Tony Parinello - An April 8 Review
Nearly 1,200 bankers listened in on the April 8 Virtual Learning Lab: Think and Sell Like a CEO, featuring Tony Parinello. Tony ranks up there with Harvey McKay, Tom Hopkins, Brian Tracey, and others in terms of providing practical help to sales producers. With nine bestselling books under his belt and having earned international acclaim for his seminar presentations, Tony’s WOW factor is off the charts.
If you or your team could benefit from Tony’s expertise go to our website www.stmeyerandhubbard.com and register on the Members Page. Then, you can recall Tony’s program as well as all the previous VLL programs from the Archives. For a look at Tony’s entire amazing body of work, visit: www.sellingtovito.com.
Here’s to great knowledge!
We got excellent feedback about the SalesBites in our last Signposts. One reader wrote that it was exactly what they needed. Another suggested we do it again and asked about issues around time management. If you have specific issues you want SalesBites to discuss, send your request to jhubbard@stmeyerandhubbard.com.
Stop Time Management and Start Time Control
Google “time management workshop” and you’ll get nearly seven million hits. Everyone has an idea on what works in that arena and these days, since we are doing more with less people, the clock can be a real enemy if we allow it. The play Rent has a song entitled: “525,600 Minutes.” It’s the amount of time we all have in a year. Time is the great equalizer. It does not discriminate based on the size of your organization, the number of branches you have—nothing. Therefore, taking control of time versus having it control you is certainly one answer.
The Calendar Ballet
One example of time control is the salesperson’s ability to proact to the week. From a customer perspective, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the best days to put feet on the street. A great day to use the telephone to get those appointments is Friday. Monday is a terrible day to make calls, so why not do meetings and call-planning then? (Before anyone writes me angry e-mails that they are effective Monday callers, the above is a generalization and certainly not market-specific.)
Here is what one client has decided to do to take control of the calendar in business banking. This bank requires its bankers to make 25 calls per month—a very doable number.
Monday
Pipeline Meeting from 7:30-8:30 A.M.
Dark Hour Planning 8:30-9:30 A.M. (this is when the banker plans calls for the week with all phones, e-mails, and other meetings being dark, i.e., no interruptions!)
Call Plan Reviews/Check-Ins 9:30-Noon (the sales manager reviews call plans with each banker and conducts a 15 minute dialogue about sales strategy from rear view and windshield perspectives)
Tuesday-Thursday
Bankers make a call at 7:30 A.M. on the way to the office
Bankers eat with a COI
Bankers make a call at 4:30 P.M. on the way home
For those of you scoring at home, that is 9 calls or 36 per month
Calls are made at other times on Tuesday through Thursday as well, but these bankers are also very involved in the credit process and with other client-servicing issues, so the above approach allows them to be in the bank to serve clients while making enough meaningful contacts to keep the funnel full at the same time
Friday
Some bankers find between 3:30 and 5:30 P.M. is a good time to get going forward on appointments. Others suggest from 8:00-9:30 A.M. works best. So in this organization, the telephone wires to prospects and clients are burning up on Friday
These bankers have taken control of their calendars. Sure, there are fire drills and unforeseen issues. This same approach can be done with small business bankers or branch managers (if they don’t have to be there to open the branch Tuesday-Thursday). There also needs to be a level of meeting coordination throughout the organization to help avoid conflict, but that certainly can be done with minimal effort and maximum leadership.
The 3By
Making one call in a particular area without searching out other opportunities to touch COIs in the vicinity makes no sense. Let’s say the banker is calling Client A on Fourth Street. If the banker draws a one- or two-mile ring around the client address, he or she may find a couple of accounting firms, law firms, or other referral sources inside that circle. Using First Research or other sources, the banker finds and prints an article or White Paper of interest for up to three COIs within the two miles - attaching a business card to the upper left corner. After the client/prospect call, the banker goes to each COI and hands the document to the gatekeeper.
“I was thinking about your firm last evening, Becky, and I wanted Mr. Smith [managing partner] to have this article. I’ve highlighted a couple of paragraphs that might be of particular interest to him. Could you see that he gets it?” Please don’t suggest to Becky that “you were in the area.” That makes the whole thing less special. This is not a call, it’s a touch. Doing this once or twice a week allows you to reach out to your COIs with something of value and it helps you keep control of time. It differentiates your bank from all the others too and it is easy to accomplish.
Unlike money, time is not fungible. Taking control of those precious minutes may mean lots of good opportunities in your funnel—all the time.
