Mis-sold, Mislead or Mismanaged Some causes of #Mis-sellingEFG

mis-selling *

 

"The Budget freedoms that come into force in April could trigger mis-selling claims worth billions of pounds"

"Does rising proc  (procuration) fee chasm create mortgage misselling risk?"

"Time to bring an end to mis-selling"

"City directors jailed for biofuel mis-selling  "

Above are just a collection of headlines in the media about mis-selling. The financial institutions have to sort out and fix the problem much like handling and resolving a complaint anyone in selling is familiar with.

But what if it is in the case of a state owned or part taxpayer funded enterprise?

The current mis-selling story doing the rounds is about RBS ( 80% owned by the UK tax payer) in their mis-selling of Enterprise Finance Guarantee  EFG .

The Scotsman  today reported Colin Borland, the Federation of Small Businesses’ head of external affairs in Scotland, said: “It is disappointing to see another mis-selling episode involving small businesses and the banks. RBS needs to move quickly to take care of these small business customers.”

The EFG scheme provides 75% government (tax payer funded)  guarantee to lenders ( e.g) RBS willing to  support  viable small businesses that lack security to obtain a bank loan.

RBS has admitted that some of its customers were incorrectly told that the tax payer guarantee was for their benefit (e.g. small businesses’ benefit) rather than for the bank.

In certain cases only when the EFG  customer defaulted did the business owner discover that they remained liable for the entire outstanding loan.

 Perhaps we have a right to ask Business Secretary Vince Cable and his team regarding the EFG scandal to investigate on our behalf areas such as

1.       What  are ( were) the board of the lender's  responsibility and commitment  to Selling EFG , their responsibility for setting of targets, their responsibility for  design of incentives, bonuses and commission (as well as the salespeople responsible ( Relationship managers) who carried out the directions of the board)

2.       Selling ethics –  Did Self regulation in this case work?,  Was Best practice, best advice given? What is the role of regulators and government on critical points of a selling offer?

3.       What was  the quality of training,  how was it measured and  how was it monitored?

The Times of London implied a connection with the departure of The deputy Chief executive who left on Dec 31^st

An “Accountability Review” is being lead by head of commercial banking and private banking for RBS Alison Rose. She is quoted as saying in James Hurley’s Times article 15^th January

“Our Relationship Managers ( RBS Salespeople) were not clear enough on explaining the liability issue which is critical to customers” head of commercial banking and private banking for RBS, Alison Rose

 

In view of the importance the head of commercial banking and private banking for the lender places on this issue which is critical to customers  we might well seek some clarification on these questions:-

1.      Was this liability issue, which is critical to customers, included in the sales/product training ? Did the senior management identify this liability point in their Training Needs Analysis ?

2.      Was the liability issue, which is critical to customers, stressed in the course content design and commissioning ?

3.      If it was – how was liability issue ,which is critical to customers , actually trained ?  Did the training manuals stress ,with examples, how important this   liability issue which is critical to customers?

4.      Who signed off the training manual content ?

5.      What skills practice was undertaken on the liability issue which is critical to customers  Was it merely lecture input, or  demonstrated with specific examples, or  actively role played by the delegate Relationship Managers ?

6.      What post training course field coaching and monitoring was undertaken to ensure this liability issue, which is critical to customers, was communicated clearly to client prospects?

 

 * There are fortunately over 500 posts published on this site about Good Selling  and positive stories about Selling.

Mobile phone etiquette for Salespeople beware the Michael Gove Gaffe

It is perhaps ironic that the person responsible for discipline and good behaviour in the Conservative Party  himself fell foul of his  dreaded mobile phone going off in his pocket during a meeting in No 10 Downing Street.

Mobile phones are banned from the Cabinet Room for security purposes – such as risk of bugging by criminals or foreign services.

We are told that there is a box in which to place mobiles directly outside the Cabinet Room.

Alongside to the Times headline “Gove leaves cabinet with a flea in his ear over mobile faux pas” was another column headline:-

“Being parted from your I-phone leads to anxiety.”

A study by the University of Missouri has been published in the journal of Computer-mediated cognition.

A group of forty I-phone users were asked to do a word search puzzle whilst their heart rate and blood pressure were monitored.  Midway through the exercise they were asked to surrender their I-phones on the pretence that their I-phones were affecting the medical monitoring equipment.

The phones were put in a locker. Unbeknown to the group the researchers then proceeded to switch on the mobiles and phone them.

