Service for Sales
Executive summary: Providing quality customer service to businesses is not an end in itself. Rather, bank management should view service as a tool for retention and cross-sell, and demand that…
Executive summary: Providing quality customer service to businesses is not an end in itself. Rather, bank management should view service as a tool for retention and cross-sell, and demand that…
Executive summary. FIC’s small business related work around the world indicates that banks, no matter their location, face similar issues; success factors with SMEs are also largely the same. In…
Executive Summary: The banking industry faces increasingly vitriolic attacks from the media and industry analysts, with “good” players being lumped in with the “bad.” “Good” bank managements need to take…
Executive Summary: 2008 will be a very difficult year for U.S. bankers operating in the SME and retail spaces. However, rather than bemoaning the fact, management should consider several near-term…
Executive Summary: While implementing the branch sales transformation process described in the previous two newsletters can result in improved branch performance, few banks follow anything like this approach. Why? Management…
Executive summary. Banks continue to struggle with how to actively engage branches in selling to small businesses. Typically, management focuses on one or two discrete areas (for example, training and…
Executive Summary: Most banks have had limited success in transforming their branches into sales offices. One reason: management focuses on limited initiatives that usually prove inadequate to drive long-term change….
Executive Summary: Credit quality is beginning to emerge as a more significant issue at many lenders to the small business and lower middle market segments in the United States. While…
Last week, at the American Banker’s Small Business Banking Conference, I led a panel discussion of small business bankers focusing on how to get the branch to proactively sell to…
Key Message: More banks are expressing concern about their near-term expectations for their middle market banking groups in 2008. Taking steps now can improve productivity, cross-sell, and customer service. Executing…