Streamline Your B2b Saas Sales Process for Procurement

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- I know that PLG, Product Led Businesses, are all the rave in SaaS today. But here's the thing, I still love sales-driven businesses too. With sales-driven businesses, the deal sizes are bigger, the quality of the customers are often better, the churn is lower, and the moats are deeper. A bunch of stuff are just better with sales-driven businesses. Not that one is better than the other, but there are some pros to building a sales-driven business. But at the same time, building a sale-driven business is really hard. One of the hardest parts of it is actually getting your SaaS sales strategy right. Building a scalable sales strategy is one of the toughest parts of building a SaaS business that's sales-driven. So in this episode, I'm gonna walk you through the three key principles that you absolutely need to know to build a scalable SaaS sales process so you can grow your SaaS business faster. Intro. (upbeat music) What's up, everybody. Welcome to "Unstoppable" I'm TK. And on this channel, I help SaaS founders like you grow your SaaS business faster with an unstoppable strategy. Now, if you are new to this channel, be sure to hit the subscribe button and that bell icon, that way you'll get notified every single time I drop an episode with actionable strategies to grow your SaaS business faster with the TK energy. Now, if you are already part of my SaaS coaching programs, if you are part of this community, welcome back, my people. It's really great to see you over here. Now, I've been part of a PLG business. I've been an operator of a PLG business. I've been an operator of sales-driven SaaS businesses as well. One is not better than the other per se. It just depends. There are different kinds of businesses that require different skillsets to grow. And the reality is, founders don't really get to pick whether they're gonna be PLG driven or sales-driven. Here's the thing, depending on the market segment you're going after, depending on the severity of the problem, the complexity of the problem, depending on the competitive dynamics, the market pretty much decides on whether they're gonna buy under a PLG model or they're gonna wanna talk to salespeople. This is how it works. The market kind of dictates it. And so when you're building out your SaaS business, you'll have to keep an eye out for like, well, what does the market really want? And what's the best delivery model and distribution model for our business? Now, suppose that you've figured out that sales-driven is the way to go for you. Now, if you're gonna be sales-driven, you're gonna have to figure out how to actually build out your sales process. This is an important part of growing your SaaS business. Having transitioned a company, with ToutApp, we started with PLG and then we transitioned to sales-driven. And then in Marketo, it was a sales-driven model. There was no PLG. So having actually been part of both, and having actually built a scalable SaaS sales process, and now that I coach founders on how to build a scalable SaaS sales process as part of my go-to-market program, I'm gonna walk you through the three critical components, the three principles you absolutely need to know so that you can actually scale your SaaS business faster with a scalable sales process. Say that 10 times faster. So if you're excited to dig in to principle number one, go ahead and smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm. It just loves it when you do that. And let's go to principle number one. I'm gonna break this out into the three principles you need to know. The first set of things you really need to think about is the tooling. Now, sometimes it's very easy to over-index on tools, but in this scenario, you wanna have the right tools in place because if you don't, then it's gonna be really hard for you to follow principle number two and principle number three to build out a truly scalable SaaS sales process. So with tools, there's essentially three key platforms that you're gonna need to support your sales process. The first one is going to be your sales engagement tool. Your sales engagement tool is say your Outreach, your SalesLoft, your Lemlist, your Mailshake, your GMass. There's like a hundred of them. This is where ToutApp pioneered this along with a couple of others. There's a billion of them out there. It doesn't matter which one, just pick one, pick your sales engagement tool. Because in order to do these other principles, you're gonna need a sales engagement tool to effectively reach out to people in your ICP. And typically, sales engagement primarily is about outbound. The second platform that you're absolutely going to need as part of your SaaS sales process is your marketing automation platform. The marketing automation platform, it could be Marketo, it could be HubSpot, it could be Eloqua if you kind of can find the dinosaur that's still selling Eloqua. It doesn't matter which one, but you wanna pick one and you wanna actually make sure you have a marketing automation platform. That way you can properly collect inbound leads, and nurture them, and bring them over to the sales process. And the third platform that you're absolutely going to need is a CRM platform. This one is particularly important, especially because you're sales-driven and this will essentially help you manage your sales process. If you don't have a CRM, you should definitely invest in one. You can go with Salesforce. You can go with HubSpot. It doesn't matter. Wherever you start, just have one. In some cases, you can even use a spreadsheet, but it's better to actually get a CRM. These are your three core tools that you're gonna need. Now, there's 5,000 other tools in MarTech and sales tech, I get it. But these are the three core platforms you're