{"id":7065,"date":"2020-06-10T16:29:33","date_gmt":"2020-06-10T20:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/?p=7065"},"modified":"2025-05-07T10:05:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T14:05:19","slug":"how-established-saas-companies-can-leverage-data-for-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/how-established-saas-companies-can-leverage-data-for-success\/","title":{"rendered":"How established SaaS companies can leverage data for success"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/category\/money-matters\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Money Matters<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHow established SaaS companies can leverage data for success\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"entry-header__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"posted-on \"><time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2020-06-10T16:29:33-04:00\">June 10, 2020<\/time><\/span><span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"How established SaaS companies can leverage data for success\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/how-established-saas-companies-can-leverage-data-for-success\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/header>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-author has-dark-background-color alignfull\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"co-authors\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-author-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"entry-author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/author\/owen\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/fr-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2019\/04\/Owen_sage-advice-002.jpg\" class=\"entry-author__image\" height=\"40\" width=\"40\" fetchpriority=\"high\" \/>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"entry-author__name\">Owen Sweeney<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Ahead of his appearance on the upcoming Sage webcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/cp\/growing-saas-company-shifting-landscape-webcast\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Growing a SaaS Company in a Shifting Landscape<\/a>, Bruce Croxon, partner at Round13 Capital and co-host of BNN&#8217;s, The Disruptors, talks to Sage Advice about how important it is to analyze as much customer data as possible before making strategic decisions that could affect customer retention levels.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1667\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/05\/Bruce-Croxon-3.jpg\" alt=\"Bruce Croxon former Dragon of Dragon's Den and host of the disruptors\" class=\"wp-image-6937\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/05\/Bruce-Croxon-3.jpg 2500w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/05\/Bruce-Croxon-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/05\/Bruce-Croxon-3-1215x810.jpg 1215w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/05\/Bruce-Croxon-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/05\/Bruce-Croxon-3-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/steps-to-success-when-scaling-your-saas-business\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Steps to success when scaling your SaaS business<\/a>, Bruce Croxon discussed in detail how young SaaS companies can successfully scale their operations. Although this advice is critical for businesses that have just achieved their funding goals and are about to enter a growth phase, there are still many lessons that established SaaS companies need to keep in mind in order to keep market share, improve their value proposition and retain their audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For established SaaS companies, one of the key challenges is to maintain and grow revenue. The common method that companies use to strategize how they intend to achieve this, is to apply the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ansoffmatrix.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ansoff Matrix<\/a>. Put very simply, this looks at four strategies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>Market penetration: sell more of your current solutions to your current customers<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Market development: sell current solutions to new customers<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Product development: sell new solutions to your current customers<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Diversification: sell new solutions to new customers<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>For established businesses that have just one product or service to offer, it\u2019s logical to prioritize a mix of market penetration and market development. This approach often gears a company towards a price increase especially if there is a shortage of &#8216;land to grab&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-to-increase-prices-or-not\">To increase prices or not?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Think for a moment of Netflix. It offers one product, it has expanded into numerous markets around the globe, but has never offered more than a video on demand subscription service. It goes into a new territory with a low introductory fee which will rise over the following years, thus increasing revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although a price increase is not always a sustainable growth strategy for every business, as Bruce Croxon explains, one of the benefits of the data analytics tools available to medium and large businesses is that they can now model the potential outcomes to issue like pricing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about data and understanding your customers and your market. So the beauty of having information at your fingertips is that you should be able to tell very quickly what the impact of something like a price increase is going to do to your retention levels,\u201d says Bruce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-are-you-utilizing-your-customer-data-properly\">Are you utilizing your customer data properly?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As Bruce explains there is vast amount of data available that can be distilled to understand specific user behavior patterns, such as churn rate in a particular region, among a set of users with a certain income. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s say for example, subscribers in Toronto, under the age of 40 earning $40,000 a year. Being able to examine subsets of user groups and other data sets, enables SaaS businesses to better predict how their customer base will be affected by strategic decisions. Using the price increase example, Bruce explained the questions a business must ask to successfully measure impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s go find out\u2026let\u2019s find a segment of our customer base and we can test that and we will get the data back and see whether in fact it was a mistake to increase the price and if so, how much of a mistake it was. How many customers did we use and who else in the market is there that we would be concerned about in terms of taking our market share?\u201d explains Bruce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"single-cta\">\n\t<div class=\"single-cta__positioner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__wrapper has-dark-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"single-cta__title h3\">Free Webcast: Growing a SaaS company in a shifting landscape <\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>An in-depth panel discussion from Sage that looks at the challenges and opportunities facing decision-makers of the SaaS industry.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/cp\/growing-saas-company-shifting-landscape-webcast\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"single-cta__button button button--primary\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tid=\"cta-id-6932\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-button-location=\"cta_box\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Register for the webcast now<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"765\" height=\"456\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/05\/Growing-a-saas-company-ia-shifting-landscape.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"man with glasses in a blue shirt presenting the webinar about scaling sass\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/05\/Growing-a-saas-company-ia-shifting-landscape.jpg 765w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-seeing-the-future-value-of-the-current-customer\">Seeing the future value of the current customer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As a partner in Round 13 Capital, Bruce seeds an expanding portfolio of growth stage Canadian companies. Bruce cautiously explains that the market conditions and business circumstances are different for each one of the businesses that Round 13 Capital invests in, but he always has an eye on companies that can recognize future customer value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bruce says, \u201cAs we\u2019re growing a market, I\u2019m not a huge fan of once you\u2019ve landed on a price and you are comfortable with the gross margin of the business and you are focused on the land grab, I don\u2019t like too many things getting in the way of that land. Especially if the customers have value beyond that one service you happen to be selling them at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are other ways to increase customer value without hitting them with a price increase. Every situation is different, and that\u2019s a bit of a blanket statement, but generally we are looking at company\u2019s that are early enough in the adoption phase that there are still a lot of customers to be had and that becomes the primary objective. \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Don\u2019t miss Bruce Croxon and Matt Hodgson, CFO at Kitchener-based online video platform company, Vidyard, as they address the challenges and opportunities of a shifting landscape in the SaaS industry.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \n<div class=\"single-cta\">\n\t<div class=\"single-cta__positioner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__wrapper has-dark-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"single-cta__title h3\">Free Webcast: Growing a SaaS company in a shifting landscape<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>An in-depth panel discussion from Sage that looks at the challenges and opportunities facing decision-makers of the SaaS industry.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/cp\/growing-saas-company-shifting-landscape-webcast\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"single-cta__button button button--primary\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tid=\"cta-id-6932\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-button-location=\"cta_box\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Register for the webcast now<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"765\" height=\"456\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/05\/Growing-a-saas-company-ia-shifting-landscape.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"man with glasses in a blue shirt presenting the webinar about scaling sass\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/05\/Growing-a-saas-company-ia-shifting-landscape.jpg 765w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ahead of his appearance on the upcoming Sage webcast: Growing a SaaS Company in a Shifting Landscape, Bruce Croxon, partner at Round13 Capital and co-host of BNN&#8217;s, The Disruptors, talks to Sage Advice about how important it is to analyze as much customer data as possible before making strategic decisions that could affect customer retention 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