when it comes to selling your SaaS product
you actually need to have a proper sales process
when I first started selling my SaaS products
I Learned very quickly
there's a huge difference between just
getting on a call and giving a demo
versus running a proper sales process
following a proper sales methodology
demos get a maybe at the end of a call
sales methodologies drive to revenues
out of the opportunities that you're working
here's a big question though
which sales methodology is right for you
and you're like
how many are there
and which one should you pick
and how do you actually implement it
in this episode
I'm gonna walk you through the three
sales methodologies that are
the top three for selling SaaS software today
and we'll walk you through the principles to apply
so you pick the right one
and you can actually implement it
and when you follow these principles
and implement the right sales methodology
you'll be able to
accelerate your path to that next stage of growth intro
what's up buddy
welcome to unstoppable
I'm TK and on this channel
I hope SaaS founders like you
grow your size businesses faster with
unstoppable strategy
if you're new to this channel welcome
I drop an episode every single Sunday
with national strategies and tactics from the trenches
and how to grow your SaaS business faster
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every single time I drop an episode with the TK Energy
if you're already part of this community
if you're part of my SaaS go to market coaching program
my people welcome back
it's really awesome to see you over here
now I remember when I first started book
sales demos for my first SaaS business
I would get on the calls
and back then it was go to webinar
or go to meeting or something like that
zoomed in exist
and I would say hey
really glad to have you here
let me give you a demo of our product
and I would just jump right into the demo
very quickly
I learn that demos
don't actually convert to real revenues
unless it's your mom or someone that already trusts you
soon as you start to get some marketing out there
as soon as you start to get real sales demos with
people you don't know
I Learned very quickly that
you actually have to follow a proper sales process
backed by a real sales methodology
so in this episode
I wanna walk you through the three
sales methodologies that exist in the market today
that work really well for sales companies
guide you in picking the right one
and when you apply these
you'll be able to accelerate your growth
if you're excited to dig into methodology No. 1
go and smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm
it just loves it when you do that
let's dig right into it
so methodology No. 1 is to follow what we call the top
down sales model
this works really well
when there is a salesperson involved obviously
and you are dealing with a larger deal size
the reason it's a larger deal size is because
this software is going to be pretty core to
how this business operates
which means that there's going to be a real
transformation that takes place
multiple decision makers that are coming into play
to actually choose your software platform
and run the entire company on it
in these kind of cases
you have to go top down
we call it top down because you're starting
at the leadership level of the company
or the leadership of the department
that's going to be adopting your software
you start with them
and you actually have to work
through that buying process
educate them
on the transformation
why they should trust you
and actually get a deal done so that they deploy
your software
in the OG days
even before cloud software
even before SaaS existed
most enterprise software was sold in this way
there'd be salespeople showing up
they'd be giving demos
be solution architects
and you'd work top down
because the software you were selling
was such a critical part of the business
the top of the people
the leaders of the company
would have to be bought into it
which also meant that
you'd be charging a heck a lot of money
fast forward to today
even with SaaS
companies that are selling massive transformations
whether you're selling it to the enterprise of
the mid market or the SMB
you're a major
critical part of the how they run the business
chances are
you're going to have to go top down
they're gonna wanna talk to you
they're gonna wanna figure out that they wanna run
your business on your platform
if you're running a SA software
where it's transformational for the company
it's core to their infrastructure
how their business operates
it's really a system of record
then you're gonna follow the top down sales model
in the top down sales model
it can take multiple phone calls
multiple zoom calls
maybe even in person meetings
but it'll be worth it
because the deal sizes will be big enough
now there's a catch here
if your deal sizes are super small
and you're still
having to do a top down sale for not a lot of money
that's a sign that you need to
reevaluate your sales methodology in your sales model
because it may not be sustainable
if it's a small amount of money
but a lot of sales work to be done
you'll never be able to get enough reps
and pay them well
and earn enough money from customers to sustain that
so this is why with each of these sales methodology
I'm gonna walk you through this
pros and cons
is the right fit
and the wrong fit
depending on the nature of your business
this first sales methodology is the top down model
that you're selling to the top
and it's a true transformation
for the company
and in these kind of cases
it's a larger deal size
it's truly transformational
and the best part about this is
once you do close this deal
you're gonna be so
embedded into how their company operates
they're less likely to churn
so that's the press side of this as well
so that's the first sales methodology
and don't worry
when you watch till the end
I'll kind of compare and contrast these three
so that you can
really nail in on which one is the right one for you
the second sales methodology is the exact opposite
of the first one
instead of going top down
you essentially go bottoms up
