I often work with clients who have been pushing their relationship managers to accelerate revenue growth by cross-selling new services or expanding sales efforts into other avenues of revenue growth. The concept sounds simple enough, but the reality is that this repositioning is far easier to try than pull off. What seemed a good and obvious idea from the mountaintop does not always work. Leaders at the top want to know why and pressure lavas downhill.
Failure causes are many, business reasons and behavioral reasons among them. For simplicity’s sake we will examine the success triangle from three perspectives: the company’s, the relationship manager’s, and the customer’s.
The company. The first question is, of course, why? Tight revenue, under-plan performance, and increasing loss ratios in the marketplace often put the squeeze on sales leaders to find other sources of revenue. In these cases the ask is a tactical gambit, not a strategy, and gambits involve risk. Some relationship managers can sell, most can’t (or won’t), and banking on all of them to succeed is a noble hope but unrealistic expectation.
Once the why is understood, a smart company tests the what. What is the true market value of the product or service relationship managers are now being tasked to sell? Is it clearly differentiated, subtly differentiated, or fairly well commoditized? If the RMs wouldn’t buy it, they won’t sell it. In order to buy it they have to be trained professionally enough that their comfort level is high enough to sell with passion.
This bridging of theory to true sales effectiveness relies on knowledge, skills, and attributes. Knowledge is quantifiable, teachable, and testable. Skills can be developed, but rarely on-line. Attributes are the human intangibles that make each of us unique. Every RM has them. When a new responsibility is placed on the shoulders of the RM teach, individually and collectively they must be inspired.
The company must also decide on how to motivate the RMs. Rewards don’t always work, nor does fear. Fear can drive short term results but accelerates exodus. In a rebounding economy, this is dangerous because talent has options and losing a good relationship manager is very expensive. His or her exodus also implodes the customer relationship; it’s “game on’ to every competitor out there with a seashells and balloons to share.
Success and failure are both quite predictable. Make the move smartly for all the right reasons and prep the team for success, and companies can win. Cut corners and they lose. Both are deserving outcomes. Errors are most frequently made during the planning and prep stage. These create collateral damage, all of which is more costly than doing it right the first time.
The relationship manager. Many people evolve into a Relationship Management career path because they find joy in serving customers. New business reps are usually different animals; what jazzes them is the “thrill of the kill,” doing deals and winning. These are diametrically different sales attributes and people typically perform better in one arena or the other.
High performance talent is rarely interchangeably effective when juggling these roles. “Hunters” get bored caring for customers and “farmers” prefer servicing to selling.
The reason why is that client service often feeds an altruistic motive, where new business dealmaking feeds a reward-centric motivation. Pressuring a good RM to sell more often creates emotional conflict. That conflict changes behaviors during customer interaction and neither side will be comfortable with the new dynamic.
Any time a worker has to deal with change, he or she goes through a four-step cognitive journey. When this emotional “buy it” or “reject it” emotional process is ignored by the boss or company — as it almost always is — the buy-in of the affected salespeople diminishes. Morale, attitude, engagement, and effort are all likely to erode.
The customer. Relationships have rhythms. Change the rhythm, change the dance. Salespeople make a big deal out of being able to “read” a customer. The problem here, of course, is that a customer can read a salesperson too. Pressure is tough to hide, desperation never sells, and people who are unhappy on the inside broadcast it on the outside.
Interpersonal effectiveness between a customer and rep is determined by three things: non-verbal communication, voice and tone, and words. A solid client relationship relies on a strong foundation of trust, integrity, and sincerity. When someone comes across as deviating from the behavioral norm, he or she sends up a yellow flag. Clients don’t buy when the yellow flag flies. More than half the message is non-verbal, more than a third voice and tone. Pressure, uncertainty, and unhappiness never result in overachievement.
This is a multi-layered challenge with far more considerations than just these basics. For more information, feel free to contact me for more information.
Until the, best of luck and continued good selling,
