FRESHWORKS

B2B MARKETING PROJECT

A report on understanding the business model and marketing strategies of

By
Group 4

30A Nivethitha KS
33A Priyanka Dash
38A Sanchita Gupta
5B Akshay Virmani
35B Samir Santosh

Objectives:
1. To understand the business model of Freshworks from a B2B perspective.
2. To understand their marketing strategies and impact due to COVID-19 pandemic.
3. To recommend strategies for the way ahead.
Objective and Content

Industry Overview

STP Analysis of Freshworks

Purpose of the project:

1. To understand the business model of Marketing Strategies of Freshworks

Freshworks from a B2B perspective.
2. To understand their marketing strategies and
impact due to COVID-19 pandemic. Insights from Primary Research
3. To recommend strategies for the way ahead.
Insights from Secondary Research

Impact of COVID and Strategies Adopted

Recommendations
Introduction “Born-in-cloud service providers”

Source- Gartner Q1, 2018 Forecast

Source- Indian Brands going global – a study by KPMG
● More than 200% growth by 2022 in SaaS segment
● Near to 40% market share y-o-y

Customization, Unification &

Extension of Digital Experience
Segmentation-Targeting-Positioning
Segmentation on the basis of size of business:

Small and Medium-Sized

Mid-Market Businesses Large Enterprises
Businesses (SMB)
No. of employees: <100 No. of employees: 100-500 No. of employees: >1000
Annual Revenue: $5-$10 million Annual Revenue: $10 million - $1 billion Annual Revenue: >$1 billion

Twin growth engines of unique pull-driven SMB sales model and a growing mid-market presence

Freshworks will only pursue larger

enterprise deals when these
businesses can use its solutions
without a lot of customization—so
that they don’t deflect Freshworks
from its democratic mission.

UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION

Freshworks makes it fast and easy for businesses to delight their customers and employees. We do this by taking a fresh approach to building
and delivering software-as-a-service that’s affordable, quick to implement, and designed for the end-user.
Marketing Strategies of Freshworks

Content Marketing using SEO Competitor Comparison Pages Webinars and Online Events

• Informational postings, They created various From perspective of brand

startup tips, book reviews, comparison pages for each of awareness, Webinars have
and comprehensive guides their items to make it easier for been very crucial. They have
are among the content customers to choose their conducted over 30+ webinars
subjects. product. For instance, in order with leaders.
to highlight the offerings of Freshdesk, they Also, they have hosted webinars like High-
• Used Google Search advertising across US compared it with Zendesk, Salesforce Desk, Velocity Sales Summit and the Customer First
and Europe. etc. Event.

Guerilla Marketing Podcasts Free Tools

• Provides free tools like
They gatecrashed and Centered around Freshping and
flew a blimp (saying growth, marketing, FreshStatus.
#failsforce) on the day of and various stories of • Fuel organic traffic to
‘DreamForce’. It resulted customer experience. their websites.
in hundreds of tweets • Creates buzz within user
and media coverage. “Mind the Gap” has 43+ episodes of communities and social
interviews and brand stories. media.
 Interview-1 with Insights
Interviewee Profile: 6 months | Customer Success Manager| Region - Australia -New Zealand | Product - Freshservice

Growth objectives – Biggest Competitors Market Presence -

● Heavy investment on AI Zendesk (Competing product - Freshdesk) US, Australia, Europe, Latin America ,
● Consolidation of products Salesforce(Competing product - Freshsales) MENA, India, New Zealand
● Data policy changes across the globe
● Planning to going public Competitive Edge
● Extensive hiring ● In the Australian & New Zealand market- Freshservice is a niche product for IT companies
helping with asset and inventory management, thus dominating the market there.
● In the US market, Freshdesk is the primary product sold which in not niche and hence faces
Pricing strategy – high competition in the market.
● Price lower than Salesforce/Zendesk (primary ● In terms of revenue, Freshworks is behind salesforce in US and Zendesk in Europe.
competitors) ● In India the primary competition is Zoho but Freshwork dominates it in the market.
● Bundling strategy

