A Product Market Fit Show | Startup Podcast for Founders
00:42:13 · Pablo Srugo, Isaiah Granet
[00:42:13] S2: That framing makes a lot of sense and I think people very often forget it, and they don't learn it until they really learn it. And they're all the way done, and then they get shut down, and they just don't understand why. And it's because you missed the one person that was going to be your anti-champion. You didn't get that person on board and it was over before it even started. These newsletters, is it a generic newsletter that you're just sending out and you're just adding to? Or are you creating customer by customer or a personalized newsletter that's relevant for them? [00:42:40] S0: It's customer by customer. So we're actually saying it's relevant for them. It's tailored to the people we're sending it to and generally speaking, it includes high level information on what we're doing together and the engagement. And the biggest thing is you will never win a significant enterprise deal by being sneaky. You will win deals by being really loud. You want everybody to know what's going on because that way you stop surprises and you figure out things early. The worst thing any founder will go through, and every founder selling to an enterprise has this, is I just spent six months selling to this org and at the last second on, signature day, they said they can't sign. Because we didn't ask X, Y, Z hard question or we didn't make sure that everybody knew.
00:42:40 · Isaiah Granet, Pablo Srugo
[00:42:40] S0: It's customer by customer. So we're actually saying it's relevant for them. It's tailored to the people we're sending it to and generally speaking, it includes high level information on what we're doing together and the engagement. And the biggest thing is you will never win a significant enterprise deal by being sneaky. You will win deals by being really loud. You want everybody to know what's going on because that way you stop surprises and you figure out things early. The worst thing any founder will go through, and every founder selling to an enterprise has this, is I just spent six months selling to this org and at the last second on, signature day, they said they can't sign. Because we didn't ask X, Y, Z hard question or we didn't make sure that everybody knew. [00:43:22] S2: What are the things you do to keep momentum? You know these deals are going to take a long time. There's only so much you can do to compress it. But when things are just kind of flatlining for too long, then they just tend to die. How do you keep things moving so there's always a next step?
00:43:41 · Isaiah Granet
[00:43:41] S0: My best advice is don't be shy to follow up a lot, and you're not going to annoy people. And even if you do, that's sort of your job. I strongly advise everybody that can to be on a texting relationship with their champion and with other people in the org. The reason being is if you can shoot a text, and you have to use this somewhat sparingly but if you can shoot a text, you can really get them back engaged and along. And don't be shy along the way to be following up, setting time, saying, hey, I put ten minutes on your calendar. I'm going to call you at that time on your cell phone just to hear how you're doing and part of this is what I say is the best enterprise sellers are not tricking people. They're not convincing them to buy something they don't need. They're not just pretending to be your friend. They actually get to know you. They understand what drives you, what motivates you, and how you work. And it's not to do something mischievous, and we have this sort of painting and color that we often use with enterprise sales. It's because knowing people helps you understand where is my place to push? Where is my place to step back? And then the best piece of advice I have with this is be patient also. For some of the deals that we've sold, there has been a month-long period where I hear nothing and that's just how enterprises sometimes work. And they take a really long time to get things done. And you can sell yourself out of a deal if you try to force their hand. So if you say, hey, it's been too long and we need an update, and if you don't give us an update, we're gonna walk. They will just walk away. It's not worth it at that point and so you have to be very careful that you're pushing in the right places but you understand how to be patient when things are moving, but slowly.
00:45:14 · Pablo Srugo
[00:45:14] S2: The other thing you told me about enterprises is you never give without getting. Where does that, I get the idea but I'm curious, does that come from a particular experience? How do you implement that?
00:45:23 · Isaiah Granet
[00:45:23] S0: Yeah, it's come from a litany of experiences and part of this is, giving and getting. What I always say is you never give anything without getting and the reason that we say this is any time that an enterprise has an ask or they want something. You should always be getting something in return and this get that I'm talking about doesn't have to be money. It doesn't have to be some sort of transactional step. What I mean by what you always get when you give is, if you don't get something, then the give isn't worth anything and what you're forcing the enterprise to do is to peg value to what they're asking for. And I'll give you a really simple example. Hey, can you take out, can you raise the liability cap on this contract from $10 million to $12 million? For almost any startup, it doesn't really matter that much to have that. A get I might ask for is, sure, but then I need to know that you'll sign before X date, right? And that's a really simple, easy one. Or, hey, can you guys add this feature to the product? Great, but if we do that then I want to have three follow-up meetings on the calendar to know when we're going to meet and review the feature, and make sure it meets your needs. And when you ask for something in return, it levels the playing field. It doesn't make them feel like they're asking too much from you. And it also shows you what the value of what they're asking for is. And a piece of advice with this I always give is, when you're sending out contracts and you're dealing with these enterprises. You are always welcome to ask for something in return and you shouldn't be shy to do that. Just don't always make it monetary and don't make it so transactional they have to get approval. It can be as simple as, hey, if I get this done, can you introduce me to this person? Just make sure you're always asking for something.
00:46:59 · Pablo Srugo
[00:46:59] S2: And then maybe just to end this, just two kind of crazy things you've done going back to the marketing side. One is you spent a few hundred thousand dollars only on a Super Bowl ad. Tell me more about that.