There is an Eleanor Roosevelt quote I like to cite in sales and marketing presentations. "You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do," she said.
I suggest to banker groups that this is a healthy thing to reflect upon in our personal lives. Don't obsess over your shortcomings. No one else does.
However, that phenomenon's impact on our business lives is not a positive one. Most folks tend to assume that others know far more about them and what they do than the reality. To make this point to managers and frontline employees, I've often shared a story from my time managing an in-store branch. Our branch had been in operation for several months, and we were far ahead of the goals the bank had given us.
In a short amount of time, I believed we had become a well-known entity to every shopper of our store — and likely the whole town itself! I was feeling just a bit cocky. Then a lady whom I had seen in our store many times walked up to my counter. I immediately figured she was responding to my brilliant marketing and wanted to discuss our accounts. She reached into her purse and pulled out a VHS tape. (Yes, that dates me.) She smiled and told me, "I need to return this."
Before my branch was built, the space we occupied had housed the store's video rental department. She still looked at our space as a video rental kiosk. And her beliefs weren't dissuaded by the presence of banking signs, teller windows, or an ATM. After being a little taken aback, I smiled and explained to her the new layout of the store.
It seemed that I may not have been the known entity that I thought I was. But, hey, that was long ago. Surely I wouldn't make that mistake anymore.
After a speech to a bank's senior management team within the last few weeks, I had a brief conversation with the head of their retail bank. I had spoken with her on occasion before, and she even mentioned that she reads my newsletters.
During our conversation, she shared details of an upcoming project their bank was planning and asked if I had any recommendations on vendors. At first I thought she was kidding. When I chuckled, "Well, I guess my first recommendation would be … uh … us," she looked confused. "Oh, you guys do those type projects as well? Gee, I guess I don't exactly know what you guys do."
It was another VHS-return moment for me. In my younger days, that would have discouraged me. Instead, I smiled and treated it as a great opportunity to expand a relationship with an existing customer.
I also made a mental note to reevaluate my assumptions about what customers and acquaintances know, and that I need to follow my own advice more in the future.
Part of that advice has been, "Don't take it personally." I often kid folks that it's easy to get your feelings hurt when it dawns on you that people aren't all that engrossed in you and what you do. They have these things called "lives" that they are living, and we're frankly not that big a part of them.
Heck, we humans have to ignore or forget more information than we actually remember each day simply to function. People are really good at ignoring stuff and even better at forgetting.
We readily accept that strangers know little about us. Yet the biggest gaps between what we think folks know and what they actually know are usually found with existing customers.
Now, I'm not suggesting that we turn every interaction with customers into sales presentations. That's the best way to ensure fewer interactions with these folks in the future. But there are numerous ways of reminding and educating folks about the products and services you offer without making them tell you "No" (or a lie) each time they see you.
The fact that fliers, creative signage, displays, and even technology demonstrations aren't part of more branches' standard practices is puzzling. Good retailers strive to get customers to consider products besides the ones they came in thinking about when visiting their stores. While we aren't in the "impulse buy" business, a better-informed existing customer base greatly increases our sales opportunities.
And some of the best folks to give business cards to are ones you'd likely figure don't need them. If they say they already know how to reach you, ask them to give your card to a friend of theirs who may not. You'll often be surprised at the revealing conversations that follow.
It's a pretty safe bet that you and your team are not nearly the known entity with the customers you'll interact with today as you'd assume. But that also means that there are more opportunities than you assumed there, as well. What opportunities will you uncover this week?
