SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 25, 2022

Don’t Settle for Less Than 100% NRR from SMBs (Updated). Live from SaaStr Annual 2022: Optimizing GTM for PLG with Stage 2 Capital MD Mark Roberge. The Ultimate Guide for Hiring a Great VP of Sales. 5 Interesting Learnings from Bill.com at $800,000,000 in ARR. Top Podcasts This Week: 1.

Gate keeper 116

Gate keeper GTM Sales 116

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 29, 2024

Let’s imagine we had a game show, a group of CROs and we are giving them the choice to select what’s behind Door # 1 or Door # 2. Our host, Monty Hall, yells, “CROs come on down… ” Then Monty says, “Johnny, tell our contestants what’s behind Door #1 and Door #2!”

GTM 78

GTM Quota Presentation Up-sell 78

SaaStr

DECEMBER 29, 2022

Don’t settle less growth that Your NRR + 20%. E.g.,if your NRR is 120%, even if times are tougher, don’t settle for growing at least +40% next year. Really find our how your Top 2-3 competitors are doing. A great VP of Sales. Of Marketing. Of Product. What’s your #1 VP hole? Well, stop saying you can’t hire anyone.

E-commerce 98

E-commerce Healthcare Launch Promote 98

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2021

If your risky candidate passes all 3 criteria, and you haven’t found your “true VP” after 4-5 months (possibly less), I’d go ahead and make the hire: #1: Have they hired 2+ quota-meeting/exceeding reps before? And finally, before you settle — have you made sure you can’t promote from within?

Quota 122

Quota Sales Promote Price 122

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

A reminder that you don’t need to settle for sub-100% NRR from SMBs. A challenge to settle for much less. BigCommerce is #2 to Shopify and essentially has adopted identical pricing. Asana’s biggest growth is in its $50k+ deals, but its ACV is still just $3,600 … or $300 per month.

Contract 142

Contract Cross-sell Price Growth 142

SaaStr

JULY 11, 2022

Two factors IMHO / experience: (1) recruiting, and (2) the ability to push on. Most of us eventually sort of give up, and settle on key hires, or just keep doing a specific role ourselves. Q: Dear SaaStr: What Separates a Good Startup Founder From a Great One? Being great at Recruiting. Recruiting is incredibly hard.

Start-ups 111

Start-ups Up-sell Sell 111

Hubspot

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

A 2-day workshop offered by Primal Play brings in ~$663 per participant. Source: SnowBrains Don’t just settle on aesthetics – partner with material scientists or biomimicry experts, and use animal adaptation mechanisms to design performance-enhancing workout gear. Partner with existing trainers who can design the curriculum.

Sports 65

Sports Niche Promote Follow-up 65

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

They’re not settling for an “end state” of mature software. Growth Has Slowed to 11%, But It’s Efficient, With 23% Free Cash Flow Margins Blackline’s growth has slowed and is approaching the “mature” phase, at just 11% annual growth on 106% NRR. Then 2023 was tough, and Therese came back.

Growth 85

Growth Up-sell Sell Customers 85

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 26, 2022

As if that isn’t enough, we settle…… We settle for low win rates. We think we are successful winning 2 out of 10 opportunities we invest trying to win. 20% becomes acceptable. This means we have to engage 625 prospects in conversations to find those 125 opportunities. That’s a lot of opportunity!

Up-sell 68

Up-sell Prospecting Pitch Technique 68

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

But settle, and you’ll never really build a competitive product and it will all have been a waste. It’s hard enough to get 2, 5, 10 customers. Wait too long, you’ll never get there. Then their collective revenues often only add up to Cappuccino money.

Niche 105

Niche Engineering Start-ups Growth 105

Search Engine Land

NOVEMBER 10, 2023

Your website gets: One impression from keyword X ranking 2 One impression from keyword Y ranking 1 One impression from keyword Z ranking 3 In this case, the average ranking is (6/3 = 2). Dig deeper: How to make better SEO reports for the C-suite 2. Tip: Think about the relationship between impressions and CTR.

CTR 126

CTR Conversion Clients B2B 126

Heinz Marketing

OCTOBER 4, 2020

I was often left to settle for “blank inside” cards and even then, they didn’t always seem like a great choice. It’s as easy as 1-2-3! Even thank you or congrats cards didn’t always work well. I was so pleased recently to discover GroupGreeting !

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138

Sales Pop!