there's a pro
and con to this
in order to go top down
you really have to go sell them on the transformation
you really have to talk to them
you have to build the relationship
it's gonna be a large deal
you to get multiple stakeholders
there's a lot of work
and it has to be a large
enough deal size
so a lot of SaaS
founders and SaaS
companies eventually said
you know what
I really don't wanna do that
I don't want 12 month
sale cycles
I don't wanna go top down
I rather build a
really great
SaaS product
let the users just
choose to use it
so instead of putting
sales upfront
I'm gonna make it where
random people can just
start using it
and then over time
I can sell it to
the wider company
and this is where
the bottoms
up model was born
some people
refer to this as
product LED growth
but it's a little
bit of a mislenomer
because you may be starting with product
but there's still sales
people involved
the way it works is you get
end users to actually
start using
your product
and in this kind of scenario
they will maybe start with a trial
have a single user license
swipe their credit card
like $9 a month
or $30 a month
and start to
get regular use
you then wanna make it where
they're starting to
propagate this to
other people in that company
so you want a natural
way where they're spreading it to other parts of
the company
and more and more
people in the same role
are starting to use it
that's when
the fun begins
that's when
you take your salespeople
and you send them in
and say look
you have 100 people in
your organization
already using
our software
would you like to get
a sitewide license
or a company wide license
would you like to make sure it's compliant with
it instead of these
people using it in a rogue way
that's why this is called
the bottoms up model
instead of a
really complicated sales
process up top
you start by
ceding it to the users
you still run
your marketing to get
to attract those users
and get them into
your product
and start using
and convert to revenue
at a very low
Dollar Point
and then once
you get critical mass
at each of these companies
each of these target customers
you send the sales people in
and then you
say okay cool
we have 100 seats
or we have 50 seats
or maybe we have 15 seats
but you still have 1,000
people that could be using
the software
let's talk about
how we can actually
make it where
the entire company is using it
what this does is
instead of going in
cold and starting to sell
a transformation
all the way at the top
without them
really knowing if they
can trust you
if your software is any good
you're essentially going in warm
they're already using
your software
people will already vouch for it
chances are
they're asking for it
and clamoring for it
and wanting to expense it
so this bottoms up model is
super powerful
because sales
ends up coming in
in the middle of
the process
where it's already warm
and you already have momentum
in a customer base
and in a deal
and then they
really go after
the larger deal sizes
where the entire company is buying
the product
so those are the first
two sales miles
now there's a third one
that I actually
absolutely love
and I think this is
the future of SaaS companies
especially as
you're looking to grow
in a cost efficient way
while you're driving scale
before I go into that
let me pause here
for a second
are you starting to see the power in this
on one hand
you can just go in
and just do a demo
but on the other hand
if you are cognizant about
hey who's my
ideal customer
how do I wanna sell to them
do I wanna go bottoms up
do I wanna go top down
am I selling a transformation
or am I not doing a sales call at all
I'm first actually going in
and getting
the users to buy it on their own
and then I'm going in
to actually drag momentum
you can start to make
decisions on
how you're going to
run your sales process
and this is where a sales methodology
actually emerges
if you certainly
see the power in this
can I just get
a yes in the comments below
and also smash a like
button for the
YouTube algorithm
just loves it when
you do that
also while you're in
the comments
you should put in
which sales methodology
you're leaning towards
so far I'm gonna go to
the third one
which is probably what everyone's gonna
wanna choose
but right now
between top down
and bottoms up
which one is right for you
one thing I'll mention
sometimes founders
just choose
the one that they want to create like look
we wanna be
product LED
because they
don't want salespeople
the reality is
you really have to think about
how your customer
wants to buy
for example
if you have a system of record
a random user is
not going to start using it
out of the box
it's gonna have to be a
top down sale
but if you're a system of
engagement if
you're a tool
that a single user
can get value
from then a
top down sale
might actually be inefficient
you want the
end users to start using it
get critical mass and grow
a lot of times
this decision
is actually made
by your customers
they tell you
how they wanna buy
because of the nature of
your product
so as you're
trying to make this
decision between these two
wait till you hear
the third one
you should really think about
what is my customer want
and what's right for them
because usually
that yields
a better result
and you can architect
your overall sales
and marketing
process around
your customer
so if you're in
the stage where
you're figuring
out some of these core pieces
around your go to
market strategy
who are we selling to
what's the transformation
how do we communicate it
what is the sales model
when do the salespeople come in
when is it product
you start to figure these pieces out
do you actually want help
implementing
a lot of these principles
this is why
I run my SaaS
go to market
coaching program
inside this program
I work with
you to actually
implement a
go to market strategy
and help you apply
all these principles
you don't have to go anywhere right now
I'll link to it below
and also tell
you more about it
at the end of this episode
let's go to
methodology No. 3
the one that
I absolutely love
and what I use for all
all my companies
methodology No.
