If they’re doing their job, SaaS marketers can tell you how
many leads they’re attracting, how many convert into paying customers, where
the leads are coming from, and even how much they’re paying for them.
That’s all useful information that should be collected in
your CRM system. You can’t run an
effective SaaS marketing program without it.
But all that data doesn’t really answer an important fundamental
question underneath the numbers: Why
do your customers buy your solution?
To break that question down into smaller bits:
- What’s wrong with the solution they had in place before yours?
- How costly or urgent is the problem?
- Why did the solution from you and not some other vendor?
Answers to these questions won’t be found in your CRM or
marketing automation solution.
You might make some educated guesses based on particular
keyword searches or paper downloads. But
that’s exactly what they are:
guesses. What someone clicked on doesn’t
really reveal why they were looking in the first place.
Ask your customers
I’ll suggest a better approach: talk with your customers.
In particular, talk with customers that have bought
recently. They can still remember what
motivated them to evaluate alternatives to their old solution. They can give you some useful insights into
what problem they were trying to solve.
Who shouldn’t ask?
From what I’ve seen, there are a couple of good options when
you think about who should be asking new customers about why they bought.
But first let me point out some bad options:
Customer satisfaction surveys: These surveys can be measure existing
customers’ satisfaction with your solution, but they don’t reveal why they
bought the solution to begin with. I
also find that the survey approach can be confining, with little opportunity
for customers to raise new issues or elaborate.
Customer support: When
a customer is talking with a support agent, they usually trying to get a
problem resolved. They’re really not
inclined to chat about why they bought the solution in the first place.
Sales: Nearly
every time I’ve asked a salesperson why the customer bought, I hear some
version of this: “Great relationship with the salesperson!” That may be true, but not really
helpful. It could explain why the deal
was closed, but not why the opportunity opened.
Who should ask?
Having worked with lots of companies that interview new
customers, I’ve found that the most useful insights come when either of two
people ask the questions.
The marketing team:
Someone from marketing can gather useful insights from customers if
they ask as a market researcher. In
other words, they should explain to the customer that they’re gathering
feedback to help improve the product and the marketing programs.
They should explain to the customer that they’re not trying
to sell the customer anything. Instead,
it should be clear that they are genuinely interested in better understanding
the customer’s evaluation and purchase process.
Outside marketing analyst: A second option is to bring in an
outsider to conduct the customer interviews and prepare the analysis. This outside expert has no direct interest is
selling the customer anything, and sometimes customers are more forthcoming in
speaking to a third party about their experience. (Shameless plug: Contact me if
you need help.)
It’s not a one-time effort
One more bit of advice:
Talking with new customers shouldn’t be a one & done activity. Collecting input monthly or at least
quarterly can help confirm or refine your insights, or it might reveal a shift
in the way customers buy.
