Tag: saas sales

The Definitive List of SaaS Market Statistics for 2024

Posted on by Nick Mann

To say that the SaaS industry is thriving would be a gross understatement. Ever since Salesforce started its CRM platform in 1999, the concept of using software as a service has really caught on and only continues to grow. To gain perspective on where we’re currently at and where we’re heading, here’s a list of must-know SaaS market statistics for 2024.

96% of Companies Currently Use at Least One SaaS Platform

In recent years, SaaS products have become ubiquitous and are used by organizations across most industries. But in 2024, we’re at a point where nearly every company uses SaaS, with a staggering 96% of business leaders saying they’ve purchased at least one platform.

While 100% adoption is impossible, we’re about as close as we can get.

78% of Companies Use More Than 4 SaaS Platforms

Further, the same research found that nearly 8 in 10 companies use more than four SaaS applications. This shows that the vast majority of businesses are all in on SaaS and not just using it for one area of operations, but several.

With SaaS spanning nearly all aspects of business, there’s almost nothing that can’t be improved and streamlined by integrating the right SaaS platform. Here are just a handful of the top SaaS products according to Google.

72% of Organizations Plan to Spend More on SaaS Products in 2024

The question is, are sales leaders happy with their decision to go so heavy on SaaS?

Given that 72% of businesses are planning to spend more on SaaS in 2024 and beyond, it’s safe to say yes. With SaaS software being so efficient and flexible, it’s easy to see why so many companies are fully committed to SaaS.

For example, look at all the pricing options CRM platform Pipedrive offers, along with a free 14-day trial.

And with AI being more widely integrated, SaaS platforms are only going to become more sophisticated.

73% of Businesses Are Planning to Increase Their Spending By At Least 5%

Not only are most brands planning to spend more on SaaS, nearly three-quarters are planning to spend significantly more by at least 5%. This stat clearly shows that companies that use SaaS software are getting results.

The SaaS Market is Expected to Reach $282 Billion By the End of 2024

Now let’s talk revenue. There’s been steady growth over the past eight years, with SaaS revenue going from $62 billion in 2016 to $157 billion in 2020 to a projected $282 billion by the end of 2024.

This is yet another clear indicator of how successful the SaaS industry has been and that it won’t be losing steam any time soon.

The SaaS Market is Predicted to Reach $374 Billion By 2028

Looking ahead to the future, experts predict the SaaS industry will grow to around $374 billion in just four years — an additional $92 billion.

With SaaS market statistics like this showing further sustained growth with no signs of slowing down, there’s arguably never been a better time for full integration of SaaS software. And that’s great news if you’re part of a SaaS company because demand is currently at an all-time high and only continuing to increase

73% of Businesses That Use SaaS Have Seen Up to a 40% Productivity Increase

When it comes to the impact that SaaS products have for adopters, it’s substantial.

Research has found that nearly three-quarters of businesses see a minimum of a 20% productivity increase, while others see an increase by as much as 40%. This is definitely a stat worth sharing with your sales team because the productivity boost is one of the biggest selling points of using a SaaS platform.

86% of Businesses Say SaaS Improves Collaboration

Besides productivity, SaaS has been proven to have a dramatic impact on collaboration, with a whopping 86% of businesses saying it’s helped in this department. And this shouldn’t come as a surprise with improving collaboration being the chief aim of many products (Slack is a prime example).

81% of Companies Say SaaS Helps Resolve Problems Quicker

The vast majority of SaaS users (81%) also report that it helps them resolve problems much more efficiently than they could without using this type of software platform. So that too is another key selling point when trying to win leads over.

68% of Brands Say SaaS Improves Customer Satisfaction

Additionally, there’s an undeniable correlation between using a SaaS product and improved customer satisfaction. To quantify, 68% of organizations that implement a SaaS solution experience noticeably better customer service.

86% of Companies That Use SaaS Products See Increased Employee Engagement

One final area worth mentioning is the employee engagement boost most SaaS adopters see. According to data, the overwhelming majority of companies (86%) experience higher employee engagement.

I think this quote by Steve Pruden, SVP of Human Resources at Appirio summarizes it perfectly.

“Workers are much more productive (and engaged) when they have modern, seamless, integrated tools to do their jobs. Automate routine tasks and let workers focus on more strategic work. Use technologies that eliminate silos and encourage cross-functional collaboration.”

That’s the essence of SaaS.

SaaS Market Statistics: The Bottom Line

Let’s recap. The SaaS industry has grown by leaps and bounds over the last quarter century and is positioned for continued sustained growth moving forward.

More companies than ever are using SaaS solutions, and the vast majority have experienced great success by doing so. This is no doubt encouraging for SaaS companies and sales leaders, as things are trending in the right direction, and there’s more opportunity than ever.

Looking to build a team of elite sales professionals? Use HireDNA’s cutting-edge technology to find the best of the best based on core selling competencies, role compatibility, sales experience, and more.

The Art of Sales Team Evaluations: A Practical Guide

Posted on by Nick Mann

Your sales team is the lifeblood of your company. It’s that simple. Regardless of how great your marketing team is at generating leads and your customer service team is at resolving issues, it’s all for nothing if your salespeople can’t close. To ensure you A) have a team of qualified professionals and B) they’re operating at their best, routine sales team evaluations are essential.

In this guide, I’ll provide a practical strategy to effectively evaluate your salespeople to get them firing on all cylinders.

Assess Your Sales Team as a Whole

When determining performance, you’ll need to look at the macro level of your collective sales team and the micro level of individual salespeople. I recommend starting at the macro level because it should show you your team’s performance as a whole.

To do this, you’ll need to identify the specific KPIs that are most important to your sales team’s success and analyze them. While numerous KPIs play a role in sales team performance, here are some of the most fundamental.

  • Revenue
  • Conversion rate
  • Quota attainment
  • Average deal size
  • Sales cycle length

This graphic illustrates even more potential sales KPIs to look at.

