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Organizations spend a great deal of resources to drive top-of-funnel activities and engage prospects. But once a customer is ready to buy, the process for signing a contract and paying an invoice can sometimes be a horrible experience.
Connect with Sarika https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarikagarg/
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In this episode of the Revenue Engine podcast, Sarika Garg, the CEO and Co-Founder of Cacheflow, shares how B2B companies can provide a seamless experience from proposal to payment to truly optimize the customer experience!
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Each week, Revenue Operations expert Rosalyn Santa Elena shines the spotlight on founders, CEO's and Revenue Leaders from hyper-growth companies and dives deep into the strategies they implement to drive growth and share their learnings through the process.
Rosalyn brings you the most inspirational stories from revenue generators, innovators and disruptors, as well as Revenue Leaders in sales, marketing, and, of course, operations.
Let's unpack everything that optimizes and powers the revenue engine with this brand-new podcast from Growth Forum https://www.growthforum.io
Rosalyn: Welcome to the
Revenue Engine Podcast.
I'm your host, Rosalyn Santa Elena,
and I am thrilled to bring you the
most inspirational stories from
revenue generators, innovators and
disruptors, revenue leaders in sales, in
marketing, and of course in operations.
Together we will unpack everything
that optimizes and powers the
revenue engine grow farm production.
Are you ready?
Let's get to it.
Organizations spend a lot of time,
money, and resources to drive top of
funnel activities and engage prospects.
But once a prospect is actually ready to
buy the process for signing a contract
and paying an invoice can sometimes be
a nightmare for the customer, but also
for the internal sales and finance.
So why is this, especially in SaaS,
when the customer signature is really
just the beginning of the relationship?
In this episode of the Revenue Engine
podcast, Sarika Garg, the c e o
and Co-founder of Cash Flow, saw
this as a challenge to be solved.
Cash Flow is a deal closing platform
that automates quote to close
with an interactive self-serve
checkout experience that automates
payments and customer financ.
So please take a listen to this longtime
product and strategy leader and learn how
to truly optimize the customer experience.
So excited to be here today
with Sirica Garg, the co-founder
and c e o at Cash Flow.
Cash Flow is a deal closing
platform that automates.
Quote to close enables complex usage
based pricing and has an interactive
self-serve checkout experience that
automates payments and customer financing.
So welcome Sarika, and thank
you so much for joining me.
I am so excited to share your
story and just learn from
Sarika: you.
Thank you so much, Rosalyn.
I'm so excited to be
here with you and share.
Uh, More about cash flow.
Awesome,
Rosalyn: awesome.
So well, let's start by talking
a little bit about your journey
before cash flow, right?
You've been in so many leadership roles.
I've seen you were in product
development, you were in product
management, product marketing, as
well as some strategy roles as well
in companies like S A P A, re, Ariba.
and trade shift.
So maybe can you share a little bit more
about your backstory and then, you know,
your career journey prior to cash flow?
Yes,
Sarika: absolutely.
I, I feel like I'm an unusual
entrepreneur because I worked for
20 years before I started a company,
and I think I always wanted to start
a company, but I never felt ready.
So what I did was, In all these, uh,
roles that I had in these different
companies, I actually tried to
learn entrepreneurship through them.
So in the, in the Lifetime as a
product manager, product marketing
strategy, I have actually built
five B2B enterprise products.
Took them from zero to
one, uh, iterated on them.
until they became, uh, e each
one of them actually became tens
of millions of dollars worth in
revenue and continue to grow.
And that started giving me the confidence
that, hey, I, I can do some stuff and
maybe it's time for me to go out on
my do o own and work on my own ideas.
Right.
Love
Rosalyn: that.
I love that.
You know, um, a lot of times, you
know, when I talk to founders on the
podcast, they, the company is sort
of, you know, founder was faced with
a problem or they had a challenge
that they were trying to solve, or
there's some kind of, you know, aha
moment or event that happens, you know?
Was this the case for you and, you
know, kind of what led you and your
co-founder Brian to start the company?
It's about two years ago.
Right?
Sarika: Right.
And, you know, so Brian.
Like me.
Um, we are actually exactly the
same age, also started working,
uh, has been working for 20 years.
And both of us, uh, when we came
together, one of the things that we
agreed upon is we, we have seen in
the last 20 years a very, very big
shift in the software world, right?
Uh, we, we have gone from.
A professional buyer buying an E R P
or a CRM system to run your company to
people like you and me buying software.
We've all now experienced buying software
because each company, whether that's
a small company or a large company, is
buying hundreds of pieces of software.
And uh, and, and that means that, uh, we
buy software like we buy retail, right?
