Most SaaS Companies Haven't Considered What They Want to Be Known For

Steve Jobs was one of the best in the world in this idea, and in a classic video he outlines a few steps to help remedy this for companies:

1 - Admit you have a problem. If you don't admit you have a problem, you will never solve it. Steve when he came back to Apple said that despite Apple being one of the best-known brands in the world, it had been neglected.

2 - Outline the Stakes.

This is a step most forget. If you don't clearly understand the consequences of NOT finding your North Star, then you will never find it.

Start simple. "My sales conversion rate is X%, and I've heard healthy SaaS companies should be at Y%. What could I be doing differently?"

or

"My revenue retention rate is 65% per year. I feel like I'm on a treadmill, because I am. This isn't sustainable."

or

"I just raised money, but I only have 18 months of runway now, if I don't prioritize I won't succeed."

3 - Start a journey to find your North Star.

The need for a North Star in any business is well known. If you don't know where you are headed, how will you know you've arrived?

Yet, it seems hard to prioritize this activity if you just missed a sales number. Your Board might feel it's a waste of time. Well, your Board could probably be reminded how inefficient your overall company is and aligning all company resources against the right goals would make their investor money go a lot farther.

Of course, the reason for a very weak (or no!) customer value proposition is almost always opportunity! It's difficult to turn away business - sometimes it even comes from a Board member! That's great in an isolated incident, and deadly over the period of a couple of years.

It's very tempting after you raise a fair bit of money to consider acquisitions, to consider product line expansion, and to take on more opportunities.

However, in many cases --> More money, more problems. This strategy flies in the face of the prospects you are trying to convince to adopt your service.

Why?

Most potential customers are busy, distracted and can only remember a few words about any company they might have met or heard about at one point.

Yet many SaaS companies think that they can:

- have no clear brand value proposition

- cover a broad range of services, without making it clear which one is the priority

- focus equally on small customers, and suddenly start selling the same thing to Enterprise customers.

- easily convince an Enterprise to purchase from them without a stable track record.

- not clear communicate where you fit in this world.

.... But they can't.

If you make the right big decisions, it's easier to make the right smaller decisions with regards to your positioning and strategy.