Entrepreneurs push hard & early

Selling is like pushing a ship.

Its damn hard getting the ship moving. Once moving its damn hard to stop the ship.

Moving ships is about moving people.

Enterprise sales is about moving lots of people at the same time.

Consumer sales is about moving lots of people one at a time.

Enterprise sales is harder in the short term (corporate politics is byzantine), easier in long term (more sticky).

Consumer sales is harder in short term (one person at a time is slow), but easier in long term (lots of people won’t move from your product all at once.)

This is the how you win in enterprise sales:

1. Win the boss before dealing with the underlings.

2. Make people like you. Don’t fake it, people don’t like being lied to. People will only help you if they fear for their own job or care enough for you to fear for your job.

3. When you hit a blocker, be nice twice. The third time be a dick.

4. Keep pressing. Employees in big corporates are used to flashes-in-the-pan. The only way to win trust is to show commitment by keeping your shoulder to the wheel longer than anyone else.

If you don’t get the ship moving your business will die.

Push hard, push early.

Originally published at The Big Almanack.