Metrics That Matter for Growing Profitable Revenue

How to use Employee Trends In Apollo.io for Account Based Marketing

Thu, 16 May 2024 18:40:32 GMT

Use Apollo.io Employee Hiring Trends To Target The Right Accounts

Full Transcript:

0:00 Alright, I'm a huge fan of Apollo, some great information, but sometimes it's not explained very well. And one of the areas that I noticed is under insights for company employee trends, like where are they hiring people.

0:15 So I created this video because I tried to find the answer, I could not find it. I'm pretty sure if I ping somebody there they would have gotten back to me, but you know I just want to figure out some of the stuff myself and not have to talk to somebody.

0:31 So, employee trends is pretty powerful. If you are selling products or services into different departments, you can see what's happening to their headcount.

0:41 And one of the things you can do under the departments is if you don't see one here, in the broad categories, you can actually pick some of the smaller categories here and add that in.

0:54 So, I'm going to look at support. And then what it will do is it will give you the total uhm new heads for the category added and then the year over year growth rate.

1:09 Now, what's really confusing is let's go to one of the bar charts. Sales, 425 out of 970 total new head count.

1:16 You know, roughly almost half. That kind of makes sense in the bar chart, but what it is is 0% in parentheses.

1:23 Well, that's actually the year over year growth rate. So pretty simple. It's not really explained anywhere. I had to figure it out myself and I hope this helps you.

What is a Bad PageSpeed Insights Score?

kevin@revgtm.com (Kevin Nakao) — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 19:45:56 GMT

TL;DR. If your PageSpeed Insights Score is less than 50 and your site speed index is more than 3 seconds, treat this as a priority.

Ok, you just tested your site speed on Google's PageSpeed Insights and want to know if you should break the glass and sound the alarm or high-five the folks on your team who built a highly performant website. For those who are coming into this new, PageSpeed Insights is a free tool from Google that analyzes your website's performance and provides actionable recommendations for improvement.

But what exactly constitutes a bad PageSpeed Insights score, and how can you interpret its results to optimize your website?

Interpreting Your Score: From Green To Red

PageSpeed Insights color-codes your score to provide a quick visual indicator and assigns a score between 0 and 100 (with 100 being the best)

- Green (90-100): Excellent performance, exceeding user expectations.

- Orange (50-89): Needs improvement, some areas impacting user experience.

- Red (0-49): Poor performance, significant optimization required.

However, remember, the color-coding is a starting point, not the final verdict. Focus on understanding the underlying reasons behind your score and prioritize improvements based on the specific issues identified by PageSpeed Insights.

Definitions of Performance Metrics Related to Site Speed

- Speed Index: The time it takes for the content to show up during page load.

- First Contentful Paint: The time it takes for the first text or image to load.

- Total Blocking Time: The sum of time between First Contentful Paint and being able to interact with a website.

- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): The time it takes for the largest text or image asset to load.

Considerations

Simply labeling a score as "bad" is an oversimplification. The interpretation depends on several factors:

- Industry benchmarks: A score of 80 might be considered good for a complex e-commerce site, while a news website should strive for closer to 90.

- Device type: Mobile scores tend to be lower than desktop scores due to slower network conditions and processing limitations.

- Core Web Vitals: These metrics, focusing on Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), prioritize user experience and are weighted heavily in the overall score.

The Impact of a Bad PageSpeed Insights Score

Numerous studies highlight the negative consequences of a bad PageSpeed Insights score:

- Increased bounce rate: Users are more likely to abandon slow-loading websites.

- Lower conversions: Slow websites lead to fewer purchases and sign-ups.

- Negative SEO impact: Google prioritizes faster-loading websites in search rankings.

Your Bounce Rate Skyrockets

- 79% of online shoppers who encounter a slow-loading website will abandon their purchase. (source: Kissmetrics)

- 52% of mobile users will bounce from a page that takes more than 3 seconds to load. (source: Google)

- A 1-second delay in page load time can decrease conversions by 7%. (source: Portent)

SEO Suffers

- Google considers page speed a ranking factor. Websites that load slowly are more likely to appear lower in search results. (source Google Bard)

- A 1-second improvement in page load time can boost SEO conversion rates by 27%. (source: Think with Google).

