Social proof is important when selling SaaS. Buyers typically use social proof indicators at the top of their research process to filter out companies that may be too early stage or risky to trial. This guide outlines how to build social proof for SaaS, including a social proof checklist for B2B SaaS. Building this trust with buyers up front will result in more 'at-bats' for your sales team.
Why is Social Proof important for SaaS companies?
Buyers want to feel at ease when purchasing SaaS. There are subtle clues they look for when first landing on your website and start researching and evaluating whether your SaaS will even make the short list for consideration and deeper exploration. If your SaaS does not check some of these base social proof checkboxes you may have the best product in the world but never get to the stage of the buyer actually evaluating it.
How can you build social proof for SaaS?
There are several ways to build social proof for a SaaS product and company:
- List a physical office for markets you are selling into. For example - if you are a European based SaaS trying to sell into the US market, list a US mailing address and office. This provides a base level of assurance that there is a commitment to the market and sales and support resources in language and in the same time zone. This can be done virtually or through an outsourced sales rep firm. There are companies can help with just the mailing address as well.
- Have an "About Us" page with your executives with information on bios and LinkedIn profiles. Even if you are a one person micro-SaaS, buyers want to know there is a real human on the other end of the computer screen. This helps validate who has built the product, whether they understand the industry and pain points, and will be supporting them if/when support is needed
- Product and Support Documentation - Ideally there is some sort of knowledgebase with a self serve product setup, Q&A, and troubleshooting docs and tutorials.
- Support Process and Process - have a clear chatbot, phone number, or email address/ticketing system for logging support request with an SLA of an expected turnaround time.
- Get listed on Product Directory sites - In particular, the main ones for your specific market (G2 and Capterra are two of the biggest). A list of the top 20 directory and review sites may be helpful. Working with top customers to seed the listings with positive reviews is ideal. Even just getting listed with base company and product details provides value with social proof and will also broaden your distribution and drive traffic back to your site from buyers researching for solutions on third party sites. Don't have time? Use the Software Submission Service where you fill out the form with company and product details once and get listed on up to 20 directories.
- List customer logos, testimonials and case studies - Depending on your size and stage in the market, ideally these will be broken out by industry and geography that you are trying to sell into.
- A baseline social media presence - You don't need 500K followers and posts every hour. However, a baseline, professional presence on Twitter, LinkedIn, and possibly Facebook, Youtube, TikTok, and other channels (depending on your SaaS market and where your audience resides) is another social proof point. It's about controlling the message and engaging with your buyers where they are researching and spending time.
Social proof is not going to guarantee you win a SaaS sales deal, but it can at least ensure that you get a fair chance at consideration and your sales team more 'at bats'. The checklist above should help the rest of your sales and marketing efforts and boost conversion and response rates across the board.
