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Is that how enterprise sales work? I don't have any experience there but given how highly paid sales sharks seem to be inextricably linked to ES as opposed to s
by sjtgraham 13y ago
Is that how enterprise sales work? I don't have any experience there but given how highly paid sales sharks seem to be inextricably linked to ES as opposed to social sharing buttons, I'd say no.
There is always more than one way to skin a cat.
- pg 13y agoActually in the enterprise market Sam's point is even more true. The greater power of incumbents means that you can't get customers unless your product is better by a large margin.
- smoyer 13y agoIncumbents do have an advantage, but the other key in enterprise markets is that you have to recognize you're selling to executives who won't generally use your product, so you have to sell based on they perceive important, but deliver what the company actually needs. I have a lot of stories (those funny/ironic/sad ones) that I won't go into!
- nostrademons 13y agoIt is much, much easier to sell something that the buyer has already heard about from industry peers and generally sees the value of than to cold-call prospects and push products on them that they're indifferent to. Companies can limp along for a few years with the latter strategy (I worked at one once), but they don't grow, and eventually they get sick of selling stuff that nobody wants to buy and close up shop. For the examples given (Cisco, Oracle), everybody who's in a purchasing position in the industries they serve has heard of them, and they go into a sales cycle "warm". The salesperson's job is to iron out the details and explain how to integrate the product into a customer's existing workflows to make them more efficient.
- pbreit 13y agoReference customers are absolutely critical in the enterprise.