How to Solve the Failure of Direct B2B Sales in SaaS

With four decades in sales and marketing, from employee to multi-startup founder and consultant, I have experienced the changes from pre-internet sales to where we are now in this multifaceted digital age.

Most businesses will or have experienced the steady decline in new business generation using all means, both financially and technically, available at their disposal.  Yet still the ratio between people and profitability has not been overcome.

The Core Issues in B2B Sales

I have identified two critical reasons for failure by vendor organisations:

1. Approach - Vendors often assert, "Our product is the best, so you should buy it," without providing supporting content to educate, train, and engage prospects.
2. Sales - The engagement journey is one-to-one, from BDR cold call to close, with no real appreciation for the actual length of the buying process.

The Flawed Approach of Modern B2B Sales

The approach to new business by vendors is identical: funnel-based demand generation, lead generation, ABM, pay-per-click to landing pages, and cold calling, all aimed at snagging a prospect’s contact details, making an appointment, and getting the prospect to the sales stages as quickly as possible.  As this process has failed with marketers now calling it the dark funnel.

As every B2B salesperson knows, typical digital marketing methods like these do not deliver and have rarely delivered, hence the continued reliance on telesales teams. The failure stems from CEOs mimicking their peers and submitting to CMOs advocating for big tech.  This state is exposed in the book thinking Fast & Slow, by Daniel Kahneman.

Marketing History and Its Impacts

In the 1990s and 2000s, figures like Frank Kern, Dan Kennedy, and Jeff Walker promoted get-rich-quick strategies and software. Fast-forward to 2008, and marketing automation platforms promised the same, targeting CEOs without cold calling. These MarTech strategies were designed for B2C, not B2B markets, leading to continued reliance on cold calling.

The Financial Implications

The problem is dire, with virtually every B2B SaaS company investing tens or hundreds of millions in sales, marketing, and customer success, often requiring multiple funding rounds to stay afloat. Despite significant investment, the average annual recurring revenue per full-time equivalent (ARR-FTE) remains low.

The Realisation and the CEO’s Role

CEOs employ highly paid individuals to guide the company. However, when marketing fails, CEOs feel compelled to get involved, leading to a downward spiral as marketing teams fail to challenge the CEO or innovate. This failure to apply continuous professional development (CPD) to sales and marketing affects other business areas, leading to poor performance and adversarial behaviours.

The Solution: A Shift in Attitude

The solution starts with an attitude shift towards prospects, customers, salespeople, and staff. Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge, as Simon Sinek says.

Prospects want to self-serve, self-educate, remain anonymous, and calculate their ROI before engaging with a vendor, this equates to 90% of their buying journey.  The buyer’s learning process takes time and needs to be accounted for as part of the overall strategy.

Understanding Timing in the Sales Cycle

Most sales teams agree the sales cycle is nine to eighteen months, equating to 10% of the journey if 90% is completed without engagement. Realistically, understanding this long buying journey is crucial for strategic planning.

Customer and Staff Needs

Customers want vendors to teach them how to master the product or provide competent resources to execute for them. Salespeople want to talk to prospects ready to engage and staff value efficient operations and logical direction over superficial perks like foosball or pizza parties.  Get this right and you’ll reap the rewards, very quickly.

Transforming Sales and Marketing Operations

To achieve a continuous stream of profitable revenue, it’s essential to change your mindset towards sales and marketing operations. Fear, not cost or change, often hinders this transformation. The comfort provided by MarTech, and peer pressure must be overcome.

Engaging and Selling at Scale

Engaging and selling at scale, rather than one-to-one, is the only viable option for B2B sales organisations. This approach builds long-term advocates through repetition, familiarity, good teaching, and training.

Implementing the Solution

Mentally B2Bs need to ‘draw a line in the sand’ and cease traditional digital marketing practices.  Allocate time and resources to rework existing infrastructures and establish the following strategy to ensure they keep ahead of the curve.  The illustration below may help you to take action.

• Website Optimisation - Apply cosmetic and conversion-optimised changes, remove all demand generation forms, and edit existing content to align with buyers and online governance. Your website is the repository for all your online content and needs to be seen as an exceptional resource for both prospects and customers.
• Social Media Automation - Implement an automated exposure program with 10-15 different posts per day (300 per month) linking to website content. The Mere Exposure Effect reveals that repetition without danger infers safety and reliability.
• TAM Database - Acquire up-to-date Total Addressable Market (TAM) databases for each main region and activate an email and LinkedIn banner campaign to encourage TAMs to follow on LinkedIn. This ensures your entire strategy is 100% focused.
• Live Stream Shows - Highlight new live stream shows with a six-week pilot series, enabling your organisation to communicate with your entire total addressable market at scale and engaging with the 1%-15% of those who begin their buying journey each week.

Typically, it takes about four months to prepare for live shows, and in the meantime, your business profile will be significantly raised.

There is no other strategy that will work as effectively at such a low cost delivering exactly what buyers want, and at the same time redressing the balance between people and profitability.