You need a solution to boost your B2B FinTech sales? If you're not convinced, here are six tips from a professional who has interviewed many successful and struggling fin tech sales professionals.
The fintech industry is a rapidly developing market, and it's no surprise that fintech sales interviews are evolving too.
With fintechs popping up all over the world, there’s more competition than ever before.
Expanding your customer base will help you stand out from the crowd, but with so many companies vying for attention, how can you do this?
In this post we’ll look at some of our top sales interview tips to boost your B2B sales success.
In fintech sales interviews, it’s important to take a personalised approach. Tailor your pitch to the individual you’re speaking to – after all, they’re not just another customer. You need to identify what their needs are and find a way to meet them.
This might mean going beyond the product and looking at what services they need to support their business.
Once you’ve established where your fintech company fits in, it’s time to move the conversation on and talk about how you can improve their business with your product or service.
Basing decisions on price alone is a dangerous game that fintech companies should avoid.
It’s important to remember that the fintech market is still in its early stages, and customers are looking for value as well as a good price.
Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals and recommendations – this will help you build trust with potential customers.
So, these are just a few of our tips for sales interviews. We hope they help you boost your B²B sales success.
- Tailor your pitch to the individual you're speaking to
- Identify what their needs are and find a way to meet them
- Basing decisions on price alone is a dangerous game that fintech companies should avoid
- Don't be afraid to ask for referrals and recommendations
To master a FinTech sales interview, you need to use techniques that are specifically aimed at standing out from the other candidates gunning for the role; and the following 6 tips will help you achieve just that.
1. Research and Build Your FinTech Network Pre-Interview-
LinkedIn is your best buddy when it comes to interview preparation. You can utilise LinkedIn to find out who you'll be chatting with during your interview and to expand your FinTech network.
It's a good idea to start by following prominent FinTech firms and events. From here, you may network with other FinTech experts and learn more about the industry's ins and outs.
Data, trends, and sales cycles don't stay still for long in the FinTech field, so keeping up with FinTech blogs, press, and newsletters is a simple way to stay informed.
Visit the company's website and assess what about it piques your interest, in addition to expanding your FinTech network.
2. Inquire about issues that are important to you.
You'll encourage a richer conversation between yourself and the interviewer if you ask the questions that are most important to you.
Ask those "hard to ask" questions, too; an interview is a two-way street, and you need to be just as sure that this is the appropriate role for you as the interviewer needs to know you're the right person for the job.
What questions do you want your potential sales manager to answer in order for you to know if this is the correct job for you?
Is it to gain a better understanding of the company's sales process?
What is their process for finishing a deal?
What are the typical deal sizes and sales cycles?
Or do you want to know how many individuals work on the sales team, what kind of onboarding and professional sales training they provide, or what their career path is?
Because FinTech is such a diverse industry, you might be more motivated to ask questions that will assist you better grasp the FinTech product or service you'll be selling.
3. Prepare to Talk About Sales Fundamentals
A FinTech sales interview will delve into the following points:
Have you ever sold anything before?
What did you sell?
What kind of clientele did you have?
How well-versed in the FinTech industry are you?
Prepare for these questions by formulating your responses in advance. Collect relevant anecdotes from your previous jobs and make a list of the details that best demonstrate your sales abilities.
The STAR interview method is an excellent way to organise cohesive, in-depth responses.
4. Your most powerful weapon is your accomplishments and stories.
Give particular instances of previous achievements that are relevant to the job. If you've previously worked in sales, be specific about the particular figures and sales successes you've achieved.
If this is your first sales interview, you can certainly talk about problems you've faced and initiatives that didn't go as planned outside of the sales arena, but try to pick professional experiences that are concise and specific.
And, of course, make sure you explain how you overcome these challenges and how they have helped you become a more versatile and well-rounded professional.
5. Be aware of your numbers
It is the responsibility of the sales department to target the bottom line, and you should demonstrate that you can do it.
As a result, the more you emphasise the stats you've posted over your career, the better! Results and tangible contributions are required to demonstrate your ability to sell.
Examine old documents and performance evaluations for answers to the following questions:
Have you ever managed a budget?
How big is it?
How did your previous boss achieve success?
Have you ever had any significant projects or victories?
6. Have a major motivation that propels you forward.
This is something to consider when preparing for any interview, but it's especially crucial when it comes to a sales interview.
Sales may be difficult, as can the FinTech industry, which is always expanding in terms of products and industries. You must demonstrate to the interviewer that you have a tremendous drive in your life that prevents you from quitting.
A drive to make a lot of money, to establish a job you're proud of, a passion for talking to people and persuasion to get things done, a love of challenges and pushing yourself professionally can all be motivators.
