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E160: Getting Paid To Perform Discovery For Your B2B SaaS

by Sean Boyce

In this episode, Sean shares his strategy on how to find and solve business problems for B2B SaaS by using consulting services as a way to perform discovery. By positioning it as consulting, B2B SaaS founders can get paid to do research and understand which problems are worth solving, all while helping their clients solve those problems themselves. This method provides cost-effective ways to gain insight on target markets and allows for a source of positive revenue throughout the process.

Key Points

  • B2B SaaS founders can use consulting as a way to perform discovery and find business problems worth solving.
  • Using services as a solution to a particular target market or industry can provide insights that could be used for a future SaaS product.
  • The research and discovery performed during consulting could be a valuable source of income and lead to overall sustainability.
  • Understanding which problems are worth solving can help B2B SaaS founders better understand the tools, resources, or help they need to help eliminate those problems.
  • Consulting allows for a cost-effective way to gain insight on target markets and provide value to clients.
  • B2B SaaS founders can earn income while performing discovery and finding valuable insights on potential problems and solutions.
  • Consulting can ultimately help B2B SaaS founders be more successful in the long run by providing valuable insight prior to creating a SaaS product.
Quotes
  • “There’s a way for you essentially to get paid to perform discovery if you do so by positioning it as consulting services.” (01:34 – 01:41)
  • “If you are offering services as a solution to a particular target market or industry, then you can essentially get paid to perform the discovery.” (01:44 – 01:52)
  • “As a consultant in the work that I do, I’m looking for essentially the same thing – these problems we’re solving, like what is preventing my customer and my client from making the kind of progress that they want to.” (02:03 – 02:17)
Transcript
Sean here, and in this episode, what I want to talk to you about is if you’re having trouble figuring out which problem to solve or even how to find a problem worth solving, I wanna share with you a strategy or two that has worked very effectively for me in order to help you do that in the past, and that’s where you’d look to potentially compliment what you want to do from a product perspective or with B2B SaaS with services. Now, I know this sounds counterintuitive because for those of us that wanna build B2B SaaS businesses, we’re looking for that scalability. We’re looking for small teams to make big impact. But when I wanna share with you, and my latest article on my website dives deep into this topic because I’ve had a lot of success with it, and so I have a lot of other B2B SaaS founders complimenting that effort with services.

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Now, if you think about discovery, which is part of the process that helps you find those problems worth solving, it’s similar to typical research, right? As in you’re looking for people within a particular target market that have problems. And as you’re learning about those problems and the impact that it causes their business, that starts to give you the kind of context you may need to find out whether or not those problems are ultimately worth solving, and if software or a SaaS solution could help move the needle in a significant way to help those customers with relieving those problems. Now, that process is actually strikingly similar to a particular service model, which is something else that I’ve also done significantly in my career, and that’s consulting. So what I’m getting at here is that there’s a way for you essentially to get paid to perform discovery if you do so by positioning it as consulting services.

The bonus here is that if you are offering services as a solution to a particular target market or industry, then you can essentially get paid to perform the discovery, which will help you better understand which problems are worth solving, and in particular with software or a potential SaaS solution, which could be yours in the future, right? As a consultant in the work that I do, I’m looking for essentially the same thing. These problems we’re solving, like what is preventing my customer and my client from making the kind of progress that they want to. I dip into my bag of tricks in terms of what I know about the industry and the work that I do, which is helping B2B SaaS companies scale to help them understand the tools, resources, or help from me that they’re gonna need to eliminate those problems and to make positive progress and momentum that they’re looking for in order to get them to where they need to go. As I’m doing that, and this could apply to you in any industry that you want to build B2B SaaS solutions for, you can essentially do the same thing because you’re trying to help them with solving their problems as well too. So what I want to share with you here is that if you’re trying to figure out, how do I get better at finding problems or solving,

And what are potential, any other more cost effective ways to do so, it’s essentially consulting in that the research and discovery that you may do independently on your own dime and time is something that if positioned properly as you’re better understanding these problems end you feel like before you even have a SaaS product that you can bring to market or a position as a solution to those problems, you can solve those problems or help your clients with solving those problems yourself, and that as a service if valuable enough, as in if you’re solving a painful enough problem for that target market, you can get paid to do it as well. Also, which doubles as positive revenue and income for you to help you and make your project more sustainable, as well as getting paid to perform discovery, which is just bonus and extra.

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