Digital transformation is dominating the business landscape, and Software as a Service (SaaS) is becoming an essential part of everyday business. More and more companies are now utilising multiple SaaS platforms to enhance and improve the management of their processes and operations.
Gartner forecasts SaaS to remain the largest market segment and grow to $117.7 billion this year. The pandemic has forced organisations to adapt and focus on their priorities: optimise spending, establish remote processes, maintain sales, and ensure resiliency and that means businesses are now looking to address their needs through cloud-based software.
As more businesses shift to the cloud, SaaS businesses are finding that the competition is becoming tighter than ever. The increased demand for new SaaS tools has intensified the need for SaaS businesses to start scaling up – and they have to do it fast.
What does this mean for SaaS?
For some, it could mean opportunities, and for others, it could mean a make-or-break chance to start scaling up and revisiting their processes.
Here are some of the growth opportunities that SaaS businesses can leverage and how we could partner with them to help them realise their potential:
Many businesses are using SaaS to optimise costs. Both small and large organisations are utilising SaaS in some form, and as these options continue to expand, this percentage will only increase. Recent research finds that by the end of 2021, 99% of organisations will be using one or more SaaS solutions.
The SaaS market is growing at 30% per year. A study carried out by Synergy Research Group showed that the SaaS sector is continuing to grow at 30% per year, and according to a June 2019 Crunchbase report, there are over 15,500 SaaS companies worldwide, with these numbers only going to increase.
Many businesses are finding new ways to connect with their customers. With customer success on the rise, many SaaS businesses are adopting ways to prioritise the value they can provide to customers and gain a competitive advantage.
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Overall, the rise of SaaS will continue moving forward, as many businesses utilise SaaS in their organisation. On the other hand, SaaS businesses themselves are innovating their growth strategies, with more of them focusing on their customers and value to generate sales.
What is in it for SaaS businesses?
It means that as the market is growing, more businesses are entering, and more customers will likely become their target market. Businesses often get lost in a large pool of customers, and it is crucial to find the right customers and fit in the market to continue growing.
Ask yourself:
- Do you know who you should target?
- How do you keep up with your market?
- Do you know your customers enough to know their definition of success?
Becoming customer-centric is a crucial element for any successful SaaS organisation. After all, a business that depends on retaining customers year on year for top-line revenue must prevent customers from cancelling their subscriptions. To retain customers for the long term, organisations are building relationships with their customers to meet their long-term business objectives.
The key to building long term success for any SaaS business is knowing who your target market is. In a fast-moving market, you must have an intimate understanding of who you target and why. Documenting and continuously improving the knowledge of your target customer personas is essential to enabling your business to adapt to the needs of your customers and target market.
A customer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer. It is a tool that can align everyone across your organisation to understand who your customer is, how best to serve them and what customers motivations are. Creating customer personas and using them to guide your business can help keep you centred on their needs.
Once you know your customer personas, are you using them to effectively communicate and engage with prospects and customers across every touchpoint in the customer journey?
One way to adapt how you engage and communicate with your target customer is through DISC profiling.
DISC is a behavioural profiling tool that you can use to help individuals better understand their personality, behavioural traits, and impact on others. It is a powerful tool to understand yourself and how you communicate within your teams, with others across your organisation, and your customers.
The four different behavioural profiles are:
- Dominance
- Influence
- Steadiness
- Compliance or Conscientiousness
By utilising DISC within your business, you can improve your communication with your customers by building trust, rapport, and credibility.
Want to know more about DISC?
You can download our free factsheet here – highlighting some of the critical behavioural attributes that customers demonstrate to help you identify their preferred style.
Our team at Ellivate are DISC ADVANCED® accredited, which is the world most advanced DISC assessment. Unlike other personality tests, these assessments were designed for the workplace from the ground up.
The assessment measures both the subconscious real self and the conscious behavioural styles. It permits evaluation of the impact of the work environment and potential job pressures on the person.
You can find out more about this program here.
Various reports are available depending on your need, including DISC Profile, DISC for Leadership and DISC for Sales.
About Ellivate
Ellivate is the expert partner helping organisations and their go-to-market team’s scale.
Our powerhouse team of industry experts – with a combined 60 years of experience across the fintech, corporate and technology spaces – will work alongside your business to achieve your goals.
We have a shared passion for working with businesses to achieve rapid growth and apply an authentic, human layer of expertise that addresses the real challenges and concerns at the heart of your business.
We will work alongside you as a trusted and expert partner. We get in the trenches and ensure every solution is embedded within your business.
