A Tale of Two Yard Sales

In my old neighborhood, the first weekend in October was the Neighborhood Yard Sale. And it was a capital-B Big Deal. For most of us, it was a chance to do a few minor decluttering or organization projects. But for a couple of my neighbors, it was an opportunity to fundraise for their favorite charities.

“Annie” and “Blythe” had very different approaches to yard sale preparation. Annie spent weeks in preparation and took on all of the tasks herself. Blythe, on the other hand, delegated the tasks to volunteers. 

Annie met her goal of $1,500. But, she also paid $200 to hire a trailer and movers to help. Plus, because she was the only person working, she didn’t have much time to engage with her shoppers. As a result, she didn’t enlist any long-term donors for her charity. 

Blythe and her crew of volunteers made nearly $2,000 at the yard sale. Plus, three of the shoppers were local business owners and expressed interest in sponsoring her organization. 

I couldn’t help but notice that their approaches were very similar to what we often see in SaaS implementation. 

Some organizations insist they will make more money if they keep onboarding in-house. Others prefer to keep the in-house team focused on oversight and strategy and outsource the implementation. 

Either way, because the demand for SaaS is growing so fast, organizations must be able to implement their new customers’ software equally as quick. The sooner you have your customers up and running, the faster you can realize recurring revenue. 

So, which makes more sense – in-house or outsourced implementation? There are pros and cons to both approaches. 

In-house employees are sometimes more knowledgeable about the product and can be more invested in growing relationships with customers. But, in-house implementation teams take longer to hire and train, and they’re more expensive. Plus, if business lags, they have nothing to do so they may leave – which means you get to start the hiring and training process all over again.

When you outsource, it’s not only faster and cheaper, it’s scalable. A client services manager can add or "pause" resources as business demands. And with the right partner, you can attack a backlog with a vengeance. 

At Core10, our implementation specialists are experienced and trained in a wide variety of software so they can be ready to move quickly, but not every provider takes that approach. Some other partners may take time to be brought up to speed on your software. 

According to a recent BetterCloud report, 73% of businesses say their applications will be SaaS by the end of 2020. BetterCloud also says that the fastest-growing SaaS companies scale their teams by 56% annually. Are you equipped to meet your customers’ growing demand? More importantly, are you prepared to meet the demands of your own rapid growth? 

Core10 can help you determine the best implementation approach for your goals and set you up for success. Our implementation services are flexible enough to scale as you need them, at a cost that’s often 30% less expensive than hiring full-time employees. 

If you are thinking about outsourcing your implementation needs, but don't know where to start, let's chat.