Smarketing, Pitchbooks, and Proposals Rant (Part One)
By The Rantmaster (aka Jack Hubbard)
People often wonder where columnists get their inspiration. The motivation for this rant came via the U.S. Mail. Colleagues in the industry often reach out to us for advice and we are more than happy to respond, time allowing. The counsel isn’t always perfect, nor is it necessarily the answer the questioner is seeking. Our response is both objective and free though, so how bad can it be?
We recently received a package from a business banker. In it was a sample Pitchbook. He asked for our opinion as well as some ideas on how to make it better, how to improve his proposals, and, in general, close more business. He asked that we assumed that we were the CFO who actually received his pitchbook. Without using his name, the size of the bank, the location, etc., below is what we found in the envelope and some comments gleaned from a subsequent telephone conversation.
Pitchbook: The Verb
Pitchbooks are a real pet peeve and we really believe the concept is a verb, not a noun. It is the action the prospect usually takes (pitching) right after the banker leaves his/her office.
The reason is simple and it is the key challenge we have with the document the mail carrier brought: this pitchbook is all about the bank. The copy we received was submitted to an excellent middle market company. In the 31-page tome the only place the prospect company is ever referred to is on the front cover.
Before we look at what was good and what could be improved (I could write a book) about this pitchbook, let’s take a step back and think about what earns the banker the right to present solutions in this format to begin with. Some statistics should help us set a context.
According to prominent research firms such as Barlow Research, Greenwich, TNS, and CSO Insights:
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It takes an average of 10-12 touches before a cold prospect even agrees to see you for a first call
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It takes 7 calls on average to convert a prospect to a client and the sales cycle is increasing, not decreasing
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It is estimated that the hard and soft cost of a face-to-face sales call today runs about $622 (for those of you scoring at home that totals $4,354 for the 7-call average)
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There is a goodly amount of internal time and effort to get pitchbooks, loan packages, and other forms created
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If the prospect is large enough there might be committee, or even board, action required (meeting time and more money expended)
These are all costs of the sale that many times are not even factored into the pricing of the relationship. With all that stated, why would the bank invest so much effort to get to the point of a solutions presentation and then hand over a document like the one I received?
Part of it is a Smarketing Challenge. Marketing and sales should be connected at the wallet and the client experience. In most banks, sadly, they are not. On the commercial/business banking side of the house, the problem is magnified since many marketing professionals are not steeped in longer cycle selling and what is needed to help their colleagues along that continuum. Business bankers are also not steeped in graphics, power words and phrases, and formats most visually appealing to the prospect.
Part of it is that CMOs don’t invest enough time making joint calls, attending pipeline meetings, or going to training to learn the sales process.
Part of it is that even when marketing wants to step up and help, business bankers often reject any assistance due to pride or even hubris. “I’ve been doing this for X years so how can this marketing person possibly understand my sales approach?”
Part of it is that the bank has not provided the resources that either of these associates need. Some senior executives see money spent on things such as SANT software, color printers (so collateral can be customized and printed on demand), sales assistants, or other sales assets as expensive and unnecessary.
A BIG part of it, however, is that several decades after we started this whole sales thing, bankers continue to do what they have always done…focus inward instead of putting their energies into the marketplace. It’s a sales culture versus performance culture mindset.
But we digress…back to the pitchbook. If your organization has one, compare yours to what we are about to describe.
Here’s what we liked:
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The potential client’s logo is on the front cover
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Everything was spelled correctly
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The pages are in the right numeric order
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It is comb-bound and there is a clear cover with a back
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Page one is dedicated to the team of bankers that are engaged in the relationship–good idea
Here is what could use some (OK…lots) of improvement:
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Print the thing in color–you always want to set the bar high versus your competition (or at least present yourself on a equal footing)
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The business banking team should be featured near the back and not on page one
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The 15 pages dedicated to the bank, its size, number of branches, how safe it is, how wonderful it is, how much money it is making (yep, it’s making money) could be cut down some (SOME?)
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The 12 pages that discuss virtually every product the bank offers might be somewhat (SOMEWHAT?) over the top
There are other issues such as when the pitchbook is left. In this bank’s case, the material is left after the initial call. Why?
A Short Comment on the Proposal Presentation
Finally when we queried the banker about how the bank’s proposals are different than the pitchbook, the answer was, “we keep the pitchbook the same to save us time, but we put the proposal numbers (the costs) on the back page.”
