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The Egyii team recently attended a financial services briefing in Singapore, hosted by Gartner, one of the global leaders in research and analysis.

The following is some of the advice offered to the Singapore and global banking community.

(Highlighted in Bold Italics are quotes from the analysts. The rest  are comments from Team Egyii)

Technology can help but it’s not the be all to end all. CRM systems, online support, Etc are important, but facing the client (face to face), is more important.

Banks going back to basics- focus on core business away from the peripherals. Too many complicated programmes were rolled out over the years. This caused too many problems and contributed to the  collapse. Keep it simple moving ahead.

Be more inclusive with clients as they have lost your trust. Remove yourself from siloed thinking and involve the customer in more decisions.

Best innovations come in time of bust- don’t stifle innovation. If you wait you will be left behind- you will never catch up. Be  bold- try new things, otherwise someone else will beat you to it.

Life goes on (during the crisis) so understand what your customers are doing.  Don’t put everything to a halt as business continues- keep client focused.

Internet usage and popularity in Singapore facts and stats: Facebook ranks 4^th, users spend avg 23.2 mins. DBS ranks 17^th, users spend avg. 4.1 mins. Times are changing.  How do you engage and listen to the voice of  your clients in these times?

Customers  say- “It’s my money, so listen to me.” Retailers get it & respond. Banks don’t. How do you respond to your clients needs?

Banks need to get more advice from peer groups. The web community is one way…face to face is another.

Know me (the client). Know my life. Retailers know it & get it. Banks don’t.” retailers engage well with clients why don’t financial organizations?

The client is pleading…”Please. I need a helping hand. Help.” They are calling for you- respond please.

How many helpful and meaningful  messages have been sent to customers during the crisis about what is really happening (and what to do about it)? 0- zero.” (from research of 25 major banks) Banks need to communicate better, not just from a broad sense but from a personal sense.

Customer experience is about building trust and understanding the entire customer experience process. Don’t segment it- look at the whole experience and the different ways of delivering it.

Customers want help. The financial organizations are not there- they are too internally focused. How do you focus on the client when he is crying for help?

Your customers have interests outside of banking and insurance. Look beyond the immediate financial services relationship. Look at building personal relationship where you can…

In conclusion, times are tough but you must forge on. Don’t sit back- take advantage of the situation as you will benefit long term. Keep it simple and focused on the client..

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

Trust.

It remains a hot issue and will for a while.

With that, we at Egyii will be doing a series of interviews and Podcasts with the leaders in Trust, in anticipation of our August announcement on our new programme on Trust.

The second of the series is Charles H. Green, one of the founding fathers of the “trust movement ” and founder/CEO of Trusted Advisor Associates. He is the author of Trust Based Selling and co-author of The Trusted Advisor. His expertise is in trusted relationships in business. For more on Charlie, click here.

Here is Part 2 (a continuation of Part 1).

The following is transcribed from a recorded session.

Trip Allen: Moving on to 2006, the theme of your second book called “Trust Based Selling,” encompasses two words: sales and trust.

These terms together have a bad reputation and don’t mix well with the business world, a little like oil and water.  Can you elaborate a little bit on that?

Charlie Green:  Well, you are exactly right and I was completely conscious of that when I wrote it that way. In fact one major firm told me if you write a book with “sales” in the title we are not buying it.  The phenomena you just mentioned is that strong, and I wrote that way any way because I wanted to play off the tension.

I think the word sales or selling is a four letter word.  We all have these negative feelings about it, and the whole sales function in many ways has gotten a bad name, too.

What fascinated me about is that sales is where the person and the business come together. When a company buys from one and sells to another, with the exception of reverse online auctions, there are people doing “the deal,” and that is where institutions come together, where they connect. That is what fascinated me – how do people behave when there is serious money at stake and they are doing business? That is the essence of commercial relationship; commerce, in the old sense of the word.

I am happy with the choice I made, because I think it intrigues people. They say “how can you put those two together?” Well, you examine why they don’t fit, and it turns out to be a very interesting way of looking at it.

