As we enter another tough year for growth, our sales cultures will be even more important for survival and productivity. Yes, it is a journey! The foundation of strategy, structure, systems, etc has to be built for the long term in a dynamic environment and amongst continuous competitive disintermediation. Rolling out another training course without the foundation in place wastes money, staff time and confuses customers.
Start with the premise that everyone in your organization is part of the sales culture from the CEO to the newest recruit. Accept the principles of continuous learning and innovative thinking. Generally, institutions need external expertise to get the foundation right even though internal staff believe that they can do it without that experience. I remember back in 1985 when my employer RBC (Canada's largest bank) decided to start its journey and asked me to head it up, the first thing we did was reach out for professional guidance on a number of fronts.
Build your strategy around customers' preferences plus your channel and product profitability. Remember, customers control channel access/convenience and they are multi-channel users. You can not survive on branch sales alone even if everyone therein is actively engaged in the sales experience and not tied down or hidden behind "administrative duties".
This Christmas Season again saw the rapid expansion of online purchases by all age groups for a mass variety of products and services. Additionally we saw more collaborative or partnership selling with productline extensions everywhere. Look at WalMart with their Super Stores and how much they sell online including financial services. In Canada, Rogers Communications, who have filed for a banking licence, will also add a new national dimension to mobile sales.
The sales culture requires experienced leadership and knowledge with an integrated distribution strategy. Let the learning begin properly or results will be compromised.
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This week before Christmas, Bank of America has agreed to pay US$335 millions to settle allegations against its subsidiary, Countrywide Financial Corp.for discriminatory mortgage lending towards blacks and Hispanics charged higher fees and rates when their creditworthiness did not warrant the additional costs. Four other major banks are negotiating with federal and state officials on alleged foreclosure abuses.
There are a couple key lessons here for all financial institutions if not all companies. Policies and practices have to be reviewed and policed continuously for any bias against any segment of the population-minorities or otherwise. In the USA the government officials are like eagles swooping down on complacent directives and actions. The second lesson is the heightened public awareness to bias or any discrimination by financial institutions which the press and supervisory officials in any country will be investigating more rigorously.
The unfortunate social and economic costs perpetrated on consumers has created life scars and ruined financial and physical healths. Where is the corrective formula for these unsuspecting people? In Countrywide's case it is estimated that 200,000 customers were impacted. The criteria that allowed this to happen must be removed swiftly from any institution to protect consumers and corporate reputations. Assess your principles and policies followed by affinity training for all staff and hiring practices that recognize the benefits of having appropriate representation of all population groups in your staff base. We are one people!
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T'is the week before Christmas and only two weeks from 2012 which will be another low growth, challenging year for financial institutions everywhere. Let's take a look back at the priorities in 2011:
(1) Customer-centricity: maintaining a constant focus on the customer is still the bedrock for strategic survival and operational success.
(2) Innovation: our creativity is critical to differentiating our brand experience in a crowded marketplace.
(3) Productivity: building sustainable improvements in both revenues and cost management must be the financial focus
(4) Leadership: people with a vision, values and implementation energy are essential to move forward through all economic and business challenges.
Competition and hence disintermediation by non-traditional, emerging entrants who want to "eat your lunch" continues to grow in most markets. Whereas collaborations and consolidations will be necessary amongst the traditional players, especially credit unions, for survival.
Your real strength has to be in your people who create a seamless experience for customers amongst multiple, integrated sales and service channels to which consumers control access. Personnel's discretionary efforts at this time are the building blocks to meet and exceed customer expectations.
Obviously, 2012 will be more of the same in terms of market dynamics and global uncertainty. Therefore, trim the ship so it is capable of sailing through turbulent waters to find the sunshine on new shores.
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For some businesses and in particular financial institutions, it is hard to apologize for customer mistakes. Another recent example just came to my attention from a wealthy young man and one of Canada's large banks. An officer in the bank's largest branch made a commitment to a customer to process a significant payment against a mortgage. At about the same time, the officer was transferred or left and the transaction was not made. When the customer approached the Manager he did not believe the customer and was not going to look for confirmation so the customer subsequently produced e-mails proving the commitment. The branch finally processed the payment months late but has yet admitted to reimburse the customer for the associated extra interest cost incurred. Even with support from the Private Banking personnel, nothing has been forth coming.
Years ago I had introduced this customer to the bank and I am now embarrassed that the three basic steps of handling complaints were not followed by the premier branch of this large institution:
(1) Thank the customer for bringing the concern to your attention and promise to research the complaint and be back to him/her in 48 hours
(2) When it was the bank's fault, apologize
(3) Ensure that the correction action meets with the customer's satisfaction
The customer has now requested a meeting with various parties from the bank and outside. As one can appreciate what should have been corrected quickly and properly will now be a conversation cancer shared against the bank unnecessarily leading to an erosion of confidence and, yes, business. Obviously, the branch manager is not the professional needed to lead a retail unit in any business. We can only hope that this is not indicative of the new compliant culture at the bank!
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