Clouded Judgement

OCTOBER 28, 2022

Hyperscalers Report Quarterly Earnings This week we saw AWS (Amazon), GCP (Google) and Azure (Microsoft) report earnings. Overall, it wasn’t pretty… AWS grew 28% when expectations were 30-31%. Every week I’ll provide updates on the latest trends in cloud software companies. Follow along to stay up to date!

Cloud 130

Cloud Azure AWS Cost optimization & reporting 130

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2023

Customers range from AWS skills-builder platforms with billions of users to Zoom using it for customers and employees. When a new sales leader comes in, they usually say the data is messed up, difficult to comprehend, and unclear about where leads are coming from. Customer success is a company’s culture.

Sales Hiring 200

Sales Hiring Scale SMB Outsourced Development 200

ChurnZero

MARCH 31, 2022

Did you catch our Customer Success and SaaS metrics crash-course webinar with leading SaaS expert Dave Kellogg, of Dave Kellogg Consulting ? We’d like to extend a huge thanks to Dave for his expert insights below, which will help you choose and use Customer Success and SaaS metrics in a more nuanced and purposeful way.

Customer Success 98

Customer Success Metrics Technical Review Scale 98

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 8, 2020

To make a partnership successful, your startup will need to teach another sales team to sell your product. That means understanding your ideal customer profile, developing enablement materials to close those customers, and training new account executives to succeed in that effort consistently. Here are my notes.

Scale 317

Scale AWS Consulting Sales Enablement 317

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 8, 2022

Why did sales-driven Qualtrics get to $100m+ in ARR without ever raising a nickel, and generating more than $20m a year in free cash flow ? Does it cost so, so much to host a few million lines of code on AWS? Sales, done right, should be accretive (although expect sales efficiency to ultimately decline post-Initial Scale).

Scale 285

Scale SaaS Banking AWS 285

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

If you don’t think you need a great VP of Sales, Product, Marketing, Customer Success, and Engineering — then all that all that means is you’ve never worked with a great one. Here again, we have the same problems as the Customer Success lead hire, but worse. A bad VP of Sales is a total disaster.

Sales Hiring 277

Sales Hiring Part-Time VPE Scale Sales Recruiting 277

SaaStr

DECEMBER 26, 2022

The role of AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Marketplace is becoming increasingly important. “45% What each of these shares in common is a reflection of the immediate post-sales experience. Categories like customer success, learning management platforms, and onboarding software are witnessing increased investments. .

Software Review 190

Software Review Software Azure Cloud 190

CloudGeometry

MARCH 22, 2022

If the architecture specifies tracking of user-level activity, it’s not difficult to slice-and-dice the log data to select for a user parameter (such as with a JWT token ), or using tags to match user/tenant activity to the per unit billing that AWS itemizes in your monthly cloud bill.

DevOps as a Service 130

DevOps as a Service Software Delivery Well Architected Framework AWS 130

SmartKarrot

OCTOBER 17, 2022

Role: Customer Success Director Location: Remote, United States Organization: Vonage As a Customer Success Director, you will maintain a portfolio of accounts with low churn, high adoption, and high health scores. Collaborate cross-functionally to extend the reach and capability of the Customer Success team.

Customer Success 19

Customer Success Scale AWS Cloud 19

OpenView Labs

FEBRUARY 9, 2021

This is why we’re seeing more and more SaaS companies—Datadog, Twilio, AWS, Snowflake, and Stripe, to name a few—find success with product led growth paired with usage-based pricing. Usage-based pricing will be the key to successful monetization in the future. Then they tell their boss what to buy. Land-and-expand is real.

Scale 98

Scale Pricing Scaling AWS 98

User Pilot

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

TL;DR Salesforce is a leading CRM platform designed to enhance customer relationships and drive sales growth. Salesforce Inbox, an add-on tool, integrates email and Salesforce functionalities to improve sales efficiency. It enables teams to manage and analyze customer interactions and data at all stages of the customer journey.

Cloud 105

Cloud Engagement AWS Data 105

Sales Hacker

AUGUST 7, 2020

Fortunately, more organizers than ever before are consciously seeking out female sales experts for panels, presentations, and podcasts. At Sales Hacker, we’re serious about diversity, and for that reason, we’ve compiled a list of 530+ female sales experts to consider for your next event. Sales Development. Sales Growth.

VP of Engineering 121

VP of Engineering Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Payment Services 121

Sales Hacker

MARCH 1, 2019

Sales Engagement: How the World’s Fastest Growing Companies are Modernizing Sales Through Humanization at Scale is a labor of love. I’m so proud to be sending it into the world at just the right time, when it can make a big difference for a lot of sales organizations. Why a Book on Sales Engagement? Reserve your copy now.

