On Board #23 - 3 Ways Growth People Can Help Sales Improve Velocity

Just because the growth team isn't actively involved in the sales processes, doesn't mean they can't have an impact on them.

In fact, growth and product people should have a few tricks up their sleeves to make salespeople's lives better once in a while.

In this week's edition of On Board, we'll take a look at 3 ways non-sales members of your team can boost sales velocity, close deals faster, and grow now.

1. Faster time-to-value, quicker conversion

Free trials are there so that the user can have room to get adjusted to the tool, set it up, and see if provides the value you promised it would.

You will rarely come across a customer that will be convinced to become a subscriber without getting some value out of your tool first.

So the question is, how much faster can you get users to value?

Here are 5 steps to reduce time-to-value:

1. Analyze numerous user journeys and find out what your average time-to-value is.
2. Map out the user journey between signup and value point.
3. Initially, experiment with removing parts of user onboarding that contribute the least to the core value - these can be your secondary features, settings sections, inviting teammates, etc.
4. Then, go in-depth into the training content you have for users to see if there are any steps that can be removed or shortened.
5. Replace your user training content with different formats - if you're using support articles try hands-on training, if you're using videos try interactive content, or mix and match.

Faster time-to-value will mean that your customers will be ready to pay much earlier than they used to be.

Howewer,?customers being ready to pay doesn't mean they will be willing to pay, if your free trial is set up in a certain way:

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2. Experiment with your free trial

Most SaaS products offer 14-day free trials.

Plenty of time to test the product, discuss the purchase with stakeholders, and get things going.

And if your free trial is set up in a certain way where the potential customers will not have to pay unless the free trial is over, you will close deals after the free trial ends no matter what.

Here are two ways you can change this:

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2.1. Lock certain features for trial users

In no case, ever, you should lock the core value of your product.

But if you want to close deals before the trial is over, you might consider not giving full access to all features of your product.

You can try restricting usage of your different features so that the customer will be encouraged to pay to use them before the trial is over.

Make sure that they have a chance to see how it works or try it with a limited capability. In most cases, the existence of a feature can be a deal-maker or a breaker.

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2.2. Shorten free trial length

If you were successful in reducing time-to-value in the first step, you can reconsider your free trial length.

Going from 1-month free trial to 14 days or 14 days to 7 days can drastically improve your sales velocity.

To measure actual effectiveness and the impact of this change, you can A/B test different trial lengths.

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3. Start sales enablement way before signup

Want to close deals faster?

What if I told you there's a way to start convincing and onboarding users way before they sign up?

Most users won't sign up the moment they visit your website: in most cases, users will take a look at multiple pages or will even require multiple sessions on your website/blog to be convinced on signing up.

There is a way to make use of this flirting period, actually two ways:

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Method 1 - get users familiar with your product and how it works

Using your website, blog, and other marketing content to get users familiar with your product is a great way to start onboarding users before signup.

In your content, naturally use screenshots of recordings of key processes in your product.

For example, if you're talking about dashboard-building feature of your platform, add a screen recording of the dashboard-building experience in the middle of the page.

This way, your visitors will be familiar with your platform, and as soon as they sign up, they'll know where things are or how they should function.

Method 2 - use social proof to start convincing earlier

Nothing like thousands of people saying that a product is great to convince me to buy it, and I'm certain that's the case with almost every consumer out there.

To improve sales enablement, it is common for sales teams to use social proof in their emails or custom landing pages.

But you can start getting the benefits of social proof before users sign up, as they visit your website.

When you visit Rydoo 's homepage, for example, you are greeted with plenty of verified social proof on related metrics and credible platforms. You instantly think that this is one of the top tools in the industry, and rydoo's sales process starts before you signup:

In-depth case studies, your ratings on credible platforms, news coverages, and sample results can be great ways to enable users pre-signup.

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Hope these help.

Selman Gokce

Growth at UserGuiding