As part of the ritual of examining local commerce and SMB Saas strategies, Localogy goes right to the source: SMBs themselves. How do they feel about marketing and operational software? What features do they want? And how has their hunger changed in a pandemic? This is all a moving target.
Localogy’s Modern Commerce Monitor (MCM) Wave 6.1 answers these and other questions across SMB SaaS, which we preview in this Benchmark Bytes series. After examining SMBs’ satisfaction with in-person software sales interactions, we switch gears to look at the top reasons they aren’t satisfied.
In other words, when being sold software for various operational needs, what are the biggest reasons that SMBs aren’t satisfied with the experience? Pinpointing these SMB objections can be a key step for SMB SaaS vendors to optimize their in-person sales interactions and boost conversions.
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Data Dive
Going deeper, a few insights jump out from these figures.
– The biggest SMB objections to in-person software sales interactions usually focus on the quality of the sales rep.
– For example, the biggest objection (57 percent) was that the salesperson didn’t seem knowledgeable.
– The second biggest objection (50 percent) was that the salesperson didn’t seem prepared.
– Other top results include:
– The salesperson was too aggressive (37 percent)
– The salesperson didn’t listen (32 percent)
– The salesperson didn’t understand the SMB’s business (32 percent)
– The salesperson wasn’t responsive in follow-up activity (31 percent)
– The salesperson seemed ambivalent towards the SMBs’ pain points (21 percent)
– Of all the above results, the greatest delta from the last wave of research was “The salesperson wasn’t well prepared,” going from 30 percent in Wave 6 to 50 percent in Wave 6.1.
– Sales rep quality is an ongoing challenge for SMB SaaS players who are trying to walk a balance between preserving margin and boosting close rates.
– The former is all about streamlining sales interactions (time is money_
– The latter is all about making sure SMBs feel cared for in high-touch consultative interactions.
– An additional challenge comes from the great resignation when SMB Saas players find it challenging to fill local sales roles.
– Lastly, these results point to better training as a potential measure SMB SaaS vendors should take. This can help alleviate some SMB objections such as “aggressive” sales reps.
Time to Shine
Stepping back, SMB online marketing – website-based or otherwise – continues to grow rapidly. SMB SaaS startups and online services providers are correspondingly thriving as it continues to grow as a leading subsector of the broader SaaS universe. There’s a long-tail opportunity at play.
Meanwhile, new SMB SaaS users could represent permanent adopters – a concept that’s accelerated in the Covid era as SMBs are forced to boost their digital transformation. This sends them into the arms of SaaS providers to accomplish a range of marketing and operational functions.
We’ll return in the next installment to go deeper into Localogy original survey research. That will include SMB goals and success factors. Let us know what additional insights jump out at you from the above data, and stay tuned for more breakdowns in our Benchmark Bytes series.
