SaaStr

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

The landscape of customer success has been evolving rapidly. So much so that we seem to be releasing new content on customer success just about every week. Today we’re focusing on actionable insights you can use to drive down churn with customer success in today’s new era of SaaS efficiency.

Customer Success 304

Customer Success Sales Hiring Scale Headcount 304

SaaStr

JANUARY 12, 2024

Is it the end of an era for customer success in SaaS? We just wrote up how some of the biggest changes of SaaS are now coming, specifically in Customer Success and Sales. Customer Success Is Vulnerable to Cuts Jason shared that he didn’t realize how vulnerable customer success was to cuts until 2023.

Sales Hiring 323

Sales Hiring Customer Success Scale AI 323

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 14, 2020

Customer success – every business wants to invest in it but only a few know what it actually entails or how to do it well. There are a lot of words that get thrown around with customer success: problems to be solved, implementation, product experts, expansion, strategic partners, technical advisors, proactive versus reactive.

Customer Success 249

Customer Success Management Technical Review Onboarding 249

SaaStr

OCTOBER 11, 2022

Even with late stage VC capital much harder to get now, and the IPO markets still frozen, I see many folks on my LinkedIn feed saying Sales and Customer Success are underpaid. Well, for most of time, about 10% of the “profit” on a deal has done to sales, and about 5% of renewals have gone to customer success.

Scale 288

Scale Customer Success Venture Capital Sales 288

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 15, 2022

Sales +Marketing Expenses < First Year ACV = Success ? But maybe not while you are scaling, you can often afford to invest more if you have funding. And even in the enterprise, losing one big customer can swamp you here in the early days. say $300-$500k in customer revenue per segment). Well — Maybe.

Scale 264

Scale Customer Success Sales Hiring Scaling 264

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 27, 2024

Mangomint has worked hard to create an incentive structure that makes it attractive for sales reps to invest in customer success. And Mangomint invests a crazy amount into making sure its systems don’t go down since reliability and quality of product is so important for its customers.

SaaS Payments 260

SaaS Payments Payments Payment Solutions Payment Services 260

SaaStr

OCTOBER 13, 2024

I try to work with (and invest in) CEOs that are better than me. She should hire leaders for Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Product and Customer Success, or at least most of them. Dear SaaStr: Why did Jason M. Lemkin Change his Point of View on The Value of a COO for Earlier Stage Startups? they all failed or came up way short.

Sales Hiring 263

Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scale Startup 263

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 18, 2022

The definition of success will vary from business to business, from customer to customer. That said, customer success is evolving, and the importance of customer success continues to grow. Embed customer success into the core of your business. Offer enhanced value.

Customer Success 278

Customer Success Retention Company Culture Metrics 278

SaaStr

OCTOBER 17, 2022

If you’re only investing in sales and marketing, you’re missing a huge revenue opportunity. Customer Success isn’t just for established leaders; it also helps growth-stage companies compound their growth through retention, upsell and expansion. When should you start customer success?

Customer Success 246

Customer Success Sales Hiring Scale Leadership 246

Valuize Consulting

NOVEMBER 11, 2024

These models share one crucial trait—they favor customers by placing control, and significantly less risk, in their hands. This shift provides a genuine measure of how customer-centric a company truly is. The Rising Necessity of Customer-Friendly Pricing So, why would companies take this leap?

Customer Success 52

Customer Success Pricing Investment Revenue 52

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

They: Started with clear use cases Built a strong data foundation Focused on measurable customer value Invested consistently over time Maintained a human-centric approach For SaaS companies looking to leverage AI, the key is to start building your data advantage now, even if you’re using third-party tools.

AI 267

AI Scale Government compliance 267

SaaStr

OCTOBER 25, 2024

It’s now falling to 150 because 81% percent of the dollars invested in venture capital at the height of the boom came from non-traditional venture capital firms which are all very likely to leave investing. US venture funding went from 8 to 300 over 15 years.

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital Marketing AI SaaS 333

SaaStr

OCTOBER 17, 2023

So we’ve been talking about customer success at SaaStr longer than almost anyone else, going back to our very first posts in 2012, including on Second Order Revenue. At SaaStr we’ve huge champions about investing early in CS. CLTV Isn’t The Whole Story. Don’t Shortchange Second-Order Revenue.

