SaaS Growth Strategy - Step-by-Step Worksheet [FREE]
SaaS Growth Strategy - Step-by-Step Worksheet [FREE]
Get a free copy of the SaaS Growth Strategy Worksheet and master your B2B SaaS Growth.
Hey everyone,
in today’s newsletter article, I will share with you the framework I use to create, analyze and optimize the growth strategy of SaaS startups.
I hope it helps you to create a powerful SaaS Growth Strategy for your SaaS business.
DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE WORKSHEET HERE👇
👉 Get your FREE COPY of the WORKSHEET for your own use.
Worksheet: SaaS Growth Strategy Guide
Use the free Worksheet and easily create, analyze and optimize your own powerful SaaS growth strategy. If you have questions on any of the topics, feel free to reply to this email - I will try to reply to your email asap.
What is SaaS Growth and how to influence it?
Joel York defines the growth of a SaaS company in the following:
SaaS Growth = Acquisition Rate x Average Customer Lifetime Value
That means you can influence/optimize your SaaS growth by optimizing at least one of the following parts:
Net Growth New Customers:
… Adding more new customers (new customer growth)
… Reduce churn of customers (churn rate)
Average Revenue per Account (ARPA)
… Upselling & Cross-selling
… Pricing
Customer Lifetime (Churn Rate)
… or simply said by a) adding new customers, b) reducing the loose of existing customers (churn), and c) increasing the revenue per customer.
How to start?
When you’re launching your business, it’s recommended to start with the market (knowing the problems), then define your ideal customer profile (who has the problem) and decide on how you want to position yourself in the market (Positioning). Based on the segment of the market (and your positioning) you decide how you’re hunting the ICP (Sales strategy) and how you solve the problem (Product Strategy) and what’s in for them (Value Proposition). Based on that you decide what you actually say to your audience (Brand Message, Sales Messaging). Last but not least you test and master different ways to get in touch with your potential customers (Growth Channels).
4 Elements of a SaaS Growth Strategy
TK Kader describes in his 5-Point SaaS Growth Strategy Guide the success of SaaS companies is based on 3 core elements:
the market strategy
the product strategy
the go-to-market strategy
Let’s use those 3 to give the worksheet a good structure and add Measuring Success as part #4.
1. Market Strategy - First understand the market you’re going after.
What is happening/changing in the market (macro trend) right now? Why do your customers need to care (now) about your product? What is happening on a higher level in the market?
What is the FIUU (frequent, important, urgent, underserved) problem you’re going to solve? Be specific!
Market Segmentation & Positioning of your company:
3.1. What is the segment of the market you go after?
3.2. How do you position yourself in the (competitive) market?
3.3. What does the competitive landscape look like? Where do you position yourself?
3.4. Is it a red ocean (existing market with demand & competition) or a blue ocean (create demand in the market & little/no competition)?
4.1. Who are you selling to (within the market segment)? Which stage in the Product Adoption Curve are you targeting (right now).
4.2. What is the overall awareness for your product (completely new vs. existing market)?
4.3. How much do you need to educate the market?
Who exactly has this problem? Who is your ideal customer profile (ICP I)? Follow the steps below to get a better picture and come up with a clearly defined ICP.
5.1. Your ICP combines “Pain + Fit + Readiness”.
… What’s the pain your ICP feels?
… How do you define “Fit + Readiness” in your specific case?
5.2. What are the 3 main pain points your ICP has in general? (Besides the one you’re trying to solve)
5.3. What information do you have about the Buyer Persona and Users?
5.4. A Day in the life of your customer. What are:
… their daily activities?
... their responsibilities?
... their goals & success metrics?
... their challenges and pain points?
5.5. Understand Customer Behaviour:
5.5.1 Learn unique insights on:
… What software tools are they using?
… How do they normally buy products?
… What partnerships do they have?
… Who else is selling a complimentary service/product to them?
… What content/website/newsletter do they read?
… What events are they taking part in?
… Who are they following?
… Who do they want to become? Who are their role models?
5.5.2. Use the Dream 100 Concept (by Russell Brunson) to identify where your ICP hangs out? Write down…
… The top 10 websites they visit
… The top 10 active groups (Facebook, Slack, Discord…)
… The top 20+ people they follow (Influencers, role models…)
… The top 30+ content they consume (podcasts, newsletters, blogs, Youtube channels…)
5.6. What are trigger events so that you know when your ICP is ready?
Get specific and create your Dream 100 customers list (no fictional companies!). The Dream 100 List concept was originated by Chet Holmes – The Ultimate Sales Machine.
Who are the ones within your ideal customer profile you can win first? (relevant for launching your business)
7.1. Who are early adopters for your product you can start with?
7.2. How do you identify early adopters? Where do you find them?
How big is the (total addressable) market (TAM)? Calculate the size.
9.1. Bottom-up calculation for new markets
9.2. Top-down calculation for existing markets
2. Product Strategy - How do you serve them? What is in for them?
What type of product do you build? TK Kader calls them…
… System of record vs. System of engagement vs. System of decision
Value Proposition and results
2.1. What is the key value proposition of your product?
Tomasz Tunguz says
“There are three kinds of software value propositions. Software that increases revenue, software that reduces cost, and software that promises improved productivity.”
2.2. What results does your product deliver? How to use them for your communication?
… What are the functional results?
