Scaleups*: the industrial giant trap

For many industrial or tech-driven scaleups, the path is familiar. A breakthrough product. A solid first customer base. One or more successful funding rounds. Then comes a strategic decision that seems natural: move upmarket and target large industrial accounts. The intention makes sense. These companies are structured, solvent, and often engaged in transformation efforts. On the surface, they look like ideal clients for scaling. But in practice, the startup-era sales model often proves misaligned. And a fundamental strategic question tends to surface, often too late: Are we truly equipped to serve this type of client?

"Enterprise account" means different things in different industries

In high-volume B2B sectors like telecom, SaaS, or retail tech, enterprise accounts are often defined by deal size or portfolio value.

In industrial B2B, the definition is entirely different. These customers come with:

• matrixed organizations across multiple countries

• complex, multi-layered buying cycles

• strict documentation and compliance requirements

• diverse stakeholders including R&D, procurement, global marketing, and local subsidiaries

  
  

Selling in this environment is no longer about closing a deal. It’s about managing long-term relationships, coordinating responses, structuring credibility, and adapting narratives, all while maintaining strategic focus for each individual account.

What the scaleup sales model doesn’t support

Many growing companies have structured their go-to-market approach based on SaaS models. These are typically built around:

• highly specialized roles (inbound, closers, retention)

• lead volume and pipeline tracking

• a transactional, efficiency-driven culture

This approach works when sales cycles are short, buyers are easy to identify, and objections are predictable.

But when the target becomes industrial, global, and slow-moving – with cycles of 12 to 24 months or more, this model can backfire. Sales hires, often junior or from tech backgrounds, are not equipped to handle internal politics, slow decision-making, or the complexity of mapping large global accounts. When these hires fail, it's not about talent. It’s about the mismatch between the sales model and the real market dynamic.

Rethink the business model before building the sales team

The real question isn’t “How do we recruit enterprise reps?” It’s “Do we currently have the capacity to serve this type of customer?” If the answer is no, that’s not a failure. It’s a strategic inflection point.

There are other paths to consider:

• building an indirect distribution model

• creating licensing agreements with established industrial partners

• partnering with commercial or tech allies who can represent your solution to large accounts

But outsourcing is not the same as handing off responsibility

A structured indirect model for enterprise customers is not just about “finding a reseller.”

It’s a fully managed system that includes:

• a senior leader overseeing enterprise channel strategy

• support and pre-sales teams to help partners meet the specific requirements of industrial clients (technical documentation, safety and compliance standards, group-level procurement)

• dedicated marketing to educate and engage the market with relevant, credible content (webinars, use cases, industry-specific content)

Because you can’t manage partners effectively without understanding the end customers. And you can’t scale sustainably without orchestrating every link in the chain.

What this challenge reveals

Structuring enterprise sales is not about hiring. And it’s not about training.

It’s about aligning market ambition, business model, sales strategy, and above all, internal resources.

A sound strategy follows a logical sequence:

1. Understand the target market

2. Define the commercial requirements

3. Build the right sales or distribution model

4. Define internal and external roles

5. Recruit or train accordingly

Skip the sequence, and you risk inflating costs, exhausting your teams, and missing the real opportunities while competitors move in.

*A scaleup is generally understood as a startup that has successfully entered a growth phase. (Source: Wikipedia)