SaaStr

JANUARY 30, 2023

Deel solved this by scaling the revenue operations team in conjunction to support sales, design quotas, and go-to-market strategies, and leverage data to identify the best strategies. Without headcount planning for the support team, the company’s response time and customer satisfaction scores dipped. Listen to your team.

Sales Hiring 278

Sales Hiring Payment Services SaaS Payments Scale 278

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2024

For CS, you’re likely building relationships, guiding strategy, and driving product strategy, which is a different motion from technical support. Headcount isn’t the right story for them, though. Eventually, this team moved out of growth, so their success wasn’t dependent on budget or headcount.

Scale 296

Scale Sales Hiring Scaling Startup 296

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 24, 2018

“There is more to scaling up than just machine learning and bots” A key part of our strategy revolves around automation, including our recently released Answer Bot , but there is more to scaling up than just machine learning and bots. Here’s a look at how we have managed it and how you can too. Automation.

Scale 178

Scale Customer Support Scaling Strategy 178

SaaStr

AUGUST 21, 2024

Only Grew Sales & Marketing Expense 12%, and Cut R&D (Product + Engineering) and G&A Expenses Toast has gotten to profitability by truly holding the line on headcount and revenue expenses. Sales & Marketing has only grown 12% as revenue has grown 29%, and R&D expense actually went … down. #5.

Scale 306

Scale Payment Methods SaaS Payments Payment Solutions 306

Tom Tunguz

OCTOBER 31, 2023

AI Efficiency Gains +2% Headcount Reduction ? But the dominant strategy has been to hire more reps while maintaining quotas rather than increasing quotas meaningfully - perhaps an artifact of the easy money era. All of these technologies are still nascent & imperfect, but they should improve through the course of the year.

Headcount 216

Headcount Sales Hiring AI Cloud 216

SaaStr

MARCH 20, 2024

Do you have to double your headcount to make it from $10M to $20M or even $2M to $5M? For headcount specifically, make sure that the constraint to growing faster is that you don’t have enough salespeople to work the demand that exists for your business. When those outcomes are achieved, the hire gets their headcount.

Sales Hiring 306

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale Headcount 306

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Vimeo just hired their first sales rep 3 years ago to spearhead $20k+ deals … and now they have 100 reps, and are on track to double that headcount. If nothing else, a reminder that strategies are different in different geos, and deserve their own team. #10. My Top 10 Learnings: #1. 50% of Vimeo’s revenue is international.

Enterprise 304

Enterprise Scale Sales Hiring Headcount 304

SaaStr

DECEMBER 19, 2022

Lots of SaaS founders are preoccupied with employee headcount as an important growth metric, but this indicator is not always true. So they always prioritize the most high-ROI projects, the most high-ROI tasks, and because there is a small group of people working on a multitude of things, they have a very 360-view of business strategy.

Compensation 264

Compensation Leadership Company Culture Headcount 264

Tom Tunguz

JULY 21, 2022

Management teams expect to reduce operating expense by 20% predominantly through headcount reductions or hiring freezes - everyone from sardine startups to public megalodons. Software automates manual work, provides leverage, and the total cost is often less than a headcount. Software does more with less.

Sales Hiring 189

Sales Hiring Headcount Software Finance 189

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

The headcount and other ongoing operating costs do add to expenses and hit earnings, however. If the acquisition fails years down the road, that Goodwill may need to be written off, and impact earnings for a quarter as a one-time expense. But even there, it’s years later, and a one-off expense.

Acquisition 305

Acquisition Investment Headcount Banking 305

SaaStr

MARCH 5, 2021

The key is to make sure that your sales aren’t entirely dependent on the founder, but that the product and strategy are strong enough for a good sales team to run with themselves. Hire a VP that knows what they’re doing and then get fully aligned on strategy. 1 – Have a recruiting strategy. Removing the founder effect.

Sales Recruiting 260

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 260

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 23, 2022

With increasing business costs and reduced headcount, companies are feeling the squeeze as they also grapple with rising consumer expectations. So, with a great support strategy you can reduce churn, improve customer lifetime value, and overall boost your bottom line. Here are four areas where you can supercharge your strategy.

