Win Your SaaS Product Launch with These 4 Tips

B2B SaaS companies are developing new solutions and features faster than ever before

SaaS businesses today are able to meet their customers’ increasingly high expectations by capturing user data, creating solutions, and deploying code in record time. When these new solutions are brought to market effectively, SaaS companies benefit from increased product adoption, higher revenue, and happier customers. When their customers and prospects are uninterested in new solutions, confused about what they are or, worst of all, completely unaware of their presence, SaaS companies suffer from missed revenue opportunities, stagnant product adoption rates, and wasted resources.

Unfortunately, it’s all too common that SaaS product launches fall into the latter scenario and fail to achieve their desired business goals. There are many reasons product launches may fall short of reaching their potential and it’s rare that a single issue is to blame.

That said, there are a few common missteps that will limit the success of a product launch:

• Unclear or inadequate product messaging
• Internal misalignment among product, sales and marketing teams
• Lack of internal enablement around the new solution
• Uncertainty regarding who owns launch activities

By addressing these key areas, businesses can avoid the most common pitfalls associated with SaaS product launches and simultaneously establish a reliable foundation for successfully launching future products.

Articulate product value via a messaging framework

The first step to a successful product launch is leveraging a SaaS messaging framework to articulate the solution’s value proposition. A messaging framework, also known as a message house, answers the following questions:

• What problem does the new product or enhancement solve?
• Who experiences the pain of this problem?
• What value does this product or enhancement offer that uniquely solves the problem?
• What features enable the product or feature to solve the problem?

This internal document is drafted early in the new product’s development process. Completing a message house exercise not only clarifies the problem being addressed by the new offering, but also ensures that all subsequent go-to-market activities are crafted with the target audience in mind.

Once the message house is drafted, it is shared with internal teams (i.e.demand generation, creative, sales) involved in launching the new product or feature. An effective message house creates clarity and alignment regarding the product being launched and the value it creates for customers. This is especially important for individuals or teams responsible for creating collateral and training material regarding the new offering.

Align internal teams with a project plan built around the customer journey

Aligning product, marketing, and sales teams around go-to-market plans is key to a successful SaaS product launch. However, maintaining this alignment is difficult and must be managed intentionally. When building a project plan for a SaaS product launch, it is critical to capture the following details:

• Who is responsible for what, by when?
• What dependencies exist between activities?
• When will key milestones take place?

Identifying tasks and maintaining communication around the project is only half the battle when it comes to keeping product, marketing, and sales aligned around the goals and objectives for a SaaS product launch. Structuring the project plan with the customer journey in mind — such as through a completed customer journey mapping session — allows all parties involved to understand how each aspect of the launch process works together to maximize the impact of the new offering.

Organizing the launch plan around the customer journey means identifying how the businesses build awareness with the target audience and generate demand, enabling the sales organization with the training, collateral and processes they need to effectively move a prospect or customer through the sales cycle, and ensuring that customer success teams understand how to discuss the new offering with customers in a way that sparks customers with the relevant needs to pursue adoption.

Define and prioritize sales enablement

A successful SaaS product launch starts with setting the organization’s sales team up to effectively sell the new product. When the sales team does not understand the value of the new solution, know who the target audience is, or have the right tools to sell the new offering, the product launch will undoubtedly fall short of its goals.

Because ‘enabling sales’ can mean so many different things today (product training, sales process, engagement software), it’s critical to define what it means to enable sales on a new product or feature. When it comes to new product launches, sales must understand what the solution is, the value it provides, who the ideal customer is, and how to guide the customer through the buying process.

Once defined, sales enablement becomes one of the highest priorities in the launch process. This often means working with sales leaders to identify how far in advance sales training should take place, what content needs to be covered, how the training should be held (recorded, live virtually or in-person), and what assets and/or processes need to be in place to help sales qualify prospects and guide them effectively through the buyer journey.

Hire product marketing to quarterback launches

Launching products successfully requires support from nearly all areas of the business. However, an “all hands on deck” approach without a clear owner driving the process inevitably leads to internal confusion, avoidable delays, and frustration among launch stakeholders.

As ‘quarterbacks’ of product launches, product marketers create visibility, improve communication, and drive alignment throughout the launch process. In addition to executing their own launch related responsibilities, such as crafting the go-to-market strategy, they own the work of building repeatable launch processes and holding stakeholders accountable for their launch-related deliverables.

Building the Foundation for Successful SaaS Product Launches

Establishing effective launch processes is the first step to achieving new product revenue and adoption goals. By implementing SaaS messaging frameworks, customer-driven project plans, and well-defined sales enablement programs, organizations are poised to build their product launch discipline and avoid common mistakes that hinder results. To accelerate (and further elevate) product launch foundations, bring in a product marketer to quarterback launch strategy, processes, and execution.