In the current era of professional selling, there are abundant selling opportunities available.
However, the issues that salespeople need to address and the solutions they offer have become more intricate. To tackle these complex and larger problems, an advanced sales strategy is required, which is commonly referred to as enterprise sales.
Pitching to small and medium-sized businesses can be challenging, but enterprise sales is even more difficult.
Despite the difficulty, don’t be discouraged, as the rewards of enterprise sales are immense.
Understanding Enterprise Sales
Enterprise sales, also known as complex sales, pertains to substantial business transactions with prolonged sales cycles, multifaceted contracts, and a higher level of risk compared to conventional sales intended for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB).
These deals entail involvement from various stakeholders and decision-makers. While it can yield significant revenue, it is a challenging undertaking that requires specialized expertise to manage effectively.
The complexity of enterprise sales arises from the fact that customers often lack the knowledge, experience, or capacity to decide on a solution independently. Thus, obtaining external guidance and proficiency is essential, underscoring the importance of having designated enterprise sales experts.
Common Challenges of Enterprise Sales
Let’s look at some common challenges that enterprise sales teams face.
Larger Number of Stakeholders
As the deal size increases, the number of decision-makers and stakeholders involved also increases. The enterprise sales process typically involves input from various professionals, including technology experts, financial advisors, executive leaders, managers, and other influential individuals.
The challenge with having many stakeholders is not solely because of the number of people involved, but rather due to the divergence of opinions inherent in a sales process with multiple prospects.
Multiple stakeholders can slow the process but it allows you to have comprehensive conversions and higher success rate.
Providing Customized Solutions
Enterprise sales often involve tailoring products or services to meet the specific needs of clients.
For instance, technology firms may create new software or modify existing software to satisfy a business’s distinct requirements. This necessitates technical expertise and a comprehensive understanding of the customer’s desired solution.
Designing customized solutions for each customer and use case necessitates careful attention to detail and a significant amount of time.
To accomplish this, businesses must involve various internal teams, including product, finance, and executive leadership, to ensure that the project is feasible, profitable, and meets expectations.
It is crucial to take the time to tailor each solution based on the customer’s unique pain points to demonstrate a commitment to providing value.
Lengthy Sales Cycle
In enterprise sales, the duration of the sales cycle is directly related to the complexity and cost of the solution. More intricate and expensive solutions typically require a longer time to sell compared to simpler and cheaper options.
As a result, predicting and managing monthly and quarterly quotas becomes more challenging as sales cycles can span several months or even quarters.
Closing the initial deal and cultivating a long-term relationship with the client entails adopting a long-term strategy.
Although it may require more time and effort, such an approach can yield significant rewards.
More Time Needed for Negotiation
As the size of a deal increases, so does the complexity of the negotiation process. Complex issues may require lengthy discussions, leading to prolonged negotiations.
To manage extended negotiation periods, it is essential to prepare for each meeting by devising ways to advance the deal.
Establishing an agenda, taking note of action items and critical talking points from previous discussions, and directing the conversation towards meaningful and productive exchanges can help move the deal along the pipeline.
Tips For the Success of Enterprise Sales
It takes a lot of determination and consistency to become a top performer in enterprise sales. Here are some tips that can help you boost your enterprise sales.
Focusing on Your Target Audience
Although sales involves a quantitative element, it is not solely focused on numbers.
Establishing connections and engaging in high-quality conversations with qualified leads are equally important.
The most effective salespeople employ rigorous qualification criteria and avoid investing time in prospects who do not align with their target customer persona. If the deal is too low-level, the company is too small, or the buyers lack the financial resources to make a purchase, enterprise sales may not be the right fit.
Top performers strive to gather this information early on to avoid wasting valuable time on unsuitable prospects.
Building Solid Customer Relationships
Establishing a good relationship in sales involves earning a person’s confidence by demonstrating empathy and effective communication.
This is especially crucial for enterprise sales since the stakes are higher and transactions are more significant.
To develop rapport, it is essential to establish personal connections and express interest, both in-person and virtually.
Attempting to make a natural conversation flow and creating a relaxed atmosphere can assist in building these personal connections.
