Regardless of title — inside sales rep, outbound business development, customer success associate, or founder — selling fundamentals and skills are a critical part of growth in the financial technology (FinTech) industry. When optimized and supported within a company’s culture, the sales function creates opportunities for teammates to shine, build strong relationships, become brand ambassadors, and strengthen a firm’s overall performance. When overlooked as a low priority with poor resources allocated, the salesperson is left unsupported to fight for themselves in a losing battle against management and their annual quota.

Gone are the days of sales acronyms, such as ABC (Always Be Closing) and AIDA (Attention, Interest, Decision, Action). As we start a new year and a new decade in 2020, let’s establish the skills that build best-in-class sales teams, and focus on sustainable practices that deliver long-term value to all industry verticals in FinTech.

SUMMARY:

• Effective salespeople are consultants and partners, not vendors or sellers;

• As consultants, sales staff must deliver deep domain expertise AND discovery of client-specific problems and needs; customers are not the industry experts to know what customized solutions are needed;

• The bigger the customer pain (or need), the larger amount of value (and revenue) an appropriate solution delivers;

• Always bring more value with your ‘offer’, in comparison to your ‘ask’ of the client.

fintech SALES 2.020

No more “one and done” sales in the business world. As technology and innovation have disrupted traditional corporate models of lengthy, one-sided contracts between buyers and sellers — subscription-based, SaaS structures have emerged and empowered customers to be able to change providers easily and at low switching costs. Based upon a client’s ability to freely renew or decline their upcoming contract extension, companies must build strong relationships from the beginning and stay connected closely to existing customers — now more than ever.

A new customer acquisition and contract signing has become only the start of (hopefully) a long-term relationship — one in which the sales (or customer success) team should keep ongoing engagement with clients. This especially holds true for FinTech providers that compete in a global, high-growth industry that’s crowded with multiple options and alternatives for customers.
Salespeople are now the face of a company, quarterback of customer relationships, and internal adviser to executive leaders looking to stay ahead of what clients want in the future. It only makes sense that these teammates should be considered partners externally to customers and advisers internally to decision makers. Let’s break this down further:

• PARTNERS: Having a partner is completely different than having a vendor. A partner relationship exudes clear and open communication, and a deep commitment in working together to find a solution for moving forward — there’s a sense of trust and belief on both sides. A vendor is seen as expendable and interchangeable with numerous options to easily choose from — to be used as a tool on an as-needed basis for a narrow, one-dimensional purpose.

• ADVISERS: Who better to provide actual customer feedback on what’s working and what’s not? Being able to frequently interface with prospects and knowing in detail why deals or clients are being lost (especially to competitors) is immensely valuable. Having insight of common themes in requests from certain target customers can enhance internal offerings for quality usage of products and services (in the short-term). High-caliber salespeople that deliver the capability of advisers are also able to increase their production externally based on the reputation they build within an industry’s community.

Let’s make sure to toss out the past sales generation’s “secret formulas” that don’t work with the new models of products and sales cycles. One last example, the widely-used qualification model of BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing) no longer applies as customers will move as many resources as needed for the best customized solution that solves all problems and root causes.

WHAT IT TAKES TO BECOME ‘the’ SALES Partner

The path to FinTech sales partner requires a significant upfront investment and ongoing commitment of time and effort. There are no shortcuts or a magical “check-the-box” list that makes a B2B salesperson immediately successful. For FinTech in particular, there’s a tremendous responsibility by all parties to get the sales process right from the start. Overall customer expectations on time, cost, and ability to execute are linked to the sales team covering all angles through detailed discovery discussions. The quality of information at the discovery stage has a direct connection to the qualification of a prospect, and ultimately the entire quality of the relationship — getting this driver right from the start (and refusing to rush this component) impacts the success of the whole sales cycle. It takes concentration and patience that pays off with tremendous value to you and your customer. Discovery must focus on:

• The current status and destination of a prospect: Where does your customer live today? What is reality (from their perspective)? Help them define this point of origin by understanding what they are dealing with, how they’re operating, who’s involved, why it’s happening, and the outcomes they’re currently experiencing. This is the starting line for your prospect. Similarly, you must define where do they see themselves in 12, 18, or 24 months — where do they want to finish? There’s a direct correlation between how much a salesperson knows about the buyer’s present and future status, and the probability to win the deal. Here are critical elements to identify and describe current status:

  • Literal and physical facts about the customer, such as company history, background of founders or executives, team they’ve hired (and their skill set), funding, timeline to make a decision, expected launch date, current development of product (or MVP);

  • Minor investigation and due diligence on ability to execute from start-to-finish, their understanding of the market as a whole (especially the levels of risk in financial services), how their product will be differentiated in the market, and what their macro revenue (monetization) model will be;

  • Understanding everything that’s happening in their organization as it relates to what you sell such as the internal decision-making process.

