Enterprise Sales - How to Sell Big Without Selling Out Your Startup (Edu)
Apr 1, 2024
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Clementine Jacoby, founder and CEO of Recidiviz, transforms fragmented criminal justice data into insights for reform. She discusses the challenge of selling to large enterprises without sacrificing startup integrity. Topics include maintaining a scalable product amidst client customization demands, navigating government sales, and the importance of structured lead qualification. Jacoby also highlights empowering teams and balancing sales with core product goals, offering valuable lessons for startups seeking growth without losing their identity.
Startups must prioritize scalability to avoid transforming into service-oriented firms, risking their competitive edge and innovation.
Navigating enterprise relationships requires understanding bureaucratic complexities, with a focus on efficiency to maintain scalable solution development.
Empowering internal champions within enterprises is crucial for startups to advocate their solutions and facilitate smoother engagements with stakeholders.
Deep dives
The Importance of Scalable Software
Building software that cannot scale is viewed as a significant drawback in the tech industry. It's essential to recognize that while many projects can be successfully executed in a non-scalable manner—like data analysis or presentations—software's primary value lies in its ability to scale efficiently. Companies that produce non-scalable software risk losing their competitive edge and transforming into service-oriented firms with minimal returns. Staying in a non-scalable zone not only limits growth potential but also diminishes the benefits that technology can offer.
Navigating the Enterprise Landscape
Working with large enterprise customers presents unique challenges for startups, particularly in navigating bureaucratic hurdles. Establishing a fruitful relationship requires an understanding of the complexities involved when smaller companies engage with powerful entities such as state governments. This often includes dealing with lengthy proposal processes filled with numerous requirements, which can hinder innovation and lead to the development of inferior products. Startups must strive to find ways to present efficient solutions that address these enterprise challenges while maintaining their scalability.
The Custom Work Trap
Entering into custom work arrangements with enterprise clients can lead startups away from their core mission and bring various issues, such as reduced team morale and productivity. This trap often springs from the desire to accommodate the demands of influential clients, which can result in a loss of focus on scalable product development. Instead of becoming a tech company, startups risk becoming tech-supported service providers, which can ultimately undermine their objectives. Effective startups need to establish boundaries to prevent excessive custom work that detracts from building a robust software platform.
Championing the Internal Politic
A critical aspect of successfully working with enterprise clients is identifying and empowering internal champions within those organizations. These champions advocate for the startup's solutions and facilitate smoother engagement with the relevant stakeholders, ultimately fostering collaboration. Spending time understanding their specific needs and concerns is crucial to create a productive working relationship. Engaging these champions allows startups to leverage their influence and assists in navigating the complexities often found within larger bureaucracies.
Balancing Customer Demand and Product Integrity
Striking a balance between addressing customer requests and maintaining product integrity is an ongoing challenge for startups. Employing a structured process for evaluating customer demands can help determine which requests align with the company's core mission. Features and tools should be categorized based on their relevance to the company's roadmap and the overall maintenance burden they may incur. Developing a clear framework for these evaluations allows for agile decision-making that supports sustainability and long-term growth while ensuring customer satisfaction is ultimately met.
Chris is unwell this week.
Joining Yaniv this week on the pod is Clementine Jacoby.
Clementine is founder and CEO of Recidiviz, a company building an open source platform to turn fragmented criminal justice data into actionable insights for practitioners, policy makers, researchers and the public. She has raised tens of millions in philanthropic capital from Vinod Khosla, Paul Graham and Y combinator. She was previously a product manager at Google where she worked with Yaniv.
Together they explore working with large, enterprise customers without falling for the trap of becoming a technology-backed services company including:
Finding a concentrated customer base
Fighting off custom requests
Avoiding resentment building within an organisation
Appropriate pricing models
Costs of labour
Empowering your team
This is a very insightful episode on an area of startups we don’t often cover.
Tune in to learn more about how to work with the bigger fish in the pond without losing your rod!
Episode Links
Checkout Clementine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clementine-jacoby-50578483/
Learn more about Recidiviz: https://www.recidiviz.org/
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Learn more about Chris and Yaniv
Work 1:1 with Chris: http://chrissaad.com/advisory/
Follow Chris on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissaad/
Follow Yaniv on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybernstein/
Credits
Lovingly handcrafted for the global startup community by:
Editor: Justin McArthur
Associate Producer: Aidan Cousins
Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang
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