Map the Market Around the Buying Journey
Segment prospects by business process, maturity, incumbent technology and likely buying window rather than treating the market as a static list.
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Build the Market Before the Project Exists
EPM is difficult to sell because the problem requires deep understanding.
Planning, forecasting, consolidation, reporting, workforce planning and supply-chain planning may sit under the same broad category, but they involve different buyers, different expertise and different commercial conversations.
At the same time, most finance teams are not actively buying an EPM platform today.
Growth depends on understanding where the buyer is in their journey, creating demand before a formal project exists and staying relevant until the buying window opens.
Why EPM Businesses Struggle to Scale
Select any that sound familiar. We’ll add them to your enquiry.
Long Buying Journeys
A finance team may recognise that its current planning process is failing but still be years away from acting.
An ERP implementation may need to finish first. An existing EPM contract may still have years to run. The annual budget may already be committed.
Commercial success therefore depends on more than identifying organisations showing intent today.
Deep Domain Knowledge
An EPM salesperson needs to understand enough about finance, technology, modelling and transformation to diagnose the problem properly.
FP&A is different from statutory consolidation. Financial planning is different from supply-chain planning. Workforce planning brings another set of data, language and business requirements.
Sales capability is much harder to build here than simply hiring somebody who can sell software.
More Competitors Than the Shortlist Suggests
Another EPM platform is only one competitor. The alternatives can include:
- Spreadsheets
- The incumbent platform
- An ERP project taking priority
- Delaying the decision
- Doing nothing
- The belief that generative AI may remove the need for specialist software
Capability Has to Grow With the Market
A consultancy strong in one EPM discipline can’t assume the same people can credibly sell and deliver another.
Moving into consolidation, supply chain or workforce planning requires the right expertise and enough market demand to justify building it.
AI Changes EPM But Doesn’t Remove the Need for Governed Planning
Finance increasingly expects quicker deployment, lower implementation overhead and more intelligent interaction with planning and reporting systems, and AI will change the entire experience.
But finance still needs to understand:
- Where a number came from
- How it was calculated
- Which assumptions sit behind it
- What data supports it
- Whether the model can be governed and audited
The real opportunity is using AI to make governed EPM more useful, like finance getting faster and more intelligent planning without losing the audit trail and control.
How Godwin Austen Helps EPM Businesses Grow
Build Future Demand
Create useful conversations with finance teams before a formal project exists and remain relevant as priorities, contracts and technology change.
Strengthen the Proposition
Develop messaging around the actual finance problem rather than generic platform functionality.
Improve Commercial Visibility
Build qualification, CRM and account-development discipline around the reality of multi-year EPM buying journeys, so leadership can see which accounts are progressing before they become active pipeline.
Develop New Capabilities More Deliberately
Test demand and identify the expertise required before committing significant hiring or investment to a new competency.
Use AI Across the Commercial System
Apply AI where it improves research, account intelligence, preparation, nurture and commercial execution.
Build the Market Before the Project Exists
If your growth model is concentrated on the small proportion of finance teams buying today, we can help you build a commercial system around the much larger market that may buy next.
Not Sure This Is The Right Starting Point?
Take the five-minute Growth Readiness Diagnostic to get an instant result and a clearer view of where leadership dependency, demand generation, workforce capacity or long-term readiness may need attention.
More Than a Playbook
Godwin Austen brings together Strategy and Transition, Commercial Growth, Performance Marketing, Workforce & Capability and AI around the growth constraint.
What looks like a demand problem may actually sit in the proposition, account strategy, leadership, capability, delivery model or commercial operating system behind it.
Find the constraint. Build the right response.
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