Khadim Batti had 40 customers and thought he had product-market fit. Then the churn started and the SaaS sales strategy stalled. The real problem was not the product - it was seven SaaS go-to-market gaps that needed fixing sequentially.
If your SaaS sales strategy is not converting, this episode walks through every step Whatfix took to go from $2,000 annual deals to $100K+ enterprise sales contracts. Khadim reveals how separating SDRs from AEs eliminated feast-or-famine cycles, why moving upmarket through gradual price increases filtered out bad-fit customers, and the pricing mistake that lost a major bank deal.
Khadim Batti is the co-founder and CEO of Whatfix, serving 600 customers including 70+ Fortune 500 companies. Whatfix has raised $140 million at a $600 million valuation.
š Key Lessons
- A broken SaaS sales strategy matters as much as product-market fit - Whatfix had 40 customers but small business churn proved the go-to-market needed fixing first.
- Separate SDR and AE roles to fix SaaS sales strategy bottlenecks - dedicated SDRs eliminated four-to-six-week dry spells between deals.
- Raise floor prices gradually to move upmarket - Whatfix increased minimums from $2K to $10K over 18 months, letting small customers churn naturally while building enterprise sales pipeline.
- Enterprise buyers see low pricing as a survival risk - Whatfix lost a bank deal at $75K because the buyer had a $300K+ competing quote and assumed the company would not survive.
- Focus your SaaS sales strategy on one geography before expanding - Whatfix aligned 60-70% of the team to US hours, then replicated the playbook in UK, Australia, and Germany.
Chapters
- Introduction
- Khadim's favorite quote on execution
- What Whatfix does and the digital adoption market
- Business size: 850 people, 600 customers, $100K ACV
- Context: 30-40 customers but false product-market fit
- Step 1: Founder-led sales and cold email outreach
- Raising the seed round at $10K ARR
- Step 2: Hiring first sales rep and the shadowing approach
- Learning about SDRs from an investor mentor
- Step 3: SaaS sales strategy enablement and pipeline visibility gaps
- Scaling enablement as the team grows
- Step 4: Moving upmarket from SMB to enterprise
- Timeline: 15-18 months to complete the transition
- The DreamForce pricing surprise at $8,000 per month
- Step 5: Geographic segmentation strategy
- Impact of geographic focus on sales momentum
- Step 6: Enterprise pricing and the bank deal lost at $75K
- Winning back the bank deal years later
- Step 7: Narrowing the use case to employee experience
- Advice on overcoming the fear of narrowing focus
- Lightning round
Resources
