It’s time to talk a little bit about how to sell SaaS, and what factors are the most important in working out strategies. Unlike marketing, selling is a different animal, and so, when working out how to sell a product like SaaS, different things must be considered in a different order of importance.
Customer Life Time Value Matters:
First and foremost, one must factor in what the lifetime value of a customer is intended to be from a goal stand point. This affects not only which business model is best to sell the service under, but also what pricing and purchase deals should be, as far as layout and customer experience.
Remember, when forecasting lifetime value of a customer, to account for slack on a positive and negative level, because this will vary, due to the unpredictable nature of the human element involved.
Establishing a positive, casual but professional rapport with a user base is also very important when considering how to sell SaaS. Customers like being respected as intelligent and capable of grasping complex ideas, but at the same time, they also like not being bogged down with technical jargon that doesn’t matter too deeply for their decision making.
Build Rapport:
When it comes to this rapport, it’s best to be willing to answer any questions potential customers have, and to be willing to itemize and justify any aspects that affect costs and terms of service on their end. Sales are a negotiation, so as with any good negotiation, information must be freely given, and mutual respect by both parties is incredibly important.
Focus on Nurturing:
Nurturing customer relations and continued patronage are also obviously important, as selling SaaS is not a one time transaction as with something products. Nurturing customers consists of positive customer service and relations, as well as continued incentives. Long time customers should be rewarded for their long term subscription and use of your services. Customers wish to feel appreciated, and they wish to feel valued as a crucial element of your continued success and functioning as a business.
Nurturing customer relations in this manner is also a good way to gain positive reputation in your industry, among other potential users. Existing customers who feel valued and appreciated will speak positively of your company when suggesting an SaaS solution to their friends or colleagues. Rather than recommending competition, they will be more likely to recommend your company in light of how positively they were treated as customers themselves.
Give The Best Service:
It is important to remember that while good service and unquestionable competence is very important in any industry, customer experience and relations are how a company is ultimately judged, so in selling SaaS, building a good reputation in this aspect can sell a service just as well as the service’s features themselves can.
Think Long Term Relationships:
It comes down to relationships with customers, along with some simple, logical metrics on how customers should be priced and quantized, in selling SaaS not unlike marketing. However, with sales, it’s less about presentation and more about the relationship and human dynamic with customers and potential customers.
Beyond the metrics, when working out how to sell SaaS, ask yourself, how would you as a customer wish to be treated and negotiated with?