5 Insights From SaaStr Europa 2019
Great minds convened in Paris for SaaStr Europa 19 to discuss the challenges, triumphs, and outlook of the SaaS world. We put together a list of our key takeaways and highlights from this year’s event.
1. Customer is (Still) King, So Make Sure You’re Listening
An oldie, but a goodie, there’s no lack of attention to customer journeys and the importance of keeping a close eye on the audience for SaaS companies. We’re seeing this not only through a shift toward personalized content and user experiences, but also responsiveness in products to adapt to the market. For Typeform CEO Joaquim Lecha, that means making things as easy as possible for the customer in the platform.
On the marketing side, fielding user feedback from a variety of sources, ranging from formal surveys to social media comments, is essential according to Sr. Director of Marketing for Twilio, Tricia Miller. With proper data and an open ear, it’s possible to generate a picture of the ideal customer — through the development and use of personas — that will even further impact success.
“It was super-cool to see the strong emphasis placed on the value of customers. There’s one quote that really sticks with me and hits the point that matters: Buyers are buying outcomes, not features and functions.” Sue, Customer Success at Frontify.
2. Collaboration Between Teams Can Be Hard, But It’s Worth It
Organizations are no strangers to silos, with teams or individuals, even, running daily ops independently of one another. The obvious side effect of unsynchronized efforts is a lack of consistency and efficiency that can negatively impact communication, acquisition, and growth.
It’s a challenge even businesses that have skyrocketed to hypergrowth status struggle with, particularly as they scale. Collibra, for instance, has gone from a 50-person startup in Belgium to 500+ at their operational headquarters in New York, with additional locations worldwide. CEO Felix Van de Maele notes that the functionality-based organizational structure naturally lends itself toward silos, and that they’re considering ways to get ahead of the issue before it becomes one.
3. The Ability to Articulate Your USPs is the Key Differentiator in Doing Sales
The most important thing in regards to making sure your product gets received well is not its elegant looks — or the depth of its backers’ pockets — it’s the ability you have to properly explain the product’s unique value to its target audience.
To do so, you need to make sure you’ve internally aligned how to communicate those USPs through every stage of the funnel. Regardless if you’re working in sales or marketing, creating consistent goals — while utilizing on-brand and relevant content — is key to making sure your USPs are always accurately communicated, and understood by your buyer personas.
“The inability to articulate your company’s unique value is the #1 reason salespeople don’t make sales.” Theresa O’Neil, CMO at Showpad.
4. Great People = Great Company
Jos White of Notion said that “you need to understand what you stand for” when talking about the importance of culture in a brand. When growing a company with a strong employee culture, hiring the right people is key to creating a sturdy enough base to go forward, and stay true to your mission.
Ophelia Brown of Blossom was also very clear on how the right kinds of employees/founders in early-stage companies can help investors understand a company’s market fit:
“The market fit can be seen in different ways — we always look for ambition and ability to drive a company forward. We want to understand the journey a company is on.” Ophelia Brown, Founder/Partner at Blossom.
5. Understanding Our Industry Peers is Great for Our Own Growth
The masses of smart, ambitious, and innovative people we’ve met during these last few days in Paris is mind-blowing. Understanding what everyone else in the SaaS-sphere is doing, while getting our own thoughts validated, is truly inspiring and encouraging for our future as a company.
“Everyone that created a successful product did something that had never been done before. Being at SaaStr was a great opportunity for me to realize that people are still trying to figure that one thing out. It was really inspiring and validating for me, encouraging me to take more risks and figure out how to do things differently.” Laura, Marketing at Frontify.
Frontify is the all-in-one brand management software for increasing brand consistency, efficiency, and design collaboration. Providing clarity in an otherwise complicated brand world, it’s where powerful brand experiences are created and shared — a single source of truth in the cloud.
