Grow Your B2B SaaS

How can you Win Against Big Competitors? Imagine your product competing against one of the biggest and already established Brands like Excel. What product strategy should you implement to measure up to the biggest market competition? A clear product strategy is crucial in today's increasingly competitive business environment. Accordingly, this is our topic of discussion in today's special live-on-stage episode. Our guest expert, Torben Schulz is the co-founder and CEO of spreadsheet creator Rows.   Why you should listen to Torben: With a management and consulting professional background, Torben is the founder of Rows, which seeks to become the best spreadsheets in the world. With household competition like Excel and Google Sheets, Rows' product strategy is geared towards giving users a more straightforward interface and data connectivity. In summary, Torben says the remarkable of his company are the reason any SaaS founder should give him a listening ear. Why a SaaS needs a clear product strategy: Torben argues that a clear product strategy gives direction to the SaaS and its people. With a clear product strategy in place, the designers and engineers in the organization have the necessary freedom and creativity to work on specific tasks. What is an ideal product strategy: The main building block of a clear product strategy, according to Torben, is a clear vision statement. The vision spells out the ideal customer profile and the problem that the product offers a solution to at present and in the future. In addition, it should articulate the jobs to be done in order to give direction to the people tasked with implementing the strategy. Importance of integrations in a product strategy: Torben indicates that integrations are key elements of Rows because they offer tangible value to the users. According to customer feedback, integrations is one of the main reason users prefer Rows over similar tools by competition. Although integrations are a major value driver, Rows adopts a freemium model, only charging for them upon upgrade after 10,000 executions in a single month. Our guest expert also addresses the element of churn regarding integrations, stating there is a low probability of churn when various spreadsheets and integrations are used. Free-trial integrations often have low retention because they are easy to use and do not need third-party intervention. On the other hand, integrations dealing with such complex workflows as Bigquery and Facebook, for instance, have lower churn rates because they require professional assistance with the tools. Time Stamps (0:39) Topic and guest expert introduction (01:38) Why you should listen to Torben (03:43) Why a SaaS needs a clear product strategy (04:46) What is an ideal product strategy (05:45) Importance of integrations in a product (08:23) Challenges with using multiple integrations (11:18) Role of a customer in product strategy (14:50) Importance of Artificial intelligence for SaaS (16:57) Other benefits of integrations to Rows (19:08) Common mistakes for companies with their product strategy (21:27) Advice to SaaS companies with 10k MRR (23:14) Advice to SaaS companies with 1M ARR

Is your B2B SaaS growing predictably? To realize desired growth, it helps to have the traction you can predict. This requires putting in place a working plan, which our expert guest today clearly spells out. Ton Dobbe is most suited to talk about predictable growth, given his many years working in the B2B industry. He is also the author of the informative book titled The Remarkable Effect. Why you need to listen to Ton: Our guest expert is highly experienced in matters B2B SaaS, having worked in the industry for over 30 years. His book, The Remarkable Effect, provides a tried and tested framework for accelerating your journey towards predictable traction. He has helped several companies with strong products that struggle with growing predictably. From the few business examples he quotes, it is clear that his framework is highly successful for businesses across various industries. What is predictable traction: Ton defines predictable traction as "the art of turning initial success into reliable acceleration motion of sales, not only in good times but also in bad times." He reckons that while any marketer can create traction for their product, the most important thing is the ability to keep getting up, especially during downturns. Why did he write The Remarkable Effect framework book: He was inspired by a guest on his podcast to write a book. As such, he wrote the book in which he captured all his past experiences and anecdotes from his podcast episodes. He titled it The Remarkable Effect from the podcast stories of remarkable software company personnel he hosted on his podcast. Ton was interested in discovering what makes remarkable software companies tick. The value lever of The Remarkable Effect framework: Ton unpacks the building stones of his remarkable effect framework: Value, Viability, and Volume. The value lever forms the foundation of a B2B SaaS, which spells out the remarkable aspects of the business in terms of the value their product or service provides to the ideal customer profile. Further, the business should provide a valuable and desirable product. Time Stamps (0:30) Introduction of today's topic and guest expert (1:31) Why you need to listen to Ton (04:30) What is predictable traction (05:15) Why did he write The Remarkable Effect Framework book (08:09­) The value lever of The Remarkable Effect framework (11:09) The viability lever of The Remarkable Effect framework (17:33) Step 3 The Volume lever of The Remarkable Effect framework (22:43) Common mistakes for business in predictable growth (26:27) How to implement The Remarkable Effect framework (27:46) When does a company need professional help with predictable growth (30:30) Advice to B2B SaaS with 10K MRR (33:14) Advice to B2B SaaS with 1M ARR (36:50) Ton's contact information

