The SaaS Podcast: How B2B SaaS & AI Founders Get Customers

By Omer KhanBusiness Entrepreneurship Technology

The SaaS Podcast: How B2B SaaS & AI Founders Get Customers episodes

May 26, 2016Failed Startup to a $350K SaaS With Lucep
Zal Dastur's first attempt was a failed software startup that ran out of money. His second startup, Lucep, found SaaS product-market fit by solving a problem he witnessed firsthand - sales teams taking 24-48 hours to respond to online leads while competitors responded in minutes. The startup failure lessons from that first attempt made all the difference.
Zal set a target of 30 beta signups and got 100 by cold calling everyone he knew. He validated willingness to pay by charging $1/user in January, $2 in February, and full price by March - avoiding the software startup mistakes of building too long without charging. Starwood Hotels, Jaguar Land Rover, and Citibank all became customers.
From a failed software startup to a bootstrapped business doing $350K revenue, Zal shares why responding to leads within 5 minutes matters (waiting drops contact rates by 21x), how he funded Lucep with revenue from a previous enterprise product, and why co-founder agreements must be sorted while things are good.
🔑 Key Lessons
🎯 A failed software startup teaches cash flow discipline: Zal's first startup ran out of money because they did not find their revenue model until too late. That painful experience made Lucep hyper-focused on cash management.
💰 Charge from day one to avoid failed software startup mistakes: Lucep started at $1/user in January, $2 in February, and full price by March. Any amount confirms willingness to pay and reveals the true value customers place on the product.
🚀 Respond in 5 minutes or lose the lead: Research shows waiting more than 5 minutes to contact an online lead drops chances by 21x. Lucep built its entire SaaS product-market fit around solving this one high-impact problem.
🤝 Define co-founder roles and agreements before they matter: Lucep started with three co-founders leading by committee with no shareholder agreements. When one left, the lack of documentation created serious conflict.
🔄 Fund your next startup with your current product's revenue: Lucep used $250K-$1M in annual revenue from a previously sold enterprise product to bootstrap development, avoiding dilution during the critical startup failure lessons period.
Chapters
Introduction
Meet Zal Dastur and the Gandhi quote that drives him
The first failed software startup in Bangalore
Running out of money and learning cash flow discipline
Getting corporate jobs before starting again
How the idea for Lucep emerged from internal frustrations
Doing things differently the second time around
Management buyout and corporate structure
Building the MVP in one to two months
Setting a target of 30 beta signups and getting 100
Early days of manual onboarding and lessons learned
How Lucep's lead distribution widget works
Responding in under 5 minutes versus 24-48 hours
Converting 100 beta users into paying customers
Enterprise product funding Lucep's growth to $1M revenue
Why they launched Lucep instead of keeping the lifestyle business
Advice: sort out shareholder agreements early
Lightning round
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/114
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
55 min
May 19, 2016First Startup Customers: 130 Cold Emails to 8-Figure Revenue
Two college students spent five days brainstorming startup ideas. Nine years later, their product reached a billion unique visitors and generated 8-figure revenue. Daniel Ha got Disqus's first customers by emailing 130 of his favorite websites with an honest pitch: "We're building something. Don't really know if it's interesting yet." Most ignored it. But the handful who responded became early customers who shaped the product.
Disqus's startup traction became self-sustaining because the product was embedded on publisher websites - every commenter who used it discovered it and brought it to others. Those first paying users created a viral distribution loop that grew to 50 million comments daily.
Revenue jumped from $2-2.5M (SaaS model) to $10-11M when Daniel pivoted to advertising. He shares why naivety helped him raise money during the 2008 crisis, what he learned from arriving 15 minutes late to a meeting at the New York Times, and why the first customers strategy matters more than any growth hack.
🔑 Key Lessons
🎯 Email your favorite websites to find first customers: Daniel personally emailed 130 websites he admired with an honest pitch. Most ignored it, but the handful who responded became early customers who shaped Disqus's product direction.
🚀 Let product virality drive growth after landing first customers: Disqus's embedded commenting widget spread itself - every commenter who used it on one site discovered the platform and brought it to others, creating self-reinforcing startup traction.
📉 Recognize when you don't speak your customer's language: Daniel's disastrous New York Times meeting taught him he was pitching features while early customers cared about brand, data, and monetization.
