If you’re reading this it’s probably because you own or work for a SaaS company. In fact, I’ll go one step further and say that you’re reading this because you want your SaaS company to be successful.
Who doesn’t?
Here’s the thing, not every SaaS company will be successful. We might be in a golden age of software but even the gold rush had its fair share of losers.
I was thinking about this recently, about what separates the winners from the losers in the SaaS world. It confused me a little.
You see, we all have access to investors and their money. Sure, some ideas are more investable than others, but could that really be the difference?
I don’t think so, because when you look at successful SaaS companies, some raised lots of money, some raised a little, and some raised none. Alternatively, some companies raised a lot of money but ended up nowhere.
Okay, so what else could it be?
I wondered if it was simply a matter of resources. Perhaps the companies with greater resources - more developers, more money, a better infrastructure - would be able to rise higher than their other SaaS counterparts.
But again this turned out to be a dead end. While it’s true that the more resources you have, the easier it becomes to grow, the fact of the matter is that some SaaS companies have boatloads of resources thrown at them and still don’t succeed.
So, resources help, but they aren’t the full story. What else could it be?
I was writing another blog post about you can never truly achieve product-market fit. The reason for this is that software is constantly evolving and changing, and as a result the market changes as well.
That’s when it hit me. The real reason some SaaS companies succeed while others fail miserably is simple: The successful SaaS companies constantly evolve, improve and adapt.
A huge part of being able to do this is understanding feedback from customers, your teams and the market too.
Customers play an ever growing role in the success of SaaS businesses today. Agile delivery models mean customers need their voice to be heard. If you ignore them and leave them out of the process, it’s all too easy to move elsewhere.
Price Intelligently have a lot of data points on this. Their excellent research into thousands of leading SaaS companies show that the winners are those that are good at customer development and have a healthy focus on customer retention over pure acquisition:
“Not only is it getting more difficult (and expensive) to acquire users, but those we do manage to get on our products aren’t as happy as they used to be. Average NPS scores are ⅓ of what they were five years ago. These sea changes in our industry all point to a simple conclusion: what once worked is no longer working. If we’re going to get back on track, we have to change our priorities.”
Think about it. Technology changes so quickly and what you’re able to achieve increases practically exponentially. Your customers are not only expecting you to keep up with the pace, but demanding it. The companies investing in customer development are the companies who are winning.
“In order to improve the areas of your business with the biggest financial impact, you have to start with a deeper understanding of your customers. We’re all fond of saying that our customers come first, but few of us actively put our money (or our time) where our mouth is. Most SaaS founders report having fewer than ten customer development conversations each month”
The successful companies take this even further - they exceed the pace. They set the pace.
So there you go. If you want your SaaS company to be successful, and let’s face it, you do, then you have to do that one thing.
You have to set the pace.
Now, I could leave things there but that wouldn’t be much use to you would it?
Instead, I’m going to hopefully explain how you can move from a straggler at the back of the pack, to the alpha dog at the front, leading the way.
It starts with a few realizations…
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To set the pace, you need to know where the industry is heading and how you help your customers reach their desired outcomes.
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Where the industry is heading is actually determined by solving problems for a market, not following the competition or spitting out more & more features.
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To know where the industry is heading and how you help your current customers, you need to have a strong organizational strategy and feedback process built into your business.
You really need to digest those because once you understand and accept them, then you’ll be on your way to the top.
SaaS companies that fail, or at best meander along, don’t realize those points above. Instead, they follow the leaders. They’re always several steps behind them, spending precious time, money and effort playing catch-up instead of solving problems for the business and customer.
Having good feedback and feature request data is key to understanding how to de-risk your product roadmaps, support the growth of the organization and know what your teams should be working on.
All of this information exists in your organization today but you aren’t using it to give you the competitive edge. It’s often spread across teams or left to sink into the black hole of product feedback.
You can actually start today by helping your product team get the data they need.
So basically, managing feedback properly is what makes the successful SaaS companies successful.
It sounds simple. That’s because it is. And that’s how a SaaS company can move to the front of the pack.
That’s how a SaaS company can go from just good to the best.
It’s the one thing that every successful SaaS company manages to do.
So why not give it a try?
One way you’re guaranteed to make the most of your feedback is by using Receptive. Learn more
