Moving Up Market Bootcamp

Salespeople and Processes Needed to Close Multiyear Enterprise Deals in SaaS

Note: some mentioned techniques are trademarks of their respective owners.

Lukas Hertig
SVP BizDev@Plesk | Advisor to SaaS Startups such as Chainstack | Scaling Tech Businesses | Investor

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/lukashertig eMail: lhertig@plesk.com

 A Few Words About Me..
Plesk | cPanel | SolusVM Advisor, Investor
16+ Years in int. Sales, Working with a few startups
Management, Digital Marketing & to support them on their
Business Development with journey, mostly in the
120M$+ ARR Subscriptions blockchain, Cloud/SaaS &
eCommerce space.
Based in Zurich and Barcelona

Sold millions of $ subscription Chainstack

software and cloud platforms
to global service providers Cloud/Blockchain/eCommerce
Built up a digital marketing
growth team from scratch
with 30+ people LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukashertig/
Built many global Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/LukasHertig
Partnerships with Amazon, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lukas.hertig
Microsoft, Google, HP, IBM
Agenda
• 30 mins – Moving from a transactional SaaS model for SMBs towards an Enterprise Sales Model
• 30 mins - split into groups to brainstorm challenges and opportunities
• 20 mins - each group presents back what they have discussed & Q&A
• 10 mins - sum up with key takeaway points and learnings (free handout!)
 Bootcamp Focus: Elephant & Deer «hunting»

4
5
History of Selling to Enterprise..

«TAS»

VALUE SELLING 2010

6
 Startegic Enterprise Sales for SaaS - Framework
1. RELATIONSHIPS 2. STRATEGY
a. Political Map a. Early Engagement
b. Stakeholder b. Selection Criteria
Management c. Competitive
c. Insight Differentiation
d. Integrity d. Politics
e. Influence

3. VALUE 4. PROCESS
a. Strong Business a. Budget
Case b. Procurement
b. Enable Revenues Process
c. Save Costs c. Compelling Events
d. Compelling d. Capabilities to
technical solution Implement

7
The Framework is a Combination of Modern Enterprise Sales Techniques
AND

8
 Solution selling is based on the
premise that salespeople should lead with
open-ended questions designed to surface
recognized customer needs and respond to them with a solution…

…in addition, Insight selling rests on the belief that salespeople

must lead with disruptive ideas that will make customers aware of
unknown needs.

Plus - Most sales reps rely only on the customer to coach them
through a sale & process; star reps
also coach (not push!) the customer and are perceived as
trusted advisor
9
 Non-traditional sales approaches dominate SaaS today – but some balance is
required!
Cloud/SaaS approach

10
1. The Sales Team – People required to
sell enterprise deals
(or: requirements for a founder interested in selling to enterprise customers)
 Skills of a «dream sales rep» for value selling ☺

12
 Different Sales People for Different Sales Jobs..

(Traditional New «Hunting»

«Hunting»)

Massmarket New «Farming»

13
 Sales Skills of a consultative/value vs transaction sales person

14
 People
2. Building Relationships with Enterprise Customers
 Who We Sell to? Find the right personas to target for demand
generation..

UI/UX SALES, BRAND CONSOLIDATION INNOVATION COSTS REVENUES

Demand & Product IT Top Management

Head of Marketing CIO CEO

Head of B2B SALES IT Director CMO
VP/SVP Products Enterprise Architects CSO
Product Managers System Administrators CFO (partially)

The above are just examples – it highly depends on the industry you are selling to!

Note: there are tools to find them over linkedin etc. – but use your brain! No automated reach out!
16
 Be a Collaborator AND a Challenger

17
 Try to Engage on Senior Level from Day 1!

18
 Finding and working with the right stakeholders and their interests

19
 Have a business conversation about the
customer’s business, NOT immediately about
your product/solution

20
 Find the right allies & get support for your idea inside
an organization and get social

21
 Be FAST – Speed matters!

Follow-up after Meetings:

Within 24 to max. 48 hours
by email or phone

If you cannot hold this, provide a

deadline and reach it if you set it!
Integrity matters!
22
3. Sales Process & Building your pipeline
Building the deal pipeline:
• Long deal cycles 9-24 months
• Focus on qualification mostly, not
just lead generation – it will save you
a lot of time.
• CAC of about 10% of the deal value
• Conversion rates of 5-10% only
• Expect a lot of work – very hard work
and a lot of rejection

24
 Decision Support tree for
defining your strategy

Providing Value with a

solution that may touch
many end-points or
where a competitor is
already there..

