SaaStr

NOVEMBER 24, 2021

It’s 2021, but surprisingly, a significant number of SaaS companies still use outdated sales compensation plans. Salespeople are often compensated at the highest rate when they win brand new business, but that might not be good for revenue expansion and might contribute to churn. Sell it to your market for half the price.

Sales Hiring 193

Sales Hiring Scale Compensation Sales 193

Chaotic Flow

JULY 21, 2015

If the multi-tenant, cloud-based technology isn’t enough, there’s the recurring revenue model which creates all kinds of challenges from accounting to sales compensation to funding. Bad prospects waste precious sales cycles and marketing dollars, driving up your customer acquisition costs. The Cloudy Nature of SaaS Pricing.

Acquisition 133

Acquisition Scale SaaS Pricing 133

User Pilot

MARCH 25, 2024

An accurate valuation is necessary to secure the right price for the company or adequate funding without diluting its share value. SDE is the profit of the business owner and his compensation. To calculate the figure, deduct overheads from the gross revenue and add the owner’s compensation (salary, dividends, etc.).

SaaS 90

SaaS Customer Lifetime Value Acquisition Metrics 90

OpenView Labs

MARCH 18, 2020

In this uncertain environment, how should one approach pricing? For pricing, this means no price gouging. Price helps anchor your value, and price discounts made during a crisis tend to stick and can reset value perceptions long term. If you don’t already have one, add a usage component to your pricing model.

Pricing 57

Pricing Payment Solutions Payments Healthcare 57

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

The knee jerk reaction to an increase in costs is often a price increase. Some years ago, I was sitting in the office of the VP of Pricing at a major manufacturing company. He was called out of our meeting by the CEO to explain to the board how he was going to protect margins by increasing prices. But is it a good idea?

Pricing 56

Pricing Customer Lifetime Value Business Model Acquisition 56

Baremetrics

JULY 30, 2020

They include things like: Churn New customers Expansion revenue Pricing changes you might’ve made Seasonality By manipulating these different inputs, you directly impact your company’s MRR growth. For example, if you see a drop in your MRR growth, it could be that churn is outpacing new customer acquisition.

Churn 125

Churn Acquisition Pricing Revenue 125

OnStartups

MAY 18, 2021

Resist the temptation to create complicated compensation plans. If you reward just “deals getting done”, you’ll get deals — but at too high a price. Figure out your total COCA (Cost of Customer Acquisition). Your pricing should be in line with your sales structure. Make sure you understand the economics of your business.

Sales Hiring 110

Sales Hiring Scale Underperforming Technical Team Startup 110

Chargify

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

While the math portion may be simple, tying revenue to reps and accurately tracking revenue performance over time is anything but simple—especially in a fast-paced segment like SaaS where any given rep could be selling different price points, billing frequencies, and even billing models like fixed-price vs. metered-usage. .

Payments 61

Payments SaaS Payments Scale Compensation 61

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

Price the Product Between $1k to $25k Annually to Optimize Growth. Cost of Customer Acquisition is About 11 Months' of Revenue. I’ve written about When to Hire Your First Sales Person and what a hypothetical compensation plan for sales people might look like. Inside Sales Driven Companies Grow Fastest.

Benchmarks 111

Benchmarks Startup Sales Hiring Compensation 111

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

JANUARY 9, 2016

At some companies, in fact, the marketing team’s compensation scheme may be tilted to encourage this. I know when I get a phone call that starts with “I see you were just on our pricing page,” that’s doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy. More leads. They pick up a bonus for hitting some target number of leads. Why would they?

Acquisition 113

Acquisition Compensation Education SaaS 113

OPEXEngine

AUGUST 9, 2022

No digital tool can compensate for a lack of discipline at the front line. Record inflation, supply chain shocks, volatile energy prices, and rising interest rates have raised the risk of recession in most countries. No digital tool can compensate for a lack of discipline at the front line.

Scale 59

Scale VP of Engineering Payment Services Underperforming Technical Team 59

User Pilot

AUGUST 31, 2023

What is customer acquisition for SaaS, and how can you leverage it to drive sustainable growth ? The purpose of customer acquisition is to expand and make more revenue. Customer acquisition funnel stages in SaaS are Awareness, Consideration, Evaluation, Conversion. What is customer acquisition?

Acquisition 90

Acquisition SaaS Payments Payment Methods Metrics 90

OPEXEngine

JANUARY 30, 2020

The latest reports show US manufacturing trends diverging from stocks – manufacturing activity is down while the stock prices are reaching record heights. And now corporate profits are showing a historically wide spread from stocks – profits are down while the stock market, again, is experiencing record high prices. Ramp times.

