SaaS Backwards - Reverse Engineering SaaS Success

The ability to leverage data and prioritize sales and marketing efforts is essential to the success of enterprises with broad addressable markets.

Recognizing the struggles enterprises face in managing vast amounts of data, this week’s SaaS Backwards podcast guest Elio Narciso, saw an opportunity to improve how sales reps identify targets and prioritize their efforts.

Elio is the Co-founder and CEO of Scalestack, an all-in-one data enrichment, prioritization, and activation platform that allows go-to-market teams to easily map GTM data from many different sources to their ideal customer profile and their sales engine.

In this episode, Elio gives us a look into Scalestack’s origins. He recounts his background in advising startups at AWS and how it led him to uncover pockets of inefficiency in their go-to-market motions, such as a productivity gap for sales reps and a general dissatisfaction that companies have with their data.

Throughout this episode, Elio reflects on lessons from his past ventures, addresses common sales and marketing challenges, and highlights Scalestack’s mission and capabilities.

Key takeaways from this episode:

• How hiring well is essential for scaling startups and managing that scale
• Why focusing on enterprise clients can be advantageous for a startup
• Strategy for building partnerships to reach more potential customers

Other resources to check out:

Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publishes a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing.
The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer.
And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. Valued at $20K in free consulting

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Thanks for listening to the SaaS Backwards Podcast, brought to you by Austin Lawrence Group. We help SaaS firms reduce churn, accelerate sales, and generate demand. Learn more at AustinLawrence.com.
---
Is your messaging a sales ally or sneaky saboteur? Let us help with our free messaging audit.
We’ll look at your website’s messaging, content, and conversion potential from the eyes of today’s buyer and deliver a presentation with new combinations to more sales conversations and demos.
And the best part? It’s absolutely free.
Get started today!

Pricing and packaging can either bog down your go-to-market engine or fuel it to peak performance.

This week’s SaaS Backwards podcast features Dan Balcauski, Founder and Chief Pricing Officer at Product Tranquility, a consultancy that helps high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new products.

In this episode, Dan discusses the critical role pricing plays in a SaaS business model and why leadership teams must view it as a dynamic lever, not a "set-it-and-forget-it" element. He dispels the common myth that success hinges solely on what you charge, emphasizing instead that who and how you charge are the real determinants of success.

Breaking this down, Dan walks through the four key elements of SaaS packaging: price metric, price model, offer configurations, and price fences.

Our conversation also explores how to conduct a pricing study, realigning pricing strategies, AI's role in pricing decisions, and the ever-debated topic: should pricing be displayed on the website?

This episode offers actionable insights for SaaS leaders looking to harness pricing as a powerful tool for growth and market alignment.

Key takeaways from this episode:

• The impact of pricing and packaging on revenue, profitability, and valuation
• Why pricing is a critical lever for growth in SaaS businesses that shouldn’t be overlooked
• Signs a new CMO or CRO should look for to determine if pricing needs attention at a prospective employer

Other resources to check out:

Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publishes a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing.
The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer.
And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. Valued at $20K in free consulting

---
Thanks for listening to the SaaS Backwards Podcast, brought to you by Austin Lawrence Group. We help SaaS firms reduce churn, accelerate sales, and generate demand. Learn more at AustinLawrence.com.
---
Is your messaging a sales ally or sneaky saboteur? Let us help with our free messaging audit.
We’ll look at your website’s messaging, content, and conversion potential from the eyes of today’s buyer and deliver a presentation with new combinations to more sales conversations and demos.
And the best part? It’s absolutely free.
Get started today!

When going through a repetitive and time-consuming mortgage application process in 2017, Mang-Git Ng was surprised that the process wasn’t automated.

He realized that there were many industries that still operated in the internet dark ages and that moving all these PDFs and paper documents to online forms could solve a major problem.

But after he and his co-founder had built their initial product, they struggled to gain traction, especially with limited sales and marketing experience.

Through much experimentation, they started identifying patterns in their customer base and certain industries (like human resources workforce management and insurance) that had a need for generating, processing, and signing documents, and their product was a great solution.

By focusing on these verticals, Anvil was able to deeply understand the challenges and language used in these industries, allowing them to speak to their target customers more effectively.

