Tom Tunguz
JULY 18, 2018
I first met Elad Gil when I became an associate product manager at Google. Back then, he had an unusual habit I noticed right away. Most people carry their laptop in the same way. The laptop is closed, in hand, between the hand and the hip. Elad carries his laptop open, powered on and by the top or bottom corner. He’s so smart and has so much cognitive bandwidth, he simply doesn’t have time to wait for the computer to wake from sleep.
Intercom, Inc.
JULY 11, 2018
The problems people encounter in their lives rarely change from generation to generation. The products they hire to solve these problems change all the time. If you’re building a new product, it’s because you believe you can create a better solution that people will want to use because it delivers a better outcome. A strong understanding of the outcome customers want , and how they currently get it, is essential for you to succeed in product development.
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Practical Advice on SaaS marketing
JULY 1, 2018
I’m a long-time fan of inbound marketing, even before it got that nifty label. Why not attract prospective customers that are actively looking for a solution? That’s got to be easier than hunting for them one at a time, or indiscriminately broadcasting your message to the whole planet. The idea makes perfect sense, except when one key piece is missing: prospects that are actively looking.
Unbounce
JULY 27, 2018
Not every digital marketer has a Coca-Cola ad budget. In fact, I’ve never worked with a client who could spend crazy amounts of money on persona and audience studies. But, it’s never bothered me much because I really don’t need big studies. I can get some good data for free in Google Analytics, and you can too. If you’re running Google campaigns on the Display Network to boost awareness of your brand, it’s likely you want to drive this traffic to your landing pages.
Advertiser: ZoomInfo
AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.
Baremetrics
JULY 31, 2018
Jack Ma, founder and CEO of Alibaba, attributes the growth of his company to customer feedback. In one interview he said , “I’m not a tech guy. I’m looking at technology with the eyes of my customers… normal people’s eyes.”. Most businesses assume that to grow, they need to look at the numbers. When really, they should look at the people: who is using their product, and how can that product make their lives better or easier?
SaaS Brief brings together the best content for SaaS professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Tom Tunguz
JULY 19, 2018
There are three types of product features, a seasoned head of product told me recently. MMRs, neutralizers, and differentiators. MMRs are minimum market requirements; basic features that every customer expects and demands. Neutralizers mitigate competitive threat. Differentiators are your startup’s competitive advantage. As a product manager, I’d never thought about this type of roadmap segmentation before.
Intercom, Inc.
JULY 2, 2018
Technology firms have a long and storied history with commercials. Just reading that sentence you’re probably already thinking about half-time Super Bowl commercials. Or annoying YouTube pre-rolls that leave you puzzled as to what the company actually does. In fact there’s a whole genre of tech company videos that are so clichéd – fast edits, shiny happy people, repeated lines of script, emotional cues and images of bakers (think about it) – it’s become easy to poke fun at them.
GetUplift
JULY 7, 2018
There are thousands of infographics, images and guides explaining how different colors affect our emotions. Usually, these infographics look something like this: Red = anger. Blue = trust. Green = health. A never-ending list explaining exactly what color creates what emotion. Countless businesses use these guides to determine the color of their brand, the background and hero image on their landing pages or the color of their call to action buttons.
Unbounce
JULY 11, 2018
For advertisers, the Google Marketing keynote is a hotly anticipated annual event where we get to hear about all of the new features coming up in Google’s suite of marketing tools. It’s also a great indicator of what’s top of mind for Google, and what betas you can expect to roll out (or bug your Google rep to let you into early). Yesterday’s presentation kicked off with consumer trends, then covered improvements and launches across a range of Google ad platforms.
Speaker: Pete Uselman, Director of Partner Experience at Wind River Payments
Most integrated payments providers share a percent of the payment revenue with their software partners. But, oftentimes, that revenue share is only a fraction of the true income potential software providers can realize. If you want to maximize income opportunities from your payments program, check out Wind River Payments’ webinar-on-demand.