JULY 22, 2021

In a sport with very few settled situations, they present unique opportunities for strategy. In the English Premier League, though, only 17% of corner kicks result in shots on goal and only 2% produce goals scored. I wrote an article a while back comparing sales playbooks to soccer corner kicks. But consider this. Makes sense, right?

Sports 90

Sports Quota Strategize Gaming 90

Martech

JANUARY 25, 2024

True career satisfaction comes from taking control, harnessing your unique strengths and refusing to settle for soul-crushing environments. It’s not about catering to ego-blind companies or climbing the wrong ladder. Mine, for instance, is a blend of radical candor, insatiable curiosity and a hunger for genuine collaboration.

Strategize 119

Strategize Clients Campaign Trust 119

SaaStr

MARCH 26, 2021

This will stop you from settling too quickly. Find the best 2–3 advisors / mentors you can and give them some options (and/or cash) and ask for help. You have to spend 20%+ of your time recruiting, or you’ll never get there. Force yourself to interview at least 20 candidates for each open position.

Networking 135

Networking Start-ups Process 135

Veloxy

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

Sales should own the core strategy and message, and they should never settle for a response rate below 25%.” I only need 2 minutes, but you may want 10 or 15 when you hear what I have to share (hint: it will help you a lot when you get back to the office). ” Kyle and I know that it’s easier said than done. Plan ahead!

Cold Call 246

Cold Call Territory Campaign Clients 246

SaaStr

JANUARY 25, 2021

We also turned down $2-$4m extra in the Series B. Not Hiring 2-3 Sales Reps to Start. I should have hired 2-3 as soon as we were ready for 1. You can learn a lot more if you see how 2-3 reps perform than just one. You just can’t settle or hire a B player. Time is the real reason we settle.

Launch 106

Launch Start-ups Follow-up Product 106

A Sales Guy

AUGUST 26, 2015

As our competence grows, we settle into the middle, where we are comfortable, rarely pushing the boundaries of competence. We settle into the middle. I am a PSIA Level 2 certified ski instructor and I fall or almost fall at least once a day. I’m not settling into the middle. We stop failing. It’s expected.

Growth 120

Growth Start-ups 120

Gong.io

JUNE 23, 2022

What if they were 10% or even 2% more effective in their day to day work? When you hire simply to satisfy numbers, you often end up settling for average players. If you want to perform better than others, don’t settle for a B+ player but keep looking for the A players. The same holds for People, Finance, IT, Strategy and on.

X-functional 62

X-functional Finance Price Engineering 62

The Advantexe Advisor

MARCH 10, 2022

As more and more people remove their masks and emerge from the past 2 years, it is becoming cliché to use words like, “disrupted”, “unprecedented”, and “unparalleled” when describing the next new normal. At 2 pm this afternoon, I was triple booked, and it was a real predicament.

Entertainment 52

Entertainment Meeting 52

Salesforce

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

Don’t settle for basic metrics You might already track traditional customer service analytics like customer satisfaction score , Net Promoter Score, and lifetime value — but it can be hard to connect those metrics to meaningful business outcomes. Take the next step +700 points Module Service Metrics 2. Enter AI for customer service.

Service 72

Service Customers Cross-sell Contact 72

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

A great VP of Sales has to have recruited at least 2-3 quota-carrying sales reps before under her to succeed on her own. Don’t I have to settle? The mediocre VPs of Sales tell you that you have to settle. You don’t have to settle. I’ve seen so many fail, and almost always, for avoidable reasons.

Quota 142

Quota Sales Drivers/motivators Up-sell 142

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 24, 2021

So don’t settle for less. On the other hand, happy customers should also spend more (as Team SaaStr does). Net net, even from SMBs, Upwork manages 100% NRR, just as Shopify and Hubspot do from SMBs. 80% SMB, 20% Enterprise. This makes the 100% NRR especially impressive in the space.

Represent 109

Represent Clients Price Growth 109

SaaStr

APRIL 25, 2022

Basically three things are happening right now, which makes the announcements in the press and Twitter and LinkedIn confusing: Seed funds grew 20x in the past 2 years and are still mostly investing like it’s 2021. Due to everyone settling in and dealing with the fact that public multiples have been cut in half. Sometimes, way down.

Gaming 98

Gaming Price Closing Process 98

SaaStr

JULY 26, 2022

Digital Ocean went from 100% NRR to 116% NRR from SMBs in just 2 years by focusing on customers that could pay just a bit more ($50/month) — but got a lot more value. More here: Don’t Settle for Less Than 100% NRR from SMBs. A few things the best in SMB SaaS have done well to get NRR up above 100%, and churn down: #1.

