The majority of my experience has been in SMB/mid-market more transactional type of sale. What should I be ready to adjust to?
mollybloomstanaccount
Transitioning to a role with a much longer sales cycle, what should I be prepared for?
23
It's going to take longer to build pipeline, ramp up, and you're going to need to be way more patient. It sounds like you're moving to ENT, those deals are often way more complex to work on than SMB/MM with multiple layers of decision making and more intense legal review processes.
Good luck!
Good luck!
Time to try to start meditating again I guess lol 🧘♀️
yes patience is key. when I did this I tried to find small wins to look for and find satisfaction in.
i wasnt ringing the gong as often so i had to find other indicators to look for.
Also, if you are in ENT sales now, you need to get off the high velocity hampster wheel.
look to book calls with senior ppl at key accounts. I made the mistake of still trying to set dicso meetings with mid level ppl....it was a waste of time.
i wasnt ringing the gong as often so i had to find other indicators to look for.
Also, if you are in ENT sales now, you need to get off the high velocity hampster wheel.
look to book calls with senior ppl at key accounts. I made the mistake of still trying to set dicso meetings with mid level ppl....it was a waste of time.
Any tips on how to get through to the right senior people ? — I’m nervous about not being able to get the DMs into a meeting
so this is will all be based on your product and the problems that it solves. But here is some general advice:
The more senior the person you are trying to get on the call, the less they care about the specific features or functionalities and more about the big problems it will solve.
talk to customers, or your CS team about how current customers actually use the product. this will help you understand the real value it can bring to the higher ups when you engage with them.
Messaging should be specific and short. Fluff and buzz words will get you no where.
The more senior the person you are trying to get on the call, the less they care about the specific features or functionalities and more about the big problems it will solve.
talk to customers, or your CS team about how current customers actually use the product. this will help you understand the real value it can bring to the higher ups when you engage with them.
Messaging should be specific and short. Fluff and buzz words will get you no where.
📝taking notes, thank you!!
no problem. always happy to share how I go about it.
Great advice here! Sometimes going "bottoms up" is helpful in ENT selling. I prefer to engage with Director level people who have deep domain expertise first, get them excited about our tech, and have them bring me to VP or C-level once we've built a business case.
Most good C-level execs trust and delegate to their team. If their team says "we need to buy X" they'll do it.
Most good C-level execs trust and delegate to their team. If their team says "we need to buy X" they'll do it.
Great tip!! Thank you 🙌
i would generally agree with this. What I have seen in my career is the more innovative or "new" your product is.....the more you need to start at the top.
Patience. Enterprise deals often come with politics and move slow due to the number of players involved and board approvals.
But when you win...😎
But when you win...😎
RIP to one call closes :( but looking forward to the bigger wins thanks 🙌🏽
As others said, patience is key.
Ask about budget and buying process right away.
Ask about budget and buying process right away.
good tips, I appreciate it!!
Better forecasting skills.
MEDDPICC!
MEDDPICC!
Oooh yes I’ve been seeing this a lot. Any good resources you recommend to learn about that technique?
Andy Whyte wrote the go to book on it - i's foreword is from the two folks at PTC who spearheaded the method.
I've moved from a 2-3 month sales cycle product, to 3-6, and now at my current rev band it's about 6-9, so this has been a great tool in qualifying more complex deals faster.
I've moved from a 2-3 month sales cycle product, to 3-6, and now at my current rev band it's about 6-9, so this has been a great tool in qualifying more complex deals faster.
Thank you!!
I'd also suggest "The Qualified Sales Leader" as a good book on MEDDPICC
Thanks I’ll add it to my reading list!
Wow 30 mins to Pres Club podcast just released an episode with Andy Whyte , perfect timing 😎
A few things to keep in mind.
- Time kills deals, so look for opportunities to shorten the cycle.
-Find and test a champion to sell for you when you aren’t in the room.
- Know all steps of the decision process and knock shit out as early as you can - contracts, NDA, security or IT reviews.
- Always have a documented and agreed to next step.
- Ensure you have the right players on your internal pursuit team.
- Keep your eyes on the money. Is your deal budgeted, when is it available.
- Author everything the customer will let you - their internal proposal, ROI, Sole source, justifications, etc., you know the value better than the customer.l and you probably won’t meet the economic buyer.
- three letters: E-L-A. Stricture what the customer needs and sell it internally.
- Shy Enterprise Reps have skinny kids. Get in front of the customer and don’t be afraid to ask for ridiculous sums of Money. Eight figures ain’t shit for most multinationals.
- Help the buyer navigate - they don’t go through as many sales cycles as you.
- Time kills deals, so look for opportunities to shorten the cycle.
-Find and test a champion to sell for you when you aren’t in the room.
- Know all steps of the decision process and knock shit out as early as you can - contracts, NDA, security or IT reviews.
- Always have a documented and agreed to next step.
- Ensure you have the right players on your internal pursuit team.
- Keep your eyes on the money. Is your deal budgeted, when is it available.
- Author everything the customer will let you - their internal proposal, ROI, Sole source, justifications, etc., you know the value better than the customer.l and you probably won’t meet the economic buyer.
- three letters: E-L-A. Stricture what the customer needs and sell it internally.
- Shy Enterprise Reps have skinny kids. Get in front of the customer and don’t be afraid to ask for ridiculous sums of Money. Eight figures ain’t shit for most multinationals.
- Help the buyer navigate - they don’t go through as many sales cycles as you.
@TennisandSales what an insightful point about the c-suite not caring at all about features!
I’ll echo that and say too that each buyer persona has a different set of challenges in each org you’re selling into. Generally c-suite come decision time will be most compelled by the quantifiable aspects of your solution.
