BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Closing Large Deals With Enterprise Sales

Forbes Business Development Council

Milind Katti is the cofounder and COO of DemandFarm. A company that builds digital tools for strategic account management.

Enterprise sales, or the process of partnering with leading organizations, is much different from what SaaS sales teams are used to. The rewards are much higher, and the risks are, too. The process involves multiple employees from different teams and takes months to close. And when the sale is done and the contract is signed, the actual selling begins—enterprise sales is a loop that demands the constant attention of sales teams to meet client expectations.

What’s Different In Enterprise Sales?

Winning a large enterprise account requires extensive knowledge of the industry the target business is in. Sales teams must also identify the unique needs of the prospect. An enterprise sales cycle lasts about six months or more on average, bringing up the risk factor for smaller vendor teams. Also, the complex organizational structure of large enterprises means that sales team members must initiate many more touchpoints than usual to have an informative meeting with a stakeholder. Reaching the right decision makers in the enterprise and detailing how the product or service can alleviate their issues are two important issues that vendor sales teams face.

Reaching the right decision-makers at a large enterprise requires a clear understanding of the organization’s structure and dynamics — and this requires the sales team members to update the information they have in a central repository on a regular basis. A tool that allows them to access such information at a moment’s notice greatly improves their ability to devise solutions to customer problems. Educating the customer about the unique features of the solution and demonstrating how they solve specific problems goes a long way toward creating trust between stakeholders and sows the seeds for a long-term relationship.

Processes To Succeed In Enterprise Sales

On average, enterprise sales take about six months or more to complete. This means any delays or bottlenecks can add significantly to the timeline. Sales teams can streamline their efforts to reach and convince decision makers in order to yield more value. Here are a few ways to do so:

Start With Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

Targeting in enterprise sales is a precise process—sales teams need to define an ideal client profile (ICP) first and identify the needs and types of companies they can target based on their size, industry and other factors. Based on these needs, team members can unearth relevant case studies and feature reviews and other materials that help their case. ABM also allows for the creation of sub-segments to target different decision makers so that every stakeholder hears how the solution can be beneficial to their vertical.

Teach Without Teaching

The decision makers, or those who control the purse strings for decision makers, want to be sure of the solution they’re picking—and keeping them updated on the latest developments and solutions can position sales teams as experts. Since these decision makers are usually CXOs or VPs with immense workloads, the content of such educative communication should be crisp. Highlighting the solution as a savior all the time might put them off, so putting in genuine effort to keep them informed is very important. Marketing tools such as case studies and white papers can be used to showcase expertise, and these can be highlighted to different levels of decision makers through targeted online ads, emailers (to a carefully curated database) or at industry events.

Utilize The Experience

Employees who have dealt with large enterprises are best suited to pilot this approach, as they have the required knowledge and tact to interact with busy C-level decision makers. But relying only on them to handle enterprise sales might burn them out—and creating a repository of the implicit knowledge can free them up in the long run. Such enterprise memories encapsulate data about the large enterprise, including the org chart and complex interdepartmental dependencies.

Iron Out The Sales Process Wrinkles

While enterprise sales pitches are important, serving existing clients is, too. Sales teams should recognize how much effort they are putting in and if other customers are getting the required attention. Identifying gaps in sales processes and preparing for any additional bandwidth required ensure that the business development pipeline functions normally.

Digital Tools To Win A Big Deal

The larger scope of enterprise deals means that sales teams need to go beyond analyzing trends and understanding customer viewpoints. Regular account planning tools may not rise to the challenge, and sales teams should look for ones that handle these key operations efficiently.

• Relationship intelligence visualization via org charts to identify key relationships between individuals at the client organization and to convert tacit knowledge in the vendor sales team/organization into enterprise memory.

• Whitespace analysis to pinpoint growth opportunities, give sales teams a clear view of the landscape and assist in effective interaction by providing relevant details and action items.

• Relationship analysis of qualitative client stakeholder data to identify areas of revenue growth and make faster procurement decisions.

• Financial analysis to view and analyze an account’s performance closely and break down the potential revenue from current opportunities.

• Guided sales paths to identify and target key client account influencers so that initiatives are tailored to the right group.

An enterprise customer needs knowledgeable sales partners who can help them navigate the business landscape so that they can focus on developing it. By using enterprise sales tools, SaaS vendor teams can fulfill this role of trusted advisor to large enterprises and have in-depth conversations about improving the product. A solid base of knowledge helps sales teams understand and address the needs and concerns of prospects and position their offerings in front of the enterprise in the best possible way.


Forbes Business Development Council is an invitation-only community for sales and biz dev executives. Do I qualify?


Follow me on LinkedInCheck out my website