What is sales prospecting? And are you doing it right in your SaaS? In today's ever-competitive SaaS industry you must perform sales prospecting correctly to realize maximum growth. In this episode, we host a self-declared "Natural Geek" Founder, Investor, and Late Night Innovator Rob Harlow. Why you need to listen to Rob: He is a specialist in social Prospecting and has seen his company's Outbase grow tremendously year on year. Rob has access to a massive database of over 20 million prospects across 70 countries worldwide. As an industry leader in prospecting in the UK, their annual report, The State of Prospecting, is now a highly sought-after benchmark for Prospecting and optimization. What is Prospecting: Rob defines Prospecting as finding the right person in the right organization to determine that your product or service offering perfectly fits. He argues that Prospecting is an everyday function that every salesperson in an organization has undertaken or has become versed with. Prospecting has grown more sophisticated in the digital space with the advancement in technology. As such, companies can leverage more significant amounts of data and utilize various automated processes. Rob identifies three aspects as the main areas of Prospecting: researching, identifying, and engaging. Importance of Prospecting to SaaS Companies: In addition to product-led and sales-led growth, B2B SaaS companies require sales prospecting to match their ideal customer profile precisely. As an outbound strategy, Prospecting enables a B2B SaaS to scale its sales and marketing efforts. Our guest advises that a company should place prospecting at the center of the sales process, given today's digital capabilities. Minimum requirements for prospecting at a company: Our guest expert says that a company needs to have a functional CRM in place before starting the prospecting function. The CRMs serve to manage incoming leads and customer conversations properly. In addition, having a well-documented sales process is crucial because it makes the prospecting campaign a success. Common mistakes companies make in Prospecting: Rob points out that most companies need a sound technical setup to enable a successful prospecting effort. Given that emailing is also an integral part of Prospecting, the functionality of the messaging tools is crucial. An extensive target group also results in messaging that does not appeal to everyone, thus failing Prospecting. It is important to send emails to reach the right target accounts. Key Time Codes (0:08) Introduction of topic and guest (1:11) Why you need to listen to Rob: (2:15) What is Prospecting (5:19) Importance of Prospecting to SaaS Companies (7:00) Minimum requirements for prospecting at a company (9:23) Common mistakes companies make in Prospecting (14:30) Main takeaways from The State of Prospecting 2023 Report (18:50) Effectiveness of the email as a market channel (21:16) Strategies for effective Prospecting (25:40) Future Trends in Prospecting (32:35) Advice to SaaS company with 10K MRR  (34:03) Advice to SaaS company with 1M ARR (36:05) Rob's contact information

