Single source of the truth for accurate business funding decisions

Increasing complexities of empowered customers, digitally enabled challengers, and the pace of technological innovation have disrupted the banking industry since the pandemic.

Three years into the ‘new normal’ business as usual is simply no longer an option. Banks need to rapidly adjust to demanding customer expectations, and deal with the high degree of complexity when it comes to profitably acquiring, onboarding, and serving the right customers at scale.

A year ago, we held an open discussion with senior banking leaders from across the sector – big, small, traditional, challenger, private and commercial. We delved deep into what the future looked like, what challenges they faced and where the biggest gains would be made.

How far along this journey are we in 2023?

What does the new ‘new normal’ look like?

In 2022, two-thirds of banking leaders believed that they would lose market share within two years if they didn’t make significant progress. Since then, they’ve been hit with yet more challenges.

The global economy is in a fragile state as we head into 2023. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, supply chain disruption, high inflation, rising interest rates and tightening economic policy have created an unprecedented level of uncertainty, both for banks and the business customers they serve.

These challenges have significantly increased the level of urgency when it comes to transformation. Pressure is mounting to increase the pace and scale of change in a manner that delivers impactful results, and a great divide is emerging between those adapting to change, and those who are being left behind.

In our guide ‘Banking in the New Normal’, we analyse the insights of senior banking leaders, uncover where they believe the biggest gains will be made, and explore not only why the winners will be those that deliver on these priorities, but also how they can do it in the quickest and most impactful way possible.

Your bank can no longer wait to innovate. Download your free copy now.

UK Finance has brought back its popular Regulatory Roadmap webinar series. We joined live to bring you all the highlights on the key topics and issues impacting UK B2B financial institutions. 

Read on as we delve into its recent payments regulation webinar.

Regulatory change has been a dominant theme in the payments sector in recent years.

The payments landscape is fast-moving. As the use of payments, payment volumes, and digitalisation of the economy evolves, the pace of change is not likely to slow as we approach 2023. Regulators are being forced to move quickly and adapt in ways that support innovation and competitiveness while protecting financial stability and resilience.

The session explored the key headlines in payments industry regulation including the new consumer duty, Confirmational of Payee (CoP) extension, account-to-account transaction standards, open banking, and the forthcoming changes to the Payment Services Directive (PSD2).

Here are our three highlights:

Know your Supplier (KYS) is more crucial than ever

Under the scope of the new consumer duty, an issuer will be responsible for ensuring agents and distributors comply with the consumer duty of care requirements. Issuers will need to examine how every part of the supply chain impacts the consumer, even if indirectly, and they will need to develop monitoring and data collection capabilities to continuously monitor the impact on consumer outcomes.

In addition, critical third parties will also be brought into the scope of regulatory supervision – from technology providers and data outsourcing to communications providers and beyond. Payment service providers increasingly rely on third-party services, and regulators are now addressing the systemic risks posed. The Financial Services and Markets Bill sets out a statutory framework for overseeing the resilience of services third parties provide, that many financial firms rely on.

Onboarding providers is going to get a whole lot tougher

Currently, the CoP framework covers 92% of transactions in the market, but the extension aims to bring into scope 98% coverage. This will mean onboarding around 400 more providers, with the aim of reducing authorised push payment (APP) fraud and accidentally misdirected payments, and providing certainty to a greater number of payment system users that they will have CoP protections when they make and receive payments.

This represents a huge undertaking, with current average onboarding times of around 9-12 months. Anything that can be done to reduce onboarding times will be welcomed by the industry.

Data is more important than ever

Whilst not a discussion topic in its own right, as we listened it become obvious across all the themes discussed that as the regulatory landscape in payments evolves rapidly, the value of data is greater than ever.

From onboarding at scale, ensuring supply chain resilience to improving continuous compliance, delivering on risk assessment and fraud management requirements, as well as meeting customer expectations and consumer protection requirements, driving efficiency, and delivering innovation, the value of data is immense.

So how can FullCircl help?

Read our guide to how Customer Lifecycle Intelligence will help power the next generation of payment innovation, or get in touch with a member of our team to understand more about how we can help you get ahead of the new regulatory landscape.

UK Finance has brought back its popular Regulatory Roadmap webinar series. We joined live to bring you all the highlights on the key topics and issues impacting UK B2B financial institutions. 

Read on as we dig into their webinar, COP27 and Beyond: UK Sustainable Finance Rules. 

