Last week we had the much anticipated opportunity to sponsor, attend, and speak at the in-person 2021 SaaStr Annual conference. SaaStr Annual is always a time to look forward to as it’s a chance to join our peers in SaaS, to learn from the best in the business, to avoid big mistakes, to strengthen ties, to do better – so we can all achieve the impossible.

This year we joined 5,000 Cloud and SaaS Founders, VC and Execs in the SF Bay Area for three action-packed days of high-quality networking, learning from those who’ve done it, and of course happy hours and plenty of fun. Speaking of fun…

Did you see our Churn Monster themed claw machine we had in the ChurnZero booth?? It was a big hit!

Another one of our favorite moments was our Founder, You Mon Tsang’s well attended session on the “Top Customer Metrics For Your Board and Investors and How to Nail Them with ChurnZero’s CEO.”

We are happy to say it was a great event all around. No worries if you weren’t able to attend  (or even if you did and are looking for a recap), we have pulled together our top ten Customer Success takeaways from SaaStr Annual 2021 that we wanted to share with you here.

1.) Are your compensation plans setting your business up for longer-term success or subscription contraction?

#SaaS customers are only using 50% of the licenses that they buy- @markroberge. He attributes this to outdated comp plans and says it leads to revenue contraction. #SaaStrAnnual pic.twitter.com/I2uKtsYdjp

— David Carnes (@davidpcarnes3) September 27, 2021

2.) Customer Success begins in Sales and needs to be part of your funnel.

“You should have a customer success funnel just like you have a sales funnel” @nrmehta dropping CS🔥 at @SaaStrAnnual

Pictured slide: integrating sales and customer success @jasonlk #saastrannual pic.twitter.com/yMHly4cEpB

— Patrick Baynes (@PatrickBaynes) September 27, 2021

3.) You’ll know you’ve found your product-market-fit when strangers start becoming paying customers.

You’re in business when a stranger becomes your first paying customer. #saastrannual

— Oluwatoyin Akintayo (@toyinakint) September 27, 2021

4.) Your internally used application vendors need to be just as serious about customer data security as you are.

“Nearly a quarter of startups use 45+ apps—not all of them contain sensitive customer info but many do.

That’s why you need to be rigorous with your vendors.

They must be able to promise the same level of security that you do.”#TugboatTrustworthy | #SaaStrAnnual pic.twitter.com/YZHgbtw2UL

— Tugboat Logic by OneTrust (@tugboatlogic) September 28, 2021

5.) Customers are your key to product success.

Nope. You should customer your way into the right product, which will result in a raise. #saastrannual #Saastr2021 pic.twitter.com/oxZrEdolF2

— Matt Cameron(he/him) (@TMattCameron) September 29, 2021

6.) Customers’ actions speak louder than their words.

One of @karenpeacock’s biggest piece of advice for businesses who want to accelerate growth 🚀: Know your customers. And watch what they do, not what they say. #SaaStr #saastrannual

— Intercom (@intercom) September 29, 2021

7.) You need to focus on the user experience to upgrade free-trial users to paying customers.

“Think of the user journey regardless of how much they pay you.”
–@anjsud

How Vimeo gets 75% of their enterprise clients from their freemium pond. #saastrannual

— JonJon (@jonjonweso) September 28, 2021

8.) Unit economics can become your most powerful weapon to rapidly scale your customer base.

“The most important feature that you’ll build is the one that signs up the next customer.” @dbarrett #saastr #saastrannual pic.twitter.com/X04527OBE8

— 🤓 Andy Keil (@alwaysunday) September 29, 2021

9.) Would you want your friends to go through your organization’s customer experience?

An absolutely fantastic presentation by @karenpeacock, @intercom CEO at #SaaStrAnnual. Insightful, nice flow, and real examples.
Thank you!
When you think about customer experience at your company, think: if your friend had this experience, how would you feel? pic.twitter.com/G1g97KC0Tj

— Genia Trofimova (@GeniaTrofimova) September 29, 2021

10.) Customer trust can be your biggest competitive differentiator.

Building Trust in the Age of Data Breaches with Tugboat Logic’s Chief Diversity Officer https://t.co/YV7zv0fr1Q

— SaaStr Annual (@SaaStrAnnual) September 27, 2021

The ChurnZero team looks forward to seeing you all again next year!

 

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