SaaStr

JANUARY 2, 2021

The #1 biggest mistake I see from $1m to $10m ARR is chasing new market segments, new categories, new areas where you have 0 or almost no traction. Raise prices, one way or another for new customers — as you add more value and build your brand. You can raise prices $1 a month. There are 10,000 new apps out there.

Sales Hiring 307

Sales Hiring Headcount Pricing Market Segmentation 307

User Pilot

JANUARY 23, 2023

Marketing segmentation comes in handy here. Segmenting customers into groups based on similar traits, allows you to still market highly relevant content to keep them engaged, and do so efficiently. In this article, we cover: How is marketing segmentation used in customer retention? Let’s get started.

Market Segmentation 98

Market Segmentation Retention Marketing Software Review 98

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 3, 2023

It gets you to build that new edition, go upmarket, add more value, compete in new market segments. The peak moment for us was when a vendor we pay monthly for sent us a threatening email on the last days of a quarter telling us we had to now pre-pay for 4 years at a much higher annual price. We didn’t earn it. We forced it.

Scale 293

Scale Market Segmentation Customer Success Pricing 293

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 26, 2022

Vertical software companies pursue a particular market segment like car dealership management or hotel management software. Price Increases. New bookings added 10% ; price increases 5%. From 2003 to 2014, Constellation’s revenues compounded from $80m to more than $5b, an average of 25% annually. Growth Source.

Software Review 289

Software Review Investment Software Acquisition 289

SaaStr

MARCH 25, 2021

Shopify is #1 in so many market segments, but for “bigger” SMBs BigCommerce (and perhaps less-custom enterprise deployments) is arguably #2 to Shopify. It’s much smaller than Shopify, at $170m ARR vs $3B+ ARR, but it’s still plenty big for us to learn a lot from this big but not #1 player in the market.

Outsourcing Services 289

Outsourcing Services Payments Merchant Services SaaS Payments 289

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

Ten years ago today, I wrote a post titled “ Choosing market segments on customer profitability. Which customer segment would you prefer to sell to? Enterprise customers’ demand is price inelastic. The single most important business decision in evaluating a business is pricing power.

Startup 243

Startup Market Segmentation Pricing Enterprise 243

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

When serving B2B customers, your pricing will be dictated by your customers' margins. Most businesses fund new initiatives including marketing and technology projects from profits. The more profits a company generates the greater their willingness to pay for services and ultimately the larger the market size for a startup.

Market Segmentation 100

Market Segmentation Marketing Technical Review Software Review 100

SaaStr

MARCH 8, 2020

2 often has a better product, at least for some market segments. #2 If you’re #2, you don’t need to necessarily cut your prices. The Big Guy gets to $50m, $100m, $1000m ARR … and just can’t care as much about certain segments. #2 2 Can Go Down Market Easier. Post-traction, with a brand. See above. #1s

Innovation 322

Innovation Market Segmentation Pricing Branding 322

SaaStr

MAY 10, 2024

So HubSpot had a great quarter, despite there being many challenges in the sales and marketing segments overall in the past 18 months: $2.5B ARR 23% Growth 22% Customer Growth 15% Operating Margins (non-GAAP) That’s about as good as it gets. But … that doesn’t mean it got easier. More proof-of-concepts than ever.

B2C 282

B2C Mobile B2B Payment Features 282

User Pilot

JANUARY 18, 2024

A pricing survey is the most surefire way to figure out an acceptable price range that maximizes profit without being prohibitively expensive — made possible through the power of user feedback. This guide will help you get to that optimal price point by conducting pricing surveys! What is a pricing survey?

Pricing 105

Pricing Scale Market Segmentation Scaling 105

OpenView Labs

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

When you do this, you’re looking for two key changes: Have current customers and prospects changed segments? Has the segmentation itself changed? Any changes to either of these should cause you to reconsider your pricing strategy. Related read: The Ultimate SaaS Pricing Resources Guide. Let’s begin with the easier case.

Pricing 98

Pricing Marketing Market Segmentation Communication 98

SaaSOptics

APRIL 14, 2022

SaaS pricing is typically done on a subscription basis where customers pay a recurring monthly or annual fee to use a company’s software. In recent years, usage-based pricing has become popular amongst growing SaaS companies and their customers—but is it the right choice for your business? Types of Pricing Models.