Heart rate and blood pressure increased and the group also performed less well on the word search task. In post experiment questionnaire the group recorded increased anxiety  and that the task seemed more unpleasant to work on.

The researchers said

 “Our findings show I-phone separation can severely impact attention during cognitive tasks. Perhaps not just in the case of completing cognitive tasks but also in all areas of our lives including communicating with strangers, friends and Family, colleagues ad care providers.

Simply not being able to answer one’s I-phone may reduce attention in those daily interactions. "

Research I have undertaken in the Buyers’ Views of Supplier Salespeople  project reveals :-

 

Salespeople should not necessarily expect the courtesy to be reciprocated.

However the following might help:

·         Before you start the meeting make a point of switching off your phone in front of your client

·         “Shall we switch off or put our phones on silent to get through our meeting quicker?”

Related Links

Uses of mobile phones in selling

Mobile Phone Etiquette for those who sell

Take More Breaks in your Selling Day . How to thrive in twenty one five

In a professional tournament game of tennis for each set, players get a 90 second break between every two games. Between sets, players get 120 seconds.

 In a game of professional soccer the half time break after 45 min of play is  between 10-15 mins   

for boxing it is one minute between each  3 minute round

The physical fitness of these elite sportspeople is tip top

- yet they take their breaks.

 I guess they take this time to rest and re focus  for  the mental part of the game. Keeping positive , reassessing tactics , reviewing the game plan and  keeping calm.

Why then do we not value breaks in our work ?

Recent research reveals that the average British worker in 2015 will take less than half an hour for lunch  (26 minutes and 28 seconds of lunch)

No doubt the Gordon Gekko Lunch is for wimps syndrome is ever present for some7%  of the working population do not take lunch at all according to research undertaken by Leerdammer.

 This figure was similarly quoted in research undertaken by the  on line recruiter Monster  five years ago..

Back in 2010

 7% did not eat or break for lunch at all

21%  would always eat at their desk so they could get more work done,

32% said they would take a lunch break if they were not too busy

and 40% said they would always take lunch.

Have a break , Have a Kit Kat  ? ( Hershey)-
wrapper from a trip to Chicago last year.
Looks a bit different to the UK  Nestle version

The 2015 study was conducted by Leerdammer , which questioned 2,000 people about their lunch habits. 

 The main reasons people gave for skipping lunch  in this 2015 survey was

 to impress their boss (11%),

 14 % of people said they felt under pressure because of their workloads.

Overall 22 % of those interviewed said they felt less efficient if they did not take a break.

Aude Romelly from Leerdammer said

“ It is a sad fact that eating our lunches at our desk has become a norm.”

“It’s not about doing ‘nothing’ with your lunch hour, but switching your mind onto something different allows you to refresh your perspective, making you more effective later.”

In the Metro Aidan Radnedge piece on this story include a quote from Behavioural expert Karen Meager “ When sitting at our desks we are actually programming  our mind and body to feel bad. Taking a break from work has many healthy, psychological and emotional benefits”.

Brief diversions vastly improve focus, researchers findings in 2011?

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

In the this study, Professor Alejandro Lleras and postdoctoral fellow Atsunori Ariga tested participants' ability to focus on a repetitive computerised task for about an hour under various conditions. The 84 study subjects were divided into four groups: 

•The control group performed the 50-minute task without breaks or diversions.

•The "switch" group and the "no-switch" group memorised four digits prior to performing the task, and were told to respond if they saw one of the digits on the screen during the task. Only the switch group was actually presented with the digits (twice) during the 50-minute experiment. Both groups were tested on their memory of the digits at the end of the task.

•The "digit-ignored" group was shown the same digits presented to the switch group during the task, but was told to ignore them.

 

As expected, most participants' performance declined significantly over the course of the task. But most critically, Lleras said, those in the switch group saw no drop in their performance over time. Simply having them take two brief breaks from their main task (to respond to the digits) allowed them to stay focused during the entire experiment.

"We propose that deactivating and reactivating your goals allows you to stay focused," he said. "From a practical standpoint, our research suggests that, when faced with long tasks (such as studying before a final exam or doing your taxes), it is best to impose brief breaks on yourself. Brief mental breaks will actually help you stay focused on your task!"

Back in the day 2007

Source:   Jakki Stubbington -Benenden Healthcare Society ( reported Metro March 12^th 2007)

Sample Size :   1,000 adults

Smokers spent an average of 30 minutes every working day on ‘fag breaks’. The average smoker takes at least three ten minute breaks a day.

