What will make a difference in 2015? Or, will it be business as usual, more or less?

We wish you a healthy and successful 2015 and we hope your execution plan for 2015 is based on some solid, winning formula.
 
Just in case you are still looking for some inspiration of ideas or a way to challenge the robustness of your own plans, here are some thoughts. 2015 will, without a doubt, be another challenging year for the financial service industry.

Given the extremely low interest rates and the on-going regulatory tsunamis, most players find themselves between a rock and a hard place.

Insurance companies are sitting on huge amounts of assets that do not yield any more than for cost and inflation, if at all.

  • The Solvency II regulation of the industry are based on tough deadlines.
  • There  is massive pressure to get data quality and processes right.
In banking the picture is not too different.
  • Massive investments are required to cope with the regulatory requirements and unfortunately, there is no chance to get that money back from customers.
  • There is very little spare funding left for innovative business ideas.
  • Budgets in most financial service firms are squeezed and decision processes are getting more complex and longer than ever.

Wow!

What does that mean to you as software vendor, solution or service provider? 
  • Well, you will need to establish a rigid quality control throughout your sales funnel.
  • Your upfront marketing budget for lead generation and your costs of sales must be spent wisely.
  • Then you must improve the quality and precision of your approach and your win rate, as the number of opportunities are highly likely to continue to decrease.
  • If you have not aligned your vocabulary with your customers’ thinking you are in trouble.
  • It is not about product features and capabilities; it is about value creation – visible and measurable, on the client’s P&L.
  • While some might still argue about discounts on licences prices, the winners have changed the game and are just getting better and better on total cost of ownership.
  • While some get stuck on negotiating acceptable daily rates for professional service work, the winning formula might dictate nothing but an alternative deployment model (i.e. SaaS)
  • Selling in an environment of continuous and accelerated change does require different and additional skills
There is a distinct difference between business and “busy-ness” and there are not even twelve months left to turn aspiration into achievements.
This should come as no surprise, … we CAN help you in many ways – thus, let’s talk!