Can Door to Door Sales Work in SaaS? With Arsen Stepanyan of Orders.co

Episode Summary:

In this episode of SaaS Origin Stories, Phil speaks with Arsen Stepanyan, Co-Founder and CEO of Orders.co, an online ordering suite which allows restaurants to offer food on every platform, or just the ones they prefer. Arsen is also a Board Member at BuildUp Bootcamp and is the Principal Chief Executive Officer at Aspire Vape Company. He claims he is “dedicated to offering solutions to the restaurant industry to streamline the ordering process and increase revenue”.

They discuss the interesting story behind the origin of Orders.co, why listening to your audience is more important than anything else, and the advantages of going door to door in your sales approach. They also talk about why every member of your team is integral to success and why you should follow your own pace.

Guest at a Glance:

Name: Arsen Stepanyan 

About Arsen: Arsen Stepanyan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Orders.co, an online ordering suite which allows restaurants to offer food on every platform, or just the ones they prefer. Arsen is also a Board Member at BuildUp Bootcamp and is the Principal Chief Executive Officer at Aspire Vape Company. He claims he is “dedicated to offering solutions to the restaurant industry to streamline the ordering process and increase revenue”

Arsen on LinkedIn

Orders.co on LinkedIn

Orders.co’s Website

Topics we cover:

• Where the idea for Orders.co came from
• The importance of audience feedback
• The difficulties of running multiple companies
• Dealing with SaaS roadblocks
• Don’t jump ahead of yourself
• Advantages of going door to door sales
• Try not to limit yourself!
• Every team member is integral to the success of a company

Key Takeaways:

Product Quality and Audience Feedback 

In any industry, no matter what your product or service is, you need to make sure you listen to your audience. You obviously rely on them to keep the business afloat, so you need to do everything in your power to make improvements and changes whenever and wherever they suggest it. This is something Arsen made sure to do when creating Orders.co, and as a result he was able to get more customers through referrals.

“When the customer is ordering a product, get the customer experience on the floor. When they receive the product, [ask them] what did they think about the product quality, and then ask if they’re happy enough to refer others.” 

Don’t Do Too Much, Stay Humble and Take it Slow

Arsen explains that, when they first started the company, they were visiting about 30-40 expos per year, trying to get their name out there in the SaaS world. If there’s one thing he learned from this experience, it’s that you should not spend loads of money or go too big before you’re ready. Instead, you should take it slow and grow naturally in your own time. There’s no point in bragging about being the best if you’re not at all ready; go small and meet with your customers and listen to them!

“Don’t go too big; don’t spend too much money; don’t show that you are the best brand. It’s just about going small, and just meet with your customers. Meet with the people. Listen to them. Tell them you are here next to them, and if they have any concerns or they’re not happy, you are always here to talk with them.”

Going Door to Door

One thing that gets overlooked in the SaaS world is physically going to businesses and talking with them about your product or service. It’s a very traditional plan of action, one that can’t be replicated through any sort of technology. Arsen admits that, although he’s aware not all of his customers will stay with them for a year especially when the product wasn’t that perfect to begin with, going door to door and speaking with customers made a huge impact to Order.co.

“We’re not trying to do it for free, the customer has to pay something. The very first customer was a friend, but after that we were just doing sales; traditional door to door sales, just meeting with the customers and spending time with them.”

Every Team Member Is Integral

Arsen recalls a time when one of his team members fell ill with COVID and was stuck in the hospital for two weeks. During that time, there was a problem that only the sick member could fix, but of course there was no way to get him to help. As a result, they had to wait for him to recover before they could do anything, causing the platform to suffer, losing about half of their customers. It was difficult and no doubt exhausting, but they understood why the customers left – they were small and it was too big of an inconvenience.

But from great adversity comes great lessons. Arsen realizes now just how integral every team member is to the company since there will always be things you can’t fix yourself.