By sector
Messaging for fintech companies
Fintech messaging usually fails because the story was written for investors and reused for buyers. Investors buy the vision and the market size. A bank, an insurer or a lender buys risk reduction, regulatory comfort and a reason the incumbent is worse, and reads the pitch through a compliance lens. The fix is a proposition written for the regulated buyer, with the vision moved to the end, proof that survives a procurement questionnaire and words the champion can carry upstairs to a risk committee.
How the problem shows up
The deck that raised the round becomes the sales deck. It opens with the size of the problem and the ambition of the company, which is what an investor needs to hear and what a head of operations at a lender does not. The website says disruption and the buyer hears risk. Sales calls go well with the innovation team and die when the opportunity reaches procurement, risk and compliance, who were never in the room and have a questionnaire the story cannot answer.
What makes fintech different
- Two audiences with opposite needs. Investors want ambition. Buyers want certainty. One story cannot serve both, and most fintechs only have one.
- The real decision is a committee. Risk, compliance, procurement and IT security each have a veto and none of them saw the demo.
- Consumer Duty and similar regimes shape the buyer's questions. If the proposition does not speak to customer outcomes and evidence, the compliance reviewer fills the gap with doubt.
- The incumbent is the competitor. The alternative is usually doing nothing, or the existing provider. The story has to make staying put the riskier choice.
What the fix looks like
Interviews with buyers who signed, buyers who stalled and the risk and compliance people who reviewed the deal. A proposition written in the regulated buyer's language, leading with the outcome and the control, not the technology. A version for each veto holder, including the two-paragraph summary a champion can paste into a risk committee paper. The investor story kept, separately, for investors. Proof that reads as evidence: named controls, audit history, customer results with numbers, and where it exists, regulatory alignment stated plainly.
A typical case
Picture a UK payments company whose pitch opens with a market worth billions and a mission to change it. Interviews with stalled prospects in companies like this tend to find the same objection every time: the operations director liked it and could not get it past risk. The proposition is rewritten to open with the control the product gives the bank and the cost of the current process, with the mission at the end. A one-page committee summary is written for champions to carry upstairs. That is the page the deal was missing.
Where to start
Read your sales deck as a compliance reviewer. If the first three slides are about you and the market, the story is for investors. The Growth Story Score is a four-minute check, and selling to the C-suite covers the upstairs conversation.
Sources
The FCA's Consumer Duty policy statement PS22/9 sets out the customer understanding outcome that regulated buyers now have to evidence, which is why a fintech proposition has to speak to customer outcomes and controls.
Questions people ask
Should a fintech have two stories?
One proposition for buyers and a separate investor narrative. They share the facts and differ in order and emphasis. Most fintechs have only the investor one.
How do you message to a risk committee you never meet?
By writing the summary your champion will use, in the committee's language, and giving it to them. The champion is your salesperson in that room.
Does this apply to B2B2C fintech?
Yes. The buyer is still a regulated firm, and the end customer outcome is what that firm has to evidence under Consumer Duty, so the story has to speak to both.
Can the proposition mention regulation without legal review?
Claims about regulatory status need checking by your own compliance team. The story can be written to speak to customer outcomes and controls without making claims that need sign-off.
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