What was it that first attracted you to the $197 billion SaaS industry?!
Whatever it was, you’ve come a long way. Your platform works – and works brilliantly. Your subscribers are giving you great feedback, they’re seeing the value you’re providing and voting with their wallets by purchasing the upgrades you’re offering.
With the customers you have, you’re winning and winning big.
You have a small community of enthused and engaged cheerleaders for everything you’ve been working for.
Your only problem?
Well, the clue was in that previous description: the word ‘small’.
You need to grow that community to capitalize on the excellence you’ve already achieved fully.
How?
That’s not a trick question, it’s the obvious answer: you need to boost your SaaS customer acquisition strategy.
If you’re not immersed in the business of sales and marketing (and why should you be? You can’t be a genius in everything), then finding new customers can seem a daunting proposition.
It’s not like you’re selling ice cream here – SaaS sales is a complex, time-consuming process.
But don’t stress about that for now.
Here we’re going to take a deep dive into the steps you can take to radically improve your prospects of expanding your customer base, as well as the most efficient, cost-effective way to achieve sales success.
Ready? Let’s go.
Getting appointments is easy, right? No business is signing up for a SaaS product if its relevant people haven’t seen and felt the value you’re offering. So your salespeople need to get time in diaries so they can demonstrate how great your platform is.
So far, so straightforward…well, yes and no.
The idea is simple, but the reality is tough. The most involved, laborious part of the sales cycle is sales development. Your prospects are busy and elusive; they prioritize making money for their businesses over spending money on other companies' services. Pinning them down is your biggest challenge at the beginning of your sales cycle.
Here are some important areas to consider when attempting to set appointments:
Targeted Outreach: Conduct thorough research to identify your ideal customer profile. Each appointment-setting effort needs to be tailored to the prospect you want to reach out to. And, of course, you need to ensure you’re reaching out to prospects who align with your SaaS solution's value proposition.
Personalized Communication: You will need to craft compelling and unique messaging when reaching out to potential customers. Highlight the specific benefits your SaaS product offers and address their pain points. SaaS cold emailing is a great way to get significant results.
Proactive Follow-Ups: It is vital to implement a well-structured follow-up process to ensure no potential leads fall through the cracks.
The Right People: You will need to ensure the people you have working on your behalf know what they’re doing. They will need appropriate resources and tools to excel in appointment setting, including training, scripting guidance, and ongoing support to boost their effectiveness.
If you don’t already have great content on your website, you need to change that very quickly. And even then, it’s not enough.
With 30% of marketers identifying content syndication as the best lead-generation tool available to them, it’s something you can’t afford to ignore when building your sales pipeline.
Here’s what you need to cover.
Create Valuable Content: This is only step one. You need to develop high-quality, informative content that addresses the needs of your target audience. Valuable content not only attracts prospects but also positions your SaaS brand as an authority in your industry.
Partner with Great Platforms: Collaborate with well-established content syndication platforms, industry publications, and partner websites. Choose platforms that cater to your niche and have a large, engaged audience.
Diversify Content Formats: Utilizing various content formats, including blog posts, whitepapers, videos, and infographics, will enable you to cater to different audience preferences and engage prospects across multiple channels.
Measure Performance Metrics: Monitor the performance of syndicated content by tracking metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and lead generation. You can use these insights to refine and improve your content syndication strategy.
If you’re not leveraging the immense potential of organic LinkedIn marketing and not using its 930m+ members, you’re letting sales slip through your fingers. Here are some tips.
Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile: Ensure your company page and individual profiles are optimized with relevant keywords and compelling messaging. Showcase your SaaS product's unique value proposition and establish thought leadership.
Join and Use LinkedIn Groups: Participate in industry-specific LinkedIn groups and actively join in discussions. Provide valuable insights, answer questions, and cultivate connections with potential customers.
Build and Nurture Relationships: It’s a crucial part of the SaaS LinkedIn lead generation strategy. Connect with prospects strategically, focusing on quality over quantity. Engage in personalized conversations and offer value before promoting your SaaS solution.
Share Compelling Content: Share informative and relevant content on your LinkedIn profile and company page. Leverage LinkedIn's publishing platform to showcase your expertise and attract prospects to your content.
B2B SaaS services operate in niches, which means you can’t fill your pipeline with just any prospects. They need to be relevant to your product, have a need for it, and be willing and able to purchase from you. If 97% of marketers say SaaS ABM strategy increases their ROI (and they do) it’s something you should be looking at very closely indeed.
Identify Ideal, High-Value Accounts: Data-driven insights will enable you to identify high-value accounts with the most potential for conversion. Consider factors like company size, industry, and previous interactions to build targeted lists.
Personalization is Everything: precise, targeted marketing efforts will address the specific pain points and needs of each potential account. Personalized messaging and content demonstrate a deep understanding of the challenges they face.
Sales and Marketing Alignment: Fostering collaboration between sales and marketing teams will ensure a cohesive ABM strategy. Regular communication and joint goal-setting will lead to more effective targeting and nurturing.
