SaaStr

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

We all become new customer-oriented, so we say we’re focused on the existing base, but once the sales team becomes 30-40% of headcount, it tends to dominate every conversation. Long-term marketing spend Holding customer success spend flat The study found that 62% of CS teams are maintaining or decreasing their non-headcount budget.

Customer Success 299

Customer Success Sales Hiring Scale Headcount 299

SaaStr

APRIL 13, 2025

This success comes from three key components: An account management organization focused on selling new SKUs to existing customers Standalone sales organizations for major product areas An internal “ad system” using machine learning to show customers the products they’re most likely to adopt next The Lesson: Compound Startups Can (..)

Startup 157

Startup Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Cloud 157

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 18, 2019

This section covers employee satisfaction, headcount, and recruiting metrics. Customer Success reviews the net dollar and logo retention, plus churns and expansions. The template is broken into six sections: People, Bookings & Revenue, Cash, Sales, Marketing, Customer Success. You’ll notice there is no engineering section.

Metrics 250

Metrics Sales Recruiting Startup Headcount 250

SaaStr

JANUARY 2, 2021

Your sales headcount. Hire a VP of Customer Success that is great … and upsells, retentions, and renewals will all go up. If 20% of your revenue is Smaller customers, 50% Medium, and 30% Large (a not uncommon scenario), align your energy and efforts proportionately. Align your marketing budgets. Your product / dev budgets. Like magic.

Sales Hiring 307

Sales Hiring Headcount Pricing Market Segmentation 307

Clouded Judgement

AUGUST 16, 2024

Today, IT budgets are roughly broken down into: ~50% headcount / personnel, ~25% software, ~15% hardware, and ~10% outsourcing / consultants. As software grows as a percentage, I think we see headcount / outsourcing shrinking. I’m certainly not the first (or thousandth.) to have this view, but I wanted to flesh out why.

Outsourcing Services 276

Outsourcing Services Cloud Software Outsourced Development 276

SaaStr

APRIL 20, 2022

But they need the headcount to grow this quickly. #8. “Driven by strong gross retention and expansion across both of our product offerings, NRR was comfortably above 130%. This is pretty standard for high-growth Cloud companies, although not terribly efficient. 300,000-$350,000+ is relatively efficient for a sales-driven model.

Scale 61

Scale Cloud Headcount Scaling 61

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2024

SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin also wrote how Customer Success has now morphed into part of the sales team and that the 2024 trends in CS include everyone wanting to eliminate humans from support to replace that headcount with AI and bots. We still want to drive retention and growth and make money. The world has changed. Never stop,” he said.

Sales Hiring 320

Sales Hiring Customer Success Scale AI 320

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

As Google also reported, usage-based pricing models may weather downturns betterbecause the products they meter grow irrespective of headcount growth, a positive sign for infrastructure. The company’s security portfolio which should prove more resilient to fluctuations in spend factors in significantly to the results’ hardiness.

Cloud 243

Cloud Azure Headcount Software Review 243

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 14, 2020

Although businesses are seeing the benefits of real-time chat – improved customer satisfaction, retention, etc. – Maintaining a 100% real-time experience typically requires: Increasing headcount to keep pace with a growing customer base and their conversations. And if you don’t increase headcount, you risk burning your team out.

Headcount 225

Headcount Retention Customer Support Scaling 225

SaaStr

DECEMBER 19, 2022

Lots of SaaS founders are preoccupied with employee headcount as an important growth metric, but this indicator is not always true. You will have high retention when you treat people well, and many people will be with you for years. What does successful company growth look like?

Compensation 261

Compensation Leadership Company Culture Headcount 261

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 28, 2021

On top of that, bottom-line business metrics like customer retention and expansion are in focus for support teams now more than ever. Support leaders looking to expand their support offering will often seek to answer questions like “How can I scale my support without increasing headcount or budget?”

Headcount 240

Headcount Customer Support Scaling Mobile 240

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 1, 2021

Want to learn more about how conversational experiences are fuelling customer retention and business growth for major companies like yours? Over the past year, many support teams have struggled with budget cuts, reduced headcount, and less bandwidth – while the volume and complexity of customer queries has only risen. Sound familiar?

