S7E20 - How SaaS Companies Will Scale in 2026: GTM Efficiency, RevOps, and Word-of-Mouth Growth with Koen Stam

Speaker A: Welcome back to the Grow youw B2B SaaS podcast.

Speaker B: Today I'm joined by Kunstam Go to Market Operator at Passonio where he leads international revenue operations across multiple regions and we're going to talk about how go to market strategy will change in 2026 and why SaaS companies must shift from people over process to process first data driven and efficiency led growth. In the conversation, KUM breaks down how founder led, sales led and hybrid motions will evolve, the rising importance of revops, and why fixing your data layer is essential before applying AI. We will discuss the biggest challenges SaaS founders face when trying to become efficient, how to identify root cause problems in your go to market fabric, and why retention, expansion and word of mouth will be the strongest growth levers in 2026. Kuhn also shares how he would build a uh go to market motion from scratch, the role of referrals and partners and gives advice from going from 0 to 10k Mr. And also going from M10k mor to 10 million ar.

Speaker C: So he's going to give it with

Speaker A: focus, simplicity and disciplined execution.

Speaker B: So definitely make sure you're going to listen to this episode.

Speaker C: Welcome to the Grow your B2B SaaS podcast. Could you quickly introduce yourself? Who are you and what do you do?

Speaker D: Oh damn Kuhn. Uh I'm a go to market operator. Um what I'm currently doing working at personio HR tech company um leading the international operations. So in short leading the um existing and new business operations for the Benelux UKI Nordics, Spain, rest of the world. Um that's like one thing I'm the most important. I'm a father of two kids like 4 and 6. I'm also co leading a chapter of Pavilion which is just a community to bring go to market leaders together. Um ambassador at Wing by Design. These are among other things which I'm doing that keeps me busy.

Speaker C: A lot of go to market in there.

Speaker D: I like it. Yeah they say well we're going to

Speaker C: talk about go to market so we're going to look at the future a little bit like how do you see the go to market strategies change in 2026?

Speaker D: Yeah I think with all the changes upcoming and I don't want to always main AI but I think we need to reinvent ourselves. Everyone is talking about it like the SaaS natives how we are structured among still a lot of people over processes. I think um we need to swap that script into like hey processes needs to be key with as much efficienc among our people. I think that's like the biggest change. I think we really need to grow more ah, sustainable and more efficient. And I think not Most of the SaaS company has always done that. I think that is really requiring a transformation for leadership and founders.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, we're going to talk about efficiency in a sec. Like I kind of even want to talk about the motions. Like we talked about product led, founder led, sales led. Like how do you see the motions going to change in 2026?

Speaker D: I think again it always depends on where you are in your journey. A lot of people are maybe or bootstrap, uh, below 2 million rise or they the way to 5 or 10 mil. Like that play is totally different than a play maybe for myself. Like um, we are in the tens of million ar, which at least my teams own and we need to grow significantly above that number. So I think that play is different. We for instance at personio really have a sales play. It is a play cross functional with our partners, with the ecosystem, with AI. It's really a mix of a lot of things. If you just want to bootstrap now or you are coming, going, growing towards one male, two mil, et cetera. I mean I really, really love the founder led mot where you as the founder, you are the authentic subject matter expert voice. And I uh, actually just had this conversation with One of the CEOs of Moneybird, um, on like hey, you have such an interesting journey and Nathan, they are in tens of millions of ARR. But still I think your message could be brought towards your audience by founder led voice. So I think it depends. But it needs to be more efficient. It needs to be still really being authentic and personal and specific that the audience eventually really knows. Hey, this is for me and not for everyone. I think doing better is even more important than doing more when it comes to motions.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And you mentioned efficient like a lot. Right? It's, it's, it sounds easy. You just need to do it more efficient. But I think what would be the biggest challenges for SaaS founders? Okay, well I want to be more efficient, but how do they actually do it?

