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It’s just … so many of the AI leaders seem to be doing it with less GTM headcount. Especially the next generation of them: Perplexity has scaled to 5,000 enterprise customers with just 5 sales reps. Sales isn’t going anywhere in the Age of AI. OpenAI has a big sales team, Windsurf does, Anthropic has a great one.
They’ll try to keep underperforming reps around, claiming they need the headcount. Watch out for this red flag: mediocre VPs will insist they need “every warm body” and can’t afford to let anyone go. When you find the right person, you’ll know it—because they’ll start delivering results from day one.
So ChurnZero put out a great new report surveying 1,037 customersuccess professionals. There is almost no software and non-headcount budget for CS. 64% of CS teams spend $200,000 or less a year on non-headcount, with growth stage companies spending the least, just 0.1% More on Customer Marketing here.
We’ve talked on SaaStr about leaning in on CustomerSuccess as much as possible. the revenue ultimately generated or supported by CustomerSuccess) is the key to growing a SaaS business. We’ve talked about how all the Second Timers are hiring in customersuccess way early , ahead of sales, ahead of revenue.
AI-Native Companies Allocate More Post-Sales Headcount; Traditional SaaS Companies Go Leaner The Organizational Split : Perhaps the most fascinating finding is that AI-native and traditional SaaS companies are evolving their GTM organizations in completely opposite directions.
The landscape of customersuccess has been evolving rapidly. So much so that we seem to be releasing new content on customersuccess just about every week. Today we’re focusing on actionable insights you can use to drive down churn with customersuccess in today’s new era of SaaS efficiency.
Because SaaS requires so many functions beyond engineering, especially if it’s sales-driven … outbound, SDRs, inbound, field sales, marketing, customersuccess, support, more complex product management, etc. You’ll probably want to add field sales (for Big Deals) by $10m ARR or so, another 2-3 headcount here, minimum.
Is it the end of an era for customersuccess in SaaS? We just wrote up how some of the biggest changes of SaaS are now coming, specifically in CustomerSuccess and Sales. CustomerSuccess Is Vulnerable to Cuts Jason shared that he didn’t realize how vulnerable customersuccess was to cuts until 2023.
It contains data on go to market team structure, performance by sales function, marketing spend benchmarks, and customersuccess priorities. Marketing teams spend 5-10% of ARR on programs (non-headcount expenses), and this is pretty consistent across ARR. The presentation is embedded below. This was surprisingly low.
If this is your first SaaS company, you may not have ever hired or built a CustomerSuccess team. If you hire a great, experienced Client Success leader as your first hire here, and you like him/her, and the experience is on point — my guess is you’ll be fine. If not, are you sure your have this right?
If this is your first SaaS company, you may not have ever hired or built a CustomerSuccess team. If you hire a great, experienced Client Success leader as your first hire here, and you like him/her, and the experience is on point — my guess is you’ll be fine. If not, are you sure your have this right?
The Value-Add Reality Check: CustomerSuccessCustomerSuccess: 60%+ Reduction Possible The Harsh Truth : Most CSMs aren’t adding enough value to justify their cost in the age of AI. The ones who are glorified account managers can be replaced or just allocated to sales’ budget and headcount.
Nick Mehta (Gainsight) has shared that in customersuccess, a similar issue arises. Mark Roberge (ex-HubSpot CRO) has emphasized that in scaling sales teams, the percentage of accounts followed up with can drop to as low as 30%-40% if reps are overloaded with leads or if theres no strong lead routing and prioritization system.
Learned That CustomerSuccess = Revenue Success (The Hard Way) The Crisis : “With a huge incoming traffic, we didn’t really scale our support team to support that huge demand and huge need. Everyone in the support team, our customersuccess team, is a little bit burned out, including myself.”
We can derive the table above if we look over the entire respondent base and bucket headcount by ARR. Another question we asked in the survey is the most senior title leading the customersuccess, sales and marketing teams. The VP titles remain in customersuccess in marketing.
As customersuccess managers, we wear many hats. We need to stay on top of market trends and product updates, all while making sure our customers become wildly successful. During times of rapid change, juggling everything on our plates, along with everything on our customers’ plates, can feel like a herculean task.
“ Product team is closer than ever to customers/users ” – Philip Cuter, CEO, Paper. Does your head of customersuccess and head of product work jointly on all top customers? . “Visit as many customers in person as possible” — Ryan Janoch, co-founder and VPS, Mapistry. .
When asked about reports of 30% headcount reductions in many contact centers within just one year due to AI replacing human headcount, Benioff confirmed he’s exploring similar efficiencies at Salesforce. Contact Center Transformation Is Leading the Way in AI The contact center at the bleeding edge of AI transformation.
From startup to $500M CARR, Spencer Burke, SVP of Growth at Braze, shares how Braze scaled a growth and customersuccess team. This shifted from doing odd jobs to a deep focus on customersuccess and scaling teams around customersuccess. Headcount isn’t the right story for them, though.
Yes, you now know how to make customerssuccessful and happy now. You have 2,000 customers now. You start making up for it in volume — with headcount. If you are at $100m in ARR, and your goal is to grow $50m next year … that’s an entire, new, super-successful start-up itself! So much work, so little revenue.
And some of the marquee customers include MongoDB, Gitlab and Qualtrics. . Last year, the company doubled its headcount, tripled revenue and landed on G2’s Top 100 Global Software list. . The NLP (Natural Language Processing) technology has even provided guidance on how to handle COVID-19 discussions with customers and prospects. .
Hoping headcount (alone) will drive revenue. At some point, every SaaS company gets big enough where headcount does drive revenue. If marketing came up short, if customersuccess screwed up, that’s life. Or VP of Sales and CustomerSuccess. This never ends well. You’ll be blamed. You should.
