SaaS vendors increased their discounts in Q2, 2023

According to data from SaaS purchasing platform, Vertice, the average discount offered by SaaS vendors increased across the majority of software categories between Q1 and Q2 of 2023.

Source: https://www.vertice.one/inside-saas/saas-purchasing-insights-june-2023

This included vendors providing CRM, identity access management, and software development solutions, with the average discounts increasing from 30% to 33%, 19% to 23%, and 21% to 26%, respectively.

While this has driven down the cost of software subscriptions for many companies across the globe, it is in fact those purchasing or renewing sales intelligence software that have achieved the largest average savings.

Not only did vendors in the sales intelligence software sector increase their average discounts by the largest percentile amount between the first two quarters of the year – from an already generous 36% in Q1, to a substantial 43% in Q2 – but the actual average discount being provided is far greater than in any other SaaS category.

As a result, companies that either purchased or renewed their sales intelligence tool in Q2 would have paid not far off half the original list price. As this is only the average saving, many would have obtained even greater discounts.

See a full list of sales intelligence software providers here: https://www.vertice.one/inside-saas/sales-intelligence-tools-list

This raises the question of why so many vendors have become increasingly generous with their pricing.

One likely reason is the shift in purchasing power. With so many companies cutting back on tools that are not deemed to be business critical, a result of current macroeconomic conditions, software providers are needing to pull out all the stops to not only retain existing users, but also attract new ones. Hefty discounting is one way for them to do so.

But while these larger discounts will no doubt be lucrative, it’s unlikely to be enough. With finance leaders under immense pressure to minimize spend, many are now scrutinizing their SaaS tools and looking for cost-saving opportunities. For many, this will result in applications being rightsized, consolidated or terminated.

Learn more about optimizing software spend here: https://www.vertice.one/saas-spend-management