The global sustainability landscape has been tumultuous since COP26 in the autumn of 2021. And yet, it’s been a busy year for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) regulation both in the UK and globally, with lots of progress made to move the agenda forward on key areas such as the transition to a net zero economy, embedding ESG across all regulatory functions (not just policy, but also holding organisations to account through enforcement), and the package of measures to address the rise of ‘Greenwashing’.

But the thing that stood out to us during the discussion was that there is still not enough reliable data disclosure and that this is a significant problem for banks and financial institutions when it comes to risk management, compliance, and the opportunity to take the lead in accelerating progress amongst clients, as well as achieving their own ESG ambitions.

The ESG data gap

Incorporating ESG metrics into investments, product and service development, due diligence, and KYC decision-making is an important way to mitigate risks, protect reputations, improve customer perceptions, generate long-term growth, and, as the panel pointed out, protect from the risk of litigation.

There is rapid development of disclosure requirements and moves towards standardisation of ESG reporting requirements, as well as increasing numbers of companies proactively publishing ESG progress reports. However, the quality, comparability, and coverage of data is still inconsistent, lacks transparency, and creates significant difficulties for banks and financial institutions when it comes to scrutinising the integrity of client commitments and monitoring progress toward targets.

How to address the imperfect data challenge?

With the regulatory landscape evolving at pace, banks and financial institutions cannot shy away from tackling the gaps in availability and consistency of ESG data.

As a member of the panel pointed out, financial institutions not only need robust and transparent data that can be tracked, but they also need to identify patterns in that data to make up for gaps and inconsistencies - including identifying potential ‘Greenwashing’. But for many, especially the smaller organisations, this seems like a daunting and expensive task.

Hence why many still don’t have a centralised ability to collect and analyse ESG data.

ESG data takes many forms and can be found in many places (internal, external, structured, and unstructured). It is highly dynamic, making it hard to keep up let alone analyse and react to, and finally, because ESG data is big data and analysing it is a huge undertaking.

One of the panelists rightly pointed out that to date there is no overarching ESG solution for banks, financial institution or other businesses, and so innovative data providers are picking up the slack when it comes to addressing the imperfect data challenge.

How is FullCircl bridging the ESG data gap?

Our Customer Lifecycle Intelligence (CLI) platform is helping banks and financial institutions evaluate ESG related risks and opportunities.

FullCircl’s Business Information Graph (B.I.G)™ ingests billions of data points every day from a multitude of official and third-party sources.  We match and enrich this information to unlock the most accurate and contextualised view of every business in the UK and Ireland – giving our users an up-to-the-minute view of what they need to know about an organisation, large or small, for:

• Prospecting - Grow new business by identifying sustainable sectors and organisations that meet ESG criteria.
• Due diligence, KYC, and Onboarding – effectively determine and measure the ESG footprint of companies.
• Green finance – identify green and sustainable projects and companies for new investment opportunities.
• Product and service development - respond to consumer demand for sustainability-driven investment products.
• Stay ahead of regulatory and compliance requirements – monitor and respond quickly to regulatory and reporting changes.

We can help you get ahead of the new regulatory landscape. Contact a member of our team today to understand how we align with your sustainable finance agenda. 

As UK Finance brings back its popular Regulatory Roadmap webinar series, we joined live to bring you all the highlights on the key topics and issues impacting UK B2B financial institutions. 

Read on as we dig into their webinar, 'What Next for UK Capital Markets?'

What next for UK Capital Markets, and what role will technology play in the evolution?

It’s an exciting time for UK Capital Markets.

The UK is home to some of the oldest and most developed financial markets in the world, and we have a unique opportunity post-Brexit to improve these markets, securing their long-term future prominence and global competitiveness.

On 9th November 2022, UK Finance hosted a panel of experts from the FCA, London Stock Exchange, investment banking, and fintech to discuss regulatory reform and rejuvenation, the deeper purpose of capital markets, and future challenges and opportunities.

Keen to hear more about the intersection between the evolution of capital markets and the digital revolution, here’s what we uncovered about the positive impact technology will play as we as ask the question - ‘what next for capital markets’?

Evolution, not revolution

UK capital markets already have all the ingredients for success. There is huge momentum and appetite for policy reform to make sure that not only are primary and wholesale markets working well, but also how they need to evolve to further strengthen the UK’s position both domestically and globally.

