Ask HN: Any general tips for getting initial SaaS sales?
Launching a Saas product soon. Just wanted to know if anyone had any tips to getting initial sales for any Saas product? This question may be way too general but its worth a shot.
I'd suggest selling in person right now before it's done/launched. For a startup to take off big you need some pull from the market and right now is the time to gauge if that pull exists.
Some things that worked for me that may or may not work for you...
- Sell in person if at all possible. Even if you spend $10K worth of time selling a $9/month product you should learn enough to make it worth it. This is like when manufacturing companies manually complete tasks before they automate them. Also, however your clients dress, dress one notch nicer and wear your company name/logo with pride.
- Experiment with wildly different pricing, you'd be surprised what works. We struggled for a long time at $400/month but sell more faster at $999/month. Related, try asking for the most money you can without laughing, it gets people's attention.
- Extend HUGE discounts to buyers who decide fast.
- Get REALLY specific. You want to find the exact niche of people whose reaction to your pitch is basically "shut up and take my money". Most of us are exposed to very general advertising meant for everyone from huge companies, you can't afford that. Find a little pond to dominate.
- Create a buying process, forms, website etc that make you look like a big deal. Get input from others on this because it's hard to see your own materials objectively.
- Treat your customers so good they brag about it to others. Customer acquisition is expensive and if you have to make each sale you're in for a rough time.
- Read A LOT! Sales is like tech in that the best practices change all the time so to remain competitive and relevant you need to work at it constantly. I found the book "Pitch Anything" by Oren Klaff amazingly helpful in understanding how irrational people are. Best nugget from the book IMO is sales pitches enter the brain from the back (animal brain) rather than the front (rational brain). So step 1 of any pitch is putting people's animal brain at ease.
I wish you all the best!
Many wont want to talk to you, but some will