going to need to ensure that you have a scalable SaaS process, scalable SaaS sales process. Scalable SaaS sales process. Scalable SaaS sales process. I can probably say it faster than you can. Scalable SaaS sales process for your SaaS business. So that's principle number one. Principle number two, once you have the tools in place. Now, this is super important. I meet a lot of founders that are a little bit more sales-driven than marketing driven or product driven, and that's okay. There's no good or bad here. It's just different ways we excel at. We all have our different zone of genius. We have our own biases. It's all good. All that matters to me when I'm coaching a founder is like, "Look, I don't care what you prefer. "Let's actually talk about what the market wants." Because the market will tell you how they wanna buy, how they wanna engage. And you're gonna have to listen and create a compelling experience around that. Otherwise, you will lose because someone else will beat you because they're listening to the market. So it doesn't matter where your zone of genius is. But one of the things I realized when I'm dealing with founders that are a little more sales-oriented, is they skip over principle number two and jump into three. And I'll explain what all these are, but this is super important. Before you start thinking about your sales process, which is all the way down here, the second principle, the second component you have to think about for your scalable SaaS sales process, I'm getting better at this is pipeline. I did a video on this awhile ago. We'll link to it below. It's about how to actually think about your pipeline number and SaaS metrics. Let me explain what this is all about. You need to have a certain pipeline coverage. The rule of thumb, especially in sales-driven SaaS is you need to have a 3X to 5X pipeline coverage. What this means, people tend to over-complicate it, all this means is let's just say you have a certain number you wanna hit in your sales this month. Let's just say you wanna close a dollar of sales. Three to 5X pipeline coverage means you need to have three times that pipeline or five times that amount of pipeline, meaning if every single deal that you sell, the average deal size that you have is a dollar and you need to close a dollar this month, that means you need one deal. In order to close that one deal, the rule of thumb is that you need to have three to five deals. That's it. Why? Because you're not gonna close every single deal. And if you definitely wanna hit your number to be on the safe side, you'll always wanna have three to 5X the number of deals or the dollar amount that you actually need to hit. A lot of times, founders skip over that and beginner sales leaders don't know about this enough yet. But the seasoned sales leaders will always tell you like, "Look, if I've got a number, "I need to have three to five X that coverage. "And if marketing is not generating "that level of pipeline for me, "the three to five X, "then I'm gonna hire STRs "to actually do outbound "so we get that pipeline coverage "and we have insurance." So this is why it's super important to have three to 5X pipeline coverage. How are you gonna have this? Well, one, you can do inbound. And this is all the things that are on ads, social, all the different strategies that you have. You can also do outbound. And outbound is calls, email, FedEx, all that stuff. Now, when you start to think about how to actually generate pipeline, you can think of pipeline even as marketing, but I called it pipeline just so you don't tune out and say, "Oh, that's marketing. "We don't need that." You need pipeline. You need to have three to 5X pipeline coverage. Whether it comes through marketing or it comes through sales, you'll get to decide. And that's a critical part of your scalable SaaS sales process. You need that. So if you wanna dig into, well, what are all these channels and how do we generate pipeline? Be sure to check out this video. These are six to eight key channels, SaaS channels where you can actually get awareness and drive pipeline. You don't have to go right now. I'll link to it below. You can check it after because you really wanna watch this part. The third principle. Now, before I keep going under the third principle, let me just pause here for a second. Are you starting to see the power in this? In order to build a scalable SaaS sales process, I'm getting really good at this, you actually need to have key components in place. And it can get super overwhelming real fast if you don't think about it in these key pieces. And all of a sudden, it starts to make sense on why I need the tooling, why I need marketing, which is really pipeline and maybe marketing can't deliver all the pipeline so I need STRs. And you also start to think about this third piece that I'm gonna go into. If you're starting to see the power in this, if you're starting to see the power in this, can I just get a yes in the comments below. Also, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm. It really likes it when you do that. YouTube really likes it when you smash that like button. We do too. We put a lot of love into these videos. Also, if you're piecing these pieces together, if you're building out your sales methodology, your sales process, if you're trying to figure out pipeline, this is exactly why I created my SaaS go-to-market coaching program. Inside of this coaching program, I help you actually implement all these key pieces. So if you're interested in that, I'll link to it below, or you can just go to tkkader.com/gtm for more details. But don't go yet. Let's go to principle number three. Principle number three, so you've got tools, you've got pipeline. Then you get into, okay, let's actually define our sales process. Now, you can call this your sales process. You can call this your