Landing the big fish: How to successfully sell into corporate South Africa

Botha van der Vyver, founder and CEO of JustSolve.

Merelda Wu, co-founder of Melio AI.

Tami Ruschin, chief executive officer of Style ID.

In this article, the first of a series Civitas is producing to showcase insights from its founders’ community, three South African business leaders open up about what it actually takes to win (and keep) enterprise clients.

For Merelda Wu, co-founder of Melio AI - an AI company building custom enterprise solutions and specialised SaaS products - the initial hurdle was realising that smaller providers hold more leverage than they think.

"Understanding procurement processes is very confusing, and in the beginning, I was too scared to ask," Wu admits. "I've since learnt these aren't standard, and found the courage to ask questions. I’ve also learnt it is completely okay to push back to procurement. They selected you for a reason, and you have the power to ensure you aren't bullied."

This lack of process standardisation means that founders often have to educate the client's internal teams while protecting their own commercial runway.

Wu also points out the value of securing named references early on, rather than waiting for formal marketing sign-off later. "It is almost impossible to get marketing permission for big logos later, so secure named references early if you can to help build your credibility."

Beyond procurement, a major roadblock for small businesses can be simply surviving for the time it takes to close a deal. Enterprise sales cycles require an immense amount of patience and a healthy pipeline to keep going while waiting for signatures.

Says Tami Ruschin, chief executive officer of Style ID, a creator and content integration agency building strategic creator ecosystems for big brands, “The sales cycle is far longer than I thought; expect a minimum of six months."

Botha van der Vyver, founder and CEO of JustSolve, an Intelligent Transformation partner specialising in strategic advisory, custom software, data enablement, intelligent automation, and ethical AI, echoes this reality.

"The best case for a corporate sales cycle is six months, but normally it's nine," Van der Vyver says. "And I wish I knew how to navigate the decision-making tree quicker to identify an internal champion - someone who will actively drive your case when you’re not in the room."

Just be yourself

A common trap for many young companies is changing who they are to fit the corporate mould, whether through adopting stuffy jargon or mimicking traditional enterprise behaviour.

"In the beginning, we thought we needed to tone down our personality as an agency to fit into the corporate world," says Ruschin. "Then we realised that corporates were looking to us precisely for the fresh thinking, agility, and cultural insights that they struggle with internally. Once we leaned into what made us different rather than trying to fit in, our business started to grow significantly."

Similarly, Wu found that trying to replicate traditional B2B networking strategies, like corporate golf days, isn't necessary to win high-value contracts.

"We’re a women-led company and I don’t golf, but when you see competitors hosting them, you consider learning," Wu smiles. "We realised it wasn’t essential when we started winning major bids over competitors who do host golf days. We also don't gate our content. A lot of people feel if you share your secret sauce, others will replicate it. But if it’s that easy to replicate, you don’t have a secret sauce."

Instead of gating knowledge, Wu says, Melio focuses on building trust through attending meetups, speaking at events and hosting practical webinars.

"Clients might not buy initially, but when they see us sharing consistently good technical content, they know we can execute," she says.

Long-term partner potential

Ultimately, enterprise clients are looking for partners who can help them solve complex business problems, even if the collaboration isn't as seamless as a founder might hope at the start.

"We found out that relationships matter as much as the service offering, if not more," says Ruschin, "I thought the best creative ideas would automatically win clients over, but it’s trust, consistency, and relationships that get you through the door. Corporates want partners and strategic advisors - they don’t want to be another number in an agency's portfolio.”

"I thought that if you were really good at what you do, it would be enough," reflects Van der Vyver. "I also assumed people would disclose budgets and information to help us get to a viable solution together in a collaborative way. The reality is far less collaborative. Once you need to go beyond word-of-mouth and referrals, marketing to enterprise personas is a constantly changing landscape. We had to shift our positioning from execution to advising on high-level strategy and tech roadmaps to get in front of the right leaders."

While the enterprise market remains a challenging space to navigate, the consensus among these founders is clear: success comes down to commercial alignment, patience, and the authenticity to solve real business outcomes without losing your unique identity in the process.