One of the things I look at is how a blockchain infrastructure player can sell blockchain-based solutions, especially permissioned blockchain systems. A way to frame this would be to consider how a traditional enterprise salesperson might look at this challenge, and how blockchain solutions require us to reframe our approach. I started with several premises:
1. Blockchains exhibit ecosystem effects.
The more enterprises that use them, the more valuable they are. However, this is not a Facebook-type network effect, which scales by acquiring relatively homogenous customers, but one that scales by acquiring different participants with different pain points in an industry ecosystem (e.g. in a mining supply chain, you want to onboard miners, inspectors, buyers, trading firms, financiers...etc.)
2. Part of the value blockchain creates stem from serving existing non-customers/suppliers.
From an enterprise viewpoint, many projects propose using blockchains to create operational improvements for the enterprise and potentially for their partners/suppliers/customers. However, much of the value in the end product are platforms that potentially allow other service providers to build applications on top of it, and consumers to access it, and these are “invisible ecosystem players” that the client seldom consider. For example, a remittance platform issuing digital currency tokens can create a marketplace for alternative remittance liquidity providers or allow for new digital cash management services.
3. Decentralization sells poorly. Anchor customers and their blockchain providers have a balance of incentives to consider in pursuing a solution.
Many enterprise customers are highly centralized organizations. They make money via centralization. They are not going to pick a solution that promises to do away with them. But the most interesting business value created is where a blockchain needs an enterprise client for specific reasons, and that need is tied directly to the value proposition for the customer - e.g. delivering a digital currency for a bank client where the issuance of digital currency helps the client increase deposits, and the bank network is needed by the blockchain for a fiat to crypto gateway.
What does this premises mean for a sales strategy?
Traditional enterprise software sales tend to think of the customer as a specific enterprise. However, in this case, we have to consider the entire ecosystem as the customer to achieve repeatability and scalability of sales. The role of an anchor customer is important here. Consider Walmart and its role in the initial rollout of the Electronic Data Interface (EDI) by forcing its suppliers to use the new system. At the same time, because much of the value will eventually come from onboarding other ecosystem players and current non-customers/suppliers, while the role of an anchor customer is critical in the ecosystem, that customer should not be seen as the ultimate source of value creation. Blockchain providers have to consider how to create and capture this value, which requires not just significant insight into an industry’s needs and gaps but the vision to see beyond the existing marketplace.
Lastly, enterprise customers have specific needs that they need solved. Many blockchain development requests tend to be driven by the “blockchain is cool” fad, with little thought beyond an initial proof of concept as to why a blockchain-based solution is superior to a centralized database. The best customers should be able to articulate why the blockchain solution in particular is needed and the best blockchain provider should be able to help the customer see beyond its current markets to what can markets be created with a blockchain platform.