Why a Single Source Of Truth (SSOT) is the Grail for a SaaS company?

Successful businesses ensure their teams use the same data and the same way to interpret what that data means in order to make insightful decisions. Or in other words, they use a single source of truth (the same data) and a single version of the truth (using the same reports and metrics). 

The importance of A SINGLE SOURCE OF TRUTH (SSOT)

What is a single source of truth?

A single source of truth is “a data storage principle to always source a particular piece of information from one place.” A single version of the truth is “one view of data that everyone in a company agrees is the real, trusted number for some operating data.”

If there is no single source of truth or single version of the truth, it’s like a video replay in sports and every athlete is watching a different game (different data) and everyone is deciding what they consider to be a good performance (different metrics and reports); in the end most people will report back how amazing they were, even if the team overall loses, rather than revealing ways to improve.  

the Challenges to overcome to get a SINGLE SOURCE OF TRUTH (SSOT)

smash The Subjective Truth obstacle

Since there are so many ways data can be misinterpreted due to biases, data-driven decisions are not always objective. A single version of the truth is especially difficult at many SaaS companies where it is rare for marketing, sales and customer success to agree on what caused great performance or poor performance. 

break Data silos restrict the truth

Even if everyone is trying to act objectively, businesses often end up with different baseline data due to data silos and multiple systems and tools. In order to achieve a single version of the truth, it’s easier if businesses start with a single source of truth to build upon. This means keeping your data all in one place, not spread across multiple platforms. 

Go beyond Complex Tech STacks

The quest for the single source of truth is difficult primarily because there are so many niche software suppliers out there that integrations are constantly being built, subscription prices start to soar, and the tech stack grows bigger and bigger. In fact, the average in the tech industry is 155 software solutions! This creates massive complexity that makes it very difficult to understand what is actually happening.

How to attain a single source of truth? 

Find RevOps Leaders 

Using software that meets most of the revenue teams’ needs is one of the simplest ways to work towards a single source of truth. Bringing in Revenue Operations (RevOps) leaders is one of the best ways to work towards a single version of the truth since they can act as an objective voice to bring together the revenue teams to agree on unified metrics and reporting. Everyone can then see clearly what is happening and it is interpreted the same way.

Find the Best Unified Platform

The search then turns to finding a unified software platform and RevOps leaders. The most reliable way to find trusted software that can meet revenue teams’ needs is to survey other businesses for their experience. G2 Crowd is arguably one of the most trusted review sites available for B2B. Surveying the site, HubSpot emerges as a leader in many core tools for a successful business:

• For website builders and content: Hubspot is #1 in Web Content Management software (ahead of WordPress for example), and #4 in Website Builders (behind Wix, SquareSpace and WordPress). 
• For marketing: HubSpot is #1 under Marketing Automation and #1 for Marketing Platforms (ahead of Adobe’s Marketo). 
• For sales-related software: HubSpot is #1 under CRM software and #1 for Sales Platforms (ahead of Salesforce). 
• For customer success: HubSpot is #1 in Customer Success software, #3 in Customer Self-Service Software, #4 in Best Digital Customer Service Platforms and #5 in Help Desk (trailing Zendesk and Zoho in some cases).
• For RevOps-specific software: having recently launched their Operations Hub in 2021, HubSpot is already #19 (leaders being Gong, Outreach.io and Clari). 

Conclusion

Successful businesses see the need to use the same data, with the same understanding of how to measure success. The solution is to reduce complexity in tech stacks to try to find a single source of truth, ideally by adopting solutions like HubSpot. Then try to reduce subjectivity by bringing in RevOps leaders who can unify revenue teams with agreed-upon metrics of success.

To go further, calculate the ROI of your CRM use, are you really profitable?