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Navigating the world of SaaS FinOps can feel like you're walking a tightrope. While juggling chain saws and bowling balls. Over a tank of starving great white sharks.   What’s ironic is that you are under this pressure during what should be the most exciting time. Your SaaS is growing, scaling, and it might even be nearly time for the next investment round.   It’s only natural to feel apprehension and overwhelm.   And you might have these questions running around in your mind:   How can we switch from loss-making to profitability fast?   How can we stay on top of revenue recognition and forecasting when the SaaS landscape constantly shifts?  Where do I find the time to prepare for financial and regulatory audits and ensure compliance?  What do we do to stop haemorrhaging costs?   How can we align FinOps with the company's big-picture vision?  The FinOps team is expected to course-correct the entire financial model of the SaaS business. It’s like trying to stop and turn around the Titanic with just an ice cream scoop.   We’re a SaaS company that works with SaaS companies. We get that there’s a lot to this. But the more SaaS people know about how to get rid of FinOps headaches, the sooner they can action best practices and make their SaaS company undeniably irresistible to investors.    That’s why we’ve created this comprehensive guide to SaaS FinOps. In it, we’ll chat about the ins and outs of FinOps, the challenges FinOps teams face, the best practices to help turn things around, and the easiest way to get that done.   So, grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and let's dive right in.  SaaS FinOps Responsibilities and Challenges: It's a Wild World Out There  Let’s look a little more in-depth at what’s expected from FinOps and the challenges they must work through while they align the company’s financial situation with the vision for the brand:   Switching from loss to profit-making: SaaS companies start at a loss and continue with loss-making while they’re investing in product development and customer acquisition. But over the last year or two investments have dropped so FinOps are expected to become profitable much faster and earlier.   Indirect responsibility for billing and subscriptions: Though much of the billing and subscription responsibilities are up to RevOps, FinOps has to fold that customer base and low operational costs into a solid bottom line. The problem is that silos can separate the teams so FinOps operates from a lack of knowledge and data.   Nailing revenue recognition, forecasting, and reporting: Recognizing revenue is vexing and without the right tools it’s easy to make mistakes. Despite this, FinOps must match the actual usage of the service while somehow making accurate forecasts and reports to guide decision-making.  Taming the cloud cost beast: When an SaaS scales (especially drastically), cloud costs can go through the roof. That means FinOps MUST keep a real-time eye on cloud usage, find and solve inefficiencies, and optimize costs if they have any hope of bringing in profitability.  Staying compliant with regulations and standards and managing risk: Though risk seeps through the pores of the SaaS industry, FinOps still has to cut it down. Compliance with evolving financial regulations across regions can be a nightmare because it consumes a huge amount of SaaS FinOps time. After all, mistakes are not only costly, but they can be deadly to the brand. Managing cash flow and working capital: Cash is king in the world of SaaS. To survive, FinOps must cut the cash burn rate to the bone, stay liquid, take charge of capital budgeting, negotiate like a kid who has to get ready for bed, and grab every opportunity for growth.  Adapting to rapid changes in the market: FinOps teams must make data-driven decisions to keep up in an evolving market. They need good data and analysis, KPIs, knowledge of customers, trends and forecasts, tech, best practices, and know-how to pivot fast.   How FinOps doesn’t survive on ulcer medication is a mystery greater than the building of the pyramids.   And they have to do all these things with another ultimate goal in mind- they must make the SaaS company an investor magnet throughout the investment cycle.   The Investment Cycle   Seed Round: In the initial seed round, FinOps teams need to present a compelling business plan and demonstrate the market potential of their product or service. They should highlight the company's unique value proposition, target customer segments, and revenue model, as well as provide a roadmap for growth.  Series A: During the Series A round, FinOps teams must present a more detailed financial picture, including historical performance, current financial health, and future projections. They should also provide evidence of traction, such as growing user base, increasing revenues, and strong customer retention rates.  Series B and beyond: As the company progresses through subsequent funding rounds, the FinOps team's role becomes even more critical. They need to showcase continued growth, profitability, and scalability while addressing any potential risks and challenges. This includes providing detailed financial statements, demonstrating cost optimization strategies, and highlighting successful partnerships or acquisitions.  Who Does What - the FinOps team   The best FinOps team are a diverse mix of people with a good range of experience. Though it depends on resources and budgets, these are the roles most often seen:  1) SaaS FinOps Business Manager: They step up to take charge of cloud finance, use and infrastructure, making sure everything runs smoothly and efficiently while keeping costs in check.  2) Project Manager: They keep all the moving parts on track, juggling goals, tasks, and expectations like the boss that they are. They're great at communication and bring everyone together to get the job done.  3) Tech Manager: They’re the wizards behind the curtain, making sure all the tech runs well and supports the company’s objectives.   4) Financial Analyst: The numbers cruncher analyzes financial data, identifies trends, and provides insights to help the company make informed decisions. They create financial models, forecast revenue, and track key performance indicators (KPIs).  5) Compliance and Risk Management Experts: They navigate the complex and constantly-evolving regulatory landscape, find those potential risks, and implement strategies to tackle them.   No matter how great this team is in terms of talent and ability, if they don’t have the right tools, it will be hard for them to do their jobs.   And that can lead to some difficult problems that can really hold them back.   Your SaaS FinOps team might have already experienced some of them.   What happens without the right tools?   There’s no way a FinOps team can manage expectations without help. In this day and age, it just can’t happen.   But what can happen is a lot of fallout.   1) Failing to Align Financial Goals with Business Objectives:  There might be a lack of communication. Or the need to pivot FAST. Or maybe, FinOps has been so busy in damage control mode that it hasn’t been able to think about the future vision.   Whatever the reason, when there’s a misalignment, the financial plans don’t support the big picture. It means misallocating resources, creating inefficiencies, missing opportunities for growth, and financial outlay for a potentially massive course-correction.    