This article details 8 essential steps to acquiring more clients. When executed correctly these fundamental elements of marketing will help you achieve clients in your desired market. I’m assuming you want to grow and acquire long term market-shares although you may not necessarily have a marketing presence or direction. If you’re like most agencies, you have a sales initiative that consists of follow-up calls and referrals. Let me mention that when soliciting to new customers, they have a few things on their mind; “who are you, what makes you different and how is that difference going to benefit me?” While sales and referrals are positive, they tend to be reactionary resulting in moderate and unpredictable growth. In my opinion, because we are in the communications age, referrals and light sales are not enough. Better communication, with a defined marketing plan influenced by strategy is critical to ensure long-term growth. What are some key elements to growing your business through marketing strategy and communications? The first thing I want to talk about is how to acquire a new client without the relationship. Let’s put our networking caps down and look at how you can adequately illustrate the value of your service to a cold lead.
1.) Acquiring New Clients without the
Relationship
This is broken up into three areas and I will define them further below. 1) Know and address your prospect’s unique key frustrations. I say unique because you want to address frustrations specific to them and their industry. This will require some research 2) Provide a solution relative to their key frustration and 3) communicate the end result they will experience, how, and why. If possible, provide an example of how you solved the same problem for a company in their situation. Fact is, your message communicates these three components. You will create a valuable relationship with your new client. The next step is to strategically pick who want your new clients to be.
2.) Creating an Ideal Customer Profile
Sending a promotional campaign to a general list of people soliciting collections services is not going to get you a very good response, no matter how great your service is. It’s important to define who you want your new customer to be. So start by looking at your existing client list. Who is the most profitable client in your agency? What accounts cost you the least while providing your agency with the best return? These are your agency’s star clients. Now pick 5 clients in different segments of one industry. Try to avoid traditional industries like General Medical unless it’s over 80% of your portfolio. If this is the case, you’re already specializing in one industry, focus your efforts on branding it. I mention this because your prospects are always looking for you to provide solutions to their unique challenges. You want to be careful when picking your target customer because often times your ideal customer happens to be everyone else’s ideal customer. I ask that you search deeper. Try to look at the abstracts within particular industries, like Medical Lab Collections. Quantify the profitability of your niche market and then take it one step further. Research the competition in this specialized market to see who is doing
it the best. If you don’t find anyone, expect a profitable future because you just found an ideal customer in a bleeding market. Final thought, Psychoanalysis: What are the similarities between your 5 ideal customers…what makes them great? Write down these attributes. Now write a list of their problems. Create a survey and mail it to 12 - 15 customers. It’s important to get their feedback and not make assumptions as to what their needs are. You will learn a lot about your customers and how to market to them by asking questions. Now let’s consider how you are going to acquire information on thousands of ideal customers.
3. Database Management
We’re in a technological era, so all the information you need about your ideal customer
is archived in a database somewhere on a server. Be confident that this info is available and organized enough to be used by your company. The most desirable database in the collections market is the email address of every Fortune 1000 CFO in the U.S, but forget about it; because you want to super-service your niche market. By doing that, your agency will create the most value. Selective “Spam” for lack of a sexier word…is the most effective means of communicating your message to a new client. However it’s also the most risky. Dun & Bradstreet, http://smallbusiness.dnb.com a database service provider will not sell email address because it’s an invasion of privacy. I suggest avoiding Gorilla Marketing tactics in this industry all together and organizing your database with other attributes in mind: address, phone, company name, contact name, industry, company size, and website address. Once you acquire a database of your ideal customer. You will need to manage it appropriately. There are a number of CRM’s (Customer Relationship Management) solutions to choose from. ACT (the most popular), GOLDMINE, MICROSOFT OUTLOOK and the newest addition Salesforce.com, an internet based CRM that allows you to manage your accounts from any computer, anytime, anywhere in the world. Salesforce.com’s nearest competitor Net Suite (http://www.netsuite.com) combines CRM with enterprise resource planning. This is a full backoffice/front office solution. Both programs are provided for under $100 a month, per user. Another benefit with an online CRM is that your data is backed up on a daily bases, so you never have to worry about losing your priceless information. Now you know your ideal customer and they are ready to hear what you have to say. Let’s talk about your value proposition.
