Business Model, Innovation

Crowd Funding Platforms and Banks

There has been a consistent growth in the number of Crowd-funding platforms all around the world. This is quite understandable given that they address a niche segment of the market that no other financial system has been able to address well. Some of these crowd funding platforms are now moving from crowd-funding (in lieu of kind & merchandise) to becoming crowd investing platform (in lieu of equity). What surprises me is the fact that banking institutions have not led the way and adopted this model so far but look at these as competition or threat. If I were leading a digital channel for a […]

Leadership, Sales

Three Things That I Look in a Person Before Hiring

I read a wonderful post by Shane Parrish titled “Warren Buffet: The three things I look for in a person“. Here he shares three qualities that Buffet looks in a person: Integrity Intelligence Energy He also thinks that without the first, the other two don’t matter much. This reminded me of my mentor and his principle’s while deciding to work with someone. His list was as below, in the order of importance: Integrity Passion Ambition Again, he said that without the first, the other two are a sure recipe for disaster. However, when you add that in the mix, it plays the role […]

Sales

Building High Performing Sales Teams

Are you under constant pressure to deliver an ever increasing sales targets? Do you want to explore if there is a way that you can build a culture that enables high performing sales teams and guide them to consistently push the limits and deliver quarter after quarter? Then join me in my quest to find out what it takes to build such a culture. In my opinion, there are three components that contribute to building a culture that enables a high performing sales teams: Sales Process – Do you have a clearly defined sales process and do your sales execs […]

Customer Engagement

What can Sales Teams Learn from Performing Arts?

Selling has a lot in common with performing arts than visible at first glance. One of the most important goal of a performing artist is to take their audience on a journey with them, the more immersive the experience, the more successful is the performance. The same is with selling. The goal of a sales executive should also be to take the customer on a journey with them. The more immersive this experience, the more successful will be the sales executive. Some lessons that sales executives can learn from performing artists who are very successful are: Weave a story: There is […]

Customer Engagement

An Example of True Customer Centricity – When Banking is No Longer Just About Banking

Fifth Third Bank and NextJob came together to address a challenge faced by most retail banks – Mortgage defaults. According to the press release from the company, Steven Alonso, executive vice president and head of Fifth Third Bancorp says – “Up to half of mortgage delinquencies are due to job loss. With NextJob, we immediately recognized an opportunity to go the extra mile to assist our customers. This is specific, one-on-one training that helps people identify their transferable skills and re-gain the financial stability of a new job.” Mortgage defaults can eat up a banks profits very quickly, hence most banks look inwards […]