The Reasons We Created the Slack Community specifically for SaaS as well as Software Professionals -
- A global concentration.
- Established professionals and companies (less students and startups in the early stages).
- Professional moderation.
- Less focus on venture capital or funding rounds.
- A truely supportive group with no tolerance for disrespectful or unprofessional conduct.
It's true that elements like worldwide business focus as well as experienced professional moderators (that's me!) are what we like to find in the online forums.
The post discussed what's included for members in particular in comparison to other groups that are online.
However, you may still be thinking, "But what's in it for?"
Valid question, which I'll address it, due to the motives (plural) we have to invest in this project might not be as straightforward as those who are the least shrewd people think.
As a business person yourself already, you are aware of how this operates. Companies don't just invest in new programs to benefit random business people online; they do it because it serves their individual business in some way.
And yes, having a successful online community can be a fantastic way for to expand the recognition of your brand and even bring in some leads once in a while.
However, marketing isn't the only one of the main reasons why that we're in this. No matter if you're a client or not, we want members to benefit from the network, or else it will not succeed.
Our Guiding Principle: Our Software as well as SaaS Community Must Be Good for you in order for It to Succeed
The explanation is fairly straightforward however the main point is that if you don't consider our group to be a helpful and enjoyable place then you'll never go out and about.
Therefore, it's essential to its growth -- for you and for us -- that we strive to make it a really awesome group to be part of.
(And If you think we might be deviating from that in any way, or if you have any suggestions for how to make the experience more effective, contact us. Further details on that are in the next paragraph.)
What Can You Benefit From Hosting an online Community
There has to be something in this for else we wouldn't have to do this, would we?
Naturally. But we want our goals to be forthright.
Here's what we'd like to do with this project.
Understanding What is Important to Your Business
A key point that our CEO David Nachman said to me in an interview about the mission and mission of our community is that this is an opportunity to reduce the nature of transactions in our relationships with our customers as well as other software and SaaS businesses.
There's a valid reason to be concerned: We assist in facilitating real transactions for online businesses, so it's easy for all of us to slip into the trap of having a well, transactional relationship.
We provide a service; you make money; continue the process on autopilot.
If we allow this to persist could deprive us of the ability to develop the quality of our B2B business by implementing strategies that benefit your firm as well as aiding online companies to succeed is a priority for us.
It's true for our existing clients, but this is also true for software companies that may be thinking about using . If you're not sure whether this is the best method of payment and the merchant of record (MOR) for your B2C, B2B or B2C SaaS business, we'd like to know about the questions and worries you're having so we can take that into the consideration when we build the products and features we offer.
For more information on how David is hoping to meet you and your business, take a look at the video interview with his members, that I conducted in his own capacity as a member:
This is also the reason we have expanded our vision for this community to have an individual contributor, executive, entrepreneur, and founder membership base -as we believe it is easier to understand companies (and serve them better) when we've got different layers of community members.
The goal of increasing the intimacy of our relationships with business (and of course, those who find or are employed by them) is an additional reason the reason we interviews with our members. Apart from helping members get to know their fellow members as well, the interview also allows us to meet members as well as their current business concerns.
Enhancing customer relationships
Learning more about your business is a great way for us to improve the relationships we have with you, whether or not.
However, our relationships with customers can be strengthened by granting members additional access to those of us at .
Already, we have a wide friendly and prompt support for buyers and customers as well as customer success managers for some of our clients with large or complex businesses.
We know that businesses can always increase the ways they assist customers, and strengthen those relationships.
Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, creating tickets is the most effective option to seek assistance. This helps our support staff properly route a request based on the type or urgency of the issue, as well as aids us in tracking your support requirements as time passes.
(That last part also helps us gain a more comprehensive understanding of a firm's demands.)
However, it could be useful to contact the leaders directly particularly for those who have a specific company-related need that doesn't have to do with technical issues related to our platform. There is a wide range of experts within our community, not just end-user technical support professionals.
Product managers, taxes and payments experts, customer operations pros, and even the occasional sales manager or two might be on the scene and will be able to address similar business-related questions. They may even be able to weigh in on what's coming to the's platform.
We want customers' experiences will be the kind of positive experiences they're telling their friends about and our belief is that making ourselves more readily available can increase the chances. And if you're a customer who is not enjoying that sort of interaction with us, the community is also a channel where you can inform us of your experience.
Yes, Leads
This is the section of the blog where we have to get completely clear.
We'd be thrilled if some of our members that aren't currently merchants of record to join our service.
For them, it's a blessing that this isn't our only goal for this community.
We also have goals of strengthening customer relationships and learning as much as possible about SaaS and business software requirements:
- It's safe to say that signing up for new customers is only one aspect of our goals for this community, and we're not planning to contact anyone who's not expressed the desire to us in advance.
- There are a higher chance of attracting new customers if we're nailing the first two goals we mentioned above, so we're going to try much harder to reach them.
We're confident that if our people in our community can see us being attentive to our customers with genuine concern and asking for feedback, they'll be significantly more interested in as a commerce platform and merchant of record since they'll witness the hard work we put in and the attention we give customers in person.
And, if you've considered previously it could be a good place to begin your journey with us a bit more casually. The community members are able to connect with other customers, read the conversations between them and (remotely) become acquainted with the people who make the company.
What Can You Expect From Joining This Community
But while it focused on some of the features of the GSL community however, it wasn't able to cover the actual advantages gained by joining a group like this one.
Although we've got big goals to build a community of Global SaaS Leaders -- and we're constantly developing community-building effortsbelow are some of the benefits that we have already made available for software and SaaS leaders, founders and entrepreneurs, as well as marketers and engineers, developers and more.