There is encouraging progress being made following a range of initiatives such as Lord Hill’s Listings Review, the Wholesale Markets Review, the Primary Markets Effectiveness Project, and the Financial Services and Markets Bill. We can expect a phased and multi-level approach to change and reform over the next few years.

There will be lots for banks to grapple with, so how can technology help?

Embracing innovation

As one panelist pointed out, when you investigate the pipes and plumbing of how markets work, there are lots of opportunities for digital innovation.

Whilst delivering increased certainty of execution and reducing cost were two of the primary motivators of digital disruption highlighted by the panel, there are many other areas in which automation, data, and agility can ensure that UK capital markets are fit for the future. The panel highlighted:

• Improving the research environment,
• Improving corporate governance procedures,
• Improving audit standards,
• Maintaining transparency,
• Cutting out the middlemen,
• Cost efficiency,
• Quicker access to markets,
• Communication.

I would add to that list:

• Rising to the challenges and opportunities of increasing regulation,
• Evolving to meet client expectations,
• Meeting head on the issue of intensifying competition,
• Reducing inefficiency,
• Detecting and investigating financial crime,
• Staying at the forefront of the ESG agenda.

What is clear is that as UK capital markets evolve, banks need to engage with advances being made in technology and data science to address the challenges and opportunities presented by the current pace of evolution if they are to innovate, retain, and grow the prominence of UK capital markets in the years ahead.

How can FullCircl help?

We’ve only touched on a few of the key points here, but we created FullCircl to solve the big challenges we see on the horizon for the regulated industry sectors we serve. In helping our customers do better business, faster we provide:

• Business Information Graph (B.I.G) & API – to deliver super-connected enriched data and insights on companies and the officer inside them – updated daily
• Rules-based decision engine – a configurable, low-code decision engine to screen and onboard in seconds based on specific risk profiles and compliance rules
• Monitoring and business development – continuous monitoring and timely intelligence for proactive first engagement and remediation

We can help you get ahead of the new regulatory landscape. Contact a member of our team today to find out how we are helping our customers do better business, faster.

As UK Finance brings back its popular Regulatory Roadmap webinar series, we joined live to bring you all the highlights on the key topics and issues impacting UK B2B financial institutions. 

Read on as we dig into the first in their series, covering the Financial Services and Markets Bill. 

What is the Financial Services and Markets Bill?

The Financial Services and Markets Bill was introduced into Parliament on 20 July 2022. Seizing the opportunities of Brexit, UK Finance described the Bill as a "once in a generation opportunity to improve regulation, enhance consumer protection and create a more competitive financial services sector".

The result of years of detailed and wide-ranging consultation, the aim of the Bill, which follows on from the Government’s ‘Future Regulatory Framework’ review, is to tailor financial services regulation to UK markets in order to bolster the competitiveness of the UK and as a global financial centre, delivering better outcomes for customers and business.

In addition to creating an open and global financial hub that will boost the competitiveness of UK markets, promote the effective use of capital, and support the leveling up agenda, a key focus of the bill will be harnessing the opportunities of innovative technologies in financial services.

Hence FullCircl was excited to join a debate hosted by UK Finance on 7^th November 2022, on this very topic.

Regulatory Roadmap

This session, hosted by Sarah Boon, MD Corporate Affairs and Strategic Policy at UK Finance, saw a panel of industry luminaries dissect what’s proposed in the Bill, its implications for how the regulators will set standards in future, as well as to reflect on the key regulatory priorities it signals for the banking and finance sector heading into 2023.

While much of the discussion focussed on what we can expect as the Bill moves through parliament for further scrutiny and approval, we picked out several key themes and have some early thoughts on how banks and FSIs can deliver on the rules of the Bill, and the role technology will play in defining successful implementation and beyond.

Embracing the opportunities

Here are our key takeaways:

1. Nimble Response

The panel were clear that to implement the Bill, banks and FSI’s will need to be nimble, open, and fluid in the response, but feared that there simply might not be enough capacity or people with the right level of expertise to implement the rules at pace.

Banks and FSIs will need to apply the rules in a way that focuses resources efficiently, reducing cost to service whilst remaining compliant.

The role of technology cannot be underplayed. Successful implementation will be best achieved by arming banks and FSIs with a customisable rule engine, powered by real-time business intelligence. This will ensure banks meet the new regulatory requirements by helping them stay one step ahead of changes as they occur whilst simultaneously streamlining regulatory checks by codifying policies and applying automation rules to data at the point of need.