Customer Success 204

Customer Success Scaling Management Churn 204

SaaStr

APRIL 6, 2025

This created personal investment and accountability that no executive mandate could achieve. ” From Closing to Consuming: Redefining Success Perhaps the most significant evolution in Databricks’ approach is their shift from celebrating signed contracts to celebrating platform usage and consumption.

Scale 207

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Outsourced Development 207

SaaStr

JANUARY 22, 2023

SaaStr 624: Investing and Venture Capital in 2023 with SaaStr Founder and CEO Jason Lemkin and Atrium Founder and CRO Pete Kazanjy  5. How To Create A Shock-proof Path For Hypergrowth with ActiveCampaign CEO + Dir of Customer Success 2. 5 Signs You Need to Hire a Product Marketing Manager — Yesterday!

Scale 245

Scale Customer Success Venture Capital Sales Hiring 245

SaaStr

JANUARY 23, 2025

Build the Right Team for Enterprise Success Enterprise selling requires a fundamentally different skillset. But the rewards – higher retention, bigger deals, and ultimately a much larger TAM – make it worth the investment. Start laying the groundwork today, even if enterprise isn’t your immediate focus.

Enterprise 244

Enterprise Sales Hiring Scale Outsourced Development 244

FastSpring

JANUARY 26, 2024

With years of experience at managing customer success (CS), Jake Dipple knows how important it is to foster collaboration between businesses and their customers. In this episode of Growth Stage, host and CMO of FastSpring David Vogelpohl interviews Jake about his thoughts on: What Customer Success is at a high level.

Customer Success 158

Customer Success VP of Engineering Payments Payment Methods 158

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 20, 2020

Software companies invest in engineering early and then the product matures, complement that engineering and product investment with go to market teams to commercialize the product. Another question we asked in the survey is the most senior title leading the customer success, sales and marketing teams.

Scale 363

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Software Review 363

SaaStr

APRIL 21, 2021

Standard CLTV calculations don’t account for virality and second-order customers. So you may underinvest overall, or invest, in fact, too much in Sales and Marketing — and not enough in Customer Success. They’re more profitable (no additional marketing or customer acquisition costs).

Revenue 351

Revenue Enterprise Customer Success Churn 351

Valuize Consulting

NOVEMBER 25, 2024

In today’s competitive SaaS landscape, Customer Success has emerged as a vital strategic asset, driving revenue growth and long-term profitability. However, to fully unlock its potential, companies must go beyond qualitative insights and bring data into the decision-making process within Customer Success ranks and investments.

Payment Services 52

Payment Services SaaS Payments Customer Success Payments 52

SaaStr

MAY 25, 2024

Lesson #1: Invest In Customer Support Early Cloudinary strongly believes that customer success and support are enablers of PLG growth and aren’t just a cost center. The developers they hire into CS are engaging as peers with customers and people using the product. This is where the big mistake came in.

Scale 316

Scale Sales Hiring SaaS Payments Development 316

SaaStr

DECEMBER 29, 2019

Nothing is more painful than losing a big customer. But if you are thinking in terms of Decade Long Relationships … put sales and even customer success back on lost customers. I ask almost every public and unicorn CEO at the SaaStr Annual how much time they spend with customers. Do a customer conference.

Scale 353

Scale Churn Construction SMB 353

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2024

From startup to $500M CARR, Spencer Burke, SVP of Growth at Braze, shares how Braze scaled a growth and customer success team. This shifted from doing odd jobs to a deep focus on customer success and scaling teams around customer success. You don’t have to leave as the organization scales.

Scale 296

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Startup 296

SaaStr

DECEMBER 25, 2020

And/or, one piece of it — say 5%-10% — uses an edition of the product that you don’t really want to keep investing in and supporting, because you want to invest in the other 90%. Or more simply, sometimes the bottom 10% of your customer base in terms of ACV just takes way too much time.

Sales Hiring 338

Sales Hiring Customer Success Customer Support Revenue 338

SaaStr

JUNE 10, 2020

While the concept may sound old hat to those that have been in the software business for a long time, in SaaS in particular, very little tools, processes, and software are applied to marketing to customers after they are closed. But Customer Success in many ways has been defined as an extension of Sales.

