Welcome to leaps ahead from FROGED! As we head into the holiday season (Halloween is a serious holiday folks), let’s make the most of investigating new technologies, testing different concepts, and, of course, optimizing our existing products and processes. Once again, we’ve done the hard work for you and pulled together a list of trending topics you need to know about in order to help you scale this month. Are you ready?

Today we’ll discuss: 

  • News flash: The rising popularity of vertical SaaS
  • News flash: The rise of subscription models
  • Strategies to improve sales performance
  • Are you mobile ready?
  • The results are out… SaaS Awards announced
  • Buzzword(s) of the month
  • What you need to know to scale in October and Q4

First up, some quick news flashes for you.

News flash: The rising popularity of vertical SaaS

Have you ever heard about vertical SaaS? Vertical SaaS companies are software service companies specializing in niche industries such as architecture, banking, construction, healthcare, and much more. 

So what’s the difference between the horizontal SaaS subscription model and the vertical one? Well, horizontal SaaS provides generalized solutions to reach as wide a target as possible. A good example of this could be Slack. Vertical SaaS tries to develop software for a specific industry. In other words, they create a more accurate solution. A good example of this would be Toast. 

Toast is a platform that originally served as a POS system for restaurants but soon expanded to include online ordering, inventory management, payroll, capital management, customer review management, and marketing. The company generates a whopping $494 million in annual recurring revenue.

The importance of vertical SaaS is expected to increase in the following years. In the future, we’re probably going to see an increasing demand for SaaS applications that can solve specific problems in specific industries as business needs become more niche. So watch this space!

News flash: The rise of subscription models

Have you seen that investment banking firm UBS predicts that by 2025 the subscription industry will double in size to about $1.5 trillion? Clearly, subscription models are skyrocketing.

Nowadays, people have a subscription for anything; movies, music, cosmetics, clothes, meals, groceries, education… and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. In terms of business, subscription-based models can be adapted to work for any company model, and that means SaaS has a lot of room to grow. 

Subscription-based models offer two main advantages:

  • To the company offering a service, it provides stability and recurring revenue.
  • For the company using the services, it offers flexibility and builds trust. It’s also easy to use instead of traditional contracts and clauses, so it improves overall satisfaction.

New companies and startups are implementing subscription-based models in their businesses. Even traditional companies like Adobe and Microsoft are following suit after realizing that: 

  • We are in the age of subscriptions
  • Any business can implement a subscription-based model (even Gillette now offers a razor subscription!)
  • The best organizations innovate their businesses and offer value-based differentiation through subscription models. 

Does your company have a subscription model? Now may be the time to invest more time into exploring how a subscription model could give you the opportunity for real growth!

Strategies To Improve Sales Performance

Would this be an article on scaling up if we didn’t talk about the best sales strategies? Many companies think they should invest more money in order to improve the performance of their sales team, but there are many other ways to do so without increasing the budget. Let’s have a look at the best strategies to improve sales performance: 

  • Lower your overhead costs: Overhead costs are expenses related to accounting fees, advertising, insurance, interest, legal fees, labor burden, rent, repairs, supplies, taxes, telephone bills, travel expenditures, and utilities. Find out if your company can lower some of those costs and invest in strategies such as reducing customer churn, improving marketing mix and customer satisfaction, or offering proactive support. 
  • Boost productivity: Increase your sales team productivity by implementing strategies like taking breaks, setting small goals, implementing the “two-minute rule”, or eliminating distractions. 
  • Reduce the Time To Market: TTM is the period of time between when a product is conceptualized and when it is available on the market. It’s essential to reduce this time as companies also lose money if their time-to-market targets aren’t met.  Try reducing it by setting realistic goals for your sales team, managing and optimizing workflows, shortening approval processes, and integrating different tasks.
  • Improve the efficiency of sales: To create a more efficient sales team, you must create a repeatable process. Start by defining a go-to guide, collaborating with the team, classifying important tasks, and defining a consistent sales strategy. 
  • Enhance customer satisfaction/experience: Improving customer satisfaction is as important as gaining new users. Try enhancing it by offering proactive support and listening to their questions and concerns. 

Are you mobile ready?

On average, users spend 3 hours and 15 minutes a day on their phones, and they check it around 58 times each day. Plus, CNBC reports that 72.6% of people will use phones to access the internet by 2025. With these crazy statistics, you’d expect the SaaS industry to be mobile-friendly, right? 