Importantly this will serve to boost competitiveness, bringing me nicely to my next point.

2. Enhanced competitiveness

A key focus of discussion and one that underpins the Bill itself was harnessing the competitive opportunity. Whilst improved regulation will make a start towards increasing the attractiveness of UK financial markets, all agreed that there lies an intrinsic tension between regulation and competitiveness. So how to manage both successfully?

The answer is of course obvious - investment in technology. Tools that help banks and FSIs move fast in response to the new regulatory opportunity. Whether it’s automated data collection and critical checks, ensuring compliance, confidently targeting the right customers, growing advocacy through frictionless onboarding or consistently delivering high quality in-life experiences through the use of continuous compliance and valuable engagements at every stage of the customer lifecycle.

3. The importance of collaboration

The successful implementation of the Bill by banks and FSIs will be determined not only by speed, but also by collaboration. In particular we would draw your attention to the importance of collaboration with fintechs.
The Bill promotes the use of digital sandboxes, that will serve to enable a diverse range of financial institutions accelerating their business transformation in response.

This is a radical reform to support innovation. Digital sandboxes offer a fantastic environment to solve the biggest challenges through collaboration, providing the opportunity for banks and FSIs to securely evaluate the tools they need to deliver on regulatory requirements, whilst grasping the many opportunities it affords to improve the customer experience.

4. Tackling financial crime

As the panel pointed out, fraud is the fastest-growing crime in the UK. Whilst the Bill only addresses reimbursement, Banks and FSIs must work to counteract the explosion of possibilities for fraud and how to prevent it, rather than just deal with it once it has occurred.

Lost days are lost revenue, and banks and FSIs lose thousands of hours each year to manual processes and poor information on customers. Banks and FSIs need a proactive, rather than a reactive, approach.

Advances in data science mean financial institutions can not only ingest vast amounts of data, but analyse and match it in real-time to ensure that nothing is missed when onboarding a new customer, or continuously monitoring existing customers at scale – from shareholder information, group structure, UBOs, CCJs, gazette notices, to PEP and sanction checks - banks and FSIs that stay one step ahead of risks and have the ability to spot red flags immediately will be best placed to tackle financial crime.

5. Responding to the green finance agenda

In helping to secure the UK as a world-leading net zero financial centre, the Financial Services and Markets Bill introduces a new regulatory principle for regulators to “have regard” to the need to contribute towards achieving compliance with the Climate Change Act when discharging their duties.
Sustainability - including climate, environment, social inclusion, and social equality issues – is fast becoming the most pressing issue facing the world, impacting all aspects of society and societal systems, including financial systems. There is a huge opportunity for banks and FSIs that lead from the front.

Regulators increasingly see ESG issues as systemic risks to the UK financial system, therefore there is a huge focus on the ability of financial institutions to better identify and quantify sustainability risks and develop frameworks to tackle them.

Data and AI must play a central role if banks and FSIs are to move in the sustainable direction future success demands. From collection and triage of ESG data for due diligence and compliance, surfacing insights to sales and relationship management for prospecting, engagement, and onboarding, KYC (Know Your Customer), KYS (Know Your Supplier), to ESG-informed C-suite decision making.

Get ahead of the Financial Services and Markets Bill with FullCircl

We’ve only touched on a few of the key points here, but we created FullCircl to solve the big challenges we see on the horizon for the regulated industry sectors we serve. In helping our customers do better business, faster we provide:

• Business Information Graph (B.I.G) & API – to deliver super-connected enriched data and insights on companies and the officer inside them – updated daily
• Rules-based decision engine – a configurable, low-code decision engine to screen and onboard in seconds based on specific risk profiles and compliance rules
• Monitoring and business development – continuous monitoring and timely intelligence for proactive first engagement and remediation

We can help you get ahead of the new regulatory landscape. Contact a member of our team today to chat about the challenges you face in implementing the Financial Services and Markets Bill.

As the world returns to some form of normality following the global pandemic, the shape of selling has fundamentally changed. While this brings many opportunities, it also presents new challenges that salespeople need to account for including building relationships in a virtual environment, adapting to uncertainty, and maintaining productivity in a hybrid working world.   

But one thing remains constant, and that is that timing in sales is everything – contacting the right prospects at the right time was before, and remains today, the number one goal for front-line sales teams. 

So how do you spot opportunities (or threats) that could impact your sales pipeline? 