Sales Cycle Churn rate and Retention strategies

Awareness – Strong online presence via social media Buying behaviour Metric used - customer health score
Customer health score below 50
Check on the negative reviews of the
competitor’s product ● Clients wanted more discount Red Zone Understand the problem
because of the sudden Proactive engagement
disruption in business
Personalised campaigns Customer health score between 50 and 90
Yellow
● Offered the same to existing Recurring issues are identified and help tackle them
Zone
clients along with new ones.
Customer health score above 90
Pre sales – Product demonstration, understand client’s
Green Zone Clients are introduced to more features and products
functional and pricing needs
 Interview-2 with Insights
Interviewee Profile: 12 months | Business Development Executive | Inside Sales, ANA-APAC regions (Australia, New Zealand and Asia-Pacific | Product Focus: Freshdesk

Major Competitors Growth Objective

Disrupt the SaaS market through floor pricing techniques and carve a niche by catering
exclusively towards SMBs. As the product scales, cover the entire basket of larger
businesses and enterprises, while improving product capabilities and security features.

CRM service, enterprise applications

SaaS products related to
focused on customer service, Market Drivers:
customer support, sales, and
marketing automation, analytics, and ● Increasing adoption of cloud-based products by all business sizes
other customer communications
application development ● Digital and transparency push
Revenue: $0.8B
Revenue: $13.2B
TRENDS CHALLENGES
Server to Cloud International Customer Focus Competition Demand Changing needs

Buyer: Sales Lead, Business Heads, MARKETING TECHNIQUES

IT departments, Small businesses
Product Blogs are one of the most A combination of business intelligence tools, internal
Digital Marketing
important destination for buyer’s product offerings and advanced analytics, marketing
Need: Supporting CRM, Internal acting like a brochure/resource plans, strategies and efforts are carefully crafted for
processes, ERP, customer and Business Conferences center each demographic and geography as per the sales data
sales metrics, analytics and historic buyer personas and buying trends

Founder’s brand image

Barrier: Lesser clarity on the exact
solution needed by the client Differing strategies based on clientele’s sector (Eg. US-
versus the suite of products startups, UAE-Oil)
available
Key Insights from Secondary Research

Freshworks undertakes significant user

research with the purpose of providing
Focus on ‘Simplicity’
users with the applications they require
in the most frictionless manner possible.
Since Freshworks was a late entrant into
a market that already had many
Intelligent Marketing successful players, they focused on
awareness and visibility, their unique
value proposition
Leverage word-of-mouth marketing as
affiliates/partners are the most Second-degree
effective approach to reach customers connections
they can't reach on their own.
Concentrate on a cross-channel
marketing approach that includes a
Customer 360 better grasp of buyer personas and the
purchase process, help decision making.
Acquired ‘AnsweriQ Inc.’, a provider of
ML and AI, knowing that prediction and Decisions based on long-
data-backed decisions will not only term impact
fine-tune campaigns but help serve
customers better. ‘Losing the bidding battle but winning
Bold Decisions the RoI War’; takes smart risks based on
RoI Payback.
COVID specific Insights- Based on Primary & Secondary
Key Branding initiatives Enhanced Improved Data Freshworks Govt. App integrations(COVID self Content marketing Industry
during Pandemic support system Security Upskill program assessment tool for T COVID App) with CTA leader talks

Enhanced support system Improved Data Security Freshworks Upskill Program

Support teams available across channels through Protection of Customer Data was a Priority for For all developers, startups, and university students,
phone, web, and chat. They activated Business Freshworks. Securely provisioned remote access Freshworks is offering an up-skill program that will
Continuity Plans to abide by SLAs to support their using VPN to ensure that confidential data is allow one to participate in free developer sessions
customers maintained carefully to build apps for the Freshworks platform.

