How Do You Develop a Winning Sales Process for Your  Business?

The process of selling software applications to businesses or individuals is called Software as a Service sales. They are user-friendly, with greater scalability and flexibility to scale up or down based on the business needs. Additionally, they are cost-effective and often come with built-in collaboration tools for efficient teamwork to promote productivity.

If your business struggles to survive in this dynamic, fast-paced business landscape, consider following the winning sales strategies to promote sustainable growth.

This blog will provide detailed information on what is a Saas sales strategy and 10 Tips for how to develop a winning sales process for business?  Let’s get started. 

What is a SaaS sales Strategy?

The cloud computing model, Software as a service sales strategy, is one of the methods that enables the business to increase sales or revenue for SaaS products. The strategies include identifying the target audience, understanding their needs, setting prices, running effective marketing techniques, and resolving the challenges to provide excellent customer support. 

What is SaaS sales strategy? Importance of a Sales Process for SaaS business. 

The effective growth and long-term success of your SaaS business highly depend on your sales strategies. Defined strategic sales plans help the company to operate successfully even during the rise in customers with no impact on providing consistent productivity.

This approach enables the business personnel to understand their existing and emerging customer, gain their trust, and enhance the satisfaction rate. Furthermore, it facilitates the company to make data-driven decisions, onboard new agents, and predict future scales. Therefore, the sale process is one of the fundamental ingredients for success in maintaining the SaaS business position in the dynamic competitive business market.

How long should your SaaS sales cycle be?

The length of the SaaS sales cycle depends on various factors like the expense of your product and Annual Cost Value (ACV). Earning a new customer for most SaaS businesses takes an average of 84 days. Meanwhile, for businesses whose ACV is less than $5,000, their sales cycle is shortened to an average of 30 days. Hence, the more costly your product is, the longer the sales cycle occurs. Besides the pricing, the other factors affecting the Sales cycle length include the following.

1. Your target customer/market

Just like any business, the customers are everything in the SaaS business. To foster your business, it is crucial to understand and analyze the customer needs in the market. Then, the customer must be well-defined about the SaaS products and their features to create engagement with your products. It’s complicated to find the targeted audience in the new market. But you must constantly educate new customers about your improved products for success.

2. Product’s complexity

Introducing new software in the rapidly evolving SaaS world requires enough time. If you develop a new complex product, the customer will take longer to understand your product. Therefore, a user-friendly designed product is the key to SaaS business.

3. Offer free trials/ Demos.

Providing free trials to test your sample will increase your SaaS sales. It requires sufficient trial durations and offers to turn them into paying customers. With all these long-period free trials, closing sales is not guaranteed.

SaaS sales models

Understanding the SaaS Sales Model that summarizes how your product meets the market needs is crucial. There is no universal approach to the success of a SaaS business, so you have to go through different SaaS models and choose the right one to lead your business. The models include:

1. Self Service Model

Due to the high product value and user-friendly design, the customer can use the product independently without needing sales representatives. In this customer/self-service model, the marketing team is responsible for enhancing sales through education or awareness. On the other hand, the technical team will handle the onboarding and client retention.

2. Transaction Model

The customer will have high expectations of the expensive and complex SaaS products. With the marketing team’s help, the sales representatives adopt uniform content for lead generation.

The marketing team further addresses the client’s issues throughout the purchasing process. The support team offers onboarding and guidance.

3. Enterprise Model

The sales representatives in the enterprise model focus on the customer that requires advanced products. The marketing teams play a crucial role in showcasing the products with their features and benefits and building a solid relationship with the customers. Meanwhile, the support team will address the issues faced by the customer and provide a legitimate solution. 

👉Also read: Why Does Your Sales Team Need an Effective Calling Culture?

How to develop a winning sales process for business: 10 Tips

The SaaS business’s growth depends on the success of the sales process. A well-defined sales process helps maintain existing customers and attract new ones, leading to company growth and success. The tips for creating a winning sales process for SaaS businesses include the following points.

