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Blog Posts, Career Growth & Advice, Featured Posts, Growth, Sales, Sales
Why Competition Is So Bitter in SaaS: Oligopolies and Dominant Strategy Equilibriums
In many segments, competition-to-the-almost-death seems the norm in SaaS. Just look at Larry Ellison or Marc Benioff. While both seemed to have mellowed a bit recently, you can still see…
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Blog Posts, Company Culture, Compensation, Customer Success, Featured Podcasts, Featured Videos, Leadership, Marketing, Metrics, Podcasts, Sales, Videos
16 Ways to Level Up in 2022 with SaaStr Founder Jason Lemkin (Pod 566 + Video)
At SaaStr Europa 2022, Jason shared the results of 16 SaaStr LinkedIn polls and discusses where he thinks SaaS companies are on track or need improvement.
Blog Posts, Career Growth & Advice, Early, Leadership, Marketing, Sales
If Times Are Tough — Don’t Hide. Be Present.
What I see CEOs at struggling start-ups do: – Go dark– Hide– Lash out– Tweet about lots of things non-work– Spend time on tiny expenses– Argue internally What should do:…
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Blog Posts, Customer Success, Marketing, Marketing, Sales
Money, Bonuses, “Customers That Waste My Time”, and Greed: You Get What You Pay For
There was one thing prospective sales reps would say in an interview that always chilled my spine. It would especially come from sales reps from larger companies in high-velocity in-bound…
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Blog Posts, Leadership, Marketing, Podcasts, Sales, Videos
The Plaid Journey with Co-Founder and CEO Zach Perret (Pod 561 + Video)
To celebrate 10 years of SaaStr, we’re revisiting some classic podcast episodes. Up today: Plaid co-founder and CEO, Zach Perret. This interview with CNBC’s Ari Levy took place in February…
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Blog Posts, Growth, Sales
95% of VPs of Sales Won’t Thrive at Your Startup
So we’ve talked so much over the years on SaaStr on how to hire a great VP of Sales, the difference they’ll make, and how the level-up comes quickly. And…
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Blog Posts, Customer Success, Marketing, SaaStr Events, Sales, Sales, Videos
A Look Back: “Scaling Outside Silicon Valley: Going from $0 to $60M ARR in 4 Years with Eric Rea, CEO of Podium” (Video + Transcript)
In the run up to SaaStr Europa 2022 in Barcelona on June 7-8, we’re taking a look at some of the top all-time SaaStr Europa sessions. In 2019, Eric Rea, CEO…
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Blog Posts, Early, Sales
One Simple Trick to Make Your SDRs Perform Better
The #1 mistake SDRs make: They don’t tell me how their app will solve my top problem They talk about: – Features– Who is #1– Buying me a coffee Don’t…
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Blog Posts, Early, Sales, Sales
The #1 Mistake I See Founders Make When They Hire Their First VP of Sales
The biggest mistake you can make as a founder when you hire your first VP of Sales is stepping out of sales I see this again, and again It only…
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Blog Posts, Career Growth & Advice, Growth, Leadership, Marketing, Q&A, Sales
Dear SaaStr: How Hard is it for SDRs to Move into AE roles?
Q: Dear SaaStr: How Hard is it for SDRs to Move into AE roles? It’s a well-proven path. If you want to get into SaaS sales, start at SDR and…
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Blog Posts, Growth, Sales
A Basic Structure for a VP, Sales Comp Plan: 50/50/25+ (Updated)
We put together a basic 50/50/25 VP of Sales Comp Plan early on at SaaStr, and it’s time again for an update. Incentives are critical, and the VP Sales will…
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Blog Posts, Q&A, Sales
Dear SaaStr: How Much Outbound Revenue Should a SDR/BDR be Generating at a Mid-stage Enterprise SaaS Startup?
Q: Dear SaaStr: How Much Outbound Revenue Should a SDR/BDR be Generating at a Mid-stage Enterprise SaaS Startup? A high performing SDR at a mid-sized deal size will: Set up…
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Blog Posts, Company Culture, Marketing, SaaStr Events, Sales, Sales, Videos
A Look Back: Building a Sales Team that Can Go from $0-$50M, Learnings from Algolia (Video + Transcript)
In the run up to SaaStr Europa 2022 in Barcelona on June 7-8, we’re taking a look at some of the top all-time SaaStr Europa sessions. Scaling a sales team is…
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Blog Posts, Compensation, Sales
BowtiedCocoon: Top SaaS SMB AEs have $125k OTEs. But The Best Ones Make $261k.
Ok, I have to admit, I don’t know BowtiedCocoon on Twitter but the research from LinkedIn they put together looks really solid and consistent with all my data. And it’s…
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Blog Posts, Customer Success, Growth, Q&A, SaaS Product Pricing, Sales
Dear SaaStr: How Do You Change the Price of Your SaaS Product Without Upsetting Existing Customers?
Raise prices on existing customers,Doesn’t help if you are growing quickly. Just makes them unhappy. Raise prices on new customers,Forces you to deliver more value. Often makes everyone more happy….
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Popular Q&A
The 3 Types of Day 1 Pricing: Low End of Normal. Identical. And Anchor High.
Q:Â As an entrepreneur starting out, is it better to overprice your product or underprice it? I remember years ago I was at an event with the CEO of a SaaS leader. And I asked him how he came up with their freemium pricing model. A data science team? A/B Testing? "No....
7+ Tips On How To Build Your First Sales Team
Q: How do you structure a sales team when you’ve got zero experience doing sales? Well, first go get some experience with sales. 🙂 At least, close the first 10 customers yourself. If you don’t, you’ll never have any idea how to do it. And the odds your first rep...
Why SMB Reps Struggle in the Enterprise. And Vice-Versa.
Q: How is low/mid-ticket sales different from enterprise sales? They are very, very different. If I had to boil down how to filter potential sales professionals based on just 1 controlling criterion, it would be deal size. Enterprise sales: Reps often hunt many of...
The Top 50 SaaStr Answers on Quora in 2020
It's been a fun experience being on Quora for ... a decade 🙂 We've crossed 60,000,000 views of our answers there, so let's take a look at the Top 50 most viewed SaaStr Answers on Quora in 2020: Why do many startup owners sell...
7+ Tips On How To Build Your First Sales Team
Q: How do you structure a sales team when you’ve got zero experience doing sales? Well, first go get some experience with sales. 🙂 At least, close the first 10 customers yourself. If you don’t, you’ll never have any idea how to do it. And the odds your first rep...
Can an Entrepreneur Back Out of a Signed Term Sheet Without Damaging Their Reputation?
Can an entrepreneur back out of a signed term sheet without damaging his/her reputation? I’m going to say Yes, probably. There is a lot of drama around broken term sheets. Mostly around VCs backing out, not founders. But here’s the thing — term sheet are term sheets....
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