Underperforming Technical Team 233

Underperforming Technical Team Technical Review Scale Headcount 233

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 8, 2021

Now, it’s taking center stage as the value driver it truly is , enabling businesses to build lasting relationships with their customers, drive increased operational efficiency, and influence better customer satisfaction and retention. Driving increased customer satisfaction and retention. Here’s how they’re doing it.

Scale 238

Scale Headcount Mobile Communication 238

OpenView Labs

OCTOBER 2, 2019

Headcount Planning. But headcount planning is often a useful place to start because the inputs required to make decisions are the least dependent on factors outside of the sales organization. This decision will drive many of your other headcount decisions. What ratio do you want between AEs and other sales roles?

Headcount 61

Headcount Sales Hiring Scale Sales 61

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 10, 2022

If you help and encourage your team, they can drive retention and expansion, and you’ll see the benefits in your bottom line. Reduced headcount, longer working hours, and a spike in queries have led to burnout. They go big on human support to meet demand, and they end up having to backtrack and cut headcount as costs skyrocket.

Customer Support 212

Customer Support Trends Technical Review Headcount 212

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 27, 2021

At $2m in ARR, budget $200k in headcount for the CSM positions + support. Tie bonuses and comp to success on both metrics (favor, in most cases, pure retention first, and additional revenue second). At $4m, $400k, and so on. You may be able to pare this back a bit later, but probably not too much. And then measure the results.

Sales Hiring 246

Sales Hiring Customer Success Scale Customer Lifetime Value 246

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 27, 2021

At $2m in ARR, budget $200k in headcount for the CSM positions + support. Tie bonuses and comp to success on both metrics (favor, in most cases, pure retention first, and additional revenue second). At $4m, $400k, and so on. You may be able to pare this back a bit later, but probably not too much. And then measure the results.

Sales Hiring 245

Sales Hiring Customer Success Scale Customer Lifetime Value 245

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 8, 2020

It can also guide your hiring process if increasing headcount is required to guarantee 24/7 coverage for customers. Maintaining and exceeding customer expectations allows you to boost retention and increase customer advocacy. Customer satisfaction. Your Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is a critical metric for success.

Customer Support 212

Customer Support Metrics Technical Review Scale 212

FastSpring

AUGUST 13, 2020

Shrinking employee headcounts. The importance of customer retention for businesses’ long-term success. Take a look at the infographic below to learn more about these key software ecommerce trends: The increased demand for software. Decreased B2B spending. The shift towards online shopping. Dropping ad costs.

Trends 137

Trends Software Headcount B2B 137

SaaStr

MARCH 15, 2024

If you try to mine too aggressively from free until they’re paid and before you have that engagement, you will pay for it on the other side with quality and retention. Do you see massive disruption in workforces and marketing headcounts shrinking because of AI? “I’m PLG isn’t for everybody, but if you do it, free is a component.

AI Search 273

AI Search SaaS Advertising Sales Hiring 273

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 22, 2024

Enterprise software businesses strive for 90-95% gross retention (generally the percent of revenue that sticks with you vs churns altogether), with net expansion in the 120%+ range (the aggregate change in expansion - contraction - churned revenue). Namely, retention!! For “fake” ARR, retention can vary wildly.

AI 193

AI Cloud Revenue Technical Advisors 193

Valuize Consulting

DECEMBER 17, 2024

Getting it wrong impacts your Net Revenue Retention (NRR) performance, customer experience, and operational efficiency. Traditionally, companies have set CSM ratios based on revenue tiers or account sizes, yet these methods are woefully simplistic when considering the complexity of driving customer adoption, retention and expansion in B2B.

Technical Review 52

Technical Review Systems Review Headcount Scale 52

Valuize Consulting

FEBRUARY 8, 2025

Partners are no longer just sales and implementation allies; they are a critical force in ensuring customer retention and expansion through value realization. Partners cannot be expected to drive retention and expansion without first having a clear framework, resources, and support from your company.

Customer Success 52

Customer Success Scale Technical Review Government 52

Clouded Judgement

DECEMBER 8, 2023

.” Here’s a summary of the quarter in 5 charts: Quarterly Growth rates: Still decelerating, but not as quickly Net Retention: Down from historical averages, but starting to level off. Companies have reduced headcount, but new bookings aren’t getting any easier Quarterly net new ARR growth : Some green-shoots!

