Enterprise Selling

It’s that time of year. The holidays loom, there is a chill in the air, and countless articles appear providing guidance to sales representatives about how to close the year strong. The five, ten or twenty best strategies are outlined in checklists to insure end-of-year success. “Contact every client” is an action often recommended, as is “Revisit prospects who have chosen another vendor.”

We’ve all heard the sobering statistics that winning a new major account costs far more than keeping one – depending on the study you read, perhaps twenty times as much. And we’ve all heard how even a small increase in a firm’s overall major client retention rate has an exponentially positive effect on revenues and profits. We also know, of course, that, on the flip side, decreases in retention rates produce similarly negative impacts, often devastating and long-lasting.

We all know the statistics. Most selling organizations derive 80% of their revenues from 20% of their clients. Winning a new major account costs up to 20 times more than keeping a current one. And even a small percentage increase in a firm’s major client retention rate can have an exponentially positive effect on revenues – while similar decreases can produce negative financial impacts, often devastating and long-lasting.

This year, on Fridays, Dave talks about the attitude, behavior, and techniques of successful sales managers as he shares his thoughts on the 49 Sandler Rules for Sales Leaders.

Selling to major accounts, also known as enterprise accounts, is radically different from selling in other spaces. For one thing, the major account selling cycle is a continuous process – continuous because there’s no end to the cycle of selling to and serving large accounts. And the streams of transactions over time between buying and selling organizations constitute a client journey with a distinctive itinerary along a clear roadmap, a roadmap that delivers value on an ongoing basis.

We know all about the importance of team selling, don’t we? It's that powerful strategy in which multiple team members from different functional areas of a selling organization work collaboratively to win deals. Especially in the enterprise world, team selling is widely implemented.

Read Time: 9 Minutes

Brian Sullivan, VP of Sandler Enterprise Selling, and Markku Kauppinen discuss: Major Account Buying Teams-Know the Behaviors.

Listen Time: 26 Minutes

In sales, we all bundle our accounts, clients and prospects, into logical groupings to add clarity and understanding to our efforts. We use vertical categories, assembling together our healthcare, consumer products, technology accounts, and others. We also differentiate by geography, adding efficiency in territory management by bundling accounts based on physical locations. 

Read Time: 10 Minutes

In selling to and serving major accounts, team selling is one of the most powerful, and underutilized, competitive advantages. Effectively mobilizing your organization’s most precious assets, its people, often makes the difference between success or failure in large deals. 

Read Time: 9 Minutes

Welcome to Selling the Sandler Way podcast. Hosts from Sandler Training will discuss impactful information about trending topics and strategic selling. In this episode, Brian Sullivan, VP of Enterprise Selling talks with Marcus Cauchi and Dave Davies about Channel Selling in the Enterprise World.

Listen Time: 43 Minutes

Trials and demos can be an important part of your sales cycle, especially in the enterprise space. Another term for a trial or demo, is the “Monkey’s Paw,” which is a small version of your larger service or a consulting project. A successful Monkey’s Paw has three components, which are similar to a successful trial.

Read Time: 7 Minutes

In enterprise selling, there is a heavy focus on business value. Watch to see how Brian Sullivan, VP of Sandler Enterprise Selling, addresses this challenge through the Sandler Enterprise Selling Program.

Watch Time: 2 Minutes

Watch Brian Sullivan, Vice President of Sandler Enterprise Selling, describe how the Sandler Enterprise Selling Program addresses one of the most common enterprise sales challenges, extended sales cycles.

Watch Time: 3 Minutes

Watch Brian Sullivan, Vice President of Sandler Enterprise Selling, explain how the Sandler Enterprise Selling Program addresses the idea of sophisticated competition – a challenge that, while present in the simple selling arena, is extremely prominent in enterprise selling.

Watch Time: 2 Minutes

In enterprise selling, making decisions becomes a much more complex endeavor. Watch Brian Sullivan, Vice President of Sandler Enterprise Selling describe how the Sandler Enterprise Selling Program addresses this common enterprise sales challenge.

Watch Time: 2 Minutes

Learn how the Sandler Enterprise Selling program addresses the idea of cross-functional sales teams with Brian Sullivan, Vice President of Sandler Enterprise Selling.

Watch Time: 4 Minutes

Learn how the Sandler Enterprise Selling Program can help you win, grow, and retain enterprise accounts from Vice President of Sandler Enterprise Selling, Brian Sullivan. 

Watch Time: 3 Minutes

When our clients are elephant hunting or are selling in the enterprise space, we encourage them to engage their executives in peer-to-peer selling to their counterparts at prospect organizations.

Read Time: 4 Minutes

Of the many daunting challenges that sales teams face in selling into complex enterprise accounts, one of the most frustrating is that of long, drawn-out sales cycles. Months can pass, even years, while pursuing a major opportunity with an enterprise account, an opportunity that may or may not be won. As that precious time passes, the doubt, the uncertainties, the risks and the costs all increase. How can selling organizations overcome this challenge?

“In the dark of the night, every cat’s a leopard.” This old Indian saying provides great insight into enterprise selling, because it reminds us how important it is to identify the information that matters most about our key competitors… We must know them, prioritize them, and account for them. That means conducting a truly effective, and customized, competitive analysis. Unfortunately, most research sales teams do in this area falls far short of the mark.

The Sandler Enterprise Selling (SES) program, based on David Sandler’s revolutionary selling system, organizes the enterprise selling cycle around a six-stage, continuous process. SES provides a number of special tools throughout its six stages to help organizations land, keep and grow long-term clients, and we’ve added a tool to the SES arsenal – the Quarterly Value Review, or QVR.

Special guest, Brian Sullivan, Sandler trainer and author shares his thoughts about how to succeed at enterprise selling. It is an inside look at the new Sandler Training book, Sandler Enterprise Selling: Winning, Growing, and Retaining Major Accounts.

Understanding the importance of various accounts helps sellers sort customers and prepare for the next appropriate step in a relationship with the client.