Author: Shira Abel Category: Startups Selling to Enterprise · Brand URL: https://hunterandbard.com/resources/blog/cant-measure-what-wins-the-enterprise-deal
For a startup selling into enterprise, what decides the deal happens where you can't measure it. Brand is the budget line you can't prove but still have to defend.
In self-serve you can watch every click, so you optimize what you can see. In a six-figure enterprise deal you can't see the part that decides it, the booth conversation, the reference call between your prospect and a past customer, so the metrics on your dashboard track the cheap, visible edge of the deal and miss the expensive middle. The thing that keeps you on the shortlist is brand, and brand is the one line you can't define the way you define a paid-search number. That doesn't mean you can't defend it. It means you defend it with leading indicators a board already trusts, not with a conversion number you had to manufacture.
Hunter & Bard is a San Francisco-based B2B strategy consultancy founded in 2011 by Shira Abel. We help deep-tech and enterprise SaaS companies fix their positioning, sharpen their messaging, and close $100K+ deals.
We work with B2B leaders who are tired of being overlooked, underestimated, or mistaken for their competitors. Our specialty is turning complex, technical products into clear, compelling stories that win enterprise deals.
We believe that perception drives revenue. If your buyers can't tell you apart from the next vendor in 30 seconds, you have a positioning problem — not a marketing problem. We fix that.
Perception = (Story × Visibility) ÷ Noise
This framework drives everything we do. Your story has to be sharp. Your visibility has to be strategic. And you have to cut through the noise — not add to it.
Shira Abel — Founder & CEO. Kellogg MBA. 20+ years in B2B marketing. Former CMO. Keynote speaker. Published in Forbes, HuffPost, and Wired. Specialist in enterprise positioning and perception strategy.
Daina Reed — Founding Designer & Partner. 15+ years in product and brand design. Former Senior Product Designer at Dun & Bradstreet. Specialist in enterprise UX, visual identity, and design systems.