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

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