Payments 98

Payments Pricing SaaS Payments Payment Services 98

SaaStr

DECEMBER 27, 2023

The LMS market segment is big, and Docebo thinks about it in two folds. A Lesson Learned: Don’t Undervalue Your Product A lesson learned from growing a company to $1B is spending more time thinking through pricing strategically and doing it sooner. At Docebo, 65% of their customers use it both externally and internally.

Sales Hiring 277

Sales Hiring Scale SMB Outsourced Development 277

OpenView Labs

JANUARY 3, 2022

Back in 2015 I published this post “ Your 3 Pricing Strategy Choices: Grow, Skim, or Follow.” In this post, I update the key ideas and introduce a few new ones based on the importance of goal setting and new approaches to pricing and value. Pricing is a critical choice. Pricing strategy selection is a choice.

Pricing 97

Pricing Strategy Innovation B2B 97

SaaStr

AUGUST 5, 2021

They don’t get credit for making things better, but they’re motivated to do their job more efficiently at a lower price. Instead, in the Thomas Kinkade model, pricing is fixed, deployment is easy and fast, and people may recommend them to many other people for any use case; you can put a Thomas Kinkade in your bedroom or your bathroom.

Scale 261

Scale Enterprise Finance Travel 261

SaaStr

OCTOBER 6, 2019

Competition in core deals is the root cause of systemic high sales & marketing expenses. You start to become a break-out leader, and there’s a target on your back: Competition leads to price cutting. And it usually increases once you hit $10m ARR or so. If not by you, by the competition.

Sales Hiring 270

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Venture Capital 270

OpenView Labs

JANUARY 12, 2021

Editor’s Note: This is a conversation between Kyle Poyar, VP of Market Strategy at OpenView, and Steven Forth, Partner at Ibbaka. . Back in another lifetime—exactly one year ago—Kyle and I offered up our pricing transformations for 2020. Pricing as a part of the customer experience (CX). Pricing for value adoption.

Pricing 72

Pricing Scale Outsourced Development Market Segmentation 72

Tom Tunguz

APRIL 24, 2017

How did a business at this price point scale, especially with an inside sales team? Critically, Fleetmatics matches their sales tactics to their price point. They both address the same market segment, but have approached it in radically different ways. Last year, Verizon acquired Fleetmatics for $2.4B. Multiyear deals.

Sales Hiring 186

Sales Hiring Strategy Venture Capital Marketing 186

ProfitWell

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

We’ll go over the different types of discounting, the pros/cons, some alternatives, and if you should consider discounting in your SaaS pricing strategy. What is discount pricing? Discount pricing deducts a certain percentage off the original market price. The pros and cons of a discount pricing strategy.

Pricing 78

Pricing Strategy Market Segmentation Churn 78

The Angel VC

JUNE 28, 2017

Once you have PMF, you can start to focus on hiring, getting more customers, finding customer acquisition channels, optimizing pricing, and so on. Michael Skok added the important element of the “Minimum Viable Segment” in this article , pointing out that “your product isn’t going to fit the entire market from day one.

Sales Hiring 237

Sales Hiring Scale Product Marketing Startup 237

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 4, 2019

Do you compete primarily on price? And whatever you stand for must resonate with your identified target market. If you compete on beautiful design, you better make sure every marketing communication is beautifully designed. If you are competing on price, does this low cost focus come across in all your marketing?

Branding 209

Branding Underperforming Technical Team Technical Review Airlines 209

ProfitWell

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

One simple way of doing this is to just charge more for your product—also known as premium pricing. In a field stacked with competitors, a brilliant product priced at a premium can give your current and prospective customers a favorable impression of your business’ commitment to quality. What is premium pricing?

Pricing 67

Pricing Branding Strategy Market Segmentation 67

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 22, 2018

Your product may do different jobs for different market segments. Uber’s driver sign up flow motivates prospective drivers with surge pricing from an upcoming holiday . The job-to-be-done of a Snickers bar is to provide energy and sustenance, hence the tagline, “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” .

Onboarding 188

Onboarding Sales Hiring Market Segmentation Branding 188

Chaotic Flow

JULY 21, 2015

This information goes by a lot of different names: market segments, qualification criteria, pain points, buyer personae, customer profiles, use cases, etc. The Cloudy Nature of SaaS Pricing. SaaS pricing is one of the most important dimensions of SaaS customer alignment. SaaS pricing isn’t that hard to do.

