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.

🔑 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

Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/337
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