Choosing a Vendor for SaaS Companies with an Inbound Marketing Approach
Find the perfect SaaS vendor for your inbound marketing needs. Get tips on evaluating vendors, balancing cost and quality, and ensuring strategic alignment.
Selecting a marketing vendor for SaaS companies, particularly those focused on an inbound marketing strategy, is somewhat of a challenge in its own right. No wonder that in 2024, there are over 14.1 thousand MarTech solutions available on the market worldwide. To highlight this massive increase, consider that in 2019, before the pandemic, the figure stood at 7.04 thousand MarTech agencies—half the current number!
Thus, vetting who your company plans to work with has become even more crucial and has transformed in nature. Now, with so many options, a vendor must not only have the technical capabilities to deliver results but also the interpersonal skills to ensure a smooth and collaborative partnership.
We suggest dividing a vendor's skills into two groups—hard and soft skills. But before that, let’s look at a regular set of criteria for the vendor selection process that you can often encounter on the internet.
Before the selection process even begins, you should have a clear idea of what you expect from the vendor. This should include a detailed set of criteria for the vendor to meet, as well as a timeline for when the work needs to be completed.
What criteria are typically used to evaluate vendors?
When you're looking at potential vendors, it's crucial to think about various factors to make sure you pick the right partner. These factors can help you save money, improve quality, manage time better, and reduce risks. Good communication, meeting legal requirements, and being reliable are also super important in this process.
While this list covers many key points, it doesn't cover everything about working with a vendor. Make sure to consider your specific needs and situation when deciding. Here are some common criteria used to evaluate vendors:
- Cost Savings
- Quality Assurance
- Time Savings
- Risk Management
- Communication
- Legal Requirements
- Business Reliability
- Vendor Selection Criteria
Don’t just focus on experience, stellar support, competitive pricing, and availability. There's much more to consider — clear criteria mean smart decisions for your business!
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Darwin’s Take: Criteria for Evaluating MarTech Vendors Effectively
We’ll break down the most important criteria for evaluating MarTech vendors—the Darwin approach—and cover the essential hard skills every vendor must have, as well as the soft skills that can make a big difference. Armed with this knowledge, you'll be ready to choose a vendor that truly meets your needs and helps you achieve your marketing goals.
Critical Hard Skills IT Vendors Can't Do Without
Understanding Problems and Solutions
Expertise and comprehensive understanding. An agency that takes a holistic view of the client's ecosystem guarantees that any requested changes or new implementations are considered within the broader context of the client's operations. By doing so, they prevent potential issues that might arise from isolated changes and make it clear that the solutions are sustainable and effective.
Depth of insight. It's essential to seek professionals who can identify issues before you finish explaining them. The expertise of both the salesperson and the product team significantly impacts decision-making. A knowledgeable vendor team can effectively approach clients, listen, and ask why, suggesting more future-proof solutions. Connecting the dots and guiding you smoothly and seamlessly sets them apart from the competition.
Case studies. While it's normal for vendors to brag a little about their experience, they should back it up with super-relevant examples. Ask for real-world cases; stories you’d love to see written about your business. Detailed case studies should uncover the figures and the impact a vendor has brought to its clients, including quotes, numbers, and problem-solving approaches.
Budget and Timeline Accuracy
Balancing cost and quality. Finding the right balance between cost and quality when outsourcing work is always challenging. You need to find that happy medium, a blend of a consulting partner and an agency. These are rare finds.
Clear objectives: Setting clear objectives is critical for accurate budgeting and timelines. Some vendors attempt to create more work than necessary to increase their scope and fees. Focus on immediate needs with the potential for expansion after establishing trust and demonstrating value.
Quick turnaround time: Any client would appreciate a vendor’s efficiency in delivering work promptly without compromising quality. This is why reliability in meeting or exceeding timelines sets some vendors apart from others.
Accurate estimations: A vendor’s estimates for work should be accurate, which helps in planning and budgeting. Often in our interviews, clients note this as a contrast to other experiences where agencies might overcharge or extend timelines unnecessarily.
Client Reviews
Verified reviews and testimonials. There are many verified platforms like Clutch, G2, or Capterra where you seek reviews on services relevant to your needs. What’s so special about these platforms is that they have a verified, strict policy on making sure the reviews are real and not manipulated by any means.
Data-Driven Approach
Enhanced confidence in data. MarTech vendors draw on hard numbers, not gut feelings. This is because they understand setting up tools like Google Analytics, revenue pipeline, or marketing attribution. This leads to increased confidence in the data obtained from tools, which manifests in making informed decisions based on reliable analytics.
User experience and usability improvements. By critically considering the impact of web development decisions on the overall user experience and tool ecosystem, you can expect vendors to make improvements that enhance the usability of your website and your digital ecosystem.
Project Understanding
Strategic alignment meetings. Opt for vendors that have regular meetings to discuss and align on strategic objectives, ensuring that both the vendor and the client understand the long-term vision and how each project fits into this broader strategy.
Joint Planning Sessions: Your partner should dive into your business needs and challenges as if they were their own. Engage in joint planning sessions to co-create project roadmaps, align priorities, and set mutual expectations to ensure all parties have a vested interest in the success of the projects.
Team Familiarity
Meet the team. Getting to know each other goes beyond being polite. These moments allow questions about communication, work matters, and issue resolution. Understanding who you'll be working with is paramount. Ideally, even though your vendor is a hired force, they can feel like an extension of your team — a genuine interest in the project, swift replies, proactive issue resolution. They don’t shy away from going the extra mile.
