IN THIS ISSUE
This week's Driven brings you these hot topics:
- The fastest way to increase revenue growth by 10% to 25% without increasing customer acquisition costs
- The sales buzz phrase you ignore to your disadvantage
- A simple way to stand out among look-alike competitors. Hint: It's a skill anyone can learn.
- Short takes: How non-writers can post effectively to LinkedIn; trends in account-based marketing; how to prepare the kinds of content your buyers prefer
REVENUE OPERATIONS | PRICING | PRODUCT
How to bump revenue growth by 10% to 25%, without increasing costs
"I’ve found that the average company that changes pricing and packaging increases their revenue growth about 10-to-25 percent just as a result of that change."
Challenge
Many SaaS companies take a haphazard approach to pricing their products.
Responsibility for pricing often falls between the cracks between functional groups. And pricing reviews may not be a high priority.
Opportunity
Review your pricing methods and models. Other SaaS companies are doing so. Many achieve revenue increases in the range of 10% to 25%. They also find their customers are more satisfied.
Ideas to consider
- Set up a multifunctional group to review your pricing and recommend improvements.
- Consider new pricing models, including value-based rather than seat-based fees.
- This is a big and nuanced topic. If you're thinking about changing pricing, do plenty of research. Take advantage of the links below.
Source
"How to Make Pricing A Customer Storytelling Tool." Kyle Poyar. Megan Heuer. Autumn Molay, editor. January 1, 2021. Product Marketing Community. [blog post, interview]
Related
"The Art and Science of SaaS Pricing (Part 1): Finding the Right Model Fit." Andy Stinnes. January 9, 2021. VentureBeat blog.
"The Art and Science of SaaS Pricing (Part 2): Is Per-seat Pricing Dying?" Andy Stinnes. January 9, 2021. VentureBeat blog.
"The Art and Science of SaaS Pricing (Part 3): True Usage-based Pricing." Andy Stinnes. January 9, 2021. VentureBeat blog.
"Risk Discounts and Usage-Based Pricing." Steven Forth. May 5, 2021. OpenView blog.
"SaaS Pricing Guide: When & How to Raise Prices Without Losing Customers." Kyle Poyar. February 4, 2020 OpenView blog.
"Practical SaaS Retention Strategies That Move the Needle (Part Two)." Corey Haines. February 25, 2020. OpenView blog.
"How to Set Value-based Price Points in SaaS." Christian Wirth. January 14, 2021. Cobloom webinar, on demand. [play time 29:00]
The Anatomy of SaaS Pricing Strategy. Profitwell. 2020, [Downloadable PDF. 139 pages. No charge.]
productmarketingcommunity.co
MARKETING | COMMUNICATIONS | MESSAGING
Try this simple fix to make lookalike products stand out from the crowd
"If you're in a highly competitive space, your goal must be precision. Otherwise, people might get the gist from you and the gist from the competition, and after a while they won't remember who said what."
Challenge
Most SaaS companies face intense competition, and it's hard to maintain differentiation in product features and functions. All SaaS products approach functional parity, and today it happens faster than ever.
Ideas to consider
- You can achieve substantial and lasting preference for your products simply from the way you describe them in your marketing materials.
- Most B2B SaaS marketers believe it's most effective to focus on product benefits rather than their features. They also believe shorter copy is likely to be more compelling than longer copy.
- Fascinating recent research suggests that marketers who believe these things are wrong. For details, see the link below.
- Good copywriting is important even for companies that sell complex B2B products. Although you don't sell products directly on your website, good web copy can help you throughout an entire sales cycle.
Effective copywriting has high business value, Yet many B2B marketers have no training to do it well.
If your marketers lack copywriting skills or training, you'd be smart to invest in acquiring them.
As an alternative, you can outsource your copywriting to a pro.
Source
Inside the Buyer's Brain: Avoid the Parity Trap: Differentiating Your Solutions in Highly Competitive Categories. DecisionLabs. 2021. [PDF ebook. 18 pages. No charge.]
This fascinating report upends some basics I thought I understood about copywriting. I've studied the craft for about 15 years and spent a small fortune on training. I thought there wasn't much more to learn.
