No one ever said growing a B2B SaaS company is easy!
In fact, research found that 9-in-10 struggle to meet their strategic goals. In most cases, growing B2B SaaS companies have exceptional teams and are building breakthrough strategies. The difference for those that do meet their goals lies in how they execute their strategies.
The companies that hit “market fit” or “inside the tornado”, and are on a path toward or have broken the $100M ARR barrier discover a secret from their very early days: They empower their teams to play at their best. And when their teams are playing at their best, they can grow and scale with confidence.
What does it look like when team members are playing at their best? We’ve found that there are only a handful of team elements in their DNA:
- Teams have found a way to speak in the same execution meta language.
- There is a shared level of execution visibility – without adding more work.
- Managers lead by micro-empowering, rather than micro-managing.
- Everyone continuously captures and amplifies their best execution capabilities.
How many of these four elements does your own team or company check? No matter if it’s one or four of them, what, then, is the key to achieving this executional DNA? These most successful companies all rely on unifying execution in a systematic way. And today, leading startups execute their journeys in a unified execution platform.
So what exactly is a unified execution? How can your team benefit from it? And how does a unified execution platform empower teams to make the most out of their journeys? Below, we explore all of this, with a focus on why unified execution is essential for your company’s growth and scale.
Let’s start with what is a unified execution platform?
A unified execution platform is the “how to” for your team to execute at its best and win. It tracks your execution journeys where the actual “plays” needed to execute your strategy are captured and tracked. It's the modern way to drive and amplify the execution of your strategy across one or all of your teams. In short, a unified execution platform gives your team current resilience and future adaptability needed to break the $100M ARR and beyond.
Be careful not to confuse a unified execution platform with things like task management, a project plan, or action plan. Your unified execution platform offers your team a high level executional guardrails, rather than one more tool to further micromanage your team.
Another misconception we often hear is that unified execution platforms are a framework for sales tasks and docs.
Similarly, it’s crucial to think of your strategy and your execution separately. Your strategy informs your execution journeys, which contains the how-to's you need to execute the strategy with confidence.
What are the benefits of a Unified Execution Platform?
A unified execution platform empowers each team member’s initiatives and processes. It also unifies people in many ways: across teams, across functions, and even across geographies or cultures. The reason is that the journeys in it capture how to execute your strategy, with a focus on micro-empowering people to do their best. Rather than telling your team exactly how to do their work, this execution platform gives them guideposts. That way, everyone knows what needs to get done, but they have the freedom to execute the way they think is best.
Ever have a call with colleagues in another part of the world, and feel like the cultural gap made it hard to communicate effectively? Or even just a meeting with a team that operates differently than yours? In these situations, a unified execution platform brings you together by allowing you to speak the same executional language.
So for example, your customer success team will need to collaborate with sales and marketing from time to time. These teams may have different approaches, ways to describe problems, and possibly even cultures within them. And that’s where a unified execution platform unifies different teams: they would both know from the journey what must be executed - and they can talk about it in the same language. But when it comes to how they actually do the execution, they can do it within their own team’s practices and norms.
Whether it’s subtle differences in time zones, technology, generations, or processes, a unified execution platform allows you to work as one and amplify your best!
So, where does unified execution actually live in a B2B SaaS company?
Now that we agree that the most successful companies build unified execution, you may be wondering, where do these journeys actually live? A unified execution platform is where! A unified execution platform enables your team and company to build the benefits of journeys into everyone’s DNA:
- Execution meta language,
- Visibility across all of your team’s journeys,
- Micro-empowerment, and
- Turning strategy into execution time and time again - successfully.
Caption: Sample Execution View of a Unified Journey in a Unified Execution Platform
Why Does a B2B Company, From Startup to Public-Traded, Need a Unified Execution?
The most successful companies rely on unified execution (though often they don’t realize it!).
Think of a football team — they need a journeys to execute their plays on the field and win, exactly like how a business needs a way to execute their strategy.
You know that it’s time for a unified execution when your team is starting to struggle to complete what really matters. The best leaders macro-manage through a unified execution platform, rather than micro-manage. A unified execution platform allows you to take a step back and trust your team to complete the necessary plays.
In short, your business needs a unified execution platform because it:
- Forms one place where entire initiatives are executed, tracked in real-time, and the best practices are collected to improve upon.
- Visualizes the execution of journeys in an easy and repeatable manner.
- Allow you to capture, repeat, and get better.
What type of execution journeys may a B2B SaaS company have?
Every team needs at least one journey to start. But, there are endless possibilities for unified execution journeys that benefit a B2B SaaS company!
In fact, high-performing B2B SaaS companies and teams have a journey for each of their repeatable initiatives throughout all of their functional areas. Our customers have many execution journeys, but the number utilized depends on the different dimensions of your business. A rapid growing company has several on their unified executuion platform such as:
- Customer journey
- Product launch journey
- Partner journey
- Go-to-market journey
- Growth journey
- And others!
Caption: Example of an Industry-Based, Market Prioritization Growth Journey
Bottom line: Unified Execution Platforms Empower Your Growth & Scale
It’s crucial to empower your team and drive excellence to convert your strategy into results. At the end of the day, a CEO or team leader’s job is to help their team execute with confidence so they can win in the marketplace. A unified execution platform is the ultimate – and modern – way to achieve this.
A unified execution platform creates the executional foundation of your team and/or company.
Bring the best of your team and execute your success: Learn why B2B SaaS companies all over the world use a build unified execution platform with Uniply today.