Success Story?

A branch manager was telling me about a success story that occurred recently. One of his people got a $10,000. investment transferred in to their branch. He said that the customer came in and asked to see the rates for their investment products. The young lady the customer met with did a great job of answering their questions, got them into the right investment and "wowed" them with her personality and charm. He added that the customer was so pleased with the way she handled the situation that they came back three days later and brought in an additional $150,000. to invest. 

Order Taking

I thought that this was an awesome story that showed what could happen when we really go out of our way to "wow" the customer. But I couldn't help but wonder what this manager's definition of success was. As I understood the situation, his employee did a fantastic job of order-taking. They got the person into the right investment and was so friendly and efficient doing so that the customer came back to give them more money. They did a great job of generating rapport, but the question has to be asked why they didn't know about the additional $150,000. the customer had elsewhere (and obviously was open to investing with them) when they did the first investment of $10,000.? How many more customers were there that came in to invest money with this person, and had more money elsewhere, but didn't come back?

It is a true story that if you treat people right they will come back and bring you more business – that is a given. But can we really have our entire sales strategy predicated on that hope? When it comes right down to it that strategy is really just order-taking. It is really good order-taking, but order-taking nevertheless.

Objectives

There are a few objectives for the interview that I will suggest we should have when someone comes in to our branch and wants to invest some money.

1. First and foremost we should make sure we select the correct investment for them.
2. In order to get them into the best investment a secondary objective should be to find out how this money they are investing fits with any other investments they may have. After all, we want to make sure we are doing what is right for the customer don't we?
o One way to find this out tactfully is simple to say something like this, "Mr. Customer, in order for me to make sure I select the best investment to maximize your return, it would help if I knew how this investment fits in with your other investments and goals or plans you have – can you tell me a little about some of your investment objectives and how this investment fits in to those?
3. A third objective for the investment interview (with any interview) should be to take the opportunity to get to know the customer a little more to possibly uncover other challenges that we may be able to assist with.

If You Don't Ask, You Don't Get

Exceptional service and sales stems from consistently practicing good habits. I can't guarantee that if you ask someone doing an investment with you the question we suggested that they will tell you all about their other investments. I can guarantee you however that if you make a habit of asking that question every time a customer comes in to do an investment that you will find out more about other money they may have elsewhere then you would have had you not asked.

Practice that habit and have a great month!
 
"In life, you don't get what you deserve, you get what you expect"

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