All of our Top 5% performing banks have something in common. They’ve all mastered the science of team selling.

Yeah, I know you think you’re doing team selling because you put Josie and Molly together and you put Tom and Joe together- that’s not team selling. An optimized team selling experience requires an incredible amount of skill sets, and different team members going out the first time than the second time, along with being customized to who’s in front of them; in other words, who is the audience for that particular piece.  Team selling done correctly should, on the loan side, generate at least 150 to 200 basis points more than what your competitors are willing to accept the deal in it. And it should get the entire relationship because the process is worked.   

Here’s why team selling is really important.  

Harvard Business Review had an article years ago and talked about how team selling was rocking it compared to individual sales. But it’s not just that they’re going out in teams, it’s that they know how to pass the baton. Because if you’re like me, whenever I’m in front of the biggest deal I’ve ever worked on before, my tongue just starts getting tied up in a knot and you’d think I was a complete and total idiot. So things that came easily to me before suddenly they’re lost.

So, does the team know how to pass the baton? Do they know exactly what steps, stages, questions, how they’re listening, and how to move that through? And do they hold each other accountable to exactness of the process?  

Whenever my dear colleague of many years, Terry Slattery, the legend of IBM, would go into our banks, people would say, “Oh, he’s the legend of IBM,” well, of course he is. He’s a master and what he talked about is that so many bankers have imperfect practice. Imperfect practice basically means they’re doing stuff, but they’re not doing it with precision. Going out and getting a deal that’s going to bring in extra 6,7,8 thousand to $12,000 to the bottom line on a monthly basis, is going to take some precision, especially to get it in a two-meeting close.

We have some Top 5 Percent performers right now, and one of the things they have in common is a 90 to 100% close-rate. We have one bank that’s gone 18 months not having lost a deal where they went after somebody’s best customer who wasn’t looking for a different bank, they totally loved their current bank, and yet, within two steps and two weeks, they closed at 100% close rate at premium pricing with the entire relationship.

Don’t tell me it can’t be done, because I can point you to people who are doing it. And they are the ones where their numbers are taking off; their net interest margin, well of over five, their ROA well over two. These are the banks that will be able to keep their names on the doors because they have de-commoditized. They have got their team members proficient, and they know how to get big deals at premium pricing through a team selling process. They hold their team to the expectation of mastery. 

To your continued success, 

Roxanne Emmerich 

Please watch the video above and share it with your exec team and board.