2) Unable to Make Data-Driven Decisions:  Everyone knows how valuable data is - especially in SaaS. It lays a great foundation for insights that can power impactful decisions. But if FinOps can’t tap into its power, they’re left with guesswork.   And that means decisions that can actually harm growth and set the company back. Not only could the company become less competitive, but their costs could go through the roof.   3) Inadequate Focus on Cost Optimization:  No one needs the stress of their hard-earned profits eaten up by unnecessary expenses.  FinOps must stay on top of cost optimization, especially cloud infrastructure.   If they can’t, they face bloated expenses, reduced (or no) profitability, and even layoffs to compensate for the financial strain. None of these strengthen confidence in the team.   4) Poor Communication and Collaboration:  Ever felt like you're speaking a different language from your colleagues? That's what happens when there's a lack of communication between FinOps teams and other departments. To avoid misunderstandings and inefficiencies, they need to actively engage with others, share insights, and create a culture of collaboration.   When communication breaks down, it can lead to delays in projects, duplicated efforts, and missed opportunities for innovation. For example, if the development team isn't aware of budget constraints, they might spend time building features that ultimately get cut due to cost concerns.  5) Resistance to Change and Innovation:  In the SaaS race, FinOps teams can't afford to get left behind. If they don't change, try new strategies, or invest in learning, they'll struggle to keep up with the competition and industry advancements.   This resistance leads to stagnation. Pricing models aren’t explored. Emerging trends aren’t leveraged. And then comes the decline in market share. iThe company simply becomes obsolete because customers simply go to a competitor who has got their stuff together.    All this damage and unnecessary stress is exactly why FinOps need to be given the resources that are required to do their jobs.   It’s no exaggeration that when FinOps are under-resourced, it literally can kill the company. Because they become uninvestable.    So what’s the best way to take these potential pitfalls head-on?   How can you as a FinOp team make a significant impact on your company’s organization's success and drive sustainable growth?   There’s one solution that works.  Automation: Your Secret Weapon for SaaS FinOps Success  Automation is the game-changer FinOps teams have been waiting for.   It holds the key to overcoming many of the challenges they face and unlocking growth, profitability, and investibility.   Here are some of the revolutionary changes that automation brings, FAST:  Automating billing, invoicing, and revenue recognition: Automation cuts down on manual errors, saves time, and makes that customers are billed accurately. This reduced churn not only builds the customer base, but helps FinOps with reports and forecasting and frees up cash for FinOps growth initiatives.  Real-time cost tracking and optimization: Automation helps FinOps teams monitor cloud usage and all costs in real-time. Inefficiencies aren’t missed anymore. Cost-saving measures can be implemented more quickly.  Streamlining financial reporting and compliance: Automating accurate financial reporting and compliance tasks saves FinOps teams a lot of time. They avoid the errors that SaaS companies cannot afford in compliance and financial information.  Boosting collaboration and communication: Who is ready to smash silos? Automation streamlines communication and collaboration between FinOps teams and other departments. Boom- more cohesion. Better ideas.  Enhancing customer success and retention: Customer success processes including onboarding, support, and upselling are turned around. Maximized CLV drives revenue growth and frees up resources that can be invested in new customer acquisition.   Automating budgeting and forecasting: Automation allows FinOps to streamline budgeting and forecasting. There’s less manual effort and more accuracy, which means better decision-making and agility.  Improving data analysis and insights: With automation, FinOps teams can collect, analyze, and visualize large volumes of financial data. This gives insights that power strategic decisions and drive growth.  All of these benefits make the company more investible. They also cut down on FinOps’ ulcer medication.   So once the tools are in place and FinOps has the resources and supports that it needs, what the best practices that can put it miles ahead of the competition?   What needs to be done to keep finances smooth and attract investors?   Maximize Your FinOps Operations: Best Practices   Here are some of the most impactful FinOps best practices:  Get your hands on cost management best practices: The latest cost management techniques and tools can give you creative and cutting-edge solutions to problems.   Leverage data-driven insights: Data drives the best decisions. This involves using analytics tools to track KPIs, identify trends, and uncover opportunities for growth.  Streamline financial processes and workflows: There are ways to streamline the processes and workflows, especially the ones that are never-ending time and resource vacuums.   Collaborate effectively with other departments: Other departments like RevOps and DevOps want to collaborate to create unstoppable strategies. The more collaboration, the more other teams help share the burden. They’re there to help you succeed with regular meetings, sharing insights, and fostering a culture of collaboration.  Invest in continuous learning and development: Staying up-to-date with the latest trends, technologies, and best practices will help keep a SaaS competitive in the long-term. The more self-investment, professional development, attending industry events, and participating in relevant online communities and forums, the better the foothold in the SaaS landscape.  Embrace a culture of experimentation and innovation: Trying new approaches, testing different strategies, and learning from successes and failures are necessary to stay ahead. Experimentation leads to the sharpest innovations. Disruption lay at the heart of all of it. Challenge the status quo.   The SaaS landscape is only going to get more crowded and competitive as time goes on.   And until there’s a change in economic volatility and instability, investments are going to be harder to get.   That’s why FinOps deserve all the resources that they need to get things done. They play a pivotal role in driving growth, profitability, and investibility.   By understanding the challenges faced by FinOps teams, embracing best practices, and harnessing the power of automation, SaaS leaders can unlock new avenues for success and secure their place at the forefront of the industry.   Which is exactly where they belong.    SaaS discounting lowers customer LTV by 30%. -Paddle Say goodbye to underperforming revenue and boost your growth with Bluefort's cutting-edge sales automation solutions. Learn how our end-to-end system streamlines pricing models, identifies sales opportunities, breaks down silos, and maximizes customer value.