Assess Individual Salespeople

Once you’ve got a clear idea of what your collective sales team’s performance is, it’s time to go more granular to individual salesperson performance.

Most of the KPIs here will look the same, and you’ll want to look at revenue, conversion rate, quota attainment, average deal size, and so on. However, there are a few other KPIs you’ll want to measure on the individual level to gain a deeper perspective on how big of a contributor each rep is to your organization.

Some of those include pipeline contribution, win-loss ratio, and activity metrics like the number of emails, calls, and meetings over a particular period.

As you generate this data, it’s helpful to create a graph that provides a visual overview of individual salesperson performance side-by-side. Here’s a simple example.

While this won’t necessarily tell the whole story and you’ll want to take extraneous factors into account, this should provide a fairly objective overview so you can get a sense of who your top performers are, as well as who’s underperforming.

Look at the Overall Growth Trajectory

At this point, you should have a pretty good idea of how your collective sales team and individual salespeople are performing. You should also have identified any specific issues that need to be addressed, such as a particular sales rep’s conversion rate being noticeably lower than other team members.

But to really get a bird’s-eye view of which direction you’re heading, you’ll want to look at overall sales growth by comparing numbers over a period of time (you’ll usually want at least one year of data). While there are multiple areas you can analyze to assess overall growth trajectory, total revenue tends to be the best starting point and should give you a good baseline reading of what your trajectory looks like.

Creating something as simple as a spreadsheet table with a breakdown of annual revenue like this usually should be adequate.

For more on calculating your company’s sales growth, I suggest reading this post from HubSpot.

Look at Customer Satisfaction and Retention

At first glance, salesperson performance may not seem like it would have all that big of an impact on customer satisfaction and retention. But in reality, there’s a significant correlation.

I like what global brand marketing strategist Angela Hausman has to say about it.

“Consistency plays a crucial role in fostering customer satisfaction across various touchpoints in a company’s interactions with its clients. Customers expect a consistent experience when engaging with a company, whether it is through product offerings, service delivery, or communication. This consistent experience creates a sense of reliability and predictability, which, in turn, helps to build trust and confidence in the brand.”

If, for example, a lead who eventually becomes a customer has a positive experience with a salesperson where the rep promptly follows up after inquiries, effectively addresses their unique pain points, and helps them choose the best product version, this is likely to build a good rapport. In turn, this should increase customer satisfaction and help retain them longer.

On the other hand, if the person has a poor experience with a salesperson where the rep is slow to respond and fails to point them to the right product version, it will likely create friction, which could be detrimental to the customer experience, and you may lose the customer earlier than you should.

The bottom line is that customer satisfaction and retention will often lend insight into sales team performance. While you will certainly want to look at other factors like product quality and customer service, I feel it’s worth taking these factors into account during sales team evaluations, as this can help you spot problem areas.

For assessing customer satisfaction, you can use a mix of customer surveys, complaints, social media monitoring, and your Net Promoter Score (NPS).

And one of the better tools for measuring retention is Woopra, which offers a comprehensive overview of your churn rate over time.

Using Sales Team Evaluations to Propel Your Company Forward

Due to the extreme impact your sales team has on your bottom line, evaluating their performance at least annually is highly important. By staying on top of it both collectively and individually, you should be able to identify minor issues before they escalate and further refine the areas you’re succeeding in.

While the specific strategies used in sales team evaluations can differ significantly from company to company, the formula outlined above should ensure you cover all the major bases.

To get started with an evaluation of your sales team check out the OMG salesperson evaluation, it provides the most comprehensive and holistic sales-specific evaluation. You can request a free sample evaluation here.

And if you’re looking to assess potential candidates to find the best of the best, check out The OMG Sales Candidate Assessment, which accurately predicts the likelihood of a salesperson succeeding based on 21 proven sales core competencies. 91% of recommended and hired candidates has positive on the job performance.

How to Optimize Each Stage of the SaaS Sales Funnel

Posted on by Nick Mann

You’re probably well aware that very few SaaS leads are ready to buy right away. According to the RAIN Group, it takes an average of eight touches to get a conversion. To move leads smoothly through the SaaS sales funnel, you need to understand how the pieces fit together and optimize for each stage.

This is essential for 1) reducing friction points, 2) creating a positive customer journey, and 3) setting your sales team up for maximum conversions. Here’s how to do that.

The SaaS Sales Funnel I Use

First off, let me say that there is no one-size-fits-all SaaS sales funnel that works perfectly for everyone. There are multiple variations, with some longer involving several steps and some shorter with only a few steps.

But for simplicity’s sake, I like this one, which involves four key steps — awareness, consideration, conversion, and loyalty.

Note that not all SaaS sales funnels include a post-purchase stage like loyalty. But given how critical retention is to SaaS success, optimizing for a post-purchase phase is incredibly important.

With that said, here’s how to tackle each stage of this particular SaaS sales funnel.

Awareness

The awareness stage is at the very top of the funnel where potential customers first become aware of your SaaS product and brand. For the majority of prospects, they’re simply conducting some preliminary research, or as I call it, doing their “recon” on potential SaaS products that may address their needs.

Sometimes, they’re actively searching for solutions. Other times, they just happen to stumble upon them.

While there are numerous ways potential customers may become aware of a SaaS product, more often than not, it’s through one of three ways:

  • A search engine
  • Social media
  • Content marketing (this is often found through a search engine or social network)

Therefore, these are the three main areas you want to optimize.

Search

Start with on-site optimization and technical SEO, which includes creating a sitemap, increasing site speed, and internal linking. You can find a ton of great information on this here.

Also, follow best practices when creating content, such as performing keyword research and using proper headers (H1s, H2s, H3s, etc.). This is a great resource for learning about optimizing content for search.

Social Media

Leverage multiple networks that your audience is active on to boost your brand exposure and find targeted leads.

Content Marketing

This overlaps somewhat with optimizing content for search. Having a variety of content should help you raise brand awareness and pull in targeted leads from a variety of sources. Here’s what types of content perform best in 2023, according to Semrush.