Scale 58

Scale Engagement Sales AWS 58

ChurnZero

JUNE 24, 2022

The webinar’s Q&A session uncovered great tips and insights, including advice on whether SaaS businesses should implement price increases due to inflation, if Customer Success should be considered an OPEX or a COGS, and how much of the total operating budget CS should account for. I mean AWS or whatever might be going up too.

Benchmarks 98

Benchmarks Retention Software Review Technical Review 98

SmartKarrot

JULY 27, 2021

Role: Head of Customer Success Location: San Francisco, CA, US Organization: Turn/River Capital As a Head of Customer Success, you will work with the leadership teams at 2 to 3 of the Turn/River portfolio companies to develop and implement retention and growth strategies and build operational best practices.

Development Team Review 10

Development Team Review Technical Review Customer Success Systems Review 10

SaaStr

APRIL 26, 2024

On an adoption basis, there have been some “green shoots,” particularly with Klaviyo and the impact they’ve had bringing AI from a project siloed or customer interface level and into their core business where they’ve automated 700 humans and over two-thirds of their customer success. Why is Klaviyo noteworthy?

AI Search 212

AI Search AI Artificial Intelligence Scale 212

SaaStr

JANUARY 28, 2020

And so, she can, and Anthony just finished up basically going from the first sales hire at Gainsight at almost 100 million in revenue and has just retired. Maria : It’s like saying, “Hey, you want a sales rep to carry 10 times the quota they do today. You can’t, you have to invest in that sales infrastructure.”

Sales Hiring 210

Sales Hiring Scale Underperforming Technical Team Sales Recruiting 210

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

And if you think about AWS, if you think about the rise of cloud data warehousing, that is a big technology change and a big game changer for a lot of companies. The challenge lies in scaling across multiple outlets, making sense of behavioral data, and linking it all together in a way that makes customers feel known instead of targeted. .

Scale 181

Scale Marketing AWS Machine Learning 181

SmartKarrot

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

Role: Director, Customer Success Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Organization: Book4Time Inc. As a Director of Customer Success, you will assume direct responsibility for a handful of extremely strategic customers in providing a white-glove level of Customer Success. Ensure Smartly.io

Merchant Services 10

Merchant Services Technical Advisors Customer Success Payment Services 10

Sales Hacker

MARCH 29, 2021

Partnerships are driving more leads and sales than ever before, and this is only projected to grow. PartnerOps (or ChannelOps) is newer than sales and marketing ops , but it is important to driving growth in the age of the ecosystem. Forrester estimates that 75% of world sales flows through indirect channels.

Payments 101

Payments SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Payment Services 101

OPEXEngine

JANUARY 11, 2022

Additionally, it is a flexible model that allows customers to buy only what they need (i.e., There are many vendor benefits, too — it is easier to sell and it embodies a customer success solution orientation that drives high customer lifetime value and revenue. Four pricing models. Less predictable revenue.

Pricing 52

Pricing Payment Solutions Outsourced Development Compensation 52

ChurnZero

AUGUST 11, 2020

Just like in the first wave, your customers’ lives will be turned upside down once the next wave hits. As customers struggle to adjust and manage, they’ll want to know their troubles are being heard by the businesses they interact with. Customer Success teams are in a unique position to listen to their customers’ challenges.

Retention 97

Retention Strategy Underperforming Technical Team Software Review 97

ChurnZero

JUNE 24, 2022

The webinar’s Q&A session uncovered great tips and insights, including advice on whether SaaS businesses should implement price increases due to inflation, if Customer Success should be considered an OPEX or a COGS, and how much of the total operating budget CS should account for. I mean AWS or whatever might be going up too.

Benchmarks 52

Benchmarks Retention Software Review Technical Review 52

The Angel VC

FEBRUARY 20, 2016

Ten years ago, there was nobody who SaaS founders could ask in order to learn how to do, for example, inbound marketing, low-touch sales or customer success. Many of the tactics that everybody is using today hadn’t been invented yet. In the last ten years the playbook has been written and subsequently published.

Scale 192

Scale Scaling SaaS AWS 192

OpenView Labs

JUNE 16, 2021

The appeal for customers to simply pay for what they use looks great on paper. But without careful planning and effective execution, consumption-based pricing can elongate sales cycles, negatively impact customers, and squelch company fortunes. Success stories. Inside Cypress’s Playbook for Launching Usage-Based Pricing.

