184: Drive SaaS B2B Growth By Building A Community - With Sangram Vajre
Jul 25, 2018
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Sangram Vajre, co-founder and CMO of Terminus, talks about driving SaaS B2B growth through building a community and account-based marketing. He discusses targeted advertising, engaging with potential customers, building a community-first approach, and the challenges of meeting customer expectations.
The founders of Terminus prioritize community-building over product pitching, holding conferences and creating online communities to educate and engage their prospective customers.
By adopting a community-first approach, Terminus has been able to validate their ideas, educate the market, and create a passionate following of advocates for their business.
Deep dives
Building a Community-First Approach
The founders of Terminus, a SaaS platform for account-based marketing (ABM), realized the importance of standing out in a crowded market. They focused on building a community and educating their prospective customers rather than just pitching their product. By organizing conferences and meetups and creating online communities, they brought together marketing and sales professionals to discuss the problem of low lead-to-customer conversion rates. Through their community-focused approach, they were able to validate their ideas, educate the market, and close deals. This community-first strategy has been key to Terminus' success.
Challenging the Status Quo
Terminus challenges the traditional problem-to-product approach by emphasizing a problem-market fit. Instead of rushing to build a product, they focus on building a community first. By offering value through educational content, conferences, and events like meetups, they educate and engage prospective customers. Terminus realizes that without a community, they would be just another commodity in a crowded market. This community-first approach allows them to create passionate followers who are not only open to new features and functionality but also become advocates for the company.
Lessons from Community Building
Terminus has built a thriving community around the concept of account-based marketing (ABM), highlighting the importance of community building in the success of a business. Their community-first strategy has helped them grow and validate their ideas. By organizing conferences, writing a book, and creating online communities, they have brought together like-minded professionals, attracted sponsors, and closed deals. This approach has enabled them to create a tribe of supporters, differentiate themselves from competitors, and change the way people approach ABM.
Community-Based Atlanta Tech Scene
The tech scene in Atlanta is growing rapidly and has great potential for hiring top talent. While funding may still be an area for development, the city has seen successful acquisitions and the rise of key companies. Atlanta's tech community embraces community-building practices, with many organizations hosting events and creating communities around their products. Terminus has found success in Atlanta by leveraging its talent pool and building a strong community-focused business.
Sangram Vajre is the co-founder and CMO of Terminus, a SaaS platform that enables sales and marketing teams to run account-based marketing (ABM) at scale.