Introduction
The software industry and the methods used to promote it have changed over time. The current sales procedure is difficult, time-consuming, and labor-intensive. Sales cycles are lengthening due to the market's growing competition and the democratization of software.
More time and effort are spent in:
· Selecting the appropriate persona.
· Being aware of their needs
· Understanding how prospects use the product
· Assuming their intention to pay.
· Forecasting their procurement timeline, among other things
SaaS businesses utilize various tech products, including email automation, account-based marketing, sales intelligence, etc., to analyze the data and draw actionable insights. This collection of tech products is referred to as a "tech stack."
Previously, the sales team was solely responsible for the sale of software. They used emails to schedule 15-minute demo sessions and delivered a real-time demonstration and a product walkthrough using the presentation deck. Also, the sales strategy was focused on getting leads from downloads of the whitepaper (or for that matter any other asset).
But now, the prospect (or end-user) is aware of the market, competition, issues, requirements, etc., due to the enormous amount of information available in open forums. Today's consumers are 60–70% aware of their needs before even speaking with a salesperson.
End-user/ Buyer today expects or desires to try the product and experience the freemium version of it before making any decisions. They are more aware than ever and prefer not to base their decisions on a 15–30 minute demo.
Today, prospects are less motivated to fill out the form before downloading the whitepaper. Product-led growth is the contemporary strategy that is reshaping the SaaS market.
The primary causes are a change in consumer behavior and easy access to numerous sources of information. The dynamics of the buyer's journey, market research, and the belief that individuals "would buy what they wanted to buy" have been altered by options and open & accessible marketplaces.
What is CRM?
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a technology that organizes all of your business's interactions and relationships with current and potential clients. Companies can enhance profitability and optimize operations and customer relations using a CRM system. The objective is straightforward: to strengthen commercial ties.
With the aid of a CRM system, you may concentrate on your firm's relationships with specific individuals, such as clients, service users, coworkers, or suppliers, throughout your interactions with them. This includes acquiring new clients, gaining their business, and maintaining and extending your ties with them.
Source: Here
Objectives of CRM:
Strengthen relationships with customers.
Transform leads into paying clients.
Engage prospects and customers more frequently.
Enable a better experience for current clients.
Raise customer satisfaction across all channels, mediums, and devices.
SMART approach: 5 ways a CRM helps SaaS businesses.
1. Sales Forecasting: A CRM setup enables sales representatives to work on the sales pipeline, automate crucial tasks, assign milestones, evaluate sales data using the centralized CRM database, and create a cutting-edge yet efficient sales process that is outcome-focused.
Prioritization: A CRM system assists in categorizing hot and cold leads based on customer interactions, which enables a sales representative to calculate the opportunity's win probability.
Sales Effectiveness: Gain knowledge of how prospects or current clients respond to you and their purchasing intentions so you may reach out to them at the most appropriate time.
Synergies for cross-selling and up-selling: CRM can aid sales representatives in comprehending the potential for upcoming encounters.
Closing: CRM offers a 360-degree view of the prospect, enabling the sales representative to clinch the deal quickly.
Future planning: CRM aids in examining historical data, producing insightful conclusions from it, and aids in tactical planning for the future. This aids in determining guidance for the upcoming quarters and clarifies what the firm should anticipate shortly. Furthermore, it aids a business in developing SMART goals that are appropriate for those projections.
2. Managing Multiple Relationships: By developing a thorough grasp of a customer's business, which should start with an overview of their relationship with your company, you may forge a solid partnership based on mutual respect and success. A CRM system can help a SaaS business by:
Examining their difficulties: At the end of every transaction, determine what matters to your consumers—their objectives, difficulties, and preferences—and make sure you have a course of action. Keep a record of these notes in your CRM program so you can start up where you left off the next time with a quick review.
Engage with relevance: Once you have a thorough understanding of a customer's needs and objectives, you may make timely recommendations for the proper items, discounts, or other content. With CRM, you'll also be able to deliver the most pertinent content and information because you'll know what they've bought and how they're using your goods or services.
Scale up your one-to-one interactions: Customers like you as a small (but mighty) firm for the individualized service you offer, but as your business grows, it gets harder to remember every detail about each client and know when to follow up. A CRM platform allows you to communicate with people by hosting email templates, creating task reminders, and enabling phone calls.
3. Analytics: Having a ton of customer data is one thing, but understanding what it means and how to use it is another. CRM software often includes analytical features that contextualize data, dividing it into valuable metrics and actionable items. You may assess the performance of a marketing campaign and adjust your optimization strategies using metrics like click-through rates, bounce rates, and demographic data.
Another thing that CRM software excels at is creating a consolidated database with all your client information, making it accessible to anybody in your company who needs it. This makes it simple for a salesperson to identify, for instance, the products in which a particular consumer is most interested. If the customer has previously interacted with the business, records of that engagement will be present in the CRM, which we can use to inform the subsequent marketing initiatives and sales pitches. This improves and increases the client experience and saves your staff time from having to search through outdated files and information.
4. Right Data to the Right Customer at the Right Time: A divergence between the "Product-Led" and "Rep-Assist" sides of the equation has existed in a hybrid PLG paradigm up to this point. Although there is software available to collect and analyze customer and product usage data (such as CDPs, product analytics, BI tools, etc.), these solutions weren't developed with GTM teams in mind, leading to two significant capacity gaps: The product usage data needed to close the gap has long been accessible, but there hasn't been a dedicated platform to provide it to GTM teams.
With current methods, finding the accounts that show the highest possibility of transacting requires a data analyst to examine data from several sources.
Predefined workflows in downstream GTM engagement tools are not automatically triggered by the current means.
How do we solve capability gaps?
Compile all pertinent customer data, such as firmographic and demographic data from lead enrichment tools; product usage data from various sources, such as CDPs, data warehouses, and product analytics tools; account data from CRMs; helpdesk data; invoicing information; and so on.
Using the information gathered in the previous step, establish the standards that define high purchasing intent. Accounts that satisfy the requirements are often referred to as Product-Qualified Leads (PQLs).
Use a proprietary UI, notifications in popular collaboration tools like Slack, or personal CRMs like Salesforce to notify GTM reps when an account matches the requirements for a PQL.
Start a drip campaign or sequence in Outreach (a Sapphire portfolio company) to start downstream GTM workflows.
5. Task Management: Managing employees and managing customers go hand in hand. First, improve employee management if you want to provide better customer service. What won't ever improve customer experience if a request from a customer is left unattended for an extended period because your staff is unsure who should handle it? It's critical to allocate and execute jobs on time and within budget. Businesses can automate the task management process using CRM. It creates assignments and distributes them across personnel based on factors like skill set, availability, locality, etc.
CRM solutions have developed over the past few years as well. Adapting to a modern Product-Led Growth CRM system is necessary as the software sales process evolves. How does PLG CRM vary from conventional CRM? Check out the Next Blog on What is PLG CRM?
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