SaaS Companies- How To Get Customers At Will

Do you know how to get customers at will?

I am certain most of you answered no. If you said yes, is it a consistent system? Is it scalable? Is it working the way you want it to be working?

So why is it so important to have a system to get customers at will? Because if you have inconsistency in bringing in customers, you have inconsistency in revenue, you have a hard time forecasting revenue, you won’t feel safe hiring new people, you may have to go some months without paying yourself, and investors don’t like inconsistent revenue.

All of these leads to you not being able to scale and grow. You stay stagnant and you lose any momentum that you previously had. This is the beginning of your SaaS’s slow death. This is a painful mistake that many founders make and it’s mostly due to pride, ego, and lack of resourcefulness.

On the other end, if you have a system in place and it’s working…you’d be on fire! When you needed more leads you just turned up the volume. You could forecast your revenue and safely hire more people to service your new customers. You can expand your marketing to include more channels and more avenues to creating awareness for your product.

Taking it a step further, you can pay yourself and your employees on time and consistency. And this is a good thing because one of my friends who is a SaaS founder just got sued by a disgruntled employee. Why? Because he didn’t have the money to pay the employee at the time because of an inconsistency in revenue. (We are currently working with him to remedy the problem).

Lastly, the system is going to free you up from selling and let you concentrate on building your business. Remember the goal is to work on your business, not in it. You are the visionary and you need a good team and a good system to implement it.

So basically, if you have a great SaaS product and you don’t have a system to bring on customers at will, or you have a broken system, you have a leaky boat and the water is slowly (quicker for others) filling up all around you. You’re going to end up going down with the ship unless you fix it.

Once launched there is NOTHING more important for your SaaS than your marketing and sales system. You need customers, feedback, and revenue to grow or to get more investments…PERIOD.

How To Get Customers At-Will

• Figure out the best ONE PLACE to find your ideal customer

Find the one channel that gives you access to your target customer and allows you to maximize your exposure to them. So many SaaS companies make mistakes trying too many different things and therefore spreading themselves thin. Get one channel to work and turn up the volume.

• Figure out the most cost effective way to sell

If you are selling a low price monthly SaaS (Under $20/month) or a SaaS that relies on free users you are going to want to use a system that involves bringing in low cost leads that stick. If you are selling a higher price SaaS or one that has a larger lifetime value than you may be able to justify having an outbound sales team because the sales team can pay for themselves.

• Optimize your funnel

Make every part of your funnel as optimized as you can so you get to the point where all sales become profitable and you can begin to forecast growth based on connections and conversions/closing percentages.

• Map out your system

Create a blueprint of your system from intro to close and add assumptions and metrics. Don’t skip this part. Even though you know the system now doesn’t mean it can be replicated. A blueprint or playbook will help to teach the people you will hand the system too.

• Replicate you

One you have this down and a system in place and have created your blueprint, it’s time to hire someone at a lower cost than you to take over the system. This person should have experience implementing a system similar to the one you created. This person should also be able to hire the next person to replicate the system and be able to teach them.

• Revisit and optimize

Revisit and optimize the system on a 3 to 6-month basis. Analyze where the leaks in the funnel are. Do testing in the attempts to increase the efficiency of the system. Get those opening metrics up. Get more demos books. Get that conversion or closing rate up. This is a never ending battle to keep moving the needle. You can always make your system more efficient and profitable.

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The fact is if you haven’t built a sales and marketing system before what makes you think you can do it now? Maybe you’re mediocre at sales and marketing but you think you can do it. Well, you are going to get mediocre results.

If you were building your dream home, would you want a mediocre contractor or someone that is an expert, a craftsman, someone who has built many masterpieces before? The answer is obvious, the expert! The same should go for your dream company. This is your creation and it deserves only the best. If you methodologies are not outstanding you won’t have outstanding outcomes.

If you need some expert advice on your system, book a free strategy call with me today here.