SALES AND MARKETING LESSONS FROM THE TOP …...top sales & marketing organi-zations and see all of...

a report from

SALES AND MARKETING LESSONS FROM THE

TOP 100 SAAS COMPANIES OF 2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS

00. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

01. Who Are the Cloud 100? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

02. What Tools Are the Cloud 100 Using? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

03. How Do the Cloud 100 Capture & Qualify Leads? . . . . .

04. The Two Megatrends: Messaging & Video . . . . . . . . . . .

05. Key Takeaways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

pg. 3

pg. 7

pg. 17

pg. 21

pg. 29

pg. 35

pg. 39

2 drift.com/blog/cloud-100-2018/

INTRODUCTION

Imagine if you could look

under the hoods of the world’s

top sales & marketing organi-

zations and see all of the tools,

tactics, and strategies they use

to drive growth.

☝ That was the inspiration for

last year’s “Lessons from the

Top 100 SaaS Companies”

report, where we analyzed

Forbes’ list of the best private

cloud companies in the world.

Our 2017 findings were eye-

opening. For example, we

found that only 15 companies

in the Cloud 100 were using

messaging and only 14 offered

free, ungated content, like

ebooks or white papers.

Meanwhile, the other 31

companies offering long-form

content and forced people to fill

out lead capture forms before

they could download it.

3 drift.com/blog/cloud-100-2018/

https://www.drift.com/blog/cloud-100-report/



Spoiler alert: A lot has

changed since 2017.

At Drift, here’s what we’re

noticing: The #NoForms

movement is surging. Messaging

usage is skyrocketing. And

conversational marketing is now

its own, independent category.

Even Gartner and G2 Crowd have

weighed in, and both agree that

conversational marketing is

poised to play a much larger role

for businesses moving forward.

Not to mention that nearly 30%

of all companies on this year’s list

have embraced conversational

marketing by implementing Drift.

(Oh, and we made the list too!)

34

INTRODUCTION

drift.com/blog/cloud-100-2018/

What all of this points to is a major

shift in the way SaaS and B2B

companies capture, qualify, and

connect with their leads and

customers. More and more of

the world’s top companies are

abandoning the traditional

approach in favor of providing a

real-time, on-demand experience.

They’re focused on helping

people buy NOW.

So, let’s break this down and

explore how Cloud 100 companies

have been able to adapt to the

way people prefer to buy and

deliver on this “NOW” experience.

In This Report…

You’ll get a behind-the-scenes

look at how the world’s top 100

SaaS companies manage their

sales and marketing efforts —

from the number of employees

they have on their sales and

marketing teams, to what tools

they’re using on their websites,

to whether or not they’re using

lead capture forms.

You’ll also learn how the two

megatrends from last year’s

report, messaging and video, are

even more integral to building a

modern sales and marketing

strategy today.

3 drift.com/blog/cloud-100-2018/5

INTRODUCTION

• The 3 most popular sales &

marketing tools among the

2018 Cloud 100 are all FREE. Is

your company using them?

• While gated content is on the

decline, conversational

marketing is on the rise. As of

2018, 32 Cloud 100 companies

are using messaging to

connect with leads and

customers, up from 15 in 2017.

• Only 27 companies in the

Cloud 100 use gated content to

capture leads, down from 31 in

2017. Does your company still

lock up content behind lead

capture forms?

• 90% of Cloud 100 companies

produce and share video

content on a regular basis. Is

your company taking

advantage of video tools like

YouTube, Vimeo, and Wistia?

In a hurry? Here’s the tl;dr version. These

are the 4 key takeaways you’ll find inside:

36

INTRODUCTION


2018 marks the third year

Forbes has put out its Cloud

100 list, which ranks the world’s

best private cloud companies

based on market leadership,

estimated valuation, operating

metrics, and people & culture.

According to Forbes:

“The companies on the Cloud 100

list have industry-beating metrics,

including revenue growth, market

share and valuation.”

But apart from success, what do

these companies have in

common? And how do they differ?

Let’s start with basics: Where do

the companies in the Cloud 100

come from?

7

WHO ARE THE CLOUD 100?


https://www.forbes.com/cloud100/

https://www.forbes.com/cloud100/

NETHERLANDS

CENTRAL COAST

VANCOUVER

ARLINGTON

SEATTLEESTONIA

UK

TORONTO

BOSTON

LOS ANGELES

UTAH

DENVER

ATLANTANORTH CAROLINA

SWITZERLAND

ISRAEL

INDIA

NO OFFICE AUSTRALIA

NYC

BAY AREA

CHICAGO

8

Location, Location, Location…



Not surprisingly, the majority of

Cloud 100 companies have their

headquarters in the San Francisco

Bay Area, the home of Silicon

Valley. New York City and Boston

(where Drift is headquartered 👋)

round out the top three. Utah,

North Carolina, and Los Angeles

are also emerging hotspots for

Cloud 100 companies.

