Jen Abel: evaluation

Transcript context

…... Through so much. This is exactly what I was hoping to get through and we've gone through so much advice that I think is going to be so helpful to so many people. There's a few things that your partner, Justin also suggested I ask you about that I want to touch on. One is you have this question you ask founders a lot that opens up their mind. You ask them, "If you give your product away for free, would people even use this?" And every founder is like, "Of course." And then you ask, "A customer this?" And they're like, "Nah, we wouldn't use this." And that just blows their mind. Talk about just the power of that and how you recommend people approach this. I always say ask the questions you're afraid to because that truth is going to get you closer and closer to the answer. So I'll ask a client straight up on a call, I'll say, "Honestly, do we think we're going to get the deal done this year? Is it possible?" They'll give you the real answer and people are afraid to ask. But the other side is sort of if they're in it with you, they don't care about that question, right? Can't ask that question on day one, but if you are, and we didn't talk about this, but maybe this is important. Every single enterprise deal I have done, the deal is done, the deal is closed and pretty much done through text. It's not on email anymore. It is a relationship you're building with someone where if my enterprise client called me, I'm picking up that phone immediately or I'm responding them to immediately because that builds so much trust. If they know they can call on you, they're going to get you to pick up and they know that you're going to do everything humanly possible to make sure that this is successful. People will turn over rocks for you. I have a client at a Fortune 10 company where I was like, it's so important we get the deal done this year. Is that possible? And she's like, it's a tall order, but if it's going to help you, let's do it. These are how enterprise deals gets done, it's relationships and it's this, and this is why I'm saying structuring the deal, make it feel like you went to bat for them and in often cases, you are going to bat for them and structure it in a way that makes sense for them. Everyone kind of just tries and pigeonhole. Pigeonholing and deal structuring consistency is important for a $10,000, sub-$10,000 deal. A $100,000 deal, it very commonly will look different every time. April Dunford was on the podcast and she shared this really interesting insight that the reason people behave this way is the person at the company buying this thing, their ass is on the line Also, their reputation is on the line for this thing to work out. So they want it to go really well.…

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