Have your one huge, powerful, motivating thing in mind before the interview, whatever it is that pulls you out of bed and into work each morning.
FinTech continues to grow, with B2B FinTech sales accounting for the majority of the market's growth.
Despite the fact that this burgeoning business has provided many opportunities for FinTech firms, selling FinTech without a large marketing expenditure is proving difficult.
FinTech solutions may appear complex and opaque to banks and financial organisations utilising traditional methods to accomplish their everyday work, despite the fact that their key selling point is to simplify and streamline finance.
During the sales process, this poses a barrier for FinTech organisations.
B2B FinTech companies also confront a variety of major marketing issues when it comes to acquiring new customers. Identifying the proper prospect, reaching out to them, and converting them into customers can be tough for most FinTech organisations, particularly startups, because:
Limited marketing budgets sometimes mean fewer marketing alternatives Many B2B FinTech companies aren't well-known.
Many B2B FinTech companies struggle to persuade buyers to use a new solution.
The good news is that these customer acquisition issues might provide opportunities for any B2B FinTech company.
How?
Let's take a look at what you should do if you're selling to banks or financial organisations.
1. Recognize and Address Business Issues Early
Many FinTech firms make the mistake of approaching banks or financial institutions with technical ideas that do not address specific business pain points and benefits.
What kind of discomfort can you get rid of?
Will your product assist your clients in increasing their revenue?
You must discover industry issues and their negative impact on the productivity or bottom line of your prospects. Offering a product or solution that streamlines procedures will not always persuade customers to buy.
You might be shocked to realise that your product or solution could tackle a problem other than the one you originally created it to answer if you can identify the pain area.
2. Select the Correct Individual Anything that has to do with money carries a certain amount of danger.
Cold phoning or approaching a random person with your product will not assist you in identifying the decision-makers or visionaries within those firms that have the technical know-how, hustle, and motivation to push AI adoption.
As a result, you must determine the most cost-effective method of contacting the decision-maker.
The buying group for major corporations can include: C-level executives, EVPs, and VPs have a keen interest in the financial, operational, and marketing sides of a deal.
Sales Intel gives you access to a banking and finance industry database that is 95 percent human-verified and has millions of direct-dial numbers for decision-makers.
Our B2B data allows you to spend less time prospecting and more time selling.
3. Refuse to participate in FinTech Tourism
While selling to banks entails breaking down the barriers of traditional record-keeping procedures in order to foster an environment of innovation, you don't have to give away hundreds of hours of consulting to make the sale.
People who work in banks or financial institutions place a high value on their time. As a result, it's critical to establish a balance between pure tourism (overloading prospects with irrelevant material) and tourism with purpose (keeping it crisp and specific to their need).
Showing them the demo and/or allowing them to use the product for a few days before asking them to make a purchase is the ideal way to go about it.
4. Become a specialist rather than a generalist.
Don't try to solve everything at once. Banks and financial institutions value competition and prefer to be treated differently.
High-risk businesses, such as banking, have a low tolerance for failure and prefer specialists over generalists. If you adopt a broad approach, they are less inclined to entertain you.
FinTech Sales Intel allows you to research your prospects' technographic and firmographic data so you can approach them as a specialist, integrating the facts in your sales pitch to keep the conversation engaging and exciting for your prospects.
5. Learn To Please Everyone
Selling to banks can be a cross-departmental and cross-discipline endeavour.
You must ensure that end-users (influencers) are convinced of the necessity for your FinTech product or solution.
Working with a bank or a financial institution will almost certainly raise security, data, and information problems.
VPs, Directors, and C-Suite executives must be won over in terms of innovation, marketing, competitive advantage, better customer experience, and loyalty, depending on your scope.
6. Begin small and gradually expand your footprint.
It's possible that in a rare circumstance, winning negotiations with banks and financial organisations will be easier.
Trying to develop a small project and expanding from there is a far better way to get your foot in the door. This will benefit both you and your clients because there will be less risk involved than undertaking a large project.
Implementing a small project will also allow you to concentrate on providing better customer service in the future, which will help you create trust and cross-sell.
Your clients will be ready to implement your solution on larger projects in the future once you have earned their trust, gained knowledge of their processes, and demonstrated the capabilities of your product.
7. Make Email Marketing Work for You
When it comes to B2B lead creation and nurturing, the importance of emails cannot be overstated. In fact, as part of their marketing plan, 73 percent of B2B marketers assess email campaigns as "great" or "good."
You can focus on creating relationships with people you've qualified based on your lead qualification criteria via email marketing.
However, you must ensure that your email offers and personalised greetings are delivered to the correct recipient. Working with a dependable B2B data source who can give you with correct banking and finance industry data will be beneficial.
