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. 

Your SaaS prospects could be afraid to buy

If you’re selling or marketing a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution, you’ve probably seen

something like this before:

You’re talking with a prospective customer that’s struggling with a broken, outdated system, something they’ve been using for a long time to handle some vital task.  The prospect knows it’s a poor system and they know it’s hurting their organization.

And you’ve shown them your wonderful SaaS solution, they can see how it would be a huge improvement, and… they still don’t buy.

You’d once listed these prospects as “highly qualified” or “ready to buy,” but then they go dormant.  No response to calls, no answers to emails… just radio silence.

What happened?

Fear that something will go wrong getting from the old to the new

It could just be fear.  Your once-hot prospect got cold feet. 

Up until the moment of truth - a decision to OK the purchase - everything had gone exactly as scripted.

Your prospect recognized the flaws in their existing system and they clearly saw the benefits and advantages of your superior alternative.

But then things hit a roadblock.  The prospect is worried about getting from here to there. 

Moving from their existing system to your new system is fraught with peril.  Lots can go wrong with the transition.

• Inputting data can be difficult and time-consuming.
• Data can get lost in the transition.
• Users can get confused.
• Administrators can get confused.
• Standard reports might not get prepared.
• Normal workflows might be interrupted.
• There may be a gap when neither system is available.

None of this would be good news for your customer. 

Remember that they, like most SaaS buyers, is someone with a full-time job with other responsibilities and a reputation to protect. (See “Your prospect has a day job.”) 

The HR manager doesn’t want to hear from employees that they can’t request vacation days or complete a performance review.

The Finance manager doesn’t want to hear complaints that expense reports can’t be submitted or vendors can’t get paid.

The Sales exec doesn’t want to hear that account reps can’t see their pipeline or track progress on their opportunities.

The warehouse manager doesn’t want to find out that it’s impossible to accurately track inventory.

These folks don’t have the time, the patience, or the thick skin to deal with the complaints and push-back if the move to a new system goes wrong.

Getting prospects past the fear

No matter how poor their existing system, and no matter how wonderful the promise of your new system, if the customer can’t see themselves getting from the old to the new flawlessly, they might not take the risk. They’ll stick with what they’ve got and what they know, warts and all.

Getting them over that fear doesn’t mean showing them yet more features and functions in your system.  It doesn’t mean pointing out again the costs of their existing system or showing them the extraordinary ROI on your system.  And it has nothing to do with offering a lower price.

Instead, it’s about showing prospective customers that your experts will guide them through a proven, well-structured implementation.  They need to be convinced them that they can rely on you to help them navigate the transition to your new system.

Until prospects trust that you can help them get from where they are now to where they want to be – without things breaking along the way – they’ll hold off on making a decision.  They won’t buy.

What’s behind those churn metrics?

Churn is bad for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies.  Very bad.

But knowing there’s a churn problem is one thing; fixing it is something else.

To bring down churn, we need to understand what’s behind the numbers.  Why are customers leaving?  Different causes will point toward different fixes.

Poor product performance

Sometimes the solution simply doesn’t deliver as advertised.  Customers subscribe, believing it will perform some particular function… but it doesn’t.  Once they figure that out – it may take a few hours or a few months – they leave.

The solution for this problem:  go back to the drawing board with the solution.  Learn where the gap is between what customers want and what the solution delivers.  Improve it to better meet customers’ needs, or explain the solution’s features, benefits, and advantages more accurately.

Ineffective on-boarding

If most of the churn is in the first 90 days after a customer subscribes, the problem may be poor on-boarding.  Entering data, training users, and changing the way an organization does things isn’t easy.

To fix poor on-boarding usually requires putting more thought and more resources to implementation and training.  In fact, it’s not uncommon for SaaS providers to require that customers sign up for training and implementation help.  And often they charge for it.

(See this short video on “Turning SaaS buyers into satisfied users.”)

Inadequate support

SaaS companies cannot afford to ignore their customers.  Especially for more complex, enterprise applications - those that are critical to the customer’s operations - quick and expert support is essential. 

But effective support should go beyond a solid help desk.    SaaS vendors should be regularly providing their customers with expert advice on how to optimize use of the solution.  (See “Your existing customers are prospects too.”)

And they can occasionally remind customers of the solution’s value to their organization.  For example, “over the last 90 days, you’ve used the solution to conduct 450 performance reviews, manage 1200 new inbound leads, process 67 loan applications, or whatever it is the solution does.”

Wrong customers

Sometimes high churn happens when SaaS providers sell to the wrong customers.  Superb salesmanship, yes.  Good fit for the customer, no.  Expect that the customer will discover the mismatch after a few weeks or months. 

I’ve seen this happen when sales people convince a small organization that the product is a good fit for their needs, but it turns out to be overkill. 

I’ve also seen the opposite.  Salespeople tout capabilities required to win a large customer, but the solution’s actual features come up short.

Remedies for over-selling could involve clarifying the messages to more clearly describe what the solution does and who it is designed for. 

A revised compensation scheme can also work as a cure for over-selling.  Salespeople are rewarded for winning customers that stay for a long time, and they’re penalized for bringing in customers that churn quickly.

Susceptible to poaching

In some cases, customers depart for competitors.  They are lured away with more features, more attractive pricing, or some other advantage.

SaaS companies are especially susceptible when switching costs are low.  Customers can easily move

to another solution without painful implementation and training costs.

One approach to counter poaching is to lower prices, though that’s a tough strategy to sustain. 

Adding more useful features, delivering a solution that’s easier to use, or providing outstanding customer support are likely to build a more sustained relationship.

No universal fix for churn

Any SaaS vendor with a churn problem needs to fix it.  The business model doesn’t work when too many paying customers leave too quickly.

In fact, the most successful SaaS companies actually achieve “negative churn,” meaning they actually derive more revenue from their existing customers.

But fixing a churn problem means first diagnosing the cause.  I haven’t provided an exhaustive list here, but it should be plain that there are a variety of explanations behind the numbers.  And each particular cause points toward a different solution. 

Sorry, there’s no simple “one-size-fits-all” approach here.