Consideration

Once your brand is on a potential customer’s radar and they’re considering your SaaS product, they’re officially a lead. To optimize this stage of the SaaS sales funnel, you’ll want to focus on lead nurturing, which can be done in a variety of ways, including:

  • Email marketing
  • Product comparisons
  • Case studies
  • Webinars
  • Testimonials

And if you offer a free trial version of your product, you can tap into product-led marketing. When done correctly, this can have a tremendous impact, not only reducing the sales cycle and boosting conversions but also enhancing the customer experience and instilling deeper loyalty.

If you’re not familiar with product-led marketing, I suggest reading this guide.

Conversion

Now is the fun part. After successfully moving potential customers through the awareness and consideration stages, you’re ready to pull the trigger and make a conversion.

There are three key strategies for optimizing the conversion stage of the SaaS sales funnel.

One is to use strategically placed, crystal-clear CTAs that encourage leads to buy. Here’s a good example from Zendesk.

Next, be transparent with your pricing so leads know exactly what they get, how much it costs, and what features each plan includes. Zendesk does a great job of this as well.

Finally, get in the habit of continuously A/B testing the content you use for conversions. You may, for example, want to experiment with different CTAs to see which gets the most clicks and results in the most purchases.

As you accumulate more data over time, you should be able to refine every aspect of the conversion stage and convert the maximum percentage of potential customers into actual customers.

Loyalty

The fourth and final piece of the puzzle is everything that comes post-purchase — the loyalty or retention stage.

As I mentioned before, retention is vital to the long-term success of a SaaS company. After all, it doesn’t matter how great you are at converting if you can’t retain customers for the long haul. And with an average annual churn rate of 10-14% annually, it’s something you need to be diligent about optimizing.

So what can you do to increase customer loyalty?

For starters, I suggest taking customer support seriously. This includes having a section of your website dedicated specifically to customer support like Zoom does…

…and making it easy for customers to get in touch with a support rep.

Next, it’s smart to send out period engagement emails to keep in touch with customers. For instance, you could provide them with tips on how to get the most from your SaaS product, information on new integrations or features, product usage reports, and more.

Third, always be looking to get feedback from users and implement that feedback to improve your product. This kills two birds with one stone because users want to know a company is listening, and it sets the stage for ongoing product improvement.

Lastly, you can use analytics such as churn reports to objectively track churn so you can determine what’s causing it and what you can do to stop making the same mistakes. Here’s an example from customer journey platform Woopra.

Fine-Tuning Your SaaS Sales Funnel

Optimizing your SaaS sales funnel end-to-end is of the utmost importance. By doing so, you should prevent major drop-offs from occurring, increase conversions, and generally make the customer experience more enjoyable. The formula outlined above addresses all four major steps and should get your funnel firing on all cylinders.

Looking to build an elite sales team? Use HireDNA’s cutting-edge technology to find the best of the best candidates.

The Art of Upselling in SaaS Sales: How to Increase Customer Value

Posted on by Nick Mann

We all know that retaining existing customers is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. But one of the best ways to really boost profitability without a lot of extra effort is using upselling in SaaS sales.

To quantify, research has found that “upselling increases revenue by 10-30% on average,” and “the probability of selling to an existing customer, with whom you have established a relationship, is 60-70%.” Those are some impressive numbers and show firsthand how big of an impact upselling in SaaS sales can have.

For this post, I’ll share with you some practical strategies, along with examples so you’ll know how to implement upselling in your SaaS sales properly.

Identify High-Probability Upsell Opportunities

Just like not all leads are created equal, neither are existing customers from an upsell perspective. By this, I mean that certain segments will have a high likelihood of converting to a more expensive product version while others will only have a low likelihood. So the first step to having success is knowing how to identify high-probability upsell opportunities.

There are a few ways to do that, but here’s what I feel are two of the best.

One is to use analytics to monitor SaaS product usage, behavior, and engagement and then target the segment of customers that rank highly in these areas. If, for example, one customer used your SaaS product daily and took advantage of most of the features, they would be a much better upsell candidate than someone who only logged into your SaaS product weekly and only used a feature or two.

After narrowing down your high-priority list, you could then have your SaaS sales team initiate outreach through each customer’s preferred channel (email, phone, text, etc.). This brings me to my next point.

Personalize Your Outreach

Once you know which customers to reach out to, you’ll need to tailor your outreach to ensure your offerings address each customer’s unique needs. Let’s look at Slack’s pricing options as an example.

Say one of their customers was using the free version. They used Slack consistently but were only running a small team where they could likely gain value from some additional features but didn’t need all the bells and whistles. When performing outreach, a sales rep would likely want to suggest the Pro or Business+ version of Slack, as it offers plenty of great benefits for small businesses.

However, they probably wouldn’t want to suggest Enterprise Grid because this is aimed at much larger companies with extensive needs.

This is a hyper-simple example, but I think you get the idea. The point here is that you should always make personalized upsell offers, as that’s going to A) increase your chances of converting and B) ensure your customers get the maximum value.

Automate Upselling with Triggers

Up until this point, the SaaS upselling outreach methods I’ve discussed have required a manual approach. But for this point, let me talk about automating your upselling.

One of the best ways to do this is by using upselling triggers that let high-potential customers know about relevant offers based on their behaviors. There are two main ways to go about this.

First, you can use native, in-app messaging to encourage customers to upgrade their plan by showing them the benefits they’ll get at the opportune time. This is something Slack does expertly by letting users know when they’re approaching the maximum amount of searchable messages.

While their policy has since changed, it used to be that free users were limited to 10,000 searchable messages. Once they exceeded that limit, some of a user’s older messages were no longer shown.

When a free user approached 10,000 messages, it would trigger Slack to automatically display this upsell that showed the limitations of their free plan.

Users who were interested could simply click “Learn more” and get the full rundown and upgrade.

