Bankers Learn What Questions to Ask During First Calls with Prospects in Upcoming Webinar

Asking the right questions in a first meeting with a prospect can mean the difference between earning a return visit and getting the door closed on a potential sales opportunity. Questioning strategies and other prospecting techniques to be explored in a live webinar for bank sales people on June 28, 2011 entitled First Calls on Prospects.

Concord, MA, June 27, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Business owners think about things like hiring and managing the operations of their business. Branch managers and business bankers think about profiling business owners’ needs and selling something because they’ve got goals to meet. The result: first meetings between business owners and bankers turn into product-pushing sessions where the business owner’s needs are not heard, understood, or met.

Nick Miller, president of Clarity Advantage, a consulting and bank sales training firm, says: “When branch staff and business bankers shift focus from products the bank happens to be promoting that month and engage prospects around the challenges they face, there are three key benefits: the prospect feels the banker’s interest, the banker is in a better position to advise the prospect or recommend, and the prospect would rarely think of leaving the bank for the services of another provider who doesn’t really know them.”

Miller offers a three-pronged questioning strategy to help bankers engage their prospects when meeting for the first time:

1. Begin with a focus question—What are your most important goals for next year?
2. Move to specifics—How are you planning to pick one of the goals? What are the most important challenges you’ll face as you do that? What sorts of issues are you expecting to face as you address the challenges? What approaches will you take to address these issues?
3. Use follow-up questions—What will happen if you’re not fully able to address those challenges? What resources do you have internally? At what point will you need to consider outside resources to help you?

Miller will explore these and other prospecting strategies on June 28, 2011 in a live webinar entitled First Calls on Prospects. The one-hour, complimentary webinar will begin at 12:00 PM EDT and is intended for bank sales people who are meeting with owner-managed, owner-led companies with annual sales ranging from $500,000 to $20 million.

First Calls on Prospects is part of Clarity Advantage’s Deep Diving into Sales Techniques summer webinar series. The webinar series, which also includes sessions on Selling the Value of Bank Solutions and Negotiating the Fees You Deserve, will provide coaching material for sales managers and actionable tips and strategies for sales people. To learn more about the series and register for the webinars, please visit http://www.clarityadvantage.com/wst/2011/05/news/summer-2011-webinar-series-deep-diving-into-sales-techniques/.

About Clarity Advantage: Consulting and bank sales training firm Clarity Advantage helps banks generate more profitable relationships faster with small and medium-sized companies, their owners, and employees. Clarity consulting, communications, sales tools and training help banks recruit and deploy sales team members, choose their best business and consumer prospects and clients, then approach, engage, sell, expand, and retain relationships. Clarity also assists banks with consumer sales and cash management sales. Clarity clients have posted increases in household penetration, cross-sells, deposit volume, and loan volume. Visitors to Clarity’s website, http://www.clarityadvantage.com, can subscribe to “The Weekly Sales Thought,” a free eNewsletter and podcast focused on business-to-business selling and sales management.

Contact:
Karen Tunks
Clarity Advantage
980-939-2112
karen.tunks@clarityadvantage.com

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Contact
Clarity Advantage Corporation
Karen Tunks
980-939-2112
www.clarityadvantage.com
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