Selling Saas

This conversation emphasizes the importance of having a clear product-led growth strategy when launching a product. PLG is a great way to establish product-market fit, but it requires a well-defined messaging strategy and a clear activation path that is easy to follow.

The product team, product marketers, UI people, and data analysis people are all key parts of a product-led growth strategy. To get buyers to stay with the product long enough to see the value, the salespeople should be engaged early on and not be picky and choosy. If someone submits a trial form, they should be called, and an in-trial nurture campaign should be set up to engage with them, guide them, and learn about where they came from. This is an essential part of the product-led growth strategy, especially if the product is early stage and the messaging and positioning are not yet perfected.

• Exploring Product Led Growth and the Role of Sales Reps
• Product-Led Growth: The Benefits of Including Sales"
• Product Led Growth: How to Achieve Activation and Conversion
• The Benefits of Engaging with Prospects During the Early Stages of Product Development

Key Takeaways:

1) Just because you have a PLG strategy doesn't mean you shouldn't have sales reps call on leads.

In fact, if you’re within your first two years, you’re losing out if you don't.

2) Sales is there to help fill the gaps between your product and your prospect.

I appreciate you being here; if you want more info, go to sellingsaasplaybook.com to get your free founders course; leave a review on the show

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Mark Kosoglow discusses how the traditional approach of acquiring new customers using large amounts of money and resources is no longer viable in the current climate. Instead, Mark suggests investing in existing customers to improve retention, increase referrals, and reduce deal cycles, as well as lowering marketing budgets. This 'friends and family' approach is a better way to drive growth and will result in a more sustainable business model. The traditional model of hiring more salespeople and spending heavily on lead generation is no longer effective due to the large number of decision-makers involved in deals and the higher risk associated with it.

Mark and Duane discussed that if you are focusing on acquisition and not taking care of your existing customers, you will lose money in the long run. They argue that you need to focus on taking care of what you already have and not just acquiring new customers. They also point out that companies like Salesforce have successful customer retention strategies that involve having robust customer success, account management, and support teams.

They said that you cannot just monetize everything on the front end, and if you don't take care of your existing customers, you will have negative churn. Finally, they add that listening to customer success teams, phone calls, and account review meetings is essential for growth.

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Hiring a new sales rep for a startup can be tricky. It's important to have the proper process and foundation in place before doing so, or things can quickly go wrong. The whole company may have fewer than ten employees, and most startups don't know what questions to ask to scale. A sales rep needs leads, a market to call into, a CRM, and a sales process. With a tight budget, startups may only be able to afford young and inexperienced sales reps who won't have experience with a well-developed CRM. It is important to have everything set up in a way that allows the representative to function without having to manually create everything every day.

When hiring a new salesperson, there is much more involved than just the CRM. Companies need to consider the impact it will have on their current team, as they will need to take a break from their own sales to help onboard and train the new person. Companies should also have a sales playbook that outlines the process, including how many calls each lead should get, how long to follow up, what questions to ask in the discovery phase, how to run a successful demo, and how to measure the effectiveness of the demo. Additionally, companies should have a database or resource library for the new person to study and assets and software available for demos. Hiring a new person is an upfront expense and a decrease in production, and it usually takes three to four months for the new person to start paying for themselves.

• Unpacking The Challenges Of Scaling A SaaS Business
• The Challenges of Hiring Additional Sales Reps for Startups
• Creating a Systematized Process for Your Sales Team
• Exploring the Impact of Adding a Sales Rep and Doubling Customer Acquisition

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The conversation discussed the core fundamentals of management and how they can be improved.

He then discussed how there are two core aspects to management: team meetings and one-on-one meetings. Nick noted that at large companies, it was difficult to get managers to show up for one-on-one meetings as they prioritized customer meetings over them.

Nick suggested that when working remotely, there is less randomness and spontaneity than working in the office, so it is important to be intentional with how you are managing your time with the team.

This could include having one-on-one meetings with team members, leaving an hour open for customer calls, and being present with the team when they need you. Being intentional with time management is an important aspect of successful remote team management.

