Thursday, August 18, 2011

The Pros Secret Strategy For Selling Enterprise Software

Selling software can be a tough business! Especially when it's big ticket enterprise software.

enterprise ssd

(We should define enterprise software as systems which integrate functions across the business into a single database - CRM+Order Processing+Inventory+Manufacturing+Human Resources+Accounting).

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With any kind of business software the prospect always thinks he knows more than he really does - after all he uses computers all day, every day.

But with enterprise software the challenge reaches a whole new level. Because the selection of the "right" software requires more than choosing the best fit. It extends to mitigating risk.

In selling enterprise software we need to focus on reducing the risk for whoever is making the selection. We can forget friendly user interfaces and flexible reporting. We can forget sexy features. We can forget price, at least for the moment.

The single critical issue is finding a way to make sure our prospect doesn't get fired when the project goes wrong. Being given the job of selecting new enterprise software is a hospital pass. Nobody in their right mind wants this job.

(I'm not assuming the project will go wrong, but everybody else is, because 95% of enterprise software projects fail to deliver the expected benefits, on time and within budget).

To illustrate the situation lets look at the propositions our competition will put forward:

Vendor A suggests "buy from us, we have processes designed by experts" probably in German. Vendor B suggests "buy from us, your IT people will prefer our tools" built by my old friend Greg in Redwood Shores, Vendor C says "buy from us, your users are already familiar with our UI" with a Washington State accent. The alternative pitch from us is "we'll make sure it's not your fault if it goes wrong".

The sales guy who can make this strategy work is going to win the business, unless the decision's already been made elsewhere (in which case we can go play golf).

The decision maker will turn into our "coach", helping us understand the internal dynamics and pointing us at others we need to influence, and how to do it.

At this point our first "sale" has been made. The decision maker favors us, because we're going to look after him/her.

The "sale" isn't about software. It's about protecting the poor unfortunate who needs to make the decision.

Now we've done that we can get on with the rest of the project, with the decision maker on our side.

The Pros Secret Strategy For Selling Enterprise Software

Steve Reeves is Founder and CEO of Front Office Box, the Business 2.0 solution for helping smaller businesses manage plans, tasks, schedules and relationships. His passion is helping them exploit the Internet to increase opportunities and enhance capabilities.

Steve is a 30 year veteran of sales and sales management roles in the B2B space, primarily software, consulting and outsourcing.

To find Steve's blog and get a free Front Office Box visit us at http://www.frontofficebox.com

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