Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 25, 2018

Salesforce is worth $113 billion. 1% of $113 billion is $1.13 billion. ServiceNow is worth $34B and Workday is worth $33B. 3% of $33-34B is $1B. Atlassian is worth $20.5B. 5% of $20.5B is $1B. Why am I doing all this simple math you might ask? We have reached a point in SaaS where a small fraction of an incumbent is a billion-dollar company. If you start a business tomorrow that is able to cleave 1% of revenue from Salesforce, you will have built a billion-dollar business. 1% is not that much.

Revenue 274

Revenue Blockchain Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence 274

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 24, 2018

For all the time and money we spend attracting customers to our website, isn’t it odd how little we spend trying to convert them? These live chat stats will show you the conversion power of messaging. According to an eConsultancy report , for every $92 spent acquiring prospects only $1 is spent converting them. Sure, that dollar could give you returns in spades, but in reality the odds of that are no better than a craps table in Las Vegas.

Advertising 205

Advertising Finance Acquisition Sales 205

Sales Enablement, SaaS and Growth

AUGUST 28, 2018

One of the questions I get asked most frequently is around building a sales enablement strategy and what that might look like. While each company, context and industry is different, I believe that there are some fundamentals that should form the blueprint of any sales enablement strategy. At a high level the strategy should convey what your team does, how it does it, goals and main initiatives for the year ahead.

Sales Enablement 122

Sales Enablement Scale Strategy Underperforming Technical Team 122

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

AUGUST 1, 2018

Churn is bad for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies. Very bad. But knowing there’s a churn problem is one thing; fixing it is something else. To bring down churn, we need to understand what’s behind the numbers. Why are customers leaving? Different causes will point toward different fixes. Poor product performance Sometimes the solution simply doesn’t deliver as advertised.

Churn 122

Churn Metrics Compensation Software Review 122

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Payment Solutions

Sixteen Ventures

AUGUST 1, 2018

Churn… ya boring. Yawn. Time to move on. I’m so over talking about churn and if you really understand what Customer Success is all about , you should be, too. Churn is so easy to get rid of… you just have to do five simple things. If churn is a problem for you, this post will change that (if you’ll let it) and then you can move onto bigger and better things.

Churn 129

Churn Underperforming Technical Team Sales Hiring Customer Success 129

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 18, 2018

Startups are business machines engineered to grow quickly. The forces of hypergrowth exert enormous strain on every aspect of the company. Internal break all the time as the company moults into a new skin. This is one of the most important things to keep in mind when hiring. Every lead hired today, whether marketing , sales, engineering or product, will have a very different job nine months from now, much less two years from now.

Sales Recruiting 266

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Startup Headcount 266

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 14, 2018

The first law of content marketing is that publishing is an expensive business. No matter how hard you try to circumvent it, the first law will always come back and bite you. One common approach is to outsource content production, which can be cheaper in pure monetary terms. But unless someone, preferably an editor or with some editorial skills, is closely managing that process you’ll end up paying more for it in the long run.

Content Marketing 182

Content Marketing Travel Technical Review Software Review 182

Unbounce

AUGUST 28, 2018

If you run paid ads, chances are you have a mobile campaign or two (or two hundred) live right now. Whether we like it or not, most of us live tethered to our smartphones, relying on them to entertain us, keep us connected, and guide us to the nearest bike repair shop. And as such, behavior on mobile is shaping how marketers need to operate. Over the last four years, we were inundated with messages declaring it was finally “the year of mobile”, so much so that it felt like our industry was cryin

Mobile 95

Mobile Underperforming Technical Team Advertising Web Developers 95

Sales Hacker

AUGUST 8, 2018

A sales CRM is a foundational tool for modern sales organizations. Here’s a closer a look at the evolution of customer relationship management and where it’s headed. Let’s face it—most B2B tech brands are unsexy. It’s not a bad thing, but you won’t see hundreds of customers lining up outside at 4:00 am to wait for the next big product release from some IT cloud storage company.

Artificial Intelligence 84

Artificial Intelligence Blockchain Machine Learning AI 84

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ClinicSense is a SaaS platform that supports over 7,000 massage therapists who use it for appointment management, payments, scheduling, marketing activities and more. Despite having a relatively low payment failure rate, the company discovered that the failures disrupted the customer experience. This often led to churn as customers decided to cancel or abandon their account, preventing ClinicSense from realizing the full lifetime value (LTV) of its users.

