Listen to “43. 3 Ways To Win With The SaaS Sales Method w/ Ethan Beute” on Spreaker.
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Have you ever considered everyone in your organization to be one big sales team?
According to Jacco vanderKooij, to build a successful SaaS company, that’s exactly the mindset you need to have.
Jacco is the founder and CEO of Winning By Design, an agency that helps modern sales organizations design, build, and scale their sales efforts. Additionally, he’s the author of multiple books that go in depth into his proven methodology, The SaaS Sales Method.
After connecting with Jacco and his team at an executive breakfast at an Unleash Summit Series event by Outreach, reading a couple of books, and checking out their YouTube channel, I immediately recognized the customer experience implications of their approach to SaaS sales.
Each idea falls in line seamlessly with a holistic approach customer experience, so I describe who within your organization this sales method is relevant to, what its primary goal is, and how it positions the primary challenge in our subscription-based, recurring-revenue, and/or SaaS business models.
Give this episode a listen below – or in your favorite podcast player.
NOTE: This podcast does not accept paid placement. I’m writing and talking about this company and its teachings because they’re valuable – and many of their resources are completely free.
3 Ways To Win With The SaaS Sales Method
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Each episode is also embedded here in its companion blog post.
Hear a short, high-level overview of The SaaS Sales Method right here …
Listen to “43. 3 Ways To Win With The SaaS Sales Method w/ Ethan Beute” on Spreaker.
1 Take an Anti-Silo Approach
No matter which department your team members are a part of, you’re all a part of one larger body. If you’re in any customer-facing position, this anti-silo approach is relevant to you. Selling should be seen as an organizational goal – not just a “sales” goal.
In Jacco’s words: “Everyone in the organization must sell all the time – work to uncover and realize more business impact for the customer all the time.”
The best way to generate revenue? Offer a fantastic customer experience and obsessively drive quantifiable customer impact. It takes all departments working in sync to deliver the very best CX.
Moreover, in the face of increasing product parity, impeccable CX is what sets your brand apart from the others. You can push features all day, but what’s really going to matter is how customers feel about their interactions with your team.
It’s because of all this that taking an anti-silo approach is so essential.
Perhaps your organization tries a pod team structure. Every account has dedicated members from sales, marketing, customer success, etc. Customers will be handed off to professionals who are already familiar with their specific needs.
The pod structure also encourages more alignment between different customer-facing functions.
For more tips on alignment, check out “5 Ways Internal Alignment Can Elevate Your Customer Experience” with Sangram Vajre of Terminus.
For more understanding about product parity and CX, check out “Why Customer Experience Is The Only Differentiator Left” with David Cancel of Drift.
2 Rely on Processes, Not Just People
It’s always great to have a few superstars on the team that you can rely on to go above and beyond to save the month, the quarter, or even the year.
What happens, though, when they’re not there? Can your organization still hit the revenue quota?
In order to prevent disappointment or even chaos when one of your superstars moves on, start developing data-driven and scalable processes now. Begin to rely on the strength and validity of a systematic approach.
The goal, in Jacco’s words, is to “standardize the entire customer-facing relationship.” Once it’s standardized, constantly iterate to drive ongoing improvements.
One fun fact he offered at the Outreach event: if you make just a 10% improvement at seven different spots in a sales process, you’ll double the result of that process. And it’s true. Seven 10% improvements result in a 1.95X lift. This is the power of process.
With repeatable processes in place, you can scale your business successfully. Too often, the Winning By Design team sees companies scaling failure – due to overreliance on superstars doubling quota and underreliance on processes with a series of 10% improvements.
To make a process scalable, consider these basic steps:
- Analyze your current processes and take notes. What’s working and what needs improvement? Are these methods repeatable on a larger scale?
- Identify internal pain points. Find out where your organization needs process improvements. A good way to do this is by conducting employee interviews.
- Identify external pain points. Where are your leads or customers getting hung up in their experiences? Send out short surveys to current and past customers. Use any data you’ve already collected in your CRM.
- Automate whatever you can. If it makes sense and won’t negatively affect customer experience, automate it.
- Document the new processes. As you go, make sure to thoroughly document the steps to each process and the key players involved.
- Test the new processes. Put the new methods to work. Get the key players involved in testing, too. Make any necessary adjustments.
- Train and execute. Train your team on the new processes and add them to your onboarding duties.
Once you nail down scalable processes, it should be easier to not rely on only certain people on your team.
3 Create Customer Impact, Over and Over Again
Businesses of all kinds are moving to subscription-based pricing to lock down recurring revenue.
Although subscriptions bring in monthly revenue, companies don’t see the payoff right away. That means you need to continuously deliver value to your customers, less they cancel their subscription.
Again, there are a lot of similar product offerings out there, especially in the SaaS space. Consumers have more options than ever. Your brand needs to find a way to overcome the competition with benefits besides product features.
And no one buys features anyway. They’re buying the benefits, outcomes, and results that use of those features can deliver. Winning by Design calls this “impact.”
You and your team must be able to demonstrate your brand differentiation and your impact on a perpetual basis. Think of it like you’re reselling to your current customers. What will keep their attention and make them happy? What will make them love your brand even more?
The answer … impact.
For another go at customers’ evolving needs and desired outcomes, check out “Meeting Customers’ Evolving Needs with a Customer Experience Team” with Luke Owen of Formstack.
Alignment, Scalability, and Impact
In order to succeed in the SaaS space – or with any subscription-based, recurring-revenue business model – your entire organization needs to be in the sales mindset to some degree. By breaking down the silos and focusing on CX, your company will be able to offer more than just a product.
The processes you use to direct the team’s focus shouldn’t be reliant on a few superstars but on the data you’ve been collecting. That way, your sales-minded company will be able to deliver a post-sale impact that turns customers into advocates.
Some links again:
NOTE: This podcast does not accept paid placement. I’m writing and talking about this company and its teachings because they’re valuable – and many of their resources are completely free.
Subscribe To The Customer Experience Podcast
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Upcoming guests include:
- Scott Barker – Sales Enablement Evangelist at Outreach and Head of Partnerships at Sales Hacker
- Wes Bush – Founder of The Product-Led Institude and author of Product-Led Growth
- Kristin Messerli – founder and CEO at Cultural Outreach
Other episodes you’ll enjoy:
- “5 Ways Internal Alignment Can Elevate Your Customer Experience” with Sangram Vajre (Chief Evangelist and cofounder, Terminus)
- “Why Customer Experience Is The Only Differentiator Left” with David Cancel (CEO and founder, Drift)
- “The Financial Side of CX: Which Customers Should You Invest In?” with Sarah Toms (Cofounder and Director, Wharton Interactive)
- “Meeting Customers’ Evolving Needs with a Customer Experience Team” with Luke Owen (Director of Customer Experience, Formstack)
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