The Reasons We Created Slack? Community for SaaS as well as Software Professionals -
- A global concentration.
- More established professionals and businesses (less students, and even early stage startups).
- Professional moderation.
- A lesser amount of attention is paid to venture capital or funding rounds.
- A truely supportive group without a smidgen of tolerance for disrespectful or improper behavior.
This is true: Features like global business focus and experienced professionals as moderators (that's me!) are things we would like to have in an online forum.
This post touched on the benefits to be found for members, specifically as compared to other online groups.
However, you may still be asking yourself, "But what's in it for?"
A valid question which I'll discuss it because the reasons (plural) that we've got for investing in this program may not be as simple than the most skeptical people think.
As a business person yourself already, you are aware of how this operates. The companies don't simply spend money on new software to aid business professionals online; they invest in it to benefit their personal businesses in some manner.
Indeed, having a successful online community is a great method to increase the brand's recognition, and perhaps get some leads every now and then.
Marketing is just one of the reasons that we're in this. If you're a member or not, we want members to benefit from the group, otherwise the community won't be successful in any way.
Our Guiding Principle: Our Software and SaaS Community Must Be Good to You for It to Succeed
The explanation is fairly straightforward The bottom line is that if you do not find our community a useful and stimulating place to hang out then you'll never go out and about.
Therefore, it's essential for its continued success both for you as well as for us that we strive to make it a really awesome group to be member of.
(And If you think we might diverge from this in any wayor you have suggestions on ways to make it better, do let us know. We'll discuss that further in the next paragraph.)
What Has to Gain From hosting an online Community
There has to be something in this for else we wouldn't have to do it, right?
Of course. But we want our goals to be forthright.
We're going to outline what we'd like accomplish with this project.
Learning What Matters to Your Business
The first thing our Chief Executive David Nachman said to me in an interview about the mission and direction of our community is that the community provides an opportunity for us to decrease the transactional nature of our relationship with customers and other businesses, including software and SaaS businesses.
There's a valid reason to be concerned: We help facilitate real transactions for online businesses and it's very easy for everyone to slip into the trap of having a very well, a transactional connection.
We give you a service, you earn money, then continue with autopilot.
But allowing that pattern to continue can make us unable to enhance your B2B services by implementing strategies that benefit the success of your firm in helping online businesses succeed is a priority for us.
The same is true for our existing customers, however it's applicable to software companies who might be considering using . If you're not sure whether this is the best payments system or merchant of record (MOR) for your B2C and/or B2B SaaS company, we want to hear about any questions or worries you're having so we can take that into our consideration while we continue to build new features and services.
For more details on the ways David wants to get to know your business, check out the video interview with his members, where I spoke to him on behalf of a fellow member himself:
We also broadened our scope of this community , to create individuals who contribute, an executive, entrepreneur and founder membership base -- because we know we can learn more about companies (and serve them better) if we have a diverse layering of community members.
The goal of increasing the level of personalization of relationships with business (and in particular, the individuals who founded or work for them) is also part of why we do things like interviews with our members. In addition to helping members get to know their fellow members as well, the interview also allows us to in getting to know the members and their business interests.
Building Customer Relationships
Knowing more about your company can help us to build a stronger relationship that we share with you whether you're a customer or not.
However, our relationships with customers can be strengthened by granting members more access to members of us .
Already, we have a wide friendly and prompt support for buyers and customers, and we have Customer Success Managers for some of our clients with complicated or large companies.
We know that businesses could always improve how they support customers and further improve their relationships with them.
Ninety-nine out of hundred, submitting tickets is the most effective option to seek assistance. This helps our support staff effectively route requests in accordance with the type and urgent nature of the issue as well as assists us in keeping track of the support requirements of a company over time.
(That last part also helps us to gain a complete understanding of a company's requirements.)
However, it could be useful to get in touch with leaders in person particularly for those who have a specific business need that doesn't necessarily require a technical answer about our system. We're a community of experts in the community and not only end-user technical support experts.
Product managers, taxes and payments experts, customer operations pros, and even the occasional sales director or two may be present and are able to answer related business questions. They may even be able to weigh in on what's coming from the's platform.
Our goal is for the experiences our customers have with to be the kind of experiences that they'll tell their friends about and we believe that being more readily available can increase the opportunities. If you're a client that's not having that kind of positive experience yet we have a community that is the place to let us know that.
Yes, Leads
This is part of the blog that we must be really open and transparent.
We'd be thrilled for our members that aren't currently a merchant of record would join our service.
It's good news for them that that isn't our only goal for the community.
Since we have also set the ambition of improving customer relationships and learning all we can about SaaS and the software needs of business:
- We're confident that signing up new customers is only one aspect of the goals we have for this community, and we're not going to solicit anyone who hasn't expressed curiosity to us prior to that.
- There are a higher chance in securing new users when we're able to meet the first two goals we mentioned above, so we're going to work a lot harder on achieving these goals.
If people in our community can see us taking care of customers and earnestly asking for feedback, they'll be significantly more interested in the platform as a marketplace for commerce as well as merchant of record -- as they'll witness the hard work we put in and the care we show our members in person.
And, if you've considered previously it could be a good place to establish a relationship with us in a more informal way. Community members can connect with other customers, read discussions that occur among customers , and (remotely) become acquainted with individuals who are part of the company.
What Can You Expect From Joining This Community
However, while the article focused on the various features of the GSL community, it didn't quite discuss the true benefits that you get from joining a community like this one.
While we have big plans regarding Global SaaS Leaders -- and we're constantly creating community -below are some benefits that we have already made available to software and SaaS leaders, founders and entrepreneurs, as well as marketers as well as engineers, developers and many others.
