Bank Line-of-Business Managers Gain Five Strategies for Driving Small Business Growth via Branches

Jan. 12, 2010 - PRLog -- The biggest opportunity for small business growth is penetrating the existing branch relationships a bank wants to keep.  Small business will be an attractive 2010 deposit and fee growth opportunity, despite current credit concerns.  The biggest challenge for line-of-business managers is sales execution—changing attitudes and behaviors and preparing branch managers and small business bankers so they know what they’re doing with small business clients.

Small business bank training specialist Clarity Advantage offers line-of-business managers five tips to accelerate small business attraction, retention, and expansion:

•   Focus on households, not accounts.  Pay more attention to customers after they open their accounts.  The value in “small business” is the leverage from business + personal + employees, not the business or personal checking accounts by themselves.  Systematically call existing branch small business customers to re-open dialogue and look for opportunities for the “whole relationship.”  Continue branch sales efforts with new customers assertively during the first 90-180 days after account opening.  
•   Emphasize specific high-value business types. Tell branch staff and small business teams exactly on which types of businesses—existing customers and new prospects—to focus.  Focus on the business types that bring the most deposits and the broadest business + personal + employee relationships.  Develop staff’s expertise, the bank’s sales process, and the bank’s products so it’s very clear why those businesses should bank with the organization.
•   Measure looking forward.  If branch scorecards focus more attention on consumer banking than small business, respond with very strong sales management and supplement scorecards with leading indicators such as small business sales activity frequency, focus, and quality and pipeline development to assess and guide the small business sales effort.
•   Carve out branch sales time.  “No time to sell to small business” is a killer in the branches.  Define roles, expectations, and selling time as a “set.”  Fifteen minutes, standard, every day is better than none.  If “no time” persists, use proactive phone representatives to call unassigned small business customers at least once a year.
•   Provide specialized business training and extra coaching.  Train sellers to recognize and discuss small business operating challenges as well as small business products and sales techniques.  Provide extra coaching before, during, and after initial training to ensure a return on investment is quickly earned.

To learn more about driving branch small business growth, visit http://www.clarityadvantage.com/articles-and-tools/premiu... and download Small Business Readiness Checklist for Lines of Business, a diagnostic tool and corresponding six-article series.  Free registration required.

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About Clarity Advantage: Small business bank training specialist Clarity Advantage helps banks generate more profitable relationships faster with small and medium-sized companies, their owners, and employees. Clarity consulting, communications, sales tools and training help banks recruit and deploy sales team members, choose their best business and consumer prospects and clients, then approach, engage, sell, expand, and retain relationships. Clarity also assists banks with consumer sales and cash management sales. Clarity clients have posted increases in household penetration, cross-sells, deposit volume, and loan volume. Visitors to Clarity’s website, http://www.clarityadvantage.com, can subscribe to “The Weekly Sales Thought,” a free eNewsletter and podcast focused on business-to-business selling and sales management.