Conversation Signposts

Taking the Deal Off the Street

By Bob St. Meyer
President

I had the occasion to make some joint calls with bankers earlier this month and, upon further review, they all had one thing in common. Regardless of where the banker was in the sales cycle and whether it was a client or pre-client, the calls centered on the bank and the banker, not the business owner. To be sure, listening was happening, but it was product-listening, not client-listening. What I mean by that is that while the bankers asked lots of questions, they were asked in an attempt to uncover a product need versus one of the seven true client needs. Contrast that with the situation below.

Toward the end of one call, the banker’s sense of urgency for the client and his own strategy was so low he missed an opportunity to take a deal off the street. The company CEO suggested he was looking to buy his building and that his interim financials would be available soon from his CPA. One might have thought the banker’s conversation at that point might have sounded like:

“Mr. Johnson, this is an exciting opportunity for you. Let me ask you:

Who else are you looking at in terms of financing your building?
What criteria will you use to determine the resource you will choose to fulfill this need?
What is the decision process?
What is your timeframe?
What experience do you have owning a commercial property?”

Not only were none of those questions asked, the banker did not determine when the CPA would have the statements ready, when he might expect to receive them, if he could follow up in X days with the CPA if he did not receive them…nada. He didn’t even compare calendars to determine when the next call would take place.

We usually have an “Ask the Coach” column in each issue of Conversation Signposts. This month, you be the coach. What would you do now? In this competitive environment, taking as many deals off the competitor’s radar as possible is vital.

Bankers:

How does your pre-call plan reflect questions you might ask if you uncover a need?
How much do you imagine yourself asking those questions before you start the call?
What will you do if you get resistance to attempting to get the statements?

Managers:

How are you coaching your bankers when this situation arises?
How often do you practice, skill-drill, role-play the situation above?
After you see something like this occur on a joint call, what does your coaching sound like?

Our clients tell us getting more “feet on the street” is important. It’s not only getting those feet in the door, it’s using listening skills and
client-centric questions to take deals off the street that shorten the sales process and increases revenues.

The Wealth Management Connection Taking Advantage of Mass Affluence

By Mike Dillon
Senior Vice President

The goose that laid the golden egg, silver spoons, deep pockets, old money… call it what you wish, one thing is clear: There’s Gold in Them There Clients! Lot’s of it. In today’s competitive marketplace bankers are working harder than ever to cross-solve based on client needs. Bankers continue to leave mass quantities of money on the table, however because they miss one of the most obvious opportunities to bring incredible value to their clients. They continue to overlook the Wealth Management Connection.

It’s as plain as the nose on your face. Many of those same business owners and senior executives you are calling on are already part of the more than 8.2 million families in the United States with investable assets in excess of $1 million. Sure, you’ve got their commercial loans, business DDAs, and maybe their cash management relationships, but how much have you done to help them manage their personal or family assets?

Wealth Management is a growth business. It’s growing because of economic, as well as demographic, shifts. Don’t think you have too many blue-bloods in your portfolio? Here’s a little Wealth Management 101 that might change your mind. “Ultra High Net Worth” individuals are those with assets that top $50,000,000. “High Net Worth” individuals are typically defined as those people with investable assets in excess of $1,000,000. The “Mass Affluent” are those individuals with investable assets of $250,000 all the way down to the merely “Affluent” with $100,000 to invest. That’s a lot of opportunity…and more importantly, that’s a lot of clients that could really benefit from your help.

High Net Worth Americans deal with more complex financial and legal issues; have more investments in different structures of incorporated and unincorporated business ventures. They experience higher demands for alternative investments, risk management, insurance, and tax planning. Wealth Management has evolved from just giving advice on assets to providing integrated advice and counsel on these critical issues. Don’t you have someone at your bank that might be able to help your clients with some of these problems? I’ll bet you do. The trouble is, I’d also bet that you don’t have much of a connection with the Wealth Management team at the bank—whether that be the private bank, trust department, brokerage representative, portfolio manager, or insurance specialist.

Who manages the money and captures the heart wins the total wallet. Earn the trust to manage their personal wealth and you earn the right to manage their business finances or vise versa. You can get there through all lines of businesses at the bank. For most business owners, those two are inextricably combined anyway. A recent study, in fact, indicates that 16.1% of the Mass Affluent own a small business. In addition, 67.8% of those households report having their business and personal accounts at the same institution.

With traditional boundaries between banks and other financial services firms being blurred, competition for High Net Worth humans is fierce to say the least. In a recent Greenwich Research study of small business owners, when asked to “identify 2-3 companies you consider to be leaders in delivering personal investing, private banking, and Wealth Management products and services,” 7 of the top 10 were not banks. Doesn’t it make sense that we need to at least acknowledge the Wealth Management side of each of our clients as much as national competitors do?

