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:

We don't want to push our ideas on to customers, we simply want to make what they want.
- Laura Ashley

Make a customer, not a sale.
- Katherine Barchetti

Worry about being better; bigger will take care of itself. Think one customer at a time and take care of each one the best way you can.
- Gary Comer

Consumers are statistics. Customers are people.
- Stanley Marcus

There are only two ways to get a new customer: 1. Solicit a new customer any way you can. 2. Take good care of your present customers, so they don't become someone else's new customers.
- Ed Zeitz

Stop selling. Start helping.
- Zig Ziglar

Internalize the Golden Rule of sales that says, 'All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like and trust.'
- Bob Burg

A message from Lynne Key and Tom Dambly

At DiamondWinds, we know that trust is the nexus for Sales, Service and Leadership. Trust is central to effectiveness in all those areas. That's why we have made trust the foundation in our training products and our consulting workshops. But how does Trust impact the bottom line? This month's article emphasizes the role that Trust plays in creating effective cross selling.

Recently, I took my son's car in for new brakes. I returned to a business that I had used for work on my own car a couple of month's ago; they had been honest, making recommendations that were clearly tied to my needs, and passing up the opportunity to push products or services that I didn't need. The amount of Trust engendered is what brought me back with my son's car.

However, this time they recommended brakes and rotors on the rear wheels, and then went on to recommend a whole list of things that had nothing to do with brakes, and that I knew were not needed. Was my Trust shaken? Of course it was, because I knew all those "recommendations" were not developed in response to any need I had; they were driven by a need they had.

That is the difference in effective, customer-focused cross selling that enhances service, and organization-focused cross selling. The former enhances customer Trust and Loyalty, and the latter destroys it. Service and Sales come together at those points and (depending on how the organization creates Trust) they either enhance or destroy each other.

We hope this month brings the smiles of spring to you and your customers, and that those smiles lead to productive Trust-building experiences and cross sales.