How to close your first enterprise client
Breaking the rules is sometimes the fastest route to victory
Rule of thumb: in early go-to-market, you should focus on early adopters.
But sometimes, breaking the rules is a great strategy.
What if you could hit the jackpot from the get-go and convince a big name to take your product or service for a spin before winning the hearts and minds of early adopters?
These Moby Dicks will give you the leverage, enormous trust boost and help attract more big clients like them… But you will have to work hard to win their trust and make it worth it for them to trust you.
(just so we’re clear, I refer to all the enterprise companies, strategically important partners and moonshots as - Moby Dicks 🐳)
Selling to enterprise eventually becomes #1 goal for most companies. It's hard (practical guide below), but it's worth it:
🤑 Bigger deal sizes (duh)
💪 Highest NRR (net revenue retention)
🏆 Social proof (mmm, those logos) helps acquisition
NRR especially becomes a game-changer in your company’s growth curve:
Obviously, it comes with downsides too:
☑️ Looong sales cycles (my personal record is 3 years)
☑️ More meetings than you'd imagine
☑️ Competition (you're not the only one trying to slide into their DMs)
☑️ Compliance (just wait and see)
☑️ Product adjustments (they may ask for additional features)
☑️ Churn risk (if a few of these accounts make up most of your revenue, one leaving is a big hit for your business)
So should you avoid selling to enterprise in early stages of your GTM and settle for SMBs?
'It depends' 😅
As I said, it's so worth it - one enterprise deal can bring enough revenue to your org for the next 1-3 years of runway.
But you can't just 'stumble upon' these deals. You need to make a clear decision and adjust your go-to-market strategy to make this happen.
I generally advise against going after whales, but just in the last two weeks, I had three instances that made me write this piece:
Ange (founder of Add Maple) just closed Greenpeace global as one of their first clients for the data visualization and analysis tool - she is recording custom onboarding videos for them on their own data sets and going through great lengths of making this happen.
Joanna Bunker (a partnership manager at Wings, Alphabet company), a contributor to my GTM Strategist book, told me they’re proud to be in business with a startup and really appreciate their service level. They first learned about the startup through cold outreach.
Senita Slipac and her awesome team (whom I mentor via Swiss Entrepreneurship program) and her marketplace Orea just set up a partnership with Visa, which is a huge credibility and adoption booster for the marketplace.
(all ladies this time - that makes me very proud!)
There’s no secret formula. If you have a great product and are willing to work extra hard and smart, you can do it too.
I was also invited to mentor seven Web 3.0 teams at Attic42 accelerator and I was working on a slide deck about how early ‘big brands’ traction was pivotal to the success of OriginTrail that I was working with back in 2017-2019.
The founders were genius in partnership building and creating PoCs (proof of concepts) with big brands. We partnered up with GSI, Oracle, BSI and multiple other big brands. It was a game changer in terms of our credibility and traction.
Yes, the odds might be stacked against you, but if you have cutting-edge technology, if you’re willing to go an extra mile and you actually have something that:
- saves costs
- creates more profit
- or ideally both
…then it’s 100% possible.
(In early GTM, aim to be 10x better than established competitors)
It’s very important that you don’t just rely on this one bet. But if you succeed and land a big contract, your growth curve can easily exponential.
Let’s Get Tactical
Here are a few tips on how to win an enterprise deal with your Moby Dick:
✅ Proximity
Many corporates have accelerator programs for startups. Every now and then, they adopt new tech innovations from their accelerators.
✅ Partnerships and marketplaces
Many technology vendors have marketplaces where you can publish your solutions. Becoming their select “use case” is a big prize - they celebrate those with marketing and PR budgets.
✅ Magnetism
Become the person their key decision makers like. Build your personal brand on LinkedIn, invite them to podcasts, share unique insights, speak their language.
✅ Old school
Yup, trade shows, networking events, interviews and good old professional associations. CEO may not be there, but you can surely meet some managers or VPs that will help you understand what it takes to get there and how decisions are made. Maybe they will even endorse for you.
✅ Product-led
Give before you take. There may be silent enterprise users in your ecosystem already. They might have accounts with their private emails addresses to avoid the risk of being “attacked by sales” or internal compliance. Identify them and start building trust. Make sure you communicate that your enterprise packages exist.
Now go and win your first enterprise client!
PS. If you want to learn more (in fact, everything you need to know to reach product-market fit), check out GTM Strategist, my 6x Amazon bestselling book.
Are you ready to dive deeper and work on your Go-To-Market strategy and execution?
Discover my solutions that support your journey from launching to scaling:
🛰️ Explorer: Understand Go-To-Market and develop a winning GTM plan.
Get best selling GTM Strategist book + 20 frameworks (workshops) + online course ($47). Tested by 6500+ companies🚀 Doer: Leverage the 100-step GTM Checklist tested on 650+ launches with templates (emails, launch plans, posts, landing pages), which will guide you from getting ready to launch to an impactful launch and scaling stage.
Get the Checklist ($97)💫 Leader: Guide your team to successfully choose ICP (target market), pricing, positioning & selection of best GTM Motion (channels, tactics). GTM Bootcamp includes 6 hours of applicable videos from top experts.
Get the Bootcamp ($197)🏆 Ready to win: Tackle the most pressing Go-to-Market issues such as selection of ICP, positioning, how to get customers, build teams and select proven ways how to go to market. Book a 90-minute hands-on consultation with Maja, get personalized guidance, a Miro board, and reliable vendor contacts for further work.
Book here for $500
