of-a-saas-business-strategy/) And so beyond just doing case studies, how do you actually lean into your customer and put them on stages? How do you co-market with them? Do thought leadership. Invite them to do content for you if you have a blog or a publication. This is great for B2C as well. It's really leaning in and not thinking of your customers as “I need this polished packaged case study,” but also saying how can I actually get them to share their story both about their business and hopefully about what we've done together in a way that feels authentic, and maybe even isn't a channel we own? How can I just elevate them in channels where I know my customer is spending their time? That can be a great way to go beyond just the case study to help kind of share the success in a way that's not just, as you said, the standard, you all know it has a template in a nice format and you've written it. Sometimes it's just great to hear from the customer directly. ****Elevating certain customers could almost add a sort of sense of competition between customers. "You're elevating these guys who’ve been really successful; we want to boast about our success as well, and we want to stick with you as well because you're elevating us". A way of retaining customers is elevating them.** I absolutely think it is. If you do it really well, not only are you picking the customer who loves you, is having great success, but they're also one that you think has real growth potential, and so you're like, “Let's lean into that,” right? And so you can do that to serve multiple objectives. I think the other thing is, for certain businesses, they have a real opportunity to build customer communities. And so I think of companies like Airtable as a great example. I think Miro has done some things in this regard, where they're actually creating platforms where customers can share use cases and learn from each other. Airtable has Airtable Universe customers actually put their Airtable projects up on Airtable Universe. And so what I love about that is it's sort of an atypical case study, if you will. They just put it up there and said, “I think you're going to love sharing projects with each other,” And guess what? They did. And so Airtable doesn't have to go around and say, “Tell me what you did. Tell me what you did. Let me see your project.” They’re just creating a forum for people to do that, who inherently want to come together and share. Not every project or product can lend itself to that, but many can. And so it’s sometimes just kind of leaning in and creating a space for people to share and getting out of the way. We don't always have to be the company that's sort of going around and formalizing everything; sometimes it's more about elevating the customer in a way that just gives them a platform to share. ****And those kinds of communities, again, they can be incredibly powerful because once you're in a community, and you like being in that community, it's gonna take a lot to get you out of it.** ****You want to stay a customer of that organization if it allows you access to that community. It's really powerful, but very difficult to build at the same time. It's not something you can force.** It is the ultimate competitive mode. If you do it well, it is the ultimate competitive mode for exactly that reason. ****You can't squeeze blood from a stone though when it comes down to it. There's nothing worse than someone trying to force community and trying to force these connections. You've got to be subtle about it. You've got to kind of move people in the right direction without saying, “Oh, you guys need to start talking to each other,” kind of thing.** Yeah. And a Slack channel is not a community. It can be part of your community strategy, but I see a lot of people who are like, “But I have a Slack channel!” [How tech companies are using data to massively reduce their SaaS costsWhen a SaaS company chooses a conservative business model, it’s often a surprise. Vendors that don’t seek big funding rounds and instead opt for a bootstrapped, cashflow-positive option are notable by their exception.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSVertice![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/metrics-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-tech-companies-are-using-data-to-massively-reduce-their-saas-costs/) Not quite. It's part of it, but I think it doesn't necessarily come inherently with the stickiness that you're looking for in a community. It's really about the value exchange for everybody and nailing that before you kind of figure out your tactics on how you bring people together. ## **How to measure customer-led growth** ****So this is all kind of the big picture ideas. Let's get into some of the nuts and bolts of customer-led growth.** ****And mainly, how do you measure the success of customer-led growth? Is it just getting good feedback? Or are there other more specific KPIs that we can use to measure the success of your customer-led approaches?** I love this question. I think there's sort of a two-part answer to this. The first one is – and there's been research on this by many of the big consulting companies and user experience agencies – in general, if you lean into this, you should see the metrics that you use for your regular business, whether it's revenue or product adoption, grow as a result. So there's sort of that inherent benefit if you do lean from the voice of your customer and think about how you're actually going to take the time to orient around customer feedback, you're gonna see, I believe, better results across all areas of your business. But I would say that one of the top metrics would be NPS (Net Promotor Score). You're gonna see that as a great kind of feedback loop to do NPS and over time see that hopefully improve. Would I recommend working with this company? That's something that you can continue to measure to get a quick pulse on how it’s going. Are our results really resonating with customers? Is our work really resonating with customers? And then I would say reviews are another great way. We actually do ask for NPS as part of G2’s review process, but also just that overall rating and satisfaction. And the benefit of that is you're also seeing it across different areas of the experience, whether it's the customer service experience, the implementation experience. And so oftentimes, really drilling into where you're doing well, and not well in those attributes can help you understand where you may have nailed it and where maybe more work is required. And I think the customer service experience is one that's often unfortunately overlooked when we think about being customer-led, and it's ironic because as a customer that's one of the most pivotal outlets you have to really successfully using and adopting a product. ****Most B2B buyers will go to someone else if they get one case, just one case, of poor customer service. So having a really, really, absolutely top-notch customer service team has got to be essential for a B2B organization, whether they're going customer-led growth or not.** Yes. And making that experience delightful. How do you make sure that you're measuring that and seeing customer satisfaction scores out that experience and not make it something that’s sort of a cost center that you're just like, “Let's get them through as quickly as possible”? It's really more about how you surprise and delight and satisfy what they're looking for when they reach out. ## **Stakeholder alignment on customer-led growth** ****Talking about the different experiences and the different parts of the business because customer-led growth isn't just about the marketing department – it's about every single part of the business that has any kind of touch point with the customer.** ****How can CMOs go about getting all these different departments on board? Who do they need to speak to? Who do they need to align with?** ****What kind of initiatives can they put in place to build those kinds of interactions that are needed to really implement customer-led growth in an effective way?** Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, ideally, you align with every functional stakeholder across the business – so everybody from your customer success team, if you have a support team product, design, if there's a design team, marketing. You really want it to be super cross-functional, but you don't have to do it all at once. And so I think it really comes down to what are you trying to achieve. Are there particular areas of the business where you feel like there's the most opportunity? And if so, really, you could start and lead there. One of the things that I did when I was at MailChimp is… MailChimp has experience principles that are created from insights from the customer about what they value in their product experiences, particularly in the space that MailChimp plays in. And those experience principles, we created one for a particular persona that had different needs, and we actually did workshops with every functional leader to help them understand these experience principles and translate them for their work. So if one of our principles was delight, how do we make sure that we bring that into the customer service experience? And so we actually created action items for each team from customer success, to support, to marketing. How are we going to bring these principles to life? [Your guide to SaaS pricingIn our second hub page, we’re diving into Saas pricing. When it comes to knowing your value and boosting your revenue we got you covered.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/Your-guide-to-SaaS-pricing.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-guide-to-saas-pricing/) And they came out of research and insights about what our customers really needed and were distilled down into a very simple five-principle framework that everybody could understand and hopefully, in this case, rally behind, so that whether you were contacting support, seeing our advertising, going to the marketing site, or within the product, it felt consistent, not just in the way it looks, but in the way that you experience it as a human. ****And that consistency is absolutely essential. You want a consistent experience all the way through the funnel and beyond. You don't want anyone thinking “There was such great marketing, but they've let us down on the sales side, they let us down on the product support side.”** ****You need that consistency all the way through. It's got to be an absolutely essential thing that CMOs have got to drive for, that we've got to be consistent across the board.** Yeah, and there's nothing worse and it hurts building trust in a relationship when you have this delightful sales experience, and everything's going great, and then I'm going to hand you off to the person who's going to onboard you, and your onboarding is a train wreck, right? And it's a totally different tone, and it's not… That's not a great experience for anybody, but certainly, as a new customer coming in, if you're not having that consistency of certainly a bar for a good experience, but also, if the tone-tenor approach, what your expectations are, feel very different, it's not a great way to build a good relationship over time. That's true in our personal lives, too. If I'm one way to you now and then we go out for a beer and I'm a totally different person, that's not delightful, whether it's a good experience or not. You want that consistency. ## **When is your business ready for a customer-led approach?** ****So when is the right time to take a customer-led approach when it comes to a business in terms of different stages of business growth? Can you do it from day one, from the very, very start? Obviously, you need customers, but can a very, very tiny startup, for example, take a customer-led growth approach?** Oh, I think it's critical. If you're a tiny startup, your speed is everything. If you can get speed, with effectiveness of decision making and product, you're off to the races. The companies that I see do really, really well at an early stage obsess over customer feedback because they don't want to waste time. I don't want to build something that then I find out… I don't have six months to wait and find out it's not the right thing. So they're constantly iterating and getting feedback from customers to make sure that they're solving real needs. You're really at the basics when you're starting out obviously. That will evolve over time, and your iterations will become more refined, but anybody can use customer-led growth. It's taking the time and appreciating the need to take a step back and say, “Are we making decisions from a place of real customer insight or not? And if we're not, are we willing to take the time to go listen and do some homework, and then make a decision about how we're going to move forward?” And usually, I think people wonder if it's too slow to do it. And my advice would be imagine if you don't, and you wait six months when you could have just asked them. ****When you could have just taken action straightaway. You've got the knowledge at your fingertips when you have that, as you said, that real-time feedback loop. It's almost like the ultimate resource for anyone who's taking any kind of agile approach is having this continuous feedback loop.** ## **The future of customer-led growth** ****Let's talk about what customer-led growth is going to look like in the future. What are the expectations? What are the things that people should be focusing on to really build this kind of functionality into their organizations?** Well, I think having some sort of real-time feedback loop is going to be table stakes. I hope that's true for most organizations today. I think in terms of customer-led growth, we are just in B2B in particular, seeing a lot more enthusiasm and interest in really leaning into software marketplaces and review sites, both as a vehicle to get that feedback and champion customer voice, but also as a way of really trying to understand who the right customer is for you. One of the things that I'm excited about as we look towards a potentially cookieless future, is this ability to actually lean into the voice of your customer, even in something like actual signals about what am I interested in buying, through things like intent data. It’s such a huge opportunity for marketers because, to me, it's a much more qualified signal than what you think because I'm a certain demographic title I'm interested in. If I raise my hand, and you see that I have intent for a product, that is one of the best ways to actually get in front of me with valuable information because I've already raised my hand and said I'm interested. So I think of customer voice not just as that customer is directly giving you that real-time feedback, but what are those other inherent signals? And so I think thinking about customer-led growth is also going to be important as we think about how we target our customers in an increasingly cookieless and privacy-first world. You know, things like building your own audiences and community, really getting a strategy for how you're using intent data. We see about half of our customers using intent data in some way and the other half not. I think that the other half is… we're gonna see a lot of them catch up this year. Because we all have to, right? We're all gonna have to figure out new ways of reaching our audiences, which I think is exciting. ****Amanda, thank you very much for joining us today. Who else to be an expert in customer-led growth than the CMO of G2? So thank you very much, Amanda.** --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Propel your product. Get Segmentation Certified URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/propel-your-product-get-segmentation-certified/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:37:36.000Z As a SaaS professional, you’re likely bursting with new marketing ideas and strategies to help achieve rapid growth within your org. But segmentation will help you to refine your marketing efforts, allowing you to be ****super-targeted** in your mission to achieve customer conversion. 🧐 ## Course overview Targeted segmentation will make your messaging ****purposeful** and help you to highlight the use-case for the right audience. Simply put: Make your product value resonate with your audience = see rapid conversion = cut your churn rate down to size. Whatever your area, ****growth** is really the key marker of success. 🪴 And for that to happen, you must align your teams behind a solid, ****value-based approach**. But Segmentation is a delicate science. This course comes with a **tried** and **tested** formula from marketing veterans. All that and so much more. Take a look at what we have to offer you in detail. 👇 ## What we're offering The product of rigorous market research, from proven experts in the field, this course comes with a dynamic range of content across multiple mediums, helping you to ****cut down** on tedious time consuming tasks, **integrate** crucial strategies to help your teams excel, and ****achieve** that career-defining certification. But what does this content look like? We’re offering: 🖥 Expert video tuition from a segmentation expert, Tamara Grominsky. 📚 10 tried, tested, and vetted templates. 🔎 Tried and tested formulas from an expert in the field. 💪 7 activities to consolidate your newfound segmentation skills. ✍ Exams throughout to consolidate your learning. 🏅 A coveted segmentation certification to help you stand out in the job market. > “Segmentation, targeting, and positioning are the three pillars of modern marketing. Great segmentation is the bedrock for GTM success but is overlooked by so many. This course teaches you how to build and maintain effective value segmentation. The templates’ quality is second to none, and Tamara’s delivery makes for a pacy and interesting learning experience. Get on board.” **Sean Broderick, Director Product GTM at Sitecore** ## What you will achieve This course will equip you with the skills to: ✅ Build ****value-based** segmentation. ✅ Identify your ****best** customers. ✅ Discover customer value. ✅ Establish how much your customers are ****willing to pay.** ✅ Build ****high-converting** Go-to-Market strategies. ✅ Measure segmentation ****success.** ✅ Articulate and understand the ****benefit** of customer segmentation. ✅ Apply segmentation across your****whole organization**and customer lifecycle. Whether you’re a small startup or large scale-up, it’s all here. 🔥 What are you waiting for? Get certified below. 👇 [ Get certified ](https://future-of-saas.teachable.com/p/segmentation-certified-masters) ### Turning loyal customers into raving champions URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/turning-loyal-customers-into-raving-champions/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:49:39.000Z *This article was transcribed from a fireside chat at the* [*Customer Marketing Summit*](https://www.customermarketingsummit.com/) *in 2019.* --- In this article, **Jeni Asaba**, Sr. Manager of Customer Engagement & Advocacy at **Jamf**, and **Jennifer Susinski**, Global Customer Advocacy & Experience Manager at **Taulia**, discuss: - Customer advocacy vs. customer marketing - How to create a customer-first mentality - What it means to give your customers a seat at the table - Some tips and tricks for success ## **Customer advocacy vs. customer marketing** **Jennifer Susinski:** I'd like to first kick things off by getting your thoughts on [customer advocacy](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/) versus[ customer marketing](https://www.customermarketingalliance.com/what-is-customer-marketing-the-vital-link-in-the-progress-chain/). Do you think they're one and the same, or are they two different buckets? **Jeni Asaba:** I love this topic. This comes up a lot in conversations around advocacy programs, and what I encourage people to ask themselves when they think about this is can you have one without the other? So can you have customer advocacy without [customer marketing](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-customer-success-is-innovating-to-drive-agility-and-serve-customers-at-scale/#sts=Get%20product%20marketing%20certified.) and vice versa? And does that matter? I wholeheartedly believe that customer marketing is a natural byproduct of any successful customer advocacy program, but the reverse is not always, if ever, true. This goes back to the idea that people do not like being sold to. I'm certainly not a big fan of being marketed to. But if you treat customers really well and show them that you support them through a well-rounded advocacy program, I believe they're going to get what they want out of the program and want to help you with your additional efforts, which naturally creates those customer marketing opportunities. **Jennifer Susinski:** I 100% agree. I knew from the get-go that if I built a program that gave back to my [customers](https://www.saasalliance.io/should-you-build-or-buy-a-customer-education-platform/), I would always be able to fulfill marketing requests. When you provide value to them, and you are a strategic part of their success, there are always going to be [customers](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-tips-to-make-your-saas-product-stand-out/) that are willing to do stuff on your behalf. Leading with asking and then giving back further down the funnel doesn't always work. ## **The importance of making your advocates comfortable** **Jennifer Susinski:** I think another misconception is that the customers always want to speak on our behalf. It's important for us as community leaders to identify where they're comfortable. Are they comfortable speaking at events? Are they comfortable speaking on webinars? Are they comfortable speaking to prospects? Having that information also helps us identify where we can safely place them in customer marketing. ## **How to create a customer-first mentality** **Jeni Asaba:** All stellar community leaders know how important it is to create a customer-first space, but I don't get the sense that everyone knows how to do this. Would you mind sharing some tips and tricks and feedback about what you've done to create this customer-first mentality? **Jennifer Susinski:** I think creating a customer-first mentality has to come from both a program perspective and a personal perspective. From a program perspective, defining key pillars is really important, so there are some key questions you need to ask yourself. What do you want to give back to your customers? What are the goals that you need to hit internally? And what are the goals that you need to have with all of your stakeholders? [Internal buy-in](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-customer-journey-from-onboarding-to-alignment-q-a-with-simpo/#sts=Q:%20Buy-in%20from%20key%20stakeholders%20can%20be%20a%20real%20barrier%20when%20it%20comes%20to%20customer%20journey%20mapping.%20How%20can%20people%20communicate%20the%20importance%20of%20an%20engaging%20customer%20journey%20to%20senior%20figures%20to%20alleviate%20potential%20struggles%20internally?) is essential across the board. Every single business unit needs a hand in the pot. Whether it's engineering support, [product management](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-your-product-management-role/), [product marketing,](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing/) or customer experience, if everybody is not on board, that will create roadblocks and prevent your community from thriving. But before you get to any of that, you need to define your personal pillars. My personal pillar was to dream big. I still dream big. When I'm pitching this program, whether it's internally to somebody who's heard it 10 times before or to somebody new, I always want to be confident in the vision of where I want to go. Of course, that vision is going to change over time as my program grows, but I always want to be bold and take risks. You have to take risks. If you want your community to grow, it's just a given. On the flip side of that, I'm not afraid to make tough decisions. Making tough decisions is sometimes the best thing for your community. I own it. I’m accountable for everything that touches my community. I can't pass the buck to the community lead. Another key pillar is working as a team. [Collaborate with anybody and everybody that wants to touch your group](https://www.saasalliance.io/ensuring-better-alignment-with-customer-success/). If they can bring value to your customers, find a way to collaborate with them. Doing the right thing is another one of my pillars. I always try to conduct myself with honesty and integrity with every single customer and in every single interaction. It's not always easy – sometimes, I want to tell them more than I can, but leading with as much transparency as possible earns their respect on a level that is absolutely stellar. Lastly, loving what you do is so important. This is such a great space. I have a marketing ops background, and I didn't think that I was going to thrive in this space, but honestly, I love what I do every single day. Even when I get a call from a customer who has a support issue at 11 o'clock on a Friday night, my computer is on within five minutes because I've built these relationships and it's just such a great space to work in. Having well-defined pillars also allows me to be a human. The human aspect of these communities is so important. I would also stake my job on it that robotic communities do not thrive. ## **What does it mean to give your customers a seat at the table?** **Jennifer Susinski:** Speaking of [communities](https://www.saasalliance.io/6-savvy-tips-for-community-led-saas-growth/), Jeni, what does it mean to you to give your customers a seat at the table? **Jeni Asaba:** This really gets to the heart of just any customer advocacy program, and that's giving customers more opportunities to connect with each other and your organization in strategic and meaningful ways. And like you said, Jen, being human as your foundation throughout all of it is extremely important. For me, the seat at the table concept means listening, which is not rocket science, right? But in order to do it well, you have to be willing to put your ear to the ground and hear what your customers want and need. Sometimes those wants and needs don't align with what's on your roadmap, but at the end of the day, our product is not what our teams are developing, it's not a software solution; it's people. So we need to listen and recognize that their needs and wants are changing constantly. To give you an example, a couple of years ago, I had a whole plan for what my [advocacy](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/how-customer-advocacy-can-boost-your-business-success/) program was going to do, and then the pandemic hit. People were in a really tough place. I put my ear to the ground and asked the customers in my program what they needed, and it turned out that all they wanted at that point was more connection. From there, we pivoted and started virtual meetups, where to this day we meet twice a month for an hour at a time. We routinely get 50 to 60 customers from up to 11 different countries on those calls, and people are developing friendships with each other. So that was one example where I just listened and did something super easy to pivot and recognize the wants and needs of the customers. That's a pretty drastic example, but there are a couple of other ways of giving people a seat at the table. One is just asking for routine feedback. This can be about anything – it can be about your program or your organization's products or services, but you need to again, listen and show your customers that they're being heard. A great way to do this is to involve customers in focus groups, beta testing, or a customer advisory board. You can help them write blogs for your organization's website so that [their voices are amplified](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-ways-to-build-a-strong-relationship-with-your-customers/). My background is in journalism, so this is a piece that I absolutely love: taking the great ideas and experiences that our customers have and amplifying them within the organization. You can also share the customer's ideas and sentiments throughout the organization. I do this a lot. If I hear something great in my program – it could be something great that they've done, or it could be a customer's feedback on our absolutely outstanding support team – I share those stories in various ways. It could be in an all-company meeting or on the Slack channel. I want people to know what's going on with customers because that helps us understand their wants and needs, and pivot as needed. I think there are just so many different ways that we can give them seats at the table. ## **What are your dynamite tips and tricks for success?** **Jeni Asaba:** Number one: you need to be vulnerable. Vulnerability as a community manager can be one of the scariest things. I'm gonna give you an example. There was one time when we were on a virtual meetup and customers were sharing what a rough time they were having. There was a lot going on, and I think I internalized that a little bit because that night, I had just an awful nightmare. It was one of those nightmares where it's like a movie in your head – you see all the details, you feel everything, and when you wake up you just want to get it out of your head. So I went down to my office space, and I sat down at my computer and recorded a little message where I spoke to my customers from my heart. I was like, “I just woke up from an awful nightmare, and I think it's because the world is crazy. We're all going through so much, so if this is any help or enjoyment to you, I'm going to deliver something to you that makes me feel better.” So I sang a couple of verses of Bill Withers' song ‘Lean on Me’ and I put it out to them. The messages that I got back were like, “That is exactly what I needed, just to hear that somebody's going through the same thing, and the fact that you thought of us and you were raw and took the time to do that means so much.” We can make little gestures like that so easily, but I think we forget that sometimes because we’re always thinking about how to make the biggest impact on people, and a lot of times it's through machine learning or other areas that take away that human aspect. But people want more of the human side. I don’t have a list of tips and tricks around being the human on the other end. It's more about digging deep and thinking about the things that I appreciate when people do them for me, things like handwritten thank you cards, or cards congratulating people on their new baby. I also like to recognize their achievements in front of the company. Those are all things that, put together, help us achieve success in our programs. It's that relationship-building piece. If nothing else, if people truly focus on building genuine relationships, want to know their customers, and want to help their customers, they're gonna achieve success. Jen, I'm sure you've got a list of more well-defined tips and tricks if you’d like to share. **Jennifer Susinski:** Perhaps not tips and tricks, but definitely areas of interest. I think personalizing everywhere and anywhere that you can is really great. Even if it means sending 50 emails as opposed to one email, that personalization, speaking directly to that one customer, could be the difference between success and failure. And I don't just mean the success or failure of that particular ask; I mean success or failure in them engaging with you at all. Another area is empathizing with your customer. If they need you and they're reaching out, there's probably a reason for that. So take a step back, no matter how busy you are, and put yourself in your customer's shoes. Get them into the right swim lane and they will be forever thankful to you. Also, get creative with them; think outside the box. Don't do the same thing over and over again. Customers get excited when they know they're my guinea pig. Do something fun with your customers. Take the mundane task of doing something on our behalf and put some spice into it. It’s so important to have fun. There is a post that I did – I don't even like mentioning when I did it because it was 2018 and it’s the most active discussion on my board to this day. All it said was, “Take a movie and replace one of the words with ‘bacon.’” I come from a big tech company, so the fact that that's the most popular discussion post across the board for the entire company is wild. We laugh every time it pops up to the top of our funnel again. So don't be afraid to have fun. At the end of the day, your customers want to have fun too, so you might as well have fun with them so that they don't go somewhere else. **Jeni Asaba:** I love that. Jen, it has been awesome talking to you. I hope everybody has learned a thing or two from us. I think I speak for both of us when I say that we're just really excited for anybody in this space because it is such an exciting area to be in. Best of luck with everything, and take care. ### Actionable strategies for diversity, equity and inclusion URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/actionable-strategies-for-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/ Last updated: 2022-11-22T18:00:50.000Z In Future of SaaS’s recent SaaS Landscape Report, we wanted to find out how Saas professionals think their C-suite is doing in relation to the gender divide, ethnicity, and socio-economic background. The good news is, it seems there’s steady improvement in diversity at the highest levels, but there’s still much work to be done. It’s difficult to integrate diversity into a company as a whole when those responsible for driving change are not diverse themselves. The results were startling: Only **24%** of our respondents thought that their org was doing enough for DE&I. But how do we implement change? For that you need strategies. Luckily, we’ve compiled a few of them here. ## Unconscious bias training Most SaaS companies know that change is necessary, and that action is needed to make it happen. But even with the best intentions, prejudices can be deeply ingrained and can impact behavior in subtle ways. Unconscious bias training can help us to get to the root of discriminatory behavior. ## Hiring DE&I leaders In a busy SaaS org, where the primary focus is growth and revenue, it can be difficult to stay focused on DE&I as a priority. A diversity and inclusion officer can ensure that DE&I stays top of mind across all departments. Along with ensuring diverse hiring and recruiting processes, a DE&I officer will also ensure that demographics across the org feel sufficiently represented, potentially cutting down on your employee churn rate. [The SaaS Landscape Report 2022 is hereThrough a mix of quantitative and qualitative research, in this report, we’ll be loading you with actionable strategies from SaaS leaders on how diversity, equity, and inclusion can become a permanent, driving force in your org.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/FoSaaS_Landscape_Report_2022_Blog_2.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-saas-landscape-report-2022-is-here/) ## Working with DE&I orgs Various organizations are dedicated to enabling diversity within tech and SaaS. The D&I Index by HR Datahub allows organizations to place a score on their DE&I efforts, based on real data, and identify aspects of their strategy that need a boost. There are also agencies dedicated to hiring talented individuals of minority demographics to SaaS orgs. Such partnerships can make it easier to diversify your teams. ## Leaders are visible allies The C-suite sets the tone by articulating the importance of DE&I across the organization and isn’t afraid to have candid conversations to elicit actionable insights. DE&I is central to the company culture, and diversity and inclusion are linked to the organization’s mission. It’s all about leaders leading with their actions rather than their words, and of course, leading by an inclusive example. ## DE&I is a priority The C-suite must prioritize DE&I with funding, so they have the chance to gain traction. Not only is DE&I a priority in the workplace, but it’s also a priority when building products. The important takeaway here is that DE&I should never just be something that’s purely ornamental to your business, it's baked into the core of what you do, and it’s taken into consideration at every step of your product-building process. ## Leaders are proactive & empathetic A successful initiative requires empathy. Training should be proactive and not just rolled out in response to a D&I failure. What does this look like? Well, for starters, you can make inclusivity a necessity in the onboarding process for your new hires, as important as training others in the use of your essential tech stack, or in customer support. On the empathy side, this means that you're receptive to concerns as they arise, no matter how minor they might seem. You’re not just putting out fires as and when they arise. ## Data is used to support initiatives and keep the organization accountable The C-suite are looking at the data to prove or review the benefits of their strategy, by looking at what can be improved and whether they’re meeting targets. Are diverse hiring practices being supported? Are interviews inclusive? Is enough being done to support learning and development? ## Ensure recruitment is inclusive Many SaaS recruiters now use social media groups that specifically target minorities and the less advantaged. There’s Queers in Toronto, for example, and then there’s the Slack community, Black Professionals in Tech, which helps people of color support each other in finding tech roles, as well as letting allies post job openings. Essentially, if you’re only putting your post up on your website, you’re only going to get the same people applying to it who would have applied at the beginning. So to be inclusive from the get-go, you need to make sure your job posting is somewhere where the less advantaged might see it. [How diverse voices contribute to SaaSKalina Bryant, Global Head of Customer Advocacy at Asana and Founder of UnapologeTECH Platform and Podcast hosted a panel discussion at this year’s Future of SaaS Festival, outlining the importance of a diverse workforce and why it’s worked out so well for our panelists.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/07/marvin-meyer-SYTO3xs06fU-unsplash--1---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-diverse-voices-contribute-to-saas/#sts=Q:%20What%20do%20diversity%20and%20inclusion%20mean%20to%20you?) ## Introduce a mentorship program Mentorship is so important to equity, and it may feel like it’s a lot to take on a mentor or mentee when you’re already so busy, but we think that mentorship goes both ways. People who mentor other more junior staff get a lot out of it too, you get the success, you get a feeling of helping someone else and their wins feel like your wins. Equity is all about lifting others up, and you can’t do that unless you have a guiding hand reaching down from the top. ## Ensure the interview process is inclusive First and foremost, you should have a bank of questions and ask those same questions. You might have a great rapport with someone, or find some similarities that give you a biased reason for why you should hire them. You need to give everyone the equal opportunity to speak their strengths, and essentially sell themselves. Who is in the room is also really important. If someone is interviewing at an organization and they only see cis white men in every stage of their interviews, that’s going to speak volumes about their organization. Be intentional about who is in the room with that candidate, so that they feel like there’s someone like them in this organization, and they wouldn’t be alone. --- *Want to see more? Download the full report [right here. ](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-saas-landscape-report-2022/)* ### Customer success: Past, present, and future URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-past-present-and-future/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:49:19.000Z I’m David Collard and I work at LinkedIn, where I lead the customer success team for our global clients' program out of EMEA. I've been working in and around customer success for about six years now, and in that time, I've seen considerable growth and change in our industry. Today, I'm going to talk you through where I see customer success going as a strategic function in the coming years. **Our main talking points include:** - A potted history of CS - How far have we come? - The different flavors of customer success - Where we are at LinkedIn - Where do we go from here? ## A potted history of CS Before we look forward, as I often tell my CSMs when they're presenting to clients, it's worthwhile to have a little look in the rearview mirror. Now, this might be because I studied history at university and it's a habit that just refuses to die, but I truly believe that when you're looking to the future and trying to figure out how to go forwards, it really helps to know where you're coming from. It is fair to argue that customer success (or perhaps more accurately, the skills, the processes, and the imperatives that underpin it) is as old as business. Certainly, when I speak to my father who worked in finance and banking for almost 50 years, he tells me that what I'm doing is nothing new. He’s been there, done that, and got the t-shirt. Well, the shirt and tie. He's kind of right. He's also kind of wrong. Here's why: contrary to popular belief, it wasn't the software that changed everything – far from it. It was the subscription model. It was companies realizing you only started making a profit if your client renewed for multiple cycles that changed everything. On top of this, the sudden and irreversible rise in the power of the customer made modern customer success imperative to the success of almost any business. You see, back in the 60s, my father wanted to keep his clients. Of course he did! But the business models that were run then meant that clients in almost all industries were locked in. Even if something went wrong with a product, if it went to absolute pot, then the companies would still make money on the deal because everything was front-loaded. It's not like that for us anymore. If we screw up (or, let's be honest, even if we don't screw up but the customer thinks we have) we can end up making a net loss on the entire deal. That's why modern customer success was originally formed. It was to protect the base. It was to ensure that we never reached a critical mass of customers leaving us before we'd managed to turn a profit on the deal. If that ever happens, we're going to have to start reselling to people who've already canceled. I don't even want to imagine how hard that is. [![Two people shaking hands ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/handshake.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/customer-success-past-present-and-future) I liken it to trying to convince somebody who's got food poisoning from a particular restaurant to go back and try it again because, well, it might be different this time. It's an unnecessarily hard position to be in when you could mitigate that risk at the source. That's why customer success came into being. As we'll see, CS has quickly become a business-critical function. But as we start to look ahead, I just want to put something to you: we are still so young as a discipline it’s crazy. CS is so young that if it was a person it wouldn't be allowed legally to buy a beer in the United States. For contrast, I Googled this earlier, and I want to share it with you: the earliest records of accountants are 7000 years old, from ancient Mesopotamia. They carved their financial records into stone tablets. That's how far their discipline has come and developed. If we look at sales, I'm pretty sure that the first salesperson came into being approximately half a second after the first person thought up the idea of bartering one good for another. Way before the invention of money, somebody started selling something. So many professions have systems, knowledge, and precedents. In customer success, on the other hand, we're incredibly privileged to have the opportunity (and, let's be honest, the challenge) to shape the present and future of our discipline. ## How far have we come? For such a young discipline, there are an awful lot of people doing this job. I pulled some data from LinkedIn systems to give you some indication of where the industry is now. Just to clarify, this data set only shows those who have a customer success title in their LinkedIn profile. Just under 200,000 people do customer success for a living. Given that 20 years ago, this discipline didn't really exist, and even 10 years ago, most people had never heard of a customer success manager, this is a seriously impressive number. Last year on LinkedIn, we saw the number of people identifying as CSMs grow by over 20% year-on-year. That's incredible. That’s the kind of steep growth you normally only see in startups. [![A group of people putting hands together ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/hands-together-1.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/customer-success-past-present-and-future) There's no sign of this stopping anytime soon. I don't see it stopping; I'm sure you don't either. That’s borne out by the fact that we saw, just on the LinkedIn platform,15,000 jobs for this talent pool last year. If you look at how many people just a handful of companies are hiring in this area, and the levels of attrition, we can also read into this data that a highly mobile and diversely skilled population is taking these roles, shaping them, and leaving to do it again and again. It's an exciting time to be in CS. We can also see that the companies employing the most CS talent globally – the likes of IBM, LinkedIn, and SAP – are growing their CS functions by up to 54% each year. That's massive growth. It’s hyper-growth. If that doesn't demonstrate just how critical customer success is to the future of work, I don't know what does. The final thing I'd like to call out here is rather pleasing. It's the gender diversity in our sector. In customer success, there is a much healthier gender diversity stat than I think I've seen in any other area. 52% of customer success professionals identify as female. I'm proud of the fact that this is a relatively equitable part of the business to be in. ### Everyone is digital now Now, the companies I’ve called out so far are the big players. They are big tech in all of its glory. However, I would like to immediately challenge any notion you have about CS being purely the preserve of tech giants. When I dug deeper into this data set and looked into which industries have the largest growth in customer success hires, things started to look a little different. I’ll admit that it’s probably partly because some of these industries are starting from a relatively low customer success base that they've seen such growth, but just look at the diversity of what these companies do! They're not purely tech companies like LinkedIn, IBM, Cisco, or Microsoft. There are companies that deal in physical products, services, consulting, and law, to name but a few. [![A network of laptops](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/network-1.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/customer-success-past-present-and-future) So how is it that customer success spreads across all of these types of companies? Well, the answer is that everything is digital now. Everyone is working in a subscription model. I even order my cat's food online on a subscription basis these days. We're living in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, and this is emblematic of that. Now, I'm sure that my go-to cat food company, Katkin – a big shout out to them, by the way – does not class itself as a tech firm, but they have many of the hallmarks of one in how they go to market. I think it's a pretty fair bet that if they continue to scale their burgeoning cat food empire, at some point, they're going to need CSMs, or certainly something very similar. But what does this mean for you? You probably don’t work at a cat food company; it’s more likely that most of the folks reading this article work for some kind of SaaS company. You might feel that you know what customer success is and what it should be doing for you, and I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong. What I am going to do is challenge you. I'm going to challenge whether what your teams are doing is customer success, or whether you may want to think about realigning how your teams are structured, referred to, targeted, and compensated. ## The different flavors of customer success So what is CS? And at what point does CS cease to be CS? This is a big question for me and one that I'm quite passionate about. Earlier, we saw just how massive the growth of customer success roles has been, and I love this. We're contributing hugely to the future success and prosperity of our businesses and our economies. I love that this is happening. However, this has also led to customer success becoming something of a fashionable “must-have” in certain companies. I've seen a lot of roles advertised as CS, but once I’ve dug into them, I’ve found that they’re something else. I've also spoken to a number of people who were looking to join me at LinkedIn, and I don't feel that their experience covered what we would define as CS. Here are the three areas that I feel most commonly overlap with customer success: 1. **Commercial roles**, such as account execs, account managers, and relationship managers 2. **Technical roles**, such as integration experts 3. **Customer support** I'd like you to picture a sliding scale. On one end, you have “not at all commercially, technically, or support-focused.” At the other, you have “commercially, technically, and support-obsessed.” Ask yourself where your CSMs fall on that sliding scale, and why. I'm now going to give you my opinion on where I believe CS ends and some of these disciplines begin. I’ll share how I like to think about investigating that, and the questions that I'd be asking to determine the true role of customer success. ### Customer support roles vs customer success roles The easiest area to address is support. Customer success reps, it's fair to say, support their clients. They often help them to solve problems, and it's here that the overlap with customer support can often come in and you see the roles starting to get a bit blurred. The question I would always ask is, **are your CSMs primarily proactive or reactive in their interactions with customers?** If most of the time they're being reactive, particularly if they work on a ticketing system and they don't have client ownership and embedded relationships with those clients, for me, that feels like a customer support team. Customer support is a whole and distinct discipline, and I believe that people who are doing that job should be referred to and compensated as such and their targets should reflect the role of customer support. [!['be the change'](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/be-the-change.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/customer-success-past-present-and-future) If, however, your teams are proactively engaging with clients to spot risks ahead of time, and if they’re seeing how clients use the product and using that intel to aid product development, then they’re CSMs. That's where I would draw the line. It’s about proactivity versus reactivity. ### Technical roles vs customer success roles It can be a little trickier to draw a line between technical roles and CS roles. The distinction depends hugely on where your product sits in a client's tech stack. It also depends on who your main stakeholders in a client are and the amount of technical language and know-how you need to engage with them. If you're feeling like there's an awful lot of overlap, the question I would ask is **how essential is *ongoing* technical engagement to the success of your client?** If you feel that your product should run smoothly once it's set up and integrated, my feeling is that all the technical work is front-loaded into the start of the customer lifecycle and a CS title isn't necessarily all that appropriate here. Think of it from the perspective we were looking at right at the beginning – a customer success manager is meant to defend the base. If somebody is technically qualified and all of their work, knowledge, and expertise is front-loaded into the client engagement, we're asking them to be something that they're not. People like this are really valuable, but I don't necessarily feel that we should be calling them CSMs. ### Commercial roles vs customer success roles Now, onto the big one: commerciality. For me, and I'm sure for many of the people reading, this is the big schism in customer success right now. As I mentioned we have only 20 years of history to accountancy’s 7000\. We're right at the beginning of our journey, so it's going to work its way out, but for now, this is the big separation. Some CS orgs, mine included, have commercial targets around mitigating churn. That's an absolutely key metric. It falls under the heading of protecting the base, so a typical traditional CSM should make this happen. For many CS teams, this is the only commercial target. Other CS orgs like their CSMs to own renewals as well. Honestly, I'm kind of divided on how I feel about this. I see the benefit of having one point of contact who owns client engagement from onboarding through to renewal; I think it can lead to a great customer experience. However, renewing clients is a specialized skill set, and I sometimes wonder if it might be better to take that off CSMs’ plates. Some companies like their CSMs to go one step further and have growth or even upsell targets. Of course, you need to do what's right for your company, your people, your products, and most of all your clients. Personally, though, I'm of the opinion that once you're asking somebody to upsell and grow an account, then they're not a CSM anymore. They’re a relationship manager or an account manager. When growth and upsell targets define the CSM role, I think that hinders them in some of their core responsibilities. Here’s why: as soon as you give somebody a growth target or an upsell target, they will inevitably find themselves in situations where they need to choose between what is most expedient for them and what is most expedient for the client. When you don't have that upsell target, you're more able to focus on what the client needs. As an example, if you have a whole bundle of licenses that are unused or underused, do you encourage the client to undergo training to get people upskilled, or do you say, “Well, look, you can just buy some more.” One is best for me as a CSM/seller; one is best for the client. I come down on this side because one of the great privileges and joys that I have is seeing my team being treated as an insider by their clients. They're so trusted that they're invited to internal meetings and sales kickoff events. One of the reasons for this is that the client knows that my team is targeted on making them successful, not on making more money. I want to throw in one quick caveat here though. I am not for a moment suggesting CSM should not be commercially minded (in fact, I'm a big proponent of this). I'm saying that CSMs should not be commercially motivated. ## Where we are at LinkedIn Now that I’ve shared my opinions about what CS is, where it ends, and where other disciplines begin, I'm going to give you a high-level overview of LinkedIn’s CS function. We're a 19-year-old company; we're a similar age, therefore, to CS as a whole. I've been hugely privileged to be part of that journey for about a third of the company's life. In that time, I've seen a dramatic change in how CS is viewed both as a strategic priority and in terms of how we operate. Back when I joined LinkedIn, there were three very different CS orgs running across our three different lines of business. They ranged from being very structured and delivery-orientated in one area to being relatively unregulated in another part of the business. There was no standardization, and CSMs were essentially focused on delivering whatever the client wanted or said they needed to deliver value. I'm pleased to say that since then, the business has recognized just how critical CS is to LinkedIn’s continued growth, success, and reputation. They've worked hard to consolidate the structures we work within, and these efforts have paid off massively. We've aligned considerably. Now CS teams across all different business units and products have structures to work within so they can give clients a clearer idea of what is in scope and what's not in scope based on their investment. We've also heavily invested in our CSMs being relationship builders who don't just anchor on a product but aim to deliver a wider and more holistic value to clients. There are two things that have really freed up time for our CSMs to be more engaged with our customers. Firstly, there’s been a big investment in tools that either enable clients to self-serve or enable our CSMs to scale their impact. I'm talking about things like integrations with popular learning management systems to allow CSMs not to have to deliver one-to-one training. We've also built automation into the creation of customized decks so that reporting is less painful. The other thing, beyond systems, that has enabled our CSMs to deliver more value to clients has been the drive to create specialized teams. When I joined LinkedIn, there was nobody specifically focused on client learning tools, onboarding large clients, or increasing the community of our clients. CSMs were encouraged to undertake these activities because we knew they could add value, but there was no centralized methodology or ownership. That meant we ended up with massive variance in tools and techniques, and logically, therefore, in the success of these engagements. We now have specialized roles and teams dealing with all of this and more. There’s more to come too. This enables our customer success managers to focus on their core responsibilities and scale their impact. This means that they're able to work with more clients or to go deeper with clients and spend more time getting to know their customers, their business, their priorities, and how therefore we can define and deliver value to them. [![An empty road ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/road--1-.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/customer-success-past-present-and-future) ## Where do we go from here? I'm going to close by being a little bit of a CS Nostradamus and giving you a couple of predictions and thoughts on trends for the years to come. I believe that we're going to see the customer success function continue to split into more specialized roles. I just mentioned some of the ones we've seen grow at LinkedIn, and I think this is going to become more typical at smaller as well as larger companies. When you're setting up a customer success team in the future, you won't just hire five CSMs; you’ll hire an onboarding specialist, a technical specialist, and three CSMs. My personal hot tip for what I see as being the key split is twofold. First, there’s implementation. I think it’s becoming a discipline in its own right, and it's going to branch off from customer success and become its own thing. I also believe that, in time, we're going to see an end to this fashion for calling people with growth targets CSMs and there'll be a new title within the next few years. Finally, I predict that this diversification of role types is going to lead to greater standardization and codification across the industry of what it means to be a CSM, a technical specialist, or an implementation consultant. The plus side for CS leaders is that more clearly defined role titles are going to make it an awful lot easier to source and hire the right people. If you're building out a CS function, I'd strongly encourage you to think about these three areas: 1. **Product:** What is your product? How technical is it? 2. **Company size:** How many different types of people can you fit in? If you're a startup, you might just need one CSM for now. If you’re a bit bigger, try and fit in some of the specialized areas we’ve looked at. 3. **Customer lifecycle:** How often do your clients need proactive engagement from a CSM? This is going to help you define what your CS team should look like and where on the sliding scale you put them. You’ll then have a much clearer vision of the targets your CSMs should be working towards, the compensation that fits their roles, and how best to advertise for them. ### Five savvy tips for community-led SaaS growth URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/6-savvy-tips-for-community-led-saas-growth/ Last updated: 2022-11-18T15:32:51.000Z “You can never go wrong by investing in communities and the human beings within them,” says Pam Moore, CEO of Marketing Nutz. No truer words were ever spoken. You can never go wrong by investing in a community of raving SaaS users for your product. Notion didn't go wrong with it. Through community building on Reddit plus an ambassadorship program, Notion scaled to $10bn in 2021 with over 2m+ users around the globe. In 2021, 70% of companies with communities increased their budget for community building. That means community-led SaaS growth is a successful growth model to invest in. Building your **SaaS community** adds value to customers beyond your product by encouraging user interactions and information sharing across a network of like-minded individuals who, in turn, become advocates, boosting the community even more according to UserPilot. But how can you build a thriving community of SaaS users and what exactly is a SaaS community? You'll get answers to these questions and more in this article. ## **What is SaaS community-led growth (CLG)?** There are many frameworks for growing a SaaS company. There is product-led growth too and many other growth frameworks. You see, growth predicts a huge part of a SaaS product's success, but growth is super hard to maintain when you don't have a sustainable model in place. Like Olivia Nottebohm of Notion rightly said – “Community is a force that should power every stage of the funnel.” So what is community-led SaaS growth? In a recent article – “[Community-led growth is the future of SaaS](https://www.saasalliance.io/community-led-growth-is-the-future-of-saas/)" – Future of SaaS defined community-led growth as a go-to-market strategy that relies on an engaged community of customers as a tool for acquiring new customers, retaining existing customers, and expanding your business reach. Community-led SaaS growth is a growth model that involves growing your SaaS user base by prioritizing a group of people (community) on different media platforms notwithstanding geographic barriers and communication hindrances. In CLG, it's people and product first above any other thing. You care so much about building relationships with a group of people that'll become your SaaS product evangelists. That way, you build your SaaS product awareness, scale engagement, increase product advocacy and scale your client acquisition. But why are you creating a community? You must have a goal! What platform or channels are you using? Is your product valuable enough to your customers? And what kind of entry and onboarding experience do you want to put in play? These are questions you must answer to build a thriving community. Now, let's take a look at tips for building one that really rocks! [5 awesome tips for building a customer advocacy programBuilding a customer advocacy program can really accelerate your business and drive revenue! The ultimate goal for any department within an organization is to have a representative at the table during those crucial C-suite meetings. We want to convince senior stakeholders that you can drive results.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/benjamin-davies-FiZTaNTj2Ak-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/#sts=5.%20How%20do%20you%20build%20a%20tech%20stack%20for%20your%20community?) ## **Five savvy tips for building a community of raving users** Building a community is good but are your community members enthusiastic about your product? Are they going the extra mile to promote your product? After all, what's a community without valuable results for your SaaS org and your users? Let's take a look at the five tips… ### **Upgrade the value of your SaaS product** The first step to creating a thriving SaaS community is to create a product for the people. Your SaaS product must be of high value to your users and prospective users. I spoke to Joran Hofman, the founder of Reditus and he had this to say: > Always remember that your clients want to solve a certain problem they have and are looking for tools to help them do so. If you can provide them so much value, they will start raving about your tool themselves. Build your tool with a CS (Customer Success) mindset. Build your tool with a customer success mindset, it's about your users all the time but never forget the value you bring to your SaaS – more signups, an increase in ARR, and checklists of different metrics that make up for growth. You will attract loyal community members who are ever ready to talk about your product and give quality feedback. ### **Create an affiliate program and reward loyal customers** When I interviewed Joran Hoffman of Reditus, he talked so much about building an affiliate program. > Want people to start raving about your product? Create an affiliate program and invite your current users. When they deliver your paid clients, they will receive a kickback fee. A great win-win for both of you. An affiliate program only works if they are already a fan of your product. Creating an affiliate program is a great way to drive loyal customers to your community funnel. Currently, the global affiliate marketing industry is worth over $17 billion and SaaS companies are taking advantage of it. Top companies like Shopify and Freshbooks maximize affiliate programs. Creating an affiliate program helps you build a solid community Canva used impact.com to expand from a relatively low-tech referral program to a diverse network of 9,000 partnerships, including YouTubers, bloggers, media publishers, podcasters, and business-to-business partners. [Community-led growth is the Future of SaaSCommunity-led growth is a go-to-market strategy that relies on an engaged community of customers as a tool for acquiring new customers, retaining existing customers, and expanding your business reach.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/toa-heftiba-6bKpHAun4d8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/community-led-growth-is-the-future-of-saas/) ### **Host events and webinars** Hosting virtual events for your SaaS company is a great way to build a community of raving fans. 29% of the marketing webinars are from the technology and SaaS industry (Webinar Care). Webinars and other virtual events are great channels for you to build affinity with your users. With virtual events, you widen the reach of your SaaS product. That means you get more eyeballs on your unique offer. You must map out a quality message for each event and have a goal in mind. Are you trying to generate leads with webinars or are you trying to drive traffic to your Slack groups or Facebook groups? With webinars, you can create a big wall of content. Your webinar content can be repurposed to fit into your SaaS content distribution channels. ### **Engage with helpful and educational content** The mistake I see from SaaS companies is this: They just create a community, a group on either Facebook, LinkedIn, or Slack, and once in a while, they send messages that are not valuable to the members. What does this result in? A dormant community. You are the owner of your SaaS community, so you don't need anybody's permission. Always share helpful content and support with your community. Spark conversations with trending topics in your niche, ask questions, share your blog post with snippets, and don't forget to be fun when need be. When you share helpful content about your product, your customers would always reciprocate that show of care. So do it right! ### **Be consistent** What should be consistent? There are 3 things you must be consistent with if you want to build a thriving community for your SaaS org. The first is encouraging product advocacy. Reward customers who talk about your product on social media. But the truth is, you can't get them to advocate for your product if you aren't consistent with customer education and publishing helpful content. The last is this: Always show up. If you snooze, you lose the attention of your users. Show them you care about them by showing up in the community. Remember, the results of CLG grow in a compounding manner. You have to be consistent to skyrocket your SaaS growth. [An Essential Aspect of Growing a SaaS BusinessA Sales Development Representative (SDR) has one primary focus: sales prospecting. SDRs are responsible for a number of key tasks that are important for any SaaS company that wants to grow its marketing efforts.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSaleem Maroof![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/growth-sales.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/sdrs-an-essential-aspect-of-growing-a-saas-business/) ### **Hire a community team** In an article titled: “How Nigeria’s leading startups build and maintain thriving communities” written by Jeremiah Ajayi, he stated that: > Community building is a full-time job. And so, you'll need to hire for community roles. You don't have to go full-scale if you don't have the resources yet. You can start by hiring only a community manager or even asking your current marketing team to take up community management. If you want to grow your SaaS community, you have to hire or create a community management team. You can't do it yourself. There are 1001 things you should be doing rather than managing your community. Hand it over to quality hands to manage and see how you get a great return on investment. ## **Real examples of SaaS companies maximizing community-led growth** > Community for Duolingo is not just a fuzzy buzzword, it is the mega highway that powers what we do, why we do it, and who we do it for. Says Laura Nestler, the former head of community at Duolingo, now head of community at Reddit. Duolingo has over 500 million registered users with a little over 95 available courses in 38 languages. Their huge growth in revenue and retention has been majorly part of the community-led growth model. Duolingo uses their community to generate educational content for its users. The Duolingo community team used the 1/9/90 rule to produce lots of results. They encouraged the 1% of community members to share their content and this led to an influx of more users. Notion is not left out either. Notion has used the community-led growth model to build a $2 billion company, grow its user base to over 30 million users. They have a huge Reddit community. Notion's Reddit community has become a place for current and future users to connect to share templates, ideas, accomplishments, product ideas, etc. ![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/eUyIrLb3yQw2bOfnVlIgMklsMAnfBjsk3YQiw84GJu-L1UTXBhLVGFXUlJ99XmoLvYhEw3EWys0K0cVtjXAgx6EpdUxi5AcDsVpHJkC2syWrY_CKBhSS72ljrfLltcz_AWuw6V3m21nSU9A4V4arqaaHzDP3BEkzgOXAh9cQSlz3vPK5QrXMHmTdbKhHCg) The image above shows the Reddit community at 46.8k in August 2022, not surprising to know that the community now boasts 235K community members. That's a whopping figure in a short time. ![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/kyLDT2fy-vXS5bs09MdruRZIvacgYucFpKSg115Iae1mLimSxfPpdClPNiTR97m2q5KMmKrCGpB7sVxE7Z0cCeuJ2U9jdjHWGOTTKEpQiFQNSCBgfOZS2iPhthQdqllgnCoOpocvlOiTgsJcWe1U_F0_0XG92hCiICieJO9i6buoyqHTNDcFKLLGhvF66A) > We created a community of champions from different companies who were all working on the Notion platform. They could exchange ideas and best practices, and most importantly, we granted them access to ask thought leaders about the product and what they thought should come next. **Olivia Nottebohm, the CRO of Notion.** The interesting thing is: The community is not dormant. Many posts go live in a day with hundreds of comments and engagement. Indeed, it's a community of champions. But Notion didn't stop there, they created an ambassadorship program called Notion Pros. They use a brand of creators to skyrocket Notion's user base. ![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/dmNwDl-Wv6E6FLp9FSc0vMAFRIi_vdpE5XISCyv4HvyDPNSM3cCQiZTWQvNmdxiyq2X51MpaK13AMVtrw_cbFvnjz3fWoUrA3B8_KxqJ-1xNuXlt76k3PNiUfbMDqk_qDO252qvvemaIwep9tsQxO03LohNju1j1reM4M1D9tpb5gZ6ok_T5FNNntyHtZA) To keep it manageable, they limited the Notion Pros program to 20 total seats at the start. As of August 2020, they got 60 Notion Pros representing, supporting & promoting the tool across the many Notion communities out there. Now, in 2022, Notion has around 90 influencers that have at least 10k followers on social media. And they're called **'Notion Ambassadors'.** Notion’s current Head of Community was once a Notion fanboy with a site that was getting over 80,000 hits per month according to nogood.io. Now, you see how powerful building a community can be. Stop thinking about: “If I build it, they'll come”. It's time to tap into the community. [Swipe right on your “soulmate investor”Fundraising raises a lot of questions. What kind should I go after? Who will invest in my company? What should I do? (And what shouldn’t I do?) Time to talk fundraising, let’s get into it!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLJ Barnum![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/11/investment.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/swipe-right-on-your-soulmate-investor/) ## Wrapping up: It's time to build your SaaS community An authentic, engaged, and loyal community can be your SaaS company's most valuable asset. The success of Notion, Duolingo, Cowrywise, Coinbase should convince you if you are thinking otherwise. I'll end with this quote from Richard Mabey, the CEO of Juro: > If you’re selling something radical, you need to find believers in the product — visionaries who are prepared to change the way they work. Traditional inbound marketing methods rarely work in finding these people — or at least not quickly. By building a community of like-minded lawyers, we are building a group of evangelists for our vision and product. --- *Want to boost your skills for maximum growth? Get segmentation certified[ here! ](https://future-of-saas.teachable.com/p/segmentation-certified-masters)* ### The SaaS Landscape Report 2022 is here URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-saas-landscape-report-2022-is-here/ Last updated: 2024-07-19T14:37:22.000Z Inclusive companies exhibit higher profits and outperform competitors by **35%**. Needless to say, from a social, cultural, and financial perspective, *diversity matters*. That's why, through a mix of quantitative and qualitative research, in this report, we're loading you with actionable strategies from SaaS leaders on how diversity, equity, and inclusion can become a permanent, driving force in your org. We've partnered with Scytale and TD SYNNEX to tackle crucial DE&I topics head on, including: - The gender divide. - Ableism in the workplace - How to measure inclusivity - How the C-Suite can drive DE&I. Plus much more... ## **Uncover data, interviews, and actionable insights to impact change** Hear from DE&I experts and real champions of change on how you can make a difference in every function, at every stage. > Innovation happens when you combine knowledge from different areas, it very rarely happens in a closed off environment. That means you need people with diverse backgrounds. I’ve seen teachers turning into amazing support reps, preachers becoming marketing professionals, and architects becoming amazing system admins. The key benefit of diversity in SaaS organizations is that it opens up the possibility for innovation. Valentina Thörner, **Head of Remote and Support Quality at Klaus** > “Neurodiverse teams have the ability to see things from a different perspective, which means that they’re more likely to come up with solutions that would never occur to someone who is less creative or has fewer ideas. The more neurodiverse your team is, the more likely you are to find new ways of doing things—and this can help you come up with some truly innovative solutions!” Gauri Manglik, **CEO & Co-founder at Instrumentl** What are you waiting for? See the results. ### Adapt to anything: how to be a product chameleon URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/adapt-to-anything-how-to-be-a-product-chameleon/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:48:40.000Z My name is Kalia Aragon, Senior Product Manager at Flatiron Health and former Product Manager at Disney Streaming Services. I started my professional career in the nonprofit space. I studied political science and wanted to change the world and fell into product by accident. Fast forward to today, I consider myself to be a living breathing product chameleon. A product leader who can assess, adapt and thrive in most companies and product teams! In this article, I’ll talk about how to adapt to anything and how to be a product chameleon. **Here’s our main talking points:** - Assessing what kind of product manager a company needs you to be - How to be the product manager the company needs - What are the perks of being a product chameleon? Let’s get to it 👇 ## Assessing what kind of product manager a company needs you to be ### Storytime: My first product interview When I had my first product interview, I was transitioning out of the nonprofit space. I was working at a consulting agency where I had large clients such as Footlocker and Google. The company I was interviewing for was a small startup agency that worked in the artificial intelligence space. I thought because of my skills, working on the client side and managing the operations, I would be able to pick up product without much of a problem. During my first phone screen with a hiring manager, I was asked “what is the difference between an SDK and an API?”. I had no idea what the right answer was. Now, of course I do, but the Kalia who studied transitional justice and worked on building texting tools, and customer databases didn’t. At that moment, I felt like a failure. How could I not even pass an initial phone screen? However, what I've come to realize is that my real mistake was not being able to assess the product culture of the company and see what kind of product manager they wanted. Taking a beat and doing the kind of assessment we're going to talk about here throughout your career is really important. ### **The biggest factors to consider when evaluating a new company/job** Here’s a couple of questions to think about when evaluating a new company: - What is the makeup of the company? - What is the size of their staff? - What kind of roles do they hire? - What's the financial stage of the company? For example, if I would have done a little bit more research into the company and the kinds of roles they hired, I would have discovered that they didn't hire any of the supporting functions you see in product organizations like technical project managers and program managers. Therefore, it could be assumed that all of those roles would have rolled up to product managers who are working directly with engineering and other cross-functional teams. I would've also been able to figure out that the main tenet of their business or their tech stack was their proprietary AI technology. Going into an interview, I would have been more prepared for the more technical-minded questions, because I know that was a big part of their company's ethos. Every startup or corporate company isn't always looking for the same thing, but companies do reveal what their culture is like and you can always ask to verify. We have tons of community resources to be able to research companies about what it's like to work there (like Reddit and LinkedIn). ### **How to get insights on what the company needs a product manager to be** To give you a starter, here are a few sets of questions that will give you good insights into how the company functions, and what product managers are expected to do there: - What are the top skills of a successful product manager at this company? - What's in your tech stack? - How important is the Agile or Scrum framework to this company? - Do you have KPIs? - Who are your key stakeholders? This isn't an exhaustive list but no matter what, all of these questions will start to give you a sense of what the company needs a product manager to be. ## **How to be the product manager the company needs** ### **Storytime: Building a net new product with limited resources that serves a broad audience** The short answer is you have to adapt and just do it but since that isn't helpful, let me give you an example from my past. I used to work at a privacy company called Ghostery. The company was a small startup of about 15 people. When I first joined, I was the second product manager to be hired. My manager at the time was the de facto president and had lots of competing priorities for his time. It was clear to me I would have to wear a lot of hats and would have a lot of independence, but limited support. At the time, the company was moving to a subscription model. Safari, one of the platforms they supported, was going through an update that would make their previous product obsolete. My task was to launch a new product that would support Safari users taking advantage of the newest Mac operating system. I ended up with a very small staff: one UX/UI designer in New York and one developer in Munich, Germany. Since my only developer was based in Munich, Germany, while I was in New York, the earlier I went to the office, the more time I had with her. This is a great example of how being accessible to your team is an easy way to adapt to a given culture. With this extra time, I was able to dig through developer docs on the Apple site for her, stock Stack Overflow for ways to solve our challenges, and just be there for her. Being accessible is a powerful way to be a great product manager. In this instance, I knew we had aggressive timelines that couldn't slip so it was important for me to do anything possible to enable my team's success. ### **Doing more isn't always the best solution** In smaller companies, you'll be met with less resistance but in larger ones, you might be entering some political territory so in some cases, doing less is the better way to adapt. In larger companies that rely on cross-team collaboration, a big part of the culture is being mindful of who plays what roles. Knowing how to maneuver that space is almost more important than getting the credit for being the person to do the job. Sometimes you have to go back to step one and assess the culture. It could have changed over time and the role you played at that same company could be someone else's responsibility. Adapting to an ever-changing process can be fun if you lean into it. A large part of my personal success comes from being able to thrive in ambiguity, learning how to embrace it, and excel in it is a powerful way of adapting as a product manager. ### **Real life example at my current role** The Disney streaming company and the Walt Disney family is one of the biggest companies I've ever worked for. When it first started, I learned all these new functions I had never interacted with before. I'll call out two in particular I learned how to work with: TPMs and EPMs. In our company, a TPM stands for a technical project manager. They focus on the action and on the execution work with engineering directly. They interact with them daily and manage things like JIRA delivery and timing. This was a role I had played in the past so I wasn't used to giving up that responsibility to someone else. The EPM team, or the enterprise program manager team, focuses on the high-level execution of work. They work across teams, support communication (escalation when necessary), and deliver tracking for leadership. Again, this had rolled up into my role and I had to learn how to adjust. It was important for me to figure out how I could uniquely bring value to these teams. These folks are some of my favorite humans to work with at the company and in regards to being able to propel your career, they also ended up being some of my biggest advocates. The first thing I did was drop the ego. If I focused too much on what I had done in the past, and how I was losing that responsibility, that would be a futile fight I would never win. I decided to instead focus on solutions and ultimately make friends. If I wanted to interact with all these new teams, it made more sense for me to have positive relationships with them. In short, I adapted to figure out how I could uniquely bring value and allow my teammates to do the same. ## **What are the perks of being a product chameleon?** A chameleon reflects their environment as a form of survival, but you could say they’re also comprised of the environments they have been in and use that experience as a skill to their own personal benefit. For me, this has meant being able to reflect on my time working in smaller companies, where I was given more independence and freedom to try new things on a smaller scale, and flex things like my technical acumen without oversight, or complication. Then, working at larger companies, my impact is arguably smaller but I get other benefits like working with a large product organization and having peers I can learn from. Asking questions about what kind of environment you want to work in, or what kind of teams you want to be a part of, can be really important. Despite all the changes I've experienced in my career and the different places I've worked, I've always been able to fall back on my ability to adapt, survive and thrive in my product career. Product being so different wherever you go, with just a little bit of awareness and intention, you can find the perfect place for you, someplace that excites you and where you can uniquely bring value. ## **Bonus Q&A** ### **As a really new product manager, what are the key skills to focus on first?** My advice would be to focus on the Triple Threat of product management: stakeholder management, prioritization and business intelligence (or business acumen). One of the biggest challenges all product managers are faced with is how to do more with less because we always want to do a million things but we never have the time or resources to be able to do it. The earlier you become more competent in your prioritization skills, the better off you'll be. The second area is around stakeholder management. A lot of newer product managers get intimidated by working with large teams and having to sometimes say no. Listening to your stakeholders is very underrated. A lot of people will tell you everything you need to know about them if you just listen. Being able to build relationships and not being afraid to ask for help also falls into this stakeholder management category. A lot of early-stage PMs don't have as much experience being responsible for the revenue-generating part of a product. Becoming more familiar with how your product could generate revenue is a great place to spend your time. ### **Did opportunities seem to come to you or did you track them down for what you wanted to do and where you wanted to go?** I'm a woman of color so opportunities definitely don't just come to me, you definitely have to work hard for them. I play a very active role in being able to navigate my career, I dedicate a significant amount of time to building my personal brand and presence. My reputation is probably one of the most precious things I have. I take care of how I talk to people, how people perceive me and the quality of my work. For folks wanting to take a more active role in navigating their career, I would suggest getting mentors. However, sometimes I made decisions in opposition to their advice because ultimately you have to trust your gut and do what makes the most sense for you. If you just want to wait for stuff to happen to you, you're gonna have a very successful career. ### **How much autonomy do you have within your own individual product or dev teams vs. the monolith of Disney overall?** This is a universal answer for companies of this size. One of the biggest differences between a smaller company and a big one is the amount of autonomy and the size of your remit. At the Walt Disney streaming, we work as a cross-functional entity. In my specific role, I was supporting marketing technology and once you get further down that funnel you can have a bit more autonomy. ### **How would you know you're missing skills and how would you enhance them (both personal and technical skills)?** Constantly ask for feedback. If you're not asking for feedback from your manager on a regular basis, from your stakeholders, or the executives at your company who interact with you, you're missing opportunities to grow and develop. ### **If you could go back to the start of your product career and give a single piece of advice, what would it be?** Trust yourself. When you get overloaded with information and see the incredible people you work alongside, you start to get a little bit intimidated. However, you really do have to trust yourself and we're all in our spaces for a reason. ### Take your personas to the next level. Get persona certified URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/take-your-personas-to-the-next-level-get-persona-certified/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:38:40.000Z Whether you’re a persona first-timer or veteran, B2B or B2C, this course is packed with the practical tips, real-life case studies, and expert advice you need to create, use, and roll out game-changing personas. ## Course overview We all know that SaaS orgs, especially start-ups, want to grow and scale quickly, with many solely focused on rapid customer conversion.💰But the importance of customer retention for revenue growth should never be understated. The only problem is, customer retention is a tricky art to master.. First, you’ve got to put yourself in the shoes of the customer and visualize their journey with your product. But how do you get there? You’ve got ****to master** your personas. With this comprehensive course****, jam-packed with exclusive insights by industry giants** such as, IBM, G2 and Redgate, we’ll help you kickstart your persona strategy, starting with fundamental details like: What they are and when to use them… and then we’ll send you speeding to the finish line with the ultimate goal: how to ****create and roll out** personas as part of your product strategy. 🏁 [ Enroll now ](https://future-of-saas.teachable.com/p/persona-certified-masters) ## By professionals, for professionals Here at FoSaaS, we’re home to the world’s largest community of founders, senior execs, SaaS leaders and ****more**. By a long way. And we don’t let that go to waste. Our persona masterclass has been built with the support of orgs like Klue, IBM, Redgate, and more! ****P.s.** If you need help convincing your boss so you can be the next logo, we've done the hard part for you [****here**](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cJIdVOYRn7Ib6vsWLQAGKT-dYTNFEotELZNvP8w4lqs/edit?usp=sharing). > "One word. WOW!!!! And I mean WOW! I wish I had this when I built personas the first, second time. It would shorten the cycle of marking them by weeks. Months." - Igor Kranjcec, Head of Marketing, Mediatoolkit ## What we’re offering you Expertly crafted and curated by some of the world’s leading product marketing minds, this course is bursting with tried and tested strategies, so you can skip what doesn’t work and cut straight to what does. But that’s not all we’re offering you. You’ll find: 📚 5+ hours’ worth of course content. 💻 2+ hours’ of bonus footage featuring orgs like IBM. 🔎 Tons of real-life case studies throughout. ✍ Marked exams at the end of every module. 🏅 Official persona certification if you pass all the exams. ## By the end of this course As well as becoming a fully-fledged persona guru, we’re not just offering you knowledge, we’re giving you actionable strategies, so you can leave your mark on the industry. You’ll come away with the ability to: 🛠 Create, build, and deliver personas that actually work 📈 Extract and mine data that drives bottom-line impact 💪Boost your entire company’s product, marketing and sales efforts to the next level 🧩Align everyone in your org rallied around your personas 💰Demonstrate the tangible value that personas deliver All this and so much more! Take control of your persona roll out, get persona masters certified today. 👇 [ Get certified ](https://future-of-saas.teachable.com/p/persona-certified-masters) ### Swipe right on your “soulmate investor” URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/swipe-right-on-your-soulmate-investor/ Last updated: 2022-11-03T12:24:59.000Z If you’re around my age (or a bit older), chances are you have an online dating account and profile. Online dating stems either from a past “hell no” or being part of the lucky ones who meet our forever person as I did. Swipe… swipe… swipe… oh he’s cute… Nope, can’t do a Leo. Swipe… swipe… ooh a match! Endless swipes, boring conversations, and ghosting (or being ghosted) were the hellish experience of online dating until “the one” made his way to me. The same thing applies to startups seeking funds! Fundraising raises a lot of questions. What kind should I go after? Who will invest in my company? What should I do? (And what shouldn’t I do?) Time to talk fundraising, let’s get into it! ## What is venture capital funding? Venture capital (VC) funding is a type of financing that can be offered to start-ups and small businesses. It relies on “equity stakes” – meaning the VC firm will own part of your company and will be involved in business operations and decisions. The company provides investors with the opportunity to invest in the company and reap the rewards if it is successful but also takes on some (or all) of the risk if it fails. [“Strategic” investors don’t matterStrategic investors, defined as corporations that make venture investments, can be a valuable source of capital but are they critical? No.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSammy Abdullah![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/chris-liverani-9cd8qOgeNIY-unsplash--3---1--3.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/strategic-investors-dont-matter/) ## What are the different types of venture capital and why do you need them? VC firms invest in startups and small companies that are trying to make it big. They will usually invest at different stages of a startup's growth either pre-seed, series A, series B, series C, or series D. Angel investors are individuals who invest their own money in a company, generally “pre-seed” or “series A” startups. Once again, this differs from investor to investor. Startup banks provide loans and other financial services to startup businesses. The most prominent startup bank is Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Different types of venture capital firms have different investment strategies and focus on different sectors. For example, early-stage venture capital firms typically invest in the earliest stages of a company’s development when they have not yet reached the point of profitability or sustainability. ## How to write a venture capital pitch deck that will make investors beg for your equity A pitch deck is a presentation that typically includes a company’s overview, growth strategy, and financials. It’s essential to include the right information in the right order to make investors interested in your equity. A good pitch deck should have an executive summary, company overview, market opportunity, product roadmap, financials (revenue/users), and key metrics. It’s important to present all the information in a clear and concise way that is easy for investors to understand. Investors are usually busy people with little time for reading long documents so it is important that the information is presented in an attractive way with graphs and charts. ## How to fundraise without exhausting yourself Fundraising is one of the most difficult tasks for entrepreneurs and startups. However, it’s a necessary evil that every entrepreneur has to go through in order to grow their business. There are many ways to fundraise, but not all of them are equally successful. That’s why it’s important to know the best fundraising techniques before starting your journey. In this section, we’ll explore some of those techniques and provide you with the information you need in order to successfully fundraise without exhausting yourself. 1. **Branding and company cores** – I speak about your brand’s mission and vision extensively on my [blog](https://blog.2g0d2m1.com/), [videos](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXdCWB%5FioEAygpG3NiIxgPg), and social media pages. There’s a reason. Two of the most important keys to investors are your mission and vision. 2. **Research the Total Addressable Market (TAM)** – Venture capital firms don’t want to invest in shrinking markets. Chances are, if you offer a product aimed at baby boomers (and no one else), you will have a very hard time finding an investor. On the flip side, mentioning a fintech startup that addresses Gen-Z and millennials in the presence of venture capitalists is like blood in a pool of sharks. 3. **Create a pitch deck** – A pitch deck, or a company overview PowerPoint, shows potential investors the most important metrics they care about and will pique their interest for a later meeting. 4. **Research potential investors** – Instead of going in blind (which will burn more bridges than it builds FYI), take a minute or two to get to know each potential investor. What stage companies do they invest in? Have they invested in companies like yours? Knowing all of this will help you determine whether it's worth it to chase after this investor (for now). 5. **Craft a messaging and connection strategy** – Now that you’ve gathered your research, pitch deck, and brand core, it’s time to start creating a messaging and connection strategy. The best place to network for venture capital, hands down, is LinkedIn and closely followed by Twitter. In either case, it’s essential to network, not spam. 6. **Network and build relationships** – Networking counts as a soft skill of entrepreneurship. Personally, I find networking to be far too important to consider it a soft skill. The main key to building relationships is to take an inch and deliver a mile on your intention. 7. **Pitch** – After the interest of your ideal investor has been captured, it’s time to schedule time with them to pitch. Be promptly on time for your meeting, stick to your company’s mission and vision, and be authentic with them. [What does an investor look out for in a SaaS product?With the increase in number of SaaS products, investors today have a large pool of startups to consider from. Here are the top 10 metrics that investors look at!![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSWayne Wee![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/phone.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-does-an-investor-look-out-for-in-a-saas-product/) ## When to start looking for funding It is important to know when the best time to fundraise for your startup is. The right time will depend on your business and how far along you are in the process. **It’s never too early to start thinking about fundraising, so here are some tips on what to consider before you reach out for funding.** Some of the factors that could determine when you should look for funding include: - How much capital have you raised so far? - What stage of development is your company at? - How much do you need? - Who are your investors? (If you have other investors too!) ## What does an investor look for in an investment? Some investors may look for a company that has a high return on investment, while others might be looking to invest in companies that are environmentally friendly. Investors are looking for different things in different industries. Investors are looking for companies with returns on investment, and they may also be looking for companies that have sustainable products or services. The “what” that investors are looking for will vary from person to person. ## Top seven mistakes most startups make when approaching investors When it comes to raising capital, it’s almost as important to know what not to do as it is to know what you should do. There’s a fair amount of mystery surrounding the process of approaching investors for money, and this creates a lot of fear and uncertainty among startups looking to raise capital. A lot of entrepreneurs make the same mistakes when attempting to secure that first round (and subsequent rounds) of funding from an investor. Whether you are just getting started with your business or are somewhere along the winding road, these tips can help you avoid some common pitfalls and improve your chances of securing capital. ### Mistake #1: Focusing too much on the idea and not enough on the team Ideas are cheap, execution is everything. While your concept is certainly critical to your business model and a potential investor’s willingness to invest, it’s also important to highlight your team’s track record and ability to execute. Investors want to see that you have a team of experts who can tackle the significant challenges that come with bringing a product to market. A course I took taught by Chris Haroun addressed this directly. To summarize the commentary, the quality of the leadership team is more important than their experience in the field. Startups that have a strong and seasoned management team are far more likely to succeed than those with great ideas but inexperienced people in charge. Investors want to see that you have an experienced team with the skills and knowledge needed to make the product a success. ### Mistake #2: Not knowing what the investor wants to hear One of the biggest and most common mistakes startups make when approaching an investor is not knowing what the investor wants and then not delivering it. If a company is looking for a $5 million investment, for example, but the entrepreneur pitches for $1 million, the investor will probably walk away. If you don’t know what the investor wants, you’ll probably fail to get funding. Startups often go into investor meetings without a clear idea of what they want or what they are trying to get out of the investor. This opens up a whole new avenue for the founders to be taken advantage of through over-dilution of equity as well. This approach will only lead to a failed pitch and a frustrated team. It’s important to know what you want out of an investor and how you plan to use their money. Investors are looking to put their money in a company that they believe will be profitable, so it’s important to let them know how you plan to make that happen. ### Mistake #3: Trying to be everything for everybody Another common mistake startups make is trying to appeal to everybody. When you are first attempting to secure investment, it’s important to narrow your focus to the types of investors that are likely to invest in your business. If your business model is too broad, it will be difficult to find a niche where a specific amount of capital is available. For example, if you have a B2B product but are seeking seed funding from angel investors, it’s too broad of a focus. It’s important to find a niche where your product will be attractive to the right kind of investors. This will help you narrow your focus, and it will also help you prioritize the right kind of investors to approach first. While it’s great to have the backing of a Fortune 500 company, it’s also important to make sure that the right investors are on board before trying to scale your business. [Making your SaaS company attractive for investmentMy name’s Edward Keelan and in this article, I’m going to be talking about making your SaaS company attractive for investment. I’m an Investment Director within the Octopus Ventures team at Octopus.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEdward Keelan![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/erik-mclean-I9qcFjyuJGw-unsplash--1--1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-your-saas-company-attractive-for-investment/) ### Mistake #4: Failing to differentiate themselves from other companies. In a crowded marketplace, competition for investors’ attention is fierce. Startups that have a hard time differentiating themselves from their peers are usually less successful in securing funding. Startups are often advised to be the “Switzerland of startups” because there is a lot of neutrality in that statement. The problem is that it’s difficult to be neutral and stand out as the leader in your industry. If you come across as too neutral, you’ll be easily forgotten. Your pitch should focus on how your company is different from the rest of the competition. What sets your company apart from the rest? How will your product be more successful than your competitors? Investors want to know that you have a clear and concise plan for how your company will separate itself from the competition in order to be successful. ### Mistake #5: Not being persistent enough with investors While it’s important to be passionate about your company and its potential, it’s also important to be persistent. If you come across as too persistent and eager, you may come across as desperate. Be persistent, but don’t be desperate. Investors will notice if you are persistent, but they will also notice if you are too persistent. If you’re interested in a certain investor, try to get a meeting with them. If you think an investor would be a good fit for your company, make an effort to meet with them. Investors want to fund entrepreneurs who are serious about their businesses, so they’re eager to meet with startup founders who are serious and want to learn more about their businesses. Be persistent, but don’t be too persistent. ### Mistake #6: Giving up too soon without investing in marketing strategies. If you receive an initial rejection or a round of no’s, it’s important not to give up too soon. While it’s important to work on finding an investor who is a good fit for your company, it’s also important to work on marketing strategies that will bring awareness to your company and help generate leads. Many startups go into the fundraising process with the expectation that the process will take about three months. Most successful fundraising efforts take closer to six months. If you have an attractive investment opportunity, you’ll likely receive multiple offers. If you receive an initial rejection, it’s important to understand why you were rejected and modify your pitch and company to address those concerns. Many investors will say no to a company before you find a yes. You just need to find the right investor and the right amount of capital to close the deal. ### Mistake #7: Putting all of their eggs in one basket and not diversifying their portfolio Finally, a common mistake startups make is putting all of their eggs in one basket. A common adage in investing is that it’s important to diversify your investment portfolio. While you want to focus on finding the right investor for your company, you also want to invest in multiple investors. “Investing” in multiple investors will help you to mitigate risk. If one investor backs out of the deal, it won’t destroy your chances of securing capital. It’s important to understand that not every investor is going to write you a check. You’ll probably have to talk to 50 investors before you find one who is willing to give you the time of day, let alone the capital you’re seeking. It’s important to keep searching and don’t get discouraged if you don’t find the right investor right away. [Competing against big legacy vendorsAs a start-up, you have a great arsenal of tools to win a client and the account teams of the big firm have their fair share of issues to deal with.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAlexander Bloech![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/ashim-d-silva-m7VsT8K2lZc-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/competing-against-big-legacy-vendors/) ## Let’s recap Whew. You made it. This guide includes the best fundraising techniques and how to successfully fundraise without exhausting yourself. - The pitch deck is a presentation that typically includes a company’s overview, growth strategy, and financials. - The best place to network for venture capital is LinkedIn, followed closely by Twitter. - The company provides investors with the opportunity to invest in the company and reap the rewards if it is successful but also takes on some (or all) of the risks if it fails. - Research your investors and be realistic on your timelines, limitations, and “soulmate investor” needs You’re prepared! You have your business plan, marketing materials, and finances. Now you need to make the rounds with the investors that you’ve identified as “potential” and show them they’re not just potential – they’re soulmates who should be interested in your company because they share your vision and values. Like any relationship or friendship, these pitch meetings will help you determine if you’re a right fit for each other. So get to it! --- *Like what you see? Read more of LJ's content [here](https://blog.2g0d2m1.com/).* ### Defining & measuring product market fit URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/defining-measuring-product-market-fit/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:48:16.000Z *This article is based on a presentation from the Future of SaaS Festival 2022\. Catch the full talk on OnDemand* [*right here*](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-3/?wchannelid=ykvf498iyl&wmediaid=hfazzxesxk)*.* In this exclusive article, Senior Product Marketers Shishir Agrawal and Abhishek Bathla tackle the delicate art of product market fit: From how to define it, to recognizing its importance, and utilizing it to give your product a solid, value-based foundation. Know your value, deliver your value. Master product market fit. Key talking points include: - Introducing the experts - Defining product-market fit - The importance of product market fit - Measuring product-market fit - Product market fit in action ## Introducing the experts **Shishir Agrawal:** I'm Shishir Agrawal, and I'm a Product Management Lead at Google. I’m responsible for payment compliance and payment security on Google's payments platform. Before this, I was in Google Cloud for almost three years, where I worked on cloud security and network security products. Prior to that, I was at Oracle and Juniper. I've spent quite a bit of time in cybersecurity product management roles, building security analytics, and network and cloud security products. That's an area of passion for me, so I’m looking forward to talking to you about the work I’ve done building zero-to-one products in the security space and most recently in the fintech space. **Abhishek Bathla:** I'm Abhishek, and I'm a Senior Product Manager at Amazon. I started at Amazon almost six years ago in AWS. I was building some very cool products for Amazon S3 at re:invent, and that’s when I knew that product management was my calling. From there, I moved to retail. My team and I worked on the technology behind Amazon’s refunds and replacements, so whenever you call Amazon customer service and they give you a gift card or a replacement item, you can blame or thank me and my team for that. Next, I moved to Amazon's Whole Foods, where I worked on grocery and supply chain technology, so I’ve had a lot of experience working on products that save money for the company. Finally, I moved into the advertising space, where I'm learning how ads work and getting to grips with the technology behind them. ## Defining product market fit **Shishir Agrawal:** I'll start with a quote I love from Marc Andreessen. According to him, product-market fit means “being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.” I feel that captures the essence of product-market fit really well. As product managers or as founding members of a business, you’ve got to make sure you understand the market you’re playing in. It could be the cloud, or it could be fintech, but within that market, you're trying to understand a very compelling set of customer problems and figure out how to solve those problems. The product or features are capabilities that you alone can build to address the needs of the customers in that particular market. That, to me, is product market fit. Typically, you’ll have to go through many iterations to find it, assuming that you are eventually able to find it. **Abhishek Bathla:** The way I tend to look at product-market fit depends on the stage the product is in. I have a very special acronym: CBS, which stands for create, build, and scale. In the creation stage, product-market fit is vital. Imagine yourself putting your hand into a big box containing different sizes of gloves and you're trying to find the glove that fits your fingers perfectly. That, to me, is the product-market fit you need in the creation stage. [![jigsaw puzzle ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/puzzle.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/defining-measuring-product-market-fit) To give a better example, in 1995, when Amazon launched, they found product-market fit by selling books online. They had orders from all 50 states within 30 days of launching, so they knew they had something there. The next stage is the build stage. In this stage, you should know that you have product-market fit. At the same time, you need to know how to distinguish yourself from the competition and increase the gap between what you are offering and what your competitors can offer. As an example, once Amazon knew that they had product-market fit for books, they expanded into music. Then they expanded into toys and just kept adding categories. The third stage, which I think most of us work in, is the scale stage. You have product-market fit, you’ve already distinguished yourself from your competitors, and now you’re trying to scale from 100,000 users to 10 million users. In this stage, product-market fit is about focusing on delighting customers by controlling your input metrics. ## The importance of product market fit **Shishir Agrawal:** Depending on the product and the stage of the company you are in, the importance of PMF could vary. If we use your create, build, and scale framework, when you’re in that initial create stage, you want to quickly figure out whether what you're building is going to resonate with customers. Have you identified a compelling customer pain point? Does the solution you're building to address that pain point meet the customers’ needs? If you don’t think about these questions, you might get a sense of product-market fit and start revving the marketing engine or sales engine, before realizing that it's not scaling because you didn’t have a good enough product-market fit in the first place. To my mind, the reason PMF is important is that it allows you to quickly iterate on getting to a state where your product resonates with customers. That then allows you to scale much faster, rather than prematurely spending resources on marketing or sales. To give a concrete example, in one of my previous companies, I was working on a cloud security product and we had very good technology to solve a common network security problem. [![People looking at graphs and charts](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/meeting.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/defining-measuring-product-market-fit) The problem was that we were trying to go after three different customer segments – cloud businesses, telcos, and traditional data centers. We were putting a lot of effort into trying to meet the needs of all three markets, but our efforts weren’t scaling. Eventually, we stepped back, looked at the feedback we were getting from customers, and realized we weren’t a good fit for all three segments. Once we were able to zoom in on the cloud segment, we started getting more traction. The moral of the story is that you could spend a lot of effort going after different markets and customer segments, when you might not have a good product-market fit with all of them. It’s vital to step back and ask yourself whether your solution is addressing the needs of a particular segment in a compelling and differentiated way. That's where you want to double down before branching out to different customer segments or products. **Abhishek Bathla:** I 100% agree. Zooming in on the right fit and doubling down on it is so important. To complement your answer, I’d like to add more about what happens when you don't have product-market fit. If you lack product market fit in the create stage, you’ll end up having to non-organically pay for all your growth. You’ll acquire customers, but they will leave because you didn’t have the product market fit in the first place. You’ll see those numbers falling very quickly. In the build stage, if you don't have product market fit, you’ll get what is called in the subscription world “a leaky bucket”. Customers will come, but once their one-time promo to use your services expires, they’ll leak back out again because they don't see the value in your product. Basically, if there's a lack of product-market fit, you can never reach your full scaling potential, and that’s how I think a lack of product market fit can define your position. ## Measuring product-market fit **Abhishek Bathla:** One of the articles I keep referring to is by Superhuman CEO Rahul Vohra. He says that in the early stage of your company you’ll know you have product-market fit if 40% of the small number of customers who are using your product would be very disappointed if your product ceased to exist tomorrow. If it’s less than 40%, the claim is that you don't have product-market fit. That’s a very clear way to determine whether you have a product-market fit or not in the create stage. In the build stage, because you already have product-market fit, the focus should be on input metrics. In Amazon’s early days, the focus wasn’t on whether revenue increased; it was on speeding up the turnaround on orders – time was the input metric there. [![People looking at graphs and charts ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/measuring.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/defining-measuring-product-market-fit) They also wanted to offer customers a greater selection of products; selection was another input metric. They wanted to get customers those products out at the lowest price, too – another input metric. If you focus on controlling your input metrics in the build and scale stages, that will give you the desired output. That's how I tend to think about measuring product-market fit across the three dimensions. How do you see it? **Shishir Agrawal:** You touched on a lot of good points, but I’ll just add that there’s no single set of metrics that can tell any business when it achieves product-market fit. I would encourage everyone to just look at metrics to gauge product-market fit in the context of your business. Typically, you’ll need to track a combination of quantitative and qualitative metrics. The quantitative metrics that people tend to track include net promoter score (NPS) because if your product is resonating with customers, those customers will probably recommend you to other customers. You can also look at churn rate, which is what I mentioned earlier around that leaky bucket. Maybe you’re getting customers, but are you able to retain those customers? Are they expanding with you? They might start with smaller deployment, but are they growing their business with you? That's another indication of product market fit. Growth rate is another useful indicator of product-market fit. For example, we were projecting a certain level of revenue for one of the cloud products I worked on, and when we launched that product, the revenue turned out to be five times what we were projecting. That was in some sense a good indication that, yes, we were achieving product-market fit. In terms of qualitative indicators, you need to listen to what your customers are saying. Look at your sales feedback. Look at your support tickets. What is the media saying about you? What are industry analysts saying about you? Essentially, you have to triangulate across a range of metrics and signals to figure out whether you‘re approaching product-market fit. One last point here is that product-market fit is not a singular point in time. You need dashboards that will continually track your product-market fit indicators and evolve accordingly to maintain that fit, especially in the tech industry, where things move so fast. ## Product-market fit in action **Shishir Agrawal:** I’d like to start with a rough framework for ensuring product-market fit, then go through some examples. Typically, you start with some sort of a hypothesis, based on a customer problem in the market. You want to prove that hypothesis and then quickly iterate on it. The key to achieving PMF is being able to test and iterate fast because you want to reduce the time to get to product market fit. Step one is to determine who your target customer is. Who are you going after? Step two is to identify the customer needs that you want to serve – these could be unmet or underserved needs. Next, you need to figure out your value prop. How are you differentiated compared to the competition? How are you uniquely solving that problem? Then you need to quickly come up with a minimum viable product (MVP) to test your hypothesis with the customers you’ve identified. You have your MVP feature set, you build that MVP, and then you test it with your customers and iterate on it. That’s the mental model I tend to use with the products I work on, especially the zero-to-one products. I'll give you three examples from three different buckets. The first example comes from a network intrusion detection product I worked on for Google Cloud. [!["Go for it"](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/go-for-it.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/defining-measuring-product-market-fit) We had an early hypothesis that customers needed a cloud-native security product for intrusion detection and they also wanted best-of-breed security. We had a bunch of calls with customers to validate that hypothesis. I worked with my team to build a product prototype in nine months and partnered with an industry-leading player to get that product out into the market. The results show that it has a pretty good market fit. The key learning for me was that you don’t need to try to boil the ocean. We kept it simple and defined our MVP to make sure that this would resonate with our target customers in Google Cloud. The second example comes from one of my other companies, where we had a very interesting security analytics product, but we were trying to go after a set of customers who were in multiple clouds. Another problem was go-to-market – there was no good way for us to reach out to these multi-cloud customers. It turned out that although we had very interesting technology, we did not have a good product market fit. In the end, we scaled back and decided to focus on one cloud, as opposed to going after multi-cloud customers. The third example I can share is a product I worked on at Juniper Networks, where, again, we had a very compelling technology to do security in the cloud, but we were, in all fairness, early to the market. The market was still looking at appliances as the primary way to deploy cloud security, and it took us a while to figure out if we should be going after telcos, the public cloud, or data centers. It took a bit of iteration, and the product didn’t have much success early on, but today it's a pretty successful product because we eventually achieved a good product-market fit. ### SDRs: An essential aspect of growing a SaaS business URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/sdrs-an-essential-aspect-of-growing-a-saas-business/ Last updated: 2022-11-18T15:33:54.000Z A Sales Development Representative (SDR) has one primary focus: sales prospecting. SDRs are responsible for a number of key tasks that are important for any SaaS company that wants to grow its marketing efforts. Typically, the SDR is involved in the early stages of the B2B sales process. In comparison to B2C, B2B sales usually have many more stages and involve a higher number of people. SDRs may eventually move into the role of an Account Executive, or even move into a different department altogether. It goes without saying that SDRs need to be extremely familiar with the company’s products. Let’s take a closer look at the importance of SDRs in growing a SaaS company: ## Sales Prospecting: There are two main types of sales prospecting: inbound and outbound. ### Inbound prospecting Inbound prospecting involves further developing established relationships. This means that the lead has already had some sort of interaction or experience with your product. The aim of inbound prospecting is to consolidate positive B2B relationships for the long term. [How to provide direct support for salesWell, it isn’t as straightforward as it would sound until I put it this way, ‘Sales support is any other entity of an organization that can filter or analyze data and resources to make the task of salespeople a breeze.’![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDhruv Mehta![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/08/support.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-provide-direct-support-for-sales/) ### Outbound prospecting It is common for SDRs to put their time and energy into outbound prospecting rather than inbound prospecting. This involves cold outreach methods such as cold calling and email outreach. The purpose of carrying out outbound prospecting is to build a sales pipeline, and build relationships that can lead to new business opportunities in the future. SDRs can also have a few other responsibilities: - Look into potential budget-holders or decision-makers. B2B involves a greater number of decision-makers in the process than B2C, making the role of SDR that much more important. - Arrange callbacks or appointments for any qualified leads back to the sales team in order to reach closure or to allow for further development. - Working with the marketing team to gather more leads and improve the quality of any leads obtained. ## Why are they necessary? One fact that doesn’t receive enough attention is that an SDR develops the core skills necessary to become an effective Account Executive (AE). AEs that initially started as an SDR have obtained valuable experience in sales that would be difficult to obtain otherwise. Let’s take a quick look at what an AE does to see how similar it is to an SDR: - Building long-term relationships to further benefit the company. - Following up with any potential leads multiple times throughout the sales cycle. - Carrying out sales techniques such as cold calling and in-person meetings to develop the business. - Create business plans to meet the sales goals of the company. The AE is more involved in closing deals toward the end of the sale cycle, making them just as important as SDRs in the whole process. However, it’s also important to note when your company should bring on board an SDR. Is it better to have them during the early stages of your company? It can heavily depend on the exact numbers of the company. Not having enough funds and bringing on SDRs too early may make it difficult to support them with the right tools and training. It could be a wise decision to bring on SDRs when your company reaches a specific threshold. Deciding the exact time at which SDRs should be brought in can be a grey area. However, one thing is for certain. Outbound sales are one of the best ways for a business to scale, even for larger businesses. That means that SDRs can be seen as a worthwhile investment for any company that fully supports them. AEs are also another important element of successfully scaling up a business. Again, having a balance of AEs and SDRs, along with bringing on the right one depending on the current circumstances of the business is something that has to be considered. Both are valuable assets and play key roles. [Build trust & boost sales through smart security complianceAt some point, every startup understands that it needs to get security compliant, whether that’s with SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, CCPA, or CMMC – the frameworks are countless.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMeiran Galis![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/locks.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/build-trust-boost-sales-through-smart-security-compliance/) ## Improving the usage of SDRs for B2B SaaS Simply having an SDR isn’t automatically going to improve B2B sales on its own. There are various things that can be done to maximize the efficiency of an SDR. One such solution can include improving the relationship between the SDR and AE, as it is imperative for the business that this relationship is alive and well. While SDRs focus on building up the lead from the outreach, whilst AE focuses on closing the sale after developing rapport. Hence, ensuring that both the SDR and AE know exactly what their roles are in the entire process is crucial. This also means that the AE needs to step in at the right time, and try to avoid any unnecessary meetings or steps to allow the entire process to go smoothly. Another thing to consider is whether the SDR should be a part of the marketing or the sales team. On the surface, it may seem like having the SDR on the sales team would be the obvious choice. They do spend a lot of time focusing on cold outreach and developing relationships with new leads. However, it can be argued that there could be more benefits to having the SDR on the marketing team instead. SDRs can provide direct insight on trends and information they’ve picked up from talking to prospects. This can allow the marketing team to make more informed decisions than they would otherwise. The marketing team can also provide information on the types of leads to expect, and when exactly the next marketing campaign is going to begin. This is something that also needs to be judged on a case-by-case basis. SDRs could already be performing well on the sales team, meaning that it wouldn’t be necessary for them to move to the marketing team. On the other hand, moving the SDR to the marketing team could give them the extra information and insight they need to get leads that are of higher quality. [How to convert your prospects before they reach your siteThe goal of every demand gen marketer has always been to increase demos, accelerate sales funnels, and connect with potential customers faster and easier. So what if you could access an entirely new and untapped channel rich in high intent leads ready to convert?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSThe Bot Lab![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/sales-leads.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-convert-your-prospects-before-they-reach-your-site/) ## To wrap up SDRs are a valuable asset in scaling up a company at almost any size. They play a key role in cold outreach in the world of B2B SaaS. AEs are also another valuable asset. Your SaaS company should consider which one to take on at this time based on where the company is in terms of sales goals. SDRs primarily focus on cold outreach techniques such as cold calling and emailing in order to build up new leads, whilst AEs focus on closing the deal. Both are an integral part of the sales cycle. Other factors such as putting the SDR on the marketing team instead of the sales team, along with the relationship between the SDR and AEs on the team can also impact efficiency and need to be considered. --- *Want to boost your skills for maximum growth? Get segmentation certified[ here!](https://future-of-saas.teachable.com/p/segmentation-certified-masters)* ### The future of B2B selling: buyer enablement meets sales enablement URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-b2b-selling-buyer-enablement-meets-sales-enablement-2/ Last updated: 2022-10-21T12:00:05.000Z My name is Larson Stair, I’m the ****CEO & Co-founder of Gondola.ai**, a real-time sales enablement platform that helps to standardize best practices throughout the entire [sales cycle](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-provide-direct-support-for-sales/) in the live conversation. In this article, I’ll talk about how we create better experiences for our [buyers](https://www.saasalliance.io/interactive-content-ideas-for-each-stage-of-the-buyers-journey/) by enabling our [sales team](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-out-customer-success-and-sales-teams-from-the-ground-up/), but then also enable our buyers throughout their buying experience. ****Here’s our main talking points:** - The B2B buying experience today - How do we improve? - Real-time sales enablement - Buyer enablement Let’s go ahead and dive in 👇 ## **The B2B buying experience today** [![image with the B2B buying journey in graph style](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/OZMwswxGPyWTnIJVYFTWyP652Yvy8mLj3KB7C5pwzVrDoRMvEinGZ8vhKgc4FIpjyRYHoGcXrdJEpiGilqzpshQZ1GDPtH54wXPh21yk66Wcqu-GTdW3o8S34TaHXo5OqMXbI9nomXFNUHMP0zcQ_OU)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-b2b-selling-buyer-enablement-meets-sales-enablement-2) The [B2B buying](https://www.saasalliance.io/b2b-customer-renewals-q-a-with-freshworks/) experience is really complex. What we don't see behind the scenes at times is all the additional people that have to be brought into the equation, the information that needs to be digested, and technical pieces that we need to walk through. So it's become more challenging than ever, especially for larger organizations, to make a purchase, change processes internally, and get all these internal [stakeholders](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) brought into the fold and bought in. Buyers agree. Over 70% say that the B2B buying experience is very challenging and complex. > ****spending less time with sellers** About a fifth of their time is spent on sales calls with sales reps. That means they're discussing internally amongst buying committees, they're doing research on their own accord, looking for articles, reviews, and pieces of information to help them sift through this complexity. All of those decision makers are bringing all this information to the forefront, so they're spending less time with us - and still finding the experience complex. ## **How do we improve?** ### **The key to creating great buying experiences** The key to creating a great buying experience is focusing on aligning your entire company around the buying experience. It boils down to two pieces: ****[alignment](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-customer-journey-from-onboarding-to-alignment-q-a-with-simpo/)** and ****context**. Keep these two pieces in mind as a central theme. [![A graphic with: problem identification, solution exploration, requirements building, and supplier selection discovery call phases on it. Beside them, "alignment" and "context" is written.](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/nq90r9z4RocHeAIvDvLYPcqf08g4P5psXO2TdOn3aRbOe6F8HUaW_UoERv_F2daTd384LVXLmwCWl0Q0t6H3QGhbPaFoaszPDjIolqHYL69ZNPZdF3MCRT6c2eWAxwW1t7j4oY4pkbFns7HKFqRIUk4)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-b2b-selling-buyer-enablement-meets-sales-enablement-2) 1. ****Alignment:** Amongst all the internal stakeholders, whether it be SDRs, AEs, solution consultants, executive staff, customer success, we all want to be perfectly aligned around this customer journey. What pieces of information do we need to gather and deliver to our buyers to make sure that we’re in alignment on the value that our solution provides? How do we make sure that's perfectly connected in alignment with the needs and pains we’ve uncovered throughout the sales cycle? 1. ****Context:** We're going through a lot of complex information. There's more decision makers in the room, and not everybody has the full picture or has been there throughout the whole cycle to have a deep understanding of what's going on, what’s being purchased, or what the ins-and-outs of the solution are. Having the ability to give quick context as new decision makers come into the fold, either internally or externally, is key to creating this buyer experience. ### **Go-to-market teams are siloed** [![three circles labelled: 1. marketing 2. sales 3. service](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Owi6DB9RDi9gwv7a5qnzgjbPtQSUjU09Jw3SzlsApwLhyY7SzdAiG4L6QT8Rk8KgFyIz1B7NhTlJ8Jfx1lQjWQQ66KjLLEgoaDKjfCNg1ubuUBWtlVDUE36SY6jeYYLXemGt9oJh1ZpEkdd6iZiBvbM)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-b2b-selling-buyer-enablement-meets-sales-enablement-2) Traditionally, go-to-market teams have been siloed. Great marketing teams are building out incredible assets that you know are *supposed* to be used by the sales teams. The renegade sales reps are building out their own piece of information, running disjointed discovery calls or not putting information back into Salesforce, and then *sometimes* delivering *some* of that information to the customer service department. > As a former rep, sometimes the sales to service handoff can be a little bit rocky. All of these different departments (marketing, sales, service) can be operating in silos at times, and not creating good collaboration and alignment between them. [![Alignment: marketing, sales, service](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/AP4gXclYbVIB1L_jZ-7Nq6hQYJUp_DJYQIbXPlaZ4bmr9k4MrDDJnXc_IPlgEmPSVxFc7KSKaojLaQsGNUIWy2RdH2F6MiYhKcgPIZ7bCZT27eAPVPXkKshO1hwWN3hXOkqXW6e4RONt5M9aEhImHoo)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-b2b-selling-buyer-enablement-meets-sales-enablement-2) The best organizations in the world, and the ones that are going to win in this emerging [buyer-centri](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-steps-to-building-a-customer-centric-culture/)c culture, are the ones that are perfectly in alignment around the [customer's buying journey](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-customer-journey-from-onboarding-to-alignment-q-a-with-simpo/). These three departments have to work together to guide the buyer throughout the buying experience and make sure it's a really buying process to walk through. ### **Sales enablement meets buyer enablement** [![Help sellers sell - sales enablement. Help buyers buy - Buyer enablement](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/nmmPbJ-xvcpX6U74UfMIM1YU3xkz6QsfZAKv7Axyt45uMVu2do89Zsrc40YMX6Th5kyxTdMhUvbHiy3cZKDStOdAVNH8zXdjcixdIShqhCFsqc-McUpdI1N2ku3V3SJ4g-pviwIIdZc8dJuOofHEtbo)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-b2b-selling-buyer-enablement-meets-sales-enablement-2) The old, top-down mandates to your individual contributors just don't work quite as effectively as they did in the past. > ****help sellers sell** Only then can you deliver a selling story in perfect unison with the pains and needs you uncovered in discovery calls with the value our solution provides - to do that consistently amongst all internal customer facing people is the goal. That's where we start, by enabling our sales teams to tell the right stories, gather the right information, and walk through those presentations quickly and easily. > ****helping buyers buy** Here’s a situation that happens all the time: you have a great conversation with the buyer, perfect unison between what your solution provides and what they need. Then, they go off into the ether and explain it to their colleagues internally and maybe reps don't deliver information, or they do it late or inconsistently, or it's the wrong information. That's a problem. It's our job as sellers to make sure our buyers have the ****right information** at the **right point in their journey** to make their jobs easier, and make it easier for them to make a purchase. ## **Real-time sales enablement** You can't enable your buyers if you don't have your sellers bought in. So I want to talk about real-time sales enablement and how effectively you can help your sellers gather the right information in discovery calls, and then also the selling motions behind that. [![What is the right information to gather? What is the right story to tell? Who are the right people to include?](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/e3VQJkFrWQ4n3tcwwju68tAjLAU1ykcWOFIpWLhY38ctB9UK74l8-GwHjaIZv78OKcgqo_ji8lhyOXDA8waTH00JdmzSnyKezJXVBNvXkt4hzcnmvw6pu9Wo_rnxpzz2kVJFqAerlg-djwEFM0fe_co)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-b2b-selling-buyer-enablement-meets-sales-enablement-2) ### **What is the right information to gather?** This is arguably the biggest key to selling: how do I ask the right questions at the right time, get my prospects talking about their pain points, and about why they're looking for this type of solution. > Discovery is not a step, it's stage agnostic. We need to consistently be asking appropriate questions throughout the stages of the buying cycle. What I'm going to ask you at problem identification vs solutions exploration are going to be totally different. The problem identification might be more about what their day-to-day looks like today, what are the problems and pain points they’re encountering. Solutions exploration might be as you're walking through a demo or discovery demo call, where we’re digging deeper into features and functions that could solve some of those problems we identified. On a typical discovery call, we should be asking 11 to 14 questions on average, so we need to be prescriptive about these and consistent. Make sure we're not just doing it once and then forgetting about it, it should be ongoing throughout the entire sales cycle. We need the information back into the CRM, but sales reps are not great at doing that, leaving it to the end of the day, next week, tomorrow, whenever it might be. This means that we don't have the information at our disposal to analyze and change the questions we might be asking on the front end, because it’s essential to ask the right questions at the right times. ### **What is the right story to tell?** Then, and only then, do we go into telling and explaining the right story about our solution. This is a key part. The first part, gathering the right information, is the first priority, but then having a library of different flows for different parts of the sales cycle and buying cycle is really critical there. Reps spend too much time trying to find the information to deliver to their buyer - up to 30 hours per month. That’s an incredibly long time, so we need to have it right at their fingertips and we need to make it really easy for buyers or sellers to find that information and ****tell the story that is going to sell**. Even more concerning is the majority of marketing’s created collateral is never even used. That puts a lot more emphasis around why it needs to be right at their fingertips all the time. ### **Who are the right people to include?** The last piece is what I call ‘*human capital optimization*’, which is if we set up the real-time enablement, and we enable all of our people and sales reps to ask the right questions or tell the right stories, ****we can be more efficient with our time** and bring in strategic parties when it's relevant to that conversation. In other words, it’s about aligning strategic parties to the steps of the buying cycle, and ****including them when that time is right,** but only after the first few steps have been properly identified. ### **The theme behind sales and what we should be focused on as sellers** [![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/WQs4Tr9fxAhf0036iEdAqnDR18u01OkZ27mI_qA2GiKk_Hqmag-K9otrQaFw8vgxW2UcIONCp7I7juKzGmwpQV8mqITxnyqW54D5EkaqWA1md51dDPsrH_abx5hQnP58EDjB8LVk5k0-ZBfbp_nxf6Y)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-b2b-selling-buyer-enablement-meets-sales-enablement-2) Gartner talked about an interesting concept about the theme behind sales and what we should be focused on as sellers which is made up of two pieces: ****sense making** and ****change management**. The first one is sense making. Buyers nowadays have upwards of seven decision makers involved in a purchasing decision, a whole committee of people that need to understand the ins-and-outs of the solutions we're evaluating. Each of those decision makers are bringing at least four to five pieces of information to the table. So we're sifting through 30-40 pieces of information as a buying committee. > ****make sense of all that information that's at their fingertips** The second piece is change management. Implementing any software can radically change the business and all their processes, so it's our job as sellers to create a perfect picture of how we're going to get you from point A to point B. Within that, we're switching solutions, training up the entire organization to make it feel as easy as possible. These two concepts are really impactful when you think about how to enable our sales reps, and thus also enable our buyers. ### **Real-time sales enablement in a nutshell** [![Sales and marketing must operate in parallel, not serial, fashion. Templatize the process, bring it to the forefront, centralize the data](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/tuCK8qDWWDDP4vw4uAXo3CH4vV8H0qm_1y4FooM6cyUL2pgwNbQ9Fg0Ecwep4JkLu87QXIBwyd2X-ckngG3sgQ_N7HrJ683k3MioY6pRaiajd5cp1et-0DYeZ8kxOLmtHlqoud1yyBoXN78F2-g3jgY)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-b2b-selling-buyer-enablement-meets-sales-enablement-2) Sales, marketing and customer success need to be communicating back and forth, and delivering on what's working and what's not. To do so, we need to ****templatize the process**. We need to have good templates based on what questions we want reps to be asking at different stages of the sales cycle. Then, think about putting all the information back into Salesforce. As we're ready to sell and tell our story, we need to have those flows at the forefront so reps aren't looking for information or even using anything or creating their own. Templatizing that process is incredibly important, and getting as granular as possible down to industries, personas, and whomever you might be segmenting your audience by. The second piece is to ****bring it to the forefront**. This means that reps don't need to look for all these pieces of information. There are tons of solutions that can help with bringing this to the forefront, whether that's a content management system (CMS) or solutions built directly into screen share platforms nowadays. If you bring it right to the forefront and make it dead simple for reps to be following this, they will. If it's anything other than that, they're going to default to their old ways, and you'll run into some struggles. The third piece and arguably the most important is we need to ****centralize the data**. By centralizing the data, you can understand what's working and what's not, and make little tweaks to the process and template you've created to make it really easy to win more deals, drive more revenue, and do it much faster too, because you're creating better alignment with your buyers. ## **Buyer enablement: equip your buyer** ### **Create internal alignment around the customer’s buying journey** If you want to create internal alignment around the customer's buying journey and equip your buyers, you need to understand what their buying journey is and what steps they need at each phase they're going through when they're making a decision. Once you understand that buying journey, we can create alignment between the marketing assets needed to different stages. [![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/69dr8s9p5ja6T2qi-sHtKR8DNzUr8URECRz-pJ5p0OTuQwnjnaZphNJhDNVdppxxqfBs3dji_Ql0Y7etXFe8yMV24WY1Mwu4GcidM6uTudxp32XTd-Lyf-d6nCqRp0T5_qHPgAy-5Cbipz4ttpGI9b0)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-b2b-selling-buyer-enablement-meets-sales-enablement-2) Coming back to the different stages of the customer buying journey, what I need as a buyer at problem identification is not the same thing as what I need at supplier selection or requirements building. Ultimately, the whole purpose of this is to give the customer a taste of what it's going to be like to be a customer of mine. If you have confidence that I'm leading you in the right direction, you're gonna make a decision for us much faster, and you're gonna be more confident in that solution. ### **Use buyer behavior to guide the sales cycle and future optimization of the buying process** If we can understand who's looking at which assets, for how long, what parts they focused on, and make that connection, we can optimize them further. This can be actively helpful in a sales cycle so we can start to have a better and more fruitful conversation. The opposite of that is “my buyer looked at nothing and maybe I don't need to spend my time with this buyer because they're not as serious as I once thought”. It can help me to be more efficient with my time, once we have this centralization of the data. ## **To wrap up** The key to creating a great experience for buyers is around i****nternal and external alignment around the customer's buying journey**. Internal amongst sales, customer success, success, marketing, and also buyers and people they encounter there. This boils down to: 1. How do we help sellers sell more effectively? 2. How do we help buyers buy more effectively? When we *do* get those times with them, make the most of those moments and give them the information they need to help to run through their conversation. This starts with ****mapping out the buying journey**, understanding each and every stage that needs to happen and moving throughout that journey. Give your sales reps the information they need so they can gather the right information and ask the right questions. When it's time to tell an effective story and start selling, whether it's running a demo or running through case studies, we need to provide them with flows that help them to run through the pieces of that presentation. Then the last piece of this is human capital optimization. You need to include the right parties at the right time in the buying journey. By setting up this enablement, we make better use of high value people's time if we can optimize this entire funnel and make sure we're including people only when it's necessary. The second half of this is equipping your buyer: - Understanding what buyers need as they go throughout their journey. - Working with your marketing team to create content and making it right at the forefront for your sales reps to be delivering that to your buyers so they can move throughout their buying process. > The key to both buyer enablement and sales enablement is it needs to start with your sellers. We need to templatize the process, the discovery calls, how we're putting information back into a CRM, the questions asked during discovery calls, how we're selling our product and we need it to be at the forefront and centralizing all this data. ### Why CS should be the hub of a SaaS business strategy URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/why-cs-should-be-the-hub-of-a-saas-business-strategy/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:38:56.000Z In this discussion, Michael Hill leads an expert panel on the importance of customer success within your organization's SaaS model, the importance of CS within your business strategy, and the key metrics that our panelists like to focus on. Without further ado, let's have our panelists give a brief intro on themselves, their current roles, CS backgrounds, their companies, and a brief summary of what their companies do. **Our main talking points include:** - [Introducing our panelists](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-cs-should-be-the-hub-of-a-saas-business-strategy/#introducing-our-panelists) - [Meeting complex business needs with CS](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-cs-should-be-the-hub-of-a-saas-business-strategy/#meeting-complex-business-needs-with-cs) - [CS: Nice to have or mission-critical?](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-cs-should-be-the-hub-of-a-saas-business-strategy/#cs-nice-to-have-or-mission-critical) - [Communicating the value of CS to the rest of the organization](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-cs-should-be-the-hub-of-a-saas-business-strategy/#communicating-the-value-of-cs-to-the-rest-of-the-organization) - [Aligning on goals with the customer](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-cs-should-be-the-hub-of-a-saas-business-strategy/#aligning-on-goals-with-the-customer) - [Sharing action items with other stakeholders](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-cs-should-be-the-hub-of-a-saas-business-strategy/#sharing-action-items-with-other-stakeholders) - [Choosing the metrics that make sense for your CS function](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-cs-should-be-the-hub-of-a-saas-business-strategy/#choosing-the-metrics-that-make-sense-for-your-cs-function) ## Introducing our panelists **Melissa Hatter:** I'm a Customer Success Lead at Stripe. My team here is focused on our tier-one customer segments. I've been at Stripe for just over a year and a half, and prior to joining Stripe, I spent 15-plus years building and leading customer success and account management teams at large companies, primarily in the media and media tech space as well as some early in mid-stage startups. For those of you that aren't familiar with Stripe, we're fundamentally a payments processing company but with lots and lots of adjacent products and services that are centered around helping our customers grow their businesses. Our broader mission is growing the GDP of the internet, and we do that by making the movement of money between people, companies, countries, and currencies as simple as possible. **Brittany Yandura:** My name is Brittany. I work as a Senior Manager of Customer Success for a really exciting startup called Field Guide. I've spent about 11 years in the CS space. I would say my specialty is onboarding, but now, working at an early-stage startup, we don't really have specialties – you kind of do it all, which is incredibly fun. Field Guide is a series A B2B SaaS startup, and we focus on risk-based audits, especially cybersecurity audits, and we’ll soon be branching out into other risk areas. We sell primarily to audit firms and other specialized companies that perform cybersecurity and other types of risk, assurance, and compliance work. **Michael Hill:** Thank you for those introductions. This is an interesting discussion you’re from companies of very different sizes that have different ways of achieving the same goals, which are happy customers and growth. Could you tell us about your company's business model and how your CS department works within that? [Bring your own metrics: Growing through customer successMy name is Pablo Garcia Cano, and I’m a senior product marketing manager at Auctane. I’m thrilled to be here to share with you what I’ve learned about how to build and track the metrics that will bring the most value to your customers.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSPablo Garcia Cano![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/bring-your-own-metrics.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/bring-your-own-metrics-driving-growth-through-customer-success/) **Melissa Hatter:** At Stripe our model is primarily, but not exclusively, a consumption model. We were founded in 2009 and at that time, we were mostly a payments API that was leveraged by startups and small businesses. That's very much not the case today. Over the past 13 years, we've become a full-blown platform for payments and we now serve the entire spectrum of company sizes. Small businesses and startups are still very important to us, but now we also work with some of the largest companies in the world too. They're using our software and services, but also our hardware, including Terminal, which is our point-of-sale product. We also offer banking as a service products. We’ve always had an account management function, but until recently there wasn't a customer success discipline. We built that function in the past year and a half. When I joined, we pivoted to implement the customer success org. We wanted to make sure that we aligned our account support and strategy with our key operating principles, one of which is ‘users first’. Today, the Stripe customer success org supports just the top tier market segments globally, but with big plans to scale our function and expand to many, many other segments and tiers. ## Meeting complex business needs with CS **Michael Hill:** It’s interesting how the function has evolved. Why do you think the company went from focusing on account management to bringing in customer success? Was this a conversation that you had with your executives? **Melissa Hatter:** It was leadership-driven, and it was absolutely the right decision. As we started working with these large, complex organizations, we recognized that an account manager couldn't really specialize, and these companies needed specializations. The account manager was a jack of all trades, doing everything from commercials to the traditional CS motion – upsells, renewals, expansions, and all that. Our CRO looked at this and said that for these types of companies, there needs to be a specialization, so we separated out the functions. Today, the account executive is focused on the commercial success of an account, while the customer success manager is responsible for their health and optimization, and then we have a technical account manager to deal with technical questions and needs. By doing that, we’re able to specialize in a way that works for large clients. Taking on these types of clients forced us to look at how we supported large accounts and drove the model change and the introduction of a standalone customer success function. ## CS: Nice to have or mission-critical? **Michael Hill:** Do you think CS is seen as just nice to have or a critical contributor to your organization? **Melissa Hatter:** It’s absolutely critical. That's why it was formed in the first place. As it's new, it's important that everybody understands the role and why it's critical. So, when we first began building the team, we wrote our customer success team’s mission and charter and shared it across the organization. If you don't have that in your org, I highly recommend creating one. It's what we use as our founding document and to make sure that everybody internally knows our reason for being and what we’re trying to accomplish. [Top 7 interview questions for customer success managersWith a subscription-based model, the power is well and truly in the hands of the customer, and if you want to stop customers from churning, you need to arm your org with an army of empathy experts.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/meeting.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-customer-success-managers/) That mission is to ensure that our most strategic and valued users derive the maximum value from their Stripe investment. To do this, we focus on improving overall health and ROI by making sure that the way our solutions are deployed is fully optimized. By helping our clients unlock this optimal usage, we naturally contribute to stronger customer engagement and loyalty, so our org sees us as critical contributors because we're key to driving the broader mission. **Michael Hill:** Brittany, what is CS’ perceived value within your organization? **Brittany Yandura:** One of the things that drew me to where I currently am is that our executives have been committed to CS being critical from day one. I think I was employee number seven or eight at the company because even very early on when they were just starting to establish product-market fit and get a customer base, they knew that CS was going to be important. What that looks like will continue to evolve as we grow. Starting out, CS was just me – a single person – looking after anything post-sales, and that will evolve into more robust and specialized roles, but it won't change how important the function is. **Michael Hill:** Brittany, you mentioned that you specialize in onboarding. I would assume that your executives felt that once that sale is completed, they need to know that your customers are interacting highly with the product. Is that why they view CS as a critical component? And do you see that evolving? **Brittany Yandura:** I think there are a few reasons why CS is so critical to our company. Initially, it's about making sure that we have really strong adoption and engagement with the product, so that onboarding piece is important. Longer term, it's really important to have someone who's listening to the customer and communicating what they have to say throughout the organization. That way, as the company and the products grow, they grow in a direction that supports the goals and outcomes that customers are looking for. We look at anything post-sales as R&D. We're learning from the customers what's important. That helps us prioritize and make sure we're not developing in a vacuum, but rather taking in what's important to our current and future customer base and directing the company towards those things. ## Communicating the value of CS to the rest of the organization **Michael Hill:** I imagine there are a lot of people out there in smaller organizations, where CS is wearing a lot of hats right now. What can they do to raise the perceived value of CS in the company to the executives? **Melissa Hatter:** I think that's a great question because it's really easy for customer success to be stereotyped or perceived in a certain way. I've seen it happen that CS is looked at as glorified support. That's not to say that support is not important – it’s a critical function – but we risk being looked at as purely operational firefighters. In reality, a strong customer success discipline brings incredible value. In fact, investors often look at whether or not an organization has invested in customer success when they value companies. My advice for CS teams is to actively look at ways to sell their value internally. That can come in a lot of different flavors, and they should be creative. You could run internal roadshows, socialize wins, or share case studies. However you choose to do it, make sure that you're reaffirming the value that you bring. [The psychology behind customer successCustomer centricity is a culture in the workplace that hinges on creating the best experience for the customer, which in turn, generates brand loyalty.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSGrace Gupta![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/brain.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-psychology-behind-customer-success/) For example, at Stripe, one of our signature deliverables as a CS team is something called a PLT – a proactive listening tour. That’s an exercise that our CSMs run for interviewing internal and external stakeholders if there's a major client issue or a big event coming up. We've been doing this for two or three quarters now, and we've gotten some incredibly insightful and actionable items out of it. It's impacted renewals and activity. To share this, we're going to be doing a retrospective with our revenue leaders where we'll tell them about this process, the wins that we've gained, and the important insights that we've learned. I think that's going to help us raise the visibility of what we do. One of your greatest superpowers as a CSM is your intimate knowledge of your accounts, and this is a great opportunity to leverage and share that. Another example of a signature deliverable is a playbook we've created, called Account Team Goal-Setting. That's where everybody who touches an account gets together to plan and align around short, medium, and long-term goals and even the moonshot goals because sometimes goals and incentives for different stakeholders in an account could vary. I think of CS as a sort of hub and spoke to all of these different disciplines and departments, so having CS run something like that is a really good way to make an impact and raise your visibility because you're the facilitator of creating an account strategy. ## Aligning on goals with the customer **Michael Hill:** It sounds like goal alignment is at the foundation of taking CS from operational firefighters to a proactive team. Is there something that you do early on, maybe when onboarding the new customer, to measure those goals? **Melissa Hatter:** We only deal with existing business – clients that have been onboarded and are in more of a steady state. However, I know that the team that does onboarding has those conversations to make sure that there's goal alignment. When we assign a CSM to an account, there is a protocol for the handoff where the historical information is shared. We have a template so we can collate all the important things we need to know about the history of this customer. What are their hot buttons? What are they looking to accomplish as a business, and how do we fit in? The way our CSMs engage in this is more client-facing. We have something called a quarterly performance scorecard. Essentially, it's a tool where we ask our clients to provide the factors by which they're measuring us as a partner – uptime, SLA, and that kind of thing. We align on what those measures are with our stakeholders and clients, and then at the end of each quarter, we'll ask our clients to grade us based on their experience and perceptions of what's happened. [5 steps to building a customer-centric cultureWhen signing up for your SaaS product, your customers are making a long-term investment. You’re hoping they’re gonna stick with your product for months, and preferably even years.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/feedback.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-steps-to-building-a-customer-centric-culture/) That scorecard is something that we use quarterly, and it provides a forcing function for our customers to tell us in a pretty direct way where we're missing the mark and where we’re hitting it. Our CSMs and account teams can then direct their attention to the most important areas. It's a really useful tool to leverage in things like QBRs. It also helps us raise CS’s visibility internally as we share what we're learning about accounts with other stakeholders. The scorecard gives us something to point to and say, “Hey, this user gave us an A here, a B here, and these are the gaps that we need to focus on.” That also leads to product conversations, etc. That quarterly performance scorecard is a really useful tool for us. ## Sharing action items with other stakeholders **Michael Hill:** When you gather this information from customers on what’s going well and what could be improved, how do you communicate the actions that need to be taken to other people in your organization? **Brittany Yandura:** When you're speaking to internal teams, it's really important to know your audience. For example, if I'm speaking to a product team, I'm going to phrase things in terms of a user story. Here's what the user is trying to do. Here's where there are pain points. Here's where they're losing six seconds of time. I make sure I talk about it in terms of what product is interested in. If I'm talking to our CEO or someone more on the revenue-focused side, I might focus on some bigger picture things, like if we went after this specific sub-area of the business, we might do 25% more. So sometimes it's more qualitative, sometimes it's more quantitative. It’s about knowing your audience and communicating to them in their language. If I come at everybody with NRR, ARR, and NPS, I'm going to lose them. ## Choosing the metrics that make sense for your CS function **Michael Hill:** What metrics do you focus on in your CS functions? **Melissa Hatter:** We're building our metrics strategy right now. There are so many metrics and so many numbers in FinTech, so it's important to focus on anything that gives real signal. We need to understand what moves the needle and is actionable. The things that we try to distill down for sharing internally are a combination of things like engagement, volume, and SAT with a color commentary. As I mentioned, we're in the process right now of formalizing our value and health metrics and what inputs will go into that, but SAT is one of them. For the first time ever in Q1 this year, we did our CSAT on our clients with CSMs. I often get questions about why we chose CSAT over NPS, but in payments tech, I'm just not sure how much the fundamental NPS question is a good one because I don't know how many people actually recommend a payment system to a friend. I recommend choosing the scoring methodology that makes sense for your business, but it comes down to what's going to give you the best signal for what you're trying to accomplish, and then you have to develop ways to operationalize that. [Getting to grips with Customer Advisory Boards and their benefitsCreating and launching a product is one thing but developing and improving it is another. One of the best ways to do this is by absorbing as much feedback as possible through Customer Advisory Boards (CABs) and customer feedback loops.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/tim-mossholder-8R-mXppeakM-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/getting-to-grips-with-customer-advisory-boards-and-their-benefits/) **Michael Hill:** Brittany, you use NPS, right? What has been your experience with that? **Brittany Yandura:** NPS has been really helpful to us, and CSAT is an area we're interested in getting into as well; we just haven't quite crossed that bridge yet. For NPS, what I think is most valuable is not just collecting the scores, but what you do with them. In the application that we sell, we have a customer side, and we also have a side for our customers’ clients. We collect and analyze NPS on both sides of the application, and then we figure out what to do with it. For example, when we saw that we were getting really mixed feedback on the client side, we started running a weekly client webinar. That way, we're helping those that are struggling and we're meeting with them more directly and getting detailed feedback that will help us improve the application. Our hunch is that there are small things we can update and make a big difference. It's about more than just trying to raise our score; it's about what that score means. We want to make sure that those users are satisfied. NPS, or really any score, is only as helpful as you make it, and when you collect that information, you want to make sure it’s actionable and your CSMs feel empowered to dig in and experiment to figure out how to make that better. --- *Want to boost your skills for maximum growth? Get segmentation certified[ here!](https://future-of-saas.teachable.com/p/segmentation-certified-masters)* ### The habits and characteristics of being a people leader vs. manager URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-habits-and-characteristics-of-being-a-people-leader-vs-manager/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:47:46.000Z *This article is based on a presentation from Women in Saas Summit 2022\. Catch the full, unedited talk* [*right here.*](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-2/) My name is Leilani Carbonell, and I'm the Senior Manager of Customer Success at Tipalti. We help businesses modernize their financial operations so they can scale and reach their full potential. I'm so excited to be here to talk with you about people-centered leadership. To get us started, I want you to think of a person who you consider to be a great leader. This can be someone you work with, someone who you report to currently, someone you reported to in the past, or another leader that you admire. Got it? Great. Now I want you to think about a time when that person demonstrated their leadership. How did they make you feel? Or, if you weren't there in person, how do you think the people around them felt? Make a mental note of that feeling and hold onto it for later. We're about to go ahead and dive in. Here are our key talking points: - Why people-centered leadership matters - The whole person approach - What is people-centered leadership? - Leading vs. managing ## Why people-centered leadership matters Let me ask you my favorite question: why? Why are we here today? Why did you decide to take the time out of your day to read my thoughts on people-centric leadership? Maybe you want to upgrade your skills. Maybe you haven't heard about this style of leadership before and you’re curious. I’m hoping you’re here because you care and you want to be a better leader. I'm here because I believe in people-centered leadership. Doing my research for this piece cemented in my mind the fact that this is the right direction for any leader to take. I’d like to share a few statistics that show why people-centered leadership is so important. According to Microsoft's Work Trend Index, 41% of the global workforce is considering a job change. Think about that number. It’s a lot. Here’s a figure for US-based readers to think about: according to Zenefits, $1.5 billion a year is spent looking for replacement workers for those folks who have left. Nearly half of that huge sum of money comes from the loss of productivity and delays to customer products or services. [![People walking in a line behind a leader. ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/leader.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/the-habits-and-characteristics-of-being-a-people-leader-vs-manager) A more concerning statistic: globally, only 21% of employees are engaged in the workplace, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2022 report. In the United States, we fare a little bit better; about one-third of employees are engaged at work in the US. Engagement is a big thing. When your employees are not engaged, that means they're not happy with their job and they're not satisfied with their work environment, which means that they're looking around. They’re essentially a flight risk. The last piece of data I want to share with you is that only 33% of employees that they're thriving in their overall well-being globally. That’s stark. Two-thirds of employees are battling with the stress that’s at an all-time high, even post-pandemic. The numbers may be jarring, but the good news is we can do better. We have to do better. These statistics speak to why it’s vital to learn about and take action on people-centered leadership. ## The whole person approach I used to be a teacher. I taught at elementary school and middle school. Now you might be thinking, “That’s great, Leilani, but this is a business article. What does that have to do with anything?” Bear with me. As a teacher, I learned about a concept called the whole child approach, which ensures that each student is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. Let's think about that for a second. As a teacher, I needed to ensure that all of my students were healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged so that they could succeed in the classroom and grow to be productive citizens and join the rest of the world. What if we flipped this and replaced the word “child” with “person”? What if we applied this approach to the people we work with, who are on our team, and who we are responsible for in the workplace? Let's think about what that would look like. The whole person approach ensures that each employee is helped healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. I don't know about you, but I think that that's a great approach. There’s an old adage that the happier your employees are, the more successful your company will be. I truly believe that. Everything is connected. How employees feel and thrive at work translates to their home life and vice-versa. [![Paper boats](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/boats.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/the-habits-and-characteristics-of-being-a-people-leader-vs-manager) You might have heard of Brené Brown. She is fantastic. I’d like you to take stock of this quote of hers: “If we want people to fully show up, to bring their whole selves including their unarmored whole hearts – so that we can innovate, solve problems, and serve people – we have to be vigilant about creating a culture in which people feel safe, seen, heard, and respected.” I love this because it talks about how people-centered leadership is core to creating a thriving work environment. Brené Brown embodies what I think of as a great people-centered leader. Look no further for a shining example of the traits and habits I’ll describe throughout this article. ## What is people-centered leadership? There are lots of definitions of people-centered leadership out there and lots of adjectives to describe it. I’ve distilled it into the four points that I feel are the most important. Earlier, I asked you to think about the characteristics of a leader that you know. Thinking back on that, I wonder if any of the characteristics below look familiar? ### Know and care for your people It is critically important that a people-centered leader knows their team. Of course, when you’re in an organization of 500,000, it's not possible to know every single person and all of their likes and so forth. I'm talking about your immediate team, the ones that report directly to you. It’s about knowing who they are, knowing their birthdays or anniversaries, knowing what excites them, and showing that you care for them. The CEO of one of the companies I worked for in the past is a great example of this. He shows that he cares. He's the type of CEO who texts employees on their birthdays. I remember when I had just started out as a trainer/customer success manager. One time I went out to train a group of people, and I didn't do a good job. I knew this beyond a shadow of a doubt because after every training session, we gave the trainees a feedback survey to fill in. When the survey results came back, I did not feel good. [![Two people shaking hands](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/handshake.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/the-habits-and-characteristics-of-being-a-people-leader-vs-manager) When I went back to the office, my CEO noticed that I was a little bit down, and he took the time to ask me what happened. I told him, and he asked to take a look at the surveys. I was like, “Oh, great. I'm so fired.” He did the exact opposite of what I feared. He said, “Well, this person says this great thing about you. And here’s another one who was happy.” He was pulling out the good comments and pretty much ignoring the bad ones. I pointed out that there was a lot of negative feedback too, and he just said, “Yes, but you know that. I know you'll work on it and you’ll improve, and if you need support, I'll be here to help you.” That always stuck with me because of the way he made me feel. Remember at the beginning I asked you how you felt when someone you consider to be a great leader demonstrated leadership? I felt seen. I felt valued. I felt heard and supported. That’s what people-centered leadership is all about. ### Show humility and empathy No one has all of the answers, so showing humility with your team is key. Then of course there’s empathy. Look through the lens of the people that you work with, care for them, and be empathetic. ### Create an environment of psychological safety and mutual trust Creating an environment of psychological safety and mutual trust is so important. You need to model vulnerability to create a safe space for employees to also be vulnerable. I'm not saying that you need to pour your heart out, but don't be afraid to show that you’re human. Think back to the whole person approach; whatever people experience in their personal lives, they bring with them to work. With this in mind, at the beginning of every meeting, one of my team leads carves out some ‘human time.’ One of the exercises in ‘human time’ is a round robin, where everyone gives two words to describe how they're feeling. They might say, “I'm happy and excited,” or “I'm tired and stressed.” That allows everyone to get their feelings out before the meeting so everyone else on the team can hear. Then, they’ll circle back and follow up at the end of the meeting or reach out later on. Having that trust and that space to be vulnerable is part of what creates a culture of positivity that keeps your employees engaged. ### Recognize and reward your people The chances are that your team spends most of their week doing good work for your company, whether that’s in the office or working remotely. Rewarding good work, achievements, and successes is a core part of people-centric leadership. The rewards don’t always have to be monetary. Recognition and appreciation also show your team that they're valued, and that is people-centered leadership. ## Leading vs. managing Shifting gears a little bit, I want to talk about leading versus managing. Don't get me wrong. I know when I started I said that I was a Senior Manager of Customer Success. So yeah, I am a manager and as a manager, I am responsible for management-type activities. However, you don’t have to be a manager to be a leader. There's a leader in individual contributors; there’s a leader in managers. The difference is in the approach. Leadership is focusing on people, influencing and motivating, asking “what” and “why” and fostering new ideas. Management focuses on systems and structures, supervision and control, asking “how” and “when”, and assigning tasks. We know that for companies to operate, those management activities have to be in place; what makes a difference is how you approach them. If you approach those tasks from a people-centric leadership angle, it doesn't feel micromanage-y. It has a different effect on people when you're being empathetic and vulnerable and providing a psychological safe space, so keep those elements in mind. I like this quote. This is from Jon Clifton, the CEO of Gallup. He says, “Managers need to be better listeners, coaches, and collaborators. Great managers help colleagues learn and grow, recognize their colleagues for doing great work, and make them truly feel cared about. In environments like this, workers **thrive**.” I want to highlight the word “thrive” because that's the end goal. I want the people that I work with to thrive. It's not about them just reaching their KPIs. Yes, of course, we do want to reach those business goals, but if I can get my employees to thrive, if they’re healthy and healthy and they feel safe, they're going to be better employees. They're going to reach those goals because their other needs are met. [![A group of people standing in a line](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/people.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/the-habits-and-characteristics-of-being-a-people-leader-vs-manager) As managers and leaders, let's focus on being better at all of these things. Let's coach rather than supervise. Let's do more listening rather than talking. Michelle Obama is another person that I deeply respect as a leader. When I think about somebody who screams those characteristics of a people-centric leader, it’s Michelle Obama. She is authentic. When she speaks, she speaks with conviction. She's an effective communicator. She's relatable. All of these things make up a people-centric leader, and those are qualities that I strive for. I love this quote from her. In one of her speeches, she said, “Success isn't about how much money you make; it's about the difference you make in people's lives.” Don't get me wrong – I work for a financial software company. Money is good. However, when you stop and think about the difference you can make in the lives of your team, what a great honor that is. It’s not only a great honor but a great responsibility. I talked earlier about the interconnectedness of our work and home lives. If you're stressed at work, you bring that stuff home and it affects your loved ones. What if we made sure our employees could thrive at work instead? That’s something we can do through people-centered leadership. The more we can make space for vulnerability, build safe and trusting environments, and show authenticity, the more we create an enjoyable workplace, where people can be fulfilled and thrive. Then, hopefully, when they go home they'll feel that joy as well. At the same time, they're going to be happier at work, which means we’ll have better results. Now it's your turn. How will you lead? ### The Purpose Spectrum: How to evaluate your brand’s role in a socially conscious society URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-purpose-spectrum-how-to-evaluate-your-brands-role-in-a-socially-conscious-society/ Last updated: 2022-10-13T12:01:02.000Z These days, the [marketers](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) behind nearly every brand on Earth are being told to “find their purpose”—their reason for existence that transcends their products and services. The one that can endear them deeply to their [customers ](https://www.saasalliance.io/tactics-that-improve-customer-retention/)on a more fundamental, human level and ensure their efforts contribute to more than just profit generation. This is a wonderful sentiment—one I’ve espoused to clients many times. But it’s not as simple as it sounds. Purpose-driven enterprises are powerful, necessary forces within today’s society. They come in many shapes, and their paths to purpose often look very different. But let’s be clear: Not all companies are, or should be, purpose-driven. When a brand’s efforts toward serving a broader purpose ring hollow, they can cause more harm than good. Purpose is a spectrum, and a brand’s place and fluidity on that spectrum depend on many factors. Let’s take a look at five points along this spectrum to help marketers assess where their[ brands](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-brand-marketing-more-data-driven-q-a-with-hotjar/) fall and what that means for how they move forward in a purpose-obsessed [marketing](https://www.saasalliance.io/bridging-the-gap-between-sales-marketing/) landscape. The five points are: - Born with a Purpose - Reinvented for Good - Antithetical to a Broader Purpose - Went Off the Rails - Seeking Purpose through Acquisition ## **Born with a Purpose** Being a [startup](https://www.saasalliance.io/practical-usability-tips-for-a-saas-startup/) isn’t easy, but when it comes to purpose, building with purpose in mind from the ground up is the truest way to go. We see this in brands like thank you, a social enterprise that commits 100 percent of their profits from product sales toward the goal of helping to end extreme poverty. Or consider Harvi, a newly launched gardening system conceived as a way to positively influence human consumption habits by providing aspiring urban gardeners with a way to create their own farm-to-table experiences. Purpose-born brands like these were created to fulfill a larger purpose in society, and their corporate values and behaviors fall in line accordingly. [Top SaaS marketing and content toolsA high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/) ## **Reinvented for Good** Of course, the vast majority of today’s brands were not purpose-born. But that doesn’t mean they can’t authentically reinvent themselves in this fashion. Consider Patagonia, the pinnacle of purpose-driven enterprises. The company didn’t start out on a mission to save our planet. It started out with the intention of making and selling quality climbing hardware. But the essence of environmental responsibility was core to the origins of the company, so as it pivoted to purpose, the fit was authentic. But what really makes for a successful purpose-focused reinvention is a company’s willingness and success in extending its purpose to its own corporate culture and fundamental business practices—a willingness Patagonia has proven time and time again. [How tech companies are using data to massively reduce their SaaS costsWhen a SaaS company chooses a conservative business model, it’s often a surprise. Vendors that don’t seek big funding rounds and instead opt for a bootstrapped, cashflow-positive option are notable by their exception.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSVertice![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/metrics-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-tech-companies-are-using-data-to-massively-reduce-their-saas-costs/) ## **Antithetical to a Broader Purpose** Then there are companies on the opposite end of the spectrum—the ones whose purpose doesn’t extend beyond the goal of turning a profit and whose very products run contrary to the best interests of people, society, and our planet. Here we’re talking about categories like oil, alcohol, tobacco, and other industries whose products are fundamentally destructive to our planet and bodies. These are the companies whose attempts to market themselves as serving a higher cause are doing a disservice to the fundamental notion of purpose. It’s not to say these companies shouldn’t try to offset or minimize the harm caused by their products. But they must also resist the urge to purpose-wash their actions as a surface-level [marketing](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-metrics-for-saas-marketers/) ploy. ## **Went Off the Rails** Separately, let’s talk about the companies that were founded for a greater purpose but then, somewhere along the line, lost their way. Consider Levi’s, which was founded in the 1850s with the purpose of outfitting the people who were building our country. Somewhere along the line, though, Levi’s became just a blue jeans company. However, over the past decade-plus, the company has rediscovered (and expanded) its purpose, as evidenced in its “Go Forth” campaign. These days, the brand stands for social responsibility and sustainability in both words and actions. [Your guide to SaaS pricingIn our second hub page, we’re diving into Saas pricing. When it comes to knowing your value and boosting your revenue we got you covered.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/Your-guide-to-SaaS-pricing.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-guide-to-saas-pricing/) ## **Seeking Purpose through Acquisition** Finally, in today’s M&A-obsessed landscape, I’d be remiss to not mention companies that seek to reestablish themselves as purpose-driven enterprises through smart acquisitions. In these instances, a brand’s place on the purpose spectrum is determined by its intentions. When a larger corporation swallows up a smaller, purpose-driven competitor, is it looking to absorb the smaller company’s values and infuse it into the DNA and corporate practices of its larger organization? Or is it merely hoping to wear the halo of its new asset? If the former is the case, the brand just might be able to reinvent itself around purpose. But in many cases, when the latter is the case, we’re looking at just another instance of purpose-washing. ## **In summary** Today’s brand landscape is littered with loose talk around “purpose,” and it’s time to stop acting as though brand purpose is something that can be simply picked up and worn like a hat. True purpose is fundamental to a company’s corporate culture and behavior. Anything less is just slick marketing. --- Like what you see? Why not get in on all the exclusive insights with a FoSaaS membership plan? 👇 [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Top SaaS marketing and content tools URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:39:24.000Z A high-functioning SaaS org is like a well-oiled machine. And what do you need to keep it running? That’s right. The ideal set of tools. When it comes to SaaS, of course, we’re talking about your tech stack. The average SaaS org is going to have a pretty broad range of different functions and departments, and your tech stack is going to need to reflect that. That’s where we can help. Earlier this year, we published The Future of SaaS Tools of Choice report. You can download the full report [right here](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2022-1/). In this article, we’re giving you a little taste of what you can expect by honing on marketing and content tools. 👇 --- ## Marketing and content tools Whether it’s an in-depth how-to guide for customers, an onboarding email, or a simple LinkedIn post, content is everywhere, and with such large volume and demand, comes the need for structure around storage, creation, and a strategy for sending. The choice can be overwhelming, we know, which is why our SaaS leaders curated some of the best content apps and marketing tools to guide you through the process of finding the perfect tool for the job. ### Mailchimp ![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/3IU7P7o-LtFBGtDBJL234dYAIq2P_dg_rFbOwl6xlPk3ZANTnbCVGb1IGTqY7UFbSu9karbtONohHfM69kxUqsbLCoQ-wQVC1UU35IL2WV6HQQL7tt6hHwZb4wPITUxcxt_-XjdlVReIJnBTgVW5OWKHyIcDfaFe1LSZNklZ5UlAlZjxW28RKK2L9Q) Mailchimp is about marketing smarter and growing faster. It gathers all your audience's data in one place to lay the foundation for custom content creation. It provides design tools to help create show-stopping visuals to supplement your words, simplifies the process of building, launching, and measuring cross-channel campaigns, and delivers real-time reports and personalized recommendations, so your campaigns go from strength to strength. As marketing expert, Ben Holland of [Satrix Solutions](https://www.satrixsolutions.com/) puts it, “I'm a huge fan of Mailchimp - it's a powerful and user-friendly email marketing platform that I use in all of my projects. I'm constantly impressed with its comprehensive feature set, its ease of use, and its insightful reporting capabilities." ### Marketo ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/nmarketo.jpg) Marketo’s an Adobe company and comes with three offerings: **Marketo Engage**. Brings marketing and sales together to create personal experiences, custom content, and track performance through every stage of complex buyer journeys. **Bizible**. Delves deeper than just clicks and leads to create accurate and actionable pictures of what is and isn’t working, as well as the impact on your bottom line. **Adobe Experience Cloud.** End-to-end customer experience management for marketing, advertising, analytics, and e-commerce. [Top 7 Sales enablement tools for SaaS leadersWhen it comes to effective sales enablement, which tools should you be using? We’ve compiled a list of 7 top sales enablement tools.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/tools-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-sales-enablement-tools-for-saas-leaders/) ### WordPress ![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/tLvJ58VOJEfGgIs89P60rHNTo-sbm2QE7mbLhmRMHHWFAU3JXiIQq00RxKPz0j664V0HkdyvQ9zk_4zQTvcD8VnMXTy9kjfa2WnKAdPMViQooCY_6iz790FK8Pz6RNB4HUa9W3uk7c59Iuoc-RcPlJBnB_wFg91layAKmAfOJXOrzSBx0GrM6uBApQ) WordPress is one of the biggest CMSs in the world - and with reason. It comes with tons of themes, SEO tools built-in, intuitive navigation, in-depth stats, social sharing, mobile-friendly and responsive designs, and more. ### Sprinklr ![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/j1DCOk7v0k9-yrUGg7cPvpsrPy58_3LyKLWOY99hdq-6gGhhmlDKZxpnmsRp9lrQ--wHl_MTfnTW9JX-T5doTRjV8kW5YxplR3c1Fn9nZkyR_iuhjHkbWY8c9GMmay0OOAMR6DnU2qwq4dtagiZqxpGkNgqVF6ivt7yoUqdGPjkzYelxew4VEHgynQ) Sprinklr pulls in what customers are saying on social media platforms, messaging channels, blogs, forums, news and review sites, and then converts all that unstructured intel into actionable insights (using AI) so you can deliver personalized marketing, proactive care, and amazing experiences. ### Oktopost ![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/OiYZ5rA7WwnobMRAFc_XK7baE_JoMSv-km1xLbBzqyyq4-vZIsACwDGDAEu-LVlIeeczqQjbWO10Y8jrGr3P7amvIH8u3pCSfCovpuBvIdl4GpxgKwdxaEN8eWyCCdRgmW4AmIr0fIoRNsN2jIY-aR9E7EoqjSDpda0PBrg0G4Wy8hCK7WDHsnSoJw) The only social media management platform architected for B2B. With Oktopost you can publish and manage social content at scale and track actionable metrics that are meaningful to your business. Social can be an effective customer communication and lead generation channel - if you have the right tools. Oktopost enables B2B marketers to integrate social data with their marketing stack to improve customer experience and measure the real impact of social media on the business. [15 tools for a great finance stackFinance teams need to pull data fast and they need it to be accurate, to achieve both they have to have complete confidence in their tech stack. With this in mind, we searched high and low for the tools you need in your arsenal to build the ultimate finance tech stack![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/07/clay-banks-E2HgkL3LaFE-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/15-tools-for-a-great-finance-tech-stack/) ## Clearbit ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/Screen-Shot-2022-10-11-at-6.15.37-PM.jpg) Clearbit collates data from marketing interactions with customers. This is stored in a database which you can then use to optimize your emails and advertising campaigns, allowing you to be especially targeted in your messaging to clients. SaaS companies are increasingly trying to utilize customer data to personalize their interactions with customers. This kind of software allows you to do just that. ## Piktochart ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/Screen-Shot-2022-10-11-at-6.17.35-PM.jpg) Too often content creators are reliant on bland stock images to spice up their content. Piktochart allows to you to easily and intuitively turn your written content into attractive infographics. Social platforms such as LinkedIn are flooded with forgettable text-heavy posts. Creating infographics and images maximizes your potential for engagement and catch the eye of prospective customers. Nowadays, SaaS companies are heavily positioning their content department as the lynchpin of their marketing department. Slick, attractive content can be an essential aspect of your brand identity, which is crucial for distinguishing yourself in an overcrowded market. ## HotJar ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/Screen-Shot-2022-10-11-at-6.27.24-PM.jpg) What better way to make your marketing super targeted than to capture the voice of the customer? But sometimes utilizing customer data can be a daunting process, especially when you're spending hours trawling through spreadsheets. Hotjar makes customer data super intuitive through the use of heat maps and feedback tools. The main aim is to gain a big picture view of your website, revealing what you're doing well, what needs improving, and where customers are falling through the net. ## Lemlist ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/Screen-Shot-2022-10-11-at-6.37.16-PM.jpg) Be honest, how many generic emails do you ignore in a day? Probably 90% or more, right? The goal with outbound marketing efforts is always to personalize marketing as much as possible. Lemlist allows you to do just that. Additionally, it allows you to automate follow up leads, so that you can capitalize on hot leads before they go cold on you. It also provides you with an extensive library of cold email templates, saving you time and allowing you to scale quickly. --- Like what you’ve seen so far. If so, why not check out the full report [right here](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2022-1/)? ### A playbook on how to build a sustainable growth strategy URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/a-playbook-on-how-to-build-a-sustainable-growth-strategy/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:47:23.000Z Hi, my name is Yaroslav, and I'm a Product Marketing Manager at a company called MacPaw. We’re working on a productivity service called Setapp, which works as a subscription-based app store, but I'm not here to talk about my product. I'm going to be talking about how to build a growth strategy and actually execute it. When you say “growth,” people usually think of money, progress, success, or revenue, but growth is not about any of these. [Growth](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-calculate-growth-rates/) is all about the process. The good news is that there’s a framework you can apply to build sustainable growth. Products and markets can be unique, but achieving growth isn’t unique at all. It doesn't matter whether you're building a[ B2B or B2C product](https://www.saasalliance.io/b2b-customer-renewals-q-a-with-freshworks/); there’s a clear process you have to build and apply to your business, products, and teams. The playbook I’ll be sharing today is based on my experience, my team's experience, and the products I'm working on. It consists of three key items: 1. Finding and measuring product-market fit, 2. Building and scaling functional growth teams, and 3. Scaling via testing and experiments. Let’s take a closer look. ## **Step one: Find and measure product-market fit** Getting to the product-market fit is the only thing that matters. It's not possible to build a company if you haven’t found your product-market fit, but what is it? And how do you know you’ve found it? The truth is that product-market fit is a clear and measurable entity, and how you measure it is the same for every company. Let's dive in. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/product-fit.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-playbook-on-how-to-build-a-sustainable-growth-strategy) So, you have your product, you have your market – what's in between? If we say that the product is a combination of value proposition, features, and user experience, while the market is defined as users and their needs, the fit lies in bridging the gap between the product and the market by achieving the following: - It’s clear who the target customer is, and you bring those customers in. - It’s clear which specific customers’ needs your product is to serve. - Your value proposition gets traction. - Your product has the right features to serve the needs of your target customers. - Customers can easily understand how to do what they want to do when interacting with your product. If these five statements are true, you’re in the right market with a product that can serve it. It’s important to understand that those steps aren’t in any particular order – they’re all equally important. If even one of these statements isn’t true for you, you might not achieve product-market fit. ### **What to measure** Although the checklist above is straightforward and difficult to argue with, it doesn't help you understand which[ metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-guide-to-saas-metrics/) you have to monitor so you can see whether you’ve got product-market fit. You can experiment endlessly with your [value proposition ](https://www.saasalliance.io/value-propositions-that-sell/)and validate hypotheses to understand which features are important and which aren’t. You can proudly announce the winners of A/B tests and debate the criteria of the next MVP, but if you don’t measure the impact on activation, engagement, retention, and customer loyalty, you’ll end up building a product for the sake of it, while the ultimate goal should be to build a product that a lot of customers want. To answer the question about what to measure, you need to keep the customer on your radar by paying attention to these four key areas: 1. [**Activation**:](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-improve-user-activation/) Are new users becoming active users? 2. [**Engagement**:](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-engagement-and-the-metrics-that-matter-q-a-with-intercom/) How engaged are your active users? 3. [**Retention**](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-engagement-and-the-metrics-that-matter-q-a-with-intercom/): Are you giving your users enough reason to come back? 4. [**Loyalty**](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/): Are your users happy enough to become your promoters? So which is most important – activation, engagement, retention, or loyalty? What should you focus on first? Well, building a product that a lot of customers want isn’t a single-variable problem, so you have to pay attention to all four areas. Let's dive into each one. ### **1\. Activation** Activation is the moment when a new user takes a specific action to get value out of a product. In Instagram’s case, for example, that action might be posting a certain number of photos or following a certain number of people. For other products, activation could be defined as signing up, making your first transaction, viewing three videos within a specified period, and so on. An activation metric answers the question, “What percentage of new users have experienced the value of your product?” The percentage of new users who have experienced your product value is the number of specific actions divided by the number of new users. For example, 100 completed first purchases divided by 1000 new users would mean that 10% of new users got the value of your product Now, how do you identify your activation metric? It’s your job to define [the milestone](https://www.saasalliance.io/knowing-your-customer-and-building-the-success-plan/) that drives long-term product usage. What’s the number one most important experience that users should be getting in the product? Do nottry to guess. A good way to start is to analyze user behavior to find out what returning users consistently do in your product. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/meter.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-playbook-on-how-to-build-a-sustainable-growth-strategy) Once you’ve identified your metric, you want to set a benchmark activation rate indicator. I would recommend starting with 30% as a benchmark activation rate and then checking whether that’s the right number for you. A negative rate might be less than 10%, and a positive rate would be anything exceeding 30%. But, again, you can start with this benchmark and then see what makes sense for your product. ### **2\. Engagement** The second dimension on our radar is engagement. Engagement rate is a measure of users' commitment to your product, and it’s a good indicator of whether they find real value in it. To measure the depth of engagement per user, you have to divide the number of key actions by the number of active users. For example, if I’m running a music streaming service and 10 million songs are listened to by my 100 million active users, I have an engagement rate of 10%. Now it’s time to decide what a positive engagement rate looks like, and again that’ll depend on your product. You might want to set a benchmark of 50% and then create goals for improvement, with negative engagement being anything lower than 20% and positive engagement being anything exceeding 50%. ### **3\. Retention** The third dimension on our radar is retention. Your retention rate answers the question of how many of your active users returned to the product over time. It helps you understand whether you’re giving your users enough reasons to come back and whether you’re bringing the right users in. To measure your product's retention, you have to use a retention curve. Let's say we’re analyzing users who started using product A for the first time on January 1st, and we're tracking them to the end of the month. [![Chart showing retention](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/graph-1.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-playbook-on-how-to-build-a-sustainable-growth-strategy) According to this retention curve, on day five retention is 50% – this means that half of the people who first used the product on January 1st came back and were active on January 6th. At first glance, it looks like a huge drop-off, but we can see that the curve stabilizes at 30% on day 15, so we can say that product A has a product-market fit for this particular cohort. Your retention metric can also show you if you have a product-market fit problem. For example, product B's retention trends to zero pretty fast, which means that it doesn’t give users enough reasons or value to return and take those key actions within the product. Product B hasn’t found a product-market fit. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/chart-2.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-playbook-on-how-to-build-a-sustainable-growth-strategy) It’s important to mention that before building a similar graph to measure your product's retention, you need to make sure that you have defined clearly two things: - **Key actions**: The actions that you want your users to take every time they come back to your product. - **Usage interval**: The frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) at which you expect people to use your product. ### **4\. Loyalty** The fourth dimension of the product-market fit radar is not to check whether your customers have established a habit around your product, or whether you give them enough reasons to come back to your product over time – this one measures how loyal your customers are. [Measuring customer loyalty](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) helps you know whether you have enough enthusiastic customers who recommend your product to other potential buyers. Why is this important? Mainly because loyal customers are less likely to look around for an alternative solution and are more likely to become your growth engine by recommending your product to their peers. Let’s take a look at how we measure customer loyalty. Some companies associate loyalty with revenue-related metrics like customer lifetime value or repurchasing levels. Others prefer to look at the customer loyalty index, which comes from customer surveys. But when thinking about customer loyalty and trying to understand whether you've built a product a lot of customers want, in our opinion, net promoter score (NPS) is the best metric to apply. NPS is measured with a single-question survey. The question is, “How likely is it that you would recommend product X to a friend or colleague?” Respondents give a rating between zero (not at all likely) and 10 (extremely likely), and depending on their response, they fall into one of three categories: detractor, passive, or promoter. [![An image showing 6 sad faces indicating detractors, 2 even faces indicating passives, and 2 happy faces indicating promoters. ](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/wtc14HvfuaUqoxgd-i96Mfjd5s5JOdq_VTF5Mh3V1L8HeAQUe5OAmPVAZ1f6PXgwGuH8bswiSd91HSrKpFCH_WJfG3zd6hCzFF-STz0IoBc0pjmd1gM6uZ483Kwr2vuqRfVzjqkQAqSVE328CdlnxXPKBStI2QnAh0eIQ8ntTnlwcnsDPrmlrz_ovw)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-playbook-on-how-to-build-a-sustainable-growth-strategy) Those who give ratings of nine and 10 are promoters – loyal, enthusiastic customers, who’ll recommend your product to other potential [buyers](https://www.saasalliance.io/interactive-content-ideas-for-each-stage-of-the-buyers-journey/). Those who put seven and eight are satisfied customers but not happy enough to be considered promoters, so we classify them as passive. Those who give a score from zero to six are unhappy customers who are unlikely to repurchase your product and could even damage your product's reputation – we call them detractors. To determine[ your NPS](https://www.saasalliance.io/measuring-the-impact-of-customer-success-and-related-efforts-on-customer-retention/), you have to subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. This will give you a score between -100 and 100. Now, what is a positive NPS? Again, there are a bunch of benchmarks you can find on the web, and it varies by industry, but for software and applications, 30 is an average score. You can compare other companies’ NPS to set your goals, but more importantly, you should constantly experiment with ways to build an experience that creates promoters. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/10/radar.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-playbook-on-how-to-build-a-sustainable-growth-strategy) ### **Why these four metrics?** To summarize the first part of our playbook, you’ll know you have a product-market fit when these four statements are true: 1. **Users have experienced the value of your product**, which means activation is happening. 2. **Users find value in your product**, which means engagement is happening. 3. **Users are given enough reasons to come back**, and they do come back to the product over time, which means retention is in place. 4. **Users are enthusiastic and willing to recommend your product to other potential buyers**, which means you have customer loyalty. Or, more simply put, **product-market fit = activation + engagement + retention + loyalty**. [![Product market fit equals activation plus engagement plus retention plus loyalty](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/BOnsfNd5kSUwCM_ig0A7ZCQRfuDqI2zBYSBMWBmWCvCXCGycE6p7F616oXj51AswZyp6P_-cLCl5fWWnoWWG1TMajV30xfNSjBRVvtKHOD2WPylnieOxX4RMjTsMYCTxbgX7iB8IiuqfwG_M0w_WXvvpNjlIVwKVowio_Ta1Q6JYEvnroUgfHQgl9w)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/a-playbook-on-how-to-build-a-sustainable-growth-strategy) When you have your customer on your radar and you're tracking these four key areas, you can quantify your product-market fit. This makes it much easier to manage and discuss with your teams. Now, why should you track these four metrics? Well, none of them is a vanity metric. They are all about the customer, they’re all about the value of your product, and they’re all actionable and measurable. ## **Step two: Build and scale functional growth teams** Now that we know the first step in our playbook on [building sustainable growth strategies](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-and-deciding-which-metrics-to-measure-the-metrics-that-matter-most/), it’s time to move on to the second step: building and scaling functional growth teams. But what is a growth team? The short answer is that it's a self-contained team that owns and drives business metrics through rigorous testing practices. You need to have these teams if you want to grow. A growth team should contain the following roles: - **A product manager** to lead and set the culture and direction of the team. - **T-shaped marketers** with a broad understanding of how the marketing function works and expertise in at least one channel. - **Designers** who can use their expertise to create quick mock-ups and experiments. They don’t need to be perfectionists. - **Engineers** who are experiment-driven and passionate about growth. - [**Data analysts** ](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-data-team-at-saas-hypergrowth/)to help design tests and quickly extract insights. Without these folks, it's difficult to draw conclusions that help you understand how you're doing. ## **Step three: Scale via testing and experiments** Great news! You’ve got[ product-market fit](https://www.saasalliance.io/perfecting-your-product-market-fit-q-a-with-socialbee/), and you’ve got a growth team with all the skills you need to take your business to the next level. Now it’s time to start scaling that business through testing and experiments. There are five steps you have to follow: 1. **Discovery** 2. **Prioritization** 3. **Design and execution** 4. **Measurement** 5. **Learning and insights** These five steps are logically ordered. First, you have to discover what you're going to be testing, then you prioritize the best ideas you have for the tests. Next, we have design and execution; this is when your growth team carries out the experiments. That’s followed by measurement when your data analysts calculate the results. Finally, you’ll extract insights that you can implement in the product or use as the basis for another test. ## **Summary** Let's summarize. You can build a product that a lot of customers want, which translates into building a sustainable growth strategy, by following this playbook: 1. **Find and measure product-market fit** by tracking activation, engagement, retention, and loyalty. 2. **Build and scale functional teams** with mixed expertise in marketing, product, engineering, data analysis, and design. 3. **Scale via testing and experiments**, where you discover, prioritize, and execute tests, then measure the results and extract insights for the product development product roadmap. That’s it – just three steps. I hope you can return to your offices and implement this playbook, then watch as your business grows. ### Competitive differentiation strategy: How to win in a hyper-competitive SaaS market URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/competitive-differentiation-strategy-how-to-win-in-a-hyper-competitive-saas-market/ Last updated: 2022-10-06T11:00:00.000Z Competitive differentiation is a strategic positioning approach that helps buyers distinguish your business from similar competitors and give them a solid reason to choose you. Seth Godin, an American author and former business executive, was right when he said, *Surprise and differentiation have far more impact than noise does.* I mean, there are over [16,000](https://getlatka.com/companies/countries) SaaS companies in the US. So it’s not far-fetched to say that you’re not the only one offering your service. If you ask me, your prospects have options – a long list of them. So how do you differentiate yourself from other SaaS brands when you’re not so different? Great question! That’s what I’ll cover in this article. I’ll show you how to use competitive differentiation strategies to attract, acquire and retain customers. You’ll also see how other popular SaaS brands use these strategies to differentiate themselves from their competitors. ## Differentiation strategies for SaaS businesses Michael E. Porter, Author of What is Strategy, said, *Competitive strategy is about being different. It means deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value.* And so it is in the world of SaaS strategies. You have to be different from your competitors, even if you’re not so different. You have to find your unique [value proposition](https://www.saasalliance.io/value-propositions-that-sell/). Differentiation strategy aims to distinguish a product or service from other related products offered by competitors. It gives you a competitive edge by providing customers with something different. But how do you come up with your differentiation strategy, you ask? SaaS businesses can determine what makes them unique by finding their unique selling point and conducting a [SWOT analysis](https://www.competitiveintelligencealliance.io/how-to-run-swot-analysis/) to define their competitive position. We’ll look more closely at how to create a differentiation strategy as we go deeper into the article, but first, let’s talk about the types of differentiation strategies. [How tech companies are using data to massively reduce their SaaS costsWhen a SaaS company chooses a conservative business model, it’s often a surprise. Vendors that don’t seek big funding rounds and instead opt for a bootstrapped, cashflow-positive option are notable by their exception.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSVertice![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/metrics-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-tech-companies-are-using-data-to-massively-reduce-their-saas-costs/) ## Types of differentiation strategies There are two types of differentiation strategies: broad and focused differentiation strategies. Without further ado, let’s jump into the broad differentiation strategy. ### Broad differentiation strategy The broad differentiation strategy is used by companies with a wide range of customers. Examples of such companies are Starbucks and Apple. These brands focus on creating symbolic experiences and prestige for their audience. Starbucks sells personal rewards to the masses. People are happy to spend extra money on Starbucks because of the buying experience. All Starbucks locations worldwide have a good atmosphere, great aromas, relaxing music in the background, and cool baristas. Apple products symbolize luxury – extraordinary products for ordinary people. One of the biggest reasons people buy Apple is because the product makes them look and feel good. As a SaaS looking to implement the broad differentiation strategy, your product benefits should be valuable and attractive enough that the price of the product or service doesn’t prevent the public from purchasing it. ### Focused differentiation strategy Implementing a focused differentiation strategy means developing unique product characteristics for a narrow target market. Lamborghini is a perfect example of a brand that uses the focused differentiation strategy. They provide premium, luxurious cars to the upper-middle and upper class because they can afford them. They focus their marketing efforts on affluent consumers in western countries – a narrow target market. ### Competitive differentiators Before we go into how to create a differentiation strategy, let’s look at competitive differentiators. There are many ways to differentiate your product or service from your competitors’. However, how you choose to stand out depends on your customer needs and what you want your position in the market to be. Here are five examples of differentiators that can guide you in creating yours: 1. **Price differentiators** are about how you want to price your product or service, including how much you want to charge, how often you want to collect payments, and what method you’ll use to take payments. 2. **Brand differentiators** are how your customers see, recognize and perceive your brand. These include your brand’s color, tone, voice, and style. 3. **Product differentiators** are the unique capabilities of your product – its quality, features, design, and performance. 4. **Channel differentiators** are the ways your company gets offered to its customers. These include your marketing distribution channels and where your products are sold. 5. **Service differentiators** are how your business creates a relationship with its customers – such as through support emails, social media help, customer service calls, and live chats. ## How to create a differentiation strategy And now, we’re here. This is where you’ll learn how to create a differentiation strategy for your product or service. ### Determine your differentiator Developing a solid differentiator is key to creating an effective differentiation strategy. Start by thinking about your product/service – what makes it unique? The experience, pricing model, or quality? Think of something you want your products to be known for. Then you need to review your area of expertise – what value are you bringing to your customers? The narrower your expertise is, the easier it will be to demonstrate the advantages to your prospects. [Your guide to SaaS pricingIn our second hub page, we’re diving into Saas pricing. When it comes to knowing your value and boosting your revenue we got you covered.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/Your-guide-to-SaaS-pricing.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-guide-to-saas-pricing/) ### Write your unique value proposition Now that we’ve understood how to develop differentiators, create a list of differentiators and choose the five most important ones for your brand. You will be able to develop a **unique value proposition** by focusing on your key differentiators.A unique value proposition is a statement that expresses your product or service’s distinct selling point to your prospects. The statement should focus on your product, the problems it solves, its advantages, and the reason to choose your brand over the competitors. ### Tell your brand’s story [Carmine Galo](https://www.carminegallo.com/), author and keynote speaker stated: *Successful organizations and companies share the stage with their best storytellers. Brands are a collection of narratives. Unleash your best stories.