Last week I attended the 10th annual SaaStr conference in San Mateo. For those unfamiliar, SaaStr is a community and resource hub that covers the building and scaling of software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies. The conference brings together industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors to network and share insights. It’s a valuable resource for anyone involved in the SaaS industry, whether just starting out or looking to take a business to the next level.
AI and Go-To-Market Challenges Dominated The Conversation
As a first-timer, I was impressed at how practical advice and personal experiences composed most of the agenda. Here are the key topics that caught my attention:
- Internal use cases provide the big “wins” for AI. Tech and developer-focused executives now say AI is table stakes for improving product development efficiency (subscription required) and increasing automation. Sales, marketing, and CS folks shared how they leverage AI to build go-to-market workflows addressing a wide range of internal use cases from customer data management to interaction data capture, analysis, and needs discovery.
- Achieving the $100M ARR milestone takes more work and smarter work. To clear the “great product” bar now requires creating radical efficiency inside the business, providing more functionality at the same ACV, allowing users to interact in plain English, and delivering scads of automation to help buyers onboard, grow, and succeed.
- Test your product-market fit every day. Many speakers support product-led growth and emphasize getting offerings into customers’ hands early, iterating collaboratively with them, learning precisely what they value, and charging for that. As Mar Hershenson, founding managing partner of Pear VC, explained, “If you threaten to take the product away (i.e. charge for it) and they don’t scream, you don’t have product-market fit.”
With its roots in SaaS-style businesses, the fact that customer success captured the spotlight on the final day is not surprising. What was unexpected was the mix of praise and scrutiny received on center stage. On the upside, CS now impacts as much as one-third of the valuations received in Series B rounds since retention directly impacts growth. On the flip side, CS’s impact on the business came under fire from those advocating for more account management skills and too many “it depends” answers to questions about CS organizational structures, commercial responsibility, coverage models, and metrics.
Why CS’s Presence At SaaStr Matters
Forrester’s recent research on the State of Customer Engagement 2024 shows that big B2B companies are making big investments in customer success. Survey respondents in a CS role work at companies earning $5.3 billion in revenue on average. They are part of teams averaging 96 members, with 14% on teams of 200 or more. This investment needs a solid business reason to continue.
When the birthplace of customer success starts asking pointed questions about what’s happening with CS, it’s time to revisit your CS strategy and ensure it stands on firm ground. What should CS leaders pursue next across team purpose, strategic alignment, performance/success measures, technology/data readiness, customer journey/lifecycle management, and budget/capacity planning?
Forrester can help. Clients can access our Customer Success Strategy Assessment (subscription required) and score themselves against six key strategic areas. In addition, this assessment can help you outline a plan to improve your CS capabilities and deliver a strategy that will make you the talk of a future SaaStr conference! (Or it will save you time, money, frustration, or some of all three – so take it and make your CS strategy more impactful.)
