Budget Season – NOW is the time to plant the seeds for your next harvests
While clients are already planning next year’s budgets sales people try to close their year end business. Who is out of sync? And what does that mean?
Most Business, Information Technology and Procurement managers in financial institutions, especially the larger ones, are making a start with their budgets for 2015. To the contrary, sales people are busy working on their fourth quarter closings … whilst their existing and potential clients are mainly focussed on next year already.
Who is in and who is out of synch?
This is but another great example on how important it is for sales people to align and synchronize with their clients … and stay in sync. Your closing of fourth quarter deals should ideally rely on a timeline that is already agreed in advance with the major stakeholders in your customer base.
Thus, NOW is time to make sure the “next big thing” is fully understood and well coordinated. So the question is
HOW can you help your clients to plan budgets for next year and be part of the process?
Have you already created a business plan with a striking Return on Investment (RoI) to address their biggest pain points?
Have you explored how next generation solutions can be supported by creative commercial models?
Is there a Software As A Service (SaaS) opportunity or even a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) in play?
Do you need partners to create and pursue your irresistible offer?
No doubt, you will need in-depth understanding of your client’s business. NOW is the time of the year where you can have the biggest impact. Quite often, we get objections like “if the budgets are not approved it is not worth to allocate valuable resources on an account”. That is a good point and of course this exercise will need some careful qualification to reduce the probability of wasting time. However, if you are not part of the planning process somebody else might take that role. If so, you will need to deal with structured procurement processes, respond to Request For Proposal (RFPs) and compete on price – and it will become tough to make a difference.
“To Be Part of The Process, or, Not To Be, … That’s The Question.” And, the choice is yours.
Our call for action?
Let us outline how we help you plant the seeds for your next harvests whilst closing those important forth quarter sales at the same time