Sales Management and Coaching of Fundamental Selling Skills in Banking

In a recent newsletter Fundamental Sales Skills for Selling Financial Services we outline how many sales people get bored with the basics of selling and how by having a fresh focus on fundamental sales skills, people can improve their results significantly. But what about sales management? How do you coach these fundamental sales skills?

Here are the fundamental sales skills out lined in that newsletter as well as a few ideas on how to coach them:

People buy solutions to their problems, not products
Here is a simple idea to keep this concept top of mind with your people: when they tell you that they were talking to a client about a product ask them,

“What problem were you trying to solve for them?”

Follow that up by asking,

“Did the client tell you they had that problem?”

These two questions, if asked consistently, will reinforce to your team that good selling is a service focused exercise. If they have been looking at their clients with an attitude that is solutions focused and not just product focused, they will experience more success a feel less like a sales person. Most will do a better job of selling when they feel like they are helping clients. That starts with the concept that people buy solutions to their problems, not products.

Let the customer go first
Make certain your team is getting a full understanding of the client’s situation before they start to recommend products. You can coach this up by asking questions like,

“Tell me about that client you just saw.”

“What did you learn new about them that you did not know?”

“What’s going on in their life right now?”

“How are they feeling about their retirement plans – their ability to stop work one day and afford to do what they want? Are the on track with that plan?”

Your goal is to get a sense as to how well your team is interviewing to unspoken problems, stresses, and difficulties the client has not come in specifically to talk about. When your team gets good at uncovering those problems that are brewing below the surface with your clients, you’ll see an increase in the average number of products cross sold on every opportunity.

Client focused presentation
One of the best ways to tell if your team is doing a good presentation is by knowing that they are doing a good interview. When sales people get a client to acknowledge a specific problem, most are fairly good at presenting the solution in a manner that makes sense to the client. Where presentations get off track is when the sales person does not have a specific problem identified or had the client acknowledge that problem. The result is that they tend to just spew features at the client hoping they will by. You can find out how your team is doing at the presentation by sitting in on a sales conversation, eavesdropping, or role-playing how they presented a product to a client they just saw.

Ask the client to buy
A simple way to identify if your team is asking for the sale is to find out why the client did not buy. Start by asking some basic investigation questions like,

“Which products did you present?”

“Which ones did they buy?”

Referring to the one’s they did not buy: “What was the reason they gave for not buying?”

Be on the lookout for weak objections from the client like they wanted to “think about it” or they are “still going to look around”. Those objections sometimes occur because the sales person did not lead the sale to a conclusion. Let those objections be a flag to you and then simply ask your team member, “Did you ask for the sale?” If they respond that they did, ask them to tell you how – what they said specifically. If most are doing it correctly they won’t have a problem telling you exactly what they said. That is because they’ve thought about it and have made asking for the sale part of their strategy. The people that can’t remember what they said usually are not asking for the sale.

Remember when coaching these fundamentals that each of these skills builds on each other. With that in mind start your investigation at the beginning. There is no sense coaching them to get better at asking clients to buy when they are not starting right by doing a good interview. These skills can essentially be a checklist you run through, checking off each stage to make sure it is being done effectively until you identify the area that needs the most work.

Coaching a Lender in getting more Investment Referrals

Understand what they should be doing

Why would a client want to meet with one of your financial planners to discuss investments? Focus coaching on what the client ultimately wants when they agree to meet with a financial planner. They don’t want another appointment, they don’t want a sales pitch … life is too busy and complicated for your clients to waste their time like that. They are selfish just like you and me . They want to be better off as a result of spending time with a planner. So why would they meet with them? Because they are unhappy with their current circumstances … their current plan to retire with enough money and they are hoping they will have some ideas on how to improve their situation.

So how does a lender get clients to meet with a financial planner? They need to get them into conversations about retirement or what it will be like when they are not working anymore. Will they have enough money to do what they want when they retire? Most will not. They, unfortunately, don’t come to this conclusion until it’s too late. Your lender’s job is to get them thinking about it NOW by asking them questions, NOT by telling them what they should do. 

The more the client talks about how inadequate their plan is, the more likely it’ll be they will want to do something about it.  Urge your lender to come up with thier own questions but if they are stuck, this one will work: “We’ve got an expert on staff that specializes in helping people retire with enough money. It’s absolutely free to see our planners - would it be worth your while just to meet one of them one day to discuss what you are currently doing and see if they have some ideas on how to improve your situation?”

Here’s a sample conversation a coach is having with their lender that is not getting investment referrals:

Coach: How many people did you meet with this week?

Lender: 10

Coach: Out of those 10 how many had investments elsewhere?

Lender: I don’t know

Coach: Should you know … I mean, if we are really going after wealth management referrals, at minimum, shouldn’t you know how many of the people you met with had investments elsewhere?

Lender: I guess.

Coach: Let’s starting tracking that OK?

Lender: sure

Coach: Out of the 10 people you saw, how many will retire with enough money?

Lender: I don’t know, we didn’t get into it

Coach: Did you get into it with any of them?

Lender: No, I was too busy doing the loan

Coach: No worries, I know it’s busy. How well do you think the average client is doing at saving for retirement?

Lender: Not very good I guess

Coach: I’d agree. Are we doing the clients any favors by not getting them to talk about their inadequate plans?

Lender: I suppose not

Coach: Can we really call ourselves a great service provider if we ignore this obvious flaw in their financial plan?

Lender: No, I guess not

Coach: What do you need to start asking them about?

Lender: Their retirement plans, whether they feel confident in the plan, in the amount of money they are making, in the financial advice they have been given … everything!

Coach: Exactly!

Coach: I’m going to ask you tomorrow the same questions. I also want you to keep track of the number of people you see in a day and whether or not they have investments at another financial institution – OK?

Lender: OK

Coach: If you need any ideas on what to ask the client and at what point in the loan interview to ask it, I’d be happy to go over that with you.

Keep it simple 
If the lender is not getting enough referrals it’s because there is either:
a.    no opportunity (i.e. EVERYONE they saw is totally thrilled with their retirement plans) or …
b.    it’s because they are not engaging the clients in conversations about how they feel about their retirement or investment plan or …
c.    they are trying to get them onto those conversations but are either product dumping (i.e. “you should go speak to our financial planner”) or asking poor questions.