Join a Network of Software Professionals From Everywhere Over the World
If you're a SaaS marketer who is trying to increase the SEO of your the region, or a people and culture director concerned with international onboarding and in-person meetups as well as someone who is a SaaS business owner looking for suggestions about selling in specific countries or regions, being able to connect with the individuals that an global community can make "going globally" much simpler.
As of now, we have members representing over 50 countries in 17 time zones.
Discover New Markets You Are Interested in Expanding or Introducing Within
One of the advantages of having a global community is being able to tap into it for advice in the process of breaking into new market.
There is a place to post on the community to ask for members from specific nations to assist you and you may also contact me, the the moderator in chief, and I will reach out to applicable members for you.
You can also keep the discussion in the community to find previous discussions that are relevant to SaaS areas you're looking to expand into.
Also, you'll be able to watch our videos of members that we're recording regularly for those who would like to participate (like the one above, with CEO David Nachman).
One of the questions we usually ask interviewees is "What's that people aren't aware of about selling software in your nation?" The goal of the question is to assist you to understand the cultural or business differences that may affect how easy it is to offer software to customers in your country.
Take a look at SaaS Company Leaders and Experts
While our membership is spread over a variety of roles and levels, there are many executives, SaaS founders, and department heads within Global SaaS Leaders who are willing to share their knowledge with other members.
Certain members are software or SaaS founders with multiple SaaS businesses, others have worked for internationally recognizable companies, and some entrepreneurs have switched careers or industries and have many years of knowledge to provide recommendations.
In addition, several executive and leadership positions are available, such as our Chief Executive Officer as well as the International Tax Director, and our Vice President of Global Customer Operations. They're present in the community as they're eager to assist members however they can.
(For more details from Kurt on this topic take a look at his in-person seminar on SaaS Pricing Strategies That work: how to design the most optimal pricing model at SaaStr Europa earlier in 2022.)
We're happy to respond to questions like this, and we're delighted to offer the space in which topics such as this can be discussed among international peers.
Make yourself appear as an expert
If you're already recognized as an SaaS industry influencer or expert, great! We'd like to see you contributing to the community as you build your professional and personal reputation through sharing your knowledge.
In the event that you're trying to create your own branding Participating on a forum for professionals is an excellent option to start. There's no need to become SaaS founders to have a solid understanding of the fields we work in. active sharing of that expertise with others establishes each of us as being not just well-informed, but also friendly and magnanimous -- and this is a fantastic public image to cultivate.
The Community will be shaped as it Expands
We launched this software and SaaS community in March 2022 and have seen it grow quickly. However, because we'd like to make it the ideal place to allow you to practically "hang out" this space is still adaptable and is open to suggestions.
For example, a member has recently suggested that we create an option for a particular type of use case.
Then, we turned the request into a survey asking the members to share their thoughts on what channels they'd like to add to Slack's workspace.
Therefore, whether you'd like to vote in a quiet way for updates to the community or suggest your own suggestion, we're happy to hear from you!
If you're interested in specific forums, services recommendations for providers, LinkedIn and social media connection opportunities, a podcast 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.
Voice Your Opinions
There are many methods for members to share their views than with regard to the community. One of the recent questions we asked members to let us know the kind of benchmarking information and metrics they'd like to have released.
The use of these measures can aid software and SaaS industry businesses better form strategies to increase their ARR.
In order to offer useful and valuable data to the growing and successful software and SaaS businesses, we reached out to the community directly to ask what benchmarking data we should consider compiling in the future:
The responses varied from retention rates for a particular market, MRR growth in a specific sector, failed payment indicators (unintentional conversion rate churn) along with churn, conversion and rates across diverse regions.
This poll was open to members of all kinds regardless of situation.
As we mentioned above, knowing what really matters in software or SaaS business is essential us, so we would like to create the Global SaaS Leaders community to serve as a place where you can share your needs for your company to reach the highest level.
Join the Community to learn More About (If You're Interested)
The poll above was posted on the channel devoted to the community. It exists for discussions related to (as opposed to general business-related conversations) are posted to the channel, and remain out of the main feed.
This is because we aren't looking for users -- and especially those that aren't customers to feel that we're always marketing . Because as we've mentioned already, a software and SaaS community has to be something you get value from to succeed We believe that selling too much would make this a place which you don't wish to be.
If you're not a current customer, however you've thought about trying us out, then joining GSL is a great opportunity to learn more about our company by looking at customer interaction with our leadership, seeing what kinds of queries and feedback users have about the platform, and so on. The channel that is specifically for GSL is accessible to everyone who is a member.
And if you have no interest in ? You can leave the channel that you are interested in not read. There are lots of activities to take part in within the community, without having to read posts about a platform which you don't have a stake in.
Be part of the Global SaaS Leaders Community
We're extremely proud of the Global SaaS Leaders community already and are proud to provide an international networking and discussion forum with features such as live interviews, member intro videos, as well as a variety of expert opinions.
As continues to focus on building communities and our member base expands, we'll roll out additional functions. We'd like to facilitate more one-to-one networking connections start a podcast, hold more events in real time, as well as integrate social media features down the road too.
But if you join now, you can influence what it grows into, too.
To maintain a high standard of member service and to ensure that I personally review all newly submitted applications for membership and ensuring that there aren't automations to let in spammers or bots. This is why sending your LinkedIn link is so important. We appreciate your patience while I look over your application as well as feel free to email us if you have any concerns prior to making an application!
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