Effective Sales Strategies for Marketing SaaS Products

SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solutions are becoming an increasingly important investment for modern organizations looking for more flexibility and scalability in their operations. Considering the growing amount of digital platforms available for businesses to utilize, it’s no wonder why the SaaS industry continues to grow substantially each year.

As a SaaS provider, it’s important for your business to create a unique selling proposition that helps your brand to stand out in a crowded market. Although traditional marketing tactics may still have their place, there are other effective strategies you can put in place to generate more leads and close more business.

Understand Your Customers

Before successfully marketing to your target audience, you need to know exactly what they want in a SaaS product. A good way to start this process is by creating customer personas that can provide helpful perspectives when building sales pitches and reaching out to potential buyers.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling public safety solutions to governmental sectors, targeting other businesses, or marketing directly to end users. Following a customer persona helps you keep in mind your audience’s pain points and needs while creating a compelling pitch that addresses them effectively. 

Make a Strong Value Proposition

One of the most important elements of all successful sales pitches is having a strong value proposition. This isn’t necessarily a one-size-fits-all template, but it can be an effective way for potential customers to place a higher value on certain features and make it more likely to close a sale.

To establish a strong value proposition, you’ll want to empathize with your customers and recognize the importance of finding practical solutions for their issues. From there, you’ll want to take steps to make sure you’re able to showcase exactly how your SaaS solution addresses these issues and ultimately saves them time and resources.

Price Your Products Strategically

Of course, how your SaaS products are priced will be a primary consideration for most customers. However, this doesn’t mean that in order to compete in the market, you need to be the lowest-cost option.

The great thing about designing SaaS solutions is that there are often ample opportunities to create tiered pricing formats, allowing customers to customize their subscription costs based on their unique needs. Also, consider offering free trials and product demonstrations to give customers first-hand experience with your solutions before making a long-term commitment. 

Optimize Your Inbound Marketing

Improving your online visibility is a major contributing factor to attracting new leads to your business. A proven strategy to help with this is to make certain investments in your inbound content marketing initiatives.

Content generation through relevant blog posts and whitepapers can be a great way to bring value to your audience and create several opportunities to receive more organic website traffic. 

When you create linkable assets that other high-authority websites are more likely to refer their viewers to, you help establish important ranking signals to search engines like Google. This makes it easier for your content to rank high on search engine results pages (SERPs) and leads to more visibility.

Qualify Leads Effectively

Although bringing in more SaaS leads to your business is a good thing, it’s important to remember that not all the leads you get are worth pursuing. To maximize the return on your investment of time and resources, you’ll want to take steps to help you avoid following up with unqualified leads that aren’t likely to convert.

By creating carefully designed questions in your sign-up forms, you can quickly start to qualify the types of leads you bring in. You’ll want to consider incorporating questions that help determine your leads’ specific needs as well as their budgeting constraints or purchasing timelines. This will help you prioritize your sales efforts accordingly.

Understand Your Product’s Selling Cycle

The SaaS industry is much different from others in terms of the length of time it takes to nurture leads through the selling cycle. For example, government sectors prioritizing public safety solutions, including Next Generation 911 infrastructure improvements, will often take much longer to make a final decision in their product choices than a smaller business with a few end users.

It’s important to remember these unique selling cycles when prioritizing various sales and marketing initiatives. You want to ensure you don’t abandon potentially profitable leads if their sales cycles are longer and that you capitalize on all the right opportunities your business comes across.

Focus on Streamlined Onboarding Processes

The thing about SaaS selling is that the sales cycle isn’t over as a purchase is made. First impressions can leave a lasting impression on customers and will often dictate whether or not they continue to subscribe to their new solution long-term.

One of the ways to increase the likelihood of return business is by making sure the SaaS onboarding process is smooth and intuitive. Customers should feel like they have access to all of the information and helpful tools they need to get the most out of their solution.

Provide Ongoing Support As Needed

Considering how competitive selling products in the SaaS industry can be, it’s critical to find ways to stand out from other brands successfully. One way to do this is by offering a superior customer support experience that drives word-of-mouth referrals and improves brand reputation.

To do this, businesses should create comprehensive self-service tools and resources like knowledge bases or AI-driven features. By offering multiple support channels, including email, chat services, and ongoing phone support, customers can feel much more confident in subscribing to your solutions.

Increase Your SaaS Sales Activity

SaaS solutions have become increasingly popular for businesses today and have presented a unique opportunity for providers to leverage this demand to help grow their organizations. By following the strategies discussed, you can ensure you’re implementing the right sales and marketing initiatives while significantly increasing your chances of closing new business.

Author: Kevin Ruef

Kevin Ruef co-founded 10-8 Systems after exceeding multiple companies’ sales records (both domestically and internationally). With more than a decade in sales, his experience ranges from B2B, B2G, and B2C. Since the company’s start in 2019, Kevin has been responsible for business development, strategic partnerships, and business operations.