Circular Solves The SaaS Slump

 

Circular has new solutions to this malaise hanging over the SaaS world today.  

The Circular Partner Marketplace delivers efficient systems, relevant partner match-making, and seamless interoperability with frictionless transactions - monetary, tokenization, access, points, etc... 

... Right on time...

This below market reality-check analysis is from our reliable friends at SaaStr

These are the current feelings across SaaS companies:

  1. Growth has slowed everywhere (true overall. The average public SaaS company is now growing less than 20% a year!)
  2. Sales is so much harder, and the old playbooks aren’t working well
  3. Folks don’t want to work as hard anymore
  4. There are even more competitors than ever
  5. Every leader is competing with each other, trampling on their turf (Gong v. Outreach v. Salesloft v. Zoom, or Rippling vs. Deal vs. Gusto vs ….)
  6. Layoffs have become normalized
  7. Customers are angry from endless price increases and upsells
  8. Budgets are being cut to find budget for AI (true)
  9. Every renewal is not just a battle but a downgrade
  10. Profitability is all that matters
  11. VCs have checked out in a lot of non-AI SaaS
  12. A feeling we’re in a massive “downturn”, even as the overall U.S. economy still is booming
  13. A feeling products have fallen out of product-market fit, or at least, become more “nice to haves” vs. must haves
  14. Even healthy customers scrutinizing budgets in ways they haven’t in many years
  15. Happy customers churning simply because they have to cut apps
  16. A feeling things actually won’t ever get any better or easier in SaaS

Circular's decentralized partner marketplace, powered by AI and blockchain, can help SaaS vendors address these pain points - by enabling efficient partnership ecosystems, seamless interoperability, automated smart contracts, enhanced data/usage insights from the network, and new ecosystem-native services. 

Circular provides the environment and toolsets to drive real ROI, customer stickiness and sustainable growth models adapted to these specific recommendations:

  • First, go all-in on driving true efficiency gains for your customers.  
    • We’ve always sort of faked the efficiency of business software with ROI calculators and such.  Now is the time to do it for real.  If you can truly eliminate half the headcount in the support department, or half the SDRs, or truly make an engineer 2x as productive, now is the time.  But prove it.  For real.  Nail this.

  • At least be at “AI Parity” with the competition.  
    • Does AI today magically change every category?  Maybe not.  Is AI not quite there in some parts of SaaS?  Maybe so.  But no matter what, customers want improved efficiency from AI.  There’s huge momentum there.  So at a bare minimum, don’t lose deals due to not having competitive parity here.

  • Close every customer.  
    • For the past 18-24 months, we’ve been leaning in hard on the existing base.  Raising prices multiple times.  Forcing upgrades.  Etc. Etc.  Maybe that worked for you in the short term, maybe it didn’t.  But it doesn’t work forever, and it doesn’t make customers happier.  The best way to ensure a brighter future is literally to close every single prospect you get that you can make happy.  Does that mean a cheaper edition?  Maybe do it.  Does that mean making your free edition … more free?  Do it.  Does that mean letting folks downgrade instead of leave?  Do it.  Does that mean not forcing everyone to go through a qualification process if they don’t want to?  Then don’t make them.  Go long here.  What’s most important is that you increase your new customer count 20%-50% a year.  That’s your future.

  • Grow usage faster than revenue.  
    • This is somewhat related to the prior point.  Growing revenue at the end of the day is what matters.  But if your usage isn’t growing even faster than revenue, your future looks darker than your present.  Pick your top 1-3 KPIs for usage, and make sure they are growing faster than revenue.  MAUs, DAUs, revenue under management, API calls, records, whatever.  Pick a core usage KPI or two and make sure their growth is even faster than revenue growth.

    Come to any of our Performance Partner Workshops to learn how we provide the tools to help you incorporate these into your strategy and tactics.

    Reach out for details ...






    David@DavidCutler.net
    Growth Actions: DavidCutler.net 
    Web3 Applied: TruthRefinery.com 
    Circular Partners: CircularLabs.io 

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