Dan Martell - How To Navigate An Enterprise SaaS Deal

00:00:00.000 Hey there.

00:00:00.500 Dan Martell here, serial entrepreneur, investor,

00:00:02.540 and creator of SaaS Academy.

00:00:04.040 In this video, I'm going to share with you

00:00:06.500 how to navigate an enterprise deal.

00:00:09.120 If you're trying to work on that,

00:00:10.300 I'm going to lay down the framework

00:00:11.660 and be sure to stay at the end where

00:00:12.960 I'm going to share an exclusive resource called the Rocket

00:00:15.200 Demo Builder to help you actually

00:00:16.800 do your product demos to close deals twice as fast

00:00:20.440 and get them way bigger.

00:00:30.000 So the other day, I had one of my coaching clients, Cole,

00:00:37.540 from LocalLine post in our Facebook group

00:00:40.440 about how he should approach navigating

00:00:43.420 some of the kind of mid-market enterprise deals

00:00:45.900 he was working on, things that were around $30,000 to $50,000

00:00:48.620 in size when typically most of the deals he was working on

00:00:51.160 were $5,000 to $6,000 annual contract value.

00:00:53.880 So I kind of laid out the framework for him,

00:00:56.760 and everybody jumped in and said it was amazing.

00:00:58.880 and I thought, you know what?

00:01:00.080 I gotta shoot a video on this for my crew.

00:01:03.200 The reality is I've been selling enterprise deals

00:01:05.540 since I was 24.

00:01:07.000 I've sold tens of millions of dollars of software

00:01:10.000 in my career, and at 24 when I started Spheric Technologies,

00:01:13.660 I decided I'm gonna sell the Fortune 500 companies.

00:01:16.120 So Procter & Gamble, Dole Foods, Johnson & Johnson,

00:01:19.440 American Express, incredibly huge companies

00:01:22.600 that can frustrate the crap out of any entrepreneur.

00:01:25.440 I'm gonna teach you how to reduce your sales cycles

00:01:27.760 and get the customer or the potential customer

00:01:30.600 to navigate you through that sale in this video.

00:01:33.100 Here we go.

00:01:34.100 So number one, get multi-threaded.

00:01:36.540 When you're selling to an enterprise,

00:01:38.200 you're not selling to one individual who's

00:01:40.060 making a decision.

00:01:40.940 You've got to navigate your way through the different org

00:01:43.640 chart and people that are going to be part of that.

00:01:45.920 And there's many different folks you could reach out to that's

00:01:49.600 going to help you close that deal.

00:01:50.860 But there's three I want you to focus on.

00:01:52.300 Number one is the economic buyer.

00:01:54.640 This is the person that's actually

00:01:55.840 responsible for writing the check or signing off

00:01:58.660 on the purchase order to make your deal happen.

00:02:01.660 So figure out early in the process

00:02:03.700 who that person is so that you can connect with them.

00:02:06.280 Make sure you get them on board in the decision process.

00:02:08.920 Number two is the technical buyer.

00:02:11.420 Essentially, if you're deploying software in an enterprise,

00:02:14.460 you're probably going to want at minimum

00:02:15.720 integrate with their account system, their SSO, their LDAP,

00:02:19.720 whatever they call it, whatever they have.

00:02:22.100 And somebody, technically, is also

00:02:23.920 want to know how secure you are what's your development process i mean are you even solvent

00:02:29.440 as a startup maybe you're just getting going they don't want to be they don't want to be on

00:02:32.960 the receiving end of somebody that built all this technology only find out that it gets hacked or

00:02:38.160 it doesn't last forever and then the third person and why you got to get multi-threaded through the

00:02:43.440 org chart is the champion this person sometimes called the coach they're going to actually coach

00:02:49.120 you through the process to buy they're going to be back channeling with you the good ones are

00:02:53.520 back channeling, letting you know what the internal meetings,

00:02:56.520 the consensus was, potentially the other competitors

00:02:59.900 in the evaluation process, and help you navigate that sale.

00:03:03.720 So number one, you've got to get multi-threaded

00:03:05.560 in your approach to the deal.

00:03:07.060 You've got to talk to multiple people involved,

00:03:09.220 but focus on those three.

00:03:10.940 Number two, virtual close.

