OnsiteConference/Archive

Closing Sales to Larger Small Businesses:
Branches vs. Business Bankers?

When:
May 15, 2003 at 2:30pm Eastern Time.
For about 1 hour. Register

Speakers:

Les Dinkin
Managing Principal
NBW Consulting

Martha Crawford
Senior Consultant
NBW Consulting

Session Description

Branch to banker referrals and the subsequent business banker discussions just don’t seem to work well. When you talk with most headquarters small business managers about referring the larger, small-business sales prospects (companies > $2MM sales) sales prospects from branches to dedicated business banking sales officers, they typically describe a straight forward process that gets them to more experienced and knowledgeable business bankers. Unfortunately, the sales process reality falls far short of that expectation.

Recent NBW branch and business banker research determined that branch staff seldom referred a $2 million company looking for a $200-250K credit line to a business banker, or referred us within the branch to their branch manager. Subsequent business banker discussions primarily focused on credit:

* Despite our size, branches wanted to keep us and did not refer us to a business banker (or their branch manager)

* Branch staff did not, and often could not, follow-up after our initial discussion.

When we WERE referred:

1) Business Bankers did not have any background from our initial in-branch discussion

2) Business Bankers were typically “credit junkies”, paying no attention to other business financial needs or personal needs of the owner

Join us as we review key qualitative findings from our recent business banker and branch small business sales quality and sales effectiveness research. We will share specific examples of typical experiences and the gems – those surprisingly few outstanding branch and business banker experiences that demonstrate industry best practices for larger small businesses.

We’ll also discuss sales quality tactics to improve your small business sales process.

This program is appropriate for senior financial executives with responsibility for Branding, Retail Banking, Small Business, Product Development, Marketing, Market Research and Strategy Teams.

Attendance Fee:

$275.00 plus $50.00 per telephone line used.

Sample Slides from the Presentation

About Les Dinkin and NBW Consulting

Les Dinkin (ldinkin@nbwconsult.com) is the Managing Principal at NBW Consulting Group, a retail financial services consultancy based in Westport, CT. NBW helps its clients profitably speed-up immediate and ongoing sales demand and profits among current customers (retention and cross-sell) and acquire new customers -- with practical, quick payback sales and marketing programs.

Mr. Dinkin has over 26 years of consulting, line banking and consumer brand management experience at Oliver, Wyman & Company (Small Business Partner for North America), KPMG Peat Marwick, Amex, Citibank and Nabisco. He consults to financial institutions in the U.S., Canada, Europe and South America.

Client support includes NBW’s proprietary Sales Value Proposition^SM program and its comprehensive StratShop^SM (branch staff, Relationship Manager and Business Banker) sales experience benchmarking and assessment, in addition to:

·       Sales target segmentation
·         Small business financial center branches
·         Deposit growth
·         New products
·         Pricing effectiveness
·         Reg. Q deregulation impact and opportunities

Mr. Dinkin frequently speaks at financial services conferences on sales growth topics and is published and quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, American Banker, Business Strategies magazine, Dow Jones Newswire, Bloomberg radio and wire services and National Public Radio, among many others. Examples of recent presentations and articles include:

Shopping for Personal and Small Business Sales Growth
Accelerating Core Retail and Small Business Deposit Growth
Which is the Best Branch Sales Model: 'Relationship Probe' vs. 'Reactive Retailer'?
How to Increase Branch Small Business Sales Growth
Reg. Q Commercial Deposit Deregulation: Friend or Foe?

Mr. Dinkin also applied for a patent-pending multi-financial institution shared sales and service facility approach targeted to small business and affluent segments. He taught at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business as an adjunct marketing professor and has also taught Pricing at the BAI and the America’s Community Bankers Retail Banking Graduate School programs. He earned an MBA from Columbia University and studied Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Brown University.

The firm's collegial, hands-on and fact-based practical approach, analytical tools and extensive experience-based insights as consultants, former line bankers and business owners are all brought to bear on each client’s unique market, customer, operational and organizational situation. Call Mr. Dinkin directly at 203.221.1020 for more information and visit NBW Consulting at www.nbwconsult.com

About Martha Crawford

Martha Crawford (mcrawford@nbwconsult.com) is a Senior Consultant at NBW Consulting Group, a retail financial services consultancy based in Westport, CT. NBW helps its clients profitably speed-up immediate and ongoing sales demand and profits among current clients and acquire new clients -- with practical, quick payback programs.

Ms. Crawford brings over 20 years of retail and small business banking experience with Wells, FleetBoston and BankAmerica. In addition to strategic planning and customer and competitive research, Ms. Crawford focus throughout her career has been small business banking, including product management, sales support, promotions, and training. Her consulting work includes small business product development and branch sales effectiveness, StratShop assessments, branch banking center program design, increasing fee income, competitive strategy and implementation assessments and market/customer research.

Ms. Crawford earned a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Formerly with Bank of America and Wells Fargo and First Interstate Bank in California, Ms. Crawford returned to the East Coast with Fleet Bank in the mid-1990’s.

Since FleetBoston, Ms. Crawford has worked as a Senior Consultant with the NBW Consulting Group providing client and project support with NBW’s proprietary Sales Quality and Sales Effectiveness programs and its comprehensive StratShop^SM branch and Business Banker sales experience benchmarking and assessment programs.