This week’s roundup includes top priorities for Q4, understanding the “SaaS Gold Rush”, using support to fuel sales, learning from SaaS failures, and understanding the sales funnel.
Top Q4 Priorities for SaaS CEOs and Sales VPs
The final months of 2016 are here and it is a crazy and crucial time for sales teams, so what should be your top Q4 priorities? Hitting the numbers is obviously at the top, but don’t overlook the need to plan for Q1 and find yourself a victim of high turnover rates in Q1 due to poor growth planning.
“If you want to move quickly from Q4 to Q1 execution, begin with the end in mind. While the planning process among your C-suite should be highly collaborative, it should also be a decision-making process.” [Read more here.]
Understanding the “SaaS Gold Rush”
ChartMogul
The third generation of SaaS is currently underway. The first generation was driven by the likes of Salesforce and Netsuite, and they removed the need for on-premise installs and continued maintenance. The second generation came along and, while very similar to the first generation, it ignited the shift toward lowering costs and easing of use for users. Expectations from users became higher, and you saw leaders like Zendesk, Basecamp, and Hubspot emerge. This third generation is seeing focus on lower costs of development and customer acquisition while new market types are opening. But what is to follow?
“What remains to be seen is how much of the market will be taken by startups being seed funded today versus one of the public SaaS or top 300 private cloud companies (some listed here are now acquired or public). “[Read more here.]
How We Generated Thousands of Sales Leads By Mapping One Process
Lucid Chart
The chief revenue officer of Lucid Charts, Dave Grow, explains how many of their leads have come from their support channel even though sales and support have long been separated in most cases. Learn how Lucid Chart turned their support channel into a sales machine.
“[I]t is often challenging — even for great companies — to establish a tangible link between top-notch support and financial goals.” [Read more here.]
10 Momentous Takeaways From SaaS Startups Failures
iamwire
As a whole, SaaS may be booming across the globe, but in the details, there is a LOT of failure. The good news is, there is growth and things to be learned in failure. Additionally, they don’t have to be your personal failures in order for you to learn a lesson. There is much to be learned by the failures other startups have already experienced.
“The failures of SaaS startups are big because the adoptions of new technology are critical for the evolution of businesses. Did they fail to meet market demands? If they did not, then what made them fall behind the competitors? The takeaways are of course momentous for every business owner to know.” [Read more here.]
Understanding The Sales Funnel
Austin Startups
There is much to be learned from the SaaS sales funnel. This article looks at the three primary ‘shapes’ a sales funnel can take: conservative, moderate, or aggressive. The conservative model is the most predictable. So how does a company work toward a conservative sales funnel where numbers can be most predictable? Qualifying is a crucial key in this.
“Developing a sales process that results in a conservative sales funnel requires tremendous discipline and is a strong indicator of general operational excellence. A startup with a conservative funnel knows how to identify, qualify, and close customers in a systematic way.” [Read more here.]
Video of the Week:
Tweet of the Week:
Four days left to cast your vote on where you think the best place to launch a #SaaS #StartUp is.
🇺🇸 with the most votes so far. pic.twitter.com/GEYfeaZvbc— saastronauts.io 🚀 (@Saastronaut) October 7, 2016