Podcast appearances and mentions of ray rike

Our guest this week is Ray Rike. Ray has over 30 years of experience in subscription-based software, service, and SaaS companies. His passion for data-driven, metrics informed decision making started with his selection to the GE Executive Management Development program and was subsequently enhanced by his experiences across five successful SaaS and software company exits. These experiences, coupled with his innate analytical orientation provides the foundation for our mission to enable companies to embrace a data-driven, KPI informed decision making approach to accelerate revenue performance. Follow Ray on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayrike/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/uncharted1/support

An average company uses between 12-35 metrics and dozens of KPIs. But do they all work? In the second of a two-part series, Ray Rike, Founder and CEO of RevOps Squared, along with Howard and Alastair, lean into the modern metrics and KPIs that matter most in times of economic stress. We'll address vanity metrics vs. items that actually help us understand the growth potential of any business. Follow the Host on LinkedIn: Howard Brown (CEO, Revenue.io) And our Special Guest: Ray Rike (Founder & CEO, RevOps Squared) Sponsored by: Revenue.io | Powering high-performing revenue teams with real-time guidance Explore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe: Sales Enablement Podcast Selling with Purpose Podcast RevOps Podcast

An average company uses between 12-35 metrics and dozens of KPIs. But do they all work? In this two-part series, Ray Rike, Founder and CEO of RevOps Squared, along with Howard and Alastair, lean into the modern metrics and KPIs that matter most in times of economic stress. We'll address vanity metrics vs. items that actually help us understand the growth potential of any business. Follow the Host on LinkedIn: Howard Brown (CEO, Revenue.io) And our Special Guest: Ray Rike (Founder & CEO, RevOps Squared) Sponsored by: Revenue.io | Powering high-performing revenue teams with real-time guidance Explore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe: Sales Enablement Podcast Selling with Purpose Podcast RevOps Podcast

This week on the Expert Voices podcast, Randy Wootton, CEO of Maxio, speaks with Ray Rike, CEO of Benchmark IT, a company specializing in providing the SaaS industry with comprehensive and contextualized benchmarking data. Randy and Ray discuss the growth trends seen among private B2B SaaS companies, emphasizing how certain market dynamics are influencing growth rates. They further break down the distinction between small companies under $1 million in revenue and their larger counterparts, elucidating intriguing growth patterns and the impact of pricing models on these dynamics. Listen as Randy and Ray examine infrastructure industries, pointing out how investment behaviors and market conditions are shaping which sectors thrive. Quotes“CAC ratio measures your sales and marketing expenses divided by your new ARR, which is new name customer and expansion customer ARR. But then be more granular, and look at your sales and marketing investment expenses allocated to the pursuit of new logos in the ARR. And divide that by the new logo, ARR. What I do with a lot of our customers is I actually build a matrix. " -Ray Rike [13:40]“One of the most illuminating things from the Maxio Institute report was you segmented by fixed rate pricing, that is, traditional subscription pricing and usage based pricing. Now, you did that for small companies, below a million and then above. So below a million, the fixed rate pricing companies were growing. They hit 44% in Q1 and 41% in Q2 of 24. Compare that to usage based pricing companies.” -Ray Rike [23:02]Expert Takeaways Private B2B SaaS Growth: Private B2B SaaS companies are currently experiencing an average annual growth rate of 17%, a significant yet stable rate compared to prior exuberant expectations.Small Business Resurgence: Companies with less than $1 million in annual revenue are seeing robust growth rates of 26% in Q1 and 21% in Q2 of 2024, suggesting a revival in the small business sector.Impact of Pricing Models: Fixed rate pricing is benefiting smaller companies with rapid growth, whereas usage-based pricing drives substantial growth for larger enterprises.Industry Investment Trends: Infrastructure-related industries like cybersecurity, transportation, and healthcare are thriving, in contrast to the slower growth in entertainment and e-commerce sectors.AI Evolution: Investment in AI, particularly foundational models, has increased dramatically, with the trend continuing to shape the SaaS landscape. Timestamps(00:04) Benchmarking SaaS Growth with Data-Driven Insights(05:24) Key Insights from Q2 Maxio Growth Report(11:43) Balancing Growth and Efficiency in Sales and Marketing Investments(19:33) Small Companies See Significant Growth Amid AI Investments(23:02) Usage Based Pricing Versus Fixed Rate Pricing in SaaS Growth(29:54) Impact of Inflation and Funding on B2B Tech Companies(33:45) Investment Trends and Business Models in AI Companies(38:52) Strategies for Scaling Companies and Optimizing Customer Profiles(46:35) Ray Reich on SaaS Wisdom and Learning from Industry ExpertsLinksMaxio

