Conversation Signposts - December 2007

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We’re Early Again in December

It’s tough for some of you to concentrate on business this month and there are so many that take the weeks between Christmas and New Year’s off that we wanted you to have Conversation Signposts before all of that kicked in. We’ll be back to our normal schedule–starting our fifth year of newsletters–the last week of January 2008.

Who Knew?

The idea for St. Meyer & Hubbard came to life on a napkin at Bob St. Meyer’s house. The actual SM&H start date was December 2, 2000 and with the vast majority of companies failing in the their first three years of operation, it was anyone’s guess as to whether we would make it or be looking for gainful employment before the home equities maxed out. We made it and we’ve begun year number eight, hopefully with many more to follow!

Thanks to our clients who trust us to provide tools, to enhance skills and to provide for the personal growth of their associates. Thanks to our friends in banking–the trade association executives who select us to present at conferences and banking schools and to write for their publications. Our associates give more of themselves every day to this little enterprise than anyone can ever know. For that and for the sacrifices you have made by missing many family events, we are indebted.

We have been gratified by so many people that have shared our vision and saddened by naysayers and those that tried to steal our dream. That’s life in American business–the highest highs and the lowest lows. Hamburger empires, ideas for bank holding companies and boutique performance change firms all started their existence in the same way. Who knew the napkin could touch so many lives?

Help Me Understand: A Santa Rant

By Jack Hubbard, Chief Experience Officer

It’s Gift Segmentation Season: that time of year when we align the size of the fruit basket to the average balance or overall profitability of the relationship. This is never fun and there are so many issues. Do we send alcohol? Does anyone in their office/family have peanut allergies? How much is too much to spend? Did we miss or offend anyone? Having fun yet?

Multiply this angst by all the financial institutions in this nation dealing with this issue, times the number of productive client facing hours lost dealing with this issue, times the salaries of those people dealing with this issue and you are looking at one staggering number. I have an idea: STOP!

Don’t stop giving gifts. Just cease the Harry and David’s and Frango Mint madness. Every year the United States Postal Service receives hundreds of thousands of Letters to Santa. These are sent by poor families, single mothers, innocent children. They don’t ask for a Wine of the Month gift card. They want a blanket, socks, a meal. One letter I saw came from a little girl. It said; “Our house is cold, Santa. My mother gave me her coat and I see her shivering. Can you bring her a coat for Christmas?”

How about this? Go to the local post office or somewhere else that has a “giving tree” or something similar. Select the number of letters/families that equals the number of clients you would send gift baskets to. Use the corporate gift budget to fulfill the wishes in the letters–the real needs of families this time of year. A $50 gift basket lasts a week. A $50 winter jacket changes a life.

Create a certificate or a card to send to your clients indicating the money you would have spent thanking them for their business has been used for a coat, a pair of warm pajamas, a doll for a needy child. Will they think less of you because the business didn’t get the annual Godiva© Chocolate from the bank? Doubtful. Maybe the idea will catch on at their offices next year and so on and so on…

So often banks do so much good work for so many in the community and your associates are so giving of their time and talents and it is even possible that they will open their hearts to the less fortunate individually. That’s all great. All I’m suggesting is that by replacing the angst time of what to send to which client with the bank helping someone in need on behalf of its client, the struggle over gift segmentation goes away. It replaced by something priceless.

One for the Stocking Stuffer: A Review of GO Put Your Strengths to Work

by Marcus Buckingham

After a solid 17-year research career at the Gallup Organization, Marcus Buckingham struck out on his own. His company provides strengths-based consulting, training and e-learning for every type of industry. Marcus presented at America’s Community Bankers Nationa Convention last month. His relaxed style and subtle, English sense of humor are as captivating as his prose.