Government App Integration Content Marketing with CTA ADAPT- Industry Leader Talks
A standout feature of T COVID app by
CTA with the Build a network by interacting with
Telangana Government was the COVID-19
incorporation of their various industry leaders during the
self-assessment tool developed by
Pandemic specific latest services/ products pandemic- Helped them develop
Freshworks. Helped deflect a huge volume
content on WFH & like Freshservice to balance connections & also increase their reach
of patient enquiries and became a vital
Return to work both WFH and offline and branding through these talks
asset in the govt’s COVID-19 response
environments

A study of 10,500 global consumers, which Freshworks

Digital push forced by Pushing communication to
conducted in partnership with Dynata, found that 41% of Shift of buyers to suite
the pandemic boosted clientele about the benefits of
consumers were inspired to support local businesses during of products coming
business as small SMBs the products in overcoming the
the pandemic and 94% plan to continue, revealing a major bundled for various use-
also were on the lookout barriers of the pandemic
shift in the global economy → In alignment with Freshworks cases together
for SaaS solutions helped boost sales
interests in SMBs predominantly after the pandemic
 Recommendation
CUSTOMER SUCCESS PREDICTIVE RISK AND UPSELL PLAYBOOK
● Using Predictive risk analytics - 43% increase in
Focus on ‘Land & Expand’ model for customer churn rate can be revenue through
customers - Metric to Focus on reduced value realisation &
Stage#1: Seamless cloud adoption 1. Time to Value ● Creation of Upselling Playbook adoption
by customer success team to
Stage#2: Reduction in time to value 2. Cost to serve
expand opportunities
2.2% revenue
Stage#3: Shifting other IT workload 3. Customer Adoption decline through
Metric to Focus on technology
to cloud & Satisfaction subscription &
1. Customer Churn Rate
(CSAT) 2. Customer Lifetime Value implementation
CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT MODEL BASED ON SOPHISTICATION IMPROVE BUNDLING SALES - RECOMMENDED/ SIMILAR PRODUCTS
For High Sophistication Implement High touch Model of Primary research suggests that Freshworks is moving towards
Products Customer Engagement for products Consolidated Product lines and prefers Bundling strategies for the
(Prioritise customer with High degree of Sophistication same. To facilitate offerings better and to improve sales it can use:
Connect & Engagement) including Deployment and Adoption
RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS SIMILAR PRODUCTS
For Low Sophistication Implement Renewal Management by With Recommended/ Similar products strategy:
Products the Insides Sales team for products ● Know the customer expectations better
(Prioritise Subscription with Low complexity and High degree ● Provide customised solutions
models & Service) of Product Stickiness ● Improve Customer Experience
All of this will translate into better sales
References:

1. https://www.freshworks.com/company/about/
2. https://www.freshworks.com/events/failsforce-campaign-blog/
3. https://contentzeal.com/freshworks-growth-story/
4. https://www.smb-gr.com/blogs-laurie-mccabe/top-takeaways-freshworks-refresh19/
APPENDIX
Questionnaire for Primary Research

a) Details of the interviewee: b) About the Company:

• Introduction • In terms of scale, reach, customer base, which competitors
• Total experience do you see as your biggest competitors in recent times?
• Total number of years at Freshworks? • How does the company differentiate itself from its
• Role in the organization? competitors?
• Department in the organization? • Who are the key decision makers in the company?
• What are the growth objectives?

c) About the market: d) About the buyer:

• What are the key market drivers that shape up your • What is the buyer persona like?
business? • What does the buyer typically look for in this space?
• How is the market today different from what it was when • What kind of complexities are involved?
you started? • Expectations from you?
• How do you look at your position in the market? • How do you acquire new customers?
• What are some of the recent trends? • How do you ensure long-term relationships with buyers?
• What are the recent challenges market players are facing?
• Where do you see the market a couple of years from now?
Questionnaire for Primary Research

e) Marketing techniques: f) COVID:

• How do you take your product to customers? • How has the pandemic changed the dynamics of the market?
• How do you ensure visibility in the B2B space? • What has the pandemic meant for Freshworks?
• How does the sales team function? • How has the buyer behaviour changed because of the
• Role of technology in your marketing efforts? pandemic?
• Do the marketing strategies differ across geographies? • How have the requirements changed?
How? • How did you adapt to these changes?
• How do you keep up with changing trends? • What strategies were adopted?
• How does the company look at churn? • What do you think the market will look like post pandemic?
• Any specific retention strategies? • Trends that are here to stay for long?
• Lessons from the pandemic?
Interview 1- transcript

Role – Customer Success Manager

Responsibility - Maintain metrics for churn rate and customer retention

Vision - Help clients to help manage their clients better (eg : stream entire sales process, covering the entire sales funnel)

Biggest Competitor – Zendesk (Competing product - Freshdesk),

Salesforce(Competing product - Freshsales)

Customer base – US, Australia, Europe, Latin America , MENA, India, New Zealand

In the Australian and New Zealand market- Freshservice is a niche product for IT companies helping with asset and inventory management, thus dominating the
market there.