Sales Hiring 49

Sales Hiring Benchmarks SaaS Acquisition 49

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

AUGUST 1, 2018

A revised compensation scheme can also work as a cure for over-selling. They are lured away with more features, more attractive pricing, or some other advantage. One approach to counter poaching is to lower prices, though that’s a tough strategy to sustain. Susceptible to poaching In some cases, customers depart for competitors.

Churn 122

Churn Metrics Compensation Software Review 122

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 2, 2019

How does Krish think your customer acquisition and GTM strategy has to change with the movement from SMB to enterprise? Billion story from its launch in 2008 to its 2018 acquisition by Recruit Holdings. Billion acquisition is just one milestone in the early innings of the company’s story. Does it have to be in person?

Scale 128

Scale SaaS Payments Sales Recruiting Payment Services 128

ProfitWell

NOVEMBER 13, 2019

If your customer acquisition cost (CAC) is one of your KPIs, and you also know that your benchmark is a <20% spend of total customer lifetime value (LTV) on acquisition, then evaluating your performance becomes a simple matter of comparison. Any higher churn rate will eventually compound too fast for your growth to compensate.

Subscription 80

Subscription Payment Features Customer Lifetime Value Benchmarks 80

OpenView Labs

NOVEMBER 30, 2021

For Gen Z employees, that increasingly means a culture of authenticity, transparency, and employee sentiment from the interview process – not simply compensation or perks. . It’s tempting to prioritize new customer acquisition as your top growth priority. . Experiment with a usage-based pricing model. It’s a win-in.

Payment Services 80

Payment Services Benchmarks SaaS Payments Merchant Services 80

OnStartups

MAY 18, 2021

Resist the temptation to create complicated compensation plans. If you reward just “deals getting done”, you’ll get deals — but at too high a price. Figure out your total COCA (Cost of Customer Acquisition). Your pricing should be in line with your sales structure. Make sure you understand the economics of your business.

Sales Hiring 52

Sales Hiring Scale Underperforming Technical Team Startup 52

Neil Patel

JANUARY 2, 2021

That’ll easily cost $100K fully loaded with benefits, taxes, and marketing rate compensation. This is perfect for mid-size companies that need to keep every dollar focused on customer acquisition for as long as possible. #4 So when you’re shopping around with different companies, look at low prices as a red flag.

Scale 145

Scale Marketing Sales Hiring Content Marketing 145

InsightSquared

MAY 7, 2019

At the highest level, SaaS companies look at sales expense, headcount, sales productivity and SaaS metrics like: The cost of new customer acquisition (CAC). Contract value: Companies selling subscriptions with larger average contract values also have longer sales cycles than companies selling low priced, low touch subscriptions.

Scale 102

Scale Sales Hiring Metrics Sales 102

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 10, 2020

The software company’s stated strategy was to offer great products paired with low pricing and self-service purchasing, a Product Led Growth (PLG) recipe that fueled the company’s sustained profitable growth. Be thoughtful about sales compensation and operations. On the new acquisition side, start with A/B testing.

Sales Hiring 57

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Sales 57

Sales Hacker

APRIL 10, 2018

When we map the number of deals committed against a listed price (ACV), you will notice deals starting to segment around discount levels. Distribution of B2B deals as a function of price (a product of discount and list price). Distribution of B2B deals as a function of price (a product of discount and list price).

SMB 72

SMB Strategy Outsourced Development Marketing 72

FastSpring

NOVEMBER 28, 2018

This can help you with your Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC). SaaS is one of very few niches where affiliates can enjoy ongoing compensation for the business that they refer to the company. Now, an affiliate program does not mean that it is going to lower your CAC, however, when structured right, you are only paying for a new customer.

Sales Recruiting 66

Sales Recruiting SaaS Business Social Media 66

OpenView Labs

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

While it is easy to dismiss the small fraction of a percent of equity as trivial, balk at what looks like a low offer or focus on cash compensation because it’s more tangible, equity offers can carry real value ( just ask employees of Slack, Uber, Lyft and Pinterest ). Is this an exciting amount of compensation?

Compensation 40

Compensation Finance Venture Capital Pricing 40

OpenView Labs

NOVEMBER 12, 2020

Meanwhile, companies that have experienced more moderate growth than anticipated ( Slack , SAP ) have seen their stock prices get slashed. Bring back your pricing and packaging initiative. Data consistently proves that pricing is the most powerful—and the most immediate—growth lever a SaaS company has at its disposal.

