How to scale your SaaS sales

How to scale your SaaS sales

Founded in 2005, LucidEra was a SaaS startup offering analysis of CRM and ERP data. The company went out of business in 2009, after running into problems with longer sales cycles and its go-to market strategy. The customer base they focused on was sales departments, and the company relied on Salesforce's CRM data, for the most part. However, they did not combine it with data from marketing and finance departments. Like LucidEra, several other SaaS companies have collapsed after inflows of VC funding and failed to scale as a result. Any SaaS startup needs to be confident of their services and pricing, and target the right audience. Once you have a killer product, all you need are a few clear cut sales strategies to aim high. 


 1. Sales and marketing go hand in hand. 

One common mistake most startups make is cold calling just about anybody on their lead list. This not only wastes a lot of time on the sales rep's part, but is also highly inefficient. Generating leads through marketing webinars, conferences, seminars, and social media can help drive sales drastically. Make sure to invest in your marketing strategy, as much as in sales and development.


 

 2. Choose your battles wisely. 

 

Not all deals necessarily generate a profit. Suppose a lead requires you to travel a lot or drags on for ages, taking up valuable time and resources of your sales representative, and it turns out it isn't really worth it. Don't just take any deal that comes your way. Define a set of guidelines for your organization's sales strategy, and stick to it.

 

  3. Customer retention is key.

 

While closing new deals is imperative to scale sales, it's second only to customer retention. Imagine you've closed a deal a couple of years ago worth 10 grand. You've been struggling to close a new deal with a similar amount for the past six months. But that customer from a couple of years back was not properly onboarded, doesn't really have in-depth knowledge of the product, and receives the same impersonal message from support every time. The customer is not satisfied and moves on to a new product. You on the other hand win your new deal, after having spent 6 months of resources. So how have you profited from this exchange?

Scale your support alongside your sales, and you might just hit that balance.

 

 

4. Scale up, don't shave off. 

 

What makes more sense: promoting a few of your experienced sales reps to sales managers, or sticking your rep in the same job for years and paying someone new a ton of money to do the same work? The former leads to greater employee satisfaction and more productivity because they are motivated to put forth their best effort. Instead of starting from scratch with a whole new team, fill the manager positions in-house with the most experienced sales reps.  Then hire one new rep to fill their shoes 

 


5. Give credit where credit is due. 

 

Now this happens in a lot of firms. The superstar of the sales team is the person who bagged a deal worth a hundred grand. Another rep who spends all week closing 10 deals of 10 grand each isn't given the same credit. Laud every employee to what they're due. 


 

6. Go freemium! 

 

Most companies boast stellar prices for their product first and hike it up after a while. Fix your product's price and stick to it. If you think your product is worth the price tag, don't worry that it's on the higher end. Offer a free subscription for the first 15-30 days, and, if it's worth it, your prospect will take the bait. Or you can offer a freemium model indefinitely, with basic features limiting the number of users. Once your user has gotten comfortable and hits their limit or sees the need for more features, they can pay for an upgraded version. A way to stave off users who unsubscribe after a few months is by offering a lower budgeted annual subscription, as opposed to the slightly pricier monthly subscription. 


 

7. Integrate with other products.

 

Let's face it. Your product might be great, but there's always a product out there that has a feature yours doesn't. Facilitating integrations and plugins can really boost your sales. Build a marketplace for your product before you pitch anything to your prospect. 


 

8. You can't do everything yourself. 

 

If you want to go international, you're going to need some help. If you're just starting your business, there's no way you'll be able to set up offices all over the globe. Instead, forge partnerships and get resellers for markets away from home. It's a win-win situation for both parties, and you'll be cutting costs phenomenally. 


 

9. Get listed and reviewed. 

You need a bit of publicity, if you want to climb up the ladder. Get yourself listed on sites such as producthunt.com and capterra.com for ratings and reviews of products, and leverage your product to customers. 

 

10. Network, network, network. 

 

Want valid prospects? Attend tradeshows, meetups, and seminars. Or even better, hold your own meetups, seminars, and workshops for your product, after due marketing research, of course, and gain prospects. This kind of networking allows you to give prosepcts a hands-on experience and interact with them one on one, improving your credibility and your chances of making a sale. 

