3 Pivotal Moments Every SaaS Company Should Anticipate

Are you confident about where you are in the industry right now?

Have you foreseen the upcoming trends?

Have you already thought about the future possibilities that could come your way?

You could do as much planning as possible… But there would always be something which will remain unexpected. Even if you have prepared millions of plans based on your predictions, there would still be loopholes in your preparations.

That’s how the business world is or we can say life as whole works. However, It is wise to BE PREPARED and have  a vision.

As Rob-Jan De Jong says: “Vision is not an exclusive for those in top ranked positions.” This proves everyone and anyone can think and have a positive vision on which path he is heading to.

Now, As a SaaS provider, you must have been expecting something different, something as unique as your product or a possibility which will be as innovative as your idea. You should always be prepared for the moments which will act as setbacks for you.

You see, Ups and Downs are a part of every business, be it On-Premises or SaaS. Being a SaaS enterprise, you will be experiencing several pivotal moments during your journey. The point is that these pivotal moments would include both, the moments which require celebrations and the ones that would just want you to pack up and leave.

Now, This post will elaborate on the pivotal moments which shake the SaaS companies up. These mostly act like the ‘Tipping Point’ as well, which are often a Make Or a Break for you. I will be giving away some pivotal moments which every SaaS company has to go through from… that too with a lot of patience.

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Why? Because these are the moments which are destructive, scary and risky at the same time! But remember, There is no giving up for a SaaS provider. He has to welcome these moments and move on after being patient in every situation.

Here you go with the three Deadly Pivotal Moments which will make you near to closing down:

1. When your Best Employee Leaves you out of nowhere:

You see, Not every employee is committed to your company and that is completely okay. You have got to understand this fact and move one. There are times when you are on the edge of having a super launch, You are just going to sign a heavy deal, Or you are going to opt for a new innovation! At that very point, your favorite employee decides to leave. Check how AcmeCorp just had a downfall because 25% of its employees decided to leave.

Source: GroveHQ

So what would you do in a situation like this? Cry over it? You simply can’t! You have to move on and take a few measures to save the rest of the employees.

Here are few things you could practice:

• Keep your employees happy
• Ask them what they need
• Satisfy their demands
• Support them
• Keep a democratic culture
• Create a friendly environment
• Give them a vision

Check out this post on Why Employees Actually Leave.

2. When your Saas is Short of Employees:

There would come a time when you, yourself would have the need of hiring more employees. You must be thinking why? When you have already hired a relevant team of employees. But… This happens. When you have not realized the actual need and have understaffed your business and they are not able to give you the productivity which you really want.

What are the signs to know that you have understaffed:

• Less growth
• Low productivity because of high workload
• Too little time in a day
• Increase over time cost

These are few signs which should prove to you that you are short of suitable engineers, developers or writers. This is the time in which you DON’T have to panic, but just motivate your current employee and find a suitable match in your budget. But remember not to misuse the current ones.

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Check out this small Video of When You Should Hire More Staff.

3. When you are Observing a High Customer Churn:

Now the third kind of Pivotal Moment for a SaaS company is when you anticipate a rising customer churn.

What is Customer Churn? Customer Churn is basically the loss of your customers or clients during a time period. It is when your customers stop using your product or service any longer. A study revealed that 30% of SaaS providers have an unacceptable level of churn. Basically, this means that a high number of customers are leaving your service for either not being satisfied or any other reason.

You see, customer experience is very important for every firm. You have to offer something which your customers simply can’t ignore. I totally agree that some churn rate would always be there, but a high churn rate is definitely bad. And there is a need to control it.

The example given below shows how a company had the same ratio of customer churn after a certain  number of years also. However, this can be controlled by enhancing the customer experience.

Source: ForEntrepreneurs.com

Studies also show that as the SaaS company increases in size, the churn also increases as a lot of people just sign up and then vanish thus creating a loss of customer base.

You can control the churn by:

• Offering more options
• Getting more leads
• Converting the leads into customers

This guide is surely going to give you some of the great tips for retaining the maximum number of customers.

As it turns out,

These pivotal moments will keep coming your way to make your SaaS business a success. That’s because traditional on-premises businesses have more power to control a few factors which SaaS businesses do not have as everything in based on Cloud. In all cases, you have to keep fighting with these demotivating moments and keep moving on like a Hero. Your employees and customers will keep coming and going out, but you should not stop and try to value them as much as you can. Because those are people who run the actual game .

The most Important Tip:

“Never take your Employees and your Customers for granted. They Run the Show.”