Dixon: Incumbent software vendors suffer more buyer indecision than startups
Matt Dixon · The surprising truth about what closes deals: Insights from 2.5m sales conversations | Matt Dixon · May 30, 2024 · at 22:34
Matt Dixon, sales researcher and author of The JOLT Effect, explains why market-leading enterprise software vendors face severe customer indecision despite their established brand reputation.
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“Look, you guys, yes, it's tough to be a startup right now, early stage company. There's a lot of risks there, but who's offering more choices, them or you guys? You guys have a partner ecosystem. You have like, 20 different cloud products. You've bought like seven companies in the past three years. You have a cornucopia of options, which adds to the buyer's anxiety that they haven't chosen the right thing. Second, do you think there's more written about you guys or about them? You could fill a football stadium with all the coverage on you guys and, you know, are you, I mean, there is, everybody's got an opinion about you because you are the 800 pound grill and everybody's worked with you before. And they have opinions, good and bad, and people want to leave no stone unturned. And then lastly, it turns out you guys are a lot more expensive because you're trying to move from selling simple products like these ankle biters out there, these startups into selling big enterprise solutions. You guys are selling like not seven figure deals, eight figure deals, nine figure deals to your customers. That increases the customer's anxiety that I really have to see return on this. And so you in many respects are getting whipsawed by these factors in a way that the startups are not because they're not, they don't have as many choices, right? They don't, there's not as much coverage about that. The investment is lower. And so there's a little bit less risk for the customer. So you're not, you guys aren't immune just because you're the big brand.”
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