SaaS公司的高成長秘訣——聚焦“總流失率”丨雙語

原文作者：Ajay Agarwal，Ben Vonwiller

譯者：李哲

關鍵詞：SaaS公司，流失率，客戶成功

核心提示：衡量客戶成功的指標有很多，本文觀點認為，總流失率才是影響客戶成功的關鍵性指標。

衡量客戶成功（Customer Success），有很多受人追捧的指標，如凈流失率（Net Churn）、總流失率（Gross Churn）、品牌流失率（Logo Churn）、續(xù)約率（Renewal Rate）、凈推薦值（NPS）等等。

我們研究了SaaSRadar里的一部分公司，以及一些擬上市SaaS公司的麥肯錫數(shù)據(jù)庫。研究結論認為，總流失率是最有影響力的指標。

什么是總流失率？為什么它如此重要？

凈流失率是總流失率（代表著現(xiàn)存客戶的當前收入流的穩(wěn)定性）和業(yè)務擴張收益（通過對現(xiàn)存客戶追加銷售或交叉銷售產(chǎn)生的收益）的結合體。盡管增長速度快的SaaS公司總流失率低、擴張收益高，但是下圖顯示，總流失率這一指標比業(yè)務擴張收益更重要。

簡單地說，高效地維系現(xiàn)存客戶和當前收益，比賣給現(xiàn)存客戶更多的產(chǎn)品更有效。

例外情況是一些擁有自助式獲客模型和基于使用情況的定價模型的公司。因為對于這些公司來說，追加銷售不起作用，這就意味著沒有銷售團隊的額外投資。最近上市的Twilio就是一個很好的例子。

快速成長的公司一定要維系好高回報客戶，因為總流失率比品牌流失率更關鍵。

如果你的目標客戶是中小企業(yè)，那么你面臨的挑戰(zhàn)之一是，小企業(yè)容易倒閉，流失率也會隨之上升。如果目標客戶是大企業(yè)，不存在這一問題。那么，對這兩類公司來說，最優(yōu)的度量指標分別是什么呢？

下圖中的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，專注于中小企業(yè)的一流公司，年度客戶流失率為31%、年度收益率為16%。而專注于大企業(yè)的一流公司，年度客戶流失率為14%、年度收益率為5%。

這些數(shù)據(jù)傳達的核心信息是，應該把你的目光聚焦在凈流失率，以及更為重要的總流失率上。

上圖更深層的含義是，迅速成長的公司致力于維系它們的高回報客戶，而不是所有客戶。流失一些客戶可能沒有什么大不了，尤其對于快速發(fā)展的初創(chuàng)公司來說，一些早期的客戶可能已經(jīng)不太適合它們今天提供的解決方案了。任何的客戶流失都是難以接受的，但是作為一個SaaS CEO，你必須學會接受一些客戶的流失，然后對你最重要的客戶加倍投入。

以下是減少總流失率的五個建議：

投資建立一個合理規(guī)模的客戶成功組織。為了降低總流失率，專注于大企業(yè)的一流公司投入比客戶成功組織的平均全職人工數(shù)（FTEs）更多的人力。相反地，專注于中小企業(yè)的一流公司，客戶成功組織的全職人工數(shù)比平均水平低，因為它們可以借助技術和自助服務產(chǎn)品來創(chuàng)造更高效的客戶成功和產(chǎn)品入手體驗（Onboarding Success）。

不僅要關注技術，更要關注人。最出色的公司都認識到，盡管它們賣的是技術，但最終決定選擇續(xù)費還是取消服務的，是人。專注于大企業(yè)的公司需要清楚執(zhí)行發(fā)起人是誰，然后在發(fā)起人離開的時候采取行動。專注于中小企業(yè)的公司需要確保它們能定期、自動地與關鍵買家取得聯(lián)系。

運用預測模型和指示（Alerting）來提前預測未來的客戶成功問題。分析和預測模型可以識別客戶流失的驅(qū)動因素，優(yōu)化配置資源，以及指示對高風險、高價值客戶的聯(lián)系策略。

指標，指標，還是指標。三類衡量客戶成功的指標需要被持續(xù)追蹤，即滯后指標（Lagging Indicators）、經(jīng)濟活動指標（Activity Indicators）和領先指標（Leading Indicators）。滯后指標包括續(xù)約率和業(yè)務擴張指標；經(jīng)濟活動指標包括產(chǎn)品或服務的客戶參與度；領先指標包括用戶滿意度，包括客戶的凈推薦值（NPS）。

讓你的客戶成功組織成為公司“學習引擎”。客戶成功組織應該把它的研究成果應用到銷售、產(chǎn)品和市場團隊。這一反饋回路對于整體產(chǎn)品、價值定位和部署模式的改進至關重要。

英文原文：

SaaS entrepreneurs are bombarded with blog posts with an array of metrics and variables on which they need to focus?in order to build their companies. Within the world of customer success, there are so many metrics that are touted: gross?churn, net churn, logo churn, renewal rates, NPS score, etc.