Revenue Hit

- A 2-second delay in page load time can decrease mobile conversions by 20%. (source: Radware)

- For every 1 second of delay in page load time, Amazon loses $1.6 billion in sales. (source: Amazon)

Optimizing for Success: Actionable Steps to a Higher Score

Improving your PageSpeed Insights score requires prioritization and testing

- Identify the biggest bottlenecks: Analyze the diagnostic information to pinpoint the most impactful issues.

- Prioritize critical improvements: Focus on fixing issues affecting Core Web Vitals and overall performance.

- Implement recommended actions: PageSpeed Insights provides clear guidance on how to address specific issues.

- Monitor and iterate: Regularly track your score and adjust your optimization strategies as needed.

Look at the Diagnostics and Delegate
In the report (see example below) you will also get diagnostics to help you address the issue, and if you don't know where to start, send them to the person responsible for your website. In my case, I use the website publishing platform Duda, and within 1 day their customer support team provided me with help and a fix.

Additional Free Options To Test Your Website Performance: Lighthouse

In my opinion, I think the business owner/leader should use PageSpeed Insights for monitoring performance and the website developer should use Lighthouse to both monitor and fix. You can integrate Lighthouse into development workflows or use it independently from the PageSpeed Insights interface.

Google Lighthouse is an open-source, automated tool for improving the quality of web pages. It can be used on any publicly accessible webpage or web application, regardless of whether it requires authentication. Lighthouse runs a series of tests against the page and then generates a report on how well it did in several key areas.

Relationship to PageSpeed Insights

Lighthouse is the engine behind PageSpeed Insights. While PageSpeed Insights is a web interface that presents Lighthouse data and recommendations in a user-friendly format, Lighthouse is the actual tool that runs the audits. You can use Lighthouse independently from the PageSpeed Insights interface, for example, in your development workflow or as a Node module.

You access PageSpeed Insights by going to a URL, and you access Lighthouse by using a Chrome web browser and going to your website. Here is how to use Lighthouse:

Download Google Chrome for Desktop.
In Google Chrome, go to the URL you want to audit. You can audit any URL on the web.
Open Chrome DevTools.
Click the Lighthouse tab. To the left is the page's viewport that will be audited. ...
Click Analyze page load. ...
Click Run audit.

Ok, Let's Wrap It Up and Get To Work

By understanding what constitutes a bad PageSpeed Insights score, delving into the tool's functionality, and implementing data-driven optimization strategies, you can ensure your website delivers a fast and engaging experience for users, ultimately boosting your online success. Remember, a good PageSpeed Insights score is not just a vanity metric; it's a testament to your commitment to providing a seamless digital experience that keeps your audience engaged and coming back for more.

Additional Resources

- Google PageSpeed Insights: https://pagespeed.web.dev/

- Lighthouse: https://medium.com/impact-developers/how-to-set-up-automatic-lighthouse-testing-for-ci-cd-236cb955e968

- Core Web Vitals: https://developers.google.com/learn/pathways/web-vitalsNew Paragraph

The Secrets to Slashing Your SaaS Costs and Maximizing Your ROI!

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 03:56:29 GMT

SaaS (Software As A Service) Inflation and Costs

Prices for SaaS subscriptions are rising, and companies must be vigilant to avoid overspending. Vertice, which provides a cloud and SaaS cost optimization platform and the bar chart above, pegged the 2023 SaaS inflation rate at 8.7%. Now compare that to the Consumer Price Increase, which showed a 3.7% increase during the same time period. With roughly $1 of every $8 in an organization's budget going towards SaaS, understanding these costs is more important than ever.

Managing your SaaS costs means staying ahead of escalating prices while ensuring your company has the tools it needs to thrive. Effective financial management involves meticulous tracking and optimization of software expenses. It's not just about paying the bills—it’s about scrutinizing each SaaS contract negotiation, anticipating renewals, and preventing surprise charges from undermining your budget.

A proactive approach can significantly reduce operations cost, helping you allocate resources wisely and keep a competitive edge in today's market.