Here are some ideas to consider:

Better understand your Wealth Management solutions
Get to know the Wealth Management players
Ask different questions
Expand your “value-add” to include Wealth Management
Bring your Wealth Management friend on a call
Invite Wealth Management to your pipeline meetings—and attend theirs

Better understand your Wealth Management solutions

Okay…so you’re human and you don’t want to look bad in front of your clients. There’s no way you’re going to ask questions about something you know nothing about. The solution: Do something about it! Sure, product knowledge is boring, but remember, we don’t all have to become certified financial planners. We just have to have enough of an understanding of the Wealth Management products and services offered by the bank to land it in the lives of the client during the ongoing conversations we have with them. That means we need to focus on understanding the benefits these products and services can provide customers and, equally important, what problems they can solve.

Get to know the Wealth Management players

It’s incredibly important for bankers to have the utmost confidence in colleagues before they take the “risk” of introducing them into one of their valued relationships. One of the best and quickest ways to gain that confidence is to understand what kind of experience they will deliver to a customer. To do that, you need to experience first-hand what your valued clients will experience at the hands of the Wealth Management advisor. Have your Wealth Management colleagues do a “real play” with you. Use real, or simulated, financial data, but stay in character so you get an accurate picture of the kinds of questions they’ll be asking, the way they position those questions, the depth in which they profile a client, and their overall sales process.

Ask different questions

Now that you know about their products, the benefits they provide, how they help clients sleep better at night, and what the client will experience, you need to think about how you might begin to integrate that knowledge into your sales conversations. Work with your Wealth Management pros to determine what questions you need to ask and what cues you need to look for. Ask about succession planning and other exit strategies, retirement planning, wealth transfer, current investment strategies, philanthropic dreams—whatever makes sense for each situation. You’ll uncover useful information, identify assets, and expand your knowledge of their share of heart and share of wallet.

Expand your “value-add” to include Wealth Management

If you are a top-notch lender, you no doubt reach out to your best clients and top pre-clients with something of value on a regular basis…something that helps set you apart from all the other bankers that knock on their doors. Many bankers send industry-specific articles, economic reports, or other articles of personal or business interest. Make some of those articles relate to the Wealth Management issues or concerns that also keep entrepreneurs tossing and turning at night. The best news is, all you’ll have to do is ask your Wealth Management advisor for great ideas and they will be happy to provide you with the article that makes sense. They do the leg work and you get all the credit for making the deposit in your clients’ emotional bank accounts. Don’t worry, if it plays out properly, the Wealth Management team will end up engaged with your client too, thus rounding out the win-win-win.

Bring your Wealth Management friend on a call

Bankers are always looking for a reason to stop by their clients’ offices with something of value instead of just “checking in” or to see if they “need anything else”. If you’ve taken my advice on the first four steps of making the “Wealth Management Connection” don’t stop now. Invite the appropriate person from the Wealth Management team to accompany you on a call to one of your top clients. “Mr. Client, you mentioned that employee turnover has been a challenge for you. How would you feel about me connecting you to someone who could help you rest easier and make your employees more loyal?” It’s not that difficult and it makes a lot of sense for you AND the client. By the way…ask the Wealth Management sales team to take you out on calls they make on some of their clients who own businesses. It works both ways you know.

Invite Wealth Management to your pipeline meetings—and attend theirs

Now that you’ve got the ball rolling, make it last. Keep your teams engaged by inviting representatives from Wealth Management to your weekly/monthly pipeline meetings and ask to send business banking representatives to the Wealth Management meetings. You’ll retain shelf space and uncover referral opportunities, but most importantly, you’ll create the unified, team-building environment that all banks strive for.

There you have it. Six simple steps to help raise the bar for you professionally, benefit your top clients, expand share of heart and share of wallet for existing customers, attract new relationships, and grow revenues for the bank. You’ll be surprised what doors will open up to you as a result.

Summer at Conversation Signposts

Sales conversations don’t take the summer off at your bank so why should we? We do use June through August to highlight trends that bankers should be “proacting” to. This year, we are pleased to highlight Baker Hill, Harte-Hankes, and Greenwich Research.

June 2006: Baker Hill provides a recap of its highly successful Client Summit that took place in San Antonio April 24-25, 2006.

July 2006: Harte-Hankes discusses Onboarding, one of the hottest sales topics in our industry today.

August 2006: Greenwich Research outlines some new data from small business owners and middle market companies.

