Do you have an idea for a SaaS business? Now is the time to act.
The SaaS market is predicted to be $76 billion by 2020. Employees love SaaS apps because they’re easy to use. Companies love them because they save money. Right now, only 38% of companies are SaaS only.
What that says is that not only is the SaaS market expected to grow, there’s a ton of opportunity beyond that.
Do you want to know what it takes to build a great SaaS startup?
Keep reading to find out what you need to know to build your startup for success.
1. The Customer Experience Comes First
Your entire business depends on your customers. Therefore, every single aspect of your SaaS app is about them and for them.
You want to make sure that your software is easy to use and simple. A complex dashboard with a steep learning curve for many businesses. You’ll find that the adoption rate will be low within the organization and you won’t keep your customers long.
You’ll want to check in with your key customers often and see if there are any improvements that can be made to the software. You’re likely to get valuable feedback from your customers.
2. Customer Support Will Separate Your Business from the Rest
Who is your competition? You know what they do and what for SaaS startup does differently from other companies.
Where you can truly separate yourself from the pack is in the service your customers receive. You’re already making sure that you give them a great user experience. It’s time to back that up with outstanding support.
You’ll want to make sure you have a team in place 24/7 to handle inquiries. You also want to make sure that customers can reach your customer service team in a variety of ways. Email, phone, live chat, and Facebook messenger are primary ways customers will want to reach your business.
Take a look at the entire support process, from the onboarding process to technical support for major issues, and customer support for pre-sales and billing questions.
Looking at these processes from the customer’s perspective will give you ideas to streamline your processes and make sure you’re delivering world-class service.
3. Build a Profitable Business Model
You can’t have a successful business if you’re not profitable. You need to decide early on what your business model is. In other words, how will you make money?
Is your revenue model based on memberships? Is it based on a low monthly payment or an annual payment?
You need to take a close look at your financials, especially your expenses. Include everything in your expenses, from customer support to microservices architecture services. Now, look at how many clients you can realistically service with your SaaS app.
You’ll need to develop a revenue model that is based on the value that you deliver to your customers and balances the budget needs of your customers.
One company in your niche can price their products as low as they can because they figure that they’ll have more customers. Since they have a low price, they might not be able to deliver excellent service.
The company that sells its product as a premium will need fewer customers but is in a much better position to deliver outstanding customer experience.
There’s no right or wrong way to do this, it depends on how you want to position your company in the marketplace.
4. Have a Foolproof Sales & Marketing Plan
Notice that sales and marketing aren’t separate tips. That’s because your sales and marketing teams should work together to acquire customers.
All too often, sales and marketing teams operate in completely separate universes. The reality is that they need to work together to make sure that your customers get the service that they expect.
Your marketing team needs to work with sales to generate high-quality leads, whether that’s from digital marketing or another marketing tactic. Your sales team is on the front lines with your customers. They’ll have a better understanding as to what your customers are looking for in a SaaS product.
5. Keep Your Customers Happy
Your entire organization needs to understand that the sales process doesn’t stop when someone signs up to become a customer.
It is a continuous process. You’ll want to check in with your customers every few months to make sure that your SaaS product is working well for the organization. If there are any issues that come up, they can be addressed.
It’s harder work to maintain a customer, but you’re also saving yourself from having to constantly replace customers.
6. Optimize Pricing
One of the biggest mistakes a SaaS startup makes with pricing is that they treat is as a static thing. In a fast-paced market, your pricing needs to be dynamic.
It is OK to experiment with pricing your product. You can experiment with Enterprise Pricing plans for very large organizations and have a couple of lower tiers of your service.
You may also experiment with a trial of your product. That can be a free trial or a trial that customers pay a very low fee for.
7. Scale Up, but Not Too Fast
As a SaaS startup, you’re going to want to expand into international markets as soon as you can. That’s a great vision to have, but you need to be warned about growing too fast.
You can avoid many headaches and customer issues by growing at a smart pace. You want to expand and grow the business, and maintain the level of service that your company has (hopefully) developed a reputation for.
Your SaaS Startup is Ready to Go!
Any time you’re starting a business is a crazy time. You’re working hard, wearing many hats, managing people and trying to manage the big picture of the company.
Right now is the perfect time to create a SaaS startup. There’s so much opportunity, it’s hard to fathom how much growth potential there is for a SaaS business.
Since there’s so much opportunity, there’s a lot of competition. You can get ahead of the competition by focusing on your customers and following the tips listed here.
Do you want more helpful business tips? Be sure to read this article that explains the importance of employee training.
