Bank Sales Corner

10 Mistakes for Bank Sales Managers to Avoid

  

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Many senior bank executives question whether their sales managers have what it takes to get the job done. Some banks are redoubling their efforts to train and coach their first-line sales leaders on how to develop their commercial and small business teams. Others are actively recruiting management talent. The smart ones are doing both.

If you’re a sales manager, here are 10 mistakes you don’t want to make:

1. Managing everybody the same way.
2. Administering your bank’s sales process rather than leading it.
3. Thinking that you can be successful from behind your desk.
4. Forgetting about coaching the top of the sales funnel while helping your RMs close important business. 
5. Failing to provide ongoing refresher training to your teams.
6. Letting average-performers develop their own prospect lists.
7. Not strategizing with people about their top customers and prospects.
8. Assuming that because you’re always available for quick informal coaching, you don’t need to schedule 1on1 coaching sessions every few weeks.
9. Not coordinating with your line of business partners to keep conversations moving forward on non-credit products and services (e.g. Treasury Management, Investments, Capital Markets, etc.)
10. Not maintaining contact with bankers whom you would like to hire, even if they’re happy where they are.

Webinar Alert: If improving the productivity of your branch managers is a priority for your organization, you might be interested in our new three part webinar series. The second webinar on February 27 is on “Building and Sustaining an Effective Branch Sales Organization.” For more information, go to http://www.eventspan.com/event/2012-02-27-building-and-sustaining-an-effective-branch-sales-organization.