Sales on the Frontline
by Honey Shelton, BOL Guru Guru BIOS
A day in a bank is often a day full of missed opportunities. Every customer coming in or calling with a problem is an opportunity. Every depositor and borrower that comes in may be a potential buyer of mutually beneficial products or services. Every brave soul that walks in or calls in to open a new account is a big event today in your bank.
I fly Southwest Airlines routinely, often every week I am on more than a couple of flights. Here's what they always say at the end of the flight, "We know you have a choice when you fly, thank you for choosing Southwest. Come back and see us again soon, we appreciate your business."
Banking needs to take note of that philosophy and recognize the good fortune of a customer coming in search of product and services. The customer needs to know we want their business, that we know they have choices, that we appreciate the opportunity to do business with them and we want to meet their needs.
Building a win-win-win culture will enable your bank to maximize the opportunity when we see or talk to a customer. Learning to expand the relationship of your present customers and to make the most of new customer relationships is one of the most profitable and meaningful efforts that can happen at your bank.
Retailers know this. McDonald's is a genius at this. This is cross selling. Bundling, expanding the buying of the "on the scene" customer. Catalog companies man the phones with order takers who've been taught to mention other companion purchases to the buyer when they are calling in orders. The impact of suggestive selling is phenomenal. You can't stand in line at Wal-Mart or Target and not be bombarded by additional buying opportunities. Gadgets, magazines, candy or the latest and greatest.
Banking has been slow to get on board with utilizing the frontline - new accounts, tellers, lobby personnel and the customer service people manning the phones - and our lobbies as the great resource to growing retail business.
Why is that? Mostly it is the result of a mindset that has been in the industry since the beginning. Build it and they will come. Location, location, location. That is how banking grew its customer base. Brick and mortar in the right spot and away we go. Smart bankers have always known that the primary reason people bank where they do is about convenience. Now there's a word -- convenience -- that has been redefined. Today convenience looks like this to a rapidly growing population - don't go to the bank. With the Internet, direct deposit, a well-trained call center and an ATM card your bank is convenient to a market much bigger than your branch network could ever service.
Any way that your customer can save time is what the vast majority demand today. Few customers wish they could go to the bank, want to go to the bank, look forward to going to the bank. So when they call or come in you must make the most of it in order to tighten up the relationship before your competition teaches them a better way to bank.
When the door opens and a customer walks in or the phone rings your bank had better respond to the opportunity to seek ways to make it a win-win-win circumstance. What is win-win-win? It simply means this; it's good for the customer, it's good for the employee and it's good for the bank. There are benefits to all three stakeholders when a product or service is pitched and bought.
There are seven success factors for elevating sales on the frontline. Combined they help ensure that missed opportunities are reduced, and that bottom line, customer satisfaction and job satisfaction are increased. Resulting in a WIN-WIN-WIN outcome.
The Seven Success Factors for elevating sales on the frontline
Culture Integration
Sales Leadership
Clear Goals
Focus
Training
Tracking
Reward
Culture Integration
Selling must become a part of the service culture at your bank. It is what we do when the opportunity is right. It is a natural response to servicing the customer. Before a customer leaves or hangs up we say "thank you" because that is an integral part of the message we send. Selling must become an integral part of how we do business for the same reasons. It's good business, it's smart, and undeniably it's the future of your bank. We are in an industry that doesn't have to smother the customer to sell services; often a simple suggestion is all it takes. We are in industry that has always professed that the right way to do business is to take care of the customer. When we profile the customer and provide them with solutions to their needs that's the finest form of servicing.
Sales Leadership
Selling will not take hold in a bank until someone takes hold of the sales effort. Someone who supports the sales and service culture that is sales savvy must lead the way. This is the person who is carrying the torch and has the complete support of the CEO. This person is responsible for organizing, motivating and innovating the sales effort. Without a designated leader the effort will stumble, cough and choke. Lending has to have a leader, operations must have a leader, compliance must have someone accountable and knowledgeable about regulations and implementation, don't set-up your sales effort to fail by not having a capable, enthusiastic sales leader.
