Dwight Lampley told me. Lisa Pawlowicz warned me. Bob St. Meyer tried to explain it. Each of these colleagues has experienced grandparenthood and all suggested how amazing it would be. You can hear about it, read about it, see movies about it, but nothing can prepare you for the joy you feel when grandbabies enter your world.
It happened to Gramma Hubbard and me on Thursday, February 4 at 3:34 and 3:36 PM respectively. Yep, the twins decided to enter society earlier this month and things will never be the same. Chase Maclin and Gavin Gage are doing great and their parents, Adam and Amber Hubbard, are tired, proud, awed, and in for a great life with their boys. We’re already making plans for sleepovers, playing catch, fishing, and watching them grow.
“Grandchildren give us a second chance to do things better because they bring out the best in us.”
So as Dwight, Lisa, Bob, and all the grandparents out there would suggest: “here’s to grandchildren!”
Tony Parinello - Sales Guru, Writer, Presenter at April 8 SM&H Webinar
By Jack Hubbard, Chief Experience Officer,
St. Meyer & Hubbard
I met Tony Parinello in the mid-1990s, just as his first book, Selling to VITO, was about to be released. He takes a practical, no nonsense look at how to hold quality sales conversations. Now, nine bestsellers later, Tony continues to WOW audiences worldwide. We are so proud that on April 8 Tony has agreed to share one hour with bankers in a Virtual Learning Lab webinar called, Think and Sell Like a CEO. We will meet our maximum number of sites for this complimentary program in no time, so if you want to attend live, click the link below and register your team today. |
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One of Tony’s bestselling books is Think and Sell Like a CEO. When people ask me which business book they should be reading, this one is always at the top of my list. The book, like Tony, is short on theory and long on proven strategies. From preparing to call on the CEO, to gaining EBS (Equal Business Stature), to making the contact and the call, to the Ten Commandments of CEOs Who Sell, the reader is transported into the mind and heart of this key decision-maker. Tony Parinello put his 36 years of selling experience into an easy-to-read and easier to implement approach. To purchase this and others of Tony’s great works, visit www.sellingtovito.com.
Presentainment - the Fine Art of Catching, not Pitching
By Bob St. Meyer, President,
St. Meyer & Hubbard
For the past couple of months, Rantmaster Hubbard has been discussing Pitchbooks and Proposal Kits. This month I want to opine about preparing to make your pitch. In March we’ll talk about gaining commitment by showing your actual solutions. But it’s February, the month when hope begins to spring eternal for baseball fans everywhere. Pitching, so the pundits say, is 80% of the game. That’s how salespeople used to think they earned new business. Today, in a trust-based sales environment, catching has surpassed pitching as a means to win relationships.
Clearly every business banker wants to be successful in earning new relationships and deepening current partnerships. Sales champions possess three vital competencies: they are great at communication (including active listening), adept at collaboration, and skillful at seeking commitment. Stated simply, they are expert at presentainment.
As in other areas of the conversation process, effective presentainment has three key components: preparation, execution, and follow-up.
Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail
Before even considering 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 ones you don’t make. No fit going in, never a fit during the relationship. A messy divorce is waiting to happen.
Here are some high-level preparation issues to think about:
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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 circle-back meeting must take place. In that case, a minimum goal achieved is at least a “double.”
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How long will the meeting last? One of the worst things a presentainer can do is let the meeting run long or not leave enough time for questions.
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Where will the meeting be held…a conference room, a board room, the owner’s office? This might make a difference as to what medium you will use to present your solution. Larger venues may dictate that you will use PowerPoint. Smaller rooms might mean you will present from a paper document only.
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Who will be at the meeting? Have you met them all? If not, seriously consider obtaining permission to call anyone you haven’t spoken with. We call it “poll the group.” This pre-meeting telephone call may provide the exact insight you need to win the business. Worst case, it’s likely your 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.
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How can I engage the audience? 45 minutes of one-way presenting through feature after feature and benefit after benefit might feel good to the pitcher, but not at all for the receiver.
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What other financial services providers are presenting and who from the organization will be doing it? You can do nothing about what or how they present, but knowledge of who will be there from the competition might help you response-block some things.
