Bank Sales Corner

6 Mistakes Bankers Make in Prospecting (from 43 B.C.)

  

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Growing up in Upstate New York I was dimly aware of the number of towns whose names sprang from Ancient Greece and Rome. Troy, Utica, Romulus, Homer and Ovid still sound much more exotic than Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, Watertown and Glens Falls.

But without benefit of a true classical education—the Jesuits let me wiggle out of taking Latin in high school—I never learned much about Cicero, the orator, lawyer, philosopher and politician, not the hamlet outside Syracuse. Not until recently anyway, when I stumbled across Cicero’s “6 Mistakes of Man”, a list that still seems current some 2000 years after he wrote it.

I’ll spare you all the biographical details. Cicero lived from 106 B.C. to 43 B.C., when he was executed by his political enemies. Hailed by at least some of his fellow Romans as the “father of his country”, Cicero was a polished public speaker, a poet, and a statesman.

Reading his short summary of the mistakes we mortals often make, I was struck by how many of them are made by modern day bankers in their efforts to capture new business. See if you agree. Cicero’s mistakes are followed by my comments:

1. The illusion that personal gain is made up by crushing others. [Don’t badmouth the competition. It doesn’t serve your cause to tear down others. If you’re going to be successful, you need to demonstrate what you can do to improve your prospect’s situation, not point out what the incumbent can’t do.]
2. The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected. [Think about how many times you’ve heard others grouse about branch locations, marketing budgets, what the competition is doing, the economy, etc. What wasted energy!]
3. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it. [Examples abound: Getting in the door with a hard to corral prospect. Convincing a prospect to leave his current bank. Figuring out how to coach a veteran banker to try a different approach.]
4. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences. [“I can do this faster than I can explain it to my assistant” or “I prefer to do the write-ups myself” may keep you from focusing more time on priority projects.]
5. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind. [In a professional context, are you staying current? Are you taking advantage of professional development courses/ webinars/ conferences to improve your skills? What’s your reading list look like? Have you read everything on Jamie Dimon’s syllabus? (See the American Banker Special Report published September 27, 2011 or email me at nmiller@mzbierlyconsulting.com for his suggestions.)]
6. Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do. [This often trips up Sales Managers. Everybody is different. What works for you might not work for one of your subordinates. Admonishing someone to “just do what I do—it’s not rocket science” might not produce the desired result. You might have to break things down so that your less experienced colleague can figure out how to make progress.]

I don’t know why Cicero was put to death but I suspect he said some things that made his contemporaries uncomfortable. If any of his mistakes are ones you need to address as a modern banker, get some coaching.

One of the mistakes bankers make in prospecting is failing to leverage their existing network. Check out our recorded webinar on “Building an Effective Referral Network” by going to https://mzbierlyconsulting.webex.com. You can also get more information about our webinars by calling Susan Lersch at 610-296-4771 or emailing her at susan.lersch@mzbierlyconsulting.com.