Selling Smartflow - Discovery Guide
Use these questions to understand the prospect's workflow, buying urgency, and fit. The goal is to learn enough to position Smartflow well and choose the right next step.
Discovery Areas That Matter Most
- Current workflow
- Manual effort and delay
- Error and control pain
- Operating model and systems
- Buyer urgency and sponsorship
Workflow and Manual Effort
- Walk me through what happens when a new credit agreement arrives.
- How long does a typical agreement take from receipt to completed system setup?
- Which teams touch the process from document receipt to final booking?
- How much of the work is manual reading, re-keying, validation, or exception handling?
- Which parts of the process slow down the team most often?
Data Quality and Control
- Where do errors usually show up today?
- Which fields are most sensitive or most often corrected later?
- How do you track who verified a field and where it came from?
- What evidence does your team need during internal control or audit reviews?
- How are covenant terms and thresholds captured today?
Operating Model and Systems
- Which core lending or operations systems are involved today?
- Is LoanIQ part of the current operating model?
- Are teams working directly in the core system, through spreadsheets, or through a mix of both?
- How much variation is there in the agreements your team handles?
- Are there any data residency or deployment rules we should understand early?
Buyer Urgency and Decision Shape
- Why is this discussion happening now?
- Is the driver growth, operational pressure, audit pressure, or a transformation programme?
- Who needs to believe in the business case for this to move forward?
- What would a useful first milestone look like?
- Is there a budget window, project deadline, or migration event shaping timing?
Questions for Net-New Prospects
Use these when the prospect is learning about Smartflow for the first time.
- What part of the current process feels hardest to scale?
- If nothing changed this year, what would the operational impact be?
- What would make the team confident enough to pilot a new approach?
- Would a live extraction on one of your own documents be useful?
Questions for Existing LoanIQ or Finastra Customers
Use these when the bank already runs LoanIQ and the conversation needs to focus on workflow value.
- How much of the work before LoanIQ entry is still manual today?
- How often does the team move between document PDFs, spreadsheets, email, and LoanIQ during setup?
- Which fields or validations create the most friction before data is final in LoanIQ?
- Where would better document-to-data flow improve speed or control for your team?
- If Smartflow could reduce the work before data lands in LoanIQ, where would that matter most?
Also see existing-loaniq-customers.md.
Good Next Steps to Suggest
Choose the next step based on what you learn:
| What you hear | Good next step |
|---|---|
| Strong operations pain, weak numbers | Run a deeper discovery call and capture volume, effort, and exceptions |
| Strong operations pain, clear numbers | Use the ROI conversation guide in proof-points-and-roi.md |
| Technical caution early | Bring in the data sovereignty collateral and set up a technical review |
| Existing LoanIQ footprint | Focus the next meeting on document-to-data workflow around LoanIQ |
| Interest from multiple stakeholders | Tailor the next meeting using stakeholder-messaging.md |
Useful References
This page is for Smartflow partners and is saved in pending-review state until approved.