Being a CEO can be a little…stressful.   We get it. You’re knee-deep in data. Steering your business. Justifying everything to stakeholders. Aiming for profitability and investibility. You’re basically keeping it together in an extremely competitive landscape.   Tough gig.  One of the trickiest things about being a CEO is that everyone looks to you. And that can be a lonely place where you feel like you don’t have a lot of help.   Numbers can drive you crazy. But the wonderful thing is that they can help you put your business firmly on the track to success. You just need to know the right numbers to use.   Enter SaaS metrics.   What are SaaS Metrics?   SaaS metrics are the key performance indicators that show you where your business is in terms of growth, financial performance, customer satisfaction, etc. Each one is like a heart monitor for a different part of your business.   And here’s the great news – every single one of them can help you. Yes, you read that right! Something helping YOU!   Once you pick yourself off the floor from the shock, have a look at what you can gain with SaaS metrics.   How SaaS Metrics are Key to Your CEO Success   Here are how SaaS metrics are the key to your success as a SaaS CEO:  Informed decision making: Metrics give you the foundation you need to make the best decisions. Rock-solid numbers let you know where the business stands on sales strategies, marketing, customer retention, and financial planning. You’ll know what’s working and what isn’t. And that means better decisions.  Forecast the future: You’re in a better position to figure out what your performance will look like because some SaaS metrics give you a real-time snapshot of the trajectory. They help you get proactive and adjust where it’s needed.   Monitor customer engagement: Customer SaaS metrics give you insight into how much customers engage with your products how many customers are leave. This can help you pinpoint causes and strategize to make your customers happier and smash those churn rates.  Maximize revenue: You’ll be able to see what kind of revenue you’re making from customers including your upselling and cross-selling. You’ll find out how much you’re spending to get your customers and how well your business is building revenue from your customer base.   Optimize marketing efforts: You’ll instantly know how well your marketing strategies are working and whether their impact is growing through time. This can help you create goals for high-quality traffic and gaining an advantage of your competition.  Key SaaS Metrics CEOs Should Track  Now you know what SaaS metrics are and how they can benefit you, which metrics should you keep your eye on?   Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR): This metric is the predictable revenue your business expects to get each month. Because recurring revenue can change, it needs to be monitored month-to-month.   It's calculated by adding up the monthly fees from all your customers.  Formula: MRR = Sum of all monthly fees from all customers  Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR): Like the MRR but on an annual scale. It will help you understand your company's growth trajectory. But like the MRR, due to the everchanging nature of recurring revenue, it needs to be checked regularly.  Note that ARR is only for recurring revenue. It should not include one-off or variable fees based on usage.   You calculate ARR by adding up the annualized subscription revenue from all customers. For monthly subscriptions, you would multiply the monthly recurring revenue by 12.  Formula: ARR= MMR x 12   Churn Rate: This SaaS metric is simply the percentage of customers who stop using your product over a given period. It impacts your revenue and lets you know about how happy your base is with your products and service.   Churn is calculated by subtracting the number of customers at the end of a period from the number of customers at the start of that period, dividing by the number of customers at the start of the period, and multiplying by 100 to get a percentage.  Formula: Churn Rate = (Customers at Start of Period - Customers at End of Period) / Customers at Start of Period * 100%  Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): How much do you spend to get each new customer? Once you know this, you’ll get a better understanding of if your marketing team could be performing better.  You can calculate CAC by dividing the total cost of sales and marketing over a given period by the number of new customers acquired over the same period.  Formula: CAC = Total Cost of Sales and Marketing / Number of New Customers Acquired  Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV): This is a big one for SaaS subscription businesses! This SaaS metric lets you know the total amount of revenue you are likely to get from a customer over a lifetime. It’s a current snapshot of your customer loyalty and profitability.  It's calculated by multiplying the average purchase value by the average purchase frequency and then by the average customer lifespan. This helps you understand the value of your customers over the long term.  Formula: LTV = Average Purchase Value x Average Purchase Frequency x Average Customer Lifespan Qualified Marketing Traffic (QMT): People who have checked out your website or other content and shown some interest in your brand who meet certain criteria that make them potential customers. Knowing this SaaS metric will help you see if marketing is attracting the right people.   This is a tricky one to calculate with a formula because your idea of a quality lead can vary. So you just identify how many visitors meet your demographic and customer behaviour criteria.   Customer Engagement Score (CES): How much is a specific customer using your product? It’s good to know because if they aren’t using it very much, they might bounce.   This SaaS metric score is another one that depends on your specific business and what actions you value. But most typically, you’ll assign points to actions like how many times they log in, how long they use your product for, whether they complete tasks, etc. Then you add up the points over a given time period.   Formula: CES = Sum of (User Action Points x Number of Times Action Performed)  Net Revenue Return (NRR): This SaaS metric measures how much you’re getting from existing customers (upsells, cross-sells, downgrades, and churn). The percentage accounts for losses and gains, so it shows you how healthy your SaaS business is.   To calculate it, start with the revenue you had at the beginning of a period, add any upsell or cross-sell revenue, subtract any downgrades or churn, and then divide by the revenue at the beginning of the period. Multiply by 100% to get the final percentage.   Formula: NRR = ((Starting MRR + Expansion - Downgrades - Churn) / Starting MRR) * 100%  Lead Velocity Rate (LVR): Want insight into how fast your base of customers is growing? This is the SaaS metric for you. It’s very helpful in predicting future sales and revenue growth.  To calculate LVR, subtract qualified leads last month from qualified leads this month. Then divide by qualified leads from last month. Then multiple by 100% to get the percentage.   Formula: LVR = ((Qualified Leads This Month - Qualified Leads Last Month) / Qualified Leads Last Month) * 100%  Conclusion  Each of this SaaS metrics individually will give you useful insight. But if you use all of them, you’ll get a well-rounded idea of how your company is performing, and which areas need more focus and better strategies.   SaaS metrics might just be numbers, but they’re also hack you need to figure out what to change so that you can boost your chances of success.   If you’d like a chat about how we can help you boost your numbers with ease and automation, we’re here to listen to your situation and goals.   And if you've got some insights or experiences of your own to share, we'd love to hear about them. After all, we're a SaaS company too, on this journey with you.   SaaS discounting lowers customer LTV by 30%. -Paddle Say goodbye to underperforming revenue and boost your growth with Bluefort's cutting-edge sales automation solutions. Learn how our end-to-end system streamlines pricing models, identifies sales opportunities, breaks down silos, and maximizes customer value.

