Enterprise SaaS sales are complex and challenging to people venturing into the industry. The process is usually long, needing negotiations at different stages with multiple decision-makers. It poses exciting challenges and rewards that sales professionals typically enjoy.

What Is Enterprise SaaS Sales

Enterprise SaaS sales involve selling software as a service tool to large organizations. Enterprise SaaS tools require tailored onboarding and customization since the entire organization or department will use them. 

When compared to SaaS B2C or sales to small businesses, enterprise SaaS sales involve a different process. A typical enterprise sales process may require multiple decision-makers. As such, it may take more extended periods, lasting several weeks or months. 

Sometimes, a deal can fail to go through. That means enterprise sales representatives don’t get returns on their work for weeks or even months. 

Enterprise SaaS sales can close a lucrative deal, with clients paying for annual or multi-year subscriptions. 

Difference Between An Enterprise & SMB Sales Cycle

The Enterprise Sales Process: How To Build Enterprise SaaS Sales

Because enterprise SaaS sales involve lucrative contracts, many stakeholders get involved to ensure everything goes well. A salesperson must strategize to ensure smooth navigation through the sales cycle. Here are some tips to follow. 

• Set yourself up to sell
• Create a relationship to establish rapport
• Develop a suitable strategy
• Fine-tune your process using enterprise sales software
• Provide useful demos
• Work with a CRM
• Practice patience

Set Yourself Up To Sell

It is good to know every detail about your product, its industry, and niche. Having enough information will enable you to respond to any questions the buyer may raise. You want to show them that you understand what you do and can solve their problem.

You must show the potential buyer you are interested in making the deal happen. The process involves conducting in-depth research about the client and their needs. Note down everything you discover and have it in mind when approaching them.

Send them alerts about new developments or any other news about your SaaS tools. You can ask them questions to better understand their needs.

The decision-making process in the SaaS enterprise sales cycle involves various stakeholders. Understand the enterprise hierarchy. Know every individual that will influence the purchasing decision. You will reach out to them individually to create a connection. The individuals to reach out to include:

• The economic buyer—the person who’ll sign the purchase order
• The technical buyer—the person who’ll test to see how efficient and secure your SaaS tool is
• The champion—someone who can share with you information about the progress, competitors, and what internal meetings recommend

Mastering these elements places you in an advantageous position as you begin communicating with your prospects.

Create A Relationship To Establish Rapport

Networking establishes solid relationships. You can build connections with the enterprise through various methods. The networks you create will also add to your reputation as a SaaS company. 

The type of reputation you build will influence decision-making and will propel you to closing the deal. Engage with prospects through social media, conferences, events, etc. 

Face-to-face interactions build stronger bonds, so you should find ways to meet the decision-makers. Remember that the deal involves large sums of money, and the enterprise will want to ascertain if the company is genuine. 

If you can’t meet decision-makers at events or conferences, you can plan to meet some of them over a cup of tea. A few minutes of interaction during breakfast or lunch can help build trust, a component that will help you close the deal. And you don’t have to meet them all at once; you can plan to meet one at a time. 

You can find the people already using your product and ask them to publish reviews on platforms where prospects can see them. Prospects can decide to buy from you because other people have good experiences with your product. 

Multiple people from different departments in the enterprise can contact various people in your organization simultaneously. Ensure you know who speaks to whom. You don’t want to send a communication another sales team member sent earlier.

Develop a Suitable Strategy

Depending on your niche; you must decide on the sales methodology to sell your SaaS product. Some time-tested methods include

• Value selling: You front the product’s benefits and let the buyer decide whether they need the product
• SPIN selling: Happens in four stages (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need), ensuring you ask the right questions at each stage
• Solution selling: You research the customer’s biggest problem, then tailor a solution
• Target selling: Every salesperson focuses on a few accounts, aiming to build strong relationships
• Challenger selling: Sales reps actively engage the customer

Understand your team, industry, and niche and design your sales strategy. Always choose what works best for you and your team.