• Pain (i.e. problems) and their impact: Even though two different companies may be asking for a similar product, each will have different problems with different impacts. As a result, no two prospects will look the same AND should not be sold the same way. Sales teams must identify and prove the existence of a clear problem (or group) of them, and understand the negative impact these problems are having on the prospective customer. For example, a company wants to offer a debit program and is looking for a card issuance partner that can help them launch in 3 months — the problem is that they have limited funding to launch and need market usage before seeking further funding. The impact of this problem is that burning through current funding without getting into market would be a failure and minimize their ability to gain future funding. Key reminders in identifying customer pain:

  • Problems are only problems when the impact is negative and uncomfortable;    

  • You’re not selling the product – you’re selling the impact your product will have on your buyer’s environment;

  • Focus on selling change not product or services.

• Find the root cause to find the solution: As a salesperson you must list all of a customer’s problems, impacts, and identify the root causes that are causing the pain. Once you know what the root cause (of the problem) is, you’ll know the appropriate solution. It’s not enough to understand the problem exists; you must understand why it exists to demonstrate how you can solve the problem. Showcase your expertise in knowing how to solve their problem because you know why it exists.

  • In the example above, the root cause of their MVP being too complex as an initial offering was impacting their ability to launch on time with current funding. Simplifying into separate phases of development and focusing on the first phase to be funded with their current seed round, would allow the customer enough time to go live and test the market before requesting additional fundraising (for their second phase). Your recommendation to scale back the initial product request for their MVP allowed the project to have a chance to go live in the short-term.

Discovery strategy is your time to shine and ultimately can be a foolproof, qualifying method. Maintain complete focus on the client. The potential sale is truly won or lost at this stage. Lack of information, missing key points, or incorrect diagnosis of the problem would cause a breakdown in the process and lead to an unresponsive or uncooperative customer.

NOT ALL PROSPECTS ARE CREATED EQUAL

During a discovery session, it’s possible to uncover that a prospect is not going to be a match. That’s actually a good thing! It’s beneficial to both sides (buyer and seller) to identify as early as possible if there is a fit. For a salesperson, the best quality leads are the ones which have the biggest gap between present and future status, and therefore the most value to earn. A few reasons why a prospect may not be the right fit from the start:

• Narrow distance between the start and finish line; customer needs something simple that’s readily available;

• Client is not willing to be transparent, or go on the sales journey with you; its difficult to help clients if they aren’t being open about what they need;

• Prospect may lack funding, experience, or other resources to get to a point where they can launch; the company is likely at an early or exploratory stage.

For customers that do have a large gap that your solution can address AND the resources (with willingness) to work with you — build a deep relationship from the very beginning as a partner. Commit the investment of time and effort to know their company, team, product, and mission both inside and out. Be responsive and proactive with efficient communication and expertise that they would find valuable. Even if the customer is not ready to commit to signing up for your solution right away, continue to stay engaged through active communication from consistent and timely follow-up .

COMMUNICATION IS still the KEY in b2b fInTech sales

The communication between salesperson and prospect is the foundation of the relationship. Getting this right from the start, and strengthening communication along the way builds confidence and trust towards a strong partnership. As such, the sales team must focus and be intentional in every way they connect and relay information to a prospective client. When it comes to B2B FinTech sales, the entire process should be completely customized to customer specifics, without automated email responses or forms that would dilute your ability to maintain an impactful connection. Some best practices are:

• Calls / meetings should have a “talk-to-listen ratio” in favor of the customer, so that salespeople spend more than half the time in active listening. Keep line of questioning problem-centric (not product-centric) to build early dialogue as much as possible. Be strategic in how and when you choose to talk — to sell better you have to plot out your questions and build a cadence that takes the customer on a journey and uncovers critical information about them. Be mindful of tone — the right tone is not only critical to build trust in gaining key info but also in having customers be open to your solution. Improving your empathy makes it easier to hit the right marks for clients. Overall, they have to be vulnerable — listening, using the right tone, and being empathetic will help customers feel comfortable enough to open up and allow you to help.

  • Strategy with gaining information:

    • Probing questions that ask for specific details: Record all facts about the business and your customer by using command statement-starters such as: “Tell me a little bit about …”; “Help me understand ….”; “Could you please describe …..?”; “Could you walk me through ….?”;

    • Process questions about how customers do what they do: The process layer explains their tactical details: “Share your process for ….”; “Explain your process to …”; “Help me understand your                  process”;

    • Provoking (open-ended) questions: Help encourage a customer to consider their current status from a new perspective: “What happens when you …?”; “Has there ever been a time when …?”; “If you did X, what do you think would happen?”;

    • Validating (closed-end) questions: Allows you to repeat information you gather back to your customer to make sure you’ve correctly understood everything they’ve shared; affirmations are a common communication strategy promoted by psychologists to strengthen relationships: “What I hear you saying is ………”; “Am I understanding you correctly?”; “Did I get this right?”