Customers.   Who needs them?  They’re a pain. They drain our resources. We spend all our time making them happy. And we build SaaS businesses to solve their problems.   We say – enough is enough!!! It’s time to get rid of them using one of the quickest ways possible – your product offerings.   That’s why we’ve put together the ultimate guide on how to transform customers into little Usain Bolts. We're talking PEOPLE STAMPEDE. So grab a beverage, sit back and check out 7 ways you can finally be legends of churn and be free of customers forever.   Strategies to cut customer retention with your offerings    If you’re the kind of COO who wants to keep your teams busy with damage control, more work, and more effort, churn is the way to go.    That goes double if you like haemorrhaging money.  You don’t have to take a lot of time figuring out what to do. You can focus on your offerings – they’re key to your customer relations. Mess up the offerings and customer retention’s done for.   So what are the most effective strategies to create offerings that get those customers out of your life for good?   Don't Bother Learning About Your Customers: Who needs to understand their customers anyway? There’s no point in trying to use the data you’ve got on customer behaviour. You don’t need to keep track of what they like if they’re going to leave! Ignorance is bliss! Ignoring customer preferences is the quickest way to an empty customer database.  Don't Segment Your Customers: There’s no point in segmenting your customers into categories based on age, location, job, budget, needs, or anything else. Keep them a big indistinguishable mass, like a swamp blob. When you’re free from segmentation, you’re free from tailoring your marketing and sales approach to each customer. Who needs to feel valued and understood?  Choose a Rigid, One-Size-Fits-All Pricing Strategy: Flexibility is for gymnasts, not customers. If you keep the pricing for your product offering super rigid you’ll broadcast "we don't care about your specific needs" much more efficiently.     Make pricing super complex and annoying: On the other hand, you could pick 2,489,881 different pricing models that make no sense and throw them at the customers. Let them sort it all out or find a competitor who keeps things simple and offers them what they need, when they need it. No one needs that kind of troubled life.    Keep your products a secret and don’t show off their value: It’s okay to keep quiet about your  products, their functions and their benefits (especially the new ones). No one should have the burden of growth – it takes way too much time to count all that money. Give us stagnation and missed opportunities galore!  When someone mentions usage data, close your eyes, cover your ears and shout LALALALALA: No one cares about how much your customers use except your customers. If they want to know about contracts, it’s a free country! If you let them pay for things they don't need and offer them add-ons that don’t take their needs into account, it will leave a sour taste in their mouth and cut your customer retention to the bone. They might even tell their friends and colleagues about it.   Let your sales team wing it: Sales teams are at their best when they guess. No one needs preparation and customer insight to guide offerings. Let them act like life is a game show and randomly pick whatever– with higher stakes and no prizes.  Contact customers at random times: Life is best without stress, so contact your customers whenever you can get around to it. Don’t worry about keeping track of when it’s time for a cross-sell or an upsell. For extra points, wait a few weeks have sales call them again, and offer them something that’s even worse.   And whatever you do, avoid automation AT ALL COSTS: The problem with automation of your product and pricing processes is that it makes dropping the ball impossible. Who needs any of these:   Personalization: Automation teaches you about your customers by crunching the data from their preferences and buying behavior, which means they get pricing and offering that keeps them happy and coming back for more.   Segmentation: You’ll segment your customers so that both your message and your offerings are as specific to their circumstances as possible.   Flexible Pricing: Automated pricing strategies will stay clear, logical, and show off the value of your products. They will also take into consideration usage so that the customer saves as much as possible and you know which products and services they need.   Product Updates: Automation will let your customers stay on top of your new products, what they do, and how they can benefit from them. That boosts the chances of upselling and cross-selling.   Sales Intelligence: With automation, your sales team will always know what to offer each customer, eliminating the guesswork and improving conversion rates.  Offerings at the right time: Automation not only decides what offerings and prices to send, but channels this info to the right salesperson when the customer needs it. No more missed opportunities.   Automation sounds like a nightmare. So steer well clear of that!    And that’s the list!   If you've followed all these steps, congratulations! You're on the fast track to an empty customer database.   Now, there are some people who are reading this article, thinking “But I want to keep my customers. I need tips to better customer retention through offerings.”   We’re not trying to judge. We’ve all got our own path to follow. Just do the opposite.   86% of consumers will leave a brand they trusted after two bad customer experiences. - Emplifi Get the perfect offerings for the perfect customers at the perfect time. Say goodbye to missed opportunities and boost your growth with Bluefort's cutting-edge automation solutions. Learn how our end-to-end system streamlines product offerings and maximizes long-term customer value.

