Reimagining how complex organizations bring value to their customers, Ankur Goel is a business development strategist and go-to-market expert who is fundamentally changing how technology is applied in the real world. As a big-picture thinker with an eye for detail, Ankur has observed how technology changed the world around him throughout his early life, and now, he's responsible for some of the most influential movements in the technology sector.
As the Head of Business Strategy and Operations at Confluent, a Software-as-a-Service provider that critical organizations such as the US government depend on, Ankur has been at the helm of some of the organization's largest strategic changes. After he was brought into his role in 2019, he helped Confluent navigate the transition of going public and move from an on-premises subscription model to a cloud-based hybrid model. Making transformational changes from the inside of such an influential organization takes a level of skill that not many leaders have, but under Ankur's guidance, Confluent is changing how the entire technology industry thinks about its product offerings and service models.
For many years, SaaS-focused companies relied on subscription models. Sales teams would work with enterprise leaders to determine a set number of licenses needed, and the client could then distribute those licenses as they saw fit. Now, usage models are rising in popularity. Usage models charge based on the number of features and the amount of time all users are spending working with the SaaS tool. For Confluent, this shift meant changing their sales approach, marketing tactics, and even product development roadmaps.
With a solid business development plan in mind, Ankur ushered Confluent toward a usage model, enhancing the relationship the company has with its users at every level and tailoring the tool toward what features clients need the most. Making this transition isn't easy, but after the success Confluent has seen with it, much of the technology industry is moving toward a usage-based pricing model. By merging product-led sales and top-down enterprise sales into a hybrid approach, Confluent and other SaaS offerings are scaling faster, enjoying higher rates of customer retention, and solving client issues seamlessly.
To Ankur, understanding how to influence and impact large systems has been a skill he spent his whole life developing. He recalls taking a sabbatical from his consulting work at McKinsey to visit villages in India and examine how new technology like cell phones and the internet were altering the human experience in some of the most remote areas in the world. This experience opened his eyes to the power of technological disruption and informed his decision to turn to innovative approaches to solve systemic and societal problems, which he now does with Confluent.
In order to make this approach work in different settings and industries, Ankur developed a broad strategic approach that can be applied in a variety of use cases. He recommends including metrics that hold sales leaders accountable for driving platform consumption instead of selling subscriptions. With the sales transition, more resources will need to be focused on post-sales support instead of pre-sales heavy operations. In order to measure progress, usage metrics will need to be tracked, analyzed, and reported on to boost leadership accountability and ensure strategic alignment. Lastly, with the hybrid approach in a usage-based ecosystem, Ankur recommends focusing on the planning and execution of a thoughtful product roadmap.
The technology industry has been set in its way for decades now. In fact, many tech companies are trying to catch up to the subscription pricing approach. With a consumption approach proving to be successful in practice by leaders like Ankur, those transitioning to subscription models are already behind. Staying ahead of the trends and focusing on innovation are just two of the reasons Ankur and the organizations he has worked for have always been forging the path ahead instead of getting stuck following behind.
