Software development house
STX Next is the largest Python software development house in Europe, working with partners throughout the US, Middle East and Western Europe. Its clients include Mastercard and Decathlon, the largest sporting goods retailer in the world. The STX Next business development team acquires new clients and makes sure their business goals are met
“We have seen that deals or prospects are starting to move through the pipeline quicker”
– Matthew Harris, Director of Business Development
Video Transcript
Who are you?
Matthew Harris: My name is Matthew Harris.
And in terms of positions I’m the director of Business Development at STX Next. We work with talented CTOs who are looking to leverage external Python javascript development teams to complement what they are already doing in house with their software development teams.
Christian Mendoza: My name is Christian Mendoza, and I am a business development team lead at STX Next.
Sebastian Resz: My name is Sebastian Resz, I am an account executive here at STX Next. Our job is to acquire new clients for our business and then maintain relationships, build trust, and in the end make sure that the business goals of our clients are met.
Matthew: As the largest Python software development house in Europe that they have an affinity for Python, but we aren’t limited to particular geographic locations. There’s certain industries that tend to be a really nice fit for Python. And that covers within data science, machine learning, AI.
Why did you choose to bring in a sales consultant?
Christian: We knew there was something else outside that we might not be aware of. And I particularly know by experience in working as a consultant many years ago. An external consultant always brings experience from other companies, and best practices implemented by other companies. This always just brings a lot of value.
Matthew: My expectations in terms of looking outside of the company for sales support were pretty low at first.
We get these offers fairly regularly. These are very often individuals who – I don’t want to say have dabbled within business development – but it seems that they have a fairly limited sales background.
Why we decided to move forward with NorthStar Consulting in this case was, look, when we looked at the individuals we’d be working with, these were two guys who had been in the trenches – they had lived, breathed business development – and I’m not talking just running meetings for inbound leads – I’m talking door to door sales, prospect calling.These are individuals who’ve been there. And they’ve got that experience – real experience – that they can transfer that to a group or an experienced sales team, that can make them that much better. So it was real.
What did you gain from working with NSC?
Marta Błażejewska: So my name is Marta and I am a business development executive at STX Next.
As a sales team we wanted to be much better, and it was amazing to have someone that experienced to check our style that we have right now, and to change some of the aspects to be better at sales.
Matthew: I think in the past, if I were to speak for myself, and possibly for the team, I felt very comfortable being a little bit more spontaneous. I think looking back, that was probably a mistake. It had worked a few times, for sure. But you know, more structure is starting to lead to greater and greater results from our side.
In terms of how it impacts the clients, I think what we’re seeing is things move through the pipeline faster.
I think that they feel that their emotional needs, and understanding of the challenges on their side, are met earlier on in the discussion…probably leads to us being shortlisted in a shorter period of time and moving forward.
So we have seen that deals or prospects are starting to move through the pipeline quicker.
Christian: I have a little bit of a better structure. It doesn’t only help me to run a better meeting – but also it helps me briefing the person who is joining me, and to explain [to] him what are the aspects we should definitely cover over the meeting, so we don’t miss anything from that.
Sebastian: In terms of communication and the improvement that we got – growth in terms of confidence on our side, and the ease of doing those conversations – just because we had this structure always in the back of our mind, which helped us navigate through even the more difficult conversations
Having those building blocks prepared and ready and practiced, we could always just adjust them a little bit to a specific client, specific industry, specific culture even. Which just makes things much more easier in the end.
Christian: We are more secure of the outcome we are going to get from there. That’s quite important I think.
Marta: What I’ve learned and what is the most valuable for me right now is that they totally changed my ways of doing the call with potential clients. So I feel more right now that I’m having a control over the calls. That I am the one leading the chat.
They also prepared me for many objections from the clients – so I feel more comfortable whenever they have their doubts, or whenever they want to negotiate. I definitely learned many new ways how to solve their problems.
Would you recommend NorthStar Consulting?
Matthew: Yea, I mean I absolutely would. I think that this is really important that if we’re talking about North Star Consulting – These are individuals who have not just cut their teeth in business development here in Poland or in this particular area within Europe, but have extensive experience in US, globally. So I would absolutely recommend their services.
Sebastian: I would certainly recommend NorthStar Consulting for other software houses, tech companies, but not only. Przemek – he was very well-versed within the technology world – he knows what we were doing, what the problems are, what are the main pain points and how to solve them. So it was certainly easier to work with somebody who knows the industry well.
Christian: I would recommend this kind of trainings to any company, not only software houses, whether Europe, US, or any other area in the world.
Matthew: if you’re having challenges prospecting, if you’re having challenges running the first, second meetings, asking the right types of questions, if you’re having trouble getting the most out of a particular conference or event…or actually if you’d like to sit down and better understand how data can lead to better decisions on your part, then i think you should absolutely have a conversation with them.
Christian: I really think that some companies miss this opportunity of having an external party assessing certain things, how they do certain activities internally, when an external voice can always wake you up and help you improve your processes, your activities, et cetera.
Matthew: I think overall this has been a great experience from my side. It’s definitely changed my opinion of working with a third party consultancy.
Where I would have been apprehensive in the past – and I’m still apprehensive of many of those offers that are coming into my inbox on a regular basis.
I think if you find the right fit – and do your homework obviously- this is really really important – you have to do your due diligence – there’s some really good options out there – we got lucky with NorthStar Consulting.
