IN THIS ISSUE
If you're celebrating Independence Day on July 4, have a great holiday.
Today's Driven brings you both timely and evergreen topics:
- What you need to know about changing B2B buyer behavior and expectations. Your buyers are always changing, and SaaS companies have a hard time keeping up. But the SaaS providers that manage to keep pace have big advantages over the ones that don't.
- The disappearing art of selling value (and how to revive it). A generation of sellers has come into enterprise sales without mastering one of its most important skills.
- Brace yourself for massive employee turnover. As many as half of current employees expect to change jobs in the next 12 months. So say several international surveys. Such a huge rotation of employees—if it occurs—will present unprecedented challenges and opportunities for B2B SaaS businesses.
SALES & SELLING | EXECUTION | SKILLS
Selling value: The disappearing art of elite sales performers
Challenge
If you're not selling value, you're competing on price.
Good luck with that in a highly competitive B2B SaaS market.
Why it matters now
Job turnover among sellers is likely to be higher than normal in the coming months. (See the article below.)
Whether you're hiring new sellers or coaching your current team, you'll have a big advantage if your people can sell value over product features or technology.
Ideas to consider
- Value selling has been around for decades. But the skills are uncommon, except among top-performing sellers.
- A generation of sales people has come into enterprise SaaS sales with only a minority having learned to sell value. Only about 40% of all sellers know how to do it.
- Only about half of sellers with more than 10 years of experience can sell value. But among the top 5% of sellers, 97% can. These numbers come from the Objective Management Group (OMG), which runs an ongoing study of almost 2 million sellers.
- Many B2B SaaS companies haven't offered enough training and coaching to their sellers. Instead they've relied on the skills of older, more experienced reps. But those reps are disappearing. As for the sales training SaaS companies do provide, it often focuses on products—not on how to sell business value.
- The bigger and more complex the SaaS products you sell, the more your team needs skills in selling value.
- Some online training courses and many good books teach the essentials of selling value. You can also help enable value selling through the kinds of content you provide to your sellers.
More
For a mind map with resources for selling value, go here. The map contains links to more than 15 related resources.
This version of the min map will disappear after 2 weeks.
After that, you'll be able to copy, download, share, edit, and collaborate on future versions for a fee. You'll also have access to ongoing updates.
mm.tt
BUYERS | BEHAVIOR | TRENDS | RESEARCH
How B2B buyer behavior & expectations are changing: What buyers want from you now
Challenge
The people who buy your B2B SaaS products have changed. Maybe forever.
Chances are good that your buyers have changed more than your company's go-to-market approach has.
Why it matters now
With so much change afoot, opportunities abound. So do hazards.
As economies start to reopen after Covid-19, demand for many categories of software will be strong. The companies that have adapted to new buyer expectations will be ready to thrive.
Ideas to consider
- Some buying decisions have grown longer, and others have accelerated. It's hard to distinguish a pattern. The differences seem to depend on the size of the company, the importance of the buying decision, and the kind of software they're buying. As a vendor, you must be agile to adapt to the pace your prospects set.
- In smaller and mid-sized companies, buying decisions have become more formal. Decisions are more likely to involve a designated buying committee. And the number of influencers has grown.
- Digital content is a major factor in buying decisions. Buyers are generally satisfied with content from vendors. Even so, they'd like to see 3 improvements. Vendors that offer these improvements are likely to have an advantage.
- Content preferences vary with the role of the individual buyer: main decision maker, internal influencers and researchers, technical influencers, or end users.
- Vendor websites are important to the buying decision. Buyers prefer vendor sites that meet 5 criteria. One is transparent discussion of pricing.
- Some studies have found that online ads have little influence over B2B buying decisions. A recent research report suggests otherwise.
More
To view a mind map on this topic, go here. The map contains more than 20 topics and subtopics. It also contains links to more than 8 related resources.
This version of the mind map will disappear after 2 weeks.
After that, you'll be able to copy, download, share, edit, and collaborate on future versions for a fee. You'll also have access to ongoing updates.
mm.tt
WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT
Brace yourself for massive employee turnover in the next 12 months
Challenge
Somewhere between 25% and almost 60% currently employed workers plan to quit their job within the next 12 months. So say several international surveys.
