Subscription Stories: True Tales from the Trenches

You're in for a special treat today. My guest, Dr. Tacy Byham, is the CEO of Development Dimensions International, or DDI, a global leadership consulting firm that helps organizations hire, promote, and develop exceptional leaders. A few years ago, I worked with Tacy and her team as they incorporated subscriptions into their business model. The results have been extraordinary. Three years into the launch, over 50 percent of DDI's revenue comes from subscription clients. I've been asking Tacy to share her journey for quite some time, and I'm thrilled that she finally agreed. In today's conversation, we'll talk about how subscriptions can smooth out the lumps in B2B services, how to put together the right team with the right mindset for subscriptions, and how to keep up the momentum after the initial experiments with subscriptions are over.    Love the show? Rate us ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts! Here’s How » Join the Subscription Stories Community today: robbiekellmanbaxter.com Twitter Facebook Robbie Kellman Baxter on Instagram Subscription Stories: True Tales from the Trenches on Apple Podcasts  

The world of B2B subscriptions has changed a lot since companies like Salesforce first paved the way for what would become known as Software-as-a-Service. And while there are hundreds of marketing and sales-oriented SaaS products, it's taken a lot longer for the subscription model to be fully embraced in the CFO's office. Randy Wootton has seen the evolution of SaaS and understands the changing role of the CFO better than most. He's led businesses focused on sales and marketing solutions at companies like Salesforce, Microsoft, and Rocketfuel, but more recently took over the CEO role at Maxio, a leading provider of billing and financial ops solutions for B2B SaaS companies. In this very rich and full conversation, we talk about why pricing and packaging of subscriptions is so hard, the power of a pricing council, and the changing role of the CFO in a SaaS world.   Love the show? Rate us ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts! Here’s How » Join the Subscription Stories Community today: robbiekellmanbaxter.com Twitter Facebook Robbie Kellman Baxter on Instagram Subscription Stories: True Tales from the Trenches on Apple Podcasts

Ken Houseman, VP of Product at The New York Times, shares his extensive experience in subscription funnel management. He discusses navigating the complexities of freemium models while emphasizing that retention should be the primary focus for subscription leaders. The importance of leveraging data insights for personalized content and strategic pricing can't be overstated. Ken also highlights the valuable interplay between human intuition and AI in shaping subscription strategies, ensuring that consumer behavior is at the forefront of decision-making.

Season 6 is launching soon, but while you wait, catch up on our most recent season. Some of Season 5’s most popular episodes include Mighty Network’s Gina Bianchini returning to subscription stories for a second time to share her wisdom about building purpose-driven communities, as well as Dan Zavorotny of Nutrisense talking about blending hardware, software, and services into a single subscription, and Anne Janzer on subscription marketing. We went deep on customer success with Rod Cherkas, author of the Chief Customer Officer Playbook, and about scaling membership with Pavilion Founder, Sam Jacobs. We talked a lot about subscription product design with Silicon Valley Product Builder, Tom Willerer, Samsara’s CPO, Jeff Hausman, and Mailin Jappé of Acer. I always love conversations with academic researchers with a strong practical mindset, and this season I was happy to host Harvard Business School’s Ava Escarza and Columbia’s Rita McGrath. And we got into the details of two of the trickiest parts of subscription design, pricing and the law, with respectively Mark Stiving, author of Selling Value, and Paavana Kumar of Davis+Gilbert. If you haven’t listened to these episodes, I encourage you to check them out. And if you really like them, please be sure to rate and review them on Apple iTunes or Apple Podcasts. I always ask because it helps us get the word out. Guests for Season 6 include Ken Houseman, who leads product management for the New York Times, Tacy Byham, CEO of the leadership consulting powerhouse DDI, and Randy Wootton, CEO of Maxio. To make sure you don’t miss a thing, follow Subscription Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Just tap on the follow or subscribe button. Thanks for your support and for listening to Subscription Stories.   Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Subscription Stories Community today: robbiekellmanbaxter.com Twitter Facebook

Subscriptions are going beyond software, content, and community, and increasingly are providing access to the physical world. The internet of things lends itself well to providing subscribers’ ongoing benefits, blending data from sensors and cameras with sophisticated software. This type of subscription can be complex to build, but has to provide value that is simple for subscribers to understand. My guest today, Jeff Hausman, is the Chief Product Officer at Samsara. Samsara provides an integrated subscription-based platform to increase safety, efficiency, and sustainability in the physical operations world. Think trucks, cargo, oil fields, and construction sites. I invited Jeff to talk about how his team uses customer input to develop his product roadmap, how they bundle hardware and software to deliver on their forever promise, and how they've partnered across the ecosystem to keep things simple for their subscribers.   Other links and resources mentioned:  Jeff Hausman Samsara Sanjit Biswas, Co-founder of Samsara John Bicket, CTO and Co-Founder of Samsara Cold Chain Monitoring Subscription Stories Episode: Ben Foster, Chief Product Officer of WHOOP Chalk Mountain Services of Texas Liberty Energy Kong Global Ford Penske Navistar Fleetcor AssetWorks Thermo King   Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Subscription Stories Community today: robbiekellmanbaxter.com Twitter Facebook Robbie Kellman Baxter on Instagram Subscription Stories: True Tales from the Trenches on Apple Podcasts