In a nutshell, there is nothing that sells better than being trusted – period. That’s the power of trust in the commercial relationship. I just find it fascinating.

Trip Allen:  Charlie, what’s the biggest thing you see wrong with selling today? You just mentioned that the reputation of a salesperson is bad, but what else do you see out there? What’s happening?

Charlie Green:  Well, it’s a great question because 10 to 15 years ago the biggest problem was salespeople selling and really not understanding the customer very well.  I think we have come to have a different problem and that is, let me call it the “mechanisation” of selling or the overdoing of “process reengineering” and the overuse of sales management systems.

Because of that we have broken the personal relationship and we have taken that “commercial” personal relationship (that I mentioned) and broken into a thousand mechanistic, metrics based, measurable behaviour based process. We have taken something that is, ought to be and can be very personal and have essentially depersonalised it. We have gotten to a level of detail where too often metrics have taken over from what the metrics were supposed to be measuring. People have therefore long ago “lost the forest for the trees” and have gotten deep in sequentially linked behaviours, so there is no relationship left.

I would actually say that is the biggest problem in selling today. We have lost the long term interpersonal relationship component of it. Every business I can think of out there still has an enormous amount of room for an increase in the level of relationships, and again, nothing is still better than that.

Trip Allen:  Great Charlie. One thing I am going to pull specifically from the book and one of the many activities I use – and I believe is very powerful,  is called “selling by doing and not telling.”

Traditionally salespeople told clients about the products, the features, the benefits etc. Salespeople have pretty much controlled the conversation. Can you elaborate a little bit on “selling by doing not telling?”

Charlie Green: Yes, and thank you for raising that. I agree with you, that is one of the powerful ideas in the book. If you think of it this way, with “selling by doing and not telling,” the more complicated the product, the more intangible the service, the longer relationship,  the more difficult  the whole sales process is, the less it is likely to be about snap decision and product qualities and so forth.

It’s complicated.

What you don’t want if you are buying a jet engine or if you are buying an audit or buying a brand advertising campaign, is to “out the expert the expert.”  That is an endless game that you will never win as a client or a customer.

What you really want to do is to be able to sleep at the night knowing you made the right decision about the person you deal with. And that is not going to come through PowerPoint presentations, Etc.; people are human beings and not persuaded of the trustworthiness of another human being by overused tools such as PowerPoint decks.  We’d like to think they are, and they will tell us they are, but they are not.

We are all human beings and profoundly make trust judgments based on much more of a “gut feel,” emotional feelings through connectivity and emotional feelings of safety. And that’s simply the way it is. I think we sort of rationalize it with all the logic and the data because, after all, we are supposed to be able to justify things.

That’s all true. But “selling by doing” basically says, instead of telling somebody about all the other past clients and all the wonderful things you have done, leave that behind and “just do it.” Deal with the person in front of you and deal with their issues, with their concerns and bring to them all the wonderful things and experiences you can deliver for them.

Just to simplify, I like to say it is like going out on a blind date with somebody. If they were to talk about the last seventeen people they went out with, you would be bored and offended.

But if on the other hand, what if your date is interesting, innovative and engaging and instead they ask you questions about you, we love that. We love it when people make the topic and conversation about us.

We need to take our expertise and apply it in real time to the problem at hand as it affects the person sitting in front of us. They don’t want to hear our resume or our history. They want to hear what our resume means for them.  That’s what “selling by doing and not telling” is all about.

Trip Allen: Great. Thank you for that. The next question has to do a bit with “selling by doing a not selling,” but it is all about collaboration. That is another key point you have in your book “Trust Based Selling.” How does collaboration improves trust and thereby improve the relationship?

Charlie Green: Well collaboration is one of the important elements I outlined in the book and it goes well beyond selling actually, although we will focus on the selling aspect only.