4.) Defining Agency Benefits and Providing a Value Proposition
The most important thing to consider when presenting a value proposition to a prospect without the relationship is whether your service is relevant to their unique business. When you call a person and tell them something they can relate to while backing it up with your service that addresses their key frustrations and desires, you will create the stigma that when your company calls, everything you say is going to be valuable. I know it’s cold and scientific to think this way, but I happen to believe that most people make their decisions about everything in life based on the value of the person, object or situation and how it’s going to affect their life. You can only acquire this relevant information by researching and understanding your customer entirely. What are some other key elements of creating a value proposition? Have a solid message: Invest the time in writing a message that describes your unique service in a succinct manner. Don’t make this message all about you, but rather how your service will affect your prospect. Example: We provide collection services for Medical Labs only we do it a little different here, whenever we work with a new client we provide them with predictable projections on receivables. Most collection agencies send generic messages. “Here is some information about us, we’ve been in business for 25 years and we do it better than anyone. We have the latest technology, no collection, no fee, and you can trust us, we’re an honest collection agency.” Newsflash, this is not proprietary marketing content. This makes every collection agency look like a commodity. You need to have a point of differentiation, and it needs to be specific. Let’s go back to your ideal customer profile and knowing your prospect. If you are a collection agency that services everyone, you can’t possibly know all of their key frustrations and provide better service to every prospect in every market; this is why specialization is so important. So now what are your agency’s benefits and how are you different? The greatest piece of content you can give a prospect is an example of the benefits you have given someone else in their position. This automatically illustrates the benefits and end result your prospect will experience after they’ve used your solution. State of the art skip tracing is not a benefit to your prospect. Mentioning that you find 99% of all debtors, dead or alive, through State of the Art skip-tracing and proprietary databases, specific to their industry is a benefit. Being in business for 25 years is not a benefit. Being in the business of Collecting Medical Lab equipment for 25 years, is. It’s important to take some time to look at your messaging to ensure it’s not all about you, but instead about how your services relate to your prospects.
#5 Deployment Strategies:
Everyone loves deployment. They often enjoy it so much that they forget all about getting to know their customer and just start telling everyone how great their service is. It’s important to ask yourself what mediums of communication will work best for your business. Mediums of communication being: internet advertising, email campaigns, direct mail campaigns, magazine advertising, trade publications, PR initiatives and newsletters. Before spending any money on your voice, know what your response will be like in each medium. Ask the publication, marketing firm, etc. What they expect your Return on Investment to be. We’ve experienced an 11% response from 100 prospects (an ideal customer database of course), from a simple personalized letter. I want to elaborate further on campaign strategy. I suggest creating a story board of tasks prior to deploying any campaign. The story board should succinctly combine your promotional collateral (direct mail) online presence (website), telemarketing and company collateral (Sales Presentation.) Establish before deployment when and how they will be used in the sales process. Prior to deploying a large scale campaign, test all of these mediums on a smaller market, like 10 companies you don’t mind losing. Go in with the expectation you are going to close all ten of them. This will do two things. Help you create a strong sales program and give you an idea of all the ways your new prospects will say no. It will also give you some criteria as to the success of the campaign. I mention sales protocol. It’s tough to be disciplined while executing the sales process, but necessary to ensure you’re going to be able to automate and shorten your sales cycle in the future. This brings me to my next point - follow-up over and over with your customer and make it valuable.
