What is Enterprise Sales?
Enterprise sales is a complex, high-ACV B2B sales motion targeting large organizations, characterized by long sales cycles, multiple stakeholders, and deal sizes typically exceeding $100K annually.
Enterprise sales is the most complex selling environment in B2B. Deals take 6-12+ months, involve 6-10 stakeholders across multiple departments, require extensive security and procurement reviews, and carry significant revenue impact if won or lost. It demands a fundamentally different skill set than SMB or mid-market selling.
Characteristics of Enterprise Sales
Enterprise deals share several defining traits. ACV typically exceeds $100K (often $250K-$1M+). Sales cycles run 6-18 months. Buying committees include 6-10+ people across IT, finance, operations, and executive leadership. Procurement, legal, and security reviews add months to the timeline. Reps manage 10-25 opportunities at a time (vs 50-100+ in mid-market). Winning requires deep account strategy, multi-threading, and executive alignment.
Enterprise Sales Team Structure
Enterprise deals require a team. A typical enterprise pod includes: the AE (deal quarterback), a solution engineer or sales engineer (technical validation), an SDR (prospecting and meeting setting), and executive sponsorship from a VP or CRO for strategic accounts. Some orgs add dedicated deal desk analysts for pricing and proposals. The cost per pod is high ($400K-$700K+ annually), which is why enterprise companies need $250K+ ACV to make the economics work.
Enterprise Sales Leadership
CRO Report analysis shows that 45% of VP Sales postings specifically mention 'enterprise' in the title or requirements. Enterprise VP Sales roles command 20-30% higher OTE than their mid-market counterparts because the complexity, deal sizes, and team management challenges are substantially greater. Candidates need demonstrated experience managing 6+ month sales cycles and coaching reps through multi-stakeholder negotiations.
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