Convey Value

Once an existing customer has been propositioned for an upsell, they need to understand at a glance the exact value they’ll get from it. The more concise you are about conveying value, the stronger your chances are of converting.

Most SaaS companies that succeed at upselling simply provide a side-by-side comparison so customers can see how one plan differs from the next. AI image generation platform Leonardo, for example, offers a succinct breakdown of different plan benefits.

So if a customer wanted to generate more images per month (which is done with tokens), they may be interested in making the jump from the Apprentice plan, which only offers 8,500 tokens per month to the Artisan plan, which offers 25,000 tokens.

And for customers who are on the fence about an upsell, you can always leverage testimonials or case studies that show how other real-life customers have benefited by making the switch.

Incentivize Upselling Offers

Finally, you can often increase your conversion rate even more by offering targeted incentives, with two of the most popular being a free trial or discount. This is a technique that Leonardo currently uses where they’re giving customers a percentage off when they upgrade product versions.

And to encourage customers to take action right away, you may only want to make your incentives available for a limited time to create a sense of urgency.

Succeeding with Upselling in SaaS Sales

With companies routinely increasing revenue by as much as 30% through upselling in SaaS sales, it’s hard to argue with the impact this technique can have. As long as your customers are genuinely getting more value, it’s the ultimate win-win. It’s just a matter of fleshing out your upselling strategy and taking the right steps to maximize your conversion rate.

Want to find elite SaaS sales reps that can help you close more deals? See how the Original Sales Assessment can help you find the best of the best.

How to Use Case Studies to Convert More Leads

Posted on by Nick Mann

There are about 30,000 SaaS companies in 2023, and that number is quickly growing. By 2024, some experts believe that number will more than double to 72,000. This means competition is fierce, and customers have more choices than ever. While there are numerous ways to boost conversions and bring more leads to your company, one of the best pound-for-pound is using case studies to convert more leads.

In this post, I’ll show you just how big of an impact demonstrating customer success through case studies can have on SaaS sales and offer a real-life example for inspiration.

What Exactly is a Case Study?

First, let’s start with a clear definition. In the context of SaaS, it’s an in-depth study of a customer who used your product and the measurable outcome it had.

The specifics of a case study can vary, but there are five key elements you tend to see across the board.

First, there’s the introduction that explains who the customer is, the industry they’re in, and so on. Next, is the problem they were facing before using your SaaS product. Then comes the solution, which discusses why your product was a good fit. From there, a case study explains the result, ideally using concrete data to explain the quantifiable impact. And finally, it details where the customer was before and after using your SaaS solution.

Why Case Studies Are So Effective in SaaS

It’s simple. Using case studies to convert more leads works well because it’s the ultimate form of social proof.

While there are several other effective forms of social proof, with testimonials, reviews, and ratings being just a few examples, case studies break down the results an actual customer had after using your SaaS product. Rather than just saying, “Our SaaS product works great and can make your life easier, grow your business, etc.,” a case study takes a deep dive and shows firsthand what the impact has been using a real-life example.

And this is incredibly important in an age where 1) there’s so much competition and 2) many leads are skeptical of brands.

I like what HubSpot campaign manager Siobhan McGinty has to say about it.

“Do not underestimate the value of providing social proof at just the right time in order to add value and earn their business. Case studies are extremely effective in the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey when they are actively comparing solutions and providers to solve a problem they’re experiencing.”

So when a lead is at the consideration stage, a case study can be the perfect form of content for connecting the dots and showing them why your SaaS solution is the best option.

Instead of merely taking your word for it, a lead can see how a similar customer benefited from your product and how they can as well.

Eye-Catching Statistics

At this point, you’re probably wondering just how big of an impact case studies can truly have. To answer that, here are a few compelling statistics that illustrate the value they can bring to a SaaS marketing campaign.

First, 2022 research by The Content Marketing Institute found that 73% of the most successful content marketers used case studies in their campaigns.

Next, of the top content assets that marketers used in the last 12 months, case studies ranked number four, just behind videos and virtual events, which shows the growing ubiquity of this content medium.

And third, research from Uplift Content found that case studies were ranked as the number one most effective marketing tactic for increasing SaaS sales, with 39% of marketers saying they were effective. For perspective, case studies ranked higher than SEO, general website content, email marketing, eBooks, social media, and blogging.

By these numbers, it’s clear that using case studies to convert more leads can be an excellent addition to a SaaS marketing campaign. So if it’s something you haven’t tried yet, now is the perfect time to do so.

A Real-Life Example

Now that we know what case studies are and why they work so well, let’s look at inbound lead conversion and scheduling app Chili Piper to see how they use case studies so effectively.

Chili Piper is a SaaS company that uses content as an integral part of their marketing campaign, with blogs, guides, and podcasts being a few key examples. But in my opinion, where they really succeed is with their case studies or “customer stories” as they call them.

Chili Piper even has an entire section of their website devoted solely to case studies.

One that I think is especially good is where they featured BambooHR and discussed how the company was able to increase qualified meetings by 40% after using Chili Piper.

In this case study, Chili Piper provides:

  • An introduction and overview of BambooHR
  • The inefficiencies of their previous system before using Chili Piper
  • The solution that was implemented with the app
  • The results (increasing qualified meetings by 40%)

They even provide a video featuring BambooHR company rep Mary Nelson who discusses exactly how Chili Piper helped make their meeting scheduling process far more efficient for a “straight from the horse’s mouth” perspective.

It’s a simple, straightforward format that perfectly showcases the power of this SaaS product and helps leads envision how it could help their company as well. You can see the case study for yourself here.

And if you’d like to see Chili Piper’s full library of case studies for more ideas, you can find them here.

Using Case Studies to Convert More Leads

If you’re looking for the ultimate “show, don’t tell” marketing strategy, it doesn’t get much better than case studies. And while they can work well for many industries, they pair perfectly with SaaS because they enable you to show leads firsthand how a similar company benefited from using your product.

