I have been trying to figure out how to simplify selling to enterprise. The problem is sales decisions are made by managers who don't use the software. Getting the attention of these managers is expensive and the sale takes months.
I think if you could let the enterprise user try the software first, then let them push management to buy the software you could sell to enterprise for less money w/o the sales people.
This is freaking brilliant.
Instead of carpet bombing prospective users with whitepaper sales bullshit (hello, Pentaho!) put out a good freemium or open source product with a straightforward pricing model, and lace the software or web site or mailing lists or IRC channel or other techie hangouts with practical advice for setting up a purchase order and explaining the value proposition to management.
Most of the "sales" guidance is not really specific to a specific product, so a core set of materials an tools for building a pitch deck could be deployed with minor customizations for each product.
win-win win:
Software product companies need fewer salesmen, so they can sell at a lower price for higher profit, and users get easier access to the tools they need to be efficient, and engineers develop credibility as business leaders in their organizations.
The biggest benefit I think is the lower barrier to entry for these clients. That creates more competition and better products. How do I communicate that to enterprise clients? I suspect that they think a higher barrier to entry is a good thing b/c it weeds out bad companies.
It is just a brain storming exercise at the moment, but if I can come up with something clever I will try to make some noise.
I think that's pretty much the model of every "freemium" business SaaS app? See Basecamp, Zoho, Google Apps, etc.
You can use it yourself (or in small groups, 5-10 people) for free, but if you want to grow it into a 50 user service, or 50000 users, then you need to speak to a sales person (or dig out a credit card).
Those are enterprise? Except Google Apps, which > $100 million rev/year companies are using basecamp or zoho on a company (not departmental!) level? Departmental sales are easy, you just need a few users and there is no 'big manager' involved usually. But to get companies to pick your software as the company standard... I don't believe basecamp or zoho are there. But I could be wrong.
You are right and it would have to be more than a business model. This would have to be more like a marketplace like Salesforce w/o the limitations Saleforce puts on developers. The marketplace would offer enterprise clients brand recognition and invoicing on their terms. This would make it easier for enterprise clients to buy the software.
I would have to be able to offer developers something as well. Why would a developer pay me x% of sales just to handle invoicing with the client? If I could offer the developer access to client org charts for example, then the developer has something to build software around that would be difficult to obtain otherwise.
They are what got me thinking about this. You could never sell Yammer to a CTO before anyone has used it. The product is very different than anything enterprise is used to paying for.
I think if you could let the enterprise user try the software first, then let them push management to buy the software you could sell to enterprise for less money w/o the sales people.
The idea has holes, but I am working through it.