* In other words, brand storytelling is one of the most effective ways to humanize your brand, build customer loyalty, and set yourself apart from competitors. One good example of a brand that used storytelling as a differentiation strategy is Huggies. Huggies knew that to compete with Pampers (the market leader at the time), they had to differentiate themselves and give mothers enough reason to choose them before arriving at the hospital to give birth. So how did they differentiate themselves from Pampers even when they’re not so different? Storytelling. Huggies used another approach. After over 600 studies proved hugs help to stabilize babies’ vital signs, ward off illness, build immune systems, and improve brain development, the brand started a campaign to leave “no baby unhugged.” The “No baby unhugged” campaign caused a 30% increase in sales for Huggies and an engagement rate 300% higher than industry benchmarks. The campaign’s end result proves the power of storytelling in developing a differentiation strategy. ### Differentiate or die! As the SaaS market continues to grow and products become more homogeneous, developing a differentiation strategy is a no-brainer for the growth of your SaaS business. Follow the tips in this article and create your competitive differentiation strategy. --- Like what you see? Why not sign up to a FoSaaS membership plan for all the exclusive. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How tech companies are using data to massively reduce their SaaS costs URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-tech-companies-are-using-data-to-massively-reduce-their-saas-costs/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:39:41.000Z When a SaaS company chooses a conservative business model, it’s often a surprise. Vendors that don’t seek big [funding](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-tips-for-building-an-early-stage-fundraising-deck/) rounds and instead opt for a bootstrapped, cashflow-positive option are notable by their exception. Supermetrics, Hotjar and Mailchimp are all credible examples of successful growth companies that didn’t go for significant raises, yet the reality is that the overwhelming majority of software vendors take on meaningful investment with the primary intention to grow. [Rapid growth](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-science-of-re-establishing-growth/) means expanding the topline as fast as possible. Even tempered growth will often mean a focus on revenue over EBITDA - competitive marketplaces often dictate that gaining market share quickly is more important than growing cautiously. So what happens when there is a tighter macroeconomic climate, or targets are missed two quarters in a row? Suddenly the bottom line becomes more of a focus. Financial leaders scan through costs to look for ways to extend runways and adjust forecasts. Sadly, that typically means making cuts to headcount. In the first six months of 2022 alone, over 500 startups [laid off more than 70,000 employees](https://layoffs.fyi) in the SaaS market . [Your guide to SaaS pricingIn our second hub page, we’re diving into Saas pricing. When it comes to knowing your value and boosting your revenue we got you covered.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/Your-guide-to-SaaS-pricing.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-guide-to-saas-pricing/) ## **Cutting costs without cutting people** A lot of the costs at startups are fixed. Cloud computing, office space and associated COGS are hard to touch - which is why employees are the obvious target for CFOs looking to reduce expenses. It may be painful, but it’s variable. An increasing number of SaaS companies are avoiding having to make staff redundancies by instead overhauling their software purchasing process. Most SaaS businesses rely heavily on SaaS themselves, using a wide variety of products to build, service, sell and scale their operations, regularly [creating a Frankenstack](https://www.vertice.one/inside-saas/have-you-built-a-frankenstack) of technologies. What tech firm could realistically support [digital-first growth](https://www.vertice.one/inside-saas/the-proliferation-of-saas-tools) without Slack, Zoom, M365, Salesforce, Hubspot or Workspace? These tools are appealing because they are flexible and agile, but the cost of SaaS can expand rapidly. The average tech company now spends around $4500 on SaaS per employee, which is around €1 in every €8 spent in total. Tackling this cost base offers an attractive opportunity to cut spend without cutting personnel. So why do so many companies struggle to do so? ## The challenge of managing SaaS It’s hard to [reduce SaaS costs.](https://www.vertice.one/inside-saas/saas-spend-optimization?utm%5Fcampaign=saas%5Ffutureof%5Fsponsorship&utm%5Fsource=blog&utm%5Fcontent=blog%5Fsaas%5Fopt) Really hard. That’s because so much of the buying process happens in the dark. Over [half of vendors obscure their pricing](https://www.vertice.one/inside-saas/why-is-it-so-hard-to-get-transparent-saas-pricing), so having a benchmark for list pricing becomes difficult. Encouraging prospective customers to speak with the sales team is a common technique, with the intention of the vendor to try and charge as much as possible on a customer-by-customer basis. Discounting is a widely-accepted practice in SaaS too. Some customers will pay €15 a license while others will pay just €0.50\. Getting transparency into what you *should* be paying is almost impossible. Ultimately SaaS vendors have designed their business models to maximize their revenue, of course, but the outcome is that customers are not empowered to manage their costs. There are additional issues further complicating SaaS purchasing. Shelfware and tool duplication are present everywhere - licenses that go unused and multiple products with similar functionality being deployed in different corners of the business. In order to effectively manage the overall costs of SaaS, it also requires universal visibility of the SaaS stack. This is almost impossible with siloed decision making, Shadow IT and dispersed buying power across finance, IT, department heads and procurement. [Identify your ICPs to build a successful pricing strategyIdentifying your ICP is an essential component of nailing down your pricing strategy. What price are your customers likely to accept? Is your use case going to be essential enough that it justifies the price for them?![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/meeting-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/identify-your-icps-to-build-a-successful-pricing-strategy/#stq=reduce%20costs&stp=1) ## How to get the right data to cut SaaS costs by 20% Reducing the total amount spent on SaaS by a third would amount to a net saving of 5-6% in most startups. That’s a significant financial lever to pull. Yet to be able to pull it, companies need to understand how their SaaS spend compares with others. While services and products are available to compare functionality, like Gartner or G2, the options for gathering intelligence on pricing is more fragmented. It’s not uncommon to have to crawl through forums and Reddit posts just to get insight into the discounting opportunity during a renewal. Asking peers and connecting with the wider startup network is another way to drive a more informed negotiation. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/Chart-1-.png) Ultimately, however, [getting the best possible price](https://www.vertice.one/i/optimizing-your-saas-purchasing) for dozens of different SaaS products can quickly become a full time job. New solutions have emerged to fill this gap in recent months, helping startups manage their SaaS costs in a sustainable way. [Vertice](https://www.vertice.one/l/saas-stack?utm%5Fcampaign=saas%5Ffutureof%5Fsponsorship&utm%5Fsource=sponsorship%5Fblog&utm%5Fcontent=lp%5Fsaas%5Fstack), for example, maintains a database of tens of thousands of vendor contracts. This allows its customers to benchmark real pricing data, comparing the *actual* buying price for thousands of products to the list price - a figure which is also often obscured. Knowing that a customer with a particular requirement at a particular scale is paying $5 rather than the list price of $10 can help a similar customer renegotiate their $9 renewal. It also helps to have awareness of the various traits of each vendor, such as auto renewals, price uplifts, economies of scale, bundling, term length, buying centers, time of year and more. ## Zero risk approach to cutting SaaS costs Combining pricing insights with a deep knowledge of the SaaS industry changes the balance in contract negotiations for customers, and helps startups save 20-40% on their total SaaS spend. Vertice even offers its customers a savings guarantee, meaning organizations will dramatically cut their SaaS costs or get their money back. --- *Want to boost your skills for maximum growth? Get segmentation certified[ here!](https://future-of-saas.teachable.com/p/segmentation-certified-masters)* ### Bring your own metrics: Growing through customer success URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/bring-your-own-metrics-driving-growth-through-customer-success/ Last updated: 2022-09-30T14:26:00.000Z *This article is based on a presentation given at SaaS Metrics Summit 2022\. Catch the full talk OnDemand [right here.](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics-summit-2/)* My name is Pablo Garcia Cano, and I'm a senior product marketing manager at Auctane. I'm thrilled to be here to share with you what I’ve learned about how to build and track the metrics that will bring the most value to your customers. To tell you a little bit about me, I'm from Mexico City, I’ve worked in marketing CPG brands, and I had my first taste of software as a service in 2015 when I co-founded a company focused on building last-mile logistics solutions. In 2016, I moved to the US to pursue a master's degree and transition fully into the technology sector. After that, I worked at Amazon for about two years, and for the past year and a half, I've been leading product marketing at Auctane. For those who have never heard of Auctane, our products help eCommerce businesses of all sizes with their mailing, shipping, and logistics needs. We bring order management software to companies ranging from individuals that ship out of their garage to Fortune 500 companies shipping from multiple warehouses worldwide. Before we dive in, here's a brief breakdown of our main talking points: - Product marketing 'aha' moments - How to identify your aha moment and get customers to reach it faster - Case study - To wrap up ## Product marketing 'aha' moments In case you’re new to product marketing, our function sits at the intersection of marketing, product, sales, and customer success. PMMs focus on who the product is for, the value the product provides for the customer, and helping customers get value from the product and achieve their jobs to be done. [![An infographic for product marketing](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/product-marketing-in-a-nutshell.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/bring-your-own-metrics-driving-growth-through-customer-success) A common misconception is that product marketing is about marketing physical products. In reality, product marketing is a combination of tactics and activities that drive the success of any product or service. We define this success in terms of aha moments. Regardless of where a customer is in their journey, as product marketers, we're always looking to create aha moments. We want to drive customer engagement and product adoption. We want to drive retention, we want to minimize churn, and we even want to bring in new revenue streams. The beauty of aha moments is that they can be unique and subjective, and they may occur at different stages of the customer lifecycle. Aha moments show how software can evoke an emotional reaction in its users, and they’re leading indicators of how a regular user becomes an engaged user and starts using your product constantly. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/aha-moment.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/bring-your-own-metrics-driving-growth-through-customer-success) Now, you might think that using quantitative indicators to measure and track occurrences of aha moments contradicts the very nature of these moments. However, quantitative indicators are the best-proven ways to utilize this concept and steer growth operations in the right direction. It's worth caring about the aha moment because of its impact on so many important metrics that affect the bottom line. Let's look at some companies and how they've defined their aha moments. In the beginning, Facebook defined their users’ aha moment as connecting with seven friends within the first 10 days. For Dropbox, it was about saving one file on one device. Twitter defined it as following 30 users and having one-third of them follow you back. For Slack, it was 2000 messages sent within a team or an organization. I could go on listing different companies and how they define their aha moments, but instead, let’s think about what all of these examples have in common. Each of these milestones represents a moment when customers are experiencing firsthand the value these products offer. A key thing to consider is that aha moments don't happen only once. They're a set of actions that separate customers who find value in your product from those who don't. Customers who find value will come back, and if you identify which actions separate retained power users from the ones that churn, you’ll know what drives customer value, and you’ll have found your product’s aha moment. ## How to identify your aha moment and get customers to reach it faster Whichever company you work for, you probably know your product’s value so well that you can recite it by heart. But can you recognize your product's value from the user's perspective? That's key. Let’s look at the four steps you can take to identify that aha moment and get your customers there faster. ### #1: Talk to your power users The first one is a no-brainer. You need to go out and talk to the customers who use your product constantly and have been doing so for a while. It’s super important to ask them very simple questions. Here are a few examples to get you started: - How do you use our product? - Are there features you use all the time? - Are there any features you never use? - What do you love the most about our product? - What made you decide you wanted to pay for the product? It's important to look at their answers closely because they will help you reveal what a successful user experience with your product looks like, bringing you closer to identifying that aha moment. ### #2: Talk to your churned users Now the next step is to talk with your churned users. The goal here is to understand why they didn’t stick with you. Usually, it's because they didn’t receive the value they expected from your product. Here are a few questions you might ask: - What outcome were you hoping to get out of the product? - Were you able to experience that outcome in the product? - Why was our product not the right solution? - What could we have done differently to keep you around? There's a wide array of answers you can get from churned users. Some might still be evaluating whether or not to convert. Sometimes your product is not a fit. Sometimes you’ll learn that your product is too complex, or maybe it’s too expensive. Sometimes you could be missing a product feature or key integration. And sometimes they’ve just gone with another solution or competitor. ### #3: Dive deep into data I can't stress the importance of this enough. You need to dive deep into your data, identify the patterns, and look at your customers’ value metrics. The goal of a free trial is not simply to engage new users; it’s to help new users to consistently get value from your product so they ultimately start paying for it. To make this data dive deep easier, I suggest writing down what someone has to do to get value from your product. Next, create a short list of all your value metrics and then another list of all the features within your product. You need to consider the behaviors of both your best customers and your churned customers. Doing this will help you identify successful user journeys. There's a five-step process to follow. 1. Make a list of your most successful customers and analyze what features they used early on, which features they continued to use, and which ones they stopped using. 2. Identify the behaviors that best correlate with continuing to use your product for an extended period of time. 3. Answer these questions about your most successful users: - How does this data differ from what customers said in interviews? - Are my onboarding steps aligned with what power users do with my product? - Is there only one path to becoming a power user, or are there several? 4\. Answer these questions about your churned users: - What did they try to do? - Where did they get stuck? - What features did they try? 5\. Identify moments of friction in your churned users’ journeys. Perhaps a certain feature didn’t work. Maybe there was a time lag, and it took too long to complete what should have been a very simple task. It’s usually these moments of friction that separate retained users from churned users. ### #4: Experiment At this point, you should have a pretty good idea of the actions users can take in your product that help them realize its value, as well as the moments of friction that cause your users to churn. Now it’s time to create a shortlist of actions and behaviors to test so you can validate your hypotheses. It's important to create an experiment log. This is a great way to track your experiments and their results and hone in on the metrics you want to improve. You should also prioritize experiments based on the metric or objective you want to track. As tempting as it can be to test all your hypotheses at once, I’d recommend that you only run one experiment at a time. Doing too many experiments at once will leave you guessing about what’s moving the needle for your organization. There are so many possibilities for your experiments. You might want to test the effect of using a specific set of features or having new users use the product several times within the first week. Maybe you want to try showing users an onboarding video before they dive into the product. That's up to you. It’s also up to you to find and minimize friction points so customers can get the maximum value out of your product. Analyzing how your product is used is vital in discerning your aha moment. It will help you understand what people are doing with the product, how they engage with it, and hopefully what value they get from the product that makes them want to keep using it. ## Case study I’d like to run through the aha moment framework with a case study from an Auctane brand called ShipStation. I'll start by telling you a little bit about what ShipStation does and the value proposition that we saw in ShipStation as product managers. ShipStation is a SaaS shipping platform that allows eCommerce merchants to manage all their small parcel and LTL shipping needs in one place. It also offers customer experience tools such as branded tracking pages and branded returns, among other value-added services. ECommerce merchants might be selling their products on multiple platforms and using several shipping carriers. ShipStation works like a hub, allowing merchants to manage all their orders from every platform and carrier in one place. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/example-of-retention-1.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/bring-your-own-metrics-driving-growth-through-customer-success) A lot of our customers were getting value from our product, but a larger proportion than we would like were churning. We looked at the customers who had graduated from a free trial and what their retention looked like months after they converted to paid users. We soon learned that if a merchant uses ShipStation for over three months, they will most likely stick with us for the long term. We set out to solve for the 20-something percent of merchants who were leaving too soon. We wanted to know why, despite the free trial, these customers weren’t experiencing the value that ShipStation had to offer. Our goal was to solve this and get them to stay. ### Our value proposition We understood our value proposition, but what was less clear was exactly how and when ShipStation positively impacts eCommerce merchants' experience. We decided to take a step back and look at the value chain from our customers' perspective. Let's run through it real quick. First, merchants create listings for their products on their eCommerce store or marketplace, and then customers see the products and place an order. Merchants then receive the order, process it, and pick and pack it from their warehouse. They then weigh the package, print and attach a shipping label, and ship it with their preferred carrier. Merchants then share the tracking data and ETA with their customers. Lastly, customers receive their orders and are delighted. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/ecommerce-value-chain.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/bring-your-own-metrics-driving-growth-through-customer-success) Looking at this value chain, we wanted to see where ShipStation comes in and provides value for eCommerce merchants. There are several points where this happens. At checkout, we offer merchants the ability to display real-time shipping costs to their customers. We’re the go-to software to help them run their warehouse. We also allow merchants to build branded tracking pages to share with their customers and drive traffic back into their stores. We took a step back and asked ourselves what merchants want from our product. They want to save time processing orders in their warehouse. They want to save money on shipping labels using pre-negotiated rates. And lastly, they want to drive engagement with their customers, drive traffic back to their stores, and sell more products. ## Our aha moment analysis Next, we followed the aha moment identification framework. First, we spoke with power users to learn what they love the most about our product, what features they use, and how they identify the value within our product. Then we spoke with our churned users, trying to understand why they left and what we could have done differently. Then we dove into the data. And this is the most important part: we analyzed every action down to the most minute detail. We performed a time-based analysis, tracking merchant behaviors over those crucial 90 days that determine whether they'll stick with us for the long term or leave. We were looking to learn when power users adopted certain features and how that differed from those users that churn. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/-aha-moment--identification.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/bring-your-own-metrics-driving-growth-through-customer-success) We followed that with statistical analysis measuring the correlation between retention and adoption of different features. We then did a regression analysis to uncover what combination of features drives higher retention, looking to create a recipe for retention based on our different user personas. Then we created merchant-focused metrics to answer the following questions for our users: - How much time am I saving? - How can I measure the performance of my warehouse? - How much money am I saving by shipping with you or using your software? - How do I compare with my competitors? Lastly, we created an experiment backlog, focusing on moving fast with low-effort high-impact experiments. We A/B tested the hell out of the experiments to get the best possible outcomes. Finally, as we validated our hypothesis, we set out to build the solutions into our product at scale. ### The experimental phase Let's look at some of these low-effort experiments. We started trying out different email templates with merchants, using and testing different merchant-focused metrics, for example, the time taken to print the label because eBay measures performance based on this metric. We also looked at the time it takes to ship a label because Shopify measures performance based on this. Then we tried out time to deliver – that's how Amazon measures performance. We also wanted to check money saved on shipments; that's super relevant to our sellers and was a key metric that we followed. We benchmarked merchants’ performance versus best practices, what the experts are doing, and how long it takes an expert to do a specific action. We also compared our users to merchants like them, merchants of their size who ship a similar number of orders in a similar category from the same number of warehouses. We showed our users how to adopt different features that would improve their operations. We wanted to empower our merchants to accomplish their most important value metrics: saving money and saving time. We tried out a bunch of different CTAs and landing pages answering questions like “How do I ship faster?” “How do I ship more cheaply?” “What integration should I use?” and “How do I engage better with my customers?” We aim to be the expert on eCommerce and empower sellers to focus on what they do best, which is growing their business and creating new products while leaving all the cumbersome logistics and shipping to us. We also iterated on designs countless times. We zoomed in on actions that caused our click-through rate to spike and drove higher feature adoption. On top of all that, we created YouTube tutorials and engaged with merchants in forums and our own community portal. Whichever way an eCommerce merchant wants to learn, we cater to that. The objective is to push our customers to experience an aha moment as fast as possible. ## To wrap up Using this aha moment framework, we've identified our recipe for retention for different user personas, and I'm happy to say that we're setting an aggressive but very achievable goal based on data-driven insights to reduce our churn rate in those first 90 days. Now it’s time for you to ask yourself, when do customers have an aha moment when using your product? ### SaaS Pricing URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-pricing/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:37:57.000Z When it comes to launching a SaaS product, most orgs are going to be focused on crucial factors such as strategy, app development, market research, etc. All of this is essential, of course, but it’s missing one equally important factor. That’s right. Pricing. Pricing can make or break your product. Price too low and you risk being crushed by resource costs and and low profit margins. Price too high and you risk stunting your growth by turning away potential customers. Getting it right is always a delicate balance between knowing your value and being mindful of revenue. Slip up and you can bring the whole thing down. But don’t worry, with these top SaaS pricing strategies, we got you covered! 💪 In this guide, we’ll be looking at the dos and don’ts for pricing strategy, as well as putting the different types of pricing models under the microscope, weighing up their pros and cons. Along with some handy insights, we've packed this guide full of blog entries from some of the leading minds in pricing strategy. Let's get started. [Pricing and packaging: how high-growth SaaS startups can crack the codeI’m going to break down the many pricing and packaging pitfalls into 10 common mistakes. I hope after reading, you’ll be able to spot these mistakes early, and this will help you to execute pricing and packaging with realistic goals that are deliverable.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSCindy Berman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/Pricing-and-packaging---how-high-growth-SaaS-startups-can-crack-the-code.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code/) ## Avoid friction: Offer a free trial When you're first launching your product, you may not have the capital to invest in a sales team to carry out contract negotiations. This doesn’t have to be a negative. When your product is new, word of mouth on your solution won’t have had time to circulate, so you’re going to be reliant on users trying out the product themselves. To start with, make it super simple: Cut out the product proposals, the negotiations and the proof of concept documents. Go with the free trial route, allow customers to experience the value of your product first-hand and increase the likelihood of turning users into buyers. [SaaS pricing and packaging strategies Q&A | Future of SaaSFind out about crucial pricing and packaging strategies with Cindy Berman of Productboard. Hit the market in style to add real value to your product.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1529119368496-2dfda6ec2804?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDJ8fHxlbnwwfHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-strategy-tips-productboard/) ## Consistency is key Obviously all SaaS orgs want to scale fast, and it might be tempting to price for maximum revenue. But the fact is, once you’ve established a brand reputation, your customers are going to have a certain idea about your product and its value. Although it can be reasonable to increase prices once you start to enter into new markets, it’s important to align your product with your established customer base. A sharp rise in prices can disrupt that established relationship between your customers and your org and can lead to customers comparing your solution with similar offerings in the market. Steady, consistent prices help to maintain a stable relationship. And the benefit of long-term customer retention can do wonders for your conversion rate. [How to raise the price of your productThere are some instances when it’s necessary to raise the price of your product. While it may seem like a risky tactic, there are ways in which you can introduce new pricing parameters without alienating customers and increasing churn rates.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/old-money-UqILKDhWiFw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-raise-the-price-of-your-product/#sts=Use%20introductory%20pricing) ## Always be transparent Okay, so this might seem obvious, but it’s surprisingly common for SaaS companies to keep their pricing pages in the background while keeping the landing page reserved for product benefits. Make your pricing clear, easily visible, and, above all else, unambiguous. When signing up with your org, your customers are potentially entering into a long-term relationship with your org. You know the old cliche about relationships: First impressions count. If an org seems to be shifty or underhanded about their pricing, it can make your org seem dishonest. In modern times, users care about the values of the orgs they engage with and value honesty. A fully transparent pricing strategy will go a long way. [Pricing and packaging \[Q&A with Toast\]Ashley Murphy, Toast’s Director of Market Insights and Pricing, shared her specialist insights, including her preferred pricing strategy, the role of product marketing in the pricing process, top tips, and much more.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/angele-kamp-_XlhZVsKykw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-and-packaging-q-a-with-toast/) ## Keep it simple, but offer choice. Developing add-ons and additional features can be exciting, sure, but don’t let it muddle your pricing strategy. Keep your pricing packages to a minimum and be clear about what the value of each package is. Something like this: **Free** **\-** Core set of features with a limited number of seats **Standard** – Core set of features with an increased number of seats. **Premium** – Unlimited seats, plus additional features and add-ons. **Professional** –Unlimited seats, plus advanced features. The right balance to strike here is one between clarity and choice. Your solution has to appear to offer plenty of potential beyond your basic offering without overwhelming the user. [5 Lessons I’ve learned when pricingPricing is the monetary proof of the organization’s understanding of its customers and its products. Good pricing leads to a healthy business: increased profits and sales, and (arguably) most importantly, generates engagement within the organization and with the customers.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSilvia Frucci![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/artem-beliaikin-kTd2PvtqE_o-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-lessons-i-have-learned-when-pricing/) ## Make entry cheaper The simple truth is that it's very difficult to know whether you’ve priced your product correctly until it’s out in the market. But there’s one simple fact that holds true: It’s better to price too cheaply to start with than too expensive. Your product is still an unknown quantity and you need to ensure that it can achieve its growth potential. Price your customers out of entry and it’s a total non-starter. Once users have found the value in your product, that’s when they’re going to be curious about upgrading to your premium plans. Once word of mouth has spread and your brand reputation has been established, that’s when you can make the argument for increasing entry-level fees. Pricing your entry-level package low can massively pay off in the long run. [Pricing your SaaS offeringMy name’s David Wadler, and I am Co-Founder and CEO of Vendorful. I’m also an investor in a variety of startups, almost all of which are SaaS businesses. In this article, I’m going to go through some ideas about how you can start to think about pricing SaaS.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSDavid Wadler![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/angele-kamp-_XlhZVsKykw-unsplash--2---1--2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-your-saas-offering/) ## Approach price increases with caution Although price increases may be reasonable, especially as your audience grows, they should always be handled delicately. The solution: be considerate to your customers. Build up to price increases, either through increasing in small increments, giving your customers ample warning about the incoming changes, or you can even allow temporary exceptions for long-standing loyal customers. If you allow for a brief period where customers pay the same fee that they've been paying up until the price change, you can allow them time for reorganizing their budget. Some services, such as streaming platforms, even have automated responses that are triggered whenever customers try to churn, offering them a discount on their current package. [Identify your ICPs to build a successful pricing strategyIdentifying your ICP is an essential component of nailing down your pricing strategy. What price are your customers likely to accept? Is your use case going to be essential enough that it justifies the price for them?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/meeting-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/identify-your-icps-to-build-a-successful-pricing-strategy/) ## Above all else, keep your eye on your customers Whichever route you decide to take here, it’s essential that you’re always mindful of your Ideal Customer Profile and gear your price changes accordingly. Are your customers likely to be able to budget for this? Do they spend enough time on your product to justify spending more? This can all be handled by keeping an ear close to the ground when it comes to your customer needs and desires. Even if your spreadsheets and numbers would seem to suggest that a price increase is in order, the decision should always be determined by what your users will accept, not what the numbers demand. ## SaaS pricing models Now that we’ve looked at some basic pricing dos and don’ts, let’s look closer at price tiering. Will it boost or hamper your scaling efforts? Let’s find out. 👇 [How to price a product and introduce discountsPricing is crucial to the success of any product. Here, we explain each strategy, how to calculate your selling price, and how to introduce discounts.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/markus-spiske-BTKF6G-O8fU-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-price-a-product-and-introduce-discounts/) ### Flat rate pricing As far as SaaS pricing models go, this is as bare bones as it gets. A single annual or monthly fee is offered for a single set of features. Although this type of model is becoming vanishingly rare in the ever-expanding world of SaaS, there are significant advantages to it. **Advantages** 1. **It’s super simple.** Friction can be a major barrier to customer conversion. And complexity can be a major cause of friction. Customers want to understand what you're offering and how much it costs as quickly as possible. Simplicity aids in this. 2. **It’s sellable.** The more complicated your offers are, the more complicated they are to sell. By keeping your offering to a minimum, it can be easier to focus all of your sales enablement prowess on getting the deal done. **Disadvantages** 1. **Lack of wriggle room.**If a customer seems reluctant to take you up on your offer, there’s no other offer that you can fall back on when trying to negotiate. 2. **Very narrow appeal.** A limited offering and inflexible price means that there are many demographics that your offering simply isn’t going to appeal to at all. One of the significant benefits of a SaaS model, in general, is that it allows customers to choose a package that suits their lifestyle. A flat rate denies you that advantage. [SaaS finance in a post-pandemic world: lessons from Covid-19The pandemic was a frightening time for SaaS finance. But for those looking for a silver lining, The Future of SaaS Festival has solutions!![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/towfiqu-barbhuiya-HNPrWOH2Z8U-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/panel-discussion-saas-finance-in-a-post-pandemic-world-lessons-from-covid-19/) ### Usage-based pricing Simply put, this charges users based on how often or little they use your service. Depending on what your use case is, this pricing model can charge users based on: How many features they request, how many posts you schedule, (if it’s a social media management platform) or how much data is being used. **Advantages** 1. **Less friction in signing up.** Since there are no upfront costs, there's no potential risk for users in signing up. If users don’t find any value in your product, they simply don’t have to use it, and they don’t incur any costs. 2. **Reduces heavy-user resources.**With this type of model, there’s no risk that unpaid users will take up your resource costs without compensating for them. Customers pay for what they use. Simple. **Disadvantages** 1. **Difficult to forecast revenue.** If pricing is entirely determined by usage, it’s extremely difficult to make predictions about your overall revenue. As a result of this, it can be very hard to know how to allocate resources and budget. 2. **Customer costs are a mystery.** SaaS orgs have to be able to forecast costs. The cost incurred by customer usage is particularly crucial because it gives you insight into whether the prospects you’re going after are costing you more than you’re gaining. But with a usage-based model, a profitable customer can become an unprofitable one in a relatively short space of time. [From self-serve to sales touch: lessons learned from moving up-marketIn this article, I’ll talk about why you should consider a move up-market to sell to larger companies, and the product, pricing, and positioning changes Proposify made during our own journey.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSKyle Racki![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/alessia-cocconi-zLIUdGeKxv0-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-self-serve-to-sales-touch-lessons-learned-from-moving-up-market/) ### Tiered pricing model This has become the standard model for SaaS orgs. It offers a variety of different user pricing options, ranging from a relatively affordable one with core features to a premium package with more advanced features. **Advantages** 1. **More chance of conversion.** The chances are that most of your users are not going to need your advanced features and are going to opt for the basic package. Although this may initially lead to you spending more in customer-related costs, the inevitable growth that this can lead to will eventually compensate for this and hopefully lead to an eventual increase in customers opting for higher priced options too. 2. **Broader demographic appeal.** Different packages suit different lifestyle needs and budgetary requirements. A tiered approach means that more customers can find a pricing package that fits in with their life. **Disadvantages** 1. **Appeal is too broad.** If your product offers too many features, you can risk obscuring a clear vision or value prop for your product. A more targeted approach can establish a more clear brand identity, which can go a long way. 2. **Potentially confusing.** If a user spends 10 minutes poring over your various offerings, they might be able to figure out the value of your product. The problem? No one is going to spend five, let alone 10 minutes, looking over your pricing offerings. If signing up takes too long, users are going to abandon your product and likely forget about it. [How to raise the price of your productThere are some instances when it’s necessary to raise the price of your product. While it may seem like a risky tactic, there are ways in which you can introduce new pricing parameters without alienating customers and increasing churn rates.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/old-money-UqILKDhWiFw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-raise-the-price-of-your-product/) ### Per user pricing In a nutshell, you pay a monthly or annual fee for a user on your team signing up, add another user and the price doubles, add another and it doubles, a third and it trebles, and so and so forth. Got that? Great. Let’s dig into the advantages and disadvantages. **Advantages** 1. **Scaling leads to revenue.** There is a direct correlation between the number of users signing up and your increasing revenue at the point of adoption. This means you don’t get ‘heavy use’ customers costing you more than you’re earning. And it’s relatively simple to forecast revenue. 2. **Simple for customers.** In comparison to usage-based pricing models, orgs are able to easily predict how much signing their teams up with you is going to cost. The barrier of uncertainty is toppled. **Disadvantages** 1. **Can potentially limit adoption.** It’s pretty much a no-brainer. Many orgs are going to hesitate at the prospect of signing up a team, if it means quadrupling their sign-up costs. 2. **Higher chance of churn.** This leads on from number one. If orgs are only going to sign up a limited number of their team members, it’s going to limit your relationship with that org and lead to a greater chance of churn. ### Freemium model Slack has found success with modern businesses in the freemium model. This is a model that is completely free to use with core functions, only charging for additional features. It’s typically limited by use-case. For example, you might be able to use it internally to manage your teams, but reaching out to customers might require a more premium package. **Advantages** 1. **Higher adoption rate.** The biggest problem Saas companies face is simply getting users to adopt their product. You can’t have paying customers if no one is willing to adopt your product. It really is that simple. 2. **Higher referral potential.** With a much higher potential for rapid growth comes a higher chance of referrals. Additionally, users can more easily sell their friends on a product that they can get a lot of use out of without having to spend a cent. **Disadvantages** 1. **Real risk to revenue.** Unless your growth is absolutely exponential, there’s a risk that customer acquisition costs are going to considerably eat into your revenue gain. Freemium models have to get big very fast to start compensating for these losses. 2. **Devalues your product.** If your product is solving a really unique, painful problem, you might be undervaluing it and risk harming your revenue potential. ## Final thoughts Whichever pricing model you decide to go with, what’s most important is that you find the one that matches the use case and value of your product. Pricing is not an afterthought, it’s an integral part of the overall SaaS puzzle and should be treated as such. --- *Like what you see? Why not check out another of our comprehensive guides right here.* 👇 [SaaS metricsIt goes without saying that Saas orgs want to grow and scale, right? Whether you’re a hot new startup, mid-growth, or a late-growth established brand, all SaaS orgs want their revenue to skyrocket.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2023/02/FoSaaS_Hub_meta_metrics.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics/) ### Identify your ICPs to build a successful pricing strategy URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/identify-your-icps-to-build-a-successful-pricing-strategy/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:40:01.000Z Identifying your ICP is an essential component of nailing down your pricing strategy. What price are your customers likely to accept? Is your use case going to be essential enough that it justifies the price for them? It's a tricky balancing act. To get to the bottom of this, we sat down with three experts from Smallpdf. In this article, they took us through their journey over the last year and how that's enabled them to understand their customers, build a product for them, market to them, and align their pricing strategy to reflect the value that they get from the product. But first, here's a breakdown of our main talking points: - Our roles at Smallpdf - Smallpdf’s humble beginnings - Identifying the most valuable customers - Quantitative and qualitative profiling - Understanding the opportunities and adjusting the strategy - Aligning acquisition and product - Identify pricing that aligns with customer value - Testing the new pricing and rolling it out ## Our roles at Smallpdf ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/smallpdf.png) **Dominik Hiller:** Hello, I’m Dominik, I’ve been working in Strategy and BizDev for Smallpdf for a bit less than a year, and I’ve been involved in the pricing study for quite some time. **Mike Pilawski:** I’m the Chief Product Officer. I've been with Smallpdf for the last 18 months. Prior to that, I worked in four other scale-ups, as a COO at Typeform and in similar roles to this one at companies like Leanplum, Vungle, and NativeX. **Júlia Fort:** Hi, I'm Júlia and I’m currently leading the UX research team here at Smallpdf. I've been here for about two years. ## Smallpdf’s humble beginnings **Mike Pilawski**: To give you a little bit of context for the strategy we’re going to outline, let me introduce the company to you and tell you about where we were when we embarked on this journey 18 months ago. Smallpdf was founded in 2014\. We have roughly 130 employees, and our headquarters are in Zurich, Switzerland. We also have growing offices in Barcelona and Belgrade. Our vision is to build simple yet powerful document solutions for people to do business better and to be the preferred document platform for a million-plus businesses by 2026\. We offer a wide range of tools for editing PDFs and business documents and creating e-signatures. We’ve been used by over a billion users to date, and every month between 55 and 60 million users come to our platform to edit documents. We have 300,000 paying subscribers, and roughly 50% of them are businesses. I’ll give you a little bit of context for the journey we’ve been on over the last year and a half. In February 2021, Smallpdf was a horizontal solution optimized for SEO, so there was no acquisition strategy and no focus on any specific customer segment. The target was anyone who needed to edit, convert, or organize a PDF or eSign a document. [Pricing your SaaS offeringMy name’s David Wadler, and I am Co-Founder and CEO of Vendorful. I’m also an investor in a variety of startups, almost all of which are SaaS businesses. In this article, I’m going to go through some ideas about how you can start to think about pricing SaaS.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSDavid Wadler![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/angele-kamp-_XlhZVsKykw-unsplash--2---1--2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-your-saas-offering/) We had roughly 40 million monthly active users and 250,000 subscribers at that time, including large chunks of customers who would never convert. They’d come back every month and use our tools for free, and they might have been doing that for years with no intention of converting. We had another group of customers who would sign up for short periods and then churn, usually when their project finished and they didn't need our tools anymore. We also had a very loyal group of customers that had been with us for years. We wanted to understand what separates those three groups, so we embarked on this journey from building a solution for everyone’s document needs, to a more customer-centric platform built for a specific group of customers that get the most value from us. We started by identifying and profiling our most valuable customers – Júlia will explain how shortly. Then it took us about six months to leverage those insights, and adjust our acquisition strategy and product accordingly. With that, we embarked on the final step of the journey, which was to adjust our pricing to fit the needs of our customers and reflect the value they get from our product. Dominik will tell you more about that later. ## Identifying the most valuable customers **Júlia Fort:** Let me walk you through the first steps towards customer centricity, and tell you how we identified and profiled our most valued customers throughout the whole journey. We used the ideal customer profile (ICP) framework. The ICP represents the kind of person or organization that brings your business the most value, while also getting the most value from your product or service. For us, that meant narrowing down our large user to a smaller group containing our ICPs. To make this happen, we defined some success criteria. We started by filtering out all of those customers who were not paying. We were looking for customers who brought our business the most value; therefore, we needed them to be paying. Later, we defined the metrics that would help us identify the customers who get the most value from our product. For that, we looked at satisfaction and engagement. To identify the most engaged customers, we focused on both LTV and frequency of use, looking for those customers who were using our product on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. ## Quantitative and qualitative profiling Once we’d identified our most valuable customers, we used quantitative and qualitative analysis to define our ideal customer profile. We first listed the characteristics that we needed to define those profiles. We wanted to know their demographics, firmographics, buying criteria, reasons to buy, jobs to be done with Smallpdf, needs around these jobs, NPS, and product satisfaction. So how did we gather all that data? Well, we track a lot of data on our customers, so much of the information we needed was already available. We also identified areas where we were lacking data and did historical data analysis, qualitative interviews, and surveys to fill those gaps. [SaaS Pricing & Best Practices During COVID-19 | Future of SaaSZuora, along with many other companies, has been studying the data and helping companies adapt as we begin to reboot to this new normal. PwC noted that objectives and goals are still similar, but how we act on them is going to be different.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/09/making-a-budget-tracking-finances.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-pricing-benchmarks/) Let me walk you through these last two. We did a set of roughly 12 interviews with a small group of customers containing our ICPs, where we learned about what made them buy our product, what they were trying to accomplish with Smallpdf, how they learned about Smallpdf, and how they were currently using it. With all that information from our interviews, we carefully crafted a survey that then was sent out to the larger ICP population. ## How to analyze the data When we’d collected and centralized all the data that we needed, we started on the analysis phase. We brought together a team of experts – UX researchers and data scientists – and looked for patterns among our best customers. We started grouping these users into different subgroups based on industry, company size, jobs to be done, and behaviors. We tried a lot of different combinations and groupings until we had narrowed it down to seven buyer personas and three hats. Our buyer personas are mostly defined by firmographics, i.e. industry and department. Our hats are based on psychographic and behavioral patterns. We were looking into what they were trying to accomplish with our product and their ultimate goals when working with Smallpdf. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/akimi.png) Let me give you a more concrete example. This is Akimi. She is our accountant buyer persona. At work, she has to wear multiple hats. She wears the legal hat when she’s signing contracts with vendors, she wears the content creator hat when she creates expense reports, and she wears the operations hat when she deals with documents on a more operational level. ## How to share your customer profiles internally Once we’d defined our profiles and our hats, ran a set of in-depth interviews with our users, inviting all employees to ask as many questions as they wanted and hear firsthand what users wanted to achieve with our product. We looked into motivations, the context in which they were using our product, needs around the product, and pain points. That helped us add that extra depth of information to our profiles. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/cards.png) Finally, we created some visual cards, which helped us build a storyline behind every one of these personas and hats. In these cards, we wanted to tell a story to make our ICPs more memorable, more human, and therefore more impactful. ## Understanding the opportunities and adjusting the strategy **Mike Pilawski:** We excitedly brought all these findings to our board, and our board's response was, “You have these customers and that’s great, but are there enough of them to build a sustainable large business? Is this segment good for us in terms of competitiveness? Can we actually reach them and sell to this segment? Can we build a big enough company to get to an IPO if we focus primarily on this segment?” ### Defining our TAM, SAM, and SOM To answer the board’s questions, we looked at three key metrics: 1. **Total addressable market (TAM)**: How much do customers who match our ideal customer profile spend on a service like ours? 2. **Serviceable available market (SAM):** How many customers are reachable for us? Many small and micro businesses are offline, so we might not be able to find them. Plus, since we rely mostly on Google Search, we’re limited by the number of people searching for our services. 3. **Serviceable obtainable market (SOM)**: These are customers we can win. These customers prefer products that have the same characteristics as our product – products that are easy to use, bundle a lot of editing tools together, and are online so you don't have to download the client. We used some traditional research methods that you’re probably familiar with, like top-down analysis and bottom-up analysis, but I want to share one particular hack that I find extremely useful in this situation. To find out many companies fit the profile you’re looking for, I find that the best source of data is LinkedIn. You can search for a lookalike audience of your customers or, even better, you can test your findings by filtering for the attributes you’ve defined for your ICPs, like company size, industry, job, and location. Then, to understand how many companies there are, rather than just people who work for those companies, the best hack is to target CEOs. There's usually just one CEO per company, so that will give you a pretty accurate number. This way, you can quickly understand how many businesses you have to turn into your customers and what kind of market share you need to get to reach your objectives. ### Acquisition economics The second question we had to do to answer was can we grow economically within this segment? The two most important metrics to look at here are how much you're spending to acquire these customers and how much value your company generates from every customer you acquire. For us, the customer acquisition cost boils down to two simple things. Firstly, there’s the cost of engaging customers in the channel. We don't do much paid advertising, so those costs come from creating SEO-optimized content. There’s also the cost of hosting a freemium service that our customers can use for free before they decide to convert, versus the conversion rate. One statistic I can share on this is that our ICPs convert at a rate 70% higher than the rest of our customers, so they’re much more economical for us in terms of customer acquisition. Then we looked at lifetime value. For us, lifetime value has three components: 1. **Retention value:** How long these customers stay with us. We’re a subscription-based SaaS service, so our income is determined by how many months or years customers pay for the service we provide. 2. **Expansion value:** We only have one plan at the moment, but we’ll soon be adding expansion opportunities, then we’ll start to take this into account. 3. **Virality value:** Our customers use us to share documents with others, collect feedback from their customers, and request signatures on contracts. These are three great ways for them to recommend our product to their partners, colleagues, and customers. The ICP segment we had identified outperformed every other segment by 30% or more in terms of the metrics above, so from a purely economic perspective, it became very clear that it's a good idea for the company to focus on these particular customers. ## Aligning acquisition and product We’d jumped one hurdle – we had buy-in from the board and the finance department. The next thing was to make sure that we could execute our plan. ### Using segmentation data to align acquisition and product If you want to build a product specifically for a customer group, you first need to know who those customers are. To find that out, we started with a simple onboarding survey, where we essentially asked our customers three questions and segmented them based on their answers. This provided us with good visibility into the demographics of our customers as well as which hat they’re wearing or what job they're coming to us to do. Onboarding surveys are great, but they create some friction, so the next big thing for us is to see whether we can use data activation platforms such as Clearbit or ZoomInfo to eliminate the need to ask customers those questions directly. The challenge for our service is that we are truly global. While the US is our largest market, we have an enormous number of customers from India, Indonesia, Vietnam, South America, and all across Europe. Platforms like ZoomInfo and Clearbit tend to be very US-centric with pretty good coverage in other English-speaking markets and some major European markets, so choosing a platform will definitely help with onboarding surveys, but it won’t solve all our problems. The next thing was to look for behavioral signals and specific keywords from customers that would allow us to better understand what hats they’re wearing and what industries they’re coming from. [20 metrics for SaaS marketersIn this article, we’ll be sharing 20 important metrics for SaaS marketing, ranging from acquisition metrics to monetization metrics. We’ll explain what each metric is, how they can be tracked, and most importantly, why they should be tracked.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSDean Millar![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/matthew-ball-TFE_-9eLmEs-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-metrics-for-saas-marketers/) Unfortunately, what we found is that our product is used in similar ways across multiple industries and functions, so we can’t understand whether someone's in real estate or education based on their behaviors. What we can do is look at the tools they’re using to understand which hats they are wearing at any point in time. If someone's wearing a legal hat, they tend to rely on eSign and tools that allow them to organize documents; content creators tend to merge and convert a lot of documents together; people wearing their operations hat tend to do much shorter jobs. It's not a perfect science, but it allows us to identify what potential sort of hats our users are wearing before even they go through the onboarding process and become our customers. ## Aligning acquisition and product processes Then we had to align our acquisition and product processes, which involves four key steps. First of all, you need to focus on channels that are dense with ICPs. This was controversial internally because we have channels that generate a lot of visitors to our website, so from a traffic perspective, they're very successful, but the majority of the people who use those channels are not our ICPs. That meant we had to refocus on some new keywords. The second step is to develop new channels that will help you acquire new customers that fit your ICP. Try to think about these particular customers. What do they do? Where are they? What are they searching for when they need a platform like yours? A good example of how we’re doing this is by creating templates for contracts and legal documents, so when people are starting their businesses and they need those kinds of templates, they’ll find them on our site, then use our products to turn those templates into actual documents, get them signed, and get their business up and running. The third step is optimizing product discovery. To do this, you need to run interviews and target the right people for a market study. Right now, we’re doing a large market study of users of similar services to ours, and using our ICP as a guideline for recruitment was critical. The final step is product validation. If you're doing any usability tests or asking for feedback, you want to make sure you’re asking the right people. Don't just recruit the people who are the easiest to recruit – they might not represent the audience you're hoping to satisfy. The final tip from what we've learned is that once you know that you have your ICPs (in our case, they constitute roughly 35% of our entire user base) it's a good idea to start tracking metrics separately for them. If the averages don’t show you the impact you’re hoping to see, you need to dig deeper to understand whether your ICPs are engaging with the things you're building and whether the impact is relevant for them. ## Identify pricing that aligns with customer value **Dominik Hiller:** Once we’d identified our ICPs and learned what they value, and we’d confirmed that the market is big and attractive enough for us, we started to look at this in the context of a potential pricing change, with the ultimate goal of aligning our pricing to customer value. ### Structuring questions We started with broad structuring questions such as “What problems are we solving for whom?” and “What alternatives, motivations, and frequencies come along with that?” Let me illustrate this with an example. Let’s say we have a berry store (niche, I know!). We want to know why people are buying those berries. Is Dave trying to live a healthier life and buying berries in an effort to start a new diet? If so, could we provide more value by repackaging our berries as smoothies? Or is our customer Joelle, the owner of the smoothie bar next door who buys these berries every day to make a living from the people trying to live a healthier life? Joelle doesn't care about the berries being a bit battered, but she wants large quantities and low prices. Or maybe our customer is grandma Mary, who gets them just once a year to bake her grandson's favorite birthday cake. She's looking for the sweetest, biggest, and prettiest raspberries, and she’s prepared to pay a premium for them. Dave, Joelle, and Grandma Mary all buy berries, but they all have very different motivations, alternatives, and frequencies for their purchases. Understanding that is key to packaging the right product. This is, to a large extent, what we already know from our ICPs. ## Studying price elasticity and analyzing customer data As well as understanding these motivations, we wanted to sharpen our picture a bit and enrich it with some more quantitative data. To this end, we ran a conjoint study to discover how much our customers and potential buyers value their various product features and how price sensitive they are. The users participating in the study would see up to 12 different screens showing a range of subscription options, and they had to decide which one they would buy. And this is specific to the conjoint study – they wouldn’t just decide which price they’d prefer but which complete solution would work best for them. We wanted to know which use cases they were interested in. Would they just want to assemble multiple documents to make them look professional before sending them out? Or are they more like the Akimi person, who we met earlier, who wears lots of different hats and wants to use every feature? What price would they choose and what combination of platforms do they prefer? Do they want to work on mobile only, or on desktop and mobile? This conjoint study allowed us to get a good understanding of how users value different features and how price sensitive they are and to connect this more accurately with our types of users and ICPs. We added some qualifying firmographic questions at the end of the survey, which allowed us to segment participants along with their usage context, persona, industry, company size, and so on. To run this study, we used a tool called Conjointly. The survey was sent to customers via email in multiple languages. We also added a prompt to our website that would ask users to fill out the survey. [Customer retention metrics and how to action themHow do successful SaaS organizations measure retention and what on earth do they with the results, I hear you cry? Well, we surveyed 100 SaaS pros to find out how they track, review and utilize retention and churn metrics, and here are the results.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/jakob-owens-CiUR8zISX60-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) We added more detail to the picture of our customers with an analysis of our actual customer base. That allowed us to observe real-life behaviors, rather than relying entirely on the survey. We recognized, for example, that some accounts share logins among several people. The good thing about that is that those shared accounts have very high retention rates, so we figured it might be worthwhile creating a package with these account-sharing users in mind. Armed with a more comprehensive picture of our users and their behaviors and preferences, we were ready to start creating pricing and packaging. ## Building proposals Building our packages, we’re aiming for two matrix goals: we'd like to increase average revenue per user and LTV, and we want to improve customer acquisition. Our hypothesis is that we’ll achieve the first goal if we manage to align user value more closely with pricing and introduce scalability to the pricing to let our customers start small and then expand with us. We also believe that providing multiple pricing tiers helps improve customer acquisition, so introducing choice should lead to higher conversion rates. With these hypotheses in mind, we built proposals that combine insights from our various studies and analysis and work particularly well for our ICPs. We now have a mixture of feature-based and usage-based proposals. The feature-based proposals should provide exactly the right features to the right customers, while the usage-based proposals are oriented around aspects such as storage space and account sharing. We believe that by fulfilling customer needs with these different proposals, we can increase overall product value, usage intensity, and, in the end, customer retention. Coming back to our ICPs, meet Charlene. Charlene is a content creator. She currently exclusively wears the content creator hat, meaning she puts together various documents, makes them look nice and professional, compresses them, and sends them off for feedback. Charlene doesn't need to do eSign or more powerful editing. Eventually, she might, and then she can convert to a different plan where she can wear the operations or legal hat, but for now she's fine with the tier we've put together for all the Charlenes out there. It provides exactly what she needs. ## Testing the new pricing and rolling it out **Mike Pilawski:** Testing pricing is difficult because it's really hard to go back once you’ve introduced a certain price. You can’t run an A/B test. You can’t have people see a certain price and then see another price a few days later after they clear their cookies. The approach that we’ve found to be most successful is to choose an isolated market that’s roughly representative of your most important markets. When I say isolated, I mean it has its own currency and you can limit payments to only that country, using the billing address or the IP address. This market also needs to be big enough to get to statistical significance fast. For us, since our biggest markets are North America and Europe, the UK is our ideal testing ground. Australia and New Zealand could also work, but we chose the UK for a very simple reason: it’s a big market. We have quite a lot of customers there, so we know that within a month or two we can learn whether our pricing model works the way we expected or not. So what do you test? For us, the most important thing is to understand the impact of pricing on conversion. We also want to see which plans people choose. Within the timeframe of the test, we can't measure LTV, but we can measure 30-day retention as a proxy. We can also measure what percentage of customers churn during the trial or after and indicate that the reason for churning was the price. ### Go-to-market There are several key considerations when you’re rolling out a new pricing model. The first is whether or not to grandfather your existing customers. Should you allow them to keep paying the same price for the platform, or should you take the Netflix route and raise prices for everyone? It depends on your goals. It’s also worth mentioning an element unique to SaaS, especially in companies like ours where more than 50% of customers are on monthly plans – you can use this as an opportunity for customers to switch to annual plans. This is a strategy I've used in the past. We offered existing customers the opportunity to move to an annual plan and keep paying the lower price for the coming 12 months. I can tell you from experience that these customers do not move back to a monthly plan afterwards. The second thing to consider is whether you’re going to move all the customers at the same time or start with specific segments, countries, and features. This allows you to see how customers react to the new pricing and adjust accordingly. [SaaS pricing and packaging strategies Q&A | Future of SaaSFind out about crucial pricing and packaging strategies with Cindy Berman of Productboard. Hit the market in style to add real value to your product.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1529119368496-2dfda6ec2804?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDJ8fHxlbnwwfHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-strategy-tips-productboard/) Another option is to roll out the new prices to a smaller sample. If you see that a lot of customers churn as a result, you can reduce that by offering them discounts for a period to smooth them into the new price. Finally, we can’t forget the importance of communication. No one likes to hear about price increases, but in my experience, there are two good moments to introduce higher prices. One is in a moment like this, where everything is going up, so people are to some extent desensitized. They understand that costs are increasing for companies, so their reaction tends to be less severe. Better still is to raise the prices when you're releasing a lot of new features. You're providing much more value to your customers and as a result, they’re willing to pay more. ### A quick recap That concludes our journey to customer-centricity and value-optimized pricing. It’s a six-stage process that’s gonna take us two years. It might be possible to do it faster, but changing the company culture and changing how you operate takes time. Let’s recap the six steps: 1.Identify your loyal customers. Use qualitative and quantitative analysis to understand your ICPs’ firmographics, demographics, psychographics, and jobs to be done. 2\. Understand the opportunity (is it big enough? Are you targeting a segment that offers you enough growth?) and adjust your strategy accordingly to focus on those customers. 3\. Align your acquisition marketing teams and product teams to those customers and ensure that as they're running discovery, validating products, and running marketing, they’re always clear on who they are trying to reach. 4\. Identify pricing that aligns with customer value. This is where you go back to your ICPs and learn how they value the different features and services you offer. 5\. Test the pricing. Studies are great, but they’re never 100% accurate. They’re more of a guiding force for you to understand what might work. Never roll out new pricing without testing it first. --- *Like what you see? Check out our exclusive content with a FoSaaS Membership plan.* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Marketing inside out: Put your team first URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/marketing-inside-out-put-your-team-first-2/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:40:17.000Z Think [marketing ](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing/)is all about your customers? According to Tim Parkin, marketing advisor to a portfolio of multimillion-dollar brands, you're thinking about it all wrong. Instead, you need to be looking inwards and focusing on marketing internally to get everyone engaged, motivated, and on brand. Ready to fly in the face of everything you've been told about marketing? Then read on, because Tim's ideas aren't as crazy as you might think. We cover: - ****[Tim’s background in marketing inside out](https://www.saasalliance.io/marketing-inside-out-put-your-team-first-2/#tim%E2%80%99s-background-in-marketing-inside-out)** - ****[Internal marketing in hybrid teams](https://www.saasalliance.io/marketing-inside-out-put-your-team-first-2/#internal-marketing-in-hybrid-teams)** - ****[Empowering marketing teams to think outside the box](https://www.saasalliance.io/marketing-inside-out-put-your-team-first-2/#empowering-marketing-teams-to-think-outside-the-box)** - ****[How to build a culture of experimentation](https://www.saasalliance.io/marketing-inside-out-put-your-team-first-2/#how-to-build-a-culture-of-experimentation)** - ****[Proving the value of internal marketing](https://www.saasalliance.io/marketing-inside-out-put-your-team-first-2/#proving-the-value-of-internal-marketing)** - ****[Getting C-suite buy-in for marketing inside out](https://www.saasalliance.io/marketing-inside-out-put-your-team-first-2/#getting-c-suite-buy-in-for-marketing-inside-out)** - ****[The golden rule of marketing inside out](https://www.saasalliance.io/marketing-inside-out-put-your-team-first-2/#the-golden-rule-of-marketing-inside-out)** ## **Tim’s background in marketing inside out** ****Hi Tim, thank you for joining us. We’re going to be talking about the importance of marketing internally and the ability to align the rest of the organization using marketing. We often think of marketing as being very external, but it's important internally as well. Whether you're in B2B or B2C, you need to be making sure your organization's aligned.** ****But before we get down to talking about that, maybe you can tell us a bit about yourself and why we're talking to you on this subject today?** Absolutely. I'm an advisor to marketing executives around the world, including at some billion-dollar brands you’ve probably heard of. I help them and their teams increase their revenue and their marketing results. I've seen a lot internally – good and bad – so we have a lot to talk about here. I'm fortunate enough to work with huge companies with massive marketing teams. When I first started out, I thought, “They know what to do. They have all the processes, and they're experienced and skilled at doing marketing.” Their problem, I thought, was that they just couldn't reach the customers or understand what they really wanted. Once I got inside these companies, I realized pretty quickly that it's not about the customers at all. [How to get the ultimate marketing team \[podcast\] | Future of SaaSWhat’s the ultimate SaaS marketing team? Jordi Capdevila, formerly of ForceManager, talks you through the steps you need to take to perfect your department.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/12/Jordi-Capdevila-podcast-with-SaaScast---The-Future-of-SaaS.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-ultimate-saas-marketing-team-podcast/) We have to ignore the customer. Forget about the customer because the real problem here is the internal fundamentals – the skills, the collaboration, the strategy. Internally, it’s a mess! And the bigger you are, the more of these problems reveal themselves, and the more intricate and tangled in politics and hierarchy they become. Whether you're a startup or an enterprise-level company, the team and how they operate is so important. And that's why I talk about “marketing inside out” – we need to focus on the inside first. If we can nail that, that's how we can best serve the customer and have the best result. ****What kinds of processes can be refined through inside-out marketing?** There are so many, including some fundamentals like project management. Most marketers are more creative, and they don't have that kind of project management skill set. We also often need to refine how we do marketing. Marketing, even inside of its own department, is pretty siloed. You have the paid channels over here, SEO over there, and PR over there. They don't work cohesively, so the strategic collaboration aspect needs work. Another thing I've found is that people think they know what’ll work. They see what our competitors do, and they think that if they copy that they’ll succeed, or they think they know the customer better than other people. [Perfecting your product-market fit \[Q&A with SocialBee\]There’s no doubt, product-market fit is the first rung on the ladder of success for any SaaS company, but how do you get it? How do you know when you have it? And who should be responsible for driving it? Ovi Negrean, Co-Founder and CEO at SocialBee answers all these questions and more.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/benjamin-zanatta-WbkfJ2TmSug-unsplash--2-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/perfecting-your-product-market-fit-q-a-with-socialbee/) The reality is that nobody knows what will work. I don't know what will work, despite being an advisor. You don't know what will work. Your agency doesn't know what will work. Your customers don't know what will work. That's what led me to realize that testing is fundamental to marketing and that we have to develop those skills internally. I call it test-driven marketing. We have to test our way to success because no one knows what will work. Internally, there's often this assumption that we've done the research, we have the experience, and we've been doing this as a company long enough. We have to throw that notion out because if there's one thing marketing does, it's change. ## **Internal marketing in hybrid teams** ****Definitely. Our entire marketing ecosystem has changed in the last couple of years. The way people live their lives has changed. The way we consume media has changed. The way people work has changed.** ****That also ties into the importance of inside-out marketing – if everyone's working remotely or in hybrid teams, you could have teams split across continents, so it's got to be hard to align people. Having a more formalized process for internal marketing must be important in the world we're living in at the moment.** Absolutely. It's so spot on that most companies are not used to the idea of working remotely, and they still don't accept the idea. I’ll often hear clients say, “No, we're not going to have remote employees – we're going back to the office.” That's a crazy idea. I've been working independently from home for 15 years now, but there are still big companies that don't accept that notion. On the flip side, some of my clients will have headquarters in one country and offices in other countries. That's a big challenge because there's communication happening in that home base that's hard to share outside. After all, you're not walking down the halls and having that conversation. You can easily forget to formalize that communication to share it out. [Personalize your B2B marketing with AIIn this article, we’re going to take a look at the different applications for AI in providing a personalized experience to your customers and why they would be beneficial to your relationship.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/Personalize-your-B2B-marketing-with-AI.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/personalize-your-b2b-marketing-with-ai/) There are a lot of intricacies to how we operate and collaborate as marketers, and that's where most of the waste in marketing is. We talk about wasted spend on ads that don't convert – that's half of it. The other half of marketing waste is inside – it's in your team. It's how your team is not operating efficiently and effectively together. That's a massive, massive waste. Fortunately, that’s something you have control over. ****We've talked a lot with previous guests about the importance of having independence in remote or hybrid settings. Still, being disconnected can make you less willing to experiment and be adventurous with your ideas because you don't have a support network backing you up.** ****You can't just go to your boss and say, “Let's try this out.” You have to go through quite a few formal steps before you can have a face-to-face meeting to get the go-ahead.** ****Inside-out marketing and test-driven marketing have got to be quite intrinsically linked to an atmosphere where people are willing to take risks, and that's essential for marketing.** 100%. When I first started out, I thought culture was just a buzzword, or that culture is just what happens if people are nice to each other and you enjoy hanging out with them. I’ve since learned that the opposite could not be more true. You can create a culture, and the culture you create, whether you do it intentionally or accidentally, is a real thing that impacts the whole team, your performance, and your results. We need to create a culture where we reward testing because the reality of testing is that it's not about getting it right; it's about learning something. Testing is not about the results and the outcome; it's about the insights that you get. If we can create a culture where people are willing to try things and fail, that's a net positive. Marketing is about figuring things out. It's about learning what works and what doesn't, how people respond, and how they won't. That's a capability that most marketing teams lack. They lack the ability to generate powerful and useful insights. It's a huge problem, and it costs companies millions and millions of dollars a year. They're “doing marketing,” but it's not effective because they have no insights, and they've never looked internally to develop those capabilities and ask, “What are we really doing, and how do we do it better?” We need to pause and reflect before we keep running faster and faster, with no reason or direction. ## **Empowering marketing teams to think outside the box** ****There's the old piece of wisdom that you learn more from your failures than you do from your successes. But you can't do that in the working world easily.** ****It's a hard thing to get people behind because it can cost money to make these mistakes. Even if having this knowledge pays off in the long run, you still have to get the buy-in initially, and then you might lose trust if it's a failure.** ****That’s another part of marketing internally – marketing the need to take these chances. CMOs have to work with the rest of the C-suite, particularly the CFO, to get buy-in on projects. You've got to market to them why you need to run these experiments and take these chances.** Yeah, and this is the reason the CMO tenure is so short – because marketing is seen as an add-on to a company. There’s a tendency to think, “We're a company; we sell something; we have a sales team – let's add on marketing and hope that it helps us and support sales.” That's a terrible approach. Marketing is not something you do; marketing is who you are as a company. Look at Apple – they embody marketing. Everything they do is marketing. They're not selling products – you buy their products because their marketing is so good. That's what we need to learn. We look at Apple and think they're cool and hip, and they are, but we forget the brilliance of their marketing. Steve Jobs laid the foundation for the whole company, but they're brilliant marketers. When companies tack on a marketing function and then hire a CMO and say, “You better figure it out,” that's not sufficient. Marketing being seen as the core of the company needs to start at the top. In companies that are driven by marketing, it's apparent. You can see it clearly because they're so successful as a result. I’m gonna tell you one of my favorite marketing stories. My mom had a dog – his name was Buddy – who was very old and had been through surgeries. She’d ordered some special dog food for him from this well-known pet company called Chewy. [Which channels should you focus on for ABM?You’ve identified target accounts and created tailored content. But how do you deliver it effectively to your target ABM audience?![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1501626438835-4be53d940ff8?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDI3fHxjaGFubmVsfGVufDB8fHx8MTY0NDM0MDE3NA&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/which-channels-should-you-focus-on-for-abm/) Right after she got the food, Buddy, unfortunately, passed away. And so she wrote to Chewy and said, “I got this dog food I can't use. Will you take it back and give me a refund?” They immediately refunded her, and they said, “We don't want the food back. Donate it to a shelter – they need it more than we do.” Amazing, right? But then a couple of days later, she gets a knock on the door, and 1-800-Flowers had come and dropped off a bouquet from Chewy, with a note that said, “Hi, Marge. We're sorry to hear about Buddy. Hope you're doing okay.” She's told everyone. I've told everyone. You can’t beat that kind of marketing. And what’s wonderful is Chewy does this with every type of situation you can imagine. That's how companies and CMOs need to think, but that type of marketing is only possible if you can sell it internally because what's the ROI of that? It's infinite, but it's also immeasurable. What we have to realize is that there's a case to be made internally that marketing is about treating people the way we want to be treated as a customer. If we can believe that, and if we can accept that culturally, then we'll have huge success. There's too much focus on marketing delivering an ROI, but we have to accept that you can't always calculate that. Internally, there's a huge sales conversation to have about what marketing truly is and how we want to embrace it. Leadership is key here. You have to demonstrate how this is possible, and you have to help your team be creative with this as well. Another great example is TripAdvisor. The CEO created what he called “404 tests.” They would come up with an idea for a product or a page for the website, and they would put a link on their website to that page or that feature, but they wouldn't build it. So people come to the site and click the link, and it says, “404 not found.” They’d realized that when people saw that error message, they thought it was their internet or their computer; they didn't blame TripAdvisor. But TripAdvisor could see how many people clicked this link, and if enough people clicked it, they would say, “Aha! This is a good idea. Let's go and build the thing now.” And it cost them nothing. [Are remote CMOs the future?Liam Martin, CMO and Co-Founder of Time Doctor, discusses the future of remote working, what it means to CMOs, and what they need to build a successful remote marketing team.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/simon-abrams-k_T9Zj3SE8k-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/are-remote-cmos-the-future/) You can get creative like that as long as you can get the buy-in internally. You need your leadership to say they’re okay with this temporary discomfort to get a better result, save money, and learn something. There are a lot of ways we can experiment with things, but we also need to change the culture and the perspective of what marketing is in order to be successful. It’s about equipping the team to be creative and to try things that are unconventional or against best practices, or that simply might not work. If we just operate like robots – “You go do the SEO, and you run the ads, and let's just hope everything works” – that's not sufficient. We're focusing on the customer, sure, but we can't serve the customer well until we're serving ourselves correctly. On the plane, they say if the oxygen masks pop down, put yours on first before you help somebody else. The reason for that is, if you don't, you'll pass out, and then you can't help anybody else. This is how marketing teams need to think – we need to help ourselves, build our skills, and get our ducks in a row before we can serve the customer. We're too focused on serving the customer first and putting ourselves last, and that's hindering our ability to truly serve our customers, make a difference, and fight the competition that's out there. Companies like Chewy, who are building internal capabilities and then putting the customer at the center, are doing an exceptional job, but if you try to do the opposite, you're going to struggle. ****Employee retention is important in that as well. If your employees are happy and empowered, they're going to stick around, and they're going to keep doing good work.** ****If they're not able to put their skills to good use, they're gonna get bored, they're gonna be unhappy with their work, and they’re gonna take their skills elsewhere.** ****By building a positive culture and supporting your team through internal marketing, you're going to get better work out of them, would you agree?** That's a brilliant point. It's funny that you mentioned that because I do a lot of assessments of marketing teams to figure out their problems and how can they improve. As part of that, I interview many people on the team. Because I'm an outsider, they implicitly trust me and they tell me a lot of things they wouldn't tell their boss or colleagues. [B2B marketing events strategies: before, during, and afterB2B events are paramount for networking, generating high-quality leads, increasing brand awareness, and reaching a large target audience. The majority of event marketers believe events are the most effective marketing channel over emails, content, and digital marketing.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/terren-hurst-blgOFmPIlr0-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/b2b-marketing-events-strategies-before-during-and-after/) Just this morning, I was talking to a member of a marketing team at a global company, and they were expressing to me exactly that – their frustration that they see the needs internally, they have the vision, and they've expressed several opportunities for improvement, but nobody’s listening because they’re a newbie. That person might be a flight risk. There are so many disadvantages when people’s talent is not fully utilized. We need to embrace our team’s skills. They’re smart people – that's why we hired them, right? We have to get out of the way and help them work together effectively because there's a lot of frustration among marketing teams in particular about the inefficiencies of how we work, what they can say and can't say, and how they can collaborate. This is why we need marketing inside out more than ever. It's so important, especially right now with the great resignation, with people leaving and competitors poaching your employees. It's expensive to get new people, and then there's a whole timeframe to onboard someone new, get them acclimated to the team, to just have the same issues. So we need to, again, pause, look internally, and fix these issues. ## **How to build a culture of experimentation** ****We've talked a lot about why it's a big advantage to market internally and encourage this culture of experimentation. What are some practical steps that CMOs and marketing leaders can take to create this kind of atmosphere?** There are two really practical steps you can take immediately today that I'd recommend. The first is to just be real with your team. I see this all the time with marketing teams – everyone knows when there are problems or when there are opportunities to improve. And there's room to improve in every marketing team, no matter how big you are, or how well you're doing. So the first step is to have a conversation with your team. Have a town hall meeting and say, “Here's the situation. We're sure there are issues, and we want to know what they are.” And you can have people submit those anonymously or however you want to do it. [Value propositions that sellI want to talk about value propositions because I think most out there suck, they really do. I’ll share a case study from my own experience crafting a differentiated value proposition at my organization, taking you through how we approached it step by step.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAbdul Rastagar![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/photo-1583320975624-d099f8c042f6.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) Let your team know that the company wants to improve, you want to constantly be doing better, and you’re gonna take that seriously, so you need those ideas for improvement. But more importantly, make this a regular thing. I recommend my clients do this every month, or at least every quarter. Have a day, even if it's two hours on that day, where you get together or you work individually to find ways to improve your processes, your process documentation, your collaboration, and your communication. Those internal fundamentals will help you tremendously, but we never take the time to work on them. That's the first thing. The second thing is what I call the book of knowledge. It's basically an internal wiki, a document, that houses everything about your marketing team. It starts with the basics of who's on the team and what they do. If you have a responsibility matrix, that can be helpful too. Then you list all of your processes, so a new person could go in there and reference that. You put all your onboarding documents and links in there too, as well as your vendors, your tracking and targeting lists, and links to reports and dashboards. I could go on and on, but you get the picture – anything and everything related to how you do marketing goes into this book of knowledge. Most importantly, you want to include your reports, updates, changes, and campaign performance. You want to be able to see what's worked, what hasn't worked, what we can do differently going forward, and how we can improve our operations and optimization – the two areas that really matter – to get better results from the marketing we're doing. [How to monitor competitive activityIn this article, we walk through how to monitor competitive activity and turn that intelligence into an actionable product marketing strategy.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmily Dumas![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/gr-stocks-Iq9SaJezkOE-unsplash--1--1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-monitor-competitive-activity/) That book of knowledge grows and grows over time to become a truly valuable resource that people can reference and see what’s already been tried and what hasn’t been tried yet. And have an idea log to show what we need to do in the future. It becomes an invaluable resource, as your team keeps adding to it and maintaining it. As a marketing team, there are so many demands on us that we forget the great ideas that we have. We’ll figure out a change we need to make and then get distracted by something else. Having that documented is so important and so valuable. As the team comes up with insights, they can add them to this book of knowledge, then the rest of the team can apply those insights and scale them throughout all of your marketing, so whatever little thing you learn can be amplified and multiplied. It makes everything so much better. ## **Proving the value of internal marketing** ****Marketing inside out has the word “marketing’ in it and that means it's gotta be measured – you've got to have some KPIs. So how do we measure internal marketing?** That's a great question and a fair question too. I'm a huge fan of [the OKR framework](https://www.cmoalliance.com/are-you-ok-with-okrs/) – objectives and key results – that's used by Google and IBM. OKRs are just so simple and so effective. Essentially, for those who don't know, OKRs are objectives and key results. The objective is your direction or where you want to be. The key results are the measurable components of that. If we achieve those key results, we'll know we're headed toward our objective. [How is email marketing important to improving customer retention?Despite the rising competition from social media, email marketing continues to be one of the most effective tools for B2B marketing. It’s great for product awareness and generating new leads, but also for boosting customer retention.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/brett-jordan-LPZy4da9aRo-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-is-email-marketing-important-to-improving-customer-retention/) One of the benefits of OKRs is that they’re hierarchical, so you can have marketing organization OKRs, those can be broken down into individual functions on the marketing team, and then those can be broken down into the individual roles within that function. That way, you have full accountability from the top to the bottom of the team.That's, to me, one of the simplest, most effective ways to monitor, measure, and manage the performance improvement of the team. A lot of those OKRs will be centered around the things we talked about, like communication, collaboration, project management, and things of the like. ****One of the great things about the OKR model, which ties into what we're talking about today, is the transparency. Everyone in the company knows about these OKRs, and they know who's working towards what and why.** ****That ties into internal marketing because it’s part of building a working culture. It's quite hard for people to feel like they're aligned and working towards the same goal when they're in remote or hybrid situations, so having the kind of Northstar that OKRs provide can be very valuable for any kind of organization**. That's true. There's this acronym I have, and it's kind of cheesy, but I'll tell you anyways: TEAM. It stands for transparency, expectations, accountability, and metrics. Those are four of the things that every team needs. Transparency is paramount. We have to see what each other is doing. Also, we have to make that visible outside of marketing so other functions know how we’re contributing. OKRs help bring that transparency and that visibility. The second part is expectations. When we collaborate internally, we have to be clear about our expectations. [Structuring an agile marketing team for successTrying to move your team into agile marketing but worried that you need to retrain everyone? Or completely flatten your department’s structure? Or lay off half of your team? Don’t panic! There’s no need for layoffs or completely changing your department’s structure.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSRebecca Stewart![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/pascal-swier-7de474KZIbs-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/structuring-an-agile-marketing-team-for-success/) It's not just “Hey, go and do this.” We need to be clear about how it should be done and why we're doing it. Too often – especially in marketing because it’s more creative – there's a lack of expectations. It's just, “We're going to do this thing – who knows how or why – but let's just try it and hope something comes of it.” The third part is accountability. Again, being creative, in my experience, a lot of marketers need more accountability. Thankfully, there are a lot of ways to instill that. And the fourth part is metrics – high-level OKRs to manage people and processes. Functionally, however, there's often a lack of understanding of what numbers we should be looking at, what they mean, and how often we are looking at them. ## **Getting C-suite buy-in for marketing inside out** ****Lots of CMOs and marketing leaders will be thinking, “This all sounds great. I want to do this, but how am I going to get buy-in from the top? How am I going to convince them to invest time and resources into it?” How would you recommend they go about it?** In my experience, it's a lot easier than you may think. Everyone realizes the amount of waste and struggle that can happen in marketing teams, even in large companies. On top of that, marketing teams are traditionally underfunded. It's a question of how you can do the most with the least, and that's a tough place to be in. You can't get more money to spend more money, and so it comes down to the people and resources you have, and you have to maximize those. Marketing inside out is the most effective way to do that. All you can do is improve how you operate and the efficiency with which you operate. Both components are so important – improving your team, your collaboration, and your processes, and improving how you do what you do. The other element is test-driven marketing. If you can test and validate things like TripAdvisor has, you can expedite the process. You can get the insights that you need to do great marketing and have the biggest result with the least effort and the least investment. [Further together - building a diverse marketing teamMaya Grossman, VP of Marketing at Canvas shared her views on the value of diverse teams, her hiring best practices to get it right, how to go about getting stakeholder buy-in, and more.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/helena-lopes-PGnqT0rXWLs-unsplash--2---1--2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/further-together-building-a-diverse-marketing-team/) Thinking about it conceptually like that is often enough of a case for CEOs or whoever you’re trying to get buy-in from. They probably already realize it if the team doesn't have the right skills or is being stretched too thin and we need to make the most of it. And so the question becomes, what's the best way to do that, that's not going to cost us a lot and will have an annualized return? The last part is the most important – if you improve your team, you can improve all of your marketing now and in the future. There's this infamous, perhaps made-up conversation between a CEO and a CFO, where the CEO says, “What if we invest in our people and they leave? And the CMO says, “What if we don't and they stay?” That's the reality of marketing inside out – we have to invest in our people and we have to invest in our process. If we don't, every day that goes by, every dollar that we spend on marketing has more and more waste. If you're not willing to invest in your people, then how are you willing to invest in your customers? It's a paradox that we're willing to put money into getting customers, but we neglect the people who are doing the work. The team has to come first and then the customer. That's the only way to approach this. If you ignore your team and hope you can reach customers and sell things, you're mistaken. ## **The golden rule of marketing inside out** ****We normally ask our guests to wrap things up with a golden rule, but you've hit the nail on the head there – if you're not investing in your team, you're not properly investing in your company, and you're not investing in your customer. Are there any other golden rules CMOs need to have in mind when it comes to marketing inside out?** Absolutely. Forget about your customers. There's too much focus on customers and not enough focus on teams. Marketing, despite being creative in nature, is more of a process than most people realize, and that is more true today than ever before. There's too much noise out there. We have to approach this methodically, and to do that we have to put our oxygen masks on first before we can go and help our customers. That's not selfish. It’s how we can better serve our customers. It's how we can reach more customers so we can be more profitable and have the best results, so it's really important that we stop, pause, reflect, and look inside before we look outside. --- *Like what you see? Check out our exclusive insights with a FoSaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Build trust and boost sales through smart security compliance URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/build-trust-boost-sales-through-smart-security-compliance/ Last updated: 2022-09-16T11:01:56.000Z *This article is based on a presentation given at Future of SaaS Festival 2022\. Catch the full talk OnDemand [right here](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-3/)*. At some point, every startup understands that it needs to get security compliant, whether that’s with SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, CCPA, or CMMC – the frameworks are countless. I’ll be discussing best practices as you go through this process, trends, and what compliance is going to look like in the future. The advice I’m going to give will be especially useful if you’ve already built your platform, if you’re selling it already, or if you’re at the seed stage or looking towards series A or series B funding. Our main talking points include: - Does compliance = security? - Why do companies need compliance? - The main challenges in security? - Trends in compliance - The future of compliance _This post is for subscribers only._ ### Enabling women to become the best leaders they can be URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/enabling-women-to-become-the-best-leaders-they-can-be/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:40:35.000Z *This article is based on a discussion that took place at The Women in SaaS Summit 2022\. Get the full unedited discussion OnDemand [right here](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-2/).* In the grand finale of our women in SaaS series, we arrive at the core mission statement of this saga: Enabling women to become the best leaders they can be! If you’ve been hanging with us over the last couple of weeks, you’ll know we’ve covered the following: [Mentorship and career progression](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-mentorship/), [taking risks](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-taking-risks-for-career-progression/) and [parental leave.](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-advocating-for-parental-leave/) These are all small but crucial pieces in the overall puzzle of enabling women to succeed and strive in SaaS. And who better to lead this final discussion than Tanya Strauss, Director of Customer Success at Druva. She was joined by Cherry Manrao Rangnekar, Former Vice President of Developer Relations & Community at Docusign, Jessie Miño, Customer Success Manager at Robin and Alexandra Monks, Senior Product Manager at Wayfair. Key talking points include: - [Our panelists](https://www.saasalliance.io/enabling-women-to-become-the-best-leaders-they-can-be/#introducing-our-panelists) - [What makes women great leaders](https://www.saasalliance.io/enabling-women-to-become-the-best-leaders-they-can-be/#what-makes-women-great-leaders) - [Being a great mentor](https://www.saasalliance.io/enabling-women-to-become-the-best-leaders-they-can-be/#being-a-great-mentor) - [Finding a mentor](https://www.saasalliance.io/enabling-women-to-become-the-best-leaders-they-can-be/#finding-a-mentor) - [Supporting other women to achieve](https://www.saasalliance.io/enabling-women-to-become-the-best-leaders-they-can-be/#supporting-other-women-to-achieve) - [The benefits of having a diverse workforce](https://www.saasalliance.io/enabling-women-to-become-the-best-leaders-they-can-be/#the-benefits-of-having-a-diverse-workforce) ## Introducing our panelists **Tanya Strauss:** Hey, everyone. So nice to be here with you today. I'm Tanya Strauss from Druva. Let’s start with a couple of intros. **Jessie Miño:** Thanks, Tanya. My name is Jessie Miño and I’m a Customer Success Manager for Robin. Robin is the industry-leading flexible workplace platform for connecting people with rooms, desks, and each other for a more collaborative experience. Something that’s always attracted me to leadership is the ability to help others. Being in a position where I can truly elevate teams and extend that reach to the entire organization has always been a motivator for me. **Cherry Manrao** **Rangnekar:** My name is Cherry Manrao Rangnekar. I'm the Vice President of Developer Relations and Partner Business at Docusign. For those of you who are not familiar, DocuSign is a digital agreement platform. Anyone who's purchased a home probably signed their purchase agreement and subsequent documents using our eSignature product. I've been at DocuSign for approaching nine years. I'm just really passionate about empowering female leaders, so I'm excited to be chatting with you all today on this topic. My leadership path has not been a linear one – I've hopped around a variety of roles. I started as a data engineer running SQL queries, then I moved to an analyst position. I’ve worked in marketing strategy and run an eCommerce. I wasn't on a specific leadership path – I kind of fell into it. But since being here, I’ve been fascinated by the psychology of leadership and how to influence and lead an organization. [3 benefits to female leadership in SaaS (and 5 steps to making it happen)28.8% That’s the total percentage of women working in the technology industry back in 2020, according to this report. This report suggests that the percentage is projected to reach 33% in 2022.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSSuryansh Sodhani![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/women-in-SaaS.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/3-benefits-to-diverse-leadership-and-5-steps-to-making-it-happen/) **Alexandra Monks:** I'll round out the panel here. Hi, everyone. My name is Alexandra Monks. I'm a Senior Product Manager at Wayfair where I lead the employee experience product group. For those who are unfamiliar, Wayfair is an eCommerce company in the home goods space. Our mission is to be the destination for all things home and create a place where anyone anywhere can make that feeling of home. I'm based in Chicago, and I've got a background in consulting, growth strategy, and eCommerce. I first became a people manager back when I was in consulting and I led different engagement teams. From there, I’ve grown my leadership skills on the job as I've been granted more responsibility and more senior teams. I've also been fortunate enough to have a few amazing mentors along the way, who’ve really helped guide me. I have a passion for mentoring others and helping them achieve their desired careers, whatever that may look like. **Tanya Strauss:** That's awesome. I’m the Director of Customer Success for Druva, which is a data resiliency platform. We provide critical data backup and restore capabilities for companies that you work with and hear about on a day-to-day basis. My journey toward leadership has been probably a little more linear than others have talked about. I used to be a customer success manager. That’s my area of passion – the entire post-sales experience in the enterprise sales world. I love working with customers and seeing them enjoy the value they receive from the services and solutions that I've had the pleasure of working on. ## What makes women great leaders? **Tanya Strauss:** Our first question for today is, “What is it about you as a woman that makes you a great leader?” What I feel makes us great leaders is something that I pulled from a wonderful book called *The ideal team player* by Patrick Lencioni. Patrick talks about how the ideal team player is humble, hungry, and smart – and by smart, he means emotionally intelligent. Those are three characteristics that a lot of women share. We tend to be humble in the sense that we’re not afraid to have some grit and take on things that are maybe outside the immediate scope of our role. As for being hungry, we have to be willing to do everything it takes to achieve a goal. Emotional intelligence is so important, and it's something that I think a lot of women I know embody as a characteristic. Those are some of the things that I think make women exceptional leaders, and I feel like they inform my own leadership style. **Jessie Miño:** I love the emotional intelligence aspect you mentioned – I think that's super important. Related to that, I’ve also leaned more into leading with empathy – that’s a value that I've seen in great leaders and something that I try to imitate on my end as well. Tied to that is being very mindful as a leader. I think it's our responsibility as leaders to create environments in which our colleagues are nurtured and energized, and our organizations are innovative and they flourish. Having that mindful leadership angle means taking an honest look at yourself, leading without ego, and being willing to put that interest in others before ourselves. [Creating female leadership teamsRejoice! Things are looking up for female leaders. In a 2020 article, CNBC reported that women were promoted to 12% of CEO positions in America’s top 500 companies.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/luwadlin-bosman-LCwmq67sAmE-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/creating-female-leadership-teams/) **Alexandra Monks:** I love what you said there, Jessie. That resonates a lot with me. And Tanya, you were talking about humbleness which also makes great female leaders. Something that I think about a lot as I look at my role as a leader is around building the best team – I think that's a huge part of what makes a great leader. Whenever I need to make a new hire, I take the time to reflect on what I bring to the table and my opportunity areas, then I try to hire someone who's better and stronger than me in those areas. Once those people are on the team, another part of that team-building piece is placing a huge emphasis on career development. By focusing on frequent career development conversations and understanding my team's career aspirations, I can help get them those opportunities to demonstrate their skills or grow in their careers. Having that air coverage and space to make mistakes and learn fosters empowerment within the team. I view my role as a leader as being the best and strongest advocate for those on my team. **Cherry Manrao** **Rangnekar:** We've all touched on emotional intelligence, humility, and self-awareness. It's interesting because a survey published in the Harvard Business Review found that women rank higher in 12 out of 16 core leadership competencies in comparison to men. Some of the competencies that are listed are collaboration, driving results, agreeableness, coachability, connecting with others, and mentoring others. I think women tend to be centered around the team. We're looking to enable and empower the team versus being more self-serving. That's the power that we bring. ## Being a great mentor **Tanya Strauss:** Jessie, I'd love to hear about your experience with a mentor and what it was about that experience that was so meaningful to you. **Jessie Miño:** A more recent experience has been with Robin. They launched a mentorship program to connect employees with members of different executive teams. This offered a new perspective and also broke down barriers of communication and accessibility. I feel that’s super necessary within an organization for us to flourish in different areas. What made it meaningful for me was that I was able to gain access to knowledge from someone who had decades of experience on me. Not only was I able to gain new perspectives on business and life, but I was also able to make a lot of progress with my goals because of this connection I made. It was also a meaningful relationship that I made within the company. Now, I'm able to reach out for help and I have a sounding board for any ideas, which is super helpful as you're progressing in your career. [The playbook to inclusive marketing in SaaSHow do we “effectively” market in the SaaS industry whilst also remaining committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. And how can we keep pushing it forward? 72% of people feel most advertising and communication doesn’t reflect the world around them.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSDivya Durai![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/inclusion.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-playbook-to-inclusive-marketing-in-saas/) **Cherry Manrao** **Rangnekar:** For me, mentors have come at various levels in different stages, and so I feel like I have an arsenal of mentors that have been helping, and each has a specialization. Some are at the executive level; some are at the peer level. It's really about getting their perspective and having a sounding board. For me, the meaning has been in them giving me another lens when there’s something I'm not seeing. And they can be a sounding board for me when I’m facing an issue. It’s so valuable being able to leverage experience and expertise in a meaningful way, and of course, to build a strong connection, and hopefully a friendship. **Tanya Strauss:** I had the pleasure once of having an executive or career coach. I remember talking to her about my mentorship experiences, and she was telling me that she believes that everyone, especially women in the professional realm, needs to have a cadre of support around them. She was talking about the different categories to have – people who are advocates for you, people who are sponsors for you, people who are coaches for you, and people who are mentors for you. Thinking about all of those different components, some of them can be fulfilled by a manager, but some of them can be fulfilled, as you said, Cherry, by peers or even by people who report to you. ## Finding a mentor **Alexandra Monks:** My first piece of advice when you're seeking out a mentor or mentorship program is to think about what you want to get out of the relationship. Is there something specific that you want to work on, or are you just looking for general career advice? I think this will help you find the right person or program. For example, if you want to pivot career fields, you're probably going to select a very different mentor profile than if you're looking to move into the C-suite of your current company. You're going to want to get different things. You're going to want them to bring different things to the table. We just talked about how it's okay to have more than one mentor – I've got several that I've connected with over the years, and I go to each of them in different moments when I'm looking for different types of advice. I think that the best mentors I have are ones that I've met organically because they developed through a trusting relationship – they’re people that I feel comfortable being open and honest with. I recognize that at times it can be intimidating to ask someone to be your mentor. It feels so formal and like you have to bring a whole pitch. My advice is that it's okay to start more informal. Ask them if they'd be willing to get a coffee with you sometime and talk about your career or goals. Let them know that you value their input and want to hear their point of view. People appreciate that, and it’s a great way to begin developing that relationship more informally. **Jessie Miño:** I love all of those points. Along the same vein, my advice would be to also network beyond your immediate circle. In my experience, there are often other untapped networks among coworkers and friends. After you've identified what it is that you want to accomplish, go ahead and tap into those networks. Just be curious and find a mentor that aligns with your goals. Something that inhibited me, in the beginning, was fear. Let go of that fear and worry about what this person will think of you. There's a certain give and take in the mentor-mentee relationship that can be super valuable, so if you lean into that experience and let go of those inhibitions, you will get the most out of it. I was intimidated at first in my mentorship experience. I was wondering what they might think and worrying about making a good impression overall, but if I had let that set the tone for the connection, I wouldn't have received the benefits that I have throughout my relationship with this person. You should also go into your mentorship brand new as if you've never had a mentor before. Everyone's had different experiences and different journeys, so you'll do yourself a disservice if you walk into the mentorship with biases. [Strategy for social change: diversity and storytellingDiversity is a strong contender for the word of the decade. Companies around the world are waking up and asking themselves how they can better represent the societies that surround them.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnna Griffin![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/Strategy-for-social-change.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/strategy-for-social-change-diversity-and-storytelling/) **Tanya Strauss:** I used to work for ServiceNow, which had a lot of formal programs for women, like employee groups and networking opportunities. But I actually found my most valuable mentor there by saying to my manager, “I'm looking to get promoted and I'd love to network with some people, maybe women in particular, who’ve gone through the promotion cycle here and could shed some light on what that looks like.” I was connected with someone who's turned out to be a great friend and a wonderful mentor. She’s shared so many things with me, and we've watched each other's careers flourish as a result. It's just been such a pleasurable experience. I think that mentors could be everywhere if you're on the lookout for them and not afraid, as Alex said, to seek someone out and see if a relationship develops organically. ## Supporting other women to achieve **Cherry Manrao** **Rangnekar**: Women can be very powerful allies for other women, and I think there are a few simple things we can do every day to celebrate and advocate for our female co-workers. The first thing is to make sure that women's ideas are heard, recognized, and celebrated. Women sometimes get less airtime in discussions, and they're interrupted and given less credit for their ideas, so we need to speak up for ourselves, set an example in meetings, and encourage others to do the same. When you hear a woman being interrupted, say you'd like to hear her finish. When a co-worker runs away with a woman's idea, remind everyone it originated from her by saying something like, “That’s a great idea, Joe. Thank you, Katie, for surfacing it.” Be the advocate for that woman and celebrate her accomplishments. The second thing I would say is to just encourage women to go for it. We're prone to more intense self-doubt, I think, so really encouraging women to leave their comfort zone is important. There's a commonly cited Hewlett-Packard study on internal hiring practices, which finds that men often apply for a job when they meet 60% of the requirements, but women only apply if they meet 100% of them. So if a coworker is telling you she's not ready for new projects or a position, remind her of what she's already accomplished and has to offer. Be a thought partner and a cheerleader for her and encourage her to fake it till she makes it. [Building a solid network to support othersSharpening up that resume will take you a long way, but it might not be as valuable as a single glowing recommendation from a powerful professional ally.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/nasa-Q1p7bh3SHj8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-a-solid-network-to-support-others/) **Tanya Strauss:** Not so long ago, I was applying for a position, and I found myself pointing out to the hiring manager something in the job description that I didn't think I was capable of. The hiring manager, who was a woman, actually laughed and said, “This is exactly what the statistics say women do.” I was shocked that I’d been called out on that behavior, and it brought my attention to exactly what you just described. Even with the best of intentions, we can hold ourselves back. **Jessie Miño:** I love the point that you made, Cherry, about celebrating those wins. A word that I keep at the forefront as a guiding light is “co-elevation.” The more you help others, the more you help yourself, the team, and the organization as a whole. If we help women to see those wins and show the organization what women are doing within, that's a way to support them and keep that motivation going. Within the process, too, is being authentic but also being kind. That lends transparency and authenticity, which is a good base for having effective and honest conversations that will lead to opportunities to see what it is that women need, so you can jump in and help them however you can. **Alexandra Monks:** I love that term co-elevation, Jessie. I'm gonna steal that with pride and use it in my organization. I think it's that whole idea of being an advocate for others when decisions are being made, whether those are hiring decisions, packages for those hiring decisions, stretch opportunities, promotions, raises, or work-life balance. Being an advocate for others when those decisions are being made is so important. Something else I think about a lot is just asking others, “What can I do to help you? How can I remove roadblocks for you? How can I be your best advocate? What do you need from me to get there?” I think a lot of times, people, especially women, are hesitant to ask; we don't want to be a bother. But if we open the door for people to express what they need, we can be great allies. ## Building up your confidence as you celebrate your successes **Jessie Miño:** I think everyone should record and keep track of their wins, whether it's in a journal, Google Docs, or whatever works for you. This will allow you to highlight your accomplishments and remind yourself of them when you need to. In my case, I created a “GG” folder on my desktop – that stands for “Good Game.” Anytime an email or a Slack message comes in that highlights either customer feedback or internal feedback showing that I've done a good job, I'll just screenshot it, put it in that folder and keep it in my back pocket. With that, on those days that you're not really feeling it or you're feeling a little down about yourself, it's a good reminder of what you've done and what other people have acknowledged you for. It’s also a reminder that if you've been able to overcome challenges and accomplish those goals that maybe you didn't think you’d be able to, you can keep doing it and doing it well. [Celebrating women and their trailblazing contributions in the tech spaceInternational Women’s Day gives us time to pause, mindfully reflect, and imagine a better workplace where genders are equal and treated without bias or discrimination — and evaluate the path forward to advance gender diversity in tech.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSCourtney Grigsby![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/christina-wocintechchat-com-MkxWUzCuYkE-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/celebrating-women-and-their-trailblazing-contributions-in-the-tech-space/) **Alexandra Monks:** I do the exact same thing – that's so funny. I keep the wins and feedback that people give me throughout the year so that I can have it to advocate for myself. It’s like a mini-resume of wins for when it’s time to go and ask for that promotion or that next opportunity. Something that one of my first mentors taught me, which has been such a valuable lesson, is that no one's going to advocate harder for you than you will advocate for yourself. The list helps me do that. When I'm creating that list, I try to think about how I can use data to support my wins and impacts. The beauty of data is it’s objective, right? And it can help you feel like you're reporting the numbers, not just boasting. I put this into practice by using metrics, for example, NPS, team attrition data, customer satisfaction scores, and efficiency improvements. I measure my impact so I can communicate my success in a very objective way. This is something that I coach my team on as they're working on their career paths. I think it's really, really valuable. **Cherry Manrao** **Rangnekar:** I’m, again, in total agreement with both of you. I'm a data geek, I measure and report on everything, and I think this idea of capturing the wins as you go is wonderful. The other thing I tell my team when the confidence question comes up is to go on a roadshow and do presentations. I even tell my team to actively interview externally. There's no better practice for building confidence and advocating for yourself than having to pitch yourself to a new company and introduce yourself to a new team. It forces you to compile that story and that narrative. [How to Know if Your Company is InclusiveWorried that your organization isn’t doing enough to promote inclusivity and diversity? Thankfully, the world of SaaS is waking up to the long-term benefits of diversity and inclusivity.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/pexels-katie-rainbow----_---8614479.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-know-if-your-company-is-inclusive/) ## The benefits of having a diverse workforce **Cherry Manrao** **Rangnekar:** There are so many benefits, but I’ll bucket them into three areas: driving innovation, bottom-line impact, and attracting and retaining talent. Innovation stems from the ability to approach an issue and find solutions from a different perspective. And so when you have teams of people with different skills, life experiences, and cultural backgrounds, you're gonna get fresh solutions, and those solutions are going to be relevant for everyone. It's almost impossible to innovate in the way that you need and at the speed that you need without diversity. There are a gazillion and one studies showing the bottom-line perspective benefits. BCG states that businesses with above-average diversity report 19% higher revenue. If you look at it from an ethnic diversity perspective, McKenzie has put out a report that companies with higher levels of ethnic and cultural diversity are 36% more likely to have higher financial returns. Even at a board level, companies with a higher percentage of female directors perform better than those without. They see a 42% greater return on sales and a 53% higher return on equity. So we know that diversity drives the bottom line, and you can measure the impact. And then there’s the impact on talent. This new generation coming into the workforce has grown up with the idea that diversity and inclusion are critical. [Further together - building a diverse marketing teamMaya Grossman, VP of Marketing at Canvas shared her views on the value of diverse teams, her hiring best practices to get it right, how to go about getting stakeholder buy-in, and more.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/helena-lopes-PGnqT0rXWLs-unsplash--2---1--2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/further-together-building-a-diverse-marketing-team/) They're looking for D&I initiatives in organizations, and they want to see those companies doing more than just making money and making a social impact. And so I think diversity increases your pool and allows you to attract the right type of employees. A bonus item is it's more fun, right? Diversity creates more engagement and energy. Plus, the more energy the team has, the more creativity and efficiency you'll see. It's a win-win across the board. **Tanya Strauss:** Another word I would add is “safety.” Having a diverse organization creates a sense of safety for anybody who comes from a minority background. I think that's important for that snowball effect of creating an organization that represents diversity well. **Jessie Miño:** One other point that I feel goes beyond just the exterior or our experiences and weaves into who we are on the inside is about cognitively diverse employees. Just to give a little bit more background, cognitive diversity is defined as differences in perspectives or information processing styles. Studies by the Harvard Business Review have shown that teams with more diverse cognitive abilities show faster and more advanced problem-solving skills when working together. That's another level to add to the diversity that we should be taking into account when having new people join our teams. **Tanya Strauss:** That's awesome Jessie. I’m the mother of an autistic child, and when I think about him, I think about innovation because he asks totally different questions from the ones I've generally formed on those subjects. He's constantly identifying a different lens to look at things through. If we're not asking different questions, and if we don't have a diverse organization that's asking different questions, then we're not facing the future with them with an innovative spirit. So thank you so much for bringing up that point; I really appreciate it. --- *Enjoyed this article... why not check out our exclusive content with a FoSaaS membership plan?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### "A joyful, collaborative experience" - Minna Vaisanen, Growth Engineering URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/a-joyful-collaborative-experience-minna-vaisanen-growth-engineering/ Last updated: 2022-09-08T14:00:59.000Z The exciting world of SaaS is just bursting with new innovations all the time. But how do new innovations take root? Well, we believe it comes through discussion and respectful debate. Posting new content on social media can spark great discussion, sure. But what could be better than getting a group of SaaS experts together to share ideas. This is the invaluable opportunity that we offer through our events at Future of SaaS. As a SaaS professional, you can bounce ideas off like-minded individuals, and arrive at new solutions together. 🤝 This was certainly the case for Minna Vaisanen, Head of Customer Success at Growth Engineering. Here's a breakdown of our case study. - A bit of background on Minna - What is the true value of Future of SaaS events? - The benefit for attendees - Minna’s talk - The events team - New ideas going forward ### A bit of background on Minna Minna is a passionate customer success advocate with over a decade’s experience in delivering innovation in the tech space. Minna knows that for SaaS companies, innovation stems from education, both in how we relate to customers and in how we train our teams to meet customer needs. Minna’s role encompasses perhaps the most crucial aspect of running a successful SaaS org, arriving at new solutions, dedicated to the customers’ evolving needs. But meeting the needs of customers means embracing different backgrounds and experiences. Your customers are never going to have exactly the same needs, and a one-size-fits-all approach just won’t do when it comes to customer success. This is why Minna was the perfect fit for our event, Women in SaaS Summit. Catch the full discussion [right here.](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-2/) Scroll down to find out more about Minna’s experiences and the value that you can gain from participating in one of our events. [The playbook to inclusive marketing in SaaSHow do we “effectively” market in the SaaS industry whilst also remaining committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. And how can we keep pushing it forward? 72% of people feel most advertising and communication doesn’t reflect the world around them.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSDivya Durai![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/inclusion.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-playbook-to-inclusive-marketing-in-saas/) ### What is the true value of Future of SaaS events? “In my opinion, it is important to shine a spotlight on topics that are somewhat uncomfortable to speak about, which is exactly why they need to be spoken about.” Minna highlights a crucial benefit of our events. We’re committed to discussing not just the most pressing issues in the world of SaaS, but confronting those most challenging topics that require the most rigorous discussion. ### What benefit do you think attendees will come away from our event with? “Live events capture people's attention and offer a multichannel strategy in talking about inclusivity. I would say the attendees received value from practical tips that they can implement personally or at their companies. “ The Women in SaaS Summit was not simply an exercise in praising the benefits of inclusivity and diversity, it was also an invaluable opportunity to introduce and discuss tried and tested strategies into your strategy. ### Can you describe the experience of your conversation with Jacqueline Porter? “We had a great collaboration on topics we wanted to highlight from different viewpoints (practical and philosophical) and industries. It was great to work with her on designing our talk and sharing together our best practices and failures.” At Women in SaaS Summit, Minna Vaisanen got together with Jacqueline Porter, Director of Product Management at Github, to discuss Salary negotiations. An intimidating, but necessary topic for all SaaS professionals. Catch the full discussion [right here.](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-2/) [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Can you describe the experience of working with our events team? Our events team at Future of Saas approach events with an open mind. If you’re contacted by a member of our team – or if you reach out yourself, you’ll find the experience of working with us to be a collaborative one. Minna had this to say about working with us: “Working with the events team is always a great experience. There is a lot of guidance, but also flexibility on discussing our ideas for the talks. The process was a very collaborative and joyful one.” ### Do you feel you've gained some fresh perspectives and ideas for going forward? “Absolutely. Jacqueline and I had such an interesting discussion. Tackling a topic that could be classified as a bit of ‘taboo’ was also a really great opportunity to broaden our horizons.” Don’t think our speakers just use our events as a platform for bragging about how great their strategies are. Through rigorous discussion with like-minded experts, our speakers have been able to uncover fresh perspectives that help them grow as professionals. --- *Want to collaborate with Future of SaaS? We’re seeking out SaaS experts for contributions to blog posts, podcasts and events. Contact us here:* Content: anthony@futureofsaas.io Podcasts and events: alexander@pmmalliance.com ### Let's hear it: Magnify your voice of the customer program URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/lets-hear-it-magnify-your-voice-of-the-customer-program/ Last updated: 2022-09-06T15:27:59.000Z “What does the ‘voice of the customer’ mean in business?” you might ask. Voice of the customer programs are methods created by companies to best understand the experience and needs of their customer base through feedback. In October 2021, ****Easyship**’s Head of Customer Success, ****Andrea Greco**, outlined his best practices for implementing an effective voice of the customer program. Here, Andrea outlined the best ways to manifest these strategies in your day-to-day work. ****👇** [Top 7 interview questions for customer success managersWith a subscription-based model, the power is well and truly in the hands of the customer, and if you want to stop customers from churning, you need to arm your org with an army of empathy experts.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/meeting.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-customer-success-managers/) ### Q: What processes can be implemented to help a product team better understand the customer’s request? ****A:** It’s important to have a process in place that allows the requester – whether that’s the Customer Success Manager or the customer themself – access to a template, which gives the product team what they need to understand the feature in question. My first bit of advice is to ensure transparency, above all. In your feedback form, I would suggest you include fields to capture the precise information about what the product team needs to implement the right changes. These fields are critical for the product team to understand the feature in question correctly, avoiding any unnecessary back and forth. Secondly, ensure you have regular meetings with the product team - on a monthly to quarterly basis - to review the features. Sometimes a product team doesn’t always fully understand every feature request, or they push back in some capacity. In my experience, some product teams can be left unconvinced by customer requests, partly due to having their vision and strategy. It helps to have regular meetings with them to review the features and help them understand their significant role in this process. Transparency plays a vital role to help customers stay updated, and helps the customer success team know the progress made by the product team. [Building successful customer success teamsBuilding strong customer success teams is so important. Every good team has to have a strong strong foundation supporting it!![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSZuzanna Ostojska![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/steven-lelham-atSaEOeE8Nk-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-successful-customer-success-teams/) ### Q: Have you experienced a situation where the product team feels reluctant to be transparent with the CS team regarding the feature updates? ****A:** I have. However, for the most part, this reluctance has been caused by busy workloads, and decisions to prioritize other major releases. If you feel a member of your product team is reluctant to share updates, my suggestion would be this: take a step back and empathize with them. Try to understand what's going on, maybe they feel the feature isn't important. One potential reason for this miscommunication is the medium of the feature request. Ask yourself whether the medium of communication is reflective of the integrity of the task. Are you reaching out to them with this request through a transparent, finely-tuned process, or have you notified them with a rushed, brief message on Slack? Let’s be honest, if somebody requested something important and urgent from you via Slack, wouldn’t you be irked too? The gravity of the request must follow the appropriate medium. While it may be frustrating from your perspective, it’s important to put yourself in their shoes. Like you, they too will have a roadmap that they adhere to, and without the proper project management processes in place, you’ll inevitably have some fractious moments between teams. This is why cohesive, transparent cross-departmental collaboration is crucial. In general, product teams prefer to have requests that are planned, so my advice is to implement a defined process and stick to the process like superglue! In my experience, if you share a monthly meeting to discuss feedback, and consider what to prioritize in the future product-customer success roadmap, I don't think you're going to get a lot of pushback. ### Q: Do you time surveys at particular points during the customer journey based on business milestones? ****A:** Normally, we try not to be too trigger-happy with surveys. Instead, we try to identify particular segments of clients. For instance, whenever we release a new feature, we have a population or a segment we think it's going to be interested in that feature. We send surveys to collect feature requests from the customers who adopt a feature. If they don't have the feature, we want to understand whether they know it existed, or if they didn’t understand how the setup works. In essence, those are our two main angles for surveys. [5 awesome tips for building a customer advocacy programBuilding a customer advocacy program can really accelerate your business and drive revenue! The ultimate goal for any department within an organization is to have a representative at the table during those crucial C-suite meetings. We want to convince senior stakeholders that you can drive results.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/benjamin-davies-FiZTaNTj2Ak-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/) ### Q: How often do you think CS should conduct product roadmap sessions with our clients? ****A:** I don't think a CSM should own the responsibility of hosting product roadmap sessions. Normally, the system collects feedback through ongoing interactions, either a QBR or 1:1 session. Ordinarily, these sessions go a little something like this: you collect feedback, discuss the product and the client might complain about certain product features. When this happens, it’s vital to have a well-defined process that is easy for the team to log feedback and move on to the next thing. However, supplying the CS team with a form that allows them to log the feedback whenever they have a call with a client, will put you in a better position to collect and action that feedback. At ****Easyship**, customer success doesn't own roadmap sessions with clients, but we are launching a product advisory board program. In a nutshell, it's a form of membership. Every company will have a certain pool of customers who tend to be more active and forthcoming when suggesting new features. This product advisory board will reach out to those customers and ensure they become part of our decision-making process when it comes to defining features. ### Q: Can customer success drive impact with a public roadmap? ****A:** Public roadmaps are tricky topics. For instance, there are great SaaS companies like ****HubSpot** that don’t have a public product roadmap, but they do have a product roadmap blog. External product roadmaps are great at creating transparency, but you need to have somebody whose job is to follow them closely. Otherwise, it can easily become a toxic environment where anybody can ask questions about anything they want. Overall, I believe customer success can drive impact with a public roadmap. Since clients are always asking about feature releases, having a public roadmap would alleviate a lot of questions asked and force CS teams to be more proactive. Effectively, public roadmaps aim to put the customer in the driver's seat, or they at least provide a greater level of transparency. I would urge caution when implementing public roadmaps, making sure you have someone to monitor it. ### Q: How can voice of the customer programs tackle diversity, equity and inclusion best practices? Often a company’s largest customer base is in the ‘home market’ and the foreign market - the customers in Asia - are considered a minority. Sometimes the APAC customer feedback is brushed aside or not addressed because the ROI doesn’t benefit the majority. But how can we help our minority customers have their feedback put forward and adopted? Three words (or one, depending on your use of acronyms): **return on investment (ROI)**. You’ve got to remember: *little drops of water make a mighty ocean*. So, while smaller customers may be considered to be the minority, they shouldn’t be ignored. In reality, the bigger the customers, the more complex and demanding the customization tends to be. Usually, if you have one client requesting a feature update or something, it will normally only apply to them, as opposed to small clients who tend to have use cases that apply to other clients. But if you have a product roadmap you can identify clients who are interested in raising suggestions and log their requests. In effect, putting together say 5, 10, 15, or 20 smaller clients, you automatically have a stronger, more proportional argument than basing your decision on a feature request from one big client. If you are to take away one point from this interview, it would be this: focus on the process of logging your request. Put them on a board and make sure you know what your clients are interested in and quantify the ROI, the subscription, or whatever revenue target your company follows. Then you can quantify what is the expected ROI or how that feature would benefit a segment of our population of clients. --- *Psst.. Want some exclusive insights from SaaS experts? Why not become a FoSaaS member?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Enabling teams during times of hyper-growth URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/enabling-teams-during-times-of-hyper-growth/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:47:00.000Z *This article is based on a presentation from the Future of SaaS Festival 2022 when Amy was Senior Manager of Sales Enablement at Calendly. Catch the full unedited talk* [*right here.*](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-3/) Many of you have probably heard of Calendly. We’re experiencing hyper-growth right now, but how have we built our enablement function to keep up with this growth, and what does it look like today? Stick around and I’ll tell you. In this article, I’m going to walk you through… - [How we approach enablement](https://www.saasalliance.io/enabling-teams-during-times-of-hyper-growth/#how-we-approach-enablement) - [Our enablement maturity model](https://www.saasalliance.io/enabling-teams-during-times-of-hyper-growth/#enablement-maturity-model) - [Our enablement journey](https://www.saasalliance.io/enabling-teams-during-times-of-hyper-growth/#calendly%E2%80%99s-enablement-journey) - [Calendly’s enablement org structure](https://www.saasalliance.io/enabling-teams-during-times-of-hyper-growth/#our-enablement-org-structure) Let’s get into it. ## How we approach enablement People in enablement tend to fall into one of two camps. Sometimes they’ve been salespeople who don’t want to carry a quota anymore. Sometimes they have an HR background and they know learning and development, so they decide to pivot into enablement. This is because people tend to think of enablement as sales training. I'd like to challenge that way of thinking and highlight enablement teams’ strategic ability. Seven factors impact sales and go-to-market performance, and enablement helps inform each of them. Let’s take a closer look at how we serve our teams across each factor. ### Capacity: is everyone on the team able to do the job that they're in? To support our teams’ capacities, we sit in on job interviews as needed. More than that, we help inform the competencies we need to identify during the interview process, and we look at what new starters should get out of onboarding. Ultimately, we help narrow that gap. A lot of times, enablement teams will run an onboarding program, and then after a new recruit has gone through that program, the company will realize that person doesn't know basic selling. Well, that should have been uncovered during the interview process. You can't solve that in a one-week, two-week, or even four-week enablement onboarding program. We've got to make sure that they can do the job first. [![gears on a table](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/tools.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/enabling-teams-during-times-of-hyper-growth) ### Conditions: do they have the tools, resources, and tech stack to do the job? Then we look at the conditions our teams are working with. Have we set them up for success with our tech stack? Have we made all of our tools and resources findable? Product marketing is churning out some really powerful content; we make sure that everybody on the teams we serve can find the information they need when they need it. ### Standards: have we defined all of our processes so that even the newest team member understands what's expected of them? When we look at our sales process, we want it to be crystal clear when AEs should convert. That helps sales leaders predict revenue, but only if the processes and reporting are clear and objective. ### Knowledge and skill: are team members getting the training they need? A lot of people think of our role in knowledge sharing as an enablement hour that appears on the calendar every week, but there's a lot more to it than that. Sometimes live sessions are warranted; sometimes asynchronous learning sent out through an LMS is the best solution because it allows AEs to weave in training around their schedule. Sometimes it's as easy as providing a job aid. In enablement, we need to be experts in how adults learn and get them the information they need when they need it. ### Measurement: what does good look like and how do we prove it when we get there? We need to know what winning looks like in the minds of the leaders we serve, then we look at how enablement can weigh in on that. We hone in on all the levers that impact sales velocity – number of opportunities, win rate, average contract value – and divide it by the days in a sales cycle. We need to know the ACV so we can work to refine how our AEs run discovery. That way, we can increase it from the beginning of the sales cycle, and we can fine-tune the procurement and negotiation stages to help drive that ACV up. ### Feedback: are they getting timely and consistent assessment and coaching? Feedback is a big one because a lot of times you assume that, whether an AE is making quota or not, they know where they stand and how they're achieving, but that might not always be the case. We've got to equip sales leaders with regular feedback loops, and we need to be receiving regular feedback from the leaders that we serve. [![A training session ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/training.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/enabling-teams-during-times-of-hyper-growth) ### Motivation and incentives: are they motivated to do the job at or above the level we define? If you're serving a sales org, you want your AEs to be motivated to consume all the training. We've got to lean into that and when we're asked to deliver another sales training session, we have to understand if they’re looking for fresh intel or if people just weren’t motivated to listen the first time around. ## Enablement maturity model In everything enablement does, we need to assess our current state. When I came to Calendly to launch enablement, we built a maturity model to assess four aspects of the function: processes, tools, and tech; onboarding; sales and marketing content; and competencies. ### Where we started Let’s start with processes, tools, and tech. We had a great tech stack, but it wasn't optimized. AEs didn't necessarily know which tool to use at what stage. Plus, our sales processing and reporting standards weren't followed as consistently as they should be, so our forecast accuracy just wasn't there. We didn’t have a formal onboarding process. There was a sales leader that was expected to bring in new hires and ramp them while also managing a team. There was an informal buddy system, but there weren't any measures of success outside of whether they hit their ramp quota, so it was hard to know whether AEs were being effectively onboarded. Next up, we have sales and marketing content. Before we ramped to the size that Calendly is today, we didn't have a product marketing team. All the content that had been spun up was really feature-centric, so it wasn't driving the value proposition and the messaging that we wanted our customers to receive from us. Finally, we looked at competencies and learning paths, and we saw that every time we led a training session, every salesperson sat through it whether they needed that information or not. We weren't protecting their selling time. ### Where we want to be That was our starting point, but where did we want to be? It's really important to identify not just our current state but our destination, which is a fully optimized function. So what would that look like? For processes, tools, and tech, we needed to make sure that everything was automated and living within widgets in our Salesforce instance. We wanted to make sure that content and training were helping inform how sellers sell, and that comes through having a well-integrated tech stack. We needed to customize onboarding by role. We don't need SDRs and enterprise AEs going through the exact onboarding program – it makes sense for a section of it, but then they need to follow a more specialized learning path. To optimize our content, we decided to purchase Highspot as our enablement platform. We use this to deliver all of the information an AE needs at each sales stage. Say you're going into the discovery stage, we want to make sure that the follow-up content, case studies, and relevant training all surface as soon as you need them. When we come to competencies, the really important part is identifying the winning ones. Then, we can figure out where there are gaps in the rest of the team and level them up in those areas. We use our top-performing AEs to help level up the rest. They serve as our subject matter experts as we're building training. They help speak to how customers use features when we're rolling out something new, so we can lean into the impact tool drives and the pain it solves, rather than just talking about the features. ## Calendly’s enablement journey So we knew where we were, and we knew where we wanted to be, but how would we get there? There are four crucial steps to follow if you want to build an enablement function that can keep up with hyper-growth. [![A woman looking down from a hillside on a winding road](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/journey.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/enabling-teams-during-times-of-hyper-growth) ### Step one: establish a sales onboarding program The very first thing we had to tackle was onboarding. Between looking after new hires and managing existing teams, our sales managers had conflicting priorities, so we decided to add a headcount devoted to building a scalable onboarding program. That way, whether we were hiring two people or 25, we’d have something that worked. Now, enablement serves our sales leaders by taking care of the first three weeks of all new sellers’ learning journey. **Week one** We focus on the basic product knowledge that everyone in SDR, sales, customer success, or marketing needs. We also look at ideal customer profiles, our use cases, and the problems that our customers are trying to solve. **Week two** We go into what customers want to see from us as we're running a demo. Whether we’re in pre-sale, customer onboarding, or a train-the-trainer session, there's a way that we position value when we talk about our product and our tool to customers; we cover that in the second week of onboarding. We narrow the focus of the onboarding even more in week three. We work with new SDRs and salespeople on understanding customer pain points and decision processes. We want to identify the critical events that lead people to buy. This is all cohort-based. All of our stakeholders are aligned along start dates because the best experience for the new hire is when they quickly find a community in an onboarding program. ### Step two: implement a sales methodology Once we got our onboarding program in place, we were able to start building the remaining three pillars. The second thing that we did was to bring in a sales methodology. This is how we adopt a common language across all customer-facing roles so that customers know what to expect when they interact with us. Choosing a sales methodology is somewhat subjective – a lot of it looks the same – but diagnosing where you have friction in your sales cycle will help you select the methodology that’ll work best for your team. If you've got a lot of friction at the top of your funnel, something like Force Management, MEDDIC, or MEDDPICC is probably a great choice for you. If you're having a lot of friction in the later stages of your funnel, Challenger might work better. Challenger likes to talk about price, leaning in on value, and honing in on why customers need your product. It’s great for upskilling teams in late-stage conversions. The methodologies that we’ve used separately and at different times are Winning by Design and Sandler. Both these methodologies encompass the entire funnel. ### Step three: revise the sales process Once you've got your methodology in place, it's time to take a hard look at your sales process. It needs to be objective and repeatable so you can drive a predictable pipeline. If there’s any subjectivity, then your stakeholders' reporting is not going to be consistent, and your forecast is not going to be reliable. We have six sales stages: **qualify, discovery, validation, proposal, trade, and close**. In each of these stages, there are three things that it’s vital to document: 1. Stage goal – What is the customer doing? Are they just exploring options? Are they trying to understand how different tools can fit their needs? We need to align on their motivations at each stage. 2. Exit criteria – What MUST occur in each stage before converting to the next? You cannot convert until you hit that criteria. This is the most critical piece because every AE needs to know what they're trying to achieve in each stage. This creates meaningfully weighted stages that give you predictability and add value to your forecast. 3. Meetings – What conversations should reps have with the customer during each stage? Listing out the types of calls helps to provide more context and cues for your salespeople. ### Step four: build a sales playbook The last of the foundational pillars of enablement is your playbook. Of course, you want to have a playbook from the time people go through onboarding, but it should be informed by your methodology and your process. Everything in the playbook should revolve around selling value to your ideal customer profile. Whatever your go-to-market strategy, whether you’re aiming for expansion or net new customers, you want to make sure that all your plays are outlined. The playbook will become a critical part of your onboarding program, and as you're reviewing your programs, you can go back through and check that your methodology is working. Are people using your sales process? Is there a drag someplace that you can solve? [![A notebook](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/09/notebook.jpg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/enabling-teams-during-times-of-hyper-growth) ## Our enablement org structure By building these four pillars for your enablement function, you can unlock maximum sales productivity and create value as an enablement team. But building those pillars is not a one-person job – it takes a village, or in this case, an org. So what does Calendly’s enablement org look like? ### Year one When I was brought in to lead the team, I was an individual contributor. In the interview process, I helped define growth projections for the future of the enablement team. As I said, this is not a one-person role, so I asked for direct reports. Our function provided so much value that in year one, I was able to get five enablement managers. We started with the onboarding manager, then we worked to align managers to teams. Each manager works with department leaders to make sure that we’re delivering everything they need for their teams to sell efficiently and effectively. We have somebody aligned with SMB and mid-market. The enterprise sales team and the SDR org both report to our head of enterprise sales, so we have one enablement manager aligned with that team. We have another enablement manager aligned with customer success. And then, to make everything we're doing predictable, scalable, and repeatable, we needed an instructional designer who knows adult learning principles and can make sure that everybody’s getting the information they need when they need it. Like me, other sales leaders like to weave, “Hey, this is a good time to remind them about this,” into every meeting and training session. Sticking to need-to-know information is a specific skill that instructional designers bring. ### Year two and beyond Now we’re in year two, and our org has grown and evolved. We've added a second enablement manager to help create learning paths so each function has a tailored onboarding experience. We’re also adding a team leader so that all of these strategy-driving enablement managers that are aligned to teams can report up to one person. We were building so much asynchronous training that we needed to split it across two roles. One is focused on product and tech, and the second one is working on making sure our methodology sticks and our sales process is seamless; they’re also leaning on metrics to uncover future training topics. Lastly, we added an enablement program manager who’s in charge of all sales communications, including our weekly newsletter and the manager guides that provide talking points for weekly team meetings. The enablement program manager is also responsible for reporting the impact of all of the programs we're leading – we want to make sure that the business always knows what we have going on and how we're moving things forward. I got these four additional managers because we were able to communicate our vision for the org. In 2023, I hope that we will break enterprise AEs away from SDRs and serve each of those roles separately in the way that they need. I’d also like for us to have a manager looking after the instructional designers and onboarding. This is the team that I think we need to exist all through the future growth of Calendly. ### Women in SaaS: advocating for parental leave URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-advocating-for-parental-leave/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:40:48.000Z A good work-life balance is essential for maintaining a sound mind. We all know this. But sadly this isn't always apparent in the way that SaaS orgs operate at a senior level. Take the issue of parental leave, for example, we believe that women professionals shouldn't have to choose between life progression and career progression. Instead, the two should work together in tandem. 🤝 In not allowing employees to take the time to nurture and grow their families, SaaS orgs risk starving their team of high potential talent. But negotiating time off in a rapidly scaling org is not always easy. Nuanced, rigorous discussion is essential. Luck you for us, at the Women in SaaS Summit 2022, Customer Success professionals Lauren Hayes and Celia Gouveia did just this. We've selected the best bits from that discussion, which you can read below. But you can also catch the full unedited talk [right here](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-2/). Main talking points include: - [About our panelists](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-advocating-for-parental-leave/#about-our-panelists) - [Telling your manager](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-advocating-for-parental-leave/#telling-your-manager) - [Understanding your rights to parental leave](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-advocating-for-parental-leave/#understanding-your-rights-to-parental-leave) - [Lauren and Celia’s experiences](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-advocating-for-parental-leave/#lauren-and-celia%E2%80%99s-experiences) ## About our panelists **Lauren Hayes:** I was the Manager of CS Ops at Alyce, and I'm currently working on a stealth project. I've been in CS for about 10 years, and during that period, I’ve had two children, so I'm familiar with the ins and outs of advocating for parental leave, and I'm excited to talk about that here. **Celia Gouveia:** I'm also a CS professional. I've been building and leading customer success teams for about 10 years at various sized companies, ranging from stealth startups to larger companies like SAP and LinkedIn. I’m currently at a company called Wisq, which just came out of stealth; we’re creating a space for life at work. I also have two little ones who are under five. I've taken parental leave from various sized companies, and I'm really excited to share my journey today ## Telling your manager **Lauren Hayes:** The first time I found out that I was pregnant, I had just moved to Seattle for work. I was taking on more responsibilities, and I was at a place in my career where talking to my managers about leave and not being around to do certain projects felt really daunting. One of the things I’d like to share with anybody who’s expecting is that you shouldn't be nervous about having those conversations. You should always feel like you can advocate for yourself and talk about what is happening in your life. With both of my pregnancies, I was very lucky to work in environments where I had strong personal and professional relationships with my managers, so I opted for the “better sooner than later” approach when talking to them. Sharing the fact that I was expecting earlier gave me a lot more of a runway to set things up for my departure and figure out what my leave was going to look like. [Women in SaaS: mentorship and career progressionWith experience in major organizations such as Dell and Github, Priscilla Aubrey has a wealth of experience and insight at her disposal.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSPriscilla Aubrey![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/pexels-olga-1146242.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-mentorship/) **Celia Gouveia:** Those mixed emotions are something that many of us struggle with. I’ve also struggled with those feelings of “Oh no, this is not the right timing.” We have to remember that we're humans and it is a human reaction. I think many people struggle with those emotions, and I'm here to say that they’re normal. Don't fight those emotions, but think about what's best for you. I also shared that I was expecting earlier on because I felt very comfortable with my manager and my team, and I wanted to set that path. That doesn't mean that's necessarily right for you. I would consider how comfortable you feel talking to your manager and what type of culture your company has. Hopefully, it's just as rewarding as the ones Lauren and I have been part of. If not, you can just provide the notice you’re legally required to provide. > Whether you're at a company that has a published policy, or you need to do some digging to see what's required for your country, state, or company size, it's so important to do that. **Lauren Hayes:** That's a really good point. You’re not required to tell anybody at the 12-week point, which is when people often say you can start sharing that news. When you decide to get the ball rolling should depend on what you are comfortable with – you shouldn't feel pressured to do anything that you aren't comfortable with. And also, look into what timeline you have to give legally. ## Understanding your rights to parental leave **Lauren Hayes:** That's a good bridge into the next point: How do you know what leave is available to you? How do you understand what different policies mean? How do you navigate company, federal, and state provisions? You have to start researching early. Even at my early-stage companies, there was somebody who knew the ins and outs of our health plan, leave policies, and things like that – go to that person in your company and have them explain your options to you. That was really helpful for me because I'm more of an in-person conversational learner than somebody who wants to read a giant healthcare doc. Utilize those resources, because that's what they're there for. Those HR people are there to help you navigate this, and they want you to have the best possible experience. [Women in SaaS: taking risks for career progressionIn the lead up to the women in SaaS summit 2022, we’ll be hearing from a whole host of women SaaS leaders on some of the most challenging topics facing women in SaaS today![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSJeri Lim![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/women-empowerment.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-taking-risks-for-career-progression/) **Celia Gouveia:** Well said. I would add that even when you're interviewing, it's okay to ask for policy information – it doesn't imply that you necessarily are pregnant or expecting to use the leave. > It's okay to say, “I want to understand what your policies are, how you treat your employees, what your culture is like, and what you value,” and it doesn't implicate you in any specific scenario. I think it's really important to ask about that when you’re interviewing. You may be at a company that doesn't have a leave policy yet. I was at a startup in California once and I was the absolute first person to take leave, so I did my research on the state’s policies. I've also been a manager throughout Europe and APAC, so I've had to do research in different countries for my team to make sure that they're being well taken care of and that I'm advocating for them as their manager. You should also look at competitive information on what companies of similar sizes in similar locations are offering. That way, you can advocate and ask for the same, whether that be during the interview process or once you're on board. **Lauren Hayes:** Absolutely. One of the things that I would piggyback on top of that is investigating your state requirements and making sure you’re getting everything that’s required. In an early-stage environment, it can be easy to overlook some of that and not know what all of the requirements are, especially because they vary so much from state to state. If you’re hoping to craft your own leave policy, make sure that you’re in line with what is required. We all know that here in the United States, leave can vary widely, by industry, by state, even by company, and so it's really important that you make sure you're getting what you want. Another thing that was helpful for me was just asking a lot of questions about how I could use my leave. I was really lucky with my second baby to get 16 weeks of paid leave, and one of the questions that I wanted to ask was whether I could split that up, maybe taking the first three months and saving the rest for later. If you have any of those questions or if something is confusing, don't be okay with what you've been handed – ask what you need to know. I come from a place of extreme privilege, being from the United States. So many women have much less than I have when it comes to leave – but still, don't be afraid to fully take your leave. If you’re in a company that offers a certain amount of leave but there's social pressure not to take it or to come back early – I think this particularly applies to fathers – don't do that. Your leave is part of your package and you’ve already paid for it, so you should absolutely take it. [Further together - building a diverse marketing teamMaya Grossman, VP of Marketing at Canvas shared her views on the value of diverse teams, her hiring best practices to get it right, how to go about getting stakeholder buy-in, and more.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/helena-lopes-PGnqT0rXWLs-unsplash--2---1--2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/further-together-building-a-diverse-marketing-team/) **Celia Gouveia:** I was just going to say that. If you’re having a child with a partner, make sure you look into what leave their company offers too, and remember that when you take your full leave, you're setting up others for success. It doesn't matter whether you're a manager or an individual contributor – you’re showing others that you're worthy of this, that it’s necessary, that you can be a working parent, and that you can leave work and come back just as successful. Sometimes it helps me to reframe things in terms of helping others who may not be in the same situation. If I don't advocate for myself and take my full leave, how can I expect others to do the same in the future? ## Lauren and Celia’s experiences **Lauren Hayes:** The first time I went on leave, I had just moved to Seattle. I was in a very high growth period of my career, so I was really nervous about navigating that process. The startup had just been acquired by a bigger company, so I had access to their plans and resources, which ended up being really nice for me. They were very compassionate and completely assuaged my fears. I'm glad I went in early and brought it up. The second time around, I was at an early-stage company, and I was the first mother to take parental leave – we had a few fathers who had taken leave before. Luckily, it was, again, a very understanding and supportive environment. But figuring out what that leave would look like was a process. I live in Texas now, so there was some back and forth in figuring out how parental leave would work for the Seattle-based company that I was working for. We had to do a lot of state-by-state research to figure out what my leave would look like. Again, I think erring on the side of early and open communication was the best path. It gave me a long runway to move my work around and figure out what my leave and my return to work would look like. I was able to take a full four months and not worry about work, which in an early-stage environment is pretty amazing – I got really lucky with that. I think a big part of it was having that length of time to plan. [The playbook to inclusive marketing in SaaSHow do we “effectively” market in the SaaS industry whilst also remaining committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. And how can we keep pushing it forward? 72% of people feel most advertising and communication doesn’t reflect the world around them.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSDivya Durai![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/inclusion.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-playbook-to-inclusive-marketing-in-saas/) **Celia Gouveia:** The first time I went on leave, as I mentioned, I was the absolute first parent to do so at a very early-stage startup. As you can imagine, I was a bit nervous about it. I also had a brand new manager, who I had to announce my leave to on their first day. My leadership team was extremely supportive. We looked at competitors and came to a solution that we felt was competitive for a company of our size. It would allow me to spend enough time working *and* enough time taking care of my newborn baby, returning feeling recharged and rested, but also able to ease my way back into work without overloading myself. My first experience was quite unique but very successful, whereas I found out I was expecting my second child during the pandemic, which was a very different story. Working from home, you may not need to tell people as early because it's not as visible, and there are so many other factors that go into it. I was at a much bigger company at the time with an established policy, so I could just look on their intranet to find the exact policy and fill out a form. I waited a little bit longer since I was remote, it was my second, and I knew there was an established policy. [Creating female leadership teamsRejoice! Things are looking up for female leaders. In a 2020 article, CNBC reported that women were promoted to 12% of CEO positions in America’s top 500 companies.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/luwadlin-bosman-LCwmq67sAmE-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/creating-female-leadership-teams/) Once I shared that information, I was met with the right type of response and emotions from leaders and others. They were very supportive, asking a lot of questions, and determining the path forward. > You want to be able to plan for your leave – everything from finding the right backups early on and having everything documented process-wise for the projects you’re working on, so it’s really easy for someone to cover and you feel good going out. Advocate for yourself to be able to ease back in and not have to come back at 120% – that may not be realistic. You usually need to get up to speed again and maybe go through a mini onboarding. Allow yourself the time and grace to ease in and get comfortable while your colleagues hand work back over. If you can, I highly recommend coming back either part-time or on shorter hours while you adjust. You have to prioritize yourself and your mental wellbeing, and if your company is behind that, that’s going to help you find the right balance going forward. And then set your priorities. Work and family are always a balance – your priority is your family, but you know you have a job as well. If there are certain times that you need to block out of your calendar for drop-offs or childcare, you should absolutely be advocating for and keeping those. That sets the stage for you to be successful, and it shows other parents at your company that it’s normal that you may not be available during certain periods because you are a parent and you have other responsibilities. It's okay to pick up and drop off your child or take them to that weekly music class. If your children are sick, it’s okay to take a day to help them. Finding a company that supports you and cares about you and your family is going to allow you to advocate for yourself and have the most balance and success. --- *Like what you see? Click below to access our exclusive content from some of the mightiest minds in SaaS.👇* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The future of brand, demand and advocacy URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-brand-demand-and-advocacy/ Last updated: 2023-02-09T12:11:19.000Z *This article is based on a talk given at the Future of SaaS festival 2022\. Catch the full unedited presentation [right here](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-3/).* In this article, I want to discuss brand demand and advocacy. I know what you’re thinking: “Here’s yet another thought leader trying to talk about the next big thing,” but you probably haven’t heard of event-led growth (ELG), an exciting way to engage and grow your community! Before we dig into that, let’s break down our main talking points: - [The challenges facing SaaS companies today](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-brand-demand-and-advocacy/#the-challenges-facing-saas-companies-today) - [Why event-led growth is essential for SaaS marketing](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-brand-demand-and-advocacy/#why-event-led-growth-is-essential-for-saas-marketing) - [Rethinking events for the digital age](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-brand-demand-and-advocacy/#rethinking-events-for-the-digital-age) - [The impact of event-led growth on your company](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-brand-demand-and-advocacy/#the-impact-of-event-led-growth-on-your-company) - [Post-event follow-up strategy](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-brand-demand-and-advocacy/#post-event-follow-up-strategy) ## The challenges facing SaaS companies today Before anything else, let's answer the “why” question. Why is ELG important? Why should you read this article? Why do I deserve your time? The CEO of Adobe, Shantanu Narayen, captured this brilliantly when he said, “All businesses must redefine how we engage with customers and deliver digital experiences at an unprecedented scale.” That’s the power of event-led growth. The world has evolved rapidly over the last few years, and that’s not going to stop. We all need to be thinking about the changes we can expect to see in the coming years, and how we as SaaS leaders can prepare for them. Businesses need to evolve with the times. The problem is that marketers haven't changed with the times as well as they should have. As a marketer myself, I'm guilty of not being on my toes as much as I would like. [![A long flight of stairs](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/N7wQRhyn0ucLKkcB5hwSiKZaDOZQE6mue4TOzlun9annQJv4VFFE03ZuLe8VWgwY6idPF2RUbs3Gga6HIBI7lYiw4XUmklI4TZ6cCfbmxvOBkjgSEonuaD3tW--PwJSNlRsjnppTyFdja5yrW5AwN0o)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-brand-demand-and-advocacy) Our world has rapidly become digital-first. When we look at remote work and the Metaverse, they tell us that our habits, lifestyles, and preferences have all fundamentally changed. ### The future is personalization As consumers and buyers, we expect a lot more personalization now. We expect a lot more customization, variations, and options in everything we do, read, consume, or buy online. A lot of those behaviors are spilling over from the B2C context into the B2B context. It's not just B2C SaaS that's going to be impacted by these trends, it's also B2B. There are certain undeniable challenges that almost all SaaS businesses face today. Our costs are rising – no doubt about that. There are now more than 25,000 SaaS companies globally, almost 50% more than what we had about five years back – that's a lot of competition. On top of that, our customers are becoming more mature and more demanding. They don't follow the ideal customer journey anymore – they follow their own path. They do their own research; they compare options; they read reviews; they ask questions in communities. As SaaS marketers and SaaS leaders, we don't really know what the big part of our customers' journey looks like. We think they're going to come to our website and sign up for a free trial or just fill out a form, but that's not what’s happening. There's an entire dark funnel that goes on before they take an action like that. Perhaps the greatest challenge is that most of these 25,000-plus SaaS businesses don't have a unique identity. They don't have a brand that differentiates them from their competition. As the world moves away from paid media towards experiences, they have to keep up. ## Why event-led growth is essential for SaaS marketing The idea that I want to present is that events are a pivotal part of the marketer's playbook, but we haven’t explored them to the greatest extent. The entire structure, definition, and visualization of events need to evolve. We need to move away from the events that we've seen over the past decade or so, and start designing events that are relevant to the modern buyer. It's super important that as SaaS leaders and marketers, we redefine what events mean to us and align them with the broader goals of our organizations. That's why I want to put out the bold claim that events are one of the most important tools in a SaaS marketer's playbook to deliver on future engagement and growth goals. We need to stop thinking about events as hard-to-scale one-off activities that require a lot of time, bandwidth, and budget to pull off. Maybe you only do events for brand conferences, and you find that they’re an unreliable GTM channel. That’s the old way of doing events. We need to think about events in the context of this new world. Events have massive potential to improve every stage of a SaaS organization's pipeline without being too draining on the pocket. From brand awareness to demand creation, demand capture, revenue creation, retention, advocacy, community, and evangelism, there's no reason why events cannot play a pivotal role in ensuring that you're able to hit all those goals. [![A crowd of people attending an event](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/m8hak_DF4J_2OmViJyivILUXIVblpbffujZL2vCAkaMrBmuTRRrL4AlKfMaUOY30Js9q39ygvY_p5AplSeRQr_S1qjm-jObywpUyFDRNcork7bAqN5KSYrCSPeiXa2dX2znVNtYMyR5HKGw2Yit77F0H12nGNMUyQVULxuR26HTzS-1550237E-nOQ)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-brand-demand-and-advocacy) I know this because I've hosted and organized more than 50 events over the last five years. I come with expertise in hosting events of all scales and sizes, for different audiences and in a range of formats. I’ve run 15-minute events, and I’ve run 48-hour non-stop events. At Airmeet we’ve seen thousands of events over the last couple of years. We’ve learned from our customers and concluded that it's about time we formalized these experiences into a playbook that other SaaS businesses could benefit from. That's what brings me to ELG. You’ve probably heard of ELG, SLG, and CLG; by no means is any one of these a magic bullet for all your problems. As SaaS businesses, you could find success from pulling off any one of those playbooks, or you could combine a bunch of playbooks. It all comes down to the resources and ambition. We built this ELG playbook because we saw a massive opportunity to create meaningful connections between our audiences, industry influencers, and our brands and partners. All these connections are being created as a customized, personalized experience for all these stakeholders, and they support our company’s core goals. Events are no longer just one part of the overall marketing equation – they’re what defines your marketing playbook. They define your entire company's ROI. That's because event-led growth is a systematic method to discover, engage, and grow your customers through an immersive and integrated strategy that uses events across the lifecycle of your customers' journey. ## Rethinking events for the digital age I might be reaching here, but hear me out. You've got this AAAARRR funnel that most marketers and SaaS companies tend to follow – awareness, acquisition, and activation, followed by revenue, retention, and referral. All six of those stages can be profoundly influenced by a systematic events strategy that moves your customers down the funnel. You just need to think about what the different stages, formats, and sizes of those events look like. You can work that out through the framework that we've developed. It consists of three different stages: discover, engage, and grow. You can have a variety of different event formats, spread across the entire customer lifecycle, and these events and experiences can help you to discover new markets, new prospects, and new ideas that will engage your audiences. They’ll help you engage your most high-value customers and your community. They’ll help you grow your revenue, your referrals, your set of advocates, and your community. [![man hosting a webinar](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/RLYOizOG4jzyHkM4nxuwwxMv9tvqMdLvK42hY7Y8wMFT-yDzCrRVeILLkEtqJRxySi_JAgUto8EZH74biBWWknZ26MwkUqOtdEI69etuhqHzKmPaJVBKTxvgBqo1C8S-uNCInFzySe6gopr2i_tXSCk)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-brand-demand-and-advocacy) ### Exploring different formats We’re all guilty of half-heartedly exploring different event formats and running them in a one-off fashion. Maybe we just run a few webinars or do one annual summit, only to realize that we got a spike in our traffic, but the results are not sticky so we decide not to do that again – it's too much effort and too much money. That's the very reason why we need to rethink events in this new world. We need to stop doing one-off events and make them part of a consistent strategy. We need to create event waves so that each event ends with the start of the next event. There are so many ways to explore this. While you might only run summits annually, there's nothing to stop you from doing more frequent masterclasses, roundtables, thought leadership seminars, community meetups, or connection-oriented speed networking events. If you think of events as a one-off strategy within your marketing, sales, or GTM org, it's not going to be successful – you're just leaving money and value on the table. Instead, you should think of events as a consistent growth strategy that impacts every metric your organization cares about. ### The problem with events Let's be honest – attending events, especially virtual events, can feel empty. It can feel like you're sitting in an empty hall while you listen to somebody on stage. I often wonder why I can’t just watch a recording of this event later. Why can’t I just save my time by watching it as a YouTube video at double speed? This fixation on live online events is an unnecessary byproduct of the transition from in-person field marketing-driven events. It’s time to redesign events from a digital native standpoint. That's true not just for events, but for every other journey from the offline to the online world, whether it’s the emergence of eCommerce as an evolution of brick-and-mortar stores or any other process that was initially designed as a replica of the in-person experience. [![an empty conference room](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/rA8X6RicU_Go-_YvF0m6Z1GQ6ThivQiorzti40VrQ1xtP2SS8sQ6EdU-2CIXz7rhriOIHt6psryVL1tYrOAXTrha1BP_oBrj2Y5o0BU15MipvAT6THLCfSEUHmBl2wO-uPP_Pg8k3vj1OpFNbsxiH3c)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-brand-demand-and-advocacy) In this new digital event era, we need to think about attendees first. Their experience should drive all our events from here on out. That's one of the core philosophies of event-led growth – interconnected experiences that build a deeper affinity for your brand, your product, your mission, your vision, your messaging, and the story behind it. We need to ask ourselves the following: - Why can't attendees just watch an event recording later. - Why do people need to attend in real-time? - How do we make our events memorable? - How can we make sure they don't feel tired? - How do we ensure that people stick around from the start to the very end? The answer is that instead of making your event content heavy, you need to make it connection heavy. You need to design it for experiences beyond attendees’ immediate requirements, with short, engaging snippets of content sprinkled with networking opportunities. Allow attendees to build genuine relationships. ## The impact of event-led growth on your company Event-led growth is a playbook for you to grow your business. It works because it’s a force multiplier. The impact of events spreads far beyond the events themselves. Let me tell you about the three major impacts ELG can have on your company. ### ELG brings your entire GTM function together Event-led growth is not just for your marketing function, but also for your sales function, your accounts team, your CS team, and every other team involved in your go-to-market. With every team united around this playbook, you can run integrated GTM campaigns. With event-led growth, you no longer need to wonder “What's my content strategy? What's my social strategy? What's my demand generation, SEO, or paid marketing strategy?” When you put events at the center of your organization, it almost looks like a solar system – events are the sun that everything else revolves around. ### The atomization effect I'm not talking about the lead generation or pipeline generation impact of events here, significant though they are. I'm talking about the ancillary benefits. The Atomization effect essentially means that each of your events will be a source of unique content for you to publish. You don't need to think about what your next blog title is going to be or what your ebook is going to look like. You don't need to have $15/hour content writers churning out articles that are supposedly going to attract high-value customers. If you're worried about creating unique, insightful content, you only need to bring together the thought leaders of your space through events, then work with them to create unique, insightful content. Each event can provide the foundation for a series of blog articles or video snippets. Your YouTube strategy, your blog, and your social media strategy all get taken care of with the post-event atomization impact. ### Events drive revenue throughout the pipeline Events have a top-of-the-funnel lead generation impact – we know about that, right? But they’re also a massive ABM play and a great way to attract high-value prospects. We've seen this across a lot of our customers, we’ve seen it internally at Airmeet, and we’ve seen it in a lot of other successful SaaS companies as well. When they have great deals in the pipeline that the sales team is struggling to close, hosting a very focused masterclass or networking session with the leaders of the company helps them close those deals much faster. Arguably the most important impact of events is the huge impact they have on your pipeline revenue. Not only do events help you attract top-of-the-funnel leads, but they also help you turn low-and medium-intent prospects into high-intent prospects. This is not just about the 10% of your leads that are converted to opportunities; events ensure that you're able to engage the remaining 90% of your customer database consistently and strategically. That's what I mean when I say that events shouldn’t be thought of as one-off efforts. Each event should start at the closure of a previous event – that's how you keep moving your low-intent leads to the medium-intent segment, turn medium-intent leads into high-intent leads, make those high-intent leads into prospects, and turn those prospects into closed deals. That's the impact of events. ## Post-event follow-up strategy Before I leave you to implement event-led growth in your organizations, I’d like to take a moment to talk to you about your post-event follow-up strategy. How you approach this depends on the kind of event you're hosting. I'll give you three simple examples. The first is a large summit, the second is a medium-scale masterclass, and the third is a micro-scale roundtable. [![a roundtable discussion between three women](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/zItTNQLtyCvl6SFsSPtuTjCRmxFWB1ksr2v-49qTs_xnLOx4BkhkdrwMlKZ9AHQHeSJrIaokm9YeEnqsz8x60nCOUXOJtSRL6n2dJTzw_c7DrYs2xKL6o5WFLW-Ct044OS7cm2-nAnfd-0Ol3RsSVEc)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-brand-demand-and-advocacy) Ideally, at a summit, you’ll have anything from 500 to 5000 attendees, and you’ll probably host this kind of event three times a year at most. The post-event strategy here is very different from the strategy for smaller events. Ownership lies with the marketing team, who use those event attendees in a list-building exercise. We start nurturing them, engaging them in our next micro-masterclass series, referring them to our case studies, involving them in our crowdsourcing content efforts, and we run surveys and polls with them. The reason for this is we label our large-scale summit attendee leads as low-intent. They haven’t yet expressed interest in a conversation with our sales team, and they're not signed up for a demo right now, so we keep nurturing them through a sales process. When you look at the master classes and the roundtables, the post-event follow-up is a lot more focused. Why? Because the audience is smaller and a lot more curated and we have something of an understanding of their intent and their topics of interest. We work with our sales team and our accounts team to follow up with them in a more customized fashion. We've also explored sending out swag before and after our roundtables, which helps us keep driving the conversation forward. That's the key takeaway: events drive conversation around your product! ### How I launched a SaaS in 60 days with an empty pocket URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-i-launched-a-saas-in-60-days-with-an-empty-pocket/ Last updated: 2022-08-18T13:29:34.000Z You have an idea and want to turn it into a full-fledged product but are afraid of costs and don’t have the business acumen or knowledge to get funds for others to help you build it. That sounds a tad depressing, but don’t falter yet because if you are a developer you may be able to cut costs immensely in exchange for the time and drive to learn new things. If you aren’t, no worries – creating a no-code landing page is eerily simple. I’ve been gathering the drive and motivation to build a digital product for a few years, and last December I started building my first SaaS. I know not everyone is a developer, but if you have even limited skills in tech you can create a no-code landing page to validate your idea. Let’s see the main steps in building a SaaS and doing it efficiently. ## 1\. Having an idea *Where can I get a great idea?* You may already have numerous ideas and any of them may be the next unicorn SaaS to be showcased on ProductHunt, but you never know which will take off. My idea was exactly the lack of an idea, so I built an AI app idea generation SaaS called GenIdea. ![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/eR37Q_GY6LX-1LZ_GCDi_AjbxnnXjN8Zhw4OCz6tF9c0xOaVTVjkg11OkAECFj6wG6cUDGbnsmfPoCcBjpXAGpHNJYXl6jr0Clttpk4SgR0_AQJ-LWNu_TbiOZSl-3e_6kifV17YoP7qNNvbE1pAnxg) *GenIdea Preview* Your idea might not be entirely digital. You might want to create a platform for real-life services like food and transport in your city if the local market isn’t already oversaturated with such apps. [Your guide to SaaS metricsIt goes without saying that Saas orgs want to grow and scale, right? Whether you’re a hot new startup, mid-growth, or a late-growth established brand, all SaaS orgs want their revenue to skyrocket.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/08/metrics.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-guide-to-saas-metrics/) ## 2\. Validating the idea *Why do I care what others care about?* Ideas are great but they need to solve a particular problem, even if it’s just for a small niche. If people don’t see your idea as a solution to their problems, they won’t even look at it let alone buy it. ![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/5jFzWP0uvjH_4oenymk6vrz1jxwy7jOU_M1J-jv6J_uiuNusEfqTr24mdpw-i4K4KG6QmMbIsY_31O7qA7O1vmtAM7qbI3URvPmF9o9fcx1Ub0FauEngP-TqtKJkIpD917UoUxt6tPxF_8WScOdV5Do) *Apps count usage across age categories* If we're talking about mobile apps, research shows that users access a limited number of apps daily, and getting a spot in this exclusive category is hard, especially when competing with tech giants and apps like TikTok or Instagram. Therefore, idea validation is essential, but how can you do it and do it mostly for free? First, you need to build a simple yet convincing landing page to present your product, and you can do that with a popular no-code tool, like Webflow. Secondly, you need a feedback or email recollection form somewhere on the website so you can gather opinions regarding the need for an app or platform like yours. I’ve gone for a more complex approach and built the MVP without this step; I also skipped the ‘building an audience’ step due to laziness and a ‘do it later’ mentality, which were mistakes. ## 3\. Building an audience *What is an audience and why do I care?* I know you just want to see your idea take form and admire it, but if you want to have a chance at getting it monetized so others can cherish it, this step is essential. Having a great product and no one knowing about it is the most common cause of failure in launching a successful SaaS. Not having a social media account with thousands of followers isn’t an excuse, and the best way to fix that is to make one now. ![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/jTDS6eQxO7jHdNmnOkEJQb9ehAhwqbZmSDL7mmKwbAv-SKaX4hn8aFfAKKeMWhkfAGK19jsf65OQduDWoh59K1FAcbDwAl0imTSMIL-D6Z57hv18DvOFqRHEjn_mziqq63J2rAhIgNELqVFDRnksAaE) *Sample Medium stats* A great platform for logging and connecting with potential users is none other than Medium since many developers use it and can provide feedback or even advice. Creating a series of weekly DevLog articles or even a YouTube channel covering your progress is a great idea. (I wish I’d done that already) Another way of reaching potential users is by creating an email list with a service like MailChimp. I used it for the subscription form, and it had a nice developer experience. It’s also free for up to 2000 contacts. [Automating compliance with Meiran GalisMeiran has worked with hundreds of SaaS companies, including small startups and Fortune 500s, and built compliance programs for rapidly growing organizations. He’s passionate about implementing security controls that leverage automation, reduce the cost of compliance, and mitigate business risks.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/08/compliance.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/automating-compliance-with-meiran-galis-2/) ## 4\. Creating the MVP *How can I do that for free?* Creating a software product is a complex and rather expensive endeavor, and doing it quickly is even more difficult. I’ve narrowed down what I consider the fastest techs to use to develop a SaaS. ![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/hSF5l7IEHOzibS2wpjFMSRaWrmyvkjAiMzDg6cfxn2dSLOEzCl636YQN_sTQ4VZEpOlOY3JyO4LdvCOTiBwirCRWrxlaVP3-_8aWvF9j1mBHNhJ5gudyBkuL1c7yxfbexs70Pq0w9mkTpajIvWPh4lQ) *GenIdea MVP Landing Page* 1. Design – Figma 2. Front-end framework – React or NextJS 3. CSS – TailwindCSS (speedy dev experience) 4. Back-end framework — NextJS API Routes (and Express if needed) 5. Database – Supabase or Firebase 6. Payments – Stripe 7. Authentication – Google or Github OAuth (both have out-of-the-box integration with Supabase) 8. Hosting – Vercel What’s great about all these tools and platforms is that they are free throughout the development cycle and rather cheap with subscription-based payment plans. Being able to handle all those different technologies and integration on your own may be a handful for a singular developer but it’s still doable. It took me less than 30 days to implement the basic functionality, but I got lost in tweaking and removing features from the beta launch, which bumped it up to 60 days. [The art and science of product launches | Future of SaaSDiscover key learnings from Devang Sachdev’s product launching career. Including tips on the right size launches, internal marketing requirements, and post-launch activities.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1556761175-5973dc0f32e7?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDF8fHNhYXN8ZW58MHx8fA&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-art-and-science-of-product-launches/) ## 5\. Launching and promoting *Where and what to do?* The final hour approaches. After many days spent designing, coding, and configuring the necessary services and features, it’s time to launch. But what does a launch really consist of? It’s important to announce the launch via social media like Twitter or LinkedIn, and even writing a Medium article showcasing its primary features can be worthwhile. Supposing you already have an audience on any of those platforms, you can proceed into the more technical part of things. Getting ranked high up on Google Searches can boost your reach immensely but how do you get there? SEO dictates whether your website's content is high quality and matches the search query of a user. Luckily, if you choose NextJS, SEO should be easy to achieve. ![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/VOIbLysA84SWzZa0DizhJM2zygK4346lcHmnP_b3CwjbUNBVE09BUXwG0e2mQypIRi4m_ZZaeQHJTeFVd4MGVKJcrsYkxx-mJjJmcY6PO8D-z9FPIvwpchbRnJldA_kBn5nulk9vvGZgYgjCOmM-twk) *Sample Usage of custom Meta component for SEO* The most important meta tags you must make sure to add to your pages are: - Title - Description - Image (OG format for social media) Make sure to get a domain that fits your SaaS branding, the most modern and popular end with .app, .io, and .com, but they may be more expensive (i.e. upwards of $20). Configuring a domain for a Vercel project is insanely simple – just select the domain name and branch you want to deploy from. One thing to note is that Vercel adds a special header to all branches except production ones, so they don’t get indexed for SEO. Also, make sure to follow the instructions and configure on the domain provider side as well. I used GoDaddy and got a bit lost in the interface while trying to find the DNS management page. The final step to making sure your website gets indexed by Google is adding it to the Google Search Console. Adding a property (domain) allows you to view analytics and configure the SEO visibility of your website. ![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/DFy1Vdn7bTzgl8O18WRfGjZXyuqbVBGIY_7c0jq_eDp6ahrNWj2WlurJJSXOcuPqcN_JDqrYh2BqZ46KorkVV7Ve7q018N8flEQ0NZYWvmhJ3YNE85MWuj7IkbPPIUDNWZLn-4aq5Hx_oU5gALidglM) *Google Analytics 4 UI* If you want to get extra crafty with extremely detailed analytics, you can integrate Google Analytics 4 and log user behavior once on your app to better understand how others use it. Don’t forget to list your app on ProductHunt for more reach – you never know whether you’ll get the top or not. --- Enjoyed this article? Feast your eyes on our exclusive content with a FoSaaS membership.**👇** [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How to provide direct support for sales URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-provide-direct-support-for-sales/ Last updated: 2022-08-23T18:45:35.000Z This article is evident from the title itself. We're going to discuss tips on managing the sales team directly! Well, it isn't as straightforward as it would sound until I put it this way, '[Sales support](https://www.saasalliance.io/driving-revenue-beyond-sales-with-gabriella-deflorio-at-prelay/) is any other entity of an organization that can filter or analyze data and resources to make the task of salespeople a breeze.' Today it is evident that sales support performs better when sales teams management uses automation. - *35% of marketers report that the top reason to implement marketing automation is to streamline marketing and sales efforts.* - *79% of companies use automation for marketing, 45% for sales.* Businesses are inclined towards investing in [tools ](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-sales-enablement-tools-for-saas-leaders/)that run without fatigue, are cost-effective and offer efficient solutions. So let's talk about it in greater depth now. **What do you mean by sales support?** Sales support is a collection of all the resources that assist a sales firm's efforts by handling basic tasks. For example, resources like support material, decks, and other employees help sales agents to focus on prospecting and completing transactions. ## 4 Ways to provide direct support for sales ### 1\. Your team must have access to direct dial customers If your sales reps have to use a head office phone to reach out to potential clients or prospects, it creates resistance. Instead, offer them the absolute liberty of performing direct sales – an autonomous process of dealing with clients builds accountability. As a result, your salespeople will perform faster and achieve targets. Below are some statistics to support the idea of direct dial customers. According to The Pipeline: - *It takes 22 minutes to connect using switchboard numbers compared to just 5 minutes using direct dials.* - *A sales rep using a direct dial is 147% likelier to reach a prospect at the VP level than a rep who is not using a direct dial.* If you are convinced to try this strategy, you wouldn't want to spend on research – we suggest approaching a B2B data provider. [How to develop your sales enablement teamIn this article, I’ll discuss org design and specifically restructuring sales enablement to mimic a traditional product dev team in order to build the sales enablement organization in a way that makes accessing investment dollars based on proven outcomes achievable and maximizes your impact.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSChris Grebowiec![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/ricardo-arce-cY_TCKr5bek-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-develop-your-sales-enablement-team/) ### 2\. Track sales performance and identify areas of improvement *"The most important thing you can do to improve your \[sales team's\] performance is to figure out how well \[they're\] actually performing now and then make a plan to \[help them do\] better," says Huizenga.* Huizenga's strategy applies to anything that you wish to improve. And I love to put it this way, "*You must know WHERE YOU ARE before you can decide WHERE YOU WANNA GO!*" Therefore, to identify what aspects need improvement, the managers need a sales teams management system that analyzes sales success throughout the sales cycle. The system allows managers to assess each member of the sales team's performance and help them perform better. You may also try considering creating a sales rep performance scorecard. But don't know what metrics to put in a scorecard? Guess what, we have all been there! Below are the top 10 sales performance metrics to give you a kickstart: 1. Percentage of lost deals 2. Percentage of deals won 3. Length of sales cycle 4. Average size of a deal 5. Customer lifetime value 6. Response time 7. Customer acquisition cost 8. Revenue by channel 9. Product or service revenue 10. Market penetration *Note: Performance metrics aren't about 'Finding Flaws' but 'Areas of Improvement.'* [Bridging the gap between sales & marketingSaleswhale’s Catherine Farley, Director of Marketing, and Brandon Gargan, Director of Sales, discuss bridging the gap between the two, common reasons for misalignment, and the nature of the relationship between the teams at Saleswhale.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/sonja-guina-fbjSCmE5iDI-unsplash-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/bridging-the-gap-between-sales-marketing/) ### 3\. Efforts and time spend in after-sales Another situation is where you get lost in post-sales communication with customers! Once the deal is closed, your sales rep must move on to the next lead instead of instructing the nitty gritty during the customer onboarding process. Allow your sales representatives to resume selling right away. And hire someone who is dedicated to after sales customer follow-up. A specific sales support rep would focus on growing clientele, providing onboarding assistance, and achieving client happiness. To achieve customer satisfaction, your sales support team should focus on supporting the direct sales team while keeping a bird's eye view of the whole customer service team. [Content types for customer educationMany organizations are turning to customer education as a solution to improve retention, increase spend, and drive customer satisfaction and loyalty. But what exactly is included under “customer education”?![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSVicky Kennedy![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1471107340929-a87cd0f5b5f3?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDEzfHxibG9nfGVufDB8fHx8MTYyMjczNzYyNQ&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/content-types-for-customer-education/) ### 4\. Offer product training: Your sales reps need to be aware of any new features or products you introduce to the market. After the Product team implements the new features with the help of developers, your leaders and salespeople must know the details to leverage it in their next pitch. It could be not easy to close deals if you are in a competitive segment. According to LearnHub, - *Studies show that after 90 days, the sales reps forget 84% of all sales training content.* So, how can we solve this? By offering consistent sales coaching and training. The results from studies conducted by Gartner are astonishing: - *Sales managers spend only 5% of their time coaching, but sales coaching increases sales productivity by 88%* A significant step towards it would be to hire a product specialist to provide in-depth product training. Your potential customers will receive the information without wasting the time and attention of your sales reps. A product specialist would upskill your sales department and keep them informed about product changes, updates, sales methods, and perks. ### Conclusion So, how can you enhance the process of managing a sales team? A regular monthly stand-up is recommended to meet the leaders, product specialists and salespeople to discuss best practices, wins and update recent developments. Starting from learning that there is a scope of improvement to implementing one strategy at a time would significantly impact your direct sales team’s performance. I wish you all the best in closing your next big deal! --- *Enjoyed this article? Check out all the exclusive insights from SaaS experts with a FoSaaS membership*.**👇** [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Modern GTM playbook for B2B SaaS URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/modern-gtm-playbook-for-b2b-saas/ Last updated: 2022-08-23T10:48:53.000Z The phenomenal success of hyper-growth companies like Slack, Dropbox, Atlassian, Datadog, and Snowflake has triggered many discussions about modern go-to-market (GTM) methods for B2B SaaS, including PLG, PLS, community-led, ABM, marketplace, and others. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/08/GTM-graph.png) But how are all these modern methods related, and even more importantly, how and when should they be combined? This post aims to put the main methods into one framework to create an actionable modern GTM playbook for B2B SaaS start-ups. The playbook is applicable to most business software categories, including those with complex data input, process integration, or configuration challenges, assuming that these products leverage the latest techniques like a modern data stack, modern iPaaS, or no-code/low code. The playbook proposes five phases to systematically build a new B2B business from zero revenue to high annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth. ## Phase 1: Find the PMF The objective of the first phase is to build a community of co-creators who help you to find your product-market-fit (PMF). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/08/gtm-2.png) **The actions are as follows:** ### Build a community of co-creators Collaborate with users and partners who struggle with the problem you solve and would love to use your product if it existed. Ensure that the community represents your ideal customer profile (ICP) and that members are active contributors. Avoid confirmation bias, by actively looking for feedback that disproves your point of view. Use an “invitation only” approach and appoint a community manager at this early stage in your GTM journey to facilitate the engagement. When targeting developers, community building can encompass open-source software (OSS) development. [Your guide to SaaS metricsIt goes without saying that Saas orgs want to grow and scale, right? Whether you’re a hot new startup, mid-growth, or a late-growth established brand, all SaaS orgs want their revenue to skyrocket.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/08/metrics.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-guide-to-saas-metrics/) ### Find product-market-fit Explore use cases, product designs, and pricing with the community. Build the minimum viable product (MVP) and iterate with your members. Once the initial community is happy with the MVP, use founder selling to win 10–20 new paying customers outside the community. This will prove your message fit and confirm your understanding of the required manual onboarding and purchasing process. Phase 1 is achieved when you have found your PMF and your first users have become fans. Run a survey to ask users how disappointed they would be if the product did not exist. If 40% are very disappointed you have achieved PMF. At this point, you will have generated your first ARR. ![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/2SdyU0oVEy3pJpaL8Tnx6I5bxhc2wT6FNn49uw2yW74ob49J8CZWTsZYs8ehzgcg3cC_O7XXvCA_JtW-7vsK8RGQ_ZktLONZQbql7k_aslWmapck8_HslzQ3kT1-J_-ZdGmg5ICAQZgCVKH1nsypaJs) Don’t hire a VP sales or field sales team now – wait until phase three. If you hire sales too early, you’ll gain the benefits of short-term revenue but lose your chance to build a modern, high-growth engine. The sales team will carry you in many different directions, distracting focus from phase two. ## Phase 2: Build a PLG flywheel Phases two to five focus on developing the go-to-market fit (GTM-fit) and building the growth engine. The objective of phase two is to build a product-led-growth (PLG) flywheel – the backbone of your growth engine. A flywheel is, in contrast to a funnel, a self-amplifying system. In traditional sales-led growth models, marketing and sales investments are proportional to the resulting sales funnel. More marketing investments create more leads, so more field sales reps are needed to execute these leads. It’s an expensive, linear model. In contrast, the flywheel is a recursive model that amplifies itself after an initial investment, with lower ongoing product and marketing activities. Your community users will refer your product to peers, who sign up on your website and onboard themselves, all without any human intervention from your team. After using the software, some become advocates who recommend you to their peers. Product-related network effects are also important and can be achieved by adding collaboration features. This is the type of word-of-mouth (WOM) and in-product network effect we want to create in phase two. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/08/gtm-4.png) **In phase two, the actions are as follows:** ### Build self-serve user onboarding Focus your product development on programming the entire onboarding process into the product without a human in the loop. Here, your goal is to deliver quick time-to-value to keep your users motivated to continue testing and using your product. Use product analytics tools and work closely with your community to make onboarding more and more frictionless. ### Implement freemium or free trial Implementing a freemium or a free trial is a great way to convert active test users into paying customers. Users should be able to purchase your solution with their credit card inside your product or at a cloud marketplace. Cloud marketplaces like AWS and Google offer great incentives by counting dollars spent on your product toward the customer’s annual spending commitment to get a lower rate. ### Add collaboration features When someone who’s using your product invites a colleague (who is not a user) to collaborate with them inside it, you gain the strongest possible endorsement and referral. This is a fantastic way to market your product and a great way to generate network effects. Witness the collaboration capabilities used by Slack or Zoom to encourage existing users to invite new users to the product, who in turn invite more new users. ### Add referral features Even if you have the world’s greatest product, it might not attract a ton of product reviews. This speaks to the importance of building prompts into your product to encourage users to post reviews elsewhere. For example, when someone gives you an outstanding Net Promoter Score (9 or 10), provide a link and encouragement to leave a review on G2 or your website. [Automating compliance with Meiran GalisMeiran has worked with hundreds of SaaS companies, including small startups and Fortune 500s, and built compliance programs for rapidly growing organizations. He’s passionate about implementing security controls that leverage automation, reduce the cost of compliance, and mitigate business risks.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/08/compliance.