That’s why I can’t recommend this strategy enough, and it’s one that can be a great addition to your SaaS marketing arsenal.

Looking to build an all-star team of talented salespeople? Use HireDNA to recruit and retain top reps with cutting-edge technology.

How to Use Value-Based Selling in SaaS to Drive More Conversions

Posted on by Nick Mann

When many people think of traditional sales, they often envision aggressively pushing a product and landing the deal. While making conversions is obviously important, the old-school “going for the jugular” style often does more harm than good these days, and leads are less receptive to high-pressure sales tactics than they used to be. One form of selling that’s gaining in popularity and can be especially potent is value-based selling.

To quantify, “87% of high-growth sales organizations now take a value-based approach to sales.” And many experts have gone so far as to call value-based selling “the sales methodology of the future.”

Here’s how to use value-based selling in SaaS to boost conversions and take your sales team to the next level.

Transactional Selling vs. Consultative Selling

First, let me start off by saying that value-based selling takes a consultative approach to sales where you listen and educate a lead while building a relationship with them and highlighting the value your SaaS product offers. This differs from transactional selling that’s mainly focused on the features and specs of a product, “pushing” it on a lead and making a transaction.

For perspective, here’s a comparison of transactional selling vs. consultative selling (the camp value-based selling falls under).

Now that we have a basic understanding of these two different styles, here are the most integral techniques for using value-based selling to win over more prospects.

Research Each Lead’s Unique Needs

A critical part of succeeding with this approach is avoiding a “one-size-fits-all” mentality and treating every lead uniquely.

“When researching a prospect, aim to understand their company and industry, background, and current pain points,” explains HubSpot. “By understanding these pieces of information, you’ll have a solid grasp of how to serve them best.”

While this, admittedly, does take time, it’s an essential component of the process. To ensure you’re spending your time on the right prospects, I suggest using a lead scoring tool, ideally focusing on sales qualified leads (SQLs) rather than marketing qualified leads (MQLs).

By default, this will filter through your list of prospects and ensure you’re only spending time on those that are ultra-high-quality with a strong likelihood of converting. And for the MQLs that aren’t yet ready, you can send them to your marketing team for nurturing.

Build Authentic Rapport

The initial stage of the process of researching a lead’s unique needs will come into play here, as it will set the tone as you build rapport. As I mentioned earlier, an essential part of value-based selling is acting more as a consultant rather than a conventional salesperson. So the goal is to stay personable and “human,” getting to know each lead as an individual.

One area where many salespeople go wrong is jumping into the sales discussion too early. While converting is always the goal, value-based selling takes more of a “long game” approach where you first get to know a person and build an authentic relationship so you can deliver genuine value and address their specific needs.

Clearly Demonstrate the Value of Your SaaS Product

The first two steps in the process will set you up for the most important part of the journey — where you directly articulate exactly how your SaaS product will improve a lead’s situation.

For example, marketing, automation, and email platform Mailchimp offers very specific value for its customers.

This includes:

  • Helping them convert more customers at scale by “driving more traffic and sales by setting up automations that trigger emails based on customer behavior”
  • Using automation to create “pre-built journeys that help customers cross-sell their products, recover abandoned carts, re-engage existing customers, and win new ones”
  • “Delivering personalized emails based on customers’ buying behavior, survey responses, chat interactions, and support tickets to promote loyalty and growth

Mailchimp is an arbitrary example, but you get the idea. The key here is to convey precisely how your SaaS product can help while speaking to a lead’s individual needs and pain points. If you can do that effectively, you’re almost guaranteed to succeed at value-based selling.

Use Customer Success Stories

At this point, you’ve researched a prospect, built rapport, and articulated the specific value your SaaS product offers. Now it’s time to connect the dots and bring it all home. And one of the best ways to do that is by offering customer success stories where you tell a lead about real-life examples of customers that have actually used your SaaS product and experienced genuine results.

Going back to Mailchimp as an example, they have several case studies on their website that highlight customer success stories.

You can take a similar approach, using examples of your current or previous customers that have seen serious results and tailor them to address the unique needs and pain points of the lead at hand. By seeing the impact your SaaS product has had in a real-life situation, this can be just what you need to get a lead over the hump and commit to purchasing.

Winning at Value-Based Selling

Let’s recap. Rather than taking a transactional approach, which is often the basis of conventional selling, value-based selling goes the opposite direction. It’s more about thinking long-term rather than making the immediate sale and concentrates on consulting, educating, and relationship-building.

And while it’s probably not feasible to use value-based selling for every single lead (MQLs don’t likely make sense, for example), it can have a tremendous impact when you focus on high-quality SQLs. With most of today’s high-growth organizations already using it, value-based selling is something you should seriously consider implementing into your SaaS strategy.

Looking to find A+ reps for your SaaS sales team? Learn how this sales assessment can help and why 91% of recommended candidates have positive on-the-job performance.

SaaS Sales Management Strategy: Tactics to Improve Underperforming Teams and Drive Results

Posted on by Nick Mann

A recent survey found only 18% of sales teams were reaching 70% or more of their quotas. And only 43% were even hitting 50% of their quotas. Further, 58% of sales teams were only reaching 20-40% of their quota attainment or less, which clearly shows there’s room for improvement in the SaaS sales management strategy of many companies.

If you’ve been feeling underwhelmed with your team’s performance as of late, this post is for you. In it, I’ll offer a simple yet effective step-by-step SaaS sales management strategy that should get your numbers to where they need to be.

Assess Your Current Team to Identify Low Performers

The first step is to gain an objective understanding of who’s carrying their weight and who’s not. You’ll likely have an idea of who your top performers are, but it’s important to look at some concrete data to identify low performers.

I like CEO and co-founder of SaaStr Jason Lemkin’s take on it. According to him, “Realistically, in most cases, the best thing to do is let some of your low performers go and reroute those leads to your higher performers. Get back to a core group of folks that can close, and then keep the bar high, and add to it. No one is happy with < 50% quota attainment.”

So how do you identify low performers?