00:03:13.100 One of my favorite things to do,

00:03:14.440 especially using the Rocket Demo framework,

00:03:17.560 is to ask the person, when's the last time they bought software

00:03:20.900 like ours in the past?

00:03:23.100 And using that as an anchor, I'll then

00:03:25.920 try to understand from their point of view

00:03:28.620 what were the different steps involved

00:03:31.080 in buying that software.

00:03:32.160 So I want to understand, was there a procurement involved?

00:03:35.140 Was there security?

00:03:36.000 Is there going to be legal?

00:03:37.020 Do we need to do contract reviews?

00:03:38.760 Do we need to do a security audit?

00:03:41.760 Whatever is involved, you want to get that upfront.

00:03:43.840 And this is why deals take 12, 16 months,

00:03:46.140 because first time entrepreneurs are really

00:03:48.720 non-sophisticated enterprise buyers

00:03:50.640 don't bother mapping out that buying process

00:03:54.180 and understanding who do I need to friend,

00:03:56.760 who do I need to have a conversation with,

00:03:58.360 and maybe front load some of those activities

00:04:00.300 in those meetings so that when the customer

00:04:02.400 that you're dealing with finally pulls the trigger

00:04:04.520 and says, hey, we want to get this done this quarter,

00:04:07.060 those conversations have already happened.

00:04:08.860 So for me, virtual close is getting the customer

00:04:12.360 in the mindset that the software's already bought,

00:04:14.960 they can kind of see it working, and using that

00:04:19.080 to kind of understand the whole process

00:04:22.640 that you're gonna need to go through

00:04:24.340 to get them on board as a customer.

00:04:26.380 Number three, move metric.

00:04:28.460 Here's what I've learned, especially at the enterprise

00:04:31.360 level, is they're not buying software

00:04:34.460 to just help make things better.

00:04:36.840 They need to peg your product to some key internal metric

00:04:42.480 that they have on their strategic roadmap

00:04:45.140 to improve in that quarter or that year.

00:04:47.920 If you cannot demonstrate that your solution

00:04:51.800 is going to be able to make an impact, move a number down,

00:04:56.200 reduce costs, increase revenue, et cetera,

00:04:59.980 then you're going to have a really hard time dealing,

00:05:02.140 because all of a sudden you're competing against the must

00:05:04.680 have stuff in the organization and priorities

00:05:06.680 versus the nice to have.

00:05:08.420 So make sure that in the early conversations

00:05:11.300 you understand the metric that's important, ideally

00:05:14.320 across all the different contacts at the company,

00:05:17.500 so that you continuously remind them

00:05:19.380 how your solution is actually going

00:05:21.460 to help them get that outcome over the competitor.

00:05:24.400 And always remind them, because sometimes they forget,

00:05:26.420 and they start looking down into the weeds around the features

00:05:29.640 and the integrations.

00:05:30.540 But at the end of the day, it's all about moving a metric.

00:05:33.120 Number four, face to face.

00:05:35.600 This is probably the number one mistake

00:05:38.680 that first time founders executing an enterprise deal

00:05:42.220 will make, is that they will not invest in getting on a plane

00:05:45.680 and getting face-to-face with a potential customer.

00:05:48.140 At the enterprise level, people want to know that you're real.

00:05:51.260 Yes, Zoom, videos, those are all great things

00:05:54.260 to allow people to build connections in a distributed

00:05:56.560 world.

00:05:57.460 But at some point, showing up, having a meeting in person,

00:06:01.400 even having a breakfast or a coffee, et cetera,

00:06:03.800 will show so much more interest and motivation

00:06:07.760 to the customer that you want to get the deal done

00:06:10.060 that they're going to, I mean, at the end of the day,

00:06:12.360 business is all about know, like, and trust.

00:06:14.320 And if you think that you can pull that off exclusively

00:06:17.260 through video, I think it's a huge mistake.

00:06:19.760 If you feel like there's a real opportunity

00:06:21.760 with a customer, especially if you can get a few of them

00:06:24.040 in the same city, get on a plane, invest that time,

00:06:27.140 invest that budget to make sure that you get face to face.

00:06:30.280 Now, everything after the fact can be on video,

00:06:33.140 but in that moment, you want to make sure that you build.

