SaaS sales or Software as a Service sales is the approach of offering cloud-based services via a robust platform like Salesforce, which is updated and maintained by external providers to serve your customers. In the highly competitive market environment, all organizations are now looking for that secret ingredient to help their company reach more prospective customers and enhance sales. Whatever approach you take to enhance your sales, one should know about the need to maximize the sales team’s potential for better performance.This article will discuss a few things that the successful sales leadership on Salesforce considers in achieving this goal.
Obsessing over customer service
Do you know the biggest reason why consumers stop doing business with an organization? There may be many answers like competitors offering better prices and products, better solutions than what you offer, etc. But in reality, as per a customer experience survey, it is found that 82% of the customers tend to abandon business with a provider due to bad customer service. This is where successful SaaS companies come into the picture to treat customers as their No.1 priority. So this ensures that customers get the best out if it.
Any organization should not take its customers for granted. The sales and support representative should always be in paranoia to ensure that their customers are fully taken care of. If done correctly, customers will eventually become brand evangelists, which will covert as brand credibility. Your customers’ positive feedback can be counted as a success by your sales, marketing, and support teams. So, if you are integrating SaaS applications into yourproduct list, you should ensure that the customers get the optimum service and support through these.
The sales process is not just a transaction but a relationship building
Remember that customers are not interested in having a sales pitch at the first point. In most cases, modern-day customers have already done their research well and want to hear how the solutions you offer fit their real-time needs and wants. With easy access to any information over the internet, potential customers may look for what they need online at any time. Consumers now have the freedom to research SaaS companies and products, which can give them what they need.
As per a survey conducted by Accenture, about 94 % of B2B buyers of SaaS products gather data online and do the research thoroughly before buying. Unfortunately, many of the sales reps are still focusing just on hitting their numbers, and in that process, they used to forget that purchasing is a journey rather than a process. So, Flosum SaaS experts suggest that organizations need to further invest in creating sustainable solutions, helping the sales reps share enough information with the customers beforehand. Besides the sales reps, a prospect may look for the aftersales services too in advance. Due to this, the sales reps need to check in with their customers even after a sale continuously. This will help build a very strong emotional connection with the customers,establishing long-lasting relationships.
Remember there is no one-stop-shop in SaaS
There are many organizations which try to offer swiss army knife in SaaS products. There are solutions for every situation in this suite. In reality, it is proven to be an ineffective way. Everyone now knows how to create a partner ecosystem to support the customers with comprehensive solutions. It is a fact that not everyone may develop on-premises software to cater to their client service needs. So, if your company cannot offer it, the best approach is to look for partners who can do it on your behalf.The higher number of SaaS partners you have to provide variant services, the more value you can deliver to the customers.
Empower the reps with ownership for what they do
When it comes to the sales team, one unfortunate thing sales reps get debilitated with is their incapability to make decisions while interacting with the customers. When a request or problem arises, the salespersons often try to protect themselves with the classic answer as “I wish to do it for you, but my limitations may not allow it to do for you.” This answer, however, indicates that the rep has no control over decision-making, and he or she immediately loses credibility.
Instead of this approach,in a successful sales process,reps need to take ownership of their handling.To do this, they must fully understand the sales process and ways to handle negotiations better. The reps need to communicate are in the organization’s best interest and work around with ways to end up in win-win deals. When they can take this approach, they earn the respect of the prospects and build their confidence.
SaaS service organizations must try to reinvent the wheel
There are many examples of how companies refuse to innovate and ultimately collapse. Many organizations believe that if something is going well, then there is no need for change. However, successful organizations have learned their most important lesson the hard way as ‘comfort is the enemy of growth.
The traditions followed should not blind the organizational leaders from the need for innovation and improvement. Teams and individuals must always evaluate their process and try to reinvent the wheel now and then. Say, for example, in a sales process. You should always check whether your scripts are up to date, whether you are using the latest sales enablement technology support to help reps work more efficiently etc.
A research report shows that about 60 % of the inside sales reps tend to meet their quote by covering up the remaining deficiencies. This means there is a lot of sales potential still left untapped. There are many tools available now, like the gamification platforms, which will motivate sales reps and lead them to better results. Studies have also shown that these platforms effectively help enhance the sales and support teams’ output by 50% or more.
So always be looking for smart ways to implement and improve the right changes from time to time.