Here’s a hard truth about selling large, enterprise software deals: your value as a seller is directly tied to how well you align internal resources for your customer.

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​You’re the quarterback, and strategic sales is a team sport, you win and lose as a team.

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You need to learn how to quickly leverage your internal team (exec sponsors, solutions engineering, legal, product marketing) to deliver real value to the customer.

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You won't score extra points for selling on your own or being a "lone wolf."

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It's important to surface new opportunities quickly to your team and keep them informed of everything going on. But you will get dinged for holding onto critical deal info (especially if it’s forecasted to close.)

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I once heard an executive sales leader at a high-growth software company say:

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"The highest performers spend as much time managing internal stakeholders as they do managing external stakeholders."

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Think about that for a minute... Much of your success comes down to building internal relationships so your team can help you win the deal.

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So how might an ambitious Sales Player like yourself put this into play?

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I'll show you...

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This is top of mind for me right now because this past week, I held an internal meeting with my Founder, Head of Solutions, Head of Product and CRO (the titles you work with internally may vary, but this format is pretty common in a Series B startup).

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Since February, I've been working on a sizable deal with a brand you've definitely heard of...

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And this week we had a major breakthrough on the deal, and were finally able to get a meeting on the calendar with "Power" (the executive-level sponsor and final decision maker on the deal).

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This meant it was finally time to bring in my internal executive team to ensure appropriate peering for the upcoming executive presentation.

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Prior to the internal call, I filled in all the details for the account and deal using my handy, one-page account review doc to get everyone up to speed.

(*link to template be sure you make a copy and make it your own).

The idea behind filling this in was to quickly get my Founder and leadership team up-to-speed on the prospect company, opportunity, key players, drivers and risks in the deal.

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I've been using this template for a few years now and it's always a hit (especially with executive leaders). It's the best way to get everyone on your team briefed and aligned on the deal so you can shift the focus to nailing your next steps.

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You might want to tweak this template based on your business, but the format works across most enterprise deals.

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I often build out a few of these and use them in 1:1s with my manager to provide a more detailed status update than what they might find in the CRM or in Clari/Gong etc.

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Now, for the rest of this write-up, I'll break down each data point in the Account Review Doc to make sure you're empowered to build one of your own.

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• CRM Link - Pretty straightforward... Paste the CRM link to the opportunity to make it easy to access.
• Annual Revenue - List any revenue figures you can find. Harder to do for privately held companies, but I have a formula for this. Hit reply and I can share.
• Number of Employees - I use LinkedIn to find this. Always helpful to have this info.
• Primary Contact - Who is your main contact? Put their info here.
• Exec Sponsor - Who owns the project, budget & P&L? Don't know? Find out!
• Exec Peer - Who on your team will be the peer to the exec sponsor?
• Solutions/Tech Peer - Who will own the technical relationship? This person will respond to technical questions and asks from the customer.
• Contract Value - What's the deal size? Don't know? Make an educated guess.
• Close Date - When do you think it will close?
• Key Features - What aspects of your product seem to resonate most with the customer?
• Key Integrations - Most enterprise deals require integration with other tech investments. Which API integrations are must-haves.
• Business Outcomes - Summarize what the customer is trying to accomplish by procuring your solution.
• Risks - What could kill the deal?
• Competitors - Who else are they evaluating?
• Notes/Other - Use this section to fill in any other relevant details.

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There you have it folks, a simple process for helping you document key insights for getting your internal resources aligned in your deals.

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90% of reps won't take time to do this, but the true Sales Players will and they'll continue to rally their internal resources around deals and increase their win rate!

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-JMW