“Sshhh... it’s a secret.” 

“Um, okay.” 

But… 

Maybe, it shouldn’t be. 

Listen, business is hard enough. There’s no reason your SaaS company should struggle, alone, on the way to its unicorn status. It's totally possible to get what you want … 

  • Higher ARR. 
  • Less overhead.  
  • Better customers. 

Without all the heartache.  

So, I’m going to show you 3 things no one knows about SaaS, that will help scale your business. But first, let’s talk about the things you need to succeed. 

First things, first. 

Have you ever had a really bad experience somewhere and never gone back? 

Maybe it was at a favorite store, restaurant, or even the theatre. Regardless of where it was, what happened there left a bad taste in your mouth and you never came back.  

You’re not alone.  

In fact, 1 in 3 customers will leave a brand they love after just one bad experience.1 

Yikes. 

When it comes to customer onboarding, there's no margin for error. You’ve got to get the customer experience right the first time, to lower churn rates, and increase your customer’s lifetime value.  

So, one of the things you should be keeping in mind is how to keep customers engaged. 

It's easier than it sounds. 

I promise. 

You just need a little help.  

Picture this.  

A happy customer, named Mike, is learning how to do new things in your software every day. Mike has high monthly active usage, and is an early adopter of all your new feature releases. Not only is he engaged, he's also a brand advocate. Mike is quoted in your case studies and joins your marketing webinars. He’s a renewal shoo-in.   

All you need to do is study and replicate his adoption experience ... again and again. 

So, you hire a customer success team.  

That’s what all SaaS firms do. 

Right? 

The data tells us that customer success teams can reduce churn, improve retention, and drive revenue.  

Great. 

But, here’s the truth. As a SaaS company, your success is tied to your scalability. The bigger your customer success team is, the harder it is for you to make a profit. People don’t scale.   

So, I’ll tell you what does.  

Automation. 

More on that in a minute. First, here are the 3 things you can do now to scale your business. 

#1: Be smart. 

You’re right to want CSMs. 

Now, you just need a way to get the most out of them. You do that by helping them focus on your high-touch accounts. Here’s the gold standard. Your CSM should be shepherding any account that falls with your 80/20 rule. As you know, about 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your accounts. 

That’s where you want them. 

Guide your CSMs to handhold the high-end accounts. Each one can manage about $2MM in ARR, focused this way. 2 You’ll see dividends go up as personalized service and excellent customer experience is generated. After all, 86% will pay more for a great customer experience.3  

Next, keep your costs down. 

#2: Be sustainable. 

Grow at the pace you need to succeed. 

SaaS is tough. Too many companies struggle with how to balance growth with overhead. And, it’s easy to see why. You’ve been told that 92% of SaaS companies growing at 20% per year, will fail. So, you’re tempted to add a bunch of CSMs to the mix to make sure you keep retaining your standout customers. 

That’s a misstep. 

You can’t grow with a massive amount of overhead. 

The truth is, while other companies have a 12–14% general and administrative (G&A) expense range compared to revenue — SaaS companies have up to 20%.4 You’re already walking uphill, just by being in the software business. You don’t want to make things even harder by having too many CSMs. 

So, how do you keep costs down? 

Let’s go back to automation. 

#3: Be automated. 

You need help. 

Specifically, a way to move thousands of users through your platform, without too much overhead. You need to replicate Mike’s experience above, without adding hundreds of CSMs.  

You can do that with automation.  

That’s how you can reduce risk, save time, and give your company more control over the competition. 5 It's easier than it sounds. There are now software training platforms that allows you to automate up to 50% of what a CSM does. Imagine that. Being able to do everything you need with 50% of the cost.  

Automation personalizes the software user’s experience. It empowers your customers — to gain deep product knowledge of your SaaS tool through videos, tutorials, PDFs, and live events. Each user is given an individual path, with reinforced learning. You get to track the progress on a dashboard. 

Everyone wins. 

The software user gets a better experience. You get a loyal, life-long customer who is happy, engaged and retained … year after year. Want to see how it works? Send us an email.  

 

References:  

  1. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/zz-test/assets/pwc-consumer-intelligence-series-customer-experience.pdf#page=9 
  2. https://www.helpscout.com/helpu/customer-success/#:~:text=By%20proactively%20eliminating%20potential%20customer,and%20renewals%2C%20and%20drive%20revenue 
  3. https://brooke-land.medium.com/how-to-prioritize-accounts-e86c5a25b66b  
  4. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/advisory-services/publications/consumer-intelligence-series/pwc-consumer-intelligence-series-customer-experience.pdf  
  5. https://www.saasholic.com/whats-ga-and-why-it-matters-for-saas/  
  6. https://blog.toriihq.com/why-automation-is-critical-to-saas-management