The answer is sales trigger events. 

What is a sales trigger event? 

HubSpot’s definition of a sales trigger event is an occurrence that creates an opening for a marketing or a sales opportunity. A sales trigger is, therefore, something that specifically creates an opportunity for sales to engage. 

When urgency is vital, sales triggers can highlight an immediate need or buying signal, welcoming your sales engagement with open arms – perfect!! 

So how do you spot them? 

Uncovering sales triggers 

To spot sales triggers, sellers need to watch for the right signs, i.e., those that indicate the perfect time to reach out to a buyer. Sales triggers can be found in a variety of places: 

• News – by definition, news is information about recent events, and business news is an insight into your customers and prospects. 
• Blogs – an excellent way to understand the culture and direction of a prospect organisation. 
• Social Media – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Glassdoor etc. Recruitment drives, and views of customers, peers and employees can often be found on social media before they make mainstream news. Likewise monitoring hashtags can help identify people and companies that are associated with a topic, trend or concept in the markets you serve.
• Corporate Information – data from reputable sources such as Companies House and Experian can help uncover key financials and corporate information, indicating a macro level picture of growth or other interesting insights.
  

The problem with watching for sales triggers is the sheer number of sources and volume of data points available. In the past few years as more and more information, opinion and hard data has been generated and held in a vast myriad of places – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, newsfeeds and websites, it’s possible to find out just about anything about anyone.

However, it’s often difficult to avoid drowning under a sea of data, making it difficult just to keep your head above the water, let alone being able to predict future needs. 

To put this into context it is estimated that we currently create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. But by 2025, the amount of data generated each day is expected to reach 463 exabytes globally. 

 To track and analyse such a vast amount of data requires far more computing power than any human brain is capable of. Not great when urgency is so important. 

With the right tools, it’s possible to search through huge amounts of publicly available data, both structured and unstructured to uncover sales trigger events. 

So, what are the top sales triggers you should be looking out for? 

Top 10 best sales trigger events: 

Organisational expansion and growth 

Whether it be new geography, expansion into a secondary market, a new product or service announcement, a recruitment drive or mergers and acquisitions, there is always something new going on within any customer or prospect organisation, after all, expansion and growth is always high on the board room agenda. 

If they are expanding geographically or opening a new office, then they will have a budget for a whole raft of services and products offering primary introductory and upsell opportunities to quick off the mark sellers. 

If they are launching a new product/service or entering a new market the company is venturing into uncharted territory, and this calls for different types of support and potentially new vendors. 

If they are on a recruitment drive, they likely require a suite of new tools to manage their workflow, improve collaboration and generate efficiencies and productivity gains. All great opportunities for the savvy seller to offer innovative solutions. 

When it comes to M&A the coming together of two organisations is a golden opportunity to get a foot in the door during a time of new beginnings. 

Do this now: With FullCircl Engage the News tab of a company contains all articles specifically related to the company you are viewing that have been picked up by our news filters. Head to your FullCircl news feed and flick through some of the companies in your watchlists. Look out for the colour-coded Triggers. 

Leadership change 

A shakeup in management, like a new Director joining the ranks, indicates that there’s a new decision maker in town, one that in all likelihood has purchasing power, and will be looking for ways to make a quick and measurable impact on the business. 

They may be looking at ways to improve productivity, they might be scoping out new technologies, they might be looking for ways to save money, or even opportunities to enter a new market. Whatever their individual motivations they could be in a position to talk. 

Spotting leadership change sales triggers as early as possible gives a seller the chance to get in first, make headway with a new exec and get their product or service on the management radar. 

Do this now: Get creative. When you learn of a new senior director, send them something that gets you noticed from within FullCircl Engage. Simply hover over an article and you will notice that six buttons appear - these are called "social gestures". These buttons allow you to share or take action on an article. 

Market change 

What is going on around your customers and prospects – with their customers/end-users, changes within their market or amongst their competition? Markets evolve, and new markets emerge at an eye-watering pace. No matter what industry your buyers are in, there will always be market forces that they must contend with. 

This could be a new entrant to the market, a significant new product launch by a competitor, or a shift in customer dynamics affecting supply and demand. Don’t just look directly at your customer or prospect but track sales trigger events up and down their supply chain, monitor what’s happening within their customer base to identify potential needs the customer or prospect must fill, and use the insight gathered to help them deliver a solution before their competitors jump in. 

