Three years into Pardot we were humming along and had just cracked the $1M annual recurring revenue milestone. Customers were loving the product and saying things like, “I don’t how I did my job before using Pardot” — a great sign we had a must-have product, not a nice-to-have. After listening to customers talk about the value they received, internally we started debating raising the price to match the value.
Then, of course, worries emerged:
- Would prospects pay the higher price?
- Would sales cycles lengthen?
- Would sales velocity slow down?
And, naturally, the sales reps didn’t like the idea because they feared they’d make less money.
After getting internal feedback and input we made the call and doubled prices. What happened next was unexpected: sales and revenue grew even faster than planned.
At that point, it dawned on me the opportunity was bigger than expected.
Marketing automation was a billion dollar market in the making.
We were at the right place, at the right time, with the right team.
But, honestly, at the start of Pardot we thought it was a decent idea but didn’t know if it was good or great.
We didn’t know if the timing was right.
We didn’t know if the Great Recession would slow us down.
Three years into the business we knew we were on to something big — even bigger than expected.
David Cummings on Startups 