Are you navigating the complex world of SaaS sales and wondering how to sell SaaS products effectively?
Look no further! In this article, we’ve distilled the essence of successful SaaS sales into 10 actionable tips that will not only boost your revenue but also propel your customer base to new heights.
Ready to master the art of selling SaaS? Let’s dive in!
Table Of Contents
- How to Sell SaaS Products: 10 Tips
- Unlearn the SaaS Selling Myths
- Know SaaS-Selling Fundamentals
- Hire a Great Sales Team and Pay Them Well
- Find the Right Customers to Sell SaaS Products
- Generate Leads for Selling SaaS
- Handling Objections Well While Selling SaaS
- Give an Effective Product Demo
- Keep Your Free Trial Period Short!
- Call Your Trial Signup Users Within 5 Minutes
- Make Your Customers Successful
- Examples of SaaS Companies That Sell Effectively
- Plan to Sell SaaS Products?
- Conclusion
How to Sell SaaS Products?
Discover how to sell SaaS products successfully in the market with the following tips and strategies.
1. Unlearn the SaaS Selling Myths
Apart from the misconception that SaaS products sell themselves, there are more myths to clear up about selling SaaS. Let’s break it down:
A. “SaaS sales metrics aren’t relevant for small companies”
Wrong! Even if you’re just starting, understanding metrics like profitability, cash, and growth matters. Check out “SaaS Metrics – A Guide to Measuring and Improving What Matters” for more.
B. “Data is all that matters”
Nope! It’s about getting insights. Know which marketing emails your customers open, and use that info to tailor your approach.
C. “Let me wait until after sending my proposal”
Don’t wait. Take charge between sending the proposal and closing the deal. Follow up with useful info, like a case study.
D. “I wrote a good blog, and now customers will come”
Not quite. In a world with lots of content, effective distribution is crucial. Make sure your content meets market needs, and be ready to tweak if it doesn’t.
E. “I’ll sell it when the product is perfect”
Start selling when you get the product idea. Reach out to potential customers through surveys and emails. Involve them from day one, selling not just a product but an idea. This not only builds a customer base but also gets you valuable feedback.
2. Know SaaS-Selling Fundamentals
To start, follow these simple steps:
- Understand what your customers want by listening to them.
- Create a want in potential customers. When selling, emotions matter. Customers don’t just buy your product; they buy into an image.
They’ll only purchase when they believe your product meets their needs. Just listing features won’t sell your SaaS product if you don’t spark that desire in them.
Learn these non-negotiable best practices for successful Software as a Service (SaaS) sales:
Recognize Success
- Measure success by closed deals, not just the pipeline.
- Reward salespeople who seal the deal.
Stay Focused
- Put your energy into selling your SaaS product, not small side projects.
Smart Pricing
- Set a fair price based on your product’s value and features.
- Avoid undervaluing your product.
Customer First
- Solve customer problems instead of just talking about product features.
- Make sure your product meets customer needs.
Build a Great Team
- Have a dedicated, hardworking sales team in the right roles.
- Keep your team passionate and consistent for success.
3. Hire a Great Sales Team and Pay Them Well
Your responsibility includes assembling a top-notch sales team, and here’s a breakdown of the stages involved:
Stage 1: Founders as Pioneers
- Kickstart by personally selling your SaaS, involving co-founders.
- Begin with familiar contacts, like friends, past colleagues, or employers, and seek introductions.
- Focus on learning from the experience rather than the number of customers acquired.
- Gain insights into the market and customer expectations.
- Identify key customer metrics and develop essential sales tools like pitches and email campaigns.
Stage 2: Founder-Led Team
- Progress to a small, founder-led sales team with 2-3 salespeople.
- Prioritize hiring individuals driven for success.
- Juggle product development responsibilities while leading the team.
- Encourage friendly competition within the team.
- Stay hands-on in guiding and leading the team.
- Ensure candidates can effectively sell their capabilities during the hiring process.
Stage 3: Junior Sales Leader
- Advance to hiring a junior sales leader to oversee 3-15 salespeople.
- Task the sales leader with refining the existing sales approach.
- Establish a robust learning repository and build upon early learning.
- Foster team growth by implementing a hiring process, quotas, commission structures, and training.
Stage 4: VP of Sales
- Expand further by hiring a VP of sales to lead a team of 25+ (based on company size).
- Charge the VP with developing a comprehensive sales strategy.
- Expand sales channels and grow the customer base.
- Enhance the sales organization structure.
- Improve hiring, training, commission structures, and talent management.
- Expand the sales team geographically and across various channels.
- Entrust the VP with closing significant deals and improving overall sales economics.
4. Find the Right Customers to Sell SaaS Products
Create an ‘ideal customer profile’ by envisioning a fictional organization and addressing the following points:
- Value to Your Company: Think about more than just payment. Can they recommend you, give testimonials, or help your SaaS business grow?
- Benefits of Your SaaS Product: How does your product help them? Does it make them more money, save costs, or boost productivity?
- Use Real Data for Fictional Customers: Makeup customers based on real info. Talk to your current customers to understand what they get from your product.
When talking to your customers, keep the conversation going. Their insights matter before, during, and after they use your product. Ask them to explain the value they see so you can learn what works and what needs improvement.
5. Generate Leads for Selling SaaS
In SaaS sales, generating leads is crucial to expanding your customer base. Consider these approaches:
Buy Lists
- Purchase from reputable providers like Data.com and Infousa.com.
- Quantity is high, but quality may be lower, with over 30% potentially outdated.
Web Scraping
- Use a web scraping program for data extraction.
- Quantity may be less, but leads’ quality tends to be higher. Be cautious, as many websites prohibit this practice.
Outsource to a Lead Generation Team
- Outsource for better data quality, albeit with lower quantity.
