1. Monetization: The Forgotten Growth Lever
October 8, 2015
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2. You’re focused too much on acquisition as
a driver of growth.
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3. 1. You’re exceptionally inefficient with your
growth
2. You’re leaving customers and revenue on
the table
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4. Bold claim.
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5. We’ve seen inside more SaaS companies than
anyone else on the planet.
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6. All the financial data for 1012 SaaS companies.
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7. Qualitatively, two main camps of SaaS
emerged.
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8. LTV Beasts.
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9. 1. Small to no sales team
2. Typically low amounts of funding relative
to their size
3. Focus on unit economics and buyer
personas above all else
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10. CAC Fiends.
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11. 1. Large sales teams
2. Raised more money than God
3. Unit economics not top of mind and
vague buyer personas
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12. Is this real? Is this driven by our growth
culture?
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13. Looked at 10,432 blog posts.
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14. We love our acquisition
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0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
Acquisition Monetization Retention
%oftotalarticles
Category of growth articles written in 2014 and 2015
N = 10,432 blog posts written in 2014 and 2015

15. Acquisition isn’t the most effective channel
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16. If we improve each lever by the same
amount, which lever causes the most growth?
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17. Impact of improving each
growth lever
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3.32%
0%
5%
10%
15%
Acquisition Monetization Retention
%impactonthebottomline
Impact of improvingeach lever by 1%
N = Data from 512 SaaS companies

18. Impact of improving each
growth lever
@PriceIntel
3.32%
6.71%
0%
5%
10%
15%
Acquisition Monetization Retention
%impactonthebottomline
Impact of improvingeach lever by 1%
N = Data from 512 SaaS companies

19. Impact of improving each
growth lever
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3.32%
12.70%
6.71%
0%
5%
10%
15%
Acquisition Monetization Retention
%impactonthebottomline
Impact of improvingeach lever by 1%
N = Data from 512 SaaS companies

20. Improving retention and monetization has 2-
4x the impact of focusing on acquisition.
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21. 1.68
3.23
11.09
0
5
10
15
No pricingfunction Yearly pricingreview Continual price
optimization
LTV/CAC vs. Pricing Commitment
Impact on efficiency
2015 survey of 96 SaaS companies with ARR greater than $5M

22. We’re like a dog chasing a car. We want
customers, but don’t know what to do when
we get them.
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23. We focus on growth as a sledgehammer.
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24. How do we improve monetization?
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25. 3 ways to better monetization
• Quantify you buyer personas
• Implement a pricing process
• Utilize a multi-price mindset

26. Quantify your buyer personas
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27. Persona-Pricing Fit
Table Stakes Tony
• Valued features:
• SFDC Integration
• Chrome extension
• Least valued features
• Analytics
• API access
• WTP = ~$10/month
• CAC = ~$22
• LTV: $160
Advanced Arnie
• Valued features:
• Analytics
• API Access
• Least valued features
• Chrome extension
• Premium support
• WTP = ~$25/month
• CAC = ~$56
• LTV: $325
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28. Basic Plus Premium
$49 $149 $299
I
only
have
one
cool
feature.
The
same cool
feature. Yup,
same
one.
Oh!
You
can
only
get
this here.
Well…and
here.
Huzzah!
I’m
the
plan
with
absolutely
everything.
@PriceIntel

29. If you don’t know who you’re driving to this
page, how do you know what to put on this
page?
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30. Implement a pricing process
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31. What’s the average amount of time spent on
pricing amongst SaaS companies?
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32. ~8 Hours. Total.
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33. Companies lack
Companies spend
an average of 8
hours total on
pricing, but spend
hundreds of
hours on
acquisition.*
Commitment Expertise Process
No one is hired or
trained to
manage the
pricing process,
getting handed
off to “whomever
wants to take the
project.”
Pricing is treated
as “argue, guess,
and check”, rather
than a validation
process
engrained in
customer
development.
*2015 survey of 312 SaaS companies
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34. Pricing Isn’t Hard.
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35. It’s a process.
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36. Need to evaluate every 3 months and make
changes every 6 months.
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37. Changing Your Pricing
Customer/Market
Research
Communication
Plan
Week:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Impact
Analysis
Customer
Advisory
Panel
Implement
Changes
Step:

38. Your Pricing Committee
Main Decision Maker
(could be a member of the committee, as well)
Main Coordinator Typically in Product or Marketing
Product Leadership Corp Dev/Finance
Sales Leadership Marketing Leadership

39. Utilize a multi-price mindset
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40. @PriceIntel

41. @PriceIntel

42. Basic Plus Premium
$49 $149 $299
I
only
have
one
cool
feature.
The
same cool
feature.
Yup,
same
one.
Oh!
You
can
only
get
this here.
Well…and
here.
Huzzah!
I’m
the
plan
with
absolutely
everything.
Differentiate Features
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43. Pricing 101
Wistia
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44. A value metric is what you charge for, and
should:
1. Align to your customer’s needs.
2. Grow with your customer.
3. Be easy to understand.
Pricing 101 @PriceIntel

45. Acquisition is important, but you need to
monetize effectively.
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46. http://priceintelligently.com/TractionConf
Patrick Campbell
Patrick@priceintelligently.com
Slides
@PriceIntel
@Patticus @PriceIntel