Stop Sharing Your Clients With Your Competition

It has always astounded me how bankers (and salespeople) are so “willing” to share their valuable clients with their competition.

If your bank (or organization) offers a wide range of solutions that can easily satisfy ALL your client’s needs, then why aren’t you their ONLY service provider? Why are your clients also using other financial institutions (or competitors)?

Consider this ….

A business owner uses ONE accounting firm to manage all their business and personal tax returns.

A business owner uses ONE law firm to manage all their business and personal legal matters.

A business owner uses ONE insurance agent to manage all their business and personal insurances.

Yet, we allow that same business owner to use multiple finance companies (banks) to manage all their business and personal financial affairs.

It makes no sense …. especially if YOUR bank can offer all the financial services they need. And even if you don’t offer all services, I am sure you can offer most and build specific strategic partnerships with other firms to fill in the gaps.

So why are bankers (and salespeople) “willing” to share their clients with their competition?

1. You focus only on your solution or only on the immediate need

Traditionally Commercial Bankers offer commercial loans, Mortgage Officers offer real estate loans, and Branch officers offer deposit accounts and consumer loans …. and so on and so on.

Traditionally most bankers are also very reactive …. responding only to the client’s immediate need.

But your clients have broader needs, challenges and goals and THEY WANT YOUR HELP.

It is time to embrace the wide range of amazing solutions your bank offers and overcome any limiting beliefs you may have about exploring these broader needs.

2. You are not confident about your other solutions

Due to the silo nature of most banks, many bankers become immersed in only understanding what their department can offer …. rather than what THEIR BANK can offer.

Understandably it is difficult to confidently develop a working knowledge of all the bank’s products and services.

But you don’t have to.

Start by confidently developing RELATIONSHIPS with select colleagues in other departments. Build trust, processes, and a coaching program that helps you ALL become better bankers to your clients.

3. You don’t want to be pushy

No banker wants to become a “pushy” product salesperson. Many bankers resist “cross selling” because they fear customer rejection. Why risk “upsetting” the client when you have so skillfully responded to their immediate need?

But you are doing your client a disservice by NOT offering your other solutions.

Cross selling is NOT about pushing products your clients don’t need. It is all about exploring their broader needs by asking insightful questions.

This allows you to then offer valuable advice and education on the wonderful solutions that are available to help them with their broader needs.

As you can see, your first step to building deeper, broader and MORE EXCLUSIVE client relationships is to change your mindset and overcome the above limiting beliefs.

The Great Rewards Make The Simple Effort Worthwhile

I strongly encourage you to muster the courage to explore more of your client’s needs and offer more solutions. Make an effort to overcome any obstacles as these amazing rewards will make it very worthwhile:

• Very few bankers do this well, so you will truly differentiate yourself.
• It is a lot easier to grow your Bank by offering more solutions to your existing clients.
• You will become far more valuable to your clients resulting in greater loyalty and less focus on pricing.
• Loyal, happy clients more readily introduce you to their family, friends and business contacts. (ie. new potential clients). This makes prospecting and portfolio growth far more easy.
• You will build better relationships with your work colleagues across the bank and create a far more exciting work environment / culture.

The bottom line is this …. if your bank offers wholistic solutions then you should be developing wholistic client relationships.

By becoming a more wholistic banker (salesperson) you will create extraordinary benefits for your clients, your colleagues, your organization and yourself. Better yet, you keep your competition away from your valuable clients.

Now isn’t that worth the effort?

Check out my short 8 minute video below for more personal insights on the importance of building EXCLUSIVE & WHOLISTIC relationships with your clients.