The other three key elements on the list are transparency, focus on the well being of the client (for sake of client and not just for us) and the tendency to look at the medium to long term (rather than just the short term).

Collaboration may be just the most important of the four elements. In any case, what collaboration means is a fundamental mindset. It says “I am not in this for me and dealing with you as an object. We are in this together. We are in for the sake of however long this relationship is going to be, working together for the greater outcome for both of us, but mainly for you, the client.”

So any decision we make has to be good one for both of us. We both have to be involved in it. We can’t keep too many secrets from each other. And if you begin thinking that way, you will begin behaving that way. You’ll start sharing more information with your customer, you’ll start feeling more free to ask them questions. After all, you have to know their answers in order to be collaborative, and frankly it even begins in the selling process. 

In those businesses that have process of using proposals, my “radical” suggestion is to write the next proposal, sitting next to the client in their offices. Instead of saying “great discussion” or “I’ll get back to you with the proposal later this week,” say “let’s book the conference room again and let’s work on this together. I know it is a proposal and, we may not get the job, I understand that. But if we may do this, you will have, at the end of the day, the best proposal possible from the combination of the two of us. By the way I suggest doing that with other potential vendors also. You will learn so much more about working with people if you begin working with them.’

That is an example of the power of collaboration.

End of Part 2. To be continued…

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

Trust. It is a hot issue and there is a good reason for that.

With that, we at Egyii will be doing a series of interviews and Podcasts with the leaders in Trust, in anticipation of our August announcement on our new programme on Trust.

The first of the series is Charles H. Green, one of the founding fathers of the “trust movement ” and founder/CEO of Trusted Advisor Associates. He is the author of Trust Based Selling and co-author of The Trusted Advisor. His expertise is in trusted relationships in business. For more on Charlie, click here.

Here is Part 1.

The following is transcribed from a recorded session.

Trip Allen:  On this session of the Egyii edge, we have Charles H. Green of Trust Advisor Associates. Today the topic is ‘Trust’.

Tell us about your background and why you became so passionate about trust?

Charlie Green:  The main driver was that I spent 20 years working in the management consulting business, 10 as a management consultant and 10 helping to run the firm.

What I learned about that business was that you are selling “air,” in a way. It’s a very intangible, non unphysical kind of a service. You are selling it through people who are very bright and driven, and also little neurotic, who can’t quite get enough feedback.

You are selling this intangible “stuff” from smart people to people who manage the whole enterprise, are a little suspicious and often equally as bright. From that, I found that trust had an awful lot to do with it.

What I also found was that the clients could not compete with the consultants in terms of expertise, so the situation is a bit like a doctor- clients find it somewhat intimidating. Ultimately, the clients themselves didn’t like to be controlled either. So, the whole thing is very much run on the principles of trust, from selling in the firms to leadership of the firms.

So, as I got older and looked at more clients and businesses, I began to see general patterns of trust emerging in how businesses get run. So it’s from my personal experiences -that’s where it came from.

Trip Allen: About 9 years ago you really hit the streets with a book called “The Trusted Advisor,” which you co-authored in 2000. Today, it is a very well known, well respected book and programme. So tell us about what impact the book had on the business world at that time?

Charlie Green:  Well, it wasn’t one of the “big splash” books, but at the same time it was an idea where we hit the timing just right. The phrase “trusted advisor” had some resonance with people already in a lot of different professions like accounting, law, consulting, public relations, advertising, etc and it turns out it’s rather an annuity and it sells about  5 or 7 thousand copies a year.

I think the reason is you get to a certain point in your career in public accounting or consulting  or any of these consultative related business, or any business at all,  and you then feel you have a need to go buy “The Trusted Adviser.” So it’s turned out be like a little bit of an annuity. We don’t make a lot of money on it but it is always out there.

Trip Allen: Let me ask another question, since the “Trusted Advisor” book, what changes have you seen in the area of trust?  Over the past 9 years certainly a lot has happened.

 Charlie Green:  Well, yes. The most obvious thing is that in the past couple of years and months, the term “trust” has taken another whole new level of awareness in terms of visibility.