In the US market, Freshdesk is the primary product sold which in not niche and hence faces high competition in the market.

In terms of revenue, Freshworks is behind salesforce in US and Zendesk in Europe.

In India the primary competition is Zoho but Freshwork dominates it in the market.
Interview 1- transcript
Freshworks Niche –

ü Streamlined Vision - The entire organisation is aligned with a single vision,

ü Optimising the communication channel – The firm heavily invested into an AI chatbot which streamlined and automated most of the communication process,
thereby reducing any gaps in the communication line of the firm

ü Constantly Innovating in technological front

Pricing strategy –

Price lower than Salesforce/Zendesk (primary competitors)

In the Indian subcontinent, consolidation of products (Bundling strategy) was done, which helped in maintaining competitive pricing.

Growth objectives –

1. From a product standpoint, the firm is heavily investing in AI

2. Consolidation of products – The company almost had 12 product lines before which they have reduced to 5 by bundling similar and
complementary products.

Benefit to clients - Reduced number of subscription and burden on customer from investing in numerous products.

3. Data policy changes across the globe. Foreign governments don’t want data pods in other country rather within their own borders. Freshworks is
trying to build the infrastructure and network for the same.

4. From a business point of view, the firm is currently planning for an IPO in the US, (base office is in California) with the aim to compete globally and
make their presence felt like their competitors.
Interview 1- transcript
Market Drivers

1. Shift in working environment during COVID

2. Clients are looking for platforms which act as a one stop solution provider
Challenges Faced

1. When Freshworks started in India, Zoho was the leading player. The founders were ex zoho employees and understood the dominating position
that Zoho held in the Indian market. The challenge was to create a unique brand image and break into the market.

2. In order to achieve this the company went into making many product lines which made it difficult to manage and confusing the customer as well.
This challenge was late resolved by consolidation of products.

3. COVID challenges – Technological resistance, indirect resistance from customers of the clients of Freshworks

Buyers

1. Clients are both in the B2B and B2C space. Product line caters to both categories
2. Clients are primarily in the B2B space
Acquiring a new customer(B2B)

1. B2B churn has been extremely less, B2C churn is more volatile.

2. Constant technological changes catering to dynamic demands and feedbacks of the clients is apriority of the firm.

3. The clients are also given the liberty to customize the product.

4. The primary goal is to cater to the customer satisfaction of the client. Understanding what the customers of Freshwork’s client need to serve the
client better.
Interview 1- transcript
Marketing Techniques:
Three stages in the sales cycle:
1. Awareness – Creating interest amongst the client by maintain strong online presence via social media channels,
The form also keeps a check on the negative reviews of the competitor’s product to look for potential clients.
2. Personalised campaigns involving seminars, webinars to make the interested buyer into a prospective client.
3. Pre sales – This stage focuses on product demonstration, understand client’s functional and pricing needs. The firm does not try to over sale in this
initial stages to avoid confusing the client.

Increasing visibility amongst B2B clients

ü The firm has never used google ads and almost all marketing happens organic via SEO.
ü Keeping a check on the NPS score
ü Making customer testimonials visible at various touchpoints of the client’s journey.