💰 Pivot your business model when traction outpaces revenue: Disqus jumped from $2.5M SaaS revenue to $10-11M by switching to advertising, aligning monetization with the organic growth their first paying users already generated.
🧠 Use naivety as a first customers advantage: Daniel never considered that fundraising wouldn't happen, even during the 2008 crisis. His lack of awareness kept him pushing forward when experienced founders might have quit.
Chapters
Introduction
Meet Daniel Ha and what drives him each week
Sunday planning ritual and internal newsletter
What is Disqus and how it serves content publishers
How Daniel and Jason came up with the idea in 5 days
Why brainstorming ideas in 5 days worked for Disqus
Getting first customers by emailing 130 favorite websites
Not speaking the customer's language at the New York Times
Hiring the first business-oriented team member
Raising $500K in 2008 through Y Combinator connections
Organic growth through product word of mouth
Handling criticism from passionate publisher community
The delete button controversy and balancing user needs
Would you do it again knowing it would take 9 years
The scale of Disqus on the internet today
Pivoting from SaaS model to advertising revenue
Revenue growth from $2.5M to mid 8-figures
Lightning round
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/113
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
51 min
May 05, 2016SaaS Lead Generation: From 2 Demos to 60 a Month
Most SaaS founders rely on warm introductions to find customers. Jerrod Bailey built a SaaS lead generation system that took one company from 2 demos a month to 60 - without adding a single salesperson. His LinkedIn lead generation method uses Boolean search to build targeted lists and automated 4-step email cadences to convert strangers into qualified leads.
The most counterintuitive finding from Jerrod's lead generation SaaS work: half of all B2B LinkedIn leads come from steps 3 and 4 of a 4-step email cadence. Most founders give up after one or two touchpoints, leaving half their pipeline on the table. Well-crafted connection requests achieve 20-30% acceptance rates.
Jerrod spent 12 years as an operator in three venture-backed startups with exits from $77M to $2B. He shares why product activation must be healthy before scaling SaaS lead generation, and why sending from Gmail achieves 80-90% deliverability versus marketing automation tools.
🔑 Key Lessons
🎯 Use Boolean search for targeted SaaS lead generation: Jerrod nests title variations like "VP or Vice" AND "HR or Human Resources" in LinkedIn search to expand a 10,000-result list to 50,000+ qualified prospects.
🤝 Run a 4-step cadence for SaaS lead generation outreach: Half of all qualified leads arrive in steps 3 and 4. Most founders quit after two emails, abandoning half their potential pipeline before it materializes.
🚀 Scale without hiring salespeople: One SaaS company jumped from 2 demos to 60 per month by having an offshore team execute connection requests at 500 per week, with the founder only handling replies.
📉 Fix activation before investing in SaaS lead generation: If 100 users sign up but only 1 activates, scaling acquisition just makes the problem worse. Product metrics must be healthy before outbound investment begins.
💰 Send from Gmail to avoid spam filters: Marketing automation tools send from known server farms that Gmail flags. Tools like Reply send from your personal Gmail, achieving 80-90% deliverability and 30-60% open rates.
Chapters
Introduction
Meet Jerrod Bailey and the Zig Ziglar quote that drives him
What is Tallwave and how it helps startups
What is a scalable outbound sales system
Treat revenue like a manufacturing production line
Why 50,000 registered users might mean nothing
Tracking activation, engagement, and retention metrics
Fix your product before scaling acquisition
Building conversion funnels and marketing infrastructure
The acquisition phase - inbound vs outbound
LinkedIn as a prospecting platform for B2B sales
Using LinkedIn Boolean search to build prospect lists
Why LinkedIn connection requests outperform cold email
Scaling LinkedIn outreach to 500 prospects per week
Extracting email addresses with Prospectify
Setting up automated email cadences with Reply
Why half your leads come from email steps 3 and 4
Gotchas and domain reputation protection
Lightning round
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/112
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
1 hr 4 min
April 27, 2016SaaS Sales Funnel: 3-Stage Framework for Revenue
Most SaaS founders drive traffic to their website and hope people sign up. Jeremy Reeves has built SaaS sales funnel systems that generated millions in additional revenue. One client made $75,000 in a week by upselling monthly subscribers to annual plans. Another boosted conversions 50% just by adding phone calls to their online sales funnel.
