Sat.May 26, 2018 - Fri.Jun 01, 2018

article thumbnail

Close.io CEO Steli Efti on the rights and wrongs of lead qualification

Intercom, Inc.

To build a great product, you have to intimately understand the problem it’s built to solve. To build a great business, as Steli Efti has learned, your customers must feel the pain of that problem too. Steli is the CEO of Close.io , an inside sales CRM that helps startups and SMBs generate high-quality leads and close more deals. When he’s not building software, Steli’s sharing content with the wider sales community through the Close.io blog , books on everything from product demos t

Startup 223
article thumbnail

The Most Important Book You'll Read All Year

Tom Tunguz

Imagine you came across this ad. Scientists have discovered a revolutionary new treatment that makes you live longer. It enhances your memory and makes you more creative. It makes you look more attractive. It keeps you slim and lowers food cravings. It protects you from cancer and dementia. It wards off colds and the flu. It lowers your risk of heart attacks and stroke, not to mention diabetes.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

SaaS Marketing Isn’t All About Talking; It’s More About Listening

Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

If you’ve ever sat through a marketing agency’s pitch or seen an episode of Mad Men, you’d think that marketing is all about talking – pushing out clever messages so that people will buy whatever it is that you’re selling. Not exactly. You’re right that there’s plenty of delivering messages through email, blog posts, paid adwords, Twitter, TV, radio, or print ads or whatever media reaches the buyer.

Marketing 161
article thumbnail

Why Good Site Architecture Is The Only CRO You Need

Neil Patel

When you hear the words “site architecture,” the first thing that comes to mind is probably SEO. It doesn’t take much digging into SEO best practice to learn that Google loves a site with clearly defined architecture that’s easy to crawl and index. But if you stopped your site architecture planning with just your SEO, then you’ve missed out on the greater picture.

article thumbnail

SaaS Essentials: Failed Payment Solution Guide

For SaaS businesses, improving retention is one of the easiest and most effective ways to drive revenue and profits. With a clear link between failed payments and customer churn, having a robust failed payment recovery solution isn’t optional—it’s essential. Achieving your retention goals starts with the right solution.

article thumbnail

Passing the GDPR test; or how we learned to stop worrying and love the EU

Intercom, Inc.

The EU was kind enough to provide a stress test for our email delivery pipeline during the GDPR surge on a scale that I doubt our engineering team as a whole would have agreed to, and we passed. You’ve all heard about GDPR, as it ironically swamped your inboxes in the process of protecting you from unwanted emails. For our engineering teams at Intercom, there was a much more short term impact last week, which we think is interesting enough to share more widely.

Scale 204

More Trending

article thumbnail

How Basecamp, Netflix and Amazon think about communication

Chart Mogul

Should I swing by my colleague's desk, or just send a Slack DM? Does this require a meeting? Should I document the outcome of this meeting? Well, it depends. Communicating wasn’t always this hard. Most of the time when we communicate in business, we don’t plan how we’re going to make that communication, or what we’re trying to get from it. It’s really not our fault — human-to-human communication is so deeply ingrained into our being.

article thumbnail

25 Sales Questions to Qualify Your Leads Faster

Neil Patel

You can attribute a lot of great relationships to perfect timing. When you connect with the right person at the right time, everything seems to just fit. This is especially true for sales. Connecting with your lead too early means they won’t be ready to buy. But if you wait too long, they may have moved on to a competitor. Unfortunately, finding the perfect time to connect with a customer is complicated.

Scale 101
article thumbnail

Startup marketing: strategies for year one

Intercom, Inc.

The most important tasks for any early stage startup are to write code and talk to users. When we started Intercom the latter was my job. About 50 percent of my time was spent communicating with potential users, whether that was asking them to try Intercom over email, meeting them at conferences, responding to them in blog comments or talking to them on Hacker News.

Startup 201
article thumbnail

15 questions you should ask during an inside sales interview

CloseSaaS

So you’re looking to build out your inside sales team and you’ve lined up a full day of interviews with potential new hires.

article thumbnail

An Omnichannel Payment Solution––Without the Complexity

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.

article thumbnail

Lessons from Marvel, Receptive and ProdPad at Mogul I/O London

Chart Mogul

We're still buzzing from our Mogul I/O London event this week! Here's a rundown of highlights and lessons from the panel session with Marvel, Receptive and ProdPad. Thanks to everyone who came out to see us in London at our third Mogul I/O event. The presentations and discussion was packed full of lessons and insights, as you’d expect from such a selection of seasoned SaaS leaders.

