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Sales Management in the Bank Environment
In the increasingly competitive banking marketplace, managers need to be more effective in supporting and guiding the sales efforts of their employees. Managers are the key to improving employee skills and knowledge, establishing goals, and reinforcing skill development through consistent coaching and feedback. By developing strong relationships between themselves and their employees, managers are able to respond quickly to marketplace opportunities and address potential problem areas appropriately.
Sales Management in the Bank Environment was specifically designed to provide bank managers with the enhanced knowledge and skills to support and guide their salespeople in their day-to-day activities.
The two-day program supports the objectives of “Selling Skills in the Bank Environment” and provides managers with an organized process for assisting their salespeople in applying the sales skills gained in the program.
After completing the program, managers will be better able to:
- Understand their role as sales managers and their employee’s role as salespeople
- Understand the value of an organized sales process for meeting customer needs and meeting their business goals
- Set and meet sales related goals
- Assist their salespeople’s efforts to apply newly acquired sales skills
- Develop and execute effective business plans for themselves and their salespeople
- Be more effective overall as managers
- Meet overall business goals and objectives
The program’s content has been designed to reflect the reality of the bank management today and will be directly relevant to the everyday problems and opportunities faced by managers in their jobs. Case studies and role plays are used to highlight actual management and sales situations and develop skills.
Day One
What Makes a Good Manager?
The program begins with an orientation section that challenges each participant to reflect on personal strengths and weaknesses. The standards against which strong sales managers are judged include: 1)ability to assess skill and performance levels, including one’s own; 2) ability to clearly communicate expectations: 3) ability to hold themselves and others accountable for attainment of goals; 4) strong personal selling skills; and 5) coaching and counseling skills. Each manager assesses his/her ability to self-critique by delivering a practice coaching/counseling session. Each participant’s self-critique of strengths and weaknesses are compared against the critique of an observer. The instructor observes the importance of self-critique and second-party feedback.
Customer Sales Map
The Customer Sales map taught in the selling skills course is reviewed from beginning to end as a review for those who participated in the full course and as an overview for others. The instructor emphasizes why it is important for managers to understand the sales process and be capable of focusing on specific areas in which skills of salespeople need practice and improvement.
Training Techniques of Managers
Managers should be able to effectively deliver sales training guidance, and this module offers both practice and assessment of current skill levels. Since many sales managers went to college, they may model their training styles on favorite professors. The module cautions that these styles must be modified to emphasize not just communication (the world of academia) but rather behavior modification (the world of sales). This is why sales training focuses on breaking tasks into steps and practicing each step, with observation and coaching.
The module also reinforces effective speaking skills including posture, podium usage, creative use of voice, effective use of gestures and props, engaging eye contact, and ideas for continuing to improve speaking skills. Each participant has an opportunity to try effective presentation techniques by delivering a portion of a training program, with feedback from the program leader and other participants.
Behavioral Styles applied to Sales and Sales Management
This module introduces participants to the art of identifying and reacting to various styles of behavior, as segmented through the Sales Style Indicator (SSI) system developed by Consulting Resource Group International. SSI allows each participant to self-identify a personal style using a questionnaire response sheet. In the SSI schema, an individual’s sales style has four dimensions: Behavioral (Action), Cognitive (Analysis), Interpersonal (Harmony), and Affective (Expression). Unlike some competitive systems, which “pigeon hole” participants into style boxes, SSI recognizes the subtleties of styles which combine various levels of each dimension. For example, a “Dependable” style is high in both Behavioral and Interpersonal dimensions. The SSI system is especially strong in identifying the strengths of each style as well as common areas of difficulty, how the style typically reacts to stress, how the style functions as part of a a sales team, leadership implications, and steps to increase sales effectiveness. The SSI exercises also show managers how their own styles may interact with different styles within their sales teams, and allows for behavior modification through modeling of alternative styles by managers.
Day Two
Sales Coaching Clinic
This module focuses on coaching skills while also addressing the key differences and objectives of both coaching and counseling. Participants are challenged to identify whether coaching or counseling remedies are needed in given exercise situations. Participants then are given a model to apply in assessing whether their coaching behaviors are effective.
One attribute of an effective coach is the ability to set challenging, realistic goals. A test is presented of whether goals are S-M-A-R-T, which means they are specific, measurable, attainable, rewarding, and timely. Participants apply the S-M-A-R-T tests to critique goals they have created. A model is also discussed on how coaches should give feedback that is helpful and motivating to the salesperson. The strengths and weaknesses of various coaching opportunities are discussed, including shared sales calls, taped sales calls, sales call reports, etc. The module concludes with an eight-step model for conducting a coaching session and a coaching exercise in which the model is implemented by participants, with critique and feedback on coaching style.
Planning and Conducting a Sales Meeting
This module is designed to help managers plan and conduct sales meetings that build team camaraderie, while advancing sales campaigns and initiatives. The leader evaluates the most common reasons sales meetings often fall short of expectations and how to overcome recurring problems in scheduling, planning, content, and tone. A simulated sales meeting shows how planning and focus can help managers achieve their goals for involving the whole team, providing opportunities for leadership, and motivating both individuals and the group to achieve goals.
How to Handle Sales Related Problems
Most managers think they have unique sales related problems, when in fact the same variations on themes keep recurring. One important skill in problem solving is the ability to look at an organization afresh, through the eyes of customers. May sales related problems emerge when one of three sides of the “Sales Triangle” - consisting of Attitudes, Selling Skills, and Product Knowledge - is shortchanged by the organization. The problem solving model used in this module begins with an evaluation of which area is not receiving adequate attention, then identifying the obstacles which are causing the lack of attention. The importance of obtaining group feedback and buy-in on problem areas is emphasized through exercises and examples. The module concludes with ideas for conserving the sales manager’s time by delegating some problem solving responsibilities.
Creating a Sales Management Plan
This module teaches a method for building a sales management plan that includes both personal goals and team goals, with sub-goals for both knowledge and skills and personal productivity. After listing all possible goals, managers then are challenged to prioritize both personal and team goals and translate each into specific action steps which can be evaluated against stated assessment criteria.
As a result of increasing the skills and effectiveness of sales management, your bank will benefit from:
- Improved communication with employees and customers
- Increased productivity and customer retention
- Increased revenues and profit
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