SaaStr

NOVEMBER 27, 2021

Is your CS team growing as fast as your sales team? If this is your first SaaS company, you may not have ever hired or built a Customer Success team. This one isn’t nearly as risky as a VP of Sales , or a VP of Marketing hire. 3-10 or more years, if that’s your Customer Lifetime Value.

Sales Hiring 203

Sales Hiring Customer Success Scale Customer Lifetime Value 203

SaaStr

JANUARY 29, 2021

Because SaaS requires so many functions beyond engineering, especially if it’s sales-driven … outbound, SDRs, inbound, field sales, marketing, customer success, support, more complex product management, etc. What will it look like, if it’s a sales-driven model? That’s a yielded quota).

Sales Hiring 347

Sales Hiring Headcount Scale Engineering 347

ChurnZero

JUNE 9, 2023

Good sales teams typically get the budget, headcount and tools they desire because the function is tied to revenue. However, that’s not always the case for Customer Success (CS) teams even though they are often responsible for renewals and expansions. How can CS leaders address this challenge?

Finance 98

Finance Metrics Customer Success Headcount 98

ChurnZero

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

Customer Success is gaining ground, influence, and budget within organizations. Based on a detailed survey of more than 1,000 Customer Success leaders, this is the most comprehensive study of the evolving CS landscape to date. Download your full copy of the 2022 Customer Success Leadership Study here.

Leadership 98

Leadership Trends Customer Success Investment 98

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about how to hire a Great VP of Sales. And we’ll keep talking about it — so long as 70% of first-time VPs of Sales don’t make it 1 year. I wanted to take a moment to explore the flip-side … a guide to why first-time VPs of Sales that finally get their shot — fail.

Sales Hiring 353

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Headcount 353

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 25, 2020

It contains data on go to market team structure, performance by sales function, marketing spend benchmarks, and customer success priorities. 1:1 AE/XDR ratios are the most common in both inside and outside sales teams. Sales teams with spans of control under 7 attain 80-95% of quota twice as frequently.

Scale 364

Scale Headcount Benchmarks Retention 364

Sales Hacker

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

Three overarching learnings from incredible sales leaders who have lived through the ups and downs of growing sales teams at some of the fastest growing SaaS companies is exactly what we’ll dive into today – so you can get the learnings and insight without being in the driver’s seat. This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Flex.

Sales Hiring 105

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Sales 105

SaaStr

AUGUST 16, 2021

The best place to put that incremental dollar on the revenue team is in existing customers. Pay sales reps on renewals (enough to keep them from overselling year 1). “ Product team is closer than ever to customers/users ” – Philip Cuter, CEO, Paper. You just make the headcount more effective.

Churn 315

Churn Sales Hiring Headcount Technical Review 315

ChurnZero

NOVEMBER 18, 2022

As a Customer Success leader, do you find yourself watering down your budgetary requests? According to our 2022 Customer Success Leadership Study, CS teams are already underfunded and under-resourced. How Customer Success can win more resources, budget, and credibility with Jeff Heckler.

Customer Success 98

Customer Success Sales Hiring Headcount Scale 98

ChurnZero

NOVEMBER 29, 2022

This is a guest article by Michael Su , senior consultant of Customer Success, The Success League. Customer Success is still a young field and a new concept for many companies. When I ventured out to build my first Customer Success department at a tech software company, my leadership team thought I was nuts.

Customer Success 98

Customer Success Sales Recruiting Technical Review Compensation 98

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 20, 2020

We can derive the table above if we look over the entire respondent base and bucket headcount by ARR. The median startup with between 1-5M in ARR will have 12 engineers, 6 in sales and 3 in marketing. Meanwhile, the size of the marketing team increases only by 4X, compared to a 10X increase in sales and a 5X+ in engineering.

Scale 355

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Software Review 355

OpenView Labs

OCTOBER 2, 2019

This time every year, sales and sales operations teams work with their business partners in finance, marketing and other functions to set their annual sales plan for the coming year. One way to approach this complexity is to separate out the three key components of sales planning. Headcount Planning.

Headcount 41

Headcount Sales Hiring Scale Sales 41

Intercom, Inc.

MAY 13, 2021

Few people have more experience with this move than Linda Lin , Director of Customer Success 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 customer success.

