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Help Me Understand: The What’s the Deal with Coaching (or Lack of It)? Rant

By Jack Hubbard, Chief Experience Officer

Ask most managers and they would indicate coaching is occurring regularly between themselves and their associates. That is likely a fact. Deal coaching, operations coaching, policies, procedures etc, etc. Coaching happens—just as not much as it likely should on the sales strategy side. Broken down to its simplest components, coaching involves: observation, conversation and follow-up.

When the Branch Manager sees the banker interact with the customer, the manager gets a great feel of where he/she should invest sales coaching time. A joint call observation helps the Business Banking Manager pinpoint the coaching conversation. When the Team Leader sits in as the Business Banker makes telephone appointments with prospects (like that happens ever) that Team Leader better understands why the banker is failing to get in the door more often and can work with that associate to improve “hit rates.”

The reasons our industry has not developed a sales coaching mindset? Here are some conversations I’ve had with some senior level bankers over the past several months. You tell me if their organizations have a coaching culture:

If your child (older or younger) needed some guidance and advice would you “get to it in the spring,” suggest “they are adults and I don’t want to micro-manage them,” indicate “the good ones will make it and the others will opt themselves out”? If we believe the number one job of the sales manager (starting at the highest levels) is to improve the performance of the people they lead and provide for their personal growth, we should invest coaching time with them just as we would for our own families.

Want some outstanding reading on coaching? Try Sacred Hoops by Phil Jackson and The Heart of Coaching by Thomas G. Crane.

Some Summer Reading: Two Books to Read on Your Vacation

Looking for a book or two for beach reading, by the pool relaxation or just some backyard enjoyment? Try Cold Calling for Cowards by Jerry Hocutt and Send by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe.

Cold Calling for Cowards by Jerry Hocutt

Some of our readers may be surprised that I, Jack Hubbard, would even pick up a book with the phrase COLD CALLING in the title. After reading Cold Calling for Cowards, I can tell you it is less about frigidity and more about solid strategies that can warm up your sales efforts. That stated, I don’t agree with everything in the book. I still now and forever will disdain total cold calling, sales blitzes and anything approaching “drop-ins” to business owners that don’t know you from a bag of dirt. Cold Calling for Cowards has some really neat ideas in its 269 pages though about how to stay in the game with the pre-client. Written in a Swim with the Sharks-esque narrative, Jerry tells some great stories, provides some practical tips and introduces lots of simple ways to get the pre-client to come to you. Jerry is the President and CEO of Hocutt & Associates, the creators of You’ve Got Contacts. We use Jerry’s Snippets electronic postcards regularly to stay in value-touch with the banking community.

Send by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe

The first e-mail was sent in 1971. That day forever changed the way we communicate with colleagues, friends and family. My wife (most of us call her Mrs. Hubbard because we are afraid of her) hates it. If she checks it more than once a month, it’s a complete shock. Despite her stated life goal of causing society to completely cease the use of e-mail, more than 1 trillion electronic messages change hands around the world every day. Send points out that e-mail allows us to be more callous, more angry and generally less sympathetic than when we are face-to-face or voice-to-voice with a colleague, friend or family member. The book unveils the eight deadly sins of e-mail, provides some horror stories about BCC, forwarding, RE RE RE and many others. If you want to write the perfect e-mail, or at least make yours better, the answer is within these 242 pages. Mrs. Hubbard won’t be reading this one.

Next month we’ll discuss Selling Sucks (don’t blame us for the title) by Frank Rumbauskas and The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way by Jeffrey Gitomer.

June Guest Columnist, Ed ODonnell, Vice President, Sundin Associates

Every summer we ask trusted associates in our industry to contribute to Conversation Signposts. We start this summer with an outstanding look at how to market Remote Capture. Sundin Associates has focused exclusively on the needs of financial institutions since 1976. I met Ed at ABA’s School of Bank Marketing and Management a couple of years ago and then was privileged to meet his associate Kristen Brandt at an ABA Marketing Network speech I gave in Plymouth, MA earlier this year, What impresses me about Sundin Associates is the partnerships they establish with their clients along with their expertise in the area of community bank marketing. Ed O’Donnell can be reached at ed@sundininc.com or at 508-650-3972.

According to some new data from Digital Transactions News, over 2900 banks are engaged in this powerful new service with the number expected to climb to over 4,000 by yearend. With more than 245,000 scanning workstations to be in place when the clock turns to 2008, remote capture has quickly transitioned from early adoption to mainstream use.

Remote Control: Marketing Remote Deposit Capture to Win

By Ed O’Donnell, Vice President, Sundin Associates

So you’ve made the decision to add Remote Deposit Capture (RDC) to your business banking service line-up. Good move. RDC is one of the most exciting new capabilities to hit the banking world in a long time. In addition to making check-depositing easier, more convenient and less time-consuming for your commercial banking customers, RDC can significantly reduce your operational costs associated with check-clearing.

Even more important in today’s hyper-competitive banking marketplace, RDC represents a powerful tool for attracting and retaining customers—if it’s implemented and promoted properly.

This point is crucially important. Too often, institutions buy into “turnkey” service offerings from third-party providers with the assumption that all they have to do is implement the service and the results will take care of themselves: “Launch it and they will come.” Alas, in the real world, success requires a bit more planning and effort.

