The Reasons We Created a Slack Community specifically designed for SaaS as well as Software Professionals -
- A global focus.
- Established professionals and companies (less students, and even early stage startups).
- Moderation by professionals.
- There is less emphasis on venture or funding capital round.
- An extremely supportive group and who have no tolerance of rude or inappropriate behavior.
This is true: Features such as global business focus and experienced experts as moderators (that's me!) are what we would like to see in the online forums.
That post touched on what's in it for members, particularly when compared with other internet-based groups.
But, you might you are asking, "But what's in it for ?"
There's an issue, which is why I'm going to tackle it -- as the reasons (plural) the reason for making this investment may not be as simple as those of us who are skeptics think.
If you're a professional, then you are aware of how things work. Businesses don't only invest in software that help business professionals online; they employ it in their individual business in some manner.
Yes it is true that having an online community is an excellent opportunity to increase the visibility of your brand and get some leads every time.
However, marketing isn't the only one of the reasons that is why we're doing this. It doesn't matter if you're client or not, we first would like members to gain from the group, otherwise it will fail.
We have a Guiding Principle is that our Software as well as SaaS Community Must Be Good for you in order for it to be profitable.
It's a simple explanation however the main point is that if you do not feel that our community is beneficial and an enjoyable environment, then you'll not venture out.
It is essential for the group's continued achievement for you as well as for us for us strive to make an incredible group for you to be members of.
(And If you believe we might diverge from this by any means, or if you have ideas on how we could improve it Please contact us. Further details on that are further down.)
What Can You Benefit From Hosting an online Community
There must be a reason to this else we wouldn't be forced to would us?
Of course. We would however like our objectives to be transparent.
In this article, we'll outline the things we'd like to accomplish for this particular project.
Know What's important for your business
One of the things that our CEO David Nachman told me during one-on-one conversations about the objectives and mission of the community was that this is a community that offers the opportunity to reduce the nature of transactions in our relationship with customers and other software as well as SaaS firms.
This is a legitimate concern. We help facilitate the process of transactions for online businesses, so it's easy for us all to get stuck in the routine of being connected to connected transactional network.
We provide a service; we earn you money. the process on autopilot.
If we let this persist could deprive us of our ability to enhance your B2B business by implementing changes that improve the success of your business in helping companies online succeed. This is our top priority.
It's of course relevant to our current customers, however, it's also applicable to firms using software who are considering making the switch to . If you're uncertain if is the right payments system as well as merchant of record (MOR) for your B2C and/or B2B SaaS-based business, we'd love to discuss any questions or issues you may have in order to bring that into consideration as we build our offerings and features.
For more information on how David wants to get acquainted with your business, check out the video interview of his members that I conducted with him as a member himself:
We have also widened our vision for the community to include people who give back, as an executive, entrepreneur and founders base of members, as we feel it's more easy to get to know businesses (and assist them in a more efficient manner) through a variety of members.
Aiming to increase the personalization level of relationships with business (and in particular, the people who found or are employed by them) is a further motive for us to conduct interviews with our members. Apart from helping members be more familiar with one another as well, the interviews help in getting to know the members and their respective business interests.
The Building of Customer Relationships
Understanding more about your business can help us to strengthen the relationship we have with you, whether or not.
Our relationships with our customers could be strengthened through giving members access to our members at .
Already, we have the most extensive and efficient customer support service for clients and buyers. We have Customer Success Managers for several of our customers who have complex or large business.
We know that businesses have the ability to enhance their services to customers, and enhance their relationship with their customers.
Ninety-nine percent out of 100, creating an account is the most effective method of receiving help. Our support team can effectively respond to requests according to the severity and nature of the issue. Additionally, it assists us in keeping the track of support needs as time passes.
(That is also a means to help us develop an understanding more thorough of what a business needs.)
