How to sell to institutions

If you walk into a bank with your hoodie, your DAO token, and a pitch deck full of moon charts... you're not selling crypto products.

You're selling anxiety.

And institutions don't buy anxiety. They buy peace. They buy safety. They buy trust. Even more than they buy technology.

I spent almost a decade selling tech for big companies. From public firms (Minister of Army) to old-school banks (Credit Agricole) to leading industrial company (Airbus). And when crypto came, I thought it would be different.

Faster. Sexier. More open.

Wrong.

Institutions haven't changed. They're still scared of losing their jobs. Scared of compliance officers. Scared of black swan events. Crypto products isn't exciting to them, it's scammy, or at best: dangerous.

So how do you sell them something that feels dangerous?

1. Speak their language

You say "decentralized smart contract infrastructure"
They hear "unknown liability risk"

Try this instead:
"We help your back office cut costs and audit smart contracts like regular software". Now you're talking their language.

Keep in mind two key words: growth and cost.
A business, small, medium or big have two choice when they buy something:

• Is this product will reduce my cost?
• Is this product will help me generating more money?

2. Don't sell dreams. Sell protection.

Web3 founders love to say: "We're going to change the world." Big red flag for institutions. They just want to keep their jobs and avoid lawsuits.

You need to show them how your product keeps them compliant. How it helps them sleep better, not just move faster.

3. Show up like a bridge, not a bomb

Most Web3 startups try to blow up legacy systems. Don't.

Be the bridge. Integrate with Salesforce and SAP. Show how you work with their Oracle systems. Your job isn't to revolutionize all their organization. It's to evolve them safely.

4. Find your internal believer

We used to say "Champion".
There's always one.
The Head of Innovation.
A rogue PM who's bored.
Someone already fan of web3.
Someone that need to propose something to get a promotion.
Someone who just get promoted and need to make change.

Find them. Give them the story. Let them sell it internally.

You're not selling to an institution. You're selling to a person inside it, who will one day take the credit.

Make a mapping of all the organization. How can you touch them? How can you train your champion to convince others people.

And that's okay.
It's the only way.

5. Go slow. Then go nuclear.

Institutional sales feels like trying to melt a glacier with a match. But once it moves? It moves fast.

You land one deal, suddenly every competitor calls you.

You do one pilot, suddenly compliance wants to integrate you everywhere.

But only if you survive the first 9 - 12 months of "No".

Conclusion

Selling crypto products to institutions isn't about selling web3.

It's about selling comfort in chaos.
It's about being the adult in the room while the world is reinventing itself.

So ditch the hype. Drop the crypto jargon.
Sell peace. Sell process. Sell the future, but make it boring enough that the board will say yes.

That's how you win.