#6 Communicating the Value of Your Agency through Follow-up
Over a 60 day period, it’s important to maintain the same integrity you had day one with your value proposition. Every time you talk to your prospect, have a new piece of value for them. Send a Case Study of the affect your service had on a company in their situation. Don’t ever call and say “Hey Bob, just calling to check up on where you’re at with the proposal I sent last week.” Leave them with a gem about how your service will affect their company or how it just affected someone else in their situation. Lastly, I don’t want to sound cliché, but failure is not an option. The prospects that give you the hardest time are the ones you’re going to learn the most from, so never give up. Just keep sending them value.
#7 Sales Presentation Insights:
When you are cold-calling your goal is to set a meeting. When you get a meeting, your goal is to provide value. When you’ve made your presentation, your goal is to make your prospect comfortable with assigning you theiassets. I think it’s important to look at the sales process in baby steps, at no point being intrusive or too “selly.” Narrate how long the meeting will take and the benefits they will experience by attending. The overall goal is to create so much value for your new prospect they feel they are doing a disservice to their company by not engaging with your agency. In my experience I found a company’s decision to go with one agency VS, another comes down to 3 main attributes; your rate of recovery, compliance, and customer service. Your sales presentation should be organized to the point that an entry level sales person can follow it verbatim, whether it’s a Collateral or PowerPoint presentation. Your presentation should be a well thought-out guideline for your sales person to follow. Don’t assume your sales presentation stops after the meeting. It’s important to illustrate credibility across your entire marketing platform. Your website should be consistent with your sales presentation so the upper level management of your prospect company can reference your information without going to the meeting. If you are the sales manager, your job is to manage the sales staff and evolve the sales process. You are not going to be able to work on the company if you are too busy working in it. If the sales manager is not working on growing the sales department, the company is not growing.
#8 Closing the Sale:
At the end of the sales cycle customers don’t place with your agency for two main reasons. They don’t need your service or they don’t understand why you’re better. If they are engaging ideas with you then they are interested in addressing the problems in their business. Know there is an opportunity to find out their key frustration and help them understand the positive effects your agency will provide. If after review, you can provide a better solution start working for them before the sales cycle is over. Ask them what is holding them back from moving forward. Ask what their concerns are. When they communicate why they are not moving forward use the, “If I could would you,” tactic “If we did that for you, could we move forward?” Then make it obnoxiously easy for them to place new accounts. If it’s a three step process, tell them the three steps and remind them of the end result they will experience by employing your agency.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Shorter Sales Cycle - What You Must Have at the End of the Sales Cycle to Make the Close Easy
A ridiculously easy way for you the sales person to get your customers to place new accounts – as quickly as possible. Forget collection software or any existing online forms. What says ‘easy account placement’ to your prospect and what do you need to do at the end of your sales call after the verbal yes to get accounts placed? In March I talked about using Engagement Policies to optimize the sales cycle. This article focuses on automating policies with online technology.
Common Rebuttals and a Reality Check
Your prospects commonly say, “Everything sounds good Jim, I just need to run this by _X”, “You know, it’s in Legal”, “It’s taking some time to get those accounts together”, “IT is working on the details,” and so on. There always seems to be an ‘x factor,’ but I think these are all blow-offs. The real reason: Prospect: “Man, it looks like changing our agency or using this firm is going to take more work then I initially expected. It’s hard for me to justify the change; I’ll get to this when I have a bit more time. Now, I have other revenue generating tasks I can focus my energy on.”
In the book The Tipping Point, author Malcolm Gladwell emphasizes the power of giving very clear instructions and defining the expectation of effort. In other words, you really need to ‘spell things out’ for your prospects at the end of the sales cycle. This creates discernible value and discourages excuses like the ones I mentioned earlier. With that being said, I want to define some methodology to be use at the end of every sales call:
Now for a Ridiculously Easy Way for You to Get
Prospect to Place Accounts
I looked at 150 of the top collection agency websites in the US and found that 90% of these agencies had a Client Login. If I was the client, I’d assume that when I logged in it would take me to an interface that displayed my client information, reports and directed me on how to place accounts online. When I actually logged in to some of these online collection software environments, I was totally lost and confused (and I was a programmer myself from 1997-2001). These environments are great account management tools after the orientation meeting and formal training, but where’s the technology for the sales person to use at the end of the sales call?
