What are your sales and service teams really saying to clients?

I’ve been wondering lately about what conversations between bankers and their clients sound like these days. Let’s face it, the financial crisis changed the way people regard banking and it hasn’t been a positive change.

If you haven’t prepared your sales and service team to handle the difficult conversations occurring in the market today you’re probably setting them up for failure. Chances are good that there’s fear on the front line and your team may be coping in a variety of less than ideal ways.

You may find that they’re avoiding client conversations and no longer proactively attempting to uncover their customers’ needs and provide solutions. You may hear them become defensive when asked about bank policies or fees. Worse, they may actually side with the customer against the bank!

It’s time we faced the fact that we’re operating in a brand new environment that requires skills and learning that we either haven’t provided or if we did, our teams have forgotten.

There are solutions. Some are discussed in an article recently published in Banking Strategies Managing the Conversation with Unhappy Customers.

Listen to what your team members are saying and let me know what you hear.

For more information and detailed solutions join our complimentary webinar, How to Overcome Fear at the Front Line on January 18th at 10:00 a.m. PST. Click here to register.

Cynthia Leverich is Director of Global Business Development for Cohen Brown Management Group, Inc.