Payments

FastSpring

AUGUST 28, 2018

Whether you’re creating ebooks, music, or software, you need to be able to sell your digital products on your website powered by WordPress. However, many businesses often realize that is easier said than done—especially when it comes to scaling globally. There are plenty of third-party tools out there to help you get an online store up and running on WordPress, however, your business can only get so far with piecemealed point solutions managing the ecommerce experience. .

Payment Methods 64

Payment Methods Merchant Services Payment Services Payment Solutions 64

Inturact

AUGUST 22, 2018

The SaaS Marketing Journey -- that arduous road that sees newcomers to your business become active promoters of the products you offer -- is a complicated beast, to be sure. However, just because the tasks ahead pose a significant challenge to your SaaS business, it doesn’t mean that success is beyond your reach. In fact, a number of companies have wisely leveraged SaaS content marketing to gain customers and boost awareness.

Content Marketing 77

Content Marketing Marketing SaaS Business 77

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 11, 2018

How long should you let a customer use your software before they sign a contract? You could offer them a 7 day free trial. Or 14 or 21 or 30 or 90. Longer trials might be better. The customer could delve deeper into the product, become more committed and sign a larger contract. Shorter trials drive urgency, weed out the uncommitted, and result in shorter sales cycles.

Payment Solutions 188

Payment Solutions Software SaaS Acquisition 188

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 21, 2018

Chatbots push salespeople and marketers past the physical limitations of being human: our need to sleep, our loathe of repetitive tasks, our inability to multitask conversations. Modern-day chatbots, like our recently launched Custom Bots , are completely customizable and can automate all sorts of user journeys, while maintaining a positive consumer experience.

Scale 163

Scale Marketing Sales Enterprise 163

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

Revenue

Unbounce

AUGUST 15, 2018

You know how word of mouth is like the Holy Grail of marketing? There’s nothing quite as powerful as someone whose opinion you trust simply saying, “hey, check this out.”. Well, the other day my colleagues and I were talking about talks: conference talks, TED Talks, university lectures, a few candid post-dinner nuggets of wisdom from a tipsy aunt. We were recommending ones we’ve found helpful or inspiring as marketers (whether the topics focused on marketing directly, or were more broadly about

Marketing 94

Marketing Interviewing Advertising Retention 94

Sales Hacker

AUGUST 6, 2018

Finding the best live chat software in a crowded marketplace can be tricky. Fortunately, this just means there’s bound to be an option that fits perfectly with your business model. If you owned a store, you could directly interact with the customers who come in each day. The same principle doesn’t traditionally work with websites. Sure, you can see the visitors who pop in, thanks to tools that gather data on where they’re coming from.

Sales Hiring 80

Sales Hiring Software Review Technical Review Sales 80

Groove HQ

AUGUST 1, 2018

Solve complicated scenarios with great communication. There are a few main difficult scenarios you’ll most likely face as a support representative. In customer service, every interaction matters, and there is no 100% right or wrong way to deal with any situation. Even though the ability to think on a case-to-case basis is one of the […]. The post 5 Customer Service Email Templates for Tough Situations appeared first on Groove Blog.

Communication 75

Communication Customer Support 75

Inturact

AUGUST 8, 2018

Imagine if you could give every visitor to your site an experience targeted particularly to their interests. Doing so might be easier than you think. You don't need to write special content catering to various demographics and interests. And you certainly don't have to write personally tailored posts. All you need is a bit of information about your readers.

Content Marketing 72

Content Marketing Marketing Development SaaS 72

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Enterprise

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 29, 2018

In a post earlier this week, I argued 1% of Salesforce’s revenues creates a unicorn. More broadly, I said that the biggest SaaS companies are so large, that they must have underserved customer segments. And there is an opportunity for a startup to identify that underserved segment, build a product to serve it better, and build a unicorn. I received a lot of comments about this post, but not the kind that I expected.

SaaS 122

SaaS Enterprise Startup Revenue 122

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 13, 2018

Growing up, I was surrounded by video games. In my house, we had the NES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy and a bunch of PC games. I would play video games for hours on end, only stopping for the odd toilet break. But as my love of gaming grew, it became obvious that I wasn’t drawn to the typically popular action or racing games. Instead of Half-Life or GoldenEye, I was drawn to simulation games such as SimCity , The Sims and Theme Hospital – titles that rewarded strategy over speed, patience over practic

Strategy 163

Strategy Management Benchmarks Leadership 163

Totango

AUGUST 27, 2018

Join Totango at SAP Customer Experience LIVE in Barcelona! In today’s world, customers expect tangible value from their relationships with vendors; businesses need to generate profits and growth. To meet both customer needs and business demands, companies not only need a single view of the customer, they need to cultivate and manage a relationship that extends beyond the initial sale.

