Productization: How do I get my service ready for online sales?
At Pilvi we have met dozens of founders and those responsible for sales in SaaS. These discussions have given us a clear picture of the issues that are important to online sales. The questions have raised concern with management at SaaS companies, and for good reason, as online sales are the best (and only) way to create hyper fast, super-growth.
Many SaaS companies are thinking about how to get their product ready for online sales. The process starts with productization. The basis for productization is understanding of your customer and the market for which the product is targeted.
First, you have to understand what productization means and what elements there are to it. Roughly it could be thought of on two levels, namely 1) the product itself (SaaS application) and 2) the information and extracts relevant to the sale, onboarding/delivery and use of that product.
In literature, they often refer to a core product and a whole product. A car is a core product that solves the need for movement. By adding gasoline, after-sales service, roads, car washes and a driver, you get the whole product. The whole product meets the customer’s overall needs extensively.
Productization for online sales (or inside sales) therefore starts with defining the whole product. First, it must be clear as to what the entirety is that the customer needs to get the utmost value of out of the product. In productization of a continuous service, the whole product must be taken as a starting point. Is the onboarding taken into account? What about product support? Do you have the upgrade and downgrading options planned out?
Secondly, there must be a clear role for online sales, that is, what it is intended to do. It is not always a direct sale, but the role may be in showcasing product offering or in inside sales. If the core product is targeted at large companies, the role of the online sales channel may be to provide additional services such as self-service service management or for the mid-sized customer segment a trial product.
Pilvi helps its customers with productization. We do it on different levels, that is, as part of the online business plan or in more concrete terms when it comes to building online price versions (the main product, product, premium product, etc.) for your SaaS product, that is, we build the “Price Plans”.
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