A business strategy for selling your Cloud Solution

Gartner predicts SaaS and cloud-based business application services will reach $32.2 billion in sales by 2016. If this is the game you are currently in, you need to consider what is the most effective way to Market and sell your own SaaS application and get more than your competitors slice of the pie.

• First up, implement a Content Permission based Marketing process and start sharing your particular expertise through as many channels as possible with the objective of getting your target market to opt in to additional Marketing content from your organization.  Note that you should not expect an immediate inrush of leads just because you start blogging and tweeting. It is important to realize that this is a slow burner but it is essential in the modern sales world that you do start doing this for various reasons, not least because the goodwill and credibility a strong content marketing strategy offers is hard to beat (Consider Hubspot, who are excellent at this).

• Offer a free trial and use it as a bargaining tool if necessary. Free Trials can pose a challenge in itself just because what is Free is usually not valued. As a result when the Sales Person calls in to see how the trial is progressing it is often a case of “Can you give us another week as we have not had a chance to evaluate your solution yet?”. The way for the sales person to circumvent this is to ensure they stay in control of the trial from the get go and ask what is it that they will look to test specifically and agree a date to come back and discuss progress toward the specific objective(s). It is worth noting that if you are offering more complex SaaS solutions a trial can be a real hindrance as often a degree of customization and a get familiarization period with more powerful SaaS solutions is required. Again the best way around this is to agree some test criteria up front.

Other options to a free trial
An alternative to a Free trial is a freemium or limited free access to basic features to get the prospect comfortable and even reliant on your offering until eventually they require more advanced offerings.

Bargaining tool
A free trial can also be a great bargaining tool especially at the latter stages of the sales process I have used the line “Sure I can leave the trial live until Friday but can you then sure we have the legals signed by Thursday” to help close many a deal.

• Consider and test the customer journey as a new prospect engages with your brand for the first time. As a SaaS company you should spend as much time as you can afford to ensure the UX (User Experience) is as positive as possible from the moment they come to your Website and that their expectations are exceeded throughout their journey with you, this more than anything helps sell SaaS Software.

• Regardless of what you hear, even in the age of Marketing Automation as your primnary sales tool, cold calling is still very much a valid Marketing strategy. In a B2B environment it is best accompanied by a Tool like LinkedIn Sales Navigator to send introductory personalized InMails. I am certainly not advocating the “dialing for dollars approach” here, but rather an intelligent approach to a select targeted list that may not be responding to other channels. Even best in class companies that are extremely adapt at selling on line will realize that the on line channel will not work for everybody, so if you have a compelling reason for a prospect to listen to you, the phone is still an effective first touch Marketing channel and a great way to upsell / cross sell to your existing customer base.
  

• Invest in a Marketing Automation Platform (MAP). As a SaaS business more so than most businesses you will realize that how customers buy has changed forever. Without the proper On Line Marketing Strategy chances are that your prospect will probably have made up their mind on a short list without you ever realizing that you should have been in the running for their business. The right MAP will help you realize and maximize your on line strategy to engage the right prospects using not only existing channels, like email, better but most importantly create lucrative new marketing channels for example though social channels like Twitter, LinkedIN and Facebook or SMS and not to forget your mobile app.  

Powerful automated Workflows
The right MAP will also give you the capability to create automated workflows for timely, relevant automated communications based on prospect behavior or segmentation. These communications can be automated for the prospect or your internal team. 

• Ensure your Sales Team know your Points of Differentiation and can create stunning demos as well as present thought leadership and the value add around these points. For example if you are offering a SaaS solution that allows you to put ongoing training in place for an entire workforce, don’t just have your sales team demo this ensure they also have facts and figures around how companies with ongoing training / career development plans make significant savings through a better educated, motivated workforce and how it will help them reduce churn and attract the best talent etc etc…

• Final point, implement a solid sales process to ensure your sales team does not get outsold. One of the most effective processes to ensure your sales person wins the deal is to ensure that your sales person has an effective close plan that ensures that the sales person has a full 360 degree view of what it is going to take to win the deal and to get the prospect to (preferably digitally) sign the contract in your favor. Best practice is to get the sales person to agree a close plan with the customer up front which includes most of the below

 
WHY YOU
What interests them most about your solution?
What do they need/expect from your solution?
What is driving the need for your solution?
What does success look like  to them (Goals / 6 Months board/management meeting):

TIMELINE
Why this timeline?
What are the Milestones / what is the next Milestone:?
Compelling event/date (e.g. New product launch/New Manager Starting)?
What is their Evaluation/purchasing process?

BUDGET
Is it in place / are they aware of investment required in your solution?

AUTHORITY
Who is involved in the decision / final decision?
Who will sign the paperwork?
Will legal be involved (Get legal paperwork over as early as possible)?

OTHER IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS
Who is currently the main competitor/why?
Are there any internal resources you need?
Is there a deal breaker that needs to be uncovered early around functionality/budget or any particular legal/payment terms?

 If you would like to know more about how Marketing Automation technology can help your SaaS business feel free to link in with me and set up an initial discussion around your needs and challenges in selling your SaaS solution.