SaaStr

MAY 16, 2023

So a recent SaaS survey confirmed what I’ve experienced over the year: outsourced SDRs are tough to make work. It would be so great if we could all outsource sales, sales development, sales operations, and more. They managed the resources, wrote the scripts, reviewed the lists, etc.

Outsourcing Services 231

Outsourcing Services Outsourced Development Development Team Review Sales Hiring 231

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

Everything from hiring on the GTM side to layering in a sales-led motion into PLG. Let’s dive into what’s making that hybrid model successful: PLG and Sales Led? Given this, you must understand the role that each facet of the business plays in promoting that product, from marketing and sales to customer service.

Scale 252

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Marketing 252

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2024

Mark Roberge , SaaStr fan-favorite and Co-Founder and Managing Director of Stage 2 Capital brought together some of the top CROs in SaaS during the SaaStr Annual to share some of their greatest learnings and pivotal moments leading some of the Cloud 100 SaaS companies. From a GTM execution standpoint, they weren’t focused.

Scale 218

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Revenue 218

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 22, 2024

“Doubling Down” is a new series where we hear from top B2B SaaS investors on their most recent activities and takes on the current market. The team, led by Deepinder Singh Dhingra, has deep enterprise SaaS experience and truly understands their customer’s needs. What’s the #1 bit of advice you’d give to SaaS founders today?

Innovation 233

Innovation Wireless Acquisition Technology 233

SaaStr

MARCH 14, 2024

“Doubling Down” is a new series where we hear from top B2B SaaS investors on their most recent activities and takes on the current market. What’s the #1 bit of advice you’d give to SaaS founders today? We had a great one last time with Peter Specht, Partner at Creandum. Check that out here.

Scale 187

Scale B2B Investment Acquisition 187

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2024

At SaaStr Miami, former Founder’s Fund Partner and CRO of Brex Sam Blond — host of the SaaStr CRO Confidential Podcast — sat down with SaaStr CEO and founder Jason Lemkin for a fireside chat about finding success as a SaaS company in 2024. On the sales side, people hired way too much. More salespeople do not equal more sales.

Sales Hiring 246

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 246

SaaStr

AUGUST 28, 2022

So in many ways we use SaaStr itself as sort of a lab to try sales and marketing experiments. I have my own experience as a SaaS CEO to draw on, for a product now doing hundreds of millions in ARR a year. And I have the experience of investing in 5 SaaS unicorns and decacorns. But you need to keep it fresh.

Scale 232

Scale Sales Hiring Pricing Churn 232

SaaStr

MARCH 2, 2023

Dear SaaStr: When Do You Start to Develop a Brand in SaaS? A little more here : heard good things image from here The post Dear SaaStr: When Do You Start to Develop a Brand in SaaS? In my experience, probably about $2m worth of happy customers. At that point, you don’t have a world-famous brand or anything.

Branding 223

Branding Development SaaS Investment 223

SaaStr

JULY 14, 2023

So a little while back we had a deep dive on just how much of a product expert your VP of Sales needs to be, and your sales team in general. The bottom line is while views weren’t consistent, I can tell you VPs of Sales that don’t know the product close to cold … fail. More on that here. Trust me here.

Customer Success 193

Customer Success Scale Sales Hiring Leadership 193

SaaStr

MARCH 13, 2023

So even after doing SaaS all this years, and being perhaps the biggest fan of SaaS sales and sales processes out there … I still struggle with the idea of cold calling. The reality is, anything that works even a bit is usually worth doing — if you have the resources than know how to run that playbook.

SaaS 259

SaaS Revenue Sales Data 259

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 7, 2024

Sales-assisted, product-led growth strategies that close Enterprise leads. For context to kick us off, some of the top SaaS companies have 41% lower CAC than the rest. They do a lot of predictive analysis to categorize TAM and prioritize their resources. How to use community as a driver of product-led growth. No humans involved.

Scale 216

Scale Sales Hiring Strategy Marketing 216

SaaStr

APRIL 5, 2022

Q: Dear SaaStr: What are Some Common Decisions SaaS Startups Make that Hurt Their Ability to Scale? The problem here is that instead of hiring an accretive resource, you hire a cost center than can’t deliver sales/leads/upsells. That means the junior $80k resource is much more expensive than the $150k VP.

Scale 235

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Startup 235

SaaStr

OCTOBER 10, 2022

A gap opens up when: – Sales abandons the customer the moment deal is closed – Support too reactive & slow to solve real issues – Deployment harder than should be. They are the Great Gap Fillers in SaaS. What I mean is, with most SaaS companies, there’s just a huge customer workflow break. Don’t allow this.