Robert Scarperi, Bob has been a leader in professional services, SaaS, financial services, ad tech mar tech, and management consulting for 32 years. His company, Revenue Vision Partners is the industry's leading data-driven revenue growth consulting firm. Questions · Could you share with our listeners, just a little bit about how you got from where you were to where you are today? · You wrote a book called Data and Diagnosis-Driven Selling with three other gentlemen. So, could you take a minute to kind of just go through maybe three overarching themes that the book focuses on? And just how do you believe this can really help an organization to deliver a great customer experience? · Now, I'd like for you to share with us what's the one online tool, resource, website or application that you absolutely can't live without in your business? · Can you also share with us maybe one or two books that you have read, it could be a book that you read a very long time ago, or even one that you've read recently, but it has had a great impact on your development and even your continued growth. · Now, Bob, could you also share with our listeners, what's the one thing that's going on in your life right now that you're really excited about, either something you're working on to develop yourself or your people. · Where can listeners find you online? · Now, Bob, before we wrap up, we always like to give our guests an opportunity to share. I'm not sure if you have one of these but a quote that you would tend to revert to if for any reason you are faced with some form of adversity, or challenge, but that quote will help to get you refocused, get you back on track, and just help you if for any reason you got the real or you got off track. Highlights Bob's Journey  Me: Now, we always like to give our listeners an opportunity to hear from the guest, in their own words, a little bit about your journey. And it has been quite a long journey, 32 years is a good amount of time to have under your belt in all of these wonderful areas. So, could you share with our listeners, just a little bit about how you got from where you were to where you are today?   Bob shared that right around the time he was finishing college, he had a really strong pull to get into sales, he was extremely lucky to have had a best friend's father was the top sales guy at Automatic Data Processing, ADP, which is sort of known to be one of the best and strongest sales driven cultures in the Fortune 100.  And right from the very beginning, all of their structure, rigor, process, intensity really meshed with his personality and his sort of competitive nature. And so, he was lucky enough to have some early success, he's very, very grateful for how much faith they had in him from an early age, giving him opportunities to run sales teams and move and get to experience new geographies and have really great experiences in such a phenomenally well-run company.  And then without going into too much detail, of course, his journey took him through a number of different industries, early days of ad tech, he worked for a long time as an equity sales and trading person at AllianceBernstein. He was lucky enough also to have some leadership positions, run sales teams internationally.  And then toward the last 10 years of his career, he had three Chief Revenue Officer roles in high growth technology companies where he really started to embrace being a leader who prided himself on installing a systematic data driven approach.  And toward the end of that decade, he decided he really wanted to do that as a consultant for a portfolio of companies so that he could be really working through various kind of company challenges in different industries with private equity firms as their partner. So, that's what brought him to where he is now.   About Bob's Book – Data and Diagnosis-Driven Selling and Three Overarching Themes That Can Help Organizations Enhance Customer Experience Me: Now, Bob, you wrote a book called Data and Diagnosis-Driven Selling: Leveraging insights, intelligence and the power of AI to deliver efficient, durable revenue growth with three other gentlemen, Mark Petruzzi, Ray Rike and Paul Melchiorre. So, could you take a minute to kind of just go through maybe three overarching themes that the book focuses on? And just how do you believe this can really help an organization to deliver a great customer experience? And I'd love for you to maybe segment it for us, because selling covers so many different areas. If you're selling to a business versus if you're selling to a customer….an individual, so maybe you could take one of those areas and kind of just break it down for us. And just give examples of what you wrote about in the book can really help teams that are in sales because sales is critical, it's a lifeline of any business. But how can the sales team really drive a quality customer experience that can drive to a high customer retention rate, because at the end of the day, that's really what all businesses are aiming for, as you're going to be able to keep your customers for life.   Bob shared that regarding who it's written for, it would really be for anyone selling to or trying to persuade a group of decision makers, so, usually an organization where a number of people contribute to a decision that is primarily in B2B sales. But if you find yourself in a position where you are trying to convince a town council to vote your way on a specific issue that's been a problem for the community or anything else where there are a group of people who need to kind of come together to make a decision, their book will help you.  And the way that it helps you is it lays out an approach that is not only proven by some of the most successful people in B2B sales, but it's also modern, utilizing the most high quality available B2B data. And they also talk about systems support, and AI as a tool that can help the modern salesperson navigate this very complex selling environment with multiple decisions in a tough time in the market, the macro environment is currently as complex as it's ever been. And being successful in sales at the moment is also as challenging and complex as it's ever been.   Me: So, I kind of wanted you also to maybe just go into, I would say, as I said, three overarching themes that the book focuses on. So, you mentioned AI and it's a very hot topic right across, I think, across the world, really, since it was introduced, especially since it's so accessible to everyone currently. But what does that really mean when you are selling to someone? Because at the end of the day, you're still dealing with human beings, so, what is the data really going to tell you? Or how is it going to help you to navigate that conversation? Because there has to be some human interaction, right? So, I kind of want you to walk us through that process.   Bob shared that the book talks about two different types of AI and it's really exciting because he doesn't think there is a sales book currently that, again, not only combines improving elements with AI and data approaches, but the two types of AI are generative AI, those would be systems like Chat GPT, who can help you create content in order to be compelling in a sales process. And predictive AI, technologies like and he'll use an example, Clari, which is a tool that helps sales teams understand which of their open sales opportunities have the highest probability of closing, based on a myriad of factors. So, they do get into really solid detail and they also have contributors in the book who are experts in various topics and tell stories about how they've used these tools successfully.   Me: So, that's excellent, very good explanation on the generative and predictive AI. Because I do believe that we throw toward around so much in different industries, especially in the customer experience industry, many people believe that artificial intelligence is going to replace human beings and we're all going to be obsolete and not worth any value anymore. But I'm not there yet. And I live in Kingston, Jamaica, where we use technology here a lot, but we are not going to get to that point anytime soon, definitely not in my lifetime where you're not going to need people because we are still a society that is heavily dependent on people interaction. For example, in our banks here, and I compare it to the United States all the time. The banks are still full, 50….40 people standing in the banks. I travelled to the US quite often and I go to different financial institutions, and they are empty, there's nobody physically standing in there, there are no lines lined up outside or people lined up inside. So, just in terms of the culture and the behaviour of people just don't believe that we're going to eliminate the people component in customer experience, because people still like to deal with people, right?   Bob agreed yes, absolutely. And it's funny because he does feel like and the way that they lay it out in the book, AI can put you in a position to have more and better live human interactions with the right audience, if used properly. It doesn't replace humans; it sets humans up to be the best version of themselves and optimize their approach every day.   