How can I improve my enterprise sales?

I have a SaaS product that helps certain type of companies improve their sales leads. My target audience is VP or Director of Sales - anybody within the company whose job is to increase sales.

So far I was able to demo it to 2 companies and both of them loved the product. They are currently my paying customers and both came from warm introductions.

My problem is that when I don't know anybody from the target company - I can't get in contact with them. Here's my approach:

1. Find the company that would be interested in my software
2. Go to LinkedIn, find VP of sales, Director of Sales, or any other person who's responsible for that
3. Find their email (sometimes that's really hard)
4. Shoot them an email, explaining briefly what the product does, include .pdf file with several relevant screenshots.

I get close to 0 responses. What am I doing wrong? Or is it normal that most people don't reply? Should I change my approach?

Get on the phone, ask for 5 minutes to demo your product. If it's that good buy them lunch and demo over lunch. Ask your current customers if they know of any other contacts that you think your software might benefit, offer them a push back if they get your foot in the door to a sale either with cash in hand or a discount on a subscription.

Totally agree with GaryE. Sending emails off blind yields you no results, you have no idea why people aren't interested. If you get on the phone you can cut away at their objections eg 'busy right now', 'when can I call you back because I'm positive I can save you time and money, I just need 5 minutes for you to let me show you how'.

If you can buy them lunch and they aren't interested in using your product you can probe for product development ideas or ask if the know anyone who they think would benefit, if they do ask if they'll give you an introduction. People love to do favours.

"I get close to 0 responses. What am I doing wrong? Or is it normal that most people don't reply? Should I change my approach?" My guess would be that most people probably classify your email as spam and never even read it. But your entire approach is limiting your possibility of success.

1. How do you keep your emails from being classified as spam?
2. Are you sending out enough sales messages to test different sales pitches? Using only a single sales pitch dooms you to failure if you get it wrong.
3. Why are you limiting your marketing to unsolicited emails?
4. Have you tried advertising your product for people who are looking for something like it? (Google Adwords, Bing, ????)
5. Do you blog or write articles about your product?
6. Have you tried Press Releases to spread the word about your product?
7. What about trade shows for your industry?
8. Are there conferences for your industry- could you present a paper there?
9. Have you tried networking in person?

What I read from your post is that you're trying to sell to professional Salespeople. That is a monumental challenge IMHO. Why are you targeting Sales Directors/Execs at target organizations? Their job is usually to sell their product, not necessarily to buy yours.

In addition to the recommendations from GaryE, I'd also recommend you change the approach. In general, you'd probably want to target Marketing and Sales Operations (if your target audience is large enough to have a separate Sales Ops function).

First, Marketing is a good target mainly because the marketing function is often tied to lead gen. So, why not target the group going after leads as opposed to Salespeople, who are usually tasked with taking a qualified lead and selling the product?

Second, Sales Ops is also a secondary Sales function to target. Sales ops does the backend work for Sales organizations. Sales ops are usually tasked with managing the grunt work. Sales ops may not have a separate budget for anything related to leads, but they may have influence and usually reports into VP of Sales.

It sounds as though you are seeking to improve the quality of your sales leads in order to sell your product which intends to . . . . improve the quality of sales leads.

My assumption is that there is a methodology to your software -- a theory upon which it is based -- what if you applied it to yourself?

You could focus on improving the quality of your emails, or your phone calls, or even the networking meetings that you go it. That might work -- and it is worth a try.

But you already know what does work -- so go with it and expand on it. Build a network of trusted advisers who will provide you warm referrals. Ask your existing customers for permission to put together a case study and to be able to distribute it. Ask your existing customers for a referral.

The vast majority of the sales leadership that I have met in companies are in a "selling mode" -- not a "buying mode" -- so if you are not addressing a critical felt need that they are looking to resolve right now it will be very hard to capture the "air time" If your product is an "improvement" or an "enhancement" than I recommend you consider how it gets bundled as an enhancement or improvement on existing platforms they have already adopted -- like a CRM. And that you leverage the existing sales channels these platforms have already developed.

In addition to everyone's great suggestions, make sure that you personalize your pitch (whether it be by phone or email) and try to be brief. Also, try to grab their attention immediately so that they are willing to hear you out. For example, if you left a voicemail that started with, "With the use of my service, your competitor improved their sales conversion rate by 75%. Call me back at (xxx)555-1212 if you'd like to hear how I can do the same for your team.", it may persuade them to call you back.

Hire a sales guy/team who has worked in enterprise sales and knows your target market. Hopefully he'll bring a contact database with him.

Get him to hit the phones hard to get some meetings booked.