 To launch a successful subscription business, you need to think like an innovator. But what does that really mean? Rita McGrath is widely recognized as the premier expert on leading innovation and growth, particularly during uncertain times. A longtime professor at Columbia Business School, Rita is also the author of several bestselling books, including Discovery Driven Growth, The End of Competitive Advantage, and her most recent book, Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen. In today's episode, we talk about the right skills to launch, scale and lead a subscription initiative, the neuroscience of the status quo, and the seven archetypes of Innovation.   Other links and resources mentioned: Rita McGrath Seeing Around Corners by Rita McGrath Subscription Stories Episode: Tiffani Bova Rod Adkins of Unix Business Samuel J. Palmisano, CEO of IBM Louis V. Gerstner, CEO of IBM (1993 to 2002) The Permissionless Organization Loonshots by Safi Bahcall Article: Lululemon Hopes to Showcase Home Fitness Business With Membership Program Article: Drinkworks™ Unveils The Home Bar By Keurig® — Cocktails, Brews, Ciders And More At The Touch Of A Button Mirror.co Greg Galle, CEO of Solve Next Jeremy Utley, Co-Author of Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters Daniel Kahneman, Author of Thinking, Fast and Slow   Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Subscription Stories Community today: robbiekellmanbaxter.com Twitter Facebook Robbie Kellman Baxter on Instagram Subscription Stories: True Tales from the Trenches on Apple Podcasts  

Mark Stiving, an educator and pricing expert, dives into the complexities of subscription pricing. He clarifies the difference between a ‘Will I’ decision and a ‘Which one’ decision. Discover why many prices end in nine and learn effective strategies for raising prices. Stiving emphasizes understanding value and consumer perception in crafting pricing strategies while exploring the psychological impacts on decision-making. His insights are a must for anyone navigating the subscription landscape!

Sam Jacobs, Founder & CEO of Pavilion, shares his journey of building a thriving membership community for revenue executives. He emphasizes the importance of playing the long game in business while fostering kindness and human connections. Jacobs discusses the delicate balance between community investment and learning, addressing challenges in member retention and engagement. He dives into the evolving landscape of business strategies, showcasing how ethical practices and loyalty can lead to sustainable growth, even in uncertain times.

If you haven’t been focused on subscription compliance before, you definitely need to start paying attention now.    The Federal Trade Commission (or FTC) is getting serious about cracking down on “dark patterns” in the world of subscriptions.  They recently filed a lawsuit against Amazon for enrolling consumers in Amazon Prime without consent and for what they call “cancellation trickery. They’ve also announced plans to increase stringency around subscription rules.    Today’s guest on the podcast, Davis + Gilbert partner Paavana Kumar, is a legal expert on eCommerce, with an emphasis on subscriptions.  In today’s conversation, we talk about some of the key elements in subscription regulations, the planned changes being proposed by the FTC in the US, and specific actions every subscription-based business should take if they want to stay on the right side of the law.   Excerpt: One of the great things about the subscription industry is that you don't have to be super technical to break into it. You don't have to be a coder. You don't even have to have tons of VC money. You can be an industry disruptor if you have a great idea. Paavana Kumar is a Davis + Gilbert partner and a legal expert on eCommerce with an emphasis on subscriptions. She explains the proposed regulations changes in the Federal Trade Commission that will push many to pay attention to subscription compliance. Paavana also discusses the best actions to be taken to follow the law, especially with a lot of subscription-based businesses not aware of such legalities.   https://www.dglaw.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/paavana/   Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How »   Join the Subscription Stories Community today: robbiekellmanbaxter.com Twitter Facebook Robbie Kellman Baxter on Instagram Subscription Stories: True Tales from the Trenches on Apple Podcasts

The Device-as-a-Service (DaaS) Market is expected to Surpass $190 Billion by 2026, according to Market Research Future. That’s a compound annual growth rate,of of 55.8%. Acer is at the forefront of that wave, and today’s guest, Mailin Jappé, launched and now runs Acer’s DaaS business for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). It’s hard enough to launch a subscription startup on your own—doing it inside a large manufacturer adds a whole level of complexity. In today’s conversation, Mailin shares the challenges she faced in launching the business, how she’s transformed the culture to one of access, not ownership, and the right kind of team to support subscription innovation in manufacturing.   Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How »   Join the Subscription Stories Community today: robbiekellmanbaxter.com Twitter Facebook Robbie Kellman Baxter on Instagram Subscription Stories: True Tales from the Trenches on Apple Podcasts