Sat.May 26, 2018 - Fri.Jun 01, 2018

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Passing the GDPR test; or how we learned to stop worrying and love the EU

Intercom, Inc.

The EU was kind enough to provide a stress test for our email delivery pipeline during the GDPR surge on a scale that I doubt our engineering team as a whole would have agreed to, and we passed. You’ve all heard about GDPR, as it ironically swamped your inboxes in the process of protecting you from unwanted emails. For our engineering teams at Intercom, there was a much more short term impact last week, which we think is interesting enough to share more widely.

Scale 204
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SaaS Marketing Isn’t All About Talking; It’s More About Listening

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

If you’ve ever sat through a marketing agency’s pitch or seen an episode of Mad Men, you’d think that marketing is all about talking – pushing out clever messages so that people will buy whatever it is that you’re selling. Not exactly. You’re right that there’s plenty of delivering messages through email, blog posts, paid adwords, Twitter, TV, radio, or print ads or whatever media reaches the buyer.

Marketing 161
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Why Good Site Architecture Is The Only CRO You Need

Neil Patel

When you hear the words “site architecture,” the first thing that comes to mind is probably SEO. It doesn’t take much digging into SEO best practice to learn that Google loves a site with clearly defined architecture that’s easy to crawl and index. But if you stopped your site architecture planning with just your SEO, then you’ve missed out on the greater picture.

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The 2018 Sales Technology Landscape: Discover 800+ Players Ruling the Topology

Sales Hacker

A lot has happened in the s ales tech space since I introduced my first sales tech landscape last summer. I’m now counting over 830 vendors, a 15% surge. The 38 categories illustrate the extreme fragmentation of the market. Both sales and sales operations are sharing an increased frustration with the number of applications they have in their stack.

Scale 74
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Airflow Best Practices for ETL/ELT Pipelines

Speaker: Kenten Danas, Senior Manager, Developer Relations

ETL and ELT are some of the most common data engineering use cases, but can come with challenges like scaling, connectivity to other systems, and dynamically adapting to changing data sources. Airflow is specifically designed for moving and transforming data in ETL/ELT pipelines, and new features in Airflow 3.0 like assets, backfills, and event-driven scheduling make orchestrating ETL/ELT pipelines easier than ever!

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The one simple question our bot asks that saves our Sales team hours

Intercom, Inc.

As the rise of bots and automation continues apace, a lot of people are wondering how the sales process and lead qualification will be affected by this fast-evolving technology. Some are even asking if salespeople are at risk of being eclipsed by chatbots altogether. But a fairly simple example of how the Intercom bot, Operator , helped our sales conversations illuminates what we think that future might look like in practice.

Scale 187

More Trending

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25 Sales Questions to Qualify Your Leads Faster

Neil Patel

You can attribute a lot of great relationships to perfect timing. When you connect with the right person at the right time, everything seems to just fit. This is especially true for sales. Connecting with your lead too early means they won’t be ready to buy. But if you wait too long, they may have moved on to a competitor. Unfortunately, finding the perfect time to connect with a customer is complicated.

Scale 111
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Sales Development: What It Is, Why It Matters, And How To Do It Right

Sales Hacker

The business case for sales development is built on flawless logic and verified by market data. It’s a lot better to sell to qualified prospects than to try your luck on a complete stranger. The more time your closers spend taking moonshots, the less sales they actually make. Smart business organizations have long experienced and embraced this principle.

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Take the wheel and choose your own career direction

Intercom, Inc.

We all like to think we’re the drivers of our own life. We intuitively feel that we are choosing the route, direction and speed of our journey, and even the type of car we’re traveling in. We have an inbuilt tendency to believe we are deciding our destination, that we are actively mapping out our career direction and our life story. The truth is, however, that most of us are mere passengers in our own life journey.

Travel 181
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How Basecamp, Netflix and Amazon think about communication

Chart Mogul

Should I swing by my colleague's desk, or just send a Slack DM? Does this require a meeting? Should I document the outcome of this meeting? Well, it depends. Communicating wasn’t always this hard. Most of the time when we communicate in business, we don’t plan how we’re going to make that communication, or what we’re trying to get from it. It’s really not our fault — human-to-human communication is so deeply ingrained into our being.

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Build the Case: Quantify the Real Costs of In-House Testing and QA Gaps

Underinvesting in software testing costs more than you think, and now you can prove it. This guide helps you quantify hidden costs like developer time, support overhead, tech debt, and lost revenue. Use the companion calculator to model your own data, and present your findings with a ready-to-edit presentation template. Whether you're making the case to leadership or validating outsourcing, this toolkit gives you the numbers and tools you need.