Did you know that experimenting can result in desired growth for your B2B SaaS? Experimenting can help to establish what’s working for the business and growth inhibitors. In B2b SaaS business terms, we call this experimentation “growth hacking” or “growth marketing.” In today’s episode, we revisit the exciting topic of launching on Product Hunt. Our guest expert is a real “hunter,” Fabian Maume, a contractual CMO for SaaS companies. He shares his experience of successfully launching a product on Product Hunt. Fabian also enlightens us on why launches differ and what tricks are for success. Why do you need to listen to Fabian – He has undertaken various product launches, achieving a “Product of the Day” ranking along the way. Furthermore, Fabian has made five times the top 5 of the day on Product Hunt. He, therefore, has gained valuable experience in launching the platform for SaaS. Difference between maker and hunter – The term maker refers to the people who develop a product, also comprising the marketing team in a SaaS company. On the other hand, hunters relate to people who spot new SaaS companies or give exposure to the Product. Furthermore, Fabian explains that a hunter has an existing audience on their social media that they leverage for exposure to the Product. The hunter also doubles as an advisor to the SaaS company on pre-launch. Benefits of launching on Product Hunt – Launching on the platform provides a SaaS with significant organic reach. The degree of exposure depends on the level of ranking that the company has attained. Secondly, a SaaS earns a badge for the operators of the day when they finish in the top 5 categories. This reliable source of social proof is increasingly relevant in today’s digital marketplace. Thirdly, a business benefits from a free Do Follow backlink on the platform.  Key Timecodes (0:30) Introduction of topic and guest expert (01:30) Why do you need to listen to Fabian  (02:05) Difference between maker and hunter  (03:54) Benefits of launching on Product Hunt  (05:27) Prepping for the launch  (07:40) Importance of finding a good hunter  (09:35) Things to do on launch day –   (13:29) Does the day of the week matter for a launch  (14:23) Best practices for launching  (16:40) Minimum requirements for launching on Product Hunt  (19:13) Things to do after launch day (21:23) Growth hacks for launching on Product Hunt  (22:23) Common mistakes companies make during product launch on Product Hunt  (24:12) Importance of professional help during the launching  (25:32) Role of affiliates in product launch on Product Hunt  (27:27) Advice to a SaaS with 10k MRR  (30:06) Advice to a SaaS with 1M ARR  (33:20) Fabian’s contact information.

Do you have the necessary demand to create your B2B SaaS? In today's episode, we discuss creating a demand strategy for your SaaS and accelerating your growth. In today’s episode we are privileged to host the head of growth at Bonjoro, Casey Hill, is an authority on this subject matter. He advises various startups and doubles as a growth mentor and professor at the University of California, Santiago. Why you need to listen to Casey – He has worked with various early-stage startups between zero MMR to 1M ARR. He is also experienced with demand generation strategies for maturing companies. Therefore, Casey is best placed to offer valuable advice on things to do in order for a SaaS to realize desired demand generation. What do you consider demand generation – He describes demand generation as actions explicitly capturing the core interest at the top of the funnel. Demand generation strategies are not product-centric strategies related to demand capture. To capture interest, a SaaS founder has to create a problem to which they offer a solution. Key Timecodes (0:30) Introduction of the topic and guest (1:15) Why you need to listen to Casey (2:14) What do you consider demand generation (4:02) What needs to be in place before starting to create demand (5:38) Common mistakes SaaS companies make while setting up demand generation (8:13) How do you include affiliate partners in the demand generation strategy (13:20) Best-practice strategies and processes for demand generation (21:44) Challenges people face when setting up demand generation strategy  (25:47) How do you track your many channels  (29:45) Advice to SaaS business with 10K MMR  (32:11) Advice to SaaS business with 1M AAR  (37:00) Casey's contact information.

Is your B2B SaaS struggling in a saturated market? Do you know the hacks and tricks of staying competitive in the increasingly crowded B2B SaaS market? If that's your current dilemma, then this is your episode. With our guest Alan Gleeson, we talk about how to curve a niche and become competitive in the B2B SaaS market that is becoming crowded daily. Why you should listen to Alan – He has gained immense experience from his involvement in the B2B SaaS market since browser software rendering became possible. Furthermore, Alan has worked as a consultant to more than 50 B2B SaaS companies in different countries. He has seen the inside of a lot of Google Analytics accounts at different growth levels, gaining a valuable understanding of growth drivers in a saturated market. Why start a B2B SaaS in a crowded market –B2B SaaS businesses are becoming more and more successful and have relatively low startup costs. On the other hand, he identifies the primary difficulty as the B2B SaaS market's competition due to the growing number of competitors. A very specialized or niched, obscure startup struggles with poor Google exposure or a competitive market sector that is oversaturated calls for a strong differentiation strategy. He characterizes competition as beneficial for a startup with a well-developed strategy.  What should be in place before venturing into a competitive B2B SaaS market – You need to be aware of the table sticks features expected of the specific market category. Also, it is necessary to satisfy the product-fit requirement by initially gathering the required research. Key areas include competitor pricing, core features, search engine marketing companies, and a well-defined ideal customer profile. It would be best to consider only commercializing your B2B SaaS after validating all the assumptions. Key Time codes (0:30) Introduction to today's topic and guest (1:26) Why you should listen to Alan  (1:26) Why start a B2B SaaS in a crowded market (4:08) What should be in place before venturing into a competitive B2B SaaS market  (6:34) Understanding your ideal customer profile (7:18) Other common mistakes for B2B SaaS in a crowded market  (10:21) Strategies and processes of winning in a crowded market  (12:50) Importance of market knowledge in a niche market (16:25) Challenges of building B2B Saas in a crowded market  (21:18) How do you plan for Contento to remain competitive (25:56) How does indirect marketing help B2B SaaS in a crowded market  (28:20) Advice to SaaS founder with 10k MMR (30:48) Advice to SaaS founder with 1M AAR  (34:45) Alan's contact information

