{"id":7888,"date":"2020-07-31T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/?p=7888"},"modified":"2026-01-29T10:12:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T10:12:26","slug":"land-and-expand-strategy-saas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/land-and-expand-strategy-saas\/","title":{"rendered":"Why a land and expand strategy works for SaaS companies"},"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-gb\/blog\/category\/strategy-legal-operations\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Strategy, Legal &amp; Operations<\/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\tWhy a land and expand strategy works for SaaS companies\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<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=\"2020-07-31T12:00:14+01:00\">31 July, 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=\"Why a land and expand strategy works for SaaS companies\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/land-and-expand-strategy-saas\/\"\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<\/header>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"co-authors\">\n\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-gb\/blog\/author\/asavinwattanajantra\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/03\/Asavin-350x350.jpg\" class=\"entry-author__image\" alt=\"Asavin\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/03\/Asavin-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/03\/Asavin-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/03\/Asavin-810x810.jpg 810w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/03\/Asavin.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 40px) 100vw, 40px\" \/>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"entry-author__name\">Asavin Wattanajantra<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re involved in an early stage software as a service (SaaS) business, having a great product that addresses a need is essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it&#8217;s not enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You need to build relationships with customers who are willing to pay you money for your product. You need to use land and expand strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-s-a-land-and-expand-strategy\">What&#8217;s a land and expand strategy?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>But your product is unknown, and it&#8217;s highly unlikely that the significant majority of prospective customers will be willing to &#8216;take a chance on you&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, you need to start small.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You need to show what your product can do, winning a company&#8217;s business through excellent service and meeting its needs better than any other competing software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From there, you can earn more business across the organisation and get bigger deals \u2013 you have landed, and are in the process of expanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that&#8217;s what a land and expand strategy is, and how it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"#gate-3ebe82ce-3121-4d76-b36d-5058cead900e\">Download your free Managing SaaS metrics guide<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-a-land-and-expand-strategy-doesn-t-look-like\">What a land and expand strategy doesn&#8217;t look like<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A land and expand strategy isn&#8217;t about natural organic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s about building a long-term sales strategy and a sales team that works hard to create long-term relationships with the high-powered decision makers that will bring in the cash over the long run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s not just about users using your product, but the organisation adopting it at the account level and you getting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/the-cfo-3-0-challenge\/\">C-level<\/a> buy-in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-implementing-a-saas-land-and-expand-strategy\">Implementing a SaaS land and expand strategy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s what you need to consider when it comes to building long-term customer value and implementing the strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>SaaS isn&#8217;t about selling large upfront deals. Customers will expect to try before they buy. You might let customers use the product for a free trial period or a limited set of functions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If the user decides to pay a subscription fee for the product, you&#8217;ve landed them. But that&#8217;s just the beginning. Closely watch if you see users from the same company use your product. After you get a certain amount of users, you may want to expand the relationship.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>On a subscription model, you have to re-earn business. You need to think about retention, together with building a decent sales model. If you can&#8217;t create value, your customer will leave for a company that offers a better service.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Once you&#8217;ve built trust with business customers, expand your influence and sell in your product for any other issues they need to solve, across different departments and new projects. You&#8217;ll need to look out for every sales opportunity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Make high-level connections inside each customer \u2013 adapted sales tactics could potentially work well here \u2013 such as outreach, learning sessions, lunches and presentations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If you&#8217;ve maintained the relationship, your customer will look to you for any new opportunity that comes \u2013 they may decide to grow themselves, or they may be part of a conglomerate with the potential for bigger deals.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Like a traditional sales funnel, make sure you have stages, activities and objectives.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"#gate-3ebe82ce-3121-4d76-b36d-5058cead900e\">Download your free Managing SaaS metrics guide<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-saas-metrics-to-track-for-a-land-and-expand-strategy\">SaaS metrics to track for a land and expand strategy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As a SaaS business, you&#8217;ll need <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/performance-metrics-business-decisions\/\">metrics<\/a> that prove you&#8217;re adding and keeping subscribers. Using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/sage-business-cloud\/intacct\/\">financial management software<\/a> can help you to track and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/sage-business-cloud\/intacct\/industries\/subscription-management-software\/\">calculate your SaaS metrics<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-these-include-revenue-metrics-such-as\">These include revenue <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/think-beyond-traditional-business-metrics\/\">metrics<\/a>, such as:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Contracted Monthly Recurring Revenues (CMRR).