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156: How to Grow From 100 to 1000 B2B Customers
In this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how to go from 100 customers to 1000—how to focus, what to zero-in on, and how to intelligently approach the next phase of scale and growth. Listen as they highlight the power of grouping and segmentation, and why clearing 100 customers means it’s time to earn an intimate understanding of customer acquisition cost.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
00:30 – Steli introducing today’s topic and why they’re covering it
00:54 – Steli and Hiten had 2 previous episodes that touched on a similar topic before today’s episode
00:59 – Knowing how to increase your customer numbers is important because it demonstrates how your business will scale in the future
01:10 – You have to start measuring your metrics, KPIs, and start deeply understanding your user base from the metric standpoint
02:22 – This is high-volume SaaS
02:40 – Measuring the metrics isn’t really meaningful until you cross the 100 customer milestone
03:05 – Once you’re in the 100 to 1000 mark, start segmenting, or creating cohorts (groups of customers)
03:30 – Grouping your customers can help you get a better idea of what type of customers you are getting from specific channels
04:04 – Knowing the numbers helps you determine where to focus to reach the thousands
05:00 – Segmentation is also about knowing what is relevant to your product and business
05:39 – Segmentation includes the size of the customers, buying percentage, and geography
06:40 – Advanced level segmentations are where the customers are using the product more, what features of the product they are using, and how much they’re using the product
08:33 – There are a lot of KPIs that you can track
09:34 – ProfitWell as an online tool for getting your SaaS business understood
10:12 – Some SaaS business that are crossing the 100 customer mark are using Stripe, Braintree, and other paid online tool
10:30 – ProfitWell integrates with a lot of systems and gives you data off the shelf. It is also free
10:50 – The key metrics are still the same
10:54 – Average revenue per user, churn rate, MRR, and how MRR is broken down on a monthly basis
11:30 – Having a tool is basic and critical
12:16 – “You need to do the right thing at the right time”
12:34 – “Once you cross the 100 mark, that is the right time to look at the numbers”
14:10 – Having that 100 customer mark may lead you to get more people in marketing and sales
15:41 – At the point of 100 customers, ask yourself; what have I done to get these 100 customers?
16:10 – Most people focus on marketing channels selection and implementation without actually verifying if that channel will work or not
16:58 – Marketing generalists are more difficult to find than marketing specialists
17:20 – Find new channels and start experimenting
17:26 – Ask professionals for advice or get courses online like DigitalMarketer which is inexpensive
17:48 – “Look at what you’re doing , break it down, and understand your process”
17:56 – The process of blogging
18:33 – Force yourself to calculate and understand your customer acquisition cost
18:52 – If you hit the right level of marketing fitness, your churn will be relatively low and you’ll ready to scale to a thousand customers
20:18 – You can’t just assign blog posting to someone without knowing what drives people to your blog
21:36 – Sales in the first 100 customers
22:05 – Blog post on different hiring stages of a startup
22:45 – The people you won’t want to take in are senior sales people like a VP of sales
23:46 – Get more fire-power to run an experiment and include yourself as the founder
25:05 – As a founder, you need to involve yourself in every aspect of the compan...
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By Steli Efti & Hiten Shah: Serial Entrepreneurs, Sales & Marketing Experts, Startup Investors & Advisors, CEOs running multi million dollar SaaS Startups
4.8
201201 ratings
In this episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how to go from 100 customers to 1000—how to focus, what to zero-in on, and how to intelligently approach the next phase of scale and growth. Listen as they highlight the power of grouping and segmentation, and why clearing 100 customers means it’s time to earn an intimate understanding of customer acquisition cost.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
00:30 – Steli introducing today’s topic and why they’re covering it
00:54 – Steli and Hiten had 2 previous episodes that touched on a similar topic before today’s episode
00:59 – Knowing how to increase your customer numbers is important because it demonstrates how your business will scale in the future
01:10 – You have to start measuring your metrics, KPIs, and start deeply understanding your user base from the metric standpoint
02:22 – This is high-volume SaaS
02:40 – Measuring the metrics isn’t really meaningful until you cross the 100 customer milestone
03:05 – Once you’re in the 100 to 1000 mark, start segmenting, or creating cohorts (groups of customers)
03:30 – Grouping your customers can help you get a better idea of what type of customers you are getting from specific channels
04:04 – Knowing the numbers helps you determine where to focus to reach the thousands
05:00 – Segmentation is also about knowing what is relevant to your product and business
05:39 – Segmentation includes the size of the customers, buying percentage, and geography
06:40 – Advanced level segmentations are where the customers are using the product more, what features of the product they are using, and how much they’re using the product
08:33 – There are a lot of KPIs that you can track
09:34 – ProfitWell as an online tool for getting your SaaS business understood
10:12 – Some SaaS business that are crossing the 100 customer mark are using Stripe, Braintree, and other paid online tool
10:30 – ProfitWell integrates with a lot of systems and gives you data off the shelf. It is also free
10:50 – The key metrics are still the same
10:54 – Average revenue per user, churn rate, MRR, and how MRR is broken down on a monthly basis
11:30 – Having a tool is basic and critical
12:16 – “You need to do the right thing at the right time”
12:34 – “Once you cross the 100 mark, that is the right time to look at the numbers”
14:10 – Having that 100 customer mark may lead you to get more people in marketing and sales
15:41 – At the point of 100 customers, ask yourself; what have I done to get these 100 customers?
16:10 – Most people focus on marketing channels selection and implementation without actually verifying if that channel will work or not
16:58 – Marketing generalists are more difficult to find than marketing specialists
17:20 – Find new channels and start experimenting
17:26 – Ask professionals for advice or get courses online like DigitalMarketer which is inexpensive
17:48 – “Look at what you’re doing , break it down, and understand your process”
17:56 – The process of blogging
18:33 – Force yourself to calculate and understand your customer acquisition cost
18:52 – If you hit the right level of marketing fitness, your churn will be relatively low and you’ll ready to scale to a thousand customers
20:18 – You can’t just assign blog posting to someone without knowing what drives people to your blog
21:36 – Sales in the first 100 customers
22:05 – Blog post on different hiring stages of a startup
22:45 – The people you won’t want to take in are senior sales people like a VP of sales
23:46 – Get more fire-power to run an experiment and include yourself as the founder
25:05 – As a founder, you need to involve yourself in every aspect of the compan...
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