So, in other words, the prospect sees the same document twice, but the second time he/she can go right to the last page of the document to see what the whole thing costs. That way the banker puts himself in a deep hole as he begins the presentation and uses the rest of the time to try digging his way out.
So here’s our challenge: The pitchbook (a verb) is all about the bank, given out at the wrong time, and not at all custom-tailored to the situation. Sales and marketing are not engaged, so no internal partnership exists. Proposals are pitchbooks with pricing stuck on the back. This is not a pretty picture. Want to learn what we suggested to the banker? Come back in December and find out.
Onboarding–Questions for a New-Customer Survey (Part Three of Three)
Recommendations from Trusted Advisor Associates LLC
By Ron Buck, St. Meyer & Hubbard
& Sandra Styer, Trusted Advisor Associates LLC
Last month’s article addressed trust and how the components of trustworthiness are the leading indicators that predict the success of onboarding. This month I am joined by Sandy Styer. Together we will help you understand how to measure trust as a leading indicator of successful onboarding. Sandy heads the Trust DiagnosticsTM practice at Trusted Advisor Associates, and brings a bit of banking background as well, having worked at Chemical Bank before its merger with JP Morgan Chase. Sandy has developed a New-Customer Survey for your onboarding strategy.
Above all, success in banking requires two things: a winning competitive strategy and superb organizational execution. Distrust is the enemy of both. Performance (or lead) measures are those indicators that are predictive of results and influence-able by the frontline employees (for example: two-week follow-up). Trust, then, is an important performance/lead indicator of all sales results.
Performance scorecards for the new onboarding process should include four lead measures that are determined during a customer survey, which is taken 60 days after the new account is opened. Customers are asked specific questions related to the trust equation, then score their responses on a scale of 1-10. Scorecards reflecting goals and customer feedback are compiled at the individual, branch, region, and organizational levels.
As with other lead indicators, trust is predictive of the desired results and directly influence-able by the relationship managers. When we incorporate trust into this method of keeping score, we keep the focus on the customer’s needs and place a premium on credibility, reliability, intimacy, and orientation.
You can read the entire October Onboarding article at:
http://www.stmeyerandhubbard.com
In 2008 Charles Green developed a self-assessment, the Trust Quotient Quiz, based on the Trust Equation, and offered it on the Trusted Advisor website [www.trustedadvisor.com]. It’s a 20-question tool for measuring individual Credibility (words), Reliability (actions), Intimacy (safety), and Orientation and has now been taken by over 10,000 people who’ve not only found out their own TQs, but also gained powerful insights into what they can do to become more trustworthy. This is the largest-ever study of its kind.
These 10,000 responses have proven the strength of the Trust Quotient Quiz and have also given Trusted Advisor Associates a rich field of data.
Just where do bankers stand in reporting on their own trustworthiness?
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Commercial bankers ranked themselves highest among all 40 industries reported in overall TQ scores. As a group, commercial bankers scored extremely high on Reliability.
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Retail bankers were not far behind, ranking fourth among all 40 industries represented on the TQ scores. This group leads with a combination of Reliability and Credibility.
What are the practical implications of the Trust Quotient and the TQ Quiz when it comes to onboarding new accounts?
The idea developed in earlier articles in this onboarding series is that the level of trust created in a new relationship between the bank, or people at the bank, and the new customer is a reliable predictive and influence-able indicator of how solid the relationship is, and this is ultimately reflected in both 90-day retention rates and products-per-household. Incorporating trustworthiness into measurements along the way not only predicts the level of the lagging indicators, but also helps focus attention on specific areas where action is needed to increase trustworthiness and specific means for doing that.
A trusted relationship takes two parties: one to trust and the other to be trusted (or trustworthy). The Trust Quotient Quiz can work on both sides of that equation. First, the TQ Quiz can be used as an internal tool to help bank staff become more trustworthy by:
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Introducing them to the four components of being trustworthy and becoming trusted advisors to their customers
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Specifically highlighting their personal strengths and weaknesses when it comes to building trust and suggesting concrete ideas for action
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Starting a dialogue and introducing new behaviors which go beyond “hitting the numbers” or “making the sale” to “helping this customer for the long-term” which will, ironically, help them make their numbers
Trusted Advisor Associates recommends using the personal TQ Quiz in a supervised setting, bringing staff members together to review and discuss their personal results after they’ve taken the quiz online. One key to becoming more trustworthy is not to rely on strengths, but to improve the weakest areas from the TQ–and this is where people often need help.
