In our “Going Multiproduct” series, we'll explore the go-to-market (GTM) process for adding new SaaS products to your platform. Drawing on our experiences launching our white label Employee Onboarding Solution, we’ve tailored this guide to pilot business leaders and product managers from conception to launch.
A Cohesive Sales and Marketing Strategy is Key to Making Your New Product a Success
You can understand your market and create an outstanding product with an impeccable value proposition, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will sell. There’s never been a more competitive SaaS market, and well-thought-out sales and marketing strategies are essential to new product success today.
When crafting effective sales and marketing strategies for SaaS products, it's essential to remember the importance of agility, staying informed about market trends and customer expectations, and the challenge of aligning your team's efforts toward successfully introducing a new product.
I Can't Say it Enough: Cohesion is Key
It’s imperative that you get your whole team on the same page regarding messaging. This may seem like basic advice, but it’s sometimes easy to discount new multiproduct organizations whose core products already have well-established reputations and brand identities.
This alignment is critical for crafting messages that resonate, developing sales tactics that convert, and ultimately, delivering a product that meets the new market's specific needs and expectations. Keep in mind that when it comes to representing your products and solutions, it’s not just the sales team out there spreading the word. Current and potential customers have touchpoints with your entire team, from customer support to product, and it requires a concerted effort to ensure that every member understands the new market's distinct attributes and the new product's strategic objectives.
At HiringThing, our white label partner model includes a team of experts, including sales and marketing, to help support a successful new product launch. By managing this key GTM component, we add significant value to our white label partners, saving them time and resources.
In this blog, I’ll explain how we created multiproduct marketing and sales strategies for our new Employee Onboarding Solution.
The Steps to Successfully Marketing and Selling Your New Product
- Crafting Multiproduct Marketing and Sales Plans
- Pricing Your Product
- Creating a Holistic Sales and Marketing Strategy
Crafting Multiproduct Marketing and Sales Plans
Multiproduct Marketing Insights
Crafting a comprehensive marketing plan is crucial for the success of any SaaS product. This plan serves as a roadmap, guiding your efforts to connect with potential customers, differentiate your product in a crowded market, and ultimately drive conversions and customer loyalty. A well-thought-out marketing plan encompasses a range of strategies and channels tailored to meet the unique demands of the SaaS industry and your specific target audience.
When going multiproduct, one significant consideration is how you will market your product differently to current and potential customers. One’s messaging will revolve very much around how the new product further enhances the current product (in our case, that meant showcasing how much hiring and onboarding strengthen one another). On the other hand, marketing to potential customers often includes figuring out how to reach those who could benefit from your product and figure out what solutions they’re seeking (we did that by creating onboarding content for those looking for employee onboarding solutions and also by beefing up some of our white label HR tech content to include pathways to point consumers towards employee onboarding).
With a comprehensive marketing plan to engage and attract potential customers, the next critical step is to craft a sales strategy that converts interest into tangible success. This strategy will complement our marketing efforts and ensure that we effectively close deals and foster long-term relationships with our clients.
Multiproduct Sales Insights
A well-defined sales strategy is essential for converting prospects into paying customers and scaling your SaaS business. It's about understanding the journey your potential customers go through and aligning your sales processes to meet their needs effectively. Your sales strategy should work in tandem with your marketing efforts to drive growth.
Driving growth and success for a SaaS product requires setting clear, aligned objectives, deeply understanding the sales cycle, choosing effective sales channels, and nurturing a steady stream of qualified leads supported by a robust CRM system.
Training and equipping the sales team with comprehensive product knowledge and personalized sales approaches backed by compelling customer testimonials are crucial. Based on analytical insights, continuous monitoring and optimization of sales performance ensure that the sales strategy remains dynamic and responsive to market and customer needs, effectively complementing marketing initiatives and achieving business goals.
“When it comes to introducing a new product to potential customers, education is key,” says our Director of Partner Development, Tevis Paxton. “We must act as consultants to our customers here, pointing out, in our case, how employee onboarding works in tandem with hiring to strengthen overall recruiting efforts. We want to be super benefit-focused.”
Under our white label model, our partners are well-prepared to sell their proprietary solutions-even without lifting a finger to do any of the above. We can handle it all for them or train them to own the process internally.
Pricing Your Product
Determining the right pricing strategy for your SaaS product is a critical decision that can significantly impact your market entry, customer acquisition, and overall financial health. It requires a careful balance between value perception, competitive positioning, and cost structure.
Setting the right price for your SaaS product is complex but directly influences its success. By carefully considering your costs, market position, and value proposition and selecting an appropriate pricing model, you can develop a pricing strategy that attracts customers, supports your financial goals, and scales with your business. Flexibility and responsiveness to market feedback are vital to refining your pricing strategy over time.
Your pricing strategy should align with your business goals and market demands. That includes:
- Understanding your costs.
- Evaluating the market.
- Choosing a pricing model (likely your existing model).
- Setting price points, and clearly defining tiers if you’re offering them.
- Implementing a trial or freemium model.
We carefully priced our Employee Onboarding software to the market. Our partner billing model offers healthy margins on our suggested MSRP, so we grow our business only when our partners grow theirs. While the end result was a succinct and thoughtful pricing model to complement our existing product, the decision-making path could have been more straightforward.
We had our share of challenges and pitfalls. One of the primary hurdles is accurately assessing the value your product offers customers. This can lead to pricing it too high, deterring potential users, or being too low, undervaluing your service, and squeezing your margins. Another significant challenge is predicting costs and revenue, which can be tricky, especially with variable hard costs (such as our integrated Form I-9 & E-Verify services through DISA).
To successfully implement a dynamic pricing approach, you must be willing to refine and adjust your pricing strategy in response to shifting market conditions and as your product develops.
Creating a Holistic Sales & Marketing Strategy
Crafting a successful go-to-market strategy for your SaaS product involves carefully integrating a detailed marketing plan, a robust sales strategy, and a well-thought-out pricing model.
Together, these elements form a cohesive framework that attracts and retains customers and positions your SaaS offering for a successful launch and sustainable growth in a competitive landscape.
Thank you for reading the fourth post in our “Going Multiproduct” series. In the fifth article, we’ll discuss launching your product. The other blogs in this series include Understanding Your Market, Positioning Your Product, Building Your Product, and Launching Your Product. Additionally, we have another blog series helping companies determine whether they’re ready to go multiproduct.
About HiringThing
HiringThing is a modern recruiting and employee onboarding platform as a service that creates seamless talent experiences. Our white label solutions and open API enable technology and service providers to offer hiring and onboarding to their clients. Approachable and adaptable, the platform empowers anyone, anywhere, to build their dream team.
