I’ve been in banking for more than 30 years. Recently, I tried to estimate how often I’ve heard a community bank CEO say, “No matter what we do, we can’t get our NlM out of the 3s. It’s impossible.” It turns out that I can’t estimate it. The number’s so high I’ve lost count.
Whenever I hear a CEO, CLO, or CFO declare, in front of the team, that banking is a commodity, I am never surprised to look them up a few years later to see that the bank has lost its independence.
The past decades and even centuries have witnessed much banking innovation. Consider pneumatic capsule transportation (1799), the credit card (1950), and the ATM (1967).
Those innovations were external—easily visible to everyone. But there is also a history of innovation that’s internal to the industry, with bellwether changes to banking sales management and its increasing focus on the customer.
Over time, we went from standard bankers to “personal bankers.” For the affluent, there were
“private bankers.”
Personal bankers could open deposit accounts, but then universal bankers started to make personal loans and mortgages.
Challenging times can be overwhelming. They can also be times of great opportunity for those who stay awake.
First, we have to change our way of doing things and discover—or rediscover—the ability to systematically pull in the very best new customers at premium pricing.
“Homework? Ah, yes, I did my homework, but it didn’t quite make it here. Why? Well, my dog ate the homework. We took him to the vet to get the homework back, but the surgery took so long I was late to school, and I think I’ll have to leave school early because my dog died and I imagine it will take weeks before I can get over the sadness enough to concentrate in school.”
Kids come up with the wildest stories to explain why they are late, why they didn’t finish homework and why they can’t come to school.
The key to repeat customers is relationships. Relationships are established and maintained through communication and follow through. In a “one to many” job such as yours, having a good system for customer follow-up is crucial to keeping your relationships healthy. Pursuing these four steps to create and maintain a follow-up system that will contribute to good customer relationships and increased sales: (more…)
Does this sound like your life?
You work from 7:30 in the morning until 7:00 each night and go home exhausted, thinking about all the unfinished work that continues to pile up nonetheless. (more…)
A new attitude invariably creates a new result. That is why it is essential to identify those employees within your organization that have an attitude problem and correct it quickly. (more…)
Keep your sales funnel clean. Instead of accepting a weak “no” or “maybe later” and keeping that person on your prospect list, try using the prospect’s “NO” to get one step closer to “YES.” (more…)
Fred Reichheld, author of the 1996 bestseller, The Loyalty Effect, revealed that a “5% improvement in retention can boost profits by up to 100%.” (more…)
Determine what advantages you have over each of your main competitors.
Then ask questions to encourage prospects to actually tell you your competitors’ weaknesses: (more…)