Innovation 67

Innovation Enterprise Retention Technology 67

Sales Hacker

AUGUST 28, 2018

This article outlines the results of a B2B Buyer Experience survey by TimeTrade. Make no mistake: we live in a digital world. For many of us, that’s also the primary channel through which we make an increasing number of purchases. Industry research consistently shows that buyers want the same easy experience they now routinely enjoy in their private life.

B2B 79

B2B B2C Banking Engagement 79

Speaker: Jay Allardyce, Deepak Vittal, and Terrence Sheflin

As we look ahead to 2025, business intelligence and data analytics are set to play pivotal roles in shaping success. Organizations are already starting to face a host of transformative trends as the year comes to a close, including the integration of AI in data analytics, an increased emphasis on real-time data insights, and the growing importance of user experience in BI solutions.

Trends

Groove HQ

AUGUST 1, 2018

Every customer service email is an opportunity to build stronger relationships. Any given company probably sends hundreds of customer service emails daily, and it can be easy to lose sight of just how important every single one of them is. But for any given customer, it might be the only interaction with your business that […]. The post 10 Tips for Sending Better Customer Service Emails appeared first on Groove Blog.

Business 75

Business Customer Support 75

Inturact

AUGUST 14, 2018

Somewhere along the line, we lost the idea to “Give the people what they want!” As marketers and as startup founders, that idea has always been our guiding star. But along the way, that simple message tends to get diluted, becoming “Give the people what we think they want,” or even worse, “Give the people what will make us the most money.”. What happens all too easily is that the people don’t get what they want, or get what they want at first, then find themselves saddled with a version of your

Education 71

Education Startup Customer Success SaaS 71

GetUplift

AUGUST 5, 2018

How many Facebook ads do you see in your news feed a day? According to Social Media Examiner , 93% of marketers use Facebook advertising regularly. That’s about 3 million businesses using Facebook to market themselves. Every day these brands text, call, email and target us with their Facebook ads, overwhelming us with offers. In fact , we’re so used to being targeted by brands everywhere on the web that our brain automatically tries to block out all the noise and ignore those ads.

Social Media 71

Social Media Software Review Branding Advertising 71

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 20, 2018

The phrase “cross-functional” is most commonly used to describe a team made up of of people with different functions or skills. At Intercom for example, our product teams include designers, programmers and product managers , unique roles working together as one. Or you might hear the term used when teams from different parts of a business work together on a big project, like the launch of a new product or release.

Scale 162

Scale Education Sales Hiring Communication 162

Speaker: Christophe Louvion, Chief Product & Technology Officer of NRC Health and Tony Karrer, CTO at Aggregage

Christophe Louvion, Chief Product & Technology Officer of NRC Health, is here to take us through how he guided his company's recent experience of getting from concept to launch and sales of products within 90 days. In this exclusive webinar, Christophe will cover key aspects of his journey, including: LLM Development & Quick Wins 🤖 Understand how LLMs differ from traditional software, identifying opportunities for rapid development and deployment.

Artificial Intelligence

FastSpring

AUGUST 30, 2018

After months of planning, strategizing, and hard work—we are thrilled to announce our new and improved blog is live on the Fastspring site. When we started this project, we had a lot of big ideas for improving the look and feel of the blog. However, we decided to focus our efforts on making sure the FastSpring blog is a go-to resource for the latest ecommerce news, trends, and how-tos to help digital businesses around the world succeed.

Entertainment 60

Entertainment Education User Experience Trends 60

Sales Hacker

AUGUST 16, 2018

When a high-stress job meets low emotional intelligence (EI), doomsday happens. That’s what research, experience, and common sense will tell you. And that’s why achieving your success potential in sales is directly proportional to your emotional intelligence in sales. Sales is tough, but even that is an understatement. Regardless of role, most sales professionals work well beyond 40 hours per week based on a HubSpot study.

Scale 77

Scale Underperforming Technical Team Sales Social Media 77

Sixteen Ventures

AUGUST 8, 2018

If you missed it, I’m done talking about churn. If you have a churn problem, read this post and follow my directions. Churn won’t be an issue for you anymore. Now we can move onto GROWTH ! And the first order of business is understanding the difference between Sales and Expansion and why knowing the difference is so important. I’ve said that Sales is part of Customer Success before , and by that I mean Sales – like every other part of the company – should be governe

Sales 69

Sales Government Churn Customer Success 69