To land Notion, co-founder Justin worked with extreme intensity, finding 300ms of latency in three hours and building a requested feature in 24 hours after promising it on the spot. This level of obsessive commitment is required to win transformative customers.
Related Insights
While incumbents sell roadmaps, startups can collapse enterprise sales cycles by demonstrating a fully functional product that is provably better *today*. Showing a live, superior solution turns a year-long procurement process into a 60-day sprint for motivated buyers.
The world of Fortune 500 executives is a small, interconnected community. Rather than casting a wide marketing net, focus all energy on securing one key 'lighthouse' customer. Over-deliver value for them, even if the deal isn't profitable. Their endorsement and introductions to peers are more effective than any marketing channel.
Early-stage startups can't afford to be strung along by enterprise prospects. The goal isn't just to close deals, but to get feedback quickly. Founders must design a sales process that forces a decision, because a "long maybe will kill you." It's better to get a fast "no" and move on.
Enterprise leaders aren't motivated by solving small, specific problems. Founders succeed by "vision casting"—selling a future state or opportunity that gives the buyer a competitive edge ("alpha"). This excites them enough to champion a deal internally.
To land an unresponsive prospect, the founder flew to their office. He arrived as they were fighting a database fire and immediately helped them fix it. This impromptu help session proved his expertise and built immense trust that led them to become a customer.
When designing a premium service, prioritize reducing the time to value (latency). For affluent customers, time is more valuable than money. A promise to deliver the desired outcome in half the time is a far more persuasive selling point than a discount or greater magnitude of result.
To win their first enterprise deal, Nexla's co-founder live-coded a solution to a specific data problem during the sales meeting with Instacart. This "magical moment" demonstrated their agility and technical depth in a way no slide deck could, immediately building trust and differentiating them from slower, incumbent processes.
Briq accelerates enterprise sales by focusing on a small, specific pain point and securing an initial payment, however small. This 'land and expand' approach, centered on tangible micro-value, builds commitment and opens the door for larger deals, collapsing sales cycles.
Accelerate sales cycles by focusing conversations on aligning the prospect's vision with your mission and demonstrating clear value. Prospects often don't grasp product specifics in a demo anyway, so solution details should come only after high-level alignment is achieved.