Customer Support 211

Customer Support Retention Headcount Customer Lifetime Value 211

SaaStr

JUNE 6, 2021

Even if the decision is made to invest more, future headcount is often sourced from internal team members and processes. Around Year 2, a BigCo typically has to measure the experiment in the acquisition and see how it’s performed. This can result in shrinking the team down if it’s underperformed, or investing more if it’s performed well.

Acquisition 259

Acquisition Technical Review Headcount Finance 259

SaaStr

JUNE 19, 2023

The Right Amount of Headcount Is Far Less Clear When Bootstrapping. Almost everyone I’ve talked to that does profit sharing or similar initiatives gives up and just ends up doing traditional bonuses in the end, traditional sales comp plans, etc. #6. Probably Far Less is The Answer. SaaStr has 7 employees. Should we have 70?

Sales Hiring 245

Sales Hiring Headcount Startup Revenue 245

SaaStr

OCTOBER 4, 2023

They grew headcount fairly aggressively from ‘21 to ‘22, and then Q4 of last year dipped and held flat before starting to regrow. Monday will probably add 25% headcount this year. With Monday, which happened with so many leaders, they hit headwinds, and NRR went from epic to pretty good. Salesforce is back to hiring.

Sales Hiring 289

Sales Hiring SaaS Headcount Compensation 289

SaaStr

DECEMBER 16, 2022

Instead of celebrating headcount, focus on growing efficiently in scalable ways.” . Develop impactful messaging to tell your product story and embed that into your outbound strategy. It was imperative at this stage to get more effective with emails. Unconventional scaling ideas to accelerate growth.

Outsourcing Services 287

Outsourcing Services Scale Sales Hiring Outsourced Development 287

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

The headcount and other ongoing operating costs do add to expenses and hit earnings, however. If the acquisition fails years down the road, that Goodwill may need to be written off, and impact earnings for a quarter as a one-time expense. But even there, it’s years later, and a one-off expense.

Acquisition 263

Acquisition Investment Headcount Banking 263

Intercom, Inc.

JULY 14, 2020

Maintaining a 100% real-time experience typically requires: Increasing headcount to keep pace with a growing customer base and their conversations. And if you don’t increase headcount, you risk burning your team out. That’s less than ideal, especially if you see spikes in customer demand at different points throughout the year.

Headcount 224

Headcount Retention Customer Support Scaling 224

Payrix

APRIL 10, 2025

The typical trade and field service business relies on revenue from sales and service to run operations, manage headcount, and drive operational growth. Theres more to this strategy than just the nice revenue bump. However, these profit levers alone may not be enough to help a business achieve its true potential.

Payments 100

Payments Payment Services Outsourcing Services Payment Solutions 100

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 10, 2022

Reduced headcount, longer working hours, and a spike in queries have led to burnout. It takes strategy, processes, design, technology, and the right people to build an empathetic mindset that impacts customers and employees. Are there any other options companies can look at instead of reducing headcount? Doing more with less.

Customer Support 211

Customer Support Trends Technical Review Headcount 211

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 1, 2021

In a commissioned study by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Intercom undertaken in April 2021, Drive Conversational Experiences for a Future-Ready Customer Support Strategy , we learned that only 37% of support leaders and decision-makers are satisfied with their organization’s current digital channels and solutions.

Underperforming Technical Team 232

Underperforming Technical Team Technical Review Scale Headcount 232

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 7, 2022

Increase your leads without increasing your headcount. But one of the major benefits of live chat for sales is that it allows you to capture and qualify more leads without needing to increase headcount.

Sales Funnel 245

Sales Funnel Sales Headcount Payment Features 245

Intercom, Inc.

MAY 13, 2021

We recently sat down with Linda to chat about how customer success matures as you move upmarket and which strategies can help you to better serve your customers going forward. You’re a big part of their tech stack, you’re a big part of their investment strategy, you’re a big part of their spend. What do I love?'”

Scale 177

Scale Customer Success Sales Hiring Strategy 177

SaaStr

OCTOBER 6, 2019

But specializing across the sales process will take more headcount. Dominant-Dominant Strategy Sales & Marketing is Very, Very Expensive. Whatever it is, you’ll want to move away from a generalist approach. In the end, you can raise AE quotas to pay for this, at least in theory. It will take more of a village.