Track and Measure Success: Set measurable goals for your ABM campaigns and track the SaaS key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate success. Adjust your strategies based on data to continuously evolve and improve your ABM efforts.
What’s your perfect sales scenario? Six weeks of hard grind to get a meeting followed by an elongated decision-making process? Probably not. How about a prospect who already knows all about you and your product and approaches you with a view to buying? If that sounds good to you, you need to look at Demand Generation. Depending on the channels you use, you can see your ROI increase by 748% (yes, you read that number correctly!).
Demand Generation Strategies: Go beyond lead generation and focus on demand generation to engage potential customers. Offer valuable content, webinars, and resources to build interest and awareness around your SaaS solution.
Proactive Customer Support: Provide exceptional customer support through various channels, including AI-powered chatbots and 24/7 assistance. Address customer inquiries promptly and efficiently to foster satisfaction and loyalty.
Personalized Customer Experiences: Embrace AI and customer data to deliver personalized experiences to your customers. Tailor communication, recommendations, and in-app messages to meet individual preferences and needs.
Gather Customer Feedback: Implement reliable feedback loops and surveys to gather valuable insights from your customers. This will allow you to improve your product, address pain points, and enhance the overall client experience.
Think back to the importance of getting appointments for the SaaS sales process. You need your prospects to see your product in action to have a hope of converting them into a customer. The appointment and the demonstration is the key to getting that one prospect on board. Imagine engaging in the same process with multiple prospects at the same time, and that between 5%-20% of those prospects will convert. The impact on your sales will be game-changing. Make webinars a key part of your sales process.
Create Engaging Content: Produce captivating content and invite industry experts to present during your webinars. Engaging presentations and valuable insights will keep your audience hooked and interested.
Interactive Webinars: Incorporate interactive elements such as polls, Q&A sessions, and live chat to encourage active participation from attendees. Analyze audience engagement and identify areas to promote and improve.
Post-Webinar Follow-Up: Post-webinar follow-up sequences will nurture leads and provide additional resources. Share webinar recordings and related content to keep prospects engaged and interested in your SaaS product.
As we have seen so far, there’s a lot you can do to drive business to you. But the reality is that your sales pipeline will primarily be filled on the back of your efforts to reach out and engage with prospects. Why? Because it works. It works, but it’s hard, time-intensive work. On average, a sales development representative will make 420 calls per week, as well as perform all their other duties. Walking the hard yards will always be necessary, but here’s how your outreach can be done smarter.
Personalized Outreach and Follow-Ups: Craft personalized and tailored outreach messages for each prospect. Follow up strategically to nurture relationships and move prospects closer to conversion.
Multi-Channel Outreach: Use a combination of email, social media, and phone calls for outbound sales. An integrated approach increases your chances of reaching prospects and building meaningful connections.
Segmentation and Lead Tracking: Lead tracking will monitor prospect interactions across various touchpoints. You can segment leads based on engagement and tailor communication accordingly to maintain relevance.
Nurturing your leads can lead to a shortened sales cycle through regular communication and monitoring of your prospect’s responses. As you know, with a SaaS product, this can be crucial to enhancing your cashflow. Once you know where they are in your pipeline, you can adjust your messaging to demonstrate an understanding of their needs and how you can present a solution for them. Companies that nurture leads can win 50% more sales. Here are some tactics to consider.
Lead Nurturing Sequences: Set up lead nurturing sequences to engage prospects at different sales funnel stages. Use bespoke content and emails to maintain a consistent and tailored approach.
Drip Campaigns: Utilize drip campaigns to deliver content and information to leads over time. Customize your communication based on prospect behavior and preferences to enhance engagement.
Timely Follow-Ups: Follow-up with leads based on prospect behavior and interaction with your content. Timely and relevant follow-ups also demonstrate your commitment to meeting their needs and will further nurture the relationship.
Ok, So There’s a Lot You Can Do To Boost Your Sales Pipeline!
Yes, there is! And by implementing some or all of these strategies, aligning your sales and marketing efforts, and continuously optimizing your processes, you are poised to drive exceptional growth and success in your SaaS venture. Remember, the key to success lies not only in creating meaningful and personalized experiences for your prospects and customers. Now is a great time to take action and witness the transformative impact on your sales pipeline.
But It Seems Like a Hell of a Lot of Work…
It does. And it is. Are all, or any, of these pipeline-busting techniques something you have the capacity to take on right now within your SaaS enterprise? If the answer to that question is ‘no’, don’t worry. A solution exists that will shoulder the burden on your behalf.
Partner With An Expert Agency
That’s right. Agencies exist to take some of these functions off your hands and do the hard work for you. There’s even one SaaS lead generation agency like Revnew that can take care of every single aspect for you. And it's all in one place. And really, if you’re not involved in the day-to-day whirlwind of SaaS lead generation or sales and marketing pipeline enhancement, why would you even try to get to grips with this when you have access to people with the knowledge, skills, and experience to nail these things on your behalf? What’s more, they do it in the most efficient, cost-effective way possible. This is all upside for your sales pipeline.
Make life easy, and turbocharge your sales pipeline starting today. Get in touch right now!