Selling? I hate it! A lot of CEOs want growth, but are repulsed by the idea of achieving it through a sales culture. What they don't realize is that effective sales training is the smart choice: a sensible way to achieve growth, with measurable ROI--and without the risk and expense of alternative strategies.

• Author: Wemmers, Rick
• Position: Sales

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A major culture change is required for most community banks when it comes to selling. Bankers have long had the mind-set that banking is a business built when prospects come to the institution and request the service they want. Unfortunately the consumer has developed a slightly different mind-set lately.

"Yes, my banker and I have a good relationship but that doesn't mean I will only consult them for financial needs and services. There ate lots of other options." Friends are friends, but when money is involved there is a different emotion involved ... greed.

The most important first step toward a cultural change must be made by the bank CEO. As the leader, he or she must decide if the bank's future can be better served with a noticeable change in the current approach to acquiring new customers or building multifaceted relationships with current customers.

There are other options to consider: opening new branches, acquiring other banks or launching new products. All have merit but require more risk and expense than building a sales culture.

Complicating this decision is often the fact that many CEOs themselves hate selling. It is difficult to champion something you don't like yourself. One large bank president was reported to have said he didn't want to hear the word "sales" in any management meetings.

Gaining new customers

There ate two things that need to be remembered about sales training. One is that it can really work. The second is that good training can produce a measurable return on investment (ROI). Would your bank turn down an opportunity to earn a 30-to-1 return on investment dollars? Here's an example of what I'm talking about.

The CEO of First Bank in Ketchikan, Maska, Bill Moran, decided to try something new when he started last year's planning. "I realized that to meet our growth goals we must be more aggressive about taking business from our competition and improving our 'unfair share' of our market. There wasn't sufficient market expansion to maintain our historical growth and profit levels."

First Bank launched its' new effort for its' six branches with a 120-day action plan in January 2006. The intended focus was to be solely on gaining new customers and establishing new relationships.

"Some of the participating officers found it very difficult to break away from the familiar clients to concentrate only on prospects that had no prior relationship," said Eric Bjella, vice president and program...