Hey, Business Bankers! Dominate The Marketplace By Learning To Sell Without “Selling”!

If you have been listening to what I’ve been trying to tell you, you should know by now that the financial services industry is changing and that the pace of change is accelerating!  Yes, it includes business banking as well!  A lot of business bankers are going to get caught flat-footed by the future of business banking!  A lot of my friends in business banking are still using the same sales strategies I learned when I got into business banking back in 2001!  It is not their fault…their managers are teaching them strategies that—frankly—are outdated!  If you (Business Banker) want to dominate your marketplace and ride the future of business banking, you will have to take your skill set and sales strategies in a different direction!  It is not that hard to do…but you’ve got to get doing now before it is too late!  First, you need to start thinking like an entrepreneur and view your career as the “business” that you are building within the walls of bank where you work!  You need to start investing in your career and your future!  This mind-shift will help you dominate the marketplace! 

I came across an article written by the folks at Entrepreneur that talks about selling without selling (see article link below)!  I have a really “stupid simple” explanation for the concept of  “selling without selling”.  Here it goes…if your prospect is standing in a room filled with business bankers and everyone is yelling “ice cream, ice cream, ice cream”!  How do you get the prospect’s attention?  You yell “cookie, cookie, cookie”!  On any given day, there are armies of business bankers pushing the same products, pricing, and sales pitches to business owners and referral sources.  It is like they all went through the same sales training class!  The business bankers that consistently get their foot in the door are the ones that come to the table with something different (aka “the cookie”!).  Complicating things further, you need to stand out in a 3-second world!  Your prospect doesn’t want to hear your long-winded sales pitch about your products and your pricing.  You need to craft a sales pitch that hooks them in the first 3 seconds of the conversation! 

The Entrepreneur article talks about 3 strategies to sell without selling: (1) sell with integrity, (2) employ the art and science of selling and (3) demonstrate value.  The folks at Entrepreneur state something that I completely agree with:  there isn’t a magic bullet to selling!  Successful business bankers take a disciplined approach to selling and have a set of tactics that make up their selling strategy.  They use their tactics to craft a 3-second sales pitch that consistently gets their foot in the door…while everyone else continues to yell “ice cream, ice cream, ice cream” at the business owner! Here is my spin on the 3 strategies to sell without selling:

1. Sell with integrity: don’t promise what you can’t deliver.  It will catch up to you and people will eventually start avoiding you. 
2. Employ the art and science of selling: The “science” part of selling is to acquire the skill set that you need to succeed in business banking.  You need to learn financial statement analysis, you need to master business banking products, you need to understand credit policy, and you need to “research” your prospect.  The “art” part of selling is using the insight you gain from the “science” part to craft a sales pitch that grabs your prospects attention in the first 3 seconds of the conversation. 
3. Demonstrate value: this is the marriage of the art and science part of selling.  You need to determine the challenges and opportunities your prospect is experiencing in the marketplace.  You then need to show the prospect that you have the SOLUTION they need to overcome the challenges or take advantage of the opportunities. All of this can be flawlessly executed without ever mentioning a single banking product or saying that you have the lowest rates and fees in town! 

I strongly encourage you to read the Entrepreneur article (see link below).  I challenge you to start elevating your skill set today! Bizpetrol has information, knowledge and tools that will help you become a Business Banking Rockstar.  You can start elevating your business credit skills using the free Commercial Lending Toolkit at www.bizpetrol.com. You can see all the Business Banking News articles (like this one) at www.bizpetrol.com/blog. You can access a series of how-to business banker guides https://www.bizpetrol.com/Downloads-Free.

Follow #bizpetrol on LinkedIn if you want to see more articles like this one in your LinkedIn feed! If you found this article to be useful, please do me a huge favor and spread the knowledge by sharing the article with your colleagues! 

Article Title:  Top 3 Strategies to Sell Without ‘Selling’

Article URL: https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/top-3-strategies-to-sell-without-selling/353992