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The Time Isn’t Fungible Rant
The SMH flying bus has made lots of stops this month. One destination was Chapel Hill, North Carolina where we celebrated our tenth year of serving on the faculty of the North Carolina School of Banking. These bankers are fun to be with, eager learners and open to lots of out-of-the-box thinking.
One discussion focused on time. One of the bankers asked (I’ll paraphrase), “help me understand how I can find the time to do everything the bank wants me to do inside the office and still make my 20 business development calls each month?”
Sounded like a rant opportunity to me. Part one of this rant appears below. Part two comes your way in the September issue. Here’s the good news. We all begin every day with the same amount of time. It’s how we use it that makes the difference.
As an example, I make it a practice to do 25 before 8. I send 25 e-mails to clients, pre-clients, associates and industry friends before 8:00 AM. I might do a combination of e-mails and phone calls. There are days when this is a slam dunk. Other days it is a struggle. Now I’m not big at all on quotas, but I do like goals. The GOAL is to send 25. If only 16 go out, I don’t fire myself. I don’t measure how many are sent and put it on a tick sheet. The issue is not the number, but the value the receiver receives.
What goes out in those e-mails is based on what I receive from Google Alerts, newsletters and other press releases from the evening before. As an example, on August 15 I sent 12 leads to bankers around the country based on new executives being hired by companies in their areas. I click on the Google Alert, quickly read the city of the press release, think about a banker I know in that area, copy the release into an e-mail, put a line in the e-mail that says “An opportunity for your team?”, make the subject line say “a lead for your team?” and hit “send.” That entire process takes less than one minute to accomplish.
Some of the other e-mails that went out on the 15th involved congratulations. As an example, the ABA just named First Research as a preferred provider. That’s a big deal and I sent the release to my friend Darren Pierce to congratulate them on the accomplishment. Articles from the American Banker were sent to five bankers who were dealing with an issue in the article.
On the weekend I send something of value to clients only. I have assembled distribution lists for each client. Lists are populated with e-mail addresses of executive managers. I assume these articles, white papers, etc. are funneled down through the organization.
Here are two keys to this process. First, set a small goal for yourself and work up. How about 1, 2 or 3 before 8? Make this accomplishable or, like other sales activities we’ve all tried, it will fall be the wayside. Second, always make the process about them, not you. If you are using this to close the sale or get someone to open a DDA, it will appear as manipulative as it truly is. This is meant to be about value, selflessness and trust. Finally, don’t send just anything. Be thoughtful about what goes in those e-mails. We get enough junk mail and we don’t need any more.
Remember, this rant is about time–the sender’s and the receiver’s. If you can quickly find some things of worth to forward, it is a good use of your time. If they open the e-mail and find value in what you send, it is a good use of theirs.
In September we’ll introduce how you can make 20 or more calls per month without negatively affecting your many other responsibilities.
Trust Matters Blog–A Very Proud Moment
Annually we invite one banker from each client to Chicago for a two-day summit called the Client Executive Council. This year we were privileged to have Charles Green keynote our program. The author of The Trusted Advisor and Trust-Based Selling (both bestsellers that should be on the required reading list of every financial services professional), Charles absolutely wowed our group talking about Creating a Culture of Trust.
Two days after the session, Charles contacted me to ask if he could write about his experience in his blog. Mind? What an honor! In case you didn’t see it, the blog is below. If you haven’t registered for this practical and worthwhile blog do yourself a favor, go to www.trustedadvisor.com and sign up.
To say we are proud and humbled to be featured is an understatement. Thanks Charles.
Trust-based Selling in the Real World: St. Meyer and Hubbard
Two years ago, Jack Hubbard of St. Meyer & Hubbard called me to say he’d read Trust-based Selling and loved it.
Jack and his partner, Bob St. Meyer, and their team are a sales consulting organization focused on financial services. Training and coaching of banks form a lot of their work. They told me about their “Trusted Advisor Prospecting System,” and I was initially skeptical about what they’d done with that term. Skeptical for about one minute that is, until I realized they’d written just what I would have written about a banking-industry tactical implementation of trust-based selling–that is, if I’d known half as much about banking as they do.
We spoke a few times since then by phone, and exchanged some writings. I was impressed with their unusual combination of vision-and-values perspective and down-and-dirty detailed, tactical programs. They’ve now written their own book Conversations with Prospects–which I can enthusiastically recommend.
Recently I got to see them in action at an annual conference they put on for bank CXOs, mostly existing clients. And I don’t know when I’ve seen such a uniformly positive, enthusiastic and solidly appreciative set of clients.
It’s easy to see why. Until a week ago, I had never personally met Jack or Bob—yet I felt like I was catching up with old friends even before meeting up in the hotel lobby. At dinner, they were Midwest-friendly, but also New York-direct and to-the-point.
They clearly know their clients’ industry. And here they were putting on a conference for their clients about their own subject matter–selling. But they always steered the conversation around to the others at the table. They never mentioned selling their own services. Which of course sold me even more.
In other words, they walk the trust talk.
Jack, for example, sends out over 500 e-mails a week of the “you might enjoy this article” variety. He doesn’t use a tracking system to follow each one up; he’s not looking to connect each of his actions to a client profitability analysis, nor does he constantly examine his behaviors to determine his sales efficiency. He just focuses on his clients, both those with whom he has signed contracts and those who have yet to do so.
