{"id":1100,"date":"2019-04-10T10:40:55","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T14:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog3.canny.io\/wordpress\/?p=1100"},"modified":"2024-03-18T16:35:09","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T20:35:09","slug":"saying-no-big-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/saying-no-big-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"Saying no to big&nbsp;customers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Imagine&nbsp;this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s the early days. You have under 100 customers, but things are looking pretty promising. It&#8217;s a normal day at the &#8220;office&#8221; when you hear the familiar *ding* of your Intercom live chat. It&#8217;s a lead, and they\u2019re from Big Company&nbsp;X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your mind starts racing. We have to close this deal, no matter what. How much are they going to pay us? How much can we get them to pay us? Everyone, stop what you&#8217;re doing! This is it, we&#8217;ve made&nbsp;it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hold&nbsp;up.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/xULW8MYvpNOfMXfDH2\/giphy.gif\" alt=\"\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>When you&#8217;re starting up, any opportunity is exciting, especially the big ones. The chance to double your MRR? Heck yeah! It&#8217;s hard to step back and think about the implications of saying yes. If you&#8217;re a low-touch SaaS company like us, Big Company X is probably not your ideal&nbsp;customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>[Startups] get a little bit of inbound interest, and they just say yes to that inbound interest without being fully aware of how you have to play the enterprise game to&nbsp;win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/thestartupchat.com\/ep236\">Steli Efti, Startup&nbsp;Chat<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The consequences are often more harmful than they seem. You risk wasting your time, building the wrong things, and losing yourself in the&nbsp;process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Big companies have big company needs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s easy sniff out a big company. Their websites look it and they ask questions&nbsp;like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Can you do training sessions with our staff? (I guess&nbsp;so?)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Can we set up a demo with your sales team? (What sales&nbsp;team?)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Does the product have reporting? (Try our&nbsp;API!)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Do you support IE?&nbsp;(No)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Can you share details of your last penetration test? (Excuse&nbsp;me?)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center;\">\n    <iframe data-src=\"https:\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/xUA7bgKJYvtNOJn89q\" width=\"480\" height=\"401\" frameBorder=\"0\" class=\"giphy-embed lazyload\" allowFullScreen src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/giphy.com\/gifs\/excited-wow-omg-xUA7bgKJYvtNOJn89q\">via GIPHY<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>These are enterprise companies, and they are high-touch compared to selling SMBs. Closing the deal involves going through a long sales process. It requires a lot of time and effort from your team. It involves navigating the company\u2019s hierarchy to speak to the right people. We&#8217;ve heard stories of founders doing several demos only to see nobody can make the&nbsp;purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ve gone down the path to selling an enterprise customer. We\u2019ve said no to elaborate security reviews, on-premise support, and long data protection&nbsp;questionnaires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have hundreds of people on your team, maybe you have dedicated people for every step in the process. If not, your time is probably better spent&nbsp;elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Time is our most valuable resource<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, Big Company X often demands new features. As a product team, we naively think: We can handle this. Let&#8217;s just move things around! No big&nbsp;deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stop right there. It is a big&nbsp;deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As startup founders, we know that at any given time, there are a million things we could work on and only so much&nbsp;time.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/AZemObXVMo4mY\/giphy.gif\" alt=\"\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The feature requests usually fall in one of two&nbsp;buckets:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>They will benefit all other&nbsp;customers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They will only benefit Big Company&nbsp;X<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>When features fall in bucket #1, great. It sounds like an opportunity to improve your product across the board. Still, is it the most impactful thing for you to be working on? Put your product manager hat on and see if these features are worth prioritizing. We\u2019ve written about how you can go about <a href=\"https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/roadmap-prioritization-guide\/\">feature&nbsp;prioritization<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When features fall in bucket #2, don&#8217;t build them. Don&#8217;t add features to your product that few people will use. This is feature bloat and it makes your product less focused, and more confusing. Building the wrong things gives your competitors an&nbsp;edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Time is a limited resource. Consider not only the time it will take to build features but also maintain&nbsp;them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Don&#8217;t forget why you started your company<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We started Canny for these&nbsp;reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>We believe feedback is a problem for all software&nbsp;companies.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We want to build a great, sustainable&nbsp;business.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We want to have&nbsp;fun!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Don\u2019t get me wrong, there are benefits in selling to enterprises. Namely, they pay more and they churn&nbsp;less.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"872\" data-src=\"https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/enterprise-vs-smb.jpg\" alt=\"Enterprise vs SMB sales\" class=\"wp-image-1107 lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1600px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1600\/872;width:650px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/enterprise-vs-smb.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/enterprise-vs-smb-300x164.jpg 300w, https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/enterprise-vs-smb-768x419.jpg 768w, https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/enterprise-vs-smb-210x114.jpg 210w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s why we\u2019re not focused on selling to&nbsp;enterprises:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>We have limited resources. Selling to enterprise would mean not selling to a majority of&nbsp;businesses.