Churn rate and Retention strategies

Constant check on customer health (bounce rate, avg duration, active users) determines a customer health score .
The customer health score is divided into 3 categories:

1. Red Zone
Customer health score below 50
Trying to understand the problem by reaching out to the client
Proactive engagement rather than reactive engagement

2. Yellow Zone
Customer health score between 50 and 90
Clients are covered under quarterly business review, explaining process maps and demonstrating product functionalities
Recurring issues are identified and help clients tackle them.
Interview 1- transcript
Green Zone
Customer health score above 90
Clients with score more than 90 for a long time are introduced to more features and products
· Personal attention is given to clients where not more than 100 accounts are managed by a customer success manager

COVID Impact
Covid has accelerated the demand – seen a spike in number of clients
More of organic growth in covid, seo is the most important tool
Buying behaviour - Clients wanted more discount because of the sudden disruption in business. Offered the same to existing clients along with new ones.
Yoga/meditation sessions for the clients and employees during pandemic, social space where different clients came together – focus on mental health to connect to
the customer.
Interview 2- transcript
a) Details of the interviewee: Role – Business Development Executive Department – Inside Sales, ANA-APAC regions (Australia, New Zealand and Asia-Pacific)

b) About the Company:

● Vision of the company – Delivering a suite of intuitive and modern cloud-based SaaS products that are easy to try, easy to buy, and easy to use, designed with the end-user in mind
● In terms of scale, reach, customer base, which competitors do you see as your biggest competitors in recent times? – Salesforce and Zendesk
● How does the company differentiate itself from its competitors?
i. Less clunky and easy-to-use software products
ii. Attractive price ranges and features that suit all categories of businesses, especially the SMBs (small and medium businesses)
● How did Freshworks carve out a niche in the market? – Affordable and usable SaaS products for customer support, customer relations and internal ITSM were non-existent when
Freshworks came in the market. Zoho was the only company that was close, but their products were not as user-friendly.
● Who are the key decision makers in the company?
○ Girish Mathrubootham – CEO
○ Shan Krishnaswamy – CTO
○ Sameer Gandhi – Partner, Accel
○ Barry Padgett – Ex-CFO, Stripe
● Growth objectives? – Disrupt the SaaS market through floor pricing techniques and carve a niche by catering exclusively towards SMBs. As the product scales, cover the entire basket
of larger businesses and enterprises, while improving product capabilities and security features.
● (If they do not bring up ‘affordability’ themselves during the USP point, ask about their pricing strategy)

c) About the market:

● What are the key market drivers that shape up your business?
○ Increased adoption of cloud-based products by businesses of all sizes and scales
○ Acceleration of digital-first trends and the enhanced need to be on top of the customer support and customer relations games
● How is the market today different from what it was when you started? – In 2010, when the product was in the nascent stages of the build, adoption of cloud-based software solutions
was not prevalent to a larger extent, especially in the growing Asian market. India, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong and every other country here was preferring on premise solutions.
Compared to that, today, there has been an increase in inclination towards cloud products because of the ease, agility and flexibility these products offer.
● How do you look at your position in the market? – From an underdog starting off in an already crowded global SaaS space in 2010, to catering majorly to SMBs until 2016-17, to scaling
up to where we are now, expanding our product suite, creating an ecosystem, becoming a sought-after SaaS provider for enterprise customers as well, we are now at a place where we can take on the
industry leaders who have been enjoying nothing but first-mover advantage.
Interview 2- transcript
Recent trends
○ Increase in the digital-first support mechanisms for customers across all scales of businesses
○ SMBs carving out a niche for themselves in the product and service horizon they are operating in
○ Enterprises trying to consolidate their market share and go for expansion through innovative methods of reaching out to customers
○ Focus on customer engagement, retention, happiness and satisfaction irrespective of the “deal size”
● Recent challenges
○ Increasingly crowded SaaS marketplace with new players with very specific features (copycats)
○ The demand for an interconnected SaaS ecosystem where cross-product use-cases are possible
● Where do you see the market a couple of years from now? – A slew of players catering to the isolated needs of very small customers, with bigger players offering cost variation and
increased nuances in the product offerings

d) About the buyer:

● Who is the ‘buyer’ here? (Trying to understand the buyer persona)

