As the turbulent economic uncertainty grows, a global recession seems inevitable. Global growth is dipping sharply and rising inflation is making matters worse.
If you are a SaaS company, these are scary times. But instead of panicking, it’s time to position yourself for survival and sustenance.
It was Charles Darwin who said that the most important factor in survival is neither intelligence nor strength but adaptability.
That’s right, the key to survival is your ability to respond positively to change, whether you are an individual or a business.
As a SaaS business owner, you should approach a downturn as an opportunity to sharpen your growth strategy. Challenging economic times may force you to get out of your comfort zone and explore new frontiers for survival.
In this post, I am sharing 4 actionable tips to prepare your B2B SaaS to successfully navigate the recession and sustain itself.
Let’s take a look.
4 Things B2B SaaS can do to Survive a Recession
Let’s take a look at the top 4 ideas to prepare your B2B SaaS for rescission and sustain itself during economic instability.
1. Retain Your Existing Customers
Your primary approach to recession-proof your B2B SaaS business is to look at what you have. Your existing clients are your biggest asset and you should do everything to retain them during challenging times.
How can you leverage your present customer base and reduce churn? Here are a few ideas.
- Use a good CRM solution to proactively nurture your clients
- Create case studies of your successful clients and convince your existing clients that they need your services to sustain during the recession
- Gather feedback from clients to upscale your user experience and build your reputation
- Devise a mutually beneficial referral plan. Offer some exciting free services in exchange for referrals.
You should also focus more on offering customer-specific pricing and mixed billing periods to meet the changing requirements of your customers. Good subscription billing software should help you handle it all pretty smoothly.
2. Plan Your Marketing Strategy Carefully
While many may advise you to freeze your expenses, I would say take time to channel your financial budget more carefully.
Thoroughly analyze the marketing channels you have been using and see which have been profitable for you. Continue investing in the successful ones and let go of others.
Not only the budget but your marketing approach also has to change. Your team should conduct extensive research to figure out the new challenges your potential customers may be facing due to the recession.
As your clients’ priorities change, so should your marketing approach. Take into consideration these unexpected problems and present your SaaS products as viable solutions. Realign your SaaS startup strategy to serve your clients’ needs today and move forward together.
3. Continue Investing in R&D and Diversify
Even with all the economical uncertainties, SaaS companies should continue to invest in R&D. As your clients face newer and unexpected challenges, your SaaS products need to evolve accordingly.
Investing in research and development of products is critical when you are adapting to a market hit by a recession. You can think of hiring remote developers and programmers to stay ahead of the competition.
It is also the right time to foresee the rising demands and diversify your products. You can think of adding unique features to your SaaS products that can help you reach out to a whole new set of B2B businesses. Newer markets may open up for you when you innovate and diversify your products.
Let us remember one thing. A recession doesn’t necessarily mean that all businesses go into hibernation. Many of your potential clients are looking for out-of-the-box solutions to stay afloat and even grow during a crisis.
This presents a window for you to fill your sales pipeline with qualified leads. Leverage the best sales CRM tool such as Copper CRM for better sales leads. Once your potential clients are convinced that their business needs your SaaS solution, you should do your best to close the deal.
Even if it requires you to offer an additional discount or include a couple of more free tools, go ahead and do that. It is such deals that will bring in the necessary cash flow to sustain your business during a recession.
Let’s say your business offers an ecommerce tool for online retailers. You can provide more value for new subscribers by including interesting features like shoppable video creation or a personalized shopping assistant that can help your clients grow.
Prepare Your B2B SaaS to Thrive in Recession
As a business leader, these are unprecedented times and you should be ready to make some tough decisions to sustain your B2B SaaS.
By refocusing your marketing and sales strategy based on the points that I have shared above, you can set yourself up on the strong ground. By adapting successfully you can not only recession-proof your business but also thrive during a tough time.
Author Bio – Reena Aggarwal
Reena is Director of Operations and Sales at Attrock, a result-driven digital marketing company. With 10+ years of sales and operations experience in the field of e-commerce and digital marketing, she is quite an industry expert. She is a people person and considers the human resources as the most valuable asset of a company. In her free time, you would find her spending quality time with her brilliant, almost teenage daughter and watching her grow in this digital, fast-paced era.
