4 essential traits you need to enter the MARKETING department of a SaaS company

My name is Juanita Solano, I'm currently working at Skeepers (SaaS European group) as the head of Marketing for Iberia and Italy. It's been a year and a half since I entered a SaaS company's marketing department. Today I want to share with you the 4 things you need to have, according to my experience, to enter the Marketing field of a SaaS company.?

What Is SaaS?

SaaS stands for Software as a Service. How does it work? Companies buy a subscription to the service that is accessible over the internet. This kind of service has revolutionized the industry, it does not need a server on-premises in your office, as all the data is stored in a remote cloud server. Salesforce was the first SaaS company, created by 3 founders in 1999. Since then, thousands of SaaS companies have been formed, among them Adobe, Google, and Zoom.

According to Fortune Business Insights, the software as a service market is expected to expand?from USD 130.69 billion in 2021 to USD 716.52 billion in 2028. This represents a growth of +450% in just 7 years! In consequence, the demand for SaaS talent will increase over the following years. But what traits do you need to enter a marketing department in this fast-growing industry??

1. You’re a performance-driven person

The SaaS industry is very young (1999) and in several cases, the companies within this industry are owned by investment funds.?These funds inject capital with the hope that the company, which is still under construction, will be profitable in around 7 years.?

Therefore, if you want to enter the Marketing department of a SaaS company, you need to be performance-driven. Your everyday obsession should be how many leads enter your funnel, which is the conversion rate, and how many of them effectively converted into opportunities and won deals. Be ready to make weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports that will help you understand where you are and how you should drive your strategy.?

2. You adapt easily

When I joined Skeepers (summer 2021), the group had around 200 employees. Just 3 months later, it transformed into a group with more than 400 employees. In such a rapidly changing environment, embracing change, accepting it, and facing it is mandatory. And change, not only in terms of growth and acquisition, but also in terms of technology.

Working in a software-based company, means you're linked to technology. Technology changes every day, and so do the possibilities and features you offer through your SaaS solutions. Thus, it is very important that you follow the products′ changes very closely because you'll be able to take this information to highlight the differences with competitors, attract a new lead or even retain an existing customer.?

3. Routine Bores You

This characteristic is linked with adaptability. Being able to adapt does not mean that you like change. As the head of Marketing for Iberia and Italy at Skeepers, the word “pattern” is not on my everyday basis. ?

In this position, I'm the principal point of contact between Central marketing teams and local sales teams. My main goals: increase brand awareness locally, attract new leads and convert them.

?To do so, one day I might be working in the organization of an event to meet prospects. Another, I might talk to the local sales leads to find new cross-sell opportunities and create the operational plan to launch pertinent actions, and then I might be creating solid relations with partners that help us grow. ?Additionally, the kind of projects we launch depends on the prospects′ preferences, so I need to be always connected, reading the latest marketing trends and preferences because the conference that works today could be tomorrow's podcast.

?4. You're a native communicator?

The 4th characteristic you need to have to enter the Marketing department of a SaaS company is to be a great communicator. And this means being able to communicate effectively with the different external targets and internal ones. You need to be able to communicate with everyone, from the intern that works within your team, to the country managers and even the CEO.

?Just a couple of months after I joined Skeepers, I had the opportunity to go to the headquarters in Marseille. What I didn’t know, was that the CEO of that time was going to join us at the after-work. I could talk to him for around half an hour, something unimaginable to me. The nearest contact I had with the CEO of the previous BtoB company I've worked with for 5 years, was seeing him enter the conference room every Monday without even looking at me once.?

So, is working in the Marketing department of a SaaS company right for you?

The first thing you need to consider is the potential of this industry, which, although it’s still new, has a solid development path. However, it is an industry still under construction, so if you are not a person that's willing to take risks, SaaS marketing is not the right place for you.

If you want to have a place in the marketing teams of a SaaS company, you need to be a performance-driven person always looking to deliver. You should be an adaptable person, who embraces change and sees it as an opportunity. You should as well be able to manage several projects on the same day and be an enemy of the routine, and last but not least, you should be a native communicator, always adapting to your internal/external interlocutors.

If you want to know more about the skills you need to enter the Marketing department of a SaaS company, I′m always willing to have a coffee, either physically if you’re located in Milan/Madrid, or digitally if you′re elsewhere, just DM me ??

From Marketing with ??

Juanita