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/automating-compliance-with-meiran-galis-2/) ### Build a brand Here are some tips to help you build a successful brand: - Remember: your goal is to attract potential customers to your website and convert them to the freemium or free trial with a consistent and outstanding user experience. - Position your brand either to disrupt a practice or champion a role. - Design an engaging brand identity that’s codified and consistently presented at all touch points. - Make sure your name is easy to remember, say out loud, and write down. This will make it much easier for users to refer you to friends and colleagues. - Outbound and inbound marketing should leverage thought leadership with community contributions, as well as benchmark metrics for compelling content. - Forget the standard search engine optimization (SEO) playbook based on the most popular keywords to drive traffic. Build your SEO architecture around your product USP and real human questions to drive sales. ### Establish a success team It will take time to fully automate the onboarding, renewal, and expansion process. Start with people who handhold users to help them fill process gaps. Over time, and with more automation, your success team will be able to use product analytics data to proactively help users engage and extend successfully, so your team expands to support more accounts at higher quality with less staff. Don’t hire people with an issue-to-resolution mindset, hire people with an issue-to-retention mindset to drive the net retention rate (NRR). ### Establish a growth team You have limited financial resources and many areas where you could invest to get your flywheel working. To prioritize investments from an end-to-end perspective, establish a growth team with members from product management, engineering, marketing, and success. Getting your flywheel up and running at an ever-accelerating rate is a joint responsibility. ### Serve the community The community is a micro version of your total market. It gives you direct access to the topics, ideas, wants, and needs of your current and potential customers. Consider the community to be part of your team. Identify who will tell your story and help them to do it. Align the distribution of your content with their goals and recognize member contributions. The community will be an acquisition channel, product feedback mechanism, and brand differentiator. ### Implement a data platform From this point on, the modern GTM playbook is driven by user behavior data. You can deploy a customer data platform or build a modern data stack with a data warehouse to consolidate the data from all the different tools you will deploy over time e.g., product analytics, marketing, success, and a CRM. There are many KPIs to track, including the number of site visits, signups, activations, billings, renewals, and related conversion rates. The data platform should also enable feature cohort analysis, marketing attribution analysis, etc., to investigate the “why” behind the “what”. Phase 2 is an ongoing optimization process, without a defined endpoint. The top quartile achieve web-to-signup conversions of 10% and free-to-paid conversations of 27%. Once your flywheel is running, you can add more languages to enter new markets or start building and delivering additional products to support more of your customers’ value chain (land and expand), but ensure that your first product is self-served before you build out the portfolio. With the help of this product-led-growth flywheel, you will gradually improve your ARR customer acquisition cost, gross profit, and NRR. ![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/RLZCHGlALiOlLnEhkPcY-JTmBK_rYORIMMSytKDSFWYelRV2_b8xh4m3iiujCQBq6S8ZeNNNTXthS20E06BpdPp0uWsHX2ZSkn5vOXHFxxwd8sijQ6hGolSu0l24PN6aaXWnviQdznGGJReZpboXGZA) ## Phase 3: Add a PLS amplifier To boost the conversion rate in mid-markets and/or enable selling to enterprises, phase three adds a product-led sales (PLS) amplifier to the PLG flywheel. PLS is based on strong user self-qualifications with clear behavioral indicators that a group of users inside an account are ready to purchase. If a test user (or team) is actively engaged with the freemium or trial version, and they are an ICP, they are qualified and can be approached by an inside sales rep to guide them through the buying process. When focusing on large enterprises, where the user is not the buyer and there are many gatekeepers like infosecurity in the buying center, such a hybrid product-led sales motion is necessary and successful. In these cases, users test the product and recommend it to their managers for purchase, with support from your inside sales team. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/08/gtm-6-1.png) **In phase 3, the actions are as follows:** ### Define product qualified leads (PQL) A PQL is typically identified by a combination of 1) the number of times the user has returned to the product, 2) the number of features the user has tested, and 3) how soon after signing up the user tries out additional features. ### Establish an inside sales team Because the PQL has already tested the product and understands the value, the inside sales rep does not have to sell the value (the typical job of every salesperson). Never forget, your PQL did not click the “call me” button, so they’re not asking for a sales pitch. Instead, the main role of the rep is to support the user through the company’s purchase process with a consultative and helpful tone. [Moving away from a ‘checkbox’ sales training mentality with Jaren Krchnavi, SiemensMoving away from the ‘checkbox’ mentality and towards a business-oriented performance measuring system can be tricky, but the payoff is substantial.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSDaniel O’Dowd![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/08/checkbox.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/moving-away-from-a-checkbox-sales-training-mentality-with-jaren-krchnavi-siemens/) ### Add enterprise-grade features When working with enterprises, additional features will be required like improved security, single sign-on, SLA support, audit logging, etc. Bear in mind that your goal is to let users self-serve their purchase as much as possible, without the inside sales rep, as this is cheaper and scales better. Carefully monitor what your reps do to support their users through these journeys, so you can improve the flywheel accordingly. PLS is a great ARR amplifier for PLG. ![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/AnTbG9_K_6gbHK87R-CvonbaikARpgm16Zy_7b2N9aHCIV4vcUXoSMVepDT7B3KOz0Kj3PR7VJ8Zcn9fERk7qEyeTBbgsdVgUiysuhVgLEzHzDlFaFnPPFcyNX4BMv21rC7xrrRpJFNUOp0mP3zu65I) ## Phase 4: Add a field-sales amplifier For a limited number of your largest ICP accounts, it makes sense to overlay a classical sales-led-growth motion on top of your PLG flywheel. Only field sales teams can expose, recognize, and create the market for the product across the whole enterprise. This can happen in multiple deals with a land-and-expand model. The goal is to strategically approach these six- to seven-figure ARR accounts. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/08/gtm-9.png) **In phase 4, the actions are as follows:** ### Implement account-based marketing (ABM) ABM monitors the purchase intent of your key accounts before they even visit your website. Tools track all the search behavior inside these accounts to help you predict their buying stage (target, awareness, consideration, decision, purchase). This provides the intelligence you need to focus on ABM campaigns that deliver the right content to the right people in the buying center, drive them through the process, and provide marketing qualified leads (MQL) to the field sales team. ### Establish a field sales team Now it’s time to bring in a quota-carrying sales team, the people who pitch your value to executives in key accounts. In addition to the larger revenue impact of top-down sales, combining field sales with the self-serve PLG flywheel comes into play when the proof-of-concept (POC) for your product starts. Users can onboard and test the product immediately, so they vote for your solution over non-PLG competitors, even if your solution has fewer features or is more expensive. Enterprises are always rightfully concerned that product adoption will be slow, and that change management will involve way too much effort. Field sales can be a real ARR amplifier for PLG, but only for large customers or customers with significant potential. While you won’t see a high number of new logos, you’ll definitely gain the logos with the highest ARR. ![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/WHLJ17LIHAnFYKeAYCKq6XWEyWdoTjS6CX8my4riSo3Ecf-i579vGRnj6_8mmoaidqYYsb4Y56PkHHKEDd-fuiImemiBPvzaRpmH5lihFrOOnOaQhQZ7UTpvlSW3-1RS0DJJ7wmZRYw6LfsMcHOoea0) ## Phase 5: Build a partner ecosystem Finally, in phase 5, it’s time to leverage your customer base and brand to build a partner ecosystem. Your customer base may be using products from other independent software vendors (ISV) who offer adjacent tools, so you can become a channel for them to reach your customers. Of course, their applications or data offerings must be fully integrated into your product and optimally available as self-serve. Another option is to leverage your strong brand and integrate your offering into other ISVs’ apps **In phase 5, the actions are as follows:** and content stores and as a component of a system integrator’s (SI) offering. ![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/AJeCvVMYkT7O61FAj1QDxVDDF_560NI5c-JPgKoMyY52fgGo972Z05dDke2vLLBAFT2hE2UfPFHy-vCmovou0hVuVlco183D5rBaH1fIx-czFcs5DtcS0-k4BMvfsJB0SC2aadOJfjd6rLpKqLrzSwo) ### Build an app and content store Leverage your customer base to build an app and content store as a channel for ISV partners, while still using your existing credit-card purchase infrastructure to bill your customers and pay your partners. Integrate your vertical product extensions into the store, too. This also provides a great basis for further growth by extending your product offering through an M&A strategy, because you can see which apps are most valuable. ### Use indirect channels Leverage your brand and integrate your product into the app and content stores of other ISVs and SI offerings. Note that while good attach rates are only 1%–2%, a major app store like Salesforce with 150,000 customers could deliver 1,000 new accounts. However, you’ll need a strong brand and a big partner or many partners to move the needle with indirect channels. ### Establish a channel partner team Build a dedicated channel partner team to grow your partner network and manage these relationships. The partner ecosystem is typically the icing on the cake because it leverages the customer base and brand you’ve built in the previous phases. It’s well worth the effort – your partner system will further increase ARR growth. ![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/hqitejmAY6tJrQRED9Fd0p6xlHOBcVM4ddCVjJmpJJfLGSqeLAJoMC5Ys2IMaBIGnhoF9UPr-SwvgvlbWrwFPAgx7Q0ydNXa3gbEIruhvVTSkCgAoYa9otTllppqHo_5Rk4e9YzsjhDwg17YwsSk2sM) ### Summary I hope you got a little inspiration from this modern GTM playbook for B2B SaaS. Of course, all the methods and techniques must be carefully reviewed in the context of your own offering. My goal was to show a path to a modern high-growth engine, to help you make critical decisions in light of your broader growth strategy. Have fun growing! --- *Enjoyed this article. Check out all the exclusive insights with a FoSaaS membership*.**👇** [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### SaaS Metrics URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-metrics/ Last updated: 2023-02-22T10:33:19.000Z It goes without saying that Saas orgs want to grow and scale, right? Whether you're a hot new startup, mid-growth, or a late-growth established brand, all SaaS orgs want their revenue to skyrocket. But in order to scale, it’s essential that you have that time to take stock of your progress so far. Where your company has succeeded, and where your company is failing, can crucially inform your growth strategy going forward. This is where metrics come in. Of course, like any revenue chasing org, SaaS companies are going to be concerned with the essentials: MRR, churn rate, retention rate, etc. But have you heard of customer activation rate or customer lifetime value, for example? Whether you're looking to increase your CSAT, cut down on churn, pinpoint user activation, or all of the above, this guide is your one-stop-shop for all things SaaS metrics. --- ## Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) vs Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) Monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and annual recurring revenue (ARR) are separate but inextricably linked. MRR is calculated monthly on a micro-scale and ARR is calculated annually on a macro scale. Using these two metrics in tandem can crucially inform your company roadmap and product planning. The data you gain can be used to predict revenue, which in turn, can be used to plan for new product features, as well as how you plan out your company’s budget. [How to scale MRR by 10x with Inbound Traffic (With No Cold Emails)When you first launch a SaaS product, your team will likely undergo an exceptionally tense, constant battle of priorities. The possibilities are endless with a minimally viable product (MVP), a few core clients, and a growing list of tasks to tackle.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSJodie Chan![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/scaling2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-scale-mrr-by-10x-with-inbound-traffic-with-no-cold-emails/) How a SaaS company distributes its budget can have a serious knock on effect on revenue, as a misspent budget can lead to a failure to convert new customers, a fall in retention, or a higher churn rate. Let’s say, for example, a company invests in a complicated new feature that turns customers away from your product. Measuring ARR enables you to see year-over-year progression – a great way to measure the effect of a long-term strategy, while [MRR](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-scale-mrr-by-10x-with-inbound-traffic-with-no-cold-emails/) delves deeper on a month-to-month basis, which is a great way to measure the effects of any immediate changes to features or pricing. [How to drive MRR, reduce churn & improve product adoption \[podcast\]Pipedrive’s Rodrigo Stoqui talks you through the three Es strategy and how to use it to succeed in SaaS.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/01/Pipedrive-SaaScast-podcast-wit-Rodrigo-Stoqui.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/three-es-strategy-saas-podcast/) As a SaaS leader, you have to have a long-term vision, but you have to be able to pivot quickly if a plan isn’t working. Balancing these two essential metrics can enable you to do this. ## Customer-centric metrics According to Gallup, customers are far more likely to pay for a service that they feel an emotional connection to. If SaaS leaders want customers to stick around it’s essential that they keep track of customer engagement levels throughout the customer journey But there are many different ways to measure how happy customers are with your product. We’ve delved deeper into some of them here. [measuring the impact of customer success and related efforts on customer retentionWe wanted to seek wisdom from five CS leaders on how they view their role and how to measure its success in boosting customer retention.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/heart.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/measuring-the-impact-of-customer-success-and-related-efforts-on-customer-retention/) ### User Activation If a user doesn’t activate, the chance that they’ll convert and stick around is minimal. But how do you know they have actually become activated? And what is ‘activation?’ It refers to that golden moment when users discover the true value in your product. The ‘aha!’ moment. We know what you’re thinking – isn’t this all just splitting hairs? Can’t you get a good grasp on whether users are discovering the value in your product from, say, the CSAT or the NPS? [How to improve user activationUser activation is one of the most important metrics in SaaS. Why? It has the highest impact on your MRR from all the ‘pirate metrics’. In this article, we’ll be looking at how to improve user activation and what’s a good rate when it comes to SaaS benchmarks.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmilia Korczynska![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/04/austin-distel-tLZhFRLj6nY-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-improve-user-activation/) This is true, but what’s also **undeniably** true is that many users – especially if they’re not being a hundred percent honest in their feedback – won’t be inclined to go into detail about what exactly they find valuable in your product. This can be especially true for a SaaS product, where the users are often separate from the buyers. That’s why it’s great to have a metric that delves specifically into the exact value that users are finding. This is an invaluable metric for measuring whether your product actually matches up to your marketing strategy, and to the vision for your company overall. [Customer success metrics that drive 95% retentionIn this article, I’ll be discussing the customer success metrics you should be tracking at each and every stage of the customer lifecycle. With them, you can drive retention and ensure your customer success function is successful in delivering value to the customer.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSwati Chopra![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/yoav-hornung-Qg6lPXJ6IL4-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) You can track user activation by creating highly personalized customer profiles for users, which keeps track of the milestones being accomplished, as defined by the customer themselves. Having a log of how each individual customer is interacting and finding value in your product can be of tremendous value in terms of forming strong bonds with customers. Craig Zingerline, Co-Founder and CEO at Growth University, has this to say about activation rate: > “What is each and every touch point with your user, and what are you doing to both add value and move them to the next stage in the journey? I call this the 'next step activation' goal, and there is usually more than one step.” ### Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) Customer satisfaction score (CSAT) is a metric used to measure a customer’s satisfaction with a particular aspect of a product, point in their user journey, or their overall customer experience. It’s not enough to have a slick product if that product doesn’t address specific user needs. It’s also not enough to interact with customers during onboarding if you can’t incorporate feedback and adjust your strategy based on that. [Customer retention metrics and how to action themHow do successful SaaS organizations measure retention and what on earth do they with the results, I hear you cry? Well, we surveyed 100 SaaS pros to find out how they track, review and utilize retention and churn metrics, and here are the results.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/jakob-owens-CiUR8zISX60-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) CSAT should also be assessed after every interaction that your team has with the customer. If, for example, you send out an email to gauge customer satisfaction after every interaction, you can get a good measure of how customers feel about their relationship with your org. If this proves to be sub-par, you can invest in customer service training for your team. The product is important, sure, but your team, and how they engage with customers, is an essential part of your brand. Customer satisfaction score is of course quite separate from… [How to leverage NPS data to make decisionsNet Promoter Score (NPS) is a powerful tool for product and marketing teams. Leveraging NPS helps you (A) get closer to customers, (B) benchmark your business against the competition, and (C) understand how your products are perceived - including deficiencies in the current setup.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSSandeep Singh Bhara![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/customer-feedback.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-leverage-nps-data-to-make-decisions/) ### Net promoter score (NPS) It’s all good and well if a customer says they’re happy with your product, but the real test of your value is whether they're likely to recommend your service to others. Broadly speaking, it measures loyalty and the general perception of your brand. Considering the high cost of customer acquisition, referrals from existing companies can be extremely profitable for SaaS orgs. [Managing SaaS Metrics Throughout The Company Growth LifecycleAs the importance of different metrics changes throughout the company growth lifecycle, you need the right information to make faster decisions. This eBook outlines these changes and help you identify key metrics for your business.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSage Intacct![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1556155092-490a1ba16284?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDF8fG1ldHJpY3xlbnwwfHx8fDE2MjY2OTYzNzA&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/managing-saas-metrics-throughout-the-company-growth-lifecycle/) SaaS companies that focus entirely on relentless growth rather than on building trust with customers are potentially missing out on relatively cheap– and therefore profitable– channels for acquiring customers, and ensuring that they can get the most value out of the customers they have. Joseph D Mansueto, CEO at Morningstar, highlights the value of customer loyalty: “Once you create a loyal customer base, it’s difficult to take that away.” ### Customer engagement score How are customers using your product and how much does it factor into their day-to-day lives? Is your product a utility? Are users using it mainly for all of their world correspondences and tasks, or are they using it simply for very specific tasks that only need to be accomplished occasionally? On the other hand, are customers using it for social interactions? With platforms like Slack, for example, it can be both. In which case, it can give you a lot of scope in terms of how to position your product. [What are our metrics and what are our KPIs?I understand that every company in every domain views and uses KPIs and metrics in a slightly different way. While I’m going to talk to you about how I leverage them in my work, don’t feel this is the only way you can do it.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDaniel Goldfeld![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/stars.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-our-metrics-and-what-are-our-kpis/) This is really one of the chief benefits of a customer engagement score. It can help you to be super specific in terms of how you position and market your solution. Engagement scores might also indicate that users are missing or overlooking some of the uses of your product, so you can be aware of how to fill gaps in user knowledge when you're reaching out to existing customers. But there are other kinds of engagement apart from product usage. Consider the following: [Scaling and deciding which metrics to measure: The metrics that matter mostAt the SaaS Metrics Summit, we were lucky enough to be able to sit down with three leaders from the world of SaaS, who shared with us their insights on the metrics that matter most as you scale your organization.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/eberhard-grossgasteiger-tFQj4NtuPME-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-and-deciding-which-metrics-to-measure-the-metrics-that-matter-most/) **Marketing engagement**: Is the customer attending events and webinars? If so, this can be a great tool for recruiting customers as ambassadors for your org. **Community engagement:** Does your org have a community channel, where users and customers can sing your company’s praises from the rooftops? This can be a major conversion tool Rahul Mirchandani, SVP of Product and Revenue at Dream 11, emphasizes the importance of appealing to your existing customers: > “Digital brands do need to invest in rapidly scaling their user base, but helping customers fall in love with your brand through non-intrusive and value-adding engagement is a whole different ball game.” [Don’t bother raising a Series A if you don’t crush these 3 metricsA SaaS company could be growing ARR over 100% each year but if their annualized Net Dollar Retention is less than 75%, there is likely a problem with the underlying business.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSThomas Tcheudjio![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/luke-chesser-JKUTrJ4vK00-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/dont-bother-raising-a-series-a-if-you-dont-crush-these-3-metrics/) ### Churn Rate & Retention Rate Although intrinsically linked, churn rate and retention rate are polar opposites. Your churn rate refers to the number of customers or subscribers who canceled or failed to renew their subscriptions during a given period. Your retention rate is the number of customers you’ve managed to keep over a period of time. These are critical metrics for any SaaS business: if your customer doesn't stick around long enough for you to at least recover your customer acquisition cost, you’re in trouble regardless of monthly revenue. Let’s look deeper into how to act on these two types of metric. 👇 ### Customer churn Don’t treat it as a generic headcount of the customers who’ve left you. By having these churned customers segmented into their personas, for example, you can open the door for your churn rate informing your long-term strategy. Why are you failing to reach a certain demographic? Are your marketing channels weighted disproportionately in favor of one particular persona rather than another? [Customer engagement and the metrics that matter \[Q&A with Intercom\]According to Gallup, fully engaged customers offer 23% more revenue on average, but getting the balance right between newer, lower-tier customers and more established big spenders can often feel like you’re borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/priscilla-du-preez-nF8xhLMmg0c-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-engagement-and-the-metrics-that-matter-q-a-with-intercom/) You need to have a conversation about whether these segments are actually worth your while. SaaS orgs can overspend considerably on trying to appeal to folks that are a lost cause. It can be better to cut your losses and pivot to another strategy rather than keep trudging on towards a dead end. ### Revenue churn It’s important to keep this separate from customer churn because the two aren’t exactly the same, and yet they do undeniably inform each other. Yes, it’s reasonable to predict that a loss of customers will naturally lead to a loss of revenue, but it can help to really dig into the nitty gritty of exactly how it’s affecting your revenue. [Tactics for improving customer retention | Future of SaaSIn SaaS, your success depends on a solid rate of new subscribers (customer acquisition) and healthy rates of subscriptions (the customer retention bit). Here’s how to maximize your strategy.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1557426272-fc759fdf7a8d?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&w=2000&fit=max&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjExNzczfQ)](https://www.saasalliance.io/tactics-that-improve-customer-retention/) For example, some SaaS buyers are going to be buying up multiple seats for their org. This is especially true if your company is B2B. A churn in buyers, in this case, is likely to lead to a far greater loss in revenue. Keep your revenue and customer churn separate yet aligned in order to keep a firm grasp on how the two are affecting each other. ### Customer cost and value As you’ve probably heard, most SaaS companies fail in their first year. There are many reasons for this, but one of the main reasons is there’s more money being spent than revenue generated. This is, of course, understandable. All SaaS companies want to scale and grow, and it can be tempting simply to throw money at maximizing conversion. Companies that fail to understand why their company is making a loss very possibly don’t have a firm grasp on their metrics. A good grip on customer acquisition cost (CAC) vs customer lifetime value, for example, can reveal where you’re overspending and where funds would be better distributed elsewhere. Let’s dig deeper into these metrics below. [A beginner’s guide to customer acquisitionObjectives and key results (OKRs) are a pretty common talking point in the SaaS industry and in our Slack community, week in, week out, we see members asking how they should, or could, measure their performance. Hence our article here today.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/sharon-mccutcheon--8a5eJ1-mmQ-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/a-beginners-guide-to-customer-acquisition/) ### Customer acquisition cost This defines how much it’s costing to attract new customers vs how much value the customer is actually providing in terms of revenue. This is a vital metric for new startups, in particular, because new SaaS startups are focused understandably on scaling quickly, but this must always be tempered by mindfulness of what this is costing your org. Early startups are looking to become profitable as quickly as possible, but if your efforts at scaling are losing you more revenue than you’re gaining, your new startup gets cut down at the root. Orgs can cut down their CAC by using very targeted marketing to reach customers that are likely to sign up, and more importantly, those that are more likely to convert to paying customers. Here’s how Jay Samit, former vice chairman at Deloitte defines this: > “Targeted marketing delivers a lower customer acquisition cost and gets you to profitable growth faster. The goal is to quickly identify the costs associated with acquiring your most profitable segment of customers and the incremental value - if any - of going beyond your core” > The aim is for CAC to decrease over time, and customer acquisition is inevitably going to cost you more than it's gaining early on. But decreasing this number is reliant on another key metric. You need to look into… [Turning metrics into money \[webinar\]You’ve got metrics, you’ve got a business plan, and you’ve got customers but something’s still not right. SaaS metrics are a firehose, but you can see a lot if you know what to look for.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSBaremetrics![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/AEEAAF26-C4B5-45AF-A7E7-67D19445A673.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/turning-metrics-into-money-a-process-for-digging-deeper-into-metrics-and-pulling-out-insights/) ### Months to recover Customer Acquisition This is really a sub-strand of customer acquisition. You need to define how long it’s taking for your growing org to cover the cost of acquiring a new customer. The lower this number, the more profitable your customer acquisition efforts. Paying attention to this number can reveal weak links in your strategy. For example, sales reps are expensive. Are you relying too much on sales reps to get customers through the sales funnel? SaaS companies are in a privileged position in that customer activation can occur very quickly once the customer has signed up to the platform. Users can choose a plan that’s right for them and get started that very day. The faster customers are able to get started, the faster you can make up your user acquisition cost. If this metric is lagging, it might also be an indication of other issues: - Maybe the messaging on your site isn’t making the value of your product clear. - Maybe you’re targeting the wrong ICP, and you need to re-think your personas. - Maybe you’re not working hard enough on upselling to customers who are signed up to a freemium package. [20 metrics for SaaS marketersIn this article, we’ll be sharing 20 important metrics for SaaS marketing, ranging from acquisition metrics to monetization metrics. We’ll explain what each metric is, how they can be tracked, and most importantly, why they should be tracked.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSDean Millar![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/matthew-ball-TFE_-9eLmEs-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-metrics-for-saas-marketers/) ### Customer lifetime value CLV measures the value of a customer to your company across the whole of the customer journey. If, for example, it turns out that customers are less likely to purchase new features after the first year of signing up to your product, your CLV will indicate this. This can then have massive implications for your long term strategy going forward. We don’t want to sound like a broken record, but aggressive customer acquisition strategies can be a major reason why early-growth SaaS startups fail; it can be far more lucrative for orgs to invest more in the customer that they have. The holy grail is to ensure that your CLV is much higher than your CAC. By making sure they’re engaged, that they feel valued and that they’re aware of how they can get more out of your product the more they engage with it, Saas orgs can get the most value out of their existing customers. If your CLV is low, consider the following: - Is your org continuing to engage with customers once they’ve been acquired - Are you using the right marketing channels to engage with existing customers - Is your messaging convincingly stressing the long-term benefits of your product Here’s what Jeremy Coates, business thought leader, says about CLV: > “The business that is willing and able to outspend its competition to acquire a new customer won't always win as some people say. Unless they are continually reducing their lead costs while raising the customer lifetime value at the same time.” [Customer success metrics that drive 95% retentionIn this article, I’ll be discussing the customer success metrics you should be tracking at each and every stage of the customer lifecycle. With them, you can drive retention and ensure your customer success function is successful in delivering value to the customer.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSSwati Chopra![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/yoav-hornung-Qg6lPXJ6IL4-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) ### Customer renewal rate For a SaaS org, the power is in the hands of the customer, meaning that with a subscription-based model, customers can simply choose to cancel at any time they wish. In order to combat this, SaaS orgs have to ensure that they aren’t overspending on customer acquisition and are ensuring that existing customers feel valued – and more importantly – are valuable to you. [Building the metrics that every product leader needs to drive growthMy name’s Matt Graney, I’m VP of Product at Celigo, and in this article, I’m going to talk about building the metrics that matter to product leaders. Celigo is an integration platform but the lessons I cover will apply no matter what product you’re involved with.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w256h256/2020/06/saasfav-1.png)Future of SaaSMatt Graney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/fabio-traina-OZyjjXKwyXw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-the-metrics-that-every-product-leader-needs-to-drive-growth/) A poor renewal rate can be an indication of a pretty shaky strategy. Is your C-suite too focused on growth and not focused enough on calibrating and strengthening what you already have? And not focused enough on crucial factors like: - Customer loyalty. - Visibility. - Brand awareness. - Customer advocacy. The onus is on SaaS to give customers a reason for renewing their subscription. Don’t rest on your laurels. Discover the value of your SaaS product through SaaS metrics! --- Enjoyed this article? Find out what other exclusive insights we have to offer with a Future of SaaS membership. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Automating compliance with Meiran Galis URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/automating-compliance-with-meiran-galis-2/ Last updated: 2022-08-09T11:23:30.000Z In the first episode of SaaScast, we were joined by Meiran Galis, a strategic and tactical leader in the realm of security compliance. He’s worked with hundreds of SaaS companies, including small startups and Fortune 500s, and built compliance programs for rapidly growing organizations. He’s passionate about implementing security controls that leverage automation, reduce the cost of compliance, and mitigate business risks. Meiran spoke about the importance of security compliance, especially for SaaS startups. Startups are concerned with[ scaling quickly](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-and-deciding-which-metrics-to-measure-the-metrics-that-matter-most/), sure, but they also need to put the work in to build customer loyalty and advocacy. It’s cheaper to [retain customers](https://www.saasalliance.io/improve-employee-retention-and-supercharge-growth-by-hiring-for-the-future/) than it is to convert. And new startups, who should be looking to be making a profit as soon as possible, need to be thinking about how they can cut down on unnecessary costs and use their budget wisely. A key component of [loyalty is **trust**](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/). Nothing builds trust better than a customer being sure that their data is safe with your org. But don’t just take it from us, take it from a security compliance expert! Meiran goes into all of this and more in the full [unedited talk](https://www.saasalliance.io/automating-compliance-with-meiran-galis/). But we’ve put together the highlights below. Enjoy! - Merian’s background - The importance of security compliance - Avoiding early hurdles as a startup - Finding the right talent - The future of security compliance ## Meiran’s background and role at Scytale **Welcome, Meiran. To start, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and your role at Scytale?** Of course. So, as you said, I’m an expert in the domain of security compliance for SaaS companies. I began a while ago when I was a manager in a technology risk department. Back in the day, I was doing audits for hundreds of companies in the domains of cybersecurity, recruitment, HR, healthcare, payroll, etc. Being there and performing so many audits, I fell in love with the experience of meeting people, understanding architecture, and learning about the successes and struggles that each organization experiences on the journey of implementing compliance controls. **It's a very impressive niche you found. Why did you choose to become an entrepreneur?** You could say, in a way, that it found me. Since my first college degree, I always had a passion for exploration, building business models, and finding solutions to problems. I loved it, and I still love it, and this is why I got into it. I always tried to deliver more when I was working at EY, and I guess passion was the way for me to learn more, deep dive, and think about how to do better. Leveraging all this information, knowledge, and experience helped me a lot when I decided to leave EY and create Scytale AI. [Top 7 interview questions for your product management roleThis week we’re taking a look at product managers, the visionaries behind your SaaS GTM strategy.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/interview.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-your-product-management-role/) ## The importance of security compliance **Can you tell us a little bit about security compliance as a whole and why Scytale exists?** Yes, of course. In the general perspective, security compliance is basically an arm of the policies, procedures, governance, and risk that a company needs to manage. Managing all of the security efforts is vast and complex. You have application security, frameworks, regulations, standards, guidelines, and controls. Once a company wants to build a robust security program, it will need to choose one framework or standard that works for them. It can be the ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIST, or one of many other frameworks. Most companies, especially startups, don't have the time to do it just because they want to do it, but it’s a requirement from customers and prospects. And because this is a requirement, they know that they must go through this process, and they need to do it in a manner that is fast, smart, and saves them time. That way, they can invest their time and skills in development, [hiring talen](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-customer-success-managers/)t, funding the company, and, most importantly,[ making sales](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-sales-enablement-tools-for-saas-leaders/). It's tough because they have so much stuff to do, and many times they don't have the knowledge or the experience around security compliance, and they also don't have the time or the will. In other words, they don't care at this particular moment about the security of the company. They care more about the speed and features of the product and bringing those customers in. For many companies, security compliance is just something that needs to get done. All the same, my approach is that if you're doing it, don't just follow[ a ‘check box’ mentality.](https://www.saasalliance.io/moving-away-from-a-checkbox-sales-training-mentality-with-jaren-krchnavi-siemens/) You're already investing your time in it, so at least get some value out of the process in order to boost, sell, and propel the company to full scale. In brief, security compliance is about the need to design and implement controls within a company as a countermeasure for certain risks. The aim is to reduce these risks to an acceptable level. These controls can come as part of the software development[ lifecycle,](https://www.saasalliance.io/managing-saas-metrics-throughout-the-company-growth-lifecycle/) as part of the access control, as part of the risk assessment, vendor management, etc. As you see, I'm very passionate about it. This is why I created Scytale – because I wanted to take my experience and knowledge and save time for startups. In the same breath, help them build trust in the company for prospects, investors, customers, and any partners that will be working and collaborating with the company. [5 steps to driving your company from early to growth stageInvestors need confidence in your business model, so how can you prove the different aspects to achieve that next round of funding? Our ebook is here to help.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSSage Intacct![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/alessia-cocconi-zLIUdGeKxv0-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-steps-to-drive-your-company-from-early-to-growth-stage/) ## Avoiding early hurdles as a startup **What have been the main hurdles you've come across as a startup, and how would you recommend that people avoid them?** To begin, I will say that the most important thing is to understand what you want to do. It might sound easy, and maybe you think you already know, but there is still research that you will need to do to support this. When I say research, I mean, speaking with potential customers, doing customer reviews, and understanding how to do customer reviews because eventually, you want to compare apples to apples, so it needs to make sense and support your decision afterwards. Also, get some benchmarks to see what's going on outside. You are not living in a vacuum. You need to know how people work right now, what they’re interested in, and what types of solutions they have. Another key thing is intuition. You have to have some intuition, something you bring from yourself and your experience. Combining everything you have learned will be the most critical part in the beginning. Also, finding people that believe in your vision is crucial. If you find a nine-to-five guy, I don't think that's the type of person you would want at this stage in the company. You want someone that is committed. You want someone driven, motivated, and passionate. That's what I was looking for. More than experience, I was looking for passion and potential in the initial team. I would look deep into their eyes, and I could see that we had a good match and these people are really committed. I think that's what makes the difference. So start by knowing what you want, documenting stuff, putting it to the test before you write even one line of code, and finding great people. Those were the key parts at the beginning of my journey. [How to Know if Your Company is InclusiveWorried that your organization isn’t doing enough to promote inclusivity and diversity? Thankfully, the world of SaaS is waking up to the long-term benefits of diversity and inclusivity.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/pexels-katie-rainbow----_---8614479.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-know-if-your-company-is-inclusive/) ## Finding the right talent **Talent is crucial in startups. Have you got any tips for finding and hiring the right talent?** You know, that’s the million-dollar question. I would say first, try to test for potential. That’s a key part. Also, look at their passion. I know I'm repeating myself, but if someone doesn't love what they do, it's only a matter of time until they leave the company, and that’s gonna cost you much more; that’s why I'm insisting on it. I remember when I was interviewing someone for an engineering role, I asked him a question and he said, “Look, it's not possible.” Later, I was interviewing someone else, and I asked him, “Is it possible?” He said, “Everything is possible. You just need to find out how.” I really liked this kind of approach, and I connected with it. In some other cases, you also need to test achievements. Achievements are critical because, especially when it comes to marketing, they result in sales. Also, you need to find some good chemistry. You can feel it in the room when you meet someone that you would go and have a beer with. You’ll be sitting in a room all day every day for months with this person – would you rather have fun or be miserable? I think that's really important to consider. Last but not least, Jeff Bezos said in one of his annual letters to shareholders that he’s always looking to see if this person is going to increase the average quality of the people that work for the company or decrease it. If he feels they will increase the quality, he hires the person. I think that’s a good rule of thumb. [Automating compliance with Meiran GalisIn this episode, we’re joined by Meiran Galis, CEO and Co-founder at Scytale AI, and a tactical leader in the realm of security compliance. Meiran has helped hundreds of high-profile SaaS companies build compliance programs for rapidly growing organizations.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/FoSaaS_Podcast_MG-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/automating-compliance-with-meiran-galis/) ## The future of security compliance **In terms of the future of security compliance, what are some trends you have your eye on?** In the past, we used to see security certification standards, frameworks, and regulations based on regions or countries. Then we started to see them being based on industry – the payments industry and the healthcare industry, for example. After that, we saw FedRAMP, for example, for companies that want to collaborate with federal agencies in the United States. Now, we start to see security compliance audits based on technology, like blockchain, AI, and automated vehicles that can make autonomous decisions that can directly impact people's lives. So I think we're gonna see compliance lagging behind but still managing to build in frameworks and audits around the technology. I think we’ll also be utilizing this technology. For example, we’ll see compliance on blockchain and compliance *through* blockchain technology. Also, today, companies go through an audit once a year – even though it might be carried out over a period of time, it’s still a once-a-year approach. What we’re gonna see is this shifting to a daily approach. We're gonna see a daily audit and a daily collection of stuff. Everything's gonna become fast and on time, and we're going to see this evolve in the upcoming years. --- If you enjoyed this post, Check out the Scytale ebook on SOC2 compliance [right here](https://www.saasalliance.io/soc-2-for-startups/). ### How leaders with non-SaaS backgrounds can shape the future of SaaS URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas-2/ Last updated: 2023-02-09T12:10:11.000Z *This article is based on a presentation given by Iuliia at Women in SaaS Summit, 2022\. Catch the full, unedited talk on demand,* [*right here*](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-2/)*.* As someone who came from academia, rather than a SaaS background, I’m well aware of how people from different industries can bring new skills to the world of SaaS. Through my first-hand experiences, I’m going to demonstrate how this is possible. More broadly, I’m going to show you how introducing new perspectives can spearhead fresh strategies in this burgeoning field. In terms of customer service, I’ll be focusing on creating a collaborative relationship with users. Good customer service starts at the very beginning of the customer journey: with the onboarding process. The onboarding process needs to facilitate a constant feedback loop between you and the customer. But a collaborative relationship in your customer-facing roles can only happen if you manage to establish a **culture of collaboration** within your org. Introducing fresh perspectives from diverse backgrounds is your route to this. Here’s **a breakdown of our main talking points:** - [A bit of background on myself](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas-2/#a-bit-of-background-on-myself) - [Product usage and adoption](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas-2/#product-usage-and-adoption) - [Streamline the onboarding process](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas-2/#streamline-the-onboarding-process) - [An ecosystem of learning](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas-2/#an-ecosystem-of-learning) - [My key learnings](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas-2/#my-key-learnings) - [To wrap up: it’s all about education](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas-2/#to-wrap-up-it%E2%80%99s-all-about-education) ## A bit of background on myself Before getting into SaaS, I was working in the field of education technology for more than 10 years. The project I was involved with was known as the ‘flipped classroom,’ which was focused on eliminating the lecturing part of academia and instead pioneering an interactive, activity-focused form of education. I’ve always had a passion for more practical forms of education, and here I was working alongside students, designing online, interactive courses. This was heavily focused on encouraging user participation and trying to create enthusiasm for the product. This prepared me well for the early work I’d be doing at Marble. [![People pointing at a laptop screen](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/RZyUrKShVU6AJ8WlphVJNEozMHG9nIsX8D7oydMRVS6IIMyUusT2W-KyYCSsrfeJaU0y5S35adBqIifp2YPppyde5Q3D8qLOMB7pDOv5rJO2DAGx6hdR6S_NvwXGbsWL1vTMs0Ww1KHPHZG4S_L73Ek)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas-2) ## Product usage and adoption This was the crucial problem I was focusing on when I started at Marble: increasing product usage and product adoption. There are more than half a million software companies out there, and in general, they are adopted only half the time. For their products, it’s even worse: the adoption rate sits at only 20%. I was focused specifically on increasing engagement with the product, and our team was focused on learning and onboarding. ## Streamline the onboarding process We were helping software companies to streamline the onboarding process for the 1000s of their users. A smooth onboarding of users is so essential for SaaS companies. I don't need to tell you, that the competition out there is fierce, and a straightforward adoption process can really help to cut your churn rate down to size. Every onboarding process is educational, and as with any form of education, the tools that we use need to be intuitive and user-friendly. This is just one of the crucial nuggets of knowledge that I took with me to the SaaS industry. Creating this clear line of communication between you and your customers is so important. The perspectives you can get from your customers can uncover strategies that you may have overlooked. The result of this is… [![A cluster of interconnected electronic lights](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/XxBWW1mgUNGwTG0wz5v4nNSoCh9GOZBdYa6k__2EV-MiZvgmzAP3BCap7i-S27poCjMnC382LYzGCAiizKS_N4AK0TfL_JNu6JxRWG4Qsahh4e7Kbfzq7oiGsJJx_Z_89vpK9JUSvAcg-2QmArXf1cQ)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas-2) ## An ecosystem of learning The better users understand the product, the better users can be onboarded. And the more users use the product, the better users understand the business. And it really helps if the education starts before they even visit your website. It all starts with learning, and learning is a constant process in SaaS companies. And I’m not just talking about your customers, you need to train your employees to think of onboarding as a training process. The SaaS company is a whole ecosystem where every employee and customer should be educated and onboarded to maintain that ecosystem. Not just in terms of what the product does, but in regards to the importance of sales reps and customer service professionals continuously communicating with customers. I’ve now cultivated a love for designing the product, for designing a product from the ground up. It was this joy in cultivating products that made me want to leave academia. But I carried the passion for cultivating people with me. This was the first transferable skill that I took with me. But there are many more, and I’d like to tell you about them here. 👇 ## My key learnings ### 1\. Scaling is reaching out This is especially true if you’re building a company from a startup. Although my academic background wasn’t as concerned with scaling in the same way, it was concerned with helping people along in the adoption process. And scaling a company is all about reaching out to users and making sure they understand how to use your product. [![Man standing on a mountain](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/NHxrs4977MszUWRbRTS2ayPbFf-1esCiwYygGLw35dCu0BzcRYqpq3w0fgvyaIEZcEgu0nph1tu28ZN9dSfl7cXVNCO9PxVM0YtSxXFnDBBn9OYZ4czxJBuKgm4ceCECb4vl6o438bM_CBP19_I-bE0)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas-2) ### 2\. We’re on a discovery journey This means not necessarily trying to automate everything right off the bat. You have to form creative approaches for how you can work together. And most importantly, how you can better meet customer needs. Discovery, of course, encompasses research. For a SaaS company, you need to conduct rigorous research into your own needs and the needs of customers. ### 3\. It’s driven by the customer That means listening to what the customers say. In my previous background, I was working constantly with students online. In that sense, students were the customers of our education and university. The problem was that many processes in the university weren't changeable. But working in SaaS, you need to continuously adjust to the customers’ needs. Make sure you’re always listening. [![A lotus flower on water](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/WqJfUzWyWEj2KXOGYBGbG_JggzovWkgAUTsZiEBrawH396yt0T0fqxRYijYG27hhAyyLEylDYake9b0qB_4YKbxSwN1FszcGxiJKqAhEyvp7cdqpz-0Z5f0fofcoUUFzVvTF0IzLaKTKZnSsu0P584o)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas-2) ### 4\. Mental health is essential Running a SaaS company is not about doing it short and fast. It’s all about saving resources, recovering, recalibrating, and most importantly, trying to avoid burnout in any form. When I was working in university, we were working on short projects. It was all a big sprint. When building a SaaS company or product, it's like putting all the cogs together in a well-oiled machine. You can’t expect it to all come together in two to three months. You’re going to be concerned with scaling, yes, and that comes with a lot of pressure. But scaling something effectively doesn’t mean just scaling blindly. You have to be able to build strategically. And that often requires slowing down, reflecting, recalibrating, and moving forward. Most importantly, it’s about avoiding that burnout which stops you from scaling. ### 5\. ‘No’ doesn’t mean you’re wrong The fact is, the word ‘no’ is the launch base for all learning and development. It doesn’t mean you're doing something wrong. In some other environment, ‘no’ can mean that you’re not going to be working on a project anymore. But with building a SaaS company, it’s about continuously reassessing the landscape and making decisions accordingly. These failures are a huge opportunity for growth and development. ### 6\. Improvements and change needs to be constant This means reassessing and reconsidering what you’re doing every two, or three months. You need to reconsider the following factors: - What are your business goals? Are they the same? - How are your goals connected with the responsibilities you have? - How can you accommodate your business goals in your professional workload? - Are you integrating learning and development into these goals? Constant improvements and changes are essential for building a SaaS business or technology business. Technology companies are developing very fast right now, but to maintain that growth, education, development and learning, we need to reach out widely and pull in fresh perspectives from the outside. [![A stack of multi-colored books](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/35Pb11A3cBhKZ-4QxKT7j0FXKS29whd-CTycFk-oRSslj__XYENBAP1PjC9mAU_WFtwq5Bsp6n_AjKVCdRNji5mN1HhkYxyTTMunXV_adSKZ744GfLQjGnvuiqz2YZJ6tigcwaT4IePB7SQIO2M4lVQ)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas-2) ## To wrap up: it’s all about education Even though I’ve switched careers, this is the common thread running through it: education and development. My passion is not just for learning, but also for **collaborative education.** Building a smooth onboarding process isn’t about telling customers what to do. If you did that, your customers won’t feel **seen** and **heard** and **acknowledged.** I came from academia, but real learning isn’t about lecturing to people, it’s about tailoring customer education to customer needs. Finally, we’re talking about building **a culture of education.** A culture of education can only happen if we have diverse perspectives and skills. This is the ultimate benefit of hiring from non-SaaS backgrounds. The tech field is so exciting because of the constant sense of discovery. Discovery comes from breaking the mold, from introducing new modes of thinking My non-SaaS background has informed and complimented my SaaS journey for the better, let’s open the door for others, and broaden our scope of skills. ### How to convert your prospects before they reach your site URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-convert-your-prospects-before-they-reach-your-site/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:41:23.000Z The goal of every demand gen marketer has always been to increase demos, accelerate sales funnels, and connect with potential customers faster and easier. So what if you could access an entirely new and untapped channel rich in high intent leads ready to convert? And what if you could book a meeting with those leads without them even making it to your site? The good news is you can, through this emerging mar-tech. ### Chatbots (used in a brand new way) For the sake of this article, we will assume that as an organization, you are one of the 78% of organizations that have adopted some type of chatbot on your own site. Each organization uses chatbots differently, but ultimately, a chatbot's goal is to provide prospects access to your team to ask questions and allow qualified prospects to book meetings without filling out a form. **Don't have a chatbot on your site yet? Errr, uhhh….** Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but am afraid that means you can't use this new technology. Once you have one, drop back in and we’ll chat! **Do have a chatbot on your site?** If you have a chatbot, Helium allows brands to use their current chatbot platform to engage with prospects on third-party articles, review sites, and major affiliate organizations. It's pretty neat. For example, this article you are reading now is on the Future of Sass, but if you click the button below, you'll be able to chat with a Helium representative, get automated answers about Helium's platform, or schedule a demo without leaving the page. That's why this new chatbot expansion tech is fascinating. If your marketing team writes a contextual article for a specific segment of users, you no longer need to coral them to your site. Although contextual landing pages are cool, the truth is that articles alone are typically good enough to convert a prospect to either a demo or a conversation (and if your articles aren’t converting, you may want to consider writing better content!). The exciting part is that although your salespeople are chatting on a 3rd party site, it's your very own chatbot platform, so your salesforce routing and all your chatbot integrations will still work. ![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/qbJ1uuYoRVQIWdkgcj_qs_S1qOEgCx1SuCxp8y620p_16vkcq__8R5FjJOFEcjFhX9zqhSVFXR32RCfvVvH-y1uZcdd02q-aZ1KRhcX-T-t_J-0rib0ckaoBJSw9CLepM6BpsBULOjBikL9R5LsmHw) ### What are all the places my company's chatbot can now be used off-site? Demand generation folks are excited about Helium as it creates a new channel whereby to have conversations with your prospects that can convert to a demo. This shortens the funnel and increases the quality of prospects, as you’re reaching those who are already reading about your product, niche or service. Said otherwise, they are “high intent” prospects. Some have referred to it as intent data meets real-time interaction = "The holy grail for marketers." ### Using chatbots on earned media Every good marketer knows earned media is the foundation for curating backlinks and exposure. However, getting those readers to leave the online periodical to visit your site is the challenging part. Once the prospect is on your site, marketers hope said prospect fills out a form or interacts with the chatbot to book a demo. Helium reduces the friction from this process, allowing brands to pay a flat fee to have a conversation with their prospects on earned media content. Think of it as a new type of Ad Unit - a conversational Ad Unit that both drives brand awareness and direct engagement with prospects you normally wouldn't have been able to reach. ### Using chatbots on sponsored content Sponsored content is another great way to converse directly with prospects in a specific segment of niche. For example, what you’re currently reading is a piece of sponsored content we wrote for the Future of SaaS site. Why? We have thought leadership to share about the chatbot industry. Also, most of the users reading content on this site are SaaS marketers or executives. Given we work directly with that audience, it only makes sense to post an article on this site. ![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/VjzupEbE6lhRA4pdo2_Wmb9qeXKztVIWLwY8op5PdiUTmT-_M8yuAYekH5dqJp6SEHYwMXDDewYvHA7qgSk8Bq5fehj0lNtp6oORQ_noHjhNW_5facxsPw7ZuDsv85G4F40ITO6mY64BpEpP-blVyg) If you’re looking to deliver results with B to B marketing today, you need to be where your customers are. And for many businesses, that means being on articles and review sites. Helium allows you to do just that, thereby abolishing the redirect and getting into conversation with high intent prospects. ### Using chatbots with partners and affiliate sites Affiliates and partners can be a great source of revenue. Normally how this model works is that the site owner writes an article that ranks for one of your target keywords. You provide partner with a banner, a form to place on their site, or a UTM connected to a backlink. When users complete the form or click the banner/ad/link, they are redirected to your site. Here’s the question marketers need to ask themselves: “Does the prospect need to come to my brand site to get qualified and convert? Or is the content good enough that a prospect will book a meeting on the 3rd party affiliate or partner site. If the answer is probably, you are in good shape. The good news is that the chat interaction that’s occurring on the 3rd party page still uses UTMs, so tracking, attribution and affiliate payments won’t change. Prospects want real-time communication in order to facilitate their buying decisions. Helium allows Brands to connect with these prospects anywhere their brand, product or niche is being discussed. And lastly, Helium allows affiliates/publishers to improve their user experience, keep readers on their site and create an additional revenue stream. In reality, Helium is just the natural progression of chatbots, allowing you to “lift and shift” your chat bot onto non-owned sites. Driving increased conversion and shortened sales funnels, it's easy to see why this chatbot expansion tech has marketers excited. Not only does it allow salespeople to connect with prospects on articles and reviews, but it also allows brands to engage with customers anywhere they are mentioned. Want to see how this new tech works? Click on the image below, and you'll be able to chat with The Bot Lab, the founders of Helium, without ever leaving the Future of SaaS site. The future is about to get very connected. ### Moving away from a 'checkbox' sales training mentality with Jaren Krchnavi, Siemens URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/moving-away-from-a-checkbox-sales-training-mentality-with-jaren-krchnavi-siemens/ Last updated: 2022-08-02T14:40:32.000Z Got a sales training programme? Check. Sales reps have a high course completion rate? Check. Job done, right? Not quite - and Jaren Krchnavi, ****Global Head of Sales Enablement for Siemens Digital Grid Software**, is here to tell you why. Moving away from the 'checkbox' mentality and towards a business-oriented performance measuring system can be tricky, but the payoff is substantial. From understanding customer needs & pain points to deploying a global non-technical training programme, Jaren shares the unique trappings of leading enablement within one of the largest industrial conglomerates in the world. ## **Q: Do you think your communication background in communications helped you in your current role?** ****A:** Yes, I'm trying to sell my ideas all the time within Siemens and trying to explain the benefits that exist if we move in a certain direction to different stakeholders and that has a lot to do with communications. If you want to be a good salesperson, you have to be a good communicator and a good listener. You have to be able to listen to what challenges people are facing and come up with a unique solution to solve those challenges. [From self-serve to sales touch: lessons learned from moving up-marketIn this article, I’ll talk about why you should consider a move up-market to sell to larger companies, and the product, pricing, and positioning changes Proposify made during our own journey.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSKyle Racki![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/alessia-cocconi-zLIUdGeKxv0-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/from-self-serve-to-sales-touch-lessons-learned-from-moving-up-market/) ## **Q: How is your team at Siemens structured, and how do you collaborate with other teams in the business?** ****A:** It's a small team but what I see within sales enablement is that it’s interdisciplinary between departments. My team works with regions and with our stakeholders, from marketing, or the PLMs (product lifecycle managers) and you need to get the buy-in from them to put the vision you're pushing out there into motion. We focus on competence management, so we have an individual who's looking at how we can develop the skills of our sales team. We also have a focus on the digitalization of sales where we’re looking at how sales can use digital tools to become more efficient such as Salesforce. > We're really pushing that to the next level, taking customer relationship management to the point where we’re strongly encouraging our sales reps to use it and pushing the benefits they can gain by documenting their conversations with customers. Then, the benefit we'll pull from the system is great insight into where our business is heading. We're also implementing a data quality contest, to encourage sales to use this system on specific [KPIs](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-customer-success-meeting-critical-kpis-together-q-a-with-simpo/) so you can really trust the data that you're pulling from the system. We work closely with marketing on sales material, making sure it’s up to date and that the tools are also integrated. This way, the marketing material inputted into a tool will be automatically visible in the[ CRM.](https://www.saasalliance.io/knowing-your-customer-and-building-the-success-plan/#sts=Internal%20CRM) The sales colleagues, who kind of live inside their CRM, are then getting recommendations for training in the CRM and finding recommendations for sales material they can use in their customer conversations to advance those deals. We're talking here about business to business, very long sales cycles, or you have multiple conversations and touchpoints with the customer to try to advance that opportunity until it’s hopefully closed. ## **Q: What metrics do you use to measure the effectiveness of all of these different programmes?** ****A:** We're pulling the sales metrics from the CRM. In the past, I've seen people operate in a checkbox mode, offering sales colleagues training courses and seeing “how many people have done these courses” and “this many people attended this many courses”. > What we're trying to do is to push to more of a performance measurement. For example, we offer training courses for a specific portfolio like grid simulation, we offer that training to 10 people in China. We then expect after three months that they've taken what they learned brought it into a customer conversation. Your measurements can be a lot more specific, and also be business oriented. Not just whether they took the course and whether they passed a quiz after it, but did they learn the material well enough they took that into account customer conversation and had a chat with the customer about it. [How to develop your sales enablement teamIn this article, I’ll discuss org design and specifically restructuring sales enablement to mimic a traditional product dev team in order to build the sales enablement organization in a way that makes accessing investment dollars based on proven outcomes achievable and maximizes your impact.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSChris Grebowiec![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/ricardo-arce-cY_TCKr5bek-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-develop-your-sales-enablement-team/) ## **Q: How important is the non-technical sales training process for sales teams around the world to Siemens?** ****A:** The non-technical aspect plays a very important role for us right now. To be successful in sales, you need to understand your customers, the challenges they're facing, the market dynamics, and be able to have conversations with them about their pain points. > How can our portfolio meet the customer’s needs and challenges? You need to be able to create a value proposition around that, and bring it all together into a story explaining to the customer the benefits and the value they're going to get out of moving forward with our portfolio. To be successful in sales, you have to understand the portfolio side and the customer complexity in the market as I mentioned earlier, but you also need selling skills and to know how to put together that value proposition you need to keep a good balance of both elements. This is the reasoning behind our decision to move towards non-technical sales training. We're trying to ensure that a technical-oriented sales force (electrical engineers) is also able to fulfill the needs of our customers which will effectively make their business run even smoother. ## **Q: What are the challenges of developing sales training programmes for sales teams based in different geographies?** ****A:** It’s a big challenge for us. We put together the most valuable sales training we have by working in collaboration with our central training organization, and we communicated this to the highest level of the hierarchy in our regions. We explained the situation to them and told them that we need to improve the selling skills of our reps. They immediately saw the need themselves, but waited for somebody to put this together. > There's a lot of organizations who spend lots of money on training courses with poor results. You need to make sure you’re looking at the investment you're putting in there: the time, the resources, and the money. ## **Q: Are all the courses developed internally by Siemens?** A: It's a combination, because you can’t offer everything. There are a lot of external courses available. I'm also going to have a conversation with an external agency to look at their offerings, but we do have an internal organization with a lot of experience who has done high quality training courses for multiple Siemens businesses over many years. For a particular piece of training on opportunity qualification, we're going to be looking at an external partner. This one's going to be focused on a specific area where we believe the sales reps can make an improvement. However, an internal introductory training to sales is going to meet the initial needs of our sales team. [How sales teams can work with other departments to drive growth \[Q&A with Tymeshift\]Nicholas Ghitti, Head of Growth at Tymeshift took the time to answer our community’s burning questions after his presentation ’How sales teams can work with other departments to drive growth at this year’s Future of SaaS festival.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/jan-kronies-mpSeLIXMnpc-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-sales-teams-can-collaborate-to-drive-growth-q-a-with-tymeshift/) ## **Q: How do you see your role and sales enablement at Siemens changing and developing in the near future?** A: Every team and every person has a different definition of sales enablement. Each person's coming from a different background or focus, and some teams will put more focus on digital technologies for example. They’ll be looking at all these digital tools that can support their sales. Others may have more of a competence and management training background and they're focused on that aspect. It could be that some enablement teams start reaching out and moving closer to operations, or it could be one team with sales enablement and marketing ahead of that team. I think you can go both ways, I'm just very happy with the recent development of the connection with operations. > Although, you need to find a healthy balance to make sure you're not missing the connection with marketing. ## **Q: Do you have any tips or strategies for getting buy-in from different departments?** A: This comes back to being a good communicator and being able to put together a plan. If you want to be successful, you always need to have a clear plan setting out: what are you trying to accomplish and what are the exact steps you're taking to put that plan into action. > When you have that clear plan, you then need to communicate it to other stakeholders which is where you can get their buy-in. Sometimes it also means giving them credibility and responsibility. In other words, not trying to take all the credit yourself. You may be orchestrating some great vision and putting it into place, but there’s a lot of people involved in making it a reality and you need to make sure these people are getting the credit they deserve. They're participating and feel they're a part of the overall vision and the big impact that it's going to make. That's where you get buy-in. --- Psst.. want more expert insights? Why not check out our exclusive content with a future of SaaS membership plan? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Top 7 interview questions for your product management role URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-your-product-management-role/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:41:39.000Z You can't have a strong SaaS org without a strong team. And to build a strong team, you've gotta set those expectations high. At Future of SaaS, we know that it starts at the interview stage, that's why we're bringing you a series of blogs catered specifically to the interview process. This week we’re taking a look at product managers, the visionaries behind your SaaS GTM strategy. Click here, for our first entry in the series:[ Top 7 interview questions for customer success managers](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-interview-questions-for-customer-success-managers/). In the coming weeks, we'll have: product marketers, sales enablement leaders, marketing executives, and more! --- A [product manager](https://www.productledalliance.com/top-tips-for-getting-started-in-product-management/) is truly the visionary behind your SaaS GTM strategy. Not only are they responsible for delivering a product that aligns with your org’s mission statement, it’s also essential for them to keep an ear to the ground and stay attuned to the pain points of your ideal customer profile (ICP). A solid product manager can have the initiative and innovation to pivot your strategy in the right direction when it looks like you're headed for a roadblock. ⛔ With its infinite potential for customization, the SaaS model grants us an incredible opportunity to tailor our products around the needs of the customer. A good product manager is not just a master of long-term strategy, but also allows your org to remain agile and continuously adaptive. Pretty special people, right? But how do we identify them? **Our top 7 interview questions for product manager**s will help you do just that. Check it out. 👇 ## 1.What does a product manager do? It might seem obvious, but this is a sure-fire way to determine whether candidates have a solid grasp of the role’s demands. A product manager is going to be working under the weight of considerable demands across many different departments. If the candidate is not able to effectively articulate the breadth and scope of the role’s demands, it’s a red flag that they’re unprepared for the demands of the role. Good product managers are a rare breed in that they have to demonstrate good long-term preparation and adaptability. This question assesses the former. Ben Horowitz, co-founder at Andreessen Horowitz, has this to say about good product managers: > “A good product manager knows the context going in (the company, our revenue funding, competition, etc.), and they take responsibility for devising and executing a winning plan (no excuses).” ## 2\. Sell me a… The famous Wolf of Wall Street question might seem gimmicky, but it has many real benefits. Talented product managers will frequently be able to find value in products that, frankly, might seem a little mundane. Or products that are so commonplace that it’s difficult to highlight the USP. But there are other qualities to consider here. You’re placing the candidate in a stressful, uncomfortable situation and expecting them to demonstrate adaptability and spontaneity. Sure, a candidate might say they can be spontaneous, but a good hiring manager wants to see this demonstrated in the hiring process. This question forces them to think on their feet and provide evidence of ideal qualities. [measuring the impact of customer success and related efforts on customer retentionWe wanted to seek wisdom from five CS leaders on how they view their role and how to measure its success in boosting customer retention.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/heart.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/measuring-the-impact-of-customer-success-and-related-efforts-on-customer-retention/) ## 3\. How do you figure out what customers want? A good product manager will need to have a clear vision for your SaaS product, and an essential part of this vision should establish the following: - Is their demand for this product? - What are your customer personas? - What pain points are we addressing? - What kind of research needs to be done to accomplish the above? The candidate should have evidence of how they’ve gone about reaching these criteria in the past, as well as a research strategy that covers a broad range of media channels. According to Julie Hymen, Senior Product Manager at Dell, understanding customer needs is critical to the role: > “You always need to keep customer experience as a top priority. It sounds obvious, because in the end, of course, that’s what makes for a successful product… Always be your customers’ strongest advocate. Always keep their interests and their experience in mind.” Most importantly, the candidate should have a firm grasp on who **your** ICP is, and should be able to express at least some idea of how they might optimize your product to hit that goal. ## 4\. How do you build alignment between teams? Your product manager might have all the great ideas in the world, but if they can’t effectively communicate those ideas to others within the team, they might as well not exist at all. After all, it’s your sales reps and customer success managers who are on the front line in the customer-facing roles. The product manager needs to be able to make believers out of your team, because if they don’t believe in your product– and can effectively convey its benefits– it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to make believers out of your customers. All of this stems from good communication skills, an absolute necessity for a product manager. Julia Astin, Harvard professor and Founder of the Startup, a critical skill in a product manager is good relationship building: > “By forming authentic and trustworthy connections with both internal and external stakeholders, the best PMs inspire people and help them reach their full potential.” [Cross-functional collaboration and engaging key stakeholdersWhat do you get when departments are toiling away in their silos, never reaching out to each other? Your key metrics for success are gonna nose-dive!![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/pexels-huy-chien-tran-1756665.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) ## 5\. Tell us about a time when you failed Okay, so this might seem like a cliche question, but the fact is, product management is a role that requires constant adapting and pivoting. But for candidates to be able to do this, they have to first be able to recognize when an initiative isn’t working out, and more importantly, be able to describe how they’ve managed to switch out of going down the wrong track. In terms of soft skills, the question also demonstrates a degree of humility. Are you hiring someone who is able to accept criticism and accept responsibility for a role, or are you hiring someone who’s going to stick stubbornly to a plan that’s really not working? ## 6\. What will you do with your first 30/60/90 days? A critical skill for any product manager is prioritization. Your new product manager will have a pretty overwhelming workload when they first come in, and what they reveal about how they organize their time might just reveal whether they're likely to sink or swim. For example, will they spend their first few weeks proactively correcting what they see as wrong in your strategy? Proactivity is a great quality to have, sure, but it might be better to hire someone who’s going to spend those preliminary months getting acquainted with your company’s mission statement and researching your ICP. Or maybe the first step would be to connect with different personnel on your team, learning about their roles and how to align with them. Then, how are the steps during the next thirty days going to build on from this? The question reveals foresight and strategic planning as well as good prioritization. Andy Jones has experience working as a product manager for Facebook, Twitter and Quora. Here’s what he has to say about the trajectory of a good product manager: > “Exceptional PMs can also internalize founder-level vision for the company and turn that vision into an actionable strategy. They have the most keen line of sight into the series of products/features that need to be built to achieve the founder’s vision. And once they have the vision and strategy clearly understood and explained to their team, they can enforce great execution against the vision and strategy.” ## 7\. What do you dislike about our product? Yes, you want a candidate who is going to appreciate the value of your product, but you also want someone who’s going to come into the interview already having an awareness of how they’re going to change it for the better. The critical value of hiring new talent comes in the fresh eyes that they can cast on your product. What are they seeing that past product managers have missed? It’s not really about being overly critical, but rather it’s about demonstrating the true potential in your product that you might have missed. You want to hire individuals with the potential to innovate and find fresh solutions. But innovations stem from identifying existing problems. Finally, you don’t want to hire a ‘yes-man,’ someone who just does what they’re told. A strong product manager will be able to constructively challenge even the most senior authorities in your org. --- Psst.. why not dive into some of our exclusive insights with a FoSaaS membership plan? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Analysis: the bedrock of product marketing URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/analysis-the-bedrock-of-product-marketing/ Last updated: 2022-07-26T10:14:30.000Z It’s time to look in the mirror, be honest with yourself, and confront the elephant in the room: do you want to be the best you can be, or be another product marketer merely making up the numbers? We can hear you emphatically telling us you wanna be the heavyweight champ of the PMM division. But to get to the top of the tree, you’ll need a firm understanding of how your efforts are faring in every element of your role - positioning, onboarding, sales enablement, marketing campaigns, the lot. Luckily for you, analysis can give you the answers you so desperately need. In this article, we'll be covering: - The importance of analyzing your product marketing efforts, - Analysis best practices, - Types of analysis, and - Analysis in practice. ## **The importance of analyzing your product marketing efforts** Analysis is a never-ending job and product marketers should ensure they’re devoted to investing time, effort, and money to get it spot-on. This part of the job is so important because it helps you understand what is working and therefore what to do more of, as well as what isn’t working so you can cut that out. For example, if you’ve created a sales battle card that’s not helping your sales reps, you need to know about it. If you’ve created a product page your prospects don’t understand, you need to know about it. If lots of customers are leaving after day 30, you guessed it, you need to know about it. Analysis can give you the answers to the essential questions nipping away at the back of your mind, allowing you to not only beat the competition but also connect with your customers on a much deeper level. ## **Analysis best practices** From sales collateral and new features, to products, in-app messages, and training materials, product marketers are spoiled for choice when it comes to areas they can analyze, but there are best practices that should be considered. So, how can you begin analyzing your practice and putting contingencies in place to: 1. Maintain your current performance, or 2. Improve existing practices to enhance future performance ### **Envision what constitutes success** At the start of every project, you need to make sure you establish what success will look like and how you plan to measure that success. Remember, you’re rarely solely responsible for success; internal partners like product, sales, marketing, and customer success will usually weigh in at one point or another too. Without this first step in place, it’s difficult to know what to analyze. For example, if you’re launching a new feature in an existing product and your objective is to get 55% of your existing customers adopting that feature, you know you need to analyze feature adoption, but as well as that, you need to analyze the parts that contribute to that adoption. If you scheduled an announcement email and in-app message and produced a feature demo video, they could all impact that adoption, so you’d want to consider factors such as: - How many people opened the email? - How many people clicked on the in-app message? - How many watched the whole video? If these numbers are low, your feature adoption numbers are more likely to be low, and understanding the performance of these pre-steps can help determine where you focus your optimization tactics. For instance, if everyone who landed on the video watched the whole thing but only 5% of your base made it to the video, the problem might not necessarily be with the video itself, but with the wording or timing of the message you sent people to point them to it. This highlights the importance of having a clear and measurable objective, understanding what parts feed into achieving that objective, and remembering these moving parts might not always sit within product marketing. ### **Avoid vanity metrics** Make sure you’re measuring the right data and don’t get distracted by irrelevant metrics. For example, let’s say you’ve launched a new landing page and it gets 50,000 hits in the first week. That’s a pretty decent number and it can be easy to get so excited about that success that you forget to focus on the step after that. But, if your objective was to deliver 1,000 sales-qualified leads to the sales team and only 100 of those 50,000 visitors qualified, that wouldn’t be considered a success and there’s something wrong with either the messaging on the landing page or the audience you’re targeting. This ties into setting clear objectives from the beginning, but to avoid being derailed by irrelevant data, it might be worth putting a bit of a list together of the data you care about along with your objective. For example, sticking with the landing page example, the data you would care about is the number of sales-qualified leads, the number of those leads who converted, and the number of people who interacted with your landing page, but didn’t quite make that next step. ### **Use relevant tools** Equipping yourself with the best tools will also massively help you have the right mechanisms in place to track whatever it is you’re measuring. Plenty of tools are available nowadays to help with this but more often than not, it relies on scouting out several different sources and amalgamating important data like traffic, conversions, and revenue, which can be time-consuming. If you can, we’d recommend working with your data or IT teams and building analytics dashboards to help you automatically track these metrics. That way, you and your project stakeholders can take a glance at your project’s most important metrics as often and quickly as you like. Tools like Looker and Tableau are good starting points for this, but you can also check out our PMM Tech Stack and discover more resources that’ve been tried and tested by product marketing experts. ### **Don’t ignore qualitative data** Not all analyses will be quantitative and it’s important to speak with customers and prospects and generate qualitative data. It’s important to use both sets of data because numerical data only reveals half the story; this can lead you into a false sense of security which can be dangerous in both the short and long-term. For example, let’s say your company’s overall revenue goals are being met and you’re generally going in the right direction. It’d be easy to see that as a win, right? However, what if the only reason people are shopping with you is because there’s no better alternative at that given point in time? There’s a chance they don’t particularly love what you do and have viewed you as the only viable option available to them. This puts your company in a precarious position because these customers aren’t loyal to your brand; as soon as someone enters the market who does offer what they want, they’ll probably jump ship and it’s then really hard to win them back again. Having those conversations helps you put measures in place that would keep your company’s current revenue on track, both now and in the future. ### **Focus on personas and markets** The penultimate point is to remember to split your analysis by persona and market. Usually, not all personas and markets will perform the same, so segmenting them during your analysis will help you understand how each area is performing and which need more attention, and where that attention needs to be put. If you take a blanket approach and subsequently make changes, you could end up unintentionally harming your efforts. For example, let’s say you’re analyzing a landing page and on the whole, the message and call-to-action aren’t performing so you switch it up. However, persona A resonated with what you had and the new message and CTA don’t appeal to them as much, and as a result, their conversion rate drops. Needless to say, that can be damaging to your numbers. In reality, you should be targeting different personas and markets with different emails, landing pages, etc., but either way, you must look at their data in isolation. ## **Types of analysis** There’s no universally accepted definition of which type of analysis product marketers ought to use; when it comes to the crunch, some favor different approaches to others. While this is the case, there are two commonly used types of analysis used by product marketers: A/B testing and cohort analysis. ### **A/B testing** A/B testing is the process of comparing two versions of something, whether that be the color of a call-to-action, emojis in a subject line, or copy on a landing page, to see which version performs best. The primary benefit of A/B testing is it gives you a degree of confidence before rolling out any changes and if it uncovers your variant is less successful, it gives you a chance to either revert back to the original or make further changes before it’s rolled out to everyone and possibly harms your efforts. For example, when launching our membership plans, we wanted to get the most impact and value from our announcement email. Therefore we tested two subject lines to see which would generate a higher open rate. We sent a subset of our opt-in database the email with the subject line ‘****The wait is finally** ****over**' and the other with the subject line ‘****PMA membership plans are here**’; the former outperformed the latter with a 39% open rate compared to a 13% open rate. With that insight, we then sent the remaining majority of our email list using the first subject line, knowing it would get more people to open our email. As well as landing page copy, CTAs, and email components, A/B testing can be used to test things like: - The thumbnail image of your product demo video, - The time of day you send release notes, - How you position your product, - Which sales script your salespeople use, - Which content marketing asset you send prospects, and so on. The opportunities are endless. However, it’s important to test one thing at a time and wait until you collect a meaningful amount of data until you conclude. ### **Cohort analysis** By definition, a cohort is a group of people with a shared characteristic in a specified timeframe. In many ways, you could say cohort analysis is a bit like segmentation, but the core difference is it focuses more on historical data and has that set timeframe. In the context of business, there are two types of cohort analysis: acquisition and behavioral. An example of an acquisition cohort could be customers who’ve bought your solution in March, or prospects who signed up for your free trial in the last 30 days. An example of a behavioral cohort could be a customer who adopted a certain feature in February, or downloaded a report from their dashboard last month or canceled their subscription in the last 60 days. Unlike when you look at your users as a single unit, cohort analysis enables you to break users into groups and pinpoint patterns that could be leading to moments of success or failure, and this in turn can help you optimize prospect and customer experiences. Before we take a look at a couple of examples, let’s run through a few essentials. ****Essential #1** The first is defining your cohort and as well as looking at time-specific measurements like ‘in March’ or the ‘the last 30 days’ this could be by customer demographics, like gender and location, or campaign source, channel source, device, or lifecycle stage. ****Essential #2** The second is to understand which metric you’ll apply to your cohort and the options for this are broad. And finally, the third is to define the period you’ll be measuring. This’ll depend on your circumstances and for some businesses daily might make perfect sense, but for others, it might be more like weekly, monthly, or even quarterly. So, let’s take a look at cohort analysis in action. To set the scene, let’s position ourselves as a B2C online retailer looking to answer the question “How can I increase each customer’s lifetime value?” From this data, you can see those who first purchased in April have a higher average lifetime value, so could that be down to a particular campaign, new product, or an event? If so, how can you replicate that campaign for all future, new§ customers? And how can you put it in front of existing customers to encourage them to buy more?Here’s another example, this time for a B2B SaaS business trying to answer the question “Do I need to invest more into retention?” So from this table, we can see the number of active desktop users drops quite heavily from weeks one to four in customers who sign-up in March. However, users who sign up in or after April stay consistently active, and that could be down to a change in onboarding, how the sales reps are positioning and selling your product, a new feature you’ve added, and so on. On the contrary, the number of active mobile users drops quite dramatically in those who sign up in May and don't recover, so could there be a snag in your mobile app? Is something not working? Or are load times slow? The key is investigating what’s causing the pattern, whether it’s positive or negative, and using those learning to continually improve what you do moving forward, to ensure future cohorts are set for success. ****It doesn’t always have to be fancy...** As well as using techniques like A/B testing and cohort analysis, optimization can be as simple as speaking to your prospects, customers, and internal teams and optimizing assets and processes based on that. For example, if your sales reps are all asking for a section on ‘the future product roadmap’ to be added to your sales script, that’s a pretty quick and dirty optimization win. Or, if your customers are telling you they find your onboarding tour too long, condensing that into fewer steps is another. There are endless options here but the point is if you don’t get out there and speak to people, you’ll never know and you could miss out on incremental optimizations that amount to big differences over time. It’s important to remember analysis should never stand still; it’s an ongoing process. Everything, no matter how well it’s performing now, can be refined and improved to work even better for you in the future, so make sure you consistently schedule time in your calendar to focus on analyzing and optimizing both old and new campaigns. ## **Analysis in practice** Analysis is a mainstay in the day-to-day routine of product marketers, and with good reason; it’s an essential component in the PMM journey. As is the case with areas such as [OKRs](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/okrs-the-key-ingredient-when-setting-and-achieving-product-marketing-goals/), [pricing strategies](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/how-to-identify-a-suitable-pricing-strategy/), and [customer onboarding](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/the-fundamentals-of-customer-onboarding/), market analysis techniques vary; there’s no definitive approach to take. Some product marketers analyze certain areas more than others, while their chosen methods may differ. ****Salil Dhal Hakim, VP of Product Marketing at Highradius** provided an outline of how market analysis plays a key role in his company’s daily operations. > “We use market analysis to focus on a few areas at our company. > “When we’re focusing on content marketing, we look at what content assets are performing well in producing leads, MQLs, sales conversations. This mostly occurs bi-weekly, whenever a new content-based campaign goes live. > “We also assess web/online metrics. These mostly take the form of inbound analysis completed by the online teams we work with to decipher and build insights around. For example, they’ll get back to us with conversion metrics they’re seeing on a new set of landing pages, before we work with them to interpret what the data means and how we solve it by updating the messaging experience on the page. > “Last, but not least, we also analyze qualitative listening. This is the most abstract, but also the most important and long-term. Constantly listening to recordings of sales conversations or just being a fly in the wall on sales calls helps us get better at (a) being able to speak the language of the buyer (b) staying up to date about what they are most worried about. I tend to rely on the DIY method for this versus asking a salesperson for feedback because they tend to lose a lot in translation.” ****Vijay Sarathi, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Zenoti**, also shared how analysis is used at his company. > “There are different areas and different tools to measure the product marketing efforts. > “For instance, I recently worked on a launch campaign for our product. The goal was not only to measure the number of leads but also to monitor the effectiveness of the reach. > “The final results helped us understand the receptiveness and possibly provided some new insights too.” ### How to build a more personalized digital consumer experience URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-a-more-personalized-digital-consumer-experience/ Last updated: 2023-02-09T12:12:02.000Z *This article is taken from a presentation given at Future of SaaS festival 2022\. Get the full unedited talk on demand* [*right here.*](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-3/) In this article, I’m going to show you how to create a more personalized experience for your customers. There are many different factors that go into this, but don’t worry, I’m going to break it down into a few easy-to-digest talking points: - [Being a good friend](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-a-more-personalized-digital-consumer-experience/#being-a-good-friend) - [What personalization means to consumers](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-a-more-personalized-digital-consumer-experience/#what-personalization-means-to-consumers) - [What we can do to help](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-a-more-personalized-digital-consumer-experience/#what-can-we-do-to-help) - [Listen for what consumers need](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-a-more-personalized-digital-consumer-experience/#listen-for-what-they-need-or-want) - [Make life easier ](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-a-more-personalized-digital-consumer-experience/#make-their-lives-easier) But first, I'd like to take a moment to introduce my company. ## About LiveIntent Over the last 13 years, LiveIntent has brought the very best of advertising technology into the most powerful marketing channel: email. We've created the largest logged-in people-based media channel in North America outside of Facebook, Google, and Amazon. We make it possible for brands like Wayfair, Bombas, Domino's, and Allbirds to reach over 220 million people every single month. We leverage email newsletters, alerts, announcements, and transactional emails. These are sent by big brands, retailers, and major traditional publishers, like the New York Times, Groupon, Fanatics, Gap, Meredith, and Conde Nast. Since we only serve an ad once an email is opened and images are turned on, we can verify that every impression is targeted, optimized, and attributed to a real person – not a proxy or cookie. We've also taken all of our learnings to leverage our people-based marketing acumen beyond the email channel and build our identity services. It's our goal to bring identity resolution to publishers, advertisers, and retailers so they can thrive in a post-third-party cookie world. [![A group of friends with arms around each other](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/friends.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-a-more-personalized-digital-consumer-experience) ## Being a good friend So what does it mean to be a good friend? Here are the things that come to my mind when I think about this question: 1. **Recognize who people are**. It's nice to be recognized and acknowledged by your first name. I'm terrible at names, but I work hard not to be because they’re so important. 2. **Listen and empathize.** 3. **Meet people where they are**. You can physically meet people where they are, but it works digitally too. I've got a friend that uses WhatsApp religiously and doesn't like using text. I don’t expect them to embrace the messaging system that I prefer to use, so I open WhatsApp whenever I want to chat with them. 4. **Provide good recommendations and good ‘food for thought’.** This is so important and in extreme cases could even save lives. 5. **Surprise and delight** **people from time to time**. Delight is one of the best human experiences you can have. To delight someone, it has to be somewhat surprising, and better than expected. 6. **Make people's lives a little bit easier.** 7. **Love people for who they are,** **and not who you want them to be**. You also have to allow people to change over time and recognize that those changes may impact what people need or expect from you. Now that we're thinking about what we expect out of relationships with our friends and families, how is that different from what you'd expect from a brand? Is there *that* much of a difference in how a brand should treat you? When it comes to personalization, it’s our mission as SaaS companies to create technology that emulates the best aspects of human nature and our best human experiences. To me, it’s the humanization of technology and marketing. ## What personalization means to consumers Let's look at what consumers say is important to them when it comes to personalization. When I go shopping I try to grab someone who can help me find what I need as quickly as possible. I also want them to let me know if I should be thinking about something else so I don't have to come back to the store. Don't let me leave and have to come back to get something that I absolutely needed to make the thing I bought work. Whether I'm buying online or in a store, that's my expectation. According to Mckinsey's [**personalization 2021 report**](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-value-of-getting-personalization-right-or-wrong-is-multiplying), the second most important factor in a consumer’s decision to buy from a brand or business for the first time (after making it easier to navigate in-store and online) is giving relevant product and service recommendations. We need to make sure that we're using all the right technologies to make those recommendations. When people give bad recommendations, you feel it because one, it seems like they don't know you well enough to make a good recommendation, and two, they're not aligning what you need with what's available. All the vital personalization actions identified in this study fall under one of four areas: - Meet people where they are, - Know who they are, - Offer something special, and - Check up on them. We need to communicate with customers and do so where they're at. We can’t just force one communication stream. **71% of consumers** say they expect personalization, and **76%** say they're frustrated when they don't get it. It’s important to keep in mind that if you're not personalizing your communications, you're not doing the best you possibly can. You'll end up with a lot of dissatisfied customers on your hands. [![A hand passing a paper heart to another hand ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/kelly-sikkema-XX2WTbLr3r8-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-a-more-personalized-digital-consumer-experience) ## What SaaS companies stand to gain from personalization One of the strongest performing sectors out there is direct-to-consumer (DTC). Native DTCs have been especially powerful over the last few years. This is because they control the entire customer journey, they've got first-party data on all their consumers which they can leverage to optimize all of their communications. Using that direct connection in tandem with personalization is vital. When you have control over the entire customer journey and direct relationships with everyone, you can see a **25% increase** in overall revenue. When you don't have those first-party relationships, personalization only has an impact of **five to 10%** on your business. When we look at the last five years overall, the digitally native DTCs outperformed businesses in many other categories. This is partly because of the pandemic, although pre-pandemic they were already doing really well, with better repurchase rates, better lifetime value, and much higher loyalty levels. Providing optimization and personalization for the brands and publishers that we support is really powerful because it allows them to grow faster. Speed to market is crucial, especially if you're running out of money or you're raising money for growth. That's not even the whole story because traditional brands are now starting to step into the market. During the pandemic, a lot of brands pulled out of TV, and billions of dollars moved into digital. ### Direct-to-consumer growth The most important trend here is the growth in DTC. We can see that the vast majority of the growing DTC eCommerce space is now being driven by established brands, as opposed to digital natives. This is going to be a problem because smaller DTCs are having trouble raising money, and they're getting pushed out of a lot of media because it’s getting too expensive. As SaaS companies, we have to figure out how to re-leverage the recipes we created for DTC natives and apply that to the large established brands. It's important that we all make that turn. While it's harder to sell to big established companies, we have to get our heads around those longer sales cycles. It’s going to be more difficult, but it's important to take advantage of all the growth out there, and there is a lot of growth. We're gonna keep seeing a **30%** year-over-year growth in direct-to-consumer, but to grab that, we're gonna have to support both traditional brands and native DTCs. I hinted at this earlier; there's another dynamic happening that’s making it more important than ever to talk about personalization – a lot of people are getting priced out of advertising on social media platforms, including Facebook. We've seen **50 to 100%** increases in cost-per-acquisition (CPA) among customers on Facebook, so orgs are quickly trying to diversify to other platforms. More importantly, they need to squeeze as much efficiency as possible out of other activities. By adding strong personalization, they can squeeze more out of the expensive media that they're buying, and still hopefully hit their volume goals, their revenue goals, and eventually, their CPA goals. However, CPA goals are going up because pricing is going up, so they need to use personalization to drive better return on assets (ROA) and repeat purchases. This is why it’s more important than ever to embrace personalization. Speaking of diversification, if you’e diversifying away from certain channels because they're getting too expensive, look at things like retail media and LiveIntent. Look into areas where first-party data is used for targeting, optimization, and attribution. These areas won't be hurt by the cookie apocalypse. This strategy is gonna work a year or two from now when the cookie goes the way of the dodo. ## What can we do to help? In this challenging climate, what can SaaS companies do to better support the brands, publishers, advertisers, and retailers that we work with, especially when it comes to personalization? I go right back to thinking about this from a friendship perspective. If we can enable people with the technology they need to treat people more like friends than just consumers, that can go a long way. Earlier on, we looked at what it means to be a good friend. Now let’s unbundle how we can apply these principles to personalization with our customers. ### Know who people are At LiveIntent, we know who people are because we use email as the identifier. Email is the single largest human identifier created by people. There is no better first-party identifier in media or marketing. Most people have multiple email addresses, cookies, and devices, so we build out a graph around that. That way, when we're using different media to reach people, we can authenticate all those IDs and know who we’re speaking to. That's one piece of knowing who users are. [![Headphones](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/listening.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-build-a-more-personalized-digital-consumer-experience) ### Listen for what they need or want Listening is another piece. We can watch people migrate through sites and see what they're clicking on and where they’re converting. From there, we can start to anticipate their needs. Perhaps someone had never visited a parenting site and suddenly they're all over that. They might be having a baby, so we might start switching up the offers and the types of content we think this person will be interested in. We can retarget these people in the email channel, and what we're now testing is reaching them on the web. Many companies are going to be able to soon. Dynamic product retargeting is another part of this. When someone leaves a shopping cart, pick that piece up and show them offers that might interest them. As soon as they make that purchase, stop right there. Stop following them around with something they've already purchased and showing them offers they can't do anything with. That's a very simple form of personalization. As a part of listening, watch what people are doing within your owned and operated properties. - What are they doing in an email? - What are they doing on your website? - What are they doing in an app? When you start capturing that kind of information, you can build a profile to better understand your user. You can use third-party companies too, of course. Using third parties to look at interest data, technographics, and age is great, but what works really well is activity signals. What is this person doing right now? Are they online? Are they looking at their emails? You want to understand and use these signals, in a privacy-compliant way, of course. There's so much data you can glean from outside partners to better understand how to communicate with the people and brands you're trying to serve. ### Meet people where they are and make solid recommendations When the time is right, meet people where they're paying attention. You could always send a triggered email to someone who has abandoned a cart. Triggering emails, which is a huge piece of personalization, is extremely effective. The problem is that many CRM teams look at email as a sending mechanism. However, email is no longer about *just* sending emails; it’s about identity and meeting people where they are. We need to make it possible for brands to identify and reach their customers, whether they're reading a New York Times newsletter, looking at CTV, or on Fanatics buying a Green Bay Packers jersey, as I’d like to. Having that identity and being able to activate it to meet people where they are is vital, and that's where you can make solid recommendations for upsells, cross-sells, or whatever it is that you're trying to get across, so long as it’s something that they’d be interested in. ### Make their lives easier To make things easier for people and keep **75%** of your customers happy, just make the checkout process as seamless as possible. Take stuff out if you don't need it. If you're asking other questions to get information at that point, start using a different touch point to get that information and build more of a profile. ### 5 reasons why the future is SaaS URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-is-saas-5-reasons-why/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:41:57.000Z It’s no secret that we’re in the middle of a SaaS revolution. Okay, so you might think we’re a little biased, [but according to Gartner,](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-08-02-gartner-says-four-trends-are-shaping-the-future-of-public-cloud) the industry is set to be worth $171.19B by the end of 2022\. 📈 The reason? The SaaS model is one that benefits both org and customer alike. While affording orgs a lower set-up cost and shorter sales cycles, customers are treated to an easy-to-use, infinitely customizable experience. No wonder businesses across the globe are reaping the benefits of SaaS! Still not convinced? **Here's reasons why the future is SaaS, plus some top tips for getting started! 👇** ## The benefits of SaaS Software as a service (SaaS) is a business model delivering a ready-made cloud-based application to customers via the internet, usually in exchange for a subscription fee. But what’s so great about SaaS? There are lots of benefits of a SaaS business model, but that can get confusing fast! So, to keep it simple here’s our list of the key benefits of switching to a SaaS model. ### Consistent revenue One of the top benefits of a SaaS business model is [consistent revenue](https://www.saasalliance.io/revenue-operations-the-new-key-to-unlocking-growth/). The subscription-based nature of SaaS means that you always know roughly how much money will come in every month. Of course, this will still vary depending on new sales and [churned customers](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-churn-rate-your-guide/) \- but for the most part, you will have a good estimate of your monthly budget. This can allow you to know what your hiring or marketing budget is well in advance. And reduces the pressure to make constant sales. ### Lower costs When creating software that needs to be stored on customers’ systems, you have to worry about supporting multiple operating systems and devices and supporting customers with local device problems. With SaaS, you only have to worry about supporting different browsers which is a much simpler task - saving you time and money! [Automating compliance with Meiran GalisIn this episode, we’re joined by Meiran Galis, CEO and Co-founder at Scytale AI, and a tactical leader in the realm of security compliance. Meiran has helped hundreds of high-profile SaaS companies build compliance programs for rapidly growing organizations.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/FoSaaS_Podcast_MG-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/automating-compliance-with-meiran-galis/) ### Pre-segmented customers There is no need to personalize offerings for each customer for a SaaS model or [segment your customers](https://www.saasalliance.io/a-practical-playbook-to-b2b-customer-renewal/) into low and high value manually. With a SaaS model, it is common to have set tiers of services with a set price, meaning your customers will automatically be sorted this way based on the tier they choose to purchase. This pricing model also allows you to appeal to a wide range of potential customers, as small businesses and large organizations can choose the bundle option that suits them best. ### Short sales lifecycle Deals can be made much quicker with SaaS models than with traditional software models. This is because [SaaS pricing ](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-your-saas-offering/)and bundle features are already clear (as explained above). The customer just selects the bundle and price that suits their needs and the deal is done. No need for a long-winded negotiation process! ### Easy for customers to use SaaS reduces the need for customers to download complex software - they simply log in and start working. Plus the [onboarding process ](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-strategy-of-onboarding/)starts within the platform once they log in for the first time. Which is so much simpler for your customers! It’s also easier to have a free trial with a SaaS model, meaning your customer can experience your product before deciding to purchase. ### Updates and new features It’s super easy to make updates and add new features - and your customer doesn’t have to do anything! Long gone are the days when customers would have to do a software update every time you updated the software. Now you could do multiple updates a day and cause no frustration to your customers. ## How to switch to a SaaS model Still, considering switching to a SaaS model? Here are some things to consider to make your SaaS transition smoothly. ### Clear pricing As discussed earlier, having a clear pricing tier system up-front is key for any SaaS business. Coming up with this system is tricky and requires a lot of research, and trial and error. Once you’ve cracked the pricing model structure, make sure it’s super clear on your website. Tell customers what they are getting and how much that costs as well as what the other options are. [How to raise the price of your productThere are some instances when it’s necessary to raise the price of your product. While it may seem like a risky tactic, there are ways in which you can introduce new pricing parameters without alienating customers and increasing churn rates.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/old-money-UqILKDhWiFw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-raise-the-price-of-your-product/) ### Customer retention The key to a sustainable SaaS model is [customer retention.](https://www.saasalliance.io/measuring-the-impact-of-customer-success-and-related-efforts-on-customer-retention/) Keeping customers happy and subscribed will keep your revenue predictable and keep your costs lower. You will gain much more value from retaining customers than from constantly looking for new ones - so try to keep your churn rate low. ### Metrics and analytics There are loads of metrics associated with SaaS models - you can choose to track all of them or to choose a [few KPIs.](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-customer-success-meeting-critical-kpis-together-q-a-with-simpo/) But whatever you choose make sure to analyze them! Analyzing your data can help you to see how your business is performing and what needs to be improved. Make sure to track and analyze your data regularly to keep your business healthy. ### Upselling The opportunity to upsell to current customers shouldn’t be wasted. When your customer’s businesses grow there is potential to upsell them a more premium offering, which will increase your revenue. This should be a mutually beneficial sale though, so don’t push if it isn’t right for your customer. ### Offer easy integrations Offering integrations into other sites that your customers also use is a huge differentiator in the SaaS landscape. This does however mean building your own API to facilitate data exchange with other companies. But the pros to your customer are often worth it as they can seamlessly use your platform with all the other tools they need. ### Final thoughts Although a SaaS business model isn’t right for every organization, there is a growing market for SaaS applications. So, you should definitely consider your company's options when it comes to switching to a SaaS model. --- Psst... can't get enough of SaaS? Why not sign up to our exclusive insights from industry experts with our membership plan! [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How to leverage NPS data to make decisions URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-leverage-nps-data-to-make-decisions/ Last updated: 2022-07-19T13:22:12.000Z Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a powerful tool for product and marketing teams. Leveraging NPS helps you (A) get closer to customers, (B) benchmark your business against the competition, and (C) understand how your products are perceived - including deficiencies in the current setup. NPS should be another metric that businesses leverage for information and as with most data sources, there are pros and cons. NPS insights help create an action plan to address product issues, which fuel product growth and over time, reduce your marketing costs (CAC). As with other data sources, we may have small sample sizes from NPS, so we should use insights as a trigger to investigate further instead of as a single source of truth. In this post, I'll detail how NPS can be used operationally to make critical decisions for product marketers and product teams alike. [What it means to have a high customer retention rateWhen a company has a high customer retention rate, buyers return to purchase products or services on more than one occasion. When retention rates are high, this bodes against customer churn rate.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/nathan-dumlao-zi5vRoAP3WY-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-it-means-to-have-a-high-customer-retention-rate/) ### ****What is NPS?** NPS was created by the consultancy firm Bain & Company back in 2003 so they could better understand how to determine engagement and loyalty of customers. > *“Net Promoter Score, or NPS, measures customer experience and predicts business growth. This proven metric transformed the business world and now provides the core measurement for customer experience management programs the world round.”* ****netpromoter.com** ### ****How is it calculated?** Calculate your NPS using the answer to a key question, using a 0-10 scale: How likely is it that you would recommend \[brand\] to a friend or colleague? Respondents are grouped as follows: - Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and referring others, fuelling growth. - Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings. - Detractors (score 0-6) are unhappy customers who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth. Subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters yields the Net Promoter Score, which can range from a low of -100 (if every customer is a Detractor) to a high of 100 (if every customer is a Promoter).” [Customer success metrics that drive 95% retentionIn this article, I’ll be discussing the customer success metrics you should be tracking at each and every stage of the customer lifecycle. With them, you can drive retention and ensure your customer success function is successful in delivering value to the customer.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSSwati Chopra![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/yoav-hornung-Qg6lPXJ6IL4-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-metrics-that-drive-95-retention/) There are two types of ways to measure NPS, ****(transactional) tNPS** and (****relational**) **rNPS**. ****rNPS**: A generic approach to capture how your brand is perceived more broadly. This provides a benchmark to compare against external NPS ratings from competitors. tNPS: Customer feedback at a granular level, including how they interact with each stage of the journey (e.g. onboarding, checkout). If implemented correctly you can identify actionable insights that can lead to creating GTM campaigns and suggesting product refinements. As you drill into certain issues, the sample size may drop significantly, but they should be used in context to what you are trying to understand. [measuring the impact of customer success and related efforts on customer retentionWe wanted to seek wisdom from five CS leaders on how they view their role and how to measure its success in boosting customer retention.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/heart.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/measuring-the-impact-of-customer-success-and-related-efforts-on-customer-retention/) ### ****Why should you care?** Without incorporating a consistent attitudinal metric you will only see half the performance picture. Many organizations largely focus on transactional and to a lesser degree (relative) behavioral and to an even lesser degree attitudinal data points. It is important to focus and understand all three. However, it is also quite common for attitudinal triggers to be ignored because the transactional and behavioral data is a lot quicker and easier to collect, and validate. When someone uses your service you can track a multitude of different metrics practically in real-time (i.e. revenue, profit, time of order, etc.) but I believe what’s missing is having the attitudinal data overlaid on top to complete the performance narrative. [Customer retention metrics and how to action themHow do successful SaaS organizations measure retention and what on earth do they with the results, I hear you cry? Well, we surveyed 100 SaaS pros to find out how they track, review and utilize retention and churn metrics, and here are the results.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/jakob-owens-CiUR8zISX60-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) The primary reason for this is that organizations have not set up a pipeline to have a regular pulse on NPS. Also, the data sometimes comes in every 2-3 months, has a low sample size, hasn’t been implemented properly, or they don’t know what to do with it! From some of my conversations with young startups about this topic, they have informed me that they see NPS as their Northstar metric to track growth and have respectively set up the data pipelines to review this data on a weekly basis. This enables them to track what customers are feeling/saying, and addressing problems quickly. ### ****How product marketers can make decisions with NPS data** Understanding the nuances of the NPS data will allow you to represent the customer in any room, which is a critical role that Product Marketers play. It’s crucial to understand the voice of the customer and to drown out the noise to tactfully derive actionable insights that improve the overall customer experience. Here's how I recommend product marketers use NPS data. ### ****Contextualize the data** Leverage the data to tease out NPS by key segment groups (i.e. young professionals). The last thing you want to look at is an aggregated view overloaded with low-quality users. Ensure you look at segments that have a higher frequency, recency, and monetary value. This is your core! This will help you identify the key pain points and allow you to laser focus on the main problems. ### ****VOC** Voice of the customer is a regular phrase called out in most PMM job descriptions and there are many ways to collect this, be it working with research, speaking to a customer directly, social data extraction, and leveraging sentiment feedback from NPS. Call out the common statements as to why promoters and detractors feel the way they do and use this as a basis for narrowing down which customers you should speak to. This will ultimately help you devise GTM programs to meet their needs. ### ****Visualize the data** It’s important not to just look at a single score. Create a waterfall chart (see fig 1.0) that highlights the key drivers for the promoter and detractor scores that add up to the respective week/month tNPS rating. This will help you pinpoint the smallest and biggest detractor issues allowing you to create clear recommendations on what to do. ### ****Check if Word of Mouth (WOM) is working** Correlate audiences who have been recommended by someone to buy your product with the audiences (promoters) who said they would recommend people. This will enable you to quickly see if promoters are doing what they said they would do allowing you to isolate the potential WOM impact (correlation not causal). ### ****Go deeper** Experiment with the data, try to calculate what 1 additional NPS point translates to in engagement/revenue, and work out what the path of least resistance is to achieve that 1 pt. [Scaling and deciding which metrics to measure: The metrics that matter mostAt the SaaS Metrics Summit, we were lucky enough to be able to sit down with three leaders from the world of SaaS, who shared with us their insights on the metrics that matter most as you scale your organization.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/eberhard-grossgasteiger-tFQj4NtuPME-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-and-deciding-which-metrics-to-measure-the-metrics-that-matter-most/) ### ****Sample size** If your sample size is low, don’t dismiss the data, use it as a steer to further investigate the issue/theme. Work with your data partners and research teams to validate it. Additionally, if the sample size is an issue, stretch out your analysis period to 3 months (if you have to) by that point you could have enough sample size to validate your assertions and convince the naysayers. ### ****Employee betas** I leveraged the NPS metric for an employee beta I ran for a product across 3 markets (B2B+B2C), and it massively helped the product team refine the product experience, setting it up for success for the global launch (11 markets). The engineers will make mistakes and product managers will miss things, it is at this point where product marketers can intercept and add the all-important tangible customer feedback to add value. I recall 300 bugs being captured and squished as a result of capturing NPS feedback from just employees! Think about incorporating a similar setup for your next launch as this was a driving force for the organization to use the NPS measure more. The immediate impact of leveraging NPS data for a Product Marketer is the context and color it adds when evaluating business performance. It illuminates the data more engagingly. --- Psst.. enjoyed this article, check out all the exclusive insights we have to offer with a FoSaaS membership plan. **👇** [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Women in SaaS: mentorship and career progression URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-mentorship/ Last updated: 2022-07-14T15:25:44.000Z *This article was taken from a talk Priscilla gave at the Women in SaaS summit in September 2021, available to watch on-demand* [*here*](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-september-2021/?wchannelid=76t2a33h4f&wmediaid=etqbwe1q23)*. Since then, she has taken on a new role as a Security and Trust Architect at GitHub. Congratulations, Priscilla!* Women in SaaS may be over, but we know you're just itching for more riveting insight from the trailblazing women in SaaS! why not dive into our second installment in our Women in SaaS series: Mentorship and career progression with Priscilla Aubrey. With experience in major organizations such as **Dell and Github,** Priscilla has a wealth of experience and insight at her disposal. Here, Priscilla takes on one of the most crucial topics for women in SaaS today: mentorship and career progression At Future of Saas we believe that creating greater inclusion in the workplace creates a broader field of dynamic, exciting talent. But that can only happen if those at the top are reaching out a helping hand to those on the way up. 🤝 Training is a cornerstone of diversity, equity and inclusion. And good training comes from top leadership qualities. But don't just take it from us, take it from a proven leader. Over to you, Priscilla! ## A little bit about myself I’m a mom, I’m a DIY enthusiast, and I've been in the IT industry since I was 19\. I'm a grandmother, I'm a gardener, I'm a candle maker, not a baker though – that's not my thing. I tell you all this because it's important to remember that we're all so multifaceted. When the opportunity came up to talk about career progression and all the bumps, lumps, and changes we go through along the way, I thought to myself, “Priscilla, you’ve had a pretty dynamic career, and this is a great opportunity to share.” So, in the spirit of sharing, let’s dive into mentorship and career progression. [Women in SaaS: taking risks for career progressionIn the lead up to the women in SaaS summit 2022, we’ll be hearing from a whole host of women SaaS leaders on some of the most challenging topics facing women in SaaS today![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSJeri Lim![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/women-empowerment.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-taking-risks-for-career-progression/) ## Sourcing your internal mentors I’d been with Github for about 60 days before I approached anyone to ask about mentorship. We had lots of webinars and calls; I would watch and listen in, and that's how I sourced my mentors. I looked at folks who had skills and attributes that I wanted to grow, and that's how I started choosing the mentors that were right for me. We use Slack to communicate within my organization, so when it was time to reach out, I sent a message saying “Hi, my name is Priscilla Aubrey. I'm part of this team, and I would love to connect with you and have a one-on-one.” I never used our first meetings to ask anyone to be my mentor. Although I'd seen these folks in action, I'd never sat down with them one-on-one before. I wanted to take the opportunity for us to get to know each other and find out if it would be a good fit. And you know, some of the folks that I linked up with weren't a great fit, but a lot of them were. Your mentors are the people you're going to be asking some really heavy questions to. You’re going to look to them to lead and guide you, and provide honest feedback about your career. That’s why it’s so important to ensure that your values align. This should be someone whose voice you’d be willing to follow if you were stranded on a mountain together and you had lost your glasses and couldn’t see (like me!). [3 benefits to female leadership in SaaS (and 5 steps to making it happen)28.8% That’s the total percentage of women working in the technology industry back in 2020, according to this report. This report suggests that the percentage is projected to reach 33% in 2022.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSSuryansh Sodhani![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/women-in-SaaS.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/3-benefits-to-diverse-leadership-and-5-steps-to-making-it-happen/) ## The need to increase your salary over time, whilst staying on track with your goals You need to give yourself time to plan. I’ve found myself in that very position. In my last role, I knew I wanted to make a change. However, I have a mortgage, and I have a child, and kids get expensive as they get older! I knew I wanted to transition into a role that was more cloud-driven, so I had to quietly make my plan. While I continued to put great effort into my job, I did everything I needed to do to move forward. I'm not gonna tell you it was easy. As your needs and wants shift and change, sometimes it's hard to keep focused. You have to be disciplined enough to stay on track. I continued to work, and I also researched the field I wanted to move into. I took my CCSK – my cloud security certification – and I started to become more involved in the cloud security field. And then, when the opportunity came, I was able to transition seamlessly. We have to eat, we have to have somewhere to live, and it can be hard to balance those requirements of life with our ambitions. But if you can create a plan for what you want to accomplish within six months or a year and stay focused, you can get there. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The playbook to inclusive marketing in SaaS URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-playbook-to-inclusive-marketing-in-saas/ Last updated: 2022-07-11T14:26:45.000Z How do we "effectively" market in the SaaS industry whilst also remaining committed to [diversity, equity and inclusion](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-taking-risks-for-career-progression/)? And how can we keep pushing it forward? 72% of people feel most advertising and communication doesn’t reflect the world around them. While there has been a significant headway made in the industry on diversity, there are still a large number of improvements that need to be made before true [inclusivity](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-know-if-your-company-is-inclusive/#sts=Q:%20What%20do%20we%20mean%20by%20inclusivity?%20And%20why%20does%20it%20matter?) in marketing is achieved. In this article, we delve into the marketing benefits of diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as some key strategies for successfully integrating them into your strategy. Here’s a breakdown of our key talking points: - [A brief history on inclusivity in digital marketing](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-playbook-to-inclusive-marketing-in-saas/#a-brief-history-on-inclusivity-in-digital-marketing) - [How inclusivity strategies positively impact customer acquisition/retention](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-playbook-to-inclusive-marketing-in-saas/#how-inclusivity-strategies-positively-impact-customer-acquisitionretention) - [Positive representation in marketing and advertising](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-playbook-to-inclusive-marketing-in-saas/#positive-representation-in-marketing-and-advertising) - [The importance of mentorship](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-playbook-to-inclusive-marketing-in-saas/#the-importance-of-mentorship) - [Some key strategies for implementing diversity, equity and inclusion](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-playbook-to-inclusive-marketing-in-saas/#some-key-strategies-for-implementing-diversity-equity-and-inclusion) ## About me and Airmeet My name is Divya Durai, Demand Generation Manager at Airmeet. Struggling with low event engagement and ROI? Airmeet is a hybrid events platform that helps your organization deliver immersive, engaging events. Give it a try today. As a digital marketer with 10+ years of building marketing strategies for customer acquisition and retention, and as a go-to-market innovator, I’ve enjoyed great success in defining and implementing strategies in high-growth companies. Advertising and marketing strategies are definitely my forte. But I also serve as a mentor to graduates and up-and-coming marketing professionals. [Mentorship](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-a-solid-network-to-support-others/) plays such a crucial part in fostering a culture of inclusivity. That’s why I’m delighted to be delving into the subject more on July 13th at Women in SaaS Summit. ## A brief history on inclusivity in digital marketing Companies have made significant headway in addressing inclusion & diversity in marketing over the years. As a result, marketing campaigns that include people from different genders, races, backgrounds, social classes and age brackets have risen. However, it wasn't always the case. In the past, I barely saw ads portraying someone like me. If they did, they fitted a specific bucket which is flagged as a stereotype. [3 benefits to female leadership in SaaS (and 5 steps to making it happen)28.8% That’s the total percentage of women working in the technology industry back in 2020, according to this report. This report suggests that the percentage is projected to reach 33% in 2022.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSSuryansh Sodhani![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/women-in-SaaS.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/3-benefits-to-diverse-leadership-and-5-steps-to-making-it-happen/) Inclusive marketing reflects a shifting attitude in the global marketplace. It’s no longer a 'buzzword.' However, there’s still a long way to go to achieve true inclusion and diversity. In my experience, addressing these topics is a continuous process. These are not always the easiest conversations, but they are essential. As an advocate for equality and inclusion in marketing and life, I had to voice and address bias and challenge communication tone in companies at various points. The conversation around diversity and inclusion has to be ongoing. No one is going to be totally without biases, but we can continue to work through them together. ## How inclusivity strategies positively impact customer acquisition/retention Inclusivity isn’t just a fashionable term. It’s been shown to have a really positive impact on key SaaS metrics such as acquisition and retention. Don’t believe me? Check out this study conducted by Microsoft Advertising, which found that 49% of people stopped purchasing from a brand that did not represent their values. The study points out that inclusive ads have driven a 23pt lift in purchase intent. No matter what gender or ethnicity, there was an increase in purchase intent after being exposed to an ad deemed inclusive. As you can see, there is a direct impact of inclusivity and diversity on customer acquisition and purchase behavior. From personal experience, I see this constantly in my marketing campaigns and ads that represent different audiences. They result in higher click-through rates, engagement and conversions. ## Positive representation in marketing and advertising The thing it’s essential for every marketer to understand is… Consumers of any business are people — human beings who want to be seen, valued and appreciated. So often, companies focus on growth and success: optimize conversions, grow pipeline value, etc. These are crucial for a business to succeed, but you can’t get very far without the human element of marketing and business. Building trust and connection with a company is more effortless when customers feel represented in the right light. It’s a myth that business and social progress have to be mutually exclusive. Good business practices and inclusivity can – and should – walk hand in hand. It’s all in the spirit of creating a welcoming culture for your customers. [Strategy for social change: diversity and storytellingDiversity is a strong contender for the word of the decade. Companies around the world are waking up and asking themselves how they can better represent the societies that surround them.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnna Griffin![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/Strategy-for-social-change.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/strategy-for-social-change-diversity-and-storytelling/) ## The importance of mentorship In my experience, being mentored or mentoring professionals who share similar ethnicity, gender, or cultural backgrounds certainly helps to build a good mentoring relationship. However, a significant element is seeing if shared values and views exist. For instance, my mentors are people I relate to in the professional world; some are from similar gender or marginalized groups but strongly advocate values like equality, growth and inclusivity. Diversity and inclusion is really an umbrella term. We’re not just talking about race, gender, or ableness, we’re also talking about diversity in thought. If we can create an environment where others are free to share new ways of thinking, we can innovate and adapt. ## Some key strategies for implementing diversity, equity and inclusion There are many ways to integrate diversity and inclusion into a marketing strategy. ### Perform an audit of your entire customer lifecycle journey Look into all the tactics that engage, acquire and retain users. Ads, emails, social media, website, and marketing strategies. Are they effectively communicating to create a true sense of relatability and belonging? Audit your customer journey to make marketing and communication more inclusive. ### Build authenticity in marketing 72% of gen Z say they're more likely to support brands with authentic advertising. Create campaigns throughout the year with inclusivity and diversity in mind, not just during a particular month. People see through lip service and exploiting social initiatives as a means to reach business goals will be called out. ### Build diversity & inclusivity within teams Include employees while planning strategies and initiatives. Educate yourself and those around you. According to a recent Mckinsey study, workplace diversity and inclusion can boost innovation by 20%. Diversifying your team can help increase productivity by 35% by encouraging your employees to innovate and think outside the box. Like society, organizations thrive on a broad pool of talent and expertise. Don’t let prejudice limit your scope for innovation. --- Divya will be giving a presentation on this subject at Women in SaaS Summit. Secure your ticket today. [Don’t miss out](https://women2022.futureofsaas.io/). ### How to effectively fundraise and find investors URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-effectively-fundraise-and-find-investors/ Last updated: 2023-02-09T12:12:51.000Z *This article is taken from a presentation Kirill Makharinsky gave at Future of SaaS Festival 2022\. Get the full unedited talk on demand, [right here.](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-3/)* In this article, I’m going to share some stories from my fundraising career that I've never shared anywhere else. Each story comes with a lesson I learned along the way. Hopefully, these lessons will help you as you embark on your journey to raise capital. A little bit of background before we get started: I've co-founded companies that have over $200 million in net revenue. I’ve raised over $100 million from investors like Founders Fund, General Catalyst, and Accel. I also spent about eight years angel investing, during which time I was an early investor in companies like Angel investor, List, Calm, and many more. **Main talking points include:** - [Fundraising: it’s not magic](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-effectively-fundraise-and-find-investors/#fundraising-its-not-magic) - [The power of SaaS metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-effectively-fundraise-and-find-investors/#the-power-of-saas-metrics) - [When doubt sets in](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-effectively-fundraise-and-find-investors/#when-doubt-sets-in) - [Raising $13m pre-product](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-effectively-fundraise-and-find-investors/#raising-13m-pre-product) - [When we got capital with negative dilution](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-effectively-fundraise-and-find-investors/#when-we-got-capital-with-negative-dilution) - [When you’re rejected… many times](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-effectively-fundraise-and-find-investors/#when-you%E2%80%99re-rejected%E2%80%A6-many-times) ## Fundraising: it's not magic I want to start by dispelling the myth that fundraising is some kind of magic black box. It's a simple process. There are six key steps to fundraising; all you have to do is keep practicing each one. Let's look at the six steps. **Step one:** **figure out your story**. What does the product or service you’re building have to offer? Why would a potential investor be interested? You have to figure this out before you can go anywhere. **Step two: find the right investors** – more on this later. **Step three: pitch again and again.** Unless you’re incredibly lucky, pitching is probably going to be a long and arduous process. It may take months or even years. **Step four: agree on reasonable terms.** Once you’ve got someone interested in investing in you or your company, it’s time to set a deal that works for both of you. **Step five: get the money in the bank.** This step doesn’t need much explanation. **Step six: get back to work!** That’s it. There’s no magic, alchemy, or witchcraft. The folks who are good at fundraising and finding investors are just nailing each of these steps and getting better with practice. ## The power of SaaS metrics We need to talk about metrics. Improving your business is the most effective way to get investors excited. You can demonstrate improvement with metrics. The great thing about SaaS is there are loads of metrics you can leverage to measure and present the health of your business. Even early on, when you have a limited number of customers, it's pretty much algorithmic. Keep in mind that the top investors will have a crystal-clear view of how a business like yours should be performing metrics-wise at every stage. Now, let’s delve deeper into my experience. ## When the unicorn founders wrote the first checks One thing that links all of my companies’ investment journeys is that they all began with a check from an influential investor. At my first company, Quid, the first check was from Max Levchin, the founder of PayPal, with who I had worked at Slide. The next company’s first check came from Naval Ravikant, the founder of AngelList. At Enki, the first money came from John Earner, who's the founder of Space Ape Games. Despite appearances, your first investor doesn't need to be a unicorn founder, but if you find someone with a high centrality score, it’s going to make securing further investments much easier. Now, your immediate impression might be “you've got an influential network, you're lucky,” but the reality is that anyone can build their network and reputation these days. Unlike Hollywood producers, technology industry influencers are very open and meritocratic about who they talk to, who they employ, and who they invest in. You need to impress these folks – the simplest way is to work for them. Working for Max Levchin at Slide was a big reason why he was willing to back me. So whether you're joining a successful company with a lot of influential folks in the exec team, or you manage to build a relationship through your blog with folks who have built interesting things, you have to make an impression. [!['Investment'](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/investment.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-effectively-fundraise-and-find-investors) ### Lesson one: investor brand matters Investor brand matters and this is true throughout the entire lifecycle of a company. If you're raising a Series A or a first institutional round, it's important who your seed investors are. If that first investor has a strong brand, it’ll help you get on the radar of the top VC funds. Unless your metrics are out completely out of this world, it's near-impossible to raise funding from a top-tier institutional fund if you haven’t been highly recommended by an earlier stage fund that they know and respect. That's the first lesson to keep in mind: the brand of your early investors and the metrics that you focus on can make everything else much easier. ## It’s a match! My second story is about how I was introduced to Joel Cutler at General Catalyst, the first institutional investor in my second company. This was a hotel booking company, so naturally, I was looking for investors with an interest in the travel industry. I was looking for people I had some mutual connections with, so I could make a warm introduction. That’s how I came across Joel. It turns out I had exactly one connection to Joel, someone who I’d worked with at Slide, so things looked promising. Marc Andreessen says securing a warm introduction is the first test. Why? Because an investor might think that if you can’t land that introduction, there’s no way you’ll be able to do even harder things like hiring or finding customers. However, while a warm introduction is a great way to find an investor, it’s not the only way. You can identify potential investors in databases and other online resources these days. From there, it’s just a matter of reaching out in an email. [![hands counting money](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/money.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-effectively-fundraise-and-find-investors) ### Lesson two: target the right investors The part I missed out from the story with Joel Cutler, and by far the biggest reason we were able to raise an institutional round with him, is that he was searching for a company like ours at the time. We were building a hotel booking product for the Russian-speaking market, and he was searching for a company that was doing exactly that. To be totally transparent, I had no idea that that was what he was looking for, so we actually did get quite lucky. However, the fact that we were looking for travel investors who were interested in emerging markets was enough at that point. Now, there are a thousand reasons why a pitch can fall flat, and we’ll get into that later, but targeting investors who are looking for the opportunity that you're offering is still incredibly important. If you don't manage that, your pitch is dead on arrival. ## When doubt sets in I already mentioned how Naval Ravikant signed the first check for my travel company. The story here is that we sent him a very basic slide deck and pitch, and he committed $50,000 on a SAFE note. We were super excited. I like Naval and was thrilled to have him as our first investor. Because he’s so influential, we soon started getting verbal agreements from other investors too. Then he gave me a call. He was unwell, and not in the right frame of mind to be investing in new things. Plus, he had never met my co-founder before and he wasn't sure of him. He was considering passing on the investment. This was all out of the blue, and it would have been pretty bad – the other investors would probably pull out too. I had to sell Naval on the amazing opportunity we had in front of us. It took half an hour of persuasion, but eventually, he changed his mind. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/deal-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-effectively-fundraise-and-find-investors) ### Lesson three: you’ve got to sell effectively This brings us to our third lesson: fundraising is a sales process. You’ve got to learn how to sell. You’ll have a lot of experiences like this, especially in the early stages of fundraising, so you've got to have your sales hat on at all times. ## The spontaneous flight to Hawaii Next, we have the tale of the spontaneous flight to Hawaii. This happened back when I was working at Slide and I was considering leaving to focus on my new venture, Quid, full time. At the time, my co-founder and I were basically building the product on weekends. A lot of things were up in the air. I had a great relationship with Max, who was my boss, but I hadn't told him yet that I was considering moving on. Plus, we hadn't had any commitments from investors yet. Through a mutual friend, my co-founder and I started to build a relationship with a wealthy investor who was traveling around the world at the time. He’s a busy guy – he’s always traveling. One day, he messaged us saying, “Hey, I'm going on a trip to Hawaii with my family. If you guys want to chat about business, you should come over and do it here,” which is absolutely ridiculous, right? I mean, we were in San Francisco. He said he was going to be there for another 24 hours, and so we said, “Screw it, let's do it. Let's fly to Hawaii.” We boarded the first plane to Hawaii and ended up chatting for four hours on the beach with this guy. By the end of it, we got a verbal commitment from him. It had such an impact on the future of the company, I think of it as a ‘Sliding Doors’ moment. ### Lesson four: hustling is par for the course The lesson here is you gotta hustle. It's going to be difficult. You're going to be pitching over and over, but when the right opportunity presents itself, you’ve just got to go for it. ## Raising $13m pre-product I’ve already told you how we started working with Joel from General Catalyst. What I haven’t told you yet is that we ended up raising $13 million for our company, pre-product. This was unusual at the time, even in Silicon Valley. It was particularly unusual given that we were based in Eastern Europe. No founders had ever raised more than $5 million, let alone over $10 million for a pre-product company in that area. We could never have done that without a compelling story. ### Lesson five: it’s all about the narrative What I want to stress here is that it's all about the narrative you create. A compelling story is crucial. It has to be all about you, and it has to project something so irresistible to the investor you're talking to that they take out time from their schedule and make your company one of the small handful they invest in that year. [![Plant growing from a pot of money](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/growth.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-effectively-fundraise-and-find-investors) Focusing on the story and making it as precise and compelling and memorable as possible is something that few people practice systematically. Often you have to iterate on it 20 or 30 times with friends and with colleagues until you get it right. Of course, appealing to what your audience cares about is vital. A useful mental model is to approach your story like an onion. Each layer of the onion represents something you have de-risked in the past, something you’re currently working on de-risking, or something that you will de-risk in the future, once you have secured your investment. A very compelling story for an investor typically sounds like, “In the past, with the previous money I've raised, I've managed to de-risk the following things. This cost me X amount of money. And now with the money that I'm about to raise, I'm going to de-risk these things. This is going to cost me X amount of money and here's my plan to do that.” This is a handy framework to keep in your back pocket. ### Lesson six: it’s not in the bank until it’s in the bank The lesson here is a simple one: it's not in the bank until it's in the bank. ## When we got capital with negative dilution When a deal with the Chinese travel company fell through, we went back to our investors at General Catalyst. This was four years after they first invested and right after chief villain Vladimir Putin came back to power. The future of Russia was looking bleak, so General Catalyst said they wouldn’t support us with the $5 million or so we needed to survive. Now the interesting story here is that instead of investing the $5 million, they did something even better. They decided to give us a couple of million dollars so we could raise the rest of the money we needed. They also canceled themselves from the cap table because they were no longer allowed to invest in Russian companies. In the end, we got a couple of million dollars with negative dilution, which helped us raise the next bridge round. ### Lesson seven: board member = life partner The main lesson here is that your board members and your institutional venture capitalists can be amazing partners. The best investors hope you will become a big independent company, and that's a 15-to-20-year journey – longer than the average American marriage. If you put as much thought into choosing an investment partner as you do a life partner, you have the roots of an amazingly fruitful relationship. ## When we should have died… twice Off the back of the Chinese company not investing in us, we had to raise $3 million in a weekend to survive, all from non-VCs. It was Christmas Eve, which was a complete nightmare, but somehow we did it. COVID nearly took us out too. As you can imagine for a hotel booking company, our revenue literally went down about 95%. How we survived that, I'm still not sure. ### Lesson eight: when the going gets tough, the tough get going This is about more than just hustling – you’ve got to do whatever it takes to survive. This is what separates those that win from those that don't. As the old saying goes, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. ## When you’re rejected… many times Everyone talks about how they've been rejected as an entrepreneur. By my latest estimate, I’ve been rejected about 350 times by various investors across all my companies. [!['resilience'](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/07/resilence.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-effectively-fundraise-and-find-investors) ### Lesson nine: don’t take it personally Reflect and move on. What's important here is not to take it personally. Do a retrospective as to what you could have improved and move on. The best entrepreneurs have been through a huge amount of rejection, but they just keep practicing each of those steps that I mentioned at the top of the article. Do you believe in your vision? Do you believe in what you're doing? That's the only real thing that matters. What folks early on in their entrepreneurial careers don't realize is that there are so many reasons why you might get rejected. Institutional investors say no mainly because they can only invest in five to 10 deals a year. Within that five-to-10-deal punch card, there are so many factors, including internal politics, that dictate why they do or don’t invest. Just keep getting better at each of these steps, and keep in mind that this is only one part of the entrepreneurial process. The other parts are much more interesting and often more challenging. ### Automating compliance with Meiran Galis, Scytale URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/automating-compliance-with-meiran-galis/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:41:05.000Z Rejoice, SaaS folks! That’s right, SaaScast is back. 📣 In this podcast, we’re committed to helping SaaS leaders future-proof their product. Whether that's through building the ultimate marketing team, or taking your products global, our expert guests will help you **grow, scale up, and work smarter. 💪** --- [‎SaaScast: SaaScast | Meiran Galis, Scytale on Apple Podcasts‎Show SaaScast, Ep SaaScast | Meiran Galis, Scytale - 7 Jul 2022![](https://podcasts.apple.com/favicon.ico)Apple Podcasts![](https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts114/v4/b5/9a/da/b59ada82-7e01-599f-d06e-a6be4ee9c157/mza_8981349833046552751.png/1200x630wp.png)](https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/saascast-meiran-galis-scytale/id1544750249?i=1000569140777) --- ## About this episode In this episode, we’re joined by Meiran Galis, CEO and Co-founder at Scytale AI, and a tactical leader in the realm of security compliance. Meiran has helped hundreds of high-profile SaaS companies build compliance programs for rapidly growing organizations. Here, he guides us through how to implement security controls that leverage automation, reduce the cost of compliance and mitigate business risks. **Get compliant. Stay compliant.** ## Key talking points include - The ins and outs of security compliance - Why security compliance is so critical for orgs today - Expert advice on hiring the right talent - The key steps to building trust through compliance ## A bit of background on Meiran Meiran is an expert in the domain of security compliance for SaaS companies. He has extensive experience as a manager in the technology risk department. He's conducted multiple audits for hundreds of companies in the following areas: cybersecurity, recruitment, HR, healthcare payments and business application. Armed with a passion for cyber architecture and security compliance, Meiran can help organizations establish a solid foundation of customer trust through airtight compliance. But that's just a snapshot of what we have in store. Get the full story right here. **👇** ## Get involved in the SaaS debate‌‌ Want to learn more about scaling, or share your knowledge? ‌‌You can have your say on the Future of SaaS Slack channel. It’s free to join and you can debate and network as you see fit. You can also get involved in our podcast sessions. Simply pick a topic of your choice—you can get in touch here: --- Psst.. want to know more about the compliance process? check out the SOC2 for startups ebook [right here](https://www.saasalliance.io/soc-2-for-startups/). ### How can enterprises be more agile with technology? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-can-enterprises-be-more-agile-with-technology-2/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T13:00:04.000Z In 2022, company resilience took on a whole new meaning for enterprises. Businesses have been driven to streamline production processes and operations, thanks in large part to the [COVID-19 pandemic. ](https://www.saasalliance.io/navigating-the-new-normal-of-remote-work/) And, as businesses prepare for a possibly turbulent 2022, they will rely on agile project management techniques to help them remain competitive and adaptive. In 2022, investment in digital transformation (DX) is estimated to top 1.8 trillion dollars. By 2025, global investment in digital transformation is estimated to reach 2.8 trillion dollars. Agile methodologies aim to simplify complex manufacturing and organizational processes, allowing project managers to deliver projects at a functional level where modifications may be made more quickly. Throughout the growth cycle, agile testing assists project teams in deploying solutions and detecting problems while maintaining a laser focus on client requests. With the traditional waterfall paradigm, teams were assigned more set responsibilities and projects were executed in a more linear, less fluid way. This has been replaced by Agile. Top talking points include: - Agile transformation - Advantages of embracing agile transformation - The Top 5 Agile Transformation Trends [SaaS finance in a post-pandemic world: lessons from Covid-19The pandemic was a frightening time for SaaS finance. But for those looking for a silver lining, The Future of SaaS Festival has solutions!![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/towfiqu-barbhuiya-HNPrWOH2Z8U-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/panel-discussion-saas-finance-in-a-post-pandemic-world-lessons-from-covid-19/) ## Agile transformation Agile transformation is the process of converting a traditional business model into an agile business model that excels in flexible, collaborative, self-organizing, and fast-changing conditions. The traditional method is built on the concept of a machine, with a static, segregated structural hierarchy that functions by linear planning and control. It has a strong structure, yet it is typically rigid and slow to move. Agile businesses, on the other hand, are made up of networks of teams that work in fast learning and decision cycles. Enterprise agility allows businesses to survive in both stable and volatile situations, allowing them to innovate and deliver on time in every circumstance. ### Why is a business case required for agile transformation? In terms of agile transformation, a business case explains the company's major goals. Embracing agile yields desirable business outcomes in general, but only when done effectively. As a result, it's crucial to set certain essential goals that will help the company's general growth and flexibility. Here's a look at the proposed goals. - **Trust building -** On-time delivery of customer expectations. It helps to build customers' trust, which leads to higher customer satisfaction. - **Maintain quality -** Since businesses frequently fail to offer customers with the services they anticipate, maintaining high-quality products and services is important. This also assists in the development of a positive brand reputation for the company. - **Cost reduction -** One of the goals of implementing agility in a business is to save costs and increase profitability. - **Early ROI -** Companies expect an early return on investment with agility, since traditional working procedures result in longer delivery cycles. This prohibits them from gaining an early return on investment. ## Advantages of embracing agile transformation: Many enterprises have realized the benefits of agile transformation in recent years. They must utilize the proper agile transformation approach to achieve the desired business goals with this change. [Enterprise agility](https://www.w2ssolutions.com/blog/scale-agile-enterprise-environment/) allows for the rapid adoption of new organizational methods and processes, resulting in increased economic value. Let’s discuss some of the advantages that are attained by enterprises adopting agile transformation in their business. [Client engagement in the digital age Q&A | Future of SaaSIn this Q&A, Christopher Simpson of Direct Commerce discusses client engagement in the digital era. Plus, his views on customer success in 2021.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1600880292203-757bb62b4baf?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDI5fHxjdXN0b21lciUyMHN1Y2Nlc3N8ZW58MHx8fA&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/client-engagement-human-in-the-digital-age-customer-success-direct-commerce-q-a/) ### Increase customer satisfaction Enterprises that are agile prioritize knowing their customers' needs and providing timely products and services. It helps to improve customer satisfaction by focusing on client feedback in order to improve product quality and match their expectations. Employees with business agility are better equipped to provide services with expertise, coordination across departments, and transparency, which helps to satisfy customer expectations. ### Increase staff engagement Staff can utilize their creativity to achieve improved job performance and results when they adopt agility. It gives employees a sense of control over their work, allowing them to make all of the necessary decisions to boost productivity and make them feel valued at work. As a result, staff engagement rises dramatically as a result of this flexibility, and businesses are able to achieve their strategic goals. ### Improved operating efficiency Agility enables enterprises to provide a range of business models, which helps them improve operational performance and accomplish their goals. As a result of this agile transformation, enterprises now have access to a number of tools that may help them speed up the pace at which they make decisions and produce products. Agile organizations, which are one of the key achievements of a progressive company, may observe a significant increase in their target achievement rate. ### Increasing ability to shift priorities Employees' behaviors are transformed by agility, which allows them to fulfill their full potential in embracing creativity and transformation. They learn how to deal with shifting priorities within the enterprise, such as reallocating resources to a team in need, and how to overcome the obstacles that come with agility. They adapt to changes in their work methods and talents, and they accept change for the benefit of the company's success. ### Improving project's visibility Project visibility provides a full picture of how well a project is doing, including resource allocation, associated risks, and proper task distribution. Increased visibility ensures that everyone involved in the project is aware of the project's goal and their role in fulfilling the company's goals. It provides real-time updates to stakeholders on the project's progress. For improved project performance, agility helps in altering any project plan or activity in response to customer or stakeholder demands and expectations. [How to scale MRR by 10x with Inbound Traffic (With No Cold Emails)When you first launch a SaaS product, your team will likely undergo an exceptionally tense, constant battle of priorities. The possibilities are endless with a minimally viable product (MVP), a few core clients, and a growing list of tasks to tackle.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSJodie Chan![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/scaling2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-scale-mrr-by-10x-with-inbound-traffic-with-no-cold-emails/) ### Improving enterprise & IT alignment Enterprise IT alignment is a corporate strategy that helps companies accomplish their business goals and improve their financial performance. This alignment is required as a result of agility in order to respond to the company's and environment's continual change. Business agility and business-IT alignment should work hand in hand to maintain enterprise growth and development. ## The Top 5 Agile Transformation Trends: Here's how enterprises will benefit the most from these agile trends: ### Business agility & design thinking Design thinking, which has been the starting point for producing more customer-centric products, is one of the primary evolving ideas in agile enterprises. By improving user-friendliness and aiming to optimize the processor design in stages, the design thinking method elevates the customer's expectations to a more human level. It turns out that agile philosophy and architecture have a lot in common, and merging the two might greatly help agile practise. For example, project teams should spend more time on sprint activities to better identify customer pain areas and improve the overall customer experience. Investing time in developing user empathy and receiving quick design input speeds up prototyping and testing while also helping the team imagine a solution that would lead them down the correct path. In the agile environment, enterprises should recognize "dual-track agile" or "staggering sprints," which include customer compassion, ideation, and feedback loops as an important aspect of the agile process. Design thinking has developed a more customer-centric approach from the start, without slowing down the agile process. ### Scaled agile and scrum methodologies prevail The scrum creation method can help project managers organize cross-functional teams' work and deliver usable code at the end of each iteration or sprint. Many companies have aimed to expand their scrum operations in order to increase value and cooperation. Agile is gaining popularity as a method for scaling up projects from small scrum teams to large projects. Smaller groups have reaped the benefits of familiarizing themselves with the core ideas. [5 steps to building a customer-centric cultureWhen signing up for your SaaS product, your customers are making a long-term investment. You’re hoping they’re gonna stick with your product for months, and preferably even years.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/feedback.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-steps-to-building-a-customer-centric-culture/) ### Agile with AI and ML Project teams, such as testers and product developers, still have a lot of theoretical work to accomplish even when agile approaches are in full swing. In project and growth data analysis, AI and machine learning approaches are essential. They provide real-time data and lightning-fast advanced analytics, for example, to provide an accurate estimation of when project stages will be completed. This is especially critical today, since many executives' attention is focused on deadlines as projects reach completion. AI and machine learning create and test programming code with more accurate insights and better procedures. It is capable of identifying and removing errors in code with higher precision. Incorporate innovative smart technologies such as IoT devices, robotic process automation (RPA), quantum computing, and other cutting-edge technologies to accelerate product development and delivery. ### Instant Feedback Although planning ahead is beneficial, the ever-changing nature of the workplace, new demands, changed quality criteria, and other factors may vary the results. Instant feedback is crucial for agile teams to understand how their projects are progressing. Time is saved and an accurate picture of progress is provided by creating a friendly environment where each team member can interact and even take criticism. Continuous Integration (CI) is the most effective method for maximizing the advantages of rapid feedback. ### Cloud-based solutions To achieve a competitive edge, more agile teams are turning to cloud-based technologies to discover new ways of thinking, creating, testing, and delivering faster than they are now. Domain-less computing is popular among agile teams because it reduces infrastructure and operational costs while eliminating the requirement for traditional server resources. Organizations that use an agile cloud-based approach receive significant competitive advantages in terms of efficiency, agility, market response time, cost savings, and better customer service. [Cloud computing](https://www.w2ssolutions.com/blog/cloud-transformation-in-enterprises/) has the potential to act as an agile accelerator. ### Wrapping Up Agility is a performance-enhancing method that allows businesses to develop endlessly. This shift can help with the breakdown of old traditional working practices, allowing for significant enterprise growth and advancement. The landscape of agile transformation is ever-changing. To stay ahead of their competition and expand their businesses, both large and small organizations must think quickly and react swiftly to changes. Enterprises willing to be more agile and adopt best practices can get professional support from the digital transformation company to avail enterprise application solutions to meet their business goals. --- *Psst... like what you see? Why not become a member and gain access to exclusive insights from SaaS leaders.* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How to scale MRR by 10x with inbound traffic(with no cold emails) URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-scale-mrr-by-10x-with-inbound-traffic-with-no-cold-emails/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T13:00:44.000Z When you [first launch a SaaS product](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-art-and-science-of-product-launches/), your team will likely undergo an exceptionally tense, constant battle of priorities. The possibilities are endless with a minimally viable product (MVP), a few core clients, and a growing list of tasks to tackle. While accomplishing these tasks can produce productive outcomes and be super satisfying to check off, it’s a challenge sometimes to stay on track as a team and remember the overarching goal these tasks serve– to scale. In this article, we’ll go through some key principles that we've seen move us towards that goal, and scale [MRR by 10x with inbound traffic ](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-the-metrics-that-every-product-leader-needs-to-drive-growth/)\- without cold emails. Here are the three guiding principles that every SaaS Product Marketer should consider, whether you're leading a go-to-market initiative or scaling a SaaS product.**👇** 1. Quality over quantity 2. Know your audience 3. Be as consistent (as you can) Now let’s look over each of those in detail, with some first-hand examples. ## Prioritize quality over quantity, across the entire product lifecycle. When we first launched the beta version of Chinafy, I remember how seriously we took that phase. We had an “all hands on deck” mindset. Even though our product has now been launched for over two years publicly, we still carry part of that mindset with us to this day. There is no doubt that there is pressure to work faster and do “more” in as short an amount of time as possible. I’ve found, from first-hand experience, that fast is relative. Allotting a little more time to create something of better quality can be a risk when everything else is on a schedule of ASAP. However, when it comes to scaling MRR, taking shortcuts doesn’t always mean you’ll get to your goal more effectively. [Is it time to switch from feature to outcome-driven product roadmaps?The product roadmap acts as a guide and strategic plan of action, which clearly communicates how your short-term product efforts match up with your long-term organizational goals.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAdam Bennett![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/road.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/is-it-time-to-switch-from-feature-to-outcome-driven-product-roadmaps/) In theory, [every user matters irrespective of where they are in your product journey.](https://www.saasalliance.io/addressing-the-gaps-in-the-customer-journey/) But each individual user carries heavier weight in the early stages of a product than they do later. Think about it. One in ten customers is 10% of your user base. Whereas, one in 100 or 1000 customers is a much smaller percentage. Especially in the context of a SaaS environment, where revenue compounds over time, It’s important to go the extra mile and make your users happy (within reason) so that they become loyal evangelists for your product. For example, if you churn out a fast article without meaningful substance, you might achieve some initial interest via keyword rankings, but then you might potentially attract the wrong customer. It then spirals to a client that may contribute to short term revenue but mis values or misunderstands your product, uses your customer support resources, and soon churns - negatively affecting your MRR. By reiterating that quality over quantity mindset, customer success teams become more like[ customer advocates.](https://www.saasalliance.io/getting-to-grips-with-customer-advisory-boards-and-their-benefits/) Content marketers create more effective, evergreen content that continues to engage new leads. Engineers encounter fewer bugs in the long-run and have space in their processes to build for impact and not just speed. **That mindset is something that customers respond to positively, with lower churn and a higher MRR.** Yes, sometimes focusing on quality may feel like you’re doing more than what’s asked of you. However, when quality content and service are coupled with a quality product, the investment is one that pays off tenfold. [5 steps to building a customer-centric cultureWhen signing up for your SaaS product, your customers are making a long-term investment. You’re hoping they’re gonna stick with your product for months, and preferably even years.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/feedback.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-steps-to-building-a-customer-centric-culture/) ## Get to know your audience better, and keep them in mind When creating a product, it’s sometimes easy to get [sucked into a silo ](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/)and forget that your supply means little, if you don’t understand where your demand is coming from. While it can seem a little silly to be gathering data when there isn’t much in the earlier stages of a product for statistical significance, setting in that system of experimentation and data analysis (even if it’s the form of a simple excel sheet without any fancy software), will make the difference between a product that simply *sustains*, versus one that *scales*. *Ask more questions.* Treat every piece of content like an experiment to answer - - How educated is your audience about your topic? - What articles are getting better engagement than others? - Who is reading our articles (and staying)? - Are there ways to reformat our content, so that it reaches our ideal audience better? - Is your product objectively a first or second-mover in the market? It’s much easier to tap into an audience’s demand than to create that demand in the first place. At Chinafy, we recognised that the topic and expertise we covered was a niche one, and unsurprisingly, there wasn’t much content about China web performance specifically out there. The upside of that meant we could work towards becoming one of the primary authorities. The challenge (we don’t really use the word downside) was that a lot of content had to be original and we had to provide a lot of education to the market. Practice asking your team *why* your audience should care about your product, instead of *what* your product does. It seems so obvious, but you’d be surprised how often we discover marketing material out there by new companies that only relate to their product and [its features](https://www.saasalliance.io/is-it-time-to-switch-from-feature-to-outcome-driven-product-roadmaps/). While highlighting these variables are important, your marketing strategy should answer why someone should care. The better you know your audience, the better you are at [demonstrating empathy](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-deep-listening-for-customer-success/) towards your customer’s pain points. The more effective your content is in driving and sustaining traffic, the more effective you are at increasing your MRR. ## Be as consistent (as you can) Once you’ve narrowed down your audience method that works, be consistent and keep up with it. *“The greatest threat to success is not failure, but boredom. We get bored with habits because they stop delighting us. The outcome becomes expected. And as our habits become ordinary, we start derailing our progress to seek novelty.” - James Clear, Atomic Habits* *Set goals.* One thing that we use almost obsessively across our organization is our calendar. Adding in regular reminders (e.g. write an article on \_\_\_) makes a huge difference. [The psychology behind customer successCustomer centricity is a culture in the workplace that hinges on creating the best experience for the customer, which in turn, generates brand loyalty.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSGrace Gupta![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/brain.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-psychology-behind-customer-success/) Even if writing that article is not achievable that day, for whatever reason, you have to make an active effort to move or postpone that task. Sometimes, it’s just easier to get it done than to think about when next you would have capacity. *Maximize the content you have.* You can have the most perfect article, but it doesn’t mean much if no one can see it. Share it across multiple channels if you have them, re-use content snippets, implement SEO basics, like internal linking, etc. The exciting thing about product marketing as a practice, is that there is no one-size-fits-all mold that companies need to prescribe to. There are both tried and tested methods that often cost very little to test out, as well as room to experiment specific to your company. Different companies achieve the same results differently. If there’s only one take away from this, it's to always keep in mind the shared goal to grow. From there, the only suggestion is to experiment and find out what works for you! --- *Want more expert insights from leading women in the world of SaaS? Secure your ticket for the women in SaaS Summit [right here! ](https://women2022.futureofsaas.io/)* ### What are our metrics and what are our KPIs? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-our-metrics-and-what-are-our-kpis/ Last updated: 2023-02-09T12:13:17.000Z *This article is taken from a presentation Daniel Goldfeld gave at the SaaS Metrics Summit 2022\. Get the full talk [on demand, right here!](https://www.saasalliance.io/saasstream/)* My name is Daniel Goldfeld, and I'm a Vice President of Customer Success. I have about 13 years’ experience in customer-facing, technical, and customer success roles in startups and corporations. I’ve managed several teams in my life, most of them focused on technical customer-facing roles in pre-sell, post-sell, and support. **Here's a breakdown of our key talking points:** - [KPIs vs Metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-our-metrics-and-what-are-our-kpis/#kpis-vs-metrics) - [Defining a vision](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-our-metrics-and-what-are-our-kpis/#defining-a-vision) - [Our KPIs and Metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-our-metrics-and-what-are-our-kpis/#our-kpis-and-metrics) - [Where can we use these metrics?](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-our-metrics-and-what-are-our-kpis/#where-can-we-use-these-metrics) - [Let’s sum it up](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-our-metrics-and-what-are-our-kpis/#lets-sum-it-up) ## KPIs vs Metrics Let's move on to the topic of this article: KPIs and metrics in SaaS. I understand that every company in every domain views and uses KPIs and metrics in a slightly different way. While I'm going to talk to you about how I leverage them in my work, don’t feel this is the only way you can do it. Let's look at the differentiation between KPIs and metrics. Key performance indicators (KPIs), are quantifiable objectives. They’re things that we want to achieve in a certain amount of time. In our case, they measure the growth and trends of our company. [![A screen displaying metrics](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/metrics.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-our-metrics-and-what-are-our-kpis) Metrics represent the heartbeat of our current state. Where are we now? How are we doing at this point? Our metrics don't necessarily have to correlate with our KPIs, but they’ll usually represent the current state of the things that we need to measure to achieve our KPIs. ## Defining a vision Once we've defined what metrics and KPIs mean to us, there's another thing that I think is super important in regards to what we measure: your vision. If you want to measure something, you first need to understand what you want to achieve. You can quantify and measure a lot of things. However, you need to have a vision of what you want to achieve to be able to break that down into KPIs and metrics. For us, in the customer success team at Perimeter 81, our vision is the one you see below: [getting our customers’ technical stakeholders and decision-makers ](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-and-deciding-which-metrics-to-measure-the-metrics-that-matter-most/)to a state in which they realize they gain value by achieving their company's business goals and securing personal wins while undergoing great customer experiences. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/vision.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-our-metrics-and-what-are-our-kpis) In other words, we're focusing on technical stakeholders within the accounts because our product is very technical – we're providing remote access. We need to talk to our technical stakeholders and work hand in hand with them. Then, we need to make sure that those stakeholders gain value from the product. We want to make sure that after they decide to buy Perimeter 81, there’s a return on their investment. We need to ensure that we've addressed their pain point, and done what they were expecting us to do, and that they can answer the question, “Why did we buy this product?” with a positive answer. And last but not least, is the great customer experience. This is super important. If you think about your cell phone provider, for example, that provider could be the best in the country. But when you have a problem and you just want to speak to customer care, you have to wait in line, and they don't provide you with the answers you want. You're gonna get frustrated. There's a good chance you're gonna churn, even if they're the best technology vendor in the domain. They might be providing you with 5G, but if you find an alternative that only provides a 4G connection but provides you with a better customer experience, you're probably gonna switch. That’s why we need to measure those customer experiences and make sure they're great. ## Our KPIs and Metrics Let's talk about the KPIs and metrics that are coming out of this vision. Our KPIs are pretty similar to those in a lot of other SaaS companies’ CS functions. We’re focused on [retention](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-it-means-to-have-a-high-customer-retention-rate/#sts=Revenue%20churn%20rate): the number of renewals minus churn. We need to have expansion from existing customers, in other words, ARR growth. Last but not least is collection – making sure that all the invoices are being paid correctly. Those are the KPIs. Now let's talk a little bit about our metrics; you can see they don’t correlate exactly with the KPIs. However, each one of the metrics will ultimately help us meet our KPIs and realize our company vision. Let me tell you how. [![Pencils lined up in a row with the word 'analytics' above it.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/analytics.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-our-metrics-and-what-are-our-kpis) ### Life cycle The first thing we're measuring is life cycles. We want to see how many customers are [onboarding](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-customer-journey-from-onboarding-to-alignment-q-a-with-simpo/): - How many are training? - How many are adapting? - How many are extending? - How many are in the renewal process? - Why do we need this? All of these questions allow us to better understand our current state and our workload. Understanding how many new customers we have and their onboarding time helps us focus on them and make sure that the onboarding is successful so we can build a healthy relationship. It also helps us better understand their needs and why they're using the platform. Expansion is another important part of the life cycle to monitor. We want to see if there's an expansion opportunity for those customers who’ve adopted our platform and used it successfully. Last but not least, in the life cycle part, is the renewals. We want to know how many customers are up for renewal within three months. We do this to make sure that we can dedicate enough manpower to focus on them and keep them on board with us for another cycle. ### Adoption The second metric is [adoption](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-accelerate-product-adoption-and-drive-user-confidence-during-onboarding/). We're a company that believes that value comes from adoption. If your product’s not being used, there's no value. You can give it at the best price there is, but if users are not logging in, or if you've sold 100 licenses but you only have 10 users using the platform, something's gone wrong and you’re going to see churn. So adoption is super important for us. We're focusing on adoption not only per account for our entire product across different segments. We have to make sure that the adoption makes sense and that people are using the product. ### Feature usage We know that certain features are very sticky within the platform, and we want to make sure that our customers are using those features because if they're not, they're going to get less value from the product and it's going to be easier for them to churn. By mapping those different features and measuring their usage per company andsegment, we can make sure we've got a positive trend in the usage of those different features and their stickiness within different life cycles. ### NPS We measure Net Promoter Score through a survey that we send out to active users, where they can rate the platform. It represents our end users’ satisfaction. This is something that we're closely tracking. It's important for us to know where we stand as a company in regards to what our end users feel – not the decision-makers, not the technical stakeholders, but the actual users of the platform. It also gives us an idea of the health score of each of our accounts. ### CSAT CSAT is for support. We want to know that every interaction our end users have with support is great. Not only that the problem was solved, but the response our end-user got was good, and they're happy with the service they received. This, in our perspective, is the customer experience, and if the experience is bad, it might affect the health score of the account and impact the expansion opportunity. ### SLA The service-level agreement metric is about making sure that the system is up and running and we don't have any outages affecting the users. We also want to make sure that our support team is providing support within the defined SLA in terms of the time it takes for them to respond to and close each ticket. This is also a very important metric for us to understand the load on support. Also, if we see a sudden spike in support requests, that might indicate an issue within the platform, which is vital for us to know. It helps us gauge the health score of each account too; if we're in an SLA breach for a company that is now in the renewal phase, we want to know about it. ### Relationship Last but not least, we have the relationship metric. Are we talking to the customer? Are we talking to the sponsors? Are we talking to the technical stakeholders? Are we talking decision-makers? How strong is our relationship with the company? This is measured in the number of engagements that we have with customers. These can be emails, meetings, phone calls, or any type of contact with those different stakeholders. We also look at the sentiment of the account. Is it negative? Is it positive? Is it neutral? We know and understand that this relationship is super important for our ability to expand and renew. If the relationship doesn’t exist, there's more risk to the account. By measuring our relationship metrics across the company, we gain the ability to be proactive in identifying accounts that might have been missed. We can then engage with them before they reach out to us or before we get to a sensitive period, like the renewal. ## Where can we use these metrics? Now let’s take a closer look at how we put all these metrics to use in our company. We’ve touched on it briefly, but it’s time to dive deeper. [![Screen of data](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/metrics-3jpg.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-our-metrics-and-what-are-our-kpis) ### Health score The more data points you have, the more accurate your health score is. The health score can be for each account that you manage; it can be for different segments, different life cycles, and the entire portfolio of the company. The health bar gives you the ability to identify risks and potential within every account, even without talking directly to them. It gives you the ability to proactively reach out when you recognize a risk, even if the sponsors and decision-makers didn't talk to you or escalate any issues. It also helps you plan your day effectively. By having a good representation of everything that you do with your different accounts, you can decide which ones you're going to focus on instead of constantly putting out fires. You can look at the accounts that you see have a poor health score and focus on them in the upcoming weekto improve that score, touch base, and get a better understanding of why the metrics are not that great. You can also look at the accounts that have amazing health scores and decide that you want to focus on them because there’s an expansion opportunity coming up. ### Trends The second thing is trends. The health score represents a certain point in time, but you also want to identify the longer-term trends of the company, the segments, and your portfolio. There are all kinds of trends that it’s useful to track: - Cross-company and product trends; - Trends in the adoption of specific features - Trends related to life cycles and onboarding By tracking your metrics over time, you'll also be able to understand not only the current situation but the direction you’re heading in. It can also be valuable to look at trends concerning different employees. Some CSMs and CSEs might be struggling because the number of companies they’re looking after has increased because they're new, or because they're missing something. By looking at these trends, you can identify weak links and spot who you need to coach. ### CS load and impact This brings me to the next point, which is the customer success load and impact. Your metrics can give you a great overview of your team’s workload, so you can understand if, say, a specific customer success engineer has too much on their plate and it might be a good idea to get another CSE to help them out. By identifying these trends, you can also figure out how many people you need to hire tomorrow, in a month, or the next three months. With the right data, you can proactively plan this and get ahead of the game. You don’t want to get to a point where there's a fire that you need to put out and you have to hire someone quickly. ### Benchmarks And the last point that metrics help us with at Perimeter 81 is our benchmarks. Our benchmarks give us the ability to balance the art of customer success with science. In other words, you can’t win with every customer; even if you have the best metrics and all the data points in the world, you’ll still meet with the 80:20 rule. You'll probably be right 80% of the time, but there are going to be exceptions. Benchmarks give you the ability to show how different segments are doing. The numbers aren’t set in stone – they’re medians that measure similar companies in similar life cycles. They show the metrics we have for those segments in comparison to the account we're looking at. Maybe you're looking at a specific mid-market company that’s being onboarded, and you see that their adoption isn’t great. By having a benchmark comparing all the other mid-market companies in the onboarding phase, you can see that maybe 30% adoption is typical and you’re doing okay. Now you know that you don’t need to freak out or focus on this account too much just yet. ## Let's sum it up I want to leave you with five key lessons that I hope you take from this article and adopt into your working practices. [![camera lens displaying mountains](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/metrics-4.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-are-our-metrics-and-what-are-our-kpis) ### You need a vision and a goal Without a vision and a goal – it might be a company goal, it might be a group goal, or a goal for your role – there's not a lot to measure. If you don't know where you want to go, it doesn't matter which road you pick. ### Metrics help us understand our current state Metrics can’t replace our common sense or our ability to understand what we need to do, but they are a handy tool that helps us understand where we stand with our customers. ### Correctly identifying data points increases accuracy The more data points you have, the better you'll be able to identify the ones that are meaningful for your customers. The better numbers you have, the better you can translate them into meaningful actions. ### Granularity is key for precision The more granular your data is, the more precise you are. If you build a lot of different life cycles, for example, you can get more granular. If you just segment your accounts into SMB, mid-market, and corporate, you’re off to a good start, but you'll probably miss some information and some of your metrics won’t be accurate. You need to break these segments down further and look at where these accounts are in their life cycle. By having a more granular breakdown of the data, based on the needs of your customers and your company, you'll be able to build better metrics and get a clearer representation of how you're doing about your KPIs. ### Don’t forget about the art The last point is always the most important one. Don't forget about the art. We're working with human beings, and we're working with a lot of different use cases. We need to use our professionalism and our natural ability to identify which data is correct or incorrect. It might be that we have an account in stellar mode. They have the best metrics out there, they have the best health score, and they're giving us the best NPS scores, but we know that something's wrong. When we talk to them, we can feel that they're dodgy. This is the art, right? This is what we need to do as professionals to quickly identify where we stand with each account. The metrics are there to help us understand objectively how our all accounts are doing, and they’re fantastic for a one-to-many approach; however, they don’t replace the need for us to communicate with customers and make sure we're doing great. ### Women in SaaS: taking risks for career progression URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-taking-risks-for-career-progression/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T12:42:10.000Z In the lead up to the women in SaaS summit 2022, we’ll be hearing from a whole host of women SaaS leaders on some of the most challenging topics facing women in SaaS today. According to a recent study by[ Hired,](https://hired.com/h/wage-inequality-report/2020/#intro) men were offered higher salaries than [women](https://www.saasalliance.io/3-benefits-to-diverse-leadership-and-5-steps-to-making-it-happen/) for the same job title 59% of the time. For this reason, we’re kicking off this series, with perhaps one of the most crucial subjects facing [women in SaaS ](https://www.saasalliance.io/strategy-for-social-change-diversity-and-storytelling/)today: career progression and pay negotiation. Transitioning into a new career can be a nerve-wracking business. What if you don’t have the right skills? Are you going to lose the salary and benefits that you’ve built up over years in your current field? What about your other responsibilities? These are all reasonable concerns to have, but according to trailblazing Customer Success Manager, Jeri Lim, it’s more than worth the risk. ## The value of risk-taking Jeri spoke to the Future of SaaS’ [Women in SaaS Summit](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-september-2021/) last year about the joys of risk-taking as a method of transforming your career. Negotiating your salary can seem like risky business, so who better to tackle this topic than a seasoned risk-taker like Jeri Lim. At just under-grad level, Jeri chose to live in a predominantly spanish-speaking part of Spain, all with the goal of improving in the language. It was lonely and difficult, but Jeri persevered, and she now credits this experience as forming the foundation for her risk-taking mindset. According to Jeri: > “When you think about the idea of taking risks, the value is pushing yourself to do something even though you know that it might be uncomfortable. It might be the more difficult option, but that push is what helps you to grow.” We asked Jeri about the following key talking points: - Transitioning into CS from a non-SaaS background - The risk of changing careers - Negotiating pay ## Transitioning into customer success without SaaS experience Right now I’m mentoring a group of military spouses with teaching backgrounds who are looking to pivot into customer success in tech. There are two major things that I advise them to do. The first is to identify transferable skills. I started my career in China, working in international education and study abroad consulting. What I learned from that experience is that the skills that you can bring over from a background in education transfer into tech and customer success very well. In CS, you do a lot of teaching. You're working with people who have varying levels of tech experience and helping them to understand the functionalities of a SaaS platform. Any kind of teaching or mentorship experience is invaluable. [How to Know if Your Company is InclusiveWorried that your organization isn’t doing enough to promote inclusivity and diversity? Thankfully, the world of SaaS is waking up to the long-term benefits of diversity and inclusivity.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/pexels-katie-rainbow----_---8614479.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-know-if-your-company-is-inclusive/) It’s all about professional branding. Focus on the skills you’ve acquired throughout your career and think about how they can serve you in your future career. The second piece of advice I would give is to get certified. There are plenty of [courses in customer success](https://certified.customersuccesscollective.com/p/customer-success-leaders-fellowship/) and other areas of SaaS available online. I got my Salesforce certification last year, and it’s helped take my SaaS career to the next level. If you can identify your transferable skills and go above and beyond to get at least one or two certifications, that’s going to help you to build a powerful pitch when you're looking for your next opportunity. ## Negotiating a salary that reflects your worth There are a lot of books out there with great strategic advice about salary negotiation. The biggest takeaway that I've gotten as I've been reading up on how to navigate this conversation is to be data-driven in your ask. Don’t just go into a meeting with your manager like “Here’s how much I think I deserve to get paid.” Do some research into what other people with the same amount of professional experience as you are earning, and don’t only count your time in SaaS – your other experience is valuable too. If you only have one year in tech, for example, but five years in other sectors, tie all that together and present it in a data-oriented way to strengthen your salary negotiation. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ## Assessing the risk of leaving your current job We all have different factors to take into consideration as we think about the next step on our professional journeys. Maybe you’re concerned about financial obligations, caregiving responsibilities, or healthcare benefits. Before you hand in your resignation or dive head-first into an entry-level position, identify your non-negotiable priorities so you can better evaluate if a risk is worth taking. If you absolutely need to have a certain amount of income or savings in the bank, you can still quit your job in the future, but maybe now isn’t the right time. ## Final thoughts: Cultivate a risk-seeking mindset It can be hard to throw caution to the wind and embark on a new adventure, so take it slow. If you're looking for more strategic, responsible ways to take risks, identify some smaller challenges that can help you to cultivate a risk-seeking mindset. Then, maybe a year from now, you'll be ready to take on a bigger risk and transition into the career you really want --- Psst..Women in SaaS summit is back. Want more vital, timely discussion from the leading ladies in SaaS? Secure your place [right here](https://women2022.futureofsaas.io/). ### The psychology behind customer success URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-psychology-behind-customer-success/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T13:00:18.000Z To speak in layman’s terms: you build a [product](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-and-product-management-saas-dream-team/), you market that product, you then sell that product, and the customer uses the product. In this most basic form, this is the lifecycle of a product and one that most businesses will follow (to a certain degree). But what happens to the customer after they’ve purchased your product? Suffice to say, it’s a little more complicated than the ‘build-market-sell’ [roadmap](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-strategy-guide/). In order for businesses to succeed, their customers need to succeed; this very simple rule is the basis of the flourishing business function known as customer success. Over the last decade or so, customer success has had SaaS companies in a choke-hold. You might ask, “how so?” Well, it’s all to do with two little things called: subscription-based business models, and a plight for customer-centricity. Sometimes it's worth stripping things back to basics. In this article, we’re going to hone in on the psychology of customer success, particularly: - How it’s evolved as a business strategy - How CS is a customer-first discipline - The mindset of success ## **Understanding customer success as a business strategy** Let’s start with a classic. ### **[What is SaaS?](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-is-saas/)** Software-as-a-Service, a.k.a. SaaS, is cloud-based software licensing that uses technology to host its content online. Rather than downloading software and storing it in one place, either on your computer or phone, you simply log in to the service online and access it anywhere in the world. A subscription is a contract, of sorts, on the basis that the customer pays a fee to access the product. Whether the subscription lasts for one month, six, or even a whole year, the customers are able to manage their plan and payment as they see fit. So what does this mean in terms of the ****psychology behind customer success**? To put it bluntly, the SaaS business model has shaken the foundations of consumerism. Period. With the introduction of subscriptions, the power of payment fully lies with the customer, rather than with the business. With frequent, smaller payments rather than a singular, one-off payment, the customer can cancel or amend their ‘plan’ as they see fit. So, if a customer isn’t fully content with your product or service, they can end their subscription and stop future monthly payments. In the world of SaaS, this is referred to as [customer churn](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-churn-rate-your-guide/) and is something that all subscription-based businesses want to avoid. Conversely, a well-treated customer whose wishes are fulfilled with your product and service is more likely to continue subscribing and even upgrade their plan. This is where [customer retention](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-tried-and-tested-customer-retention-tips/) comes into play. Keeping your customer base satisfied and intact is one of the pillars of a customer success strategy. Making sure your customers are at the forefront of all business decisions is surely the best way to approach avoiding customer churn, right? But customer success goes beyond this reactive method of merely keeping a hold of your customers; CS is all about your customer’s own success, as well as your company’s success. Successful customers who have a positive experience with your product and service will also have a greater appreciation of your product’s value and services. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ## **What is a customer-centric business model?** [Customer centricity](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-steps-to-building-a-customer-centric-culture/) is a culture in the workplace that hinges on creating the best experience for the customer, which in turn, generates brand loyalty. A customer-centric business will ensure the customer is at the center of a business' philosophy, attributing its existence solely to its clients. A satisfied customer is the lifeblood of their operations. Naturally, putting customers first should be the main priority of every business since the advent of business-consumer relations. Regrettably, this hasn’t always been the case, with some companies relinquishing responsibility for customer care after the point of sale. Even businesses who subscribe to the product-first mentality, believing that growth is purely led by products, will have to admit that customer experience is second-to-none. You’ve got to build a product that people want to use. The way to find that out? Put your customers at the center of your decisions; listen to them; implement their feedback. In fact, ****Stewart Butterfield**, CEO of Slack, wrote this in a company-wide memo in 2013: > *“Even the best slogans, ads, landing pages, PR campaigns, etc., will fall down if they are not supported by the experience people have when they hit our site, when they sign up for an account, when they first begin using the product and when they start using it day in, day out.”* But it’s the distinction between physical product and solution that Stewart makes: “What we are selling is *not* the software product". In the case of Slack, they’re not selling a “group chat system” but “organizational transformation, a reduction in information overload and a relief from stress”. Surely, this is the overarching goal of customer success; customers find value in your product and achieve their intended goals with your help. Having a competitive price and high-quality product is vital, but in this day and age, you can’t solely rely on it. In an overly-saturated market with more competition than ever, price and quality can only take you so far. You need to have your customers' outcomes at the helm of all decisions. “Is this product going to resonate with our customers? Will they be able to do ‘X, Y, Z’ with it? What solutions are we offering our customer base? What do the customers think of our product?” These are the customer-led questions that you ought to ask. However, it’s important to recognize that customer-centricity isn’t always synonymous with customer success. Customer Success Managers can’t possibly say ‘yes’ to every customer request. Rather, they’re tasked with the feat of managing expectations and aligning the client’s realistic goals with those capable of the product. [Addressing the gaps in the customer journeyWhen you think about the customer journey, most people focus on onboarding. It’s a crucial stage. But focusing only on this part of the journey means that other parts can be overlooked.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/journey-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/addressing-the-gaps-in-the-customer-journey/) ### **Adapting to your customer base** Trying to appease every single customer is detrimental to customer success, according to ****Rebecca Fenlon**, Head of Customer Success at ****Cognassist**. For Rebecca, attempting to be a ‘yes-man’ will “ultimately leave you with poor product-market fit and you'll end up trying to service customers who shouldn't really be your customers in the first place. You waste time, you waste money; that’s not what good CS is about, and it’s not what good customer centricity is at all.” Every individual is different, and everyone will no doubt have a different approach to using your technology. In a B2B setting, you not only have to appeal to the product users, but to the stakeholders who have the final say on whether or not they’ll continue their subscription, or extend their contract, with you. For example, customer success works on a myriad of levels. You’re not solely interacting with the user, often there will be different stakeholders who have a different understanding of customer success. Jason Noble clarified this for us in a Q&A about proving the value of CS. He believes that a CS leader needs to “really understand the different needs of the stakeholders and what their outcomes should be” and “how customer success relates to them”. Customer centricity isn’t all about saying ‘yes’, but figuring out how to “build relationships at the right levels with the different stakeholders, and understand their priorities and challenges”. By assimilating yourself into the mind of the stakeholder and customers, you’ll understand how their business works and how their role in the company operates. Of course, this can take a while but it’s worth it when you’re investing in a long-term partnership. ## **How and why customer success works** We mentioned this before, but it’s worth repeating: gone are the days of simply having a good brand name and a good product. Where a product may have been fairly original a few decades ago, nowadays they’re a ten to a penny. While low prices are a good way to turn heads, people ultimately want to do business with companies that don’t treat them like a piggybank. [Getting to grips with Customer Advisory Boards and their benefitsCreating and launching a product is one thing but developing and improving it is another. One of the best ways to do this is by absorbing as much feedback as possible through Customer Advisory Boards (CABs) and customer feedback loops.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/tim-mossholder-8R-mXppeakM-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/getting-to-grips-with-customer-advisory-boards-and-their-benefits/) ### **Understand the customers’ needs** When your business operates under a subscription model, you have to think of all possible outcomes as to why a consumer would leave your service, and more importantly, what they *want* from your product. If you don't fulfill that outcome, then it’s pretty straightforward – they will leave your business and go elsewhere, probably to another competitor with better service or more attractive prices. > *“It's not creating the culture to change the culture. Customers are the consumers, if you want to continue to grow with that mindset and model, it is going to be the model that almost every other organization in the world is going to adopt sooner or later.” - **Jamie Davidson*, CEO of **Vitally*.