Fine-Tune Your Process Using Enterprise Sales Software

A typical sales process involves tailored steps that move you from identifying prospects to closing deals. And you must conduct regular audits of your sales process to determine what works and doesn’t.

Some steps to follow in the enterprise B2B SaaS sales cycle include:

• Identifying prospects
• Making first contact
• Establishing enterprise needs
• Offering your solution
• Addressing concerns
• Closing the deal

Once you have identified the sales process, you can make adjustments over time. Ensure that the process works for the entire team, and they can replicate the most successful sales. Conduct regular reviews to identify areas that need change.

You can work with a specialized tool to provide data-driven insights that can help your team identify the sales at risk. Remember that every client is different, so they should tailor a solution for each client.

Provide Useful Demos

When creating demos, ensure they provide value to the customer. Don’t create an information overload that may overwhelm your prospects. Understand every buyer and know the exact problem they want to solve with your SaaS product. 

Once you know what the prospect needs, create hypothetical scenarios and show how your product will solve them. Be at the top of your game and answer every question. Focus on how your product makes the prospects’ life more manageable. 

Avoid using complex terms or following complex processes. Make sure the demo follows simple steps to provide valuable solutions. Create room for prospects to ask questions and raise concerns, and make sure you address each substantially. 

Work With A CRM

While every client is different, they want you to show them that you care about them. Show them that you cannot let anything go wrong. 

Enterprise SaaS sales follow a long process, and if you’re not careful, you may forget some details over time. That is why you need a customer relationship management (CRM) tool. 

CRM tools help you manage customer information, preventing anything from slipping through the cracks. Customers pay vast amounts of money, and you should safeguard their interests.

A CRM tool will enable you to:

• Provide better customer service
• Manage client communications
• Organize your sales teams
• Access data from a central place

Practice Patience

Patience will reward you in enterprise SaaS sales. The enterprise SaaS sales cycle may take at least six months and involve various stakeholders.

You must negotiate with multiple individuals at different levels of the enterprise.

Winning over multiple people will take some time. You must be patient to avoid situations that may compromise the process. However long it takes, remember that they will pay hundreds or thousands of dollars, so it is worth the wait.

Some tips include:

• Make regular follow-ups, but don’t spam prospects.
• Build a relationship with the enterprise.
• Don’t get discouraged.
• Stay focused on your long-term goals.

What Are The Challenges Of Enterprise SaaS Sales?

SaaS sales to the enterprise may face several challenges, given how long they take. It is good to understand the roadblocks you may face and prepare well in advance.

• Complexity of the Product
• The Buyer Runs the Sale
• Long Sales Cycles
• Long Sales Cycles
• Multiple Buyer Personas
• Complexity in Lead Qualification
• Content Creation
• Losing Leads
• Poor Organization

Challenge 1: Complexity Of The Product

Enterprises operate across multiple jurisdictions, managing hundreds or thousands of employees. They work through different time zones and languages. SaaS solutions designed to solve problems in these enterprises are bound to be complex. 

Enterprise SaaS supports many users, must integrate with other enterprise software, and also help achieve the organization’s objectives. Remember that every enterprise is unique. 

Design a customized SaaS product for each enterprise, addressing its unique problems. Equip your teams with knowledge and resources to educate prospects and respond to concerns. 

Also, ensure that your sales team has excellent negotiation skills because they will deal with multiple people from different departments. 

Challenge 2: The Buyer Runs The Sale

Many buyers know what their organization needs. They identify the problem and determine what needs to be done to solve it. They will only contact the sellers to inquire if they can provide the solution. 

Enterprise SaaS sales teams must show their relevance in such situations. If the buyer has any concerns about the product, resolve them instantly. 

You must offer a solution that exceeds buyer expectations. Research the enterprise yourself and unearth problems the buyer didn’t know existed. Create tailored solutions to every issue you identify. 

Challenge 3: Long Sales Cycles

Negotiations in enterprise sales for SaaS happen over a long period. Multiple decision-makers must approve the purchase. The more complex and costly the tool is, the longer the sales SaaS cycle.

