By Scott Brady & Barry Sowerwine*

^{* Huge thanks to Barry—a longtime friend of the fund and a behind-the-scenes force for many of our companies—for his help on this post. Check out his new initiative to teach the art of selling!}

AI is unlocking powerful new tools for the enterprise - systems that don’t just provide data and analytics, but unlock agents to execute and act. If these new technical capabilities are to drive real value, they must be deeply embedded into workflows, infrastructure, and business-critical decisions. For many of the most innovative AI platforms being built today, which have the potential to provide uniquely strategic value for customers, that’s not something you can growth-hack or self-serve your way into.

For startups aiming to build tools that impact the most executive customer challenges, especially in industries which are less digitally mature, enterprise sales isn’t a side motion - it is the go-to-market motion. And getting it right is essential.

Yet for many founders, the enterprise sales cycle is the ultimate black box: slow, opaque, and resource intensive. Unlike product led growth, which relies on intuitive UX, viral loops, and community buy-in, enterprise sales is shaped by long cycles, committee-based decisions, and a strong bias toward the status quo.

Winning in this environment requires more than early interest or inbound curiosity. It takes a repeatable playbook for identifying the right buyers, earning trust, and navigating the internal dynamics that lead to real adoption - not just pilots that fizzle.

In this post, we share a practical framework to help you do just that - moving from scattered sales activity to a scalable, enterprise-ready GTM engine. We cover:

• Active vs. Latent Needs: How to tailor your sales motion based on the customer’s awareness and urgency around a problem.
• Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): Identifying the right organizations and individuals to target for high-conversion, low-friction growth.
• Enterprise Qualification Framework: A tactical guide to evaluating buyer urgency, motivation, authority, and readiness to adopt.
• Champion Development and Buying Dynamics: Understanding internal influence, stakeholder alignment, and decision-making processes.
• Implementation and Pilots: Structuring trials to reduce friction and accelerate from proof-of-concept to production.

Whether you’re selling a novel technology or scaling an established solution, mastering these principles will help you qualify faster, avoid dead-end pursuits, and ultimately build a repeatable go-to-market engine for enterprise growth.

Active Needs vs Latent Needs

The selling and qualification approach will vary depending on the prospect’s perception of the problem(s).  How you engage in a sales pursuit will vary depending on whether the prospective customer is experiencing an "active" need or a "latent" need.

With active needs, the prospect is experiencing a problem they have decided to proactively address.  Because organizations can only tackle so many projects at once, these projects usually address urgent problems.   Typically, this process includes forming an “evaluation team”, setting aside budget, identifying solution providers and engaging in a formal evaluation process.  These opportunities are almost always competitive and usually show up as an inbound lead.

Latent needs are problems that are unrecognized  with zero urgency to solve.  Often, new technology and new ways of doing things 1) solve problems people didn’t know they had or 2) solve problems people weren’t paying attention to because they didn’t know there was a better way.  These opportunities are almost always “created” by proactive outbound targeting techniques and other proactive pipeline generation activities.  High-tech, emerging growth startups primarily address latent needs when they first come to market.  Frequently, they are solving problems that no one was paying attention to because they didn’t know - the key is “selling the problem”, shining a spotlight on a category of problems that can have a huge impact, but isn’t intuitively obvious.  

The approach to “qualifying’ active needs is very different from getting the market to pay attention to latent needs - helping them see a problem that deserves attention.

Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

In B2B enterprise sales, an ideal customer profile (ICP) defines the type of organization that would derive the most value from your solution.  While there may be value across a wide spectrum of possible customers, the key is finding those for whom your solution is a “must have” versus a “nice to have”.  A pain killer as opposed to a vitamin.  These potential buyers have challenges and they “need” your solution to overcome them.  Over time, the definition of your ICP will evolve, but in the early years of product market fit and market traction, you need to understand who needs you versus those who can simply “benefit” from your solution. 

An effective ICP typically includes:

1. Company demographics - Industry, company size (employees / revenue), geographic location, and growth stage
2. Technological Environment - Current tech stack, integration requirements, and technical maturity
3. Business Challenges - Specific pain points your solution addresses that are critical to their operations
4. Decision-making structure - Buying process complexity, stakeholder roles and typical approval cycles
5. Budget Parameters - Spending capacity aligned with your pricing model and ROI expectations
6. Strategic Fit - Alignment with your company’s long-term vision and growth strategy

Creating a precise ICP helps focus your sales and marketing resources on prospects with the highest conversion potential and lowest acquisition costs, while reducing churn by targeting organizations predisposed to success with your offering.  

