Greg Nanigian, President and CEO at Greg Nanigian and Associates, Inc. (GNA) believes sales is a very honorable profession. That said, there’s no nobility in meeting with a prospect and performing ineffectively.
“Most people don’t know the most effective ways to sell. They do what they think is the right thing to do, which is to share product knowledge,” Nanigian says. “That’s not necessarily the best way. Instead, we train people on how to develop a systematic, efficient approach to sales.”
Nanigian and NEACH Payments Group (NPG) have been collaborating this spring to offer leadership workshops geared toward banking professionals. The courses— Square Pegs/Round Holes? How to place staff in the right positions; Missing out on Branch Sales? Discover New and Proven ways to Motivate Retail Teams to Sell!; and Winning Cash Management Sales Strategies—are based on the DISC Model of assessment, as well as the Sandler method, both of which are behavioral psychology tools. The basic DISC styles are dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness. The Sandler selling process, founded by David Sandler, follows a low-pressure, consultative selling approach also determined by behavioral psychology.
“If a salesperson knows these models and uses them, they can see a 25 percent increase in sales,” Nanigian says.
One of the biggest mistakes in selling is to assume that everyone has the same style as you, Nanigian explains. The workshops’ focus on behavioral styles provides participants with a way to be more effective communicators; in a selling or customer service role, the representative can assess the prospect’s communication style—and match it.
Understanding behavioral models isn’t only successful for outside sales; it can also be effective internally as well. People can use DISC to figure out the right job for themselves or their team. For example, if someone is detail-oriented and analytical by nature, if they take on a role at work where they need to make snap decisions, they aren’t going to do as well. But once participants understand DISC methods to help figure out what their behavioral style is, they can find roles that energize instead of exhaust.
Selling should also be approached as part of a larger systematic process, says Nanigian, and the upcoming workshops address what that looks like. Nanigian sets up a thoughtful and multi-step method: First, establishing bonding and rapport—something that’s carried throughout the entire sales process. This is then followed by the second step: a verbal agreement.
“A verbal agreement is simply talking about what’s going to take place in a meeting. For instance, say a prospect walks into a bank, and the bank’s client service representative asks, ‘How can I help you?’ and the prospect wants to know about cash management or refinancing information or how to diversify their investments. The client services rep says, ‘Let’s sit down together to talk about your questions and how we might be able to help.’ By that, you’ve established a verbal agreement—simply to ask questions and see if it makes sense,” Nanigian explains.
The next steps over the whole sales process take participants on a journey from introduction to decision-making and long-term relationship building—a progression that Nanigian details further in his sessions. Nanigian promises that when a salesperson uses this process properly, the steps involved flow naturally.
The first workshop, Missing out on Branch Sales? Discover New and Proven ways to Motivate Retail Teams to Sell!, zeroed in on how branch managers and their teams can become more effective at selling by uncovering prospects’ needs, desires, goals, and pain points. “A branch manager needs to be a really good interviewer to find out what the client really wants,” he says.
Join us for Winning Cash Management Sales Strategies on Wednesday, May 19. To sign up for this or other upcoming workshops, please visit https://www.neachgroup.com/Services/workshops.