How a small handful of banks are drastically growing their balance sheet and bottom line while the masses sleep in a state of unawareness.

Why is it that a $450 million bank that had not had any organic growth in 9 years had an annualized growth rate of 35 percent within 30 days of one culture intervention?

Why is it that a $920 million bank, consistently ranking in the fourth quartile and blaming it on the fact they were in a low-income, shrinking market, moved to the first quartile with over 20 percent growth and a significant profit reversal of tripling ROE within three years with no improvement to their market?

Both of these banks had done sales training for years with virtually NO impact on growth or profits.

Until they “got it.”

“It” is the understanding of what makes a sales culture work.

But what didn’t they “get” before?

1) Marketing is not a department

Marketing is a mindset, and everyone must understand that. Marketing keeps the top of the sales funnel full and positions your organization for premium pricing. Most banks think marketing is advertising; they waste resources buying “fluff-slogan” ads that have minimal ROI.

Every person at your bank should: 1) know your target markets, 2) know how to efficiently and effectively communicate to target prospects in those markets, 3) clearly understand the unique selling proposition for that market that positions you for premium pricing, and makes you desirable enough to pull business away from incumbents.

If you don’t instill this mindset in your people, sales training is a waste. With no clear understanding of unique selling propositions, you will always be dragged down to the pricing of your least mentally gifted or most desperate competitor.

2) Employee buy-in is the cornerstone

Until you engage employees’ hearts, you have no chance of a powerful or sustainable breakthrough. According to research done by the Corporate Executive Board of 50,000 employees, employees who are “true believers”—who value, enjoy, and believe in what they do—displayed 57 percent more discretionary effort and were 87 percent less likely to leave a job.

Until your people are called to a “higher purpose,” nothing great will happen. And making a higher ROA is not a higher purpose.

A vision of extraordinary impact enrolls hearts and minds. Your people must believe they are called to be “on a mission.”

When an employee feels like what they do matters and that you’re noticing the progress they’re making toward that vision, turnaround is rapid and profound.

3) Small steps with extreme focus, sense of urgency, “no-wiggle” accountability, and wild celebration

Most bank managers think sales cultures happen because of sales training and incentives. That would be great, but evidence suggests otherwise: it only shows you’re working hard at working hard.

Bankers have to learn the basics of organizational development. They must understand that all initiatives must be broken down: where people learn to crawl with impeccable grace before they walk, and only begin to run when the walking is perfect. Sales is the running. Service is the crawling and walking. Service must be broken down and perfected.

Simply stated, it is a waste of resources to do sales training until you have shored up all the leaks in your customer service execution.

One CEO said in his Southern drawl, “Roxaaaaaaanne, when we did that kick-off thing with that phone standard process with shopping on those standards, we noticed that cross-sales went up by 34 percent, referrals doubled, and our deposit and loans growth rate was up over 200 percent! Funny, we haven’t even worked on teaching them any sales technique yet. But most importantly, my people are confident—they think they can do aaaaanything.”

Bingo. He got it. That’s the missing element in most sales culture attempts. Managers don’t know how to build the confidence of their people and help them understand that they CAN do anything. That base of success makes it much easier for them to learn.

4) Ban dysfunctional behavior

If you build a house on a foundation with holes, it’s a problem. Think of dysfunctional behaviors as holes. Unfortunately, the level of dysfunctional behavior is huge in many companies, and those behaviors are accepted as the norm.

They only exist because you allow them.

People start operating at their peak when they’re in a safe work environment. Help create that by getting everyone to agree that, as a firm, you won’t tolerate behavior such as whining, victim hood, excuses and stories, gossip, and other chaotic behaviors that undermine—and destroy—the safety of the workplace. Train employees so they know what to do when they see those behaviors, no matter the position of the violator.

When a “problem” employee is identified and coached on improving their behavior, it is imperative that you expect resolution or departure. Eighty-seven percent of employees say that working with a low-performer has decreased their productivity, hampered their development, and made them want to, at some point, leave that job. Ninety-six percent of employees say they would be thrilled if their company more aggressively managed low-performers.

Protect the psyche of your people; high performers leave when dysfunctional behavior is allowed.

5) The only way to improve control is to give up control

That’s right. The way to have the most control of your culture is to give up control. When a team representing a cross-section of the bank is given a clearly defined process and objectives for advancing the culture, magic begins to happen.

These “hoopla teams” always make a bigger impact on the advancement of the bank than a senior management team ever does. Make sure the hoopla team knows exactly what to do and how to do it—and that they encourage it all to be fun, fun, fun.

As you can see, EVERYTHING about sales culture goes back to leadership. Until leadership becomes accountable and stops blaming the sales staff, there is no hope for a shift in culture.