The DriveSales™ | Proven and highly recommended sales strategies for SaaS companies!

Software as a service, popularly known as SaaS, has transformed the physical infrastructure of many companies completely. According to a study, 80% percent of the company’s work would be done by the cloud by the end of this year. According to NASSCOM, the SaaS solution market value was 407 million dollars in 2016 and has grown 3 times by now!

You must be wondering, what a SaaS Company is?

SaaS companies, just what the name suggests, are organizations that deliver software model as services to their consumers. This software is hosted centrally and can be used by its customers from any place in the world. It is often known as on-demand software and offered on a subscription basis.

SaaS not only reduces delivery costs but also gives unrestricted access to the global market. People often get confused between Platform as a service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). Those software tools which are available over the internet are PaaS whereas the software which is available through a third party is SaaS. Some good examples of SaaS companies are Hubspot, Zoho, Freshworks, MailChimp, etc.

Now, when it comes to forming sales strategies for these companies, you have to plan with a completely different mindset. Wondering how to start? No need to stress because we are here to figure this out for you!

Here are some best tips listed below to form the perfect sales strategy for a SaaS company:

1) Offer short trials — You might think why you should keep the trials short because long trials would attract more customers. That is a misconception. When you offer long trials, you lose the advantage of curiosity. Moreover, people do not take long trials seriously. Offering short trials up to 2 weeks would help you attract your prospects and convert them into paid customers.

2) Develop Email Campaigns — People tend to underestimate the power of Email Marketing. If effectively use, Email Campaigns can make a good number of conversions. When a person sees something repeatedly, it creates an impression on their mind. Therefore, send emails frequently to your prospect after they start their trial to stay on their mind.

3) Quality over quantity — Focus on giving short quality demos rather than long and irrelevant presentations to sell your product. The value-centric demo will create a good impact on the prospect’s mind. You must give valid explanations and solutions to their problems during the demo. Make sure your prospect can retain the information you give.

4) Connect with your prospects over a call — A most common mistake that SaaS companies make is that they do not usually call their prospects after they sign up for the trials. When you talk to your prospects over a call, you get a brief idea about their mindset. It also helps you to deal with their objections effectively and leave a good impression.

5) Don’t offer discounts — Yes, you read it right! DO NOT OFFER DISCOUNTS. You may think it is insensible but trust us, offering discounts would do worse than good. Selling gets based more on price than the value when salespeople have the option of offering discounts to prospects. Moreover, it would create a bad reputation when customers get the same product for different prices. But you can offer them discounts on annual plans to promote bulk sales.

6) Do not compromise in the price — It is necessary to be confident about your product. Your price should justify the value of your product. You have to make your prospects believe that your product is worth the price. A compromise in the price would degrade the value of your product. Remember, price is the benchmark of your product.

7) Follow up continuously — It is unrealistic to think that you can close the deal on your first call. Keep following up through calls and emails until you get a clear answer from your prospect. Your sales success depends on your capability to follow up effectively.

8) Offer prepaid annual plans — It is difficult to generate immediate revenue for start-ups. The best way to do this is by offering discounted prepaid annual plans. You may feel that this will reduce your overall revenue, but it is good for an initial boost to your business. You can use this revenue to hire star employees, expand your business, or brush up your products.

9) Optimize your customer support — Continuously work on developing your customer service. There is a simple way to attract and retain your customers — give them the best customer support. If your customers are happy and satisfied, you will automatically find your business growing. Your reputation in the market depends mainly on how satisfied your customers are.

10) Use Content marketing — According to a study, 90% of people spend most of their time online. Your conversions are just one step away from you. All you need to do is make great content — Blogs, Videos, anything that you think will catch the attention of your target audience. Share your content on every possible platform to increase your viewership. Do not expect immediate results. Remember, growth is a slow process. Focus on improvement and keep working on it.

Now, as an effective SALESPERSON! We can do three things from here.

1) Ignoring the opportunity and blaming the situation for revenue loss.

2) Taking important notes and going back to revisit your sales strategy with the growth mindset.

3) Reaching out to us if you need any specialized help for sales.

To conclude, what you choose to think also provides some idea of your growth mindset. It is something like Abigail Adams quote, “Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.”

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