Have you seen markets that reject Multi-Tenancy based on [Information Security] requirements (no matter how well founded) and how do you counter that in the sales process?
No, I’ve not seen an entire market reject SaaS, but I have seen individual companies reject it. You should know whether this will be the case before going in and if the majority of companies you are targeting have policies in place against SaaS or will otherwise reject it, you need to find new target customers or change your product. That said, if you sell value over the fact that the product is SaaS or Multi-Tenant, etc., you can overcome many objections by simply not bringing them up in the first place. In other words, don’t immediately draw attention to the potential objectionable items.
First sell them on the value your product brings and the benefits they will experience. Once you have them sold on that, the other objections will play a lesser role. The reality is that HIPAA compliance, for example, is easy to follow and there are many SaaS vendors that deal with this every day quite successfully in Multi-Tenant environments. Remember, if you do run into a potential client that objects to SaaS, you will find it difficult if not impossible to change the way they think. If they are opposed to your delivery model, it might be time to move on… they will eventually come around and there are other clients to focus your time and resources on.
It is important to note that every market is different and I would be more than happy to discuss your specific situation in more detail.
Author: Lincoln Murphy