Original link: https://inote.xyz/orgin-saas/
The importance of relationships
It is very insightful to listen to Professor Ma Xiao’s talk about “In the battle for high-speed rail, why some places are successful, but others are not”:
- Political science studies the rules for the allocation of scarce resources.
- KPI assessment is the root of the efficient operation of the Chinese government.
- Not only China has the battle for high-speed rail, but Japan also has it, and a word has appeared: Piaotian Yintie.
- Among all available resources, personal relationships are valid.
In fact, not only in China, but the greatest resource on the entire planet is interpersonal relationships. If a person’s circle of friends is not strong enough, it is difficult to obtain enough resources to start a business and make it big. If you are isolated by the clan or the villagers in the village, it will be difficult to gain a foothold in the local area. It is character that determines a person’s interpersonal relationship. A person with a personality problem is unlikely to have too many high-quality interpersonal relationships, even if the resources brought by passive social relations such as background and schooling will be lost because of personality problems.
new energy
Countries have used dual carbon as an opportunity to promote the development of their own auto industries. The development path of each country’s auto industry is different, and the core is the consideration of energy security based on its own energy structure. For example, China is rich in coal, poor in oil and less in gas, and needs to use lithium-electric new energy vehicles to convert thermal power into transportation power. By developing electric vehicles, various types of photovoltaic and wind energy can be applied to new energy vehicles through the existing power grid in the later stage. Japan lacks all kinds of energy, so it decided to develop hydrogen-fueled new energy vehicles. The “Rebuilding Better” bill issued by the Biden administration focuses on the development of new lithium-ion energy sources, which is also based on future energy security considerations. Even though the European Union is leading the world in fuel vehicle technology, countries still decide to stop producing fuel vehicles around 2035. Especially the recent cut in energy supply in Russia has made Europe and the United States sober and must firmly control energy in their own hands.
Ways to grow your SaaS business
B2B software business logic is relatively simple. Just four processes:
- develop software
- Sales and Marketing
- provide technical support
- generate cash flow
There are many ways to grow your SaaS business, but the most effective ones mainly include the following.
- Enter the high-end market: Large customers are easier to pay than small customers, and they are less likely to be lost. Likewise, business customers are more premium than individual customers. SaaS companies such as Dropbox are all developing in this way. Of course, it is not easy to enter the high-end market, and it is necessary to build enough and extensive enterprise functions on the product. At the same time, because it is more difficult to sell to major corporate customers, more supporting services such as sales and marketing, technical support, and legal services need to be deployed at the company level. If the product meets the following conditions, you can consider entering the high-end market:
- Your SaaS product can help customers solve a major need (help customers increase revenue, reduce costs, or help the business grow healthier), and customers are willing to pay.
- You have the will and skill to plan to enter the high-end market through sales and marketing.
- Expand product line: Once large customers are developed, these customers are not easy to lose. In addition to the initial product demand, customers may also have new needs. More product lines can be developed according to customer needs and successfully sold to customers, such as the one you originally provided. It is a sales management software that can try to provide human resources and process management functions to customers. Expanding new product lines requires consideration of the following issues:
- The company is good at developing products and can develop new products quickly.
- Familiar with the industry, can make relatively accurate forecasts for the industry, understand customer needs, and minimize the risk of expanding product lines.
- There are funds to support new product development.
- Sales and marketing teams can keep up with the company’s product line expansion, quickly become familiar with products and sell to customers.
- Entering new industries: Many product features are common and in demand in different industries. If a function can be used in one industry, it can also be extended to other industries. Consider expanding into new industries if:
- The value proposition of the product is generic or horizontal, which means that it can be widely extended to other industries. For example, Feishu can be used in the field of e-commerce, and it can also be used in the field of live broadcast.
- A product or feature is particularly effective for a few industries that have expanded, but similar products have not yet emerged in other industries.
- Adding Services: As the company grows, many SAAS companies may expand their services business. There are two benefits to improving service. One is to increase the sales price of products with poor user experience. The second is that the service is very easy to sell, you just need to tell the customer that you can provide a deployment implementation, and the deployment implementation you provide will make the customer experience better. There are also disadvantages to providing services: First, it will reduce the company’s gross profit. The gross profit of the software business is generally 70%, while the gross profit of the service is only 40%. Second, the service requires a large number of employees to provide support, and the company management will be more complicated. Third, services may prevent product development. If more services need to be invested in large customers, the R&D team may not continue to improve product availability due to incentive issues. However, developing a product can pay off more in the long run. Consider adding services in the following situations:
- Proper use of a product can greatly increase its value.
- The product is difficult to integrate or apply by customers. Independent operation is required.
- You really need income.
- You don’t mind low gross margins and don’t worry about being seen as a services company rather than a pure software company.
podcast
In the past, I mainly used Himalaya to listen to podcasts, but now there is less and less serious content on it. I began to try to use Apple’s own “podcast” to listen to content. The content on podcasts is more serious and more valuable for learning. Perhaps the main reason is that podcast monetization channels are limited, and most of the podcast authors precipitated above are a group of people who love podcasts and use love to generate electricity.
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