How to protect your founder time by focusing on the right signups
SaaS founders love making signups easier but it's costly to support bad fit prospects
I originally posted this on Twitter on February 9th 2022. You may see the embedded tweet above, otherwise the thread has also been unrolled.
SaaS founders love making signups easier...
but it's costly to support bad fit customers.
Here's 13 tips + examples to prioritize the right signups and find customers worth focusing on.
*while staying sane + keeping a personal touch
First, some context:
We're a B2B SaaS w/ signup + demo request forms.
Both forms entries are rated the same way for prioritization.
It's different from "marketing lead scoring" you'll hear about.
Tips comes from the our POV but there are lessons here for all.
Let's dive in!
1 / Think about every field
Every field is a trade-off but there are sneaky ways to get multiple data points.
If you have too many fields, use multiple forms instead of putting them all on one page.
Keep app required fields in the app when possible.
2/ Our form + page flows (Example)
You can see:
- the exact fields we use (same on both forms)
- what the user experience is like
- how we delay app fields for the app
- what the demo user sees to schedule
*Image of our flows
3 / Don't make it too easy
One click checkout/signup is great for consumer apps and ecommerce.
In SaaS, it gets expensive to let people in so easy (Spammers, Fraud, YOUR TIME)
Add a CAPTCHA, Remove Google + FB signup (or at least only use on first page of form 😀)
4 / Smart use of drop downs
Drop downs are easier to score than open fields.
Don't default the selection (the user should actively choose)
Mind the order (mix it up so your scoring isn't clear)
5 / How we route based on rating
Demo request
- low score = group demo (2x /week at set schedule)
- high score = 1:1
Signup
- lowest scores = slower support queue
*changes based on our availability and lead flow.
Now time to get into our actual scoring 👇
6 / Email address (Rate factor)
Requiring email is a no brainer.
Free email accounts don't get any points on our score.
If you're a non-free email account based on domain, you get 100 points.
*See image of free accounts domains that don't score.
7 / Website Domain (Rate factor)
Domains can tell you a ton.
If you ask for website name, that works. If not, you can use the domain name from the email address. (*One less field!)
We check the domain against clearbit and add points if the company is in their database.
8 / Business specific qualifying (Rate factor)
One of my favs as we use this to understand if they are ready for our product.
"How can we help?" with a dropdown and score based on readiness.
*see we follow our own tips about drop downs {{ img:f011ca }}
9 / Country (Rate factor WITHOUT extra fields)
IP address of entry can tell us important demographic information.
We use IPStack to get the country of the entry.
We give points based on where our customers are most likely to live (100)
*See country image {{ img:16cec8 }}
10 / Number of employees (Rate factor)
As a B2B SaaS employee count tells us a lot about the lead's resources. (*yes we can get this from clearbit, but accuracy matters here)
Good fits for us start at 10+ employees (100)
Great fits 50+ employees (200)
11 / Mobile Device (Routing)
You can get this from their browser data.
We do block signups for mobile devices as the best app experience is through a browser.
Demos we are happy to schedule from a mobile device.
12 / Stay in loop and monitor over time
These entries are precious. You've worked hard to get interest.
Make sure you don't miss a good one if your ranking was off.
Our scoring has changed every few months.
*All the fields listed above are used on demo and signup forms.
13 / Don't over-engineer
We spent a lot of time trying to make it fraud proof and practically zero tried to trick our forms.
That was wasted time on our end. Your mileage may vary.