Um, and that means that,
hey, I know what I want.
I've done my.
Uh, hey, salesperson, answer a few
questions and then get out of my way.
Right?
Mm-hmm.
, I don't want to engage in this lengthy,
uh, paper trail that usually is a norm,
and we felt that, uh, software had
come to a point, uh, where it needed
to be much more automated and easier.
From a buyer's perspective and also as
a seller from a seller's perspective.
Rosalyn: Yeah.
Yeah.
I love that.
I love that.
And yeah, the buyer, we're
so much more informed, right?
Because we have information at our
fingertips, and like you said, you know,
we just want to get through the process.
A lot of times we just want a
couple pieces of information, and
then like you said, seller kind
of get out of our way and let us.
Buy.
I love that.
Um, you know, I think organizations
spend a lot of time, right, and a lot
of money driving that top of funnel
activity and then engaging prospects.
But once a customer's actually ready to
buy, you know, the process for quoting and
creating contracts and actually purchasing
can sometimes just be such a nightmare,
both for, you know, your internal team,
you know, your sales team and marketing
team, but also for the customer.
So let's talk about configuring
a quote, right, with products
and maybe pricing first.
I think many companies struggle with
getting their C P Q process, right?
You know, from your perspective, you know,
why do you think this is so challenging?
And maybe what can organizations
really do differently to simplify the
process and try to be more efficient?
So
Sarika: I, I think the, the bottom
line, uh, over here, The C PQ systems
that exist today were built 20 years
ago, where software was not a thing.
They were actually built
for manufacturing companies.
And that's why it's even called configure
Price and code like that is like,
it's, and, and you know, when you sell
software, it's not about creating the
code, it's actually about your customer.
It's your customer consuming
that code, uh, signing the
contract and paying you, right?
So we feel.
. Um, we are using the wrong systems that
were really not designed for software.
And so we need a system which is more
SaaS focused, which really understands
that it is about your buyer and
your buyer's experience and not you.
Right, and I think there, there are
a couple of things here that are
really, really important, right?
One is, , it's kind of crazy that we
haven't spent enough time and attention
and money on the deal closing process
because if you lose a deal at the
end of like doing all the work and
the marketing sales efforts, it's
very, very expensive for you, right?
So in some ways you should
have that very, very airtight
because time kills all deals.
And in this environment it's
even more true than ever.
Uh, the second point that I think is
really, really important is, um, in.
It's not about the
first deal close, right?
It's, it's really about creating a
mechanism, uh, where, you know, once
your customer says, Hey, I wanna use your
software, you can do things like true
ups and and tiers and renewals, and make
this process of growing that customer as
they get more value from your product.
Much, much simpler and easier, and, And,
and I'm actually, um, really shocked
by the number of companies that I've
been talking to recently who say, you
know, we somehow close a deal because
we just like also focused on it.
But after that, it turns
goes into a manual process.
And in today's environment, expansions
and renewals is becoming a really, really
big deal because it's pretty manual.
Rosalyn: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I love that.
I know I was having a conversation with
somebody recently about, you know, when
the customer in sas, when the customer
signs the deal for the first time, that's
just the beginning of the journey, right?
And that's the beginning
of the relationship.
Um, you know, so.
You know, once a quote or a contract
actually gets signed, you know,
you mentioned that a lot of times
after that, it's all manual, right?
And organizations are
manually reviewing the orders.
They're manually entering data,
you know, from one system to
another to create invoices.
And this obviously leads to, you know,
a ton of inefficiencies, potential
errors, you know, mis revenue
opportunities, and ultimately just
a really poor customer experience.
Um, so what are you seeing, you
know, organizations maybe doing.
Here and you know, maybe what
are they doing wrong when it
comes to invoicing and billing?
So,
Sarika: you know, um, I think the,
the biggest thing or the challenge
that I see is, , uh, these processes
of closing a deal and then doing
billing are two disconnected processes.
Mm-hmm.
, because it's sit in two different
departments and, uh, and actually
from your customer's perspective,
it's one thing, it's one flow, and so
you need to think about it as a deal
closing flow, especially as you said.
Uh, you know, when you, when you,
uh, you, you know, you get married
to a customer and that's just the
beginning of the journey, right?
Yeah.
. And so I, I, I really think it's
really important for leaders.
Uh, to think about what is that one
flow where you can take, uh, something
from coat to converting it into an
order, to converting into a bill, right?
Like one smooth flow, right?
Um, and um, when it comes to billing,
think about how can I automate it?
Uh, how can I, uh, break down the
billing into consumable chunks
that my customer can consume?
