As a solo founder, does your SAAS sell itself or do you do product demos?
I am a software developer, and I like the enterprise (SMB) sass space. Now I am considering different ideas. However, when a lead comes in, I find it hard (don't like) to do demos (sales), so basically I am discarding ideas that are not self-serve (A user comes in, tries a free plan, and then upgrades to paid). Am I being naive thinking my product will sell itself? Does your enterprise product sell itself? Do you people do demos as a solo founder?
(I do not want a sales confounder, I like being just me)
We don't offer free trials or demos. There's a youtube video on the signup page, and they can only hop on a call with us if they need help setting up once they've paid.
That’s a great idea. I’ve been debating a free trial vs video demos and support post sign up. How’s the model worked out for you?
Working out great for us, important to note our sales strategy is through affiliates so we don't do our own marketing.
Yes, it is very naive to think that a product will sell itself completely. Watch the latest podcast with the cofounder of Intercom. He talks about this. If you know you’re gonna have a hard time demoing and talking to people, start with that. Get comfortable putting yourself in front of clients before you even build the product.
Watched it, thanks. Des Traynor is a beast. As a developer for me it's easy to build stuff, I need work on the sales side, selling before building it :)
SaaS is a business model. And the product is just a part of it. The marketing is another, the sales is another, the bookkeeping is another, support is another, and business development is another. If you want to be doing SaaS you need to accept that its all about the business and not the product.
A lot of devs here are open about the trouble they have leaving their comfort zone (coding) and doing the other stuff. I have the same trouble. But I think you need to leave your comfort zone to grow the business.
For moesif (https://www.moesif.com) we have a demo account that the users can explore on their own. We found it help our user understand our product bit more.