KQ Article

It has been 40 years since we first walked on the moon, and 30 since disco’s death. The Internet is now more than a decade old. Yet financial institutions have been selling exactly the same way for the past 100 years. They’re being reactive rather than proactive.

 

Why should that be? Why should this dinosaur of a sales problem still be clomping around banking?

 

In the forty years that I’ve been training salespeople, I’ve asked this question any number of times and always received the same answer: because no one got into banking to become a salesperson. It’s almost as if people in this industry think the term somehow cheapens them. Yes, “sell” is a four-letter word, but it is how the world works. You buy, I sell. I sell, you buy. The markets prosper.

 

So let’s get back to basics: What is selling? And how can bankers do it better?

 

Many perceive selling as some kind of a con game, full of fast-talking swindlers convincing people to buy products regardless of whether they need them. Not so. People buy because they think the purchase will help them do something better than they are doing now. Salespeople are problem-solvers. Their job is to figure out a customer problem and show them how to resolve it.

 

How does that apply to the financial services industry? Let’s imagine that a customer or member comes into your branch to open checking account. The patron sits opposite you and says she needs a checking account. She’s trusting you with her money, an extraordinary act of confidence.

 

Now is the time to ask questions. “What brought you into the bank today?” might be a starter, or “Why did you choose this bank or credit union?” You also must ask what she wants to do with money going into that account.

 

Too many times, banking representatives assume that since the customer came in to open the checking account, this is what she really — and only —wants. But if we ask questions, we might better identify and address this person’s real need. Here are some possible reasons why someone might visit you to open a checking account:

 

“I just moved here.

“I just opened a business.”

“I want to start saving money.”

“I am opening an account for my grandson.”

 

Each reason above begs a different conversation and leads to a different sales opportunity.

 

Years ago my daughter visited a community bank and said she wanted a checking account. The banker opened the account for her without asking anything. When my daughter told me what she did, I asked her why. “To save money,” she replied. Everyone knows that a checking account is for spending money, not saving it. By simply honoring my daughter’s request with no questions asked, this bank did her a disservice. I urged to take her money elsewhere.

 

So again, good selling means asking good questions. This is a basic selling technique, but also one that is routinely neglected.

 

All financial institutions send managers out into the field to drum up new customers. Such meetings sound something like this example with a prospective small business customer:

 

Salesperson: Anything that I can help you with today?

Client: Uh, nope, can’t think of anything.

[Long pause]

Client: Well, if that’s all . . .

 

Unbelievable? Happens more than you think.

 

If you depend on prospects to volunteer information about why they need your help, prepare for awkward silence. It is your job to take the lead, get proactive and identify the problem. Sometimes the answer will be dramatic. Maybe the company’s current bank committed a significant error. But more often, the reason will be buried and will require your skills to bring it into the light. With questions.

 

A bank manager once tried to get my business by asking what my bank had missed over the past year. There was nothing significant to report, but I felt obligated to say something. I finally told him that my bank calendar hadn’t arrived yet.

 

They next day, the representative sent me a calendar. It was a nice gesture, but he didn’t get my business. His questions didn’t go deep enough, getting at the real reasons for my banking relationship — and the potential reasons why another institution might serve me better.

 

Change is difficult for people, particularly when it comes to the intimate relationship we have with our bank or credit union. The status quo is a big obstacle to overcome. But overcome it we can if we start asking questions.