Qualifying an Enterprise Buyer: Understanding Urgency, Incentives, and Decision Dynamics

Most enterprise deals don’t die because buyers lack interest, they die because the right person wasn’t engaged at the right time. Sales teams waste months navigating endless meetings, only to find out that the decision-maker wasn’t fully on board.

Enterprise sales isn’t just about finding an interested buyer, it’s about finding and engaging the one person who can’t afford to say no and has the power to say yes.  It’s about finding your Champion.  A Champion is someone with power and influence who becomes the “internal” seller for you and has a vested interest in your success.  A Champion will put their reputation on the line for you because it serves their interests as well.  A Champion without power is a Coach.  Coaches can guide you, but they can’t say yes. Develop as many coaches as possible, but don’t mistake their support for a “done deal”.  Without urgency or decision-making authority, even the most promising deals stall.  Without a true Champion, you are wasting your time.

To close enterprise deals faster, sellers must assess four critical factors:

1. The Problem’s Urgency and Business Impact – Is this a top-three issue for the buyer?
2. The Decision Making Process – Who has real authority, and what internal hurdles exist?
3. The Buyer’s Motivation and Incentives  – Do they gain from success and suffer from failure?
4. The Buyer’s Scope of Control - Are they focused on experimentation or a production rollout?

By answering these questions early, sellers can avoid wasted cycles and drive high-value deals to closure faster.

1. Evaluating the Problem’s Urgency and Business Impact

The most successful enterprise sales happen when the problem being solved is a top-three priority for the buyer – for which there are clear indicatorsThese key signals help sellers gauge urgency and the likelihood of securing budget approval.  Ultimately, sellers are trying to answer these Go / No Go questions: - 1) Why would they do something different (problem)? Why would they do it now (urgency)?  Why would they do it with me (fit)?

1. Strategic Alignment with Business Goals
   
   • Does the issue directly impact the company’s core strategic objectives (e.g., revenue growth, market share, operational efficiency)?
   • Is solving this problem explicitly mentioned in leadership priorities, board discussions, or quarterly plans?
2. Financial & Competitive Consequences of Inaction
   
   • What are the quantifiable financial risks (e.g., lost revenue, increased costs, regulatory penalties) if the issue is not addressed?
   • Does failure to act result in a competitive disadvantage, falling behind industry peers or losing customers?
3. C-Suite or High-Level Sponsorship
   
   • Is there direct interest and engagement from an executive sponsor (CEO, CFO, COO, or other C-level leader)?
   • Do you have a Champion?
   • Does the economic buyer have budget authority and decision-making power, or do they need internal buy-in?
4. Budget Allocation & Buying Readiness
   
   • Are you addressing an Active need or a Latent need?
   • Is there an existing budget for this solution (Active), or can funds be reallocated from lower-priority initiatives (Latent)?
5. Operational Pain & Urgency to Solve
   
   • Does this issue cause daily, persistent pain points for key stakeholders (e.g., operational inefficiencies, supply chain delays, lost productivity)?
   • Is there a specific deadline or event (e.g., regulatory compliance deadline, contract renewal, competitor moves) that makes solving the issue urgent?

By understanding these key indicators, sellers can effectively determine whether their solution aligns with the economic buyer’s most urgent priorities and is likely to drive a near-term purchase decision. 

2. Understanding the Decision Making Process

Enterprise deals often involve multiple stakeholders, from economic buyers to technical influencers and procurement teams. Understanding bespoke decision-making is critical and requires:

• Identifying who controls both approval and veto power.  Finding an internal champion early helps to navigate potential roadblocks.
• Understanding what internal decision criteria and approval steps must be met before a deal can close?
• Confirming the Economic Buyer who has both authority to approve and motivation to advance the purchase.

3. Assessing the Economic Buyer’s Motivation and Incentives

To qualify an economic buyer, understand if there are asymmetric benefits or risks associated with choosing your solution. 

• If your solution succeeds, does the economic buyer gain significantly – in career advancement, financial upside, or influence? 
• Conversely, if the solution fails, does the buyer bear personal risk, such as reputational damage or job loss? If the buyer sees job risk in choosing your solution over safer options, they are unlikely to champion it.

