This is an abridged, just-the-facts version of our previous article: Why Buyer-Led is the Next SaaS Sales Model
- Ahead of launching buyersjourney.ai, we spoke to 31 B2B SaaS buyers:
- ~ Enterprise, mid-market and start ups
- ~ Europe, Australia, US
- ~ Technical evaluators at different levels of seniority
- Here’s what we learned about how technical buyers view the sales process for complex technology solutions.
"Software Buyers Have Changed, the Sales Process Hasn’t"
- Today’s SaaS buyer is digital-first:
- ~Does their own research: Google, communities (reddit, stack overflow), review sites (G2, Gartner), and consultants/peer recommendations
- ~Is used to async communications (distributed teams, Slack / MS Teams)
- ~Gartner: 44% of millennials don’t want to speak to a rep; HBR: 54% of millennials and 29% of baby boomers
- The sales process hasn’t evolved:
- ~Meeting-centric (“can I have 15 minutes of your time?”)
- ~Emails back and forth to deliver crucial information (cost indication, differentiators, best practices, how to build a biz case)
- ~Multiple qualification calls (SDR, AE, SE)
The Future of SaaS Sales is Buyer-Led
- Buyers are frustrated with the current process
- What they want is:
- ~ Ideal first touch: Async discovery to build a requirement table.
- ~~"Do you solve my problem, at what price, and how much a fit?
- ~Then explore each of your feature based on "importance" . and rate the "performance" and give pros and cons.
- ~Compare yours with other solutions. See their perspectives. add or delete requirement if needed
- ~~"Static battle card not helpful. The ability to edit is key"
- ~Fast track to technical expertise to ask PoC-specific Qs
- ~Access to current users for their perspectives.
- ~Access to a community for support (or gamify and create fun challenges).
- ~Sales can facilitate and guide on the commercial/business case.
1. Asynchronous discovery to build a requirement table
- Async first. Once relevance is there. then Sync
- ~Before Buyers qualify the vendor and become 70% confident there is a fit, they rather not to commit to a Sales call, trial or demo.
- ~Buyers want an asynchronous discovery they can complete anytime and anywhere. (much like remote work these day!)
- What buyers want from the discovery
- ~Transparent and objective guidance (cost indication, what should be considered based on my business drivers/needs, where you're best suited, where you are not suited, your unique differentiators)
- ~Fill in the gaps left by website / marketing buzzwords (eg. best, unique AI, most accurate etc)
- ~How to build a requirement table
- ~How to build a business case
- ~Next steps in the buying journey by similar companies.
- How can Vendors leverage?
- ~Position yourself as a transparent thought-leader.
- ~~Common Vendor stereotype is biased, withholding info and rigid sales process.
- ~Provide both Async and Sync discovery options for the stage buyers are in
- ~Help them build interactive decision criteria and business case
- ~~Which serves as a map to eval/trial effectively and quickly
- ~~Where they Compare competitors, score and note down feedback, ask Qs and collect rewards.
- ~~Next missions to progress into : PoC, Commericial talks, Legal/Finance checks and Onboarding
- ~~ easily shared format among stakeholders
2. From Sales Qualified to Buyer Qualified - The Buyer Wants to Own the Process
- Frameworks such as MEDDPPIC, Command of the Message - sales reps extracts the info from the buyer to ‘qualify’ them
- Attending a demo is a chore, especially when many busy stakeholders in different time zones need to be gathered
- Buyers want clarity:
- ~Create a business case to share with their team, manager and buying committee
- ~~project background, impact, timeline and justifications
- ~Define success metrics and decision criteria - Must haves, Nice to haves
- ~Compare vendors and show due diligence - Pros and Cons
- How can Vendors leverage?
- ~Allow buyers to self-qualify over a business case-oriented survey.
- ~Align the Questions per MEDDPPICC and present the input in a project-overview format that benefits the buyers
- ~~In turn, every time buyers update, eg. timeline, You are updated.
- ~Allow buyers to finish the survey on desktop or mobile
- ~Show examples how similar companies justified the ROI and what features they valued
- ~Give a cost indication right away - even its RRP. otherwise buyers tend to assume it’s expensive and even lose interest to investigate further.
3. Access to Best Practices and Expertise is Crucial
- Buyers might not want to sit through demos, but they do want to talk to vendors:
- ~Ask technical Qs and custom integrations (SE teams)
- ~Help building the business case (AE)
- ~Connect with users in similar companies
- ~Learn best practices, integrations, industry trends, and how others are achieving the metrics
- How can Vendors leverage?
- ~Leverage the buyer’s thirst for knowledge but sequence it based on the stages they are in. so it's logical and relevant.
- ~Constantly offer time and progress based rewards, swag, access to users and discounted offers as ‘hooks’ to keep the buyer engaged throughout the process.
- Will buyers really give you the information? Yes, they told us that:
- ~Need to write everything down anyway for the evaluation
- ~Access to technical expertise and how similar companies do it gives the most values
4. A Paid Trial is Better than Free
- Vendors love offering free trials, marketing tends to view it as a very compelling CTA (“they get a free solution!”)
- But Buyers know that free trials aren’t free:
- ~Runs on their infrastructure
- ~Cost engineering time/labour on configurations
- ~Other departments are required
- ~Engineering processes are disrupted
- When the solutions were complex, buyers were mostly indifferent to free trial offers
- How can Vendors leverage?
- ~Instead of pushing for free trial, explore a discounted paid trial
- ~Offer discounted professional services as a reward for speedier evaluation / broader adoption in line with Dan Martell’s idea of Challenge Funnels).
Summary: BLG and BQL
New SaaS Model is Buyer-Led Growth and Filling Your Funnel with Buyer-Qualified Leads
- What we learned talking to buyers:
- ~They will modify the static competitive battle cards and tables.
- ~They think lengthy demos and qualification calls are a waste of time
- ~Want a fast track to technical expertise, best practices, and current users
- ~Buyers come to a sync communication (eg. demo call) after they’re 70% confident on your solution.
- This might sound scary or overwhelming. The good news is, buyer-qualified leads are much more likely to convert
- That’s why we launched buyersjourney.ai:
- ~Single tool for asynchronous discovery, Buyer-Led qualification, MEDDPPIC capturing, Progress tracking, Q/A, Rewards to guide the modern SaaS buyers journey.
- ~~can be used in outbound emails as a value-add to build a requirement table
- ~~or imbedded on Vendor's website as another CTA/funnel
- ~Simple and intuitive interface where vendors and buyers can get on the same page re: project goals and metrics, compare solutions, centralized commercial and paperwork, and manage the lead-to-customer-to-ambassador process. (Buyer-Led Growth)
- ~Progression through the process is rewarded with access to best practices and additional information - rather than another unwanted sales call.
- ~Watch this video to see
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