Depending on the
«Cloud/SaaS maturity
level» a customer has,
you need to think
about different
startegies & values

25
 Make sure, you find out about the official
procurement process of a company EARLY.
Talk to your business contacts about their
process, ask about financial treshholds in
terms on when an RFI/RFP process is
required and when not..

Go to meet with procurement separately if

required to find out.

This will help you in forecasting properly

and align the processes on both sides as
well as find out or even create compelling
events – such as deadlines from senior
execs etc. – what happens if middle
management will NOT reach the compelling
event? Fired? If you have aligned with
Exec level in advance, that will be your
help!

Be 100% aware of the Procurement/Acquisition Process

26
 Be There Early
Be There First
Be Faster

27
 Influence RFI/RFP Requirements Early – Disqualify
Competition through VALUE, not just Features

28
 Example Next Steps after the first meeting
• Assess their current organizational needs
• Immediate requirements of high priority projects – specifically around cloud and
general IT automation – whatever is end customer related
• Are there any compelling events? F.e. replacement of an existing system etc.?
• Service Portfolio definition & execution Roadmap – if existing?

• Evaluate combined solution offering – Your Saas with their business

• Functional product demonstration(s)
• Jointly work on a draft business case that includes but not limited to
o Analyze and define Potential of Churn reduction & ARPU increase
o Analyze and Define Mid and long-term objectives and related KPI’s
o Overall Cost benefit consideration
o Analyze benefits (cost reduction) by increasing level of automation and IT consolidation, now and
over time
• Combination of new solution with existing infrastructure (complementary) or greenfield
• Business Case (we can create one for them if we think it’s worth it)
• Define Enabling of Marketing, Sales, Support and Operations
29
 Note: do not offer customization pro-actively, even with big
$$ offerings. Better plan for requirements upfront and think
about integrations into enterprise systems upfront.

.. And if you hear the same story from multiple customers

what they may need as additional features, build them into
your product – and ask 1 customer to pay for it ☺

30
5. Proposals – anatomy of an enterprise deal
 Tools: Differentation of Sales Proposals in Value Sales

32
 Tools: Differentation of Sales Proposals in Value Sales

• You may want to think about getting a

proposal management software

• Big $ (if 100k or even millions) –

require «proper» proposals, not just a
price list.

• Besides the proposal you often also

need things like:
• Feature Lists
• Master agreement for licensing
• Master agreement for services (if
applicable)
• Compliance proof (GDPR, SOX,
ISO and such)
• Price list(s)
• Custom license terms (if
applicable)

33
 Tools: The Strategic Term License (STL) aka Enterprise
Term License (ETL) – Think Big

34
 Group Breakout: brainstorming challenges & opportunities
Awareness Consideration Intend Decision

Prospects/Leads Qualification & Pitches Proposals, Negotiations Closing Techniques

• Ask about budgets as early as • Don’t offer customzation at all. • Bring in CS in an early stage • 3 – 5 Points
possible and put a higher number Call it feedback, not requests. before the deal is closed
rather and include a lot of buffer. • If being asked for enterprise • Making decisions between upfront
• Charge like 5k «discovery fee» to references, try to sell to a and annual fees must be done
get commitment early stage – can department first and get your carefully. Depending on
make a big difference in closing references. accounting rules, company size
rates. • Offer a super cheap price and in and so on.
• Have a strictly defined sales exchange they need to provide • Include a lot of buffer into the
process in place reference calls or case studies. initial pricing and decide pricing
• Bring in a solution architect as • Give and take is super important. last.
quickly as possible. If I’m spending lots of time – you • Define the timeline is helping to
• Try to parallelize workstreams can provide me more things in close.
across different departments exchange.
• Create a sales funnel for
enterprise that includes many
more steps to have visiblity of
where the deal is.
• Create an initial successplan to be
transparent with the customer
about your «sales process».
• Go for the yes or not initially and
not too late in the process.

35
 Group Break-out: handout & benefits

• Goal is to create an updated framework for selling SaaS to Enterprise

customers and share this across the industry.

• Everyone who leaves a business card or contacts me on

Linkedin at then end of the session, will get a free copy of the
following:
• Framework selling SaaS to Enterprise customers including the
findings from this workshop
• Qualification checklists
• Proposal template(s)

36
37
38