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SaaStr 2017: My takeaways from day 1

Written by Hoala Greevy | February 08, 2017

The SaaStr Annual is the preeminent SaaS (Software as a Service) conference. It kicked off yesterday with long lines and rain in San Francisco. Several advisers had recommended this conference to me, so I bought my ticket months ahead of time. Here are some of my takeaways from day one of SaaStr Annual 2017.

 

SaaStr Annual 2017: How to Build a Sales Team 1-100

 

Building a Sales Team from 1-100 is Really Hard

  • There are three phases of sales growth.
  • Product market fit may be revisited later when targeting new markets
  • Build measure learn for product market fit. Do lots of experiments quick
  • Most dangerous error: CEO magic. Rules get broken. Too much bespoke features and rolling over on legal terms. Sales Team won't work w/o CEO magic. Or YC magic (lol)
  • Case studies, testimonials, advocates. Needed early on.
  • Lessons from Oracle: Document everything. Turn it into workflow; Training machine. Emphasis on Employee development; Emphasis on sales culture and frontline managers.

 

SaaStr Annual 2017: How I Built Our First Functional Customer Success Organization

Standing room only in the Tactical Room

 

  • Three pillars of Customer Success: Professional Services, Customer Success Manager, Tech Support
  • Psychology degrees preferred for CSM's
  • Don't put quotas on CSM's. not in their DNA.
  • Sales owns the quota. Customer success has to be a willing partner to help them get there.
  • Customer Success can be looked at as a revenue driver. Growing accounts delicately. Don't lose customers' trust.
  • CSM's should challenge the customer (in a diplomatic way)
  • Customer Success is the intersection of revenue, marketing, product and support.
  • You need someone at the table thinking about the customer all the time.
  • V2MOMs got a mention (yay)

 

SaaStr Annual 2017: How To: NPS 75 with 40K Customers

  Joshua Reeves, Co-founder and CEO of Gusto with Lexi Reese, Gusto CXO
  1. What is your customer experience strategy?
  2. Who are you willing to be bad for?
  3. How do you devise a customer experience framework that works for your business?
  4. What will you do when you screw up?
  5. What are your Non-Negotiables?

SaaStr Annual 2017: Making Sure Your CAC Doesn't Kill You: Driving Low Cost Customer Acquisition

  The room was overflowing with people at this point

 

  • Reduce friction when onboarding a new customer
  • Fix leaky buckets fast
  • Happy customers make everyone's job easier
  • Aggressive outbound can burn through the market and negatively affect your brand.
  • Invest more in content. Go all in. All employees post. Have a strategy around distribution.
  • Start small with account based marketing. Can be done on the cheap.
  • People always want to hear from the CEO.
  • Be first into a new channel, CAC is always going to be low.

 

SEE ALSO: My Takeaways from SaaStr Annual 2017 Conference (Day 2)

SEE ALSO: My Takeaways from SaaStr Annual 2017 Conference (Day 3)

 

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