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There's more to networking at events than just 'working the room.' By following a few basic principles, you can add value to your conversations with bank clients and prospects. ONE [...]

I'VE HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF DOING A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF SALES TRAINING AND COACHING with bankers over the past four decades, and, 67,000 bankers later, I have come to the [...]

MARKET PENETRATION. WALLET SHARE EXPANSION. COMPETITIVE DIFFERENTIATION. Are these core objectives for marketing or for sales? The answer is 'yes' for both. Marketing and sales share goals. Too often, however, [...]

The credit crisis has made the financial services market ripe for prospecting. There's never been better time win back share and wallet. The subprime mortgage crisis has reshaped the competitive [...]

Things have evolved significantly from the time when many of us started our financial services marketing careers. Three decades back, some of our greatest worries involved making certain there were [...]

A sales manager, a business banker and a horse are standing near a stream. The frustrated banker turns to her manager and says 'I have been here for over an [...]

The auld langs have all been syned. The holiday wrappings and trappings are put away. Bankers now begin the 12-month marathon called 2005. The pundits and prognosticators will each put [...]

In late 2003, Associated Banc-Corp of Green Bay, Wisc., decided to craft an integrated sales approach for its nine regions. It called the program 'Achieving Excellence,' which became the internal [...]

Five important business routines--team meetings, weekly check-ins, joint calls, coaching, and strategic call plan and call report reviews--plus prospecting 'acquisition rhythms,' customer retention, and cross solving elevate a sales culture [...]

Small-business banks can increase sales by means of a sales performance system. The bank's present sales environment is first evaluated through interviews and surveys. Training programs that satisfy the needs of each banking staff level are established. There is also a need to assess bank performance to determine sales improvement. Finally, establishment of reinforcement programs helps monitor and maintain the bank's performance.

Conversations on airplanes are interesting these days. 'How's business?' is a pretty common question, followed shortly after by, 'What do you do?' When seatmates learn that our company teaches bankers [...]

In two previous articles, we've highlighted some 21st Century Ideas of presentainment. We've discussed technology as it relates to creating and executing of presentations. We've urged partnering with Marketing to [...]

While sales and buying cycles vary, it typically takes five to seven calls to a prospect to earn a new business banking relationship, and two or three calls to cross-solve [...]

Pitching, so the pundits say, is 80% of the game. That's also how salespeople used to think they won business. Today, in a trust-based sales environment, catching has surpassed pitching [...]

This month's lesson is to shift focus from what the bank is selling to what the customer needs. The challenge is how to do this with 100 customers simultaneously. 'Onboarding' [...]

This is the first of several columns about action. Relationship managers will learn the routines and activities that generate greater revenue. Sales managers will learn how to ensure top performance [...]

Megan Johnson is a commercial banker, or 'relationship manager,' with National Bank. In her position, Megan handles a $35 million loan portfolio and regularly calls on businesses that generate between [...]

CHASE AND GAVIN, my 5-year old grand twins, love to play follow the leader. The game allows them to take turns being in charge (Chase really likes that) and forces [...]

President www.wesccon.com Forwarders and customs brokers facilitate U.S. international commerce along the Pacific Coast, our nation's largest international ocean gateway. Our focus must therefore be on staying abreast of the [...]

SEVERAL YEARS AGO I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE PART OF THE GALLERY AT THE MASTERS GOLF TOURNAMENT. For anyone who loves golf, it is nirvana. Each year, Augusta National [...]

Next to voicemail or the Internet itself, LinkedIn is, for bankers, one of the most useful technology tools ever invented. Every bank should have an active LinkedIn presence. And some [...]

LAST MONTH IN THIS COLUMN, I discussed how one community bank engages its board members in a program named Director Welcome Call. This program is part of a new client [...]

We've all seen the numbers. Web sites like www.sba.gov and www.bizstats.com indicate America's 31-plus million entrepreneurs annually produce more than 50% of GDP and account for 75% of new private-sector [...]

Visit any bookstore or click to Amazon and you'll find lots of titles focused on networking. Unfortunately, many of those titles still harken back to the old days of backslapping [...]

This is the second in a three-part series about what 'Janice,' a composite character of six bankers, is doing to optimize face-to-face meetings with pre-clients and centers of influence. Janice [...]

This is the first of a three-part series that provides an overview of what one bank, one creative senior executive, five team leaders, and more than 30 bankers have done [...]

A three-part series on coaching concludes with this article. In September, Jack Hubbard talked about making coaching part of a performance culture's DNA; in November he focused on observing and [...]

Last month, the focus of this column was on how to make successful joint sales calls to a business's location. While there are always time, distance, and other challenges, joint [...]

Sales calls generally soar or crash based on reactions to personal contacts. Therefore, it makes sense to observe behavior in these instances to facilitate improvement. This article discusses joint calls [...]

Obtaining and retaining human capital is as vital as generating and monitoring deposits and loans. Unfortunately, many senior managers continue to employ yesterday's approaches to today's critical challenge. If your [...]

In this article, relationship managers will learn the routines and activities that generate greater revenue. Sales managers will learn how to ensure top performance from their sales staffs. It's Monday [...]

As I MADE MY ANNUAL ROUNDS AS A FACULTY MEMBER of various banking schools this summer, Albert Einstein's famous quote kept creeping into my thoughts, 'Everything that's counted does not [...]

YOU ARRIVE AT THE OFFICE ON MONDAY FROM A RELAXING FAMILY WEEKEND TO FIND: * A bank in your area has been acquired. * A senior executive has returned from [...]