1. Improve buyer personas

The business might need help in identifying its targeted audience personas. Surveys, Interviews, and data mining are some strategies to refine the buyer personas. Refining is crucial to understanding the buyer’s needs and preferences. Tailoring the service, product, and marketing strategies to meet those requirements will lead to sales success.

2. Establish a trial subscription plan

Understanding your customers’ will to spend on your product is crucial, which can be assessed by offering free trials. Most trials run for 14 days, but the duration also depends on the complexity of your products. Depending on the complexity of your products, set free trials accordingly.

3. Connect through different channels

The SaaS business must communicate with its customers through multiple channels. Calls are the best approach for an immediate, interactive, customized reply. The use of SMS is recommended for quick and personalized messages. And use email for formal communication.

4. List objectives

Address the most frequently asked question in your call scripts. Update the latest information regarding your products and sales objectives list regularly. Listen to your client’s issues and address them effectively with appropriate solutions.  

5. Sort your leads into categories

Leads come in various forms, including product-qualified leads (PQLs), sales-qualified leads (SQLs), and marketing-qualified leads (MQLs). Sort these leads into groups according to their actions. MQLs are the interested participants who engage in marketing campaigns. They also browse the website, interact with the material, and sign up for the newsletter. PQLs are product users who have yet to convert to paying customers, and SQLs are qualified prospects who are prepared for direct sales engagement.

6. Use a power dialer

Automate the calls to reach the multiple outbound calls promptly, significantly increasing the business’s efficiency and productivity. Furthermore, only some leads are worth the same and might not be a suitable fit for your goods and services. Therefore, it is crucial to identify valuable leads to maximize sales operations’ effectiveness. 

7. Engage consistency

Regular engagement with the customer is vital to developing a winning sales process for SaaS businesses.  Consistent engagement helps the customer feel valued and appreciated. The company can use automated communication channels like emails and SMS that do not require personal interactions for seamless interaction. 

8. Ensure easy onboarding

The onboarding process must be easy, simple, and quick. To ensure customer ease, provide them with an onboarding checklist, a cloud-based solution, and all the necessary information they need. Smooth onboarding helps reduce the churning rate and the cost of additional customer support. Additionally, it creates a positive customer experience.  

9. Provide more value to your customers

The SaaS industry evolves with time. Therefore, your technology should be flexible to adapt to the changing industry needs. Provide software updates that increase the value of your product and its features. Analyze the customer feedback to identify the issues for improvements. 

10. Ask for feedback

Feedback is crucial for every business. You can consider various approaches like email and SMS to get excellent customer feedback. Give them deals and discounts in return for their time writing reviews. It reveals areas where businesses need to improve in innovation. 

Conclusion

The sales process is vital in surviving and positioning your SaaS business for long-term success. Additionally, it makes it easier for the company to make data-driven decisions, onboard new team members, and plan and predict future scales. There is no exact period for the SaaS sales cycle.

The duration is affected by the price and complexity of the products. Developing a winning sales process for a SaaS business is challenging. The company must consider improving buyer personas through consistent engagement, an easy onboarding process, etc. 

FAQs

How can I improve my SaaS sales?

 You can improve your SaaS sales by addressing the provided effective ways.

1. Understand your targeted audience’s personas.
2. Provide free trials to try your products before purchasing.
3. Provide excellent, responsive customer support.
4. Optimize the pricing of your products to meet the market demands.

What is the SaaS sales process?

The steps in the SaaS sales process include finding, evaluating, interacting with, and finally completing transactions with potential customers for SaaS solutions.

The primary goals of the SaaS sales process are to assist customers with their requirements and challenges, properly convey the benefits of the SaaS service, and lead them through the purchasing process.

How do I become successful in SaaS?

 You can become successful in SaaS business if you consider the following points.

1. Develop a strong SaaS product that can address the issues of your targeted audiences.
2. Provide excellent customer support.
3. Build an innovative team to support your SaaS business.
4. Adopt effective marketing strategies to attract new customers and maintain the available customers.

What are the stages of a SaaS sales deal?

 The stages of a SaaS sales deal include.

1. Identify ideal customer
2. Prospecting
3. Qualifying 
4. Presenting
5. Object handling
6. Closing
7. Nurturing