Connect with Software Experts from Around the World. Over the World
It doesn't matter if you're a SaaS marketer who is trying to increase the SEO of your the region, or a people and culture manager who is concerned about meetings and onboarding for international customers or even an SaaS creator looking for advice on selling into specific countries Accessing those in the international community makes "going globally" a lot more simple.
We have members representing over fifty countries spread over 17 time zones.
Learn About New Markets You Are Interested in Expanding or Introducing Within
The main benefit of having a global community is that you can use it to get help when you're working on breaking into new market.
There is a place to post on the community to ask for individuals from specific nations to assist you You can also contact me, the chief moderator. I will reach out to applicable members on your behalf.
It is also possible to keep the discussion in the forum for previous questions that are relevant to SaaS markets you're working to enter into.
You can also view our member profile videos that we're recording on a rolling basis for those who would want to be a part of it (like the one above, featuring CEO David Nachman).
One of the questions that we typically ask our interviewees is "What's an aspect that isn't understood by people regarding selling software in your nation?" The goal of the question is to assist you to understand the cultural or business differences that might impact the way you are able to offer software to customers in your country.
Learn From SaaS Company Leaders and Experts
Although our members are spread over a variety of roles and at different levels, we do have several executives, SaaS founders, and department heads from Global SaaS Leaders who are happy to share their expertise to other members.
Certain members are software or SaaS founders, who own several SaaS companies, while others were employed by internationally recognized companies, and some are entrepreneurs who have shifted into different industries or careers and possess diverse experience to help inform their suggestions.
Furthermore, multiple executives and leaders are also available, such as the Chief Executive Officer and our global Tax Director as well as our Vice Chief for Global Customer Operations. The community is awash with them since they're willing to assist members however they can.
(For further information on this topic, check out Kurt about this issue, check out his standing-room only talk about SaaS Pricing Strategies That work: how to design an Optimal Pricing Model at SaaStr Europa earlier in 2022.)
We're happy to respond to questions like this, and we're happy to provide a space where topics like these can be debated among international peers.
Make yourself appear as an expert
If you're already regarded for your work as an SaaS industry influencer or expert, great! We'd love to hear from your contributions to the community while you continue to increase your personal and professional brand through knowledge sharing.
If you're trying to create your own identity in the first place, participating in a professional forum can be a fantastic option to start. It doesn't mean that we have to become SaaS founders to become experts in our own areas, and actively sharing that knowledge to others positions each one of us as being not just competent, but also likable and gracious. that's a great public image to cultivate.
The Community will be shaped as it Develops
The software was launched and the SaaS community in the month of March 2022 and have seen it grow rapidly. We want to create the perfect place for people like you to basically "hang out," this space is still flexible and open to new ideas.
As an example, one member last week suggested adding the channel to address a certain type of use case.
This request was then transformed into a poll asking all members to weigh in on what channels they'd like to add to the Slack workspace:
If you'd prefer to vote quietly on updates for the community, or suggest your own suggestion, we're happy to hear from you!
If you're interested in specific forums, services recommendations for providers, LinkedIn and social media connectivity opportunities, a podcast Facebook group, meetings in person, webinars, templates, or even additional software or SaaS development hacks all over the world and beyond, let us know about it.
Voice Your Opinions
There are more options for members to express their opinion than only in relation to the group, however. One of the most recent requests that we received from members was to let us know which benchmarking statistics and metrics they'd prefer to see release.
The use of these metrics can help software and SaaS industry businesses better form strategies for increasing their ARR.
In order to offer useful and useful data for developing and successful software and SaaS businesses, we reached out to the public directly to ask what benchmarking data we could be able to compile in the future:
The responses varied from retention rates within a certain market, MRR growth in a specific sector, failed payment measures (unintentional churn), churn and conversion rates for diverse regions.
This poll was open to members of all kinds regardless of situation.
Like we said earlier, being aware of what matters most for software as well as SaaS businesses is important to , and we want to create the Global SaaS Leaders community to provide you with the opportunity to share the things you need to do in order to take your business to the highest level.
Join the Community to learn More About (If You're Interested)
This poll was made public within the specific channel of the community. It exists to allow discussions on (as in contrast to more general business-related discussions) can be made available in this channel but remain outside from the main feed.
We do not want our customers -- particularly those who aren't customers -- to be enticed by the constant messages we're promoting . As we've said before the software and SaaS community must be something you are able to benefit from in order for it to succeed We believe that excessive salesmanship can cause this to be a space it would not wish to be.
However, if you're not currently a client however you've thought about visiting us, signing up to GSL is a great way to find out more about the company, by looking at customer interaction with our leaders, looking at the types of queries and feedback customers have to say about the platform, and more. This channel is available to all members.
And if you have no passion for the channel ? You can leave the -specific channel without reading. There are lots of opportunities to participate within the community, without having to read posts about a platform there is no need for.
Be part of the Global SaaS Leaders Community
We're very proud of our Global SaaS Leaders community already and are proud to be able to offer an international social networking and discussion forum featuring features like live interview events video introductions of members, and diverse expert input.
As continues to focus on community building, and as our membership increases, we'll introduce more functions. We'd like to facilitate many more individual networking opportunities start a podcast, host more real-time events, and have social media tie-ins down the road too.
However, if you sign up today, you can shape what the organization develops to become, too.
In order to ensure the highest quality of membership In order to maintain a high quality of membership, I'm reviewing each newly submitted applications for membership and ensuring that there aren't automations to let in spammers or bots. So, submitting your LinkedIn link is so important. We appreciate your patience while I review your application, and please feel free to reach us by email if have any concerns prior to making an application!
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