So, for example, can you offer monthly
billing options to your customer
so that they don't have the burden
of paying it all upfront one time,
which is basically a norm today.
Right?
So giving them, uh, options
is, is, is quite important.
All in, in sort of one single
Rosalyn: flow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
, you know, in today's world we see so
much of this usage based billing, right?
So I wanna definitely D dive into
that a little bit more because I
think more and more companies have
moved to consumption, like kind of a
use and pay as you go type of model.
Or they have these models with, you
know, these product led growth motions.
They have self-serve.
You know, also if worked, I've
14 companies where we sell in,
you know, on the cloud, right?
In cloud marketplace.
Um, but as a rev op leader, you know,
I know how complicated this can make
all aspects of revenue, you know, from
pricing to forecasting, and obviously
to quoting and invoicing and actually
to payment, and then all of those steps
in between can be extremely complicated.
Um, what recommendations do you
have maybe for companies who are
thinking about moving to a usage
or consumption-based motion, or
maybe if they've already done so?
Yeah.
And then how can they
manage this motion better?
From a quote to cash perspective?
Sarika: You know, what, what you're
talking about is really important.
Uh, I think SAS is shifting, right?
It's no longer the cookie cutter
a hundred k, uh, pay me a hundred
k for the next three years.
It's, it's becoming much.
Flexible because people
wanna pay for value, right?
And, and so I think the most important
thing for, uh, a revenue operations
leader need, uh, what they need to think
about is how can they experiment with
pricing and then optimize it, right?
But at the same time have one backend.
So whether you're selling on one of
these marketplaces, or you have a PLG
motion, or you have a sales assisted
motion and you wanna experiment
three different pricing models.
All of that should feed
into one backend system.
Right?
That's super important for you as
a leader because that's how you can
understand, uh, what's working, what's
not, and how you can make the calls
of dialing something up or down.
Right?
And, uh, you know, usage-based billing
is a, is is a big word, uh mm-hmm.
. We actually find, uh, you know, when
I talk to customers, most customers,
um, are not really looking for.
creating true, uh, you know,
aws like usage based billing.
What they're looking to do is things
like tiered base pricing that, Hey, can
I buy a thousand APIs and pay one price?
Because by the way, that's predictability
for you as well as for your customer
and their, that's, That's a good thing.
And then when, uh, the customer gets to
2000 API calls, then I want to actually
shift them into the next tier, right?
And you can apply this to API calls,
you can apply this to user licenses, you
can apply this to many things, right?
So, so creating a system where, , you
can experiment with these, you
know, is it a thousand, uh, or
is it 2000 that tears you up?
Mm-hmm.
, uh, I think that's super important
for, for all us, all of us as revenue
leaders, to keep our minds open,
uh, and, and experiment on pricing.
Um, and, and then, uh,
subsequently not creating a mess.
At the back end.
Uh, because, uh, because, uh, a lot of
times it's a finance teams, uh, that's
just left with a mess of, uh, figuring
out billing and that's terrible for them.
And so what happens is oftentimes
when a CFO comes in, the first thing
they do is they try to lock everything
down . And that's not, that's not the.
Right thing for the company either, right?
Rosalyn: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
I have, I've been in that,
in that scenario before.
That's why I'm laughing.
Um, you know, you mentioned this
earlier too, but many organizations
have these separate systems,
right, to handle different parts
of the proposal to cash process.
So being able to automate and then
make this end-to-end process more
efficient, you know, allows companies
to close deals faster, right?
And provide that better
customer experience.
How does cash flow, you know,
really help to bring all of
these different parts together?
And what benefits, you know,
can organizations expect by
leveraging your platform?
Right?
Sarika: And, you know, for, for
a early stage company, like if
you're a series A, B, or C, You
probably don't have a code system.
You're probably using Google Docs.
You don't have a billing system.
There's probably somebody sitting in
the back and doing Excel sheets, . So
there it's very easy to say, Hey,
cash flow is three systems in one.
It is your code system, your billing
system, and your contract signing system.
All combined, and by the way, you
don't have, you can save a lot of money
and you don't have the headache of
three implementations, which is super
painful, uh, as we all know, right?
Mm-hmm.
So you, you just have to deal with one
vendor and, and, which is completely
connected to your e r P and C R M systems.
Uh, but of course, , uh, as you
go up market and you have bigger,
uh, bigger companies, you don't
have the luxury to come in and
to sort of like, kill everything
else and bring something new in.
Yeah.
And, and that's why, um, I think
right from the start, Uh, with Brian
being my co-founder who was, you know,
early, um, um, VP of engineering at
Salesforce, we said we need to build our
company as an API first company, right?
