My dream for our bank has always been to connect with and build deep and lasting relationships with our customers and improve their financial well-being. That is becoming a reality with the relationship selling process from High Definition Banking®. When we began our consulting partnership, we had staff buy-in and a people-first culture. However, we lacked a system to put our vision into daily actions and behaviors. Your structured and sustainable training, coaching and consulting process is the catalyst that moved us from transactional selling focused on pitching product to relationship selling in which we engage customers in deeper conversations, uncover financial anxieties, goals and dreams and offer tailored financial solutions. We have achieved some impressive results as follows:
- One outreach call by a relationship banker alone generated $1.1 million in total customer relations
- For the last three years our net acquisition numbers for new customers have increased by 18.5% while attrition numbers decreased by 9.45%
- Referral activity to our wealth and mortgage areas has risen by approximately 21.5% annually
- We experience a continuing monthly boost in checking and savings accounts opened as the number of outreach and reboarding phone calls and customer meetings also increase
- New account production has increased by an average of 25% from 2014
- We’ve consolidated branches while maintaining 90% of our customer base and balances due to intense customer outreach and relationship management
- TCS has become an employer of choice and staff is proud to tell our story
- Overall employee turn rate has decreased by 10%
- Branch manager turn rate has decreased to less than 5%
Your ability to add inspiration and heart to your message and process is your unique differentiator. It empowers our staff to make an emotional connection with our customers and want to make a difference in their lives.
The High Definition Banking® process is clearly helping our credit union reach our strategic objective of moving beyond transactional selling to a relationship building model and improving the financial success of our members. Your approach is unique among performance improvement firms and following are several areas we’ve found valuable:
- Our staff is more confident and skilled at engaging members in deeper conversations, tapping into their emotive drivers and uncovering their life events. By my estimate, you’ve improved our member experience by 300%!
- Your emphasis on building trust first and avoiding product pitching is resulting in more new business, referrals and increased loyalty. In fact one member said, “Nobody has ever helped me like this.”
- Your focus on capturing substantive member information, entering it into our CRM profile and then applying it on future calls has reinforced behavior change and ensures an ROI on our investment in CRM and your process.
- Our office VP’s and supervisors are observing, developing and coaching their team to excel at member engagement and relationship management (MRM).
- Your structured process with turnkey tools such as timelines, executive debriefs and consistent follow up keeps us on track and able to sustain results.
- Coaching after the onsite sessions is so well structured that it’s invaluable to reinforce the training, instill accountability and have our team share successes.
- Without a doubt, the High Definition Banking® skills training is substantive but combined with the inspirational and motivational components, you have captured the hearts of our people and earned their buy-in and commitment.
Not a week goes by when people don’t mention High Definition Banking®. We’re blown away by how far we’ve come in such a short time. Thank you for being a valued partner and we look forward to continuing our journey with you!
I’ve seen a lot of banking relationship management and sales training programs in my career and without question your system is the best! As a result of your excellent training, coaching and consulting process, our bank Relationship Managers (RMs) are not only improving their performance, they’re really enjoying their job more. Without your valuable assistance in implementing a structured and sustainable process and making it “user friendly” for our RMs, I believe we couldn’t have recouped an ROI from our significant investment in our new CRM software.
Our President, COO and I were all amazed that within just the last eight months you have been working with us, we’ve had increases (partial figures) in key areas: 3.5% more DDA accounts and 7% more balances (up $11M), 1% growth in SAV account numbers and $1.8M in balances, 19% increase in on-line banking,19% growth in web bill-pay accounts, 53% increase in eStatement enrollment, 67% growth in business on-line banking, and a 22% improvement in referrals to our investment advisory area. Specifically, we know of some $2.5M in new assets now under management in our Wealth Management area directly resulting from the new consultative sales approach that you introduced.
To add icing to the cake, in our most recent survey customers who were contacted by their RM using the approach that you brought us showed much higher levels of satisfaction versus our “baseline” customer responses. Your program is the differentiator. Our staff is now developing their assigned book of business, strategizing with pre-call planning, making introductory thank you calls and more. Most significant of all, they’re maintaining customer profiles in our CRM system. Managers are observing customer interactions, coaching staff and working closely with RMs to encourage and raise performance. As the head of Retail Banking, I personally found your coaching and guidance invaluable to me in sustaining and reinforcing the process.
At Freestar Bank we’re committed to differentiating ourselves by moving from simply completing transactions to building customer relationships and value. Many thanks for contributing to our success!
I’ve been involved with a number of sales performance improvement companies in my career that were knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the results they promise. However, I would hire High Definition Banking® over any of them. I can honestly say you have surpassed my expectations. Your definable and measurable process gets our people to carry out the specific activities that lead to results. Nobody else in my experience had such a workable and effective process. It forces me to bring my “A game” all the time. The same can be said for my staff and people I collaborate with in other departments to obtain additional business from our bank customers. It has been a highlight of my career to have had the opportunity to work with you.
