Today I want to answer a really awesome sales related question for SaaS companies
The question is: How do you drive a sense of urgency when selling SaaS or enterprise software?
There are just 3 ways to do that
Number 1: If your product is new, or you are releasing a new product or platform... you can create a limited alpha.
Let's say you limit that to 10 seats, to get your first 10 customers for that product. What you tell your prospects is this:
"Listen, this looks like a really great fit, but I want you to know that we are going to run a limited alpha. Which means only 10 companies will only get access to our product."
"And what we are trying to do with the 30, 40, 50 companies that are interested right now, we're trying to find the best companies that we'll be able to support and turn into massive success stories, to allow a seat in our limited alpha."
You basically create scarcity for your product. And hence drive urgency for decision making.
So you can tell them: Listen, you'll need to make a decision by __ (e.g. the next 4 weeks) if you want to participate.
To secure your spot. And it's a first come first serve. Whenever we think there is agreat fit and the company is ready to make a decision
to commit to it, they'll get a spot. We have four more spots left, let's make sure that we don't loose this opportunity
and let me give you all the information you need, and all the support you need
to be able to make a decision and take a spot and get a spot
so all of the sudden you make access to your product scarce and hence
more valuable, and also you create a real sense of urgency for making a decision to buy or not buy.
Thats one way to do it.
the next way to do it... a lot of SaaS companies that are more professional and established do this...
in the early days maybe once a year, maybe multiple times a year
have upcoming increases in your pricing!
as you grow and scale your business, as your product matures
you should increase the price of your product
and many SaaS businesses do that
and that's going to be a great incentive and create a great sense of urgency for your current customers as well as new prospects
to actually make a buying decision right now
to lock in on the old lower price
if you offer to grandfather them in for life.
upcoming increases in prices can be a great promotion
to drive a sense of urgency and make more customers make better and better buying decisions.
and the third strategy to create a sense of urgency is to run special promotions or give special deals,
some kind of incentive. and there are four core incentives that you can give:
1) you can give a discount. "Hey, in June, we're going to run a special promotion, if you buy today, you're going to get a 20% discount."
That's an obvious choice.
2) give them access to special features
or to higher tiered plans
as a promotion. so "Hey, if you buy in June, you're going to get the business version of our product, for the basic price."
It's basically also a discount, but you're giving them a lot more value for a specific price
than giving them the same amount of value for a lower price
So giving them access to higher tier plans or special features at a lower tiered pricing plan.
3) Give them more seats. If your SaaS startup is built on a per-seat basis, you can offer them a
buy one get one for free
type of a deal where whatever amount of seats you are buying
this month, you are going to get double those seats
and that can be a great driver for high growth customers and prospects
4) Offer services for free.
That could be special support packages
special consulting packages,
training, onboarding, whatever it is...
you offer them a kind of massive package of special services
to help them success with your SaaS product
for free if they make a buying decision within a certain amount of time.
Recap: 1) limited amount of access to your product. 2) Upcoming price increases. 3) Special deals like discounts, features, higher tier plans, free seats, buy 1 get 1 free 4) professional services.
to drive a sense of urgency when selling SaaS products.