Has Your Bank Become a Sales Dinosaur?
As you’ve seen from past blogs, the consistent theme of the blog content we produce focuses on helping bankers and banks evolve and become more progressive, innovative institutions.
The theme of my next two blogs is Has Your Bank Become a Sales Dinosaur? This first blog is a “bank-assessment” designed to assist bank CEOs and Presidents to determine if their bank has become a sales dinosaur.
The second, follow-on blog in June will also be a “self-assessment” for lenders to help them determine if they’ve become a sales dinosaur. You may find this assessment to be very revealing.
Has Your Bank Become a Sales Dinosaur?
Bank-Assessment for CEOs & Presidents
Your bank has likely become a sales dinosaur if…
- You still believe hiring seasoned lenders who promise to “bring over their book of business” works out favorably for your bank
- You believe the past production of a lender is a predictor of future production
- You believe a seasoned banker is an effective banker
- You believe a seasoned banker doesn’t need further training and development
- You believe your lenders are unique in the market
- You believe your lenders communicate and sell differently than your competitors
- You have lenders who met their sales goals their first year being employed at your bank but haven’t met their sales goals in their second and third years
- Your lenders rely heavily on referrals from real estate brokers, CPAs and attorneys for most of their deal flow
- Your lenders are still using the same strategies to find and close business as they have for the past decade or more
- Your lenders negotiate harder with your credit committee or credit administrator than they do with their customers
- Your bank has merged in the last several years and you believe you have a united and aligned sales culture
- You believe your bank has a united sales culture that’s consistently deployed in all regions and all offices
Looking in the mirror isn’t easy. Confronting the truth is uncomfortable. The more “yeses” or “possibly” you had as answers to the questions above, the more likely it is that your bank has become a sales dinosaur. If more than 50% of your answers were “yeses,” you’re bank is among a dying breed.
What’s the point of the CEO / President bank assessment? Awareness! To make you aware that your bank and your lending teams are undifferentiated, commoditized and antiquated in your approach to marketing, sales and hiring!
Hall of Fame hockey player Wayne Gretzky said “I skate to where the puck is going, not where it’s been.”
As leaders in your bank (you can be a leader without having the title) it is imperative we understand where the proverbial “puck” is going in banking and skate in that direction. We all know the game is changing in banking, the question is how are your employees and executives going to change with the times?
Keep an eye out for my next blog entitled, “Have Your Lenders Become Sales Dinosaurs?”
Best regards,