Jeremy walks through his complete 3-stage sales funnel SaaS framework: foundation (USP, lead magnet, core offer, upsell), maximization (segmentation by buying cycle), and scalability (paid traffic, hybrid marketing, split testing). His automated sales funnel approach turns the journey from visitor to paying customer into a repeatable machine.
Jeremy Reeves is a SaaS sales funnel specialist who has built systems for companies ranging from startups to businesses doing hundreds of millions in revenue, including Crazy Egg and Clicktail.
🔑 Key Lessons
🎯 Start your SaaS sales funnel with market research: Jeremy reviews Amazon 1-2 star reviews for pain points and 4-5 star reviews for desired outcomes, then analyzes three competitors' funnels to build copy that connects emotionally.
💰 Upsell monthly subscribers to yearly in your SaaS sales funnel: One client made $75,000 in under a week by offering a 25% discount for annual billing - customers got savings and the business got immediate cash flow.
🚀 Add phone calls to your SaaS sales funnel for 50% more conversions: Calling prospects who abandoned signup increased one client's conversion rate by 50% - calls addressed objections automated emails could not resolve.
🛠️ Build a lead magnet before scaling your SaaS sales funnel: Free resources like PDFs, webinars, or email courses capture prospects who are not ready to buy, giving you a platform to nurture them toward paid subscriptions.
🔄 Segment your SaaS sales funnel by buying cycle stage: People ready to purchase go straight to the trial page while early-stage researchers receive a nurturing sequence - matching message to intent increases conversion rates.
Chapters
Introduction
Meet Jeremy Reeves, sales funnel expert
What exactly is a sales funnel
How SaaS companies already have basic funnels
The step-by-step process for building a funnel
Step 1 - Market research and understanding your audience
Using Amazon reviews to find pain points and benefits
Surveys and trade publications as research sources
How to design effective customer surveys
Using blog comments and BuzzSumo for research
Step 2 - The foundational stage of funnel building
Why your USP is the foundation of every funnel
Lead magnets for SaaS businesses
Three upsell strategies for SaaS products
Monthly to yearly upsell and tier upgrades
The maximization stage - segmentation and more offers
The scalability stage - paid traffic and hybrid marketing
Why phone calls boost funnel conversions by 50%
Recap of the 3-stage framework
Essential tools for building sales funnels
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/111
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
1 hr 1 min
April 13, 2016Founder-Led Sales: A 36-Person Startup With Zero Salespeople
Marcelino Alvarez grew Uncorked Studios to a 36-person firm building products for Google, Adidas, Intel, and Lego - all through founder-led sales with zero salespeople on staff. 95% of Uncorked's business came from relationship-driven founder selling: coffee meetings, community volunteering, and cross-industry networking events.
Before Uncorked, Marcelino worked at Wieden+Kennedy building the Nike Chalkbot. His first startup sales attempt, Gorlox, crashed in eight months when co-founders with day jobs treated it as a side project. From those ashes, Uncorked was born with aligned co-founders and a clear founder as salesperson model.
Marcelino shares why visible work like the Lego Movie Maker app generates more inbound than any pitch, why you should never confuse hunger with starvation when chasing clients, and how community volunteering builds networks that traditional startup sales cannot.
🔑 Key Lessons
🤝 Founder-led sales work when you show up without an agenda: Marcelino grabs coffee with anyone who asks, volunteers with community organizations, and hosts cross-industry parties. The cumulative relationships drove 95% of Uncorked's business.
🎯 Visible work is the best founder-led sales tool: The Lego Movie Maker app generated more inbound inquiries than any pitch. Building recognizable work people can point to sells better than any sales deck or cold email.
📉 Never confuse hunger with starvation in founder-led sales: After a hardware project threatened payroll, Uncorked took discount clients. Those projects dragged on and required more management overhead than the revenue was worth.
🧠 Align co-founder stakes before launching: Gorlox crashed in eight months because some co-founders kept day jobs. Define specific milestones for when each co-founder goes all-in, and put them in writing.
🚀 Community volunteering builds networks that founder-led sales cannot: Teaching university courses and serving on Portland's Development Commission connected Uncorked to people far outside the typical referral loop.