Tips for Monitoring and Optimizing your SaaS Costs

To effectively manage your SaaS costs, consider the following tips:

Utilize SaaS cost management tools to track and analyze your software expenses in one centralized platform, ensuring full visibility into your spending.
Negotiate SaaS contracts to secure favorable terms and pricing, potentially leading to substantial cost reductions.
Regularly review your SaaS subscriptions and tool inventory to identify underutilized or redundant applications, allowing for strategic optimization of your software stack.
Implement proactive monitoring and control measures to prevent surprise contract renewals, reducing unexpected expenses and ensuring budget predictability.
Leverage SaaS spend tracking solutions to gain insights into usage trends and patterns, enabling informed decisions for optimizing resource allocation and managing expenditures effectively.
Adopt a disciplined approach to monitoring and analyzing your SaaS expenditure, empowering you to identify opportunities for cost optimization while maintaining operational efficiency.
Consistently assess the financial impact of your SaaS utilization, aiming to proactively identify areas for reducing waste and increasing cost-effectiveness across your software ecosystem.
Prioritize SaaS expense management as an integral part of your financial strategy, aligning it with broader budgeting objectives and overall organizational goals.
Establish clear benchmarks and performance metrics for evaluating the success of your SaaS spend management efforts , ensuring accountability and continuous improvement towards cost optimization goals.

SaaS Spend Management and Monitoring Software

Efficient SaaS spend management is crucial for businesses to track and control their software expenses effectively. Utilizing specialized SaaS spend management and monitoring software can help in centralizing data from various sources, providing real-time insights into usage patterns, costs, and potential areas for optimization.

This type of platform empowers organizations to make informed decisions about their SaaS subscriptions, negotiate better contracts, identify redundant tools, and optimize spending across the entire tool inventory.

Implementing a dedicated SaaS management platform enables businesses to gain visibility into their financial obligations related to cloud-based software. By leveraging such technology, companies can exercise greater control over their budgets while identifying opportunities for cost savings and reducing waste.

With the right SaaS spend management solution in place, organizations can drive efficiency in financial operations by streamlining processes for tracking invoices, managing contracts more proactively, and optimizing expenditure on software resources.

Some highly-rated SaaS cost and spend management solutions include:

Vertice is a spend optimization platform that saves companies up to 25% on their SaaS and cloud costs. It empowers companies of every size and industry to get more visibility and control of their software and cloud spending and leverages automation to deliver guaranteed cost savings. Today, Vertice manages over $1.1B in contract spend and is the only platform worldwide that empowers companies to view, control, and save on both SaaS and cloud costs with an integrated unified offering.

The Productiv SaaS Intelligence™ platform is more than a SaaS management cost control tool as it aligns IT, procurement, finance, and business leaders with trusted data to proactively govern, optimize spend, and drive operational efficiency while increasing employee engagement across SaaS applications. This employee-centric, data-driven approach combines billions of employee app usage data points with vendor contract and organizational data to provide companies like Uber, Zoom, and Box with the most comprehensive view of their SaaS applications.

Zylo enables companies to organize, optimize, and orchestrate SaaS. Organizations such as Adobe, Atlassian, Coupa, Doordash, Hootsuite, Intuit, Slack, Salesforce and Verizon. Zylo’s patent-pending, AI-powered Discovery Engine provides continual, frictionless monitoring of SaaS spend, licenses, and usage to create the industry’s most accurate SaaS system of record.

SaaS Cost Management FAQs

1. What is the definition of Software as Service (SaaS)

Software as a Service, or SaaS, is a way of delivering applications over the internet—as a service. Instead of installing and maintaining software, you simply access it via the internet, freeing yourself from complex software and hardware management. SaaS applications are sometimes called web-based software, on-demand software, or hosted software. Whatever the name, SaaS applications run on a SaaS provider's servers. The provider manages access to the application, including security, availability, and performance. SaaS has become a common delivery model for many business applications because it eliminates the need for organizations to install and run applications on their own computers or in their own data centers.

2. What are the benefits of SaaS?
SaaS not only saves companies time and money by removing hardware acquisition costs but also simplifies subscription management and expense tracking. With such solutions in place, businesses can streamline operations while enjoying flexible scalability that aligns with their growth trajectory – turning capital expenditure into operational expense without compromising on functionality or accessibility.

3. How can I track my SaaS costs?

You can track your SaaS costs by using financial management tools like spreadsheets or specialized software that consolidates all subscription expenses.

4. How often should I review my SaaS subscriptions?

It's advisable to review your SaaS subscriptions regularly, ideally every quarter, to assess their utilization and value to your business.