Barlow Research and Their Great Resources
We met John Barlow shortly after we started our business in late 2000. We had known Linda O’Connell, now Senior Vice President at Barlow, throughout her banking career in Minnesota. John has presented at some SM&H client events and every year at banking schools we present some of Barlow’s most recent data related to small business and middle market firms and their experiences with financial services firms. John Barlow and his team are continually developing new and better ways for banks to target the needs of business owners. Barlow’s newest tool, Value of the Customer, helps bankers gain specific insight into a market based on sales volume and industry. It also extrapolates a total market potential within a specific state. For more information, call Linda O’Connell at 763.253.1832.
Colleagues at Barlow Research also publish their findings in a weekly newsletter and hold monthly webcasts targeted to business bankers and their managers. The article below is from a recent Analyst’s Journal and John Barlow has allowed us to reprint it. The subscription fee for this weekly publication is $325. The information you receive is priceless. You can purchase a subscription at http://www.barlowresearch.com/newsletter.lasso.
Estimated 795,000 Businesses Changed a Banking Relationship in Last 12 Months
By Bernie Kuechler, Analyst's Journal,
May 12, 2010, reprinted with permission
With the perception of a tight credit market already causing damage to banking relationships, most banks avoid having conversations with their business customers on the recession’s impact. Without this discussion, banks place their customer relationships at greater risk of deterioration than those banks that have proactive discussions. With approximately 790,000 small businesses and 5,000 middle market companies changing banks in the last 12 months, avoiding these difficult conversations with customers may have cost banks potential revenue today and the valuable opportunities ahead once the recovery takes hold.
The majority of small business and middle market companies are expecting the recession to last until at least 2011. Although small businesses and middle market companies are expecting a continued recession, only 42% of middle market companies and 27% of small businesses have been approached proactively by their banks to discuss how the recession has impacted their companies. Those businesses that have not had these conversations are at greater risk to have a deteriorating banking relationship than those businesses that have had a conversation. In fact, 30% of middle market companies that have not had a conversation about the recession with their banks report having a deteriorating banking relationship.
Taking steps to know your customer and strengthen your banking relationship is always important, but it becomes especially important since 10% of small businesses or approximately 790,000 businesses reported switching banks in the last 12 months. Barlow Research’s most recent Value of the Customer model shows that the average small business customer is worth $5,438 in net potential revenue. If the entire relationship of each of these businesses were in play, over $4 billion dollars in net potential revenue would have switched hands over the last 12 months.
The middle market also saw 6% of businesses change banks over the last 12 months, which represents approximately 5,000 companies. Although a smaller number of middle market companies are switching than small businesses, Barlow’s Value of the Customer model shows that the average middle market company is worth $95,745 in net potential revenue. If the entire relationship was in play, almost $500 million dollars in net potential revenue would have switched hands over the last 12 months.
Even with business sales and profit numbers still weak, it is not any less important to know your customer and strengthen your banking relationship. Many small businesses and middle market companies are making changes in their banking relationships right now in preparation for the oncoming recovery. Avoiding the tough discussions now may leave a bank missing the opportunities that will come once the recession ends and the recovery takes hold.
By Jack Hubbard, Chief Experience Officer
Taking a spring vacation to the outer banks of North Carolina? Heading to San Diego for a little rest? New York is a great place to visit this time of year too. Wherever you are traveling this spring take along REWORK by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. It’s one of those breezy business books that you pick up and don’t want to put down. These guys are business owners first and foremost—co-founders of 37 Signals in Chicago. This firm’s trailblazing software is used by more than three million entrepreneurs around the world. Basecamp is a Project Management Software. Highrise tracks contacts and leads. |
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REWORK recounts what Jason and David have learned from having a dream to starting a business to celebrating ten years of success. It shows entrepreneurs how to become more productive without turning into workaholics. Chapters about marketing: Don’t Outspend, Outteach and Welcome Obscurity are refreshing. Chapters titled: You Need a Commitment Strategy, Not An Exit Strategy, and Long Lists Don’t Get It Done really hit home with our company. “Chapters” is a misnomer, however, since most of them are only a page or two long. The authors get to the point and hit the bull’s eye page after page.
If you are recommending a book of the month on your website or if you want to buy a gift for that special business owner, REWORK is perfect. To buy it or to take a spin around a very cool website, visit www.37signals.com.
Spring into greater knowledge and pick up a copy of REWORK—even if you are staying home.
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