Software-as-a-service, known as SaaS, is a $157 billion market, according to recent reports. With the increase of remote work due to the pandemic, the SaaS market will continue to expand, suggests TechCrunch. While this puts SaaS companies in a fast-growing and valuable industry, it also means there’s more competition than ever before.

SaaS on the B2B market

Fierce competition is not something new, at least not for most of us 🙂 It just means you need to stay on top of your game and be one step ahead. To make it easier, I’ve compiled a list with five strategies that should help you.

If you’re into the B2B vertical, use these ideas to beat out the competition and get your SaaS to the companies that truly need it.

1. Listen, then curate solutions for your target client

You don’t want to throw your entire catalog of features at your prospective clients and let them pick what they think they need. This will quickly overwhelm them and even scare away some potential buyers.

First step is always to take the time to listen. Understand their business workflow and pain points. Ask questions to gain a better understanding and build a rapport. Then offer custom solutions that are specific to their individual business needs. Or select those features that would solve their issues.

With this method, leads will feel like they’re getting concierge service rather than a salesperson reading off a list of their offerings. More importantly, they’ll begin developing a relationship with you, which can lead to even more revenue down the line. 

As Stephen Covey famously put it: “Seek first to understand, then be understood.”

2. Clearly explain your value proposition

What do you sell? What does your SaaS do in a nutshell? What sets your product apart from the competition? The most straightforward, concise, and compelling answers to those three questions is your value proposition. That’s what you need to use in order to convert those leads on the fence.

While a tagline can share a strong value proposition, you need to go deeper. If your tool is robust, with multiple features, you need to clearly explain their value as a solution. This way, your leads can quickly understand the following:

• What is your tool and what does it offer ME?
• How will it help ME more than another similar tool?
• Why are you different? What do you offer beyond a tool? I.E. customer experience, product support, etc.

While you need a single value prop, remember to tailor it to the individual buyer. Don’t offer blanket solutions! Instead, explain how your product will support that specific business. Additionally, let’s not forget that while you are selling to a company, individuals negotiate and make decisions.

3. Define the ROI

Return on investment (ROI) can be tricky for certain SaaS solutions. There aren’t always hard numbers you can provide, especially if your tool is new to the market. As a salesperson, you don’t want to admit that. You want to find the ROI that matters to that prospective client. The good part is that’s not always, or only, financial.

If you’ve already listened to their pain points, you can now find ROI values that will speak to their specific issues.

And I can give you an example from our everyday life at work 🙂 Here are some of the questions that allow us to emphasize the ROI our customers care about:

• What percent of your budget is spent on these X software platforms?
• How many hours per week do you think your sales team wastes on communication or collaboration issues?
• How many customer service members do you have answering general phone inquiries (that could be routed through Hubgets)?
• Do you ever lose key pieces of information in your communication platforms?

And this list can go on forever and ever. You wouldn’t believe how many communication issues businesses have these days…

To sum this point up. Your job is to assign a tangible value to these pain points so they can easily see the ROI when choosing your product. The beauty is they might not even realize what a drain on resources, budget, and time these issues are and that they need to address them. So, when you approach a prospective client with the goal of defining ROI, you can help them comprehend the cost of their problems and the return they can expect from switching to your solution.

4. Mitigate potential disruption and risk factor

Incorporating new software into a business workflow means that current processes need to adapt or change. What’s more, after they spend time integrating the new software, there’s a risk that it won’t be as successful as they hoped.

You need to understand both the potential of disruption and the risk associated with having a new product. That’s what you need to address as best as possible, the fears!

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.

Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear – From Frank Herbert’s Dune Book Series

Don’t forget that it will take time and resources for any company to develop new processes and learn your system. Instead, acknowledge this and empathize it to the customer, while providing solutions that will mitigate those issues.   

5. Use your marketing and resources to your advantage

Your SaaS company probably has a robust and well-developed blog that’s part of a targeted content and digital marketing strategy. However, value-driven content isn’t just created to attract top-of-funnel prospects. It can be used for pitching your leads too. Familiarize yourself with your blog articles and guides and use them to explain certain features. Or find solutions to those recurring challenges businesses are facing.

This is how we do it here and that’s why we extensively write about remote collaboration and team communication. Because that’s what helps Hubgets customers! And here’s an example. Let’s say a lead has challenges shifting to digital onboarding during the pandemic. While our software can certainly help with that on a macro level, we’ll address the micro-level first. So, you might say: “We recently published a guide for remote onboarding that would be really helpful for you, let me email that to you.”

You see, we spend resources creating our marketing assets to attract prospects and work within our holistic strategy. However, they can also provide tools for our sales team to offer additional value and support to leads.

Now go sell your B2B software

Ultimately, this is what you need to do. Build that pipeline. Do your research. Use Twitter, LinkedIn and all the other social media networks that can be helpful in your specific scenario. And last, but not least, go out and sell.

Keep these strategies in mind as you get on calls with potential leads. If you can listen, build rapport, nail your value prop, address and mitigate fear, and provide extra resources, you are much more likely to beat out your competition and make the sale.