Let’s say you are selling a $5000 piece of software and you update every 2 years. If you are counting on selling updates as part of your projected LTV, you are pretty much a subscription business, subject to the same churn considerations as a “normal” SaaS might be.
My point is that unless you are selling a one-time product with no paid updates or paid ongoing support, then SaaS strategies should work for you. Unless you happen to be selling something esoteric such as avionics or infrastructure software, it would seem most SaaS sales strategies would tend to be applicable.
Pre-sales is a really long and drawn out process when dealing with big corporates, doubly so when you’re selling what will become core infrastructure. We’re currently a year into what is effectively pre-sales with one client, involving a full due diligence process, in depth conversation with their corporate security department, and a (paid for) trial involving several hundred of their customers.
- B2B Executive Playbook
- Crossing the Chasm
But in general, the reason no one tells you how to run an actual software business is because why would they tell you what took them years / decades to learn the hard way?
SaaS Startups are a tool to fleece investors, so all the scam artists are happy to tell the world how smart they are at Starting Up. It's personal marketing.
Boring B2B Software is just a normal businesses, ain't nobody gonna tell you the secret to doing that. Get a job in industry and then learn it first hand, that's how you learn it.