We find most banks have a high level of concern for the costs, the performance and the productivity of their business development efforts.

Business development reps and loan reps today face many obstacles. Clients are indecisive or apprehensive with a reliance on the internet for their information. They want supporting infrastructures and products flexible enough to provide options and answers to their specific situation. The old loyalties of the past have all but disappeared. It used to be that if you had a client, you could count on them for additional business over a period of time.

The current environment requires a new level of involvement for business development. As measured by client actions, this involvement promises to be anything but an extrapolation of the past. As a result, business development must be placed in a more holistic, solution-oriented context. No longer can the business development function simply make pre-defined offers to a client with the anticipation that the client will see value in the offerings. Rather, what must happen is solid relationships need to be built utilizing a strategic approach that examines problems/needs and allows for the development of a bank-related, situation-improving solution.

We have found three basic types of reps tasked with growing the bank’s business:

• Product reps who competently offer a product or service. Clients look to get a low-interest rate and/or add-on features at no extra cost. Loyalty is to whoever meets their price expectations today.
  
  
• Benefit reps who translate features into client benefits. Clients still look for a lower interest rate but tend to see more value in the offering by a “features to benefits” rep.
  
  
• Program reps who present a scenario that addresses a client’s situation. Clients see this rep as a valued, knowledgeable person who offers solutions that solve their problems. The interest rate is seldom a consideration because the decision to use a bank’s services is based on a solution surrounded by improvement to the client’s situation.

Defining The Problem

We believe most business development efforts that falter are because the wrong person was called on and/or the wrong message was delivered. Somehow the idea has invaded the land that growing a bank’s business is a game of luck. Some reps are lucky and get the business, and others are not. Regardless of the type of business development reps who may dominate your organization, underneath it all, is the concept of delivering the right message to the right person.

Navigating a New Direction in Business Development

Delivering the right message to the right person, if it is to drive success and grow your bank’s business, must be part of a consistent, repeatable business development process, and business development skills are the key.

Reps must be equipped with the necessary skills to identify problems and provide a banking solution to improve a client’s situation or be in an interest rate battle with the loser winning the contract.

To improve this situation, a bank should look at the two factors that control the results you will derive from your business development efforts.

On the skills side, you must identify and improve the factors that govern the message your reps deliver.

On the process side, you must examine and repair the activities that govern who your reps call upon to deliver their message.

When you examine both of these factors, on the one hand, reps get agreements quicker and with a higher spread because they are improving their client’s situation. On the other hand, they make fewer wasted client calls because they call on the right person, which inevitably increases the productivity of your business development efforts.

By implementing this approach, you will find that each of your reps is eminently more productive, the profitability of your business development efforts has gone up, the number and size of your accounts have increased, and you will be able to beat your competition consistently and predictably. The value of this business development approach will be measured by how quickly you get extraordinary results from ordinary people.