Stop losing deals to 'THE BIG GUYS'!
FOR SALES LEADERS AT B2B STARTUPS
"We have a better product - and at a better price - but we lost to incumbent!", Sales leader at every startup
If you've tried to selling to enterprise prospects, chances are you've said this in a deal review. And probably too often. I know I have helping to sell millions of dollars of software to enterprise prospects over the years.
You might be losing these deals for a bunch of reasons. The incumbent has 'relationships', the big brand is a 'safer bet', the other guys have 'been around the block'. Honestly, sometimes the other guy is just a better fit.
All of these may be true (and occasionally have merit). In and of themselves, though, each of these are no reason to lose a deal. Knowing that uncovers something that the 'big guy' has over your startup. Something that we used to fight tooth and nail to build up - but be lost without a moment's notice.
And now here's the worst part of all: this thing has ZERO effect solving your prospect's problems. In fact, I've lost million-dollar deals that led to WORSE outcomes my prospects!
If there was a way to build this in your business, knowing that it could give you a fighting chance, how quickly would you want it?
Well, if you read this far you must be at least somewhat interested. I'll not only share what this thing is, but I'll also share how you can use it to take down the big guys.
The thing that you're looking for is credibility.
Your credibility in front of a prospect determines everything about how they see you, and your product or service. Credibility means they will be more likely to trust what you say, they will be willing to accept a higher price at better terms, and - here's the best part - they will even bring you MORE customers.
As a sales leader at an early stage company, building credibility in the market is one of the most important things you can do.
I hope you're on board that this is important, because now we're going to talk about what you're probably thinking: how?!
Like a lot of things in startups, it's a little complicated. It might be easy to build credibility with someone who already wants to buy your product or service. She's the keen bean who's done her research, read all the G2 reviews, attended a couple webinars, and is ready to buy. Heck, if their credit limit was large enough, you might already have the PO.
If enterprise sales was that easy I'd be sat on a beach sipping a Mai Tai.
Any experienced sales leader will know what comes next is the real selling: you need to win the rest of the machine over. Executive Sponsors, Finance, Procurement, the whole gang.
The fastest way to build credibility is to get everybody to understand what you do and how it will solve of their problems.
There'll be sales calls, questionnaires, security overviews. A few more sales calls. And through all of this, you'll be learning about your prospects problems, you'll be explaining how your solution addresses it, and you'll be telling them why you're better than 'the other guy'.
But explaining isn't enough; you need proof. Product overviews, customer testimonials, functionality spec sheets, and a hundred other documents that you need to win the machine over.
Documents. Do we still need those in 2025?
I can tell you, after working hundreds of deals over the years, an executive decision maker with a crisp document, vouched for by their employees, is all you need. A crisp document that explains exactly what you do - and how it's specific to their pain points can do more than ten sales calls.
If you're interested in getting documents that help you win deals and stress your delivery teams (with all the extra work they will have), shoot me an email at akhil@fluxgtm.com.