Rob & Ben started CharlieHR (SaaS for running teams) in 2015 after experiencing growing pains at their previous business.
They now have a team of 23, serve 000’s of small businesses and they reject customers.
Why?
This posts explains…
There are a few different routes I could have taken with this post about CharlieHR…
Maybe their intense HR content focus that transitioned into an HR advice upsell?
Or how they were radically honest about a big recent pricing change: from “free forever” to pay?
I was pondering these topics whilst browsing their site when I found this pricing scroller:
“OK, looks nice Tom, what’s so special?”
“Seriously Tom, are you wasting my time?”
BOOM
CharlieHR is rejecting customers.
Let’s face it, as a SaaS founder/marketer… the big deals come from bigger companies. We’re talking $50k annual contracts at 90% gross margin.
It could have taken CharlieHR a couple of hours to throw up an Enterprise demo form selling a higher touch service with greater security features and a dedicated account manager.
But did they?
No.
- Would that have pleased investors? – maybe
- Would that have increased sales? – probably
- Would that have diluted their brand? – YES
Because those enterprise customers are “not one of us”.
CharlieHR has the confidence, courage and focuses to say: “Sorry, you’re not one of us, we work with the small guys.”
They know there is more than enough of the “small guys” to build a big business. And to build a big business, they have to serve the small guys at the highest level… both through product and brand.
What did we learn?
The more you push the wrong type of customers away, the more magnetic you become to the right ones.