Scale 58
article thumbnail

How to Build a Sales Stack Your Sales Reps Will Love

Sales Hacker

Hoping to provide a little more clarity around some of the best tools for your sales stack, we’ll be discussing the different types of tools that I like to incorporate into our customers’ sales processes. Because every sales organization has different needs and uses different tools, we’re going to focus more on the functionality. I’ll also highlight some of the favorites out there that encompass many of the features we’ll be discussing.

Sales 49
article thumbnail

The one simple question our bot asks that saves our Sales team hours

Intercom, Inc.

As the rise of bots and automation continues apace, a lot of people are wondering how the sales process and lead qualification will be affected by this fast-evolving technology. Some are even asking if salespeople are at risk of being eclipsed by chatbots altogether. But a fairly simple example of how the Intercom bot, Operator , helped our sales conversations illuminates what we think that future might look like in practice.

Scale 187
article thumbnail

Selling with an accent? Here’s how to make sure you’re heard

CloseSaaS

“Sorry. What was that?” It’s every salesperson’s worst nightmare. You’re deep in your pitch. Your prospect is hanging onto every single word you say. And then wham! It turns out their silence wasn’t because they were so blown away, but because they didn’t understand a word you were saying.

Sales 52
article thumbnail

Usage-Based Monetization Musts: A Roadmap for Sustainable Revenue Growth

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

article thumbnail

How to Prepare for M&A Management Presentations

SaaSOptics

The banker said to block my calendar for management presentations. Excuse me, what are management presentations? And for two weeks? Yes, and this is only the halfway point. The real “fun” in due diligence comes after the management presentations. However, before we get too far, let’s break down what happens at management presentations and how you can prepare your company and leadership team.

article thumbnail

Sales Development: What It Is, Why It Matters, And How To Do It Right

Sales Hacker

The business case for sales development is built on flawless logic and verified by market data. It’s a lot better to sell to qualified prospects than to try your luck on a complete stranger. The more time your closers spend taking moonshots, the less sales they actually make. Smart business organizations have long experienced and embraced this principle.

article thumbnail

Take the wheel and choose your own career direction

Intercom, Inc.

We all like to think we’re the drivers of our own life. We intuitively feel that we are choosing the route, direction and speed of our journey, and even the type of car we’re traveling in. We have an inbuilt tendency to believe we are deciding our destination, that we are actively mapping out our career direction and our life story. The truth is, however, that most of us are mere passengers in our own life journey.

Travel 181
article thumbnail

?? SaaS Roundup #121: 9 Ways to Make Your SaaS Customers Hate You

Chart Mogul

This week: How successful companies approach communication, product managers explain product management and more. In SaaS Roundup, we comb through the noise to find you only the best SaaS-flavored reads of the week — just our top three. You can also receive SaaS Roundup in your email inbox every Friday — just drop your email here and you’ll receive the next issue.

SaaS 40
article thumbnail

15 Modern Use Cases for Enterprise Business Intelligence

Large enterprises face unique challenges in optimizing their Business Intelligence (BI) output due to the sheer scale and complexity of their operations. Unlike smaller organizations, where basic BI features and simple dashboards might suffice, enterprises must manage vast amounts of data from diverse sources. What are the top modern BI use cases for enterprise businesses to help you get a leg up on the competition?

article thumbnail

How to Prepare for M&A Management Presentations

SaaSOptics

The banker said to block my calendar for management presentations. Excuse me, what are management presentations? And for two weeks? Yes, and this is only the halfway point. The real “fun” in due diligence comes after the management presentations. However, before we get too far, let’s break down what happens at management presentations and how you can prepare your company and leadership team.

article thumbnail

PODCAST 09: Unraveling the Power of The Transparency Sale

Sales Hacker

On this episode of the Sales Hacker podcast, we talk with Todd Caponi , former CRO of PowerReviews about how to sell enterprise software solutions with increased transparency in the sales process. What You’ll Learn. How to use transparency concepts to increase win rates. How to evolve your sales posture given the changes in sales conversations over the last 20 years.

Scale 41
article thumbnail

Making the transition from consultant to product engineer

Intercom, Inc.

