SaaS companies around the world are experiencing a variety of challenges in the midst of so many changing economic climates. For organisations preparing for hypergrowth, there can be additional bumps in the road on top of economic pressures, as finding the best talent on the market and retaining your employees is vital to ensure your growth is sustainable.
Currently, there are around 30,000 SaaS companies - 60% of which are based in the US - and 14 billion SaaS customers globally. For business owners, this means two things: there’s plenty of customer demand, but there’s a lot of competition out there, and business owners need to take this into consideration when preparing for hypergrowth.
The global SaaS market is predicted to reach a valuation of $307 billion by 2026. How will you stand out, and what are you offering that’s different, for your growth plans to be a success?
Most importantly, you need to enable your go-to-market team with the training, tools and guidance to be successful and sell your software.
PROVIDING THE RIGHT TRAINING
In order to be able to provide sufficient training for your GTM team, firstly you need to understand the entire sales process from start to finish. Once you've determined the full sales cycle, you'll be able to make note of every tool that is used and all the skills that your staff need to be trained on
There are numerous benefits to providing your employees with training, including:
- An increase in productivity
- Making the sales process more efficient
- Trained employees are more likely to spot upsell opportunities in a sales cycle, increasing order value
- Ensuring employees are held accountable for their tasks
- There is less ongoing support required
- A set standard for training all employees with the same structure
- Employee career development opportunities
Implementing a training process for all employees, as well as refresher training to update their knowledge at least every year, will ensure everyone is given an equal opportunity to be successful in their role. Plus, it’ll help you determine where there are gaps that need to be filled.
IMPLEMENTING AND MANAGING YOUR TECHSTACK
This may seem like an obvious one, but implementing a fit-for-purpose techstack is vital to enabling your GTM team to achieve their goals. All SaaS companies are different, and there will be a variation in terms of precisely what is needed based on your business requirements, but your techstack will be one of the most important components to assisting with hypergrowth.
The main challenge SaaS business leaders face when it comes to their techstack is the initial investment it can take to get to where you need to be. One of the biggest financial overheads for organisations in most sectors tends to be the tech platforms required to scale at the rate their business strategy requires. However, research has shown that companies innovate and scale almost 20% faster when they licence existing technologies, as opposed to building them internally.
In terms of managing your techstack, asking your employees for regular feedback on the platforms they are using is imperative. If you receive feedback that a particular platform or tool isn’t enabling your team to perform to the best of their ability, it may be time to go to the market and look for an alternative.
PIPELINE GENERATION
Pipeline generation also depends heavily on how well your techstack is implemented and managed. In order to stay in line with your hypergrowth goals, providing your sales team with the ability to build their pipeline and generate more leads is one of the biggest challenges SaaS organisations face.
Sales targets are only achievable by providing your GTM team with leads, which are found through a variety of channels including marketing, referrals, social media, networking, product trials, or consultations. To give your employees the best chance of maximising the amount of sales they make, every channel possible needs to be utilised. Ensure the following is being directly forwarded to your sales staff:
- Website enquiries
- Email responses
- Social media enquiries
- Paid ad responses
- Attendees from roadshows/events
- Referral program responses
- Software trial completions
If your employees aren’t receiving the number of leads to stay on track with the overall business growth goals, investment will need to be made into alternative or additional channels to enable them to make sales.
GET IN TOUCH
Here at Strive Sales we source top tier sales talent for hypergrowth tech companies. To learn more about how we can help your business scale, contact our team on 0203 983 0770 or email hello@scalewithstrive.com.