Chapters
Introduction
What drives Marcelino - fail harder
What Uncorked Studios does
From Wieden+Kennedy to starting a company
Launching the business from an ad agency incubator
The first project - Winter Olympics interactive installation
Gorlox - the first failed startup attempt
Why Gorlox crashed after eight months
Founding Uncorked with the right team
Getting early clients through network relationships
Three tactics for relationship-driven business development
Coffee meetings as the simplest founder-led sales tool
Volunteering with Portland's Development Commission
BCC parties - cross-industry networking events
Why long-term relationships beat short-term client hunting
How the Lego Movie Maker app drove inbound leads
The hardware project that threatened payroll
Hunger vs starvation - when to take discount clients
Building a culture of innovation with side projects
Lightning round
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/110
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
55 min
April 07, 2016SaaS Positioning: Niche Down to $55K MRR Bootstrapped
Mogens Moller built a hard-coded opt-in form for a travel agency and got 800% more email subscribers. 50 e-commerce managers emailed him wanting the same thing. Instead of nailing his SaaS positioning for that audience, he spent a year chasing every website type - and it nearly cost him the business.
Sleeknote's product positioning breakthrough came from narrowing back down to e-commerce - the niche SaaS audience that validated the product in the first place. That competitive positioning unlocked growth to $55K MRR and 700 customers, bootstrapped from day one.
Mogens shares hard-won SaaS positioning lessons: charging beta testers $20/month from day one, filling a 50-spot beta in two hours through Twitter, pricing at $69/month while competitors charged $5, and why partners only join after you already have customers in a market.
🔑 Key Lessons
🎯 Niching down unlocks growth faster than broad SaaS positioning: Sleeknote lost a year targeting every website type. When they refocused on e-commerce - the audience they knew best - growth accelerated to $55K MRR.
💰 Charge from day one to validate your SaaS positioning: Mogens charged 10 beta sites $20/month for hard-coded HTML boxes before writing application code. Getting money, not just signals, proved the product was worth building.
🚀 Create urgency to fill your beta fast: Sleeknote announced a 50-spot limited beta on Twitter and filled it in two hours. Artificial scarcity generated a 60-person waitlist of people willing to pay.
📉 Partners follow customers, not the other way around: Sleeknote's agency referral strategy worked in Denmark where they had customers, but failed completely in the UK where they had none.
🧠 Price signals quality in SaaS positioning: Sleeknote set its minimum at $69/month while competitors charged $5. E-commerce managers viewed higher pricing as a quality indicator and could justify the expense to their organizations.
Chapters
Introduction
How to pronounce Mogens Moller
What Sleeknote does for e-commerce sites
How slide-in boxes work without hurting conversions
Mogens's favorite quote about user interfaces
From freelance project to startup idea
The 800% email subscriber increase
Hard-coded boxes as validation before building
Building the MVP and first beta testers
Getting 50 beta testers in two hours
No proprietary technology - just execution
The mistake of going too broad for a year
Would staying niche have meant faster growth
Charging beta users from day one
Challenges scaling beyond Scandinavia
Why the UK agency strategy failed
Merging with a competitor - six co-founders
Losing a co-founder who could not commit
Lightning round
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/109
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
55 min
March 31, 2016B2B SaaS Product-Market Fit: 72 Licenses in 24 Hours
Chalk.com was making $3,000 a year charging individual teachers $30 each. Then a school in Texas requested 72 licenses in 24 hours - and that one phone call revealed B2B product-market fit. The real buyers were schools and districts, not individual teachers. That SaaS product-market fit insight changed everything.
Ryan McKay-Fleming and his co-founder William built the first version at a kitchen table on a hunch, without talking to a single teacher. They made the product free for teachers to drive B2B PMF through word-of-mouth adoption, then sold premium collaboration features to schools. The product-market fit B2B strategy grew Chalk.com to 100,000 users.
Ryan shares how two University of Waterloo students navigated education's seasonal sales cycles, why domain knowledge finds you when you need it, and what happens when you build for an industry you know nothing about.
🔑 Key Lessons
🎯 Your real buyer may not be your user for B2B product-market fit: Chalk.com struggled selling to teachers at $30/year but found PMF when a school wanted 72 licenses. The users were teachers but the buyers with budgets were schools and districts.
📉 Building without validation delays B2B product-market fit: Ryan and William built on a hunch without talking to a single teacher. The product combined day planning and lesson planning, doing neither well.
💰 Freemium can unlock B2B product-market fit at scale: Making the product free for individual teachers drove 100,000 signups through pure word of mouth with zero advertising spend. Revenue came from premium school plans.