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Will you stand or sit? If there are three or less people on their side of the table, plan on sitting (it’s more of a fireside chat). When the number climbs to four or greater, consider standing. We like to walk when we present. No right or wrong, but we feel it enhances the level of intimacy and engagement.
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In which order will you present? I am amazed at the number of bankers that 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 about 8% of the time. Going first certainly sets the bar and, if you are a great presenter, it is set pretty high. Neither of those work for us. We always want to go last. It’s based on FILO (first in, last out). We always want to be first in with value (the most responsive) and the last impression the potential buyer has. The last impression (especially when done very well) is a lasting impression. Think more critically about this. When you present matters.
Preparing for the Presentainment
Most banks use a skills model when they make presentations. Here’s one organization’s presentainment process:
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Build Rapport
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Set Meeting Expectations
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Confirm Needs
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Present Solutions
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Handle Concerns
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Seek Commitment
Build Rapport
Clearly this is different rapport 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. You might also be bringing a partner along from say, Treasury Management, and to establish their credibility some level of ice-breaking is necessary. Scripting this is fake and plastic. Preparing for rapport is vital.
Set Meeting Expectations
Have in mind the purpose, process, and payoff for the meeting and plan how you will articulate that 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?”
“As we mentioned, we want to accomplish X, Y, 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 that you have heard that helped you craft a tailored solution.
Objective of the presentation—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 their needs. Doing this also allows you to use your time in the best way.
Verify your solutions—let the buyer hear about your solutions and confirm how they connect to the objectives.
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
As previous rants have indicated, investing time in preparing custom-tailored pitchbooks and getting other collateral ready provides a solid return on your time. Getting partners prepared is also critical if you are making a joint presentainment.
Handle Concerns
Handling objections by using plastic, memorized phrases is a 1970s way to hold conversations. Even in trust-based selling it is very likely that 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 presentainment 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 concerns 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 earn the business)? That involves some key questions:
“Mr. Johnson, how does our Remote Deposit Capture process for managing your cash more efficiently sound to you?”
“How about we begin the process of implementing that solution?”
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 the presentation does not assure you will earn the business. It does help build your confidence and land key learning points that otherwise might have been missed. Wanna win the sales World Series? Getting ready to throw the pitch is as important as actually making it.
Three Customer Segments You’re (Probably) Not Paying Enough Attention To
By Sasan Goodarzi, President,
Digital Insight, an Intuit company
Editor’s Note:
Jack Hubbard was privileged to serve as a judge for the 2010 Barlow Research Monarch Innovation Awards. While the winners will not be announced until the annual Barlow Client Conference in March, Jack was impressed enough with a new program offered by Digital Insight that he asked their President to contribute to the February Conversation Signposts.
As Intuit’s financial institutions division, Digital Insight helps financial institutions optimize their profitability by continuously innovating how consumers and businesses manage their money online. Nearly nine million consumers and businesses—almost 10%—of all online banking users in the United States, actively use Digital Insight’s solutions through its nearly 1,800 financial institution clients.
DI’s next generation business banking platform is known as Business Financial Solutions. The solution is an intelligent and personalized business banking portal that identifies a business user’s most commonly used capabilities and makes them immediately available on the home page. This enables financial institutions to deliver the power of traditional cash management tools in a simplified/customizable format tailored to the management needs of their varied clients—from the smallest businesses to large commercial and corporate customers—using a single platform. Visit www.digitalinsight.com for more information.
During the recession in 2000, 40% of the organizations that had been top performers fell out of that bracket, leaving a huge void for new organizations to fill.
As the current banking landscape continues to undergo extraordinary change and banks are being forced to cost-cut strategic operations so they can survive, now is the time for strong organizations to rise to the top. Circling the wagons or playing defense is a mistake. When organizations hibernate, they risk being replaced by nimble competitors that have chosen to proactively position themselves for growth once cyclical economic conditions improve—as they inevitably do.
This recession presents a “perfect storm” of opportunity for banks to grow. How? By offering online capabilities that better help currently underserved and potentially lucrative customer segments: Generation Y, small businesses, and women.
