Even during the most stable times, banks with large and scattered trust and private banking departments have a tough enough time getting their client managers to work in a standardized way.
Then a merger hits.
Marketing and sales consultants say this is the most crucial time to streamline products, service, and sales.
Blue Bell, Pa.-based consultants FMS Group Inc., which has helped 27 bank clients, specializes in working with department heads and marketing executives during the flux following a merger.
The firm recently has helped private bank clients PNC Bank Corp., First Union Corp, Fleet Financial Group Inc., and CoreStates Bank grapple with acquisition-related issues.
"Most of our clients have a devil of a time telling a consistent story throughout the organization," said Norman R. Lubin, an FMS managing director.
Often mergers come at a time when a sales malaise has already struck a bank's trust department.
FMS chief executive Frank G. Frey said he often found bank employees telling customers to "'come back when you're 70."
"Clients were, in the interim, making plans with somebody else," Mr. Frey said.
Charles B. Wendel, president of Financial Institutions Consulting, agreed. Those in the midst of a merger have to be sales-oriented, even if the details about what the new bank will look like have not been worked out yet, he said.
"You are a perfect target for other banks to pick up your client base. You have to create stability. If the employee is saying, 'I don't know what's going on,' that's going to get to the client," he said.
Mr. Wendel, based in New York, said senior management has to pull employees from scuttlebutt sessions and whisk them into meetings to drill them in a new, uniform message.
Decisions must be made quickly and "as objectively as possible, and to the extent possible, eliminate the political wrangling," he said. "Roll out a clear identity and brand to the employees and customers so that people know what you're talking about."
FMS cited KeyCorp and First Union as examples of banks doing a good job putting on a unified front after a merger.
Whether the bank is integrating its private lending business with its trust and investment management units, or merging with another bank, it has to be proactive about discussing the imminent changes with wealthy clients.
"The customer is not naive, he knows that when there is a merger there are going to be changes," Mr. Wendel said. "He will give the banker the benefit of the doubt even if he doesn't believe everything he's saying."
