Ep. 56: Part II - $5 Million Digital Banking Deal with Chas Puleo

Chas Puleo, Senior Sales Executive at Alkami, returns to in this follow-up episode to last week's conversation (Ep. 55) to discuss the closing of a 2-year, $5 million digital banking. He highlights the importance of aligning with the client’s business needs and the role of executive involvement in moving large deals forward.

Background:

• Chas has been a Senior Sales Executive at Alkami for five an years selling digital banking solutions to U.S. financial institutions.
• The $5 million deal took over two years to close, involved multiple C-suite executives, and was for digital banking solutions.

Challenges:

• The primary contact in the deal was promoted mid-process, requiring Chas to rebuild the relationship with a new champion from scratch.
• Timing conflicts at a key conference led to difficulties in securing critical face-to-face meetings with the client.

Key learnings:

• Building strong relationships based on trust and transparency is crucial for closing major deals.
• ​Involving the C-suite early and maintaining their engagement throughout the process can greatly improve your chances of success.

Timestamps:

• (01:12) Keys to success in the deal.
• (03:40) Positioning yourself as a partner vs. vendor.
• (06:53) Relationship building with trust and transparency.
• (08:52) Importance of executive leadership involvement.
• (14:45) Internal deal briefings and executive communication strategy.
• (20:15) Challenges of partner vs. vendor positioning.
• (26:21) Significance of texting in building client relationships.

Resources

• ​Find Chas on LinkedIn
• Checkout Run the Hills where Chas releases his newsletter
• Find Chas's art online
• Thank you to Fluint for Sponsoring this episode They help sellers build a business case that cvan sell for them even when they aren’t in the room. 
• Questions, comments, ideas - reach out to Andrew Kappel on LinkedIn