Scrolling LinkedIn one evening, I saw this: 

The post got me thinking the whole night. Same product. Same intrinsic value. But just by adjusting its packaging, as Jason Feifer noted, RXBAR achieved different outcomes. Apparently, customers perceived more value than they previously did. Evident in RXBAR going from being ignored to a $600M acquisition by Kellogg. 

Three weeks later, I’m still thinking. How can Founders also boost the customer perceived value of their B2B SaaS? The harsh reality is that SaaS products can’t be ‘repackaged’ like a consumer snack like RXBAR. But by adding value to all visible touchpoints on customers’ purchase paths, you can also boost the perceived value of your SaaS. 

Says a tech veteran: 

This insight by Parsa Saljoughian, the VP of Strategic Finance at Whoop, is spot on. So much so that absorbing his article where I culled it from reminded me of another harsh reality with B2B SaaS tools… 

‘Free’ Don’t Magically Enhance Perception of Value

The following story proves it. 

In 2020, I chanced upon an article by a revered B2B Marketer. In it, he mentioned a new content marketing SaaS. In short, he raved about the product. This prompted me to visit their site, where I ended up signing up for their 14-day free trial. But that was it. I didn’t return to use the remaining 13 days of free access to the tool. 

When it elapsed, I got this email: 

Around this time, MarketMuse’s Pro tier was about $399/month. So three free months of Pro access would’ve cost VEC Studio over a thousand dollars. Still, I didn’t perceive enough value to click on the link and, at least, activate the free coupon. 

Here’s why.

When I first learned about MarketMuse, I perceived value —mainly because someone I revered raved about the tool. But after I signed up for their free trial, that changed. I fumbled through the confusing onboarding process. I struggled to do anything meaningful with the tool. As a result, not even three free months could change my perception of the tool’s value. Not even over $1,000. 

My experience proves that, in B2B SaaS, you must boost perceived value pre- and post-acquisition. That’s how you earn B2B buyers’ mindshare and boost conversions. Great branding or influencers raving about your SaaS may lure people to check it out, as was my case. A generous freemium tier or free trial may further lure prospects to sign up. But all of that is only half the battle. Winning the war of acquiring B2B customers and retaining them long-term requires making them perceive value before and after they sign up.  

How to Increase Customer Perceived Value of a SaaS

MarketMuse isn’t an exception. 

You’ve likely not returned to a SaaS tool after the initial value you perceived lured you to visit their sites and sign up. I, for one, have signed up to many SaaS tools with fully functional freemium tiers, but never go back to using them. We’re both not an exception, either. 

Otherwise, tech startups won’t be struggling with measly freemium and free trial conversion rates. For instance, while about 13.7% of site visitors convert to freemium users, only around 3.7% convert to paid. The percentage for free trials to paid is way higher than freemium at 17.8%. But less than 7.8% of site visitors convert to free trials: 

This data points to one fact. 

Your go-to market (GTM) strategy can obstruct or reveal how B2B prospects initially perceive the value of your SaaS. But, ultimately, your best test of perceived value should be long-term paying customers. 

And the steps to attract them?

Crystal-Clear Value Articulation 

Value is often perceived in two ways. 

Sometimes we perceive the value of a SaaS product based solely on its ability to solve a problem we have (or didn’t know we had). Other times, it is because we buy into a product’s unique approach and convince ourselves it was built specifically for our needs. 

For instance, we were okay using Cleanshot X for product screenshots and annotations of the same for the pieces we crafted. But chancing upon Screen Studio via a random Tweet, I immediately realized how it could enhance our Product-Led Storytelling efforts. Their homepage copy and accompanying GIF did this heavy-lifting. It clearly articulated the value of using the product for producing short, GIF-like product videos (instead of still screenshots): 

Seeing this, I immediately downloaded their Mac app to try the product; then, bought three licenses for my team in less than a month. All because I could perceive its value for a Storytelling Studio like ours. Clearly articulating what their product can do was enough. 

RXBAR, if you recall, did the same. They didn’t change the intrinsic value of the product. They simply articulated its value much better.

But in some cases, this isn’t enough. 

In a crowded SaaS niche, for instance, most B2B prospects know what competing products can (and should) do. As a result, their perceived value meter is rarely moved by articulating what your tool does. You must clearly articulate your SaaS’s ability to solve their problem in a unique way they can resonate with per their specific workflow. 

How you do that? Succinctly state who you serve by also articulating the unique value such people have already achieved with your product. 

Clearscope is an excellent example: 

Leading a B2B SaaS content studio, you bet I knew countless content optimization tools out there and what they could do. But the moment I chanced upon Clearscope, I still perceived value. Their homepage copy didn’t just state what the product does. But they supported it with the clear value someone I could resonate with —a VP of Content at a known content agency— achieved with their product. 

To make it even sweeter…

Match Value to Prospects Appropriately

Value isn’t objective. 

Alex Birkett said it better: 

The way I, Founder of a story-driven, product-led content studio, perceive a product’s value would differ from how the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of a growth-stage B2B SaaS would. For instance, when I first chanced upon Clearscope, I perceived value because of this line: “Clearscope feels like our best-kept secret to getting #1 articles on Google for our clients.” Our clients were seeking to also rank on Google, so seeing this, I immediately thought to myself. ‘If Clearscope was the secret weapon a known content agency was using to rank their clients’ pieces on Google’s #1 spot, it could help us, too.’ 

A CMO, on other hand, won’t have the same value perception. He’s not trying to rank their clients’ pieces on Google’s #1 spot. His content team knowing what to write about to deliver desired results is likely to be perceived as more valuable. 