It could be useful to contact leaders in person particularly if someone needs to discuss a need for business which doesn't have to do with technical issues related to our system. There's a broad range of experts in the community and it's not just the end-user technical support specialists.
Product management, tax and payment experts, customer operations pros and an occasional sales or marketing director could be on the scene and are able to provide answers to business related concerns. They may even provide insight on the future to the's platform.
Our goal is to ensure that our customers' experiences are the type of experiences that they'll tell their colleagues about. We believe that making ourselves more accessible can increase the chances of that happening. If you're a client that is not satisfied with your experience with us yet we have a community which is a way for you to inform us of your experience.
Yes, Leads
This is the part of the blog where should be clear.
Yes, we'd love it to have one of our customers that aren't authorized to sell from would enroll in our services.
Luckily for them, it's not the primary objective of the community.
Also, we have the goal of increasing customer satisfaction and learning as much as we possibly can on SaaS as well as the needs of software of businesses:
- We can safely say that registration for new customers is only an element of the plans we have for this community, and we're not going to call anyone who's never already expressed interest prior to that.
- We stand a better chance of getting new customers to join our ranks if we're able to meet those two targets we mentioned previously and we'll work more hard to achieve those goals.
If community members see our attention to customers and honestly seeking comments, they'll be much more intrigued the platform as a marketplace for commerce and merchant of record -- as they'll see the work we do and the care we show our customers in person.
And, if you've considered previously, it might be an ideal place to begin your journey informally. The community members are able to connect with customers from other companies, and read the conversations between them and (remotely) meet individuals that are part of the organization it's.
What You Have to Gain By Joining This Community
But while it focused on the various benefits of the GSL community but didn't really discuss the real advantages which you can enjoy when you join a community like this.
While we've set big targets concerning global SaaS Leaders and we're continually working towards the development of a community -- here are some of the advantages we've offered to software and SaaS leaders, founders and entrepreneurs, as well as engineers and marketers and many others.
Meet with experts in Software from Everywhere Over the World
If you're a SaaS marketer looking to boost your SEO by location, a person and the culture manager concerned regarding international meetings and onboarding, or is an SaaS creator in search of advice for selling to specific market segments or geographic regions Being able to communicate to the people an international community can provide can make "going global" much easier.
As of now, we're comprised of members from more than 50 countries spread over 17 time zones.
Find out about new markets you Are Interested in Expanding or introducing within
One of the main benefits of having a global community is the ability to use it to receive assistance during the process of establishing a new market.
You can make an announcement on the forum to request to have people from certain countries for assistance. you may also contact me, the chief moderator. I will connect with relevant members to assist you.
Keep an eye on discussion threads in the community for previous questions that are relevant to the SaaS market you're looking to enter into.
You can also view our member profile videos recorded on a rolling basis for those that would like to be part of it (like this one which features the CEO David Nachman).
One of the things that we ask interviewees in general is "What's that the general public isn't aware of regarding offering software to customers in your nation?" This question is to assist you to understand the cultural or business differences that may influence the ease to offer software to customers within your own country.
Learn about SaaS from SaaS Company Leaders and Experts
Although our members are spread between different roles and levels, there are many executive, SaaS founders, and department head who are from Global SaaS Leaders who are eager to share their knowledge with other members.
Certain members are software or SaaS founders who have numerous SaaS startups, some have been employed at internationally-known businesses, while others entrepreneurs have switched into different industries or careers and possess many years of experiences to inform their recommendations.
In addition, a variety of senior and executive positions are accessible, including our Chief Executive Officer, Our Global Tax Director and the position of our Vice President for Global Customer Operations. The reason they're here is that they are eager to assist the members they serve as best they can.
(For additional information on the subject, visit Kurt on this topic). Take a the time to look through his stand-room only speech on SaaS pricing strategies That work How to develop an optimal Pricing Model for SaaStr Europa prior to 2022.)
We're happy to respond to these kinds of questions and are happy to create a space where topics like such can be discussed with experts from around the world.
