
39 segments available
Hiten’s MicroConf speakers page → https://microconf.com/speakers/hiten-shah Steli's MicroConf speakers page → https://microconf.com/speakers/Steli-Efti https://microconf.com MicroConf 2016 #microconf #microconf2016 Join our exclusive community for SaaS founders → http://microconfconnect.com Twitter → https://twitter.com/MicroConf E-mail → support@microconf.com MicroConf 2020 Headline Partners ► Stripe https://stripe.com Twitter → https://twitter.com/Stripe ► Hey https://hey.com Twitter → https://twitter.com/heyhey
Hiten Shah emphasizes the importance of personalized customer onboarding to ensure long-term success. He suggests engaging directly with customers during their trial period, understanding their needs, and building relationships to help them succeed with the product. This segment highlights the significance of personal interaction over automated processes in the onboarding journey.
"so to start off with as I said we've got a bunch of questions to go through the first one comes from Ryan Bennett and he says after a customer has started a trial it's our job to help them become succ..."
In this segment, Hiten discusses the necessity of continuous learning during the onboarding process. He warns against making assumptions about what customers need to succeed and stresses the importance of revisiting and testing these assumptions regularly. This approach ensures that the onboarding process remains relevant and effective as customer needs evolve.
"you know you can just go up the the the different steps of things that scale more but aren't less personal so they elect some context and they will lack some crucial insights because the the crucial t..."
Hiten introduces the concept of 'concierge onboarding,' a hands-on approach to customer engagement. He explains how this method allows for deeper insights into customer needs and preferences, contrasting it with more automated tactics. This segment provides actionable insights for SaaS founders looking to enhance their onboarding strategies.
"it's more about making sure that you go through that learning process just because you think something like say for example they need to sign up and set up their account and they need to do X in order..."
Steli Efti discusses the role of third-party service integrations in product strategy. He emphasizes that these integrations should be aligned with specific business goals, such as retention or engagement, rather than merely for acquisition. This segment provides a framework for evaluating the effectiveness of integrations based on the unique challenges of a business.
"I think that'll give you an idea of how that sort of process would work very cool so the next question comes to us from Peter Shanley and he says have you seen patterns around third party service inte..."
Steli elaborates on the importance of understanding the target audience when considering third-party integrations. He warns against blindly following trends without assessing their relevance to the user base. This segment encourages founders to critically evaluate how integrations can address specific business problems.
"approach I would take others are there situations where you can see that those integrations are generally I guess predictable as being an ultra good thing for your business like are there certain mark..."
Steli provides strategies for introverts and techies to improve their sales skills by focusing on feedback rather than direct selling. He suggests engaging in conversations to understand customer challenges, which can lead to more effective selling. This segment highlights the importance of building confidence through practice and learning.
"that so our next question comes from lester buck and he says we can always practice selling by selling our own products and services but that doubles the tension because it's our products and we can't..."
In this segment, Steli discusses the psychological aspects of sales, particularly the fear of rejection. He encourages a mindset shift to view rejection as a learning opportunity rather than a failure. This approach helps build resilience and improves sales skills over time, making it easier to face challenges in the sales process.
"you to do is like sales is something that happens every day you just have to think about it that way so instead of selling the product to a customer maybe what you need to do first is selling people o..."
Steli concludes with insights on the inherent discomfort of sales and entrepreneurship. He emphasizes that success requires embracing discomfort and consistently facing challenges. This segment serves as a motivational reminder that overcoming fear is essential for achieving business goals.
"you're gonna improve and get better and better at it and there's talks out there and if anybody in the audience of this is a specific person want to know a lot more you can just shoot me an email at s..."
Shah provides a framework for entrepreneurs to combat burnout by focusing on progress. He emphasizes the importance of working on the right things and understanding whether the burnout is due to excessive work or a lack of meaningful progress in their business.
"great our next question comes from Jack Jones and he says what are some strategies you've seen work for repairing burnout yeah I'm assuming this is more like I started the business and I'm burnt out o..."
In this segment, Hiten Shah discusses how to pinpoint the underlying causes of burnout. He suggests that entrepreneurs should evaluate their business activities and focus on whether they are making meaningful progress, rather than just working long hours.
"doing them like you can keep writing code but if nobody's coming and using your product at some point you realize that if I keep writing code I'm I'm gonna run out of money or I'm gonna run out of tim..."
Steli Efti advises entrepreneurs on how to identify their market by engaging with potential customers. He stresses the importance of understanding customer needs and behaviors to effectively reach and serve them, rather than solely focusing on competitors.
"like that so are there specific questions you can ask yourself or like a framework that somebody could use to try and help pinpoint the specifics of what the underlying cause is yeah I mean if you're ..."
