1.
How to increase free
trial conversions of
SaaS products
Anuradha Sridharan
Product Manager, Flipkart
Ex-MindTickle, Ex-HealthifyMe

2.
Scenario #1
• Inbound lead
• Bottom-up initiative
• Clear need, high on problem awareness
• Demo given
• Engaged free trial prospect
• Tried all relevant flows
• Asked many questions on product capability
• Deal didn’t go through
Reason
Busy with other priorities, will get back in next Qtr
Adam, Sales Manager

3.
Scenario #2
• Inbound lead
• Bottom-up initiative
• Demo given
• Strong need, Aware of their problem and
the solution that will work
• Keen on trial
• Tried for 3 days
• Deal wonKyra, Sales Enablement Manager

4.
Scenario #3
• Referral lead
• Curious about the product
• Top-down initiative
• Demo given
• Trial never started, even after multiple follow-ups
• Trial period ended, mail sent. Came back again to
extend the trial. Didn’t start even then
• Asked for another demo for other stakeholders after 3
months. Yet free trial never kicked off
Arthur, Co-Founder of a
growing startup

5.
Free trial - Important step in the buyer
decision making process
But treated as a line-item in the product
rollout plan just before launch

6.
Free trial - Sign up, Figure out, Explore

7.
Purpose of free trial
Perceived Value Actual Value

8.
Engage through Lifecycle Communication
Help prospects achieve their Desired Outcome
Design an engaging Onboarding flow
Enforce a free trial Lead Qualification process
4-step process
Define,
Instrument,
Measure and
Analyze
relevant metrics

9.
Free Trial Qualification

10.
"Free Trial conversion rates are – to a very large degree –
dependent upon the quality of your top-of-funnel activity.
Low quality leads in, low conversion numbers out.”
- Lincoln Murphy (http://sixteenventures.com/)

11.
1. Customer development
interview
Open-ended, unbiased
questions on problem /
need WITHOUT pitching
your offering
2. Customized product
demo
Based on the need of the
prospect
3. Internal Discussion with
sales, marketing and
customer success to
qualify the prospect for
free trial and identify the
success criteria (Use
qualification questions for
reference)
Qualification Process

12.
Sample list of Qualification Questions
• What's the prospect’s goal? What are his responsibilities, motivations and challenges?
• How does it align with organization goals?
• Are they clear about their need? Was there a need to evangelize the idea/concept?
• Why are they looking for a solution NOW?
• Is it a top-down or a bottom-up initiative?
• Who else need to be convinced to make it happen?
• What is the success criteria to arrive at a decision?
• Who all are part of the buying process?
• Is there a budget allocated/available?
• What was the prospect’s journey in the inbound marketing funnel?
• Who all participated during the demo?
• What parts of the demo interested them? What questions were asked?
• Which use-cases interested them the most?
• Has pricing been discussed? What was their reaction?
• Who will be evaluating the trial? Who will be driving the trial?
• What would make this free trial a success for the prospect?
Customize this list
depending on
whether you belong
to buyer-persona or
JTBD camp! 

13.
Completely Unaware
Problem Aware
Solution Aware
Product Aware
The Most Aware
Higher chances
of free trial
conversion
Source: Breakthrough Advertising by Gene Schwartz
Framework #1 to qualify prospects for free trial

14.
Framework #2 to qualify prospects for free trial
Highly Qualified
Urgency
Low High
Importance
Low
High

15.
Onboarding

16.
Image Source: https://blog.innertrends.com/product-manager-vs-marketer/

17.
Onboarding
Product Tours /
Tutorials

18.
“It’s dangerous to assume everyone can work everything out themselves”
will
- Des Traynor (Co-founder, Intercom)

19.
Identify 3-4 use-cases relevant to your prospects and design your onboarding flow for each of these use-cases
MindTickle - Admin view screenshot

20.
MindTickle - Admin view screenshot
Non-intrusive nudge to get
started with the product
(short product tours, in-
context video tutorials)

21.
Handle new user state /
empty state
Trello – onboarding steps
using the product

22.
Desired Outcome

23.
Identify Desired Outcome as part of onboarding
What's the single most important thing you are
trying to achieve using {product name}?*
*More crucial if the free trial signup is self-serve

24.
The moment of value-realization
“Wow” / “Aha” moment
Identify the success path - steps to complete in order to reach the “Wow” moment

25.
MindTickle’s “Wow” moment
Desired outcome => Easy rollout of relevant content to sales teams
Use-case => Ease of creating a structured course and publishing it to learners
Select course
creation
Give a name
and desc
Create an
outline
Upload
available
content
Preview &
Publish
Invite
Learners
Roadblock
Sample course
created and
uploaded
(Internal Content team)

26.
“Is your Wow! to work
ratio high enough?”
- Brian Halligan, CEO HubSpot

27.
Lifecycle communication

28.
Goal of Messaging
Directional Tone - “Here’s what you
should do right now to get the
maximum value out of your free trial”

29.
Lifecycle communication – best practices
• Plan for 4 - 6 emails during trial
• Keep it personal – send from a human email account (and not admin@ / support@ types)
• Trigger – event-driven (and not time-driven)
• Have a clear Call to action
• Mobile-optimized
• If no activity, send a casual “just checking out” email with specific tasks to get started
• Send an email before trial ends, emphasizing the access will get revoked automatically
• In-app notifications to guide the prospects towards next steps

30.
Onboarding welcome email from Drift
Asking for
the
prospect’s
desired
outcome
Source: http://blog.drift.com/all-the-emails-at-drift

31.
Clear steps on what a new user
should do next
“Next steps” email from Asana

32.
Summary
High Free
Trial
Conversion
Rates
Qualified
prospects
Onboarding to
help
experience
desired
outcome
Engaging
Lifecycle
communication

33.
For further exploration,
http://www.appcues.com/user-onboarding-academy
David Skok’s articles on SaaS - http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/saas/
Onboarding Teardowns by Samuel Hulick (http://www.useronboard.com/ )
https://www.intercom.com/books/onboarding
http://sixteenventures.com/
Tools - Intercom, Appcues, MailChimp (for drip lifecycle emails), Totango, GainSight

34.
Thank you!
Twitter - @anura
anuradha.sridharan@gmail.com
www.anuradhasridharan.com