I suggest looking at these metrics:

  • How many conversions each salesperson has made in the past six months to a year
  • What each person’s close rate is
  • What each rep’s average deal size is
  • How much their accounts have grown or diminished
  • What their overall quota attainment rate momentum is (are they trending up or down?)

Looking at these numbers should provide clarification so you’ll know for a fact who the low performers are, which brings me to my next point.

Let the Low Performers Go

Once you know for certain who’s not carrying their weight, it’s a good time to let go of your low performers. While this isn’t always pleasant, and you’ll want to take any extenuating circumstances into account, “trimming the fat” and sending leads to your top performers is usually an effective way to recalibrate your sales team and get your quota attainment rate to an acceptable level.

As Lemkin explains, “The best sales teams really do see 70% or more of their team hitting quota, or at least 70% of scaled reps (which often means 60% or so overall). It just energizes everyone, and success builds on success.”

Offer Ongoing Sales Training

At this point, you’ll want to equip your top performers with the tools they need to be their best — something that can often be done with proper sales training. While a one-off course can be helpful, I find that it’s ideal to offer ongoing sales training given the fast-paced nature of the SaaS industry.

With trends constantly changing, the teams that perform the best are usually the ones that stay on top and continually refine their collective skillset.

To find a suitable sales training platform for your SaaS company, I recommend browsing through this list from HubSpot.

They offer 36 of the top programs that can fit every need and budget.

Use Sales Tech and Productivity Tools

Sales tech and productivity tools help improve efficiency and performance with less so you can sell more without adding headcount. And with AI becoming increasingly sophisticated and ubiquitous, the potential results you can get are off the charts.

A good example is using a scheduling tool like Calendly to allow leads to conveniently choose a time slot for a product demo.

Calendly kills two birds with one stone because it lets your sales team capitalize on the momentum and strike while the iron is hot while also saving your reps time. Rather than making a hot lead wait to get a response and schedule a demo, they can do it right away when they’re most interested.

And instead of wasting time back-and-forthing with leads, your reps can confirm demo times and automatically have them penciled into their calendars.

You can find a comprehensive list of sales tech and productivity tools here.

Hire Top Tier Talent

The last piece of the puzzle for our SaaS sales management strategy is to improve your SaaS sales hiring process from here on out. This doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll need to bring new team members on board immediately (even if you’ve let low performers go). But it’s important to fine-tune your hiring so you don’t run into the problem of low performers in the future.

Easier said than done, right?

While there is no magic bullet for finding elite talent 100% of the time, using a comprehensive sales assessment can accurately and consistently help you find top performers using objective data.

Objective Management Group’s Sales Assessment, for example, looks at critical criteria like the will to sell, how much a person enjoys selling, motivation, core competencies, and more to filter through a large pool of candidates and narrow it down to the best of the best. It can be customized for your unique selling environment and tailored to your specific needs. And it can be used for nearly any sales role.

So if you’re looking for a simple way to evaluate SaaS salespeople and pinpoint top tier talent, this is a good way to go about it.

In terms of results, 92% of the candidates that are recommended by the assessment go on to reach the top half of their sales force within their first year.

A SaaS Sales Management Strategy to Get Your Team on Track

If you’re less than excited about your current sales quota attainment rate, you’re not alone. Only 18% of sales teams are hitting 70% or more of their quotas.

But if you follow the SaaS sales management strategy outlined above, you should be able to 1) steady the ship to quickly bump up your quota attainment rate and 2) set the stage for continued success in the long run.

If you’re interested in learning more about Objective Management Group’s sales assessment, you can get the full details here.

5 Must-Know SaaS Sales Roles and Definitions

Posted on by Nick Mann

The SaaS industry is huge and still growing. As of mid-2023, there were 17,000 SaaS companies in the US alone and over 30,000 worldwide.

And by 2024, some experts predict this number could more than double to as many as 72,000 SaaS companies. As the industry has evolved, so have the positions, and there are a variety of SaaS sales roles, ranging from basic entry-level jobs to high-ranking executive positions.

In this post, I’ll provide an overview of five essential SaaS sales roles so you can better understand the underlying structure and how the various positions come together to create a cohesive sales team.

1. Sales Development Representative

The main purpose of this role is to bridge the gap between marketing and sales. A sales development rep’s responsibility is to continually communicate with the marketing team to identify sales qualified leads (SQLs) that have a strong likelihood of buying.

Once SQLs have been identified, a sales development rep will then pass them on to a SaaS sales representative who will attempt to make a conversion (more on this in a moment). B2B sales consulting and training services company Winning By Design elaborates saying, “They have to start a conversation and provoke a decision maker into action, handle objections, and close on a call-to-action such as meeting with an account executive (AE) or attending an event.”

One of the most important traits to thrive in this position is strong communication.

2. SaaS Sales Representative

One of the most fundamental yet integral roles at any company is a SaaS sales representative. At its core, a person in this position is responsible for selling products to customers, which can include a wide variety of activities, including:

  • Reaching out to and following up with leads through email, social media, over the phone, video calls, and other mediums
  • Creating and performing sales presentations
  • Identifying the specific needs and pain points of leads
  • Providing relevant product recommendations
  • Answering lead questions
  • Negotiating product pricing
  • Acquiring new customers
  • Communicating with the software development team to relay customer feedback

SaaS sales reps are typically the ones “in the trenches” and play a vital role in getting conversions and setting the stage for a positive customer experience, which is important for increasing retention and lowering churn.

3. SaaS Account Manager

After a lead has purchased a SaaS product and a sale has officially been made, the customer falls into the hands of an account manager who’s involved with ensuring customer satisfaction and building a long-term relationship.

A SaaS account manager performs several tasks but has two primary goals.

