Much loved son, brother, husband; World Class banker and trusted colleague; great client and better friend. Throughout his all-too-short lifetime, Jonathan Rohde was known as many things by the people who knew him. A much higher power has now called him…home. He passed away on June 10 after a courageous two-year battle with cancer.
We met Jonathan in the early 1990s when he was a young banker at the old Household Bank. When Harris Bank purchased Household, Jonathan moved into business banking, which he had a great passion for. When we started St. Meyer & Hubbard in December 2000, Jonathan was one of the first bankers to reach out and hire us. He became our second client in March 2001. We worked directly with him for nearly nine years—basically on a handshake. He was always looking for every resource to help develop his associates and maximize their personal growth.
In a word, he was focused. He had a goal-driven nature and was always looking to improve his skills, expecting the same of his people. Jonathan loved to dive into numbers. We had numerous stimulating conversations about the bank’s sales force automation system and how to provide reports that were easy to use. Jonathan had a unique ability to get behind the numbers to look at strategies and tactics that helped put loans and deposits on the scoreboard.
Other than his wife, Beverley, his true love was the outdoors. An avid walleye fisherman, rock climber, and hunter, Jonathan also received great pleasure from raising and rescuing English Springer Spaniels.
We got more excellent feedback about the SalesBites in our last Signposts, so let’s do it again. If you have specific issues you want SalesBites to discuss, send your request to jhubbard@stmeyerandhubbard.com.
Of all the sales books we have read, one line stands out. It is from the classic written by Sharon Drew Morgen, Selling with Integrity. The simple sentence is “the buyer has the answers, the seller has the questions.” Financial services professionals from tellers to CEOs should consider emblazoning that line into their gray matter. Asking questions is a key skill and it goes waaaay beyond open- versus closed-ended.
Ask, then tell is a phrase that pays throughout the buying process. It begins with the initial appointment call when business bankers attempt to create interest on the telephone. “I would like to tell you about…” “I would like to show you…” “If I could show you a way…” Which of those pitches will be a hit with a prospect? Likely none. “How open would you be to learning three best practices that might add top line revenue to your business?” This one feels lots better. Let’s face it: prospects are über busy and they don’t have time for the same blather from the 1980s.
Some questioning issues we’ve seen on joint calls:
- Product-focused questions. The buying cycle is increasing, but asking product-related questions too quickly lumps you in with every other banker that’s called on the prospect. How much the prospect borrows or deposits, whether he/she personally guarantees the loan, or who he/she banks with are really irrelevant early on. When you see the body language close up or when eyes start to glaze over, maybe it’s your questions that are the cause.
- Lack of sequencing. Without a logical flow, the buyer tends to lose focus. His/her mind is wandering all over the place to begin with. Why exacerbate that by having your questions jump all over the map. Take control of the dialogue through a questioning path that you and the prospect can walk down together. It feels better to the prospect and might actually reduce the length of the buying process.
- Failure to focus on true needs. Every business has seven basic financial needs: managing cash, managing growth, etc. Every consumer has four basic financial needs. These needs are not checking accounts or treasury management services. Those are solutions. Asking questions related to each of these needs early on in the buying process or when the customer sits down at the new accounts desk serves to uncover true needs faster in a more trust-centric manner. Make the questions about the prospect and not you.
- Failure to prioritize. It certainly is important to start a dialogue with BN (where have you Been and where are you Now?). The real key is where the prospect is going. Questions such as “talk about some of your key priorities over the next several months” or “what initiatives are on your plate over the next quarter or two” helps the banker locate unmet objectives. Some would call it the pain points. Once the banker understands those issues at a high level, he or she can take a deeper dive into related issues through more specific questions.
- Questions with questions. “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” That quote from Socrates says it all when asking questions. The Socratic Method ascribes that one answers questions with questions. Another way to look at this is the concept of redirect. It is one of the most powerful and little used tools a salesperson has at his/her disposal. “Tell more about…” “Describe that for me…” “Talk about that situation…” These are great redirects. Think of it like this. When you go to Outback Steakhouse® and order a Bloomin’ Onion®, there are several layers before you get to the center. A professional salesperson understands there is a reason behind every question. The reason is at the center of the onion and too often the banker never gets past the outer skin because he/she answers too soon. It’s hard to win business when you don’t get to the question behind the question.
I wrote these SalesBites during my ninth annual trip to ABA’s Stonier Graduate School of Banking. This year nearly 75 people were in my class, Building a Business Banking Performance Culture. We talked about questions and ended by discussing questions that other bankers don’t think to ask. Here are some we came up with:
- Talk about the sales process and the sales cycle in your firm.
- What are some ways you measure success internally?
- What are some ways you measure success when you work with an external resource?
- How do you stay current with trends and best practices in your industry?
- Whom do you look to as an industry leader and what have you done to attempt to emulate some of their success practices?
- Talk about the concept of trusted advisor.
- Who do you consider your trusted advisors?
