28251617599327450149023185

Sunstone Communication
  • Home
    • Tartan in Tallinn
  • Blog
  • Free Downloads
    • Sunstone Financial Information Survey 2017
    • Sunstone SaaS SWOT Analysis Tool
    • The Book of Business Plan Ephemera 2014
    • SMB SaaS Unit Economics Calculator
    • How technology is killing the CIO
  • About
    • Kenny Fraser
    • The Legend
    • Community >
      • Mallzee
      • Appointedd
      • SaaS Group
  • Financial Model

B2B SaaS - Solving the UK's toughest economic problem

3/12/2017

Comments

 
"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."
John F Kennedy, Undelivered remarks for the Dallas Trade Mart, 22 November 1963
A craftsman artisan in his workshop. Photo courtesy of Clark Young
​The UK Government is trying to tackle a problem that has no solution. No not Brexit, productivity. Hiding behind royal engagements and outrageous tweets over the past few weeks have been a couple of huge announcements. The Chancellor’s budget speech and our new Industrial Strategy. Both focused on the question of productivity.
 
UK productivity has been sluggish to terrible for as long as I can remember. The latest official data tells us UK productivity per hour is 15% less than the G7 average. And growing at a slower rate.

Government does not have the answers

​The Chancellor calls these sort of numbers “economicky.” In my mind they are the essence of life. They are also the main reason I am so passionate about the tech sector.
 
Successive governments have shown that policy biases and ill judged, small scale subsidies are not the solution. Its not about shiny new ideas - Grand Challenges in the words of the industrial strategy. Government needs to focus on infrastructure, regulation and education. Leave productivity to entrepreneurs and consumers.
 
Technology is an integral part of the productivity solution. At the leading edge this means research in advanced areas like AI. Medium term these are essential but in the short term they will have little impact. By definition cutting edge ideas apply only to a small segment of businesses. That results in a limited impact on productivity. 

The right agenda for B2B SaaS

​The big prize will come from established businesses making better use of technologies that are already proven. Luckily, this is also what B2B SaaS needs to happen to drive the next wave of growth.
 
At a high level its simple. Either:
 
  1. Your B2B SaaS enables business to generate more revenue with the same number of people.
  2. Your B2B SaaS enables a business to generate the same revenue with less people.
 
In both cases your customer’s productivity improves. If everyone does this then the productivity of the whole economy improves.
 
You may oversee that ittle in the UK budget or the industrial strategy will help achieve this goal. Correct. Don’t waste too much time looking for examples elsewhere either. 
 
This will only happen if entrepreneurs and leaders make it happen. 
 
Everyone I know in a SaaS company is working to make this happen. And every business is different facing its own challenges and opportunities. You need to find the right way for your company. 

5 principles to help your SaaS and your customer

You will not go far wrong by following these 5 principles:
  • Help your customers deliver business change. Customer success is 100% driven by change. Your SaaS will not deliver benefits alone.  Don’t just sell your product. Make it easy to change. 
  • Build customer relationships. Real sustainable business and genuine lifetime value arise from mutual commercial relationships. Not pipelines and funnels. That’s why its called CRM.
  • Listen to customer needs. Nothing destroys your reputation faster than selling the wrong thing to the wrong customer. Success is about listening not selling.
  • Measure yourself by retention not acquisition. There are a thousand ways to acquire customer but only one way to keep them. You can only retain customers by delivering value. Value is the object of your business so this is what you need to measure. Read this from reforge for more about this point.
Use team incentives not individual sales commissions and quotas. Sales people don’t deliver value. Great software, excellent service, a strong business model and even a clean office all make a contribution. Reward the whole team not just the sales team.

The Chairman's view

​If this is too much, remember the first item on the list. Help your customers deliver business change. Without this, you will not have a sustainable or scaleable business. And your SaaS product will make no difference in the world. 
 
Its like a meta variation of the old saying: execution, execution, execution. Government will not solve the productivity puzzle. We will. So let’s get on with it. Wherever you live, your country needs you! 
Comments

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Book Selections
    Building A Team
    Common Business Concepts
    Enterprise SaaS
    Financial Information
    Leadership
    SaaS
    Saas Metrics
    Scotland
    SMB SaaS
    Strategy
    Technology Opportunities
    The Funding Jungle

    Author

    Kenny Fraser is the Director of Sunstone Communication and a personal investor in startups.

    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Archives

    September 2020
    October 2018
    September 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014

Learn more

Home
Blog
Free Downloads
About
View Kenny Fraser's profile on LinkedIn

Contact

Get in touch
Listing
Follow Kenny Fraser on f6s
Blogorama - The Blog Directory
Blog Directory & Search engine
Terms and Conditions                       Privacy Policy
©Sunstone Communication Ltd 2016
  • Home
    • Tartan in Tallinn
  • Blog
  • Free Downloads
    • Sunstone Financial Information Survey 2017
    • Sunstone SaaS SWOT Analysis Tool
    • The Book of Business Plan Ephemera 2014
    • SMB SaaS Unit Economics Calculator
    • How technology is killing the CIO
  • About
    • Kenny Fraser
    • The Legend
    • Community >
      • Mallzee
      • Appointedd
      • SaaS Group
  • Financial Model