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The conversation discusses the stages of a SaaS sales process. The first stage is Connect, which involves the sales team, automated outreach processes, or product-led growth strategies. The second stage is discovery, which is different from qualification, which happens during the connect stage. Discovery is about understanding the prospect and their fit—whether they have a problem that can be solved and if they'll be a good prospect to work with. The third stage is prep, which happens after discovery and involves preparing for the demo stage. Finally, the demo stage occurs when the prospect is presented with an opportunity. The demo stage should have an associated deal with it, and the lifecycle stage should be in the demo stage.

• Understanding the Customer Acquisition Funnel for Startups
• Exploring the SaaS Sales Model: Connect, Discovery, Prep, and Demo
• Closing the Deal: Understanding the Difference Between a Qualified Prospect and a Customer
• Overview of SaaS Sales Framework for Creating Happy and Healthy Customers

We encourage listeners to share the show and access the video version of the model at sellingsaasplaybook.com for further information.

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Katie discusses the gap in her experience when transitioning from college to a sales role, having spent her time in college singing and dancing instead of studying a tech or business background.

She learned that it was okay to ask questions during sales conversations, even if they didn't have the background knowledge that the person they were speaking to had. She also learned that it was okay to challenge assumptions and ask impact questions to really understand the customer's needs. She suggests that the fear of what the person on the other end would think of them was what was stopping them from being genuinely curious and having the it factor.

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This conversation is about vanity metrics and how to identify them. Duane explains how they were looking at the trial of a SaaS business, and the motto was more trials equals more revenue, but that wasn't the case. Therefore, understanding what drives the best customers and optimizing those KPIs and metrics are the keys to success.

Duane emphasized that it is important to connect campaigns to revenue in order to understand which campaigns are working and which are not. Vanity metrics, such as likes, shares, and comments, are not reliable indicators of success. Businesses should define their own metrics for success in order to effectively measure progress.

• Understanding Vanity Metrics in SaaS: A Guide to Avoiding Common Pitfalls
• Understanding the Value of Connecting Campaigns to Revenue in SaaS
• Exploring Common Ways to Measure KPI: A Focus on MQLs
• The Dangers of Vanity Metrics in Revenue Acquisition

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Mark suggested that sales reps need to give a bit back to the prospect to balance out all the questions they are asking. They can do this by sharing an article or study that is relevant to the conversation or by asking the prospect if they have seen any of the trends mentioned. In this way, the sales representative can avoid feeling like they are interrogating the prospect.

• Interview with Mark Kosoglow Exploring His Journey from Shoe Salesman to Go-To-Market Strategist
• Exploring the Reasons Behind Fear of Asking Questions in B2B Sales
• Applying Sales Experience to Early Stage Startups
• Conversation with Outreach and Catalyst Alumnus on Transitioning from Sales to Customer Success

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The key is to find a balance between the two methods. Paid marketing can be used to quickly drive traffic, and organic marketing can be used to create relationships and build trust. It is also important to measure the success of each method and adjust your strategy accordingly. In the end, the best strategy is to combine both paid and organic marketing to maximize your results.

Duane emphasizes three key points when it comes to marketing: it is never just one lever that creates growth; high tides raise all ships; and you need good quality data. Duane then talks about understanding what works in your marketing channels, looking at the big picture, and establishing clear outcomes. To help with this, he recommends paying attention to metrics such as MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) and SQL (Sales Qualified Lead), as well as conversions. With these metrics, marketers can better understand the success of their campaigns and initiatives.

• Exploring the Argument of Paid vs Organic Marketing Strategies
• Understanding the Three Factors of Successful Marketing
• Exploring MQLs, SQLs, and Conversion Rates in Paid and Organic Marketing
• The Impact of Paid vs. Organic Marketing on Lead Generation and Conversion
• Understanding the Benefits of Combining Paid and Organic Strategies for Growth

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Jonathan Mahan says that you should focus on certain parts of a role play to make it more realistic and help you practice it better. They suggest breaking down the role play into key moments and practicing them individually, such as focusing on the response to a trigger phrase or particular questions to ask. They suggest focusing on the tone and the questions that are being asked.

He also suggest zooming in on specific moments of a demo and paying attention to key moments, such as what to say after sharing a feature or what to do next. By doing this, it will help build a strong association between a question and the response, and it will help with the outcome of the role play.

If you get value from this episode, be sure to subscribe and share the episode with your friends, as we all can benefit from more positivity and leadership in today’s society.

Be sure to follow Duane Dufault on all the social platforms to get daily hits of tactical advice that you can take action on right away

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