You should appear to be an authority
If you're already regarded for being a SaaS market influencer or expert in the field, great! We'd love to have you become part of the SaaS community and continue to grow your professional and personal brand by sharing your knowledge.
In case you're trying to create your own identity, participating in forums for professionals is an excellent way of doing that. It's not necessary for SaaS founding members to make specialists on the subject we are working in. actively sharing our knowledge to others, establishes us as not only competent, but also friendly and friendly. it's an excellent public image to build.
Create This Community as It Forms
We launched this software and SaaS community in the month of March 2022. It's grown steadily. However, because we're trying to create the perfect location for people to virtually "hang out" this space is still flexible and open to new ideas.
One member has recently suggested that we create a channel for a specific kind of usage.
This request was then transformed into a poll asking everyone to share their thoughts about the channels they'd prefer to add to the Slack workspace.
If you'd prefer to quietly give your vote to updates to the community, or even make your own ideas We'd love to get in touch with you!
If you're looking for specific forum channels or suggestions for service providers, LinkedIn and other social media networks, podcasts Facebook group meeting in person, templates, webinars or just other software and SaaS growth hacks generally We'd love to hear about it.
Share Your Thoughts
There are other methods that members can share their views other than in relation to the group, however. One of the most recent inquiries we've received from our members was to tell us what sort of benchmarking metrics and data they'd like to see released.
The measures mentioned above can assist software as well as SaaS businesses develop strategies for improving their revenue per user.
In order to offer accurate and relevant data for the growing and successful software and SaaS businesses, we spoke to the public directly to inquire about benchmarking information we might want to collect following:
Some of the responses included retention rates within a certain business, MRR growth in a specific sector, failed payment methods (unintentional conversion rate churn) as well as churn rates of conversion for different regions.
This poll was open to members of all kinds regardless of customer situation.
As we mentioned earlier that knowing the most important things for software as well as SaaS business is crucial We want the Global SaaS Leaders community to be somewhere you can express your needs to take your company to the next level.
Make use of the community to find out More About (If you're interested)
The vote was released within the channel devoted to the community. This channel exists to allow discussions regarding (as in contrast to more general discussion about business) are posted to the channel, and remain outside of your main feed.
We don't want customers -- and especially those that do not have customers, to be drawn with the endless messages we're sending out . As we've already mentioned the software and SaaS community has to be something that you will benefit from in order for growth. excessive salesmanship can cause the environment to become one which is one that you do not want to exist in.
If you're yet a customer but have considered trying us out by becoming a member of GSL is a great opportunity to learn more about our company by looking at how our clients interact with us as well as observing what kinds of questions and comments users have about the platform, and so on. This channel is available to everyone who is a member.
If you don't feel you have the interest in reading ? It is fine to go out of the channel, but not to read. There's plenty to be doing in the community , without reading articles regarding platforms you don't have a need for.
Participate in The Global SaaS Leaders Community
We're very proud of this Global SaaS Leaders community already We're thrilled to be able to provide an international group as well as a discussion space that includes features like live events, interviews and introductions of our members, as well as a variety of opinions from experts.
The focus remains on building communities and, when our audience grows, we'll add new features. We'd like to facilitate many more individual networking opportunities, launch with a podcast, hold many more live events as well as integrate social media in the road too.
If you are able to sign up today, you can have an influence on how the club evolves.
To ensure highest quality of membership and ensure that I personally review all application for new members There aren't any automatic systems that permit bots or spammers to join. That's why submitting your LinkedIn link is vital. We would appreciate your patience as I go through your application do not hesitate to contact us if you need help when you are submitting your application!
About
Katie Stephan Katie Stephan is Katie Stephan, the Social Media and Community Manager at Katie Stephan, as well as Moderator for Katie Stephan's Global SaaS Leaders community. Katie Stephan holds completed an MFA in the writing of creative nonfiction and has also served as a college writing instructor.
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