This equivalent to 290,000 working days every year.

Hundreds of thousands of workers took cigarette breaks of more than half  an hour a day- often leaving the office seven times in a shift to smoke.

Smokers in the North take the most breaks with only 13% going through the day without sneaking off for a cigarette compared with almost a third in the Midlands.

Related links


Report on study of effectiveness of short breaks

Take note ,the pen is mightier than MS WORD

A key skill for professional salespeople is to listen and learn. We are expected to 'take note' of what our client is saying.  Yet wow should we best take note in the world of laptops, tablets etc?

We are also expected to take notes at seminars , conferences and  training sessions

Is there still a place for pen and paper ? An old school notepad even ?

Typing on a keyboard is fast.

Handwriting on paper is slow.

My current Parker Ink Pen

 

Strangely, that’s precisely why handwriting is better suited to learning.

 Research psychologists Pam A. Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the University of California, Los Angeles, investigated just how terrible laptops are for note-taking in classrooms in a fascinating study ( April 2014)

Previous studies have argued that laptops make for poor note-taking because of the vast array of distractions available on the internet

 

The experiments undertaken by Mueller and Oppenheimer yielded a counterintuitive conclusion:

Handwriting is better because it slows the learner down.

By slowing down the process of taking notes, you accelerate learning.

Transcribing is not the same as learning, it turns out.

The reasoning runs  something like this.

And yes, there are some who still "write in stone." on real tablets
This craftsman was at work on January 6th 2015 
at Southwark Cathedral, London

With typing  one is able record  almost every word that the client / lecturer utters. The point is, that transcription process doesn’t require any critical thinking.

So while you’re putting the words down on a  MS Word page, your brain doesn’t have to engage with the material.

Learning science reveals, if you’re not signalling that the material is important to your brain, it will discard the lecture from memory for the sake of efficiency.

But if you are taking notes by hand, you won’t be able to write down every word the speaker says. Instead, you’ll have to look for

•  Key points,

•  summarize concepts,

• and ask questions about what you don’t understand.

 

This requires more effort than just typing every word out — and the effort is what helps cement the material in your memory. The more effort you put into understanding something, the stronger signal you’re giving your brain that it’s worth remembering.

 Mueller and Oppenheimer conclude that for students, “transcrib[ing] lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words is detrimental to learning.”

 The benefits of handwriting have been documented by lots of educational psychologists, who have found that handwriting engages parts of the brain that typing neglects, especially areas associated with memory formation.

 French psychologist Stanislas Dehaene told The New York Times, you may want to step away from the keyboard.

“When we write, a unique neural circuit is automatically activated,” he said. “There is a core recognition of the gesture in the written word, a sort of recognition by mental simulation in your brain, it seems that this circuit is contributing in unique ways we didn’t realize.”

The result?

“Learning is made easier,” he concluded.

Related Links

http://pss.sagepub.com/search/results?fulltext=The+pen+is+mightier+than+the+keyboard&submit=yes&journal_set=sppss&src=selected&andorexactfulltext=and&x=9&y=6

Mueller, P.A., & Oppenheimer, D.M. (in press). The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychological Science.

HSBC ADVANCE on cute emotion- How to thrive in twenty on five

HOW WILL YOU THRIVE IN TWENTY ONE FIVE ?

HSBC Advance with the power of emotional motivation.

‘To succeed in life....’ a new advertisement series from HSBC teases ‘... you need some powerful allies’

The ‘book jacket campaign’ round the Metro newspaper is targeted at their potential  “ADVANCE” customers to whom they will offer preferential rates  and benefits on a wide range of HSBC products.

The strap line their supply is TOGETHER WE ADVANCE.

Details include :-

£ 500 off booking fee for mortgages

3.9 % APR representative for loans from £ 8,000 - £15,000 etc

but HOW do HSBC ( or their advertising agents) catch the reader’s attention ?

With an appeal to MOTIVATION

KIDDIES , PUPPY DOG, A BABY – Kiddies at dressing up play – the oh so cute factors

1.    A  close up shot little girl wrapped in ?Mummy’s Shiny gold shawl wearing a pair of what look like old school motor cycle goggles.

      2.    A little boy standing, wearing a scarlet cape, a Mexican wrestler hero knitted balaclava brandishing a tree branch sword ( how did that get through without a health and safety warning note one wonders in these days ;)  ?)  . Out of focus in the background a little girl in Wimbledon colours  with purple eye mask and green shiny cape.

