How to Stop Rate Shopping with One Simple Question

I believe banks deserve to get paid far more for what they do.

In this episode, I’m going to share with you a process to get your people to stop rate matching for good. They’ll never again give a rate when someone calls in to ask for a rate.

If you’re the kind of leader:

• Who has been on the bandwagon for years about not having to match rates but you still have team members who think you don’t “get it” –that they HAVE to match rate or lose the business, you’re gonna love this…
• Who didn’t know it was really possible or that there are many banks that have broken through this rate matching debacle (in fact, some are enjoying increases in their NIM of 100-150 basis points in just a few short years).
• Who already has a team who, for the most part, is mastering this and your NIM is well over 5 already, you’re going to love this because a few tweaks could take your NIM even higher. You could gain even more prestige in your market as an elite bank that is worth so much more.

Let’s talk about what gets in the way…

• Many bank executives tell me that their people grab the rate sheet the second they’re asked for the rate and as a result, they don’t even get a shot at winning that piece of business—much less the 6-7 cross sales that should have happened from that rate inquiry.
• Others tell me they feel defeated because their people absolutely believe to their core that if they don’t have the best rate, the prospect should keep looking—because the customer should get that best rate.
• Some banks, however, feel they’re making some good progress on this and they feel like most of their people know how to convert a rate shopper into someone who would pay more…but they have a few are lagging and don’t “get it” yet. They know that just one inquiry from what COULD be your next most profitable customer could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions in lifetime value that could be lost by not following a system that converts 100 percent of the time.

EVERY bank seems to be facing these same struggles…you’re not alone.

I’m now going to give you 3 steps that will make your results dramatically different in a few weeks.

Step 1. UNLIKE so many sales training programs that follow traditional “sales training” approaches, you need one that is specialized for community banking. A sales program that NEVER feels like sales AND that gets the inquirer to stop thinking about rates and start thinking about the value you bring. Traditional sales training feels icky—people hate it. It always warms my heart when I get emails from our member bank’s team members that say, “It doesn’t feel like sales…we all feel so good about ourselves…we feel like we’re helping people.”

Step 2. Show your people how to ask a “break preoccupation with rate question” every time they’re asked for a rate. Situational questions such as, “How long will you live in the house?” Or “What are your goals for this money?” are NOT break preoccupation with rate questions. Until your people, in just one question, get the person to realize that rate is only a small part of the buying decision and that you need to look at them holistically, you’re not going to get ANY value from the other sales questions—they’re still thinking rate.

Step 3: You need to make sure that the Break Preoccupation with Rate questions are asked consistently. Mystery shopping, drills, practice to make sure they know how to adapt that question based on what product line the person called in to inquire about needs to be an ongoing, never-ending process.

So three steps are necessary to engage the customer to get them off rate, so that rate doesn’t matter but that the whole relationship and value you bring earns all their business.

1) Don’t do anything that looks like traditional sales,–it’s icky and doesn’t belong in community banks were we need to elevate to a more elite and helpful approach.

2) Create mastery of the break preoccupation with rate question part of the process, and…

3) Make sure the entire system is in place and ensure that it continues to elevate your result—you should see it work by watching the NIM and the cross-sales needles continue to increase every month.

By doing that, you get back all the self-respect you and your people deserve—the esteem that comes with knowing that you are the best of the best and deserve to be paid more since you are the customer’s “diamond status advisor”—not just another banker.

Make sure you tune in to the next where I’ll show you when and how to use your positioning questions in the “No More Order Taking” 7-step sales process.