Insider Tips on Selling Technology to Banks: Action 1
Make Sure You’re Solving the Bank’s Problem
This is the second in a series of articles that are designed to increase the likelihood of success for technology companies selling to banks (and other financial institutions).
So as technology firm, you may have great tech and lots of people may have told you it’s a great idea and the time is perfect. But:
Do you actually know what specific bank problem you are solving?
Can you express this problem in banking terms? And
Have you validated it with bankers (either former or current)?
Many years ago I was part of a technology selection team for a new wire platform at a major bank. The established vendors assumed that our challenges and needs were just like all the other large banks. Only one vendor took the time to understand what we really needed to move forward. They adapted their solution proposal accordingly. Even though they were the “new kid on the block” they won the business. This win set them on a path to become the premier large bank provider.
My colleague David Milligan had similar experiences when he led one of the earliest bank-fintech partnerships (back in 2006!). The fintech had very advanced solutions that could be quickly implemented – but they did not appreciate at first the banks’ regulatory complexity. Their ability to rapidly adapt their solution and processes to meet the bank’s compliance needs made it possible to move forward. The result was a market-leading solution that gave the bank a competitive advantage.
So you can’t assume that a banking buyer will immediately connect their problem and your solution. You must help them to do that – and in doing so, you will also show that you understand banking. This is an essential prerequisite to selling to banks.
This means you need to:
Do your research on current challenges and trends impacting banks (or hire someone to do it for you).
Listen actively, with appropriately knowledgeable probing questions. Use responses to zero in on the bank’s specific variant of the problem.
Focus less on your technology and more on the bank’s bottom line, which means knowing at least a little about how banks make money, and what impacts their profitability.
Make sure you offer a complete solution, whether alone or in partnership with others. You need to show that your solution can integrate with bank technology and processes. The full solution will have to address any implications for customer service, compliance and operations. And you will need to demonstrate your ability to support installation and ongoing production.
In the next article we will look at the importance of establishing credibility, especially for smaller companies or those that are traditionally viewed as “hardware” or “software” companies.