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Sales strategy for digital products
How do you build a sales strategy that fits the dynamics of SaaS? We interviewed Jurjen van Rees, founder of The Fractional Sales Leader. Sales in the SaaS world is often fundamentally different from traditional businesses. While other companies depend on one-time transactions or direct services, SaaS revolves around scalability and long-term relationships. A great product and lots of leads are important, but they don’t guarantee revenue growth. Especially when selling to corporates, customer retention is crucial. In this interview, we dive deeper into the unique challenges and success factors for SaaS sales.
Traditional vs. SaaS sales
Sales for SaaS companies differ from traditional businesses, especially in how they grow. Traditional companies often sell services or physical products, while SaaS companies scale without the need for additional physical resources. But selling SaaS products isn’t as straightforward as it seems. Even though no extra materials are required, a good product and lots of leads don’t automatically lead to major revenue growth. SaaS companies selling to large corporates focus on long-term customer relationships and subscriptions. That’s why customer retention is crucial for growth.
“Over the medium term, sales acts as a kind of antenna in the market.”
The role of sales in SaaS
The role of sales depends heavily on the stage the company is in. In the early phase, the main focus is simply reaching the first customer. A smart strategy for early-stage SaaS companies is to hold off on hiring sales staff until they’ve closed their first contracts with a handful of customers—or gathered feedback from potential clients.
In later stages, sales remains important but shifts towards building a predictable commercial engine. The focus then is on closing deals and retaining existing customers. For product development and business strategy over the medium term, sales acts as a kind of antenna in the market.
Getting started with SaaS sales
In the early stage of a startup, everything revolves around building and selling the product. That means you need someone to build the product and someone else to sell it. They must work closely together to close deals, gather market feedback, and, if possible, get the product into customers’ hands.
It starts with creating a prototype and actively listening to feedback from potential customers. You reach out to prospects as early as possible and continue developing your product based on their needs. It’s important to make clear agreements with customers for your first contracts in the form of a Proof of Value. Using the term “Proof of Value” instead of “Pilot” changes the perception for both the customer and the company—it signals that the goal is to create additional value with your SaaS product.
Communicating your product roadmap to customers is crucial for long-term engagement. It shows that you’re listening. At the same time, you’re laying the foundation for your sales strategy. These steps form the basis for a successful early-stage sales process. Later, you can grow your sales team—but these are the essential steps to start strong.
Build your SaaS sales team
The types of people you need for a successful sales team depend on how much specialized knowledge is required to sell or use your product. It’s nearly impossible to find someone who is both technically skilled and commercially minded, with early-stage sales experience. That’s why a founding team with both a technical and a commercial co-founder makes such a strong duo in the early phase.
Technical expertise is essential for tech founders, especially if your product is complex. The challenge is that, at first, you can only reach a limited part of the market. In the beginning, you—as the founder—are responsible for everything. You need to make the first sales yourself before bringing others on board.
Entrepreneurship means having the courage to pick up the phone. It means being able to handle chaos. Those are the key qualities you need in the early days of your company.
“You need to be flexible and able to respond to changes and feedback coming from the market.”
Launch a new digital product
While there’s no fixed playbook for launching a SaaS company, the process generally includes these phases:
- Build a team around an idea
- Test your assumptions in the market
- Develop your digital product
- Bring it to market as an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
It’s a dynamic process that depends heavily on circumstances and the complexity of the product. You need to be flexible and able to respond to changes and feedback coming from the market. It’s not a black-and-white process, but rather a marriage between sales and product development. You also need to actually launch the product—and that can sometimes be messy. That’s exactly when you need to push through and continue the rollout to see how it lands in the market.
Sales & marketing alignment
I believe that in the early stages of your company, your team should only include the essentials: product development and sales. Only once you’ve reached a certain level of revenue—say, 100k MRR—should you consider adding marketing. If you start marketing too early, before your sales funnel is solid, you risk wasting money. So first, optimize your funnel before investing in marketing.
Avoid these mistakes in SaaS sales
Overpromise
A common mistake is making too many promises to customers out of enthusiasm. This often leads to problems fulfilling those promises. The key is finding the balance between technical caution—or realism—and commercial drive—or opportunism.
Lead qualification
Another mistake is spending too much time on leads that you should actually disqualify—because they’re not the right fit. A funnel filled with poorly qualified leads will inevitably cause delays and distractions.
Volume
The third mistake is that companies forget they need to generate enough volume. They sometimes assume the market is small—but that’s not necessarily the case. In the beginning, you simply need to generate a lot of leads. On top of that, you must be extremely strict and disciplined when it comes to building data about your leads and customers.
How to measure success?
The success of sales within a (SaaS) company is measured by looking at several factors. You can make forecasts based on the length of your sales cycle, the number of leads you have, and your conversion rate.
By understanding your marketing criteria and mapping out the market well, you can increase or decrease your success factors. For example, if you’re regularly closing deals and noticing that it’s getting easier, you’re doing something right at that stage.
It’s important to understand that the better you control your process, the more you can achieve. But sometimes you also hit a ceiling—especially when working with large companies. It’s essential to know how much time you’re spending in each stage of your sales process, so you can optimize your sales cycle. In short, measuring success isn’t just about revenue and euros—it’s also about understanding your sales funnel.
Trends & developments
It’s difficult to predict the future of sales for SaaS companies with certainty. Many young founders still believe in the idea of quick wins and instant success. They often try to solve that dilemma by generating high funnel volume using weak content and unqualified leads. But good sales requires personalization and market research.
Another emerging trend is that CRM systems are increasingly capable of measuring the operational side of sales, especially in more established companies. This will help optimize processes and reduce costs. Companies focusing on growth strategies—like improving the sales experience—are becoming more important.
While AI can support marketing, personal contact—especially by phone and in live meetings—remains essential. This is especially true when selling to large companies. The personal conversation, especially the informal chat at the coffee machine before a meeting, is still the crucial sales moment. Even now. That conversation is the most socially complex, especially when there’s no screen in between.
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