Our Net Promoter Score (NPS) jumped significantly soon after we began working with you. We continue to see a noticeable increase in positive testimonials on our website from members with some being quite effusive. Our staff has embraced the relationship-building approach and feels a sense of achievement, purpose and accomplishment. Their stories are compelling. We’ve worked with several consultants in the past but none have had such a positive impact or been able to sustain implementation like your High Definition Banking® process.
In the short time we’ve been working with you we have seen a major improvement in our staff’s confidence and ability to engage our customers in conversations about their financial goals and dreams. The pre-call plan and profiling tools made a significant difference and our managers are leading the way. The High Definition Banking® consulting, training and relationship building process aligns well with our strategic goal of creating a differentiated customer experience. We’ve seen much more excitement by our customers and an increase in moving their accounts to our bank.
We look forward to our fifth year advancing our member relationship journey with High Definition Banking®. Our staff members have proudly embraced their role as relationship managers and are much more confident engaging members in deeper conversations about their financial goals. Member profiles are being updated and reviewed to prepare for calls and member meetings.
We now have a consistent onboarding process to welcome new members as well as a proactive reboarding process to re-engage existing members. As a result, we have seen an increase in retention and members leaving their bank to join BayPort. Our managers spend time observing, coaching and developing their team, which is sustaining this process and instilling accountability.
Without question your excellent Financial Coaching program has done the most to excite, engage and empower our staff to help members achieve financial success and improve their well-being. The interactive tools make it easy for staff to engage members about their goals. In fact, rather than leave with just a product, our Financial Coaches ensure members leave with a plan to get them on track. Plus, our investment advisors are benefiting greatly from the increased referrals.
Your disciplined process with training, useful tools, management debriefs and excellent telecoaching has accelerated our journey, increased staff buy-in and positively impacted the member experience at BayPort. Thank you for being a valued partner!
Our experience with High Definition Banking® has changed not only our customer experience but our employee experience, as well. Our staff has learned the value of developing relationships with our customers, as a result our clients’ trust and confidence has grown.
The techniques and tools provided by High Definition Banking to prepare the sales staff for customer interactions were priceless. The comfort and confidence in reaching out and developing relationships with customers skyrocketed. In addition to the growth with our sales team, our managers developed skills to coach their staff focusing on leading indicators rather than lagging. Career pathing is well underway and we have seen tremendous growth organically.
Barb’s high energy, organization and knowledge have proven to be an invaluable resource. Her hands on approach and coaching style created the motivation, accountability, and energy our organization needed to manage our customers and staff in an innovative and exciting style.
There has been a natural adoption with our team and the High Definition Banking® process. Team members immediately saw the benefit to themselves, to their teams, and to the organization as a whole. Our Pathfinders were engaged, excited and embraced the program. Barb is a dynamic speaker and keeps your attention the entire time! The training provided how-to skills which we immediately added into our new hire training sessions.
IHMVCU achieved consistency with standardizing our processes, increased confidence in our Pathfinders and allowed us to have conversations on our internal service level agreements. Having structure, tools and a process in place helped our Pathfinders embrace their role as trusted financial partners and relationship managers.
Our meaningful conversations are being logged in our CRM; helping us to build deeper relationships with our Members. We are also using the data for marketing automation and personalization of promotional items.
Culturally, we observed immeasurable conversations around our Pathfinder conversion and increased communication and service with all departments. HUGE thank you to Barb!
Barb did an amazing job and we wholeheartedly recommend High Definition Banking® to all colleagues and associates as the “full package deal” – Barb is passionate, dedicated and energetic!
We are extremely pleased with the progress we’ve made and results achieved to date in your relationship management process! Your excellent relationship and sales leadership training, coaching and reinforcement over the last 18 months have contributed greatly to our high performance sales and relationship culture. The results speak for themselves. We’ve used a variety of consultants and your firm is the first one that correlated with a direct increase in sales. When we began we had one person in our $1 Million Dollar Loan Club. Now we have 15 people in the club and some are on their way to hitting $2 million. Only one-third was making their goals and now three quarters are and are members in our 100% Club.In addition, the facilitated tele-coaching calls and executive debriefs were invaluable in keeping our managers and FA’s motivated, accountable and focused on building member relationships. In fact, we’ve seen a significant change in how our managers spend their time. They are actively managing the sales process, observing and coaching. You are highly engaging, make selling and relationship building easy and fun for our people and best of all– empower them to believe they can do it. We look forward to having you back for additional training and tele-coaching.
