Maureen Perrelli’s Post

Success in enterprise sales requires strategy, resilience, and building relationships—Jon Roche, Senior Manager of Enterprise Sales at Grammarly, knows this firsthand. In this Built In article, Jon shares his sales journey and key insights on how to succeed. It’s a must-read for sales pros! Check it out here. 👇

When I first started doing enterprise sales, I would follow up consistently and still get 0 responses. After closing multiple enterprise deals so far this year, with a few more this month coming into the pipeline, I finally found the solution: I was contacting uninterested prospects. As a result, they saw me as spam. The solution? Focusing on my ICP and adjusting my messages to address their pain points. Enterprise sales rarely result from a single touchpoint. Prospects don't respond to your first cold outreach - which makes following up extremely important. What should you follow up with? - New product features or improvements - Similar customer case studies - Industry insights and trends - Prospect-specific news (e.g., funding, key hires, product launches) Learn from my mistakes: - Focus on your ICP and target your messages to address their pain - Show how your solution can solve their top-priority problems and add value - Be helpful and relevant, not pushy or intrusive A well-timed follow-up can generate 5-figure opportunities for your business. This lesson has been a game-changer for our sales at Relate.

"Companies make purchases to achieve business outcomes that ensure their success and future scalability. The challenge lies in connecting your services to the unique outcomes that each organization aims to achieve." - Jon Roche I have witnessed JR empower his team to accomplish this with some of our largest customers. Trust me, tailoring your services to unlock unique, specific, metrics-driven customer goals is much easier said than done. This is a great read for anyone who supports enterprise customers! #builtin #enterprisesales #grammarly

Here's one hardest things to learn in enterprise sales: You have to slow down to speed up. As sellers, we are either hardwired (or trained) to go as fast as possible. You got to get things done! But enterprise sales is a winding path and sometimes you'll hit a dead end and have to turn around and go find another way around the problem. For example, if you do a lot of research up front, you will get a value story or a hypothesis of value that a senior executive will care about. If you get a senior person's interest in your value story, they can unlock access to their whole organization by telling folks to work with you. Spending a little more time can lead to greater results. And that can yield an evaluation, where the statistics of your software will give the original senior stakeholder the ammunition to actually approve or fight for a big deal. So this is slowing down to speed up. Give it a shot in one of your deals and let me know how it goes.

Enterprise Sales: Unleashing True Potential Through Listening" In enterprise sales' fast-paced, competitive day-to-day, one undervalued skill is Active Listening. But here's the game changer—it isn't just about courtesy; it's about transforming your complex sales process through a deep respect for your client's input. When you genuinely listen, you're sending a powerful message to your enterprise-level prospects: "Your business goals matter. Your complex challenges are valid. I'm willing to invest time to understand and align with your strategic objectives.

Playing it safe in enterprise sales? That’s how you stay forgettable. If you want to close deals, you have to master familiarity and novelty - at the same time. Most sales reps play copycat. They talk the same, pitch the same. It’s what they teach you, it’s safe, it builds trust And puts them to sleep and gets your number blocked. Your clients are flooded with reps saying the same thing. Be predictable, and they’ll skip right past you. But hit them with something unexpected, And now, they’re paying attention. Mirror their language to get them comfortable, Then drop in a unique, valuable insight That only you can see and provide And speaks direct to them. Familiarity will keep them listening; Novelty makes them want more. What You Actually Do (WYAD) Be ready to stand out, and ditch the safe script. Sell with fresh ideas in familiar packaging And proven ideas in shiny new boxes. ————————————— House of Sales Learn.Sell.Grow. ————————————— P.S. My newsletter went out late, apologies, it is on the site now - www.b2bhouseofsales.com

Excited to share my latest article on Forbes Business Development Council about leading successful sales discovery conversations! Would love to hear your thoughts on other steps that have proven successful in your experience! #Sales #Discovery #Technology #Forbes #BusinessDevelopment

The 3 hardest mistakes to come back from in enterprise sales... We've all made them more than once! 1️⃣ "𝗛𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀" ↳ A sales persons second biggest nemesis (after gatekeepers) You heard "a" problem that you know you can solve, but it's not THE problem that is the priority. 😩 You haven't created enough value, as a result, and the deal stalls, forever stuck half way through your pipeline, but you've put so much effort into it you aren't ready to give you. ✅ Either kill the deal or go back to the beginning - both are painful 2️⃣ 𝗚𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗳 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁 ↳ You thought you had a champion, and so you didn't multithread 😩 Turns out they're a cul de sac - to insecure to intro you to others, but you feel you've invested too much time with them, and in the deal, to risk upsetting them ✅ Get your boss or an exec to make a direct outreach to additional contacts that you've identified as important. 3️⃣ 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 ↳ It may not have been a disaster, but you didn't get the sort of enthusiasm and engagement that you thought you would 😩 You went too high to early, hadn't really understood the hot topics for this exec, and didn't bring value. You couldn't answer the WIIFM questions (Whats in it for me?) ✅ Don't be in a rush to get to power. Take your time, really understand the value you can deliver to that individual before you book time with them. Of all of these, number two is the easiest to avoid IMO. 5 contacts MINIMUM in any enterprise deal. ♻️ repost if you found this useful 🔔 hit the bell to get updates on when I post What have I missed? P.S. Access free sales tools and training here https://lnkd.in/eTYE-QYn

I ❤️ long sales cycles Ok, maybe love is a strong word, but hear me out. I've spent many hours talking enterprise sales reps (and myself 😐 ) off the ledge as deals stretch out. Its natural, but the very best strategic reps balance their urgency with patience and persistence...and lean into the things they gain from those sales cycles. Here are 4 reasons why its ok to embrace long sales cycles: 1) Deals worth doing take time I recently analyzed 4 years of deals to help understand the correlation between ICP and sales cycle. The results astounded me. For non-ICP (<$50k ACV), sales cycles were less than 90 days. For ICP, there was no difference in sales cycle from $50k to $1MM ACV. For ACV >$1MM, sales cycles were actually 30 days LESS on average. If you are going to spend time on deals, best to have 20x+ the value when they hit. 2) You learn more in long sales cycles than short ones I almost lost my first 7-figure deal 6mos into the sales cycle. I had an excellent leader who helped coach me through a set of actions that got us back in the game...and we closed the deal almost a year (!!) later. I learned strategies and tactics that helped me close my next 2 the following quarter. 3) You can't skip steps Its unlikely you will close a long sales cycle without engaging all the correct stakeholders and deeply educating their internal orgs. You'll lose at the finish line if you don't. Bonus: Customer Success loves a well-educated and coordinated client to implement! 4) You build deep relationships Unlike transactional sales, long enterprise sales cycles necessitate significant time spent and meaningful relationships with your customers. The more you do it, the deeper and wider that network becomes. This is important because your network of previous buyers are the individuals most likely to be your next. This is a fact, just ask Champify 👀 Do you have love or hate for your sales cycles? PS, its ok to have lust for a bluebird. They are nice too 😀