Overcoming the implementation challenge

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So, you’ve built a great product.  Bravo!

Better yet if you’ve figured out how to market it.  You’re getting it in front of prospective customers and they quickly see how it can be helpful.

But just showing the product’s benefits and advantages isn’t enough.  Prospects need to see more than that. 

 

Before they make a purchase decision, they want to see a smooth path to implementing your   They want a painless way to get from where they are now to where you’re promising to take them.

solution.

They especially want to know that things won’t go wrong during the transition.

·      Important data won’t get lost 

·      Reports won’t be delayed 

·      Essential work won’t be interrupted 

·      There’ll be no pushback from end users.

No matter how wonderful your solution might be, prospects know that adopting a new product is risky.  That risk and fear can bring the purchase process to an abrupt stop.

What not to do

I’ll offer some advice on how to overcome this obstacle, but first let me point out what probably won’t work:  Doing more demos.  Showing more features, benefits, and advantages doesn’t address the core objection.  These prospects already see the value of the new features.

And dropping the price is probably equally ineffective.  Fear of moving from one process to another is the issue, not cost.

What could help

Instead, you should show prospective customers a clear, low-risk path to successfully adopting the solution. 

Share your step-by-step implementation process.  Show them that you have a proven methodology for moving data, creating reports, training users, etc.  Make it clear that you’ve thoroughly worked through the process and can navigate them through it flawlessly.

Show customer success.  In addition to talking about the benefits and advantages of the solution, these stories should also show that transition process has been painless for others.  Happy customers shouldn’t just tout the wonders of the new solution.  They should also talk about how easy it was to get there.

Sell the whole solution.  Don’t just talk about the features and functions of the product.  Focus as well on the implementation, training, and support services that go along with the product.  With a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution, you’re selling more than just software.  (See link to “Are you forgetting the service part of SaaS?”)

Free trial… maybe

Some of you might be thinking, “What about a free trial?”  That might be one way over the “fear of transition” obstacle.  The prospect gets an opportunity to see first-hand how the product works. 

On the other hand, when using a trial, it’s difficult to assess whether a full-blown implementation will go smoothly.  If the product you’re selling is to be deployed widely for a critical application - an expense reporting application, for example - that looks easy enough to an HR administrator or Finance professional, might be rejected by the employees forced to rely on it.  (See link to “A free trial isn’t really free.”)

Don’t miss this key step

I’ve written before about the long and often interrupted purchase and evaluation process for B2B SaaS solution.  (Link to “Are you giving up on your prospects too soon?”)  And I know the challenge for marketers in guiding prospects through it.  Adding yet another step doesn’t make your life any easier.

But omitting the work where you show prospect’s how to painlessly “get from here to there” and overcome the fear that bad things will happen during the transition isn’t something you can avoid. 

Are you just talking about marketing or are you actually doing something?

Lots of software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies are thinking and talking about marketing.  They’re

sitting in on webinars, downloading white papers, hiring marketing experts and agencies, and even reading newsletters (like what you’re reading right now.)

If they want to grow, the folks that run these companies know they need marketing: a cost-effective program to generate leads, convert the leads into paying customers, and keep those customers.

They can’t rely on their sales team to bring 100% of their opportunities.  Though it may work in the company’s early stages, it’s tough to make that method scale.

So these executives do lots of research, develop comprehensive plans, even engage with marketing professionals to put in place a well-structured customer acquisition and retention plan.

Marketing gets derailed by shorter term priorities

All of this activity is a good start.  But that’s all it is: a good start.  The research, the plans, the experts only matter if you put them to work.

And that’s where things get complicated, especially for smaller firms eager to grow. 

For companies in this spot, their resources are stretched.  There’s simply too much to do and not enough resources to get it done.

So urgent needs take priority, and the marketing tactics get pushed down the action list:

·      “Yes, we need to prepare customer success stories, but this week we need to prep for 5 demos.”

·      “Yes, we need to coordinate an email campaign, but right now we’re focused on this RFP.”

·      “Yes, we need to get out that quarterly newsletter, but these 2 deals need immediate attention.”

·      “Yes, we need to prepare a webinar for prospective customers, but today we need to [ fill in an urgent item of your choice here.]

Don’t let another year go by

I get it: you’ve got lots of stuff on your plate.

And implementing effective marketing plans takes a sustained commitment.  It doesn’t happen by itself, and there’s no magic, one-time fix. (See “Going viral is over-rated”) 

If you’re serious about growth, spend the time and spend the money it takes to cost-effectively acquire and keep customers.  According to a survey of 378 privately-held SaaS companies, the fastest growing companies spent the most on customer acquisition, and marketing accounted for at least 30% of those costs.   

So, if you’re putting your plans together for next year, now’s the time to commit to marketing.  Not just the planning, but also the doing.  Find resources within your company, bring on new people, or use outside experts. 

I don’t mean to scold you here, but a year from now, you don’t want to look back and regret that you’ve made no real progress.  Start with a marketing plan and then put it into action.