The right SaaS solution at the right time can be a game-changer for small and medium businesses (SMBs), but that doesn’t mean that selling them is easy. On the contrary: selling SaaS solutions to SMBs comes with its own challenges.
All too many small businesses don’t seem to realize that they need your SaaS solution. They might not be aware of the value it offers, or recognize that it could resolve their pain points. Others might know they need it, but their tight budgets push them to delay closing the deal. Additionally, every SMB is unique, with different needs and concerns. It can be difficult to show that your solution is relevant to all the varied situations.
Enterprises serving the dynamic SMB market have to be agile and creative when developing sales strategies. You need to dig deep, and come up with a number of tailored, differentiated sales approaches to suit each type of customer.
In this blog, we’ll help you along by providing a deep dive into SMB sales processes, providing you with strategies to overcome SMB objections and sales tips to help you succeed in selling tech solutions to your small business customers.
The top challenges of selling SaaS to SMBs
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They don’t know they need you
SMBs don’t always have an established business structure, which means they might not be aware of the drawbacks to their business processes or realize that there are weaknesses to their workflows.
In that case, they won’t know that they need tools like yours to improve operational efficiency. It will be your job to tactfully and clearly communicate the value of your business solution. You’ll need to demonstrate how it can save them time, reduce costs, drive revenue, and other standout benefits.
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Every dollar counts
It’s rare to find a small business that isn’t counting the pennies with care. Smaller businesses tend to have smaller budgets, tighter operating margins, and fewer liquid resources, which holds them back from investing in big solutions. Even if they understand the value your solution provides, they might still take a long time to examine the deal and consider whether they can afford it.
In these situations, flexible pricing can make all the difference. SMBs are more likely than larger companies to look for subscription pricing that allows them to pay only for the resources they use, so they can scale up gradually as their budget permits. Nonetheless, it can take a while before they commit, so be patient while they examine their finances.
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SMBs need highly customizable solutions
SMB is a catch-all term that hides a world of variety. SMBs come in many shapes and even sizes, from solopreneurs and micro-businesses to medium businesses employing dozens of workers. They operate within different verticals and markets and serve different audiences, which means that every type of business has its own needs.
You’ll need to invest some time and effort to understanding their varying concerns and pain points. Some are more focused on growth, but some are not. What’s more, the same business can go through different stages over time. You’ll need to offer flexible solutions that businesses can customize for their specific needs.
How to sell SaaS to your SMBs
Understand your SMBs’ needs
It might sound basic, but understanding the needs of your SMB customers can be harder than it seems. According to our latest survey, 35% of organizations that serve SMBs said that gaining insight into SMB concerns is their top challenge when developing new offerings. As mentioned above, the SMB landscape is extensive and complex, so just because you’ve explored one SMB’s needs to the max you can’t assume that you understand the next one.
You’ll need a multi-faceted approach to resolve this. Investigate SMB issues by sending out surveys and questionnaires, and listen to customer support call recordings and chatbot transcripts. It also helps to partner with experts who are deeply rooted in the SMB ecosystem and understand their needs from the inside.
Create an ICP
An Ideal Customer Profile, or ICP, is a detailed description of an imaginary customer who most needs your company’s solution, and it’s vital for any sales process. An ICP helps you to tailor your marketing strategies and sales processes for the customers you most want, and identify the most promising customer segments.
An ICP should cover a whole host of details, including demographic information like age, gender, income, and education level; firmographic details like industry, company size, and location; behavioral traits such as buying patterns, product usage, and brand loyalty, and psychographic characteristics like values, interests, and lifestyle.
For example, your ICP might be Bob Smith, age 35 with an MA from True University. He earns $80,000/year as the VP of Marketing at Building Contractors Inc, a growing building firm that employs 47 people in Birmingham, Alabama, and he’s responsible for all the marketing activities including social media, content marketing, and sales outreach. Bob’s overstretched, losing control of marketing campaigns, and facing burnout. He needs to integrate all his marketing actions in one place so that he can track how every lead or prospect fits into the bigger picture. Bob inherently trusts global brands because he thinks that they are more reliable, and he prefers to buy tools that cover multiple use cases and can scale with his company. Because he expects the solutions he buys to remain effective for the long term, he takes a long time to make a purchase decision.
Understand the customer journey
When you take the time to map out the various stages that SMB customers go through before they complete a purchase, you’ll be better able to tailor your marketing and sales strategies to their specific needs and behaviors. Understanding the customer journey enables you to adjust your messaging, content, channel, and more to connect effectively with SMBs.
The typical SMB customer journey begins with awareness, when customers realize they have a need and start to seek solutions. Consideration involves them researching and evaluating the features, pricing, and ROI of different SaaS options; Purchase is when they close the deal and buy your product/service; Implementation includes onboarding the customer to use the solution; and finally Retention involves ensuring long-term satisfaction.
Make your sales pitch simple
You have a lot to say about your SMB SaaS solution, and from your point of view, it’s all necessary and important. But your customers can be easily overwhelmed by too much detail about the features and capabilities.
Tone down your pitch to focus on the key value your solution offers, and avoid getting bogged down talking about price or specifications. At the pitch stage, you need to communicate a simple message about how your solution offers the SMB prospect peace of mind and value. Everything else can wait.
Customize your approach
As mentioned above, SMBs come in many stripes. It’s not enough to have a single generic SMB pitch for your SaaS solution; you need to be able to tweak it so that your sales messaging is always relevant for this specific SMB.
This isn’t always easy to achieve. Getting the tone right depends on pivoting effectively to address your customers’ needs and concerns. For example, some small businesses prioritize growth, but others do not; some are interested in taking advantage of AI, while others are nervous about it. Learning your SMB customers’ needs and goals is paramount to selling to them in the most effective way, so don’t be afraid to ask questions and tailor your pitch accordingly.
Build long-term relationships
It’s important to approach SMB SaaS sales with a long-term perspective. You don’t just want to sell a piece of tech and move on; you’re looking to forge a lasting relationship that benefits both of you over the long term.
Instead of thinking like a vendor, adopt a partnership mindset. You want to present your SaaS solution as just one element in the many ways that you can help them to improve their business and grow their bottom line.
Make it easier to sell SaaS solutions to SMBs
Selling SaaS solutions to SMB customers isn’t a walk in the park, but it doesn’t have to be a serious headache, either. When you understand the challenges involved and implement the right sales strategies, you’ll be able to build trusted relationships with your SMB customers, sell your SaaS solutions, and continue to work together for the long term.