3 is a little
bit of a hybrid of 1
and 2 and it's
essentially called
the land and
expand model
thing that I
don't like about
one or two is that No.
1 forces me
into large and long
sale cycles
I have to go
top down to
convince a bunch of people
it has to be worth it
so there's some
problem around
you know what
it's gonna take a while
and I have to make
the deal sizes huge
and maybe they're
not gonna be that huge
I don't like
having to pick that
on the other hand
I also don't like
selling a 9
dollar product
where a bunch of users
are using it that
are low intent
they might churn
it might not
propagate it
it may not actually
get implemented
properly in
the company
so these are kind of
the two edges
there's nothing
wrong with them
but I personally
don't love them
because it forces me to
choose on quality
on this hand
it's high quality
I know that they're
really gonna use
the platform
they're gonna implement it
but it takes forever to
convince them
on the other hand
a bunch of randos
in a company
are gonna use it
I don't know if they're gonna
use it properly
and then I don't know
if I'm gonna get the expansion
so I don't have as
much control
and I really wanna
have a proper
sales experience
and get really
great customers
this is where
methodology 3
really comes in
methodology
3 is what we call plan
the wedding
and otherwise
it's also known
as a land and
expand model
the idea on this
is to find some
sort of a middle
ground between these
two methodologies
and the land
and expand model
works really
well for that
what you do
essentially
is you don't
try to get a
whole bunch of users
using it for $9 a
month but you do
think about
what is a small group of
people that I
can sell to first
we call that
essentially
the pilot so
we go after
a relatively
small deal size
for a subset of
the organization
so we can deliver
a quick value
so it still
sales lead it's not
product LED
the salespeople go in
they pick a
very specific use case
they pick a
very specific part of
the organization
and say hey listen
this is what
our software does
this is what
transformation is
this doesn't
have to be a
huge decision
what we recommend is
you do a 30 day pilot
at no charge
what this does is
essentially takes
the best of
both worlds
you essentially
are getting a really
engaged customer
potential customer
they're doing a pilot
but at the same time
you're not having
to spend 12
months getting
the whole deal
you're doing a smaller
deal to get
your foot in
the door and that's
why it's called a land
and expand mall
because once you
get your foot in
the door then
you can drive
success and
expand it to
maybe the entire
department or
the entire company
and the entire
global company
regions that may exist
so you can actually
start small
and expand from there
which is why
it's called
the land and
expand model
and there's a
little trick to this
every single
founder that
I coach that
deploys this
specific model
I always teach them
the mantra of plan
the wedding
what a lot of
people do wrong
when they're doing this is
they start the pilot
and then they hope
and pray that
they'll buy
the bigger deal
and what ends
up happening is
these 30 day pilots
end up running
for six months
and 12 months
it essentially
becomes a really
really shitty
version of the top
down sales model
which is no good
which is why
I always coach founders
and when I work
with founders
we were working on
implementing
these sales
methodologies
we're also working on
implementing
the overall go to market
strategy to
get them actual
sales demos
so one of the
things we always
talk about is
you gotta plan
the wedding
meaning if you're starting
the pilot plan
the ultimate
wedding this is
essentially the engagement
this is maybe
the little party
to celebrate
but this is
the wedding
so plan the
wedding once
you start a pilot
you should create
a cohesive plan
on how you're
going to exit
the pilot and when
what the exit
criteria is
and how you
actually get to
the next deal
and the next deal
you should co
create that plan
with your customer
this is essentially
what makes sure
that a pilot
doesn't turn into
a top down sale
which may be
right for you
but as long as
the deal size
is sustained
so the whole idea
behind this
third methodology
is you start
with the pilot
with a little
bit of money
and then you
expand into larger
and larger deals
and larger and
larger usage
as you start
to actually
get critical mass in
the company
so those are
the three sales
methodology
let's recap
and I'll bring it
all together
for you the
first sales
methodology
you can follow
for your SaaS
business is
the top down model
you should do this one
if you are a
critical part of
the infrastructure of
the business
you can charge a
large deal size
and you're okay
with a longer sale cycle
second model
is the bottoms up
this is where
you get end
users to use
your product
first convert
to revenues
once you get
a critical mass
in each organization
you send the
salespeople in
and say hey
you got 10 users