Me: I love it. So, it's really supposed to help us to interact better, to get to decisions faster, to understand people's behaviours quicker, to find solutions that are more need based, because a lot of times salespeople sell you stuff, they're driven by the quotas that they need to meet, they're driven by the pressures that their organizations put on them. But when you match value to the experience that the person is having and are they really getting the right solution, a lot of times down the road when there is like let's say a survey that's being done, or some form of focus group, especially if they're losing customers over a period of time, you realize that it wasn't even the right solution that was given to the client, or it wasn't being managed the proper way. And I guess, if they had the right data from day one, and it was being provided in the right way, they wouldn't have lost the customer in the first place.   Bob stated yes, he couldn't agree more. The third theme of the book is utilizing simple data science in order to ensure that your sales approach is driven by your Ideal Customer Profile (IDP). And he'll just briefly state that as a sales leader, he had gotten frustrated by knowing that focusing on the ideal customer profile was the right thing and then defining that and making that approach data driven was impossible. It was a very distant and vague concept. But he believes that they own the very best definition now of what the ideal customer profile is and how to take that definition and identify score and rank specific prospects and clients that are the best match to that ideal customer profile and create an entire commercial approach with that as the foundation.   Me: All right, and what is the definition that you have identified in the book as your ideal customer profile?   Bob shared that it's basically utilizing firmographic traits to know what industry, what sub sector, what size of the company, how much it's growing, what web scraping tells you about a company, when you can build a model that identifies those common traits in your best customers, and utilize expert panels to ensure that the model has picked up on the right signals, that is the best way to create an ideal customer profile, and again, score and rank accounts. That's quite technical, but it's all in the book.   Me: Yes, agreed. And our listeners would have tapped into this episode, and they'd like to put their hands on your book, where can they find it?   Bob shared that the book, it's available in all the major outlets, but he will tell you, he's a huge fan of Amazon and is readily available on Amazon in softcover, hardcover, and they'll have an audio version available within three weeks of today (May 09. 2024).   Me: Oh, okay, that was actually going to be my next question. Do you have it available on Audible? And you better get used to this voice because it's 80% of the narration is done by him (Bob).    App, Website or Tool that Bob Absolutely Can't Live Without in His Business When asked about online resource that he cannot live without in his business, Bob shared ZoomInfo. ZoomInfo provides a backbone to a lot of the data work that they do at Revenue Vision Partners. And when they were in the marketplace to procure data assets, they did a thorough evaluation, they were convinced at the time and four plus years later, he continued to be convinced that ZoomInfo has the best B2B data available in the market.   Books that Have Had the Biggest Impact on Bob When asked about books that have had a great impact, Bob shared that he would say that far and away, Strategic Selling: The Unique Sales System Proven Successful by America's Best Companies by Robert B. Miller and Stephen Heiman is the number one book that has contributed to the way that he has approached sales since the early 90s. He feels it lays out the most logical and powerful and consistent approach or methodology for B2B sales.  What they tried to do with the new book is take methodologies like Strategic Selling, SPIN Selling, The Challenger Sale, and modernize the approach again with Data and Diagnosis and AI and build upon those methodologies.   What Bob is Really Excited About Now! When asked about something that he's excited about, Bob shared that in their firm right now, they're doing one of these ideal customer profile-based data projects for a very large, diversified industrial company who services about a dozen different end markets. They're a multi-billion-dollar organization, they've run a pilot in one of their key divisions and it's been a phenomenally successful data model.  And he's convinced that their are hundreds of salespeople are going to utilize their time better, they're going to sell bigger and better fit accounts, they're going to be more gratified in their jobs, the company's going to gain market share in a more consistent and repeatable way.  And it's thrilling to do that, because this was the promise that they built their company on, and this couldn't be a better group of humans to work with who he just wants to see them succeed for all the right reasons. So, he's so excited about this journey, they're just far enough along where there's proof that it's working and there's so much ahead of them in terms of their ability to empower them to succeed.   Me: All right, I'm excited too, just hearing all of the great opportunities that lie ahead.   Bob shared that in his tennis game, he feels like his backhand is really ready for summer.   Me: Do you play competitively, or do you just play for fun?   Bob stated that he plays intermediate competitively. So, he can be pretty terrible. He has a couple of great shots and feel really good about himself, but it's a blast.   Where Can We Find Bob Online LinkedIn – Bob Scarperi Company LinkedIn – Revenue Vision Partners Instagram – @bobbyscarp Website - www.revenuevisionpartners.com Facebook – Bob Scarperi   Quote or Saying that During Times of Adversity Bob Uses  When asked about a quote or saying that he tends to revert to, Bob shared that it's quite a long one, so, he's not going to quote the whole thing, but unless he takes up the rest of the time, but it is, The Man in the Arena, quote by Teddy Roosevelt.  And starting a business in one's middle age with lots of financial obligations, including three kids, two step-kids, etc…etc…has been a really bold decision and quite terrifying at times. And every time he wonders if he's done the right thing, he grounds himself in that amazing speech and always feel like he comes back to believing that he was born to do something bold and that living through terrifying entrepreneurial moments are part of that and the victories that one is lucky enough to experience when they make that brave and bold decision are that much sweeter than then any other career related victories in his life. Of course, his highest highs have to do with his kids, but that whole man in the arena concept keeps him going every day. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”    Me: So, we will have that full quote in the Show Notes of our episode, the Teddy Roosevelt quote, along with what you shared just now as it relates to kind of getting you back refocused on why you do what you do.   Bob shared that and if you saw the Tom Brady roast on Netflix, Matt Damon does a great job of narrating the entire thing.   Me: All right, Bob, thank you so much for jumping on our podcast today and sharing all these great insights as it relates to Diagnostic Selling and Data Driven Selling, as well as Artificial Intelligence and the ICP, it's all great information. I've started consuming a part of the content of the book, but I just believe I'd get so much more from the audible. So, I'm actually going to wait until it's released in the next three weeks to continue, I just believe I get so much more listening to it rather than reading it. But I would recommend for anyone that is a listener to our podcast to tap into this awesome resource that Bob and his team have so graciously given to us in the world, it's a great resource. And I believe that if we continue to try to find ways to add value to people's lives, create opportunities that you're really providing the solutions that your customers want, that will allow them to be your customer for life, through the techniques that you use to ensure that you are selling the right way, making the decisions the right way, your customer experience will take care of itself. So, thank you so much.   Please connect with us on X @navigatingcx and also join our Private Facebook Community – Navigating the Customer Experience and listen to our FB Lives weekly with a new guest   Links •     Data and Diagnosis-Driven Selling: Leveraging insights, intelligence and the power of AI to deliver efficient, durable revenue growth by Bob Scarperi •     Strategic Selling: The Unique Sales System Proven Successful by America's Best Companies by Robert B. Miller and Stephen Heiman    The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience Grab the Freebie on Our Website – TOP 10 Online Business Resources for Small Business Owners  Do you want to pivot your online customer experience and build loyalty - get a copy of “The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience.” The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience provides 26 easy to follow steps and techniques that helps your business to achieve success and build brand loyalty. This Guide to Limitless, Happy and Loyal Customers will help you to strengthen your service delivery, enhance your knowledge and appreciation of the customer experience and provide tips and practical strategies that you can start implementing immediately! This book will develop your customer service skills and sharpen your attention to detail when serving others. Master your customer experience and develop those knock your socks off techniques that will lead to lifetime customers. Your customers will only want to work with your business and it will be your brand differentiator. It will lead to recruiters to seek you out by providing practical examples on how to deliver a winning customer service experience!