Efti emphasizes the value of talking to customers to gain insights into their preferences and how they discover products. He encourages entrepreneurs to prioritize customer feedback to clarify their market strategy and improve their offerings.
"the framework oh well is it that you have a product and you can't market it or is it that you've got all this marketing or all these users or something and for some reason that products not working ri..."
In response to a question about cold outreach, Steli Efti explains that the best time to reach out varies by industry and audience. He advises entrepreneurs to experiment with different times and analyze their outreach effectiveness to find optimal engagement windows.
"you want to answer this telly answer I don't look at his hair that's good to the next question are so I guess at this point we'll take questions from the audience we'll be wandering around here where'..."
Efti shares a practical tip for improving outreach success by analyzing website traffic data. He suggests that understanding when potential customers are most active online can inform the timing of outreach efforts, enhancing response rates.
"look like how do they organize their day so in some cases it might be very early even earlier than you think it might be very late it might be on the weekend it might be at odd hours or at times where..."
Hiten Shah advises entrepreneurs to gain insights into their competitors by engaging with their customers. He highlights the importance of understanding customer experiences and preferences to inform product development and marketing strategies.
"of week to test at least and adding one little thing to that if you have a website that people can sign up on our landing page something people do that you then try to reach out to them and communicat..."
Shah reiterates the necessity of customer conversations to clarify market positioning. He encourages entrepreneurs to focus on customer needs and feedback to drive product improvements and better align with market demands.
"identify they're my competitors you know and customers and try to do something similar to reach and you talk to people in their space yeah oftentimes just looking at competitors businesses or websites..."
Hiten Shah emphasizes the importance of engaging with potential customers to gain insights about product discovery and preferences. He suggests that understanding customer experiences can provide clarity on market dynamics and help refine go-to-market strategies.
"actually go figure out how they've discovered the product and I'm going and what they think about it he's just saying that to me cuz I get distracted anyways so everything starts with the customer so ..."
Steli Efti shares a practical hack for gaining insights about competitors by signing up for their services. He explains how engaging with sales representatives can reveal valuable information about customer demographics and marketing strategies.
"with him heating you have to like you're totally in the dark which I appreciate and I'm like getting all the light but some people want that better yes much better and just one add on I'm typically I ..."
Steli discusses the risks of outsourcing sales without prior experience. He advises that understanding the sales process is crucial before delegating tasks, drawing parallels between sales and product development.
"a little hack on top of that so you guys are passed like 22 minutes at this point you're good you're alright that's not the we're not gonna tell you okay we see it but you're not gonna know we're good..."
Steli highlights the necessity of having domain expertise when hiring for sales roles. He explains that while cold calling can be effective, success hinges on the caller's ability to engage and build trust with potential clients.
"guess that it you don't wanna you don't want to outsource something you haven't done and you don't understand yourself well right and with sales it's the same thing as with product development right s..."
A participant raises a question about balancing controlled growth with broader marketing efforts. Steli advises allocating resources for channel discovery and experimentation to identify effective marketing strategies.
"it's not that how great how good of an idea does that sound to you guys it's the exact same to my ears when somebody's like I've never done sales we know nothing about sales but we're gonna outsource ..."
Steli discusses the importance of experimenting with new marketing channels to drive growth. He suggests allocating a portion of resources to test various channels, emphasizing the need for both traffic generation and conversion analysis.
"have a question about controlling the success of your of your marketing so say you have a product you want to grow it very slowly you want to make sure you can provide support you want to make sure yo..."
Steli reassures that businesses can manage growth concerns by setting limits on marketing efforts. He encourages entrepreneurs not to overthink potential success and to embrace marketing opportunities.
"money on most channels although they're all channels are generally getting expensive when it's paid marketing but if you're trying to find like organic channels that are not paid it's the same process..."
Steli shares insights on collaborating with a marketing partner to create content. He explains how leveraging video as raw material can streamline the content creation process and enhance marketing efforts.
"the best way to spend worry steli I've heard you speak at another conference about the card with someone at close i/o to help you with the content marketing although the videos the blog posts the eboo..."
A participant expresses concerns about confidence in cold calling. Steli emphasizes the need for genuine belief in the product to effectively sell it, highlighting the connection between personal buying behavior and sales success.
"create somewhat of a good quality but very high quantity content let me give a quick tip because that's what we do right if you have the budget you can just hire people a lot like not a lot of them bu..."
Steli clarifies the distinction between sales and marketing, asserting that outbound efforts are primarily sales tactics. He stresses the importance of being sold on the product to effectively engage potential customers.
"kind of get over that I guess I'm gonna start and then tell you we'll take over the sales part I want to point out one thing though and this could be just semantics but I wouldn't consider outbound ma..."