Out of the 150 agencies, not one of them had a Client Placement Center. Specialty Risk Services (http://www.specialtyriskservices.com) is a publicly traded company owned by The Hartford. Go there now and click on the Claims Reporting Center. Placing a claim is actually more difficult than placing accounts for collection, but SRS made it easy. At the claims reporting center you can place claims 24/7 by phone, internet, email, and fax. Every document is made available online (procedures, legal documents, forms, etc.). This is all in addition to their separate Online Client Account Management System. Imagine the stigma that is attached to this company? As a sales person trying to get someone to execute at the end of a sales call, imagine taking your prospect to an environment like this and saying over and over again “working with us is easy.”
You Now Have the Perfect Placement World. Here’s the End of a Great Sales Call
You: “I’m glad you’re to giving us a try. How long do you think it will take to put 25 accounts together to test our service? I don’t feel a need to involve IT right now. I want you to see the value we’re going to bring your company so you can take away some measured results. Do you have 5 more minutes? I’d like to quickly show you a website. Go to clientplacementcenter.com. Do you see steps one, two and three? This is all it takes to begin working with us. The first step is our standard collection agreement, just hit the “accept” button. The second step is your company information;
let us know who you are. The last step is your debtors account information. Here you can upload a batch file or fill in accounts manually. See the menu items on the right side? Those are all the procedures involved when working with our firm, in case you want to print or reference any of this information off-online. These online forms are secure and compliant so your information is safe. As you can see, this process is easy and takes about 10 minutes. We can upload accounts now, or I can schedule another time with you or one of your associates. Again, this step is to just get you started working with our firm. Once you have seen our value with minimal risk, we’ll get IT to automate future placements and negotiate the best contingency rate for collection.”
Quick Notes
• Don’t let more then three business days pass without a follow-up
• Always ask why if you get a “No”
Why this strategy Makes a Difference
1. Testing is less time consuming and risky for new prospects.
It may not require the approval of a superior.
2. If you are negotiating rates based on your test performance,
you could secure a higher contingency fee, provided your performance is good.
3. Once you establish how much is collectable in the test, you can create a case study out of their accounts and leverage larger placements based on the performance.
What this tool does for you the sales person is now you can take the guess work out of the next steps for your prospect.
If you perform the test you have dollarized the value of your company and your contact will spearhead your proposal through the channels of his or her company in days as opposed to months. I’ve seen one of the 10 largest banks in the world take a new agency on within 45 days. ••
Common Rebuttals and a Reality Check
Your prospects commonly say, “Everything sounds good Jim, I just need to run this by _X”, “You know, it’s in Legal”, “It’s taking some time to get those accounts together”, “IT is working on the details,” and so on. There always seems to be an ‘x factor,’ but I think these are all blow-offs. The real reason: Prospect: “Man, it looks like changing our agency or using this firm is going to take more work then I initially expected. It’s hard for me to justify the change; I’ll get to this when I have a bit more time. Now, I have other revenue generating tasks I can focus my energy on.”
In the book The Tipping Point, author Malcolm Gladwell emphasizes the power of giving very clear instructions and defining the expectation of effort. In other words, you really need to ‘spell things out’ for your prospects at the end of the sales cycle. This creates discernible value and discourages excuses like the ones I mentioned earlier. With that being said, I want to define some methodology to be use at the end of every sales call:
- Clearly Establish Tasks by All Parties
- Define When Tasks are Due
- Define Expected Results of the Tasks
- Define Possible Bottlenecks that could Hinder Results
- Define Solutions to those Bottlenecks Before they Happen
- Define Exactly How Much Time Each Task will Require
of Prospect & Company - Follow-up on Tasks Rather Than Making just a General Inquiry
Now for a Ridiculously Easy Way for You to Get
Prospect to Place Accounts
I looked at 150 of the top collection agency websites in the US and found that 90% of these agencies had a Client Login. If I was the client, I’d assume that when I logged in it would take me to an interface that displayed my client information, reports and directed me on how to place accounts online. When I actually logged in to some of these online collection software environments, I was totally lost and confused (and I was a programmer myself from 1997-2001). These environments are great account management tools after the orientation meeting and formal training, but where’s the technology for the sales person to use at the end of the sales call?
