BC Startup Sales Podcast – Using SaaS Discounts To Drive Sales with Bob Lempke (Chartio)

Bob Lempke from Chartio joined us in the Bowery Capital studio this week to discuss “Using SaaS Discounts To Drive Sales.” Every founder or startup salesperson in software has faced it at some point: the need to give a little on pricing to win a deal. Discounts have become such a fundamental concept in SaaS sales that some founders advocate a built-in buffer to account for inevitable wiggle room on price point. That said, while SaaS discounts can help you win deals (or retain / upsell them) in the moment, the practice can also be a slippery slope. Too much rate pliancy can not only hurt your P&L, but also cause obstacles in the long run by devaluing your product in the market or providing a crutch for otherwise ineffective salespeople. In our session today, Bob and I will discuss how sales leaders should always consider SaaS discounting a weapon in their arsenal, but use it only for the right reasons (and nearly always as a quid pro quo).

Our guest today, Bob Lempke, is the head of sales at Chartio. Chartio is a business intelligence and visualization platform that makes powerful analysis easy and fast for everyone across your organization. Bob joined to lead up the Company’s sales efforts quite recently, but prior to that held many senior sales roles across a who’s who of enterprise BI & analytics companies. Most recently, he served as VP of Commercial Sales at Birst, having previously worked at QlikTech, Oracle, SalesForce, Hyland, Cognos, JDA Software (i2 / Rightworks), and CA.

Bob has seen software / SaaS discounts and related pricing techniques put to work at nearly every one of his roles across 15 years of software sales experience, and is now implementing his own strategy at Chartio. So he’s the perfect resource to walk us through the concept. So whether you’re a founder mulling over pricing strategy or an AE stuck on a problem deal, our episode on SaaS discounts today should point you in the right direction.

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