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If you are an ISV and are selling software as a service, you will know that with fierce competition in the market, you need to keep updating your sales playbook. While there are several practices that you must focus on achieving and best practices to leverage, there are some practices you should also avoid or must be aware about to ensure smooth revenue growth. The following article will illustrate 5 practices you should avoid. Once you go through these, you will realize they are fairly common, and you might have overlooked them during your sales journey. Therefore, it is time, you become consciously aware of some practices that may be delaying your sales growth.
What does selling Software as a Service entail?
Selling software as a service primarily entails having a great software which your customers want and selling it to them in the right way, through the right platforms and the way they want to buy. Some common pitfalls can make your software a failure, even if you have technological prowess and capabilities like no one else. Thus, you don’t only have to master the art of selling software as a service, but must also be aware of what you should be avoiding which might be impeding your growth.
5 practices to avoid when selling SaaS solutions in cloud marketplaces
Based on the insights from our cloud marketplace experts and experiences of ISVs we have worked with, we have been able to identify 5 practices that may be decelerating your growth of selling SaaS solutions.1. Taking too much time to reach cloud marketplaces
You need to be proactive in reaching cloud marketplaces because your captive audience is already there. If you look closely, most of your customers from other channels will have a presence and deal with cloud providers and will be willing to make longer or more voluminous contracts with you if they are able to transact with you through cloud marketplaces. Furthermore, with the surge in cloud adoption, you will also find a variety of new prospects in cloud marketplaces. If you are not selling software as a service in cloud marketplaces, you are missing out on multiple opportunities.
When you sell through cloud marketplaces, you will make the entire process seamless for your customers with reduced procurement and due diligence hassles. At the same time, you will be able to close deals faster, because your customers will not need additional budget approvals. This will significantly impact your sales cycle, helping revenue growth for your ISV business.
2. Processes which are too complex
Second, even if you are on the cloud marketplaces, you need to take your efforts a step ahead to give your customers an exemplary experience. Once the customers reach your offer landing page, it must be very easy to navigate with a few options that allow them to explore and even try your SaaS solution. If your processes are too complicated or need direction in every step, the entire user experience will be distorted. Invariably, this will reflect on the UI and UX of your SaaS solution and will push the customers against buying the same. If you are selling software as a service in the cloud marketplaces, keep the offer listing easy to understand with options like Free Trial and Test Drive to give your customers a first hand experience which is not too complex.3. Lack of instant transactable offers
For a lot of ISVs, cloud marketplaces become another channel of just showcasing their offers to prospective customers and their offers end with a Contact Me Now option. This generally captures customer data in the ISV CRM which ISVs use to connect with the customers later on. However, today, most customers want to directly use their pre-committed budgets to access your offers. Furthermore, you might be losing out on many customers who don’t want to wait long before buying your solution. They may end up going to your competitors who are offering transactable offers. Thus, when selling software as a service, lack of transactable offers can lead to losing customers and subsequently revenue.4. Inability to customize offers
In a cloud marketplace, you can have public offers which are common for all and listed publicly. But, you can also create private offers and open them to specific customers based on mutual agreements and customization. This is generally when you want to offer them a lower pricing based on the committed volume of your SaaS solution or the licenses they want to purchase, etc. However, if you are unable to customize offers based on customer demands, you are likely to lose out on them. The ability to create private offers with custom details and price offerings, as well as billing customers the way they want, including usage based billing will encourage them to choose you as their preferred software vendor. Furthermore, if you have more than one offering, you can also combine different bundles together and provide a composite offer to your customers which makes purchasing experience seamless for them.5. Not having enough branding
Finally, when selling software as a service, you need to make sure you have a clear brand visibility and recall for your customers. If they don’t recognize your logo or branding, they might end up purchasing the solution from your customer who might have a similar offering. Therefore, you need to avoid a situation where you don’t have enough branding. Having logos in place with your domain name, etc. will all contribute to creating visibility for your solution exclusively and helping your customers recall it immediately.Boost Software as a Service sales with zero engineering
Selling software as a service can be an uphill task, but if you have a partner like SaaSify to take care of all the heavy lifting, with its zero engineering platform, you can focus on outreach and sales, more than anything. SaaSify can help you in selling software as a service by:
- Enabling you to start selling within days with zero engineering efforts
- Offering self service capabilities and easy to navigate listing for your customers
- Creating transactable offers
- Creating private offers for specific customers
- Developing brand visibility with custom domain, logo, etc.
