Where Many Financial Institutions Find Themselves

You are a community bank or a credit union. You work hard every day to deliver the best customer or member experience you can while also providing the best solutions for your customer or member’s needs.

However, there is one problem. Your personal bankers and member service representatives could be best described as “order takers” instead of advisors or true sales professionals. They simply perform the request of the customer or member without finding or uncovering other needs and/or ways to help them. Thus, they establish no meaningful relationship with the customer or member.

Because of this, you realize that your financial institution may not be fully capitalizing on the opportunities to communicate the many outstanding products and services you have to offer your customers and members.

More so, you know that your customer or member is at a disadvantage because they are not receiving the full benefit of understanding all the solutions you have and how they can profit from them.

The State of The Sales Environment

In recent years, there has been a decline in trust for sales professionals by consumers due to the use of poor and outdated sales tactics. It seems that in some ways, there is a move away from the building of real relationships for the need to hit sales targets, quotas, and/or incentive payouts. As a result, not only is the consumer suffering, but the organization that perpetuates this type of behavior suffers as well.

Please note that your customer and member is paying attention. They are well informed. Everything that they need to know about you and what you offer is at their fingertips. They have access to your website, online reviews, and word of mouth recommendations from those they already know, like, and trust.

What Consumers Want and Need

What prospective clients, members, and customers are longing for is the professional who will look them in the eye, tell them the truth, and point them in the right direction to help solve their problem. They want someone they can trust and with whom they can forge a relationship. One thing is true; nothing takes the place of a warm smile, an attentive ear, a carefully thought out resolution to their problem, and a handshake. Simply put, consumers want a CONNECTION.

The key to boosting sales and building a viable pipeline of eager prospects and customers is the creation of high levels of rapport with those whom you wish to help and serve.

The Solution

The Rapport Selling Academy is an exclusive 3-Part Comprehensive Training System that was developed by Jai A. Darden, Sales Training Expert, to help sales people become sales professionals by placing the needs, wants, and desires of the client, member, and/or customer at the center of all interactions.

It guides participants to understand the steps and tools needed to increase sales. This is accomplished through a focus on the building of rapport and mutual respect with prospects and/or customers and members, thereby developing a long lasting and meaningful relationship for years to come.

The participants walk away with a series of strategies, methods, ideas, and techniques to improve the volume and ease of sales.

The participants in the Rapport Selling Academy will gain the following knowledge:

1. How to Develop the Exceptional Experience Mentality by Incorporating the R.A.P.P.O.R.T. Methodology (Developing the Correct Mindset is Key to Success).
2. How to Get to Know and Understand Your Client/Customer in A Way That Helps You Build the Relationship
3. Understanding Sales Psychology – Why People Buy (How you can use this knowledge to close more sales/deals)
4. Becoming the Expert for Your Product/Service – How It Produces 2-Way Confidence
5. Effectively Presenting the Opportunity in a Way That Gives You Credibility and Highlights Your Expertise
6. Getting the Yes (Closing) – The Power Questions and Statements That Will Help You Get a Decision
7. The Post Sale Phase (Continued Rapport) – How to Strengthen and Build the Relationship by Finding Ways to Remain Relevant in the Minds of Your Customers or Members

The Rapport Selling Academy Explained

The Rapport Selling Academy could be best described as an Elite Coaching Program. Many of the top training and coaching experts in the world use the approach that Jai A. Darden uses in the Rapport Selling Academy so that students may obtain the transformation and results they desire to accomplish.

The 3 -Part Training System consists of

1. An On-Demand Online Training Platform
2. An Onsite Rapport Based Selling Workshop
3. Weekly Coaching and Q & A Calls

This 3-part process ensures that your team will obtain the tools they need to better serve your members or customers.

The On-Demand Online Training Platform

The online training suite is designed to provide both an intriguing and welcoming experience while learning the mindsets, principles, and strategies that will develop your teams. Companies large and small are leveraging the strength and flexibility of virtual training platforms to assist with training their employees.

There are many advantages to leveraging this platform. Here a few:
• It provides real-time skill development
• Students can revisit trainings they need more help and/or clarity with
• Participants work at their pace and can complete courses / training on an individual basis
• Great for on-boarding new employees and ensuring that the training and sales culture remains congruent

We also understand that having interpersonal communication is powerful and important while learning for most people. We have you covered on this. Introducing the Rapport Based Selling Workshop.

The Rapport Based Selling Workshop Description

There is something about attending an in-person training where discussions and activities are utilized for learning. Allowing your team to participate in the onsite workshop is valuable and helps to reinforce what is learned in the online training.

The workshop consists of two full days of classroom instruction. An optional third day can be reserved for hands on interaction with sales personnel providing immediate feedback concerning their prospect/customer interactions. This is ideal as it fortifies what the sales professionals have just learned and helps to seal in the concepts.
Sales managers/coaches are encouraged to shadow the instructor during feedback and active coaching with the sales professionals.

Doing so will prove beneficial when it is time for the Branch / Sales Manager to reinforce the strategies that were learned during the workshop.

*The sessions are customized for your organization. Some sales professionals are offsite as opposed to others who are local. Ask how we can customize this hands-on experience for your sales team if they office remotely.

Weekly Coaching and Q & A Calls

Ongoing coaching is vital to the success of any professional or team. The third step in the Rapport Selling Academy is the weekly coaching calls. On these calls, your team may join to ask questions about varying topics that will help them perform at their best in their roles as sales professionals.

Things covered could include but are not limited to:

• How to overcome objections
• Types of questions to ask to get potential clients, members, and/or customers to open up
• Ways to ask for referrals, and building a client book of business
• General role-play opportunities

Coaching calls are valuable in that they present participates with the opportunity to have continued learning and growth. There are three main ways for participants to benefit from these calls:

• Raise their hand for personal coaching and support with their questions
• Simply drop questions into the Q & A queue to be answered
• They personally have no questions but hear real-time feedback, gain insight, and apply it to their roles

Now is the time to position the organization and your team for success. There is no better time than the present to ensure that the entire team can deliver the world-class experience that your members or customers demand.

If your financial institution’s focus is on delivering results for your members or customers, the increase in sales and revenue will soon follow.