The trend I’ve seen in why SaaS companies scale or fail

In the past three years, I’ve worked with over 160 B2B SaaS brands, mostly startups. As a SaaS marketing agency owner, I can see trends in which companies are likely to scale and which are destined to fail.

I want to share some of my thoughts in this blog.

Don’t rely on marketing alone

In the dynamic world of SaaS startups, simply hiring a marketing agency and expecting a flood of inbound leads can often lead to disappointment. While marketing efforts are crucial, they are just one piece of the puzzle.

You need sales and marketing to align

Marketing alone can generate leads, but integrating a dedicated salesperson or team aligned with your marketing strategies will significantly boost your closure rates.

It’s not just about creating awareness; it’s about converting that awareness into action.

Even with awesome marketing, a vast majority of your target audience (over 99%) will recognise your brand but not take any action. That’s where a proactive sales team comes into play. They bridge the gap between passive awareness and active engagement.

The Psychological Edge for Sales Outreach

There’s a profound psychological difference in the reception of a sales pitch from an unknown versus recognition.

When your sales team reaches out, the difference between “Who is this?” and “Oh yes, I’ve seen your company on LinkedIn, attended one of your webinars, and enjoyed your content.” is HUGE.

This familiarity not only warms them up to your pitch but also lays a foundation of trust and recognition.

Integrating Sales and Marketing Efforts

To truly harness the potential of your marketing efforts, ensure that sales and marketing have alignment:

• Target the same people. Sales and marketing should use the same lists of contacts to target. Marketing should reach them first via ads, social media, newsletters, etc., and then sales should build on that awareness.
• Consistent brand messaging: Marketing will learn what messaging gets the most clicks and conversions. Sales will know what messaging resonates on calls. Be sure to communicate this between your teams.
• Marketing should create assets for sales: The marketing team should be arming sales with case studies, eBooks and infographics. Anything that can be emailed to a prospect as an attachment.

Generating demand from within

The other key factor that I see with our successful clients are the ones who have a demand generation strategy supported by internal resources, typically the founder/s. Examples include:

• Webinar series
• Podcast
• Active LinkedIn personal branding
• Talking head videos
• YouTube channel
• Attending events/exhibitions

All of the above activities are fantastic lead-generating opportunities. However, there is only so much your marketing team or agency can do for you, as they require a face of the brand. Non-founders won’t have the industry experience or expertise to create deep-dive, compelling content. In my experience, that must come from one of the founders.

Marketing as a Cog in the Lead Generation Machine

The SaaS startups that succeed with growth are the ones that consider their marketing team/agency a cog in the lead generation machine rather than the whole machine itself. The lead generation machine consists of marketing, sales outreach, and founder-led demand generation.

In essence, while marketing draws the crowd, it is the harmonious interaction with sales and founder-led initiatives that engages and converts them into lasting customers.