Case Studies

$7 Billion Community Bank Case Study

Situation: As part of their strategic growth plan, this bank acquired 22 other community banks in a fairly short time span. Each new acquisition brought another sales process, another sales vocabulary, and another coaching style.  While the bank continued to grow through these acquisitions, their ability to implement, manage, and sustain a consistent, repeatable sales process was virtually impossible. They were looking for a proven bank training and consulting company to come in and analyze their current situation, develop a customized sales and coaching training solution, and deliver the program to all 185 calling officer and managers.

Solution: After conducting telephone interviews with several calling officers and managers from the different regions to determine their sales and management strengths and weaknesses, The James Paul Group developed and delivered a customized business development sales training program for all 185 outside calling officers and management. In addition to the sales training, The James Paul Group conducted a leadership coaching program that allowed all of the sales management team to manage their staff in a similar fashion, making it easier for senior management to conduct pipeline report meetings, one on ones, and strategy sessions.

Result: As a result of the training programs, this bank was able to increase their commercial deposits while ensuring an efficient customer engagement process that is both effective and sustainable.

$750 million Community Bank Case Study

Situation: 75 year old community bank was beginning to lose market share to newer banks entering the marketplace. They did not have any type of sales or service culture and admitted they "waited for business to come to us". They were concerned that if they did not change the way they conducted business with their customers they would lose their number one ranking in their markets.

Solution:  After studying the bank’s employees, tools and processes, The James Paul Group implemented a series of improvement solutions that included market research (surveys), commercial and retail sales training, customer loyalty training, and product training. We also implemented a Mystery Shop program where we shopped their branches both in person and by telephone monthly to determine both strengths and coaching opportunities. This information allowed the bank to understand the areas that needed improvement and act immediately to ensure long term success.

Result: In two years, the bank’s market share in terms of deposits increased from 34% to 46%. This is in spite of an oversaturated market (10 banks) that included two NEW banks that opened during the year.

Deposits increased 32%.

The bank also set growth records in the following categories:

• Fee income
• Loan portfolio
• Number of sales calls made
• Number of referrals recorded