Can SCRM really grow To B's BAT?

Lei Feng network (search "Lei Feng network" public number attention) by: The author of this article Wen Erye, Department of SaaS senior practitioners.

Recently, the brokers have announced the completion of the E+ round of financing of US$70 million. Uncharacteristically, everyone’s response to the “financed professional households” was relatively flat. However, as the king of SaaS topics, the news of large-scale lay-offs immediately after the brokers have had financing in this round of financing still aroused great concern in the industry. Although the brokerage officials have denied the news and stated that "there is a progress, the optimization and integration of the system", according to the large amount of news from its internal employees, the layoffs are not groundless and continue. There is a big "kill to kill bones" situation.

Luo Xu, the CEO of hackers, once said at the launch conference of the E+ round that "after further strategic and product changes, we need more professional and talented people to match. Therefore, there are indeed adaptation adjustments in the near future and it is inevitable for development." It seems that Luo Xu's "adaptability adjustment" has already begun.

Looking back at the financing process of hackers, A completed the round in October 2012, entered the “fast lane of money” from 2014, and completed five rounds of financing in three years.

Since the founding of the brokerage, the company has experienced four strategic orientation adjustments. From initial imitation of Yammer as an internal corporate communication platform, to the transformation of mobile CRM with sales management as the core, and then to the benchmark company WeChat and Ali after the D round. The company has shifted its focus to the company's mobile OA collaboration and announced that it has returned to sales management after the recent completion of the E+ round of financing, focusing on CRM and distribution management, and doing PaaS.

Having enjoyed a high-profile visit to the OA collaboration field last year, the hackers have shouted the slogan "BAT in the To B area." Not long ago, they announced their return to sales management and regained CRM, only a year later. What makes the hackers who once used to be even more tolerant of the word "sales" in their product names rush out of their pockets? Perhaps it represents a group of CRM vendors mentality.

Having said that may make some people unhappy, but after having clients cut into the cooperative OA, it really does not work well in the frontal confrontation with Ali and Tencent. Luo Xu also said that in the face of nails and corporate WeChat, hackers have to enter the Red Sea only through a free way to get customers.

China’s Internet, whether it is To B or To C, BAT is always the class teacher who will appear at any time in the back window of the classroom. It is chilling. In 10 years, when the ultimate proposition of the Internet in China changed from "What does BAT copy me?" to "What should I do if BAT does not buy?" This is actually a very sad thing. Earlier, it was admirable to share the enthusiasm of hackers who shouted "BAT to Be B".

Both good data growth, capital support, and enjoy the loyalty of clients. After being happy, you need to sit down and analyze calmly.

In the process of increasing the number of free users of hackers from 300,000 to 500,000, the operating cost has increased by 25%, and the paid conversion rate is about 20%. This set of data represents that the growth of free users does not bring sufficient revenue enhancement to hackers, but it occupies a large amount of resources, leading to a surge in costs.

Faced with the giants, passively choosing a free strategy, and unexpectedly making ends meet, this is the main reason why investors have temporarily suspended the OA platform and returned to the field of sales management. However, this time, the word “逍” has to be changed again. What?

Six months ago, if someone said that capital winter is coming, it would be considered excessive pessimism. Now everyone is discussing how to get over the winter. Compared to the chills in other fields, the situation in To B has been quite good. I previously communicated with the old stone network, he said that this year gave him a feeling like 2000 and 2001. Erye also heard that the founder of a SaaS company said that "VC's money has been invested in online red and live broadcast. We naturally have to tighten our belts and belts."

Investors who follow profits "same-sex suckers" always hope that the companies they invest in can grow into new giants and earn 100% profit for themselves, but capital is always rational, and it pays more attention to the company's revenue data. Towards the moment, the vast majority of capital has clearly stated that it only invests in companies with autonomous hematopoietic capabilities.

Looking back at hackers, its sales management business still accounts for more than 90% of revenue. If investors still have the power to “go to the country” to advance toward the OA collaborative platform and lose the advantage of sales management business, the investor may not be able to sleep. After all, any company that loses profits is very dangerous.

For the affluent hackers, the IDG from the A round has not followed four consecutive rounds of the IDG. The Northern Lights in the B round have stopped at the D round. The DCM China also only ran the C and D rounds. It also seems to indicate the point. What are you doing?

The strategy is shrinking for the winter, and keeping a low profile for the rest of the day, including mass killings or "adaptability adjustments." This is terrible, not to mention shameful. It was thought that Ali had survived the winter in 2001. Under the leadership of Guan Mingsheng, two large-scale layoffs were completed.

The sensible "money withdrawal, cost-cutting and revenue-cutting" is not a shame, and paranoidism is only a fool.

According to the statement from the media hacking customer COO Li Quanliang to the media, after having returned to the field of sales management, the hackers will go from the two dimensions of CRM and distribution management, and build PaaS platform, using the open platform to support the original business system and hackers. Docking, hope to open up the communication and interaction between enterprises to achieve the connection of upstream and downstream businesses.

If it is said that having clients from the Red Sea in collaboration with the OA is to retreat, the purpose is to eat more market share of CRM in order to obtain further development space, then this step is probably not so simple. Although there is no BAT inventory in the CRM market, each CRM vendor under the segmentation area has its own unique skills. The red circle marketing has been on the new three editions; SFA's initial sales is easy to complete after the C round of financing to deploy the PaaS platform; Tencent capital injection EC Camperpass communicates with QQ and is a force that can't be overlooked in the field of electric sales. There are dozens of companies that have received capital attention in the CRM field. The intensity of competition is no less than that of a collaborative OA.

(Image from: Mobile Information Research Center)

Especially in the field of external services involved in many industries such as FMCG, retail, and services, field CRM vendors represented by 365 overseas have already eaten this area very deeply. Due to the large number of employees in the field, large user groups, and the most suitable characteristics for mobile use, the demand is also the most rigid. Such as the field of 365 focused on this area has been engaged in more than three years, has accumulated 150,000 corporate users of the scale, in different segments of the industry have already been benchmarking customers to pay, quite an offline advantage.

As for the hackers who return to CRM this time, it will not be clear from which segmentation area they will exert their strength. It is worth noting that the distribution management that the hackers mentioned this time is very different from the ones they were good at before. , involving multi-level distribution management of “brand dealers-distributors-wholesalers-stores”, be familiar with offline business scenarios and understand how the distribution business is done, the core of which is to help companies sort out business processes and improve offline The efficiency of sales is a relatively complex matter and has a high demand for industry accumulation.

Judging from the various signs of contraction, Erye believes that after the brokers reverted to CRM and decided to involve distribution management, their previous advancement of “intensive bombing of high-altitude advertising + ground force breakthroughs” should not be repeated. Whether or not to participate in the competition through a strategic and free way is currently unknown.

Even so, it is undeniable that there are clients returning to CRM. The advantage is objective. After all, this is also the starting line for him. It has accumulated a certain amount of user body. However, if you have clients who want to extend their tentacles and have greater appetite, entering the sub-sectors where they had less involvement before, they will inevitably encounter blockages from CRM companies that have a good settling in the subdivision area. It is not a flat river. The goal of the SCRM industry to grow "To B BAT" may be far away.