Is "selling" still a Dirty Word in Financial Services (First in a Series)

The days when bankers were hired for their mathematical capabilities and friendly personality have allegedly been over for years now. The industry has modernized, we’re told. We are now looking for good sales people, outgoing, aggressive and competitive sales people, and we are finding them everywhere but in banking.

Eight years ago, while at Roosevelt Bank in St. Louis, I was impressed with the selling skills of a guy at the Athlete’s Foot at the mall. By the time he put my son and me on the Frequent Sneaker Club, I knew he was gifted. However, the first time HR interviewed Mike Alexander, they turned him down because he didn’t have banking background. Today, they’d grab him with both hands.

Does this mean things have truly changed? I don’t believe so. Our industry has been known to embrace the Strategy du Jour time ansd time again, and effective salesmanship is yet one more in a long list of such initiatives. They receive much lip service and a prompt spot in the annual report, but the customer experience is not markedly different.

The industry shares the common wisdom that sales equal services, and that superior service implies fully meeting the entire range of customer needs. At the same time, this conviction is rarely turned into a consistent practice.

There are many reasons why banks are falling short of expectations when it comes to sales. Old habits die hard, and order-taking has been a hallmark of our business for decades. I have come across many outstanding service personnel across the industry, ranging from tellers to Trust Officers, from commercial lenders to personal bankers, who feel that probing beyond what the customer is willing to share is intrusive and offensive, and, in short, none of our business. When I parallel our approach with that of the doctor, who asks the most embarrassing questions before they make a diagnosis, many can see the idea behind the example, but do not feel that we posses such unique knowledge and competency as doctors do to entitle us to ask probing questions.

Our reticence to sell has been exacerbated by unchanging hiring practices,and by compensation structures and incentives that create a minimal gap between the superstar and the slug.

Many banks have not been completely successful in transforming their staffs into effective sales forces, despite much effort, huge consulting dollars and calls for culture change. The reasons for this gap between expectations and delivery are many, but at the crux of the issue is the need to align the entire institution behind this desired behavior change. Asking for it is not enough. Even teaching people how to do it is not enough (we build it and yet they do not come). Putting big carrots out in the shape of incentives, trips and recognition events is also not enough. While many of these elements are essential to success, it is ultimately thefull alliance of over a dozen elements that galvanizes the entire organization into action and yields breakthrough results.

Key elements in transforming your organization into a sales=service company include:

• Executive management’s unwavering support and hands-on involvement
• Clear mission and vision
• Well articulated values system
• Clarity of role definition of key positions
• Staffing mix to appropriately reflect market potential and role definition
• Key behaviors by position
• Training
• Big, hairy, audacious goals
• Industry benchmarks and best-of-class expectations
• Daily reporting requirements
• System enhancement to yield needed reports
• A formal, structured feedback process
• Inspection and observation process and responsibilities
• Communication plan for sales process reasoning, integrity, moral foundation, expectations, rewards
• Reward and recognition process
• Incentive compensation
• Employee selection
• Executive management’s unwavering support and hands-on involvement (you can’t emphasize this element enough)

Subsequent articles in this series will address each one of these elements in greater detail to weave a complete picture of the necessary ingredients for an effective, ground-breaking and fun sales culture.