BACKGROUND
In the banking industry, sales and channel management hold significant importance as they enable banks to connect with current and potential customers, earn revenue, and uphold customer relationships. Through efficient sales and channel management, banks can grow sales and achieve higher profitability and revenue. To ensure continued success, a strong foundation for sales and channel management is essential.
THE CHALLENGE
The Client is a top 10 Indonesian bank with a strong presence in both the retail and SME sectors. Originally the corporate focus had been on service quality. With hundreds of retail branches nationwide, the bank ranked in the national top 3 for service quality. With the rapid expansion in the market and increased competition, The Client partnered with Renoir to change focus to become a more sales orientated business.
ANALYSIS
With the above objective in mind, Renoir conducted an initial Analysis of the bank’s operations in to help identify the issues and opportunities for improving sales.
A recent re-organization within the bank had produced a pool of excess branch employees who were simply transferred as ‘sales’ staff into the key branches. With little training, there was a lack of understanding of their new roles, a lack of tools to help them sell and consequently, extremely low sales activity levels (calls, visits and interaction with walk-in customers).
Compounding these issues, the branch management team had little experience of managing a proactive sales process and were unable to guide these newly formed teams. No leading ‘sales’ KPI’s were available.
Renoir felt that by jointly tackling these issues, sales productivity could easily be doubled, increasing the level of new acquisitions.
PROJECT APPROACH
Following the Analysis, the Client and Renoir jointly launched a branch sales improvement project with the aim of doubling the sales productivity in 40 selected A‑Class Branches.
A staged approach was taken firstly by developing a revised sales system, and to roll this out on a trial basis in a limited number of branches. Secondly, to broaden the rollout to additional branches and thirdly, to sustain the change process thus far using situational leadership, and helping the Client prepare for roll out to all branches of the bank.
“The Project has been a great success. Productivity has more than doubled and new sales items have increased by over 30%. Our sales team is now behaving in a more results-driven manner and using the Renoir Behavioural Audit System we are confident that this step improvement can be sustained.”
Director, Shared Distribution
RESULTS
Within 6 months, productivity had doubled in all the 40 selected A‑class branches and new sales acquisitions had improved by over 30%. These results were achieved through the introduction of 5 key working practices:
Detailed & effective individual daily/weekly sales planning
Call/Visit Records created to manage hot prospects
Joint Visit Check Sheets to enable managers to identify skills issues
Daily/Weekly Report with leading KPI’s, activity targets, productivity measurement and product volume targets
Daily Branch Sales Meeting that enabled managers to hold sales staff accountable for results
The key success factor underpinning all these results was the introduction of behavioural auditing used to drive the change process. This allowed each manager to assess the progress of staff behavior towards the full adoption of new processes and ways of working, and identify areas for learning, support and guidance.
CONCLUSION
Sales and channel management are crucial factors for revenue growth in the banking industry. This case study demonstrates how a shift towards a more sales-oriented business can lead to improved revenue growth, profitability and working culture.
By partnering with Renoir, the Client identified the challenges of excess branch employees and a lack of sales training, tools, and KPIs. Through a joint sales improvement project and the introduction of behavioural auditing, productivity doubled, and new sales acquisitions increased by over 30% in just six months.
The success of this project highlights the importance of a strong foundation in sales and channel management for continued revenue growth in banking.
