How Software Companies Can Target and Sell to Large Enterprises

What is enterprise sales?

Enterprise sales — also known as complex sales — refers to selling software solutions and services to large-scale businesses. This type of sales typically involves a high degree of complexity due to the involvement of multiple stakeholders, including C-level executives, in purchasing decisions.

How marketing mix plays a vital role in enterprise sales

A strong marketing mix increases sales opportunities by helping sellers get information into the hands of decision-makers who have the power to make a purchase. To successfully sell a product or service, vendors should have the right marketing mix in place. It could include promotional activities, pricing, product design and distribution.

Also view: Success Stories from Software and SaaS Providers

Also read: Achieve Sales Resilience Through a Global Pandemic

Three types of sales models to target enterprise prospects

As a software vendor, you can use any one or a combination of these four sales models to target and sell to an enterprise client.

1. Direct sales

To sell to enterprise customers, it's not necessary to have a large sales team or expensive marketing campaigns. Leverage emerging trends in direct software selling, which offer the benefits of in-person interactions and lower distribution costs along with the ability to target and sell globally.

Key benefits:

• No intermediaries to deal with
• Larger profit margin
• Increased awareness and visibility
• Lower overhead expenses

2. Land and expand

If you have an excellent product or service to offer to large companies but don’t know how to reach them, adopt the land-and-expand sales model. It's a growth-driving sales strategy that involves landing a customer first with a small deal and gradually expanding to a big one.

Key benefits:

• Higher cross-sell and upsell rates
• Better customer expansion and retention
• More customer touchpoints 
• Shorter conversion time frame
• Healthy, long-term relationship with customers

3. Freemium

To address enterprise software needs, most vendors create a free trial option. Free trials allow your potential customers to interact with your product or service before purchasing it while also giving you time to see how successful your software will be in a large-enterprise environment.

Key benefits:

• Larger user base
• No usage barrier
• Lower acquisition cost

Also read: 5 Key Sales Follow-Up Tips for Software Providers

Build a winning enterprise sales team to scale quickly

As a software company, you should have the right mix of people in your sales team to target enterprise prospects successfully. A successful enterprise sales team includes members that focus on strategy, marketing and development.

Also read: B2B Sales Coaching: A Refresher on Best Practices

Five tips to target and sell to large enterprises

When targeting larger companies, it's important to understand what makes them tick. Discussed below are five key tips for selling to enterprise prospects:

1. Highlight the value of your offering

Large businesses are often willing to buy products that improve efficiency. Your product could be efficient as well as time- and money-saving, but what's more important is to propagate how it will benefit large enterprises. Focus on highlighting business benefits first and technical features later.

2. Be proactive in sharing information with prospects

Large businesses are not likely to come knocking on your door unless you have an effective way of letting them know what you have to offer. Make sure reviews and other information about your product are readily available, especially unique benefits and how they would impact a prospect’s specific business.

3. Don't try to sell to everyone

Sometimes, it’s better to have a small number of large customers than a large number of small customers. There are several advantages of having a few key accounts: ease of accountability, product customization and quality of service each client receives, among others. This strategy makes it easier to get access to or referrals within the client company.

4. Promote your product where customers will see it

Leverage all possible digital channels to reach your prospects. If you're a small software company, consider partnering with larger vendors who want to resell your product and send their staff or an authorized reseller to market it to large companies.

5. Be patient; it takes time to build rapport

Big companies often have slow procurement cycles and complicated deal-making processes. It can take up to six months from the first contact with an enterprise prospect until a sale is finalized. Be patient and take regular follow-ups; these will improve your chances of success.

Measuring the success of selling to large enterprises

Analyze and quantify all the stages in your sales workflow. Determine when, where and how prospects engage with your product to create a complete picture of what success looks like. This process will help you identify if you need to measure things differently for each level of engagement or opportunity size.

Also read: Measure ROI for ABM and Intent Data

In summary

It's a tough world out there for those managing high-value accounts, as large enterprises are not easy to sell to. They have many specific requirements to be met for a software purchase. The tips and strategies shared in this post will help you think differently about approaching this lucrative market segment, getting your product in front of prospects and, eventually, succeeding at enterprise sales.

Laura Higley

Laura Higley is a Senior Business Development Executive for Strategic Accounts at Gartner Digital Markets, where she leads sales operations for large enterprise customers. Laura is a New Jersey native who earned her bachelor’s degree in marketing management from Virginia Tech. Connect with Laura on LinkedIn.