Before you talk about the solution, point out the problem

Lots of people who you think should be interested in your software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution, couldn’t care less.

It doesn’t matter that they perfectly fit your “ideal customer” persona.

It doesn’t matter that your solution is full of features built especially for them.

It doesn’t even matter that you’re sure it’ll be a huge help to their business.

Despite all that, they’ll still ignore you.

They don’t care about your features, your user interface, your expert training and support, your attractive price, or anything else you’re just dying to show them.

At least they’re not interested yet.  

Identify the pain

Before prospective customers will pay any attention at all to your solution, they first need to recognize that they have a problem.  So first it’s your job to show them that problem. 

You need to make them see that the way they’re doing something right now is the wrong way.  The tool or process they’re using is hurting their organization. 

·       It’s costing money.

·       It’s losing customers.

·       It’s wasting time.

·       It’s risking penalties.

·       It’s losing them good candidates.

·       It’s costing market share.

·       It’s keeping them from control.

·       It’s blinding them to opportunities.

Show it's an urgent problem

In fact, you not only need to show them that there’s a problem.  You need to point out that it’s an urgent problem and it needs immediate attention. 

A reminder: most prospects for SaaS solutions have a lot of other things on their plates.  They are not assigned the full-time job of evaluating technology. They spend most of their time managing HR, Finance, Sales, Marketing, or whatever function they’re responsible for. (See “Your prospect has a day job.”) 

In other words, they’re always looking at a long list of problems to be dealt with.  And only the two or three at the top of the list get any attention.  If the problem you solve is way down on that list, the prospect just doesn’t have the time.

When do we get to talk about our product?

I can hear you whining right now (I worked in tech marketing for a long time before I started this

blog.): 

If I need to spend so much time talking about the prospects’ urgent problems, when do I get to talk about my wonderful product?!

After all, when a prospective customer visits your website, watches your video, looks at your email, stops in your trade show booth, or picks up your phone call, all you’ve got is maybe a minute or two of their time.  How much of that can you give to hearing about the prospect’s problems?

My advice:  give most of that time to talking about problems– maybe all of it.  

Because until the prospect recognizes that they have an urgent problem – until they’re nodding their head thinking “this is something I need to fix ASAP” – they won’t be paying attention to anything you’re saying about your solution.

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Demo? Not so fast

For lots of us software-as-a-service (SaaS) marketers, the first thing we want to do with a new prospect is show them a demo.

They visit our website: invite them to a demo

They walk into our trade show booth:  show them a demo

They download a white paper, open an email, attend a webinar, whatever:  schedule a demo.

My advice:  Stop doing that.

If we rush into a demo before the prospective customer is ready for one, a few bad things may happen:

• We miss an opportunity to learn more about the prospect
• We spend time preparing and delivering a demo that doesn’t fit what the prospect is looking for
• We don’t move the prospect any closer to a purchase.

First listen

If the very first time we have to talk with a prospective customer we push them to sit through a demo, we often don’t give them a chance to talk.  It’s too much “show & tell” and not enough “ask & listen.”

We don’t have a chance to find out who they are, what problem they’re looking to fix, and why they got in touch with us.   

In fact, we sometimes skip right over the “Sales 101” questions and don’t find out about their budget, time-frame, and the people making the decision.  We may not know if this prospect is even worth spending time with.

Stop spraying & praying

Without knowing much about the prospect and the problem they’re trying to solve, it’s tough to do an effective demo.  (See "Most demos are useless.")

Instead of focusing on how our solution addresses the particular challenge they’re struggling with,  we’re just marching them features, features, and more features.

Eventually we might hit on the issue that they really care about, but maybe not.  And the prospect might be so “demo-dizzy” by the time we get there, they miss it.

Leave time to build trust

Launching right into a demo often short-circuits any chance to build credibility and trust.  The meeting is all about the product… not about our company, our expertise, or our understanding of the prospect’s industry and their challenges. 

We’re asking the prospect (and maybe a few of their colleagues) to give up a chunk of their time, and they hardly know us.

There’s not much opportunity to establish a relationship, something that’s essential to selling SaaS solutions.  The customer isn’t buying a box of software; they’re buying into a long-term relationship.  (See "SaaS Marketing is about Promises, Not Products.")

Don’t get me wrong: demos are usually an important part of marketing and selling the solution.  At some point, the prospective customer wants to see it in action. 

But don’t rush into the demo until both you and the customer are ready. 

​​​​​​​Beware: Too many leads!

I know this may be heresy to almost every marketer and sales person on the planet, but I’ll just say

it:  it’s possible to have too many leads.

Lots of the effort to generate new leads – those programs, events, campaigns and incentives we’ve

got in place to build more visibility, drive more traffic, and gather more names - might just be a waste of time and money.

