With some studies estimating that 99% of the companies worldwide will be using SaaS products by the end of 2021, SaaS product management assumes a greater significance. In addition, organizations must shift from traditional organizational structures and processes as companies move toward product-led growth. Customers of all sizes prefer multi-tenant SaaS deployments over customized or on-premise product development. This shift creates many questions, and the role of SaaS Account Management is one such question.
This article answers a few common questions intended to provide you with enough clarity to define the contours of the SaaS account management roles in your organizations.
What Is Account Management?
Account management is managing a customer’s relationship with your business and ensuring that the business association between a client and the company is a win-win proposition for both. It is a crucial function to ensure customer loyalty and customer retention.
From the client’s perspective, account management ensures that someone looks after the customer’s success. From the business perspective, it means there is someone who can identify up-sell and cross-sell opportunities and referrals from current customers.
How Is SaaS Account Management Different From Traditional Account Management?
In non-SaaS environments, the opportunities for customer contacts are high. However, the account management team typically has far more exposure as the time to implement a non-SaaS product is more. In contrast, you can typically configure a SaaS product in days, if not hours. Hence, the account team’s contact with the customer decreases significantly.
SaaS products are also designed to allow customer onboarding without much manual intervention. Such smooth onboarding is achieved through superior documentation and, help availability, guided configurations. For any situations where the customers might want more interactive assistance, there are various customer education opportunities, such as periodic webinars and online training sessions. However, such sessions would typically have multiple customers and users participating simultaneously.
Such a design challenges the account management team to build rapport with the client teams to establish a long-term relationship.
Also, the number of clients in a SaaS environment will typically be higher than for a non-SaaS product. The account management might not have the capacity and resources to ensure effective customer interaction with key stakeholders. The cost of providing access to resources required for such close interactions may outweigh the benefits in the SaaS environment.
Hence, SaaS account managers must rely on various tools and analyses that may not involve one-on-one customer contact to ensure excellent customer service and build strong relationships.
While Account Management is common in a B2B environment, this role can exist even in a B2C environment. Still, it may be limited to a few leading product customers.
Responsibilities of SaaS Account Managers
In any environment, the responsibilities of the account managers overlap with that of many other teams. For example, it coincides with the customer success managers and sales teams in traditional environments. In addition, in the SaaS environment, there is an overlap with the product managers. Such an overlap may lead to conflict that can add to the challenges in ensuring customer success. Hence, you must clearly understand the responsibilities of SaaS account managers.
1. Ensure that the customer journey through the entire marketing and sales funnel is smooth. The journey includes the first touch point, where the customer learns about the product for the first time until the sales are closed and customer payment is received (assuming there is an advance payment, which will typically be the case for SaaS products).
2. Ensuring effective and smooth user experience while onboarding the customer onto the product. Since the scope of educating and handholding the customers through this phase will be restricted compared to the non-SaaS products, account managers, in addition to the product managers and designers, must ensure that the first tryst with the product is painless for the customers. The first experience will also set the tone for the relations for the customer’s lifetime.
3. Track real-time product usage for customers. Such tracking also has a dual purpose. The first is to ensure that the customers do not have any challenges in using the product. If they have, by tracking the usage, account managers can proactively help customers complete their tasks. Additionally, the account managers can help the product management team address the challenges in a way that helps with product maturity.
4. Manage churn. Churn refers to the rate customers leave the product due to dissatisfaction or lack of use. This work is particularly important for SaaS products since returning the customers who left is difficult. Therefore, account managers need to identify the reasons for churn and take corrective actions to prevent future churns.
5. Help product managers identify product enhancement opportunities. Product enhancements are necessary to keep up with market changes and provide better value to customers. Account managers should work closely with the product managers to understand what features are needed and how these features would benefit the customers.
6. Help the company through up and cross-selling. Upselling is when the product manager sells additional services and upgrades to existing customers. Cross-selling is when the product manager offers new services to the customers. Account Managers identify both opportunities and then work with the sales team to close deals.
Handling The Overlap
As it is, Account Management overlaps with customer support and product/project management. In the case of SaaS, this overlap can become further pronounced. If this overlap is not handled correctly, it can create confusion. The following is the high-level guideline I use to ensure the separation of concerns.
Account Managers bring together the pain points of each of their customers within the boundaries of operational areas and domains associated with the business and product. Next, the product managers evaluate those pain points and possible solutions about the product vision and strategy and then decide whether and how the product should address the chosen pain points.
Finally
Account Management is a critical function intended to ensure business growth by aligning with customer objectives and attempting to address their pain points. Even though the contours of this role would change for multi-tenant SaaS products, the value that it brings is still unquestionable. This article has provided you with a foundation to define this role. Let me know if you need any further clarity, and I will be happy to connect with you.
Many roles are changing to meet new challenges with the changing business ecosystems. However, SaaS Account Management is a role that remains critical in your growth.