Internationally, Canada, the UK,

the Netherlands, Estonia,

Switzerland, Israel, India, and

Australia are all represented.

There are also two companies,

Zapier and InVision, who are fully

remote without traditional offices

or headquarters. Later in this

report, we’ll explore two

technologies (messaging and

video) that help make remote

work possible. But right now, let’s

take a look at the top industry

categories represented in the

Cloud 100.

9



The Top Industry Categories

Among the Cloud 100

9

11

1212

15

Infrastructure & Developer Tools

Sales & Support

Data & Analytics

Collaboration & Work

Security

10



Industry Category

While all of the companies in the

Cloud 100 create cloud-based

software, there are hundreds if

not thousands of industry

categories that fall under that

broad umbrella.

Among the Cloud 100, Forbes

found that Infrastructure &

Developer Tools had the highest

representation, with 15 companies

— including 1st-ranked Stripe.

Here’s a breakdown of the top

five industry categories

represented in the Cloud 100:

• Infrastructure & Developer Tools

(15 companies)

• Sales & Support (12 companies)

• Security (12 companies)

• Data & Analytics (11 companies)

• Collaboration & Work (9

companies)

11



SurveyMonkey

Slack

Tanium

AvidXchange

Dataminr

$1.5 billion

$1.26 billion

$600 million

$577 million

$577 million

12

The Top 5 Fundraisers

total funding raised



Funding

As you can see, the Infrastructure

& Developer Tools category

accounts for the lion’s share of

listings on the Cloud 100, but

when you compare these same

categories by funding, Data &

Analytics comes out on top.

According to Forbes, investors

have put up a combined $3.93

billion in funding for Data &

Analytics companies.

And while Forbes could not

provide funding data for every

company on their Cloud 100 list —

with figures for MailChimp (#11),

Yardi (#22), and Veeam (#30)

notably absent — they do provide

data for the overwhelming

majority of companies. So we

thought it would be worthwhile to

see which of those companies

have been collecting the most

cash from investors.

When we rank the Cloud 100

based solely on funding, it’s clear

that SurveyMonkey — with more

than $1.5 billion raised — takes

the top spot.

13



We can safely predict, however,

that SurveyMonkey will lose

this title next year. And that’s

because within weeks of being

named to the 2018 Cloud 100

list (a list of the world’s top

private cloud companies),

SurveyMonkey went public,

raising $180 million from its IPO.

Continuing down the line, Slack,

which is rumored to be preparing

for an IPO itself, comes in second

place with $1.26 billion in funding,

followed by Tanium with $600

million, and avidXchange and

Dataminr, both of which have

raised a cool $577 million.

14



https://www.thestreet.com/markets/ipos/survey-monkey-ipo-14724704

COMPANY SIZE SALESPEOPLE MARKETERS

smallest

median

average

largest6,146

60 4 5

253635

33

23

83

56

706

543

# of employees

15

Employee Breakdown



Employees

Companies in the 2018 Cloud 100

have, on average, 706 total

employees, 33 of whom work in

marketing (including branding,

demand generation, and events).

And while both of these figures

are up from last year — when

Cloud 100 companies had an

average of 643 total employees,

29 of whom worked in marketing

— the proportions have hardly

changed: In 2017, marketers

represented 4.8% of a Cloud 100

company’s workforce. In 2018,

marketers represent 4.7% of a

Cloud 100 company’s workforce.

But marketing is only one half of a

bigger team: sales & marketing.

The two are inexorably linked, and

need to be linked in order for a

company's funnel to run smoothly.

So in this year’s report, we also

looked at the salespeople

working at Cloud 100 companies

(including account executives,

business development reps, and

sales development reps). We

found that, on average, each

Cloud 100 company employs 83

salespeople, who represent 12%

of the company’s workforce.

16



33%

32%

31%

29%

29%

29%

27%

25%

23%

22%

22%

22%

22%

22%

21%

The 25 Most Popular Tools

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#12

#13

#14

#15

#16

#17

#18

#19

#20

#21

#22

#23

#24

#25

19%57%

WHAT TOOLS ARE

THE CLOUD 100 USING?

17

90%

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

49%

88% 44%

72% 42%

59% 20%

= % of companies using tool


Google Tag Manager has officially

dethroned Google Analytics as

the most used tool among Cloud

100 companies.

Back in 2017, Google Analytics

reigned supreme, with 64%

adoption among the Cloud 100.

Google Tag Manager was the

second-most popular tool, with

54% adoption. A year later, both

tools have surged in popularity,

but Google Tag Manager, with its

staggering 90% adoption among

2018 Cloud 100 companies, has

emerged victorious.

