Conversations with Prospects - available after March 1

Best selling author Charles Green contributed. So did renowned consultants Kent Stickler and Nick Miller. Tom Doherty, Jonathan Rohde, Bill Hippensteel and other senior-level bankers weighed in with some best practices. One banker who received an advance copy called it "an absolute must-read for anyone that calls on prospects." There's been quite a buzz around our first book, Conversations with Prospects.

Readers that have acquisition strategies as part of their responsibilities discover 160 pages of practical help in Conversations with Prospects. Sourcing ideas, employing creative correspondence, executing creative telephone skills and much more are presented in a straightforward, conversational manner.

More than 1,000 books were pre-sold and are now on the way to bankers across the country. Conversations with Prospects is available after March 1, 2008 at www.stmeyerandhubbard.com.

Help Me Understand...How's that Networking Working?

By Jack Hubbard, Chief Experience Officer

This column is about NETWORTHING because if it's work, it isn't worth it.

A couple of years ago the president of a bank asked me to observe his bankers during a networking event. It was one of those Business After Hours programs that many readers are likely responsible to attend from time to time. This turned out to be one of my easier 90-minute coaching sessions. Seven bankers from our client attended. They each wore their bank golf shirts, making them easy to keep track of. The fact that they huddled together like the final scene of the last Mary Tyler Moore Show, made it even more convenient to find them throughout the evening. The next day when the CEO asked for my comments I suggested that, "if they were working each other for potential future conversations, they were most successful; but that if his goal was to have them work the room, he had some issues."

Help Me Understand: Why do we call this thing networking when it doesn't work so well? Like most of these rants, one goal is to make you think, not agree. Another is to make you better. So let's start by suggesting that simply having a few associates show up at a community event is better than having no representation. I'll also grant that some readers are pretty good at this skill. For those of you that could use a few improvement ideas consider the following:

PreSelect: Use Your Time Wisely

There are more than 37,000 licensed trade associations in the U.S. Add to that, church groups, scout troops and little leagues, etc. and sales associates could invest 100% of their business days at events of all kinds. Bankers should therefore always be asking themselves:

• Where do I go to see the RIGHT people?
• What groups do my key industry targets belong to and can I
  attend those events?

As an example, I made a joint call with a banker recently and the banker asked the business owner what organizations he was involved with. He responded that he was on the board of a trade group within an industry the banker wanted to penetrate. The banker also discovered that while the group would welcome bankers, no other banker ever attended the meetings. At the next dinner meeting the banker came as her client's guest and she is now in the process of generating business from several companies from the networthing she has done. The bottom line on this: if you want new business, go where the business is.

Prepare: Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail

That's true in every aspect of sales. How often do you go over this or a similar checklist before you attend an event?

• Call the event sponsor to learn who will be attending
• Develop a strategy to have conversations with key people
  
• Place business cards in left pocket and have two pens that work
  
• Determine the approximate time I'll share with each attendee I want to see
  
• Balance time with clients and pre-clients
  
• Prepare questions to ask
  
• Devise strategy to move from person to person effectively and efficiently

What, no elevator speech? Please. Memorized blather about your bank and what you do went out with the Commodore 64 computer system. In trust-based selling, it's always better to be interested versus interesting.

PreAppointments: A VIP Approach

The goal of any networthing event is to be able to follow up with some of your new best friends and to generate some future appointments. After the event you are either going back to the office or heading home after a long day. What about those 25 business cards you have in your right-hand pocket? Average salespeople are too tired or too busy for follow-up. You, on the other hand, are always thinking about VIP: Value, Impressions, Positive. Here are some ideas:

• Segment the cards into some type of A,B,C-order, based on your established criteria
  
• Send something of interest to the A opportunities that afternoon/evening and the next day to the Bs; you only have about 48 hours to get some "mind traction" from an event
  
• Voicemail any internal partners or a COI that you may have a
  lead for them
  
• Put the information into your Sales Force Automation system so you can keep track of what you sent and what their interests might be

PrePractice: A Sales Manager's Responsibility

Want your bankers to be better at this important skill? Consider turning one of your team meetings into an actual networthing event. Have associates from other areas of the bank play the role of various people in the community. Run the event for an hour, then bring your team back together to debrief the session. For the next actual event, make your bankers accountable for planning and follow-up strategies. Coach them one-on-one to be sure they "get it."

