BANKING SPECIAL CLIENT LEADERSHIP
Teamwork
34 issue 19 APRIL THE WORD
to give me the opportunity to provide services other
than credit, which is usually the initial basis for our
relationship." What this boils down to, Treffers-Herrera
adds, is that with every single cliënt she and her team
try to leverage the capital usage to sell other products
and generate additional fee income. "My cliënt and I both
understand that they have a certain wallet for financial
services and that Rabobank gets its fair share of that
wallet."
Both Rottjers and Treffers-Herrera agree, however, that
Rabobank will only get a fair share of the wallet if it gets
the execution right. Cross-sell is very hard work, Rottjers
stresses, and takes a professional and committed attitude.
Selling a product is one thing, but the right delivery is
even more important, as every client's number one priority
is that you deliver what you promise. 'This ability to
deliver on promises is one of the reasons our Leveraged
Finance department is doing really well on the cross-sell
front. I believe Rabobank has made a lot of progress on
this front in the last five years. We have excellent product
areas that deliver what they promise. This is enormously
important to clients, but
just as importantly it gives
our relationship managers
the confidence to go for
opportunities that require
innovative thinking. And if
you're cliënt is happy, that
more or less guarantees
more business in the future,
Rottjers says.
Rottjers and Treffers-Herrera are seen as people that are
very successful at cross-selling. They both stress that it
is always team work and that their success is completely
dependent on teamwork throughout their organisations.
One of the keys to her team's success, Treffers-Herrera
says, is the fact that she tries to ensure everyone is
aware of her strategy with clients and then involves her
product colleagues as early as possible. She also thinks
it is good practice to make sure that the right people
in the Rabobank organisation build up relationships
with the right counterparties at the bank's clients. "The
more people involved in a cliënt relationship the more
business you'll win. It puts you in a much better position
to anticipate opportunities. This is what banking is all
about: anticipating the opportunity, delivering the idea
and executing. If you can do that you'll get a better deal
than your rivals."
This is something Rabobank is getting much better at,
Ton Rottjers says, partly because it has successfully broken
down a lot of the barriers between sales and product