 

Every Fortune 500 company out there will tell you that there's no simple shortcut to scale your sales. But perhaps with the right sales & marketing strategy, you could bypass roadblocks along the way and get there a few times bigger and stronger than you were before. Not because sales might be the backbone of SaaS businesses, but because it works hand in hand with every other aspect of your organization. 



      Zoho Campaigns Resources


        • Desk Community Learning Series


        • Digest


        • Functions


        • Meetups


        • Kbase


        • Resources


        • Glossary


        • Desk Marketplace


        • MVP Corner


        • Word of the Day


        • Ask the Experts


          • Sticky Posts

          • As Sales Person, Here are my New Year Resolutions. What are Yours?

            Being a salesperson, I keep learning from my mistakes and have noted a few changes that I need to make in my approach. I take these resolutions going into 2021, hoping to keep it going for as long as possible :) 1. I will not say "Yes, our product has
          • Once Upon a Sales Meeting!

            It was an awkward silence in the meeting room "Uproar." John Kowalski, the new sales manager, was not happy with the team's performance. After scribbling something in the notepad, he decided to break the silence, John: I cannot believe you guys have been working like this. No reports, delusional forecasting, random targets, and no eye on the ball. Kevin: We followed Richard's orders. John: Well, Richard is not here anymore, is he? John walked up to the whiteboard, and wrote in big bold letters: "TARGET

          Zoho CRM Plus Resources

            Zoho Books Resources


              Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                Zoho Projects Resources


                  Zoho Sprints Resources


                    Zoho Orchestly Resources


                      Zoho Creator Resources


                        Zoho WorkDrive Resources



                          Zoho CRM Resources

                          • CRM Community Learning Series

                            CRM Community Learning Series


                          • Tips

                            Tips

                          • Functions

                            Functions

                          • Meetups

                            Meetups

                          • Kbase

                            Kbase

                          • Resources

                            Resources

                          • Digest

                            Digest

                          • CRM Marketplace

                            CRM Marketplace

                          • MVP Corner

                            MVP Corner




                            Zoho Writer Writer

                            Get Started. Write Away!

                            Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                              Zoho CRM コンテンツ








                                ご検討中の方

                                  • Recent Topics

                                  • Visibility of Custom Questions in the Question Pool

                                    A colleague is adding our own questions in the question pool for our Employee Engagement survey, but I can't see the questions she has entered, even after refreshing the webpage. Are the custom questions in the question pool only visible to the one who
                                  • campaigns contact lists not exporting

                                    I'm trying to export a specific lead source from my contract list in 'campaigns'. Every time I have to do this the contacts won't export. I have done a search and selected the specific contacts I want to export. The box appears to choose the file type,
                                  • Recipient Field on replies doesn't update with Contact change

                                    Some emails that come into our system come from an online form and the sender address is a noreply@whateverthedomainis.org So in order to reply to the original sender, we need to update/change the contact for the tickets. However, after we change the
                                  • Multicolumns fields for native forms

                                    It would be nice to be able to create forms with multiple columns. Currently, each field occupies a single column, which makes a fairly complex form seem too long.
                                  • Assign values to hidden fields in native forms

                                    It would be great to be able to assign values (static or dynamic) to hidden fields in a form. Currently, I can only assign a value via the URL. I currently have a form integrated with a webhook, but I don't have a way to send useful form data as parameters,
                                  • Migrating Email Content to a Shared Mailbox Address

                                    I am moving my email to Zoho Mail (currently hosted through GoDaddy). I have created a user (me) and I have also created a "Shared Mailbox" Group (through the admin panel) with an email address I will be using as an organization address. My personal email
                                  • Calendly One-way sync- Beta Access

                                    Hello Community, Many of our Zoho Calendar users have expressed their interests in Zoho Calendar and Calendly integration. We've been tightly working on with Calendly team to provide a two-way sync between Calendly and Zoho Calendar. However, there have
                                  • Live webinar: Mastering financial presentations with Zoho Show

                                    Hey there finance professionals! We know many of you are currently knee-deep in report creation mode to wrap up the fiscal year for your organization. Creating a presentation to communicate essential financial data isn’t simple, with all the calculations,
                                  • Zoho Desk Android app update: Accessing the guided conversation bots in the IM module

                                    Hello everyone! In the latest version(v2.9.8) of the Zoho Desk Android app update, we have brought in support for Guided conversation bots within the IM Module. These bots use predefined conversation flows to automate initial responses, handle routine
                                  • Zoho Analytics Embed - Zoomed Right In?

