Fortune 500 companies are not dominoes. Getting one to buy your widget does not mean the rest will fall in line.

There is a common misconception among young entrepreneurs that if one Fortune 500 company makes an investment in a product, the rest will quickly fall into place – to reduce the risk of trailing their competition.

This premise is false for a couple of good reasons:

First, the people to whom you are making the sale, frankly do not care if their company falls behind their competition. They’re simply looking to hit sales or hiring quotas so they can keep their job. Either you’re going to help them do that or you are not. The exception, of course, is when you’re talking with board members, but as a young entrepreneur, even if you do get a meeting with one of these big wigs, you will likely be passed down to a lesser employee.

Second, most companies would rather let their competitors spend money on a new piece of tech first and then watch for the ROI. If they have success with your widget, then they’ll consider buying it. Otherwise, the value of your offering poses too much risk. There is no incentive to buy while the risk is high when all they have to do is wait a few months to see how things play out. After all, you’re not likely to turn down their money if they offer it later, once they’re more assured of your value.

So what does this mean to a budding entrepreneur? It means you need to assure that your product provides tremendous value to an individual inside a large corporation rather than providing value to the company at large. This can be a sales manager, project manager, marketing manager, etc. If your tool can increase their efficiency and make them look more effective, you’ve probably got a winner.

You may also want to review your pricing strategy, making your product affordable to anyone inside the Fortune company and then doing volume sales inside that organization.

E.g., don’t try to sell a $100,000 license to your recruiting software. Instead, make the license $200/month and sell it to 50 recruiters at one company. Sound difficult? Sure. But the $100,000 sale is a lot toughter. Moreover, it only takes one HR Director saying no to the $100,000 sale to sink you at a Fortune company – but there are PLENTY of recruiters to go around. So even if 10 say “no”, there are still plenty of others who may say “yes”.

Good luck!