Benchmarks 52

Benchmarks Scale Technical Review SaaS 52

OpenView Labs

DECEMBER 17, 2019

OpenView’s experts weighed in with their predictions across product, sales, marketing, pricing, corporate development and talent. Their compensation is directly linked to the revenue that they generate for the business. Pricing gets all of the focus in pricing and packaging discussions. What do you think?

Trends 67

Trends Sales Recruiting Technical Review SaaS 67

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

FEBRUARY 10, 2012

Free trials can't work without follow-up For a free trial to work, it needs to be part of a overall customer acquisition plan. Free" does not compensate for a poor product that's difficult to learn. For buyers within large enterprises, these other issues may be more important than price.

Construction 100

Construction Compensation Acquisition Subscription 100

Sales Hacker

MAY 9, 2019

A great sales compensation plan needs to accomplish quite a lot. It needs to provide fair compensation to employees in customer-facing roles. The Process for Creating a Sales Compensation Plan. Plan Compensation for Onboarding and Training. Example Compensation Plans. Establish Role Levels. Keep it Simple.

Compensation 102

Compensation Sales Hiring Development Team Review Sales Recruiting 102

SaaStr

OCTOBER 29, 2019

SaaS is about creating long-term value for your customer, and being compensated appropriately for that value as a business. We’re going to talk about matching price to value, and I’m going to share some lessons from my time as both an operator and an investor. Monetization had 4X the impact compared to acquisition.

Payments 100

Payments Pricing Compensation SaaS Payments 100

ProfitWell

JANUARY 27, 2020

Chris began with HubSpot about nine years ago in acquisition. It’s expensive to build a pool business—especially when you consider all the stakeholders, investors, and employees you need to compensate. Additionally, Spotify has a clear pricing plan for when the free users decide to go premium.

Payments 59

Payments Compensation Advertising Pricing 59

Navint

APRIL 3, 2019

Defining the offer, experimenting with discrete market segments, testing pricing/packaging, and solidifying the business case takes place. compensation, campaigns) to drive interest and adoption. In companies with a lot of acquisition activity, the top-line revenue growth and many moving pieces and parts tend to mask this decline.

Revenue 45

Revenue Scale Compensation Innovation 45

ProfitWell

APRIL 15, 2019

Is it a flash in the pan, or are all SaaS operations destined to cook up this pricing structure? Pricing Page Teardown Goes Live. If you’ve ever caught an episode of our show Pricing Page Teardown , you’ve seen Peter & Patrick rip apart the pricing strategies of the biggest names in subscription. We're doing it live.

Sales Recruiting 45

Sales Recruiting Marketplace as a Service Technical Review Subscription 45

OpenView Labs

JANUARY 8, 2020

This taught us to prioritize incredibly crisp communication with sales for absolutely any product, pricing or package change and to provide ample training leading up to any transition. These reps, who we call “Inbound Success Coaches” are not salespeople and they don’t have variable compensation.

Strategy 41

Strategy Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Compensation 41

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 29, 2018

Reps were hired, trained and compensated to perform as an individual to hit a quota. The root cause of today’s challenges can be traced back to the use of this outdated model based on low volume of deals at a higher price. Due to the lower price, it also requires a higher volume of deals to attain a similar kind of growth.

Sales Recruiting 74

Sales Recruiting Scale Sales Hiring Sales 74

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

They seem to be completely at odds, with one focused on clients with a high acquisition cost and high ACV (annual account value), the other focused on a high sales velocity. Compensation. Because the price and commitment are lower, the convenience of the purchase is going to be one of the most important aspects to your customer.

Sales Hiring 81

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Payment Methods 81

ProfitWell

MARCH 3, 2020

And I lead our function that works hand-in-hand with our portfolio leaders on growth strategies, whether they need help with pricing and packaging or their go-to market strategy, or optimizing conversion in their funnel, we like to be the first resource that they call for help.”.

Sales Hiring 59

Sales Hiring Scale SaaS Payments Payment Services 59

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 20, 2019

267: SaaS is about creating long-term value for your customer, and being compensated appropriately for that value as a business. So it was quite a few years ago, I had the opportunity to start, actually, as an intern at WebEx before the Cisco acquisition. What I learned after the Cisco acquisition was a lot probably about politics.

Scale 131

Scale Sales Hiring Traceability Acquisition 131