I sell SAAS to banks. Here are some tips for selling to large CO's I've picked up in the process:
1. Get your foot in the door with a small deal. Try and close a small deal, sell them a pilot, a three month trial or sell a small component and then grow your way in. Closing a large deal from the start is close to impossible.
2. When you have an entry point, get several members of the management team on board. As BostonEnginerd mentions, demo and network to everyone you can and try and get them on board. Executives at large established CO's tend to be risk averse even if they have decision making power, so they will try to shield their decisions as part of a team evaluation result.
3. Be prepared for a very long sales cycle. Some of the best deals will take really, really long to close. Work on as many leads as possible so you don't get demoralized if one doesn't come out and keep emailing them even if you haven't heard from them in six months.
4. Be persistent. Even if they desperately need your product, sometimes large CO's are so bogged down in bureaucracy and day to day operations that it will take them a long time to fit you in their agendas.
5. Large CO's suffer from severe FOMO. Use this to your advantage, show them a competitor who is doing something similar. Even if it's a test 8 time zones away, this will definitely shake them up.
As for your product. A successful early warning system for disease should be easy to sell to a large health insurance company which could potentially save millions or billions from preventing insurance claims. It could also be possible to sell it to an established software vendor in the health care industry.
1. Get your foot in the door with a small deal. Try and close a small deal, sell them a pilot, a three month trial or sell a small component and then grow your way in. Closing a large deal from the start is close to impossible.
2. When you have an entry point, get several members of the management team on board. As BostonEnginerd mentions, demo and network to everyone you can and try and get them on board. Executives at large established CO's tend to be risk averse even if they have decision making power, so they will try to shield their decisions as part of a team evaluation result.
3. Be prepared for a very long sales cycle. Some of the best deals will take really, really long to close. Work on as many leads as possible so you don't get demoralized if one doesn't come out and keep emailing them even if you haven't heard from them in six months.
4. Be persistent. Even if they desperately need your product, sometimes large CO's are so bogged down in bureaucracy and day to day operations that it will take them a long time to fit you in their agendas.
5. Large CO's suffer from severe FOMO. Use this to your advantage, show them a competitor who is doing something similar. Even if it's a test 8 time zones away, this will definitely shake them up.
As for your product. A successful early warning system for disease should be easy to sell to a large health insurance company which could potentially save millions or billions from preventing insurance claims. It could also be possible to sell it to an established software vendor in the health care industry.