Growth Strategies for Enterprise Workflow Software

The shift from seats to agents pressures SaaS margins. At the same time, the longstanding practice of getting enterprise customers to pre-commit and also prepay for functionality they may never deploy will get harder as CIOs look to free budget for their own LLM costs. To weather the storm, some SaaS companies have increased prices. This boosts revenue and margins in the short-term but can't be done repeatedly and creates even greater scrutiny over shelfware as procurement teams right-size and shift contracts to "pay as you go." To achieve sustainable growth, SaaS companies need to become hyperefficient at sales and marketing. Here are common ways to do so and who's doing it well: 1. PLG. Shopify and Atlassian exemplify efficient go-to-market based on product-led growth with free trials, low-friction upgrades and upsells. Their sales teams only need to get involved in the biggest opportunities at the largest accounts; every other step in acquisition, commercial transaction, activation, onboarding, and growth is self-service and automated. 2. Vertical SaaS. Guidewire Software and Veeva Systems are laser-focused on insurance and life sciences, respectively. Rather than casting a wide net, they spear-fish with deep domain knowledge and purpose-built solutions for that industry's specific workflows and regulatory requirements. Guidewire doesn't need to buy Super Bowl ads– their annual customer conference is the Super Bowl for property & casualty insurance executives. Nearly zero GTM effort is wasted– unsurprisingly they're the two most efficient on the list. We modeled Hearsay Systems after both these companies, and this focus allowed us to win incredible market share among Fortune 500 banks & insurers despite only raising $60M in totality. 3. Relocate operations to lower-cost regions and AI. This is private equity's favorite playbook to take costs out of companies they buy. Field sales continues to shift more to Zoom, which means you can hire AEs anywhere. Inside sales contributes a greater % of revenue as PLG motions are established. AI handles top-of-funnel leads qualification and generating marketing content and campaigns. 4. Focus on gross revenue retention. Because of high customer acquisition costs in #SaaS, leaky buckets are margin killers. Use LLMs to help customer success teams analyze product usage, segment cohorts, and identify opportunities to increase value realization. Put in guardrails to prevent sales reps from overselling an account, as doing so only creates churn in the next renewal cycle. 5. Introduce another product line. This only works if your new product has the same buyer as your existing products. Many SaaS acquisition pro formas fail to actualize for this reason, as it's not actually feasible to have the same AE sell both old and new products. Every SaaS company right now needs to double down on one or more of these levers in the AI era.

Elena Verna’s has written and recorded >500 hours of content on PLG Growth in B2B — here is EVERYTHING you need to know, save, and implement in 10 bullets: 𝟭𝟬-𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗕𝟮𝗕/𝗣𝗟𝗚 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 1. 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 “𝗮𝗵𝗮” 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁-𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲. Every growth model starts by proving value fast through a self-serve flow that walks the user straight to the core outcome, minimizing time-to-value and instrumentation gaps. 2. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗽𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘀. Replace linear acquisition funnels with compounding growth loops where each cycle of usage creates new input (content, invites, referrals or data) that feeds the next cycle and lowers marginal CAC. 3. 𝗦𝗲𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲. Identify your highest-retention ICP(s), double-down on them, and expand only to “adjacent users” once growth in the core segment saturates; one size never fits all. 4. 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 → 𝗛𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁 → 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲. Don’t gate value too early; wait until the product habit is forming, then intersect upgrade triggers (usage limits, collaboration, security, etc.) with clear pay-offs to convert. 5. 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 & 𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘀 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀. Iterate on paywalls, tiers, and thresholds the same way you iterate on product—continuously, with clear hypotheses and measurable upgrade metrics. 6. 𝗕𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗟𝗚 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀-𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁. Use product-qualified leads (PQLs) to hand warm, usage-validated accounts to Sales; PLG and SLG complement each other rather than compete, especially in enterprise. 7. 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀.Drive email, in-app and human touchpoints off real usage—not calendar dates—to accelerate activation, expansion and resurrection. 8. 𝗘𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 ~𝟭𝟴 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀. Expect channels to plateau; dedicate ~20-25 % of resources to testing new growth loops long before the current ones top out. 9. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗳𝗳 𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀-𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗼𝗱𝘀. Small squads of product, design, eng, data and marketing own a single North-Star metric and operate with rapid experiment cycles—no hand-offs, no silos. 10. 𝗢𝗯𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰𝘀 & 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. “Growth at what cost?” is Elena’s constant refrain—CAC payback and cohort retention trump vanity metrics, and sustainable, defensible growth beats short-lived spikes.