                                    Hey all, I am using the Zoho Show app on an android TV and cannot figure out why, but the Zoho Analytics embed is zoomed right in. When I preview on my laptop it looks fine, when I go in and edit the code, it looks zoomed? Then when it displays on the
                                  • Assistance with Image File Upload in Zoho Creator

                                    Hi , I'm building an application for storyboard creation using Zoho Creator, integrating Gemini AI for automated image generation. In the "Generate Frame" form, user inputs are collected to construct image prompts. Current Workflow: On Validation (Form
                                  • Migrating all email accounts from cpanel shared hosting and email boxes to zoho

                                    I have already read previous articles posted on this forum but none of them suit my needs.So i am currently working for a small company. The company website runs on cPanel shared hosting and the company page is a WordPress website. I recently redesigned
                                  • Domain Change from apkbark.com to apkbark.io – Do I Need to Setup Zoho Mail Again?

                                    I recently migrated my website from the old domain https://apkbark.com to the new domain https://apkbark.io. The Zoho Mail setup was previously configured and working perfectly on the old domain. Now I would like to know: Will my Zoho Mail setup automatically
                                  • How to add different type of revenue under sales ?

                                    How to add different type of revenue under sales ?
                                  • Types of Revenue

                                    i have different types of revenue , I want to see under sales in different categories , while preparing invoice I want to allocated if possible
                                  • Zoho books account recovery

                                    I had submitted a request to restore zohobooks account, but I am yet to get a feedback till now. The email addresses used to access the zohobooks can not access it again. I don't know what went wrong. I need quick attention to this. More details are provided
                                  • Payments calendar for receivables and liabilities by due dates

                                    Hello guys! What method can you recommend for tracking and planning future payments against expected income? We operate on the principle - we expect some income this month, then we look at what expenses are due this month and pay accordingly. I've seen
                                  • Email Search

                                    Has search stopped working for people? Searched on Zoho email content, I get nothing back. Signed out and back in, still same issues
                                  • Zoholics Europe 2025: Your Ultimate Data Analysis (Zoho Analytics) Workshop Experience

                                    Why should you attend? This year, Zoholics Europe 2025 is putting data analysis centre stage. With a dedicated workshop designed to answer all your data-related questions, you’ll gain practical skills, real-time solutions, and expert insights that you
                                  • how i can update client_secret or refresh_token in case if my was stolen?

                                    i want to know how i can protect my data on this case
                                  • [Webinar] CoCreator – Generative AI-Assisted Application Development in Zoho Creator

                                    Hello Creators! The Zoho Developer Community is hosting a webinar on CoCreator – Generative AI-Assisted Application Development to showcase our latest AI capabilities. What's this about? It's all about our latest AI capabilities in Zoho Creator. Instead
                                  • custom fields not populating from deluge script into invoice

                                    Hello, I've created some Deluge script that is meant to take a few inputted invoice custom fields and calculate a few others. I can see when I execute the function that my inputted custom fields are being passed, yet im still ending up with all "null"
                                  • Using English But Dropdowns in Thai

                                    We have selected English in Settings but all of the dropdown boxes are in Thai. How do i change this? The organization is based in Thailand and we are using the THB as our currency, but need the dropdowns to be in English. Please help! 🙏
                                  • Introducing Import Contract API

                                    We are excited to introduce the Import Contract API in Zoho Contracts. Here's a brief overview: Import Contract API The Import Contract API allows you to import contracts directly into Zoho Contracts in any of the following states: Draft Signed Active
                                  • Cambio de Plane

