(2022) Why you need to hire a SaaS Consultant
Denis Shatalin
Founder of Saas Camp
It’s every SaaS founder’s worst nightmare: you just dropped a new product, and nobody is biting. The doubts start pouring in. You wonder if anybody needs your product, or maybe you think you’re sending the wrong message. SaaS Consulting can help get you on track.
You can’t let all your effort and talent go to waste. I’ve seen plenty of SaaS founders crash and burn, doing everything they can to find the right target market, the right clients. But to no avail. Had they hired a SaaS consultant, they might have gotten the guidance they needed in their startup journey.
You can’t let all your effort and talent go to waste. I’ve seen plenty of SaaS founders crash and burn, doing everything they can to find the right target market, the right clients. But to no avail. Had they hired a SaaS consultant, they might have gotten the guidance they needed in their startup journey.
What is SaaS consulting?
SaaS consulting helps you fill in the gaps that you miss while you’re busy developing your product. After all, developing a SaaS is a huge undertaking. It’s much easier to hire a SaaS consultant to handle issues like the following:
Beware that some SaaS consultants specialize in B2B SaaS while others specialize in B2C. If you can find a consultant that specializes in your area, you might want to go with them.
- Selecting Your Target Audience
- Marketing on Various Channels
- Planning Product Development
- Forecasting Revenue and Making Your Business Profitable
Beware that some SaaS consultants specialize in B2B SaaS while others specialize in B2C. If you can find a consultant that specializes in your area, you might want to go with them.
How SaaS Consultants See the World
SaaS consultants orient themselves towards growing your company. One of their main priorities is to grow the LTV of your customers. This means more profits for you and a higher valuation for your company in the long run.
Their next priority is to reduce customer acquisition costs. SaaS consulting ensures that you find the right audience to build with, rather than trying to advertise to everyone you can.
Their next priority is to reduce customer acquisition costs. SaaS consulting ensures that you find the right audience to build with, rather than trying to advertise to everyone you can.
3 Reasons to Hire a SaaS Consultant
Here are the specific ways that SaaS consultants help SaaS founders with their business.
Understand How to Target Your Audience
One of your biggest doubts as a founder might regard your audience. You have all sorts of questions. Am I reaching the right people? Is there anyone else who might like my product? How does my promotional content come across?
Luckily, SaaS consultants will engage in intensive customer research to deliver all the answers to your burning questions. From this data, they’ll have everything they need to differentiate your products from the rest. Moreover, they’ll figure out what vocabulary your customers use and how best to appeal to them.
When I ran my own SaaS, I used a model where I would interview my target audience and then pitch them if I felt the product was the right fit for them. I even have tips on how to launch a SaaS product using this method.
Get Advice on How to Scale
Scale is the name of the game in any online business. Doubly so for SaaS. However, this is where many SaaS companies fall apart. Your first expansion will put your company in a delicate position.
An intelligent SaaS consultant will plan for this stage ahead of time. Usually, they’ve been around the block and observed the lifecycle of other SaaS businesses. Hence, they will understand the intricacies of scaling very well.
Among these intricacies is knowing when to pivot. Sometimes a sales strategy will become oversaturated. You should be flexible enough to know when to switch marketing tactics.
Extend Your Customer Lifecycle
21% of SaaS users will abandon an app after the first use. Extending the lifetime value of your customers is supremely important. A SaaS consultant will give you tips on how to improve your customer lifecycle based on their experience.
Sometimes, you can use other SaaS tools that are designed to improve LTV. A consultant will recommend the best ones to you. That said, you could go for more traditional ways of acquiring customers like the interviews we mentioned earlier. As a result, you’ll acquire very loyal customers from the get-go.
3 Reasons Why SaaS Companies Fail
According to Tom Tunguz, 92% of SaaS companies fail within the first 3 years. You don’t want to join them, do you? Here are some common reasons why SaaS companies fail.
Marketing to the Wrong Audience
Look, your product is probably fantastic. At least, the idea behind it is. That said, I’m not about to market an enterprise-grade global payroll management SaaS to my local bakery. Sending out cold emails and reaching out to potential clients feels exhilarating. But if you aren’t reaching the right people, your work is all for naught.
Neglect Product Differentiation
At first glance, most SaaS tools look the same. If you take the time to interview and get to know your target audience as I recommended earlier, you’ll get to know their pain points. Armed with this knowledge, you can tailor your marketing material to address some of the common pain points that popped up during those calls.
Don’t become yet another generic SaaS in a sea of indifferentiable products. Even if it means changing your product from what you initially envisioned.
They Focus on Hyper-efficiency
Efficiency is great. That said, it does you little good to be obsessed with squeezing out every extra percentage point when you’re hardly bringing in any money. If you’re making $1,000 ARR, what good does a 20% boost in profits do?
