2009 Bank Sales Culture
by Rick Wemmers, BOL Guru Bios
Many of today's community banks are struggling with the significant changes occurring for America's banks. Some bank presidents are still in denial in that they believe "the good old days" will return.
As a bank growth coach it is my experience community banks will have to change, at least in their approach to getting new customers, in order to survive and make the profits they are used to making. Banking in America is and will continue to be noticeably different than the early years in this decade.
The situation in the first quarter of 2009 offers great growth opportunity for many community banks. Of course if your loan portfolio is a heavy anchor, it will be more difficult for you to capitalize on these 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunities' but I wouldn't say impossible.
My coaching has shown and continues to do so today that community banks who are pro-active to solicit high quality prospects are winning new core deposits and profitable future business relationships.
Let me point out I am prejudiced. I believe community banks should concentrate on capturing more small business accounts verses putting all efforts into cross-selling. I'm not opposed to selling individuals; there is just more potential for quick profitable growth in gaining new small business accounts.
Small business owners in the first quarter of 2009 are worried, uncertain of the future. What they cry for, according to a recent survey, is for an experienced person to talk to them about their finances. They want someone to give before asking. They are so busy managing their current challenges there is little time to stop and explore options for better use of monies they have. This is where a community banker can make great strides in growing the bank.
Meet prospects and ask 'open-ended' questions -questions that will provide an opportunity for you to show how knowledgeable you are and how you might be able to help address their unique concerns. It is very important to note here that business owners don't want to hear the features of a new bank as the opening to a sales call. They would rather talk about their concerns. This gives the banker an even stronger selling stance because they can feed back their bank's unique benefits to the prospects concerns.
I have heard countless stories of a banker calling on a small business prospect and learning that the prospect's banker hadn't visited them for many months, even years. How do you think they feel when a banker calls and asks to bring something of value that they need in exchange for answering two questions?
Implementing change in a bank's sales culture isn't easy. Bankers have long been of the mindset that bank growth comes about when prospects come to the bank and request the service they want. Unfortunately some competitive banks and the consumer have developed a slightly different mindset lately.
Here are 5 tips which have proven to jump core deposits and market share:
The CEO must make a strong commitment to implement a change in the bank's sales culture, whatever it is.
The CEO should invest in improving the selling skills of all those who have the responsibility and opportunity to drive new revenues to the bank. Virtually all the bankers I have talked with over 25 years have not had any real sales skills training. They have had a lot of product information training.
Review the current customer database to determine the good, the bad and the ugly. If you are going to solicit new customers focus on the higher quality, more profitable ones - not the losers.
Identify those high quality prospects in your market area and focus on capturing them. Please don't send your calling officers out, calling on poor prospects. This is very discouraging.
Increase the accountability of your calling officers. They probably won't like it but without this your results will be disappointing.
Do these tips work? You bet!
I have seen a business bank capture over $40 million in new deposits in October 2008.
I have seen a community bank in a fairly small town realize a four-to-one return on their investment in new sales training within 60 days.
My many years of selling experiences have taught me there are 4 parts of a successful bank sales culture: Self Confidence + Skills Training + Activity Coaching + Reward
Community bankers for the most part are good people, good representatives of their bank. If coached properly they can and will make successful cold calls to quality prospects. This personal contact verses print ads or mailers is essential to convincing prospects to take the one action they are hesitant to do- move their banking account.
Does it happen quickly? With some prospects it will happen within 60 days or less. Others it will take longer. However with many prospects the prize is often worth the wait.
The key is to start a new sales process and keep it going…forever, in my opinion. Banking will not become less competitive, so get started now.
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