Why Building a Sales Culture Matters

1. Assess Your Current Sales Team

First, top-performing banks assess the skillsets of their existing lenders and relationship managers. They do this because it’s really hard to change what you cannot see. There are 21 Core Sales Competencies that drive success in selling, and CEOs across the country are using this information to improve the skills of their current teams as well as hire new high-performing lenders and relationship managers. Only by understanding the specific consultative and relationship-building skills of each team member can a bank leader coach, train, and build a successful sales culture.

2. Use Sales-Specific Hiring Assessments

Secondly, top-performing banks don’t make the mistake of hiring new lenders without using a sales-specific, predictively valid skills assessment. There are plenty of assessments out there, but the vast majority are personality-based and do not uncover whether a salesperson can and will sell for your bank. When choosing a sales skills assessment, make sure it has a proven success record and includes a recommendation to hire or not hire. Remember, top producers drive 10x as much revenue as bottom producers. Having the right tools in place from the start is key to hiring effectively and building a successful sales culture.

3. Implement a Stage-Based Sales Process

Third, top-performing banks build out a sales process that is both stage-based and milestone-centric. Then, they hold their lenders and relationship managers accountable for following that process. On average, this step alone generates a 15% increase in loan production. The stages in the sales process help leaders and coaches identify where a lender may need support and targeted coaching. In fact, elite salespeople—those in the top 7%—follow a consistent sales process. Most banks are already using CRMs to track their pipeline, so these stages should be built into the selling system. In today’s competitive environment, the banks that win more relationships are those that train their salespeople to be consultative and ask questions that go far beyond which banking products a prospect may need. Having an established sales process supports building a better sales culture.

4. Train Sales Leaders First

Fourth and finally, top-performing banks invest in sales leader and sales management training before they begin training their salespeople. They equip leaders with skills in standards and accountability, coaching, and motivation. These are the four key areas sales managers should focus 85% of their time on. Since most sales managers are promoted from within their specialty area in banking, assessments consistently show they often lack the skills needed to drive consistent sales growth. We also know that sales managers with strong coaching skills lead teams that generate 38% more revenue. Developing your sales leadership team is essential to building a stronger, more successful sales culture at any bank.

Analyze your bankers with a free evaluation of the 21 Core Sales Competencies!

Learn How to STOP Hiring Mistakes at our 30-Min Webinar on June 16th!

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Active Listening in Client Centered Selling

There are usually two problems:

• Salespeople don’t spend enough time listening during their sales conversations.

• When they do decide to listen, many salespeople don’t do a good job of listening.

Many salespeople think that listening means not talking, but that is not the whole truth. Being an active listener means you are listening to understand and not waiting for the opportunity to bring up your next point. Stephen Covey once said, “Seek first to understand before being understood.”

Active listening means you pick your spots to ask the other person to clarify what they just said. Be willing to tell your prospect if you see an issue differently. Ask them if it would be OK to talk about that different perspective. After an upcoming sales call, reflect on how much time you spent listening vs. talking.

Client Centered Selling Requires Asking Insightful Questions

The worst thing you can do on a sales call is try to convince or persuade. The best thing you can do on a sales call is to walk your prospect through a process we call the art of gradual self-discovery. This process is centered on asking great questions that allow the prospect to self-reflect and contemplate the problems they are having either as a consumer or as a business owner.

The best salespeople in the world don’t really sell anything. They create an environment where prospects make the decision to solve problems. They create an environment where prospects simply buy.

Think about using these insightful questions in your next sales conversation:

• Tell me more about that.

• How long has this been going on?

• What have you done to address the problem?

• When you spoke to your current provider, what did they recommend?

• What happens if you don’t fix it?

• How much will it cost you?

• Is that a problem?

• Do you have to fix it?

Tailoring Your Sales Process in Client Centered Selling

All elite salespeople follow a stage-based sales process, but what makes them great is their ability to tailor it to their clients. That’s what adding value in the sales process is all about.

Borrowing from the wonderful book Go-Givers Sell More by Bob Burg and John David Mann, they identify The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success:

1. The Law of Value

2. The Law of Compensation

3. The Law of Influence

4. The Law of Authenticity

5. The Law of Receptivity

Let’s look at the Law of Value first. Here’s what they say:
Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.

In addition, we know from our sales data source, Objective Management Group, that there are specific traits that skilled salespeople demonstrate when they build value for a prospect or client:

• Focused on value over price

• Know & believe in their value

• Comfortable discussing money

• Learn why prospects will buy

• Ask enough & great questions

• Avoid making assumptions

• Not compelled to provide a proposal

As a salesperson, how skilled are you at tailoring your approach by doing your research in advance, asking enough of the right great questions, and adding value to every conversation? Do you make sure not to assume anything? Selling your value is something you need to focus on and develop in your sales toolkit.

Let’s look at one more of Bob and John David’s Five Laws – The Law of Influence, which they describe as:
Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.

All salespeople recognize that the days of showing up with your box of products are over, in large part because the buying process is now in the hands of the prospect. So, if everything can be found online, how do you differentiate yourself?

Consultative sellers put other people’s interests first. In other words, they tailor their approach with their core selling skills and behaviors.

Think about how your skills at listening, asking insightful questions, and tailoring your sales process contribute to your client centered selling. Remember, according to Bob and John David,
“Selling is not at its core a business transaction; it is first and foremost the forging of a human connection.”

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There is zero doubt that being professionally and appropriately funny as can help your cause with prospects. Most prospects (like most people) have enough serious things going on in their life. They could use a smile or chuckle in their day. Of course, your use of humor must come at the right time and be received in the right way.

