FinanceEngineer

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Valued Contributor

Wednesday AMA!!

Hey you foxes and cockses, welcome to my AMA! after some postings on the war room, @Gasty reached out to see if I would post this week's Wednesday AMA.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm the local exec who entered sales after some time in the finance world. Funny enough, my father was EVP of sales for multiple Fortune 500 companies, and was adamantly against me going into sales - hence, the finance career.

I started off in capital markets and strategy for banks and credit funds. I have been quoted in magazines (remember those?!?!) and news articles around the asset-backed world. With the fintech boom happening, I moved into a capital markets role for a decently financed startup with some heavy hitters supplying the capital. It was a shit show, and I moved into partnerships/channels as a way to distance myself. After that, it was management roles helping direct sales and channel strategies for new and somewhat stalled start-ups.

This past summer, I was complaining to by business school friend on the squash court (if you're in NYC and want to play, I always have a court at 6:45 AM. let me know.), and he convinced me to leave the start-up world and join him selling data and consulting services to financial institutions for a Fortune 500. My team isn't large, but we produce.

I'm here, a little early as I have kids and deliverables, to answer questions and give witty retorts to your attempts to rattle me. I can give insights and advice to those who want to know about fintechs, channels and partnerships, selling to banks and funds, how to deal with management/recruiting/getting a promotion, or banking/capital markets in general. Don't pull your punches, I'm going to pull mine.

I will be answering early tonight, and will

be back on in the morning. Let the games begin!

🧢 Sales Management

29

37 comments

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oldcloser

Arsonist

7

💀

You've always had a sharp punch around here. It's clearly a seasoned one, and I appreciate your input. Thanks for stepping up and doing this.

I know very little about what you do. So, here's my layperson's query: I would assume the core selling proposition when selling data to banks and/or funds is somehow connected to finding emerging trends, mitigating risk, and maybe regulatory compliance.

Has machine learning made its way into your space as a means to derive insights from your data? Does it pose a threat?

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

6

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Appreciate the compliment, and love the question. There are two ways to look at it from my customer’s point of view: how do I compare to my competition, and where can I be better in general. So you hit the nail on the head.

When it comes to the data I have, well, it is proprietary and my competition has their own. There really is no AI in the space for our kind of data, however, we do use it to search out internal reports and docs faster. Where we do hear about AI is if it can be used to make better underwriting and authorization decisions. The answer to that will cost you.

Long story short, it is another revenue angle where I can sell consulting services.

oldcloser

Arsonist

4

💀

I love this answer. He who has the information is king.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

6

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Data is the new gold, and interpreting it has value as well.

HVACexpert

Politicker

4

sales engineer

Agreed there, data is very valuable, it’s why there is so much money in social media. Are you offering data analytics in your sales package?

Having the data is one thing, interpreting and deriving answers is another.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

4

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Yup, that’s the upsell. We have basic analytics on performance, and then offer services to focus on the business as a whole or a specific segment/product the financial institution offers.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Ah - so I was about to quibble about data being paramount.
It's not the data - it's who can interpret it the best and the most accurately. I've seen many data-driven decisions that were a very bad idea; inevitably, it was misreading of that very data that led to poor outcomes. Sounds like part of your business is the interpretation of that data; am I right? Because that's where the $$ should be.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

3

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

You nailed it. Need to explain to my clients what the data says and how to implement changes based on it.

HVACexpert

Politicker

2

sales engineer

Well said Sunbunny, you can definitely cherry pick the data to tell the story you want, the goal is to interpret it in a way that is beneficial, and impartial.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

3

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Coming from an org that a few years back had revops base territory and quota decisions on data...that was not interpreted correctly by revops...I know all too well the importance of really understanding what the data is telling you. Or if you're even looking at the right data!

SaasSlingin

Politicker

7

Sr AE

What does your dad say now? What does sales have on finance and how comparable are they?

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

5

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

His entire viewpoint is that unless you own the business or are in senior management, your income is at risk. Yes, good salespeople make a lot of money, but if the org is successful and growing, there will be more people hired and your territory is at risk of being cut up. If you make too much, it attracts notice from inner management and they look to possibly cap you. With finance, depends on what you do. You can’t take away relationships and everyone needs money from time to time. He thinks licenses (CPA, CFA, etc) are what’s important. Accounting is a way to get and stay rich slowly in his mind. That life sounds bad to me, unless you use it to go into asset management or investment banking.

Revenue_Rambo

Politicker

6

Director, Revenue Enablement

Always appreciate your insights.

It feels like the fintech boom will continue for the foreseeable future. For those who did not start with a finance background what advice would you give?

