Bank Sales Corner

Employee Engagement (And Why It Matters to Sales Managers)

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So are there any bank CEOs out there who don’t say people are their most important asset? Probably not, but most bankers wouldn’t dis motherhood and apple pie either.

But how those assets are doing is rarely discussed publicly, unless you’re Dick Kovacevich, the retired CEO of Wells Fargo.  For a number of years their annual report included a brief discussion of their ongoing effort to gauge the level of satisfaction and engagement of their employees. They use the brief survey instrument developed by The Gallup Organization-- the Gallup Q¹²– which emerged from Gallup's pioneering research over the last two decades with thousands of organizations. According to one Wells annual report, the bank’s employees are “satisfied and happy in their work by a ratio of seven to one, in the top quartile, about four times the national average for all workers.”

If you’re not familiar with the twelve measures of employee satisfaction, you can skip to the end of this piece now. What has always been scary to me about Gallup’s statistics is the percentage of the American workforce that is “disengaged” --the number I’ve seen is about 26%. These folks are not just bored or underemployed; their negativity makes me wonder whether they’re going to go postal some afternoon. (OK, I’m exaggerating here, but stay with me.)

What struck me was how many of the twelve indicators can be influenced by good managers. If you are guiding a sales team, your efforts on all save #10 (see below) would be crucial.  Giving people clear direction; providing the tools and training needed; coaching week in and week out; making sure people are in the right positions—it’s all there and, if you believe The Gallup Organization, it all matters.

I don’t know how the Wells’ numbers compare to other banks’. What I do know is that if sales managers work hard at supporting the individuals on their teams, good things will happen, including:

• Lower staff turnover
• Higher customer satisfaction
• More consistent sales results over time

So how engaged are your sales team members today? And more importantly, what are you doing about it?

Here are the Gallup Q^12:

1. I know what is expected of me at work.
2. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
3. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
4. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
5. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
6. There is someone at work who encourages my development.
7. At work, my opinions seem to count.
8. The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.
9. My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work.
10. I have a best friend at work.
11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.
12. This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

_{Copyright © 1992-1999 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All rights reserved.}

For information on how MZ Bierly Consulting can help your sales teams reach higher levels of engagement and results, email Ned Miller at nmiller@mzbierlyconsulting.com or call 610-296-4772. Go to our website www.mzbierlyconsulting.com for information on programs and services.

Buck Bierly on Branch Manager Calling Efforts

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Some of our clients believe that Branch Managers should take the lead in managing the top small business relationships in their branches. Others think that the Branch Managers should also allocate a percentage of their time to prospecting in the microbusiness and professional segments. That strategy can work, but only after addressing a number of issues:

* Many Branch Managers have a limited understanding of how businesses operate. In their meetings they tend to shift the conversation too quickly toward bank products and services.

* Most of their interactions with business owners have been reactive; they are not as comfortable proactively calling on companies where there may be no immediate need for their products or services.

* Branch Managers have limited knowledge about business products, outside of DDAs, cash management and merchant services.

* They don’t get enough “practice” calling on businesses. (In our opinion, unless a Branch Manager is making at least 4 or 5 scheduled business calls a week, he probably isn’t going to get either comfortable or effective.)

* Their bosses often have the same background and aren’t particularly adept at coaching outside business calls. They often defer to business partners to coach their teams in that area.

* Branch Managers often get mixed and conflicting messages about priorities. (Is my job to sell products or build relationships with business customers? Should I spend more time in the branch or make more calls?)

For insights into how banks are addressing these and other issues, visit our website to download a recent presentation on “Guiding Branches to Small Business Relationships” at http://www.mzbierlyconsulting.com/landing-page-temp-0/

Sales Coaching Pointers from the Masters

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Did you watch the Masters this year? If you're a real Golf Channel addict, you might have heard about the coaches that some of the top professionals turn to for advice. These aren't household names like Coach K, Bill Belichick and Joe Torre; they're more like Jack Lumpkin and Craig Harmon. Who?

Well, these guys are not exactly unknowns. They rank 19^th and 20^th on the Golf Digest list of top teaching professionals. They don't give away advice for free-a week of lessons at Sea Island with Jack isn't cheap-and they do count top PGA Tour types as students. (Not Tiger Woods, though: Craig's brother Butch was one of Tiger's coaches before his fall from grace.)

But most of the people these two teaching pros advise have a hard time breaking 90. They hack and slice their way around the golf course and if they have delusions of grandeur, it's probably more likely about winning the sixth flight of a Member Guest Tournament than the U.S. Amateur.

Coaching average-performers (whether they're golfers or bank sales people) is clearly different from working with high-performers. What Jack and Craig know is the following:

1. While not everybody will become great, everybody can get better-eventually. If better means consistently shooting in the mid-90s, great.
2. There are certain things that you can't coach (e.g. attitude, competitiveness, etc.)
3. You shouldn't try to change more than one or two things at once. (Too much sales training assumes you need to teach everybody everything all at once.)
4. You often have to review the basics with people.
5. Breaking the process down into its component parts can help a lot. (As an aside, that's why slow motion video is now routinely used in analyzing golf swings.)
6. Small adjustments can produce significant improvement.
7. You can only make so much progress in a lesson. For golfers it starts on the practice tee but has to move to the course.
8. Once the basics are in place, it's consistency that matters.
9. Most average-performers are looking for how-tos and techniques, not theories or concepts to improve their golf game or sales skills. They want to develop confidence handling challenging situations.
10. Even the best performers can benefit occasionally from objective, expert coaching.  (Phil Mickelson, the Masters winner this year, has coaches who help him with many different things--e.g. conditioning, diet, putting, sand shots, etc.)

So the next time you're looking for coaching inspiration, think about Jack Lumpkin and Craig Harmon.  They know it's about incremental improvement, consistency and confidence. And they know how to help average-performers progress.

For more coaching tips go to http://www.mzbierlyconsulting.com/tips-for-sales-managers.  You can also check out our archived webinar on Pre-call, Post-call Coaching at http://mzbierlyconsulting.webex.com.

CEOs on Bank Sales Process

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This week I had the chance to spend time with three wise bankers, each with 30 or more years in banking. Two are CEOs, the other is a Chief Credit Officer who served as a bank president earlier in his career. When you find yourself in their company it pays to listen up.

Here are some of the things they said about selling in banks, which are relevant whether you're a management trainee or a veteran.

• It is a good time to be a banker. Not an easy time, for sure, but one when it's possible to learn a lot.

• Don't expect things to return to the way they were in 1997 or 2003 or 2007. The banking landscape has changed forever. Don't let yourself get nostalgic.

• You don't have to be a great salesperson to be successful in banking. But you have to be active and visible in your community and committed to pursuing new business opportunities.

• It's not about making calls; it's about building relationships.

• Don't kid yourself: It takes time to develop a professional network.

• Be a good partner. If you team well with bank specialists and line-of- business partners you'll go far-and your customers will clearly benefit.

• It's easy to lose sight of what's important. There's a tendency today to spend too much time thinking about operational or administrative matters. One president remarked that if some branch managers spent as much time worrying about taking care of business customers as they do about locking the vault, they'd be a lot more successful.

• While it's important to learn about the bank's products and services, it's more important to learn as much as you can about your customers and prospects.

Agree or disagree? Send me your comments at nmiller@mzbierlyconsulting.com.