I don’t care what your position is; you have a sales position.

Why? Let’s say you’re out with other soccer moms, and somebody mentions they’re planning on building a new home. Hmm, there’s potential for a mortgage there, isn’t there? And since your mortgage lender isn’t present, you need to handle that inquiry and know how to move it forward. 

Now, imagine someone calls in and asks about your CD rates. God forbid someone grabs that phone, starts talking about the CD specials, and doesn’t know how to engage that person beyond the rate. It’s crucial to turn that rate inquiry into a business opportunity where the rate doesn’t matter. Let’s say you’re in operations and you see an opportunity while on the phone with a customer. Do you know how to have that conversation, or do you think that’s for the “big people” over there? 

In community banking, every job is a sales position. Sales isn’t a bad word. Sales is simply helping people get what they need. If people want to criticize the word “sales” in banking, why would we allow that? Just because someone embezzled once, do we want to say that accounting is a dirty word? Sales is about helping people buy the right things. When we understand the goodness in what we do, it becomes one of the most ethical things we can do. That’s when the magic happens. 

When organizations understand that everyone is in sales, they begin their journey to becoming a Top Five Percenter™. If everyone sees and seizes opportunities, revenue comes in faster and more profitably because we’re converting inquiries into full relationships, not just focusing on pricing. Employees feel better about themselves and feel like they’re making a difference for customers, rather than just handling inquiries and moving widgets from one side of their desk to the other. 

That is the essence of community banking—making a difference in people’s lives. Help your team members understand that everyone is in sales and that sales is the most noble of professions.  

To your continued success, 

Roxanne Emmerich 

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