In this article, we are going to explain what we undergo doing during our Customer Discovery Service and why this is important for early-stage B2B SaaS startups, especially during the global expansion phase.
To start with, it is important to understand that what a SaaS company has achieved in their home turf in terms of their customers and revenue might not be relevant to similar customer persona in an alternate country. For instance; social economic conditions and work culture processes are very different for the Insurance industry across different countries even for one single brand. What MetLife India is buying, is not a priority for MetLife US!
It is supercritical to learn about the problems and challenges MetLife is facing and to present to them the problem/pain point that your SaaS solution addresses and learn whether it resonates well to further invest time, effort and money. You could be addressing a primary requirement or a secondary need and your goal is to map the insurance market and what people pay for. Customer Discovery sessions help SaaS providers to build strategy & achieve this.
Customer inputs and mindshare is absolutely critical when entering new markets. For e.g; SaaS providers are faced with the question of anchor customers. Not just from a pain problem standpoint, but also from reference, market commitment, support, business continuity and customer success standpoint. After all, a customer invests in a SaaS not just for their Value Proposition which includes LTV/Payback, but also looks at the SaaS provider as a partner for their own competitiveness and growth in the market. How can MetLife get an edge over liberty by consuming your SaaS?
So, how do you validate whether your product will sell in the US market or GCC or SEA in your target customer segment ? You co-create a journey with your customers and onboard anchor customers using your Customer Discovery technique.
For matured SaaS providers with mid to large market success, we bundle Customer Discovery and Market Development together helping them to activate and acquire both (new anchor customers and sell in the market) all at the same time during our initial weeks.
Take a look at Brewra Services to know more…
Here are some random thoughts collated for founders, I hope these are helpful. Write back to me if you have any questions at sunnyghosh@brewra.com
Author: Sunny Ghosh