Chart Mogul
JULY 24, 2018
Subscription businesses are experimenting with hybrid billing models, mixing recurring revenue with one-time payments. Here are some examples of successful hybrid billing strategies in the industry today. In the enterprise software market, the move to a recurring revenue model is effectively complete. Gartner predicts that all new market entrants and 80% of historical vendors will offer subscription-based business models.
Sales Hacker
JULY 9, 2018
Sales meetings are an integral part of every business, regardless of maturity, industry, or goal. They’re key to keeping team members on the same page and working towards the same goal as a singular unit. For these reasons, it’s imperative that sales managers know exactly how to conduct a sales meeting. However, I’ve seen countless businesses who have no strategy for their meetings.
Tom Tunguz
JULY 22, 2018
Jacob’s Ladder is a toy of thin wooden blocks attached by ribbon. If you hold it in your hand and rotate it to touch the second block, it seems to set off a cascade of blocks falling from the top. The blocks haven’t changed positions, though they do rotate. It’s a moving optical illusion. When I watch this toy, I’m reminded of the current state of the fundraising market.
Intercom, Inc.
JULY 6, 2018
If you’ve ever looked at your diary, notebook, sticky notes and email inbox in the middle of a busy sales period and thought, “This isn’t working,” you’re not alone. For years, I used to try to organize my thoughts and ideas without structure, missing sales opportunities and forecasts as a result. Then, I found the answer – the concept of a sales pipeline.
Speaker: Ben Epstein, Stealth Founder & CTO | Tony Karrer, Founder & CTO, Aggregage
When tasked with building a fundamentally new product line with deeper insights than previously achievable for a high-value client, Ben Epstein and his team faced a significant challenge: how to harness LLMs to produce consistent, high-accuracy outputs at scale. In this new session, Ben will share how he and his team engineered a system (based on proven software engineering approaches) that employs reproducible test variations (via temperature 0 and fixed seeds), and enables non-LLM evaluation m
Casey Accidental
JULY 30, 2018
This is part two in likely a three part series on career paths. You can read about the analyst career path here. As someone who majored in marketing in undergrad and has an MBA with a concentration in marketing, I receive a lot of career advice requests from up and coming marketers. My feedback is usually a wake up call and not very pleasant. Marketing, especially in a technology company, has been suffering a death from a thousand cuts for years now.
Groove HQ
JULY 20, 2018
Upselling doesn’t have to be a dirty word. In fact, it can help you make your customers happier. What comes to mind when you think of the word upsell? For many of us, it might bring up images of sleazy salespeople trying to line their pockets by selling us extra stuff we don’t need. And, […]. The post How to Use Upselling to Increase Customer Happiness, Retention and Revenue appeared first on Groove Blog.
GetUplift
JULY 23, 2018
I’ve lost count of the amount of emails and phone calls I get that go somethin’ like this: Them: “We recently did a redesign and conversions have plummeted, we have no idea why this is happening. Can you help?”. Me: “What was the redesign based on?”. Them: “Our designers created a new, beautiful, sleek, up to date and responsive site…”. Me: “Did you test it or elements of it before going live?”.
Sales Hacker
JULY 11, 2018
We’ve gathered a list of the best lead generation tools on the market today. These providers use the most advanced methods to boost your response rates. We’ve also included pricing in our rundown to make sure you find a solution that works within your own budget. Building a successful business starts with great leads. The right contact information can be key to closing deals.
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Tom Tunguz
JULY 7, 2018
There’s a theory to the idea that winner takes most in Startupland. The startup that grows a bit faster at the beginning demonstrates more momentum. The startup raises capital sooner, hires people, builds the product, markets and sells the product, grows more, and raises capital. Repeat the process for each round of capital. Is it borne out in reality?
Intercom, Inc.