How is your networking working? Like all other conversation skills, it is something that can be learned. The process must also be lead.

Business Banking White Paper - available now

It started as a brief recap of our late 2007 business banking surveys that appeared in Conversation Signposts. It turned out to be a 26-page report that deals with issues and strategies your bank might wish to focus on in order to establish or enhance its Business Banking Performance Culture.

To receive your complimentary copy, send an e-mail to: jhubbard@stmeyerandhubbard.com 847.717.4328 with your e-mail address and direct telephone number and I'll get you the answer within 24 hours of your call.

Presentainment - The Fine Art of Catching Versus Pitching (Part One)

It's February, that time of year when baseball fans across this land tell themselves their favorite teams have a chance of winning the World Series. I'm told this is the 100th year Chicago Cubs fans have been waiting for their turn to pop that Championship Champagne. Pitching, so the pundits say, is 80% of the game. Unfortunately, that's still how many salespeople think they win business. Today, in a trust-based sales environment, catching has surpassed pitching as a means to win new relationships.

Clearly every business banker wants to be successful in earning relationships from pre-clients, as well as deepening partnerships with current clients. Sales champions possess three vital competencies: great at the conversation, adept at collaboration and skillful at seeking commitment. At the conclusion of the buying cycle they are also experts at presentainment.

As with earlier sales process phases the three keys to success late in the cycle are preparation, execution and follow-up. This is the first of a three-part Conversation Signposts series that explores the finer points of each. We'll also provide some final tips and takeaways that have helped bankers reach the tops of their classes in obtaining new business. Part one discusses presentainment preparation.

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare

Before even taking into account the solutions you might present, you have likely considered the FIT. Based on what you have learned in earlier calls is your solution feasible for the business owner, are you dealing with the individual that can make the decision and if you win the business does it track with the overall objectives of the bank? Sometimes the best sales are the ones you don't make or those you walk away from.

Here are some presentainment preparation issues to think about:

• What are the maximum and minimum goals of this meeting? If you can win the business at this meeting, that is a great "home run" goal. Many times, especially with pre-clients, a subsequent meeting must take place. In that case, a minimum goal might be to learn how you compare with your competition or at least discover how your solutions landed in the life of the buyer.
  
• How long will the meeting last? One of the worst things a presentainer can do is let the meeting run long or to complete the meeting too soon.
  
• Where will the meeting be held - a conference room, board room, the owner's office? Location makes a difference as to what medium you will use to present your solution. Larger venues may dictate PowerPoint. Smaller rooms might mean use of a paper document only.
  
• Who will be at the meeting? Have you already met each of the participants? If not, seriously consider obtaining permission to call anyone you haven't spoken with. A pre-meeting telephone call may provide the exact insight you need to win the business. Worst case, it's likely you competition won't make those phone calls, which puts you in a position of differentiation with the members of the committee. Clearly you will "Google" each member to better understand their backgrounds.
  
• What other financial services providers are presenting and who from that organization will be leading the meeting? You can do nothing about what or how they present but knowledge of who will be there from the other bank might help shape your strategy.
  
• Will you stand or sit? If there are three people or less on their side of the table, plan on sitting (it's more of a fireside chat approach). When the number climbs to four or greater, consider standing.
  
• In which order will you present? A goodly number of bankers don't really care in which order they present. It matters: huge. If there are three banks showcasing their solutions, going in the middle is deadly. You win less than 10% of the time that way. Going first certainly sets the bar and, if you are a skilled presenter, it is set pretty high. Neither of those works the best. Consider FILO when you present: first in, last out. Being first in with value shows responsiveness during the sales process and the last impression the potential buyer has is an important one. The last impression (especially when done very well) is a lasting impression when what you present matters.

