Selling Is Not Order Taking

As a financial representative for HomeFed Bank of San Diego, I evolved from being an order-taker to becoming a seasoned sales professional by understanding the difference. Order-takers are limited because they allow the client to control the sales session, opening only the accounts requested and nothing more. Sales professionals guide clients through the sales session, listening, acknowledging, supporting, and closing on not only what the client came in for, but also on products which fulfill client needs uncovered during the sales session. This really hit home for me one day about two years ago.

It was almost time to lock the doors one Friday evening when a new client walked up to my desk. As he sat down, I simultaneously looked at my watch and asked him how I could be of assistance. When he said he needed to open a checking account, I went into automatic order-taker and, for a full five minutes, I went about my business gathering the necessary data and filling out the required forms. Suddenly I realized what I was doing. He had ordered a checking account and that’s what I was about to give him. I didn’t even know how much money he was planning to deposit, what kind of average balance he kept, or even if he needed his funds to be liquid.

At that point I stopped what I was doing, took a deep breath, and started over. I began talking to my client, asking open-ended questions in order to elicit information. It turned out the checking account was to be used as a holding account for the down payment on a new home. He’d need the money within a month, he said, so he couldn’t invest in a CD. The amount? A mere $40,000! I could hardly believe he was planning to put that much money in a checking account at 5 percent interest.

Once I recovered, I told him about a high-yielding money-market account that we offer. With check writing ability and the convenience of telephone transfers and ATM access, he could have the best of both worlds. My client was thrilled and I felt great. I had done more than just sell him something, I had really filled a need for him. And guess what? He sold his current home for a lot more than he anticipated so when he had an extra $50,000 to invest, whom do you think he called? Not an order-taker but a real sales professional.