How to Use Technology to Increase Customer Centricity and Improve Your Sales

With the explosion of SaaS-based technology, there is a huge challenge for salespeople who regularly get distracted by the next shiny sales tool that comes across their web browser.

It’s easy to get lost in the moment, and buy into a ‘cool’ concept, rather than focusing on the true benefit it can have to your sales process.

Is that new tool actually going to help you have better conversations and engagements with your customers?

When you are considering a new sales tool you need to look at it through the lens of the customer journey. If you take a look at the SaaS sales funnel, from the customer’s point of view, you can make smarter choices about the technology you use so that it actually results in better customer outcomes.

This is a customer centric approach to tool selection.

Below is a visual representation of the SaaS sales funnel from a customer’s perspective, which I will go into in more depth throughout this article:

The idea of this visual is to take a step back and look at the sales process through your customer’s eyes, and subsequently align your tools and technology with that experience.

Now, let’s go from left to right and look at each individual moment the customer is experiencing in your sales process:

ARGH! - I have a problem

The first stage of this customer-centric SaaS sales funnel is where the customer first realizes they have a problem.

A great tool that can help at this early stage of prospecting is Drift, an online AI chat tool. Drift enables you to automatically customize the chat function on your website, based on someone’s previous behaviour, or even based on a certain tag within your CRM! This gives them an extremely personalized and relevant chat experience and is aligned to their journey as a customer.

Below is a screenshot of Drift in action on the Price Intelligently homepage:

AHA! - There is a solution

The next stage in this customer-centric sales process is the ‘AHA!’ stage. This is where a prospect recognises that there could be a solution to their problem and they begin a search to identify the best partner.

They have probably already engaged with you to start learning about your solution at this point, but they need more information before making a purchase decision. This is where videos are an amazing way to create real relationships with your potential customers.

Bonjoro is a great tool for sending personalized video messages to prospects in your database, or there are other tools such as SoapBox from Wistia, and ViewedIt from Vidyard.

Whichever tool you choose, the idea is that you are creating a human connection with your prospects at an important stage in their buying journey.

This approach is especially effective if you want to gain traction within a larger business, because a video is something people can pass on. A lot of the time you will be dealing with an internal champion, who will be your voice internally, which means that you don’t get an audience of real decision makers. By sharing a video and brief demonstration of your software with the internal champion, they can then pass that onto other key decision makers within the business.

A company doing a great job with this at the moment is SalesLoft, you can learn more about their approach here.

WOW! - These guys can help me

The next stage of the process is when the customer recognises that there is a solution out there to solve their problem, and have identified a vendor to help them. This is the last stage before they make a purchase decision, so you really need to help them understand the value you can provide.

A lot of the time this is done in the moment, with a somewhat rigid proposal process that describes your product and the perceived benefits to the prospect. But technology has evolved in a way that now lets you create those proposals more efficiently so that they align to the customer’s needs, and are more relevant to today’s way of working. You’d be surprised at how many people are still sending physical proposals and asking for customers to print them off, sign them, and then send them back!

PandaDoc is one example of this type of technology that enables you to create templates for your proposals that are unique to certain customer profiles, and also allows people to easily digitally sign these documents so you are up and running in next to no time. Other technology includes HelloSign, DocuSign and several others.

BOOM! - This works for me

After a customer has shown a commitment to work with you, your next aim is to help them be successful with your solution with smart on-boarding. A great way to do this is to monitor how much they are actually utilizing the technology, and measure their engagement.

Intercom is an excellent tool for this stage of the process. With Intercom you can customize and automate your in-product messages to help customers better use the software, then track the engagement with those messages.

For example, let’s say the customer has used one part of the software but they haven’t completely set up their profile, something that you know is going to give them a better experience. You can trigger a message from Intercom that prompts them to take the required action.

Here is an example of a triggered Intercom message from a content marketing software called FlypChart trying to entice users to use a specific feature:

YEAH! - I am achieving recurring value

Now that you’ve moved the customer through the initial on-boarding period and helped them achieve some initial value, it’s time to move onto to the ‘YEAH!’ stage. This is where customers are achieving recurring value from your technology.

Once again, video is your best friend when it comes to communicating with your customers at this point and reinforcing that you genuinely care about the value they are getting from your product. You are looking to deepen those relationships with your customers, and ensuring that they can continue to draw value from your solution on a recurring basis.

OMG! - This tool works and I need to expand

The final stage in the SaaS customer-centric sales funnel is the ‘OMG!’ Stage, and it’s when your customers are ready to expand the use of the technology. They are looking for your guidance so that they can create a great experience for their colleagues and counterparts to start using the tool as well.

Two tools that will help you foster these inter-connected relationships and expand the use of your software within a business are Totango and Gainsight. Both tools focus on customer success management and help you expand those customer relationships.

Wrapping up

The biggest takeaway from this post shouldn’t necessarily be the tools I have recommended - they are just some alternatives. But you should leave with a mindset that aligns to a customer-centric approach to SaaS sales. It’s all about the experience the customer is having at every important juncture, and your toolset needs to mirror that experience.

Good luck implementing this process and I hope you start seeing an improved relationship with every one of your customers!