Ask HN: What process should I use to find SMB prospects for a B2B SaaS product?

#1

Post by atrniv » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 5:27 AM UTC

I'm currently trying to build an outbound sales process for our SaaS product. One of the biggest challenges I'm facing is figuring out how to reach out a large number of SMBs. I have previously tried marketing focused approaches but they have been very slow and expensive to do. I'm currently trying to follow the process described by Aaron Ross in the book Predictable revenue. One of the main things I'm trying to figure out is different sources for obtaining highly targeted prospects with contact information.

What are the some of the ways in which you prospect for your B2B products ? What's the best way for me to completely automate the entire process ? Do I hack several products together or go is there some solution out there which already does this ?

Re: Ask HN: What process should I use to find SMB prospects for a B2B SaaS product?

#2

Post by brudgers » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 3:25 PM UTC

Why not just call on people in the traditional ways?

Buying leads for a SAAS seems a bit absurd in so far as nobody has ten years of data on SMB's buying SAAS products. And nobody has more insight into your potential customers than you.

Yeah, it's hard work and it won't scale from 1000 customers to five million customers worldwide overnight. Scaling anything from 1000 to 100000 will require completely new systems across the organization anyway. And that's a good problem to have relative to never getting to 1000 customers.

Generally, the best thing to do for sales is to get out of the building.

Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: What process should I use to find SMB prospects for a B2B SaaS product?

#3

Post by schwinn » Thu, Aug 24, 2017, 4:23 PM UTC

brudgers wrote: post #2

Why not just call on people in the traditional ways? Buying leads for a SAAS seems a bit absurd in so far as nobody has ten years of data on SMB's buying SAAS products. And nobody has more insight into your potential customers than you. Yeah, it's hard work and it won't scale from 1000 customers to five million customers worldwide overnight. Scaling anything from 1000 to 100000 will require completely new systems acr…

Brudgers is right. You have to get out of the building and actually talk with prospects. It will not only help you understand the pain points your product/service solves, it will earn you credibility with your customers.

Recommend reading Guy Kawasaki's book, The Art of The Start. I believe his best advice is to work with customers and get paid to solve problems as a consultant first. That way, you're earning money at the same time.