5 Essential Trust-Based Strategies for Business Banking Success Today

In today’s dynamic, commoditized, and fiercely complex marketplace, bankers have to work harder than ever to differentiate themselves. Bankers used to be able to rely on their long-term personal connections and unique product or geography knowledge as their leverage for building relationships and closing sales. But not anymore. The disruption of the information age has altered the landscape drastically, creating a need for bankers to adapt their approach to building relationships and earning business.

There are two key trends impacting banking that it’s crucial for bankers to understand.

First, today’s buyers of business banking products and services are savvier than ever and difficult to impress. Because prospects and clients alike have a wealth of information and resources at their fingertips through Google, innovations in FinTech, and other digital channels, they can discover in mere moments information that would have taken them hours or days to find ten years ago. The speed and ease of accessing relevant information empowers and motivates today’s customers to do their own research about financial products and the answers to perplexing business conundrums they face. They’re more educated than ever. And bankers are struggling to keep up.

Second, access to decision makers is more limited than ever before. In a world that expects instant access to information, and on-demand responsiveness from leaders, often the time of decision makers is at a premium. They’re mired in their own day-to-day challenges, besot with the expectations of their own overwhelming jobs, price sensitive, and often juggling competing priorities that allow for little flexibility in their hectic schedules. Increasingly, unless you stand out extraordinarily from the pack, your prospects simply don’t have time for you.

One reason bankers are struggling to adapt to these trends is they are still operating in an old sales paradigm. They focus on small talk; they’re transactional, overtly sales-focused, and product oriented. And, they’re not engaging in the same level of curiosity, research, or preparation as their prospects. But clients expect and deserve better. They want their business banker to be at least as prepared and knowledgeable, if not more so, as they are about the issues, challenges, and needs of their industry. 79% percent of business buyers of banking products say it’s critical that a salesperson understand their specific business needs. But 9 out of 10 companies report that their bank provides them with no industry-specific information that can add value to their business. If bankers aren’t adding value to the business relationship, why even have bank calling officers?

Not only are bankers not making the effort to gain the deeper understanding of industries that could give them a competitive advantage – most bankers aren’t even aware the landscape has shifted so dramatically. This knowledge gap has created a trust deficit between buyer and banker. In an age where earning trust is foundational to sales and business banking success, how can bankers adapt their strategies to better differentiate themselves and meet their buyers’ evolving needs? 

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