How the role of sales in credit and debt management has evolved

Does the sales ‘Big Hitter’ really work in this procurement-led environment?

In the current marketplace, it could be said that the traditional role of the Sales ‘Big Hitter’ is becoming less relevant in today’s procurement-led environment. Building relationships and making connections with prospective clients still remains an important element, but over recent times more and more RFPs are led and scored by Procurement departments as opposed to the Operational side of a business where these relationships tended to be more prevalent. This is why at Zinc, we long ago moved away from relying on a single sales lead and instead have found repeated success through collective networking and collaboration with our branding and marketing team. Our approach focuses on delivering detailed, accurate and empathetic customer focussed responses to RFIs and RFPs, rather than relying on sales spin to win over prospective clients.

To achieve this, we assemble a Bid team consisting of subject experts from each department, who work together to provide a comprehensive response to the RFP. Our Managing Director serves as the board representative and liaises with other members of the board to agree on commercial terms and contracts. Each member of the Bid team takes ownership of a specific section of the RFP relevant to their own department and skill set, with our IT experts answering all the technical questions from the prospective client’s IT / Information Security team.

We do not believe in a ‘one size fits all’ approach and value innovation, and we encourage our department heads to think outside the box when creating their submissions. We also ensure that all responses are joined up to form a final solution that scores highly when matched against predetermined percentage scores. If a particular RFP places more weight on a certain aspect of our business, we focus heavily on providing evidence of our capability in that area, drawing on case studies and client testimonials.

During the recent pandemic, we had to get creative to meet procurement demands. Despite prospective clients being unable to make in-person visits to inspect our infrastructure and server rooms, we successfully onboarded two major banking clients by videoing our offices and our IT fire suppression facilities. Our innovative approach, combined with a clear understanding of the RFP by our Bid team experts, resulted in factual evidence devoid of any sales “froth” or overt self-promotion that won us their approval.

In conclusion, while the Sales ‘Big Hitter’ may still have a place in certain industries, we believe that a collaborative and innovative approach is more effective in today’s procurement-led environment.

Chris Hague is Managing Director at the Zinc Group

 

If you are issuing an RFP, we invite you to consider Zinc and witness first-hand the quality and success of our Bid team in action. Simply contact us at bidteam@thezincgroup.com