A measure of success: a Mid-West bank paved the way toward creation of a sales culture by integrating strategy with a system of tracking and monitoring.

AuthorHubbard, Jack
PositionSales Tracking

In late 2003, Associated Banc-Corp of Green Bay, Wisc., decided to craft an integrated sales approach for its nine regions. It called the program "Achieving Excellence," which became the internal sales brand.

The bank's efforts reveal how it is possible to bring people, process and technology together to create a unified "sales performance measurement chain."

In essence, the tale is about connectivity-linking measurement to strategy.

The approach was designed to integrate consumer banking, business banking and wealth management in a total performance culture.

Measuring everything the same way

Associated Banc-Corp is a diversified multibank holding company with $15.5 billion in assets. Its atglliate is Associated Bank. The bank has more than 200 locations across Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota. The president is Paul S. Beideman.

Prior to the creation of "Achieving Excellence," Associated Bank used spreadsheets and public folders to track sales. Each region measured different things in different ways. "We had nine cultures," says Beideman, "and we knew that one key way to bring us to the same page was to measure sales the same way everywhere."

Eric Andringa, sales manager and Leonard Rowe, director of e-business, sought vendors to help create this continuity. "We were looking for the ability to track activities as well as outcomes," states Andringa, "and what we found in the marketplace was much more than we needed. In addition, the learning curve was too great, the implementation process too long, and the expense was much more than our anticipated return."

Andringa and Rowe used their knowledge of Internet technology and set out to create an "Achieving Excellence" website. The first active page on the site was called "eRefer." This site allows anyone in the bank to refer an opportunity to anyone else. When a referral is made, the system generates an e-mail notification. The system begins to monitor progress from the moment the referee receives the e-mail. The system tracks the number of days it takes to dispose of the referral. This allows the manager to stay current with what is in the team's referral pipeline. The referral page allows for ongoing reinforcement and coaching as well.

Prior to the development of eRefer, the bank used paper or word of mouth for referrals. Lots of things fell through the cracks, Andringa says. With the new system, people are held accountable for acting on referrals. In fact, with eRefer, it is so easy to...

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