Last week, I attended the SaaStr Annual. This now-annual event is equal parts inspiration and celebration of companies who have achieved $0 to $100M and beyond in annual repeatable revenue (ARR). In other words, the number one goal of (almost) every SaaS company. Before I dive into why every marketer should attend similar entrepreneur-focused conferences, here’s my version of ARR:
Despite what some people think, SaaS is not a business model. It is infrastructure and a delivery model. Companies who have been successful with growing ARR have several characteristics in common:
- The ability to implement and repeat with little to no customization - Customers may be able to customize or personalize aspects of your service through their management dashboard, but if your developers need to get involved in significant customization for POCs, you are running a custom shop and will never be able to scale.
- Integration with other preferred and appropriate software - For example, an analytics company not integrated into SFDC and Marketo with plans to add more integrations soon needs to reset its priorities. I say appropriate because integration and partners must match your core value. Check out MobileIron’s partner program. It’s my new favorite partner ecosystem example because the choice of partners fits perfectly with the company’s core offering and value.
- Have hired the right type of sales and marketing executives - Since I’m a little too passionate about this subject to cover it in two sentences, I refer you to Jason Lemkin’s excellent blogs How to hire your (First) VP Sales (And not screw it up) and Hire the Right Type of VP Marketing — Or You’ll Just End Up With a Bunch of Blue Pens with Your Logo On Them.
There are many companies that have billed themselves as X as a Service that don’t fit. As cloud has become more mainstream for large enterprise, many of these have moved on to referring to themselves as “cloud-based, on-demand.”
So, why was a marketing executive like myself absorbing everything that was said that this year’s SaaStr Annual? Because marketing’s job is the work in sync with sales, not just send them leads through pneumatic tubes. Sales and marketing working harmoniously doesn’t mean marketing needs do everything sales wants. In fact, if this were the case, it would be to the detriment of the company. Sales and marketing need to have a “business first” approach. In other words, if I’m not watching everything that affects the business, I’ve failed at my job.
A good marketing professional, whether an CMO or a product marketing manager, needs to understand corporate goals, including all aspects of sales goals, not just quota numbers. How does the product support what is being sold now and where the market opportunities will be in the future? Are the (sales development reps) SDRs delivering (sales qualified leads) SQLs that have a good chance of resulting in a signed – and implemented – contract?
Yes, wading through a gaggle of entrepreneurs and SaaS executives is a very good way to spend a day.