The research in this piece appears to be solid, though the sample size was small (N=400).
corporatevisions.com
SALES & SELLING | OPERATIONS
How to help your sellers close deals faster, more consistently, and with shorter ramp time
"It has never been more important to crack the code for effective sales enablement. That’s because B2B buyer preferences and behaviors have fundamentally changed."
Challenge
Your sales force is expensive. And it costs you even more when sellers don't achieve their quotas. Turnover increases, and that drives up customer acquisition costs.
The situation is urgent in companies where sellers consistently miss their quotas.
Opportunity
B2B companies can offer their sellers nothing more helpful than effective sales enablement services.
Ideas to consider
- The buzz phrase sales enablement may make your eyes glaze over. It means so many different things that it may be best to avoid the words. Even so, the ideas behind them are essential to sales success today.
- Sales enablement programs have surged in popularity in the past 5 years. Adoption grew by more than 340%.
- Formal sales enablement programs are most common in companies with sales teams of more than 500 people (77% of such companies have them). But enablement is also strong in companies with less than 25 sellers, where about 40% have them.
- About three-quarters of organizations with sales enablement programs see their sales increase between 6% and 20%.
- SaaS companies of all sizes can help their sellers by creating content to use throughout a prospect's entire decision process.
Source
Annual Sales Enablement Benchmark Report 2021. Seismic. April 2021. [Downloadable PDF. 30 pages. No charge.]
Related
"35 Sales Enablement Statistics That Will Blow Your Mind." Aayushi Sanghavi. January 21, 2021. G2 blog post.
"How Well Does Content and Marketing Help Sales Teams? [New Research]." Lisa Murton Beets. April 14, 2021. Content Marketing Institute. [blog post summary of the detailed PDF report that follows.]
Creating Content for Sales Enablement [research]. Content Marketing Institute. Vidyard. April 2021. [Downloadable PDF. 28 pages. No charge.]
seismic.com
SHORT TAKES
Give B2B buyers the kinds of content they prefer
Get the annual survey research report of current trends. The report covers these topics:
- The top content formats that help B2B buyers through their purchasing process
- What kinds of content make buyers more likely to share it?
- How content can make a buyer more willing to take a sales call
- The types of content that resonate in every stage of the buyer’s decision process
- Tips: How to organize content for buyers
- Ways to produce content that better meets buyers’ needs
Content Preferences Survey Report 2021. Demand Gen Reports. On24. May 2021. [Downloadable PDF. 22 pages. No charge.]
What are the current trends in account-based marketing?
Get the annual survey research report.
2021 State of ABM. Demand Gen Reports. March 2021. [Downloadable PDF. 19 pages. No charge.]
How non-writers can create content on LinkedIn
This topic is important for sellers and executives who want to post their own material without going through their marketing department.
In many companies, sellers must post their own content to social channels because they can't count on marketing to fill 100% of their pipeline.
"How Non-Writers Create Content on LinkedIn." Brynne Tilman. Bill McCormick . Bob Woods. Sally Jo LasaMont. May 19, 2021. Social Sales Link. [Video. Runs 10:24]
Dave Vranicar at Driven
WRAP UP
That's it for this issue.
Driven continues to evolve through experimentation and your feedback.
If you don't share your feedback, I'm left to guess what you want.
If you've enjoyed this issue, please share it with a friend or colleague.
See you next on June 5.
Best,
Dave Vranicar
Dave Vranicar at Driven
ABOUT DRIVEN
Driven is a fortnightly digest for busy revenue leaders in business-to-business (B2B) SaaS.
It's likely to be most useful if your company sells higher-ticket products that require moderate to heavy involvement of professional sellers.
Driven is here to help you:
- Achieve your revenue goals
- Overcome your obstacles and challenges
- Fix expensive problems
- Be the best version of yourself.
You'll find an online archive of back issues 12 through 43 at this link.
About links, commissions, and endorsements
When I provide links to articles from vendors, does it imply an endorsement?
Only of their content. Not of their products or services.
If I recommend a service or a book, it’s because I think it’s likely to help you. Period.
I get nothing from providing links to any commercial service, including the books for which I provide a link to Amazon.
That may change. I’ll tell you when it does.
Dave Vranicar at Driven