When I first heard your excellent presentation at our Raymond James bank conference, I knew I had to get you to partner with our bank. As a result of your outstanding structured process including workshops, follow up and tele-coaching, I am receiving three times the number of referrals before we began our Managing Customer Relationships program with you. In addition, of our 38% asset growth in 2010, at least one quarter to half of that growth was due to the additional referrals. Specifically, we have $2.5M in new assets now under management in our Wealth Management area directly resulting from the new consultative sales approach that you introduced. Plus, our Retail area has seen significant increases in all products and services with our existing customers. Best of all, we appreciate your amazing energy and enthusiasm for keeping us all on track. Thanks!
Thanks for your awesome program. You not only gave us great ideas to improve service and customer relationships, you inspired us to take action professionally and personally. Those employees who ‘groaned’ about attending, were raving when it was over! That motivation has had a lasting impact on us. We have several supervisors who are really stepping up to the plate and implementing some of your ideas. We also have a couple of employees who were marginal and have started to excel. Thanks again
Our experience with High Definition Banking® has been exceptional. We partnered and began our journey with them to help us develop a process to reach out to our disengaged members. They are highly skilled professionals that provided the structured training and tools for Community Financial to reach our objectives. High Definition’s program mirrors nicely with Community Financials purpose, values and commitments. Throughout the last four years and different program offerings from High Definition our team is very confident asking high impact questions, engaging in deeper conversations, turning disengaged members to loyal engaged members, and truly being a financial advisor to our members. In addition they helped transition our branch managers into sales leaders with expectations to observe, coach and develop their team. The training, structured follow up process along with executive debriefs, telecoaching, consulting and symposiums have truly enhanced Community Financials relationship sales process, the member experience and our results. The High Definition team also provided one on one coaching to our Sales Trainer to allow for us to develop a comprehensive new hire training and onboarding process. The member stories we hear are so rewarding and fulfilling it makes the team smile and feel they make a difference. Thank you for being such a valued partner!
In the last few weeks since using the onboarding training I have gained much more knowledge about our new members and feel confident in deepening the relationship. The type of questions we learned allows members to talk and give me information I can use for future service opportunities. Before the training my follow-up calls were very “close-ended” and basically a way to make sure the member received their debit card or checks. By using the new skills I am able to hold a very valuable conversation by phone and gain more trust and satisfaction from the member. I have deeper job satisfaction and I can see how taking things one step further create our raving fans. Thank you again for the training, I really enjoyed the training presentation and am looking forward to the telecoaching call and the knowledge and skills we can take away to strengthen relationships.
This was truly an amazing program, so dynamic and yet at times so simple. I am very excited to watch our staff’s growth with this way of thinking. We are the customer’s financial advocate! When we build that trust and relationship with them sales will follow!
This was without a doubt the best training I have attended. It is more member and relationship focused and less focused on steps and procedures. The program was excellent and taught me to centralize and apply concepts in a way that will build relationships and make sales after first earning my customer’s trust.
The concept is simple. I love that about this relationship program. And that it is designed to truly help our customers, not just sell. Business will naturally improve through this approach!
What came out loud and clear is you earnestly want to see us succeed. Your process and training has made employees feel it’s [our relationship culture] actually going to happen so they see we offer a better path forward. That has lead them to feel more positive about the future, excited, optimistic and empowered to adopt the skills
On behalf of BRAMCO we want to thank you for your excellent Sales Coaching Program for our agency principals, specialists and internal wholesalers. You helped our staff to be better consultants and to understand their customers and producers more deeply. As a result our specialists are more confident, consistent, consultative and closing more cases. Our sales results prove it!
Given the wide range of experience in our group, you successfully engaged ALL of our sales staff. Even our veterans benefited from your focused presentation and coaching session. The positive feedback we received from our people was practically unanimous and all felt that the concepts, focused on relationship building with clients to grow sales, were practical and worthwhile. There is no doubt that your ability to connect with our folks was a direct result of the great amount of time you spent in preparation and the diligence with which you tailored many portions of the day. Going forward, we will surely continue to incorporate many of the techniques and tips and use it to grow our company’s revenues and the incomes of our staff.
I learned more about business development, making consultative sales calls and attracting SEG’s in 1.5 hours than in the past nine months in my job. Your ideas on pre-call planning, infiltrating a niche and adding value are amazing and your enthusiasm is contagious.
Congratulations on celebrating your 25th anniversary in business. The programs you developed have helped our company greatly. We put in place our WOW Service Culture so many years ago and our Service Improvement Teams, our standards and our measurements are still a part of our daily life. You promised us a program that, if we did our part, would never set on a shelf but would help us keep our service culture alive and well and that has been the case. So again we thank you!
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