sales methodology. There are different names and sometimes people like to over-complicate it. I just call it sales process. Literally, when something becomes a lead and it's very clear that they're in your ICP and they're really engaging, they enter into the sales process for a scalable SaaS business. At this point, you wanna have a very scalable SaaS sales process. In order to do that, there are some critical components you actually have to lay out. You don't just hire salespeople and say, "Go close a bunch of deals. "Best of luck." You don't do that. Chances are, it will be founder led sales in the beginning. Then you'll hire a couple of reps. Then maybe you'll hire a VP. And then you'll start to scale from there and you'll be a bunch of spits and starts there. But in order to go through that piece, there's some critical components you need to have. So the first critical component that you absolutely need to have for your scalable SaaS sales process is your deck, your sales deck. Your sales stack ultimately is super important because this is how you kick off discovery calls. This is how you engage with customers, maybe they get a copy of it beforehand through marketing. Your sales deck essentially outlines why you exist, what the big transformation is, what the big problem is, and really drives the urgency. Your sales deck, essentially the initial slides of it, are really your strategic narrative. And you have to create this. I remember the first time I even hired a VP of sales and my VP of sales was like, "Do we have a sales deck?" I'm like, "Not really. "People just swipe their credit card or sign up." She's like, "We're gonna need a sales deck." And I had to create one and I didn't really know how to do it. And so this is why inside of my go-to-market program, creating a manifesto was one of the big things we work on because that translates into your sales deck during discovery calls to actually drive and accelerate deals. When you don't have a proper sales deck with the right strategic narrative, your win rates are gonna be low, your deal size are gonna drag on. If you keep losing deals and they keep dragging on and they're not quite sure and the urgency is not there, chances are your sales deck is off. There's something wrong there. So you need a sales deck. The second thing you actually need to figure out is, well, what are my sales stages going to be? Every sales process, it's not just like, Hey, they raised their hand and you get on a call and like, "Do you wanna buy?" Obviously, it goes through stages. And the more complex your product is, the more sophisticated it is, the more decision-makers there are, the more stages they are going to be. So you'll wanna map out your actual SaaS sales stages. I did an entire video on how to think about SaaS sales stage, you can check it out over here. You don't have to go right now. I will link to it below. In that video, I actually walk you through how to think about the stages, why they're important, and specific math that comes into SaaS sales stages so that you can actually start to predict if you're gonna hit your number or not. Super important. Super fascinating. You can go watch it later because I have three more for you. So you need the sales deck. You need the stages. The next thing that you actually need, and this may seem kind of like weird, I didn't know how to think about it, are your scripts. Now, you may not have literal scripts because it's a very high-level product you're selling and it's a very sophisticated product, or you may have a very transactional sales process, I don't know, but you need some sort of structure on here's how we run a discovery call, here are the questions to ask. Here's how we run a call when we're talking to procurement. Here's when we bring in our inside counsel or outside counsel to make sure the legal terms are right. Here's how we think about the executive outreach. You essentially need a play for each of these stages. And that's your scripts. That's actually codifying here's how we engage, here's our rules of engagement. This could be literal words that you need to say, this could be an outline, this could be part of a slide deck. It varies. And there are different ways to codify it. But you need some sort of game plan, scripts if you will, on how are you're gonna run each of these stages and each of these meetings as you are driving through the sales process. Once you have that, the next thing that you absolutely need to establish is your pricing strategy. Ultimately, when customers are interested like, "Cool, how much does it cost?" And you'll need to actually, in a compelling way, show your pricing, and in a compelling way, show how they're gonna get 10X ROI in terms of the software that you're selling. Pricing strategy is one of the most important things, it's one of the most often overlooked things. If you get it right, your net dollar retention goes up, your deal sizes go up. You're able to close more. If you get it wrong, you won't know why you're not actually growing because you're bringing on customers, but nothing's happening. You might actually lose deals because your price is so low, you'll signal to the market that you're not valuable enough. So pricing is super important. Having a cohesive pricing strategy is very, very, very important. Once you have the pricing strategy, this is one of the last pieces. By the way, we did an entire video on how to think about pricing strategy. You can check that out over here. You don't have to go right now. I will link to it below. The last piece, I have one last piece that you absolutely need to know about is essentially your, this is the last piece which always happens and sometimes you lose deals because of it. You need to think about your legal terms. You need to actually think about, well, what are the legal terms? Sometimes it'll just