In this podcast episode, John Golden from Sales POP! Online Sales Magazine and Pipeline CRM hosts Ray Rike, a seasoned subscription software leader and co-author of "Data and Diagnosis Driven Selling." They discuss the intricacies of sales in the unique microclimates of San Francisco, the necessity of a data-driven sales process, and the difference between sales methodology and process.

Outbound is 3x harder than it used to be.We dig into what's happened, and what you can do to make it work.(00:00) - Introduction (01:30) - Challenges with outbound right now (04:39) - The most prevalent channel (11:08) - What it means now (15:29) - Get the message right (19:06) - Let's cut it (25:46) - Are you still a fit? SourcesPipeline from sales development (Ray Rike)1000-1400 touchers per opp (Jeremy Donovan)

Chris was a guest speaker for the SaaS Metrics Palooza, happening live online from October 10-12, coordinated by benchmark.it. For this fireside chat, Chris sat down with Ray Rike to discuss the importance of reevaluating marketing metrics and strategies to drive revenue growth. Chris shares his insights on the need to shift from lead generation to demand generation, and how companies can create, capture, and convert demand effectively. He emphasizes the importance of aligning marketing and sales efforts to optimize revenue generation and highlights the flaws in traditional measurement models. Chris also provides practical advice for CFOs and CEOs on how to allocate marketing budgets and make data-driven strategic decisions to achieve superior returns on their go-to-market investments. Key Takeaways -Shifting from lead generation to demand generation is essential for aligning marketing and sales efforts and optimizing revenue generation. -Companies should focus on creating, capturing, and converting demand to drive revenue growth effectively. -Allocating marketing budgets based on the different stages of the revenue process can lead to better ROI and scalability. -Analyzing sales velocity and buyer intent can help identify the most effective channels and programs for revenue generation. -Bold and innovative strategies are necessary to achieve significant pipeline and revenue growth.

“It comes down to understanding all the metrics used in your business, not in the SaaS industry as a whole. You do need to understand what's important and relevant to your business. And most importantly, think like a business owner.”Welcome to another episode of the SaaS Leader Interview Series! This time, we chat with Carter Severns, VP of Marketing at Place, about how to get a seat at the table and what you need to know to go from Marketing Manager to VP of Marketing.Carter shares insights on thinking like a business owner and gaining financial clarity as a marketer. Carter emphasizes the importance of understanding unit economics, key metrics, and financial terminology to contribute strategically. He encourages marketers to ask the right questions about burn rate, cash runway, average sales cycle, CAC to LTV, and renewal rates to gain transparency into the business. By aligning marketing efforts with revenue goals, marketers can have a seat at the table and drive business growth.Throughout the conversation, Carter highlights the value of continuous learning and acquiring diverse skills, especially in a startup environment. He recommends building relationships with senior leaders who can provide exposure to broader business discussions. Carter also suggests resources such as Ray Rike's insights on RevOps, Brandon's CEO at Place, and "The Little Black Book of SaaS" for enhancing financial understanding. Tune in as we explore the importance of financial clarity for marketers and their impact on business success!In this episode, we talk about:Financial educationMarketing promotionBusiness education Timestamps:[00:01] Introduction[01:14] Carter's background and diverse marketing experience[03:14] Benefits of working in a startup environment[04:27] Thinking like a business owner[06:47] Getting involved in broader business conversations as a marketing manager[09:27] Gaining financial clarity and asking the right questions[13:01] Tying marketing efforts to revenue goals for a seat at the table[15:06] The level of financial literacy required for marketers[17:00] Dealing with a leadership team lacking financial maturity[18:59] Expanding beyondAbout Carter SevernsCarter is a husband, dad, and marketer based out of Dallas, TX. For the past decade, he has been running growth and marketing for B2B, SaaS, and growth-stage companies. Throughout his career, he has built a reputation for executing go-to-market strategy, starting marketing from scratch, and being a revenue-focused leader for high-growth companies.Connect with Carter Severns on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carter-severns/ Check out Place's Little Black Book of SaaS.Join the Flying CatsStill feeling your stomach drop whenever you have to report organic growth to leadership? Things are about to change.Website: https://www.flyingcatmarketing.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/flying-cat-marketing