Sales Hiring 270

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Venture Capital 270

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 8, 2020

Help desk metrics are measurements that allow you to track your performance and effectively adjust your strategy to provide better customer support. It can also guide your hiring process if increasing headcount is required to guarantee 24/7 coverage for customers. What are help desk metrics? Customer satisfaction. Tickets by hour.

Customer Support 211

Customer Support Metrics Technical Review Scale 211

SaaStr

MARCH 15, 2024

In their most recent earnings call, they made a change in strategy to lean more into product-led. One of the strategy changes is to say, “Hey if we turn up the innovation and actual product quality, can we ultimately get around having to spend all this money on advertising?” And how do you think about CAC for those free-ish people?

AI Search 278

AI Search SaaS Advertising Sales Hiring 278

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

1 Thing That Changes in Marketing As You Scale: The Product Maturity Curve Determines Marketing Strategy Your marketing strategy should be extremely tightly aligned to the product maturity curve. The takeaway: determine your marketing strategy and tactics based on where you are in product maturity curve. #2

Scale 280

Scale Scaling Sales Hiring Marketing 280

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

It used to really bug me because I am a firm believer in the strategy of Zero Voluntary Attrition and trying to hire fewer, more committed resources over a higher volume of mercenaries that turn over more often. Because sales is a lead-driven but headcount- closed business. Sales Strategy. What markets should we expand into?

Sales Hiring 363

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 363

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 1, 2022

Often, founders are unsure about the headcount split between India and the US. At the highest levels, competition is about product strategy and brand. That means showing up in every quadrant of your category, hiring A players, putting yourself out there. Putting yourself out there, even a little bit, helps. Sequencing products is key.

Scale 298

Scale Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team Cybersecurity 298

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 29, 2019

Authoritative, actionable strategies on how to grow your business. A substitute for strategy or planning. For example, our leadership team might decide to focus our company strategy on targeting the segments with the best revenue retention. Assessing progress on our strategy. Download The Growth Handbook.

Business 184

Business B2C Scale Headcount 184

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 2, 2019

How do you ensure a great customer experience globally without adding a ton of headcount? Although it may seem like a no-brainer for businesses to offer customer support in multiple languages, in a recent survey we found that the vast majority of businesses struggle to implement an effective multilingual support strategy.

Scale 209

Scale Outsourcing Services Scaling Technical Review 209

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 10, 2021

“Companies want to do right by their customers, but support teams are always stretched during this time of year and the global supply chain issues are causing an even greater strain for both the support teams and the consumers they’re supporting,” says Des Traynor , Intercom’s co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer. hours per week.

Headcount 195

Headcount Customer Support Scale AI 195

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 8, 2021

According to a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Intercom in April 2021, Drive Conversational Experiences For A Future-Ready Customer Support Strategy , 59% of support leaders and decision makers find a lack of proactive support to be a barrier to conversational support at scale. Here’s how they’re doing it.

Scale 237

Scale Headcount Mobile Communication 237

Intercom, Inc.

AUGUST 30, 2022

This is especially important for small teams, where you need to operate at a scale far beyond your headcount (without burning out your team by working around the clock). No matter how great a new tool may seem, it can’t replace strategy or processes, so make sure those are clearly defined first. Questions to ask.

Scale 163

Scale Payment Services Startup AWS 163

BetterCloud

MARCH 17, 2025

Check out our mega-guide on saas savings Common SaaS budgeting mistakes to avoid Your SaaS budgeting strategy will look different depending on the size of your company. While not every strategy works for every business, there is a wrong way to budget for SaaS. Allocations can be manual or automatic, depending on the headcount of users.

Technical Review 52

Technical Review Strategy Marketplace as a Service SaaS 52

SaaStr

JUNE 7, 2021

While this talk really shows his love of thinking about the bigger picture – this is the Strategy stage after all – Peter actually spends 90% of his time on execution. I actually drive revenue from headcount, but I make sure I have enough stocked away. As Veeva grew, that’s when the long-term vision came into play.

Sales Hiring 340

Sales Hiring Underperforming Technical Team SaaS Headcount 340

Intercom, Inc.

APRIL 20, 2021

“These are the kinds of things that help our support org to function more smoothly and impactfully so we can support our customers at scale, without needing to increase budget or headcount”. Starting to build out a support operations function doesn’t necessarily mean adding headcount straight away. Baby steps, for sure.”.

Scale 156

Scale Customer Support Scaling Headcount 156