Pricing 64

Pricing Scale Forecasting AWS 64

SaaStr

OCTOBER 31, 2019

It was around that time about 12 years ago that Jeff Bezos launched AWS, and some of you may remember that, when he did this, Wall Street analysts were looking at him and saying, “Why would you take what’s already a very unprofitable business and drive it further into the red by investing in this AWS initiative?”

Cloud 100

Cloud Scale AWS Machine Learning 100

OPEXEngine

JUNE 11, 2020

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) encompasses both product, product delivery and financial/contractual aspects of the vendor/customer relationship. It changes sales and marketing organizations and their execution. The product is hosted by the vendor or a 3 rd party (like AWS). Different Models Affect Sales & Marketing.

SaaS Payments 52

SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Subscription Payment Features 52

ChurnZero

OCTOBER 16, 2020

Whether Customer Success or Sales should own the renewal, expansion, and upsell is a hot-button issue in today’s SaaS sphere. This Customer Success showdown, which took the form of an Oxford-style debate, was held at BIG RYG, ChurnZero’s annual Customer Success conference.

Scale 98

Scale Customer Success SaaS Payments Sales 98

OpenView Labs

JANUARY 29, 2020

HubSpot now offers freemium versions of their CRM, Marketing and Sales products. CEO Brian Halligan describes their revamped go-to-market motion as “ a flywheel where the customers are the main driver that pulls new prospects in ” and boasts that half of HubSpot’s new customers use the free product before they buy.

Pricing 82

Pricing Payments SaaS Payments Payment Solutions 82

SaaStr

JUNE 3, 2020

And G2 Gives, we partner with philanthropies, we partner with some of our customers like AWS and Google Cloud, who can then make donations for every review, to thank their customers. And the reality is most of them don’t, most of our customers and prospects don’t trust us, especially those of us in sales.

Software Review 185

Software Review Scale Technical Review SaaS 185

SaaStr

OCTOBER 15, 2019

Cold calling to set up demos has never worked for Mapistry, but we’ll share with you some of the strategies that have allowed us to increase our qualified lead flow by more than 400% and increase our sales ops by more than 3x in 2018. So one place would be in your customer success organization. Join us at SaaStr Annual 2020.

Underperforming Technical Team 156

Underperforming Technical Team Sales Hiring compliance SMB 156

OpenView Labs

DECEMBER 13, 2019

That’s certainly true in developer tooling (AWS), sales and support (Salesforce), MarTech (Adobe), commerce (Square), HR tech (Workday) and even vertical markets (Veeva). He also discusses the importance of listening to your customers, prioritization of your roadmap, launching a new product within an existing company and much more.

Sales Hiring 52

Sales Hiring Benchmarks AWS Scale 52

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

Your sales team becomes more efficient, your customer success team becomes efficient, your customers like you more. When your customers are actually using the product and love the product, it’s such an easier sell. Atlassian famously does not have a sales team. They have a customer success team.

Investment 100

Investment Underperforming Technical Team Sales Hiring Software Review 100

SaaStr

MAY 15, 2024

In B2B, you also have fixed costs, but you can diversify monetization based on tokens or seats, or in the case of AWS, however you like. You also don’t want to get someone half-integrated and then tell them to contact sales. Even though 2% will pay you, you can still capture value if you have an attentive audience. You’ll lose people.

Subscription 262

Subscription Payment Features B2B Mobile 262

SaaStr

MAY 15, 2020

333: Bridget Gleason is the Head of Sales and Customer Success @ Tidelift, the company providing managed open source, backed by maintainers. Before Tidelift, Bridget was VP of Sales @ Logz.io and before that was VP of Corporate Sales @ Sumo Logic where she drove ARR up by a record 237%. Who has done this well?

Sales Hiring 200

Sales Hiring Scale Technical Review Outsourcing Services 200

SaaStr

JULY 1, 2020

An open discussion with Sam Blond, CSO at Brex, and Kristen Habacht, VPS at Atlassian, about adjusting their sales process during Covid-19. Kristen Habacht runs EDR sales at Atlassian, which I got a check today, $40 billion-$50 billion company. Four, people in the sale? Kristen Habacht: Well, there’s none in sales.

Merchant Services 179

Merchant Services Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 179

SaaStr

AUGUST 10, 2023

. $1M-$10M — Building, Innovation, and Customers Now, it’s time for the next stage of sustainable growth in SaaS, typically B and C at product-market fit and getting early customers. You’re finding the repeatability of your sales motion. The absolute importance of putting your customers first. Your customers come first.

Scale 178

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Cloud 178