Ensuring your RDC launch hits one out of the park demands a carefully thought-out marketing strategy. But where do you start? Consider the following key issues:

1. Set a service expectation.

Sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many organizations launch into marketing without setting a clear expectation for the service. Define what you want to achieve with RDC. Then make sure everyone is focused on the value propositions supporting those objectives. With RDC, you should be focused on two key expectations:

2. Define your audience.

This is another important step that is often overlooked. The better you understand who is likely to buy RDC—and why—the more effectively you can market to them. Targets for your RDC marketing efforts include:

Remember, the value proposition to these audiences will be dictated by their needs. Understanding what those needs are is crucial to hitting all the right notes and stimulating their interest in RDC.

To Brand or Not to Brand?

Once upon a time, nobody branded banking services—checking was checking, savings was savings. Times have changed. Today, even small community banks and credit unions offer innovative products with their own brands to help differentiate their offerings.

So what about RDC? The temptation is to create a catchy brand to add some “sizzle” and make it your own. Perhaps TurboConnect or FastCheck. Don’t look now, but your Marketing interns are back there brainstorming names this minute!

But before you invest big in a marketing campaign to launch such a branded product, consider the other side of the branding coin. The fact is, RDC is still new enough that many business owners haven’t yet heard of it or don’t really know what it is. Trying to sell these prospects “TurboConnect” probably won’t fill in that blank (perhaps they’ll think you’re selling vacuum cleaners!). Asking your prospects to pay attention long enough to figure out what you’re trying to sell them may be too much to ask (they’re busy people, remember?).

Consider a recent example of this phenomenon: Internet Banking. Many institutions launched their offerings under all kinds of brands: PCBanking, 24/7 Banking, @Home Banking and more. For many consumers unfamiliar with the service, this just caused confusion. In the final analysis, it’s just Online Banking, right? That’s exactly what consumers called it then...and most still do.

Or take the more recent case of Citizen Bank’s Green Checking account. Any guesses what Green Checking might be? Consumers might not know either. They have to read down into the copy to discover that Green Checking is...drum roll please...Free Checking. People want free, no matter what color it comes in. So why not just call it what it is: Free Checking?

Eventually, RDC will be as common a commodity as Online Banking and Free Checking. In the meantime, carefully consider whether selling your own unique brand will help or hinder the market’s understanding and acceptance of this new service offering.

Marketing to Current Customers

So you’ve defined the value proposition of RDC to your various business targets and now you’re ready to start marketing. Remember that adding value to existing relationships is one of your two key expectations. Promoting RDC to your existing commercial customers can help you retain those customers, while adding yet another revenue stream to those relationships. These customers include not only those with existing business deposit accounts, but commercial lending customers without deposit relationships, as well.

With current customers, you have the advantage of a full range of marketing “touch points” available to you, including:

Regardless of which touch points you choose, make sure in your messaging to demonstrate how RDC adds value to your customers’ existing relationships with your institution.

Marketing to Prospective Customers

As noted under service expectations, RDC can also be a powerful tool for attracting new business customers. In addition to differentiating your offering (assuming your competition does not yet have RDC), RDC can be an effective solution for expanding your geographic reach. No longer is close proximity to your bank a “make or break” factor. This helps level the playing field, giving smaller banks without extensive branch networks a leg up in competing with “the big boys.”

When marketing to these new prospects, consider offering RDC as part of a larger business banking package of deposit and loan offerings. Your best chance lies in providing a comprehensive business banking solution with the added convenience of remote check-depositing.

Make sure to get your Commercial Lenders into the act, working to convert borrowers into depositors. In these situations, RDC can be used effectively as a deal-closer: Congratulations, your loan is approved...bring your deposit accounts over as well and I’ll throw in RDC for a year (or at a reduced cost).

With all prospects, regardless of their proximity to your institution, make sure to emphasize the key RDC benefit: saving valuable time during business hours. How much is their time worth...and how much of that time do they spend running to the bank to make deposits? Case closed.

When developing your marketing strategy, start by carefully reviewing what your competitors offer, digging down into the details. Then make sure you give yourself an edge...and give your prospects a reason to go with you: a free trial, a lower monthly cost, waived item fees, free RDC reader set-up—whatever it takes to overcome the inertia factor that so often prevents customers from adopting a new service. Don’t give them a reason to say “no.”

RDC will be most attractive to business owners who value innovation, as well as time saved. Consider reaching out to them via e-mail blitz (check with the appropriate Chamber of Commerce to see if you can purchase a list) and direct mail, which allows you to target businesses geographically.

What Are You Waiting For?

As with so many new products and services in the information age, the first movers will have the market advantage. Everyone else will be left to play catch-up. And the clock is ticking. The sooner you lock up your piece of the pie, the better. Get out there and start marketing the future...today!

We’ll Be There

Here’s where SM&H associates will be appearing over the next months:

June 2007

July 2007

August 2007

September 2007

Register for Conversation Signposts

Margins are squeezed and the yield curve is inverted. Boo Hoo. Bankers that take control of their sales lives tell us the articles and ideas in Conversation Signposts make a difference regardless of curves and yields—stuff they can’t control in the first place. If someone else at your bank could benefit from Conversation Signposts, forward this edition to them and have them click on the hyperlink below to register: it’s FREE!

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