Too many startups focus on the first S in SaaS, but they forget all about the second one. When software and service aren\u2019t equal priorities, it\u2019s impossible to build a successful company.<\/p>\n
The people you hire provide just as much value as your product<\/p>\n
When I moved to Silicon Valley in 2007, self-serve software was all the rage. Everyone wanted to create products that sold themselves.<\/p>\n
Ten years later, there\u2019s still a sense that startups can simply develop a product, lean back, and let the software do all the work. But this way of thinking is selfish. There’s no fast track to explosive growth. To really succeed in the SaaS world, you have to build a product that solves your customers\u2019 needs, not just your own.<\/p>\n
Self-serve software is great, but startups need humans, especially for sales<\/a>, support and success. The people you hire provide just as much value as your product.<\/p>\n This is especially true in B2B. The more complicated the buying process\u2014and the higher the cost of implementation\u2014the more you need to invest in both sales hiring<\/a> and growing your support & success teams. Until computers start making all the buying decisions and learning to close a sale<\/a> on their own, you can\u2019t rely solely on automation and the self-serve model.<\/p>\n Allowing an enterprise-level prospect to point-and-click purchase your software isn\u2019t responsible. There\u2019s too much at stake. There are too many factors that ultimately dictate their success, including costs, onboarding, training, and whether or not you\u2019re actually a good fit for each other.<\/p>\n Most self-serve products today don\u2019t account for these kinds of complexities. That\u2019s why enterprise solutions usually require a call or demo before you talk about price. Product transparency is crucial for high-stakes buying decisions. Prospects really need to play around with your product before they know whether it\u2019s the right choice for them.<\/p>\n In this video, I talk about the value of world-class SaaS service:<\/em><\/p>\n