ISV: Targeted software selling in enterprise

By no mean I am an expert in selling software. However, based on what I know so far, I can tell selling software to an enterprise needs careful planning and above all a good strategy.

A large enterprise has many departments, which mostly function independent of each other, having their own budget, resources, projects, SLA, etc.; a good analogy can be the small boutique shops in a strip mall.

In my experience, there is usually very little inter-department coordination as far as creating a unified solution is concerned. ISVs need to know exactly how many departments are going to be impacted by their software, and try to keep them on board from the get-go.

Departments usually prefer full ownership on software, as opposed to working with other units. Take for instance if your software primarily runs on server, with a bit of desktop component as well. The server group will love to work with you as you are solving their problem. On the contrary, the desktop group will not welcome your solution as it adds burden on them without any perceived advantage.

My advise would be to keep the deployment environment in mind from the very beginning and target your software for 'a' department as opposed to the entire enterprise, unless it's a true enterprise software like SAP and the likes.

Happy selling!