People suddenly raised it to a whole new level of business awareness and it’s obviously because of the recession and the great dramatic events that happened in the financial sector over the past several years.

And lot of that has to do with systemic failures of trust; trust at the individual level, trust at the organisational level and in some ways particularly at the institutional and social level.

It’s become relatively obvious when you get people like Bernie Madoff, that everybody can look at and say “wow, what a failure of trust, look what happened to the people who trusted him, we thought he was trustworthy, he wasn’t.”

I think the past 4 or 5 years in the financial sector have been the single biggest reason for the growth of trust and, depending upon what measure you look at, the decline of trusting and trustworthiness among people and businesses.

End of Part 1. To be continued…

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

According to a recent study published by Dow Jones titled “Wealth Management After the Crunch,” the following numbers on banks’ performance were presented: 74% of the banks in Asia thought they over-performed through the crisis whereas 91% of the US banks were under the illusion that they performed well.

But, the reality is just 29% of the clients concurred with this.

The author, Bruce Weatherill, a former PWC consultant and now representing his own firm Bruce Weatherill Executive Consulting, states: “Clients are saying they look for service from life to death to the next generation. Wealth managers are delivering that by changing advisers very frequently moving in and out of markets. They don’t understand to be successful, wealth managers need to provide security, a long term vision and not just transactions.”

As for trust, Mr. Weatherill states that 65% of the wealth managers in Asian banks think their clients see them as “trusted advisors.” 

But, again the clients have a different perspective on this. Only 32% agree with this.

Mr. Weatherill states in the report that “Wealth managers underestimate the loss of trust that has resulted from the credit crunch. They need to recognise the damage and work rapidly to repair it.

There are other statistics around low numbers of loyalty between clients and the wealth managers, disagreements on the clients’ view of performance Vs the banks, Etc.

All of this leads to dissatisfied clients and all in all it is not positive (to say the least).

So much so that many of the clients are switching to other institutions and private wealth management firms.

We all don’t need to have these numbers to recognise that there are levels of denial and a lack of real client focus.

When will the banks and other financial institutions realise that it is time for a change?

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

Trust is about being, not doing. In fact, in Laurel Delaney’s blog How to Build Trust, Marilynn T. Mobley says “It isn’t something you do – it’s what you are.”

Our clients don’t leave meetings with us and analyse our actions and come to the conclusion that ‘because he kept to his word he can be trusted.’ Keeping to your word is, of course, essential. But this kind of behaviour is just the entry ticket to play the game of business.

Trust is sensed. It’s about how our client feels when in our presence. These feelings derive from all the unconscious signals we send out as we interact with our client.

We can’t strategise this by deciding what behaviours we are going to engage in to create trust. We can’t fake it. It comes from our intent.

If our intent is to do the  best we can for our client irrespective of sales targets and other pressures – just listen and give them what they need – then we will unconsciously communicate authenticity.

So the starting point is to look inside ourselves honestly and ask whether our goals are the right ones for long term business development and ultimate success.

All of us need to audit our own purpose and aspirations from time to time. Take the time for some introspection instead of always looking at the outside world for answers.

When we are familiar with our internal world and are authentic, then the outside world pretty much takes care of itself. This, I believe, is the key to building trusting relationships that lead to increased business success.

James Irvine, Team Egyii, Singapore

 Scenario

In today’s world, everyone is looking for the right “fix” for their business. Some examples of the fixes are:

The release of new products to fit the ‘mould” for today

Making price adjustments

Re-skilling the workforce to face today’s scenario

Or doing absolutely nothing…

All of these options have short to long term effects. So which option do we choose to make the most impact? Well doing absolutely nothing certainly stands on it own, so a combination of the others does makes the most sense.

But, if you were to prioritize, which one should be emphasized? I believe it should be your people, your front line. As your greatest asset, your client facing people can make the most memorable short, medium and long term impact in businesses.