Register for Conversation Signposts

The second quarter is nearly history. Ideas in Conversation Signposts are creating sales funnel opportunities for the next three months. Bankers tell us the tips they find in Conversation Signposts have contributed to some significant wins on behalf of their clients and pre-clients. If someone else at your bank could benefit from Conversation Signposts, forward this edition and have them click on the hyperlink below to register: it’s FREE! What’s not to love?

http://www.stmeyerandhubbard.com/signup.html

		Taking the Deal Off the Street By Bob St. Meyer President I had the occasion to make some joint calls with bankers earlier this month and, upon further review, they all had one thing in common. Regardless of where the banker was in the sales cycle and whether it was a client or pre-client, the calls centered on the bank and the banker, not the business owner. To be sure, listening was happening, but it was product-listening, not client-listening. What I mean by that is that while the bankers asked lots of questions, they were asked in an attempt to uncover a product need versus one of the seven true client needs. Contrast that with the situation below. Toward the end of one call, the banker’s sense of urgency for the client and his own strategy was so low he missed an opportunity to take a deal off the street. The company CEO suggested he was looking to buy his building and that his interim financials would be available soon from his CPA. One might have thought the banker’s conversation at that point might have sounded like: “Mr. Johnson, this is an exciting opportunity for you. Let me ask you: Who else are you looking at in terms of financing your building? What criteria will you use to determine the resource you will choose to fulfill this need? What is the decision process? What is your timeframe? What experience do you have owning a commercial property?” Not only were none of those questions asked, the banker did not determine when the CPA would have the statements ready, when he might expect to receive them, if he could follow up in X days with the CPA if he did not receive them…nada. He didn’t even compare calendars to determine when the next call would take place. We usually have an “Ask the Coach” column in each issue of Conversation Signposts. This month, you be the coach. What would you do now? In this competitive environment, taking as many deals off the competitor’s radar as possible is vital. Bankers: How does your pre-call plan reflect questions you might ask if you uncover a need? How much do you imagine yourself asking those questions before you start the call? What will you do if you get resistance to attempting to get the statements? Managers: How are you coaching your bankers when this situation arises? How often do you practice, skill-drill, role-play the situation above? After you see something like this occur on a joint call, what does your coaching sound like? Our clients tell us getting more “feet on the street” is important. It’s not only getting those feet in the door, it’s using listening skills and client-centric questions to take deals off the street that shorten the sales process and increases revenues.






