Customer focus is not a new idea, but the difference between theory and practice can be striking from one business to another. Achieving customer service excellence begins with values and culture, but in a high-volume business it must also be ingrained in process. The best values in the world will not help if your salesperson fails to satisfy your customer due to faulty systems or information. In fact, over time faulty service processes will erode even the strongest cultural values, because everyone will lose faith as they see the hypocrisy between what you promise and what you can actually deliver.

It is more likely than not that your high-end enterprise software competitor qualifies out and ignores your sweet spot prospects, because it cannot service them profitably. This creates frustration that you can turn to your advantage by outperforming the competition in good old fashioned customer service. However, this advantage will be forfeited if you fail to establish a strong service culture and back it up with the right sales support systems, including your web site, communications infrastructure, sales automation, selling tools, training and interdepartmental cooperation, so that your sales team can deliver the goods.

Build the Right Team for the Job and Keep it Motivated

Sales is a tough job in any industry, but it is particularly so in SaaS. The skills required to bring in a $1M quota when the average deal value is $10K are distinctively different from those required when the average deal value is $1M. That’s 100 deals vs. 1 deal, and that can easily translate into 100 times the activity level and 100 times the frustration if sales staff are not supported by the right management, process and culture. SaaS sales reps are a unique breed and must possess a personality with an extremely high level of energy and enthusiasm that thrives on human interaction and constant activity. But, even the most energetic sales rep will need frequent encouragement and regular breaks in the action to maintain the level of motivation necessary to succeed over the long haul.

How this is accomplished will vary by organization but public celebration of individual success, ongoing coaching and mentoring, team building activities and a few fun perks are good places to start. Beyond that, it is a matter of hiring the right people, because hiring the wrong salesperson can be a very expensive mistake in terms of lost revenue and costs. To balance sales performance against acquisition cost, it is important to find candidates with just the right skill fit for the job. Over-hiring and under-hiring are both easy mistakes to make. You should develop a clear understanding of the ideal candidate profile required for success in your specific business before conducting a single phone screen.

Maximize Customer Lifetime Value

One of the great benefits of the SaaS subscription model over licensed software is that you don’t have to re-book every dollar you made last quarter before you can grow revenue this quarter. Every new booking leads to increased revenue, because it is layered on top of renewal dollars. That is, if you maintain a low rate of attrition. For the SaaS sales executive, responsibility for revenue does not end once a deal is closed. It has only just begun. Don’t expect your customers to hang around if they suffer from poor ongoing customer service, technical support or product quality. While you may not have responsibilities for all these areas, you definitely have an interest and you should cooperate with the rest of the executive team to ensure that your customers receive the ongoing care that they need after the initial deal is done.

Sales Process Efficiency

I claimed that the essence of the SaaS sales operation is volume and speed, and that depending on average deal size each sales rep may need to close on the order of 100 opportunities to make quota. As such, a close ratio of 10% vs. 70% means the difference between having to manage 1000 opportunities vs. 150. The efficiency with which the sales process is orchestrated impacts the business from top to bottom. Strategically, it determines the sales expense contribution to acquisition cost, while its practical impact is personally felt on a daily basis by the sales team with a direct correlation to rep motivation, burnout and turnover.

Consistently Increase Contribution

Assuming that you have mastered the art of knowing where to push and where to pull in your market, you still have the challenge of applying the exact amount of force required to close each individual deal. Apply too much, say too many reps or too much experience for the job at hand, and your acquisition cost exceeds the deal value. Apply too little, and you miss opportunities or lose deals that could have been won with just a little more effort. Stray too far too often in either direction and you cannot scale profitably.

When you are knee deep in the sales strategy for a specific deal or the details of your latest improvement to your pipeline management process, you should never lose sight of the fact that these activities are only the various means to a single financial end. The ultimate goal is to maximize sales contribution, i.e., revenue - selling cost. It is impossible to scale profitably if the operation that supplies the fuel for the business burns more than it provides. As the SaaS sales executive, you must show the same ownership of contribution that you show for revenue.