Enterprise Technology Sales Is About Fit
Enterprise Technology Sales Is About Fit
One of the big challenges that SMB products going up-market don’t always understand is the landscape of technology present at the typical enterprise account.
Enterprise customers already have plenty of software in house that overlaps with each other in some respect.
The key is despite those challenges you need to be able to communicate very quickly who is your partner and who you are replacing - if anyone.
Obviously it’s better if you are replacing no one! The competitive replacement is the most difficult and longest sale for any sufficiently large sale.
Prospects need to understand what you’re the best at so they know where you fit into their stack. If you are viewed as overlapping to a major existing investment, your buyer will wonder what your value is and if you truly understand the market you are selling into.
If instead you already know what technologies your prospect is likely to have installed and how you integrate with them and you have success stories about it, you are already far ahead of the game.
Not only will you be in trouble with prospects if you don’t understand your fit, you will be in trouble with partners too. If you are not analyzing the market properly, you are likely cutting off what could be your greatest source of leads - particularly as a small and growing company.
The presence of a particular partner technology can be a pre-qualification for a particular type of need and strategy. This gives you a leg up in your own sales cycle.
Without the right set of partners already identified l, you really don’t have an enterprise GTM at all.
