egyii blog

Press Release! Hot off the wires..

Singapore, May 25th, 2009

Egyii, the Singapore based learning and development consultancy, has announced its launch into the Consumer and Retail Banking space, leading with a new perspective on “customer experience.”

Egyii will continue to focus on its current agenda of Priority and Private Banking but will expand into Consumer and Retail Banking with more thought leadership, web based material and customized, in-house curriculums.

Trip Allen, Egyii’s Director of Sales and Marketing, says “The Consumer and Retail space is a logical choice for us. In fact, the banks have requested that we move into this space. And with customer experience initiatives in banking being a top priority, it makes sense that we link all the different banking programmes together.“

James Irvine, Egyii Director of Programme Development, says “Financial organizations are struggling and it is the customer who is suffering, causing a break of loyalty and trust and a loss of business.”

“Bankers can continue to focus on re-engineering products, systems and policies. Alternatively, they can break the mold and focus on the customer and the customer experience.”

For the “Improving the Customer Experience in Banking” white paper: White Paper

Part I: Going Out on Sales Calls after Sales Training

You have just finished sales “training.”

It could be:

SPIN Selling

Value Selling

PSS Professional Selling Skills

Etc….

(You name it – I have been through them all!)

…and now is your chance to utilise these skills you have learned.

So you line up a series of calls. Prior to the call, you need to do call preparation so you take out your planning sheets…you think about the anticipated  problems, your solutions, your products’ features/benefits, what ”open” and “closed” ended questions to ask, Etc.  

Your boss is “required” to go in tow to support the million dollar+  investment the company just made by ensuring that you are applying the skills.

You sit face to face with the client*. She is a wise an seasoned veteran. You start your process. “Blah, blah, blah…” She starts to smile (a cunning smile at that) and to grin cheek to cheek.

Why? She has seen all of this before. The last sales person came in and did a similar series of gestures. Not only that she felt like she was being “trapped.”

She knew what was going on..

The questions were not natural. The situation was not authentic. It was not from the gut.

It was phoney.

..and you were not listening to the client. Not focusing on her. You were focusing on the process, the script.

How did the client feel? How well did the call go? I will let you answer that.

Don’t get me wrong. Some people fare well in a pre-processed situation. I believe it works best to learn a few skills and build your own personal program; a  program that combines a sales process, product and technical training and program that builds a real relationship.

Carry on…

*This is a true story. It happened to me- and I was embarrassed as she asked me if I just finished sales training!

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

What makes a great salesperson? A superstar? A winner?

Whether it is sales in technology, shoes, pharmaceutical, cars, banking or any industry, the following common traits of successful salespeople apply:

Drive and motivation: the want and desire to win; the ability to handle rejections and ups and downs; the right attitude

Ability to combine the necessary skills & knowledge: Picking, choosing and combining technical, product and sales knowledge to present a complete package

Great company and great products:  A great company and great products help make good salesperson great and a great salesperson even better

Interpersonal skills: listening, questioning strategically, building rapport & trust, Etc.

So what is the real differentiator?

When products and companies start looking the same, in times of duress , when people are fed up with canned sales processes, and you have tried all of the above, your interpersonal skills should take over.

People buy from people. People want to forge relationships. The want to buy from people they trust.

Personal relationships. Take your time to build them. It is your most powerful tool and best differentiator in today’s world – and it is what most people are begging for.

But, let me pose this question: how many salespeople truly build their personal relationships successfully and competently?

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

There is a lot of talk today in:

Government (Obama has been promising it in recent speeches and I have just counted 33 times that The White House Blog has written on it in different postings in 3 days!)

Business (“…transparency in Pharma’s relationships with physicians is here to stay…” from MSNBC)

Banking (Geitner “..the necessary response is to try to bring more confidence, more transparency to the strength of the system…” from NPR)

…about transparency. But what is transparency?

Merriam Webster’s dictionary describes it as:

2 a: free from pretense or deceit : frank b: easily detected or seen through : obvious c: readily understood d: characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business practices.

