Don't sell solve: Your financial institution can boost both revenue and profit by using the technique of "problem-solving selling."; this approach uses interdepartmental teams to generate ideas that help customers solve business problem.

• Author: Baron, Eric
• Position: Feature

A member our staff heard a participant say that in a focus group not long ago. The session consisted of high-net-worth business owners like the ones private bankers are so aggressively pursuing these days. Its intent was to investigate what these entrepreneurial types were looking for from their banks. The comment probably applies to anyone who looks to his or her banker for guidance. And it demonstrates clearly that an exciting opportunity exists for any bank that is trying to differentiate itself in today's competitive marketplace.

Today's customers are looking for a lot more than your bank's products and services. They're looking for ideas--ideas that can help them solve their business problems. That's right, they want new and different ideas. And they want them on a regular basis. If your bank's salespeople won't deliver them, then they will find a bank whose representatives will.

It sounds easy, doesn't it? Just show up with a few new ideas and the customer will be impressed, maybe even overwhelmed. Sony, that isn't the case. The same customer who says he or she wants ideas is very quick to reject proposed ideas. When relationship managers, client executives, personal hankers, financial consultants, or whatever you call your salespeople, bring ideas to their customers, they had better know how to present them. An idea is a hard thing to sell. But when ideas are part of the discussion, sales calls can be transformed into problem-solving opportunities. When that happens, the sales process reaches a higher level. We call this approach problem-solving selling

We recommend problem-solving selling because everybody is selling commodities today. No matter how sophisticated your products and services may be, there is always someone out there offering virtually the same thing at the same price with people backing them up who look just as good as your folks. The best way for any financial services institution--and for that matter, for any organization--to differentiate itself is through its people. And if your people can learn to help customers solve their business problems, they will stand out from the crowd. Revenues will go up and so will profits. But to make this happen, your people will need to learn specific skills.

Problem-solving selling has two key components. One is internal and the other is external. Salespeople have to know how to effectively use their resources to generate ideas for the customer. That's the internal component. And they have to bring a problem-solving mind-set to every customer meeting. That's the external component.

The internal application

The person who manages the customer relationship needs to know how to conduct effective, problem-solving meetings. Ideally, the salesperson is part of a sales team that meets regularly and devotes part of its time to creatively addressing customers' needs. But even if your bank doesn't have sales teams, the salesperson can tap into the collective expertise of the organization to come up with new and innovative ideas.

In order to run an...