SaaS

Sales = Support

/ Robert Pease / 1 Comment

Help

If you sell an on-demand product (SaaS, web app, etc.) you need to get your head around this.

Buying decisions will be made not on how good or efficient you are at selling but at how amazing you are at support.  In a world of monthly subscription business models, lots of alternative products, and relatively low switching costs, you are in the renewal business. Happy customers renew.  

With such little friction to try your product, form an opinion, and measure your value, you are left with differentiating on how you support those efforts.  Support is not an afterthought or a cost center.  It is now the way you will engage, amaze, and retain customers.  

Gone is the sales pitch and scripted demo.  We live in a world of instant access and "let me try it first, I'll contact you with any questions." 

Listen to what people are saying, engage quickly, resolve problems diligently, and make support the core of your selling activities.

Fifteen Great On-Demand Tools for Your Small Business

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

I am lifting this list from the Seattle Tech Startups discussion thread because this response from Ksenia Oustiougova is too good not to share broadly.  Ksenia runs a great company here in Seattle called lilipip! that does animated marketing videos.

Here is her list in response to the question of "what tools do you use to manage your personal workload."  Her answer is a great snapshot of the tools used to run a small business and an example of how any company can access a wide variety of really great products on-demand and at relatively low cost these days.

  1. Project management – Basecamp
  2. CRM – Batchbook
  3. Documents (signing contracts) – EchoSign
  4. Docs automatically stored if sent by fax via eFax

  5. Invoicing – Freshbooks

  6. Taxes – OutRight

  7. Operations (manual, overseas VPA's, etc) – Google Docs

  8. Scheduling – Google Calendar

  9. Voice – Google Voice

  10. Newsletter – MailChimp 

  11. Birthday/Thank you cards – Plaxo

  12. Conferencing – Skype

  13. Video management/hosting/tracking – Wistia

  14. Money transferring (anywhere in the world) – Xoom

  15. Sending huge files – DropBox and YouSendIt

This is a great list.  I think I'd add a few like a blogging platform (Typepad or WordPress), a wiki/collaboration space (like PBWorks), and various Twitter tools (like Tweetdeck & CoTweet) as well as the fact that you can address all your email needs with Google Apps.  Other adds would include marketing specific items like PRWeb for press releases, Jigsaw for lead generation/list building, and, of course, Gist for personal relationship management.


Sales is support

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

This is one of my current favorite sayings especially since we have just released Gist in public beta.  Because on-demand software can be accessed, tried, and consumed with relatively little front-end involvement by the company or its staff, support has become the sales function.

Knowing when, where, and how to engage is critical as is doing so without being to "salesy" or self-promotional.  Answer people's questions, address their concerns, and let the product do the marketing for you.

Doing this requires not only a singular focus on users and user experience but having the infrastructure in place to hear what is being said (reference listening framework), a system to manage incidents/tickets, and the technical expertise available to quickly address questions, fix bugs, and even take ownership of a feature request and deliver it for that specific user.

If you nail it, word will spread about your attentiveness and laser focus on the end-user.  This isn't really an earth shattering concept as world-class companies have known for many years that you can truly differentiate from your competitors with outstanding customer service.  You make it an afterthought at your own peril.