SaaS Talk™ dives deep into the world of Software as a Service, discussing the successes and hurdles that C-suite leaders in the SaaS industry encounter.Co-hosted by Ray Rike, CEO of Rev Ops Squared, and Dave Kellogg, Executive In Residence at Balderton Capital and Principal at Dave Kellogg Consulting, this podcast brings forth insights and perspectives from esteemed SaaS leaders. They share knowledge and experience on a wide array of topics, including SaaS strategy, business model innovation, customer success management, revenue operations, SaaS metrics, infrastructure and security, and data-driven decision-making.Whether you're a C-suite executive in a SaaS company, an ambitious tech entrepreneur, or simply eager to delve into the SaaS landscape, SaaS Talk has you covered. Our guests reveal their real-world experiences and practical advice, along with their perspectives on emerging trends and technologies in AI, Machine Learning, and Cloud Services.If you're eager to stay at the forefront in the rapidly evolving world of SaaS, tune in to SaaS Talk. Discover what it takes to excel as a C-suite leader in today's dynamic and ever-changing tech landscape.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In today's SaaS Fuel™ episode, Ray Rike joins SaaS Fuel to discuss how he helped develop the industry's largest (and first) interactive, real-time benchmarking database, saaskpibenchmarks.comEpisode SponsorChampion Leadership Group – https://championleadership.com/Navigating Success Together 2023 Virtual Event Key Takeaways[1:51] The importance of metrics [10:52] Customer CAC ratio versus existing customer expansion cap ratio[13:51] About saaskpibenchmarks.com[14:52] Measuring the return on investment of customer success and responsible forecasting[15:41] Using benchmarks properly [17:13] Customer Success responsibilities[17:52 ] What Investors Look For [20:30] The SaaS Metrics Board[23:10] Three things that make financing deals difficult for SaaS Companies.[31:09] Three things your organization can do to impact net dollar retention – and how to measure it's working[38:18] SaaS metric and benchmark analysis example[43:26] Final thoughts and where to contact Ray Tweetable Quotes[1:51] Metrics and the associated benchmarks are the best way to inform decision-makingfor a fast-growing SaaS company. I also believe that metrics provide a great alignment foundation between the organizations responsible for customer acquisition, retention and expansion, marketing sales and customer success.[15:41] Benchmarks, just like metrics, aren't absolute. They're not one hundred percent accurate…but benchmarks are directionally very instructive and insightful.[30:26] So many of the VCs have great educational content about the metrics that matter, and B2B SaaS. If you just spend an hour a week kind of following two or three great thought leaders or learning about one metric from a venture capital website, you're gonna be so much better informed than the head of marketing, head of sales, or head of product. You're also going to be positioned to be that CEO in the future. Guest ResourcesRay Rike - https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/rayrikesaaskpibenchmarks.comTwitter: @ Rayrike revopssquared.comhttps://www.revopssquared.com/metrics-that-measure-uphttps://www.key.com/businesses-institutions/industry-expertise/library-saas-resources.jspTodd Gardner – https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddgardner1/SaaS Capital: https://bit.ly/3WYmBxQLauren Kelly/Opex- https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-kelley-13972Ben Murray - SaaS CEO - https://www.thesaascfo.com/about-ben/https://www.linkedin.com/in/benrmurrayChelsea Stoner - https://www.battery.com/people/chelsea-stoner/

Metrics are essential to measure, manage, and predict performance in revenue. But when almost everything is trackable these days, exactly what do you need to keep your finger on? In this episode, Warren and Lupe are joined by Ray Rike, Founder and CEO (Chief Evangelism Officer) at RevOps Squared. They discuss the staple and expanded metrics sets for every CRO, explain how you can use metrics to help better understand and align your revenue teams (and why CEOs are responsible for clearing that path), three actions to include during your CRO-prep years, how to transition your metrics, who should be a CRO's right hand person on metrics, plus why you need to check you're collecting and actioning your metrics right.

An average company uses between 12-35 metrics and dozens of KPIs. But do they all work? In the second of a two-part series, Ray Rike, Founder and CEO of RevOps Squared, along with Howard and Alastair, lean into the modern metrics and KPIs that matter most in times of economic stress. We'll address vanity metrics vs. items that actually help us understand the growth potential of any business. Follow the Hosts on LinkedIn: Alastair Woolcock (CSO, Revenue.io) Howard Brown (CEO, Revenue.io) And our Special Guest: Ray Rike (Founder & CEO, RevOps Squared) Sponsored by: Revenue.io | Powering high-performing revenue teams with real-time guidance Explore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe: Sales Enablement Podcast Selling with Purpose Podcast RevOps Podcast

An average company uses between 12-35 metrics and dozens of KPIs. But do they all work? In this two-part series, Ray Rike, Founder and CEO of RevOps Squared, along with Howard and Alastair, lean into the modern metrics and KPIs that matter most in times of economic stress. We'll address vanity metrics vs. items that actually help us understand the growth potential of any business. Follow the Hosts on LinkedIn: Alastair Woolcock (CSO, Revenue.io) Howard Brown (CEO, Revenue.io) And our Special Guest: Ray Rike (Founder & CEO, RevOps Squared) Sponsored by: Revenue.io | Powering high-performing revenue teams with real-time guidance Explore the Revenue.io Podcast Universe: Sales Enablement Podcast Selling with Purpose Podcast RevOps Podcast

In today's episode, Allan and Lauren talk to Ray Rike, Founder and CEO of RevOps Squared, about Annual Projected Revenue. What type of pricing model does this metric work for? What factors do you have to consider when looking at Annual Projected Revenue? What metrics work in harmony with Annual Projected Revenue? What does good, better, best look like for forecast accuracy for this metric? “There's buzz around usage based pricing. If you are considering that, go beyond what Excel says and what the upside can be. What's the infrastructure of the process and the risk that I need to be prepared for to manage how I'm going to forecast and tell my investors what's happening right now.” If you love learning about metrics, you'll love MetricHQ, Klipfolio's online resource for all-things metrics and KPIs: https://www.klipfolio.com/metrics/. 

Ray Rike, RevOps Squared's Chief Evangelism Officer discusses lead and lagging revenue indicators. We dive deep into key performance indicators and what they signal for your business. We also look at how different organizations track key metrics depending on their specific business goals. Show NotesConnect With: Ray Rike: Website // LinkedInThe Rev Gen Podcast: Email // LinkedIn // TwitterI Hear Everything: IHearEverything.com // LinkedIn // TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ray Rike, RevOps Squared's Chief Evangelism Officer discusses how to measure revenue operations. We take a look at the different metrics and key performance indicators you need to monitor, and the frequency at which you need to monitor them to achieve revenue operations success. Show NotesConnect With: Ray Rike: Website // LinkedInThe Rev Gen Podcast: Email // LinkedIn // TwitterI Hear Everything: IHearEverything.com // LinkedIn // TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to another episode of the Modern SaaS Finance podcast hosted by David Appel, head of Software/SaaS at Sage Intacct. On todays episode, we are glad to have Ray Rike, Founder and CEO of RevOps Squared join us on an episode about important metrics SaaS companies should care about, the valuable insights from the SaaS efficiency and performance benchmark study as well as the key proactive takeaways a SaaS Finance Leader can gain from it. Take the survey here to see where you stand. Ray has over 30 years of experience in subscription-based software, service, and SaaS companies. His passion for data-driven, metrics informed decision making has enabled companies to accelerate revenue performance. For more episodes on the Modern SaaS Finance, subscribe to our podcast channel on all major streaming platforms. If you are a SaaS finance leader or expert and will like to join our Modern SaaS Finance community, click here to request access

