The Ultimate Enterprise SaaS Sales Guide

Welcome to the big leagues! If you are selling products in the enterprise world, particularly SaaS, then there are some critical rules of the road to learn. Of course, you’ve got the patience to read all about it, because patience – among other vital strategies – is what enterprise SaaS sales is all about.

What Is Enterprise Sales?

Enterprise sales are those that involve long sales cycles, complex products, and multiple decision-makers. Although it is usually related to large organizations, there are also software enterprise sales firms which serve small companies that have very specialized needs (and big budgets).

But there’s more to it. Remember all that talk just now about “patience”? A salesperson needs to invest lots of time before the payments roll in–and that long cycle puts a dent on cash flows. And that’s in a good situation. Remember that nothing is certain in life, or in sales (except taxes). It actually does happen that, after more than six months of efforts, a prospect might say “no thanks”. (Note: getting around the “no” is a standard aspect of doing business with large companies.)

Which is why, to justify all of that risk, expense, and waiting, the products that are sold through an enterprise sales model are often quite expensive.

What Is the Difference Between Commercial and Enterprise Sales?

Commercial sales are part of the other side of the B2B spectrum, i.e. small and medium businesses (SMBs). We mentioned above some of the aspects that contrast the SMB sales process with enterprise clients, but there are many more:

Decision process – No independent thinking here. Actually, lots of people need to get onboard for an enterprise sale to happen. For a salesperson, this means nurturing and dealing with multiple personalities over a long period.

Metrics – Your numbers will look totally different compared to SMB sales. For example, customer acquisition costs will be sky high, until you land that sale, so that it will take a while to establish a good CLV: CAC ratio (see “5 SaaS Sales Metrics to Watch” for more info).

Value proposition – For enterprise, call this “values proposition”. Enterprise customers are not looking for a one-trick pony. Your product will need to address multiple pain points. Initially, you’ll understand a few of their challenges after the first call. But after a while, because enterprise sales are a long-term deal, there’s a good chance that some customization will be required to take care of current and future needs. It’s often the salesperson who alerts the dev department to the particular demands of enterprise clients.

What Challenges Are Unique to Enterprise SaaS Sales?

Now let’s turn to SaaS enterprise sales, a function which adds another layer of challenges. If you’ve got experience in the basic SaaS sales process, some of these concepts will be familiar.

A Bit Like a Maze

It’s no small feat getting past all of the gatekeepers to find the right decision makers in a large company. One way of getting the process started is with account-based marketing. In some ways, this is a compromise between inbound and outbound sales.

With a few leads in hand, a salesperson researches the prospects and chips away at all the gatekeepers until they identify somebody with decision power. The salesperson describes the basic value proposition to such prospects. Then, the SaaS sales team meets with the prospect to find out the details of what they need. Chances are that extensive integration and customization will be part of the deal.

Definitely a Group Effort

The go-to-market strategy should include lots of roles in addition to sales. Many B2B SaaS companies appoint an account executive to eventually become the prospect’s main point of contact. The account executive is supported by engineers and development reps with experience in the enterprise SaaS sales process. It’s their task to make sure the product runs smoothly and to build customized features.

The End Is Just the Beginning

Once the contract is signed, high-touch enterprise clients must be kept happy. So another feature of selling enterprise software is the participation of a customer service expert, or perhaps a Chief Experience Officer. Their job is to check in with the client from time to time and ensure that the product is still functioning as promised, as a way to build the brand and reduce churn.

What Are the 4 Steps in the Enterprise Sales Process?

Assuming that there is a hand-off between sales and customer service once the papers are signed, here are the four basic steps of an enterprise SaaS sales funnel:

1. Awareness

Large businesses typically have complicated organizational structures, including several physical locations and even time zones. Building awareness of the product starts with identifying the right person. Every contact, and each salesperson for that matter, has a preference when it comes to initial meetings, so trying an omnichannel approach is often the best bet.

2. Engagement

Engagement is all about developing interest in the software. This is helped greatly by a good script, plus knowing how your value proposition matches the prospect’s needs. Researching specific target clients and understanding your product is essential here.

3. Intent

You should take two routes to success during the intent phase. In-person demos are a great way to show off your product and see your prospect’s operations in action at the same time. In addition, if you’ve got a self-service feature on the app, make sure it has onboarding down pat. Every prospect will want to check out its functionality outside of a live demo.

4. Conversion

In the case of selling SaaS to enterprises, establishing intent with one contact might not be enough. You might need to go through several rounds of demos, negotiations, and explanations before the prospect converts to become a customer.

Tips on How to Sell SaaS to Enterprise Customers

Here are a few items to have in your sales toolkit when you go on the road, even if it’s only a virtual one:

• Triple check the onboarding process
• Make sure that the software has strong data security features
• Encourage your company to get a 24/7 support line going
• Come prepared with lots of marketing material, including ROI information and case studies
• Build your brand on social media frequently
• Assume the prospect has researched your product, and be ready to answer complex questions
• Never forget to follow up

Key Takeaways:

• Enterprise sales are those that involve long sales cycles, complex products, and multiple decision makers.
• When selling to enterprises, special attention should be paid to understanding the prospects’ decision-making steps, their in-depth software requirements, and to adapting your metrics to account for a long sales process.
• Your organization will need a whole team for each campaign that might include an account manager and customer service experts to ensure success.