Acquisition 133

Acquisition Scale SaaS Pricing 133

SaaSX

APRIL 11, 2021

That is where pricing innovation comes in. Pricing innovation. Pricing to capture the value of innovation.’ Innovating on how you price.’. Revenue model innovation is another way to say this, but it is actually important to focus right on how to price. Take a systematic approach to how you price.

Innovation 52

Innovation Pricing Customer Lifetime Value Social Media 52

ProfitWell

JANUARY 30, 2020

Choosing a product pricing strategy is a momentous decision for any young SaaS company. Not only does it define your early monetization strategy, but it also heavily influences what market segments you’re likely to appeal to directly and how your product will be perceived. One way to do that is through price skimming.

Pricing 52

Pricing Payments SaaS Payments Scale 52

OpenView Labs

APRIL 20, 2020

Before reading on, please take this survey if you haven’t already: What pricing actions are you taking in response to the COVID-19 crisis? If you want to reflect more deeply on how market dynamics and value propositions are changing, please take this survey: What scenarios are you planning for? Building a pricing action portfolio.

Pricing 69

Pricing SaaS Payments Payment Solutions Payment Methods 69

User Pilot

JULY 16, 2024

UserGuiding differentiates itself through affordable pricing. Dock gets a competitive advantage by focusing on a specific market segment. This is typically true for products at similar price points and quality levels. It includes objective factors (price and quality) and personal preferences (style, taste, etc.).

Branding 111

Branding Market Segmentation AI Search Education 111

User Pilot

AUGUST 22, 2024

In 2019, Maja expanded her influence as an advisor, working with EKWB, a global leader in PC liquid cooling solutions, where she supported the company’s growth in enterprise and mass-market segments. It covers crucial aspects of launching a product , including market research, pricing , positioning, and growth techniques.

Scale 105

Scale Blockchain Growth Hacking Consulting 105

The Angel VC

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013

7th DO for SaaS startups Build a repeatable, profitable sales process Sales is a very different animal depending on the stage of your company, the market segment you're going after and on whether we're talking about inbound sales or outbound sales.

Scale 153

Scale Sales Hiring Startup Sales 153

OpenView Labs

NOVEMBER 27, 2019

Pricing is the most powerful of the four Ps (product, price, place, promotion) but it is also one of the least understood. In many companies pricing is a frozen accident. Someone came up with a pricing model ‘once upon a time’ and set prices, and people have been living with it ever since. Which consultants?

Sales Hiring 52

Sales Hiring Consulting Pricing Scale 52

User Pilot

AUGUST 30, 2024

Conducting a competitor analysis helps you understand the market landscape, identify your differentiations, and gain deeper insights into your target audience’s preferences and pain points. Competitor analysis reports often include data on audience, pricing , features, marketing strategies , and SWOT.

Underperforming Technical Team 105

Underperforming Technical Team SaaS Benchmarks Social Media 105

FastSpring

JUNE 22, 2022

While this still holds true for finding initial product-market and go-to-market fit, more and more we’re seeing examples of businesses evolving much more quickly into both market segments. Are you making it easy for B2B prospects to understand all your pricing options?

B2C 148

B2C Payments SaaS Payments B2B 148

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 12, 2019

One of the more common things that I tell entrepreneurs is to immediately raise prices. Every time we raised prices, the sales team was freaked out that nobody was going to buy our software. Every time we raised prices, the sales team was freaked out that nobody was going to buy our software.

Sales Recruiting 199

Sales Recruiting Scale Outsourcing Services Sales Hiring 199

Tom Tunguz

MARCH 17, 2016

Clay Christensen, a Harvard Business School professor, asserted in a recent interview that we understand only half of the marketing puzzle: the marketing science involved in a competitive ecosystem, when consumers are buying millions of products. In these markets, concepts like Westendorp Price Sensitivity and conjoint analyses work.

Innovation 100

Innovation SaaS Payments Payment Solutions SaaS 100

User Pilot

AUGUST 18, 2024

Deciding on pricing and positioning. It outlines the target audience, competition, value proposition, messaging, pricing, and marketing and sales channels. A GTM strategy offers several benefits, including clear positioning , targeted marketing, and efficient resource allocation. Defining the value proposition.

AI Search 105

AI Search Scale AI Strategy 105

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 3, 2012

They demand different sales cycles, pricing and market positioning - potentially even different team members. Education sales are common when creating a new market (TiVo inventing the DVR) or when bringing existing technologies to new market segments (CRM for restaurants). The Education Sale.

Education 100

Education Sales Market Segmentation Consulting 100