Software implementation is too often understood as a purely technical challenge. And this is exactly what too many SaaS companies get wrong.

The technical part of implementing software on your client’s side is the easy part of a software project. The true and very often overlooked challenge is getting your customer’s team to adopt and regularly use the new software.

Adaptation > Implementation

This may seem an obvious observation, yet it's a critical factor behind the underperformance of many SaaS products.

SaaS implementation should focus more on transforming users' daily routines so that they not only accept the new software but truly believe that it makes their lives better, making it a non-negotiable part of their daily routine.

Sustainable success lies in changing a team’s behavior, which means changing human behavior, enabling the software to deliver on its promise and drive tangible improvements in your client's company.

It doesn’t matter if you have the best SaaS product in the world if nobody uses it.

Humans naturally resist change, especially when overwhelmed with our day-to-day tasks. Overcoming this instinctive bias against new processes is where many software companies stumble.

Managing this change is crucial for long-term customer retention and increased lifetime value.

The key question is, how can we, as SaaS providers, help our clients overcome this adaptation challenge?

Here’s one idea – create internal “influencers/ambassadors” for your product.

Let me explain by using a real-life example:

A few years back, I conducted a workshop based on my COUP (Commandments Of Outstanding Presentations/Pitches) framework for Microsoft and LinkedIn employees in Munich. We limited this to 100 people, although there was a much higher demand than that.

And now, many years later, the core 100 people, let’s call them early adopters, who got this training are still talking about how it impacted their lives, thus creating demand within the company.

Even today, years after the training, I have people from Microsoft and LinkedIn reaching out to me saying: ”My colleague attended the COUP workshop, I would like to learn about it, too”.

The early adopters have basically become COUP ambassadors within those companies.

How can you implement this with SaaS and services?

One way could be by conducting a fun, engaging, and super valuable kickoff workshop for a small select group of employees that will be the early adopters and soon-to-be your product “influencers/ambassadors”.

By starting with a small, enthusiastic group, you can focus more on creating real change in these people’s lives. If you can make the early adopters more productive and successful with the help of your software and a kick-off workshop that equips them with skills to get more value out of the software – then in return, it will create a ripple effect of adoption and acceptance across the company.

If you can innovate and find unconventional ways to make your SaaS a fully adopted daily tool within a company, you will quickly set yourself apart from the competition, increase customer retention, and your customer lifetime value.