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Maximising personal impact when selling financial services: tailored training from Rhema Group
Bringing competency-based appraisals to life in company culture for optimum results
Scottish health sector association calls in Rhema Group to facilitate strategic planning
Banks and Financial Services companies are increasingly in the business of selling complex solutions, and Rhema is putting its impressive training experience in this area into creating programmes for developing the right skills and confidence.
Rhema has successfully completed a project for the Asset Finance Division of Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking to create and deliver fully customised training for the Bank’s specialists who sell this Division’s complex, tax-related financial solutions to the Treasurers, FDs and Tax Managers of the Bank’s client companies.
The required goal was to equip participants with all the knowledge, tools and techniques required to optimise their impact. The training improved influencing, consulting and communication skills when presenting ideas to clients and managing follow-up client meetings.
Rhema Director William Burton said: “This programme did not stress selling skills but focused very much on maximising personal impact when relating to high level client contacts. Vital elements which this instructor-led Rhema training dealt with included understanding the part emotion plays in business decisions, reading people - responding to their needs and managing reactions effectively - identifying the client’s buying influencers and responding with the best influencing style”.
The strength and effectiveness of competency-based appraisals – assessing behaviours as well as performance targets - can make a remarkable contribution to people development and management. But companies wanting to gain the most out of this approach take the wise strategic route of ensuring that over time the concept and the process are working together for optimal results.
This was the route taken by the IT Division at Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking in the UK, with the help of respected people development and training specialists Rhema Group. The task was to “bring competencies to life” so that they became part of the culture of the IT division in which the new thinking and processes had been introduced.
Rhema had devised and delivered initial tailored training when last year Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking introduced the competencies for its IT managers and staff in London. A framework of competencies was defined under the categories of Personal Effectiveness, Team Effectiveness and Result Expectation. These included adaptability, assertiveness, self-management, developing and leading others, listening and influencing, and client focus.
Introduction of competencies as the basis for job descriptions required a matching approach to performance appraisals via competency-based interviews. Rhema trained the managers in the new interview skills needed to elicit evidence that staff behaviours are consistent with the competencies of each role.
Follow-up internal research revealed a need to refine processes and skills, particularly in terms of addressing varying levels of the understanding of competencies among staff which were the result of differences in style and content of the briefings they received.
Rhema was asked to provide consultancy to address this. “Our task was effectively to bring competencies to life and integrate this approach into the corporate culture,” says Rhema Director William Burton. His approach was to deliver this consultancy in three areas.
“We were very happy to be brought back by Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking on such an interesting and important project, and one which is of potential interest at a corporate level,” says Burton. “We were able to assist the IT department through the various stages of this process to ensure complete buy-in from managers and staff alike, leading to consistency of approach in an effective Performance Appraisal System which fully integrated into their culture.”
The end result of the project was that all staff understood the competency framework, the rationale behind the introduction of competencies and the benefits to themselves. This was vital to ensure the buy-in from the staff.
In addition, all managers were trained in how to manage individuals using the new competencies. This included developing their skills in defining behavioural evidence for each competency, the skills of drawing out behavioural evidence (both qualitative and quantitative) and the need for establishing a consistent approach to performance management.
Burton concludes: “Feedback from HR was very positive and managers are currently conducting staff appraisals using the new competencies.”
Many organisations can competently and successfully serve their main purpose at an operational level for a long period of growth and consolidation without strategic planning.
But when a need for further development and for any appreciable level of change is identified, a strategy is the road map to properly identifying goals and planning to reach them in the desired time frame. Strategic planning is a high level responsibility for any organisation’s ruling body, and is recognised as a major piece of structured thinking which is often best approached with expert external facilitation.
It was at this point that the Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council approached Rhema Group to provide that expertise.
The SPGC is the recognised body which negotiates terms and conditions of service, remuneration and reimbursement with the Scottish Executive Health Department on behalf of Scottish Community Pharmacists, who are independent contractors supplying pharmaceutical services to the Scottish NHS. The organisation also provides information and advice to Scotland’s 1150 community pharmacists, and engages with members of the Scottish Parliament, Health Boards and other relevant bodies.
Briefed by SPGC Chief Executive Harry McQuillan, Rhema consultant Nick Hindley created and ran two customised sessions for the Council’s 19-strong Standing Committee and recently-appointed Chairman Martin Green. Members of staff and guest speakers from sectors of the NHS took part.
The sessions introduced the processes and techniques for strategic planning - identifying themes, clarifying goals, and reviewing the organisation’s purpose (current and future). The approach was strongly interactive, encouraging debate which dealt constructively with conflict as well as consolidating agreement.
One of the goals of the sessions was to establish and communicate the many ways in which the council benefits the NHS and safeguards its patients through delivery of an effective Community Pharmacy network in Scotland.
“Strategic thinking in a non-commercial membership organisation like SPGC needs to be specific to that organisation,” says Nick Hindley, “and requires the careful involvement of people who are members with their own businesses to run but also have a vested interest in how the organisation represents their interests at a higher level.
“The tailored training and facilitation Rhema was able to offer SPGC was used well by the participants, and provided good grounding for taking the organisation’s planning process forward productively- towards achievement of objectives which these initial sessions helped to identify clearly.”
