Getting your first 100 customers is undoubtedly challenging for every B2B startup. B2B startups don’t realize that they need consistency to make their business successful, and it does not happen overnight. This is why 90% of startups fail during their initial years. Don’t worry, though! You have found the right place for the solution to this problem.
This article will discuss everything you need to know to get your first 100 customers for your B2B SaaS startup. We will share ten unique ways to help you get your first 100 customers for your b2b startup. So, please keep reading to find out about them, and without further ado, let’s jump right in!
What is a SaaS startup?
A SaaS startup is a business that uses software to provide customers with a service. They create, develop, update, and host the product themselves. A SaaS business has instant access to an unrestricted global market and can scale without increasing product delivery costs.
SaaS startups are a great business idea because they have more control over their products than traditional, primary companies, which means they’re inclined to have greater security, faster updates, and a better user experience.
A SaaS business is built in three phases. Firstly, you must build a foundation called the “Setup phase.” where you develop your core SaaS application, set up the necessary infrastructure, and define your value proposition. Then comes the “growth phase” once the product reaches the market.
Lastly, there is the “stabilization phase,” where the business continues to get new customers but with added benefits. It means the SaaS business does not have to bear more overhead costs in this phase.
Types of SaaS
The following are the types of SaaS solutions;
1. Accounting Software: It keeps your finances organized and appropriately tracked to ensure your business grows. With features like accounts payable automation, you can streamline payment processes, reduce errors, and improve efficiency, ensuring your business operates smoothly.
2. Customer relationship management (CRM): CRM software helps in managing customer data, tracking customer interactions, automating sales, and combining business information.
3. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software: This software integrates multiple functions into one complete system to improve efficiency and boost information sharing.
4. Project Management Software: With this software, you can easily plan projects, allocate resources, manage schedules, and communicate deadlines, which helps you complete tasks on time and within budget.
5. Email Marketing Software: It optimizes message delivery while automating marketing emails.
Other than these, there are different SaaS applications that you can choose from, including invoice and billing software, web hosting software, collaboration software, human resource software, etc.
You can pick the one that catches your interest. And if you need expert advice, you can consult a cloud expert to choose the best option for your SaaS business. But first, let’s understand what a B2B SaaS startup is about.
What is a B2B SaaS Startup?
B2B stands for Business to Business. And SaaS stands for software-as-a-service. B2B SaaS is a cloud-based software distribution model in which companies retail their software access to other companies. B2B mainly focuses on selling the products to companies instead of selling the products to individuals.
A great advantage is that the business can access the SaaS products through a web browser, i.e., the Internet, instead of downloading their software.
B2B Startup – A Great Idea for Coming Years!
There is no doubt that B2B startups are worth it in 2023 and many more years. Some of the benefits of B2B are that a company can access the Saas products through the internet instead of downloading their own. Also, it is cost-effective, and the most worthwhile benefit is that SaaS products are accessible.
B2B startups face a unique challenge: with limited resources, they need to establish themselves and acquire customers. This is where startup outsourcing comes in. By outsourcing specific tasks like content creation, social media management, or even customer support to a qualified provider, B2B startups can free up their internal teams to focus on core functionalities and product development.
Accessing the products through the web and not being at a specific location allows the business to efficiently and effectively manage all the operations.
How do I Get My First B2B Customer?
Here are some remarkable ways to get the first customer for your B2B SaaS startup;
- Start by spreading the word in your network.
- Start blogging and use the connections that you have.
- Discover and learn from your competitors.
- Launch brand new exciting products.
- Try digital marketing.
- Attend conferences and meetups.
- Treat your customers with royalty.
- Go to local incubators.
- Leverage social media.
- Promote your business as much as you can.
10 Best Ways to Get the First 100 Customers for Your B2B SaaS Startup
Here are the 10 best ways to get the first 100 customers for your B2B SaaS startup;
1. Leverage Social Media.
The most profitable thing you can do for your B2B startup is to make a friendly social media presence. Social media is one of the biggest and most affordable marketing platforms, so there is no doubt that it will attract customers. So, market your B2B startup as much as possible and engage your audience.
Ultimately, your audience will convert into your customers once they are satisfied enough that your products are worth spending money on. And the best way to convince them is through attractive, eye-catchy social media advertisements.