5. Can I negotiate pricing with SaaS providers?

Yes, you can negotiate pricing with SaaS providers, especially if you are a long-term customer or have significant usage volume.

6. What strategies can help reduce SaaS costs?

Strategies such as optimizing user licenses, eliminating underused subscriptions, and consolidating vendors can effectively reduce SaaS costs.

7. What are some of the SaaS cost models used?

Subscription-based pricing: This common model involves paying a regular fee, usually monthly or annually, for access to the software. It offers predictability which aids in SaaS budget management, but you must ensure that subscriptions align with actual usage to avoid unnecessary expenses.

Usage-based pricing: Charges are based on how much you use the service. Tracking your consumption becomes vital here; it's an ideal choice for companies with fluctuating software demands and can lead to significant SaaS cost reduction when managed correctly.

Per-user pricing: Costs scale with the number of users accessing the software. This straightforward approach simplifies SaaS spend tracking but beware – as your team grows, so will your expenses unless you regularly review and adjust user licenses.

Tiered pricing: Providers offer various packages with different feature sets and limitations. Your task is to assess value against cost, ensuring you're not overpaying for features under this SaaS management platform structure.

Freemium models: These grant basic functionality for free while premium features come at a cost. They can be a gateway to uncontrolled Shadow IT if employees adopt tools without proper SaaS procurement oversight.

Flat-rate pricing: One price grants full access to all features. While it makes SaaS expense management easier due to consistent billing, ensure that the tool justifies the expense across all its capabilities.

9. What trends have impacted SaaS costs and pricing?

ARR per FTE: What You Need To Know

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 22:25:39 GMT

Understanding ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) per FTE (Full-Time Equivalent)

In the landscape of business metrics and key performance indicators, ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) stands out as a crucial measure for understanding a company's financial health and growth potential in the subscription-based business model. Combining this with the concept of FTE (Full-Time Equivalent), a measure of employee workload or the number of full-time employees needed, can provide insightful perspectives on efficiency, scalability, and revenue generation.

Openview Partners surveyed 3,000 Software As A Service (SaaS) companies and published the benchmarks in the above graph. Click here for the full report .

What is ARR?

ARR, or Annual Recurring Revenue, is a vital metric primarily used by subscription-based businesses to calculate the total yearly revenue that a company expects from its subscriptions. It accounts for the recurring portion of the revenue stream derived from subscription services or products over a defined period, usually a year.

The calculation of ARR involves multiplying the recurring revenue generated from subscriptions (monthly, quarterly, or annually) by the number of subscription periods within a year. For instance, if a company has 1,000 customers paying $100 per month for its subscription service, the ARR would be $1,200,000 ($100 x 12 months x 1,000 customers).

ARR is pivotal in assessing a company's financial stability, predicting future revenue streams, and demonstrating growth potential to investors and stakeholders.

Understanding FTE

FTE, or Full-Time Equivalent, is a unit of measurement to evaluate an employee's workload or the number of full-time employees required to complete a set amount of work. It's a standard method used to quantify a part-time employee's contribution concerning a full-time employee.

For example, if a company has 4 employees working 20 hours per week each, they would collectively represent 2 FTEs (4 employees x 20 hours ÷ 40 hours in a full-time workweek).

FTE helps businesses comprehend the workforce's overall capacity, efficiency, and resource allocation. It is commonly used for budgeting, staffing decisions, and assessing productivity.

ARR per FTE

Integrating ARR with FTE provides a unique perspective on a company's revenue generation efficiency concerning its workforce. It measures the revenue a company generates per full-time equivalent employee, showcasing the revenue-generating capability of each resource invested in the business.

The formula to calculate ARR per FTE is straightforward:

ARR per FTE=Annual Recurring Revenue/ Number of Full-Time Equivalent Employees

This metric helps understand how effectively a company utilizes its workforce to generate revenue. A higher ARR per FTE implies greater efficiency in revenue generation per employee, highlighting the company's ability to scale revenue without necessarily increasing headcount.

Significance and Applications

Efficiency Assessment: ARR per FTE aids in evaluating the efficiency of a company's workforce in revenue generation. It allows comparisons between different departments or time periods to identify areas for improvement.

Scalability and Growth: Monitoring changes in ARR per FTE over time can indicate the company's scalability. Consistent or increasing figures signify the ability to grow revenue without significantly expanding the workforce.

