# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending October 23, 2020

Published: 23 October 2020
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-october-23-2020

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

WORD OF MOUTH - guess we are calling this one WOM? it's something that is very hard to measure, [this article calls it a coefficient](https://www.reforge.com/blog/word-of-mouth-coefficient). Sure. Let's run with that! The WOM coefficient. Want something more WOM intellectual? Fine, [McKinsey also has this deep dive on WOM Science](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/a-new-way-to-measure-word-of-mouth-marketing).

Link: https://www.reforge.com/blog/word-of-mouth-coefficient

## 2. INCLUSIVITY

From my buddies and old crew at SecondMuse comes a new report:"[The State of Entrepreneurship in the U.S.](https://www.secondmuse.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/State-of-Entrepreneurship-in-the-U.S.-2020.pdf)" Only 17% of Entrepreneurs interviewed view the U.S. Economy as inclusive. 91%of women entrepreneurs don't view the economy as inclusive, and 69% view COVID as an opportunity to rethink the economy.

Link: https://www.secondmuse.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/State-of-Entrepreneurship-in-the-U.S.-2020.pdf

## 3. PITCH DECKS

It's really hard to craft the right narrative in pitch decks at the earliest stages, but [here’s a great Tweet thread on how to think best about telling you startups story](https://twitter.com/anothercohen/status/1304156446309851137). Then start with [part one](https://medium.com/the-dyess-gruop/building-a-winning-pitch-deck-256861a69446) of a two-part series from [The Dyess Group](https://thedyessgroup.com/) who a) do this for a job, and b) reviewed and analyzed 50 pitch decks to find out that y’all need to delete a boat-load of words from your pitch deck right away.

Link: https://twitter.com/anothercohen/status/1304156446309851137

## 4. SALES

Last week we did a bit of a 101 to Marketing. This week, let's try the same with Sales (of the SaaS kind). LighterCapital has a great [intro to everything SaaS sales](https://www.lightercapital.com/blog/intro-to-saas-sales-cycles-models-metrics) - cycles, commissions, metrics and models. ScaleVP has a [really good primer on SaaS sales efficiency](https://www.scalevp.com/blog/a-primer-on-saas-sales-efficiency) (with some metrics) and I need to acknowledge it’s just a weird time to sell anything by referencing [this article on leading sales through the COVID-19 Crisis](https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/stabilize-increase-sales-through-covid-crisis).

Link: https://www.lightercapital.com/blog/intro-to-saas-sales-cycles-models-metrics

## 5. DATA: T

he data hype is definitely back! I’ve certainly heard it hyped at a few events lately as kind of savior of industries and [the Snowflake IPO was just bonkers](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/snowflakes-growth-momentum-draws-cheers-but-valuation-concerns-remain-11602533879). Let's unpack the data hype and focus in on what it means. Starting [here with 5 trends in Data](https://medium.com/northzone/unpacking-the-data-hype-8c3a0ae63564) and what software buyers are looking for in tools. Tomasz Tunguz also [presented at the first conference on cloud data lakes earlier this year](https://tomtunguz.com/five-data-trends-one-mega-trend-data-lifecycle/) (link to the slides [here](https://www.slideshare.net/ttunguz/5-major-trends-in-data-you-should-know)). TL;DR - data systems are no longer just the domain of IT and are now owned by a variety of different departments and tools now exist to sanitize, query, instrument and interpret the data in ways that were un-imaginable just a handful of years ago.

Link: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/snowflakes-growth-momentum-draws-cheers-but-valuation-concerns-remain-11602533879

## 6. FREEMIUM

Don’t call it a comeback! But Freemium is gaining popularity again as an effective growth strategy for B2B SaaS companies. Canva and Slack have contributed to the re-emergence of this growth strategy. So, why is Freemium becoming popular again? [Read more on that here](https://blog.chartmogul.com/freemium-business-model), then check [these 3 Famous Freemium SaaS Strategies](https://openviewpartners.com/blog/freemium-model-examples) (And Why They’re So Good):

Link: https://blog.chartmogul.com/freemium-business-model

## 7. ONBOARDING

It’s something I’m deeply into right now. Doing this well is key to increasing value, lowering churn and creating advocates - so here is how some of the best do it: Leveraging email, this is how [ZenDesk document their comms flow](https://medium.com/saas-onboarding-emails/zendesk-onboarding-email-breakdown-bd728323fb87) and [ChartMogul have a guide to their non-email version too](https://blog.chartmogul.com/onboarding-plan-b2b-saas/). From HeavyBit [here is a 4 phase plan](https://www.heavybit.com/library/blog/4-phases-of-building-an-enterprise-onboarding-process/) and this article covers [5 Tips to Speed up Sales Onboarding without Sacrificing Quality](https://www.business2community.com/sales-management/5-tips-to-speed-up-sales-onboarding-without-sacrificing-quality-02197033).

Link: https://medium.com/saas-onboarding-emails/zendesk-onboarding-email-breakdown-bd728323fb87

## 8. ABANDON

This is the sibling to the post above as abandonment can be a signal of poor onboarding. Here are [3 reasons why users abandon the onboarding process](https://www.icarvision.com/en/3-reasons-why-we-abandon-the-onboarding-process-) (identify verification, slow onboarding experiences, and being asked for too much data) and AppSee have another 8 reasons in [this article](https://medium.com/@Appseecom/what-makes-users-abandon-your-app-f75176851c45) (adding Privacy and Ad clutter to the list).

Link: https://www.icarvision.com/en/3-reasons-why-we-abandon-the-onboarding-process-

## 9. CSM ATTRIBUTION

(Customer success managers): How do you account for or budget the cost of a CSM team? The team at Gainsight dive [deep into this question](https://www.gainsight.com/2016/01/29/how-do-you-account-for-the-costs-customer-success-team/) and come up with some fantastic insights - even though the question itself is complicated and the answers end up being more non-monetary than you would probably like. Owning the renewal, up-sell, cross-sell are key delineation point s between expense attribution to different departments who CSM teams may sit under.

Link: https://www.gainsight.com/2016/01/29/how-do-you-account-for-the-costs-customer-success-team/

## 10. SEO

SEO is dead! Just kidding - [thats #1 in this top 10 SEO myths article](https://ahrefs.com/blog/seo-myths/?ref=saas-weekly). Discoverability trumps content marketing and needs to be an endless-part of any modern business strategy. Moz has [a great little guide](https://moz.com/blog/announcing-keyword-research-master-guide) on keyword research complimented by their [other article on Search Intent](https://moz.com/blog/search-intent-and-seo-a-quick-guide?ref=saas-weekly) and [here is a pretty good (current) guide from Founder Institute](https://fi.co/insight/how-does-seo-work).

Link: https://ahrefs.com/blog/seo-myths/?ref=saas-weekly

## POD OF THE WEEK

For some the concept of ’salesperson’ is cringe - so [listen to this podcast from Predictable Revenue that explores the idea of social selling](https://predictablerevenue.com/podcast/170-social-selling-and-reversing-the-hatred-of-salespeople-with-ari-levine) and bringing back the human element of sales

Link: https://predictablerevenue.com/podcast/170-social-selling-and-reversing-the-hatred-of-salespeople-with-ari-levine