WELCOME TO THE one story on the financial industry you're going to read this year that isn't about the recession, federal bailouts or corporate crime. Even better, the phrases "main street," "Pay-Czar," and "AIG" will appear in this sentence only. We won't even make cracks about Ben Bernanke's ridiculous beard or sedate, listless facial expressions, tempting as it may be. In fact, as far as we're concerned, there's not even any bad economic news to report. The financial industry is doing just fine.
Sure, banks are by no means thriving, but that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with them buying promotional products. After all, there are plenty of banks undergoing mergers, rebrandings or just general "get the sub-prime stink out" advertising initiatives right now. Not to mention all the mid-sized and smaller banks barely scratched by the banking collapse, just dying for someone to help them spend their marketing budgets.
So, advertising cash may be tighter, and there may be fewer banks to sell to overall, but there are still plenty of sales opportunities out there. Thankfully too, the general sales strategy hasn't changed much: Do your research and be as creative as possible.
RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH. THEN, MORE RESEARCH.
Besides the basic and all-important background legwork that would go into any new client (learning the brand, reading up on client competitors, finding out who controls the budget, etc.), there is a fair bit more research to do with financial companies. For instance, an average-sized bank is likely going to have numerous semi-autonomous departments, each with their own goals, purposes, and most importantly, marketing budgets. Identifying these departments and learning their needs and goals can sometimes give an unexpected and critical "in" to a business, or perhaps just open up more substantial opportunities to sell than you might first expect.
An example would be a campaign D'Lee Mayberry, a senior account executive working out of Culver City, Calif., for HALO/Lee Wayne, Sterling, Ill., ran with one of her largest bank clients. Mayberry, who has more than 20 years of experience working with financial institutions, ended up doing some of her earliest work with this client in an area that has little to do with banking.
The bank, a mid-sized organization focused mostly on small business loans, has a public-outreach foundation like many of its peers. Among other projects it was working on, the foundation needed help promoting an internal employee-giving program for the United Way. Mayberry was aware of this need, and was able to craft a rewards program for them that not only earned her a sale, it also strengthened her relationship with an important part of the bank, the foundation being responsible for many other marketing initiatives within the company.
"I made a decision several years ago that I wasn't going to get a lot of clients, I was going to go narrow and deep," said Mayberry. "So I'm in a lot of departments at this client, as at my other three big clients. I try to be enmeshed everywhere I can go, because things change so quickly." She explained with banking clients where she wasn't as entrenched, she lost them when they were bought up, merged or otherwise shifted personnel. "Things changed and, because I didn't have that really strong foothold, it disappeared."
The Box, and where you are in ?relation to it
As for what is most crucial to practice when selling to banks, it turns out it's not much different than most other promotions. "I would say the most important thing you can be is creative," said Mayberry.
Ronald Williams, director of sales and marketing for Brandelope, Fenton, Mo., agreed. "Financial institutions will always require the basic promotional items (pens, etc.), but if you really want to garner their attention as well as their purchasing dollars, show them something they can use which will improve their image and relationships within the surrounding community," he said.
An example of what Mayberry and Williams are getting at in regards to creativity can be seen in another promotional campaign Mayberry designed. The program, a junior banking program created to drive children ages seven to 11 to open accounts, ended up being enormously successful and popular with the client.
The program was broad in scope, excelling in many areas. Not only did it reach children, an uncommon demographic for banks, it also involved and reached their parents. The program had an easy-to-track ROI, children receiving different tiers of rewards as they reached various deposit levels in their accounts. Finally, not only did the program serve the community public relations function of teaching children about banking, it also served to add money back into the bank via the children's deposits, something any business would be hard-pressed to turn down.
Beyond creativity earning the initial sale, an added value of such a memorable program is that it also serves as a portfolio piece, making future sales, even to other companies, easier. "I can still call on one of the vice presidents of a different location and introduce myself in an e-mail and say, 'I'm the one [who] introduced that program to the bank,' and I will get a response," Mayberry said.