How to build a lean SaaS sales machine
The two main things that kill once-promising SaaS companies are lack of sales and cash flow management.
When it comes to sales, it is rarely because a potential buyer said "No," it is that they said "I don't know," "Maybe," or just completely ghosted during the sales cycle. That's actually worse since you don't know what your target customers value or what you need to improve in your product to close deals.
One of the best ways to prevent this outcome is to get more clarity on who your ideal customer profile is and then establish clear sales systems and processes. These processes will become the foundation for creating your lean SaaS sales machine, so that you can consistently turn prospects into closed deals.
What is SaaS sales?
Now, there are three primary SaaS sales methods: inbound, outbound, and channel/partner sales.
Inbound sales - leads that express interest in a demo or start a free trial. Typically, inbound leads come from organic search rankings, longform marketing assets, word of mouth, social media, etc.
Outbound sales - leads that your sales team generates through cold calls, emails, Linkedin DMs, trade shows, etc.
Channel/Partner Sales - leads that come from your third-party partners/affiliates.
All three can work well for a B2B product. However, the sales channel(s) you use will depend on your company. Not to mention, you also need to consider your sales approach. For instance, how you sell to potential enterprise customers is very different from a sales self-service model.
6 core SaaS sales principles
You can get really good at sales without being a traditional salesperson. The key is to remember these six things:
1. Sell based on value: When many people think about sales, they envision high-pressure situations or used car salesmen tactics. When in reality, the best salespeople are the exact opposite of that stereotype. Instead, they are great at listening and problem-solving.
2. Qualify your leads: Learn how to ask the right questions on emails and calls, so all you have to do is figure out if your product can truly help them.
3. Always be following up: The key to closing more deals lies in following up with prospects. A general rule of thumb is to follow up at least 3 times.
4. Don’t forget about upsells, expansion revenue, and customer retention: The easiest people to sell to are your existing, happy customers. This means focusing on providing a stellar customer experience first and foremost. For example, you might be able to upsell some of your current customers on a higher plan with more features or persuade more people in their company to use your product (i.e. expansion revenue).
5. Be human: Remember you are always selling to people, whether it is B2C, prosumer, B2B, or enterprise sales.
6. Align sales and marketing from the start: Content sells, and compounds well. Be helpful, consistent, and out-educate your competitors.
How to write compelling sales emails
If you are a brand new, bootstrapped SaaS and looking to get your first customers, outbound sales is usually the best approach to take first, as you can generate demand and close deals more quickly. Not to mention, it forces you to execute and cut out many of the excuses (like “I need just one more feature”).
Many founders overcomplicate the process of writing cold emails. The hard truth is that the only thing that matters is getting a segment of your audience to open, read, and reply to your emails.
So, every second line of your email—starting with the subject line—should be a pitch to keep them reading and/or take your desired action.
Here are some general sales email writing tips to make this process a little easier:
Ask for intros: This is particularly relevant for enterprise sales. For instance, try to seek out and get intros to the person two levels ahead of the buyer in the organization.
Include just one CTA in your cold emails: Your cold emails shouldn’t resemble an “all-you-can-eat buffet” with a ton of text and links. Instead, your email has one job to generate interest. Keep it as short as possible.
Make it easy to complete your desired action: Remember, the people who are receiving these emails are strangers. They don’t owe you anything, and the more work you try to get them to do, the more likely they will ignore the email altogether.
Deliver what you promised in your email: Don’t use your subject line to trick people into opening your email. Bait and switch tactics might increase your open rates, but it won’t lead to more conversions.
Remember to follow-up: The magic happens when you follow up. Most people are busy, and sending polite follow-ups that continue to add value until you get a reply is the way to go.
Don’t be an asshole: While you should follow up, don’t come across as entitled, needy, or use passive aggressive replies. It just makes you and your company look bad.
Demo Quickly
Many SaaS founders sabotage their sales process when on demo calls by doing one or more of the following things:
Treating a demo call like a training call: Product demos are sales calls. You are there to demonstrate value to a potential customer, not train them on how to use every part of your product. Save that for the customer success team on the new customer onboarding call. 😉
Spending 1 hour or longer on a demo: Keep the demo as short as possible. Also, Zoom fatigue is real.
Not qualifying the lead upfront: The biggest way to waste your time is to deliver demos to low-quality leads who will never buy your product. By the time they hit a demo call, they should be both sales qualified AND product qualified leads.
Getting rattled if things go wrong: If something doesn’t work as expected, the more you can roll with the punches instead of letting it rattle you, the better your demo will go. Also, don’t push a new feature to production right before you hop on a demo call. That’s just asking for trouble.
Finally, go above and beyond once they sign up for a free trial: If the demo went well and they either signed up for a free trial or paid on the spot, now it is your responsibility to make the customer love your product.
How to hire your first salesperson
Once you are ready to move from founder-led sales to hiring a salesperson or an entire team, the first thing you need to do is document all of your scripts, templates, and processes.
You cannot expect a salesperson to be a mind-reader or that they will just figure it out. The more that you arm them with the right tools, scripts, templates, and sales enablement content, the more likely they will excel in their role.
Once you have your sales playbook created, it is time to write the job description for this sales role and start interviewing candidates.
Sales is notoriously difficult to hire for because the people with the best sales experience know how to sell themselves well and are *usually gainfully employed* with a high average base salary and commission. Or they work for themselves.
So, you can’t just screen a bunch of candidates who applied for your job, ask a handful of questions and give a take-home project, and know that they will be a good fit (unless you get lucky!)
Instead, it is best to rely on doing more active recruiting, leveraging your network, or looking for people with transferable skills looking to break into SaaS sales.
For instance, if you don’t have a big budget to poach a top-tier salesperson and are willing to invest more time training them, here are a couple of tactics you can use to build your team on a budget:
Hire a sales development representative (i.e. SDR) to do the initial prospecting via cold calling and emailing. Their key metrics would be output-based metrics like number of qualified prospects in your sales pipeline or demos scheduled on your calendar.
Or, if you want to hire a junior sales rep and train them to take demos too, you can look for someone who wants to break into SaaS sales and has a background in retail or hospitality. For example, someone who was a bartender or a retail sales associate often possesses qualities that can end up turning into great SaaS sales skills with coaching on proper sales techniques and shadowing them on phone calls.
Build a free sales team
Finally, don’t forget to build your free sales engine (i.e. invest in word of mouth). Ask for referrals from happy customers, and sending a follow-up note when they send someone your way can go a long way in building your word of mouth engine.
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As cliche as it sounds, sales is the lifeblood of your business. Your SaaS won’t survive for long without paying customers.
Looking for even more tips for building your lean SaaS sales engine? Watch this full talk from Steli Efti.