Sales Training Helps Capture Business

CUNA’s E-Scan Newsletter
September 3, 2010 | COMMENTS

Amid the turbulence of the recession and recent financial reform legislation, credit unions and community banks are jockeying for position. Success, in large part, comes down to who's in the best position to take advantage of the opportunity.

Financial institutions only gain market share when their frontline staff transform marketing opportunities into actual sales.

But the results of that process are mixed, according to Jeff Platter, vice president of consulting and marketing firm Haberfeld Associates. As part of his firm's consulting practice, Platter “mystery shops” community bank branches. Unfortunately, he writes in The Bank Administration Institute's Banking Strategies magazine, most retail financial services executives would be disappointed by what he sees in their offices.

Marketing isn't the problem, says Platter, as there are lots of marketing dollars being spent on a variety of media. But when Haberfeld's mystery shoppers actually enter branches, they find a huge disconnect: The employees have not been prepared to determine which products are right for prospects or how to ask for their business.

These companies haven't absorbed the simple lesson that marketing without training is like bait without a hook.

Seize the opportunity

Once someone walks into a branch (or calls) to inquire about a product or service, the job of marketing is—or should be—100% done. Marketing's job is to provide sales opportunities; training is required to make sure those opportunities get converted into sales.

Platter's mystery shopping focused on the process of opening a checking account, customer service behaviors, the sales process, and cross-selling of other products and services.

While the staff members Platter encountered were invariably friendly, eager to help, and proud of their company, their behavior typically revealed these deficiencies:

• Failure to shake hands, ask for the consumer's name, or offer their name.
• Lack of consistently applied professional etiquette.
• Failure to qualify prospects to find out which accounts provided the best fit.
• Absence of a true sales tool for the employee to use.
• Expectations that prospects would pick suitable products, even though the accounts were often complicated.
• Hesitation to inquire about eligibility for accounts tailored to the needs of older clients.
• Neglect regarding whether the prospect was interested in business as well as personal accounts.
• No attempt to get the prospect to open an account that day.

Poorly prepared staff is not unusual, says Platter, who sees it in branches all across the country. He believes that:

1. Staff truly wants to do the right thing for their employer and for consumers. Product and sales training is a great way to invest in those employees.
2. Advertising is expensive. When someone comes into your lobby, you must be in position to take advantage of it. Most institutions aren't equipped to do that.

To turn prospects into customers, Platter recommends that financial institutions:

• Eliminate product “landmines”—offerings that make little sense in relation to other products and which employees are uncomfortable describing.
• Develop a set of professional etiquette rules and have your employees practice them. It might include starting off with the same introduction and asking if the visitor would like a beverage.
• Create a process of three to five qualifying questions that will identify the right account for the prospect. Role play this process.
• Practice recommending the product and asking for the business. It can be as simple as, “This is the right product for you; here's why. Would you like to open that account today?”
• Commit to providing staff with a simple sales tool, including the qualifying questions. Keep it updated.
• Re-examine your account-opening policies and make sure they're consistently applied. Consider ways to make it easier for prospects to do business with you while you stay in compliance with regulations.

The difference between an average and a high-performing retail branch, according to Platter, is three to five consumer and small business new-account openings per week. The opportunities, he believes, are too rare and new customer households too valuable to blow any of them.

This article originally appeared in CUNA's E-Scan Newsletter. Reprinted with permission.