Selling in a SaaSy World

How ready is your sales team? – asks Paul Black, sales-i’s co-founder

When we founded sales-i nearly 18 months back, one of our underlying tenets was to deliver a new breed of sales intelligence service exclusively on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. Now many would see this as a no-brainer. After all Gartner and most other respected global analysts had been forecasting a stupendous growth in this deployment model for some years; and the chickens are definitely coming home to roost as more than 80% of organisations now consider this low risk, pay as you go approach to buying software.

The appeal of procuring software functionality on a monthly subscription basis is growing all the time, as organisations wake up to the associated low cost of ownership, and rapid speed to market in deploying new functionality. Vendors too can look to a future of more reliable and forecastable revenues and feel less vulnerable to market changes. So is it really that simple switching from a product sale to a service sale or do vendors need to address gaps in their sales training or indeed consider recruiting a different type of salesman altogether?

Well for me the sales process is completely different in the SaaS world and not all salespeople will make the switch that easily. The theory behind SaaS is build, manage, deliver, support and sell – and to do all of this remotely. In reality the customers buy because they trust. Although the trust may not come from a face to face meeting as most SaaS sales are conducted over the web and phone. This is a new dimension for the traditional enterprise software sales rep who now needs to sell a long-term relationship that will be tested over time rather than a one-off product sale. Equally the SaaS sales model demands more deals per sales rep at a lower value per sale. Sales compensation plans take this longer term view too often recognising the initial sale but further rewarding increases in account value over time. So the one off ‘glory sale’ and its associated commission, is no more.

This is not a transition that every ‘enterprise software’ sales rep will take to easily. As we expand our SaaS sales force we are looking to develop salespeople who can adapt to ‘service-based selling’ which is all about purpose and passion and being able to sell conceptually. Together with our sales team development specialists, EGOstream we will go beyond simply recruiting sales people and instead develop and mentor the right sales people to adapt to this service-led world. And I’ll be happy to report back on how we get on; warts and all, I promise.