Sales Tips and Marketing Strategies

PUT SOME FIRE INTO THE SENSE OF URGENCY AT YOUR FINANCIAL INSTITUION AND PUT THE TOUCH ON YOUR CUSTOMERS!

You must convey your appreciation for their business and show a strong interest in what is happening in their business. You must stay on top of how the customer perceives the level of service you are providing. Adopt the approach “We must get out and go to the customer!” You might use the excuse you don’t have time or maybe you’re overly confident the customer is well taken care of and there’s no need to make a call. It’s a lot easier to make a call on an existing customer than to try to find his or her replacement!

Our industry has never been more competitive than it is right now. Officers with business development and account relationship responsibilities will use a boatload of excuses why they can’t get out and make calls if they aren’t trained, coached, encouraged and especially if they aren’t held accountable.

If your institution isn’t providing sales leadership, sales training, sales technology, encouragement, coaching and rewards for production than your institution is a target for a wake-up call that will rock you into reality.

* Stop taking your top customers for granted!

* Start taking yourself to them!

* Help discover what they need now or for the future!

* Ask what it’s like to be your customer!

* Always ask a satisfied customer this question: “Who do you know that would like to be able to say that about where they bank?”

From the retail perspective it is about households. Growing franchise value is where it’s at today. Free checking, free gift, and other promotional lures are used in your market every day. The unattended customer, the customer who feels no sense of relationship at your institution is up for grabs. Once they leave they are very hard to get back. The ones who are enticed by good deals and rolling ice chests are serious contributors to non-interest income.

From the commercial perspective it is about attaching the customer through ACH and other products that make moving their account painful. What is happening with cash management sales when an account gets opened? What is your sales strategy with commercial accounts at the new accounts desk? Are all of them introduced when on the initial visit to a commercial lender even if that is by way of a phone call? What is the planned approach to make certain this new customer is made aware of all the products they could benefit from?

What about the borrower that only has a loan? When that is the case the lender must submit a written explanation of how all attempts to cross-sell deposits failed.

Remote capture and other innovative services that make banking more and more convenient for the customer also means that the competitor doesn’t have to have a choice location anymore to pick up choice customers. Nothing is more shocking to a lender than when he or she sees an account they have taken for granted shows up on the closed account list or the pay off list. Customers don’t give 30-days notice when they are moving their business.

Your depositors are highly desirable whether they are high dollar customers or fee generators. Your borrowers who are willing to entertain more than one proposal from a financial services provider may find loans at a bargain. But lenders who know how to build a relationship have fewer price wars than those that don’t.

Get in the game and tighten up the relationships with extraordinary service delivery and making contact with the customer. Thank them in person, find out what else they need, go see what is happening in their world rather than waiting for them to call or show up in yours.

Maintenance Calls Churn New Business -

Every calling officer of your institution must have a top 25 customer list that they actively work at earning and re-earning the relationship.

The Top 25 Customer Care Log is a tool for calling officers to use to make calls meaningful. It can serve as a guide for who to call on and what questions to ask on the call. The highest form of flattery you can offer the customer is to seek his/her opinion on what it’s like to be your customer.

* When was the last time you visited the branch?

* How did we do?

* How friendly would you say we are?

* Are we efficient?

* Do we show our appreciation when you come in or call?

* Overall, how satisfied are you with our service?

When the customer responds with very or highly satisfied, ask for referrals! Ask what else can we do for you? May I quote you? This approach is what business development superstars are made of!

They use viral marketing by e-mail as a marketing tool… what did you think I meant? Viral marketing can work well for B2B providers, as long as the following is true:

1. The product or service has to add value for the sender, as well as, the receiver.

2. The offer has to be deliverable. You don’t want to offer a product that you can’t deliver if demand grows rapidly.

3. The offer has to be easily transferable to others. E-mail and Web pages provide the best medium to facilitate this.

4. The vest viral marketing campaigns use existing networks to move the message along.

The basis of viral marketing has been around for a long time. The idea is that you incite your customers or referral sources to pass on something about your business to their network of colleagues and friends. Those that pass on your information get something in return. The something might be a gift or service related to your business.

Continue reading ‘B2B Marketers Do It, Too’ »

Any good business man knows, to be successful you have to make your customers happy. But that may not be enough, you may need more than a good product in today’s weak economy. Many companies are looking for ways to engage their customers to increase their interest. Here are five ways you can do so:

• Give them a way to give back. People like to make the world a better place. If you can give them a way to give back through purchasing your product they may be incentivized to buy it. Set up a portion of your proceeds to go to local elementary schools, make a greener product, or donate funds to a good cause. By giving back you’ll become a more charitable and better respected company and will likely gain more customers. Advertise these programs as much as possible to ensure positive results.

• Be proactive in your customer service, not just reactive. Most customer service programs deal with people who already have problems. It is of course key that you have a good system set up for reactive customer service. Fixing people’s problems in a friendly way will keep people from getting angry and stopping the use of your product. You can take your customer service one step further however, if you become a bit more proactive in the process. Reach out to customers and ask them if there is anything you can help them with. Even if they don’t have any concerns they’ll appreciate that you care and if they do have concerns they’ll be more likely to remain loyal customers this way. People may have written off your company all together but that small gesture may just win them back.

• Create contests and incentives. Everybody likes to win especially if they get something just for entering. By attaching a potential prize to your product, customers may gravitate towards it. If you already have to buy shampoo and one of the brands is offering you the chance to win a free car you may just be pulled towards that shampoo. You should also offer incentives to loyal customers, set up some sort of rewards system to keep them coming back. If you get a free ice cream after purchasing five you’ll be more likely to go to the same ice cream shop each time. By rewarding loyal customers you’ll ensure that they feel appreciated and that they continue to remain loyal to your product.

