Insight: SaaS (26) Four departments collaboration
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We discussed the impact of raising SaaS prices in the last article ‘Insight: SaaS (25) Raise your SaaS price’. Today, we’ll tackle SaaS department collaboration and operations.
Product, Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success Management (CSM) are the four departments that SaaS organizations must-have. They are all vital and important components for SaaS to survive and prosper. The following articles are solely my opinions, and each SaaS company should have a unique perspective based on its strategy. A SaaS company dealing with SMB customers, for example, does not require a large-scale Sales department when implementing the PLG model. Its products take the place of sales functions, allowing customers to self-serve. As the company grows in size, due to the diversity of clients, it is impossible for solely SMB clients to acquire products. It is still critical to rely on the Sales department to sell to Enterprise customers. These four departments are so fundamental and pivotal for most SaaS.
These four departments, each with its own tasks and duties, keep the SaaS business afloat. They must, however, not only handle their job obligations alone but also collaborate with one another. Each department’s effort benefits not only itself but also others and the entire organization. Seeing as they all have the same goal in mind: ‘Improve the firm through collaboration’. So, in the long run, every SaaS company should take a course on how to make the four primary departments run seamlessly.
All Research & Development, Designers, and Product Managers are part of the Product team, which is responsible for the design, development, and updating of SaaS products. The foundation of the company and the positioning of the brand are given by the product. The value of an excellent product to Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service is enormous. Product, in general, has an impact on all SaaS operational Indicators.
Net Dollar Retention / CACPP / CAC / LTV are these examples. Not only are these basic indicators impacted by Sales, Marketing, and CSM, but also related to the Product. Product is also accountable for the influence of these indicators to some extent. Training or changing staff can increase the efficacy and efficiency of the other three departments. If, on the other hand, there is no solid product as a base and no decent one to compete in the market, no marketing skills will be able to compensate in the long run.
Product is the cornerstone core, responsible for creating good SaaS products. Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success Management all play an auxiliary role in product design.
Marketing should be aware of the market’s attitude and provide feedback to the Product. When it comes to product promotion, our marketers, for example, experiment with diverse messaging. Customers can give you varied feedback if you promote from the different propositions. Marketers will know which features to emphasize and which issues are most important to customers. These encounters can be relayed to Product.
Sales should comprehend the needs of customers and offer feedback to the Product. Since sales are the most significant part of the transaction, the information they can absorb is crucial to the overall process. Customers purchase items for a variety of reasons, and they also abandon them for a variety of reasons. The customer, for example, is satisfied with the product, but the transaction is taking too long. It’s likely that while comparing our product to the competitor’s, they have some but we don’t. The Product department’s highest priority should be the function that directly influences the deal.
CSM acknowledges customers’ usage habits and feeds them back to Product. CSM will come across numerous software bugs while communicating with consumers on a daily basis. These issues should be reported to the Product department and fixed during the next version iteration. If there is no standard answer for some more tough challenges, Product and CSM should work together to develop one. CSM is the most effective mechanism to learn what features consumers value in businesses and how they use those features to achieve success. This study stated the Product’s future orientation.
Marketing <-> Sales
Marketing sends MQLs to Sales, and Sales reports back to Marketing on the channel effect. It goes without saying that the Marketing department is in charge of generating enough leads for the Sales department. During the sales process, the Sales department can provide immediate feedback on Marketing’s work results, such as the quality of leads generated by the channel, the marketing department’s level of customer education, and whether it needs to be returned to Marketing to inform the customer about the product and discovering a genuine query. All of these are things that the Marketing department can easily modify.
Sales <-> CSM.
Sales transfer paying customers to CSM to complete the Onboarding handover, and CSM feeds back the renewing customer portraits to Sales. Sales will transfer the customers who have paid the transaction to the CSM department, and the CSM department will be responsible for the normal use of the customer. When CSM serves customers, it can find out whether these customers can really use our products. CSM can make a pre-judgment, whether the customer’s demands match the product, or whether the customer pays the bill due to the superb skills of the Sales department. CSM must have enough right to speak to the Sales department, and cannot force those customers who will not renew their subscriptions in the future to forcibly sign up.
Sales redirect paid customers to CSM to complete the Onboarding handover, and CSM feeds back the renewing customer portraits to Sales. Customers will be transferred to the CSM department, and the CSM department will be responsible for the customer’s normal use. When CSM supports clients, it can identify whether or not they are able to use the products effectively. CSM can make a pre-judgment on whether the customer’s needs are compatible with the product, or whether the client paid the bill thanks to the Sales department’s superior skills. CSM must have sufficient authority to talk with Sales to stop signing up these customers who will not renew their subscriptions in the future. Because serving a hopeless customer is a waste of CSM resources and causes enormous harm. And it will have a massive effect on the company’s total NDR. The Sales department, on the other hand, is inclined to sign all customers they can. This necessitates the CEO’s endorsement of CSM on a worldwide scale.
Marketing <-> CSM
Marketing should do a stellar job of Education-content for customer upgrades, and CSM updates success stories to Marketing. The Marketing department must prepare when CSM is in Upsell or Cross-sell condition. Marketing should also be carried out at all times to educate existing clients. CSM’s assistance with marketing efforts is markedly more critical. There is no communication kit more convincing and engaging than a customer success story. The most valuable weapon in publicity will be the CSM’s ability to summarize the customer’s success story and deliver it to the Marketing department as material.
To establish a full system, the four divisions of Product, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success Management should be closely integrated. They must work together, as well as supervise and feedback to each other. As seen in the image below:
The struggle of the overall management of SaaS lies in the formation of a chemical reaction between these four departments. Each department has its own mission and key performance indicators (KPIs). Providing assistance to other departments does not result in earning additional money. So every SaaS senior management should consider how to motivate individuals to help one another. We’re just a department when we’re all separated. We are really an entire when we work together.
Low-level talents are driven by others, intermediate-level talents are self-driven, and high-level talents drive others. When a SaaS company has a lot of top talents, it must also be a top company.
Please send me an email (jasperhanlingyi@gmail.com) if you have any questions or suggestions.
The next article ‘Insight: SaaS (27) How to carry out the Pod in SaaS?’ is published. Simply send me some claps and feedback if you enjoyed my article.
