"Where should a B2B SaaS start-up focus to get sales?"
Predictable, sustainable and scalable revenue remain critical for B2B (business to business) SaaS (software-as-a-service). Since the B2B SaaS business model revolves around recurring revenue, immense importance lies in minimizing monthly churn. Churn can have a dramatic effect on revenue since profits are tied so closely with the lifetime of the customer whose value becomes realized over time. Rather than scramble for sales, it matters more to know why and how you get the sales you did. This propels your company in a direction for stable and later scalable growth.
Step by step, here are the areas to focus:
1) Buyer persona - who and why people buy your offering and where to find them
2) Conversion - assess how to get people to use the software first and how to optimize it.
3) Engagement - you got them to initially subscribe and now they need to be using the tool.
4) Churn - now that they are using the tool, it's time to keep them happy for as long as you can.
I would also strongly consider the perceived complexity of your offering. This impacts both conversion and engagement. The following factors influencing complexity include:
- Learning curve for the tool
- Integration of the functionality into the existing company infrastructure from a procedural standpoint
The most common solution to addressing complexity lies in effective on-boarding. While the goal from a maintenance cost perspective lies in evolving to self-serve, this remains an unrealistic expectation for most companies out of the gate.