Why We Created Slack? Community for SaaS as well as Software Professionals --
- Global focus.
- More established professionals and businesses (less students and startups in the early stages).
- Moderation by professionals.
- There is less emphasis on the funding or venture capital rounds.
- An extremely supportive group with no tolerance for disrespectful or unprofessional conduct.
This is true: Features such as a international business perspective and knowledgeable expert moderators (that's me!) are what we like to find in an online forum.
That post touched on what's to be found for members, specifically as compared to other online groups.
You may be thinking, "But what's in it to do ?"
A valid question and I'll try to answer it -- due to the motives (plural) the reason to invest in this project may not be as simple as those who are the least shrewd of us think.
If you're a businessperson yourself already, you are aware of how this operates. Companies don't just spend money on new software to aid business professionals on the internet; they do it because it serves their own business in some way.
And yes, having a successful online community can be a fantastic method to increase the recognition of your brand and even bring in some prospects every once in awhile.
But marketing is only one reason we're doing this. No matter if you're a client or not, we first wish for members to be a part of the group, otherwise it will not succeed.
Our Guiding Principle is: Our Software as well as SaaS Community Must Be Good for you in order for it to be Successful.
The explanation is fairly straightforward, but the bottom line is that if one doesn't feel that our community is a beneficial and energizing place to be and be hanging out in our community.
So it's key for its continued success for you as well as for us -- that we strive to make it a really awesome group to be member of.
(And If we appear to be deviating from that in any wayor you have any suggestions for how we can make it better, please inform us. More on that down below.)
What Can You Benefit From Hosting an online Community
There has to be something in this for otherwise we wouldn't do it, wouldn't we?
Yes, of course. We want our intentions to be forthright.
Here's what we'd like to achieve with this endeavor.
Learning What Matters to your business
The first thing that our CEO David Nachman I heard him say during an interview about the mission and direction for the group was this community is an opportunity for us to decrease the nature of transactions in our relationship with customers and other companies, both software as well as SaaS companies.
There's a valid reason to be concerned: We help facilitate literal transactions between online companies and it's very easy for all of us to fall into the rut of having a -- well, transactional relationship.
We provide a service; you make money; continue with autopilot.
But allowing that pattern to go on for too long could hinder our ability to enhance our B2B business to directly benefit the success of your company as well as helping online businesses succeed is our top priority.
It's true for our existing customers, however it's applicable to software companies who might be considering employing . If you're not sure whether this is the best payments system or merchant of record (MOR) for your B2C and/or B2B SaaS business, we'd like to know what questions and issues you are facing so that we can take them into the consideration when we build new features and services.
For more information on how David wants to meet you and your business, check out his member interview video, where I spoke to him as a member himself:
This is also the reason we have broadened our scope of this community , to create the individual contributor, executive, entrepreneur, and founders membership basesince we are convinced that it is easier to understand businesses (and assist them in a better way) when we've got a diverse layering of community members.
This mission of increasing the level of personalization of relationships with businesses (and in particular, those who find or are employed by them) is also part of the reason we conducting interviews with our members. In addition to helping members meet each other, it also helps in getting to know the members and their current concerns in business.
Strengthening Customer Relationships
Learning more about your business can help us to build a stronger relationship we've established with you whether you're a customer or not.
Our relationships with our customers could be strengthened by granting members additional access to those of us .
Already, we have a wide friendly and prompt support for customers and their buyers, and we have customer success managers for some of our customers with particularly large or complex businesses.
But we know most companies can always increase the ways they support customers and further improve their relationships with them.
Ninety-nine percent of the time, out of a hundred, creating a ticket is the best option to seek assistance. Our support team can effectively route requests in accordance with the type and importance of the problem, and it assists us in keeping track of your support requirements in the course of time.
(That is also a way of helping us to gain a greater understanding of the business's needs.)
It could be useful to get in touch with leaders directly particularly when someone is in a position to address a business need that doesn't necessarily involve a technical question about our system. There is a wide range of experts in the community, not just end-user technical support specialists.
Product managers, tax and payments experts, customer operations pros, as well as the odd sales manager or two are present and are able to answer relevant business issues. They may even be able to discuss what's coming from the's platform.
We'd like our customers' experience are the type of experiences that they'll tell their friends about and we think making ourselves more available will increase those possibilities. And if you're a customer that is not experiencing that type of experience with us yet The community also serves as the place to tell us about it.
Yes, Leads
This is the part of the blog where we have to get real open and transparent.
Yes, we'd love it for our members that aren't currently merchants of record to enroll in our services.
Luckily for them, that isn't the only thing we want to accomplish in the community.
Since we have also set the ambition of improving customer relationships and learning all possible about SaaS and business software requirements:
- We're confident that the process of registering for new customers is only a small part of what we're trying to accomplish for this community, and we won't ask anyone to sign up who hasn't indicated an interest to us first.
- There are a higher chance of attracting new customers if we're nailing those two objectives that we discussed above, which is why we're going to work more hard to achieve those goals.
We're confident that if our people in our community can see us being attentive to our customers and earnestly asking for feedback, they'll be much more drawn to us our role as a platform for commerce and merchant of record -- as they'll see the work that we do as well as the care we provide members in person.
In the event that you've been thinking about in the past that this could be the ideal time to begin your journey with us somewhat informally. Community members can connect with other customers, read the conversations between them and (remotely) get to know the people who make the company it is.
What Can You Expect By Joining This Community
But while it focused on the various features offered by the GSL community but didn't fully provide the real advantages gained by joining a group such as this.
