Boris Grozev's Blog

“Doing good is doing good for you”
Bill Gates

The Background

Economies of scale, process optimization and scalability are the key which is capable of helping companies to both reduce costs and boost profitability. This statement is true for most sectors as the technology we possess today can often help us achieve those things. In financial services earnings are affected by record low interest rates. The sector is also under pressure by significant amount of strengthened global regulation as well as often outdated technology and infrastructure.  Over the last couple of years organizations in the sector have started to increasingly consider what enterprise software solutions can be implemented to help them solve these challenges. Engaging a company wide conversation around infrastructure and technology is not an easy process and requires a mix of preparation, skill, method and practice. There are plenty of methods that can be used to open an enterprise sales conversation.

The method

The approach I tend to use personally, and also have asked people from my team to try and follow can be summed up by the following stages. First, you need to qualify well your lead, you can think whether they are aware of their need, have they realised that there is an issue that needs addressing? Second, have they already eventuated any potential options that can provide them with a solution to their challenge. Third, have some of their concerns already been resolved or may all of their concerns are already resolved. Fourth, has a formal decision to go with a given provider been made. Has such decision been officially announces and communicated trough media channels. Fifth, has the implementation of the new solution already started. How this process is progressing. It is worth to mention that until this stage you are in a position to pitch an alternative solution. Software implementation can be sometimes complex leading to potential client dissatisfaction, which can be a point of entry for competitors. The final stage in the process when results are evaluated against initial expectations.

Take away

Once again using the right method can significantly improve your chances to land an enterprise contract. As the process has grown increasingly complex it is good to have some landmarks you can follow as well as checklist to potentially know where exactly on the process you stand. This can be useful when internal stakeholders like your manager for example wants to find out what is the progress made on a given client. There is a template, I have been using for a while. Feel free to drop me a line if you would like me to share.

Reference Shelf

Special thank you to my colleagues who have shared a lot of their experiences trough the years.
The new B2B Sales imperative HBR
Teaching Startups the art of selling
The art of Story telling

About the Author:

Boris Grozev is a seasoned fintech executive. Entrepreneur by heart Boris has helped number of businesses to create and implement business development and product strategies. His advisory work in Emerging and Frontier markets has promoted culture and technology change, fostered innovation and lead to tangible results. He invests in variety of asset classes. Boris is a fast learner, whose leadership abilities, ambition, stamina, passion to succeed and attitude naturally spread to others helping to achieve common goals.