○ The customer support head/lead of a business – Freshdesk
○ The regional sales head or a lead sales executive – Freshsales
○ IT and procurement departments for internal task management and asset management needs – Freshservice
○ Smaller businesses looking at a unified chat support platform – Freshchat
○ And more
● What does the buyer typically look for in this space?
○ The buyer looks for solutions for a tool to support one of the following functions – customer relations and sales processes, internal process management, task management and asset
management, customer support, and in the case of e-commerce sites a marketing tool to provide heat-maps and other customer engagement and bounce metrics
● What kind of complexities are involved? – The buyer does not always have knowledge about the SaaS space. The buyer articulates the problems, and sometimes, the solutions can be
identified by specific use-cases of the product, while in other instances, it could be difficult to find the right communication and comprehension between the customer problems and the possibility of
solutions
● Buying behaviour, buyer’s decision making in SMB
○ Cost is a huge factor. Freshworks suite of products are mostly the first choice for SMBs because of the price points, but even at the prevalent pricing plans, there would be hesitations
○ The decision does not necessarily happen in a specified trial period (for a month) since there could be a loss of interest or lack of investment into an online product
● Expectations from you?
○ Engage in consultative selling and not hard-sell
○ Do not talk about the product unless the customer has been pushed and prodded enough; understanding the pain points and suggesting the right solution (even if the products
cannot suit the customer’s needs, occasionally) is more important than converting a deal
○ Be disciplined; follow a routine in reaching out to the consumer via the different touchpoints (email, phone, occasionally LinkedIn, etc.)
Interview 2- transcript
● How do you acquire new customers? – At the sales team level, there are outbound and inbound teams. The outbound teams comprise of Sales Development Representatives (SDRs)
who work closely with the Market Research team to filter out prospective leads and then start reaching out to them. In the Inbound sales, the Market Research team gives a list of prospective leads to the
salespeople, and the salespeople are obligated to categorize the leads, do more research about the prospect’s business and create touchpoints
● How to ensure long-term relationships with buyers?* - The person who makes the sale continues to remain as the FpoC (first point of contact) with the customer. In case a deal value
crosses a particular threshold (the value varies from a region like USA to, say, another region like Australia), a CS (customer success) representative is assigned to handhold the customer throughout the
lifecycle journey. Presales and customer support teams are the usual points of contact for any troubleshooting assistance

e) Marketing techniques:

● How do you take your product to customers?

○ Digital marketing is a crowded space – the usual channels such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. as usual play a significant role
○ Business conferences – this is the most crucial piece of branding efforts, especially in a maturing or matured market. Campaigns like #FailsForce, which mocked at SalesForce for being
a clunky and costly software even for basic needs, have played in huge favour for the brand recall of Freshworks. In addition, the website ripoffornot.org, which gives a telling statement about how
Freshdesk as a company (before getting reincarnated as Freshworks) and Freshdesk the product was ridiculed
● How do you ensure visibility in the B2B space? – The CEO Girish Mathrubootham is a known face in the SaaS space, having worked at AdventNet and Zoho earlier. The initial
recognition by Google and the investment rounds that happened created quite a bit of buzz about Freshworks, and it has stayed the same way until today. Further, the blog on each product offered by
Freshworks offer sneak peeks into the industries demands and how paradigms are dynamically changing. Industry connect activities such as interactive sessions with the who-is-who of the SaaS world gives
Freshworks a brand presence through collaborations. And as stated earlier, there are SaaS conferences and international events where Freshworks never fails to make a mark
● How does the sales team function?
○ The hierarchy is thus: BDE (Business Development Executive), Senior BDE, ASL (Associate Sales Lead), RSM (Regional Sales Manager), Director of Sales. The levels are clearly marked up
with certain overlapping and other distinguished functions.
○ The sales process is fairly straightforward as highlighted in the earlier answer for “How do you acquire new customers?”
● Role of technology in your marketing efforts? – Of course, since SaaS in itself is a digital space, technology plays a huge role in the marketing efforts of Freshworks. Using
● Do the marketing strategies differ across geographies? How? – There is an overall blanket marketing strategy to position Freshworks as a SaaS player, but at a product level, there are
minor differentiations to bring in the cultural context and the nature of customers who buy the products in each geographies. For example, the Middle East and Africa (MENA) market is mostly occupied by
real estate, infrastructure and oil behemoths. Freshservice and Freshsales are equally important products here, in addition to the flagship Freshdesk. Likewise, there are different strategies for US West
region, since that is the hub for all startups, innovations in technology and disruptive products. The customers there are also reasonably aware (at least in the B2B space). The marketing strategies vary for
each region on the above counts
● How do you keep up with changing trends?
○ By hiring enthusiastic people at every level of the organization. There are certain strategic decisions made on the appointment of senior management positions and C-suite
employees, and they forecast trends thanks to their huge swathes of knowledge. These transmissions are later transformed into micro marketing plans and sales strategies to keep the revenue stream
ready
○ Overall, the talent pool and the team – right from the C-suite to the entry-level executives – through a combination of marketing, personnel and sales strategies, overcome the
dynamism of the changing trends
Interview 2- transcript
How does the company look at churn?
○ When compared to the industry standards, the churn rate at Freshworks is low and by a margin. The culture and brand value Freshworks has created for itself ensures talent is always
available aplenty; in fact, the biggest peeve at the org is not being able to hire a lot of people at every quarter because there is so much retention
● Any specific retention strategies?
○ Freshworks has always stressed on the ‘Happy Work’ culture and environment, and it has always been put in practice ever since the company started hiring beyond the founding team
○ The recruitment process itself does not have a CV-based selection in most cases, and the interviews are means to get to know the motivators and purpose drivers of a candidate
○ In addition to the amenities such as free food, free transport, nap rooms, and sports and gym facilities at the workplace, the whole intangible aspect of helping employees find their
true purpose, drive and curiosity have been the cornerstone of the Freshworks cultre when it comes to employees

