Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is undeniably becoming a multi-billion dollar industry, playing a key role in every business, and to many different organizations. How does this cloud-based technology compete and thrive?
Josh Pigford, Founder of Baremetrics shared some sage insights on keys to effective SaaS selling.
Build For Yourself
Build software that would first address your needs. This way, you would very well know your product’s selling points based on your experiences, and eventually would address actual customer pain points.
I was just building something internally for me, and then I mentioned it to some other founders I knew, and they said, ‘Hey, we need the exact same thing,” Pigford recalls. “I just built what I needed at the time. That was how I kept it focused—I worked on it until it did what I needed it to do.
Create Strategically And Solve Individual Needs
Emphasize the strategic elements of your software, and be willing to assist individual customers with fine-tuning certain elements of their strategy as well, in order to stand out in the marketplace
As per Junaid Shams, founder of Rooam:
Anybody can design an app or program. The days when you could make money simply by contributing to the pool of software are long gone—now you have to actively add value to specific customers’ business models.
Charge Money To Get Better Feedback
Pigford suggests:
Start charging for it right away. Don’t hesitate to ask people to pay for what you’re building. Otherwise, the feedback you’re getting will be from people who aren’t necessarily willing to pay for it anyway… and you don’t want to build stuff for those people.
Build your product for people who have the need for it and willing to purchase it, as this will give insights on building a successful SaaS business.
Get Social
Build a social media presence. Post infographics or screenshots of how you do things as this will build interest in your target customers on your software.
Most of my first customers came from just talking about my service on Twitter
says Pigford.
Related: Facebook and Twitter Metrics to Track in 2018 [INFOGRAPHIC]
Build A Strong Referral Model
Word of mouth is still the strongest tactic to grow your brand.
Arash Asli of the Forbes Technology Council shares:
Reviews matter to customers when choosing which SaaS business is best, but word-of-mouth referrals are typically what generate the best results, with 82 percent of consumers saying they want recommendations from family, colleagues, and friends about considering buying products and services.
Give out promotional discounts and incentives, this will make your referral program easy for your customers to do.
Related: Enterprise Marketing Tactics That Will Win You Large Deals in Singapore