Resource Allocation: Companies can use this metric to optimize resource allocation by identifying departments or teams that might be more efficient in generating revenue per employee and directing resources accordingly.

Investor Confidence: Demonstrating a high ARR per FTE can instill confidence in investors, showcasing the company's ability to effectively utilize its human resources to drive revenue.

Take Action to Improve Your ARR per FTE

The best way to improve this metric is to track and set goals for the teams and employees that can influence the creation of new revenue. Sales quotas and commissions drive this behavior, but do your marketing and product teams have goals around how their activities drive more revenue for the company? You can also audit all the potential and existing growth drivers to identify opportunities for testing and scaling. Contact us if you would like some advice or help in this area

Dare to Compare: 2023 SaaS Marketing Benchmarks

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 02:42:09 GMT

How do your cost per lead and customer acquisition costs compare against others?

With the ongoing focus on driving profitable growth, one of the best ways to start is to optimize your customer acquisition funnel. A/B testing to find the winners and looking at historical results is critical, but it is also important to find relevant benchmarks to identify potential opportunities for improvement. Especially in this market, as data and privacy protection policies may have a dramatic impact on our ability to track email click-thru rates and other data. Here are some great benchmark resources:

1. Customer Acquisition Costs by Channel & Industry from First Page Sage (creator of the chart above).

2. Cost Per Lead by Channel and Marketing by Campaign Type from sopro

3. Google Ad Conversion Rates from WordStream

4. Email Marketing Benchmarks by Industry from Campaign Monitor

5. B2B Marketing Budget Allocation from LinkedIn

6. Sales and marketing budget allocation for Bootstrapped and equity-backed companies from SaaS Capital.

Here are some thoughts to consider as you look at your comps. You can't look at your Cost Per Lead, Qualified Opportunity in a vacuum. You also need to look at the revenue associated with the spend, analyzing payback times and the ratio of Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) to Customer Lifetime Value. Also, in the measurement of CAC, in most cases, especially in business-to-business, it takes multiple touch points with multiple contacts to bring a customer to the finish line, so you should also look at how changing your marketing attribution model changes your ROI.

You can find SaaS Sales Metrics in this post , and follow us on Linkedin to get notified when we publish even more metrics on customer success, product-led growth, and more!.

Dare To Compare: 2023 SaaS Sales Benchmarks

Fri, 01 Dec 2023 01:51:10 GMT

How Do Your SaaS Sales Metrics Compare To Others?

Time for some data-driven group therapy.

1. You are not alone! Win Rates Dropped 15%, Sales Cycles were 32% Longer, and 25% More Stakeholders Were Involved In The Process.

These win rates, sales cycles, sales methodologies, and more from +3m B2B SaaS Opportunities analyzed by Ebsta and Pavilion. According to Ebsta: "In our third B2B Sales Benchmark Report, we have analyzed 3.2 million opportunities, from 364 companies, representing over $37 billion. Through the report, we explore B2B sales trends in 2022 and the impact of four key factors we have proved have the greatest effect on sales velocity: relationships, engagement, deal qualification and age.Whilst we use sales velocity as the ultimate measure(accounting for speed, efficiency and value), we also highlight the impact of factors on win rates, sales cycles and deal values.To be more representative, we have analyzed the performance of small, medium, and enterprise sales processes".

2023 Sales Benchmarks Report

2. 20% of AE's hit 100% of Quota, aided by a 3:1 Ratio of AE to SDR's, and a 25% Win Rate.
BenchSights provides this data and breaks it down by ARR, ACV, and provides histogram nuance beyond the mean. BenchSights was started by SaaS pioneer David Spitz who in 2010 started the Pacific Crest SaaS Survey , which was the first benchmarking study of its kind, focused on SaaS company performance.

BenchSights Software Sales Benchmarks

3. What Trish says.
From the master of sales, crowd-favorite, and founder/CEO of The Bridge Group, Trish Bertuzzi, are two benchmark reports for SDR and AE's on how they spend their time, how they are paid, how long they stay, and who are they managed by.

The Bridge Group SDR Metrics and Comp Report

The Bridge Group SaaS AE Metrics and Compensation

�� I don't want to add another email to your inbox, so follow us on Linkedin to receive upcoming posts on the top benchmark resources for marketing, product-led growth, customer success, and account management.