This is a very difficult market to break into, and lots of people are trying right now.
My first piece of advice is to build up your size and trustworthiness as much as possible. Large companies won't buy from you if you have no standing in the market. That's what you need most, after you have quality software to sell of course.
I'd recommend starting with smaller companies and building up from there—the long tail contains a huge untapped market that you can take advantage of and build up your size.
Next, know your domain exceedingly well. Don't show flashy software, solve problems. Find out what the true problems are with their current software, and solve those. Unfortunately, their problem is NOT that their users don't like using it (well, it's a problem, but not the top problem). The top problem is likely that it isn't fully capturing their process, or it misses certain savings or benefits to the bottom line that it should make obvious. Business problems are the real problems, never forget that.
Don't be afraid of investment. Use it to grow when you need to, because your small size will be your biggest downside. Even through all that, never forget that your software quality holds up the rest of your business in the end; you must balance all these factors at once.
And lastly, buy a really sharp looking suit. Sorry.
My first piece of advice is to build up your size and trustworthiness as much as possible. Large companies won't buy from you if you have no standing in the market. That's what you need most, after you have quality software to sell of course.
I'd recommend starting with smaller companies and building up from there—the long tail contains a huge untapped market that you can take advantage of and build up your size.
Next, know your domain exceedingly well. Don't show flashy software, solve problems. Find out what the true problems are with their current software, and solve those. Unfortunately, their problem is NOT that their users don't like using it (well, it's a problem, but not the top problem). The top problem is likely that it isn't fully capturing their process, or it misses certain savings or benefits to the bottom line that it should make obvious. Business problems are the real problems, never forget that.
Don't be afraid of investment. Use it to grow when you need to, because your small size will be your biggest downside. Even through all that, never forget that your software quality holds up the rest of your business in the end; you must balance all these factors at once.
And lastly, buy a really sharp looking suit. Sorry.