There are certain phrases that stay with you in life; things your mother told you and words you heard over time in your career. One thing I remember is a joint call I was on with my first boss. The customer asked him was how quickly the bank could make a decision on his loan request. Without hesitation this senior banker looked the prospect in the eye and said “speed costs money, how fast do you want to go.”
Things haven’t slowed down in the 40 years since that call. What is different is the data behind the speed is more quantifiable. This leads to better coaching conversations and makes the banker much more effective – for the bank and for the customer.
My colleague, Ron Buck, Director of Performance Management, has authored a new White Paper based on groundbreaking data around the business banking pipeline process. Here are just a few concepts the White Paper address:
- There is a simple formula that addresses the issue of Sales Velocity
- There are reasons why less than 50% of RMs maximize the value of any deal
- While win rates is a vital measure of success there are few banks measuring this KPI
- Bankers in 2012 that reduced their time to close improved sales velocity by a significant number
- There is a win zone, stall zone and loss zone that bankers and sales executives should consider employing when keeping score
Lots has been written and said and debates rage all over the Twittosphere and Linkedin about cold calling, blitzing and numbers of calls sales people need to make weekly, monthly etc. to be successful. Ron’s data points to issues such as pipeline capacity, time to close and patterns in winning sales cycles as much more predictable metrics that matter.
More than 5,000 financial services professionals have a copy of this new White Paper. If you would like one too, simply email me at jhubbard@smandh.com and we’ll get one to you – as fast as we can.