At minimum, financial institutions should already be offering basic online banking functionality to their client bases. Online banking is one of the top reasons customers select a financial institution, and its importance is expected to grow from 57 million in 2008 to 80 million in 2013 [Online Banking Report, Online and Mobile Banking Forecast, January 2009] as more tech-savvy generations enter the workforce. In addition, customers of all ages are looking for better ways to manage their financial lives through trusted partners: their financial institutions.
How can a bank ensure it takes the right online approach to these customer segments? Solid relationships are built by truly knowing how to relate to different demographics, fostering trust, and getting to know customers’ needs. These insights can only be discovered by matching what customers say to what they actually do. At Digital Insight, we literally watch customers interact online with their banks from their homes and work, and we incorporate these insights into the solutions and services we offer. Here is what we learned matters most to these very important underserved groups…
Gen Y
Those in Generation Y are the most comfortable and heaviest users of online banking we’ve ever seen. They’ve grown up on the Internet, so handling things online is what they know. In fact, nearly 90% of Gen Y banks online, almost 70% pay their bills online, and about one-third have opened an account online in the last year. And for those still wondering whether Gen Y is important to a bank’s online channel and bottom line, Javelin Strategy & Research recently found that Gen Y will come of age financially in the coming decade, earning $3.39 trillion in income, surpassing the income for boomers ($2.77 trillion), and closing the gap with Gen X ($4.05 trillion). And how can banks help? Gen Y customers show a greater affinity for personal financial management tools integrated into online banking than any other group.
Given this segment’s growing wealth, and that 75% of Gen Y state they trust the security of a bank or credit union website as the place to manage their finances, it’s important for banks to capture these online relationships before someone else does.
Small Businesses
Small businesses are in dire need of attention from financial institutions’ retail channels. Of the nation’s small businesses, 23 million are run by do-it-yourself owners, and almost two-thirds reside on the “consumer” banking platform, funding their businesses from personal accounts.
These businesses continue to struggle to piece together online banking solutions designed for consumers with their own manual methods to conduct basic financial management, to manage invoicing and billing tasks, and simply to accept payments from their customers. Clearly there is a significant gap between what small businesses need from the retail channel and what they are currently being provided.
Just how large is this opportunity? Small business owners are currently owed approximately $33 billion in overdue payments, and they’re revolving approximately $150 billion on their credit cards to run their businesses. And don’t forget: small businesses typically hold significantly more financial products than consumers, making them a tremendous growth opportunity for a bank with the right set of online solutions.
Banks can best help by providing these small business owners with easy-to-use solutions for managing their daily business finances.
Women
A recent survey of women conducted by The Boston Consulting Group found that “women are driving $12 trillion in global spending today and will contribute an incremental $5 trillion in earnings over the next five years.” This number reflects the fact that more than 80% of women surveyed are responsible for managing household finances, such as buying groceries. The survey goes on to predict that in the next 20 years, women will control more than 70% of consumer spending worldwide.
In addition, Intuit’s Future of Small Business Report sees women as an emerging presence in the small business landscape. So, essentially there’s an increasingly powerful group of spenders who are simultaneously emerging as autonomous and independent, leading to a higher need for tailored tools to help them meet their unique and changing needs.
Innovative banks will position themselves as the primary online financial hubs for each of these customer segments. Retail bankers must create a single sign-in destination where users can clearly view—and act on—a full picture of their financial health, from their spending habits to what bills are coming up and how much they can afford to spend and save. And for businesses, they must add simple invoicing, payroll, and payment processing capabilities. Doing so will provide the bank a wealth of valuable data that can be mined to provide valuable purchasing advice and additional financial services to these customers, further developing their trust in the financial institutions. And once a deep and meaningful relationship is established, these well networked customers will tell others, driving more customers to your door.
Is your online channel ready to meet these needs? If not, you are already at risk of losing potentially lucrative customers to competitors. Gen Y, small businesses, and women are all part of your existing customer base right now. Offer them the right set of online services in their time of need today and you can build relationships for life, growing your business at the same time.
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Jack Hubbard Bob St. Meyer |
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