Growing a SaaS Company in a Competitive Market

Growing a SaaS Company in a Competitive Market

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about 2 years ago

by Moestafa Rkhaoui

Growing a SaaS Company in a Competitive Market

Growing a SaaS Company in a Competitive Market

SaaS is a highly competitive industry with a market size of nearly $143.77 billion in 2021. Still, it is expanding fast and is expected to grow by more than $750 billion at the end of 2028. This growth is excellent news for SaaS businesses, especially those looking to launch new products and add value to existing services. However, this also signals increased market competition and an urgency to adopt best practices to avoid business risk and grow sustainably in this industry. This article will discuss some of the best practices that SaaS businesses can adopt to compete in a challenging market.

Building a Client-Oriented SaaS Business

In today’s SaaS markets, client orientation is fundamental to attaining sustainable growth in a competitive environment. Businesses continually seek to gain invaluable insights into customers' preferences, expectations, and experiences for targeted value creation.

Customer satisfaction should therefore be a part of a SaaS company's vision and mission. A company must define its goals to solve specific problems associated with its clients. The business structure, culture, operations, products, and services should be engineered to build a comprehensive client-oriented SaaS service. Take the following measures to construct a client-oriented business successfully:

  • The most crucial measure is stakeholders mapping and management. One of the most popular models for stakeholder mapping is Mendelow’s Matrix. It analyses different stakeholders’ groups based on their power and interests. This model also directs businesses in effectively managing these stakeholders. This measure ensures that a company achieves its goals without conflicting with its stakeholders.

  • This step involves developing and delivering services that solve specific problems and customers' pain points.Customers' feedback is vital to addressing this issue.

  • Another critical step is adopting a proactive approach to adding new features to the company’s products.

  • A company must actively engage with its customers and build dedicated communication channels. For instance, it can regularly issue press releases to inform its clients about new updates.

  • The SaaS industry is continually evolving, and it is vital that a company reacts quickly and effectively to market changes and adapts to new market trends.

Running Targeted Marketing Campaigns

Most SaaS companies that operate as SMBs have limited resources at their disposal. Such businesses must employ intelligent technologies for cost-effective resource allocations. Targeted marketing is a popular trend among SaaS companies nowadays. It is the process of online advertising that involves the utilization of insightful data to target prospects through tailored and personalized ad content.

Targeted marketing involves segmenting its audiences into demographic, geographic, and social categories. The most common targeted marketing strategies are their benefits are listed below:

Targeted Email Marketing

  • Relevant and Reliable

  • Builds Customer Trust and Better Relationships

  • Drives Web Traffic and Generates Revenue

  • Increases Return On Investments

  • Collects Surveys and Feedback

Targeted SMS Marketing

  • Quick and Cost Effective

  • Direct and Accurate

  • Can be Easily Integrated With Other Marketing Channels

  • Increases Customer Engagement

Targeted Social Media Marketing

  • Increases Brand Awareness

  • Drives Web Traffic and Generates Revenue

  • Boosts Search Engine Rankings

  • Higher Conversion Rates

  • Improves Customer Satisfaction and Brand Loyalty

  • Provides Valuable Market Insights

  • Cost Effective

PPC Targeted Marketing

  • Measurable and Traceable

  • Efficient and Effective

  • Provides Quick Entry

  • Provides Control

  • Can be Easily Integrated With Other Marketing Channels

  • Provides Valuable Market Insights

Adopting New Technologies

The SaaS industry has rapidly been expanding and growing in recent years. Most of this expansion is enabled thanks to the adoption of new business technologies. The most important benefits of integrating new technologies are listed below:

  • It improves operational efficiency and brings flexibility to existing workflows.

  • It enables business automation for repetitive operations, thus increasing the overall productivity of operations.

  • Technologies assist with better risk management and help to overcome urgent challenges.

  • Integrating new technologies saves capital and revenue expenditures, especially in the long term.

Growing a SaaS business and gaining a competitive edge in the market is impossible without integrating new technologies. Below we discuss some of the most popular business technologies a SaaS company must adopt to compete and grow sustainably.

Customer Relationship Management CRM Technologies

Customer Relationship Management CRM technology is used to develop, manage, and maintain customer relationships. It offers several unique services, including contact management, lead management, sales forecasting, email tracking, and integrations with other solutions.

Benefits of Using CRM Solutions:

  • Improved Customer Service

  • Increased Revenue Through Sales

  • Improved Customer Retention

  • Valuable Insights

  • Increased Efficiency and Productivity

  • Centralized Communication and Information

  • Accurate Sales Forecasts

  • Automated Reporting

The Most Popular CRM Solutions:

  1. Monday

  2. Pipedrive CRM

  3. Salesforce CRM

  4. Zoho CRM

  5. HubSpot CRM

  6. Zendesk CRM

  7. SAP CRM

  8. Nimble CRM

  9. Oracle CRM

  10. Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Communication and Collaboration Technologies

Both internal and external communications are critical success factors for any business, and SaaS businesses are no exception. Effective communication is essential to business growth, so communication technologies are becoming increasingly popular in the SaaS industry.

