I try to keep things fresh, so I was disappointed to find that two different headlines used the word “recession” this morning.
Despite the accelerating pace of layoffs, there is good news for SaaS startups. 70% of SMBs plan to increase their IT spending in 2023, accelerating the procurement process.
According to Caroline Hogan, senior director of vendor marketing at Gartner Digital Markets, this means companies can drive growth and revenue simply by studying buyer decision-making patterns.
“At the awareness stage, companies are using technology to solve problems and challenges,” writes Hogan.
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“Therefore, it is imperative to clearly communicate the benefits of the product and develop use cases that are aligned with the challenges facing companies.”
For example, Gartner found that 41% of SMB customers rely on customer ratings and reviews before making a purchase.
When was the last time you checked reviews on Capterra or GetApp? Follow-up: What methods does your sales team use to encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews?
If the answer is not ready, then you have left money on the table. (Don’t worry, I won’t tell your investors.)
“Understanding the changes in how buyers research, evaluate, select and purchase software is critical to accelerating growth,” shares some tactics for gathering actionable insights. Hogan says.
Thank you for reading.
Walter Thompson
Editorial Manager, TechCrunch+
@yourprotagonist
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Image credit: Niklas Carlson / EyeEm (opens in new window)
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As economic conditions change, companies adjust their marketing strategies. When the pandemic started, I stopped receiving almost all junk mail, but after the vaccine was deployed, my mailbox was once again filled with irrelevant offers.
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Combine that with the fact that startup founders are celebrated for sleeping under their desks, and it’s easy to see why many tech workers don’t spend the first 12 weeks after having a baby.
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MVPs don’t have to be perfect.should be stage-appropriate
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Remember the movie The Social Network? Facebook didn’t start as a place for family and friends to stay in touch. In the first iteration, we scraped photos from Harvard’s student rosters and let users rate their looks.
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