You’re a SaaS CEO plagued by underperforming sales revenue. You might even have to deal with loss-making deals. So our first question is this -   How long has it been since you’ve had a good night’s sleep?   You know it all too well- it doesn’t matter what the cause of your sales problems because it’s you at the end of the day, in the boardroom, taking the rap for why things are wrong.  We’ve worked with a lot of SaaS CEOs and we’ve heard their challenges. That's why we wrote this article on strategies for boosting underperforming sales, sharing the insights we’ve gained along the way.   The Silent Destroyers: Underperformance and Loss-Making Orders  Both are red flags on your financial dashboard. And they undermine your business and the well-being of you and your team.  And it’s not just a revenue problem that manifests in staff layoffs and budget cuts. These challenges can put a ton of stress on you and your teams which means longer hours. Tougher expectations.   That’s when the sleepless nights kick in. And possibility anxiety. All stuff that you don’t need.   What Causes Sales Underperformance and Loss-Making Deals?  It’s only from understanding the causes of sales underperformance and loss-making deals that anything can be done about it.   Here’s what we hear CEOs talk about the most. Do any of these sound familiar?    Poor market research: Skimping on market research never works out well - it just means you waste time and money offering a product that doesn't resonate using marketing messages customers don’t care about.   Many companies overlook research (ideally segmented research with personas) will give ideal customers' needs or preferences. B2B buyers are researching SaaS companies before they get in touch for solutions, so when SaaS companies don’t do the same, they put themselves at a huge disadvantage.   Bad pricing: Pricing can be a nightmare in the SaaS industry because of all the factors involved. There’s a lot of complexity that can turn keeping up with customer demand and the ever-changing landscape of competitors’ pricing into an impossible ask. And we haven’t even gotten to the differences in pricing between individual customers!   Discounts and promotions can be a total killer. When pricing doesn’t reflect the value your products and services give, you’re stuck with either loss-making deals or deals that have customers jumping ship the millisecond a competitor offers something better.   High Customer Acquisition Costs: This can be down to sales salaries being too high compared to the 4-5x of revenue they’re supposed to bring in. It can be down to a bad website that causes people to bounce within seconds. And it can be down to marketing.  Often it’s all three. No matter what it is, it’s a costly disaster.   Subpar CX: There’s no denying that customer experience is one of the most important factors in sales (and customer retention!). SaaS businesses ignore this at their peril, even if they’ve got an exclusive or genius product.  Why? There’s simply too much competition out there who will swoop in, and give customers the well-designed user interface, simple navigation, targeted offering and messaging, and knowledgeable and organized sales and service that get them to say yes.    Admin: Soul-sapping, repetitive tasks are everyone’s natural enemy, but this is particularly true with sales teams. According to McKinsey, only 39% of a sales rep’s time is spent selling or interacting with prospects and customers. The rest is admin. If they don’t have tools that sort admin, revenue will never be what it could be.   It can all be a mess that you constantly mop up. Fortunately, there are ways of turning it around.   Strategies for Boosting Sales and Preventing Loss-Making Deals  When you’re ready to boost your underperforming sales and bring in more of that sweet, sweet cash, there are strategies you can use. Here are some of the most effective:   Get to know who your customers are: Research your ideal segments to shape your products, services, pricing, and how to best reach them.   Optimize that pricing: The best pricing strategies are flexible and tailored. They’re easy to keep track of no matter how complex. And they reflect the true value of your products and services.   Cut down on customer acquisition cost: Boost the relationship between sales team salaries and incoming revenue by giving them the support they need to sell as much as possible. Ensure your website performance is excellent. And invest in marketing that uses SEO, social media marketing, content marketing, and influencer marketing to boost your reach and credibility.  Enhance customer experience: Give your existing and your potential customers the best experience possible. Make it easy for them to learn what you’re all about. Communicate with them on their terms. Give your sales and customer relations people the time they need to grow those relationships. Train your sales team: Your sales team should have a solid foundation in your product and service offering and how to know what to pitch to potential customers. They should also be trained in building long-term relationships with customers. And they should know how to work with your revenue and customer service teams to keep information accurate and streamlined.   Monitor your competitors: It’s absolutely vital to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing all the time. It’s a big ask, but how else will you know what’s out there attracting your potential customers? The great thing is that you can keep an eye on their failures just as much as their successes. You’ll learn from both.  All these strategies do take a lot of time and resources, but if you need to boost these sales, they’ll have to be done.   If it feels like too much of a drain on your time and resources, there is one option you can do that takes care of almost everything in one fell swoop.   The Game Changer: Automation  Automation is a powerful tool that can completely change how you and your people do sales. It can also revolutionise your results. High-performing companies are 2x as likely to have automated sales processes (Velocify).    Here’s how it can make underperforming sales a thing of the past:   Operations are streamlined: Repetitive tasks that sales, revenue, and customer service teams have to do are eliminated, freeing teams to focus on strategic tasks that drive sales. Automation can cut those business costs by 60-70% and transaction times by up to 80% (Forrester).  Customer experience is improved: Automation keeps you in touch with your customers. They get instant responses and offerings specifically tailored to them when they need it.    Your data is enhanced: AI-driven automation collects, manages, and analyzes data much more effectively. You’ll know your customer better. And insights are available 24-7 to whoever needs them.  No more lost sales opportunities: Automation creates new sales opportunities and spots upselling and cross-selling opportunities. It also identifies the best time for the sale and feeds them directly to the right salesperson.    The best pricing: Automation constantly monitors the landscape and creates and keeps track of the best pricing possible.   Reduced Errors: Automation cuts down costly errors in sales and billing because it eliminates silos between the revenue, sales, and billings teams.   Your numbers are reliable: Because everything is streamlined, customers are kept track of between departments, and errors cut down, you can rest assured knowing your revenue numbers are reliable and will adjust when things change.   All this means you and your teams are less stressed, happier, and more productive.   And you’re finally sleeping at night.   Conclusion  It can be overwhelming to have to tackle underperforming sales.   But knowing the root causes and most effective strategies certainly makes things easier for you to turn things around. And the best news of all is that you can let automation take care of all the problems so that you can reap the rewards of boosted sales performance.   You’re a SaaS business. You exist because you give your customers cutting-edge solutions to your problems.   So why not do the same for you and your teams?  SaaS discounting lowers customer LTV by 30%. -Paddle Say goodbye to underperforming revenue and boost your growth with Bluefort's cutting-edge sales automation solutions. Learn how our end-to-end system streamlines pricing models, identifies sales opportunities, breaks down silos, and maximizes customer value.

