Leo launched Plutio, SaaS to manage small business and freelancer processes in 2017 after experiencing the admin pains associated with being a freelance designer.
Shortly after, he launched on AppSumo and drives $250k of revenue in a week, very nice… but this also skyrocketed the number of support requests.
Since then, Leo has managed to control support costs and sustainably grow revenues to $10k MRR.
How?
This posts explains…
Many founders face the same existential crisis in the early days of #saasmarketing…
To AppSumo or not?
AppSumo has a massive audience of people that don’t like to pay a lot for software.
You will work with to create a lifetime offer normally for the price of 1-2 months of your standard pricing, they take approx. 30%.
Outrageous? Not really, because they bring the volume. Serious volume.
See Plutio’s listing here:
Assuming the $250k stat is accurate, Plutio sold 5,102 of these bad boi’s during the promotion.
$250k in the bank without giving up any equity in the early stages of your SaaS business? Game changing.
The downside, being the avalanche of support requests from thousands of bargain hunters that will probably never pay you again.
So how did Plutio handle this?
They handed support over to someone else…
Those same users.
While the group is not designed to handle specific technical issues, it does act as a first pass for those… let’s say basic user queries that normally clog up your best support rep.
It also gives the “Plutiopions” a chance to connect with other freelancers/small business owners which will also positively impact Plutio’s churn.
Essentially extracting all the benefit from the AppSumo promotion whilst eradicating the downside…
What did we learn?
1. Create a Facebook Group and give your people a name (Sumolings/Plutiopions)
2. Invite all free and paying users of your SaaS
3. Suggest basic product questions are posted there before going to support
4. Wait and watch your users handle your first line support!