The best advice I can give you is to create a social media presence for your business on all platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, Twitter, Quora, TikTok, etc. This is because all these platforms have different benefits that you reap.
The more audience you reach, the higher the chances of you getting your first 100 b2b customers quickly.
2. Find Your Internet Tribe.
After launching your B2B startup, you should try every way to find your internet tribe. It means finding the people interested in your products or selling identical products.
You’ll learn a lot by connecting with the already successful people in your product niche. They will be able to give you a lot of helpful advice, which you can implement to get better results and customers quickly. You can use a SaaS agreement template to acquire your initial customers while ensuring legal compliance.
To say it, be where your customers are. Find the communities of your ideal customers and become a part of their tribe. Then, try to blend in as much as you can, and you will get to know exactly what your customers are looking for.
Some of the best places to find your community are;
- Reddit: Here, you can easily find almost every sort of community. You can quickly join the ones that are related to your products.
- Quora: Hands down, the best place to get answers to almost every question that you want. You can get much information about what is expected from a business like yours.
- Product Hunt: All the launched new apps and products are here. By becoming a member, you’ll be able to upvote the best new products that you like.
- Growth hackers: It is for getting growth marketing news and ideas
- The Moz community: This is for groundbreaking SEO tactics.
- SaaS growth hacks: This is a Facebook group for SaaS founders and marketers.
3. Spread the Word as Much as You Can.
The best way to generate leads and increase your customers is to talk about your business anywhere you go. You can start by spreading the word in your network.
Share the best things about your B2B startup and let everyone know what your business is all about. It would be best to let people try your products for feedback. Feedback is essential for the success of a B2B startup.
4. Use Blogs for Promotion.
If you have a good viewership count on your blogs, the viewers are already invested in your work. You can use this opportunity to introduce and promote your B2B startup.
This way, all your viewers interested in your products will know about your business, and you will ultimately increase your B2B customers. Getting your first 100 b2b customers won’t be a problem this way.
5. Use cold emailing.. Trust me, it works!
I have repeatedly heard people say that cold emailing doesn’t work anymore and wastes time, but with the right approach and a dedicated VPS server for cold emails, it can still be an effective strategy. Well, I find this to be very untrue. I think people who claim that cold emailing is obsolete are people who don’t know how to write good cold emails.
You may be wondering what I mean by a good, cold email. Well, to write an excellent cold email, ask yourself these few questions;
- Would I open this email, or would I trash it instantly?
- If I got this email, would I read this?
- Would I want to reply to this email?
Keeping these questions in mind, you can write an excellent cold email that is not too salesy. Instead, it is contextual, conversational, to the point, and has a clear call to action. Naturally, you first want to search for email addresses by either domain, company, or even prospect names and verify them before reaching out to prospects out of the blue.
With a good cold email like this one, you’ll be able to get your first 100 customers for your b2b startup in no time. Because, after all, emailing is still the backbone of the internet.
6. Give Away Free Stuff
People love to get free stuff and are instantly attracted even when they see the word “free”.
So, as a B2B startup, you can use this to your advantage. While as a business, you might not like the idea of giving away free stuff too much.
However, as a B2B startup, your main focus is not the money; it is to get as many people behind you and your product as possible, and what better way to introduce your product to the audience than to announce a free giveaway, right?
If your product is Saas, it would be an incredible idea to let users test it for free, and they will get to know just how good your product is. Offering a free trial of your Saas is almost a must-do for all b2b startups. The free trial is one of the top reasons B2B startups attract customers quickly.
7. Take Complete Advantage of Affiliate Marketing.
One of the best ways to upscale your audience’s credibility and trust is by “borrowing” them from other marketers, which is basically what affiliate marketing means. You can reach out to the already successful companies in your niche and get access to their audience through affiliate marketing.
They will showcase your product to the large audience they have built by themselves. This will grant you instant access to the vast audience, and in return, you pay these affiliate marketers a percentage of the conversion amount. That sounds like a great deal, right?
To simplify it, affiliate marketing is like outsourced marketing. Other people bring in the visitors; you only have to pay if those visitors become paying customers. Moreover, it is excellent for SEO, or you can use the services of an experienced SEO agency for B2B. There is no downside to this method.