Feeling a little down, SaaS Finance team member?   Your eyes might hit this quiz and your brain might scream ”I beg you, not another thing I have to do no NO NO NO!!!.”  We get it. You all are going through it. Your entire team might be treading water and putting out fires at the same time.   That’s exactly why we’ve made this quiz – to gauge how low your morale might be. So grab a coffee (who are we kidding, you probably have a bucket o’ coffee right next to you already!), put those revenue reports on pause (YAY), and let's dive in!  1. What is your reaction when you hear the dreaded words, “end of the month”? A) Adopt a fetal position and start whimpering for Grandma.  B) Start stress-eating office snacks. C) Avoid direct eye contact with the boss so that you’re not asked to stay LATE AGAIN. D) You’re happy to lock down the numbers for the last four weeks. 2. What’s your favorite spreadsheet function?  A) CTRL+Z (undoing my career choices). B) VLOOKUP (I'm always looking for an escape route). C) IFERROR (if only life had this function). D) SUM (because adding it all and getting solid numbers feels amazing). 3. How do you handle payment errors?  A) Start looking up how to fake your own disappearance. B) Blame it on the intern then hide from them till their contract expires. B) Pretend it's a new innovative strategy until I get busted. D) Payment errors? As if!  4. How often do invoices haunt your dreams?  A) Every night. “Invoices” is the Latin name for my sleep paralysis demon. B) Sleep? LOL.  C) Anytime I accidentally snooze at my desk (I’ve perfected the art of sleeping with my eyes open). D) Invoices are my version of counting sheep.5. What’s your reaction when either your team or your customers have a sudden software update? A) Panic, then cry. Ugly cry.  B) I browse through my pre-written resignation letters, and see how long my finger can hover over “send”. C) Anonymously send a note to the CFO suggesting we switch back to abacuses.  D) We’re always given a heads’ up, so no big deal.  6. When you hear the word “automation” what do you feel?   A) I hum "The Robots are Coming" on rotation because why am I the only one who sees it coming?! B) Hopeful, but suspicious (like when someone is super nice to me). C) Are you serious right now? We have not got the time to even think about automation!!! How very dare you even suggest it.  D) Like a kid locked up with their best friend in a candy warehouse overnight. 7. It’s budget season. What’s your affirmation?  A) “I am strong and powerful and have survived all my previous battles against Invoices and the other powers of darkness!!” B) It’s a calm one- “I’ll take another bottle of Jack Daniels, No, the big one.”  C) “LA LA LA It’s not happening I can’t hear youuuuuu!!!!!” D) No affirmations needed. I put my feet up because it’s all done.  8. When you see you’ve got a meeting about the recognized revenue numbers, what do you do?  A) I sit in my seat, close my eyes, and throw my arms around screaming because who are we kidding we’re never getting off this ride!! B)  Turn into a sweat-soaked puddle and then when I reach for my back-up sweat-free shirt, realize I forgot it AGAIN. C) Finally release my soul with a world-weary sigh.  D) Eh, whatever. Meetings are a pain, but at least we know where we are. 9. How’s your relationship with the marketing team recently?  A) They’re in our budget meetings, but I’m so distracted by the gaping hole in my soul during budget meetings that I don’t really notice them. I’m just trying to stay alive.  B) I pass them the Jack Daniels under the table. They’re going through it too.  C) We have a marketing team?  D) We bond over how to deal with Sales.  10. Speaking of sales, how do you feel when the sales team exceeds their targets?  A) Like I've won the lottery! Just without the money! (Just kidding – I am now dead inside and feel nothing).  B) Welp, there goes my weekends.  C) Thrilled but suspicious – how are they organized enough to know what their targets are?  D) I’m thrilled – all our data flows between our teams, so it’s no skin off my nose.  How did you score?   Mostly A – Wow. We would say you’re a total drama queen with serious main character energy, but if we’re being perfectly honest, given how stressful SaaS finance can be, we reckon you’re only human. Something will have to give soon though, because everyone needs a break from the stage or they crack up.   Mostly B – You are probably on the verge of a heart attack. You definitely have ulcers. We’re here to let you know it’s possible to not live under your desk for the rest of your life. A change is needed.    Mostly C – Coffee has no impact on you- you’re far too burned out for that. You also work about 80 hours a week and don’t seem to be getting anywhere with it. We’ll bet your finance and accounting systems are as modern as a wooden trebuchet.   Mostly D – Who are you? What is this witchery? How have you managed to be calm in a SaaS finance team? Clearly you’ve got some supernatural help. Harumpf.   Right, so congratulations! You made it through the quiz!   Ready for change? The thing is, we can joke as much as we want, but low morale is so draining. And so common.   But you're definitely not alone in your struggles.   The good news? You can get to a point where you answer mainly Ds on the quiz.   You absolutely deserve to have your problems solved.   You can have everything done for you, automatically.   You can your time freed from mundane and repetitive tasks.   You can be compliant and free from errors.   You can know what your recognized revenue numbers are at any time.    And you can finally feel the freedom to return to what you’re best at – financial strategy and focusing revenue on the future!   Change is possible. In fact, with the right solution, it’s automatic.   You just need automation.   The average cost of manually processing one invoice is $15.  -Levvel Research Curious to see how your and your team’s morale could improve by 2,945,922,418% (accurate scientific figure)? Schedule a Free Discovery Call today. Step out of the black hole and into clarity.

