Deliverable 06 · The ABM Motion

Sales Playbook

How we win enterprise tile accounts — the ICP and tiering, the account-based motion, the pipeline stages and exit criteria, discovery, the business case for a £120k mandate, and how we handle the objections we will actually hear.

01

Who we sell to

A named, finite market. We do not chase leads — we work the Top-150 as accounts, tiered to the offer. Fit is defined by revenue scale and digital maturity, not enthusiasm.

TierProfileRevenueACVBuying centre
A · EnterpriseManufacturers & national distributors£20M+£120kCEO / COO / CDO
B · GrowthMid distributors, retailers, ecommerce£5–20M£60kMD / Ops / Marketing director
C · FoundationIndependents & dealers£2–5M£24kOwner / GM

Disqualify early: under ~£2M revenue, no budget authority reachable, or looking for a one-off project rather than a managed relationship. A fast "no" protects AE capacity for the accounts that matter.

02

The motion: account-based, executive-led

Enterprise tile firms are relationship businesses. We sell C-suite to C-suite, one account plan at a time, with marketing and events feeding warm access — not cold volume.

Account plan

One plan per A-account

Map the org, the systems estate, the pains, the buying centre and the path to a champion.

Executive access

MD carries the room

The MD and Solution Principals open and hold C-level relationships personally.

Events

The room, pre-booked

Cersaie, Surface Design Show & roundtables deliver meetings, not footfall (see Marketing).

Team selling

AE + pre-sales + SDR

SDR researches & opens, AE owns, pre-sales shapes the program and the business case.

03

Pipeline stages & exit criteria

A deal only advances when it clears the exit gate. Indicative conversion between stages keeps the forecast honest and coverage math real (target ≥3×).

S1 TargetIdentified & tieredOn the Top-150, researched, assigned. Exit: account plan started.
S2 EngageExecutive conversationReached a decision-maker; mutual interest. Exit: discovery meeting booked.~40% → S3
S3 QualifyFit & pain confirmedPain, budget, authority, tier fit validated. Exit: agreed to scope a program.~55% → S4
S4 ShapeProgram & business casePre-sales scopes; ROI case built with the champion. Exit: proposal presented.~55% → S5
S5 ProposeProposal & negotiationCommercials & MSA in play. Exit: verbal / redlines agreed.~55% → Won
S6 WonSigned & handed to deliveryMSA + SOW signed; kickoff scheduled.Handover
04

Discovery — the tile-aware pain map

Our edge is speaking the operational reality. Discovery probes the pains a generic IT firm never asks about.

Operations

Batch, shade & stock

"How do you track shade lots and batches across warehouses and branches? What happens when a customer needs a matching top-up?"

Commerce

Trade & ranges

"Can trade accounts self-serve pricing, stock and quotes online? How is your range/catalogue kept in sync across channels?"

Supply

Imports & forecasting

"How do you plan container imports and forecast demand by range and season? Where does that break today?"

Data

One version of truth

"Do sales, stock and finance agree on the numbers? What decisions are you making blind?"

Experience

Branch & online

"Is the branch, showroom and online experience joined up for the customer and the specifier?"

Cost of inaction

Quantify the gap

"What is fragmentation costing you — in margin, stock write-offs, lost trade orders, and people's time?"

05

The business case for £120k

Enterprise ACV is justified by outcome, not effort. We frame value against numbers a tile CEO already feels, grounded in real benchmarks (omnichannel retailers see ~25% higher online conversion; supply-chain digitisation, 20–30% cost reduction).

Revenue

Trade & ecommerce growth

Higher online conversion, more trade wallet-share, faster quoting.

Margin

Stock & shade control

Fewer write-offs and mismatches; better forecasting on imports.

Cost

vs in-house / fragmented

One managed partner replaces a patchwork of vendors and hires (25–45% vs in-house IT).

Risk

One accountable partner

Recurring, SLA-backed managed operations — not project risk.

Anchor the frame: at £120k/yr, a £30M distributor is spending ~0.4% of revenue to modernise its entire commercial and operational core — well inside the 3–5% mid-market firms invest in digital transformation. Always convert the program into their P&L language.

06

Objection handling

The objections we will actually hear, and the honest responses.

"We already have an IT provider / in-house team."
We're not your helpdesk — we're the transformation partner that understands tiles. We complement or replace fragmented vendors with one accountable, sector-fluent program.
"£120k a year is a lot."
Reframe to outcome and % of revenue. It's one managed partnership replacing several tools and hires — and the mid-tier exists if the fit is Growth, not Enterprise.
"We're not a tech company."
Exactly why you need us. You run tiles; we run the technology, commerce and data around it — as a managed service, so you don't have to become a tech company.
"Why you and not a big consultancy?"
Generalists relearn your world on your budget. We already speak shade lots, ranges, trade counters and container imports — trust in meetings, not months.
"Let's do a small pilot first."
Fair for a lighthouse account early on — we'll scope a bounded first program with a clear path to the full mandate, rather than an open-ended trial.
07

Quota, coverage & handover

What each AE carries, and how a win becomes a delivered, renewing account.

Minimum qualified pipeline coverage vs forward target
10–14
Enterprise-equivalent closes per AE per year at maturity
≥25%
Win rate on qualified (S3+) opportunities

Clean handover: on signature the AE runs a joint kickoff with the delivery pod and CSM — account plan, systems context, success criteria and the 90-day onboarding are transferred in a single session. Sales stays the executive sponsor; delivery and success own the recurring relationship (see the Execution Playbook).