The Future of SaaS festival is live! And we’ve got over 40+ amazing speakers at the virtual event from December 1st-3rd.
Today, one of our speakers joins us. Cindy Berman, the Product Marketing Manager at Productboard.
Cindy’s talk is on 2nd December at 16:30 ET | 13:30 PT.
She’s all set to discuss Pricing and Packaging: How High-Growth SaaS Startups Can Crack the Code.
Want a taster and a few insights on SaaS in 2021? It’s right here! 👇
Q: Hi Cindy! First off, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your upcoming talk at the FoSaaS festival?
A: Sure! I’m a Product Marketing Manager at Productboard, the leading customer-driven product management system. I have B2B SaaS Product Marketing and Product Management experience from Segment, Grammarly, Nanit, and American Express and have launched over 50 products.
I’m passionate about SaaS, data, product management, productivity, innovation, startups, and angel investing. In May, I received my MBA from the Wharton School of Business.
In my upcoming talk, I’ll cover the approaches to creating a compelling and high converting pricing page incorporating lessons and best practices on content, design, structure, and format.
I’ll share how to use your pricing page to demonstrate your product’s value and customer benefits, while educating prospects on a new/growing category.
Plus, I’ll share 10 common mistakes to avoid when effectively executing pricing and packaging with the end deliverable being an excellent Pricing Page.
Q: What would you say are the biggest challenges SaaS businesses face with pricing and packaging for a product? And how can they deal with those challenges?
A: Some of the biggest challenges or mistakes include using internal feature-based language, failing to collaborate with internal cross-functional stakeholders, and having features-driven versus value-driven messaging.
I'd suggest you join my talk to hear about these challenges and seven more, as well as recommendations to overcome them. Â Â
Q: Would you say experimentation is an important part of SaaS pricing? Or is a tried-and-tested formula the best approach?
A: For all high-growth SaaS companies, experimentation is an important part of every strategy, including SaaS pricing and packaging.
That’s where product marketing teams work closely with growth product managers to identify areas of improvement, create hypotheses, and run experiments to improve their product and user experience continually. Â
Q: Getting an understanding of your customers before defining your pricing strategy is uber important, but how do you go about getting this kind of understanding?
A: Achieving a deep understanding of your customers before defining your pricing and packaging strategy is crucial.
One easy way to gain this understanding is by using a customer-driven product management system, such as Productboard.
Productboard allows you to capture and consolidate feedback from both customers and prospects in a single product feedback repository.
Q: What are the best ways for a SaaS business to show off their product’s value to customers?
A: The best way for a SaaS business to show their product’s value to customers is to understand the needs and problems of customers or prospects.
Through great messaging, they can show how their product and each plan solve those needs, substantiated by real user insights.
Q: If a SaaS business is struggling with a pricing model, what sort of steps are available to solve the problem?
A: If a SaaS business struggles with a pricing model, cross-functional stakeholders need to discuss and understand trends in customer acquisition, engagement, retention, and churn.
Conducting interviews with customers and prospects is also critical, as well as executing in-depth competitive analysis.
Q: Okay, so now a few questions about the world of SaaS in 2020. What new tech innovations have surprised you this year?
A: The tech innovations that have surprised and impressed me are from SaaS startups that quickly adapted to COVID-19 remote working.
They built excellent products and features with new remote teams, such as BigCommerce’s Open Checkout and Productboard’s dynamic customer segmentation.
I also admire new tech innovations like Miro’s Live Embed, which demonstrate the agility of companies like Miro to build new features that match their new remote users’ needs during the pandemic.
Q: And for you, what do you like most about being part of the global SaaS community?
A: Being part of the global SaaS community, I learn about new technologies and witness a high innovation speed daily.
The SaaS community is introducing amazing new products that truly redefine everyday employee experience and productivity.
Plus, I’m able to learn from incredible operators who are making customers’ lives easier daily.
Q: For anyone considering joining a startup in SaaS, what top tips do you have?
A: The most important consideration is to believe in and be excited about the product. It’s crucial to be excited by the product, understand its value, and wish you could have used it in a previous company.
It's also crucial you believe in the team. Get to know the senior leadership, leadership style, past successes, vision for the company, and growth.
Ensure you respect and align with them, as it’ll shape every part of your experience at the company.
Lastly, in joining a SaaS startup, change is a constant; change should excite you, as you remain agile and open to experimentation.
Q: What’s your biggest SaaS disruption for 2021?
A: With COVID-19 still present and impacting the global economy, I believe there will be continued consolidation of SaaS products.
While many teams have used 10 or even 20 different SaaS products, with precarious sales plans and smaller budgets, senior leaders will think more carefully regarding buying new SaaS products while evaluating existing software.
Want to learn more?!
Be sure to get a FoSaaS membership plans to learn from Cindy and many forerunners of the SaaS industry.
Ranging from Product Marketing Managers at Google, Directors of Strategy at Typeform, and Customer Success Managers at Slack.
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