This transformation marks the rise of partner-led customersuccess a strategic approach that enables organizations to scale efficiently, reduce costs, and specialize in key customer segments. Enabling & Operationalizing Partner-Led CustomerSuccess With a strategy in place, the next challenge is execution.
Customersuccess is all about outcomes. What does NRR have to do with customersuccess? PST — Former VP of CustomerSuccess and current founder and Managing Partner at Success Venture Partners, John Gleeson, shares his lessons learned scaling customersuccess from $1M to $300M in ARR.
Your sales headcount. Go all-in on customersuccess. Hire a VP of CustomerSuccess that is great … and upsells, retentions, and renewals will all go up. Raise prices, one way or another for new customers — as you add more value and build your brand. Align your marketing budgets. Like magic.
If you have a SaaS startup with a higher-touch sales model where revenue growth is largely driven by sales headcount, the plan needs to be modified accordingly. With the exception of the VP of Sales role, sales staff headcount planning is done on the separate "Sales Team Hiring Plan" tab (re-using a model that I've built for this post ).
Great CustomerSuccess Managers Can Be Accretive Managing Just $800k-$1m in Existing ARR Within 9-12 Months. A lot of mature SaaS companies use the metric of ~$2m in ARR per customersuccess rep. No headcount limits. If you just had that one extra great engineer, you would have closed Google. No budgets.
The template is broken into six sections: People, Bookings & Revenue, Cash, Sales, Marketing, CustomerSuccess. This section covers employee satisfaction, headcount, and recruiting metrics. CustomerSuccess reviews the net dollar and logo retention, plus churns and expansions.
Few people have more experience with this move than Linda Lin , Director of CustomerSuccess at the revenue intelligence platform Gong. Moving upmarket means larger customers and higher revenue, but it’s not without its challenges. For Linda, it all comes down to your approach to customersuccess.
Delivering the best customer experience With the surge in inbound leads, the business was growing exponentially. Without headcount planning for the support team, the company’s response time and customer satisfaction scores dipped. Manage scaling issues by using data to plan ahead and being team and customer-obsessed.
Don’t Tie Revenue To Headcount “You want to get away from a business model where every incremental dollar requires incremental hiring,” says Deatsch. So instead of focusing on scaling headcount quickly, work toward growing revenue quickly.
With precise headcount and budget needs. How many CustomerSuccess Managers. Fourth, get the customersuccess team in place for Q1+ now as well. You are going to fall on your face if you can’t make your best customers, and really, almost all your customers, happy. How many reps. How many SDRs.
Yes, you now know how to make customerssuccessful and happy now. You have 2,000 customers now. You start making up for it in volume — with headcount. If you are at $100m in ARR, and your goal is to grow $50m next year … that’s an entire, new, super-successful start-up itself! So much work, so little revenue.
The most important part of CustomerSuccess is the team. More than three-quarters (77%) of CustomerSuccess teams have fewer than 50 people on staff. That’s according to our annual CustomerSuccess Leadership Study published in late 2022. When asked about non-headcount budgets; 8.3%
The most important part of CustomerSuccess is the team. More than three-quarters (77%) of CustomerSuccess teams have fewer than 50 people on staff. That’s according to our annual CustomerSuccess Leadership Study published in late 2022. When asked about non-headcount budgets; 8.3%
When your CFO doesnt see the direct link between customersuccess and the financial metrics they track, its harder to persuade them to invest in CSwhich can ultimately lead to preventable churn. What are the top takeaways for working more effectively with your CFO as a customer leader?
CustomerSuccess Capacity Planning and Budget Guide. As a CustomerSuccess leader, do you get anxious at the thought of asking your CFO or CEO for additional headcount? Even though it’s evident that your understaffing is causing the customer experience to suffer. Your team is stressed and ready to walk away.
Yesterday, I spoke on a panel at the Gainsight Pulse conference with Aaron Ross, the author of Predictable Revenue , Jason Lemkin of Storm Ventures who authors SaaStr , and Brian Stafford, a customersuccess expert from McKinsey. Customersuccess (CS) within SaaS startups is a relatively new idea.
To what extent will companies raid headcount budget to generate AI budget? The future of customersuccess, particularly now that it’s increasingly reporting to the CRO How many customersuccess orgs lost the plot, and became too focused on process (e.g., QBRs) and not enough on sales and renewals.
They grew headcount fairly aggressively from ‘21 to ‘22, and then Q4 of last year dipped and held flat before starting to regrow. Monday will probably add 25% headcount this year. We’ve gotten used to certain types of sales compensation, certain levels of CustomerSuccess, and certain types of coverage and marketing spend.
With precise headcount and budget needs. How many CustomerSuccess Managers. Fourth, get the customersuccess team in place for Q1+ now as well. You are going to fall on your face if you can’t make your best customers, and really, almost all your customers, happy. How many reps. How many SDRs.
CustomerSuccess is gaining ground, influence, and budget within organizations. Based on a detailed survey of more than 1,000 CustomerSuccess leaders, this is the most comprehensive study of the evolving CS landscape to date. Download your full copy of the 2022 CustomerSuccess Leadership Study here.
Also, pivot from Garrett’s initial idea and focus on revenue targets, not a specific headcount. #2 Your product and customersuccess can’t be lagging behind what’s being sold. Make a repeatable process that’s consistent. Reevaluate your assumptions and mess with the model as needed. 2 – Get your compensation right.
Accurate sales forecasting is more critical to business success than most realize. Having a predictable pipeline enables more effective decision-making, from headcount planning to strategic investments in technology and beyond.
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