Steli advises on how to approach cold calling with a mindset focused on delivering value. He suggests that salespeople should aim to make their calls the best interruption of the recipient's day, emphasizing the need for preparation and a positive attitude to overcome the inherent challenges of cold outreach.
"assuming I'm gonna annoy this person I'm gonna interrupt their day I'm gonna destroy their productivity potentially their life this call is gonna make the world a worse place all right there you go le..."
Hiten Shah shares strategies for maintaining productivity while managing marketing analytics. He emphasizes the importance of scheduling regular check-ins and creating a structured regimen to evaluate marketing campaigns, allowing marketers to balance creativity with data-driven decision-making.
"you're right you're never gonna get anything done or anything accomplished that way and we can chat about this more later on if you want questions questions for heating up next anyways oh good we're a..."
Hiten discusses the iterative nature of marketing, comparing it to engineering where immediate feedback is available. He suggests that marketers should set a schedule for creating and evaluating campaigns to avoid the anxiety of waiting for results, thus fostering a more productive workflow.
"so my advice is calendar it right like in its calendar to the point where it's like create new campaigns on Monday look at the campaigns on Wednesday right and then go figure out what to do for next w..."
A participant asks about strategies for scaling customer acquisition in the financial services sector. Steli responds by emphasizing the need to understand existing customers deeply and to explore new channels for growth, highlighting the importance of customer insights in developing effective marketing strategies.
"stick to it because marketing is pretty trial and error compared a lot of other things so this is question for steli and heat in the same time so no stick to steli this question I did so just this que..."
Steli advises on the importance of spending time with existing customers to gather insights that can inform growth strategies. He encourages asking customers for advice on scaling the business, emphasizing that understanding their needs and behaviors is crucial for effective marketing and sales.
"so I don't want to generate you know one or two leads a day but maybe like twenty I'd week for example right things like that yeah well I don't know so there's no Universal like this is the thing you ..."
Steli discusses strategies for handling pricing negotiations in enterprise sales. He warns against caving to discount demands and suggests pricing products to account for potential negotiations, emphasizing the need to maintain perceived value while navigating the complexities of enterprise deals.
"with those customers to learn ask them that question hey I'm so glad that you bought this is amazing one question from a founder to the VP of blah blah blah forum basically we just have one important ..."
Steli explains the psychological dynamics at play during sales negotiations, particularly with larger customers. He advises salespeople to recognize their own value and not to succumb to pressure tactics, reinforcing the idea that confidence and self-worth are essential in successful negotiations.
"more than other markets I'm gonna defer to steli in a second but like in these kind of things that I've seen them they're not looking for a discount they might not find your product valuable at all if..."
Hiten shares insights on how to approach large customers by understanding their needs and the value your product brings. He stresses the importance of quantifying the costs associated with their current processes to justify pricing and demonstrate the savings your solution can provide.
"realize I can't say it there's not gonna be a discount because there's somebody that's not gonna approve this because this person's job and livelihood depends on saying I brought us this amount of sav..."
Steli Efti addresses the challenge of pricing a new solution when there are no comparable metrics available. He suggests understanding the current costs and inefficiencies faced by potential customers to create a compelling case for your product's value.
"like it hey Mike this thing says eight so I'm developing a app ERP app for coffee roasters this is a very small small vertical and I'm just trying to figure out if the value metric hasn't been defined..."
Steli discusses the evolution of marketing strategies as a business scales. He advises startups to focus on short-term execution initially, then gradually shift towards long-term planning as they grow, emphasizing the importance of adapting strategies based on the company's maturity.
"doing sales like inside sales to them like talking to them and stuff yeah I mean I'm from the industry and when I sell I can sell but it's yeah right now I'm saying hey I'll give you a deep discount b..."
In this segment, Steli emphasizes the importance of learning from experiences and adapting marketing strategies as a business grows. He highlights that early-stage companies should focus on immediate results while gradually incorporating mid-term and long-term strategies as they gain traction.
"and then things like Basecamp came along and all that so the way you would the way you would the way you could have this conversation is if you understand what they're doing what the late I mean I'm g..."
A question arises about how to determine pricing tiers for a SaaS application. Steli suggests that understanding customer needs and conducting interviews can help define pricing structures, while also hinting at the importance of market feedback in shaping pricing strategies.
"blah blah so you're almost presenting a scenario of here's where you are with our solution here's where you're gonna get to make it up because like it's software software automates right or speeds thi..."
The segment concludes with an invitation to attendees for office hours with Hiten and Steli, encouraging them to ask specific questions about their businesses. This highlights the importance of ongoing learning and direct engagement with industry experts for personalized advice.
"plan not really the specifics but its first le goddamn you I faked a malray this is it by the way this gentleman makes a podcast go from my Dropbox folder to the magical place of iTunes and then to th..."