Out of the 150 agencies, not one of them had a Client Placement Center. Specialty Risk Services (http://www.specialtyriskservices.com) is a publicly traded company owned by The Hartford. Go there now and click on the Claims Reporting Center. Placing a claim is actually more difficult than placing accounts for collection, but SRS made it easy. At the claims reporting center you can place claims 24/7 by phone, internet, email, and fax. Every document is made available online (procedures, legal documents, forms, etc.). This is all in addition to their separate Online Client Account Management System. Imagine the stigma that is attached to this company? As a sales person trying to get someone to execute at the end of a sales call, imagine taking your prospect to an environment like this and saying over and over again “working with us is easy.”
You Now Have the Perfect Placement World. Here’s the End of a Great Sales Call
You: “I’m glad you’re to giving us a try. How long do you think it will take to put 25 accounts together to test our service? I don’t feel a need to involve IT right now. I want you to see the value we’re going to bring your company so you can take away some measured results. Do you have 5 more minutes? I’d like to quickly show you a website. Go to clientplacementcenter.com. Do you see steps one, two and three? This is all it takes to begin working with us. The first step is our standard collection agreement, just hit the “accept” button. The second step is your company information;
let us know who you are. The last step is your debtors account information. Here you can upload a batch file or fill in accounts manually. See the menu items on the right side? Those are all the procedures involved when working with our firm, in case you want to print or reference any of this information off-online. These online forms are secure and compliant so your information is safe. As you can see, this process is easy and takes about 10 minutes. We can upload accounts now, or I can schedule another time with you or one of your associates. Again, this step is to just get you started working with our firm. Once you have seen our value with minimal risk, we’ll get IT to automate future placements and negotiate the best contingency rate for collection.”
Quick Notes
• Don’t let more then three business days pass without a follow-up
• Always ask why if you get a “No”
Why this strategy Makes a Difference
1. Testing is less time consuming and risky for new prospects.
It may not require the approval of a superior.
2. If you are negotiating rates based on your test performance,
you could secure a higher contingency fee, provided your performance is good.
3. Once you establish how much is collectable in the test, you can create a case study out of their accounts and leverage larger placements based on the performance.
What this tool does for you the sales person is now you can take the guess work out of the next steps for your prospect.
If you perform the test you have dollarized the value of your company and your contact will spearhead your proposal through the channels of his or her company in days as opposed to months. I’ve seen one of the 10 largest banks in the world take a new agency on within 45 days. ••
How To Land a BIllion Dollar Bank Client
If you have ever bid on a large bank or credit union RFP, you’ll benefit from this article. I’ve watched agencies in the industry get the hot contracts over and over again and I’ve noticed some consistencies. I hate to be a buzzkill this early in an article but you’re not going to like what I have to say. If you’re an agency with the capacity to service large banks, it could take you a year to prepare for this pitch. But these principles actually pertain to more than just Big Banking, as I think all Big Business is establishing basic criteria for hiring agencies. Please also consider that all large banks have procedures. The more hoops you jump through the closer you get to the contract.
