?? ‘Twas the last musings of the year

‘Twas the night before year end, forecasts filled with jitter,

Not a dollar left to be spent, especially not at Twitter,

?

FTX crypto crashed and had us all unprepared,

But we were all distracted by SBF’s fabulous hair;

CEOs were waiting for the recession to start and stop,

And wishing they had cashed out at the NASDAQ market top;

And then one night, in my Spotify Wrapped,

I had just finished listening to Taylor Swift’s #1 track,

When out of nowhere, I heard my Slack start to chatter,

I opened my Macbook to see what was the matter,

Logged into Okta in less than a flash,

Checked SFDC - had the deals closed at last?

Then, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But another slipped commit deal - maybe next year!

In that moment, I knew what I needed to do real quick,

Write yet another parody poem, from a CEO named Nick.

We enter 2023 with unprecedented challenges as a tech community and I’ve never felt more grateful for you all. It will be hard, but we will get through it together. Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones!

– Nick Mehta

?? What Salesforce’s Earnings Call Tells Us About the SaaS Market

As David O. Sacks said recently, Salesforce is the "bellweather" of SaaS.

To that end, Salesforce's earnings call from last week had eight relevant points for SaaS leadership teams.

1. Seat-based pricing is facing a headwind due to the labor market: "customers who are reluctant to expand distribution capacity, they weren't adding service people, they froze their hiring, they initiated headcount reductions."

2. Every SaaS company is getting religion on margins: "We're raising our fiscal year 2023 non-GAAP operating margin guidance from 20.4% to 20.7%, an expansion of 200 basis points year over year, and I expect a lot more, especially with this increased focus we have on expanding our operating margin."

3. The main value for clients right now is saving money: "ensuring these digital transformation projects drive cost savings in addition to customer satisfaction and top-line growth."

4. Every multi-product vendor is driving to consolidate spend into their suite: "we know our customers need to consolidate their platforms and vendor relationships to reduce complexity and risk and to drive efficiency." If you're a point solution, the bigger vendors are coming for your clients.

5. Big vendors will be sticky through the downturn: "Despite the economic headwinds that Marc mentioned, we had record-low revenue attrition again this quarter, which is a testament to just how mission-critical Salesforce is to our customers, especially in this environment. "

6. Everyone is seeing sales cycle slips: "You recall that last quarter we noted measured customer buying behavior really beginning in July. This led to elongated sales cycles, additional deal approval layers, and deal compression, particularly in enterprise. As Q3 progressed, we saw an even more challenging buying environment, driving intense customer scrutiny on every investment dollar to ensure the highest return possible."

7. Cross-sell is the name of the game: "We continue to see multi-cloud expansion. You mentioned that. We think we have a huge opportunity to continue to sell to our existing customers, more of the products that are in our portfolio, both inorganic and the acquired companies that we have. And so, we still see a big opportunity for us to spend a lot of time with our customers, selling the entire product portfolio."

8. No one has a clue about next year's forecast: "As discussed, we are experiencing a very unpredictable macro environment as our customers are looking to ensure their businesses are also healthy for the long term. Compounding that dynamic is an unprecedented foreign currency market. Therefore, at this time, we believe it will be premature to provide revenue guidance for the next fiscal year."

It's never been more important for us all to be aware of the broader market landscape, so I hope this summary was helpful!

Add your thoughts here!

?? Pulse San Francisco

Pulse is back at Moscone Center!

Join us at Pulse in San Francisco,?May 17-18, 2023!

?? Get your early-bird discount tickets now through 12/31! ??

? Will the Economic Downturn Spark a New and Better Era of SaaS?

?? The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Customer Success Leader

?? Five Reasons Why SaaS Benchmarks Can Be Dangerous Without Context