Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Selling Software To Large Businesses

training.kalzumeus.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 57 posts

Re: Selling Software To Large Businesses

#31

Post by xradionut »

Some pointers from someone that deals with large and small organizations.

- Expect to be audited both security wise and financially. - The larger the organization, the longer the process. (Although smaller clients can be just as dysfunctional.) - Track everything; email, phone call, meeting, etc. It will save your ass in a dispute and may provide valuable metrics. - The customer isn't always right, but they still are the customer. - You will have to fire customers or crank prices up so the pain isn't so bad.

Re: Selling Software To Large Businesses

#32

Post by wikwocket »

davidw wrote: post #3

patio11: I was driving to work a few weeks ago, and heard a 'public service reminder' on the military radio station that broadcasts from the base in Vicenza: "try and remember appointments because missed appointments cost the army N zillion dollars a year" or something like that. There's the ultimate enterprise customer for you to land! Also, I had a look at AR's home page, and was surprised by how much text there is…

I don't think there's so much text there. It's not nearly as much as a long-form sales page.

A general school of thought is that light landing pages work better for getting a simple commitment like an email address, while longer pages with lots of sales copy are better for getting e.g. credit card orders (look at how long an Amazon page is).

This seems like a hybrid model, where the main focus is getting you to do the demo, but the sales copy is there (for Google and customers). IIRC Patrick recently redesigned this page; I believe he wrote about it in a recent email.

Re: Selling Software To Large Businesses

#33

Post by mbesto »

eps wrote: post #6

Second hand re-hashing of other people's experience is the best. Seriously though, Patrick, you take an isolated episode and then extrapolate it into an assertive definitive business "theory". This is the good old armchair athletics. You appear to routinely do this and I personally find it seriously off-putting.

> This is the good old armchair athletics. You appear to routinely do this and I personally find it seriously off-putting.

As someone who learned Enterprise sales in the last 3 years, his advice is spot on. Why not contribute to the discussion and refute his claims? You make it sound as if you know something (i.e. something that's putting you off) that he didn't articulate.

Re: Selling Software To Large Businesses

#34

Post by ajdecon »

simonw wrote: post #7

I hadn't heard the concept of "suggested CCing to the internal team" before. How do you phrase this? Are you asking them to forward your email on, or to CC others on their reply to you?

A simple line I've used before:

"Please feel free to CC your technical team so we can make sure we're all on the same page regarding [technical requirements X, Y, and Z]."

Or something to that effect.

If the purchasing agent is feeling over-their-head technically, they might jump at the chance to involve someone who actually understands the requirements.

Disclaimer: I don't do SaaS, but I've been involved in a few enterprise sales in the capacity of "sales engineer".

Re: Selling Software To Large Businesses

#35

Post by cfn »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #20

The UK Government is doing a lot of work to get around these problems. Firstly all new development is preferred to be open source (1), secondly they have created at least two programs where suppliers are pre-vetted and then can offer their products (and services) in an online catalog. (2). I failed to know about either of these in time but there are 700+ SMEs on there. I am not saying that this is all solved - but a…

Thanks! I just registered in both and it is a very simple process(though I am still waiting on approval). There are quite a few software contracts in there.

Re: Selling Software To Large Businesses

#36

Post by Kiro »

euroclydon wrote: post #19
davidw wrote: post #3

patio11: I was driving to work a few weeks ago, and heard a 'public service reminder' on the military radio station that broadcasts from the base in Vicenza: "try and remember appointments because missed appointments cost the army N zillion dollars a year" or something like that. There's the ultimate enterprise customer for you to land! Also, I had a look at AR's home page, and was surprised by how much text there is…

I think you need to have about 800 words for a page to rank well for given keywords, incoming links aside.

Source?

Re: Selling Software To Large Businesses

#37

Post by cheapsteak »

xradionut wrote: post #31

Some pointers from someone that deals with large and small organizations. - Expect to be audited both security wise and financially. - The larger the organization, the longer the process. (Although smaller clients can be just as dysfunctional.) - Track everything; email, phone call, meeting, etc. It will save your ass in a dispute and may provide valuable metrics. - The customer isn't always right, but they still are…

Could you by any chance explain what is meant by "Does the software have auditing capabilities?"

What exactly are "auditing capabilities"? Is it business-speak for log files?

Re: Selling Software To Large Businesses

#38

Post by lifeisstillgood »

cfn wrote: post #35
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #20

The UK Government is doing a lot of work to get around these problems. Firstly all new development is preferred to be open source (1), secondly they have created at least two programs where suppliers are pre-vetted and then can offer their products (and services) in an online catalog. (2). I failed to know about either of these in time but there are 700+ SMEs on there. I am not saying that this is all solved - but a…

Thanks! I just registered in both and it is a very simple process(though I am still waiting on approval). There are quite a few software contracts in there.

Dang-nabbit - competition !

Well it's simple for now - have not waxed through the 16 docs they provide for G-Cloud (and the Agile consultancy has already finished - yes a preferred supplier list for agile development)

Re: Selling Software To Large Businesses

#39

Post by reubenswartz »

An important thing to consider when selling to BFE's is not just that their budgets are larger, but the value they will receive from your offering is bigger, too. I see a lot of SaaS founders get embarrassed about charging enterprise rates, when, as Patrick says, the rates don't even really matter at that scale. Yet while they may be able to charge 20x as much as their regular plans, they may be delivering 50x the value. Make sure you have a good understanding of how your application will provide value, and how they will measure that, not only to support your sales efforts with the customer, but so that you feel confident about your side of the sale, including the price.

Re: Selling Software To Large Businesses

#40

Post by AaronFriel »

unz wrote: post #18

No thanks. Destroy enterprises, never negotiate with them. If their internal processes are so easily gamed, they're easy prey.

So if you were the CEO of "Appointment Reminder", your first plan of action after getting a request for information from a hospital would be to plan your takeover of the healthcare industry?
Post reply on HN