Transparency is clearly one of the most talked about solutions as a way out of our current crisis, as highlighted in Trusted Matters.

Transparency in Banking

How does all of this relate specifically to banking and resolving the banks woes and challenges?

After the Great Depression and the initial “big financial collapse,” the government bodies worldwide have required high levels of requirements around transparency in the banking system- to a point where both the governments, the bank employees and the general public are confused.

There is probably too much information – which makes it absurdly difficult to digest and understand.

Problem: If the governments and the bank employees are confused, aren’t the clients confused? How does this translate into concerns around relationship management with clients?

Most banking clients have lost trust and are trying to re-build the relationships with their clients. Re-building trust is not going to be easy, but by focusing on your Relationship Managers’behavioural skills it can be done. On top of that, instilling a level of personal transparency (maybe we call it “truth”?) will always be a big bonus.

Simply put, all clients (as they sift through the paperwork and legalise) want to know is “How safe is my money?” Can anyone answer that?

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

Many of us have attended courses on selling skills, communication skills, rapport-building skills etc. On these courses we usually learn a step-by-step process for getting from where we are to where we want to be, whether this is closing a sale or merely making our client feel comfortable.

The trouble is, when we are interacting with our client we are more focused on the process than on the human magic that is taking place. We have a set of questions well prepared, and by hook or crook we are going to get through those questions by the end of the meeting. And while we are thinking about our goal for the meeting, we are missing out on what our client is really telling us with her body language, tone of voice and choice of words.

Not only that, we fail to enter this magical kingdom which opens up second by second during the conversation. We operate on some kind of auto pilot where our responses to what our client is communicating have already been decided long before she started talking.

But if we just forget about our goals, our processes and our own thoughts and enter the conversation second by second, we will find a new world of knowledge and understanding opening before us. And as we learn, we respond with an authentic thought and feeling so that as our words come out of our mouth, our client feels truly listened to and understood. And this is the magic we all need in our communication. Just open our minds, switch from auto-pilot to present consciousness, and respond naturally to whatever comes our way.

This, my friends, is the secret of persuasion.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) training has a lot to say about motivation: how we motivate ourselves, and how others are motivated. These motivators are called Metaprograms, and when we understand how they work, we gain enormous power to influence ourselves and others.

In fact, ignorance of Metaprograms can relegate us to the group of chronic underperformers if we are in sales, management, human resources or leadership. Understanding this vital aspect of relationship management gives us one of the keys to performance acceleration and improved personal results.

One Metaprogram is known as ‘toward or away from’, and describes people’s preferences and drives. For example, if John is a ‘toward’ person, then he will be motivated by the prospect of receiving or gaining a benefit, or achieving a future goal which has positive results for him. In other words, you must show him how he can move towards a pleasurable feeling. If you attempt to persuade John by emphasising what he will lose by not doing what you suggest (e.g. buying insurance or investing in your financial product), you will fail to win him over time and time again.

On the other hand, if you attempt to influence him to invest in your financial product by emphasising the possible increase in asset values and income, he will probably sit up and listen to you. So long as you present John with a movement towards some positive future outcome, you will gain his attention and interest.

Turning to the opposite motivation, if John’s friend Judy is an ‘away from’ person, you will stand a greater chance of persuading her if you present her with the lost opportunity of not investing. You will need to show her how much profit she will potentially lose by not investing (“Imagine the increased wealth you would lose by this time next year if you don’t switch from cash to a unit trust”). In other words, she is motivated by avoiding pain. With Judy, no amount of positive messaging will encourage her to invest. She is motivated by the fear of loss, and will do anything to move away from a potentially negative situation.

Of course, ‘towards or away from’ are not the only metaprograms. You can probably identify some other of your motivations if you think about it.  The point is, no amount of skill in active listening or speaking in short, clear sentences is going to help you get the results you want if you don’t first lay the foundation of human understanding. Once this is in place, your relationship skills will come into their own and help you achieve more than you ever thought possible.