Enterprise sales are difficult, and the sales cycles are long. For startups, selling to large companies can take even more time because of a number of factors that make it even more challenging to make a sale. This presentation describes the typical sales cycle for a large company, the additional hurdles that startups face, and tips for startups to overcome those hurdles.

1. the startup sales cycle

2. selling is never easy, even when you’re a big company and when you’re a startup, it’s even harder

3. that means that making your first sale will take a long time – longer than you think

4. before we begin, we must ask a question what is a sales cycle?

5. a sales cycle is the total amount of time it takes from when you first open dialogue with a potential customer to when you finally close the sale

6. the big company sales cycle

7. big companies have serious advantages & tools when they sell to new or existing customers

8. the customer may already be familiar with the company’s products & service (this includes quality and performance)

9. the customer may have existing software from the big company that can do even more when combined with the new software

10. the big company may offer APIs and support that makes integration into existing systems easy

11. the big company may have relationships with more of the customer’s decision makers who can have an impact on the sale

12. does this mean the big company’s sales cycle will be fast and short? no 

13. here‘s how long it takes for a big company to make their sale: 1) it starts when the first contact is made

14. 2) then, an initial set of calls & meetings take place for deal qualification, needs analysis and proposal creation this takes two to four weeks

16. what is required beyond money?

17. can we build this ourselves?

18. what other vendors should we call?this takes one to four weeks

19. 4) if the proposal is accepted, implementation begins* *this requires the customer’s time too for IT assistance & user training this takes two to four weeks

20. 5) the pilot begins this takes one to six months

21. 6) the pilot ends, and the evaluation of the pilot’s performance begins this takes two to four weeks

22. 7) if the pilot was determined to be a success, the purchase must then be approved by all decision makers this takes two to four weeks

23. 8) after a three to twelve month long cycle, the big company has made a sale

24. what about the startup sales cycle?

25. it includes everything we saw for the big company… but it takes even longer 

26. startups are unknown, so the customer worries about this more than price or features* * that means you need to address this with customer testimonials & case studies before the sale – these take time to acquire & develop

27. startups make IT angry, because the software is often poorly documented, buggy and hard to integrate into existing systems* i am IT cat * that means you need to figure out how to make IT’s life easier – this may delay or alter your release cycle

28. startups don’t understand the internal politics at the customer to know whose support they need to make the sale* * let’s explore this more by looking at the three sets of decision makers at each customer

29. customer decision maker #1: the person who will ultimately use the product or service “I want to know why this will let me do a better job – without having to do any extra work!”

31. It will make her look better to her boss

32. It will not add more work to her job

33. You have gotten buy-in from her co-workers

36. You are a better value than similar products

37. You won’t cost more than you say you will

40. You’ll do as much of the work as possible so they don’t have to

41. You’ll do as much of the work as possible so they don’t have tocustomer decision maker(s) #3: the lazy people who won’t use or pay for the product, but whose lives may be (even mildly) affected

42. once you have addressed your product’s reliability, its IT impact, and how it affects the lives of the three decision makers…only then does your sales cycle become shorter like the big company.

43. what is the single most important thing you can do to shorten the cycle? be aware of all decision makers, uncover their objections, and address their objections as early as possible!

44. one last thought: a sale is ultimately the result of great relationships the quickest sales occur when the customer is already in your network, or you’ve been introduced to them by someone they already know and trust

45. thanks for joining us for this presentation… …now join us for the easiest way to give and get great introductions for shorter sales cycles: SalesTie salestie.com@salestieinfo@salestie.com