Editor's lead: Now all walks of life pay more and more attention to product operation posts. Only by doing a good job in product operation can we connect products with users, which is more conducive to product building and has more loyal users. So, for SaaS vendors, how can we do a good job in product operation? I chatted with my colleagues before surgery last week and talked about "the value of surgery". Why do Internet companies have an operation team as standard? What are the roles and responsibilities of the operation post? I remember that there is a definition in an operation book, and the ultimate goal of operation is to "better connect products and users". After disassembly, the understanding is divided into two layers, "acquiring users and transfer fees" and "maintaining users and continuous interaction". Different product types have different functional requirements for "operation", so we can't apply toC operation mode to enterprise service toB products. The former focuses more on providing content around users, planning activities, and continuously maintaining the attractiveness of the platform, and quantifying the results through PV/UV/DAU. For the latter toB product, "operation" is a consortium, which not only refers to a certain type of role and function, but also includes the growth team, pre-sales service team and after-sales customer maintenance team. Therefore, under this organizational structure, operation is no longer just a single production content or planning activities, but a set of solutions formed around customers. Except for the sales link, all other links are under the supervision of operation, pursuing low customer acquisition cost, high paid conversion rate and high renewal rate to achieve the expected goal. Now you can understand why SaaS vendors love and hate operating positions, because they can't accurately define their functions and responsibilities, can't pursue PV/UV like regular product operations, and can't assess turnover like sales. The organizational structure of each enterprise is different. It is necessary to configure the operation team according to the needs of its own business, accurately define the work content of the operation post, and don't catch shadows, let alone fish in troubled waters. I. Operational functions: Pay attention to the cost of business opportunities. As a startup company, the RMB in our pocket always reminds us to be careful, and the definition of operation will be broader, not just a role of user operation, content operation and event operation. We believe that the responsibilities of operation include the work of traditional enterprise marketing department, such as obtaining business leads through low-cost investment. The way of investment is not limited to a certain channel, online and offline, and various ways and means can be tried. Also took on the responsibilities of some customer service positions, responsible for after-sales maintenance services, which is also known as the "Customer Success Department". To sum up, the operation team of SaaS vendors is engaged in "traditional operation"+"pre-sales drainage"+"after-sales service", and the role and identity of all-rounder. Before making wheels, you must know about other methods of artificial wheels on the market. At present, apart from the medical track (resource-based), the promotion mode of SaaS products in other industries is still very simple, with KA sales team promoting 80%, and the rest are mainly online advertising drainage, trade-in with the old, content drainage and centralized marketing, which add up to 20%. Sales is the core strength. In the early stage of development, there was no brand reputation and no successful cases, and valuable customers were mainly obtained through sales visits. When you have a certain brand awareness, you can change your sales target and capture benchmark customers, especially in new cities, which have great influence. Small customers complete the import and transformation through perfect publicity process, technology and customer service support. Therefore, after understanding the overall market development trend of the industry, we will not be blindly optimistic, and it is unrealistic to expect that KA will be completely replaced by "operational" investment. If the operation can replace the traditional sales channel, it means that the customer unit price and decision-making cost of the product are declining. In the future, it may not be a toB product, but a C-end tool serving a specific functional position. Of course, there are still some details that can be optimized when refining to different customers and conversion channels. For example, the operator can identify the authenticity of the conversion effect through data, whether the whole site seo should be invested, which keywords are effective, and which words are invested purely to make money. Is it appropriate to advertise in the forum or to produce professional content to drain the conversion rate? On our small runway, the key KPI undertaken by Tiger Frog's operation team is to bring reliable business clues to the sales team with the most cost-effective investment. Second, the operation method: there are strategies to help operate the customer service attributes and traditional product operation attributes included in the identity. I won't talk about it here. There's not much new stuff. I'm just talking about promotion-based attributes. What direction can the operation team think under this background? "Operation" plays the role of "marketing" in this identity attribute. Marketing is not sales, but a strategy to amplify sales results. Sales volume 1v 1, play a game with customers alone, and finally reach