f) COVID:

● How has the pandemic changed the dynamics of the market?

○ Though initially there was a degree of cash crunch, especially with the SMBs – this made them hesitant to purchase an online tool – the prolonged lockdown and the ensuing digital-
first expectations from the customer transformed into good engagement from new and existing customers
● What has the pandemic meant for Freshworks?
○ The pandemic meant two things – introspection and growth
○ While the growth has been unparalleled as the company is growing beyond the $300 million mark, expanding the product portfolios and appealing to the enterprise customers, the
introspective part was essential as well
○ ‘Happy Work’ has been the cornerstone of the company’s ethos, and transferring this mindset into the work-from—home realm became the major focus of the management at
Freshworks. Creating comfortable work environments for employees at the confines of their home became the priority and the org has ensured the employees have got everything with respect to their
well-being, technological requirements and general support covered through the People Resources team and other teams
● How has the buyer behaviour changed because of the pandemic?
○ Already answered in the first question of this section
● How have the requirements changed?
○ From standalone products, the buyers have shifted to looking for a suite of products coming bundled for various use-cases together. The change is also reflected in the SMBs as well
○ This is because the work-from-home routines and the continuing lockdowns everywhere has nudged all kinds of businesses to bring in internal asset and task management processes,
external customer support software, live chat, etc. into their scheme of things
● How did you adapt to these changes?
○ Freshworks 360 came to the rescue to a large extent; it is a bundled version of the key features of several products put together to create a single ecosystem for the customer (the
business, that is) where all processes could be streamlined and analyzed
● Strategies adopted?
○ There was no major strategic change that needs to come into play since the existing plan itself was digital enough, given Freshworks is a SaaS product
○ The only layer of communication that had to be added was how amidst COVID-19, an online SaaS tool could come in handy for a variety of businesses. The org communicated this to
various interactions with industry leaders, continuous blogs and virtual conferences
Interview 2- transcript
What do you think the market will look like post pandemic?
○ Aggressive digital-first measures will increase, since the hybrid work model is going to increase
○ E-commerce sector would get reinvigorated with smaller players also chipping in with their niche products and services. The need for a SaaS suite of products has never been higher
● Trends that are here to stay for long?
○ Already touched upon in the previous question
● Lessons from the pandemic?
○ While unfettered growth is always possible, it is important to take a step back and create real value for the customers, investors, employees and the society at large
○ Freshworks has doubled down on its philanthropic efforts, with FWSA (Freshworks Software Academy) and providing on-ground support for education and livelihood through several
non-profits