Why do 90% of enterprise prospecting teams fail?
Hint: It's not the sales cycle. It's the system.
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Speaking of enterprise prospecting, this week I’m joining Vlad and Andrei on Full-Funnel Live to dive deeper into:
The sales team’s critical role in Account-Based Marketing
Account prioritization strategies
Account planning frameworks
🗓 Wednesday, Oct 22 | 7:30 AM CST | 3:30 PM Paris
P.S. Can’t make it? Register, and I’ll send you the recording.
Enterprise prospecting isn’t “harder SMB prospecting.”
It’s a completely different game.
And that’s why 90% of them fail in the first 12 months.
They bring their SMB playbook upmarket.
Then blame “long sales cycles” when nothing works. It’s like bringing McDonald’s playbook to a Michelin-star kitchen. Sure, you can move fast. But you’ll destroy dishes that need 6 hours of prep.
Here’s what actually works when you go enterprise, the six fundamental shifts that separate teams who fail from teams who crush it upmarket:
Let me break down each one:
1. Volume → Depth
SMB reps touch 500 accounts per quarter.
Enterprise reps? 50 accounts per YEAR.
Your entire calendar shifts from:
100 emails per day
60 calls per day
5 meetings per week
To:
Hours of research per account
Custom analysis before outreach
Months of relationship building
The mindset shift: Stop asking “How many accounts can I touch?” Start asking “How deeply do I understand this account?”
2. Speed → Patience
SMB: Send emails Monday, book meetings Friday.
Enterprise: Top AEs spend 2 months researching before the first email.
They buy the product. They study earnings calls. They build custom insights. Then they reach out.
Average SMB cycle: 30 days
Average enterprise cycle: 6-18 months
3. Solo → Orchestra
SMB: One SDR or AE owns everything.
Enterprise: You need an army.
One Snowflake deal involves:
Sales + ABM + Field Marketing
Sales Engineering + Product
Legal + Finance
Here’s what that looks like in practice: A typical enterprise deal might require 20 people across these teams:
ABM runs targeted campaigns while field marketing coordinates executive dinners.
Sales engineering builds proof-of-concepts while product teams address feature gaps.
Customer success maps out the implementation journey while legal and finance structure the commercial terms.
4. One Person → Committee
SMB: One decision-maker.
Enterprise: 6-10 stakeholders (each with veto power).
Map your buying committee systematically:
Above the Line (ATL): C-suite and VPs who control budget. Start with the company website to map leadership.
Below the Line (BTL): Directors and Managers who shape decisions and understand team needs. Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
End-Users: Individual contributors reveal real-world pain points executives miss. Connect with 5-10 per account.
Tailor messaging to each level: ATL wants strategic impact and ROI. BTL wants operational efficiency.
5. 3 Channels → 10+ Channels
SMB playbook:
Email
LinkedIn
Cold calls
Enterprise playbook (when ACV hits $500K+):
Personalized websites for each account
In-office visits (yes, this still works)
Executive dinners & private events
Conference sponsorships
Custom research reports
The math makes sense:
SMB deal at $15K ACV → Can’t justify $500 in direct mail
Enterprise deal at $500K ACV → $2K personalized site = 0.4% of deal value
6. 10 Touches → 200 Touches
SMB: 10 emails = “persistent”
Enterprise: 50-200 touches across 10 channels = “just getting started”
But here’s what they don’t tell you:
One enterprise account = 100+ conversation starters:
Top down (executives)
Bottom up (end-users)
Different departments
Multiple business units
Various regions
The Real Shift
Your entire motion needs to change.
SMB metrics:
Account volume, activities per day, emails sent
Enterprise metrics:
Account depth, research hours per account, stakeholders mapped, custom insights created
📌 Making the jump? You don’t need:
A bigger team (at first)
More tools (you need different tools)
Faster prospecting (you need deeper prospecting)
You need the right playbook.
That’s why I created The Guide to Building an Enterprise Prospecting System.
Inside, you’ll get:
✅ Account planning template
✅ Multi-threading framework
✅ AI prompts for executive research
✅ Email frameworks for each stakeholder type
→ Get the Enterprise Prospecting System Guide
The transition from SMB to enterprise prospecting isn’t a scaling problem.
It’s a systems problem.
You need a different playbook. Different metrics. Different expectations.
Let’s get cooking!
See you in the next newsletter.
👨🍳 Elric
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