For tech sales and marketing teams as well as financial advisors who’ve been prospecting for clients during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, acquiring new business has been a bigger challenge than usual during the downtime.
However, the right strategy combined with the right balance of reach and creative efforts can help fintechs and financial advisors navigate this tough business climate to achieve the right business goals and growth.
Read More: GlobalFintechSeries Interview with Trent Cooksley, Co-Founder and COO at Cowbell Cyber
Here’s what fintechs, especially fintech startups and individual financial advisors can keep in mind while prospecting during a downtime.
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Looking for the Right Signs, Refocusing your Target Account List
No sales and marketing leader will advise anyone to stop their prospecting efforts during an economic downturn. In fact, most of them will encourage teams to continue reaching out to businesses and prospects, after redefining their target list.
In a recent sales podcast conversation, the entrepreneur of a leading intent data firm advised businesses to rework their target account list on the basis of sectors and companies who are still continuing business activity and showing signs of growth because of recent funding, launch of new products, new hiring initiatives, etc. It is key to identify businesses who have slowed down but not completely even during this downturn and realign efforts to enable the right conversations with them.
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Actionable Ideas with a Long-Term focus in Mind
The focus for any growth oriented role or a fintech marketing and sales leader should be on the long-term goal given that the current slowdown might halt prospects from taking a step further and investing in a new finance platform or fintech product. While business leaders are using this time in many cases to find ways to reduce operational costs, reinvesting in a new fintech product to enable better internal processes might not turn out to be the need of the hour at the moment, but, for fintech marketers who can portray the greatest savings and top benefits incurable from their fintech product, these prospects will have an interest level that will peak a few months down the line when optimizing output and showcasing financial performance in a seamless manner becomes crucial as the fiscal draws to an end.
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A Multi-channel Approach
A recent survey of financial advisors who have been prospecting during this downtime showed that 51% experienced lower than average results from their prospecting efforts. The advisors reporting better success were those that leveraged a multi-channel approach where they used a smart mix of email, video and phone outbound efforts. The benefits of a multi-channel online and offline mix are crucial at a time such as the present where businesses are forced to not only understand and keep up with the changing needs of their prospects and customers but also with their changing habits and lifestyle given the partial and complete lockdowns everywhere, as the case may be.
Read More: Future-proofing Your Business Strategies: Lessons from Covid-19
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Helping Fintech Prospects Navigate Emotional and Financial Impact of the Crisis
The downtime is a sensitive time for prospects everywhere, for fintech providers, understanding how they can help prospects navigate their financial and emotional concerns that are a result of financial stress (at the personal and business level) can be key to developing a more fruitful mid to long term business relationship. There is now an increased need and demand for better financial management and financial planning, for individuals and businesses. Engaging prospects on the basis of what can help them meet their financial challenges and goals will help fintech providers segment their audience better (based on need) and reach out to those who have a higher propensity to buy based on urgency.
The ongoing Covid-19 crisis has been a catalyst of growth in some ways, pushing teams in sectors like finance and fintech to enable a more sound digital prospecting and seamless online / offline experience to woo prospects. The more digital friendly the approach adopted by fintechs during this downtime and the more they adhere to the changing needs and goals of individual users an businesses, the easier it will be to strengthen new foundations that can result in a successful customer win.
