Landing an Enterprise Deal is Often Misunderstood
There's a common misunderstanding among early-stage enterprise startups:
"Enterprise customers want multi-value, bundled solutions."
This notion is wrong, at least as it relates to 'landing' within the organization.
When folks suggest enterprises bundle during market pull-backs, what that means is to eliminate existing solutions that are not well entrenched/leveraged by the organization and, if necessary, find that value in existing core solutions — this is all an attempt to simplify, reduce costs, and streamline data.
Enterprises don't seek bundled value from early-stage startups, it's far too risky.
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Here's what I've learned from my experience:
Start Specific: Enterprise early adopters want to test your value in a highly specific, contained way, i.e., a single use case, within a single team, a single point in the value chain, etc.
Be the Expert: Enterprises need to defend internally adding new partners. As an early-stage startup, the only way to do so is if you can position yourself as a subject matter expert. If you offer similar-ish value, procurement/finance will suggest working with existing partners.
Single Buyer VS Multi-Buyer: The wider the surface area you touch, the more decision-makers are involved; more decision-makers mean they have their own unique view on how to solve and a solution they might prefer - a decision could lead to a stalemate. Keep the value contained to the decision-makers team, if you can — understand sometimes this is unavoidable.
Identify True Early Adopters: Any enterprise suggesting they want to see you deliver more value/use cases to buy is likely NOT an early adopter. Reminder, here’s what early adopters seek.
The key is to start with a narrow focus when landing the deal (i.e., ‘bowling pin strategy’), then expand with new value once trust is established.
Once initial trust is established, you will have access to inside information about new opportunities, budding needs, etc. — this is where $MM of opportunities can be unlocked.
Remember, enterprise early adopters seek targeted solutions to specific problems, not broad bundled offerings from unproven entities.
However, and maybe most importantly, the day you land the deal is the day the selling begins. The enterprise segment is about unlocking $MM expansion from the land — if your contract value doesn’t increase by multiple(s) YoY, someone is not doing their job.
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Here’s a cheat sheet with tips as to how to best land enterprise deals … https://www.jjellyfish.com/articles/enterprise-sales-cheat-sheet-for-startups