Customer Success 273

Customer Success Sales Hiring Scale Interviewing 273

SaaStr

AUGUST 28, 2022

So in many ways I use SaaStr itself as sort of a lab to try sales and marketing experiments. I have my own experience as a SaaS CEO to draw on, for a product now doing hundreds of millions in ARR a year. And I have the experience of investing in 5 SaaS unicorns and decacorns. But you need to keep it fresh. For 40% of the price.

Scale 181

Scale Pricing Revenue SaaS 181

SaaStr

DECEMBER 19, 2022

If the VP of Sales Doesn't Believe, It's All Over. So there’s a moment in time I’ve gotten pretty darn good at spotting in SaaS startups. So there’s a moment in time I’ve gotten pretty darn good at spotting in SaaS startups. The best VPs of Sales have almost all done this this year, in fact.

Sales Hiring 234

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Startup 234

User Pilot

APRIL 24, 2024

Demos are crucial for your sales process success, which is why you need to learn SaaS demo best practices to create beneficial content. So if you're looking for sustainable product-led growth , let's dive deeper and learn about the top SaaS demo best practices to help boost conversion rates. Of course not!

SaaS 72

SaaS Software Review Engagement Data 72

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

One of the open secrets behind a lot of great SaaS companies is going multi-product. Will you have an overlay team that only sells the new product, or will you enable your entire sales force? This question exists whether you have 2, 12, or 50 sales reps. Prepare for post-sales on new products. Company resourcing.

Scale 222

Scale Scaling Startup Sales Hiring 222

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

Theoretically, the relationship between sales and marketing should be easy –– after all, these teams are responsible for pulling in more business and increasing revenue. Reconciling the Past and Present Experience can be the best teacher, and Passi can draw on his past career as a sales leader at an early-stage company.

Enterprise 251

Enterprise Marketing Sales SaaS 251

SaaStr

JUNE 17, 2023

In the ever-evolving landscape of SaaS, Venture Capital, Bootstrapping, and Valuations – understanding market trends and investment patterns is critical. We’ll also examine how public markets currently influence the SaaS industry and unpack the elevated CIOs’ role in budgeting for SaaS products.

Venture Capital 206

Venture Capital Scale Technical Review Software Review 206

SaaStr

JULY 17, 2023

I don’t have the resources to get going. Here’s the fundamental flaw in SaaS sales, that as founders and executives you need to try to address: SaaS sales is seen as way, way too transactional. SaaS sales reps see everything as a “deal” It’s not to customers.

Sales 199

Sales compliance Enterprise Pricing 199

SaaStr

DECEMBER 29, 2022

At Maxio , we help B2B SaaS companies unlock their next stage of growth. Our financial operations platform is designed to meet the unique financial challenges of B2B SaaS, including billing, subscription management, revenue and expense recognition, and SaaS analytics. Vendr is forever changing how companies buy and renew SaaS.

Scale 202

Scale Underperforming Technical Team B2B AI 202

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 19, 2022

When you’re starting off in SaaS, it’s very tempting to target small businesses. You won’t have the resources to service the Fortune 500. Calendly for example waited until about $50m ARR to build out an enteprise sales team. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) January 10, 2021. But it will probably happen.

SMB 334

SMB SaaS Enterprise Software 334

SaaStr

MAY 9, 2023

One of the most essential things SaaS founders need to get right is their sales strategy. From day one, it’s critical to drive results to impress your investors, acquire customers, and set your sales team up for success. As a founder, it’s vital for you to be a big part of sales, especially in the early stages of your company.

Sales 246

Sales B2B Consulting Investment 246

SaaStr

APRIL 3, 2024

As the kickoff to our first fully digital SaaStr AI Day, Jennifer Tejada , the CEO of PagerDuty, chatted with Jason Lemkin, SaaStr CEO and Founder, about navigating the shift to Generative AI and what Artificial Intelligence in SaaS might look like in the next 6 months, as well as years to come. How to Buck Up and Go Long in SaaS?

Generative AI 226

Generative AI AI Technical Review Software Review 226

SaaStr

JANUARY 16, 2023

Earlier stage startups: – Have no brand – Have no/little training – Have very few resources. Not that they are just "great at sales" — Jason Be Kind Lemkin  (@jasonlk) January 12, 2023. I think it’s important to repeat that analysis, but for your first few sales reps. Sales is never easy.