15 users less
expanded to 100
or 200 or the
entire organization
and that way
you can actually
move bottoms up
and the third
one the one
that I love
is the best
of both worlds
you go into
a specific part
organization
you get a small deal
first that's
your landing
and then you plan
the wedding
as you doing
that small deal
on that pilot
you could charge
for a pilot
we could choose
not to charge
for a pilot
depends on what
you can really
get away with
and what the
offer is that
you make that
customers love
sometimes customers
prefer to pay
for it cause
they think that
free is not worth
anything so
you do the pilot
and then you plan
the wedding
on how you are
going to expand
maybe you start
with a specific
department then
you go to a
specific country
and then the entire
global region
depending on
how big the
customer is
or it could
be two people
and then 10
people and then
100 people you
can expand it
accordingly
and that's the
third sales
methodology that
you can follow
the land and
expand model
so now you know
my three favorite
sales methodologies
the top down model
the bottoms
up model and
the hybrid landing
expand model
and now you
know what the
pros and cons
are and which
one is right
for your SaaS
business now
what you may
not know is
TK how do I
implement this
like what do
I say on the
discovery call
for a top down model
or how do I
implement this
for the bottoms up model
or you may be
wondering TK
I kind of know
what to say
now I got it
don't just jump
to the demo
but I need more demos
I need more
opportunities
I need to get myself
out there in
the market and
attract these people
or you may be
trying to figure out
okay I wanna
do a product
like model how
do I actually
get revenues
converting and then
I can actually put in
the sales piece
this is why
I created my SaaS
go to market
coaching program
in this channel
I share all of
the principles
but in my coaching
program I help you
implement them
if you're in this stage where
you're looking to build
out a proper
go to market
strategy it
includes how
you actually
generate leads
convert them to
opportunities
and then you
run the sales
process to convert
them to revenue
or even put a
product LED
motion in there
so the sales
people come in
warm this is
all the pieces
that I help
you implement
inside of my SaaS
go to market
coaching program
specifically
there's three
core things
that we work on
the first one
is your ICP
that's your
ideal customer
profile everyone
thinks I'm an
ICP until they
work with me
I follow a 29
point process
to actually
flash out your
ICP and stress
test it with you
and go through
the intellectual questions
that we need to
talk through
to pick the
right segment of
the market to target
once you have
your ICP then
I teach you
how to build
a manifesto
your manifesto is
your positioning
it's your strategic
narrative it's
your messaging
it's the kind
of thing that you
use actually
generate leads
to attract the
right people
from your ICP
but also it's
the exact deck that
you use when
you're running
your sales call
so that you don't just jump to
a demo also
once you have
the ICP and
the manifesto
then comes the
third piece
that's your
Broadway show
the Broadway show
is a consistent
set of sales
and marketing activities
that you run
to bring the
manifesto to
your ICP on
a consistent basis
once you launch
your Broadway show
and typically
takes about
three weeks
to launch it
once we start
working together
you'll be generating
consistent leads
you'll be converting them to
opportunities
and demos and
you'll know
exactly how to
run those demos
and for example
if in the middle
of that you
wanna add a
product LED
process I'll teach
you how to do that as well
it is an incredible program
I absolutely
love working
in this program
cause I'm working with
founders like you
to actually
implement all
the principles
that I teach
it's incredible
so if you wanna learn more
you wanna work
together just go to
tkk.comslashgtm
and you'll get
all the details in there
the better the
fit the better
the results
and this is why
we ask you to
fill a little
form and book
a time with us
and we'll actually
get on a call
to understand
where you are in
the business
what you're
struggling with
and if I can
help it sounds
like I can help
you inside of
the program
you'll be able to
join right away
and we'll get to
implementing
right away so
just go to tkkader.com/gtm
tkkader.com/gtm
for all the details
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from this video
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and SaaS teams
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lastly I drop an
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it's gonna be
unstoppable
I'm TK and I'll
see you in the next episode
or inside the SaaS
go to market
coaching program
where we'll
work together
start implementing
right away take
care everybody
alright new set well
it's kind of the same set but slightly different spot
we're gonna have some fun with it let's go