So, from here on in, we will focus on your people.

This then leads to two big questions. Do we look at “short term” solutions and possibly sacrifice long term results? Or do we look at “medium to long term solutions” and sacrifice short term results?

These questions are not necessary. Why? Let’s build solutions for short, medium and long term results.

The Ultimate Problem

The problem is making the right decision in order to make the highest impact, and too many companies take the wrong perspective and make the wrong decision. What people think is the right decision for the solution is actually the short term, quick fix solution. Why are people choosing this route? Because it is the “easiest” option to implement and it is one that typically can be measured, so it appeases both management and shareholders as it (supposedly) brings in results now.

How are these employee based solutions implemented? Through:

Product and technical training

A new sales process or re-enforcement of an old process

Setting financial goals and measuring the behavioral targets to meet those goals (often done by micro managing)

But is the the best for the client? The one who is suffering the most? The one who actually pays the bills?

No.

Suggested Solutions

Financial organizations are “talking” trust, customer experience, customer centricity, client relationships and loyalty as the key solutions for the client, and therefore the solutions to many of the business problems. But very little is actually being done in these areas. It is all a lot of talk – blah blah blah marketing. Why? Because these require “soft skills” and are not “sexy.” Most businesses reach for “sexy” measurable fixes.

But because they are not “sexy” and mot measured, does this mean that you don’t get results?

No.

Let’s look at the facts. And let’s look at it holistically – in other words a programme that brings results across the  board.

Firstly, I suggest we take a realistic approach and look at how to deliver the right results. As Anthony Tjan, MD of The Cue Ball Group,  states “We too often focus on the desired financial performance target, rather than the inputs that drive those numbers…financial performance is a result, a by-product, a consequence of something else.”  Anthony  has written a very interesting approach to business results in his recent article in Harvard Business Publishing “The Fallacy of Financial Metrics.”

And now, let’s look at a few of the short, medium and long term results from implementing a few people focused programmes..

Loyalty. Loyalty programmes, which are a by product of client realtionships and customer expereince programmes, are very difficult to measure. The means of measurement would be similar to measuring soft skills training, in other words look at the numbers, the results. But numbers can be affected by too many variables (market swings, new product releases,  a change of the weather, Etc).

Frederick Reichold, who has made his entire 30+ year career studying customer loyalty, has measured loyalty and states in his book “The Ultimate Question,” that “A 5 percent increase in retention can equal to a twenty-five to one hundred percent increase in profitability.” Wow. What if the financial organizations had retianed more clients?

As for trust, trust is a hot topic now, from Harvard Business Review to Steven MR Covey. How do you measure trust? Again, very difficult but similar to how you would measure soft skills training and loyalty.

I recently asked Charles H. Green, of Trusted Advisor Associates and co-author of The Trusted Advisor (and a leader in the filed of trust and business) about how to respond to the constant request for short term solutions for immediate results. He responded by saying ” Short term results come from long term management. The best short term performance comes not from managing short term, but managing long term.” Enough said.

So, in summary, let’s re-adjust our attitude and look at employee/client focused programmes that can and do give a holistic solution- short, medium and long term. Although they may not be sexy, and can’t be measured with hard numbers, your greatest asset, your client facing people, can make the most memorable short, medium and long term impact in businesses by delivering upon these programmes. 

Let’s look at why the current economic fiasco happened in the first place. Wasn’t it a result of the push for immediate results? And what are we going to do, repeat what we have just done?

So forget the measurement. Focus on the client. Go with your gut.

For an abbreviated version, please see and download the following: Sizing Up Short to Long Term…

 Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

Part II: The Personal & Business Success Brought on by Working in a “Trusted” Environment

(part of a series of real work experiences, “Feat on the Street. Part I Sales Calls after Sales Training)

Today’s Challenging Environment

In the business world today, many companies are struggling. There are numerous challenges that hold them back: the current financial situation, managing people and risk, reducing costs while improving revenue, Etc. On top of that, one of the biggest challenges companies face is how to build the right environment to maximize the performance of their people.

