BigShrimpin

Account executive

Politicker

Catalyst

Valued Contributor

Just made the jump from SMB to enterprise SaaS which even I'm still shocked about. What's your advice to someone new to this side of the game?

I know I earned the position but imposter syndrome is a MF and I want to hit the ground running.

🎈 Mentorship

🙏 Mental Wellness

✌️ Growing Pains

13 comments

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CoorsKing

WR Officer

Retired King of the Coors Knights

Do your research on the account hierarchy. 99.999% of the time your champion will have no decision making power whatsoever, even if they say they do. Know who the EB is, and find a path to get there and build a relationship with them. And, more importantly, know who your competition has relationships with.

Make sure you also not only identify a pain, but the business impact behind it to. C-levels at these accounts don’t give a shit if their staff has pain unless it is causing a security issue OR impacting the bottom line. Always align to a business level initiative.

leverage your network too. Find out which partners/ other companies have already sold into your targets, and get info on the procurement and legal process. They can also help you identify who the buyer is if you don’t know.

I love working on Ent accounts, you will do just fine!

GDO

Politicker

BDM

Business impact 100%

CoorsKing

WR Officer

Retired King of the Coors Knights

Yup. The biggest question is always “why would they move to your tool, and why now?”

if you have a good answer to that you are half way there.

BigShrimpin

Politicker

Account executive

Forgive my ignorance but what is an EB?

CoorsKing

WR Officer

Retired King of the Coors Knights

Executive buyer! Who ultimately signs the PO on the business side. Normally (for me) it is the CIO or CISO.

BigShrimpin

Politicker

Account executive

Do you shoot for the top to get a meeting with the EB right from the jump? I understand in enterprise you want a champion but im unsure of how many levels down they can be while still helping.

CoorsKing

WR Officer

Retired King of the Coors Knights

Honestly depends on the cycle. Sometimes yes, sometimes I use it to test my champion. If my champion can secure a meeting for me, I know they will help push the deal forward internally.

at some point though, in every cycle, I meet with the c-level.

BenitoBlanco_

Opinionated

Regional Account Executive

When I first started in K-12 SaaS, I came from an SMB-heavy role so kind of a similar move. The comment above about the champion almost never being the actual decisionmaker is completely accurate. Also, understand that selling SaaS, at least in my experience, prices are not usually publicly available so you essentially are setting the price. That’s a lever you can really maximize. Create a discount table you can offer clients to entice them to commit to multi-year deals or to step up their volume. You should create a mental image for the prospect of how your solution solves their problem and addresses their pain points, then when it comes to money you now have all these tools in your arsenal to arrive at a price that satisfies all parties.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

How's it going by the way?

slaydie

Big Shot

Account Executive

Patience! Things move a bit slower on the ENT size. You'll do great!

AZ_Seller

Good Citizen

Director

Enterprise is not any more difficult than SMB. Often SMB is more painful because they have smaller budgets and therefore often less capable staff (I sell SaaS Security tools). Enterprise is all about connecting the dots. The order is less important but you have to connect market state to pain to product to feature to proof point with each person whether there are Economic buyer, champion, technical buyer etc... And realize they all have different pain points as they view their business from the lens of their position. Good luck! Be patient and read their 10k's!

MonthEndSpecial

Valued Contributor

Enterprise Account Executive

Don't be afraid to ask for a lot of money, if you have an impact. It's really hard to solve problems when you get big, and there is a lot of value for a piece of code that can do that. You are doing them a favor by offering your problem solver for a positive ROI. Whatever it is.

SaaSbod

Contributor

Sr Sales Account Exec

Imposter syndrome is real, but you skipped an entire rung of experience with Mid-Market.

The days of having a lone buyer or 'soldier' in an org are long gone. Start building and using buyers' maps and 3x3s, etc, etc.

It's also a long game as well, so your deals will change over months, pipeline management and growth are more important than ever.