Piyush, founder of Galvix, tax filing SaaS shares how sharper positioning helped him organically grow his customer base by 8X.
About:
- Domain: Tax filing SaaS
- Stage: sub-$5Mn
- GTM: Sales-led
Trigger:
Piyush: Prior to Galvix I built another company in the education technology space and then in between I was working with a couple of different startups. Right. So throughout this journey I saw what mistakes I was doing and then what mistakes other people were doing. People are running ads, spinning out more pages or blog posts but without thinking deeply about how their product is positioned, right? I myself used to blame the execution of marketing campaigns without realizing that actually it's not the marketing campaign — it's the lack of understanding of what the positioning should be, right? And then you know everything becomes way more costly. Then with Galvix obviously when I reached out to you we were very, very early — like we had only probably three or four customers. But I just thought that it'll be important to get this piece right.
”I myself used to blame the execution of marketing campaigns without realizing that actually it's not the marketing campaign — it's the lack of understanding of what the positioning should be, right? And then you know everything becomes way more costly.”
PIYUSH AGRAWAL, FOUNDER OF GALVIX, THE SALES TAX RETURN FILING SOFTWARE
What are the trade-offs? Like for me, positioning is all about trade-offs — like you know what is your unique value proposition, and it may be better or worse on one dimension compared to other competitors but vice versa on another dimension, right? So identifying your religion — like I think of it as a religion of your company — so what is your position there? That is very important because then if we have got that right, a lot of other things become much more easier.
Insights:
Piyush: I mean honestly I still think that it is support, right? But potential customers or customers we talk to in the first interaction will not say “support.” Because when do you need support? Once they run into a problem they need support. The problem happens when, let's say, we prepare a return which has issues that they notice, right? Or let's say they don't notice it and the return gets filed, and then later on they’re audited by the state or contacted by the state and there’s a problem there. One word to represent all those kinds of problems is accuracy.
"I still think that it is support. But potential customers or customers we talk to in the first interaction will not say “support”. Once they run into a problem they need support. One word to represent all those kinds of problems is accuracy."
PIYUSH AGRAWAL, FOUNDER OF GALVIX, THE SALES TAX RETURN FILING SOFTWARE
I didn't think it (the earlier web copy) was terrible. From a looks perspective it looked professional. The pain point was that I was thinking that maybe it says too many things. I started realizing that people are using us for the return filing part. So my initial thinking was that okay, two things — one is we need to emphasize the return filing part. Second was also to communicate more holistically about the other capabilities that we have.
I have, as an engineer, tried to write down web copies by myself. Like I always like to do it by myself for most things. But this is one area where I have realized that no, this is not my piece of cake. I can read something and say it's good from my perspective, but if I have to write it then I might make it too complicated or too verbose actually — which is where I needed also your help.
"The only channel from where we acquire customers, has been through the website. There is only one page on the website, which is the homepage. A subset of them will then book a call with me, which is the call to action on that page."
PIYUSH AGRAWAL, FOUNDER OF GALVIX, THE SALES TAX RETURN FILING SOFTWARE
I often believe that if you are constrained then you will automatically do what is efficient. So because we did not have the budget for doing anything else. 100% of our customers — and till date we have not done any paid marketing or anything else, email marketing, paid marketing, anything. The only channel from where we acquire customers, with just one exception of one customer which we acquired through a paid campaign that I ran for like 15 days and stopped after that, has been through the website. That’s how people come to know about it. 100% of them will then go to the website. There is only one page on the website, which is the homepage. A subset of them will then book a call with me, which is the call to action on that page.
Results:
👉 8X increase in customers from 4 to 32 in a year
👉 80-90% conversion from website visitor to lead
Piyush: I think it got accelerated in the second half of last year. I think two things happened — one is we had the new website, the other thing that changed was I became much more active on LinkedIn. At that time we were I think working with around four or five customers. Now we have around 32 customers paying ones. So it’s been a good uptick actually.
I have a hunch that messaging has played obviously a very key role, because people — when they talk to me, they’re very clear. I think they always say two things. When I post on LinkedIn I always add a disclaimer to it — that I am a founder of Galvix, so whatever I'm saying above might be biased, right? So people always mention that “oh I love the transparency that you told that you are a founder.” But then when they come to the website also, I think it’s very clear. So the other thing they always mention is that it looks very clear and easy to use and very modern.
”At that time we were I think working with around four or five customers. Now we have around 32 customers paying ones. Messaging has played obviously a very key role. I literally opened up Google Analytics after a year right now. If this is the reality then I'm actually very happy because it says that I just got five visitors last week but I got like three four leads actually. So then that means like it’s probably 80–90% conversion, right?”
PIYUSH AGRAWAL, FOUNDER OF GALVIX, THE SALES TAX RETURN FILING SOFTWARE
I have a hunch that it matters, right? Because if it was not clear to them, then they would not even contact me because we have no social presence other than this and there’s no social proof. So messaging has to play a major role there.
I literally opened up Google Analytics after a year right now while talking to you. If this is the reality then I'm actually very happy because it says that I just got five visitors last week but I got like three four leads actually. So then that means like it’s probably 80–90% conversion, right?