That said, below is a list of the eight criterion I’ve come to understand help catch “the big fish.” You Only Want a Specific Piece of their Portfolio. I’m a tool when it comes to speaking about specialization and I’m going to be one again here. Last year I saw it work in acquiring one of the 10 largest banks in the U.S. A unique and valued service offering will allow you to knock on the front door of a B of A size client and get them to listen. First, let’s break down the bank; there are roughly 250 prospects that fall under the ideal “billion dollar bank” profile used in this example. Banks typically have 6-10 different load divisions; Secured Assets (Rolling Stock), Mortgage, Credit Card, Personal and Business Loans. Here is where I like to complicate things. Within those divisions there are 200+ segments of loan portfolios. GE Money has a division to finance your cat’s operation if you accidentally run it over. The division is Care Credit and they’re no slouch, servicing 100,000 small hospitals across the U.S. But you just want their Veterinary Division because you can be sure that right now they are using a large agency that claims to be a specialist at servicing “Credit Card” but pay very little attention to Veterinary Medicine. I’d like to step into a possible utopian situation for a minute. I am GE money and a collection vender comes to me and says the following: “Levon, Bob here. I work for Veterinary Accounts and we have been servicing animal hospitals in California along with some credit card portfolios. We’re very familiar with your Care Credit Service for Animal Hospitals and we would like an opportunity to show you how we can service the debt in a more Pet Owner-Friendly fashion. Our recovery with existing animal hospitals is 40% and we have almost no debtor complaints due mostly in part to our understanding of the industry.” I would call Bob back, check his collection capacity and compliance and give him a try. Furthermore if he lived up to my expectations I might endorse his collection services in a strategic partnership with all of my animal hospital clients.
Show Measured Results
Don’t expect a billion dollar client without showing quantifiable results. And I don’t mean just pulling a collection activity report from your software. Measured results are best presented in a few forms: third party audits, client case studies and reputable references. Selling with measured results such as Client Case Studies is another 1200 word article, so I uploaded it to my
26website. Download it free here: http://www.vintonmoss.com/casestudyexample.htm. Follow the case study up with a third party audit. Also, having a reputable
accounting firm verify liquidation will give you the added leverage. Each of these correspondences are an excuse to make additional contact with your prospect - DO NOT send everything at once. Finally, include three references from your niche market portfolio.
Data Security Certification
There are two common certifications that are typically required by large banks: ISO 17799 and SAS70 Type II. ISO and SAS 70 implement security measures to protect data and the privacy
of debtors in your operation. If you haven’t taken steps internally to ensure that data is secure, a large bank will most likely not consider you. The risk is just too high. I feel ISO certification is the superior of the two, and it typically requires 2-6 months of preparation to become ISO certified.
Licensed in all States that Require It
This mostly pertains to Consumer Collections.Sizable banks have customers nationwide. To be licensed in all required states, even if you are pitching collection of commercial accounts, is viewed as the most legitimate in a bank’s eyes. Licensing can take 3-9 months and up to $70,000. One of my clients has a copy of all their licenses printed in a binder that they overnight along with ISO, Bonding, and PPMS certification to prospects after they get a verbal. If you were on the receiving end of those documents, you would feel the legitimacy and security of the agency.
Have a Progressive Working Environment
Many banks will want to see your operations first hand; in fact you should suggest the onsite visit before they do. Don’t feel like you need shinny marble floors in your lobby, they are interested in specific elements of the operation. Start by printing your Mission Statement
and Collector Values and post them on the walls. Have a room dedicated to training collections staff. Serve good coffee, even if it’s just for that day.
Its good to have collector culture and this doesn’t necessarily have to do with the size of the desks as much as the overall morale in your office. Collectionsstaff should illustrate teamwork and be able to express themselves. Have incentive programs and make them known. If you have a collector working under the stair case, you lost the deal. The client is going to want to see an extension of their operations, so make them proud.
Collections Capacity
If you don’t have at least 30 collectors and an administration staff of 15, this is going to be a tough sell. Most banks have account capacity requirements. Many of the largest banks require at least 100 collectors, and you will be quickly ruled out if you don’t have capacity to service their volume. The vender certification process is just too cumbersome for them to bother with small fish. Back to my specialization module earlier in the article: I have seen the 100 collector “requirement” brushed away when you request to work a niche or segment of their portfolio.