Most CEOs are focused on customer acquisition. And it’s no wonder- you gotta keep the people coming in to buy your products and services. It’s exciting building that base, and watching your numbers grow. Expanding into new territories, and new markets is quite thrilling and a real testimony to a CEO’s leadership. New customers are enticing, but do they tend to overshadow a potent growth strategy that's right under our noses? Yes, we’re talking about selling to the customers we already have. Placing upselling and cross-selling into SaaS pricing models can unlock hidden revenue streams within a business while cutting down on the investment and time needed in customer acquisition. We get this is easier said than done, which is why most SaaS CEOs have trouble with losing upselling and cross-selling opportunities. That’s why we’ve written this article – to talk through the problems with missed revenue opportunities, what is challenging about them, and steps you can change to sort it out once and for all so that you can enjoy a massive bump in your revenue. It’s Complicated – the relationship of pricing models and upselling/cross-selling It’s safe to say the SaaS industry is pretty famous for its complex pricing models. They’re a massive headache because they’re a rabbit warren of tiers, features, tiers, add-ons, and constantly changing usage. It can be really overwhelming for both your company and your customers. And the more complex your models, the harder it is to upsell and cross-sell. Though both upselling and cross-selling are fairly straightforward, they can be difficult to dovetail into your offerings. The problem is that these missed chances are like throwing money in the garbage. Because selling to existing customers is a lot easier than new customers. You’ve already won their trust. You know what they need. You’ve built a rapport. So how much does this cost you? The Cost of Missed Selling Opportunities It’s costing you more than you might think. According to Forrester, SaaS companies are leaving an average of 30% in additional revenue on the table by ignoring upselling and cross-selling opportunities. That’s not just a missed chance – that’s a powerful drain on your growth. It’s compound loss, not interest. Imagine what you could do with 30% more revenue coming in. You could invest it right back into the company, fueling your product development and innovation, attracting top talent, making your customer service unparalleled with your competition, or even boosting your marketing. It could have been a cushion that allows you to take bigger risks. Experiment longer with new ideas. Try new things. But instead, this money is simply unclaimed, which makes your job ultimately harder.  So what can be done to change this? Steps To Boost Upselling and Cross-Selling To stop the problems that siphon money and resources from your business, you can take proactive steps to integrate upselling and cross-selling into your pricing models: 1. Find the opportunities Start by having your teams review your products and services. Which combinations work? How can newer products complement your older offerings? Are there newer products, add-ons, and features customers might be willing to upgrade to? Services they could add-on? 2. Split customers into segments The more specific your customer segments, the better your offerings will be. Customers have varying needs, usage patterns, and budgets. When you segment your customers according to their behavior, needs, and willingness to spend, you will better understand what they need and when they need it. This is exactly what you need to tailor your upselling and cross-selling strategies (and the messages you use!) to each segment, making them much more impactful. 3. Train Your Sales Team with this skill Most people on your sales team have at least a good few years of sales experience under their belts. But upselling and cross-selling require a different set of skills than initial selling because sales reps need to understand why each existing customer needs to go beyond which products and services they currently have. They need to tread carefully around the trust that has already been established. 4. Streamline your pricing models The most unsurprising point ever, but still it needs to be said. Though SaaS is the home of complex pricing models, if your teams are struggling with keeping up (and losing customers along the way because of delays and errors) something needs to be streamlined whether it’s the models or the selling and contracting process. 5. It’s about value, not only the products The easiest way to upsell and cross-sell is to show the customer that your products and services add value to their lives. That’s all it is. Pitching add-ons should always involve showing the customer how it can solve their problems, and meet their needs. This way you boost your chance of the sale, and you invest even more into the customer relationship. 6. Track and Measure Success Yay, another spreadsheet! Sorry, but it’s true – teams have to track the success of their upselling and cross-selling strategies so that tweaks can be made where necessary when things aren’t working. Or get it all in one solution: how automation sorts upselling and cross-selling for you It could take quite a while (and a lot of resources!) to get through all the steps above. The good news is that there’s one solution that gets it done in one fell swoop. Automating all these processes, not only frees you and your teams of the boring, repetitive tasks, but cuts way down on errors, and misses no opportunities any longer. Here’s what an end-to-end solution can give you: Automation recommends the best pricing models that suit your offerings, no matter how complex they are. These recommendations are agile and adjustable and are instantly enacted. It breaks down the silo between your revenue and sales teams- there are no more costly mistakes that cut into your margin or invoices that slip through the cracks Loss-making orders are a thing of the past because automation gauges how much your customers are likely to spend It uses data and analytics to identify which customers are ready for an upsell or cross-sell, suggesting appropriate products or services based on customer behavior. It then automatically feeds the info to the right salesperson at the perfect time. So upselling and cross-selling don’t feel pushy. All sales data is available in real time, and accessible by whichever teams need it. Sounds good, right? Why not let automation make life easier for you and save your margins?If you want to maximize your revenue, then placing upselling and cross-selling into your pricing model is a must. There’s too much money to be made by shifting some of your energy onto your existing customers rather than focusing only on customer acquisition! Using automation doesn’t just make this process easier, but almost completely relieves your teams of all the time and effort and admin that comes along with it. That means they can finally focus on what brings in the most revenue – selling and making your customers happier. And that means you’ll have the time and the headspace to finally focus on your vision for the future of the company. 86% of consumers will leave a brand they trusted after two bad customer experiences. - Emplifi Say goodbye to missed opportunities and boost your growth with Bluefort's cutting-edge automation solutions. Learn how our end-to-end system streamlines pricing models, breaks down silos, and maximizes customer value.