00:06:35.760 There's something that happens when you connect

00:06:37.480 with somebody, biologically speaking, in a room,

00:06:41.760 face-to-face, pressing hands, shaking,

00:06:44.860 doing a good handshake, looking them in the eyes,

00:06:47.380 explaining them your passion for your product.

00:06:49.300 But you want to make sure that you do that early

00:06:50.840 in the buying process.

00:06:52.180 And then you can use the video to keep that going.

00:06:55.360 Number five, ask for a POC.

00:06:58.760 So a POC stands for proof of concept.

00:07:00.980 One of the things that I've seen help navigate and really

00:07:05.120 get enterprise deals done faster is instead of trying

00:07:07.580 to go for a six-figure, a seven-figure deal,

00:07:11.380 five-figure even, you want to go for a POC.

00:07:14.620 Most department leads have a budget for around $5,000

00:07:19.920 to spend discretionary without needing to go to their CFO

00:07:22.760 or to their department lead or the executive vice president

00:07:25.720 to get budget approval.

00:07:27.020 So going for a proof of concept to get your technology

00:07:30.540 deployed to a department, to a group of people,

00:07:33.900 is probably the fastest way to get your foot in the door 0.77

00:07:37.580 to then expand the account.

00:07:39.200 There's something that happens when

00:07:40.500 somebody makes a decision to go down a path and work

00:07:43.620 or trial your software, that kind of mentally,

00:07:46.740 they stop looking at the competitive set,

00:07:48.660 stop looking at other companies that

00:07:50.740 might solve that problem.

00:07:51.760 And I want you to offer that and go for the ask, OK? 0.75

00:07:55.320 Actually, ask for the frigging deal.

00:07:57.580 I don't know why, but some people are just like, 0.92

00:07:59.680 they don't want to scare the customer.

00:08:01.300 They don't want to cause the person to say no.

00:08:04.400 I don't want to hear no, but they avoid going for the ask.

00:08:07.060 For me, it's like, what are we doing next?

00:08:08.800 What's next steps?

00:08:09.720 Are you ready to move forward?

00:08:11.220 When can we get this started?

00:08:12.480 Who do you think should be part of that POC?

00:08:14.460 Here's how the price point works.

00:08:15.800 We're going to do this.

00:08:16.720 We can process it on your corporate credit card.

00:08:18.660 And then in the future, we can renegotiate

00:08:20.880 a larger deployment.

00:08:22.080 And here's how that will look.

00:08:23.540 When do you want to get started?

00:08:24.720 Go for the ask.

00:08:26.920 So quick review the strategies to navigate an enterprise deal.

00:08:29.820 Number one, you've got to get multi-threaded

00:08:31.920 and focus on the economic, technical, and champion

00:08:35.140 contacts.

00:08:35.780 Number two, go for the virtual close.

00:08:37.900 Ask them what it's like to buy software

00:08:40.660 in their organization.

00:08:41.560 Understand that buying process.

00:08:42.860 Number three, move the metric.

00:08:45.280 Always peg every conversation to a metric

00:08:47.800 that you're going to move with your software and your solution.

00:08:50.320 Number four, get face to face.

00:08:53.160 Number five, ask for the sale or the POC, proof of concept,

00:08:58.200 lower price point.

00:08:59.120 It'll be easier for you.

00:09:00.700 As I mentioned earlier, I want to share with you

00:09:02.360 an exclusive resource called the Rocket Demo Builder.

00:09:05.120 It's my nine box model that's going to allow you

00:09:08.360 to close deals twice as fast and get more deals done.

00:09:12.580 So you can click the link below to download your copy

00:09:15.160 of the Rocket Demo Framework.

00:09:17.000 And if you like this video, be sure to smash the like button.

00:09:19.500 Subscribe to my channel if there's

00:09:20.700 anybody that you care about that you

00:09:22.320 think this video could share.

00:09:23.460 Feel free to share it with them directly.

00:09:25.240 And as per usual, I want to challenge

00:09:26.540 you to live a bigger life and a bigger business.

00:09:28.500 And I'll see you next Monday.

00:09:30.420 Did you get it?

00:09:32.000 Did that work?

00:09:34.420 you

Dan Martell - May 06, 2019

How To Navigate An Enterprise SaaS Deal

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript