What sales enablement changes do we need to make as we shift focus from selling to SMB and mid-market to selling to enterprise?

Great question! Core things to keep in mind:  1. You will be selling to a committee, versus one person/one core contact 2. Due to that, you'll want to really understand the composite of that committee: what are their roles, what are their pain points and objections. Moving upmarket means coming face-to-face with buyers that might be outside your core sweet spot of understanding.  3. Once you get that understanding, you need to understand what they value and how: what content do they need and wha ...Read More

It’s exciting that your company is making the shift up-market! The first question to ask is whether you have the right people in place to sell into enterprises. Promoting the best people on the mid-market team is highly risky, although that decision is usually outside the purview of product marketing. Having a seasoned enterprise sales rep or two is essential to success because they can guide the broader organization in transforming in the way that it needs to. For enablement specifically, it’s ...Read More

Some of the big differences you will see include: Longer sales cycle A bigger group of buyers and influencers More focus on security, certifications, and customer proof The main change is to incorporate additional personas in the sales cycle which will include new messaging and positioning. When you go from having to convince 1 or 2 people to buy your product to 5 or 7, more work is needed.In the Enterprise market you will also be asked more questions about security, certifications, global suppo ...Read More

While there are some common themes regardless fo the segment, there are some unique things down market: - Volume is much higher - reps have a 1000s of accounts versus handfuls so productivity is harder - Value selling is different - most buyers in those segments, especially SMB, won't have time for a full value pitch, so you need different types of quick hit ROI calculators/value messaging for down market  - Typically, in mature companies - your enterprise sellers also tend to be more tenured an ...Read More

This is a tough question to answer because this problem isn't all a PMM problem. This problem is also a sales organization problem. An SMB/Mid Market rep isn't an enterprise rep. A sales leader who only has managed SMB/Mid-market isn't an enterprise sales leader. However, you inherit what you inherit, so here are my recommendations. First, you will need to spend money to get a sales trainer who can train the sales team to sell to the enterprise. Second, make sure you as a PMM clearly define what ...Read More

As you go upmarket, third-party influencers become crucial in the sales process—specifically, analysts such as Gartner and Forrester. Enterprises are lower tolerance for risk, and they can lean heavily on the magic quadrant or the Wave placement while making buying decisions. Your enterprise sales rep will care a lot about this topic. Sales enablement has to factor this motion at some point in the company's journey. The influencers and blocker persona become more relevant in the enterprise motio ...Read More

I am assuming here that you have already created stories/collateral that will be required to sell into the enterprise. FWIW, here is a framework I use to develop stories - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141028002202-1469522-product-marketing-in-three-words-part-i/, but happy to drill down with you here or offline if that helps. Selling to the Enterprise is likely to be very different from selling to SMBs and mid-market. Some key differences to note: The sales cycles are longer The decision mak ...Read More