After selling iContact for $169M and coaching hundreds of SaaS founders, I've seen what separates 3X exits from 10X exits... It's not just your product. It's your go-to-market system. Here’s how the top B2B mid-market and enterprise founders do it 👇 1️⃣ Build a comprehensive ABM list of your entire ICP This used to cost $50K just to get started. Today it's $600-$2000 for 100,000 leads within your ICP. Most B2B SaaS companies have a TAM of 5,000-100,000 companies, translating to 25,000-500,000 decision-makers. Use Apollo, Clay, Instantly, or ListKit to build this database. It's the foundation everything else builds upon. 2️⃣ Deploy AI-personalized outbound at scale Generic "would you like a demo?" emails are dead. Use Instantly or Clay + ChatGPT to create hyper-personalized messages at scale. Not the same message to 30,000 people, but 30,000 unique messages tailored to each recipient. The response rates are 3X higher when you personalize based on their LinkedIn profile, company, and recent news. 3️⃣ Make your brand omnipresent with targeted ads Take that same ABM list and upload it as matched audiences on LinkedIn, Meta, and Google. Follow this: retargeting (low cost, high performance) → matched audience ads → lookalikes. The same people getting your outbound messages will see your ads everywhere online. 4️⃣ Don’t wait for inbound SEO-driven inbound still works, but it’s no longer enough. Organic traffic is down. HubSpot’s own traffic dropped 65% in 6 months. - You can’t wait for buyers to find you. - You must reach them first. Hence, matched audience ads + AI outbound is how modern SaaS companies are filling their funnel. 5️⃣ Break the sales + marketing silos Most founders hire sales. Then hire marketing. And then struggle. The companies that win treat this as a unified revenue engine: • Marketing → omnipresence • Sales → closing • Success → expansion All aligned to one thing: revenue growth. 6️⃣ Track the metrics that actually matter for valuation Every $1 you spend should drive a measurable return. Key metrics to track: • CAC • Cost per qualified lead • LTV:CAC ratio (aim for 6-8:1) • Payback window (6-9 months if bootstrapped) • NRR (110% annually+ for mid-market/enterprise) Each month: cut what’s underperforming, and scale what works. The impact on your exit is massive. One SaaS company we worked with: 5M → 11M ARR in 12 months. Growth rate went from 30% to 60% annually. Instead of a 3X multiple ($15M exit), they're now positioned for 7- 8X ($70-80M exit). Same product. Different GTM system. Don’t leave money on the table because of this. Build it now. Exit on your terms. ------- That’s exactly what we help SaaS founders do inside SaasRise (Link in comments if you want to learn more).

Last week I spoke with Salesloft CEO David Obrand about the massive 40,000 seat deal they closed with IBM. Here are the 3 critical elements of their enterprise sales playbook: 1. Non-tech GTM orchestration and product marketing Ensure that you have coordinated revenue motions for each industry vertical you are targeting. Historically, the big VC-backed sales and marketing tech companies have grown on the backs of selling into tech itself.  But the future of sales and marketing tech sits within the true enterprise and most of the true enterprise is decidedly not tech.  To enter the healthcare, financial services, industrials, or government services markets you’ll need dedicated sales teams, services teams and account-based marketing motions that make it clear to the buyer you deeply understand their problems and their issues.  It’s not going to come from super bowl ads.  2. Leverage ecosystems Going it alone into the enterprise can be a daunting task. To effectively drive enterprise adoption, you’ll need support and assistance from partners and ecosystem players in the space.  IBM isn’t just a Salesloft customer, they’re also a partner, helping introduce the concept of revenue orchestration to thousands of their customers.  If you don’t have relationships with the big IT consulting arms of the major strategy firms (eg Deloitte), make sure you begin to develop them. They are critical trusted entry points into the enterprise. Being on the AWS app exchange isn't enough. You need deep partnerships that give confidence to enterprise buyers you are a bet worth making and that there is infrastructure capable of supporting you.  3. Invest in Customer Success and introduce them pre-sale Introducing a new workflow product to a company with 40,000 employees isn’t a “set it and forget it”. Getting 40,000 people to do anything, let alone use your new product, is hard.  Whether you call it strategic account management, customer success, or something else doesn’t matter. What matters is that you are focused and have a plan for driving usage and adoption and that the plan begins before the sale happens. Investing in CS pre-sale also helps drive GTM alignment and makes sure that the sales team is selling something the services team can stand behind. TAKEAWAY: The enterprise will decide who wins the B2B SaaS wars. Few companies actually have experience building deep and lasting relationships within the enterprise.  If you want to do it, you’ll need a playbook. This is a great place to start.

