Enterprise Software Sales

[topcatny]

Is anyone here in enterprise software sales?

My last job was eliminated a few months ago and I have been interviewing with a company that sells enterprise software solutions to the retail and wholesale industry. This would be a career change as I have spent the last 15 years in the apparel business, mostly in wholesale sales and sales management roles. To those in the software business what are your thoughts on the learning curve I would face? Once I make the jump to software sales does that open the door in 5 to 10 years to opportunities selling in other industries or do people tend to stay with one specialty throughout their career?

I've spoken to friends in the software business and done research on the company etc. I'm just curious what advice or caution anyone here might suggest that I might not have thought of yet.

 

[globetrotter]

I did it for 2-3 years, about 10 years ago. Also, I didn't sell to end users, I sold via distributors (value added resellers) to end users. what I can tell you

1. this is possibly the most lucrative type of selling, aside from selling something like airplanes. I knew several people who had milion dollar years.
2. the sales process is complex, and transferable - if you can do well at this, there are other options that open up to you
3. I would say that in the greater new york area there is a good chance that you will always be able to find a job in enterprise software sales, once you have established that you are good at it
4. it was a ***** to learn, you are usually expected to know a lot about the products that you are selling, and this is often totally outside your expereince. I would ask about what kind of pre-sale support you will get. the system usually is that an account manager ownes the sales process, and has access to pre-sale suport who are engineers and will know more about the product and service. this is key

good luck, pm if you have any quesitons

 

[topcatny]

Originally Posted by globetrotter

I did it for 2-3 years, about 10 years ago. Also, I didn't sell to end users, I sold via distributors (value added resellers) to end users. what I can tell you

1. this is possibly the most lucrative type of selling, aside from selling something like airplanes. I knew several people who had milion dollar years.
2. the sales process is complex, and transferable - if you can do well at this, there are other options that open up to you
3. I would say that in the greater new york area there is a good chance that you will always be able to find a job in enterprise software sales, once you have established that you are good at it
4. it was a ***** to learn, you are usually expected to know a lot about the products that you are selling, and this is often totally outside your expereince. I would ask about what kind of pre-sale support you will get. the system usually is that an account manager ownes the sales process, and has access to pre-sale suport who are engineers and will know more about the product and service. this is key

good luck, pm if you have any quesitons

Thanks globe. Can you expand a little on what makes the sales process so complex? Everyone keeps telling me that but no one has adequately explained what makes it so difficult.

I know that in this situation I would own the sales process and there is support that is very involved that handles the technology and service aspect. In these sales I at least know exactly how the end users will use the product and how they would benefit from it. After being in their shoes for 15 years it will be fairly easy for me to understand their concerns and problems and how these products would be able to help them.

 

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by topcatny

Thanks globe. Can you expand a little on what makes the sales process so complex? Everyone keeps telling me that but no one has adequately explained what makes it so difficult.

I know that in this situation I would own the sales process and there is support that is very involved that handles the technology and service aspect. In these sales I at least know exactly how the end users will use the product and how they would benefit from it. After being in their shoes for 15 years it will be fairly easy for me to understand their concerns and problems and how these products would be able to help them.

oh, I'd love to but I am about to go out, I'll get back to you. I am very passionate about the whole sales process issue, I can't shoot from the hip on this

 

[gamelan]

i work for the professional services department of a company that develops software for small to mid size firms. we're slowly trying to break into the enterprise market.

basically what globe said is right on. assuming you've already got the requisite sales skills, if you can pick up on technical concepts fairly quickly and know your way around a computer, i can pretty much guarantee that you will do well (of course you'll need to mix in some hard work and luck in there). the best sales people and the ones i respect the most have those two skills, both sales and technical.

for me, it seems like sales cycles for enterprise software are long because you're dealing with a crap load of money and the people who are doing the buying just want to make sure that all the Is are dotted and the Ts are crossed.

let's see, for a 7 figure deal that we're working on for a county in IL (muncipal, state, and federal are the worst when it comes to long sales cycles), here's what we've had to do so far:

RFP was issued
Attend Pre-bid Meeting
Respond to RFP (this ended up being ~200 pages)
Demo #1
Make cut, attend meeting to discuss next technical presentation
Attend pre-meeting to show technical presentation
Technical Presentation

The RFP was issued in Oct I believe so we're easily a good half year into this. But if we get the deal, the commission for the sales guy will be f*ckin' huge.

either way, it's a fun industry to be in and there are some clients that we can close in a month. YMMV. best of luck to you!

-Jeff

 

[mbc]

Originally Posted by gamelan

for me, it seems like sales cycles for enterprise software are long because you're dealing with a crap load of money and the people who are doing the buying just want to make sure that all the Is are dotted and the Ts are crossed.
Also, don't forget that what you're also dealing with is the internal bureaucracy and politics of the enterprises you're selling into. When you're selling to a company with 100 employees, you really just have to find the VP of IT or CIO or IT manager or whoever and that's who makes the decision. In much larger organizations you're going to get all kinds of ridiculous build-vs-buy politics going on, and the structures and processes through which decisions get made (a committee to form a committee, etc) make things even more complicated. IMO what makes enterprise software sales reps really great is the ability to unravel that web and figure out exactly where to insert themselves to maximize the likelihood of closing a sale. The problem: that takes a while.

 

[globetrotter]

yeah, here's how I would put it - you are selling to a complex purchasing organiztion - usually there will be an IT guy, a financy/purchasing guy and another guy - say marketing if it is aplicable, or ops, etc. so, you are dealing with 3 teams, maybe each one has 3-5 people on it.

also - you are dealing with a lot of money to buy, and just as important, the damage if the product doen'st work or if they have to replace it may actually be much more than the purchase price. so nobody wants to make a rash decision.

also - your software may interface with 1-5 other softwares, and everybody is very uptight about if they are compatable, if you might damage them, if they might damage you.


so, as was said above - you will have several meetings, you may spend half of your time just trying to figure out who the right people are in the organization, and you need to be very careful of keeping your process organized.

I have a pretty good library of books on complex selling, big account selling and team seling - pm me and I'd be happy to mail you some, but I need them back, eventually.


oh, and let me be very clear on one thing - everybody I have ever met in sales will say "oh, selling my thing is really hard, what you did isn't the same thing, you can't learn this". **** that - if you have sold, and you sold well, and you are willing to put effort into learning, you will be able to do this.

 

[topcatny]

Thanks for all the advice and information. The complex sales process is what I thought it was, so I feel more comfortable with that now.

The whole career change piece is what is throwing me off a little bit. I have had a lot of success selling thus far in my career and I know I am willing to work hard and I enjoy learning new industries, processes, etc, so I know without a doubt I can do this. I just wasn't looking to make a career change, this opportunity sort of fell in my lap. It is the perfect opportunity to do something different. It allows me to use my 15 years of experience to help me in a new arena. I have been told many times throughout my career that I was wasting my abilities in the apparel business. From what I have learned, my potential new boss fancies himself a mentor and wants to take someone like me under his wing and teach me what he knows, so the situation is ideal to make the move. The more I think about it and the more I learn I am getting more excited about making the change.

They asked for copies of my W2's and were calling my references last week so I hope to get an offer sometime this week.

 

[ruzzi]

good luck. if you are making a career change but staying in sales enterprise software is a great choice, very lucrative area.

 

[username79]

Pretty much anything with 'enterprise software/services' is orders of magnitude more lucrative than the same exact job with other offerings.