This week, I was thrilled to attend The SaaStr Annual 2017 in San Francisco. SaaStr - where the world’s SaaS experts come to learn, share and play - is a great opportunity to learn first-hand how successful SaaS companies have grown and scaled their organizations. According to Gartner Research, more and more companies are shifting to cloud services, and this "cloud shift" will affect more than $1 trillion in IT spending by 2020.

Companies are moving away from traditional IT to cloud to not only optimize their IT spending but to leverage next-generation technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) and analytics. As companies see the new business potential with SaaS, there’s a new wave of startups that follow, and many were present at SaaStr.

For those of you who couldn’t attend, read on for key themes and questions to keep in mind as you take your SaaS business to new heights.

The SaaStr Annual 2017 conference is only a few days away. For those of us building SaaS companies, it provides a great opportunity to learn from others who have been through the growth process while building our networks. (We’ll be there! Come have a drink on us Tuesday at Soluna Cafe & Lounge.) But conferences like this can be overwhelming, both for you and your teams. What are your goals for attending? What sessions should you go to? Who do you want to meet? In short, how do you make sure you get the most out of the conference?

Here's some tips on how to get the most out of SaaStr this year.

Our youngest turned 15 this last weekend and our oldest is almost 20 so it has been quite some time since we were in the market for baby gear. But I remember going into the baby store like it was yesterday. I remember the sales pitch to us soon-to-be first time parents, “this crib is fine and safe BUT this one is the best” or “those strollers are good but don’t last as long as these” or your baby won’t be able to lie flat in those.” And so with just a few words our sale doubled in price and there were no objections from us, in fact, we were asking, “are you sure those are the best”?

I wish selling enterprise software were as easy. Here are some of the challenges I’ve faced.