Note Taking Systems To Improve Your Bank’s Sales Calls

Recently, we sat down with Jack Hubbard of St. Meyer and Hubbard to compare sales call note-taking approaches. We were both amazed at how few bankers take notes during meetings and sales calls. While there are lots of reason not to take notes, there is one scientific study out there that shows you can have 70% or better recollection of an event past three months. Since the customer is one of the most important assets to your bank, and you likely pride yourself on being relationship-driven, then it only makes sense that every banker should take notes. In this article, we explore two similar, but different systems for your consideration.

The Data is Valuable 

During the onboarding process here at CenterState, we give every new employee a branded notepad. We stress that we will teach you anything and you are free to ask any question you want, all under one condition – you take notes. We don’t want to teach you the same thing two are three nor answer the same question. If we feel our time is valuable, the customer’s time is even more valuable.

In our opinion, a top performing relationship manager is tasked with managing three distinct processes: 1) Leading and quarterbacking the relationship, 2) Facilitating the buying process of the prospect, and 3) Managing the data to from the customer. If you are not actively gathering, storing and disseminating  information about the customer, chances are data is getting lost or not being leveraged.  This is not good for our bankers, and it’s even worse for the customer.

The solution here is simple – take notes, review notes, and actionize them. A proper note taking system, aids in all three areas graphically displayed below and sets you up to succeed at all three.  

For every newly hired banker that tells us it is rude not to make eye contact or to be taking notes during a meeting, we have a simple solution – just ask ahead of time if it is OK to take notes – problem solved. In fact, we often mention something like, “We want to make sure we capture what you say, are you OK if we take some notes?” We have done this more than 1,000 of times each and not once, have we ever been turned down.

Further, for those that say, they can’t write fast enough, or they can’t conduct a meeting and take notes, there are some solutions to that as well. For starters, the two systems that we are about to step through will help solve that problem. Also, note-taking is a skill and takes practice so start now. Finally, we guarantee, backed up by tests we have conducted, that you listen much better when you take notes than you remember if you don’t take notes.

Getting Lost In Our Memory Palace

Years ago we took a memory class taught by Eight-time World Memory Champion Dominic O’Brien. The core of the technique was called the Method of Loci and involved creating a “Memory Palace” where each thought was tied to a location, and then you simply walked around the location in your mind to recall the concept you wanted to remember. We practiced for months and then used it for a sales call. You know what? We had 90% or better recall more than three months after.

Then we started to use it for every sales call. Sometimes we had five sales calls a day. Encoding the information became almost impossible. We started to mix up the information attributing to the wrong call. Confusion reigned. While this might be able to be done by an expert, it certainly can’t be done by the average banker. Our conclusion was we need a note-taking system, and we need to use it on EVERY sales call and internal meeting.

Sales Call Note Taking The St. Meyer & Hubbard Way

Jack likes the typical notepad and lays out what he calls “The First Call Five.” When he makes the first call on a potential client, he wants to walk away with these five pieces of information. Jack advises placing these in a box in the upper right-hand corner like below. 

The timeframe helps him understand the customer’s sense of urgency so that he can be as responsive as possible. This also helps bankers with their time management. If the timeframe is six months from now, that is one thing. If a decision is to be made two weeks from now, it’s a horse of a very different color.

Jack advises to ask your potential banking customer about the competition if it comes up, but don’t force the issue. It’s only call #1, and no one is changing anything at this point. If they talk about another financial services provider, they are using without mentioning the name, using your good active listening skills to ask a follow up question like: “you mentioned a financial services provider. Who are you working with now and who are you looking at besides us for this initiative?” All they can say is “I can’t tell you that.” OK. Move on.

Knowing how decisions are made is as important as who makes them at this point. The Challenger Customer indicates that businesses with over 50 employees have 5.4 decision makers around any given buying situation. Bankers are getting to an average of two and part of that reason is that they are either asking the wrong question about how decisions are made or not asking it at all. Inside the organization is one thing. What about outside? Many companies have advisors, spouses, friends, etc. that they go to for help with decisions. Not knowing if that is the case could scuttle the sale. Decision Process, not a Decision Maker.

We know the what. They are buying deposits, loans, merchant services, etc. Criteria are the why and too often we don’t understand the factors that could allow us to win or might cause us to be the first runner-up. “You are looking at several providers for this initiative, Mary. What factors will rise to the top to help you select one from another?” It is fascinating how many times this question is not asked on calls.

