Episode 168

168 Asia Orangio - SaaS Renaissance: Art of Scaling and Innovation

In this episode of the SaaS Fuel Podcast, Jeff is joined by the remarkable Asia Orangio, an expert in go-to-market strategy and growth in the SaaS world. Together, they delve into the crucial aspects of customer and audience research, pricing strategies, and key performance indicators (KPIs) that significantly impact growth and MRR goals in SaaS businesses.

Asia shares her invaluable insights on strategic decision-making, sustainable growth, and the shift in mindset toward long-term success in the SaaS industry. As they explore the nuances of product-led growth, activation rates, and the challenges of determining product-market fit, together they provide practical, data-driven advice for SaaS founders and leaders.

Join us as we uncover the hidden gems of SaaS growth and learn from the expertise of Asia Orangio in this dynamic and illuminating episode.

Key Takeaways

00:00 The transition from employee to marketing entrepreneur was serendipitous.

06:42 Use customer research to inform market strategy.

07:55 Understanding buyer behavior through extensive research interviews.

11:07 Spreadsheets are practically free. Consider opportunity cost.

15:43 The challenge of selling a product online.

21:02 SaaS benchmarks provide valuable market insights.

24:29 Behavioral science, product experience, ideal customer profile.

26:47 Identify qualified users for SaaS marketing success.

30:16 ConvertKit filled a niche for bloggers' needs.

35:38 Quarterly targets, collaboration, shared information, KPIs, growth.

36:33 Identify core KPI, divide and conquer projects.

40:47 Analyze MRR growth by focusing on expansion revenue.

45:32 Sustainability and strategic growth are essential.

46:54 Shift in SaaS mindset for sustainable growth.

50:18 Expresses gratitude and hope for audience takeaway.

Tweetable Quotes

“When it comes to really understanding the market, understanding the product, and understanding potential channels, we, always start with customer and audience research. Both of these two things combined help, formulate and inform the ultimate go-to-market strategy." — Asia Orangio 00:06:57

“And what we find is that it's usually rarely ever just one thing that creates the scenario for someone to buy. Usually, it's several things that happen that stack up that, create the circumstances upon which someone buys." — Asia Orangio 00:08:15

"What I don't recommend it, is you're gonna get to a point at least in the early stage journey where just increasing your prices can actually be kind of a dangerous pitfall if you don't have the data to back it up." — Asia Orangio 00:12:30

"The real testament is selling it, actually putting it out there for people to buy and seeing, for better or for worse, what happens." — Asia Orangio 00:15:53

"I think product-led growth is most successful when you're able to combine, this really solid understanding of who is the ideal customer profile. Are they ultimately product-qualified? Meaning, like, as they are signing up for this process, we are now understanding, like, is this person actually gonna be a good fit for this product or not?" — Asia Orangio 00:25:15

"And I think that strategic growth ultimately is a sustainable practice. What I mean by being strategic is, all being strategic means is we are doing our absolute best to make good decisions with the information that we either have or can get." — Asia Orangio 00:45:48

"Product-led growth is one of the things I see done wrong a lot of times." — Jeff Mains 00:23:21

"I think it's kind of that counterintuitive, you know, really focused and going after a market that's completely underserved and then serving them really well and then continuing on and growing from there." — Jeff Mains 00:31:55

"If you wanna get big, go small. And then when you think you're small, go smaller and smaller and and until you think that it's you're really scared because you're so small and then go a little bit smaller." — Jeff Mains 00:33:12

SaaS Leadership Lessons

1. Understand the Market: Effective SaaS leadership involves a deep understanding of the market, product, and potential channels, which starts with customer and audience research.

2. Customer-Centric Approach: Embrace the Jobs to be Done Method as a powerful tool for customer and audience research, enabling a better understanding of how prospects make purchasing decisions and the trade-offs they make.

3. Informed Pricing Strategies: Utilize research and pricing analysis tools like Van Westendorp and MaxDiff survey to inform pricing strategy and determine plans, ensuring thorough consideration of direct competitors and alternatives.

4. Test and Iterate: Recognize that research and testing are crucial for pricing products, emphasizing the need to consider both direct competitors and alternatives, as well as understanding the cost or opportunity cost of not using the solution.

5. Data-Informed Pricing: Early-stage pricing strategies should be informed by survey data, customer interviews, and actual customer data to avoid dangerous pitfalls, and pricing changes should be carefully analyzed and tested, as they can significantly impact retention rates.

6. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Identify a key performance indicator (KPI) that significantly impacts growth and MRR goals, such as net revenue core retention, often overlooked in SaaS.

7. Holistic Growth Conversations: Emphasize the need for strategic and holistic conversations among all growth leaders, acknowledging the impact of growth projects and experiments on long-term benefits.

8. Monitor Warning Signs: Recognize warning signs such as stagnation and understand the importance of expansion revenue and activation rates as opportunity KPIs.

9. Data-Driven Decisions: Encourage the collection of data for future analysis and highlight the significance of financial indicators, expansion revenue, net revenue, core retention, and MRR growth rate, stressing the importance of understanding the underlying factors driving growth.

10. Embrace Sustainable Growth: Emphasize the shift towards sustainable growth, strategic decision-making, and providing value to customers for long-term success, fostering a cultural shift in enterprise companies towards long-term planning and decision-making.