We recently closed a software license deal with a public, billion-dollar chip enterprise who had been evaluating our tool.
The deal closed in less than 3 weeks (!), which is insanely fast for those that know how enterprise procurements typically go.
The reason it closed so fast? More engineers kept trying to use our tool. But they were blocked – they only had an evaluation license and needed a production license to onboard more users.
We were hopping on calls and exchanging emails with the decision-makers on a near-daily basis to speedrun the procurement process.
In every exchange, we’d hear things like:
“I just got another email from <name> asking when the tool can be used.”
“We’ve already scheduled an internal training session for your tool on <date>; can we ensure we have access to the software on that day in case this doesn’t close in time?”
“I have a standing daily sync with my boss to check on the status of this procurement until it’s done.”
We were also lucky to have great, aligned partners expediting turnaround on the customer side. The result: the fastest enterprise deal we’ve closed thus far. 😄
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A quick retro of 3 key things that made this happen:
Having enthusiastic users (that were effectively hounding the buyers for us): by far the best forcing function for deal velocity
Multi-threading different sets of users within the same enterprise (e.g., multiple business units): builds positive pressure and multiple sources of justification to get the tool available
Having a well-defined, quantifiable solution: makes pricing justification a lot easier and quicker
