B2B SaaS Marketing: Show the Product Before the Sale
Most B2B SaaS marketing asks for a sales call before the buyer has seen the product. Buyers would rather look first, and many will leave before they ask.
I think B2B SaaS marketing fails when companies don't show the product, or don't offer some type of demo or onboarding ahead of the purchase. The site talks about outcomes, then asks for a call before the buyer has seen a single screen.
I'm Chris Hornak, co-founder of Swift Growth Marketing. I have also built a SaaS product of my own. This is what buyers say they want, the 3 ways we show a product, and what to do when your product is too big to try in an afternoon.
Short answer: B2B SaaS marketing works when the buyer can see and try the product before they pay. Show the real product on your site with screenshots or a short video, offer a free trial or a sandbox, and help new customers set it up before they sign a contract.
Why do B2B SaaS buyers want to see the product first?
Because they do most of the work before they talk to you. In a TrustRadius survey of 2,185 software buyers, 77% said their first step was to do their own research, VentureBeat reported. In the same survey, 70% named "making demos or free trials available" as a top reason they would be more likely to buy. Free trial use rose from 41% in 2021 to 56% in 2022.
The same buyers told TrustRadius what pushes them away. 57% named "no software pricing available on website".
Gartner sees the same thing in newer data. In its survey of 646 buyers, 67% of B2B buyers favor a rep-free experience, Digital Commerce 360 reported.
Jakob Nielsen saw the same problem in 2006, after his team tested 179 B2B sites: "In our study, incomplete product descriptions were the cause of much skepticism." The product information a buyer can see without signing up "must be complete enough for users to judge," Nielsen Norman Group found.
What are the 3 ways to show a SaaS product?
We push clients toward three.
|
Way to show it |
What the buyer gets |
When it fits best |
|---|---|---|
|
Screenshots or a short video of the real product |
They see the screens they would use, on your site, with no sign-up |
Every SaaS site, from day one |
|
A free trial or a sandbox (a test copy with sample data) |
They try it with their own hands, on their own time |
When a buyer can get value in a few days |
|
Guided onboarding before the contract |
You help them set it up, so they see it work on their own data |
When setup is the hard part |
Screenshots and video should show the real product, not an illustration of a laptop with a glowing chart. A buyer wants to know what Monday morning looks like inside your tool. Put the screens next to the claims they prove, and label each part in the buyer's words. A short video can walk through one real task from start to finish.
If you sell to a buying team, each person looks for a different screen. The manager who signs wants the report. The person who will use it every day wants the daily task.
A trial lets buyers use the product on their own work. A sandbox is a test copy with sample data already in it, so they can click around without setting anything up. Both answer the question a screenshot can't: is this easy to use?
Some products only show their value once they hold the buyer's own data. In that case, help them set it up first. The buyer signs after they've seen it work.
A live demo with a salesperson isn't on the list as the first step. It has its place later on. As the only way to see the product, it asks the buyer for a meeting before they know if the product is worth one.
How I built try-before-you-buy into my own product
I built Blog Hands, a subscription service that writes monthly blog posts in a company's brand voice. It follows the same rule.
The offer on the homepage is plain: "Drop your URL and we'll write your first post free." The free post is "a real working post, not a teaser or a sample", and the buyer keeps it whether they subscribe or not. The topic research tool needs no account, no credit card and no email. The first thing a buyer gets is the product.
That choice has a cost. Every free post is real work, and not every reader becomes a customer. What it buys is a buyer who has read their own post before they pay.
What if your product can't be tried in an afternoon?
Some can't. Enterprise software often needs IT approval, a security review and real data before anyone can test it. A free trial may not be possible, and a sandbox may not show much.
You can still give the buyer something useful before you ask for a call. When SkillsTX took its talent platform into North America, its buyers first had to understand SFIA, the international common language for digital skills. SkillsTX is an accredited SFIA partner. We built a launch for SkillsTX around a six-page SFIA cheat sheet behind an email opt-in, followed by a five-email series. The call only comes up once the reader has taken something.
What does this change in your B2B SaaS marketing?
It changes where the effort goes. It's easy to spend the budget on getting people to a "Book a demo" button, and too little on what they see when they arrive.
Start with the page a buyer lands on, and ask three questions:
- Can they see the product without filling in a form?
- Can they tell roughly what it costs?
- Can they try it, or at least watch someone use it?
If the answer to all three is no, more traffic won't fix it.
It also changes what you measure. Count how many visitors watch the video, start the trial or finish setup, not only how many book a call. Those are the steps that show a buyer is getting closer.
This has limits. Showing the product won't save a product people don't need. And a free trial with no help can lose people too: if a buyer signs up, gets stuck on setup and leaves, the trial has done its job badly.
FAQ
Is a free trial better than a demo?
Buyers value both. In the TrustRadius survey, product demos (71%) topped the list of most impactful resources, and free trials or accounts (67%) came next. A trial lets them try it on their own time. A demo helps later, when a buying team has real questions.
Should a B2B SaaS company publish its pricing?
If you can, yes. 57% of buyers in the TrustRadius survey named missing pricing as a reason they were less likely to buy. If your price depends on the account, show a starting price or a price for a typical setup.
Does this work for enterprise SaaS?
Yes, with a different first step. An enterprise buyer may not get a trial on day one, but they can still see screenshots, a recorded walkthrough, and a useful guide before anyone asks for a meeting.
If buyers land on your site and leave before they see your product, we can help you find where they drop off. See how our UX and conversion work starts with what the buyer sees first.