Think People, not Customers

In the early days for SaaS companies, we tend to focus on sales and product led growth as we are trying to find some sort of proof of concept of a product. So, when should a SaaS company really shift to customer led growth? And why should customer success focus on people and not necessarily a company or logo name?

In this episode, our host Anika Zubair chats with David Jackson, CS Coach, Author and CEO at TheCustomer.Co, about why the customer is at the heart of everything we do and should be the basis on how we design our organizations. Yet, a lot of people talk about product, sales, revenue and even marketing led growth but take the customer led growth for granted.

“It's very difficult to think of a successful business that doesn't have customers. It's a bit like breathing. You know, you're not going to survive if you don't breathe. You're not going to survive as a business if you don't have customers.”

David founded Clicktools, one of the UK’s first SaaS companies. As CEO he led the company through continuous organically funded growth and two liquidity transactions. David is now CEO of TheCustomer.Co, which helps B2B SaaS companies profitably win, satisfy, retain and grow their chosen customers better than the competition. David is a recognised expert in customer focused organisations and was named as a Global Top 25 Customer Success Influencer in 2020.

In September 2021, David published his fourth book “Customer-Led Growth: A CEO’s guide to building a B2B SaaS Company”. In the book, and in the talk with Planhat, he underlines the importance of looking beyond attaining yet another logo to your list of customers, and instead focus on the most important thing – the people:

“Who makes the decision to buy your product? A company or a person? Who uses your product? A company or person? Who advocated for your company? A company or person? That’s your answer!”

Listen now to the full conversation with David and Anika about why we should focus on people, not customers.