The subscription economy is proliferating and is expected to reach $1,500 billion by 2025, up from $650 billion in 2020.
The growing trend is the reason why many B2B software solution providers are switching to subscription business models.
Therefore, subscription management software with the ability to manage every aspect of a subscription business is important.
What is a Subscription Management Software?
Subscription management software is a tool that includes features that help you manage the subscriptions you provide to your customers: billing, communications, and subscription management. In addition, it typically includes payment gateways.
However, payment processing may or may not be included with the subscription management software.
Given so many options available in the market, it gets challenging for B2B SaaS solution providers like you to pick the right subscription management software.
How B2B SaaS Businesses Should Choose a Subscription Management Software
Here is how you can choose the right software for your needs.
1. Identify Your Business Needs
It might look obvious to you, but not all SaaS businesses need the same software features. The best method is to pick a subscription management software based on your SaaS startup strategy.
Hence, the initial step to choosing subscription management software for your B2B SaaS business is to know your needs.
You should ask yourself things like:
- Can your customers manage their accounts and subscriptions by themselves?
- To what extent do your marketing efforts require automation?
- What are your pricing plans, and would you require flexible billing options?
Answers to these questions will help you identify current priorities and significantly impact your choice.
For instance, if you want to ensure that your customers pay recurrent fees for your SaaS product, you should go with the option that has the required subscription billing feature.
Not only current, but you should also assess your forthcoming needs because not all subscription management software are capable of scaling or integrating with third-party applications (more on this later).
2. Convert Your Requirements into Features
Now is the time to look for the required features in a software that satisfies your requirements. Here are some important considerations (features) for choosing your B2B SaaS subscription software:
Customer Experience
- Personalized brand communication
- Seamless UX during the customer journey
- Easy checkout options
- Flexible billing options
Integrations and Payments
- Integration with your existing infrastructure
- Multiple payment options
- Payment reminders
- Dunning management
Compliance
- Tax compliance
- GAAP and IFRS compatibility
Reporting
- Customizable analytics reports
Having clarity about your objectives, and your firm will help you pick the appropriate alternative. You should keep your vision focused while taking advantage of the current features. Remember that subscription management software continually develop new features.
3. Thoroughly Check Third-Party Integrations
Being a SaaS business, you’d need one single source of truth for all your business data.
One way is to opt for an all-in-one subscription management software that seamlessly integrates with third-party tools to ensure that all your backend operations – from A/R collecting to CRM – work together seamlessly.
The other way is to ensure that your subscription management system can integrate with other systems, such as eCommerce software, CRM software, finance & accounting software, and ERP systems so that you can access all of your data from one place.
4. Keep Your Marketing Approach in Focus
The best part about the SaaS business model is that your customers are here for the long haul. In return, they expect faultless customer service in return for their commitment.
To nurture your relationship with your customers, you have several touchpoints – checkouts, subscription plan renewal, service upgrades, or downgrades. You can create a strategy focused on making your customers loyal.
Using subscription software, you can have control over your marketing and business communications and nurture your relationship with the customers.
5. Make Sure the Software is Used by Other B2B SaaS Companies
Although having a big customer base doesn’t necessarily mean that software provides value and is worth using, from a business perspective, it’s worth noting whether the software will be in business.
Generally, if many businesses are using a software solution, it’ll have the capacity to upgrade and launch innovative features in the future.
In contrast, subscription management software that doesn’t have enough users will struggle to stay in business and might go obsolete. It can be a disaster for your business as migrating to a new subscription management software can cost a lot in terms of money and downtime for SaaS companies.
Take a Test Drive Before Commitment
I’ve seen some subscription management software promise tons of features, but in reality, these features are not worth using.
Hence, I’d recommend you take a trial of the software you’re considering and test the features out by yourself.
Also, dig through their customer reviews on Google and other review websites. This should provide you with valuable insights into that particular software’s effectiveness.
