Project Description
This sales effectiveness project was carried out with a bank in Dallas, Texas. The bank has assets upwards of US $80 billion, and was looking for an effective way to sell their services, without “pressurizing” the customer. The problem that needed to be solved was that employees only responded to their potential customers’ requests and were not proactive in trying to sell any of the peripheral services the bank provided. Essentially, they were not selling across the product line and were looking for a way in which to do this.
After some time researching the operations and conducting interviews with senior management and banking personnel (tellers, loan officers etc.), it became apparent that they were mostly selling “transactionally” rather than consultatively, and not “bundling” the offers they proposed to the customer. We prepared a consultative discovery process which would enable the banking staff to ask more questions and better understand their customers’ issues. We suggested they propose a list of “bundled” services, at an advantageous price. This helped the bank sell more services, thereby ensuring better customer retention and loyalty. The more services the customers obtained from the bank, the less likely they would be in taking their business elsewhere. The result was longer-standing customers who were “locked in” with the services provided by the bank, which brought higher switching costs on the part of the customers and consequently, increased the bank’s bottom line.