  • Cater to each customer’s needs to sustain positive momentum, increase loyalty, and boost retention
  • Seek out new sales opportunities with existing customers

As for specific day-to-day activities, these can include:

  • Managing the account portfolio, while giving each customer personalized attention
  • Building and maintaining customer relationships
  • Serving as a dedicated point of contact for customer inquiries and questions
  • Resolving any issues that arise
  • Checking in with customers to ensure their key objectives are met
  • Identifying potential add-ons or upgrades that could provide additional customer value
  • Offering suggestions on how to improve product performance

This graphic illustrates nicely how a SaaS account manager fits into an organization.

4. SaaS Sales Engineer

First, note that this isn’t a role that’s required by all SaaS companies. It’s typically reserved for those that sell a complex, advanced product that your average customer won’t fully understand.

A SaaS sales engineer serves two main functions.

First, as HubSpot puts it, “They must be able to use their applied technical knowledge to help sales reps persuade prospects to choose their products.” That’s their job on the pre-sale side of things.

And for post-sale, a SaaS sales engineer assists with the integration of the product into a customer’s existing tech stack. This is important given the average company used 80 different SaaS apps in 2022.

To ensure the process goes smoothly, a SaaS sales engineer will oversee the integration and resolve any issues that may arise. In turn, they play a big role in ensuring customer satisfaction and maximizing retention.

5. Sales Manager

You can think of the previous SaaS sales roles as relay racers passing a baton.

The sales development rep identifies SQLs and passes them on to a SaaS sales representative. A SaaS sales representative then engages with a lead and seeks to convert them. Once converted, they then hand the customer off to a SaaS account manager who looks to further build the relationship and make additional sales to existing customers to maximize value. And throughout this process, a sales engineer is there to ensure that the technical side of things goes as smoothly as possible.

Overseeing everything is a SaaS sales manager who ties it all together. This role wears a lot of hats, but their core mission is to build the best sales team possible, establish goals and KPIs, provide motivation, continually monitor team member performance, and ultimately ensure that customers are happy.

Because of the hands-on nature of this role, a sales manager will need to possess excellent communication and leadership skills. They also need to be a bit of a psychologist where they manage different personalities to get everyone to operate at their best.

SaaS Sales Roles Coming Together to Create a Cohesive Team

Having a tight underlying structure is essential to the success of a SaaS company. Teams need to have clearly defined roles and understand how everyone works individually as well as a unified whole.

While the specific SaaS sales roles of an organization can vary slightly, the five mentioned here are the fundamentals that you’ll want to know about if you’re assembling a team.

If you want to recruit the best talent in your industry using a data-driven process, use HireDNA to post a job for free. It eliminates 96% of wrong hires and reduces turnover by 50%.

9 SaaS Sales Terms You Need to Know

Posted on by Nick Mann

The global SaaS market went from being worth just under $50 billion in 2016 to over $145 billion in 2022. With this growth comes a huge opportunity for hungry tech entrepreneurs and sales professionals. If you’re new to the industry, there are several SaaS sales terms you’ll need to know to get started on the right foot.

Here are nine to add to your vocabulary.

1. Customer Journey

Seldom do leads land on your website and whip out their payment card and buy right away. Usually, there are several touchpoints along the way where a prospect first learns about your product, interacts with content and sales materials, reviews the pros and cons, speaks with a SaaS sales rep, and so on before finally making the decision to buy.

And it doesn’t end there. Even after buying, there’s the post-purchase stage where a customer decides if they want to continue using your product and recommend it to others.

This is collectively known as the customer journey, which breaks down like this.

Having a clear idea of how the customer journey unfolds is a necessary precursor to equipping your sales team for success.

2. Freemium

An increasingly popular way to get your foot in the door with leads and motivate them to use your product is by offering a “freemium” version, which includes “basic or limited features to users at no cost and then charges a premium for supplemental or advanced features.”

While it’s not the right business model for everyone, it can be a smart move for many businesses. And training SaaS sales reps to push it can be instrumental in fueling growth.

3. Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)

An MQL is a lead toward the top of the sales funnel who has expressed some level of interest in your product but not enough to be passed off to your sales team.

This type of lead may show promise but doesn’t have the same amount of intent as an SQL, which I’ll discuss next. Therefore, an MQL is a lead that still requires nurturing from your marketing team and isn’t one your sales team should focus on yet.

4. Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)

An SQL is someone who has moved down the sales funnel to either the decision or action stage.

They have expressed a strong intent to buy and have a high lead score. Therefore, an SQL is a high-priority lead that your sales team would want to swiftly reach out to over an MQL.

5. Product Qualified Lead (PQL)

A PQL is a lead that has used your product, typically via a free trial or freemium version. They have experienced it in action firsthand and understand the value it offers.

Because of this level of engagement, PQLs have a much higher chance of converting than a lead higher in the sales funnel like an MQL. As a result, you’ll want your SaaS sales team to place a high priority on PQLs and perform systematic outreach to increase the odds of converting.

6. Lead Velocity Rate (LVR)

LVR is the growth percentage of qualified leads you generate month-to-month. While it doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story and can be a “vanity metric” if misused, I believe LVR is definitely something you want to be aware of, as it gives you a baseline reading of the trajectory your sales team is on.

For example, a steady increase in the number of qualified leads month-to-month usually indicates you’re on the right track and positioned for growth. Of course, it doesn’t mean much if your sales team isn’t converting leads, but more often than not, a positive LVR shows you’re in a good place.

As for the formula for calculating LVR, it is as follows.

7. Customer Lifecycle

This overlaps somewhat with the customer journey but focuses more on the post-conversion part of the process. Simply put, it’s the series of steps involved in a lead’s decision-making and extends beyond the purchase to product activation, renewal, and referral.

HubSpot illustrates the SaaS customer lifecycle perfectly with this graphic.

A big part of creating a successful SaaS company is fine-tuning your customer lifecycle so you’re able to fluidly move customers through the process while minimizing friction. To learn the fundamentals of the customer journey, I suggest reading this post from HubSpot.

8. Cohorts

Cohorts are a group of customers that share something in common, such as specific traits or behavior. A simple example would be a group of customers that purchase your product at the same time and go through the same onboarding process.

