Ask HN: How do I run my first enterprise client demo? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do I run my first enterprise client demo?

3 pointsmidgard276 comments

i've been bootstrapping a SaaS (tldr; AI for data automation for a specific industry) and originally targeted startups and SMEs. Traction was slow so I told myself, why don't I just change who I sell to. After a few cold emails, I got a response from the CFO of a fairly big (but generally unknown) consulting firm. We jumped on a call, explained our value proposition and what makes us different, etc and he said he'll get back to me.

Fast forward 1 week later, he sent me an email saying he submitted a budget to their board and he's ready to see a demo. I booked it for Feb 3.

Now, I've done demos for our initial client base but they were startps and SMEs so I will admit that it was quite informal. Most of the time I didn't even have a deck while pitching.

To those that sold to enterprise clients (this deal will be at least 50k ARR), how does it work? I've been struggling recently and don't want to fuck it up.

Assume the person hasn't even read your homepage or even your emails. If there's multiple people in the call then at least one has no idea what the call is about. All busy people. You might have to explain everything again so have the basic slides ready. I had calls with existing customers (paying for years) where we had to re-explain who we are.

Enterprise has many departments. Figure out who the decision maker is, though likely the CFO is in your case, and who he needs to ask for input. There might be a security review you have to pass, your company might need to be added to a vendor database (questionnaires, tax ids), legal review.

Make up your mind on payment terms. They probably want to pay by invoice (bank transfer), not credit card. 30 days, 60 days? Custom termination period? Do they have a standard supplier contract you can review?

The question of company age, stability and number of employees might come up. Have answers prepared. I'd stay with the truth though, maybe claim you have contractors on stand-by. Once we had to submit all our code to a code escrow service (they burned our github repository to a CD-ROM) "in case of bankruptcy". Made sense, they paid for it.

Good luck!

Thanks, this is really great advice!

How would you go around the security question? CFO knows we're a startup. We don't have any security certifications yet and we'll be handling sensitive data.

After 10 years we don't have those certifications either. They might instead send you their standard security questionnaire.

Has he seen a demo yet?

Have you got a typical canned demo or just going to wing it.

Why does he want to see it, what does he and the board want from such a service?

Think about your intro, about your company, the product, demo, closing. Questions and time. Test the agenda with the lead

It's software for a new regulation, so I'm past the "Do they need this?" stage.

To make my question a bit more clear - for those that eventually sold to enterprise (but started with SMEs), how different was your demo?

Have bullet points

Create a topic slide

https://revealjs.com/

And show as much working material as you have available.

If you have something that goes with your words, you’ll do fine.

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