Speaker D: Yeah, but like I think that's the thing. Like we talk about efficiency. How do we get to view where we are or where we are not efficient? And um, I mean I already mentioned I'm ambassador winning by design, a big fan of them. I've implemented their models ever since 2016 and the fundamental fundamentals start with that. Like the data model, the bow tie. Right. Like map your entire customer journey per motion. So I have a Sales LED motion which brought me up to I don't know, uh, 6 million ARR. Uh, just really map from the early start awareness until the end expansion, net retention. Like where are the flaws in my system? Where am I currently not efficient? What do I think first I can improve or should improve which will bring a bigger uh, return on investment. And then kneel down that part, really understand the root cause and then understand like okay, how are we going to fix that one problem in that entire let's say go to market journey. And I think that's like where a lot of founders and GTM operators go wrong is they talk about efficiency, they don't know where to start. And even if they know where to start, they just do way too many things. And if you fix a lot of things, I think in the end you are, maybe you're fixing not at all or you're fixing marginal. And I think the marginal thing is not going to help us out tomorrow.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And we had uh, Jaakko on the podcast in the summary episodes we had him before already. He always talks about seeing your company as a fabric whole.

Speaker D: Yeah. Revenue factory line. A factory line.

Speaker C: Factory line indeed. Like where does it actually um, go wrong I guess to figure out like what should you fix?

Speaker D: Yeah, we don't know the root cause, like we don't know where to fix. Like where are you fixing for? And that's again the thing like you really need to understand the data. And I know uh, especially from a lot of smaller companies, maybe you don't have all that data, but having your data layer in place and again a founder or a small company, they don't maybe directly think about the ref ops function on itself. But if you uh, as a founder or starting organization and you don't have your ref ops in place, you see as well, like the more successful companies, especially AI natives companies, they will hire refops uh, way faster than it typically was. Actually I was speaking one of the more successful Dutch companies actually. And they also, they just recently promoted their ref ops towards a new CRO. And I think that says something about how important it is that you really understand your motion based on data. Based on a data model.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Because in the end um, we have so much data with AI we can actually start getting more insights out of it.

Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. I think also one fundamental for everyone to understand, like it's not AI who will bring us out of data. We need to really fix the fundamentals of our data house and a data lakes in a company. And then again to the point understand where you go to market potion, there are flaws but on that flaw you should not put AI because if you put a flaw on AI it just multiplies what go wrong.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker D: So I think that's really important. You really need to understand like from the data layer what works there. You can amplify with AI, but you also need to fix the basics. And I uh, think you need to fix the basic with processes and not with people or with AI. So there are different approaches to fix your go to market and to see where you can fix stuff and where you can amplify and grow. I think these are two levers, right? There's also like top line growth or you can really uh, make sure that your spend is more in the control. There are two growth levers.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Because in the basis for AI garbage in garbage outage, if the data layer is incorrect, you're not going to get the right insights. And when we look at I guess like go to market and I guess like all the changes which are happening, like where do you see the biggest change happening? Is it going to be uh, acquisition, activation, expansion? Like where do you think the biggest changes will happen in 2026?

Speaker D: We need to understand that to acquire a net new customer requires a lot of investment. And we are spending a lot of money to still acquire this $1 of new customer. And I think we need to become way more efficient in our spend in our way to grow net new logo. But the answer is maybe not only looking at the left side of the bow tie meaning like the marketing, the sales, the awareness, the education, the selection, now it's really on the actually we have the gold already there. The gold is in the retention, the gold is in your customers. And how can you really leverage your customers or even your users just to feedback. And actually we all know if we really triple down and we do a close one analysis, we actually see that one of the key sources maybe not always very well set in a CRM, but it's worth of mouth. So really investing a dollar extra spent into your customer base, making them happy. And I'm also a really big believer of the partner and ecosystem and customers is part of that ecosystem. If you leverage that part, word of mouth will make sure that people retain will expand more which is also always a more um, cost efficient spend of net new growth. And eventually that will lead towards new influx in your funnel because people will talk about you. And that's I think a really misunderstood thing and that's not something you can solve with people that's also something you can eventually solve with processes in AI, but definitely in your retention in your entire play of your current customer base. I think there is some truth and gold which you can unlock and I think that's like where people also need to look at and not only like oh, let's just do more, let's go abroad or let's just spent another 100, 200, 500k on investments on marketing, etc.

