Don’t talk techie to SaaS buyers

No matter how wonderful your proprietary algorithms, the priceless virtues of your state-of-the-art

platform, or the brilliance of whatever other sophisticated technologies you’ve got under the hood of your software-as-a service (SaaS) solution, here’s an unpleasant truth:  Lots of your customers don’t really care.
 

Most of your them only want to know what your solution does, not how it works.

In fact, sometimes all that techie talk just goes right over their heads.  They're experts in whatever field they're in, but they don’t necessarily have a technical background. 


Limited IT input

After all, one of the key attractions of SaaS is that it usually requires no technical background.  The buyer isn't responsible for on-premises hosting, deployment, on-going maintenance, or periodic upgrades, so the folks in IT with a technical background play only a limited role in evaluating solutions.

When IT does have a role in evaluating SaaS solutions, it’s usually in a secondary, review capacity, not in the lead.  They need to ensure that the solution adheres to certain standards for security, reliability, and performance, and that it can be integrated with other applications.

And if those issues are likely to come up at some point in the purchase process, you’ll certainly need some marketing material that addresses them.

But that kind of technical detail usually won’t have much impact on the people who take the lead in the evaluation and purchase process.  These folks typically have responsibility for a particular business function:

• It’s a sales manager that needs to manage deals in the pipeline
• It's a recruiter that needs to track applicants
• It's an accounts payable manager that needs to process invoices, and so on.

Speak in the decision-makers' language

Don’t talk techie to your buyers.  Instead, you need to talk to them in the language of a sales manager, a recruiter, or an AP manager.  (See "Your customer has a day job.")

If they’re in a particular industry, you need to speak the language of their industry.  Hospital administrators talk about patients, real estate managers talk about properties, and commercial bankers talk about borrowers.

You need to show that you understand the unique needs of their particular industry.  They’re the ones buying and using your solution.

Talking techie to them is a waste of time.  In fact, it may get you routed to IT, a place you don’t want to be.  An executive selling SaaS solutions to healthcare companies told me recently that when their sales people get passed to IT, he knows the opportunity is heading toward a dead-end.

Focus on business goals

Instead of hearing about your super fantastic technology, the people buying your solution want to hear about how you can help them reach their business goals.  What can it do to:

• Boost revenues
• Cut costs
• Satisfy customers
• Retain employees
• Or attain other business goals.  

Of course, your technology is behind all of that.  It’s what makes your solution go.

But the primary evaluators and decision-makers don’t always need to look under the hood.  Talk to them about what your solution does, not how it works.