Big customers that won't close

Handle these sales in an asynchronous fashion. Just because it feels like it's taking forever to you doesn't mean there isn't progress being made.

The unfortunate thing is that you may have the sale completely clinched or you may have already lost it and you might not know for months or longer. All you can do is touch base with your contact occasionally, and let them know you're there if they need you.

You can also try to offer to help the sales process for them. Sometimes that works well if the hangup is at the executive level. Offer to send them some plain-English case studies about how your product (makes / saves) money for them. Spell out what the expected ROI is, etc...

The other side of this coin that's worth mentioning: Sometimes the big customers that won't close just aren't worth the effort. They will always be slow moving. They will always consume much more of your time than a smaller company will.

If your company culture value agility, perhaps you should just decide that the sale isn't a good cultural fit and spend more of your time focusing on customers that are a better fit.

Besides just size, you need to look at the industry and calendar cycle.

For example, if it's retail/ecommerce, many of those decisions need to be done early in the year so that they can be implemented in time for Q3, and perfected for Q4. Approaching them in Q2 will often mean you need to wait 10 months.

Six months later, things are still sounding great and not happening. What's going on?

It could be that nothing unusual is going on. A six+ month buying cycle for anything over 4 figures is normal. Whenever selling to an enterprise, you should ask your contact:

  1.  Who is the champion?
  2.  Who is the decision maker?
  3.  What is the process for each tier?
  4.  What should we do the best ensure our mutual success?

The only reason for surprises in the sales cycle is if you didn't bother to ask.

It someone sold a cure for cancer for $1000, everyone would buy it and the world would be healed.

If it cost $10,000, you'd probably have to await corporate paperwork and approval for 6 months and only then start implementation.

heh I work for a big corporation, 70K+ employees, and I see us doing that to other companies all the time. I feel bad for those startups trying to get their software in here, but I'm only a small cog in a huge wheel (for now anyways).