Finally, Jack likes to inquire about any political issues that could influence the relationship or decision process. Maybe they had previously been turned down for a loan by your bank 15 years go, or maybe they have a standing tee time with your main competitor. There are all kinds of Political Issues out there. Learning these early guides your future tactics.

The Pre-Boarding Question

Jack calls these “pre-boarding questions” and are questions to ask to find out more about the customer. As the title suggestions, these questions are the same ones you would ask as they become the customer, so the thought is to start this process early.

Listed above in the graphic are the bullet points that get learned over time by your relationship managers. Until internalized, Jack promotes that you should write them down before the call to help jog your memory.

As you get used to them, they can be remembered as “Why,” “What,” “Been,” “Now,” and “Going.”

Why did you agree to see me? It’s likely the only question you need to start the dialogue. What’s Different if you were to succeed at this or not succeed at this? Where have you been? Have the potential customer give you a little background on the company’s history. Also, discuss your experience. Talk about your background with the company. Where Are You Now? What are some key priorities on your plate? What are some top trends in the industry? Who are some peers and pacesetters you respect? Discuss your target markets. Talk about your top competitors. Where are you going? Where do you see yourself and the business in the next 3-5 years? What are some plans you have? How do you plan to get there? What stands in your way? What outside help do you need?

The Middle and Follow Up

This leaves the middle of the page open for your notes. It’s not a penmanship contest so don’t worry about writing on the lines. Write bullets and phrases all over the page. Circle or box the key priorities or notate them with stars. When you get back to the car, transfer them into sentences or at least in a form you can read later.

Our Modifications On The St. Meyer and Hubbard System

We are just learning Jack’s system and will likely modify how we already teach sale call note-taking. For starters, we teach the same system for sales call note-taking as we do for meeting note taking. As such, our system is a little more adaptable for a variety of meetings whether it is the first call or the fiftieth call.

Some of Jack’s questions, such as the decision-making process are important but may not be applicable for the first meeting if there is not a decision to be made.

Even though we now give every employee a pad of paper on their first day, we strongly advise using an electronic means to capture information preferably a tablet. We do this to reduce friction of getting the information into your CRM system. Few relationship managers we have found will retype their notes into the CRM system, particularly if you had five sales calls that day. Better, in our estimation to put them directly into your CRM system while you are in front of the customer, or use a cloud-based note-taking system like Evernote (our favorite) or OneNote to take notes electronically and then cut and paste into your CRM.

Purpose/Background/Next Steps

Our note-taking system divides the page into three sections. The Purpose section is where you put the agenda for the meeting and the substantive bullet points discussed.

Any background information learned that is not pertinent to the meeting goes in the background section. In this section, we also have a checklist of “35 Questions” that is the minimum information we want to collect, and we train to ask these questions as time allows, usually spread out over several meetings. This checklist will be published in a future article, but they largely overlap with Jack’s pre-boarding questions.  

Finally, and most importantly, either during the meeting or post-meeting, we recap the action items, the timing and who is responsible. Our preference is to recap during the meeting and then confirm with all the meeting participants if time allows.

The Follow Up

While we send a thank you email and validation of action items after every meeting, Jack advises sending a full Conversation Recap. At CenterState, this is new to us, and we are considering incorporating this into our sales routine. Some bankers use Smartphones or tablets with recording devices and take notes that way. They won’t miss a thing with this method and done with the buyer’s permission; it is very effective.

Putting This Into Action

Do you have a different template or methodology? If so we would love to hear about it. Regardless, we agree with Jack that note taking in a meeting is critical to building a long-term relationship. Consider either of these two note-taking systems or combine them into your own.

Also, as Jack suggests, if you want to make sure note taking happens, how about running a skill builder around note-taking and pre-boarding? Then you can follow up on the skills at your periodic check-in calls with your relationship managers. As an exercise, to hone note-taking skills, have your sales staff exchange meeting notes and critique them to see if they captured the right questions, with the right priority and had suitable Next Step items.

Note-taking is a game changer and is the first step to building institutional knowledge about a customer. It is hard to claim that you are a relationship bank if the relationships rest with your sales staff and not with the bank. Your sales staff might be relationship-driven, but your bank is likely transactional.

Make note taking a teaching point with your relationship managers and watch productivity increase as you create more value for the customer, for your relationship managers and for the bank.  

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