Nurturing the characteristics of a charismatic company to inspire devoted, loyal advocates to provide social proof. Social proof is huge in SaaS marketing. What people think and say about your SaaS has a lot to do with its momentum and market fit. But how they feel about your solution has wider implications. Real advocacy comes […]
Strategy
Unprepared for SaaS Due Diligence?
Many SaaS companies go through due diligence in a less-than-ideal state. That’s a lot less stressful when you know what that means. A while back I wrote about what to expect in SaaS due diligence and provided an interactive institutional readiness report card to help you prepare, but today I want to address the consequences […]
The Power of SaaS Storytelling Versus Storymaking
A lot of SaaS marketing is made up. The best marketing is not. And the reasons for that may be way deeper than you think. Yes, this is another post espousing the value of authenticity in SaaS marketing. But it’s much more than that. Storytelling in tech marketing is critical because what we’re marketing is […]
SaaS Feedback Lifecycle: Listen to all. Act only on consensus.
Even experienced leaders can easily forget that one voice shouldn’t drive change. I try and write from recent inspiration and this post is far from an exception. Over the last few weeks, several of the CEOs we work with have all reinforced the problem of the lone voice driving change, which is a symptom of […]
How effective are your SaaS learning loops?
Agile is great, but we need to continuously process and ingest what we learn. Here’s how. Agile management across the majority of a SaaS organization provides the framework for rapid, innovation, iteration and improvement. Ultimately, the efficiency of that improvement comes down to how well we ingest and distribute what’s being learned — our SaaS […]
The 4 P’s of SaaS: People, Product, Playbooks, and Process
When looking at a problem, I have a simple framework for evaluating what’s wrong. Is it People, Product, Playbook or Process (or some combination thereof)? When the 4 P’s are all aligned and functioning well, great performance follows. And if we aren’t hitting numbers or executing well, then something within the 4 P’s isn’t right. […]
Data-Driven SaaS Growth Relies on Meaningful, Accurate Data
If your teams don’t understand and believe in your data, they won’t leap with you. I’m a huge practitioner of data-driven SaaS management. I believe that almost everything in a SaaS business can and should be measured. But there are two important caveats to measurement that I’ve recently seen overlooked. First, the data you use […]
How Do You Know When the Talking Isn’t Walking?
Let’s get another cliché out of the way. Talk is cheap. Hmm. In SaaS that’s actually not so true. A lot of talk gets funded. And a lot of decisions get made based on plans (nice, formalized, talk). From there, a lot of evaluation is done based on reporting data (another form of talk). I […]
10 SaaS Fundamentals I take for Granted (that Don’t Always Happen)
After 20+ years in software startups I can say I think I know how to stack the chips on the right side of the equation. It’s definitely not a formula, because SaaS companies have specific challenges. But there is a list of SaaS fundamentals that I take for granted. This list ties back to the […]
Why “Enduring” Is a Third Option
I recently had lunch with a former teammate and active participant in our city’s startup ecosystem. During our discussion he asked, “Do you think software companies can really be enduring?” I’m not 100% sure of his perception that led him to ask the question. However, it does seem like a high percentage of software founders […]
