Your SaaS New Year’s Resolutions for 2025

So we have a classic set of New Year’s Resolutions in SaaS that we update every year. Over the years, so much has changed in SaaS. The best grow faster than ever. And yet, many are still struggling to get over the Crash of 2022. AI is remaking so many categories, but it’s often murky exactly … how.  And while unicorns are back in force, IPOs and Big M&A isn’t.  Not yet, at least.

So with that … here are Your Top 10 New Year’s SaaS Resolutions for 2025.

This edition of the SaaStr Daily is sponsored in part by Prismatic

Stop letting your lack of integrations block deals and derail your product roadmap. Learn how to build a scalable integration strategy with this guide.

In my relatively brief tenure as a VP at a Fortune 500 tech company, I struggled a bit dealing with the processes, systems and bureaucracy.   But in the time since, I’ve mellowed a bit and realized a lot of the processes actually made a lot of sense, especially when you have 15,000+ employees.  You have to have good systems and processes at scale.

One that was most interesting to me, and one I recommend adopting in the New Year (or really, ideally in December of each year), is the Annual Top 5% and Bottom 5% identification.

Be transparent. And show them an honest, data-driven path to a better future.

• First, investors get most upset when founders hide things. And founders tend to hide things more when times are tougher. So … share more:
• Make sure you send a monthly investor update out ASAP after the month ends. Ideally, the very next day. It instills confidence.
• Have investor meetings over Zoom every 60 days, even if you don’t have to.
• Do honest, root cause analyses of why things aren’t working.  And speak with data. Data inspires more confidence. Not “woe is me”. That doesn’t.
• Show a plan to improve at least a few key things, and how that will impact growth / burn / etc. Make sure it is grounded in reality and the current product roadmap.
• Always be sharing your Zero Cash Date, and own the implications of when you are currently running out of money. Yes, it’s your fault if you don’t have enough capital. And your job to make sure it lasts. Blaming others for running out of money undermines confidence 100%.  Even if sometimes, there’s a shred of truth in it. Way, way too many founders just don’t own the Zero Cash Date …. and a plan to never actually hit it.

Don't miss your chance to join 13,000+ SaaS founders, executives, and investors at the world's largest B2B SaaS conference. For a limited time, secure your spot at SaaStr Annual 2025 and enjoy Holiday savings.

Former Head of Revenue at BILL and HubSpot Americas leader Michelle Benfer recently joined us on a SaaStr Workshop Wednesday share her insights on one of the most critical roles in any SaaS organization: the frontline sales manager. Having led sales teams of 500+ at BILL and 800+ at HubSpot, Michelle has unique insights into what makes great frontline managers and why investing in them is crucial for sustainable growth.

So it was just the other day Salesforce somewhat stunned the tech world by announcing it would hire 1,000 folks in sales and marketing to sell AgentForce and its AI products — while keeping other hiring, including engineering, flat.

Well that must have gone well as Salesforce is now hiring 2,000 (!) in sales to sell AI.

Per The Information, Benioff has also instructed his sales team to go all-in and put AI and Agentforce into every deal possible.

It’s a bit counterintuitive at first — isn’t AI replacing people? But we all know enterprise software. It doesn’t sell itself. Not really.

Salesforce and Benioff are all in on agents and AI for its platforms. They know they can sell it, and they need to sell it now.  They need 2,000 new sales execs for that.  And while Salesforce’s growth has slowed dramatically the past 2 years, it did bounce back a bit last quarter, and its stock is up 33% this year.

Simple answer: most don’t. 

You can, especially in the early days. But very few SaaS companies pay sales reps on renewals as they scale. And you can definitely pay on upsells and account expansion.

Longer reason: most SaaS companies don’t pay AEs on renewals — because you want to specialize. We’ve all learned this over the past years in SaaS:

• You want qualifiers qualifying — BDRs.
• You want openers opening — SDRs.
• You want closers closing — AEs.
• You want retainers retaining — CS.
• You want renewers renewing — CS or even Accounting, sometimes.
• You want upsellers upselling — AM or sometimes AEs.
• You want each rep only selling into the segments they are best at — so you segment your team into Small, Medium, and Field/Large prospects. And later maybe even into industries and verticals. And direct and indirect. Etc. etc.

© SaaStr 2024

644 Emerson St. Suite 200, Palo Alto, CA, 94301

If you'd like to stop receiving the SaaStr Daily, click here