What’s Broken With GTM – Part 2
The other week I was on the podcast What’s Broken With GTM & How to Fix It. Right at the end, I was asked this question: If you are a founder and you're selling into bigger enterprises for the first time, what's the biggest blind spot you see that they don't?
Here’s Part 2 of my answer (see last week for Part 1).
The Plan
To counter the Part 1 issues, you need a plan.
A plan is key. If you are thinking two steps ahead of the other side, then you can respond faster. The ability to respond faster is a major advantage in any negotiation.
Here are some elements that should be in your plan.
Implement the Sales-Side Set Up. When you make your proposal, include wording that makes it clear a) that your pricing is based on your T&Cs, and b) that you are happy to consider changes to your T&Cs, but that any change to your T&Cs will impact your price. You then need to apply that during the negotiation. For more on SSSU, see Risk is Price Point – SSSU!
If you are going to be working off their contract, be careful about how you approach it. Their contract is their view of the world, not yours. Before you read their contract, make a list of all the issues you want to see in the deal, then check their contract against your list. If you don’t do this, it’s really easy to lose sight of the wood for the trees. See Don't Read The Contract!.
Avoid going into concession mode. Firstly, get a clear understanding of all their issues. Then make a list of all the changes to (or additions to) the contract that you want to see. Now, if you are going to agree to something, you can avoid going into concession mode: you can make it part of a trade. You want them to feel – in the nicest possible way - that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Negotiation should be a funnel, with a reducing list of issues to resolve. See Negotiation is a Funnel and Salami.
Work the back channel. Yes, the large company you are dealing with will have separated Procurement from your internal champion, but you don’t have to respect that. Keep talking to your internal champion and get him or her to influence Procurement as much as possible. Find out what Procurement really cares about, as opposed to what they pretend to care about.
Use charm and humour, particularly humour. Everyone in business intends to be wholly rational, but none of us are. If you can make Procurement laugh, they will relax. If you can get them to relax, they will appreciate you as a fellow human – not just another supplier – and you will get a better deal.
9th December 2025