SaaS Sales and Marketing Survival Checklist - Part 4

This blog is the final blog of a 4 part series that explains the SaaS Sales & Marketing Survival Checklist and gives you valuable advice on how to ensure that your SaaS business will not only survive, but be in a strong position to grow out of the current coronavirus crisis.

If you’ve not downloaded the checklist, you can access it here 

Other blogs in this series are:

Part 1: How to Look After Your Client Base During Times of Uncertainty

Part 2: How to Keep on Selling - Support and Close

Part 3: How to Build and Audience While Everyone is Listening

SaaS Sales and Marketing Survival Checklist

How to Prepare for the Big Bounceback

Despite all the turmoil going on in the world right now, there is one absolutely certain thing: this crisis will end. No one has a crystal ball to say when or how, but it will end, and we will get back to some form of normality.

It’d be a complete guess to suggest what that normality will be, there will undoubtedly be some differences in our lives, be it in or out of work, but we will come through this.

The sudden changes to the world’s economy have had far-reaching effects. The businesses that survive and come out stronger will be those that have adapted their solutions and services to meet the changing needs of their clients. 

It’s going to be the likes of you and I doing the hard work to ensure that businesses keep doing what they do best:  Providing useful solutions to their customers’ problems.

By virtue that you either own, lead or work in a SaaS business, you are an innovator. SaaS companies, by their very nature, are problem solvers and excel in creating and adapting to suit their customers. 

Now is the time to start planning and implementing change. We can’t wait until someone presses a magic button that says ‘Back to how it used to be’ that’s simply not going to happen. It’s down to you to take stock and to put a plan of action in place  to position your business for survival and growth.  

Part 4 of the SpotDev SaaS Sales and Marketing Survival Checklist is all about doing just that: Preparing your business for a bounceback. Here, I’ll take you through a walkthrough of this section.  

Buyer persona review

At SpotDev, we’ve always put great importance on understanding your buyer persona. Having a deep understanding of your client’s goals, dreams, challenges and fears is vital to producing sales and marketing material that is both useful and welcomed by them.

It is more important than ever to review your buyer personas right now. Their situation would have changed. What was important to them at the start of this year may be completely different now and going forward.

Hopefully, if you made your customer support calls as per section one of the checklist, you’ll already have a good feel about the concerns of your customers. But delve a bit deeper. How is this situation going to impact their business in both the short and long term? What are they going to change and what would be useful from you in helping them achieve that? What are the new opportunities that this presents for you in developing your SaaS offering? Either by adapting your existing software or by creating a new SaaS.

If you haven’t created your buyer personas yet, then here’s a tool that you’ll find useful: The ultimate guide to buyer personas.

Plan marketing campaigns

The worst thing that you can do right now is to reduce your SaaS marketing. You need to ensure that you are top of mind for prospective clients. Based on your findings when reviewing your personas, 

What type of content can you create that will prove valuable to your customers and prospects? Review your existing marketing to ensure it’s still relevant given the current situation, and if need be, amend the tone to be more empathetic and supportive.  

Your goal during this period is to help, not to capitalise or be opportunistic.  This will stand you in good stead and show your brand in a good light. Your actions now will be remembered by your customers and prospects for a long time.

It may be that you’ve got some spare capacity or extra time on your hands over the coming weeks, so use it wisely and do the tasks that you may not have had time to do previously.  

Update your website, work on your email nurture campaigns, write the blogs that you’ve been planning and segment your database properly. 

Take a look at the guide to running an inbound marketing campaign for some ideas and help in coming up with different campaigns.

Keep nurturing

No doubt you still have a database of people that haven’t yet heard from you. If you’ve got marketing automation campaigns running, it’s possible that the email campaigns will run out way before your prospect is in a position to buy; therefore, you’ll want to extend the length of the campaigns to make sure you’re keeping in touch.

Also, don’t give up on contacting people. If you have leads that you would usually reach out to, then continue to try. In fact, increase the number of attempts. People are working from home, so it may be that you can’t contact them by phone; or, if you do get hold of them, their attention is elsewhere. However, it may also be that they have more time and a more pressing need and more willing to talk to you.    

There will be business to be done during this time, so don’t ignore it. Sales will stop if the selling stops.

Examine your sales sequences, set an appropriate level of follow-up by phone and email and use video where possible to give as much face-to-face communication as you can. (Our favoured tool for sending video email is Vidyard)

Prepare your sales collateral 

You may find that you need to work harder to get deals over the line, both now and in the future. So now is the time to get your SaaS sales material up to scratch. Think about the testimonials and case studies, the sales pages on your website, the PDF brochures.  

Look at changing the sales scripts to ensure that they are more supportive. I’ve had a couple of salespeople contact me recently trying to sell me corporate sponsorship and office cleaning. They’ve not changed their approach at all, and I imagine that the majority of their conversations are met with short shrift.  

Get your demo scripts in order and ensure that your people are trained and well-practiced in delivering exceptional demos.

Think about using video and enhancing your onboarding and customer support so that your offering becomes more and more compelling when the time is right.

Basically, get all your ducks in a row so that when the time is right, and you see more enquiries coming through, you’re ready to make the sales and deliver.

To summarise, we are in a never-before-seen crisis, but it is temporary. The world will still turn, and business will still go on. It’s not going to be without its challenges and casualties, and you may need to change what you’re doing and how you’re operating. But you’re more than capable of doing that.

If we can offer any support relating to your sales and marketing, whether it’s to brainstorm ideas or you’re looking for some help implementing, then arrange a Growth Call with one of our SaaS growth experts.

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