For context, the total US quit rate or voluntary turnover rate was just under 3% across all industries in April 2021.
Levels of employee dissatisfaction vary by country, but they're consistently high around the world.
Dissatisfied workers cite four main reasons:
- Blocked opportunities for personal or income growth
- Irritation with the way their employer has handled Covid-19
- Desire to develop new skills
- Desire to change their line of work
- Desire for more job flexibility
It's already hard to find good candidates for many highly skilled jobs in SaaS.
If this massive turnover occurs, it offers big challenges—and opportunities—for B2B SaaS companies.
Why it matters now
If companies lose so many current employees, expect a host of knock-on effects. Here are a few:
- Disruption of your business if you lose employees
- Longer searches for qualified job candidates—possibly with higher fees paid to recruiters, richer comp plans for employees, more demands for workplace flexibility, more onboarding expense and effort, and long ramp times
- Disruption of your prospects' buying processes and possible delays of your revenue
- More management time and attention invested in staffing, hiring, and other human resource topics
- Risk of compromised customer service, with subsequent risk of reduced customer satisfaction and higher churn
- The need to document business processes for new employees
Ideas to consider
- Fix morale problems now. Keep your finger on the pulse of your workforce. If you have problems with employee morale, take them seriously. Fix the problems before you lose people you value.
- Opportunity to sell HR Software. Do your company sells Human Resources (HR) software for job recruiting and workforce management? If so, a surge in employee turnover presents an opportunity to emphasize your capabilities for attracting and onboarding new employees.
- Deals at risk? Regardless of the kind of software you sell, check the big deals you hope to land in the second half of the year. Make sure you're well connected through several key decision influencers. Don't jeopardize your deal because you're "single-threaded" through a small number of key people who may leave suddenly.
- Mind the payroll tax and reporting laws for new hires. If you hire employees in states where you've never had any, consider the implications for payroll taxes and administration. For some states and local authorities, payroll tax regulations are much more complex than for others. To avoid penalties and tax surprises, be sure your payroll services provider is familiar with tax requirements in all the states where you hire new people.
More
For a mind map with links to detailed research and its implications, go here. The map contains links to more than 8 related resources.
The detailed version of this map will disappear behind a pay wall after 2 weeks.
After that, you'll be able to copy, download, share, edit, and collaborate on future versions for a fee. You'll also have access to ongoing updates.
mm.tt
SHORT TAKES
Savor your cookies for about 2 more years
Take a deep breath. You have a reprieve from Google.
They've given you about 2 more years to break your cookie habit.
Driven issue 64 (June 5, 2021) reported that Google's popular Chrome browser would no longer support the use of third-party cookies beyond 2021.
Google said they're making the change to protect consumer privacy.
The first Google announcement had some SaaS companies wondering how they would survive the loss. That's because third-party cookies have been useful in targeting and retargeting of online ads often. B2B SaaS companies often use such ads in account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns.
Google's moves carry a lot of weight. That's because they're the biggest channel for online advertising. And their Chrome browser commands almost 64% of the browser market globally.
Chrome's closest browser competitor is Apple's Safari, with about 19% share globally. In the United States, Chrome has about 46% to Safari's 38%.
Google announced last week they will end Chrome's support of third-party cookies in the second half of 2023.
Dave Vranicar at Driven
WRAP UP
That's it for this time.
If you've enjoyed this issue of Driven, please share it with a friend or colleague.
They can subscribe here.
See you next on July 17.
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, recommendations, and commissions
When I provide links to content from vendors, does it imply a recommendation or endorsement?
Not necessarily. I share links to sources I think you'll find useful or interesting.
If I recommend or endorse a product or service, it's only because I trust it to deliver good value.
If I think something I recommend may not be a good fit for some Driven readers, I'll share my caveats.
I may receive a small commission if you buy something I've recommended. It costs you nothing. If your purchase could earn me a commission, I'll tell you.
Dave Vranicar at Driven