Introduction
Most enterprise sales organizations are looking for ways to boost revenue. And for good reason — only 28% of sales reps hit their quotas. This means for 72% of B2B sales organizations, money is being left on the table.
While forecasting is rarely 100% accurate, missing projections by significant margins can lead to serious consequences, including unanticipated revenue gaps, diminished stakeholder confidence, and increased pressure on sales teams.
But here's the good news: there are 9 proven strategies to increase your enterprise sales revenue. In this article, we’ll break them down for you. Ready to make more money?
Develop a Robust Ideal Customer Profile
The first step in boosting your enterprise sales revenue performance is to develop a robust Ideal Customer Profile, or ICP for short. Your ICP is a detailed description of the type of customer who would benefit the most from your product or service, leading to greater revenue potential and customer retention.
Here are the key elements to include in your ICP:
- Industry and geography: Identify which industry or industries benefit most from your solution. Where are these companies located? Focusing on the right regions allows your team to support customers effectively.
- Decision makers and influencers: Who holds the decision making power within these organizations? Who are the key influencers and champions that impact buying decisions? Understanding the roles of these individuals is crucial to navigating the complex decision making process in enterprise sales.
- Departmental needs and priorities: Which departments are most likely to benefit from your solution, and what specific challenges do they face? How can you position your product to address their specific main points?
- Compliance and regulatory requirements: Many departments within enterprise organizations, especially in industries like healthcare, finance, and government, have strict regulatory and compliance needs. What are those requirements, and how can your product make the process easier for them? Meeting these criteria can set your product apart from competitors.
- Procurement and vendor approval processes: Enterprise companies often have more complex procurement processes. Understand how they evaluate, approve, and onboard new vendors, and tailor your approach to align with these processes. This can make it easier for your product to gain approval and shorten the sales cycle.
- Potential for long-term value: Enterprise customer relationships are long-term by nature. Focus on customers where your product or service can provide ongoing value through cross-sell and upsell opportunities, and develop solutions that scale as the organization grows or evolves.
Once you have a general idea of the departments and decision makers you're aiming to attract and retain, the next step is to continuously refine your ICP. This is where leveraging data becomes essential. Start by analyzing historical sales data from your CRM system, such as Salesforce or HubSpot, to identify patterns in previous deals and key characteristics of successful customer relationships. Look at customer interactions from platforms like your customer support software or sales enablement tools to gain insights into how customers engage with your product and what challenges they typically face. Additionally, track market trends through industry reports, competitive analysis, and third-party data sources to stay updated on shifting customer needs and emerging opportunities.
By applying data analytics, you'll be able to not only refine your focus on the types of customers that are most valuable to your business but also uncover high-value segments you might not have initially considered. This process enables you to sharpen your targeting strategy and better allocate resources toward the most promising opportunities. Over time, as your data pool grows, you'll be able to make more informed adjustments to your ICP so it aligns more closely with the reality of your best customers.
Build a Strong Sales Pipeline
Now that you know how to develop a robust ICP to narrow your targeting, let’s move on to building a strong sales pipeline. After all, enterprise sales is its own beast – it requires you to be strategic and mindful of longer sales cycles, complex decision-making processes, and the stakeholders involved.
Building a strong sales pipeline is important because it gives you visibility into the sales process. This enables your team to understand where deals are stalling and why, and where they’re moving efficiently ahead. It also allows you to be more accurate when it comes to forecasting because you can track deals that are most likely to close based on real-time data and historical trends. This has a major ripple effect on revenue planning, resource allocation, and target setting – so your business can scale effectively, reduce risk, and set your team up for long-term success.
Here are five best practices for pipeline management and forecasting:
- Regularly review and update your pipeline: Sales pipelines need to be dynamic. Make it a habit to consistently review deals in the pipeline, remove stagnant opportunities, and update each deal’s progress. This keeps your pipeline accurate and focused on deals that are truly moving forward.
- Prioritize qualified leads: Not all leads are created equal. Focus on opportunities that align with your ICP and show genuine potential to close. By prioritizing qualified leads, your team can allocate resources effectively and avoid wasting time on deals that are unlikely to convert.
- Leverage data-driven insights: Use data analytics to assess your pipeline’s health. Analyze conversion rates, deal velocity, and historical data to identify patterns. This will help you predict future outcomes and make more informed decisions about where to focus your efforts.
- Set clear pipeline stages: Break down your sales process into clearly defined stages, from initial outreach to closing the deal. Each stage should have clear criteria that helps your team know when a deal is ready to progress to the next step, improving consistency and accuracy in forecasting.