Comprehensive Understanding of Your Product
Product knowledge is an essential tool for sales professionals. To increase sales, it is necessary to be able to demonstrate the effectiveness of a solution and explain how specific features work.
Ongoing training is essential for enterprise sellers to understand your product and use different techniques to present it to prospects effectively.
Whatfix provides contextual walkthroughs and smart tips embedded into your CRM and other sales-related applications.
This platform enables sales reps to access relevant and personalized learning resources on-demand, and sales leaders can provide self-support and training to keep up with product updates and feature changes.
Build Social Proof
Even if your sales team connects with potential customers who have a need for your product or service, they may be hesitant or considering other alternatives. They will want to see evidence that your solution delivers the benefits you are claiming.
It is essential to avoid making prospects feel deceived or undervalued.
Today, consumers are increasingly interested in and motivated by the actions and purchases of their peers. This phenomenon is called social proof.
By showcasing positive feedback and testimonials from satisfied customers, you can highlight their experiences and inspire potential buyers throughout the buying process, influencing their behavior and decisions.
Sell Solutions to the Challenges
It’s often heard that the top performers in the market always sell solutions to challenges.
In order to truly succeed, it’s not enough to have effective marketing strategies and a well-trained sales team.
Ultimately, your product or service must be capable of solving your client’s problems and making their daily life easier. By offering effective solutions and excellent customer service, you can build a loyal customer base who will become advocates for your brand.
Common Enterprise Sales Metrics that Help to Measure Success
As an enterprise sales leader, you can’t rely on intuition alone to make decisions. All successful companies measure their market model, salespeople, and strategies.
Here are some common enterprise sales metrics.
- Run rate predicts future revenue based on previously earned revenue over an extended time period. It uses current financial information to forecast future performance, assuming that the current financial environment will remain stable. The formula to calculate the run rate is revenue earned in a period divided by the number of days in that period, then multiplied by 365.
- Win rate calculates the number of deals won out of the total number of opportunities in a pipeline. Sales leaders track this metric closely to monitor performance.To calculate the win rate, divide the number of closed opportunities by the total number of opportunities within a specific time, focusing on qualified opportunities rather than the entire pipeline.
- The time-to-close rate evaluates the efficiency of a sales team, measuring how long it takes for a deal to move through the sales funnel from initial outreach to signed contract. The formula to calculate the time-to-close rate is the sales made in a specific period divided by the number of quotes sent during the same period.
- Customer retention rate shows the percentage of existing customers who remain loyal to a company within a specific period. Customer retention strategies aim to keep customers happy and provide them with a unique experience. The formula for customer retention rate is [(E-N)/S] x 100 = CRR.
- Customer lifetime value (CLV) measures the revenue generated by an average customer over their entire relationship with a company. Sales teams can use CLV to develop strategies around pricing, marketing, and customer retention. Accurately segmenting and tracking customer details helps identify high-value customers and improve profitability. The formula for calculating CLV is customer value multiplied by average customer lifespan.
What is the Structure of an Enterprise Sales Team
There is no hard and fast rule for having a typical structure of an enterprise sales team, it’s based on what works for your business. However, here are some key roles to handle enterprise sales.
Sales Directors
Sales directors are responsible for overseeing the overall sales strategy and managing junior salespeople within an organization.
As part of the upper management team, they have complete control over the sales function and sales representatives.
A sales manager, on the other hand, manages a team of salespeople and reports to the sales director.
Account Executive
An account executive refers to a sales representative who has the responsibility of closing deals with potential clients and providing assistance to existing customers.
These professionals are usually assigned with a target for generating revenue and are compensated based on the commissions they earn.
Business Development Reps
A BDR is a professional who identifies, researches, and evaluates new sales opportunities in order to engage potential customers and generate business growth.
This involves searching for and qualifying leads, as well as establishing relationships with potential buyers.
Customer Support Agents
Customer support agents serve as intermediaries between customers and the company by addressing issues related to billing, orders, errors, cancellations, and other queries.
Their primary goal is to maintain superior customer service standards and ensure high customer satisfaction
Technology Advisors
Technology advisors are crucial to sales reps, as they provide assistance with product development and deal closures.
These advisors play a significant role in clarifying product functionality, addressing product integration concerns, and demonstrating the value of the product to the customer’s technical community.