                                    Tenia un plan gratuito, hice una actualización a un plan de pago, salí por completo y entre nuevamente, pero no me deja corregir, pagar o modificar las facturas que había realizado en el modo de prueba. Me da el siguiente error: Factura de proveedor se
                                  • Better integration between Zoho CRM and Zoho Bookings

                                    I've noticed that when a meeting which was created in Zoho Bookings is updated by a sales person in Zoho CRM, the change is not reflected back into Zoho Bookings. I have raised this with support who advised that meetings created in Bookings need to be
                                  • Why is there a limit to JSONString of less 100 characters

                                    having this problem.
                                  • Enhanced crash reporting in Zoho Apptics

                                    All app crashes have the same sad ending: The app dies while the user still wants to use it. But the reason behind each crash? They vary every time. Identifying the root cause and fixing it is already hard work for your dev team. What makes it harder?
                                  • Description column in the "all expenses" overview page?

                                    Hi! I'm new to Zoho Books and accounting. I'm surprised there doesn't seem to have a proper "description" field for the expenses, only "notes", and that I can't have such a description visible on the overview page. So that I can quickly visualize my expenses...
                                  • Only Default Administrator Profile can Convert Estimates Zoho Finance

                                    In Zoho Finance Only the Default Administrator Profile can convert the Estimates A different Profile with the Admin level permission cannot convert the Estimate of someone else to a Sales Order, Only and only the default Administrator Profile Why is that
                                  • Zoho Notebook suddenly running very slow on long notes

                                    I have been a longtime user of Zoho Notebook. Historically, it has run quite well, but I've noticed over the last few days that it has begun to run unbearably slow when typing in large notes, to the point where I can type four words and have to wait for
                                  • Is there a way to pass the source of the chat from SalesIQ to the CRM lead creation?

                                    Currently when I update the values of the visitor and the lead is automatically generated in the CRM it says that the lead source is Chat, but in reality it was from either Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp. Is there a way to make sure that the correct
                                  • Imported tasks

                                    Good afternoon, I have recently setup a test instance of Zoho CRM and am currently working through a data migration from Hubspot usine the API migration tool. I needed to get a feel for how seamless this process was but I am running into an issue. It
                                  • Assigning Leads to Queues

                                    Do you support Queues as Lead Owner? This is a basic function in any CRM. Assign Lead to a Queue group where any member can take ownership by him self.
                                  • Migration of emails from Yandex to Zoho

                                    I am trying to migrate an yandex mail account to zoho mail account. I am confused with all the related articles/informations in the net. Could someone please outline the process to do it, just thinking about me as a novice with limited knowledge or experience. A couple of questions from the knowledge gained. 1. I believe we have to delete the yandex current MX from the website records and add Zoho MX. What happens to the emails as we remove the mail exchange record. Yandex stops updating emails and
                                  • Celebrating 200 posts of Kaizen! Share your ideas for the milestone post

                                    Hello Developers, We launched the Kaizen series in 2019 to share helpful content to support your Zoho CRM development journey. Staying true to its spirit—Kaizen Series: Continuous Improvement for Developer Experience—we've shared everything from FAQs
                                  • Zoho Sheets working offline

                                    Hi, I am looking for the ability to work offline in Zoho Sheets, but currently I cannot find the process to complete this. Does someone have any ideas or steps I might have missed? Also does Zoho Sheets have the "Format as Tables" function as is currently
                                  • Fetching whole month availability via API

                                    We are currently building a custom calendar component that books directly into our client's Zoho Bookings instance. The challenge we are facing is that your API only allows fetching availability one day at a time, which is problematic. Our second workaround
                                  • reCAPTCHA

                                    Is the Bookings form protected by reCAPTCHA, or some mechanism to ensure submission of the appointment request form is made by a human vs. bot?
                                  • Recent enhancements to Bigin's workflows and Associated Products

                                    Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well! We're happy to announce a few recent enhancements we've made to Bigin. Let's go over each one in detail. Enhancement to workflows Trigger workflows when specific fields are modified to specific values Previously,
                                  • Next Page