Research firm McKinsey tracked 2,000 fintech companies in 2020, up from 800 in 2015. Over the past five years, more than $23 billion in venture capital and growth equity funds has been linked to the growing sector. It’ s an exciting time for fintech CEOs, financial advisors, and investors as fintech firms continue to disrupt the global financial services industry.
As the leader of a fintech company, once the dust settles after raising a new round of funds, it’s time to get to work. That means turning a successful fundraising campaign into a sustainable long-term investment. It means building a brand, engaging with new and current customers, and generating revenue and consistent growth. When fintech companies begin to focus on growth, there are four common problem areas that can get in the way. If your team can pass these hurdles effectively, revenue growth is in your future. Luckily, each area is within your direct control as CEO:
Generating more qualified leads
Improving sales performance
Increasing customer retention; and
Enhancing productivity.
Tackling each of these problem areas for growing companies will help you build a strong and effective sales engine. The first priority of any sales engine is the ability to drive qualified leads to your organization. Evaluating the success of your marketing organization to identify where it’s working and how it can be improved is the first step. Until you understand how effective your team is in driving quality leads (or not), everything else is a second priority, including branding and advertising.
After you improve the quantity and quality of leads coming in, you must focus on converting those leads into opportunities, closing them as quickly and effectively as possible. If your sales engine was powering a car, you could think of this step as a functioning speedometer – how fast does your team take a lead through the defined sales process and turn it into a sale? Just like you completed a comprehensive assessment of your lead capture processes to start, collecting and understanding the information captured throughout the length of the sales process can help improve your long-term success. It’s also essential in driving customer retention.
To build strong customer retention, there is no more critical moment than the client hand-off from the person who made the purchasing decision to the internal customer your team is now supporting. There are no greater risks to your growth plan than low customer adoption and retention. In a traditional car engine, customer success is your dashboard temperature indicator – how hard is your team working to increase adoption and retention? Is it overheating your sales engine? To solve this problem you need to understand why your customers came to you and what their measurement for success looks like?
Finally, to support long-term revenue growth, you must foster productivity across your marketing, sales, and customer success operations. It is no longer enough to have the right people in the right roles. You must give them the tools they need to succeed on a daily basis – which includes consistently evaluating and enhancing your sales process. Consider your car’s Check Engine light and what it means – is your sales engine firing on all pistons? How do you measure success and help improve productivity throughout your team on a daily basis?
To jumpstart your sales engine in 2021, contact us for a comprehensive diagnostic assessment. We’ll help identify the improvements needed to drive sustainable growth and ensure 2021 is your fintech firm’s best year yet.