* People now seek good customer service and rather than be treated like one of the millions of paying customers, they need a new level of personalization. To quote [a leading study](https://www.superoffice.com/blog/customer-experience-statistics/) into customer experience: “If you cannot keep up with their increasing demands, your customers will leave you.” It’s that simple. [In a study by McKinsey](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/putting-behavioral-psychology-to-work-to-improve-the-customer-experience), it was discovered that a greater customer experience can be aided by applying the principles of behavioral psychology to the customer journey. The findings were interesting, to say the least – here they are summarized in five succinct points that apply to customer success as easily as customer experience: 1. A CSM ought to work through any difficult painpoints as early as possible so that customers have time to recollect the more positive, later elements of the interaction, which leads on to the second point, 2. Segment pleasure and combine pain points for your customers so that the pleasant parts of the journey form a stronger part of customers’ recollections 3. Finish on a strong, upbeat note, as the customer’s final interactions will have a disproportionate impact on his or her memory of the service 4. Provide customers choice, giving them a sense of control 5. Stick to habits and prevent any surprises, again giving customers more peace of mind and thereby increasing their satisfaction with the services received ### **Understand that customers want clarity** Not only do customers want to be valued, but they want to feel like they have a degree of control. In *The Customer Service Solution* (2013), ****Sriram Dasu** and ****Richard Chase** argue that the “more empowered, engaged, and updated \[the customers\] are in the course of the journey, the less likely they are to assign blame to the company when things go wrong.” Rather than batten down the hatches and cast your newly-enrolled customer out to fend for themselves, there are much better ways of encouraging product adoption and long-term engagement. Strategies like customer onboarding are integral to helping customers figure out how to use your product. ****Bryant McCombs**, Manager of Customer Success at ****MongoDB**, is an avid fan of implementing mutual engagement plans as a way to help balance the expectations and reality of the customer’s journey. Helping customers and stakeholders fully understand their outcomes from the get-go, is part of the transparent, healthy, consumer-first culture CS strives to maintain. During June 2021’s Customer Success Festival, ****Corinne Goldberg** (now Customer Success Team Lead at Google), explained that one of the defining characteristics of a CSM is their commitment to ensuring realistic expectations between customer and business. [Making the most of customer insights across CS, sales, and marketingEver wondered how to use customer feedback to build world-beating software and become a household name? Then you’ve come to the right place.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/lights.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-the-most-of-customer-insights-across-cs-sales-and-marketing/) ## **The mindset of customer success** ****Principle #5** of The Customer Success Manifesto outlines that CS should be viewed beyond the confines of its department; its efforts should be recognized as a company-wide initiative. After all, successful customers make successful companies. This is a sentiment echoed in the 2016 seminal book, *Customer Success: How Innovative Companies Are Reducing Churn and Growing Recurring Revenue*, where authors Nick Mehta, Dan Steinman, and Lincoln Murphy pinpoint the crux of customer success in this succinct statement: > *“CS is a philosophy, and it must pervade the entire company. No organization or job role can function in a vacuum, it requires a top-down company-wide commitment.”* Customer success is a solutions-based discipline. It’s all about identifying outcomes and moving towards them. It’s both forward-thinking and reflective. CS leaders are looking to help their clients reach their outcomes, but they’re also looking back at what’s gone wrong, and right. As remarked in the [Harvard Business Review](https://hbr.org/2010/07/stop-trying-to-delight-your-customers), when it comes to customer service, “companies create loyal customers primarily by helping them solve their problems quickly and easily”. ****Customer success leaders are pioneers of adoption and feedback.** Their day-to-day work bridges the gap between a company and its customers, helping marry the expectations of both and produce fruitful relationships. It is, without a doubt, one of the most useful and revolutionary functions within business today, and it all stems from the ability to put the customer first. To listen to the customer and pre-empt any hiccups along the way with thoughtful strategies to help the customer get from A to B. --- *Psst... like what you see? Why not become a member and gain access to exclusive insights from SaaS leaders.* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Addressing the gaps in the customer journey URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/addressing-the-gaps-in-the-customer-journey/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T13:01:13.000Z The customer journey is rarely seamless. But if you’re not utilizing customer data to address where customers are churning, it can be difficult to know where to start when fixing it. 🧰 Of course, we can’t promise to eliminate churn entirely, but these killer insights from customer success experts just might help you cut yours down to size! 🔷 Swati Chopra, Senior Director of Customer Success at Docusign 🔷 Francesca-Elizabeth Havemann Salisbury, Leader in Customer Success, Consultant, Speaker, Panelist, and Writer 🔷 Matt O'Boyle, Customer Success Manager at Intercom Main talking points include: - [The biggest gaps in the customer journey](https://www.saasalliance.io/addressing-the-gaps-in-the-customer-journey/#the-biggest-gaps-in-the-customer-journey) - [Dealing with delayed implementation](https://www.saasalliance.io/addressing-the-gaps-in-the-customer-journey/#dealing-with-delayed-implementation) - [The “end” of the customer journey ](https://www.saasalliance.io/addressing-the-gaps-in-the-customer-journey/#the-%E2%80%9Cend%E2%80%9D-of-the-customer-journey) We’ve compiled some tasty highlights for you below. Dig in 🍴 ## The biggest gaps in the customer journey **Swati**: When you think about the customer journey, most people focus on onboarding. It's a crucial stage, and we’ll talk more about that later, but focusing only on this part of the journey means that other parts can be overlooked. I’d like to open up by asking the panel, where do the gaps in the customer journey come from and what are the biggest gaps you see? Matt, do you want to kick us off? **Matt**: For sure. I think the biggest gaps in the customer journey lie between those milestones that everyone keeps track of – onboarding, cross-selling, and upselling. We need to look at how we maintain a really good conversation with customers so they're fully in the loop, even between these check-in points. We all know that with churn, half the time it's over an issue that you probably could have solved if you’d gotten ahead of it. Maybe the customer was looking for a feature that they didn't know you had and they went with someone else to get it. We need to be more proactive to fill in those gaps and talk to customers before they get to that churn stage. [Customer journeys: from onboarding to alignment \[Q&A with Simpo\]Max Smith-Gee, Head of Customer Success at Simpo took the time to answer some burning questions on everything from onboarding to aligning the sales process to customer journeys.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/daniel-cartin-LgHNehAIcOs-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-customer-journey-from-onboarding-to-alignment-q-a-with-simpo/) **Francesca**: When we're looking at where gaps come from on a high level, often it's a mindset thing. If you have a company that's very siloed and the thinking is “every department for itself,” then gaps start arising – that has a massive impact. Also, from what I've seen, when you go from startup to scale-up, right at the beginning everyone’s doing everything and trying to fulfill ten roles at once. Later on, you have to pull all that apart and create different roles and responsibilities again. If you don’t do that well, gaps can start appearing there too. **Swati**: As Francesca said, with scale, there are different kinds of challenges that you start facing because initially, a single person is probably doing multiple roles. However, when you start scaling as a company, you have to differentiate and diversify. For instance, when I worked in a startup I built customer success and professional services from scratch, and I had similar people who were helping out in every function. As those teams grew, we had to specify who our customer success managers were and the roles that they were going to follow. Over time it was becoming more and more difficult to see who was responsible for what. > As you scale you have to clearly define what each function and every role has to do. You also have to decide what the KPIs are for your CSMs and the deliverables that you want to see. Those KPIs need to relate very closely to each phase of the customer journey. For example, if it's onboarding, we need to ask ourselves, are we doing a survey within the first 30 or 90 days to see how that experience was? You have to do the measurements after each and every stage. And I definitely think onboarding is the stage where you would see the most gaps. If your onboarding is not right, you're setting your customer up for failure. It’s the first touch point with the customer and if it gets messed up, then the entire relationship and the entire journey are impacted. ## Dealing with delayed implementation **Matt**: Obviously, you want to get your customer up to speed really quickly with the product education side of things and make sure everyone understands where they want to go with the tool they just bought. It always feels super odd when they don't want to kick off straight away. I think that the main thing to remember is that we can't force anybody to do anything – people can do what they want with what they pay for. However, you need to get an understanding of why they’re not kicking off and what's the business value for them in not implementing the solution right now. [measuring the impact of customer success and related efforts on customer retentionWe wanted to seek wisdom from five CS leaders on how they view their role and how to measure its success in boosting customer retention.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/heart.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/measuring-the-impact-of-customer-success-and-related-efforts-on-customer-retention/) If there’s a business value for them in waiting 30 days or 90 days before they use the product, personally I wouldn't argue with that. I'd say “Okay, let's put a pin in this and then start later. I want to make sure that you guys get the most value out of the product as per your terms.” Now if delaying doesn't have any value attached to it, that's when I start getting worried. In this case, it’s worth having a discovery conversation to get answers as to why things are going awry in the onboarding. Ask as many questions as you can to find out if it’s valuable to the customer to delay kicking off. If there’s no value in delaying, show that to your customer, and quickly. That's really the best thing you can do. We can't force anybody to do anything; all we can do is support people. You have to go through that discovery process to be a good and trusted partner. And that's the bottom line when it comes to CSMs: you have to be the trusted partner, and you have to be there for your customers on their terms. **Swati**: I agree with Matt – you can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink. However, there are times when you don’t want too much of a delay because that can come back and bite you when it’s time for renewal. Even if it’s the customer who has delayed implementation, they might look at those first few months as a time when they didn’t utilize the solution they’d paid for. There are a couple of things that you can do to avoid these scenarios. A good practice that we generally follow is having a connection not just at the level of execution, but also at the level of decision-making. If you as the CSM are not able to reach out to your customer to speed up the implementation, your leader might be able to reach out to the BPO in the customer organization. When both entities are aligned like this, the decision-maker in the customer organization knows why the onboarding is delayed. That’s very important. I've often seen that when a senior leader makes that connection with the senior leader of your customer's company, that’s when there’s a top-down directive to move faster with the onboarding. ## The “end” of the customer journey **Swati:** For me, renewal starts at the same time as onboarding, and I'll tell you why: because you have to start tracking your customer's health as soon as they sign the contract. > When you start tracking your customer's health, you’ll see the engagement, the consumption, the frequency of communication, and whether there’s a value realization. Once you have all those parameters defined, you can gauge their propensity to renew six months, nine months, or even a year down the line. You need to track this week over week – it could change even six months before the end of the contract. This isn’t something you should only care about during the last three months; the outcomes that you deliver from the moment you onboard the customer will define the renewal. [5 steps to building a customer-centric cultureWhen signing up for your SaaS product, your customers are making a long-term investment. You’re hoping they’re gonna stick with your product for months, and preferably even years.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/tim-mossholder-8R-mXppeakM-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-steps-to-building-a-customer-centric-culture/) **Stuti**: In my experience, no CSM is hitting 100% of the potential touchpoints with every single customer in their business. Let’s forget for a moment the super high-touch customers you deal with every day and the completely low-touch customers for whom auto-renewals might be the best option. What about the middle ground? How do you achieve engagement there? **Matt**: This is exactly my role at Intercom. We had this kind of funky issue where there were loads of long-tail or smaller-sized customers that were paying for the premium plan but were considered small businesses as opposed to mid-market or enterprise customers. We couldn't find a way to allocate CSM time appropriately to them and we were seeing massive amounts of churn there. Now, I'm a big content guy – I love creating video walkthroughs, newsletters, product updates, and that kind of stuff. So I put my hand up, and I said I would love to take on the SB space and work with all the SB relationship managers to create content for their customers. There are a couple of thousand SB customers – it can be very tricky to get to all of them, but the way we've done it is by segmenting the SB space. The customers who need that high-touch approach will still get one-to-one communication. I'm very lucky in that I have Intercom as a tool and that I can reach out to customers at scale and they can write back and start a conversation. The customers at the mid and lower-level zones are treated a little differently. They might not, for example, be able to start a two-way conversation, but they still receive good videos from me, they know who their CSM is, and they see all the product updates and new roadmaps. They're very much kept in the loop about what's happening. I really advocate for that scalable approach with your SB customers and splitting them up into who gets one-on-one time and who gets nice little bite-sized chunks of content to keep them fully up to speed with all of the new training resources, product updates, releases, etc. [3 benefits to female leadership in SaaS (and 5 steps to making it happen)28.8% That’s the total percentage of women working in the technology industry back in 2020, according to this report. This report suggests that the percentage is projected to reach 33% in 2022.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSSuryansh Sodhani![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/women-in-SaaS.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/3-benefits-to-diverse-leadership-and-5-steps-to-making-it-happen/) **Swati:** I completely agree. As you go down your pipeline to the smaller customers who are not bringing that much revenue, you have to drive other avenues of engagement. These could be recorded videos, webinars, or training sessions for example. We use webinars a lot. We look at the common areas that customers struggle with and we run webinars on these topics. Customers get the opportunity to ask questions, listen to advice, and get solutions to their problems. And then you have automated tools that send out surveys or automated checkpoints to them at different points in the journey. Those are the things that you can definitely leverage for long-tail customers when you don't have the budget to assign a CSM to all of them. --- *Psst... like what you see? Why not become a member and gain access to exclusive insights from SaaS leaders.* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Is it time to switch from feature to outcome-driven product roadmaps? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/is-it-time-to-switch-from-feature-to-outcome-driven-product-roadmaps/ Last updated: 2022-06-30T15:41:32.000Z The product roadmap acts as a guide and strategic plan of action, which clearly communicates how your short-term product efforts match up with your long-term organizational goals. It serves as a shared source of truth that product owners can utilize to outline the vision, future product functionality, priorities, progress, and new features that will be released. The product roadmap really sets the bar for communication, and in agile product development, it offers crucial context for the day-to-day work of the team. Traditionally, the feature-driven product roadmap has been a staple of product development. Full to the brim of features and enhancements that, when taken in isolation, don’t actually mean a whole lot. In fact, these roadmaps often lack representations of any desired outcomes. That’s why there’s been a steady shift away from the feature-based product roadmapping of the past, towards a more outcome-focused future. But should you make the change? Let’s unpack the problems with feature-driven product roadmaps, and why more teams are focusing on outcomes. Ultimately, we’ll dive into how adopting an outcome-driven mindset can make your product roadmap work better, bring more focus, and communicate more effectively with stakeholders… [The secrets of compelling messaging and product positioningIf you have anything to do with a product, you’ll know that messaging and positioning are absolutely integral to your responsibilities. Don’t believe us? Just refer to the 92% of respondents in the State of Product Marketing Report who confirmed this to be the case.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/pexels-suzy-hazelwood-1995842--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-secrets-of-compelling-messaging-and-effective-product-positioning/) ## **Problems with feature-driven product roadmaps** It can certainly be argued that there’s an abundance of product roadmaps out there that simply list features. These features are normally set out on a vague timeline, which creates a lot of pressure on teams to build everything on that list, even when they don’t really solve the right problems. The standard procedure is to complete one feature, then move on and start developing the next. This happens even when the overall product strategy and user needs have actually changed since the roadmap was put in place. The feature-based roadmap ends up leaving product managers in a position where they’ve delivered on almost every feature within the intended estimate, but the key metrics are all going in the wrong direction. Unfortunately, this can be quite common with feature-list product roadmaps. Teams can often continue to doggedly deliver on the list, even when features aren’t hitting the mark. > *“Feature roadmapping adopts a predefined prioritization method, not responsive to the goals and needs of the company or market...”* > *“A roadmap based primarily on customer requests is an example of a feature roadmap because it often leads to focusing on the superficial level of customer needs and wants and you create features to solve them on an incremental level.”* ****Becky Flint, CEO of Dragonboat** Becky Flint knows all about how having an outcome-driven culture can be a solid foundation for roadmap success that ties everything together. A feature-driven roadmap means you’ve already set out your list of features and set some sort of priority. But as your customer needs change and your organization evolves, these defined priorities need to evolve too. [Myths of product operationsWhile the product operations discipline does have the word ‘product’ in it we need to remember that product management is not the only player in the development of products.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSChris Compston![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/joshua-rodriguez-KiFPlKh4MPM-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/myths-of-product-operations/) ## **Escaping the feature-driven product roadmap** The list-based roadmap can set product managers down the wrong path, especially in large organizations where a top-down culture often translates to senior management handing down features to teams to deliver. You’ll likely feel backed into a corner, and have your role boil down to just delivering each feature most effectively. This feature-driven mindset can often be a side effect of a product strategy that’s more aligned with ticking off features than creating positive outcomes. So how do you escape from the feature-based roadmap path, and start heading in the right direction? ****The answe**r - you start focusing on the ‘why’ as well as the ‘how’. ## **Adopt the outcome-driven product mindset** > *“Many product people I work with still use traditional feature-based roadmaps and are fairly new to the concept of outcome or goal-oriented roadmaps. The whole point is rather than focusing on output and deliverables, i.e, “what needs to be done?” try asking, “why do we want to enhance the product? What is the specific value that we want to create?”* > *“What are the specific outcomes and goals we'd like to achieve?” That might be to acquire more users or customers, to increase engagement, to improve conversion and start generating revenue, etc. I think part of the reason why feature-based roadmaps are still dominant is that it’s hard to shrug off that traditional way of doing it.* > *There's an interesting correlation between product roadmapping and the level of empowerment that product people have. I find that when product people aren't fully empowered, they're often given a feature-based roadmap and told to deliver.”* ****Roman Pichler, Product Management Author, Consultant, and Trainer** It’s important to forgo the features and start focusing on the actual problems: - Focus on the outcomes. - Focus on how things will look if the team succeeds. - Focus on how your customers will *feel*. - And focus on what your customers will now be able to achieve. By taking this approach, you can avoid being stuck delivering on a list of features, and instead, your whole team can own the problem. The outcome-driven product mindset places more autonomy back within your teams and allows for more knowledge to be shared. You’ll have greater certainty on when an actual customer problem is solved, as opposed to when a particular feature is shipped. When you gain clarity on outcomes, you’ll be able to realize a wider range of possibilities and gain better context for specific items on your product roadmap and their prioritization. At the same time, you’ll also be able to ensure the product strategy is still well communicated and consistently adhered to. With clear outcomes, every necessary step is captured, along with the reason each step is there. The reason is well understood, extraneous steps are avoided, and the desired goals are more measurable. ## **Building an outcome-driven product roadmap** So, you’ve decided to commit to focusing on outcomes, as opposed to a roadmap of endless features. But how do you begin putting an outcome-driven product roadmap together? Just like your overall goals, any outcomes you put in place need to be measurable, and recognizable to your stakeholders and customers as something valuable. For example, focusing on an outcome like “the customer getting seeing more marketing emails” isn’t valuable to them. So, let's summarize some key steps you can follow to build an outcome-driven product roadmap. ### **Ensure your product vision, strategy, and objectives are aligned** A strong product roadmap needs to effectively communicate your product vision, strategy, and objectives. It needs to make them understandable and unite your team behind a common purpose. To do this, think about the long-term outcomes and benefits you want or need to deliver to your customers. And when crafting the product vision and strategy, consider the following: - What you hope to achieve in the short and long-term. - Customer insights. - Market and technology trends. - Competitive intelligence. - Your organization’s business model. - Any unique differentiators. Once you’ve cemented your product vision and strategy, it’s time to break them down into objectives. These objectives should represent the desired outcome for your customers or product, while also helping you prioritize decisions around the features to focus on next. [Product-led VS sales VS market VS customer: What’s the difference?What’s the difference between product-led, sales-led, marketing-led, and customer-led growth? We’re here with an overview that displays the best approach for your business.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1432888498266-38ffec3eaf0a?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDIzfHxidXNpbmVzc3xlbnwwfHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/product-led-vs-sales-led-vs-marketing-led-vs-customer-led-differences/) ### **Prioritize the features based on your desired outcomes** So, you’ve aligned around your central vision, strategy, and objectives. Next, you need to prioritize the features that will go onto the product roadmap. This stage can be a little overwhelming due to the amount of information you’ll be dealing with while juggling stakeholder needs; from customer insights and date-based milestones to the capacity of your team. Customers can be a great source of feedback at this stage, but keep in mind their suggestions may not address the actual underlying problems. But going through this stage will help shift your focus from the ‘how’ to the ‘why’. Check out our product prioritization frameworks by becoming a ****PLA member**. Having a framework in place will help you assess the various inputs more effectively. ### **Create a product roadmap to communicate your features** Time to create the roadmap itself, which needs to communicate the products and/or features you’re building. It needs to outline: - Each planned product feature. - When each product feature will be worked on. - Roughly when a specific product feature will be released. - And why certain features are a priority above other options. To craft an informative and easily understood outcome-driven product roadmap, remember to set realistic expectations around when features will be rolled out so other teams can plan accordingly. You don’t have to be terribly specific with a deadline, just communicate a general time, like a month of the coming year. Keep in mind you can be as detailed as you want when it comes to outlining the features you’ve planned into the timeline. But ensure you clearly explain why you’re including a feature to provide the right amount of context. Your teams must know exactly why you’re building certain features next, as this provides valuable strategic context. This will alleviate stakeholder concerns, as they will better understand the rationale behind decisions. [How customer success & product management make a SaaS dream teamBelieve it or not, there’s quite a lot in common between customer success and product management. Both have the ability to work wonders for your SaaS product. This guide walks you through how to use them to get a dream team.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1504270997636-07ddfbd48945?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDV8fGRpZ2l0YWx8ZW58MHx8fA&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-and-product-management-saas-dream-team/) ### **Empower your team around the product roadmap** Now it’s time to lay out your outcome-based product roadmap and empower your team by providing them with all the information they require. Ensure each product team member has access to the roadmap and anyone else involved in the product lifecycle. Of course, the benefit of using outcome-driven roadmaps, which focus on broad timelines, is they can meet the needs of varying stakeholders and senior executives. You just need to make sure they include information such as market opportunities, and profit and loss details if needed. [How do you create a product function from scratch?Transforming a company to a product-led approach is no easy task. Especially when your first job is building out the product department itself.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/dayne-topkin-y5_mFlLMwJk-unsplash--1--1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-do-you-create-a-product-function-from-scratch/) ## **From feature-based to outcome-driven roadmaps** Remember, a product roadmap is a living, breathing document that needs to allow for deviations along the way. It’s okay to have several versions, depending on your audience. You may still require a feature-driven roadmap, especially for things in the shorter term. External teams may need to know exactly when you’re delivering certain features, and the sales and customers will need different details than engineering, so this kind of roadmap can help with reassurance. But it’s important to show how you’re driving towards outcomes. To communicate how your strategic initiatives will evolve from a problem into a solution. The outcome-driven roadmap works extremely well for your internal development team because it allows you to bring clarification and focus. It allows you to stop loading up your product with features that users may not want. It will likely lead to getting the maximum impact out of existing features, instead of just piling new things on top of them. And may also allow you to retire certain features that are getting in the way of your customers. But you have to shift away from the mindset that sees your roadmap as a list of commitments, that leads you down a path where shipping features have become more important than delivering outcomes. So perhaps it’s time to take a new approach. Forgo the long list of features and focus your product roadmap on outcomes! --- *Enjoyed this article? Why not sign up to our membership plan, for all the exclusive insights from Saas leaders across the globe? 👇* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How customer success is innovating to drive agility and serve customers at scale URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-customer-success-is-innovating-to-drive-agility-and-serve-customers-at-scale/ Last updated: 2023-02-09T12:14:42.000Z *This article is taken from a talk given by Dan Pino and Corinne Goldberg at Customer Success Festival in June 2021\. The whole presentation is available [on demand.](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-ondemand/)* Let’s start with a quick introduction: we’re Corinne Goldberg and Dan Pino, and we’re customer success managers at Slack. We deliver a white-glove service to Slack’s mid-market and enterprise customers, and we're humbled to have the opportunity to serve as strategic advisors and enable our customers' success. Alongside serving our customers, a key part of our roles is **innovation**. We want to challenge ourselves to be more strategic, impactful, and intentional with our customers in a way that adds value to their world *and* drives growth in our business. We're super excited to be here today to tell you a bit about how we’ve driven innovation and scaled customer success at Slack. We're going to share some ideas and innovations that have helped us bring greater agility to the way that we work. We hope these ideas will spark conversations and inspire you to think about how to innovate and elevate your customer success strategy. **Main talking points include:** - [Why is innovation important in customer success?](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-customer-success-is-innovating-to-drive-agility-and-serve-customers-at-scale/#why-is-innovation-important-in-customer-success) - [Three key takeaways](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-customer-success-is-innovating-to-drive-agility-and-serve-customers-at-scale/#three-key-takeaways) - [Reimagine your current operating model](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-customer-success-is-innovating-to-drive-agility-and-serve-customers-at-scale/#reimagine-your-current-operating-model) - [Driving growth by doing more with less: Three keys to success](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-customer-success-is-innovating-to-drive-agility-and-serve-customers-at-scale/#driving-growth-by-doing-more-with-less-three-keys-to-success) - [Involve customers as partners](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-customer-success-is-innovating-to-drive-agility-and-serve-customers-at-scale/#involve-customers-as-partners) ## Why is innovation important in customer success? We operate in incredibly dynamic spaces. Our products change over time, and so do customer behaviors. Customers’ definitions of success change as their businesses evolve. On top of all that, new competitors are always popping up in the marketplace. We need to be at the forefront of all that change if we want a seat at the table. We should be consistently adapting the way we serve our customers to stay relevant and strategic. However, we all have finite resources to serve our customers effectively; as our businesses grow, our ability to serve our customers in the same way shrinks. The trick is to identify the low-effort high-value initiatives that will enable us to work smarter as we scale. We believe that a good customer success professional understands where their customer is today, and a great customer success professional actively anticipates where their customer will be tomorrow. [![good customer success](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/good-customer-success-1.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-customer-success-is-innovating-to-drive-agility-and-serve-customers-at-scale) Prioritizing innovation, in both the way that you serve your customers and the way that you scale your business, will move you from good to great. It will enable you to drive the agility of your business by streamlining your service model. It will also allow you to drive customer-centricity by meeting customers where they are as their needs evolve with your product or service. ## Three key takeaways There are three ideas we'd like you to take away from this article, which are all going to help you drive innovation to better serve customers as you scale. ### Key takeaway #1: Reimagine your operating model If you want to drive change, you need to reimagine your current operating model and allocate resources to increase value. Consider how you serve customers today and whether that operating model is fit for the future. As your organization grows and evolves, you’ll naturally have some customers who require more care and attention than others. You should be nimble in the way that you serve those customer segments according to their needs. ### Key takeaway #2: Drive growth by doing more with less Doing more with less, leveraging data, driving automation, and proper risk management are all keys to success in driving growth. We'll share with you how these key actions will help you scale your customer success model. ### Key takeaway #3: Involve customers as partners Last, you should involve customers as partners to ideate the best way to support their unique journey. As you learn and grow together, your customers will thank you for bringing them along the journey with you. With that said, let’s take a closer look at each of these ideas. ## Reimagine your current operating model When we think about our operating model, it's important to consider what optimization levers we can pull to do more with less. Something we’ve thought about here at Slack is how to define a new customer segmentation model that helps us drive growth while maintaining retention. There are three factors we considered as we thought about this, and the first was: which customers would experience the least pain if we changed our operating model? We decided to pilot this segmentation innovation with our happy and healthy customers. Those are the customers we can afford to trial new ideas on – they’re good partners, they're receptive to change, and therefore they present less risk to the business. We selected customers with a green health and maturity score, those who realize high value from our product and who have deployed Slack across their entire organization. The next factor we thought about is whether our risk appetite is such that our customer success organization is prepared to trial new ways of working that might fail. Organizations at various stages of growth will each have their own tolerance to risk, so it's important to consider what the risk appetite is and how much pain and gain are at stake when we introduce new ways of working. [![customer success impact](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/significant-impact.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-customer-success-is-innovating-to-drive-agility-and-serve-customers-at-scale) We know that customer success has a significant impact on both customer retention and upside, so if the new ideas that we trial are successful, we’ll reap the benefits in both retention and add-on to business. We also know that customer success is a growth driver. The more we invest in building a model that's fit for the future – even if that means absorbing some pain – the more we’ll be able to make it scalable. The third factor we thought about is how to measure success and make the new ideas that work part of our standard operating procedure. A crucial step for us was defining success criteria so that we could effectively greenlight innovation at scale. It's great to try out new ideas, but ultimately, we needed to feel comfortable that the changes we were introducing would realize value that we could measure over time. [![success criteria](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/success-criteria.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-customer-success-is-innovating-to-drive-agility-and-serve-customers-at-scale) Here are some of the questions we ask to gauge the success of our innovations: - Can we drive this innovation and still protect revenue? - Will this innovation allow us to drive continued adoption of the product as it matures? - Is this innovation deepening customer advocacy? - Does the innovation drive meaningful change both internally and for our customers? If you can answer these questions about any new practices you implement in your organization, you’ll have a clearer idea of whether they’re working and if they’re worth scaling. Let’s move on to some of the nuts and bolts of driving customer success innovation in a growing company. ## Driving growth by doing more with less: Three keys to success Customer success is not just a way to retain customers at Slack – we look at it as more of a growth engine. But to keep the focus on the growth of the business, you need to make sure that you've got the right resources allocated to the areas with the most opportunity. We found that there are three main keys to success that will allow you to do that. First, you should be using data to drive every decision both at a portfolio level and for each individual customer. You want to proactively guide them on their journey, and data helps you do that. Second, you've always got to keep an eye on risk, especially when you're first starting to pilot a new idea. And finally, the more you can standardize and automate, the more resources you'll be able to free up for those areas where there's greater opportunity. Let’s zoom in on each of these keys to success and see how you can bring them into play in your organization. ### 🗝 Be data-driven Here at Slack, data is key to everything that we do, and there are a bunch of great tools that allow us to gather and leverage it. We use Gamesight to monitor and report on the health of our customers, both at an aggregate portfolio level and at an individual level, so customer success managers can log in and quickly tell where they should be allocating their time. We also gather product usage data to help guide customers on their Slack journey, with recommended maturity playbooks based on a multifaceted maturity score. We've even got a couple of data scientists on our customer success team who can help CSMs interpret more advanced insights. The key here is that data is your best friend. It's so important to invest in proper tooling and resourcing as you grow so that data can be utilized to its fullest potential. ### 🗝 Manage risk When you're experimenting with different ways of innovating, it's super important to keep an eye on risks, especially customer churn. Here at Slack, when we're trying something new, whether that be releasing new features or scaling new ways of interacting with customers, we de-risk the pilots as much as possible from the start so that they have the best chance of success. So, what does that mean in practice? Well, to start, we're very selective about which customers can participate in the experiments we run. We look at the outcome that we're hoping to achieve, we find customers that meet that profile, and then we do whatever we can to de-risk the pilot before it even starts. Often, this involves removing customers from the pilot experiences entirely if there's any sort of risk to the account. De-risking a pilot early frees up the resources working on it so that they can focus on realizing value from the innovation. Managing risk and customer success are always going to be high-touch and they deserve to have a dedicated resource. Managing risks is not just a one-time exercise though – it’s an ongoing process. We run real-time alerts that give us early indicators of risks in an account, and when we get those alerts that maybe something isn't quite right, we reallocate resources to swarm the issue until it's resolved. ### 🗝 Standardize and automate The final key to successful innovation is standardizing and automating as many of your processes as possible. This is something I'm really passionate about. I think CSMs tend to say “yes, yes, yes” to everything that a customer asks. After all, it's our job to make sure that they're successful with our products. But as your business scales and CSMs support more and more customers, this “yes, yes, yes” model isn't sustainable. It's important then to have some level of standardization and consistency in how you work with customers. As part of this, we're defining more clearly which activities CSMs can help customers with. This has helped set the right expectations on exactly what customer success is and it gives CSMs greater freedom to politely say no to some requests and redirect them appropriately. We’re also piloting new operating cadences for certain profiles of customers; for example, our happy and healthy customers get lighter, less frequent, and more meaningful touches, which is better for everyone. Not every customer needs a standing bi-weekly checkpoint and a QBR every three months. By consolidating more of these lighter-touch customers into just a couple of CSM’s books, each with a standard operating model and a defined set of activities, we’ve been able to free up other CSMs to focus on accounts where there's more opportunity for growth. All of this standardization is supported by automation. We've templatized and automated a lot of our customer communications. From product and add-in updates to leadership content, there's always information for our CSMs to share with customers. Previously, managing that load fell to each CSM, which reduced their bandwidth for more strategic personalized conversations, but thanks to our technical architect team, that work now falls to our new best friend: Success Bot. Success Bot is a custom Slack app that lets the CSM team share updates with hundreds of customers at once and tracks the engagement of these messages. It periodically posts enablement materials in Slack connect channels, which is the primary way that our CSMs communicate with customers. So far we've had great results with Success Bot. It's helped us with our voice and tone consistency and making sure that the team is presenting information regularly. ### Success Bot But the biggest benefit has been time savings: **Success Bot is saving our CSMs over 200 hours every month**. We're also getting great customer engagement – we see an average click-through rate of 22% on Success Bot’s messages, and it's great for sparking conversations and upsell opportunities. We also want to highlight our favorite automation that we use here at Slack: Midas Touch. Before preparing for an executive business review, our CSMs used to have to sort through countless spreadsheets and dashboards to find meaningful data. Then they'd have to use that data to craft a compelling story from scratch. Doing all of this work would take a full day or even more – just for one meeting. And so our Slack-on-Slack team built Midas Touch, which now delivers data-informed presentations to our sales and success teams in seconds. We just press a button that says *get started* and search for an account. When we enter the account, Midas Touch pulls data from multiple systems and compiles a customized data story directly into a Google Slides presentation. All of that's done with one command. The data is presented alongside easy-to-understand narratives, which means that CSMs get templated talk tracks that provide additional context on how to interpret and frame the data. Best of all, these slides are completely customizable, so our CSMs can edit the content for each of our customer's unique contexts, and they can also dig into the data behind the slides to further sharpen the story. Really, what Midas Touch does is help our CS team work smarter so they have more time to focus on the important things, like helping our customers get the most out of Slack. ## Involve customers as partners This leads us to our third key takeaway for this article, which is that it's important to involve customers as partners and innovate together on their unique journey. At the end of the day, we can optimize the way we work and serve our customers, but we need to make sure that we do it in a way that adds value. With almost all of the processes and automations that we put in place, we start out small. We pilot them with a subset of happy, healthy customers, and then we collect feedback to determine what's working and what's not and then we iterate accordingly. It's all about experimentation, agility, and listening to our customers. The one thing we try to keep in mind is that we don’t want to innovate at the expense of delivering a ‘custom white glove’ experience. In other words, it’s great to trial new approaches and ideas that enable you to optimize for growth, but you should do so without jeopardizing the strong relationships that you've built with your customers. [![how are we doing](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/how-are-we-doing.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-customer-success-is-innovating-to-drive-agility-and-serve-customers-at-scale) So what has all this innovation done for us? First and foremost, it has allowed us to focus on customer retention and advocacy. It's also allowed us to be more efficient and allocate our CSM resources to areas of greater opportunity, and it's enabled us to scale our CS org as our business grows. Most importantly, all this innovation has allowed customer success not just to help retain existing customers, but to reach its full potential as a growth engine. ### 10 reasons to attend the Future of SaaS Festival 2022 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/10-reasons-to-attend-the-future-of-saas-festival-2022/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T13:00:59.000Z Here at Future of SaaS, we’re not about lecturing you on how you should be running your SaaS org, we want to create a constant open dialogue, and a culture of **collaboration between SaaS experts and thought leaders**. But how do you do that? Wouldn’t it be great if you could connect with some of the most prominent SaaS leaders across the globe? Well, we’re giving you the opportunity to do just that. On 14-15th June 2022, we’re giving two whole days jam-packed full of some of the hottest topics in the world of Saas right now. 🔥 Get your ticket [right here.](https://festival22.futureofsaas.io/?utm%5Fsource=slack&utm%5Fmedium=post&utm%5Fcampaign=future-of-saas-fest) Still need convincing? Here’s 10 reasons to attend Future of SaaS 2022. --- ## 1\. You’ll get answers to your questions It goes without saying, we love reading insights from SaaS experts, but can’t it be frustrating, when you’re reading an article or a blog post and you really want a thought leader to unpack a point they’ve made? At Future of Saas, you’ll be able to do this in real-time. Let’s say you’re listening to some really awesome insights from a major SaaS player and suddenly you have this burning question – just drop it in the chat! The Future of SaaS festival is an opportunity for SaaS practitioners of all levels and backgrounds to come together and find solutions that benefit everyone. 🤝 --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) --- ## 2\. We’ve got a deal that’s right for you At Future of SaaS, we’re constantly finding solutions and new innovations through our dynamic, informative discussions. Imagine how exciting it’d be when you're here with us at the moment we strike gold? With a free pass, you’ll be getting these invaluable nuggets, **totally free,** as they come in. If this amazing opportunity whet’s your appetite for a lifetime’s supply of SaaS insights (and we hope it will) then why not sign up for a lifetime individual pass. You can get get access to the following: 👇 - 📺 15+ hours of video content - 🤯 Killer insights from 30+ SaaS leaders - 💬 6+ panel discussions - ♾️ Unlimited replays Or, you can have access to all of the exciting discussion Future of SaaS Festival, plus all exclusive perks that we have to offer within the FoSaaS community, including: 100+ hours’ video content. 👇 - 📺 FoSaaS Festivals OnDemand - ✍ Exclusive SaaS content - 📒 Frameworks & templates - 🔥 New content every month All this with our **annual pass**. But we know you might not want to keep all of these pearls of wisdom to yourself, you wanna spread it out across your whole organization. The **access team pass** might just be the ticket for you, with up to 5 team members gaining access. Whatever it is you’re looking for, you can find the deal that’s right for you. So what are you waiting for? Secure [your ticket today! ](https://festival22.futureofsaas.io/checkout/select-tickets/) ## 3\. We’ve got the cream of the crop Sure, you can google advice from SaaS experts ‘til the cows come home, but at Future of SaaS Festival, you’ll be getting **exclusive access** to some of the big players in the world of SaaS. We’re talking about leaders who’ve put the strategies into practice and found real, concrete results. We’re talking about a proven track record of providing real bottom-line benefit to some of the world's major Saas organizations. Here’s just a few of the speakers we have lined up for you: - Shishir Agrawal, **Head of Products, Google** - Kelly Anderson**, Head of Product Marketing, Google Cloud** - Jessica Box, **Head of Growth, Linktree** - David Collard, **Manager of Customer Success, LinkedIn** - Dipanwita Das, **CEO & Co-Founder Sorcero** - Júlia Fort, **UX Research Lead Smallpdf** --- [3 benefits to female leadership in SaaS (and 5 steps to making it happen)28.8% That’s the total percentage of women working in the technology industry back in 2020, according to this report. This report suggests that the percentage is projected to reach 33% in 2022.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSSuryansh Sodhani![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/women-in-SaaS.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/3-benefits-to-diverse-leadership-and-5-steps-to-making-it-happen/) --- ## 4\. We offer practical advice Future of SaaS festival isn’t about a bunch of high-earning SaaS leaders showing off how successful they are, or trying desperately to plug their products, we seek to **educate** and **inspire**. All of the speakers at our world-renowned events come together with one singular purpose: to spread good business practice throughout the ever-expanding world of SaaS. You won’t get Saas leaders simply bragging about their achievements, nor will you get speakers fawning over each others’ achievements. We offer exclusive panel discussions in which SaaS experts will probe and challenge different perspectives, all in the hope of arriving at new solutions together. 🤝 ## 5\. We’ve really made a difference Attendees at our events are simply shouting from the rooftops about the educational value of our events. Not convinced? Check out some of our attendee testimonials right here. 👇 “The Future of SaaS is a great resource! Their events have been top-notch and super helpful! As an aspiring CSM, I've been learning a lot and networking! Definitely check out more of this platform, its community, events and additional resources! “ “Future of SaaS is something that has been an amazing help for me whether it's networking with like-minded individuals or empowering myself with SaaS orientated content, which is SUPER essential to me to take my customer-facing career to the next level.” “Helpful group! People share their ideas here and people are happy to learn from each other.” [\[Source: Trustpilot\] ](https://www.trustpilot.com/review/futureofsaas.io) ## 6\. We’re hosting world-beating organizations Want more convincing that our speakers are among the best in the world? We think the work speaks for itself. And when your work is as significant as, say, **Google** or **Amazon,** it goes without saying that you’re probably the kind of person that’s worth listening to. At the Future of SaaS Festival, we’re offering you the opportunity to pick the brains of these internationally renowned organizations. Here are just a few of the companies that will be represented. 👇 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/big-orgs.jpeg) ## 7\. We’ve got a broad range of subject matter One of the most exciting things about the burgeoning world of SaaS is how dynamic and varied it is. From customer success to essential business metrics, to killer sales enablement tactics, we’ve got all the know-how you could need to really crush it in the world of SaaS. 👊 Here are just some of the topics we’ll be highlighting at this event: 👇 ### The future of VC and SaaS investing Let’s say you’re a hot new startup, you have all the ideas, skills and know-how in the world, but without investment from those key stakeholders, does it even count? It’s a common story with new startups, you want to launch your amazing new solution but the ground is sticky. A lot of the time it’s because you don’t have those key financial backers who can really see your potential for growth. Future Of SaaS Festival will highlight how to secure those crucial stakeholders that will help your org to launch 🚀 ### Pricing your SaaS offering to stay competitive You don’t need us to tell you that pricing can really make or break your SaaS solution. Pricing it right is dependent on a whole host of different factors: - What your competitors are offering - The demand for your product - Your customer base - Your USP, and so much more At the Future of SaaS Festival, we’ll be really getting into the finer points here and discussing at length how to weigh up all of these essential factors to determine a price that enables your product to take the market by storm. --- [Strategy for social change: diversity and storytellingDiversity is a strong contender for the word of the decade. Companies around the world are waking up and asking themselves how they can better represent the societies that surround them.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnna Griffin![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/Strategy-for-social-change.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/strategy-for-social-change-diversity-and-storytelling/) --- ## 8\. FoSaaS festival is diverse When talking about diversity, we’re not just talking about ethnicity and background, we’re also talking about another hot-button term right now: **neurodiversity.** Successful orgs today are able to establish teams composed of a very broad range of skills and expertise. And when you want to build a community of SaaS enthusiasts, it’s really no different. That’s why at the future of SaaS folks we’ve got people from many different disciplines including: - Product marketers - CEOs and founders - Sales leaders - Customer success managers - Growth experts - Product-led experts ## 9\. You can connect with anyone anywhere In-person events have their benefits, sure, but if there’s one thing that the last two years has taught us it’s that virtual events and interactions have their own unique benefits. **You can connect with anyone anywhere.** FoSaaS is a global community, and you can share your thoughts on the discussions unfolding real-time with SaaS folks from all across the globe. Someone from Berlin might give you that killer strategy to unlocking growth for your org, someone from Kolkata might have an onboarding hack that really cuts your churn down to size. The possibilities are truly infinite. ## 10\. You can listen anywhere Let’s face it, we all have busy lives. Sometimes we can be so busy with trying to steer our orgs in the right direction that we just don’t have the time to sit down, recalibrate, and absorb that valuable advice that would enable us to set to work on Monday with a fresh perspective. With our virtual events, you can catch all of the expert tips and strategies anywhere, as you’re going about your day. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/SaaScast-Ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=saascast-podcast) --- Imagine you're in the process of re-organizing your sales team, for example. You’re crazy busy, but you decide to tune into the Future of SaaS Festival as you’re working. You happen to hear one of our scheduled talks: ‘SaaS sales: developing a foolproof SaaS sales strategy.’ And one of our expert speakers just happens to have that key piece of advice that allows you to assemble a sales dream team. This is the essence of the Future of SaaS Festival. We’re not just spouting out theory, we’re arming the SaaS leaders of the future with those critical tools to make a real difference. 🙌 --- *We can’t do it alone. We need your support and collaboration. Join us on [June 14-15](https://festival22.futureofsaas.io/).* ### 3 benefits to diverse leadership(and 5 steps to making it happen) URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/3-benefits-to-diverse-leadership-and-5-steps-to-making-it-happen/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T13:00:30.000Z **28.8%** That’s the total percentage of women working in the technology industry back in 2020, according to this [report](https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/Women-in-tech-statistics-The-latest-research-and-trends#:~:text=There%20is%20no%20question%20women,2018%20and%2026.2%25%20in%202019.). This [report](https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/technology/technology-media-and-telecom-predictions/2022/statistics-show-women-in-technology-are-facing-new-headwinds.html) suggests that the percentage is projected to reach 33% in 2022. That's just 4.2% growth in 2 years! The SaaS industry is [projected ](https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/software-as-a-service-saas-market-102222)to grow from USD 130.69 billion in 2021 to USD 716.52 billion in 2028 at a CAGR of 27.5%. Now, let's compare the two growth numbers. **4.2% v/s 27.5%** The growth potential is immense. But a lot needs to be addressed before we can make significant progress. The SaaS industry will be missing out on growth opportunities by not addressing this disparity. Studies have been conducted about declining women's workforce participation in technology. --- [Why women are leaving SaaSThe tech industry lags woefully behind the rest of the job market when it comes to hiring women.More worrying still is that a total of 2.5 million women left the workforce last year and were also twice as likely to be furloughed or laid off than their male counterparts.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/clem-onojeghuo-B9YLQOe2a1Q-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-women-are-leaving-saas/) --- But are people aware and consciously taking steps to make amends? Let’s begin with this quote by [Sheryl Sandberg](https://twitter.com/sherylsandberg), **COO of Meta (Facebook)**: **"**We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change". This article is a small effort to bring about that change. Our **main talking points include:** - The history of women in technology - 3 benefits women can bring to SaaS - 5 steps to including women in the SaaS workforce ## A brief history of women in technology Did you know that a group of six women were the first to program a computer? If not, you should read about ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator and Computer). This is the first electrical computer, and it was programmed during World War II on behalf of the United States Military. It was used to calculate ballistic trajectories that were otherwise time-consuming and complicated. The group of 6 women programmed the ENIAC and were the world's first coders. How cool is that! The code they wrote during the war resulted in the development of computer storage and it marked the beginning of the programming language. ![Female programmers](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/women-in-tech.jpeg) Source: [Mashable](https://mashable.com/article/unsung-women-in-tech) Fun fact: The groundbreaking work of these women coders went unnoticed for years. The public thought that the women in the above photo were models. But they were the coders responsible for the programming. This, more than anything else, demonstrates how women have always been a part of the technology industry. Before we discuss how we can increase womens' participation in technology, we must understand the skills they possess to ace the technology game. # 3 benefits women can bring to SaaS ### Women may be uniquely empathetic Recent [studies](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-020-01260-8) suggest that women may be particularly empathetic. This may lead to them being better able to understand people, which can be crucial for coming up with better solutions to customer problems Empathy also plays an important role in the SaaS industry. Understanding your customers leads to building a clearer customer avatar and helps in solving problems faced by the users. ### Women may be great multi-taskers. A [study](https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-24645100) revealed that women may be uniquely good multitaskers. Working in the SaaS industry involves working in various departments like marketing, business development, product development, and customer success. Not only does this require a lot of skills, patience, and experience, but it also needs quick and prompt action. No doubt, if you’re a great multi-tasker you may be just right for the SaaS industry. ### Women bring diversity to the team There is no doubt that the technology industry is dominated by men. They are in the majority and make up about 72% of the total technology workforce. Although the foundations of the technology industry were laid by women (read: ENIAC), the industry is today led by men. The technology industry has now diversified into artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, machine learning, and data analytics. Women would bring skills to the table that would help the industry with a fresh perspective. This can not only help increase the overall productivity but also elevate the skills each team possesses. Though we are convinced that women can help grow the SaaS industry, we need to be cognizant that a lot of external factors affect their participation. --- [Creating female leadership teamsRejoice! Things are looking up for female leaders. In a 2020 article, CNBC reported that women were promoted to 12% of CEO positions in America’s top 500 companies.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/luwadlin-bosman-LCwmq67sAmE-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/creating-female-leadership-teams/) --- A recent [article](https://hbr.org/2022/05/why-many-women-of-color-dont-want-to-return-to-the-office) by Harvard Business Review reported that 81% of women of color in the technology industry experienced racism and 90% experienced sexism. One [study](https://futureforum.com/2021/03/11/dismantling-the-office-moving-from-retrofit-to-redesign/) also found that only 3% of black women want to return to full-time on-site work, post the Covid pandemic (2020), as opposed to 21% of white women. The study also reported that African-American, Asian-American, and Latino tech workers preferred hybrid or remote work more than their white counterparts. Such studies reveal factors that lead to women having a tough time building presence in the technology industry. Now that we understand the factors dampening women's participation in the technology industry, we need to understand what steps we can take to include more women in the SaaS workforce. ## 5 steps to including women in the SaaS workforce ### 1\. Company Culture and Values: The foundation of company culture and values should be built in such a fashion that it enables women to be great contributors to the team. For example, in our recent [report](https://product-marketing.docsend.com/view/ifshrh5uguhxwuiv) ("Ones to watch in 2021") we interviewed [Sara Rosso](https://twitter.com/rosso) (Director of Growth and Product Marketing at Hubspot). Sara helped the WordPress VIP team grow 10 times by establishing critical business and operational processes and leading digital communication, product marketing, and education. This would have only been possible because the company culture enabled Sara to perform in her role. The company DNA is a great enabler and sets the tone for how the workforce performs while working together. ### 2\. Flexible Working: With the advent of remote working post-Covid, companies need to support and encourage flexible working. This would enable women, irrespective of their ethnicity, background, or nationality, to work for the SaaS industry. ### 3\. Committing to a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategy: A recent study revealed that professionals are 5.4 times more likely stay with a company for a long time if it has strong DEI policies. Many large technology companies release annual diversity reports to showcase their best practices as a result. ### 4\. Embrace goal-setting, transparency, and accountability: Technology companies must set goals, be transparent, and be accountable. This would help them track, measure, and improvise. For example, Amazon measures performance ratings and attritions across teams to address any demographic differences. ### 5\. Establish programs to hire, retain, and promote: If we want more women in leadership roles, we need to hire, retain, and promote more female employees. This requires strong, proactive efforts by technology companies. But how? One particular strategy could be to hire women talent without any technical background and commit to upskilling them with training programs and mentorships. SaaS companies could invest in a program that trains and upskills women who are ready to join the workplace after a career gap. Mentorship and development programs offered by women in leadership roles could help a lot of women professionals. On a brighter note, according to a recent [report](https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/technology/women-tech-leadership.html) by Deloitte, roughly one in four leadership positions at large global technology firms are expected to be held by women in 2022. ![Deloitte graph](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/06/Deloitte.jpeg) Source: [Deloitte Insights](https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/articles/us175154%5Ftmt-charticle/figures/US175154%5FFigure1.png) The SaaS industry and technology industry as a whole has immense growth opportunities and women should be included to lead the growth from the front. Companies should consider widening their professional talent pool by including more women from diverse backgrounds. The ENIAC example is a great example to learn from. Women in SaaS have the potential to push the boundaries of excellence to further heights. These are heights the entire technology industry should aim to strive for, as we look to a more inclusive, diverse future. --- *Psst.. enjoyed this article? The Women in SaaS summit is coming your way in July. Register your interest[ right here.](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-online-july-13-2022/)* ### Strategy for social change: diversity and storytelling URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/strategy-for-social-change-diversity-and-storytelling/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T13:01:26.000Z *This discussion took place in 2021, when Maya Grossman was VP of Marketing at Untapped, and Anna Griffin was Chief Marketing Officer at Smartsheet* Diversity is a strong contender for the word of the decade. Companies around the world are waking up and asking themselves how they can better represent the societies that surround them. Nowhere is this more visible than in marketing, as advertisers reach out to a broader range of audiences than ever before and tell a story that they can be a part of. In this fireside chat, and the immensely positive impact it can have on society and your company. Read on for a taster. - About us - The role of marketing leaders in inclusivity - Now is the time for action ## About us **Maya Grossman:** We're gonna talk about something that both Anna and I find very dear to our hearts: how we build strategies for social change. As CMOs and marketing leaders, we’re in this unique position, where we're not only able to make differences within our own teams, but we can actually influence brands and tell stories that empower other people to make a change. But before we dive into that, Anna, why don't you kick us off and tell us a little bit more about yourself? **Anna Griffin:** Thank you. I'm Anna Griffin. I was born and raised in North Carolina and I started my career in advertising. I was really blessed in those early days to be able to work with different car companies and get involved in the launch of iMac as I began my B2C tech career. I wanted to raise a family on the east coast in Raleigh, North Carolina, and I realized I was going to need to get into B2B marketing to live where I wanted to live and to have the career I wanted. And so I've parlayed my experiences into B2B marketing. I'm currently the Chief Marketing Officer at Smartsheet, which is a dynamic workspace where teams are able to manage projects, automate workflows, and ultimately align a company around a purpose. It's been a fun ride. --- [Creating female leadership teamsRejoice! Things are looking up for female leaders. In a 2020 article, CNBC reported that women were promoted to 12% of CEO positions in America’s top 500 companies.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/luwadlin-bosman-LCwmq67sAmE-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/creating-female-leadership-teams/) --- **Maya Grossman:** Yeah, and it sounds like something we all need right now. A quick introduction from me too. My name is Maya Grossman. I'm currently the VP of Marketing at Untapped. It's a diversity recruiting platform and we essentially help companies understand the diversity of their talent pool and make smarter hiring decisions. I've been in marketing for almost 15 years. I've worked for Fortune 500, Microsoft, and Google as well as smaller startups. What I love doing most is building marketing pretty much from the ground up. ## The role of marketing leaders in inclusivity In the past year or so I’ve had a very unique opportunity to see recruiting from the candidate side. I spent a lot of time speaking to young professionals as I was writing a book and building a community, and I was able to learn how broken recruiting is and how unfair the process is. I think being able to see recruitment from that perspective and having the opportunity to lead a role as a marketing executive made me realize we need to make a change. It's definitely something that as marketers, we can influence in different ways. I think it took speaking to so many people and understanding their pain, to really be able to see it. This is not new, right? We all know that there’s inequality, but sometimes you just need to have it hit a little bit closer to home so that you can really understand how broken the system is and how much it needs changing. Why is this topic we're talking about today something that you care about, Anna? **Anna Griffin:** You know, it's funny – people are not inherently bad. I believe people are born inherently good. Still, unconscious bias just exists, and to try to understand why, I go back and I think about who we are as humans and how we think. I think as human beings, we’re a product of the stories we've been told. Some people are blessed with great storytellers in their life; they have parents who tell them they're born to do great things. We also have governments, society, and teachers telling us a story. A narrative starts as soon as you have the cognitive ability to start assessing the world. Soon enough, you start to manifest that story, and you become the product of the story you've been told. And so why I think this is so important is we all have the ability to change our story. We can all course correct and ultimately change our destinies. I think that's where individual empowerment and societal empowerment lie. This topic is important to me because I believe in the power of stories. I believe that in the world of marketing and advertising, we influence people. We are storytellers, and we put products into the world that influence how people think. And when you think about advertising at large, you can't be what you can't see. --- [Building a solid network to support othersSharpening up that resume will take you a long way, but it might not be as valuable as a single glowing recommendation from a powerful professional ally.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/nasa-Q1p7bh3SHj8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-a-solid-network-to-support-others/) --- If you only see women being beautiful or even being objectified in advertising, or if you watch television, and you only see certain stereotypes being played out, those things start to shape your impression yourself and what your role could be. As a little girl, what I saw on television was the show Solid Gold. I ended up being a dance major most of my life because that's what I saw women doing and that’s what I thought powerful, interesting women did. > Marketers, advertisers, storytellers, and story creators, we have this huge responsibility to show people in an honest light. That’s our part in changing people's stories: allowing them to see themselves and to see their potential that maybe, up to now, has not been seen. We also have a responsibility to change the storytellers. Stories are told from the storyteller's point of view, and if you don't have more diversity in who's telling the story, then stories are always going to be told from a narrow perspective. There's a lot that we can do in this industry to make an impact and to help people see themselves the way that they really are. **Maya Grossman:** I definitely agree. I think as marketers, we have a dual obligation. The first obligation as leaders is to hire more diverse teams and make sure that we're building a product and a brand that represents everyone, not just the few people who are in the room. We need to make sure that we bring more people into that room as well. That's one thing that every leader can do. But as marketers, we also have this unique ability to shape narratives. I think sometimes people underestimate the power of a story, not to mention the power of repetition. So if you see something enough times, it becomes your normal. I think we almost have an obligation to make sure that we showcase that normal in a way that actually represents the world and what people really look like. With everything that's been going on, from the pandemic to the riots, we've all been spending more time thinking and reflecting. I think it's becoming more and more clear that we have to stop talking and we need to start doing. We need to actually start taking action to make a difference. --- [Celebrating women and their trailblazing contributions in the tech spaceInternational Women’s Day gives us time to pause, mindfully reflect, and imagine a better workplace where genders are equal and treated without bias or discrimination — and evaluate the path forward to advance gender diversity in tech.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSCourtney Grigsby![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/christina-wocintechchat-com-MkxWUzCuYkE-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/celebrating-women-and-their-trailblazing-contributions-in-the-tech-space/) --- We've seen this start to play out in a lot of different ways, like companies changing brand names to make sure that they're not stereotyping anyone with even the name of their brand. 10 years ago, I don’t think that would have happened. I was watching the documentary about Britney Spears. And I was appalled by some of the interviews that were happening, where she was being asked questions that were very different from what a man would be asked. 10 years ago, it was okay, right? It was aired on TV. No one complained about it. It just made me realize that our perception as a country has been changed by recent events. We're in this unique momentum where we can’t not do this – we can't not think about diversity and inclusion. That kind of leads to the next question. I mentioned there have been shifts in thinking, and I think a question that comes up very often is why now? Why are we suddenly awakened? Why do we finally feel the need for change? ## Now is the time for action **Anna Griffin:** I think throughout history there have been waves where people have wanted to take action and where people have felt more empowered to be able to do so. That's one of the great things about where we are right now – the sense of empowerment, to be able to take action or to be aware of the world around us. I think also what we see in the news, the media, and on social media – things that we didn't have before – is making us feel the pain a little bit more, and sit with it a little bit more than maybe we could have done through other moments in history. With technology, there are so many more ways to connect and advocate and expose and champion and support, so it’s a great time for action. > Action comes in many different forms. One of the things I was thinking about, just by virtue of the company that I work at, is that it’s not just about gender diversity or ethnic diversity. The democratization of perceived rights and success comes across a lot of different forms. When you think about technology, for a long time it was really only for the 20% of a company. Now I see technology entering and playing a role that is democratizing people's ability to participate in new ways in work and in life. So, why are people awakening now? Because the time is right and the tools are right, not only in society but in the workplace. It's a really exciting era. **Maya Grossman:** I agree. It allows more people to participate and have an impact. I tried to see if there are any other reasons why now, and one that comes to mind is the fact that Gen Z are coming into the workforce. They're not afraid to ask questions and demand change because they want to work for a place that has the same values as they do. There was some recent research that showed the thing that job seekers care about the most is the culture of the organization, how they are going to be treated, and whether they're going to have a voice. They want to be able to share their thoughts and ideas, and they also want to see people like them at the company. I think that's something that's been getting a lot of attention from companies as they realize they have to evolve if they want to attract great talent. Last but not least, remote work has transformed the landscape. Before, for every job opening, you might have 100 candidates; now you can have thousands. The door is open and anyone in the tech world can work anywhere. It opens up a lot of different opportunities and it forces companies to ask themselves how they can use this opportunity for greater diversity to support their business. At the end of the day, diversity, inclusion, and equity are all going to be good for your business. Yes, it's a process, but study after study shows that the more diverse the team is, the more successful the company is. Just to give you an example, when I was doing some research for my work at jumpstart, I came across an article about when Oculus launched – it caused motion sickness for women, which they hadn’t realized because all of the developers and the testers were men. They could have lost 50% of their target market because they didn't build for them. So it's not just about appearance, it's also making sure that you actually have the right voices in every conversation. --- *Passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion? We'll be talking about that and so many more vital, inspiring topics at the Women in SaaS Summit on June 13th. [Register your interest here!](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-online-july-13-2022/) 👯* ### How to take your SaaS from zero to $10 million ARR in two years URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-take-your-saas-from-zero-to-10-million-arr-in-two-years/ Last updated: 2023-02-09T12:13:52.000Z *This article is taken from a presentation that Vishal Sunak gave at the SaaS Metric Summit 2022\. catch the full talk on demand [right here.](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-ondemand/)* I want to help you to be the best in SaaS, but what does it mean to be the best, and how do you know if you’re on the right track? Well, when the great companies that you know and love go public, all their historical financials are disclosed. By looking into these financials, you get to learn the story of how they made two journeys. The first journey is to $1 million in ARR; the second journey is to $10 million. Every year, Bessemer Venture Partners publishes the State of the Cloud, which pattern matches all these public companies’ historical financials, and we get to learn what the best-in-class public SaaS companies look like. If you can make it from $1 million to $10 million in ARR within a four-year window, that's considered to be good. Three years is better. If this journey takes only two years, you rank among the best. [![piggy bank](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/fabian-blank-pElSkGRA2NU-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-take-your-saas-from-zero-to-10-million-arr-in-two-years) LinkSquares, my company, is in the best category. I’m going to tell you about how how we made it to best in class, the things I’ve learned along the way, and how you can make it happen for your company. The playbook has about 100 components, but I’m going to focus on the four most important today: - Solving the right problem, - Using data for GTM, - Product development, and - SaaS metrics Before we get down to the essentials though, a quick introduction. ## My journey I’m Vishal Sunak, the CEO and Co-Founder of LinkSquares. I’m an engineer by trade and my focus is primarily on tech startups, particularly revenue operations, optimizations, and understanding data. That's the foundation on which I've built this journey as a CEO. I co-founded LinkSquares in 2015, and today, it’s the leading contract management technology suite. LinkSquares is driven by this incredible [artificial intelligence ](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/)that reads a contract to tell you what's inside of it super quickly. This innovative posture enabled us to take off and disrupt what had been a pretty stagnant contract management market. [![winding road](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/journey.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-take-your-saas-from-zero-to-10-million-arr-in-two-years) When I think about what the company has achieved, it's quite overwhelming. We’ve won Built In’s Best Places to Work Award, which says great things about what our employees think, and we're number one in three categories on G2, which says great things about what our customers think. On top of that, we’re ranked 253 for growth rate on the Inc. 5000 list. ## Solving the right problem To set us on our journey to $10 million in ARR, let's look at the first chapter in our playbook: solving the right problem. Early-stage founders often think that the best way to operate is to identify a problem, build a solution, and then go out and talk to customers. That’s not a winning strategy. If you’re not talking to your customers early on, how do you know that you’re solving the right problem for them? You should be focusing on finding a problem and then talking to customers *before* you invest time building software. If you do it the other way around, you can easily end up creating a product that the world doesn’t need or that solves the wrong problem. [![rubix cube](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/olav-ahrens-rotne-4Ennrbj1svk-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-take-your-saas-from-zero-to-10-million-arr-in-two-years) Another way to think about this framework is that you want to focus on solving pain points. People pay for painkillers. Ask yourself whether you took a multivitamin today – probably not (I certainly didn’t!). If you had a headache though, I bet you’d take a painkiller. That's the lens through which you have to view your work. Are you focusing on a real pain, and is your remedy effective? ### An effective solution You’re not going to create an effective solution and reach $10 million in ARR unless you prioritize understanding your ideal customer. Phase zero of your journey, which you cannot rush, is doing a ton of research into your target market. LinkSquares’ ideal customers are chief legal officers, general counsels, and in-house legal teams. I’m not any of those things, nor is my co-founder, so what do we know about their pain points? We spent a year – probably the longest year of my life – talking to general counsels and heads of legal to find out what their pain points were and whether not knowing what was inside already-signed contracts was a genuine issue for them. This process is painful. It’s tiring. It’s also 100% worth it because it’s the only way to guarantee product-market fit and acceleration. Once we were confident that we were solving the right problem, we were ready for the next phase of our journey: building the solution. More on that later. ## Using data for Go-to-Market Once your solution is off the ground and you start seeing some ARR, you need to start meticulously tracking all your revenue data and using it to inform your [Go-to-Market strategy. ](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-lead-a-collaborative-go-to-market-strategy/) As this early stage of the journey is heavily focused on experimentation, you want to be able to trend the data over time for the highest chance of success. So, let's talk about what kind of data to collect in every phase of the journey. ### Zero to $1 million: Experiment with sources and tactics In the early stages of your growth, you want to focus on sources and tactics. If you don't do enough experimentation in these areas, you won't know for sure how to make your successes repeatable and keep growing. What you learn in this period is going to give you confidence when you reach $1 million on how to get to $10 really quickly. So, let’s focus on your source data. Whenever you get a sales opportunity, capture the source. Make a note of whether it’s outbound, for example, from an account executive, or inbound, perhaps from a cost-per-lead program. The best-performing source that you have on the journey to $1 million will likely be your best-performing source moving forward too. [![plant growing out of money](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/micheile-dot-com-lZ_4nPFKcV8-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-take-your-saas-from-zero-to-10-million-arr-in-two-years) The second thing, especially for the outbound sources, is to look at the tactic employed. How did you get someone to take a demonstration? Was it a phone call? An email? You should also capture the initial date that a qualification call was held and the date of the demo. Another tip is to make sure you don’t underinvest sources that work too. Saying, “Hey, this source is doing really great, so I don’t need to invest any more in it,” is the wrong strategy. Keep investing and track the data to see if a source is consistently generating opportunities in the long term. ### Build a simple ARR model Building a simple annual recurring revenue (ARR) model and using it to plan the year ahead is vital. Look at what your forecasts are for the start of the year and decide on a realistic target for the end of the year. Ideally, you want to start planning for the next year no later than September. I’ve seen a bunch of companies start planning in January, and frankly, it’s a recipe for disaster. Get in early and keep it simple. Let’s take a look at a simple ARR model. The first thing you want to do is calculate how much churn and downsell you forecast. It can be difficult to model exactly, but typically 5% to 15% of your existing ARR that’s up for renewal will probably churn. ### Expansion The next thing to think about is expansion – the increase in revenue from upselling to existing customers. At a minimum, you need to make this equal to the percentage that you're going to lose in churn. The rest of your ARR is gonna be powered by new business. If your Go-to-Market strategy is working, this will probably be the biggest contributor to your growth. Let’s take a look at some inside strategies and tips and tricks that you can think about as you figure out this part of your ARR. Your basic formula for new business ARR is not a difficult one: it’s just the average selling price multiplied by the projected number of new logos. What you need to figure out is how those logos are going to spread over a year. [![hand holding a plant](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/pexels-alena-koval-886521.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-take-your-saas-from-zero-to-10-million-arr-in-two-years) The ends of fiscal quarters are usually great, and the end of the year is even better – everyone loves buying software in December because the perception is that they’re getting the best price. The summer, on the other hand, is typically slow. Buyers are on vacation, not at their desks waiting to buy software. Keep that in mind as you spread the logos. ### Ramp up period This brings us to the next key part of planning, which is building in a ramp-up period for new account executives. They’re not going to reach their full sales capacity right away. I’d advise hiring around July so they can start contributing this year, and be ready to hit their targets by January. A lot of people make the mistake of starting to hire in January for the year ahead. It's normally June by the time you see reps really being productive, so starting earlier is key. ### The first triple Now let’s talk about the next phase of our journey, from $1 million to $3 million ARR, or the first triple as I like to call it. Closed/won opportunities start to get a lot more important at this stage because you now have the data that will allow you to place your bets with more confidence. You should also start collecting the LinkedIn industry and company size data for each of your customers. This way you'll learn even more about where you're generating opportunities and about your ideal buyers. ### The second triple You're now through the first 12 months and you’re looking to take that step from $3 million to $10 million in ARR. You're gonna have to keep up the same data capture and analysis that you’ve been doing so far, and it’s time to graduate into a more mature set of Go-to-Market data. I would recommend tracking these data points and reviewing them quarterly: - Per rep productivity - Conversion rate - Pipeline conversion from every stage of your funnel - Average selling price - Sales cycle length Not only is tracking these data points going to help you optimize your Go-to-Market strategy for future growth, but it’s also essential if you’re looking to raise capital. During diligence with any venture capital firm, they’re going to ask you about these metrics. What’s more, you’ll be asked to capture, report, and trend them every quarter as a VC-backed company to show how you're de-risking your yearly goals. ## Product development I'm an engineer, I'm a big nerd, and I like building stuff, so let’s talk about product development. Your product is what your ARR really depends on, probably more than your ability to sell it. However, the five most dangerous words you can hear inside the company are, “It would be cool if…” Nothing that we can come up with internally is cool. Our customer needs are what's *really* cool. Even if you're part of the group that you’re building a product for, you need to be careful about introducing personal bias because you can veer the product in the wrong direction. I've seen it happen. I always say that customers have their hands on the steering wheel, but we're in charge of the gas pedal. Our customers are the ones who steer us on the journey to the product’s next destination, which is whatever the customer needs to say “Yes! I’ll buy it!” The value of customer feedback cannot be underestimated. ### The just in time approach At LinkSquares, we employ the “just-in-time engineering” approach, which means being ultra agile and evolving the product roadmap rapidly based on customer feedback. We’re constantly prioritizing and reprioritizing to best meet our users’ needs. It’s important to look for trends in [customer feedback](https://www.saasalliance.io/tactics-that-improve-customer-retention/) too. If you’ve got loads of customers making the same request, that’s a good indication that there’s a worthwhile solution for you to build. That being said, you want to pace yourself somewhat. At LinkSquares, we try to do one big thing per quarter that can help move the needle towards improved growth. ## SaaS metrics The final thing we want to keep in our back pockets as we embark on our journey to $10 million is [SaaS metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/). For each of the metrics you track, monthly performance is a handy indicator, but you really want to play for the quarter. [![metrics on a screen](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/luke-chesser-JKUTrJ4vK00-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-take-your-saas-from-zero-to-10-million-arr-in-two-years) These are the metrics I track and why: - **ARR, plan versus actuals:** I track all three parts that I talked about earlier (new business, churn, and expansion) to see where we are in relation to our forecasts. - **Gross retention:** This shows me if we’re delivering value to our existing customers. - **Net retention**: This gives me an idea of the effectiveness of our upsell strategy, which is especially valuable if gross retention is low. - **Gross margin:** This metric is particularly important when you’re accelerating towards $10 million in ARR, and it can let you know if your cost of goods needs to be optimized. - **CAC payback period**: It's the ultimate efficiency metric. It uses your acquisition costs, the number of logos you have, and your gross margin. If this period is already 12 months or less early on in your journey, you’re running a very efficient operation and all the pieces of your business are really working. - ****The last piece is monthly cash burn plan versus actuals and months of runaway left, which needs no explanation.** Now, you’re not here for a math class, so I’m not gonna go through the formulas. There’s a wealth of resources available online about all of these metrics. I highly recommend Georgian and Partners’ G7 metrics framework and their free SaaS metrics tracker spreadsheet. Everything you need is out there, so use it to your advantage. ### Closing thoughts It’s been a joy to share this journey with you. Before I sign off, I’d like to leave you with a few closing thoughts. 🚀 If you can make it to $1 million in ARR, you can definitely get to $10 million – just keep plugging away. 🤓 Learn how to harness metrics. There’s no more powerful tool when it comes to decision-making. 😇 Don't get obsessed with being perfect. It's okay for a metric to be out of range as long as you can learn why. ⛵ If a certain channel or source is working for you, stay the course. Double down on it. Triple down on it. You can get better only with better data. And finally… 🎯 Focus your targeting. Even if your addressable market is every company in the world, you can't sell to them all right away. Look at the segments that are performing best and double down on your efforts there. ### Measuring the impact of customer success and related efforts on customer retention URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/measuring-the-impact-of-customer-success-and-related-efforts-on-customer-retention/ Last updated: 2022-05-26T15:39:21.000Z Customer success is the new kid on the block in most of our organizations. As we get to grips with this burgeoning field, we wanted to seek wisdom from five CS leaders on how they view their role and how to measure its success in boosting customer retention. Sam Basile, Customer Success Manager at ZoomInfo moderated this lively session joined by… ✷ Melissa Hatter, Enterprise Customer Success Lead at Stripe, ✷ Michael Hill, Strategic Customer Success Manager at Madison Logic, ✷ Sean Konchan Customer Success Manager at Wix, and ✷ Yana Myaskovskaya, Director of Customer Success at ThreeKit You can catch the full discussion on demand [right here](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-ondemand/), but for now, read on for the highlights! ## The role of customer success **Sam Basile:** Customer success is something of a young department across the nation and the globe. Before we dive into the metrics, why don't we level-set and look at how CS aligns within your organizations? What are the responsibilities of a customer success manager within your orgs? Melissa, I'd love for you to kick it off for us. **Melissa Hatter:** At Stripe, customer success is a relatively new function. It's only really been a discipline for just over a year. So when I first joined Stripe a year and a half ago, we had an account management motion but we then pivoted to CS. Our main reason for doing that was to align with one of our key corporate operating principles: users first. And so today, the Stripe customer success org supports top-tier market segments globally. We have plans to expand to other segments and tiers, but it was really important to us that we first built on a super solid foundation. For the past year or so, I would classify what we've been doing as a combination of building and designing. It’s honestly pretty darn cool to be able to build something from scratch and to do that in a way that works for Stripe and not necessarily how it's been done in other companies. One of the things that our truly amazing Global Customer Success Lead Tim Smith has had us focus on is defining and documenting our charter and vision. Our mission is to ensure that our customers are deriving the maximum value out of their Stripe investment. --- [5 steps to building a customer-centric cultureWhen signing up for your SaaS product, your customers are making a long-term investment. You’re hoping they’re gonna stick with your product for months, and preferably even years.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/tim-mossholder-8R-mXppeakM-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-steps-to-building-a-customer-centric-culture/) --- **Sam Basile:** I love that you guys are taking a unique approach. You're not just going for what's in the box, you're creating something bespoke for your customers, and I think that that's a great strategy. Sean, we'd love to hear from your side. **Sean Konchan:** I'm kind of in the same boat as Melissa. I work with Wix; we're a website platform business and we're all about the user. We just started building a CS function two years ago, and it was with the idea of making sure the customers using the platform are as happy as possible – like every CSM tries to do, right? And we try to emphasize that with everything we do. We liaise on what our customers really, really want from the product and work hand in hand with the product team to make sure these features are updated within our platform. We are commissioned based on what we do, but it's all really based on churn. Stopping churn is our number one goal, so if our customers aren't happy and don’t stay on the platform, that's where it stops for us. --- [Getting to grips with Customer Advisory Boards and their benefitsCreating and launching a product is one thing but developing and improving it is another. One of the best ways to do this is by absorbing as much feedback as possible through Customer Advisory Boards (CABs) and customer feedback loops.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/feedback.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/getting-to-grips-with-customer-advisory-boards-and-their-benefits/) --- We also have business impact goals, which are aimed at making sure that the merchants we work with are growing their business. We have a lot of small and medium-sized businesses, and we want to make sure that they are getting every possible use out of the tools. CS has been nurtured from the start. We look into the feedback we're getting from customers and we change our KPIs based on that, all in support of our main goal, which is to reduce churn. **Sam Basile:** I love changing KPIs. I think so many of us think that it should be perfect and we should know exactly what the KPIs should be, but it's not always that simple, right? You have to go through a little bit of trial and error. Yana, how about over at ThreeKit, how do you guys have it set up? **Yana Myaskovskaya:** I'm very fortunate to have worked with this entrepreneurial team across three companies, and we've always had a big focus on customer success. We work with our operating functions, and rather than being commission-based, we’re seen more as strategic advisors within the organization. > The way we measure success is based on retention and expansion. We play a very active role in identifying expansions for our current executive team, and we partner with them very closely to make recommendations and understand the customer journey. However, at the end of the day, we are not accountable for those contracts. It's very much a partnership based on leveraging that strategic advisor role to work with the exec to build trust in the customer base. **Sam Basile:** That's the dream right there, being a trusted adviser and not having a quota – that makes all the difference, right? Because you're there to help, which is something unique and a little bit new. Thanks, Yana. Last up, Michael. How about you? **Michael Hill:** Thanks, Sam. So a little bit of background about me first. I’m a strategic customer success manager for Madison Logic, and I recently moved into this role, so I'm still kind of learning how they do things compared to my last role. Madison Logic is a B2B account-based marketing agency that uses data and accounts intelligence to help our clients find, prioritize, and engage the most influential members of the buying committee throughout the customer journey. So getting into your question. I've seen the responsibilities of the CS role change going from the previous organization, which was a startup with around 35 full-time employees, to Madison Logic, which has over 200 now and is growing rapidly. At my previous company, the CSM was only responsible for helping with client deliverables, but we were incentivized for upsells, we were helping with onboarding, invoicing, training new team members… You wear a lot of hats in a small organization. What's interesting about this new role in a larger organization is that CSMs are less focused on expansion and more on outcomes. Expansion is more or less the sales team’s remit. ## Measuring customer health **Sam Basile:** Let's talk about the elephant in the room, which is customer health, right? All of us have some variation of customer health metrics, whether it's fully baked out or you're just starting to measure it. Melissa, where are you with calculating customer health at Stripe? **Melissa Hatter:** Great question, but I do want to preface my answer with two things. Number one: we’re still new. Number two: we are extremely fortunate to have dedicated and very experienced CS ops and data partners working with us and helping us with our customer health efforts. So we're working through the measures that are gonna give us the most signal into customer health. We’re taking a crawl, walk, run approach, and I would say right now we're somewhere in between crawl and walk. We've determined the measures and have started litmus testing them with a pilot group of accounts. Without getting super far into the weeds, we're looking at 30 plus different data points that fall into some specific buckets that are relevant to our organization. Health scoring should always be looked at in context. --- [Ensuring better alignment with customer successIn this article, I’m going to share with you some of the unique and new initiatives I developed to ensure better alignment with customer success.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSMichelle Wideman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/alignment-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/ensuring-better-alignment-with-customer-success/) --- So, just to name a few, one of the buckets is engagement. We want to see how meaningfully engaged our users are and whether they’re participating in key activities like QBRs and EVCs and that kind of thing. We also look at product utilization and optimization – that's probably similar across a lot of your organizations. And then there's payment utilization and optimization, which is very specific to us. But I also think there is a portion of health that’s hard to track with data – there's absolutely no substitute for CSM sentiment. I like to refer to it as the CSM 'spidey sense.' CSMs have incredible and intimate knowledge of their accounts, and their gut instincts are usually the strongest signals of health, despite all of the data. > I think if you have a client that scores really highly in whatever rubric you're using, and the CSM looks at it and says, “Yeah, but…” you need to pay attention because that's probably one of the strongest indications that maybe your measures aren't right or they're not giving you the full picture. So to me, that's another piece that absolutely should be factored in across the board. **Sam Basile:** I completely agree. Yana, within ThreeKit, do you guys also take CSM sentiment into consideration? **Yana Myaskovskaya:** We're in a similar place to Melissa, very much in that crawl-walk stage. We are fortunate in that we have really good data hygiene and a solid CRM, so we’re able to track all the main data points really effectively. In Salesforce we have an indicator of the state of the account – red, green, or yellow, and within that, we also track CSM sentiment information that we then incorporate into other measures and our current reports. The goal is to take that data and multiply it using software that is geared towards customer success oversight. ## The value of NPS **Sam Basile:** There's something else underlying customer health – NPS. So, Sean, How do you use NPS at Wix? **Sean Konchan:** We tend to view NPS as a baseline. The sentiment from the leadership is, “We understand that our product is ever-changing. It's not always gonna be perfect and we don't want that to go against the sales organization or the CS organization.” So NPS isn’t like a rod to beat CS with. We do track it and if we see that a customer just gave us a very low score, we’ll look into it further, check out their other metrics, and reach out to them to make sure it becomes a healthier score. So it's more of a baseline to understand exactly what's going on with the customer. It might just be something like they had a customer care ticket out that took longer than expected, and we can deal with that. So NPS is just a tiny piece. I think it's going to be built up once we feel like we can discern whether the score is coming from the product or how the CSM is doing. I would say right now, the NPS is more about the product than it is about the CSM and how they're doing on their job. ## The evolution of metrics along the customer journey **Sam Basile:** Something that's been an underlying theme in all of your responses today is the customer journey and how things tend to change as customers go through that lifecycle. So Michael, how do the metrics change throughout the customer journey within Madison Logic? **Michael Hill:** When I think about the customer journey, I like to relate it to your typical superhero in a movie. Take Star Wars for example. Luke didn't even know what the Force was in the first movie. He starts to learn about the power available to him once he’s harnessed it and he's helping the Rebellion blow up the Death Star and he’s gaining the trust of his team. I think you can relate that to customer success. Adoption involves not only the client implementing the proper integrations to connect their sales team with our software platform but also having their salespeople aware of how to use the software. --- [Customer engagement and the metrics that matter \[Q&A with Intercom\]According to Gallup, fully engaged customers offer 23% more revenue on average, but getting the balance right between newer, lower-tier customers and more established big spenders can often feel like you’re borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/priscilla-du-preez-nF8xhLMmg0c-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-engagement-and-the-metrics-that-matter-q-a-with-intercom/) --- During onboarding, we work to understand the desired criteria of our customers and make sure that those expectations are clear from the start. And then, going back to Star Wars, in the second movie, Luke is faced with a new set of challenges. That can happen on the customer journey too, and it's the CSM's job to guide them through it, like Yoda, and increase usage of the platform to help the customer find the results that they're looking for. And then lastly, by the third movie, Luke is a Jedi Master. With great focus and proper application, he can achieve great success using the Force. In the same way, once a client has properly adopted the product, their utilization has increased and they’re seeing great results. Success metrics involve the retention of that client. ## Using metrics to increase customer retention **Sam Basile:** I like it. That’s a great analogy. Now, you mentioned something right at the end about customer retention. So, Melissa, how would you say metrics help customer retention? **Melissa Hatter:** It's super cliche, but I believe that the best defense is a good offense, and I think that absolutely applies to retention in our world. One of the best ways to use metrics to prevent churn is by proactively seeking to ground them in what your customers care about the most. > So what are the metrics that our customers use to measure the success of their own business, and then how do we fit in? I think once you figure that out, you can support their goals, and in turn, help prevent churn. But then once you figure that out, I think you need to expand on it a little bit. You need to communicate it across your internal account team and figure out how to align on those metrics. One way that Stripe is doing this today is through quarterly performance scorecards. Essentially, we ask our clients to provide us with the ranking factors by which they measure us, and then at the end of each quarter, we ask the client to grade us based on their experience and perceptions. That scorecard then becomes kind of a forcing function so that our clients can tell us if we're hitting or missing the mark. The data can then be used by the CSM to direct their attention to the most important areas. I also think it's a great tool to use if you're doing a QBR because every client has a certain set of needs that have to be met, and those things can make or break your relationships. The final thing I'll say about this is that I think it's really important when you're asking for ranking criteria that you're asking senior stakeholders at your client's organization and not just your day-to-day points of contact. You want to make sure that you're making everybody happy at all levels – that’s super important. --- *Psst... like what you see? Why not become a member and gain access to exclusive insights from SaaS leaders.* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Women in SaaS Summit | Online | July 13, 2022 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-online-july-13-2022/ Last updated: 2022-05-25T22:06:45.000Z ### ****July 13 | Online** Harnessing the power of real voices, to create change and powerful impact in the SaaS space. Join us and thousands of SaaS leaders from around the globe on ****July 13** as the community gathers again to discuss the female experience in the workplace to address some of the most pressing issues in SaaS to fight for diversity, equity and inclusivity. This jam packed virtual event will shine a light on ****Women in SaaS,** mentor schemes, removing prejudice and negotiating salaries. We've got it covered. With 15+ experts teaching you how to identify issues, boost your career, and diversify your business, you’re guaranteed to walk away with tons of new and proven tactics, strategies and ideas to make a measurable difference. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/FoSaaS_Women_in_SaaS_Summit_Assets_JUN22_2--1--1.jpg) We are bringing together influential SaaS leaders from all walks of life to discuss the female experience in the workplace. Some of the topics we will be addressing on this day... **🤝 Being an ally: supporting each other in the workplace** **👩 Creating female leadership teams** **🤰 No paid maternity leave for new mothers in the US** **🔦 Shining a light on ADHD in the SaaS workplace** **💸 Negotiating salaries as a female leader** **⚖️ Hiring: removing prejudice in the hiring process** ****Still not convinced? Here's why you need to attend:** 🤝 Find your tribe as the global Future of SaaS community gathers again ****🔥** Get answers to your burning questions from our expert speakers through interactive Q&A 📈 Gain instantly actionable advice, tactics & more from industry leaders ↗️ Join the movement & reach your full potential ****Register your interest below so you don't miss out** ⬇️ Psst... You can access all live presentations entirely for free! You can even purchase the content OnDemand, without having a full FoSaaS membership. But, if you're looking for unlimited access to all session replays (plus exclusive content, templates, frameworks & mentors) our [FoSaaS Membership](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/) is calling your name. ### 5 steps to building a customer-centric culture URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/5-steps-to-building-a-customer-centric-culture/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T13:02:56.000Z When signing up for your SaaS product, your customers are making a long-term investment. You’re hoping they’re gonna stick with your product for months, and preferably even years. And they’re hoping that, in return, your product is going to provide them with a sustained solution to their evolving needs. A subscription-based model is not a one-and-done deal, it’s **a long-term relationship.** Of course, this is true of all modern businesses, whether they’re B2B or B2C. We don’t want customers to churn as soon as they’ve arrived, we want our customers to ‘stick’ to our products or services. We all want that long-term relationship. But like all long-term relationships, it’s built on a bedrock of **trust**. So, it’s a no-brainer that business leaders are making customer care a top priority, right? What if we told you that, according to the CMO Council, only **14 percent** of marketers say that customer-centricity is a hallmark of their companies, and only **11 percent** believe their customers would agree? 🤯 It might sound obvious, but if you can make customer-centricity and empathy an integral part of your company’s culture, it can really give your org an edge in terms of customer conversion and retention. But too often empathy is all-talk, so let’s stop talking. Here are some practical strategies for building a customer-centric culture. --- ## 1\. Create a culture of empathy from within Okay, so time for another no-brainer. Employees don’t leave jobs, they leave their employer. According to [gallup](https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/182792/managers-account-variance-employee-engagement.aspx), 70% of employee motivation is influenced by their employer. Toxicity can be contagious. If employees don’t feel like they're an integral and valued part of their org, they’re unlikely to feel pride in their company. What’s this got to do with the customer? Well, when this happens the toxicity bleeds to the outside in customer-facing encounters. Customers aren’t seeing employees shouting from the rooftops about the incredible value the org offers. Instead, they’re seeing jaded, demotivated employees who couldn’t care less about getting anyone else on board. You know how it is, when you own something that’s really shiny and impressive, a new car for example, you want to show it off to everyone. This is how you want your team to feel about your org. So, how do you make your team feel valued? How do you ensure that you’re showing empathy on a consistent basis? --- [How you’re demotivating your team and how to turn things aroundFew things are as costly and disruptive as managers who kill motivation.It’s said that “people don’t leave jobs; they leave managers” and the stats back this up: 70% of an employee’s motivation is influenced by their manager, according to Gallup.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/elisa-ventur-yjHh4JpZQT8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-youre-demotivating-your-team-and-how-to-turn-things-around/) --- ### Asking the wrong questions "Why isn’t that report done?" "Can you get that report done by Friday?" How many of us have had to deal with these kinds of questions? But what’s wrong with them? They’re **closed questions**, meaning they’re the kind of questions designed to elicit simply a yes or no response. Most senior managers are very busy, and they want to get to the bottom of a problem quickly. From a purely functional standpoint, these questions can be extremely useful. The problem is they make employees feel like a tool that’s used simply to get to the bottom of an organizational problem. We’ve all heard the cliche: unhappy employees feel like a cog in a wheel. Employees feel dehumanized, which is kind of the opposite of empathy. And now you’re expecting them to head out to your customers with that mindset. ### The right questions Let’s try it like this instead. "Is there anything I can do to help you with that report?" Better yet, try: "Is there anything our organization can do to make the report-writing process work better for you?" With these kinds of questions, you’re asking employees for their considered feedback. These are open questions. According to [Gallup](https://www.gallup.com/workplace/271184/effective-feedback-kind-ask.aspx): > "Those words can immediately create a trusting atmosphere in which feedback is exchanged and processed effectively. A feedback-rich environment drives business outcomes." There’s that keyword, **trust.** You can’t expect to elicit trust in your customers when you haven't created a culture of trust from within your org. It all starts with making employees feel valued through trust and empathy. And that can be achieved through asking the right questions. So, let’s say we’ve created trust and empathy within the org, the next step is to convince your senior stakeholders that customer empathy is something worth investing in. We’ve got our work cut out for us. 💪 --- [Ensuring better alignment with customer successIn this article, I’m going to share with you some of the unique and new initiatives I developed to ensure better alignment with customer success.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSMichelle Wideman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/alignment-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/ensuring-better-alignment-with-customer-success/) --- ## 2\. Get your C-suite aligned behind empathy Believe it or not, empathy is an investment for many successful organizations. Many SaaS orgs have found that a customer success department is not only integral for getting customers through the door, but also in ensuring that customer’s stick with you. Maybe you want to invest in a customer success department, for example. But investing in a team whose whole purpose hinges upon empathy and attentiveness is not cheap. So, senior stakeholders have to be convinced of the real value in making customer empathy an essential part of your org. Guru Bhat, **VP of customer success at Paypal,** describes how empathy can tie in with your org’s bottom line metrics. > "Of course, one of the principal goals of any organization is to grow and expand, and they're always plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong. With so many different customers depending on us, all with varying levels of needs, there’s a lot of potential for misunderstanding and miscommunication. > For us, it all starts with being a customer-obsessed company. We have the privilege to serve millions of customers around the world, and we want to be worthy of that trust." ### All organizations are concerned with growth Senior stakeholders are concerned with growth, first and foremost, and in order for you to persuade them that your initiative is worth the time – and more importantly– the money, you have to convince them of how customer-centricity is going to help you grow and **stay growing**. Guru has perhaps the best argument for this because he highlights that, as an org continues to grow, you’re inevitably dealing with a whole host of different folks. And, well, you know what they say: different strokes for different folks. Each of these new conversions are going to have their own demands for your service. If you don’t have a team that’s dedicated to catering to each of these individual needs, you’re gonna be dealing with a leaky bucket organization. In other words, your customers are churning left, right and center. So, immediately we can see how empathy ties in with a baseline metric your c-suite is going to be looking at. ### A one-size-fits-all approach? Paula Mendes, a highly experienced SaaS consultant and channel consultant at HubSpot, speaks explicitly about how tailoring the product to the individual needs of a customer benefited HubSpot’s strategy. > "We quickly realized it was not possible to help customers achieve their goals if we had a one size fits all onboarding. Our onboarding and professional services needed to be tailored to our customer's most important priorities. > For example, we can have two marketing hub customers that purchase HubSpot with completely different goals. > One might want to focus on improving quality lead generation, and the other might want to automate their entire marketing process. If each customer sees success differently, we should provide unique paths to their goals through the onboarding that we offer them." Stripping this down to its most basic marketing principle: are we meeting the pain points of the customer? If not, conversion is pretty difficult. Secondly, are we continuing to meet those needs as they evolve over time? If not, churn becomes a certainty. --- [Why should customer success be at the heart of SaaS strategy?SaaS companies are missing a trick by not implementing a customer success strategy at the core of their operations. Check out this article to find out why.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSGrace Gupta![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1571172964276-91faaa704e1f?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDR8fGhlYXJ0fGVufDB8fHx8MTY0MzMyMDY2OA&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-should-customer-success-be-at-the-heart-of-saas-strategy/) --- ## 3\. Invest in a solid onboarding process That moment where you successfully get a customer through the door is obviously a really exciting time. But it’s also precarious. First impressions are everything, and if customers don’t see that your organization is attentive to their needs right off the bat, that door to your organization becomes a revolving door. Customers are leaving almost as quickly as they’re arriving. Firstly, does your org have an onboarding process? Secondly, is it solid enough to keep meeting the needs of customers throughout that shaky first month when they’re still getting accustomed to your solution? With SaaS products the power is well and truly in the hands of the customer in that they have the power to cancel their subscription. They have to be convinced of your org's value. ### Your product is an essential tool Michelle Wideman, **Chief Customer Officer at Onna**, found great success in implementing an onboarding process. Her organization was able to convince the customer that this onboarding process was not just a brief fling, but that they were building a stable, long term relationship. 👇 > "I've had customers tell me they went with us over a different vendor because they truly felt like we were going to partner with someone throughout their entire journey. This means that, in the case of our competitor, the customer felt like they’d lost interest in them once they’d made the sale." Most orgs know that those early contact days are essential, but some don’t realize that the key to establishing a good customer- vendor relationship is in laying the groundwork for a relationship **long term.** The sticking point is in convincing customers that your product is not a one-and-done deal, it’s an integral, reliable tool that their day to day professional and personal lives are going to revolve around. But how do we make this apparent in the onboarding process? ## 4\. Get your teams aligned In many ways, it’s difficult not to see those early days in the customer-org interaction as being very similar to the dating process. Picture the scene, your sales rep does a really great job at making sure that your solution is going to solve their pain point. The customer feels **seen** and **heard** and **valued.** The customer signs up. Now enter the customer success person. But they have no idea which person on the sales team spoke to their client first. All they’ve been given is a sketchy brief containing some pretty basic info on the customer. Although your team is made up of a vast array of people, each person, when they interact with a client, is representing your org as a collective entity. Imagine you're on a date with someone who seems really great. They’re attentive and empathetic and they ask all the right questions. But on the second date, they can barely remember anything beyond your name. They ask the same questions they asked you the first time. It’s not just unimpressive, it’s incredibly **disappointing**. And it certainly doesn’t lay the bedrock for long-term trust. ### A clear line of communication Paula Mendes at HubSpot, found success in revamping her org’s onboarding process when she realized that her company needed to prioritize alignment during the onboarding process. > "We noticed that the sales and service teams were not working together in this initial and crucial step of the relationship with the customer. Sales used to work with the scribes for months, gather all this information but most of it gets lost in a black hole. > The onboarding specialist did not have easy access to it, and the customer would get into their portal after months of discussing their needs and nothing was customized. It seems that nothing was valued by the sales rep, nothing is in the portal to help them get started." The solution: **align your sales and customer teams** There should be a clear line of communication between sales and customer services, so that when the customer opens your tool for the first time, your onboarding specialist has already provided a clear ‘getting started’ checklist based on what they’ve been discussing with your sales reps. What impression does this make: this is an org and listens to and **values** my goals and struggles. --- [Making the most of customer insights across CS, sales, and marketingEver wondered how to use customer feedback to build world-beating software and become a household name? Then you’ve come to the right place.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/lights.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-the-most-of-customer-insights-across-cs-sales-and-marketing/) --- ## 5\. Leverage customer data And here we’re not talking about that very important quantitative data which tells all about the what, eg, what’s your conversion rate like? Or what's your churn rate like? It’s also about the qualitative data: the **why.** Here your looking at metrics like**:** **NPS score**: a measure of customer loyalty and satisfaction, e.g,"how likely would you be to recommend our product to a friend?" **User engagement score**. If your product offers a free trial this can be a good measure of which users are ready to become full paying customers. It can also identify which users aren’t using your product as much as you'd like so that you can swoop in and save them from churning. **Customer Effort Score.** Especially if customers are using your product as part of their working lives, a really difficult orientation process can lead to churn. Identify what aspects users are finding hard and refine them. Mike Pilawski, **Chief Product Officer at Smallpdf**, has this to say about customer effort score. > “One of the best metrics we use is customer effort score. After the customer takes action, we ask them whether it was more or less difficult than they expected; that way we get a sense of their emotional state. > We see it too when customers try an action and fail. We look at the completion rate for actions, and we know that whenever they fail, there is a negative reaction. So if you can figure out those moments in your product, you can build it to communicate better with the customer.” ### The one-two punch You want to use your past failures to improve your customer services over time. The effect of this is a one-two punch. 1\. Future customers get a better experience. 👇 Conversion rate = 📈 2\. Existing customers can see you’re optimizing the user experience around their needs.👇 Churn rate = 📉 > "Understanding the data behind the metric is more my style. The number itself is not as important. I look at a lot of the **why's** and when in the journey things happened." Star Hofer, **Vice President of Customer Success** at PartnerStack. Star highlights an important point in emphasizing how qualitative data can help us identify the point in the customer buying cycle when things go wrong. Doing so can help you to identify those weak links in the process where vital intelligence isn’t being conveyed effectively. If you want to establish the kind of good alignment we discussed in step four, it’s all about bridging those gaps in the process. Let’s create that bridge of support for our customers from start to finish. --- *Psst... like what you see? Why not become a member and gain access to exclusive insights from SaaS leaders.* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Getting to grips with customer advisory boards and their benefits URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/getting-to-grips-with-customer-advisory-boards-and-their-benefits/ Last updated: 2024-04-02T15:53:12.000Z Creating and launching a product is one thing but developing and improving it is another. One of the best ways to do this is by absorbing as much feedback as possible through [Customer Advisory Boards ](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-advisory-boards-and-feedback-loops-q-a-with-dropbox/)(CABs) and customer feedback loops. Tapping into honest critique from your customers is a crucial part of not only the strategic direction of your product but of your organization as a whole - even if sometimes, the truth is tough to hear. We want to create a culture in which customers feel comfortable expressing their honest feedback. And this can be achieved by making customers feel like a valued and integral part of your community. That's what a Customer Advisory Board is all about: putting customers **front and center** of a community. ## **What are Customer Advisory Boards?** A Customer Advisory Board is a group of existing customers brought together on a regular basis to advise your company on forward-facing feedback on your product and strategic direction. CABs give customers the opportunity to share best practices and foster community building and networking among peers, whilst also deepening relationships with your company executives and product leaders. CABs can take the form of in-person events, onsite or offsite, online, and/or a combination of them all. There are also great opportunities to leverage CAB members in online social platforms such as **Slack.** In the modern age, there are an endless number of channels through which your most valued ambassadors can reach potential customers. Don't let them go to waste! --- [5 awesome tips for building a customer advocacy programBuilding a customer advocacy program can really accelerate your business and drive revenue! The ultimate goal for any department within an organization is to have a representative at the table during those crucial C-suite meetings. We want to convince senior stakeholders that you can drive results.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/benjamin-davies-FiZTaNTj2Ak-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/) --- ## **The strategic benefits of a CAB strategy** You can leverage CABs to: - Validate a new company strategy - Validate your re-positioning/branding/messaging - Validate your customer experience - Influence product direction - Inspire ideas for future customer challenges that haven’t been solved yet (ie. remote work collaboration) - Create a strong channel for converting more customers who may be uncertain on purchasing your product - Reduce customer churn rate by having ambassadors address and ease the concerns of customers who are struggling - Obtain essential insight on customer behavior through customer data As a marketer, insights from CABs help you build: - Market requirement documents to influence roadmaps - Use cases, narratives, messaging, and case studies - Customer Advocates - which include customer stories/testimonials, references for other prospects, and help customers become champions within their own organizations - Highlight where exactly customers are falling through the net during the buying cycle so that we can streamline the process in the future. --- [Making the most of customer insights across CS, sales, and marketingEver wondered how to use customer feedback to build world-beating software and become a household name? Then you’ve come to the right place.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/lights.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-the-most-of-customer-insights-across-cs-sales-and-marketing/#sts=What%20kind%20of%20changes%20have%20you%20had%20to%20make%20to%20adapt%20to%20this%20new%20demand%20and%20better%20engage%20with%20your%20customers?) --- ## **Getting business buy-in** It all starts with WHY. You, your team, and your leadership need to begin by asking yourself why you want to start a CAB in the first place. Are you re-positioning your customer strategy and need customer validation before making that leap? Have you decided you need to focus on investing in customer advocates to build confidence and improve retention? Is there a gap between customer feedback and your churn rate, e.g, does your churn rate remain high despite the fact that your customer feedback seems to be very positive? Are you lacking robust customer data and struggling to gather the feedback that forms it. Do you have plenty of quantitative data but you're struggling to gather qualitative data? Have you launched a few sub-par products, and realized that the customer challenge wasn’t clearly identified or addressed? ***Once you’re clear on your priorities, you can define your key stakeholders.** Based on your WHY, ask yourself which leaders are most important to include across your organization. ****For example:** If you are most focused on a repositioning of your product strategy, you should be including your most senior product leader and product marketing leader. If you are focusing on improving retention, think about including a senior leader in customer experience, customer success, and customer marketing. ### **The DACI approach** Some find the DACI model to be the most successful in defining clear roles and responsibilities for the stakeholders included. For those who aren’t familiar, DACI stands for: - ****Driver** - ****Approver** - ****Contributor** - ****Inform** There should be one Driver, one Approver (ideally someone very senior and influential who can make quick decisions without needing approval elsewhere), and a small group of Contributors who are providing support in the form of content, customers, speakers, and a broader group of Informed participants. ## **A top-level look at the secrets to CAB success** To create a recipe for a successful CAB, the 7 key ingredients should include: 1. A strong business strategy and plan 2. A clearly defined list of stakeholders, and their roles and responsibilities 3. A defined target audience and engagement plan 4. A customer-led agenda 5. A well-documented call sheet for The Day of CAB 6. A clear plan for capturing and sharing customer feedback post-event 7. A forward-thinking plan to continue the momentum with your CAB customers post-event Establishing a good CAB can really give your success strategy a boost, but it needs to have its own strategy before you launch it. --- *Psst... like what you see? Why not become a member and gain access to exclusive insights from SaaS leaders.* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Scaling and deciding which metrics to measure: the metrics that matter most URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-and-deciding-which-metrics-to-measure-the-metrics-that-matter-most/ Last updated: 2022-05-17T11:28:14.000Z There’s a lot of talk of [metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) and KPIs in the world of SaaS, but how do you know which ones to focus on to build sustainable growth for your company? At the SaaS Metrics Summit, we were lucky enough to be able to sit down with three leaders from the world of SaaS, who shared with us their insights on the metrics that matter most as you scale your organization. You can catch the full, unedited talk [right here on demand](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-ondemand/). But for now, we've put together some of the best bits for you. **👇** Speakers included: - Christian MacLean, Global Head of Product at Auctane, - Mike Pilawski, Chief Product Officer at Smallpdf. - Valentina Thörner, Empress of Remote and Support Quality at Klaus. Dig in and learn which metrics you should be paying attention to as you take your company to the next level. Key talking points: - [Meet the speakers](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-and-deciding-which-metrics-to-measure-the-metrics-that-matter-most/#meet-the-speakers) - [The role of empathy in uncovering metrics that matter](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-and-deciding-which-metrics-to-measure-the-metrics-that-matter-most/#empathy-and-uncovering-metrics-that-matter) - [Finding alignment on the metrics that matter](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-and-deciding-which-metrics-to-measure-the-metrics-that-matter-most/#finding-alignment-on-the-metrics-that-matter) --- # Meet the speakers **Valentina Thörner:** I'm Valentina Thörner. I’m based near Barcelona but I’m originally from Germany. Currently, I'm Empress of Remote and Support Quality at Klaus. Klaus is a customer service quality management platform and, as you can imagine, it’s very very customer-focused. I helped grow the company from 10 to over 60 people, entirely remotely. One of my favorite topics is how to make sure that customer support and product can align on their metrics because, having a background in both, I'm trying to always skip back and forth. **Mike Pilawski:** I'm the Chief Product Officer at Smallpdf, a document creation management platform used by roughly 70 million users every month. Obviously, metrics are very close to our hearts. In Barcelona, I was a COO of a company called Typeform. And prior to that, I had similar roles running product data and engineering in different start-ups in Silicon Valley. I dealt mostly with mobile advertising, AB testing, and marketing automation in data-driven products. **Christian MacLean:** I’m Christian Maclean, Global Head of Product at Auctane, primarily looking after our ShipStation product. We’re a multi-brand solution in shipping, e-commerce, and logistics. When I joined two and a half years ago we were about 198 people. We are now 2100 people and a global company; we've gone through some pretty explosive growth so I have lots to share about what scaling up looks like. It's certainly been an exciting ride. --- [Top 7 Sales enablement tools for SaaS leadersWhen it comes to effective sales enablement, which tools should you be using? We’ve compiled a list of 7 top sales enablement tools.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/tools-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-sales-enablement-tools-for-saas-leaders/) --- # empathy and uncovering metrics that matter **Valentina:** [Empathy ](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-use-deep-listening-for-customer-success/)is interesting because it's very difficult to measure. You recognize it when you see it, but how do you define it? How do you measure it? Technically, it's the ability to understand another person's situation and feelings. In a work environment, empathy means making the other person feel heard. It doesn't mean that you will always do what they want you to do, but that you give them the feeling that you have taken their point of view into account. That’s important not only with your customers but also within the team because in the end, empathy is something that spreads through the entire organization. The thing is, we can’t teach empathy. We can teach behavior that looks like empathy. And for our customers, it’s kind of the same thing. If you feel like you're being heard, it doesn't really matter whether you have been heard, as long as the outcome is good. You need to structure the processes within your company in a way that enhances empathetic behavior. That means product managers need to be able to talk to customers and create this connection. The company as a whole needs to have an opportunity to talk with not just the product people but also the customers. Everybody should know what the product is for, and everybody needs to understand the bigger picture because if you don't, you can’t be empathetic. --- [Making the most of customer insights across CS, sales, and marketingEver wondered how to use customer feedback to build world-beating software and become a household name? Then you’ve come to the right place.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/lights.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-the-most-of-customer-insights-across-cs-sales-and-marketing/) --- Obviously, the bigger your company is, the more you need processes to build in empathy. You can’t trust that people will just figure it out, as much as they might love to. You might have people in your company who are just not empathetic, but if you give them the right tools and the right processes, they can still act empathetic. Whether they then want to really get deep into empathy is a question for psychologists and not for product managers. **Christian:** In some ways, we're all amateur psychologists in this job, at least in terms of honing our ability to listen and uncover problems. Mike, what are your thoughts on that? Do you share that same point of view, or do you have a different one? How do you feel about the role of empathy in uncovering metrics that really matter in our customer problems? **Mike:** I think there are two separate problems. One problem is, how do you create more empathy among, say, product managers, engineers, and product designers, so they can build products that match the customers’ emotional states? And then the second question is, how do you even match customers’ emotional states in the first place? For the first problem, Valentina gave a great answer. I would just add that the more face time we have with the customer, the more empathy there will naturally be. PMs should talk to customers, ideally at least once a week. Preferably you should expose engineers, designers, and everyone else to customers too. For example, at Typeform we had an initiative where we brought in customer panels every Friday and we demoed different things to them. We would broadcast these demos to everyone at the company, who could then get real-time feedback from the customers. In the past, we’ve sent engineers to spend a week with customers observing how they behave. I must say, some of the best insights and the best features came from that direct interaction. It's very motivating for people when they have the experience of solving real problems for real humans, versus solving problems shown by the data. On a personal level, it's much more rewarding. > But there is a second question: how can you make a product more empathetic? And it's a question I haven't dealt with in a while, but I did spend some time with it in mobile advertising. In advertising, you're looking for certain emotional states. You especially look for a space where emotions are high. To give you an example, if someone is angry, that’s a good state for advertising. Disappointed or depressed, not so much. You're looking for people who are oriented towards action, and people take action when they’re in high arousal states. When someone’s disappointed, they just walk away. When they’re angry, you can advertise a competitive product and they’ll download it and use it. As you do usability tests with your customers and you look at how they are experiencing the product, it's also very important to see where those emotional moments happen. One of the best metrics we use is customer effort score. After the customer takes action, we ask them whether it was more or less difficult than they expected; that way we get a sense of their emotional state. We see it too when customers try an action and fail. We look at the completion rate for actions, and we know that whenever they fail, there is a negative reaction. So if you can figure out those moments in your product, you can build it to communicate better with the customer. If you have a bug everyone’s disappointed, right? Acknowledge that in the product and say, “Yes, we have a bug, we are sorry, and we'll fix it.” People feel much better when you do that. They feel understood. They feel like you're communicating with them. If you're hiding that bug, then they get angry because they feel that they are not heard. It's important to respond to those emotions when you find them in your product and build a bridge with your customers. **Christian:** You raised some great points there. It's interesting because in my field, e-commerce, people never used to think of what happens during the shipping and delivery of an order as part of the customer experience, when in fact it is. If you're not getting visibility into when your order’s coming, and it's a pair of shoes for a wedding, that can be super stressful for a shopper, and there are countless scenarios like this. --- [The secrets of compelling messaging and product positioningIf you have anything to do with a product, you’ll know that messaging and positioning are absolutely integral to your responsibilities. Don’t believe us? Just refer to the 92% of respondents in the State of Product Marketing Report who confirmed this to be the case.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/pexels-suzy-hazelwood-1995842--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-secrets-of-compelling-messaging-and-effective-product-positioning/) --- # Finding alignment on the metrics that matter **Christian:** I personally am a very big and vocal fan of Fred Rogers; for those of you that don't know, that’s Mr. Rogers from the kids’ show. He's credited with saying “Anything that's human is mentionable, and anything that's mentionable can be more manageable.” Essentially he means that when we talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming and less scary. I've taken that to heart from a product person perspective. And I always say anything that's measurable is manageable as a product manager. So when we talk about the metrics that matter to different parts of our business, we're better able to align our goals and the outcomes we’re trying to deliver for our merchants. How important do you think it is to build common ground with the broader trends when you're thinking about metrics that matter? And how have you approached this common ground in the past? **Mike:** For us, we try to build a metrics tree that goes from the top of the company to the bottom. We start with a North Star metric. You have to have that one metric, and it can be really helpful. What can happen though, when you focus on just one metric, is that you end up missing key parts of your business. So you need to decide carefully what that metric is going to be, and ideally, it should be one that unifies value creation with value capture. Smallpdf’s users process documents, so our North Star metric is the number of documents processed by our customers. We want to grow that metric because it shows that we’re creating value and the customers get that value and will keep coming back. From the North Star metric, we build four levels of metrics down to the point where it lands with the individual teams. Then they have something that they can actually change, and not just change every six months but every two sprints. They can see measurable progress and understand how that metric builds all the way up to the top metric that the entire company follows. So you can build metrics top-down. I would also say that I was lucky in my last two roles: they were both in product-led companies, where it's much easier from the product position to bring in those metrics. Previously, I was in businesses that did enterprise sales, and it was a little bit harder. **Christian:** Valentina, what do you think about that from a customer support perspective? **Valentina:** The idea that there is one metric that trickles down into the different parts of the organization is super important because you want everybody to row in the same direction; otherwise, you're going in circles. However, exactly how the metrics look will be different from team to team because of course, the customer support team will have very different metrics to the product team. And the thing is, they work at different velocities. Customer support might have a customer waiting on the other side of a chat window, so when they’re looking for an answer, it can’t come soon enough. Meanwhile, product teams tend to work in two-week cycles or six-week cycles so “I'm going to get this to you ASAP” for a product person might mean three months from now, while for the customer support person ASAP might mean yesterday. By understanding which metrics are measured where and why, you can actually reduce friction within the organization. And the less friction you have between departments, the more information can flow between departments. For the product team, it's super important to get the information that comes in through customer-facing teams like sales, customer success, and customer support. The metrics need to tell a story too because that’s how we think. The example you gave of the shoes before the wedding – that's a story that shows me why the shipping notification is crucial. It resonates way more than if you tell me that 27.6% of our most frustrated customers complained that they didn’t get an email. The bride was waiting for her shoes! That conjures up a whole story that's very relatable for everyone because we've all seen Bridezilla. Ultimately, the question is how can we put metrics together with stories and make sure that everybody understands? Because in the end, it's customer stories that make the product grow. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Embedding payments into your platform: How, when, and why? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/embedding-payments-into-your-platform-how-when-and-why/ Last updated: 2022-11-29T12:03:34.000Z *This article is taken from a talk Yael Barak gave at the Future of SaaS festival 2021\. Catch the full talk on demand [right here. ](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-ondemand/)* If you’re starting out in SaaS, you’ve probably wondered how you can bring your payments in-house. How can you cut out those pesky financial middlemen that are eating away at your bottom line? I’m here to tell you how you can do that *and* [increase customer retention](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) into the bargain by embedding payments directly into your platform. **Here’s a breakdown of our main talking points:** - [What is embedded payments?](https://www.saasalliance.io/embedding-payments-into-your-platform-how-when-and-why/#what-is-embedded-payment) - [How can embedded payments boost your brand?](https://www.saasalliance.io/embedding-payments-into-your-platform-how-when-and-why/#how-can-embedded-payments-boost-your-brand) - [The crawl, walk, run of embedded payments](https://www.saasalliance.io/embedding-payments-into-your-platform-how-when-and-why/#the-crawl-walk-run-of-embedded-payments) - [Embedded payments use cases](https://www.saasalliance.io/embedding-payments-into-your-platform-how-when-and-why/#embedded-payments-use-cases) - [Payments readiness self-assessment](https://www.saasalliance.io/embedding-payments-into-your-platform-how-when-and-why/#payments-readiness-self-assessment) But first, let me tell you a little bit about myself and what I do at Checkout. ## About me and Checkout I'm Yael Barak, VP of Product Management at Checkout.com. We’re a global payment solutions provider that helps businesses and their communities thrive in the digital economy using our own next-generation payments platform. Or, if you want to get really technical, we're a full-stack, end-to-end proprietary platform for payments and payouts. Throughout my career, I've worked globally in many markets, across digital and physical commerce platforms. I’ve been focusing on SaaS for the last 15 years, and 13 of those years have been spent either deploying payment solutions for SaaS platforms or helping SaaS enterprises to find new revenue opportunities. We’re helping SaaS companies increase their brand value by embedding payment solutions directly into their platforms. ## What is embedded payment? If you've been around SaaS for a while, you know that embedded payments are not a new trend. Every platform out there, from e-commerce companies to verticalized business management solutions, either already has embedded payment or is thinking about it, and rightfully so. At some point, revenue opportunity from payments inevitably exceeds the revenue opportunity from platform fees, so it makes sense to bring your payments in-house. [![SaaS pay is here to stay](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/SaaS-payments-2.png)](https://www.futureofsaas/embedding-payments-into-your-platform-how-when-and-why) Let’s take a closer look at what embedded payment is, and how it can help boost your brand. I'm going to take an example of an events management platform. Let’s say you're an event organizer. You can use this platform to book your venue, schedule staff for your event, sell tickets, and maybe find suppliers, caterers, sound systems, and so on. Those are the core functionalities of your platform that drive payments and payouts. In a non-embedded payments scenario, your platform might help event organizers book venues, but the whole payment experience would happen outside of the platform. After the event, the venue would issue an invoice, and the event organizer would pay it. With embedded payments, all of your payment use cases are on the platform, and the event organizer can connect and transact directly with customers and suppliers. Way simpler, right? [![Event management payment ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/event-management-2.png)](https://www.futureofsaas/embedding-payments-into-your-platform-how-when-and-why) ## How can embedded payments boost your brand? So, why embed payments into your platform? Yes, it's definitely a way to optimize revenue, increase the bottom line and open up new revenue opportunities. But more importantly, it improves the customer experience, creates added value for your platform and enhances brand reputation. [![differentiate your brand ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/differentiate-your-brand.png)](https://www.futureofsaas/embedding-payments-into-your-platform-how-when-and-why) Embedding payment capabilities is not just about having another billable service or another way to collect fees from your clients; it's a way to differentiate your brand and your platform. When you embed payments, you'll be surrounding your customers with services that go beyond the core capabilities of the SaaS platform and help them manage their business. As a result, they come to think of you as more involved in their day-to-day operation. They assign more value to your platform and your brand, and they become more ‘sticky’ to you as customers. ## The crawl, walk, run of embedded payments As with any other extension of your platform’s capabilities, it’s wise to develop embedded payments gradually. Unless you’re running an e-commerce platform, dealing with payments is probably not one of your core skills, and it can be overwhelming at first. To help guide you through how to introduce embedded payments, I want to give you a “crawl, walk, run” type of scenario. You should take your first steps carefully, then figure things out with a little hand-holding along the way, until you eventually become the expert and are very much in control of every aspect of the payment experience. [![Pizza Party](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/pizza-party.png)](https://www.futureofsaas/embedding-payments-into-your-platform-how-when-and-why) To give a little analogy on what “crawl, walk, run” might mean for payments, let's talk about throwing a pizza party. You’re throwing your first pizza party for a few friends, and to keep things simple, you decide to call your favorite pizza place and order the usual. Half an hour later the doorbell rings and there are your pizzas. All done – you fed your guests. You got a no-fuss, ready-to-go, out-of-the-box experience. At your next pizza party, you might be thinking about how one of your friends is vegan and another friend for some reason loves Hawaiian pizza, so this time you want to customize your order. You call up the pizza place and say, “Hey, give me three regular, one cheese-free, and one Hawaiian for my wild-card friend.” Now you’re accommodating your friends and making sure that everyone gets something they're happy with. By now, you’re becoming a pro and for your next pizza party you might decide to get all the ingredients and make your own pizza dough and choose the cheese – you’re going gourmet here. Every person at the party gets to select their toppings and have the pizza they’ve been dreaming of. So essentially, you're going from out of the box to lightly customized to fully gourmet and catering to very specific requirements. Just like with your pizza party, you want to start simple when you first embed payments into your platform and decide how to build your payments program. As you get into this, there are three major use cases that you’ll need to consider: - [Onboarding your customers](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-should-customer-success-be-at-the-heart-of-saas-strategy/) - Payment methods - Payouts ## Embedded payments use cases So let’s start with your customers. These are the business owners who are going to be accepting payments or payouts through your platform. Let’s say you're running the events management platform I mentioned earlier in the article; your customers are either events organizers or the suppliers who list themselves on your marketplace to get booked. All these clients need to be onboarded, meaning you’ll have to take some details from them before accepting or making payments on their behalf. Next, you need to make sure that you can accept the payment methods your customers want to use, whether that’s Mastercard, ApplePay, or a good old-fashioned bank transfer. And when you accept these payments, ideally, you want to be able to control the fees, because ultimately those fees are going to hit your bottom line. Make sure you keep tabs on how much you’re paying and how much you’re charging for the payment service. And finally, you want to be able to make payouts, so if for example, your customer sold 100 tickets for $1,000, you can get that money (minus any fees) into their bank account. ## Payments readiness self-assessment As I said before, unless you’re running an e-commerce platform, no one expects you to be an expert in processing payments. If you’re just starting out, there’s a good chance that you don’t yet have staff that can deal with the nitty-gritty of transactions either, so you might not be ready for a fully-customized payments experience yet, but there are other options. To help you figure out where you are on your journey of readiness to embed payments, let’s look at a few self-assessment points. [![self-assessment ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/How-strong-is-platform-business.png)](https://www.futureofsaas/embedding-payments-into-your-platform-how-when-and-why) ## Should we be thinking about embedding payments yet? The first question to ask yourself is: should I even be thinking about embedding payments yet? Take a good look at your core platform and be brutally honest about how strong it is. Why? Because payments are just an extension of your platform, not the main value proposition. Your main value proposition is events management, wellness, or whatever it is that your customers come to you for. Those are the features and values that you bring to your market, and until you have those totally figured out, expanding into payments is just going to be a distraction. Go into payments when you've figured out your basic platform, you're in a market, you're scaled and you're trying to optimize. This is about optimizing revenue opportunities and creating more value on top of value that is already there. Once you’re ready to deal with transactions, it’s time to decide what is the best model of embedded payments for you. ### Choosing the right payments model at the right time **Plug and play** Similar to our pizza party, you can outsource your payments program and partner with a company that has an out-of-the-box payments partnership solution. This will allow you to just plug and play. The downside of the out-of-the-box option is that you’ll usually pay a premium for it. The upside is that you’ll be able to go to market quicker and offload some of the risks of payments to your partner. It’s a give and take: your payment provider takes on the risk while you still get to provide an in-platform payments solution. **Self-managed partnership** Later, you can graduate into a self-managed partnership model. You're still partnering with a payments provider, but you're taking on more responsibility for managing the operations of the payments program. It might be that you take over onboarding customers and setting up their payment accounts, or maybe you'll arrange the funding schedule and set the fees. You and your payments partner are working together to craft a system that works for both sides. You're taking on a little bit more of the risk, but in return, you're getting a better commercial deal and lower fees. [![The right model](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/the-right-model.png)](https://www.futureofsaas/embedding-payments-into-your-platform-how-when-and-why) **Fully self-managed payments** When you’ve scaled your business and gained some know-how in providing a somewhat customized payments experience for your customers, you’re ready to roll out a fully self-managed embedded payments service. This is the full-blown “I'm an expert now; I'm ready to optimize” route. You’ll need to do your homework here. Depending on where you are in the world, there will be different regulatory requirements for taking payments in-house, so research the licenses you need to apply for. Also, the acquiring banks, credit card companies, and payment providers you deal with will offer you various options for how you can self-manage, so take some time to think these over. Taking on full responsibility for your payments program means that you have more liability. It’s a good idea to hire people whose dedicated full-time job is dealing with payments and things like merchant fraud, customer inquiries, and chargebacks. In return for the extra liability, you control every aspect of the experience for your clients. Everything from onboarding, to fees and payment frequency, plus your own margin, is in your hands. You have full flexibility on every aspect of the merchant experience and therefore you get to optimize something that really works for your platform. [![Your platform-pay](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/your-platform-pay-1.png)](https://www.futureofsaas/embedding-payments-into-your-platform-how-when-and-why) Ultimately, when you embed payments into your platform, the aim is to create a feedback loop. By offering a new function that improves the features customers are already getting from your platform, you're optimizing the customer experience and increasing your value proposition. The experience feels brand new and creates new revenue streams for your org. The end result? Your customers start to wonder how they ever got by without you! ### Top 7 sales enablement tools for SaaS leaders URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-sales-enablement-tools-for-saas-leaders/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T13:01:57.000Z We all know the story by now, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic effect on SaaS sales enablement strategy, with the majority of selling having to take place remotely. With the pandemic having disrupted so many aspects of day-to-day life, some have feared that this will negatively impact overall sales performance. But according to many SaaS leaders, this isn't the case. A recent McKinsey study reported that around 70- 80% percent of B2B leaders prefer it that way, with many believing that remote selling is as or more efficient than in-person, cutting down the duration of your sales cycle and reducing churn! 🙌 Let’s face it, it’s time to get with the modern age! Clients, both businesses and individuals are spending big online. According to the same study, it was revealed that remote engagement had a 76% success rate in securing new customers. So, when it comes to effective sales conversion and retention, sales enablement tools are definitely where it’s at, especially if you’re looking to maximize your conversion and move the highest potential prospects in your sales funnel to close. But which tools should you be using? 🤔 We’ve compiled a list of 7 top sales enablement tools. From communication platforms, to collaboration tools, to sales enablement software, we've got you covered. Check it out. --- ## Google workspace [![google workspace](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/4rUx2uG7Yi7Gn7v-cZTT6GM-D7bBNO_oqxaaTSrs_y7RGNMEKjfKW-Wan4cNkG-rgLixtTqWq92fyT9xV8889zEaLIaCxogFjVXbaeBCKRsk1gCK4O0N6ZK0dPKgca92b7OL6Ha9lhTYdzjOxA)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-sales-enablement-tools-for-saas-leaders) This is Google’s collection of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools. According to László Kriston, ****Sales Digital Transformation Team Leader, Generali:** > *“A sales unit, comprising 10 to 12 people and a unit manager, is a community. Google Workspace gives them the tools that they need to communicate effectively with each other, and with their clients, through Gmail, Meet, Calendar, Contacts and Groups. It supports them in everything they do."* Google Workspace boasts seamless integration with your desktop apps. And if you’re a sales rep working remotely, this is going to be of paramount importance. Sales is a fast-paced discipline, and in the modern age, and sales managers are going to expect their reps to pivot from tool to tool with ease in order to maximize sales productivity. ## Salesforce [![salesforce](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Wiw92VLjapzKC2TCANmTzaCYw5HOYsU4h55gzkw7FezNkSy4_baAtpFgc6FSUfge-KBDchZVKmKXW8ayxpmNINLJpSwd-1JwGiAwHysx9wx0d35L0shrgMAoqj1667OZ5go5_aybdQi6KlPmWA)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-sales-enablement-tools-for-saas-leaders) Salesforce provides customer relationship management software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, sales analytics, and application development. According to Salesforce’s State of Sales 2020 report, top-performing sales representatives automate repetitive or time-consuming tasks. Yet another benefit of utilizing SaaS tools for efficient sales enablement! Salesforce fulfills this need by allowing sales reps to have great insight into customer data, segmenting customers by communication history, campaigns that involve a customer, and even social media behavior. This really enables your sales reps to anticipate a prospect’s needs and close a deal swiftly. --- [Managing the change through enablementStepping into a new sales enablement role is tough. Even if you’d had great successes in the past, one size certainly does not fit all. Kira Greer has a career spanning almost 20 years in sales roles. In that time, she’s made some mistakes and shared them with us at the San Francisco SES.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.53.27.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/managing-the-change-through-enablement/) --- ## Zoom [![zoom](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/Zoom-PM.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-sales-enablement-tools-for-saas-leaders) Zoom has become synonymous with all remote interactions mid- pandemic. Perhaps the biggest advantage from a sales standpoint is its totally intuitive UX. Tom Szauer, ****Chief Technology Officer at RF|Binde**r, had this to say about it: > *“I see how well Zoom works on a day-to-day basis, how intuitive it is. Employees started experimenting with features I wasn’t even aware of. I wasn’t the first to use a virtual background — some other people figured it out. There are little things people see and use on their own and that tells me that Zoom is an intuitive platform.”* Sales enablement is a very sensitive area, even the smallest aggravating factor can prevent the closing of a deal. Users need to have a comfortable, seamless experience. Zoom offers a range of features to make potential prospects feel comfortable, with their own personalized experience. ## Hubspot [![Hubspot](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-4.04.21-PM.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-sales-enablement-tools-for-saas-leaders) HubSpot provides software products for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. As a sales enablement platform, it offers you detailed reports on your sales team’s performance and activity. Sales managers must be able to spot opportunities for growth and improvement in the sales process, and for this to happen, detailed metrics are essential. Effective SaaS sales coaching can't happen without up-to-date, organized metrics. If you want to know how important this is for SaaS leaders, just refer to Will Yang, Head of growth at [Instrumentl:](https://www.instrumentl.com/) > *"The number one thing I’d look for is coachability, followed by a growth mindset. When it comes to SaaS sales, everything is teachable; in the past, I’ve trained former educators to become quota crushing sales reps and the reason why is because teachers are great at following instructions and documentation clearly, reflecting on what they did and didn’t do well, and continuing to strive for better outcomes."* But how can you ensure a growth mindset, if you don’t give SaaS sales reps the tools to highlight opportunities for growth? Sales reps can’t plan for success without up-to-date performance data. --- [Establishing your Sales Enablement RepublicBruce Campbell has built a Sales Republic. Speaking at the San Francisco SES, Bruce explained what is meant by that term, why he sees sales enablement in this context, and how he executed his very own sales enablement republic.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/Screenshot-2020-06-26-at-18.50.46.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/establishing-your-sales-enablement-republic/) --- ## Gong ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/gong-1.jpg) Having ranked among the G2 top 100 software products for 2021, as well as being named as one of LinkedIn’s top startups for 2021, Gong is a highly acclaimed piece of sales enablement software that operates on a ****see, act and deliver** model. Gong analyzes customer interactions to highlight potential risks in the funnel. As a result, reps are able to focus on high potential prospects and ensure greater sales productivity, making this an effective sales enablement solution. Dave Seugling, ****Director of Global Sales Enablement at SaaS company monday.com**, had this to say: > *“Our team still needed to successfully train, evaluate, and certify the entire organization on the new messaging. Plus, they needed to be sure the new messaging landed as intended, and was adopted by prospects, customers, and the market at large.”* Gong allowed Dave to track how the messaging was being delivered by sales reps during customer interactions and refine it for future success. > *“Trackers have been a lifesaver,” said Dave. “The ability to jump to a specific section in a call is super-efficient.”* When it comes to effective sales enablement, attention to detail is critical. The ability to pinpoint the exact moment when a prospect backs out is an invaluable benefit for future improvement. ## Slack [![slack](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/slack-2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-sales-enablement-tools-for-saas-leaders) The success of Slack is at least partly down to its ability to centralize communications between teams. Slack allows you to drop key documents and files in one place while also providing a fast-paced, dynamic communication tool. Effective sales team must have the metrics for long term planning, while also remaining ****agile** and ****adaptable**. According to CEO and co-founder of Dock, Alex Kracov, > *“Sales reps need to be okay with rejection and know when to keep going even when they feel like they are hitting a wall.”* What can we take from this? Not only must sales reps be able to plan for success, but they also have to remain open to constant feedback along the way to success. For this to happen, constant communication between teams is essential. A good communication platform is essential for this. ## Enablix [![enablix](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/enablix-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/top-7-sales-enablement-tools-for-saas-leaders) Enablix can provide sales reps with easy access to relevant content, in the form of case studies, in order to emphasize the benefit of products to potential customers. I How valuable are case studies to sales enablement? Case studies allow sales reps to bolster their promises with concrete evidence. Richard Harris, ****Sales leader at the Harris consulting group** had this to say: > *“Case studies don’t actually make the sale. What they do is provide real-world validation. The real value of a case study only applies once a conversation around the prospect use case has occurred. In most cases, the case study just verifies your legitimacy and allows the prospect to 'check the box.'* Customers must be convinced that your use case is legitimate, but if you don’t have the evidence for that, conversion becomes impossible. --- *Enjoyed this article? Why not become a member and get access to exclusive insights from SaaS experts?* [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Making the most of customer insights across CS, sales, and marketing URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/making-the-most-of-customer-insights-across-cs-sales-and-marketing/ Last updated: 2022-05-13T14:49:41.000Z Ever wondered how to use customer feedback to build world-beating software and become a household name? Then you’ve come to the right place. It's true that there are many different kinds of SaaS leadership style, but if there's one thing that's tried and true, capturing the voice of the customer is always gonna is always going to give your SaaS data a major boost! 💪 At the Future of SaaS Festival 2021, Jahed Momand, **Head of Customer Insights at Typeform,** led this fascinating discussion on using customer insights to develop outstanding SaaS solutions for the new remote era. Jahad was joined by Joe Vachon, **Enterprise Customer Success Manager at Zoom**, and Corinne Goldberg, **Customer Success Manager at Slack,** who shared what they had learned about implementing customer feedback to create some of the world’s leading B2B products. The whole fascinating discussion is available [on demand right here](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-ondemand/), but as a little taster, we’ve compiled some of the top highlights from the conversation right here: Dive in and refine your SaaS leadership skills! - Why have this conversation? - Adapting to changes - Gathering the data - Acting on insights - Leveraging the data But first things first, let’s establish the purpose of this discussion. 👇 --- ### Why should we be having this conversation? **Jahed Momand**: Post-pandemic, we've had to rapidly develop tools for how we communicate, how we work together, and the new model of work that’s being forged in front of us. We've had a little bit of a chance to adapt to this remote setting at Typeform. And our two experts in this discussion can really provide us with some expert insights on which tools to utilize. So if you’re thinking, “how do I plug the gaps between the various customer-facing functional groups in my business? I need to drive expansion and reduce churn for my SaaS products,” this should be an interesting conversation for you. ### What kind of changes have you had to make to adapt to this new demand and better engage with your customers? **Joe Vachon:** There's been tremendous growth. I'm coming in near the tail end here at Zoom. We got catapulted into the stratosphere, and not just at a local or domestic level, but literally at a global level. Any gaps in the workforce had to be filled and filled quickly. And it’s not just about hiring talent, but finding and cultivating the right talent. A lot of new systems have been put into place too, and a lot of building has been done along the way. Many of the new systems are around looking at information data and how it's collected. I can't think of being a CSM without tools that help collect that information. That data is how I work collectively with my account executives and outreach people. Our aim is to ensure that when we talk to customers, we're targeting the right ones and going after the right pieces of information. This is gonna help us uncover either something that's untapped or a problem that we weren’t aware of. I will also say that a lot of us talk about “the new normal.” I call it the “now normal” because the now is **here**, and the now is **always changing**. Where we thought we would be now is not where we are, and where we think we're gonna be in six months may not be where we wind up. Constantly being able to adjust and flex is so important. --- [Cross-functional collaboration and engaging key stakeholdersWhat do you get when departments are toiling away in their silos, never reaching out to each other? Your key metrics for success are gonna nose-dive!![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/pexels-huy-chien-tran-1756665.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) --- **Corinne Goldberg:** Joe, you raised some really great points. We're all trying to figure out what the new normal is and how it fits in this new hybrid world that we're living in. I think Slack has been really fortunate to have experienced pretty substantial adoption of the platform. It’s probably been similar in many ways to Zoom’s tremendous growth and strong retention. [The pandemic has created this new demand for tools ](https://www.saasalliance.io/panel-discussion-saas-finance-in-a-post-pandemic-world-lessons-from-covid-19/)that enable employees to work remotely, and many businesses have looked to Slack as one of those tools. So I'll just share two approaches that we've launched here at Slack to better engage our customers in this new normal or this “now normal.” We're fortunate at Slack to be in this stage of maturity as a software business where we can enable customers from a product perspective, as well as a thought leadership perspective. From a product perspective, our product board has responded to the market need for meetings with voice and video, in-screen recordings, and lightweight audio. We're calling these meetings Huddles, and customers are now able to use them to build a world-class digital HQ in Slack. And then from a thought leadership perspective, we've also recognized a market need from our customers to figure out hybrid work and bring leaders together to talk about the challenges and opportunities that all of these different organizations are facing. We launched a Slack-backed think tank or consortium called the Future Forum, and that's an opportunity for us to bring customers together for roundtables and discussions about the future of work and share some of the research. As far as data goes, we recognize that customer success for our marketing org needs to be intentional and proactive in the way that we use data in this new remote world. This is in large part because we don't have the benefit of in-person interactions or hallway conversations with our customers that might have given us a really strong pulse on risk and opportunity. --- [5 awesome tips for building a customer advocacy programBuilding a customer advocacy program can really accelerate your business and drive revenue! The ultimate goal for any department within an organization is to have a representative at the table during those crucial C-suite meetings. We want to convince senior stakeholders that you can drive results.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/benjamin-davies-FiZTaNTj2Ak-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/) --- ### How do you typically gather the data that you use to enhance your platforms? **Corinne Goldberg:** It's been really fascinating to be part of an organization that's created a new category. We call it “channel-based collaboration.” Here at Slack, we collaborate exclusively on our platform. We don't really use email, either internally or with our customers. And so for that reason, we lean a lot more into live signals that we pipe directly into Slack. We have built Signals, which takes advantage of our [adoption and maturity data](https://www.saasalliance.io/22-saas-predictions-for-2022/) and can tell us when there are spikes in Slack adoption and when there has been deep provisioning of the platform. It also shows us when the customer visits our pricing page so that we can take action on those insights immediately. Signals has, in many ways, replaced what might formerly have been learned through conversations with customers. These insights are piped directly into Slack’s internal account channel so that sales, product, and marketing all have visibility into those sorts of indicators, and then can action them accordingly. **Joe Vachon:** At Zoom, we've launched our community page where we're getting a lot of feedback from customers because your best source of really good information about what the next release or patch or update should be comes from your customers. Having that community page, allowing people to come out, ask questions, produce information, creates cohesion in that partnership. Taking that information from the community page makes it even more actionable. Because of where it's coming from, it’s clear that we need to do something with it. And so a lot of the improvements over the last year-plus have come from interactions between the CS organization and customers, through direct feedback, conversations, and submittals. This is all tracked through Jira and Productboard. We’ve developed a lot of enhancements lately, and they're not just around Zoom with meetings. There’s also Zoom Phone, Zoom Chat, Zoom with the whiteboard features, and translation services – everything that customers are asking for. But how do we know that this is what the customer needs? We know thanks to the insights and use cases that customers give us. If they say “I would like a translation service,” we want to know more. When we have more context around why that live translation service from English to another language is so important, we get an idea of where this lies in the importance hierarchy for our customers. Collecting this feedback in a way that we can manage and then deliver as a product is really our lifeblood, and it can really boost your entire UCaaS solution globally. ### How do you ensure that new insights aren’t lost and that it's acted upon as soon as possible? **Corinne Goldberg :**For us at Slack, and in CS specifically, there are a couple of tools that have worked pretty well. If a new feature request is coming in from a customer, we want to make sure that product management sees that. I'd say leaning on channel-based collaboration for the way that we share information with relevant departments has really been vital to ensure that we get that information to the people who need to action on it most. We have channels for different features where we can share a feature request directly with the product team. We can iterate on that live, and we have transparency because the channels are public. So, you have various departments that can access that information and see whether or not the product team is actioning on a feature request. So, bringing visibility through channel-based collaboration has been a really positive way for us to reduce information silos. --- [Myths of product operationsWhile the product operations discipline does have the word ‘product’ in it we need to remember that product management is not the only player in the development of products.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSChris Compston![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/joshua-rodriguez-KiFPlKh4MPM-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/myths-of-product-operations/) --- ### How can we leverage customer data insights to empower customer success, sales, and marketing? **Corinne Goldberg:** For businesses that are using Slack, the natural recommendation that comes to my mind is creating a channel taxonomy that works for you and that reflects the way your business collaborates with different cross-functional partners. Channel-based collaboration for us here at Slack has been monumental in being able to virtually eliminate information silos. **Joe Vachon:** From an internal perspective, never underestimate the power and value of your internal network. I’m not just talking about your immediate network for that account, but your network throughout the entire organization. One key executive can make all the difference to how your solution is viewed. You could have the best solution under the sun, but if that one person in your organization is not a fan or doesn’t understand the value of your solution, that can nix it right then and there. And so really thinking about what that key team looks like, being thoughtful and taking time to meet with them, can be invaluable. Externally, if you're a customer and you're looking to get the best value out of a product, engage the CSM. We're here to make you look like champions; we're here to make you look like the people who are going to bring that solution into your organization, make it successful, and create the value proposition. And if you don't understand or you think you're missing something, simply ask the question because we're here to help you. --- *Enjoy this article? Catch the full discussion and many more like it [right here!](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-sept-2021/)* ### The secrets of compelling messaging and effective product positioning URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-secrets-of-compelling-messaging-and-effective-product-positioning/ Last updated: 2022-05-10T09:29:00.000Z If you have anything to do with a product, you’ll know that messaging and positioning are absolutely integral to your responsibilities. Don’t believe us? Just refer to the 92% of respondents in the [State of Product Marketing Report](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/state-of-product-marketing-leadership-report-2021/) who confirmed this to be the case. 📈 For SaaS leaders, making sure that their product is connecting with the right audience is crucial. A subscription is a long-term investment, and customers need to know that they can trust your product to fulfill their needs Check the data from the report below. ![92% of product marketers cited messaging and positioning as a core responsibility in the State of Product Marketing Report 2021.](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/03/PMM-responsibilities.png) If product messaging doesn’t resonate with your customers, you’re prone to [customer churn](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-churn-rate-your-guide/), while adoption rates could take a hit if you fail to position your product in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Such is the importance of these areas, this piece will focus on: - How to create compelling product messaging - The art of product positioning - How to combine messaging and positioning - Product messaging and positioning resources ## **How to create compelling product messaging** ****Ashley Wood, Head Of Product Marketing at LANDR Audio Inc.** gave her insights on how PMMs can refine their product messaging. **👇** ### **What does powerful messaging look like?** “I think it's clear above all else, we have a tendency, especially for working on a product and just internally in general, to assume if people have heard about this function or this feature, that they understand the brand as a whole. “And that's why empathy is such an important quality to have in a product marketer. Powerful messaging addresses the who, the why, the what, and the how. The why really is about helping them solve a problem, identifying what is, what your differentiators are, and the how being your features and functionalities. “I play this really annoying game with my PMMs where I'll just ask, ‘So what?’ until we've really gotten to the core of the problem that we're solving. So they'll give a positioning statement or their primary messaging and I'll just ask, ‘so what?’, and they'll give me an answer. We really end up somewhere where we've got the meat of the problem, and the meat of the solution, which makes the messaging a lot easier. “I think lastly, make sure that you understand that powerful messaging doesn't stay powerful forever. Your products are evolving, your competitors are evolving, and more importantly, your users are evolving. “It's possible that you outgrow your messaging. I think it's important that you're always checking that it's still resonating with your audience, whether that's through [A/B tests](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/is-a-b-testing-still-relevant-in-b2b-marketing/), user interviews, and [performance metrics](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/key-pmm-metrics-and-okrs-cltv-and-revenue-retention-for-saas/).” ### **How can PMMs develop existing messaging?** “I think the more time you spend with users understanding their goals, their jobs to be done, the easier it is to build the messaging that resonates. “When it comes to evaluating it and making sure that you're always combining the quantitative and qualitative data, typically quantitative findings will signal that there's an issue and then you can dig in a bit further with qualitative findings, mostly through user interviews and focus groups. If you do one without the other, this can leave too much room for blind spots. “Landing page performance is a really good one, ads, paid ads are just a really easy, quick way to validate if your messaging is working. “I'd say looking at performance for your quantitative and then user interviews for your qualitative will usually give you a pretty well-rounded, comprehensive view if your messaging is resonating.” --- [How to raise the price of your productThere are some instances when it’s necessary to raise the price of your product. While it may seem like a risky tactic, there are ways in which you can introduce new pricing parameters without alienating customers and increasing churn rates.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/old-money-UqILKDhWiFw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-raise-the-price-of-your-product/) --- ### **How do you highlight USPs in your messaging?** “Working on messaging without being crystal clear on the positioning is a mistake. I really like[ April Dunford’s framework for positioning](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/mastering-positioning-for-growth/). We use that document as a home base so we have a lot of clarity on who our competitors are in each space, how we're unique for each of them, and who cares the most about the value that those unique attributes bring. “Once that’s set in stone for the moment we use it to come back to, and when we create messaging, we say, “OK, does this line up with our positioning document? Does this line up with our user personas and our segments? “As I mentioned before, there is always quantitative data to consider such as performance metrics, email, click-through rates which all highlight whether you're hitting the mark or not. When you're not, then you can go back and dig through step by step where you went wrong.” ### **What challenges have you faced when creating messaging?** “The biggest challenge probably comes to narrowing down exactly who cares the most about the value you're providing. We have a tendency to want to communicate with as large an audience as possible. “However, I think what usually ends up happening there is that your messaging talks to everyone without actually talking to anyone, because you've watered it down so much that it's generic and therefore, it doesn’t resonate with anyone. > *“Establishing strong positioning that everyone internally is aligned on is the key to crafting successful messaging. In my opinion, when you know exactly who your product is serving, why it's the best position to solve that problem, messaging becomes a lot more instinctual.”* ### **Which common messaging mistakes do you often see?** “One of the most common mistakes I see is when messages are so big that you don't understand what they do and who they're for. “At Lander, there's no shortage of people who could benefit from our products. But having to take a step back and communicate that to a product manager that's spending all of their time trying to make this the most usable product for as many people, I'm letting them know, ‘I know, all of these people could care about it or should care about it, but this is the group of people we have the best shot of converting.’ “I think a common internal mistake is not clearly communicating your audience segment to internal stakeholders.” ### **How can PMMs create messaging that aligns with brand identity?** > *“To me, messaging is the outcome of positioning plus branding. It’s essential to align the expectations of the product marketing and brand teams so they understand what each product is solving for the audience.* “At Lander, we're lucky enough to have great copywriters on our brand team that take the insights and the USPs that PMM feeds them, and turn them into content that our audience wants to read and engage with. “I think it's about providing the right insights to the right teams and making sure you're aligned right from the start.” --- [Positioning across the SaaS funnel (Q&A with Sellics)Priscilla Tenggara, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sellics, discusses: how to determine if your current positioning is working, tips for running ads on social media, examples of positioning done right, plus more.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/jachymmichal-oVWilf8znF8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/positioning-across-the-saas-funnel-q-a-with-sellics/) --- ## **The art of product positioning** Product positioning is also a crucial part of a product marketing strategy. It’s a strategic exercise used to find a product or service’s place in the market. Positioning defines what makes your product different from the others on the market so you can focus on messaging and effectively explain its value to potential customers. ****Carrie Smith, Director of Product Marketing at Salesforce**, outlines how the company cut through the noise with messaging and positioning to make their product unique in the eye of the customer: I joined Salesforce about four years ago, and I started out on a cool product called Pardot. For those of you that aren't familiar with Pardot, it's our B2B marketing automation platform, and it lives inside of Salesforce. Pardot was acquired through acquisition and before it was integrated into the Salesforce platform, it was a standalone app and you had to log in through your browser. When I joined Pardot, back in 2017, it was an interesting time, because the engineering team was working on the code and all of the plumbing to take it from that standalone app and bring it into the platform. During this time, it was my job to position it in the right way and figure out how to make a big splash, because we were going to launch this new product, essentially at Dreamforce. Because this was launching at Dreamforce, we knew that we needed to nail the messaging. So, we rolled out the first round of messaging and we tested it with our trailblazers, analysts, and unsurprisingly, we didn't quite hit the nail on the head the first time. So, we went to our platform team and I said, “what can we do with this?” It was interesting because they had a whole different way of looking at it. Their position was, “it's not just the marketing data that you're moving back and forth from Salesforce to the app, you're bringing sales and marketing together into one platform.” At that moment, no other company could say they did that. I just remember thinking, “wow, that's a lot bigger than the app that we're currently working with.” With this in mind, that's the messaging we took and that was what we used for our launch in 2017. The messaging worked great, and by the end of it, I kept thinking back to how flexible our products were and how we positioned them, especially when it's around software and technology. There are a lot of things you can do to not only make messaging more strategic but also emotional and fun. That's what I focus on because we all have that opportunity whether it’s with the products that we're working on, the company we're working with, or how we're positioning the messaging for those. To do that, I wanted to start with some of the basics of what positioning is and understand what that word means. The word ‘positioning’ is about finding that position for your product, or maybe your company inside of somebody else's brain. > Nothing sits in your brain by itself, everything is connected to something else; think about when you go to sleep at night - your brain is trying to organize your thoughts and relate all of those thoughts together. As a marketer, you need to know that because you need to find that position for your product. For example, when I say the word ‘college’, your brain thinks of all the things you associate with your time studying at college. Maybe it was the dorm you lived in or the friends you had, or maybe even the classes or the bars that you went to. Whatever they are, you have those associations with this word and your brain brings those up because they're all connected. Products, services, and companies work the same way. As far as product association is concerned, you can think about those associations across a multitude of different levels. I want to highlight Coca-Cola as an example. ![As far as product association is concerned, you can think about those associations across a multitude of different levels. Coca-Cola is a great example of this in practice.](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/03/Coca-cola.png) Firstly, let’s highlight the aspirational message, which is what the company wants your immediate thought to be. In the case of Coca-Cola, or Coke, it might be happiness or feeling refreshed. Those are the words that Coke pushes on us. Then, there's the experiential association. So, things like, it might have a lot of sugar in it or it might not be that healthy. These are the things that we experience when we think about Coke. Then, there are the influential associations. These are the things that we may be read about in the press or read about online, and these are going to give us that different set of associations, and our brain puts all of that together. This is how you create a brand and the associations with the brand. So as a marketer, we need to understand how associations work so we can get the right words and the right language to position our product with our customers. There’s one thing I want to highlight, because we've all either been there, or we've all seen this done, is creating a new space in someone's mind for a new category, product, or technology. --- [Myths of product operationsWhile the product operations discipline does have the word ‘product’ in it we need to remember that product management is not the only player in the development of products.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSChris Compston![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/joshua-rodriguez-KiFPlKh4MPM-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/myths-of-product-operations/) --- It’s hard because your brain *wants* to put it somewhere and associate it with something. However, it can't always do that if it doesn't know where to plug it in, and we see a lot of that with new technologies. For example, a few years ago, Salesforce launched blockchain and I had the opportunity to meet with that team. While they were building the messaging, it was an interesting conversation, because the feedback that we got from our customers was that they weren’t sure how to associate with it. Also about 20 years ago, when Salesforce started, there was a team that was launching the messaging around cloud CRM, and they struggled with the positioning. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/SaaScast-Ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=saascast-podcast) --- That was a tough place to be in because customers were using on-premise CRM, and though it wasn’t a surprise that we were being associated with the likes of Siebel, it wasn't quite the positioning that Salesforce was looking for, because it wasn't differentiating our product enough. We wanted to move away from the on-premise that lives in our heads. The core differentiator at the time was what we call multi-tenancy. This is the cloud, i.e. its ability to run a whole bunch of customers onto one instance of a product. That’s what set us apart and made us different. There are a lot of benefits with that; the customers couldn't get out of their current IT space in their head that Salesforce was a CRM in the cloud because it wasn't quite what they're used to. Explaining multi-tenancy was tough, and nobody quite got that either. ### **Metaphor marketing** As a solution, Salesforce came up with the idea called metaphor marketing. This involves creating a metaphor for your product, technology, or your company that’s easily understandable, relatable, and desirable. It explains what you do to associate with another brand. I'm going to walk through a few examples of that - some of our analogies and metaphors are used everywhere, so I hope you find some great news out of this. ![Salesforce came up with the idea called metaphor marketing. This involves creating a metaphor for your product, technology, or your company that’s easily understandable, relatable, and desirable.](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/03/Metaphor-marketing.png) For Salesforce, that metaphor was Amazon. Just like you point to your browser and Amazon, you point to your browser and Salesforce, and you get all the benefits of that enterprise application. For example, when you rent an apartment building, you get infrastructure, you get security, electricity, maybe you even get a swimming pool - it’s likely, you don't pay for all of that separately. When you rent an apartment building, it's easy to assume that you're renting the apartment building with all of those amenities included. Salesforce offers the same thing. When you purchase Salesforce, it comes with real-time updates, and all of your information across all of your org is in the cloud, so you don't need to upload it. Everybody's essentially working from the same set of data. Similarly, when I think about Chatter, I think of it as Facebook for the enterprise. Alternatively, if you've ever been on Appexchange, it is like iTunes for an enterprise app. Even when you think about Einstein, that brings a whole set of associations to what Einstein is. Einstein’s smart, innovative, and a trailblazer. All of those associations are immediately attached to our product. When we start using those words, it's an easy way to think about positioning a product in a new space by creating these associations. ### **Repositioning your product** ![We know that positioning any product can be tricky, it can also take a lot of time and research, and repositioning your product when it already has a position in somebody else's head can be tough, if not even tougher. ](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/03/Repositioning-your-product.png) Let’s switch gears and talk about repositioning. We know that positioning any product can be tricky, it can also take a lot of time and research, and repositioning your product when it already has a position in somebody else's head can be tough, if not even tougher. We'll do and see that a lot when technology, markets, and even we as consumers and creators evolve and change. That said, it's hard to say, “we’re not this anymore, instead, we’re this.” You've got to figure out how to move your positioning for a product when you do that. A good example of brand repositioning is Toyota. They started out making relatively midsize cars and they created this great brand association around reliability, and it worked for them. However, it came to the point in the company's history where they wanted to move upscale into more luxurious cars. They couldn't take their position and just say, “we’re Toyota, and now we're going to start selling luxury cars.” They couldn't do that because people just couldn't wrap their heads around a luxury Toyota. Therefore, they created an entirely new brand called Lexus. While it’s expensive to do that, sometimes you need to shift from where you are and create a new brand around that. So we'll see that today in our space, especially the SMB (server message block) space, Salesforce is trying to sell more SMB, but the Salesforce brand, essentially that we've created, is associated with those big enterprise Fortune 500 companies. --- [Cross-functional collaboration and engaging key stakeholdersWhat do you get when departments are toiling away in their silos, never reaching out to each other? Your key metrics for success are gonna nose-dive!![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/pexels-huy-chien-tran-1756665.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/cross-functional-collaboration-and-engaging-key-stakeholders/) --- What we’ve done over the years is ironic because we started in the SMB space, but we've gradually moved upmarket. And so we have a lot of Fortune 500 companies, but we're trying to do that. We created a new brand, and it's called Essentials. If you're not familiar with Essentials, it’s our SMB brand for Salesforce. We use that name (coupled with Salesforce) to start creating that brand new association. Another example in terms of associations is Zendesk. It’s incredibly easy to use, simple, is made for small businesses, and in many ways is the opposite from us in that it’s trying to move into the enterprise space. They've created Zendesk Enterprise, so it's always a challenge moving your positioning into a new space, and I’m so excited to see how they take it and where they go. ### **Cars and positioning** ![Car companies invest significantly in their product messaging and product positioning.](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/03/Cars-and-positioning.png) Let's talk about cars and positioning. I chose Oldsmobile because, during grad school, I spent a little bit of time dissecting their messaging and working on a project around it, so I have a little bit of insight into what I wanted to share. There's a ton of information about the repositioning campaigns online, and it's a lot of fun to read about. I'm sure everybody has heard of Oldsmobile. I believe my grandmother even had an Oldsmobile. Around the 1950s and 1960s, they positioned themselves as fast, fun, young, and they sold a lot of cars to the younger market. At the time, Oldsmobile cars were sporty and fun; you can see some of their ads here with slogans like, “make a date with 88”. They were trying to appeal to that younger buyer, and they did incredibly well over the years. Then, those buyers started to age and they needed to find cars to suit their families with four doors, etc. So, as the demographic got older, the brand positioned its products differently and evolved its models. They did well and their sales kept going up over time. There were dips and recessions here and there, but every car manufacturer felt that in the early 70s and early 80s, but overall, they did well. Eventually, they got to the point where they needed to shift and reposition themselves to grow and meet the needs of a younger audience. This is where all the growth in the industry was, and with a brand like Oldsmobile, with the word ‘old’ in their name, it was hard to appeal to this market segment. However, they came out with a whole new brand campaign. They had print ads, outdoor advertising, TV commercials, and even coined the phrase, ‘this is not your father's Oldsmobile’. They were trying to appeal to the younger audience, but it backfired. The problem was that it was their father's Oldsmobile because that car was the same car their father probably had. In this case, Oldsmobile didn't change the product, but they changed the marketing. This is one of the biggest learnings I think we can take from this: your positioning needs to be reinforced by the product. It’s important to know when to position and reposition a product as we want to create this position in people's heads. There are frameworks and methods you can use to position yourself more strategically and instill emotion into what you do. how we can bring a little bit more emotion into what it is that we do. ### **Positioning quadrant** ![](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/03/Positioning-quadrant.png) We don't always think about emotion when we sell to a buyer with technology, but this needs to be taken into consideration. We also need to think about how we can be more strategic, because when you make something more strategic, people are going to spend more money on it. A great example of this is Tesla, in the upper right-hand quadrant of the square. I don't know if you've ever talked to somebody with a Tesla, or if you have a friend that has a Tesla. There’s an emotional attachment there and if you visit a Tesla dealership, they'll sit and talk to you about their product for 20 to 30 minutes, explaining how the car is 100% electric, and the great things they're doing for the environment. This brand messaging matters to a lot of buyers and people pay a lot of money for that. Associations are important to Tesla as a brand, but not everybody can be up there on the right. When you get down to the bottom right of the quadrant, there are brands like Oracle, and this technology is a little bit more strategic. CIOs spend a tonne of money on Oracle to run their businesses, so it’s an important tool. However, if you ever read the content on their website, or maybe if you go to a keynote, it's not super emotional. And maybe if you've ever been to Oracle OpenWorld, , it's geared towards those IT folks, and that's pretty much about it, there isn't a ton of emotion behind it. And then in the upper left-hand corner, you're going to get emotional brands, and people have a high and strong attachment to them. I consider Starbucks to be a great example of this. I wouldn’t say they're overly strategic. Granted, some people could disagree with me and suggest that caffeine is strategic because people need it as part of their daily routine. But the brand certainly is very highly emotional and there are a lot of buy-ins when it comes to Starbucks. People love it, and they have a high affinity for it. So, I want to switch gears a little bit. And I want to show you an ad from a company and we'll talk about it at the end. It’s an ad from Apple, and I think that they've done an incredible job at taking boring B2B technology and turning it into something that's incredibly emotional and something that we can all relate to. ### **Our marketing goal** ![](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/03/Our-marketing-goal.png) In this advertisement, you saw a little bit of Siri, an alarm clock, a lot of collaboration, and there were different types of Apple products included by themselves. Separately, they could be considered as ‘boring technology’. However, they didn't showcase the technology. Instead, they showed how people use it and the outcome of the technology. That's where emotion comes in; our goal is we want to get offered the ability to show the impact of your products and what it does on people's lives. With this in mind, I'm going to show you a typical framework that we use for all of our products. ### **Start with a positioning statement** ![Start your positioning with a positioning statement.](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/03/Positioning-statement.png) At Salesforce, there’re about five or six different frameworks we use, but I'm only going to highlight this one, and I'm going to show you how we use it to make our product more strategic and more emotional. Firstly, I'm going to start with the positioning statement. This is tried and true in marketing. I know it probably looks a little old school, but it works well. It highlights the problem that we're trying to solve, the solution, and also the benefits that we offer. “We must differentiate the product. I took our traditional positioning statement, which has all of these elements that we added to the top, and we call these trends or a shift. This is what takes you to where we are today with our products and makes it more relevant in terms of what's happening around the world. I want to walk you through each one of these elements and talk to you about how to make each one more strategic and more emotional, just to give you some ideas and some frameworks around it. ![Example positioning statement](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/03/Positioning-statement-1.png) Beforehand, I’m going to apply this to sales. We use this when we position all of our products and the trend that we address is the Fourth Industrial Revolution. You can see our target is C-level executives who are disconnected from their customers, and then the solution is our customer success platform. So the benefits are sales, service, marketing, growth, loyalty, productivity, things like that. Our differentiators are: 1) We're a company based on values, and 2) The customer success platform. We can help you integrate and help buy into anything and everything you do. With Einstein, we're going to help with this, and give you that 360-degree view of your customer. We also have this awesome Trailblazer community, and that's going to help make you even more successful. Those are all the little things that are going to make you different. If you look at this, this is also what we use for our pitch deck. This is essentially how we use these frameworks today. This is one of the flows that work well, so this is why I wanted to show you this framework. ### **Be relevant** ![Relevance is critical to the success of any product positioning strategy.](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/03/Be-relevant.png) One thing I want to highlight is also relevancy. Let me start with the first part of this shift that happens today. We use the Fourth Industrial Revolution here at Salesforce because it's emotional. When we relate this to big shifts, and I'll use the Fourth Industrial Revolution as an example, we're talking about losing jobs and the need to build new skills. This hits home for a lot of companies because they're running into this issue today, but it's also strategic because it can make a huge impact on your company. So, if you can make this transformation, become more connected to your customers, and integrate intelligence in everything you do, then Salesforce is going to take you on that path. In the lower right, most technologies, and I think SAP is a good example, are strategic, but they're not that emotional. It's something maybe a CIO might get a little emotional about, but it's a technology. Then, in the upper left-hand corner, you're going to get things in technology like a user interface (UI) shift. This can be extremely emotional, especially for people that might work inside maybe a ton of different browsers with a ton of tabs open, and they can never quite find what they're looking for. It’s up to us to take those users and explain how it can be beneficial. ### **Your target drives positioning** ![Your target drives positioning](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/03/Your-target-drives-positioning.png) Salesforce Experience Cloud can be sold to a partner manager at a tech company by saying, “this is going to power your partner portal.” I can talk about closing deals faster with partners and take that same technology, and sell it to somebody in the financial services industry. They can use it to power their broker community. I can also take that same product and position it to somebody that might work in HR, who’ll use it to help their employees collaborate and be more productive. Each of these use cases requires different messages, benefits, and different buyers. But overall, it's the same technology. In a situation like that, you need to create a messaging hierarchy of what the core positioning is for your products, and then how to map to those different use cases. This is a good place to be in because it gives you a lot of options of where you can sell, and the highest level of how you position that. As soon as you have your target, here's where I think you can start adding more emotion into how you're positioning, what you're selling. ### **Increase emotion through pain** ![Increase emotion through pain](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/03/Increase-emotion-through-pain.png) Look at emotion like a great starting point: what is the pain for your product? What is the problem that you're addressing? I've seen a few positioning statements that say “I need this”, or maybe “I need to sell more”, or “I need to work faster”, “I need to find answers faster”. However, those are needs, as opposed to pain points. Therefore, it's not that emotional. However, if you can convert that pain into something like, “my sales are down 5% and I need to sell more”, that's more than likely going to resonate and hit on something that might affect someone's job, or possibly that they need to do something different in their role, and that's closer to where you want to be. You need to be able to address pain as a disruption in someone's business. If you're selling into retail and you bring up Amazon, that's probably going to bring up a lot of angst for a customer, because a lot of companies are having a tough time competing with Amazon. The mention of Amazon and talking about it’s probably going to get you a foot in the door and possibly a conversation with a customer because the impact on their company is real. So, that's a pain that affects an entire business - not just someone's job, or someone's department. Think about that, and how emotional you can get as you start to position your products. ### **Strategic product positioning** ![Strategic product positioning](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2022/03/Strategic-product-positioning.png) You've identified the pain, and now you want to show a solution. This is the point when you're going to start to get more strategic and this goes back to that open example I had around, is it an app? Is it a platform? Is it a marketplace? This prompts the question: what do you think about that spectrum? I think at the lowest level of being strategic, we can market our features and our products. When we started Salesforce, we had a bunch of different features. It was accounts, opportunities, and contacts - that's essentially all it was. Through time, it started to become an application. We had more workflow, more processes, we sold applications, which was obviously more strategic than just selling features. As we evolved, we started to open up those apps with application programming interfaces (APIs), developer kits, and we became a platform. This was much bigger because now customers and partners could start building things on our platform. We opened up new revenue streams for other companies, the ecosystem around us became even bigger and more strategic. Once that started happening, we were able to create that marketplace. There was a whole economy around Salesforce and the AppExchange and companies building and selling products that they have now and they have new ideas for, so it becomes even more powerful than what our apps even could have been, or even what our platform could do, so it grew tremendously over time. Today, I think we're at a point where we're becoming even more strategic in that we talk about solutions and think about solutions encompassing everything below this. For selling into sales, service, or marketing, a solution needs to include some apps, probably the platform, a partner ecosystem where partners can plug into and discover things their company is missing. It's up to us to figure out how to package that together and how to talk about it in the right way for a person who has pain or a problem. This is where we're going and that's where we're going to help solve those solutions for them. ### **Align benefits to solving a pain** In industries, we can take this by a line of business but this is the next step for Salesforce, how we think about what we want, how we think about all these components, and how they work together. Once you've identified those solutions, you want to go down the path and figure out what are the benefits of the solution. This is where we go back to that emotion again, and at the lowest level, the solution we have is the metrics for the business that make improvements. For example, “30% faster”, or “10%, more productivity” are all great metrics to solve your problem. That said, they aren't that emotional, so it's solving a business problem, but no one can relate that to a person. When we can bring more emotion in, that's when we can start to talk about the achievements that we can help people deliver with our products. When we incorporate that emotion, this is where our Trailblazer marketing goes, “this is where we identify those people, how they use Salesforce, and how those Trailblazers have made an impact on their department or their company, and all of the people we work with”. It gets more emotional and more relatable to the people in the business. Finally, if we can address that level of transformation, connect customers, and blaze trails for them, that's the highest level of value that we can deliver where companies or people are making an impact on an entire company, or even an entire economy. That’s where those huge amounts of benefits lie. Ideally, all three of these work together into your positioning and you can have that product level that delivers the metrics at a personal level and makes people successful at a higher level. ### **Strategic product positioning** Now, you're helping a company achieve some business value. So think about how to weave all of those things together to position your products. Then finally, the most important part of this is differentiation. ****Price** Sometimes, our lead message is, “we work in competitive markets today, we need to be different, and we need to show our difference.” You can differentiate on price, and reduce your product, however, the danger is that your competitor follows suit and does the same thing. Very few companies can use their pricing strategies to differentiate well. For example, Walmart competes on price. But they've also built a company and a supply chain that's the lowest in the industry and they've built a culture at the company where everybody knows that they need to get the cheapest price out of their vendors. They’ve probably done that better than anyone else. So they have that advantage there with that, but it's not something that most of us want to do. ****Features** After price, you can differentiate on features, and tell your target audience, “we have this feature, they don't, here's our demo”, and then you can show that, and that works for a little bit. However, a time will come when your competitor conducts [competitive intelligence](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/how-to-make-the-most-of-competitive-intelligence-findings/) and figures it out. They can put a demo together and they can build the feature. ****Performance** It’s more interesting when you start to compare the performance of your product with market alternatives. This tactic is used a lot amongst hardware vendors. Whatever it is, or whatever it takes, it's hard to get to that place because you need a working product that an analyst can verify that performance. ****Benefits** Similarly, you can think about the performance in terms of business benefits. For example, “20% higher revenues with Salesforce” or “10% higher customer loyalty”. We have customer proof points that customers have shown what they've done. This is a great differentiator because it takes companies a long time to get there. If you have the product in use, showcase it, then validate it, and be willing to speak about it. That's going to help tremendously. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Future of SaaS Festival | Virtual | June 14-16, 2022 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-4/ Last updated: 2023-04-20T07:57:17.000Z 🗓 **Date:** June 14-16, 2002 💻 **Venue:** Virtual ### What is the Future of SaaS Festival? This event aims to shine a light on everything SaaS from investment, growth, marketing reducing churn and creating a powerful product with a competitive advantage. Essentially we have created a platform to help educate SaaS leaders make sense of the key components needed to ensure a successful career/SaaS product. We are also dedicating the a whole day on June 16 to women in SaaS, addressing pressing topics they are facing and how to inspire a generation. 💪 [👉 GRAB YOUR TICKET👈](https://festival22.futureofsaas.io/checkout/select-tickets/) --- ### Speakers Highlights. 🧠 Cindy Berman is the Product Marketing Manager at Productboard and has launched over 100 features and products at pre-seed, hyper-growth startups, and large public companies. --- Meiran Galis is a strategic and tactical leader in the realm of security compliance and has built compliance programs for rapidly growing organizations. --- Mike is a product-driven leader with a track record of developing and scaling high-performing product, growth, and marketing teams. [🎤 FULL SPEAKER LIST 🎤](https://festival22.futureofsaas.io/speakers/) --- ### Top 5 Topics Being Addressed. 🔥 📍 The future of VC and SaaS investing 📍 Pricing your SaaS offering to stay competitive 📍 Being an ally: Supporting each other in the workplace ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/FoSaaS_Women_in_SaaS_Summit_Assets_JUN22_2--1-.jpg) 📍 Creating female leadership teams 📍 No paid maternity leave for new mothers in the US [🗓 FULL AGENDA🗓](https://festival22.futureofsaas.io/topics/) --- [👉 GET INVOLVED 👈](https://festival22.futureofsaas.io/checkout/select-tickets/) ### How to lead a collaborative Go-To-Market strategy URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-lead-a-collaborative-go-to-market-strategy/ Last updated: 2022-05-04T16:37:57.000Z Your product team has planned and built an amazing product, and it’s finally ready for release. Great! Let’s get it out in the market and the buyers will come! Well, as product marketers know, that’s not exactly how it works. Bringing a new product or feature to market requires careful planning and a whole lot of cross-functional collaboration in order to be successful. And it’s often up to product marketing to facilitate the cross-functional collaboration needed for a successful product launch. So, where do you start? Here are the steps that every PMM should take when leading any cross-functional product Go-to-Market initiative: - [Establish a Tiger Team](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-lead-a-collaborative-go-to-market-strategy/#establish-a-tiger-team) - [Create a launch plan with clear owners, deadlines, and goals](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-lead-a-collaborative-go-to-market-strategy/#create-a-launch-plan-with-clear-owners-deadlines-and-goals) - [Develop your messaging](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-lead-a-collaborative-go-to-market-strategy/#develop-your-messaging) - [Hold enablement sessions with customer-facing teams](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-lead-a-collaborative-go-to-market-strategy/#hold-enablement-sessions-with-customer-facing-teams) - [Evaluate the success of the launch](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-lead-a-collaborative-go-to-market-strategy/#evaluate-the-success-of-your-launch) Now, let's look at each in more detail. ## **Establish a Tiger Team** Bringing a new product or enhancement to market will likely involve stakeholders from across your business. When establishing this team, you should focus on including the main stakeholder or representative from each team, so as to avoid having “too many cooks in the kitchen” and so that you can keep things moving. You’ve got a great product to get to market, after all! First and foremost, your Tiger Team should include a representative from product – this could be the product manager who is responsible for or closest to the product being released or someone else on the team who can provide the expertise on what’s being launched. In addition to product, you’ll likely also want to include representatives from: - ****Marketing** (counterparts outside of the PMM team), so that they’re looped in and able to support the launch through targeted campaigns and content, as applicable. - ****Sales or Sales Enablement**, to make sure that you have a plan in place to enable your sellers on your new feature or product, and how they can leverage it to sell more. - ****Customer Success**, to support in getting the word out within your customer base and driving adoption of the new product or feature. - ****Pricing**, if you’re launching something which will be priced separately from other offerings. --- [5 awesome tips for building a customer advocacy programBuilding a customer advocacy program can really accelerate your business and drive revenue! The ultimate goal for any department within an organization is to have a representative at the table during those crucial C-suite meetings. We want to convince senior stakeholders that you can drive results.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/benjamin-davies-FiZTaNTj2Ak-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/) --- ## **Create a launch plan with clear owners, deadlines, and goals** One of the most challenging aspects of managing a cross-functional project like a product launch is making sure that everyone involved is on the same page and the project keeps moving. By establishing a launch plan, you can get buy-in from your Tiger Team on everything that needs to happen to make the launch successful, which stakeholders will be responsible for key deliverables, and when each deliverable needs to be complete. You can manage deliverables and timelines using a project management tool, or simply a spreadsheet – but aligning everyone around tasks that need to be completed, ownership and due dates will help keep the launch on track and running smoothly. In addition to identifying key tasks and assigning ownership, part of this plan should include determining the cadence for which to have check-ins with the Tiger Team on progress. Depending on launch timing and scale, you may want to have check-ins every week, or a less frequent cadence like bi-weekly or monthly may be sufficient. No matter what the frequency, you’ll want to make sure the team has a way to collaborate and monitor progress against key milestones in your launch plan. Some ideas for facilitating collaboration include working within a Google Sheet or Doc where owners can comment and tag other users or having a dedicated Slack channel. And what’s a plan without goals? When planning any major launch or Go-to-Market initiative, it’s super important to understand what success looks like and how you will measure it. Work with your Tiger Team to identify what the top-level goals for the launch should be, and then put a mechanism in place to measure your success. --- [Creating female leadership teamsRejoice! Things are looking up for female leaders. In a 2020 article, CNBC reported that women were promoted to 12% of CEO positions in America’s top 500 companies.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/luwadlin-bosman-LCwmq67sAmE-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/creating-female-leadership-teams/) --- That is the question that product and product marketing teams should answer when thinking about the best way to bring your product to market. Beta testing can help ensure the success of your launch in several ways. It allows your teams to assess how well the product or features meet customer needs and expectations, helps you understand whether the product is ready for release and at the same time, enables you to collect feedback from your customers to ultimately drive a better experience when the product or feature is generally available. As a product marketer, you should work closely with your product management team to support the beta program. Collaborate with PMs to identify the questions you should be discussing with Beta participants, sit in on feedback sessions, and capture the input of your customers. Their feedback, questions, and perspective can be invaluable in helping to craft the most compelling messaging. ## **Develop your messaging** The main goal is to sell your product, for sure. But first and foremost, it’s important to think about the person you’re selling to - the human at your customer account, who will actually be using (and realizing value from) your product. The key to compelling messaging is in deeply understanding your buyers, the challenges they face, and how your product solves those challenges. From there, you can craft a story around the value that your product delivers. You should work closely with your product management team to dig in and really understand the product or feature that you’re launching. Have them walk you through the product in detail, and ask all the questions. This will help you fully uncover the value of the product or feature you’re launching and build a compelling story. Important questions to consider when developing your positioning: - Who is your buyer/audience, and what are their unique challenges? - How does your product solve those challenges (why are you building it)? - What are the key benefits or value your product will bring to your customers? - How is it different from what’s already available in the market? And, be sure to test your message prior to launch. The best way to find out whether your messaging resonates with your customers is to get their feedback. Now if you’ve chosen to have a Beta program, that would be the perfect group to test your messaging. If you decide to pass on a Beta program, get feedback from your current customers. If you have a product analytics tool in place, a good way to find customers to provide feedback is by identifying the power users for similar or related features and reaching out to them. --- [Building a solid network to support othersSharpening up that resume will take you a long way, but it might not be as valuable as a single glowing recommendation from a powerful professional ally.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/nasa-Q1p7bh3SHj8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-a-solid-network-to-support-others/) --- ## **Hold enablement sessions with customer-facing teams** Customer-facing teams need a lot more than just an email on launch day announcing your new product or feature. Enablement is a key part of any product Go-to-Market initiative – and as such, should extend beyond the sales organization to all teams that are working with your customers. With the right enablement strategy, you can impact new logo acquisition by guiding sellers to more effectively speak to the value of the product, and drive adoption of your new product by giving customer success and services teams the information they need to help customers use the product most effectively. If you have dedicated sales and post-sales enablement resources, you can partner with them to create a plan to enable the right teams. As a foundation, any enablement you do should cover what the product or feature is, how it works, and most importantly, what value it will bring to your customers. Enablement sessions with different audiences will likely have slightly different focuses – for example, enablement with a solution consulting team can include talking about the best way to showcase the new product or features in a demo setting to sell more. Customer success teams, on the other hand, will want to know how this new product or feature impacts the existing customer base. But, at the end of the day, the positioning included in every enablement session should be aligned with the overall launch messaging. As product marketers, the core role you’ll play in a product launch is defining that value story and messaging that can then be used across marketing campaigns, collateral, sales enablement, and more. ## **Evaluate the success of your launch** Remember those goals we talked about earlier? A product marketer’s work isn’t done simply when your product becomes generally available. It’s important to reflect on the launch and measure success against the goals that were outlined for the launch. A good way to do this is by setting up a debrief call with your Tiger Team in which you can review any reports or metrics put in place to track the success of the launch, as well as discuss what went well and what should be improved for the next launch. Evaluating the success of the launch as a group, will not only provide critical visibility into the success of your launch across multiple aspects, it will also make it easier to implement any key learnings and improvements the next time around. By taking all of these steps, product marketers can put a solid foundation in place to ensure a successful launch. No matter which tactics you deploy to support your launch – the content you create, the campaigns you run, or the channels you leverage to get the word out – the recipe for a successful launch includes these key steps to make sure that the right stakeholders are looped into the process and the right information is shared across the organization. With the right plan in place and processes for driving collaboration and communicating regular updates to stakeholders, you can make sure that the plan progresses smoothly. --- *Enjoyed this article? Access more expert insights from industry leaders with a [Future of SaaS membership plan.](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/)* ### 5 awesome tips for building a customer advocacy program URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/ Last updated: 2022-05-04T09:04:51.000Z Building a customer advocacy program can really accelerate your business and drive revenue! The ultimate goal for any department within an organization is to have a representative at the table during those crucial C-suite meetings. We want to convince senior stakeholders that you can drive results. Getting that coveted seat at the table can be a steep climb. But don’t worry, Kevin Lau, **Global Head of Customer Advocacy at Adobe** has over 10 years of experience in creating highly scalable programs that can really drive businesses to success. And at the **Future of SaaS festival 2021**, he gave us **5 awesome tips** for building a customer advocacy program. Check them out below. 👇 [1\. Why build a customer advocacy program?](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/#1-why-build-a-customer-advocacy-program) [2\. How do you attract customers’ attention and keep them hooked?](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/#2-how-do-you-attract-customers%E2%80%99-attention-and-keep-them-hooked) [3\. How do you spotlight that advocacy?](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/#3-how-do-you-spotlight-that-advocacy) [4\. How do you get your C-suite aligned behind your program? ](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/#4-how-do-you-get-your-c-suite-aligned-behind-your-program) [5\. How do you build a tech stack for your community? ](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-customer-advocacy-program/#5-how-do-you-build-a-tech-stack-for-your-community) --- ## 1\. Why build a customer advocacy program? Firstly, what do your customers care about? What makes them tick? What gets them excited? Most importantly, what’s going to get them **passionate** about using your technology or solution? These are the questions we need to ask if we want to keep our customers around and reduce the **churn rate**, right? What better reason to build a customer advocacy program? We want to shine a spotlight on our most valued customers to really build that loyalty! Back when I was at Marketo, before it got acquired by Adobe a couple of years ago, we started to explore the potential for capturing the voice of the customer through advocacy programs. Here, I’m gonna take you through some of the insights I gained from this. Firstly, we identified our diehard fans. Right off the bat, just giving your customers a special title like ‘champion’ or ‘advisor,’ can allow them to feel seen and noticed by you. And that’s going to make them a lot more keen to do business with you. But who are these folks? Well, for us it was those customers who were super vocal in not just their support for us, but in their input and feedback on our products. Before you start trying to win customers, you should first target those folks who are just raring to go when it comes to collaborating on your product. --- [How to deliver customer outcomes, and hit your targetsWant to know how to ship those customer outcomes on time, every time? Maggie Crowley, an expert on Product Management, has all the know-how you’ll need!![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/calendar.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time/) --- ## 2\. How do you attract customers’ attention and keep them hooked? So, you’ve found your group of super fans who are wearing your swag and singing your praises. They want to talk about your product **non-stop,** but how do you make them stick around? Well, first things first, we leveraged this group by asking specific questions to garner their support and feedback. Because the key factor was that we knew that our program had to be built around what our customers wanted, not what we wanted to hear. This is the crucial distinction. So, the questions, we’re naturally geared around what they wanted to see in our product and how we could improve our services. The next step is to create what we call ‘shock and awe campaigns.’ These are steps that you can take that let your advocates know their feedback really is valued and that it’s a crucial part of your organization’s quest for improvement. We created a customer advisory board and selected our most vocal advocates to be a part of it. We gave these advocates special titles, such as ‘**community advisor.’** We then showcased this on social media. 👇 [![adobe community advisor](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/z2axDuBKMzHyXTte-Wy9_jTLNUkFs2Syit6jVOwMpyIUjoCs05JXmXhilyHs0C8UTURp_det8Nh70JXqBqQTkcW0vlPi3jarvqUpsA3WwlVVzRGsKH9GIuBSyonZlG2zbogUP4ex)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-custo) [![Community advisor](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/jRDyg8g5B32URcfTotBiB2hj-eV6BvIvnE__a2bGOJ97I0kMAaHTqvqwpWuhB0WcvbVaDJOz1ZQRlNuMzMCMJZuz07cLnsqESMQcoBN-U7li1f6FTIkOnMH-NgHwCsejvxAgwLwd)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-custo) We even created special awards for our most trusted advocates. What a way to show customers that they’re valued, right? 👇 [![Community ambassador](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/adobe3.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-custo) ## 3\. How do you spotlight that advocacy? You have to recognize that this is going to be a two-way street. By helping customers to build their reputation, you’re going to bolster the reputation of your organization considerably. --- [What it means to have a high customer retention rateWhen a company has a high customer retention rate, buyers return to purchase products or services on more than one occasion. When retention rates are high, this bodes against customer churn rate.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/nathan-dumlao-zi5vRoAP3WY-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-it-means-to-have-a-high-customer-retention-rate/) --- A lot of our customers that benefited from being advisors actually featured us in their social LinkedIn profiles, and many of them claimed that it had actually helped them get promotions in their professional lives. In any organization, we’re always looking to offer solutions to our customers, right? Well, what better solution could you offer than a potential promotion or valuable professional connections? Then, what can you do? Well, you can leverage that success by using them as testimonials for the efficacy of your program. Take a look at some of ours below. 👇 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/05/adobe4-1.jpg) So, those customers are singing your praises, but can their voices be heard? Do you have these testimonials included in your landing pages and in your marketing campaigns? You’ve got your die-hard advocates to sing for you, and they are going to be an essential tool for enticing **new advocates.** For any new customer that’s going to potentially sign up with you, that level of loyalty is going to look incredibly attractive! You’re not just sweet-talking new customers through the door with empty promises, you’re able to keep customers around for the long run as well. The next crucial component of this is: are you leveraging the data? What is it that customers are really valuing in your product? What is it that’s going to make them stick around? This is essential qualitative data that’s going to attract new advocates. ## 4\. How do you get your C-suite aligned behind your program? Because you’re not going to get very far unless you can get that C-suite alignment. What’s your ‘elevator pitch’ for winning over those key stakeholders? For us, it was really about stressing the value of creating customers **for life**, it’s not just about getting a high conversion rate. A customer advocacy program can 100% be aligned with your organization’s key OKRs and KPIs. And that’s really the factor that has to be stressed in your pitch. We’re talking about creating loyalty, and what better way to reduce your churn rate, an essential metric of concern, than by creating customers that are going to stick around? ## 5\. How do you build a tech stack for your community? There are a few different technology partners that can really help to leverage to help you build your tech stack and your customer marketing function. [![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/yiVBGmLrnllUuiXU3BpbUoZMk9XAIRhRHFC-rlKAjHf5NmoyEK8ih06pZA7RkYC2mMKZBmocnZmnQLcs3x87_wlQA41CJwgRFtMordcQ4S7C4lVpQOf5BCLMHKuZ0RbCgPqHdAVb)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-awesome-tips-for-building-a-custo) **Airtable** is really a great platform for organizing that customer data that’s going to allow you to attract new customers as well as retain the ones that you have. As I said, you have to be able to leverage that data that you’re getting from your advocates. And you can’t do that very well if you don’t have a centralized platform from which your team can learn and gain insights. **Gainsight** is a great resource for understanding temperature scores and gaining a better understanding of the intelligence you're collating. It’s a great platform for utilizing customer success, which is going to be such a valuable function in a customer advocacy program. We used **Bevy** as part of our community engagement platform. It’s such a great tool for creating and hosting customer events, which was such a huge part of building our program. We want customers to sing our praises, we want them to keep **each othe**r hooked on our product! With so many tech solutions for building community, there’s really no reason why you can’t create a customer advocacy program within your org. Don’t miss out on the opportunity! 🙌 --- *Enjoyed this article? Why not join us on June 15th for the Future of SaaS festival, where we'll be discussing customer centricity with some of the industry's leading voices.* 👇 [Future of SaaS Festival | Online | June 14-16, 2022June 14 - 16 | Online Accelerate the capabilities of your SaaS product to drive rapid growth. We want to help B2B SaaS companies drive innovation, evolution and growth, which is why we are bringing back the Future of SaaS Festival... but this time with a whole day dedicated to empowering![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/Meta-4.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-june-14-16-2022/) ### The future of SaaS and Fintech URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-and-fintech/ Last updated: 2022-11-29T12:04:17.000Z We come from a world where services were purchased on perpetual license, a one-time fee that included maintenance. Today, we’ve moved into subscription models that are sold both to businesses and individuals. In the present day, FinTech companies are growing tremendously, and we’ve seen them really become integrated with SaaS in general. The potential for Fintech within the SaaS model is limitless, and in this article we’re going to explore how the two can evolve together. **Here’s a breakdown of our agenda**: - [Successful fintech platforms](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-and-fintech/#successful-fintech-platforms) - [The modern landscape](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-and-fintech/#the-modern-landscape) - [The future of financial services](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-and-fintech/#the-future-of-financial-services) - [Banking and SaaS: a new ecosystem emerging](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-and-fintech/#banking-and-saas-a-new-ecosystem-emerging) - [A new financial landscape](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-and-fintech/#to-wrap-up-a-new-financial-landscape) Before we dive into this article, let’s look at a how some fintech platforms are thriving in the current landscape. ## Successful FinTech platforms These products typically deal in traditional card payments, loans, bank accounts, and benefits. Here are some examples of organizations that have successfully embedded this technology into their platform. ### Shopify [![Shopify branding](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/shopify.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-and-fintech) Shopify have recently decided to open up capital based on their insights that they have on their clients. The company’s processing transactions on behalf of the merchants that they represent. They have proposed that a merchant can use his transactions or sales to pay off a loan that they might need in order to continue running his services. ### Stripe [![Stripe branding](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/stripe.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-and-fintech) Stripe is really an interesting one to look at because they really tie themselves into what they call ‘the point of need.’ That means that they’re essentially there whenever a customer might need a loan. When you’re at the point of sale, and you're short of balance, they allow you to opt in for a ‘micro loan’ loan with various installments and payments. ### Epic games [![Epic games branding](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/QbIQmy0tSfYnEL8ul8LndB2TlAj-0Tz7o_Z9eAXrC6LWhkp38au8SgbQoOhnSIaTh582O_ETWIwqo6jhKSc9IrQRjbqO2f5VS9VbzgnbUIGUmSIATg4EoNvlG6wbPw_mBGZHyOnz)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-and-fintech) Then we have a rather unusual example in ‘Epic games.’ This is kind of a non-fintech example that has nonetheless embraced similar technology. You may have heard about their struggles with Apple's app store policy. They just decided to build the tight policies that Apple put on them and take over the embedded payment process themselves. ### What we can learn from this The key takeaway is that we’re seeing embedded finance grow tremendously across many different platforms. The examples I've shown have barely scratched the surface of how fast this can go. It’s been estimated that if SaaS businesses embed financial services at the point of need, or just as a part of the composition of their service, their revenues can grow by **two to five times.** We've also seen that, through this kind of embedded checkout process, eCommerce merchants have seen conversion increase by around 50%. If people really want to buy something but they’re not sure if they have the funds, they can very quickly get a loan and drive conversions up. ## The modern landscape There’s a huge opportunity here to make financial services both more customizable and invisible. Merchants are more likely to drive up conversions if the transaction process happens more quickly, with less hassle and configuration for the client. If you look at the US market, the big tech platforms last year did around $3.4 trillion in terms of revenue and market value. The use cases of embedded finance ranging from insurance to payments, lending cards, to micro-loans all have tremendous potential for growth But I’m going to argue that there’s potentially a new market that no one has tapped into yet. This is the new, exciting market of **incremental revenue.** [![Person making contactless payment](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/phone.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-and-fintech) ### Incremental revenue If you look at SaaS business segments, we have horizontal, or more generic solution verticals. But the reason why we see verticals growing fast in the modern age is because they have strong access to micro segments. These are areas where you need a more customized or specific financial solution that’s too complex for banks to deal with. They’re mostly what’s calle ‘fit for purpose’ software solutions, where the clients are quite ‘sticky.’ That means that most of the customer base of a company who uses the vertical SaaS solution will consolidate needs or emerging needs. Customers like to stick to that one vendor who serves them best. ## New models emerging So there are a variety of models emerging in the FinTech space. But there are three major models that I want to draw your attention to. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/clay-banks-31l-8hY1mt4-unsplash-1.jpg) ### The traditional model Many people are more familiar with the more traditional model that platforms like PayPal use. PayPal are embedded into eCommerce sites, and they take over the payment process entirely. With Paypal, a percentage of the customer’s fees will go to PayPal. Added to that, the process might not be as attractive to clients, since having to go through another party when making a transaction generally slows the process down. This moves the transaction further away from that essential **point of need.** ### The resale model A client might be looking to take out a loan, and you might pass them through a service such as LendingClub to handle the loan. This is a referral solution, and it’s not quite as ‘invisible’ as you might be looking for in order to make client’s stick to your product. It’s not entirely hassle-free as client’s have to deal with a third party to get what they need. ### The embedded solutions model This is definitely the preferred solution to attract a new audience. The more embedded your financial solutions can be into the customer journey, the more likely customers are to stick to you. It’s all about aligning the solution to **the point of need**. [![Piggy bank](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/piggy-bank.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-and-fintech) ## The future of financial services Let’s look again at how Epic Games implemented financial services. In taking over the entire payment process, there’s a big drawback in that the risk profile goes up. You become responsible for getting the payments going in and the payment collection part. ### The incredible benefits and some drawbacks These companies that are taking over the entire process are sitting on a tremendous amount of data, giving them incredible insight into the behaviors, health and wealth of their clients. Another huge benefit is a much bigger percentage of the transaction will be added to the revenue stream. That’s usually quite a substantial increase. Now, it’s true that you’re going to have to deal with some pretty considerable overheads, such as regulatory compliance and building infrastructure. There is a risk, but it’s a model that's proving to be very attractive to a lot of financial service platforms, including Saas businesses. [![money in a jar](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/growth.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-and-fintech) ### Closer to point of need = conversion In general, taking friction out of the buying process seems to be the best way forward. Clients want the buying process to be as close to the point of need as possible. These are really the use cases where the conversions are relatively high. Now, this is obviously a lot easier with more casual one-time purchases, for example, somebody ordering food, buying clothes, purchasing a video to stream online. But what if somebody's looking to buy car insurance, a more long-term investment? In these cases, we need to be thinking about… ### Composite journeys With these more long-term investments, you’re going to have to integrate various different capabilities. For example, if I want to sign up for a loan, but I want to do so in the most frictionless way possible, all the different background checks the KYC check and the credit credit score check are going to require the right infrastructure to be able to carry out these processes. There’s some pretty integral customer-related data needed to carry out these kinds of checks. That’s why the union between banking and SaaS is going to be so valuable. ## Banking and SaaS: a new ecosystem emerging The joining of these two industries, including all the customer data that’s required to carry out certain transactions, is part of what we call **FinTech**. On the banking side, you see that banks are now offering what they’re calling, ‘banking as a service.’ That means that the highly regulated complex services that you typically go to a bank for have been completely opened and are accessible through API's. [![Typewriter](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/goals.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-future-of-saas-and-fintech) ### The ultimate goal: a new union The holy grail is to be able to tie those services into your SaaS application or wider spread. Imagine the capabilities that such a wealth of data gives you! Some of the potential solutions that this can provide are as follows: ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/touch-1.jpg) - You need to have access to customers accounts for underwriting a risk. **There’s a solution for that**. - You need a solution that handles recurring payments. **There's a solution for that**. - You need to carry out a credit check before a transaction can be completed. There's a solution for that. ### Open banking Of course, for any of these solutions to be possible, there’s got to be a huge demand for data. There are a couple of initiatives around the globe that are making that process quite easy. This was mandated by governments in Europe, in particular. Banks are required to expose data, with an opt-in mechanism to protect privacy and where content is being used. This mandate allowed people to take more control on their data or thow their data is being used. The US doesn't have that mandate on a domestic level. But the market is driving those initiatives on its own. The market is driving the demand for open banking. Of course, what remains essential here is **consent** and **privacy**. FinTechs, or any other kind of service that requires customer data, need to have some kind of robust opt-in mechanism so that client’s can feel safe. ## To wrap up: a new financial landscape Across the whole financial landscape: from payment to banking services, merchants are waking up to one essential tenet: the value of getting close to **that point of need.** This is a win-win situation for both client and organization. Clients get their needs met quicker, the service gets a higher conversion rate. Only around 17 or 18 banks in the US have fully embraced the banking-as-a-service model, meaning that they fully embed themselves into the value chain of others. The good news is, compared to the traditional banks, those banks have a way higher return on equity and on assets. It’s not unrealistic to predict that in the future, all brands, regardless of what the service is, will have financial services embedded into their products. The future is just around the corner, don’t miss out! ### Why the best CMOs are great storytellers URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/why-the-best-cmos-are-great-storytellers/ Last updated: 2022-05-03T19:46:12.000Z For as long as humans have been around, storytelling has been an integral part of life. It’s an incredibly valuable way of building connections with others, making things memorable, and communicating in a way that keeps people engaged. This is why storytelling should take priority within your product marketing strategy - after all, you’re still trying to create this connection with humans. As a product marketer, storytelling helps you create more success for your business by adding context to your product, answering key questions including how it works, what your customer can use it for, and so on. In turn, this helps to differentiate your product from competitors’, create a legacy for your brand, and ultimately increase customer retention and sales. Such is the importance of the storytelling process, you need to ensure you put the steps in place to execute it with precision. In [an episode of **CMO Convo**](https://www.cmoalliance.io/cmo-convo-podcast/?wchannelid=vmp1p6vrw9&wmediaid=dnvejwbsub), the podcast at CMO Alliance, ****senior copywriter Will Whitham** had an incredible conversation with ****Gaston Tourn, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Appear Here**where they discussed Gaston’s passion for storytelling, his tips, and best practices for putting it to good use in marketing, common pitfalls he’s encountered, and his hopes for the future. This article will deep dive into many valuable topics they discussed, including, - How storytelling is the purpose of marketing. - Collaborating on stories with other departments. - What does a great story look like? - Sharing your story with customers. - Transcending boundaries through storytelling. - Advice for storytelling. - How to optimize your storytelling. ## **How storytelling is the purpose of marketing** ****A lot of people who get into the content and copywriting side of marketing do it to tell stories because it's an intrinsic part of marketing.** ****Some of the best adverts ever have a great story to them. That's the kind of stuff that a lot of marketers want to do. But do you think there's maybe some that are getting lost in the weeds? Do you think they're losing sight of that?** “I think the whole marketing industry has lost a bit of sight of what the purpose of marketing and business is. Particularly, with obsession around technology and data. It looks like sometimes data becomes the purpose and the actual goal. Whereas, actually, data and technology are just means to do what only marketeers can do. In the end, marketing is all about influence. “What we're here to do is to bring the voice of the customer, and of the user, to the heart of an organization to try to influence our organization to deliver value to that customer or that user. And at the same time, it influences that customer or user to use our product or services. “So it's all about influence. And communication, language, and creativity are the most effective tools to achieve that. It's not really about technology. It's about understanding human behavior, understanding what's inside, behind any campaign, and then delivering on it. This is the most important focus that we can all have as marketers. “And I think we can learn a lot from writers. Writers are probably in one of the only professions where it's all about people watching and really trying to understand human behavior and motivations. If we probably learn from any other profession it's that one because, as marketers, we really need to understand the motivations behind human behavior in order to do great work.” Learn the techniques of sales writing and how they can help you and your team. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) --- ****And a really good way to understand human behavior is to construct a story about it. If you think about Catcher In The Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird, they weren't written by the protagonist of the novels, and they weren't written by an adolescent. They were written by writers who understood how to get into those mindsets, and they're still held up today as great examples of getting into those demographics' mindsets.** ****Is that something that marketers can really benefit from? Building that story to get to understand people?** “Yeah, definitely. One of the most exciting marketing jobs is probably targeting a campaign to an audience that is completely different from who you are. I think it's something that allows you to put yourself in the shoes of a completely different human being. But in the end, we're all humans. “So you can really understand what's the motivation here because you're never too far away from the experience of another human being. Empathy is incredibly important for that. What writers do very well is avoid having assumptions about people, it's really holding judgment - good writing is all around holding judgment. “You're not here to write a political manifesto, when you do fiction, you actually hold judgments so much that sometimes it can be very controversial. If you think about one of the best novels of the 20th century, ****Lolita**, it's very controversial, it's the mindset of a pedophile like, “Oh, my God, like, I'm *completely* in opposition.” “Everyone will be completely against that kind of sexual behavior. At the same time, I think what that book does really well from a fictional point of view is that the whole judgment is not really telling you what this character’s doing is wrong. And I think that's why it's so effective as a piece of fiction. “For sure, from moral and ethical points of view, it's a terrible example but I think what it does very well from a writing perspective is really hold judgment. It allows itself to explore a completely different mind. “ I think this is something that you need to do also in marketing, if you are going to be, for example, marketing to old people. Today, I saw a campaign that I thought was fascinating. It was actually talking about sex when you're old. “And probably a common sense of judgment is like,” well, that demographic doesn't have as much sexual activity”. What this campaign did is completely hold judgment and actually explore what are the motivations, what are the hopes and fears of that group? I think that's why it feels so real because it allowed itself to go against the norm, hold judgment and really tell the truth from the point of view of the target audience you're trying to picture.” --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/SaaScast-Ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=saascast-podcast) --- ### **Using storytelling in copywriting for SEO** ****Lolita is an interesting reference point because one of the big things about that book is how beautiful the prose is, it's very well written. That kind of draws you into the mindset a bit more, because it's such artistic, beautiful prose.** ****Is that something that we need to look at more as marketers? SEO seems to restrict a lot of the way we're able to write about things. Is there a sort of middle ground we can reach where we're ranking well on Google, but we're also able to write good prose in our content and copy?** “If you're writing copy just to rank on Google, you're probably doing a disservice to your own marketing. First of all, I used to work at Google and one thing I can guarantee you is algorithms change all the time so it's really hard to predict what's going to be ranking highly on Google. What you need to do is amazing content. “If you do amazing content, people are going to be interested in it and the algorithms are at some point, are going to favor what you're doing. “Sometimes we underestimate the importance of content and the importance of writing great content for the audiences that we try to influence. In a way going back to what we were discussing previously, it's all about influencing your target audience and then using the insights from that target audience to influence the way your company operates. I would focus on that rather than trying to trick the system. “If you do amazing content, that influences your current audience in the end at some point that's going to really pay off. If you tried to trick the system by adding one keyword here, one keyword there, you're just doing a disservice to your brand, but also, particularly to your customers.” ## **Collaborating on stories with other departments** ****Thinking about this from a CMO perspective, how do you communicate those ideas to the rest of the C-suite? They want to see data, they want to see facts, they want to see you presenting this all planned out with a strategy that they can understand.** ****You can't just go into the boardroom and say that "'Beauty is truth. Truth is beauty'. This is what we're going to do now", you kind of do need evidence to back up what you're advising.** “Yes, definitely, you always need to have very clear KPIs that allow you to understand, are you making progress or not towards the goals that the business cares about? I think the way you go about it then, the “how” is up to you, as a CMO. In my current company, for example, I have two clear KPIs that everyone is aware of. “That's probably the first piece of advice I would give to any CMO. When you join a business, your responsibility is to really try to nail down what's the impact that marketing has on their reputation. Don't expect someone else is going to tell you that, it's up to you. And really you will have to even corner your CEO and tell him or her, what are you expecting from marketing? What do you expect marketing to deliver for the business? “This is what I think marketing should deliver: Do you agree or not? Then based on that discussion, define at least two or three KPIs that are super clear and really show the impact of marketing and get an agreement with the rest of the C-suite to make sure that everyone is on the same page. “After that, the "how" is up to you, it's your own remit, for sure, you're going to consult and make sure everyone is on the same page. But I think what you need to really focus on is getting agreement on the high-level metrics. “Going back to your question, I don't think being creative and being bold with your vision means not caring about KPIs or analytics, if anything, we need to focus on being amazing at creativity and storytelling because it's a much more efficient way to make sure you hit those targets, and you really hit those KPIs.” Gather insight into how product marketers can collaborate within their organization for optimal company success. ****Having that focus on creativity as well means you're going to attract better talent as a team builder, people want to work for companies that allow them to be creative. Having that focus, having that guiding light means you'll be able to attract better talent, surely?** “Yes, definitely. A lot of companies, unfortunately, are so focused on the short term that they don't allow themselves to be creative. Sometimes you need to use your common sense. Sometimes, yes, that creative thing that you did is probably going to deliver more installs or downloads or whatever your KPI is. “But just take a step back and as a human being ask yourself, what do I think of this brand, after seeing this creative? If it's not something positive, then start questioning the data. A lot of startups particularly, almost become slaves of data without being able to have any kind of critical thinking around. “I think if it doesn't make sense, then question your data. Because if you believe in your data just blindly, again, you're not really focusing on what marketing should do. Because what marketing is all about is not about data, it's about influencing people. Data is just a tool that allows you to understand if you're doing that effectively or not.” ****If you look at some of the best adverts of all time, it's doubtful there was data to support what they went with but when you look at the connections between the story they're telling, and the brand, it makes so much sense.** ****Do you have direction in how you can communicate the need for those risks to the C-suite and to your team as well? If you've got a big idea that you think is definitely going to work, how do you get that idea across the line?** --- [Myths of product operationsChris Compston at FARFETCH, smashes the myths around product management and suggests way for how can get aligned with our goals![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSChris Compston![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/joshua-rodriguez-KiFPlKh4MPM-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/myths-of-product-operations/) --- “Yeah, I always use a quote actually from Andrew Lang. I love when he says, "most people use statistics like a drunk man uses a lamppost: more support than illumination." I think that's something that happens a lot in marketing. A lot of marketers use statistics or data just to support a previously held belief, rather than trying to illuminate a new truth or a new insight. “What I always recommend to marketers, particularly, when you join a C-suite, and you're a new CMO, and it's important to spend a lot of time on this, is really trying to understand how your specific team or function can contribute to help other functions or teams. One of the best pieces of advice I got, when I became CMO, was "You're not part of the marketing team anymore." I was like, "What are you saying? I'm actually leading the marketing team, I am the CMO." “They were like, "No, from this moment, you're not part of the marketing team anymore. Your role is to be part of the executive team." I think that was a really big shift of mentality because it allowed me to think, okay, if I am part of the executive team, then I need to understand the motivations, and also the needs of my colleagues. “That allowed me to start communicating with them in a more effective way. It's quite interesting to see that marketing is all about, as I mentioned, influencing customers and users. But in general, most marketers and most CMOs, we're pretty bad at influencing our own internal organizations, we don't do a lot of good marketing around marketing within the companies we work for. “I think it has a lot to do with the fact that something we all know is, in order to influence your target audience, you need to understand the motivations and needs and then you need to speak the same language. Yet, when we're working inside an organization, we don't do that. We go and speak to a CTO, and we talk to them about our new campaign without even questioning why would the technology and engineering team care about a marketing campaign? “But then if you can frame it in a way that it becomes more interesting to those stakeholders, and also shows them the impact it's gonna have for them, not for you. It's probably the most effective way to get buy-in from the rest of the C-Suite.” --- [Creating female leadership teamsRejoice! Things are looking up for female leaders. In a 2020 article, CNBC reported that women were promoted to 12% of CEO positions in America’s top 500 companies.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/luwadlin-bosman-LCwmq67sAmE-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/creating-female-leadership-teams/) --- ****So it's getting them involved in the storytelling process as well. It's making it a shared story that you're all telling together as a company.** “Yes. And I think particularly as well, going back to their own experiences, I think the more you know them, the more you can be like, "Oh, do you remember that time that you told me about this? Well, I thought about it and this is how I developed this new idea. And more importantly, I think, if we launch this, it's going to have this positive impact on your KPIs and on your team". “Try to always show how you care about them, not just care about you and your team. I think that's something that as marketers, we do all the time, externally, but it looks like internally we forget about it.” ****Well, even within marketing teams, you can have those kinds of conflicts, such as between copywriters and design teams there can be a bit of conflict in what's possible. Being able to communicate that philosophy through the rest of your team has got to be important as a CMO, encouraging that collaboration within the rest of the marketing team. Is there a way you go about that specifically?** “Yeah, it's important to have the end goal and particularly our customers in mind in order to solve any issues. We're not coming to work to defend our ideas no matter what we're coming to work to do amazing work for our customers or our users. “I think in those cases, it's important to always put that at the center of any discussion. Sometimes we just get a bit lost with our own egos. But when you let your ego calm down and actually focus on what's the end goal, what our customers want, usually you can find much better collaboration and most conflicts become quite easy to solve.” ## **What does a great story look like?** ****With some ads, customers just get that brief serotonin boost from seeing that happy image, but it's not a memorable image. You remember conflict, and you remember the emotion that you have from seeing something more effectively than the image itself.** ****Even just humor relies on conflict, essentially, so even humor can be a good way of getting that emotional connection. You think about the ads and pieces of marketing you see that stick with you is the stuff that has maybe a bit of sadness to it.** ****The big thing in the UK, of course, is the** [****John Lewis Christmas adverts**](https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/john-lewis-christmas-ads-first-11-years/1699543)****, and they always have a little bit of sadness, a little bit of nostalgia to it. They've got it down to an art form and they're a great example to look at in terms of storytelling from brands. Would you agree?** “Yeah, completely. And I think one word that you used that is completely the focus of any good storytelling is conflict. Conflict is a story. I actually love a quote from John le Carré, he died last year, unfortunately, but he says, “the cat sat on a mat is not a story. The cat sat on a dog's mat is a story.” “You need a dog, you need conflict, to make a story interesting. And actually, one of the questions I always ask my team, whenever they present me with an Instagram post, they present me with a press release, I always ask them, “who is the dog?” “Because obviously, without a dog in that piece of communication, there is not a story, it's not going to be interesting. So always think: Who is the dog in your story? Who is the dog in your presentation to the board? Because if there is no conflict, people are going to probably switch and turn off and go to the next post or the next website because you need conflict to make people interested in what you're saying.” --- [How to scale your marketing for SMBs and enterprisesWhen it comes to B2B marketing, you’re not going to get very far with a ‘one-size-fits-all-approach’.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/jeremy-bishop-vGjGvtSfys4-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-scale-your-marketing-for-smbs-and-enterprises/) --- ****Do you think every writer has to write in the same way? Is there room for stylistic differences? Are we always stuck in this homogenous way of writing content or is there a way to break out of that mold?** “No, I think for sure, you need to find your own voice and your own style. There are some elements of good writing that tend to hold true no matter what your style is. But also maybe your style is actually trying to completely disrupt those rules or elements of good writing. I think one that Hemingway does really, really well, he calls it the “iceberg theory”. “I think any writer should know about it, you only want to show the tip of the iceberg in any good piece of writing. Sometimes, again, it's another mistake that a lot of marketing makes, we're just too explanatory. I always like to say, when marketing teams say we need to educate our audience about x, y, z, nobody wants to be educated. “Nobody wants to know more about your bank app, they don't care. Honestly, as a user, I don't care about your product or your service, I just care about what's in it for me. So I don't need to be educated. Just show me the tip of the iceberg, show me what I need to learn about that product, that there is value for me, but don't explain the whole thing. “Because as a user, or as a target audience, they don't want to be educated, they don't have time for you, they only have just one minute or two minutes to really get value out of the advert or the piece of communication that you're putting together.” ****You're letting them fill in the gaps basically, with the possibilities of your product. You're giving them a way to tell their own story in their own head, giving them a framework, and then letting them fill in the gaps?** “Yeah, exactly. And you mentioned the John Lewis ads, how they're probably the most important examples of good storytelling in the UK. All of them, if you think about them, don't tell the whole story, they're really good at omitting some parts of the story, and then letting you come up with that whole story. “I think one of the most beautiful ones is the one about [Elton John](https://www.eltonjohn.com/stories/johnlewis) and it's just beautiful because it doesn't tell you the whole story, it just shows you some moments of that life. “But then you can see how they connect. You don't need to explain why buying a piano from John Lewis is going to create the next Elton John in the UK, they just do it by suggesting that story, which has some pieces of the life of Elton John.” ****But then that does kind of rely on the audience having preconceived notions about Elton John? Everyone in the UK knows who Elton John is, and everyone's got some kind of emotional connection to his music. Would that story work as well, if it was just a random concert pianist?** “Probably you will need a bit more of what writers call the setting. You will need to elaborate a bit more on the character. But I think, in general, there are some archetypes that we can all relate to. “I think the archetype of the underdog is one. In a way, this story has a bit of that with the kid who was not coming from a privileged background. Nobody probably believed a lot in him beyond his Mom, who bought him a piano, and then he becomes one of the most important singers and one of the most important musicians in the world. “There is that element of the underdog, which is quite universal in a way. I'm not from the UK, for sure I know Elton John. Elton John is almost a universal musician, but I think I can still relate to this story because there is that element that goes beyond just a specific cultural context. “It has more that element of someone that nobody believed in suddenly succeeded. That's probably a story that is pretty much universal. Even if you think about some of the stories we have been telling for centuries, like Christianity, it has that element, Jesus Christ was probably also the underdog role…” ****Born in a stable.** “For 2000 years we have been telling that story now.” ****That's an interesting point. The reason we have these archetypes and cliches in storytelling is that they work, people do respond to them. We have a similar idea of personas in marketing. Are they that different from archetypes? Should we be marketing to archetypes rather than personas?** “Well, we need to advertise to people. And I think although archetypes work, you need to make sure that your marketing is as nuanced as possible. I don't use personas at all in marketing. I always think they're fake. “Whenever you start putting together personas you always come up with Cindy who lives in Manhattan and she goes every morning to have a latte at Starbucks. You know what? Cindy doesn't exist, nobody is Cindy. I think it's much more effective, one thing that I do all the time with the marketing teams I lead is try to identify ten to 15 of our key customers. “Within the team, we have a discussion where we start putting out some hypotheses about those customers, but they are real customers. Like Sarah X who works at this company, and she used our service last month. We start just guessing like, what do we think Sarah likes when it comes to content? What do we think Sarah likes about our service? “What do we think Sarah hates about our service? We do almost a session where we brainstorm and we have some hypotheses around this real customer. Then what we do, in my case, it's more like a B2B service, we contact Sarah on LinkedIn and we're like, "Hey, Sarah, we love working with you, we would love to have a coffee just to get to know you a bit better". “Literally, in that first conversation, we tell her, "Look, you're one of our core customers. I know this is a bit weird and creepy, but we have some hypotheses about what kind of content you like, we would just like to validate them if they're true or not". “And what you see is usually that whatever you thought Sarah liked is probably the opposite of what she likes. I find it a really, really useful exercise because it helps me tell the team that stereotypes don't work. “What we assume our core customers like is not 100% what they like, and we need to get to know them better. So that's my recommendation as well, for marketing teams: don't use personas, you don't know your customers until you actually speak to them. Try to have some hypothesis about who they are, then go and speak to them and try to evaluate them. “Because you're going to find so many new insights, so many new ideas. I don't actually like even new channels, which earn a lot of growth for the company, because I spoke to customers, and they told me, "No, I don't use that channel, actually, I use this other one". Then I started advertising on that channel and saw tremendous growth for the company.” --- [Ensuring better alignment with customer successIn this article, I’m going to share with you some of the unique and new initiatives I developed to ensure better alignment with customer success.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSMichelle Wideman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/alignment-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/ensuring-better-alignment-with-customer-success/) --- ## **Sharing your story with customers** ****It's also a good exercise in terms of customer retention that you're giving buy-in to your customers into the direction you're taking the marketing, they'll be more invested, and they'll be more likely to continue to be customers if they feel they're being listened to.** “Yeah, definitely, I think everyone loves to provide [feedback](https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/the-what-why-and-how-of-customer-market-feedback/) on services and products. If you show them that you care and that you're interested in improving your product and your marketing, using their feedback, I think it's a win-win situation for everyone.” ****You're spreading that web of people who are helping you tell the brand story as well. So the more people you've got involved in that, there'll be more of a shared vision.** “Agreed. And I think going back to the beginning, I said marketing is all about influencing, and influencing doesn't mean talking. Probably one of the most effective strategies to influence someone is to listen to a person. “Listening is so underestimated. Most marketing teams still are kind of like the chatty team that is all the time talking, talking, talking. But if you want to influence another human being, the best way to do it is probably to listen to what that person has to say, and then go back to them and deliver a product or a message that considers what they said. “Making them feel in a way part of the story is going to be much more efficient to influence someone than just talking without having that two-way conversation. “One of the things that can be quite interesting in terms of storytelling at the moment is the potential with video games for storytelling, and how people get quite invested in being able to choose different routes and tell their own stories. By giving customers that kind of buy-in to how you're telling the brand story, it’ll engender a lot more of an emotional connection to it. “Yeah, definitely. Particularly when it comes to interactive storytelling there are a lot of opportunities and a lot of room to grow in that area. I actually did my dissertation as part of my master's around interactive storytelling. It has worked particularly well for children. Children like interacting with stories quite a lot. “I think for grown-ups a bit less and I think it's probably because as adults we have to make so many decisions in our everyday lives that whenever we watch a story, we just want to almost chill and be led into a story that we don't even have to make decisions about. “But that doesn't mean that you wouldn't consider your audience's feedback before you put together that story. It's almost like perhaps the story doesn't have to be interactive but definitely, the production process needs to be interactive. You need to consider the point of view of your customer when you’re crafting the story.” ****But then maybe getting customers involved in some kind of decision, while they're watching a story could be a good way to go. You don't want it just to be another piece of content they consume while they're relaxing, you want them to have that kind of emotional connection.** “Yeah, definitely. And I think it's part of any good user experience, not just marketing. When it comes more to product, product marketing, user experiences, making sure that you personalize your content, you personalize the user experience based on the needs and based on the behavior of that customer. “It doesn't mean that you need to ask them explicitly what they need, perhaps by using some signals and considering some interactions you can already start personalizing that experience without having to ask explicitly, what do you want?” Connect with your audience, human to human, by incorporating personalization tactics within your product marketing strategy. ****Listening just means paying attention to them, doesn't it? It doesn't mean you have to ask them questions, you can just be in the room with them and see what they're doing. Whether the room is your site, your app, or other interactions with your brand.** “Yes. And particularly considering the gap between what people say and what people do, it's really important. When it comes to testing messages, for example, I always prefer live testing over market research. That's something that a lot of startups are moving in that direction, and I think it’s the right way to go. “Rather than asking people: Do you prefer this message or this other message? Why don't you just run an A/B test on Google or Instagram, and you’ll see where people are actually engaged and what kind of interactions you get from different messages. I think live testing helps you try to reduce that gap between what people say and what people do. "Because most times as human beings, we're not completely conscious of what we need. We think that we need something but then, in the end, our behavior shows something completely different. It's important to acknowledge that gap because human behavior is not literal. Human behavior is complex, and it has multiple layers. “You need to understand that. It's not that people are lying, it's just we're not conscious sometimes of 90% of what we're doing, we just do it, but we're not even conscious why.” --- [20 tried and tested customer retention tipsIf you’re thinking of putting a customer retention strategy in place or updating an existing one, here are 20 top retention tips from the best customer success pros in the business.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/cathryn-lavery-fMD_Cru6OTk-unsplash--1---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-tried-and-tested-customer-retention-tips/) --- ****This all ties back into examples from great writers, take Shakespeare - if you look at the differences between the folios and the editions, how he'd tweak lines and stuff he was tweaking them as audiences were watching them, as audiences were responding to them.** ****We probably don't have every single rewrite he ever did but you could bet he was sitting in the stands, saying "that didn't get a laugh, I'm gonna cross it out, that didn't get the response I wanted and I'm going to change that". It's a living manuscript that you're working on, your marketing, constantly changing depending on the responses you get.** “Yeah, completely. We have this stereotype of writers being like almost these romantic writers, alone, doing something that can inspire. It's not like that, you're always writing for someone, you're not writing in isolation. “Actually, the act of writing, the act of doing marketing is already a communication act, you're doing it for someone. And if you don't acknowledge that someone, you're probably going to fail because there has to be someone that needs to be considered. “I feel like one thing that I learned from my undergrad is that communication is always an illusion. It's always something that we think happened, but then didn't happen. Whatever message you put out there, people are going to interpret it in 1000 different ways. “I think your job as a marketer is to almost predict those 1000 different ways of interpreting the message and try to narrow it down to whatever messages are more effective to the product or the company that you're promoting. But it's really important to consider that your message is going to be interpreted in 1000 different ways because communication is never straightforward.” ## **Transcending boundaries through story** ****Do you think the fact you've lived and worked in so many different places has given you a bit more of a skill to get to understand different perspectives? Do you think it's something that all marketers should aspire to do is to have these diverse, different types of work environments?** “Yeah, I think it's very important. For sure, I was quite privileged - a company like Google really sponsored my international career. But everyone who has the opportunity to have an international career should 100% go for it. Not only because you learn how different we are, but also you learn how similar we are. “Usually, I find it quite interesting that in every country, people start almost assuming like, "Oh, this is the way that Brits are". I live in Brazil, "Brazilians, we behave in this way". But then, in the end, you actually find that they're all pretty much similar. “In the end, human beings are one species, and we operate in a very similar way. So it allows you to understand first of all how diverse we can be, but also how similar we can be as human beings. I think there are some cultural nuances and social constructions that affect everything we do. “But at least you start understanding some human insights that I think can really become powerful for your own storytelling. No matter if you’re British, or if you're Brazilian, or if you're American, you're scared of certain things. I'm sure no matter what country you live in, you're always trying to pursue happiness, and you're trying to pursue something better for your life. “Those elements are quite universal. If you can use those insights in advertising, I think they're going to be much more effective no matter the market that you're working on.” ****And great stories go across cultural boundaries and go across national boundaries. We said Shakespeare before, but there are plenty of other stories that are told all around the world. Even if it's not the same names, there are the same recurring themes, same recurring archetypes, and stuff like that. A great advertising campaign should be able to cross those boundaries as well, surely?** “Yeah and I think it's even more important now than ever to cross those boundaries. In the last few years, the world has become a bit more protectionist in a way, I think there has been a rise of nationalism and a rise in anti-diversity or anti-immigration policies worldwide. “Our role as marketers is also to fight for the world that we want to see. If we can try more conversations about how, in the end, we're pretty much similar, if you're Mexican or American, you have very similar fears and hopes, and you're pretty motivated by similar things in life. So building a wall, for example, between the two countries is not just inhuman, it's irrational. “I think if you can contribute to that conversation that tries to unite people rather than trying to create walls, I think it's something that brings even more value to any professional in the marketing and communications industry.” ****We can't really attribute too much ethics to huge multinational corporations, but one of my favorite campaigns in recent years was the** [****Coca Cola "Share a Coke" campaign**](https://www.coca-colacompany.com/au/faqs/what-was-the-share-a-coke-campaign)****, very simple message, a very simple way of communicating this connectivity between people, and a great way to kick off stories because that was the whole point of it.** ****UGC, getting people out there posting about the way they're sharing a coke with their friends and stuff like that, different environments they could be in, and it was a way, going back to what you said, of giving people the space to imagine the possibilities of the product. It was just a really wonderful campaign in that respect.** “Yeah, and also the purpose of that product. Because that product is all about creating shared moments. It reminds me of that purpose without having to be sales-y. It reminds you more why people use it. “Again, I don't want to attribute a lot of success to a big corporation but I think it's a good example of how going back to some of those human insights can help you tell stories that are meaningful and hopefully also drive a positive impact in the world.” --- [Why should customer success be at the heart of SaaS strategy?SaaS companies are missing a trick by not implementing a customer success strategy at the core of their operations. Check out this article to find out why.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSGrace Gupta![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1571172964276-91faaa704e1f?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDR8fGhlYXJ0fGVufDB8fHx8MTY0MzMyMDY2OA&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-should-customer-success-be-at-the-heart-of-saas-strategy/) --- ## **Advice for storytelling** “My final piece of advice is to make sure that in your marketing, you're telling the truth about your product or service. If you go out of your marketing circle, most people have bad feelings when you say the word marketing. A lot of people outside our marketing community think that marketing is disingenuous, or marketing is something that is here to trick you. “And probably they're right, a lot of marketing tries to trick people and tries to be disingenuous about their own products and services. But I think the best marketing is probably the one that tries to use the negative side of your solution to your advantage to create human empathy. Telling the truth, warts and all is probably one of the best marketing strategies you can do to tell really good stories. “Just maybe to share one example that I love is from Kentucky Fried Chicken, not a brand that I would consume, but when they had an issue the UK, I think [the campaign](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-43169625) they did was brilliant. “For international audiences, KFC ran out of chicken in the UK and suddenly had a shortage across the whole country. It was crazy. The whole country went berserk. It was insane. Very bad for a fried chicken brand to run out of chicken. “Most corporate brands would try to hide and be like we are sorry, apologies, we had a shortage of chicken - very robotic and not actually human. Actually, if you were running a fried chicken shop, and suddenly you run out of chicken, what you would say is, "Fuck, we're sorry, we ran out of chicken". “And that's what they did. They literally had an advert that said, like, Fuck, the logo inverse FCK and then they were like, "We're sorry". I thought it was much more human and much more relatable because that's the way that probably you would react as a human being. So my advice would be, to tell the truth, and act as if you were a human being all the time. “This is weird because we are human beings. But I think sometimes as marketers, we get so lost with technologies, tools, and data that we forget what makes us human. I think if you go back to what makes you human, and what would be your reaction as a human being to certain situations, we will probably do much better marketing.” --- *Enjoyed this article? Access more expert insights from industry leaders with a [Future of SaaS membership plan.](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/)* ### Myths of product operations URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/myths-of-product-operations/ Last updated: 2022-05-03T19:48:02.000Z Dispelling some of the myths around the role of [product operations](https://www.productledalliance.com/product-ops-portal/). **This is from my perspective and other product operations teams may operate differently.* ## **Myth 1: We focus on product management only** While the product operations discipline does have the word ‘product’ in it we need to remember that product management is not the only player in the development of products. An effective product operations function will be looking across the whole product development lifecycle. From how teams are aligning on strategic priorities all the way to how product teams collaborate on content production, for example. Product design, customer research, product analytics, engineering, content designers, and even business stakeholders impact the product development lifecycle. Product operations needs to cover all these disciplines at different times depending on the organizational challenges, strategic priorities and general needs identified. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/SaaScast-Ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=saascast-podcast) --- ## **Myth 2: We must have product management experience** Given the above, it would actually be incredibly restricting to **only* have product management experience. The best product operations teams will have a varied background and strong experience in all aspects of product development. Product operations people need to know what good looks like, they need to be able to highlight challenges and support people to change behavior if required. They can’t be expected to have experience in every role. Instead, they need to have a deep understanding of what those roles do and what their varied challenges might be. Many of the traits of a strong product management would benefit an operations team of course, but product management is not the one role to rule them all. ## **Myth 3: We tell people how to work and what to do** I’ve often explained the role of product operations as focusing on “how our teams work **over* what they work on” and while this still holds true it doesn’t give the full picture, which can be damaging. We do focus on the ‘how’ vs the ‘what’ but that doesn’t mean that we define processes and then inflict them on product teams. We should however be focused on how effective and efficient our teams are, rather than being focused on customer outcomes, business goals and the things our people are building to achieve them. How does that look in reality? Good product operations teams should be giving teams the data, analysis and insights into how they might amplify the good practices they’ve fostered and change any behavior that is causing them problems. The teams themselves are the ones that should be introspective and employing a continuous improvement mindset. Product teams should be asking themselves how they might solve some of their own challenges and how they can improve. Product operations is a pull function, not a push function. Teams should reach out for support because they want to improve, rather than product operations pushing themselves into a space and making changes. ## **Myth 4: We will fix things for people without their support** While product operations teams can be proactive when they identify broad challenges, teams really do need to **want to change.* Product operations can hold up the mirror to how teams are operating and they of course can provide thought leadership. This can be in the form of analysis or broad insight around how other teams in the organization are operating. But the most effective way for this to happen is if the team themselves have identified a need and have a continuous improvement mindset. It does come down to those teams to reach out for help and to start by helping themselves. Nothing will be solved by an outside entity enforcing changes unopposed. Product operations will give all the support that is needed, if there is a willingness to improve. --- [Creating female leadership teamsRejoice! Things are looking up for female leaders. In a 2020 article, CNBC reported that women were promoted to 12% of CEO positions in America’s top 500 companies.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/luwadlin-bosman-LCwmq67sAmE-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/creating-female-leadership-teams/) --- ## **Myth 5: We focus on the same challenges at every organization** Just as every organization is different, the challenges they face are also vast and varied. This is dependent on business maturity, organizational scale, growth strategy, industry, and many more factors. Generally, product operations will be looking at how the product organization operates and how they can support any improvements to efficiency and effectiveness. How that manifests itself in both day-to-day work and the longer-term strategy of the operations team will be impacted by the needs of the organization at any given time. Some organizations might be employing product operations (whether rightly or wrongly) to fill the gaps where product leadership is less mature or lacking capability. Some are hired for their change management expertise and others might be hired for portfolio management. I’ve heard of some teams looking at strategic alignment while others manage software and hardware for their teams. Often I’ve heard product telemetry or refining customer support processes as a key focus for product operations. Over time and with the changing needs of the organization the product operations team might have to shift between these different areas. As the product organisation matures or gains new capabilities through hiring, the team might be able to step away and move to new and more pressing concerns. ## **Myth 6: We operate on one level within the product organization** Along with the changing needs of the product organization between companies, there are also their changing needs across time. In our case over the past year, with the changing needs of the organization and limited team size, our product operations team has been operating up and down the various levels. This can mean that product teams might not feel the support of product operations simply as the latter are working with product leadership more closely and often. A good product operations will be able to adapt to the environment and work at the level that drives the most impact. For example, during 2021 we went through an organizational transformation and a change to our annual planning process. Our team worked more closely with our VP of product and product directors over the course of six to nine months to support these changes and less with the product managers in the team. Due to our limited team size and the need at the time being with product leadership, rather than with product teams, the perception of our team could be that we weren’t achieving what was expected at that level. The invisible work done is hard to make visible when teams believe they understand what the purpose of product operations is already. --- [How to scale your marketing for SMBs and enterprisesWhen it comes to B2B marketing, you’re not going to get very far with a ‘one-size-fits-all-approach’.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/jeremy-bishop-vGjGvtSfys4-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-scale-your-marketing-for-smbs-and-enterprises/) --- ## **What impact do these myths have?** These are just a few of the myths surrounding product operations I’ve seen over the past few years and there is probably many more. It’s also to be expected as the growth of the function intensifies and leadership teams are starting to be interested and question how this might improve their organization. However, these myths can still have a negative impact. We’re still seeing today many job advertisements with product operations in the title that actually appear to be another role completely. Those roles are still valuable of course, but lumping together roles that don’t have a specific place in the organization into the same bucket does a disservice to the value of having a product operations team and causes overall confusion. The most significant impact is that the internal perception of the value of the product operations team is never fully recognized. Teams and individuals might not know how to engage or collaborate with them, their invisible work remains invisible and the perception of the teams has become reality. This is a very challenging place to be and the true rewards of having a product operations team will never be gained. For the product operations team, it is imperative that they dispel these myths, either directly or indirectly, through the work they do and how they promote themselves both internally and externally. This can be time-consuming but the benefits should outweigh the effort. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Future of SaaS Festival | Online | June 14-16, 2022 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-june-14-16-2022/ Last updated: 2022-04-27T14:19:56.000Z ### **June 14 - 16 | Online** Accelerate the capabilities of your SaaS product to drive rapid growth. We want to help B2B SaaS companies drive innovation, evolution and growth, which is why we are bringing back the Future of SaaS Festival... but this time with a whole day dedicated to empowering **Women in SaaS**. Join us and thousands of SaaS leaders from around the globe on **June 14 - 16** as the community gathers again to teach, inspire and learn from each other ****👀** This jam packed three-day virtual event will shine a light on investment, growth, marketing, reducing churn and creating a powerful product with a competitive advantage to help you become master SaaS and succeed in your career. 💡 But don't forget for a whole day **(June 16)** we will be harnessing the power of real voices, to create change and powerful impact for **Women in SaaS.** Heres whats going to be covered across the three days: **June 14:** Pioneering product, marketing mastery and teams and leadership **June 15:** Customer centricity, scaling and strategy and VC/investing **June 16:** Women in SaaS, the high achieving woman, being an ally ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/Linekdin-Banner-1.png) We are bringing together influential SaaS leaders from all walks of life to discuss the female experience in the workplace. Some of the topics we will be addressing on this day... 🤝 Being an ally: Supporting each other in the workplace 👩 Creating Female Leadership Teams 🤰 No paid maternity leave for new mothers in the US 🔦 Shining a light on ADHD in the SaaS workplace 💸 Negotiating salaries as a female leader ⚖️ Hiring: Assess & address your biases ****Still not convinced? Here's why you need to attend:** 🤝 Find your tribe as the global Future of SaaS community gathers again ****🔥** Get answers to your burning questions from our expert speakers through interactive Q&A 📈 Gain instantly actionable advice, tactics & more from industry leaders ↗️ Join the movement & reach your full potential **Register your interest below so you don't miss out** ⬇️ --- Psst... You can access all live presentations entirely for free! You can even purchase the content OnDemand, without having a full FoSaaS membership. But, if you're looking for unlimited access to all session replays (plus exclusive content, templates, frameworks & mentors) our [FoSaaS Membership](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/) is calling your name. ### Creating female leadership teams URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/creating-female-leadership-teams/ Last updated: 2022-04-22T16:08:57.000Z Rejoice! Things are looking up for female leaders. In a [2020 article](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/24/number-of-female-ceos-is-increasing-but-they-still-face-glass-cliffs.html), CNBC reported that women were promoted to 12% of CEO positions in America’s top 500 companies. We know what you’re thinking, that’s still a minority, right? But the truth is, it’s doubled from the 6% of promotions that were made in 2018! 🙌 But the battle is not over. In the same article, it was reported that female CEOs are 45% more likely to be fired than their male counterparts. That’s why it’s more important than ever to find strong allyship between female SaaS leaders. Joe Venuti, **Vice President, Sales Development at UpKeep,** led this empowering discussion at the Women in SaaS summit 2021between some of the industry’s leading female voices. Speakers included: - Harini Gokul, **Customer Success Leader at Amazon Web Services** - Joanie Wang, **Director of Marketing Expensify** - Denise Garth, **Chief Strategy Officer at Majesco** Main talking points include: - [How important do you think it is to have a mentor?](https://www.saasalliance.io/creating-female-leadership-teams/#how-important-do-you-think-it-is-to-have-a-mentor) - [How did you set yourself up to be potential female leaders in the future?](https://www.saasalliance.io/creating-female-leadership-teams/#how-did-you-set-yourself-up-to-be-potential-female-leaders-in-the-future) - [If you could give advice to your 21 year old self, what would it be and why?](https://www.saasalliance.io/creating-female-leadership-teams/#if-you-could-give-advice-to-your-21-year-old-self-what-would-it-be-and-why) - [When working for a startup, what should you expect?](https://www.saasalliance.io/creating-female-leadership-teams/#when-working-for-a-startup-what-should-you-expect) - [How did you deal with people questioning your authority as leaders?](https://www.saasalliance.io/creating-female-leadership-teams/#how-did-you-deal-with-people-questioning-your-authority-as-leaders) While the full, unfiltered panel discussion is available[ OnDemand for Future of SaaS members](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-ondemand/), we've picked out some of the best bits for you below. Enjoy! --- ## How important do you think it is to have a mentor? **Denise Garth:** I think the importance of a mentor is tremendous. It’s equally important to find both someone **internally** within your organization, as well as **externally,** outside your organization. These two factors are of equal importance. Early on in my career, I found people inside the organization that could be a mentor. But the fact is, as you’re progressing through your career, you're always meeting individuals who could be potential mentors, both men and women. These are people that you can potentially even have long-term relationships with. As I've gone through different jobs or different career choices, I’ve had a very close set of probably five to seven individuals that I trust tremendously. They're all in different companies and industries, but apart from anything else, they’ve provided a really good sounding board for me, and they’ve provided solid advice where needed. Just having a core set of individuals that you can bounce ideas off throughout your career can be so valuable! **Harini Gokul:** The best mentors are the ones that you don’t even notice are mentors to you. More seriously, I think mentorship is such a multi-dimensional topic. I've found that having that personal ‘board of directors,’ people that you consult with time and time again, is just so important. And they don’t all have to come from one source, you can source them from across many different walks of your own life. > I have my board of directors in my personal life, and I have others in my professional life. It's important to be thoughtful about who's in your life, what skills they can offer you, and how you can invest in that relationship long-term. I get approached to be a mentor a lot, and often it's positioned as a one-way street. It's all take and no give. A good thing to look at when selecting mentors is, what can I offer this person, not just what can they offer me? Because if we’re talking about building a long-term relationship, it has to be give and take. It can’t all be a one-way street. **Joanie Wang:** I was also lucky enough to have a mentor early on. One thing that I really appreciated was that they were always looking out for me, and helping me to better myself through honest, detailed feedback. I think when thinking about women’s leadership it’s more important than ever to think of mentorship. In the end, it’s really about allyship, right? It hasn’t been an easy fight for women, and that’s why it’s so important for those at the bottom to pull others up. We can’t do it alone! --- [Celebrating women and their trailblazing contributions in the tech spaceInternational Women’s Day gives us time to pause, mindfully reflect, and imagine a better workplace where genders are equal and treated without bias or discrimination — and evaluate the path forward to advance gender diversity in tech.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSCourtney Grigsby![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/christina-wocintechchat-com-MkxWUzCuYkE-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/celebrating-women-and-their-trailblazing-contributions-in-the-tech-space/) --- **Rebecca Nerad:** I’d just like to reinforce the reciprocal value of a mentor/mentee relationship. Also, you don't necessarily need a formalized program. If you think someone is really cool, if you value what they do, just reach out to them on LinkedIn, and even after 15 minutes of conversation, you could be looking at potentially a long-term partnership. We're just so lucky in modern times to have LinkedIn at our fingertips. You have access to such inspiring people, so reach out to them and you’ll be surprised at how many people are willing to give you their time. ## How did you set yourself up to be potential female leaders in the future? **Rebecca Nerad:** I would say that it’s a byproduct of my network. I was fortunate that my company was willing to take a chance on me as a new leader. And this was partly because of the relationships that I built in my previous role. These were people in leadership positions that moved on, and I was then able to take over their position. I was able to secure their old roles because of the faith that they had in me. It was all because of the reputation I had built up for myself. T The most important thing is to make relationships within your current company, thinking about what that could eventually do for you in the future. > This idea of ownership is key. I don’t think a lot of people take enough ownership over their careers as individuals. > What that means is, don’t just assume that you’re going to naturally float up to positions above you. Be abundantly clear about what your career aspirations are, make them clear to those around you, and go for it! --- [How to Know if Your Company is InclusiveWorried that your organization isn’t doing enough to promote inclusivity and diversity? Thankfully, the world of SaaS is waking up to the long-term benefits of diversity and inclusivity.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/pexels-katie-rainbow----_---8614479.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-know-if-your-company-is-inclusive/) --- **Joannie Wang:** One of the things that really helped me progress in my career was having a mentor who advocated for me behind the scenes. We had a real give and take relationship, and it meant developing trust with each other. I got comfortable telling him about what my ambitions were and what my dreams were. Some of them were bold and it would be really embarrassing to tell someone that I didn’t have great trust in them. But I was being clear about my ambitions, as Rebecca said. It’s so important to have a vision for what you want to accomplish and what you want to do If all you want to do is have someone else above you giving directions then that’s fine as well, but if you’re not content with that you have to make that clear. You should also look to others as potential models for your career. A kind of template, if you will. ## If you could give advice to your 21 year old self, what would it be and why? **Harini Gokul:** Firstly, act like the leader you want to be at all times, regardless of where you sit at the table. I think in a way we have to live our future life as if we’re already there. You have to maintain a really deep understanding of who you are. Know yourself and act accordingly. I would also say to my 21 year old self, find yourself a coalition of sponsors that can amplify your perspective. Find those that are going to advocate for you and fight in your corner. Be a mentor right from the beginning. Give generously to others and you’ll find you’ll get a lot back in return. Finally, walk the walk as well as talk the talk. Talk is cheap, but the walk is hard. Make it clear what you want to be, yes, but also, take practical steps to get there. **Denise Garth:** First and foremost, you have the power. You make the decisions on where you want to be, and you need to take control of your own career. No one else is going to do it for you. Don't just stay in a job just because it's a good job If it’s not where you want to be in your career, switch it up. Who you work for, the people you interact with, that all influences your own reputation. You've got to own your brand. Take control of the way you appear to the world. That’s your brand. If you’re happy to stay in your company, if that’s part of your plan, then that’s fine, but don’t just stay there out of habit. If it’s not fitting into your career plan, start looking elsewhere. **Joannie Wang:** First, pay attention to the environment and the culture around you. You might be a totally badass individual contributor or leader, but if you’re not in an environment that fosters that kind of development, then it's really hard to move up. You have to make sure you’re in an environment that wants you to thrive and really has your best interests at heart. You can’t do it alone. How can you take your learnings gained from mentorships and think about how to use them to leverage your career. But also, be sure to give that back. Be a mentor and a leader to others. Whatever you're getting, make sure to give it back to the people below you. We wouldn't have gotten where we are without support from others, and we must always be ensuring that other people, particularly women, can get that boost they need. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) --- ## When working for a startup, what should you expect? **Denise Garth:** Expect that you may not have the same kind of salary and benefits, but you can get some benefits that you wouldn’t expect in a more established organization, such as stock ownership. Ask for some of the ownership or some of the stock, or the capital relative to that. The most valuable thing is that you get to have the experience of watching something grow from the ground up. Take ownership of that, both in terms of your role and in terms of what you ask for. **Rebecca Garber :** I think it's really just a question of weighing up the costs and benefits. or example, if having very clearly established hours is important to you at the core, if you have other ambitions, then maybe working for a startup isn’t really for you. On the other hand, if you’re really invested in this thing on a personal level. If you want to actively contribute to the company you’re with, then maybe being with a startup is a good fit for you. But you just might have to expect that some of those ‘normal things’ might be sacrificed in favor of helping the startup to thrive. In the end, it’s a trade-off. What’s really important to you? **Joannie Wang:** I would like to add just one more thing. Weigh the pros and cons. One thing to establish clearly is, what's the thing that would make you exit the company? Once you’ve established your limitations in this way, it can be much easier to make these important, career-defining decisions. The thing is, startups are inherently risky, and there are going to be pitfalls, and there’s going to be uncertainty along the way. But establish clearly, what is the thing that you absolutely cannot tolerate? Then make your decision accordingly. ## How did you deal with people questioning your authority as leaders? **Rebecca Garber:** I think it’s really easy for people who haven’t been in positions of leadership to judge leaders. They just have no idea of what it's about. The trick is to not let that get under your skin. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to pursue that and be able to maintain that professional front against all the adversity. The thing is, it isn’t for everyone, and there’s no shame in finding out that it’s not for you. But try it out and see if it’s for you. Just because you might decide that leadership isn’t for you, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be a valuable part of your organization elsewhere. **Denise Garth:** You’ve got to have strength and resilience, that’s for sure. I was put into a position of leading a corporate project. In this instance, a lot of these C-level executives were avoiding making a decision. They were actually avoiding showing up to meetings! I ended up writing a memo to the CEO that said, “This isn’t good enough. Things have to change.” The next day someone in the C-suite followed me to work, and I thought they were going to fire me. But they actually praised me for having written that memo. They respected me for taking that initiative. The lesson? Be bold. If things aren’t right, take action. --- *Enjoyed this article? Access the full, unedited version OnDemand with a [Future of SaaS membership plan.](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/)* ### How to scale your marketing for SMBs and enterprises URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-scale-your-marketing-for-smbs-and-enterprises/ Last updated: 2022-04-19T17:05:24.000Z When it comes to B2B marketing, you're not going to get very far with a 'one-size-fits-all-approach'. It's important to scale your marketing to your different customers, both in terms of how you address their different needs, but also the resources you allocate. Shawn McKee, CMO of rehab therapy platform WebPT, knows this all too well, as their customers can range from solo practitioners all the way up to country-spanning corporations. We cover: - ****[Shawn's professional background and role at WebPT](https://www.cmoalliance.io/how-to-scale-your-marketing-for-smbs-and-enterprises/#shawns-professional-background-and-role-at-webpt)** - ****[Why make the distinction between SMBs and enterprises?](https://www.cmoalliance.io/how-to-scale-your-marketing-for-smbs-and-enterprises/#why-make-the-distinction-between-smbs-and-enterprises)** - ****[Understanding your audiences](https://www.cmoalliance.io/how-to-scale-your-marketing-for-smbs-and-enterprises/#understanding-your-audiences)** - ****[ABM & aligning your team and other departments](https://www.cmoalliance.io/how-to-scale-your-marketing-for-smbs-and-enterprises/#abm-aligning-your-team-and-other-departments)** - ****[Tracking your customers' growth](https://www.cmoalliance.io/how-to-scale-your-marketing-for-smbs-and-enterprises/#tracking-your-customers-growth)** - ****[Golden rule of marketing to both SMBs and enterprises](https://www.cmoalliance.io/how-to-scale-your-marketing-for-smbs-and-enterprises/#golden-rule-of-marketing-to-both-smbs-and-enterprises)** ## **Shawn's professional background and role at WebPT** **Before we get into the nitty-gritty, how about you introduce yourself? Tell us a bit about your background and your role at WebPT.** I'm happy to do it. I've been at WebPT for a little over six years now. I joined in 2015, running all of the marketing department. I ran product marketing brands, ABM, digital communications, the full gamut. We also have an e-commerce part of the business where we conduct sales through a website. There was a very broad range of roles there. I'm also heavily involved in pricing, which I think is unique in a marketing role, although I don't think it should be. And I've been here for a while, and I’ve really seen it grow. The company's definitely changed a lot and evolved in my time here. I think one of the things that I'm excited to talk about today is that we started as an SMB company, and then moved upmarket. I talked to a lot of CMOs and marketing leaders, and that is a really common thing for SaaS companies to do. They start in one area, and then they try to move upmarket. I'm happy to share some of the trials and tribulations and lessons learned as we did that over the past four to five years. I've been in healthcare for about 10 years now. I started in sales, which I think is a great background for a marketing leader to understand what it's like to have to go and hunt and find your own leads. I also have a background in digital and content marketing, which I think really builds the foundation of a lot of what I do and the way I think about the funnel. I think with WebPT, we've done a load of great stuff here. We launched an ABM program, we evolved customer marketing from a single product, SMB marketing engine to a Multi-Product across the full market. We won a lot of awards across that timeframe. I'm happy to share some of the things we've done there and how we've become the market leader in our space. ****Awesome. Yeah, just thinking about your background, when people talk about CMOS needing to be generalists, how you definitely have to run the full gamut, you've covered pretty much everything that fits under the CMO role it seems.** Before WebPT, I was at a startup. And at one point, we were a four-person marketing team. I kind of jumped in and did everything. If we needed to set up an AdWords campaign, if we needed to build out our Marketo lead scoring, I’d be involved. The point is, I had a chance to really do a lot of different things. I ultimately ended up running the SDR team there. That kind of background gives me an ability to understand and know and ask questions of my team now that I maybe wouldn't necessarily be able to if I hadn’t had that experience. They're all better at their individual roles than I am. That's why I bring them in. But I know enough to be dangerous. And I think to ask the right questions. I think it's important to have a little bit of variety in your background if you’re trying to lead a whole team. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) --- ## **Why make the distinction between SMBs and enterprises?** ****So, let’s go right back to basics. Why is it important to make a distinction between marketing towards SMBs and enterprises? What are the differences that we need to keep in mind when marketing towards them?** I think there are a lot of differences. But I think at the highest level, this strategy can be the same or similar. I'm very much preoccupied with building thought leadership and partnership and credibility and community at the top and being that trusted partner in the industry. I think that really resonates, whether you're SMB or enterprise. But I think all the things underneath are different. You've got to know that each of these businesses has different people in it. In our world, we market for the SMB space. We market to physical therapists, it's an electronic medical record and practice management solution. In the SMB space, you've got someone who's an owner, operator, someone who got into this business because they care very much about the work they do. And then you've got their patients. They want to heal and help people. But they're trying to understand how to run a business as well. They have a doctorate in physical therapy, but they don't have an MBA, so they're not necessarily sure how to run their business. So, a lot of what we do there, from a thought leadership perspective, is think about what we need to understand better about their business. What can we help them with inside the four walls of their clinic? We have to be able to provide value to them. When you flip that to the enterprise side, you’ve got people coming from these large organizations, and they're leading, but they're not physical therapists most of the time. And so at that point, you want to help them understand and be a trusted partner in the industry. We may focus a little bit more on larger macro trends affecting the business. Leaders need to understand the key metrics, and they need to understand how to manage people. They may want to understand better how, for example, orthopedic surgeries are going to impact the future of outpatient physical therapy. I think the themes become different, and the stories become a little bit different, but the key elements in the key strategies stay the same. I think we also think a lot about the channels with which we go to these people and to market. Obviously, everything over the past couple of years has been more virtual and digital, but traditionally the channels you take to these different audiences are different. You want more exclusive in-person events for the enterprise, whereas webinars work really well and more in the SMB space. One of the things we're looking at right now is doing more podcasting because it does seem like something that does tend to bridge those two different audiences. It's always nice when you can find something that hits both. But you always have to look at where they are, and where they're consuming content. ****So, to put it in a marketing context, it sounds like the big difference is the gap between buyer persona and customer persona. You have these gaps between people paying for the product, and the people who are actually using the product, depending on the scale of business. And that's something you've got to address through marketing.** Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's really the classic buying team vs buying person, right? I don't care as much about the workflow, I care more about the data that I get out the back end. It’s very different from the account-based approach where you're getting champions and influencers and pulling that team together on the enterprise side. This is as opposed to the SMB side, where there are maybe two people that you've got to connect with. I think it's the execution that matters. I think it's a pretty simple concept to understand, but it is hard to execute. ****It's gonna be hard to execute because it's a lot of different people. You've got to know how to target them. How can you reach so many different people with messaging that's going to appeal to them?** I think it matters a lot. We have a dozen or so personas that we use and they're very detailed in their roles and demographic data. What do they think about change? What do they think about technology? What keeps them up at night? And that helps us to tailor those interactions. It's one thing to get in front of them, but the more important thing is to have a message that resonates. How do all those pieces tie together, and how do you weave that all back into a single story to solve their problem? And each piece matters differently for each individual. I think when you go into this enterprise space, the therapist cares very much about the EMR efficiency, whereas the buyer, the CFO, or the CEO, wants to know about efficiency. But they also get the benefit of higher employee NPS, less turnover, better retention. They also want to see the efficiency as well. By the way, it all ties the data back together for them. So, they can manage who's performing better and see those different things there. I think a lot of the messages are the same, but the priorities of those messages shift based on whether we’re talking about enterprise versus SMB, and who the target is. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/SaaScast-Ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=saascast-podcast) --- ## **Understanding your audiences** ****In an ideal world, you would have a specific campaign that presents those priorities to the person you're targeting in the right way. Is it possible if, for example, you’re low on resources? Is it possible to do a campaign that manages everyone at once? Are you just wasting your time trying to hit everyone at once with something that is maybe spread too thin?** I am a big, big fan of reusing, recycling, and repurposing. I think you want to build out a high-level messaging framework that can cover almost everybody. When you think about those specific benefits and points, I think that's the part where you start to play with the message. If we're launching a campaign, the three key things are efficiency, patient experience, and an ROI. You may see on the low end, or on the SMB side, ROI is less of a concern. They want to know how their patients are going to respond to it, and that they're going to be efficient. You may change the priority and focus a little bit more on the top end, focusing more on ROI. In which case you'd float that ROI to the front of the line. The other things still matter, but that's what they care about. And you may go into a little bit more detail in that and talk about how much they're going to increase your efficiency per day. So. I think you can use the same messages, but you just maybe have to reprioritize them a little bit. And that keeps you from having to do a load of rework, but it also makes it more relevant to each of those segments and personas. ****It's gonna be quite tricky to initially come up with those messages that can hit all those bases. What kind of process do you use to try and identify those key messages that could apply across different stages of business?** Yeah, so we do a pretty detailed industry survey every year. That gives us a lot of quantitative data around what people are looking for. What are the industry challenges? it breaks apart by segment and by role, etc. We started that in 2017. And we're getting around 7000 responses every year. That's really become the backbone of our market research. We do focus groups, individual wind loss, and data surveys. We work closely with the product team as they're building out features and products to understand where they’re headed. Then we do a market landscape overview and see how we're comparing next to competitors and see how that works. In our world, you have so much variation. On the low end, you've got a single therapist and a front desk person. On the high end, you’ve got 1000 clinics and thousands of employees. There's just so much variation there, and we see a lot of competitive variety as well. There are segments, different competitors, there's low and there’s mid-market. You can tell that story to each of those segments. It’s really just about getting to know customers and prospects in the market. For example, we did an executive steering committee about a month ago, where we pulled together about 10 of our largest customers and just asked them about what they were thinking. What were their concerns? What were their major challenges? What can we do better? You really just have to spend a lot of time with your customers trying to understand where they're trying to go. --- [What I’ve Learned From Mentoring 100 StartupsWhile the journey of each startup is truly unique and can not be compared to one, I couldn’t help myself from seeing very interesting patterns.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFarokh Shahabi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/lightbulb.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-ive-learned-from-mentoring-100-startups/) --- ## **ABM & aligning your team and other departments** ****That kind of research has got to be valuable to other parts of the business. You mentioned the product department, but it’s really valuable to sales as well. How important is it to share these ways of addressing different stage companies with other parts of the business? Are you communicating that to other teams?** Yeah, it’s very much a collaborative effort. The success team, for example, is in the revenue organization. It’s very much about not just trying to deliver that message of value early on, but also about how you carry that message all the way through. How do you tailor it to each of these segments, knowing that in the enterprise space, you have a lot of one-to-one contact? They've got a success manager that's maybe calling them every other week or once a month. Whereas on the SMB side, it's a little bit more reactive, right? It's a little bit more like ‘one-to-many.’ We have a very tight loop with product, success, and sales. We look for feedback, too. If we hear someone churned or we've had a couple of people churn to a competitor, we may look into how their message differs from ours. Or we may hear from sales that they’re hearing more people who are looking for a solution that can cover some other part of the industry. That may strike or trigger a kind of research project where we’re looking for potential new opportunities. Is it a canary in the coal mine? Or is it just a one-off story we're hearing? ****With your ABM team, how do they fit into how you market towards different stage companies? Do you keep ABM strictly for very high-level accounts? Or do you have it a bit more spread out between different business stages?** That's a great question. For us, we have six core segments in our core market. There's an overlap between ABM and the digital demand gen team. Those things start to mesh together because you've got targeted campaigns. What I have found though is, they are so different. The SMB side is a high-velocity model where you're just driving through leads and getting through as many as you can, focusing of course on quality and conversion rates. With the ABM side at the top end, you're talking about an 18 to 24 months sales cycle. The metrics are very different. Our ABM team focuses on the largest kind of two segments and then does some work in that middle segment as well. They also manage customer marketing as well. We know those segments, and we know so much about those prospects. It's not the same as this high velocity, SMB model. We understand who you are, we understand your pain points, and so we're going to customize that message to you. They really focus on that mid-market and above and on that customer marketing function. --- [Ensuring better alignment with customer successIn this article, I’m going to share with you some of the unique and new initiatives I developed to ensure better alignment with customer success.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSMichelle Wideman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/alignment-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/ensuring-better-alignment-with-customer-success/) --- ****With the ABM process and the SMB process being so different, it's tough to have people switching between the two like that. Is there a way that someone could do that in a very early stage startup?** ****Say they want to get ABM going in the future, but it's not in the pipeline. They haven't got the resources to get it set up right now. Is there a way that they could meet things in the middle to try and engage both a semi-ABM approach and that high-velocity model as well?** Yeah, I think it would be challenging. I think if you can get your campaigns hyper-targeted, you can be in that space where they are still very relevant. But you're not doing one-to-one campaigns. That becomes very time-consuming because each of those campaigns needs a load of research. You don't just want to send them a pair of socks, you want to send them something relevant. But ultimately, it always starts with who you're trying to connect with and what message you're trying to deliver? What story are you trying to tell them? I think the more narrowly you can focus on that, the more effective it's going to be. ****Definitely. Yeah, you’re always going to be trying to drill down from the big high concept story into the actual purpose of the story as well. It goes both ways, both in terms of targeting and how you develop the narratives and the stories you're trying to tell through your marketing.** ****Is that something that you've had to think about in setting up these processes? Is that something you've had to train your teams to do in order to be able to hit the right people with the right story beats so to speak?** Yeah, I think it's going back to that question of, who is this for? What's the problem we're trying to solve? What's the problem they're trying to solve? How do we help them with it? If someone knows they're looking for a specific product, then they know that's what they need. It becomes easy and straightforward to present that. It's a little harder when we have newer and more innovative products and you have to give a more detailed explanation maybe. Then it goes back to, why does it matter? If you're an SMB, you're more engaged with your patients, you're saving time, you're saving them time and you have more touchpoints. You're not just coming in and saying, “I'm going to do one visit, I'll see you in six months.” It's gonna be twice a week for four weeks, and you’re gonna make sure they finish their care plan, even though they might be feeling better at week three. Whereas, if you look at the other side of the coin, with enterprise, If only 30% of patients make it to the end of that course of care, how much money are you losing? So, there's a very clear ROI story. So, that's the story that you present on that end. You could say, “What if you made $1,500 more per patient? What would that look like?” And so, I think it goes back to educating the market on what their problem is. In that case, if a patient drops out, how does that affect patient outcomes? And how does that affect your revenue? That goes back to that question: What's the priority for each of those segments and what matters most to them? You find that out by talking to them and asking them questions and spending time in the market. ****When it comes to this and emerging technologies, how do you get to understand what the needs are? If you think about customer relationship management, how do you know what the pain points are that need to be addressed with that new product, if it's something that's brand new that people aren't familiar with? How do you go about finding out what the pain points are?** There are a couple of things we do. Firstly, we’ll be looking at the data and what's happening in the industry. With these publicly traded physical therapy companies, you can look at their data as well. That can give you a sense of whether there's an opportunity here and you can talk to them. In our industry survey, one of the things we do is start to say, what are your major challenges this year? We can collect that information as well. I don't want to give anything away, but that actually influences our roadmap as well. If we start to see a challenge, in a certain area, that may trigger something within the product team. It might trigger them to build something. That's where we are continuing to go is to figure out where the gaps are. From a reimbursement perspective, most of these clinics look at pay-per-visit, right? How much are they getting per visit now? They want to get to a value-based care model, but everything moves slowly toward that. And so they see reimbursement rates going down and their costs going up. How do you help them bridge that? Are there different things you can attach to that? Is it patient volume? Is it better coding per visit? Is it cache-based services? It's about understanding who the innovators are in the space and it’s about getting along with them and understanding what they're trying to do and what they're thinking about. It’s about identifying the challenges. What are the ways we can solve that with technology? ****When it comes to those innovators that you're identifying, do you tend to value the opinions of big enterprises more than SMBs when it comes to this kind of approach?** Yeah, I think so. It’s not always just big enterprises. But there are definitely different mindsets for each of these segments. I think you have a lot of these mid-markets that are looking at the big enterprises, and they're thinking, “How do I become them?” Or they want to get acquired by them. You see a lot of actual innovation there as well. It does tend to be in the mid-market or above. And then it's just sort of different business types. Some businesses are more risk-averse, whereas some are more experimental. You try to connect with those practices that are looking to shake things up and be a little bit more innovative. On the SMB side, it's just harder for them to do that because they're so immersed in the day-to-day rhythm that they don't necessarily have a chance to step back and wonder what it’d be like if they tried something new. I think it’s just important to understand who the thought leaders are in the industry. ## **Tracking your customers' growth** ****How do you keep track of your customers' growth? When is the time to switch the type of marketing you have? When do you know they've gone from an SMB to large-scale enterprise and know that you need to switch over to marketing them in different ways?** That's a great question. I think it's not easy unless you are really on the larger end. When you hit certain tiers, we start to recognize that we're shifting to more of a one-to-one than one-to-a dozen model. When we look at the SMB side, it's much harder to track because of the volume. About half of our market are single clinics. They may be adding therapists, but you wouldn't necessarily change the message until they became a much larger organization. It's hard to track that on the way up. For us, I think once you get to a certain size, it's easier to know. But when you're in SMB, it's pretty difficult to be able to see when someone crosses that threshold for us into mid-market or above. But there's also a lot of acquisition, I think, like most healthcare right now. So that’s also about changing how we approach things, right? ****Do you have to prepare the ground for when you're making the switch? Do you send an email? Or is it just a gradual thing where you start exposing the different types of messaging?** Ah, no, I think that's an interesting idea. I mean, when there are acquisitions we’ll send congratulatory emails, and we've sent champagne for the big acquisitions. But now there's a more subtle shift. If it's a major acquisition, we definitely call that out for them and congratulate them and probably send them something too. It’s about recognizing how their needs are shifting? Do we need to start telling them something different or bringing different products and solutions to them at that point? ****And those customer surveys must be helpful for keeping track of the needs and requirements of different customers. If they've said one thing one year, but in the next year, it's clear that the company has gone through growth, you need to address it when it comes to your marketing as well.** Yeah, absolutely I think that's the key. Once you get into that really large space, they become these bespoke campaigns. And so as long as you're keeping close with your customers and having conversations and you're doing quarterly business reviews, you can evolve that. I think, on the flip side, for new prospects, it can be more challenging to do that. But we're in a very tight-knit vertical. You hear a lot of what's going on around the campfire, and you can kind of get a sense of where things are going and be able to start to tailor your message to that. Trying to time those things appropriately can definitely change the message in the way you approach it. ****So, you almost have to be a bit of a fortune teller with it. You can predict how your customers are going to grow. That must be a very interesting exercise, trying to work out not just how your own business is growing, but how other people's businesses are as well.** Yeah, especially going through COVID. There are just different ways to grow, right? They all have these aggressive growth goals with strategies attached to them. They're just opening new clinics, and they've got a pattern and a template that they do. And then, instead of opening one at a time, you can buy up 30, right? And you’re always trying to understand who's on the market. Who's doing what? How do you position yourself to be on the platform of choice? It gets interesting when you talk about consolidation because you start to have different platforms in each of these groups. And so making sure that you're the platform of choice is important. If you get acquired, or one of your groups gets acquired by a different platform, you have the potential to lose that and get flipped to this other platform. So, yeah, it's definitely about marketing to both sides and thinking creatively about what the story that people need to hear is, as the industry itself is evolving very quickly. ## **Golden rule of marketing to both SMBs and enterprises** ****Awesome. Let's tie everything together. What is the golden rule of marketing to both SMBs and enterprises?** I think at the end of the day, everybody wakes up, and they have the challenges they're trying to solve and the day's problems. It could be metrics to your board, or it could be that you're worried about your front desk person quitting, because they seem unhappy. There's just so much variety there. I think it goes back to who you're serving, what they care about, and what problem you're trying to solve. If you get that right all these other things will start to cascade down. Things like, how do you connect with them? Where are they looking for information? Do they like video? Or do they like blogs? But I think if you can get that right, you can start to be someone that they trust, and that they go to for answers. And when you get yourself in that position, whether they're using your product today or not, when it's time for them to switch, then you'll be part of that consideration set. And so that's been the focus for me. It's about providing value. When the time comes, you're part of the discussion, you're at the table every time. I guess that's probably the way I would think about it. --- ****Want more expert advice? Why not become a member?** [Membership dashboard | Future of SaaSWant red hot SaaS insights from orgs like HubSpot, Intercom, Shopify, and more? Unlimited access to templates, presentations, frameworks, and more? Come on in.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/09/FoSaaS_meta_membership_dashboard.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/) ### How to utilize growth and increase your market share URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-utilize-growth-and-increase-your-market-share/ Last updated: 2022-11-29T12:04:55.000Z *This article is taken from a talk given at Future of SaaS festival 2020, when Jon Chang was Head of Shopping Growth at Klarna.* At Klarna, we’ve certainly built up our credibility in terms of utilizing growth. Don’t believe me? Well, we managed to go from 500,000 to 5 million users in one year. In this article, I’m going to show you how we did it. Hopefully, I can provide you with some first-hand insights that will allow you to put strategies in place for your own growth. **Here’s a break down of our main talking points** : - [About me and Klarna](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-utilize-growth-and-increase-your-market-share/#about-me-and-klarna) - [Our ultimate goal](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-utilize-growth-and-increase-your-market-share/#our-ultimate-goal) - [About martech](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-utilize-growth-and-increase-your-market-share/#about-martech) - [From B2B to D2C](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-utilize-growth-and-increase-your-market-share/#from-b2b-to-d2c) - [Examples of successful campaigns](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-utilize-growth-and-increase-your-market-share/#examples-of-successful-campaigns) - [To wrap up: spread the word](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-utilize-growth-and-increase-your-market-share/#to-wrap-up-spread-the-word) First, let me give you a little bit of background on myself and what I do at Klarna ## About me and Klarna I am leading the charge on global shopping growth for Klarna. That means using our mobile application to get tonnes of people to shop across all of our retailers with ‘buy now, pay later’ products. Additionally, I'm also a professor at New York University. I teach undergrad for marketing analytics and social media marketing. Prior to that, I was marketing director at Kickstarter and also worked on IBM Watson's martech and ad tech products. ### What we do Our mobile app allows you to shop anywhere, and it’s a great way to make checkouts and shopping smoother with way less friction. We use individual user interest data and behavioral data to curate the best products that seem best for consumers. We also have exclusive partnerships with integrated merchants that allow our technology to be directly embedded on their sites. This allows us to make the checkout process a lot faster. ### What Klarna can offer you We want to transform shopping into a social experience. You can create a wish list of your favorite products and then share it with others to spread the word! We have very purchase-oriented product features that include great new deals from our affiliates. This facilitates a one-click-copy-and-paste into the checkouts, so users can buy as soon as something catches their eye. We've productized the entire shopping experience, and made online shopping a more dynamic, spontaneous experience. ## Our ultimate goal Our goal is to specifically target what most people hate about shopping and seek an ease-of-use solution for this. We’re really focused on making shopping ubiquitous. This is our growth hack for market expansion. You know how it is with the growth of any business, you’re going to see dips and spikes along the way. At Klarna, we pride ourselves on being **agile** and **reactive.** We pride ourselves on looking at failure as an opportunity. Our motto is, “how fast can we fail, how fast can we learn?” [!["Becoming the world's favorite way to buy."](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/Klarna-1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-utlize-growth-and-increase-your-market-share) ### Launching a direct-to-mobile app We launched our mobile app, a direct-to-consumer platform. Our research showed that nearly all financial companies have a blue logo with a very similar consumer perception. It's astounding how they all just look the same, so we wanted to make ours stand out. As you can see from the image above, I think we succeeded at that. We want to enable shopping and the use of our app to go hand-in-hand, and we want it to be easy. Having the two be disjointed just makes it really hard to provide a really good user experience. Here’s another saying of ours, “Is this something a bank would do?” If the answer is yes, we don't do it. We don’t want our UX to feel as dry and arduous as banking. We want it to feel fun, easy and spontaneous. Yes, Klarna utilizes financial technology but we don’t want our user experience to feel like a financial experience. We actually created a handbook for our employees demonstrating that, which you can see below. 👇 [!["What would a bank do?" handbook](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/TGGmR149aVCcrIuXS4cnUvdJrUxenbY39_11Tr5IphWm7bJ8RsMs0OkcrVKds8YJTd4NENIJHJWMsG9l4mxwCUbiZjUUdsnlwyoxvAaJiPjd-M97lZ-qBH1j7D-8bcALsPZlKgHj)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-utlize-growth-and-increase-your-market-share) ### The great rebrand As you can see here, our rebrand didn’t have the utilitarian look of a financial app. It recreates that experience of walking into a really cool store. It’s colorful, bright and full of character. 👇 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/Klarna-3-1.jpg) Around this time, we launched our credit card and banking app loyalty programs. This was a major venture, and so it was essential to present this with the right look and feel that represented what we do. ## About martech To understand a little more about the use cases I’m going to present to you, it’s important that you understand a little more about our martech. Here's some information from research we conducted around the topic. ![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/4aTGCHTSZWEQ0lb6v8HOO_W0OfPTP5CnaNREI3EyFFY2gAGJc55kTcoqk0cHn12ke7JQ1iedkX2LV5PBxZkJhLed61dGqE7dDff0npz5bOv2LCccN0RQSIbRREqdYrQ8FEwTIPVy) That’s quite a scary stat, right? And if that wasn’t bad enough, take a look at this. ![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/X1nNVW3aAv0HU7dR9Ehxpx3f2KX0tECkZu7imCdTjjz1_LA5fZ8DR71vHWYEWVY2lgzvr3CE6w2IoGbOb0l06hvYnvpkSyO2oX1PNdCiFpZHwzDoPsFmHulkjANZEPMiwO-gQucc) And finally, just in case you weren’t convinced that there’s real cause for concern here: ![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/fSKowIGRQMhWFz0fvpT1uYIfK-ZPj7E3srTPwVar2XBr8mBsnHUrT41-x8pC7mqMOERbCL8nGfmg76YhoiTOG9IGkR4gXUw5tzIkvS1P9R0y94x1YHWKqBLW6DTwSjYTcyZNUhoq) ### What this means As someone who has quite a wealth of experience from having worked at IBM Watson, I can tell you that the same problems arise every time you try to implement any kind of advanced technology. It primarily comes down to three main components: lack of skill, lack of time and lack of trust. **Lack of time** We're seeing a rise in more technical marketers and developers on marketing teams. No doubt, these are talented people: data scientists and data engineers, people who can really work through API's. But the problem is that this kind of complex work simply requires a lot more time. Throwing more resources at a problem does not necessarily solve it. **Lack of skill** The thing is, you can have all the talented, technical-minded people you want on a marketing team, but if you’re not appropriately distributing the labor to the right people, then there’s just no point. Why do marketers, for example, spend time trying to do a task that an engineer could do much faster? I could play around with API's all day, and I'm sure eventually I could figure it out. But an engineering team will likely do it a lot faster. **Lack of trust** The real systemic issue is that many marketing folks simply do not believe that these technology solutions work better. People are simply unaware of the amazing potential of martech and SaaS products. ### Pirate metrics I'm assuming you've seen this chart before or something similar to it. This represents what we call, ‘pirate metrics’: - Acquisition - Activation - Retention - Referral - Revenue (ARRR! Get it?) 👇 [![Pirate metrics chart ](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/--QMIP4GV--tb0YmNeV7m_vXOFEY5tzO-wvL-57mPPEb0Q-of_kZBhIzuFuW2Texkn-80KT_L5JqglZ5boOu63yuwKF-XlV8B-gy2-qIpvcjBiqxHqpjcVWCbNi9OEMzjSSTXhvb)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-utlize-growth-and-increase-your-market-share) Our martech does align to pirate metrics. Going hand in hand with this is… ### Our tech stack Here’s a rundown of some of the platforms we use as part of our tech stack. 👇 [![Tech stack](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/GXxRWC07JcR6w6K7cVG-aNeJmCpu1omds-dn_7phMBMqj2rbVITP8ipWlRHL4v4K3SwvKRTdNR8alcgfOeNepGhi8yxZFPINNyLyYHF2jUFlOPJihIwYJ0pA2ht8b21Z0uFkSABw)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-utlize-growth-and-increase-your-market-share) Our big messaging platform is **braze**. We're able to use it for all of our CRM, which includes email, push notifications, desktop captures and in-app messages. It’s a really great tool. We flow a lot of data through our data lake using, **mparticle**, which is a data automation tool. We also have **Amplitude,** which is a Google Analytics-type tool, but it has direct integrations to make cohorts within the products. ## From B2B to D2C Going from B2B to D2C is always risky. In fact, at worst, it can be disastrous. You can see tons of examples of this across the internet. At Klarna, we really wanted to differentiate ourselves from a lot of the competition. Often, the common issue is that there’s a pretty big gap between what companies say and what they actually do. ### How we do it at Klarna At Klarna,we wanted to distinguish ourselves by actually delivering on what we promised. This involves transparency and authenticity. The way that we think about marketing is, you need to feed that whole automation beast. But how do you feed it? Well, not only do we need data, we also need new users. This is an essential part of our growth process. Without users, you’re not going to have a very compelling dataset, right? We also want to slowly increase market share in places where our competitors might not be able to grow quickly. ## Examples of successful campaigns The name of the game here is to think of marketing as taking advantage of temporary monopolies in small communities. In the specific example, I’m going to show you, we went after dog lovers. 👇 ### 1\. Dog lovers make great consumers [![Klarna dog campaign](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/Klarna-6.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-utlize-growth-and-increase-your-market-share) . In the top right, you can see how we painted over a section of wall in Brooklyn, and we put all these dog toys on the lower level of it. The acquisition and conversion that resulted from this mentality switch was really wonderful. When you think about it, this approach makes total sense. Dog lovers are not an audience competitors would instinctively think to target, yet when a dog lover sees a picture of a cute dog, they’re pretty likely to pay attention to it. We structured all partnerships, all marketing, and all of our CRM directly around what a dog owner might want to see. A temporary monopoly can be a powerful tool for permanently pulling in an audience you might never have been able to reach. In other words: **come for the cute dogs, stay for the superb online shopping experience.** [![Cosmopolitan campaign](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/DM6H7_pg5YV6JaG3qduE85Al2X22a6er931uyMFqtNVuroOpVgxJ4ImaYNwOBRSOgXCUlznku5YzxdtHGY0O7ODPzGGPgqp4VNWBgAbh-7YEEdKdWAnHJoOU5pm_hTwFnox_9gye)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-utlize-growth-and-increase-your-market-share) ### 2\. Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan has a massive audience base, so the partnership really did feel like a no-brainer. We wanted to launch a back-to-school campaign, but we didn’t want it to be your average back-to-school campaign. The average user receives 100 emails a day. This is **insane.** We just didn’t want to become yet another organization that ruins people's inboxes, so we decided to personalize the content, targeting the right content toward the right people. We didn't want it to just be another generic email campaign that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the person you're going after. ### 3\. Playing for Keeps This campaign pitted everyday gamers against professional gamers. The aim was that participants had to beat the gamers head to head. If they were able to defeat the professional gamer, they won part of their gear: controllers, console, the gaming chair, etc. Similar to the dog lover's campaign, this is another example of how you can find great success in targeting a market that’s very passionate about the things they love, and yet competitors might potentially overlook them. [![Playing for keeps campaign](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/23doORVVC5x9X3Uf0MpkIdR2BiSWAd7IYxtpE3g4ZM0zBKIhv6F-9uyBpkwSmPzkdwdZr-E1ASSXmAiRZsAMtcEkN86Gck0BH6uXSVQwyvq5Wcl7znHCamkwk9dJXEKjAth2afUm)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-utlize-growth-and-increase-your-market-share) ## To wrap up: spread the word Firstly, make sure your brand is representative of your organization’s identity. You might be fun, dynamic and exciting, but if your branding is the same shade of blue as every other financial-oriented platform, it’s going to be difficult to get anyone in. Secondly, make sure your team is fully equipped to embrace martech. Remember, it comes down to **skill**, **time** and **trust**. It’s not enough simply to have a lot of talented, tech-minded people on board. The right people have to be allocated to the right role, and they have to have the bandwidth to handle their tasks. Finally, increase your market share through **creative** targeting. Think outside the box and go after markets others might not have even thought of. In the end, it’s all about increasing your conversion rate, but for that to happen, you need to be spreading the word! ### What I’ve learned from mentoring 100 startups URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/what-ive-learned-from-mentoring-100-startups/ Last updated: 2022-04-12T17:22:54.000Z In the past 5 years, especially after selling my first startup, I’ve had the pleasure of working with various teams who were mostly in the very early stages of launching their startups. While the journey of each startup is truly unique and can not be compared to one, I couldn’t help myself from seeing very interesting patterns. I want to share with you these patterns, especially the ones that are **the main cause of failure for good ideas with brilliant teams.** > “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” > > Albert Einstein ## Team is everything The “team” is the #1 reason for failure in most startups and also the #1 reason for success in most successful companies. But why do so many startups fail because of their teams even before they’re launched? Here are the most common patterns: ### 1.The unbalanced teams The interesting phenomenon in a lot of young startups is that their teams are either all engineers & developers or no developers at all! For creating a successful startup, technical and marketing are two sides of the same coin. It’s so rare (less than 0.01%) that a startup can grow without having great people both in technical & marketing. So if you’re all developers, step out of your comfort zone and bring someone who can sell your vision to your team. If you’re all about business, know that outsourcing your product development can become your Achilles’ heel, especially after testing your MVP. ### **2\. Different visions** I saw many great teams fail, just because they had different ideas on what their product should be, what is the long-term goal, what is their exit strategy and what should be the true value of their company in a long run. You won’t believe how much just an afternoon meeting talking about all of these can help your startup. When you begin a startup, everything is hectic, nothing is clear, and that’s fine! Your ideas will change, you may pivot several times and change almost everything. But one thing should not be changed and that’s your shared vision. The teams with a shared vision will thrive and others will fail. So talk about your long-term goals very early. Talk about what success means in your business and for each member, talk about the true value and goals of your company in a long run. If your visions match, you’ve got the potential of creating something amazing, if not, remember that time is the most precious resource you have and shouldn't be wasted on mediocre products. ### 3\. Trust and compatibility If you don’t trust your team to get you where you want to go, there is no point in wasting anyone's time. Your team not only should trust each other, but they should “**look up to each other**”. Best teams that I’ve seen, each team member believes that the others are experts in their domains and they can constantly learn from each other. **Everyone likes to work with someone better than them**, and the best founders create a balanced team that each team member admires everyone else and is eager to learn from each other. This spirit of learning from each other and trust can be broken with “bad apples” very fast. If you let someone in your team that your team doesn’t respect, the spirit of collaboration will die and give birth to resentment. Remember, best people want to work with the best people and you shouldn’t accept mediocracy anywhere. > As a rule of thumb, I only hire people that are better than me, so I can not only learn from them, but I can trust them to be “leaders” of our teams as we grow. Another important point is that you always should invest heavily in your team. You’ll get exactly what you put in! ## Idea validation, gone wrong ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/idea-validation-1.png) After team, the biggest reason for failure in startups is that their ideas and assumptions are simply wrong. Most founders can save thousands of dollars and months of their lives by simply googling their ideas, their competitors and researching their target industry. ### 1.Know thy competitors! You won’t believe how many founders I’ve met that didn’t even know their biggest competitors. Of course, all of them without exception failed within a few months. When you’re working on a new product, the first question that should answer yourself is that “what are people using right now instead of my product?”. Most founders only think that other startups & companies can be their competitors. This is false. Everything can be your competitor. A piece of paper can be your competition! A good practice is to study the history of your product. Early in the product management game, you realize there is **nothing that can be called entirely new**. Everything (and I mean “everything”) we created so far, is a transformation of something else that we either created or found in the world. Creation or invention is not to create something from 0, it is to create something that is much much better than existing solutions. It should be A LOT better, otherwise, it’s called an improvement. Ask yourself what is my product based on? it’s impossible not to find anything, if you didn’t, you’re not looking at your idea in the right way. ### 2\. No competition is too big or too small Most founders either mock and underestimate their competitors and don’t take them seriously or they’re way too afraid of them and constantly are looking to distance themselves from them. both are dangerous roads. There is a reason that your competitors became big and have a large share of the market. If they did everything wrong, how did they get to where they’re today? A good practice is to monitor your competitors very closely. **Use their mistakes as your leverage** and learn from their good practices. Founders should be experts in the industry that they’re working on. You can’t create the next big event management software without having experience and deep knowledge of how the event industry works. You cannot just be good at coding, you need to be the master of your own industry. In other words, you need to really understand the good, the bad, and the ugly truth of your industry, especially the pricing, players, and trends. ### 3\. Building yet another x There should be a very good reason why **you* are building your startup, not someone else. There should be a good answer to what if someone else with more money, just copy everything we have and launches a competitor? If you meet these criteria, you’re probably on the right path: ![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*u_GzJb8MVcpPis-O_suenQ.jpeg) Source: ProductHunt Creating your “unique value proposition” can be hard but in my experience, most successful startups don’t find theirs until after they’re launched! **Feedback of your initial customers, and feedback of people who said no to your products, will shape your unique value proposition.** There is a reason why the co-founder of Slack personally went to the office of every one of their first customers and installed Slack for them or why Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic & WordPress, personally installed WordPress for hundreds of their customers when they began. > “Great companies have secrets: specific reasons for success that other people don’t see.” They wanted to see real, unsolicited feedback from their early adopters. They wanted to see what people love about them and what they didn’t. That way, they could invest in the right unique value proposition, the real reason behind why people choose you over your competition. ### 4\. Focus on creating values for your users, not features A lot of young startups are focused on developing new, exciting features that their competitors don’t have for some reason. They think these features will set them apart but more often than not, those same features will cause too much complexity in their products. Almost always there is a reason why your competitors don’t have some features. It’s not because it was overlooked, it’s most likely because either it was developed and people didn’t use it, or because there was a conflict with their other features or business models. It’s very important to focus on features that are directly linked with your unique value proposition and ignore other impulses. Many tech founders drive their startups over the cliff when they add too many new features. A good practice is that always state the benefit and value of every feature you want to create, both internally with your team and for when you’re announcing them. By stating their benefits, people are more likely to understand them and give them a try. By stating their benefits clearly, you can make your features attractive and discover what’s not working. If a feature cannot clearly be communicated via its benefits, something is wrong. ![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0*MO5f4tnoLo8nd2FV) ### 5\. Localisation vs globalisation This conflict rises especially in startups that have great local market size. Should you focus on providing a great, localized answer and capture the market from international players who are not familiar as you with your market? Or should you create a global startup and compete with global players? Both of these options can be good options, but you have to choose, you can’t do both. Your startup vision should either be local or global. I worked with many great startups in startup ecosystems of Germany, Turkey, Russia, Pakistan & India that with the focus of capturing the local market, they’re now one of the big players in their market. Their focus on answering local needs is their value advantage and their winning card when an international player wants to enter the market. If you’re big enough, instead of competing with you, international players tend to acquire you, it’s much cheaper for them. You can start with your local market and then grow to be a global player, but most startups that try this, fail. The reason is their vision, product, and unique value proposition from the start is focused on the local market and that’s a slippery slope. If you want to create a global player, think globally from the start, don’t compromise your product and your vision for your niche market. If you compromise and become tool local while trying to be global, you most probably lose both worlds. ## Startups should be agile! This should be obvious, but unfortunately, it’s not for a lot of founders. I’ve met many founders that said they’re very agile but without noticing their hypocrisy, spent months on market research or delayed the launch of their MVP for months. Again, time is your most precious resource. The only thing you should care about is the results. Most startups fail **before* the launch of their MVP and that’s crazy. They run out of money, frustration and conflicts arise in the team because they don’t see the results, and ultimately, minor details cloud over what matters. > The outcome matters more than the process. Early days of every startup, everyone is doing everything and there are no clear roles and responsibilities. As you grow, roles become more clear and you’ll have more and more processes to manage your work. Most successful founders that I know constantly are killing unnecessary processes in their organization instead of adding to them. You shouldn’t care about using the latest cool tools & technologies, using OKR or SCRUM, or any other methods, there are just means to an end. If something is working, great, if not, change it fast, measure the outcome, if better, keep it, if not, revert. Startups grow first and then their processes grow, not the other way around. Agility and the ability to give much better customer support when you’re small, are any founder's biggest allies when competing with big names who can’t be as agile as you and can’t provide deep customer support, simply because they have too many customers. Many first-time founders waste their time on tasks that seem pretty important, but they don’t have any real value. Registering a company, patents, etc. before launching and having a certain amount of customers is a prime example. Other examples of wasting time are attending events and pitch competitions before launch and without clear goals. Also creating advisory boards, and spending time and money on professional consultation is pretty common in inexperienced founders. ## Going after investment in wrong times Another example of wasting time is going after investors before launching. No respectable VC or accelerator will invest in a startup before the launch of their MVP and have at least a few customers. Even if a startup is high-tech or hardware-based, and the cost of creating MVP is too much, VCs like to see letters of intent from real potential customers. This is important for VCs not for their monetary value, but it’s proof that you know your market, can get customers and you’re serious about your business. Someone might say that they saw many startups raise millions before their launch. The truth is that those startups didn’t raise any money on their ideas, but because of their founders. Serial entrepreneurs and ex-C-level executives of big enterprises have a proven track record and many VCs are eager to bet that they can replicate their success again. This flowchart shows how most VCs evaluate the startups that pitch for them: ![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*_6_Rgn5_tYugfGJuDvCj_A.jpeg) Another pattern between some first-time founders is they’re afraid their idea gets stolen and sometimes ask VCs & mentors for NDAs! This is a sign of an inexperienced founder with bad judgment and it’s usually a nail of death for that startup. Ideas are very powerful but they’re worthless without execution. As Derek Sivers wrote in his book “Anything you want”: ![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*6rk85SNWVBNC5gnWh6AHdQ.jpeg) ## Pivot without shame Almost all successful startups you know pivoted in their journey multiple times and their ideas today are nothing like their ideas when they started. One of the reasons that agility is so important is that it enables you to pivot fast to reach product-market fit. We’re not married to our ideas, if the feedback is not good enough, we need to change again and again until our users really love us. They show this love by growing our product with their word of mouth. Pivot until you have a community of fans and you reach organic growth. Pivoting can be very tricky too. If you don’t analyze the change in the feedback of your customers and community, you might miss great opportunities or worse than that, pivot off a cliff. > Great pivots happen when startups really understand the hidden, underlying “need” of their users from what they say they “want”. There is a famous quote attributed to Henry Ford: **“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”** Customers can easily describe a problem they’re having — in this case, wanting to get somewhere faster — but not the best solution. Best pivots create the best solution and promote the real “value”, the real “benefits” to get their users to fall in love with them. --- ****Want more expert advice? Why not become a member?** [Membership dashboard | Future of SaaSWant red hot SaaS insights from orgs like HubSpot, Intercom, Shopify, and more? Unlimited access to templates, presentations, frameworks, and more? Come on in.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/09/FoSaaS_meta_membership_dashboard.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/) ### Ensuring better alignment with customer success URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/ensuring-better-alignment-with-customer-success/ Last updated: 2022-04-08T16:37:50.000Z My name's ****Michelle Wideman**. Guess what? I think I have the best job in the world! That’s because I’m the **Chief Customer Officer** at ****Onna**. Why’s it the best job in the world? Well, because I’m responsible for ensuring our customers are successful from the time of purchase right through their customer journey. In this article, I’m going to share with you some of the unique and new initiatives I developed to ensure better alignment with customer success. To make it real easy-to-follow, I’m gonna break it down into a few key talking points. 👇 ## **Key talking points** - Effective alignment: let’s get everyone on board - Getting CS in early - Ensuring a smooth transition - Finding that balance between cross-functional teams - Some practical tips ## **Effective alignment: let’s get everyone on board** It's super important for customer success to get involved early on in the sales cycle. Now, you can't do this for everyone, especially when you're trying to scale your organization. But, for larger accounts, we want to engage our customer success directors early on in the sales cycle. For our smaller account, we have content created that the Account Executives (AEs) use when they first touch base with a customer. I've had customers tell me they went with us over a different vendor because they truly felt like we were going to partner with someone throughout their entire journey. This means that, in the case of our competitor, the customer felt like they’d lost interest in them once they’d made the sale. This is unacceptable. First impressions are everything! And starting up with new software can be really overwhelming. That’s why, in our space, it’s more crucial than ever for customer success to be there as a guide to a new potential customer. ## **Getting customer success in early** The key here is really in the content. We have to create content that any AE can use at any point in time to say confidently to a new customer: this is what success is. Here's why we want to become your trusted advisor. That sounds great, right? But it’s important that a customer doesn’t just feel like you're using fluffy language to lull them in. You have to get to know the customer’s potential pain points and be able to effectively address them. What is it that your product is offering? How will it benefit them? Now, there’s a bit more of a challenge in ensuring a smooth handoff from the pre-sales to the post-sales process. At Onna, we have different triggers set in our systems as to when the customer success person will get involved in the presale cycle. Right before a deal closes, the CS person is actually responsible for scheduling an internal onboarding call to ensure that all the data t is shared with the CS person. ### **The benefit of bringing in customer success early** You’ll be amazed at how much of a game-changer bringing CS in early can be! 🤯 It helps to build that trust with the customer throughout the customer lifecycle. In some cases, your customer is taking a big leap of faith. They want to know that there’s someone on the end to catch them if they stumble. ## **Ensuring a smooth transition** Change can be scary, but also really exciting! For our AEs, sometimes this can be super easy to handle with customers. It’s a little bit harder to ensure we’re setting up an internal handoff call for onboarding. Just because you’ve closed that deal doesn’t mean it’s all plain sailing from there! At Onna, we'll set up an internal onboarding call. That's to ensure that all of the information that we have collected in the pre-sales process is shared with the success team. We want to make sure we've got an alignment on why a customer is originally purchasing, and what their ultimate goals are. Nothing's gonna look worse for a customer! Imagine a bunch of people from different departments coming in and asking questions as if they haven’t been sharing information with each other. Pretty soon you can end up in a situation where the CS person had a great chat with the customer initially, but they’ve lost their potential prospect! The customer needs to feel like we've listened to them, and that we know where they want to go. Also, going back to first impressions, ## **Finding that balance between cross-functional teams** it's *so* important to have those swim lanes between different departments! Think of them like swimmers: separate but synchronized. Everyone in the team knows that their colleagues are going to deal with the information you’ve handed them without you having to bug them too much! And, more importantly, know where to go. At Onna, we spend a lot of time working on our onboarding content. When a customer joins, we can say: Okay, here’s your: - Customer success team - Your org chart - Here's your AE - Here's your renewal person, with their roles and responsibilities - Your tech support Like the cross-functional work between your teams, the onboarding process moves like a well-oiled machine. And here you’ve handed them an instruction manual on how it all works! That really helps alleviate any confusion externally. ## **Practical tips** Firstly, you need to find folks that want to play well in the sandbox. But they also need to be people that can handle a lot of pressure! It might sound like a frilly title, but, make no mistake, customer success is a hard job! Secondly, we need to build out our empathy! If you can’t authentically empathize with a potential customer’s pain points, customers are going to pick up on that! They’re going to go elsewhere. Finally, hire people that have grit, but also, hire people that can get along with anyone. You’re gonna meet customers that are difficult, and it’s important to coach your team to be able to deal with that. Coach your team to find that common bond with everyone. Sometimes it’s those more demanding accounts that separate good CS from great CS. And with a great team behind you, you get to enjoy a shared sense of success with your team. Don’t just try to be a hero of the story, empower those that you work with! --- ****Want more expert advice? Why not become a member?** [Membership dashboard | Future of SaaSWant red hot SaaS insights from orgs like HubSpot, Intercom, Shopify, and more? Unlimited access to templates, presentations, frameworks, and more? Come on in.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/09/FoSaaS_meta_membership_dashboard.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/) ### How to accelerate product adoption and drive user confidence during onboarding URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-accelerate-product-adoption-and-drive-user-confidence-during-onboarding/ Last updated: 2022-04-06T13:57:38.000Z Much like making a batch of pancakes, most first attempts aren't as good as the ones to follow. In fact, we’re big advocates of multiple drafts and taking time to perfect your work. The same principles can be applied to customer success; with each interaction, you’re closer to better understanding your customer base, and honing a stronger customer success strategy. For any customer success team in its early stages, a trusty, well-oiled customer onboarding process is something you’ll inevitably iron out in time; no one’s expecting you to get it right straight away. That being said, when it comes to onboarding a new customer, you don’t have that much leeway for making mistakes. In this crucial stage, first impressions most certainly *do* count. In this article, we're going to delve into: - Why product adoption should be a company-wide initiative - How customer success teams can enhance user confidence and product adoption - Tips from CS experts Shall we get started? ## **Product adoption should be a company-wide initiative** Whilst CS plays a critical role in the overall success of a product, there are a number of contributing factors – and departments – that play a supporting role in product adoption and engagement. The focus here is deliverability. An under-confident user with next-to-no support can cause serious damage to your engagement rate. If left untreated, this low engagement can deteriorate further and cause customer churn. However, these issues aren’t isolated to customer success teams. It’s down to your product development team to design a functional, vetted, industry-leading product or service. Further down the sales funnel, the onus is on marketing to advertise – and sales to sell – this product in a truthful way that aligns customer expectations with the reality of the product. If a product’s missing key features or the user experience is poor, that can lead to a low product adoption rate and subpar engagement. Likewise, if a customer has been promised ‘X, Y, and Z’ and in reality, these points aren’t actionable, then this too can cause low adoption and engagement. A simple way to get around this? Ensure your company advocates cross-departmental collaboration. Assuming everything in the product back-end is kosher, then getting the customers to feel at ease with your product falls at the feet of the customer success team. --- [20 tried and tested customer retention tipsIf you’re thinking of putting a customer retention strategy in place or updating an existing one, here are 20 top retention tips from the best customer success pros in the business.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/cathryn-lavery-fMD_Cru6OTk-unsplash--1---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-tried-and-tested-customer-retention-tips/) --- ## **How can customer success teams enhance user confidence and product engagement?** In the world of customer success, this is the million-dollar question. Familiarizing the customer with your product is at the heart of customer onboarding. Did you know that [two-thirds](https://www.zendesk.com/resources/why-companies-should-invest-in-the-customer-experience/) of consumers leave companies because of poor customer service? That’s a pretty scary statistic, but it goes to show just how important clear, supportive communication is during the post-conversion stage. Whether you’re a Customer Success Manager, VP of Customer Success, or even Head of Customer Success, it’ll be your prerogative to support the customers’ product induction to set them up for future success with it. The aim is to demonstrate value with the product, and explain how it can be used to alleviate their previous pain points. That being said, there’s a careful balance between providing resources and support, and overwhelming the customer with information. No one wants to be bombarded with excessive ‘how-to’s; in some cases, this can make the product seem more complicated than it is! Want to read some insights into the world of onboarding from some CS experts. Catch the below. ### **Do you have any tips for accelerating production adoption and driving user confidence during the onboarding stage?** ****Arun Kumar, Head of Renewals & Customer Success at NetApp** > *“We should always ensure we agree with* [*customers on success metrics*](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/customer-success-metrics/) *as early as possible to ensure we can measure the progress and proactively monitor it for any red flags or growth opportunities. Clearly defined success metrics avoid confusion and provide a consistent benchmark where the customer has an equal say.”* ****Bryant McCombs, Manager of Customer Success at MongoDB** > *“Make sure your onboarding content is* [*relevant*](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/leveraging-technology-to-balance-scale-and-personalization/) *to what the customer is trying to accomplish. Boilerplate onboardings are less effective and can be viewed as a waste of time by our customers.* > *“It’s also important to* [*set up actionable next steps*](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/actionable-advice-for-setting-up-customer-success-led-mutual-engagement-plans/) *throughout and at the completion of your onboarding that is tied to adoption. This gives you an opportunity to validate your customer's interest in certain features and functionalities to provide momentum for follow-up discussions.”* ****Brian Nicholls, VP of Customer Success at UserIQ** > *“In my experience, the more straightforward you can make onboarding, the better. Don’t try to teach every component of your product to your customer in the first 90 days. Pick two to three outcomes they want, achieve those at **110%*, then move to your next features.”* ****Ryan Noakes, Customer Success Manager at SAI360** > *“Get to know the customer at a really* [*deep level*](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/how-to-use-deep-listening-for-customer-success/)*. Understand who they are, their challenges, and their goals. Understand the industry and start to build up best practices and examples of other configurations/ deployments. Being a resource for any 'how-to' questions they have is really key as part of that onboarding phase. Customers need to have a strong relationship and trust with their CSMs and what better way than to really understand them.* > *“For me, increasing product adoption needs to happen naturally and cannot be forced. Go at it with honesty – from a place of genuinely wanting to help them. As part of the regular conversation you have with your customers, discussions like these will come up naturally.* > *“As you advise, you’ll notice if you need to deploy extra modules or not, and you should see an increase in adoption. Customers increasing their usage of an application will happen over time if they have an allocated CSM. It’s up to the CSM to have open, unscripted conversations that are tailored to them as a customer, their business, and their industry.”* ****Michelle Wideman, Chief Customer Officer at Onna** > *“The* [*pre-sales to post-sales transition*](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/better-together-sales-and-customer-success/) *is so important to drive confidence during the onboarding stage. During onboarding, you present what you've learned about the customer in the pre-sales cycle – their pain points and overall goals. This is your understanding of why the customer bought now and the business outcomes you are trying to achieve.* > *“We're going to ensure we work towards the success of that user case, by outlining how we're going to do achieve this success, as well as understanding the customer’s long-term goals, setting the stage for long-term success.* > *“As for accelerating product adoption, being proactive and having the ability to track and trigger usage metrics by milestones or timelines is a huge way to be more proactive with customers and ensure user adoption.”* --- [B2B customer renewals (Q&A with Freshworks)Kaitlyn Bate, Senior Director, Global Customer Experience Strategy, Freshworks took the time to answer some audience questions after her presentation: A Practical Playbook to B2B Customer Renewal at this year’s SaaS Metrics Summit.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/07/damian-zaleski-RYyr-k3Ysqg-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/b2b-customer-renewals-q-a-with-freshworks/) --- ## **To wrap up** It’s clear that accelerating adoption is something that has to happen organically – you can’t force the customer’s hand, or they’ll be put off. In some ways, a successful customer onboarding strategy follows the guidelines of the domino effect; if the customer feels confident with your product, they’re more likely to want to continue using it. As frustrating as it might seem, there isn’t a clear-cut, ‘one-size-fits-all’ life hack when it comes to adoption and engagement. It’s very much a trial and error, and dependent on what the individual customer needs from your product. To reflect on the compelling insights of our Ones to Watch practitioners, it seems like implementing trackable milestones to measure is highly advocated, along with keeping your onboarding process as straightforward as possible. Overwhelming customers with extraneous steps only complicates what should be an enjoyable process. Every case is different, but if you apply clear, well-defined metrics to your customer’s onboarding process, married with an empathetic and proactive approach, your customers will be far more likely to *want* to continue using your product. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How did we raise $3M pre-product… with a simple slide deck? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-did-we-raise-3m-pre-product-with-a-simple-slide-deck/ Last updated: 2022-04-05T18:13:50.000Z A couple of months ago, we raised at Claap a $3M pre-seed with Headline (Hello 👋), LocalGlobe (Heyy 👋🏽) and 30 business angels after having received around 20 term sheets in 3 weeks. I’m often asked how we did it by new founders. So often that I finally decided to apply Matt Mochary’s advice in The **Great CEO Within* (I’m not sure to be a better CEO now, but the book is good!) which says: ‘If you say it twice, write it’. So here it is, let’s write it 🙃 I’ll describe below the whole process, providing our deck & data rooms, listing practical advice that you can apply before, during and after the roadshow. May this help you in this draining journey! ## Before the roadshow You should prepare your round in advance. This advice looks straightforward. It is not. Everything you don’t do or decide before will be something that you’ll have on your plate later when you are at the middle of the storm. Pretty complex when you already have 10 calls a day. --- [Building a solid network to support othersSharpening up that resume will take you a long way, but it might not be as valuable as a single glowing recommendation from a powerful professional ally.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAnthony Witherspoon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/04/nasa-Q1p7bh3SHj8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-a-solid-network-to-support-others/) --- ### 👶 Be clear with your family that this gonna be hectic I was a happy father of a 9 months old baby when we started the roadshow and I was not prepared to such an intensity. I didn’t inform my wife about what was coming. I was naive. This put pressure on both of us. Be clear with your family that you are about to spend time in a washing machine. As always, it is better to set clear expectations. ### 🦉 Get to know how the VC market works Unless you already know the VC market like your pocket, you should spend some time to understand how it works. What are the players out there? What is their focus and area of expertise? What are the specificities of the different rounds? If you happen to know anyone to guide you through this mess, this is even better. You’ll need this knowledge to successfully kickstart discussions and pick the good VC for you. To be honest, I didn’t know anything about VCs (my level was like: but who the hell are Accel?) and our preparation phase was key to give me confidence and guidance over the process. ### 🎯 Set up your objectives and decision criteria Define your expectations for the round. People usually focus on the sole amount, but to be honest, when you are in pre-seed and seed rounds, the VCs themselves will mostly decide for the amount (more on it in the next section). More important for you: what type of VC do you want? Do you even want VCs in your captable? Which structure of deal? How much dilution are you ready to accept? Do you want one or many funds? Some angels? Do you plan to apply for YC or another accelerator at one point? For us for instance, the main conditions where that we wanted early stage VCs, with a strong international exposure, with 2 VCs co-leading the round and with a big community of angels to support our Product Led Growth strategy. Secondary considerations: we were ready to have a fully priced round as it’s straightforward at this stage, even though a lot of founders prefer a convertible round. Last but not least, we wanted to apply to Y Combinator at one point — which comes with a 7% dilution, so we were particularly picky regarding the dilution in this first round. In the end, we decided not to go to YC to skip this additional dilution, but this is another story. All this might sound blurry for you. In that case, come back to the previous step and practice. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/SaaScast-Ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=saascast-podcast) --- ### 🏰 Master your presentation You should now have a pretty good visibility on your expectations to close the round. It’s time to sharpen your pitch. At this early stage, you’ll usually have limited to no data room and the VCs will mostly focus on (i) your past experience and (ii) your pitch. Make them dream. On (i), make sure to find a founder story that clearly streamlines why the problem you try to fix resonates with your background and why you are the most relevant person on earth to fix it. Repeat it, finetune it, cut it. It should be no more than 3 to 5 minutes and shed light on your strengths (don’t be too humble). Test it with your grandma — if she doesn’t understand, simplify it. No one cares about your extensive CV tour. People need a great story, give them one. On (ii), same advice apply. Make your pitch dead simple. Work on your narrative until perfection. It needs to be as sharp as a movie script.Name your enemy and position your category as the lightsaber that is going to help people beat this enemy. For us, the enemy was back-to-back meetings. --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/FoSaaS-SaaS-Stream-Ad.png) --- The solution is async meetings. Simple structure makes it easy for people to repeat your pitch and speak about your company. You can then show what you bring vs the old way with a Before/After structure. And don’t forget use cases and quotes. You’ll have 10 versions of your pitch, this is normal. Iterate, test, cut, until you have a 10 to 15 slides sharp story. You can then learn it by heart. It will help, really. And by the way, you grandma should also understand your pitch. Don’t forget that VCs must understand your vision in 10 minutes, and they are not expert in your industry. Here is our [pitch](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1A0zRp4Nd4s3kIknZBisyEBP3Bt-ayrZdEDd9HIVpNgU/) for reference. ### ⚙️ Prepare a data room When we raised our pre-seed round, we more or less had nothing to show because, well, we were pre-product. Wrong. We were pre-product, but we already had key market insights to back our vision. Whatever you have on your side, write a document to support your pitch that you’ll send to VCs at the end of the meetings. The ones who don’t care won’t read it. The ones who need more details will love it. Everyone is happy. Bonus: it helps you structure your thoughts and your pitch. Here is our [data room](https://www.notion.so/Claap-Positioning-Strategy-Pre-seed-2b2ac1b6e3fc4719893d03bf62b05cb0). ### 💪 Train with secondary VCs It’s now time to practice for real. After all, your grandma won’t give you money. But don’t rush too fast. Find some VCs that you don’t really target and go train with them. This step was key for us. Our first pitches were terrible. Honestly. We would have never raised without a couple of broken pitches beforehand. ### 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 Build your tribe VCs need some insights to believe in your project. They’ll focus on your background and on your pitch. Sure. But they’ll also be relieved if you are already backed with great people. Find in your network some angels ready to follow you. Be bullish, ask intros, contact on Linkedin some influencers in your industry. It’s a flying wheel. You’ll need some fish to catch bigger fish, and the more you have, the more you get. At Claap, we started with our very close network by convincing our former CEOs at Ogury, fifty-five and 360Learning to invest. Step-by-step, we leveraged them to get more angels, so that we already had secured 200k euros when we pitched our first VCs. ### 👀 Get visible Invite all the VCs you’re interested in on Linkedin or Twitter in the previous couple of months. This will ensure that when you are about to start your round, all of them are informed from day 1\. This is what we did at Claap. 1 hour after our Linkedin post, we’d been contacted by 3 or 4 VCs already. This is their job to find you so… help them! Here is the [list](https://www.notion.so/300-VC-List-79614fcac8fc482e821b04cba24977b0) we used, from [gritt.io](https://gritt.io/basic/account). ### ⚡ Polish the launch of your roadshow This is it. You should be all prepared now. What you just need is to create momentum to launch your roadshow and make some noise. Can be the release of a website, a new product or… a simple Linkedin post announcing that you are working on something new. At Claap, we had a 2 step lightning strike announcement to launch our round. We first released a [meeting calculator](https://www.claap.io/meeting-calculator-app) to let people feel the pain and get some virality. We then wrote a simple [Linkedin post](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/robin-bonduelle-6812a626%5Fasynchronousmeeting-workfromanywhere-zoomfatigue-activity-6752170658236526592-QHmQ) with our new role. We had 30k+ views on the post and got hundreds of subscribers in 1 day, which certainly helped to get VCs’ attention. Yes, this is a marketing campaign 🙂 ## During the roadshow ### Don’t ask for too much money. If VCs want you, they will put more money on the table. Better to succeed in the round even if it’s smaller than to announce a big objective and not reach it. At Claap, we expected to raise 300k at first. Competition did the rest: we got a first time sheet of around 1M and ended up with 3M. ### ⚡Put momentum & create FOMO Probably the trickiest part. Meet as most VCs as possible that meet your criteria in the shortest amount of time. Never leave a call without clear next steps. Make them feel that they are not alone and that they need to move fast if they don’t want to miss the opportunity. Easier said than done, especially when you don’t have option B. This is where your initial followers & training will help. And don’t forget, the hardest is to get the first term sheet. Others will follow. By the way, always send a follow up with your deck and data room right after the call. ### 💌 Choose the best offer… for you! You know your criteria and received some offers. It’s now time to make the final decision. Don’t forget your initial objectives. Beyond theory, think about the fit with the investor more than the brand. It’s gonna be a long journey and you want someone that will pump you along the way. Ask for references. It’s common practice and will help you build some network. Again, don’t focus on money only. There are a lot of terms in a term sheet, you should not optimize only about amount and dilution. But there is enough material here for a whole new article. And when you made your selection, just stop overthinking and come back on the execution (see next section). At Claap, we had a lot of term sheets and we received some offers you don’t refuse like Accel. We took way too much time to make our final decision and fully be back on track. We lost precious time on execution. # After the roadshow You did it. Congrats. But don’t forget that this is just the beginning. As Daniel Nathan told me back then: everyone like you but you didn’t do anything yet. Everything remains to be done. And people will forget you in a minute. He was true. Things really start only when you close the round. Get some fresh air, clean your objectives and your planning, and get back to work 🤓 Signing the term sheet doesn’t close the round. You’ll need to agree with your investors on the final shareholder agreement. Make sure to get some legal advice. Always better to have a lawyer to help you and deal with the VC’s lawyers. Board members, ESOP, Bad leaver, Exits… There is plenty to deal with. So don’t be too greedy on lawyer fees, let the pros handle it and get back to work. Take advantage of your round to communicate on your venture. After all, this is one of the main benefits when you raise these days. And an article in Sifted or Tech Crunch will never harm you. Well… It’s time for me to wish you good luck! --- ****Want more expert advice? Why not become a member?** [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The SOC 2 Bible [eBook] URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-soc-2-bible-everything-you-need-to-know-about-compliance/ Last updated: 2022-05-04T14:08:27.000Z ### Make sure *your* information is protected [Download eBook](https://form.typeform.com/to/J5fW4kJw?typeform-medium=embed-snippet) Getting SOC 2 compliant is **complicated**, **time-consuming** andmany organizations have **no** **idea** where to begin. So why are SaaS companies *scrambling* to get SOC 2 compliant? Because good security **protects** **sensitive** **data**, and in turn, **creates** **trust** between you and your customers. With our **[SOC 2 Bible](https://productmarketingall.typeform.com/to/J5fW4kJw)**, you'll: - Get **in-depth knowledge** about SOC 2 - Gain a **full understanding of audits** and what they really entail - Understand how automation has **transformed the compliance game** - Be informed of the **latest trends** **Get your copy** and get ahead of your SOC 2 journey 👇 ### Building successful customer success teams URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/building-successful-customer-success-teams/ Last updated: 2022-11-29T12:07:19.000Z Building strong customer success teams is so important. Every good team has to have a strong strong foundation supporting it! That’s why in this article we’re going to look at the **five essential pillars of building successful teams**. It’s not a task to be taken lightly, so **let’s break down our main talking points:** - [Why customer success matters](https://www.developermarketing.io/marketing-to-developers-back-to-the-drawing-board/#about-me-and-ringcentral) - [The ideal customer success manager](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-successful-customer-success-teams/#why-customer-success-matter-to-us) - [The interview process](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-successful-customer-success-teams/#the-interview-process) - [The onboarding process](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-successful-customer-success-teams/#the-onboarding-process) - [Creating a culture of positivity](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-successful-customer-success-teams/#creating-a-culture-of-positivity) Before we get into the main subject of this article, here’s a little bit of background on me and my experience. ## About me My name is Zuzanna Ostojska, and I'm Head of Customer Success at UXCam. UXCam is a mobile analytics solution that helps you understand how your users are behaving in your mobile apps. With our solution, you can get a lot of insights. You can build your mobile apps in superior ways for your users. We’re currently quite a small team of customer success managers, but we'll be definitely growing in the upcoming months. I also have six years experience in building customer success teams. In my previous company, I was leading a team of 14 people in three different roles.💪 ## Why customer success matter to us At UXCam our values are always customer-centric. Quite simply, bringing happiness and success to customers is our major goal. And this is really the driving force behind good customer success. But we can’t make customers happy without happy customer success teams. So, another one of our goals is to ensure that our teams are on the same page and thriving! Because the thing is…👇 [![child staring up at long flight of steps](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/ECskyw89sAicWTBqcdx77VqO5vkgDIzY4c7aJblkDtW1QVxAMyIbjm80xmngagAnmKY-yQGLGCY-cCepH5iaZaimymBJYbYJsL66UzkkxH-oISccnwyj4AHVpJD1-37ibuPTMPnV)](www.futureofsaas.io/building-successful-customer-success-teams) ### Customer success is hard And the hardest aspect of it is that you can’t always predict customer behavior. That's what makes the job really stressful and difficult at times! User needs vary and there’s definitely no one size fits all approach. And just because your customer is happy in the short term doesn't mean they’re going to stay happy in the long term! Some of the major skills of a customer success manager include: - Managing customer expectations - Apologizing to customers when things don’t work out the way that they’d thought - Setting customers at ease when they’re concerned. Not easy, right? CSMs are always directly in the firing line when it comes to customer concerns. [![Hand outstretched with bracelet saying, 'spread love.'](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/ItexMS1OvQVWLoCHxOQRjmX08AwnuYBZTTVWQpvSQoxxjiQeyCaWDwD9DHFwb_AMR-FiTbm58YdZ6PnY5rhBeZiBlDI_vyweZoQ5zI2rJ1s8j8Ta4pTd-HeJU-22C9OupMWR8dk0)](www.futureofsaas.io/building-successful-customer-success-teams) ### CSMs are good empathizers Customer Success Managers are highly empathetic. They’re highly sensitive to negative emotions and this is what makes them so good at dealing with customer concerns. Team leaders have to set the standard and be highly empathetic towards their team. They have to offer a strong network support to their team members, because the job can be really difficult and frustrating! Of course, it can also be highly rewarding and that’s why I’m writing about it now! ## The ideal Customer Success Manager Now we all know there’s no such thing as perfection, right? Having said that, there are some typical traits that you’d hope to find in the ideal CSM. Let’s break them down here: 👇 ### CSMs have good soft skills This is perhaps the most important quality in CSMs. These are skills that can be taught, but they usually come naturally to certain kinds of people. Soft skills are all about being sensitive to other people’s needs, being open and empathetic and listening to the concerns of others. People who have good soft skills tend to set others at ease just by being present. Oftentimes you’re going to have to manage the expectations of clients. This is no small feat, as it can sometimes involve telling customers that they’re wrong. How do you do this delicately? Well, this is why good communication skills are a must. You have to be able to communicate information and be persuasive in a non-threatening way. ### CSMs are good at prioritizing There are always going to be customers who have louder voices than others. A good CS person is able to cut through the noise and prioritize the feature requests that are really going to have the most positive impact. It’s important that CS folks are able to prioritize not just the things that are making customers angry, but also the things that are actually going to have the most benefit. Being able to identify those issues that should be the primary focus is all about problem solving. It’s not just about telling customers that everything’s going to be all right all the time, or selling them on empty promises, you have to be able to back it all up with tangible solutions. There can be this misconception that good customer service is all lip service, but if that’s all you have, your customers are going to find you out very soon. ### CSMs are good motivators and passionate This is a quality I'm always looking for when I’m interviewing people. Do candidates feel a sense of accomplishment in motivating others? Are they passionate about motivating others? Do they have a positive, energetic approach to customer success? I'm definitely seeking these qualities during the interview. This is not an easy job, so the CSMs team better be passionate about helping customers to find the best solution for them. In customer success, you’re going to have your bad days. You’re going to have your days when customers have unreasonable demands and you can’t accommodate them. The key is to be passionate even about the difficulty. [!['Dream big.'](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/PqNnTkby5YlNGVzZwsIL_Gkh0K0vMwYx5g6tbm3_wBo44lNRZZm6bjdqm7NeiNEpcAc_7L6ku9oQSA3mNNhwvOo1xRIZCMaGJey4U3XbRnwumsd7KK-H9vTZt9cBGbm-qaO5KE3s)](www.futureofsaas.io/building-successful-customer-success-teams) ### Good CSMs are learners This is all about being humble and accepting that you always have more to learn! With CS, we’re always looking to hire people who want to learn and grow. It’s also important to connect with other CSMs and read a lot of articles and insights from experts before starting a new project. If you have such an opportunity, hiring CSMs with experience in similar fields to your customers can be really helpful. ### Good CSMs are diverse Having a diverse team can be really helpful, because ideally, we want to have a team of various different skills. If you hire an amazing CSM, you shouldn’t be looking for another person that will just be a carbon copy! Try to find different people with different skills. That way you can have different CS folks working on different projects and approaching different problems. It’s just so valuable to have a diversified perspective in the team. ## The interview process When it comes to finding the ideal CS candidate, I don’t think the process should be too complicated. But when it comes to interviews, it’s good to have a few different perspectives on a potential candidate. ### Initial screening This is just a short call to discuss why this person wants to change jobs, why this person wants to join our team, and what this person has experienced so far. It’s just to get a feel for the kind of person we’re talking to and whether they’ll be a good fit. ### On site interview This part focuses more specifically on customer success, how to approach customers and how this person thinks about customers. This gets more in depth on the actual job role itself and whether the candidate has the aptitude to carry it out. ### Demo days Here, we’re inviting the candidate to come and work with us for four hours to work with us. There’s a few different areas we’re assessing: - Whether this person is prepared to do the research. - How this person can communicate with customers. - How this person reacts to feedback that she or he gets. This part of the process is really helpful for the whole team to gauge whether this is the kind of person we want to work with or not. We had some really amazing feedback after the demo days from the candidates. They were able to get a really good sense of how their work will look on a daily basis. It wasn’t just beneficial for us, it was helpful for the candidates to see whether our organization was a good fit for them or not. ### Executive interviews This is the final step of the interview process. Candidates will meet one of our founders in the interview process. Here, there’ll be asked some more specific questions about the job role, including: ### How would you define a customer that’s at risk? This is a great question because it really helps us to see whether this candidate really understands your product, and whether they’ve done their research. This is also an opportunity for them to share some insights and usage metrics. **What happens when you get a few different candidate complaints at once?** This is a realistic situation that a CS person is likely to find themselves in. It also assesses how well they’re likely to cope under stress and how capable they are at prioritizing different demands. **How would you measure the quality of support our customers are getting?** We want to assess how well customers are going to handle different metrics for measuring customer success. If they’re not able to keep track of customers’ evolving demands, they’re not going to be agile and adaptable in their approach, which is something that we really need in a CS professional. Quality has to be sustained over time, and for that to happen, it has to evolve. After you’ve made your decision that’s when you move on to the onboarding process ## The onboarding process This is such a crucial part of the process when it comes to hiring new team members, and I'm always really surprised when I hear that some companies don't have any structured onboarding for new team members. We have a few golden rules for new member onboarding: ### 1\. Make sure that members know what to do This sounds really obvious but so often candidates sit for hours when they start, not knowing what to do. It can be really frustrating for new candidates to not know what their role is right off the bat, and this can lead to them becoming seriously unmotivated pretty quickly. ### 2\. Have a list of specific training for each specific role. We propose a very specific list of training for each role that we are hiring. Even before the new person joins our team, we schedule all the training in the calendar. You can take a look at an example of the calendar for one of our new starters. 👇 [![Example of new starter schedule](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/7Giy2TVr0L2NQEssG5MWfstFajZCcb8eEXSIstdmZuCS_BI8FD-Q74bjFVX6PoQFyLtpM3yIhQ6YZ_IDPsd-6mjI4tLPdbEyV19pDTzcyJk7QgsJzUD0-A8DsKsB7SVjWwMeDtNQ)](www.futureofsaas.io/building-successful-customer-success-teams) ### 3\. Continued support We want to make sure that all our new hires come to us fully armed for what’s ahead, and they can learn everything through training with us. But then it’s not just a case of putting them through the training process and sending them on their way. We have to ensure that candidates have a reliable support system that they can turn to when they’re unsure of what to do. This can come in the form of an experienced mentor who continuously checks on them and makes sure they have all the support they need. This can be accomplished through weekly meetings with their mentor, where the mentor makes notes of all concerns and possible issues that are occurring. The ultimate aim is to ensure that a new hire has the confidence to be self-sufficient. ## Setting expectations and feedback We share expectations for the new candidate on the first day that they join. This is really important for keeping new hires focused on self improvement, as well as keeping them driven and motivated. We let the person know everything we hope they will achieve within the first six months. It’s important to have a metric by which you can measure employee performance. You have to have something to discuss during those quarterly reviews, and if the employee doesn’t have proof of their progress, especially if they’re remote working, you're not going to get very far. ### Company values What’s also really important is that we’re clear on our company values from day one. We are a team of many people with different expertise, that’s true, but we’re all working towards a common goal. You can’t hold people to account if you haven’t been honest about expectations from the get go. Also, going back to staying motivated, you need to be very clear about different salary levels. It’s perfectly appropriate to talk about a potential rise to salaries as they go up through the ranks. That way, an employee won’t have to worry about negotiating. You set a more tangible goal for their self-improvement, and employees are going to feel that there’s a reason for them to improve ## Creating a culture of positivity Want your team to stick around? You need to create a culture of continued support. This is really as simple as making sure that colleagues always feel listened to and valued. A great way to ensure this is by encouraging the rest of the team to celebrate the success and achievements of their colleagues. We’ve found great success through a customer Slack channel. Here, we gather positive feedback from customers and share it with the team. Birthdays and anniversaries might seem like a trivial thing, but keeping track of these things with colleagues and making an effort to celebrate can really have a massively positive impact on your team. [!["Be positive."](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/mJccX2-WaKhKIFS97yYSVxGeY6BZfyVvKZo4pfqWBltVzd_HEqqi1jAeuquRNzjRDvbeJp8jrah53GBwNUcpG-0fgKbQGXpA_HhKLNIwx1yJJXsG7QPSLsV1-PY3tZpuHExF3ge5)](www.futureofsaas.io/building-successful-customer-success-teams) ### To wrap up Firstly, it might seem obvious, but make sure that you hire the right people. If you hire someone that shouldn't be a CSM, you will see that they’ll burn out quickly. You’ll notice quickly that this isn’t a good fit for them. Secondly, don't take any shortcuts when hiring. You might want to hire a CSM very quickly, but it’s always best practice to wait for the right person. This is a long term investment you’re making and you want to make sure it pays off. Wait for the right person. Finally, make sure that your team members have a lot of support from you during our structured onboarding. Don’t just throw them out there and expect them to be self-sufficient immediately. This is the ultimate goal, yes. But you have to support them to get there. Just like we do with our customers, you need to **help others to help themselves.** ### Building a solid network to support others URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/building-a-solid-network-to-support-others/ Last updated: 2022-07-05T15:01:39.000Z Want to know the true benefits of professional networking? According to a recent study by Nielsen, 92% of people trusted referrals from people they know above all else. Sure, sharpening up that resume will take you a long way, but it might not be as valuable as a single glowing recommendation from a powerful professional ally. During Women in SaaS Summit 2021, Sallianne Buttsworth, **Financial Controller at CENTURY Tech**, led this riveting and timely discussion between three of the industry’s leading voices. Speaker’s included: - Gauri Chawla, **Vice President at Global Partners & Alliances at inRiver** - Danielle Hill, **Management Consultant at Accenture** - Naimeesha Murthy, **Senior Product Manager at Google** --- ### What is the difference between a sponsor, ally, and mentor? **Naimeesha Murthy:** I actually pivoted from a non-technical role to a technical role, from marketing to product management. The reason I speak about mentorship is because I think it's been extremely beneficial for me, both personally and professionally. I think it’s really outdated to think of a mentorship as a relationship between someone who's extremely experienced and someone who's extremely inexperienced. A mentorship can actually be quite an informal relationship, it doesn't have to follow the traditional model. Anyone can be a mentor to anyone potentially. Sponsorship, in particular, is not something that is extremely accessible for a lot of people, and the definition between mentors, coaches, sponsors, advisors is somewhat blurry and interchangeable. I think it's important for us to unpack that in this conversation. **Gauri Chawla:** With any of these three areas, one piece of advice that I would give is that you are responsible for yourself, and for your career, and for your network. You can get some advice from somebody, but don't look for direction from them. That’s really the key distinction. When looking at mentorship, it's a relationship where you can bounce things off somebody, and you can get some coaching. But it's not somebody who's going to tell you what to do. I think sometimes people think that's what they're getting. I think with sponsorship you've got to be able to prove yourself in a certain situation and have somebody back you up. It’s about somebody being an influence on you, but it’s still about you proving yourself ultimately. What most people don't realize about these three areas is that you have to be in control and you have to decide what you want and you have to be able to communicate it. You don't always have to know exactly what you want, but you have to have some responsibility for yourself. A mentor, an ally, or a sponsor can only help you to navigate that. **Naimeesha Murthy:** Our assumption about networking, that you go into a party and you exchange business cards, that’s just not the way it's done. One of my co-workers went to a networking party, and she said that people would just talk briefly, then disappear and never come back. They just never came back. That's not what networking is all about. Networking is not about going to a party and telling people that you’re looking for a job. It's never going to end well; it's never gonna go anywhere. First of all, when you go into any situation, think about what you have to offer. Also, what can you gain? At least, you're gonna gain some amazing relationships, it could even mean a referral to a job. It could be making your best friends or a co-founder for your passion project. That's how you look at networking. And then maybe along the way, in six months, or one year from now, they're gonna be helpful to you. --- [How the C-suite can drive diversity, equity, and inclusionFostering a diverse hiring practice isn’t just morally the right thing to do, it actively makes your business more successful. Global data time and again shows how ethnic, racial, and gender diversities correlate with higher than industry-average earnings.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/dylan-gillis-KdeqA3aTnBY-unsplash--2---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-the-c-suite-can-drive-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/) --- **Danielle Hill:** I think what's really important around networking is that it encourages meeting new people. Yes, it can benefit you, it can benefit your career. But actually meeting new people from different backgrounds and diverse communities actually helps generate ideas and encourages innovation. If you make friendships, it can be a two-way thing as well. So yes, they might be able to help you in the future. And actually, that's not necessarily going to get you a better job or a higher salary, but it also comes with that power of coming up with new ideas through meeting new people. It comes with the opportunity to implement change together. ### Can you share some really cool stories about how your network has evolved organically over time? **Gauri Chawla:** I was writing a blog and a book and a friend introduced me to a woman who is now helping me learn how to write. It's amazing. And now this woman has connected me to other people who are in my industry writing business books. I actually got one of my jobs because of my network. I wasn't even looking for a job and somebody in my network referred me to someone. I was just chilling on a beach in Spain and they contacted me with a job offer. But these are long-lasting relationships that I’ve nurtured over time. It’s important to nurture your relationships. But people need different things, and it’s important to nurture things in different ways. You just never know when something will happen, because somebody thought of you and brought your name up somewhere. Be curious. Keep meeting new people. **Naimeesha Murthy:** The entire network that I’ve built over time has really been based on having the courage to ask for things. I still recall the first event that we had. I reached out to a senior leader at Forbes and asked her to come and speak at a panel? And she said yes. It was amazing to see the solidarity between women brought together. We've had over 300 leaders give back their time to the community and create professional development opportunities. And it can be accessible and completely free. But it's all about the power of asking. The other important element is authenticity. Be honest and be authentic with your questioning. I think it's extremely important. But also don't be afraid to bump a request back up to your leaders through email. Often, they probably just haven’t seen your email. Asking for help can be a really proactive way of building connections. It’s not a sign of weakness. --- [Celebrating women and their trailblazing contributions in the tech spaceInternational Women’s Day gives us time to pause, mindfully reflect, and imagine a better workplace where genders are equal and treated without bias or discrimination — and evaluate the path forward to advance gender diversity in tech.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSCourtney Grigsby![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/christina-wocintechchat-com-MkxWUzCuYkE-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/celebrating-women-and-their-trailblazing-contributions-in-the-tech-space/) --- **Danielle Hill:** I do think there's a negative connotation that we associate with asking for help. Asking for help can imply that you're struggling and you can't cope. You can't meet the demands of a client or and there's loads of negative things associated with it. Because asking for help might indicate that we don’t see ourselves as good enough to complete whatever task is put in front of us, for example. But I think that asking for help is actually a strength. Even just having a casual conversation with other professionals in the bathroom at an event can show curiosity. It shows energy, enthusiasm, and authenticity. It will also help you to build your network. It will help you succeed more in the long term. I think we need to start thinking about asking for help in a more positive light, because it's something that can lead to such positive results. ### When it comes to networking, how do you break through the small talk and make meaningful connections? **Naimeesha Murthy:** For me, it was all about playing to my strengths. I knew I was really good at setting people at ease and making them feel comfortable. There wasn’t much of a space in tech for women of color at the time, so I had to flip the narrative. I identified what I was good at and started playing more to my strengths. Believe it or not, I'm a complete introvert, but just because you’re an introvert doesn’t mean you don't have a lot of strengths. You just have to identify them. I actually think the Covid period has been an amazing time for introverts to thrive. We’ve been able to network through virtual communities, and that has removed some of the pressure of meeting in person. As an introvert, I was able to build a network of over 15,000 Women in 120 countries. **Gauri Chawla:** The truth is, I don't think anyone really likes to network. Having to meet complete strangers and sell yourself feels a bit like a blind date! It’s pretty stressful. But at the end of the day, if you can go in with an open, curious mind, you’re not going to go far wrong. > People like to talk about themselves. If you kick off with the right question, a lot of times you’ll take the pressure off yourself and you won't have to do much talking. Think of it as a chance to learn and see things from a different angle. Also, you should be a little picky about who you want in your network. Imagine you’re in complete control and you can choose who you want to talk to and who you don’t want to talk to. That takes some of the pressure off. And the truth is, the more you network, the easier it gets to do overtime. **Danielle Hill:** When I first got started in this massive organization, I knew I wanted to build a network, but didn’t know where to start. The first thing I did was to find someone that I really looked up to, then it was just a case of being really honest and asking them if they could be my mentor. That person is still my mentor today. Having a role model is something that can really help in terms of building a network. If you’re more introverted it can maybe help to find a role model who’s more aligned with your personality type and ask them how they do it. ### Once you’ve gotten over the initial hurdle, how do you continue to nurture that connection? **Danielle Hill:** I think it comes back to that point around authenticity. I'm not saying that networking should be effortless. We’ve all agreed today that there are just some things that you have to do. You have to put yourself out there, and that requires some effort. But maintaining that network should feel more effortless, genuine, and authentic. Once you’ve established common ground with someone, that back and forth relationship should become more natural. Don't try to fake it. These relationships might start out more professional, but over time they should feel more like a friendship. They should feel more natural. **Naimeesha Murthy:** It's impossible to stay in touch with everyone all the time. You're gonna go crazy trying to stay in touch with everyone. That’s normal. You don’t try to force a connection when there isn’t one anymore. The same goes for networking. The connections that are the strongest will continue on organically. Be authentic. Don’t try to force it. Treat it like you would any friendship. --- [How you’re demotivating your team and how to turn things aroundFew things are as costly and disruptive as managers who kill motivation.It’s said that “people don’t leave jobs; they leave managers” and the stats back this up: 70% of an employee’s motivation is influenced by their manager, according to Gallup.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/elisa-ventur-yjHh4JpZQT8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-youre-demotivating-your-team-and-how-to-turn-things-around/) --- **Gauri Chawla:** But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make an effort to reach out to people. When I'm in the country of folks that I’ve networked with, for example, I always try to drop them a line, just to let them know I’m thinking of them. You never know what that might lead to. They might have a new opportunity for you. This might only seem like a small thing, but these little gestures, even if they don’t lead to anything in the short term, can really strengthen relationships over time. ### Can you give three valuable pieces of advice when it comes to networking? **Gauri Chawla:** Firstly, be curious. You never know how far a little bit of curiosity will take you. Secondly, take responsibility for yourself. Know what you want to create, and accept that others can only ever be a guide to you getting there. You’re the one who has to take charge ultimately. Finally, be yourself. Be true to yourself. If you do this, the right things will happen for you and the right people will gravitate towards you, and the right opportunities will come your way. Leverage your network, build it and nurture it. You just never know what could happen. **Naimeesha Murthy:** Put yourself out there. Show up even when you're exhausted. Be resilient. Even on those days when you feel like things just aren’t working out for you know, just keep going. Just showing up is the most important part. From there, your network can start to grow. **Danielle Hill:** Be bold, be confident, and even if you don't feel it inside, put on a front and go and speak to people. What's the worst that can happen? Nothing. It can't do any harm, particularly when you're trying to build your network. Also, be kind to each other. When you see someone in your network who needs help, reach out, see what you can do for them and you never know what it’ll lead to. You never know when that person’s going to come through for you in a time of need. Finally, stay curious. Keep being curious and encouraging discussion and healthy debate. You need to make sure you keep evolving and developing your ideas. This is achieved through networking, and once you adopt that mindset, more valuable connections will follow. --- ****Want more expert advice? Why not become a member?