Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is infiltrating every area of business, especially B2B, which is an industry pushing for digitization and wants to be more like the B2B industry. SaaS essentially is a subscription service that allows businesses to purchase software that helps them with a task like accounting, office productivity, and customer relationship management.
The SaaS market is currently growing on average by 18% each year, and Gartner believes the industry will continue to dominate the future of B2B. Up to 78% of B2B brands have invested in SaaS solutions, with experts recommending they spend 8% of their total revenue on software services. We’ve picked out the solutions brands are most interested in – read on to find out more.
Customer Relationship Management
Buyers are evolving – according to the Harvard Business Review, 73% of those involved in purchasing research are millennials, and a third of the people involved with the main buying decision-makers are now millennials. They’re the driving force behind digital solutions that nurture buyer-to-business relationships from afar. Plus, studies show that sales reps now only get 17% of a buyer’s time throughout the buying cycle, which actually works out to 5% per buyer involved in the average buying cycle.
That highlights the need to build customer relationships in a new environment – B2B was once heavily dominated by traditional in-person meetings that make forming a working relationship was somewhat easier – or trickier, depending on your in-person communication skills. A B2B incentive programme can help support that working relationship by fostering loyalty, introducing buyer incentives, and bringing down customer acquisition costs for B2B brands.
Interestingly, 56% of buyers will stay loyal to brands that get them, and a B2B loyalty program is the perfect way to display that loyalty.
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Accounting Software
According to research, 94% of accountants have begun using cloud-based accounting software. Traditional accounting methods that rely on paper trails are arduous, prone to errors, and tricky to track. SaaS accounting software takes everything online, giving accountants and anyone within the business that requires it access to the accounting information like weekly expenditures, profits, payroll, and more.
SaaS accounting software intends to provide a real-time view of finances and often merges with fintech solutions like employee credit cards, online banking, and digital lending.
Office Productivity
SaaS solutions suit the new era of working – hybrid working. It also transpires that hybrid working was almost made for the B2B industry, with 37% of buyers now saying they want a completely remote and self-serve service. There’s less need for an office-based environment and more of a need for B2B brands to access services that allow them to work with anyone worldwide.
Products like Zoom and Trello dominate the hybrid working era that intends to put the office in people’s homes. Plus, it suits the needs of the B2B industry. The buying cycle is long and complex and can sometimes be hindered by in-person meetings. Plus, only 11% of B2B brands think remote working will negatively impact their brand. Most buyers and sellers are working towards that fully remote experience that SaaS office productivity solutions support.
SaaS is still an emerging concept growing faster than ever thanks to the push for the B2B industry to go digital. They’re providing the cloud-based solutions that businesses need to manage their brand from anywhere in the world. Brands are no longer confined to office spaces and limited by the traditional B2B sales techniques that once dominated the market.