Are your reps generating enough pipeline? It's a question that keeps every sales leader up at night. So Revenue.io, RevOps², TenBound and DemandBase decided to do some research. On today's episode, Ray Rike (Founder of RevOps²) joins us to discuss the results. In addition to getting pipeline and benchmark averages from over 200 companies, we found that there's a sweet spot for how much pipeline and revenue your sales reps should create (if you go past it you'll actually create less revenue). So if you want to start counting sheep instead of pipeline numbers, this is the episode you need to put all your sales worries to bed. Books Mentioned: Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers by Geoffrey A. Moore Traversing the Traction Gap by Bruce Cleveland 2022 Sales Pipeline and Revenue Benchmarks

Ray Rike, RevOps Squared's Chief Evangelism Officer discusses lead and lagging revenue indicators. We dive deep into key performance indicators and what they signal for your business. We also look at how different organizations track key metrics depending on their specific business goals. Show NotesConnect With: Ray Rike: Website // LinkedInThe Rev Gen Podcast: Email // LinkedIn // TwitterI Hear Everything: IHearEverything.com // LinkedIn // TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ray Rike, RevOps Squared's Chief Evangelism Officer discusses how to measure revenue operations. We take a look at the different metrics and key performance indicators you need to monitor, and the frequency at which you need to monitor them to achieve revenue operations success. Show NotesConnect With: Ray Rike: Website // LinkedInThe Rev Gen Podcast: Email // LinkedIn // TwitterI Hear Everything: IHearEverything.com // LinkedIn // TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today's guest is Ray Rike of RevOps2. Ray is going to share insights with us about benchmarking, key performance indicators, and how to leverage the technology that's out there in new ways, so that you can get organized around some key metrics that will drive performance in the areas that you want to improve in. And to be clear, this isn't information for only Fortune-500 companies; even small companies and startups can apply these principles to help drive more growth and help you become a healthier company. Ray has over 30 years of experience in subscription-based software, service, and SaaS companies. His passion for data-driven, metrics-informed decision making started with his selection to the GE Executive Management Development program. These experiences, coupled with his innate analytical orientation provides the foundation for his mission to enable companies to embrace a data-driven, KPI informed decision making approach to accelerate revenue performance. After listening to today's episode, visit Ray's website to learn more about Ray and RevOps!

Conversational Intelligence (CI) is a technology that materially enhances the effectiveness of every B2B Sales professional.CI has quickly become a "must-have" component in the B2B sales tech stack and has become a feature in most Sales Engagement Platforms...WHAT is the future of Conversational Intelligence?Our host, Ray Rike, recently spoke with Amit Bendov, Founder and CEO of Gong.io, to discuss the vision and future of Gong and the Revenue Reality.Amit's premise was "is there a better way to get market feedback" from every communication channel into the CRM without requiring manual data input.What was the initial catalyst for Gong and CI? Amit's previous company hit a wall and had revenue growth challenges for two consecutive quarters. After scouring every record he could in the CRM platform and speaking with the leaders across sales and marketing, he quickly realized there was no single version of the truth!Recently, Gong introduced the vision of "Revenue Reality" which is the mission to help companies understand the reality of their market and their market interactions. Unlocking the power of this insight is behind the next phase of Gong's evolution.Conversational Intelligence goes far beyond "recording conversations". The higher order of value is to gain additional insights into what the conversations are foreshadowing and then surfacing those insights without human intervention.Seventy percent of Gong customers have expanded the use beyond sales and into the post-sales organizations, including Customer Success and Product Management. These insights allow the product team to be "served up" the most relevant comments and insights from customer interactions with any other function. Leveraging conversational intelligence dramatically increases the product team's ability to benefit from direct feedback from the customer, without listening to a 30-60 minute conversation, and to identify common themes and trends across multiple customers and even buyers in the prospecting phase of the buyer's journey.One of the most intriguing parts of the Gong ecosystem is Gong Labs which surfaces insights from millions of interactions across thousands of companies. One example of a finding was that multi-threading the sales process across multiple individuals, including having a C-Level executive from your company in the process, DOUBLES the win rate. Additional information that Gong serves up that comes from their proprietary data is the number of questions that a salesperson asks during an introductory or discovery that predicts the highest probability to become a customer. Another interesting insight is that the more time spent on speaking while presenting a "PowerPoint" has an inverse correlation to win rates.One final insight is that during a discovery call, the close rate dramatically increases when NO slides were used, and the prospect engagement level rises. When using slides/presentations, the salesperson spends 25% more time speaking and asks 21% fewer questions!"Accept the Losses" is a comment Amit made in a recent LinkedIn post. The story behind this comment is that you can invest far too much time in understanding the primary reason you lose a deal and even identify false positives in the analysis. The primary goal behind this comment is to "simplify" the value proposition and reduce the number of variables that can lead to a loss. For example, Gong focuses on why their solution is BETTER, but it is not the low-cost solution - thus, knowing they will lose a few deals due to price is an acceptable revenue reality.Amit Bendov is a true leader in the B2B SaaS industry, and our conversation surfaces many great insights and ideas to accelerate revenue growth and gain revenue reality!

Marketers are lying to themselves and their sales teams. They complain when sales can't seem to close their MQLs into won opportunities, but let's face it, the leads don't close because they're anything but qualified. It's the reason sales have such disdain for marketing. Instead of trying to flood sales with as many email addresses as you can, you should be trying to filter them the highest intent leads out there—the 1% that are ready to buy. We're talking about demand generation in dark social. But how do you measure that? How do you know it's working? In this episode, Chris talks with Ray Rike about how to optimize for high intent leads and the metrics that will tell you if you're doing it properly. Thanks to our friends at Hatch for producing this episode. Get unlimited podcast editing at usehatch.fm.

