The enterprise market is changing. IT is loosening its chokehold on software purchasing decisions, and consumer-like products and techniques are finding their way into enterprise software. People expect enterprise software to be beautifully designed and fun to use — a fundamental shift from how we’ve looked at this market for the last 20 years. These changes are happening faster than ever and generating unprecedented opportunities for software startups.

As a founder of multiple software startups, including my current company, GoInstant, I’ve learned a few lessons about selling into this singular market. While my companies have achieved success and were able to implement strategic alliances with large enterprise companies, such as IBM and Jive Software, it didn’t happen overnight. In my experience, if you’re looking to sell into the enterprise, there are two golden rules: know your customer and know yourself.

Knowing your market is critical. Knowing how customers want to buy, how they buy, and how you can package your solution with the appropriate support, training and value proposition is critical for gaining success in the enterprise space. Enterprise companies are slow — and loathe — to switch out existing systems. Once you get into a company and it is using your product actively, this is an advantage. But as the underdog trying to break in, it’s a huge disadvantage. – 5 Keys To Selling To Enterprise Customers (Part One) by Jevon MacDonald

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