If a competitor has launched a rival product or beats your prospect to the punch with a new service, they will almost certainly be looking to make a bold response, again offering an opportunity for sellers to help. 

Likewise, a major industry or market shift will necessitate customers and prospects to capitalise on a new opportunity or avoid a potential emerging risk, again spotting these sales trigger events can help sellers to reach out quickly. 

Do this now: Create a FullCircl Engage watchlist based on your prospect’s customers. Visit your prospect’s website and look out for testimonials, customer logos and case studies, and keep an eye on what’s happening with those companies. Find something interesting? Let your prospect know about it. 

Legislation or regulatory changes 

No matter what industry you sell to, it’s worthwhile to keep a close eye on laws and regulations in case you can be of service in your buyers’ time of need. Every year, new and updated legislation and regulations put pressure on businesses, forcing them to comply within tight timescales or face eye-watering financial and reputational penalties. 

Take sanctions for example. Complex, volatile and rapidly evolving, the current global sanctions landscape, with its vast range of country-specific regulations, is a huge compliance challenge. You and your clients are required to ensure that the individuals, entities, and subsidiaries you do business with are not subject to sanctions.  However, achieving compliance and staying compliant is an incredibly complex process. Increasing regulatory scrutiny, as well as the inconsistent nature of global regimes, is putting intense pressure to raise the bar for sanctions compliance and awareness.   

Do this now: Get the information you need served directly to you via FullCircl rather than wasting valuable resources conducting the research yourself. Remediation costs remain mitigated, and you stay fully compliant with industry regulations. FullCircl is also offering free assistance to customers navigating the rapidly evolving sanctions landscape, get in touch with you customer success manager for more information. 

Financials 

Has your customer or prospect had a good quarter or a bad one? Are they having financial difficulties or an increase in expenses, or have they generated a new line of credit or received additional funding? 

Financial matters (good or bad) can be a very good motivator to buy, whether that be a product or service that can help reverse a downward trend, new initiatives that help accelerate growth, a product that helps save money or improve efficiency, or investment in new cutting-edge technology when they have money to burn. 

Identifying financial sales trigger events can open a multitude of opportunities to explain how your company is an asset to turn things around or help accelerate growth even further. 

Do this now: FullCircl Connect can easily perform your due diligence on any of your clients or prospects using our screening service. Likewise using FullCircl Engage you can set up custom alerts to automatically notify you of any changes to client financials including credit scores 

Strategic 

Your customer or prospect could be undergoing a complete change of focus and direction. If they are venturing into a new area this would almost certainly suggest that they will need to promote, upsell or cross-sell to current or new audiences, and this requires different types of support, new thinking, or innovative solutions. 

Spotting strategic initiatives can be hard, they are often closely guarded secrets. If you can pre-empt such moves by uncovering well-hidden sales triggers such as changes in buyer behaviour, you have the opportunity to align your service to their evolving needs, publish insightful content that could positively impact their evolution and therefore establish yours as a business most likely to be able to meet their needs. 

You may also be able to predict issues that could hamper their development and impress with your seemingly psychic ability to uncover obstacles before they themselves even know they lie ahead. 

Do this now: FullCircl’s Business Information Graph (B.I.G)™ ingests billions of data points every day from a multitude of official and third-party sources. We match and enrich this information to unlock the most accurate and contextualised view of every business in the UK and Ireland – giving you an up-to-the-minute view of what you need to know about an organisation, large or small. Use the insight gathered to build sophisticated sales strategies, marketing campaigns, and product/service development roadmaps that add value and establish you as a partner that will walk into new territory with them. 

Technology adoption 

Your customers have had to navigate and overcome a variety of challenges over the last 2 years, to say the least, and as a result we’ve witnessed a race to digitise.   Like in any race, there are winners and losers — those who track ahead of the pack and those who lag behind.  Make sure you and your customer always stay one step ahead. 

If a customer or prospect suddenly starts shelling out for expensive new technology or initiates migration to a new superior platform, there’s a great chance they’re cash-rich and looking to make changes to the way their business operates. On the other hand, they could be looking for a new technology solution because of a business challenge that the pandemic has sought to exacerbate. Both scenarios offer the perfect opportunity to reach out and engage. 

Do this now: FullCircl offers complete pipeline visibility meaning new opportunities can be identified far easier, and at less expense. As technology investments occur, you remain one step ahead and able to offer new services or broaden your cover. Drill down deeper into your FullCircl news feed and create filters based on tech-related stories.   