So, uh, so we have a modular
approach, which is API base.
So if you have a C PQ system, you
can plug cash flow in from C cpq,
so you can create the coat there.
But then we become.
Interactive checkout for your
customers and your billing system.
If you actually have done the work
of implementing a billing system,
you re probably don't wanna, um,
rip that out, but here you can now.
Um, Plug in cash flow very easily
and, and do the other parts that
are, that are not covered over here.
Right?
So that's one thing that we made sure
we could do this so that we could
actually help companies who have
already invested, uh, in some systems.
Right?
Yeah.
Rosalyn: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Um, you know, on this podcast we
focus a lot on go-to-market and
revenue side of the house, right?
The revenue.
Mm-hmm.
. But the ability to quote and
invoice and collect cash, you
know, has this huge impact right.
On finance and accounting and, you know,
having been, you know, for myself, having
read finance operations in a past life,
, uh, you know, I fully appreciate really
just the ability to streamline that
entire quote to cash process because,
you know, as we've been talking about,
the process certainly doesn't end right.
With that signed deal
and not even with the.
. So maybe can you share a little bit
more about, you know, how cash flow
helps with the collecting cash faster?
Right.
On your website you talk about, you
know, adding a B2C like checkout right.
Quality to the B2B deal.
Close.
Sarika: Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh, so, you know, it's very simple.
We automate, uh, the, the last
step of the deal close too.
And, and let me give you,
uh, an example, right?
So, uh, I had one of our clients, uh,
accounts receivable person share with me
what she does every day, uh, to, you know,
follow up on accounts and payments and.
It was tedious.
It was a thankless job, and all she had to
do was send these Dunning emails to just
make someone pay, uh, for a one-time fee.
And we believe that's, that
should be a world of the past.
Like we are living in a world where
you can actually automate payments.
So somebody does not have to chase
these payments, um, manually, right?
So there, there's really
no reason to do it.
So, um, Buyers want.
Buyers don't wanna be chased
either, by the way, right?
So it goes both ways, right?
? So, so what we, we actually
do is we enable automation of
payments on our platform, right?
So, uh, for example, your customer can
pay, uh, with a credit card, right?
Put a credit card on file, will charge
that credit card monthly or annually.
Quarterly, uh, since we have large
volumes going through us, we can negotiate
better credit card rates for you.
Uh, the second, uh, that we've just
actually switched on on our platform
is we, we can actually help to connect
to your bank, to the bank account
of your customer so you can pull
the money in instead of kind of this
manual process that happens today.
So tho those are some things
which we think the world is gonna
move towards from this Totally.
Check ach.
Uh, mode right , it'll take some time,
but we, we definitely see the most
innovative, uh, sellers are already doing.
Right.
Rosalyn: Yeah.
Yeah.
I love that.
And I think about how easy it is
for, um, for you to pay when you've
individually purchase items, right?
You just swipe your card, you
set up, you know, you set up an
automatic payment, they monthly fees.
I pay for everything on a
monthly recurring basis, right?
Where I don't even have to look at it.
So I love that.
Yeah.
Sarika: And, and I'll tell you
as a, as a buyer, you know,
when, when I was in my last.
, uh, I used to get pinned by vendors all
the time saying, Hey, can you please ping
your accounts payable because they haven't
paid me , and it made me feel really.
And by the way, it
interrupted my work, right?
Yes.
Like, it's, it's just not, not a good,
um, experience for me as a buyer, right?
Yeah,
Rosalyn: yeah, definitely.
Um, so let's shift gears a little bit.
You know, I think at some point, hopefully
in the near future, you know, I hope
this isn't even a topic that's relevant.
But unfortunately, I think in today's
world, especially in the tech space, and
then especially as you know, executive
or sea level roles, we see so few women.
Leaders, right?
Especially women of color.
Um, so as a rev ops leader, you
know, there's been so many times
when I'm the only woman in the room,
I'm the only minority, you know, I'm
the only mom, you know, or above.
Or all of the above.
So, you know, as a woman of color, c e
o and founder, you know, what advice do
you have for other women who are looking
to, you know, elevate their career and
maybe continue to move up that ladder?
Yeah,
Sarika: I think.
I think it first comes to be
really good at what you do.
Uh, I think it, there's not, there's
no getting away from that, and that's
the most important thing, right?
Yeah.
We, we are not trying to be in elevated,
uh, roles just to, for the sake of it.
It's because we can make impact
and we can do great things.
So be really good at, uh, what you do.
Uh, you know, in your, in my early
career, my sponsors and mentors
were very important because
they gave me validation and.
