Insider Tips on Selling Technology to Banks: Action 4
Differentiate Your Value Proposition
Banking technology has always been competitive. With over ten thousand fintech startups added to the mix, the competition has become unreal.
It is imperative that you can articulate the unique value of your solution, simply, concisely, and compellingly.
Too many times, I have seen vendors who are eager to show off how sophisticated, elegant, or all-encompassing their solutions are. They may accomplish that goal, but I was left confused and unclear about what the value would be to me and to my bank.
My colleague David Milligan has had many similar experiences, both when leading new ventures at a large bank, and when consulting with established fintech firms. He has seen two main mistakes – either (1) making very broad claims (e.g. “our solution can handle an infinite number of queries”), or (2) presenting technical performance metrics that don’t matter to the client (e.g. “the fastest clock-speed and refresh rate”).
Tech providers need to understand which aspects of their solution connect to the true business needs of banks, and focus communication on these. To do this, the messages that technology providers give to prospective clients need to be:
Simple - present the problem, challenge or opportunity you are addressing in banking terms. Then show how your solution addresses it, as simply and non-technically as you can. The technical detail can come later, but the business solution must be crystal clear to your audience.
Concise - you need to be able to describe your solution in just a few minutes. These few minutes should be enough to enable a bank executive to see why your approach is better for them than anyone else’s. You should be able to do this with no more than one or two pictures or slides for the concept.
Compelling - you want your main target to go away thinking “this is the best solution for us – how can we make it work?” They should see the value of your solution so clearly that they focus on overcoming barriers to success. Otherwise, they will tend to focus on the barriers themselves.
Our final article will look at the importance of building solid partnerships. You will usually not be able to solve a problem in a vacuum, so engaging the right partners to round out your solution may be the deal-winner.