Here are a few excerpts from Conversations with Prospects.
One thing all prospects want is the same thing any of us want in our most valuable personal relationships. They want to be visible. They need a bank, but they want a banker–someone who knows who they are, what they do, and what are their challenges and opportunities.
Bankers often try too hard to prospect using techniques that are all about the bank, relying on persuasion instead of conversation. Unless the banker gets lucky and hits the prospect at a moment of desperation or unfulfilled need, the prospect invariably pushes back with any number of brush-offs, but most often the shut- down line is: “I’m happy with my present bank.”
Bankers will introduce themselves to prospects by saying things such as, “I’d like to come out and introduce myself because I think I can save you some money.” Or,“I’d like to discuss our cash management offerings.” Who really needs to spend time listening to another banker peddling the same products as the rest of the pack? We see a lot of sales letters that are just as bad, talking about the salesperson and company, but not the potential customer and their issues.
Needs are not products. Bankers that discover, create and exceed the need will always have business. When the push to sell products overrides the best interests of the client there is little discussion about managing anything.
When salespeople are measured solely on the basis of production, the client is the ultimate loser.
In trust-based selling, the salesperson stops trying to be interesting and learns to be interested. Banks that understand this work hard to focus on and understand the buying cycle of their prospects and clients. When banks match their sales cycles to the customer’s buying cycle, it’s a trust connection and they are well on their way to a sale.
Bingo.
Charles H. Green, author of Trust-Based Selling and co-author of The Trusted Advisor, is a consultant and speaker on trust issues for some of the world's best companies. He has written about trust in business relationships at Trust Matters since 2006.
Feature Article: Success Practices from Their Home Offices
A couple months ago a reader sent us an e-mail asking if we could feature a financial institution or two in each edition of Signposts, an organization that has a sales or marketing success story to tell. We have one this month and we hope to continue this as a regular feature. If you have a success practice that you can share, send an e-mail to jhubbard@stmeyerandhubbard.com or call 847.717.4328 and we’ll work out the best way to highlight your accomplishments.
Turning the Spotlight on Commercial Customers: First Hope Bank
Tellers wearing bridal tiaras? A chiropractor measuring body fat? Yoga in the lobby?
Occurrences such as these are springing up at every branch at New Jersey-based First Hope Bank, where officials launched a program earlier this year to highlight the bank’s business customers.
“We got the idea when we made a visit to Sandy Spring Bank in Maryland,” said Daniel Beatty, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at First Hope. “They explained that their tellers would regularly wear the t-shirts of commercial customers and display the businesses’ wares in bank lobbies. We loved the idea and began highlighting our commercial customers on a regular basis.”
Beatty said the program has been a success, with many business customers asking when they can be featured. “We’re also hoping this initiative will draw prospective commercial customers,” he added.
Since the program’s inception, bank lobbies have featured free samples from bakeries, huge floral displays from garden centers and pet check-ups by local veterinarians. “Both our staff and customers really enjoy the fun,” said Beatty. “And, several featured businesses have reported acquiring new customers as a result of being highlighted.”
The bank selects companies to feature by first inviting its business customers with the strongest bank relationships. “By examining the customer’s total relationship–deposits, loans and community influence–we started with our most profitable customers and tailored the program to best highlight their businesses,” he explained.
“If a business is seasonal, we will invite them at a time that makes sense for them to be featured,” he stated. “Obviously, we’re not going to highlight a Christmas tree farm in July or a swimming pool dealer in December.”
Each bank office is also given flexibility in how it chooses to run its program. “Some offices will highlight a customer for a week, while others do so for a day, and it can also depend on the business,” he said. “For example, one location hosted a barbeque and displayed the cars of a local Chevrolet dealer for one day, while another displayed the flora of a local garden center for a week. The variety of business often dictates the branch activities.”
The bank also issues press releases about each spotlighted business and gives them additional exposure through local Chamber of Commerce mailings.
Rave reviews have been received from participating businesses, according to Cindy Munley, Vice President for Marketing. “I really enjoy interviewing business owners in order to develop press releases,” she said. “It’s interesting to learn about the many types of businesses we serve. And their appreciation of our efforts, particularly in the current economic climate, is palpable and very touching.”
Munley also said that businesses have suggested ways to expand the program. “One commercial customer recently suggested that we establish a business directory on our web page,” she noted. “We’re currently looking at ways to implement this proposal.”
“We consider ourselves to be partners with our customers,” Beatty added. “It naturally makes good business sense for us to promote their products and services.”
Visit First Hope’s website at www.firsthope.com to review press releases regarding the bank’s highlighted business customers. For additional details, contact Cindy Munley in First Hope’s Marketing Department at 908.459.4121, ext. 4132 or cmunley@firsthope.com.
Retail Survey: Part Three of Three
The first link below takes you to the final set of questions for our 2008 Retail Sales Study. Results of this study will form the basis for a 2009 Retail Financial Institution Sales White Paper which debuts in the late fall of 2008.
http://www.smhtechnologies.com/survey-part3.html
Those that complete each of the three parts of the survey receive the final report 60 days prior to its release to the general public. If you wish to complete parts one and two of the study, they are in the separate links below.
http://www.smhtechnologies.com/survey-part1.html
http://www.smhtechnologies.com/survey-part2.html
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http://www.stmeyerandhubbard.com/signup.html
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