Complex Sales Cycles
Here I am again in Holland. Came here quite a lot last year, and also spent a lot of time in Belgium. I mentioned this already, but something else is now on my mind. I have been talking to these two main customers for about two and half years, and a year and half respectively. That means that either they (partially) or SAP has paid for me to engage them in process of deciding to take SAP for all of part of a main business project. In the case of the SAP stuff that I work on, this means other IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards,) or Basel II reporting, which is part of the capital adequacy framework for banking. (Banks have to keep enough cash on hand basically to make sure that if a lot of people turned up all at once and asked for their money, the bank would have enough to cover it. Sounds simple, but guess what, these days, it isn't.)
I've been thinking a bit about what is the real purpose of this blog, and it should be about something that I have unique knowledge of, am good at, is interesting, and might make someone else's life easier, or ideally, want to make their life easier by asking me to do something for them.
What would that be? Well, what do I do?
I know SAP. (Good stuff, complex and interesting subject, but I feel generally well catered for, and actually, as I work with the development groups I can never remember what is public or not, and this inhibits blogging about it somewhat, at least in technical details.)
I know banking. I have a good knowledge of banking from an accounting and risk point of view, and while it is useful, it is the ultimate example of why jobs pay well: either because they are so hard to do that no-one can do them, and so the skills are in short supply, or because the job is so boring that there is no conceivable other reason why you would do them. This is the first multiplied by the second.
I know how to sell. I have been selling SAP solutions, not as a salesman, but as the lead consultant that convinces the customer that the project is possible and should be undertaken. This is the bit that makes the money move, and is of more general interest.
So, I will be talking about other things as well, but this is what the blog is going to concentrate on for the most part. Cardboard Spaceship. Making the complex sale, in IT or otherwise.
Who have I done this for in Banking? That I can talk about, I would claim major involvement in:
NatWest in the late nineties
Swiss Bank Corporation (latterly UBS)
Lloyds TSB
ABN AMRO (London and Holland)
Nordea (Scandinavia)
Kaupthing (Iceland's biggest bank, and insanely acquisitive)
Barclays Bank
Royal and Sun Alliance
Pearson Group (Home of the Financial Times)
Commerzbank
EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development)
ABSA (Affiliated Banks of South Africa)
Standard Bank of South Africa
I have also done others, but I cannot talk about some stuff that is either not reported for IFRS accounting reasons, or confidentiality reasons. However, this is what I do, and I do it well. What the blog is going to look at is how I have done it, what the factors that surrounded me were, and how you might decide for yourself if you are succeeding.
Lots of people talk about marketing. (My good friend Hugh on GapingVoid is a good example, Seth Godin is definitely another.) This is not about marketing, this is about selling. Especially it is about selling outside of the FMCG type arena where one-to-one communication and direct influence are the major aspects.
Selling is hard, and most people are not good at it. It can be learnt, and as with all skills, sometimes much must be unlearned first.
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