COMPANY OVERVIEW

WHO ARE WE?

Software2Markets is a sales consulting company dedicated to advising business software vendors. We offer you to put in place your business development plans and speed up the growth of your business activities thanks to our extensive contacts’ network and proven methods in selling business software to new markets.

We can help you in a preliminary phase to test the market for your software products and build a first pipeline of leads if you have not yet decided to actively target these markets. S2M indeed allows you to quickly assess the potential of new markets for your solutions by avoiding the opening of local subsidiaries, hiring direct sales representative and having to comply with potentially complex local processes and Tax & Labour laws.

We also provide sales training courses and sales practices audit reports with high added value to enhance the efficiency of our clients’ sales teams.

By deciding to work with us you will benefit from our tailor made sales outsourcing services. On behalf of your company and according to your internal processes, we sell your products in harmony with your internal sales force and existing channels. In order to maximize your results, our salesmen meet with prospective international clients to present and sell your products.

Software2Markets is one of the first companies in Europe to propose to manage your entire sales cycle in order to develop your business both locally and internationally. As experts in business software sales and new business development, we offer proven methods and techniques to easily and efficiently reach new potential customers on your behalf. Our clients therefore benefit from our 100% focus on new market sales!

Thanks to our extensive experience and knowledge of European IT integrators, we will help your business grow faster and quickly begin to generate profit from further sales. Having already built longstanding relationships with such IT partners, we can propose successful strategies for entering new markets and minimizing the time needed to sign the first license contracts. All of this is achieved with a much smaller investment than by creating your own sales force.

Our success is driven by a dedicated sales team composed of experienced business developers who have worked with and within financial institutions, large corporates and software companies in the EMEA region for many years. We have therefore not only been able to develop a network of trustable and efficient foreign partners in this region, but also to establish a proven comprehensive sales method to approach such markets. Our salesmen use both these proven sales-dedicated productivity tools and S2M’s truly professional sales organization to ensure efficient use of the time allocated to sales activities and to hasten your penetration time into new markets.

OUR CLIENTS

WHO ARE THEY?

Our clients are mainly European business software vendors offering all over the world state of the art technology to both financial institutions and Large Corporates. Most of them are small and medium-size companies employing between 15 and 300 people. By developing Sales both on local and foreign markets, they aim to improve their market, balance their risk as well as to increase their revenues and margins through indirect Sales.

We focus 100% on business software vendors:

• Banking (Universal, Retail, Corporate, Specialized Finance, Private Banking, Assets Management)
• Insurance (Life, Non-Life, Individual, Group, Pensions)
• Large Corporates (Compliance, Treasury Management, Cash Management, Hedge Accounting, ALM)

Our customers are selected based on their Sales potential for the region:

• Mature & proven Software solutions with good customer references
• Strong domain expertise with skilled and experienced Product Experts

WHY OUTSOURCE YOUR SALES FORCE?

International Development is an answer to increase your margins and revenues by taking advantage of fast growing foreign markets. It seems mandatory for every forward-thinking company with long-term objectives. However, the whole process is extremely costly and time consuming. The following are the most significant challenges experienced by any company trying to access new markets with its products.

INTERNATIONAL SALES DEVELOPMENT IS COST-INTENSIVE AND TIME CONSUMING:

• The monthly full labor-related rate for employing a senior sales executive in Europe ranges between EUR 10k to 16k per month.
• Additional fixed costs include recruitment (minimum EUR 15k), benefits, facilities, IT, legal costs, etc.
• Opening representative offices in each new market requires high level of investment.
• It takes 3 to 6 months to find and hire sales employees, another 2 to 8 months to train them and an additional 6 months to dismiss them if they do not perform well or are assigned to the wrong market.
• The average time between planning and recruiting your Salesmen and the time they become ready to engage with foreign customers and qualify first leads is estimated at 6 - 9 months.
• Due to average sales cycle lasting from 6 to 12 months , in the best case, you will not sign your first contract and generate revenues before 12 - 18 months.
• Finally you get your Return on Investment (ROI) - if you can get any - only after 18 to 30 months!!!

ADDRESSING NEW MARKETS IS A PEOPLE-INTENSIVE PROCESS:

• The learning-curve before addressing each new foreign market is extremely long as you need to systematically and repeatedly:
  • Assess the potential and prioritize foreign markets.
  • Evaluate and convince potential partners.
  • Create partnership with local distributors.
• Hiring an experienced Salesman with international experience is difficult:
  • The number of countries actively covered is limited by the time capacity of your Sales Force.
  • Sales staff is hard to retain and motivate continuously thus you are likely to face significant turnover issue.
  • You will need to provide regular efforts to maintain efficient partnerships with local distributors and to stay informed of new opportunities.
• Existing advisory firms are not suitable:
  • They are often very expensive.
  • They propose purely marketing-oriented approaches.
  • They work with consultants who are not specialists in the field of financial technologies, etc.

YOUR BENEFITS

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

• Based on the experience of our existing clients; with an external Sales Force you will greatly reduce your upfront investment and you are likely to achieve your ROI from the signature of the first contract.
• With an external Sales Force you will shorten your learning curve and minimize your time to enter into new markets thanks to our understanding of existing opportunities and built strategic local partnerships.
• Thanks to "shared risk" model you will mitigate your financial risk as our Success Fees are based on your License revenues generated by the contracts signed with your customers.
• Direct representation is also a guarantee that S2M is accountable for its clients just as an internal sales force would report to their own directors.
• With only one single contact point at S2M you will be able to access several markets and benefit from proven sales processes and methods adapted to the conquest of foreign markets.

OUR STRENGTHS

WHAT ARE OUR KEY DIFFERENCIATORS?

Our services are based on the following assets:

• a dedicated Sales team active on EMEA markets, composed of experienced Business Developers working conjointly with your Sales organization to reinforce it and maximize your results.
• an existing network of trustable foreign Partners (IT Integrators, Business Providers) and local contacts in the Banking & Insurance sectors among your prospective clients.
• a proven Sales Methodology based on a mixed approach, balancing direct and indirect sales strategy to penetrate distant markets.
• proven productivity tools and professional Sales organization to insure the best use of the time allocated.
• a direct branded representation model: the full Sales-cycle is handled on behalf of our clients. Your own prospects and clients will always perceive they are dealing with your company directly; License contracts are signed between you and your final customer and we do not promote 3-parties agreement.

We have a vested interest in the growth, development and success of our clients businesses. Our success is measured by the success of our clients.