be a master services agreement. Sometimes it'll be just a one-off click-through agreement. These vary. And the terms that you're signing around the software purchase, and the licensing and all this is super important. And usually, it can actually cause you to lose a deal because they'll want, look, everyone gets caught up in (indistinct) or everyone gets caught up on insurance policies, security policies, data policies. So getting your legal agreements in order, your house in order around your legal agreements is super important. If you're wondering in my sales-driven business, or even my product led growth business, for a SaaS business, what are the key legal agreements I need to have? Be sure to check out this video. This is a video, it's about a 45 minute video I did. It was a live webinar. It's a recording with my brother who happens to be a SaaS lawyer. And we walked through, he was very gracious to come on the channel and walk through what are the key legal agreements you absolutely must have when you are starting to scale your SaaS business. So you can check out that video as well. You don't have to go right now. I will also link to that below. You'll have a watch list of things you should watch after this to dig into each of these components. So those are the three principles. Number one, you need the tooling. Number two, you need to have the pipeline, three to 5X pipeline coverage. And then you need to actually have these key components to establish your scalable SaaS sales process. Say that 10 times faster. When you have these pieces in place, then you can start to actually build out and scale your SaaS business through a sales-driven model. Now, if this is starting to make sense, if you got value from this, be sure to smash out like for the YouTube algorithm. And now you know what all the critical components are. But what you may not know, what you may not know is how to implement each of these pieces. How do you actually figure out where to get pipeline? And how do you get that three to 5X pipeline coverage? How do you know which channels you need to double down on and prioritize? What is the messaging and positioning around these channels? And how do you actually get attention? How do you actually build out your manifesto, your strategic narrative, and your sales deck? How do you actually make sure you have the right stages and you're asking the right questions in the discovery calls, and you're structuring your demo in the right way? How do you make sure you have a codified pricing strategy? And how do you actually make sure that you're thinking about the right key legal agreements that you should have? These are all stuff that you're gonna have to answer. And you're gonna probably watch some of the videos I'll link to down below and continue to take notes. And then you'll have more questions like, "Okay, here are the more questions I need to answer "and flush out." A lot of times, founders are left in a room alone trying to figure out like, "All right, how do we make our sales deck? "Or which channels should we go at first?" And this is exactly why I created my SaaS go-to-market coaching program. I've been through this exact process that you are going through right now, multiple times. And this is why I've codified everything that I've learned and I've codified it into my coaching program. And when you're part of my coaching program, I guide you through this whole process and I guide you in implementing these key components to actually grow your SaaS business faster. So if that's you, and you will want the cheat codes, you want the framework to follow, and you want my coaching so you can go faster and reduce execution risk, then I invite you to apply to join my go-to-market program. All you need to do is just go to tkkader.com/gtm. tkkader.com/gtm. When you click through over there, you'll get all the details around the program. Everything that you get. And there's a little form that you can fill out to hop on a call with me. When we hop on a call, we'll figure out where you are. And if I can help, I'll tell you all about it. And then we're off to the races. And what this does, it helps you actually follow a framework instead of trying to figure out all these pieces out together, all by yourself all alone by piecing together all these disparate pieces (indistinct) sometimes conflicting information because you can go to multiple sources. That's all I have for you today. Go to tkkader.com/gtm. I'd love to have you in the go-to-market program, assuming we can help you. So let's get on a call and figure that out. Just go to tkkader.com/gtm and we'll book a call and we're off to the races and we'll figure it out from there. If you got value from this video, please smash that like button. If you haven't subscribed yet, I drop an episode like this two to three times a week with actionable strategies, actionable steps like this to help you grow your SaaS business. And I bring you all this because I have gone through exactly what you are doing today. That's why I'm able to speak to this because I've literally walked this path. So be sure to hit the subscribe button and that bell icon if you haven't already. That way you'll get notified. If you have a fellow founder, if you have other founders, if you are part of a WhatsApp group with other founders that would get value from this video, please share it with them. It will mean the world to us. We put a lot of love and effort in crafting these videos to make sure that they're action packed and succinct so it kind of helps you transform your SaaS business. And lastly, remember, everyone needs a strategy for their life and their business. When you are with us, yours is gonna be unstoppable. I'm TK. And I'll see you in the next episode. (upbeat music) I'm TK. I'll see you in the next episode. Let's redo that part. I don't why I pointed.