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

7

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Fintech is in the down slide of the Gardner boom/bust cycle. It will stabilize, but not sure when.

Regarding breaking in, you either have to have the sales chops or the tech chops. I was lucky with the finance background, but you need a way to show some experience. Look at mid-stage - series B/C, or bigger players where hey have a presence - bank with an embedded finance sales team, and get in.

The hardest part will be “why you over that guy with direct experience?” And you need to be able to sell the difference.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

4

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Hey @Gasty , feel free to promote or pin. I have a couple of hours tonight before I pass out from drinking. But I’ll be here answering questions all day tomorrow.

Gasty

Notable Contributor

7

War Room Community Manager

Amazing! Let's f*ckin' do this!!!

ps: pinning it would remove it from the New section. If you ask @antiASKHOLE (who did an AMA during Black Friday week), he'd vote against it. I'd leave it totally up to you though.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

5

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Leave it as is. Thanks you magnificent beast!

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

3

Bravado's Resident Asshole

It may be different now because we don't have 2-3 other official posts pinned, plus mine was like the first one. So it has been promoted and pinning wouldn't be a bad thing to do now.

SPT

Valued Contributor

3

Director, Channel Sales & Partner Alliances

@FinanceEngineer Wanted to know if you have experience with FinTech POS products? I am interviewing at a F500 FinTech that's one of the top POS companies in the world. They do digital commerce solutions for large retail and restaurant companies. I'm going for a partner manager role. What do I need to know about that industry to come across as knowledgeable and strategic? Thank you🙏

CuriousFox

WR Officer

4

🦊

LOVE THE FIRST SENTENCE 🦊🐔

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

3

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

I’ve used it since my first time watching Club Dread - a Broken Lizard’s classic.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

4

Sales Rep

You mentioned "helping stalled start ups", what are the biggest bottlenecks you are seeing?

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

3

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

There is a lot. The most glaring is either (1) not listening to their customers or (2) pivoting too much. If a customer wants a product, you should sell it. If you don’t have it, partner with someone who does. Regarding pivoting, it’s more of a lack of resources than anything else. Constant pivoting means nothing gets done.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

4

Sales Rep

What advice would you give to someone who is actively interviewing at a start up, since you interact with them?

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

3

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Depends on where they are in there cycle. Most of the time, they just want someone who can bring in new logos on their own since the sales teams are still young or the process is still evolving. The best part about them is that they have to slightly overpay to get good talent due to the risk.

I would also advise that NO ONE lasts the 4 years to get the full equity vesting.

Gasty

Notable Contributor

4

War Room Community Manager

Given your switch from finance to sales and your dad's stance against it, what's one sales strategy you've found surprisingly effective that your finance-self wouldn't have believed?

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

2

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Cold calling. I would never respond to anyone who cold-called or even consider it unless I get an intro.

I am also shocked how bad marketing is, as using marketing in the finance world drives a huge amount of volume.

saaskicker

Celebrated Contributor

3

Enterprise AE

Any good tips for prospecting in to community banks and credit unions with cold outreach? I've tried reading call sheets, 10ks and calling things out with a little success. Curious to know from a banker what would evoke a response or emotion to stand out from the crowd.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

5

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

As someone who sells regularly into the space, it’s a tough one. They tend not to have excess capital and want to focus on their members. Anything you can do show to either retain/increase member involvement, or attract new members will get their attention. You have to quantify upfront though, and able to give the analytics to support your product.

Everything else, you need to go to the board/C-suite member who can push it down.

jefe

Arsonist

3

🍁

Just wanted to say thanks for stepping up for the first Wisdom Wednesday and sharing!

I don't have anything to ask in particular, but have enjoyed reading the questions and answers here.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

2

☕️

How hard was your dick when you typed the phrase “…I was complaining to [my] business school friend on the squash court…”?

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

2

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

You and I both know that you hit the rub and tug AFTER the workout.

Chep

WR Officer

2

Bitcoin Adoption Specialist

What makes a good money?

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

3

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

I do

Chep

WR Officer

0

Bitcoin Adoption Specialist

Few.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

0

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Thank you for everyone who asked me questions. If you have any more, shoot me a message.

js2458

Politicker

0

Enterprise SDR

A little bit down the line here but I just started selling to fintech enterprise software as a BDR and have been struggling a little getting cold calls to hit home.

Basically, software helps with bank account validation and automates the process all while helping reduce payment fraud. Target personas are financial folks, procurement, treasury, and accounts payable. Any insight into a good script and/or message that would hit home?

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