SaaStr

JUNE 7, 2021

That’s the definition of being early. There’s revenue drive headcount or does headcount drive revenue, and it’s sounds like you’re squarely in the former camp, that you derive headcount from revenue. I actually drive revenue from headcount, but I make sure I have enough stocked away.

Sales Hiring 339

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team SaaS Headcount 339

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 29, 2019

Before diving into the data, I recommend establishing a shared definition of success at the project’s outset. This data typically comes in three broad flavors: Firmographic: This includes employee headcount, revenue, vertical, business model, location, tech stack, web traffic, and other publicly available information about the customer.

Business 184

Business B2C Scale Headcount 184

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 13, 2019

When implemented well, automated customer service allows businesses to help more customers at scale without drastically growing headcount. The speed and savings can be game changers for your business… but only if you implement those solutions thoughtfully. Redefining “personal support” in the age of automation.

Underperforming Technical Team 279

Underperforming Technical Team Customer Support AI Headcount 279

Sales Hacker

DECEMBER 9, 2022

Many organizations start with simple rules and definitions – geography-based territories (east, central, west) or account-based territories. Don’t just evaluate market potential for territory definition. Do your current territory definitions still suit the needs of your business or do new structures or rules need to be considered?

Scale 116

Scale Headcount Sales Forecasting 116

Valuize Consulting

DECEMBER 17, 2024

Establishing effective yet efficient ratios requires aligning your CSM headcount with the mechanics of your customer lifecycle design including the definition of the CSM role in your company and the specific activities that achieve successful product adoption with your customers.

Technical Review 52

Technical Review Systems Review Headcount Scale 52

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 3, 2022

You’re investing resources in hiring and training the right people, tracking different metrics at different stages, adding more and more complexity with each increase in headcount, use cases, and customers. I think about when Intercom started, creating this category definition around live chat and the importance of that.

Outsourcing Services 206

Outsourcing Services Scale Software Sales Hiring 206

Intercom, Inc.

MAY 9, 2018

So here’s my definition: Business Operations is a function that is uniquely positioned to solve certain classes of problems for rapidly scaling organizations. It’s simple math: if everyone has to be involved in every decision, doubling your headcount quadruples the distinct conversations needed.

Scale 182

Scale Sales Hiring Headcount Scaling 182

Intercom, Inc.

MAY 21, 2020

And now we’re covering everything on the operation side of things, reporting on individual metrics, team metrics, headcount, planning, forecasting – all that fun stuff. “ At the end of the day, expectation setting is the name of the game here” Ryan: Definitely. Ryan: Definitely. The challenge of automation .

Scale 222

Scale Sales Hiring Customer Support Headcount 222

Sales Hacker

MAY 21, 2020

It’s easy, it scales well, but by definition it puts a lot of the process out of your hands. This includes their own technology, reporting, and headcount as well as what Marketing needs from Sales in terms of feedback and accountability. When inbound sales and marketing works, it’s great.

Scale 138

Scale Underperforming Technical Team Headcount Technology 138

Kellblog

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

Nathan Latka is remarkably effective at getting spokespeople to spill revenue information) and I’d make a separate sheet that uses headcount from LinkedIn as a proxy for ARR, using the method in this great post by SaaStr’s Jason Lemkin. the blue line, below). In this format you can see relative market changes very easily.

Benchmarks 139

Benchmarks Scale Headcount Startup 139

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 21, 2022

“The great thing about performance marketing is the ROI is really obvious, so you can justify increased spend and headcount based on the performance, and that’s what we’ve done” The first thing we did was build out a pretty robust performance marketing team. We spend a ton of time on problem definition. Paul Adams: Exactly.

Outsourcing Services 216

Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring CTO Hire Acquisition 216

Intercom, Inc.

MARCH 12, 2019

” In our case, a resounding “yes” required seeing a positive impact on customer expansion and one big enough to justify the fully-loaded cost for the additional headcount. In short, we not only learned that the juice was definitely worth the squeeze but also set ourselves up for long-term success. Have a bias toward “yes”.

