It's a journey........
How many times have you heard that a bank is looking to become more sales focused and transition from service to sales? Of course, all of the largest banks have made this transformation years ago, sometimes by going to far; think of Wells Fargo. Banks who have not previously made this transition have now been motivated to find ways to grow revenue due to the low interest rate environment.
I would make the case that Service and Sales are inextricably linked and that they both function on the same continuum. I remember a time when we were working with tellers on how to handle large withdrawal requests and to help make that coveted referral to the in-branch investment consultant. During this time, a customer who had been coming to the branch weekly for years, where the teller had always acted courteously, asked about his young daughter and discussed the niceties of the day, made a request for a large withdrawal. The client was withdrawing $15,000 to put into an investment account at a competitor. On queue, the teller asked him the purpose of the withdrawal and learned that he was going to be starting a 529 plan for his daughter's college education. The teller attempted to refer the client to the Investment Consultant but he was already committed at the competitor. The client of course said, "if I would have known, I would have spoken to your person." I would make the case that we had been dis-servicing that client for a number of years because we hadn't made the attempt to really get to know the client and didn't find a way to help him meet his financial objectives.
So how do you make that transformation from service to sales without becoming a product pusher? I've been fortunate to lead a number of teams that have done just. It's formulaic, repeatable and scaleable as evidenced by my experience at Fleet Bank where my district went from the bottom 7% to the top 2% of District rankings, The Bank of New York where my Region went from being in 15th place out of 16 to being the 1st ranked Region, and at Chase where my Markets performed in #1 positions.
Formula: Frequency Of Activity X Effectiveness = Results
Sales Transformation in 4 easy steps (okay, maybe not so easy, transforming sales requires managerial tenacity and follow up, every day, every week)
- Sales Process Process Training- You need to have a robust an effective sales process training program to set the expectations for what a conversation with a client should look like. It should cover everything from transitioning service requests into a sales conversation, to how to effectively close a sale. It should also be Omni channel-- In the Branch and over the phone. (Call center and Branch)
- Sales Management training- Your Branch Managers and Regional Managers need to own this. At the end of the day, you won't be counting widgets sold. If you do this, you risk ending up in regulatory purgatory like Wells Fargo. You do however, need to have a plan and hold staff accountable for making the effort and outreach to clients. It's about activity and behavior management not a tick sheet for products sold. This is done with weekly activity plans and daily huddles that cover the number of activities such as client interactions, intercepts and phone calls.
- Coaching- We've all heard the old adage of the definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result. Coaching gets to the heart of a Branch Manager, Call Center Manager and Regional Manager's job. It's the game changer and the key to improving effectiveness. Manager's have to be "all in" on helping their employees get better. Coaching where there is great conversation between a coach and coachee, builds trust and engagement providing that it is done with good intent. It isn't a "gotcha", but a two way conversation where the manager allows for self-discovery and balances the feedback between reinforcing positive behaviors and coming up with action plans to improve poor behavior. Remember: It's about the activity and not the widget, sales and widgets will come.
- Accountability-... yep I said it. The nasty word where people quake in their boots, hide under their desk and run for the hills. Guess what.... we all have a job to do and we need to help the company grow and remain profitable. The great thing about accountability is that if you execute against Sales Process, Sales Management and Coaching, accountability becomes easy. Who doesn't want to bring home a great report card??
- To my point above, we are accountable for results and the efforts that managers make will show in the numbers: higher cross-sell, more loan sales, more deposit products and investment sales. But what if your'e a District or Divisional Manager and some branches or districts aren't performing? How do you diagnose the problem? First of all you need to be out in the branches observing, coaching and inspecting. I assume that this will happen, but if not, don't waste the energy on the three steps above, because it will never get traction. Outside of being in the branches, a robust shopping program can help to diagnose who needs help in sales process and coaching. While at The Bank of New York, I created my own shopping program, using new staff members to the bank. It was inexpensive, and provided feedback to the Regional Managers to hold branches accountable for their interaction with customers. By the time I was asked to create a Bank wide shopping program we were well on our way to sales excellence. So much so, that my Division dominated the shop scores and it showed in financial results: Highest Shop Scores, Highest Cross-Sell and Top Financial Performance.
In summary, Sales Transformation is not an event but a journey. It requires a specific roadmap and formula, managerial courage and tenacity to ensure that the transformation is complete and enduring.