Have a Billion Dollar Presentation
At the end of the day, up to 50% of the decision to work with your agency is based on their affinity towards you. The presentation you provide is the only representation of your organization they will know until you start working for them. You need to communicate that you’re easy to work with and systematically illustrate the value points. A solid presentation is customer focused. Here are 10 modules to include in a presentation, each content section on a separate page not consisting of more than 300 words.
Table of Contents:
• About the Company
• Fulfillment of Service and Description
• Benefits of Service
• Key Difference of Service
• Industry Experience
• Technology and Working with the Company
• Reporting
• Case Study
• Projections
• References
Once you have the content for the following modules, hire a Graphic Artist
to make it professional looking. Do NOT use power point, it will just look like everything else they have seen.
Expect Logistics at the End of the Sales Cycle
If you have all the modules we detailed above, it’s still going to be a 3-9 month sales process before you get your first placement. Sales don’t end until a placement has been made. Selling the service and getting through approvals and logistics can be a daunting process. The bank has to get corporate approval, agreements approved, train their staff, and integrate with your technology. Be sure you have a savvy, full-time IT manager. The best thing you can do in this final stage is ask them to tell you everything they are going to need to start making placements. Then let them know that you are ready to start getting
things done.
There will be hoops to jump through. Good Luck! ••
Levon Vinton Moss began a career in marketing and communications in 1994 with the “Federal Express to FedEx” brand transition. Since then, he has worked with more than twenty Fortune 500 companies. Over the last ten years, Levon has had experience in all aspects of business development; from creating identities to writing strategies for business models. About six years ago, he began to focus strictly on the collections industry. Currently, Levon is the CEO of Vinton Moss (www.vintonmoss.com) which services more than 30 collection agencies within different market segments. Vinton Moss’ main objective is to help collection agencies grow by efficiently communicating the value of their service to their
That said, below is a list of the eight criterion I’ve come to understand help catch “the big fish.” You Only Want a Specific Piece of their Portfolio. I’m a tool when it comes to speaking about specialization and I’m going to be one again here. Last year I saw it work in acquiring one of the 10 largest banks in the U.S. A unique and valued service offering will allow you to knock on the front door of a B of A size client and get them to listen. First, let’s break down the bank; there are roughly 250 prospects that fall under the ideal “billion dollar bank” profile used in this example. Banks typically have 6-10 different load divisions; Secured Assets (Rolling Stock), Mortgage, Credit Card, Personal and Business Loans. Here is where I like to complicate things. Within those divisions there are 200+ segments of loan portfolios. GE Money has a division to finance your cat’s operation if you accidentally run it over. The division is Care Credit and they’re no slouch, servicing 100,000 small hospitals across the U.S. But you just want their Veterinary Division because you can be sure that right now they are using a large agency that claims to be a specialist at servicing “Credit Card” but pay very little attention to Veterinary Medicine. I’d like to step into a possible utopian situation for a minute. I am GE money and a collection vender comes to me and says the following: “Levon, Bob here. I work for Veterinary Accounts and we have been servicing animal hospitals in California along with some credit card portfolios. We’re very familiar with your Care Credit Service for Animal Hospitals and we would like an opportunity to show you how we can service the debt in a more Pet Owner-Friendly fashion. Our recovery with existing animal hospitals is 40% and we have almost no debtor complaints due mostly in part to our understanding of the industry.” I would call Bob back, check his collection capacity and compliance and give him a try. Furthermore if he lived up to my expectations I might endorse his collection services in a strategic partnership with all of my animal hospital clients.
Show Measured Results
Don’t expect a billion dollar client without showing quantifiable results. And I don’t mean just pulling a collection activity report from your software. Measured results are best presented in a few forms: third party audits, client case studies and reputable references. Selling with measured results such as Client Case Studies is another 1200 word article, so I uploaded it to my
26website. Download it free here: http://www.vintonmoss.com/casestudyexample.htm. Follow the case study up with a third party audit. Also, having a reputable
accounting firm verify liquidation will give you the added leverage. Each of these correspondences are an excuse to make additional contact with your prospect - DO NOT send everything at once. Finally, include three references from your niche market portfolio.
