Under the Microscope / Research programme
Enterprise Sales
Better enterprise selling through a better understanding of enterprise buying.
- Programme
- 10 questions
- Publication status
- 2 experiments / 8 planned
- Perspective
- Sellers and buyers
First in the programme / 01
The Great AI Whitespace Trap
Is your biggest AI opportunity actually your worst territory?
A suspiciously confident VP, 100 account executives, and a map of everything that has not been sold. Test the assumptions against Eurostat evidence.
Enter the experimentThe CFO's Waiting Room / 02
Your Biggest Competitor Might Be the Customer's Next Use of Cash
What should a seller know before walking into the CFO's office?
Capex, dividends and buybacks already have appointments. Your vendor has 47 slides. A fictional visit to finance, real SEC cash-flow evidence, and a CFO briefing card.
Enter the waiting roomThe buying decision, examined
Ten questions. A shared evidence standard.
The first experiment tests the AI whitespace myth; the second examines competing uses of the buyer's cash. A territory worksheet and CFO briefing card carry the evidence into practice. The other eight questions remain planned research.
01
The Great AI Whitespace Trap
Is your biggest AI opportunity actually your worst territory?
- Community output
- a shareable territory/readiness worksheet with reader-supplied assumptions and an exact 100-AE allocation. Scenario allocations are not revenue forecasts or account-level recommendations.
02
Your Biggest Competitor Might Be the Customer's Next Use of Cash
What should a seller know before walking into the CFO's office?
- Community output
- CFO briefing card.
03
Whose Quarter-End Is It, Anyway?
Do customers buy on their calendar—or ours?
- Planned community output
- buyer-calendar planner / expiry watchlist.
04
The Incumbent Fortress
How persistent are observable enterprise technology supplier relationships?
- Planned community output
- competitive-account research template.
05
The Hidden Journey from Purchase Order to Payment
Where does enterprise buying accumulate delay, exceptions and rework?
- Planned community output
- buyer-process discovery guide.
06
The CIO Signs. Who Actually Chooses?
Are software sellers overlooking the technical buying coalition?
- Planned community output
- champion-development and technical-validation worksheet.
07
A Token Is Not an Outcome
What does an AI workflow really cost to deliver successfully?
- Planned community output
- inspectable AI deal-economics calculator.
08
Your AI Business Case Counts Hours. Your CFO Counts Cash.
When does task productivity become financial value?
- Planned community output
- AI pilot measurement kit.
09
Are Software Sellers Getting Less Productive—or Is the Business Model Changing?
What can public financials actually tell us about commercial efficiency?
- Planned community output
- commercial-metrics decoder.
10
What Should an Enterprise Seller Stop Doing in the AI Era?
Which seller tasks are credible candidates for automation, augmentation or continued human ownership?
- Planned community output
- sales-work redesign canvas.
The research contract
What the evidence must not become.
Public data can sharpen a question about enterprise buying. It cannot reveal a named customer's intentions. The programme keeps observed facts, derived results and modelled scenarios distinct.
- Adoption is not purchase intent.
- Low usage does not establish a ready market.
- Time saved is not cash saved.
- Task performance and financial value require different evidence.
- Procurement is not every enterprise sale.
- Public awards describe a particular buying process, not the entire market.