JUGGLING BANKING PRIORITIES FOR GROWTH
As many international banks move to kick off a new financial year, the question turns to how we best manage our time and resources to generate revenues and profits in the year ahead.
From my discussions with senior bankers around the world, four key themes seem to be emerging.
Focusing on the right clients – With capital levels tight in many geographies, senior bankers are working out where they will get the best return on their investments in the year ahead. It is becoming crucially important to ensure the right clients are being supported and portfolio changes are common place. Sales and Relationship Management strategies need to ensure clients deliver on their revenue and cross-sell commitments and provide long term, win-win relationships for any financial support provided.
Insights led selling – I often say to senior sales leaders that opening is the new closing. Many banks are now exploring insight led programs and banker dashboards to enhance banker-customer engagement. The challenge for many senior bankers is they need to arm the Relationship salesforce with much more than just financial insights. Programs such as ‘Realise the Revenues’ have been developed to specifically support bank sales teams in moving from a product focused sales approach to a customer focused sales approach.
Transition to Net Zero – Migrating existing customers to a net zero world is taking up more of senior bank management time. The challenge for bankers is they need to keep the existing revenue book flowing, whilst forming working groups and strategy teams to tackle the migration of customers to a more sustainable operational and financial solution environment.
Effective Account Planning – Reinvigorating Account Planning is also gathering renewed management focus as banking executives seek to ensure the entire client banking wallet is maximised. Technologies are now available to help automate this process and I’m pleased to advise the TRANSFORM Financial services Sales Process and Account Planning Methodology is now available via a Salesforce app. Reach out for further information.
These priorities, in addition to upskilling bankers to have more strategic client conversations, providing feedback on customer meeting effectiveness and upskilling staff in a world where On the Job (OTJ) training no longer keeps pace with the external environment, promises to pull many senior banking Sales and Relationship leaders in multiple directions this year and ensure they are constantly juggling their time and resources.
If you would like to discuss enhancing your salesforce productivity and effectiveness through insights led selling or advanced Account Planning activities, please do not hesitate to reach out for a confidential and informal discussion.
