I recently started a new tech sales role providing digital and cloud services to the financial services industry.

Anonymous

February 16,2023 at 7:09PM UTC

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I recently started a new tech sales role providing digital and cloud services to the financial services industry. My main objective is building a pipeline with accounts that my company has no existing relationship with.

While interviewing, leadership said they understood how challenging it would be building a new pipeline from nothing and expected it would take 6 months to really gain traction. After roughly 45 days, leadership's messaging shifted, and we were told that we needed to start closing sales immediately. In reality, management recruited too many new sellers at the same time and overestimated demand.

Building relationships doesn’t happen overnight but I'm now being measured on the number of meetings I book with leaders within these organizations. The not-so-subtle threats have officially begun…

Any advice for connecting with IT leaders and decision makers across the financial services industry?

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AmyFebruary 16,2023 at 8:08PM UTC
I would say it may be good to continue putting yourself out there if recruiters reach out to you. Also don’t be surprised if they have a large lay off. My last company hired to many outbound sales rep and before the quarter ended they cut the team down from 22 to 4. It was quick with minimal warning and most had not worked there long enough to collect unemployment.
so look out for yourself first and know the company is all about the financial side
Barb HansenFebruary 16,2023 at 9:22PM UTC
Does your company have a marketing program that's building the top of a sales funnel for you? If yes, I would work with this marketing team to create content assets and posts that build your profile and your companies profile on LinkedIn (and other industry-related resources online).
Does your company have a license with a service like ZoomInfo? If not, I suggest that you reach out to ZoomInfo and get a demo. It (and other products like ZoomInfo) are great at finding decision makers and seeing
ZoomInfo has two great products - Buyer Intent Insights and Predictive Modeling - that I have used in the past to find clients who have a need and are open to be contacted.
Does your company have an ideal client profile that includes the company size, existing tech stack that matches their product you're selling, the keywords that a person would search if they were looking for a product similar to their product? If you have this information, a product like ZoomInfo is a great tool for finding potential clients.
Then having resources to share (white papers, industry reviews etc developed by your marketing team) with these potential clients should be enough to get meetings.
As to where to find those IT leaders in the financial industry:
-- Linkedin - Sales Navigator
-- LinkedIn Groups (find IT-financial groups)
-- ZoomInfo with the Buyer Intent Insights
-- IndustryDive.com is a large multi-industry online publication engine (it's a huge player in many industries and they have at least two publications in the financial industry). If your company has money for advertising - IndustryDive can be your friend. I don't work for IndustryDive, but I have used them in the past as part of my go-to-market strategy for more than one product that I've worked on over the years. It's old school, but it works!
Channel sales partners might also work but as I type this I'm thinking that your company must have thought about channel sales as part of their sales funnel development process :)
FYI - I also do not work for ZoomInfo, I've just used them in the past and if you want a contact at ZoomInfo, ping me.
Kelly HammerFebruary 17,2023 at 3:09PM UTC
This is a tough one since financial services companies (broker dealers) don’t tend to operate in the same way others do. There is a tricky compliance dance that has to happen and most decisions for these products are many months to years in the making.