Which I didn't get
maybe from other people.
So find those people who are
true believers in you and, and,
you know, coach you and help
you to, uh, to, to move forward.
But, I can't, uh, you
know, I can't say enough.
You know, Rosalyn, I, I've done so
many podcasts and I love the way you
structured this podcast and were so
prepared and had done your homework.
But that's what I mean by be good at
your craft because it matters, right?
And things will, things
will happen, right?
We, we are in a exceptionally
great time for women.
Uh, women are getting chances.
Uh, you know, when we did our fundraising
last year, I was so, Uh, of the 2%, uh,
stat where it's like 2% women get funded.
And, uh, it was not, uh, it was
not that hard because we made sure
we understood what we were doing
and why we were doing, and we.
Made sure we did our homework
Rosalyn: right.
Yeah, that's great advice.
That's great advice.
Thank you for sharing that.
Um, you know, as I think about the
revenue engine and this podcast, I always
hope others will be able to learn how
to accelerate revenue growth, right?
And really power the revenue engine.
So maybe from your perspective, you
know, what are the top, you know,
couple of things, maybe top two or
three things that you think all revenue
leaders should really be thinking
about today to help accelerate.
And grow revenue, right?
Sarika: I think, uh, sales velocity or
revenue velocity is probably the number
one thing that every revenue leader
should be a hundred percent focused on.
Uh, I think that breaks down
into maybe two or three things,
uh, if I can talk about that.
One is, uh, your customers
experience is key.
So ask yourself, have you removed?
Every single friction that your
customer is going through, right?
From code to closing to paying.
Because if your customer is happy, that
customer will become a customer for life.
Right?
Uh, the second, uh, very important is
sales resources are so, so expensive now.
So look at, you know, eliminate
every single manual work, uh,
that your salesperson does.
Right.
Give them tools to, to, to track deals.
Right?
I was talking to our revenue.
Ops person, his name is Cooper
and I, and I said, what do you
really like about cash flow?
And he said, you know what?
Our sales team can create
codes in eight clicks and that
I've never seen that before.
And I said, yeah, that's good.
Like that means that you are removing
the manual work that a salesperson
has to do because, uh, what that means
is they can automate some of this
and go and, uh, get the next deal.
Right.
Um, and then the third, you
know, we talked about, um, it's
about maximizing revenue over.
, um, right.
Uh, it's, it's really not only about
closing the, the, the first deal, but
expanding that customer, giving that
customer, um, removing the friction
from true upping that customer.
Yeah.
Expanding that customer,
renewing that customer.
Um, I just saw in the morning, , um,
there was, somebody had shared on, uh,
on LinkedIn how, uh, how renewal rates
are slowing down because it's all manual.
Right?
So have you thought about that
process of, of bringing in that rev,
it's free revenue in a way, right?
Because you already did
the work of selling.
So those are, those are a few things.
All of them lead to revenue velocity.
It's.
How efficiently can you bring in
revenue, uh, from your customers?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank
Rosalyn: you.
That's great advice.
I love that.
I love the focus on, you
know, optimization and driving
efficiencies internally, but then
also the focus on your customer.
Right.
Make it easy to do business with you.
Right.
So I love that.
Um, so well thank you
so much for joining me.
Um, but as we wrap up and before
I let you go, I always ask
all of my guests two things.
So one, you know, what is that one thing
about you that others would be surprised?
To learn.
And two, what is the one thing that you
really want everyone to know about you?
Okay.
Sarika: Um, so, uh, as
you can see, I'm Indian.
I'm Indian origin.
But, uh, the surprising thing is I
was two years old when I moved to
Africa, and, and I grew up there.
Uh, and, uh, I moved to the US 20
years ago, or 22 years ago now, , which
means that, um, you know, I, I feel
like, uh, I love diversity, uh, and.
, um, value it significantly because all of
these places gave me so many learnings.
Um, one thing that I want everyone
to know is I believe in learning.
I, I, I think I'm a lifetime learner.
Uh, and I think learning is all
about insights that you get.
Uh, I love.
Learning about other people's insights.
So, uh, if, if anybody wants to ever
ping me and talk about the insights I
have had, I, I am always open to that
Oh, that's great.
Rosalyn: That's great.
And is LinkedIn the best place to find
Sarika: you?
Yes, LinkedIn is, uh,
the place to find me.
Rosalyn: Awesome.
Well, thank you so much for joining
me and just thank you so much for
your time and sharing so many great
insights and sort of expertise around
some of the things that you're doing.
Sarika: No, thank you Rosalyn,
and thank you for the great.
Awesome.