Tips on How to Kick Off Sales Motion
for a Bootstrapped and Early-Stage SaaS

Published in

Comfi Payments

6 min readJan 6, 2023

The time has come and your first leads are starting to show up. Now it all comes down to your negotiation skills, your strategies, your team, and the plans you had up until this point. Here are 5 tips that will help you kick off the sales right from the start, and keep them coming constantly. There are many more to come!

1. Create a lean plan📝

First, we need a plan. A lean plan covers the very basics of what your enterprise is about to do. Instead of writing a 50-page plan, just focus on the bare bones of what your SaaS business is and what your sales are about. It is the perfect tool for businesses that are testing new ideas in sales.

Your plan will comprise mainly three steps which we will explain in detail as follows:

- The strategy. Describe your product and its uniqueness, and what you are bringing to the table. Next, define the problem you are solving for customers and its solution. You will also include your target market and its description. Finally, the plan will contain your competition and what sets you apart from them.

- The tactics are all about monetization. Descriptions of the channels you are using, and how your products are going to be sold. A list of the marketing activities that will attract your customers as well as the new hires that you will need to add to your team.

- The schedule. In this step, you will define the process of moving forward with your sales. The schedule includes milestones and timed tasks. These milestones will be anchored to fixed dates, with responsibilities and budgets to hold yourself liable in case of milestone failure.

2. Instead of selling a comparison, sell the outcomes 💁‍♂️

Companies often compare themselves to their competition. A rather better approach would be to sell the benefits you offer. The following three options are ways to set yourself apart and make a difference.

- Pricing: you understand how to correctly price a product and you do it better than the competition. Read about the best model to price a product and other ways of growing revenue in our 5-step guide book here [link].

- Quality: your product excels customers’ expectations.

- A combination of the above: you offer better value or “bang for your buck”.

There is a difference between selling your product and positioning your product. You may sell a cheaper product or service than the competition, but it doesn’t reflect how much better the life of your customer is going to be.

In the end, selling is about the benefits you offer to your customers and how your product facilitates and improves customers’ lives. Thus, present your customers with the benefits of your product or service with outcomes and results they can achieve using your product, raise its value perception via marketing, and sell the solution it provides, rather than the product itself.

3. Build the best sales team 👏

Spending time recruiting and building your team is one of the most important aspects that many of us forget about. Most of the time SaaS startups are understaffed, and sales teams are crucial in turning your prospects into buyers and users. Some people think 24 hours is enough time for a sales rep to make a sale but it is far from the truth. At some point, your staff will start to exhaust and be less efficient, so pay close attention to your sales team performance and hire more people if needed.

Depending on the type of SaaS business you are starting, you will decide whether it is right to hire a Vice President of Sales, and what kind of manager they should be. Mainly, startups fall into two categories. If you are to join an established market, you will want hires with rich experience who already understand the market and can help you break through new ones. On the other hand, if you are in a non-developed market, it is preferred to hire those with more entrepreneurial skills, who can aid in developing sales funnels to join the market.

4. Implement proper training and coaching 👨‍🏫

It is not necessary to include a training program before your first hire. Most of the time your new employees can learn through observation or asking their colleagues. But at some point, your sales team will grow and you will need everyone to be on the same page. Sales representatives’ performance is one of the key factors of your business success, thus you should attend to it. Usually, companies are satisfied with reps’ training and work when everything is going right. But in case things go wrong, what is the best course of action?

This is where proper training or coaching comes to aid. The most common approach is having a standardized training program. It can be arranged internally, but the use of online course platforms is also a good alternative. Also, if no sales manager has been assigned to do the coaching, then you will have to handle it yourself.

It is your job as a good manager to let your sales representatives know how you want them to perform, where they are failing, and how to improve. Remember to criticize constructively, and acknowledge and praise their strong points and good work. In the end, your sales team works as a single unit, and the only way to achieve it is by having proper training and coaching.

You can read more about effective employee training programs and how to implement them in the article by Elucidad.

5. Assess your negotiation approach 🤝

The negotiation process begins the moment you have a lead entering your pipeline and it lasts until you close the deal. Negotiations are all about adjusting the deal with a potential customer. Always listen to your prospects and react to identify the challenges your future user has. Come up with a counter price if a customer asks for a discount. Always remember to negotiate to protect your margins. Assess your approach for maximum revenue. What are your strategies? What ways are you utilizing to negotiate? In what way are you communicating with your leads? Is your strategy aggressive enough or not?

In addition, having some sort of leverage or incentive helps you succeed in negotiations. Using Comfi payment method as an additional feature for your sales team to offer could get you to the next step with your leads and prospects. As a Buy Now Pay Later service, Comfi allows businesses to offer their customers new payment terms.

With Comfi, customers of your SaaS company can split their annual subscription payments into 12 interest-free tranches over 12 months, while Comfi pays you the whole sum upfront within 7 days. Your sales representatives will close leads more effectively, increasing your business revenue instantly. Reach a new level in negotiations and turn your MRR into ARR by incorporating Comfi into your payment system.

In Conclusion

A lot of thoughts and planning are required to get that first sale. Negotiations and sales have many variables which you may not be aware of until you have tested the market and customers. But keep in mind that if there is a first sale, then the tenth is not that far. Use our tips as a guideline on how to kick off your sales, and we are certain you can raise your sales quota in the near future. Consider implementing Comfi as a payment method to skyrocket your sales and close leads more effectively.

Get our new 5-step guide on revenue growth here!

Email us at: hi@comfi.app

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Tips on How to Kick Off Sales Motion for a Bootstrapped and Early-Stage SaaS