Introduction
If you Google culture fit, you will find scant references to B2B selling and hundreds of references to the suitability of candidates in an organisation, but the concepts are related.
Seasoned sales and executive leaders in B2B SaaS companies with more than 30 years of experience will probably be aware of the “culture fit” concept as a part of Miller Heiman's "Blue Sheet" opportunity assessment and a critical qualification criterion.
However, the concept of culture fit to many B2B SaaS leaders may be foreign, yet it remains an indispensable factor that can significantly influence your company's success.
This article will explore why culture fit is crucial in B2B SaaS selling and why it should be essential to your customer lifecycle strategy. Drawing inspiration from historical lessons such as the Miller Heiman “Blue Sheet” and insights from industry leaders like Tim Riesterer and 🐶 Jacco van der Kooij at Winning by Design and reputable research institutions like #Gartner, we'll offer practical guidance to ensure your business thrives in this dynamic environment.
WHY Culture Fit? - A Changing Landscape
The B2B SaaS landscape is profoundly transforming in the post-SaaS bubble era. Major and mid-sized companies grappling with economic uncertainty are reassessing their vendor relationships. To reduce costs, complexity, and overhead, decisions are being made to consolidate spending on fewer platforms rather than disparate point products. This shift necessitates evolving your selling strategies into customer lifecycle strategies. While technical expertise and product capabilities remain essential, the focus on culture fit has gained prominence as it remains a factor over the life of the relationship due to the recurring and expansion revenue dictates of the SaaS model.
The Blue Sheet: A Lesson from History
To truly grasp the importance of culture fit in B2B SaaS selling, I recall my early days as a salesperson selling Prime minicomputers in the 1980s. Miller Heiman introduced the Blue Sheet in 1978, and culture fit was one of their sales opportunity assessment form criteria. Though decades old, this historical artefact is worthy of a review.
In those days, minicomputer salespeople faced a daunting challenge: penetrating major corporations dominated by IBM, the undisputed powerhouse in mainframe and mini-computing. IBM's influence reached the highest echelons of these organisations, with account teams strategically positioned at different levels to ensure customer satisfaction and revenue continuity and board-member relationships with IBM VPs up to the CEO.
Picture this scenario: After months of meticulous preparation and relentless prospecting effort, demonstrations, site visits and a technical proof-of-concept, a minicomputer supplier finally secures permission to submit a proposal for a major corporation's computing needs. Their technically superior and cost-effective proposal makes business sense and perfectly solves the customer problem. The excitement builds as success seems imminent. However, at the eleventh hour, a sudden and disheartening revelation emerges. Though impressed by the proposal, the client decided to stick with IBM due to the presence of CXOs or board-level executives who held a deep-seated allegiance to the industry giant who vetoed your effort in favour of upgrading their existing systems.
This sobering anecdote from the annals of B2B sales history is a stark reminder of the risks associated with ignoring culture fit as a qualification criterion. Despite technical excellence and cost-effectiveness, this minicomputer salesperson's proposal faltered due to poor culture fit. Months of painstaking effort and precious resources were squandered, all because the critical aspect of assessing a fit with the client's culture had been overlooked.
Real-World Examples: Learning from Industry Leaders
To emphasise the importance of culture fit in B2B SaaS selling, let's turn to industry leaders like Winning by Design, renowned for their expertise in B2B sales strategy. Winning by Design recognises that the competitive landscape is no longer solely defined by product features and pricing. They understand the significance of aligning sales strategies with customers' unique cultures. By doing so, they empower companies to overcome challenges, foster customer success, and drive revenue growth in the years following the initial transaction.
Tim Reisterer's book, "The Expansion Sale," delves into the nuances of expanding relationships with existing customers. Reisterer emphasises that understanding and aligning with the client's culture is instrumental in securing expansions and renewals.
A Gartner report on "The Future of Sales" highlights that B2B buyers increasingly seek solutions and strategic partnerships. They look for vendors who understand their specific needs, align with their corporate culture, and can adapt to changing circumstances. This shift underscores the urgency of integrating culture fit into your B2B SaaS selling strategy.
Strategies for B2B SaaS Success: How to Incorporate Culture Fit
Now that we understand the significance of culture fit let's explore strategies to incorporate it into your B2B SaaS selling approach effectively:
1. Involve Salespeople or Account Managers post-sale: Salespeople and account managers should play an ongoing pivotal role in major accounts. Their responsibility goes beyond selling; they must actively engage in Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs), virtually and in person. This active involvement includes partnering with customer success in listening for frustrations, looking for expansion opportunities, monitoring utilisation, questioning satisfaction, and understanding unmet needs. This team approach ensures a deep understanding of the client's evolving needs and the dynamics within their organisation.
2. Monitor Power Changes and New Executives: Sales professionals must act as your organisation's eyes and ears within the client's organisation. They should be vigilant in identifying power shifts in user departments and up the executive chain and new executive hires who may have different product allegiances or a preference for market leaders.
3. Cultural Awareness: Recognising that culture fit in the SaaS era requires a deep understanding of your client's values, goals, and challenges. This awareness lets your team navigate and align effectively with the client's internal dynamics over time.
4. Adapt and Evolve: Flexibility is critical in a rapidly changing landscape. Be prepared to adapt your offerings and strategies to meet evolving client needs. This might involve tailoring your product, customer support, or communication style to fit their culture better or changing your account team to fit their culture where personalities clash. It might create opportunities for old-school face-to-face meetings and opportunities to “press the flesh” over lunch or dinner.
5. Continuous Feedback: Establish a feedback mechanism that allows your team to gather insights from clients on their perception of your culture fit. Regularly seek input from clients to understand where improvements can be made.
6. Celebrate Customer’s success: With their permission, create “Who we’ve helped stories” that highlight the customer journey: from struggling moments, recognising a need to change, through the transitions in their buying process, overcoming internal and external forces to the trigger event and lightbulb moment that led to a decision to implement your SaaS product/service and the value they gain from it through continued usage and feeding this back into the organisation.
7. Publishing and sharing quality content: Publishing high-quality and insightful content on LinkedIn, your blog and in industry forums and sharing it when contextually relevant with your customers keeps customers informed of your progress and aware of your relevance to them as trusted partners and can keep senior executives informed of ongoing success.
The Culture Fit Advantage
The significance of culture fit in B2B SaaS selling is deeply rooted in history and as relevant as ever. As leaders in sales and executive positions, it is important to prioritize culture fit as part of your business's qualification criteria. Neglecting culture fit can lead to lost opportunities, customer churn, and missed revenue.
By involving sales professionals in major accounts, actively monitoring for power shifts, cultivating cultural awareness, adapting to evolving client needs, and maintaining a continuous feedback loop, you can position your company for success in this changing landscape.
In B2B SaaS culture fit isn't just a buzzword; it's a competitive advantage that can make all the difference in your long-term success. Integrating culture fit into your customer lifecycle selling strategy can differentiate your company, build lasting customer relationships, and drive growth in a sustainable manner, just as the Blue Sheet of the 1980s qualified opportunities.
