Webs and SaaS Bosses community join forces

Webs and SaaS Bosses have joined forces. Together, the two companies will help SaaS companies meet the unique marketing and sales challenges of the field.

The still rapidly rising popularity of SaaS (or Software-as-a-Service) is well explained. Customers have easy access to the software anytime and anywhere via the cloud, which also stays up-to-date automatically, providing better security as well. Furthermore, delivery via the cloud reduces costs and can be easily scaled up or down.

For SaaS vendors, meanwhile, the subscription approach provides a predictable and constant monthly stream of revenue. At the same time, such a business model also comes with its challenges. This is where SaaS Bosses comes in: exactly as the name suggests, the platform brings SaaS bosses together.

"We inform and inspire SaaS companies - especially founders and C-level directors - about all parts of running a business, so they can make better decisions," says SaaS Bosses founder Johan de Wit. "Running a SaaS business is fundamentally different from running a 'conventional' business. The marketing is different, sales is different, the metrics you control are different and the service is different."

Whereas the differences with other segments are significant, the fast-growing group of SaaS companies can actually learn a lot from each other. "There are more and more SaaS companies that are facing the same - relatively new - challenges," explains De Wit.

Internationally, there have been quite a few initiatives to stimulate knowledge sharing for quite some time, but De Wit hardly saw anything similar in the Netherlands two years ago. "There was an opportunity there, and so we decided at the time to fill that gap, with a mission: to connect founders/C-level executives of SaaS companies in the Netherlands and Belgium and become the center for knowledge, networking and inspiration."

Since then, SaaS Bosses has come a long way with this: it started with a podcast, a year ago an online community was added, early this year online events and this fall physical events will take place again.

A community

With the development of the multimedia platform, SaaS Bosses is also broadening its target audience. "Until now we have mainly focused on founders, in the coming period we will also become more and more relevant to other roles within SaaS companies. Think of marketing managers, product owners, sales managers, the head of growth, and so on."

The now-announced partnership with Webs (a HubSpot Consultancy Partner) fits this perfectly. De Wit: "Webs has a lot of SaaS-specific knowledge in the field of marketing and sales. They serve the top of the Dutch SaaS market and understand very well the challenges around processes and people."

"With solutions around HubSpot, they also have the resources to further help SaaS companies create insight and put data at the center of the organization," De Wit continued. "I often see HubSpot as the solution with the best fit for SaaS companies when it comes to marketing/sales/service, because of the relevant features and scalability of the product."

Webs' specialists will share their knowledge of sales, marketing and the HubSpot platform in the community, podcast and (online and offline) events. "SaaS companies affiliated with the SaaS Bosses Community will in this way have access to knowledge and content they normally would not be able to access so easily," De Wit said.

Listen to the first podcast episode: The commercial challenges of growing SaaS companies with Thijs van Rosmalen and Camiel Freriks here

Three challenges for SaaS companies

In sharing knowledge, Webs will focus in particular on three pillars - or in other words, solutions to three challenges that many SaaS companies face. Webs founder and CCO Camiel Freriks explains.

First, data quality in HubSpot. "Marketing, sales and customer teams looking to achieve ambitious revenue goals need data to make the right decisions that will help the company achieve its ambitions," Freriks explains. "Unfortunately, most teams do not have the right data, or find it difficult to get the right data to the surface."

As a result, they often don't know what knobs to turn or what problem to solve. "How do you assess what to do and which activities to allocate more or less budget to? As a SaaS company, you don't have a lot of time to figure this out. You invest heavily in your go-to-market, and making costly mistakes can cost you meters you desperately need to take off."

The second challenge involves managing recurring revenue in HubSpot ."Managing renewals and new contracts well is a key success factor for any business that has a recurring revenue model," Freriks explains. "No recurring impact means no recurring revenue, and therefore no compounded growth impact."

Freriks acknowledges that HubSpot has traditionally not been strong in this area: "For many SaaS scaleups, the standard HubSpot tooling is currently not enough. They need more advanced customization. That's where Webs comes into the picture. We work with SaaS scaleups to further optimize their HubSpot portal for managing and growing the marketing and sales processes that generate recurring revenue."

The third pillar in which Webs shares his expertise is account-based marketing (ABM) with HubSpot. "Many B2B SaaS scaleups expect to launch or expand their account-based strategy. But despite the hype, many companies are struggling to implement or scale ABM with HubSpot," warns Freriks.

"2020 was a big year for HubSpot in terms of ABM tooling," he explains. "Yet there is still very little knowledge shared around setting up your account-based strategy in HubSpot. We have that knowledge and we are happy to share it with the market. We help teams accelerate their account-based strategy with a unique blend of HubSpot, growth and website services."

Helping organizations move forward

SaaS Bosses founder De Wit is pleased and proud that Webs will now share its knowledge with the SaaS Bosses Community. "With their expertise and our reach, together we are the 'go to' combination for SaaS marketing and sales in the Netherlands and Belgium. I sincerely believe that Webs x SaaS Bosses in the Netherlands and Belgium is the most relevant place to take your business to the next level if you are running on HubSpot or want to switch to it."

For his part, Freriks is excited to join forces with Saas Bazen. "Two years ago there was no single community for SaaS companies in the Netherlands. We noticed that many of our SaaS customers got together on their own to share knowledge, but there was no more than that. Johan jumped into this gap, and it did not go unnoticed! Nice how he connects founders and C-level executives. We do the same with our free cases and webinars. And this is where we finally found each other."

"What I like most about this collaboration is Webs' philosophy and willingness to share their knowledge for free," De Wit adds in conclusion. "They really do this to make organizations better. By sharing a lot of this knowledge, this partnership is going to be valuable for the community."

Listen to the first podcast episode here: The commercial challenges of growing SaaS companies with Thijs van Rosmalen and Camiel Freriks