Great read, Mike. Love how these fundamentals are applicable to both early-stage (founder-led) and growth-stage companies.
Few quick thoughts and lessons from our own experience. Feel free to disagree!
1/ One of the tricker "Important to the Buyer" is we find they often have a personal incentive. A certain initiative your product supports when brought in makes them look like a rockstar in front of their leadership. Navigating this successfully we've found not only deepens the relationship/trust but aligns to their own personal agenda. This is a bit less powerful in a competitive bake-off.
2/ Negotiating with the right people! Just because you're selling to a Director of Engineering doesn't mean they truly hold the budget or have control over it. Ensure you understand the process and don't burn your negotiating levers on the wrong people.
3/ Similar to 2, now that you know the people involved in the process (more now given macro headwinds) there is a fair chance everyone wants some sort of win when they push you. We think of this as anchoring high then having 4 matches to burn throughout the process until our floor is less protected.
4/ We find pre-communicating the discount structure and limits with the right people forces their hand a bit more in terms of how much they perceive we can be pushed. Actually DROdio over at FounderCulture has a great post on how he built this out at Armory (thinks of it like a Chinese takeout menu, "5% for co-marketing, 5% for multi-year").
5/ Underrated is making sure especially early on the right people on your team are doing the negotiations. If its your CRO then they're a bit stuck on who they can go back to and find approval. Buyers should know you're fighting internally for them.
6/ We've found simply asking upfront what is a home run to get this done has been powerful. It also quickly reveals if they're the right people to be discussing price with (or if they even know).
7/ When you are confident this is absolutely the best solution on the market, leveraging that confidence at the table. We've seen champions go out of their way to build a really strong case internally for their procurement teams and continue pushing them as long as we've kept the channel clear to them on what is going on. As you said, their goal is to have the best solution.
We talked about this recently on our podcast. Important to differentiate yourself from the "selling" mindset to the "solving" mindset to the buyer, makes all the difference.
Great read, Mike. Love how these fundamentals are applicable to both early-stage (founder-led) and growth-stage companies.
Few quick thoughts and lessons from our own experience. Feel free to disagree!
1/ One of the tricker "Important to the Buyer" is we find they often have a personal incentive. A certain initiative your product supports when brought in makes them look like a rockstar in front of their leadership. Navigating this successfully we've found not only deepens the relationship/trust but aligns to their own personal agenda. This is a bit less powerful in a competitive bake-off.
2/ Negotiating with the right people! Just because you're selling to a Director of Engineering doesn't mean they truly hold the budget or have control over it. Ensure you understand the process and don't burn your negotiating levers on the wrong people.
3/ Similar to 2, now that you know the people involved in the process (more now given macro headwinds) there is a fair chance everyone wants some sort of win when they push you. We think of this as anchoring high then having 4 matches to burn throughout the process until our floor is less protected.
4/ We find pre-communicating the discount structure and limits with the right people forces their hand a bit more in terms of how much they perceive we can be pushed. Actually DROdio over at FounderCulture has a great post on how he built this out at Armory (thinks of it like a Chinese takeout menu, "5% for co-marketing, 5% for multi-year").
5/ Underrated is making sure especially early on the right people on your team are doing the negotiations. If its your CRO then they're a bit stuck on who they can go back to and find approval. Buyers should know you're fighting internally for them.
6/ We've found simply asking upfront what is a home run to get this done has been powerful. It also quickly reveals if they're the right people to be discussing price with (or if they even know).
7/ When you are confident this is absolutely the best solution on the market, leveraging that confidence at the table. We've seen champions go out of their way to build a really strong case internally for their procurement teams and continue pushing them as long as we've kept the channel clear to them on what is going on. As you said, their goal is to have the best solution.
Good read thanks for sharing!
We talked about this recently on our podcast. Important to differentiate yourself from the "selling" mindset to the "solving" mindset to the buyer, makes all the difference.