Growth 144

Growth Start-ups Up-sell Strategize 144

SaaStr

MAY 26, 2021

You spend 2, 3, 12, 24 months working on a critical deal — and lose it. Don’t settle. But if you do settle, at least know exactly how and why and where you are settling. VC funding doesn’t really solve most problems. It just helps you scale faster. Later, you see that. Competition winning a key deal.

Gaming 63

Gaming Closing Meeting Customers 63

Martech

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

Dig deeper: Innovation vs. rebranding: How to choose the best change for your business Step 2: Map the data flow Data management dictates much of the opportunity You don’t have to migrate the data at this stage, but you need to know where it all lives, how it gets used, and where the integration hooks are.

Objectives and Key Results 90

Objectives and Key Results Cross-sell Campaign Strategize 90

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2021

Smartsheet: 123%+ NRR from all customers, so probably ~110% from SMBs : #2. The post Don’t Settle for Less Than 100% NRR from SMBs appeared first on SaaStr. Yet we’ve still seen the Best in SaaS can do it. At least 100% ARR after $10m ARR. Some quick examples: #1. Zendesk: 112% NRR overall, with 40% SMB. Make it so!

Customers 100

Customers Sell Growth 100

SaaStr

JULY 10, 2022

This is the risk you take when you settle. Take say 100 leads a month spread across 2 great reps, then bring in a new VP of Sales that hires 4 weak reps. All of a sudden, those 100 leads are stretched across 4 folks that can’t close, and only 2 that can. And learn how to recruit 1–2 great folks to work under you.

Growth 80

Growth Engineering Start-ups Closing 80

Salesforce

APRIL 7, 2022

Brands also need to consider capture and settle when it comes to foreign payments. During the investment phase of your expansion, you can spend money on currency exchange fees if you pay local partners and employees in local currency but settle digital revenue in your home country. For example, a U.S.

Minimum Viable Product 94

Minimum Viable Product Territory Launch Strategize 94

SaaStr

MAY 6, 2022

And that we’ll settle back into where we were before all this. Personally, I’m betting on #2 (The Bull Case), planning using #3 (The Rational-Positive Case), and advising startups to extend the cash they do have at least another 6 months. But I personally think this is just too pessimistic. So you need to have a plan.

Finance 136

Finance Start-ups Growth Customers 136

SaaStr

JANUARY 25, 2022

Spending more than 2 slides on “the industry”. If you have 2 signed term sheets, for sure, go in strong. Settling artificial deadlines. VCs may be fungible, but no one wants to feel that way. Do not do this, unless asked. Assume VCs understand what is “happening in the cloud”. Going in too strong. It saves everyone time.

Meeting 115

Meeting Pitch Consult Trust 115

Sales Pop!

AUGUST 30, 2021

The best of Ethereum is yet to come, with potentialities such as the NFT boom, Visa settling payments, and interest from the government lined up along its path. In March 2021, the financial card transaction giant, Visa, announced that it would begin trials for settling payments using Ethereum. It’s tested and proven.

Finance 87

Finance Price Government Technology 87

SaaStr

AUGUST 25, 2023

2 “Give the VP of Sales more time.” This is something you hear from the good-but-not-great or mediocre founders who have settled into slow growth. “We What if, instead of going from $2-$3M this year, you go from $2-$3.5/4M? Never settle low. You will need to do all the Enterprise security stuff, the SOC 2, etc.

GTM 78

GTM Engineering Closing Start-ups 78

Salesforce

MAY 2, 2022

A new product needs many support channels to address incoming queries and concerns before it settles down in the market. Similarly, a new product needs many support channels to address incoming queries and concerns before it settles down in the market. Enablement. Product enablement and launch should go hand in hand.

Product 96

Product Launch Promote CRM 96

Lead Fuze

JULY 5, 2023

He’s the mastermind behind the book “Thinking Fast & Slow” In this brain-bending masterpiece, he introduces two cognitive systems: System 1 (fast thinking) and System 2 (slow thinking). Consider all possibilities before settling on a course of action, and use tools like LeadFuze for data-driven decision-making.

Negotiate 52

Negotiate Gaming Lead generation Contact 52

Sales Pop!

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

Step 2: Material Selection for Durability and Quality A folder’s substance directly impacts user impressions through felt texture and visual appeal. Opt for colors augmenting existing palettes, like copper foil contrasting blues, conveying prestige. Consider premium stocks like 100% cotton premium papers or linens with 30 pt.+

Customers 52

Customers Angle Strategic planning Strategize 52