SaaStr

DECEMBER 19, 2019

We kicked off our 5 Interesting Learnings series with “newer” SaaS companies for the most part, and learnings as they IPO’d: 5 Interesting Learnings from PagerDuty, as It IPOs. That’s high enough you need to do a lot to support a sale. But not so high you can afford a fancy traditional sales team.

Outsourcing Services 340

Outsourcing Services Scale SMB Pricing 340

SaaStr

JUNE 28, 2021

This usually doesn’t happen in the very early days, when you just have a few employees and almost no real marketing or sales expense. It’s just, to invest in sales and marketing now, and make those extra hires, the burn rate is growing even faster at 12% a month after $100k MRR. So customers go profitable in Year 2.

Sales Hiring 324

Sales Hiring Scale Payment Features Finance 324

SaaStr

AUGUST 20, 2021

Both have a sales-driven process, selling to SMBs. The cash-flow positive one has 130% NRR from SMBs and has several years of existing customers to renew. It just takes a few years for the power of renewals and a high NRR to really kick in. They managed their CAC for paid customers so that they were cash-flow neutral.

Scale 286

Scale Churn Metrics Startup 286

SaaStr

APRIL 26, 2022

And it's a high one. Zscaler’s sales team is also similarly constituted, with an equal amount of the team outside the U.S. #3. Sales + Marketing declined from 59% of revenue to 47%. Zscale isn’t an exception, but they’ve been thoughtful as they scaled and IPO’d and got sales & marketing under 50%.

Scale 263

Scale Cloud Scaling Revenue 263

SaaStr

JANUARY 19, 2021

We’re kicking off the 2021 SaaStr events schedule very soon with SaaStr University: Spring Semester on Wednesday, January 27th. . How to Build a High Retention Sales Culture with Unity Technologies ‘ Vice President of Global Sales, Laura Palmer. Sign up here and we’ll see you on Jan 27th.

VP of Engineering 243

VP of Engineering Scale Engineering Retention 243

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2023

Jameson Yung, SVP of Sales at Gong, and Sam Blond, Partner at Founders Fund and previous CRO at Brex, share five tactical ways to get back to growing and hitting revenue targets. Create/ track a leaderboard so i f someone is below average in sales, it’s objective. Where are your employees mapped to that customer funnel?

Sales Hiring 220

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Revenue Sales 220

SaaStr

AUGUST 5, 2021

In the early days of SaaStr we put together a strawman First Sales Rep Comp Plan. If you use a sales comp plan like ours, you’ll get one big benefit for planning purposes — you’ll know with a decent sense of precision what % of first year ACV (annual contract value) you are going to spend on sales. Maybe more.

Scale 328

Scale Marketing B2C B2B 328

SaaStr

DECEMBER 14, 2022

Across their 100,000 customers, Hubspot has endured an unforgettable past few years. Their customers desperately need to make sense of this new world – not only how to survive massive digital acceleration but also high inflation and other forms of political and economic volatility. This pace cannot be sustained forever.

Scale 244

Scale SMB Scaling Innovation 244

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Every company in the world has either used the product, or kicked the tires, at least someone there reasonably high up the org chart. When you get Pretty Big, if you don’t drive up deal sizes, expand your customer footprint, etc. This doesn’t always happen, especially in very high lead velocity businesses.

Scale 198

Scale Sales Hiring Branding Revenue 198

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2019

Your brand and reputation is damaged at least a tiny bit everytime a paying customer churns out because they were mis-sold a feature set. But the cost to onboard, close, manage, and market to a customer that churns almost immediately is almost always higher than the short-term revenue. The customer loses out. Train your reps.

Scale 228

Scale Churn Sales Hiring Sales 228

Clouded Judgement

AUGUST 11, 2023

But these larger customers expanded at a slower clip, and this was the primary driver for reducing the full year guide. Now for the good news - they called out seeing the light at the end of the tunne;L “On the other hand, we are seeing signs that the cloud optimization across our customer base may start to subside. vs 9.3x).

Cloud 130

Cloud Trends Azure GCP(Google Cloud Platform) 130

Totango

JANUARY 2, 2024

In an era when customer success (CS) has become pivotal, it’s no longer enough to have a team dedicated to CS. More importantly, you need an organizational strategy that ensures your customers don’t just come to you but stay, thrive, and become your biggest promoters.

Payment Services 100

Payment Services Merchant Services Customer Success Business 100

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2021

Yes, you can manage the sales team yourself. Cash was tight and I didn’t know any great VPs of Biz Dev, so between myself and my VPs of Sales, Product and Customer Success, we all jointly managed our key partners. Make sure your joint customers are jointly happy. And do a lot, lot more customer Zooms.

Part-Time VPE 282

Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 282

SaaStr

JANUARY 7, 2021

In this episode, David Skok , General Partner @ Matrix Partners , uncovers the crucial step missing when it comes to finding product-market fit for B2B companies, how to set-up your sales team for success early on, and what metrics really matter when it comes to a payback period.

Scale 269

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling B2B 269

SaaStr

JANUARY 21, 2021

We’ve talked a lot about hiring a VP, Sales. We’ve talked about the 48 Different Types of VP Sales , What a VP Sales Really Does , and a Script to Use When Interviewing a VP Sales. Why do reasonably hot SaaS companies still struggle to get a Great VP Sales, even with the right filters, scripts, and processes?

Sales Hiring 176

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Point of Sale Sales 176

Sales Hacker

OCTOBER 27, 2023

We’ve witnessed a pervasive challenge sweeping through the industry: Sales cycles growing longer and more arduous. For example: Cross-reference your customers with their connections, and have your happy customers directly reach out to them. Prospects and customers were able to directly discuss their challenges and solutions.

Artificial Intelligence 91

Artificial Intelligence ChatGPT AI Consulting 91

Sales Hacker

JANUARY 27, 2024

Common Room supercharges your GTM motion by bringing all of your product usage data, social media signals, community activity, and CRM insights together so you can surface high-intent prospects, convert customers faster, and drive more revenue. Read more about Google Chrome’s 3 AI features here. Max has been published by Forbes, Inc.,

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Venture Capital Generative AI Social Media 88

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 30, 2019

not to mention some high profile investors like Alexa Von Tobel, Emily Weiss and Delphine Arnault). Since then the company has grown to millions of registered users and counts companies like American Airlines, Zendesk, Groupon, Nasa, Leap Motion and MGM amongst its customers. Erica is the former COO and co-founder of Bitnami.

Airlines 136

Airlines Benchmarks Engineering Retention 136

SaaStr

AUGUST 25, 2019

The Playbook to Building a Thriving Sales Culture with Fmr. PatientPop SVP of Sales Justin Welsh. The Playbook to Hiring Your First VP of Sales and Not Screwing it Up… with Cassidy Ventures Founder Brendon Cassidy, the first VP of Sales at LinkedIn, Talkdesk and EchoSign. SPEAKING OF PLAYBOOK SESSIONS. .

Scale 147

Scale Sales Recruiting Scaling Sales Hiring 147

SaaStr

JULY 2, 2022

We’ve have 1000+ 1:1, 1:2, 1:4, 1:16 and 1:24 sessions with top revenue, sales, and product leaders, and subject matter experts. Come to Annual in September, yes, but also come visit your customers here, your partners here, and more. #10. More customers. Along with 100s of VCs on Monday Day, Sep 15. Driving NPS up.

Scale 216

Scale Sales Hiring PayPal Scaling 216

Clouded Judgement

SEPTEMBER 12, 2023

You can see where we broke from the trend in Q3 ‘22 (this is when macro pressures really kicked in). ” Source: company filings Let’s get into some high level data. Source: company filings and Pitchbook consensus estimates Growth Demonstrating high growth is the third aspect of a successful quarter.

Cloud 169

Cloud Software Benchmarks Retention 169

Neil Patel

OCTOBER 13, 2021

You have three months left to hit your sales targets and end the year on a high note. Your sales pipeline is dry. I’ve compiled some of my top strategies which will help you increase B2B sales and smash your Q4 targets. Let’s dive in and open the B2B sales flood gates. 10 Ways to Increase B2B Sales.

B2B 135

B2B Social Media Sales Underperforming Technical Team 135

Stax

JANUARY 24, 2024

But if dynamic pricing adds complexity to the customer experience, why have so many industries embraced it? Dynamic pricing models allow businesses to be highly adaptable to changes in demand or competitor activities—and if executed well, actually increase customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Payment Methods 88

Payment Methods Pricing Airlines Payment Solutions 88

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 13, 2018

There are two truths about sales and product. A strong sales and product feedback loop avoids both scenarios. As your sales team scales and plays a larger role in representing the voice of your customers, an open line of communication aligns your product strategy with your addressable market. Preparing for your meeting.

Scale 192

Scale Sales SMB Data 192

Totango

JULY 31, 2020

As virtual teams and remote engagement become the norm for Customer Success teams, staying on top of customer needs and expectations is becoming more challenging. Yesterday, Totango hosted our third CXO series event for Customer Success executives. A consistent employee experience = a consistent customer experience.

Engagement 105

Engagement Strategy Scale Customer Success 105

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 5, 2018

A great customer experience today is about meeting people where they already are. And today, there’s one channel where more potential customers are than any place else: messaging and live chat. With proactive live chat, Tradeshift increased sales opportunities by 32%. Live chat for sales. Live chat for customer support.

Scale 239

Scale Business Artificial Intelligence Customer Support 239

Intercom, Inc.

JANUARY 6, 2019

We’ve reached a point in the digital era where customers not only seek, but expect personal communication from businesses. It doesn’t matter if you’re an early-stage startup with three employees or a publicly listed company with 1,000, customers have come to expect fast and highly relevant interactions with businesses.

Machine Learning 151

Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Technology Engagement 151

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 1, 2020

Today, customer expectations are at an all-time high. A proactive customer support approach is the key to regaining control. But this approach not only overwhelms your team, it also means customers frequently have to wait hours or even days to get the help they need. What is proactive customer support?

Customer Support 239

Customer Support Scale Education Onboarding 239

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2021

They talked about product adoption, sales alignment, freemium models and lessons they have learned throughout their successful SaaS careers. As two CEO who love the art of sales and scaling, this one really was special. Recruiting is easier, but the things that don’t change are customers don’t care.

Sales Recruiting 256

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale VP of Engineering 256

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 11, 2018

They bring together critical information about your customer, your competitors and your strategy to nurture existing business in a simple document to ensure each customer is set up for success. So why do sales teams often ignore them? What is top of mind for your customer? launching new market or new product?).

Sales 201

Sales Acquisition Retention Consulting 201

FastSpring

JULY 1, 2020

And software providers that power their websites with WordPress use our plugin to build highly customized shopping experiences that convert and drive more revenue directly from their site. To kick things off, Jack and Iain chatted with one of our sellers, Nelio Software. Listen to the full episode here: [link].

Marketplace as a Service 78

Marketplace as a Service Software Development Revenue 78

Sales Hacker

DECEMBER 17, 2021

To remedy this, we can nurture and fortify business relationships, grow sales funnels, and improve client relations just by introducing a little thankfulness. If you want to grow sales, focus on growing relationships . RELATED VIDEO: How to Build a Book of Business to Carry Through Your Sales Career.

Sales 121

Sales Sales Funnel Investment Business 121

FastSpring

DECEMBER 7, 2023

Each company brings different combinations of technology, teams, customer bases, and more to the negotiating table — any one of which could be a huge motivator for WP Engine to want to partner with them. This leaves the sale of the business a lot more vulnerable to the market. Sign up for a free trial or schedule a demo today.

Software Review 129

Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Branding 129

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

As for Latané, before 6sense she was CMO and sales leader at Appirio where she drove 5X more effective field marketing programs and an increase in inbound leads by 300%. What does the preparation process look like pre-sales kick off week? What is involved? Who is involved? What needs to be ready?

Scale 180

Scale Sales Hiring Software Review Technical Review 180

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 26, 2018

Sales is a client facing role, meaning you are communicating with customers and potential customers on a daily basis. Over time, you can accumulate a lot of knowledge regarding who your customers are, what their primary needs are and how your offering could potentially meet these needs. We have also introduced Sales Days.

Sales 163

Sales Sales Funnel Engineering Customer Support 163

User Pilot

JANUARY 18, 2023

TL;DR Product-led growth brings lower acquisition costs, shorter sales cycles, higher retention rates, and more satisfied customers. Product-led growth or PLG is a go-to-market strategy that leverages the product itself as a means of generating demand, converting sales leads, and retaining users long-term.

Strategy 95

Strategy Marketing Scale Software Review 95

User Pilot

OCTOBER 26, 2023

In theory, users who experience product value through free trial or freemium convert to paying customers with little help from the sales team. Traditional sales techniques like product demos are more effective in this context. Upsell messages are an excellent way to drive product expansion and increase customer lifetime value.

Outsourcing Services 89

Outsourcing Services Onboarding Customer Support Customer Lifetime Value 89