… What are the emotional results?
… What are the social results?
2.3. How do you achieve this value proposition (3 bullet points)?
What is the powerful aha moment in your product?
What are the stakeholders of your product?
4.1. Who is the decision-maker?
4.2. Who are the user(s) of your product?
4.3. Are there different levels/types of users?
How complex and new is your product?
5.1. Can self-service work? Do you need to show the value or can they experience the value?
5.2. What can you do to make product adoption easy?
What about product engagement?
6.1. How do you measure how your customer is doing? What is the success metric?
6.2. What are key relevant activities in the product you should measure (product usage metrics)?
6.3. What are signals (red flags) that indicate users are in danger to churn?
6.4. How do you keep your customer? What is your lock-in? What can you do to make switching costs high (make your product sticky)?
How do you achieve virality with your product? What viral feature do you have?
3. GTM Strategy - How do you get in touch with them?
Messaging & Value Proposition
Why do you do what you do and what’s your unique view on the market (Brand Message)? And how you communicate the value of your product to your audience in all your customer-facing communication (Sales Message). All of the content in your ads, website, emails, sales calls, social media posts, etc. rely on them.
Brand Message: A great starting point for powerful brand messaging can be the Golden Circle (WHY/HOW/WHAT) of Simon Sinek.
1.1. Your brand messaging is your unique view:
… how do you see the market on a higher level (big picture)?
… why do you want to serve the market (your motivation)?
… why now? What are macro trends in our society supporting your business?
Sales Message: Communicating the value of your product to your ICP.
2.1. What is the key value proposition of your product?
Tomasz Tunguz says
“There are three kinds of software value propositions. Software that increases revenue, software that reduces cost, and software that promises improved productivity.”
2.2. What is your powerful sales messaging?
2.3. What is your 1-sentence value proposition? A great starting point is TK Kader’s 1-sentence template:
“My company <XYZ> creates software for <ICP> that enables/empower/helps them to <Result> by <How>”
2.4. What makes you special/better? What is your differentiator over your (direct & indirect) competition?
2.5. How can you quantify your results? Do you have any social proof you can leverage in your pitch?
2.6. What are the 3 main objections and how to overcome them?
Sales Strategy
What is your dominant sales process (Product-led vs. Sales-led vs. Hybrid)?
Define your sales funnel. What are the key stages and how do you track them?
What is the customer journey?
3.1. What key touchpoints do they have with you? Map out your customer’s journey.
3.2. How do you intend to onboard new customers? What are your onboarding activities?
3.3. How do you get new users to the Aha-moment?
Understand your unique Growth Flywheel (Acquisition, Activation, Revenue, Retention, Referral)
What is your pricing strategy?
5.1. What is your value metric?
5.2. How do you charge your customers based on value? (flat-rate vs. usage-based vs. tiered pricing)
5.3. How much do you charge? What is the ROI for your customer? Aim for a 10x in value.
5.4. What pricing tiers do you offer? What is your packaging?
5.5.What pricing terms do you have? (billing, discounts, add-ons, cancellations, free trials)
5.6. How can they purchase your product? (e-commerce vs. e-signing)
5.5. How can you increase the average revenue per account (ARPA)? How can you scale with your customers?
… What upselling options do you have?
… What cross-selling options do you have?
… What are the best channels to increase the ARPA? Who is responsible for each of them?
Growth Channels & Activities
What growth channels work for you?
Plan your growth activities for your growth channels.
2.1. What activities do you need to deliver every day/week/month to master each growth channel?
2.2. Who is responsible (& accountable) for each growth channel?
2.3. How do you align your growth team (goal setting, tools, meetings, etc.)?
Test different growth channels to see what works, but master one channel at a time.
4. SaaS Growth - Measuring Success
Setting ambitious goals (e.g. using the OKR framework), measuring performance, and iterating your growth strategy is the way to go. Make sure you measure the right metrics.
What is your North Star Metric?
What are the 3-5 core metrics you track to analyze the health of your growth?
What is your value metric?
What are the top 3 product usage metrics?
What are the sales funnel stages? Track your sales funnel!
I hope this Growth strategy worksheet helps you to grow your SaaS business. Let me know when you think something is missing or if you have great ideas on how to make it better. Also, check out the references. I can highly recommend them, I’m personally a big fan of them.
❤️ If you enjoyed the article, please click the heart icon below, share it with other SaaS professionals who can benefit from it as well, and comment below with your questions and thoughts!
References: This content is inspired by Joel York (SaaS Growth Strategy), TK Kader (5-Point SaaS Growth Strategy Guide), TK Kader (Value Proposition Examples for Your SaaS Business), Tomasz Tunguz (The Three Types of SaaS Value Propositions), Akshay Deogiri (How to Create an Effective Go-To-Market Strategy for Your SaaS Product), Userpilot (Product Adoption Curve), Mike Blankenship (Ultimate Guide to The Dream 100 Marketing Strategy), Will Steward (How to price your SaaS product).
🚀 3 more things
If you need support growing your B2B SaaS business, feel free to contact me via Linkedin.
Do you want more content? Check out some more helpful resources and subscribe to my FREE bi-weekly Newsletter on Substack.
Give back time: If you like the content, give it a like and leave a comment below. Simply share the newsletter with others and help me to reach my goal of 3000 subscribers.