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In the swirl of mergers, acquisitions and
employee swapping that has characterized the
banking industry for the past several years, there's
been a lot of chatter about organizational focus.
Some groups claim to be focused on customer
service; others believe a focus on sales is the key to
survival. Still others say focus needs to be fluid, to
respond to the needs of the day.
In my organization, we've talked consistently about
both sales and service. The phrase "sales and
service" is heard company-wide; it is as if the three
words have morphed into a single word. Our CEO
consistently stresses that success will be determined
by the ability to listen to customers, solve their
problems and seize opportunities to deepen our
business relationship with them. Those words echo
across the organization.
Easier Said Than Done
Still, while most managers agree that successful team
members are "committed" to delivering both
outstanding sales and service, it is easier said than
done. The two components are too often separated
in practice.
On closer analysis, in many organizations,
commitment seems to tip to one side or the other,
depending upon the functional role. Sales managers
generally emphasize and intensively train the sales
component and defer the service side to the "service
experts" - highly specialized customer service
centers. Similarly, customer service managers focus
on and build training for the service side of customer
relationships - "Let's fix those problems friendly and
fast!" - and leave the sales work to the "sales
professionals." Performance evaluations for each
group highlight quantitative measures that relate to
each component separately - number and dollar value
of sales, and number and efficiency of service calls
handled. Employee development plans tend to reflect
either an emphasis on sales skills or on customer
service skills. The employees respond accordingly:
their behaviors target either sales or service - not
both.
Restoring the Balance
As leaders and performance-improvement
professionals who recognize that regardless of the
words on the posters or the skills we build and
sustain, people tend to focus on one area or the
other, a critical role for us is to continually restore
balance between a sales and a service focus. (Let
me emphasize the word "continually.") A great way
to restore balance and increase stability and
profitability is to invest resources in the development
of cross-selling skills. Cross selling is the exciting
intersection of these two business fundamentals.
Most customer service training programs emphasize
interpersonal communication skills to handle difficult
customer situations. In better customer service
programs, team members also learn that everyday
customer interactions can be transformed into
extraordinary ones by listening well and projecting a
friendly and caring attitude. (Not exactly rocket
science, but, again, easier said than done.) The
ultimate goal is to create powerful and positive
impressions in the customers' minds - building goodwill
for the future.
Once we have built those positive impressions in the
customers' minds, we have a choice - we can stop at
thanking the customer for their current business and
move on to the next service call; or we can engage
our customers by really listening to identify genuine
additional needs, and then respond to those business
needs. Notice, I didn't say push other products on
them. Instead, service-based selling is a response to
identified genuine additional needs.
When employees and leaders recognize that cross
selling is simply an extension of customer service,
they are better able to maintain a productive balance
between a focus on sales and a focus on service.
And everyone - the customers, the employees, and
the organization - wins as a result.
Here are a few guidelines for launching and sustaining
successful cross-selling initiatives:
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