Top 20 ideas to make your SAAS business more profitable

Running a business can be a challenge, and making it profitable can be even more difficult. There are many factors to consider, and it can be overwhelming to know where to start. To help you make your business more profitable, we’ve put together a checklist of actionable ideas you can implement in 2023. Follow these steps, and you’ll be well on your way to creating a successful, profitable business.

  1. Evaluate your pricing strategy:  Take a close look at your pricing strategy. Are you charging enough to cover your costs and make a profit? Consider raising your prices or reducing your costs to increase your profit margins.
  2. Review your expenses: Review your expenses and identify areas where you can reduce costs. Can you negotiate better prices with your suppliers? Are there any unnecessary expenses you can cut?
  3. Diversify your revenue streams:Consider adding new products or services to your business to create new revenue streams. Diversifying your revenue can help you weather any downturns in your primary revenue stream.
  4. Increase your customer base: Look for ways to attract new customers. You can consider expanding your marketing efforts or targeting a new demographic.
  5. Retain existing customers: Retaining existing customers is much cheaper than acquiring new ones. Focus on building relationships with your customers to increase repeat business and reduce customer churn.
  6. Optimize your website: Make sure your website is user-friendly and optimized for search engines. A well-designed website can attract more traffic and increase conversions.
  7. Leverage social media: Social media can be a powerful tool for connecting with customers, building your brand, and driving traffic to your website.
  8. Use automation to increase efficiency: Look for ways to automate repetitive tasks to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
  9. Outsource non-core functions: Consider outsourcing non-core functions such as bookkeeping or customer service to reduce costs and improve focus on core business activities.
  10. Develop strategic cosell partnerships driven GTM: Partnering with other businesses can increase exposure and reach new customers. Look for complementary businesses that you can collaborate with.
  11. Use data to make informed decisions: Gather and analyze data to make informed decisions about pricing, marketing, and other key business activities.
  12. Focus on customer experience: Invest in providing exceptional customer service to differentiate your business and increase customer loyalty.
  13. Offer discounts and promotions: Use discounts and promotions strategically to attract new customers and increase sales.
  14. Explore alternative revenue models: Consider subscription models or other alternative revenue models that can provide predictable revenue streams.
  15. Develop a strong brand identity: Build a strong brand identity to differentiate your business and build customer loyalty.
  16. Increase productivity: Look for ways to improve productivity through process improvement, employee training, or other initiatives.
  17. Focus on employee engagement: Engaged employees are more productive and less likely to leave, which can save costs associated with recruitment and training.
  18. Develop a sales pipeline: Create a sales pipeline to ensure a steady stream of new leads and opportunities.
  19. Look for opportunities to scale: Look for ways to scale your business, such as expanding to new geographic regions or launching new products or services.

Download the Checklist of Top 20 Ideas to make your business more profitable, you’ll be well on your way to making your business more profitable.
Remember, profitability takes time and effort, but with the right strategies in place, your business can thrive and succeed.

6 Steps to Craft a Successful Cosell Go-To-Marketing (GTM) Strategy with Cloud Hyperscalers

Nowadays, co-selling is becoming a common vocabulary for many cloud-based solution providers when having conversations with Cloud Hyperscalers. The data speaks for itself.  Forrester predicts that 17% of the B2B spending of $3.5 trillion will go through a cloud marketplace by the end of this year and 80% of B2B Sales transactions are going through digital channels by 2025.  On top of that, 43% of enterprise buyers say their top reason for purchasing through marketplaces is to take full advantage of co-selling with cloud hyperscalers.

Cosell marketing has become one of the top marketing channels for company’s with solutions with subscription models. The reason is that it’s a very scalable go-to-market (GTM) option for building sustainable demand generation and lead acquisition through joint channels. However, a lot of hard work is involved backstage.

The main reason is that you don’t build a partnership overnight. Although each partnership will demand a different amount of time, energy, and effort, it will definitely consume a big chunk of time for the cloud solution provider and the cloud hyperscaler such as Microsoft, Google and others to work with.

That’s why we think it’s important for you to know this 6-step process that will help you ease your way into the world of Co-Sell Marketing with Cloud Hyperscalers before you even start.

Assess your Cosell marketing readiness

Every vendor and each hyperscaler is different. And the term “Cosell Ready” can vary a lot between them.

