SaaStr

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• Pretty Much Every App With an Enterprise Edition Uses “Contact Me” Pricing
• SaaS Start-Ups: Buck Up – It Really Does Get Easier. Or At Least — You Get Better.
• Why a Great Rep Can Close 9x More Than a Poor Rep, and Even 2.5x More Than a Good Rep

Pretty Much Every App With an Enterprise Edition Uses “Contact Me” Pricing Posted: 03 Jan 2022 07:24 AM PST With the rise of “Product Led Growth” as such a key concept in SaaS, it brings up an age-old question in business software: Should all pricing be transparent?  Doesn’t that just remove a huge amount of friction from buying?  Can you even have a mostly self-service motion in PLG with “Contact Me” in your pricing? Certainly “Contact Me” in pricing adds a human element, an additional step, and in many cases, friction to a sales process. But how common is Contact Me in 2022?  Has it gone more into fashion — or less? I took a quick look at many of the recent IPOs and other Cloud leaders that were especially PLG-ish, from Calendly to Notion, from Zoom to Slack, and more. And here’s what I learned: Basically Every B2B Product Uses “Contact Me” Pricing for their Enterprise Edition.  and Although many more B2D / API-focused products have mostly transparent pricing for their Enterprise Editions (GitLab, GitHub, Datadog) — others do not (Twilio Flex, New Relic, etc.).  It’s a mix. If Anything, “Contact Me” pricing in Enterprise Editions is more common than ever in apps that sell to customers Small, Medium and Large.  In other words, almost everyone with an app with transparent pricing for smaller editions adds “Contact Me” to their most enterprise edition. You can take a look at the summary data below: A related post here: Turns Out, 85% of the World Likes “Contact Me”. Even Though You Don’t. The post Pretty Much Every App With an Enterprise Edition Uses “Contact Me” Pricing appeared first on SaaStr.

SaaS Start-Ups: Buck Up – It Really Does Get Easier. Or At Least — You Get Better. Posted: 03 Jan 2022 05:45 AM PST One of one top engineers at Adobe Sign / EchoSign, who had strong experience both in consumer internet and enterprise internet, told me a while back the #1 reason he disliked SaaS / enterprise — it never gets easier.  His point was, once you solve the problems for Big Customer #1, then you get 10 more Big Customers.  Which is ten more problems.  Then 100 more customers.  That’s 100 more problems.  It gets worse, not better. A fair point for the dev team. And in some ways, it's also true for a VP of Sales.  No matter how well a startup is doing — you always have to hit a bigger number next quarter and next year.  You sort of never get a break as a VP of Sales. But one of my top learnings from to all the other SaaS start-ups out there: for the founders — it gets easier.  Not easy, but easier.  Once you get past 50 employees, it gets a lot easier.  Once you break through $10m in ARR, it gets even easier.  And once you break through about $15-$20m in ARR, it gets really, a dramatically whole lot easier. It’s not that it gets any easier to grow, or hit your plan, or make your investors happy.  That stays just as hard.  And competition gets harder as you cross this point – your competition sees it, and tries harder.  And more enter the space. But the day-to-day operational pain in SaaS companies seems to go away around $10m-$15m in ARR, depending on how each is structured, capital needs, etc.  At that point: Your customer base becomes more diverse, and not dependent on any whales. You have enough reference accounts.  You want more — but don’t need more logos, as great as they are. Your sales and client success teams are working as a team, as an imperfect but effective engine, and not dependent on a single rockstar or two. You hopefully have a real management team that can own each functional area.  Or at least, you are close to that.  A bit more here. You have a brand, maybe a small brand at first, but a real one.  This is a key inflection point in the getting-easier process.  More leads come in, more easily.  Customers still need to be sold, for sure, but at least you don’t have to kill yourself just to get into the discussion.  More here. You can’t be killed by BigCo entering the space or the competition.  Wounded, yes.  But not killed.  More here. Your product may still be rough in a lot of places, but it becomes pretty feature-rich.  You have what many customers need.  And this also starts to become a moat vs. other smaller entrants. You know the market so well, it’s pretty easy to see 2 years out, not just from a product side, but from a scaling revenue and team side.  Makes hiring much easier. So to my SaaS sisters and brothers out there, working to get to the first $1m in ARR, or $5m in ARR, or $10m in ARR, or $20m in ARR, my #1 learning and piece of advice.  Yes, you’ll have to put another plate (or two) on the bench press every 6 months (or insert whatever metaphor you prefer here). But —  It Gets Easier once you can’t be stopped.  Not easy, but easier when you reach the Inevitable phase. Really. (Note: an updated SaaStr Classic post) The post SaaS Start-Ups: Buck Up – It Really Does Get Easier. Or At Least — You Get Better. appeared first on SaaStr.

Why a Great Rep Can Close 9x More Than a Poor Rep, and Even 2.5x More Than a Good Rep Posted: 02 Jan 2022 06:46 AM PST As it turns out, all of these are within your control https://t.co/xUh8j7Qb68 — Robby Allen (@_RobbyAllen) February 23, 2021 We’ve talked a lot on SaaStr about great sales professionals, on driving up Revenue Per Lead, on not capping sales comp systems, and on why you need to manage out your worst reps (because leads are precious). What we haven’t done yet is put it all together in a simple, quantitative spreadsheet.  Let’s do that — it is eye-opening: This is what happens in the real world.  A great rep often literally closes 9x more than a poor rep.  And even 2.5x+ that of a decent, mid-pack rep.  With the exact same number — and same quality — of leads. But how?  How does this happen?  It’s several factors compounding: First, the best reps close more seats / more revenue per deal.  They are better at mapping out business processes, at discovering how many seats, units, whatever there is to sell … and they just sell more.  Like clockwork. The great reps truly and quickly and effectively learn how much each prospect really can buy — and they get that much.  Without fear, and without ripping the customer off. Second, the best reps generally discount less.  Not always, but usually.  The best reps get very confident in the value proposition.  And poor reps and even mediocre reps fall back on the only arrow in their quiver — A Discount!!  But discounting a product a prospect doesn’t really want doesn’t really work.  In fact, it can harm close rates. Finally, the best reps close faster and close more.  They don’t mess around, or play games.  They know time is the enemy of deals.  They get very good at key objections.  The know the product and the pitch and the value prop cold.  They build strong relationships with prospects, and add enough value they can ask for a favor back — the sale.  They close better and faster. These 3 factors together have a compounding effect, which is key.  You can still be a good rep and just be good at some of these 3 factors.   If you are great at all 3, then magic happens. The top reps close larger deals than a mid-pack rep, discount just a bit less, and close faster … and the three factors together pull them far, far ahead of the pack.  For the same amount of effort (and often, even less total time). This is also why you have to fire the poor reps fast.  You need to see if they can deliver.  But if they can’t, they don’t just miss quota.  They leave all the money in the spreadsheet above on the table. Put differently, in the above scenario, the above Poor Rep left $160,000 on the table ($189,000-$20,790). In just one quarter.  Revenue that was there for the taking.  The leads were there.  Waiting to be sold to. Route those leads to someone better, and magic will happen.  Fast. (Note: an updated SaaStr Classic post) The post Why a Great Rep Can Close 9x More Than a Poor Rep, and Even 2.5x More Than a Good Rep appeared first on SaaStr.

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