When we talk about the ideal SaaS sales strategy for exponential growth, it’s not just a short-cut or a eureka plan that did it for companies like Slack or HubSpot. 

Putting a comprehensive sales strategy into action is a laborious process, and requires various departments to collaborate to achieve a common goal. 

However, when done correctly (and sustainably), it can unlock hyper-growth – and become a moat that separates your company from your competitors. 

Let’s take a look at the strategies that can help you create an actionable SaaS sales strategy for your organisation:
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‍#1 Leverage the potential of email marketing

In today’s world, it’s important to build an audience at the same time as you’re building your product. And what better way to engage users than by connecting with them directly via emails? 

Email marketing might be among the oldest tricks in the marketing playbook, but for good reason. It continues to deliver stellar results, if done correctly.

To get your email marketing strategy right, it’s important for you to set out clear goals for each campaign. You’ve got to focus on your core reason for initiating each one, and you should clearly identify what response you want from users. 

If the purpose of your campaign is to keep customers informed about feature updates, for example, its execution will differ from when you’re enticing new subscribers with an exclusive discount.

Pro tip: Having a clear intention for each campaign will also ensure that you reach out to the right set of your subscribers rather than blasting the same email to everyone. If you’re advertising a first-time deal for new buyers, for instance, it should only be sent to non-paying users and not those who’ve already subscribed to your SaaS service.

#2 Increase your conversion rate with an attractive referral program

Referral marketing can actually increase your conversion rate by 300-500%, as research has shown that visitors coming to your website from someone else’s referral link are far more likely to purchase.

In fact, studies have concluded that over 90% of customers trust businesses more when they have been recommended online by a trusted source. This is because new users might be sceptical of the value of SaaS services if there is a lack of reference point. On the other hand, attracting visitors through referrals ensures that those users already have a need, and this can do wonders to increase your conversion rate.
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#3 Make your free trial short

Due to long-standing misconceptions, many SaaS sales gurus believe that offering a free trial for an entire month will help make users more familiar with their service, and therefore more likely to invest in it. 

While this does make sense, you also have to remember that the longer users have to try out the free version of your software, the greater their chances of experiencing problems and second guessing it will be. In turn, this will decrease their likelihood of committing to your service.

While we can’t recommend an optimum length of free trial period (as it really depends on your service and target audience), we do have a general rule of thumb: do not include trial periods of more than 1 or 2 weeks for a SaaS solution with relatively straightforward user dynamics.

#4 Make the sign up process easy for new users

If you want to boost your conversion rate, it’s important to make sure that signing up isn't too tricky for new visitors, and that the sign up process doesn’t contain too many steps. In particular, we’d recommend staying away from numerous verifications, which can be a real conversion-killer! 

If your sign up process is too complicated, users may put it off and end up forgetting about you. Or - even worse - the experience may leave the user questioning if your service would be just as confusing and therefore not worth the hassle.

#5 Give prospective buyers an easy, personal way to communicate with you

When finetuning your SaaS sales strategy, setting up robust communication channels on your website is key. Essentially, you need to have a strong online presence, appear easily reachable and build a dynamic website that’s rich in information and ultra-easy to navigate. 

For example, on your contact information page, we’d recommend opting for a service like telbee, which lets your website visitors connect with you via voice notes. 

Considering that voice is the most natural way people interact with one another, providing prospective buyers with an easier way to share their questions and concerns, enabling app-free voice messaging on your site will help you generate more leads, increase sales and also give you an edge when it comes to your customer support, which is a huge differentiator in the world of Software-as-a-Service. 

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#6 Gather data, and listen to your customers

Perhaps the best way to refine your SaaS sales strategy is to speak with your customers directly and ask them about their requirements. Not only is this a great way of driving sales, but it will also ensure you retain more customers in the long run, and will help you identify what you need to focus on and prioritise in your product roadmap. 

As we mentioned in point #5, investing in an app-free voice messaging solution for your website (like telbee) is a great way of gathering honest qualitative data from your customers in the most organic way. 

Of course, it’s also important not to simply build everything that your users ask for, as you have to keep in mind that a feature one user is requesting might be limited to a specific use case. And that’s where the significance of data comes in. 

Monitoring customer data and trends over time will provide you with a ton of important information about the features that the customers and prospective buyers want the most, as well as common concerns or recurring problems, which will help you focus your efforts into improving the right aspects of your SaaS service. 

#7 Focus on the most relevant social media channels for your business

The variety of social media platforms out there today can force sales managers to dive into multiple platforms with different sales plans. However, be warned that this method invites nothing but chaos!

When it comes to selling over social media, you need to identify and leverage the social media platforms that will help you connect to the right audience. For example, if your product is aimed at business owners, then LinkedIn can’t be missed, whereas if you are catering to users more generally, or adopting a bottoms-up approach a la Slack, then perhaps Twitter could be better used to your advantage.

Final thoughts

The SaaS industry is growing rapidly, and it’s important for businesses and vendors to invest in the right SaaS sales strategy if they want to avoid getting lost among the crowd.

If you’re confused about where to begin, start by identifying your target audience. Once that’s done, you simply need to gradually incorporate the aforementioned tools and tips into your SaaS sales strategy. We promise the pay-off will be worth it! 
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If you’d like to find out more about how telbee’s app-free voice messaging solution could help you finetune your SaaS sales strategy, get in touch with the team at telbee today. We’d love to hear from you!