RFazzo

CEO

Valued Contributor

Personal Narrative

Enterprise MSA and Closing big Enterprise

Hi,

Currently have a lead who have more or less been hounding us for out services and want to get things up and running ASAP (deal size will be £300-500K over next 2 years) and have said we need to get an MSA and SOW completed within the next 2 weeks. (We just finished discovery and demo last week. Both taking 1 meeting each with client including around 7 decision makers in the process already)

I'm experienced selling to SaaS to SME (10-50 users) with average deal size of £15K but this deal is for large Corporation with 2,500 users initially.

3 questions

1. Are there any red flags to look out for in this sence of urgency they are asking for? SMEs have long sales cycles but this seems almost too good to be true and don't want to be taken for a ride

2. What happens next after MSA and SOW are completed - do we just start funding the work ourselves until the first payment is made? Is there anything we can do to help our cash flow as a small startup? (we may need to hire to deliver some of the requirements)

3. At what stage can I call this closed? After they sign? After I invoice? After they pay or am I missing any steps after the paperwork piece?

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7 comments

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1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

3

Sales

With respect to your questions, this is pretty clearly a fast close and fast paced negotiation. What’s driving it from their side? Do they have to spend money before July ends?

Do they have legal support to review the MSA and redlines?

Depending on industry you can as for a pre-payment.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

3

🦊

😎

RFazzo

Executive

1

CEO

Fabulous, you have peaked my curiosity and now ill dig. Will return here after the close and let you know, many thanks

Pachacuti

Politicker

1

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Those are good questions and my answer to them all is: Get your mngt involved.

Seriously.

You are the quarterback and you have to be calling the shots to get it closed. You need to bring your V/C-level folks in who can make decisions on behalf of the company. That is not you. Your job is to bring in Ops, Legal, etc who will all need to be involved in losing the deal… now.

You can call it closed when a contract is signed.

RFazzo

Executive

0

CEO

Thanks Pachacuti, wish I had that experience to fall back on. I'm 1 half of a 2 person founding team. Other founder is tech. We have 2 employees, both split between tech and business but im the sole "Sales Guy"/Person in charge. So figuring this out as I go along and using my personal network/ smaller deal experience to get this far.
Let's get that contract signed then

TennisandSales

Politicker

0

Head Of Sales

first off congrats! This sounds like an awesome deal!

I would ask them about their urgency. "mike im excited to move as fast as you would like. Most customers normally cant move as fast as you. is there something specific forcing you to move so fast?"
I think there is a red flag here but im not exactly sure what it is...

2. in my situation, once the MSA and SOW are signed by both parties I also have to get an Order form signed. The order form is for the licensing, the SOW is for the services, and the MSA is just legal. (this may not be the same for you) If not, once the MSA and SOW are signed, I would expect to start implementation.
What are the payment terms? If I was in charge I would start funding the project for sure.

3. Once the SOW and MSA are signed I would consider this to be close won. But i would look at your contract or ask your manager. Im assuming this isnt the first deal you guys have closed? What has happened in the past?

jefe

Arsonist

0

🍁

In my experience, SOW takes time - but that depends on the complexity.

You definitely need to dig in to the urgency so you don't get blindsided, and engage management on your side.

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