With all this information, it’s clear that SaaS mobile app development has a lot of potential. That’s why SaaS companies should focus on being mobile-ready in the following areas: 

  • Accessibility improvements – experiences for android and apple users
  • Mobile personalization
  • AR/VR mobile experiences, especially in eCommerce
  • UX/UI-based intuitive filtering, responsiveness, and gesture design

Check our last article Why SaaS needs mobile apps if you’re interested in learning more about mobile apps in the software as a service industry. 

The results are out… SaaS Awards announced

The seventh edition of the “Oscars” of business software, the SaaS Awards, was announced this month. On the 13th of September, we were able to see some fantastic entries from all over the world. In case you don’t know what we’re talking about, the SaaS Awards honor international excellence and innovation for small, medium, and large businesses. The winners are selected internationally, including the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. 

SaaS Awards even added some new categories this year, to recognize the shift in organizational structure and a focus on the innovation of long-established processes. Categories for the 2022 SaaS Awards included ‘Best Innovation in Security in a SaaS Product,‘ ‘Best SaaS Product for Email Marketing,’ and ‘Best SaaS Product for Productivity.’ Additionally, FinTech and Human Resources have gained a huge amount of interest this year, and new companies are seeking to innovate in those industries daily.

What’s more, SaaS Award will launch The Cloud security Awards on the 30th of September to reward companies that operate in the software security industry. This will include categories such as ‘Best Antivirus,’ ‘Best Email Security,’ and ‘Best Cybersecurity Solution. As the online world continues to grow, security is becoming increasingly important. Think your SaaS has what it takes? You can apply for next years award here.

Additionally, FROGED this quarter has been recognized as a software front runner from Software Advice, one of the leading companies that help small to midsize businesses navigate their software buying journey. This report ranks the most usable and customer-satisfactory products for small businesses using verified end-user reviews. Our software has received an incredible overall rating of 4.7 (out of 5) in a wide range of software categories, including:

  • 2022 Frontrunner for Help Desk Software Category
  • 2022 Frontrunner for Live Chat Software Category
  • 2022 Frontrunner for Customer Engagement Software Category

Discover the full article FROGED Recognized As Software Front Runner on our blog.

Buzzword(s) of the Month

Have a look at our buzzwords of the month!

  • UX, User Experience: UX is defined as the experience when users use a product, application, system, or service. The change now is that it’s no longer just design terminology. It also refers to analyzing usage, behavioral events, and identification of users’ needs, testing, and optimizing. 
  • User Onboarding: The process of familiarizing newly subscribed users or customers to a product or service. The process includes training, setting up accounts, and assisting the customer with integrations. The importance of user onboarding is increasing every year as SaaS companies succeed when their subscribers fully understand the product.
  • Freemium: This strategy involves offering users a free-forever version of your product. Offering this as an option will entice users to opt for your software, and once they have experienced what it can do for free, they’re more likely to subscribe to the paid version of the service. This model has proven to be successful. For example, Mailchimp reported a 150% increase in paying customers and a 650% increase in profit after going freemium.

Must-read

As usual, we’ve curated a few interesting SaaS industry reads for you. From FROGED this month, we recommend The Ultimate SaaS Sales Guide: 37 Tips for Selling B2B SaaS to discover how to improve SaaS sales for startup founders. 

Must-hear 

For those who prefer to listen to podcasts or books instead of reading, we recommend you give The Diary Of A CEO podcast a listen. An experience about the stories of people who have defined culture, achieved greatness, and created business stories worth studying.

What you need to know to scale in October and Q4

With so many exciting insights, we can’t wait to start October strong with SaaS. Firstly, vertical SaaS and subscription models are becoming more prevalent every month. We can agree that companies are searching for more specific solutions for specific industries, and they’re doing well. Also, subscription models are the newest craze, and even traditional companies are making the switch. 

The SaaS Awards have shown us how organizational structures are changing to make room for innovation. And as we evolve to grow online, cybersecurity is becoming increasingly important, with  FinTech and HR SaaS models growing in popularity too. Check our FROGED cybersecurity industry solutions that focus on onboarding, retention, and proactive customer support.

We hope you enjoyed reading our article and that you will be ready for the Halloween season!

If you’re looking for a platform to improve your customer experience and satisfaction, book a demo with FROGED today. Also, check our retention feature if you want to ensure your customers stay engaged and upgrade their subscription to your product. Catch you next time!