CHICAGO—Culture eats strategy for lunch.
Chuck Sulerzyski, president/CEO of the $2.6 billion Peoples Bancorp used that quote from management guru Peter Drucker to open his session at BAI Retail Delivery Thursday morning. The session was titled "Positioning Community-Based Banking Organizations to Win" and was part of the community banking track.
"Strategy is the least relevant part of what we all do," Sulerzyski told the audience. "Execution is much more critical than strategy. Culture – what your folks say to clients when nobody's looking – is much more important than strategy."
According to Sulerzyski, many financial services executives talk a lot about sales culture, but don't really create an environment where a sales culture can thrive. He said that the first step to creating a winning sales culture is clearly defining the desired goals and behaviors for every employee.
"You have to define what you want them to do and how you want them to do it," he said.
As an example of his bank's success in fostering a strong sales culture, he noted that Peoples Bank, based in Marietta, Ohio, has grown its checking account base by 5% over the past year. This is despite the fact that, across the industry, checking accounts are on the decline, the accounts are not free, and the bank does no external advertising for them.
"How we're able to do that," he said, "is by our people having good conversations."
Effective training and coaching are also essential to a successful sales culture, Sulerzyski added. He stated that Peoples Bank favors observational-based coaching.
"Observational-based coaching is a supervisor in front of the employee with the customer," he said, "observing the conversation and giving feedback on that conversation, with specific notes and quotes."
He said that this culture is instilled in new employees from day one.
"We're unapologetic in new employee orientation," he said. "We tell folks that they're going to get a lot of feedback, and that we want them to give a lot of feedback, too. All colleagues actively coach one another."
Sulerzyski told the group that Peoples Bank recently hired a certified financial planner, but not primarily to consult with the bank's customers. Instead, this person's chief objective is to train other employees on how to converse with customers on various financial topics.
A financial institution's culture is actually a reflection of its brand, according to Sulerzyski. He concluded his presentation by providing these five questions, which he said must be answered for an financial institution to succeed:
- Do you know what your brand stands for?
- Does the tone at the top support your brand?
- Do your managers support your brand?
- Does the front line understand and believe in your brand?
- Will your model be successful tomorrow?
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