đ Why itâs time to retire the MQL; Board meetings for beginners; Expert outbound sales sequences...
Welcome to the end of the week. Weâve got some big news, as weâve just launched a brand new website featuring a SaaS Playbook library! Now if youâre looking for great B2B SaaS content in a specific area, you can filter through our historical playbook features by topic to quickly find the best of the best. Historical features are being added as we speak so you should have access to the full library soon... excited to see what you think!
đ The weighted Rule of 40; Navigating SaaS loan interest rates; F#ck Content Marketing
Happy Friday everyone. The job market has been slower than usual for obvious reasons, but we do have some open roles here at Scaleworks which weâre looking to fill. Namely, weâre searching for a Corporate Development Associate to help us find great products to invest in and awesome B2B SaaS content to share with you all. Give us a shout if you think you or anyone in your network might be a fit⊠Referral fees included!
đ Get smart with sales intelligence; Hubspot hits $1B; Simple email marketing optimizations...
Morning folks, hope all our readers facing these winter storms are staying warm and safe right now. Weâll get to the newsletter shortly, but first weâd like to highlight a few organizations which are working to support Texans in need right now. There are links with information on how you can donate or help if youâre interested.Â
đ Pricing as a growth lever; 10x approach to content marketing; How to scale customer segments...
Two weeks into the year is a bit early to identify any real 2021 SaaS trends, but that doesnât mean we canât take out our crystal ball and at least try. Onetool CEO Gordian Braun thinks the increasing number of SaaS tools will create chaos for end-users â more options and new, super niche verticals could result in overlapping features for products in different categories, making buying decisions more difficult. No-code tools (like Notion and Airtable) and workflow automation tools should also be on the rise as both are âsimplifiersâ that address the issue of having too many tools to handle. Letâs see how his predictions shake out...
đ Customer-Led growth FTW; Breaking a billion; Solving product problemsâŠ
It seems like every year, thereâs a debate on if Silicon Valley is the best place to launch your startup. In 2020, this conversation picked up even more steam because, well, we donât need to get back into those details. We recently stumbled across this LinkedIn thread that gives some great arguments for both sides of the table. Weâve always been partial to building new tech ecosystems outside the Valley, but would love to hear what you think.
Alright, now for this weekâs Playbook!
đ How to measure your Power User Curve; Solving product backlogs; The Chief Customer Officer 2.0...
Howdy folks, and welcome to the end of the week! Todayâs playbook takes a focus on customer-centric strategies, from unique methods to measure user engagement, to the best ways to gather and prioritize customer feedback. We also managed to wrap in not one, but two corny car analogies. Please forgive us, itâs the end of the month and weâre behind quota.
Have a great weekend.
đ Amplifying content via thought leaders; The Adjacent Customer; âObviously awesomeâ product positioningâŠ
Happy Friday folks. We canât be the only ones a bit behind on our 2021 business planning, so we thought you all might get some use out of this template from our very own Ed Byrne, which will help you review last yearâs progress and set thoughtful 2021 goals. Itâs a roughly two-day process that requires some buy-in from your team and serious self-awareness... let us know what you think!
đ The rise of the pod people; Self-caring your way to effective leadership; Simplifying revenue attribution...
Tech startup culture is known for two things: brooding dev teams and amazing office snacks. Kidding (sort of). Whatâs actually at the heart of startup culture is breaking down norms and creating new solutions to perennial problems.
Speaking of problem-solving â weâve got some great content this week on solving the internal struggles most startups face, from team structure to leadership burnout and revenue attribution.
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đ SaaS Black Friday deals; How Typeform built an A+ brand, Why you shouldnât âjust ship itââŠ
Good morning to those just waking up from a turkey coma, itâs time for your weekly serving of SaaS news. And, because we love a good deal, we suggest you check out the B2B SaaS blogâs 2020 Black Friday deal list. We know everyone is in 2021 planning mode, so hopefully, the ~200 discounted SaaS deals save you some dollars.
Enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend.
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đ Avoiding the SaaS Valley of Death; Hiring âscrappersâ; How to become a trusted advisor...
With the new year on the horizon itâs time to start thinking about that 2021 hiring plan. Itâs hard not to focus on a candidateâs resume when making hiring decisions, but remember, an impressive resume doesnât tell the whole story. More companies are foregoing those with âexpert credentialsâ in favor of teachable hires who are willing to take risks. An openness to risk is especially important to surviving in B2B SaaS, so our advice is to always look for scrappers.
đ Flywheels over funnels; How to measure SaaS operating leverage; Nailing your value prop...
In just 5 years, The Morning Brew has emerged as one of the GOAT newsletters. Their growth to stardom is in large part thanks to their referral marketing mastery â 30% of their 2.5m million subscribers came through the channel. We arenât saying that a referral program will work quite as well for your B2B SaaS product (newsletters charge time, SaaS products charge money) but if it can work even just 1/10th as well, it could be worth testing...
đ Avoiding measurability bias; The Shape-Up method; The power of Pre-Suasion...
Happy Friday folks. This is our last Playbook before Christmas, so weâll wish you an early happy holidays now! Itâs been an eventful year to say the least, hereâs to hoping 2021 brings brighter days (weâre optimistic). Cheers!
đ Your intro to cognitive marketing; A SaaS growth simulator; Boosting retention with intent data...
Happy New Year folks! Canât believe we actually made it to 2021, we hope you have a great start to the year. Weâve been working on some of our new yearâs resolutions and have a couple nailed down: to better understand our customers and thoroughly testing our acquisition channels. Weâre touching on both (plus more) today, hope you enjoy!