a win-win situation with customers through signing the bill. Operation represents "play", which can be a series of sales models. For example, in the early stage of development, the product popularity was not high, and the company needed the sales team to sign the bill. After gaining a certain reputation from customers, through the benchmarking effect of big customers, operators can obtain exhibitions and sign contracts in batches on the spot through exhibitions, salons, directional cooperation portals, etc. This is the way to play. The essence of marketing is to match the trading intentions of buyers and sellers with the lowest cost and the most reliable path. The user characteristics of enterprise service SaaS products are vertical audience and small circle. Content operation is an effective way to establish trust relationship quickly. In addition to "open source" or "throttling", the needs of enterprises also have "growth consciousness" Content can help customers solve the general demand of "growing awareness" and the flow of talents in the industry. Of course, the content operation of SaaS products can't pursue hot spots and engage in activities like traditional new media operations. Usually, it is to highlight the product value, establish a professional image, and form a closed loop of wide content production → multi-channel distribution → content precipitation. The most common is the platform industry summit of the company's founders or executives. After sharing, people advertise. The content range includes product trends, industry news, experience case sharing, and pure technical content is weak. In addition to content operation, high conversion value is to plan offline activities, such as sharing salons, introducing cases around the use effect of products, and easily helping business teams to optimize and improve around the problems discussed on the spot. Other general types, such as participating in large-scale industry exhibitions, industry sharing, advertising exposure within the visual range of target customers, etc. , should choose the appropriate transformation path according to the business form. Third, operational value: screening long-tail customers. The customer we serve is a human resources company. According to the conventional understanding, the focus should be on increasing users' stickiness to platform products. However, due to the particularity of the business, the operation mode of toB industry is not completely applicable to us. Isn't this a disaster? What you are doing now is SaaS, and as a result, you say that toB's operating model does not apply to you. Of course, the operational indicators that we pay attention to within the company also include the frequency of users' use, the length of login, and the click-through rate of key functions. This is the current basis, because considering the development cycle of the industry, we always insist on investing in things with long-term value. According to the current user level of the product, the role of the customer company (administrator, recruitment consultant, finance, administration, resident administrator, etc. ) directly interact with us. In addition to the directly related user roles at the first level, in the indirect relationship at the second level, we notice that there are three groups: labor brokers, job seekers and employers. The role of "labor broker" is very special. The fragmented state has become a market-oriented foreman, and the clustered state has formed a number of labor service companies. Therefore, when choosing the object of operation, we think that "labor broker" is the key. If we can learn from Shell's platform model, let labor brokers move towards centralized operation and realize the market-oriented dispatch of labor force, it will be comparable to the national strategic project "West-to-East Gas Transmission". After meeting the needs of some local employment enterprises, the labor population in poverty-stricken areas in northwest China can solve the shortage of labor needed by coastal industrial production through systematic scheduling of the platform, and realize the talent sharing in a larger physical space. As a technical service provider itself, from the perspective of solving the seasonal labor surplus and shortage for the society, we should still consider realizing the closed loop of information matching and trading through bilateral platforms in the future, instead of just relying on helping human intermediaries upgrade their equipment from "bamboo fence" to "cement fence", which has not actually solved the widespread labor shortage problem in society. Exposure rate is emphasized in the 2G era, UV, PV and conversion rate are emphasized in the 3G era, and private domain fission, live broadcast, interaction and quality-efficiency integration are emphasized in the 4G era. Whether it is ToB, ToC or ToG, it is ultimately for human beings. The responsibility of operation is to provide accurate services at every point where customers contact products, and turn them into marketing, so that every customer can feel the "heartbeat", turn them into transformation and turn them into business opportunities. # Columnist # Mr. Big Well Cover, WeChat official account: 8: 40, everyone is a product manager columnist. Former PM director of a factory, now CEO of a startup company. Pay attention to enterprise service and financial track, and have a wide range of interests. Welcome to discuss products or business-related issues together. This article was originally published by everyone as a product manager, and it is forbidden to reprint without the permission of the author. The title map comes from Unsplash and is based on CC0 protocol.