JuicyKlay profile picture
JuicyKlay profile picture

JuicyKlay

AM

Celebrated Contributor
Politicker
Arsonist
+10

Selling Enterprise SAAS Product in SMB Market

My current company is split into enterprise, mid market, and smb AE's. Our latest SAAS offering is really geared for enterprise clients but the whole sales org is responsible responsible for selling a certain amount by end of q2 2023. 

It has been hard for my SMB team to get interest from prospects and most importantly book meetings because our solution is overkill for most of them. They have to have this type of solution for compliance but most of them can do it in house or get by with a cheaper competitor. Our solution is the best overall but it is on the more expensive side and SMB compnoes don't all need something this great until they grow and become bigger or more high profile.

Have any of you been in a situation like this? What did you say to gain traction with prospects and get these meetings? Once we get discovery and meeting, we're having good success. We just need success getting more meetings. 
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Sunbunny31
Arsonist
5
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Are you able to have "SMB" pricing for this market? Or a "light" version? (instead of prod & backup & sandbox, maybe only prod/backup and a smaller pricetag).

Because then you can leverage company expertise and use the enterprise customers as your use case, and be able to point to the market-sensible price. The "we scale with you" can work for companies that may need a solution, are hesitant to jump all the way into Enterprise, but also see the value in not building something that they'll have to replace in a year when they outgrow it.
jefe
Arsonist
0
🍁
This is key. They'll never buy it with an ENT pricetag, but if you can make them feel like they're playing with the big boys and futureproofing, then that could be a great approach
nomdeguerre
Executive
2
Account executive
It sounds to me like you don’t have product market fit, and you’ll have a hard gain getting interest let alone selling this product in your market segment.

I think you need to go back to leadership with your findings and show that the current approach won’t fit.

It doesn’t mean you can’t sell it in SMB. You might just have to structure the offering different. Maybe an approach where they can get part of the feature set for a lower cost and then add on additional capabilities over time.

But if they don’t need your product and also don’t have the size budget you need, you’re going to have a hard time.
JuicyKlay
Celebrated Contributor
1
AM
Appreciate the response! This isn’t a company where reps interact with leadership so don’t see then changing things. Structuring the offering differently is the move!
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
0
ERP Sales
How would you structure it different @JuicyKlaycurious on how it can be done!
SoccerandSales
Big Shot
1
Account Executive
If your product is too holistic for SMB focus on the aspects that will most affect that size org and then expand upon it once you have a meeting. I think a lot of times SDR’s (myself included) will focus too much on ALL parts of product instead of driving a ton of interest in one or two parts
JuicyKlay
Celebrated Contributor
1
AM
Agreed - need a couple of points that will really resonate upfront.
JustGonnaSendIt
Politicker
1
Burn Towns, Get Money
Yes I have been in this situation.

It's a tough spot. The way we broke thru it was to find ways to pre-package certain high-value workflows at a lower cost for SMB's.

I.e. you need to find a way to reduce the cost and complexity of the solution without significantly reducing quality of outcomes.

It's really tough in SMB, especially with a high-end product, because budget is a major driver and business cases are hard to make make sense.

My best success personally was selling to people that came from larger companies and had a mandate to help accelerate growth of the SMB thru the product area I covered. Essentially they 'get it' and can help be your champion.
saaskicker
Tycoon
1
Enterprise AE
Change the messaging, or sell another product with a phase 2 with this new product in the near future.
CryptoPoor
Opinionated
1
Account Executive
Your situation is exactly what my day to day is.
I'm not sure if it applies to your solution, but our product is a full-on ecosystem that can be sold in "individual" parts.

Since I'm working with smaller firms, I will always start by asking them where they see themselves in the near future.

Most will envision some kind of growth and this is where I paint the picture that our solution will grow with them, as their business needs increase they could gradually add more components until they reach the full package. It creates a longer sales process, but once they are in, it's easier for them to ramp up than switch provider.

Other option is to ask them what would it cost them if they were to replace their current system once they reach the size to justify your product. Is it worth making that extra investment today?
JuicyKlay
Celebrated Contributor
0
AM
You 100% sound like you’re on my team. Thanks for all the insight - this is great stuff
MR.StretchISR
Politicker
1
ISR
In freight game pretty common to drop into the warehouse and try and talk to the man in charge.
Diablo
Politicker
0
Sr. AE
Product Market fit is very important. I understand you are a bit expensive but what makes the solution expensive vs do you offer more or less for that money.

I would try to understand what the cheap competitors are offering that makes them the best fit then I would compare with what we have - do we have much more that they even need? Do we provide something less? etc. Then I would definitely bring this to management through my manager to see if we can create a customized version offering exactly what they need at X price point.

This will not happen overnight for sure.

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