The Challenge
The Sales VP for a global fintech compliance company had recently hired sales reps new to the industry or promoted to supporting enterprise accounts. His concern was that the sales team continued to encounter three unfamiliar titles, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Lines of Defense. He wanted to understand what these titles were and the importance of engaging with them to drive revenue.
Our Solution
When I joined the team, I realized the sales team focused on three personas when selling into enterprise accounts. As a former enterprise sales rep, I knew the number of personas should range between 6 and 10 decision-makers for complex business-to-business solutions.
Together with the sales team, our regulatory team, customers, and professionals holding similar job titles in the US and Europe, we embarked on a comprehensive qualitative research journey.
The insights developed from the research allowed me to clearly define the 3 Lines of Defense, their roles, how the framework scaled in the geographies, and when Sales needed to engage with them. Also, uncovered additional personas Sales needed to build strong relationships with, including the Procurement Board, impacting the entire pre-and post-sales process. This underscored their importance in our sales strategy, which was validated by Sales, Field Marketing/ABM, Customer Success, Product Management, and Information Governance leadership.
The Results
The implementation of the persona strategy, a collective effort, had a profound impact:
- Companywide rollout presentation of 3 Lines of Defense industry framework and personas.
- Integrated personas into marketing briefs and process.
- Embedded the framework into onboarding sales training.
- Sales VP celebrated a remarkable 31% YoY increase in the number of sales reps achieving 100% of the target the following year.