• Reach out to them through social media and blogs. Often customers don’t feel like they have a way to communicate with big businesses. By setting up a social media account or blog they’ll be able to comment on whats going on with your business, may offer ideas, and may even advertise for your product. If somebody has great results with your company they may post something on Facebook, tweet or add a comment saying so. It’s crucial you keep these sites updated with current and positive information to ensure that customers really feel like they can interact with you on them. This link between you and the customer can go along way in establishing a relationship between them and your product.

• Get involved in the community. People will take note if you create a team for a charity fun run or get a group together to help clean up the local creek. By hosting and participating in events within the community customers will feel more connected to you and thus will be more likely to give your business their hard earned money. You’ll also generate a lot of positive press thus ensuring good public relations. Customers like hearing about what your company is doing for their community and they’ll like seeing the results even more.

By practicing these five tenants you will likely broaden your customer base and increase customer satisfaction. In today’s economy those two factors are key to your company’s success.

I have recently heard a sales manager saying, “the sales person’s job is to bring in customers. If product quality is bad, management will take care of it. Sales people should spend less time commenting on product quality.”

If a sales person is doing many other things other than selling, you can say that the sales person is not doing his job. However, if many sales people are doing so, then perhaps you need more investigation.

While it is true that sales people should commit their time and effort generating sales revenue, that may not be how customers perceive things. Customers want sales people to be “accountable for results”.

Continue reading ‘Are Sales People Responsible For Improving Product Quality?’ »

I feel this is a question that many average performing sales people neglect to ask themselves on a continuing basis. It amazes me how many salespeople believe they know what their prospect is thinking without any real attempt at fact finding or for that matter, any basic questioning!

So with this in mind, let’s start with your purpose as a salesperson – to assist your customers in solving a problem they have. Contrary to what you feel about this statement, there is enough evidence and research now available that suggests customers want to buy products and services, not be sold to. So initially, your prospect will want to know your answers to the following questions -

1. Do you fully understand the problem/s I have?
2. Do you have a solution to these problem/s?

You may laugh at how basic these questions are; however, so many salespeople get this so wrong and make very broad assumptions about prospects. Remember, every prospect will have a different set of needs and requirements. Another bugbear of customers is the complete lack of detailed questioning with a prospect. I recently saw this first hand at a car dealership I visited. It was a Saturday morning and next to me was a family of around 5 in total. The salesperson went up to the prospect and asked what sort of car the family were looking at. The father then proudly announced he was looking at the new estate (Station wagon for those of us in Australia and New Zealand). Then the salesperson went off on a complete tangent about a range of features without asking any questions. Continue reading ‘What Do Your Customers Want to Hear From You?’ »

It is exciting when Christmas is decorated with white snow, however this year people in United States have seen too much snow. From December 18th, blizzard has been striking many regions of United States. Drifting snow, cold rain and low temperature bring big troubles to people’s daily life, transportation, and many other aspects. Dear sellers or businessman, what will you do for your customers and employees in this cold weather? It is the best time to do something for them. Then, show them hot tips to prevent themselves from the freezing chill and send your warm care.

The following are some hot useful tips in cold winter for you to reference.
Keep warm in house:

- Use fireplace, wood stoves, or other combustion heaters only if they are properly vented to the outside.
- Leave the ashes cold in metal container like a bucket before you throw them into the trash can.
- Do not place a space heater within 3 feet of anything that may catch on fire, such as drapes, furniture, or bedding, and never cover your space heater.
- Store a multipurpose, dry-chemical fire extinguisher near the area to be heated.
- Protect yourself from carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning by installing a battery-operated CO detector and never using generators, grills, camp stoves, or similar devices indoors.

Keep safe in traffic:

- Listen to radio or television reports of travel advisories issued by the National Weather Service.
- Do not travel in low visibility conditions or on ice-covered roads, overpasses, and bridges if at all possible.
- If you must travel by car, use tire chains and take a mobile phone with you. And let someone know your destination and when you expect to arrive. Ask them to notify authorities if you are late.
- Check and restock the winter emergency supplies in your car before you leave. – Never pour water on your windshield to remove ice or snow; shattering may occur. – Always carry additional warm clothing appropriate for the winter conditions.

For first-aid

Carbon Monoxide (CO) Poisoning treatment tips:
Clinical Guidance for Carbon Monoxide (CO) Poisoning After a Disaster

So many tips! The next step is to consider how to share the tips effectively. Of course you can just post it on board or paper, but it may not arouse other’s interest or impress them, even you add some pictures. Find a more attractive way to show them the tips and help readers memorize the tips efficiently. Here come three channels for you to share the tips. Add animations, multimedia elements to the tips, and then:
1. Play the tips on TV through DVD player in your shop or company. TV shows are always attractive and it is easy to draw others’ attention.
2. Burn the tips onto DVD and then send the DVD to customers as a gift. Customer can feel your warm care.
3. Embed the animated tips to your sales Website. If you manage e-commence on the internet, share the tips on your sites and at the same time it can attract the traffic.

So, how to make these display ways come true? Actually it is easy to realize through two methods.
1. With PowerPoint and PowerPoint to DVD converter. You can add multimedia elements like video, Flash movie, audio, and more animations to the tip design. The show will be attractive and vivid. Here is the tutorial for you: make a DVD presentation with PowerPoint.

2. With Windows Movie Maker. Insert the tips in pictures and then import the pictures into Windows Movie Maker to make a video movie. However, it is not as flexible as PowerPoint.

The weather is chilly, while it is a good chance to show your warm care to the customers and employees. Share the hot tips preventing coldness and potential dangers in blizzard with them. This is what they urgently need.

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