GO Put Your Strengths to Work was just published by Free Press. It uses current and trend-based data to paint a challenging picture of today’s corporate landscape. Take for example that:

17% of the workforce believes it uses all strengths on the job

36% of employees suggest they spend time with their manager talking about their weaknesses

24% of employees suggest they spend time with their manager talking about their strengths

40% of employees suggest they and their manager talk about neither

87% of people say that finding and fixing their weaknesses is the best way to achieve outstanding performance

Unfortunately, according to Mr. Buckingham, “we live in a remedial world”. To him that means we tend to focus our energies around improving weaknesses (team and individual) which attempts to push the process versus finding their strengths and nurturing those attributes to pull the success of the company and associates.
The book is divided into six sections:

Get Clear–Do You Know What Your Strengths Are?

Stop Your Weaknesses

Speak Up–How Do You Create Strong Teams?

Build Strong Habits–Making It Last Forever

One strong point of the book is the interactivity. The reader is lead to a personalized website to take an initial Strengths Engagement Track which is used throughout the book in tandem with some movie downloads and tools in a full-color Resource Guide to help actionize the concepts.

This is Marcus Buckingham’s fourth effort. They have all been on the best seller list, so it’s a no-brainer that we would strongly suggest this for your holiday list this year. It’s likely the best of the bunch. It’s more than that. We are moving the productivity needle at an inverse direction to the strengths needle. Productivity per American worker is up over the past several years. When asked, however, “What percent of a typical day do you spend using your strengths most of the time?” the answers were:

We are doing more but ultimately being fulfilled at our work less. Where does that put us as a nation over the long haul?

This should be required reading for every CEO, every senior manager, every sales and non-sales manager and it should be discussed at team meetings with strategies and action plans to implement those ideas. More than that, this book should be given to educators, students and parents early on to help us all understand how to reduce the “YAH BUTS” from our lives. “Yah these three As and two Bs are great, but what about that C in science, Mary Catherine?”

Thanks for this amazing work, Mr. Buckingham.

Some Year-End Snippets

“Wedge Products” We heard that a goodly amount at the October 2007 Source Media Small Business Banking Conference. What are they? Remote Capture, Bank at Work, Customized Packages and HSAs. There were some highly interesting comments made by an HSA panel about banks missing great opportunities in this growing market. We also heard lots of grumbling in the crowd about the slow growth and lack of initial traction of these products. Stay tuned for more ideas on these next year. They are all critical for your long-term success.

Quotes from business owners heard during a panel discussion at the Source Media Small Business Banking Conference…

“I’m skeptical about banks that hang a sign
that says they are in small business banking.”

“A banker spent a year and a half knocking on my
door before I agreed to make a change. Before I
signed the papers I asked two things: are you
going to be here and are you here to help me?”

“Advice is not around a product. My OPEN rep is
really my most trusted advisor. When I talk with
them, I feel like they care about me. When I talk to my
banker I feel they care about loans and products. You
don’t build a business around products, you
build it around customers.”

“The bank that wants to be successful in the
small business market needs to understand
both the rational side of the business and
the emotional side.”

A successful small business strategy keeps the client in the center.

Keep your momentum up in December. This is a time for scrambling (to get stuff closed and booked), exhaling (when it’s done) and partying (because it’s deserved!). It’s all true of course, but only about 3-5% of salespeople continue to top off their trees by doing some sourcing and prospecting during the holidays. Not just dropping in anywhere with a card or a coffee mug–pure prospecting. That means identifying opportunities they want to bank in 2008 and starting the process of going after them. Why wait? Christmas is on a Tuesday. Why not make a ton of outside calls on the 24th? Most bankers won’t and simply by “being there” you are different. No cold calls, no blitzes. I’m talking scheduled appointments. OK…just make two in the morning–three if you take a Center of Influence to lunch. C’mon. Give it a try.

t’s true. We’ve embarked on an interesting literary journey. We’ve decided to create the Performance Culture Series: a collection of books targeted to people that sell in the financial services space. Ten topics to cover are on the table beginning with prospecting. We chose this subject because there is a strong area of need for this skill in our industry. The remainder of the series isolates specific sales and sales management issues in both retail banking and business banking.

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