Do you need to find and hire the leading SaaS attorney to help with the SaaS enterprise cloud software marketing and sales contracts agreements negotiations process? For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of selling or marketing SaaS software applications to the enterprise let me tell you that you are in for quite a treat! If you are a small SaaS provider and about to engage with a prospective enterprise client in the contracts negotiations process here are some things you should ask to move the process along quicker.
1. You need to find out if the contact/person in the enterprise company that has expressed interest in your SaaS application is the ultimate or right decision maker or not. Often times a SaaS company has dealings with an individual in an enterprise company that they believe has the ultimate decision making authority to give the green light to start the contracts negotiations process only to find out that they have been speaking with the wrong person. Don’t be shy; ask the question that needs to be asked which is, “are you the person in the company that makes the decision whether or not the company is going to sign a contract with my SaaS company.” Believe me it’s better to find out sooner than later.
2. Does the customer have an immediate need for your SaaS solution? If the answer is not clear I guarantee you that your application once the customer has the code will be stuck in developer hell with more important projects waiting to get worked on. My experience is that the more immediate the need is for the client to use your SaaS application the more the likelihood of getting a contract signed quicker.
3. Is the client going to require any modifications, changes or upgrades to your product? Most SaaS startups fall into the trap of believing that the enterprise client is going to use their application with no modifications or changes. Some modifications include a single sign on; some changes can be more significant. This brings up two issues. How extensive are the changes that the client wants and who is going to pay for them? You don’t want to be stuck in a situation where you start to negotiate a contract and the enterprise customer wants all of these changes to be made and wants you to pay your developer to do them. If the customer is talking about entering into let’s say a three year agreement it might be worth it to pay to have the changes made.
These are just a few tips and ideas for you to deal with prospective enterprise customers and not an exhaustive list. If you require legal advice or want to hire me to help your company go through the enterprise sales process please call me at 201-446-9643 or email me at: andrewbosin@gmail.com