While we have big plans regarding Global SaaS Leaders -- and we're continually working on community building -- here are some of the benefits we've already provided for software developers and SaaS founders, executives and entrepreneurs, as well as marketers as well as engineers, developers and many more.
Connect with Software Experts from All Over the World
Whether you're a SaaS marketer trying to improve the SEO of your location, a person and culture director concerned with meeting-ups and international onboarding, or a SaaS business owner looking for suggestions for selling to specific markets Accessing the people that an international community makes "going global" a lot easier.
As of now, we have member representation from over 50 nations in 17 time zones.
Find out about new markets you Are Interested in Expanding or Introducing Within
The main benefit of having a global community is that you can get advice from it when you're working on breaking into new market.
It is possible to make a post in the community, asking members from specific countries who can assist and you may also contact me, the chief moderator. I'll reach out to applicable members for you.
Keep your eyes on the discussions within the community to find previous discussions relevant to the SaaS markets you're working to expand into.
Also, you'll be able to view our member profile videos recorded in a continuous manner with members who'd like to join in (like our previous example featuring CEO David Nachman).
One of the questions that we typically ask our interviewees is "What's something people don't understand about selling software in your nation?" The goal of the question is to assist you learn about the cultural and business standards that could affect how easy it is to market software in the country.
Learn From SaaS Company Leaders and Experts
While our membership is spread between different roles and at different levels, we do have several executives, SaaS founders, and department heads in Global SaaS Leaders who are willing to share their knowledge with other members.
A few members are software and SaaS founders with multiple SaaS startups, some have been employed at internationally-known businesses, while others are entrepreneurs who have shifted into different industries or careers and possess a wide range of knowledge to provide suggestions.
Furthermore, multiple senior executives and managers are on hand, like Our Chief Executive Officer, the global Tax Director in addition to our Vice President of Global Customer Operations. They're in the community as they're eager to assist our members as best they can.
(For further information from Kurt about this issue, check out his stand-room only presentation on SaaS Pricing Strategies that work: how to design an optimal Pricing Model at SaaStr Europe earlier in 2022.)
We're happy to respond to such questions, and we're delighted to offer the space in which topics such as these can be debated among international peers.
Position Yourself as an Expert
If you're already regarded for your work as a SaaS industry influencer or expert, that's great! We'd love to have you contributing to the community as you expand your personal and professional brand through knowledge sharing.
If you're working on creating your own brand in the first place, participating in professional forums can be a fantastic way to do so. We don't all have to become SaaS founders to become experts in the fields we work in. actively sharing that knowledge with others establishes each of us as not only well-informed, but also friendly and gracious -- and that's a great image for your public profile to create.
The Community will be shaped as it Expands
The software was launched and the SaaS community in March 2022, and it's growing rapidly. We want it to be an ideal space to allow you to virtually "hang out" this community is adaptable and is open to suggestions.
A member, for instance, recently suggested we add an option for a particular type of use case.
This request was then transformed into a poll asking everyone to vote on what channels they'd like to have added to the Slack workspace:
So whether you'd like to vote in a quiet way on community updates or confidently propose your own ideas, we're open to suggestions!
If you're in the market for particular forum channels, service provider suggestions, LinkedIn and social media connection opportunities, a podcast or facebook group online meetups, webinars and templates, or simply other software and SaaS development hacks all over the world and beyond, let us know about it.
Vote Your Opinion
There are other ways for members to voice their views than in relation to the community. One of the recent questions that we received from members was to let us know the kind of benchmarking information and metrics they'd like to have released.
Having these kinds of metrics can help software and SaaS industry businesses better form strategies for increasing their revenue.
We want to offer relevant and valuable data to the developing and successful software and SaaS businesses, we reached out to the community directly to inquire about benchmarking information we might want to collect in the future:
A few of the answers included retention rates within a certain market, MRR growth in a specific sector, failed payment metrics (unintentional conversion rate churn) along with churn, conversion and rates across diverse regions.
This poll was open to members of all kinds, regardless of their customer status.
Like we said earlier, being aware of what matters most for software as well as SaaS business is essential our goal of creating to create the Global SaaS Leaders community to serve as a place where you can share what you really need to take your business to the higher levels.
Join the Community to learn More About (If You're Interested)
The above poll was published on the channel devoted to the community, which exists to allow discussions on (as opposed to general business-related conversations) are posted to this channel but remain outside of general feeds.
We do not want our users -- and especially those who aren't customers -- to feel that we're always advertising . As we've said before, a software and SaaS community must be something which you get value from in order for it to be successful And we believe excessive salesmanship can make this a place which you do not wish to be.
However, if you're not a current customer, but you've considered trying us out, then joining GSL is a great way to find out more about the company, by viewing customer interactions with our leaders, looking at the kinds of questions and comments people have on GSL, and much more. The -specific channel is open to all members.
If you don't have any interest in ? You can leave the channel that you are interested in without reading. There are many other opportunities to participate within the community, without having to read content on a platform that there is no need for.
Participate in The Global SaaS Leaders Community
We're extremely proud of the Global SaaS Leaders community already, and we're proud to provide an international networking and discussion area featuring features like live interviews video introductions of members, and diverse expert input.
In the future, we will be focusing on building community, and as our membership grows, we plan to roll out more functions. We'd like to make more one-to-one networking connections start a podcast, host more real-time events, and integrate social media as well.
However, if you sign up today, you can have an influence on what the club develops into.
To maintain a high quality of membership and to ensure that I personally review all new member applications -- there are no automations to let in spammers or bots. So, submitting your LinkedIn URL is crucial. Thank you for being patient as I look over your application and don't hesitate to reach us by email if need help before you submit your application!
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