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15 questions you should ask during an inside sales interview

CloseSaaS

So you’re looking to build out your inside sales team and you’ve lined up a full day of interviews with potential new hires.

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How to Build a Sales Stack Your Sales Reps Will Love

Sales Hacker

Hoping to provide a little more clarity around some of the best tools for your sales stack, we’ll be discussing the different types of tools that I like to incorporate into our customers’ sales processes. Because every sales organization has different needs and uses different tools, we’re going to focus more on the functionality. I’ll also highlight some of the favorites out there that encompass many of the features we’ll be discussing.

Sales 58
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Making the transition from consultant to product engineer

Intercom, Inc.

Those unfamiliar with what product engineers do could be forgiven for assuming that it’s all broadly the same job. After all, we all tend to work in code, use black text editors with luminous text, and stare at console windows with endlessly scrolling symbols. But making the transition from consultant engineer to a product engineer was a revelation – I realized that working as an engineer in client services and working as a product engineer are essentially two completely different jobs, br

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Lessons from Marvel, Receptive and ProdPad at Mogul I/O London

Chart Mogul

We're still buzzing from our Mogul I/O London event this week! Here's a rundown of highlights and lessons from the panel session with Marvel, Receptive and ProdPad. Thanks to everyone who came out to see us in London at our third Mogul I/O event. The presentations and discussion was packed full of lessons and insights, as you’d expect from such a selection of seasoned SaaS leaders.

Scale 58
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Agent Tooling: Connecting AI to Your Tools, Systems & Data

Speaker: Alex Salazar, CEO & Co-Founder @ Arcade | Nate Barbettini, Founding Engineer @ Arcade | Tony Karrer, Founder & CTO @ Aggregage

There’s a lot of noise surrounding the ability of AI agents to connect to your tools, systems and data. But building an AI application into a reliable, secure workflow agent isn’t as simple as plugging in an API. As an engineering leader, it can be challenging to make sense of this evolving landscape, but agent tooling provides such high value that it’s critical we figure out how to move forward.

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Selling with an accent? Here’s how to make sure you’re heard

CloseSaaS

“Sorry. What was that?” It’s every salesperson’s worst nightmare. You’re deep in your pitch. Your prospect is hanging onto every single word you say. And then wham! It turns out their silence wasn’t because they were so blown away, but because they didn’t understand a word you were saying.

Sales 52
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PODCAST 09: Unraveling the Power of The Transparency Sale

Sales Hacker

On this episode of the Sales Hacker podcast, we talk with Todd Caponi , former CRO of PowerReviews about how to sell enterprise software solutions with increased transparency in the sales process. What You’ll Learn. How to use transparency concepts to increase win rates. How to evolve your sales posture given the changes in sales conversations over the last 20 years.

Scale 45
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How to Prepare for M&A Management Presentations

SaaSOptics

The banker said to block my calendar for management presentations. Excuse me, what are management presentations? And for two weeks? Yes, and this is only the halfway point. The real “fun” in due diligence comes after the management presentations. However, before we get too far, let’s break down what happens at management presentations and how you can prepare your company and leadership team.

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?? SaaS Roundup #121: 9 Ways to Make Your SaaS Customers Hate You

Chart Mogul

This week: How successful companies approach communication, product managers explain product management and more. In SaaS Roundup, we comb through the noise to find you only the best SaaS-flavored reads of the week — just our top three. You can also receive SaaS Roundup in your email inbox every Friday — just drop your email here and you’ll receive the next issue.

SaaS 40
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State of AI in Sales & Marketing 2025

AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.

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4 essential questions for optimizing retention

Claudiu Murariu

I always strive for zero churn. Of course, I too have customers who are leaving, but the only times I accept churn without putting up a fight is when companies are closing down, people are leaving companies or budgets are being cut. I just can’t accept it when people are leaving because of my product, well, at least after they find value in it. In the following lines I’m going to share the questions I am expecting my data to answer when it comes down to understanding and optimizing retention.

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Keep Calm and Comply with GDPR

Rakam

Every company in the European Union and around the globe has been preparing for the big day. Yes, GDPR! The General Data Protection Regulation has been in effect since 25 May 2018 and naturally, there are tons of questions in the air. What’s the fuss all about, you ask? How does it affect my business? How do I track my prospects / customers? How do I keep them engaged?