- Collaborate across teams: Enterprise sales often involves input from multiple departments. Collaborate with marketing, product, and customer success teams to keep everyone aligned on customer needs, deal progress, and any potential roadblocks. Cross-functional collaboration gives you a more cohesive, complete understanding of your pipeline so you can adjust forecasts accordingly.
Develop a Value Selling Approach
New features are cool and all, but the real bread and butter of your product offering is how it can help customers solve real-world problems. That’s where value is extracted and where long-term, loyal customers are born. So, when thinking about revenue growth, you want to take a value selling approach to sales.
Value selling is the practice of positioning your product or service as a solution that delivers tangible outcomes for your customers, rather than just focusing on its features or price. It’s about aligning what you’re offering with the specific challenges or goals the customer is facing and demonstrating the long-term value it brings to their business.
There are numerous benefits to value selling in enterprise deals. These include:
- Being seen as a trusted advisor: Rather than just another rep chasing a quota, your prospects will see you as someone who is partnering with them to solve their problems, which builds stronger relationships.
- Driving higher deal sizes: Customers are willing to invest more in solutions that address their critical business challenges and deliver measurable ROI.
- Shortening the sales cycle: Because the focus is on solving urgent business problems, it’s easier to build momentum and get buy-in from decision makers.
- Increasing win rates: Value-driven conversations resonate more with executive stakeholders, who care about outcomes and long-term impact.
- Building long-term loyalty: Customers who see ongoing value from your solution are more likely to renew, expand, and advocate for your product internally.
- Reducing price sensitivity: Customers will prioritize the benefits they gain from your solution rather than negotiating on price.
- Enhancing customer satisfaction: When you’re delivering solutions that actually address your prospects’ needs, rather than selling them on unnecessary features, they’ll be more satisfied with your product because it actually delivers on its promise.
In order to position yourself as a strategic asset, focus on how your solution aligns with your prospects’ business goals and key priorities. You can do this by asking and answering the following questions:
- What are the core problems your prospects and customers are trying to solve?
- How does your solution directly address these issues and provide measurable improvements?
- How does your solution impact their key priorities? Examples may include driving revenue growth, increasing efficiency, reducing costs, etc.
- Can your solution scale with their business and does it provide continuous value over time?
- Who are the key stakeholders and what do they care the most about?
- How does your solution fit into their existing workflows?
- What ROI can customers expect and in what time period?
Rather than selling on features alone, these questions will help you align your solution with the needs of your customers and show how it drives results. This shift from selling “what it is” to “what it does” for them makes all the difference.
Master Stakeholder Management
The average B2B enterprise sales deal involves six to 10 decision makers. This means to be an effective seller, you need to master stakeholder management. But how can you appeal to multiple people within the organization efficiently, hold their attention, and build consensus among key decision makers and influencers?
A good starting point is to master the art of engaging multiple stakeholders efficiently. Here are several ways to do this:
- Personalize your messaging: Each stakeholder is an individual with unique priorities, depending on their role. This means when you reach out to these stakeholders, you aren’t trying to cast a wide net with one-size-fits-all messaging. Instead, customize your outreach to speak directly to the concerns and objectives of each individual. Although this process is time consuming, it’s well worth the effort because it will help you build meaningful relationships and close more deals.
- Familiarize yourself with how your stakeholders prefer to be contacted: Some stakeholders may prefer to receive emails, while others want to engage via text messaging, phone calls, or social media. Whatever the case may be, your goal is to leverage multi-channel communication so that your messaging resonates with the audience and meets them where they are.
- Be consistent with your messaging: Few things diminish trust and confidence faster in B2B enterprise sales than confusing, disorganized messaging. Make sure that no matter who you’re speaking to, your message is cohesive. You want everyone to understand the overall value of your solution and how it will help their organization as a whole, while also addressing their individual needs.
Once you have the stakeholders engaged, the next step is to build consensus among them so they can make a unified purchasing decision. You can do this by:
- Identifying the influencers early on: Not every stakeholder holds the same weight. Identify the key influencers who will either drive or block a deal, and focus on winning them over. When you have them on board, they can help champion your solution internally.
- Aligning on shared goals: Enterprise deals can stall when stakeholders have conflicting priorities. Instead of trying to meet everyone’s individual needs, focus on aligning your solution with the broader business goals. Highlight how your product helps the entire organization move forward, creating common ground.
- Facilitating internal discussions: You can play a pivotal role in getting stakeholders to communicate with each other. Create opportunities for internal collaboration by hosting joint meetings or sharing key insights across departments. This ensures everyone is on the same page and can lead to faster consensus.