Leveraging Behavioral Psychology: Loss Aversion vs. Gain Motivation

Economic buyers are typically motivated by either:

• Fear of loss (avoiding failure, risk mitigation)
• Hope for gain (innovation, competitive differentiation)

Emphasize what they will “lose” if they don’t choose your solution as much as what they will gain. Salespeople have been trained to overemphasize the features and benefits the prospective customer will receive with the solution. Fear of loss is a stronger motivator in most cases, especially when careers and reputations are on the line. Buyers will often rationalize gains later, but they react immediately to threats. This urgency can accelerate deals, particularly in competitive situations where falling behind rivals isn’t an option.  

Behavioral economics suggests that people feel the pain of loss twice as strongly as they experience the pleasure of an equivalent gain. This plays a significant role in enterprise sales:

• Fear of loss reduces decision paralysis, making change feel like the safer choice rather than a risky move.
• Urgency-driven sales benefit from highlighting competitive risks, potential operational failures, or regulatory exposure.  This is most effective when a new technology breaks the status quo in an industry.  Even if the economic buyer does nothing, they can’t confidently assume that their competitors will do nothing.
• In contrast, hope for gain is a powerful tool when selling to visionaries, early adopters, or teams with financial incentives tied to success (e.g., revenue-generating functions).

4. Scope of Control: Innovation vs. Operational Buyers

When evaluating an enterprise buyer, it’s essential to understand their organizational role and scope of influence. Are they exploring new technologies or responsible for mission-critical operations? This distinction shapes how they evaluate risk, approve budgets, and make purchasing decisions.

Innovation Teams vs. Operating Teams

Enterprise organizations often divide responsibilities between innovation teams and production teams, each with a different level of influence over purchasing decisions:

• Innovation Teams: Focus on testing new solutions, pushing boundaries, and evaluating emerging technologies. While they have flexibility to experiment, they often lack the authority to approve company-wide purchases. Their influence is strongest when they can champion a solution to production teams or executive leadership.  
• Operating Teams: Prioritize scalability, stability, and risk mitigation. Because they are responsible for ongoing operations, they are more risk-averse but hold direct budget control. When they approve a solution, it typically leads to full-scale deployment.

Engaging with innovation teams can be the easiest entry point, but without production team buy-in, deals often stall. These innovation teams are typically “budget constrained” and can easily waste time with pilots and other “proof” exercises that don’t go anywhere.  Sellers must ensure that innovation teams can effectively bridge the gap to decision-makers who control budgets.

Selling to operating teams isn’t about excitement—it’s about certainty. They need proof that your solution won’t disrupt workflows and can deliver measurable ROI. Unlike innovation teams, vision alone won’t convince them.

Understanding Implementation Complexity: Standalone vs. Integrated Solutions

A buyer’s ability to implement a solution depends on how well it integrates with existing infrastructure. Solutions typically fall into one of two categories:

• Standalone Solutions: Function independently without major modifications to existing systems, reducing buying friction. Common in areas like analytics platforms, cloud-based collaboration tools, or external SaaS solutions.
• Integrated Solutions: Must connect with legacy systems, ERP software, or existing enterprise workflows, making the approval process more complex. IT teams, compliance officers, and operations stakeholders may need to be involved, slowing down the deal.

If integration is required, position your solution as a seamless extension of existing systems rather than a disruptive change. Having pre-built integrations, case studies, or a trusted implementation partner can accelerate decision-making and ease concerns about deployment.

Best Practices for Conducting Pilots

Enterprise buyers often request pilots to evaluate a product and mitigate perceived risks. While pilots can be valuable, they must be well-structured (clear success based KPIs), time-bound, and aligned with the buyer’s decision-making process to be effective.

To maximize impact, pilots should include a clear path to a broader enterprise rollout if successful. A formal commitment to next steps, whether expansion, full adoption, or contract negotiation, should be established upfront. Ideally, a production use contract is negotiated with an “opt out” if the pilot doesn’t meet the agreed upon success criteria.  Otherwise, the pilot automatically rolls into a production environment.  Conducting pilots without clearly defined next steps (with both the economic buyer and key users) can lead to wasted resources and stalled deals.

By ensuring pilots are strategic and outcome-driven, companies can avoid “pilot purgatory” and accelerate enterprise adoption.

Final Takeaways

Qualifying an enterprise buyer is about aligning your solution with their most pressing business needs, understanding the psychology behind their decision-making, and navigating the internal approval process effectively. Prioritizing buyers who face urgent problems, understanding risk asymmetries, and decision authority will lead to faster and more successful sales cycles.