What advice would you give to someone tasked with taking the sales function up market in an existing business structure?

Good question! Taking a sales function up market in an existing business can be one of the most challenging but lucrative transformations of an organization. Often in the early days of your business and go-to-market motion you'll tend to focus on smaller, more nimble customers to validate your product-market fit and refine your go-to-market approach. During this phase, your supporting business structures of product development, finance, legal, security & compliance, etc. will mold to fit the ...Read More

This is a great question and a task that I was asked to take on for Vanta twice over the past two years - first helping us break into the mid-market, and later helping us break into the enterprise. My first piece of advice is to make sure that there's cross-functional alignment in your company around the desire or need to move upmarket. It's really important that the entire company is on board with this decision. From there, I'd have representatives from GTM and EPD take a long hard look at any ...Read More

Moving up-market is no easy task. It adds a great deal of complexity, precision, and requires more people, processes, workflows, and technologies to do it effectively. This initiative must be done company wide and has to address the ongoing challenges that your target (or evolving/new target) audience must solve at a global scale. Here are a few things you’ll need to think about as you shift from a velocity to a transformation motion: Historical success Have you closed up market in the past? Can ...Read More

Here's some advice I would give to someone tasked with taking the sales function up-market in an existing business structure: *What sales cycles are repeatable that have closed up market?  *What hiccups did you see in that original sales cycle?  *Competitive Landscape  *What potential objections change and how do you sell around them differently?  *What was the process around: Security? Legal? Procurement?   If you haven't closed anything up-market yet in your sales org, I recommend first asking ...Read More

I have a lot of thoughts on this question. First and foremost, it’s critical to deeply understand your core customer, their needs, and most importantly the why behind going upmarket in the first place (other than "the business wants larger ACV's") Before making any big moves, I’d start by focusing on your largest mid-market customers and trusted partners. Spend real time understanding their business, the pain points they’re facing, and how your product meaningfully solves those problems. Learn w ...Read More

Moving upmarket—selling to larger customers with more complex needs—is a major growth lever and very exciting! But, it’s also a shift that requires new thinking, new processes, and often, a new mindset. If you’ve been tasked with leading this transition, here’s some recommendations on how to approach it. Key Moves to Make Redefine your ICP: Enterprise buyers have different pain points, buying cycles, and stakeholders. You may find that Procurement teams within your prospect's organization are no ...Read More

If you are tasked with taking the sales function up market in an existing business structure, here are some pieces of advice that you may find helpful: Understand your target market: Start by researching the market that you are trying to move into. Who are your target customers? What are their needs and pain points? What are the trends and dynamics of this market? Once you have a good understanding of the market, you can develop a sales strategy that is tailored to the needs of your target custo ...Read More