SaaS Sales Guide: How to Close Deals Despite the Pandemic

We haven’t even seen the end of the first quarter, yet our yearly plans need to be built from scratch. Forget about your brilliant business plan for 2020. The economy and market rules have completely changed, and you need to adapt if you want your business to see the end of this crisis.

The scary part is that there’s no rulebook you can follow.

You need to stay vigilant, keep track of changes and new consumer behaviour patterns, and quickly adjust your sales and marketing tactics accordingly. 

Close as much as you can, as fast as you can

Getting cash in your pocket is the most important thing right now. 

Focus on closing as many deals as possible instead of trying to get more value from each sale. For example, you can offer bigger discounts for yearly subscriptions for a quick cash influx.

Under normal circumstances, you would try to do the exact opposite, but these are not normal circumstances. The rules have changed, and you need to change your tactics in order to keep your sales strong.

Don’t waste your time. Things are changing quickly, and no one can predict what’s gonna happen tomorrow. Closing the deal today for less money is more important than closing it tomorrow for more because no one can guarantee that you’ll be able to sell tomorrow at all.

So, act fast and close as much as you can.

Don’t give up before you start

So far, all of this sounded quite pessimistic and discouraging.

Sure, the world is in the middle of a pandemic and the economy is not looking great. In fact, it’s safe to say that we can expect it to become even worse.

With that in mind, you might be thinking that this is not really a good time to sell and that no one will be interested in making unnecessary purchases in these times of financial uncertainty.

But you’re wrong.

Many businesses are still running and selling products. And COVID-19 crisis has especially changed the way we use software.

Remote work was popular even before the crisis, but it has now become a necessity. But it’s not just working from home that’s driving people to rely on software. As we stay home, we seek education, entertainment, and even recreation, so we’re seeing a surge in usage of audio and video conferencing, webinars, virtual classrooms, and online courses.

Just take a look at these traffic changes on G2:

Source

You can clearly see that some software categories are thriving during the crisis. In fact, the demand for video conferencing is so high, that the all-too-familiar industry leader Zoom is now worth more than Uber.

The point is, your SaaS company won’t struggle nearly as much as other product-based businesses and you will keep closing deals. The numbers probably won’t be as high as you’d like, but having enough cash flow to keep your business running till the end of the crisis should be considered a success.

Find opportunities in crisis

Now that you’ve seen these numbers, you can see that it’s not all that bad.

In fact, the current crisis can even bring you new opportunities and new prospects. Sure, you will lose some of your prospects, but your lead funnel will be filed with new ones who are interested in your SaaS specifically because of the current situation.

Here are some more stats to keep your hopes up. Insight from BounceX shows that email open rates have been rising since the beginning of March.

Source

Although this data shows the impact of coronavirus crisis on retail, the numbers are also significant for other industries.

As consumers spend more time at home, they tend to check their emails from computers more often. That makes them much less distracted while checking emails and more likely to take more time to read longer content.

This gives you a chance to focus on more meaningful, content-driven email marketing. You can use an email automation platform to create customized messages and present unique values your software can offer during the crisis.

You might have something to help them start working from home or offer a product that helps automate some tasks, boost productivity, and improve focus.

Whatever you’re product is, find a way to make it useful and relevant to your customers in this difficult and stressful situation.

Don’t be tone-deaf

While you shouldn’t make your pitch all about the current crisis, you shouldn’t pretend as if nothing is wrong either.

Being too pushy and focused on selling will just annoy your prospects and make you seem tone-deaf. On the other hand, if you build your entire pitch around the crisis, you might miss the opportunity to actually convince them to make a purchase.

You need to find the right balance between acknowledging the crisis and trying to sell your product. 

Show your prospects that you understand the difficulty of the situation and then present them with the value your company can offer them in these challenging times.

What to expect in the future

Remember, now is not the time for ambitious goals and high expectations.

Not that you have to be completely pessimistic and give up, but having a realistic understanding of the current situation and accepting that is not ideal can help you keep your business afloat.

The truth is, no one can know for sure what the future brings. You can expect the worst and be prepared. The worst-case scenario might not happen, but if it does, at least you’ll have a plan.

In the meantime, hope for the best, do your best, and stay safe!