Jen Abel's 15-Step Enterprise Sales Cycle, From First Email to Signature

Key points

1. 1

   Target the executive or the N minus one, nobody else

   Abel's entry rule is the pincer. The founder writes to the head of the function, here the chief legal officer. The account executive writes to someone one level below. Each loops in the other. Go any lower and the story turns into a game of telephone. You learn about user value, when a $100K deal needs an executive sponsor to release the budget.

   “I personally would not be targeting anybody else. It is the executive themselves or an N minus one.”

2. 2

   Run the first call without a demo, slides or a recorder

   Abel calls the intro call the most important one, because buyers clam up once it feels like a sales process. She keeps it loose and lets the prospect speak first. She asks what needs to change going into next year before she says anything about the product. She pitches only in the last ten minutes, built from what she just heard, and says no two of her pitches match.

   “Do not bring a recorder to this call. Do not record the call. They will not be open. They will not be vulnerable.”

3. 3

   Turn down the cold due-diligence demo

   When a large company reaches out on its own and asks for a demo to four or five people, Abel says refuse. Either you are the checkbox in a process that already has a winner, or you will demo with no idea who is in the room. Her alternative is a 15-minute call with the champion first, then a pre-demo with one more colleague. The group demo then gets built with someone inside.

   “Don't do it. You're either a checkbox and you don't want you want to remove yourself from being a checkbox.”

4. 4

   Time-box the pilot to two or three days

   When a product shows value without the customer's data, Abel runs a free pilot of two or three days. Three or four power users each get set tasks and a success measure she writes with them. The executive stays out of the product. A pilot that needs real integration runs a month or two. She charges for that one and credits the fee back if they buy, since paying is the signal.

   “I've done this enough times to say people will go in usually for half a day and get what they need out of it.”

5. 5

   CRM stages are forecast weights

   Intro, demo, proposal, contracting and closed are buckets for a weighted forecast: maybe 10% at intro, 50% in the middle and 80% in contracting. Abel says each bucket hides three to five meetings. Of the founders and sellers she has worked with, she puts 90% at running the five buckets as if they were the sales process. The job is to map and steer how the customer buys.

   “it's mirroring their buying process. It's trying to control their buying process. It's not plopping these people into your sales process.”

6. 6

   A 25 to 35% win rate is healthy

   Abel's benchmark from qualified deal to signed contract is 25 to 35%, well under the 50% most people expect. Win more than that and your price sits below what the market will pay. She would rather lose deals than price unevenly, because buyers compare notes. About another 25% of lost deals come back a year later.

   “if you if your win rate is higher than that, your price is too low.”