** [Membership plans | Future of SaaSUnlock our library of members-only, heavyweight SaaS content. Including templates, frameworks, video content, and expert talks. What are you waiting for?![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSRichard King![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/06/futureofsaas.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### The SaaS Tools of Choice Report 2022 is here URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-saas-tools-of-choice-report-2022-is-here/ Last updated: 2024-07-19T14:50:14.000Z We asked, and over 100 SaaS leaders answered: here are the tools you need to succeed in this sector. Whether it’s sales enablement tools, content management systems, and more that you’re looking for, we’ve got you covered. We’ve taken the recommendations from SaaS leaders and broken each one down by its applications, usability, and price, so you have all the information you need to construct the ultimate toolset for SaaS success. Download the report today to get access to the ultimate guide to tools and tech, each one endorsed by the game-changers shaping the world of SaaS. ## Why you should download this report If you’re looking to take your SaaS biz to the next level, you need to be equipped with the right tools. But you’re a busy person, we know, you don’t have time to be poring over every single tool on the market, constantly googling “what’s the best tool for \_”. In this report, you’ll find everything you need to know about the most popular and effective tools on the market for the primary functions a winning SaaS business needs to succeed. Inside you’ll find: - An overview of each tried and tested tool - A link to where you can buy them - A breakdown of costs, and - A glowing endorsement from SaaS leaders who use the tools daily. Download the report today, and stop wasting time searching around for the tools you need. 👇 ### Don’t bother raising a Series A if you don’t crush these 3 metrics URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/dont-bother-raising-a-series-a-if-you-dont-crush-these-3-metrics/ Last updated: 2022-04-08T15:50:04.000Z Here’s what the VC-backed founders do. A few weeks ago I’ve written a [piece](https://medium.com/@thomas.tcheudjio/show-these-4-metrics-to-get-vcs-excited-about-your-marketplace-b572dacd89ad) about getting VCs excited about Marketplace start-ups. And then, SaaS founders got jealous. Sorry guys, this one is for you! ****The only hack I recommend for closing a Series A is about understanding how people wiring tens of million euros reflect.** Everybody knows venture capital involves pouring funding into start-ups, but few people are actually acquainted with the intellectual process behind investing. > Like all investing activities, VC is about risk management. For a Series A-oriented VC, two fundamental risks must be covered. ****(1) Market risk** The reason VCs are so obsessed with the size of your market is you need a large market for crossing a threshold beyond which you can build defensibilities. Therefore Series A VCs tend to largely underwrite market risk. **They must see you have reached product-market fit (PMF) in a large TAM.* ****(2) Execution risk.** Execution risk kicks in when evaluating the ability of your growth engine to **blitzscaling*. Removing operational uncertainty from the equation is when venture investors make their money. All in all, Series A VCs fancy deploying capital in businesses with revenues stream already been derisked. If you don’t show a predictable model, pipeline, and most of all growth, don’t trouble yourself raising. Please, overpower these 3 metrics before raising a Series A : > Reach €1,5m ARR within 12 to 24 months (Market risk) > > Show Net Dollar Retention above 100%. (Market risk) > > Exhibit a Lead Velocity Rate supporting €10m ARR in the next 2 to 4 years (Execution risk) Hit the 3 of them and you will raise an easy ten million in less than 4 months. Highlight 2/3 and discussions might take longer (6–7 months). If none, don’t bother raising and focus on becoming a capital-efficient business and interesting perspectives will come up (Topics for other posts). For the brave ones, let’s dive into those 3 metrics. ## 1\. Exhibit a Lead Velocity Rate supporting €10m ARR in the next 2 to 4 years I am starting with the last one as it’s the least covered metric. However, Lead Velocity Rate (LVR) is, in my opinion, the most reliable data when assessing a growth engine. One thing I love about SaaS isyou can **See The Future.** Common KPI monitored for predicting the futures such as Monthly Sales and Sales Pipelines have major data quality issues. Both are lagging indicators and minor variations can result in huge modeling variations. One thing you have to be sure of: VCs financial wizards aka Analysts and Associates will tear down your forecasts if they are based only on Monthly Sales and Sales Pipeline. However, LVR defined as the growth in qualified leads, measure month-over-month, every month, is rock-solid. It’s real-time, not lagging. As long as you are using Qualified Leads, along with using a consistent formula and process for qualifying them, you can ****See The Future**. With this metric in your hand, scaling your company turns into an execution play on which VCs are able to perform calculations risk. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/growth-benchmark.png) Source: Bessemer Venture Partners ## 2\. Net Dollar Retention above 100%. Compared to LVR, Net Dollar Retention is fairly well known as a key metric for assessing the health of a SaaS company. Net Dollar Retention catches both the ability of a SaaS company to retain customers and sell them more over time. Put differently, ask what €1 of net new customer spend in year n will be worth in years n+1, n+2, and so on. Depending on the business model, SaaS businesses can increase their share of wallets from customers by increasing the users, selling them more products marketplace revenue (❤ these SaaS-enabled marketplaces), other add-ons, and renewing them at higher pricing tiers. A SaaS company could be growing ARR over 100% each year but if their annualized Net Dollar Retention is less than 75%, there is likely a problem with the underlying business. For example, with Slack’s ARR chart (below), you can see how powerful a high Net Retention is. The layer chart shows how revenue from the existing customer base just keeps growing. From its [S1](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1764925/000162828019004786/slacks-1.htm), Slack exhibits an insanely 171% 2017–2019 Net Dollar Retention. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/1_m6pcThuNEQB8sUY8g9G9PA-1.png) Source: Slack S-1 ## 3\. 1,5m€ in ARR within the previous 12 to 24 months. According to [Point 9](https://www.saastr.com/what-it-takes-to-really-raise-capital-in-2021/), it takes $0,5m-4m in ARR to raise a $5–12m Series A round, distribution going rather toward the top of the range. As a rule of thumb, I suggest targeting at least the amount of what you have raised in Pre-Seed/Seed. If you have raised €1,5m since inception, don’t raise before you hit €1,5m ARR. Since Covid19, capital efficiency has again become predominant. It’s getting harder and harder to request capital with €1m in ARR after having raised 2m€ since inception. In summary, VCs invest in less than 1% of the companies they meet. Mastering these metrics will help you beat the odds. If there’s demand for it, I’ll do one on DTC. Cheers! --- Enjoy this article? Catch all the latest expert insights on SaaS metrics with this upcoming panel discussion at SaaS Metric Summit **👇** [SaaS Metrics SummitA talk by Cindy Berman, Christian MacLean & Mike Pilawski![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/heysummit-production/media/uploads/events/saas-festival-1/UGmfZHCe3ysDSwxLQs48Dk.png)SaaS Metrics SummitHeySummit![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/heysummit-production/media/uploads/events/saas-metrics-summit-copy/Huc5a2UaP2nb4yctqs8yCU.png)](https://saasmetrics2022.futureofsaas.io/talks/panel-discussion-scaling-deciding-on-the-metrics-to-measure-metrics-that-matter-most/) ### Read this before you spend a year building a product nobody wants URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/read-this-before-you-spend-a-year-building-a-product-nobody-wants/ Last updated: 2022-03-29T11:54:48.000Z I spent the last year building 3 SaaS apps that no one wanted. I’m a developer, not a marketer. I enjoy building apps. I love the process of going from an idea to design to development to a fully working app that can be downloaded from the App Store. But that’s not enough to succeed in the startups world. I built it and they didn’t come. I learned a lot of lessons from this experience. And I’m going to share my experience with you so you can avoid wasting your time building products that no one wants. ## 1# Act like a business owner Here’s the thing: if you want to become a business owner, you need to act like a business owner. If you just want to do the coding stuff, you either go work as a developer in another company or look for a co-founder who can do marketing for you. I learned this lesson the hard way. Your ideas are not absolute truths. If you think your product is amazing it’s just your opinion, and you need to validate your idea to see if others think about your app the same way you do. Chances are they don’t. They will give you feedback, they will tell you what they like and don’t like about your app. If they’re willing to give you their email addresses to be a part of the beta testing, that’s a validation. If users think your idea sucks, that’s good too. At least you knew from the beginning that it won’t succeed. Just accept it and build something else. ## 2# Must have vs nice to have It’s easy to think that your product is solving an urgent problem for users when that problem is actually less important than you think. Your product is either nice to have or must have. Must have products have higher chances of success. Users are willing to pay premium prices for these problems because they’re solving a critical problem they have. I’m not saying that “nice to have” products always fail. But if you’re going to spend 2–3 years building a SaaS startup, it’s better be an important problem rather than something “nice to have”. ## 3# Marketing from day 1 In short, don’t wait until the product is ready to start marketing. You won’t have a bunch of people waiting in line to use your product when you put it live! Instead, start marketing your product before writing a single line of code. Here are 3 steps to do that: - Set up a landing page with a subscription form to start collecting emails from people who may be interested in your product. - Set up a Twitter account for your product and start publishing at least 1 tweet every single day. With time, the algorithm will reward you and your account will start showing to more people. - Share high quality content related to your niche. You can do that by writing Medium articles, posting YouTube videos, or simply sharing threads on Twitter. But make sure your content is valuable and make sure to keep doing that consistently. I don’t regret spending last year building a failing startup. It’s true that I didn’t make money from my apps, but at least I learned these valuable lessons that I’m going to apply in my next [startup](http://lettrify.com/). ### “Strategic” investors don’t matter URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/strategic-investors-dont-matter/ Last updated: 2022-03-24T15:49:50.000Z Strategic investors, defined as corporations that make venture investments, can be a valuable source of capital but are they critical? No. We dug through the filings of 198 tech companies and found that only 31 of them had a strategic investor (16%). The list is below. ![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1378/1*McdZR3gjwBHJ5Jn4glXCKg.png) ![](https://miro.medium.com/max/1378/1*vRBXo5jg-WhqVW78X1Ju4A.png) Some industries have more prevalence of strategic investment than others. For instance, strategic investors are often present in hardware companies. All the companies listed above are very successful as they’re all publicly traded today or were at one point, so we’ve concluded you do not need a strategic investor to be successful given that only 16% had a strategic. Some of the companies in our own portfolio have strategic investors such as Match.com, GE, Cisco, Salesforce, the CIA, and Survey Monkey. What we’ve found is that in most cases, strategics don’t add much value. Rather, they’ve invested because they think the company is interesting and want to be in a position to acquire if the company shows great potential. In other cases (GE and Cisco for instance), they’ve invested because they’re heavy users of the product and want to drive the product roadmap. If you are going to take on a strategic investor, make sure they don’t have any unique controls or rights outside of those granted to normal investors. For instance, some strategics will ask for a Right of First Refusal to buy your company, which can be very damaging when it’s time to sell your business. No one will want to buy you if they know that after all their hard work, XYZ strategic can cancel the deal and buy your company themselves. Also make sure that strategics do not have control over the direction of your product. It’s great to take their advice when that advice fits into the road map, but an investment doesn’t give them the right to mandate what you build****.** As always choose your investors wisely, but don’t fret if the strategics aren’t a part of your business. ### Bypass intent data and go direct - uncover fresh leads with this emerging Martech URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/bypass-intent-data-and-go-direct-uncover-fresh-leads-with-this-emerging-martech/ Last updated: 2022-04-01T15:17:00.000Z **Engaging prospects just got easier through Helium, a new platform providing instant access to prospects at their highest-intent moments.** What would it feel like if you could chat with your prospects here and now from this article? No sitting around waiting for intent signals. No banner ads with pesky redirects. Well, it’s here - and not only is it the future of selling in saas, but sales teams are using it today to engage with prospects in the earliest stages of the dark funnel. In fact, you can experience it for yourself through clicking the below widget or anywhere on this page where you see “The Bot Lab” logo. But first, why does this emerging technology work? 75% of buyers are already halfway through their buying journey before they even speak to a salesperson. At that point, they’ve already completed their pre-purchase process - checked reviews, browsed comparison sites, and perused articles on third-party sites - before even reaching your site. In other words, all of these activities have occurred anonymously in what marketers have coined the “Dark Funnel”. ## What is the dark funnel exactly? It’s the touchpoints a buyer experiences before they are tagged and identified in any marketing stack - whether, through self-identification, or traditional methods like downloading a whitepaper, form fills, or cookies. Where the problem lies is that the digitization of the sales environment has marketers falsely believing that they can accurately track a customer's journey. The reality? Much of the customer journey happens offline and when activities do occur online, rarely do they follow a linear path. Instead, the modern consumer meanders along a path that bends and twists leaving sales teams/marketers “in the dark” on intent. ![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/8WjYsx5_4IBC7WQ8xkjH9mriSAk9JoPYBWiMxtJ7TnOyIN9Tly91UcvTB-bE2U7fI1b4jixlxRsC0aIGsVxXDFwzGY4hdNfXcUjBhGiD26ndFdAXD0hpgUF9zcv4k7QMjXXioCsH) The Helium platform provides sales/marketing teams direct real-time access to chat with prospects on articles, review sites, and any third-party site whereby your company is mentioned. An entirely new channel, Helium lifts the veil on the dark funnel by creating new actionable touchpoints earlier in the buyer's journey. Many mar-tech strategies have been created to uncover vital consumer information (intent data) within the dark funnel. However, these approaches still follow a linear sales/marketing funnel, that in fact doesn’t exist. This limits the ability to adapt to present-day buyer behavior. Buyers don’t want to complete forms, receive numerous email cadences, or wait two weeks to speak to a sales rep. Simply put, they want to ask a quick question so that they can qualify or disqualify a potential solution. Helium creates a direct line for organizations to engage in chat with prospects using new touchpoints in the dark funnel. During a prospect’s highest intent moments, sales reps are able to answer questions and book meetings immediately. ### The result? - Beating competitors to prospects - Accelerating your sales cycle - Increasing conversion - Expanding your audience - Being the primary source for education your prospects While Helium does not eliminate a traditional lead gen workflow, it creates an accelerated path for prospects to progress through the funnel. If you are able to activate direct engagement in conversation, traditional marketing funnels and intent data can be bypassed. ## So, why isn’t intent data enough? Intent data isn’t a lead nor are the majority of intent signals actionable for sales/marketing teams. Many times intent data comes in at the account level and not the contact level, making it challenging to action. In other words, intent data lets you know that someone at a particular company is possibly interested, but isn’t detailed enough to identify who to reach out to. On the flip side, if a salesperson is able to discover who the contact is, it allows them to reach out quickly. In a world where speed to lead is everything, intent decays almost instantly. The chance of the user biting on an email cadence, picking up calls, or clicking on retargeting ads diminishes every minute that a salesperson is not in contact. ​​ The majority of marketers believe a form fill on a website indicates the highest moment of intent. This does **not** appear to be true with recent research. A study on 2000 B2B companies, found that on average: it takes a sales rep 42 hours to contact a new lead of which 38% will never respond. Additionally, 4.3 days go by before the first meeting ever takes place. In the simplest terms, timing is everything, and the longer you wait on opportunities, the fewer responses you will receive. In the modern-day age, convenience and quick response times are everything. [Studies show](https://hbr.org/2011/03/the-short-life-of-online-sales-leads) when businesses respond in under 5 minutes they are 100x more likely to connect and convert opportunities. ### Imagine this process: - Zero seconds: A prospect asks to chat on an article, review site, or 3rd party blog post. - 3 seconds later: The prospect selects whether they’d like to talk now or schedule a call - 1 second later: The prospect chooses to talk now - 6 seconds later: The prospect is chatting with a BDR or SDR This all occurs in 10 seconds and the prospect hasn’t even reached a company’s website. Buyer intent is highest at the beginning of the buying journey while solutions to the buyer’s problem are being explored. If a prospect is actively researching, discussing, and evaluating a company, they are clearly expressing interest. At this point, many intent signals are collected by data aggregators to re-sell for marketing purposes. Naturally, consumers' intent to buy decays as they move throughout their buying journey. During the time between an intent signal being received and the prospect booking a meeting/demo, leads are lost. It costs time, money, and resources to rumble over prospects with your competitors. ![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/YDxO-DoJLGCMM0bvMl6qsQJoyNACz05I6zvPON3IZGGT_Eemk-_jqOTdW4XhaN7_vGm19YJzt8pZDvMk93sp_u17q-7doXTxg4gWaaC5UKuslQ1GZnmHEdMD6DWO5LD-TCzgXtSS) The dark funnel is where the most advantageous opportunities can be won - where you can curate your brand and dominate sectors all while creating demand. Sitting around waiting for intent signals is a passive approach. Actively engaging with prospects in real-time when they need you is much more effective. You are there first. Meet their needs? And they won’t compare you to anybody. Once they are ready to buy, they will simply choose you. And don’t we all want to be chosen? So, curious to learn more about how to engage with your prospects from 3rd party content? Click the button below now and experience the magic for yourself. ### Finding the right influencers for your brand URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/finding-the-right-influencers-for-your-brand/ Last updated: 2022-03-22T15:37:31.000Z Influencer marketing has been picking up momentum in recent years. It’s an effective form of marketing that has the potential to generate a large ROI, with [89% of marketers](https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2021/03/26/vital-stats-b2b-marketers-more-80-the-sales-cycle-goes-digital) considering influencers to offer a higher ROI than other popular marketing tactics. We already see how prevalent it is in B2C, but can it bring just as many benefits to B2B? Yes, in fact, possibly even more. The purchase size in B2B dwarfs that of B2C, and referrals and word of mouth are critical to successful sales. And with the explosion of smaller or more niche influencers across social media, these micro-influencers can reach highly targeted segments of your audience - but more on that later. Not every influencer is going to best represent your brand. Just because an influencer has a huge following online, doesn’t mean they’d automatically be the right choice for your company. If you’re thinking of implementing influencer marketing into your next content strategy, check out these tips for picking the right influencer for your brand. - ****[Understand your target market](https://www.saasalliance.io/finding-the-right-influencers-for-your-brand/#understand-your-target-market)** - ****[Meaningful content](https://www.saasalliance.io/finding-the-right-influencers-for-your-brand/#meaningful-content)** - ****[Industry credibility](https://www.saasalliance.io/finding-the-right-influencers-for-your-brand/#industry-credibility)** - ****[Engagement levels](https://www.saasalliance.io/finding-the-right-influencers-for-your-brand/#engagement-levels)** - ****[Relevant audience](https://www.saasalliance.io/finding-the-right-influencers-for-your-brand/#relevant-audience)** - ****[Micro-influencers](https://www.saasalliance.io/finding-the-right-influencers-for-your-brand/#micro-influencers)** - ****[Final thoughts](https://www.saasalliance.io/finding-the-right-influencers-for-your-brand/#final-thoughts)** --- [How the C-suite can drive diversity, equity, and inclusionFostering a diverse hiring practice isn’t just morally the right thing to do, it actively makes your business more successful. Global data time and again shows how ethnic, racial, and gender diversities correlate with higher than industry-average earnings.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/dylan-gillis-KdeqA3aTnBY-unsplash--2---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-the-c-suite-can-drive-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/) --- ## **Understand your target market** Before you can put a list together of potential influencers, you need to make sure you fully understand your audience base. Your target audience needs to actually be following the influencer before you decide to collaborate, so you can ensure their content will actually reach the right people. Use hashtags on social media to search for the right kind of media content relevant to your brand. This will not only help you discover what kind of content your audience cares about but can also be a great place to start your search for influencers. ## **Meaningful content** Follower count is not a good metric to use to decide on what influencers to contact, you need to consider the actual content they share. Spend some time on each of the influencer’s social media platforms to get an idea of the kind of content they produce and support. Are they producing the kind of posts you’d be happy for your brand to associate with? Also, check out the comment sections, do the posts tend to generate engagement, and does the influencer take the time to respond? You need to know what kind of content the influencer is putting out there, whether their values align with your brand’s own, and whether their audience shares them too. --- [5 ways product leaders can create a culture of innovationSenior product leadership can ensure teams work beyond a few ideas and help foster a culture that turns innovation into a strategic, guiding principle that connects to every part of the organization. And here are five ways to do just that…![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAdam Bennett![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/johannes-plenio-fmTde1Fe23A-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-ways-product-leaders-can-create-a-culture-of-innovation/) --- ## **Industry credibility** When you’re exploring an influencer’s content and social posts, try and get a sense of how familiar they are with topics your brand cares about. Do they sound informed and can they demonstrate any areas of expertise on topics that matter in your industry? Enlisting the services of someone with no knowledge of your industry or what your brand does will come across as inauthentic, and their audience will likely be confused by the partnership. No matter how strong your script or pitch, authenticity cannot be faked. Another place you can check is an influencer’s follower list and who they follow. Check for signs of inactive followers or even fake accounts, as this could be a sign that this person would not make a great influencer to partner with. As for their followers, check for any thought leaders or publications relevant to your industry, as that’s a good sign that you’ll both be on the same page. ## **Engagement levels** Engagement is crucial in influencer marketing, but it needs to be the right kind of engagement for your brand. Check out an influencer’s most popular posts and compare them to the ones that don’t have the same engagement levels. Are there any notable differences between these types of posts? Do they get more or less engagement from sponsored posts? How does their audience base react to sponsored posts? These things will all indicate an influencer’s ability to connect with their audience, and by checking any sponsored posts you’ll be able to see whether they can share your brand’s beliefs in a way that seems genuine. Try and seek out influencers that get lots of engagement on sponsored posts, or posts that share your brand values. But make sure you check their followers to ensure they’re not all bots. Their engagement should include comments and responses to CTAs, not just a load of likes. --- [Celebrating women and their trailblazing contributions in the tech spaceInternational Women’s Day gives us time to pause, mindfully reflect, and imagine a better workplace where genders are equal and treated without bias or discrimination — and evaluate the path forward to advance gender diversity in tech.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSCourtney Grigsby![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/christina-wocintechchat-com-MkxWUzCuYkE-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/celebrating-women-and-their-trailblazing-contributions-in-the-tech-space/) --- ## **Relevant audience** Of course, you’ll want an influencer with an audience that overlaps with your own, but not completely. The whole point of working with an influencer is to further expand your reach, so look for influencers whose followers are likely to want to learn more about your brand, as opposed to those who may already know about it. Check out the comment sections on their posts to get a sense of their reactions to branded content and to see what kind of community they’re building. Not all reactions and comments on an influencer’s posts will be positive, so make sure anyone you’re working with doesn’t bring in lots of negative reactions to their posts promoting brands. However, you’re unlikely to find any influencers with wholly positive feedback and comments, so look out for those willing to engage with criticisms and weed out unconstructive comments. Keep an eye on whether their audience appears to be growing or whether they have plateaued, as this can help you consider what kind of future reach they will likely have and if a partnership is worth it. ## **Micro-influencers** Micro-influencer marketing is something we’ve discussed before in our blog about the [top B2B marketing trends in 2022](https://www.b2bmarketingalliance.com/b2b-marketing-trends-to-watch-in-2022/), and it’s no wonder. These days, people have wised up to advertising and they hate to feel like they’re being marketed at. That’s why many brands are abandoning the bigger influencers with millions of followers in favor of micro-influencers, those with a much smaller, yet very dedicated following. These influencers have the advantage that they can deliver a truly authentic message to their trusted audience. B2B brands can benefit from these intimate relationships micro-influencers have with their audience, as they’re much less likely to receive negative reactions to their branded posts. You could have a much better ROI by going with a micro-influencer over a top influencer, as they can use their authentic relationship with their invested audience to share your message in a way that won’t be immediately rejected. ## **Final thoughts** Working with influencers can be a great way to raise brand awareness and generate new leads. Once you’ve vetted some potential influencers, it’s time to reach out. Follow and engage with them on their social platforms, and when you’re ready, you can send out a compelling proposal explaining why you’re reaching out, what you can offer, and how they can take the conversation forward. --- **Want more expert advice? Why not become a member?** [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Defense vs offense: Driving growth through proactive customer success URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/defense-vs-offense-driving-growth-through-proactive-customer-success/ Last updated: 2022-11-29T12:07:49.000Z In this article, I’m going to be discussing my favorite topic: customer success. We’re going to talk about growth in customer success and how customer success can accelerate value realization and growth for you and your customers. ## The aim of this article Firstly, how do we move customer success from defense to offense? In the past, we always used to talk about customer success in terms of things that were wrong or had broken, right? Customer success was this reactive lever, something you did to fix when things went bad. We were the folks who took the phone calls that nobody else wanted to take. Success was measured in metrics of failure. The good news is that this is changing. In the first part of this article, I’m going to explain how you transform customer success from **reactive** to **proactive.** Next, though there’s no magic formula I can give you, I am going to outline three guiding principles to navigate this difficult terrain. In this article, I’m going to address key discussion points, including: - Customer success as a growth lever - Three guiding principles - Value realization - Customer obsessed culture - Data and insights ## Customer success as a growth lever [![Three boxes, each with the words, Growth, Alignment and Impact.](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/mZgO3AB5AKqlg9x94LeyP7SCSPZ8zNqkCF1neIwoAT4ua9aP6jEby1hj9PGje59wRCIjbCnUKlKRul-4F_rfgT-7HwRqbN_rH7QVKlGPzclmP_DKwcokGMqmek6LS_PU51awRua3)](www.futureofsaas.io/defense-vs-offense-driving-growth-through-proactive-customer-success) So, let’s start with the obvious question: Why should we think of customer success as a growth lever for this modern economy that we live in? ## The age of the customer Well, it all comes down to this modern economy we live in. When you think about the past year, it's the age of the customer. It's the age of all of **you**. You, now more than ever, have the power as a consumer to make brands to disrupt industries. ### The impact of the pandemic During the pandemic,many of us have spent more time than we ever wanted sitting at home on Zoom calls. And what have we done? We've disrupted the way transportation works, we've disrupted the way hospitality works. Think about brands like DoorDash, Instacart and Deliveroo. These companies have become household names because of the pandemic and the disruption it’s caused. Still don’t believe me? Well, just look at the financial sector. Just look at how Robinhood has been on the front pages of our newspapers because of the disruption to the traditional investment model. ### The millennial disruption index A few years ago, I started to look into what customer success looked like for scaling startups, I came across this article called ‘The Millennial Disruption Index’ it revealed some shocking facts. The first one was that **73%** of millennials would rather go to Amazon or Google than to a traditional bank. Makes sense, right? But it was the second fact that really made me laugh out loud: more than **70%** of millennials would rather go to a dentist – yes, you heard right– to a dentist, rather than go to a bank. ### The customer experience is the key to the future How’s that relevant? Because it tells us everything we need to know about why we are seeing this disruption and why the customer experience is key as we evolve in this modern economy. The consumerization of businesses is becoming such an important force multiplier for us. Consumers are looking to think about experiences and their own personal journey in everything they do. When you think about traditional banking, do you think about a highly personalized, spontaneous experience? No. You think this, right? 👇 [![Image of the exterior of an old, English Bank ](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/V3d_wMzU1XqVVALreOoBxmEpfq9oohigsjMif9549NgmQCX-mk1NiLBEKtadyT-br9gtx8AimyiW0hlf_fFv0KMKIoxMH6yYmtqTcVgsRSu17BwKh00OgrNdvGZ2piz6VbbAbPz4)](www.futureofsaas.io/defense-vs-offense-driving-growth-through-proactive-customer-success) Traditional. Uniform. Very formal. That’s what we want to move away from. So, what do your customers actually want? Customers want their own personal journey, and they're voting for it with their feet, because there are so many options out there. Customers have options, and they will exercise them. They don’t have to put up with traditional options anymore. But what is critical to this growth is the customer experience? And what is it that makes our profession and our roles so critical in this modern economy? ### Think about it as alignment Even a few years ago, think about the way we would talk about teams and functions. You’d silo them out and create clear divisions between different teams. Today, of course, the lines are blurring, and the traditional pre-sales and post sales motion, for example, are all converging. Everything is rapidly converging . We’re entering into a more collaborative culture. ### It’s all about adoption Not just once and done adoption, but once *every month* adoption. I think this is especially true as our digital transformation accelerates, as our software businesses translate more and more to subscription based businesses. These businesses are moving away from a once and done model, to this monthly use-case adoption based model. As B2B customers come to expect customer-focused experiences, organizations that have this at the center of their culture are going to excel. This is another reason why customer success as a profession is critical to success in the new economy. ### There’s always impact There’s a huge impact to all of this work as we grow, as we continue to put the customer at the center of our journey. Looking at the latest numbers for 2020, I saw that customer experience has now overtaken price and brand and product as the brand differentiator. This is the impact of evolving CS. ## Customer experience is the key differentiator Deep product knowledge is also highly valuable, obviously. As CSMs we might struggle with the technical aspects of the product. Being tech-savvy helps, but what **really** helps is a deep understanding of what our customers want. The ability to communicate and engage with customers is critical. And CSMs are instrumental in bringing it all together and driving impact. ## The rule of three for the modern economy [![Slide outlining the rule of three. ](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/mR6FsclI0_1CNHE0R6_9KEDnOXaB8eG9ka36AyUaO5CSzsZi6Z3kve9OiVi8OsH8__iJyccwKS12A3dcL4gSBxlDw-LpdcRvjMI8vbefHX-lcofa_3LCLoxsJhEHAU6R0a4YNC-b)](www.futureofsaas.io/defense-vs-offense-driving-growth-through-proactive-customer-success) I'm often asked, “do you have a formula for customer success? Do you have a playbook?” I don't believe in formula. There’s no one-size-fits all, but I do know this, it's important to ask questions. A good rule of thumb is to start by asking what drives the customer and what they care about. You can also start by asking some very pointy, intentional questions. Those are the questions in what I call the rule of three, the three guiding principles to get to what our customers need. ## Value realization The customer comes first, we are customer-obsessed, and we show that by keeping their interest top of mind. Then, we're gonna look internally, and think about how we take what we've heard from the customer and translate it into a customer-obsessed culture. With value realization, we start with our customers, and we work backwards from there to help understand what they think of as success. That’s what we want to accomplish and or execute for them, helping our customers find the value and really get the outcomes that they want for their businesses. There’s a set of questions I ask to help me understand what is really important to my customers. ### Who are your customers, and what are their priorities? Whether you’re a B2B model, or a B2C model, everybody has a customer, and that is what your customer is thinking about, right? Your customer cares about **their** customers. If I'm a food delivery app, for example, what I care about in a competitive marketplace is how quickly my customer is able to navigate my menus, search my site, get options, etc. But if you don't know what problem they are solving, you will not be able to deliver the value they need. So, start with your customers' customers, then understand who they are trying to serve. ### How do they scale? In the past year, we've seen a lot of uptake, a lot of disruption that's helped our companies grow. The question to ask is how do they sustain that growth and make it scalable? Are they looking to expand geographically? Are they looking to expand into adjacent use cases? Are they looking to automate, so they can serve multiple different customers? All of those are other considerations to take into account. ### Who are the influencers? No, I’m not talking about social media influencers, I’m talking about your board of directors. Yes, it's your C-level leadership, I’m also talking about your investors - a lot of private equity firms have been investing in technology. They are influencers because they have objectives and outcomes they want to accomplish, while you may not be engaging with them every day, understanding what their intentions and motivations are is important. Without that, your path to success is going to be bumpier. ## What does ‘good’ look like? What does success look like? For that, I use another rule of three. It's called, ‘10,10,10.’ **10 weeks -** it's important to have quick wins, so think about what success would look like in 10 weeks, whether it's having a conversation with someone you don't know, whether it's starting a proof of concept, whether it's starting a workshop, it doesn’t have to be anything major. **10 months** \- What does ‘good’ look like in 10 months? What progress on a product roadmap would you want to make? What progress in an executive conversation would you want to make? **10 years** \- This is the long term horizon thinking, and that is where all of this intelligence really helps you as you think about their customers. Ask your customer the question, “where would you want to be? If you're a tech company, where do you want to be on the Gartner quadrant? Where do you want to be in X years?” The important thing is that you set yourself long term and short term goals. Give yourself a horizon to strive for. 👇 ## Customer-obsessed culture It's easier to do your job when everyone's supporting you, you're getting the sponsorship you need, and you're getting the resources you need. For that, you need a culture that is customer-obsessed. It’s an overused term, right? And how do you know if you’re really customer obsessed? Here are the questions to get there. ### Is customer success a company-wide responsibility? If it is a company-wide responsibility, you’ll hear about it from the top down, You’ll see it in strategic documents. You’ll see it in external public conversations, and you’ll see your CEO and leadership team talking about this. But an even bigger indicator is how your leadership spends their time. To me, how people spend their time is the biggest indicator of how much someone cares about a priority. If you see your leadership team prioritizing customer conversations, making time for customer meetings and asking about customer stories to share, that's a good sign. The point is, your company should be able to clearly articulate how they are addressing customer success, from top to bottom. ### Is there a 360 understanding of customer success? Think about a good understanding of the customer experience as a 360 experience. By this, I mean, are we thinking about an integrated perspective that considers the customer journey across the lifecycle and across all different functions? Are we thinking about it from their perspective, as a journey? Or are we thinking about it from **our** perspective, in terms of silos and function? ### Are you integrated with your sales and engineering teams? That translates into how we’re organized internally, especially with our sales and engineering teams. Companies that are early on in their journeys have often asked me, “where should I have my customer success person? Should I even have a customer success person?” My response is “always”. Where you embed your customer success resources is important, especially early on in the life of an organization, one connection that really helps is between your CS, your product service and your engineering team. You're able to surface requests upstream quickly and close the loop on the feedback. I'm a big advocate of close connections with our services engineering teams - customer success is a team sport. In any organization that’s customer obsessed, you’ll see that different parts of the puzzle work consistently together. ### Are you hiring for the future? Hiring and talent is crucial, everyone understands customer experience, and skilled customer success professionals are hard to find, so, you need to make sure that you're bringing in the right resources and then setting them up for success. Getting smart, talented people in but not putting them in an organization where different departments are aligned is a disservice both to the individual and to the company. When you hire, know that your customers are going to evolve, and you're going to see massive disruptions continue to happen, so, hire for aptitude, hire for the non-tangible skill skills you cannot teach. One of the things I look for is the ability to deal with ambiguity - we’re in a state of constant motion, constant flux, and you need CSMs who are unfazed by it. They need to be able to walk into a situation and deal with whatever comes their way, and have the intellectual curiosity and capability to translate it into insights/ action. ## Data and insights Data is never the problem, right? You have more data than you can use. We collect more data than we can use. But it really comes down to using your data in the right way. Once again, here are five questions to ensure you're using it to solve customer problems. ### How do you measure customer health? Making sure that you have a comprehensive way to think about health that's not just reactive is important. And that is a mix of metrics that are leading indicators. It's a mix of lagging indicators. ### Are you measuring metrics of failure or success? As you measure individual performance or your organization, think about what you're measuring for. Are you focused only on metrics of failure? In that case, you’re reactive rather than proactive. When we create POCs, when we do workshops, when we do innovation sessions, it is easy to start from a place of failure, because that's what creates the noise. I understand that as somebody who runs businesses, you absolutely have to address the noise. You need to make sure to catch all the things that could catch us off guard. But make sure you're thinking about it proactively. Bake in your metrics of success, the growth aspects that let our CSMs innovate, grow and build relationships with our customers. ### Do you pay attention to signals and anecdotes? Sometimes your data doesn't tell you the whole story. Pay attention to signals and anecdotes. And know that they are often the signs of something coming. Pay attention to stories. Your customer might tell you everything is great, but pay attention to those very slight problems that come up in customer stories. These are the things that may become bigger trends that you wish you had gotten ahead of. ### Are you making the news or reporting the news? This is one of the most important distinctions between a good CSM and a great CSM. Anyone can report the news. I can get on this presentation with you and walk through five slides. Have I done my job? Yes. Am I a good CSM? Likely, yes. But have I missed an opportunity? Absolutely. I've missed an opportunity to connect the dots between your questions, between what is going on in the market, and between what you are looking for. Making the news is thinking proactively and then acting on what your organization needs, not just reeling off the various problems that have occurred. ### How does data drive meaningful actions? Data is only as useful if it drives meaningful actions. What is the action? What are the initiatives? What did you do differently as a result of this data? A great product is a start, it's not the end. The customer journey and the experience that comes with it is the reason we are here. There is no substitute for paying attention. Life as a CSM is as much in the intangibles as it's in your dashboards. Pay attention to your customer and to your customer's customer. Finally, know that things are always changing. Once you have something that works, rinse, repeat, and then prepare to evolve it. ### 5 ways product leaders can create a culture of innovation URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/5-ways-product-leaders-can-create-a-culture-of-innovation/ Last updated: 2022-03-17T17:43:34.000Z Hey, just be innovative okay. Be innovative and drive product success. Sounds simple. But it really isn’t, is it? Because how exactly do you drive innovation? How would you deliver a culture of innovation that’s continuous? And how do you embed this into your product team and organization, so that you can build products that actually generate revenue and deliver services? Well… it can start from the top. Senior product leadership can ensure teams work beyond a few ideas and help foster a culture that turns innovation into a strategic, guiding principle that connects to every part of the organization. And here are five ways to do just that… ## **#1 - Use trust to empower product teams** No organization can be truly innovative without creating a culture where every team member feels they have some level of autonomy - to think on their own and find fresh ways to solve a problem. It takes a strong leader to know that not every great decision is done solo. Innovation is all about the team and leading that team effectively takes being able to listen, mentor, and in turn - empower. A [strong product organization](https://www.productledalliance.com/how-to-power-up-your-organization-with-product-ops/) has teams that exist for very different purposes, but they all must serve the customer in ways that meet the goals and needs of the company. Recognizing this can have a significant impact on how teams work, their morale, their motivation. And can lead to higher levels of consistent innovation, which brings greater value for customers and for the whole organization. Teams that are truly empowered will not only solve the toughest problems, they’ll innovate much more effectively. But have the vast majority of orgs been convinced to empower their product teams in any meaningful sense? If not… why not? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) Well, it comes down to a question of trust. When leaders don’t fully trust their teams, this can lead to a culture where they feel the need to explicitly direct them. Usually, this comes from a feeling that they don’t have the right level of talent within the team. Either because they can’t find said talent or they can’t attract the people they really need. But looking at things this way only limits the people they have within the teams and proliferates the myth that the pace of innovation is only governed by the most talented geniuses out there. Sure, some are better at generating fresh ideas than others, but great ideas can come from just about any corner of your organization, at any time, as long as they’re given the space to grow. So it’s important to trust in your teams and foster an environment where: - Team members are allowed the opportunity to be ambidextrous system thinkers, who want to solve the problems that matter. - Everyone’s ideas are welcomed, regardless of their specific role. - People are constantly encouraged to push for improvements and apply their observations and experience to problems. - Ideas are quickly tested, validated, and built upon effectively. ## **#2 - Encourage quick action on ideas** ![Lets go gif - host of tv show](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2021/12/Lets-go.gif) To help cultivate a culture of innovation, product leaders must be willing to move past continuous conceptual chatter and encourage quick action on ideas. Of course, that’s not to say every idea should be taken straight into prototyping, but you must take the time to assess every idea, gather insights and data to make the most informed decision. But don’t stay in this phase for too long. It’s important to stay agile, to eventually stop deliberating, stop planning - and start taking action. Make key decisions in a way that’s confident and measured, without any more downtime than is absolutely necessary. These decisions don’t have to be final, after all, rough prototyping is okay as long as it conveys where you’re going. What starts with intuition can be fueled by insights, so listen carefully after you’ve taken action on ideas. If the feedback is telling you to “go back to the drawing board” this shouldn’t be seen as a negative, it should be seen as an indicator that you’re evolving and finding out what works. The final output will be better as a result. ## **#3 - Measure your innovation approach** No matter your product or service, data always matters. But how exactly do you measure ideas? Can you really measure something that intangible? Well… yes. As long as you know and [understand what you’re going to actually measure](https://www.productledalliance.com/measurements-frameworks-growth-optimization/). Undoubtedly, you’ll need numbers on user activity, engagement, and churn, etc. But how about using innovation metrics to [understand what your users really want](https://www.productledalliance.com/first-know-your-product/)? Or understand how much time product teams are actually dedicating to discovery? Look at how many team members have actually been trained on what it means to innovate and pinpoint what can change the game for the org, and begin to build your approach to innovation metrics from there. Remember, start the spark of innovation with imagination, but always fuel it with data. Data can either back up your instincts or prove them totally wrong. Take measured steps, such as: - Generate ideas based on user studies and research; from in-depth interviews to focus groups. - Build product concepts based on specific user needs and ensure they resonate with the broader landscape by conducting competitive analysis. - Utilize a user segmentation process to paint a clearer picture of your target audience, to push the right concepts forward. - Validate and prioritize ideas through testing and refine them by developing prototypes to put into a formal product development process. - Always incorporate user testing to iterate further. ## **#4 - Don’t focus on the fear of failure** The fear of failure can haunt even the most intrepid of product enterprises. But failure is all part of the plan when it comes to innovating. ![Part of the plan - Joker gif](https://www.productledalliance.com/content/images/2021/12/Part-of-the-plan.gif) It’s inevitable when you’re fostering a culture of innovation, and it’s important to embrace it. Striving for product innovation is a continual process. It requires incremental testing and refining to truly understand what’s working and what isn’t. And there’s almost always a degree of uncertainty involved. Shaking off the fear of failure and taking risks can actually lead to knowledge, breakthroughs, and growth. Look at when Google launched “AdSense” and “Google Answers” for example, both were fresh new concepts, but AdSense grew into a huge success, whereas Google Answers (which let users post questions and pay an expert for the answer) was retired after just a few years. But without a doubt, Google learned a lot from this, and could then apply the knowledge gathered to the development of future products, instead of missing opportunities as a result of being afraid to fail. It’s obviously important to avoid taking an inappropriate risk, but the culture of your product org needs to be aimed at providing a balanced assessment that avoids prematurely rejecting ideas due to an overestimation of risk. A lot of ideas won’t be any good and should be allowed to die... in a nice, positive way! But only after you've explored them. You have to fail. Failure is success because failure means that you've learned something, you've made decisions, you've progressed your thinking in the space. Product leaders need to provide emotional support to those willing to try something new, regardless of whether the idea is eventually judged a success or not. ## **#5 - Plan for the future by learning from the past** *According to Accenture’s US Innovation Survey, 60% of companies admitted they did not learn from past mistakes in relation to their approach to innovation. 72% of orgs admitted to missing opportunities to exploit underdeveloped areas.* Product leaders must take the necessary time to learn from past mistakes. Innovation isn’t just about continuing to do new things. The best type of innovation involves stopping some things that you're already doing, instead of just adding more and more to the work stack. [Fix what isn’t working while moving forward](https://www.productledalliance.com/kill-your-features/). As mentioned, failing should always be seen as something important to the process - but complacency with failure should not be encouraged. Before you decide to move forward, get a clear understanding of what your goals are for product innovation. > *“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”* The famous quote from Gandhi himself is of course still relevant today, especially when it comes to fostering a culture of innovation in your product organization. It’s important to stay adaptable and remain open to learning through looking at new ways of working and staying relevant in a constantly changing environment. But you should also take a look back at what has come before, and use this to capture the context of what [you’re planning to do moving forward](https://www.productledalliance.com/effective-steps-you-can-take-to-create-a-winning-product-strategy/). Look at the outcome you want to achieve, so you can have that artifact to keep referring back to at the right stop gates and the right stages. Always make sure your product teams are checking themselves against what they're setting out to do. Embrace this non-linear way of thinking for continuous innovation to work. This way of thinking can also act as a trigger point to put data, user insight, or people together on a day-to-day basis. Whether it’s looking back on a discussion with a competitor or supplier, a chat with another player in the market, a look into some user research, talking to a user; these can all serve as opportunity points for somebody in the teams or yourself to reflect on as you move forward. It's not all about the data, it's not all about the UX. It's more serendipitous. It's having the space to think broadly, look at the bigger picture, and bring people together from every corner of the organization. ### Celebrating women and their trailblazing contributions in the tech space URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/celebrating-women-and-their-trailblazing-contributions-in-the-tech-space/ Last updated: 2022-03-08T15:00:11.000Z International Women’s Day gives us time to pause, mindfully reflect, and imagine a better workplace where genders are equal and treated without bias or discrimination — and evaluate the path forward to advance gender diversity in tech. Research indicates that diverse teams outperform and embody more creative and innovative perspectives. A [McKinsey & Company study](https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters) linked diverse executive teams to promising outcomes — 35% higher earnings and 33% more long-term value creation. Teams encompassing diverse genders, races, ages and other social factors have the well-rounded qualities it takes to navigate the unique challenges for customers in today’s modern digital landscape. We still have considerable progress before closing the gender gap for good. [Deloitte](https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/technology/technology-media-and-telecom-predictions/2022/statistics-show-women-in-technology-are-facing-new-headwinds.html) predicts that large global tech firms will reach 33% overall female representations in their workforces in 2022, up roughly two percentage points from 2019\. Although we’ve witnessed a small increase, this indicates campaigns to recruit, hire and promote women in tech tend to work gradually. Steady progress is underway in the tech space to create more inclusive workplace cultures. One of the most inspiring ways to highlight this advancement is celebrating and amplifying ground-breaking achievements from women. In this case, the resilient, powerful women of tech. ## Nearly all women-led team drives go-to-market success For Ardian Technologies, an information technology company, the obstacles they faced were twofold. They have an exciting new tech product, ArdianStack is a Zero Trust ecosystem of data and microservice capabilities that engenders access-management-as-a-service solutions (AMaaS) in their portfolio. However, the go-to-market plan for this product benefited from additional direction to strategically define the services model. Formulating a plan to make this launch successful, sustainable and a splash in the tech scene was the second piece of the puzzle. This led Ardian to engage with TD SYNNEX for guidance and expertise. Through the help of the TD SYNNEX Solutions Factory for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and our Channel Builder program, technical and market readiness was ensured. TD SYNNEX worked with Ardian to migrate ArdianStack from a virtual private cloud to a leading public cloud like Azure. Additionally, we offered guidance on how to package and SaaSify secure data management to support the solution, ArdianStack. As a result of this collaboration, the solution was packaged in a replicable, scalable way that provides Ardian with robust markets and opportunities to pursue. A truly exciting part of the joint SaaSification and the go-to-market process was that the efforts from both ends of the partnership were led by teams of women, including Maria Shelton, CEO of Ardian Technologies. During a group strategy session, Maria said both teams realized this and felt an overwhelming sense of pride to be a part of something much bigger than they imagined — a meeting filled with female experts dedicated to driving change — in what is traditionally a male-dominated field. ## Inspiring the tech talent of tomorrow Overall, the strong partnership and successful business outcomes undeniably demonstrate that a team filled with women in the tech space is eager to tackle complex technical challenges and build lasting, mutually beneficial business relationships. With this in mind, the tech industry has the limitless opportunity to take a more proactive approach in advertising fulfilling careers — whether programming, engineering or beyond this scope to attract the diverse talent key to unlocking flourishing business outcomes. Championing diversity and inclusion initiatives and leading the way toward noticeable change is paramount. Underneath the surface, we are all very capable, knowledgeable human beings, regardless of gender. Our various experiences and ideas are what strengthen teams at the core and lead to successes mirroring the case we covered above. Women have proven they possess the talent and abilities it takes to lead a successful career in this industry, backed by grit to advance their education. In the U.S. alone, 59.5% of the college students enrolled were women and 40.5% men, according to data collected by the [National Student Clearinghouse](https://www.studentclearinghouse.org/nscblog/5-enrollment-challenges-for-first-generation-students/?hilite=59.5). This March, as we celebrate Women’s History Month, our work with Maria reminds us of the importance of amplifying advancements made by women in technology. With unwavering intrinsic belief, young women aspiring to enter the technology field will go far. --- *To this day, TD SYNNEX and Ardian are aligned within a thriving strategic partnership pioneered by women — with the focus remaining clear — delivering innovative solutions to customers that simplify everyday tasks. Ultimate customer satisfaction is the end goal we are all working toward — together.* *Interested in learning more about the Solutions Factory for ISVs and ways we can help your business cater to market demands and build the capabilities to expand your business? Click [here](https://www.techdatacloud.eu/our-difference/solutions/isv-solution-factory/) to explore our offerings to support your SaaSification journey. For more details on our Channel Builder program, click [here](https://practicebuilder.techdata.com/isv/).* --- *This blog was originally posted on the [TD SYNNEX global corporate publication](https://medium.com/tdsynnex/celebrating-women-and-their-trailblazing-contributions-in-the-tech-space-2c4080f4966c)* ### How you can use AI to push boundaries in SaaS products URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/ Last updated: 2024-10-31T11:08:22.000Z My name is Juliette Denny, and I am the CEO at Growth Engineering. We create really engaging technology fueled by artificial intelligence. Now, I know this subject can seem like traveling to an alien planet, but I’m giving you a step-by-step guide to **reach lift-off!** Here’s the breakdown: 👇 ## Main talking points - [What is AI](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/#what-is-ai) - [AI in more detail](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/#ai-in-more-detail) - [Hollywood has warped our understanding](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/#hollywood-has-warped-our-understanding) - [Business applications](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/#business-applications) - [Unprecedented growth](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/#unprecedented-growth-in-ai) - [Better outcomes](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/#better-outcomes) ## What is AI? There’s a number of different definitions of AI. But none of them define it better than this quote from Professor John McCartney. [![Cartoon image of a woman wearing a VR headset with the John McCarthy quote to the left.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/John-McCarthy-quote.jpeg)](www.futureofsaas.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/) In other words, AI represents our efforts **to stimulate human intelligence** through machines. [AI in SaaS](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-and-ai/#8-challenges-for-end-users-and-practitioners) is usually applied to automate tasks or processes to make them more efficient. These are the more challenging tasks that humans would do, rather than easier tasks. An important thing to note right off the bat, is that AI isn't a substitute for human activity; it **augments human activity.** AI can take over tasks that would be more time-consuming for a person, like looking through legal documents to find precedents and commonality. On the other hand, things that're easy for human beings, like walking, are very hard for AI to pull off. Okay, so now that we’ve got the definitions out of the way, let's dig into AI in a little more detail. ## AI in more detail Now, within the subject of AI, there are many subcategories, and we’re going to cover them in this section. ### Weak/narrow AI Typically, when people are talking about weak or narrow AI, it's the type of artificial intelligence that's limited to a really specific or narrow area. So, for example, we have Alpha Zero. That's a computer system that’s basically excellent at chess. But if you were going to bet on this system in a game of Scrabble, you’d be out of luck. ### General AI This system seeks to establish a kind of intellectual agent that can learn any top tasks that humans can. In other words, it’s on par with a human ability. This has been used when assessing loan criteria, for example, whether something is low or high risk. ### Super AI As you may have guessed by the title, super AI would be something that has superseded human intelligence. The potential of these kinds of technologies is unprecedented (and potentially scary!) It’ll probably be a long time before we arrive at this point. ### Machine learning This is a subfield of the wider AI. It allows the software to learn through an algorithm so that it can complete tasks more efficiently. ### Deep learning This is a type of machine learning that uses artificial neural networks. It progressively learns from the data that's being pushed through the neural network. This is a textbook example of AI **augmenting** human actions. ## Hollywood has warped our understanding Sadly (or maybe luckily!) we’re not anywhere close to Terminator 2 or Ex Machina. ### Better examples Modern-day examples of AI include things like: - Recommendation engines - Virtual assistants - Chatbox - Intelligent Search - Email filtering - Driverless cars All of these are powered by AI. Now, we've highlighted some modern examples of AI, let’s look at some companies that have invested heavily in AI. # Business applications [![Domino's pizza logo ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/Dominos-pizza-logo.jpeg)](www.futureofsaas.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/) ### Domino's So, I don’t know about you, but I love pizza, but do you know what I didn't love? Ordering pizza on my cell phone for deliveries. Often you’d be waiting there, not knowing what time it was going to arrive, wondering if they’d forgotten about it even! What Domino's pizzas did is they used artificial intelligence to develop a model which allowed them to predict when your pizza was going to get to you. They went from an accuracy of 75% to an accuracy of 95%. This also worked out well for Domino’s because it meant they weren’t getting as many calls. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/Deutsche-bank-logo.jpeg)](www.futureofsaas.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/) ### Deutsche Bank This company really utilizes AI in a different way. They used it to identify attractive loan clients to speed up their loan approvals. This happens as the customer is actually filling in the form, and it's really speedy and efficient. Just think about how much manpower and how much expense banks must rack up from having to employ people to carry out those checks! The knock-on effect has been that more people have signed up to use this process. Now, more loans are getting approved, and more business is being done. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/IBM-Watson.jpeg)](www.futureofsaas.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/) ### IBM Watson IBM Watson has a number of applications in terms of customer service. They have a smart assistant, which uses conversational AI to help resolve over 7,000 customer inquiries a day. The reason why this works is that most of the customer inquiries are the same customer inquiries, it doesn't require human intervention, so we're driving down the cost of delivering the service. ## Real breakthroughs Having said that, there are also really powerful examples of AI. It has the potential to engineer unthinkable technology, as well as technological and scientific breakthroughs. Because machines are able to analyze data so much quicker than mortal brains. A good recent example would be… [![Deep mind logo](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/deep-mind-2.jpeg)](www.futureofsaas.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/) ### Deep Mind Deep Mind's AI program was able to solve a problem that scientists have been trying to crack for almost 50 years. Now, I'm no protein scientist, but what a protein does largely depends on its own unique 3D structure. Understanding how different proteins can fold can really help us develop new medical treatments. It represents a real, significant advance in human understanding. Because scientists were unable to understand how the math worked, It was estimated that it would never be known. But of course, Alphafold came to the rescue! It’s a software from DeepMind that’s able to analyze the available data. It then develops really strong predictions of the underlying physical structure of the protein within a matter of days. ## Unprecedented growth in AI A lot of large organizations are investing in AI. If you're a small or medium-sized business, never think that you are locked out of AI, because the reality is, there has been a huge amount of investment made by the big technology companies. And now this technology is widespread. It’s very accessible to smaller companies. Don’t believe me? Here are some key stats on the growth of AI: - 97.2% of organizations are now investing in AI (NewVantage Partners) - AI tech investment will reach $232 billion by 2025 (KPMG) - AI will contribute $15.7 trillion to the world economy by 2030 (PwC) Why should AI be so interesting to you? Well, first… ### It automates time-consuming tasks Let's say in customer success, for example, they're answering the same questions over and over again. By utilizing bots, you can speed up the time that you can respond to customers. When you usa a customer support helpline, you’ll typically encounter a bot filtering out the common questions before they put you in touch with a human being. ### AI increases team efficiency Your team is freed up from answering the same question over and over again. They can work on more challenging questions, and they can really formulate creative ways to innovate, do their jobs, and deliver value for the customer. ## Is AI going to replace humans? This is really the million-dollar question, right? But the reality is, it’s really not true at all. Robots are not going to replace humans, they're going to make human jobs **more humane**. Robots will be doing the **four Ds** in jobs. These are: - Jobs that are more difficult - Jobs that are more demeaning - Jobs that are more demanding - Jobs that are more dangerous ### Humans get to be the superheroes [![Lego Superman ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/03/Lego-superman.jpeg)](www.futureofsaas.io/how-you-can-use-ai-to-push-boundaries-in-saas-products/) They can get creative and really focus on solving complex problems, those wonderful things robots will never be able to do. What we really should be doing is trying to advance AI and machine learning to take over stuff that we really don't want to be doing ourselves. ## What we do at Growth Engineering The first thing is, we **are not** a big company. We're working on a shoestring budget to produce something which is really meaningful. Humans are naturally curious, but sometimes when it comes to doing online learning, we stop being curious. Our main goal is to determine how we can get AI to facilitate learning being easier. Here are some of the ways that we think can achieve that: ### AI can automate tedious admin tasks When you join a Learning Technology Department, you don't join because you want to work a learning management system or create e-learning, you join because you love training people. So, one of the things that we really wanted to do is enable L&D professionals to focus on what they love doing, which is developing people. How can we utilize AI for account provisioning, user provisioning, etc? ### AI can create personalized learning pathways Think about your Netflix recommendations – which are AI automated– how would you feel if it kept pushing the same content at you based on an algorithm? E-learning is the same. By freeing up people, we can allow them to curate pure curiosity and deliver the stuff our learners really want. ### How can we refine learning? One of the things that's really important in learning and development is showing that you can **do** something as well as **know** it. We want to make learners more than a passive recipient of a piece of content. AI can help in getting people to practice the skills before they actually put it into practice. We want to make it easy for admins to understand the process of learning. We want them to understand that: - You need to see the information. - You need to be reminded of it through testing and assessments. - You actually need to do it. If we can pull together processes, AI can actually facilitate this for the admin, and we're going to get better outcomes. ## Better outcomes ### Example 1: recommendation engines There are many big technology companies that have recommendation engines you can plug into really easily. All you need to do is Google AI and you will find a whole variety of different services that they offer. One of the things that they offer is recommendations engines. What does that mean for us? Well, we need APIs that bring together our user-provisioning information with our content information in order to deliver good recommendations for our learners Now, one of the challenges in this is that the model can only be trained once the user information is there. You need to have a cold start, but once you get going, one of the great things about recommendation engines is they focus very much on what colleagues in your industry are doing rather than the actual content itself. ### Example 2: User & content provisioning This is admittedly pretty boring, but it’s a massive part of onboarding.With our customers from big companies like L'Oréal and BT, the users and content they provision can come from five or six different enterprise platforms. Not only that, the content can come from five or six different content providers, including their own content providers. We can end up with different elements of metadata in the information that we get. For users, we can get a lot of patchy information. Often it's a real nightmare for some of our clients to be able to put the data in the structure. We need to onboard them and get the right recommendations in terms of content. What we've been able to do with AI is use auto-tagging. This allows us to match between the content and the provisioning data in order to get the model started. It's not quite a cold start. We’re able to get between 56 to 70%, depending on how much information is coming over from the content metadata. ### Example 3: Intelligent search We need a deep intelligence search on our own platforms, as well as on the learning content itself. We need to do intelligent search on everything in the ecosphere of our customers, not just the information on our platform, Intelligent Search is a great way of doing that. Using API's, you can easily push out to other platforms, get that information, and then bring it back to your users in whatever the user interfaces. ### Example 4: Content Creation Content creation is a massive headache! Most organizations have a huge amount of information that they need to get out to their people. Some of our biggest clients are in retail, and there are products coming all the time. You can have a situation where you've got to spend 180 hours creating a single hour of e-learning. Yeah, no-one has time for that, right? AI can very easily upload PowerPoint presentations, upload work docs, upload PDFs, and then put it into a series of templates. Again, this frees up educators to do more actual educating. We’re in a situation where we’re able to coach people one-on-one in a more personalized manner. ### Example 5: AI coaches and mentors Okay, so let’s say we know what the correct curriculum is, if we push that into the AI engine, we create the content really quickly. Once students start asking questions, the AI can query it out, and find subject matter that answers these questions. You're going to have some tutors there initially, but it could be a very personalized level of learning. ## Ideas are cheap…delivery is expensive This may be true, but let’s also remember that there is no delivery without ideas. You've got to start somewhere, right? We can't just all throw up our hands and say, “it's all too big! It's all too complicated. It's all too expensive.” AI is absolutely not a mysterious planet that can only be visited by spacemen, or, in real world terms, the top five technology companies. It really should be the new bread and butter of any SaaS company. At Growth Engineering, we're a very, very small company, but we’ve made AI and ML absolutely central to how we operate. Everything that our department does is driving towards this idea of utilizing AI and ML where possible, in order to deliver more, for less. That mindset change is a really important part of moving towards AI. ### The problem is always data Don't think that your first thing you're going to be doing is building neural networks. The thing is, **you don't have to.** There are just so many free and open-source elements to try. Instead, the constraint is always data. If the problem is that you've got lots of replicable data, then you will very easily be able to find an AI or ML solution. ### Find the thing that can be automated Find the process within your organization that can be automated. Find out which of those processes you've got the most data for. If you don't have a large amount of data, then reach out to open source sites for code that's been written, and try and play around with it, if you can't find it for free. There are lots of SaaS providers that have all the components you really need in order to plug your data for. ### Find a pilot project Finally, if you have exhausted the above, look at paying for a pilot project for a consultancy. This can be internal or it can be external. To be honest with you, I don't think you need to be putting in huge amounts of resources for actually building the model. ## Key takeaways 1. **AI helps us to automate time-consuming tasks**: Just imagine the much innovative, creative work your team can do when they're freed by AI! 2. **It has helped other industries to cut out costs and drive more value:** It might seem like a big investment, but it’s more than worth it. Believe me. 3. **Intelligence is what makes us human:** AI is just an extension of that. AI is not going to take over our lives. If anything, it’s going to make our lives infinitely better. Have fun! ### How the C-suite can drive diversity, equity, and inclusion URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-the-c-suite-can-drive-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/ Last updated: 2022-03-31T14:25:06.000Z Fostering a diverse hiring practice isn’t just morally the right thing to do, it actively makes your business more successful. [Global data](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-saas-landscape-report-2021-2/) time and again shows how ethnic, racial, and gender diversities correlate with higher than industry-average earnings. Hiring managers frequently default to familiarity when looking for candidates, and unconscious and conscious bias is a huge problem many firms aren’t even aware they have. It’s no secret that the tech indistry is overwhelmingly white and male, but while these companies are seeking familiarity in their candidates, a growing under-populated workforce is searching for representation. **Laura Inostroza**, **support lead at eSSENTIAL Accessibility** explains: - How the C-suite can make a difference when it comes to hiring practices - Who should be in charge of diversity, equity and inclusion - The data should you collect to drive diversity in the workplace Plus much more. --- ### Q: How can SAS companies ensure that their interview processes are inclusive? **A:** First and foremost, you should have a bank of questions and ask those same questions to every candidate. When I came into my role at eSSENTIAL Accessibility, they tailored their interview to whoever the candidate is, and one of my first motions was to say, “no, we need more generic questions, and we need to ask the same of everyone.” You might have a great rapport with someone, or find some similarities that give you a biased reason why you feel like you should hire them. You need to give everyone the equal opportunity to speak their strengths, and essentially sell themselves. > Who is in the room is also really important. If someone is interviewing at an organization, and they only see is cis white men in every stage of their interviews, that's going to speak volumes about their organization. It’s important to be intentional about who is in the room with that candidate, so that they feel like, “okay, maybe there's someone like me in this organization, and I wouldn't be alone.” I recently spoke to an executive, and she said, “I didn't join this organization because I just didn't want to have to be the only woman at the executive level. I'm exhausted doing that.” And whether she would’ve been the only woman at an executive level, that's the impression she got from the company. ### Q: Who should be in charge of diversity, equity and inclusion? **A:** In my last company, I tried to start a [diversity, equity, and inclusion](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/diversity-equity-inclusion/) committee, it was employee-run, and it was really difficult because it was a side of desk effort, you know, it was volunteer-only. And I truly think an organization isn't going to get off the ground or going to make any moves in diversity and inclusion unless there is someone whose full-time job is focusing on that. It can be anyone from an underrepresented minority group or an ally, who desperately wants this work to be done in an organization. But having someone whose full-time job is to focus on this, really speak again, speaks volumes, it’s putting your money where your mouth is, if you actually want change, you need to pay someone full-time. ### Q: How can the C-suite support that? Is it a case of getting buy-in and spending money? **A:** There's nothing wrong with a community-led organization, I've spoken to people who started employee resource groups in their company, and they're happy, because the group had backing from the C-suite to say, “yeah, we'll give your resource groups some funding”, and that at least fosters the belonging aspect of diversity and inclusion, and some of the equity which is to say that might create some mentorship opportunities or just connections throughout the organization. Allocate some money into your D&I focus the way you would your product or marketing team. But it has to be a genuine focus because the only way it's going to succeed is if the committee has a voice at an executive level. So whether that’s an executive sponsor who sits in on resource groups or on the DE&U committee, or an actual C-suite exec who’s a member of the committee. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) I've seen executive sponsors who didn't necessarily bring the information from the DEI committee back to the C-suite. And so if there's that divide, it feels like “oh, yeah, go play in your corner”, and it’s just appeasing the employees instead of actually trying to make a change. ### Q: What impact does this have on innovation? **Laura:** Just this week, I attended a conference where Adam Grant spoke. He's a behavioral psychologist, and he was talking about how we're most creative when we talk to our weak ties. So that’s the people who aren't in our immediate circles because they have different opinions than us and different lived experiences. When we have an idea, and we're blocked, yes, our close friends might be willing to help us unblock it, but our weakest ties might be the ones who have the most revolutionary idea for us to push through that. This comes into the workspace and the more voices you have in a room, brainstorming, the more creative you're going to be. One of the things he talked about is innovation that's actually inclusive. There's also tons of studies that talk about how brainstorming in a room creates a bit of groupthink. Nobody's willing to be the one to dispense it publicly, and then you leave the introverts out or the underrepresented minorities who maybe don't feel comfortable disagreeing in person. So it’s about letting people go away and work on things themselves and then maybe present or just write down their thoughts to say, “hey, this is the idea I had on, can we try this out?” That's how a company can work diversely on creating together. it's trying out different things and not just sticking to, “oh, well, we used to always just get in the room together and talk it out.” Be considerate about whose voices were missing from that room the last time we did it, and how can we get them involved next time? ### Q: What sort of data should you collect to drive diversity in the workplace? **A:** Salary data is important, and through connections with colleagues, I've heard this contentious debate about whether you should ask people to self-identify if they are in an underrepresented group when applying to your company. I'm on this side, partially, because once you have that information, it’s really important to see where that person grows throughout the organization. > One of the things I find most useful in a report is the underrepresented group they belong to, their level of seniority, and the salary they're getting paid, and then you can actually compare, and establish whether you’re paying everyone on that level the same. You need to ask people how they identify to be able to support those groups. And I know, for a lot of people it is a contentious issue because people might not feel safe self-identifying as a member of an underrepresented group. Before you can collect data, you do need to cultivate belonging and a sense of safety in your organization. You can do that by explaining the reason you want to use that data, or, again, putting your money where your mouth is, and having someone in the C-suite who cares deeply about diversity and inclusion explain, saying "we're gathering this information, so we can release it to make everything fairer." I think that would make people more willing to provide that information. ### Q: Do you have any advice for startups in the hiring phase? **A:** My partner is a Head of People, and she cultivates these networks that aren't just about posting on LinkedIn and posting on job boards, for example, day to day, all the time, you cultivate communities. You can hire a barista into a startup pretty easily. > I'm in customer success, and outside of work sometimes I'll be chatting to a support team, and I'm thinking, “this support person who's helping me is awesome, I should try and find them or ask them if they're looking for a new job.” Be open to that in your regular life; we're all members of communities outside of work. One of the things my partner uses to recruit is Facebook groups. There’s one called Queers in Toronto, for example, where members are finding people they can speak to. I'm actually a member of the Slack community, ‘Black Professionals in Tech’, which is Toronto-based, and they are helping each other, find roles and letting allies like myself in to post our job openings. So, essentially, if you're only putting your post up on your website, you're only going to get the same people applying to it who would have applied at the beginning. So to be inclusive from the get-go, you need to make sure your job posting is somewhere where those people might see it. ### Q: The pandemic has opened up a lot of remote working possibilities. Do you think this is a positive for inclusion? **A:** I don’t think we talk enough about how the pandemic has opened up accessibility for people with disabilities in the workspace. I think about my previous workplace in an office, and yeah, there was an elevator, but it meant you had to go to the far end of the building to use it, so someone might self-select out of that. But now that person can apply for the job knowing there won't be those accessibility barriers just to get into work, and that might create this open feeling of, yeah, I might not get the job, but I wouldn't have even applied before COVID. > We’ve talked a lot about working mothers and women in the workplace, and I think that's such an important conversation too. Working from home has allowed more women into the workplace. It's allowed more people into the workforce with disabilities who maybe didn't feel comfortable in an open-plan office. So many of our startups have 50 to 100 people in the same room, and that can be an autistic person's nightmare, so they might self-select to work from home, and that allows them to not feel as disconnected from the rest of the office, which is a huge win. ### Q: If you're a jobseeker, how can you tell if a company's inclusive? **A:** This is so difficult to see from the outside, because, of course, companies are going to talk a big talk, but my personal tips are to try and get as much information as you possibly can. Search the company on LinkedIn, look at the employees, see if you can see any faces like yours. Try to reach out to networks and ask what their experience with this company was like. > Make sure you're really diligent about asking inclusion questions in your interview process; you're also interviewing that company to see if you want to work there. I actually saw a list and reposted it on LinkedIn the other day, where someone was sharing some excellent questions about what to ask in an interview. I personally asked a lot of questions like what are you doing to be a diverse and inclusive company? What are your benefits? What's your maternity leave policy? Am I going to be the only woman? Things like that. We’ve got to get more comfortable asking those types of questions because these are the reasons we leave jobs. Maybe we didn't interview the company, and it turns out to be a huge surprise that actually, they're really biased, or they don't want to invest in equity. So I'd say interview the company as harshly as they're interviewing you. ### Q: How can SaaS companies invest in equity? And why is it important? **A:** For a company to be equitable, it needs to raise those who have fewer opportunities. So maybe this is their first role in tech, and no one has explained, “oh, yeah, these are some unspoken implicit rules about your role.” One thing I've always tried to do as a manager is make those explicit, so things as simple as, “hey, actually, it's normal to sign on 15 minutes before your shift, support calls will start coming in at nine.” Mentorship is so important to equity, and it may feel like it's a lot to take on a mentor or mentee when you're already so busy, but I think that mentorship goes both ways. People who mentor junior staff get a lot out of it too. You get the success, a feeling of helping someone else in, and their wins feel like your wins. One of the slack communities I was talking about has a mentorship meet-up monthly, and they set you up at random with someone who is higher up in their career. I've kept in touch with mine, ever since, and it's been almost two years now that we've been chatting every month or so. She’s a director at a SaaS company, and we just talk about our experiences and even if she's not in my organization, we have a lot in common and a lot to talk about. If her organization hadn't given her the opportunity to take the time to mentor someone else outside her organization, I would have lost out on a lot of great mentorships. So I'd say invest in allowing your people to not just produce for your company, but produce other great employees for you. --- *Looking for more resources on diversity equity and inclusion?* *Check out* [*The SaaS Landscape Report.*](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-saas-landscape-report-2021-2/) *Through a mix of qualitative and quantitative data, we look at the make-up of the SaaS sector to uncover how - both individually and collectively - we can begin to make a difference.* ### 20 tried and tested customer retention tips URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/20-tried-and-tested-customer-retention-tips/ Last updated: 2022-03-02T13:55:14.000Z Did you know that increasing retention by just 5% could increase your profits from 25% to 95%? That’s music to any SaaS practitioner’s ears. [Retaining customers](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-it-means-to-have-a-high-customer-retention-rate/#what-is-customer-retention) is much cheaper than acquiring new ones and goes a long way in building meaningful [customer relationships ](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-customer-relationships-saas/)that pay off in ways that benefit your brand, reputation, and bottom line. If you’re thinking of putting a strategy in place or updating an existing one,, here are 20 top retention tips from the best customer success pros in the business, focusing specifically on: - [Proactivity](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-tried-and-tested-customer-retention-tips/#be-proactive) - [Helping customers reach their goals](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-tried-and-tested-customer-retention-tips/#help-your-customers-reach-their-goals) - [Relationship building](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-tried-and-tested-customer-retention-tips/#build-relationships) - [Keeping your finger on the pulse](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-tried-and-tested-customer-retention-tips/#keep-your-finger-on-the-pulse) --- ## Be proactive > *“Conduct a pre-mortem on your most important and most typical users to see if there is more you can be doing for them and the rest of your users.” -* **Josh Rosenthal, Director of SaaS Success at Aqua Security** > *“Build out a customer success plan for each client.” -* **Vic Kasoff, Director of Customer Experience at Healthcare Bluebook (Quantros)** > *“Start the renewal process early. Approaching a customer one month before the renewal date doesn't give you much of an opportunity to change the experience, and by this point, unfulfilled customers will already have reviewed additional services. Running early bird incentives for early commitment to renewal is a great way to avoid cold feet and unnecessary time on negotiation closer to the date.” -* **Craig Jackson, Head of Customer Success at Accountancy Cloud** [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) > *“Be proactive about reaching out to customers and give your company a human face to engage with.” -* **Carolyn Breit, Director of Customer Success at Rightsline, Inc.** > *“Gain feedback often, make plans with the customer on how you both will succeed, and provide a clear roadmap plan on how you will reach and measure milestones together.” -* **Neil Bhuiyan, Managing Director/Founder of HappySelling.io** > *“Defining minimum viable value is critical within the first 60 days of contract life. Then, reinforcing that value over time.” -* **Josh Zamora, Director of Customer Success Advocacy at ServiceNow** > *“Alignment between Sales and CS, and a smooth onboarding, are critical to proactively set up the customer for success and improved LTV.” -* **Max Smith-Gee, Customer Success at Simpo** --- ## Help your customers reach their goals > *“Support the customer by making sure they have identified their business goal for using the platform, and then guiding them and holding them accountable for using the platform correctly to meet their business goal.” -* **Patrick Kelly, Senior Director of Customer Care Enablement & Operations at Brainshark** > *“Know your customers! Invest in getting to know the people behind the software and the goals they are striving towards, then help them align those goals to the product if applicable. Do this across multiple stakeholders.” -* **Star Hofer, Vice President of Customer Success at PartnerStack** > *“Clearly show customers their success path, and work with them to stay the course to get value and drive future growth on both sides.” -* **Jonathan Fertel, Vice President of Customer Success at SiteCompli** --- ## Build relationships > *“Having a personal relationship with the customer. If there are some major issues, you’ll get a heads-up before they start shopping around to be able to make things right for them.” -* **Jose Pria, Director of Client Success E-commerce at WineDirect** > *“Allow your customer to define what success on your platform looks like to them - then translate this to actions you can take to support them in their pursuit of these outcomes. If you maintain alignment with your customers on what keeps them coming back day after day and how your solution can elevate from vendor to partner status within their own walls, retention becomes a near foregone result of your efforts. The minute you begin to put your customers below the #1 slot in your priorities, you'll have retention problems to tackle.” -* **Kyle Bennett,** **Director of Customer Success, Corporate & SMB at IntelliShift** > *“Ensure users feel like they have someone they can go to with complaints or concerns, it's much better to have someone complain to you, so you can address their concerns, than have someone bottle up their frustrations until they are fed up and churn.” -* **Elise Marengo, Head of Customer Success at Userpilot** > *“Take some serious time looking at your onboarding experience. I've seen it time and time again, the customers that end up leaving, never really got started in the first place...they stalled early on. Front-load your customer experience so customers remain more engaged, everything after the point of sales is a momentum game, how long can you sustain that momentum? Front-loading will pay dividends for your customer (more value, sooner), and therefore your company (retention, ease of maintaining accounts).” -* **Christopher Brown, Director of Customer Success at Fulcrum** --- ## Keep your finger on the pulse > *Tie everything your product or service does to the things your customers are talking about in the boardroom. Then continue to demonstrate at each touchpoint how your product/service is accelerating their results. You'll know you're succeeding if they are constantly reaching out to you for more insights, advice, services, etc.” -* **Jeff Michaels, Vice President of Global Accounts at Mobivity** > *“We have to ensure customer success to earn brand loyalty. It's relational first, and then we align needs to our solutions based on what is learned, not just what we sell.” -* **Mike Hernandez,** **Head of Customer Success at Virti** > *“Always tie your activities to the top 2-3 customer KBOs only. No more, no less.” -* **Sirous Wadia, Practice Director, Customer Success at K1 Investment Management** > *“Understand your customer outcomes and ensure at all stages (marketing, sales, customer success) you are aligning your product to supporting these outcomes.” -* **Paul Duffy, Head of Customer Success at GatherContent** > *“Have a consistent and regular pulse on customer health. Let your customers know that you are thinking about them through constant communication and monthly tips that will help them to be successful with your tool or service.” -* **Samantha Czulada, Customer Success Manager at Northpass** > *“Proving value consistently with metrics helps to move away from perception issues.” -* **Tracy Wray, Director of Customer Success at KlickTrack INC** --- *Looking for more customer retention tips and tactics? Check out the replay of the Customer Success Festival with a [Future of SaaS membership plan.](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/)* ### 25 skills every PMM needs in 2022 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/25-skills-every-pmm-needs-in-2022/ Last updated: 2022-03-01T11:25:59.000Z There’s so much that product marketers must juggle within their day-to-day responsibilities, including competitive intelligence, project management, customer and market research, and sales enablement, to name a few... With product marketing continuing to evolve and develop into such a multifaceted industry, there are an array of industry-specific skills PMMs need to master to reach the peak of their powers. Product Marketing Alliance reached out to the product marketing community to see what skills they thought were absolutely essential for every product marketer to have. Based on all this feedback, they refined the list to 25 of the most important skills that PMMs should be taking into 2022. --- ## Customer focus > “Product Marketing Managers are, and always should be, customer-centric. We value the voice of the customer, and are proud to advocate for their wants, needs, and pain points. It’s our responsibility to make them feel heard, so always find time to speak to your customers. > ****“Put your customer at the heart of everything that you do.** > “With research, ensure you get a blend of both quantitative and qualitative insights to cover all bases and provide the best possible solutions to their problems. > Also, with your team, be your customers’ internal representative, and always bring these insights to the table. Consistently remind your internal stakeholders the importance of customer intelligence. They are the most important part of your business, after all.” > [****Product Marketing Manifesto**](https://productmarketingmanifesto.com/) > > “I've always been a "product person'' and I thrive on unlocking previously untapped opportunities for consumers through a product offering, like helping our users understand how they can listen to Spotify in their car, or how to listen to their favorite playlist in the background while playing the latest console game. > “For me, a good product marketer understands, and puts the customer at the forefront of everything they do, and then works meticulously to help unlock those opportunities.” - ****Rupert Englander,Global Consumer Product Marketing Lead - Platform and Partner Experiences at Spotify** --- ## Product orientation Your product and your customer are the two most important elements of being a product marketer, and must always be your primary focus. > “We need people who can deeply understand these products because for all intents and purposes, they are the subject matter expert internally for the marketing and the sales organizations. So, they need to be intensely curious, they need to be able to break down this product, and they need to be able to articulate it concisely to peers and customers. So strong product orientation and curiosity is a must.” - ****Francis Larkin, VP of Product Marketing at Clockwise** --- ## Data analysis > “Given how marketing has moved from an ‘art fest’ to a ‘science fair’ the ability to find, analyze and interpret data is a critical skill set to master.” -****Axel Kirstetter,** ****Vice President of Product Marketing at Datasite** > “PMMs need the ability to make hypotheses and run experiments at scale with an optimized framework for priority across the user journey. Testing, iterating and repeating (answering from a more hands-on day to day execution).” - ****Malav Warke, Founder and CEO at Creatosaurus** --- ## Storytelling > “They must be storytellers. All other skills can be taught, but if you can’t tell a good story you can’t be in product marketing” - ****Jason Friedlander, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Edgecast** > “Product marketing’s about telling stories that connect the technical value of a product or service to the desire to want to use it. A good product marketer helps drive this narrative through content creation, digital campaigns, sales enablement, and launches. > “A better product marketer helps thread a consistent story arc through these marketing motions, so your audiences hearing a familiar story grow and become familiar. This requires skills like stakeholder management, excellent communication, strong writing, organization, and some creativity.” - ****Holly Watson, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Amazon Web Services** --- ## Empathy > “A good product marketer’s empathetic. They’re able to put themselves in the shoes of someone else and see the product through their eyes.”- ****Phill Agnew, Senior Product Marketer at Hotjar** > “The best product marketers are people who have deep customer empathy - once you know the deepest fears, passions, and concerns of your customer, you're able to do anything!” - ****Madison Leonard, Product Marketing Lead at ClickUp** --- ## Multi management/working cross-functionally > “The job of a product marketer’s like sitting in the center of the universe. You can influence each stage of the customer journey because the customer lifecycle is intrinsically tied to whether (and how) they use your product. > “This means you have the potential to create strategies that power the growth of your entire organization. You’re the first to know about new products, inform sales and customers, and you can partner with many cross-functional teams.” - ****Jennifer Bunting,** ****Head of Product Marketing for EMEA & LATAM at LinkedIn** [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) > “A good product marketer will be able to work well with any team within an organization – the role spans from product to delivery/customer success and understanding that your role as a product marketer is a keystone role will serve all product marketers well. “ - ****Melis Carroll, Vice President of Product Marketing at Majesco** > “I think good product marketing is the foundation of good marketing. A good product marketer has their finger on the pulse of the entire market - both the vendors within it, as well as the needs and behavior of buyers.” - ****April Dunford,** ****Founder of Ambient Strategy** --- ## Advocacy > “I think today’s product marketers should be big-picture thinkers. They should know their customers, know their business and how it makes money, know their products, and then lastly know how sales effectively position and sell them. > “In my opinion, outside of that, the criteria for a good product marketer can vary. All should be passionate about their customers and advocate for them, but some product marketers enjoy going deep on products, while others prefer to focus more on supporting sales and distribution. Neither is right nor wrong. > “So, identify your passion and go for it. Whichever path you take, the most important thing is to make sure you can always put yourself in the shoes of today’s customers and sellers, and be able to visualize and/or orchestrate the experience and journeys you want them to have. And then, of course, be able to tell a great story.” - ****Tiffany Tooley, Head of Product Marketing at HubSpot** > “Advocacy - representing our customer, representing the business goals, and the skill to navigate around to drive the best outcomes.” - ****James Doman-Pipe, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Remote** --- ## Communication > “I think the best PMMs have an excellent grasp of product development, customer needs, business strategy, and have the creative ability to distill this knowledge into simple and effective communications.” - ****Eve Brill,** ****Director of Product Marketing at Farfetch** > “I believe a good product marketer has the ability to understand the complexities of the product and the complexities of the market and customers and translate it to a language everyone understands. It's imperative that this person has great communication skills to be able to take a product and help people buy it with the best possible experience.” - ****Felipe Cardoso Barbosa,** ****Product Marketing Manager at VTEX** > “Product marketing’s central to the success of any tech company. It's truly the "hub of the wheel" connecting many teams like sales, customer success, community, product, and other marketing functions. > “A good product marketer understands this position within the company and can speak the different languages of the many stakeholders required to successfully drive feature positioning and adoption. It’s a multidimensional role that requires a lot of context shifting and information management. > “These are also the reasons why I love product marketing and think it's such a vital role in any tech organization's success.” - ****Sean Lauer, Head of Product Marketing at MURAL** --- ## Team player/collaborator > “‘I got your back.’ How many jobs get to say that about their customers, sales teams, marketing teams, and product teams? I love product marketing because it makes all four worlds better. Each group needs the other to be successful, and product marketing ties them all together. That's the magic of a true partnership. > *Awesome* product marketers understand their needs, bring them together, and help them solve the problem as a team.” - ****Alyce Erikson, APAC Product Marketing Lead for LinkedIn Marketing Solutions** > “In essence, product marketing is a central nervous system of companies. So, interaction with everybody is equally important. I think product marketing is kind of an aggregator in many ways. You're aggregating what's going on from the product side of the world. > “For example, you’re helping enable the sales teams by doing the sales enablement, talking to customer experience and understanding what's going on with customer experience, what's going on with the consumers and customers, whether it's a B2B buyer, or whether it's a B2C buyer, what are they really giving the feedback on? So every different department is important in this case.” - ****Su Simha, Chief Marketing Officer at Morressier** --- ## Curiosity > “The role of a good product marketer is to dig into and decode the ‘why’. For me, curiosity comes naturally – in former roles, ‘why’ was always the first question I asked when I was assigned a new task, sometimes to the annoyance of my manager. When that level of curiosity meets with the required empathy to do the job day-in and day-out, that’s where the impact of product marketing’s really felt.“ - ****Laura Foster, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Innovid** > “I truly believe that product marketing is the linchpin to sustainable business growth, and that product marketers will be the next generation of CEOs. > “For me, a great product marketer has an unsatiated curiosity about customers and the market, a high level of business acumen, and the ability to build and share a compelling narrative.” - ****Tamara Grominsky, Chief Strategy Officer at Unbounce** > “Whether you’ve spent a year or two in product marketing or are completely new to the field, it’s important to establish that you enjoy products and are generally curious about them. Curiosity’s one of the most important skill sets to cultivate as a product marketer, and it’s something that drives my interest in the role today.” - ****Yasmeen Turayhi, Founder of Modern Product and Product Marketing Consultant and Advisor** --- ## Insatiability > “Product marketing, as a discipline and a mindset, allows me to bring my full self, every day, into my work. There are no wrong answers, just better experiments, all in an effort to tell just the story that has yet to be told, to just the audience that has yet to hear it. So to me? A good product marketer simply looks like that: someone whose natural curiosity, insatiability, and drive to find gaps and solve problems brings them closer and closer to their (and their product's) why, every day.” - ****Aubyn Casady, Principal Product Marketing Manager at G2** --- ## Creativity In a world brimming with products and companies fighting to be seen and heard, product marketers must continue to think outside the box and help their products and organizations stand out from the crowd. So, using your creative skills is essential as you’ll need to explore and implement multiple ways to continue to differentiate your product- particularly in a saturated market. > “Creativity - being able to think beyond templates, frameworks and copy-pasting.” - ****Anatolii Iakimets, Senior Manager, Product Marketing at Bold Commerce** --- ## Productivity Motivation and productivity are two skills that are essential to the success of the role. As a product marketer, you need to have a passion for what you do and what they’re selling. After all, if you don’t believe in your product, how can you expect your consumer to? You must push yourself to continue working, refining, and improving your products, and your product marketing strategies to continue to grow in a market that is constantly changing and evolving. Use your work ethic to get ahead of the competition, and refuse to settle for less than what you are capable of. --- ## Problem-solving > "A good product marketer is a strong problem solver who can analyze a problem, come up with creative remedies, and ruthlessly prioritize the solution to pursue.”- ****Jana Frejova, Product Marketing Lead at Spendesk** --- ## Strategy > “Product marketing is not just about the high-level mission and vision planning. You need to understand where you are now, the intended outcomes, and make choices that’ll move you from A to B.” - ****James Doman-Pipe, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Remote** > “Product marketing’s such a central and strategic role, interacting with almost every part of the business. Plus there's a lot of problem-solving involved, which is really satisfying. > “For me, a good product marketer’s someone who gets a genuine kick from collaboration and has a knack for great storytelling and strong copywriting. There's a lot more to it, but those are the standout factors.” - ****Rory Woodbridge, Head of Product Marketing at Pleo** --- ## Leadership > “\[A good PMM is\] A natural leader who drives collaboration inspires others to dig in behind a common goal, but also someone who’s not afraid to speak up to senior stakeholders.” - ****Jana Frejova, Product Marketing Lead at Spendesk** > “Without a strong PMM, innovative products may never find their audience. We can end up with technical "solutions" that are searching for a problem to solve. A PMM gives products a better chance of finding traction and building momentum. > “A great PMM is able to: 1) lead and inspire without formal authority, 2) tell stories that build identity and community, and 3) operate at every level of thinking from strategy to implementation.” - ****Alex McDonnell, Marketing Intelligence Lead at Airtable** --- ## Prioritization > “I believe that a good product marketer should be curious, self-motivated, and self-manageable. They should also be very empathetic to customers' and internal teams' needs and always listen to their feedback. A good product marketer should be able to prioritize things and should always know how to say "no" to people.” - ****Natasha Katson, Product Marketing Manager at Bananatag** > “I’ve always been a generalist at heart. Call it work FOMO if you want, but I’m happiest when I get to have an impact on *all* aspects of the business. Product marketing allows me to strategically influence the success of product, marketing, and sales. > “The downside to this is that a product marketer’s time is in high demand—there is always an abundance of projects to tackle. But just because a product marketer *can* do it all, doesn’t mean they should. An excellent product marketer recognizes this and works with their leadership team to ensure they are working on things that will have the greatest business impact.” - ****Morgan Molnar, Director of Product Marketing, Global Insights Business at Momentive** --- ## Progressive > “Product marketing’s exciting because it’s strategic and lies at the intersection of many teams. Product marketing requires an awareness of the market, competitors, and customers to build informed strategies and launches. > “A successful product marketer’s someone who factors in all of these broader realities into their plans, while also managing and influencing the many cross-functional stakeholders.”- ****Adam Kerin, Vice President of Product Marketing at Truework** --- ## Copywriting Sales writing impacts audience engagement, and engagement impacts your direct sales. So, this is a particularly important skill for product marketers to master. --- ## Multitasking > “The world’s getting more complex, more technical, and more distributed. Generalists that can collect, distill, collaborate and effectively communicate this information to make different stakeholders care is only getting more and more important. > “Product marketers are almost like a swiss-army knife for an organization - they can lean in closer on sales strategy, product strategy, marketing strategy, and generally always can bring different perspectives and voices to most meetings and viewpoints - always focused around the customer.” - ****Nick McLachlan, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Amazon** > “Product marketing, when done right, is really the glue that connects together otherwise quite detached organizations. A good product marketer spans the diversity of skills required within the function, though everyone will have a natural penchant towards one side or the other. Whether it's inbound research, product strategy, GTM operations, or creative storytelling, identify your strengths within that and capitalize on them.” - ****Samer Ragheb, Product Marketing Lead at TikTok** --- ## Liaising > “Active Listening - whether it’s listening to a prospect, user, analyst, or internal teams, you need to fully understand the information that you’re getting and be able to play it back in your own words > “And being able to effectively communicate (written and verbal) is essential for bridging internal teams (product, sales, marketing, etc.) with external audiences (buyers, users, prospects, etc.)” - ****Jeff Rezabek, Director of Product Marketing at Testlio** > “Product marketing has become essential to every company's strategy and execution. We are the glue between our internal stakeholders (sales, product, customer success, exec team, the rest of marketing) and our external ones (customers, prospects, partners, analysts, reporters, influencers, etc.). > “Because of that highly cross-functional aspect, great product marketers tend to be connectors - they are able to listen, synthesize, educate and liaise the different parties in a seamless and strategic manner.” - ****Julien Sauvage, Vice President of Product Marketing at Gong** --- ## Strategic and tactical thinking > “A good product marketer’s equally strategic as they are tactical. They must be able to both define and understand the vision, as well as break it down into an action plan to execute against that’ll bring it to fruition.” - ****Cody Bernard,** ****Head of Product Marketing at Dooly** --- ## Relationship building > “PMMs need the ability to build relationships and influence. If you can't do that, you won't get anything done.” - ****Maureen West, Vice President, Product Marketing Strategist at Publicis Groupe** --- ## Analytical > “A good product marketer is very clear about the benefits and strengths of his/her product and understands the competition in & out. They’re sharp, analytical, lead with confidence and have an ability to influence their peers, assertive and comfortable taking the back seat when the time comes.” - ****Syed Azharuddin,** ****Marketing, Strategy, and Growth Manager at Luminous Power Technologies** > “A mix of both hard skills and soft skills is required to be an effective product marketer. Unlike engineering, or roles that require logical and analytical thinking entirely, product marketing requires both analytical and logical thinking as well as emotional and intuitive intelligence. > “You need both reasoning, intellect, emotional intelligence, and intuition to master the first principles of Product Marketing.”- ****Yasmeen Turayhi, Founder of Modern Product and Product Marketing Consultant and Advisor** --- ## Organization When running big projects and launches, it’s essential to be organized so that: - Things run as smoothly as possible, - All the right people know what they’re doing, - Your stakeholders are happy, and - You’re not having to waste time repeatedly explaining processes, or finding things that aren’t organized correctly. ### SaaSFix: Future of SaaS newsletter [February] URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saasfix-future-of-saas-newsletter-february/ Last updated: 2023-12-14T14:18:08.000Z This month, we’ve been busy putting together our very first SaaS Tools of Choice Report - AKA the quintessential guide to the tools SaaS leaders are using to excel in the sector. If you're sick of sifting through pages of search results and sponsored listicles for the perfect tool, this one’s for you. Keep your eyes peeled for a detailed breakdown of tried and tested tools from the likes of **Intellum, Zendesk, Productboard**, and more. 👀 \- [Emma](https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-bilardi-09161060/), Content @[Future of SaaS‌‌‌](https://www.linkedin.com/school/31559381/) --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/chefs-kiss-1.gif) ### [Perfecting your product-market fit \[Q&A with SocialBee\]](https://www.saasalliance.io/perfecting-your-product-market-fit-q-a-with-socialbee/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=february-newsletter-2022) There’s no doubt, product-market fit is the first rung on the ladder of success for any SaaS company, but how do you get it? How do you know when you have it? And who should be responsible for driving it? **Ovi Negrean, Co-Founder and CEO at SocialBee** answers all these questions and more in this super insightful, Q&A. [Perfect your fit](https://www.saasalliance.io/perfecting-your-product-market-fit-q-a-with-socialbee/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=february-newsletter-2022) --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/baby-throwing-money.gif) ### [What does an investor look for in a SaaS product?](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-does-an-investor-look-out-for-in-a-saas-product/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=february-newsletter-2022) With the increase in the number of SaaS products, investors today have a large pool of startups to consider from. It’s become much harder to convince investors to invest in startups. In order to stand out, founders need to understand the thought process of investors and know what the key benchmarks investors are looking for. In this article **Wayne Wee, Investment Analyst at Vertex Ventures**, outlines the top 10 metrics most sought after, so you can really raise the stakes. [Enhance your appeal](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-does-an-investor-look-out-for-in-a-saas-product/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=february-newsletter-2022) --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/fortune-teller.gif) ### [How leaders with non-SaaS backgrounds can shape the future of SaaS](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=february-newsletter-2022) For those outside of the industry, making that big move into the SaaS space can be intimidating and overwhelming. Luckily for them, **Michelle Sawa, Director of Customer Experience at Lionguard,** led a super insightful panel discussion with three key leaders, all about transitioning into SaaS and the unique perspectives recruits with different backgrounds can offer. [Check it out](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=february-newsletter-2022) --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/future-of-saas-membership-banner--1-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=february-newsletter-2022) ## New this month ### Exclusive Content - [**The power and impact of product marketing**](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=february-newsletter-2022)| Unbounce - [**Pricing and packaging: how high-growth SaaS startups can crack the code**](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=february-newsletter-2022) **|** Productboard ### New templates - Marketing [metrics framework](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-templates-and-frameworks/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=february-newsletter-2022) - SaaS social media [guidelines](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-templates-and-frameworks/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=february-newsletter-2022) ### Give 'em a try Intrigued by membership but need some extra convincing? Here are a couple of templates, on us: - Customer success strategy [template](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-strategy-template/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=february-newsletter-2022) - Competitor SWOT analysis [template](https://www.saasalliance.io/competitor-swot-analysis-template/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=february-newsletter-2022) --- ## Partner with us [Partner With Us | Future of SaaSMingle with a community dedicated to driving progress in SaaS and get access to brands from the Fortune 500 to some of the world’s fastest-growing organizations.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1584463699043-740c40f783d2?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&w=2000&fit=max&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjExNzczfQ)](https://www.saasalliance.io/partner/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=february-newsletter-2022) Looking to sponsor next month's newsletter? Drop us a line at [sean@futureofsaas.io](mailto:sean@futureofsaas.io) ### How you’re demotivating your team and how to turn things around URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-youre-demotivating-your-team-and-how-to-turn-things-around/ Last updated: 2022-02-24T10:13:53.000Z *Few things are as costly and disruptive as managers who kill motivation.* It’s said that “people don’t leave jobs; they leave managers” and the stats back this up: 70% of an employee’s motivation is influenced by their manager, according to Gallup. Research from the University of California found that motivated employees are 31% more productive, have 37% higher sales, and are three times more creative than demotivated employees. They’re also 87% less likely to quit, according to a Corporate Leadership Council study. Meanwhile, disengaged employees underperform and will walk out the door at the first opportunity. Unhappy employees corrode every organization’s success and profitability, and it's bad managers who are most often to blame. This article invites you to hold a mirror to your leadership style and be honest: are you one of them? ## You’re an overbearing control freak You know everything: you know how to get things done, and you get irritated if everyone doesn’t do it your way. You’re a perfectionist but, worse, you’re a micromanager. This hurts rapport and team culture by sending the signal that you don’t trust them to do their jobs competently without you hovering over their shoulder and constantly checking every minor detail of their work. Yes, your expertise and experience are what’s led you to a leadership role, but stifling your team’s autonomy by constantly questioning how they do things will damage their confidence and motivation - both to do their jobs and to being open and honest with you when they need to come to you for advice. Most likely to say: *“Is it done yet?”* *"Show me where you’re up to."* *“That’s not the way you should be doing it.”* Least likely to say: *“Fred at PurplePineapple is a funny guy, isn’t he? I remember talking to him one time at...”* (opening up an opportunity for a conversation about how a relationship with a customer is progressing). *“Is there anything you need my help with? I’m conscious I’ve not checked in with you for a while.”* (demonstrating that you’ve left a task or project in their hands, that you trust them, and giving them the chance to ask you for support, let you know about any difficulties they’re experiencing, or step in if they need you to). ### How to turn things around - Focus on outcomes rather than processes. Make it clear what you expect your team to achieve, then let them decide how to go about making it happen, in a way that fits with their working style. - Effectively assigning tasks and establishing responsibilities from the beginning empowers your team to proactively manage their time and drive their own success, and helps you to resist the urge to micromanage. - Allow them enough time to make progress before checking in on them, but also balance this by encouraging them to approach you with any questions or support they need, when they need it. - Go for dialogue over dictation. Collaborating, really listening to your team’s input, fosters a positive, productive culture. And, who knows, they may actually have ideas on how to approach something better in a way - even *you* \- haven’t thought of! ## You don’t know your team You’re dismissive of small talk, unapproachable, and maybe even a little scary/intimidating. In your mind, work is for work, and you’re not interested in their kids’ names, their jokes or that they’re in the middle of moving house. Most likely to say: *“Yeah, we’ll pick that up in our next scheduled appraisal.”* *“One day, we’ll go a whole hour without you talking about your cat.”* *“Can you stop laughing and get on with what we’re actually here to do: work?”* Nothing. Least likely to say; *“Hi Michelle, how are the kids?”* *“Hey, did you catch the Lakers’ game at the weekend?”* *“How’s your house move going?”* *“See you at the company party this weekend!”* ### How to turn things around - Learn their natural communication preferences and styles. Some people might prefer to be emailed, others speak to you at your desk, others to catch-up more privately in a one-to-one situation. Some people value very concise, brief communication, others may be more open to chatting. - Acknowledging that not all of your team will receive and respond to feedback in the same way will allow you to give - and receive - feedback appropriately - and allow them to really engage with what you’re saying. - Regularly check in to see how they’re doing and connect on a personal (but not intrusive) level. Whether it’s chatting and laughing over coffee about a show you both like, or simply making an effort to say good morning as you pass their desk, it gives you a chance to get to know the way in which they’re most comfortable communicating, as well as to pick up on any cues that they’re becoming disengaged or demotivated and take steps to help them overcome barriers to success. - It’s not just about being fake, or ‘nice’ for the sake of it. It’s about building authentic human relationships which, in turn, strengthens communication on a professional level. For example, if you’re aware of any personal circumstances that are, or could, affect someone’s performance at work, you’re in a much stronger position to manage or head-off its impact. ## People don’t know what you want from them This is kind of linked to the point above and is underpinned not just by a lack of communication, but a lack of understanding of the *need* for communication and consistency. Being vague about your expectations from your team does nobody any favors and causes all-round frustration and resentment. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) Most likely to say: *“I expect results.”* (without actually stating what they are)*.* *“It’s in our mission statement/company handbook, didn’t you read it when you started?”* *“We talked about this at our last team meeting.”* Least likely to say: *“Let me give you an example…”* *“As a team, we need to set up 20 new meetings every month. What are your suggestions about how we achieve this?”* ### How to turn things around - Never assume that because you understand what your team has to achieve, it’s automatically as obvious to them as individuals. - Set and communicate desired outcomes clearly, and break wider objectives into smaller, more attainable goals. - Reiterate clear goals and expectations as often as necessary, and be prepared to pivot as and when circumstances require it. If it’s clear that objectives set by the person or people that you answer to are unattainable, it’s your responsibility as a leader to ‘manage up’ and negotiate on behalf of your team. - In the same vein, make sure you have a full understanding of exactly what is expected from you and your team, so you can lead them towards it. - Be consistent in the results you look for and in the behaviors you encourage. Moving the goalposts is not only frustrating for your team, but also profoundly disengaging; why should individuals feel motivated if they’re not sure that what they’re doing is going to be met with praise and recognition? If you need to adjust expectations, you need to explicitly acknowledge this and explain the reasons behind the change. ## You demand respect, but don’t earn it I once had a manager who gave me and two of my colleagues a dressing down because our laughter coming from a meeting room was “causing a distraction” to the people in the open-plan office. This was irritating, first, because our joy was due to the fact that we were actually having a really productive session, inspiring one another and coming up with some innovative ideas. But, hey, fair enough if we were affecting others’ concentration. But secondly, and worst of all, was that minutes after sticking his head around the door to admonish us, he began to kick a football around said open office with one of his buddies in engineering. Total hypocrisy and an almost perfect illustration that respect and trust are earned and can’t be won with intimidation or the expectation that you automatically deserve it “because you’re the boss”. Assertiveness is not the same as arrogance, and certainly not synonymous with aggressiveness or fear. (My two colleagues and I left for other roles not too long after this incident). Most likely to say: *“Just do it!”* *“Remember who you’re talking to.”* Least likely to say: *“Sorry.”* *“Well done - good job!”* ### How to turn things around - Empower your team to perform to their best ability by offering encouragement and support and celebrating achievements. Send the message that they are appreciated, not just by the company, but you as an individual. Never underestimate the power of positive reinforcement for motivating and fostering respect, as opposed to leaping on others’ faults. And never try to take credit for someone else’s idea or accomplishment; in fact, you should make a conscious effort to be vocal about the part individuals have played in your team’s success, even if you privately feel it was driven by you. - Lead by example; it’s a cliché because it’s true. Here’s another one: “show, don’t tell”. Your job is to inspire your team by your own actions, not cause resentment by saying one thing and doing another. If you don’t honor your commitments, why should they? - Don’t play favorites. Yes, you might have developed a close outside-of-work friendship with Sue from your team, but if you constantly gossip together in the corner, or cover up for her mistakes while calling out other team members for the same thing, it’s going to cause resentment and division within your team. To sum up the points above, it’s your responsibility as a leader to be self-aware and recognize the impact of your words and actions on the people that look to you for guidance. ### Perfecting your product-market fit [Q&A with SocialBee] URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/perfecting-your-product-market-fit-q-a-with-socialbee/ Last updated: 2022-02-23T17:20:21.000Z There’s no doubt, product-market fit is the first rung on the ladder of success for any SaaS company, but how do you get it? How do you know when you have it? And who should be responsible for driving it? **Ovi Negrean, Co-Founder and CEO at SocialBee** answers all these questions and more, including: - [How to identify poor product-market fit](https://www.saasalliance.io/perfecting-your-product-market-fit-q-a-with-socialbee/#q-what-are-some-of-the-key-identifiers-that-you-dont-have-a-good-product-market-fit) - [How to select your north star metric](https://www.saasalliance.io/perfecting-your-product-market-fit-q-a-with-socialbee/#q-product-market-fit-is-often-driven-by-metrics-to-find-out-what-your-focus-should-be-and-how-to-tie-your-different-departments-into-a-common-goal-how-do-you-select-your-north-star-metric) - [How to determine where you need to spend your money to deliver value to your customers](https://www.saasalliance.io/perfecting-your-product-market-fit-q-a-with-socialbee/#q-how-do-you-determine-where-you-need-to-spend-your-money-to-deliver-value-to-your-customers) --- ### Q: Can you tell us about yourself and your role at SocialBee? **A:** Yeah, sure. I'm the Co-Founder and CEO of SocialBee. We started the company almost five years ago. I'm usually in charge of the product division, helping with marketing. I’m always trying to think about how we can keep improving what we have for our customers, how we can keep making our product better, and how we get more customers to use our products. --- ### Q: Product-market fit is often driven by metrics to find out what your focus should be and how to tie your different departments into a common goal. How do you select your North Star metric? **A:** Our North Star metric is our monthly recurring revenue (MRR). I think this is a good proxy for product-market fit. If you don't have a good product-market fit, it'll be quite hard to get that MRR up, either because people won't buy or because people will buy but then churn quite quickly. It's difficult to get good MRR growth without having product-market fit. There are a couple of ways to think about if you have a product-market fit or not. One is more theoretical and the other is more practical. For the one that’s more theoretical, if you have to ask yourself, “do I have a product-market fit?” you probably don't. This is how I think about It, how easy it is to make a sale? How is it compared to a few months ago or a few years ago, as your product evolves, or as you change your market? You need to ask your customers the question, “if I take away your product, how upset would you be?” If you have a lot of people begging you to bring it back, then you probably do have product-market fit, at least for that subset of customers, and that's the subset of customers that you should be focusing on. --- ### Q: What are some of the key identifiers that you don't have a good product-market fit? **A**: Almost by definition, when you're still trying to find that product-market fit, you're at the beginning of your journey as a company. Most of the time, that means you don't have a big budget to try out various things, and because you haven't reached product-market fit, it's harder for you to raise money. Oftentimes it's a bootstrap type of environment and because of this, you don't have a tonne of data points, so, you can’t look at this from a high level. At this point, you won't have a lot of users, and this is why it's even more important to look at anecdotes and try to get on calls with your customers. They can be customer discovery calls, sales calls, or customer support calls. It's just important to listen intently for feedback. However, until you get a few more users you can gather feedback from, don’t act upon all of it. Sometimes it's only when you see a pattern emerge that you can start to fit it into your vision. There’s that famous Henry Ford quote, where he said, if he had asked his customers what they wanted, they would have said they want a faster horse. > Sometimes a founder needs to take a leap of faith into building the product they think should be a part of this world. Sometimes it's almost impossible to get that type of feedback from your customers. That's why I treat all the feedback as data points, when I see a pattern emerge, I pay attention. --- ### Q: How do you determine where you need to spend your money to deliver value to your customers? **A:** When it comes to spending money, especially in the SaaS world, it goes in more or less two directions. One is into the product, and the other is into the marketing. If you can do it, you should do both in parallel. With marketing, starting very early will bring a lot of benefits by the time you want to launch what you're building. Basically, you’re able to create an audience, and you are able to use that audience to beta test your product or get feedback on your product. --- ### Q: How do you achieve product-market fit, and how do you know you’ve achieved it? **A:** As a founder, you should have a good feel for this, when you're talking with a customer or a potential customer, it's easier for you to make the sale. You see that people who signed up a few months ago stayed with you and continued to use your product. You might even have some metrics that you're actually tracking. > In our case, we don't care if people log into our product on a daily basis, or even on a weekly basis. Our whole premise is that our product can help you set it and forget it. It's important to look at the metrics that you're tracking so that they make sense for you. If you want to go into a more scientific approach, it's important to automate things as much as possible. If you have an email marketing funnel, once somebody starts your trial, maybe 30 days later, send them a survey asking them an NPS type of question like: “How likely would you be to recommend our product?” Once you're a bit further down the line, ask: “if this product would go away, how upset would you be about it?” But at the end of the day, I think if you’re involved in your product, you should just get a feeling for it. It’s not even about improving the product. You can work on the UX and maybe add new functionality, but the core value proposition is already there. People are using it on a consistent basis or as often as you want them to use it. --- ### Q: Which departments do you think are most crucial for driving product-market fit? **A:** It's important to have a culture of understanding with the customer and have the customer front and center to make sure that everybody is up-to-date on customer needs. Everybody needs to know how to listen for this type of feedback, they don't necessarily have to act upon it. But when they do see some interesting feedback, they need to send it to the product team. > The product team is ultimately responsible for defining the product, defining the product strategy, the roadmap, and then implementing it, but they need input. You need that help from more or less the whole company. --- ### Q: What are some of the biggest mistakes you've come across when companies are establishing their product-market fit? **A:** One of the biggest mistakes we made is that we weren’t working on the product **and** on the marketing. At the same time, when we first started out, we did enough marketing to get us some users and generate some buzz. Then we focused too much on the product before we started actually doing some real marketing again. We wasted a lot of time in which we could have gotten our product in front of even more users. Especially with paid marketing, when you stop the ads, that whole funnel dries up. But with things like content marketing, which most SaaS companies are doing, these are things that take months, or sometimes even years of work to get that marketing ball rolling and make Google see that you are an authority on a specific topic related to your product. > Another major mistake I see is people over-engineering their product. They only think about functionality, maybe they are looking at other more established competitors in the space. But once you get your product out there on the market, and get some real feedback from real customers, that should dictate your priorities. And you will be able to see that some functionality you thought was key is not something the customers asked for. --- ### Q: Can you share a lesson you’ve learned along the way? Before Social Bee, we started an app that brought quotes from business and personal development books. With that product, we never got to the product-market fit stage. It would have been quite hard for us to turn that into a business because, in reality, it was a vitamin, not a painkiller, and your product should ideally be a painkiller. It needs to address a pain point. So, looking back, should we have started this? Well, If we didn’t, we wouldn’t have been able to learn from our product and pivot into Social Bee. > I advise all sorts of startups from time to time that even if I think their idea won't work, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t do it. In taking those first steps on the wrong road, you might find another road, which will take you to a new product or pivot your product to your market, and then get you to success. Most of the products out there are in no way close to how they looked when they started out. Just keep working at it. --- *Looking for more advice from experts in the SaaS sector?* *Check out our [Membership plans ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/)for unlimited access to an array of Q&As, presentations, and carefully vetted templates.* ### The power and impact of product marketing URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing/ Last updated: 2022-11-21T11:16:58.000Z My name is Tamara Grominsky. And I'm really excited to talk to you about the power and impact a good product marketing team can have on your business. I’ll also be sharing some of the insights I've gained through experience. This can be a difficult topic to navigate, but I’m gonna break it down into a few key talking points: ## Main talking points - [About me & Unbounce](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing/#about-me-unbounce) - [Confusion across teams](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing/#confusion-across-teams) - [Defining your role](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing/#1defining-your-role) - [Creating your mandate](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing/#2-create-your-mandate) - [Positioning your team](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing/#3-position-your-team) - [Building alignment](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing/#4-build-alignment) [![Unbounce ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/unbounce-1.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing) ## About me & Unbounce Unbounce is a powerful landing page builder for small to midsize businesses. We've fine-tuned the conversion path and managed to facilitate an amazing 1 billion conversions! 💪 I'm the VP of strategic growth, so one of my main duties is leading the product marketing team. I'm super passionate about small to midsize businesses! But I’m particularly interested in the SaaS products that exist to enable them. Some of my previous experience includes leading product at FreshBooks, as well as at Yellow Pages, Canada. I'm also the Vancouver Canada ambassador for the Product Marketing Alliance. After All of my experience leading product marketing and growth teams, I started to understand that product marketing is one of the most underutilized and misunderstood functions out there. That's really a shame because I believe that product marketing is one of the most critical functions in any fast-growing SaaS business. In fact, I would go as far as to say: 👇 [![Product marketing is the linchpin of sustainable growth](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/product-marketing-linchpin-1.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing) In this article, I'm going to show you how you can implement a strong product marketing team in your own business. But first, let’s look at some of the challenges that a good PM team can solve. ## Confusion across teams This really creates disjointed strategies as well as disjointed customer experiences. Unfortunately, this is a pattern that's very common at many SaaS businesses. It also leads to disjointed customer experiences. [![Confusion across teams creates disjointed strategies](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/6TF13R_tkVSwVTy2ytCbHVIwbhuIZQ5U6Ty1nObpfJjxlo15_5XOyz9a9KVCy9-qNwZQGo4GVzSzvUelJHUXOEOBYy2twFvA6hPnx8d5vryll7hrwGydITiK_v2LADpeSmcr6Dk7)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing) So, imagine a scenario like this, your marketing team has just published an amazing lead gen piece. But your partnerships team has just signed this new, awesome partner who's in the automotive space. Meanwhile, your product team is building new features for the realtor segment. Your sales team has just crushed this amazing new sale of a huge enterprise company that has 50 users. All of these teams think that they're doing an amazing job. What’s wrong with this picture? They're all focused on a completely different strategy. This is **a complete mess!** Every team is moving in their own direction, and you never create any momentum. ## How to synchronize these teams [![The product marketing cycle](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/rk33QilCtC_5Pb1gYuoeGg_M4zAeDTxbO0d0saaqm0nZEYcAlTfW4_2TZUebvRtlLjKh8V9ks-n3CzehRJFZEROO0EvIQRBlXZMSJrr6ZC72z1uYm5no1OrT18ToEDpJp_dE710e)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing) To fix this, you need to think about plotting all of these teams just a little bit differently. Beginning from the top and working clockwise down, let’s begin with…. ### Marketing Their job is really to attract new prospects and trailers to the business. They’re your first port of call. As I’m sure you know, **first impressions are everything!** ### Sales Their job is to convert and onboard those brand-new customers. You want to ensure that there is clear communication between marketing and sales. You don’t want customers to feel undervalued once you’ve got them through the door. ### Customer success They want to make sure that we're delivering customer value throughout the entire customer lifecycle. Ensuring a smooth customer onboarding journey is really their bread and butter, and they should really be consulted every step of the way! They want to make sure that we're delivering customer value throughout the entire customer lifecycle. Ensuring a smooth customer onboarding journey is really their bread and butter, and they should really be consulted every step of the way! ### Partnerships and business development We’re always looking at developing relationships, and expanding the ecosystem of partners who could provide value to customers. ### Product management They’re really focused on building products that solve customer problems. But, here’s the thing, if each of these teams are going in a completely different direction, you're never going to get alignment. That's why I believe that product marketing should really live in the **center** of this wheel. When you have product marketing at the heart of your business and at the heart of your strategies, you can make sure that everyone is aligned. You're building holistic growth strategies, and you're streamlining tactics across the organization. This is what's actually going to create that momentum for you, and accelerate your business growth. 💪 ## The cost of misalignment But when when you don't have that, this is what happens - You're getting something that's being built for small businesses, but your sales and marketing teams are actually marketing to larger businesses. - You're going to implement something like a short trial duration, but customers need a long cycle. - You're just gonna be solving a market problem that your customers don't already have. While each individual team might think that they're being successful – they might even be meeting their KPIs – It's not always clear what's going on around them and what all the other teams are doing. When positioned for success, product marketing can create these growth strategies and really make sure that we're avoiding missteps like this. Next, let's dig into the real meat of this article: **four simple steps to experience the power and impact of Product Marketing.** ## 1.Defining your role In the old world, product marketing was really all about: - Writing value propositions. - Producing some marketing materials. - Building some sales enablement for sales. - Hosting webinars and demos. Sounds pretty dull and limited, right? Well, the new world of product marketing is more **strategically** led. The aim is to: - Understand the market and the competitive trends that are happening around us. - Develop revenue and growth strategies that will fuel the business. - Influence the product roadmap and drive the go-to-market strategy. - Understand the value of the product. - Ensure that customer is seeing value. Note, we're no longer just bystanders waiting to be handed something to put on the shelf. I believe that really a definition of what a product marketing team should now be to: 👇 [![Deeply understand your customer and market in order to showcase your product's value and identify strategic opportunities for growth](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/understand-customers--1.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing) If we were to plot the different responsibilities of a product marketing team on a spectrum, we might split them into two categories: **Strategy and Execution.** ## Strategy - Marketing & competitive analysis. - Opportunity sizing, and business cases. - Pricing and monetization. - Positioning and messaging. If your team is strategically focused, you're spending a lot of time developing those inputs, and then using them to guide the GTM planning. At this point, this is probably when you're handing off the execution to another really strong team, like your customer marketing team or your marketing team. This is all part of a spectrum that leads into… ## Execution - Content creation. - Lead generation. - Sales enablement. - Customer activation and adoption. If they're an execution-focused product marketing team, you probably have a different team giving you those strategic inputs. Maybe you're involved a little bit, but perhaps it's an actual strategy team at your organization who's doing this, or maybe it’s product management themselves. I just want to be clear that there's no right or wrong place to fall on the spectrum. It's all about what makes sense for your team and your business. It's just really important that you are clear about where you want to fall on the spectrum. In my opinion, the most effective product marketing teams are ones that skew towards the strategic side. ## 2\. Create your mandate But the most crucial thing is to create and share your mandate so that everyone else knows what you're working on as well. [![What's the best path forward?](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/what-s-the-best-path-forward-1.jpeg)](https://future-of-saas.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing) When we think about product marketing, there's so many different things you can be doing that it can be a little bit overwhelming. That’s why defining your mandate and really shaping what you're going to be doing is critical before you jump into it. We all kind of know the final destination we want to get to, we want to get to business growth. But there's a tonne of different ways and paths for us to get there. At a tech startup, these possibilities are really endless. And it might be dependent on the stage of growth at your app, it's up to you to really identify where the biggest gap is that your team can fill. ## Prioritizing all of the things When it comes to prioritizing your mandate, I like to take a look at everything that we could be working on and then start to prioritize everything. The first question you should be asking yourself is, what's the biggest business challenge that you’re struggling with right now? - Are we struggling to attract leads? - Do we need to increase our conversion rate? - Are we actually looking to decrease churn? - Segmentation. - Differentiation. - Pricing and monetization. Now more than ever, it’s a really important time for you to take a look back and ask if your product marketing team is serving your organization for what it needs today. Once you have an understanding of maybe the top three business problems that you need to solve, then you can start to think about how the product marketing team itself can plug into that. - What's the most urgent out of all of these business problems? - Does one need to be solved today? - Is there sequencing that needs to happen here? - Maybe the second problem is actually the most important? - Finally, what is your team uniquely qualified to do? This is where I think product marketing is really exciting! Product marketing is different at every single organization because of the compilation of the players on the product marketing team. You and your team are going to have unique strengths. As individuals, you can utilize that to really positively impact your business. This should help guide the things that you're focusing on. Once you understand exactly the challenge that you want to face first, you can really start to get focused and get started. ## Choosing your KPI You want to make sure that everything that you're doing can be measured. That way, your team, and the organization can understand the impact you're having on the company. [![KPI model](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/KPI-1.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing) When I think about product marketing metrics, I like to think about them in three different categories. This may or may not be true for your business. 1\. Revenue- based KPIs. These will cover: - Revenue growth rate, - Trial to pay conversion rate, - Net revenue churn. These are actual metrics that probably several people around the business are also tracking, but you can be a key influencer. **2\. Product adoption based metrics** These are things usually related to product launch, but they could be carried over after product launch as well. So, thinking about initial product adoption: - What is the adoption rate that you want, within three months of launching, or within one year? - What's the adoption rate you want per segment or per use case? - Is it really important to you that you drive usage of a particular feature? - Do you have key segments that you're going after? **3\. Behavior-based KPIs** This is really about how customers and users are engaging with your tool. What is that one metric that can show you that customers are highly engaged? You can also think about activation rate. How do you know when a customer has really reached that initial point of value, and they can be considered activated. There are tons of activities that could go along with these behavior-based KPIs. But they're often things that not a lot of people in your organization are focused on. So, if you can focus on them, you can make a lot of improvement. ## 3\. Position your team Once you understand what your mandate is, and the types of problems you're going to solve, you really need to think about where your team should sit within your organization. Now, this is a really controversial topic, but it can really be boiled down into this question: ## Should Product Marketing sit in product or in marketing? [![Product marketing diagram](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/PMM-1.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing) Really, there's benefits to both. But the truth is, it's not that simple. This is really an oversimplified view of the question we should be asking ourselves. Product marketing doesn't just enable marketing and product management, It enables a handful of teams across the entire organization. I would argue that putting product marketing and marketing together or lumping product marketing in with product management really cuts out the value it could provide to the other teams. Let's take a closer look at product marketing and product management and the different teams they enable. [![Product marketing and product management flowchart](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/Product-management.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing) With **product marketing** the key stakeholders are: - Marketing. - Sales. - Customer success. - Partnerships. On the flip side, **product management** is usually responsible for the relationships with engineering and UX. Together, product management and product marketing form a partnership to make sure all of these teams are on the same page. So, for the purposes of this article, let’s really focus on product marketing. [![Revenue flowchart](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/Product-marketing-3.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing) What do all of these four blue teams have in common? They're all revenue-focused teams. I would urge you to think outside of the box of where product marketing could fit, and consider, could it fit in a revenue department? At Unbounce, this is what our structure looks like. 👇 [![The Unbounce structure flowchart](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/president.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing) I report directly to our Chief Revenue Officer. Our product management team reports to each product officer. Both of those departments report to the president. In this way, product marketing and product management can really be peers and partners, and represent both halves of the business. Now, obviously, not every company has a chief revenue officer, not every company has a revenue department. But what I really just want to communicate today is the fact that there are other options out there. ## Why do we sit in revenue? Why do we make that distinct separation? Well, first of all, it really creates an unbiased, neutral team. In product marketing, we really understand both sides of the business. And when we're making decisions, marketing doesn't feel like we're making it just because we sit with product management. Product management doesn't think that we're making it just because we sit with marketing, because we're outside of both of those teams. And so we can see the benefits of every decision that we make. It also makes sure that product marketing is seen as a key function and a department, it's not a sub function of another team. It also allows for streamlined communications between both sides of the business. Because we are able to represent the side of all of the different revenue teams to product management, we get a more holistic view of the conversation. We set it up this way to create strategic alignment and build momentum. There are, of course, other structures that exist. The most typical option is to sit within marketing or product management. And there are benefits of these as well. ## The benefit of marketing You're sitting super close to copywriters, who are able to really help you tweak your positioning and messaging and get that content out in the market. It also means that product marketing usually will have a deeper understanding of the buying journey, and the top of the funnel. ## The benefit of product management The benefit here is that your typical closest stakeholder is product management. Sitting within that department means that you're creating even more alignment than if you would be separated. it also means you would be defaulted into being involved in the entire product development lifecycle from ideation onwards, and this can be a tricky one for many product marketing teams. It doesn't mean that if you're not in product, It just means that if you're baked into the team, You're baked into that process. To reiterate, there's no right or wrong answer to that one. But what’s important is that you're having the conversation with senior leaders and decision makers across the organization. You're deciding what makes sense based on your goals and your team. ## 4\. Build Alignment Now it's really time to leverage the team that you've put together to create some alignment across the entire organization. Hopefully where you've decided to sit in the organization is going to help you do this. [![Alignment diagram](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/QBLNbdEGmVxjw4aEyf9oLmrea8_Gjo4akq2B3w2LnXROUJ_rhOsE88x-upkA1jWMRc2ktHAV0BLB1ZB-iyPuKL8nh99MVF9YiFJKwng_sjYHPmCrVYp0-qrVda-8K_h_3BCQFAlX)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-power-and-impact-of-product-marketing) So, it's really our job at this point to align the efforts of a lot of other execution-focused teams, especially if you're a strategic product marketing team. ## Collect feedback and inputs This is not just a product strategy, and it’s not just the GTM strategy, but a holistic strategy to grow the business.This means that you’re taking every department into account when you’re plotting your strategy. When it comes to collecting feedback and inputs, it's really important that you're building rituals with your core teams across the company. So again, think about partnerships, think about sales and customer success. Creating these rituals will build open lines of communication between both product marketing and those customer facing teams. They're on the front lines talking to customers day in and day out. And so it's really important that you're getting that feedback loop. But you want to make sure this isn't just being told to you ad hoc, you want to centralize this customer user feedback, so everyone across the organization can access it and make decisions against it. This also means that if all of the information is in one place, you're able to actually identify trends and patterns as time goes on. ## Build product and revenue strategy But when it comes time to build the strategy, It's your responsibility as a product marketing team to bring all of the collected feedback to your product management partners. You don't want to just bring them information, you want to bring them insights. And then together you want to build one holistic strategy. And the reason this is so important is that if you have a product strategy and go to market strategy, if they're not one strategy, you're never going to build that momentum or build that acceleration. Again, at the end of your strategy, you want to define what success looks like for everyone, not what success looks for each part of the business or each team. How will we know if we've executed on our strategy successfully, and what are the one, two or three key metrics that we're going to track collectively to make sure we hit that goal? Product marketing and product management are responsible for building the strategy, but you're not building it alone. Remember all of the stakeholders that you have. ## To wrap up: let’s execute Remember all of the stakeholders you have, remember all of the inputs you have, you need to make sure they're bought in throughout the journey. By the end, once they're ready to start execution, they should be just as excited as you are. Take the time to help the other teams understand how they can contribute what it means for them on a day to day basis. And then take a step back and actually empower them to do what they do best. Remember, we talked about how your team should be strategically focused? Well, now is the time for those execution-focused teams to execute on that amazing strategy. You want to make sure you're coordinating with all of the different teams to make sure they're on the same page throughout. **Empower your teams to execute!** ### SaaS finance in a post-pandemic world: lessons from Covid-19 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/panel-discussion-saas-finance-in-a-post-pandemic-world-lessons-from-covid-19/ Last updated: 2022-02-16T18:27:46.000Z The pandemic was a frightening time for SaaS finance. But for those looking for a silver lining, The Future of SaaS Festival 2021 hosted this upbeat, informative discussion between two of the industry's leading voices. The speakers were: - Idriz Adedoja, **Head of Finance at Vizlib** - Sallianne Buttsworth, **Financial Controller at Century Tech** Coupled with their experience and expertise, they shared new insights not just for problem solving, but for leading the way to better financial solutions. While the full, unfiltered panel discussion is available[ OnDemand for Future of SaaS members](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-ondemand/), we've picked out some of the best bits for you below. Enjoy! --- ## Q: Has the pandemic made business partnerships easier or harder? **Idriz:** When you work within a startup on the scale of my industry, you always have to broaden your horizons. You have to be able to liaise with marketing, sales, product developers, with support and everyone else. I think what happened during COVID was that I had to actually improve my product knowledge. The funny thing is, we are a data visualization software company. If you think about it, the product that we sell is actually very unique. If you have data but you can’t read it, then there really isn’t much you can do with it. We work with lots of big companies, from HSBC to USPS. You need a product like ours to make your data tell you how to make strategic decisions for the board of directors. To make strategic decisions, you need software, you need a platform that will tell you wherever it can. In terms of the business partnership, we’ve all got to basically broaden our horizons. We need to create a culture of collaboration, not just, “Oh, ignore that guy. He just works in finance.” --- [15 tools for a great finance stackFinance teams need to pull data fast and they need it to be accurate, to achieve both they have to have complete confidence in their tech stack. With this in mind, we searched high and low for the tools you need in your arsenal to build the ultimate finance tech stack![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/07/clay-banks-E2HgkL3LaFE-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/15-tools-for-a-great-finance-tech-stack/) --- **Sallianne:** Absolutely. I think the main thing that I realized is that staff approach business partnering from a finance perspective. But if you approach it in a collaborative way, i.e, “How can I help you to help me?” I think you will be received a lot better. I think we've got to help our staff cut through the jargon and understand key critical questions that will help them answer big questions. No one is interested in accounting jargon. I think the big lesson for me was, how do I teach my staff to communicate in a way that is understood by non-finance people while still delivering the outcomes that I need them to? ## Q: How did the pandemic affect funding for your business? **Sallianne:** We lost our funding at the start of the pandemic. And then we gained a little bit of public attention from our free school offers. Ed-tech became quite hot. A lot of countries were making it mandatory, and Ed-tech is still hot at the moment. In the first couple of months of the pandemic, it really became apparent how important the basics of accounting were. Thinking about things like supplier payment management, we had to answer some pretty crucial questions. Who are we paying? How do we ensure that we can pay our staff and retain our top talent? How can we chase debtors so that we're getting cash in the door. Soon, all of those foundational skills that we learn became core to having a business at the end of this pandemic more than anything. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) --- That's insane when you think about all of the other complex areas that we’re educated on as accountants. I think, for me, having that information readily available and up to date at all times was key. It made me realize that we need to ensure our finance transformation functions are automated up to today, cloud-based, and readily available. I've seen research indicating that the pandemic has accelerated that finance transformation process. A lot of businesses were saying it wasn’t a priority, but the pandemic has made it a priority. ## Q: How do you deal with competition in COVID times? **Idriz:** Going back to what you said about automation, I think between March 2020 to December, there were two people in our finance department. I remember asking our CEO, “What do we do?” He said that the worst-case scenario was mediocrity. But what if we didn't collect enough of our cash, what would we do? How can we survive during this time? What do we spend our money on? We had to establish our priorities. What is the priority here? We still want to make sure that the payroll gets done, that every single person gets paid. I think we should all be proud that we managed to meet our payroll dates. You have to start with your payroll, and then you need to look at your suppliers. **Sallianne:** Exactly. And at the time, people weren't passing on cash, and it was getting a little bit worrying. Idriz, I want to touch on something that you said, which was, what should I spend my money on? Marketing? Should I spend it on lead gen? My tech team, etc? What I found is that everyone wanted data. The traditional role of finance broadened. All of a sudden, we were bookkeepers deciding who gets paid. We were financial analysis experts providing data for everyone so that they could defend their budgets. And then we also had this competing resource thing, this crisis management. CEOs were coming to us asking for clarity and strategic vision. We still wanted to look for growth opportunities, but we were scared. We need to know where the risks lie. And we need to put things in a place to manage them. ## Q: What do you think were some of the good things to come out of the pandemic? **Idriz:** I think COVID re-iterated and shed a lot of light on mental health. I'll give you an example. I did an interview and when I looked back at the video, I just couldn't even recognize myself. I was just there looking so miserable, and it made me realize that I was working from home all the time, and I didn’t have anything to take my mind off everything that was going on. > I'm a lot more aware now that, at the end of the day, we are still human beings and we need to look after each other a lot more. I think the people that work for us should be able to come and say that they’re struggling. I think we did that really, really well. A lot of people had conversations with the director, where he just encouraged people to take a break, have a holiday, etc. Work is something that took my mind off everything, but working from home made it harder. --- [Scaling your SaaS finance operationsYour finance team is the backbone to successfully scaling your business. But how do finance teams successfully scale and evolve in a fast-growing organization?![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/07/sean-pollock-PhYq704ffdA-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-saas-finance-operations/) --- **Sallianne:** I like the work from home office hybrid flexibility that has become the norm. When we think about women, who are especially underrepresented in finance, the issue is because the work-life balance isn't quite there. I think that the work from home/office hybrid solution is going to help with that gap a little bit. I love that mental health has been a focus for your business, as it has been for us. We've also always tried to maintain that and to ensure that the CEO and myself are always there for our staff, whoever it is, whenever they need it. I think that's super important. I want to add another positive thing, which is integrating finance with all of the teams. That can be a challenge for businesses. But that’s the one thing I want to keep. If it means becoming a part of their team, and disregarding the finance team altogether, disbanding it all together, it is not the way to go. This is true of other departments in my company too. ## Q: We're constantly hearing about the pain in recruiting mid-level developers. How do you overcome this challenge? **Idriz:** I think this is something that is common among pro businesses or tech companies, specifically because there just seems to be a shortage of top class developers. The main problem is that there just aren’t enough of them. There definitely isn’t enough diversity in this field. We need to encourage people to get into development at a young age. I want everyone to be open to tech. Technology is not going anywhere. It's still growing and will continue to grow. I think we could do something right now by encouraging people that never even thought about it. I know some startups actually go to schools. Coding and software development is something that can be taught, especially when you're at such a young age. I think a lot of tech companies are facing the same problem. **Sallianne:** I'll also add that it's hard to find top talent. Recruiters can find top talent, but they will charge you a 25% recruitment fee. Plus the market is quick and it’s liquid, which can unfortunately mean developers aren't that loyal because of this. So, you may only keep them for a year. My advice would be to think about hiring a talent acquisition manager that has some sort of HR experience as well. They're going to be constantly scanning the web for staff to fill their pipeline. **Idriz:** Also, use connections within your company. If you already have developers working with you, offer financial incentives for referrals, if you can. ## Q: What's the most common thing that you're not getting from your CEO that you as finance leaders need? **Idriz:** I've worked with a lot of CEOs. Don’t forget a lot of them are founders. This business is their baby and if you’re trying to show them a different way of doing things, it's gonna be hard for them to take sometimes. I think the important thing is that you show you’re not the enemy. It comes back to finance being seen as just the numbers guys. It goes back to something else we mentioned earlier: intersectional knowledge. > If you’re in finance and you genuinely want to learn about marketing and photo design, you should try it. You should definitely do it. It just gives you a different perspective. And once you do, then your knowledge just becomes a bit more robust. I think our CEOs just need to understand that the days where you just see this man or woman as a finance person are long gone. They want to be involved. They want to understand everything. Equally, you don’t get to say, “Oh, sorry, I'm only an accountant. I don't do this. I don't talk about support. I won't talk about that.” --- [What does an investor look out for in a SaaS product?With the increase in number of SaaS products, investors today have a large pool of startups to consider from. Here are the top 10 metrics that investors look at!![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSWayne Wee![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/phone.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-does-an-investor-look-out-for-in-a-saas-product/) --- **Sallianne:** Yeah, I find that, especially if it's a co-founder, it is their baby. But they are very busy people. And they don't understand the full value that finance can bring. That is no one's fault. But I feel like that is kind of the missing link. We need to somehow open up this communication path to extract everything that's going on in their head from a strategic vision point of view, to be able to model that and to cost that out and to think about the business as a whole. I think that there is commonality between a CEO and head of finance, or anyone in finance. We view the business in specific parts, whereas the CEO views the business as a whole. That's really powerful. I just wish there was a way to extract everything that is going on in their mind so that I can help them achieve their vision. That would be the main thing. And that is something that I'm working on with my CEO. How can I ask the right questions in a really efficient way that doesn't waste their time? ## Q: How do you educate your staff to be able to sift through data, find causes or potential causes, and put that in a concise format? **Idriz:** One of the things that we do is we restructure our profit and loss statement yearly. What you needed one year ago is not what you’re gonna need next year. You should focus on what you need now. Our CEO will find an error and he’ll ask about it. I then go back to my team and inform them, but then after that I’ll usually just leave them alone and let them get on. You can't drip feed everybody information. If someone just tells me every single thing that I need to know, then I don't get enough curiosity for myself and I'm not going to learn. A former mentor of mine talked about the five Cs. Context, commitment, clarity, connections and compassion. Context is important, obviously, people have to know what’s going on. That's also where clarity comes in. Clarity leads to commitment. We need to keep asking questions, but those questions need to be the right questions. And then, finally, make genuine connections. This is also where compassion comes in. We care about each other, the objective remains the same. We want to make sure we do a good job, we want to make sure we're given concise data that makes sense. So, remember the five Cs and stay curious. **Sallianne:** That is such a concise way of explaining it. And I think it is a cultural thing. It's about making people feel like there are no mistakes, there is no wrong in what we do, which is really interesting in accounting, but it is about making people feel comfortable around business leaders and things like that. You're invoking curiosity, which I think is the main thing. In previous roles, that is something that I've always tried to bring out in my staff. You've done the traditional thing, you've given me the results, but you've not explained to me what may be causing the results. I feel like it's about avoiding the hand-holding approach. You’re teaching them to be curious and teaching them to look a little bit deeper. I’m going to use those five Cs. ## Q: Can we finish with five practical steps for finance in a post covid world? **Sallianne:** Mine would be to watch your staff while we're working from home. Office burnout is a major thing that we all need to keep under control. Make sure they are taking mini-breaks, try to have them plan vacations so that there's no chance of you rejecting it. Just really watch out for everyone. **Idriz:** The next one for me is to be consistent with your payment plans. Also, leverage technology to help you go out and speak to your customers. **Sallianne:** My next key takeaway is never be complacent on your cost base. Review it, review it, review it. There are always components of your cost base that you should be looking at. How can that money be better spent? Can it be put into lead generation? What kind of lead generators aren't working? What should we reconsider? I think it doesn't matter how much cash you've got in the bank, always review your costs. **Idriz:** Next one is definitely to focus on quality. If your sales are reducing, that can only be because there isn’t enough demand for the product. And sometimes the customers don't always know what they want. **Sallianne:** Watch your SaaS metrics really closely. They're all interlinked. Average price, churn rate, Sales cycle, etc. You can gain so many insights from all of our SaaS metrics. **Idriz:** Absolutely, that's very true. SaaS metrics are amazing. They are amazing, because they tell you a story. **Sallianne:** My last thing would be to upskill yourself all the time. As that finance leader role broadens, we're going to be called upon in so many different ways. Get curious, educate yourself, upskill yourself ready for those big questions from the board or your CEO. And give yourselves a pat on the back for all the hard work. --- *Enjoyed this article? Access more expert tips and insight with a [Future of SaaS membership plan.](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/)* ### What does an investor look out for in a SaaS product? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/what-does-an-investor-look-out-for-in-a-saas-product/ Last updated: 2022-02-15T18:03:19.000Z With the increase in number of SaaS products, investors today have a large pool of startups to consider from. It has become much harder for founders to convince investors to invest in their startups. In order to stand out, founders need to understand the thought process of investors and to know what are the key benchmarks that investors are looking out for. Here are the top 10 metrics that investors look at: ****1) Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)** The amount of revenue the company makes that recurs each month. ****2) Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)** Similar to MRR, but it’s the revenue the company makes that recurs each year. ****3) Annual Revenue per Customer (ARPA)** ARPA = MRR / Total number of customers ****4) Lifetime Value (LTV)** Customer lifetime value represents the total amount of money a customer is expected to spend in your company. LTV = ARPA x Average Customer Lifespan ****5) Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)** The cost acquired to acquire a customer. The LTV must exceed the CAC, if not the company cannot be profitable. ****6) Daily Active Users (DAU)** The number of daily users on your platform. ****7) Monthly Active Users (MAU)** The number of monthly users on your platform. ****8) Month Over Month (MOM) Growth** The rate growth from month to month. ****9) Monthly Churn Rate (MCR)** MCR = Customers lost this month / Number of customers in the prior month ****10) Net Revenue Retention (NRR)** To calculate net revenue retention, we need to consider the following 4 different values: (A) Monthly recurring revenue of the last month (MRR) (B) Revenue generated through upgrades and cross-sells (C) Revenue lost through downgrades (D) Revenue lost through churn NRR = (A + B — C — D) / A --- [How revenue & customer success can work together more effectivelyIn many organizations, sales and customer success exist as two distinct entities, interacting only to hand off accounts and, while this setup may work for some, when both teams are aligned, magic happens.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/mimi-thian-ZKBzlifgkgw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-revenue-customer-success-can-work-together-more-effectively/) --- ## But what is the benchmark? A recent report published by [Bessemer Venture Partners](https://www.bvp.com/atlas/scaling-to-100-million/) on Sept 2021, showed a benchmark of 60–200% for ARR Growth, 120–140% for NRR, and a gross margin of 70%. ![Average benchmark by ARR graph](https://miro.medium.com/max/700/0*qrBnCZ5atm0X39iu.png) According to the T2D3 approach invented by [Neeraj Agrawal](https://techcrunch.com/author/neeraj-agrawal/), one can turn a SaaS enterprise into a billion-dollar worth enterprise in 5 years. T2D3 stands for “triple, triple, double, double, double.” “Most entrepreneurs will be able to tell you that they define success as getting to $100 million of ARR (annual recurring revenue) and, ideally, a billion-dollar outcome,” Agrawal notes. But how do they get there? What is the appropriate level of growth for SaaS companies? And how do they allocate their company resources appropriately to make it happen? For most founders, the answers to these questions are less clear. ## **Stages of SaaS growth through T2D3 approach:** ****Stage 1:** Understanding pain points to establish product-market fit Finding a good product-market fit is usually the hardest and longest part of the journey, and requires multiple iterations to get it right. At this stage, the ARR has not been quite determined yet, hence angel investors are taking the biggest risk, and valuation is said to be more of an “art” than “science”, where there is a heavy emphasis is placed on the credibility of the founding team. Funding Stage: Seed Round Valuation: USD 1–10m (ARR Multiple: 20 to 100) Expected Dilution: 5% Funding: USD 50-500k ****Stage 2:** USD1 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) Once a good product-market fit is found, the company would need to focus on building up its initial customer base and to reach a target of USD 1 million in ARR. The focus is on quality over quantity. Funding Stage: Pre-A Valuation: USD 19m (Based on Median ARR Multiple: 19) Expected Dilution: 5–10% Funding: USD 1–2m EV Multiple = Enterprise Value / ARR ![Cloud valuation multiples by ARR graph](https://miro.medium.com/max/700/0*6KU8D6qbsqWY8s3q.png) ****Stage 3:** Triple to $3 million in ARR The company is ready for rapid growth, and focuses on developing a stronger sales team, and can confidently increase the marketing expense. Funding Stage: Series A Valuation: USD 60m (Based on Median ARR Multiple: 19) Asian Valuations tend to be lowered than in the United States, so a Median ARR Multiple of 10–15 could be a more realistic estimate. Expected Dilution: 5–10% Funding: USD 2.5–5m ****Stage 4:** Tripling to $9 million ARR Focus on securing bigger and enterprise clients. Funding Stage: Series B Valuation: USD 125m (Based on Median ARR Multiple: 14) Expected Dilution: 10–15% Funding: USD 25–37.5m ****Stage 5:** Double to $18 million in ARR Begin to expand internationally, but the management team should make sure to target one region at a time. It is better to go deep in the market than go wide. Funding Stage: Series C Valuation: USD 250m (Based on Median ARR Multiple: 14) Expected Dilution: 10–15% Funding: USD 25–37.5m ****Stage 6:** Double to $36 million in ARR The company needs to strengthen its marketing channels and expand into new markets internationally. Funding Stage: Series D Valuation: USD 430m (Based on Median ARR Multiple: 12) Expected Dilution: 5–10% Funding: USD 21.5–42.5m ****Stage 7:** Double to $72 million in ARR Focus on preparing for M&A or IPO and continue to maintain growth rates. Funding Stage: Series E / IPO / M&A Valuation: USD 860m (Based on Median ARR Multiple: 12) Expected Dilution: 5–10% Funding: USD 43–86m ![Best growth endurance graph](https://miro.medium.com/max/700/0*rxxY49PQb5rlZ4j8.png) This T2D3 approach is also in-line with Bessemer Venture Partners’ study on “best” and “better” SaaS companies, where they are expected to reach a USD 100m AAR in 6–7 years, at which they have attained unicorn status and are ready for an M&A or IPO. --- [Revenue operations - the new key to unlocking growth?Leore Spira, Head of Revenue Operations at Buildots (and former Head of Revenue Operations at Syte), talks enablement, operations, and the rapidly changing organizational structures of today.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSDaniel O’Dowd![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/jaye-haych-7tkDoo2L_Eg-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/revenue-operations-the-new-key-to-unlocking-growth/) --- ## One last thing Fundraising is a tedious process but it can ultimately be very rewarding for both the founders and the investors. A key mindset for success is to regard the relationship. between the founder and investor to be more of a partnership rather than a mere transactional process. As usual, don’t hesitate to leave a comment and reach out to me at for further inquiries. If you find this article useful and you want to learn more. Check out my other articles at --- *Enjoyed this article? Access more expert tips and insight with a [Future of SaaS membership plan.](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/)* ### How to know if your company is inclusive URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-know-if-your-company-is-inclusive/ Last updated: 2022-02-10T18:28:44.000Z Worried that your organization isn't doing enough to promote inclusivity and diversity? If the answer is yes, you're not alone. This is one of the hottest topics in the modern age. Thankfully, the world of SaaS is waking up to the long term benefits of diversity and inclusivity. At the Women in SaaS festival 2021, **Rebecca Nerad, Vice President of Customer Success at E2open**, led this riveting and timely discussion with two of the industry's leading female voices. Rebecca spoke with: - Rupal Nishar, AVP of Customer Success at Netomi - Minna Vaisanen, Head of Customer Success at Growth Engineering While the full, unfiltered panel discussion is available[ OnDemand for Future of SaaS members](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-ondemand/), we've picked out some of the best bits for you below. Enjoy! --- ## Q: What do we mean by inclusivity? And why does it matter? **Rupal**: For me, inclusivity matters now, more than ever. Exclusion in the workspace, besides creating a fragmented culture, can destroy confidence and lead to poor performance. There’s this general sentiment of unhappiness that eventually leads to a loss of talented workers. The direct opposite of that is a happier environment. A culture where employees are involved, valued, and they feel compelled to have an impact on the overall vision of the organization. The reason why this is more important right now is for two particular reasons. One, because of the COVID scenario. Now more than ever, we feel more disenfranchised from our organizations. There are so many of us working remotely, so it's more important than ever to have a sense of belonging, and a sense of inclusion. We need to be able permeate these virtual engagements. It's a much more difficult problem to solve than it has been before. The second reason is that COVID has driven so many women out of the workforce, and the pandemic has had a very disproportionate impact on women, and there's potentially a downstream impact of women not being in the workforce now. We may not see it immediately, but I think it will significantly impact innovation, creativity, and the bottom line of growth for organizations and the GDP of countries. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) --- **Minna**: Yeah, and if I can just add, I think the authenticity of how you're bringing these initiatives to life really matters, whether you're doing it for quota, or for profitability. We were reading a McKinsey study on why diversity wins, and why it has a big impact on companies big and small. It shows how the gap is really widening between companies who are diversity-conscious and those who are not. It’s predicted that companies who are diversity-conscious will increase profits by 25%. This will be achieved simply by increasing the diversity of the workforce in your company. > I think when you bring monetary values to the table, that's when people might start listening. I think to get there, you have to take practical steps. You can't just do it because it looks good on paper or because it’s the hot topic of today. It’s not something that should just be implemented for the sake of a press release. ## Q: Can we expand a bit on company-wide initiatives? Why have they gained traction lately? How do we measure them? **Minna**: Well, I think there’s a clear lack of targets in a lot of different companies. And if you don’t have a goal to aim for, you are not going to get anywhere. The second point is, who is held accountable? Similarly, if you don't meet your sales targets, things are going to be very bad. Companies are always putting improvement plans in place, but the question is, who's held accountable for the initiatives? What's actually been officially discussed and have you mapped out how you get there? So, I think this is where the AI initiatives fail a lot, because there's lack of targets and lack of accountability. But it’s not simple as saying we want more women in our company, because then that becomes a blanket approach. **Why** does it matter and **how** do we get there? **Rupal**: Yeah, I have been part of initiatives across various organizations. And I think the fundamental thing that it boils down to is a lack of knowledge. And that stems all the way from leadership down. In one of my previous companies, the lack of diversity was so apparent, it would stare you in the face on a daily basis. There was a real lack of women of color in leadership, and it was just pretty non-diverse, in general. I spoke to a colleague and his response to me was, “Don't talk to me about diversity. I'm the Caucasian guy.” My response was,“You should be talking about this **because** you're the Caucasian guy. This doesn't make any sense.” I think it just comes down to a lack of knowledge, and lack of sponsorship from the leadership down. I think people look at it as something that they don't know how to solve; there isn't a predictable formula or recipe for success, right? There isn’t a tool you can use that you can plug in and play. People are overly-sensitive about talking about it in a very healthy environment. But I think that can slowly change over a period of time, if people are taught even at the executive level. > You need to think about how this is going to positively impact and benefit the organization, but I don't think they do that. I think we're seeing more organizations trying to move the needle rather than just artificially making these announcements, but then they don't really follow through. This happens all the time. On a positive note, I am seeing a lot of self reflection going on within certain organizations on how we can take responsibility for diversity. This generally happens when you have the right leaders at the top. And I'm going to stumble my way through. You'll see me fall 100 different times, but I will do it. I think that's what's required of every one of us, right? Be persistent. --- [Further together - building a diverse marketing teamMaya Grossman, VP of Marketing at Canvas shared her views on the value of diverse teams, her hiring best practices to get it right, how to go about getting stakeholder buy-in, and more.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/helena-lopes-PGnqT0rXWLs-unsplash--2---1--2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/further-together-building-a-diverse-marketing-team/) --- ## Q: How can companies address inclusivity in the recruitment process? **Minna**: I think it depends on what level you're hiring at. The hiring process even starts at writing the job titles that are not ambiguous. I think being clear about, for example, whether the candidate needs to have a PhD, can broaden your talent pool. We know, for example, that women are less likely than men to apply for jobs when they don’t meet all of the professional requirements, so making it clear that they don’t need to have these certain qualifications can really help to address that. I think that recruiters are often pushed to go for a very specific list of candidates, rather than a diverse list of candidates. From a company perspective, it's also good to kind of keep at it. Even when you think you’ve got your shortlist selection right, just keep pushing it and see if you can develop a more diverse, more nuanced list. **Rupal**: We really have to expand on these points of entry for how employees are hired within the company, right? There's some low hanging fruit that we can reach for. This can encompass very simple things, such as very targeted hiring from universities. You can even reach out to the diversity associations within a university, or you can attend job fairs that are targeted towards a diverse audience. --- [Networking & the gender divide \[Q&A with Century Tech\]Sallianne Buttsworth, Financial Controller at Century Tech joined us for a quick Q&A ahead of The Women in SaaS Summit. Here she discusses the gender divide in finance, the women who inspired her during the early years, and how she became a mentor.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/chris-montgomery-smgTvepind4-unsplash--1---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/networking-the-gender-divide-q-a-with-century-tech/) --- Those are some really elementary things that you can do from a strategy perspective without having to spend a dime. But I've seen organizations become a little bit more sophisticated. They have tools that eliminate the name of the people from resumes, for example. You just see the resume, or the work product, which helps you to have an unbiased opinion rather than trying to already put somebody in a certain box. I've also seen tools that help with revising job descriptions that are out there. In a SaaS organization I was a part of, we invested in a tool that would really look for the nuances within the job descriptions. Are we proactively trying to get people to apply for the roles? Are we opening up the aperture? I think those are some of the things that organizations can do that are really low investment, but can have a significant impact within the organization. **Minna**: I think if we flip it on the other side, if you are the candidates, it’s a good idea to look at the company lingo and think about how they are framing the job. What are the requirements that they're looking for? Are they looking for perfection, or are they looking for candidates that they can mould around what needs to be done? Are they hiring for now or are they hiring for future success? If you're the candidate, have a look at that other side of things. It’s also important to look at the company structure. Can you see people of color being promoted there? What is the tone of the company when you read their material or read their website or read their posts? As the candidate, you can also make a big difference. ## Q: How do we improve recruiting from within to create more female leadership roles? **Minna**: I feel quite passionate about this topic of promoting within. Some companies have programs in place, especially for females. And let's speak the honest truth. Often enough, females have to take career breaks to have a family and so forth. Technically speaking, you are sometimes going to fall behind the curve in terms of what your male colleagues are able to do. Male candidates are generally not encouraged to take as much time out for family. But how do you make sure that you have programs that are not just equal, but that are also mindful of the kinds of needs that female candidates have? Looking at this from the other side, paternity leave is often not encouraged enough. I think this is one of the key initiatives for getting men and women on the same track professionally. You can also have upskilling programs for women who have had to take time out for family. You can get them back on that promotion track faster. --- [Measuring inclusivity in the workplace \[Q&A with Growth Engineering\]Minna Vaisanen, Head of Customer Success at Growth Engineering joined us for a Q&A ahead of The Women in SaaS Summit. Here she discusses the main indicators of inclusivity, how to tell if a company’s culture is right for you, and how to measure inclusivity in the workplace.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/dylan-gillis-KdeqA3aTnBY-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/measuring-inclusivity-in-the-workplace-q-a-with-growth-engineering/) --- **Rupal**: This also comes from the fact that, sadly, women don't empower themselves enough for the tough fight and for the tough conversation. They're not comfortable saying,“Hey, this is where I think I belong. And this is where I need to be.” There’s often this false sense of this imposter syndrome, right? I think even men go through that, but I think that women take it a lot harder. We beat ourselves up more, we have a different bar of where we need to be. I think we should feel empowered enough to ask those difficult questions and feel like we belong? We can't just put the entire responsibility on an organization. You need to feel empowered enough to go out there and negotiate what you think you deserve. What’s the worst that can happen, they say no? ## Q: Implementing diversity and inclusion can seem overwhelming. As an advocate or an ally, where do you start? **Mina**: I think it's okay not to know. The important thing is to start educating yourself. Start reading about what are good things to do and what are the best initiatives to put in place to get everyone else on board. There is no plug and play model here. We've got to take steps and sometimes we stumble over the steps and fall. Be relentless. The more you raise the topic with people and make sure it’s on people's plates, the more likely something’s going to get done about it. None of us know everything, but don’t rest on your laurels. Pick a time to speak to experts in the field and read more studies around it. Formulate an opinion and get moving on topics. I think how you open the conversation is key to this. **Rupal**: I agree with that. It's okay not to have the answers. I think most of us haven't figured it out. But we are on this journey to understand and learn. So I think two things that you can do, besides empowering yourself with the right knowledge and learning about it, is to create a benchmark. Look at where you are today and set a target for where you want to be. If you don't have the data, you don't necessarily know if you're moving the needle. If it’s an organization-wide initiative, obviously, you need a lot of sponsorship to get some of this stuff done. If you are an individual contributor, or if you are in a space where you feel like you may not be able to move the needle, I think you can even start out by mentoring folks within your own network. How many of us are intentional about opening up doors for other minorities? How can you be more intentional about some of those activities if you're not empowered to make bigger changes. The results of that will speak volumes. You might end up being the most innovative team. There might be success that you can showcase to your leadership for a broader sort of an initiative. There are so many things we can do to have an impact. --- *Enjoyed this article? Access the full, unedited version OnDemand with a [Future of SaaS membership plan.](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/)* ### Which channels should you focus on for ABM? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/which-channels-should-you-focus-on-for-abm/ Last updated: 2022-02-08T17:43:43.000Z ## What is account-based marketing (ABM)? Account-based marketing (ABM) is a strategy that focuses on directing your marketing and sales towards a set of high-value target accounts. ABM is especially important in B2B SaaS marketing. It makes all the hard work and effort you put into your marketing highly targeted. You’ll be creating everything with a specific focus in mind. The revenue of B2B companies using ABM strategies can be [over 200% higher](https://digitalradish.co.uk/inspiration/10-account-based-marketing-statistics-for-b2b-marketers/)than those who don’t! Essentially, ABM allows you to personalize and target your content, marketing campaigns and sales pitches to accounts that have been identified as high value. This is a lot more efficient than just marketing to a large but general audience where the chances of potential buyers seeing the value of your brand are highly diluted. It’s important you develop an effective and detailed ABM strategy which closely aligns your marketing and sales teams. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/SaaScast-Ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=saascast-podcast) --- ## Choosing the right channels for your ABM strategy So, you’ve decided to implement an ABM framework. Great stuff! You might have even identified your target accounts and created personalized content tailored to each of them. But where do you post this content to ensure your target customers will actually see it? This is where ABM channels come in. ABM channels are essentially the platform you use to deliver your content to your targeted accounts. You need to know where your target audience spends their time online and then maximize your efforts on these channels. If you are investing your time and money into advertising and promoting content on channels where your targeted audience don't spend much time, your brand will most likely remain invisible to your ideal buyers, and you won’t be getting much ROI on all the work you’re doing. This article will provide you with the best ABM channels that will increase the visibility of your brand to target accounts ensuring your marketing efforts don’t go to waste. ## The best channels for ABM ### LinkedIn Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter can make for great ABM channels, but when it comes to B2B marketing, LinkedIn is the channel B2B buyers use the most regularly regularly and is also the one [they trust the most.](https://terminus.com/blog/what-is-account-based-marketing/) Leveraging your brand’s LinkedIn profile as an ABM channel is definitely a smart move. There are a variety of ways that you can use LinkedIn to help with ABM. You can use it to research accounts and identify which ones you are going to target. LinkedIn Sales Navigator can help you profile your target accounts, find out about the employees currently working at the company and identify the ones likely to be involved in deciding whether to purchase your product/service.This helps with creating personalized content tailored to each individual account and will also guide your sales team on who to make contact with first. LinkedIn Sponsored Content and LinkedIn Sponsored InMail campaigns are also great for ABM. You can create a list of your ideal accounts and have your content and marketing campaigns promoted to these specific targets. You can even promote content to specific people in the company based on job function or seniority to increase the awareness of your brand among the decision makers. One of the best things about LinkedIn is that you can track engagement by account. You can identify which accounts aren’t engaging as much with your content and adjust your strategy accordingly. --- [How is email marketing important to improving customer retention?Despite the rising competition from social media, email marketing continues to be one of the most effective tools for B2B marketing. It’s great for product awareness and generating new leads, but also for boosting customer retention.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSSaima Chadney![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/brett-jordan-LPZy4da9aRo-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-is-email-marketing-important-to-improving-customer-retention/) --- ### Email marketing Email marketing continues to be one of the best channels for ABM. It’s the main channel for B2B marketing with good reason, it has the potential for a huge[4,400% ROI](https://www.chiefnation.com/blog/9-account-based-marketing-channels/#:~:text=%209%20 ). When it comes to emails, to make your marketing effective, highly personalized content is key. In fact, personalization can lead to more than **[200% increase](https://vendedigital.com/blog/your-best-channels-for-account-based-marketing/)** in conversion rates! Go further than just addressing them by their first name; add their company name, their specific role and industry they are in. Talk about their specific business, what they do and congratulate them for their recent successes. From this, you’ll then be able to show the value and worth of your brand in terms of their specific needs. Do your research on each of your accounts: look at what their current struggles and challenges are and address these in your email by explaining how you can help. This not only highlights your brand's worth but also shows them you have taken the time to learn about their business. --- [Positioning across the SaaS funnel (Q&A with Sellics)Priscilla Tenggara, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sellics, discusses: how to determine if your current positioning is working, tips for running ads on social media, examples of positioning done right, plus more.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/08/jachymmichal-oVWilf8znF8-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/positioning-across-the-saas-funnel-q-a-with-sellics/) --- ### Telemarketing Telemarketing is one of the best ABM channels that allows you to connect with your target accounts on a 1-1 basis. Just like email marketing, it’s vital to research each individual target account first to identify their current challenges and struggles. It will make the call more informative and engaging for your potential buyer as you can explain how your product/service will specifically help them. You could also look to see if the account has engaged with any of your content to get an indication of what they are specifically looking for e.g. have they recently downloaded one of your whitepapers or attended a webinar on a specific topic, etc. Prepare well for the call and ensure you know exactly what you want to tell the client about your product/service. It’s important to not sound scripted or robotic when talking as this can result in the client losing interest and potentially ending the call. Allow for the conversation to flow naturally to keep the client engaged throughout. Telemarketing is also a great way to gain additional data about your target accounts, which you can further implement into your ABM strategy. ### Direct mail Although digital marketing channels are currently seen as the main way to increase brand awareness, the use of direct mail in ABM still remains valuable for targeting individual accounts. Marketing campaigns that include the use of direct mail are [40% more](https://sendoso.com/direct-mail-marketing/b2b-direct-mail-marketing/) likely to deliver higher acquisition levels compared to campaigns that don’t! Sending personalized letters to individual accounts introducing your brand and product/service is a great way to increase brand awareness. You can then follow this up with tailored infographics to show your brand’s specific offer to them. You could also include coupons with discounts for their first purchase. Direct mail can also be used to send out regular educational content to current clients to enhance their journey with you and reduce the chance of customer churn. Direct mail isn’t utilized by all businesses, so by using this as a channel, you will stand out from your competitors, giving you space to show your target accounts that you’re a brand worth investing time and money into. ### Paid ads Digital paid ads are excellent for ABM as they allow you to reach your target audience over a variety of channels. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn offer paid advertisements and allow you to select which accounts you want them to be seen by. Facebook allows you to filter by email address, phone number, age, location and gender to target accounts that match your specific account profile. LinkedIn also provides a filter where you can pick and choose the characteristics of your target accounts. You can then promote your content to accounts within that profile enabling you to reach a broader audience and stay highly targeted. You can also utilize paid searches on search engines such as Google or Bing. Google Adword, for example, allows you to provide the email addresses of your target accounts and will then promote your ads to them whenever they are signed into Google. ### Host live events and meetings Face-face contact is important in ABM. Hosting in-person meetings or live virtual events enables you to connect more with your target accounts and is a great way to learn more about them. Be authentic when talking about your brand and the product/service you offer. Discuss their current challenges/needs and address any queries they may have about your product. Try to create a relaxed atmosphere in the meetings and allow for light casual conversation as this can help greatly in building a personal 1-1 relationship with your potential buyers. ## Final thoughts Choosing the right channels is one of the hardest challenges in ABM but also one of the most vital. It can make or break your strategy. Ensure you are continually tracking the engagement of your target accounts on each channel to identify the ones that are worth prioritizing. Putting time and effort into making sure you are utilizing the right channels will maximize the overall success of your ABM strategy and increase your visibility to your target audience. **What channels have you found the most useful for ABM? Need advice on choosing what to focus on? Join the conversation at [Future of SaaS](https://www.saasalliance.io/join-the-fosaas-community/)!** --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How to deliver customer outcomes, and hit your dates, every single time URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time/ Last updated: 2023-02-09T12:14:12.000Z *Maggie Crowley gave this presentation at the Future of SaaS Festival, when she was Senior Director of Product Management at Drift.* If you're looking for a sugar coated fairy tale, you won’t find it in this article. This is designed to be a real no-nonsense guide on how to ship on time, **every time.** Forget the bells and whistles, we’re gonna zoom right on the hard nuts and bolts that make the process run smoothly.🔎 ## Aims of this article When I say nuts and bolts, I'm talking about tactics, of course. I'm going to share: - The tactics that I've used to help with different parts of the system. - The tactics that helped me hit dates. - How to build momentum for the company. - How to make sure we’re shipping what our customers love! Since I've joined Drift, we've never missed a launch date. The results speak for themselves! My hope is that some of these tactics are useful, and you can effectively integrate them into your organization. But before we go into the solutions, it’s probably best to look at some of the common issues around this topic. ## Challenges for shipping on time Make no mistake, shipping is really hard. And maybe you're super confident that you have the right thing going. But, if you're really honest, you might have doubled, if not tripled, the estimated timeline that you started with. Or, maybe you start getting excited about an idea, and then somebody throws another idea at you, and then another. Pretty soon you’re losing sight of what your main goals are. ### You have no idea what the impact will be Maybe you're working on a feature or a project that was handed to you from the leadership team, and you have no idea why you're doing it or what the impact is going to be. This can be especially frustrating when you have a better idea that you think you really should be working on. ### A million solutions but none of them fit So, you probably find yourself turning to Google and the results probably look a bit like this.👇 [![Confusing Google search results](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/google-search-results.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) You're finding a million articles on the problems that you’re having, but none of them seem like they would actually work at your company. ### Product advice almost always lacks context It doesn't describe all the factors that lead to the success of a given method. It's a lot easier to write an article about one thing that works than to write an article that describes all the different factors that played into the success. I know you don’t have time to sit here and read a novel on shipping. That’s why I’m gonna break the factors down as concisely as possible. Firstly, product is really a system.👇 [![Diagram of product cycle](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/we-operate-in-a-system.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) You can't truthfully separate out one part from the rest. It all plays together, and everything you do influences other parts of the system. This makes it really hard to figure out where to start. But don't worry! The fact is**👇** [![Caption: Product is hard."](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/product-is-hard.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) The most important thing is that you don’t get discouraged. Think of it as an ongoing experiment that you can tweak and test and improve along the way. You won’t get it right all at once, but think of it as trial and error. There are many different steps to shipping. But to save you the time of reading a novel, I'm going to focus on the steps that are the most relevant to shipping things on time and building momentum. The added benefit is that you don't need to change your entire process for them to be useful. ### First: a note on hitting dates Hitting dates relates to how you organize your team when you get started. Hitting dates means hitting the date of your overall mission, which might be your goal for the quarter. It also means hitting all the little dates you have along the way. Failing to miss those little dates has a domino effect. It’s going to have a big impact on whether you’re able to hit your big deadlines. ### There’s a secret to hitting dates Okay, so it’s actually a not-so-secret process, but the point is it’s effective. You have to avoid thinking about the feature when you're setting the date. Instead, you have to focus on the outcome. Firstly, as with many other things. ### You need a story [![Typewriter typing out, "stories matter."](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/typewriter-2.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) The story is the problem that you're solving. Your story should be really specific. Let me use Drift as an example. We sell into marketing and sales teams. I could say, for example, the marketer needs to log into X. But that's not enough. Is it the CMO? Is it the VP of content? Who is the protagonist of your story? The more specific you can get, the greater the likelihood that you’re going to ship the right solution when the time comes. ### You need a date This is how you understand how much the product is going to be worth to your business. The date you set is a constraint that's going to have a huge impact on how your team thinks about the solution that they're going to build. There's a big difference between setting a date that's a week from now versus setting a date that's six months from now. Ryan Singer, Head of Strategy at Basecamp, created this really great diagram. [![Fixed time and variable scope diagram](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/fixed-time-and-variable-scope.