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How to Prepare for M&A Management Presentations

SaaSOptics

The banker said to block my calendar for management presentations. Excuse me, what are management presentations? And for two weeks? Yes, and this is only the halfway point. The real “fun” in due diligence comes after the management presentations. However, before we get too far, let’s break down what happens at management presentations and how you can prepare your company and leadership team.

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Why Creating Relevant Content Is One of the Best Search Engine Marketing Strategies

Kraftblick

Content. All SaaS companies know they need it — they are particularly well-placed to benefit from the magic of content. Publishing skyscraper content means you will stand out. But did you know that it can also improve your standing in search engine results pages (SERPs), drive more traffic to your site and attract more qualified leads ? Read on to learn which strategies will increase your visibility in SERPs and attract more qualified leads.

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What’s New in Apache Airflow® 3.0—And How Will It Reshape Your Data Workflows?

Speaker: Tamara Fingerlin, Developer Advocate

Apache Airflow® 3.0, the most anticipated Airflow release yet, officially launched this April. As the de facto standard for data orchestration, Airflow is trusted by over 77,000 organizations to power everything from advanced analytics to production AI and MLOps. With the 3.0 release, the top-requested features from the community were delivered, including a revamped UI for easier navigation, stronger security, and greater flexibility to run tasks anywhere at any time.

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Close.io CEO Steli Efti on the rights and wrongs of lead qualification

Intercom, Inc.

To build a great product, you have to intimately understand the problem it’s built to solve. To build a great business, as Steli Efti has learned, your customers must feel the pain of that problem too. Steli is the CEO of Close.io , an inside sales CRM that helps startups and SMBs generate high-quality leads and close more deals. When he’s not building software, Steli’s sharing content with the wider sales community through the Close.io blog , books on everything from product demos t

Startup 223
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The Most Important Book You'll Read All Year

Tom Tunguz

Imagine you came across this ad. Scientists have discovered a revolutionary new treatment that makes you live longer. It enhances your memory and makes you more creative. It makes you look more attractive. It keeps you slim and lowers food cravings. It protects you from cancer and dementia. It wards off colds and the flu. It lowers your risk of heart attacks and stroke, not to mention diabetes.

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How to Prepare for M&A Management Presentations

SaaSOptics

The banker said to block my calendar for management presentations. Excuse me, what are management presentations? And for two weeks? Yes, and this is only the halfway point. The real “fun” in due diligence comes after the management presentations. However, before we get too far, let’s break down what happens at management presentations and how you can prepare your company and leadership team.

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SaaS Revenue Recognition Challenges with QuickBooks (And What You Can Do About It)

SaaSOptics

QuickBooks is an easy decision for a SaaS startup or SMB. However, subscription-based businesses quickly run into challenges. QuickBooks does many things well, but it doesn’t efficiently manage subscription revenue recognition or subscription billing, especially if you have sales-negotiated behavior in your contracts, which is the heart of financial operations for a SaaS business and is required by ASC 606 and GAAP compliance.

Revenue 40
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Struggling to Scale Test Coverage Under Pressure?

When test coverage falls behind release velocity, quality suffers, and your team feels the consequences. This guide outlines when it makes sense to outsource quality assurance (QA), the risks to watch for, and how to scale testing without increasing headcount or slowing down engineering. You will learn how leading teams are leveraging external QA partners to expand coverage, enhance defect detection, and remain aligned with CI/CD timelines.

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4 Ways Spreadsheets Are Failing Your Recurring Revenue Business

SaaSOptics

Are your spreadsheets hurting your SaaS business? There are times in life when making ends meet is the only option. We’ve all faced situations where the only option is to take the path of least resistance or do what is “good enough for now.” Managing the financial operations of a recurring revenue or SaaS businesses is not one of those times. In their early days, most recurring revenue businesses manage financial operations with spreadsheets , which are cobbled together with a number of differen

Revenue 40
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Beyond Quickbooks - Advanced Forecasting for B2B SaaS

SaaSOptics

When it comes to forecasting for a SaaS business, traditional financial metrics won’t get the job done. The lack of good financial data and metrics remains a big problem for most early stage subscription businesses, and even many established SaaS companies. Chances are, your business relies on outside funding or is subject to board oversight—or both.

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Buttoned Up Revenue Recognition Metrics for SaaS Businesses

SaaSOptics

Chance are, your early-stage SaaS business has a business-casual dress policy, but your financial metrics still need a buttoned-up Wall Street polish to attract savvy investors or potential acquirers. Much like a bespoke power suit would break the clothing allowance, powerful financial management suites are far too expensive to install and implement just to gain accurate revenue recognition metrics.

Metrics 40