I try to keep things fresh, so I was stunned to realize I had used the word “crisis” in two different headlines this morning.

Despite the faster pace of layoffs, there’s good news for SaaS startups: 70% of SMBs plan to increase IT spending by 2023 and the procurement process is accelerating.

According to Caroline Hogan, senior director of vendor marketing at Gartner Digital Markets, this means companies can drive growth and revenue by studying buyer decision patterns.

“In the awareness phase, companies try to solve a problem or challenge using technology,” Hogan writes.

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“That’s why it’s essential to clearly communicate the benefits of your product and develop use cases that are tailored to the challenges businesses face.”

For example, Gartner found that 41% of SMB customers rely on customer ratings and reviews before making a purchase.

Which begs the question: when was the last time you checked your reviews on Capterra or GetApp? Here’s a follow up: What methods does your sales team use to encourage happy customers to leave reviews?

If you don’t have ready answers, leave your money on the table. (Don’t worry, I won’t tell your investors.)

“Understanding shifts in how buyers research, evaluate, select, and purchase software is critical to accelerating growth,” said Hogan, who shares several tactics for gathering actionable insights.

Thank you very much for reading,

Walter Thompson
Editorial Manager, australiabusinessblog.com+
@your protagonist

5 key metrics that help edtech startups improve profitability

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Edtech startups have been on a rollercoaster in recent years.

School closures from COVID-19 made the sleepy sector hot overnight, but today many overstaffed companies are cutting headcount to stay afloat.

But this is not a problem for the CEO to solve. Sales, product and marketing teams have multiple levers they can use to optimize sales, writes Roman Kumar Vyas, CEO and founder of edtech startup Refocus.

Finding ways to drive KPIs like service level matches and approval rates will reveal the strengths and weaknesses of your current offering, but “these metrics can also help you build confidence with investors,” according to Vyas.

5 tactics for managing paid customer acquisition during a recession

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When economic conditions change, companies adjust their marketing tactics. When the pandemic started, I stopped receiving almost all junk mail, but after the vaccines rolled out, my mailbox was again full of irrelevant offers.

Paid marketing is a core tactic for early-stage startups, but this recession is a good time for founders to revisit customer acquisition strategies, says Brian Rothenberg, an investment partner at early-stage venture capital fund Defy.

“Capital is now more expensive than it has been in years,” he writes in TC+. “Where else can you invest to get higher returns and build a more sustainable competitive advantage?”

3 tips for CEOs who want to take parental leave

Image Credits: Frank Rothe (Opens in a new window) /Getty Images

The US is one of only six countries in the world that does not have a paid parental leave policy.

Combine that with startup founders being praised for sleeping under their desks, and it’s easy to see why many tech workers don’t even get the 12 weeks they get after having a kid.

Before giving birth, Cory Siskind, founder and CEO of Base Operations, devised a plan that would allow her to take time off while keeping her business afloat.

“Taking time off is a personal decision, but it should be just that: a decision,” she writes. “It’s an option for everyone, even CEOs.”

Your MVP doesn’t have to be perfect. It must be suitable for the stage

Image Credits: Nuthawut Somsuk (Opens in a new window) /Getty Images

If you remember the movie “The Social Network,” Facebook didn’t launch as a place for family and friends to keep in touch: The first iteration scraped photos from Harvard’s student directory for users to rate their appearance.

When it comes to finding the MVP “for a pre-seed company you don’t need perfect design and scalability; you have to build enough product and traction to get user feedback,” writes Haje Jan Kamps.

“From there you can iterate and create value for the customers.”