EP27: Growth During an Economic Downturn

In Demand: How to Grow Your SaaS to $1M ARR and Beyond

In this episode of In Demand, Asia Orangio, CEO of DemandMaven, breaks down the strategies successful companies have used to survive and grow through downturns and how to apply it to your business.

TL;DL:

• 1:00 - A lot of companies simply over-hired during the past couple years of growth and the layoffs now are correcting for that as opposed to a greater market downturn.
• 5:30 - In a true economic downturn, layoffs and cuts might not be your best strategy for future survival.
• 6:45 - There are lots of different levers that can lead to growth. Increasing leads and traffic, increasing in sales, increasing retained customers, increasing in upsells or cross sales, and increasing revenue by optimizing pricing.
• 8:05 - In an economic downturn the first step to take is to get default alive, meaning that you get to a position of not needing future investment to continue operating.
• 9:34 - The second step is checking for gaps. That means looking at your business from a product, market, model, and channel perspective. In an economic downturn big changes are happening in the market and that likely means your business needs to change.
• 13:15 - Step number three is refocusing on growth. The companies that succeed during a downturn are companies that tighten their belts, focus on leadership, and then refocus on growth before the market at large.
• 17:00 - If you're experiencing slowness with growth right now, there are likely root causes beyond just the economic downturn. You should be looking at and focusing on your highest LTV customers and identifying opportunities that create higher LTV long-term.