Why You Need Effective Enterprise Sales Training
As tech and automation continue dominating the sales and marketing industries, many budding sales teams are feeling stuck on where to go next in their careers. Sales experts say “It’s not the death of a salesman, but the death of a lazy salesman”. What does that mean exactly? As technology and strategies change, so must your sales training tactics.
An effective salesperson knows that you have to adapt to stay on top. One way to do this is by embracing enterprise sales. While enterprise sales have more risks and a longer sales cycle, closing an enterprise sale means higher benefits for your sales team. To become successful at enterprise sales, you must have effective enterprise sales training.
Enterprise sales training requires its own set of guidelines, timelines and sales techniques. Before starting your enterprise sales training, ensure that your reps are in it for the long haul. To be successful in enterprise sales, you have to play the long game to close a sale.
What is Enterprise Sales?
Enterprise sales, also called complex sales, involves closing long contracts after a much longer sales cycle than traditional deals. Enterprise sales involve multiple decision-makers and have a much higher level of risk than traditional sales.
Enterprise sales are not for the faint of heart, as it requires deeper research, relationship building, and negotiation skills far beyond those required of a typical sales rep. If any of your reps are not ready to play the long game, enterprise sales will not be for them.
Why are the risks so high in enterprise sales? Usually, the contracts involved deliver large-scale solutions to large, corporate issues. Enterprise sales come into play a lot in the software, commercial real estate, and engineering industries. These industries are often searching for large-scale security solutions, equipment, raw materials, and development.
Enterprise Sales Strategy
Enterprise Sales Strategy Enterprise sales strategy is a lot different than traditional sales methods such as transactional sales. In transactional sales, deals are driven more heavily by marketing and the risk is much lower. Smaller products and services are sold and usually, only one decision-maker is involved.
Since enterprise sales are exactly the opposite, developing the right training strategies is key to landing those big contracts. One of the first factors to focus on is relationship management. While this concept is not new to experienced sales reps, it plays more of an important role in enterprise sales.
Enterprise sales often involve working with multiple decision-makers within the organization. So, you have to identify pain points and problems for each of those decision-makers. What are their priorities and how does my product or service help them individually? This is also known as solution selling. Take time to do your research and build your credibility.
Whether you are working with five or 10 decision-makers, remember that these sales take time. Spend time with each person, get to know them and prioritize your relationships with them in order to build rapport. They should all be crystal clear on your possible solutions.
Do not be afraid to bring in more than one salesperson to work with an enterprise. With multiple reps, work can be divided and relationships can still be built upon. This technique is known as target account selling.
Enterprise Sales Process
Enterprise Sales ProcessEnterprise sales processes take much longer than traditional sales. Your sales team could spend weeks, months, or even years closing an enterprise contract. Typically, the enterprise sales process starts with research. Your sales reps should do a deep dive into the prospective company and know all the industry news. Browse Linkedin profiles and know when changes are happening within the company.
Once research has been done and contact has been made, it is time to focus on a finely-tuned process. A typical sales process follows the order of prospecting, first contact, assessing pain points, presenting solutions, negotiating, closing, and following up. This process can certainly work for enterprise sales, too. The critical factor to keep in mind is that your reps may be going back and forth between the steps in the process.
Once you have established a process that works, stick to it. This not only shows consistency among your sales team but also shows potential clients that you are organized and focused.
Enterprise Customers
So, who is considered an enterprise customer? An enterprise customer is legally defined as being or an affiliate of a publicly-traded company that has at least 100 employees, has five or more physical locations, and has consistently high volume sales.
So, these are the big fish. These are not your small retailers and offices. Enterprise customers usually have a lot of say in what goes on in their communities. Closing an enterprise sale means a high return for your sales team. As stated before, enterprise sales are common, particularly in software development, technology, engineering, and contracting. Here are some examples of enterprise contracts:
- Technology:
- Software security systems.
- Private data networks.
- Encryption services.
- CRM and POS software.
- E-commerce and web design software.
- Construction and Contracting:
- Heavy equipment and machinery.
- Commercial vehicles.
- Raw building materials.
- Land surveying and excavation.
- Skilled labor.
- Real Estate:
- Commercial insurance.
- Real-estate software.
Again, these are big sales. Looking at the definition of an enterprise customer, you can imagine why the risk in enterprise sales is so high. Imagine selling your security system software to a company with 200 employees. All employees have their own computer that needs your software. If the software works, then your company can reap the benefits. If something goes wrong, you could be in big trouble.
How do you find potential enterprise customers? It all comes back to research and relationships. These two concepts should be the foundation of your training techniques. Your sales team needs to research bigger companies that have a problem you can solve.
A lot of B2B sales strategies can come into play here. Utilize techniques like social selling, warm calling, and referral networking to get your foot in the door with the right company.
Enterprise Deals
So, let’s say you have a $200,000 deal on the line with a big enterprise. How do you close such a big deal? It all starts at the beginning of the process.
Ensure your prospect knows exactly what your intentions are. Explain how your product or service works and how it differs from your competitors. Talk about possible pain points, ask questions and use them to formulate the right solutions.
Be prepared to recite some statistics and details about your company. If an enterprise is going to give you $200,000, they need to know exactly how your company works. How old is your company? How many clients do you work with and who are they? Do you have any examples or testimonials from established clients? These are all essential aspects to have at the ready during a presentation.
After you have negotiated, built rapport, and provided solutions to the enterprise’s problems, all you have to do is be patient. Nurture those relationships from start to finish. Continue to follow up even after the closing stage. Build your network. You never know what connections you could make next.
Is your sales team ready to make the jump to enterprise sales? We’re here to help you plan the perfect strategy to catch that big fish. For all your sales training, recruitment, and consulting needs, contact Wizard of Sales today to get started.