Sales Hiring 172

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team Scale 172

Sales Hacker

JUNE 3, 2025

Or how do I in a limited resource and limited headcount way, how do I go about choosing the allocation of different headcount? Sophie Buonassisi: Definitely. Today, he advises founders on global GTM execution, sales hiring, and how AI is reshaping the future of commercial organizations.

Sales Hiring 83

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 83

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2019

For a cross-functional role like product ops, it’s not only about convincing leadership for headcount and resources. Also consider putting together a single definition of product ops, specifically as it relates to what the function will be responsible for at your company.

Headcount 109

Headcount Interviewing Leadership Content Marketing 109

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 25, 2019

So there can just be some conflicts there, and if not channeled correctly it can definitely be another ugly side of growth.”. When I started, Pipedrive had a big growth plan as far as headcount, but they were a little bit looser on processes and cadences. You’ve got people who will come in and think they know everything.

Scale 136

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scaling 136

SaaStr

OCTOBER 11, 2023

Hiring one was definitely a game-changer. For about four quarters, monday kept headcount flat and went from negative to epic cash flow. As far as incorporating a sales-led motion into a PLG company, Zinman recommends starting earlier. Their investors told them they needed a sales team, but they were patient. Are Sales Teams Too Lean?

Scale 176

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Banking 176

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 9, 2020

Dee: I totally agree, and I must say, compared to some of my friends, I’m definitely noticing that Intercom is brilliant for making sure those social interactions keep going between colleagues even though we’re not all in the same space. And we definitely won’t touch it over there.”.

Customer Support 245

Customer Support Healthcare Sales Hiring Travel 245

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 15, 2020

Zapier’s support organization currently stands at close to 100 in headcount – almost a third of the entire company. I definitely see support for customers as more a whole help solution, rather than a ticketing solution”. And I definitely see support for customers as more a whole help solution rather than a ticketing solution.

Payments 118

Payments Payment Services Payment Solutions Payment Methods 118

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 24, 2021

It may seem like an impossible conundrum, but luckily you don’t need to add headcount just to keep up with an expanding inbox. In fact, our research shows that support teams who use chatbots are 60% more likely to report a definite improvement in resolution times, and 30% more likely to report a definite increase in customer satisfaction.

Scale 130

Scale Customer Support Scaling Headcount 130

OpenView Labs

JUNE 3, 2021

I make a clear distinction between each of these two functions below, but note that I’m not claiming these are the only precise definitions. Given my experience and understanding of these roles across a number of technology companies, both of the following definitions are clear, implementable, and successful in real-world scenarios.

Product Marketing 98

Product Marketing Sales Hiring Startup Scale 98

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). But, like almost everything with metrics, the devil is in the definitions. Typical SaaS Sales Metrics. Customer lifetime value (CLV). Customer churn or retention rates.

Scale 102

Scale Sales Hiring Metrics Sales 102

Sales Hacker

SEPTEMBER 30, 2020

The candidate’s market of the last several years didn’t only make it hard to add new headcount and grow your team. It’s something that is definitely going to come down the road,” Caitlin says. A plethora of great sales talent is suddenly available to companies that are still hiring. But that, too, has changed.

Sales Hiring 120

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 120

ChurnZero

NOVEMBER 18, 2022

This is something that I’m doing with fractional headcount allocation. My VP definitely does because I vetted the idea with them, and we’re going to go with it. The pilot programs aren’t meant to be these big bells and whistles, not even after you launch an official full-time headcount on something.

Customer Success 98

Customer Success Sales Hiring Headcount Scale 98

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 21, 2018

You need to build an efficient sales team…you can’t just throw money or headcount at things. You need to maximize everything you possibly can to beat the competition because you can’t just throw money or headcount at things. Did you know there was an appetite for this? That was the impetus for starting Sales Hacker.

Sales Hiring 183

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Technical Advisors 183

Sales Enablement, SaaS and Growth

MARCH 23, 2020

There’s many definitions out there, but essentially, mental models are frameworks, principles and ideas which allow you to examine and solve problems in a systematic way and when applied correctly, help you think better. The right mental model is a shortcut to the right answer - they provide an edge. Source: McKinsey 17.

Underperforming Technical Team 215

Underperforming Technical Team Scale Sales Hiring Marketplace as a Service 215

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

Do they chat about how the old guy in Squid Game definitely isn’t suspect? . No, no, and most definitely not. At the same time, in the SMB vertical, we replaced the top performers with new reps to retain our headcount. . What happens when a Global Head of Sales, an Inside Sales Director, and an Account Executive walk into a bar?

SMB 103

SMB Enterprise Scale Outbound Sales Team 103

SaaSOptics

JUNE 24, 2021

What You’ll Learn: Definitions of both FinOps and RevOps . After all, there is only one definition/calculation for ARR, Churn, etc. Once metrics definitions/calculations start getting skewed, they no longer mean much. Where each lives in the business. When you should implement each . What is RevOps? .

Scale 72

Scale Headcount Finance Churn 72

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 28, 2022

There’s definitely a culture of togetherness, collaboration, and transparency, and we’re all focused on providing the best outcomes for our customers. Maybe it’s an outcome of our size, but the silos that usually exist between respective functions or go-to-market and product don’t exist that much within Intercom.

Scale 210

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting 210

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 25, 2018

The general advice for starting a company is you should definitely have more than one founder. There's a certain headcount above which the blogposts on "no managers", "flat structure", "no hierarchy" and the like seem to just… stop. Don’t do it alone,” they say.

Scaling 152

Scaling Startup Headcount Engineering 152

SaaSOptics

JANUARY 9, 2020

There are a ton of FinTech or RevOps products on the market and you can’t use them all but if your business is growing and you need to keep up without adding a ton of headcount, these are definitely solutions you want to invest in for 2020. Your board will thank you, your team will thank you and you will thank you. .

Payment Features 77

Payment Features Deferred Revenue Scale Finance 77

OPEXEngine

SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

Take this example of working with Sales on how many account executives to add in the upcoming year: “Our current sales headcount is 30% higher than the sales headcount benchmark for SaaS companies our size and growth rate, and our ARR per sales rep is 30% lower than the benchmark. Budgeting Best Practices.

Benchmarks 52

Benchmarks Sales Hiring Headcount Customer Lifetime Value 52

BetterCloud

JANUARY 5, 2023

As a fully featured and market-leading SMP, BetterCloud is very encouraged to see more of these critical management capabilities captured in this updated market definition. Not only has the market for SMPs matured over time, but so has the Gartner market definition. The core functions of an SMP have evolved.

Government 69

Government Management Marketplace as a Service SaaS 69

Sales Hacker

MARCH 12, 2020

Establish a new definition of success that incorporates both short-term and long-term viewpoints. RELATED: 5 Ways to Keep Your Sales Machine Efficient While Scaling Headcount. When analysis paralysis is slowing down your hiring process, you need to reframe the way you think about hiring. Rework your compensation structure.

Sales Hiring 92

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Compensation Underperforming Technical Team 92

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 12, 2018

As VP of Corporate Strategy at Twitter, Elad Gil was a key player as company headcount skyrocketed from 90 to 1,500 employees. This wasn’t Elad’s first experience with hyper growth – Google grew headcount 10x during his time as a product manager there – nor the last. That was definitely Oracle’s strategy.

Sales Hiring 120

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Technical Advisors 120

Totango

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

The days of an expanding customer base being met with a move to a bigger office and a greater employee headcount are over. It’s definitely a must-have capability for CS solutions. Data-Driven Scaling Customer Success Initiatives Will Maximize Growth. Your CS Software Will Determine Customer Lifetime Value.

Customer Success 83

Customer Success Trends Scale Customer Lifetime Value 83

Stax

AUGUST 16, 2024

We’ve seen trimming of headcount. Fred Nelson, VP of Sales Enablement at Stax provides a succinct definition of embedded payments. They’re willing to take things slower, mature their business strategies, and focus on reducing debt overhangs. Here’s what Lily has to say about this trend. “We’ve What are embedded payments?

Payments 88

Payments Embedded Payments SaaS Payments Payment Solutions 88

Kellblog

FEBRUARY 6, 2021

Connectivity appears to be the special sauce here, and it’s definitely a problem that needs to be solved better. While the product appears still in development, the vision looks clear: dynamic headcount management, that ties together the departmental (budget owner) manager, finance, recruiting, and people ops.

Finance 92

Finance Forecasting Software Review Systems Review 92