Focus on the tasks that are going to bring in lots of money in raw volume, not percentages, and scale out from there. You can go back and make things hyper-efficient after you’ve built up your clientele.
Understand How to Target Your Audience
One of your biggest doubts as a founder might regard your audience. You have all sorts of questions. Am I reaching the right people? Is there anyone else who might like my product? How does my promotional content come across?
Luckily, SaaS consultants will engage in intensive customer research to deliver all the answers to your burning questions. From this data, they’ll have everything they need to differentiate your products from the rest. Moreover, they’ll figure out what vocabulary your customers use and how best to appeal to them.
When I ran my own SaaS, I used a model where I would interview my target audience and then pitch them if I felt the product was the right fit for them. I even have tips on how to launch a SaaS product using this method.
Get Advice on How to Scale
Scale is the name of the game in any online business. Doubly so for SaaS. However, this is where many SaaS companies fall apart. Your first expansion will put your company in a delicate position.
An intelligent SaaS consultant will plan for this stage ahead of time. Usually, they’ve been around the block and observed the lifecycle of other SaaS businesses. Hence, they will understand the intricacies of scaling very well.
Among these intricacies is knowing when to pivot. Sometimes a sales strategy will become oversaturated. You should be flexible enough to know when to switch marketing tactics.
Extend Your Customer Lifecycle
21% of SaaS users will abandon an app after the first use. Extending the lifetime value of your customers is supremely important. A SaaS consultant will give you tips on how to improve your customer lifecycle based on their experience.
Sometimes, you can use other SaaS tools that are designed to improve LTV. A consultant will recommend the best ones to you. That said, you could go for more traditional ways of acquiring customers like the interviews we mentioned earlier. As a result, you’ll acquire very loyal customers from the get-go.
3 Reasons Why SaaS Companies Fail
According to Tom Tunguz, 92% of SaaS companies fail within the first 3 years. You don’t want to join them, do you? Here are some common reasons why SaaS companies fail.
Marketing to the Wrong Audience
Look, your product is probably fantastic. At least, the idea behind it is. That said, I’m not about to market an enterprise-grade global payroll management SaaS to my local bakery. Sending out cold emails and reaching out to potential clients feels exhilarating. But if you aren’t reaching the right people, your work is all for naught.
Neglect Product Differentiation
At first glance, most SaaS tools look the same. If you take the time to interview and get to know your target audience as I recommended earlier, you’ll get to know their pain points. Armed with this knowledge, you can tailor your marketing material to address some of the common pain points that popped up during those calls.
Don’t become yet another generic SaaS in a sea of indifferentiable products. Even if it means changing your product from what you initially envisioned.
They Focus on Hyper-efficiency
Efficiency is great. That said, it does you little good to be obsessed with squeezing out every extra percentage point when you’re hardly bringing in any money. If you’re making $1,000 ARR, what good does a 20% boost in profits do?
Focus on the tasks that are going to bring in lots of money in raw volume, not percentages, and scale out from there. You can go back and make things hyper-efficient after you’ve built up your clientele.
How Do SaaS Companies Make Money?
This is, quite literally, the million-dollar question. SaaS companies make money by creating a niche, onboarding lots of customers, and maintaining their momentum from that point onward. This is no easy task. The key is to give your customers an affordable price and then scale from there.
How to Price Your SaaS
When I tried to price my first SaaS, I overthought the process a bit. I didn’t know that the best way to price your SaaS product is to make the price a no-brainer. Where your SaaS product generates so much value for clients that making a purchase is a no-brainer.
For example, if your lead generation SaaS generates $10,000 worth of leads for your customers per month, then charging them only $1,000 per month makes sense for everyone. Why wouldn’t they take a risk on this kind of platform at this price?
Helping You Find the right Business Model
In the beginning, you shouldn’t worry too much about your business model. Wait until you have 10-20 clients on board. A SaaS consultant will help you discover the best model for you. Be ready to pivot to a different strategy when the time comes. I’ve seen SaaS companies go through several business models before landing on the right one for them.
How to Price Your SaaS
When I tried to price my first SaaS, I overthought the process a bit. I didn’t know that the best way to price your SaaS product is to make the price a no-brainer. Where your SaaS product generates so much value for clients that making a purchase is a no-brainer.
For example, if your lead generation SaaS generates $10,000 worth of leads for your customers per month, then charging them only $1,000 per month makes sense for everyone. Why wouldn’t they take a risk on this kind of platform at this price?
Helping You Find the right Business Model
In the beginning, you shouldn’t worry too much about your business model. Wait until you have 10-20 clients on board. A SaaS consultant will help you discover the best model for you. Be ready to pivot to a different strategy when the time comes. I’ve seen SaaS companies go through several business models before landing on the right one for them.
