KICK SOME SAAS

February 20th 2019 was a red letter day.

My first book ‘Doing IT For Money – A business leader’s guide to improving profit per person’ became a bestseller.

You can get a copy here.

In it, I encouraged business leaders to engage with technology, to innovate and improve their tech, tools and team.

But today, I have a far sharper focus on SaaS vendors.

It’s a world I’m intimately familiar, with over 20 years in commercial software R&D, and it’s time I shared all that I’ve learned, warts and all.

So book two is coming.

The working title is “Kick Some SaaS – The entrepreneur’s guide to realising their software dreams”, and I’ve got a pile of content to leverage.

Years of posts on LinkedIn and many episodes of ‘Mr SaaS Says’ on YouTube

And podcasts too, like Matt Wolach’s SaaS-Story in the Making.

And Andrew Romeo’s DevReady.

But there’s still much to do, so this is my last post this year.

Thank you all for your fabulous support.

Whatever your beliefs, may your god go with you during this festive period.

Take care and we’ll see each other in 2021.

#MrSaaSSays

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ONBOARD OR OVERBOARD?

$5 apps and pile it high, sell it cheap #SaaS platforms have a User experience advantage.

They’re simple.

They have limited functionality and unless the #UX is a disaster, working out how to use them is easy enough.

For everyone else, there’s a lot going on.

So for new customers to gain maximum value, vendors need to invest in high quality onboarding.

You can scrimp if you like, but it just annoys the customer, and that’s rarely optimal.

So, lots of tutorials and training options, access to premium support, and maybe even evangelist boots on the ground to get them up to speed.

Sadly, some customers don’t get it.

They’d rather not pay for these extras, thinking they’ll save themselves a few dollars.

But it’s a false economy, and it means they won’t get the best value out of your offering.

So they won’t sing its praises as loudly as they might, and that means you both lose.

So when you’re putting the deal together, include onboarding in the package, and stick to your guns.

Don’t let the prospect dictate terms.

Remember, you’re in this together.

Only by working as a team will you and your customer succeed.

So which will it be?

High value onboarding, or will just throw them a lifebuoy when the fall overboard.

Thanks to the exceptional Steve Panozzo for the drawing.

#MrSaaSSays

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GETTING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGNCE RIGHT

AI presents opportunities galore to SaaS vendors, and ethical use is very much en vogue.

Most will do the right thing, but this is new ground and it’s all too easy for it to go horribly wrong.

For many, the biggest risk is that they don’t understand the implications of implementing AI systems, and there are many of those.

Just ask Dr Andreas Cebulla of Flinders University.

He’s been working on a model to help businesses ask the right questions and he’s been ably assisted by myself and AI and ethics specialist Matthew Newman.

In its current draft form, he uses the word “risk”, and the reasons are clear.

For all the good that AI offers in terms of efficiency, accuracy, and insight etc., poor implementation can easily disenfranchise the team or customers.

And when it goes wrong, people will want answers.

For SaaS vendors, this will be the moment of truth.

Transparency and accountability will be everything.

Of course, the funny thing is that customers don’t care that you use AI, and some may even be turned off by it.

It’s why I dislike the use of .ai domain names.

Customers just want technology that solves their problem, and effective support when someone spills their beer.

So, do you have your AI bases covered?

#MrSaaSSays

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DRINKING MY OWN CHAMPAGNE

Take one smart, passionate SaaS entrepreneur with a dream.

Mix with some software developers.

Stir in some money.

Cook for several months.

Test regularly and adjust the seasoning.

Et voila.

A gourmet SaaS platform.

But just like many home cooks who follow a recipe, the results don’t always look like the vision.

I’m seeing this play out in my part time role as a charity director at CreateCare Global.

We help orphaned and vulnerable children.

Small acts from creative problem solvers that have a big impact.

To bring the carers and solvers together we’re building a platform.

I joined recently to get the project back on track.

It had stalled and the reasons seemed clear.

Communication issues between the client and the developers are a common enough scenario.

But there was more.

An offshore team adept at websites but not so familiar with building applications.

A crucial observation from an experienced eye!

So a tough but necessary decision has to be made.

Stick with the same team or salvage what we can and write the rest off to experience?

I’m already working on finding a replacement, this time with the right credentials.

Lucky for me that I help SaaS entrepreneurs live their dreams, so I’ll be able to follow my own advice.

#MrSaaSSays

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CUSTOMERS FOR LIFE

Reducing #SAAS customer churn by 5% increases ROI by 95%.

These numbers may well vary depending on your business, but the principal holds true.

The longer you keep you customers, the better the bang for your buck.

It’s why I talk about customer lifetime value so much.

I don’t want SaaS vendors to focus on customer acquisition.

I want them to focus on customer retention.

SaaS businesses don’t fail because the platform doesn’t offer value, and rarely do they fail because they can’t find enough customers.

They fail because they can’t keep the ones they have.

Of course, selling is important, but finding new customers is as much as 25 times as expensive as keeping them.

Better then to invest time and effort looking after the ones you have, and it’s why I’m so infuriated by marketing agencies who bang on about lead generation and filling funnels.

They’re rewarded for the volume they achieve.

What about the quality?

If those same customers sign up and leave in a few months, it’s a massive waste of time, money and opportunity.

I helped LANSA keep its customers for 30 years.

No mean feat in the ever changing world of technology, and they stayed because their problems were being solved.

How did I do it?

Let’s have a chat, and I’ll let you the secret.

#MrSaaSSays

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