Scores of SaaS companies are launched every year. But many of them fall by the wayside for many reasons, including poor management. Given that developers launch their SaaS and can become the CEO with no previous experience in that role, it’s not all that surprising.
If this is your current difficulty, then here are the top four tips for managing the SaaS better than before. Read and implement before the Black Friday SaaS deals finally comes. This is a time people are always out to look for the best deals on SaaS products. You definitely don’t want your company lagging behind. So, let’s get into business!
Tips to Help You Better Manage Your SaaS Company
Do Less, but Better
With any SaaS product, it’s necessary to set development goals for features versus refinement. What do we mean by this?
Unless you’re staffed with a veritable army of developers, it’ll be necessary to choose what features to include in the SaaS. And with each new feature, the team is stretched further. Consider the option to initially offer fewer features but allow developers more time to make them better, bug test them, and beta test with early adopters too.
In the competitive SaaS world, releasing version 0.8 isn’t always a great idea. By aiming for less but better, more positive reviews and earlier adoption through positive word of mouth will result. Sure, customers will request what they see as missing features, but they’ll wait for them if the base product is high-quality.
Improve the Onboarding Experience for Customers
Customers face an uphill battle when signing up for a new SaaS, logging on for the first time, and trying to use the service. The dashboard and interface will be unfamiliar to them. Even the signup process may confuse.
Thoroughly test the onboarding process to look for any issues cropping up. Scour the emails and contacts from customers to discover all their pain points during onboarding and early usage of the product. Find ways to resolve every issue, so no other customers have the same problems later.
Nurture the Offering to Enhance It
It’s all too easy to launch a SaaS, fall in love with certain features, and pay special attention to them. This is all well and good, but when other features are ignored and languish, it can frustrate customers who rely on them and wish to see those enhanced too.
While it makes sense to put greater development efforts into the most popular or most used functionality within the SaaS, don’t ignore other features. Doing so could lead to customers becoming frustrated at the lack of progress from the launch version.
Also, other companies can steal a march on the feature set when doing so. Then those customers are likely to jump ship to one of your competitors.
Understand How a SaaS is Valued
While you may not have the idea to sell the SaaS if you’re still developing more features and expanding, eventually an exit strategy may be needed or desired. You may want to raise capital for a new SaaS. A complete change of pace could be needed to reset. Or even ill-health may beset you, making it too difficult to keep up development. Whatever the reason, eventually you may well wish to sell.
With this in mind, it pays to understand valuation metrics and factors that affect what might be offered by a potential buyer. Indeed, coming up with a number is not the easiest thing for anyone. Beyond the earnings, how involved the owner will remain, growth predictions, customer churn, and how established the SaaS is all play a role in the valuation.
Even if you’re not planning to sell yet, it’s a good mental exercise to manage as if you are so you can organize yourself accordingly.
Managing a successful SaaS isn’t as easy as it looks. It pays to keep up with the latest operational suggestions to increase your chances of succeeding.