3.    A young baby in striped romper suit asleep along side a cute puppy.

      4.     At the end of this series HSBC promise “There is a rainbow”. Here we have a photo of four kids of various sizes ( and ethnicities)  wearing red wellington boots. They a carrying three  opened umbrellas ( kiddy sized) in concentric banded bright colours.

"The sugar and spice and all things nice" campaign reminds us as we ADVANCE into the new year to remember

 

“There may not be much emotion in business but

 there is a heck of a business in emotion !”

9 New Year's Selling Resolutions 2015 -The Theory of selling everything ?

 



"Fruits of success style" pocket diary
  from WH Smith

The NEW  movie "The Theory of Everything"  starring Eddie  Redmayne is about the physicist , professor Stephen Hawking . ( Go and see it. It's a very good film)

The film is mostly about his love stories but there are moments when we see some of his professional work.

 One of his struggles  is on deciding what the topic for his PhD should be.

Even men of genius it appears from this film procrastinate.

 This may give some comfort to we ordinary folk as the new calendar year begins and we set our goals and resolutions for the 2015 !

 

 I doubt we may set our goal of creating a simple mathematical equation for the " Theory of Selling Everything"  but  then perhaps........ you never make New Year's resolutions anyway.

 They seem like an artificial, stock way to make a change in your work habits.
After all ,if you really want to change, why  wait for January ? 

 Maybe you  figure  you'd be better off just getting  computing ‘patch fixes’- like changes  as you go along throughout the year.

Well,  has that strategy always served you well?

 Waiting until you "felt ready" to change often enabled you to sweep aside goals that were important to you but not time-related SMART goals

But you got fed up with constantly pushing your goals back.  You really did want to change. So this January , you decided to really commit to creating solid New Year's resolutions ...

By putting specific, time-bound goals in place, you are more likely to achieve them.

 If you're looking to set resolutions for 2015 but are struggling with coming up with some solid, achievable ideas, keep on reading.

Here nine resolutions you could pick for next year, and give you additional reading and resources to help you actually accomplish them.

1) Master Sales  Planning

It might seem like an old-school skill, but knowing how to plan is

Resources to Help

• http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/17-years-of-planning-for-london-2012.html

• http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/planning-for-success-2012-sales.html

•  http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/sales-resource-planning-right-time.html

2) Improve your negotiating skills.

When you consider your last negotiation in 2014, did you come from a position of strength or weakness?

 How did your tone, mannerisms and body language  support your negotiation or give you away?

Maybe some refreshment in the skills are in order for 2015.

Resources to Help

http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/making-your-negotiating-ap-peeling.html
 

•  http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/buy-sheep-sell-deer-12-steps-to.html
 

•  http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/post-haste-speed-in-sales-negotiation.html
 

• http://fruitsofsuccesswithhugh.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/the-yes-book-by-clive-rich-review.html  

3) Wellbeing and Selling.  A fashionable Craze or Way forward in 2015 you decide

In last year’s World Economic Forum in Davos there was a Mindfulness Session each morning held in one of the conference rooms.  Some corporations are into it in a big way.

In an interview with Harvard Business Review in April 2014 researcher  and consultant Ellen Langer defined Mindfulness

“Mindfulness is the process of actively noticing new things. When you do that, it puts you in the present. It makes you more sensitive to context and perspective.

 It’s the essence of engagement.

And it’s energy-begetting, not energy-consuming. The mistake most people make is to assume it’s stressful and exhausting—all this thinking. But what’s stressful is all the mindless negative evaluations we make and the worry that we’ll find problems and not be able to solve them.”

 

 

 Resources to Help

•  Mindful attention in selling

 

• Break Breath and Be  -sales mindfulness

• Pro Mindfulness – HBR article 2014
  https://hbr.org/2014/03/mindfulness-in-the-age-of-complexity/ar/1 

• Sceptical  22^nd Dec 2014
  http://www.cityam.com/206079/mindfulness-craze-madness  City A.M.

 

4) Develop a mobile strategy. (Seriously.)

For several years, you've heard about mobile becoming an important focus for selling ... but have you truly invested the resources to learn about mobile, and adapted your marketing strategy accordingly?

If not, spend some time this year developing a mobile strategy and overhauling your website, emails, social accounts, blog, and any other online content to be mobile-friendly.

Resources to Help

•  5 dangerous trends facing B2B
 

• Mobile Media Social but less talk more listening

• Let's facebook it

• Book review of Randi Zukerberg's Dot Complicated

• Mobile Marketing is cool

 

5) Read and post on Social Media consistently in 2015.

