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The 8 Questions Every Enterprise Salesperson Must Answer Before Selling

Most salespeople start with what they want to sell. Great enterprise salespeople start with understanding how the buyer buys.


You have a great product.
You have a strong pitch.
Your pricing is competitive.
Your presentation looks perfect.
And yet the deal doesn't move.

Why?

Because enterprise sales isn't simply about convincing someone to buy.
It is about understanding how an organisation makes a buying decision. 

There may be users, influencers, technical teams, procurement, finance, business heads, legal teams and ultimately a decision-maker.
And every one of them may have a different question.

So before you start selling, answer these 8 questions.

1. Who is actually involved in the decision?

Don't assume the person taking your call is the buyer.
They may be a user.
They may be an influencer.
They may be evaluating your technology.
They may simply be gathering information.
Or they may have the authority to kill the deal—but not approve it.

Map the decision-making unit before you map your sales pitch.

Ask:

Who will use it? Who will evaluate it? Who will influence the decision? Who can block it? And who ultimately signs off?

2. What problem is each person trying to solve?

The organisation may have one business problem, but every stakeholder can see it differently.

The CFO may see cost.
The CIO may see integration and security.
The operations team may see efficiency.
The business head may see revenue.
Procurement may see commercial risk.

"Your product hasn't changed.
Their definition of value has"

Your job is to connect your solution to the problem that matters to each stakeholder.

3. How does the organisation actually buy?

Find out:

  • How is the problem identified?
  • Who creates the requirements?
  • Who evaluates vendors?
  • Is an RFP involved?
  • Who conducts technical evaluation?
  • When does procurement enter?
  • Who negotiates?
  • Who approves the contract?
  • What happens after vendor selection?

You are not selling into a company. You are navigating a process.

4. What information does each stakeholder need?

Give everyone the same information and you force them to do the work of connecting the dots themselves.

Instead:

Give the right person the right information at the right stage.

That makes the buying process easier.

5. Where does the buyer get information?

Your sales deck isn't the only thing influencing the decision.
Buyers may speak to:

  • Existing customers
  • Industry peers
  • Consultants
  • Analysts
  • Partners
  • Competitors
  • Internal experts
  • Your website and content

They are building a picture of your company long before they sit across the table from you.
That's why brand, content and customer references matter in enterprise sales.

Your salesperson should not be the only source of information about your company.

6. What criteria will they use to decide?

You may think the deal will be won on price.
The buyer may think differently.
Their criteria could include:

Security. Integration. Scalability. Reliability. Implementation time. Support. Regulatory compliance. Total cost. Vendor credibility.

Find out the decision criteria before you start positioning your product.

Otherwise, you may spend weeks proving something the buyer doesn't even care about.

7. Who can influence the decision?

Every enterprise has people who don't necessarily own the decision—but can influence it.
"Sometimes even an existing vendor".

Influence is not the same as authority.
A good salesperson identifies both.
Your goal is to understand the power structure behind the decision.

8. How can you make the buying process easier?

Once you understand the people, problems, information requirements and decision process, ask:

“What can I do to make this easier for the customer?”

Can you provide a business case?
Can you arrange a reference call?
Can you bring in your technical expert?
Can you simplify the security documentation?
Can you help them build the internal proposal?
Can you anticipate procurement's questions?
Can you remove one more obstacle?

Because in enterprise sales, making the buying process easier can be as important as making the product better.

The AB Formula Framework

Don't just understand what you're selling. Understand how they're buying.

Before entering an enterprise sales opportunity, map five things:

PEOPLE → PROBLEM → PROCESS → INFORMATION → DECISION

If you understand these five, your sales strategy becomes significantly clearer.

You know who matters.
You know what matters.
You know how the organisation buys.
You know what information each stakeholder needs.
And you know how the final decision will be made.
That's when selling stops being a presentation exercise.

It becomes a buying-navigation exercise.

Final thought

The best enterprise salespeople aren't necessarily the ones who talk the most.
They are often the ones who understand the buyer better than the buyer's competitors do.

So before your next enterprise pitch, don't ask:

“How do I sell this?”

Ask:

“How does this organisation buy?”

That question can change the entire sales conversation.

— Akshay Balchhandra

AB Formula 

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