At what point should an enterprise tech startup begin scaling up a sales team? At what point should it expand into new verticals or adjacent markets?

I happen to quite like the ideas embedded in “Lean Startup” techniques, particularly the concept of “product-market fit”. While not a new idea, the term neatly encapsulates that tipping point a vendor of enterprise tech gets to when it moves from having a good idea to actually selling and delivering a product that makes a real difference for customers.

So, what does that moment look like? Simple – it’s when prospects start pulling you through sales cycles instead of you pushing them the entire time. It’s when prospects email you without you reaching out first. It’s when prospects expose you to the other stakeholders in their organizations without you asking. It’s when customers make referrals to their peers and others in their network without you asking.

What’s really going on is this. You are actually doing something that supports a strategic initiative in the business. The client doesn’t want data governance – they want to make sure they can do business easily and manage privacy and cross-border data issues. The client doesn’t want a new CRM system – they want to improve/change their sales processes so they can improve their close rate. You will get “pulled” when the client actually sees you as a helpful asset to them in achieving their goals, in comparison to the competitors, alternatives and substitutes available to them.

What? You don’t have a clear idea how your prospect sees your company versus the competition and alternate or substitute approaches they have available to them? Hint: This is the place to start if you are not getting “pull”. If you cannot clearly express why you are a better approach than these others, you will not win. Good hustle and lots of pitching will get action and initial sales calls etc, but if your value proposition isn’t strong enough, these “leads” will fizzle halfway through. You will be sending “check-in” emails that don’t get answered and suddenly that prospect who was so nice now has you on permanent ignore. It’s not because the prospect is a jerk, it’s because what you do isn’t compelling enough. Also get that prospects will not bother to explain this to you – but that is the lesson you have to take if you find your “leads” fizzling after an initial call or two.

The simple truth is that if the prospect isn’t pulling, you will not win. And they won’t pull unless what you are doing makes a real difference in what is important to them. This seems basic, but I think many enterprise tech startups don’t fully actualize this understanding in how they go to market.