We recently met with a SaaS business that, in our view, is operating with best-in-class discipline. Below are some notes from that meeting — lessons that could help refine your SaaS playbook.
Customer Succcess. Their CS reps are specialized by industry, allowing them to speak the customer’s language and develop domain expertise that clients truly appreciate. Rather than assigning reps a fixed number of accounts, they are given a specific amount of monthly recurring revenue (MRR) to manage, since larger accounts tend to require more attention. The company tracks CS performance both team-wide and down to the individual rep level, with each rep expected to keep gross churn below 2% per quarter. Client contact is regular and deliberate: large customers are engaged weekly, smaller ones monthly, and depending on the account’s size, there may be comprehensive quarterly, semi-annual, or annual reviews.
The ICP. Importantly, this level of CS performance starts with who they choose to sell to. The company has a very clear sense of its ideal customer profile and only sells to buyers who have a deep, genuine need for the product. That focus allows them to enjoy exceptional net dollar retention, with expansions far outweighing downgrades and churn. Whenever a CS rep identifies an upsell opportunity, they refer it to the sales team. CS is focused on client outcomes — not selling. To incentivize collaboration, the company is rolling out a commission plan for CS reps who flip qualified leads, though the actual close is left entirely to sales and marketing.
Onboarding. It lasts 60 days and includes as many training sessions as needed to ensure the client is comfortable. Onboarding is not seen as a revenue source but as a key investment in adoption. Data plays a central role early on. If a customer isn’t engaging with the product in the first 30 days, the team proactively offers additional training. At day 30, there’s a check-in to confirm usage, followed by weekly check-ins from weeks five through eight. After day 60, the customer is handed off to CS, with ongoing engagement tailored to the size and needs of the account.
Sales Team Structure. sales culture at this company emphasizes internal promotion and ambition over pedigree. One in three SDRs is expected to be promoted to a sales role, and there’s a clear six-month window to make it happen — wait too long, and the company believes you’ll lose the rep to burnout. In hiring, they favor young, driven candidates over experienced ones with deep Rolodexes, often recruiting right out of college. While they do have SDRs, account executives are still expected to prospect daily. SDRs themselves are held to high activity levels, making 75 calls and sending 45 custom emails each day. Sales reps are well paid with competitive base salaries and strong commissions, resulting in high productivity and zero turnover.
Patents. Although the company holds a few patents, they’re not focused on enforcing them today. The strategy is to make themselves more attractive to a potential acquirer, who may choose to enforce the IP in the future.
Pricing. They intentionally avoid per-user or volume-based pricing, because they don’t want to discourage product usage — instead, they want as many users and evangelists inside the customer’s organization as possible. They price based on the customer’s perceived ROI, aiming to deliver a 20x or greater return. When that’s hard to calculate, they fall back on pricing based on the customer’s revenue, keeping the spend low relative to the buyer’s P&L.
Thank you for your readership. For more insights, visit blossomstreetventures.com or email the author at sammy@blossomstreetventures.com.