Scale 177

Scale Customer Success Strategy Sales Hiring 177

ChurnZero

JANUARY 25, 2024

How will customer success jobs, and the skills they require, evolve in 2024? With technology advancing and customer expectations rising, customer success has become an essential force driving business growth and customer loyalty within the SaaS industry.

Customer Success 52

Customer Success Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 52

SaaStr

MARCH 8, 2023

So what should earlier-stage companies do: immediately build out a big sales team or focus on product-led growth? Atlassian’s PLG Model To understand and potentially replicate Atlassian’s success, it helps to understand what made them different. Now they have sales reps, but still consider themselves PLG. Here’s why.

Sales Hiring 227

Sales Hiring Enterprise Headcount Scale 227

SaaStr

MARCH 5, 2021

Flock Safety’s Founder and CEO, Garrett Langley, and its VP of Growth, Alex Latraverse, know a bit about sales. Enough to go from 0 to 100 sales reps in about 18 months — and they’re looking to be well beyond 100 by the end of this month. The three things that led to ramping up sales at Flock Safety were: Achieving product-market fit.

Sales Recruiting 176

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 176

SaaStr

JANUARY 30, 2023

Building revenue operations to support sales Deel had onboarded nearly 100 clients, reports showed good traction, and it was time to leverage this opportunity. Deel scaled the sales team from two to 250 account executives, but issues with productivity and enablement of the account executives cropped up. Support sales early.

Sales Hiring 235

Sales Hiring Payment Services SaaS Payments Scale 235

Totango

JULY 5, 2022

In uncertain economic times, attracting new customers becomes exponentially harder as budgets get tighter and priorities shift. Let’s take a look at four key actions to take right now that will not only help you prove your worth to your customers but will allow you to see instant results. . Dive into Customer Health.

Customer Success 97

Customer Success Scale Headcount Churn 97

SaaStr

OCTOBER 4, 2023

The reality is there was an explosion in sales and marketing and other categories in 2021 when the goal was to grow, grow, grow. They’re a public pure-play leader in sales and marketing. Because if you’re in sales and marketing, you’re probably a little like them. Monday will probably add 25% headcount this year.

Sales Hiring 244

Sales Hiring SaaS Headcount Compensation 244

SaaStr

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Hiring a VP of Sales isn’t new, but the conversations have evolved as the world has. Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive. Jason has written about the cheat codes for hiring VPs of Sales since 2012 and realized it was worth a deeper dive.

Sales Hiring 148

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales Interviewing 148

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 26, 2021

Getting the team right is one of the hardest parts of scaling sales. But no sales team can afford to grow without intention. While building a sales team, we’ve focused a lot on our sales culture. Here’s how we went about growing a sales team that is both world class and culture-additive. They’re resilient.

Scale 160

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Sales 160

ChurnZero

OCTOBER 15, 2021

Where is Customer Success Headed in 2022? Customer Success gradually, then suddenly, came to exist. Customer Success gradually, then suddenly, became essential to SaaS companies. Customer Success gradually, then suddenly, joined the C-suite. Customer Success flexes its authority.

Customer Success 97

Customer Success Benchmarks Scale Underperforming Technical Team 97

SaaStr

JULY 31, 2020

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. . Keep in mind that Conversation Intelligence is the fastest-growing segment in sales technology, with much traction in the enterprise.

Scale 353

Scale Artificial Intelligence Payments Payment Services 353

Valuize Consulting

OCTOBER 7, 2021

Customer Success Is A Growth Engine. You Just Need An Effective Customer Success Metric To Prove It. With global equations used to calculate investment-to-Revenue in traditional functions like Sales or Engineering , it’s often very straightforward to showcase the value and convince CFOs to invest in these organizations.

Customer Success 52

Customer Success New CTO Scale Headcount 52

CustomerSuccessBox

DECEMBER 14, 2021

Customer Success(CS) is the most efficient way to grow your MRR/ARR. Yet, Customer Success is looked upon as a ‘ cost center ’. Customer Success teams, typically, follow the recurring revenue model (followed by almost every SaaS business). It wasn’t deployed to manage each and every customer relationship.

