# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending August 14, 2020 Published: 14 August 2020 Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-august-14-2020 ## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK All of it! ChartMogul have compiled their version of the “ultimate" [SaaS Metrics Cheat Sheet](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#) Link: https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit# ## 2. COMPENSATION Ready to hire some salespeople for your team? [Read this post from Jason Lemkin](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#) on how to construct a framework for the first SaaS sales compensation plans. Then (shameless-plug) - check my deeper dive articles on [SDR](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#) and [AE](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#) compensation benchmarks. Link: https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit# ## 3. PERSONALIZATION SaaS marketers are turning to personalization more and more to increase their conversion rates, improve customer success, and increase the quality of sales/marketing funnels. [Great article here from Chart Mogul](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#) on the (modern-day) personalization fundamentals. As a teaser: Personalization [reduces acquisition costs as much as 50%](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#) and [87% of companies see a lift in key growth metrics](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#) when they employ personalization. Link: https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit# ## 4. CONTENT Just like Sales, at the early stages, the creation of content also sits with the founders. I’ve put together a nifty 3 step guide from FirstRound Capital: Step 1. [How to position your startup](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#), Step 2. [how to write well](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#), and Step 3 [top tips for telling stories](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#). Link: https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit# ## 5. INVESTMENT When taking on money from investors, they often request a very specific kind of share from you - preferred stock (or "preference shares" in the article). [Here is what this means and why](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#). Link: https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit# ## 6. PRODUCT This one is for all you product managers. Lenny Rachitsky has [curated a list of templates and frameworks for Product Management](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#) (there are also a bunch of others in there too) - definitely a bookmark-able page! Link: https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit# ## 7. WEBSITE Do you have a pretty high churn rate from your home page or landing pages? Maybe you have a trust problem. [This article outlining the Trust Pyramid is very much worth a read](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#) but TL;DR A website must meet users' basic trust needs before a visitor can be expected to engage meaningfully. With the Trust Pyramid, there are 5 distinct levels of trust-based engagement, each with separate design requirements. Link: https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit# ## 8. SALES Hands up if you like cold calling! To quote [the opening from this article](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#) "Cold calling is like a neat suit. It gets the job done and it never goes out of style”. But read it! It’s a seriously comprehensive guide to getting cold calls done successfully! Link: https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit# ## 9. ENTERPRISE SaaS in the Enterprise is so hot right now! But it’s hard! [This article equates it to riding up and over a rogue wave](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#) - it’s a bit extreme but to add pragmatic layers on top of that dramatic metaphor [Enterprise SaaS margins](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#) are experiencing significant downward pressure as [commoditization and competition pressures](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#) increase. Link: https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit# ## 10. REVENUE GROWTH This one is from the archives as I consider it one of the best presentations at [SaaStr Annual](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#) - it’s from [Mark Roberge](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#) of [Stage 2 Capital](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#) and Harvard Business School. Providing a handy [step-by-step guide to revenue growth](https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#) (downloadable PDF!) Link: https://sendgrid.com/marketing_campaigns/ui/campaigns/9385593/edit#