		The Wealth Management Connection Taking Advantage of Mass Affluence By Mike Dillon Senior Vice President The goose that laid the golden egg, silver spoons, deep pockets, old money… call it what you wish, one thing is clear: There’s Gold in Them There Clients! Lot’s of it. In today’s competitive marketplace bankers are working harder than ever to cross-solve based on client needs. Bankers continue to leave mass quantities of money on the table, however because they miss one of the most obvious opportunities to bring incredible value to their clients. They continue to overlook the Wealth Management Connection. It’s as plain as the nose on your face. Many of those same business owners and senior executives you are calling on are already part of the more than 8.2 million families in the United States with investable assets in excess of $1 million. Sure, you’ve got their commercial loans, business DDAs, and maybe their cash management relationships, but how much have you done to help them manage their personal or family assets? Wealth Management is a growth business. It’s growing because of economic, as well as demographic, shifts. Don’t think you have too many blue-bloods in your portfolio? Here’s a little Wealth Management 101 that might change your mind. “Ultra High Net Worth” individuals are those with assets that top $50,000,000. “High Net Worth” individuals are typically defined as those people with investable assets in excess of $1,000,000. The “Mass Affluent” are those individuals with investable assets of $250,000 all the way down to the merely “Affluent” with $100,000 to invest. That’s a lot of opportunity…and more importantly, that’s a lot of clients that could really benefit from your help. High Net Worth Americans deal with more complex financial and legal issues; have more investments in different structures of incorporated and unincorporated business ventures. They experience higher demands for alternative investments, risk management, insurance, and tax planning. Wealth Management has evolved from just giving advice on assets to providing integrated advice and counsel on these critical issues. Don’t you have someone at your bank that might be able to help your clients with some of these problems? I’ll bet you do. The trouble is, I’d also bet that you don’t have much of a connection with the Wealth Management team at the bank—whether that be the private bank, trust department, brokerage representative, portfolio manager, or insurance specialist. Who manages the money and captures the heart wins the total wallet. Earn the trust to manage their personal wealth and you earn the right to manage their business finances or vise versa. You can get there through all lines of businesses at the bank. For most business owners, those two are inextricably combined anyway. A recent study, in fact, indicates that 16.1% of the Mass Affluent own a small business. In addition, 67.8% of those households report having their business and personal accounts at the same institution. With traditional boundaries between banks and other financial services firms being blurred, competition for High Net Worth humans is fierce to say the least. In a recent Greenwich Research study of small business owners, when asked to “identify 2-3 companies you consider to be leaders in delivering personal investing, private banking, and Wealth Management products and services,” 7 of the top 10 were not banks. Doesn’t it make sense that we need to at least acknowledge the Wealth Management side of each of our clients as much as national competitors do? Here are some ideas to consider: Better understand your Wealth Management solutions Get to know the Wealth Management players Ask different questions Expand your “value-add” to include Wealth Management Bring your Wealth Management friend on a call Invite Wealth Management to your pipeline meetings—and attend theirs Better understand your Wealth Management solutions Okay…so you’re human and you don’t want to look bad in front of your clients. There’s no way you’re going to ask questions about something you know nothing about. The solution: Do something about it! Sure, product knowledge is boring, but remember, we don’t all have to become certified financial planners. We just have to have enough of an understanding of the Wealth Management products and services offered by the bank to land it in the lives of the client during the ongoing conversations we have with them. That means we need to focus on understanding the benefits these products and services can provide customers and, equally important, what problems they can solve. Get to know the Wealth Management players It’s incredibly important for bankers to have the utmost confidence in colleagues before they take the “risk” of introducing them into one of their valued relationships. One of the best and quickest ways to gain that confidence is to understand what kind of experience they will deliver to a customer. To do that, you need to experience first-hand what your valued clients will experience at the hands of the Wealth Management advisor. Have your Wealth Management colleagues do a “real play” with you. Use real, or simulated, financial data, but stay in character so you get an accurate picture of the kinds of questions they’ll be asking, the way they position those questions, the depth in which they profile a client, and their overall sales process. Ask different questions Now that you know about their products, the benefits they provide, how they help clients sleep better at night, and what the client will experience, you need to think about how you might begin to integrate that knowledge into your sales conversations. Work with your Wealth Management pros to determine what questions you need to ask and what cues you need to look for. Ask about succession planning and other exit strategies, retirement planning, wealth transfer, current investment strategies, philanthropic dreams—whatever makes sense for each situation. You’ll uncover useful information, identify assets, and expand your knowledge of their share of heart and share of wallet. Expand your “value-add” to include Wealth Management If you are a top-notch lender, you no doubt reach out to your best clients and top pre-clients with something of value on a regular basis…something that helps set you apart from all the other bankers that knock on their doors. Many bankers send industry-specific articles, economic reports, or other articles of personal or business interest. Make some of those articles relate to the Wealth Management issues or concerns that also keep entrepreneurs tossing and turning at night. The best news is, all you’ll have to do is ask your Wealth Management advisor for great ideas and they will be happy to provide you with the article that makes sense. They do the leg work and you get all the credit for making the deposit in your clients’ emotional bank accounts. Don’t worry, if it plays out properly, the Wealth Management team will end up engaged with your client too, thus rounding out the win-win-win. Bring your Wealth Management friend on a call Bankers are always looking for a reason to stop by their clients’ offices with something of value instead of just “checking in” or to see if they “need anything else”. If you’ve taken my advice on the first four steps of making the “Wealth Management Connection” don’t stop now. Invite the appropriate person from the Wealth Management team to accompany you on a call to one of your top clients. “Mr. Client, you mentioned that employee turnover has been a challenge for you. How would you feel about me connecting you to someone who could help you rest easier and make your employees more loyal?” It’s not that difficult and it makes a lot of sense for you AND the client. By the way…ask the Wealth Management sales team to take you out on calls they make on some of their clients who own businesses. It works both ways you know. Invite Wealth Management to your pipeline meetings—and attend theirs Now that you’ve got the ball rolling, make it last. Keep your teams engaged by inviting representatives from Wealth Management to your weekly/monthly pipeline meetings and ask to send business banking representatives to the Wealth Management meetings. You’ll retain shelf space and uncover referral opportunities, but most importantly, you’ll create the unified, team-building environment that all banks strive for. There you have it. Six simple steps to help raise the bar for you professionally, benefit your top clients, expand share of heart and share of wallet for existing customers, attract new relationships, and grow revenues for the bank. You’ll be surprised what doors will open up to you as a result.

		Summer at Conversation Signposts Sales conversations don’t take the summer off at your bank so why should we? We do use June through August to highlight trends that bankers should be “proacting” to. This year, we are pleased to highlight Baker Hill, Harte-Hankes, and Greenwich Research. June 2006: Baker Hill provides a recap of its highly successful Client Summit that took place in San Antonio April 24-25, 2006. July 2006: Harte-Hankes discusses Onboarding, one of the hottest sales topics in our industry today. August 2006: Greenwich Research outlines some new data from small business owners and middle market companies.

		Register for Conversation Signposts The second quarter is nearly history. Ideas in Conversation Signposts are creating sales funnel opportunities for the next three months. Bankers tell us the tips they find in Conversation Signposts have contributed to some significant wins on behalf of their clients and pre-clients. If someone else at your bank could benefit from Conversation Signposts, forward this edition and have them click on the hyperlink below to register: it’s FREE! What’s not to love? http://www.stmeyerandhubbard.com/signup.html