The long sales cycles create a challenge, especially when teams try to estimate monthly or quarterly quotas. Some team members may also leave along the way. They get replaced with people who don’t know the buyer or the buyer’s stage in the sales cycle.

Working with a CRM tool can help address this challenge. The tool will store all information about the buyer and the cycle. Any person joining the team can access it and continue the process.

Challenge 4: Multiple Buyer Personas

Enterprises form a committee to decide whether to buy a particular SaaS product. A committee consists of people from different departments, each with their set of problems. A committee can have as many as 15 people.

SaaS sales teams may find it challenging to identify the people to approach when prospecting. Some committee members are influencers, while others are decision-makers. SaaS sales team members must research how to come to different committee members with the solution.

Challenge 5: Complexity In Lead Qualification

Lead qualification in enterprise SaaS sales is complex and requires well-defined procedures. Some leads may request a demo, but they may still need to buy your product. Customization is a critical aspect in trying to win a prospect. 

Design a procedure that will help you separate low-quality leads from high-quality ones. You can work with a questionnaire and use the feedback to screen leads. Know the questions to include in the questionnaire to help identify companies needing your tool. 

It will save you time and energy. 

Challenge 6: Content Creation

Providing valuable content to enterprises can help them make decisions faster. Your teams must share compelling content illustrating your tool’s value to the enterprise’s bottom line. However, many SaaS sales team members are not marketers, nor writers. 

They pitch products instead of creating valuable content. It gives decision-makers in enterprises a difficult time deciding what happens next. 

SaaS sales teams can have a couple of writers creating valuable content to help buyers at every stage of their journey. Identify what to write during the awareness, consideration, and decision-making stages.

Challenge 7: Losing Leads

Enterprise SaaS sales representatives usually want to deal with sales-ready leads. They don’t follow up effectively if they get leads that are not ready to buy within the next few weeks. The lead eventually feels neglected, and the deal gets broken. 

Instead of ignoring leads that are not sales-ready, create a lead-scoring procedure to know high-quality leads. Make frequent follow-ups to ensure the lead doesn’t lose interest in your product. Follow-ups will also show them how you care for your relationship, and your customer care will always be available when they encounter issues.

Challenge 8: Poor Organization

The complex nature of SaaS enterprise sales, requires a well-organized team to know what happens at every stage. Different people in the enterprise may talk to others in your sales team. 

Organize your team, so they know the conversations are happening. You don’t want to send messages with information that had been discussed earlier. 

You can work with the enterprise sales software to help plan and share what is being discussed. It will plan with the organization, scheduling the leads to contact at specific intervals and identifying the stages reached by each lead in the sales journey.

How Does Enterprise Software Sales Work?

Enterprise software is software that’s used in large companies and government institutions. It requires heavy customization to fit the complex nature of the specific organization. On the other hand, SaaS software serves many people without needing customization. It addresses standard problems that individuals or small businesses face. 

Enterprise Software Sales vs. SaaS Sales

Enterprise software differs from SaaS software in three significant aspects

• Customization: SaaS software deals with standard problems facing multiple individuals or small businesses. Enterprise software is highly customized, addressing the specific needs of the company. 
• Pricing: SaaS software requires monthly fees (in many cases). You pay for licensing, customization, and maintenance. The price is usually high and can involve a multi-year deal. 
• Engineering requirements: The vendor decides the features to include in SaaS software. The corporation outlines the features, security, scalability, and even the hardware to use for enterprise software. 

Why Do I Need Enterprise Sales Software?

Enterprise sales software can enable your company to sell software to large corporations. It helps you manage the sales process through every stage, from prospecting to closing. You can use enterprise sales software to track customer relationships, seeing them move from prospects to repeat buyers. 

Enterprise sales software helps with two main aspects:

• Lead management
• Customer relationship management (CRM)

Understand The Enterprise SaaS Sales Cycle And Close Deals

Once you know how the enterprise sales process works, you can strategize effectively. Understand how to identify high-quality leads and follow up with them. The process will be long, but don’t give up. You can also use enterprise sales software to manage the entire process. 

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