I drive a Ford Explorer. Most of the people that ride with me, except my friend Jerry Barron, think I’m a good driver. Not only do I drive well, but I know my vehicle, how to maintain it and how to make adjustments to my driving and the vehicle when necessary.
However, all the enhancements in the vehicle won’t keep me from crashing if I fail to turn into the slide instead of against it, or if I fail to ‘tap’ the breaks when I hit a sheet of ice on a frozen bridge.
The same is true for Fintech.
There is an article in The Investment News from October 8, 2018 written by the President of the Financial Planner Association discussing a survey of top advisors. Here are the highlights:
- A survey of 300 advisors found that only 15% possess enough of the three traits that qualify them as behavioralist. Those traits are:
- Will
- Skill
- Means
- That group outpaces the general planning community in net growth rates, referrals and percentage of clients that would refer their advisor.
There should be many questions that stem from this study for Sales Managers, VP of Sales, Sr. Sales Executives or Program Mangers. This study applies to anyone leaning on technology to turn a lethargic sales team into a high-powered, no limit, fully functioning sales machine.
Understanding Behavioralist Traits:
- Will: will to do what? I would suggest that fundamentally there are 5 contributing factors to ‘will’ that a business development person – sales rep, producer, broker, banker, agent or advisor –must have:
- They have to have the will to succeed in selling. Not just the will to succeed, but the will to succeed in selling.
- Selling requires significant desire and commitment, taking full responsibility for outcomes (no excuse making) and a high level of motivation and a positive outlook.
- Skills: what skills? The best way to answer that is to answer this question:
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- When your salespeople fail in their role, why do they fail? I don’t just mean those that you exit from your company but also those salespeople that occupy the bottom 3/5s of your sales team and represent less than 30% of total sales generated. Is it because they lacked the skills to operate your CRM, word, excel? Did they fail to understand the technical aspects of your business? Did they fail to execute the compliance requirements?
- Based on the dozens of Sales Improvement and Effectiveness Analysis we’ve done over 25 years, the reason that salespeople fail is because they lack the appropriate competencies/skills for:
- Prospecting, hunting and generating new leads
- Consultative selling
- Strong presentations skills:
- Quickly developing trust and confidence
- Selling Value
- Qualifying
- Closing
- Means: have you provided them the ‘Fintech’ or sales enablement tools to help them succeed, provide greater information and business solutions to clients, give them an unfair advantage in the market place? If so, what has your ROI analysis told you? Has the investment met expectations?
- In a recent discussion with a regional manager for a large regional financial institution, we discussed three sales enablement tools that are available to the producers to enhance the client experience. When attempting to correlate the use of the tools and their success there was no direct correlation. Those at the top use the tools and use them well, as do those at the bottom
- What we do know is that in the 9 months we’ve worked with the group to improve performance management skills and coaching skills, the group is experiencing a 39% increase in revenue year over year.
What am I trying to get to?
You could deliver to my door tomorrow the most advanced automobile in the world. It can have all the technology bells and whistles and the most powerful engine ever made. And you could take me to Kentucky Speed way and tell me to have a go. Chances are I won’t leverage all the AutoTech available. And chances are, if I attempt to make the turn to high, to low, to fast or to slow – I’m going to crash and it has nothing to do with the technology.
