Sales and Marketing Funnel Transformation for SaaS Companies
The traditional sales and marketing funnel has been a staple of consumer businesses for decades. It involves attracting potential customers, converting leads, and guiding them through linear stages towards a final sale.
However, for SaaS companies, this traditional funnel approach is outdated. The rise of digital channels, changing buyer behavior, and subscription business models has necessitated an evolution.
In this post, we’ll explore how the sales and marketing funnel has transformed in the SaaS era, including:
- The shifting dynamic between acquisition and retention
- Account-based marketing and sales development
- Subscription optimization and customer lifetime value
- Data-driven personalization and automation
- Experimentation and optimization culture
Let’s dive in to understand how successful SaaS companies are reinventing the funnel.
The New Priority: Retention Over Acquisition
Traditionally, businesses focused heavily on acquisition at the top of the funnel. More visitors, leads, and trials were always better.
But for SaaS, this narrow focus on acquisitive growth is dangerous without commensurate retention efforts.
With subscription models, a leaky bucket will sink a SaaS faster than limited acquisition channels. Churn has to be minimized.
That’s why retention is now prioritized on par with or above acquisition. Tactics like in-app messaging, customer success, and churn analysis get as much or more attention than acquisition channels.
The key is to acquire the right customers and keep them engaged for recurring revenue, not just grow at any cost.
The Rise of Account-Based Strategies
SaaS sales and marketing is increasingly done on an account basis rather than only engaging individual leads.
Account-based marketing focuses on targeted outreach and messaging for high-value accounts versus generic lead generation tactics.
Similarly, sales development representatives use account-based selling techniques for meaningful company-wide engagement over one-off emails to individual prospects.
This shift recognizes that buying decisions are made collectively within accounts. Orchestrated account engagement drives conversions better than isolated lead outreach.
Maximizing Customer Lifetime Value
With recurring subscriptions, the lifetime value (LTV) of a customer is more important than the initial deal size.
SaaS sales and marketing has had to evolve from only closing deals to optimizing renewal rates, upsells, and retention.
Tactics like usage-based pricing, negative churn, personalized in-app messaging, and customer win-back offers help maximize LTV.
The onboarding and first 90 days are also critical to boost retention. Strong LTV enables more spending on acquisition too.
Data-Driven Personalization
SaaS allows for unprecedented data collection about customer engagement and usage. Successful companies leverage this for 1:1 personalization.
Marketing and sales messages can be tailored based on observed behaviors and attributes. Usage data informs upsells and renewals.
Buyer journeys are mapped at an account and contact level. Outbound campaigns are triggered based on factors like product adoption status.
The data also enables predictive modeling to assign scores to accounts and guide sales rep interactions and playbooks.
The Testing and Optimization Culture
SaaS businesses operate in a state of constant experimentation and optimization, enabled by the data at their disposal.
Sales tests new prospecting outreach cadences and scripts. Marketing A/B tests email copy and landing pages. Pricing variants get tested.
By continually testing and iterating, the funnel evolves. Bottlenecks and leaks get discovered in real-time through attribution tracking.
This culture allows brands to keep improving the customer journey as new challenges emerge. Agility matters more than perfect strategy.
Funnel Transformation in Action
Let’s look at some real-world examples of SaaS companies evolving their sales and marketing funnel:
DocuSign
To accelerate enterprise onboarding, DocuSign implemented a hands-on “white-glove” customer success program for large accounts. This provides dedicated support and training during a 6-week implementation period to boost activation and retention.
Account executives also receive automated alerts in Salesforce based on usage data and can reach out to nurture and upsell accounts accordingly.
MongoDB
MongoDB created an interactive online learning platform called MongoDB University to educate users and improve product adoption.
Course content is personalized based on the customer’s database and industry. Users earn certifications to incentivize participation.
This content marketing and training platform helps users successfully activate, allowing the sales team to focus on higher-touch, strategic conversations.
HubSpot
HubSpot leverages analytics to predict customer churn risk within their CRM platform and then triggers tailored win-back and retention campaigns.
Account history, usage data, and other attributes feed a machine learning model to assign a churn score in real-time.
High-risk accounts are routed to the customer success team for proactive retention efforts based on predictive insights.
WalkMe
WalkMe’s digital adoption platform features in-app guidance, onboarding, and training capabilities to help SaaS companies improve activation and retention.
It allows users to embed interactive walkthroughs and popups that guide customers along the optimal journey in a personalized way.
The company also makes extensive use of surveys and NPS feedback to inform ongoing customer journey optimization.
Key Takeaways for Your Funnel Transformation
The sales and marketing funnel will keep changing, but SaaS companies can stay ahead by embracing these modern approaches:
- Obsess about retention – It’s the new acquisition for sustainable growth. Use data to reduce churn.
- Take an account-based approach – Orchestrate personalized engagement across buying groups.
- Maximize lifetime value – Not just short-term sales. Continually add value post-purchase.
- Leverage data for personalization – Tailor messaging and offers based on intelligence.
- Adopt a testing mindset – Experiment, analyze, optimize – then repeat.
With the right funnel strategy that aligns to the SaaS business model, growth at scale becomes achievable. Reimagine the sales and marketing process for the digital age.