JULY 4, 2018
One of the lures when I joined Intercom in 2014 was that it sold itself as a product-first company. We continue to repeat that mantra to ourselves today, and we say it to anyone who’ll listen. We thump our chests when we say that. It’s a badge of honor – a badge of legitimacy – a badge of a new, better way of building a company. But, there’s a hidden arrogance inside that product-first mindset, and traps that await those who adopt it.
Inturact
JULY 30, 2018
When implemented in the right way, SaaS content marketing can be one of the most powerful tools to build your product’s awareness and foster a devoted customer base that will ultimately comprise enthusiastic promoters of your message. However, while the SaaS community has largely embraced content marketing as a primary engine for driving a business forward, there are still a number of ways in which even the most experienced companies can mishandle its principles.
FastSpring
JULY 12, 2018
Whether you’re selling enterprise software, virtual goods or subscription services, your growth strategy is most likely always on your mind. And with Forrester estimating that cross-border shopping will make up 20 percent of ecommerce in 2022, with sales reaching $627 billion—part of that growth plan should include expanding your global footprint.
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Simplify omnichannel payments with a solution that unifies every channel through your platform. By integrating front-end systems like online, mobile, and in-store payments with robust back-end infrastructure, you can deliver a seamless payments experience without the need for heavy engineering. Omnitoken technology enhances security by tokenizing card transactions for reuse, enabling merchants to drive cross-selling opportunities.
SaaS Metrics
JULY 30, 2018
Introduction Deciding between an in-house or on-premises and SaaS solution is an important element of an IT strategy. That’s especially true for large enterprises that are always looking for a competitive advantage. Choosing between the two depends on a lot of factors and there isn’t any magical formula that works for all kinds of businesses. Things were pretty straight forward during the data hosting era just a few years ago.
Sales Hacker
JULY 23, 2018
In this article, I’m showing you how to uncover seven hidden sales triggers. They are perfect for nudging prospects over the line and discovering sales opportunities you never knew existed. When HubSpot surveyed over 6,200 sellers and marketers , they found that establishing urgency was the single biggest challenge facing salespeople. After all, it’s one thing to convince prospects that you’re selling a great product; it’s another thing to get them to pull the trigger and
Tom Tunguz
JULY 28, 2018
I met a seasoned executive recently. He made a bold claim. “Management is an art, and one that is overwhelmingly undervalued in Silicon Valley.” I wondered, are we investing enough in our managers? Talent is the largest investment of an early stage company. 80%+ of startup operating expense flows to compensation. Retaining these employees is good business.
Intercom, Inc.
JULY 4, 2018
One of the lures when I joined Intercom in 2014 was that it sold itself as a product-first company. We continue to repeat that mantra to ourselves today, and we say it to anyone who’ll listen. We thump our chests when we say that. It’s a badge of honor – a badge of legitimacy – a badge of a new, better way of building a company. But, there’s a hidden arrogance inside that product-first mindset, and traps that await those who adopt it.
Speaker: David Warren and Kevin O'Neill Stoll
Transitioning to a usage-based business model offers powerful growth opportunities but comes with unique challenges. How do you validate strategies, reduce risks, and ensure alignment with customer value? Join us for a deep dive into designing effective pilots that test the waters and drive success in usage-based revenue. Discover how to develop a pilot that captures real customer feedback, aligns internal teams with usage metrics, and rethinks sales incentives to prioritize lasting customer eng
Entrepreneur - SaaS
JULY 26, 2018
These these basic adjustments can help draw more customers and revenue.
FastSpring
JULY 19, 2018
Last week, the FastSpring team ventured to Zodos Bowling to celebrate the second annual company-wide bowling tournament.
SaaSOptics
JULY 16, 2018
Where are you with QuickBooks? QuickBooks wasn’t built for B2B SaaS or subscription-based businesses, but businesses create complicated workarounds to make it viable. That process often looks something like this and leads many to question if an ERP is a necessary move.
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