Those unfamiliar with what product engineers do could be forgiven for assuming that it’s all broadly the same job. After all, we all tend to work in code, use black text editors with luminous text, and stare at console windows with endlessly scrolling symbols. But making the transition from consultant engineer to a product engineer was a revelation – I realized that working as an engineer in client services and working as a product engineer are essentially two completely different jobs, br

article thumbnail

4 essential questions for optimizing retention

Claudiu Murariu

I always strive for zero churn. Of course, I too have customers who are leaving, but the only times I accept churn without putting up a fight is when companies are closing down, people are leaving companies or budgets are being cut. I just can’t accept it when people are leaving because of my product, well, at least after they find value in it. In the following lines I’m going to share the questions I am expecting my data to answer when it comes down to understanding and optimizing retention.

article thumbnail

How Clinic Sense Reduced Churn and Unlocked More Revenue

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.

article thumbnail

How to Prepare for M&A Management Presentations

SaaSOptics

The banker said to block my calendar for management presentations. Excuse me, what are management presentations? And for two weeks? Yes, and this is only the halfway point. The real “fun” in due diligence comes after the management presentations. However, before we get too far, let’s break down what happens at management presentations and how you can prepare your company and leadership team.

article thumbnail

Keep Calm and Comply with GDPR

Rakam

Every company in the European Union and around the globe has been preparing for the big day. Yes, GDPR! The General Data Protection Regulation has been in effect since 25 May 2018 and naturally, there are tons of questions in the air. What’s the fuss all about, you ask? How does it affect my business? How do I track my prospects / customers? How do I keep them engaged?

article thumbnail

Why Creating Relevant Content Is One of the Best Search Engine Marketing Strategies

Kraftblick

Content. All SaaS companies know they need it — they are particularly well-placed to benefit from the magic of content. Publishing skyscraper content means you will stand out. But did you know that it can also improve your standing in search engine results pages (SERPs), drive more traffic to your site and attract more qualified leads ? Read on to learn which strategies will increase your visibility in SERPs and attract more qualified leads.

article thumbnail

The 2018 Sales Technology Landscape: Discover 800+ Players Ruling the Topology

Sales Hacker

A lot has happened in the s ales tech space since I introduced my first sales tech landscape last summer. I’m now counting over 830 vendors, a 15% surge. The 38 categories illustrate the extreme fragmentation of the market. Both sales and sales operations are sharing an increased frustration with the number of applications they have in their stack.

Scale 60
article thumbnail

Evaluating Embedded Payment Providers For Your Software? Get The Evaluation Scorecard Today

Choosing the right Embedded Payments partner can feel overwhelming. This evaluation scorecard and comprehensive buyer’s guide simplifies the process by breaking down key criteria to consider. Learn how to assess partners that align with your goals, offer personalized support, and drive long-term success. This guide and scorecard equip software companies with the insights to make confident, informed decisions that enhance customer experience and fuel business growth.

article thumbnail

SaaS Revenue Recognition Challenges with QuickBooks (And What You Can Do About It)

SaaSOptics

QuickBooks is an easy decision for a SaaS startup or SMB. However, subscription-based businesses quickly run into challenges. QuickBooks does many things well, but it doesn’t efficiently manage subscription revenue recognition or subscription billing, especially if you have sales-negotiated behavior in your contracts, which is the heart of financial operations for a SaaS business and is required by ASC 606 and GAAP compliance.

Revenue 40
article thumbnail

4 Ways Spreadsheets Are Failing Your Recurring Revenue Business

SaaSOptics

Are your spreadsheets hurting your SaaS business? There are times in life when making ends meet is the only option. We’ve all faced situations where the only option is to take the path of least resistance or do what is “good enough for now.” Managing the financial operations of a recurring revenue or SaaS businesses is not one of those times. In their early days, most recurring revenue businesses manage financial operations with spreadsheets , which are cobbled together with a number of differen

Revenue 40
article thumbnail

Beyond Quickbooks - Advanced Forecasting for B2B SaaS

SaaSOptics

When it comes to forecasting for a SaaS business, traditional financial metrics won’t get the job done. The lack of good financial data and metrics remains a big problem for most early stage subscription businesses, and even many established SaaS companies. Chances are, your business relies on outside funding or is subject to board oversight—or both.