🧠 Domain knowledge finds you when you need it: Ryan says advice and knowledge appear when you are ready for them. Chalk.com restructured its sales process years in using information that always existed.
🏢 Seasonal sales cycles require funding bridges: Education buying happens in spring and conversations start in fall, leaving months with no new revenue. This gap is why Chalk.com raised $500K.
Chapters
Introduction
How Ryan and William came up with the idea
Building the first product at a kitchen table
Was it a business or just a project
The first version of Plan Board
Why they skipped validation entirely
Discovering the product missed what teachers wanted
Getting the first customer at a pitch competition
Charging teachers $30/year and making only $3K
The freemium pivot and business model
The phone call that changed everything - 72 licenses
How the school district model works
Marketing channels and word of mouth growth
Surprises from not doing customer development
Education market fragmentation
Seasonal sales cycles in education
Building for an industry you know nothing about
Tech stack - Ruby on Rails and React
Lightning round
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/108
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
40 min
March 24, 2016SaaS Fundraising: Pitch Investors Using the 5+50+100
Judy Robinett was so shy as a kid that she didn't dare talk to anybody. Today she does deals with billionaires - proving that SaaS fundraising is about strategic relationships, not natural charisma. She helped manage Golden Seeds, one of the largest angel investment groups in the US, and shares the exact framework founders need for raising capital.
Judy reveals the 5+50+100 rule for SaaS fundraising: 5 closest relationships, 50 key strategic contacts, 100 broader network. Two simple questions unlock hidden connections to startup funding: "What other ideas do you have for me?" and "Who else should I talk to?" Angels give you 10 minutes to pitch; venture capital SaaS investors give about 3.
The conversation covers common mistakes founders make when pitching, how to de-risk your deal with three proof points, and why beginning with the exit in mind changes how investors evaluate your SaaS fundraising potential.
🔑 Key Lessons
🤝 Your SaaS fundraising network is closer than you think: 90% of the resources founders need already exist in their network. The problem is not access - it is that people never ask the two questions that surface hidden connections.
🎯 Focus on quality over quantity for SaaS fundraising access: The 5+50+100 framework prioritizes 25-50 strategic relationships. Joining curated groups with investors beats meetups where strangers rush you with business cards.
💰 De-risk your deal to attract SaaS fundraising faster: Investors want three proof points - a working beta, a first paying customer, and first outside money. Everything else can be fixed with advisory board hires.
📉 Top-down market forecasts kill fundraising pitches: Saying "if we get 1.5% of China" is a red flag. Investors want bottom-up forecasts showing conversion rates, margins, and cost of acquisition.
🧠 Lead with generosity to build SaaS fundraising relationships: Judy's rule is give twice before you ask. She got Mark Burnett to endorse her book by first helping market his $18M movie - value first, ask second.
Chapters
Introduction
Judy's favorite quote and dealing with the dark triad
Why networking matters even if you are an introvert
The 5+50+100 power connector framework
Where to start building your network from scratch
The two questions that unlock hidden connections
Story of discovering connections you already have
What makes someone a power connector
Why giving comes before asking
One simple thing to start doing today
Finding the right room and the right group
How to start raising angel funding for SaaS fundraising
Getting feedback from angels before you pitch
Common mistakes when pitching investors
Differences between angel and VC funding
What a good pitch deck looks like
Lightning round
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/107
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
45 min
March 17, 2016SaaS Product-Led Growth: Let the Product Sell Itself
Alexandra Keating spent months building a complex CMS that nobody asked for. Then she embraced product-led growth. She simplified DWNLD to a one-click app builder and started cold emailing prospects with screenshots of apps she had already built for them - without asking. That self-serve growth approach raised $14M and attracted over 3,000 content creators.
The SaaS go-to-market breakthrough came from radical simplification: just give DWNLD a URL and the platform spins up a native app in minutes. Alexandra cold emailed prospects with pre-built screenshots, letting people experience the PLG product before they even knew the company existed.
Before DWNLD, Alexandra sold her first tech company at age 19. She shares why overbuilding kills your timeline, how making your product pay for itself locks in retention, and why push notifications became an unexpected revenue driver that users found and paid for before it was officially launched.
🔑 Key Lessons
🛠️ Overbuilding kills your product-led growth timeline: DWNLD spent months on a complex CMS nobody asked for. Even experienced founders get trapped building features instead of getting to market and collecting real user feedback.
