SaaS buyers tend to come as a group. In fact, a deal typically involves some 11-20 people on the buyer’s side. This means that it is now more challenging – and important – to nurture all stakeholders involved in the deal.
You might have run an amazing demo and managed to articulate your value proposition perfectly. Still, you may lose the deal because you’ve failed to understand key stakeholders and decision makers – and addressing them.
This is not always easy: the average B2B deal includes some 11+ stakeholders on the buyer’s side, with some deals involving as many as 20 stakeholders. This, in turn, means that you need to care for, and address, as many as 20 people throughout your sales process. Something that can be challenging to say the least.
It is, however, very much possible, as long as you keep a few things in mind. Including:
1. SaaS buyers need to be seen
The first thing to remember is the importance of keeping track of all stakeholders. Basically, you need to know who’s involved and be able to see new stakeholders that are added along the way. Something that is especially important, now, when a majority of sellers see buyer stakeholders change along the way. G2 even performed a study where 68 % of respondents said that decision makers tend to change throughout the journey, and 71 % saw that additional stakeholders are oftentimes added as the process moves forward.
To keep track of who’s who, you may want to use a Digital Sales Room, or some other tool to manage everyone involved. No matter the tool you end up using, the important thing is being able to see what stakeholders are involved and spot new stakeholders as they are invited into the process.
2. Buyers need to be understood
The second thing to keep in mind is that you need to understand your buyers. Who is actually in the process with you, what do they do and what do they need to see to go ahead with your product?
Here, you may want to use social to get an initial idea, but the truly valuable insights will probably not be found there. Instead, you may want to:
- Ask questions during discovery that can help you understand what they need and who they are. Are they a gatekeeper or champion? Are they likely to halt the deal or eager to sign?
- See what material they go through and what seems to grab their attention. This can help you understand what is truly important for them and what you need to provide (this may require that you have a visual of your stakeholders and have a tool for tracking interactions).
- Ask open-ended questions in a chat. If you have a chat available, you could use this to communicate with everyone involved. No matter if they’ve been to every meeting with you or have just been invited into the process.
3. SaaS buyers need to get the right information
The third thing to remember is that every stakeholder needs to be addressed. In other words, they need to be given the information they require to make a decision. Which will be easier to do if you can visualize who is involved and have understood what they need to know.
One way to do this is to share the information your stakeholders require via email. Another is to gather and sort all material in something like the Digital Sales Room we talked about, where your buyer can access all information at all times. The latter can come with a number of benefits. For example, it allows you to:
- Easily share a consistent message with every stakeholder
- Make sure that information is not lost along the way
- Give your buyer stakeholders a one-stop-shop for everything related to your product, saving them a ton of time in the process.
The SP_CE Digital Sales Room lets you keep track of buyer stakeholders and get everyone on the same page. The result can be a quicker deal with a more satisfied buyer. Contact our sales team to see how it works – and start your SP_CE journey today.