You've probably heard all the hype about social  content already -- you just haven't gotten around to start creating some yourself.

Well, 2015 is the year to do it. As more and more content on the web becomes visual, you're going to need to be able to create the content yourself -- or, if you have a bigger budget, learn to better communicate with contractors and agencies to create it for you.

HSBC ads at Heathrow Airport

Blogging, Tweeting, Linking in, Facebooking ,  Instagramming  et al  are like working out: You've got to do it consistently to see great results. You can't just publish or comment once every few months and expect to rack up the views, leads, and customers.

If you're struggling to keep a tight editorial calendar, then commit to blogging  or commenting consistently this year. It doesn't matter if you decide to blog every two weeks, every week, or every day -- the point here is to pick a frequency you think you can accomplish, and stick to it.
Once you develop a solid, reliable rhythm, then you can work on increasing the volume.

 

Resources to Help

• Social selling in selling

• Social Media in Selling Is it worth the hassle ?

•10 ways to filter on twitter

 

6) Don't forget about your  own sales  experience.

If you already have a solid publishing rhythm established, you might want to take the New Year to look back at your well-performing content. Take time to identify the posts that perform best for you, and then figure out how you can squeeze even more juice out of them. In a sense this what this post is doing. Next, apply those experiments' findings to the posts that are "second tier" -- the ones that are decently successful, but could be even more so if you optimised them.

Spending time optimising content you've already created can be a great way to keep your evergreen content fresh for readers and search engines.

Resources to Help Some of the most popular posts on this site

• 5 of the most common sales objections and how to handle them
 

 • Body language in Selling

•   Best practise tips for Sales from Linked In

 

•  10 tips for facebook in business

 

• Selling lessons from the West End, Sloane Street Stores

7)    Prepare a Pech Kucha or Ignite style presentation ready for the call in 2015 ( Elevator speech on steroids)

 They have become popular in design, architecture, photography, art and creative fields, an also in academia.  The idea is becoming is also increasingly popular for Buyers’ Open days where suppliers are invited to come in and pitch.

Pecha  Kucha a presentation style in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each (6 minutes and 40 seconds in total). The format, which keeps presentations concise and fast-paced, powers multiple-speaker events called PechaKucha Nights

An even short type is Ignite whose motto is    “Enlighten us but make it quick”

Ignite is a geek event in over 100 cities worldwide. At the events Ignite presenters share their personal and professional passions, using 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds for a total of just five minutes.

 

Resources to Help

•  Nutshell Sell Introductions

• Nutshell sells without hesitation deviation or repetition 

 

8) Invest in better measurement.

Return on marketing investment ROMI ... one of the most notoriously difficult things to measure, but also the key to unlocking  growth. So why not make it your New Year's resolution next year?

If you're going to tackle this in the New Year, why not set up a coffee meeting with your counterpart in Marketing within the first two weeks of the year. To justify your department's impact, you're going to need to tie your activities to the bottom line -- and your marketing team can help you do just that. Meeting early and often in the process will be key to your success.

Are you measuring the necessary metrics to ensure your sales team are working at optimum level?

 e.g. Sales pipeline, sales revenue, accurate forecasting, leakage in your sales funnel, your win versus loss rate, uptake on opportunities to up or cross sell, quote/proposal to close rate.

Resources to Help

• Busting Silo mentality of Sales and marketing
• Where does marketing end and selling begin?
•   Investigate some of the current proprietary and bespoke CRM systems

Salesforce CRM,   Pipeliner CRM   ,  Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Buddy CRM

9) Move to the next level of your career.

No matter what "next" means for you -- changing your title, broadening your experience, getting more responsibilities, starting your own thing -- you can set out to accomplish it this year. While it may take longer than a year to fully bring off your career goal, setting up a plan for yourself to make big, life-changing moves isn't a bad thing. If your goal is really gigantic , try breaking it into a year-over-year plan, and using the first year plan as the basis for your resolutions.

Resources to Help

• Selling a career for hard working people

• Recruiting Sales Talent

•  Do you have the right sales skills set ?

 

Which of these resolutions will you make -- and actually stick to? What else would you add to the list?

Whatever you decide to action ,Fruits of Success wish you the very best for 2015

Good selling or as adapt and survive in twenty one five

“We are all different – but we share the same human spirit. Perhaps it's human nature that we adapt – and survive."  – Stephen Hawking