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) What this diagram shows is that once the team understands your constraints, they spend their time discovering the solution within the context of the story and that date. If this isn’t the case, you end up with a situation that resembles the right of the diagram, where the scope continues to increase and increase. Pretty soon you end up with all of your smaller deadlines slipping away from you. Instead, you should give yourself a fixed time and a variable scope. That's how you're gonna hit those dates day in and day out. ### An example problem To give you a more tactical example, especially in B2B, it's really common to have a project that's about helping customers understand what's happening. We typically call this a report. It’s perfectly reasonable for a team to want customers to understand a metric. There are many potential filters that have to be considered with this metric: Time, geography, individual differences between customers, and so it is important to be able to customize. But, equally, you can imagine how your scope has the potential to spread beyond control as you introduce more variables. But you can probably also solve the problem by running an SQL query and emailing your customer a date. That's why the date is so important, because it's going to determine how far the team goes in solving the problem. After the SQL query is sent, then you can start building on that. By the time the date comes to pass, you can ship several increasingly better solutions to their problem over time. ### It’s not about getting an estimate right You don’t want to be sitting down with your engineering team, for example, and coming up with estimates. If you end up picking a date and mandating what your feature should be, you're going to get stuck in that land of story points, sandbagging your estimates and constantly missing your dates. It’s a terrible place to be, and no one wants to be there. # What’s the story? So, now you have a date, but wait, you still have to figure out what the story is. To put it another way, the story is actually the problem that you're going to want to solve. At Drift, we use the ‘job-to-be-done’ framework. This boils down to what problems you can solve that will have the largest impact on the mission that you set out to achieve. The mission is typically a goal. ### First, talk to your customers The key to getting a tight job done right is a deep understanding of your customers. Above all else, it's the number one most important place to start. You have to talk to them, and you have to talk to them **live**. At Drift, we have a Slackbot that asks us how many user exposures we’ve had each week. I set myself a personal target to never have a zero. A week should never go by without me speaking to a customer. [![Caption: "Call them up every single hour for at least an hour. Not joking. Hours."](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/call-your-customers-every-week.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) If you're at a company that doesn't allow you to do that, and you're a product manager, I would honestly quit. Customer contact is the absolute best way to understand what you should be building. Let me give you an example of something that a real customer sent me when trying to express what they wanted from my product. [![Diagram from a customer expressing needs.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/PDF-from-a-customer.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) This is gold! Imagine being able to go to an executive and say, “Hey, this is exactly what the customers want. This is exactly the problem that they're running into. And here's how we can fix it.” ### Talk to the customer team So, you've talked to the customer, but now it's time to expand that coverage. It might be worthwhile talking to the team that spends their whole day talking to customers, the CSM team. It’s a really good way to broaden out the knowledge that you're getting. One tactic we have again is Slackbot. It pings our team once a week with a topic that we're curious about and gets their feedback. [![Slackbot addressing customer team](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/research-bot.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) It does this instead of just going out one-to-one and asking different people about their interaction with the problem. This allows you to crowdsource that knowledge and then you end up seeing a really rich discussion between those people. This can be really helpful. ### Engage as many people as possible We also just started testing out a board where people can write up customer pain points. We can engage even more people at the company in this discussion. This has really been great for visibility. [![A board where the team share "pain points."](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/customer-plan.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) It’s a great tactic to help you understand the full scope of a customer problem. If you ever feel like the people that you're talking to are only giving you part of the problem, this is a good way to broaden your understanding of that problem. ### Summarize into the JTBD Once you understand your customers and you know your mission, you can smash it all together and summarize it into a really crisp story that describes the problem that you're solving. Typically, we’re gonna follow a step by step framework. I believe in taking a lot of editorial liberty in telling a story. You never know what part of that story is going to strike a chord with the team and inspire them to think of an idea! ### The JTBP is a problem, not a feature. What's important to remember is that the story should describe the customer problem in really specific detail, including why that problem matters to the customer. It still **does** not and **should** not talk about the solution. You still haven't picked your features, meaning that the scope at this point is still variable. You're still on your way to hitting your dates. At the end of the day, when you're doing this initial research phase of the job, you should end up in a place where you can answer this set of questions. 👇 [![Six questions you should be able to answer: 1. Who are we building for. 2. What is the specific problem we're solving? 3. What is the new thing, described in a few sentences? 4. What is the key, breakthrough benefit? 5. How should the customer justify the purchase? How is it exactly different from the competition?](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/customer-questions-to-ask-yourself.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) If you're not able to answer these with specificity and clarity, it's going to be unlikely that the team is headed in the right direction. Or, worse, they might be shipping something amazing, but it might end up not being as relevant for your business as it should be. If you define your problem really clearly and precisely everything else downstream is going to be easier. You're going to start with a much deeper shared understanding of what you're trying to accomplish. # Next: Story time So, let's say you did all this stuff really well. You have your problem, you really know what you want to tackle. The next step is story time. I think this is something that everyone can try, regardless of the system that you're in. All it comes down to is a meeting. Story time is how you transition from the problem space to the solution space. It's the start of all that great design research that we know and love. ### Hold a meeting The goal is to figure out what you need to know in order to solve the problem that you've identified. In the meeting, you should bring in the whole team that's actually going to work on the problem set out by the PM. This should include: [![In the room: PM, Design, Engineers, Customer advocate, Special guests.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/in-the-room-teams.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) - Go through the problem. - Go through your research. - Tell everyone a rich story about the customer. - You develop open questions that have to be answered. In the end, it’s probably gonna look a bit like this. 👇 [![Whiteboard where the team brainstorm strategy.](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/49-srj3_VkUAk6BJXD8vOjVk6y5oNMRHgqwdq3DnYqoeAhI-Yjmhe_h-2Lu3ZJy_RVVMlVG6u9uDTv_SGf3PKvQ6OC1q7FlsW4XDnMnRe7R_qtWMs02l6B4ERIbuD2CzrOUm5tsg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) This whiteboard is full of comments like: - What would it do? - What's it gonna look like? - Is this possible? - What are the different ways we could approach this? ### The end result of the meeting You should leave the meeting with a list of open questions. The key here is that you assign them with dates, and then assign those dates to every single member of the team. And then everyone goes off for hopefully a day or two maximum and comes back and you share what you've learned. What you're doing is engaging the full team and discovering the solution. It's not like a PM is writing a spec and just handing it over to the engineering team. The engineering team, and everyone else, is involved in the solution. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/SaaScast-Ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/saascast/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=saascast-podcast) ### Refine the scope In answering open questions, you're trying to figure out exactly what the solution is within the constraints. Once that’s figured out, you’re good to go! # Early access Now that you're in the process of building, the next step is to make sure it actually is going to meet your customers needs the way you thought it would. We use a tactic called 'early access,' which means picking a small handful of customers to partner with in finishing what you're working on. Below you’ll find a diagram that I think says it best. Early access is about engaging your customers and partnering with them versus giving them an early buggy software that misses the mark. [![Early access diagram](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/early-access-beta.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) The framing matters a lot here because it's going to help you engage your customers in the right way. It's going to help them feel like they're a part of the thing you're building. It's going to get them really motivated to participate in this process with you. ### Selecting the right customers Because you're going to need to change things, you need to be really careful with the customers that you select to participate in this process. - They should represent the target persona for your business. - They should be willing to use something that might break. - They shouldn’t be the kind people who are going to say that everything is great. - They should be open to speaking publicly about using your product. ### Start with the customer team I always ask for my customer team’s recommendations, it could help with an expansion opportunity. Or, it could just get someone really, really excited and turn them into an evangelist, especially if you're not in the B2B space. Here's an example of me getting customer feedback from Slack. I’m asking them to rate the product on a scale of one to ten. [![A message from the head of product](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/early-access-customer-questions.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) We have shared Slack channels with some of our customers to help facilitate this process. You can literally DM a customer and ask them for feedback on the product. Equally, you should be open to them messaging you personally. ### Know your customers No matter how well you think you know your customers, they're always going to surprise you. They're never going to be as straightforward and easy to understand as a persona. No matter how long you work in products, your customers are always going to keep surprising you. Don't be arrogant, don't assume that you know what your customers need. Just spend the time talking to them, because it's always gonna be worth it. ### Make sure your customers like it You've been talking to your gap customers, and you've been iterating based on their feedback. The last thing that you need to do before you can move on and launch publicly, is to not only make sure that you've solved for that job to be done, but to make sure that your customers like it. This attitude is how you know that you're starting to hit the mark with what you're doing. You know that you're building something that's going to be exciting enough to drive your business forward. # Ship it! So, you've hit all your dates, everyone's super excited, and you're getting 10 out of 10 in your feedback. Now it's time to launch publicly. This is where that product-led magic really starts to click into place. This whole time you've been super-focused on your customers. You've done all that research and you're successfully partnered with your customers. This means when it's time to launch, you already have all these stories, you already have case studies and you already have results. As a product team, you end up going to your go to market team with all this ammo for them to use to build the business. And, ideally, you've hammered that customer story home so many times that the whole team should be able to tell the story. [![Team conversations on Slack](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/customer-stories-4.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) For example, at Drift, when we release something, the engineers who worked on the product post their work in a Slack channel called Shipyard. Every single one of them can articulate who it's for and why it matters. When we launched Drift Automation, the materials that we used were all about the person that we were building for and the problem that they were experiencing. [![Drift Automation advertisement](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/Drift.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) None of this was about the technology that we are building, and it was really cool. It's really important at this point to tell that customer story over and over again, because it's going to be super relevant for the people that you're trying to sell to. ### Limit the release Enterprise customers move slowly. They don't want to accept change, they don't want to be part of an EAP. One thing you can do is to watch publicly, but then limit the release. [![Messages from the team](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/customer-stories-1.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) If you've done a good job and you really understand the problem that you're solving, it's going to be relevant for those customers. And then all of a sudden, you're flipping the script on them. You get a situation like what you see above 👆. These are all examples from enterprise customers saying we actually do want to participate in this. This is because you’ve built anticipation by limiting the release. Also, your customers aren’t as overwhelmed by a big change all happening all at once. At this point, you become the hero, because you’re the one shipping the thing. ## Three questions to wrap up [![Three questions: Is the underlying problem clear? Will what you're working on make your customer happy? Did you achieve the results you set out to hit?](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/02/three-questions-to-ask-yourself-in-product.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-deliver-customer-outcomes-and-hit-your-dates-every-single-time) Maybe the most crucial of all of these is, are you making your customers happy? If not, what can you do to change that? Whatever happens, don't forget to evaluate and use what you’ve learned to improve what you do next time. Do this a couple of times and you're going to be lightyears ahead of the people around you and other businesses. ### How leaders with non-SaaS backgrounds can shape the future of SaaS URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas/ Last updated: 2022-02-03T13:38:02.000Z For those outside of the industry, making that big move into the SaaS space can be intimidating and overwhelming. At 2021’s Future of SaaS Festival, **Michelle Sawa, Director of Customer Experience at Lionguard**, led a thrilling panel discussion with three key industry leaders. The focus was on how recruits with different backgrounds can bring their own unique perspective and expertise to the SaaS world. Michelle was joined by: - **Rachel Swann, CEO at PureClarity** - **Brittani Dunlap, CEO and Co-Founder at BrightReps** - **Iuliia Shnai, CEO and Co- Founder at Marble** Key talking points include: - [What key resources can we access when transitioning into the SaaS industry?](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas/#q-how-can-people-from-other-industries-transition-to-the-saas-world-what-are-some-resources-that-can-help-you-transition) - [What are some of the main challenges facing new recruits in the industry?](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas/#q-what-were-some-of-the-challenges-you-faced-moving-into-the-saas-community) - [What are some of the most exciting things happening in the SaaS world right now?](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas/#q-what%E2%80%99s-the-most-exciting-part-about-working-in-the-saas-community-right-now-and-what-do-you-love-about-what-you-do) - [What key bits of advice would you give to those transitioning into the SaaS world?](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-leaders-with-non-saas-backgrounds-can-shape-the-future-of-saas/#q-what-crucial-nugget-of-knowledge-would-you-give-to-a-new-hire) --- *Pssst, you can watch the [full video](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-sept-2021/) of this panel discussion as part of your membership plan. Not a member yet? Find out [what you're missing](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/)!* --- ## Q: How can people from other industries transition to the SaaS world? What are some resources that can help you transition? **Rachel**: Well, I'm naturally curious, so that certainly helps. So, in terms of resources, there's industry bodies, there's market research, and then there’s good old Google! Google has completely transformed how we all learn and how we all do business. And I think you also need a little bit of self-reflection. I've been working for quite some time in a range of different organizations, pre online and post online. It’s really helped to just take a step back and ask, what are the examples of when I've been frustrated? Or, where have customers been frustrated, or team members been frustrated? And reframing that, what could we have done better? What could we do better now? We’re all from different backgrounds, but there is some common ground between all of us. In many ways, SaaS is no different to any other product offering. It just happens to be a piece of software where people can get massively intimidated. They get intimidated precisely because of the technical aspect to it. By the way, I'm not completely ignorant in programming. > I've learned enough to get by, but it’s about taking a step back and asking, what have we achieved? What have we achieved this week? What have we achieved this month? What have we achieved over this timeline? A good bit of advice is to get on LinkedIn and reach out to people who seem to be doing well in the field. Without trying to sell them anything, just ask a genuine question. I find myself spending quite a bit of time answering questions. You know what? I'm massively flattered. It's all about coaching and mentoring. That’s a good starting point, just being humble enough to ask questions and learn. --- [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) --- **Brittani**: I started from the very bottom. I went from the lowest position I could be in for a tech company. I applied and I applied, and they finally took me with no tech experience. It was a really large company. My first thing is to just observe and learn. I spent a year or two genuinely just learning and growing. Who were the players in this type of company? What does this space look like? I came from leading the space that I was previously in to joining at a low level. I was humbled and I started dialling 50 or 70 dials a day. Then I started to branch out and plan meetings with engineers and understand the technical aspects of the job. I started to understand how the different roles affected each other. Thankfully, I've always had a community of people who keep me in my place. I'm not the smartest person in the room ever. It's really been a humbling educational process. It took my career in many different pathways, working at companies of many different sizes. > Whether it was very, very large or very small, I had to understand what tech looks like in that space. And so that would be the biggest takeaway for me: Stop trying to be the smartest person in the room. Be prepared to be vulnerable and it may pay off. **Iuliia**: I think, for me, community was the most powerful thing. I was in an academic community, whereas now I was moving into the community of the founders for a startup community, which is outside of academia. I was in Helsinki searching around for different groups to join. They started giving me different connections, and giving me places where I can go to connect with new people, then it started growing around me into this kind of network. I started reaching out to arrange some events and conferences, and through this I gained a better understanding of where Marble can go. I focused on getting the right feedback from the right people. I started to focus on not only building the company, but also on building a community. I think this has huge power. --- [Change management in product teams - a discussionWhen leading a large change, you have to make it clear how it’s going to impact both customers and your team. Here, 3 leaders discuss their strategies.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSChloie Brandrick![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1477414348463-c0eb7f1359b6?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDN8fGNoYW5nZXxlbnwwfHx8fDE2NDI2MTM4MjI&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/change-management-in-product-teams-a-discussion/) --- ## Q: What were some of the challenges you faced moving into the SaaS community? **Brittani** : The beginning was the most challenging part, and being okay with being older than everyone else in the room. It was hard to stay confident and remember that there's a reason I'm here. I'm capable. I had to get comfortable with going from being in charge to being at the bottom in this new environment. I had to give myself the freedom to fail. Again, it goes back to staying humble. I also had trouble learning to speak the language of this world that I was in, and this made me nervous when standing up to speak in front of a room full of people who did know what they were talking about. But, again, this was all part of accepting that this was a learning process and it wouldn’t happen all at once. **Iuliia**: I still face challenges all the time! I think the main challenge is that I’m always trying to enter new communities, new fields, but I’m always facing rejections in response. Rejections from investors, from organizers, from conferences, and from customers. > But I had to learn that if you don’t ask, nobody's going to give you anything. And nobody is gonna give you advice unless you ask for it. Ask, ask and ask again. Don’t take no for an answer. **Rachel**: The harder I work, the luckier I become. That keeps me going. Einstein said that the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing each time, so you need to make sure that every time you fail, you're asking different things, you're asking different questions. But you should only worry about what's in your control, because you know what? You can't fix something that's not in your control. Many people will reject you, but what's in your control are the questions you ask yourself after that. “Ok, so this is a challenge. Where do I go from here?” This was especially true in the midst of the Covid pandemic. I've been leading an entire team remotely, and one of the biggest challenges here has been, how do you make it dynamic? How do you give it energy, if you are essentially at the other end of the internet? That‘s all about clear communication and consistency of messaging. Try to avoid closed questions. Try asking open questions. “We've just talked about where the company's going. What does that mean for you? How are you seeing that?” Open questions are in my control. What's in their control is how they respond to me and what we then do jointly to affect it. That’s a big challenge, and it’s always ongoing. --- [Managing teams remotely \[Q&A with Slack\]Kim Beinborn, Head of Customer Success at AMER HT Central, Slack, offers advice on avoiding micromanaging remote employees, best practices for introducing new hires, and what to do if you’re self-managing.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/austin-distel-gUIJ0YszPig-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/managing-teams-remotely-q-a-with-slack/) --- ## Q: What’s the most exciting part about working in the SaaS community right now? And what do you love about what you do? **Iuliia**: The most exciting thing for me is the unpredictability. As a SaaS startup, there could be no tomorrow.The company could fold. Or you could become something like Slack, HubSpot, which are super important and have the potential to change society. I think the other exciting part, for me, is that we are building a much more flexible future. This is a very, very important element for me. In the last 10 years, I’ve been working from home in a very flexible manner. I was dreaming about the time when we could all do that. When I was at my first online course, I thought it was amazing that I could listen to a Harvard professor online. And I was thinking, that's the future I want. I want this flexibility. I want this technology to improve my life and our lives. **Rachel**: It's just the way it's growing and growing that’s exciting for me. And the fact that we've got this opportunity to make a difference and really shape things for the end users. We can genuinely make a difference. I’m just excited about taking things to the next level. We all know that eCommerce was massive last year. It was massive last year, but it wasn't just new people coming online, it was a natural evolution. And I think a big part of taking things to the next step is being able to help shape the new retail landscape globally. I think it is really, really exciting. In the UK, there's a big debate around whether the high street is dead. The high street isn't dead. But what does the new normal look like? How do we take all of what we’ve learned in the past year and really make a difference to everybody? > How do we fuse eCommerce with the high street? I think it’s potentially a very exciting opportunity. **Brittani**: I would say the opportunities that automation grants us are exciting for me. I love that I'm able to automate the mundane aspects of people's jobs. And then there's this ripple effect on how deeply human beings are able to engage with their customers because of my software. I love the space that we're in because it has this ripple effect that I wasn't aware of before. That's the best part for me, that SaaS has the ability to solve immediate problems efficiently. And it happens in this tangible, quantifiable way that allows employees to use their time more effectively. They can engage with customers over more complex, nuanced problems when the software is doing all the mundane work. --- [Personalize your B2B marketing with AIIn this article, we’re going to take a look at the different applications for AI in providing a personalized experience to your customers and why they would be beneficial to your relationship.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSWill Whitham![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/Personalize-your-B2B-marketing-with-AI.jpeg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/personalize-your-b2b-marketing-with-ai/) --- ## Q: What crucial nugget of knowledge would you give to a new hire? **Rachel** : There's two, really. The first one is, there's no such thing as a stupid question. And once you get the answers you're happy with, you need to keep asking. The second thing is, try to look at it from a user point of view, not from what we think. My dad always used to say, “You have two ears and one mouth, so listen.” We show our expertise by asking, not telling. So when we're with a customer, we ask them, we don't tell them. If you ask the question, you will hear what they actually want in their own language. How powerful is that? That then tells you what problems you're solving. Also, it gets their attention. You've got their attention, so you can then start building that relationship and have that dialogue. **Iuliia** : I want everyone to be transparent in the sense that if you disagree, you should find a way to say that. That way, something can be done better next time. Only through this type of discussion, and through disagreement, can we move forward. I want to create a culture where everyone, no matter their role, can be as transparent as possible. If we communicate the problem clearly, then we can deal with the problem thoroughly. **Brittani**: I am a huge advocate for that underdog. Someone had to take a chance on me in order for me to get into tech, and I'm glad that they did. And so my piece of advice for new hire, I hired you for a reason. We brought you onto our team for a very specific reason. You're coming to the table with your own unique perspective and you can provide us with with feedback and insight into areas that maybe we're blind to. Often, organizations get into a rhythm of working, and they become blind to the bad habits they've adopted. A new hire from a non-SaaS background can really help to break that. You're a missing piece. We can hire anyone, but we chose you. You got hired for a reason. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Why should customer success be at the heart of SaaS strategy? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/why-should-customer-success-be-at-the-heart-of-saas-strategy/ Last updated: 2022-02-01T17:57:19.000Z It’s quite simple: there will come a point for every revenue-generating business where they’ll have to figure out how to sell more to their existing customers because, eventually, they’ll tap out of new customers. Without a constant stream of revenue, your business will become stagnant. Fear not, there’s a clear alternative: upsell to your current customers. 📈 Driving retention with the target of producing high [customer lifetime value (CLTV)](https://www.saasalliance.io/20-metrics-for-saas-marketers/) is the essence of customer success. *This* is why customer success is at the heart of SaaS. In this article, we’re going to examine: - What customer success is - How it operates within SaaS - How companies can drive retention through CS ## What is customer success? Good customer success is a growth strategy that enhances legacy and helps generate new revenue. But let’s strip things back a bit. 🌱 Customer success was borne out of the [Software as a Service (SaaS)](https://futureofsaas.io/what-is-saas/) sector and has mirrored SaaS’ upward trajectory over the last 20 years. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when this business function first came into existence, but [according to the History of Customer Success Association](https://www.customersuccessassociation.com/library/the-history-of-customer-success-part-1/), between 1996 and 1997, the CRM company, Vantive, implemented a customer success team to ensure their customers' needs were being met. The principle behind a customer success team is to generate conditions within your company that compels a customer to repurchase. ♻️ When you restrict your scope to a one-time sale, you aren’t acknowledging all avenues of revenue. Your customer base has already proven to be interested in your product and/or service, so there’s nothing stopping you from selling to those same customers again. To be successful in business, it’s imperative you put customers at the heart of what you're doing. ## How does customer success work within a SaaS model? The very basis of a subscription model transfers the power from the seller to the customer. For the first time, the customer is in control of their payment with the ability to terminate their monthly or annual subscription whenever they want. It’s easier now than ever to cancel a subscription with the tap of a screen. It boils down to this – when you lose a customer, you lose a stakeholder. Not only have you lost the customer’s revenue, but you’ve also lost that revenue *plus* the cost of acquiring the customer, which in effect doubles your team’s work. What to do? Businesses need to shift the focus from themselves to the customer. Adopting a customer-centric ethos in your organization is paramount. When your business operates under a subscription model, you have to think of all possible outcomes as to why a consumer would leave your service, and more importantly, what they want from your product. If you don't fulfill that outcome, then it’s pretty straightforward – they will leave your business and go elsewhere, probably to another competitor with better service or more attractive prices. > *“It's not creating the culture to change the culture. Customers are the consumers, if you want to continue to grow with that mindset and model, it is going to be the model that almost every other organization in the world is going to adopt sooner or later.” - *Jamie Davidson*, *CEO* of *Vitally*.* In a shift to total customer-centricity, you’ll probably ask the question, ‘how much of that revenue are you retaining, and how much is that revenue growing by?’ Even considering how your business might adapt to implement customer retention and drive revenue is tackling the first hurdle towards customer-centricity. --- [5 ways to build a strong relationship with your customersThere are several strategies for retaining customers (many of which we’ve written about) that can help transform your bottom line, but today we’re going to focus solely on the importance of building lasting relationships with your customers.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/chris-liverani-9cd8qOgeNIY-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/5-ways-to-build-a-strong-relationship-with-your-customers/) --- ## How can businesses implement retention? Customer retention is the bread and butter of customer success, and a far more attractive option than the alternative – running out of customers. However, it’s all well and good as a hypothesis, but what steps can a business genuinely take to keep their customers aboard? ### Become a product expert Helping customers understand how to use your product will enable them to get the most out of it. By engaging in this hands-on relationship, you can teach the customer different ways to use your product and, in turn, you’ll learn more about their user behavior –an essential bit of knowledge that’ll come in handy at renewals time. Ultimately, you want to be at the helm of curating this product so it meets your customer’s individual needs. Imagine you’re helping a grandparent or an elderly neighbor set up their new iPhone; patience is a must, and you need to tailor the product induction to their level of expertise and user ambition. What are they going to be using the phone for? Are certain features unnecessary for them, but will they heavily rely on others instead? As a CSM, if you reproduce this mentality, this *helpfulness*, with your customers, you’ll organically develop a reputation as good onboarders. People will recognize the levels your company is willing to go to aid the productive use of your products, and this in turn will help you shape the future iterations of your product. --- [What it means to have a high customer retention rateWhen a company has a high customer retention rate, buyers return to purchase products or services on more than one occasion. When retention rates are high, this bodes against customer churn rate.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSLawrence Chapman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/05/nathan-dumlao-zi5vRoAP3WY-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/what-it-means-to-have-a-high-customer-retention-rate/) --- ### Metrics We can’t drill in just how important it is to focus on retention. Adopting metrics like net promoter score (NPS) and net revenue retention (NRR) is a critical move when formulating your customer success strategy, as it supplies you with the data to monitor the pulse of your customer base. It’s easier said than done, but by [adopting metrics](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) as part of your KPIs, you become ahead of the curve. When a customer needs another similar product, you need to make it *your* product. How to do this? Data, lots of data. Let’s take the repeat purchase rate (RPR). A strong RPR illustrates two things: 1. An increase in revenue (cha-ching!💰) 2. A successful adoption – your customers are engaging with your product and/or service. But how do you calculate your RPR? It’s simple: you divide the number of customers who made a repeat purchase by the total number of customers you've had: > RPR = Number of customers to make a repeat purchase in 365 days / Total number of customers in 365 days. For example, if you had 100 customers and 50 of them made bought from you more than once, then your RPR would be 0.5 and 50% of your customers would’ve made repeat purchases. This is just a simple example, and an RPR of 50% would be phenomenal, although enormously high. 🤓 ### Expand your product Although the power has shifted from seller to consumer under a subscription model, it doesn’t mean your company is bereft of agency? Far from it. By expanding your range, or providing an incremental change in your service, you’re allowing the product to grow in its own right, giving the customer the option to increase their subscription model to the next level available. 📈 ## All in all Even for a non-SaaS company that’s product-led, the same advice can be implemented: to change the company culture to adopt a subscription model mindset. For instance, sometimes products don’t work exactly the way they’re designed. Sure, it’s disappointing, but there’s a nugget of truth to be learned from SaaS; have a proactive relationship with the customer, one that is based on mutual understanding and communication. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### SaaSFix: Future of SaaS newsletter [January] URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saasfix-future-of-saas-newsletter-january/ Last updated: 2022-01-28T14:00:05.000Z We’re bursting into the new year with a fresh batch of content, hot off the press. 🔥 Stay ahead of your competitors with the newest SaaS trends, find out how to make your product irresistible to customers, and learn how to truly unlock the key to growth. 🔑 We love hearing from our community and giving you a voice - hit reply if you'd like to get involved and [contribute](https://www.saasalliance.io/contributor-guide/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) to the SaaS space. 👋 Enjoy ✌️ \- [Emma](https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-bilardi-09161060/), Content @[Future of SaaS‌‌‌](https://www.linkedin.com/school/31559381/) --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/resized.gif)](https://www.saasalliance.io/22-saas-predictions-for-2022/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) ## [22 SaaS predictions for 2022](https://www.saasalliance.io/22-saas-predictions-for-2022/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) We asked a whole bunch of SaaS movers and shakers about the trends for the coming months and **55%** said they're planning to **utilize machine learning** in 2022\. More on this and other predictions, as we take a look into the [future](https://www.saasalliance.io/22-saas-predictions-for-2022/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022)… \*imagine us hunched over a crystal ball with our eyes closed for this part\* 🔮 [What's gonna be big?](https://www.saasalliance.io/22-saas-predictions-for-2022/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/resized-3.gif)](https://www.saasalliance.io/setting-expectations-for-customers-throughout-the-journey/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) ## [Setting expectations for customer journey](https://www.saasalliance.io/setting-expectations-for-customers-throughout-the-journey/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) Part of providing a great [customer experience](https://www.saasalliance.io/setting-expectations-for-customers-throughout-the-journey/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) lies in managing expectations. Overpromise and underdeliver, and you may find yourself without repeat custom - and a very damaged reputation. 😬 Consistency is key for customer success, so here are some tips for crushing it. [Map it out](https://www.saasalliance.io/setting-expectations-for-customers-throughout-the-journey/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/resized-4.gif)](https://www.saasalliance.io/revenue-operations-the-new-key-to-unlocking-growth/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) ## [The key to revenue growth](https://www.saasalliance.io/revenue-operations-the-new-key-to-unlocking-growth/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) The R word - we explore how to grow it by creating a culture that ensures account retention, renewals and expansion throughout your organization. How do you achieve this? 🤔 We got the lowdown from **Leore** **Spira**, Head of Revenue Operations at **Buildots** on how full-funnel rev ops can [transform](https://www.saasalliance.io/revenue-operations-the-new-key-to-unlocking-growth/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) your bottom line. [Know how to grow](https://www.saasalliance.io/revenue-operations-the-new-key-to-unlocking-growth/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/future-of-saas-membership-banner--1-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) ## New this month ### Exclusive Content - [Greg Walman](https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-data-team-at-saas-hypergrowth/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022), Senior Director of Toast BI | **Scaling your data team at SaaS hypergrowth** - [Cindy Berman](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022), Product Marketing Manager at Productboard | **Pricing and packaging: how high-growth SaaS startups can crack the code** [Membership contentLearn from Saas leaders from companies like Typeform, Zuora, New Relic, Atlassian, Buffer, and more, with your very own biweekly dose of exclusive, membership-only content.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSCindy Berman![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/09/FoSaaS_exclusive_articles.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/membership-content/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) ### New templates - Website content audit [template](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-templates-and-frameworks/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) - Marketing mix [framework](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-templates-and-frameworks/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) [SaaS templates and frameworks | Future of SaaSLooking for SaaS templates and frameworks to make your life easier? We’ve got you covered. Become a member for advice, tips, and business growth tactics.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/11/Future-of-SaaS-templates---frameworks.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-templates-and-frameworks/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) ### Give 'em a try Intrigued by membership but need some extra convincing? Here are a couple of templates, on us: - Customer success strategy [template](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-strategy-template/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021&utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) - Competitor SWOT analysis [template](https://www.saasalliance.io/competitor-swot-analysis-template/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021&utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) --- ## Partner with us [Partner With Us | Future of SaaSMingle with a community dedicated to driving progress in SaaS and get access to brands from the Fortune 500 to some of the world’s fastest-growing organizations.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1584463699043-740c40f783d2?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&w=2000&fit=max&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjExNzczfQ)](https://www.saasalliance.io/partner/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-january-2022) Looking to sponsor next month's newsletter? Drop us a line at [sean@futureofsaas.io](mailto:sean@futureofsaas.io) ### Personalize your B2B marketing with AI URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/personalize-your-b2b-marketing-with-ai/ Last updated: 2024-10-31T11:10:33.000Z Personalization is one of the main goals for marketers. 77% of marketers and sales professionals believe it [builds better customer relationships](https://smallbiztrends.com/2020/03/b2b-marketing-personalization.html), with 55% stating it increases conversion rates. Personalizing your B2B marketing is pretty easy when you only have a few important customers you need to market towards. You can devote your time to creating marketing content that’s tailored directly towards each customer. You can craft the perfect email every time, bespoke and tailored towards their needs. But what if you have loads of customers that are important (you lucky devil)? What if you don’t have the time or resources to devote to hand-crafting every single piece of marketing for each customer? What if it’s simply too tricky to keep track of what you’re different customers might be interested in and find valuable? Well, it’s lucky we have several AI-driven technologies that can plug those gaps and give you the capability to provide personalized marketing to if not all, then the majority of your customers. “But machines, creating personal experiences? How can that be?” we hear you cry. Well, read on because it turns out AI is truly the key to unlocking the curated, personal marketing experiences that B2B marketers have been their aim for years. In this article, we’re going to take a look at the different [applications for AI in SaaS](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-ai-can-help-your-saas-company-to-scale/) in providing a personalized experience to your customers and why they would be beneficial to your relationship. --- [Making brand marketing more data-driven \[Q&A with Hotjar\]Customer data is about as real as it gets, but unfortunately, many marketers still struggle with where to find it, how to access it, and how to analyze it. Luckily for us Hotjar’s VP of Marketing, Sharon Biggar was on hand to answer all our questions on the data-driven future of brand marketing.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/franki-chamaki-1K6IQsQbizI-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/making-brand-marketing-more-data-driven-q-a-with-hotjar/) --- ## AI-driven marketing segmentation The first, and perhaps the most significant effect of utilizing AI to personalize your marketing is how much easier it is to segment your customers and leads. Rather than relying on long-winded, human-error-prone processes of analyzing data, or even having to trust instincts and gut feeling, you can use AI to quickly analyze huge data sets. As well as segment customers and leads along as many types of frameworks and metrics as you desire. Why is this important? Segmentation is hugely beneficial to one of the cornerstones of B2B marketing: email. Segmented emails can [have over double the clicks](https://mailchimp.com/resources/effects-of-list-segmentation-on-email-marketing-stats/) of unsegmented ones and can increase your revenue from email by a whopping [760%](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-new-rules/). Speaking of email… ## Populate your emails with content Email is one of the most important B2B channels. [59% of B2B marketers ](https://content.myemma.com/blog/9-sizzling-marketing-stats-from-this-summer)cite email marketing as their top revenue generation channel, and even when it’s not the top channel, it’s still popular: [81% of all B2B marketers](https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/2020%5FB2B%5FResearch%5FFinal.pdf) utilize email marketing. With something so important, the benefits you could get from AI will certainly be far-reaching. You can use AI engines to make your regular email newsletters practically unique to each person, or at least to each segment. Rather than having to rely on instinct to work out what content or products your mailing list would be interested in, an AI can pull together a unique email based on different parameters. These parameters could include:- - **Purchase history/product interest**. If you have data on a customer’s prior purchases or what they’ve been browsing on your site, the AI engine could pull together a selection of content related to that product, as well as highlight related products for some good old cross/upselling. - **Content engagement.** If someone in your mailing list has been consistently reading specific content topics, you can use an AI engine to make sure the emails they’re receiving have content that’s related to those topics. You can easily set up a mixture of the two, or even introduce other parameters as long as you can provide the AI with the right data. AIs also tend to have pretty good memories (benefits of being a computer), so it can keep track of what content you’ve already sent, and make sure you’re not repeating yourself too often. Think of it like the emails you receive from Amazon recommending new products. Do you think there’s a squad of poor marketing interns going through every single person’s purchase histories to put together those emails? Heck no, they’ve got an AI to do that (although the less said about how Amazon treats certain staff, the better). You can also make sure the emails automatically personalize things within the email and subject line to include the right name and the company they work at. This can all be extremely useful to your email marketing capabilities. [Personalized subject lines](https://www.salecycle.com/blog/featured-en-us/18-essential-email-marketing-statistics/) increase open rates, click-through rates, customer satisfaction, and sales. [88% of people](https://snov.io/blog/email-marketing-statistics/) have said they’re more likely to respond favorably to emails that look like they were created specifically for them. --- [Content types for customer educationMany organizations are turning to customer education as a solution to improve retention, increase spend, and drive customer satisfaction and loyalty. But what exactly is included under “customer education”?![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSVicky Kennedy![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1471107340929-a87cd0f5b5f3?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDEzfHxibG9nfGVufDB8fHx8MTYyMjczNzYyNQ&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/content-types-for-customer-education/) --- ## Personalized content recommendations On average, B2B buyers read [13 pieces of related content](https://martech.org/b2b-buyers-consume-an-average-of-13-content-pieces-before-deciding-on-a-vendor-2/) along their journey towards making a purchase. That’s a whole lot of content. Ideally, you’ll want each piece of content to contain links and recommendations to another piece of content. This can help you maintain control over the customer journey and how they progress through your site, with the aim to move them along your marketing funnel. By providing recommendations you’ll be able to curate the journey they take, and, at a more basic level, save them time having to search around your site for the content they might be interested in. Now you can populate your content with links and recommendations yourself, deciding placements based on your gut instinct, or pore through customer data yourself to select the optimal placements on the most successful paths through your content. But the former isn’t exactly reliable, and the latter just takes a *loooonnnnggg* time. The other problem with those methods is that it’s static and pretty much impossible to personalize. Instead, you can use AI to recommend new content to your site visitors based on what they’ve read previously, what products they’ve shown interest in, and what content similar customers have responded well to. Think of it like how Netflix or Youtube recommend new content at the end of a video/movie/hours-long-binge-of-that-new-season (we’re all too aware of the dangers of falling into a binge-watch hole). ## Help your customers visualize your products AI can be used to produce detailed models for your customers on how your products fit into their business. Whether it’s a physical product and they want to see how it could fit into actual space, or a digital product and they want to see exactly how complicated it would be to integrate it into existing systems. AI can produce these kinds of models quickly and efficiently. These visual aids will be of great assistance to your sales department and allow you to proactively respond to many questions that might come up in the buyer journey. With physical products, this can be even more effective when paired with AR (altered reality). This can allow them to see exactly how things fit in different locations or with certain alterations if necessary. ## Speak directly to your customers One of the most common applications of AI in the business world is the use of chatbots: applications driven by AI and machine learning that can respond to human requests. The most common use of these applications in business is customer support channels. With the right data, chatbots can be used to tackle minor or frequently occurring issues, leaving your customer support team free to tackle major problems if/when they occur. But that’s all well and good when it comes to customer support, but what about marketing? That’s a good question considering this is the B2B **Marketing** Alliance. Well, that’s where conversational marketing comes in. Conversational marketing is the concept of engaging with your prospects directly on a one-to-one basis, allowing you to guide and curate their customer journey along your marketing funnel. Think of a chatbot as a little marketing tour guide to your brand and website. When someone accesses your website for the first time, a chat window can pop up, asking the visitor what they’re interested in. The chatbot can then direct them straight to the relevant page, rather than the customer having to browse around and find relevant content. This personal touch helps build a connection with your brand straight away, and should also get them into your marketing funnel quicker and more efficiently. But what advantage does this have over just having people manning the chat functions on your site? Well, chatbots can be active 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year. They can’t get distracted, their attention can be split completely equally, so every single prospect who lands on your site will get treated with the same level of service, every single time, whether you have 2 visitors on the site or 2 million. Chatbots can also respond directly to what the visitor has been doing on the site, allowing the chatbots to suggest and direct them towards relevant content. You can also use chatbots set up for conversational marketing to generate leads. Rather than just having your prospects fill in forms to generate contacts and leads, chatbots can ask directly for the ability to contact them. Here’s an example of how that conversation might go: > **Chatbot**: Seems like you’re interested in new CRM systems. Do you want to hear more about how they can be integrated into your tech stack? > **Visitor**: yes please > **Chatbot**: Ok great! Just let us know your email and we’ll be in touch with more info. > **Visitor**: fakename@hypotheticalcompany.com > **Chatbot**: Thanks! We’ll be in touch very soon. Chatbots using these methods can also be set up to ask qualifying questions, to make sure your sales team knows a bit more about the company and person they’ll be contacting. Here’s how that conversation might go. > **Visitor:** fakename@hypotheticalcompany.com > **Chatbot**: Thanks! Can you let us know about the industry you’re in so we can make sure we can give you the right information? > **Visitor**: saas > **Chatbot:** And what’s your job role? > **Visitor**: vp of sales > **Chatbot**: Thanks, Fake Name, a member of our team will be in touch shortly. With these kinds of qualifying questions, you’ll be able to sort the prospects by how much engagement they need from your sales team, whether it’s just sending an email with more info, or if you want to move towards a full-on sales meeting/call. --- [How to perform customer-centric onboarding at scale | Future of SaaSPaula Medes, Senior Customer Onboarding Specialist at Hubspot, explains how to perform customer-centric onboarding at scale while maintaining personalization.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1558655146-364adaf1fcc9?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MXwxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDZ8fGFwcHxlbnwwfHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=2000)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-perform-customer-centric-onboarding-at-scale/) --- ## Final thoughts AI applications in marketing are just scratching the surface. As the technology develops and more apps hit the market, we’ll likely see more and more uses for it in marketing. You’ll be able to create curated, personalized marketing experiences that are managed by an AI, allowing your marketing team more time to devote to creative, exciting campaigns. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Change management in product teams - a discussion URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/change-management-in-product-teams-a-discussion/ Last updated: 2022-01-26T18:11:49.000Z People often say that product is at the center of the organization. Whenever you're leading a large change as a product manager, you have to make it clear to your team how it's going to impact both customers and everyone within the organization. At FoSaaS’ Future of SaaS Festival in September 2021, this is exactly what some of our guest speakers were discussing, including: - Valentina Thörner, Head of Product, Klaus - Christine Lee, Director of Product Management, GoDaddy - Mark Kawczenski, Head of Product Operations, FreeWheel While the full, unfiltered panel discussion is available[ OnDemand for Future of SaaS members](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-ondemand/), we've picked out some of the best bits for you below. Enjoy! --- ### Q: Where does product sit in an organization? How does that touch other parts of the organization? **Christine:** I'll talk you through a launch I led at Twitter when I was on the ads team. We launched a new release focused on objective based campaigns. It fundamentally changed our business model. Before the change, we were billing for every engagement on the ad. The update we were making was that we would only charge advertisers for engagements that were specific to the goal for their ad campaign. To make this kind of launch successful, it involved aligning the goals for over 10 different product teams. We had to update the user experience for campaign creation. It was a huge change to make across the entire organization. > As the PM, your role is to make sure that all the resources you need for the launch are covered in terms of dependencies. That really requires you to convince a lot of people who aren't on your immediate team to help you out. That's where goal alignment is so important. The other role for the product manager is to think about how to make sure that changes are successfully articulated to your customers. For that, you're going to be working with all the different stakeholders, like marketing, support, sales, etc. You may also be working with external partners. These people help you make sure that your customers understand what the change is. And these are also all the people that are going to be there for your customers when they have questions. --- ### Q: Any change in product has a knock-on effect elsewhere in your organization. Does this make it more or less challenging to drive change? **Valentina:** What Christine just said about empowering everybody in the organization is super important for the entire change process to work successfully. Different departments in a company have different timelines in which they think and create their plan. What is easy to forget from a product perspective is that once you've decided what's going to be changed, you're already late in communication. It's very important to bring everybody on board as soon as possible in the process. Not only once you've made a decision, but hopefully while you're still in the research process. All these departments that will be impacted will impact everyone else. Everybody else probably has an opinion and should at least be informed about the change. I think the entire communication strategy around the product sits in the middle of the organization. They are in charge of what you're actually selling. It's a little bit like a star that goes out. You need to make sure that all of these connections are strong enough. Otherwise, the entire organization might go off course because you have a weak link somewhere. --- [Four Strategies to Navigate Organizational ChangeGoal management tools like OKRs can help leaders and employees get through disruptive changes. They provide leaders with clarity on their prioritiesand employees with a better sense of where the company is headed and why.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAlly.io Read More![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/mark-fletcher-brown-nN5L5GXKFz8-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/four-strategies-to-navigate-organizational-change-with-okrs/) --- **Mark:** Yeah, that's a great point. By the time you figure out what you want to change, or what the new direction is, you're already late. I think bringing people along immediately from that journey is super important. I think what Christine and Valentina said about empowerment is super important. With the product team that change is happening too commonly for, they're stressed, and they have a lot to do. We need to not lose sight of the individuals and the teams that are taking on change efforts. --- ### Q: What do you think is the most important thing for an individual or team to absorb when a change is happening to them? **Christine:** People want to understand why things are changing, and how that's going to impact them personally. You really have to win both hearts and minds. At the intellectual level, people want to understand, why is this change needed? Why is it better for our customers? How do we know it's going to be better? These are all reasonable questions that are likely to come up. Emotionally, I think this is where a lot of the work around change management happens. People need to maintain their confidence in why this direction is better. You basically just told your team that a plan they were working really hard to execute on is not the right plan. They're going to have a lot of emotions related to that. You may be taking resources away from something that the team was really excited to work on. It's a bit of a fragile moment. What you really need to do is reinforce trust, not only that your new plan is going to be more impactful, but also that they really trust you as a leadership team. You're making the right decisions and that they want to continue to follow you in that direction. **Valentina:** I think what is important to emphasize is that change is scary. You could be changing to paradise on Earth, and it would still be scary. From a neurological perspective, humans don't like change. Change usually means danger. There is this visceral reaction to change where people go into defense mode. The first reaction will always be, how does this impact me? Am I going to lose my job? This is usually the first reaction that people have when there's any type of reorganization. > When it comes to communication, it's very important that every single person that is affected by the change gets one on one with somebody who can not only explain what is changing, but who can also mitigate possible fears that come up. This just opens up a space where that person can also talk about that fear, and gets listened to and can get answers for all the questions that they might have. This must be a team effort. The danger with only doing one on ones is that suddenly you have drama situations where people are hearing conflicting things from different people. By making sure that communication is clear on all levels, you can bring people on board. There's nothing worse than having a team member asking their manager, “so what does this mean?” And the manager saying, “Oh, I have no idea”. **Mark:** Yes, I think they're both great points and ties back to the earlier conversation about product teams and how over- communicating is important. I heard a phrase once, “if you're not tired of saying something, you didn't say it enough.” I think that's an important thing, especially when you're trying to explain why we're introducing change. On that point about embracing people who are excited about change, one thing I try to do with my team is I try to explain why the change is being implemented. I demonstrate the value to the product person. They are then eager to take on this new way of working because they see the value of it. --- ### Q: How did the pandemic impact your company, and how did you adjust? **Valentina:** From a personal perspective, I live in Spain, and in 2021 we had a strict lockdown. For about two and a half months, we weren't even allowed to leave our flats. Having kids myself, I was able to gain more empathy for the people in my team who also have kids. I have been working remotely for the past 10 years, and I had taken advantage of the flexibility that I have as a product manager. If you work in customer support, you have very strict schedules because there needs to be somebody available at all times. Working in product management, we have a little bit more flexibility. It doesn't really matter whether the strategy paper is written at three o'clock in the morning or three o'clock in the afternoon. No one really cares. One of the things that the pandemic has really driven home to me is that flexibility is really valuable. You can only put pressure on people for so long. At some point, you need to get back to something like normalcy. I think the same also happens with product teams. You cannot expect everyone to have 120% energy all the time. They will run out of gas. I’ve learned how to both put flexibility in my day and learned to hold myself accountable. --- [SaaS Pricing & Best Practices During COVID-19 | Future of SaaSZuora, along with many other companies, has been studying the data and helping companies adapt as we begin to reboot to this new normal. PwC noted that objectives and goals are still similar, but how we act on them is going to be different.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/09/making-a-budget-tracking-finances.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-pricing-benchmarks/) --- **Christine:** GoDaddy helps small businesses sell and engage with their customers online. The pandemic actually really accelerated some of the initiatives we were going to work on because suddenly everybody had to work with their customers online just to survive. It actually opened up a lot of opportunities in the business. Before the pandemic we had a pretty good process for some people being in the office but with everyone working from home, the biggest challenge became managing work-life balance. **Mark:** For me personally, there was a huge shift in my productivity. I was used to being able to walk through the office and pass messages on to people personally. I had to figure out a new way to engage with people, to keep the trust with the different interfaces. Because the product is the center, I have to have a lot of interfaces. That was a big change for me. Also, just working from home, being productive, keeping myself on task, was challenging. My teams are global in nature. We have product teams in the West Coast, New York, in Europe and the UK, and then in Asia. I think this reinforced some really good behaviors. Not everyone is going to be in the room all the time. We need to take that insight back to the office. In a way, we should still be operating like we’re remote, because there will always be someone absent from the room. We should always be defaulting to this mindset that we're remote. I think that's something we've learned. Asynchronous work is something we’ve gotten much better at, and we need to take that skill into the future. --- ### Q: How do you communicate with team members to get them on board with change, when they're both good at their job, but also pessimistic, or resistant to change? **Mark:** I always identify the people who I know are going to be resistant to changes when I'm thinking about implementing it. Once I've identified the group of people who are my number one dissenters on certain things, I always try to go to them first. When we're talking about experimentation, my first and most crucial job is to go talk to that person. I present them with a very low fidelity prototype of why I want to do something, and they will immediately reject it. I will then attempt to strengthen my arguments in order to persuade the dissenter. In my experience, those types of people who are very good at their job but don't like change, they really resent it if it’s something that’s been going on for a long time. If you engage them early, you find that they really just like being involved. You just didn't engage them early enough. **Christine:** I think that it's important to consider that when people are showing their resistance, it's in a large public channel. You don't want to shut it down necessarily, but you want to try to find a space to one on one with them. If they're blasting things in a public forum, you need to think about how even some people who are reasonably happy are going to be impacted by all that emotion and start to get concerned. Lean into those personal relationships and help them understand what's going on. I mean, is it just that they don't agree with the direction? Or is it something happening at a personal level in terms of how it impacted them in their career ? --- [Managing teams remotely \[Q&A with Slack\]Kim Beinborn, Head of Customer Success at AMER HT Central, Slack, offers advice on avoiding micromanaging remote employees, best practices for introducing new hires, and what to do if you’re self-managing.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/austin-distel-gUIJ0YszPig-unsplash.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/managing-teams-remotely-q-a-with-slack/) --- **Valentina:** Also, if the dissenting person can handle more responsibility, bring them on board to lead part of the change process. It's about how well you know your team members. This can be tricky in a remote environment. That's the importance of one on one. You need to really know every one of your team members. And if you can't take them for a coffee, because you're not in an office, you need to institutionalize that. You need to make time to actually talk with them about what fuels their work, what fuels their motivation. If you know what motivates them, then it's much easier to actually frame the change process in a way that they can also accept. Some people need personal motivation, for example, “my daughter will be proud of me if I do a good job”. This depends a little bit on the personality. As long as you figure out what makes the person tick, you have a way of getting them on board in a way that works for them. --- ### Q: Is it important to involve many different individuals in a major change decision? How many individuals would you consider involving? **Christine:** Well, when it's a really big change, you're going to need input and contributions from so many different people across the company. I think the key thing is to set the strategic context, help them understand the picture and why you're proposing a new direction. > You can't decide every single thing, and you don't have time to do that. Your job is to facilitate and support all the other people who are working with you. They need to have the right information, and they need to be able to make really good decisions. They are going to be the ones that make the change happen. It's not a waterfall, it's definitely a co-creation. And I think the biggest part is focusing on alignment, supporting individuals and answering queries with regards to how they’re going to be impacted. **Valentina:** I think you need to involve different brains to make the decision, but one person has to make the final decision. You will always have one or two people who are not happy with this, but the important thing is that it does not disrupt company culture. Can your company support that a couple of people might not agree with the final decision? At the end of the day, decisions are like choices. Sometimes the choices we make as organizations might not be the best choices, but they were the best that we could do at the time, and we can always course correct. The ship is very big and it takes time to course correct.The important thing is that you make a decision and then course correct if it proves to be wrong. That’s much better than talking forever and being paralysed by indecision. *Enjoyed this article? Access the full, unedited version OnDemand with a [Future of SaaS membership plan.](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/)* ### SaaS Tools of Choice survey 2022 - take part today! URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-tools-of-choice-2022-2/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T13:03:31.000Z We’re lifting the lid on the tools SaaS leaders are using to excel in the sector. 🚀 From workflow software, and customer success tools, to product development, and marketing platforms, the SaaS Tools of Choice report will outline the best tools on the market for SaaS organizations of every size, and at every stage of growth. But we need your help to build it. 🛠 Want to get involved? Let us know which tools you rate in the survey below. 👇 ## Why are we building this report? 🤔 - To help SaaS organizations assess and select tools with confidence. With so many options out there, it can be hard to understand which tools will actually deliver for your team’s needs. We want to help you make decisions with certainty. - Our directory will be built around the opinions of successful SaaS leaders, so you can be sure everything included has been tried and tested by your peers. - Sifting through pages upon pages of search results for the same tool can be tiring. So, we’re going to do the hard bit for you to shave time off your research process. - We’ll be providing a detailed breakdown of costs to a) save you toggling between tabs and b) enable an instant affordability check. Take the survey! ### Pricing and packaging: how high-growth SaaS startups can crack the code URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code/ Last updated: 2024-05-20T16:46:01.000Z My name is Cindy Berman, Product Marketing Manager at Productboard. Pricing and packaging can be a mystery for high-growth startups, and successfully cracking the code can be a real headache! But don't worry, because in this article, I’m going to break down the many pitfalls into 10 common mistakes. I hope after reading, you'll be able to spot these mistakes early, and this will help you to execute pricing and packaging with realistic goals that are deliverable. On top of that, here are some of the key talking points I'll be covering: - Creating a compelling and high converting pricing page. - Incorporating lessons and best practices on content structure and format. - How to effectively collaborate with and enable internal teams for a successful launch. - How you can use your pricing page to demonstrate your product's value and customer benefits. ## A bit of background on Productboard In October of 2020, after months of research and evaluation of our existing pricing and packaging, Productboard updated our pricing and packaging. To give you some context, I'll take a step back and start by sharing some information about Productboard. Productboard is the first customer-driven product management system. Productboard helps product managers at thousands of companies like Microsoft, Zendesk, and UI path, understand what users need, prioritize what to build next, and rally everyone around the roadmap. You can think of Productboard as a CRM for product managers, helping you build excellent products for your customers. As a high-growth startup backed by investors, there comes a point in every company where you need to revisit your pricing and packaging. Your previous pricing and packaging may have been super successful in the past, but as you scale and grow your company and customers, it's crucial to reassess them. Also, your vision of success and how you measure a vision of success changes. ### Productboard’s product management system [![Productboard’s product management system](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/Productboard-s-product-management-system.png)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code) You've achieved Product Marketing fit, and are looking to gain market share with new customers. This is a perfect time to take a step back, take a deep breath, and think about: - What's working? - What can be improved? - What should be changed? - Which plans are prospects choosing? - Are customers seeing the value of the plan? - Is the plan meeting their needs? - Are customers frequently switching from one plan to another? You can also think back to quarterly business reviews or conversations your success managers have had with customers. What features are customers and prospects constantly requesting that are not available on your existing package. [![A calculator and coins](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/Pricing.jpeg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code) ### Pricing As businesses seek to drive revenue and profit, are your prospects and customers sharing that your product is too expensive to satisfy their needs? Do you even see customers turning for cheaper competitors, or even prospects going to cheaper competitors? Or, on the flip side, does your product actually give away too many features and functionality? Well, you may be providing customers with more value than the price should necessitate. In this case, you can revisit increasing your pricing. This is dependent on customers being willing to pay, of course. Or you can decrease the features and value you provide in your existing plans. That way, you're providing less value, but for the optimal price. The value matches the price. So, now it's time for me to share 10 Common Mistakes high growth startups should avoid and how to avoid them so that you can execute pricing and packaging effectively. ## 1\. Relying on assumptions while forgetting data and customers One of the biggest challenges I see SaaS businesses facing with pricing and packaging is not creating a data-driven strategy, not understanding the customer, and not bringing the customer's needs into their strategy. ### Practice what you preach At Productboard, we practice what we preach. We make decisions based on data and customers, not just assumptions. Before defining a pricing strategy, you must understand your customers and target audiences. This will enable you to best market your product and its value to them. You can use a customer-driven product management system like Productboard to capture and organize customer internal and even prospect feedback, into a single product repository. Analyzing this information, you can quantitatively determine the following: what are the research reasons your customers have chosen your product and company? Why have they chosen competitors instead? ### Do your products meet customer needs? Think of the personas work you've done. Personas are a representation of your ideal customer per customer. It's crucial to ensure each package you create is mapped to a persona or multiple personas, their needs, and their willingness to pay. If your packages don't solve their needs, you won't be able to successfully sell to your target audiences, hurting your sales efforts. You should also execute an in-depth analysis. Doing so enables you to determine how to best show your product value and benefits to customers. You can identify gaps and opportunities you may have in packaging your product and communicating its value. ### Are you looking at the bigger picture? For example, during Productboard's research, we determined that there's a segment of customers that are focused on just building the best product roadmaps. They weren’t looking at the bigger picture. There are other jobs to be utilized, such as incorporating customer feedback and using software and insights for feature prioritization planning. ### Look at the data Productboard took this customer insight and used it to repackage our product, creating an affordable and easy-to-start first plan. Keep in mind, it's not always crucial to recreate the wheel and completely update or even overthrow your pricing and packaging. By looking at your data, you can see trends on what's working and what’s resonating with customers. You can also analyze the performance of your existing pricing page as a method to understand prospect interest and intent through interaction. With Google Analytics, you can see on your pricing page, which links your prospects are clicking on most frequently. You can see how often they read your detailed feature comparison chart, what parts of the page are most interesting, and what frequently asked questions most closely resonate with them. [![Computer code](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/code.jpeg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code) ### Don’t skew the data When executing this analysis, it's important to segment new users from existing customers or employees for accurate metrics. Once you're thinking about updating your pricing page, or once you've done it, you'll likely have many views daily from existing and existing employees, which would ultimately skew your data. ## 2\. Failing to understand your competitors Having an in-depth understanding and analysis of your competitors is crucial. Some of the questions you should be asking are: - What are the existing solutions that your customers may be looking to replace? - What are their strengths and weaknesses? - What types of customers and industries are they more likely to capture? - What are the problems your customers and prospects identified that your competitors aren't solving? ### Look at your competitors On the last point, you can read Jeetu and Capterra reviews to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, and why customers choose to buy their products or leave them. You can also use Salesforce competitive data to ensure your sales team records competitors that prospects are evaluating. These competitive insights really guide packaging decisions. ## 3\. Not understanding where your product fits in the market Is it disrupting an existing market? Or is it creating a new one? At Productboard, we understand now's the time for product management. We call it: ### The golden age of product management Product management roles in the US have grown by an astounding 32%! But despite the growing importance of product management, there really hasn't been a dedicated system for product teams to ensure they're building the right products for the right audiences. Salespeople have Salesforce and marketers have Marketo. But product managers have traditionally used an assortment of PowerPoint, email, post-it notes, Slack, Excel, and many other generic task management and engineering tools that are not really up to the job. ### Customer-driven product management Here we get into the fallacy of thinking your pricing page is only about conversion, not education. Productboard, like many other products, is creating a new category. It's flexible, comprehensive, and built on an open platform to meet the needs of today's product organizations. 👏 Here, you'll be able to provide more guidance regarding the value of your product on your existing pricing page. Through this method, your pricing page serves two purposes. 1. Conversion for paid plan or trial signups 2. Awareness and education about your products. It doesn't mean that when a prospect automatically comes to your pricing page, they'll sign up. Marketing and acquiring potential customers takes time. You also cannot assume that even though the user came to your website, they understand what you do fully, and the value you can provide them to solve their biggest needs and pain points. Once again, you need to put yourself in the mind of the customer. ### Put yourself in their shoes A helpful trick to do so is to think back to the first day of your company. What information did you know about the company? How did the pricing page share with you what each plan was offering? Think back to the basics. What information was clear and easy for you to comprehend? And what information did you not understand or was missing? As you seek to create a new category, it's crucial to simplify your message, but at the same time, highlight the most important features and value you provide to customers to solve their needs. On the other hand, if you're looking to disrupt an existing category, you can focus on product differentiation via new features. You don't need to spend time on your pricing and packaging to educate and convince customers why they need your type of software to solve their needs. Instead, you need to focus on how your software is better than the existing software. ## 4\. Not understanding how crucial your pricing page is Think of your pricing page as the epitome of your pricing and packaging efforts. Your prospects will not read pages and pages of Docs. Instead… [![Blocks spelling out "keep things simple"](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/Keep-things-simple.jpeg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code) ### Keep it simple They want an easy way to understand how each plan serves their needs and can solve their problems. Guide them through the decision-making process so they can buy their software, but then get back to focusing on their everyday job. You may also assume incorrectly that more is better. More information, more copy, more context, more features shared is better. Not always. While many people, especially in Western societies, are conditioned to believe that more choice is better, the opposite is often true. Too much choice, such as seeing 15 features listed in one plan versus 18 features, actually causes less satisfaction. You risk overwhelming your customers. ### Keep it manageable Instead, I advocate for concision. Or in this case, SaaS companies communicate a manageable amount of product information, so your customer finds something that meets their standards, which of course, can be high. ## 5\. Failing to focus on user experiences and leveraging best practices During my pricing research, I created a cohort of 21 high-growth B2B SaaS companies. I wanted to understand how they market their product and determine best practices for pricing. Some of the companies included Slack, Mixpanel, Marketo, and Segment. I focused on understanding user experience and converting that into growth. ### User experience is everything Live it and breathe it. Get your whole company on board. Put yourself in the shoes of your prospects and their software experience. You can use your own cohort of SaaS companies to use or test their pricing pages and offerings. Think of it as your user testing some of your favorite or most highly admired product’s pricing pages. Whether you're a customer right now, or a prospect, you can better understand the optimal user experience you desire for your own pricing page. You will be able to review key design aspects, formatting key components such as product demos, number features, frequently asked questions, support, and success offerings, which will guide your own pricing page decisions. You can think to yourself, what works? What could be easier and what information or functionality is missing? Are you able to easily pick which plan best suits your needs? Doing so provides a holistic view of all the key components you may decide to include on your company's pricing page. ### Use FAQs and surveys [![Blocks spelling 'FAQ'](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/FAQ.jpeg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code) You can even see how startups show complicated features and how they seek to convert viewers to a trial or paid plan. For example, a component that's important on a pricing page can be an FAQ. On Productboard’s previous pricing page we had five FAQs. Looking at our hot jar of information and data, I realized which FAQs are interacted with highly and which are not. I looked at the most common FAQs across 21 companies that were relevant regardless of the type of SaaS product and offerings they had. ### Put your research into action I put together a list of questions and shared it with our customer success and sales teams to identify which ones are being asked the most during our sales and success conversations. The aim was to identify potential product understanding and to address education gaps. Through this collaboration, I decided to create nine FAQs. The number was higher than the average but aligned with many other successful B2B SaaS startups. ## 6\. Assuming every SaaS startup is the same and pricing packaging should be the same Every high-growth startup is different, even in the same industry or category. While using data and customer-driven insights to guide your pricing and packaging is crucial, your findings **will** and **should** be unique to your business. They're based on your customers, your market, and your target customers. Your insights may lead you to price package and position yourself differently from your competitors. This is okay as well, since you're using a data-driven customer-focused approach. 🙌 You'll base your recommendations on the category you're trying to play in the audiences or markets you're targeting. All of which can differ from your competitors. You'll then position your company and your product In relation to these inputs. ## 7\. Being features-driven versus values-driven A key component of your pricing and packaging is content. This is the type of content and the amount of content looking back at your quarter 21 cuts companies. - How did the SaaS startups message their products? - Which messages best spoke to you and showed their products' value? - Did they focus on features only, or features and the overall value they provide? Of course, you can show features on your pricing page, but they must align with the value and customer benefits they provide. Often, I've read through pricing pages of companies where high-level people understand what they do, but you would really have to have in-depth knowledge about the products before coming there. I often really didn’t understand which plan best supported my needs or solved my problems. The ones that spoke to me the best focused on the value. The top statement emphasized each plan's value and the problem it was trying to solve. ### Prioritize values This method differentiates your product offerings and plans for prospects. For example, we see customers saying that they come to productboard for easy to create product roadmaps. Without productboard, it just takes too much time for them to create product roadmaps for all audiences, and they often become out of date. ### Other features should support the value Following this top-level messaging, below was a combination of features and values that supported this value. Features don't get to the heart of your customers' product problems. When pricing and packaging your offerings, you shouldn't be thinking of packages or plans as a sum of features. Instead, those features are chosen to represent the overall value of a plan and how they solve the problems or needs of a customer. For example, with productboard, you may be looking for customer insights to guide your product management decisions. The problem is you're not making data-driven product management solution decisions. So, you might be building the wrong products that your customers don't want. ### The solution The solution is features that **support** your use case and problem. This should align with selling. Sometimes salespeople sell feature by feature, but it's not a scalable or successful way to sell a problem and your product. Instead, listening to the customer and understanding their problems is 100% more effective than selling features that your customer may or may not even understand. Features should support needs and values, which you will have identified through the customer research. [![Computer screen showing metric data](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/Customer-data.jpeg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code) ### Comparison charts What about full feature comparison charts? Are they necessary, especially on a product page? We know that customers do still evaluate feature comparisons, but I don't recommend detailed feature comparisons at the beginning of your pricing page. On Productboard’s previous pricing page, we had 62 features listed on our detailed feature comparison chart with their availability matched to each plan. The average number I saw across the cohort was only 624. ### Less is more Instead, go with a less is more product promise. I didn't want to overwhelm the prospect. I focused on the key features that define our product and support the value-based messaging at the top of our pricing page. I chose 29 features to compare, as I didn't want to focus purely on just the data. I wanted to make sure that each section had the most important features outlined. Choosing to show only 29 features aligns with the lifecycle of our business. For productboard, we rely heavily on trials first, like many high gross startups. We knew that 62 or all the features could be an important input for the finished final buying decision. The ultimate value-based approach to guide a prospect to trial is crucial to start with. Then, we created a PDF that prospects can download further down the cycle ## 8\. Using internal feature-based language and customer-friendly language Often your engineers create features with internal-facing names that are not customer-friendly. You’d have to have in-depth knowledge of the use of the product to know what this specific feature even does. For example, I saw in some sample pricing pages features like ‘branching point’ and ‘creative assistant’ or ‘smart sync.’ Honestly, I had no idea what they meant, nor did I have the time. Instead, I wanted to see and focus on customer-friendly language copy that I could understand, removing an extra step of work for me in my already busy day. ## 9\. Not tracking data, nor experimenting One and done is not ideal. Track your metrics, decide which metrics to track and what are your goals, then create a dashboard to track them. This dashboard should be accessible to all stakeholders. For example, your target metrics could be the amount of incremental revenue or the number of new customers. Choose the period you want to achieve these metrics, then determine how your new pricing and packaging performs versus your old one. You can look at the number of trials, paid plans, and your pricing page performance. [![Two athletes about to race](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/It-s-a-marathon-not-a-sprint.jpeg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code) ### It’s a marathon, not a sprint Change and statistical significance take time. Experimentation is crucial. You can use old page metrics to develop experiments that improve and test key hypotheses. You can: - Increase your conversion rate - Define key hypotheses regarding why your conversion rate is lower - Create experiments with partners - Identify key trends to improve your pricing page and offers. - You can even explore and test different copy and packaging to see which resonate with customers. ## 10\. Not incorporating cross-functional stakeholders Make sure you have a cross-functional team of stakeholders to work through your pricing and packaging, including your pricing page. You need all hands on deck! At Productboard we had a cross-functional weekly meeting of key stakeholders with clear agendas and action items. [![Group of people wearing t-shirts that spell the word 'team'](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/Team-effort.jpeg)](https://www.futureofsaas.io/pricing-and-packaging-how-high-growth-saas-startups-can-crack-the-code) ### It’s a team effort It shouldn't just be led by product managers and or product marketing. Sales success, finance, accounting, and engineering design should all be included in your decisions. Think of the implications as dependencies of any decisions you make. For example, if you move certain features from one package to another, what are the backend engineering implications? Other examples include working with finance to model the financial impact and setting up the new pricing on the back end with engineers. Sales and customer success teams can also serve as a guide to provide more data-driven customer and prospect insights. ## Let’s wrap up I hope that by following these recommendations and avoiding the 10 common mistakes of pricing and packaging, you can crack the code at your high-growth startup for pricing and packaging. Remember that executing optimal pricing takes time, but the impact is worth it. It's time for high-growth startups like yours to assess and perfect their product pricing position and packaging! 💪 By doing so you can scale quickly, and software is all about scale. Thank you. ### Setting expectations for customers throughout the journey URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/setting-expectations-for-customers-throughout-the-journey/ Last updated: 2022-02-02T12:51:41.000Z Customer experience is one of the key revenue drivers for businesses. According to a study by PWC, 86% of people are willing to pay more for a great customer experience. Part of providing a great experience lies in managing realistic customer expectations. Overpromise and underdeliver, and you may find yourself without repeat custom and a very damaged reputation. **Mike Lee, Director of Customer Success at PublicInput** led an insightful panel discussion at The SaaS Metrics Summit outlining how to fix this very issue. Mike was joined by: - ****Rebecca Nerad, Vice President of Customer Success at E2open** - ****Jason Noble, Vice President of Global Customer Success at Vinli Inc** - ****Kalyn Lewis, Head of Customer Success at Visme** - ****Rupal Nishar, AVP, Customer Success at Netomi** The panel discussed a variety of key points, including: - The importance of the customer journey when setting expectations - How updating the customer journey changes expectations - Building trust and the importance of apologies - The tools you should use to set expectations internally Plus more! --- # Q: How important is the customer journey to setting expectations? **Rebecca:** It's fundamental that we understand this step in the customer journey. Part of that is, so we know who is responsible for delivering success, for communication, and for the relationship with the customer at those different phases. At my company, after we've sold, there's an engagement with the professional services team, and then later it would transition to support and to customer success. We need to be clear about who plays what roles in that. We need to make sure that the right expectations are set for the customer during that time. I firmly believe a CSM, where possible, should be assigned as early as possible in that cycle, we need to be aware and understand why the customer buys the solution. Now, the expectation is that the CSM is learning and asking questions, by the time they become more responsible for that relationship, they have been engaged in participating throughout. **Jason:** I think I'm going to echo a lot of what you said there, Rebecca. The customer success team should even be there as part of some sales calls, particularly for your bigger customers. Your customer success team can bring advocacy to life, they bring your case studies to life. I think it is ultimately part of the customer journey. I'd also argue that you should always be revising and consistently working on your customer journey. It’s something that’s ever-changing, it doesn't stay static. As you start evolving as a business, you start evolving your customer journey - I think that's super, super important. > One of the key things with a customer journey is knowing who the right people that deal with that part of the journey are and who has that responsibility. When it comes to customer experience, consistency is key. Each part of the process isn’t just a handover. It's not passing from one to the other. It's a transition. But what are their expectations? What are their goals? What are the outcomes they're looking for? And how do they want to achieve those? I think those are equally important to talk about. [Customer journeys: from onboarding to alignment \[Q&A with Simpo\]Max Smith-Gee, Head of Customer Success at Simpo took the time to answer some burning questions on everything from onboarding to aligning the sales process to customer journeys.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/daniel-cartin-LgHNehAIcOs-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-customer-journey-from-onboarding-to-alignment-q-a-with-simpo/) --- # Q: When you update the journey, what does that do to expectations? **Caitlin:** It’s an evolving piece, especially if your product is evolving. There isn't necessarily always that one size fits all approach to every customer, either. They each have their own goals, their own key to success. Being a part of the sales cycle really is definitely key. > Customer success needs a seat at the table during the sales process. In the past, I've done a poor job of managing expectations. When it happens, you know it. We all know it, whether you go out of scope, or you start offering something that's technically out of scope. [How revenue & customer success can work together more effectivelyIn many organizations, sales and customer success exist as two distinct entities, interacting only to hand off accounts and, while this setup may work for some, when both teams are aligned, magic happens.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/10/mimi-thian-ZKBzlifgkgw-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-revenue-customer-success-can-work-together-more-effectively/) I think we have all overextended ourselves in customer success at times. There’s also the inverse, where you fall short. You also have to consider: why did I go beyond scope? Is there something here that might be universally impactful to our journey going forward? **Rebecca:** Absolutely, Caitlin, we have to set those boundaries. There are times when we have to push back on the customer. We have to push back internally, it's one of the challenging and amazing things about this role. I like to say sometimes it’s good cop, bad cop, but that role changes toward one direction or the other. It all starts with understanding customers' expectations in the first place. Also, it’s about being able to fairly represent what we think would be the right final result for them. **Jason:** It's so important that we as the customer success team are the facilitators between the good and the bad. But managing the expectations is the hardest thing, there are times when we want to go above and beyond and deliver exceptional results, but sometimes you have to say no to customers, and that can be challenging. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) **Rupal:** This reminds me of a quote by George Shaw, “the single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” It is absolutely critical to make sure that you're setting the right expectations, and that the right framework is in place. When you need to push back on the customer, you absolutely should push back. At the end of the day, setting those expectations correctly will drive that customer to success. --- # Q: What happens when we overpromise or under-deliver? How do we fix that? **Rupal:** I don't think you overpromise on your under delivery. I think you promise as accurately as you can. Step number one is always to take ownership when there has been a misstep. When you think about it, expectations are why customers work with us. > The single most important thing that you need with a customer is their trust. I think there is almost a rhythm to how you operate if there is trust between the customer and yourself and the organization. Not taking ownership after a misstep has the potential to break trust. **Rebecca:** Fundamentally, it is about trust, right? That's what we need to have for our ongoing relationships with our customers. When we miss, we need to decide, what do we want to reveal? What do we want to share or not share with the customer about information? That's difficult. At the end of the day, we have to be honest enough to get through the difficult news. That starts with resetting the expectations, falling on our sword, and saying sorry. **Jason:** I think for me, it's aligned with what you guys have just said. You apologize quickly. If there's been a problem, you take ownership of it and take responsibility, and then find the solution. You really have to have that open and honest conversation with the customer. Once trust has been regained, then you can find a solution. [Building customer relationships | Future of SaaSBuilding strong relationships with customers is difficult in SaaS. We explain the approach you need to lower churn rates and get higher customer retention.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAlex Morris![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1559526324-4b87b5e36e44?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&w=2000&fit=max&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjExNzczfQ)](https://www.saasalliance.io/building-customer-relationships-saas/) --- # Q: What kind of authority should the CSM have when it comes to setting expectations? **Jason:** I think a lot of it does depend on your organization, on the way that you're structured and on your customers. The question of authority is a fascinating one because I think, at times, you perhaps don't have it. I don't think you necessarily need it. I think a lot of what we do is about diplomacy, and it's about making sure we're doing the right thing for the customer, and it's trying to get that mission and message across to the business, and if Customer Support knows that, if they're trying to do the right thing by the customer, you don't need authority to do it. **Rupal:** I think even in the absence of authority as leaders, CSMs need to be empowered enough to drive change both internally and speak for the customer; f they are not empowered, I don't think they can have the sort of change a CS organization is expected to have. I've seen it over and over again in different organizations across the industry, CSMs aren't able to effectively drive change because they run into roadblocks - they don’t have the authority to drive change. --- # Q: What tools do you use to set expectations internally within an organization? **Rebecca:** It's all about consistency - I think that maps very closely with expectations. In the short term, you’re only as good as your intensity. We see that all the time with CSMs, we're very intense and follow up in the moment. > In the long term, you are only as good as your consistency, that's where we build trust, by setting the expectations and keeping them consistent. That’s the hard part. **Caitlin:** Honesty and trust is key. Honesty doesn't necessarily have to come with a thorn. Honesty doesn't have to hurt. I think there’s such a thing as healthy conflict, and we don’t need to be afraid of conflict when you approach it from a sense that it's a healthy thing that just disarms you. When you're disarmed, that's when you can have those honest conversations, find your allies, internally and externally, build those relationships and get close to them, from there, everyone has a better chance of being on the same page. --- *Enjoy this article? Access the full, unedited version OnDemand with a [Future of SaaS membership plan.](https://www.saasalliance.io/account/)* ### Revenue operations - the new key to unlocking growth? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/revenue-operations-the-new-key-to-unlocking-growth/ Last updated: 2022-01-11T18:04:48.000Z There's an ever-growing buzz surrounding revenue operations and how it fits into the enablement landscape. People like **Leore Spira, Head of Revenue Operations at Buildots** (and former Head of Revenue Operations at Syte), are right in the middle of it all. So who better to talk to about enablement, operations, and the rapidly changing organizational structures of today, than Leore herself? Read her thoughts on: - Separating revenue leadership from sales operations and sales enablement - How revenue operations looks at the full funnel - Ensuring renewals, retention, and expansions - Revenue leadership going forward And more below: ## Separating revenue leadership from sales operations and sales enablement "Usually sales enablement is a small part of either the marketing team or the revenue operations team because it allows the sales team or even the business units to work smoothly. "Sales operations is usually a position that works with sales leaders, or sales development leaders, because \[they're\] focused on the sales process from the beginning of the deal, until closing it. "In B2B and SaaS model companies, the revenue operations rose up because of the needs of other departments that are related to the sales process. "We can see that SaaS companies \[are\] transitioning to revenue operations functions because they need help, and they need these leaders and experts in revenue operations to break the silos, to make sure that *every* department works together, aligned with one another. "We are handing over each data information from one department to the other to create full transparency and a 360 customer overview." ## Revenue operations looks at the full funnel "I think [revenue operations leaders become more expert](https://www.salesenablementcollective.com/moving-the-needle-with-revenue-operations-and-enablement/) and see the full picture from the macro-level, instead of the micro because sales operations are just one step in the process, one milestone. > "\[Revenue operations leaders\] understand the leads process, how they become business opportunities, and then how they become customers. We understand conversion rates, we understand the trends, so we can help each department to be more focused, productive, and efficient. We can help marketing to build their buyer persona in a much more detailed way to better understand what is the winning deal. "We can help sales to arrive at their demo to pitch their sales pitch in a much more effective, focused, and professional way. And we can help customer success create not just success, but also measure the customer experience, to measure the customer relationship, to prevent customers from becoming a risk account. "Sales is now just one piece of the puzzle, and revenue operations is the full puzzle." ### **Ensuring retentions, renewals, and expansions** "The customer cycle is driving the rise of revenue operations and enablement in B2B relationships. "With a business, it's a work in progress. We have to make sure that we are selling the right features, the right use case, we are solving the right problem. "We help them and are there for them because we want to ensure the retention, the renewals; we want to make sure we can help them more and then ensure upsells, expansions, or cross-sells. "It's super important, because there are a lot of aspects in the customer journey process and revenue operations can help each department to again be more productive and efficient and see the full picture in a way that helps them to bring more upsells, to convert more leads, to close more deals, or prevent them from being lost." ### **Revenue leadership going forward - an essential function** "I think COVID-19 really helped our position and really helped RevOps to show their value. "A lot of companies were so sure that they'd succeed, they're making money. \[They felt like\] they didn't need internal help from another function. "Today, we see that we need someone to manage, to build the process, to work on strategy, to implement it in a CRM platform. "Not just to bring and capture the data, but also analyze it in a way that gives insights and sheds some light on very critical and important issues that will allow management to agree on the best solution, or make sure that they are taking the best decision they can in order to grow." ## The challenges in revenue operations "My biggest challenge is that not all companies really see the advantage or understand why revenue operations are super important to drive scale, to drive growth, to help the revenue teams become better at what they do, or help them bring more value to the company. "We're all fighting, and we're trying so hard to spread the word about the value and how central RevOps is, not just for SaaS B2B companies, but for every startup that starts building the revenue machine." [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ## Organizing a revenue operations team "I divided this department into two \[at Syte\]. We have the strategic part and we have the technical part; I come from the more strategic approach. "My first hires were technical experts. I prefer them to take responsibility and make sure we're using Salesforce, so I have a Salesforce admin and a Salesforce developer that provides services in regards to any technical issue or bug, or develops new features and new processes in the system. "This gives me the time to be more focused on the strategy and I believe that in the future once the revenue teams grow, my team will have to grow as well. "\[Expansion\] will give me the opportunity to share my knowledge with them, to help the next generation in sales, marketing, or even the revenue operations department." ### **How to develop a career in revenue operations** "For revenue operations, first of all, we can see that Salesforce is an essential skill. I would advise people to learn a bit about Salesforce, even from a technical perspective, because this is what I did. I taught myself Salesforce because I had to move forward and move fast in order to show value at first, before taking the side of strategy. "Follow some leaders on LinkedIn to read more about the role, about the responsibilities, about the day-to-day tasks, and understand essential SaaS terms like forecast and MQL, SQL, customer journey. "I would start by looking for junior positions, because this is a wonderful way to learn and become an expert. I do believe that companies will hire more and more RevOps experts and leaders, and this department will be a very exclusive and very hot position in the future." ### Scaling your data team at SaaS hypergrowth URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/scaling-your-data-team-at-saas-hypergrowth/ Last updated: 2022-07-04T11:00:05.000Z Scaling your data team is a fairly complex topic, but we’re going to break it down into a few crucial talking points: - Centralized vs decentralized analytics - The right tools for the job - The right people for the job Before we get started with the real meat of this article, I’d like to give you some background information about myself and my company. ## About me I’m currently Senior Director of Toast BI. We aim to drive data informed decisions. Toast is an all-encompassing online platform for restaurants. We started as a point-of-sale system, and we’ve become so much more. Now, we offer capital and have online ordering, loyalty cards, and a marketing suite. Toast was my first venture into the B2B world. Before that, my experience was in e-commerce. I also spent some time doing economic consulting, focusing on airlines and energy. Most notably, working on the Continental United Merger for the Department of Justice. ## A brief history of Toast BI So, why are we talking about scaling the team? And why should Toast be an example for you or your organization? Well, the main takeaway is that we’ve done a lot of different things. More crucially, we haven't been afraid to try different things. Because of that, I think we can give you an excellent perspective on the types of things that work and don’t work. I started at Toast in 2016\. I was the first dedicated BI analytics resource, we were about 200 people, and the company was run on Excel docs and Salesforce reports. It was a very scary place. I was brought on to build real reporting and modernize. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/unnamed--1-.png)](www.futureofsaas.io/scaling-your-data-team-at-saas-hypergrowth) Firstly, I started to build out a small, centralized team. I focused on the technology selection. We chose a tool called Incorta. We had three people, myself and a couple of others doing a little of everything. We started to have a hybrid team, and it was a bit of a balancing act in terms of who did the actual work. In 2019, that's when we moved away from that tool and started to use a multi-stack tool. We use Stitch, Airflow, Snowflake and Looker. That was after quite a bit of research - 2019 was also when we hired our first dedicated data engineer. In 2020, after COVID hit, we brought those decentralized teams that I mentioned together, and we actually **centralized** them all under one umbrella. Now we have about 2,000 employees. The key takeaway here is, we tried a lot of different things before we got it right. I think that gives a good perspective on the types of things you should look at. Different approaches are right at different points. Don't feel locked into anything. ## The spectrum There's centralized and decentralized analytics, but almost everyone is a hybrid like we are. It's not a one-size-fits-all, and almost everyone is somewhere in the middle. It's not often that people fit squarely into one of these categories. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/unnamed--2--2.png)](www.futureofsaas.io/scaling-your-data-team-at-saas-hypergrowth) So, let’s dig into what centralized and decentralized actually mean: 👇 [![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/1Lw8THBEgkwqxPR9s-gS4oDHW9rbg34U6CfCKIcqcjRUmaz6OLVbEWsmRj5iEcassZjkb967sXIddkG5n7S3XCVwjqXJ5Gc5BePAo937FxjWnjtduAZPfzjCMpkWmUS6u3LG_WBB)](www.futureofsaas.io/scaling-your-data-team-at-saas-hypergrowth) ## Centralized analytics Analytics stands as its own function. Analysts and teams may be dedicated to different departments, but they will all report into a central hub. We were centralized when we started. ### Pros of centralized analytics - Consistent standards and expectations for analysts. - Increased collaboration leading to more mentorship and faster growth. - Simpler to move around resources when necessary. - More likely to see the whole business in duplication. - Reduced work duplication. ### Cons of centralized analytics - Velocity is generally slower. - Easier for things to get lost in translation. - Jockeying for resources can be challenging. - OKR alignment is more complex. ## Decentralized analytics Departments house their own analytics functions. These analysts mainly report to leaders of their own departments. ### Pros of decentralized analytics - Output velocity is high and can fluctuate with the business. - Teams can easily allocate different amounts of analytics resources. - Direct OKR alignment. ## The right ingredients Now, let’s talk about the right ingredients for putting together a great team. Gotta love those food puns! 🍲 ### Make hiring a priority When you're growing the team, make hiring a priority. You don’t want to make the mistake of taking on too much yourself, you want to be adding great people to your team. ### Focus on diversity We’re not just talking about race, culture or background, we’re talking about **neurodiversity.** People who think in different ways and have different skills. At Toast, we have people from traditional analyst paths, but we also have a bunch of people who are smart, quantitative people who made career shifts. We have people who have gone from academia to Toast, people who were in sales and came to Toast. That kind of diversity of thought has really given us an awesome mix of people. And of course, hiring people of different races and ethnicities is vitally important as well. ### Don't hire for technical skills Technical skills can almost always be taught. So, instead, think about the person you’re hiring. Are they smart and quantitative minded? Our case studies are quite generic, they don't have right or wrong answers. They're designed to see how you approach a problem. I don't care if you get the right answer, I care much more about the though process. ## Hire athletes I don't mean people who have done sports, I mean people who can do a little of everything. At the beginning, we focused on hiring people who are happy to try anything. In the early stages of a business, you don’t always know what it’s going to look like. That’s why it’s good to get people who are willing to try their hand at whatever challenge may be presented. ## Don't ever mess with culture At Toast, we have a ‘no ego’ policy. If we sense even a little ego in an interview, we cut it off there. It's just not worth the risk. I think we've been able to build a pretty strong culture in Toast because of that. As a company, it helps to establish a strong sense of shared identity, that way, everyone is on the same page. ## The right stack When selecting tools, it’s important to be aware of the distinctions between different categories. Here, we’re going to break them down so that you can make the right choice for your business. ### Full stack tools Prominent examples of these include Domo and Siense. These are the kind of tools you might use when, for example, you’re setting up your dashboards and joining tables. These tools sound great in theory, and they look great from a budget perspective, but beware, it can get very messy. You end up with an enormous amount of information stored in one tool, and these tools aren’t always the best at handling that. They can also be ‘sticky.’ At Toast, we found that a full stack tool simply wasn’t growing with us, that's when we switched to…. ### Distributed stack We use Amazon s3, Stitch, Airflow, Snowflake and Looker. Distributed stack tools can be overwhelming, but they handle the data much more effectively. They can be complicated, so make sure you do your research before you switch, and hire appropriately to support it. ## The single source of truth As you're building out the team, and you're thinking about centralized vs decentralized, people will often tell you that you have to have a single source of truth. I like to say, that's somewhat true, but not always true. We're trying to make the right business decisions, and there are certainly financial details to consider. Maybe you need to map out your data effectively. But overall, the most important thing is that we're making the right business decisions. When do you need to be 100% accurate or not? That's the thing to keep in mind. Your job is to give clarity to the data and present it clearly. But the most important thing is making the right business decisions. Don't go crazy, creating one single source of truth in spots where it’s not actually worth it. You will exhaust a ton of resources hunting for this single source of truth. ## Key takeaways The number one thing is to be flexible - try new things, embrace change and find the thing that works right for your company. Secondly, nothing can replace great hiring. You want to hire people who can be flexible and are willing to try their hand at many things. Finally, be aware of overly sticky tools - you want to make sure that software grows with you. For example, if you decide to switch to a distributed stack, you need to make sure it’s because your business needs it. ### 22 SaaS predictions for 2022 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/22-saas-predictions-for-2022/ Last updated: 2022-01-24T18:55:06.000Z A new year has just begun, and we can’t wait to see what it brings… So much so, we invited a variety of SaaS organizations and experts to help us predict what the next 12 months have in store for our favorite sector. Some of our respondents were a little on the shy side, so you’ll find some radical and insightful quotes attributed to ‘anon’. But if you ask us, it only adds to the air of psychic mystery. Popular predictions include: - [AI and automation will play a big role in 2022](https://www.saasalliance.io/22-saas-predictions-for-2022/#ai-and-automation-will-play-a-bigger-role-in-the-sector) - [Low-code is low-key taking over](https://www.saasalliance.io/22-saas-predictions-for-2022/#even-more-innovation) - [Data will be super unpredictable](https://www.saasalliance.io/22-saas-predictions-for-2022/#data-will-be-anything-but-predictable) - [Content is king](https://www.saasalliance.io/22-saas-predictions-for-2022/#content-output-will-increase-in-2022) So without further ado, \*imagine us hunched over a crystal ball with our eyes closed for this part\*, let’s take a look into the future… --- ## AI and automation will play a bigger role in the sector > *“AI and automation will scale and replace repeatability while giving organizations the elasticity to focus on high-impact initiatives”. - *Anon** > *“In my opinion, we’ll see more SaaS solutions trying to add AI to their products. Also, I would expect more vertical SaaS solutions to appear in the market. - *Anon** > *“I think more SaaS solutions will increase their integrations, as users are already using many tools and would like to make those tools “talk” with each other.” - *Tigran Hakobyan, Director of Marketing at SuperAnnotate** --- ## More SaaS companies will employ machine learning **55%** of the SaaS professionals we surveyed utilize, or are planning to utilize, machine learning in 2022. --- ## Office-life as we know it is no more > “I predict we’ll see an increase in social and collaborative functions in SaaS due to remote working.” - **Anon** > “Remote and hybrid working. If companies are still swimming against the current on this, it's not going to fare well. This is the new normal.” - **Anon** > “Decision-makers will double down on what worked for them during their time of uncertainty as they gear up for a hybrid working future.” - **Anon** > “I think we’ll see more tech that’s focused on keeping office employees connected with remote employees on a level playing field as hybrid offices become the most popular structure.”\- **Anon** --- ## Complementary add-ons are set to soar 68% of the organizations we polled plan on introducing complementary add-ons to their existing platforms in 2022. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) --- ## SaaS is here to stay > *“Platforms that proved indispensable or most flexible during the pandemic will grow. - *Anon** > *“Increased consolidation in H2\. Early SaaS companies will start to get offers from SPACs who raised funds and are fighting for earlier and earlier companies to acquire.”* \- **Anon** > *“Evolution is at the core of this industry. It can be steered in many different directions, however, I strongly hope that the SaaS industry continues to make connections across the industry to grow. All the while being cautious of the importance of data security and management in the process.” -* **Anon** > *“Lots more dependency on SaaS platforms, especially as companies struggle to determine the business models - in-office and out-of-office approaches, while COVID continues to be a concern.”* \- **Anon** --- ## Even more innovation > *“We’ll see more tools for aggregation come out and less fake AI/ML claims.”* \- **Andre Wang, Co-Founder of Keelling** > *“I think we’ll see more SaaS organizations adopt a mobile-first approach.”* \- **Anon** > *“I predict we'll see even further demand for product marketers in SaaS, driven by increasing commoditization and the need to differentiate.”* \- **James Doman-Pipe, Product Marketing at Remote** > *“I think we can expect to see more single sign-on adjacencies for B2B enterprise customers. Blockchain-based token economies and tools to enable and manage transactions on top of them.” -* **Varoon Jain at Poseidon Growth Consulting** > *“I predict a shift to progressive web apps and low-code platforms.”* \- **Anon** --- ## Content output will increase in 2022 A whopping **97%** of the organizations we surveyed planned to increase their content output over the next 12 months. The most popular medium was blog posts (**48%**) and then video (**21%**). > “SaaS players will need to invest a lot more in first-party data and privacy to comply with new regulations. As they’ll lose more and more efficiency from paid media (due to less ability to target at scale), they’ll have to invest more in interactive/diverse content formats to capture first-party audiences and keep their marketing performance.” - **Diego Gomes, CEO of Rock Content** --- ## Data will be anything but predictable > *“Omnichannel analytics will start to catch up to omnichannel marketing and service.” - *Anon** > “B2B buyer personas will begin to sway with the impact of millennials and Gen Z as a viable and influencing contributor to SaaS purchases. The data will be anything but predictable, but foundational for the next round of the impact of the digital generations.” - **Sharon Maxfield, Solutions Engineer at 360insights.com** --- So there you have it - our predictions for 2022\. Did any catch you by surprise? Fancy a chat about it? Find us on the [Future of SaaS Slack community](https://www.saasalliance.io/join-the-fosaas-community/), we’re always up for a good debate. Oh, and Happy New Year! 🎉 ### The cycle of customer success: a blueprint for customer success teams URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-cycle-of-customer-success-a-blueprint-for-customer-success-teams/ Last updated: 2022-01-06T16:51:43.000Z I’m not someone who likes methodologies as I like to keep a clear perspective and be open to change. As someone who studied history, I preferred to use facts and evidence rather than theories and methodologies as the main guides in my decision-making process. After spending over 15 years in customer success, I have however recognized some distinct patterns in how the best customer success teams are run. I’ve created a comprehensive yet simple approach that you can use to avoid many of the mistakes that I made and double down on the best strategies that the customer success community has implemented. For this reason, I’ve documented what I’m calling 'the cycle of customer success'. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2022/01/cycle-of-cs.png) There are a number of great customer success (CS) frameworks already out there which outline the core building blocks that customer success teams need. The model I’ve created isn’t a major divergence from these approaches with the exception being the cyclical nature of this framework. You really need to approach customer success with the mindset that your work is never done. I know I felt that way as a customer success Manager at Eloqua when I had my 30+ accounts and I felt like I was always online. It doesn’t change when you move into leadership. You need to continue to modify your strategy and hence the cyclical approach. It's important that as you round the corners along this journey that you do follow a certain path. For example, you shouldn’t start making massive technology investments until you have some of the other building blocks in place such as your customer journey and processes. That said, this model doesn’t mean that you don’t start hiring until you’ve fully defined your customer journey. This is a guide to help you visualize the steps you need to take. The other area that I place a greater emphasis on in comparison to other CS models is the area of people. When you plan out the people component, you need to go beyond the structure of your team and how many customers are assigned to the CSMs. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) I place a great deal of time and effort on the recruiting, hiring, onboarding and ongoing enablement of my CS team members. It’s hands down the most critical element in this cycle. I think we all know this but there are ways to create a more sophisticated approach to the people component that will help you scale and address the challenges of career progression that impacts your customer success team. This model is designed to be used at any stage of your company from start-up to a full blown enterprise. My goal in creating the cycle of customer success is to provide a starting point and blueprint that you can use as you tackle the major challenges that your customer success team is facing and will face. I will provide a general overview of the model in this post and then dive into the various components in subsequent posts. ## The cycle of customer success There are six main components of the cycle of customer success model: - Mission - customer journey - People - Process - Technology - Measure and iterate I will provide a brief summary of each: ### Mission When you are just joining, rebuilding or forming a customer success team, you need to create a common purpose and direction for the team. I recommend that you pull your team (or CS leadership team if you have a large team) and draft out a mission statement. Every CS team needs a purpose — it doesn’t have to be perfect. You can and should refine it over time. *Your mission should guide and empower your team on what to do if there were no processes or managers. It should also be a guide for the rest of the company in terms of what the customer success team stands for.* Your CS values should emanate from this mission which will influence the other areas of the cycle — primarily the customer journey and the people you hire. Your mission should guide and empower your team on what to do if there were no processes or managers. It should also be a guide for the rest of the company in terms of what the customer success team stands for. My customer success mission at Bluecore was to have our customers shout about us from the rooftops based on the value they were achieving and their experience. Everyone knew CS’s mission because I repeated it over and over again. ### Customer journey Defining and refining the customer journey has taken a greater prominence in recent years within customer success teams. It’s more than just improving the customer experience, it’s about determining the right customer interactions that will deliver the customer’s desired outcome and ultimately drive the right financial results for your company. A large component of the customer journey is clearly laying out the proactive measures that your organization is prepared to take. You hear the saying 'customer success is not a department, it’s a philosophy'. Your customer journey map will determine whether that is actually true as the events and actions along it should include more than just your CS team. > *The customer journey will help determine the people you need and the processes you will roll out so it’s critical to invest in the proper resources for this initiative.* There are two major parts of this customer journey process: establishing the right customer segmentation model and mapping the customer journey. It will require you to involve the various functions that touch the customer across your organization to seek out their input and buy-in as well as gather input from your customers. This isn’t an easy process and it may require some external help to get this initiative up and running. At the very least, start to define the stages and events of the journey and go from there. The customer journey will help determine the people you need and the processes you will roll out so it’s critical to invest in the proper resources for this initiative. It will impact so many aspects of what you will do including the type of skills you need for your team as well as your budget. It’s a part of the cycle that you will keep coming back to and refining over time. ### People This is by far my favorite area as it’s the most critical component of customer success. The ‘people’ section includes the following components: - Determining the right CS team structure based on the customer journey. This may include customer success Managers to start but also may include support, onboarding, services and education as you scale your team and determine the need to specialize. - Properly defining the roles and responsibilities of each CS team within your customer success function to support this structure. This also includes addressing the most asked CS question ever: ‘how many accounts should a CSM own?’. - Creating a standardized hiring process for your customer success team. [This isn’t an area that you want to mess around with](https://enlightenedcustomers.com/2016/12/22/customer-success-battle-scars-dont-fk-around-with-hiring/). - Creating a standardized onboarding process for new team members that is metrics driven. - Compensation. - Ensuring your team receives ongoing training and enablement. - Creating formal career paths in and outside of customer success and performance management. ### Process This is the time to build out and standardize the processes that your team will use to execute on the customer journey. It will include how you coordinate the various transitions within the customer success team but also outlines how CS interlocks with the other functions such as sales on complex upsells or marketing on customer communications. As your organization matures, this is the area that tends to get the most attention — especially when you can build out a CS operations function. How you plan, create and execute on these processes will make or break your customer success department and your job. > *How you plan, create and execute on these processes will make or break your customer success department and your job.* The following are just some of the key processes that you will need to define over time. The breadth and depth of these processes will depend on the stage that your company is at. - Sales to CS transitions - Customer onboarding - Customer health scoring - Executive business reviews - Internal account reviews - Customer success plans - At-risk / customer health reviews - Playbooks - Renewals and upsells - Quarterly retrospectives - Executive sponsor program - Best practice webinars - Identifying advocates - Support escalations - Product training - Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys - Cross-functional initiatives such as CS/Product collaboration on the product roadmap. This is definitely not an exhaustive list. Keep in mind that how you execute on these processes will be determined by your customer journey and the quarterly goals that you’ve established. > Technology can sometimes appear to be that mirage on the horizon when you feel like you’ve been wandering in the desert for days. Don’t go drinking from that water before you pass go! ### Technology Technology can sometimes appear to be that mirage on the horizon when you feel like you’ve been wandering in the desert for days. Don’t go drinking from that water before you pass by! What I mean is that there are no quick fixes. Don’t invest your precious CS budget on any major technology solutions until you’ve gone through the components of the cycle for customer success. At Bluecore, I had a plan on centralizing our CS technologies within our CRM so we would have full visibility across the customer journey and the customer-facing functions. Our support, project management, task management, and customer success tools all integrated with our CRM. We had previously used Google docs for some of these processes so we had a basic framework before we invested in some of these major tools. As an example, we had an idea of how we wanted to build out our customer health score based on the manual work we had already been doing. This was helpful when we implemented our customer health scoring and at-risk/customer health review process. There are some technologies that were no-brainers like Komiko which we used to track customer communication engagement. That said, we had already defined a challenge in tracking engagement and had the customer journey, people and process components developed as well as our customer success platform. We had earned the right to skip a few steps. ### Measure and iterate Please don’t think that because I left this item to the end of the cycle that you should wait until you’ve gone through the other sections before defining your key metrics and then reviewing them at this point. You should have metrics established for each and every stage and be constantly reviewing them. For example, when we created the mission statement at Bluecore, I grounded ourselves on the Net Promoter Score (NPS) as I felt I could influence that metric within 6 months based on our direct actions while renewal rates may have longer cycles. We were able to increase NPS by 666% which had a dramatic impact on our team and our relationship with our customers. Rather than listing out several metrics that you should be considering, the message I want to impart on you is to take a metrics-driven approach to everything you do. As an example, let’s dig into the “people” section of this model. I recommend a standardized approach to how to measure the candidates you interview and hire, then measure how they progressed through onboarding. For the enablement and training of your team, create quizzes where you can measure their uptake of information. You should then have a regular review process where you evaluate how your team has performed when you compare their performance review vs how they scored in the interview process. If you have some low performers, assess where the issues are: is it your recruiting process, the interview process, the onboarding process or the ongoing enablement process? Work with your team managers and the other functions such as HR to make the necessary improvements. This is one example of how you create a cycle of customer success and how you build a customer success function to scale. ## Summary: the circle is never complete Being the *Star Wars* fan that I am, I would have yelled back to Darth Vader: “the circle is never complete — it just keeps going”. This model is not supposed to be a maturity model, it’s designed to help you plan, build and execute your customer success strategy. You should keep in mind that you will travel around the cycle of customer success many times as your company matures - at first, the cycles will be more rapid and then they will slow down as you grow as it’s harder to make large scale changes. You will focus more on processes and tweaking the technology and customer journey. That’s ok if you have the right listening posts in place and are measuring against the right outcomes. You can then determine if you need to go back around the cycle and reframe the mission and customer journey based on what the data is telling you. At Eloqua, we had to make a fairly massive adjustment to the customer journey after we had a mature customer success process in place. The data clearly told us that we had problems that needed to be addressed - we had the right leaders and people to make the necessary changes and get us back on the right path which eventually led to a successful IPO and acquisition by Oracle ([have a read through Kia Puhm’s post if you are interested in this story](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/my-eloqua-story-building-cx-practice-drives-revenue-scales-kia-puhm-1/)). I look forward to diving into some more of the specifics of this model in the coming weeks and months. Please provide your feedback, input and thoughts on this approach. I hope you find it useful. ### Customer advisory boards and feedback loops [Q&A with Dropbox] URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-advisory-boards-and-feedback-loops-q-a-with-dropbox/ Last updated: 2021-12-29T16:26:59.000Z Customer Advisory Boards allow customers to give candid feedback on their experience with your company, and we spoke with ****Bree Bunzel, Head of Global Customer Marketing at Dropbox**, who answered questions around building Customer Advisory Boards and customer feedback loops. Want to learn more about Customer Advisory Boards? Bree will be unpacking the what, why, and how behind successful CABs, in [this masterclass!](https://certified.productmarketingalliance.com/p/customer-advisory-board-certified) --- ### Q: In one of your previous presentations, you mentioned Dropbox has a separate Customer Strategy & Insights team. How does their work differ from the work you do? Why do you think the CAB should be owned by the PMM team instead? **A:** I’ve seen CABs run in many different ways, owned by various departments - including events, product, product management, consumer insights & strategy, and PMM. Our Consumer Strategy & Insights group does a lot more mass-market research, segmentation, and persona building, but there is some overlap so we keep them informed. The main goal comes down to what you want the outcome to be and which team and/or executive has the power to make that change happen. Do you want the feedback to impact product roadmaps, customer experience, the entire business? If it’s your roadmap, you should have the Head of Product as your executive sponsor, if it’s customer experience, it should be your Head of CX, and if it’s the entire business, it should be your COO. The ownership of CABs extends beyond the actual day of CAB, but the post-event feedback and how these insights turn into action, and if your product team isn’t invested in the program, they’ll take one glance at your post-event summary doc and move on to other hot priorities. It will lead to disappointment from your team by not “finishing the swing”, and your customers will be left feeling unheard when they see no progress has been made since their last engagement with your company. We had our executive sponsor as the Head of Product, and we partnered closely, driving this program in PMM. While I don’t know how PMM is structured and positioned in your organization, I can tell you why it worked well for us. We started running our CAB out of PMM because: - Our function is seen as the central glue between product, engineering, Comms, CX, etc. - We partner closely with products to build Market Requirement Documents that help provide a broad assessment of the market, competitive insights, and key challenges we want to solve in the product. - We own a lot of the content creation when it comes to product roadmaps and feature updates, and this is what is primarily shown during a CAB, outside of real-time demos and mock-ups from product. - We own the Go-To-Market launches for these products. - We own the Messaging and Positioning - These insights give us the empathy to support a value prop, positioning, and messaging with the customer in mind. - We partner closely with Customer Marketing to build Advocates - These customers become long-term advocates of our brand, and we partner closely with customer marketing to amplify their stories and make them the heroes of their organizations, as well as be seen externally as thought leaders. --- ### Q: How do you structure your CAB? I would be interested in any of the following: ### Number of members ### Demographic choices made (how were members selected) ### Also, do you have just one CAB or are there places where you might consider multiple CABs? ### What are the goals for the CAB for your business and what do your CAB members expect to get out of it? **A:** We started our CABs with close to 20 members in a room, but what we found over time was that it doesn’t feel as intimate and it limits the “air time” and depth of feedback when across a half-day session, everyone only has a few minutes to talk. We wanted to solve the customer experience and knew they’d rather have a more intimate gathering where they could learn from one another and build relationships throughout the day; our sweet spot has been 12. When we discuss the idea of starting a CAB, we first start by identifying the audience we’d like to get feedback from. In the case of Dropbox, we have been evolving from a consumer brand to also include B2B with Dropbox Business. On a company level, we had entered into a new category and wanted to assess how that was resonating with our newer and existing customers. We picked highly engaged Dropbox Business users and larger organizations with premier logos. We hoped to be part of a VIP CAB experience and the program would further build our relationship with them and turn them into advocates. You can identify an audience by the level of engagement, big brands (which lead to future advocates), the highest revenue generated, key influencers, and beyond. I’ve also seen CABs by product line and business size at other organizations, sometimes with multiple CABs solving for key industries, verticals, regions, etc. We solve for a customer-first CAB experience, that makes them feel heard and invested in, and in turn, we want to create an environment that allows our customers to authentically voice their feedback so we are building a product vision together with the customer in mind. We did a lot of customer interviews on their “Why” for CAB, and it varied by industry, size, etc. --- ### Q: What are some tips to create an engaging CAB conversation virtually? We'd typically have a lot of in-person activities, and we're looking to foster that same engagement virtually. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) **A**: We had designed our entire CAB in person, and then had to re-imagine the program remotely. We just had our first virtual SF CAB two weeks ago, and I also hold a monthly meetup with a few other CAB leaders at other tech companies, so I’m happy to share some early learnings. We kept this to 2 hours, and this was the maximum time I would ask of customers. We worried a break in the middle would mean folks would drop, so we let customers take breaks if need be. While we don’t have it perfectly nailed, we found that having a facilitator is critical to having the virtual event flow smoothly. There can be some awkward silences on virtual calls, as well as folks that don’t speak as much as others, and a facilitator helps close those gaps. We had a facilitator who had an existing relationship with a lot of our customers in attendance, which made the rapport and conversation flow more smoothly. We also had a lot of time for discussion and using Zoom, we used “gallery view aka Brady Bunch view” so customers could engage with one another, see each other’s reactions, etc. We also had a session where we asked a few questions around their top of mind topics on remote work and had them chat with one another, learning from peers instead of us talking and presenting the whole time. I've heard a few other companies do well with Zoom's breakout room functionality, but ensuring an internal teammate is in each breakout to capture and report back on insights. We can’t replicate the nice venue, meals, and in-person connections, but we tried to add some personal touches, like sending UberEats virtual gift cards before so they had a “meal on us”, as well as a virtual care package after with some goodies tied to our Dropbox culture and values. We are still learning as this was our first event, but we were happy with how the first virtual CAB was received. --- ### Q: Have you ever had a customer request to be on your CAB but you've not felt they were a good fit for it? If so, how did you manage that? We recently had a case like this and felt like we were walking on a tightrope not wanting to tarnish our relationship with that customer by turning them down, but also wanting to ensure all our CAB members were 100% what we're looking for. **A:** I can see that being a tricky one, I feel for you. We haven’t had any requests in the past, but I can see this coming up as our CAB program continues to grow. My recommendation is to be clear on the goals for the program, what you are solving for, and the criteria to select those CAB customers, including how many and how diverse you would like the group to be. For us, having a group of 12 for a region, which must cover a diverse set of factors by industry, roles, journey stage and beyond - this makes it difficult to have the program as a free for all. We are working on more frequent touchpoints to avoid this becoming an issue, including events where a broader group of our VIP customers can join in for an exclusive TED Talk-like webinar, etc. so they still feel special. --- ### **Q: How often do you run your Customer Advisory Boards? And in between those meetings, what do you do to keep everyone on the CAB engaged?** A: We started our CAB programs in person once a year in each region, and are now exploring more frequent cadences on a bi-annual or quarterly basis virtually. These more frequent engagements also don’t necessarily mean it needs to be a brand new product roadmap, but we can use it to get pulse checks and provide opportunities for them to connect with us and their peers. We are also looking at finding more ways to add more value to these VIP members, with exclusive round tables and/or webinars to make them feel special year-round. We also have our CSM account leads that engage with these customers on a more frequent basis. --- ### Q: How have you engaged your CAB to have fruitful and strategic discussions about product roadmap planning? A: We design our CAB program to be customer-led, meaning we spend time talking to customers about what they’d like to get out of being part of our CAB. Their reasoning may be to provide product feedback, it may be to engage and ask questions to our senior leaders, it may be to connect with other peers. Within their needs for providing product feedback, we collect key topics they would like us to focus on for the session, and we then take these inputs to design our CAB experience. Our number one priority is making these customers feel heard and providing an open, authentic environment for them to share and connect openly. Our preparation also goes deeper with our facilitator. He/she works to understand each customer’s briefing document, use case and key priorities in detail before the session, so when product updates and features are shared, he can draw upon previous knowledge and call on specific customers based on whether the product solves for their specific use cases. Preparing facilitated questions in advance is critical, and you never want to ask “What do you think” - it will almost always be crickets (trust me, we’ve learned the hard way 😉) The key thing to remember is this is a CAB, not a design research session. We aren’t asking for feedback on the details of a button and user flow, but more broadly understanding whether the key needs of our customers will/will not be met with our roadmap. Having an impactful discussion is one part of the experience, the second is properly recording the notes and summarizing and circulating key takeaways with internal stakeholders who own the changes. Having your key internal stakeholders at the CAB - such as your C-suite and product leaders - will help create this impact, with the advantage of hearing feedback first hand and turning it into action. --- ### Q: Where do you suggest starting if my B2B company is setting up a CAB and would like to understand end-users AND our partners? Would it be wise to have an end-user CAB and a separate partner CAB? ### We're computer hardware with a traditional distribution sales channel, so it can be difficult for us to get insights from end-users because we don't know unless they register their products for warranty themselves. **A:** I would recommend breaking out the CABs as end-users and partners have different "whys" and reasons for engaging with us. We currently have a separate partner CAB, and the content is focused on education, incentives, sharing of use cases and peer connections, and future roadmap. Our admin and end-user CABs are much more focused on roadmap feedback, sharing of use cases, customer experience, and peer connections. I think partners would want to connect with other partners on similar use cases, and end-users to connect with others like them as well. These broken out CABs would also ensure the right internal executives are on each, as I would envision our Partner executives would not find as much value listening to an end-user CAB. I would recommend having less of your staff in the CAB than customers for both. In your case, I can see it valuable partnering with your channel partners to get closer to these end-user challenges, concerns, and needs, and understand what would incentivize those end-users to participate. Maybe there could be an incentive for partners to recruit end-users to join CAB? We haven't needed any pay for their time because we figured out their "why" for being part of CAB (influencing our roadmap, engaging with our executives, and connecting with their peers). ### SaaSFix: Future of SaaS newsletter [December] URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saasfix-future-of-saas-newsletter-december/ Last updated: 2021-12-29T15:59:59.000Z 2021 might be coming to an end, **but we aren't slowing down.** This month, we launched another two *awesome* reports. 🙌 First, we dropped the **[SaaS Landscape Report](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-saas-landscape-report-2021-is-here/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021) \-** a deep dive into diversity, equity, and inclusion in the SaaS sector. Next up, we compiled a list of the **[Ones to Watch](https://www.saasalliance.io/ones-to-watch-in-saas-2022-2/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021)** in 2022,thanks to your nominations. Discover a stellar list brimming with SaaS expertise and exciting potential from the likes of **Drift, Dropbox, HubSpot** and more. Enjoy ✌️ \- [Emma](https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-bilardi-09161060/), Content @[Future of SaaS‌‌‌](https://www.linkedin.com/school/31559381/) --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/resize-hmmm.gif)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) ## [Customer engagement and the metrics that matter](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-engagement-and-the-metrics-that-matter-q-a-with-intercom/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021) Finding the time to fully engage with every customer at every stage can be a real struggle - *especially* for startups. Which is a problem, because according to Gallup, fully engaged customers offer **23% more revenue** on average. To help, we sat down for a [Q&A](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-engagement-and-the-metrics-that-matter-q-a-with-intercom/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021) with **Matt O’Boyle**, Customer Success Manager at **Intercom**, to talk through setting expectations & measuring CS at scale. [It's time to engage](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-engagement-and-the-metrics-that-matter-q-a-with-intercom/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021) --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/remote-resize.gif)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-run-and-structure-effective-agile-team-meetings/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) ## [Are remote CMOs the future?](https://www.saasalliance.io/are-remote-cmos-the-future/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021) Well, maybe not *exactly* like that. 🙄 But, on a recent episode of CMO Convo, we were joined by **Liam** **Martin**, CMO and Co-Founder of **Time Doctor**, to discuss the future of [remote working](https://www.saasalliance.io/are-remote-cmos-the-future/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021). Read his thoughts on what it means to CMOs, and what is needed to build a *successful* remote marketing team. [Discover the future](https://www.saasalliance.io/are-remote-cmos-the-future/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021) --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/moeny-resize.gif)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-manage-the-feedback-loop/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) ## [How to raise the price of your product](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-raise-the-price-of-your-product/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021) Research conducted in recent years has confirmed that discounting is the **top pricing strategy** for retailers across all sectors. *Conversely*, there are some instances when it’s necessary to[raise the price](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-raise-the-price-of-your-product/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021) of your product. While it may seem like a risky tactic, there are ways in which you can introduce new pricing parameters without alienating customers and increasing churn rates. [Show me the money](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-raise-the-price-of-your-product/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021) --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/future-of-saas-membership-banner--1-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) ## New this month ### Exclusive content - [Chris Grebowiec,](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-develop-your-sales-enablement-team/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021) Global Head of Sales Productivity & Enablement at Square US **| How to develop your sales enablement team** - [Malin Skoglkund](https://www.saasalliance.io/improve-employee-retention-and-supercharge-growth-by-hiring-for-the-future/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021), VP of Sales and Customer Success at Meltwater | **Improve employee retention and supercharge growth by hiring for the future** [Membership contentLearn from Saas leaders from companies like Typeform, Zuora, New Relic, Atlassian, Buffer, and more, with your very own biweekly dose of exclusive, membership-only content.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAbdul Rastagar![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/09/FoSaaS_exclusive_articles.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/membership-content/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) ### New templates - Sales to customer success handover [template](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-templates-and-frameworks/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021) - The HEART [framework](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-templates-and-frameworks/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021) [SaaS templates and frameworks | Future of SaaSLooking for SaaS templates and frameworks to make your life easier? We’ve got you covered. Become a member for advice, tips, and business growth tactics.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/11/Future-of-SaaS-templates---frameworks.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-templates-and-frameworks/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) ### Give 'em a try Intrigued by membership but need some extra convincing? Here's a couple of templates, on us: - Customer success strategy [template](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-strategy-template/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021) - Competitor SWOT analysis [template](https://www.saasalliance.io/competitor-swot-analysis-template/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-december-2021) --- ## Partner with us [Partner With Us | Future of SaaSMingle with a community dedicated to driving progress in SaaS and get access to brands from the Fortune 500 to some of the world’s fastest-growing organizations.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1584463699043-740c40f783d2?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&w=2000&fit=max&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjExNzczfQ)](https://www.saasalliance.io/partner/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) Looking to sponsor next month's newsletter? Drop us a line at [sean@futureofsaas.io](mailto:sean@futureofsaas.io) ### How to improve sales team training sessions URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-improve-sales-team-training-sessions/ Last updated: 2021-12-28T15:57:59.000Z Converting a prospect into a customer isn’t straightforward. If you talk to any product manager, they’ll tell you that early adopters are pivotal to future product development. This is true, but not in the way you may think. Early adopters are assumed to be end-users of the product, but in reality, an early adopter is anyone who you can get to buy into your product, and as such, the first sale happens well before you hit the market. The real first? It’s the one you make to the sales team. Without their buy-in, your product will die and feedback-less, no matter how hard you push it. [Sales training](https://salesenablementcollective.com/how-to-make-your-sales-training-stick/) is one of the most nerve-wracking but rewarding things you can do. It’s your chance to set the product and product manager up for success, push [positioning](https://productmarketingalliance.com/your-guide-to-positioning/) to drive future development in the direction you think it should go, and of course, directly impact [revenue potential](https://productmarketingalliance.com/tying-product-marketing-to-revenue/). But given agile development cycles and tech debt realities, it’s also a fine line. Nothing kills a product release faster than over education, and nothing kills an external client sale faster than under education. There’s a line with every release and finding it isn’t always easy. Fortunately, there are some rules that you can follow to ensure your first sale is as successful as it can be. In this article, I’ll be covering: - Tips for hosting live demos - How to communicate with empathy and understanding - How to position product features - How to demonstrate product value - Tips for closing the deal ## **Tips for hosting live demos** Powerpoint is a great tool for getting your point across, but the point isn’t the same as the product (unless you work for Microsoft). As a product marketer, you should be able to [demonstrate the product](https://productmarketingalliance.com/effective-marketing-demo-presentations/) in detail, and you need to push your sales team to do the same. The best way to do this is by directly prompting it, you can and should insert “live demo” transition slides into [sales narratives](https://productmarketingalliance.com/how-to-master-narrative-design-q-a-with-hubspot/). As you walk through the product, hit on the main points you want the sales team to understand, and also tell them where it’s easy to get tripped up. Got a sales team with varying levels of experience? Great, so does everyone. Raise the bar, don’t go to the lowest common denominator. Encourage them to pitch it to each other, continuously, not just during the initial product training. This way they can share what resonated in the room with their unique clients, and get stronger, collectively. ## **How to communicate with empathy and understanding** The universal truth is that most salespeople are stressed. In many cases, the majority burden of revenue falls squarely on their shoulders. The expectation for a seller is that they know their clients front to back, but is that the reality? Not really. It’s your job to understand this and empathize with it. When you’re explaining [positioning](https://productmarketingalliance.com/your-guide-to-positioning/), it’s not enough to explain how it maps to their clients, you also need to explain how it stands up against the competitors their clients are also getting pitched by. When you walk through a product’s [value proposition](https://productmarketingalliance.com/pmmnow-reasons-to-believe/) \- don’t just read it, explain it. Explain how the use of this word is a hit on this competitor, or how you avoided this phrase because it’s overplayed. Doing so does two things. First, reading to someone doesn’t drive any mental retention. Second, explaining ‘the why’ instills confidence in the team that this message is the best possible one because you’ve thought through all the ways it could fail. ## Don’t sleep on discovery Sellers want to have all the answers, and so that’s where the focus lands when it comes to training them, but the best sellers out there aren’t the ones who answer questions, they’re the ones to ask them. Providing a robust list of client discovery questions to them upfront allows them to have a two-way dialogue with their client, without going off the rails. [Listening is critical](https://productmarketingalliance.com/your-customers-are-talking-but-are-you-listening/), and the answers their clients provide will make it a million times easier to zero in on which product proof points to hit home, with the goal of getting to no, or in a perfect world, yes, even faster. But discovery questions also have an added benefit - the questions your sales team asks their client will ultimately drive the client response. The quickest and easiest way to impact the [product roadmap](https://productmarketingalliance.com/pricing-packaging-pricing-roadmaps-to-help-grow-revenue/)? Drive a client to share the same piece of feedback you gave during[ GTM](https://productmarketingalliance.com/go-to-market-refresher/). ## How to position product features effectively “Oh, nice! The button is green,” said no one ever. The job of a product marketer isn’t to dive into product features, it’s to explain the value behind them. A green button has no value on its own, but if you explain why it’s important that it’s green (the color of life, renewal, nature, and energy) now the sales team is seeing the value behind something benign. This small adjustment will translate into how they pitch the product, even if you don’t write this exact language into their talk track or materials. ## **How to demonstrate product value** As a former salesperson myself, I can’t tell you how many [sales training sessions](https://productmarketingalliance.com/building-a-bridge-between-marketing-and-sales/) I’ve sat through where I’m asked to do something (likely another Salesforce update) and I’m told why I need to do it, but not why it matters to me. Falling back on the old adage of “because there’s money to be made” is lazy. Instead, dig into the problems their clients face, explain their pain, and how your solution solves it. Make them realize they have the opportunity to be their client’s savor (or time-saver, same difference). Better yet? Get personal. Explain to them the exact benefits of selling the solution you’re pitching to them. Try things like “twenty of the twenty-five alpha clients we turned this product on haven't turned it off in six months,” or “if you sell just two of these deals, the majority of you will be eighty-percent to goal for the quarter.” Simply said? Put on your sales strategy hat and get down into the weeds with them. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ## **Encourage authenticity** If you want to promote an authentic work culture, then you need to be authentic yourself. Pitching the new sales narrative to the sales organization? By all means, use the talk track, but go off script here and there. Tell jokes, insert personal anecdotes, explain the why behind the flow, give them pointers on the best place to ask questions and the places where they should expect to get them. In short: the more human and likable you are, the more your sales team will buy into what you’re saying; authenticity and confidence are contagious. ## **How to summarize key takeaways** Admit it, you’re distracted. Emails are flying around, Slack pings constantly going off, and constantly expanding to-dos both at home and at work. This is your reality. Now, why do you think your sales team is any different? They’re not. So when you set up an hour-long training, don’t expect them to be hanging on your every word. Instead, throw in a 411 slide - a slide that says: if you take nothing else away from this presentation - take away this. Struggling to hit on all the product points in one slide? Think about your audience - it’s sales - what do they care about? Positioning, proof points, pricing, and pitfalls. Everything else is just gravy. ## **Tips for closing the deal** Now, I could wax poetic about the value of clear[ market segmentation](https://productmarketingalliance.com/what-is-market-segmentation/), buyer personas, and how to create solid sales to [product feedback loops](https://productmarketingalliance.com/customer-advisory-boards-and-feedback-loops-q-a-with-dropbox/), but at the end of the day, your sales team wants one thing: the sale. There are a million and one things you could do to support them on their journey to a goal: but don’t. I know it sounds slightly counterintuitive but the more you flood your team with [positioning](https://productmarketingalliance.com/mastering-positioning-for-growth/), documentation, materials, education, [segmentation](https://productmarketingalliance.com/squeeze-your-segmentation-strategy/), the harder and harder it seems to close the deal. They’re going to look at the laundry list of things and go “woof, this seems complicated…” and that is the last thing you want. Ask yourself one simple question when you’re setting up a training: what would I need if I was going to pitch this solo? And then do only those things. Don’t trust your instincts yet? That’s okay - start by starting - and make friends with some smart sellers who you can lean on to gut check you along the way. Instead of doing it all, look at your product’s market maturity and use that to dictate which tactics make the most sense. A mature product solution that has been in the market for years in various forms across multiple competitors? Most likely doesn’t need a 101 narrative or super detailed buyer personas, what you need is a “why us vs. them” pitch. A bleeding-edge innovation that hasn’t even scratched the surface of entry? Prioritize creating detailed discovery questions over-designed marketing materials, and let those feedback loops define your product [value propositions](https://productmarketingalliance.com/value-propositions-that-sell/) and [buyer personas](https://productmarketingalliance.com/how-to-create-buyer-personas/). You don’t have to do it all, and you shouldn’t. Provide appropriate [sales enablement tools](https://productmarketingalliance.com/22-sales-enablement-tools-for-product-marketers/) your team needs to get out there, and then let them do what they do best: sell. Lastly, I said up front that these were rules, but the reality is, they’re more like guidelines. Does my team perfectly follow this framework for every [product release](https://productmarketingalliance.com/delivering-a-product-release-in-covid-times/)? No. Do we aspire to? Absolutely. Just the other day I was talking to a seller about retiring a resource we had enabled our sales organization with for years. It had grown too unwieldy, and my gut instinct was to cut the cord. Her response was lightning quick, “Kill it, and don’t worry about the backlash. The only constant in this crazy industry is change.” In other words, your products will evolve, and so will your approach, and that’s exactly right. ### Improve employee retention and supercharge growth by hiring for the future URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/improve-employee-retention-and-supercharge-growth-by-hiring-for-the-future/ Last updated: 2022-07-04T11:00:47.000Z I've developed and promoted somewhere close to 100 customer success managers and directors throughout my years, and I'm here to tell you how. I graduated from college in 2008 and started my first job in finance just as the financial crisis was kicking off. In Sweden, they have a law that states when you have to do layoffs: the last one **in** has to be the last one **out**. Being that I was fairly new, I was let go. I cried for an afternoon or two, then I started interviewing for new jobs. About a month in, I went to interview for a SaaS company, it was a panel style interview with six people sitting in front of me. I had a tiny bit of sales experience from a whole other industry, I have zero tech experience and I was 25 years old and really nervous. The VP told me: “If we give you a job offer, it's not for you to be a sales rep. It's for you to help us grow this company and take it to the next level. We only promote from within. We only hire people who have the potential to step into a management role to help us fuel our growth. “It won't be next week, or next month, if you take on this new role. But it could be three to six months, one or two years, all depending on your growth and development.” “And by the way, we are going to be lazer-focused on helping you grow and develop through feedback and coaching. And by pushing you outside your comfort zone.” How do you think this made me feel? It made me feel **empowered, valued, important.** I felt like someone believed in me, and was really ready to invest in my development. These people weren't just hiring me to do a job, they had bigger plans for me. I was a recent graduate, young, driven and ambitious - luckily, I got the job. ## Bumps along the road ![Road sign with a the symbol for a hump in the road against a blue sky.](https://communityledgrowth.com/content/images/2021/12/armin-babakhani-Kf6Fq9dZ-d0-unsplash.jpg) And then I went on to miss my first six quotas in a row. It was rough, but the company stayed true to their word, and I'm still here today, 12 years and many wins, setbacks and promotions later. This is what I'm here to talk to you about: - How you can improve retention - Supercharge your growth - Promote from within and hire for the future ## Employee turnover Employee turnover sucks 👎 It’s… ### Costly Especially if you're using external recruiters. ### Demotivating You lose a lot of knowledge of the methodology, the products, your core values and how things work. You’re losing that relationship between the person leaving and that person's manager. It may also create an unnecessary cultural shakeup if you, for example, have a very tight-knit team, It's many months of training out the window. Maybe you've even lost the person before they were fully ramped up, you never got a chance to see what they can accomplish. ### Time-consuming Losing people whom you spent so much time hiring and training never feels good. It's you having to do a whole new hiring process. There's also the alternative costs of you as a manager spending your time on recruiting when you could be spending it on coaching your team. ## Account executive tenure is 22 months (management promotion is 4-5 years) I recently read that the average tenure for a business development representative (BDR) is just 19 months, and many BDRs get promoted closer to a two-year time frame. A lot of times when you hire a BDR, they’ll do that role for a year and a half, and then leave; they go on to do the same job elsewhere, or they’re an AE for another company - what a waste! Account Executives (AE) stay with companies for closer to two years, and for an AE to go into a sales management role, it’s usually closer to four or five years. No wonder it takes them that long to be promoted if they change jobs two to four times in that timeframe. Every time you have to start from scratch, you have to learn about your product, the company’s methods, and everything else you have to learn in a new job. This just isn't effective or efficient for anyone. When someone is fully trained, they immediately leave, maybe even go to a competitor. It's a lose-lose situation. I also don't want to leave out the alternative cost here, either. Hiring is very time-consuming, it's time taken away from selling, taking care of your customers, coaching your team and developing your business. Also, more senior sales reps are often the highest performing ones. You definitely don't want them leaving before they're ramped up. ## Management bandwidth Another common problem for people who are trying to scale a company fast is management bandwidth. There's only so many people a sales manager can effectively coach. You could go a lot faster if you had one or two, or even four or five sales managers or team leaders that you could hire teams for in order to propel your growth. I know that this is a bottleneck for many growing companies - turnover obviously plays a role here as well - it's also very difficult to hire managers. It's difficult for people to come in and build trust with a team quickly and build up credibility to be an effective manager. It's often a long and time-consuming recruitment process, and there's always the risk of making the wrong hire. That can lead to even more implications and can negatively affect your growth even more. ## Can promoting from within help you solve these issues? What do you think happens with these two problems? If you promote more from within? What do you think happens when you hire a sales development representative (SDR)? You say: “Your title will be SDR, but that’s not why I’m hiring you. I'm hiring you to be a leader of this company. I'm hiring you to help us grow.” As an SDR that's the sales and the business training you need to be able to take on new roles in the future. “We need you to step into bigger shoes as soon as you're ready, or even a little before that.” I would argue that hiring reps you know are teachable, have a good attitude and are driven is the right call. On top of that, hiring people based on what you can see them do several years from now helps you mitigate these two issues. Let's look at it from both the employer and the employees' perspective. ## Employees crave growth Many account executives grade culture and management effectiveness higher than compensation, commission, job role and job flexibility. The hiring for the future approach helps strengthen the culture and empowers your people. It helps them understand that there's no limit to what they can do and achieve. In fact, the company **needs** them to grow, learn and develop as quickly as possible. With management effectiveness, people development is exactly what every manager should be spending their time on. ## Breeding loyalty Why leave when you have a manager who believes the sky's the limit for you?! Like I said, people don't leave jobs to make more money and have more flexibility; they leave, because they feel they can learn and grow, and they don't see a path to where they want to go. This approach gives your people something to believe in, not just something to do. If you know anything about Generation Z, you know that they’re not just thinking about skinny jeans and TikTok. They want something to believe in. They want their jobs to be meaningful, and they want to learn and grow. And that's exactly what promoting from within and hiring for the future does. ## Employers need growth [![Open palm with a small plant cutting. ](https://communityledgrowth.com/content/images/2021/12/ravi-roshan-_AdUs32i0jc-unsplash--2---1--2.jpg)](www.futureofsaas.io/improve-employee-retention-and-supercharge-growth-by-hiring-for-the-future) Losing people sucks on all levels. 💔 Losing a customer success manager or a customer success director has ramifications on your customers and losing a sales manager, or even a VP of sales, can disrupt the whole team. You lose relationships that are built, methodological knowledge, know-how, credibility and trust. It will take a while to find a replacement, and during that time, sales will suffer. What if you already had a few sales directors on board who know the business, know the people, know the product and the methodology, who you could quickly and easily put into the role? That way, you won’t lose sales momentum. These people already have a lot of credibility with the team and there’s trust there. You really wouldn't be set back as much for someone leaving. You know their strengths, their weaknesses. Even if they're not 100% ready, you could coach them. Often it's a lot easier than starting the whole recruitment process from scratch. I also think that the trust portion here is really key. Since trust is so important to be able to be an effective manager, it's usually easier to build trust for a person that's been in the exact same shoes as the team. This has huge benefits. If you have an SDR, this is someone you could promote to be an AE, probably with pretty minimal training. Obviously they know what it takes to be a successful AE, having worked closely with them, they already know the internal processes and such, so, it should be a pretty seamless transition. What if your new AE stays for more than 20 months? Could they be promoted to a sales manager in 24 months? Would they stay if they knew this to be a possibility? Not all of them. But if many of them would stay, this could lead to you hiring 10 more account executives in your projected one year - imagine what that would do to your growth! Having fewer reps per manager can lead to higher output per rep as well - that's another scenario that would also lead to more work. ## How do you hire for the future? [![Silhouette of a hand holding a glass orb against a sunset.](https://communityledgrowth.com/content/images/2021/12/drew-beamer-xU5Mqq0Chck-unsplash--3-.jpg)](www.futureofsaas.io/improve-employee-retention-and-supercharge-growth-by-hiring-for-the-future) Because that's a must, right? If you’re not bringing on anyone more senior externally, you have to develop your people really fast. I think it's a summit you could spend days on, but if I were to pull up what I think are the most important things, they would be: ### Push people outside their comfort zone If I don't challenge you, how are you going to get stronger? Challenge people by pushing people outside their comfort zone, and they will grow faster. Put people in shoes that are a little too big, and they will grow faster. Yes, they will make mistakes, some things won't go as planned, you want to step in and help, but overall, this approach should lead to your people growing fast. ### Hire people based on potential When it comes to the hiring process, I look for: - A person’s background - what challenges have they overcome? - Are they driven and motivated? - Have they shown that they’ve taken themselves**in and out** of places of their own accord? - Do they have that inner drive to succeed? I don't care about past jobs or experiences, I care more about what type of person they are. I look for those things that are hard to teach. I also look for emotional maturity, someone who is good at taking an implementing feedback and someone that has a good attitude. **Above all else**, I always look for a good attitude at a high growth company. I think this is just so important in general, as there might be ambiguity and a lot of challenges, you want people to embrace that and roll with it, often that comes with a good attitude and emotional maturity. At the same time, if it's a person that I think would be a fit for the job that we're hiring for, but I don't see a future for them past that role, then I **don't** hire them - I'm pretty hard on that rule. ### Culture of continuous improvement Coaching will be key, and feedback will be key. When do people learn and grow the most? It's when they feel safe, when they feel they can make mistakes without repercussions. You want to create a culture that's conducive of that, you want to create a culture where failure is good, it's something you can learn from. I also think that a collaborative culture is really important here, that's always been a big focus for us. But you also see that a lot with companies that try to be very innovative. They have what they call a culture helping, they have that so that they can drive ideas, innovation, and make sure ideas are spread throughout the organization. It’s similar to a collaborative environment. This can sometimes be tricky in sales, as there is often competition within the team and people on the team are often highly competitive. But this makes people lower their guard, learn from each other and develop faster. I think you're doing yourself a huge disservice if your people aren't learning from each other. A tactical way to do this could be to have an open landscape in your office, rather than a closed cubicle layout, so that people can collaborate, listen and learn from each other. Another tip is to try to make it measurable, include this in the quarterly performance reviews that we do with everyone on the team, where they can grade themselves, as well as their teams, on how they stack up on everything, with continuous improvement as part of a company's DNA. ## Make people development a company focus For management, when I start to train and coach entry level managers, or anyone on my team that I think can manage, I talk to them a lot about believing in people - in fact, I really preach this. Believing in people is the foundation of hiring for the future, you want to believe that as long as the person has a specific set of traits, there's no limit to how far they can go. If your managers believes in you, that will give them the confidence needed to thrive and grow fast. I even make entry level managers, and sometimes even people who are not managers yet, take part in the recruitment process to teach and train them how to look at and think about people and because it's easier to believe in people whom you hired yourself. I also want everyone to know that it’s not just the manager's responsibility to train and coach new people, we want everyone to help the person next to them and make sure people ramp up fast. One person's success is the whole team's success. At Meltwater, we always say that people development is rocket fuel. [![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/NzIVDLbz2-x3bQ2eO9qmAVoqPL5b5jds0LHIAgpEs5BtU86o1uVP16OtLnGukWZ_UIdz72A9HGK0uVxWnqp9gBqRQlrEnx0Z87ccn9bJRBQjv-_JG4z2_S2Y0HU57WZ7QEdAdcWy)](www.futureofsaas.io/improve-employee-retention-and-supercharge-growth-by-hiring-for-the-future) ## Let’s summarize Employee retention and management bandwidth leads to growth. Promoting from within and hiring for the future can help. If you can improve on bits and pieces of the strategy, I think they could effectively help you improve both of these problems, and really supercharge your growth. I never thought that getting abruptly fired from my very first job would lead to me working across continents, and being able to help hundreds of fresh grads grow into fierce SaaS executives running massive teams on their own. ### Everything you missed in 2021 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/everything-you-missed-in-2021/ Last updated: 2021-12-22T17:03:01.000Z What's a year it's been… Despite everything, **we haven't stopped**. 💪 Events, webinars, podcasts, reports, live broadcasts, you name it - we've churned out top-quality content, all year round, **just** **for you**. --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/Green-and-Cream-Brushstroke-Assistant-Professor-LinkedIn-Banner-1.png) We kicked off the year in spectacular style with the launch of the very first Customer Success Festival. Over 3,000 of you tuned in to soak up incredible insights from organizations like Slack, Celonis, SurviveNow, and Direct Commerce. [Customer Success Festival, February 2021 | Future of SaaSCatch up on every presentation from February’s Customer Success Festival and learn from amazing CS leaders from organizations like Celonis, ServiceNow, Direct Commerce and Slack.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSGemma Davies![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/CSFest-2-background.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-festival-february-2021/) ### Best of the rest for Q1: [Why we should stop](https://www.saasalliance.io/why-we-should-stop-trying-to-hack-growth/) trying to ‘hack’ growth [A beginner's guide](https://www.saasalliance.io/a-beginners-guide-to-customer-acquisition/) to customer acquisition --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/Green-and-Cream-Brushstroke-Assistant-Professor-LinkedIn-Banner--3-.png) As we entered Spring, our membership plans grew as fast as the daffodils in the local parks. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/unnamed.gif) SaaS leaders from across the globe accessed our library of **exclusive content,** **templates**, **guides,** **video footage,** and more to help their teams level up. Here’s a quick look at what’s on offer: ### Templates - Internal roadmap template - B2B user persona template - New hire onboarding checklist - S.M.A.R.T Template - OKR canvas ### Exclusive content - Growth hacks for a $0-50 million journey - Creative risk-taking in SaaS leadership - Interactive content ideas for each stage of the buyer’s journey - From self-serve to sales touch: lessons learned from moving up-market [SaaS templates and frameworks | Future of SaaSLooking for SaaS templates and frameworks to make your life easier? We’ve got you covered. Become a member for advice, tips, and business growth tactics.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/11/Future-of-SaaS-templates---frameworks.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-templates-and-frameworks/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/unnamed--1-.gif) **Said literally everyone.** So, we did. In June, the [Customer Success Festival](https://www.customersuccesscollective.com/customer-success-festival-june-2021/) returned. This time, boasting CS experts from **Slack, Monday.com, Amazon, GitLab** and more. [Customer Success Festival, June 2021 | Customer Success CollectiveCatch up on every presentation from June’s Customer Success Festival and learn from CS experts from leading organizations like Slack, monday.com, GitLab, and Amazon Web Services.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSGemma Davies![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/06/CSFest-2-background.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-festival-june-2021/) ### Best of the rest for Q2 - [OKRs for SaaS](s://www.futureofsaas.io/okrs-for-saas-startups/) startups - Your ultimate [SaaS reading list](https://www.saasalliance.io/your-ultimate-saas-reading-list/) --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/Green-and-Cream-Brushstroke-Assistant-Professor-LinkedIn-Banner--4-.png) As summer was in full swing, so were our events. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/unnamed--2-.gif) We brought you another stellar installment of The Future of SaaS Festival, which clocked over 13 hours of presentations from incredible names like McAfee, Google Cloud, Workday, Asana, and many, many more. [Future of SaaS Festival, Sept 2021 | Future of SaaSCatch up on every presentation from September’s Future of SaaS Festival and learn from SaaS experts from every department from organizations like Amazon Web Services, Slack, Typeform, and Adobe.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSGemma Davies![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/FoSaaS_Festival_Background.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-sept-2021/) Not content with one awesome event, we brought you two, in the very same month! Thousands of professionals joined us for the inaugural Women in SaaS Summit in September to explore, celebrate, and learn with our influential guest speakers from the likes of Accenture, Amazon Web Services, Twilio, GitHub, and more. [Women in SaaS Summit, September 2021 | Future of SaaSCatch up on every presentation from the Women in SaaS Summit and learn from amazing speakers at Amazon Web Services, GitHub, Twilio, and Intellum.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSGemma Davies![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/FoSaaS_Women_in_SaaS_background_2--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/women-in-saas-summit-september-2021/) We also launched our very first report. We surveyed SaaS professionals around the world from organizations at all stages of growth to bring you a report solely dedicated to customer retention - The State of Customer Retention Report 2021. [The State of Customer Retention 2021We decided to dig deeper into the landscape of customer retention, surveying SaaS superstars in all stages of their careers, all across the globe, to bring you... The State of Customer Retention Report 2021.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/09/FoSaaS_Customer_Rentention_Report_2021_Blog_1.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-state-of-customer-retention-2021/) ### Best of the rest for Q3 - [People-powered growth](https://www.saasalliance.io/people-powered-growth/) - [How to scale ](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-scale-your-saas-organisation-follow-the-2021-data-2/)your SaaS organization: follow the 2021 data --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/Green-and-Cream-Brushstroke-Assistant-Professor-LinkedIn-Banner--5-.png) Rounding off the year in style, we launched our first deep dive into diversity, equity and inclusion, and celebrated *THE* ones to watch in 2022. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/unnamed--3-.gif) First off was The SaaS Landscape Report 2021\. Through a mix of qualitative and quantitative data, we took a look at the make-up of the SaaS sector to uncover how - both individually and collectively - we can begin to make a difference. With the help of some DE&I experts and real champions of change, we unpacked: - Ableism in the workplace - How to measure inclusivity - The gender divide - How the C-Suite can drive DE&I [The SaaS Landscape Report 2021Through a mix of qualitative and quantitative data, we take a look at the make-up of the SaaS sector to uncover how - both individually and collectively - we can begin to make a difference.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/FoSaaS_Landscape_2021_Social_2.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/the-saas-landscape-report-2021-2/) Next up we asked the community to vote for the trailblazers, rising stars and champions of SaaS and compiled a list of the ones to watch in 2022. [Ones to Watch in SaaS 2022Through your nominations, some astute social listening, and our internal panel, we’ve compiled a list of THE ones to watch in 2022.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/FoSaaS_Influencers_to_Watch_2022_Meta--4-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/ones-to-watch-in-saas-2022-2/) We crammed the pages with killer content on: - Our SaaS pros career trajectories so far - Actionable insights into their functions - Acknowledgments from their peers ### Best of the rest for Q4 - [Avoiding management debt](https://www.saasalliance.io/avoiding-management-debt/) - [Regional to glo-local](ofsaas.io/regional-to-glo-local-in-one-year/) in one year --- As we said at the start, what a year it's been. We've done a **lot**, and we can't wait to do it all over again next year. Want to start off 2022 in the right way? Grab one of our[ membership plans](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/) and get stuck into all this good stuff: 📝 **60+** customizable templates & frameworks 📰 Exclusive membership articles from **HubSpot,** **Intercom**, **Slack** & more 📺 Members-only **video** content 🎟 **Access All Areas** to virtual events at no charge 💰 **10 percent off** conference tickets 🔒 Early access to **new products & reports** [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### Are remote CMOs the future? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/are-remote-cmos-the-future/ Last updated: 2021-12-21T13:53:31.000Z On a recent episode of CMO Convo, we were joined by Liam Martin, CMO and Co-Founder of Time Doctor, to discuss the future of remote working, what it means to CMOs, and what they need to build a successful remote marketing team. You can find the full episode and more right [here](https://www.cmoalliance.io/cmo-convo-podcast/?wchannelid=vmp1p6vrw9&wmediaid=kpfi4ukyfg), but if you want to read what we discussed, read on. --- ## **Liam's background and role at Time Doctor** ****There's been a lot of talk about how to lead remote marketing teams during the pandemic, but with the signs pointing to remote marketing being a continued thing, we're going to have to start thinking more about how you actually build that team from scratch.** ****But before we get started with that, could you introduce yourself to our readers, go into a bit of your professional background, how you reached your current position?** So I'm co-founder of a time tracking app for remote teams called TimeDoctor.com, we've been running that business for about 10 years. It is a tool that helps facilitate remote work. Our mission statement, actually as a company is that we want to help facilitate the transition of the world to remote work. We also run a conference called Running Remote, which we started about four years ago, which is all about building and scaling remote teams. Whether you're a founder or even in the executive team of a remote organization, we really try to arm you with all of the tactics you need to be able to not just hire a virtual assistant, but actually build multibillion-dollar tech companies, fundamentally through the things that we teach there. ****We'll assume you practice what you preach running a remote team and that's how you operate. Do you approach that with a certain philosophy?** Yeah, we have almost 150 team members in 43 different countries all over the world, we have never had an office, nor do we ever want to have an office. If I ever say that I got one, I've probably sold out, someone offered me a ridiculous amount of money to be able to get an office. Because we believe that actually just helps not only employees, but employers work better in their jobs. We've been doing this, as I said, for 10 years, I've actually been working remotely for the past 15 years. Obviously, over the last year and a half, there have been some changes inside of remote work. In February of 2020, 4.6% of the US workforce was working remotely and by the end of March, it was 46% of the workforce working remotely. So it was a complete shift. And the other thing that's really interesting is that number has actually remained relatively stable. We're at about 40% right now in the United States. It does not look like that's going to change in a significant way. When we've been polling our customers, we found about 50% of them say they're going to stay remote, 40% are going to go hybrid and 10% are going to go back to the office. Hybrid, you don't really know what that mix is going to be. But worst case, at least 50% of the people that were thrown into remote work during the pandemic are going to stay there. So this is going to have huge implications for the world. But more specifically for marketing. You're going to have to learn how to be able to build a remote team effectively. --- ## **Remote work is here to stay** ****Definitely. So you're saying the switch to remote work is here to stay. It's not something that's going to go away, it's not something that's just a flash in the pan response to the pandemic. In some respects, it's more of an acceleration of trends that were already happening, we were moving towards this kind of model already.** You know Brian Armstrong, does that name ring a bell? He's the CEO and founder of Coinbase, which is a company that is a crypto wallet. It recently just went public a few weeks ago at $141 billion. They entered number 89 on the S&P 500\. And for the first time in the history of the SEC, they have been allowed to state that their headquarters is nowhere. When they were asked why they stated that anything else would be a lie. I actually think these aren't going to be changes, these are new tactics, I think that we're seeing a tide change right now. I'll put it on your podcast right now, I think within the next five years, the majority, more than 50% of tech IPOs, will be remote-first, because it's a Model T moment, it's a Model T rolling off the production line versus a horse and buggy type of situation. It's more efficient for the employees, it's more efficient for the employers, you're removing one of the largest line items on your P&L which is your actual office space. And the big fear was collaboration and productivity would drop. If anything, they've improved during this time. So I think it's a complete game changer and if you're not understanding this shift, then you're going to be left behind. ****What is it about remote work that encourages that increased efficiency as opposed to being in the office? The biggest fear was that without supervision, without a manager present, people were just going to goof off and not get the work done. What is it that has allowed people to be so efficient in switching to remote work?** Number one is they actually can now goof off and this wasn't a bad thing. That's the thing that a lot of people don't really understand is people are actually spending more time quote, unquote, working. But when you look at their workday, it's not continuous work. It's not a nine to five drudge. It is probably a nine to six, or it's an eight to eight, workday. But inside that, you do a lot of living. Maybe you take a two-hour lunch break, and you go for a walk with your wife and your daughter as an example. Or maybe it is you take the afternoon off to be able to watch a movie and then you go back to work after the fact. Work and life are now going to co-mingle in somewhat of a more complicated way, but actually, a way that's more productive for the individual employee. Now, that's kind of more for the employee side, organizationally, the biggest thing that you actually really need to figure out is working from home and remote work does not actually just mean recreating the office. It's a very, very different process. And it boils down to what basically a lot of people in the industry have coined is asynchronous communication philosophy. ****Can you expand on what that means, asynchronous communication?** Sure. So Netflix is asynchronous and television is synchronous. There is a premise inside of offices, or what we like to call "on-premise teams" that collaboration is a good thing and the more you collaborate, the better your business will be. Remote teams see that as a broken premise because we can have à la carte synchronous communication. Whereas on-premise teams spend an hour, every single employee spends an hour and a half driving to a single location. And then once you're in that single location, you can annoy your co-workers and distract them from their deep work and core focus throughout the workday. Remote teams have a completely different philosophy towards this: if you adopt asynchronous communication philosophy, which effectively means collaboration synchronously, ie, talking on a zoom call, or a phone call, or immediately responding to a Slack message is actually disruptive towards the output of every individual employee. So it's every individual employee's responsibility to minimize collaboration and minimize synchronous communication as much as possible, in order to allow everyone to actually be much more productive throughout their workday. There's a tonne of implications that work into this. The biggest one, and I know there's probably a lot of CMOs and VPs of marketing that are listening to this type of podcast, is a lot of the managerial level is now redundant unfortunately because of asynchronous communication philosophy. The vast majority of that communication really wasn't needed in the first place. So a lot of[ ](https://www.cmoalliance.io/join-the-community/)those people are probably not going to have jobs, but long term, you build hyper-growth companies, and we're seeing this like in instances of Coinbase, or Shopify, or even Facebook, that are all adopting this philosophy on mass. --- ## **Organizational frameworks for remote work** ****Removing that kind of managerial role requires a very different structure to a business, to a marketing team, both on a micro-scale and on a macro-scale. What does an organization need to have in place to be able to implement these kinds of structures? What do they need to do first in order to get things rolling?** Let me just even touch on meetings. Probably the way that you would do a meeting on average is, when you're in an office is everyone would come into that office, someone would have a presentation, you'd have eight people watching that presentation for 45 minutes, then maybe you would have questions afterward, and maybe someone else goes up and does another presentation. Remote meetings are different, asynchronous remote meetings, rather, are very different. All meetings must be recorded through video. You can use a tool like Loom or Vidyard, as an example. You do the entire presentation on video, you post it into a project management tool like Asana, you identify the clear outcomes from that particular presentation and what issues you have that are connected to that particular presentation. Then everyone watches the video asynchronously, meaning they can watch it in their own time and then they comment asynchronously. So they put down comments and then when you come to a conclusion, with regards to any extenuating issues that are in that particular meeting, you put that back up into the actual issues list itself. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) So you say, "Here are the issues that we had based on this video presentation, here is the conclusion" and you conclude that task. If you can't conclude that task, then you jump on to a synchronous meeting, like a Zoom call, you only bring the people in that need to be in that meeting. If you don't need to be in the meeting, don't come to the meeting. And you address that issue and only that issue. When you've concluded it, you put that back up on the dock, you've concluded the issue and that's the way asynchronous meetings work inside of remote teams. This is very, very different from what I understand most synchronous teams meet. Again, I've never really worked in an office before, but from what I understand, they take a lot of time, and they're super boring. ****They do indeed. Many of our team work remote at the moment so there's no casting any aspersions on the rest of the team or anything when we say that. But from previous experience, so much of your day is taken up by meetings that could easily be done through an email or a Slack message even.** ****So having that kind of system codified, built into how you run the marketing team would require a complete change of thinking in how you lead that team, though, and how you manage that team.** --- ## **Skills for remote CMOs** ****But what about CMOs who have already developed their skills to run an in-person marketing team? Are they going to have to completely relearn how to do their job to build and run a remote team?** Yes. ****Simple answer.** They will, they'll have to adapt very quickly, or they will no longer be in the job. I think this is, as I said, a Model T moment, this is a more efficient way to be able to extract labor and increase revenue inside of your company. So you'll be left behind if you can't adapt to this new model. Going back to our previous point, I love that there are a tonne of employees that could not requisition a paperclip inside of the company. And yet, they can convince eight, six-figure employees to sit in the meeting for three hours. Whenever I'm in one of those things I literally look at the amount that I'm paying for everyone to be able to jump on that Zoom call, and I just run the ticker in my own head. I think to myself, wow, this hour and a half meeting cost me $8,000\. What am I doing here? This is ridiculous. This needs to stop fundamentally. There's a really great blog post about how Elon Musk runs meetings and I think it's his third golden rule, which is if a meeting isn't valuable to you walk out of it immediately. You don't even need to actually excuse yourself, just leave the meeting. I think that's a fantastic rule not only for office work but also for remote-first teams. If you don't need to be there, get back to doing your deep work. What are the outputs, particularly inside of a marketing team, that are going to produce higher returns? It is putting in a tracking pixel, it is writing copy, it is you know optimizing a web page, it is writing a blog post. These are the things that make you more money inside of your business. And if you're not maximizing the amount of time that your people are executing on that particular task, you will be pushed out by competitors that are more efficient than you. ****Fair enough. It's adapt or survive, survival of the fittest, which often happens in the wake of these big changes in working habits. There were plenty of CMOs who weren't willing to adapt to understanding social media or even digital marketing and they've sort of gone the way of the dinosaur.** ****So is that literally what it is? Are all CMOs going to have to be remote working CMOs now or are there still going to be certain companies that can be resistant to that?** I think there probably will be certain companies that are going to be resistant to that. I do however think, at least in the tech world, I would estimate right now about 86% of developers are currently remote. It's the vast majority of that industry. I don't know the numbers exactly for marketing but I would assume it's the majority at this point, are currently remote. And they were the minority pre-pandemic. But the ability to be able to hire labor, regardless of space or time is such a huge leveler that companies can use to be able to basically produce higher returns. It's not an issue of, well, I like the office or I like collaboration, it's an issue of, well, there's an arms race here and I really can't compete against these other companies that are just able to, let's say, pump out twice as many blog posts per month than I do on the same amount of money. That inevitably results in that marketing department being left behind. I wish I could say something different. I mean, the silver lining here is that a lot of this stuff is still relatively new. I think that this reorganization is still going to take another 18 months before it's really in the main mainstream because post-COVID a lot of the reorganization is going to happen where some people are gonna go back to the office, some people are not going to go back to the office, and they're going to test out all of these things. But 18 months later, I see probably in the marketing realm more than 80% of all marketers working remotely. So you have to be good at it in order to be able to execute on the next decade of marketing, in my opinion. --- ## **Remote work tech stacks** ****You touched a bit on the tech that you need to have to be able to make this system work. Do you want to expand a little more on what the ideal tech stack needs to look like for people who are setting up a remote marketing team? You mentioned Asana and project management boards, but what is the ideal tech stack that you need for this?** So we could go into this in a pretty deep way, let me just get a little bit more specific and talk about my SEO team. We have a metric that we've developed internally called cumulative domain authority, which effectively allows our different linkers to be measured very quantifiably as to their effectiveness inside of the team. So domain authority goes from zero to 100, 100 would be like Google, and zero would be a brand new website. Instead of just getting backlinks, which is a pretty bad measure because you go after backlinks that are not that important. Instead, what we do is measure the importance of each website that you acquire. So if I got a Forbes article, which I think we just did yesterday, it's a domain authority of 93\. And then our website has a domain authority of 79\. If you got those two backlinks, you would have 79 plus 93 and that would be your cumulative score moving forward, and we comp out based on that. But inside of that platform, we literally just have a Google Sheets Doc, we have our own internal CRM that we use for our linkers, which is HubSpot. We do outreach through SalesLoft for getting those links. We are constantly optimizing those outbound campaigns we're running to be able to build those relationships to build those links. All of that stuff is reported back to me inside of HubSpot and actually exported every month in a Google Doc so that I know who the comp inside of that organization is. And then for the actual preparation of those keywords as well, we use tools like AHrefs, for a lot of the link building that we go after and identifying which link opportunities we want to crack after. So each department is really different, they require a different technology stack. But fundamentally, if you were just starting from zero, I'm hopeful that if you're a CMO right now you have some type of project management system in place, that would probably be the base level one. Some form of communication, both synchronous and asynchronous so that would be something like email or Slack would be more asynchronous, and something like Zoom would be synchronous. That's about it. Well, Time Doctor and you need to be able to have a tool in place to actually measure the accountability of the amount of time that you're putting in on a particular task so that you can work against that efficiency and figure out who are your best linkers and who are not your best linkers and how to coach them up. ****It's likely as we move forward as well, there's going to be more and more systems designed bespoke for remote teams as well. Do you know of anything that's coming up like that?** There's a lot of tools that are popping up in that space and I think we're going to see a lot more of them in the next year or two. Funnily enough, actually, one of my friends, Andreas Klinger, who was the CTO of Product Hunt, he spoke at Running Remote about two and a half years ago, did a fantastic presentation - you could check it out at youtube.com/runningremote, we have all of our talks up there for free - about building Product Hunt on 20 developers and remotely and it was a fantastic, fantastic talk. But after the fact, he said, "Well, you know, I wish that there was a fund just for remote work tools". And we said, "Well, you should start something like this, you've got Product Hunt behind you, you can definitely" and he's like "Ah, no one would give us money." Within minutes, he had hundreds of 1000s of dollars that people were willing to commit to the project. That turned into Remote First Capital and I'm an LP in that fund and I've got to tell you, it is one of the best funds I've ever seen, not been involved in, but ever seen. Because remote work tools are just completely exploding right now. I mean, Zoom is one of those things that's at the tip of the iceberg. There are so many different project management systems, so many task management systems, even a little-known piece of technology that you really need is something called an employer of record system. So if you want to hire people that are not inside of the country in which your corporation resides, you need an employer record company to actually cover you legally so that the employee can work legally inside of that country and be an employee. There are billions and billions of dollars being turned over in those businesses right now. And there are dozens of those companies that have just popped up quite literally in the last year, and they've all raised 50, 100, 150 million dollars in series A's. So the space is completely exploding right now, if I was going to start a new product, it would definitely be in the remote workspace. --- ## **Remote team building** ****If you've seen the writing's on the wall, it makes sense definitely to go that way. So that's the tech that you need in place, what about the people?** ****What do you need in terms of skill sets, personality traits, for your remote marketing team? Are you going to have to hire differently to build a remote team than a an on-site team?** To a degree, Yes. What do you think the biggest psychometric factor is towards successful remote hire? I'd love to hear your perspective on it. ****The assumed thing would be the ability to work independently, without too much supervision. But then you get asked those questions when you're hiring for a role when you're working on-site as well. Is it more of a factor in that respect?** ****When many people are hired for a job before they're often asked, "How do you feel about working independently?" And you always say, "Yes, of course, I'm happy with that". But they're not expecting you to just go off and do all your work on your own when you're in an office. Whereas remotely you are expected to pretty much do that.** Yeah, I have a thesis statement. I have a little document that I have. It's a one-pager and everyone that's my direct report gets this when they start working with me, and it's titled, "Blueprint to Liam and his weird little quirks". There's a whole bunch of very real things in that document. It's not made out to make me look great. It's actually made out to make me look very real and a lot of those things, I wouldn't necessarily admit to people, the first hour that I'm talking to them. But I went up to three of my closest friends and I said, "What would you tell someone that's just about to work for me what to do to be able to get the most out of me?" And so that was the result of that document. And at the bottom of it, I have my thesis statement towards work at least remotely, which is, "Don't ask me what to do. Tell me what you did." That's a core tenet for me. But the most important psychometric factor that defines success inside of a remote work relationship is introversion. The more introverted you are, usually, the more successful you are inside remote teams. Extroverted people can absolutely succeed inside of extroverted teams, but they need another outlet that's not just their work life, they need la co-working space, or they need to go to a coffee shop or anything else that just allows them to interact with people. Because hen they don't have that, they just feel like they're getting strangled, emotionally, and they really need access to those other types of people. I can tell you, there have been people, and this was way back in the day because we couldn't even do it legally today from an infosec perspective, there are people that worked in the company for us for years, we never met them in person, we never did a video call with them, we never did an audio call with them, they could have been a bot and they were fantastic developers, or fantastic customer support people, because they were just really good at their job and they were very introverted, and they didn't want to interact with people one on one. ****Not to say development or customer service don't require creative skills, but one of the big things about creativity, at least in the marketing space in many marketer's experience is those shared ideas. You need to be able to get together and hammer out some ideas sometimes for campaigns, how does that work within a remote team and particularly with a team built of introverts?** So when we communicate asynchronously, it allows introverted peoples' thoughtfulness to be an asset and not a liability. That's what's really important to be able to understand when you look at remote work relationships. Because you have the loudest voice, or you're the most charismatic does not necessarily mean you have the right answer to the problem, or your solution is the best solution. A lot of the time it's the quiet introverted people that never really had a chance in a synchronous environment to be able to provide their input because they were never given the time for their thoughtfulness to really develop and for them to provide a really great answer to a problem. And so when we see people collaborating asynchronously, we do see those magical moments come out where the person that wouldn't necessarily speak up in a big huge meeting will actually write out a text message or write out an email that's just the perfect solution to the problem. But with that said, it's also important to recognize, and to your point, marketing teams do need more synchronous time than a developer or customer support rep. We just try to make sure that we keep that very methodological. So we have predefined times that you meet, we don't just ping someone and say, "Hey, can you," we like to call those people Slack sunshines, the people that always want to just ping you and it's like, "Hey, do you have five minutes?" "No, I don't have five minutes. I need to do this podcast or I need to write this blog post or I need to" insert whatever, which is the actual thing that I need you throughout my workday. "Let's predefine a top time that we can all come together and collaborate synchronously so that we can maximize efficiency throughout the entire team". These little pings, they're absolutely disruptive towards peoples' focus in their workday, and that's the thing that you need to have a little bit more of a rein on it, if you're going to be successful remotely. --- ## **Remote inter-departmental collaboration** ****So that's the marketing team itself, but one of the biggest issues that's reoccurring in conversations with CMOs is aligning other departments, getting other departments on board, and working cohesively. Is remote working an extra step to getting that in place?