Are you starting a SaaS business? Here are 5 of the biggest mistakes in SaaS sales that you can learn from and eliminate as you climb to the top.
The SaaS market is a very fast-growing and competitive industry. I have never met a CEO or manager in this industry who can say with all honesty that they have not encountered challenges or regretted their decision. After all, this is the foundation of all businesses. It is always a gamble that is met with many challenges. The best way to prepare for the SaaS sales challenges is to learn from other people’s mistakes.
If you are new to the SaaS Sales industry, there’s a high chance you might face the same challenges and make the same mistakes. My job is to hold your hand and highlight the biggest mistakes you can make. Once you know these mistakes you will be able to tread carefully, find a solution, and stay motivated because you now know that other people went through this pit fire and came out on the other side.
So, let’s get into the five biggest mistakes in SaaS sales
1. Hiding product prices
Being upfront and transparent will win the hearts of many customers. There is no point in getting excited about software that you need and want to purchase then getting a pricing page that doesn’t have prices. Stop feeding into your customer’s frustration and make their purchase experience a little bit easier.
G2 Track conducted a study that proved that adopting transparent pricing models boosts SaaS sales for companies. Other industries have tried to adopt this hiding pricing model and I must say that it has done numbers in reducing their customer engagement.
I’m sure we have all interacted with a business or company that chooses to advertise its products but doesn’t reveal the actual price of its products or services. When a customer asks about the price, they are usually met by a bland and rude “Check your DM” or “DM us for the price.” My experience with this is that I never go the extra mile to send them a direct message. This is where the customer engagement ends and the customer quickly opts out of a business that doesn’t understand the value of disclosure. The culture of “DM for prices'' or hidden pricing models might be dying a slow death right now, but we can all agree that it needs to die FASTER, especially in SaaS sales.
The only exception to this rule is:
The only acceptable exception to this pricing model in SaaS Sales is when revealing the price upfront is your only option. For example, the more complex the software gets, the harder it gets to set a fixed upfront price. In other words, the more customization a software gets the higher the price. Therefore, making it unavoidable to use case-to-case pricing models.
2. Tracking the wrong metrics
When it comes to SaaS sales, there is a sea of metrics that should be constantly tracked. Keeping an eye on all these metrics is bound to lead anyone to madness. Therefore, you will have to single out the most useful ones. How do you know that the metric is useful? Well, if it helps you reach your goals and points towards concrete actions, you are on the right track.
Pick out metrics that are actionable, easy to access, and understandable. When these three boxes check out, your team will be able to easily draw out conclusions and give you the steps that will help you grow and improve your service. Therefore, stop wasting your time trying to track all the metrics. For example, try tracking the following metrics in SaaS Sales:
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Churn rate
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Annual and monthly recurring revenue (ARR and MRR)
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The customer lifetime value (CLV)
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The cost of acquiring customers (CAC)
3. Using your competitor's pricing model
What is your pricing model? Do you have one? If you do, does it work to your benefit? Improving your pricing can do wonders for your profit. Just because you are starting and are looking for guidance and market regulation from your competitors doesn't mean that you should replicate their pricing model. Don’t apply widespread pricing to your SaaS business.
SaaS product pricing models
Use any of these three SaaS product pricing models:
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Value-based pricing model - Here, you have to put the customer first. The value that your customer gets from the software determines the price.
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Competitor-based pricing model - In this model, you will have to analyze the prices of your competitor. The keyword here is “analyze” not replicate. With this as the standard, you have to gauge your position among them and know what price you should charge based on your level among the competitors.
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Cost-based pricing model - If you are a fan of calculations, you will thrive with this pricing strategy. You will have to calculate the production costs and add a markup percentage to get the price of the product.
All in all, choose a method that doesn’t underestimate or overestimate the value of the product. Replicating the pricing of your competitor will always make you misunderstand the product value and your customers.
4. Poor customer support
The Saas business model is very unique because it depends on the renewal of annual or monthly subscriptions rather than a one-time purchase. You need to stay with the user during the entire subscription. Otherwise, you will have to struggle with churn rates, which is the nightmare of all SaaS sales.
Let’s be real, poor customer service can cost you a lot of your clients. Not to mention the number of potential referrals who will turn to your competitors. So, how do you make your customer support effective?
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Benchmark - Carve out time and resources to train your SaaS sales support team. That way, when a problem arises, they can fix it without your intervention. Furthermore, you can set up resources to help your customers fix their problems such as knowledge bases. Your employee experience is closely related to your customer experience.
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Short response time - Time is money. Most customers will not renew their subscriptions if they know that when they need assistance, they will have to wait for more than 24 hours.
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Multiple contact points between customers and the support team - Your customers have different needs when it comes to communication. Therefore, you need to be able to cater to all their needs, which include social media, emails, calls, support forums, and live chatting.
5. Having a website with vague content
Trust and believe that there are multiple software solutions to any given problem faced by a customer. Therefore, you have to do everything within your power to stand out and impress potential customers. The most effective way of doing this is by creating a website that has quality content and valuable resources. Simply setting up a website is not enough. You have to go the extra mile to educate and convince your customers to purchase your product.
Studies show that content marketing on websites is very beneficial for SaaS sales. In fact, in the study, 82% of customers said that they felt more positively when interacting with websites that had valuable content. Don’t shy away from content marketing in SaaS Sales. Include all types of content. Having variety will help you cast a wider net on the type of customers you attract.
Conclusion
As you can see, you are not bad at business just because you have made big mistakes in SaaS sales. You may be lagging in the race, but you can use the pointers above to dig yourself out of that hole. Always keep your eyes open for any of the 5 common and biggest mistakes in SaaS sales. Tell us in the comments below how you created a healthy and strong SaaS sales strategy.
