How We Replaced a Top Data Platform at an Israeli Fintech Unicorn
The timing was right, the messaging landed, and the deal taught me more about people than about sales.
Setting the stage
I had never sold to an Israeli startup before. This was the quarter our new CRO joined and I was stepping into the ROW role leading Hevo's non-US team. Our 30-person sales org had just completed Sandler training.
This was an older lead an AE had started working on. The timing felt right, and we had sharpened our prospecting message: we had replaced incumbents over 20 times globally, not by undercutting on price but by offering pricing transparency.
The CTA was not a push. It was a genuine question about whether pricing transparency was becoming a problem as they scaled. That got us in the door.
Phase 1: Discovery
First call: right place, right time
The AE's first call was with a Data Analyst. Sandler pushes you to find the real pain before anything else. The most critical insight was the "why now."
Peeling the onion is at the heart of the Sandler approach. You keep asking until you reach the real issue underneath. Here is what that looked like:
Instead of rushing to a demo, the AE restated the use-case, flagged the technical complexity around PROD and QA environments, and set one clear next step: a technical alignment call before any decision. No pressure. That discipline is the up-front contract in action.
What we knew, and what we did not
After the first call we had the contract range with the incumbent, renewal dates, and a clear "why now."
What we still lacked was a picture of the buying process and who would make the final call. Sandler taught us to name that gap rather than assume it would resolve itself.
Phase 2: Technical alignment and the joint action plan
The Sandler training pushed us toward more role-play before the next call. From that came a proactive Joint Action Plan with timelines, a way to create shared accountability before gaps became problems.
Before Sandler we would never have built a joint action plan. After it, we understood it belongs to both parties. If sections were blank, we filled them in together mid-meeting, and that co-building was often where the real discovery happened.
The second call was largely technical.
- Connecting their account and validating connectors
- Setting up a REST API and MySQL databases for non-native sources
- Audience: two people plus Data Engineering who would run the POC
With time remaining, we pivoted: "Both our teams are investing significant effort. Can we align at the executive level before we go further?" Two days later, we had a call with the Head of Data.
Phase 3: The exec call that changed everything
We walked in with a deck built from role-play: technical use-case and business use-case side by side. Three things became clear:
- He was the project sponsor. This had to succeed on his watch.
- The incumbent's real problem was structural: charging for historical data imports, not just new events. Real-time pipelines added another 2 to 3x cost on top.
- This was a cross-border payment settlement company. Real-time replication under 10 minutes was required for reconciliation, not optional.
We also understood that because support was nonexistent with the incumbent, accountability on SLAs became a selling point, not just a line item.
Mapping the decision process
Israelis are tough negotiators. They were running their own version of Sandler back at us.
Every budget question hit a wall. But we got the buying flow confirmed:
- Trial goes well, then a pricing discussion with the Head of Data
- Price aligned, then CEO sign-off
- Hard deadline: three months before dual-vendor transition cost kicked in
The clock was running. That urgency kept momentum without us ever having to push.
Phase 4: Pricing, support and negotiation
This was the first deal at Hevo where we sold Platinum Support at $25K per year.
Given these were production pipelines requiring real-time performance, a sub-one-hour SLA was non-negotiable. It became the proof point that we were not just cheaper, we were more accountable.
The Head of Data negotiated hard across two more rounds. In parallel, legal and compliance ran their course: data residency, encryption, liability, about a week.
Phase 5: WhatsApp, rapport and the hidden anxiety
Here is the part most people leave out.
Early in the deal, I asked the Head of Data directly: email or WhatsApp? He said WhatsApp.
By the time we reached pricing and compliance, we had exchanged over 100 messages and multiple voice notes. He could reach me any time, and he did.
Then the decision started stalling. He began asking questions about Hevo's revenue, runway and investors, things that had nothing to do with the product.
That was the moment it clicked. The anxiety was not about price. It was about moving from a large, established vendor to a smaller challenger. The fear of downside risk was holding up a decision that was technically and commercially sound. This is the post-sell blind spot: addressing buyer's remorse before it sets in. We had missed it early and paid for it with stalled momentum late in the deal.
We moved quickly. Our CRO wrote directly to their CEO.
In November 2023, the Head of Data called me on WhatsApp. We addressed everything head-on: runway, investors, the customers we already worked with. He asked for a write-up he could take back to his CEO. The deal moved.
Joint action plan
How Sandler mapped to every phase
Looking back, every step traces directly to the Sandler methodology, even when we did not realise it in the moment.
Learnings
The stated problem is rarely the real one. Keep asking until you reach the layer that actually matters to their business.
Building it together mid-meeting creates commitment from both sides, not a one-sided vendor checklist.
Over 100 WhatsApp messages meant every concern surfaced fast and was addressed fast. Formal channels would have added days.
When a deal stalls late, the problem is rarely commercial. Find the emotional risk your buyer is carrying and address that.
If you apply yourself and treat each conversation as something that can turn the deal, practise it, believe you can win, the method follows. The deal closed in November 2023. I was on a WhatsApp voice note with the Head of Data when it did.