Marketing 327

Marketing Customer Success Retention Content Marketing 327

ChurnZero

JANUARY 6, 2025

Whats the one thing that wont change in customer success this year? So how should you position yourself for 2025s incoming customer success trendsand should you be nervous, optimistic, or a cautious blend of both? ” So what 2025 customer success trends can we anticipate? The pace of change itself.

Trends 52

Trends Customer Success Scale SaaS 52

SaaStr

JULY 20, 2024

Invest in People You want to keep the bar high on talent, especially in hypergrowth, and not just in the early stages. Invest Heavily in Onboarding Your typical employee takes about three to six months to get ramped. Invest Early in Your Marketing When scaling the GTM engine, you want to invest early in marketing.

Sales Recruiting 304

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Engineering 304

SaaStr

JANUARY 11, 2022

That’s 10% of all the invested capital!! Let’s talk about why it’s a good investment: Trade shows / events produce a lot of so-called “leads”, but a lot of cr*p leads and long lead time leads. This is some of the magic in the math of the investment. How could that make any sense? And I said do it.

Scale 338

Scale Investment Retention Customer Success 338

SaaStr

DECEMBER 5, 2023

So Sam Jacobs and the team at Pavilion had me join their podcast and it ended up being a pretty fun deep dive into where markets are today, the role of customer success in a tougher market, and much more. The post A Deep Dive with Jason and Pavilion on Today’s Valuations, Investing and Market Dynamics appeared first on SaaStr.

Investment 162

Investment Scale Sales Hiring Marketing 162

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2025

In addition, this year Mayfield is sponsoring our VC AI Pitch Stage and will invest from $500k-$5m in the winner! SaaStr Annual attracts thousands of high-quality SaaS professionals across functions like engineering, product, marketing, sales, and customer success. Meet and Find Your Next VP / CXO!

Sales Recruiting 195

Sales Recruiting Scale CTO Hire Sales Hiring 195

SaaStr

OCTOBER 16, 2020

We’ve talked quite a bit on SaaStr about Customer Success, and there’s a very specific reason for it. Customer Success can feel like a cost center in Year 1 (and indeed, it is), but by about 18 months out after your first 10 paying customers … it will be your largest profit center. Pretend to.

B2C 325

B2C Customer Success Customer Support Churn 325

SaaStr

JANUARY 5, 2021

Do you have someone whose full time job it is to make your partners successful? Add A VP Customer Success Earlier. Hire a seasoned VP of Customer Success. Even if the Customer Success thing is working, do you have someone, or a team, dedicated to maximizing land-and-expand and/or upsells?

Sales Hiring 334

Sales Hiring SaaS Outbound Sales Team Customer Success 334

ChurnZero

APRIL 4, 2025

How can you make the most of this new form of media, and how are customer teams already using it? We caught up with Synthesia customer success leader Lee Beddows at ChurnZero’s annual conference and asked him to share his tips and best practices on AI video for customer teams.

AI 59

AI Customer Success Engagement Technology 59

SaaStr

APRIL 1, 2022

Mistake #1: Being Risk-Averse to Investments Outside of Your Area of Expertise. Many founders find themselves confident in one area of their business, whether it be the product, customer success, or, in Schuck’s case, sales. Schuck felt that he could more easily see the results in immediate dollars when he invested in sales.

Sales Hiring 278

Sales Hiring Acquisition Investment Leadership 278

ChurnZero

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

Should you be charging for customer success? Why not take customer-facing services as seriously as our products? It’s also a major strategic shift that comes with plenty of challenges, including internal and customer resistance. Charging for customer success: the pros and cons.

Customer Success 52

Customer Success Sales Enablement Onboarding Leadership 52

SaaStr

AUGUST 7, 2024

It takes them too long to get comfortable expanding the time horizon on the ROI they are investing. Most of the first-time founders I’ve invested in aren’t “spending enough” in that they are a bit too slow to make accretive hires. How to invest $X to get $Y out. But … so what. And see where it goes.

Sales Hiring 287

Sales Hiring Venture Capital Investment Customer Success 287

SaaStr

APRIL 2, 2023

Mistake: Not scaling based upon leading indicators We’ve had 3 periods in history where we scaled up way too fast: Early on, when we thought the enterprise opportunity for Gainsight’s Customer Success product was huge after closing *1* enterprise deal! Eventually, you end up with 2000 contract types for 1000 customers.

Sales Hiring 331

Sales Hiring Scale Customer Success Scaling 331