- Using data to back up your points: Data is powerful when it comes to building consensus. Presenting case studies, metrics, and ROI projections can help decision makers align on the tangible benefits of your solution. When the numbers are clear, it’s easier to bring everyone together.
- Handling objections proactively: It’s normal for stakeholders to have objections. Address these head-on by anticipating potential concerns before they arise. Offer solutions to these issues during your conversations, which helps create a smoother path to consensus.
Implement Effective Sales Enablement Programs
Another proven way to boost revenue performance is to implement effective sales enablement programs. These programs can include anything from on-demand training modules to in-depth sales playbooks. The goal is to equip your sales team with the resources, knowledge, and tools they need to effectively engage prospects and close deals.
Here’s how to create and curate content for enterprise sales success:
- Ask the right questions: Start by understanding your audience. What problems are your prospects trying to solve? What objections are they likely to have? What value does your product deliver to their specific industry or role? Asking these questions ensures that your sales content speaks directly to the prospect’s needs.
- Develop content that resonates: The types of content that resonate most in enterprise sales include case studies, ROI calculators, and personalized presentations. To uncover what will hit the mark, analyze customer pain points, success stories, and feedback from past deals. The goal is to provide materials that speak to both the emotional and rational drivers behind their decision making.
- Training and coaching strategies: Effective sales enablement also requires continuous training and coaching. Enterprise sales teams face complex challenges, so focus on role-playing exercises, ongoing feedback loops, and real-world scenario training to prepare them for high-stakes conversations. Provide coaching that helps reps navigate long sales cycles, engage multiple stakeholders, and build trust.
By developing a targeted sales enablement program, your team will be better equipped to meet the specific demands of enterprise sales — ultimately driving more revenue and creating long-lasting customer relationships.
Develop a Strong Competitive Intelligence Program
If you want to sell to educated buyers, you better know the competitive landscape. Otherwise, it will be hard for stakeholders to accurately gauge whether your solution is the best choice, and how it measures up against competing organizations that offer similar solutions.
Doing your research (not just once – but on an ongoing basis) will help you understand the competitive landscape, so you have the intel you need to answer prospect questions like:
- How does your solution compare to (insert competitor)?
- What differentiates your product from others in the market?
- Why should we choose your solution over a lower-cost alternative?
- What are the long-term benefits of your product compared to others?
- How do you stack up in terms of scalability, integrations, or customer support?
Here are 5 ways your GTM teams can gather and analyze competitor data:
- Competitive intelligence tools: Use competitor intelligence tools to track competitor movements, messaging updates, and feature releases in real time.
- Win/loss analysis: Conduct post-deal analysis on both won and lost opportunities to understand why prospects chose you over a competitor — or vice versa.
- Sales team feedback: Your reps are on the front lines. Regularly gather feedback from them on competitor objections they hear during calls and meetings.
- Industry reports and market research: Leverage third-party reports to understand broader trends and shifts in your industry. This helps frame your solution against competitors in the context of evolving market needs.
- Customer interviews and surveys: Speak directly to your current customers about why they chose you over competitors. Their insights will be invaluable in positioning yourself in future deals.
Once you’ve gathered competitive insights, here are 5 strategies for positioning yourself against competitors in enterprise deals:
- Emphasize unique differentiators: Focus on what makes your solution stand out — whether it’s superior customer support, better scalability, or specialized industry features that your competitors don’t offer. Importantly, you want to make sure these differentiators aren’t just ‘nice to have features,’ but actually meaningful differences that can help solve your stakeholders' unique pain points.
- Highlight customer success stories: Showcase case studies from similar companies or industries that have successfully solved the same problems your prospect is facing. This builds credibility and proves that you deliver on your promises.
- Position on long-term value: Enterprise deals are all about the long game. Emphasize how your solution will not only meet current needs but also adapt to their future growth, saving them money and effort over time.
- Own your pricing strategy: If you're not the lowest-cost option, justify the price difference by showcasing the additional value you bring. Frame your solution as an investment, not an expense.
- Focus on integration and ease of implementation: Large enterprises often have complex tech stacks. If your solution integrates seamlessly with their existing systems or requires less operational disruption, highlight that advantage over competitors who might need more intensive implementation.
Leverage Executive Relationships Intelligence Program
In enterprise sales, relationships are everything, and leveraging executive sponsorship is one of the most powerful ways to drive deals forward. Executive sponsorship means having senior leadership actively support and advocate for your deal, both internally and with your prospect.