Data Security Certification
There are two common certifications that are typically required by large banks: ISO 17799 and SAS70 Type II. ISO and SAS 70 implement security measures to protect data and the privacy
of debtors in your operation. If you haven’t taken steps internally to ensure that data is secure, a large bank will most likely not consider you. The risk is just too high. I feel ISO certification is the superior of the two, and it typically requires 2-6 months of preparation to become ISO certified.
Licensed in all States that Require It
This mostly pertains to Consumer Collections.Sizable banks have customers nationwide. To be licensed in all required states, even if you are pitching collection of commercial accounts, is viewed as the most legitimate in a bank’s eyes. Licensing can take 3-9 months and up to $70,000. One of my clients has a copy of all their licenses printed in a binder that they overnight along with ISO, Bonding, and PPMS certification to prospects after they get a verbal. If you were on the receiving end of those documents, you would feel the legitimacy and security of the agency.
Have a Progressive Working Environment
Many banks will want to see your operations first hand; in fact you should suggest the onsite visit before they do. Don’t feel like you need shinny marble floors in your lobby, they are interested in specific elements of the operation. Start by printing your Mission Statement
and Collector Values and post them on the walls. Have a room dedicated to training collections staff. Serve good coffee, even if it’s just for that day.
Its good to have collector culture and this doesn’t necessarily have to do with the size of the desks as much as the overall morale in your office. Collectionsstaff should illustrate teamwork and be able to express themselves. Have incentive programs and make them known. If you have a collector working under the stair case, you lost the deal. The client is going to want to see an extension of their operations, so make them proud.
Collections Capacity
If you don’t have at least 30 collectors and an administration staff of 15, this is going to be a tough sell. Most banks have account capacity requirements. Many of the largest banks require at least 100 collectors, and you will be quickly ruled out if you don’t have capacity to service their volume. The vender certification process is just too cumbersome for them to bother with small fish. Back to my specialization module earlier in the article: I have seen the 100 collector “requirement” brushed away when you request to work a niche or segment of their portfolio.
Have a Billion Dollar Presentation
At the end of the day, up to 50% of the decision to work with your agency is based on their affinity towards you. The presentation you provide is the only representation of your organization they will know until you start working for them. You need to communicate that you’re easy to work with and systematically illustrate the value points. A solid presentation is customer focused. Here are 10 modules to include in a presentation, each content section on a separate page not consisting of more than 300 words.
Table of Contents:
• About the Company
• Fulfillment of Service and Description
• Benefits of Service
• Key Difference of Service
• Industry Experience
• Technology and Working with the Company
• Reporting
• Case Study
• Projections
• References
Once you have the content for the following modules, hire a Graphic Artist
to make it professional looking. Do NOT use power point, it will just look like everything else they have seen.
Expect Logistics at the End of the Sales Cycle
If you have all the modules we detailed above, it’s still going to be a 3-9 month sales process before you get your first placement. Sales don’t end until a placement has been made. Selling the service and getting through approvals and logistics can be a daunting process. The bank has to get corporate approval, agreements approved, train their staff, and integrate with your technology. Be sure you have a savvy, full-time IT manager. The best thing you can do in this final stage is ask them to tell you everything they are going to need to start making placements. Then let them know that you are ready to start getting
things done.
There will be hoops to jump through. Good Luck! ••
Levon Vinton Moss began a career in marketing and communications in 1994 with the “Federal Express to FedEx” brand transition. Since then, he has worked with more than twenty Fortune 500 companies. Over the last ten years, Levon has had experience in all aspects of business development; from creating identities to writing strategies for business models. About six years ago, he began to focus strictly on the collections industry. Currently, Levon is the CEO of Vinton Moss (www.vintonmoss.com) which services more than 30 collection agencies within different market segments. Vinton Moss’ main objective is to help collection agencies grow by efficiently communicating the value of their service to their
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