SaaS thinking, SaaS Doing
Shamanth Shankar
Accenture | SaaS Startups Executive | SLB Product Operations | FET Sales Operations | Non-profit President
Service is the last word in SaaS; however, service is the center of the SaaS world. In the Subscription Economy, in addition to being right, customers have more power. SaaS providers know that their customers have the option to unplug their software and onboard their competitor with ease at any time. Customers, today, rely that their software providers are focusing on three foundations: Simplicity, Speed and Support.
Simplicity
- Ease of use: Applications need to be easy to use with minimal onboarding time and a lot of self-help and guided support.
- Ecosystem capabilities: Applications need to be able to easily plug into an existing enterprise system and should be future-ready.
- Pricing flexibility: Simple pricing strategies with the flexibility to pay for your needs.
Speed
- Platforms and applications need to perform fast on their use cases and scale in and out quickly to accommodate volume.
- New product capabilities need to be delivered in shorter release sales cycles.
- DevOps teams need to be able to support their customers at the same velocity through CI/CD.
Support
- Customers don’t want to be woken up 3 am in the morning, they expect their software providers to be able to automate application monitoring and troubleshooting. At the same time, if they are woken up, they expect instantaneous support.
- Customers want to ensure that software providers are leveraging the latest services the cloud providers have to offer so that vendors aren't developing custom code that needs additional support.
To achieve these while “building on the go” [read Tom Tunguz's https://tomtunguz.com/selling-your-product-as-you-build-it/], SaaS providers practice transparency in the product capabilities and in their business model. SaaS providers recognize that right from marketing to support, they need to constantly communicate "where we are, where we going and how we are going to get there" to build a long lasting trusted relationship. They embrace the philosophy of transparency and trust within the walls of the company as much as they implement it outwardly. The eternal adage “do what you say and say what you do" is the foundation of a SaaS company in acquiring, retaining and adding value to their customer and partner ecosystem while “moving fast and making things".
What I learned from speakers at SaaStr 2019 [a great takeaway from Mihir Mehta here] is that the platform upon which generational SaaS companies are built on is made of Grit, Curiosity, Willingness, Openness and Collaboration.
Here are links to my posts from SaaStr 2019
https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6499332959265447936
https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6499037463107948545
https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6498971712133099521
https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6498683982819975168
https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6498622241088032768
Commercial Account Executive at Outreach
5 年Loved the last takeaway of "the platform upon which generational SaaS companies are built on is made of Grit, Curiosity, Willingness, Openness and Collaboration." These values are exactly what brought me to Outreach.?
Solution-Oriented Sales Consultant | Lifelong Learner | Proud Girl Dad & Husband | Delivering Expertise, Family Values, and Innovative Solutions to Drive Success
5 年Excellent article Shamanth, I look forward to reading what new insights you will share next!
Helping businesses Buy Now, Pay Later with Credit Key
5 年I love the points that you are making within this article! Especially the point about speed, it is the very reason as to why SaaS exists! Everyday I use some type of SaaS product and without speed or support I cannot effectively do my job, great article!?
Senior Account Executive - APAC at Outreach
5 年Great article Shamanth! Grit and openness are values we value above all else.
RevOps and Sales
5 年Great article. It's also easy for people to forget that prospects and potential buyers need to be treated similarly to our customers. A great prospect experience is built upon these same principles and good service often leads to new customers.?