7 Steps to a Complete Sales Process
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to spend an entire day shadowing team members in a client’s branch network. I do quite a bit of shadowing of team members who have been through my training, but this was a special situation. I was invited to shadow these team members before training was delivered.
I was excited for this opportunity. Particularly, I was interested in the sales mindset, processes, and skills these salespeople used to expand and deepen relationships with their members through everyday conversations.
The credit union arranged the “tour” for the day, visiting three different branch locations and shadowing a total of six team members in various roles. One of the first shadowing sessions was with a teller who had been presented as a top performer that initiates a lot of referrals.
Before I she started helping members, I explained that my purpose for shadowing her that day was to observe how she identified member needs and how she was able to create so many referrals. She responded with excitement and we began assisting members.
The first member was missing basic ancillary services such as e-statements and overdraft tolerance. The second member didn’t have a credit card with the credit union. And the third member asked the teller if her mortgage payment, which was on auto pay with a competitor, had come out yet. In each of these situations the teller processed the transaction or answered the question and wished the member a great day.
After helping a long stream of members, we reached a lull. I took the opportunity to debrief with her what I had observed thus far. I first asked how she felt things were going. She indicated that she felt like it was going well, and that it seemed to be a normal day. I shared that I hadn’t noticed her offer any products or services to members yet and asked what she thought she had contributed to that. She simply said “Well, no one asked for anything”.
Intrigued by this response, we continued our conversation along these lines:
ME: Tell me what happens in most member interactions that result in a referral?
TELLER: Well, typically the member tells me they have a need for a mortgage or a business checking, and I tell them who they need to see. And that’s it.
ME: When would you typically recommend a product or service to a member?
TELLER: I recommend products when a member tells me they need something but don’t know how to get it.
For many credit unions, a passive, request based approach, similar to what I observed at this credit union, is how they sell. Some observers may say that this isn’t selling at all. However, that isn’t true. Credit unions are retail sales establishments, which means if there were no sales taking place, the credit union would go out of business. So, yes, selling is happening and the traditional approach even has a name. It’s called reactive selling, or commonly referred to as “Order Taking.”
Order taking, while marginally effective, causes a number of problems for the credit union. Primarily, it slows growth to a snail’s pace that hamstrings revenue. This of course inhibits the overall success of the credit union and its ability to create value in their members’ lives.
The “Order Taker” approach to sales and service is the direct result of the lack of senior leadership setting clear sales expectations for the employees of the credit union. This can be due to there being no sales expectations, unclear expectations, or expectations with no accountability. Additionally, poor training, ineffective coaching, and recognition systems that champion operational excellence also propagate this approach in many credit unions.
While there are many moving parts that are necessary to address to help shift away from the “Order Taker” approach, one powerful tool I recommend all credit unions adopt is a universal sales and service process. Many credit unions have developed their own processes, customized and unique to their membership, history, and culture. At SalesCU, we teach the SURPASS Sales Process.
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A few years ago, I had the opportunity to spend an entire day shadowing team members in a client’s branch network. I do quite a bit of shadowing of team members who have been through my training, but this was a special situation. I was invited to shadow these team members before training was delivered.