ventox35

Sales Leader

Valued Contributor

PMF: What to do if you don't have it

It's evident that our PMF is not what we thought it would be. It's year 4 for the business, and our churn is almost outpacing our new revenue. That ain't good!

Any advice on how you've seen other companies successfully rework their product on the fly to reduce the churn?

I'm thinking I need to totally blow everything up and rework from the ground up..perhaps that's a bit dramatic??

UPDATE: Perhaps I could be more clear. We ARE in the market. We did raise a series A. We do have a desirable product. But the Churn rate is unsustainable, and our product doesn't quite live up to industry standards. I personally created our PMF and figured out what people actually want, and the product has shifted over time. But something is still missing. What steps are needed to be taken in order to cut down on the churn.

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8

13 comments

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braintank

Politicker

6

Enterprise Account Executive

Unless you're a founder, get out now. Can't pivot on the fly.

ventox35

Politicker

0

Sales Leader

I posted an update to hopefully provide more clarity. Getting out is definitely a consideration, but i think it's salvageable

braintank

Politicker

2

Enterprise Account Executive

If you're churning more customers than you're bringing on, I'm not sure it is. Sorry...

jefe

Arsonist

0

🍁

^^^^

someoneinsales

Tycoon

6

Director of Sales

4 years and still no PMF? 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

It does take a bit to find PMF for startups, but if you dont have it after 4 years and many customers leaving, that is bad news bears.

If you are the founder, you need to put the customers you have to work for you. Create a Customer Advisor Board and get them to talk to you about the real challenges they use you for. Tell them what they calculated the ROI of your tool to be. Figure out why they became customers and why they would stay with you.

Only way to find product market fit is to listen to the market and understand the ROI and problems you solve.

ventox35

Politicker

0

Sales Leader

interesting. you see, i'm afraid to even ask my customers to participate in something like that, for fear that we aren't delivering as we promised.

fujidale

Big Shot

1

Account Executive

Could your customers be already churning because maybe nobody is asking them “where are we struggling to help you achieve the business outcomes you bought our solution for?”

CuriousFox

WR Officer

3

🦊

Is it the market? Does your product actually "solve" issues for the client?

ventox35

Politicker

0

Sales Leader

Yes. But it's easy for them to leave us for what they're used to. How do we get our product up to industry standard? We don't deliver on it as effectively as we should

TennisandSales

Politicker

0

Head Of Sales

how do you get your prodcut up to industry standards? my man/woman, that is NOT your problem.

YOu have zero control over that being in sales.

You can find answers to these questions:
1. why is it so easy to leave you for what they are use too?
2. what is lacking compared to the rest of the industry

then product will have to determine if they have the capacity to make the changes needed.

TennisandSales

Politicker

2

Head Of Sales

ok so....if you dont have PMF then you are fucked and need to leave. you cant change that.

but if you cant keep customers happy then that is a different story and also may not be something you can fix.

are you responsible for renewals?

I would make sure that when you are selling you really understand WHAT they want to accomplish with the product. then when they sign on, make sure you ALL align on what success looks like.

this time next year, what do we need to be doing to say this has been a successful year.

stay aligned to that, monitor their progress with the product, check in every 3 months and it should be easier.

if something is fundamentally wrong with the product still, then again, leave.

revenuegenerator

Praised Answer

0

Sales Management

Tough to answer without knowing the churn reasons, and if you're too scared to even approach the customers and ask. Then my guy, you already have your answer. G.T.F.O.O.T.

BUT if you do have the runway, and are selling SaaS, your execs could explore pivoting to a freemium model. Spend time building up a free user base, while you figure how to do develop, market and license a new commercial offering (new pmf, etc).

secks

Executive

0

Account Executive

That sounds like a very leaky bucket.1. Listen to your customers
2. Offer the right things at the right time (think timeliness of service, support, training, offering insights into customer ROI)
3. Offer a great customer experience (company mission, communities, events)
4. Reduce the barriers to switching (are hidden change costs driving customers away for one example)
A successful company I worked with made a company-wide goal to reduce churn inside of 120 days. All departments (CS, Product, Support, Sales) developed plans to work towards better alignment.

One of the things sales contributed: Reducing sales from "bad fit" customers.

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