Warm Takes - Episode 8: SaaS (Software as a Snake oil)
"Software is eating the world." Marc Andreessen said this back in 2011. If you don't know who Marc Andreessen is, google can help you out. And if you do know him, it's highly likely you've already been blocked by him on twitter.
This phrase is a common refrain among the tech crowd and one that, to a certain degree holds a lot of truth. Technology, especially software, has infiltrated almost every area of our lives. We interact with it on a near constant basis even when we'd rather not (ever tried to buy a dumb TV?). Software has provided people with the means to explore their inner creativity, reach large audiences that were untouchable in the past, and organize their lives and data in unforeseen ways.
There are many reasons why software is winning people over. But, like most good things, software has gone a little overboard in its promises.
If the personal computer laid the foundation for Silicon Valley, Software as a Service is the steel beams that let it reach the sky. SaaS vows solutions. It offers the entire world wrapped in a pretty UI. It promises access to your data so you can make better business and personal decisions. But like a hammer, SaaS is a tool. And a tool needs to be used and applied properly in order to be helpful. Which is why so much of SaaS is snake oil. The promises being made are mirages. In marketing alone, there are thousands of software companies offering a slight variation on basically the same service. CRMs that are all excel with more buttons. Tracking that provides the same data on a new dashboard. Different skins, same snake.
There is value in software that is easy to use but actually using the software is where any real magic happens. How many SaaS subscriptions do you have right now that you barely use? Or that you started using and stopped? How many times have you signed up for a new project management software only to realize that it isn't actually the software stopping you from hitting your project goals, but your lack of ability to focus on them?
I know that sounds a little harsh for a warm take and we might be moving into hot take territory, but it's important to recognize this before you sign up for your next magic bullet, regardless of the free trial. It's just a tool. A tool that may or may not help you and definitely won't without a deep understanding of the goals your are trying to accomplish. You can't buy a tool and change your business over night. You can buy a tool to make something you are struggling with easier, but that's about it.
Recently, I company I worked for wanted to get involved in SMS messaging to help with the sales process. We tried out a SaaS company that promised huge conversion rates. The pitch was good. They compared the cost of using their product with how much you would be making. It sounded like a great solution. But I remained skeptical because I always am. Once we got into the service it became very clear that the only thing they really offered was the ability to schedule text messages. Sure, this is better than having to send out a bunch of text messages to customers manually, but the real bread and butter that made any of these SMS campaigns useful was what you said in those messages. The "magic" was in how good you were at copywriting, not how easy it was to schedule your sends.
And this is my problem with most SaaS pitches. The promise oversteps and your left with a monthly payment on something without any real impact.