As more subscription-focused B2B business models proliferate, your business needs to adapt to the unique customer needs of the model. In subscription-based models, the value is not simply acquiring as many customers as possible, but rather selling more of your product to those you already have. The goal is to expand your product throughout your current customer base through a long-term, trusted relationship.
Companies are interested in purchasing SaaS on a month-to-month basis, which means that they are more likely to spend only proportional to the value they perceive they are getting from your product. The customer’s decision to continue a subscription service is contingent on the extent to which your product is meeting their business goals.
This business model also requires a change of approach towards your sales pitch. Rather than chasing new leads to secure, your sales team needs to spend more time focusing on the relationships that you already have. Taking time to follow up, address customer complaints or enquiries and maintain an open communications channel for your existing customers will be the key to your long-term strategic success.
This approach offers an opportunity to generate more revenue per client. By adding new suites to software configurations, upselling new products, features and functionality, and selling value-added services you engage the customers who use your product and want to discover ways the product can further their business goals. You can reduce churn and improve long-term ROI by ensuring that you provide customer satisfaction by answering customer needs.
The following process outlines each step in your expansion as well as the key role needed to successfully execute each one.
Attract:
Role: Your sales team’s responsibility is to attract the customer, without having to sell the entirety of your product. The goal is to generate interest in your product.
Adopt:
Role: Following the closing of a prospective customer, you should ensure that your product is implemented properly and that your customer is using the solution effectively and to their satisfaction. This can be accomplished by customer feedback services, education services or support services teams. These departments should also ensure the renewal process is effective.
Expand:
Role: After a customer has adopted your product, it is important that you focus on expansion. To do this you need to focus on the customer relationship and understand how leveraging that relationship can lead to product expansion and upselling. Sales and marketing should be key to the expansion phase by contributing customer feedback, requests for new content, demos, add-ons, products, etc.
Renew:
Role: Customer satisfaction is key to the renewal phase, as is customer satisfaction. Training a dedicated renewal specialist when a contract is nearing its end date can help to advise the value proposition of the product and continually address customer needs.
Renewing contracts on an automated basis can free up your company’s resources, reduce churn (especially for lower-value contracts), and be far more convenient for the customer.
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