U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups U.S. GTM Strategies to close enterprise deals in the U.S. and retain them Arjun Pillai Karthik Sundaram © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups PREFACE The U.S. enterprise market bought $139B worth of software in 2023 and projected to grow by 5% CAGR There are typically 4-6 buyers for every purchase decision A buy decision takes anywhere from 6 to 18 months Subscription software is under increasing scrutiny by the CFO for ROI metrics © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups PREP TIPS Position your product to answer their problem • Use active voice • Deliver a message to their most pressing problem • Sell ONE solution to their pain point • 7 words or less on the website home page to reinforce the positioning message © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups PREP TIPS Build a progressively technical content arsenal • As customers dig deeper, feed them product-level content relevant to their problem—videos, data sheets, battle cards, whitepapers, etc. Most buyers want to find as much about your product as possible before revealing their intent • Assume all content will be shared so make it shareable without gating • Content download is NOT a lead opportunity, but a nurturing strategy © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups PREP TIPS Be proactive about Security and Code Audit • If your product is going to consume their internal data, be sure your product has the required security and code audit to build confidence right out of door, not as an afterthought • SOC 2 Type 1 and 2 are a must. Get them ASAP. The earlier you start, the easier it is to get it. © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups PREP TIPS Make UX an intrinsic part of your marketing mix • Investing in design and cognitive workflows are important as prospects explore your freemium offers • If it doesn’t make sense or offer stickiness of value, they will simply drop off © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups ENGAGE TIPS Hang out where your champions are • There are many user groups where your prospects and possible champions are hanging out–Slack groups, Discord etc. • Engage in discussions, and more importantly, learn about customer problems © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups ENGAGE TIPS Engage with partners early on • Build tech integrations with partners wherever possible. Midmarket and Enterprise customers love mutually working tools. They won’t even know how to assess the depth. In their mind, it’s binary. Either integration exists or it doesn’t • Most US companies will not be comfortable allowing your code to run on their ecosystem out of the box, partners can help ease these fears © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups ENGAGE TIPS Create partner revenue opportunities • Even though SaaS premise is thought as self-service, buyers/ users are not going to be software operators • System Integration partners can play a key role only if they see revenue opportunities in your product—sales, implementation, maintenance © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups ENGAGE TIPS Leverage conferences to create your in-person events • It will be difficult to meet prospects during conferences. Smart entrepreneurs we have worked with create their own mini-events and bring partners and champions to the event • Use events as a learning platform instead of trying to sell. You can always sell later once you KNOW their problems © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups ENGAGE TIPS Demo to the problem, not your features! • Be as informed as possible about the context for the demo, and sharpen the flow to deliver value to their problem, not show off your features © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups SELL TIPS Ask the difficult questions. (It’s OK, unlike in India) • Who all should be part of this decision? • Is there an established budget already? • Are you looking at other vendors? • What is your timeline? • Can I demo it to the rest of the decision makers? © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups SELL TIPS Sell with the CFO in mind (aka tougher questions) • CFOs are increasingly questioning the SaaS spend metrics and are cancelling renewals • The better prepared you are to show stickiness, ROI, and other metrics, better are chances to close the sale • Upfront annual fee collections are dead. Be prepared to invoice every month and sustain cash flow © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups SELL TIPS Multi-thread deals • Almost all deals have 4+ decision makers. Make sure you know all of them during your sales cycles • Build content, engagement sequences, and intent mapping threads across all decisions makers Image rights: Gartner, B2B journey © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups SELL TIPS Build urgency into your communication, demos, and offers • Trigger conversations around changing regulations, competition transformation, opportunity loss and so on, from industry insights to shorten the “Why Now” delays © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups SELL TIPS Ride on the shoulders of giants • Invest in building a phenomenal group of advisors (you have to be generous with equity and commissions) who have sold similar products, or are hugely networked in your space • Be prepared to pay upfront fees, no one works for free • School and college alumni are great resources to provide introductions for the right context © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups RETAIN TIPS Build Social Proof • Give discounts to earlier customers in return for testimonials and case studies. Built social proof • Once you get a few of them to be your champions, use them as reference for your later fund raises or big enterprise references © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups RETAIN TIPS Invest in PMM and Customer Marketing • Indian startups ship features and improvements rapidly, but don’t communicate this well with existing customers. Buyers love fast paced solutions since it is proof that they made the right call by choosing you Image rights: https://www.writingbyryan.com/3-joys-of-product-marketing/ © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups RETAIN TIPS Support > Low price • If you expect buyers to be satisfied with your low price and a poorly developed community forum as the only form of support, be prepared to be disappointed with churn. Your only USP is absolutely amazing support • Offer proactive user training sessions and distributable packages. Your champions would love it © 2023-24 | All rights reserved U.S. Enterprise GTM for SaaS Startups AUTHORS Arjun Pillai is the Co-founder and CEO of his 3rd start up, DocketAI, building out the next generation sales engineering product. His prior companies include Profoundis (founded in Kerala and sold to Full Contact in Colorado), and Insent (acquired by Zoom Info.) He is a frequent speaker and publisher on topics related to SaaS, product development and marketing, and customer-centric thinking. Karthik Sundaram is the CEO of Purplepatch Services, the B2B digital marketing agency driving content, context, and conversions for SaaS products, IT Services, and cross-border venture-backed companies. He is a frequent publisher on SaaS marketing, B2B intent science, and digital demand. He was an investor and sales enabler in both of Arjun’s previous companies. As full disclosure, both authors look significantly older in real life. We both share a passion in helping start ups, cross-border ventures (especially from India), and the belief that sales happens when a prospect is able to trust the founder (the technology, not so much!) © 2023-24 | All rights reserved
