Driving SaaS Growth Through The Customer Lifecycle
June 12, 2013
Grazed from Sys Con Media. Author: Joel York.
SaaS growth isn’t a goal; it’s an obsession. The good news is that SaaS growth can be very smooth and predictable, because of the SaaS recurring revenue subscription model. The bad news is that SaaS growth can also be predictably slow the bigger you get. After a few years of rapid SaaS startup growth, it’s easy to find yourself on the short end of the hockey stick if you don’t know the right levers to push.
The Three Levers to Break Through the SaaS Growth Ceiling
At any given time, you can calculate the SaaS growth ceiling for your SaaS business with a simple formula: customer acquisition rate divided by percentage churn rate. For example, if you acquire 200 new customers each year and your percentage annual churn rate is 20%, then at 1,000 customers ( 200 / 20% ) your growth will slow to zero, because customer churn will equal new customer acquisition of 200 customers per year. New customers come in the front door, while old customers leave out the back…
Moreover, you will begin to hit the SaaS growth ceiling in exactly one average customer lifetime of 5 years, equal to 1 divided by your 20% churn rate. Finally, your SaaS growth revenue ceiling will equal 1,000 customers times your average customer subscription, e.g., $10M per year for an average subscription of $10,000 in annual recurring revenue. Without a fundamental change to your business, that’s all the SaaS growth you get…
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