If I was a VP of Sales of a +$10M ARR company, and I had to generate $2M in new pipeline in the next 30 days to hit my growth targets, here are the only 4 plays I would have our AEs run: 1. Supercharge my Closed Lost process and focus on "revived" opps Over 90% of closed-lost opportunities sit untouched for 18+ months. Meanwhile, GTM teams obsess over cracking into new accounts. That means the highest-potential pipeline is in the deals you already worked. Most of those calls were recorded. And buried in them are signals like: - “Budget is frozen until Q2” - “We’re up for renewal with [Competitor] in 6 months” - “New CMO starts this summer” But no one follows up. If your closed-lost strategy is just running a report every quarter and pinging reps in Slack... you're leaving money on the table. 2. Track my champion movement and turn them into high-converting warm pipeline 52% of buyers say their previous experience with a product is the #1 factor in choosing a new vendor (TrustRadius). That means our former customers—people who loved our product—are now our warmest prospects. But most teams don’t actually track where those champions work today. Running the occasional Sales Nav search doesn't cut it. Instead, I’d run a dedicated enrichment project to map where our top advocates have landed. Then reach out with tailored offers—not our standard prospecting sequence. You’ll be shocked how many new opportunities are just one text, Slack DM, or warm intro away. 3. Mine our power users to unlock bottom-up pipeline The fastest-growing SaaS companies don’t start at the top. They win deals by starting with end users or middle managers—then earning their way up. Why? Because execs increasingly trust the tools their best people already use. I'd run a report of our top 20–40% most active users from the past 18 months. Then find out where those users work now. There’s a goldmine of warm pipeline waiting in those usage logs. You just have to dig. 4. Fix our CTAs — Make the offer actually worth their time If our AEs and BDRs are only offering a 30-minute meeting, they’re handicapping their efforts. Buyers are busy. Most don’t want another sales call. But they will engage—if the offer is valuable. So I’d swap the generic CTA for something specific, relevant, and hard to ignore. A great example: Brian Hamor at Buyer Experience offers a "win-back audit"—a compelling reason to engage that feels like a win, not a pitch. TAKEAWAY I don’t need more leads. I don’t need more accounts. I need to mine the ones I already have. There are millions of $$$ in pipeline trapped inside: - Our CRM - AE notes - Old calls - Past champions Our systems are full of real buying signals. But 99% of teams are too obsessed with net new accounts to go looking. Volume isn’t the answer anymore. The gold is buried in our own data. Start digging. Stop spamming. Use first-party signals. Win without the noise.

From a niche IT service management vendor with less than $100M in revenues, ServiceNow used the Follow The Workflow (FTW) playbook to build a $10B revenue, $120B market cap global software platform. FTW has a SaaS company go multi-product by extending along a customer’s workflow. ServiceNow did this by starting with IT workflows. This hands-on approach worked, and by 2011, the company had replaced its competitors as the ITSM solution of choice for many, reaching $92 million in sales. Then, in the course of a week (!!), they split the company into five different divisions. This required rethinking every part of the company—but the rewards matched the risk. Non-IT workflows now dominate ServiceNow's portfolio, comprising over half of its sales. To really understand how ServiceNow pulled it off, we interviewed 3 early executives who were crucial to that journey across sales, product, and pricing: 👉 Product: Perhaps the most difficult decision is over which workflows to follow. There will be far more options than you can imagine, and each step needs to be carefully considered. We interviewed Dave Wright about how your first step is your most important one. 👉Pricing: Pricing is both an art and a science. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, as every pricing exercise is highly situational. You have to strike a balance between things like market share capture, profit, and churn. In our discussion, Alex Saghatelian talked about how cross-functional pricing needs to be for a platform company. 👉Sales: As you go multi-product and expand throughout an organization, there is an existential question you must answer—When (or should) you verticalize your GTM org? Kevin Haverty, former CRO and current Vice Chairman of the Global Public Sector, recommended focusing on building a great reputation complemented by specialist, persona-targeting sales teams. We have way more detail on ServiceNow’s strategy and tons of pragmatic, practical tips at the link below:  https://lnkd.in/dGJR9Rqc Thanks again to Avanish Sahai, Kevin Haverty, Dave Wright, and Alex Saghatelian for their help with this series! We look forward to sharing the interviews in the coming weeks.