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Blog Posts, Compensation, Growth, SalesIt’s Time To Start Getting an Uber/Lyft Rating for Sales Reps. And Paying Them Based On It.
This year we’ve had a string of fairly terrible experiences buying software at little ol’ SaaStr: With one well-known SaaS vendor, an employee e-signed a 2-year contract without permission. We…
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Blog Posts, SaaStr NewsLinkedIn Names SaaStr #1 Voice in Startups & Entrepreneurship!
About 18 months ago, we started to invest more in LinkedIn, both in publishing and our feed. We went from a handful of followers 2 years ago to almost 160,000…
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Blog PostsMeet VCs from Bessemer, Sapphire, August, Emergence, Creandum, Bain, Scale, Iconiq and Many More at SaaStr Big Holiday Party THIS Thursday
It’s almost here! The once-a-year SaaStr Huge Holiday Party! This Thursday November 15th from 3pm-10pm. We’ll start off with mentoring and networking at 3pm, and amazing sessions on scaling your business…
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The Top 3 Critera for Hiring Your First Head of Sales
We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about hiring that first VP of Sales. But what if you can’t find the right person, and you’ve spend months looking. What risks should…
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Blog Posts, Growth, SalesWhat’s Your Loss Rate? You Really Should Know.
A ways back on SaaStr, we wrote a classic post, Beware of the Confidence of High Win Rates. It’s something I see again and again, especially below $2m in ARR…
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Blog Posts, SaaStr EventsTop 5 Reasons to Come to the SaaStr Annual 2019
There’s something really magical that happens when you gather with your peers. People with the same interests, the same challenges, the same unknowns. Folks who not only understand you, but…
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Blog Posts, Early, Sales, Sales Strategy7 Of The Most Common Mistakes Made Building Your First Sales Team
Building your first sales team will be an endless series of mistakes. It’s OK. Plan for me. But there are a few avoidable, key mistakes I see start-ups making >…
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Blog Posts, SaaStr EventsNew This Year at Annual! SaaStr Nights! 10 Venues. 4 City Blocks. 100% All Fun.
We’ve worked out a formula the past 5 years at SaaStr Annual.com, with a “Big Party” for everyone on Wednesday night, and break-out parties on Tuesday night, and smaller evening…
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Blog Posts, Growth, Sales StrategyHow to Close More Revenue Today — With The Leads You Already Have. Use The “3 L’s”.
If you’re past $4m-$5m or so in revenue, this post isn’t for you. You’ll have figured this out, at least mostly. But if you are on either side of $1m…
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Blog Posts, Growth, Product, Q&A, SalesFour Simple Tips to Increase Pricing. Without Angering Your Customers.
One simple thought: earn it. First, plan to increase pricing in general once a year, each year. How much? Well, that will depend on how much additional value you’ve added…
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Blog Posts, Customer Success, Early, Featured Videos, Growth, Leadership, Product, SaaS Product Pricing, SaaStr Events, Scale, VideosOlivier Pomel, CEO of Datadog: How to Build and Sell a Product that Customers Love (Video + Transcript)
Co-Founder at Plato, Jean-Baptiste Coger (JB), held a session with CEO at Datadog, Olivier Pomel, at SaaStr Europa. Pomel focuses his talk on making your SaaS startup customer-centric. He talks…
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Blog Posts, Career Growth & Advice, Growth, Leadership, SaaStr Events, SaaStr NewsSaaStr Annual 2019 Will Rock! Check Out the Agenda and Sessions
Blog Posts, Customer Success, Customer Success, Growth, Hiring, Product, SaaStr Events, Scale, VideosBest Practices in Customer Success in 2018: Maximizing Revenue, NPS and Happiness (Video + Transcript)
This session with leaders in the customer success space discusses best practices for your customer success teams in 2018. They talk about when to hire your VP of Customer Success,…
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Blog Posts, Early, Featured Posts, LeadershipGrowing, But Too Slowly? Try Micromilestones
When I was CEO at EchoSign, I made a big strategic error in Year 1. I set an insane plan of going from $0m to $2m in ARR in our…
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Sponsored PostsWhy Managing Subscriptions in Apple iOS is So Hard
iOS Subscriptions are Hard The unreasonable difficulty of implementing iOS subscriptions Subscriptions provide developers a better way to make money. Building an audience of paying subscribers not only generates more revenue, but…
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Popular Q&A
What is the best piece of advice on closing deals for a new, inexperienced salesman?
Add value. Most new salespeople focus a lot on the transaction. What’s your budget? Do you need a discount? How big a discount? Can I give you a bigger discount? What questions do you have? If I give you an even bigger discount, can you sign right now? Your discount...
What is the difference between running a 10 person startup and a 100 person startup?
The biggest structural difference is you have to hire all the VPs by employee 50–100. You won’t be able to scale this far without a full management team — VPs of Sales, Marketing, Product, Engineering, Customer Success at least. But the toughest personal challenge for...
What were aspects of your startup that were easier than you anticipated?
The part I didn’t originally get was how relatively easy is it to grow exising accounts and account size if your customers are happy. We segmented customer retention by Small, Medium and Large accounts after about 24 months and saw a pattern that I now know is fairly...
What should B2B SaaS companies do to ensure the success of their customers and reduce churn?
I know this sounds overly simple, but the answer is: Measure it. Set goals to improve it. Pay people to improve it. Too many start-ups don’t even know their CSAT and NPS. Too many start-ups don’t even visit their customers in person. Too many start-ups don’t know why...
What are some rookie mistakes founders make during VC meetings?
A few that are easy to fix: Not standing (when you present to > 2–3 folks). When you stand, you present better. Period. Standing turns you into the center of the audience, into the owner, the presenter. Sitting is great for a small convo, but sucks all the energy out...
How should I design sales reps compensation plans at $10k MRR?
Figuring out your very first sales comp plan when you don’t have a repeatable process or much revenue is confusing. I was exactly in the place you were (first rep at $10k MRR) and everyone faces some similar challenges: There’s no way this early you can expect a rep...
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