It took me a while to understand the power of events and field marketing. And yes, there’s a lot of irony here given that we’ve been doing SaaStr Annuals since 2015 (!).
But $1 Trillion a year is spent on business events. Yes, one trillion.
Perhaps even more importantly, events represent 24% of the average B2B marketing budget.
One thing is clear — events are expensive, and budgets are under more scrutiny than ever. Putting on your own event is expensive — and complicated. Exhibiting at someone else’s event is expensive — and bounded. And the pipeline you generate often takes a while. Pipe from events rarely closes as fast as those amazing in-bound leads that found you on your own and are ready to buy today. (It’s just, there are only so many of those).
But the thing is, the right events, done right, can be magical. Why?
|
|
|
So I was trying to remember how at Adobe Sign / EchoSign we got to profitability at $5m in ARR, and still grew 100%
And then I looked back …
- We only had 25 employees (!) at $5 ARR. Everyone had to truly execute at a high level. This still happens today, but it’s rare.
- We spent almost $0 on marketing. We ran what today would be a 90% PLG playbook, with a 10% boost from self-serve.\
- We invested $0 in our self-serve business. Probably a mistake, but it let us put that money into sales comp.
- Our product was truly viral — and we did invest a lot there in ease-of-use and viral propagation at the product level. I didn’t fully understand it at the time, because viral coefficients are lower in B2B and our directly measured viral acquisition was maybe only 10%. But the number of high-quality leads it generated was outstanding.
This was too lean, however.
After we got cash-flow positive, we ramped up hiring and spend, and doubled not too long thereafter.
|
|
|
This edition of the SaaStr Daily is sponsored in part by MERGE
|
Merge’s Unified API allows you to access 150+ integrations across HR, payroll, ATS, accounting, CRM, and ticketing systems.
|
|
|
My short list:
- Not picking a great co-founder. There’s almost no point in picking one that isn’t truly, truly great. Nice isn’t enough. Fun to work with isn’t enough. You like working together isn’t enough. “Knows how to code” isn’t enough. “Good at sales” isn’t enough. They need to be truly great. Like, one of the best folks you’ve ever met great. That great.
- Not picking a co-founder as committed as you. Even if they’re strong, they still leave in 12–18 months, 24 max. More here.
- Not interviewing enough potential customers. At least 20-30. You might think you know what your potential customers want, but usually you are at best 20%-30% right. More here.
- Not having a plan to make it at least 24 months. How will you get at least that far? If you don’t have the money, etc. … then it’s just not enough time to hit that first inflection point in SaaS at least.
|
|
|
We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr over the years about all different types of VPs of Sales. From Stretch VPs to stage-appropriate VPs.
A great checklist here to make sure you’re making the right hire.
It’s worth also focusing on a related, high-level point. Especially if you sell to multiple customer segments (i.e., small, medium, and large) and through multiple processes (in-bound, out-bound, upsell, channel, partner) … you can’t expect your VP of Sales to be perfect at everything.
And surprisingly, many founders do.
|
|
|
This edition of the SaaStr Daily is sponsored in part by SAP
|
SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition delivers the latest industry best practices and continuous innovation to navigate change in the high-tech industry.
|
|
|
Wow, the VC turn out for our first-ever SaaStr APAC is really, really strong.
A partial list:
- Sequoia SEA is bringing 50 (!)
- Tin Men Capital
- B Capital
- Vertex Ventures
- Accel India
- Bessemer Venture Partners
- Lightspeed
- Altara Ventures
- Vulpes Ventures
- Cento Ventures
- MassMutual Ventures
- Mirae Asset Capital
- GGV
- Together Fund
- Qualgro Ventures
- IvyCap Ventures
- DNX Ventures
- Five Elms Capital
- AC Ventures
- Scalient Ventures
- Tencent Investments
- EQT Partners
- Cathay Innovation
- Powerhouse Ventures
- Arohi Asset Management
- SaaSCraft Ventures
- Vertigo Ventures
- Westbridge Capital Advisors
- Citi Institutional Investments
- Black Nova Venture Capital
- Monk’s Hill Ventures
- Carbide Ventures
|
|
|
The success of any company depends on its ability to consistently deliver commercially successful products to the market. Product marketing can be difficult, and managing product launches and rollouts can be complex. Hiring a product marketing manager (PMM), however, can help tackle the challenges of product marketing, ranging from further improving the product-market fit to analyzing the competitive landscape to understand how the product compares to competitors.
Imagine the increased success your product development team could achieve with a thorough understanding of the ideal target audience, including the specific product aspects they value and are willing to pay more for and why customers choose your product over others. Emi Hofmeister, VP of Product Marketing at Brex, discusses five signs that indicate it’s time to add a PMM to your team.
|
|
|
This Wednesday, our live Workshop Wednesday continue!
Jessica Bartos, Investor at Salesforce Ventures will be sharing: 5 Metrics Every SaaS Company Should Care About - for Success in Any Market Conditions.
Jessica was one of our top Meet a VC sessions from SaaStr Annual, and she'll be presenting this topic completely live on Wednesday.
|
|
|
© SaaStr 2023
255 Kansas, Suite 300, San Francisco, CA 94103
If you'd like to stop receiving the SaaStr Daily, click here
|
|
|
|