&nbsp;<\/strong>CMRR is considered the most important for a SaaS business tracking the success of a land and expand strategy, as it shows the predictable, recurring revenue component of a SaaS business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Revenue growth rates.<\/strong> Revenue growth rates can show the growth coming from recurring revenue momentum as part of your land and expand strategy business investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Revenue per subscriber.<\/strong> This measure shows you the revenue at a per user rate, which can highlight which customers to target for increased land and expand investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-you-can-also-track-customer-metrics-such-as\">You can also track customer metrics, such as:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Cost of customer acquisition (COCA).&nbsp;<\/strong>COCA is a metric that includes all the sales and marketing expense aimed at bringing in new customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Customer lifetime value (CLV).&nbsp;<\/strong>CLV is the amount of profit a customer is calculated to deliver a SaaS business over the lifetime of the customer relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CLV is an important metric as kit helps you understand what you can spend on a land and expand strategy to acquire and retain customers, as well as understand which businesses are more worthwhile to target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Churn or renewal rates.&nbsp;<\/strong>Land and expand strategy strongly depends on you keeping your customer relationships going, so you&#8217;ll want to keep your churn rates low and your renewal rates high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Typically, SaaS businesses are looking for renewal rates in the 90+% range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-and-expense-and-profitability-metrics-such-as\">And expense and profitability metrics such as:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Total cost of revenue.&nbsp;<\/strong>This includes the expenses related to the SaaS product and SaaS delivering services. Because it contains sales and marketing expenditures, you can gauge the success of investment in a land and expand strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-conclusion-on-saas-land-and-expand-strategy\">Conclusion on SaaS land and expand strategy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Early stage SaaS businesses will typically spend more on sales and marketing than traditional companies because you&#8217;re trying to acquire and retain customers, as well as win more through tactics such as land and expand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s great to put together a sales team and win deals, but unless you keep your customers onboard, you won&#8217;t be able to build the long-term relationships that will help you win even more significant customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you can create customers who champion you and like the product and service you&#8217;re giving, that&#8217;s the dream scenario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To properly understand whether your land and expand strategy is working, you&#8217;ll need accurate and real-time visibility through an automated financial system, as this is the most efficient and effective way to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/saas-metrics-investors-want\/\">track the metrics<\/a> and key performance indicators you&#8217;ll need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ability to compile the data across your SaaS business and benchmark it in an automated fashion allows you to scale operations quickly and efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the data in hand, companies have greater predictability and a better ability to forecast revenues, expenses and cash flow than ever before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, benchmarking these metrics can provide early warning signals internally about performance problems with your land and expand strategy, which may be corrected, once identified, to get back on track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is especially true in the SaaS world where executives rely on careful monitoring and benchmarking of the KPIs specific to SaaS, including the many non-financial operating metrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These non-financial but critical operating parameters would be especially difficult to track accurately manually or with simple spreadsheet tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"single-cta gated-content\">\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\">Managing SaaS metrics through the company growth lifecycle<\/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>Learn about the key metrics that are required to fully understand the health of your SaaS company and determine the best ways to optimise the business.<\/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=\"#gate-3ebe82ce-3121-4d76-b36d-5058cead900e\"\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\t\t\t\t\t>Download your free guide<\/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=\"968\" height=\"725\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/07\/Managing-SaaS-metrics-CTA.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/07\/Managing-SaaS-metrics-CTA.jpg 968w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\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\">Subscribe to the Sage Advice newsletter<\/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>Join more than 500,000 UK readers and get the best business admin strategies and tactics, as well as actionable advice to help your company thrive, in your inbox every month.<\/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=\"#gate-b1a63862-3fa0-4a5e-bb67-c76b88bbc6b8\"\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\t\t\t\t\t>Subscribe 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=\"1440\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1-1440x810.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1-1440x810.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Involved in an early stage software as a service (SaaS) business? Discover what you need to create an effective land and expand strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":356,"featured_media":7883,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15,159],"business_type":[3],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[68,71],"imagine_tag":[96],"coauthors":[351],"class_list":["post-7888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-strategy-legal-operations","tag-grow-business","tag-midsized-business","business_type-medium-sized-business"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-gb","author_name":"Asavin Wattanajantra","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/07\/roba-Baumann_2018_X3_34032.jpg","imagine_tags":{"96":"Medium businesses"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice UK","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/356"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/7883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=7888"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}