Your Biggest Problem It’s hard to be a CFO. You’re in charge of the financial health of your company. That means you’re juggling regulations and compliance, revenue growth and profitability, and keeping to budget. Despite those key responsibilities, there’s one thing that strikes at the heart of any CFO in IT Services. Payment collection. It robs you of your time and resources - so much so that it crushes your profit margins. This guide is to talk you through the causes of payment chasing and high overheads. We’ll also cover strategies for how to cut chasing payments and lowering overhead so you can finally concentrate on what you’re supposed to be free to do- future-proof the financial health of the business. Chasing Payments Chasing payments hits hard in IT services because its subscription models mean on-time payments are a crucial part of it. But it’s challenging because it’s common- the more customers you have, the more payments you’re likely to be chasing. Anything can cause late payments: Cash flow problems Forgetting to pay Not providing customers with their preferred method of payment Misunderstanding the payment contract terms Disagreements over subscription costs or charges Mistakes between your sales and revenue teams Whatever caused it, you and your revenue team are stuck spending hours and days chasing payments. What damage does chasing late payments cause?  Saying that chasing payments is inconvenient is a bit of an understatement. It’s completely disruptive to you and dangerous to your organizations, causing a lot of damage to your overheads over time. Any of these impacts sound familiar? Operations - Your team won’t be able to do the other things they’re supposed to do if they are busy chasing missing money. That’s less time for budgeting, planning, and strategies for future growth. Financial - Every second wasted chasing money you’re already owed costs you staff hours, any legal fees, admin, and - the worst - borrowing to cover any cash shortfalls. Cash Flow - Speaking of disruption, cash can’t flow if your customers’ payments are late. That means difficulty in paying bills and salaries. It also makes investing tough. Clients - Regardless of whose fault it is, it’s hard to keep up a good relationship with someone whose payments are late. Even if they tell the truth or have a good reason to be late, all you are thinking when you see them is “The AUDACITY.” You’re only human! Credit Rating - The minute you struggle with your bills, you’re risking your credit rating. And this is an industry that thrives on “investibility.” You lose out on negotiating leverage with suppliers. You lose out on a trustworthy name. Next thing you know, investors won’t touch with you will a million-foot pole. Legal Risks - Some arguments over payments and bills need to involve lawyers. They’re expensive and a last resort and though you will probably win, nobody wins, you know? Physical and Emotional - Just because we’re saving it for last doesn’t mean that it’s the least important impact. We saved it for last so it would stick in your memory! Your physical and mental health are extremely important and the stress of chasing payments is the last kind of stress you need. It’s endless and thankless. It can cause burnout and turnover. Once you can identify the impacts that chasing payments causes you, your team, and your business, it’s a lot easier to justify doing something about it (especially to those C-Suite and stakeholders who dear change and doing things differently). Because the bottom line (literally!) is this - NOTHING should create overheads that rob you of the present and the future of the company. You know change is way overdue - you just need to know what your options are. Strategies to Minimize Overheads in Chasing Payments If you’re ready to cut down all the overheads that chasing payments causes, you’ve got plenty of options: 1. Make on-time payment irresistible - You can offer discounts (like a small percentage off the bill) or additional benefits (extra add-ons, more usage) to customers who pay on time. Not only do you get paid on time, but there’s a chance for good word-of-mouth. 2. Clear Communication - When your customers are crystal clear on their contract terms, there’s no confusion. What helps are very clear terms (and penalty clauses!) and payment reminders so that customers don’t have a reason to forget or misunderstand what’s expected. 3. Streamline disagreements - Disputes cost time. The way to save this is to have a process already put into place that becomes part of your contract terms. That includes ways for customers to ask any questions and expect a fast response. 4. Get strict - No one wants to have dealbreakers when we’re talking about new customers, but sometimes it’s necessary. Doing credit checks and setting credit limits can help. Yes, it seems like a lot and you might turn off some customers, but you’ll filter out a lot of costly misery too. 5. Consolidate the payment platform - A good chunk of efficiency can come from using a billing platform that cuts down the time needed to switch back and forth between systems. That means fewer mistakes and an easier time of tracking payments. 6. Outsourcing - Sometimes point it’s easier to give the problem to someone else. If your team’s missing time and resources are worth more than the percentage a collections company would cost, it might be worth considering it. These are all great options. But what if we told you that there was something that could solve all the problems that cause nearly all late payments? Something that takes no additional time from you- in fact, it frees you up to do the things you want to do for the company? It’s just one word - automation. When you leverage the technology available to automate the entire billing and payment process, you cut way down on your troubles. We know because over the last 2 decades we’ve worked with IT Services CFOs who had struggled to solve their problems alone when they didn’t need to. The biggest challenge is that many CFOs aren’t aware of just how much automation can change how they and their teams work. We’re talking about a total, end-to-end solution that finally grants you the time to work on financial strategizing for the future. A solution that gives you the correct numbers you can be confident about. A solution that actually gives even more than this. The right automation solution gives you: 1. Invoicing Your system can generate and send correct invoices for you (including the complex multi-month invoices that gauge usage and other factors) 2. Scheduled payments Automated payments can come out at agreed intervals 3. Reminders Customers won’t be caught off guard. They won’t forget either. The system can send reminders for you. 4. 24-7 reports A CFO’s ultimate fantasy is most likely knowing where all their revenue is at any given time. Automation gives you real-time updates, including the rev in and cash flow figures you need. And with your financial information in one place, you can make the informed decisions you need to. 5. Streamlined disagreement It’s a lot harder to have disputes when everything is clear and automated, but when they pop-up, they will pop up earlier so they can be resolved faster. And everyone loves that! 6. Reconciliation Silos between sales and finance are finally knocked down. That means there are no longer misunderstandings about customer offerings and contract terms. AND payments and invoices are matched automatically, so there isn’t any manual reconciliation to do. 7. Easy payments You can have secure payments that are put into your account fast. No, really! 8. Scalability The magic word! Of course you want to scale, but without automation it can feel practically impossible. With automation it doesn’t matter how much you grow - it can handle the transactions and still keeps those overheads you get with bigger numbers at bay. And, as a bonus, it automatically gives your sales teams upselling and cross-selling opportunities that not only maximize your product offerings and bring in more revenue, but build confidence and long-term relationships with customers who now enjoy personalised offerings when they’re needed. 86% of consumers will leave a brand they trusted after two bad customer experiences. - Emplifi It can be yours You know that your cutting-edge products, services and offerings are specifically designed to help your customers with their needs. Why shouldn’t you enjoy the same? Especially when a cutting-edge offering SAVES you your precious money and time? And cuts those overheads for good? You and your team deserve a stress-free life. The time you need to strategize for the future. And you as the CFO deserve to be able to walk into any meeting with the C-Suite or stakeholders, completely confident in your team’s performance, and the numbers that have turned around thanks to letting something do the necessary work for you. Give yourself and your team the time it takes to take your company’s finances to the next level. Curious? Why not schedule a free, no-obligation call with it to see how much you can save.