Welcome to episode fifty-four of the SaaS Backwards podcast, where we interview CEOs and CMOs of fast-growing SaaS firms to reveal what they are doing that's working, and lessons learned from things that didn't work as planned. 

You can listen to the full episode directly below via Spotify, or visit SaaS Backwards on Buzzsprout or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Why do 90 percent of acquisitions fail for the buyer?

According to Ari Kahn, President and CEO of Bridgeline, a big reason is because they’re not leveraging the customer base to create greater lifetime value (LTV), so they don’t adequately recover the original customer acquisition costs (CAC).

Bridgline Digital has acquired its way to a suite of SaaS solutions that bridge the gaps between marketing, content, commerce, social and insights to grow online revenue for its customers.

Kahn’s secret acquisition sauce comes in evaluating targets that make sense both from a selling perspective (getting new logos) and by enhancing customer lifetime value for its existing customers by bringing appealing new technologies.

In this episode, Kahn shares his stories and specific methodologies for bringing companies into the fold, including:

• His first acquisition during the dot com bust
• Understanding the CAC to LTV ratio
• Strategies for dealing with “the cash flow trough”
• How providing multiple paths for customer solutions leads to greater LTV

Other resources to check out:

Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publish a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing.

The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer.

And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. Valued at $20K in free consulting.