saas free trial: everything you have to know

SaaS Free Trial

Pierre Lechellewww.pierrelechelle.com

WHAT IS A FREE TRIAL?

Consumers can use the service for free for a limited period of time

Make users perceive the value of your service

Perceived Value

Perceived Cost

Integrated inside the SaaS Sales Funnel

LEAD GENERATION TECHNIQUE

BRINGQUALIFIEDLEADS

Some statistics

• Totango Benchmark• Sample of 550 B2B SaaS Companies • 41% list pricing on their site• 56% did not offer a free trial

Should you have one?

• It’s not obvious!• Does it make sense to have a free trial inside

your sales funnel?

Think about the big picture

Customer Pricing Distribution

Sales Funnel

Onboarding Process …

Should you have one?

• Can your product “sell itself”?• Can the free trial, demonstrate value and

create usage?

Analytics & Optimization

• Consider your whole funnel• Optimize your whole funnel• Test whatever you can, including:– Duration of free trial– Pricing

• Measure Activation (Usage & Revenue)

Acquisition Activation Retention Referral Revenue

Convert users to paying customers

• Demonstrate value – it’s not about price• Discover CCAs: set of actions users are doing

that demonstrates the value of the service• Dig deep into Analytics to discover CCAs• Push users to execute CCAs

Duration

• Free Trial should be – Long enough for users to execute CCAs– Short enough to create scarcity

• Experiment & Test Trial Duration

Repartition of Duration

30-day; 41%2-week; 18%

1-week; 4%60 days; 2% 10 days; 1% 45 days; 1% 6 months; 1%

Totango’s Benchmark - Only 68% of the sample is known

CREDIT CARD AT SIGNUP?

Conversion Rate

Prospects Quality

HAVE A VERY SELF-EXPLANATORY WEBSITE

You can also contact the people that did not complete their payment details

Users did not convert?

• Impossible to get 100% conversion rate• Contact them personally• They’re still prospect, don’t let them down• Make use of– Lead Nurturing– Email Marketing– Retargeting

Alternatives to Free Trial?

• Sandbox demo• Videos• Money-back guarantee• Non-obligation contract

Conclusion

• Try to better understand your customers and the sales cycle

• SaaS Success come with– Analyze and Optimize– Tweaks

Wanna read more?

• Check out the full article• Follow me on my blog