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- If you're building out a SaaS business, as a founder, you've got two levers. Ship code, close deals, ship code, close deals. On the last few episodes, and probably the next few episodes, I'm gonna be digging a lot more into how to actually close deals, instead of just shipping code. That's one of the biggest things I learned when I was transforming myself from the engineer, to a true startup founder. I realized that I was never really just that one feature away from growing my company, I actually had to look at the two together, shipping code and closing deals, and it wasn't just more features, it was actually having a sound go-to market strategy. On my last episode, I gave you my three principles on how to build out your SaaS marketing engine. If you haven't watched it, don't worry, I'll link to it below, after this video. On this video, once you actually implement your marketing engine, and have all these leads, and pipeline coming through, you're gonna have to enter into a sales process. On this video, I'm gonna explain to you my three strategies that I've used, over 10 years, in being in SaaS, to actually close deals. Intro. (funky music) (beeping) What's everybody, welcome to Unstoppable. I'm TK, author of the book "How To Punch The Sunday Jitters In The Face", entrepreneur, and angel investor. On this channel, I help startup founders, entrepreneurs, and business owners build and execute on an unstoppable strategy for their life, and their business, through belief and discipline. If you are new to this channel, welcome. (wind whooshing) Be sure to hit the subscribe button, and the bell icon, (bell dinging) because I drop a video, not only just every Sunday, but now every Wednesday as well, to help you thrive in building your SaaS business. So I'm gonna be walking you through these three strategies that I have come across, in building out your SaaS sales process. I picked up these three SaaS sales strategies as I was taking ToutApp, my company, from zero to seven million ARR. We went on to sell ToutApp to Marketo, a market leader in this space. I served at Marketo as SVP of strategy. At one point, I ran all of the European region, their sales organization. At another point I ran the entire ANZ region, and at a different point, I ran the entire Alliance's organization, globally. In each of those cases, we were closing deals. And in each of those cases, and in the ToutApp case, these three principles came into play to actually close deals effectively. Interestingly enough, these three principles are timeless, they've worked in different stage companies, different size companies, and in different regions. So I'm super excited to be digging into these with you. If you are as well, be sure to smash that like button, for myself, and my team, it means a lot to us. But also for the YouTube algorithm, and let's dig in. So, these are the three strategies that I try to incorporate in every sales conversation that I try to have. These are the things I actually try to build out in any sales organization that reports into me. I'm gonna give you a highlight in each of these, and I'm gonna dig into each of them, okay. Number one is you've gotta address why you, as in the customer. Number two is you gotta address why us, as in us, the company, trying to sell them something. And number three is you gotta address why now? So why you, why us, why now? That's easy to remember, right? Let's dig into what each of them mean. The first thing you really gotta address, whether you're designing your sales organization, and your sales and marketing strategy, or going into an individual sales conversation, is you've gotta address why you. Why you is the biggest question that anyone that is being sold to is wondering. It's like why are they talking to me, what do you have for me, I'm busy, I have other things to do. Whether it's an ad I'm seeing, as a buyer, or in a sales conversation, a demo that I actually said yes to, but five seconds before I hop on the call, I'm kinda like why the hell am I doing this call? Do I actually need this call? And people constantly need to be reminded why you. And so you actually have to build that trust and connection, within the first five seconds of every sales call. You have to make them feel understood, and you have to actually highlight the problem that you are solving for them. Now there's a very specific way to do this really well. I highlight this in my Unstoppable Sales Funnel Training. I'll link to that video below, don't worry about it. If you haven't built this out yet, and you're not quite sure how to actually highlight why you right now, don't worry, I'll link to the video below. The other thing that I actually will highlight is you've gotta know your ideal customer. Regardless of whether you're working on the sales process, or the marketing process, or your product, creating an ideal customer profile is the most important thing. And when you do that in the right way, in the very specific way, why you becomes very easy, in highlighting this in the beginning of a sales conversation, or on an add, or on a home page, becomes that much easier. So if you don't have an ideal customer profile, then be sure to check out this video (bubble popping) that I did, on building an ideal customer profile, and the three things you didn't know about a really good ideal customer profile. Once you've addressed why you, why are you talking to this person, how do you get their attention, how do you build the rapport, how do you highlight the problem they're probably having? The second thing you wanna do is why us? Why us is why should you be paying attention to me? So I can come to you and say hey, like this is a ToutApp example, when we went to VPs of sales, we would say look, it takes seven touches to convert a lead to an opportunity. And it takes seven touches across phone, email, social, maybe even physical events. How many of you sales people do you think they're doing that? So that will actually, that's a great way to do why you, because they all understand, like oh, this person understands my problem, they actually have researched this, this sounds right, and the staff they're highlighting is from a reputable source. So, tell me more, that's why you. Now the second question becomes well why should I trust you, or buy from you? They're like yes I agree, you have my attention, for 30 seconds, but to keep that attention, you have to explain to me why I should trust you. That's what gets into why us. And the best ways to do why us is to highlight social proof, show trusted data, and also highlight your unique point of view. Let me explain, whenever we went into these kind of conversations, whether it's at Marketo, or at ToutApp, we always came in with our unique point of view. We always highlighted a macro trend that was happening, not by us, but by an independent trusted body, that shows that they have a problem. And then we started to highlight the customers that trusted us, the logos that were already with us, and then we started to say, "And by the way, "we have a unique way of approaching this problem, "this is a real problem, and here's what we believe, "let us teach you." So we went from actually