Performing cohorts analysis is important because it helps you understand what contributes to success so you can replicate it while also eliminating inefficiencies. If, for example, after experimenting with a new sales technique there was a surge in the number of customers signing up, this is likely a strategy you would want to repeat.

9. Value Gap

This is the difference between what a customer expects and what they actually get. A large value gap is problematic because it usually leads to customer dissatisfaction, which can reduce loyalty and increase churn.

Lowering the value gap requires a two-pronged approach, involving sales and the post-sale process of onboarding and customer service. The latter I won’t get into, but from the sales side of things, this means setting the right expectations from the start and ensuring your sales team provides customers with a realistic overview of product features and capabilities, as well as limitations.

Adding Key SaaS Sales Terms to Your Vocabulary

There’s been an explosion in the SaaS industry as of late. With market growth and revenue continuing to increase, there’s plenty of opportunity.

A critical starting point for breaking into the SaaS industry is having a command of essential SaaS sales terms. While the full “dictionary” is an extensive one, the terms listed above should help you get a basic grasp and ensure you focus on the right areas.

Looking to build an elite SaaS sales team using cutting-edge, science-based technology? See how HireDNA can help you find the right talent with 4x greater accuracy than traditional resumes and phone screening.

SaaS Sales Salary in 2023: How Much Should You Pay Top Talent?

Posted on by hiredna

Last year I wrote a post about how much sales reps earned in 2022. It offers plenty of great data on how much salespeople earned on average and how much you can expect to pay. But for this post, I want to zero in specifically on SaaS sales salary in 2023, which, as we’ll find out, is substantially higher than what a regular salesperson earns.

So if you’re recruiting in the SaaS industry, this information should be highly valuable to you. Let’s get right into it.

Crunching Multiple Data Sources

First off, let me say that, depending on which source you look at, there can be a considerable disparity in SaaS sales salary data. To gain the most objective insights possible, I crunched the data from three reputable sources to come up with a reasonable average across the board.

Here’s what I found.

Comparably’s Data

To start, let’s look at recent data from Comparably. According to their research, the US average in 2023 is $109,335, which is the highest of the three sources I looked at.

Note that this data specifically references salespeople in tech, which is over $17,000 more than the average salary of a regular salesperson at just $92,000.

Glassdoor’s Data

Next, there’s Glassdoor, which lists a SaaS sales salary that’s very close to Comparably’s. According to their findings, the average SaaS salesperson earns $108,003 in 2023 — just over $1,000 less than what Comparably’s data found.

ZipRecruiter’s Data

Last, there’s ZipRecruiter, which says the average US-based SaaS salesperson earns $82,141 in 2023, which is dramatically lower than what Comparably and Glassdoor found.

Note that ZipRecruiter mentions that the top earners in this profession commonly get as much as $155,000 a year. But overall, they place the average at just over $82,000.

The Overall Average

Based on the data from Comparably, Glassdoor, and ZipRecruiter, the average SaaS sales salary across the board comes out to $99,826 — just under $100k. There are a ton of variables and factors that determine how much a SaaS salesperson gets paid, including education, experience, location, and market demand.

But I feel this is a reasonable estimate for 2023. So that’s a pretty good number to have in mind when you’re hiring for this position. This brings me to my next point.

Expect to Pay More for a SaaS Sales Salary Than a Regular Sales Salary

Most salespeople make decent money. But it should be noted that SaaS sales reps, in particular, earn significantly more than regular generalist sales reps.

Just how big is the disparity?

According Glassdoor, the average salesperson salary in 2023 is $85,130, which is nearly $23,000 less than the $108,003 a SaaS salesperson earns.

And according to ZipRecruiter, the average salesperson earns just $50,042 in 2023, which is over $30,000 less than the $82,141 SaaS salespeople earn.

So as you can see, you can expect to pay a SaaS salesperson far more than a someone who handles general sales. The reason for this disparity?

HubSpot notes that “SaaS reps generally have a higher base pay than other salespeople because of the training, expertise, and high motivation they need to succeed.” That’s why they tend to earn more, which is something you’ll want to keep in mind if you’re in the SaaS industry.

Finding Quality SaaS Salespeople for a Reasonable Salary

As we’ve just learned, most SaaS salespeople command top tollar in 2023. Especially those that bring a wealth of knowledge, experience, and skills to the table.

For the rest of this post, I’d like to talk about how you can find top-tier SaaS sales reps without overpaying.

Hands down, one of the best tools for this is SaaS sales recruiting platform HireDNA.

It offers a wide array of SaaS recruiting features, including comprehensive assessments, data-driven skills validation, candidate screening, and more. But it all starts with first creating an ideal candidate profile.

A candidate profile focuses on essentials like sales experience, product knowledge, role requirements, personality traits, and of course, compensation. This allows you to set exactly how much you’re willing to pay, and candidates are filtered accordingly.

That way you’re on the same page right with earnings from the start. And because of HireDNA’s rigorous science-based methodology for recruiting, you can be sure that any SaaS sales candidate that’s recommended is the cream of the crop.

In fact, 92% of candidates suggested by HireDNA go on to be top performers within their first year. Besides that, companies that use HireDNA have a lower turnover rate, this 83% of candidates still being employed after the first year.

So if you want to streamline and improve your recruiting while simultaneously addressing salary, this is a great tool to have.

Closing Thoughts

One of the most fundamental yet important factors to consider when assembling a SaaS sales team is salary. This heavily impacts the overall caliber of your team and how well you can keep up with competitors.

While data sources vary and there are numerous variables that affect pay, the average annual salary for most SaaS sales reps in 2023 is just under $100,000. So that’s about what you can expect to pay.

Note that salesperson salary is something we’re always keeping an eye on, so be sure to keep reading our blog as new trends emerge.

And if you’d like to learn more about HireDNA and see it in action, go ahead and schedule a live demo today. Just fill out the secure online form and a team member will be in touch with you shortly.