Let’s take Microsoft for example. To Microsoft, being “Cosell Ready” means having your solution transactable in their Marketplace, Cosell GTM assets are ready, drive cloud consumption and a bunch of requirements they have. On the other hand, being Cosell ready for AWS means understanding which vertical, solution play, customer lists and more will yield the most impact.

It’s crucial that you take your time to read and fully understand all of the requirements of each of these hyperscalers when it comes to Coselling GTM development. By doing that, it will save you a lot of time and energy when going through this process.

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Take your Free Cosell Marketing Assessment

Identify Cosell Ready Solution To Market

You need to figure out a couple of things before you even start thinking about Coselling. One of them is knowing if your solution is SAAS and can be transactable via their marketplace, and the second is being sure that you and your business need this kind of partnership.

The Cosell ready solution must meet the following requirements:

  1. Differentiation: Are you focused on solving a challenge in an specific industry?
  2. SAAS ready : Is it built on their cloud services stack and performs as a SAAS solution?
  3. Transactable: Is the solution listed as a transactable solution in their marketplace?
  4. Repeatable: Is the solution implementation and sales is repeatable?
  5. Cosell GTM: Do you have the critical Cosell GTM assets and execution plan available to drive demand generation and sales plays?

Develop Cosell GTM (go-to-market) plan

What is it about? Developing your Cosell go-to-market plan involves working with your Cloud Hyperscaler to determine each company’s area of strength and the goals for each channel you use to promote the solution. Basically, in unity there’s strength!

It is essential for this partnership to work that your partner understands that a Cosell relationship should work in harmony and in conjunction with efforts you’re already executing. Your partner should fill in the gaps where it’s needed and help you facilitate connections and marketing tactics that your company may need or might not excel in.

If it sounds like we’re talking about real human relationships, it’s because we are. By following these rules, you’ll be able to outline a strong Cosell GTM plan that focuses on each company’s strengths and achieve the best results.

Publish your Cosell solution and offers

There are several marketplaces that every SMB and enterprise-ready solution should be on. You might also consider listing your product on other marketplaces depending on your solution and objectives. Here are two approaches:

  1. Discovery : And if you’re looking for a marketplace where your solution can be discovered in the channels and be connected to all the major cloud solution marketplaces, then you should participate. For example WIC Solutions Marketplace is available for showcasing all the solutions that impacts UN goals 2030 and founders are women.
  2. Transactable : Cloud marketplaces hosted by Google’s, Microsoft Azure, AWS, Salesforce and IBM should be considered based on your partnership relationship. Start with one before expanding to all. For example: Meylah’s Speaker Engage platform is available as a transactable solution on Microsoft marketplace.

Execute your Cosell marketing

Executing your Cosell marketing plan takes consistent time and effort from both the parties. It is primarily the job of the Cloud Solution provider supported by Hyperscalers. The two of you must have common goals and strategies that work in harmony and work as separate marketing engines.

You’ll want to have a clear plan on what markets or audience segmentations you will primarily be marketing to prevent double efforts and costs across the board. Plus build your critical cosell GTM assets to kickstart your conversations. To get your started, download the critical GTM assets checklist if you don’t already have access to it.

If your Cloud Hyperscaler has a specialty, lean in on tasks outside their wheelhouse and provide support where needed. At this stage of the process, you should clearly outline who will be doing what as it pertains to marketing.

Track your credibility markers, leads & contracts

Tracking your progress should be easy if you’ve followed the previous steps. In any successful partnership, each will have a list of responsibilities and benchmarks to hit to determine some level of success.

It doesn’t matter if you’re using a robust CRM like Salesforce to track and measure the different leads and contacts gained, or deals closed/won, or you simply have an excel file that tracks ongoing progress as outlined by your go-to-market strategy.

What is important is to have some sort of tracking tool to understand where everyone has succeeded and where improvement can be made.

Bottom line

A lot goes into a Cosell relationship from building to marketing to selling together. And while there will be many more activities to complete in your Cosell journey, these six strategic steps will get you where you need to be as a beginner.

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If you want to know more, Join the #CosellVelocity Digital Marketing Summit on January 18th from 1-5PM PST and learn how to build and navigate the cosell marketing with cloud hyperscalers journey, but walk away with tactics that you can start implementing right away. Register for free at cosellvelocity.com.

