How to close a B2B Sale in a SaaS Startup?

There are those who would argue that sales is an art and there are those who'd say it's science, and there are some that say it's a combination. If I were to argue for any of these I wouldn't be able to muster up a lot. I believe with strides in technology, social networking and general awareness, sales today is far simpler (or harder if you are carrying luggage from the past).

I would argue Sales is just being. It is refreshingly fun and easy.

Manipulation, on the other hand, just wouldn't cut it anymore, regardless of whether you are selling to a buyer or to a CEO, IT or business.

Ok, now let's start with the basics and then we'll dig deeper into a few segments:

1) Trust: Are you trusted? Is your brand trusted? Is your salesperson trusted?
 No big deal if it's a 'not yet' to all the above. Of course keep working on this as this is more important than anything else..

Think about how else to instill trust (everyone in SaaS does free trials, no contracts, money back, referrals etc, so these are not differentiation). The opportunity is in every single transaction you have with your prospects. Website, contact form, content strategy, emails, phone calls, f2f, every single interaction is an opportunity:

a) Be honest
b) Commit only when you can
c) Feel free to say no, back it up
d) Feel free to say I don't know, do get back

2) Risk: Is there risk? No? You just lost a deal :) Every change brings risk.

a) State risks as is. Risks for others in the past, risks you anticipate. Follow up with what needs to be done to increase the probability of a successful deployment. If you genuinely think that a deployment has a higher probability of failure, back off and walk away, tell them you don't see this working.

3) Buy in: What we need is a buying decision in our favor. Sales processes work to the extent that you have kept silos and no real workflows (Do create sales processes for things that keep repeating though). The sales process you create with all deliberations means nothing in a buying cycle. So keep sales processes flexible and align with the buying process. I have not sold more than 250k a year deal (yet), with this context, I'm yet to come across an opportunity with more that one decision maker. I've come across a few instances where the decision maker takes a vote from his/ her team. But it is still one person that assimilated all information and made the final call.

a) Identify who the decision maker is early. Understand:
x) What all is important for them from this project. What's the priority
y) How do they go about deciding who to work with for the next year, 2-3 years for the problem at hand. RFP, parameters, weightages, internal decision making processes.

b) Try and speak with as many people as possible involved in the project.

Basics were, well.. basic :)

Now let's divide customer wins into three segments and look into these. This is still generic, I'm sure you can add more sophistication as per your product, target market, people, region, industry etc..

1) Customer wins that happen on their own. correction.. without any actual human touch.. (not counting automated e-mails, product trials etc)

For me, a closure is not a closure unless I am confident that they are going to stick around. Go ahead and do a quick check if you'd like, self-serving closures have the highest churn (I mean really high). These should best be treated as an opportunity to close and not as closures as such. If you collect phone numbers, give them a call, leave a voicemail, write emails (not too many, you know when to stop).

Try to understand, what they want achieved, how you can help. Offer advise if asked for.

2) Low touch wins:

There are instances where (sometimes it's the deal size, sometimes startups, sometimes it's not) people call in or respond to one of your automated e-mails. I do this myself, I need to talk to someone at the org before I buy. This reassures me that this is a genuine business and I'm not throwing money at abyss..

Pick your calls (and respond to emails fast), these customers would just pick up the phone and talk to the next vendor. They are usually very loyal too once they are in (I personally think because of lack of time more than anything else).. net effect.. opportunity lost forever if you fail to do this.

You don't want to be here as a buyer as in most probability you are getting a raw deal and you haven't spoken to the firm with the best solution in your budget range..

3) High touch wins: 

These are typically SMBs (not always). These start off a lead from inbound or an outbound educational/ cold email/ cold call campaign. 

These typically require 1-9 months, product demonstrations, multiple calls, maybe even contract negotiations depending on deal size. Some companies/ industries take out RFPs as well. If the RFP is out because of your outbound campaign, you have a higher probability of win.

This category is best left to a professional closing Inside Sales resource but if you are game here's how to do it: Close Enterprise Deals as  a B2B SaaS Startup Without in-House Salespeople

You might also want to read: B2B Sales: As a start-up how we do accelerate the long enterprise sales cycle?

There are those industries, countries, states where you would be required to meet face to face as well. Do close the agreement by word before you meet face to face.

Have something to share on the subject? Please use the comments section below. If it is longer, feel free to request to guest blog.

About the Author: Raj Nadar is the founder of Inside Sales On Demand setup to handle outsourced Inside Sales closures for B2B SaaS Startups. His inside sales orgs have sold into Startups to USD 4.5 billion revenue firms in US, Canada, Spain, South Africa, Iceland, Brazil, UK and Mexico, Sweden, India, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Finland, Austria, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands with deal sizes ranging from USD 600 to 250k per year.

Current Projects: Inside Sales for Making Sense of Large Team Communications | Teamchat, Crowdsourced Software Testing | 99tests

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