I see three key takeaways from comedians:

1. Preparation – We know that pre-call planning is important, which I define as you knowing the questions you will ask the prospect (and how they will likely respond), and also you knowing the questions the prospect will likely ask you (and how you will respond). If you watch a good comedian, you will see hours of preparation that went into their act. They would never get up on stage and wing it. Everything is planned. Just like a Navy SEAL, they plan their dive, and they dive their plan.
   
   
2. Storytelling – Any good joke is a story that builds to the delivery of the punchline. The story that tells the joke is building to that moment. The best jokes allow you to put yourself into the story and experience all the emotions that are typically present in a good joke. Great salespeople do the same thing. They present a story that allows the prospect to see themselves in the story… living with the same problems… finding and implementing solutions that solve those problems.
   
   
3. Embrace Failure – Most comedians started off not being as funny as they would eventually become… they had more than a few nights when they were met with a lukewarm reaction from a tough crowd. Perhaps they were even booed off a stage along the way. But they did not quit… they just kept going as they learned from their mistakes, and they chased improvement. When I am asked about the most important attribute that great sales performers possess, my answer is always relentless effort. They just keep showing up. They just keep making dials. They just keep going out to see people. It is hard to keep someone down when they keep showing up to work.

So, there you go… the next time you watch a comedian, ask yourself what you can copy into “your act.” After all, your sales success in 2025 is no laughing matter!

Think about it: What do you need your salespeople to do in the field? Most leaders would say: sell consultatively to build long-lasting relationships. What better way to build that competency with your sales team than to demonstrate it with consultative coaching?

According to Google’s AI tool, “Consultative sales coaching is a type of training that helps sales teams learn how to understand their customers' needs and offer solutions.” Isn’t that exactly what you want your people to do in the field? Think about the individuals on your team and those who consistently produce beyond the expected. There is something more than just their skills that drives their behavior and success. There is the Will to do whatever it takes to achieve their goals and the skill to execute.

Consider this example:

• A lower-performing salesperson without developed consultative skills will present earlier in the sales process than is prudent, before learning about the prospect's problems, consequences, and reasons for buying from them. They likely receive many "think-it-overs" from their prospects after presenting, and their pipeline is full of unqualified prospects.
• A high-performing consultative salesperson uncovers compelling reasons for prospects and customers to buy from them by using active listening skills to ask good, tough, and timely questions. And they do not present solutions until they have a deep understanding of the problems and know that the prospect both must and will fix the problems.

Now let’s apply this to consultative sales coaching:

• A non-consultative sales coach will typically not spend enough or any time debriefing with their salespeople on key meetings. They do not have established coaching hours on their schedule, and they do not know the personal goals of their salespeople, so they do not really know what motivates them. When they talk to a salesperson about how a prospect or client meeting went, they are likely to tell them what to do instead of asking consultative questions like, “What did they say when you asked them what their current provider has done to help them fix the problem?” or “What did they say when you asked them how long the problem had been going on?”
• Sales managers with consultative sales coaching skills will ask many questions and help the salesperson understand what they have not yet uncovered about the opportunity. They demonstrate consultative conversations with their coaching.

Consultative sales coaching matters because it is personal, based on the salesperson’s situation, drive, hopes, and dreams. Sales coaching is crucial for every organization because salespeople who report to a manager with strong consultative coaching skills tend to have 26% more closable late-stage opportunities.

Most sales coaches move up through their company because they are good producers and, because of that, are adept at selling themselves. However, they may not be as skilled at coaching their salespeople. Sales managers need a coaching system so they know when and how to intentionally and effectively coach their salespeople.

Here are the 9 Skills in our Consultative Coaching Skill Development Plan below and the link will take you to a landing page with 9 short audio clips to help you build your skills.

1. Debriefs effectively after significant calls
2. Effective on joint calls
3. Asks quality questions of their salespeople
4. Understands the impact of a salesperson’s Sales DNA
5. Can demonstrate an effective sales system
6. Is effective at getting commitments from salespeople
7. Consistently coaches skills and behaviors
8. Understands the impact of a salesperson’s Will to Sell
9. Is effective at onboarding new salespeople

Find out more about how to be a consultative sales coach here.

My observation of salespeople is that they desperately want to live at the value end of the equation but when push comes to shove, they tend to slide over to the price side to push deals across the finish line.

4 Key Differences

Seth Godin calls discounting price the “race to the bottom.” He has said it is a race you can’t win and that it is a race you don’t want to win. Here are four keys to having success selling value and staying out of the race to the bottom:

1. You must have table pounding conviction in the value that you and your firm provide. You can’t think it might be true. You must know it.
2. You must remember that value it is never meant to be communicated. It is meant to be demonstrated. Said differently, you can’t be going around talking about value and telling prospects how good you and your company might be. You must demonstrate it by having conversations with your prospects that your competition is not having. Remember, if you must tell people how good you are, there is a chance you are not all that good!
3. You must be willing to walk away when your prospect makes it clear that their buying decision is going to come down to price. I have a name for prospects like that – I call them “nonbelievers.” They do not believe in, nor do they have any appreciation for the value you bring to the table. Why spend a ton of time with nonbelievers?
4. Finally, none of the above will work unless you prospect with the appropriate intensity. You must take a “Seven Eleven” approach to hunting, meaning you are always open and working to fill the top of the funnel. It is hard to walk away from an opportunity if you don’t have another opportunity to walk towards.

And no offense to Walmart by the way. It is a fine place to shop. Just don’t try to sell like they do. It is hard to “out Walmart” Walmart!