How Revenue Intelligence Shapes Financial Survival Post-pandemic
Learn how FinTechs benefit from revenue intelligence tools in the post-pandemic financial landscape.
Kevin Green, president and CMO of Truent, gives insights on how FinTechs can leverage revenue intelligence to align sales and marketing teams, deliver personalized experiences, and drive ROI in an ever-changing market.
During COVID-19, financial service businesses grappled with the rapid shift to digitize processes. Digital payments, for example, surged during the pandemic due to mobility restrictions and the notion that cash was unsanitary.
In an attempt to keep up with these shifts and scale accordingly, the adoption rate of new technology solutions skyrocketed in the financial services industry – and it may not have been in everyone’s best interest. According to a recent survey by Gartner, 60% of technology buyers involved in decisions to renew or expand “as-a-service” agreements regret nearly every purchase they make, a 6% increase from 2020. These feelings of regret are largely driven by the challenges of buying technology with distributed buying teams and funding.
As the dust has settled and the pandemic has subsided, many small- to midsize financial service providers realize they panic-purchased solutions designed for larger financial institutions – businesses with existing tech support staff and skilled integrators to manage these solutions effectively. As a result, the full value of the technology has not been realized by many smaller businesses, and the implementation and training costs have tripled their investment without the desired outcome.
And now, especially at renewal time, banks and credit unions are more cautious and intentional with their investments and budgets. FinTechs need better insights to sell to these institutions more effectively than ever. Without this level of insight, FinTechs risk being left in the dark regarding their customer’s buying behavior and need stronger insights to ascertain the best prospects to target and when to do so. So how can fintechs drive better results? The answer is with the help of revenue intelligence.
Understanding Revenue Intelligence for Business ROI Boost
Revenue intelligence indicates which companies are actively researching topics, solutions, and brands related to specific products and are likely to become customers. In a digital world, the view into a prospect’s behavior is often limited to clicks and keystrokes.
However, revenue intelligence expands that view to include online discussions and interactions, enabling go-to-market (GTM) teams to segment their target account list into intent-identified businesses. With this intelligence, GTM teams can allocate their time and resources to leads who are more likely to convert.
Furthermore, account identification and prioritization are easier and more accurate for GTM teams – which in turn helps them connect with prospective buyers quickly, efficiently, and accurately.
See More: Bridging the Marketing Language Gap With Revenue Marketing
Aligning Revenue Teams for Effective Customer Communication
Disjointed revenue-generating teams can’t effectively talk to customers. How can businesses drive better alignment between these teams?
Both sales and marketing teams are customer-facing to a degree, yet they hardly work collaboratively in most organizations. Sometimes, they don’t talk at all – creating a disconnect that costs businesses more than $1 trillion per year.
To better align these teams, most organizations rely on hypothetical “journeys” based on their first-party data and anecdotal evidence rather than analyzing the actual behaviors of their prospects. How can we understand the real journey if 80% of the buying journey is done before a prospect contacts a vendor? This is where GTM teams fall behind: if you wait until the final lap of the journey, you’ve let prospects already decide what the right solution is for themselves, or worse, you have let your competition walk through the door before you.
This is where revenue intelligence becomes even more integral and beneficial, as it accurately understands the “buyer journey” when it begins rather than when it is coming to a conclusion. The first person through the door who can help solve a problem for the prospect will typically be the one to win the business.
Revenue intelligence streamlines this process by allowing GTM teams to examine the intent cues of prospective accounts in connection with particular subjects or keyword choices, thereby revealing the purchasing stage of a potential lead. Teams can then understand which messaging and online marketing assets are of primary importance to prospective accounts.
Navigating Digital Trends: Personalized Financial Services
Digital trends drive financial services, but buyers and prospects still want highly personalized services. How can companies deliver a seamless experience for financial services?
As we move into an even more virtual world, businesses must be able to provide the same in-person experience but via digital touchpoints – lest they risk loyalty and, eventually, revenue. With revenue intelligence and enhanced data, financial service providers can sift through intent signals to pinpoint exactly which content or messaging best resonates with potential buyers and, therefore, contribute to a more personalized experience.
By identifying these figures, GTM teams can customize ads for each buyer and deliver them at precisely the right moment, transforming the conventional buyer’s journey into a personalized and tailor-made experience that invariably drives engagement and interest.
However, the best solutions bring a different, deeper level of intelligence and interaction that is needed within the traditional frameworks of financial services. Top solutions today tell you what a prospect does and understand what they are talking about and how peers influence consideration. Similar to how the rise of social commerce, such as TikTok, is built around people buying what their peers and influencers have, B2B sales are peer-influenced commerce. By engaging with respective peers directly, revenue intelligence provides a deeper understanding of your customers and what they’re looking for – from prospect to loyal purchaser.
Moreover, GTM teams should be readily available at the right touchpoints. Whether it be through chatbots, phone support, or account representatives, it’s critical that access to resources and help is easily accessible, or you risk losing the relationship and business. Ensuring you can deliver a consistent user experience across all channels for the wide spectrum of customers and buyer profiles is critical to maintaining brand identity and trust from your key stakeholders.
With ongoing economic turbulence in the market, understanding your prospects’ buying behavior via revenue intelligence will be the game-changer for modern FinTechs. It makes GTM teams smarter and significantly better at reaching the banks and credit unions they serve in the right channels and at the right time – ultimately driving ROI.
Are you using revenue intelligence tools in your workplace to boost the business? Let us know on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you!
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