Many bank executives view relationship banker training as a sacrosanct area, one that will pay for itself with improved sales, service, and customer and client satisfaction. However, our long-time perspective contrasts with that view.

Most training programs, whether led by internal employees or outside experts, fail to achieve intended results. Instead of a positive end, training programs often result in increased employee frustration and cynicism. In turn, senior management is puzzled because of the poor impact of a significant time, dollar, and people commitment.

 

Of course, we are not suggesting that all training fails, but, ironically, many of the training programs with the biggest expectations and planning attached to them do.

 

• Want your relationship manager to sell more cash management or other non-credit products? Train them in product knowledge and how to diagnose opportunities.

 

• Want to improve sales calling levels and quality? Bring in a sale trainer with a turnkey system.

 

• Want to improve customer penetration and build wallet share? Train the banker in account planning.

 

Training programs are in place focusing on the above and much more. Yet, bankers are doing things pretty much as they always have; the expected productivity and revenue gains have failed to materialize. Training initiatives such as those mentioned above fail because of misplaced expectations and an approach emphasizing a one-time event rather than consistency. However, a third factor may be the key: some people cannot be trained to do certain tasks. They are constitutionally incapable of change.

 

Misplaced Expectations

Targeted skill-based training can succeed, but training does not change culture; it will never lead to the development of a sales culture. Nevertheless, many bank executives, hoping against hope, appear to view activities such as sales training as the solution they have been looking for.

 

Time and again, we see clients disappointed in the impact of sales training and the related sales management processes they have installed. Like a pebble in a pond, many banks experience a strong result initially only to find that the impact dissipates as management allows bankers to drift back to their old ways.

 

Solutions:

• Make a senior manager truly responsible for consistent execution of sales processes across the bank and tie both senior management and RM compensation to it.

 

• Create a detailed training curriculum rather than ad hoc courses.

 

• Require bankers to be “accredited” and meet knowledge hurdles if they are to be promoted or given raises.

 

One-Time Events

Banks (and particularly senior bankers) love big events. Some banks seem to move from one product to another, explaining retirement one week and an aspect of cash management the next. Understandably, the information washes over many bankers who have more immediate concerns at hand and who do not necessarily know what to do with the information provided them.

 

Solutions:

• Tailor training to individual RMs rather than pushing mass messages. Require bankers to take part in a product knowledge assessment that will form a baseline of current knowledge and product need requirements.

 

• Use alternative distribution for training. Classroom training is largely passé; some self-training can be done at home in the evening or on weekends rather than in a room during a time when bankers should be selling.

 

• Any product training programs should operate with a mechanism that ensures that all RMs are revisited to ensure that they “get it.”

 

Training the Untrainable

I remember reading a Business Week article several years ago that told of a program at the old Marine Midland Bank, whereby commercial bankers were undergoing training to become investment bankers. The article envisioned a transition to a new role for these bankers; it seemed as if, by course’s end, the bankers would receive their Rolexes and Mercedes and be off doing big deals. Of course, that does not work.

 

Similarly, sales training does not make salespersons and non-credit product training does not necessarily result in greater RM focus on non-product sales. Yes, people — including RMs — change, but most do so at slower rates and to a lesser degree than management desires.

 

Solutions:

• Stop hoping that RMs become (miraculously) multi-product salespersons. Supplement their capabilities with product sales specialists who can directly sell to end customers.

 

• Rethink job roles. The banks that have best addressed the need to increase selling activity have done so by first determining whether they had the right people to do so. In effect, they realigned their organizations: credit-oriented people became underwriters; maintenance/customer service-oriented officers managed current relationships; new business-oriented RMs were placed in a more direct sales role.

 

In each of these cases, required training can be very targeted and faces a more positive reception from trainees.

 

Concluding Thoughts

All managers (bankers and non-bankers) want to find panaceas for the key challenges they face, but such do not exist. Training can serve as a highly valuable component of directing a banker and a bank into a new direction. However, training and related processes need to follow on disciplined management decisions and become a part of a consistent bank-wide effort. Short of that, banks are wasting substantial training dollars and eroding internal equity with their own employees.