Here’s why executive sponsorship matters:
- It helps you establish credibility: When a senior executive is involved, it shows your prospect that the deal is a priority for your organization. It also boosts your standing as a trusted partner, helping to build confidence in your solution.
- It enables you to navigate organizational complexities: Enterprise deals involve multiple stakeholders and often require navigating internal politics. An executive sponsor can help remove roadblocks by leveraging their authority and influence to align key decision makers.
- It builds alignment: Executive sponsors build alignment between both organizations and their priorities, which in turn creates consensus among decision makers and demonstrates that your solution supports their long-term business goals.
- It speeds up decision making: Senior leaders can bypass layers of bureaucracy and fast-track approvals. Their support helps push the deal forward when timelines start to stall.
- It helps secure the necessary resources: An executive sponsor can rally internal teams, ensuring the right resources are allocated to meet the client’s needs, from sales to implementation, creating a smoother path to closing.
By leveraging an executive relationships intelligence program, you can identify opportunities for sponsorship early on and strategically engage executives to drive enterprise deals to the finish line.
Implement Effective Sales Performance Management
When your goal is to boost revenue performance, it’s important to have baseline metrics, or key performance indicators (KPIs), in place. KPIs are measurable values that indicate how effectively your team is achieving key business objectives. They serve as benchmarks to track progress and highlight areas for improvement.
Once you know what you’re aiming for, you can align your KPIs with your value selling methodology. (Don’t have a methodology in place? Here’s an article that explains the five most effective ones.)
Here’s how to align your KPIs with your value selling methodology:
- Focus on customer outcomes: Shift your KPIs from internal metrics (like number of calls made) to customer-focused outcomes (like customer satisfaction or success metrics). Value selling is all about delivering real-world results to your customers, so your KPIs should reflect that focus.
- Track deal velocity: One important KPI to monitor is how quickly deals move through the pipeline. A strong value selling approach should naturally speed up decision making because it addresses the prospect’s core needs. Measuring deal velocity helps you assess the impact of your methodology on sales efficiency.
- Measure win rates: When value selling is done right, you should see a higher percentage of closed deals. Tracking win rates will help you understand how effectively your team is communicating value and positioning your solution as the best choice.
- Monitor average deal size: Value selling often leads to larger deals as customers see the long-term benefits of your solution. Keep an eye on average deal size to make sure your methodology is driving higher-value opportunities.
- Evaluate customer retention and expansion: Value selling doesn’t stop after the sale. Track retention rates and expansion revenue (upsells, cross-sells) to measure the lasting impact of your approach. This will show how well your team is building long-term, value-driven relationships.
Embrace Digital Transformation Performance Management
Our final tip for boosting enterprise sales revenue is to embrace digital transformation performance management. Digital transformation refers to the integration of digital technologies into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how you operate and deliver value to customers. Embracing it means adopting the tools and processes that streamline operations, enhance performance, and drive better outcomes in a digital-first world.
You can do this by leveraging key technologies, such as:
- Deal execution platforms: These platforms help manage complex enterprise sales deals by providing real-time insights, tracking progress, and aligning your team on the steps needed to close deals faster.
- CRM systems: CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot centralize your customer data, enabling your team to track interactions, manage pipelines, and gain valuable insights into buyer behavior.
- Sales enablement tools: These tools equip your sales team with the content, training, and resources needed to engage prospects effectively and move them through the sales cycle more efficiently.
In addition to adopting these technologies, there are also several strategies for successful adoption and change management, including:
- Start with a clear vision: Before implementing new technologies, make sure your team understands how these tools will align with business goals and improve performance. Clear communication of the benefits helps build buy-in from the start.
- Provide thorough training and support: Change can be challenging, especially in large enterprise teams. Offering ongoing training and support empowers your sales team to be confident in using new tools and processes, which leads to higher adoption rates.
- Build a culture of continuous improvement: Encourage feedback and continuous optimization. Digital transformation isn’t a one-time event — it’s an ongoing process. Create an environment where your team feels comfortable sharing insights and ideas on how to refine and improve digital tools and processes.
By embracing digital transformation performance management, you can optimize your team’s efficiency, improve visibility into sales processes, and drive more revenue through smarter, data-driven decision-making.
Conclusion
The big takeaway? Boosting enterprise sales revenue is possible but it requires a strategic and multifaceted approach. By applying the nine tips outlined above, you’ll build stronger relationships with customers and prospects, and ultimately close more deals.
So, what are you waiting for? Go get started!