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Speaker C: make sure that people actually start talking about you? Because word of mouth is super powerful, it's super effective. But how do you actually make sure that people start talking?

Speaker D: First of all you need to deliver a product that solves a specific problem for a specific audience that really will, that will always do the thing. And that's the service, that's the product, right? That's the last tangible thing that's just like delivery and for me it's um, next to that is the people, is your team, is your service levels, um, is the way you're helping your customers from a support perspective, making sure that maybe even next towards your own product or service that you can deliver continuously value to your customer base. If you, if you keep repeating that over time that compounds and yeah, I've seen so many examples of doing that and it can be in the form of indeed really exceptional customer service from your customer success or your support department. That can be, I mean I just one example myself last year or like actually just this year as well with one of our partners we made a uh, impact award show for our hr. I mean we are selling towards HR and just by recognizing those who are typically not recognized enough and shine a light on them without doing any commercial stuff from our side of personio in this case, people feel heard, people feel recognized people, they are open up, they feel that they can be vulnerable among their peers. And that's of course the event the Community play a part. Right. And I don't have to ask them then to send a message towards their colleague, towards their peer on LinkedIn that they had a marvelous time and experience with brand A they will do. And that on itself if you that compounds. Right. So that, that's already a start value add value from your product for your servers and just next to our spark and servers provide them with the right experiences and if you compound that they will talk about you in a positive way continuously and that's of course spreads very quickly.

Speaker C: Nice. And uh, let's say you don't have a Go to Market Motion in place right now and you can build one completely from scratch in 2026. What would you do? Because you now have like legacy systems, you have uh, people in place. Like how would you build the ideal Go to Market Motion?

Speaker D: Yeah, I think again it depends like if you restart from zero, I mean it's, it's the old school play. I think you as a founder and I think there comes the founder, let's uh voice or founder, let's uh motion is you need to be that brand that I really have. If you don't have any employees, you need to be that authentic voice. You need to be very clear on what you're solving for who and do that over and over and over again. And it's nowadays with all the AI technology to amplify your voice or video and make it like anything, it's easier than ever. So I still think like we need to be more creative on how we are building brands, how we are building eventually some demand gen and then convert. I think that's just one play when it comes to again companies who are maybe a little bit larger, 5, 10, 15, 20, whatever million ARR plus. I also, I really think if you want to build some not from scratch, but it's like don't make it complex. Simplify, simplify and simplify. The sooner we see any kind of traction we typically and I'm also guiding one of very um, small investment in a company who doesn't have any employees yet. And my advice to them is like don't hire multiple people at once even though you maybe are a little bit funded or whatever. No, you really need to look, you are the voice, you need to make the works first. As a founder you also got a go to market operator. If you don't understand how you acquire your first customers and you don't document that process, you don't never hire a skill. So again it comes back towards yourself. And I think with AI, you can easily document what works and then skill what works step by step by step in any pace you like. Because some founders want to be more bootstrapped and they're fine with a certain growth rate. Others want to grow more aggressively and maybe want to get funding or whatsoever. But I think that is where it starts.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, nice. And you kind of mentioned it already. Word of mouth. You guys have a really big partner channel. Like how do you see the role of referrals in 2026?

Speaker D: I mean the referrals comes back towards the conversation we just had on word of mouth. If you deliver a uh, value towards the end customer and then eventually as well to your partner ecosystem and they actually kind of know like hey, if I refer this solution or service towards my customer base, I actually know without a doubt it solves their problem. And I think if you do that like on a very low key entry, I mean people want to refer you, right? So I think you need to have the right offering which is simple for your partner to bring towards the customer and you need to make sure that they can fully trust that if they refer you, it gets just work, just get done and problem gets solved. And of course some enumeration for the partner because eventually, and that's also, I still think an entire partner ecosystem, it is a win, win. So it's not only how much can I gain by referral for myself, what is the true value I can deliver towards the partner consistently over and over time because again towards a growth loop they will come back and they will keep referring and we will grow along. So I mean referral also has been for ourselves a really interesting growth lever, especially my bellarming corporations to grow far past 10 million.

Speaker C: ARR. Yeah, nice. You kind of already answered the questions, but I have to ask them still because they're the most famous questions of our podcast. So what kind of advice would you give a SaaS founder who's literally just starting out from zero, growing to 10k monthly recurring revenue?

Speaker D: Um, yeah, I mean I made this mistake myself as well when I was briefly uh, a startup founder. But I also think to some extent everyone is in the old school days of SaaS so fixed on this recurring revenue piece. But I think if you really want to get to our 10k 15k. I mean on the side I also have some coaching and I'm not yet there on 10k a month, but I'm getting there. I'm also more than halfway,

Speaker A: um, really

Speaker D: have and I learned it because I work very closely with a content Design coach who said I couldn't be clear. You have one offering for one audience and focus there and really deliver exceptional value on that matter. And that's both on um, potentially your product, your service, whatever you're opening or your product but definitely as well like your service component towards that they really actually see that they the impact you will bring and I think that that in combination can really actually nowadays quite easily get you towards 10k and then maybe uh, even $20k a month which is a sustainable foundation to build something on. Right. But I think again there the focus doing less but better. And that's the most difficult thing for everyone for a founder, for a revenue leader, for myself definitely. But like doing less but better. I think that, that, that and that compounds over time but you need to be consistent and you need to hold on strong to that one. Not easy. But then I think 10k to be honest, I mean in 3, 6 months you can easily reach that number.

Speaker C: Yeah. So let's assume we have the foundation. We have not a lot in place so less is more. We reached 10k MRR and we're going to make a huge step 10 million ARR. What kind of advice would you give SaaS founders here if you want to

Speaker D: grow towards 10 mil? I think you can have do this easily with one product, one country, one go to market regardless if you start in Belgium, Netherlands because of course we are from TAM size addressable market a little bit less but one product, one go to market motion, one country and just go don't over hire process over people don't overthink, execute, execute, execute. But and it comes back towards this data model where we started uh with earlier is like really understand what works, what doesn't work and fix that. I think that's a fundamental layer of success and for some companies it costs 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years because everyone grows in a different way towards 10 mil. But I think that fundamental which I just said I think works for any company.

Speaker C: Nice. If you want to get in contact with you can they do so Yeah,

Speaker D: I mean LinkedIn or Substack, that's it like LinkedIn I just try to share on a daily basis like all my learnings and my FOPS and now more and more on substack I want to go more in the weeds and also with AI what I'm learning, what I'm failing and that I'm sharing my substack. So these are two uh, channels.

Speaker C: Is it also a reason that you can own the audience like on LinkedIn

Speaker D: yeah, I mean to be honest, I like sharing and for now it's fine. But I do think and that's an Advice for everyone, LinkedIn is nice but eventually you don't build any audience as you know. And therefore now moving to substack, I think I have like over 30k plus on LinkedIn but yeah, that's on LinkedIn and now around 1200 on substack. But you know those people who stay there, they're not loyal customers but at least men they are there engaging and following you. So that is potential where you can start growing towards your first 10k if you really have one product, one offering and one focus on delivering this for the customer.

Speaker B: Nice.

Speaker C: Andy M. Thank you for coming on Koen.

Speaker D: My pleasure.

Speaker C: Thank you for watching this show of

Speaker A: the Grow your B2B SaaS podcast. You made it till the end so I think we can assume you like this content. If you did, give us a thumbs up. Subscribe to the channel if you like this content.

Speaker C: Feel free to reach out if you

Speaker A: want to sponsor the show. If want to you you have a specific guest in mind. If you have a specific topic you want us to cover, reach out to me on LinkedIn. More than happy to take a look at it. If you want to know more about Reddit, feel free to reach out as well. But for now have a great day and good luck growing your B2B SaaS.