Preparing for the Presentation

Most banks encourage use of an organized skills or conversation model when their bankers make presentations. Here's one organization's presentainment process:

• Build Rapport
  
• Set Meeting Expectations
  
• Confirm Needs
  
• Present Solutions
  
• Handle Concerns
  
• Seek Commitment

Build Rapport

Clearly this is different bonding than early cycle calls when you were just getting to know the pre-client. Preparing for some level of rapport, however, helps ease the tension on both sides of the table. A story or anecdote works well. When you bring a partner along from another area of the bank, establishing his/her credibility early on is also necessary. Scripting this connection is fake and plastic. Preparing for rapport is vital.

Set Meeting Expectations

Have the purpose in mind, along with the process and payoff for the meeting. Consider how you will articulate each in a succinct and client-focused way. Prepare to ask some confirming questions such as:

• "We had discussed 90 minutes for our meeting today. How does that timeframe work for your team now?"
  
• "As we mentioned, we want to accomplish XY and Z today. How does that compare with your expectations?"

Confirm Needs

Set a context by preparing to discuss how you and the client or pre-client got to this point. One bank employs a process called SOLVE.

Summarize needs you have learned that helped you craft this tailored solution.

• We know of a banker that begins each presentainment meeting by reviewing an Objectives Analysis. This one-page document has several bullet points that recap the conversations from previous meetings. It takes the banker a few extra minutes to put this document together, but she says it well worth it from a differentiation perspective.

Objective of the meeting. Connect the issues to the goal of the meeting.

List needs in priority order. This helps get the most important issues on the table and also lets the buyer know you have listened to his/her needs. A priorities list also allows you to use your time in the best way. If time gets away from you, it is best to be certain you have covered the top priorities in enough detail.

Verify your solutions. Let the buyer hear about your solutions. Most important, connect these services to the reasons he/she wants to buy and be sure to link your products back to the stated objectives.

• We are fascinated by bankers that hand a document to the pre-client or client where the last page contains numbers, fees, rates. That's usually the first page the business owner turns to. When that occurs you are in a hole from the start and it takes the rest of the meeting to justify your price. Why not leave the pricing separate (keep it in your briefcase until the end) so the buyer can focus on the benefits you bring to the table? If possible, it's even better to pass one page of the document at a time to the business owner. This helps control the focus of the presentainment to that one issue, service or component of your solution. If you decide to staple or bind your document, make the last page a testimonials page with three current clients that will say great things about you and your bank. If that's the first page the CFO wants to go to he or she will see multiple reasons to do business with you even before your presentainment begins.

Elicit a response. Too often bankers don't present, they pontificate. It is important that the business owner feels comfortable that you know your product. It is more important for the banker to learn how the product landed in the life of the buyer. That is done through dialogue, not monologue.

Present Solutions

We'll learn more specifics about this next month.

Prepare to Deal with Concerns

Handling objections through the use of plastic, memorized phrases is a 1970s way to hold conversations. Even in trust-based selling it is very likely the client or pre-client will have issues, questions, concerns. You can prepare to deal with these issues in a couple of ways. One is to imagine what might come up and when during the presentation it might occur. When might price, convenience, your expertise become an issue and, if it does, how will you respond? Another way is to "response block" the resistance during your presentation by using testimonials and examples that you believe could allay the fears of the buyer before they surface. Even the most experienced sales associates have trouble doing this on the fly.

Seek Commitment

How will you attempt to achieve your maximum call goal (e.g., to start/expand the relationship)? That involves some key questions:

• "Mr. Johnson, how does our Remote Deposit Capture process for managing your cash more efficiently compare to what you were looking for?"
  
• "Here are a couple of next steps we can use to get started. How does that work for you?"

Questions should also be asked if you know the maximum goal is out of reach and you are going to have to settle for your minimum goal:

• "It sounds as if you aren't prepared to act today. Talk to me about your decision process and what I need to be doing on your behalf at this point?"

Preparing for presentainment does not assure you will earn the business. It does help build confidence and land key learning points that otherwise might have been missed. Preparation alone won't help you win the sales World Series. It does ensure a great time at bat.

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