Twenty-One Steps to Sales Glory: The Enterprise Software Sale

(From the www.softwaremarketsolution.com archives)

So, you want to sell enterprise-class software, eh? Well, here's what's involved. We recently received this twenty-one point sales check list from Amir Idan, CEO of user relationship management (URM) vendor APPower Systems. APPower sells a software product that enables software publishers to integrate messaging, communities, and intelligent search into supported applications.

An APPower sale is by nature one aimed at the enterprise, requiring buy-in from marketing, product development, support and upper management. With Amir's permission, we share this roadmap to success with you. Steps and percentages identified in the process are APPower's: comments are ours. This checklist is real world, not theory. Enjoy!

1. Lead 0%
How much will that lead cost? For an enterprise sale, between $100 to $300, on average. The Product Marking Handbook for Software, Live has an update that that breaks down this figure and explains how it's derived.

2. Sent Introductory E-mail
This document will be a brief description of the product or service you're offering, how it solves a business problem the prospect faces, and perhaps a few key product features/benefits. Keep it short.

3. Sent Let's Talk E-mail
OK, enough "Outlook Speak." It's time for us to converse human-to-human. I long to hear your mellifluous tones.

4. Sponsor-Phone conversation 10%
Also sometimes known as an "influencers, gatekeepers." What are their normal titles? That depends on the industry you are targeting. In software product managers and directors are the logical sponsors. In other businesses, look for people with equivalent power, regardless of title.

The concept of the "sponsor" is controversial among some sales theorists. Always go for the top, they say. That SOUNDS good, but reality often intrudes. CxOs are fairly well insulated from sales importunings and they like it that way. And even if you do succeed in an initial foray into upper management's protected seraglio, you will often be kicked out of paradise and back to the waiting arms of a sponsor.

5. Sponsor - Admits PAIN
And remember, pain is a GOOD thing. Pain is a problem. You are, hopefully, in a position to provide a business solution that brings an end to the pain.

6. Qualified
And there are two things that need to be qualified before the sales cycle can continue. First, does the company have the ability to buy anything. Not "will" they but "can" they? For example, is there much point in trying to sell Enron much in the way of software these days? (Well, maybe a good accounting package.)

The second thing that needs to be qualified is the sponsor. Do they have access to the decision makers and check signers? One of the most common mistakes made by salespeople is failing to discover until much time and money has been spent that their "sponsor" has influence only with the company's Executive Washroom Decision Committee. This group decides whether the bath tissue used by the firm that week will be the floral or geometric pattern.

7. Sponsor - Buying vision in place 20%
And in today's market, that buying vision often has to be supported by an ROI fantasy…uhhh…we meant compelling financial argument that helps justify the purchase. The best argument is one that demonstrates that you lose money if you don't buy this product. Be prepared to spend significant time and money to develop your ROI case.

8. Sponsor - Access to power negotiated
This is where the sales rubber truly hits the road. At this point, your (qualified) sponsor is no longer an obstacle to the sale, but, hopefully, a partner in the sales process. They will identify potential obstacles to the sales, potential allies in upper management, and potential opponents to the deal.

9. Sponsor - Agreed in writing
A crucial point. If no one is willing to commit their interest in your solution to paper it is unlikely they will commit any money to the sale.

10. Power-Access granted 40%
Your sales journey has now taken you to any deal's Elysian Fields. The smell of money to be made is as fragrant as a newly opened lotus. There's more gold here than in King Midas' palace. But for now, it's still "look but don't touch." A lot can still go wrong.

11. Power-Admits pain
Well, maybe not "pain." Pain is for "sponsors." Power does not acknowledge "pain" but Power can be "inconvenienced."

12. Power-Agrees to explore
OK, OK, it really does hurt. Can you make it go away?

13. Quantify Deal
In other words, let's get to the bottom line. How much is this going to cost me? Got an ROI spreadsheet I can peruse? One with not too many rows and columns (they make my head hurt) that uses facts, figures, and terminology I'm immediately familiar with?

14. Meet with Power group 60%
Who comprises the power group? Usually, the heads of any division or business unit impacted directly by a purchase. VPs, division heads, GMs, etc.

This is a time of tremendous danger for the sale. It is always at this point that some annoying VP from some division you've not dealt with previously will decide that he/she has not been sufficiently "kept in the loop" and they're really not sure that they can sign off on the purchase. Hopefully, your sponsor has prepped you on this and other potential land mines.

15. Sequence of events agreed upon
How/when the product will be purchased and deployed.

16. Green Light - Power 80%
The head honcho(s) has nodded his/her Olympian Head(s) and agreed to bestow upon you the celestial favor of a purchase. Bow down and grovel (in a tasteful, manly sort of way) in appreciation.

17. Green Light - Project Manager
Your contact responsible for pulling together all the disparate parts of the company that need to cooperate to insure the success of this sale. It always helps if this individual is a former "bad guy" wrestler for the WWF.

18. Green Light - R&D
Say "hi" to your overworked, overwhelmed, and under appreciated contact in IT! He'd like to kill this sale and all the others like it if anyone ever listened to him. But they never do. (Unless you're selling a new toy for IT; those are always good, of course.) And boy, are they all going to be sorry someday for not listening to him. But not today! Today we have a new product to install and get working.

19. Contract - Delivered 90%
It is now time to attend the inevitable bit of kabuki ritual all companies feel compelled to perform upon receiving "the contract." This cherished work of art is entitled "The Yanking of the Sales Chain." Key elements usually include A) misplacing the contract, B) at least one principal who's signature is required taking a three week vacation in the South Pacific to learn how to wind surf, and C) the obligatory inspection of the deal by the company's janitor so that his unique insights on the benefits of deploying an ERP solution across the enterprise can be elicited. You will know the ritual is approaching its climax when, upon inspecting your nails, you realize you have none, as you've ingested them.

20. Contract - Signed
Feel the rush!

21. Product Deployed 100%
Return to step one and repeat the whole process all over again.