Scaling your software business in the easiest, quickest way possible is not as easy as you think. There will be times when you are bound to make wrong decisions and commit unfortunate sales mistakes, which can stop you from achieving your dreams.
The good news is you can avoid these mistakes before you make them, and this guide tells you what you should not do at all costs. This applies to both new and seasoned software founders, anyone who wants to scale their business.
1) Not Learning About The Market
Understanding your niche or market is critical.
As a B2B software business owner, you need to know what your clients like or what they don’t like. It is also imperative to identify three things: what they are striving for, what they care about, and what they are worried about.
Apart from that, you need to make sure you are not just talking to a few people; instead, you need to be having conversations with at least 30-50 different people to have a better understanding of your customer profile and the best user persona.
That way, you can market properly and sell quicker.
2) Not Implementing the Right Sales Process
The best way to scale is to do things right the first time.
More often than not, when you launch a product, you would be worried that people would never hear about it.
As a result, you might go through all kinds of steps to market the product.
However, things get problematic once you get leads because they need to be sold at once. Most software founders don’t put as much effort into their sales process development as they did into their marketing.
Sure, you may have worked hard and spent precious resources to market.
However, if you don’t have the right sales process, the leads that you have generated all this time are good as gone.
Ouch.
Instead, learn how to create and implement a sales process that delivers closed deals.
3) Trying to Hire Sales Too Early
Founders need to get it right first.
If you have the resources for it, you can find a salesperson to run the sales process for you.
However, if you did that before having the right sales process, then you’re just wasting your time and money. I have asked multiple experts, including companies who provide outsourcing services for sales, about the right time to hire a sales team.
They will tell you to establish and structure your sales process first.
Make it work, see how it develops, then you can bring in someone who can do all the closing for you.
4) Excessively Automating Sales Process
Automate sales processes in moderation.
Do you have a vision of leads coming to your site, being wowed by your message and product, and signing up on their own?.
Sounds amazing, right?
Well, it doesn’t happen in real life. Getting someone to go through your funnel automatically and sign up is highly unlikely.
Let’s say, I set the breakpoint at around $50. If your product’s total average contract value is anywhere from $50-$60 per month or under that, you might have a chance to automate purchases. However, anything above that requires a guided walkthrough process.
You would need to connect with your leads and do a demo. You probably wouldn’t want to experience an automated funnel and buy several thousands’ worth of products.
Neither do your leads.
5) Not Getting Help from Experts Who Did It Before
Get advice from industry experts and save time and headaches.
If you know someone who has already successfully scaled their software business, why not ask for help from them?
Make sure you are not reinventing the wheel. Why go through all the trial-and-error when you could ask someone who knows all the steps and gives you the playbook to scale your software company?
Don’t figure everything out on your own.
Ask help to scale quicker. After all, experience is the best teacher.
In Summary
There you have it! Scaling your software business is all about knowing your market, implementing the right sales process, hiring a sales team at the right time, automating the sales process in moderation, and getting help from the experts themselves.
Do these, and watch the deals start closing.