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We\u2019d rather have many small businesses paying a small amount, than a few businesses paying a large amount. When you build your business for a few big customers, you&#8217;re left vulnerable to their demands. A diverse customer base means you can make decisions without the bias of a single company. It\u2019s also less&nbsp;risky.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Enterprise sales is not fun (for&nbsp;us).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Our team\u2019s strength lies in building great products. We know we\u2019ll be more successful (and have more fun) building a product-oriented business. Sales-oriented businesses work, they&#8217;re just not our thing. So, we decided Canny would be self-serve and focus on small to mid-sized&nbsp;companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christoph Janz&#8217;s classic blog post highlights different approaches to <a href=\"http:\/\/christophjanz.blogspot.com\/2014\/10\/five-ways-to-build-100-million-business.html\">building a $100m business<\/a>. On his scale, we thrive in rabbit&nbsp;territory.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/YaXcVXGvBQlEI\/giphy.gif\" alt=\"\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>This answer might be different for you and that&#8217;s completely fine. Just know that there are fundamental differences between SMB and enterprise&nbsp;sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tomasz Tunguz also has a <a href=\"https:\/\/tomtunguz.com\/optimal-path-smb-mid-ent\/\">great post<\/a> outlining some of the differences between each path. Ask yourself if selling to enterprise is right for your product and&nbsp;team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s also okay for that answer to change. In fact, many teams start out with SMB and move up to enterprise. It&#8217;s a solid strategy if you know what you&#8217;re getting&nbsp;into.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How we say no<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ve had several big companies sign up for&nbsp;Canny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We consider what it&#8217;d take to support them. We consider the features they need. In some cases, by saying yes, we&#8217;d become a consulting company. We&#8217;d be adding custom features to our product to fit the needs of a single&nbsp;client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When there isn\u2019t a good fit, we say&nbsp;no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<center><iframe width=\"650\" height=\"315\" align=\"centre\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qkJmU7DP8SY?si=1Toy9HGrkzzcE32J\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/center>\n\n\n\n<p>By standing by the reasons listed above, the decisions are easy. We never want to accommodate the needs of the giant at the expense of our core customer group. We want to build an awesome product that adds value to many&nbsp;businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>When you don\u2019t know what you believe, everything becomes an argument. Everything is debatable. But when you stand for something, decisions are&nbsp;obvious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2015 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/6732019-rework\">Jason Fried,&nbsp;Rework<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>We say something along these&nbsp;lines:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"callout\">\r\nWe've decided we're currently unable to prioritize feature X and Y.<\/p>\n<p>We're a small team and have to be careful with how we spend our time. These features would take up over a month of full-time work. They also wouldn't add value to our existing&nbsp;customers.<\/p>\n<p>We understand that these features are likely deal breakers for you but let us know if you're still interested in moving forward.\r\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Sending these responses are quite relieving. Instead of changing our plans to build something for this new customer, we can focus on bigger&nbsp;impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">When to say yes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, nothing in startups is a hard and fast rule. Sometimes it&#8217;s about winning that logo or case study for your homepage. Sometimes there are external pressures like&nbsp;investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For you VC-backed SaaS out there, moving upstream is a part of the playbook. You can say yes more than your bootstrapped counterparts. Still, be mindful of what it will cost you to acquire each&nbsp;customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In many cases, big companies are happy to get started with our existing offering. We\u2019re happy to bring them on. Absolutely&nbsp;yes.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/LELwk8KOywmu4\/giphy.gif\" alt=\"\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>In some cases, they request some specific features. We make it clear what we\u2019ll agree to build and what we won\u2019t. The key here is setting expectations. Make it clear what you are offering, whether that\u2019s features you already have or features you will build. We set expectations for support, pricing, and new&nbsp;features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We like this approach a lot as it still leaves room for us to expand their account in the&nbsp;future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Use your best judgement. Ask yourself if the potential customer is worth the&nbsp;effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The choice is yours!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Working with enterprise customers is a whole different ball game than SMBs. Luckily, as a bootstrapped startup, we can decide if we want to play. Investors usually want you to build the biggest company you can, as fast as you can. Often, startups are pressured to go&nbsp;upstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Most of today\u2019s companies lose control early on and let outsiders dictate their direction. This works in some cases, but fails miserably in most. Outsiders simply don\u2019t care about your mission, your product or your people as much as you&nbsp;do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/doist.com\/blog\/no-exit-strategy\/\">Amir Salihefendic,&nbsp;Doist<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Right now, we&#8217;re a small, product-focused team. We&#8217;re working on building a stable, profitable business. We are proudly customer driven, but we are still the captains of this ship. Know who you are. You will be happier and your customers will be happier. Happy&nbsp;building!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Header photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@seanpollock\">Sean&nbsp;Pollock<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We decided Canny would be a self-serve product and focus on small to mid-sized companies. Here&#8217;s why we&#8217;re saying no to big customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-building-saas","category-founder-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Saying no to big customers - Canny Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you&#039;re a low-touch SaaS company like us, big companies are probably not your ideal customer. 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