Why a DIY SaaS product hit a retention ceiling, and how embedding services into a blended model broke through
Erica Olsen · OnStrategy
Published September 1, 2022Erica Olsen, CEO and Founder of OnStrategy shares:
- How we burned the bridges and redesigned the offering
- From 74% to 107% Retention in 4 years
- How we land our ICP
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Erica Olsen explains how OnStrategy addressed retention limits in a DIY SaaS product by embedding services into a blended software-and-services model. The talk covers positioning, inbound demand, pricing, and the retention metrics used to manage the model.
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“a SAS DIY model up to about 1.2 1.5 million and we had churn or we had a retention of about 70 percent uh pretty high churn we couldn't change it we couldn't uh fix it we couldn't retain any more customers we through everything we knew at it and I finally looked at my team and I said enough with the crazy this isn't working let's stop doing this”
“were stuck at those low numbers and you can see as we change the model we built an embedded SAS our our software model and our services model we Blended them together and I was talking to some folks yesterday about that we no longer do this thing in our organization where we say software and services we say software and services so we have a completely 100 Blended model and I'll talk about that in just a little bit just this year we changed it even more”
“again it's working for us we are winning business against our OK our competitors because we are the only offering out there that has a blended model and people come to us and we fix their okr messes because what they are doing with their SAS only providers in a lot of cases isn't working so again we'll take everybody's you know lost customers all day long so so the big problem of course that everybody says is the labor side of services is too expensive you're not”
“okrs is like selling a root canal so we stopped doing that doesn't work for us at least not yet so we built a really really robust inbound predictable inbound engine so those are monthly numbers for us that might not look very big but our annual contract value is about 30k so we're pretty happy with that um our specific metric that we drive towards is our 20 mqls that means a call held I have to say shout out to chili”
“effectiveness of the process their actual organizational performance and then the strength of our relationship we are selling ourselves as experts in this work and so we of course are their strategy partner so if we're not seen as that then the value proposition fails so those are our metrics those are our retention metrics and we're really really focused on those on a weekly basis as most of us probably are this is our own dashboard so we matched our kpis”
“Our Flat Retention Was Proof. ~80% from 2017 to 2020. High churn makes it hard to build a predictable business.”
“So, We Brought Our Two Worlds Together. SaaS+Services. Our experts drive the planning process from A->Z. We do the work for rollout. We drive the quarterly/monthly process with the app. Set a direction Rollout the plan Review monthly Refresh quarterly Client success + RETENTION Build the plan An Expert + App Bundled Together.”
“From 74% to 107% Retention in 4 years No looking back”
“How We Land Our ICP. Transactional keywords only. Almost no paid. Aggressive nurturing through thought leadership. Brutal qualification. These are the metrics that matter. Other marketing data is great, but it gets noisy. 44 Qualified Leads 20 MQLS 18 SQLS 8 Sales 120 Leads 23 Transaction Keywords”
“Action by Field-Experienced Strategist No CSRs Warning alerts QBRs about organizational performance”
Video
How I moved retention from 74% to 107% - Slide Deck
Erica Olsen is the founder and CEO of OnStrategy, where she aims to reache a million people annually with to simplify the critical practice of growing and leading strategically. An engaging and experienced speaker and facilitator, Erica delivers her training and speaking around the world. She facilitated strategic planning workshops with GASCO Energy in Abu Dhabi and has trained teams in Singapore, Dubai, Bahrain, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.
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19 passages
Erica Olsen CEO, Founder of OnStrategy Retention from 74% to 107% …My shift from SaaS to SaaS+ Founder500, Sept 2022
Over the next 20 minutes: SaaS not working I’m going to show you BURN THE BRIDGES THE SAAS+ GAME WARNING SIGNS Redesign offering Shift delivery model Only inbound All-in-one pricing Customer-driven service level Measures no indexes “Noisy” Numbers Field experienced action
OnStrategy Revenue Growth
How We Burned the Bridges Retention data proof points Redesign the offering Shift the delivery model
Our Product Approach Wasn’t Working …that was a tough pill to swallow. Strategic Planning Design Completed in >90 days Self-Guided Implementation Using our app, or not. Set a direction Build a plan Set up implementation Review Q1 Review Q2 Review Q3 Review Q4 Churn
Our Flat Retention Was Proof. ~80% from 2017 to 2020. High churn makes it hard to build a predictable business.
So, We Brought Our Two Worlds Together. SaaS+Services. Our experts drive the planning process from A->Z. We do the work for rollout. We drive the quarterly/monthly process with the app. Set a direction Rollout the plan Review monthly Refresh quarterly Client success + RETENTION Build the plan An Expert + App Bundled Together.
$200K per FTE Every client assigned a senior strategist Bench consultants Engagement standardization Process KPIs
From 74% to 107% Retention in 4 years No looking back
How We Sell SaaS+ Landing our ICP with only inbound. All-in-one not a la-cart. Customer-driven service levels.
How We Land Our ICP. Transactional keywords only. Almost no paid. Aggressive nurturing through thought leadership. Brutal qualification. These are the metrics that matter. Other marketing data is great, but it gets noisy. 44 Qualified Leads 20 MQLS 18 SQLS 8 Sales 120 Leads 23 Transaction Keywords
All-in Pricing. No pricing page. Seriously. Unlimited users, all features. Embedded services. Services to churn points.
Customers Can Dial Up Or Down Service By Quarter No Most customers want our help. But not forever.looking back
How We Keep Our Customers 3 early warning sign KPIs Eliminate the noise “Field- experienced” action
Measures Not Indexes (1) Process Strength (THE PROCESS WE ENABLE) - Current Data # of clients w/ 90% or more OKRs reflecting current performance - Monthly Reviews # of clients w/ 20 or more interactions with Results Dashboard (2) Performance Strength (THE VALUE WE PROVIDE) - Achieving Goals # of clients w/ 75% or more OKRs achieved/on target - Delivering Results # of clients w/ 75% or more KPIs achieved/on target (3) Relationship Strength (OUR SAAS+ PROMISE) - Our Credibility # of clients that view us as strategic partners - Team Connectedness % of staff connected with strategic performance (pulse survey) THEIR Process THEIR performance Our JOINT Relationship
Match Our KPIs to Client Expected Value.
Action by Field-Experienced Strategist No CSRs Warning alerts QBRs about organizational performance
SaaS not working I showed you: BURN THE BRIDGES THE SAAS+ GAME WARNING SIGNS Redesign offering Shift delivery model Only inbound All-in-one pricing Customer-driven service level KPI’s “Noisy” Numbers Measures not indexes Over the last 20 minutes…
September 2022 Erica Olsen CEO of OnStrategy