Winning Business and Closing Deals

In the move from transactional to relationship banking, many managers have attempted to build relationships using marketing theories which relate to transactional circumstances. There is a great deal of new thought around relationship building that needs to be carefully considered if true relationships are required. 

Consider the concept “Customer is King”. While this concept is still widely used in transactional marketing, it is certainly not appropriate in building relationships. Currently, many bank managers are being bullied by their clients into making (lending) decisions they would not normally approve, because they feel inferior to their client. Relationship building requires a deep mutual respect for each other, which CANNOT be achieved where the customer is king. This concept immediately infers superiority on the client. Negotiating power needs to be built up by the relationship manager to ensure that the relationship is respected by both banker and client.

This programme will assist all bankers involved in relationship building to reassess the way in which they interact with their clients and in so doing, convert prospects into customers, customers into clients, clients into supporters, and supporters into advocates. All theory will be directly related to the workplace so that delegates will be able to implement ideas with immediate effect.

The most important outcome of this programme is to guide bankers on how to close deals and win new business for the bank. Many bankers do not understand that selling financial services is THE MOST DIFFICULT of all goods and services to sell. The reason for this is that not only is the banker trying to close deals AND build a relationship at the same time, but it is a marketing fact that buyers respond to their FIVE SENSES i.e. they buy based on smell, taste, touch, sight or sound. The more senses you stimulate, the easier to sell. When selling a financial product, the ONLY sense that is stimulated is the sense of SOUND i.e. what comes out of the mouth of the banker. (You cannot touch, taste, smell or see a bank account!!!). Therefore WHAT is said, HOW it is said, and the BEHAVIOUR of the banker while saying it is critical to closing deals. This programme focuses on these issues to give your staff member an absolute advantage when closing deals and winning business for the bank.

Students will learn about:

• Understanding the need to move from transactional selling to relationship banking 
• Basic differences between transactional and relationship selling 
• Proactive vs reactive selling 
• Concept of converting prospects to customers, customers to clients, clients to promoters and promoters to advocates 
• Understanding customer behaviour
• Developing A1 behaviour in the relationship manager through attentiveness and assertiveness 
• Developing a two dimensional model to deal with difficult clients
• Emotional Intelligence in the workplace 
• Developing skills to improve relationship selling 
• Linking product features to client's needs 
• Managing objections
• Probing techniques
• Mastering the opening of a sales interview 
• Understanding the need for a preliminary hook to show the client "what's in it for them" 
• Mastering probing and influencing of client's needs to match the features of the product or service 
• Getting the client to verbalise needs
• Mastering the art of presenting a product or service using need-feature links 
• Closing the deal with confidence
• Using the sale to build on the relationship 
• Managing behaviour 
• Relationship marketing 
• Customer retention 
• Developing a practical Customer Retention Plan 
• Linking customer service to relationship profitability 
• The importance of Internal Marketing
• Delivering client satisfaction 
• Determinants of service quality
  • A conceptual model of service quality