    • Minimal customer responses: If customers are being vague with information that they are being asked or just hesitant with responses, make sure to ask for more detail: “Define that for me”; “What does                  mean to you?”;

• Follow-up (email, phone, in-person): should be timely and based on the call-to-action from the most recent customer touchpoint. If you’re having a conference call, make sure to set the expectation of how AND when you will provide the next communication (e.g. email later in the day, or follow-up call in 2 days) — if possible schedule the next connect point before hanging up the phone. If dialogue is mostly via email, make sure to be clear and direct with the information you’re sharing (to avoid having to provide clarification on subsequent emails) and inform the client on the next call-to-action. Make sure to keep in mind:

  • Timeliness: as a salesperson the ‘ball’ should never be in your “court’ for long — meaning that a customer should not have to extensively wait for you to respond or deliver on your commitment; be proactive for how to respond and clear on when you will respond, especially when it comes to revisions or changes that need executive approval;

  • Lack of customer follow-up: despite a quality discovery call or early customer approval, a client can still go silent and become unresponsive to emails or calls; the upfront investment of time and effort in discovery helps avoid this from happening as much as possible. For situations where there was poor discovery or lack of willingness for a customer to follow-through as expected, make sure to consistently follow-up at regular intervals. This shouldn’t be a time to get frustrated or become doubtful that you wasted your time — stay engaged and be impactful with your email requests or calls asking for updates. Draw out a response by showing your commitment to help meet their timeline and holistically addressing their problems (and root causes) with your solution.

• Deliverables in which the customer is waiting for you to provide them with specific information, access, or documents should be a top priority, especially later in the salescycle. This is a great way to build trust and confidence in your ability to be a strong partner — simply by giving them what they ask for quickly and completely, without any delay. The request for pricing is the most common deliverable that a salesperson is asked to provide; through a robust discovery session, you should have all the information necessary to issue a pricing sheet customized to the customer. While customers tend to shop simultaneously with B2B FinTech providers, you can beat out your competition by showing clear costs and structure first — and clearly identifying how it addresses the root cause of their issues.

IT’S ABOUT THE FINTECH (CUSTOMER), NOT YOU

Six months from now, you find yourself as a top producer in your sales team. Your work ethic and passion to genuinely help all prospects that come your way propels your reputation in the industry. Customers are getting referred to you by past clients and your growing network within the community. The amount of leads you’re receiving daily seem more qualified, which likely minimizes the time necessary to make a strong discovery session. The use cases of each of these companies starts to overlap and feel exactly the same.

Despite all the energy and work it took for you to get to this point and the success you are starting to show, the process is not about you (the sales associate). It’s about the FinTech company looking to launch a product or service, who needs the expertise, attention to detail, and level of communication that only you can provide. It may be tempting at this point to cut & paste email messages, presentations, and proposals, or shorten meetings in order to start recommending a quick solution — DON’T! Avoid having product demos during first meetings. Most importantly, avoid giving out pricing before having a discovery session with a prospect — there is absolutely no way to provide a customized solution without any details on the customer or their specific use case.

Stay on the path that you started on — skills, proficiency, and expertise take time, effort, and actual customers buying (or not buying) your product to develop. Know your value propositions and strengths, and how they compare to competition. Know your competitors and why it would or wouldn’t make sense for a customer to buy — if there is a better option out there for a client, get out of their way and advocate for what’s best. Being an early, supportive partner and enabler (especially for early stage teams and projects) will pay off in future deals (once a company has launched and scaled) or in future referrals.

OFFER - ASK = VALUE

If there’s one concept to keep from this discussion, it’s the above equation. When what you ‘OFFER’ is greater than your ‘ASK’, you create VALUE for your customer. The most successful, long-term sales folk have figured how to structure their offer in such a way and make it compelling for prospects to quickly respond to.

Many of us are familiar with unsolicited emails offering a product or service that may or may not be needed. What in the email made you read further (if anything)? What in the email made you delete it right away? Emails that drive customer action have a clear message of what value they provide, either through a discount, promotion, or promise of another benefit.

For salespeople, being clear in what they offer is just the beginning — this is where expertise is a key strength. An experienced sales partner can mention areas that have affected similar customers and discuss how they have helped overcome these obstacles; to make it more impactful, add metrics (especially in dollars) of improvement in the message, such as “reduced expenses by $10K monthly.”

The ask (of a phone call, meeting, or emailed response) should always be smaller in comparison. In the example, a 30-min call would be a small-size ‘ask’ in comparison to a potential savings of $10K monthly (or $120K annually)! Maintain this mindset throughout all early customer interactions (especially outbound efforts in prospecting) to increase the likelihood of responsive customers.

FUTURE OUTLOOK in fintech sales

The playing field is wide open for FinTech providers in 2020. The companies that invest in a solid sales culture built on industry expertise and commitment to discovery of customer pain — will experience sustainable, long-term growth. This also opens up sales roles to individuals that aren’t overly aggressive or pushy, but empathetic and committed to partnering with customers by establishing strong relationships driven on trust and clear communication. Keeping a critical focus on customers and their needs, and providing more in an ‘offer’ than an ‘ask’ will ensure you’re providing value in every interaction. Building a reputation for value in the industry will then attract a higher volume of clients to you and your company for future growth and sustainability in the new decade. Welcome to FinTech Sales 2.020.

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