Benefits of Using Communication Tools:

  • Improved Teamwork and Productivity

  • Increased Employees Engagement

  • Decrease in Conflicts

  • Increased Interactions and Collaborations

  • Increased Innovation

  • Better Workplace Culture

The Most Popular Communication Tools:

  1. Webex

  2. Fuze

  3. Google Meet

  4. GoToMeeting

  5. Microsoft Teams

  6. Slack

  7. TeamViewer

  8. Zoho Meeting

  9. Zoom

Project Management Solutions

Project Management Solutions are widespread across various industries. Project managers and team members use them to plan, organize, manage, and track projects, tasks, and schedules.

Benefits of Using Project Management Solutions:

  • Improved Project Planning

  • Improved Project Tracking and Analysis

  • Better Resources Allocation

  • Better Scheduling and Time Management

  • Easy Documentation

  • Improved Communications and Collaborations

The Most Popular Project Management Solutions:

  1. Basecamp

  2. Asana

  3. Teamwork Projects

  4. ProofHub

  5. Tello

  6. JIRA

  7. Nifty

  8. Monday

  9. MeisterTask

Cloud Solutions

Cloud computing refers to several services provided through the internet, including servers, storage, databases, networking, and software solutions. Cloud servicing is extremely popular today as it plays a vital role in a business’s growth.

Benefits of Using Cloud Solutions:

  • Reduced IT Costs

  • More Growth and Scalability

  • Little or No Maintenance

  • More Flexibility, Sustainability, and Security

  • Automatic Updates

  • Improved Collaborations and Communications

The Most Popular Cloud Solutions:

  1. Microsoft Azure

  2. Amazon Web Services

  3. Google Cloud

  4. IBM Cloud

  5. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

  6. CloudLinux

Financial Management Tools

SaaS businesses can deploy Financial Management Tools to intelligently manage their income, expenses, assets, and liabilities. These tools record all business transactions according to international accounting and reporting standards.

Benefits of Using Financial Management Tools:

  • Reduction in Errors

  • Better Financial Management and Analysis

  • Improved Compliance

  • Automation of Financial and Accounting Operations

  • Improved Productivity

  • More Transparency

  • Better Planning and Strategy

The Most Popular Financial Management Tools:

  1. Quickbooks

  2. Xero

  3. Zoho Finance Plus

  4. Kissflow Finance

  5. Sage Intacct

  6. Oracle Financials Cloud

Building Invaluable Strategic Partnerships

This article shows that several operations and processes act as critical success factors (CSF) for a SaaS business. Growing in-house capabilities to learn and perform these operations takes a lot of time and effort; that start-ups can’t afford. Partnerships and External collaborations are a great business strategy to reduce risk and scale business growth. Below, we discuss some benefits of building strategic partnerships:

  • A partnership enables two businesses to share knowledge and expertise. This information sharing allows a company to grow without taking uncertain risks. It also provides a business with an instant competitive advantage in its market.

  • Building collaborations with other businesses help in growing the customer base. Companies support each other in a partnership through a direct contract or shared revenue.

  • Building partnerships build trust among internal and external stakeholders and signals a commitment among two businesses for shared growth and productivity. This is excellent news for companies, especially those competing in a competitive environment.

Marketing and Distribution Partnerships

Marketing and distribution partnerships are formed when one business uses the resources of another business to advertise and sell its products. SaaS companies partner up to gain a mutually beneficial competitive advantage. These B2B SaaS partnerships provide an extended network, amplified growth, better brand association, and enhanced product portfolio.

SaaS Recruitment Partnerships

SaaS Recruitment Agencies are expert recruiters responsible for hiring and staffing services. They are the industry experts and have access to a vast pool of quality SaaS talent. The SaaS industry has an extremely short supply of talented individuals and it can take Business 8-14 weeks to find a candidate and hire them. This wasted time is not worth the compromise. That's why SaaS recruitment agencies are the best way to grow your hyperproductive team.

One of the leading agencies in SaaS recruitment is SaaS Talents. It is a group of expert SaaS recruiters and executives who have built successful SaaS companies and know what kind of people in which positions can ensure success in the SaaS industry. So instead of wasting time hiring the wrong person, you should always use a recruitment agency like this to grow your SaaS team.

Setting Up Affiliates and Referrals Programs

Affiliate marketing and Referral programs are becoming increasingly popular among SaaS businesses for growth and scalability reasons. The fundamental difference between the two is that affiliates are third part brand advocates that get a fixed reward for new subscriptions. On the other hand, referrals are created by existing customers to invite new subscribers. Some benefits of setting up an affiliate and referral program are listed below:

  • Additional Revenue Stream

  • Becoming Part of a Like-Minded Affiliate Network

  • Exposure to Broad Audiences

  • Extensive Market Reach

  • Increase Conversion and Retention Rate

Conclusion

The success of a SaaS company relies on implementing several strategic choices, each of which creates unique value. Most of these choices produce organic results, meaning their impact is gradually realized over the long term. The leadership within a SaaS company must be emotionally intelligent and have technical skills and experience for effective decision-making. Managers should strive to provide transformational leadership instead of transactional management. Only then can a company successfully implement all of the strategies mentioned above. 

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