Overall, the top five most used

tools among the Cloud 100 has

remained the same — only the

order has changed. This year,

G Suite is the third most popular

tool with 72% adoption (up from

46% in 2017). Marketo, meanwhile,

slipped from third to fourth

place, but still boasts 59%

adoption (up from 48% in 2017).

Rounding out the top five — for

the second year in a row — is

Facebook Ads, with 57%

adoption (up from 36% in 2017).

18

WHAT TOOLS ARE



When we zoom out and look

at the top 25 most popular

tools used by 2018 Cloud 100

companies, we see several

new additions since 2017,

including Nginx, Hotjar, New

Relic, and us (Drift).

Also worth noting: not only did

video companies YouTube, Vimeo,

and Wistia, which were among the

most popular tools in the 2017

Cloud 100, earn that distinction

again this year, they also all grew

in popularity. Wistia grew from 14%

adoption among the Cloud 100

to 22% adoption, Vimeo grew

from 17% adoption to 22%

adoption, and YouTube grew

from 19% to 29% adoption.

The takeaway here: Video

continues to grow in importance

among top SaaS sales &

marketing teams and is showing

no signs of slowing down.

19

WHAT TOOLS ARE



If you’re looking to connect with leads and customers,

now, video is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s a must-

have. Customers want to hear your voice and see your

face and have conversations with real people. That’s

how you build trust.

david cancel Co-founder & CEO, Drift“

20

WHAT TOOLS ARE



We’ll talk more about the growth

of video (and messaging) later

in the report. But right now,

let’s focus on an aspect of

sales & marketing that countless

SaaS companies continue to

struggle with: capturing and

qualifying leads.

For the past decade, SaaS sales

and marketing teams have

followed the same playbook for

capturing and qualifying leads:

Step 1: Get people to fill out lead

capture forms on your website

Step 2: Follow up with those leads

later via phone or email

From the buyer’s perspective, of

course, this is a terrible

experience. Because instead of

being able to connect with

companies and buy NOW, when

they’re already online and at their

most interested, buyers have no

choice but to wait. That’s what

happens when lead capture forms

power your lead capture and

qualification strategy.

21

HOW DO THE CLOUD 100

CAPTURE & QUALIFY LEADS?


https://www.drift.com/blog/introducing-now/

The Rise of the

#NoForms Movement

Traditionally, one of the best

ways to entice potential

customers into filling out forms

has been to offer ebooks, white

papers, and other long form

content — the idea being that

people are “paying” for that

content by providing companies

with their personal information.

That’s exactly what we’d been

doing at Drift...up until 2016. That’s

when we realized the traditional

playbook was broken.

In addition to producing

diminishing returns (a.k.a. lower

and lower conversation rates),

the traditional approach just

didn’t feel right from a branding

perspective. We wanted to be

helpful and friendly, and to us,

that meant getting rid of forms

and giving all of our content

away for free.

22




23

Back in 2016, we were looking at hypergrowth

companies like Slack and MailChimp for

marketing inspiration. And what we realized was

that these two companies, both of which have

made the Cloud 100 list three-years running,

succeeded and continue to succeed by

investing in their brand and making the

customer experience as incredible as possible.

“dave gerhardt

VP of Marketing, Drift




27

312017

2018# of Cloud 100 companies that make leads

fill out forms in exchange for content

24

The Decline of Gated Content




Among the Cloud 100, there’s

been a decline in gated content

between 2017 and 2018 — an

indication that the #NoForms

movement is catching on.

In 2017, 31 companies in the

Cloud 100 made leads fill out

forms in exchange for content.

In 2018, that figure dropped to

27 companies.

25




21%

% of companies still

using traditional lead

capture forms to start

sales conversations

26

“Contact Us” Forms Still Sticking Around

79%




Overall, however, 79% of

companies in the 2018 Cloud 100

are still using lead capture forms

on their websites.

Just go to any SaaS website and

click the “Contact Us” or “Talk to

Sales” or “Get a Demo” button

and see what happens: In most

cases, it will direct you to a lead

capture form.

To make matters worse (from

a buyer experience perspective),

the number of mandatory fields

Cloud 100 companies include

in their lead capture forms

has risen — from an average

of 6 mandatory fields in 2017

o an average of 7 mandatory

fields in 2018.

27




2017

2018

average # of form fields on Cloud 100 lead capture forms

28

7

6

An Increase in Form Fields




Messaging

In the previous section, you

learned that a majority of Cloud

100 companies still rely on lead

forms to capture and qualify leads.

But what about those companies

not using forms...how does that

even work?

That’s where conversational

marketing comes into play.

