SaaS Sales Success Starts with a Shift in Perspective
Every SaaS enterprise sales rep knows to ask about project funding before investing too much time into an account. However, when the customer responds that the potential project isn’t in the budget, most sales reps fold their tents and move on to the next opportunity.
When I hear that excuse/objection, my response is always, “If your roof was leaking, would you repair it, even though that money wasn’t in the budget?”
The customer’s typical response is, “Yes, but my roof isn’t leaking.”
The customer’s typical response is, “Yes, but my roof isn’t leaking.”
My retort is, “What if it was leaking or about to leak and you just haven’t seen evidence of it yet?”
This back and forth hopefully yields an opportunity for the sales rep to build the business case for his/her solution to pre-empt the roof from leaking and the associated likely damage.
Once the customer tires of this exchange and provides the opening for the salesperson to build the business case for his/her solution, the salesperson can launch into the appropriate discovery Q&A that will lead to the necessary evidence that his/her solution will pre-empt a leaking roof and the resulting associated dollars saved.
Now the salesperson is in control of the narrative and any possible opportunity, as the data collected from the customer will determine if we can find enough value to warrant continued evaluation of our product. It is now not a question of budget, but instead, a question of value; do we provide enough value to spend for our solution over some other planned expenditure?
MOIC's philosophy is based on the business case method — our Pipeline Grader app helps you find the dollars.
The customer tries to drive a conversation based on budget and price, while we try to shift the discussion to be about value. If your SaaS sales team needs help focusing on value, email dave@moicpartners.com.
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