How can that be?

Suspects, not prospects

One explanation: some of our lead generation efforts are attracting suspects, not prospects.  The people who find their way to our website, visit our booth, or open our emails aren’t the people our solution is built for.  They mistakenly think we can help them… but we can’t.

So, we spend more time and money following up with these folks – even having a sales rep call them - only to find out they’re a bad fit.  Chasing these bad leads doesn’t make us money; it costs us money. (See “Bad leads cost you money”)

The wrong kind of follow up

Another source of waste:  the leads get squandered.

A prospective customer finds out about our solution, and they raise their hand to indicate they’re interested.  But we respond in all the wrong ways.

Sometimes, the prospect never hears from us.  We’re so swamped with inbound inquiries, we can’t get back to them. 

Or we get back to them six weeks later, by which time they’ve forgotten why they ever contacted us.

Almost as bad, the prospect hears back from us, but we say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Often, they’re just beginning their evaluation, gathering basic information, and looking to educate themselves, but we’re chasing them to do a demo and close a deal. 

In either case – whether we ignore them or say the wrong thing - the prospect goes away.

Clarify the messages

When the wrong people find us - leads that will never turn into customers - often it’s because the prospect doesn’t understand our solution.  They can’t decipher our basic value proposition, and they’re confused about what we sell, who should buy it, and what problems we solve.  (See “Do your customers know what you sell?”)

If we describe our solution in techno-speak and blather on about “our unique, robust, industry-leading, real-time, AI-enabled, something, something platform,” it’s no wonder that the wrong people find us. 

Even worse, if our message is unclear, not only do the wrong people find us, but the right people don’t. Those who really could use our solution won’t figure that out.

It’s a double whammy:  Bad leads find us, and good leads don’t.

Look at the entire journey

By fixating on collecting leads, leads, and more leads, we might overlook what happens next in the process.  Once we’ve captured a lead, then what? 

When prospects evaluate most enterprise solutions, they move through several steps from lead to qualified prospect to paying customer.  And for software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, there are renewal and retention steps too.

Our customer acquisition process needs to follow along with each step.  If not, leads get stuck: 

• We drive traffic to the website with SEO and PPC campaigns, but we don’t collect contact information, or,

•  We collect contact information, but have no mechanism to follow up, or,

•  We do follow up, but not with the kind of material the person is looking for, or,

•  We sign up a customer, but we don’t market to them to ensure they renew or buy more.

We need to build a customer acquisition process that spans the entire journey.  Generating leads is only the first step. 

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Don't undersell your SaaS solution

No matter how long the list of amazing features you offer, if you’re marketing a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution, that’s not all you’ve got to sell.  You should be talking about the “non-feature” pieces as well.  If not, you’re underselling your solution.

That’s because prospects are usually thinking about more than just features when they’re evaluating a solution.  They’ve got other questions that you need to address:

Can the solution be implemented successfully?

• Will the implementation disrupt our business?
• Will employees use it?
• Will sensitive data be protected?
• Will competent support be available to help us out when we get stuck? 

Of course, prospects need to see a certain level of functionality.  You need to show that your solution has the features they need to handle the problem they’re trying to solve.  But once you’ve cleared that bar, prospects tend to focus on other issues. 

Fear of implementation failure

Why do those other issues matter?  Because prospects know there’s a difference between the demo and real life.

In the demo, prospects will usually recognize that your solution is far better than the one they’re living with now.  Once deployed, their lives will be easier. 

But they also know that getting from where they are now to what you’ve shown in the demo isn’t easy.  Navigating that transition can be risky.    

The last thing the prospect – perhaps an HR manager, sales executive, or finance person - wants is to gobble up lots of hours importing data, training users, setting up a new system, and disrupting the normal course of business… especially if it really isn’t worth the hassle.  That’s not a risk they’re willing to take.

It’s not all about the features

If your marketing efforts are only about touting features, features, and more features, you’re not addressing these other critical concerns.

Talking incessantly about “our solution does this, and our solution does that” or begging a prospect to sit through yet another demo probably won’t help push them toward a purchase.

Before they buy, prospects need to be satisfied that you can manage the “non-feature” issues.  That means you need to discuss implementation, training, and support in your marketing material.  You need to address their concerns about security, performance, and reliability.  And you need to give prospects lots of opportunity to see that the solution is easy to use. 

You can show prospects the proven, well-structured process you follow in importing existing data.  You can introduce them to the experts responsible for training and support.  You can present them with the security protocols you follow.  You can let them see proof of success through customer testimonials. 

All of this is required to address their “non-feature” concerns and reduce their risk of failure.  The lower the risk, the more likely they are to buy.