Software as a Disservice (SaaD)
Well, it’s been another week in Alice in Wonderland or the Matrix or some other head spinning vortex no one in their right mind can fathom. This time the story is about NetSuite and Salesforce and the tragedy that has become the SaaS sales model. Oh my.
Renewal time came with NetSuite only for us to discover the wrong package has been on order for quite some time. 20 phone calls and dozens of emails later, a downgrade is impossible and the price stays firm. I think it’s called forced bundling. Why an SMB must buy a mid-market package for 100 users including a marketing automation package we have already bought through Marketo is beyond me.
But no. Mr. Sales Guy says no such possibility. Take what you have or leave it. You are not allowed to make a change to your package.
Boo.
To really understand our options, we used a newco that is legitimate and called 1–800-Sales as a new NetSuite customer. They dished up the SMB package on a silver platter and said we can upgrade or downgrade anytime as our business ebbs and flows. They quoted a lower price and 50% first year discount. Ohhh how he wanted our business. Seems Mr. Sales Guy #2 would do whatever it took to win our new business. So, the new sales guy says one thing. The renewal guy says the exact opposite.
Time to pack up our toys. You see QuickBooks and Intuit offer a better, less-bloated solution that is web-based and looks like it was built recently. NetSuite is circa 90s and looks old. It’s a miracle what happens when you buy a service designed for you as the target market. NetSuite and its parent Oracle couldn’t be bothered. The Intuit price? About 1/5th what we have been paying which is another story and one my team will have to tell. (It’s too ironic to be overpaying for a financial system that is overkill but that’s for another time.)
While this saga with Netsuite was playing out, Salesforce came due and gave us a “sign today” order pretty much forgetting there are customers on the other end of the line. The “or else” is we will unplug you.
And so, the SaaS lads of today have become about as good as used car salespeople of yesteryear. In fact, the car guys and gals are better today because there is transparency and competition. In the SaaD land of SaaS they behave like utilities. Do it or we will unplug you. They act like PG&E or Comcast. Awful. They really are no better these days. We all know we can get better deals if we string along to month-end. Better even at quarter-end and at year-end? They will slash and burn to get your business leaving you wanting to take a shower.
SaaS sales have become a disgrace. The world thinks it’s technical prowess. They think we can’t unplug. But guess what. We can and will. And then they can take their ARR and renewal rate KPIs and wonder if they ever really mattered. They can just churn through another account rep and a gazillion BDRs and let the sales factory mill churn. So SaaD.