Tip of the Week
Find Pain and You May Just Find Your Next SBA Loan
Many of you have heard us speak about the merits of a consultative selling approach to meeting your customer's needs. Perhaps you have also heard us use the analogy of a competent SBA lending officer to a well trained medical doctor. We are effectively "financial physicians" who must ask our prospects probing (often difficult) questions in order to really understand their needs and then see if we can help them.
In fact, we think of needs in more graphic, even medical terms - we see it as PAIN. And when you find pain, and can effectively help the prospect to reach a good buying decision as a result of discovering their pain and your solution to it - you have helped your customer and you have made a sale.
In the context of a terrific Sales and Service workshop we had the privilege of leading this week- we heard a very compelling story from one of the participants about a recent encounter with a prospect that now looks like it will lead to his next approved SBA loan. He thought of this story and shared it with our group once he heard us describing our take of finding a prospect's pain (real need) and helping them discover an effective solution for solving the pain.
The story went something like this: Our SBA lending pro made a true "cold call" when he stopped into the prospect's store (we were not told what kind of store, but let's pretend it was a coffee shop) to get a cup of joe. After just a few minutes at the counter, he noticed a gentleman behind the counter that he thought seemed like the owner (and he was) - good first call. The owner was impressed and pleased with this observant new customer so rapport was immediately established.
Next our sales pro complimented the owner on the great store and asked him if he could share who did his SBA loan (he assumed the positive notion that it was indeed an SBA loan that helped launch this fine business.) The owner proceeded to that no SBA loan was utilized, but rather he and his partner bootstrapped the business with cash and credit card financing! Now some bankers might be put off by that and run for the hills. Not this SBA lending pro. Without flinching, he said something like, "Wow, that must be painful making those high monthly payments every month - the store must really be doing great to do that". Again, this is a stroke of genius, at least a very effective sales technique. The store owner proceeded to spill his guts that yes, indeed it was painful and boy he sure wishes he could find someone to help make them a good, well structured loan.
PAIN. Remember, when you find pain, you have really found a need to be met and if your product or service can solve the pain, you will likely make a sale. So what do you think happened next? Our sales pro, without skipping a beat said "Well sir, I happen to specialize in helping small business folks just like you every day. If I could help you get those payments down by facilitating a new loan with XYZ bank, would you be interested in discussing that further with me? We could probably determine if it's a match within a short conversation and looking at your financial information.
Well you can imagine the rest of the story. Our lending friend DID get the follow up appointment, got all the necessary application information and is in the final stages of getting internal approval to proceed with the deal. Why? All because he asked a few good questions and he found real need, real pain (plus he got a good cup of coffee).
Is your group tuned in to how to:
- effectively prospect
- build rapport
- establish up front and ongoing agreements with customers
- find real pain
- Lead to effective budget discussions
- Make a decision to proceed with an application
- Proceed with fulfillment (delivery of the loan)
- End with an effective post close the sales call to mitigate shopping the deal or cold feet?
If your team can do all that consistently (the seven steps to effective consultative sales), congratulations, you have got a high performance team on your hands and you should be doing good SBA loans left and right!
If not, we should talk. You see, we help SBA lenders (Banks, CDC's, Non Bank Lenders and Credit Unions) all across the nation - increase their effectiveness with sales and service strategies. We can conduct customized training and/or intensive coaching to help your SBA lending group go to the next level. Can you afford a sales force that is not reaching their highest potential? If not, let's visit. Feel free to check us out at www.sbaAccess.com or call us to schedule a complimentary initial consultation. If you have pain, we might have a remedy.
Take the right approach
Brian Burke and Karen McHugh
SBA Access ©2009 - All Rights Reserved
All content is copyrighted and unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. If you would like to quote any part of this text, email bburke@sbaaccess.com or kmchugh@sbaaccess.com for permission.
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