By adding messaging to your

website, you give potential

customers the ability to connect

with you when it’s most

convenient for them: while they’re

live on your website.

29

THE 2 MEGATRENDS:

MESSAGING & VIDEO


“Imagine you walked into a brick-and-mortar

store and the store’s employees refused to talk

to you. And in order to buy something, you had

to write your contact info down on a clipboard

and wait for a follow-up. Sounds ridiculous, but

that’s exactly how most SaaS companies have

been treating their website visitors for years.

By implementing conversational marketing,

companies open up a real-time lead

generation channel to instantly connect

qualified leads with sales reps.

david cancel Co-founder & CEO, Drift

30

THE 2 MEGATRENDS:

MESSAGING & VIDEO


# of Cloud 100

companies using

messaging/chat

2017 2018

31

15

32

Messaging Adoption Is Reaching Critical Mass

THE 2 MEGATRENDS:

MESSAGING & VIDEO


With messaging, instead of forcing

people to wait, you can qualify

leads instantly through having

real-time, one-to-one

conversations. And as a result,

leads end up moving more quickly

through your funnel.

Couple the benefits of messaging

with the fact that it’s become the

default mode of communication

for billions of people around the

world and it won’t come as a big

surprise to learn that between

2017 and 2018, messaging

adoption among the Cloud 100

increased: from 15 companies

using messaging on their

websites in 2017 to 32 companies

in 2018.

32

THE 2 MEGATRENDS:

MESSAGING & VIDEO


Video

The second megatrend that is

reshaping the sales & marketing

tactics of Cloud 100 companies is

video. A decade ago, many

companies considered video too

expensive and/or too difficult to

produce. But thanks to the rise of

smartphones (and their built-in

cameras) and easy-to-use video

editing software, these days any

sales & marketing team can invest

in video. Meanwhile, video

hosting services like YouTube,

Vimeo, and Wistia (which, as you

learned earlier, are all growing in

popularity among the Cloud

100) make sharing, embedding,

and monetizing videos easier

than ever.

If that isn’t enough to convince

you to invest in video, consider

this statistic:

In 2017, only 34 companies in the

Cloud 100 were regularly

producing video content. Today,

90 companies in the Cloud 100

are producing videos.

33

THE 2 MEGATRENDS:

MESSAGING & VIDEO


# of Cloud 100

that regularly

produce video

2017 2018

34

34

90

9 out of 10 Companies

Are Investing in Video

THE 2 MEGATRENDS:

MESSAGING & VIDEO


KEY TAKEAWAYS

35

The 3 most popular sales & marketing tools among

the 2018 Cloud 100 are all free tools from Google:

Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and G Suite.

1 Don’t forget the basics.


Between 2017 and 2018, there was a decline in the number of Cloud

100 companies that make people fill out forms in exchange for ebooks

and other content. And while most companies still use lead capture

forms on their websites, the #NoForms movement is picking up speed.

36

KEY TAKEAWAYS

2 Consider setting your content free.


=

37

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Nearly a third of Cloud 100 companies are now using messaging

on their websites to capture and qualify leads in real-time via one-

to-one conversations. That’s up from 15 companies in 2017. Using

a conversational approach isn’t some far-flung idea, it’s now a

proven strategy for shortening sales cycles and growing revenue.

3 Replace forms with conversational marketing.


90% of companies in the 2018

Cloud 100 produce video content

on a regular basis and share it with

the world using tools like YouTube,

Vimeo, and Wistia.

38

KEY TAKEAWAYS

If video isn’t part of your sales & marketing strategy, it should be.4


We (Drift) gathered the data for

this report using good old-

fashioned detective work. After

Forbes released its 2018 Cloud

100 list, we snapped into action to

analyze the websites and LinkedIn

profiles of the Cloud 100.

In order to figure out what tools

Cloud 100 companies use on their

websites, we leveraged the data

enrichment tool ClearBit (which

integrates with Drift).

Our goal with this report is to

provide a snapshot of how Cloud

100 companies were running

sales & marketing at a specific

point in time (fall of 2018). Given

the nature of high-growth

companies, many of the figures

we cite in this report are likely to

fluctuate as companies evolve.

Want to stay up to date with the

latest changes happening in sales

& marketing? Join 20k fellow

marketers and salespeople and

sign up for our newsletter.

39

METHODOLOGY


https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2018/09/13/cloud-100-top-companies-2018/#eef8c194d269

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2018/09/13/cloud-100-top-companies-2018/#eef8c194d269

https://clearbit.com/

https://www.drift.com/

SALES AND MARKETING LESSONS FROM THE TOP …...top sales & marketing organi-zations and see all of...

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Transcript of SALES AND MARKETING LESSONS FROM THE TOP …...top sales & marketing organi-zations and see all of...