What is Product Hunt? And why is it important to your B2B Saas? Becoming the number one searched product is not a walk in the park. Growing visibility of your product is crucial to the growth of your B2B SaaS business. One of the best ways to achieve this high visibility is by leveraging the networks of other sites. In today’s episode, we host Robin Singhvi, the founder of SmartCue. Robin is a product hunt expert, and in this episode, he will teach us some tricks and hacks for having your product rank number one without a marketing team.  Why you should listen to Robin – He has been part of many startups, which all had exits. Robin is also well-traveled and experienced, having lived in the US, India, and Europe. Singularly, he managed to rank #1 on Product Hunt without the help of a marketing team. What is Product Hunt? – Robin speaks of Product Hunt as a distribution channel, like LinkedIn, email, affiliate marketing and sites like Reddit. However, Product Hunt gives you almost instant visibility to thousands of people. As a result, your business can get the attention of potential investors much faster, as well as increase revenue. Why SaaS companies need to list on Product Hunt – SaaS companies stand to benefit greatly from Product Hunt in terms of increased visibility and fast and valuable user product. In addition, Product Hunt allows for effective testing of your product positioning. Why ranking number 1 on Product Hunt matters – Ranking number one on Product Hunt greatly benefits a SaaS business. It gives the company high credibility with other SaaS companies seeking to affiliate with the business. It can also bring more traffic, leads, signups, partnerships, and investors. Common mistakes when launching on Product Hunt – Robin observes that most companies often treat their product launch as an after-thought as opposed to being part of the plan from the word go. Given product launch on the site is highly competitive, it is necessary to plan ahead by engaging with the community. Also, some companies lack authenticity and thus force things without a working strategy that entails building awareness. Strategies for launching on Product Hunt – Our guest expert advises a startup to utilize 60 days pre-launch to get things in order. This period should go into building a community and awareness. Leveraging communication channels and testing product positioning, among other go-to-market strategies, is important.   Key Time codes (0:30) Introduction of today’s topic and guest expert (1:34) Why you should listen to Robin (2:34) What is Product Hunt (3:15) Why SaaS companies need to list on Product Hunt (4:00) Why ranking number 1 on Product Hunt matters (6:35) Common mistakes when launching on Product Hunt (8:32) Strategies for launching on Product Hunt (10:40) Recommendations for pre-launch (13:10­) Best practices during the actual launch on Product Hunt (15:55) How he landed one of the best hunters for his launch (17:21) Things to do post-launch (19:55) About his next product launch (22:10) Advice to startups with 10k MRR (23:50) Advice to businesses with 1M ARR (26:40) Robin’s contact information

