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SaaStr customer success eventThis week, TaskRay co-founder and CEO, Blakely Graham and VP of Sales and Customer Success, Mike Davis, attended the SaaStr 2019 conference in San Jose, California. They brought us back these notes.

Customer Success > Sales

As tough as this one can be for sales teams to swallow, research tells us (and the world of SaaStr agrees) that retaining customers and supporting their success is less expensive than acquiring new ones.

We noticed (and appreciated!) that conversations about “scaling” are now focused on customer success and not just the sales funnel alone. In fact, we tend to believe that sales might just be the foreword in the customer success playbook. Because if our customers aren’t finding the success we promised, nobody wins.

Diversity and inclusion create a better workplace for everyone

Inclusivity is making strides in the tech world and the positive impacts are apparent. At the inaugural SaaStr 2015, Leyla Seka (EVP of Mobile at Salesforce) was the only female speaker. At SaaStr 2019, the speaker lineup represented a significantly more diverse set of perspectives.

Start with success and think backwards  

No, that’s not a typo. In her session, Sandy Carter, VP at Amazon Web Services, laid out a compelling argument for working backwards from customer success through onboarding and end with sales. She asked, “What if you wrote the press release before you built your next feature?”

She challenged us to think about how to present a new feature or product before we even start building it. Who will this feature impact? How will our customers derive value from it? And what will the FAQs be? This level of clarity isn’t often available until well after new features are released, but thinking about the impact this thought process could have is exciting!

Connection is (still) everything

Connection has been one of our founding principles since day one and it remains a critical part of our TaskRay DNA. Connecting with our customers is key to understanding their needs, challenges and helping to map new solutions.

“Overheard at SaaStr: Remember its ‘Software as a Service’, not Software as a Subscription. We need to remember our customer wants us to deliver a service.

It’s exciting to see the SaaS world pick up on the oft forgotten part of customer journey—deriving long term value from the service!  

We met so many great leaders and new voices at SaaStr 2019 and can’t wait to bring the lessons we learned to life with our own team and customers.

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