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By

Mohammed Shehu

Table of Contents

• Section 1: Prospecting
• Section 2: Qualifying new leads
• Section 3: Making an offer and handling objections
• Section 4: Structuring the deal
• Section 5: Customer success and support

Sales are the lifeblood of any B2B company, but a long and complex sales cycle with a large enterprise company can be taxing on the time and resources of your sales team. As a sales leader, assessing your sales model to identify which aspects of the buying cycle to improve is key to moving each enterprise deal from quote to contract faster. This article outlines 5 key elements of the enterprise sales cycle that you can optimize:

#1 Prospecting
#2 Qualifying new leads
#3 Making an offer and handling objections
#4 Structuring the deal
#5 Customer success and support

Let’s dive in.

Section 1: Prospecting

Prospecting is the first element to get right in the enterprise sales process. It involves finding and engaging with potential customers who are a good fit for your product. Prospecting can be broken down into 4 key steps:

1. Craft your ideal enterprise customer profile
2. Research your market thoroughly
3. Identify the right channels for prospecting
4. Automate your customer outreach and engagement

1. Craft your ideal enterprise customer profile

Defining your ideal enterprise customer profile is crucial to understanding how they think and behave so you can craft an effective lead generation strategy. It involves finding out who they are, what their roles entail, and which of their pain points your product can address.

2. Research your market thoroughly

Whether at the SMB or enterprise level, it’s essential to understand the context of the market in which you operate. For example, you may have competitors who offer a similar product at a competitive price-point or one that needs much less onboarding than yours. The more competitive your space is, the harder enterprise selling becomes - especially if you have a complex sales process that involves multiple decision-makers. Find out how big the market is and what trends are emerging to get ahead of the game and create a competitive advantage.

3. Identify the right channels for prospecting

Now that you’ve defined your ideal customer profile and market context, it’s time to figure out what channels are right for reaching out to those prospects. You can start with known contacts at your target companies or any of the following places:

• LinkedIn: Many enterprise prospects are on LinkedIn, but a haphazard prospecting strategy won’t serve you well. Instead, connect with relevant people who might be a good fit and start building relationships with them. Learn where and how they work and what their KPIs are so you can tailor your sales pitch accordingly.
• Online communities: Look for online communities where people talk about problems you can solve with your product.
• Conferences and trade shows: Trade shows allow you to build brand awareness and generate leads in-person. Before the event, network with contacts you can later meet with.

4. Automate your customer outreach and engagement

It can be time-consuming to contact and follow up with each enterprise client manually, so invest in automation tools to streamline the process for you. Many of these tools can automate sourcing, connecting with, and advancing sales conversations with new prospects.

Challenges with enterprise buyer prospecting

Prospecting doesn’t come without its challenges. Even when managed correctly, it can still take time to find and acquire a new enterprise customer. If you’re struggling to find new leads, determine how you can add value to customers through ongoing activity.

For example, you can create valuable content across your channels that helps your target audience do their jobs better.

For each lead generation activity you choose to execute, we recommend evaluating the following:

1. The value proposition of your activity
2. The financial cost
3. The time cost
4. The competition

Use the following tips and tricks to maximize your enterprise prospecting activities:

1. Know what you’re selling
2. Build relationships
3. Work quickly

Section 2: Qualifying new leads

Qualification involves figuring out if an enterprise prospect is a good fit for your product. It requires meeting (or e-meeting) the prospect, asking the right questions, and listening to their feedback. To avoid a long sales cycle, you’ll want to quickly find out about their business needs, challenges, budget, timelines, and authority to close a deal.

To make your qualification process as efficient as possible, you can use two lead qualification methods: BANT and MEDDIC.

#1 BANT

BANT stands for “Budget, Authority, Need, [and] Timing.” This framework checks whether a prospect meets your qualification criteria by asking these four questions:

1. Budget: Can they afford your solution?
2. Authority: Are they authorized to buy?
3. Need: Do they have a specific problem that your product can solve?
4. Timing: Is it a good time for them to buy right now?

#2 MEDDIC

MEDDIC stands for “Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain, [and] Champion.” It checks whether an enterprise prospect is a good fit for your product by asking these six questions:

1. Metrics: What stats and facts do they care about?
2. Economic buyer: Is the enterprise prospect a sole decision-maker or are there multiple stakeholders involved?
3. Decision criteria: What criteria do they use to make their decision?
4. Decision process: How long does their internal buying process take?
5. Identify pain: What pain points do they have, and how will your product solve them?
6. Champion: Who within the company can advocate for your product on your behalf?

Section 3: Making an offer and handling objections

Your goal with an offer is to clearly articulate your product, what it does, how it can help your prospect, and why they should specifically buy from you and not a competitor. Your offer can be made in-person, over the phone, or via email.

How to handle sales objections

An objection to your offer isn’t necessarily the end of the road. Sales objections can come from the prospect themselves or their internal team.

Tips for responding to objections:

• Provide relevant sales enablement content.
• Cultivate and maintain the relationship.
• Show proof points, testimonials, or case studies.

Section 4: Structuring the deal

Once a prospect decides to buy your product, it’s time to close the deal. Closing the deal involves documenting terms, receiving payment, and implementing the solution. Implementation is another crucial element. When structuring complex deals, you need the right tools to deliver information quickly.

Sales coordination tools (like Momentum) are a must-have for enterprise sales teams who value speed and efficiency when structuring deals.

Section 5: Customer success and support

Customer success involves everything you do to make sure your customers are using your product correctly and getting value from it. This can include:

• Showing them how to use your product
• Providing training
• Regular feedback on progress made, ROI achieved, etc.

Customer support channels:

1. Live chat
2. Email
3. Phone calls
4. Self-service support
5. Social media and community forums
6. Chatbots

Build an effective sales cycle

As a sales leader, finding ways to improve your customer’s buying process and shorten the enterprise sales cycle can help you land more deals.