Cloud 170

Cloud Software Review Headcount Trends 170

Payrix

APRIL 10, 2025

The typical trade and field service business relies on revenue from sales and service to run operations, manage headcount, and drive operational growth. However, these profit levers alone may not be enough to help a business achieve its true potential. Theres more to this strategy than just the nice revenue bump.

Payments 100

Payments Payment Services Outsourcing Services Payment Solutions 100

Clouded Judgement

APRIL 6, 2023

That’s a big difference, especially when you layer in the growth in headcount from 2021 to 2022. Essentially companies grew headcount significantly to add less ARR. We’re obviously seeing the rightsizing of this now with headcount reductions. The second chart comes from the latest MS CIO survey (below).

Cloud 130

Cloud Headcount Payment Features Subscription 130

SaaSX

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

This INCLUDES headcount-related expenses. If you are utilizing Gusto or a similar payroll tool, your headcount expenses are likely coming into your P&L as one (or maybe two) line item(s). these figures are going to be WRONG because you haven’t properly accounted for your headcount costs in Sales & Marketing.

Finance 118

Finance Sales Hiring Headcount Scale 118

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 30, 2021

Powered by a modern business messenger , it scales your ability to answer more questions from more customers without increasing headcount, budget, or hours logged. InMoment helps your team to keep an ongoing pulse on how your customers feel about your product or service so you can proactively drive retention, engagement, and advocacy.

Technical Review 250

Technical Review Customer Support Payment Methods Payment Solutions 250

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 29, 2019

For example, our leadership team might decide to focus our company strategy on targeting the segments with the best revenue retention. If your customers tend to be larger, public companies, then segmenting by revenue and size is reasonable, as most report financial results and headcount on a quarterly basis.

Business 184

Business B2C Scale Headcount 184

ChurnZero

JANUARY 17, 2025

Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) m easure the recurring revenue retained from existing customers, excluding upsells but accounting for churn. Net Revenue Retention (NRR) includes upsells, expansions, and churn. Logo Retention tracks the percentage of customers retained over a specific period, regardless of upsells or contractions.

Customer Success 52

Customer Success Benchmarks Headcount Scale 52

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 27, 2022

As companies and their headcounts grow, so do their tech stacks. This bi-directional integration means that Amplitude customers can use Amplitude and Intercom to optimize campaign performance and impact on in-product engagement, conversion, and retention. .

Enterprise 206

Enterprise Headcount Engineering Cloud 206

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 5, 2020

One of the challenges we’ve faced as a support team is scaling our high bar for customer satisfaction without scaling our headcount alongside our customer count. Either you’re all in on delighting customers, or you’re doing everything you can to minimize your costs and maximize your profit. It’s a problem we know well.

Scale 205

Scale Headcount Scaling Customer Support 205

SaaStr

JANUARY 21, 2022

More than 50% of companies have negative net dollar retention metrics, so expanding because you’re under the assumption that it’ll be easy because others are successfully doing it can be a dangerous one and lead to a tricky organizational, economic structure.

Scale 246

Scale SMB Enterprise Sales Hiring 246

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 24, 2018

When companies face the prospect of supporting rapidly increasing numbers of customers, they are faced with three fundamental choices: Support customer growth with increased headcount – this brings the benefit of maintaining a top notch level of service, but it also comes at a hefty financial and operational cost.

Scale 179

Scale Customer Support Scaling Strategy 179

ChurnZero

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

Overall, the industry’s top five measurements of success are NRR, gross revenue retention (GRR), churn rate, logo retention rate and expansion revenue—while “softer” metrics like NPS appear only further down the list. Why NRR (net revenue retention) is the SaaS metric to rule them all. However, 76.5% of companies.

Leadership 98

Leadership Trends Customer Success Investment 98

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. Early on, we hypothesized relationship managers would primarily use email to drive customer retention and expansion.

Sales Hiring 172

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Underperforming Technical Team Scale 172

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2023

Many of them said headcount management and spend were common levers they pulled, given the immediate and significant impact they have on spend. Companies are giving price breaks this year to reduce churn and increase retention, with the caveat that it might go up next year. What are companies doing today to scale efficiently?

Outsourcing Services 176

Outsourcing Services Scaling Venture Capital Forecasting 176