Clear Goals
Every person expected to sell at the bank must have clearly defined goals. A goal must have a measurable aspect to it and a deadline. The goal states what is going to happen and when. Goals set the pace for accomplishment. The sales leader uses data to develop realistic and meaningful goals for the frontline. Goals are what set the agenda for training. Training must support every individual who has been given clearly, defined, measurable goals.
Focus
Monthly or weekly the focus needs to be on a particular product or service.
Focus on Safe Deposit Boxes. If you have empty safe deposit boxes get them out of the vault and into the lobby. Stack them, open them up, and put titles, deeds, insurance policies, film negatives, videotapes of household contents, jewelry, etc. in them. Display and demonstrate how the product works and what it will do for the customer. Make a poster that says a nickel a day keeps the worry away. Have brochures everywhere about what are suggested items to keep in a safe deposit box. Have maps of the vault indicating vacant boxes, color them in red or highlight them in yellow when one is rented.
Focus on Internet Banking. Have an email address collection box in the lobby. Have an email address form for customers to fill out their email address. Insert the form in every drive-thru money envelope that goes out in the tube. Data bank your customer. Every customer with an email address is an on-line banking prospect.
Focus on Debit Cards. Have holes punched into debit cards and provide ribbon or chains for everyone to put the card on and wear around their neck to remind employees to mention debit cards.
Training
Your bank will need a product/service manual and everyone will need to be trained using the manual as a guide. Testing for retention and expecting everyone to be knowledgeable must be communicated. The selling inventory speaks to other types of training that must be provided to ensure your staff is confident and capable when it comes to initiating conversation, asking good questions, overcoming objections and zeroing in on closing business.
Tracking
Everything that matters in a bank is tracked. Sales must be tracked. It gives the sales culture creditability and organization.
There are off-the-shelf sales information management software programs available and some community banks track sales and referrals using Excel. Investigate your options; several specialty companies are on the web. Clients often mention Gold Mine and ACT as useful tools for tracking. A few banks track sales manually. Whatever method the sales leader uses sales results must be tracked.
Reward
There are a variety of ways to reward people for selling. For win-win-win to work the bank must reward employees for selling efforts and results. A reasonable approach to setting incentives is to tie them to the bank's goals, i.e., deposit/loan growth, fee income, profits, etc. When it comes to trust, investments or mortgages you will need to consider paying on just the referral rather than the results. It may take a specialist to close the sale but you don't get to close it if you don't have a chance to sell it.
Other options are bank bucks that are paid out and employees can trade them for money, gift cards or time off. During a sales campaign or special promotions you can develop special incentives or prizes. When the bank wants to increase deposits or product use the sales leader can create campaigns or contests that will accomplish the desired results.
It is only reasonable to assume that tellers in most cases are only going to be able to refer customers to products or services. If the bank tracks number of transactions for the teller and places emphasis on efficiency there can be confusion for the teller on whether to spend anytime talking up products to their customers. I recommend that referrals and sales be taken into consideration when setting expectations around number of transactions for tellers. Tellers must do referrals and the bank must pay them for it.
New accounts should be able to seriously impact their monthly income with incentives paid for cross-selling services. Incentives work. Show me your sales volume on credit life insurance and I will tell you whether or not you are paying incentives to your lenders. Every new checking account that is opened at your bank should leave with a minimum of 3 other services sold. That new customer must be called within two weeks to follow-up and again in 60 days. If you aren't calling them to prove your appreciation and pursue selling them other services you are missing incredible opportunities to gather feedback and sell add-on services.
Celebrating progress is important, it keeps the crew energized. Sales rallies are a must if you expect people to be enthused or fired up about selling. Positive, innovative, quick sales meetings every other week in the branch first thing of the morning will remind the team what the focus is and reinforce sales techniques that are effective.
Implementing win-win-win into everyday opportunities will give your bank a competitive edge, elevate job satisfaction and increase the bottom line while at the same time your customers needs are being met!
A former banker, Honey Shelton, president of InterAction Training Systems, is a nationally recognized speaker in the banking industry and repeat presenter for the Kentucky Bankers Association.
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