[FM Clients] Aligning SaaS and Traditional Sales Models

Recently, B2B companies have seen a shift in the landscape with the rapidly growing popularity in Software as a Service marketing.  Now that both SaaS and Traditional sales models have their place in today’s business landscape, sales organizations are facing a difficult challenge; to align these sales models to “play nicely together” for cohesive sales execution.  Unfortunately, few B2B sales organizations have made the necessary shifts in sales execution to complement both selling methods.  

So how can you effectively align SaaS and traditional sales models? You’ll need to start out by aligning your sales process with the customer’s buying process, establish standards for qualifying sales opps, and support sellers in consistently capturing, creating and communicating value. 

The following is an excerpt from ‘Playing Nice: How to Align Your SaaS and Traditional Sales Models.’

Key Sales Elements You Can’t Afford To Be Without

Every sales organization needs a buyer-driven sales methodology that arms sellers with knowledge and tools to effectively qualify, manage, and close sales opportunities.  

The right sales process should encourage and equip your sales team for success.  Sadly, if sales organizations don’t get it right, their sales execution process can actually disable their sales team. 

Whether you’re selling in a face-to-face traditional model or web-facing SaaS model, your sales execution process should follow an established blueprint for success. Execution may vary slightly based on the sales environment, but your benchmarks should remain the same.  A great sales operating rhythm will:

1. Align your sales process with your customer’s buying process
2. Establish standards for qualifying sales opportunities – both in and out
3. Support sellers in consistently capturing, creating and communicating value

Assess, Align and Re-Calibrate

Here are some key tenants that sales leaders should consider to assess, align and re-calibrate your sales models:

Align Your Messages

Today’s B2B buyers spend a lot of up-front time researching solutions via the web.  Your brand, your solutions, your differentiators, your customer success stories – they’re all accessible and savvy buyers do their homework to narrow down their vendor options and select a short-list.

To make that short-list, your sales messages, brand information and customer engagement tools need to be on-target and crystal clear.  The customer’s challenges you address, the value your customers receive and the success metrics to provide proof are all opportunities to differentiate your company in a sea of competitive information your prospects will access.  

If your sales messaging and execution processes are right, they will perfectly align with the kinds of questions and information needs your customers have throughout their buying process and pave the way for successful sales conversations that lead straight to the close. 

Qualify Your Opportunities

No amount of pressure on your salespeople will generate the right results without a well-defined lead qualification process. Great lead qualification should be built in at key stages of the sales process to allow your sellers to consistently qualify prospects in or out.  Review your current qualification steps and map where your qualification points should truly be.  

Define Sales Process Benchmarks

It’s tempting for a sales person to jump to the end of the process - to close the deal as quickly as possible - especially if there’s good incentive. But, every step in your sales process should serve a purpose. If it does, then skipping any of those steps shouldn’t be an option.  Make sure benchmarks are in place for consistent execution with each new sales opportunity and you’ll avoid the lost revenue and dissatisfied customers that shortcuts in the sales process can cause.

To continue reading, download our newest white paper, ‘Playing Nice: How to Align Your SaaS and Traditional Sales Models.’