Sales Management, Banking

October 21, 2002

Financial Services Industry Newsletter

Strategies for Success

Branch Sales Management: Lessons From the Home Front

I grew up in a retail household. My father owned a small chain of retail stores, which my brother now runs. My daughter is store manager, and top salesperson, at a national chain of women's apparel. I was the deviant in the family who became a banker.

It has become common for bankers to adopt the language of retailing. Washington Mutual refers to its branches as "stores". Wells Fargo talks about "sales per sq. ft." of selling space. Although I spent many years running retail branch networks for Citibank, Bank One and others, I really learned the language of retail at the kitchen table.

Retailers know their sales numbers every day. The first question my father would ask was "did you make your number", that is, were same store sales equal or better than last year (same week, same month, same year to date). You make your number, then you make goal, then you make stretch. And since every week stands by itself, it's easy to bring large annual sales goals into bite size, achievable daily or weekly chunks -- yesterday my daughter told me she was working extra hours because "we're $2,000 behind stretch for the week".

Retailers inherently understand the value of cross-sell. They think about "units per transaction". "Do they need socks with those shoes?", my father would ask. Then he would remind me how the customer would appreciate the extra service, and how much incremental profit was generated from simple add-on sales. Like McDonalds, super-size it.

Finally, successful retailers have a method to the way they sell. I asked my daughter why she is so successful at sales, and she explained "We have a sales protocol based on the best practices of our top sellers and our service promise. It lays out when to greet a customer, how to present products to them, how to cross sell additional units. I follow it, and it works. Others don't, and they don't sell as much."

So...what's all this got to do with banking:

	Insist on a basic sales and service process. Expect that your branches will be merchandised correctly, that customers will be greeted, that tellers will prompt for needs and refer, and that platform reps will conduct a financial checkup with every sales and service transaction. Conduct mystery shops (just like most department and specialty stores) to insure it is followed.
	Know the numbers -- every day. If you wait until the end of the month or the end of the quarter, it will be too late to do anything about it. "How did we do today? How much do we have to do tomorrow?"
	Make goals easy to understand. The Gap couldn't function if there were separate branch sales goals for flat front khakis, pleated front, traditional jeans, etc. Many banks have so many product sales goals that they are confusing, and result in product push vs. relationship development. Have some primary goals, like total new deposits and total new loans, then some secondary ones (like unit cross sell and referrals) that help you get to heaven only after basic volume targets are achieved.
	Give everyone their role. As a new accounts representative, I may not understand what I'm supposed to do to "grow average branch deposits $1 million by year end", but I can understand "open 3 new accounts every day." If you only sell 2 today, then you need 4 tomorrow. Easy to understand, and easy to figure out how to get the one more sale needed to make goal for the week.
	Make your selling process an extension of your service. Too often we tend to think we are either in sales or service, but in reality we are all in both. If you have good service and competitive products, you should be looking out for more ways to serve your customers. And if you don't have the quality of service or products that you'd feel comfortable recommending to your customers -- then you have a deeper problem that needs immediate repair.

Can we help you improve the sales performance of your branch network? Please contact us.

Peak Performance Consulting Group^®is one of the leading consulting firms specializing in financial services. Please visit our web site to see other recent newsletters.

Recent engagements have included developing a teller referral process for a community bank, and sales management tracking for a regional institution. For additional information please call us, or send email to: info@peakconsultinggroup.com.