🚀 Simplify your product-led growth to one action: DWNLD reduced onboarding to "give us a URL." Eliminating every decision point made the product instantly understandable and removed the friction keeping prospects from trying it.
🤝 Show the product before the pitch: Alexandra cold emailed prospects with pre-built app screenshots they never requested. Going from "never heard of us" to "playing with our product" in minutes bypassed traditional demos entirely.
💰 Make your product pay for itself to lock in retention: DWNLD priced at $15/month and helped creators earn through ads, premium content, and commerce. When users are net positive financially, retention becomes automatic.
🎯 Price for your actual customer in a product-led growth model: Alexandra studied what hobbyist content creators spent on other tools and matched that range. Enterprise pricing would have killed the scale she needed for a platform business.
Chapters
Introduction
Alexandra's quote and personality
What DWNLD does and the problem it solves
Why apps over mobile web
How the one-click app builder works
The origin story of DWNLD
Why Alexandra started another company after a decade
How Fritz and Alexandra joined forces
The impact of her father Paul Keating
The biggest early mistake - overbuilding the CMS
Lessons on getting to market faster
The real cost of unnecessary complexity
Why creative hires matter more than you think
Pricing strategy for content creators
How content creators monetize with DWNLD
Onboarding strategy and feature discovery
Cold email go-to-market with pre-built apps
The push notification aha moment
Lightning round
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/106
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
38 min
March 10, 2016Enterprise Sales: Cold Email Framework for $20M in B2B Leads
Alex Berman sent over a million cold emails and generated $20 million in enterprise sales leads in a single year. His secret: spend two minutes personalizing each email instead of blasting templates. Custom cold emails for B2B SaaS sales convert at 7-8% versus 1% for templates.
Alex breaks down the exact framework for closing enterprise deals - from finding qualified leads using BuiltWith and LinkedIn buying signals, to writing the perfect first line and PS, to following up with five to seven touchpoints across email, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Every $1 invested in cold email returns $39 on average in B2B sales.
Alex Berman is the head of growth for InspireBeats, a company that does fully managed enterprise sales and lead generation for startups. InspireBeats pivoted from SaaS to services after every demo ended with prospects asking them to just do the lead generation for them.
🔑 Key Lessons
🤝 Personalization triples enterprise sales email conversion rates: Alex's custom emails convert at 7-8% versus 1% for templates. Spending two minutes per email on a custom first line and PS outperforms any template-based approach.
🎯 Lead quality matters more than volume in enterprise sales: Emailing unqualified prospects wastes time regardless of how good the email is. Alex uses buying signals like job postings, technology stack, and company size to ensure every prospect is a realistic buyer.
💰 Cold email delivers $39 ROI per dollar spent: Email has the highest return of any marketing channel - nearly double direct mail at $20. For cash-strapped founders, cold email costs only time and outperforms pay-per-click ads.
🔄 Five to seven touchpoints close enterprise sales deals: Enterprise prospects rarely respond to one email. Alex follows up after two days, connects on LinkedIn, favorites tweets, and comments on blog posts - creating multiple reminders across channels.
🚀 Attend your customers' conferences, not your industry's: At Seattle Interactive, Alex talked to 16 sponsor booths and generated 8 leads - a 50% hit rate. Conferences where your target market exhibits are far more productive.
Chapters
Introduction to cold emailing for enterprise sales
Alex Berman's background and InspireBeats
Why cold email has the highest ROI of any channel
What separates good cold email from bad
Example of a personalized cold email that converted
Conversion rates: 1% for templates vs 7-8% for custom
Offers - free trials, meetings, and direct sales
How to find qualified leads for cold email
Why more qualifying factors means higher quality leads
Where to find leads online - LinkedIn, BuiltWith, job boards
Finding the right person to email at a company
Selling to CIOs and enterprise targets
Writing and sending personalized cold emails at scale
Follow-up timing and cadence
Five to seven touchpoints across email and social media
Best practices for selling SaaS after the first response
Qualifying questions vs sales scripts
InspireBeats' pivot from SaaS to service
Why conferences are an overlooked lead gen channel
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/105
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
43 min

About The SaaS Podcast: How B2B SaaS & AI Founders Get Customers

From the publisher's feed

Building software got easier. Getting customers didn't. Every week, a founder building B2B SaaS or an AI product tells you how they got their first customers, and how they kept them: what worked, what didn't, and what they'd do differently.