identifying what the problem is, which is why you, and getting their attention, to actually saying here are the trusted sources, here's the other people that trust us, and here's our unique point of view. And when we did that, that started to build that trust in terms of why us. So let me just pause here for a second, all right. I highlighted the why you, and the why us. Now, we are in sellers positions, right, because we're building companies, and we're gonna sell the software, and the seats to your buyers, I get it. Close your eyes for a second, you don't have to close your eyes, but if you want to, do it, it helps. Think about the last time you were buying something. Think about the last time you had to make a significant purchase, you have to make a significant commitment. And you were investing in something. Think about that time, and if that sales person, when you were buying, whether it was a good experience or bad experience, I just want you to ask yourself, did they really help you feel understood? Where they said hey, you gotta trust me, because I understand your problem, and they highlighted it, and that really made you feel understood. And then did they really make you feel safe, in showing the social proof, the trusted data, and they taught you something you didn't know about that problem. If you can start to imagine how much better of an experience that's gonna be, even in the first 30 seconds to a minute of a sales conversation, or when you're thinking about building your sales organization, or marketing organization, to actually arm your people with this, you can start to see the difference in this. Can I just get a yes in the comments below, because this may seem obvious, but you would be amazed how many people skip the basics. And when you start to focus on these two, everything changes. So hit me with a yes below, also let me know who you are, what you're working on, I wanna get to know more people in this community. So I just love hearing from you guys as well. So share your comments, in the comments. Now, once you have those two, here's the biggest thing. A lotta times I see sales people actually have lots of conversations. They have a lot of leads. Here's the thing, people will even nod, customers will say yeah, that's a macro trend, that's really true. They will say wow, that's a really compelling solution. They'll even say like wow, some of my friends are using your product, that's cool. But if you don't do this last one, if you don't do this last piece, if you don't cover after why you, after why us, if you don't do this last piece, you will not close a deal. Now look, you may be in the lower end in the market, or you're doing this through a webinar, and you never talk to a person. Or you may be in the highest end of the market, where you're doing a nine month to a 12 months sales cycle, with six figure deals, or a million dollar deals. You still have to address this last piece. And that is why now. Here's the thing, there's two questions that really come to mind, in the prospect's mind, when they're entering this phase of this conversation. They might trust you, they might agree that there's a problem. They really wanna understand well what are you gonna actually achieve with us? You have to explain that, as in if you make a certain decision, what are you actually gonna achieve, what's gonna change, what's gonna be maturely better, what's gonna be maturely different? Because anytime I say yes to someone, I know there's more work involved. It's not just money. And so they're wondering like, do I need to make this decision now, or can I do it later. I agree with all the things, I trust this guy, but why now? So you gotta first highlight well what are you gonna actually achieve? So often I see people say, well you're gonna get this feature, and this feature, and this feature, and this benefit. But they don't actually say the results they're going to deliver, and you gotta highlight the results. And then, and then you gotta tie that with what's at stake if you don't do this now. You actually have to understand, through the sales process, where how pronounced the problem is, and usually that comes down to either risk or money. They're either gonna lose money, if they don't make this decision now, or they're gonna take on more risk, which will then, again, lead to them losing more money. You've gotta position in one of those ways so they understand exactly what they're getting. And if they don't get it, what will happen to them, what's at stake, and that comes down to why now. So, now you know, whether you're entering into a sales conversation, you're preparing your sales, or you're putting together your website, in all these things, these are the three key principles that you actually have to answer, and incorporate into every customer touch point. Number one is why you? Number two is why us? And number three is why now? That is all that matters. I run sales organizations, in different regions, I run sales organizations in different scale, I've run companies in different scales that were selling. All these things, these are the three most important questions that came in. These are the three SaaS strategies that you actually have to incorporate into your sales process, (serene music) if you want to close deals, and also ship code. Now you know how to actually shorten your SaaS sales cycle, how to actually make it more effective, how to actually close more deals. But you may not know how to actually exactly craft your messaging, how to actually get that marketing funnel right, so that you drive more leads, or actually how to actually answer some of these questions around why now, or why us? So if you're working through all this, chances are you're building a SaaS product, and you're driving to that next stage of growth, and driving to that product market fit. If that's you, luckily for you, I've created an entire guide for you. I've taken everything that I know across all these different videos that I've done, and you're welcome to check those out, I'll link to those down below as well, but I've really clarified it into a framework for you. You can learn about that framework in my Unstoppable Guide To Product Market Fit. It's completely free, the link is below, and you can download it. (bubble popping) And it'll give you a codify framework that I use to actually figure out a lot of these things. Lastly, if you liked this video, and got value from it, please smash that like button, (bubble popping) for us, my team, and also the YouTube algorithm. I do a video like this every Sunday and every Wednesday, around building and scaling SaaS businesses, leading an unstoppable life. (wind whooshing) So be sure to hit the subscribe button and the bell icon, (bell dinging) if you're new, and lastly, (wind whooshing) if you're part of an entrepreneur group, a startup founder group, or a business operator group, a SaaS experts group, please share this video. It would mean the world to me and my team. We wanna get our message out there, as much as possible. And lastly, remember, everyone needs a strategy for their life and their business, but when you are with us, yours is gonna be Unstoppable. I'm TK, and I will see you in the next episode. (happy music) (beeping)