- Which of your trusted advisors help you make financial decisions?
- How do you and your associates attempt to become trusted advisors to your clients?
- What mistakes do banks make when they try to establish trust-based partnerships with their clients?
- When you determine that a change or addition needs to be made with a financial services partner, what political issues do you consider internally before executing on the change?
Sure it’s not an exhaustive list and at some point you will want to get to solutions-related questions. All in good time, Grasshopper. Remember, the more questions you plan for, practice in sales meetings, work with your sales coach on, and ultimately ask on calls, the better you are positioned as a go-to banker, a Resource Manager.
By Jason Tarr, Vice President, Citizens Bank
Ed Skou, Senior Vice President and Eastern Director of Business Banking Sales for Citizens Bank, has a great response when people ask how he is. Ed always says, “I’m better than excellent.” Ed would be a terrific spokesperson for a company called Life is good®.
“Optimism can take you anywhere.” ~Bert Jacobs
Bert Jacobs is the co-founder/owner of Life is good. Bert’s not a bestselling author. He’s not a professional public speaker. He doesn’t hold a master’s or a doctorate degree in business. |
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Regardless, he receives thunderous standing ovations whenever he speaks. At a recent sales rally at our bank he left people in tears—of joy—hearing about his better than excellent story.
Why? Because instead of writing fictional material about how to be successful, Bert shares his personal passion of how he has succeeded despite challenge after challenge. Part of that accomplishment involves how he and his younger brother, John, lived out of a used minivan for five years while traveling up and down the East Coast, “hawking” t-shirts at college dormitories and street fairs. Bert suggests he knew he had a successful sales day when he and John had just a few shirts left to sleep on at night. He discusses going from $78 dollars in the bank and almost giving up to owning a company with $120 million in annual sales. He talks about plastering their apartment with graphics of their characters and letting friends write phrases that could be associated with them.
Bert and John have a simple success vision:
- “Do what you like, like what you do.” Go to work or have a career. Hold down a job or hold passion in your heart. It’s your choice. A sale is easier made when the seller transfers enthusiasm and trust to the buyer. You can’t fake this, customers see right through it. Customers want to work with someone who is upbeat and genuine, someone who is excited about helping them.
- “Whatever you are, be a good one.”Once you find a profession that makes you happy, strive to be the best of the best in that industry. This means constantly looking for ways to improve and add value to customer relationships. Education is a lifelong process as well. Read, read, read.
- “Takers may eat well, but givers sleep well.”Strive to do what’s right. Don’t think “what’s in it for me?”, but “how can I help others?” To this day, Bert and John have not spent $1 on business advertising for Life is good. Instead, they choose to host a Life is good Festival with all money raised going to local charities. After the first festival, sales increased 21%. Today, they hold festivals all across the East Coast with every penny raised going to their Life is good Kids Foundation. These festivals have been one of the keys to the growth of the company—far more than any advertisement in paper, radio, or television. This goes to show that branding is far more powerful than print and you don’t need a marketing campaign to be successful.
- “Don’t knock something, build something.” Instead of griping or criticizing, offer support and find solutions. Bert talks about the fact that as Life is good has grown, there have been unforeseen challenges. He has continued to build despite all the headwinds. He continually walks around and interacts often with his employees. “They helped us build this thing,” he says. “I owe them hugs, pats on the back, and high fives often.”
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The final piece I take from Bert and his company is that most choose quality over price. The t-shirts they make are not inexpensive and they don’t apologize for it. |
Despite that, people around the world are wearing them. Recently several Life is good totes were spotted at the Indy 500. They are all over the place.
Bert, John, and their team have achieved consistent growth since the company began in 1994.
Review of SNAP Selling, Jill Konrath
By Jack Hubbard, Chief Experience Officer
We all get e-mails marketing new books - constantly. Newsletter writers and bloggers are always hawking each other’s material. But when Charles Green includes someone about a new sales book in his TrustMatters blog, I’m in. Recently, he wrote about SNAP Selling by Jill Konrath. I have seen stuff from Jill before and her first bestseller, Selling to Big Companies, is excellent. SNAP Selling is destined to be best-of-breed as well. The first thing I like is that it is all about the customer. Too many of these books are full of snappy phrases and manipulative scripts. That’s not how people talk to each other. |
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Jill takes a very practical look inside the mind of the buyer through SNAP Factors, SNAP Rules, and SNAP Checks. Behind those acronyms are practical and workable tools to help you sell more, sell deeper, and keep clients happy for life. Heck, the Buyer’s Matrix and creating the customer persona alone are worth the price. But there’s so much more inside these 297 pages.
Don’t believe me. Luminaries such as Charlie, Dave Stein, Keith Rosen, Jim Dickie, and many others are touting this as an instant classic. Any book or article that keeps the customer in the center is on my reading list too and SNAP Selling is just that. Looking for a good summer read that will change your sales life and the lives of your customers? This is it.Register for Conversation Signposts
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