For example, if it solves for employee turnover, in your discovery ask as many questions as you can to find out, what that actual cost of turnover is for them q/o/q or y/o/y.
For example: Maybe they lost 4 solid people last year and then had to replace all 4. If you wanted to quantify that it would mean the cost of recruiting/HR costs plus the cost to their business of 3 months of those new 4 employee’s lower/ramping productivity. There are other costs here and not every business has access to the ideal data for this exercise but don’t be shy about asking a million questions if you have to in order to help them understand the size of the problem.
Of course, the emotional aspect of why they’re entertaining a call with you is v. v. important and you’ll want to subtlety tie that in where you can, but it’s the moment when your proposal lands on his desk and he’s considering how he’ll justify the spend to his CFO that you’ll be glad to have presented him with an easy story about hard ROI
For a super simple outline on this, check out Ian Koniak’s YouTube page. He shared short business case format (I think back in December).
Don’t ever be intimidated by titles! Everyone out there is just a fellow weirdo human.
I’ll echo that and say too that each buyer persona has a different set of challenges in each org you’re selling into. Generally c-suite come decision time will be most compelled by the quantifiable aspects of your solution.
For example, if it solves for employee turnover, in your discovery ask as many questions as you can to find out, what that actual cost of turnover is for them q/o/q or y/o/y.
For example: Maybe they lost 4 solid people last year and then had to replace all 4. If you wanted to quantify that it would mean the cost of recruiting/HR costs plus the cost to their business of 3 months of those new 4 employee’s lower/ramping productivity. There are other costs here and not every business has access to the ideal data for this exercise but don’t be shy about asking a million questions if you have to in order to help them understand the size of the problem.
Of course, the emotional aspect of why they’re entertaining a call with you is v. v. important and you’ll want to subtlety tie that in where you can, but it’s the moment when your proposal lands on his desk and he’s considering how he’ll justify the spend to his CFO that you’ll be glad to have presented him with an easy story about hard ROI
For a super simple outline on this, check out Ian Koniak’s YouTube page. He shared short business case format (I think back in December).
Don’t ever be intimidated by titles! Everyone out there is just a fellow weirdo human.
buy the Miller Heiman , Spin and challenger books. Long sales cycles require knowing where your deal gets stuck or potentially blown up. You need to get a series of 10-20 little wins that add up to a consensus to move forward at the end.
yes need those consecutive wins for sure. I’ll have to check out the books I appreciate it!!
No problem.
Get organized. Your CRM and adding notes is obvious. Leverage the time to get very, very deep on your targets (likely a small list) and all of their digital footprints. What they like, share, and engage with.
Get to know the customer! Try and engage into their funnel. Try and figure out why someone gets fired over there. Scratch. Dig. Bootstrap your POV.
Do the work!
….and then, when the timing is right, you might not even know, you will unleash a multichannel, meaningful, relevant reach out that once read, cannot be unread, and will keep your target awake into the evening thinking about how far they are from solving that problem….
Use multiple channels! Don’t be the radio/phone only guy. Add in some print, a video, web, to sell like you buy!! no one relies on radio only to sell. Be a melting pot of approaches.
Be patient and persistence in disrupting your EBs sleep. If it wouldn’t cause sleep disruption, it’s too vanilla and not relevant.
Get to know the customer! Try and engage into their funnel. Try and figure out why someone gets fired over there. Scratch. Dig. Bootstrap your POV.
Do the work!
….and then, when the timing is right, you might not even know, you will unleash a multichannel, meaningful, relevant reach out that once read, cannot be unread, and will keep your target awake into the evening thinking about how far they are from solving that problem….
Use multiple channels! Don’t be the radio/phone only guy. Add in some print, a video, web, to sell like you buy!! no one relies on radio only to sell. Be a melting pot of approaches.
Be patient and persistence in disrupting your EBs sleep. If it wouldn’t cause sleep disruption, it’s too vanilla and not relevant.
Excellent tips thank you!!
You will need to develop aggressive patience...Much easier said than done. Focus on huge whale accounts now that you will have the time to make your funnel more robust. Take it from me, celebrate the little wins i.e. appointments scheduled instead of closes and signed P.O.'s because there will be less of them....Slow and steady... you got this!!
Slow and steady is def going to be a change of pace. Thanks for the solid advice!!
If you're going into ENT selling, in addition to what everyone else said around timing and getting convos going with senior folks, I'd prepare to now be working with multiple stakeholders or groups of stakeholders in a buying cycle and the challenges that can arise from internal misalignment amongst these groups.
Thanks this is a really good point, have to get the whole team on board!
use different outreach channels. Have a combination of calls/emails/linkedin interaction and do your homework on the prospect AND company. You will spend longer prospecting, but it will pay off in the long run as you'll have champions that feel a better connection with you.
Great tip thanks for this
This is such a thoughtful response 🙌 writing this down 📓
Aside from it being a longer sales cycle, it will be an internal team (at your company) effort to get you to strategise in getting these accounts in your pipeline/POC/close the deal.
Join a community specifically for ENT AEs.
Join a community specifically for ENT AEs.
Good points. Team work makes the dream work
Patience - You will need Patience. Muti-Threading is your best friend. Good luck!
Budget is probably going to become much more important. Longer sales cycles typically mean higher cost solutions. My last job had an 18 month sales cycle. You sold them in the first year so you could get budget to actually implement the following year.
Great thread @mollybloomstanaccount! Lots of great things I’m taking note of. I’m selling to SMB right now and eventually want to get into ENT so this is solid stuff.
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