Globally, SaaS market revenues are projected to grow to $113.1 billion by 2021. (Gartner)
When choosing the appropriate SaaS sales strategy to meet your growth goals, it is best to go evergreen with tested and scalable approach leveraged by high-growth SaaS platforms.
Look at what SaaS unicorns like Slack and doom are doing to get an idea of what’s working well. Picking something that will work longterm will help you in the future, but also refine you lead generation and customer acquisition in the present.
This article is all about that, and we will give you actionable SaaS strategies list you can use to boost your online presence and improve sales. Three SaaS growth hacking topics listed below will work in 2020 and beyond, but will also improve your SaaS marketshare over time.
Strategy #1: Re-think SaaS Pricing Model
Most business owners first look at competitors when deciding about the price of their app. While there’s nothing exactly wrong with that, you should factor in more things when determining what your price is going to be.
Yes, lower prices will increase the chances of successful sales, but they will also lower your margins. You will have to sell more units or subscription in order to make it work.
Also, not al leads are created equal. Having your sales and marketing team align on the differences between MQL vs QSL Not only that, but lower prices also attract a specific kind of customers—bargain hunters. They are willing to take risks trying the low-cost option, which means they have more time. Because they have a lot of time, they are more likely to contact your support even when that’s not necessary, creating more work for your developers.
It’s probably a much better option to sell premium products. Raise your prices, but also offer more. By creating a premium environment, you will attract a different kind of customers—those who are willing to pay extra to get the peace of mind. That will reduce the pressure on your team when it comes to support requests, and they will be able to focus on making the app better.
If you are reluctant to raise all of the prices, you should at least re-balance them. Think about your average selling price, and make sure it puts you in the “green” zone—profits. Tweak your packages so that they fit your goals, at least when taken on average.
Strategy #2: Simplify User Experience
Your SaaS platform and sales ready website should have all the options, but you need to make sure you only put the most essential ones in front of users. Take an honest look at your SaaS marketing plan to make sure your sales and marketing efforts align and seek to specific pain points of your ideal buyer profiles. This ensures This should be the case particularly when browsing pricing options, signing up for the service, and purchasing the product.
When displaying your SaaS pricing packages, only show the most important characteristics and differences, and put everything else under “show more.” Customers that like reading technical details will be able to find them. But let’s face it, most people are only interested in knowing the most essential features.
The same should go for your SaaS signup process. There’s no need to ask for all of the information up front, especially for trial and free versions. Email, name, username, and password should be enough. If the customer decides to purchase the premium version later, you will ask for more info.
And when they download and install the app, make the onboarding process as streamlined as possible. All the popups and tutorials should focus on the most basic things, explaining how to use the app in the simplest way possible. You can introduce the advanced features later, but let people get used to the interface and design.
Most people buy apps for one or two specific purposes they want. Power users that use everything are rare, and they will find what they need even if it’s not in plain sight. But, there are not too many tech-geeks out there, so never try to overwhelm ordinary users with too much information all at once.
Strategy #3: Prioritize Support
While it is true that you should focus on making your app as perfect as possible, there will always be a need for support. And because customer support is one of those rare occasions where your customers have contact directly with your team, and not only the software itself, you need to be extra careful and make sure you are giving them the best service possible.
First, give them more options to contact you. Some people prefer the chat, others like email or phone, or ticket systems. You should give them all of that. Also, try to have someone available 24/7. But, if that’s impossible, make sure you address the issues in 24 hours, or at least let them know that you are working on the solution.
You should also create a knowledge base on your site, but do it right. Offer step by step guides that will explain how to solve the most common problems customers face. Create tutorial videos that will explain the program features, and also give suggestions on how to use it.
You should also make a FAQ section. Add new questions whenever you notice customers asking the same thing multiple times.
Lastly, be active on social media, forums, Reddit, and Quora. While nobody expects you to answer questions 24/7, doing it from time to time will significantly influence your reputation. People will see that you are willing to help and that you are there for them, and not only another greedy business owner.
Conclusion
While it may seem like customer support, simplifying the app and rethinking prices are not that important for sales (especially the first two). They will influence how well your SaaS performs in a great way.
Remember, you exist to keep customers happy, which determines how fast you can minimize customer churn needed to scale your monthly recurring revenue. There are not many things that influence the opinion your customers have about your company more than they level of support your SaaS platform offers to customers. Fail to address their issues appropriately, and your SaaS company will start noticing more and more bad reviews all over the web, which will cripple your sales.
As for the simplifying the experience—your SaaS customers will never feel overwhelmed and will enjoy using your site and app. That will make them more likely to continue using it for a long time, which will mean more subscriptions and more money in your pocket every month. Speaking with SaaS marketing agencies will your lead generation, customer acquisition and client engagement efforts are leveraging the appropriate strategy to ensure your SaaS platform meets and exceeds your growth goals.
Objectively set back and analyze everything your sales and marketing teams are currently doing to ensure you can implement course corrections as needed to ensure your SaaS team is creating and scaling predictable and repeatable streams of new leads, customers and revenue. Good luck!