Sangram Vajre, Founder and Chief Evangelist at Terminus and host of the Flip my Funnel Forecast, joined our host Ray Rike to discuss his MOVE Go-To-Market framework.Sangram ran marketing at Pardot, an early marketing automation vendor for salespeople, which Salesforce ultimately acquired and co-founded Terminus seven years ago. Terminus is a true pioneer in providing a platform for Account-Based Marketing programs, which in today's B2B SaaS world represents about 44% of total marketing investment in customer acquisition programs.The first thing Sangram shared was that marketing and sales need to SHARE the same "REVENUE" number. Marketing's ultimate value must be measured by "Sales". If the two executives do not share the same number, Go-To-Market challenges are soon to follow.What exactly is a "Chief Evangelist"? Guy Kawasaki, Apple's early Chief Evangelist, said, "evangelism in a tech company is the purest form of sales"! A chief evangelist is the representative of the market on behalf of the practitioners. Sangram has been doing this for over seven years in the world of Account-Based Marketing.Next, we move to Sangram's Go-To-Market framework, which also happens to be the name of his latest book - "MOVE". MOVE focuses on four primary questions every company must ask as they "move" through each growth phase. Those four questions are:1 - Who should we market to?2 - What do we need to do to operate more effectively3 - When can we scale our business4 - Where can we grow the most These four questions relate directly to the MOVE acronym:M - MarketO - OperationsV - VelocityE - ExpansionMcKinsey says the primary reason companies fail as they begin to scale above $10M is the lack of evolving the Go-To-Market strategy and tactics.The four primary "Go-To-Market" strategy questions do not change at each growth stage, but the answers and resultant approach must change to maneuver through each stage of the growth journey successfully.Another framework MOVE includes the 3P framework:P - Problem Market FitP - Product Market FitP - Platform Market FitEach stage of the 3Ps does not directly correlate with company size (revenue). Sangram shared that some companies can hit $10M and even $20M before they move from Problem-Market Fit to Product-Market Fit. Similar to the concepts in "Crossing the Chasm" by Geoffrey Moore, the issue is when a company attempts to move the one phase of the #ps to the next phase - a classic chasm crossing challenge.Sangram is a wealth of information. More importantly, he has invested most of his career in learning, understanding, and now sharing his experiences and insights in an easy-to-understand yet robust Go-To-Market framework called MOVE.This conversation is a great listen for every B2B tech founder, CEO, and Go-To-Market executive regardless of which stage of growth your company is in to help cross the chasm to the next phase of the growth journey.

Ray Rike is the CEO & founder of RevOps Squared, a company that conducts benchmarking research across a wide variety of KPI categories in the B2B SaaS industry enabling SaaS companies to exponentially increase customer acquisition, customer expansion, and customer retention efficacy. Ray Rike has more that 30 years now of experience in the SaaS industry, his passion for data-driven & metric-based decision making has helped him succeed across five SaaS company exits. During this interview we cover: 00:00 Contentfy, your On-Demand Content Editing & Repurposing Team 01:02 - Intro 01:24 -  Ray's 5 Exits & Journey Up Until RevOps Squared 07:56 - Exit Strategy, Will Salesforce or Hubsput Buy My SaaS? 14:27 - Building for an Exit? 17:38 - Advice Ray Would Tell His 25 Years Old Self 20:54 -  What does Success Mean to Ray Today 35:51 - Get in Touch With Ray Mentions: https://www.revopssquared.com/ (RevOps Squared) People: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tjreilly/ (Tom Reilly) Get In Touch With Ray: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayrike/ (Ray's Linkedin) Tag us & follow: https://www.facebook.com/HorizenCapitalOfficial/ (Facebook)  https://www.facebook.com/HorizenCapitalOfficial/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/horizen-capital (LinkedIn)  https://www.linkedin.com/company/horizen-capital https://www.instagram.com/saasdistrict/ (Instagram)  https://www.instagram.com/saasdistrict/ (https://www.instagram.com/saasdistrict/) More about Akeel: Twitter - https://twitter.com/AkeelJabber (https://twitter.com/AkeelJabber) LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/akeel-jabbar (https://linkedin.com/in/akeel-jabbar) More Podcast Sessions - https://horizencapital.com/saas-podcast (https://horizencapital.com/saas-podcast)

Ray Rike is the CEO & founder of RevOps Squared, a company that conducts benchmarking research across a wide variety of KPI categories in the B2B SaaS industry enabling SaaS companies to exponentially increase customer acquisition, customer expansion, and customer retention efficacy. Ray Rike has more than 30 years now of experience in the SaaS industry, his passion for data-driven & metric-based decision-making has helped him succeed across five SaaS company exits. During this interview we cover: 00:00 Contentfy, your On-Demand Content Editing & Repurposing Team 01:02 - Intro 02:08 - What exactly are Revenue Operations & Why You Need it 03:26 - Metrics & Benchmarks Helping SaaS Companies 07:01 - What's the Strategy When Looking at the Overall Industry Performance 12:41 - Best Tools to Keep Track of Your SaaS Metrics 15:47 - Where RevOps Squared is Gething Insights & Industry Data 19:44 -  Hard Decisions to Improve Your Performance Based on Metrics 26:36 -  The Most Important SaaS Metrics and KPI's 31:27 - How valuable is Your Product, What Investors Want to See. 33:00 - Outro Mentions: https://www.revopssquared.com/ (RevOps Squared) https://www.revopssquared.com/benchmarks (SaaS Benchmarks) https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/saas-metrics-2/ (SaaS Metrics) https://www.insightsquared.com/ (Insight Squared) https://saasoptics.com/ (SaaS Optics) https://www.sageintacct.com/ (Sage Intacct) https://www.demandbase.com/resources/account-based-marketing-101/ (Demand Base) Get In Touch With Ray: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayrike/ (Ray's Linkedin) Tag us & follow: https://www.facebook.com/HorizenCapitalOfficial/ (Facebook)  https://www.facebook.com/HorizenCapitalOfficial/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/horizen-capital (LinkedIn)  https://www.linkedin.com/company/horizen-capital https://www.instagram.com/saasdistrict/ (Instagram)  https://www.instagram.com/saasdistrict/ (https://www.instagram.com/saasdistrict/) More about Akeel: Twitter - https://twitter.com/AkeelJabber (https://twitter.com/AkeelJabber) LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/akeel-jabbar (https://linkedin.com/in/akeel-jabbar) More Podcast Sessions - https://horizencapital.com/saas-podcast (https://horizencapital.com/saas-podcast)

