Richard KearseyEnterprise sales represent months of communication between sales representatives and prospects, leading to large-scale corporate solutions. An enterprise sale is typically defined as one with:
- High risk
- High investment
- Many stakeholders
- Complexity
- A long sales cycle (over 6 months)
Such sales will earn you substantial revenues and possibly add a well-known company into your customer list. However, enterprise sales is tough and many enterprise sales techniques backfire. We’ve compiled a list of ways to help you succeed in enterprise sales.
1) Define your objectives
Jumping on a call with a client in hopes that your skills will win them over is easy but defining what you really want to accomplish will help you stay focused and keep your conversation on track. What end goal do you have in mind? How are you going to measure success? You have to set your objectives and anticipate the client’s response in order to guarantee success.
2) Analyze customer’s business process to address pain points
This approach is used by enterprise salespeople today where they act as business advisors to the client. Although they listen to the customer to gain insight into their needs, they no longer assume that the customer fully understands what their problem is.
Sometimes, due to the negative effects it causes, clients ignore the underlying problem. The most successful sales representatives serve as business process analysts, studying the business and organizational processes of the company to provide solutions that address the root problems of the client.
3) Know the different stakeholders and understand their role in the sales process
With enterprise sales, there are numerous stakeholders involved. The average sale has over five stakeholders and five influencers involved.
So, if you’re not talking to many people in that organization, you’re missing people who have their own concerns and needs, and that is likely to influence your results.
If you haven’t taken the time to map the account, understand who all those investors are, understand what they’re talking about, and gain access to them.
Not only do you need to know the people you are talking to but it’s also imperative for you to have an idea of who else will have a voice in the decision-making process. Find creative ways to get a conversation. Invite them to the presentation so that you can accommodate and account for that in your final proposal.
4) Always have an agenda and send it out in advance
Before a presentation, lecture, pricing call or conference, make sure you ask for a complete list of attendees, responsibilities, and roles. This will help you navigate the room and help make your account wider and create more connections to impact the sales effort after the meeting.
5) Go over your product framework and value proposal
Reinforce the prior call’s discussion and set a level of what you want to cover in the demonstration. Not only will this help refresh the memories of the people you’ve met before, but very often, someone new will attend and he or she will appreciate and benefit from the crash course that helps them get up to speed. This will work to your benefit to explain any misaligned expectations or remove them completely.
Make sure you explain the concerns of the customer that you learned during the previous conversation during the presentation and how your solution maps to solve those concerns. Do not thoroughly illustrate end-to-end every bell and whistle your service has. Nobody likes that routine.
6) Be very clear with your pricing model
Be very sure that they understand the pricing model of your product, especially if you have pricing levels. Help them find the right fit for their needs. Getting your prospects’ reaction to the pricing while you are in dialog with them is very useful. It not only helps you gauge their reaction (and respond in a fit manner), but it also removes the uncertainty of their feelings about what you showed them.
You should also know who is going to sign a contract and where you stand from a product fit. There’s a place and time for everything, but price negotiation before you know if you’re the right solution, or when you’re speaking to the right person, makes your service a commodity!
7) Ensure your prospect agrees on precise next steps
Do not end a conversation without setting a time (if only tentative) on the calendar and waiting for your prospect to accept the invitation. Confirm any online meetings a day before and confirm your visit to your customer before you head out. There’s nothing worse than being canceled (especially when flying from elsewhere) in the lobby.
8) Try your best to ask for feedback
Too many salespeople are afraid to hear a response they don’t like, but when it comes to selling, there’s no room for guessing or assuming. Are your key points covered by your product? What are their thoughts? Do they have questions you don’t have addressed? Get them to talk – the more you hear, the more you’re going to know how your product maps their points and the amount of work you still have to put in.
9) Send an email summarizing the details of your discussion and next steps
Customers appreciate when you take some time out to outline the conversation, what you learned and how your product addresses all their concerns. Memories fade over time, so a well-documented email with key points of discussion and next steps will help you stay focused on your plan and drive progress.
Enterprise sales are very important for revenue generation so you must objectively assess if the deal is in your favour or not. Make sure you don’t end up using techniques that are bound to backfire. Following the tips above will guarantee success enterprise sales.
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