Most mid­-market SaaS companies use a similar sales process for new customer acquisition that we term as 'The 3C Model':

• Catching
• Coaching
• Closing

Catching

Unlike self service purchases, catching (as the word implies) is essentially opening a dialogue or a conversation with the prospect who has signed up. This is done as a combination of live chat sessions, email followup, phone followups.

A good example is KiSSFLOW's opening email titled 'KiSSLFOW is *not* for everyone'. This email has helped to start conversations with prospects who signed up. The catching step can be done by a SDR (Sales Development Rep) i.e. a entry level sales person with some training. 'Catching' becomes a very critical step towards converting a prospect into a customer.

Coaching

The 'catcher' after qualifying the signed up prospect brings the 'Coacher' into the picture. The 'coacher' is roughly equal to a technical sales, pre-sales, demo team, etc. The job of the 'coacher' is to make sure that the signup is able to achieve a 'initial success' with the product. The success of this step leads to strong usage pattern clearly denoting 'activation'. This is a significant people involvement step. If you are a mid­-market SaaS this step is required for improved sales conversions. However, if you are closer to the SOHO segment then you need to figure out how to make this 'low touch'. Also, even for mid-market, you shouldn't stop continuously working on reducing the people touch point as you grow, but at early stages this is something you have to plan for under 'doing things that don't scale'.

Closing

This is where the mature, seasoned sales person is required. Often times small deals can be closed by the catcher or even the coacher depending on the type of the product. But medium to large ones require more time commitment and help. This step will involve various nuances like giving discounts without leaving money on the table to figuring out why a prospect is still not buying and releasing that bottleneck.