Bank Sales Corner

Coaching Prospecting: Tips for Bank Sales Leaders

  

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“I know what I should do in prospecting, but I need help doing it.” Does that sound familiar?

Bob is a mid-career commercial lender who was in one of my prospecting workshops recently. Here are some of the questions that his sales manager would have to address:

-- Does Bob know what to do? If Bob is kidding himself about his prospecting savvy, his manager can usually figure that out by asking a few questions. A lot of RMs talk a better game than they play.

-- What does he need help on? Here are a few possibilities:

• Bob has way too many things to do.  He needs help organizing his time.
• Bob is having difficulty with some part of the prospecting process. He may be concerned about the quality of his prospect list, for example, and not sure what to do about it.
• He may have the theory down, but lack the skills needed to be successful. Maybe he’s stuck because he can’t get in the door with his prospects. Or maybe he’s having a hard time selling internally.

-- As his sales manager, how can you help him? This is obviously the most important question. If you start with the assumption that your job is to make Bob better, some things become clearer. You need to spend time with him to diagnose where he needs your assistance. That would include reviewing what he has done—looking at his prospect list, talking about his overall approach with specific prospects, and discussing his value proposition and first call strategy—and what he is planning to do.

Ask what specific things he needs help on. Is it developing a better prospect list? Leveraging his customers for more referrals? Preparing more effectively for meetings? If you know what he views as important, you can begin to develop your coaching strategy.

There’s a tendency for coaches to try to do everything at once. Slow down. You may need to break things down into a number of manageable tasks for Bob. Help him build a plan—nothing fancy, bullet points are perfectly acceptable—that you can use in subsequent coaching sessions.

For more tips on coaching prospecting check out our article on “Dubious Best Practices in Prospecting” at http://www.mzbierlyconsulting.com/dubious-best-practices-in-prospecting.

 Next Live Webinar: Is Adding Value Just About Cutting Price?

When: September 19, 2011 at 11 AM Eastern, 10 AM Central

Presenter: Buck Bierly, President of MZ Bierly Consulting, Inc.

To Register: You can register online at http://mzbierlyconsulting.webex.com or call Susan Lersch at 610-296-4771 to sign up for individual session. We accept Visa and MasterCard for online payments. We do offer discounts for 3 or more lines from the same institution. If you can’t make the live session, a recorded version will be available 24 hours after the live webinar.