This document provides tips for selling software using both low-touch and high-touch sales approaches. For low-touch sales, it recommends optimizing marketing, free trials, and email campaigns. For high-touch sales, it notes that decision-makers are often not the end users and purchasing cycles are longer. It also suggests focusing on value over cost, establishing expectations, and providing additional services like SLAs, training, and custom integration that enterprises are willing to pay more for. Overall, the document offers advice on optimizing different sales channels and overcoming common objections.

1. SELLING TWILIO APPS
Patrick McKenzie – Kalzumeus Software

2. My Business

3. Two Ways To Sell Software
 Low-touch sales
 Demand driven
 Convert customers at scale: web, email, etc
 End-user is buyer
 Lower price points
 High-touch sales
 Supply driven
 Convert customers one at a time
 End-user probably is not buyer
 Higher price points (up to $GADZOOKS)

4. The Curious Case of Modern SaaS
 Monthly billing is a core innovation.
 $X,000 LTVs can be acquired at low-touch
 Hybrid models are possible
 $200/month for small businesses
 … but you need an SLA? Talk to sales team.

5. A Brief Primer On SaaS Pricing
 Price based on value, not on cost.
 Anchors matter! Do NOT anchor on Twilio cost!
 Segment to capture customer value.
 The 4 plan pricing page
 Evolutionary maxima for low-touch SaaS.
 Not necessarily optimal for high-touch sales.
 Interesting ways to play with it.
 Always remember: it is not their money.

6. Pricing Page Teardown

7. Single Most Actionable Tip at
TwilioCon
Offer
Annual
Billing

8. The Six Figure Email
 Offer discount (“1 month
free”) if they switch to
annual billing.
 Offer it to “loyal
customers” over email
 One click + confirmation
to switch.
 Conversion rate from
10% to 25%+
 Immediate revenue of
$200 per email sent

9. Low-touch Stuff That Works
 SEO / AdWords / marketing site / etc
 Olark / chat widgets / etc
 Fully-functional free trials
 Funnel optimization
 Product tours
 Email. Email. Email.

10. Let’s Talk Product Tours
 40 ~ 60% of 1st time users won’t ever come
back
 First experience of app has to rock
 Customization screens do not rock
 Empty dashboards do not rock
 Productivity apps (w/o team) do not rock

11. Three Goals Of A Tour
 1) Demonstrate one awesome improvement
to the user, immediately.
 2) Establish a reason why the user should
come back.
 3) Ask users to invite anyone appropriate into
the app.

12. Appointment Reminder Product
Tour
 Problem: Customers require 4 ~ 6 weeks to
perceive value from product
 … and the product has a 30 day trial
 … and 60% of users abandon on Day 1
 Solution: Demonstrate value on Day 1

13. Tour Script
 Customer first listens to reminder on their
phone.
 Then, they learn how to schedule
appointments.
 Then, they learn how to manipulate
appointments.
 Then, they learn what they should do next.
 This would be a great point to sell sell sell.
 Or to ask them to invite their co-workers into the
app.

14. Ugly As Sin But It Works

15. Single Best Tour Tip
Introduc
e
Sticky

16. Email
Customer
s

17. Low Conversion To Trial? Sell Via
Email
 Conversion from visitor to paying signup: ~1%
 Conversions to free email submission can be
20 ~ 40%, particularly if you offer a decent
incentive
 Send people a drip campaign
 “One month free course, delivered over
email, about $TOPIC”
 6 ~ 8 emails
 Educate. Persuade. Then, and only then, sell.
 Absolutely prints money.

18. Sample Landing Page For Email
Submit
 Offers immediate
incentive for signup
 Asks for permission
to contact, with the
course offering
 Describes what
they’ll get if they
opt-in
 http://speed.wpengi
ne.com

19. Drip Marketing Example

20. More Advanced Uses Of Email
 Client starts using software?
 Send “personalized welcome” from the CEO.
 Client looks like they’ll cancel?
 Send a rescue email. (“Write back and I’ll extend
trial.”)
 Client doesn’t use a particular feature?
 Send a getting started guide.
 Client getting to decision point?
 Send them an ROI calculation!

21. Weekly Checkup (“Get Them
Promoted”)

22. Everyone
Can
Do Sales

23. Core High-Touch Sales Insights
 You are not being bought by the person using
the software.
 Customers can “request” high-touch sales with
questions or behavior in trial.
 Expectations are very different.

24. Who Is The Decisionmaker?
 Business owner?
 Typical for SMB
 Head of IT? Head of Ops?
 Project lead lower in the organization?

25. Dealing With Purchasing Cycle
 Purchasing may have adversarial relationship
with users.
 Purchasing is scored on discounts.
 Purchasing hates rejecting work, wants you to
reject them.
 Lead -> Call -> Meeting -> Proposal -> Formal
Quote -> Deliver -> Invoice -> Heat Death of
Universe -> Check Arrives

26. Purchasing Has A Checklist
 Lacking certain things will auto-kill deals.
 SLA
 Support/maintenance contract
 Industry-specific compliance (HIPAA, etc)
 “Sign our standard vendor contract”
 You need to have and mention that you have
these things.
 Charge through the nose for these things.

27. Enterprises Have Money. Take
It!
 SLA
 Maintenance / support
 Custom integration work
 … and maintenance!
 Training
 Delivered in person
 Delivered scalably (videos, etc)

28. Key Sales Anchors
 “The fully-loaded cost of one employee”
 Wasted time with hard costs associated with it
 Truck rolls
 High-value employees
 Low-value employees who are monitored
effectively
 Lost business / missing revenues / etc
 Missed appointments
 Missed opportunities for sales
 Case studies make this much more credible

29. Have A Question You Can’t
Answer?
Roleplayin
g
Exercise

30. Dealing With Pricing Objections
 Never compromise on unit prices.
 Purchasing needs a discount. Give them one:
 Bundled extra, “normally” charged $X, for $Y
instead
 Nominal discount for pre-payment or
commitment.

31. Unfortunate Necessities
 Corporate shield
 Insurance
 Lawyer (ideally, on standby)

32. More Goodies!
 LifecycleEmails.com : 5 hour video
course, with annotated examples, of how to
use email to sell SaaS better.
 kalzumeus.com/blog : ~6 years of posts
 training.kalzumeus.com : Free video on
improving first run experience of app
 patrick@kalzumeus.com or @patio11
 I love talking about this.