Sales Hiring 254

Sales Hiring Startup Underperforming Technical Team Branding 254

User Pilot

APRIL 22, 2024

Product feature analysis is a powerful tool in the SaaS product manager’s arsenal. This analysis isn’t exclusive to SaaS; the principle applies when analyzing physical attributes for hardware products. Ensure better resource allocation. This article aims to simplify feature analysis. Improve product road mapping.

Underperforming Technical Team 87

Underperforming Technical Team Software Review User Experience Retention 87

SaaStr

AUGUST 8, 2023

So there’s a sort of org chart you’ll probably end up with at least twice as you start scaling in SaaS: The “Headless” Sales Org. It’s a bunch of sales reps without anyone to manage them other than … you. But if you end up not hiring a VP of Sales at that perfect moment in time (and most don’t), you’ll end up headless.

Sales Hiring 198

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Sales 198

SaaStr

JUNE 27, 2020

A little while back we put together some of the top sales & marketing mistakes SaaS companies and founders make, especially in the early days. Sales: Hiring any reps you wouldn’t buy from yourself. Later, once you have a strong VP of Sales, it’s fine though. Your sales reps need to eat. Yes, Box is SaaS.

Sales Hiring 363

Sales Hiring Scale Startup Marketing 363

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

Both are two of the most impressive and inspiring public SaaS CEOs — but their products and companies couldn’t be more different. One was to get a sense of what the bar was to pull off a successful SaaS IPO these days (answer = oh man, very high). Do you have two sales teams? It’s not just building the 1.0,

Underperforming Technical Team 350

Underperforming Technical Team Cloud Revenue Acquisition 350

SaaStr

JULY 30, 2023

What is one thing all hyper-growth SaaS companies have in common? “A MarTech stack and budget (always be on the lookout for cutting-edge platforms) A growth mindset Scalable, Low CAC Growth Strategies “One example that works well for sales-led SaaS businesses is outbound,” says Cabane. And no, not your mother’s outbound.”

Scale 194

Scale Sales Hiring AI Banking 194

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 17, 2020

A truly great salesperson is a resource. The best sales reps, well they are your agent. When sales incentives and training aren’t aligned to deliver the value above, it’s just … uncomfortable. When sales incentives and training aren’t aligned to deliver the value above, it’s just … uncomfortable. Disalignment.

Education 275

Education Enterprise Pricing Sales 275

SaaStr

JANUARY 23, 2021

A little while back, I gave a great SaaS Founder CEO a Gift. This founder CEO was at about $1m in ARR, doing well, but with only a smidge of angel funding and limited resources. And I gave him an insanely great VP of Sales candidate. But like any candidate, this VP of Sales wasn’t perfect. A real gift. That Day.

VP of Engineering 343

VP of Engineering Sales Hiring Scale Engineering 343

SaaStr

OCTOBER 17, 2023

In SaaS, you have three ways to make that curve stand out. The framework above is a lean canvas to help you understand your customers’ needs post-sale. Chances are: You’ve hired your first Head of Sales, and you’re probably about to see a lot of growth on the sales side. Get more new customers. Renewals.

Scale 164

Scale Sales Hiring Customer Success Scaling 164

SaaStr

JANUARY 18, 2023

So there are Cloud and SaaS companies growing quickly. SentinelOne clearly did call out that budgets are getting tighter and sales cycles are getting longer in some cases. But the gross margins aren’t quite the 75%-80% of a classic low-resource SaaS company. Only 10% is from direct sales.

Cybersecurity 226

Cybersecurity Scale Cloud Scaling 226

SaaStr

AUGUST 26, 2023

The third myth is the notion of scarcity, and John highlights the resources and solutions available for data analysis. Every Wednesday we bring you the best speakers in SaaS. They explain that business expertise is actually more important than data expertise, and if needed, there are resources available to acquire data skills.

Technical Advisors 201

Technical Advisors Data Technical Review Sales Hiring 201

SaaStr

JANUARY 30, 2021

One of the starkest differences I see between First Timers in SaaS and Second Timers is when they hire their VP of Marketing. Most of us can’t afford to hire a VPM 12 months before we have our first customer, and we can’t survive through 10 sales reps without one. At least, no later than once you have 2 scaled sales reps.

Sales Hiring 350

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Marketing 350

SaaStr

DECEMBER 1, 2022

Invite everyone to the project—internal resources, customer teams, and third-party vendors. Paddle offers SaaS companies a completely different approach to their payments infrastructure. Tropic makes buying and managing SaaS ridiculously easy. Guide each step and stay on track with automated tasks, reminders, and updates.

Merchant Services 228

Merchant Services Payment Solutions SaaS Payments Payments 228