Customer Success 52

Customer Success Customer Lifetime Value Headcount Retention 52

SaaStr

JANUARY 2, 2021

Your sales headcount. Go all-in on customer success. Hire a VP of Sales that knows what they are doing. Hire a VP of Customer Success that is great … and upsells, retentions, and renewals will all go up. More here: How My VP, Sales Doubled Our Sales in 90 Days. Like magic.

Sales Hiring 294

Sales Hiring Headcount Pricing Market Segmentation 294

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 19, 2021

If you want to hit the plan for Q1'22, You need to be hiring all the sales reps you'll need then … Now. The biggest pro is it recurs With even 120% NRR, you basically double in 4+ years even with no new customers. With precise headcount and budget needs. How many Customer Success Managers.

Sales Hiring 270

Sales Hiring Scale Headcount Acquisition 270

Sales Hacker

DECEMBER 9, 2022

Nearly every sales organization will admit they could be better at planning. According to a study by Cascade Insights , more than 75% of sales leaders agree their planning efforts are problematic — and 90% of sales ops leaders confessed on LinkedIn they need to do sales planning faster and more frequently.

Scale 97

Scale Headcount Sales Forecasting 97

ChurnZero

DECEMBER 18, 2020

With each passing year the Customer Success industry matures and meets new challenges along the way, and this year has been nothing short of challenging in many ways. . Q&A Recap: Speakers: Megan Macaluso , VP Customer Success & Operations, ESG. Jay Nathan , Chief Customer Officer, Higher Logic.

Customer Success 87

Customer Success Sales Recruiting Finance Sales Hiring 87

CustomerSuccessBox

MARCH 9, 2022

One is Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and the other is Customer Success (CS) platforms. According to a research study, 20% of the SaaS companies, especially small to midsize companies, often depend on their CRM to administer all customer life cycle tasks which do not suffice their Customer Success function.

Customer Success 52

Customer Success Scale Customer Lifetime Value Outsourced Development 52

Tom Tunguz

MAY 14, 2014

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 customer success expert from McKinsey. Customer success (CS) within SaaS startups is a relatively new idea.

Customer Success 100

Customer Success Startup Headcount Compensation 100

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 18, 2019

The template is broken into six sections: People, Bookings & Revenue, Cash, Sales, Marketing, Customer Success. This section covers employee satisfaction, headcount, and recruiting metrics. It’s important to track the number of leads in the conversion rates to sales generated by sales.

Metrics 210

Metrics Sales Recruiting Startup SaaS 210

Valuize Consulting

DECEMBER 13, 2021

Customer Success Management: Distinguishing Fact From Fiction. 91% of businesses have said that their Customer Success organization has grown significantly in the last year alone ( Totango , 2021). Reframe: Investing in Customer Success Operations early is critical to scaling your organization effectively.

Customer Success 52

Customer Success Scale Technical Review Underperforming Technical Team 52

SaaStr

OCTOBER 20, 2020

A VP of Sales? Recently, I was talking to the CEO of a pretty successful SaaS company doing ~$3m in ARR, growing nicely, in a good space. Recently, I was talking to the CEO of a pretty successful SaaS company doing ~$3m in ARR, growing nicely, in a good space. Every Great Sales Rep is Accretive at $2m in ARR. Find a way.

Sales Hiring 309

Sales Hiring Headcount Engineering Banking 309

The Angel VC

MARCH 23, 2016

The original v1 model was a very simple plan for early-stage SaaS startups with a low-touch sales model. 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. You can remove, change or add roles in column H.

SaaS Payments 217

SaaS Payments Headcount SaaS Payment Methods 217

Totango

APRIL 6, 2023

With budgets being cut, staff being laid off, and sales cycles getting longer, many businesses are feeling the pressure, especially in the tech sector. To survive this tough “do more with less” climate, companies are turning to their customer success (CS) teams to ramp up their customer retention and expansion efforts.

Innovation 85

Innovation Scale Revenue Technical Review 85

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 2, 2020

What’s the difference between sales enablement and Sales Engagement? As sales leaders figure out how to do more with less, 9 out of 10 sales orgs consider a Sales Engagement Platform (SEP) critical to their team’s success. What is a Sales Engagement Platform (SEP)?

Scale 132

Scale Engagement Sales Sales Enablement 132