Cold Outreach Tips
Some find that cold outreach is one of the most stressful parts of their SaaS journey. It’s easy to get lost when you don’t know what you’re doing. A lot of people who send cold calls tend to focus on themselves rather than the prospect. There is a better approach.
To get you on the right track, you’ll need to look at your pitches a little differently. Your initial pitches should come before you finish coding your product. They should also be exploratory. You’ll be doing some of your research here by conducting interviews with prospective customers.
Find Ways to Get in Front Quickly
Most people send cold emails to prospects and talk about their company first. Your first instinct might be to talk at length, just so you can demonstrate the value of your company. This instinct is faulty.
The interview strategy that I used to pitch clients works beautifully here. You don’t just need to limit yourself to using cold email, especially for B2C. You could find forums like Reddit where people discuss topics related to your SaaS and pitch people using the private message function there too.
Remember That They’re Human
Don’t treat the client as if they’re a client. Rather, you should treat them as a peer who is trying to find the same solution that you are. You can’t dive right in and pitch your product. Especially if you only asked for an informal chat.
Instead, you should empathize with the prospect and ask them about their pain points. Get to understand their problems. This will help you learn more about your target audience regardless of whether you qualify them for the sale.
Don’t Force the Sale
Once you’ve determined that the prospect is ready to buy, you can begin to suggest solutions to their problems. Do this gently, and don’t over-emphasize your product, just its benefits in the context of what the prospect said earlier.
Not to mention, you shouldn’t force the sale via cold email either. It might be tempting for you to link to a product landing page, but those usually don’t look so good in the beginning. After all, you might not have the funds to make the design perfect. And with little to no clients, you won’t have any reliable testimonials either.
Always Follow Up
For some reason, 70% of cold emails don’t get a follow-up. This is strange because, in my experience, you won’t get a reply to your first email 9 times out of 10. You must be persistent.
The other thing to consider here is exactly how you do the follow-up. Some people follow up by repeating the same thing over and over again. Instead, your follow-ups should be more of a bridge. For instance, you could mention a fact that’s interesting to them and invite them to discuss it with them further.
To get you on the right track, you’ll need to look at your pitches a little differently. Your initial pitches should come before you finish coding your product. They should also be exploratory. You’ll be doing some of your research here by conducting interviews with prospective customers.
Find Ways to Get in Front Quickly
Most people send cold emails to prospects and talk about their company first. Your first instinct might be to talk at length, just so you can demonstrate the value of your company. This instinct is faulty.
The interview strategy that I used to pitch clients works beautifully here. You don’t just need to limit yourself to using cold email, especially for B2C. You could find forums like Reddit where people discuss topics related to your SaaS and pitch people using the private message function there too.
Remember That They’re Human
Don’t treat the client as if they’re a client. Rather, you should treat them as a peer who is trying to find the same solution that you are. You can’t dive right in and pitch your product. Especially if you only asked for an informal chat.
Instead, you should empathize with the prospect and ask them about their pain points. Get to understand their problems. This will help you learn more about your target audience regardless of whether you qualify them for the sale.
Don’t Force the Sale
Once you’ve determined that the prospect is ready to buy, you can begin to suggest solutions to their problems. Do this gently, and don’t over-emphasize your product, just its benefits in the context of what the prospect said earlier.
Not to mention, you shouldn’t force the sale via cold email either. It might be tempting for you to link to a product landing page, but those usually don’t look so good in the beginning. After all, you might not have the funds to make the design perfect. And with little to no clients, you won’t have any reliable testimonials either.
Always Follow Up
For some reason, 70% of cold emails don’t get a follow-up. This is strange because, in my experience, you won’t get a reply to your first email 9 times out of 10. You must be persistent.
The other thing to consider here is exactly how you do the follow-up. Some people follow up by repeating the same thing over and over again. Instead, your follow-ups should be more of a bridge. For instance, you could mention a fact that’s interesting to them and invite them to discuss it with them further.
Sign Up for SaaS Consulting Today
In this article, I only gave you a sneak peek into the wealth of knowledge that I possess. After founding 3 successful SaaS companies and 2 successful apps, I know which strategies will take your SaaS to the next level.
From day one, I’ll collaborate with you to develop a long-run strategy to help your SaaS grow and eliminate obstacles along the way. I also realize that you might be impatient, so I can share with you a step-by-step outline on how to get sales for your product from the get-go.
As a former SaaS founder, I know that your time is valuable. Take a quick look and see if my SaaS Camp is right for you.
From day one, I’ll collaborate with you to develop a long-run strategy to help your SaaS grow and eliminate obstacles along the way. I also realize that you might be impatient, so I can share with you a step-by-step outline on how to get sales for your product from the get-go.
As a former SaaS founder, I know that your time is valuable. Take a quick look and see if my SaaS Camp is right for you.
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