The Dangers of False-Attempt Sales Training [VIDEO]

Too many banks have poured millions into “sales training” only to watch enthusiasm—and results—fade within months. Why? Because traditional training doesn’t change culture.

In this week’s video, Roxanne Emmerich exposes why “false-attempt” sales training fails and reveals what truly transforms performance.

You’ll discover:

• Why your people’s reluctance to “sell” isn’t the real problem—it’s confidence.

• The three steps to transform sales culture from transactional to transformational.

• How to permanently boost low-cost deposits and cross-sales without losing authenticity.

If you’re tired of spinning your wheels with programs that never stick, this video shows you how to create a winning sales culture your team loves—and your bottom line will thank you for it.

Watch now. 

I believe that people don’t like hassles. Who does? Whether it’s at work, home, or out shopping, it’s a dangerous attitude among your people because it causes them not to put one hundred percent into their sales conversations.

In this session, I’m going to show you how your people—like many bankers before them who couldn’t but now do—can get six to seven cross-sales and all the deposits in a way that never feels salesy.

If you’re the kind of leader who has been preaching to the point of losing your voice about the need to get cross-sales of deposit accounts to make sure those accounts are both profitable and sticky, and you’re a bit fit to be tied at this point, you’re going to love this.

Or if you have some people who are getting the full deposit relationship but also have many who are simply transaction people because they’re taking orders and not owning the relationship, then this is a can’t-miss episode.

Then again, maybe you’re really feeling good about your team’s ability to get deposits, but you know there is so much more potential profit available if you can boost your low-cost deposits as a percentage of total deposits.

If you just change a few things, then you’ll enjoy this as well. As always, there is some work ahead and three challenges in particular that you need to look out for. Most banks have been doing internal or external sales training for years. Now, after all that money and time, when they’re really truthful, they’ve realized that it just isn’t working. When they see other banks that are now averaging six to seven cross-sales and mastering attracting low-cost deposits away from competitors, they know they just can’t give up—but they just can’t have another false attempt because the team is now doing the slow walk, thinking management will soon give up.

Still others are finding that most sales training is, well… salesy. That’s why so many people flock from the big banks to community banks. They felt the bank was inauthentic and felt violated. With that belief system in the way, their heels are dug in, and they don’t want to sell—period. That is leaving you between a rock and a hard place because you still need to fix this to stay competitive in the future against those who are getting it. Also, many bankers lack the skill to be a trusted advisor. They do have the product knowledge, but they don’t know how to really bring the type of extreme value that is necessary to be that person’s trusted advisor.

Most importantly, they lack skills and confidence—but it’s not their fault. There just hasn’t been good advice and a good system that helps them win.

Every bank is facing at least one of these. Join the club. Now let’s work together to knock the issues down one at a time. I’m now going to give you three steps to create an effective sales culture system program and, if necessary, change the culture at your bank.

Incidentally, I don’t believe sales training works. Sales training teaches people what to do. Sales education teaches them how to be. You simply can’t expect a transformation with sales training. So let’s get going on this so you can get some sales breakthroughs in a few short weeks.

Step One:
In in-and-out sales training, a training cycle lasts a few months, and then—if there was any increase—you can count on it going away within a few short months.
To generate sustained positive results in sales, you need a cultural transformation to get people winning and loving it. To do that, it needs extreme integration with a well-thought-out, long-term, intentional, congruent system. You’ve heard the sad story from thousands of bank execs who attempted sales training only to find it didn’t work—unless you define working as the carnage of losing a third of their team. It’s not their fault. Sales training companies keep selling as if it could work.

One sales training company actually put a client’s logo on their website after two years of losses in their sales training attempts. After just a few years of their process, they are now performing in the S&L top 100 performers. Sadly, unsuspecting bankers see the logo and think they can actually create good results with their sales training. Have you ever heard a bank executive tell you that sales training’s impact was doubling or tripling cross-sales while getting dramatic growth with premium pricing on better-quality customers? As they say—said no banker ever.

Step Two:
Unlike so many false-attempt sales training programs, you have to get your people to come from their heart space—a place of extreme caring for the customer. With that as a base, they can then learn to ask questions in the order of how people like to buy what they need. Until they get the impact of what they are really doing—saving marriages from divorce due to fighting over money, helping people retire with ease, and guiding businesses to good fiscal management—they are always feeling as if it’s salesy, and the client will feel it too.

Step Three:
Create an ever-increasing accountability and visibility system. Most sales programs end up causing at least a third of the team members to run for the hills. That’s completely unnecessary and very unproductive. The problem is that sales training must be integrated with a true understanding of cultural transformation at a deep level where people are learning how to be, holding each other accountable, celebrating successes, and learning to live their word by understanding that their promises and their commitments are how they reveal their character.

The key is that every day and every week, as the blended learning of online/offline coaching and practicing happens—integrated with a management system and stage-appropriate accountability—a predictable weekly improvement is imminent. Remember, you don’t have a sales training issue; you have a confidence issue.

Again, three steps to a solid foundation of community bank sales culture transformation:

Step One: Ongoing cultural transformation with extreme integration
Step Two: Get team members at cause to bring extreme value—from transactional to transformational
Step Three: Develop a progressive accountability and visibility system that builds confidence

By doing this, you can sleep at night knowing your well-educated team can connect with prospects and customers effectively, attract all the deposits that you need consistently, and unhook from the dependence on results based on the economy or rate environment. Instead, you can have a system that makes you feel like you know you can consistently win—and you’ll have the pride of making all of that happen quickly and sustainably.