On the other side of the equation is the customer, the one who trusts. How does the new customer really feel about his or her interactions with the bank, with the teller, with the branch manager or loan officer? Typical follow-up surveys, by asking questions like “How satisfied were you with the service you got …?” often miss the mark at getting at the underlying attitudes and residual feelings of the customer.
It’s beneficial instead to focus on the four components of the Trust Equation and ask questions like:
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“I was put at ease in my conversations with [X]; I knew what to expect from him or her” to measure the empathy component of Reliability, or
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“The conversations I had with the bank’s personnel were real; they weren’t scripted and I didn’t feel pressured to buy any particular service” to measure Self- or Other-Orientation
The answers to these and other questions can reveal where training or hiring practices are effective. All too often the response to poor performance on the lagging indicators is to push more product information down to the frontline staff, when in fact the missing pieces are usually in the softer skills like Intimacy. By checking in on how trust is–or isn’t–developed in the early days with the new customers, scare resources can be focused on addressing the key issues, yielding not only the fastest return, but also the biggest bang for the buck.
Trusted Advisor Associates has developed a new version of the Trust Quotient Quiz specifically for new customers which can be used for assessing how customers react to the trustworthiness of individuals or groups such as call center personnel. You can access the customer survey at http://trustedadvisor.com/public/files/pdf/TA_
Questions_
for_
a
_NEW_111209_1.pdf.
Of course the final step in the circle is in sharing these results with customer-facing staff in a way that people can see, understand, and use to make changes in their own behavior. Suddenly the spotlight is no longer on “Did I make my numbers?” (a lagging indicator), but “How can I best help this customer who’s in front of me right now?”
These are the customers who will still be with you in 90 days.
Sandy Styer can be reached at sstyer@trustedadvisor.com
or 973.625.9390.
Ron Buck can be reached at rbuck@stmeyerandhubbard.com
or 480.318.8018.
Featuring Jason Tonioli, Marketing Manager, Bank of Utah
In the February 2009 edition of Signposts, we highlighted banker Anne Matalonis of National Bank & Trust of Sycamore, Illinois and the great children’s book she wrote about internet safety, The Fox Behind the Chatterbox. Financial services professionals have unique hobbies and avocations. Such is the case with this month’s featured banker, Jason Tonioli.
I met Jason a few years ago at ABA’s School of Bank Marketing and Management. He loves his day job as Marketing Manager at Bank of Utah, but his hidden passion is music. Jason has played piano for years and he has published music books since 2003. This year he finally decided to record a holiday CD. The album features Jason on the piano, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, YOKO (a famous female vocalist from Japan), and many other talented musicians. The album features ten arrangements of traditional holiday carols and five original compositions. It is nothing short of spectacular.
You can listen to several of the songs from the new album at www.tonioli.com or www.reverbnation.com/jasontonioli. One of the ways Jason hopes to share his gift this season is by offering the CD to businesses to use as a client gift. Jason can even do some customization of the cover for larger quantities. He has sold nearly 2,000 CDs already. Jason is willing to send a demo CD to any bank that is interested in considering this as a client gift. To receive yours, e-mail toniolimusic@aol.com.
Virtual Learning Lab Number Three
Sales Success in 2010: The Right Sales Training Can Get You There
Featuring David Stein, President & CEO, ESResearch Group
Friday, January 15, 2010, Noon EST (11:00 a.m. CST)
More than 1,500 sales professionals registered for our first two Virtual Learning Labs featuring Charles Green and Jim Dickie. To hear replays of either or both of those programs, visit our website, register free on the Members Page and you will be taken to these high-rated webcasts.
Dave Stein, an internationally respected consultant and much-sought-after speaker, will help the January 2010 VLL audience understand how to select a training partner that is a “fit” and how to maximize ROI in all training efforts. Dave will also provide a list of sales books, sales blogs, and sales newsletters that can help supplement your formal learning initiatives. Watch for the registration link in the December 2009 Signposts, but mark your calendar now for this not-to-be-missed program.
Conversation Signposts Reaches 15,500
Thanks!
We’re thankful for so much this November. One thing we appreciate is that more than 15,500 sales professionals now receive Conversation Signposts. Would it help your sales approach? If so, register by clicking below:
http://www.stmeyerandhubbard.com/signup.html
Allowing Us to Be an Approved Sender
In today’s security conscious environment, sometimes our newsletter ends up in the junk mail folder. To make sure you receive every issue, why not add newsletter@stmeyerandhubbard.com to your “approved sender” list or address book?
Jack Hubbard Bob St. Meyer |
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