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Ask HN: How do you present your SaaS offer to potential customers?

• simonswords82 10y ago
  I'm going to guess based on what you've outlined here you're selling B2B? Perhaps at enterprise level? All things being equal, the content of what you're sending is more important than how you send it. PDFs, Google Docs, whatever - who cares...if the content outlines concisely how your SaaS offer makes/saves the customer money and the other associated benefits you can afford to send it on a frickin' napkin :) You're over thinking the other stuff. You include a number of pages that is essential for the conveying of useful information to the prospect. Customers aren't going to scoff at a proposal because it's < 10 pages! Just don't pad it out with a load of corporate shit, keep it on point and yes a picture says a 1000 words so if a picture helps to sell the vision, include it. I presume given you're engaged in selling your wares you've carried out competitor analysis? What do they send to their prospects? If you don't have competitors (I doubt it) what do companies that you like send out? If you've not secret shopped them already I recommend you do. Smart Bear (https://smartbear.com/ https://smartbear.com/) are one of my go to companies for researching how to go about software sales. I do this stuff for a living, if you want any other feedback or perhaps examples of what does/doesn't work hit me up. My details are in my HN profile.
  • crabpeeps 10y ago
    That's correct, we sell B2B enterprise stuff. I find myself changing the format from customer to customer, ending up spending too much time on this crucial process. I'd like to standardize the docs/info to adhere to the receivers' preferred format. I agree that the content is everything. You raise some good questions regarding competitors. From what I've seen they send out generic pdf's and a generic project timeline. I need to study them more closely. I'd like to one-up them by having something convenient, effective and visually appealing.
    • wastedhours 10y ago
      Now that you've tailored the content to lots of different formats, could you not just use those as a library and keep them up to date? I've not been involved in much sourcing, only a few enterprise SaaS pitches, but something to consider depending on who you're engaging is just a one-pager on the expected benefits that can be escalated up the food chain to rationalise expenditure internally. One page, Word Doc or PDF, tables rather than bullets that your contact can flow around an org easily.
    • ironchef 10y ago
      No offense but you're wasting time. It doesn't matter if it's PDF vs doc vs whatever. You _need_ to offer something very compelling (not the brochures / leave-behinds.. the service). You (usually) either need to take away pain or give them something of value. In what I sell, they need to leave that first meeting saying "holy shit... how do we get this in house / how do we get to use this now?". My best leave behind is references who are in the same space ;)
• deleted 10y ago
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• endswapper 10y ago
  In engaging potential clients focus all of your time and energy on the conversation and the close. Collateral materials are helpful when you are casting a wide net and you have the resources to take a shot-gun blast approach. It sounds like you have limited resources, which makes the leave-behind a very low priority. Today, gathering the data on what to present and how is the priority. If you are the only person doing sales, or if there are only a few of you, the best approach is to use email. You should be sending a follow-up email anyway, even if you leave something behind to move things forward to the next step. It's direct, personal and it can be customized quickly and easily for each customer. Then you can use the experiences using email to inform the needs of collateral materials down the line. Finally, when you do put something together that checks enough boxes based on real client responses it should be available everywhere. Meaning, something printed when you leave the meeting, an attachment in a follow-up email, a link in your email signature to something viewable on your site. You'll find everyone will access it differently, so provide everything. Today, I have enterprise contacts that will ask for a fax. That always amazes me, and then I send an efax.
• relaunched 10y ago
  You need to start reading https://www.saastr.com/ https://www.saastr.com/ immediately. Jason Lemkin has great insight into how to sell to SaaS products, how to run SaaS businesses and everything else SaaS. Good Luck!
• jamesmcintyre 10y ago
  For those answering, what do you think of designing a "free" product to let the client use as a "gift" for their time. Perhaps your pricing tier has no freemium but after getting a meeting with the client you offer a special freemium version with the sentiment being "look, whether you choose our service or not let me give you this product which can help your operations even if you don't pay a dime" I think for most this would seem like a good idea. You are both giving the potential client a chance to use the service and maybe signaling that you aren't desperate for the sale that you are just as happy if they just get value out of the free gift. But then there's pricing theory, maybe just giving away what is supposed to be so valuable "cheapens" your product and signals that in fact you're desperate to sell so you're giving it away. I'm sure striking a balance is required here but I'm curious where on this scale from "generosity signals abundance" to "scarcity signals value" do your recommendations fall?
  • danieltillett 10y ago
    I don’t like “free” models since people tend to value something what they paid for it. I prefer to offer a full 60 day money back guarantee instead. If you do go down the free route ask for nothing - no names, no email, no sign up, nothing, just limited the usage. I do this for my products and I get lots of “shy" users that convert to sales because the barrier to trying our products is much lower. If you have a great product make it as easy as possible to try.