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How are The 7 Habits? Can Make Your Sales Teams Highly Effective
BY NICK BROWN
Recently my parents gave me a few boxes of ?memories?I apparently still had stored in their basement.� As I looked through the boxes remembering all the great times and experiences I came across my very first copy of Stephen R Covey?s ?The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People?.� Ironically, just days before this I had started reading the book again.� I asked myself, is this just a coincidence or something more?
It had been a number of years since reading the book and not surprisingly this time as I read the messages seamed to apply more to credit unions sales and service than to me personally.� Each habit I went through I said to myself, ?Wow, this applies so well to what credit unions should be doing for their membership and their teams?.� With that in mind I am excited to share some of my brief thoughts on how ?The 7 Habits? can be applied to your credit union sales efforts.
Habit 1: Be Proactive
In ?The 7 Habits?, the first principle of effectiveness Covey teaches is being proactive rather than reactive.� As explained this means taking responsibility and ownership rather than avoiding it through blame and excuse.� It is in recognizing the ability we have to influence and shape our outcomes.
When a consumer engages the credit union for a new product or service, a reactive representative would see the member as the expert, knowing what they want and more detrimentally, what they don?t want.� I find that many credit union sales representatives operate from a reactive position allowing the member to define their relationship with, and the value they receive from, the credit union.�
I used the word detrimental because reactive selling often leaves the member vulnerable to situations they did not anticipate which they now must resolve.� For example, overdrawing their checking account without overdraft protection properly set up.� Totaling their car without GAP insurance.� Suffering a loss of income without debt protection on their loans.� All products and service the member decided not to take because they were not properly explained and offered.
To be highly effective, credit unions must foster a proactive sales environment where representatives understand their responsibility to ensure the member?s complete satisfaction.� In fact, they recognize their members are depending on it.� The representative takes ownership of the member?s financial needs and chose behaviors which empower the member to succeed.� And they recognize that they share the responsibility for the member?s future financial situation.� With this in mind they work within their ?Circle of Influence? to deliver what the member truly needs.
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Before credit union sales representatives can be effective they must first understand what they are working to accomplish.� Every credit union has a mission and a vision they are working towards.� If that mission and vision is for example, to be their member?s primary choice for financial products and services, employees need to understand what that means and what it looks like.� More than this they must clearly understand their role in the process and receive proper training to accomplish it.
Representatives that are equipped to start each member interaction with the end in mind understand the products and services they are working with.� They have been trained on the features and how they benefit the member and give them an advantage in their financial lives.� They know how all of the products and services offered by the credit union fit together to fill the individual and unique needs of their members.� And lastly, they have a vision of what a primary financial relationship requires and can see the path to build those relationships with every member interaction.
Habit 3: Put First Things First
Covey explains that habit 3 is about focusing on your highest priorities and those activities which provide the most worth.� For a credit union sales representative their highest priority should be on the member and helping them achieve their financial goals.� Too often though we find our sales representatives bogged down with paper work, title tracking, loan audits and other busy work.� Clearly these are essential functions of the credit union and cannot be ignored, but are they the highest priority of the sales representative?
If possible, credit unions should look to assign these critical and necessary functions to a processing or support team.� There are two main benefits in doing this.� First, this freesup time for the sales representatives to focus on engaging members and building those primary financial relationships.� And second, it empowers the credit union to higher employees with the strengths most suited for the position resulting in higher levels of effectiveness.
Habit 4: Think Win-Win
Too often sales programs can get out of alignment, reaching for the goal at the expense of the consumer.�� This was no better exemplified than in the Wells Fargo Sales Scandal which came to light one year ago this month.� Credit union sales representatives should be trained that sales success is defined by the value they provide to their members and not necessarily the sales numbers they reach.
In a credit union sales setting the title of this habit could more appropriately be named ?Win-Win-Win? where the goal is to provide value to the member, the credit union, and the employee in each interaction.� Sales efforts should be monitored, and training and coaching should always focus on this value adding approach.� Any time one side becomes out of balance it should be corrected quickly.
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
With this habit, Covey explains that far too often our agenda, and our selfish need to be understood trumps the needs of others around us.� When we do stop talking and start listening, it is with the intent to reply not to understand.
For many credit union sales representatives their first response when a member askes for a new product or service, or when they have a problem with their account, is to immediately start offering solutions, assuming they know exactly what the member needs.� However, this is not effective at building primary financial relationships and providing value.
Because value is largely subjective to the member, to be highly effective employees must be trained and coached to ask questions which identify the member?s true needs, wants and financial dreams, and uncovers the motivation behind those needs before offering product solutions.� One essential place to do this is in the member interview, the critical discussion which should happen when a member or potential member first engages a credit union employee to open a new account, product, or services.
When credit union sales representatives have the motivation to first understand, their results will change in every member interaction.� Think of sales objections.� How would the outcome change if the sale representative listed to learn what the member was asking for with an objection, rather than simply trying to resolve the objection?� Or when a member is dissatisfied, has a problem with their account, and submits a complaint?� Rather than listening to defend, they listen with empathy to understand and then to help even if helping means admitting they or the credit union have made a mistake.
Habit 6: Synergize
Synergize simply means to capture the creative power of cooperation in the highest form, known as teamwork.� We have already discussed the power that synergizing with the member can bring in providing exceptional value in the member relationship.� But synergies must be developed beyond the member relationship, they must be developed within the organization as well.
Your credit union operates multiple sales teams such as the call center, online and phone lending center, mortgage department, investment team, insurance agency, business development team, indirect lending, SBA department, and the many branch sales teams.� And to supporteach of these sales teams are the back office departments.� Many times these various sales teams and departments work in silos.� A member applies for a mortgage and leaves with just a mortgage.� A member needs insurance on a car they just purchased and leaves with just anauto policy.� A new business has approached the credit union for checking and cash management and the new business members leave with just a business account.� Little to no cross department sales referrals occur.
Building synergies within the credit union and especially between the various sales teams, creates value in the member?s relationships which is greater than what each individual team can provide on their own.� For this reason sales representatives should be cross trained on all products and services regardless if they directly sell them to the membership.� They should be encouraged to analyze, identify and refer these products when found because, when all departments workas one team synergistically, the value provided to the member is greatly multiplied.
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
We all know that the most valuable asset to a credit union its employees.� Credit unions must invest in their employees in order to create highly effective sales teams.� In ?The 7 Habits?, Covey suggests that we as individuals must be balanced, not only investing in our professional abilities but also our physical, social, mental and spiritual health.� Likewise credit union sales representatives must be balanced with training, coaching, leadership, and recognition to keep them renewed and engaged.