8. Partner up With Influencers on YouTube and Social Media
Another great and easy way to get the first 100 customers for your B2B SaaS startup is through partnering up with influencers. You can find a significant influencer with a loyal followership and partner with them to promote your products.
Influencer partnerships are a win for you and the influencer, and the promotion is quick and easy. So, there is no fault in this method’s success. After all, social media is one of the biggest and most affordable marketing platforms in the world these days.
People like to follow whatever their favorite influencer advice is, and you can use this to your advantage, right? However, ensure that the influencer has a real following, not just purchased numbers, as that is a huge problem.
9. Gather as Much Customer Data as You Can
With the help of customer data, you can figure out precisely what your customers want. Then, you can shape your marketing strategy according to their likes. After seeing that you offer exactly what your potential clients wish to, they would most likely convert into your customers.
Then, they would spread the word about how amazing your products are, and there is no better marketing strategy than good words from customers. So, try to gather as much customer data as you can.
10. Leverage Your Outreach Efforts.
Many companies follow content marketing, which is an effective inbound marketing strategy. For this, you can create blogs related to the topics in your niche and use your blogs for marketing your products.
Besides creating your in-house blogs, you can also reach out to other popular platforms for guest posts. This way, you’ll reach a larger audience, ultimately becoming your potential customers.
Remember that it would take months of guest posts for you to achieve your first 100 customers, but it will be a smooth ride from then onwards. All the hard work would be worth it.
Overall, Content marketing is a superb strategy that has helped great businesses like HubSpot, KISSmetrics, etc. This is also a fantastic tip to get the first 100 customers for your B2B SaaS startup.
Conclusion
B2b startups are trendy because of the vast audience and customer base available on the internet. The ease of starting a business is also an excellent advantage for B2B.
However, the problem is startups are not patient and consistent. Hence, 90% of them initially fail. But by using the excellent tips discussed in our article, you will find great success in your B2B startup.
Using the ways we have explained in our article above, you’ll surely be able to get your first 100 customers for your B2B startup quickly. Getting the first 100 customers is an arduous task for any b2b startup; it is a smooth ride to success.
However, it would be best to consistently keep promoting your business as much as possible to get as many customers as possible. We hope that you found our article helpful. You can support our article as a guide, and we hope that you get your first 100 customers for your b2b2 startup and many more quickly.
Q. How do you win a B2B client?
Winning clients in anything is not easy, but you can give these points a try;
- Treat customers with loyalty and kindness.
- Share your content with our salespeople.
- Spread the word through email and social media platforms.
- Understand your customers.
- Do giveaways.
- When your product is ready, let your friends, relatives, and current and previous co-workers know.
- Do partnerships with influencers on YouTube or other social media platforms.
- Max out the potential of your customer relationship management (CRM)
- Person-to-person interaction is significant in B2B.
Q. What are some short-term hacks to get customers for my B2B SAAS startup?
New businesses mostly like to use short-term hacks to get their starting customers. Some short-term hacks to get the first 100 customers for your B2B SaaS startup are as follows:
- Handle every support call efficiently
- Meet every customer yourself.
- Spread the word in your circle, and make the people around you aware of what kind of work you are doing.
- Follow up with every new client yourself
- Create a smaller tool that is undoubtedly useful for your clients.
- Make sure that recent co-workers who are happy and satisfied are referring and recommending to others.
- Tapping into your professional and personal network to get customers.
Q. What are some long-term hacks to get customers for my B2B SAAS startup?
A long-term plan scales with your business. Some long-term hacks to get the first 100 customers for your B2B SaaS startup are as follows:
- Cold calling/ emailing
- Search engine optimization
- Create a drip email campaign
- Build a scalable lead generation process
Q. Is SaaS the same as B2B?
Yes, Saas and B2B are the same. Business to Business (B2B) refers to a company/organization that sells services or products to some other company as a service. Saas B2B refers to an organization that sells products/services to other businesses as a service.
Q. What are the top 10 B2B Saas companies in the world?
Following are the top 10 B2B Saas companies in the world;
- Adobe
- Slack
- Mailchimp
- Shopify
- Microsoft
- Survey Monkey
- Mathworks
- HubSpot
- Salesforce
