Sales as a Service:

I love to (in fact I only) work with small software companies with best of breed products and expertise. We are typically competing against the “mega” Enterprise Software Vendors. 9 out of 10 times the smaller specialist is the right choice, sure they will not have the balance sheet or headcount and perhaps not the political capital at the prospect BUT they will likely have the best product, the in-house expertise and they will truly care about the outcome.   

Working with small best of breed / niche specialist vendors means I can sell from a place of authenticity. I know that the end customer will get the best experience and outcome by choosing my client’s product.

Early on in my G2M Solutions Ltd journey, I was selling into the Insurance market in mainland Europe.  My client had a best of breed solution for a new regulatory compliance requirement. We were competing against the incumbent large ERP vendor, who had a poor track record but was well connected in the C-Suite. The insurer and my customer were a perfect match both culturally and functionally with the product. After a 12 month sales cycle and an initial “preferred” status for my client, we started to hear from the local partners that we had lost the deal and that the ERP vendor had flown the C-Suite to their HQ and had “won them over”.  Sales management at my client started to say we had lost the deal too. 

Often in this scenario you are tasked with making desperate attempts to “win back” the prospect, which I will push back on if it isn’t the right fit. BUT Because I truly believed that the best outcome possible for the insurer was to go with my client’s product, I wasn’t prepared to let this slip away. This was a decision being made by people who would not be impacted on a day to day basis. I contacted all my supporters in the insurer across departments and geographies, to make sure all the people who would be impacted by a failed project were aware of what was happening. Articulating why they were making a mistake and inviting them to come to London and allow us to address any concerns they might have about working with a new (smaller) vendor. We pulled my clients’ CEO, the Chairman and all of the senior management into the session. The insurer heard the experts explain again how we would help them and heard the commitment from the board in making this work. We turned it around and it was the right decision.

Selling from a place of authenticity, in an often disingenuous world of enterprise software sales is truly powerful. It gives you the belief and conviction that you are bringing the right product in to solve the right problem and therefore making sure the end customer gets the best possible outcome.