- Provide specific criteria; costs may be higher, but returns are often greater.
Create Customer Profiles
- For existing customers, identify common factors like company size, employees, software usage, location, and business tenure.
- This yields the highest quality data.
Using the fourth approach can also lead to potential customer referrals if you have existing customers, who are considered the best leads.
6. Handling Objections Well While Selling SaaS
Selling SaaS products isn’t simple; it involves more than just a quick transaction. When dealing with companies, things get a bit complicated because different people within the organization have opinions, and that can lead to objections.
Let’s talk about two common problems salespeople face and how to deal with them.
1. Price Objection
Often, the first problem is about the price. By this point, you should have already talked a lot about what your product can do. If they say it’s too expensive, it could mean they don’t see its value, or maybe your product needs to be right for them.
To deal with this problem:
- Talk about the price only after making sure they understand why your product is valuable.
- Stick to the price you’ve decided based on careful research.
- Remind them of the long-term savings they’ll get by paying the upfront price.
Just a heads up: Don’t focus only on the price; it might make your product seem less valuable.
2. Feature Request Objection
The second problem happens when customers want an extra feature. Dealing with this needs experienced salespeople.
Ask questions to figure out what they need:
- What issue does the new feature solve?
- Which part of their team needs it?
- How will it help them in the long run?
- Can they manage with what they already have?
- Is this a big problem, and if so, why?
Remember, your product can’t be everything for everyone. Don’t rush into adding features; it might make people wonder if your product has a clear plan.
7. Give an Effective Product Demo
A crucial aspect for demonstrating your product’s value, boosting sales, and expanding your customer base is the product demo. Here are key recommendations for making the most of your SaaS sales demo:
- Thorough Planning: Plan meticulously to increase the chances of making a sale during the demo. Coordinate logistics with your team and ensure infrastructure is tested beforehand.
- Customer Success Focus: Tailor your demo to highlight how the product contributes to customer success. Avoid lengthy demos showcasing every feature; instead, emphasize solving their problems.
- Highlight Powerful Features: Start with your product’s most impactful feature to immediately capture customers’ attention.
- Customer-Centric Communication: Speak in terms your customers understand; steer clear of complex programming terms.
- Attentive and Honest Interaction: Allow customers to ask questions or share feedback without interruption. Be honest if faced with a challenging question about a product feature. Promise to follow up with answers and keep that promise.
- Prepare for Glitches: Anticipate potential product crashes during the demo.
- Manage Requests Smartly: Avoid committing to challenging requests during the demo; instead, note them down for later follow-up.
- Time Management: Keep the demo concise, limiting it to 15 minutes or less.
- Prompt Action: Conclude the demo by encouraging prospective clients to take action promptly, aligning with the demo’s primary purpose: securing the sale.
8. Keep Your Free Trial Period Short
A long free trial might make customers think they have tons of time to check out your SaaS product. But, organizations have lots of other important things to do, so a longer trial might not end up turning into a sale.
Go for a short trial, around 14 days. This makes customers feel like they don’t have too much time to spare, and it pushes them to act quickly.
This not only speeds up how fast you make sales but also lowers your ‘customer acquisition cost’ (CAC) because of the shorter trial – something super important for SaaS companies.
Here’s a quick exception: some products, like Dropbox, are designed to make it hard for users to switch to something else.
For example, once you’ve backed up your files and pictures, moving them to another service is a real hassle. For these kinds of products, a longer trial might work okay. But, most SaaS products don’t fall into that category.
9. Call Your Trial Signup Users Within 5 Minutes
If you’re running a B2B SaaS business, here’s a super effective trick to boost your sales and get more customers. And guess what? You don’t need super-talented salespeople for this.
It’s easy! Just give a quick call to every person who signs up for a trial within 5 minutes. You don’t have to say much just thank them for signing up, mention they haven’t tried the product much, and offer help if they have questions.
This quick move impresses users. Waiting for 30 minutes before calling lowers your chances of turning that sign-up into a lead, acting within 5 minutes? Your chances of getting a lead are 100 times higher, and your chances of qualifying for that lead shoot up 21 times!
10. Make Your Customers Successful
- Avoid Complacency: Make sure your customers are getting value from your SaaS product. Don’t just settle for small issues; aim for them and use them well.
- Customer Visits Over Sales: Instead of pushing sales all the time, go see how your customers use your product in their work. Make sure it’s a crucial part of their day.
- Listen Actively: Pay attention to what your customers say. Find out if they need more features to make the most of your product. Keep them happy to help your business grow.
- Encourage Vigorous Usage: Encourage customers to use your product to the max. This means more questions and requests, but that’s a good sign. Fix issues fast to keep them successful.
- Measure Success, Not Just Happiness: Don’t just aim for happy customers; go for successful ones. They can tell you how much they’re gaining from your product, which is super important.
- True Advocates: Customers who use and benefit from your product become your biggest fans. Their stories help bring in more customers and grow your business.
Examples of SaaS Companies That Sell Effectively
Check out these SaaS companies to see why the basics matter for growing your customer base:
Plan to Sell SaaS Products?
First, make a fantastic SaaS product that people will want. But don’t stop there. Create a good plan for selling it, and then start promoting your awesome product. That’s how you get more customers and make more money.
If you’re the CEO or CTO and your team lacks the know-how for building and marketing the product, think about teaming up with a reliable software development agency. Find one that’s good at making software that stands out in the market.
Also Read: ChatGPT for SaaS Sales
Conclusion
To sum it up, selling SaaS products successfully means having a great product and a smart sales plan. It’s not just about what you sell but how you sell it. Remember, keeping customers happy is key.
With these strategies, you’re on your way to growing your customer base and boosting your profits in the ever-changing world of SaaS. Happy selling!
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