Most banks I’ve worked with have their hearts in the right place when it comes to desiring healthy sales cultures. They understand that without first focusing on service, a sales focus may be counterproductive.
In too many instances, however, banks’ internal messaging has not supported their noble intentions. Employees can be forgiven if they grow a bit confused when they are told that service is what matters most, yet production numbers seem to be the primary tool for how they are evaluated.
We want great customer reviews and positive “shops.” We want customers to feel good enough about banking with us that they tell their friends. That is the customer satisfaction holy grail.
Yet when it comes to incentives and promotions, the numbers that tend to matter most are production numbers. The people who grow whatever portion of a business entrusted to them — whether they manage only themselves or large teams — tend to advance their careers.
When I acknowledge that fact during speeches, it’s apparent that some expect me to then rail just a bit about how that is wrong. We can’t say that great service is our first priority, but then use production numbers as our primary success gauge, right? Well, not so fast.
When addressing this, I have frequently cited one of my favorite business/sales/life quotes to groups. Zig Ziglar once said, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”
Upon sharing that thought with one group a while back, a young man joked, “Well, my boss wants new accounts and cross-sales. That’s it.” As his peers chuckled and nodded agreement, I kidded that, well, it’s good to know where people stand.
I then suggested that if anyone is working for a manager or owner who is not focused on growing his or her business, he should have his resume ready. He or she is going to be needing it soon because businesses that aren’t focused on growth are either going away or heading for a serious shake-up.
That statement, while clearly true, tends to raise a few more eyebrows in recent times than the past. But I’ve warned for several years about the danger of taking our eyes off a growth mentality.
Well before the Wells Fargo story sucked up all of the oxygen in banking news, I had suggested to bankers that healthy sales cultures are not built on making sales, but on earning business.
People who focus on “making a sale” tend to fixate on their own needs. They focus on what they have to say or do in the moment to get something that helps them. Whether or not it is in the best interest of a customer is of secondary importance.
They are primarily looking to get what they want: In this case, that’s a sale.
People who are focused on earning business tend to fixate on providing whatever service, consultation or referral best helps a customer. They focus their attention and energy on helping customers and prospective customers understand and address their personal banking needs.
To borrow Mr. Ziglar’s words, they help people get what they want. The byproducts of that often include new business, expanded relationships and additional referrals.
When we properly focus on the customer, we are focusing on our own business success. The customers we treat well today stay with us tomorrow.
They may have additional needs we can help with now — or maybe not. However, as their personal situations, careers and goals evolve, opportunities to expand how we help them increase.
It’s unfortunate that some companies’ sales cultures lose focus of that fact. We forget to remind our teams that our sales (growth) figures are, in many ways, a lagging indicator of how well we serve and help our customers.
Measuring our growth is the most meaningful way of gauging how good we are at what we do. Sales are not something we find ways to create out of thin air. Sales are the results of helping people. In an uber-competitive, increasingly homogeneous industry, sales are what tell us if we are differentiating ourselves in customers’ eyes.
An important part of differentiating ourselves is making the effort to know customers, understanding their needs, and, yes, asking them to consider allowing us to meet those needs for them.
Companies with better people and products tend to grow. That growth is not a disconnected activity. Growth is directly linked to the quality of our operations and our abilities to communicate that quality to customers.
A focus on sales helps lead to a true focus on the competence, competitiveness and ongoing health of our businesses. Capable leaders must adopt this mentality for the benefit of their team.