As a SaaS founder, it is crucial to understand how to get customer insight and leverage them for the growth of your Saas business. In today's episode, our guest is Katya Ryabova. Katya enlightens us on Customer-led Growth strategy, how to get started and its place in a SaaS company. As a researcher and consultant, Katya advises over a dozen SaaS and tech companies.   Why you need to listen to Katya - As a certified Customer-Led Growth consultant, She has gained immense experience working with many SaaS and tech companies. Over the past 13 years, she has built on her social research background to help SaaS founders to run their customer research and turn it into actionable insight that informs the decision-making on their product and marketing. What is Customer-Led Growth strategy (CLG)- Katya defines Customer-Led Growth strategy as an array of repeatable strategies that a business owner can implement at every strategy to realize growth. It entails gathering customer information, interpreting it, and mapping it according to the ideal customer profile. It is an effective strategy for understanding the gaps and opportunities in the market to enable customers to find you and convert quicker. Katya clarifies that CLG is not a substitute or competitor to sales-led growth or Product-Led Growth strategies. She sees it as a foundation by which a SaaS founder can implement along with other growth strategies.  Timecodes (0:30) Introduction of today's topic and guest expert (1:28) Why do you need to listen to Katya (02:01) What is a Customer-Led Growth strategy (CLG) (05:08) Minimum requirements for implementing CLG strategy (06:54) Importance of understanding your ideal customer profile (ICP)  (08:58) Metrics for measuring the success of CLG strategy (10:35) Common mistakes in implementing CLG strategy (14:54) Strategies for implementing CLG  (21:32) Challenges when implementing CLG strategy (25:57) Seeking a mentor or consultant for CLG strategy (28:24) Affiliate marketing and Customer-Led Growth strategy  (29:42) Advice to SaaS companies depending on their revenue (33:48) Katya's contact information

Learn from Stefan Smulders, founder of Expandi. He shares all his knowledge on how he bootstrapped Expandi past 7M ARR. He shares everything.. He is currently Scaling his SaaS bootstrapped to $10M ARR. He is a real-life coach for aspiring SaaS entrepreneurs, particularly those who choose the bootstrap approach. He is as honest as he can be about his experiences, including his successes and failures as an entrepreneur. Learn more about our guest: ⁠Stefan Smulders, ⁠Founder of ⁠Expandi⁠. Timecodes (0:30) Introduction of topic and guest expert (1:35) Why you need to listen to Stefan (2:16) How many Failures has he had before starting Expandi? (06:35) How did he know Expandi would be a success (07:40) How has he managed to stay bootstrapped for a long time? (12:12) Did he consider raising funding when money started running out? (13:37) Challenging aspect of bootstrapping his company (17:38) What would he do differently today? (19:56) Elements for the success of Expandi (24:26) Providing value to the end-user through differentiation (28:05) Advice to SaaS beginner earning 10k MRR (29:47) Advice to SaaS founders earning 1M ARR (30:54) How to reach Stefan  on Social media

What is content? Or better yet, what is good content? Do you know how to create content that drives and converts into signups and paid clients? In today's episode, we host John Ozuysal, the co-founder of Datapad and advisor to other startups. We discuss how to create a B2B SaaS content strategy that drives signups.  During his topical mapping, John explains that he uses internal backlinks for all relevant content. This greatly works for startups in the early stages with minimal resources because it is speedy.  Common mistakes made with creating a content strategy. Limiting yourself to keyword tools. He says that you should ask the customers how and what they search for content. It, therefore, helps, during signup, to seek the problem and the desired solution from the customer.  Thoughts on the rise of Chatgpt in content writing. He admits that he utilizes the tool for fast-tracking some functions in research instead of writing content with it. It helps generate content keyword ideas, optimize SEO, and identify entities from paragraphs.  John dives into affiliate marketing and writing content for signups. Instead of focusing on the transactional page and leaving it in the hope it will rank, he advises creating supporting pages to link to the transactional page. It gives your content greater visibility to other potential companies that may want to affiliate with you to promote their content.  Advice to startups growing to 10k MRR? Reverse your funnel by starting at the bottom with content targeting an audience seeking solutions like the one you offer.  Advice to startups growing to 1M ARR? Invest more in the middle and top of the funnel. Using customer research, you should build next-generation features by writing relevant content.  Key Timecodes (01:47) Why you need to listen to John  (02:43) What is content  (03:15) Difference between writing content and content that converts (04:34) What needs to be in place before creating content  (06:42) Strategies for writing content to generate signups  (10:00) Why does he not do link-building for his content? (14:13) Does he create yellow pages for topics he writes about  (17:28) Common mistakes with content strategy  (20:50) His thoughts on Chatgpt for content writing  (22:11) Affiliate marketing and writing content for signups (22:50) Advice to companies with 10k monthly recurring revenue  (26:00) Advice to companies with 1 million annual recurring revenue  (27:20) John's templates on offer and contact information