Conversational engagement and insight. During initial meetings, you can assess whether the conversation with potential partners feels promising. The ability of the partner to engage meaningfully, provide valuable insights, and demonstrate a deep understanding of your requirements is key to moving forward.
Arrange calls with key team members, including the PM, CTO, and even the founders, to understand who you will be working with.
I have been incredibly happy working with Darwin. I've even joked with the head of our department that I would quit if they ever made me stop working with Darwin.
Security and Continuity
Proactive security measures. Ask vendors whether or not they implement regular security scans and checks, as they must take good care of it. Of done properly, such a proactive approach helps in identifying and mitigating security vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.
Smooth integration with existing systems. The overall system architecture should be bulletproof. When an agency deeply understands its client's tech stack, it can introduce the most efficient security measures that are cohesive and do not disrupt existing operations.
Continuity planning and risk management. Continuity planning involves preparing for potential disruptions and having strategies in place to maintain operations. Your vendor’s approach likely includes risk assessments and the development of contingency plans to ensure that critical functions can continue during an outage or attack. If that’s not the case, there’s something to reconsider.
Client training and support. Educating the client’s team about security best practices and how to respond to potential threats is part of the agency’s role in ensuring security and continuity. By providing guidance and support, the agency helps the client’s team stay vigilant and prepared to handle security issues. This ongoing support is crucial for maintaining a secure and resilient operational environment.
Referrals and Recommendations
Client testimonials. Vendors that master their relationships with clients have nothing to hide, especially their real work. So they can openly put forth an idea of you getting in touch with one of their clientele to fire the questions and get trustworthy feedback from those who have already made their decision. All the pros and cons are yours for the taking. Plus, you perfectly know that nobody’s trying to push you towards sales.
What could be a stronger recommendation than that? This transparency ensures you get a complete picture of their capabilities.
Industry Understanding and Standards
Technical and marketing synergy. What can be more telling than a vendor’s ability to work across different tools and platforms (such as WordPress, Marketo, Google Analytics, etc.) and integrate them seamlessly within your martech stack? This is a significant aspect of the vendor’s problem-solving capability. And it matters a lot because technical expertise combined with a strong understanding of marketing requirements allows them to provide comprehensive solutions that address both the functional and strategic needs of the client.
Relevant and effective solutions. Clients easily spot when their vendors know their industry and recognize the importance of certain questions, the criticality of background matters, and other often overlooked issues. This alignment with clients helps vendors stay updated with industry standards and trends, leveraging this knowledge to offer relevant and effective solutions.
Soft Skills That Add Value for IT Vendors
Communication
Effective communication. Evaluate their communication skills through regular meetings, task assignments, reports, KPIs, response times, and project management.
Consultative approach. A consultative process in which vendors actively listen to the client's needs, share relevant examples and position themselves as partners rather than just vendors ensures that solutions align with the client's actual requirements.
Time Zone Compatibility: Ensure their availability aligns with your time zone, ideally providing 24/7 support.
Avoiding the “Yes-Man” Trap
Proactive solutioning and recommendations. Agencies shouldn’t just execute tasks as requested by the client; they should actively engage in providing recommendations and alternative solutions.
The agency’s focus on the client’s best interests is evident in its willingness to push back on certain requests. Instead of simply executing tasks, they ensure that the solutions provided are genuinely beneficial for the client’s goals. This involves understanding the underlying problems and suggesting better alternatives when necessary. For instance, if a requested change might not be optimal, the agency discusses this with the client and proposes more effective solutions.
Seek vendors that proactively suggest solutions and alternatives to tasks you request. Such vendors can help you save time and resources.
Daily Operations
Effective project management. Clients value vendors who exhibit strong project management skills and effective communication. In the end, what matters is when projects are completed efficiently, with regular updates and proactive management of any issues that arise.
Proactive approach. A vendor's readiness to learn new tools and adapt to your tech stack is significant. Businesses need a partner capable of integrating and understanding various marketing or analytics solutions.
Cultural and Geographical Understanding
Cultural and value alignment. Among the challenges of outsourcing work is the importance of finding partners who understand the company's brand, mission, and values. Obvious yet often overlooked, it’s crucial for external partners to have a deep understanding of the business and provide consistent, high-quality work that aligns with the internal culture, shares a common vision, and knows the strategies leading to success.
Partnership potential. The emphasis on vendors acting as strategic partners rather than just service providers suggests that the selection process includes evaluating the potential for a long-term partnership.
Selective Client Onboarding
Seamless integration and collaboration. A vendor’s approach to collaboration should make you feel like they are an extension of your team rather than an external agency. Clearly, seamless integration facilitates smooth project execution and allows for a more cohesive strategy across your digital initiatives.
Proactive Problem Solving
Responsiveness and reliability. Never refusing urgent requests and consistently delivering high-quality work on time builds a reputation for reliability. This responsiveness is always valued by businesses, as this ensures that projects move forward smoothly and efficiently.
Proactive problem identification. Experts look into the future: at times, a given solution resolves a matter, but with time, it can cause another one. For this reason, MarTech vendors need to anticipate potential issues and discuss them openly with clients. This proactive stance helps in making informed decisions and avoiding solutions that might not work.
Flexibility in problem solving. Flexibility in addressing client needs is crucial. A rigid project process can lead to dissatisfaction, whereas a more adaptable approach that responds to the specific needs and urgency of the client wins their hearts.
By carefully evaluating these hard and soft skills, you can identify a vendor who not only meets your technical requirements but also aligns well with your company's culture and operational style.
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