** ****It might be a bit easier to collaborate when you can just go down the hallway and talk to your CFO or your head of sales or something like that, in order to get people on board with a marketing campaign. Whereas having people in separate buildings, is that going to further the divide between departments, or is there a way of working around that?** It is more difficult, for sure to be able to get everyone on the same page. From a leadership perspective, it's a lot more difficult to be able to make that happen. With that said, however, it also allows for everyone to be heard equally, going back to the loudest voice wins type of argument, this is not necessarily something that you want inside of an organization. Just because someone is very charismatic doesn't necessarily mean that they have good ideas. So when we look at trying to convince everyone to get onto the same page, a lot of the times we'll even just do surveys, we'll just chat with people and we'll send out a really good... I usually have a one-on-one cadence with people, which is, do you want me to bug you more or less? And that's a really good measure for me to be able to figure out okay does this person need more feedback from me or less feedback? But the way that we implement this all is through a relatively complicated amount of process documentation. And the bigger your organization gets, the more process documentation you have inside of your organization. However, inside remote teams, you need to have process documentation almost from day one. So all of the processes, operations, procedures, the discussion that I just told you about cumulative domain authority, that's like a 30-page guide with video tutorials and all that kind of stuff. So that a brand new employee can come into the organization, and can be trained up on how to be a really good linker without necessarily having a manager there to be able to teach them synchronously. That's another big, huge leveler that allows you to push ahead of a lot of other companies in general, because the actual company is the manager, the company is the training tool, it's not necessarily the individual. And we have the same thing with regards to everyone getting on the same page, a lot of the time we'll do that asynchronously and if there are issues that pop up, then we jump on synchronously to be able to discuss them. We actually only really talk synchronously, when it's an important emotional issue that we need to address. That's probably about 80% of the communication that happens inside of our organization simply because everything else is handled by the company itself. --- ## **The role of management to remote workers** ****So it's only the conversations that need to be conversations, is that what you’re saying?** Only important conversations: "How are you?" "How are you feeling?" "You're stressed out?" "Why are you stressed out?" "How can I help you?" "Am I being annoying?" "Do you want more feedback from me?" These are the only things that a manager should really be focusing on because everything else inside of a remote-first asynchronous organization is quantified, measured, and measurable by everyone inside of the organization. Even right now, inside of Time Doctor, I'm currently tracking podcast as my task and anyone in the company can see exactly what I'm working on right now, which is a podcast. And if they want to talk to me, obviously they shouldn't because I'm currently working on this podcast with you, which is a synchronous form of work that I need to do. And it's a bad idea for me to be pinged by other people to say, "Hey, can you help me with this or that?". So it's really important to just reserve synchronous time for stuff that's really important and that boils down to the vast majority of the time, employees are not concerned... it's not the teaching, it's not like, "Hey, I've got to really master this tactic, or I've got to really figure this out on social media, or I've got to figure out this Facebook ad". The vast majority of the time when an employee is not performing, it's something connected to their mindset. That's the only thing that we really address in meetings. ****It gives people the independence to do their work but then providing a support system to help them do their work. The manager's role, it's not telling them what to do, it's helping them do their job.** We use the word autonomy, remote teams are some of the most autonomous workers you'll ever meet because they just have the freedom to do what they want to do, with the caveat of there are very clear KPIs, quantitative measures that are being deployed that you must meet. But how you want to get to that target, that's really up to you. We have all of this fantastic training that's been battle-tested, that you can use. But if you can actually innovate that process itself, share it with other team members, we'd love to be able to see it so that we can create a better mousetrap. But the one thing that you shouldn't be doing is sitting and watching a presentation synchronously when, honestly, I could watch this at 2X and get exactly the same amount of information. --- ## **Developing a remote working process doc** ****One last thing, where do you go to develop this process doc you mentioned you should have from day one. Because you've had years of experience with remote working to build up your knowledge of how to make it work, and how to establish something like that.** ****What about someone who is stepping into a CMO role for the first time and being told "we need a remote team set up", where do they go around creating this process doc? Where can they find the information for what they need to do?** It's going to be incredibly easy, go to about.gitlab.com/handbook/. That is the largest open-source remote work repository on the face of the planet. I think it's 8,000 pages. And Dimitri, who is the CTO and Co-Founder of GitLab encourages you to steal all of it. So all of their marketing strategies are in there, it's all entirely open source. Another funny side point on that, GitLab ended up sponsoring Running Remote a few years ago, and they open-sourced everything, including their emails. So if you just type into Google "GitLab Running Remote sponsorship emails", you'll actually see all of the emails that we had, and the negotiation on the sponsorship dollars that went back and forth. Now they're a little bit extreme, they open source everything inside of the organization because they feel that everyone that works inside of their company should be able to have access to anything else inside of the company. It's a concept called radical transparency, which we also like to follow as well. But about.gitlab.com/handbook/ it's all there, steal it, repurpose it for yourself, and then at least you're at kind of like your beta version of your process document. Another really great tool that you might want to check out is trainual.com. That's a process document tool that will allow you to be able to build these processes on a platform. But if you don't want to pay for something like Trainual, Google Docs is great. ### Customer engagement and the metrics that matter [Q&A with Intercom] URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-engagement-and-the-metrics-that-matter-q-a-with-intercom/ Last updated: 2021-12-17T14:07:05.000Z For startups especially, finding the time and resources to fully engage with every customer at every stage can be a real struggle. According to [Gallup](https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/172637/why-customer-engagement-matters.aspx), fully engaged customers offer 23% more revenue on average, but getting the balance right between newer, lower-tier customers and more established big spenders can often feel like you’re borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. Luckily Matt O’Boyle, Customer Success Manager at Intercom is on hand to talk us through setting expectations, measuring customer success at scale, and the company’s focus for 2022\. --- # Q: How do you measure customer success at scale, and what key metrics do you track? **A:** We're still kind of teasing that out and figuring out how we measure that scale. The thing I want to track is touchpoints. For example, if a customer is having issues, you can go back and say, well how many touchpoints did we have with them? How many times have we offered them the opportunity to speak with a customer success manager? The key KPIs for us are team retention and how well our team is getting by. For me, I'm looking at the small business team - we have roughly three relationship managers that I work with, over 500 accounts. [Customer retention metrics and how to action themHow do successful SaaS organizations measure retention and what on earth do they with the results, I hear you cry? Well, we surveyed 100 SaaS pros to find out how they track, review and utilize retention and churn metrics, and here are the results.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSEmma Bilardi![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/jakob-owens-CiUR8zISX60-unsplash--1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/) --- # Q: How do you police the online customer forum? **A:** I don't actually run the customer forum, that would be the customer engagement team. We have moderators on that forum, and it’s very visible by user, so everyone is accountable. There’s a picture of them, their name, and their business. We do reward customers who are very engaged on that platform, so if they’re a customer who's answering a lot of questions, or doing a lot of really cool peer-to-peer stuff, we’ll reward them with a point system, and they'll get gifts from Intercom. When we first launched it, we allowed customers in our small segment who weren't annual customers to get some engineer time that they previously would not have been allowed. So that was a nice thing for them and encourages people to be a bit better, and a bit nicer than before. --- # Q: Many teams struggle to divide and conquer scale motions between customer success organizations and product marketing. Has Intercom faced this problem? **A:** Yes, so this is exactly what I'm tackling at the moment. We have a lifecycle management team that delivers similar content to what I want to deliver. So the content is there, but it's built by someone else. Finding it can be a problem, so as a solution, I'm going to do it with them, I'm going to liaise with them, and see about the possibility of taking over the communications for the sales-owned accounts in my name. Even if they aren't delivering fantastic content, but they're doing it at the right time, that's half the work done for me already. If I can put my name on that, I think it's a bit more comfortable for the customers to see that familiar face coming through. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) It’s easy for me with a tool like Intercom, because we can change the dynamic owner of the messaging and who can control where the messaging comes from, where the replies go back to, and it's easy for us to do so. My advice would be to make sure you have an excellent communications tool where you can swap the owner of messages from product marketing to the CSM ownership. --- # Q: What can you do when you're in charge of the lowest tier of clients, and you don't have enough time to really engage with everyone? **A:** If you don't have time to really engage with everyone, that is very tricky. What we did to solve this was to build out a tiered system, so I've split my 500 customers into three tiers, those who are spending the most, those who are spending, and those who are spending the least. Then we can at least set expectations with them at the start to say, “hey, you're a brand-new customer, you sit-in this segment, and you're going to get two hours of onboarding time with the CSM, and then you might get one hour of onboarding of ongoing time every month. That's when we can send them the right content and the right videos at the right time. I really recommend Loom for those smaller customers, because you can record your screen super quickly, and just pop it across to them if they're having success or support issues. --- # Q: What will be your focus in 2022? **A:** 2022 will be about looking back over the numbers on the behavioral messaging side of things we’ve focused on in 2021 to see exactly where the difference was made, then A/B testing to see if we can improve that. A lot of it is going to be reviewing numbers, churn is a huge focus for this customer messaging. I think the more we engage the customers, the less likely they are to leave, and the more comfortable they feel in the intercom family. ### Introducing the ones to watch in SaaS 2022 URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/introducing/ Last updated: 2024-07-19T15:00:57.000Z Through your nominations, some astute social listening, and our internal panel, we’ve compiled a list of THE ones to watch in 2022\. 🙌 We want to introduce you to the trailblazers, the rising stars, and the champions of SaaS, who have all gone above and beyond for their respective callings. So, we’ve crammed the pages with killer content on: - Our SaaS pros career trajectories so far - Actionable insights into their functions - Acknowledgments from their peers Discover a stellar list brimming with SaaS expertise and exciting potential, from the likes of **Drift**, **Dropbox**, **Hubspot**, and more. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ### How do you create a product function from scratch? URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-do-you-create-a-product-function-from-scratch/ Last updated: 2024-04-02T15:53:11.000Z Transforming a company to a product-led approach is no easy task. Especially when your first job is building out the product department itself. **Nick Falkowski, Head of Product at Bionic**, sat down with[ Product Led Alliance](https://www.productledalliance.com/) before his session at the [Product-Led Festival](https://festival.productledalliance.com/) to talk about his career journey and what goes into building an entire department, gaining cross-functional alignment around Product, and what it's like leading it. ## Firstly, can you tell us a bit about your background? How has your career evolved from conference production to product leadership? Sure - so for a start, my background is non-technical. I have degrees in Philosophy and Classics, and on entering work, I wasn’t sure what I really wanted to do. What I was sure about were my passions for learning, understanding deeply how and why people think the way they do, and uncovering how successful businesses are built and the special ingredients that enable them to thrive. Combining all these led me to conference production that, as you know, is all about uncovering and understanding the problems and opportunities affecting industries and value chains. However, over time I found I was so interested in the challenges facing the speakers and attendees, I wanted to move into a role where I could have a more direct impact on solving those challenges myself. Upon realizing this, moving to Product felt surprisingly natural. It married that deep problem analysis with my love for understanding and learning about customers, and the belief that the proposition, nature, and quality of the product is essential for driving businesses forward. ## When you joined Bionic, you were tasked with creating a brand-new department in the business - how did you go about establishing product? I joined Bionic when Product as a function was a very new concept. I was fortunate to join soon after our CPO, Andrew Stocks, who had a rich experience in Product Development and Price Comparison from senior stints at MoneySuperMarket and Compare the Market. Setting up Product from there was all about attracting the right talent in the right roles, and giving them a platform to get to know the business and succeed. We built out a series of Product Teams each with PM, Devs, BA, QA and UX. We then ensured we could connect them with knowledge bases within the business, and our target customers. That initial team building was one half of the battle; the other was convincing and then proving the value of a Product-led approach to the rest of the business. ## What was the reception from internal stakeholders? I would describe the overall reception as a mix of genuine enthusiastic support, and healthy skepticism. This was a brand new (and not cheap) department and focus, a new way of doing things, and a fresh approach to understanding customers. It was sometimes hard at first to win time with key stakeholders or sales-focused roles, as we were asking for their time for something that wasn’t yet fully tangible or even always understood. However, by being open and developing and sharing work in a very collaborative, iterative, and open manner, this became less and less of a battle over time. ## During your time at Bionic you’ve reinvented the customer journey for energy comparison, what process did you take to understand the initial problem, and identify a solution? We zoomed out, we looked at the business fundamentals, but more so than anything, we looked at the challenge for the customer. We could see they weren’t being well served by the existing solutions in our market (even our own), so we got back to basics with user research, working agnostically to understand what the key concerns businesses had over energy switching, how that differed to the domestic market, and building a solution from scratch that tackled those concerns. That in reality meant 60+ hours of face to face research, along with countless surveys and quantitative analysis on top. From it, we created a product that instilled trust, quickened the switching process, and helped customers save time and money. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ## What have been the results? To put it simply, we have doubled the number of customers who visited our business energy landing page and would then go ahead to switch with us. We saw similar patterns and returns on our key price comparison website partners, and great upticks in NPS and customer reviews. A great result for the business and customers based on taking a customer-first approach to the product experience. ## What does being Product-Led mean to you? Being Product-Lead to me is the shift to a new understanding of what a business is truly about, and from there shaping the organization around what matters most: the customer’s experience and the value delivered to them. That’s why I think it is a natural and necessary, if sometimes difficult, move for any successful company to make. ## And following on from that… what role does product play in your organization? Would you describe Bionic as product-led? I think at Bionic we are on that incredible journey to being product-led, which for us at its core involves us moving from a previous understanding of our customer experience as defined largely by a direct, one-off advisory phone call, to instead looking at every possible interaction (direct or indirect) someone has with our product, service, and brand, and relentlessly examining and optimizing their experience and outcomes. ## In your view, what should be the relationship between Product teams, Marketing teams, Sales teams, and Customer Success in a Product-Led company? Collaborative, communicative, and aligned. All teams are necessary in the overall success of the company, and so the building of consistent communication channels and through that, shared understanding, is integral to moving forward. ## What is your favorite aspect of product leadership? Something I’ve really enjoyed is building and nurturing a product-focused culture, not just within the team but in the wider business, by listening to and engaging with every department and bringing them along as key parts of the journey. The chance to explore new opportunities, rethink approaches, and bring in and synthesize different perspectives and ideas into viable solutions is what makes me excited to work in a product leadership role. ## And finally, if you could go back to the start of your career, knowing what you know now, what advice would you give yourself? I would say firstly to never be afraid to appear the idiot and ask the obvious questions when starting in any business; it's how you gain true understanding and if you’re open about why you are asking, people will respect that approach. Secondly is to never forget the customer; it’s sometimes too easy to get lost in the details and hard work of delivery, but you should make sure you always consider the customer and its potential impact on them when making a decision or compromise along the way to ensure what you eventually deliver will still serve them well. Thirdly is to trust in people; respect and support the team around you, and you’ll usually find that more than paid back in the environment, and products, you create together. ### How to develop your sales enablement team URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-develop-your-sales-enablement-team/ Last updated: 2022-07-04T11:01:19.000Z In sales enablement and training, and development generally, finding the resources and investment needed for our important work can be challenging, sometimes it can feel like an uphill battle. My name's **Chris Grebowiec, I'm the Global Head of Sales Productivity and Enablement at Square in the US**. In this article, I’ll discuss org design, and specifically restructuring sales enablement to mimic a traditional product dev team. Specifically, the piece will focus on: - How to use product development best practices to develop sales enablement - The role of various teams, such as: 1) Product teams 2) Sales program managers 3) LXD/ID 4) People analytics 5) Field enablement - Example sales enablement programs This will help build the sales enablement organization in a way that makes accessing investment dollars based on proven outcomes achievable and maximizes your impact. I'm writing this article from the Western edge of Arches National Park, in Moab, Utah - one of the core tenets of Square today is work from wherever you feel most creative. I can't imagine a better place for creative energy and understanding and the ability to share some insights that I found over my career to help you. I think what I've learned in almost 20 years in the space of both sales enablement and training and development generally is that finding the resources and the investment for the important work that we do can sometimes be difficult, it can be hard to explain. A lot of times, it feels like we're struggling uphill. I want to talk a little bit about org design in this article and the ability to build your organization so that you have access to investment dollars based on proven outcomes with the programs that you own today. ## Using product development best practices to develop high impact sales enablement ### The agenda What I’m going to discuss in this article is: - Forming your enablement team, and - Using product development best practices to develop high-impact sales enablement. I really hope that you get some fun ideas, tips, and tricks that you can quickly apply, and ways you can form your teams around positive ROI. The objective of this article is to help you get the investment and resourcing to maximize your impact. Often when you walk into a new enablement team the way they know they’re important, or they’ve had an impact is due to a level one survey telling them 'high five you're doing a great job', (and they likely worked 60 to 70 hours a week just to get the work done). I want us to figure out how to maximize the time of our people, maximize their impact, and then give them time back to relax and come up with new creative ideas to help advance our sales teams. ### The problem The problem we're dealing with today is enablement is a historically under-resourced team (of course, *we* know it's vital to sales success) for a few different reasons. 1. Because it's hard to show ROI. 2. Because the impact is often dispersed across multiple actors and multiple teams, it's really hard to isolate the variable of training, or tools that we support, and say this is the one reason why sales increase their numbers. 3. We're often considered to be a support or administrative resource. I want to change that within sales enablement, within sales productivity, I think it's important we become an ideal partner, and we become a partner that actually delivers money back to the business. [![The problem we're dealing with today is enablement is a historically under-resourced team - of course, we know it's vital to sales success - for a few different reasons. Because it's hard to show ROI. Because the impact is often dispersed across multiple actors and multiple teams, it's really hard to isolate the variable of training, or tools that we support, and say this is the one reason why sales' increases their numbers. We're often considered a support or administrative resource.](https://productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2021/09/The-problem-with-enablement.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-develop-your-sales-enablement-team) ### Kirkpatrick levels On the right-hand side you can see the Kirkpatrick levels of measurement, you probably already know these, but just to give you a general overview: - **Level one** \- the smile sheets at the end of all the training classes you do, the things that we ask, 'would you recommend this class, do we give you a high five or not a high five?' and some gentle expository feedback. That's important for us to know, and to see the quality of presentation but it also helps us develop the next level of content based on feedback from our customers that is important for us but maybe not as important to the business. - **Level two** of course means that they've acquired knowledge, they can pass a quiz, they may be certified on an action. Also very important, because we think we know best practices very well and the best practices that we know, we want to make sure people understand so that they can get to... - **Level three**, which is direct application. Again, that's only important to us, it's important to us that they have application steps and they push things forward, and they utilize best practices that are both learned and new and experimental in many cases because it allows us to know that the work we're doing has an outward and immediate impact first. But what's most important to the business and the most important to your sales organization is level four. - **Level four** \- our ROI impact. We do have to have levels one, two, and three to prove level four. Level one and level two show absorption, knowledge, and happiness. Level three shows the adoption of that. Level four shows the measurable impact of those things. ## The solution What I'm going to move into here is a discussion about: - How do we provide measurable impact back to the business? - How do we develop and grow our teams in ways that push towards a measurable impact on the business? So that we can say, “Look, by speeding up X we saved you 90% of some key metric over the last three months”. We want all of our programs to be measured that way, to be continuously improving that way, and to be developing new skills not only for our people but for the salespeople that we're supporting. But in order to get to that and solve that problem, we have to develop learning-enabled solutions that have clear ROI drivers for the business and we want to set up teams to deliver the products that will enable that. [![We have to develop learning-enabled solutions that have clear ROI drivers for the business and we want to set up teams to deliver the products that will enable that.](https://productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2021/09/The-solution.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-develop-your-sales-enablement-team) How did I come to the idea? ## Let me introduce myself I have had quite a few different roles in sales organizations and developmental organizations. ### Salesperson First, as a salesperson where I sold learning and development products for two different organizations that are old, old, old school - the old man down by the river, making a hype speech, that's exactly what I sold at the beginning of my sales career working for a company called Fred Pryor Seminars, and National Seminars Group. ### Sales manager and director I did lead and direct teams and sales leaders for both Dex Media and Info USA. ### Learning programs manager I was a learning programs manager running onboarding, competency development, leadership development, and a whole bunch of other things for two different places at a small little startup you may have heard of called Amazon, Amazon Local, and Amazon business. ### Product manager Then I took a major shift in my career. I wanted to try something new, and see what it was like to really invent something and get it launched across an organization. I pivoted into a role as a programs and product manager in the human resources space. I helped develop a launch planning tool that was predictive for all new hires across Amazon and lived within the HR realm. I actually acted as the business voice and what I learned was acting as the business voice and working with technical voices. I thought I knew everything about how to speak tech, but I didn't. It became very important for me to identify “how do I get the right support resources so that I can work with my technical resources so we can come to the exact same end?”. I was great at providing the vision, the structure, the documentation that would help guide our technical people to develop, but I wasn't as good at helping them understand the problems, design issues, and the things we needed to solve to make it usable, adaptable, iterative, and improvable across. I learned a tonne as a product manager, I never want to do it again, I'm done with it. I really love the learning space a tonne; I'm very happy that I had the product manager role in my past because it allowed me to understand there are best practices, there are structures that will help us develop products that deliver real ROI to our teams. If we can mimic that same structure product development teams have with our sales enablement teams, then we can start providing positive ROI for the business and hopefully then get more investment so we can continue to expand and develop the products and programs we know have great impact and we love. ### Global Head of Sales Productivity and Enablement That got me to where I am today, Global Head of Sales Productivity and Enablement at Square, I've been here just over a year, brought a team that probably feels familiar to a lot of people who handle a lot of things, a lot of one-off requests, a lot of training pieces, mostly on the onboarding. No one knew where that timeframe went and we have restructured the team around the core tenants of a product development team, looking to get the same ROI and investment that I'll talk about that I hope your teams can get so that we can invest even deeper into the programs that we know have great impact. ## What do I know? What I know today is product teams tend to have four different roles included in them, they're trying to answer the question of what products are customers trying to buy? ## Product teams [![The business side impact of the organization starts with the product manager. ](https://productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2021/09/Product-teams.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-develop-your-sales-enablement-team) ### Product manager They're the person who sets vision and strategy, plans and delivers releases, curates new ideas, and builds backlogs of things that are improvements to current products or development of brand new products. ### Development They work typically hand in hand with development resources that both do software development - software development engineers or SDEs - and UX designers, people that do the user experience of what you're providing. They're the developers of the solution, they do conduct user research, they perform usability testing to make sure things are used. Both are very, very important. You've got the business directional person, and then the person who is the builder of that business directional tool, things that are very, very important to develop anything. The person who tends to sit between those two in a product development team might be someone who's a technical product manager or a technical programs manager, who helps translate the business to the tech and then the tech back to the business. That's actually where I see leadership sitting in a lot of ways in our organizations. But there are two other really important roles within a product to make sure they get adopted and iterated on and developed, and that people love them and want them. ### Product analytics The first one is product analytics. Product analytics is very important because it measures the success of the adoption of your product, you link products to outcomes, you actually can develop ROI based on customer adoption of specific products. It's really easy, for instance, at Square, that if someone adopts a Square POS, for us to link the amount of credit card processing that they're utilizing to the POS systems, and develop and identify the margins based on each of those individual products. We can then tell the business community, here's how much you can expect us to make based on the launch of this new product. ### Product marketing The last group is product marketing, the group that develops personas, crafts positioning and messaging, and helps develop competitive research within the organization. You've probably worked with these people in sales enablement, these are the ones that probably develop your messaging that you then deliver back out whether in product changes, or a new hire onboarding, for the products your people sell. You may work hand in hand with them, they may even provide your pitch decks or one-pagers - the important things people then deliver and utilize with their customers specifically. Those four roles are very, very important. ### Enablement teams In the next image, you're going to see very little has changed, except for some titles that should feel very familiar to you. [![ I think we should be creating the business voice for all organizations around this idea of a sales enablement or a training program manager. ](https://productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2021/09/Enablement-teams.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-develop-your-sales-enablement-team) ### Enablement program manager First off, I think we should be creating the business voice for all organizations around this idea of a sales enablement or a training program manager. What that means is the most important programs we have, have a specific manager who sets vision and strategy, creates new ideas, and plans and delivers releases. Sounds very familiar as a product manager might do. It's exactly what I think the program manager should do. They should think of each individual learning integration they're helping to develop as a product they have to sell to the sales team. The sales team has to adopt it, buy it, and then expand it so that we can prove ROI. ### LXD or ID The second group was both UX and software development, previously for us is the learning experience design or instructional design. Of course, these are the people that develop the solutions, conduct user research, perform usability testing on the content as it's been developed, often does some level of analysis to make sure that we understand deep enough the problems that we're trying to solve, looks to design and develop the solutions, will then help implementation and then builds in the evaluation pieces that will help then iterate on the programs and make them better. Those two work side by side to create, but they should be leaning in and working very strongly with their people analytics function. ### People analytics The people analytics function will measure the success of product adoption, links product outcomes directly. Think about this, if you could tell me your onboarding programs saved your business $1.6 million by shortening time to ramp by one to two weeks over the course of a year, would that be helpful for you to get investment? I think so. The person that helps you do that directly is your people analytics lead. They help you dive into the data and help you understand what the levers are that you push to make the most money for the business. ### Field enablement The last step is field enablement, again, develops personas, crafts positioning and messaging, and does some level of competitive research. This role is the person that helps develop strong pitch decks, builds the testimonial loops with the product marketing managers to make sure that it fits into an entire product suite. Field enablement might own the knowledge catalog that you have, a lot of people use tools like Guru to be a knowledge catalog within their business, the field enablement manager will make sure the Guru cards or that knowledge pieces are: - Up to date, - On a specific cadence, - Verified well. But then will also create the content and the pieces that get sent directly to your customers, that help push them towards closing faster, and works directly with people analytics to make sure that the content works very well, works as part of a package with enablement program managers. If you're launching a new product they're building a major part of that new product. If there is a new launch that requires instructional design or learning experiences they're gonna work very in-depth with building those packages too so that when your new launch happens, people are prepared and ready to go. You can see that those two teams feel very similar and work together collectively to prove ROI for the business and do it very well. Now I'm going to talk about each of these roles specifically, and how they do work together, and what their steps might be. ## Sales program manager A sales enablement program manager is looking to work with people analytics to identify significant gaps in performance. I'm sure you have KPI measurements that you look at all the time and wonder: - What kind of effect can I have directly on these KPI measures? - Is there a learning intervention that I can prove actually has an impact? Hopefully, there is because then in step two, when you develop the analytical frameworks and build program requirement documents to work with your step three learning experience or instructional designers resources to develop solutions, you're building a whole case and you're able to document and prove, 'if we are at X, here's our bet, we will get to Y and it'll take us six months to get there'. Now you can measure the impact and show it directly to your leadership teams. [![A sales enablement program manager is looking to work with people analytics to identify significant gaps in performance. I'm sure you have KPI measurements that you look at all the time and wonder: What kind of effect can I have directly on these KPI measures? Is there a learning intervention that I can prove actually has an impact? ](https://productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2021/09/Sales-Program-Manager.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-develop-your-sales-enablement-team) ## LXD/ID Learning experience designer and instructional design work with the program managers to determine developmental needs will often work with field enablement to identify voice and persona that we will utilize to develop those learning integrations. Finally, they will develop and launch learning engagements using the learning management system. I'm actually a big fan of the instructional designer or the instructional design team owning the learning management system as they are the ones that tend to do the inputs, will need to set the structures by which we then get reporting outward, and will feel very tied to that reporting and help them prove not only the adoption cadence but then work with the business case people to prove the ROI cadence of the systems and the training that we build. Give them a little bit of an extra buy-in, if they've got the tool that they own, that they can then help improve upon and they can annually go and purchase where necessary if needed. [![Learning experience designer and instructional design work with the program managers to determine developmental needs will often work with field enablement to identify voice and persona that we will utilize to develop those learning integrations. ](https://productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2021/09/LXD-ID.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-develop-your-sales-enablement-team) ## People analytics People analytics will work with sales strategy to identify inputs. Often they work with the operations team and they'll work with program managers to identify strategies for improvement. Finally, report outcomes and identify new gaps. In my world that would mean give me a looker dashboard for everyone and everything. For you, it might be a Tableau dashboard for everything you're doing or a way to link ROI directly to the interventions that you're creating. Their output should be that you or the business person or the sales enablement program manager has clear identification of goals and can easily report back to the business, 'here's how we're growing'. They will also be able to keep an eye on content and say, 'Enablement program manager, it seems like in week six, we've had a slight dip. This is concerning because of A, B, and C'. Now we can go and have quick interventions in the middle of a programming sequence and say how do we improve things so that we don't have failure, especially on things that we develop for the long haul? [![People analytics will work with sales strategy to identify inputs. Often they work with the operations team and they'll work with program managers to identify strategies for improvement. ](https://productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2021/09/People-analytics-1.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-develop-your-sales-enablement-team) ## Field enablement Field enablement, of course, identifies voice and persona for clients, they're doing some of that marketing backend work that really helps especially at the top of the funnel, they'll develop standards and strategies for sales facing content, helping them to build, enable, and drive that content to people and get it launched, and continue to iterate on it. They're going to collaborate with LX and ID in the creation of voice and direction of assets, often owning what's called a content management system, or CMS. This will tell them what content is being used well, it will also give eyes into what content when delivered actually moves things through a funnel faster, which again, provides much stronger ROI input because we can say if things move faster, and people can contact more of our merchants that we want to buy from us, then we have X ROI on the back end. Again, building it from that case of I want to make the company more money, I want to make our business more money so that we get additional investment, so we have more people who can develop content for us, a CMS tool is really key to doing that so that a field enablement person can prove their worth and grow. [![Field enablement, of course, identifies voice and persona for clients, they're doing some of that marketing backend work that really helps especially at the top of the funnel, they'll develop standards and strategies for sales facing content, helping them to build, enable, and drive that content to people and get it launched, and continue to iterate on it. ](https://productmarketingalliance.com/content/images/2021/09/field-enablement.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-develop-your-sales-enablement-team) ## Example programs Now I'll briefly walk through some examples of programs you probably use today that can fit this criteria and the people who I've discussed and their roles today, you can see how they can collaborate. ### Onboarding The first one is new hire onboarding, I think we all handle this. It's the thing that we're known for. It's the piece that everyone says is the most important driver of the business that enablement can provide. I don't necessarily think that's wrong. I also think it's the easiest way to prove ROI. **People analytics** People analytics is going to help you define time to ramp metrics and goals. For instance, a lot of businesses use ROI payback as a metric for how successful their hires are, meaning how quickly does a salesperson pay back their entire salary in their first year? Sometimes it's three months, six months, nine months, 12 months depending on the indicators and how quickly you can generate and find profit from a salesperson. The best thing we can do as an onboarding organization is say, given the programs and the changes we can make to absorbing knowledge, we can make that shorter by one, two, three weeks. You can extrapolate that over a number of people, and the amount it costs to input that number of people and say, “Now we've saved the business X number of dollars”. People analytics will be that team to help you identify what those numbers are. **Sales program manager** The program manager will then develop a content and experiment backlog for key strategies to improve those metrics, and hopefully report at least quarterly on the achievements. Anyone who has ever been near Amazon read about Amazon or understands Amazon, will know that writing documents or quarterly program reviews is very important for the business and for leaning in and meeting specific metrics. My team is now doing that too. We're doing quarterly program reviews where we show the business quarter over quarter how we're improving key metrics that are inputs to direct ROI. **LXD/ID** You work with instructional designers and learning experience designers to develop and launch content that supports the specific strategy, you get the voice and all of the important things there. **Trainer** Lastly, notice the trainer here, not a role I had above. To me, they report to this specific program manager because they're tied directly to the program and they complete instructor-led training and administrative tasks where necessary to complete the program. You may have 1, 2, 3, 4 trainers doing it. I actually also think that it's very important that the trainer owns the training. A lot of people work with experts in the field for training and there is a problem with that. - Experts in the field often know more than anyone in the audience should know. They will go too deep into the content. A trainer who understands the depth of the content is way more effective than an expert in the field who's telling you everything about the content and you're remembering 5-10%. I do recommend hiring them directly for programs like onboarding if you're large enough. ### Enablement tools A lot of enablement teams own tools - what I mean by that is CMS tools, LMS tools, conversational intelligence tools, cadences, and dialing tools. **Sales program manager** Here you would also have a program manager who develops the success factors and a backlog of improvements or replacements for those tools on an annual basis. Things like, does our dialer show me that specific cadence leads to more top-of-the-funnel fill? Or does a specific email cadence and a specific email wording tell me that people are more likely to set an appointment with me? Super important top of the funnel pieces. **People analytics** You'll work with people analytics to develop the success factors and reporting. **Field enablement** Finally, you'll work with field enablement, because they develop the key content for the tools, including things like email cadencing, messaging, pitch decks, testimonial cases, new product info, etc. It should be a team that works together that is reporting improvements and success factors with the tools and showing how things are improving per tool individually. ### Competency development I think this is super important. It's the thing that ties skill back to ROI and it's something you have to consistently work on. **Sales program manager** A program manager in competency development works to develop the competencies per role, builds the improvements that tie those to KPIs. Very specifically, if you have 'overcoming objections' as a key competency for an account executive, and you think that means time to close or through stage four of the funnel happens faster, that you're identifying that metric and you're measuring specifically how quickly a new way of overcoming objections will help them move metrics faster. **People analytics** They'll work with people analytics to set reporting cadences and dashboard views of competencies and KPIs. ### Ongoing learning **Sales program manager** I know that building a learning platform for people to use throughout their careers is becoming more and more important, and we do know that a program manager will help develop the process cadence KPIs for ongoing learning. In my team, we're developing self-service catalogs and seeing how often people go and utilize them. **People analytics** We also think that people analytics will develop reporting and improvement for cohorts specifically. If we know a group that has gone through a specific program of training now we can link to what for us, their profit impact is three months down the road, especially if it's something that we can now verify they're actually applying and we can see ROI from. **LXD/ID** Your learning experience or instructional design people will develop content launches, and use the LMS to determine who's using what and the adoption of content as well as the improvement of content through level one surveys. **Trainer** If you need additional trainers for instructor-led training, they will present it and they will complete any administrative tasks like rostering or any kind of pre-work, post-work assessments, those kinds of things. Thank you. ### B2B marketing events strategies: before, during, and after URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/b2b-marketing-events-strategies-before-during-and-after/ Last updated: 2021-12-10T09:52:37.000Z B2B events are paramount for networking, generating high-quality leads, increasing brand awareness, and reaching a large target audience. The majority of event marketers believe events are [the most effective marketing channel](https://blog.bizzabo.com/event-marketing-2018-benchmarks-and-trends) over emails, content, and digital marketing. However, for a B2B event to be successful, a detailed and well-designed events strategy is needed. An events strategy can be broken down into 3 stages: before the event, during the event, and after the event. This article will provide you with everything you need to know about what your events strategy should look like in each of these stages. ## **Before the event** Taking the time to prepare effectively for your B2B event will enable everything to run smoothly for you, your guest speakers, and your attendees on the day. You must have a clear idea of why you are hosting the event and what your specific goals are. Defining exactly what it is you want to achieve will enable you to make the right preparations and will help you decide what type of educational content to provide at the event, who you want as guest speakers, and who your target audience will be. Set a reasonable event budget as early as possible. Understanding your budget will help guide you when having to make costly decisions. This is especially important if you are hosting an in-person event such as a VIP dinner or a conference as these will require you to book a venue, prepare stands for the event, and provide food and drinks, etc. which all come at a price. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) If you are hosting a virtual event, it's good practice to do a test run a few days beforehand to identify and solve any technical issues that may occur. Make sure it's easy for your attendees to access the online material and that your guest speakers can connect without hassle or delay. If your event is in person, find a suitable venue early on and plan the venue décor out in advance. Prepare clear instructions for attendees on how to find the venue, and what they need to bring with them, e.g. proof of registration or ID to ensure their check-in process runs smoothly on the day. ### **Promoting your B2B event** It’s important to stimulate interest and excitement about your event and essentially give your target audience a good enough reason to hit that registration button. As a general guideline, if your event is 1hr to half a day then it’s recommended to start promoting your event at least 4 weeks beforehand for optimum attendance. If your event is on a larger scale and lasts for 2 days or more then start promoting around 16 weeks beforehand. ### **Blog about your event** It’s important to show your customer why they need to attend your event. Write a blog or two about the importance of attending B2B events highlighting key benefits. Follow this up with a blog specifically about your upcoming event and include details about guest speakers, event sponsors, exclusive offers, and the networking opportunities that they will receive if they attend. ### **Post regularly about your event on your social media channels** Social media is essential when it comes to promoting a B2B event. It is the prime place to make some noise about your event! Create an event hashtag and regularly post about your event using eye-catching images that include the event sponsors’ logos. If your budget allows, you can pay for promotional campaigns on platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn to promote your event posts even more. Be sure to tag in guest speakers and event sponsors and ask them to promote your event on their social media channels too so you can reach a wider audience. You could also share short ‘behind the scenes' videos on your YouTube channel leading up to your event. This will highlight the time and effort going into the event preparation and generate more excitement for the big day. Going live on your social media a few days before the event is also a great way to gain some extra registrations and to keep the engagement of those who are already attending high. ### **Create a website for your event** Having an event website provides a dedicated space to show prospects exactly what your event offers. Showcase your guest speakers and event sponsors on the website and highlight any key seminars or workshops that are going to take place during the event. If you have hosted an event before, provide past attendee testimonials, images, and videos you have from the event. Make it easy for prospects to buy event tickets by having the registration page on your official event website and provide the URL to the page in all of your social media posts and blog posts. Use memorable colors and visually pleasing designs when creating your website and event logo. Research has shown [more than 65%](https://medium.com/hubilo-official-blog/the-ultimate-strategy-to-market-your-b2b-events-f26a86b84849%29) of information is retained through visuals so it’s worth spending some time on the aesthetics of your event marketing to aid in engaging your prospects. ### **Promote your event via emails** A whopping [76% of marketers](https://www.markletic.com/blog/virtual-event-statistics/) say email is the most effective marketing channel to increase event registrations. However, due to the large number of promotional emails that enter a person’s inbox daily, many are left unopened. You need to approach your email marketing strategy strategically. Don’t flood your prospect's inbox, send your event emails out in a timely manner and make your subject lines informative and engaging. It has been found that subject[lines with 49 or fewer characters](https://medium.com/hubilo-official-blog/the-ultimate-strategy-to-market-your-b2b-events-f26a86b84849) have higher open rates than those with more characters. You can also segment your emails to increase the relevance of the email to your recipient so they are more likely to open it e.g. you can filter by job description, geographic location, or industry. ## **During the event** Promoting your event doesn’t come to an end once your event has started. You need to have a strategy in place to keep the engagement level of your attendees high and to show those who haven’t attended what they’re missing out on. If you are hosting an in-person event, go live on your Twitter or Instagram to showcase what’s going on to those who haven’t attended. This will also encourage attendees to tweet or post about your event as they have the incentive of being featured in your live stream. Hosting educational workshops during your event is also great for keeping the engagement level of attendees high. Offer exclusive 1-1 talks with guest speakers and host discussion sessions for attendees to increase interaction. If your event is virtual, encourage attendees to use the chat and put them into virtual breakout rooms throughout the day for discussion sessions. Provide attendees with gift bags containing educational material about your product/service, coupons on related products/services, and tickets to exclusive speaker events, etc. Regularly posting on your social media throughout the event can keep people up to date on what’s going on. Create an event app using Slack or Google hangouts where attendees can see the event timetable, receive reminders about the next seminar/talk, engage in live polls, and have access to one-on-one messaging to increase networking. Be sure to use the event to gain valuable content for your brand. Record key seminars/talks and interview attendees throughout the day asking them about their experience at the event so far. ## **After the event** This is the time to showcase the success of your event and work on seeding the landscape for your next one. Make the content you have from your event easily accessible to your audience across all of your social media channels. Upload your recorded talks to your YouTube channel, post about your event on social media, and write blogs about your event detailing its successes and any testimonials you obtained from attendees. Stay connected with attendees and ask them to fill out a survey about what they liked about the event and how it benefited them. Post positive results on your social media and use any feedback to inform you on how to improve your next event. Keep your relationship with your guest speakers and event sponsors strong, as you may want to use them again for your next event. ## **Final thoughts** It’s important to learn from each event you host and identify exactly what went well and what needs improving. Highlight the channels that gave you the most event registrations, identify what activities attendees engaged with the most during the event, and see what type of event content was viewed the most after the event. Repeat this cycle again and again and you will eventually craft out a perfect overall B2B event strategy that will lead you to true event success! ### The SaaS Landscape Report 2021 is here! URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-saas-landscape-report-2021-is-here/ Last updated: 2023-05-04T13:03:58.000Z ### Diversity, equity & inclusion The business case for diversity, equity, and inclusion is a strong one. Inclusive companies are more likely to capture new markets, exhibit higher profits, and outperform competitors by **35%,** so why isn’t everyone on board? Through a mix of qualitative and quantitative data, we take a look at the make-up of the SaaS sector to uncover how - both individually and collectively - we can begin to make a difference. ### In the following pages, we’ll be unpacking: - Ableism in the workplace - How to measure inclusivity - The gender divide - How the C-Suite can drive DE&I Plus much more... [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ## Uncover data, interviews, and actionable insights to impact change Hear from DE&I experts and real champions of change on how you can make a difference in every function, at every stage. > “Particularly within SaaS, when we look at the top-down approach and the leadership and representation statistics we see, we know that 85% of CEOs whose organizations have diversity, inclusion, and belonging strategies say this has enhanced their innovation as a business. And that permeates all the way down to individual teams, individual line managers, individual contributors. > “So it's so important within such a fast-paced and evolving industry, such as SaaS, to make sure that you have that diversity of thought. And to touchpoint as well, the access to those economic opportunities is so key and valuable to making sure that we can implement change at the grassroots level when people are entering into businesses, but then also facilitating and promoting the progression into management and into leadership roles as well.” - **Robbie O’Neil, Senior Customer Success Manager at LinkedIn** What are you waiting for? See the results. [Download Now ](https://productmarketingall.typeform.com/to/atDvmiWN) ### How to raise the price of your product URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-raise-the-price-of-your-product/ Last updated: 2021-12-08T16:48:12.000Z Oftentimes, companies discount the price of their products to drive sales; in fact, research conducted in recent years has confirmed [discounting is the top pricing strategy](https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/retail-pricing-strategies/) for retailers across all sectors. Although discounting your product can increase your customer base and generate additional income, there are also times when this method can be counterproductive; the strategy can reduce your profit margins or attract [negative personas](https://productmarketingalliance.com/what-are-negative-personas/). Conversely, there are some instances when it’s necessary to raise the price of your product. While it may seem like a risky tactic, there are ways in which you can introduce new pricing parameters without alienating customers and [increasing churn rates](https://productmarketingalliance.com/what-is-customer-churn-analysis/). In this article, we’ll discuss: - Things to consider when raising prices - How to calculate the elasticity of demand - Expert pricing advice - How to improve your pricing knowledge ## **Things to consider when raising prices** Whether you’re raising the price of an established product, or amending the cost of a relatively new offering, it’s important to remember you’re not bucking the trend - it isn’t uncommon for companies to reevaluate their costs. However, there are important things to consider if you decide to raise your prices. ### **Offer value to your customers** Put yourself in the shoes of your customers and ask yourself: if pricing increased, would you expect more, the same, or less? If you’re bumping up the costs for your customers, you need to give them something extra in return - undoubted value needs to be attributed to your increase. The acid test? If a customer contacted you and demanded to know why they’re paying more, you should be able to say unequivocally, “following our price increase, you’re getting X, Y, Z.” Offer no doubts or uncertainty as to what they stand to receive in return. ### **Use introductory pricing** Introductory pricing does exactly what it says on the tin: it’s an initial price point that’s used by a company to establish a market share. Prices are then increased when the product has established itself in the field. Also referred to as a ‘first-time special offer’, introductory pricing is an effective way to increase pricing as its unambiguous nature sets customer expectations. I.e. ‘the product price is *temporary*, and is subject to change.’ Therefore, when the time does come to raise the price, your customers can’t say they weren’t given a prior warning - the signs were there in black and white, all along. ### **Offer current price lock-in** If your product is in constant phases of development and introducing a breadth of brand-new features, pricing will inevitably increase. Let’s use a hypothetical example involving Apple, in which the company enters the video game market and releases a console to rival Sony and Microsoft. Initially, the product may accommodate three core features that users would come to expect from a console: offline gaming, internet access, and online gaming. However, six months down the line, imagine Apple announcing a pioneering addition to its pay-monthly, live gaming feature that isn’t provided by Playstation and Xbox. In this case, the product would have a distinguishable USP, giving the company reasonable cause to raise the price for monthly subscriptions. After all, gamers wouldn’t be able to experience Apple’s cutting-edge technology elsewhere - it’s a market exclusive. This is where the current price lock-in comes into play. Apple could offer existing users the option of ‘locking in’ to the current price plan for a prolonged period, and in return, the customer’s protected from the hike in price - they can enjoy the new feature at the same price. ### **Be decisive** The best product marketers have the courage of their convictions to make important decisions, and the decision to raise product prices isn’t to be taken lightly. When you’re making changes to your price, there’s a fine line between being decisive and being reckless. So, before you implement any drastic changes, conduct your research and establish how much you can raise your prices. If you overestimate how much your customer is willing to pay, you could well find yourself trying to reactivate churned customers, which is no easy feat. ### **Be honest** Customers buy products from companies they know, like, and trust. If one of these three principles is damaged, your relationship with the customer can be tarnished. If they feel as though they don’t know you and can’t identify with your brand, they won’t like you. And if they like you, they won’t trust you. Honesty is one of the most important qualities in business. Without it, you’re setting yourself up for failure, and the same applies when you’re raising your pricing. Be upfront, leave no questions asked, and tell them why the change has been made. Just remember: lying to your customers and making empty promises about what’s coming their way never worked for anybody. If they’re told the hike has been introduced to fund a new, non-existent feature, rest assured, they’ll find out they’ve been tricked sooner or later. ### **Gradually increase prices** It isn’t uncommon for companies to raise the cost of their products in one fell swoop, but again, put yourself in the shoes of the customer to understand how this can be problematic for your user/subscriber. For example, a customer may sign up for a budget gym for $30 per month. Then, the gymnasium may open a state-of-the-art swimming pool, steam room, and sauna, prompting the club to increase membership prices to $50 per month, to cover the costs. While access to premium facilities for an additional $20 is reasonable, the price increase may be too much for a member to pay straight away. Instead, the impact can be lessened by increasing the price for existing memberships at a gradual rate across three months: - After month one, the membership could increase to $40, - After month two, membership could increase to $45, and - After month three, the membership will be set at the new rate of $50. The incremental increase allows the customer to realign their budget to accommodate the new costs of their membership and [improves customer retention](https://productmarketingalliance.com/how-to-retain-more-customers/). ### **Apply astute pricing strategies** The slightest price increase can prompt a customer to run a mile - but you can keep them on board by pricing shrewdly. For example, if your company sells apparel to local sports teams and a 10-pack of shorts retails for $100 but you need to raise the price to $120, the additional $20 could initially be deemed as an unreasonable raise by your customer. However, if you create different-sized packages, such as a five-pack for $70, this makes the ten-pack seem like a preferable option, even at the new, higher price. ### **Improve your product/service** It’s fair to say that nobody wants to pay more money for something that hasn’t changed at all. But if the product/service has been *improved*, you have justification for increasing the price from the offset. For example, let’s say a customer is paying $50 per month for their cable TV subscription. Their package includes sixty channels, twenty of which are gated sports and movie channels. The cable TV provider wants to increase the monthly subscription to $70 per month and they have two options: 1. Offer the same amount of channels at an increased price, or 2. Increase the price but give their customers access to sports and movie channels. The first option holds no appeal for the customer; they’re being asked to pay more money, with no incentive. However, while the second option is more expensive, the overall service is better; they receive premium channels as part of their updated subscription. ### **Offer discounts** When your prices increase, you can’t keep every single one of your customers happy, particularly customers who are more economically minded. While a degree of customer churn is inevitable, you can improve your customer retention by introducing discounts to your customers to negate the price increase. Your customers with one eye on their spending will be more than happy to use a discount code, while customers who aren’t necessarily too fussed about a slight price increase will pay your new price anyway. Either way, a significant proportion of your customers will be paying full price. ## **How to calculate the elasticity of demand** When you’re increasing your price you need to take into account the elasticity of demand. The elasticity of demand is used to determine how a price change can have an impact on consumer demand and can be calculated using the following formula: ****% Change in Quantity ÷ % Change in Price = Price elasticity of demand.** In many cases, buyers remain unperturbed, even if prices increase. For example, if the price of milk increased by 10%, the likelihood is shoppers would continue to purchase the product. Other products, however, suffer when their price increases. These are known as elastic goods. For example, if the price of Coca-Cola significantly increased, there are other, cheaper sodas available on the market and consumers may buy an alternative. This is something that you need to consider when you’re increasing the price of your product: would an increase drive customers to a rival? Or, are they loyal enough to stick with your brand? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ## **Expert pricing advice** We spoke with ****Phill Agnew, Senior Product Marketer at Hotjar**, who outlined two tactics PMMs can use to increase their product prices: hyperbolic discounting and the decoy effect. ### **Hyperbolic discounting** Hyperbolic discounting is a fancy phrase for something we all know. It's that feeling when you have a mountain of work piling up, and you know you need to get it done within the next couple of days but you just can't find the motivation to do it. You put it off and instead watch Netflix and convince yourself that tomorrow you'll get all that work done. In that scenario, you have fallen victim to something called hyperbolic discounting: “Hyperbolic discounting refers to the tendency for people to increasingly choose smaller, immediate rewards over larger later rewards.” The problem here? Instant gratification. Hyperbolic discounting is a cognitive bias where people choose smaller immediate rewards, so watching Netflix and feeling a bit of satisfaction, rather than larger rewards in the future, essentially getting all that work done and feeling real relief. Here’s an example of hyperbolic discounting in action: ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Hyperbolic-discounting-example.png) In the right scenario, if we were all smart, rational consumers, we would all take the $60 - that's worth the most and it's the best package we could get. But most of us pick the $15 now because the satisfaction of gaining something quickly and immediately beats having to wait a year. Interestingly, when consumers were asked the same question with the same intervals, but a year later, they tended to choose the largest $60 reward. This proves that we’re impatient and prefer immediate, short-term rewards. For individuals, this creates a lot of problems - like not saving for retirement - but one of the ways that you can get around this is by breaking down big goals into smaller, more manageable chunks. The problem with things like saving for retirement is that saving’s a huge challenge; the amount an American needs to save is about $1.7 million for their retirement. Saving that much takes a lot of money and almost a lifetime to achieve. With huge goals like that, it's much better to break it down into smaller tasks with a reward coming after each chunk. That way, the reward’s no longer a distant possibility, but something that’s more immediate and guaranteed. This works not just for people trying to save for retirement, but for big brands and product marketers who are trying to justify their high prices. Let's pretend you're selling a high-value Mercedes Benz, you could show the full cost for $40,000 today, or you could show the cost broken down perhaps by using a bit of hyperbolic discounting insight. You could say it's broken down to $32 per week, or $4.75 a day over two years, but which would look most attractive to the user? One study analyzed this to reveal conclusively which was seen as the most attractive price. The researchers presented one of three numbers at random to over 500 participants and the results revealed the shorter the time frame, the smaller the cost, and the more appealing the deal. When the prices were shown as daily figures, they were five times more likely to be rated as a great deal than when they were shown annually. For SaaS marketers and product marketers, this is a really interesting insight. Where possible in the future, we should pursue the extra bill and push the cost of paying off into the future; we shouldn't encourage consumers to spend thousands now - instead, we should get them to make smaller commitments, like $4 a day. That's one way you can reframe your products to push for a higher price. It works because you have to remove that immediate pain of payment. But it's not the only way you can reframe your price. ### **The decoy effect** The decoy effect is used by a lot of Saas marketers, but it’s not necessarily a technique a lot of people particularly understand. ****Example one: Popcorn** To explain the decoy effect, I'll give a bit of a story about myself. Every time I go and watch a movie, I buy a ridiculously large amount of popcorn, and after the movie, I always regret how much I've eaten. I'm usually full after a couple of handfuls, but I always plow through to the bottom and finish the box. Next time I go, I'll do it again. I keep getting into a habitual loop and I feel awful every time, but I can't get out of it. But now when looking at the price of popcorn, I start to realize why I keep falling into this trap. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/The-decoy-effect.png) These are the actual prices of popcorn at my local cinema in London. There's something really interesting about them, right? The extra-large is too much - £7 (about $10 in America). That's almost the price of the actual cinema ticket. I'd never spend that much but the next option down, which is just 50p more than the smallest option, at £4, looks like a much better deal. With this pricing, I can't help but pick this middle option. The reason it looks like such a good deal is due to the decoy effect. ****Example two:** ***The Economist** Let me further explain the decoy effect by bringing in the famous study which was cited by Dan Ariely in his book, Predictably Irrational. So Dan, being a professor at Princeton University, spotted the decoy effect, not in the cinema, but while flicking through The Economist. He found that The Economist had these three pricing options that they were publishing. They had the online-only subscription at the top ($59), the print-only subscription ($125), and then the print and web subscription ($125). That's quite weird, right? With this third option, you get both the print and online versions, but it's the same price as the print option by itself. Why would anyone buy the print-only option? After all, it's the same price as the print and web options. Dan predicted that The Economist was using this strange pricing strategy to create a decoy and encourage more consumers to spend $125, rather than the $59 for the online-only subscription. To test this hypothesis, Dan tried it out on his students. He showed one set of his students the actual pricing with the decoy included, and the other set of students an edited version with the decoy - the print-only option - removed. He wanted to see if removing the decoy price changed what people thought about the product and changed what people wanted to buy. Turns out removing that decoy had a huge effect. When students were shown the decoy effect option, which was the one that The Economist had on their site, they would, on average, pick the most expensive print and web subscription, it looks like such a good deal, because it was the same price as the print subscription and yet it had the web subscription included as well. Yet, when Dan showed his students the edited version, without the print subscription included, suddenly students were far more likely to pick the online subscribers only. The majority of students only spent $59. This is an interesting discovery. Just the way that The Economist has priced their products, the way they frame their pricing, the way they’ve built their options, dramatically changes what consumers want. Whether you’re putting a strategy in place, discounting a product, or increasing costs, pricing plays a prevalent role for any product marketer - it’s critical to understand the ins and outs of the area. [Product Marketing Certified: Core](https://certified.productmarketingalliance.com/p/product-marketing-certified-core), PMA’s official certification course, includes a module focusing on the fundamentals of pricing. ## **How to improve your pricing knowledge** To raise costs effectively, you need to understand the intricacies of the area. After all, pricing can make or break your product - set the bar too high, and you’ll price your customers out of the market, but set your price point too low, and you’re running the risk of undermining the quality of your product. Delivered by ****Tamara Grominsky, Chief Strategy Officer at Unbounce**, Pricing Certified covers the fundamentals of the topic and has been designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills you need to price accordingly. By the end of this course, you'll be able to: 💰 Understand pricing strategies 💰 Be able to change your pricing confidently 💰 Understand how to conduct a pricing analysis 💰 Identify how pricing strategies vary, depending on industry 💰 Know how to segment your pricing 💰 Understand how discounting works [Get certified](https://certified.productmarketingalliance.com/p/pricing-certified) ### Customer education needs more - introducing the Intellum framework URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-education-needs-more-introducing-the-intellum-framework/ Last updated: 2021-12-02T17:43:10.000Z ## Where it all began Intellum has been an innovator in the corporate education space since we launched the world’s first cloud LMS in 2000\. Over many years of working with some of the largest companies to deliver their educational programs at scale, we recognized a pattern in the structure of the most successful programs. In 2019, at Intellum’s IXS conference, we unveiled the first ever corporate education playbook that outlined the must-haves to achieve success. Over the following year we gathered input from the sharpest minds in the industry and refined the playbook, which became known as the Intellum Methodology. ## The Intellum Methodology The Intellum Methodology includes eight key strategic pillars that make up a successful education strategy: business goals, audience strategy, resources, content strategy, delivery strategy, marketing strategy, measurement, and application. The most successful education programs display mature execution in each of these areas. We’ll briefly look at each one: ### Business goals Educational initiatives should tie back to specific, measurable, relevant, and achievable business goals. Additionally, it should be true that education specifically can effectively influence the desired goal. ### Audience strategy Successful education program developers understand their audience, including segmentation and learner personas. A learner persona is not the same as a marketing persona; it includes learning-specific information such as learner goals, challenges, and motivation. ### Resources Educational initiatives require specialty skills such as education strategy, learning experience development, and instructional design, in addition to project management, marketing, and technical/engineering support. Successful programs have dedicated resources to support these functions. ### Content strategy The content must directly support the learner goals and business goals to be effective. There should be a purposeful content structure (curricula), relevant taxonomy, assessments, and a feedback loop. ### Delivery strategy Content is only as good as the delivery of the content. The delivery strategy should consider the end-to-end learning journey. Essentially we need to get the right content to the right learner at the right time in the right way. ### Marketing strategy Education marketing is a discipline in and of itself. The educational program should be treated as a product, requiring a go-to-market plan as well as engagement and re-engagement tactics. ### Measurement There are three levels of measurement for any education program: engagement, content efficacy, and business impact. The most successful programs are reporting on all three and demonstrating business impact. ### Application The audience has been identified, the content delivered, and the performance measured. Now what? Application is the final piece that ties all of the learnings back to the original business goal(s). We were quite excited to land upon such a valuable methodology. We began sharing it with all of our clients and interested parties. Soon, though, the question of “how do I apply this methodology?” began rolling in from all angles. There was no question that the methodology made sense, but what was that next step in moving it from theory to practice? When you first look at the methodology, it appears fairly straightforward. You need a business goal, an audience, delivery of content, and then measurement and application of results. The challenge, however, is that line of thinking assumes a one-to-one ratio of all items - one goal, one audience, one content type, etc. For anyone that has worked in corporate education, you know that is rarely, if ever, the case. We’re generally working on multiple goals, reaching many audience segments, employing a variety of content initiatives, delivering via multiple modalities, and measuring results using many different metrics. The challenge is further exacerbated when we consider that often, especially in larger companies, many individuals across different teams are working on education initiatives. This may include an internal learning and development team, a product training team, customer success education, partner certification, and so on. We also found that it was quite common (and generally recommended) for all of these teams to use one education platform to deliver their material to their audience. Now if you have many goals, audiences, content types, modalities, and metrics, and many different people and teams working on it all, the only way to really apply a consistent and holistic methodology, all while keeping stakeholders aligned, is with the use of a strategic framework. ## The birth of a new framework Every successful organization employs a strategic framework to align the business around a central strategy. If you’ve never been in a corporate planning or strategy role, you might wonder, what is a strategic framework? [HDI](https://www.thinkhdi.com/library/supportworld/2018/power-strategic-framework.aspx) succinctly defines it as ​​"a structured method used to define how a project or initiative supports the key objectives of stakeholders." There are a number of popular frameworks out there, such as the [balanced scorecard](https://balancedscorecard.org/bsc-basics-overview/), the [VRIO framework](https://www.clearpointstrategy.com/vrio-framework/), and the [Ansoff matrix](https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC%5F90.htm). They all have unique uses and different ways of organizing initiatives. For example, the Ansoff matrix is also known as a product/market expansion grid and is best used to grow an existing business. The VRIO framework, on the other hand, is used to analyze existing internal resources toward developing a competitive advantage. What these frameworks have in common is their ability to capture all of an organization's activities, strategies, and goals in one central map that can be used to align key stakeholders across the company. *Do you see where we might be going with this?* The most common strategic frameworks focus on an organization’s overall business strategy. We found, however, that education strategy is a bit nuanced and doesn’t fit perfectly with any existing framework. So, we developed our own. The Intellum Framework Ⓒ is one that leverages our own methodology and unites all of an organization’s educational initiatives in one central document, ultimately leading to a strategy map that demonstrates the education’s anticipated business impact. ![Intellum strategy map](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/618299d2ae5be9c254f28e91_lY_Zt6IvrciA1Jz7m1PhNSbLHzdtP5aK8Alr5l6h5oYjolUbshtA4ZzQrPwwk_1xtAFVjTzIwaPCoVm6lECLKGPr8xU6btz5qNCoH_6lTdGPG69FbrxQ-7YjODgonzRxScvyzGhm.jpeg) The Intellum Framework is composed of several worksheets that capture an organization’s educational initiatives from three perspectives: goals, audiences, and content. It’s then used to map the three perspectives together to tell the story of business impact. The Intellum Framework course is [here](https://experience.intellum.com/sl/e78c4f0a). Let’s walk through it together! ### Your monthly SaaS highlights URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/saasfix-november-2021/ Last updated: 2021-12-01T17:04:14.000Z The temperature outside might be dropping, but our content stays 🔥. From actioning customer retention metrics to tips on managing the feedback loop with Beamer, there’s plenty to keep you going. Thanks ✌️ \- [Emma](https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-bilardi-09161060/), Content @ [Future of SaaS‌‌‌](https://www.linkedin.com/school/31559381/) --- ## [Customer retention metrics and how to action them](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/giphy--5-.gif)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) Tracking retention and measuring churn on a regular basis is vital for a SaaS business to succeed. But, how do successful SaaS organizations measure retention and what on earth do they with the results, I hear you cry? Well, we surveyed 100 SaaS pros to find out how they track, review and utilize retention and churn metrics. [The results](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-retention-metrics-and-how-to-action-them/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) --- ## [How to run and structure effective agile team meetings](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-run-and-structure-effective-agile-team-meetings/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/giphy--6--1.gif)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-run-and-structure-effective-agile-team-meetings/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) It takes most large B2B companies as much as 8 months to launch major campaigns. By adopting an [agile approach](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-run-and-structure-effective-agile-team-meetings/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021), you can drastically reduce this timeline, as well as significantly improve product development and overall brand awareness. We explore what being truly 'agile' means and how you can achieve it. [Achieve true agility](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-run-and-structure-effective-agile-team-meetings/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/Vitaly-newsletters--1--1.png)](vitally.io/startup-plan?utm%5Fsource=newsletter&utm%5Fmedium=future-of-saas&utm%5Fcampaign=november-2021-newsletter) Save 60% on all the tools you need to reduce churn, increase expansion, unify all your customer data, and scale a world-class Customer Success organization with Vitally. Get started with the Vitally Startup Partner Program or begin your Free Trial today. [Get started](vitally.io/startup-plan?utm%5Fsource=newsletter&utm%5Fmedium=future-of-saas&utm%5Fcampaign=november-2021-newsletter) --- ## [How to manage the feedback loop](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-manage-the-feedback-loop/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/dog-cat-eat.gif)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-manage-the-feedback-loop/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) Most companies would agree that customer feedback is the most effective way to understand your product and the people who are using it day-to-day. However, what they fail to realize is that [collecting that feedback](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-manage-the-feedback-loop/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) is just the beginning. Learn about what exactly a feedback loop is and the importance it has towards SaaS businesses. [Manage the loop](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-manage-the-feedback-loop/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/12/future-of-saas-membership-banner--1-.png)](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) ## New this month ### Exclusive content - [Abdul Rastagar](https://www.saasalliance.io/value-propositions-that-sell/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021), GMT Leader & Marketing Author at Benchling **| Value propositions that sell** - [David Wadler](https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-your-saas-offering/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021), CRO/Co-Founder of Vendorful | **Pricing your SaaS offering** [Membership contentLearn from Saas leaders from companies like Typeform, Zuora, New Relic, Atlassian, Buffer, and more, with your very own biweekly dose of exclusive, membership-only content.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSAbdul Rastagar![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/09/FoSaaS_exclusive_articles.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/tag/membership-content/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) ### New templates - A sales to customer success handover [template](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-templates-and-frameworks/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) - The HEART [framework](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-templates-and-frameworks/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) [SaaS templates and frameworks | Future of SaaSLooking for SaaS templates and frameworks to make your life easier? We’ve got you covered. Become a member for advice, tips, and business growth tactics.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2020/11/Future-of-SaaS-templates---frameworks.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/saas-templates-and-frameworks/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) ### Give it a whirl Intrigued by membership but need some extra convincing? Here's a couple of templates, on us: - Customer success strategy [template](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-success-strategy-template/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) - Competitor SWOT analysis [template](https://www.saasalliance.io/competitor-swot-analysis-template/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) --- ## Partner with us [Partner With Us | Future of SaaSMingle with a community dedicated to driving progress in SaaS and get access to brands from the Fortune 500 to some of the world’s fastest-growing organizations.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSFuture of SaaS![](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1584463699043-740c40f783d2?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&w=2000&fit=max&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjExNzczfQ)](https://www.saasalliance.io/partner/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=newsletter&utm%5Fcampaign=saasfix-november-2021) Looking to sponsor next month's newsletter? Drop us a line at [sean@futureofsaas.io](mailto:sean@futureofsaas.io) ### From startup to scale-up [Q&A with Proposify] URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/from-startup-to-scale-up-q-a-with-proposify/ Last updated: 2021-12-01T14:11:03.000Z The shift from a startup to a scale-up SaaS business can be a bumpy transition. The leadership skills that previously served you well in survival mode can be a real hindrance to hiring the right people and knowing when to let go of certain processes. Luckily **Kyle Racki**, **Co-Founder and CEO of Proposify,** is on hand to talk us through the right time to transition, learning to let go and the scale up mentality. --- ## Q: How do you know when it's time to shift from a startup to a scale-up leader? **A:** If you're an executive on the team, you should be very, very tight with your CEO and constantly be getting feedback from them on where you're slipping or what you're not. If you're the CEO or the founder, you should also be getting coached, you're not necessarily going to get coached by your executive team, but you should have either a board, an advisor, a mentor, or a business coach, and they can help you notice those gaps. Sometimes it does take an outside perspective to do that. If you're at a company where there’s growing demand, and you know you're starting to figure it out, and you're starting to think about hiring - now is when you should be thinking about becoming a scale-up leader because it will take time. Most executives get fired for not being able to grow fast enough. Mark Roberge at HubSpot was somebody who started in the early days and grew until they were close to a billion in revenue, but that’s so rare, most people cannot level up that fast. --- ## Q: If I'm just starting out, what do I need to keep in mind to stay on the scale-up mentality? **A:** It starts with buying back your own time as opposed to adding capacity. Find the people to do all the things that are draining your energy, so you can focus purely on the work that you do well, whether that's product development or sales calls. > As you grow, you should be gradually hiring somebody to take away those hats, your job as a founder is to constantly hire yourself out of a job. --- ## Q: Do you have any advice for sales or SaaS leaders who want to let their teams handle things? **A:** Yes. Let them handle it. It's hard to not jump in and provide your two cents on everything. I still struggle with it. I think everybody does, but when you feel you've got the right person on the team, that's the key. If you find that you have to jump in a lot and provide your two cents, and disagree with the way things are being done, it's probably because you have the wrong person in the job. > When you hire the right person, they're going to teach you how it's done. This year, I just hired a new CEO and a VP of Product, and they're teaching me how their jobs work, I'm learning a ton from them, and that's how it should be. When you've got somebody in the early stage, and you think that they're really capable and can level themselves up, don't be too quick to promote them to the top. Leave room ahead of them to hire somebody else to come in over them. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) Because what happens is if they start as your first, say, engineer, and you make them CTO right away, you're not giving them that path to grow, you're cutting it off so that there's really no higher they can get in the organization. From there, if you do realize they're not the right fit, the only solution is to demote them or fire them, and nobody's really happy about that. Whereas, if they start as Director of Engineering, and they can't get to the next level, you can hire a VP over them. --- ## Q: What type of people do you have to surround yourself with when you become that scale-up leader? **A:** As the CEO, you should basically have three jobs - set the vision and direction, build the executive leadership team, and don't run out of money. Those are your only three jobs. Everything else should be done through your executive team, now you can get involved in special projects and help out, especially if there isn't a lot of resources or support, but only do it because there isn't a team already focused on this. > The executive team is the most powerful tool that a CEO has. --- ## Q: What’s the best way to find a great SaaS salesperson? **A**: Find someone that’s aligned with your vision, someone coachable who doesn't need constant supervision. There’s different types of salespeople, there's the people that are a good fit at early-stage companies and late-stage, but it's usually all about being able to call them builders or sailors. There's the people that build the boats and there's the people that sail them - they're completely different people. Your first sales rep is going to be highly experimental, they're going to use their experience and knowledge to try to figure out what is the best go-to-market motion, and what’s working. They're going to work with the CEO to experiment and try to leverage what they're already doing. People in later-stage companies are more about learning the playbook and just following it to a tee, with very little experimentation. You want to find somebody who has a broad, diverse skill set. --- *Looking for more resources on scaling?* *Check out the replay of Kyle’s presentation* [*‘Start-up Vs Scale-up: How YOU as a leader must adapt to scale*](https://www.saasalliance.io/future-of-saas-festival-sept-2021/)*, from the Future of SaaS Festival 2021.* ### Designing products for today’s knowledge workers URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/designing-products-for-todays-knowledge-workers/ Last updated: 2021-12-01T14:19:17.000Z Since Peter Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker” in his 1959 book, *The Landmarks of Tomorrow*, product designers, developers and marketers have sought to tap into this high-value market space with new products and technology. However, the typical knowledge worker’s training, temperament, and vocation present unique challenges with regard to delighting this particular audience. ## **Unique challenges of designing for knowledge workers** Drucker defined knowledge workers as “high-level workers who apply theoretical and analytical knowledge, acquired through formal training, to develop products and services.” Reaching this deeply analytical, high-performing audience poses some obstacles for product designers in any field. I can tell you as a knowledge worker myself, having come to product design after a decade as a lawyer, that these challenges commonly include: *Overcoming skepticism*: Most knowledge workers are analytical and maybe skeptical - both by nature and training. A significant part of analysis for the knowledge worker is considering the gaps and risks at hand. It is well within the knowledge worker’s purview to look for what’s missing before all else. *Meeting high expectations*: Knowledge workers are held to high standards by their clients, organizations, and themselves. For those of us in the business of serving these professionals, we know that to meet these expectations, they rely on information and data to do their work, and in today’s connected world, there is no shortage of information and data. While all this can be a boon, it also comes with high expectations from both internal and external clients. The more information and data you have, the higher the expectations for results and the better your analysis can be. But it also means there is an overabundance to sift through to find what is most valuable. *Accommodating the need for speed*: Knowledge workers need to maintain a very high work rate and have little time to interrupt their momentum to try a new product or workflow. Real estate agents say that buyers decide within two minutes of walking through the front door whether they’re going to purchase the home. Knowledge workers will give you a bit more time than that – but don’t expect much more. Any new product must be easy to use and adopt and yield an almost immediate benefit to the user. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ## **Four critical things to incorporate** In my experience—both as a power user and a product designer—products designed for knowledge workers must include a handful of things to be a success. However, four critical elements stand out when creating solutions that can solve knowledge workers’ problems and improve their performance. ### **Domain expertise** The scope of occupations that fall under the category of “knowledge worker” is quite broad, including technologists such as programmers and system analysts; creative types including engineers, architects, and designers; and regulatory and compliance specialists such as lawyers and CPAs. One common denominator is that the individuals in these roles are considered subject matter experts in their respective fields. They respect competency, as well as intellectual and professional achievement, making it crucial for product designers to understand their business inside and out before approaching them with anything new. Knowledge workers often earn their living through analysis and scrutiny—meaning they can see through products that are not firmly rooted in their specific professional domains. As a former partner in a large law firm, my expertise is in data privacy and litigation, so I developed a broad experience as it relates to the needs of legal users, whether corporate, compliance or dispute-oriented. I have been able to parlay that domain expertise into[ the products](https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/products/practical-law) I work on, tapping into my understanding of both the big-picture needs and day-to-day challenges facing my customers—legal professionals—who are weeding through volumes of information with a goal of finding the best information they can, quickly, and then applying it to the problem or project at hand. Having at least one person on your team who can provide the insider view is extremely valuable. ### **An empathetic viewpoint** Domain expertise alone isn’t enough, it just provides that head start to get to what is perhaps the most important characteristic of a good product pro – a genuine empathy for your customers. As designers, we must be willing and able to walk in knowledge workers’ shoes and try to understand their pain points to produce valuable solutions. For example, in an effort to instill empathy in its ergonomics design team, the Ford Motor Company has conducted a series of well-publicized experiments where their engineers don custom[ “empathy suits”](https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-acquisition/how-ford-uses-empathy-belly-to-improve-soft-skills) to help them simulate the experiences of other drivers. The first is a pregnancy suit that adds an extra 13.6 kg—the average weight gained during pregnancy—and simulates the bulk and discomfort of a third-trimester pregnancy. The second restricts joint movement and vision to simulate old age. While this may be an extreme example, product designers need to spend both the time and emotional energy necessary to better understand not just the behaviors of customers but also how they feel before they can begin to craft any type of solution to truly help them. Another critical component of empathy is communication. It is important to feel and experience what customers go through and then be able to clearly articulate these challenges as well as prioritize, iterate, and scale them so that they fit into our design and build process. Today’s knowledge workers don’t have the time to reimagine their work, and it is the responsibility of product designers to get in their heads, understand their challenges, and reimagine a solution for them. ### **Technical knowledge** A common mistake in the product design field is to start with the technology and apply it to the problem. While it may be one approach to the problem, it’s a completely inverted way of approaching product design. Of course, it is important to stay up on the bleeding edge of technology—implementing it into your latest products and features as appropriate— but technology should be viewed as a means to finding a solution, not the solution itself. Take artificial intelligence (AI), for example. Of course, AI has a very important role to play in modern business solutions, and virtually all large tech companies, including mine, employ AI somewhere in their solutions. But it still bears asking yourself “is this technology the best tool to solve this identified customer problem?” The best technology providers in the game aren’t implementing AI just because it’s the latest technology trend; we are employing AI and machine learning technologies because, well applied and designed, they are an incredible tool to support our knowledge workers looking for that needle in a haystack or that “aha!” in the data. In short, these tools can power faster, deeper, and heretofore unattainable insights. One of the most challenging elements of integrating technology into product design is making it easier to use, not harder. Seeking to solve client challenges, we often want to add features and functionality that we think can do that. However, it’s important to keep in mind that technology is only helpful if users can seamlessly integrate it into their workflows. A product or solution requiring significant training or infringing on current workloads will likely be discarded, even if it can solve the problem. Simply put, don’t do tech for tech's sake—do it because it unlocks value for your customers. ### **A well-defined feedback loop** A final element of designing for knowledge workers is to establish a well-defined feedback loop to document and measure the results of each incremental change you implement in your design as a driving force behind the iterative design process. Knowledge workers thrive on feedback analysis and self-examination, and as product designers, we need to as well. Innovation starts with feedback that has been received over the years from customers and users. Sometimes the feedback makes perfect sense, and the time is ripe to drive forward and implement. More often though, feedback trickles in as small pieces of the puzzle, and it needs to percolate as more insight is gathered. Once feedback starts to coalesce—and we can see a recurring theme for solving the same problem—we realize we are onto something. The insights gained from initial feedback often fuels new hypotheses. In most organizations, product teams and internal users can provide initial feedback to test any new hypothesis. Once satisfied that the idea is well-vetted internally, it’s time to roll it out to customers. Even when design teams have worked alongside a strong network of domain experts with a healthy dose of empathy, the customers inevitably provide valuable feedback, which often starts the iteration process again. Designing new products for knowledge workers can be as rewarding as it is challenging. When starting a new project, it boils simply down to this—begin with the customers' problems or goals, bring genuine empathy into the process, and deploy the best technology that will make users faster, more accurate, and more efficient. As knowledge workers ourselves, product managers and designers find fulfillment in producing quality work and revel in helping our customers be more productive. We ultimately gauge our success when a customer leaves their desk thinking, “I got something done today … and it wasn’t even painful.” Designing with that end goal in mind is key to setting up your product team for success. ### Turning metrics into money [webinar] URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/turning-metrics-into-money-a-process-for-digging-deeper-into-metrics-and-pulling-out-insights/ Last updated: 2022-01-31T11:18:15.000Z [ Watch this OnDemand ](https://www.saasalliance.io/panel-discussion-turning-metrics-into-money/) Date: **Thursday, January 27th** Time: **8am PT | 11am ET | 4pm GMT** You’ve got metrics, you’ve got a business plan, and you’ve got customers. But something’s not right. Maybe your churn rate is over benchmark, or you’re not converting your free trialers, but it’s hard to tell. SaaS metrics are a firehose, but you can see a lot if you know [what to look for](https://my.demio.com/ref/cZqnJIy5TBKD1Uoq). Luckily for you, we've identified the 26 most critical metrics of a SaaS business... ### **Join this dynamic panel to learn:** - The process of digging deeper into high-level metrics - Getting actionable data out of them [ Watch this OnDemand ](https://www.saasalliance.io/panel-discussion-turning-metrics-into-money/) ### **Speakers:** **Brian Sierakowski, Director of Operations at Baremetrics** Brian is the Director of Operations at Baremetrics, a company that provides metrics, forecasting, analytics, insights and engagement tools for teams using Stripe, Braintree, Chargify, Recurly and more! In addition to providing metrics, they provide actionable insights and reports like daily, weekly & monthly email reports and notifications to you and your team automatically, so you're always in the loop with your business. ****Saket Toshniwal, VP of Revenue & Optimization at Actio** Saket is a MarTech leader in Berlin who has worked across CRM, Growth, and Product Management in consumer tech companies in Europe. He was the Head of Growth, CRM and Product Marketing for the biggest dating app in EU, LOVOO. Saket has spoken in several forums, summits, conferences and is a growth advisor to fast growing startups. ****Cindy Berman, Product Marketing Manager at Productboard** Cindy is a Product Marketing Manager at Productboard, the leading product management system. She has B2B SaaS Product Marketing and Product Management experience from Segment, Grammarly, Nanit, and American Express. She’s launched over 50 products and is passionate about SaaS, data, product management, productivity, innovation, startups, and angel investing. Receiving her MBA from The Wharton School of Business, Cindy has double majored in Entrepreneurship & Innovation and Organizational Effectiveness. ****Mike Pilawski, CPO at SmallPDF** Mike Pilawski is the Chief Product Officer at Smallpdf where he leads product, design, and data teams. Prior to joining Smallpdf, Mike has held leadership roles in product, engineering, marketing, and data at Typeform, Leanplum, Vungle, and NativeX. ### Value propositions that sell URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/value-propositions-that-sell/ Last updated: 2022-07-04T11:02:16.000Z In my honest opinion, most value propositions out there suck, and in this article, I’ll tell you why that’s the case, where and why companies go wrong, and how to get value propositions right. I’ll share a case study from my own experience crafting a differentiated value proposition at my organization, and take you through how we approached it step- by-step as an indicative example for you to take back to your own workplaces. My name's Abdul Rastagar and I want to talk about value propositions because I think most value propositions out there suck, they really do. I feel that way because, for the most part, we write them from our perspective with our business objectives in mind, rather than really think about the customer and why they're looking for a product or solution in the first place. We end up talking about features and functionalities and tech talk and all these fancy bells and whistles. The customer really, at the end of the day, just wants to solve their problem. ## The agenda This is a problem that I came across a lot in the past, so I developed this structured methodology for myself that guided me through that process as we were launching products to the market. That's what I want to share with you today. It's not the only way of doing it, but hopefully, it'll inspire you to think a little bit about it as well. This was developed in the context of the B2B software space, I came from that world, but I did try and put some B2C examples in there as well. Does anybody know what this is? [![Image of the Microsoft Zune ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-12.44.04-1.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) ### Microsoft Zune Microsoft's competitor or answer to the Apple iPod. The Zune was released in 2005, did you own one? I've never met anybody who's owned the Zune, and the thing is, I remember when it came out the tech reviews were fabulous. People were raving about what a fantastic product it was, and yet the product was retired in 2011 because it got no market traction, only about 1% market share. I'm going to talk about why that happened from a marketing perspective. There are many reasons here. ### About me But before I go on, let me tell you a little bit about myself... [![Image of the author](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-12.45.15.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) Please don't take this image seriously, this is to give you an example of the kind of garbage language we use in the business world, to hide behind the fact we don't have any value propositions. We don't do a good job at it, so we come up with this type of language. You see this sometimes on LinkedIn, maybe not this dramatic, but it's out there. This is particularly true in the B2B world and I think as product marketers, this is where we come in to make sure that we don't end up talking like that. We truly talk about value when we are in front of a customer, I'm going to define what that means in this article and what value means to me. ### Words are free The way you position yourself, the words you use, and how you go to market really matter in the perception of the customer. I think this is where product marketing, can really add strategic value to the organization, this is where we come in. [![Image of a city skyline with the words: "Words are free; it's how you use them that may cost you."](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-12.46.57.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) ## Examples of poor value propositions These are some examples of value propositions that suck. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-12.47.43-1.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) All of that feature and functionality talk, these are actual value propositions that are on Fortune 100 company's websites today, telling you about why you should buy their product. It's either Tech Talk or at some random ‘meets your complex business needs’ without any definition of what value is. It's clearly not written from the customer's perspective, you have no idea why you should buy it. That's unfortunate. ### **Maybe they’re for specific audiences?** This happens very frequently and you could say, "Well, maybe some of these are IT messages, maybe the audience is an IT audience". Even an IT person will buy a product because of a business need they need to fill. They don't get up in the morning and say, "Oh, gee, I really want an intelligent, scalable database system today so I'm gonna go buy one." Nobody does. ## Business drives: an example I'll give you an example of an IT director at British Airways. I flew from Reykjavík airport to Heathrow and I checked in my luggage at the airport. When I got to Heathrow, my luggage wasn't there. But BA was able to track it very quickly and reunite me with it within two hours. That's because somebody on the back end had probably bought an intelligent, scalable database to help them manage that operation. That is their business driver right there, they're concerned about making sure they reunite the customer with their luggage because then the customer is more satisfied, the customer's probably gonna be more loyal because of it and presumably, that leads to more revenue as well. Those are some of the drivers. ### Where does this language come from? The reason we come up with buzzwords, like ‘end-to-end machine learning platform’ is because in many cases this is driven by our colleagues - product managers (who I absolutely adore, I'm not criticizing here by any means). A lot of them come from a technology background, they don't really come from a sales-driven perspective. They sit with the end-user and talk to them about "Hey, what do we need to do for you guys?" and the end-user will say, "I spend a lot of time coding, I wish this was easier. I wish I had some sort of wizard" or whatever, and we put that into the requirements. Then marketing comes along and says, "We're about to launch this product, what do we say about it?" The product manager will say, "Well, they really want a wizard". That's where you get that kind of language up on the website, maybe if they're good, they'll change that to 'easy to use'. I have news for you - easy to use is not a value proposition, neither is configurable. I'm sorry, I hate to say it, but those are bad. Those are functionalities of the product and easy to use at this point, in 2021, if your product's not easy to use, you've got other issues. ### **Back to the Zune** Let's think about when we talk about value propositions, what are some examples of how can we really provide good value propositions? This takes me back to the Zune. [![Microsoft Zune advertisement ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-12.54.45.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) Millions of tracks for the price of one CD a month. This was an actual ad from Zune and this was actually very emblematic of a lot of their ads. They had one where it was a large picture of an iPod, and it said, $29,700 - if you fill this 120 gigabyte iPod with music, it'll cost you that much money, or you can buy the Zune for a monthly subscription and get the same amount of music. Their strategy was to go after the iPod, “As good as the iPod, but cheaper”. That may make sense in some cases, but if you think back in the early 2000s, what was Microsoft? It was the big stodgy monopoly that nobody really liked and the products, people were kind of tired of the constant crashing. People were actually moving to Apple because not only was the technology different or perceived better, but also it was cutting edge, it was trendy, it said something about you. If you walked into the coffee shop with your Apple product, it was saying it's a lifestyle purchase, I'm rejecting Microsoft, I'm buying something new and innovative. To do this, people were buying two to three times the price for the equivalent Microsoft product. So to go to that market and say we're going to do it for you for cheaper, it's not really the right message because that message doesn't connect with what their pain point was. Microsoft is one of my favorite companies, by the way, I have so much respect for them. I'm not doing anything to criticize them here, it's just hindsight is 20/20\. But it brings up an important point. [![Image of a man sat on a bench in the dark, with the words: "Sell the problem you solve, not the product you make."](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-12.59.00.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) ## Sell the problem you solve, not the product you make Your customers are getting up and trying to solve a real business problem, that's why they're talking to you. If you think about an HR manager, they want to get an applicant tracking system, not for the sake of having an ATS but because they have a pain point. That pain point may be they need to hire for a certain position, their hiring manager is calling him every single day saying where is my candidate flow? Where's my flow of candidate resumes to look at? And the HR manager says, "Well, I've got a tonne of them, I can't process them fast enough. And when I do find somebody who seems good, by the time I call him or her, they've already been hired by the competition". Their pain point is to process those resumes faster, so they can get the right candidates faster to the hiring manager. That's why they're talking to you about an HR applicant tracking system. No other reason. ## Remember... I'm going to make one really important point here. If you're in the B2B world, also B2C, but especially B2B, no one will actually purchase your product if they can solve that problem on their own. They're only looking for you as a secondary path. If they can solve that problem without any technology, they will absolutely do it, and they'll never even think twice, and you'll never have an opportunity to present your solution. Really think about that when you do your value propositions. ## How to build a value proposition framework There are four steps to this framework. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-13.01.50--1--1.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) ### Context There's the context in which your customers operate, not you, but your customers. - What are the macro trends that are affecting them? - What are the environmental trends? - Is a recession coming? - Is there perhaps a generational shift? People are retiring and a new generation of users have different user behaviors. - It could be compliance requirements, GDPR, or California data privacy laws coming into effect next month that apply to anybody whether they are based in the US or not. - Is Brexit going to happen? Those kinds of macro factors are always influencing your customers. ### Customers Second, you need to understand their pain points. I mentioned the IT Director at British Airways and the hiring manager looking for an ATS solution. There are dozens and dozens of examples of that. Only once you have identified those aspects, can you go to point number three. ### Business benefit Start thinking about yourself. How do our products and solutions map to those pain points? Again, business benefits - features and functions don't have a place here, they're important for an RP or a product demo, but they don't have a role in your benefit statements. ### Differentiate Finally, you can do the first three perfectly, but if you don't get the fourth one right, it's very difficult to be successful. Because if every single vendor or solution out there looks the same, what does the customer base their decision on? They're going to base their decision on price. You're going to be the low-cost vendor. That works for some, but in general, that's not a sustainable strategy. ### A simple test Really think twice about what your competition does, in fact, a really interesting test that I hope everybody here does - download your competitors’ datasheets, if you haven't already, take off all the logos, branding, and colors so you just have the copy of their datasheet and then put yours side-by-side and give it to one of your customers. Ask them to identify which one's your product. I almost guarantee they won't be able to in many cases, you'll be shocked that you won't be able to do it in some cases. This is a very common phenomenon. When you can't differentiate yourself from the competition, you're struggling and that's very common. ## Examples of good value propositions Here's an example of some value propositions that are done right. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-13.05.55-1.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) Increased customer satisfaction, maximize your revenues, and reduce risk and deployment time. Those are three value propositions that this organization fell for their product. Are they **business-oriented to their customers’ needs**? They seem like it, they seem pretty relevant. I don't know that business well enough. Are they **differentiated**? I don't have that context, let's give them the benefit of the doubt. But certainly, there's **no feature functionality talk** in here, there's no Tech Talk. It's trying to pin their benefits to their customers’ presumed pain point. They do it through: - Increased satisfaction = consistent data, and simplified billing. - Maximizing revenues = making your sales org more productive. - Reducing risk and deployment time = with an integration. Notice they're talking technology here but that's okay because the integration is not the value proposition. The value proposition is we're going to reduce your risk and deployment time, the integration is just the proof point, the enabler of how we do it. ### Three is key I really like this because it's business-centric and differentiated. It also comes in three, three is a key number because if you start giving more than three value messages, you're going to confuse people, they're going to forget, they're not going to remember what you said. If you do less than three, it's almost impossible to differentiate from the competition, you have to be really special to be able to differentiate under three value pops. That's a golden number right there. ### Room for improvement The only thing I would do in addition is to quantify this. Tell me how much you've increased customer satisfaction for a customer similar to me, perhaps build me a model that shows me how much more money I can make through this, at least to give me an idea. Reducing deployment time, maybe the standard in the industry is six months, and you do it in 15 days, you can quantify all those things. That's very complicated and time-consuming. In many cases, we don't like the numbers that come out at the end so we don't do it often. But if you can do it, and if you have strong numbers, absolutely this is an imperative here to do it. We have to challenge ourselves to be better than the previous image about wizards and scalable databases. ## Customers don't buy products, they buy solved problems This is probably the single most important takeaway. I mentioned earlier if they can solve their problem without you they will, they won't even think twice about you. That's just the way we operate. ## How to differentiate a value proposition Now I'm going to switch gears and look at an actual case study of an example I went through with my team a few years ago. I hope this will be an indicative example. You're not going to be able to reproduce it point by point, but it'll give you an idea. ### Understand the context Our customers were in an industry that was in a crisis mode because they were in a crisis of innovation and productivity. ### Rising cost They were spending money hand over fist year after year and looking at the blue line going up sharply, you don't even have to read the numbers to see that it's sharply increasing in spend - 50 fold actually over the 40-year timeframe. [![R&D Spend vs Innovation chart ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-13.14.07-1.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) ### Limited innovation But the number of products they were producing year after year was essentially the same. There were some peaks and troughs, but at the end of the day, they were introducing the same number of products each year. ### Patent expiry That was a problem because the ROI is not there. The other problem is their patents are expiring on the older products, remember, this is a long time frame. Me too competitors are coming in taking away market share with much cheaper products, which they didn't have to invest any money into and these companies are really suffering in terms of profitability as a result. ### Greater compliance This was a regulated industry so the government's always looking over their shoulders, making things more complicated for them as well. That's the context our customers found themselves in. ## How to understand market competition The problem for us was as vendors serving this, there were other vendors as well and we all looked alike. The other problem was we had actually differentiated ourselves through price - we were by far the most expensive. It was fine because for years, that industry was making lots of money, and they didn't really care that much about money. But now all of a sudden, they're very price sensitive and we're starting to lose deals much more regularly, we're actually having customers move away from us, and explicitly citing cost as the number one criteria. Even though we had the largest market share, we were starting to realize if we don't adapt and evolve, we're going to be in trouble. So we needed to adapt with our customers as their environment was changing. ### What we did: Value proposition workshop What we did is create a two-day off-site, that was called a value proposition workshop. It was done with all of these customer-facing teams brought together in one place. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-13.18.15.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) This was the first time our organization had done that, bring all of these diverse teams together in one place and one time to talk about what the customers business context is, what their pain points are, all those steps from the framework I mentioned, how our business benefits map to their needs, and ultimately, how we differentiate. ### Coordination, buy-in, & commitment This was an exercise that took a lot of coordination, it took buy-in from executive management, especially on the sales side, they're going to take a sales director out of the field for two days to talk about this stuff, that's a big deal. There was commitment here at the most senior levels of the organization. By the way, we reinvented ourselves across the board, across the organization, but I'm obviously just going to go through the go-to-market aspect of it today. ### External validation Once we came up with what we thought was a good set of value propositions out of this workshop, we had gotten external validation, we had some partners we work with that we're very close with, and some long term customers that we're very close with, we were able to get feedback from them and adjust our message accordingly. ## How to understand your customer Then we looked at, what do we do here? Let's drill down. We looked at the people who are making the buying decision. ### **Buying committee** For us, it's those three individuals in the middle, the VP of Business, Business Operations, and End User, basically the line of business that makes the decision. ![Five executives in suits sit at a desk.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-13.20.33--2-.png) We have historically very strong relationships with that line of business. That was one of the key reasons we tended to win. IT over on the far end, they're important influencers in this decision, extremely important but they were neutral to us. They didn't really like us, they didn't have any particular affinity for us but they didn't dislike us either. As long as we met their checkpoints - good enough. The problem for us was procurement because what does procurement care about? Cost is what they care about and in this particular industry compliance as well. Those were the two things they cared about. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-13.23.02-1.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) As I said, they're under budget constraints, CFOs are telling them to cut money, so procurement was actually killing deal after deal for us. Our strategy was to turn that IT person into a soft supporter and then neutralize procurement. Then we broke it down a little bit further. We mapped it with the key criteria these companies base their decision on and how they map to each individual's roles requirements. You'll see this kind of misalignment there. Certainly, the business has a certain set of criteria, and procurement as an example doesn't care about those things at all, ironically. Ironically, the whole purpose of buying this product is to make things more efficient and effective, you can see procurement doesn't care at all. ### Know the competition Then when we met, we mapped ourselves against our competitors to see how we stack rank against them, minus one if we were behind, plus one if we're better. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-13.24.53-1.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) This took a lot of heated debate and discussion, this isn't as clean as it looks on the image, this was two days of arguing over this point to see where we really mapped up. You really have to be honest with yourself. You can see at the end of the day, we come out ahead, but again, not enough to justify that high price we're offering. We were not about to drop the price of our product, because we felt the value was there. ### Differentiate But because we had brought all of those people together in one place, and this was the key factor we didn't even realize until after the fact, we gleaned some insights. We had heard over time in various parts of the organization that we had this very strong community, this user group of professionals from this industry, that were purchasing our product, not because they wanted our product, but because they wanted to get into that peer community. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-13.28.24-1.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) That industry didn't really have a trade association of its own, we were de facto the trade association, because we were the largest ones. People were purchasing our product to get into that, some of them had told us that, "Hey, our CFO told us to cut the budget and cut your product. We said no because we want to stay part of this user community, we dropped other products instead". That was an aha moment for us, this is really a strong argument for us. Also note this is a good argument to use with the IT group, which was neutral to us but in this case, we can actually say, "Hey, Mr or Mrs. IT director, we can connect you with hundreds of peers at other companies in this particular industry, IT peers". ## Our differentiated value proposition This ended up being our value proposition here that we went to market with. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-13.29.43-1.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) ### More productive The core of what they needed was productivity, and we make you more productive. ### Built-in compliance Normally I would say compliance is like usability, you don't want to talk about compliance as a value proposition, especially in a regulated industry, you should be compliant period. But actually, some of our competitors had not been and we had a perfect track record. Originally, we actually said guarantee compliance, but legal rightfully so didn't like that. ### Unrivaled network As I just mentioned, our network set us apart. Notice these are value propositions that are business-oriented, they're focused on their needs. They certainly differentiate us in terms of compliance - already the first differentiator, because in terms of productivity by itself we're not the only ones that make it productive, our competitors would have done it as well. I don't know if we had 27% for competitors, but they would have done it. And then also, I talked about the other differentiation pieces, the unrivaled network. You have three value propositions we felt comfortable with to go to the market. The end output for that value proposition workshop, those two days was one slide, literally just one slide. ## 3X3 value proposition matrix This was it, what we call the three by three matrix with the three customer-centric business benefits up top. Underneath that it's proof points - here's how we do it. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-13.33.34.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) Then there, it's okay to talk about some functionality, that's all right because you want to let your customer know you're not making an empty claim, we're actually able to do it, you want to be able to demonstrate it. ## How does a value proposition inform your messaging? Finally, as I wrap up here, you have to make sure you inform the entire organization with your messaging. Those points need to go through everywhere, that three by three matrix. [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-13.34.46.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) That way, any interaction your customer has with you, no matter which channel, they always hear the same thing. ## Pro tip: your own value propositions I want you to think about your own value proposition for if you ever go to a job interview: - What are some of the differentiated values you bring that sets you apart from everybody else reading also applying for that job? - How do you provide business value? - Do you know what their drivers are? - Why are they hiring for you in the first place? [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-17-at-13.36.27--1-.png)](https://futureofsaas.io/value-propositions-that-sell/) Once you understand that, you can really kind of start to develop your own messaging. Thank you. ### How to re-onboard customers lost to churn URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-re-onboard-customers-lost-to-churn/ Last updated: 2021-11-25T17:07:23.000Z However you slice it, customers *make* a business. 🤝 Without their buy-in or engagement, a company is obsolete. That’s why customers should always be at the heart of every business decision you make. But sadly, you can’t win them all. Worse still, sometimes you lose the ones you did win. 💔 It can feel like an up-hill struggle, trying to re-engage customers who’ve been [lost to churn](https://customersuccesscollective.com/how-to-reduce-customer-churn/) and are therefore no longer part of your clientele. It’s a situation all businesses will find themselves in at some point. The solution? ****Have a strong customer success strategy in place. 📈** This article will look at the different types of customer churn, how to re-approach lost customers and how to effectively win them back. After all, it’s a well-known fact that it’s more cost effective for businesses to retain customers than to seek out new ones. ## **So, where do you start?** We get it, approaching a churned customer can be super daunting and might feel like a bit of a minefield. 🤯 What’s the right protocol? What should your email template look like? How do you communicate tactfully? These are all valid questions and ought to be handled carefully, as the last thing you want to do is alienate a churned customer even further. If you’re trying to re-engage churned customers then at least you know they’ve previously harbored an interest in your product or service. They’ve vested interest in your offering at some point, so use this to your advantage. Before we take a look at how to re-engage a lost audience, let’s first get to grips with what churn really means. ### **The different types of customer churn** The groundwork has already been laid, the customer’s appetite whet, but for some reason things have gone awry. A customer abandons ship, leaving your product or service behind, joining the churn pile. Churn is the antithesis of customer retention and an unavoidable part of business life. Every company will lose customers at some point and this could be in one of two ways: voluntary or involuntary churn. If a customer makes the decision to end their subscription, this is called ****voluntary churn**; they’ve actively made a choice to no longer buy your product or use your service. This could be because they’re dissatisfied with the product and/or service, or perhaps the cost is too high. Maybe a competitor is offering something better and/or cheaper. ****Involuntary churn** is pretty much what it says on the tin. For whatever reason, a customer is no longer actively subscribing to your product or service due to an unavoidable payment error, or insufficient funds. The customer still wants your product or service, there just seems to be an issue with their method of usual payment. The ways you should approach these two different types of churned customers vary but both need to be handled with tact. By calculating churn rate and understanding which customers actively chose to leave your organization and which ones didn’t, you can formulate different strategies to win them back. ### **Voluntary churn** Voluntary churn is an incredibly nuanced spectrum; you need to put yourself in the customer’s shoes and consider why they left. See it from their perspective. 👀 Common reasons for voluntary customer churn include: - Poor customer service 👎 - Poor user experience (UX) 👎 - Poor quality of the product and/or service 👎 - Value for money 💸 - Confusing updates to your service leading them to feel overwhelmed or unsure of what they’re getting for their money. 🧐 It all really boils down to intent and customer experience. Keeping track of why customers leave is incredibly important. More often than not, one (if not more) of these reasons can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. By getting feedback and logging customer’s reasons for churning, you can detect common patterns and deduce whether one specific area is hemorrhaging your retention rate. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) In a report by [Zendesk](https://www.zendesk.co.uk/), it’s cited that a whopping ****[52%](https://d16cvnquvjw7pr.cloudfront.net/resources/whitepapers/Zendesk%5FWP%5FCustomer%5FService%5Fand%5FBusiness%5FResults.pdf)** of new customers in B2C organizations stop their payments due to poor customer service. 🚫 This feeling of neglect and poor onboarding is conducive to a high churn, and avoiding this is one of the main crusades undertaken by Customer Success Managers (CSMs). Customer success teams use metrics like churn rate to calculate how many customers they've lost within a specific time period. Churn rate is a [metric used to measure](https://customersuccesscollective.com/customer-success-metrics/) how many of your customer base no longer uses your product or service. It’s critical to act fast, especially if your business has a high churn rate (high turnover of customers). Without a proper customer success strategy in place to re-onboard your lost customers, you’ll start to see serious dents in your revenue, reviews and reputation. can lose an indecent amount of money by allowing customers to walk away. By implementing a strong customer success strategy, you can calculate and monitor your churn rate. ✅ ### **Involuntary churn** As we mentioned earlier, involuntary churn might seem like an unavoidable process and something that’s well out of your control. But to a certain extent, it’s the less troublesome of the two churn types; the customer doesn’t dislike your product, there was simply a payment error on their end. Surely the onus is on the customer? Alas, no. This is something entirely avoidable, and not properly managing involuntary churn can creep up and seriously damage your business. We’ve all been there and forgotten to update our payment method for a subscription. You’re then left frustrated when you can’t access your songs, films, purchase history – whatever it may be. Often the customer doesn’t know their card has been declined, or that their billing information isn’t up to date, and they find themselves locked out of your service. If you don’t act fast, your customer could end up feeling neglected, or very quickly give up on rectifying the issue. Fear not! There are ways to get on top of involuntary churn that’ll minimize the consequences to your business. Unlike voluntary churn, you don’t have to make any changes to your product or service - you just need to make the payment process (and any problems that arise within it) more streamline. This is where the infamous ****proactivity** of customer success comes into play. 💪 You can get ahead of involuntary churn by sending reminders – via whichever form of communication suits your audience – to update subscriptions, payment methods, etc. By setting up in-account or in-app notifications to alert the customer that their card details are expiring, you can preempt and prevent churn. The expiration date of a debit or credit card is easily accessible – everything is at your fingertips and it’s on your customer outreach team to take action. Of course, if you miss this deadline, you can still reach out to your customers by email, or phone. Email is a double-edged sword though. It can be fantastic for reaching out to customers, but it can also be detrimental if you send too many. By keeping your re-onboarding email template light with a clear call to action (CTA), your chances of winning a customer back round are high. Now we’re clear on the different types of customer churn, let’s take a look at how you can approach and (hopefully) re-engage lost custom. 🤞 ## **Ways to reactivate churned customers** ![How to win back lost customers to churn rate](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/F_g1Rqfoq3mHNh1jLTTD7j_oderwD6fkYlRCRBeUvIDY0-hkS3w9JDCn5Czhl6-9xXgCCKn_pp9kFwRcDw3t93N9vlP2DiXpZjcp_rjRN5CVdisxRyImzKThQV4mIuznYGC5eqEC) ### **Reach out to them** Wanna win back your lost customers? The best place to start is by getting in touch with them. 👋 It’s no good sitting around complaining about climbing churn rates. You need to be proactive and deal with the situation at hand. One way to do this is by going old school and calling them up. Keep the conversation friendly and polite; whatever you do, make sure you don’t hound them for leaving you! A churned customer doesn’t want to be told off – they don’t even know they’ve done something wrong, they’re just looking for the best deal and the best solution to their problem. 📞 Introducing new features, cheaper prices or a discount is a good way to ease their frustration and change their perception of you and your product. A win-back email campaign is another great way to reach out and get the attention of any lapsed customers. Just remember to keep the incentive relevant to the customer and make sure it’s something *that* will add value for them. Let’s be honest, no one wants to open an email, be intrigued by a discount, only to discover it’s the marketing equivalent of receiving a pair of socks for your birthday; is always a big no-no. When it comes to your email messaging, the way to stand out is to identify your USPs and demonstrate to them why your product is better than the rest. However, you won’t be successful if you don’t have a catchy subject line. Having a striking, strong subject line really makes or breaks your re-onboarding campaign, along with the visual design. If your email looks unappealing and your message is dull, don’t be alarmed if your re-onboarding is unsuccessful. Why should the customer re-invest in your product if you can’t even create an enticing email for them? ### **Win them back with incentives** Providing benefits is an attractive way to lure customers back in. It’s no great secret that everyone loves a bargain. A great way to keep a customer’s interest piqued is to offer them a discount on their next purchase, keeping your tone of voice light with an emphasis on the customer. A good example of what we mean here: > **We haven’t heard from you lately, but we’d love to.* > *You mean a lot to us, so we’d thought you’d like 15% off \[x\]* > *Get your discounted \[product\] now!* Include a clear CTA at the bottom of the email and ensure that the discount is prominently displayed. 📢 You know there was a reason they initially invested in your organization in the first place. It's just a matter of rekindling their initial desire to consume and offering a discount is a proven way to do this. In the case of win-back strategies, you’ve already laid the initial groundwork to onboard them, so at this point it all lies in the art of persuasion. Ultimately, you’re trying to show how indispensable they are by restoring the customer’s value. ![How to win back customers lost to churn](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/kJUGh5lhfVIWzVevBq3ewEnsZ6ndpwN4XHrRU3gpOd9f7t0UqHTlxaIAhSCsLe7YsUcz7ysHVBOm7gS_eghB-x7Y4hkGS14vK2gL9thh283IqzfEoEVQ2x68vwlH7JhGYZT9RtBJ) Other ways to win churned customers over include: - Offer to upgrade them to a better product package with improved features - Provide them with extra support from your customer service team - Offer free training opportunities - Use a loyalty reward option for added motivation Failing any of the above, a good way to get the customer’s attention is by offering a free trial of your best package. It’s a classy, slick and attention-grabbing way to showcase your company at its best. This can be a particularly potent offer if the customer has had a poor prior experience with your product/and or service. And let’s be honest: who doesn’t love a freebie? 🙋‍♀️ ### **Give them FOMO** Ah FOMO – fear of missing out. We’ve all experienced it at one time or another. It isn’t solely applicable to weekend plans with your friends – it can be adopted by businesses too. Inciting a good old bit of FOMO is a great tactic to employ with lapsed customers as it makes them envious of those with access to your product or service. Do it well and they’ll be ordering a slice of the pie for themselves in no time. With the right incentives in place you can strategically make your product more alluring by re-framing the narrative to ensure the customer is the main focus. The product is still the same, but by honing in on its value and benefits to the customer, you can show what it can do *for them*. When executed correctly, you flip the conversation and inform the customer that your product has the potential to: - Saves user time 🕑 - Increase value – they’ll actually save money 💰 - Help them achieve their goals 📈 - Be unmatched in the market 🥇 Whether you reach out via email or phone, by structuring your communications towards your product’s perks, you stand a better chance of rewriting the ex-customer’s image of you. ### **Mutual engagement plans** Customers don’t always properly engage with a product and there can be a lot lost in translation, culminating in a poor relationship and high churn rate. Looking through the lens of the customer, you need to ensure they know how they’ll benefit from your product through your re-onboarding efforts. Show the customer that you intend to provide tailored support in the future for their specific needs. It’s incredibly important to manage customer expectations by supplying them with key milestones and offer assistance to the customer to meet their desires. You’re the expert, after all, and clarity of communication and trust are of critical value at this stage. ## **In a nutshell** Having this plan of action prepared in advance is a brilliant way to catch cancelled customers before it’s too late. If you learn about their specific situation, you can avoid repeating the same mistakes for future customers. It can be tricky to know exactly how to approach re-onboarding customers – it really depends on your business model and the reasons the customer left. The good news is though, you’ve got plenty of tactics up your sleeve. Pricing, user experience and customer service are three of the most common reasons for churn. Identifying these issues and tactfully presenting genuine solutions can make an enormous difference to not only your brand image, but the customer’s ability to fulfill their goals with your product. Our top tips are to act ****fast**, act with ****tact** and ultimately, ****listen** to your customers. 💥 ### How to price a product and introduce discounts URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-price-a-product-and-introduce-discounts/ Last updated: 2021-11-24T17:59:24.000Z Having conducted [competitor intel](https://productmarketingalliance.com/how-to-get-results-with-competitor-analysis/), and successfully building a [business case](https://productmarketingalliance.com/how-to-create-business-case-messaging/), you’ve likely got the thumbs up from stakeholders. Next on the agenda is your pricing strategy. Now, there’s no escaping the fact pricing your product or service is tough. Real tough. After all, your target audience may share the same pain points, but their budgets will inevitably vary. If you set your price point too low, your blood, sweat, and tears will amount to next to nothing. On the flip side, if your product price is way out of sync with your buyer personas and target customer budget, you could drive ‘em straight into the arms of your competitors. In this article, we’ll address: - [What a pricing strategy is](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-price-a-product-and-introduce-discounts/#what-is-a-pricing-strategy) - [Types of pricing strategies](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-price-a-product-and-introduce-discounts/#different-types-of-pricing-strategies) - [How to calculate a product selling price](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-price-a-product-and-introduce-discounts/#how-to-calculate-a-product-selling-price) - [What to consider when pricing a product](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-price-a-product-and-introduce-discounts/#what-to-consider-when-pricing-a-product) - [What to consider when discounting a product](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-price-a-product-and-introduce-discounts/#what-to-consider-when-discounting-a-product) - [How to increase your prices (without P-ing off your customer)](https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-price-a-product-and-introduce-discounts/#how-to-increase-your-product-price) ## **What is a pricing strategy?** A pricing strategy is the model and/or method a company uses to price their product or service suitably. The process helps companies generate maximum profits, whilst simultaneously taking into account the buyer, as well as trends within the market. Pricing strategies differ depending on the nature of the company and circumstances, which makes teaching it somewhat tricky because there really is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution. ## **Different types of pricing strategies** Product marketers have several pricing strategies to consider, including: - Competitor-based pricing - Cost-plus pricing - Value-based pricing - Dynamic pricing - Penetration pricing - Price skimming - Target costing Cost-plus pricing is often considered one of the most simple methods on offer, but target costing is another method used by PMMs when mapping out their pricing strategy. ### **Target costing** Target costing is defined by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants as: *“A product cost estimate derived from a competitive market price”*. Target costing is categorized as a management technique, as well as a pricing method, in which price points are influenced by the condition of the market, and other key factors, such as: - Homogeneous products - Volume of competition - No/low switching costs for the end customer ### **Example: How to price your product using target costing** Imagine you have a business selling customized soccer jerseys, and the average market price is $200\. Here’s how to calculate your target cost: Average market price: $200 Target margin: 50% Target cost: $100 Because your target margin is 50%, the maximum amount you can use to produce each product is $100\. If it costs more than $100 to manufacture each customized soccer jersey, this will reduce your margin. So, how do you determine the appropriate margin? There's no quick-fix to determine an appropriate margin for your product but the standard margin is 40-50%. Alternatively, you can use the price multiplier method to calculate your margin: Simply multiply the total costs by 2 (100% markup or 50% margin) or by 3 (200% markup or 67% margin). This will help you establish a suitable mark-up to put on your product. If your product is unique, you’ll be able to charge a higher margin. ## **How to calculate a product selling price** A suitable product selling price is key to your success. If you’re underpriced, not only will you lose money, but your product could also be viewed as cheap and unreliable. On the other hand, overpricing your product means you run the risk of pricing yourself out of the market. So, what’s the solution? You need to introduce a price point that’ll secure your place in the market, satisfy your customer, and give your business scope to thrive and develop. ## **Important pricing formulas:** ### **Product selling price** To calculate your product selling price, use the formula: ****Selling price = cost price + profit margin** The cost price is the price a retailer paid for the product, while the profit margin is a percentage of the cost price. ### **How to calculate average selling price** Before calculating your selling price, it’s important to understand the average selling price of existing products already available in the market. Average selling price can be calculated using the formula: ****Average selling price = total revenue earned by a product ÷ number of products sold** If your company is in the process of releasing a new games console and wants to position it as a high-end product, the average selling price of $500 of existing games consoles can be used to guide your pricing strategy. You may price yourself at $550-$600, to stand out as a luxury (albeit more expensive) alternative. ### **How to calculate product selling price by unit** If your business stocks up on inventory in bulk, it may be worth calculating your product selling price by unit. To calculate your product selling price by unit, follow these three steps: 1. Calculate the total cost of all units purchased. 2. Divide the total cost by the total number of units purchased - this will provide you with the cost price. 3. Use the selling price formula to calculate the final selling price. ## **What to consider when pricing a product** ****[Silvia Kiely Frucci](https://productmarketingalliance.com/pma-member-spotlight-silvia-kiely-frucci/), Senior Product Marketing Manager at Castor**, shared five lessons she’s learned when pricing products during her career: ### **1\. Follow the process but don’t be bound to it** Pricing is a complex matter and it cannot be driven just by qualitative insights. Creating a framework around the various pricing work streams is essential to get things done. For the past two years, I have used the model below as a guideline: ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/jds-EEvs3ULnz7xjZdEiEW0rphMaGv4khJt4rW1EVLts3_ZE9Du-eJAS3aJ5MixFhk8ZC8VZN7MS0wrPRudOD5BAZuBO0L0uZPB1YxDKqbBBlL7bfB95Y2VEfGcmBZTX2JCO3EWB.png) Even if it looks like a linear process, milestones and decisions are not always linked to the stage that the process suggests they should be dealt with. For example: - Relevant competitor information can be found after price testing with customers. - The initial customer segmentation must be re-evaluated when new qualitative insights have emerged during a pricing workshop. It’s important to always keep an open mind during the process to make sure your pricing output reflects the market needs. ### **2\. Pricing is a team effort** Product marketers are often responsible for pricing but the process doesn’t have to be a single-handed decision. Pricing workshops are the perfect ground to involve all the key influencers to discuss around the table. Product, sales, marketing, customer engagement, project management, and Business Unit Directors are all stakeholders in the success of the pricing strategy. They all hold a unique perspective on products, customers, and markets, and they all have very different KPIs around success. Creating an open dialogue is the best way to hear everyone’s point of view and find a common strategy. ### **3\. The perfect pricing structure is a myth** In the past I have built different pricing models: some were cost-plus only, others heavily relied on competitor pricing insights, and some were value-based. There is no doubt to me that value-based pricing is the most successful way to price products, both in the physical and SaaS space. Value-based pricing best practices often show a three-tier option with tick boxes for product features/benefits. Although this output is very clear and simple for customers, it cannot be applied for every product. Some products are so complex and/or so customizable, they cannot be easily deconstructed to create different versions. It is more the case of displaying value to the customers using a complementary pricing model, where the final price is built by attributing a monetary rate to each customer-recognized value. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/yVwC-PA0XOB9F7C0oPE1tXyVZqeRUF4przs--knoyTrb1VSmxg7jgWKTnIldeZcP6D2wrmn0WAc-LTrj-sE7hP0K-9qmDU-V8JP5PLdfoBCucsH2XjPjuXsLgrFfCIi86nNv5bMf.png) This model could be used as a guideline for discounting by asking the simple question to your customers: “Which value do you want to drop for a cheaper price?” ### **4\. Negative price testing** Negative price testing is the best ground to re-evaluate your product value proposition. I find price testing one of the most complicated processes to plan. Is it best just to live test and look for customers’ behavior in response? How about creating customer panels before roll-out? Will you test on renewals or new business? The questions are infinite. Whichever strategy you select for the product you are selling, make sure you create a clear way to capture customer feedback. Define 1-3 items that will help you define customer product perception in response to your pricing and align it with your product value proposition. Great pricing means the customers have understood your product the way you and your company sees it. ### **5\. Pricing is not just a number** Making plans to roll out the price to the rest of the company is as important as deciding the price itself. One of the never-to-be missed actions from the pricing workshop is agreeing on a clear strategy around sales enablement. In my experience, partnering with your marketing team at this stage is paramount, they will help you shape the message internally and to the customer. ## **What to consider when discounting a product** Discounting is a tried and tested tactic used by companies worldwide to drive sales; research has revealed [discounting is the top pricing strategy](https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/retail-pricing-strategies/) for retailers across all sectors. While discounting your product can increase your customer base and generate additional income, it can sometimes prove counterproductive. Although reduced pricing can attract more customers, this strategy can also reduce your profit margins or attract negative personas when it isn’t planned properly. Before applying any discount to your pricing strategy, be sure to plan meticulously and consider the following: ### **Define your objectives** Never apply a discount without establishing why you’ve decided to apply a discount in the first place. Perhaps you’re hoping the tactic will attract new customers? Maybe you want to appease your existing customers? Are you dropping prices to [reactivate churned customers](https://productmarketingalliance.com/how-to-reactivate-churned-users/)? It’s critical to identify your reason for applying a discount because there are different types of discounts applicable for different objectives. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) For example, if you’re trying to reach churned customers, a personal campaign is the best way to achieve your aims and win them back around. ### **Segment your personas and offers** When you’re discounting products, you can increase your conversion rate by introducing segmented offers based on your customers’ preferences. Create customer profiles detailing their buying habits based on previous purchases and use this information to offer discounts that are relevant to each customer. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/pasted-image-0-1.png) An example of customer profiles to detail buying habits *(Image courtesy of vendhq.com)* In theory, this may seem like a daunting task. However, a customer management system (CMS) will equip you with all the information you need to see what every single customer is buying and how much money they spent, allowing you to offer an appropriate discount. ### **Get your timing right** When you’re considering applying a discount, time is of the essence. If you send out a deal at a time when your customer doesn’t need it, this will have a significant impact on your conversion rate. Be sure to use the data at your disposal to identify when sales are at their peak. If your sales trends indicate your customer base is converting at the start of the month, it wouldn’t make sense to introduce a discount at the end of the month when they’ve spent their monthly paycheck. There are times when an industry itself informs when a company decides to introduce price discounts. For example, every year, the English Premier League soccer season runs from August to May, and clubs release new soccer jerseys in the build-up to the first week of the campaign. With the latest designs being released in June/July, the soon-to-be outdated jerseys are reduced by more than 50% as fans start to switch their attention to the updated designs. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-11-at-16.19.26.png) An example of how the Premier League discount last season's soccer shirt designs ### **Consider your margins** You need to make sure you don’t compromise too much by applying a discount that’ll mean you lose money. It’s important to set an acceptable margin range for your products and any discounts applied. Conditional promotions are a great way to offer discounts whilst protecting your margins. These promotions differ from blanket promotions in that they entice customers with a discount on the condition that they fulfil certain criteria. For example, *spend X and get X% off.* Alternatively, a condition could be to limit an offer exclusively to VIP members, or customers who’ve signed up for a loyalty scheme. ### **Identify upselling and cross-selling opportunities** When you discount a product, this can increase the number of visits to your website. Take advantage of this opportunity by upselling or cross-selling to generate as much income as possible from each prospective customer. eCommerce company Amazon uses these techniques *all the time*. For example, let’s say you want to buy the *Joker* DVD - you head to Amazon, search for the product and go to add it to your basket. Then this catches your attention: ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screenshot-2021-05-11-at-16.33.41.png) Amazon example of how to upsell effectively to customers Before you know it, a £6 bargain has turned into a £24 purchase and you’ve splurged £18 more than you’d initially anticipated, just because Amazon have told you it’s an ideal combo - impulse buying at its finest. ### **Prioritize your new products** It’s important for your pricing discounts not to work to the detriment of your new products. As a preventative measure, list the items that’ve been discounted *after* your new products. This will ensure customers eyes remain fixed on your brand-new, full-price products, before they reach your reduced items. ## **How to increase your product price** There are also instances when you may need to increase your prices, and this can prove a challenge in itself. ****Phill Agnew, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Hotjar** outlined two tactics you can use: The first tactic I want to focus on which will help you increase your price without losing customers is something called hyperbolic discounting. ### **Hyperbolic discounting** It's a fancy word for something we all know. It's the feeling that when you have a mountain of work piling up, and you know you need to get it done within the next couple of days but you just can't find the motivation to do it. You put it off and instead watch Netflix and convince yourself that tomorrow you'll get all that work done. In that scenario, you have fallen victim to something called hyperbolic discounting. *”Hyperbolic discounting refers to the tendency for people to increasingly choose smaller, immediate rewards over larger later rewards”.* The problem here? Instant gratification. Hyperbolic discounting is a cognitive bias where people choose smaller immediate rewards, so watching Netflix and feeling a bit of satisfaction, rather than larger rewards in the future, essentially getting all that work done and feeling real relief. Here’s an example of hyperbolic discounting in action: ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/OB_yxGLSZZc1z7YbxGCkgfyEsJzCPUrusV3O1XpqQOSAmTkTWl8uda2Cu_82RilgJOZfyLg-LYhAxIQ_mMOQT_4Bx0f4kgi4iF7wJ7jD_vB9FJiKF9ArHyily_pxv5pNMtEtXyko.png) An example of hyperbolic discounting in action In the right scenario, if we were all smart, rational consumers, we would all take the $60 - that's worth the most and it's the best package we could get. But most of us pick the $15 now because the satisfaction of gaining something quickly and immediately beats having to wait a year. Interestingly, when consumers were asked the same question with the same intervals, but a year later, they tended to choose the largest $60 dollar reward. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/SlEwDdNOb7uP9YU8_2za1g9Damib9ClMFO_04Ua7U5LKtPr5f0QNUWlS4fKCU0LEFgUjWFROAk8lv7kBg1HZ0-LQ0MbXQ2fRvziIAWxsnqGracb_2UQcFOoAQxPO0Q0X0QJIG6BZ.png) A good example of a hyperbolic discounting model This proves that we are impatient and prefer immediate, short-term rewards. For individuals, this creates a lot of problems I won't get into today, things like not saving for retirement but one of the ways that you can get around this is by breaking down big goals into smaller manageable chunks. The problem with things like saving for retirement is that saving is a huge challenge; the amount an American needs to save is about $1.7 million for their retirement. Obviously saving that much takes a lot of money and almost a lifetime to achieve. With huge goals like that, it's much better to break it down into smaller tasks with a reward coming after each chunk. That way, the reward is no longer a far off possibility, but something that is more immediate and guaranteed. This works not just for people trying to save for retirement, but for big brands and product marketers who are trying to justify their high prices. Let's pretend you're selling a high-value Mercedes Benz, you could show the full cost for $40,000 today, or you could show the cost broken down perhaps by using a bit of this hyperbolic discounting insight. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/I1tCMctoCij14UM3zQpr4wdDb-of-3TfYX469oGADmWg6eFgO48aAbTVs6Jc0tst3lGV0xG7T88sk7ae4H9YW2cZOnwE-IoQkKPGn0Wtb9jVvDPtEervhIU9f_dVSVSWcpJjNt3K.png) A good example of a hyperbolic discounting model to attract and retain customers You could say it's broken down to $32 per week, or $4.75 a day over the course of two years, but which would look most attractive to the user? One study actually analyzed this to reveal conclusively which was seen as the most attractive price. The researchers presented one of three numbers at random to over 500 participants and the results revealed the shorter the time frame, the smaller the cost, the more appealing the deal. In fact, when the prices were shown as daily figures, they were five times more likely to be rated as a great deal than when they were shown annually. For SaaS marketers and for product marketers, this is a really interesting insight. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/y7x5PS5Su0lEVeFIOHjJ0uPpa9rfo2IoqX31CezeZhpxDRmsbU2vpBZWrODQsMHv23shYxuTJxN_L8OjVz_MncePBfkB-soSBomSQqBMQJXftGq-FRpIRxgRnoMArf5h65GdZk4W.png) Consumers will pay up to 50% more for a product if they can pay later Where possible in the future, we should pursue the extra bill, the cost of payment off into the future, we shouldn't encourage consumers to spend 40 grand now - instead, we should get them to make smaller commitments, like $4 a day. Now that's one way you can reframe your products to push for a higher price. It works because you have to remove that immediate pain of payment. But it's not the only way you can reframe your price. ### **The decoy effect** I'll finish by highlighting one of the tactics that a lot of SaaS marketers use, but not one that the majority of us particularly understand - the decoy effect. ****Example one: Popcorn** To explain the decoy effect, I'll give a bit of a story about myself and I'm weirdly habitual when I go and watch movies at the cinema. Every time I go and watch a movie, I buy a ridiculously large amount of popcorn. After the movie, I always regret how much I've eaten, I'm usually full after a couple of handfuls, but I always plow through to the bottom and I always eat this popcorn. Next time I go, I'll do it again. I keep getting into a habitual loop and I feel awful every time, but I can't get out of it. Now when looking at the price of popcorn, I start to realize why I keep falling into this trap. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/lvilq0q3wW1dsq4tDWfH8S8mTW_R0sbKGeh3LNEVzMEPy3AuF_YDihtpEqoIaN7TqTPzbPEdsH9OR2rCqIigLayocKyswBAYId4ygX2mj3uGVJJoYo-xHWBtANoNRxv1JkqF2Ocx.png) Popcorn pricing to demonstrate the decoy effect This is the actual price of popcorn at my local cinema in London. There's something really interesting about these prices, right? The extra-large is obviously too much - £7 (about $10 in America). That's almost the price of the actual cinema ticket. I'd never spend that much but the next option down which is just 50p more than the smallest option, at £4, looks like a much better deal. With this pricing, I can't help but pick this middle option. The reason it looks like such a good deal is due to something called the decoy effect. ****Example two: *The Economist*** Let me explain the decoy effect by bringing in the famous study which was cited by Dan Ariely in his book, *Predictably Irrational*. So Dan, being a professor at Princeton University, spotted the decoy effect, not in the cinema, but while flicking through *The Economist*. He found that *The Economist* had these three pricing options that they were publishing. They had that online-only subscription at the top ($59), the print-only subscription ($125), and then the print and web subscription for $125. That's quite weird, right? With this third option, you get both the print and online versions, but it's the same price as the print option by itself. Why would anyone buy the print-only option? After all, it's the same price as the print and web option. Basically, Dan predicted that *The Economist* was using this strange pricing strategy to create a decoy and encourage more consumers to spend $125, rather than the $59 for the online-only subscription. To test this hypothesis, Dan tested it out on his students. He showed one set of his students the actual pricing with the decoy included, and the other set of students an edited version with the decoy - the print-only option - removed. He wanted to see if removing the decoy price changed what people thought about the product and changed what people wanted to buy. Turns out removing that decoy had a huge effect. When students were shown the decoy effect option, which was the one that *The Economist* had on their site, they would, on average pick the most expensive print and web subscription, it looks like such a good deal, because it was the same price as the print subscription and yet it had the web subscription included as well. Yet, when Dan showed his students the edited version, without the print subscription included, suddenly students were far more likely to pick the online subscription only. The majority of students only spent $59. That's really interesting. Just the way that *The Economist* has priced their products, the way they frame their pricing, the way they built their options, dramatically changes what consumers want. Whether you’re putting a strategy in place, discounting a product, or increasing costs, pricing plays a prevalent role in the role of any product marketer - it’s critical to understand the ins and outs of the area. ### How to monitor competitive activity URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-monitor-competitive-activity/ Last updated: 2021-11-19T10:07:48.000Z What’s the secret to becoming a leader within your market? [Competitive intelligence](https://productmarketingalliance.com/your-guide-to-competitive-intelligence/). To successfully position yourself as the market leader, you need to keep a pulse on what your competitors are doing. What features do their products have? What’s their pricing? What do they share on social media? Which website pages are they updating? What do their customers think? All of those questions can be answered by monitoring your competitive activity. In this article, I will walkthrough: - How to set yourself up for success - The sources you should monitor to gather competitive activity - How to make that intelligence actionable Let’s get started! ## Set yourself up for success Before you begin monitoring your competitors, you need to set yourself up for success. Competitive intelligence (CI) can’t be conducted in a vacuum—if you’re conducting CI on your own, with no clear goal in mind, your CI program won’t be impactful for your organization. Here are four actionable items to complete before you get started monitoring competitive activity: ## Identify your competitors Every company has multiple competitors, even startups. The first step in monitoring competitive activity is identifying who you’re competing against. Depending on the size of your company, you might have many competitors. At first, you don’t want to go after your entire competitive landscape, so break down your market, and tier your competitors based on who you compete with for the most revenue. Start with tier one, two, and so on. ## Identify your stakeholders Externally, you’re identifying your key competitors. Internally, you need to identify your key stakeholders—who within your organization is integral to your CI program? While everyone within your organization can benefit from Competitive Intelligence, you will have a group of key stakeholders that you’ll work closely with, who will be the main consumers of your intel. Some examples of key stakeholders might be: - Product Marketing Managers - Sales Enablement Managers - Product Managers - Sales leadership - Marketing leadership - Executives ## Set a cadence for monitoring Conducting competitive intelligence research doesn’t have to be time consuming. If you can set aside a certain amount of time every week or month to focus on CI, you’ll soon build a habit of incorporating competitive intelligence into your day-to-day. When setting a cadence for monitoring competitive activity, you should take a few variables into consideration: - How much time can you realistically allocate to your CI initiative? - How many people are dedicated to CI on your team? - How often are changes happening within your market? There is no right or wrong answer to how often you should be conducting competitive intelligence research. It all depends on your unique market and your business needs. Whether you’re going to spend 10 minutes per day or five hours per week, just make sure you set a cadence and stick to it. ## Set goals and KPIs As a product marketer, you know that it doesn’t make sense to kick off a new project without setting goals and [KPIs](https://productmarketingalliance.com/how-to-measure-the-success-of-product-marketing-2/). When it comes to CI, you should set both short-term and long-term goals, as well as a combination of both quantitative and qualitative KPIs. ****Some examples of KPIs:** - Revenue - how has your revenue changed? (Revenue is the ultimate KPI!) - Win rate - how has your win rate improved? - Strategy shifts - How has your strategy been impacted by CI? - Employee engagement - Is there a high adoption rate of your CI tools? Are your teams benefiting from CI? ## 5 sources for monitoring competitive activity There are many sources across the web to monitor competitive activity. These days, every company has at least a website and a small social media following. Those two sources alone can give you a wealth of competitive information. But, more often than not, companies have a very large digital footprint encompassing websites, microsites, social media accounts, third-party review sites, and more. While there are many sources to choose from, here I’m going to spotlight five highly valuable sources for monitoring competitive activity. ## Monitor competitive websites Your competitors’ websites are the main source for tracking competitive activity. Websites include a lot of information that can give you insight into key investment areas, product strategy, and overall business growth. You can find information about: - Executives - Investors - News - Events - Products - Pricing and packaging - Thought leadership ...and so much more! One sweep of your competitors’ website pages, and you’ll be able to identify so many golden nuggets of competitive intelligence insights. When you’re evaluating a competitor’s website, you should identify key themes that will help you pull together a narrative. What’s their key messaging? What are they writing about on their blog? Where are they hiring? Are they raising a new round of funding? [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) All of those questions (and more) can be explored and solved on your competitor’s website. ### Set up Google Alerts If you’re just beginning your competitive intelligence initiative and don’t want to invest in an automated competitive intelligence solution, setting up Google Alerts is the next best thing. You can save time by having competitive intelligence come to you, rather than you having to manually monitor every mention of your competitor on the web. The best part about Google Alerts is that you can choose topics, cadence, and time of day so that you’re getting the alerts at a time that fits your busy schedule. You can be vague, such as getting alerts about every mention of your competitor or be very specific with your search to get targeted Google Alerts sent to you. Once they’re set up, all you have to do is monitor your inbox and wait for the next group of alerts to come through. ### Follow social media accounts Companies use social media accounts for a variety of reasons. Some companies use social media to promote upcoming events, thought leadership, employee updates, support—or a combination. Following your competitors on social media can give you insight into the content they’re producing, which events they’re sponsoring, or how satisfied/unsatisfied their customers are. All of this information is valuable to different elements of your strategy, so monitoring your competitors on social media can not only give you insight into their strategy but help you plan your next move. ### Crawl review websites Review websites are the holy grail of customer satisfaction. Of course, you want to know how happy or unhappy your own customers are, but the key is knowing what your competitors’ customers think. Does their new feature not work as well as yours? Are they missing something major that your market wants, and you could build? Does their helpdesk not offer valuable support? Third-party review sites, like G2 or TrustRadius, can give you extremely valuable insight into how others view your competitors and how successful their product really is at helping your market. ### Subscribe to marketing emails Monitoring your competitors by subscribing to their marketing emails may seem a little suspicious. But, you’re guaranteed to know what your competitors are working on if you’re subscribed to their email list. You’ll know which content they’re sharing, what events they’re planning to attend or sponsor, and webinars they’ve got coming up—which you can attend to gain *even more* insight. Don’t worry about using your personal email vs. work email because the truth is, it’s common practice to subscribe to your competitor’s email list, so you don’t need to worry about flying under the radar. ## What to do with Competitive Insights? So, you’re searching websites, third-party review sites, social media, setting up alerts, and receiving marketing emails. Great! But, now what? Once you’ve compiled your competitive intelligence information, you should put that intelligence into action. Here are four ways to share competitive intelligence across your organization: ### Create competitive analysis Creating a competitive analysis is a great way to not only map out what your competitors are doing, but also where you fit into your competitive landscape. It’s important to monitor your competitors and collect information, but you need to translate it into something of value. Competitive analysis helps you visualize your market landscape, identify gaps in the market, and figure out how you stack up against your competitors. ### Share findings with your key stakeholders Once you’ve collected competitive intelligence and created a competitive analysis, you need to share your findings out with your key stakeholders—those key people that you identified before getting started with competitive monitoring. Don’t forget to tailor your communication based on who you’re communicating with. You’ve gathered a lot of intel on your competition, but not every stakeholder cares about everything or wants to consume the intel in the same format. Customize your reports so that each communication of competitive information speaks directly to that specific key stakeholder. ### Create sales enablement collateral Competitive intelligence can give your sales team an impactful competitive advantage. Leverage the intel you’ve gathered and create sales enablement materials to help your team prepare for competitive objections, answer feature questions, and get stronger at selling within competitive deals. Some examples of valuable sales enablement tools are: - Competitive battlecards - Competitor profiles - Competitive comparison pages - Sales training - Win/loss reports ### Leverage CI to iterate on your strategy Ultimately, monitoring your competitors is beneficial to your own strategy. By evaluating your competitors, you’re able to pull out key pieces of intel to craft a narrative about where their strategy is heading next. If you set up your competitive monitoring initiative using the tips above, monitor these key sources, and turn your findings into action, you’ll be able to iterate on your strategy and position yourself as an industry leader. ### Don't want the CI learning to stop? We've got a course for that. Face competition with confidence. Cut through the noise. [Get Competitive Intelligence Certified.](https://certified.productmarketingalliance.com/p/competitive-intelligence-certified) ### How to boost your customer retention with social media URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/how-to-boost-your-customer-retention-with-social-media/ Last updated: 2023-02-16T13:00:19.000Z It's well-known that focusing on improving your customer retention rate is an efficient way to increase sales and overall profits. It [costs 5x more](https://www.invespcro.com/blog/customer-acquisition-retention/) to gain a new customer than to retain one, so it’s well worth building a solid relationship with your current customers. Social media is one of the best channels to use to improve your retention. With [over 3.6 billion people](https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/)using social media globally, it’s not only great for reaching out to wider audiences, but also for getting to know and engaging with current clients. Many B2B owners might not see social media as being the most obvious channel for improving customer retention, however, it’s actually just as important for B2B as it is for B2C. It’s likely that the majority of your buyers are active on social media and spend a fair bit of time there. If your brand can't be found on social media, you risk giving the impression that your company is stagnant or not very well established within the industry. This can result in customers moving across to your competitors who are active on social media and have an engaging platform. Using social media to connect with your current customers is an effective way to show your value and build trustworthy relationships. This will increase the likelihood of them becoming repeat buyers and advocates for your brand. So let’s explore the best social media strategies for improving retention in your business. ## Make sure you're easily found on social media It’s important that your brand has a presence on all social media platforms and that it’s easy for clients to find you. Make sure you have a clear and simple username and use the same visuals throughout all your social media platforms. Your logos, color schemes, and image styles should be kept consistent so that you’re easily identifiable when people search for you. Make sure to use hashtags that are relevant to your industry and the product/service you offer. This will make it easy for customers to find you and will also ensure you appear on the feeds of the right people. Building your social media presence and connecting with existing customers on multiple platforms can be quite overwhelming at first. The best way to start is to identify which social media channel your current customers are the most active on and focus on building your platform there (in B2B, it’s probably LinkedIn). From this, you can link to your other social media accounts and have a consistent strategy across all your platforms. Scheduling tools will make this task a lot more manageable as they allow you to engage with customers across multiple social media channels under just one dashboard. ## Get to know your customers on social media Social media offers you the chance to learn about who your current customers are: their specific interests/backgrounds, and what they use social media for. Create polls or ask questions on your social media platform to find out more about them. You can use this information to then develop more targeted marketing strategies. For example, you could direct message customers through social media about their interests, and specific needs they have shared. You could also promote and offer special deals on a product/service that can help with the common issues customers have mentioned. ## Interact and engage with your customers on social media [78% of customers](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/data/social-media-connection/) believe that the quickest and most direct channel to use to connect with a brand is social media, so you can be pretty confident that your customers will be willing to engage and get involved on your social media. Create your own hashtags and encourage customers to use them when they post about using your product/service. Give shout-outs to new followers and celebrate the customers who have been with you for a long time. Ask customers to share their stories with your brand on social media. Tag them in your posts and share their reviews on your page. You can even ask them to be part of a live stream, so they can talk about how your product/service has specifically helped their business. This will help massively with brand advocacy too, meaning you could pick up some new customers along the way, bonus! Letting customers talk and actively involving them will help build a strong bond with them, meaning they are more likely to stay and less likely to look to your competitors. ## Educate your customers on social media Providing customers with educational content highlights your expertise within the industry and shows the value of your brand. It puts you in a good position against your competitors and gives a reason for customers to stay with you. Create and share educational posts, videos, infographics, and podcasts regularly on social media. Include valuable information about your product/service, such as top-tips or alternate ways on how to use them to benefit your client's businesses. Don’t be scared to open up about your brand, too; share your company’s mission and show ‘behind-the-scenes’ of the company’s daily operations to show the time and effort that goes into it. You could also provide educational content on current hot topics within the relevant industry and discuss recent events that have happened to showcase your knowledge within the industry and build your status as a thought leader. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) A great feature social media has for showcasing your content and making sure customers actually see it is live streams. In fact, live streams on LinkedIn receive [7x more reactions and 24x more comments](https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/blog/linkedin-company-pages/2020/new-features-invite-to-follow-linkedin-live)than regular video posts. You could ask a few social media influencers or well-known industry leaders to take part in your streams to add even more value to the content. It’s important to make sure when you’re planning a live stream you have a good, stable internet connection and have a strategy in place to reply to all comments and questions asked by your viewers to keep their engagement level high. Social media is constantly bringing out new features that can be utilized by marketers to showcase content. Make sure you stay on top of them, so you can implement them into your strategy effectively. ## Listen to customers and their feedback Social media provides an easy and instant channel for customers to ask for help and provide feedback. Not replying back to customer issues through social media can lead to a [15% increase](https://www.providesupport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Social-Media-Customer-Service-Stats-and-Trends-You-Need-to-Know.jpg) in your churn rate, so it’s important you develop a strategy that allows you to respond quickly and efficiently. Reply within a reasonable time frame and use an auto-responder for messages that come in out of hours to let customers know when you’ll be able to respond. Ensure that your reply is informative and tells customers exactly what they need to know. The last thing you want is the customer to feel as though you have wasted their time. Providing them with a seamless experience will make them feel confident that they can rely on you if something does go wrong. Be sure to also show customers they have been listened to by telling them how you have understood their feedback and improved. Social media listening tools such as Sprout Social and Brandwatch are useful for monitoring your customer's comments, so you can respond and act on them quickly. You can also use social media to ask customers for their feedback. Use direct message or create and post polls/questions to find out about their experience so far and anything that could be improved. You could also pitch your ideas about a new product/service and ask for their thoughts. This will not only make the customer feel they are contributing to the brand, but will also provide you with valuable information for the development of your next product/service. ## **Showcase your special offers on social media** Use your social media platforms to reward the customers who actively promote your brand, e.g. offer special promotions, gift cards, or loyalty points for repeat purchases. Tag the customers who take advantage of these offers in your posts to demonstrate to potential buyers the loyalty and bond you hold with your customers. Post limited loyalty offers or giveaways on your social media that privilege your loyal followers. You could post a special promotional code that is valid for only 3 hours or offer an exclusive giveaway. Customers will take advantage of this offer and feel rewarded for their loyalty to your brand. ## **Final thoughts** It’s important to remember that a lot of time and effort is needed to see an improvement in your retention. Having an effective and well-thought-through customer retention strategy is what will lead you to your desired results. Utilizing social media within this strategy will aid your success. It will allow you to build a platform where you can show off your brand’s value and take advantage of the wide network it offers to connect, engage and build a relationship with existing clients. ### The importance of customer onboarding [Q&A with Onna] URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/the-importance-of-customer-onboarding-q-a-with-onna/ Last updated: 2021-11-16T16:32:54.000Z [Customer onboarding](https://customersuccesscollective.com/the-fundamentals-of-customer-onboarding-2/) is indisputably at the heart of customer success. This is something critical for companies adopting a SaaS model, where there isn’t room for an antiquated mentality that puts the onus purely on conversions. You can’t wash your hands of the customer after the point of sale. By implementing a water-tight customer onboarding strategy, organizations will drive product value and enhance the customer’s experience. After all, clear-cut expectations and transparency are vital in the onboarding stages of the customer journey. We sat down with ****[Michelle Wideman](https://festival.customersuccesscollective.com/speakers/michelle-wideman/), Chief Customer Officer at Onna**, to discuss the importance of customer onboarding at CSC’s [****Customer Success Festival 3.0**](http://festival.customersuccesscollective.com/). ****Customer Success Collective:** Hi Michelle, thanks for taking the time to chat with us about the significance of onboarding. First of all, we’re curious to know what you think’s the most common aspect of onboarding that organizations fail at – and why do you think this is? ****Michelle Wideman:** It’s hard to pinpoint just one, it depends on the size and stage of your company. It’s important to me that customers feel like they’ve been listened to throughout their pre-sales journey, so being able to clearly outline ‘here is what we heard,’ you establish as your success criteria during the pre-sales cycle. You can then ask the customer to confirm that these objectives are the same, or have they changed?’ Once you have an understanding of the customer’s immediate needs, it’s important to understand their long-term objectives. Your role is to set the customer up to succeed for their current and future needs. This also helps set the stage earlier on in the sales cycle for incremental expansion and minimizes churn as you’ve clearly defined success criteria. [ ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/size/w1600/2021/03/Membership-ad.png) ](https://www.saasalliance.io/signup/?utm%5Fsource=article&utm%5Fmedium=blog&utm%5Fcampaign=membership-ad) ****CSC:** The value of onboarding is of real interest to us at CSC, something examined in our upcoming report, The State of Customer Success 2021\. We were surprised to find that in a survey of 200 professionals working in customer success, only 66% revealed that onboarding was a top priority in their job. While this figure is reflective of a variety of different roles and their seniority within the CS function, as a CCO, what do you make of this finding? ****MW:** I think it goes back to the size and stage of your company. Ironically, in my past two jobs, optimizing onboarding has been a key area of focus. I think it’s important to set the stage early by confirming what a customer’s success criteria are, outlining the customer’s team, and the vendor’s org chart in place to support them. If we build trust and victories early on in the process, we’re setting the customer and ourselves up for success. [Customer onboarding 101For freemium models adopted by a growing number of SaaS companies, onboarding is the frontline in the battle for the upsell.![](https://www.saasalliance.io/favicon.png)Future of SaaSMax Duce![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/03/erwan-hesry-aMjeTdCVRNE-unsplash--1---1-.jpg)](https://www.saasalliance.io/customer-onboarding-101/) ****CSC:** In your experience, what are the most important tools available for carrying out customer onboarding? ****MW:** Communication! One of my biggest pet peeves is when you have a Business Development Representative (BDR) qualify an opportunity, an Account Executive (AE) does the further discovery, the pre-sales Solution Architect (SA) team comes in and does additional questioning, then the professional services team does further scoping. The last thing you want is for customer success to do the onboarding call and say, ‘Tell me why you bought our software.’ Can you imagine how frustrating that is for the customer? Whatever CRM/application you’re using, it’s important to have alignment between the pre-sales team, customer success, and post-sales team on what fields must be populated to help to ensure the proper flow of communication on the key components of a customer’s environment and desired business outcomes. Any important documentation proof of value wrap-up meetings, architecture documents, etc. should be attached to whatever application(s) the cross-functional teams are accessing, so we’re crowdsourcing the customer’s information to all the right people. ****CSC:** Developing a relationship with high-touch customers appears easier than navigating a relationship with low-touch customers. But for the latter, who require less human contact than their high-touch counterparts, how do you ensure their goals are still established during the onboarding period? ****MW:** When supporting low-touch customers, it’s important that the auxiliary resources are in place to support them. For example, a great onboarding email that outlines the top 10 tips for a successful implementation, links them to additional resources such as a user community, knowledge base, training, and how to open support cases. It’s also important that the vendor’s backend infrastructure is established to set calls to action (CTA) or triggers based on low usage and automated playbooks to deploy to help optimize engagement. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e8/90/e890a91f-70d7-413c-b46b-a8fbf39012a7/content/images/2021/11/Screen-Shot-2021-09-28-at-16.24.57.png) ****CSC:** It’s no secret that customer success largely functions within the SaaS industry. In our report, nearly 50% of respondents work in IT services and computer software. That being said, how would you tackle customer onboarding for non-subscription organizations? ****MW:** If you’re talking perpetual licensing vs. SaaS licensing, I think a lot of the same tactics apply. It’s important to understand the business outcomes the customer hopes to achieve now and in the future, and define the dedicated resources on both sides to ensure those outcomes are achieved. ****CSC:** And finally, what practices in onboarding do you want to see more of in businesses? ****MW:** When I joined Onna it was apparent that we were too single-threaded in accounts, so if our champion left we had a risk of attrition. We’ve focused a lot on defining the org charts for our customers to ensure we have multiple contacts at varying levels. It’s important to know our users, to know our contacts in finance who help ensure timely payment and renewals, and our executive relationships. We also dedicated a slide to outline our resources and an easy decoder key, so our customers understand who to go to for what. I’d like for us to continue to build this out, so we understand the desired business outcomes for each role within our customers, what partners our customers are working with, what are their (partner) desired roles and outcomes, and how can we all partner together: customer, partner, and vendor to amplify our success? ****Has this piqued your interest? We hope so. 🤞** ****If you fancy learning more about the importance of customer onboarding, then check out the replay of Michelle's panel discussion on strategy and innovation at [Customer Success Festival 3.0](https://festival.customersuccesscollective.com/)**. 👈 ### Pricing your SaaS offering URL: https://www.saasalliance.io/pricing-your-saas-offering/ Last updated: 2022-07-04T11:02:54.000Z My name's David Wadler, and I am Co-Founder and CEO of Vendorful. I'm also an investor in a variety of startups, almost all of which are SaaS businesses. In this article, I'm going to go through some ideas about how you can start to think about pricing SaaS. ## The SaaS model When you think about SaaS, it's an amazing business model. If you're drawn to SaaS, bravo for you. I like to think about it as a better version of pharmaceuticals. Think about Viagra, a billion dollars to create that first pill. But thereafter, it maybe costs two cents to create a pill that they can then sell for $2 or $3\. A very high margin and oftentimes, in pharmaceutical, we get recurring revenue. [![Different kinds of pills in a variety of colors](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/7JU3k8fkNnJ6i17HAmW_J17Ovw_roSMsLwhc0dKoopivS6DMsal6g5gnnAvFbO7xDNYOOeCAJOk9E2zyTiV_zDzxLwBp182jjfjlCDezPcZ6iTuIJP5CmawfNb92SLtliBUgSVBh)](https://futureofsaas.io/pricing-your-saas-offering/) SaaS is even better. Software is much cheaper to build, and it scales very, very nicely. So if you can find a good SaaS business, and you can figure out how you can scale it, then you're going to have something pretty magical. ## Pricing From my perspective, pricing should be an exercise you engage in before you even start building a product. It doesn't mean you're going to land on a number or a set of numbers or anything else. But at the very least, you want to start thinking about the model. ### Questions to ask yourself You've got to wonder: - Who's going to buy my product? - Am I selling this to individuals? - Are they going to be paying on a recurring basis? - Am I selling it to businesses? - What part of the business? [![Questions to ask yourself when pricing your SaaS product ](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/XkaTHT1sy1R71lznwsxCV-AzrZzi2ZIrPdrWn7g5hOpcFeiTeETgLrvMKqHDAq2x2xl6JEP9lhyXsKoOi6WeqX78z67IeA2no3a6luCAjKhQmi-XDPByrzC5TUElw58HsA17TQR4)](https://futureofsaas.io/pricing-your-saas-offering/) ### Validation is key The most important thing early on in the SaaS business is going to be validation. You need some people to use and pay for your product, extracting the maximum amount of revenue from them is really a secondary concern. Maybe not even a secondary concern, it's probably not a concern at all. Think about how large your market is and if you're selling a product for $10 million a year versus $10 a month, you're serving different markets, those markets should be different sizes. Are you going to be very engaged in the selling of your product, or is it going to be more of a product-led growth, people can sign up, put in a credit card, and it's automated? Once they're engaged, how much time are you spending supporting, expanding, and all that kind of stuff? These are the things you need to think about as you're building your product, as you're thinking about the business before you can even get to the price. Because if you don't answer these questions, at least in your own head, pricing is going to be effectively an impossibly challenging exercise. ## Key metrics/terminology Let's talk about some of the numbers you're going to end up focusing on, you're going to want to try to the extent possible to build out or at least model this in some vague way as you are thinking about your business. Again, it's not about nailing it the first time, it's about really understanding what it is, getting directionally close, and then making the refinements as you go. [![Key metrics for pricing ](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/AUKRgdcHq9T7rCMRNsNHJ7W0ILOGdvcLgpXlt9ozlTK8Ee-kWkfChFV_vyRUBqGK6GADlok4Skkwxpb32cOTrbCY_TkQkbSJulncWbXnQxyqV5l524WPSHlWTpreny_-BVJxZ3Kr)](https://futureofsaas.io/pricing-your-saas-offering/) ### MRR/ARR For people who are newer to the business, MRR and ARR, are monthly recurring revenue and annual recurring revenue. So if you sign a deal, as I mentioned, $10 a month, that'd be a $10 MRR deal, you could also call it a $120 ARR deal. Do you want to measure on a monthly basis, an annual basis? That's really a personal preference thing. In SaaS, you can only from an accounting perspective recognize the revenue as you deliver the service. So if you sign a one-year contract, and it's $100 per month, you can't say, "Well, we're going to recognize $1200 in revenue", you'll be able to recognize $100 for this month, the next month, another $100, incrementally. The MRR/ARR numbers are a bit divorced from accounting but are very useful for helping you understand the health and growth potential of your business. ### CAC The other thing you want to think about is your cost to acquire a customer. This is known as CAC. Even if you don't have a sales team, you might have a team of amazing social media influencers who are doing all the marketing for free just because they love you. Great, your CAC might end up being something pretty close to zero. In reality, whether you're a sales-driven org or a marketing-driven org, or as most SaaS businesses are some combination, you're going to be investing, you're going to be buying revenue. This is going to be especially true early on. CAC will typically decrease over time as your brand gets out there, as the sales process gets tightened, etc. But you want to think about how am I going to acquire customers, what's it going to cost me to get a customer? Talk to people who have sold similar style products in similar types of companies. ### Churn This is the number of customers you lose every year, this will also impact, obviously, how much money you're making. Now there's this concept of negative churn, which means you might lose some customers, but the customers you keep are expanding. So the customer who paid $1,000 last year, maybe he's paying $1200 this year, that would be negative churn. ### LTV Finally, the LTV, the lifetime value. If you get a customer, and they spent $1,000 a year and your typical customer last three years, that's $3,000 in lifetime value. This is going to be very difficult for you early on, but you have to decide whether at the very least you're going to need a business where you're going to be more transactional. Maybe you offer a service for startups to help get themselves launched, but the value of your products after launch goes to zero. You know you're not going to have much time with these customers, it doesn't mean it's a bad business, but the LTV is going to be determined by how much money you're making and how much time and in this case, time would be compressed. Meanwhile, if you have another business like accounting software, you might get a customer and have them for 10 years. ### The golden rule In terms of these numbers, the golden rule here is an LTV to CAC ratio of three to one. You don't need to on day one recoup all of your sales and marketing costs. If it costs you $300 to acquire a customer who pays out $150 a year, and you know you're going to keep that customer for three or four or five years, that's good. Yes, you will lose money in the beginning, but it's not about losing money in the beginning, like the Viagra example. Invest the money in the beginning and relish the margin over time. That is the general rule of thumb. [![If your LTV to CAC ratio is 3:1 or higher, you're in good shape](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/KyT_P2k5ZO4gzCSYYVn0bJ4aaNf8suMXknw8r7RwZ6-0W-R2cq6MbxAzGhysmEpOG9rVmAX9QrjLJqr6WXzJDPvdVHIDLGBSDiP_rMMhJfjVF1-HuwGj70aEQ9koD30GzK6Ci6yP)](https://futureofsaas.io/pricing-your-saas-offering/) It is not something you need to hew to rigidly, but it is a good benchmark for you as you're thinking about these things. Obviously LTV as well as CAC, you're going to make your best guesses early on, and then you're going to use actual real data to fill in the gaps. ## So, how do I price my product? Let's think about what we've got to do. I like to think about this both bottom-up and top-down. ### Bottom-up I never want to be in a position where I am losing money in perpetuity on a customer. So if it costs me $1,000 a year to service a customer and that customer pays me $500 a year, I'm in a bad business. The customer acquisition cost is fleeting, you pay it, and then it's done. What you can do is think ‘what does it cost me?’ and apply a margin of 30/40/50/100%, and say that's my pricing. That's cost plus, you typically want to stay away from it, but it's a good exercise to figure out what your costs are. It's also a good exercise to go out and see the competitive landscape. **How do we want to sell our products?** You want to figure out what it is you're selling. How are the people going to buy it? Are they going to just come to your website and sign up? Are you planning on having a bunch of SDRs and account executives who are doing demos and running through a three/six-month sales process and one-year sales process? You might have both, you might have one in the beginning and then multiple over time. But you want to at least really think about how you want to sell this. Because this is going to change the pricing, obviously. You change your go-to-market, your CAC is going to be radically different if you take path one versus path two. And if CAC is different, then you need to optimize your LTV for your CAC. **How will we measure usage?** This is an interesting question. Almost all SaaS products are usage-based in some way. Usage might be per user, it might be per volume of usage, that might be storage or transactions or something else. **What will happen to our costs as usage increases?** Think about what that is, think about how you're going to scale the usage with your pricing and to your costs also. So if people are doing more transactions, do you say that doesn't really matter, I have a server, the server will accommodate millions and millions and millions of transactions, my typical customer's doing five a month? So my cost moves up very slowly, but I have an opportunity to move my price up more quickly. **What do our competitors charge?** And then again, what do our competitors charge? I talked earlier about doing competitive analysis, that's what you want to see, just so you can get some grounding in the market. It'd be weird if you said "Oh, we sell these widgets they're $45,000" and you find out there are a bunch of other companies that sell effectively a very similar widget, and it's $3,000\. You'd be way out of the market. Similarly, if you go down too low, that can also in some cases, oddly, work against you. People will, in some cases, associate low cost with low value. You have to work through those biases and that's something else when you do some experimentation early on with your pricing, where you can get a flavor for this. ### Top-down Let's talk about working forward and establishing the ceiling. **Value-based pricing** What is value-based pricing? I'm not going to charge you based on what my costs are, what my competitors charge, I'm going to charge you based on the value that you're getting from my product. This is very, very difficult to establish, especially early on. It will usually take some measure of experimentation, there are other things that you can do to supplement that experimentation to move things along more quickly. There are even companies that will help you do this. But it is really the holy grail. You want people not to think about this as, "Oh God, it's going to cost me X", you want them to think "I'm going to get this value, which is so much bigger than my cost." **How do you measure the value you're bringing them?** If you have an automation platform, you might be saving somebody a lot of time, you might be saving them time and money, you might be delighting them and making them happy in any number of ways. **What’s the qualifiable value?** The thing is, you have to figure out what the qualifiable value is that you're delivering, and then you're going to try over time to turn that into quantifiable value. "We're going to deliver XYZ ROI", that sort of thing. **Are we on the same page?** The important thing is you have to be on the same page with your users when it comes to this. If you're telling them "This is awesome, I've automated away so much of your time" and they said, "Well, great, now I'm out of a job because you've effectively rendered me useless", they're not going to be super excited and recognize the value the same way. However, if you automate away parts of their jobs that allow them to do other things that are higher value, and more strategic, these people are going to be your fans and your champions. They will really realize the value they're getting, these turn into case studies and everything else, which is great, but they also become very interesting discussions for you to have. So you can tell your story, and that helps you justify the price. **What's the cost of not using the solution?** I'm in a business where we are oftentimes competing with manual processes, people use Excel and Word, etc. There is time that it takes when they're using a product like that, there are outside risks they're taking because it's not inside a single system, etc. That's the other way you want to think about it - what are the pros, what are the cons? [![Pros & Cons for working backwards](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/EJkXIzIjprYHBPV7RHSzeWsiLcPaqA6GxVXHDTWgrW1VpGgN2G0AWcPVkah1gTmg_613JBY7CNSa-jBRUv0gzKMTzX4eAnfYojPDpKy6_82gnFiceV50w6FmJ9Jz6ZhxocGPl6uJ)](https://futureofsaas.io/pricing-your-saas-offering/) At the end of the day, if you can really get it, if you really figure out what your pricing should be, your customer is going to pay for the value they're getting and what they're willing to pay. You don't want to rip them off but at the same time, you don't want them to think "I'd pay five times as much for this software, it's amazing". Because if you're doing that, you're leaving money on the table. We don't want to leave money on the table. [![If you nail your pricing, you will end up charging what the customer is willing to pay. ](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/kzkAikd1TkGV8lullkJxADDb3c9Lkm9pY5BHeed9AW6p3ZybEjrNX9M_DGTVqyV6WwMjgOoW7rc-V2WFJZ0zJoF4jDB6aYr8AmhXGV1CX6OjvkRcF3V0BSeU28n-5dv7rK0h9hYa)](https://futureofsaas.io/pricing-your-saas-offering/) So it's going to take you a little bit of time. ## Three stages of pricing I like to think about this happening in three stages. ### Stage 1: Be willing to lose money In the first stage, you are a young, scrappy SaaS company. Be willing to lose money, I said this earlier, the most important thing, in the beginning, is getting customers, you just need customers, it's not about maximizing your revenue. No venture capitalist or serious investor is going to expect you to be profitable for quite some time if you're a SaaS company. Really, what you want to do is get people using the product, because nobody wants to be first, it's a high-risk proposition for those people, etc. I'll tell you one other thing, you may well, and I've done this, and most of my friends in the space have done this, given those early adopters, most favored nation pricing basically in perpetuity, because the value that you get from them is far more than monetary value. And you can pay that back to them over time, by keeping their pricing separate and distinct from what you've done if the rest of your pricing has gone up. ### Stage 2: Be willing to lose deals Once you have a bit of traction, you can start to play with the price. If you've been selling your product for $50,000 a year, and you think it's a $100,000 product, throw a quote out there at $100,000\. See how people react to it - are you going to lose deals? If you have nothing in your pipeline, that's going to feel very, very scary. You might want to go up more incrementally, you might want to go 2X, the faster you go up, the faster you'll get the data. The other thing you can do, either yourself or using a firm, is run lots of surveys to people in your space and collect data that way. I find that tends to be useful and interesting in getting you some level of refinement, but there is a difference when people talk about something theoretically and when they actually have to sign a contract and write a check, that's where the rubber meets the road. ### Stage 3: Be willing to lose tradition What I mean by that is just because you priced it one way doesn't mean you need to price it that way indefinitely. Maybe you were doing per-user pricing, and you want to move away from that, maybe you had a freemium model and now free doesn't make sense for you ever, and you just want to get rid of it. It's totally fine. Your pricing should evolve with your business. ## Oh no, I’ve screwed up my pricing! If you think you've screwed it up, this should make you feel good because it's not necessarily a screw-up, it's just the first step. ### Pricing is a moving target No one's expecting you to nail it right away. This is a moving target, you're going to figure it out. I am generally on the side of starting low, and then increasing the prices. Again, for the earliest customers, I'm not necessarily a huge fan of raising prices on them. **A quick anecdote** In my first business, we started our pricing at $100 a month, we ended up with hundreds of customers and I did the math and I realized it was going to take us a long time to make money. Now we had a non-normal distribution, where we had 10% of our customers driving the bulk of our revenue. So we increased the price to $500 a month, the entry point, the larger customers were not impacted, and we lost about 50% of the remaining customers for whom we raised the price. That was great for us, our support cost was cut in half, effectively, and we made two and a half times as much money. So you will lose customers, but sometimes in that case you will lose customers who are not the ideal fit for you anyway. That's why I say it might not be a bad thing. ### Lowering prices You can also go down. As I mentioned, this sounds great, my addressable market got huge. But imagine the world I was in, maybe I started at $1,000 a month, and I'm like, "Oh, I need more customers". I could have ended up getting five times more customers at 1/10 of the price. I would be upside down there and then on top of that I'd have all the support burden. So just be thoughtful and iterate. ## Pricing and product **What are the things that are going to influence price?** [![Things that influence price](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/MT6GdEwaJAs91KLIpijpXh3VhXWszcZYK8uV5J3-mXqw7bZ7PqSCI1DPQY5EZVuR5Dm3TgdxEZUaA4HyReT88H__ohBWBLxX-USaQ6UQpaxOEMMDPEu_cEqukaThH_ZEbMWKyPVJ)](https://futureofsaas.io/pricing-your-saas-offering/) - **Competition** coming into the market. - **Commoditization**, aka, this tool is just readily available. - **Product rot -** If you are not actively working on your product, you might not be able to charge as much for it. - Maybe your existing customers are locked in, but if the rest of the market is passing you by because you're not actively improving what you offer, then you will not be able to charge as much. - **Misfocused -** If you're focused on the wrong stuff, you're solving problems A, B, and C, but people are willing to pay a lot more money for D, E, and F, it's going to hurt your pricing. - Then also if the **problem set changes or disappears**. If you're selling year 2000 software to help with the transition from 1999 to 2000, that market effectively disappeared literally overnight. On the other side: - If you establish **market leadership.** - **More high-value features -** If you are investing in more features that are addressing specific pain for people. - **Growing problem -** If the problem in the market is growing, a great example of a growth market over the last year and a half is remote conferences and software to power them. - Building an **ecosystem**, so other people are tethered into your product. - And also **criticality**, how hard is it for someone to let go of this? I hope this was helpful. _Truncated after 5 MiB. Use `/sitemap.xml` for the complete archive of public content._