Six years later, Anvil is a seven-figure ARR SaaS company that has raised $10M in funding.

Key takeaways from this episode:

• Finding patterns in your customer base that can be exploited for niche-based selling
• How to sell to companies that are resistant to change
• Why you should focus on sales and marketing early in the process

Other resources to check out:

Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publishes a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing.
The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer.
And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. Valued at $20K in free consulting.

---
Thanks for listening to the SaaS Backwards Podcast, brought to you by Austin Lawrence Group. We help SaaS firms reduce churn, accelerate sales, and generate demand. Learn more at AustinLawrence.com.
---
Is your messaging a sales ally or sneaky saboteur? Let us help with our free messaging audit.
We’ll look at your website’s messaging, content, and conversion potential from the eyes of today’s buyer and deliver a presentation with new combinations to more sales conversations and demos.
And the best part? It’s absolutely free.
Get started today!

Building a business with the intention of a future sale requires meticulous planning and organization from the outset.

In this episode, Payment Brokers Founder and CEO Jeremy Lessaris, a serial founder with multiple successful exits, emphasizes the importance of the early organization of books, records, contracts, and agreements as a critical factor in boosting valuation and streamlining the exit process.

Jeremy also stresses the significance of maintaining a well-organized data room for due diligence during a business sale. He recommends creating a dashboard with KPIs and metrics to provide a clear overview of the company's performance and demonstrate the business's progress to potential buyers.

Throughout this episode, Jeremy explains how SaaS entrepreneurs can position their companies for a seamless exit process and maximize their valuation when it comes time to sell.
This episode is ideal for SaaS CEOs and CMOs seeking strategies for accelerating growth, enhancing profitability, and understanding the importance of building a business with a focus on revenue and profitability from the start.

Key takeaways from this episode:

• Focusing on revenue generation early
• Keeping costs low while striving to reach revenue milestones
• The value of mentorship in helping entrepreneurs navigate business challenges

Other resources to check out:

Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publishes a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing.
The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer.
And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. Valued at $20K in free consulting.

---
Thanks for listening to the SaaS Backwards Podcast, brought to you by Austin Lawrence Group. We help SaaS firms reduce churn, accelerate sales, and generate demand. Learn more at AustinLawrence.com.
---
Is your messaging a sales ally or sneaky saboteur? Let us help with our free messaging audit.
We’ll look at your website’s messaging, content, and conversion potential from the eyes of today’s buyer and deliver a presentation with new combinations to more sales conversations and demos.
And the best part? It’s absolutely free.
Get started today!

In this episode, we delved into the transformative power of algorithms in business with Jason Radisson, CEO & founder of Movo, a platform that provides real-time scheduling flexibility and improved workforce management for large companies with frontline workers.
Jason recounted his time at Harrah's Entertainment, where they used data to optimize customer interactions and significantly increase profitability over others on the strip. He explains how his background in algorithmic management has influenced his approach to business models.
Jason also shares his thoughts on combatting SaaS churn by identifying the root causes and understanding customer behavior to accurately predict and deal with it proactively.
This episode covers algorithmic management, churn reduction strategies, the gig economy, and innovative solutions for optimizing workforce management. SaaS CEOs and CMOs interested in understanding the intersection of technology, workforce management, and operational efficiency would find valuable insights in this episode.
Key Takeaways from this episode:

• The importance of modeling and forecasting to drive profitability, especially in the context of reducing churn
• Building models to predict customer behavior to leverage marketing spend
• The challenges and opportunities of the gig economy

Other resources to check out:

Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publishes a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing.
The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer.
And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. Valued at $20K in free consulting.

---
Thanks for listening to the SaaS Backwards Podcast, brought to you by Austin Lawrence Group. We help SaaS firms reduce churn, accelerate sales, and generate demand. Learn more at AustinLawrence.com.
---
Is your messaging a sales ally or sneaky saboteur? Let us help with our free messaging audit.
We’ll look at your website’s messaging, content, and conversion potential from the eyes of today’s buyer and deliver a presentation with new combinations to more sales conversations and demos.
And the best part? It’s absolutely free.
Get started today!