Events 

Awards and recognition, upcoming industry events, anniversaries and milestones are less obvious sales triggers, but all offer valuable opportunities to reach out. 

Whether it be a simple congratulatory email or a visit to their stand at a conference, spotting these sales triggers offers the chance to strike up a conversation. Sellers can also go a step further. 

A new award, accolade or industry ranking won by a company means it is moving in the right direction, offering sellers the opportunity to not just congratulate but provide ideas as to how they can continue to drive improvement, maintain their position, and stay ahead of the competition. 

Do this now: Even better than congratulating a company on a past award win, with FullCircl customer engagement triggers you can look out for nominations in upcoming awards – bag yourself a ticket to the award ceremony then drop a note to your prospect/customer telling them you’ll be there rooting for them. Buy them a drink if they win! 

Perception 

The views of customers, peers and employees can often offer up interesting insights about the challenges a customer or prospect is facing, pain points that are keeping them awake at night, or opportunities to improve. Uncovering perception sales triggers offers sellers an opportunity to intervene. Whether that be a new customer success initiative, a solution for improving employee efficiency, a new marketing strategy, or a new product. 

Analyst rankings and influencer opinions also matter greatly to every organisation. If a customer or prospect has recently received a high ranking they might be interested in solutions that help maintain their position, or alternatively if ranked low they might be interested in products/services that will help their business improve its position. 

Uncovering and utilising perception sales triggers demonstrates that sellers are learning and understanding customers and prospects from every conceivable angle, from the challenges felt by workers, the frustrations felt by end customers or the views and opinions of influencers, and every one of them is an opportunity for a seller to intervene. 

Do this now: Don’t just harness structured but get to grips with unstructured data. The FullCircl B.I.G with its 270 million connections between companies, officers, and shareholders, updated daily allows you to look at the customer from every angle, and look at the world through their lens. Where are they now, where do they want to be, and how can you help them get there? 

Risk 

Spotting an emerging risk that needs action in order to mitigate damage is a highly valuable sales trigger event. 

Say a seller becomes aware of the need for a customer or prospect to change the way they do things due to potential legal issues, risk-avoidance, or negative economic impact reasons, swooping in to offer help amidst a disaster can turn that seller into a hero. 

Risk sales trigger events offer an opportunity to put forward products or services that can help keep customers and prospects out of trouble in the future. 

Do this now: FullCircl provides immediate risk profile assessments to help you quickly understand who, how and when to serve customers based on their attributes and risk profile.  Or why not codify your policies for credit and risk by applying automation rules to data at the point of need using the FullCircl Rules Engine. 

Uncovering sales trigger events is an opportunity not to be missed 

Salespeople are always looking for new and better ways to contact prospects. Contacting a prospect at the right time is crucial.  

When you reach out to a prospect based on a trigger event, it increases conversion rate by a whopping *400%. It all comes down to when you contact your prospect If you’re not using trigger events for prospecting calls, whether they are internal or external trigger events, your entire team is missing out on a valuable sales technique. 

If you happen to contact at the right time with the right offer, you won’t have issues generating sales. As much as *75% of prospects respond to a well-timed email or call meaning that if you’re not using trigger events, you’re wasting a huge amount of effort on people who will likely never respond. 

Now that you understand the importance of sales trigger events, know what they are, and know how to use them to generate leads and sales, it is time to get cracking. 

Do Better Business, Faster with FullCircl 

What if there was a way to drive down the cost to acquire the best customers and anticipate their needs so your team is never on the back foot?  

Well, there is. 

Customer Lifecycle Intelligence (CLI) from FullCircl puts the customer back in focus, reducing cost to acquire and serve by up to 80%, while providing your customers with an experience that means they never look elsewhere.   

Empower your sales teams to know who to call, when and what to say.  With FullCircl’s deep insights, business know-how can be captured and codified to improve the value of opportunities exponentially.  In fact, our clients have increased the number of leads by as much as 300% and overseen an average order value rise of 50%.   

Check out how we helped BT Local Business generate £6.4 million in new revenue in just 12 months by augmenting opportunities with real-time news, social media and people insights. Helping local businesses to gain an in-depth understanding of their pipeline, act quickly on opportunities, anticipate needs, and engage proactively in more sophisticated ways based on a real understanding of trends, sentiments, and needs. 

How fast are you read to go?  Talk to us today.