Clearscope apparently, maybe through a series of research, knows this. Evident in the fact that they use different testimonial excerpts to appropriately match value per prospects visiting their site. 

CMOs visiting their site see this: 

To take this one step further…

Show, Don’t Just Tell

I perceived enough to buy Screen Studio because their website copy didn’t just tell what the product does. But because they showed, side-by-side with each copy, how the tool actually does it. 

Here’s a peek: 

Most importantly, unlike most B2B SaaS, Screen Studio didn’t just tell the companies who were already using their tool. But they also showed inviting, GIF-like product videos those companies had created and published with the tool. 

Again, here’s a peek: 

Seeing these was the final nudge that made me type in my credit card numbers without thinking twice. Instantly, I could imagine how similar GIF-like videos could help us craft better product stories, which we couldn’t achieve with static, annotated screenshots. 

But there’s even a more powerful way to show and not just tell so that prospects perceive your product as valuable. And that’s to also tie-in relevant ROI existing customers have achieved with your product. 

Says Nahla Davies: 

An excellent example is Outseta. 

Look at this for three seconds:

On sections across their site, Outseta uses a quadruplet of highlights to articulate their product’s value. As shown above, the subheadline (1) and accompanying copy tells about a problem they solve. Beneath the main copy (2), they list products Outseta replaces. To the right hand side (3), they show Outseta solving the problem. Below (4), they tie-in a customer success story excerpt that clearly articulates the ROI and specific pain point a prospects could also overcome with Outseta. 

VEC Studio does this, too. 

Below the section listing some B2B SaaS startups that trust our unique, Product-Led Storytelling approach is a customer success story excerpt. Instead of us just telling, this is how we show our website visitors the possible ROI of working with us: 

But what if you do all these and B2B prospects still don’t perceive your SaaS product as valuable? 

In that case, iterate until you nail…

Right (Not Cheaper) Price

I’m not a SaaS pricing expert. But I know the price of many tech products has played a huge role in how valuable I perceived them. Sometimes being too cheap comes off as a red flag. Other times, being too expensive clouds my ability to justify a product’s value. 

As the MarketMuse example showed, a generous freemium tier or free trial can make it seem like prospects value your product. But trial and freemium users are trial and freemium users. If your SaaS pricing isn’t right, they won’t perceive enough value to buy it. 

Psychologist, Robert Cialdini, said it best: 

Due to its dynamic nature, B2B SaaS is one such dynamic sector where prospects aren’t completely sure how to assess quality. As a result, and as Cialdini noted, getting your pricing right can be a stand-in for making B2B prospects perceive your product as valuable. 

SaaS pricing expert, Kyle Poyar, shared five mistakes to avoid when iterating and trying to get your product’s pricing right: 

Calculating Customer Perceived Value in Marketing

In one of his most famous TED Talks, renowned advertising expert, Rory Sutherland, made a crucial point. 

He said:

Rory went on to explain how our perception of value isn’t always the reality, even with objective things as a product’s value. This validates the point that, through story-driven marketing, you can boost your B2B SaaS product’s perceived value without necessarily increasing its objective value. Story-driven because storytelling has a unique way of making prospects visualize value. 

This graph, by yours truly, illustrates: 

My first experience with MarketMuse informed my creation of this graph. Perceiving the product as valuable, because someone I revered told a story about it, I visited their website and signed up for a trial. Whatever they did to make the B2B Marketer I revered to mention their product is a form of pre-acquisition marketing. 

In other words, whatever the strategy, tactic, or channel, when done well, pre-acquisition marketing can greatly increase the perceived value B2B prospects have of your SaaS. For instance, the rebranding and repackaging of RXBAR is a form of pre-acquisition marketing.

You can calculate this value by the number of new site visitors and freemium users/free trial signups generated over a certain period, say, monthly or quarterly. 

But it is not enough. 

The moment prospects perceive enough value to sign up for your freemium tier or free trial is when the real work starts. If you allow them to fumble through your onboarding or fail to properly adopt your product, their initial perceived value begins to decline. 

But if you invest in story-driven post-acquisition marketing, the opposite happens. Their perceived value of your product will continually increase, enabling you to retain them as loyal customers, nudge account expansions, and brand advocates. 

MarketMuse didn’t do this. 

It’s why, even three months of free access to their Pro plan a click away (worth over $1,000), I didn’t perceive enough value to make the click. A defined strategy aimed at marketing to existing customers (or users) could’ve helped them curtail this. 

So don’t be like MarketMuse.

Use this free guide to put that in place: 

True Value vs Perceived Value is Subjective

Emil Kristensen is the CMO of Contractbook. 

Before that, he was the CMO of Drip. And before that, he was the Co-Founder of Sleeknote, before their successful exit to Drip. From building a successful startup to leading the marketing teams of two huge B2B SaaS products, suffice to say that Emil knows his onions. 

That’s why I took these words of his to heart: 

As Emil rightly noted, it doesn’t really matter how much it costs to build your product or its intrinsic value. If B2B prospects don’t perceive it as valuable, you can kiss getting them to visit your website or sign up for a free trial or book a sales demo goodbye. But even if you cross that first hurdle, it still won’t matter if they don’t perceive enough value to purchase, adopt, and expand their accounts. 

This is why, both for pre-marketing and post-marketing, crafting stories that articulate your product’s unique value and stories of how others (i.e., existing customers) are using your product to achieve outcomes also desired by B2B prospects is crucial. Doing both, and doing them well, helps you to earn the mindshare of your prospective (and existing) customers. 

And that’s what Product-Led Storytelling can do for you: