Jen Abel

@jen-abel · 24 positions · 0 changes of mind

Co-founder of JJELLYFISH and GM of enterprise sales at State Affairs.

Jen Abel did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

The shading behind a date shows how recently it was said: full within a month, empty after three years.

Our reading
Selling a $100,000 enterprise deal takes the same process as selling a million-dollar one.

Their wordsif you sell a $100,000 solution, it is the same exact process to sell a million-doll solution.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:05:02 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 1st of 24 in this recording
Our reading
Enterprise buyers are more sensitive to the sales process they are taken through than to the product demo.

Their wordsthe enterprise organizations are more sensitive to the process you take them through from a sales motion than they almost are with demoing the product.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:05:17 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 2nd of 24 in this recording
Our reading
The best person to reach a corporate executive one-on-one is the founder.

Their wordsThey will respond one-on-one. And the best individual to one-on-one to a corporate executive is the founder.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:11:34 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 3rd of 24 in this recording
Our reading
A $100,000 enterprise deal needs an executive sponsor to sign off and allocate the budget.

Their wordsa $100,000 deal needs a executive sponsor to sign off on it to allocate the budget.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:12:52 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 4th of 24 in this recording
Our reading
A startup that cannot get an executive excited by its value proposition probably should not be selling top-down into the enterprise.

startups

Their wordsif you don't have executive value, meaning you cannot get an executive exc excited by your value proposition, then you probably shouldn't be moving up into the enterprise doing a top down strategy.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:16:07 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 5th of 24 in this recording
Our reading
The first intro call is where a seller gains all of the information edge, because buyers clam up once it feels like a sales process.

Their wordsthe information they will tell you on the first call, they will clam up moving forward because it starts to feel like a sales process. So, all of the information edge you can gain as a seller is on this first call.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:19:02 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 6th of 24 in this recording
Our reading
A seller should not record the intro call, because buyers will not be open on a recording.

Their wordsDo not bring a recorder to this call. Do not record the call. They will not be open. They will not be vulnerable.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:23:12 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 7th of 24 in this recording
Our reading
The most successful salespeople are not trained salespeople, which is why founders are good at sales.

startups

Their wordsThe most successful salespeople are not trained salespeople. That's why founders are so good at this.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:25:06 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 8th of 24 in this recording
Our reading
Following a sales script is the fastest way for a seller to commoditize themselves.

Their wordsthe fastest way to commoditize yourself is to go into some sales script like budget, authority, need, timing like that should be in the back of your brain. You never actually ask those questions.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:26:55 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 9th of 24 in this recording
Our reading
Expansion is the whole game in enterprise sales: a deal that does not grow the following year is not an enterprise motion.

Their wordsThe whole game is expansion. If you're not going from 100K or 250K to 350 or 500 the following year, it's not an enterprise motion.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:38:06 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 10th of 24 in this recording
Our reading
An enterprise demo should show the 20 percent of the product that carries 80 percent of the value, not everything.

Their words80% of the value comes from 20% of the product. and you have learned on these previous calls what that 20% is. Do not demo everything unless there is some reason to
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:41:06 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 11th of 24 in this recording
Our reading
AI replacing enterprise selling is not a worry, because so much of the job is human.

Their wordsI'm not worried about AI replace because there's so much about it that's just human, right?
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:45:56 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 12th of 24 in this recording
Our reading
Enterprise pilots should be time-boxed to two or three days rather than two weeks.

Their wordsTime box it to two or three days. Don't make it two weeks.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:50:37 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 13th of 24 in this recording
Our reading
A buyer willing to pay for a longer pilot is a strong signal.

Their wordsIf they're willing to pay, that is a huge, huge signal.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:51:09 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 14th of 24 in this recording
Our reading
A product's price should be set by the length of its sales cycle.

Their wordsyour price should be predicated on your sales cycle, right?
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:59:36 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 15th of 24 in this recording
Our reading
Needing forward deployed engineers because a product is too hard to use on its own is a bad sign.

Their wordsare you using um a forward deployed engineer because your product's so gnarly and hard to hard to do like they can't do it on their own. Um it's a bad sign.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:00:14 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 16th of 24 in this recording
Our reading
The standard five-stage CRM pipeline is a set of forecasting buckets, not the way to run a sale.

Their wordsLike that's not how you run the sales. Those are buckets to understand how to understand a weighted forecast, right?
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:03:19 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 17th of 24 in this recording
Our reading
Enterprise sales means mirroring and controlling the buyer's buying process, not putting buyers through the seller's process.

Their wordsenterprise sales is it's it's it's mirroring their buying process. It's trying to control their buying process. It's not plopping these people into your sales process.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:04:35 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 18th of 24 in this recording
Our reading
Pitching on the buyer's problem alone commoditizes a seller, because everyone speaks to the same problem.

Their wordsPeople get so fixated on problems which are important. They are important but like everyone speaks to the same problem and it commoditizes you
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:08:10 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 19th of 24 in this recording
Our reading
A healthy enterprise win rate on qualified opportunities is around 30 to 35 percent, not 50.

Their wordsIt's not 50%. Meaning of all qu sales qualified leads or opportunities a healthy win rate is usually around 30 to 35%.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:08:25 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 20th of 24 in this recording
Our reading
An enterprise win rate above about 35 percent means the price is too low.

Their wordsif your win rate is higher than that, your price is too low.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:08:57 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 21st of 24 in this recording
Our reading
Charging different customers wildly different prices is a mistake, because the market talks.

Their wordsThe worst thing you can do is charge somebody's friend 50 and somebody else 500k. They talk people the market talks. You have to assume that.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:09:16 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 22nd of 24 in this recording
Our reading
Procurement's job is not to kill a deal but to make sure it fits how the company needs to buy.

Their wordsProcurement's job is not to kill the deal. It's just to make sure that it is aligned with how they need to buy.
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:13:53 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 23rd of 24 in this recording
Our reading
Services are still the largest line item in enterprise budgets.

Their wordsservices is still the largest line item in budgets
spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:18:42 · all korrents from this recording
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 24th of 24 in this recording

How recent

The shading behind a date fills in quarters: said within a month, six months, a year, or three years. Empty means more than three years ago. It says when, not whether it still holds — a change of mind is marked on the claim itself.

Striped means we only know the words existed by that date; they may be older.