SaaS sales tips: Convert free-trial users into paid customers

Whether it’s chocolate, cheese, wine, or anything else, people will flock to wherever you are to try the “free samples”. 

But when money comes into the picture, they often repel. SaaS businesses manage to convince people to sign up for a free trial.

However, converting them into paid customers is a different ball game. 

Just having a strong SaaS product isn’t enough, you need to have effective selling strategies as well. You need to establish and maintain a healthy relationship with your prospects.

Do all that it takes to convert free trial users into paying customers. 

How you sell matters. What is your process matters. But how your customers feel when they engage with your matters. – Tiffani Bova 

How to convert free-trial users into customers

On average only 15 to 20% of free trial user end up upgrading to paid plans 

Oh yes, conversion seems difficult. 

But look at the brighter side, 15 to 20% of free trial users do convert, which means conversion is possible if the right steps are taken. 

Here are a few SaaS sales tips to help you convert your free-trial users into paying customers. 

1. Provide personalized demo

Capture your prospect’s interest through personalized demos. Well, for that, you need to understand your prospect’s needs and challenges.

So, ask relevant questions during the discovery calls. 

Find out their challenges and problems. This will help in personalizing the demos. 

If you are aware of the prospects’ pain points you can show them during the demo how your product can help them in overcoming those problems. 

Which features can help them? 

Through personalized demos, you can help the prospects in making the most of your software.

So,  ensure you provide personalized demos after understanding the needs of the prospects.

2. Make the most of email automation

You need to nurture your prospects to convert them into paying customers.

The best way to do this is by sending emails to your prospect once they start the free trial.

To save your precious time, put your emails on autopilot by using a workflow automation tool.

Use email automation to nurture and convert your free trial users into paying customers.

Through an automation tool, you can set workflow and send automated emails once the prospect signs up for a free trial.

For instance,

You can set a workflow that when a prospect signs up for a free trial, send a welcome email.

In the same way, after two days you can send an informative email for acquainting the prospect with your company and the product. 

After six days, you can send them an email highlighting the top features of your product.

Before the trial ends, you can send an email informing the prospects that their free-trial period is about to end.

This way, using email automation, you can engage your prospects while they are using your product for free. 

3. Connect with the prospect during the free-trial 

Use the time when the prospect is trying your product as an opportunity to highlight the benefits of using your software.

Call them during the free-trial to check if they are facing any trouble while using the software.

Guide them if they are stuck anywhere. As the software is new for them, they might take a little time to adapt. 

Ask about their experiences of using the software so far.

Explain how they can use the features to address various business pain points. Speak about the benefits.

Show them what your product can do for their business; how it can be beneficial and easier for their work. Since they are using the software, they will be able to understand the benefits better. 

4. Create a sense of urgency

Don’t you quickly act when you see a discount or special offer tag attached to the product you are planning to buy?

Nobody wants to miss the best deal.

It’s one of the best tactics used by ecommerce sites and other businesses to stimulate a purchase.

So, use the same tactic on your free trial users.

After the first few days of the free trial. try to grab their attention through some discounts on special offers.

You can either offer a discount for the first few months or offer some extra features of the higher plan for the first few months.

However, to avail this discount or special offers, they need to act before a specific date. So highlight the dates and keep sending them emails about the special offer so that they can take a faster decision. You can even use text messages(SMS) to create a sense of urgency. 

In most of the best CRM software, you can find all the three communication channels (call.emails and text messages) in one place. So, you can easily use these channels for informing your free trial users about discounts or special offers to convert them into customers. 

5. Follow-up without fail 

The prospect won’t easily invest in a product. After free-trial make sure your follow-up consistently to convert the user into a paying customer.

Try to call or send a simple follow-up email like:

Or 

Most of the SaaS sales reps give up after the first follow-up. 

Do not make that mistake. The prospect might be busy, so they may take time to reply. 

So when you do not get a response, don’t get disappointed. 

Try again, maybe through another channel. 

For instance, if the prospect isn’t receiving your calls, you can send them a series of emails. 

Thanks to modern technology, you can automate the process and create a sequence of follow-up emails that will be executed at different time intervals. 

So, you wouldn’t have to even remember to follow-up with your prospect. Just create a sequence and conveniently put your follow-up on auto-pilot. 

6. Make it easy to switch between free and paid plans 

The transition from free to paid plan should be smooth. Analyze your current process. Go through the step your free trial user needs to take for becoming a paid customer. 

There are too many frictions, for instance, many form fields to fill out or anything else.

Or after the free trial, they have to call your customer support executive and give their credit card details.

This might slow down the process. 

The prospect might lose interest as they might not have a lot of time for this unnecessary long procedures. 

If you want a quick conversion, then do not make your prospects go through such a time-consuming process.

Make the transition as easy as possible, like you can run the subscription through a mobile app. The users can scan their credit card with the camera rather than typing the numbers manually. 

Just ease the work of your free trial user to convert them into paying customers. 

7. Learn from your experiences 

In sales, you’ll experience both success and failure. It is important to learn from your experiences.

There might be many reasons why a trial user did not convert into a paid customer.

So dig deeper into those reasons. Be aware of the mistakes that you shouldn’t repeat in the future.

Try a different approach that might help in persuading a free trial user to convert him/her into a paid customer.  Never stop learning if you want to grow and succeed.   

8. Be honest and do not over-promise

Honesty and integrity are two vital traits needed to convert free trial users into paid customers and keep them coming for long. 

Sometimes it might seem enticing to tell a white lie or overpromise to achieve the sales quota. However, in SaaS sales, it is necessary to think about long-term success.

So, avoid making fake promises you can’t keep as that might lead to serious repercussions. You might end up losing your customers and receive negative reviews from them that might jeopardize your future opportunities. 

Wrapping up

Oh yes, convincing a free trial user to take the paid subscription is not at all easy. However, it isn’t even an impossible task. Just a little effort and smart work are required.

Have good product knowledge to highlight the top features of your prospect. Understand the needs and requirements of your prospect to show them during the free trial period how your product can help them. Call in between the free trial to check if they are facing any trouble while using your product. 

Make the most of all the communication channels like email, phone, and text messages to connect with your prospect while they are using your product.

A CRM like Salesmate that allows you to send emails, make calls, and send text messages can be of great help. You can easily manage your SaaS business leads in this advanced CRM and convert them quickly to increase your SaaS business sales.