Enterprise sales for reluctant founders

Episode details

Enterprise sales gets a bad rap amongst indie founders, but at Tuple it's become an important part of their business model. In this episode, Ben shares all his tips and tricks on how to sell to enterprise customers as a small startup without letting it slow you down.

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Timestamps

• (00:00) - Ben's notes on enterprise sales
• (02:58) - Ben's first time
• (04:56) - Tactic: Build a product that can grow bottom-up
• (07:12) - Tactic: Ask buyers to answer their own questions
• (08:34) - Tactic: Say no to more than you think
• (16:11) - Tactic: Your pricing should make you uncomfortable
• (25:38) - Tactic: Charge more for SAML single sign-on
• (27:50) - Tactic: Don't sign something without charging a lot
• (28:34) - Tactic: Put an expiration date on your quotes
• (29:12) - Tactic: Dodge pricing pushback with quarterly payments
• (31:06) - Tactic: Make sure you lose some deals because of price
• (33:26) - How procurement works
• (37:54) - How important is enterprise sales for Tuple?
• (47:59) - Tactic: Ask procurement, "what helps this deal get done faster"
• (49:49) - Tactic: Have a /security page on your website
• (53:07) - Tactic: Use Y Combinator's sales agreement template
• (55:47) - Tactic: You probably won't be sued

Links

• Adam on Twitter
• Ben on Twitter
• Tuple's /security page
• Y Combinator — Sales Agreement