7 Reasons Why Cosell Marketing With Cloud Hyperscalers Will Fail in 2023

Back in 2017, Synergy Research Group released a report stating that, when it comes to cloud hyperscalers, only 24 companies fit the bill. Altogether, they operated around 320 data centers. As you can imagine, a lot has changed since then. In fact, Synergy’s 2021 report reflects years of rapid-fire development and explosive growth in digital transformation — bringing the number of hyperscaler data centers up to 700.

And it isn’t just the number of data centers that’s going; their capacity is too. It’s no wonder, then, why cosell marketing with cloud hyperscalers has become such a hot topic among enterprises. These partnerships are incredible opportunities to leverage the brand power and technical power of the most established cloud innovators in operation. But there’s nothing simple about landing, planning, and executing these partnerships. Here are common pitfalls that you should anticipate.

1. No Cosell GTM Plan is in Place

Business leaders are great with the big picture, but even the most promising co-marketing partnership can hit hurdles if the proper planning hasn’t been done first. To avoid inefficiencies and potentially devastating setbacks, you must work with your team to develop a nuanced cosell go-to-market (GTM) strategy. This roadmap will help you avoid wasted time and money and increase your success rate.

2. No Funding is Approved

Partnering with cloud hyperscalers is an incredible opportunity for any business, but it’s important that enterprises don’t make any big moves until they know their plan and funding have been approved. At this stage, focus on honing your value proposition, solution narrative and acquiring the necessary resources. With sound planning, solid data, exciting strategies, and a clear case for mutual profit, funding will be inevitable.

3. Stakeholders are Misaligned

From integrating cosell strategies to winning cosell marketing partnerships, there’s simply no alternative to full adoption. We’ve worked with a lot of enterprises before and have seen firsthand how uneven buy-in from your internal and external stakeholders can sabotage your plans before they even get off the ground. From your boardroom to your marketing departments, make sure the value proposition is clear and everyone is on board. Small misalignments compound overtime. Open up the floor and work them out.

4. Unfocused GTM Activities

A remarkable amount of time, energy, and resources are squandered doing tasks that have no little to no benefit. When it comes to cosell marketing with top-tier hyperscalers, there’s no room for error. We advise leaders to scour their go-to-market activities and operations for inefficiencies and dead ends. Evaluate what’s left by the extent to which they excel in key metrics like meeting customer demand, generating revenue, or producing leads.

5. No Scorecard in Place to Measure Impact

On that note, open up your evaluation to include all of your operations. Data is king, and there’s no way to know what works and what doesn’t if you aren’t measuring it. Even so, ensuring that your cosell marketing scorecard displays valuable metrics — ones that really measure what they say they measure — is key. Building your scorecard will be a moving target, so let the metrics change as their efficacy drifts.

6. Cobranding is Not in Place and Approved

One massive opportunity that cosell marketing affords enterprises is the ability to share in the partner’s brand power — and offer them yours. If your cosell marketing partnership hasn’t yet stipulated a co-branding plan, make this a top priority. Agree on the values, look, language, and angles of the co-brand. Through this alignment, you can find and leverage mutual interests and become an invaluable partner.

7. Cosell GTM Content Fundamentals are Not in Place

Undergirding all go-to-market strategies are market intelligence, product messaging, and market segmentation. When we boil all of these strategies down to the bone, these are the three fundamentals that remain. So, spend some time knowing what market data you need and what it means for your partnership, how your product should be presented with data backing each messaging decision, and how you can subdivide and better serve your potential customers.

Bottom line

A lot goes into a Cosell relationship from building to marketing to selling together. And while there will be many more activities to complete in your Cosell journey, these 7 common pitfalls must be addressed in your strategic planning process.

If you want to know more, join the #CosellVelocity Digital Marketing Summit on January 18th from 1-5PM PST and learn how to build and navigate the cosell marketing with cloud hyperscalers journey, but walk away with tactics that you can start implementing right away. Register for free at cosellvelocity.com.

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Need Expert Guidance for Your Cosell Partnership

Ready to jumpstart your Cosell business partnerships with Cloud Hyperscalers? Our team is here to help. Schedule a one-on-one consultation to learn how you can establish a Cosell GTM game plan with Cloud Hyperscalers. We’ll help you create a one-page plan and walk you through the setup and promotion process for your GTM activities such as events to accelerate demand generation for your business.