HOW TO COMPETE FOR ENTERPRISE SALES.

WRQ is a good-sized company (last year's revenues topped $146 million) with a solid reputation for delivering PC-to-mainframe connectivity products, mostly at the department level. But lately the company has set its sights on larger "enterprise application integration" deals--a market where WRQ "doesn't always have the same sponsorship and visibility" as its much-bigger competitors, says sales vice president Don Miller.

"Our challenge," says Miller, "is to shift from being a company that has done really well at selling smaller deals to being a company that does really well selling at an enterprise level." So far, he says, WRQ has found that four tactics have been especially helpful in making this transition:

* Create a two-level sales team: "The sales process doesn't change much at the enterprise level," says Miller. "What does change is the number of people involved, on both sides. And if your own people don't understand their role, you can create complete chaos." One good approach, he suggests, is to put a small sales team (typically two people) in charge of the overall relationship, and then create an "overlay" team of specialists in systems engineering, professional services, and other key support functions. "Having this kind of backup also makes the sales team more confident," he adds.

* Find projects in trouble: Rather than face off against "entrenched" competitors, Miller says his sales people look for customers with projects that are bogged down or failing. "If we can fix enough of these, that gives us the ammunition we need to go to the CIO and ask to be adopted as a standard."

* Ask for help: Installed-base customers are often surprisingly willing to help a vendor they like, Miller points out. "It's foolish to expect that they'll do all the heavy work for us, but they're usually great about telling us about company rumors and how to navigate the organization."

* Offer "granular" pricing: "We don't close the door on smaller deals," says Miller. "Most of our competitors have a $500,000 minimum price point--ours is $20,000, and we know how to make money on deals like this." Being willing to talk about small transactions is a very different strategy than price-cutting, he notes. "In a fully deployed environment, our prices aren't that different from the competition."

Don Miller, vice president of North American sales, WRQ, 1500 Dexter Ave. N., Seattle, Wash. 98109; 206/217-7500. E-mail: donm@wrq.com.