From customer surveys that have been carried out, the feedback can very often be read that relationship managers are often too polite and too cautious. The customers often experience them reactive: the initiative for contact usually comes from the customer and the relationship managers bring few ideas of their own.
These are all subjective perceptions whose objective correctness cannot be checked or can only be checked with disproportionate effort. But even if these perceptions were objectively wrong, they are still the backward impression on the customer. A need for action can be derived from this fact alone.
Put simply, two components of perception must be worked on: on the one hand, the contact initiative must increasingly come from the relationship manager, i.e. the frequency of contact by the bank or savings bank must be increased and, on the other hand, more ideas must become visible.
Personally, I do not believe that there is a lack of good ideas in dealing with customers – but I suspect that they are ideas that take place in the process and mindset of the bank or savings bank. And as a result, the customer either does not generate any personal added value from this idea or cannot recognize the added value. In order to provide advice and generate ideas for the customer, it is therefore essential to get into the customer’s business model and into the world of his or her thoughts.
When increasing the frequency of contact, it shouldn’t just be about just making more lines in the tally stick. After all, the customer should not perceive contacts as intrusive, but rather as a positive impulse and real support – also in the sense of appreciating the existing business relationship. So it has to be about the quality of the contacts above all.
In order for the quality to be right, several prerequisites have to be created:
- Incentivization
- Available active sales time
- Qualified reasons for addressing customers and apropriate topics
Incentivization means that contacting customers is taken into account and perceived as a sales service in the sense of proportionate target achievement. If customer contact per se is not relevant to the success of the RSM[1], then there is a high risk that any (central) initiatives that contribute to customer contacts will be perceived as annoying extra work. His incentive then is to achieve his goals efficiently – i.e. with as many customer contacts as necessary, but also as few as possible.
The free active sales time is at least fully invested in the status quo for each RSM. If the thrust is changed in such a way that the number of customer contacts is to be increased, it must be answered in advance where the necessary time is to be taken from. If we assume that there will be no additional RSM as resources in the status quo and that at the same time the already existing goals should not be reduced, then we should consider what other support or process optimization can be carried out in sales (front office) in order to achieve at least something per individual head to create available time so that this new claim can also be realistically placed. (It is not necessarily a question of completely „shoveling free“ the necessary time window – after all, the activities also contribute to success, insofar as there are synergies between the goals. However, space must be created for working on a new target area: temporally, emotionally and the value of the goal must be present.)
And last but not least, the question arises as to the reason for contact or the occasion with which the respective RSM should approach the customer. As unrealistic as it is on the one hand that every RSM can give sound thought to all of its customers, it is still necessary to approach them with a topic that is relevant to the individual customer.
Against the background of the overall situation, it makes sense to bundle this activities in the organisation close to sales but at a central point – for example sales management – and to control it from there. At this central point, you are able to develop a systematic approach that on the one hand includes all customers and on the other hand also takes into account the organizational structure (and possibly existing differences between units) of the company. Another point in favor of centralizing the complex of issues is that it is only possible to ensure structurally that a possible existing bias of a RSM on certain customers can be compensated for.
Another important step – regardless of the overall organization of this topic – is the documentation of all relevant customer contacts at a central point: at the respective customer. Typically a CRM system is used for this, but even where such a system is not yet available, you can find a way through a jointly agreed filing structure. It is crucial that the knowledge about the customer comes out of the minds of the knowledge carrier and is thus made accessible to all roles potentially involved in the customer.
It is important that we understand all customer contacts not just as a sequence of singular sales attempts, but especially as relationship work. The customer has to learn that his advisor is a reliable source of good ideas and / or relevant topics for the customer’s reality. The RSM demonstrates that it has a highly qualified and well-functioning network of specialists at hand, which it can and will use in the sense of the customer. In a relationship you grow together, you sometimes rub against each other in terms of content – and there is inevitably progress in the common and mutual channel of acceptance.[2]
However, this also means that ideas that were once good at the beginning may later be weak or old hat in a relationship. For this, however, the ground is prepared for other (possibly more difficult) topics, where one cannot “ fall into the house with the door“ straight away. The relationship has grown, the trust has grown – it’s time to get bolder, but that also means that ideas that were good at the beginning may be weak or old hat later in a relationship. For this, however, the ground is prepared for other (possibly more difficult) topics, where one cannot „fall in the house“ straight away. The relationship has grown, the trust has grown – it is time to be bolder.
Sales management ideally takes on the ongoing provision of suitable approaches, topics and ideas. It is important not only to focus on financial topics or to always approach these topics from the customer’s perspective. You will not be able to avoid reading the customers key industry magazines, subscribing to newsletters and looking for other suitable sources that report on customers‘ markets. It is also important to keep an eye on tax changes and possible adjustments to accounting standards at all times.
This bundle of sources must be well organized – and above all, it must be processed regularly. It is not worth dying in beauty and drowning in the mass of springs – so here a suitable balance must be developed for every house. Roughly speaking, this information base provides the first 50% of the ideas for qualified customer contacts. The other half comes from the further development of these ideas with application to some customers; this can be, for example, transferring a topic from one industry to another or a particularly intelligent combination of products for a new type of solution.
With increasing practice and experience in this type of market cultivation and customer approach, more and more of their own ideas gradually emerge from the sales team. But even these ideas must be professionally prepared so that they can be successfully implemented on the customer. Here, sales management also offers corresponding added value, not only in terms of support, but also in the prioritization of individual topics and thus in the management of the idea portfolio.
[1] RSM = relationship manager
[2] Look for the „Channel of acceptance” for more details on the underlying model: https://vertriebsmanagement.blog/2023/08/28/working-in-the-channel-of-acceptance/
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