09/08/2020
I mainly hear one of two things from the SaaS founders who want sales growth:
1. I've got a solution that solves a specific problem and I need help getting clients for it.
2. My space is crowded and I need help standing out in it.
Welcome to the SaaS Inferno.
The space is red hot and getting hotter. But there’s a problem.
The space is predicted to grow 18% this year from $72 to $85 billion. By 2022, Gartner predicts the space will be generating revenues of $278 billion.
The #1 problem in the SaaS space is competition.
This problem makes it harder for buyers to figure out who can help them.
In the last 5-7 years, we’ve seen a massive flattening of the ramp required to get into the game. Seed funding needs are lower, quality contract-based talent is more accessible and the ability to create a SaaS product and host in on AWS, Azure, etc., has never been easier.
Just because you’ve got a SaaS product (even if it’s great), doesn’t mean customer-getting is going to be easy.
In fact, it’s getting harder...unless you nail these four things.
These 4 things must be dialled in if you want to stand out from the noise:
1. Start With User Pain Points
A smart guy named Clayton Christensen wrote a great book called “Competing Against Luck”. If your role in the SaaS business has *anything* to do with sales and marketing, I highly recommend that you read this book. Twice.
Christensen makes a clear case for figuring out HOW to identify user pain points.
He calls it “Jobs To Be Done Theory”.
It’s a powerful concept for every SaaS company to understand and embrace. Basically, the concept is that people buy things to “do a specific job”.
In the context of a SaaS application, this is about solving a specific problem for a specific buyer.
If you’re not absolutely clear on the exact “job” your market needs done - you’re in BIG trouble and going to struggle to get traction…
You've got to have clarity on the jobs people need done in your market and that leads me to the next thing…
2. Deliver Value Immediately
If people sign up for a trial, or subscribe as a paying client, make sure they get a quick win.
Sometimes it doesn’t even have to an actually business benefit - it can be the elimination of buyer’s remorse with a phone call, or personalized email to the client saying “welcome… we’ve got your back.”\
But if you can design the user experience so that benefits are delivered immediately, you’ve got a better chance that customer isn’t going to churn.
Without getting customers a quick win they can leverage and use to confirm their decision, it will be hard to scale.
3. Get Rid Of The Unnecessary
This actually goes back to point #1.
Focus relentlessly on the ONLY things your customer needs to get the job done.
I see a lot of platforms who’ve built some glorious feature set they want me to help them “sell” (but after some discovery I learn nobody wants it).
It doesn’t work like that.
There’s no room for anything but what’s necessary to help the customer ‘get the job done’. SaaS customers today hate complexity, confusion and unnecessary elements.
I think it might even cause dementia in some users.
And this ties into the messaging we talked about earlier. When you can precisely speak to a very clear and present pain points for a specific buyer, you’ll stand out from the noise and attract users who need what you’re selling.
This approach is critical to separating yourself from the noise in the marketplace.
4. REALLY Make The Product Stick
This comes down to something game designers call the “core loop”. The idea is to make your core loop as awesome as possible.
Guess what the core loop should relate to? If you said the “job to be done”, you’re right.
The easier and more helpful your core loop is, the more your product will have ‘stickiness’.
Take a minute and think about some core loops in your product? Why might your users engage with it? What part of it? How can you improve it?
For example social platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook are oriented around a feed, Slack is oriented around a conversation.
Those are core loops.
Using Facebook as an example, here’s what a core loop looks like
-Check notifications
-Scroll through the newsfeed
-Like and comment on interesting posts
A core loop for a project management SaaS might look like this:
-Review daily updates
-Assign/ edit tasks
-Update task status
-Archive completed projects
Now here’s the best part… if you nail these four things, you’ve now got a VERY clear and compelling message you can use in your marketing to attract buyers, because these things are exactly what they want and need.