Eileen Voynick has held senior operating roles and board leadership roles at companies including SAP, Oracle, Siebel Systems, All Scripts, Sparta Systems, and Chair of the Board at Jefferson Health.In this episode, Eileen shares the evolution of Customer Success, both as a function and as a focus in the enterprise software industry.Eileen's initial foray into Customer Success was formed in part by the large SAP partner ecosystem.  At SAP, Customer Success was focused on the business value that a customer can derive from the use of their software.  A consistent theme across every software deployment model is that business value and satisfaction have to be understood from the C-Suite all the way down to the individual user.Customer Experience has always been important in the software industry and has an elevated role in the "Cloud".  Eileen highlight that if you look at the switching costs of Cloud deployed versus on-premise are very similar in highly regulated fields such as health care and financial services. "Customer Experience" may have a higher focus today however, that is not primarily due to the deployment model, but rather the evolution of software becoming more common across industries, functions, and processes.Creating a "Customer Journey Map" which includes every touch from initial touchpoint to full implementation and deployment is a critical task to complete for every Cloud company.  This includes ensuring that customer touchpoints are also included post successful deployment to ensure that customer engagement is maintained across every customer stakeholder beyond one to two months before a renewal discussion.We asked Eileen, "what's next?" in the world of Customer Experience,  Product Management becoming more focused on customer experience versus feature/function will become table stakes. Eilleen's example of how a vendor wowed doctors after watching how they performed specific tasks and then came back with a prototype that was met with astonishment by the potential customer.At the end of the day, customer experience boils down to the "business value" that a software provider delivers to each customer. When the question "who owns an account after it's closed?" was asked, co-host Ray Rike responded with some benchmarks including, CS now consumes 11% of revenue at the median in B2B Cloud companies.  Ray shared that Customer Success should own customer value-based upon user engagement, the value received from using the software but CS should NOT own up-sells, and cross-sells,  it should be a "team" approach to ensure customer satisfaction and thus customer retention + growth.Eileen views the CSM as a great facilitator that orchestrates priorities across their company to ensure customer success.  In the "land and expand" model, she shared that having an account management team that works closely with Customer Success to identify, nurture and close up-sells and cross-sells is a preferred model.  A caveat is that based upon the maturity of the company, this approach will vary.The CRO needs to take leadership in establishing a sales-oriented, customer value culture that centers around the customer as job 1. This will go a long way towards building cross-functional alignment.Lastly, we covered the role of the board of directors in helping companies make the Digital Transformation?  Eileen shared that over the last 10 years, her primary role as a board member has centered around product and Go-To-Market strategy which are both core to a successful digital transformation journey.  Eileen shared that as a board member, understanding the investor thesis and the company objectives to ensure they are aligned is one of her key responsibilities.Finally, Eileen shared that being a lifelong learner with strong active listening skills are critical for early career professSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ray Rike is the founder and CEO of RevOps Squared, and host of the Metrics that Measure Up podcast. On today's episode we're talking all things sales metrics, the good, the bad and the ugly. Which ones works, which don't. And we also dive into the metrics sales leaders and sellers should be tracking and analyzing that actually move the needle on sales performance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this inaugural  episode of the Selling the Cloud podcast,  we were joined Greg Holmes, the Chief Revenue Officer of Zoom Video Communications between 2013 and 2020.Your hosts of the Selling the Cloud podcast are Mark Petruzzi, Digital Sales Transformation  consultant at Accenture and Ray Rike founder and CEO of RevOps Squared, the B2B SaaS KPI Benchmarking Index company.In this episode, Greg shares how Zoom cultivated a "happiness culture" from the very early days at Zoom.  Happiness as a concept was first applied to how Zoom made customers feel, and then to employees.  They even anointed a  CHO - Chief Happiness Officer.Eric, the founder of Zoom actually gave every new Zoom employee a copy of the book, Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh which created the foundation of the Zoom culture. As Zoom grew beyond a single office,  happiness crews were established in every office around the globe to promote and amplify the company culture.Zoom differentiated their solution by being purpose built for video communications in the collaborative, mobile age to make video communications easier and better from solutions developed for more traditional environments.Early on, a key role of the Zoom sales organization was to be the "voice of the customer" and ensuring that in the early days of product maturation, customer feedback was constantly shared back to the product group.Authenticity was a core pillar of the Zoom sales hiring profile from the early days.  Many of the interview questions for new sales hires were asking for examples of times when they delivered happiness to their customers.   In fact, an early sales person was hired based upon the happiness he delivered to Zoom employees when he was a server at a local restaurant that Zoom employees frequented.As Zoom scaled, finding the key performance indicators by sales team (Enterprise vs SMB vs Commercial) was key to ensuring every team understand the performance metrics that optimized the probability of success.  Zoom's early success was found in the education market, and then they moved on to the SMB marketing (< 1,000 employees) and Enterprise (> 1,000 employees) in the first few years.Zoom also took at outside-in approach to customer acquisition by beginning with mapping the "buyer journey" and building a sales process that followed the buying process versus trying to force their sales process onto the buyer.We then touched on the power and importance of "resilience" in being a top sales performer.   Greg shared that resilience is built upon life experiences, and that seeking out difficult situations and tough challenges is a great way to build resilience.  Similar to asking questions about experience delivering happiness, Greg would always ask about the biggest challenges a candidate had faced in life, and what they learned by encountering and hopefully, overcoming the challenges.Lastly, Greg discussed the power of being humble, and perfecting the art of praise.  The unique take on praise was not only learning how to give praise, but also how to accept praise.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.