And, if your people are performing at their peak, in the right environment, wouldn’t it help drive business and make it easier on you as a manager?

When employees work in the right environment, things get done faster, the employees feel important, undue stress is relieved, the clients feel more comfortable in doing business with the company, stronger internal and external relationships are built …this all leads to better business results.

What is one thing that makes a big difference? What helps build the right environment?

As Steven MR Covey says, trust is “the one thing that changes everything.”

An Environment for Success: a Trusted Environment

I spent 13 spectacular years working at a great company: Anixter. Anixter (AXE: NYSE) is a multi billion dollar, value added distributor of electrical and telecommunications components. You may or may not have heard of Anixter, as their business is not as sexy as Google or Apple’s, however, they have performed consistently and spectacularly throughout the years. There are numerous reasons for this; great leaders, running a smart and prudent business, staying low key and conservative, and more…

Why have they been so successful? It is partially attributed to the work environemnt; an environment of trust.

Some examples:

A flat organization: little to no arrogance

Complete transparency: open books and communication

Empowerment

Delegation: Trusting that the job will get done

Honesty

Collaboration: teams, managers, everyone works together to get the job done

Focus on short, medium and long term results (vs short term only)

Less paperwork and no employee contracts

No micro-management

and more…

There was always an overall attitude of “If you are capable of running your personal life and personal business, you can run and manage a professional business.”

And the record goes to show.

The results are great. Employee retainment is superb (many of my ex-colleagues have 30+ years of tenure and many left and have some back) and people are happy and therfore performing.

How can you instill trust? There are principles that can be followed and, yes, it can be taught.

Bottom line is your work environment directly affects performance. If you can improve upon your work environment through trust and personal relationships, performance will follow naturally.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

For our updated overview, please see:

Egyii Overview May 2009 

Thank you.

Trip & James, Team Egyii, Singapore

The following was written by our friend, Charles H. Green of Trusted Advisor to Andrew Miller:

“Congratulations on having your post selected for inclusion in the April Carnival of Trust.

The Carnival of Trust is a carefully selected list of the Top Ten blogposts for the past month having to with the general subject of trust. This month it was hosted by James Irvine and Trip Allen at Egyii, in Singapore.

The Carnival is one of the harder to get onto (only ten selections per month) and higher quality. This month, in particular—thanks in part to your post’s inclusion—-the Carnival of Trust was singled out by a Carnival Overview site, saying “This is what a very well done blog carnival is like in terms of content!”

Not only that, but your post–yours, Andrew–got the coveted award of Best Post of the Week, Anywhere on the same blog. That is of all the Carnivals in all the world.

The Carnival of Trust is my brainchild, started two years ago to showcase good writing on the subject of trust: trust in business, society, and personal life.

But that’s enough about the carnival. I just wanted to thank you for writing a fine piece of work, and congratulate you for inclusion in this month’s selections.

Sincerely,
Charles H. Green
Founder and CEO
Trusted Advisor Associates”

Kudos and congratulations to Andrew from Team Egyii.

Trip Allen and James Irvine, Team Egyii, Singapore

Your sense of identity determines how you interpret the downturn, how you interact with clients and colleagues, what you crave after…and so on.

So how do you identify yourself?

By the things you have? A fancy car?

By the things you do? A cool job?

By the people you associate with? One of the in-crowd?

By comparing yourself with others? A winner?

By the thoughts you have? I think, therefore I am?

By now it may just be dawning on you how limited these measurements are in defining your identity, and how much stress you give yourself by searching for yourself through them.

Once we all realise that we are just the person we are in every moment, and that we continually change from moment to moment, then we will stop our craving for more and enjoy being simply present.

So the next time you are in front of a client, forget about your sales target or your great expertise and just be there in your client’s world with them in that moment. Look at them. Hear them. And start building a truly authentic relationship.

James Irvine, Team Egyii, Singapore