To better understand which customer success metrics most impact growth, we examined a subset of companies in SaaSRadar, McKinsey’s database of pre-IPO SaaS companies. Our conclusion is that gross churn, by far, is the most impactful metric.

What is gross churn and why does it matter?

Most public SaaS companies report net churn, which represents how your existing customer base is growing or shrinking from one period to the next. Your net churn is a combination of gross churn (how stable is the current revenue stream from existing customers) and expansion revenue (how much additional revenue are you generating from up-sells or cross-sells to your existing customers). While the fastest-growing SaaS companies have low gross churn and do a great job of expansion revenue, the chart below shows that the more important metric of the two is gross churn.

Put simply, if you can more effectively keep the customers/revenue you’ve already signed up — that, on average, has more of an impact than selling more to your existing customers.

The one exception to this rule are companies with self-serve customer acquisition models and usage-based pricing models where up-sells are essentially no touch (meaning no additional investment from the sales team). Twilio, which recently went public, is a good example of this.

High-growth companies make sure to protect their highest-revenue customers:? Gross churn matters more than logo churn.

If you are selling to SMBs, one of the challenges you have is that small businesses tend to “go out of business,” which by definition will increase your churn rates. If you are selling to enterprises, you don’t have this problem. So what are the best-in-class metrics for SMB-focused businesses versus enterprise-focused businesses?

The data in the exhibit below shows that the top quartile SMB-focused companies have annual customer churn of 31 percent and annual revenue churn of 16 percent. In contrast, the enterprise-focused companies have annual customer churn rate of 14 percent and revenue churn of 5 percent. The key message here is to benchmark yourself on both net churn but, more importantly, gross churn,?from a sample set of companies that are selling to a similar customer base as you, because the best-in-class numbers can vary so wildly.

The further implication is that the fastest-growing companies focus on protecting their highest revenue customers more so than protecting all of their customers. It may be okay to lose some logos — particularly in the evolution of a startup where many early customers may not be a good fit for your solution today. Losing any kind of customer will feel painful, but as a SaaS?CEO, you have to be okay with some set of your “off spec” customers churning while you double down on your most important “sweet spot” customers.

Her are five recommendations to reduce gross churn:

Invest in building a right-sized customer success organization.?Top performing enterprise-focused companies invest higher than average number of FTEs in customer success in order to drive down gross churn. In contrast, the best-performing SMB-focused companies have fewer FTEs than the average as a result of leveraging technology and self-service products to create a more efficient customer success and onboarding experience.

Focus not just on technology, but on people.?The best companies recognize that while they are selling technology, the ultimate decisions to renew or cancel the service are driven by people.? Enterprise-focused companies need to ensure they know who the executive sponsor is and take action if that sponsor leaves. SMB-focused companies need to ensure they have regular, automated ways to contact the key buyer within the organization.

Use predictive modeling and alerting to anticipate future success problems in advance.?Analytics and predictive modeling can help to identify drivers of churn, prioritize resources and alert contact strategy for customers that are both high-risk and high-value.

Measure, measure, measure.?Three categories of customer success metrics should be tracked: lagging indicators, activity indicators and leading indicators. Lagging indicators include metrics such as renewal rate and expansion. Activity indicators include a customer’s engagement in the product or service. Leading indicators include measures of customer satisfaction, such as net promoter score (NPS).

Let your customer success organization be the “l(fā)earning engine.”?Ultimately, the customer success organization cannot live in a vacuum. A strong customer success organization becomes the company’s “l(fā)earning engine” — relaying their findings from the field to the sales, product and marketing teams. This feedback loop is critical to drive improvements to the overall product, value proposition and delivery model.

本文編譯自TechCrunch

原文鏈接https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/25/to-be-a-top-quartile-saas-grower-you-need-to-focus-on-gross-churn/

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