Thread by @BowTiedSalesGuy

I was tasked recently to get funding from a large corp for a dying SaaS

We walked away securing a clean ~$1.4M in funding

Some thoughts / lessons on the experience 👇🏼

Pitching to the C suite of a multi billion dollar org is just a completely different game

At the top the conversations are even more:

1) Simple
2) Big picture
3) Concise

Competency at that level is a different world compared to selling SaaS to VP’s

Apples to oranges

They were ~20 min late for the meeting

This is a Sh*t test & to be expected. When selling to corporate C suite you just can’t do much in this situation. We had one bite at the apple so we had to wait it out.

Tension increased as time passed so we kept busy by shooting the shit

So it’s our time to present now.

We had scheduled 30 min we only had about 25 min to get the job done.

Anyone who has pitched before knows every single minute matters

So we start the presentation. The CMO asks a simple “how many X” question. Then before we can answer..

An analyst from their side HIJACKS the conversation by giving a long winded complicated answer.

I’m not a very patient person. I was clenching my jaw giving him the DEATH stare to shut the f*ck up

After about 60 seconds he finally gives an answer “anywhere from 5~8”

He could’ve answered in 2 seconds but I digress.

So we started the pitch with a Strong agenda

1) Current reality
2) Pain
3) Opportunity

This follows my Narrative format below:

The presentation proceeded as planned.

Another interruption, only now from one of the VP’s:

“Oh when they say this that means this”

She says in an appeasing tone to the CFO. Then another PM pipes up and makes a corny joke to get laughs

He barely got any

I looked at one of my partners. She looked at me and we both smiled because we knew that’s it. No more interruptions.

“Guys I know it’s been a long day, but we have 18 minutes left and a lot to cover. Especially after this presentation. Can we keep it going?”

*silence*

The CRO looks up and nods.

We’re in.

Once we got the big dogs nod of approval everyone else fell in line.

That’s the power of Status ^

Go for the King to subdue the minions.

So fast forward a few minutes, we shared some stats regarding competitive landscape and how despite being poorly funded the project is gaining momentum in a few key areas vs a meaningful competitor

The CMO & CRO both grin.

I “twisted the knife” and said

“Yep.. Screw them”

Almost everyone laughed except the data analysts (Fvck them they had zero social awareness anyway)

At that point my gut told me we were walking away with money

I was right.

They asked how much was needed to jump start the project

We asked for $2.5M (set the anchor) they countered with ~$1.4M with performance contingencies that if met we get more funding

25 minutes, $1.4M secured

And you think you need 3 months to close a $300k deal? lol

Takeaways

- Very few things move the deal forward. Your job is to find it (Pareto’s Principle)

- You can’t always control everyone in the meeting from the beginning. Sometimes It’s ok to let it build up a BIT and then swat it all down