With in-person events back in swing, our team has been on the move. Several team members flew out to San Francisco this month to attend this year’s SaaStr Annual. With three days of content, selecting only a few key takeaways from SaaStr Annual can be difficult.
But our team is up for the challenge. Take a look at a few insights from our SaaS PR team members who attended the event.
Ride the SaaS wave
Markets fluctuate. Platform approaches are in, then out. Point solutions are in, then out. There will always be some external factor affecting an organization. A strong product-market fit can trump volatility and lead to a lasting brand. (And being first to market doesn’t hurt either!) – Vice President of PR, Kelsey Sowder
SaaS leaders are more optimistic about the market
While many hit the panic button in Q2, there has been an upturn in positive business signals over the past 60 days. Sales cycles are shortening to normal, the number of people in buying committees is decreasing and reverting to the typical decision-makers, and conversations with investors have resumed. – President, Lindsey Groepper
Work smarter, not harder, when engaging audiences
B2B marketers need to get smarter about how they engage their audiences. Buyers want more control over their journey and increasingly leverage peers, communities and SaaS marketplaces to influence their decisions. Marketers must find ways to meet customers on the channels they use and remove barriers to the information they want. – PR Director, Zach Weismiller
Pay attention to the self-serve buyer
Sales and marketing tactics are changing as we enter the age of the self-serve buyer. SaaS sellers should make product information easily accessible and move away from emails and cold calls, instead using customer data to identify where buyers are in their journey and personalize outreach. SaaS marketers need to prioritize their presence on third-party sources and activate customer voice across all channels as customers increasingly use a variety of sources. – PR Director, Sami Miller
When to reinvent your company
When building a SaaS company, you should think through three factors. Pick the market. Find the people. Build the systems.
This is and should be repeatable. But a key learning is that there are phases of your business, and at each stage, you must reinvent your company.
- 0-$10M – Pattern Matching
- $30M – Product / Market Fit
- $100M – Repeatability
- $250M – Early Scale
- $500M – Mid Scale
- $1B – Scale & Diversify
As you hit each phase, you must build and/or rearchitect plans through systems (Finance, People, Marketing, Product, etc.). The people aspect is crucial. The individuals that got you to $30M might not be the same people that can get you over the $100M hump and beyond. Leadership and employees should always think about what’s next. For example, a SaaS CEO should think 36 months out, and individual contributors should think six months out. – CEO, Mendy Werne
SaaStr Annual might be over, but you can still get more insights from us about all things B2B SaaS. Contact Lindsey Groepper to learn more about partnering with our SaaS PR agency.